and Ben Staley of Chapel Hill United  Methodist Church. Following the invocation,   we will have the pledge of allegiance and  we ask that you please stand for both. Let's pray together. Oh Lord, we give you  thanks and praise for you have come for us   and we celebrate that in this season. You've  come to give us light in darkness and hope   in difficult times. Be the wonderful counselor  for we need your guidance and calming presence.   Be the mighty God who promised always to come and  help when we are weak. the eternal father when we   need someone who's promised never to leave us  nor forsake us and the prince of peace in our   troubled world on dangerous streets and in our own  longing souls. Bless this city council, the mayor   and the council members. and bless our new city  manager that we might have wisdom and your grace   as they guide this city. And we ask, Lord, that  we might reflect the love of Christ in all things,   especially in our care and consideration of one  another. And we pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the  United States of America and to the   republic for it stands. One nation under God,  indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Reverend Dailyaly. Madame clerk,  can you please call the first item? Approve the   minutes of the regular meeting December 2nd, 2025.  Council members, any items to be edited? I see   none. With that, I move to approve the minutes of  the regular meeting, December 2nd, 2025. Second.   Motion and a second. Any further discussion? I  see none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 70. Madame clerk, please call  the next item. Awards and proclamations.   Today's award is the budget GFOA award.  At this moment, may I please ask the city   of Witchaw's budget office and city  manager Bob Leighton to come forward. Good morning. The city of Witchah has received the distinguished  budget presentation award from the government   finance officers association 2026 adopted budget.  This is the 39th consecutive year that the city   of Witchah has earned this award. Criteria  for the distinguished budget award are based   on budget documents serving four purposes as a  financial plan, policy document, operations guide,   and a communication device. Each year, the  budget is reviewed by peers to ensure that these   standards continue to be met. And the community  can see these budget items at witchah.gov/budget. Outstanding ratings were received on criteria  such as revenues, priorities and issues,   fund balance, financial policies, long range  financial plans, capital improvement program.   The 2026 adopted budget received special  recognition in the strategic goals category   with one reviewer stating that the strategic  plan serves as a strong framework for the   budget. The city council and I would like to  thank staff who are involved in the budget   process for their dedication to developing the  budget each year. Congratulations [Applause] As you all know, city manager Leighton has  served 16 years as our city manager. So,   I would love for him to say a few words  regarding this award. [Applause] Thank you,   mayor. I'll keep my comments very brief  um because all of the gratitude that   uh we all should have is for the work of our  budget staff. they put in tremendous uh hours   in order to prepare the document and do so in a  way that I believe it's uh easy to understand if   you want to uh drill down about uh to learn more  about our expenses and uh how we're uh spending   our uh taxpayer dollars. Um I was especially  uh proud of our budget staff for the way they   work through the strategic plan not just with  my office but more importantly with the mayor   and council. I think it's the strongest budget  document we've had in the 16 years I've been   here. Each year we try to get better and better  and that's reflected in the GFOA uh recognition   of this year's budget. Uh again, my thanks to the  staff for all the work they've done, especially   Elizabeth Golry who heads up the group as well  as Mark Manning, our finance director. With that,   I'm going to turn over to Elizabeth just to  talk a few minutes if she can possibly do that. Um, thank you. Um, I'm also always grateful  to all there's hundreds of GFOA reviewers who   review these budgets every month. Um, I'm also  a volunteer reviewer and so to receive as a as   a group, we're generally not um in the business  of much in the way of ausive praise. So to get a   budget review like this is truly outstanding. Um  today joining um me up here is some of our budget   staff Lindsay vote Tren Buouie and um Sheila V  Shayla Vital as well as Aurora Gonzalez who wasn't   able to make it today. And then we have three  summer interns each summer. Um as a group in the   budget office as we prepare for next year we've  been talking about how we connect our work back   to the city of Witchah values that are part of  our mission statement. And the day that we talked   about excellence, it's as if people were floating  to the ceiling. It's such um a core value for the   budget office. Um not necessarily to be the best  or to be better than, but to be leaders and to   um to be leaders in the area of budgeting  and then leaders in the organization   um in a way that pulls together the strategic  plan and knits it throughout the budget process.   So I'm grateful to work with them and also  grateful for all the efforts of department   staff across the departments. Um it's not easy  to net a strategic plan through a budget. Um   when I asked people for advice for about  how to do it, a lot of people from external   people said it's not generally done and so  that we were able to do that this year is   pretty outstanding. Um with that um on to next  year. So, thank you for your time. [Applause] Thank you again. Thank you again to the  budget staff at the city of Witchaw. that   is one of the 16 departments  here in the city of Witchah   um that are uh direct departments for the city  manager to oversee. With that, madame clerk,   please call the first item. Public agenda. The  public agenda allows for up to five speakers to   have five minutes each to address the council.  No action will be taken relative to items on   the public agenda other than referral to the  city manager for information as necessary.   Speakers will please state their name and  address for the record. A time clock will   display the speaker's remaining time to speak.  Order and rules of decorum will be observed.   The first speaker today is Janette Peterson,  Witchah Animal Shelter and Animals in Witchah. Janette Peterson, 3522 North Lidge Court. um  September 11th, 2025, a day when many of us   reflect on loss, a sacrifice made by others and  the heroes that come from ordinary people. That   morning, as I was reflecting on these things,  I got a call asking if I wanted to save a life.   Of course, I jumped at the chance because who  wouldn't want to save a life, especially on a day   like that? I was asked to pick up a dog from Wasp  that was out of time and take care of her for a   few days until arrangements could be made. My son  and I immediately got in the car and went to Wasp.   When they brought the dog out to us, her tail  was wagging and she was obviously so happy to be   getting out of the kennel, possibly for the first  time in days. I immediately told my son to get her   out of the car, get her out to the car because  experience has shown that if she had happened   to sneeze or cough, it would be enough reason  not to let her go. The first thing I noticed   on the way home was that she had a severe ear  infection. brown gunk was running down from her   ears. This concerned me because I don't know how  long she had been there, but to have an infection   this noticeable, she must have had it for some  time. This got me asking a lot of why questions.   The first was, why when the city of Witchaw pays  KHS $7,722 a month for vet care, am I picking up   a dog that has a simple ear infection that anyone  could diagnose. As the days followed, I found that   this dog was potty trained, rarely barked, loves  anyone she meets, and just wants to be loved as   well as as we all do. I decided to foster her  for a longer period of time. And as I watched her   over the next few weeks, the why questions kept  building in my mind since there are so many and   we have a limited amount of time. I've just picked  a few to talk about. First, why would anyone that   loves animals work at Wasp, especially when 30%  of the animals that enter that building don't   ever come out? We are failing the animals at Wasp,  but as but also seem to fail the workers, too. I   am really surprised we have anyone that would work  there. Second, why does our chief of police appear   to be okay with the abuse and killing of animals?  The lack of changes in the continued response I   keep hearing of we are just not the experts seems  to show an attitude of acceptance from how things   are. In most professions, if someone doesn't  learn their job and become somewhat of an expert   in their field, they usually get fired. Third,  why does the city council seem to continue to   ignore the public's please and allow the  situation to continue? It is definitely a   broken system and not the system the people want  for this budget cycle. We were told the budget was   based on survey responses from 461 people. As  of Monday morning, a petition I started asking   for change had 804 signatures on it. Another 9,100  another 9,12 views leads us to believe the public   is interested in the topic or at least looking  to be more educated about our shelter. Fourth,   and maybe the most important, why did the people  of Witchah appear to have forgotten that we are   supposed to have a representative government that  represents the will of the people? Many times,   I am told or have read that our leadership won't  listen. So, what is the point of trying? Somewhere   along the line, many of us seem to have forgotten  that our voice and our tax dollars should be   reflected in the priorities of our city government  and that we can ask for and expect change. So,   I've been asking myself, what can I do? I realized  that since I only have a five-minute window in a   meeting like this and it's such a big topic,  I can come back at a later date to share more.   I made you each a folder showing some of the  things I have learned and hope you will take   a time to look over and consider how some  positive changes can be made. I work daily   to educate everyone I talk to. In public, I often  wear advocacy apparel that invites people to ask   questions and look for ways to talk to people  about the tragedy of the animal situation in   Witchaw and ways they can make their voices heard.  Why do I do this? because doing nothing would make   me part of the problem rather than advocating for  solutions. And I just can't accept being part of   the problem. And so I have a folder for each of  you. Thanks. Thank you, Janette. City Manager,   can you just address how much of the budget  goes towards animal control services? Mayor, I'm sorry. Off the top of my head,  I don't remember that number. Let me I have the budget, but Yeah, thank you,  mayor. I will go ahead and look at page   number 312 on the police department's budget.  The police department's budget is $142 million.   Uh the animal control services is $3.4  4 million. Um, I know that Miss Janette,   I appreciate that you're a foster  uh parent. There you are. Thank you,   uh, for your advocacy for animals. Um, I know  that there are multiple priorities. I know that,   um, multiple individuals here in our community  are here to talk about individuals, uh,   people who are homeless, and I know that you care  a lot about, uh, animals who are homeless. Um,   and so I know that we're trying our very best uh  to prioritize all of these needs in our community.   Um so can the city manager just explain has that  budget for animal services increased over time?   Uh mayor, thank you. Um it has increased over  time. Um probably not as significantly as other   portions of the police budget. Um and we've um  I I think if you remember from the workshop,   we have a long-term plan for continued improvement  at the animal shelter uh both from an operating   standpoint as well as a capital standpoint. Um the  comments that um were just made have not fallen on   deaf ears. We know there are concerns about the  ongoing operations as well as the partnerships   that we have. I think that our current staff are  working hard to develop better relationships with   the rescues who can also help us with uh the issue  of overcrowding and the significant number of   abandoned animals here in the community. Um so I  would say that you'll continue to receive uh plans   from the staff to enhance the animal control  operation over time. Thank you, city manager.   Madame clerk, can you please call the next  individual? Victor Mariani, neighbor problems. Victor Mariani, 3216 Countryside Plaza. I live  in a corner lot. My neighbor next door 3210.   They moved in in last September of last year. They  immediately parked three trucks in the front yard   along with two mo motorcycles. I didn't like that,  but I put up with it. Then they started driving.   They drive to the end of my driveway about 20,  30 miles an hour, hit the curb, and hop over it   and drive through about 15 feet through my yard  into their yard. They do this all the time. I   have to park my Honda Pilot literally almost in  the street in the driveway to keep doing this.   They do this if I can't be home all the time  and I can't leave it there at night. So, they   come at night, too. I've seen these people out in  their backyard at midnight with flashlights and   headlights. Literally, the police have been over  there Monday before last Christmas. A policeman   came to my house and said, "I want to look in your  backyard because we're your neighbor has stolen   car." So, he went back to he wasn't allowed in  their yard. So, he came to my yard. I said, "Sure,   no problem." You know, I he said, you know, asked  me if I knew that truck. I think it was a truck   was there. How long was it? They've been there  about a week. Okay. Then he said there was also   a trailer missing. Well, both of them were gone  a couple of days. The police never came there.   February of this year. All of a sudden, my next  door neighbor, you know, they were burning brush   and tree stumps in the backyard nine o'clock at  night. I My neighbor called the fire department.   I didn't even know this till George Theorosis, I  think that's his last name. Anyway, he called me.   He said, "The fire department's coming." And  they pulled up immediately, put it out. They   did this three more times this year. Finally,  after the fourth time, the fire department,   they quit doing it. That's one thing. Then in  February this year, the police showed up and they   came to my door and said, "Hey, you know where how  long is that truck in the backyard on a trailer   been sitting there?" I said, "It's been there  for about a week." Okay. The police department   haul off. It was a stolen truck and trailer. Then  literally, you know, and every time they do this,   my neighbors stay away from about a week. Right  now, they're gone. They come at night and they   stay there for a while and they leave. Right now,  I mean, I I don't know if they know about this or   what. I have no idea. I don't speak to them. These  people are potential criminals. I stay away from   them. Then they drive in their yard. They've  literally got ruts in their yard, part of their   front yard, six inches deep, trailers, and trucks  pulling in and out of there. And they do this   stuff at night because I'll look over there one  morning and there'll be a truck or a car sitting   there and next morning it's gone or it's sitting  out in front of the house. So they're obvious and   they do that for a few days. So they're storing  this stuff for people right now. They don't have   much back there. A motorcycle on a trailer, a  couple three trucks and three cars and they're   junk. The backyard's a junkyard. It just makes me  sick. I really hate these people. I really do. I   mean I don't speak to them. I just stay away from  them because they're potentially dangerous to me.   Okay. Last March or this? Yeah. Last March,  the police department was uh called again. It   was early morning, 7 a.m. in the morning. I looked  at Saturday morning and literally two fire trucks   pulled up. Then an ambulance pulled up behind  that. Then EMS supervisor pulled up into that.   Then three police cars pulled up. I have no  idea what went on. They went left out about a   half hour. And one of the people who lives there,  there's about 20 people a week come to this house   on a regular basis. I have no idea actually lives  there. I mean, it's really bizarre. And this woman   who I've seen her there before, she runs up in her  socks and it's really cold and it's wet. You know,   it rained and this supervisor, EMS supervisor  told her to get out of the street. She parked her   truck right in the middle of the street blocking  traffic. You know, this is the stuff that normally   goes on there. And this is just this is what  happens. just over and over again. They come at   night, like I said. I've seen they're out there at  midnight, so I don't know what they're doing. And   there's just junk everywhere in a backyard. Right  now, it's not too bad. You know, they moved most   of the vehicle except for five, six of them.  They're still there. And there's a small mini   bulldozer, and they've got, you know, wood, trash,  and they put up a privacy fence to keep people   from looking back there, but you can see it all my  yard, and my neighbor in back of them can see it. And literally, you know, it just, you know, this  is crazy. You know, I'm just living there real   quietly and these people, what are they doing? I  have no idea. I just stay away from them. That's   to me, they scare scare me to death. They really  do bad. So, I have nothing to do with them. I'm   terrified there's going to be a shootout over  there. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you,   Victor. I actually uh just commented to one  of our police officers. Uh if your contact   information is accurate on the request  form, uh the city clerk will provide that   and we'll connect you with Captain Beard.  Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Madame clerk,   please call the next individual. George Theo  Harris, new city manager protecting the citizens. I brought my little gang with me. Uh, George  Theo Harris, 2115 South Chiakqua. Hello. Mayor,   city man, mayor, vice mayor, city council,  city manager, city legal. You just heard from   my neighbor, Vic, and I hope you're as sick and  brokenhearted as I am. I feel as though I've let   this kind man down. But at the end of the day, was  it really I or MABC that let him down? Regardless   of what you guys think or don't think, MABCD  have police powers. And for them to let this   to continue to happen at this address is beyond  comprehension. Everyone wants to tell about how   everyone's doing so great. Well, here's another  case. We're not doing so great. The city council   should be ashamed of themselves to let this happen  to poor old Vic because I definitely am. This   other young lady with us is the backdoor neighbor  to Vick's dilemma. I would have her speak,   but none of you need your hair curled. She is  very fed up as she always gets it from across   the street runners. Also, we just had the search  for city manager. And although this current city   manager was macro, I need some help with the micro  down in the neighborhoods. So, I hope this new   city manager is not worried just about what four  of you think, but what the citizens think and he   can help us down here where we live. We've had  a continuing problem on Clifton just north of   Skinner with a guy who keeps doing all kinds of  crazy stuff with trailers, leaving them unattached   across from each other, which you can't do for  two seconds. My records show five plus years   with pictures. I went when they were interviewing  Chief Sullivan and I asked the question to him,   what was his take on community policing? And what  he told me was that he wanted every officer to be   a community police officer. Well, ain't that  nice. But guess what? I can't even get the one   that's supposed to be my community police officer  to do much about this for 3 years. So finally,   it seems like actually we will get some problems  worked, which I am grateful because because of   dumb luck or whatever, they gave me CP Officer  Miller. And we also have Lieutenant VA uh both   from Mayor Whipple Fang. He's been helping quite a  bit on force shift. We're finally getting Clifton   A, which is emergency route for firet trucks  and ambulances cleared so those vehicles and   other vehicles can get up and down the street at  this pinch point at Funston on Clifton. He's got   it resolved for now, but at what expense? The guy  that lives there came by my house while I was out   painting. He first drove by and called me a [ __ ]  My wife is right here. So, there's that. Um, so,   uh, and he rode by my house again and sat in the  middle of Clifton all on the video, mind you,   and just north of Skinner and revved up his engine  to try to intimidate me. Then he came back later,   all about within 40 minutes or so, screaming at  me out his window. Then pulled up the street,   got out of his truck and came toward me. And I  told him as soon as the police got there, I would   be up there cuz I was on the phone with 911. The  guy came back still within this 40-minute window.   this 40-minute window, he calls me the n-word. I  don't know. Uh I don't know why I have to put up   with this kind of behavior. And when I called 911,  I'm thinking murder, rape is ahead of my call,   but it got to be high on the pri priority list.  I had to finally go get my gun and arm myself.   The guy tried to ram my wife and I one month  before this. And my wife's a witness to this.   It didn't pick up on my my cameras because my  cameras it was down a little further south on   Clifton. But all the other stuff is on video and  it just seems like I can't get the police to do   what they need to do. Five years this has  been going on. All we need to do is go out   and talk to the guy and explain to him what  the parking is because the rules of parking   on the street are state law, not George's  law. Thanks. Help me in my hood. Thank you. Thank you, George. I know that uh Council Member  Hohisel has been in contact with George for some   time. That's in district number three, and he  will continue to answer to those uh concerns.   Madame Clerk, please call the next individual.  Rabbi Andrew Pepperstone, Affordable Housing. I'm Andrew Pepperstone, 573 North Armor Street.  Uh good morning, mayor and council members. I am   Rabbi Andrew Pepperstone. I am the co-president  of Justice Together, which represents 40 faith   communities in Sedwick County. In the Jewish  tradition, we inherit the charge to be partners in   the ongoing work of creation and to repair what is  broken in our world, which we call tikunolam. The   prophets remind us again and again that God's  presence is found where justice is pursued,   and our sages teach that a community stands or  falls on how it shelters the most vulnerable.   This past year, our commitment to that sacred work  led us to engage nearly 800 people across Witchah   in a deep listening process. Over the last three  years, we have gathered more than 2,000 stories in   response to one essential question. What weighs  heaviest on your heart? Year after year, the   answers rise with painful consistency. Affordable  housing sits a top amongst the top concerns   alongside the growing crisis of homelessness. Both  issues call us with urgency a summoned to build   and sustain homes that are stable, accessible, and  dignified for all who dwell in our city. I want to   briefly describe how justice together arrives and  recommendations so that you understand the depth   behind what we ask. After listening to hundreds  of people, we engage roughly 450 people to set   our priorities for the year. Our grassroots  research groups then bring together dozens   of local and national stakeholders. Over those  next four months, more than 150 participants meet   regularly to process data testimonies, crafting  problem statements, solutions, and concrete viable   proposals. These proposals are vetted by our  issue steering committees. research committees,   executive committee, and board representing all  40 of these communities. Only with approval from   each body do we mobilize our members to take  action. It's a long nine-month process, but   it ensures that what we present to officials has  broad community backing. That process is not what   our community has experienced with this sales tax  proposal. It went public the week of Thanksgiving.   Less than a week later, we gathered in prayer in  the foyer before this chamber. Days after that,   the ordinance was released, and now it is before  you for a vote. In short order, many of us are   still learning key details. We are not idle. Since  last Tuesday, we've held a community gathering   of more than 100 people to parse what is known  and unknown. met with council member Hohheisel,   met with Aaron Bastian of Witchah Forward,  read the proposed ordinance, and attended   the Witchita Forward public presentation. Still,  we are discerning the three core questions that   Pastor Wade surfaced last week. So once again, we  ask you as people entrusted with the public good   to consider these essential questions before you  advance this proposal. Will it address Witchah's   growing affordable housing need? We understand  funding will flow into an investment fund for   homelessness and housing, but we need clarity. How  much of the seven-year total will create permanent   affordable housing? What are the unit goals?  How will the money be balanced between shelter   services and the housing we know is needed? Will  it secure 10 million annually for the Witchah   affordable housing fund? A commit a commitment  to 10 million annually was voiced publicly at   our Nehemiah assembly. That promise could be met  through this proposal, through the general fund   or a combination. We need to know how much will  be dedicated to affordable housing, what role the   affordable housing fund and its review board will  have and what governance structure will oversee   the proposed investment fund. Will it avoid  worsening inequity for those already struggling?   As sales tax is inherently gr is inherently  regressive. Coupled with property tax relief,   it could disproportionately benefit the wealthiest  unless there are targeted protections, rebates,   exemptions, or direct support for lowincome  households. The ordinance currently lacks   a clear rebate program or targeted relief with  written into it. We approach this in good faith,   hoping this proposal can truly move all of Witchah  forward. But good faith requires good answers. So   ask yourselves, will this address our housing  crisis? Will it secure 10 million annually for   the affordable housing fund? Will it avoid deeping  inequity? You have the power today to make each   answer yes before advancing this proposal? If  you do, justice together in our multiffaith   community stand ready to mobilize to help pass the  package that helps build homes, restore dignity,   and lift our neighbors up. We pray you will lead  with wisdom, courage, and compassion. Thank you   for your time. Thank you, Rabbi Pepperstone.  We also received your letter um on behalf of   Justice Together. Madame Clerk, please call the  next individual. Mina Lucas, affordable housing. Bina Lucas, 1322 West Stackman Drive. I'm  a Witchita native. I've lived other places,   but Kansas is in my blood. There's no place  like home, right? Unless you're homeless. A   few years ago, I got sick and lost everything.  But the Salvation Army Women's Shelter helped   me get housing and benefits. On paper, I'm  a success story. So, why am I here today?   For the past 12 years, I have lived in conditions  that you wouldn't wish on a dog. My apartment has   bugs and black mold. The roof leaks. There are  holes in the walls and ceiling and wood rot in   the floors. So, why don't I report my landlord?  Well, if I did, the housing authority would give   him two weeks to fix the problems. The last time  he came to fix something, he threw a screaming fit   and threatened to evict me. If he doesn't fix the  problems, the housing authority will take back my   voucher and I will have to move immediately.  With what money? There are no emergency funds   to protect us against negligent landlords.  They break the rules, we lose our housing.   How is that fair? And where would I go? Second  Lights waiting list is a mile long. The Salvation   Army Women's Shelter closed down. Good lowincome  housing is rare as hens teeth in this town. And if   I can't find a new place in 60 days, I will lose  my voucher for good. But that's just a scenario,   right? Long as I keep my mouth shut and  don't report my landlord, I'll be fine.   Right. Wrong. As it happens, my regular housing  inspection is actually tomorrow. I'm terrified.   No inspector could possibly miss the peeling  wallpaper from my leaky roof or the bare moldy   carpet pad at the entrance since I can't open my  door without pulling back the rain rain soaked   rug. My landlord knows all this. I've told him  repeatedly. Each time he assures me he will   fix the problem and each time he does absolutely  nothing. Just like this council, every time tenant   protections come up. On October 21st, you voted  not to keep a list of negligent property owners   because landlords worried about losing their  second or third income. Tenants fear losing   our lives on the streets. How could you even  pretend that those two things carry equal weight?   You also skirted an ordinance that asked, should  renting out units unfit for human habitation be   illegal? This is bare minimum stuff, especially  for tenants who don't have the extra protection   of a housing voucher like I do. And yet, it can't  get passed in Witchah because everyone here is so   scared of the landlords. Affordable housing and  landlord accountability are two sides of one   problem. You cannot solve one without addressing  the other. You're hopefully voting on both of   them today. And you on this council are literally  the only people with the power to fix both these   problems. So please do it. To the council members  who have tried so hard to push this through,   I want to say thank you. We see you. We  appreciate you and we are sure going to   miss you. The rest of you, we see you as well.  And we vote. Setting aside at least $10 million   for affordable housing will save paying tenants  like me from homelessness. And holding negligent   landlords to account will save us from losing our  homes in the first place. Please don't put this   off another year, another month, another day. On  behalf of all Witchans, please do something now. Thank you, Mina. We asked for decorum. Um, but I do have a question  for you, Mina. Which district do you reside? Um,   I think it's um six. Maggie Ballard is my rep  representative. Thank you very much. Mina,   you've been in contact with council member  Ballard? Uh, I have not, but I hope to be.   Thank you, Mayor. Council member  Johnson. Thanks, Mayor. Uh, Mina,   I appreciate you. If you could shoot me an email  because if tomorrow does not go well for you,   I think I know some people who can help you out.  Please reach out to me. City Manager Le. Mayor,   I I just want to point out that the um city  council appointed a special task force to review   property maintenance concerns, similar to what  Miss Lucas just talked about. you're receiving   that uh report this today and I believe that  almost all of the issues that were raised will   be coming back to you as recommendations for  action. Thank you. Madame clerk, please call   the next item. Consent agenda items 1 through 11.  Council members, are there any items to be pulled? I see none. With that, I move to approve  consent agenda items 1 through 11. Second   motion and a second. Any further discussion? I  see none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 70. Madame clerk,   please call the next item. Board of Bids  and Contracts dated December 8th, 2025. Morning, Mayor, City Council, Josh Lober,  Department of Finance. The board of bids and   conjints convened yesterday, December 8th, 2025  for the following items. We have for engineering   the 17th street north from I135 to hillside  for Pearson Construction LLC for 4,97,495.32 subject to your new engineers estimate  budget authorization approved today.   We have for purchasing the removal of  mattress and box springs for recycling   for Freedom Challenge Incorporated for  an estimated annual usage of 120,000   recommending awarding a secondary vendor for  this contract. We have the shelving units at   property and evidence facility for Southwest  Solutions Group Incorporated for $148,491.60. We have the sludge screener parts  for Cogent Incorporated for $62,940. We have fire hydrants change order for group  and main LP requesting authorization to extend   the contract 60 days. And we have seasonal and  temporary employee services change order for   CDIO staffing requesting authorization to extend  the contract three months. This is how to become   a vendor with the city. This is our purchasing  calendar of small business resource partner events   um and items that the city's hosting or  participating in. And this is our open   public opportunities out on the street today.  And I'd be happy to try to answer your questions   and recommend approval. Thank you, Josh. Two  questions. Can you go back to number 14? Sure. Um,   so these are some of the uh opportunities that  the community if they have a business, a small   business can apply. Um, can you just quickly just  share how people if they're not familiar with the   process, how they can become a vendor and how  the vetting process actually works? Sure. Thank   you for the question. Um, anyone who doesn't  understand city buying processes, wanting to   be a vendor with the city, first stop, first and  foremost can be at the purchasing division. We're   at 316268-4636 purchasing at witchaw.gov. Uh,  send us a note. We frequently get referrals from   council manager departments um, of vendors who are  interested in working with us. We'll typically sit   down with them. We'll go through the process of  registering on our procurement portal, which is   kind of our way of knowing you exist as a vendor.  um when we have aggregates uh or aggregated   um economies of scale where we need to buy  something. So we need to buy you know for every   single department temporary services or temporary  seasonal employee services. We have a a a number   that's identified that can send all the registered  vendors that register for that process and then we   go through the bids and proposals which were about  370 right now for the year. Thank you Josh. The   only other question I have is uh slide number six.  Um this council voted to um help out with illegal   dumping this year to curb that down. And this is  one of the areas where we see a problem. People   illegally dumping mattresses and there is a cost  for the city to go and remove and then recycle   uh set item. Can the city manager just address  um the illegal dumping uh or portions that this   council voted so that there could be a curb in the  number of illegal dumping uh incidents? Thank you,   mayor. I'll try to remember this off the top of  my head. Um the council has asked us uh to be   more aggressive and to experiment with some new  strategies for uh effective uh removal of debris   and and actually the prosecution of those who um  are illegally dumping on vacant lots or on private   property as well as public uh property. The  council has increased the penalties uh for those   who are found in violation. also have approved  funding for increased technology to try to be able   to detect uh those who are responsible for the  dumping and we believe that using that strategy   on a pilot basis that we'll have some good results  that will translate into a regular program. Thank   you. Thank you, city manager, and thank you Josh.  With that, council members, any questions? I see   none. I move to approve the board of bids and  contracts dated December 8th, 2025. Second   motion and a second. Any further discussion? I  see none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 70. Madame clerk,  please call the next item. Recommendations of task force  reviewing proposed adoption   of the international property maintenance code. Good morning. Sharon Degraph, city law department.  Um I'm going to introduce um Nella Bay who is the   uh chairperson spokesperson um of the task force  that was appointed by the city council who will   start the presentation. Thank you Sharon. Um as  she said my name is Nella Bay youth. Um, I'm here   to represent the task force that was put together  in October to review some of the issues that Miss   Lucas hit on today. Uh, we all recognize there's a  problem and a need and um, this task force was put   together essentially to try to find efficient ways  to address some of those issues. On October 21st,   the city council was presented with a series  of proposed ordinances regarding housing and   exterior property conditions within the city.  They had a lot of um different parts to repeal   the current environmental court uh structure,  correction of ordinances regarding the bo board   of code standards and appeals and fire proceeds as  well as the adoption of the international property   management code. Following a significant public  comment, several of the proposed ordinances were   deferred and the city council directed that a  task force be appointed to review these proposed   changes. The task force was nominated and approved  on October 28th to review these ordinances and   related um as they related to nuisance and  how housing code violations and the adoption   of the property international property management  code. The task force met in November on the 5th,   12th, 19th and then December 3rd where we also  took public comment at that evening meeting.   Um basically the process we found was very  overwhelming to go through the entire IPMC code.   Um and we felt like the 40 days that was given  was not enough time for that. But we felt that   there was a very imperative need to act in some  way to help give the resources and tools um to   the folks specifically at MABCD that work on these  every day. So one of the things we did is we spent   the first meeting really diving into what is the  process now and what are the short shortcomings   of the process. Um once we identified those items  we were able to come together with ideas where we   felt like would actually make meaningful change  um in the items that were requested of us. So   the committee focused on improving the existing  enforcement tools um increasing the penalties for   chronic offenders. Um and basically we felt that  there are three categories that these issues come   up in. So we have slum lords that just refuse to  fix stuff. We have homeowners that maybe don't   have the knowledge or means to address property  hazards with their homes. And then we also hear   about tenants that are intimidated to call out  problems because of potential retaliation or   not enough affordable housing. So, um, what  we came up with was basically that if we make   those penalties harsher that we can force some  compliance until the issue is resolved. And um,   the legal staff is going to go through  the analysis of the actual addendums and   then I'll kind of tie it back to what we're  recommending and asking of council today. you have a packet of ordinances um before  you. The proposed amendments do a number of   different things. Um they clean up the board  of code standards and appeals as well as the   application process for insurance proceeds which  were repealed when the Wel Witchah Sid County   joint building code was adopted. Um the amendments  also repeal charter ordinances which establish   the current administrative distinctions for a  specialized environmental court. Um the citations   will still go to municipal court. Um there just  won't be a designated problemolving type court   um set set forth in the charter ordinances. Uh  the amendments um correct outdated verbiage for   departments which makes me very happy. Um, office  of central inspection is corrected. Health officer   is now removed since we don't really have a  health officer under our current um, departmental   structures. Um, amendments to title 8 and title  20.04 04 um are revised to provide municipal court   judges um direction towards timely adjudication of  these cases as well as factors that are set forth   in items or conditions that the court should  consider in sentencing offenders. Um the goal   I think of the committee was to have uh quicker  adjudication of these offenses and allow the court   um some options to effectively impose the sentence  that is appropriate under the circumstances. The   sentencing structure has been increased. Um  the proposed amendments that were presented   to you 45 days ago requiring jail time after the  third or fourth offense have been removed. Um the   sentencing criteria again has been added um to  help provide the court guidance. Um there are   mandatory fines that are increased for multiple  offenses and the look back for that um increasing   of fines has been increased from three years to  5 years. Title eight, which is the nuisance code,   which is the tall grass and weeds, junk cars,  um stuff in your driveway. Um first offense,   there is not a mandatory fine required. Second  offense, uh, a mandatory minimum fine of $200.   Third offense, mandatory minimum fine of $500.  Fourth or subsequent offense, um, a mandatory   minimum fine of $1,000. Um, the court retains  the ability to assess jail sentences in these   cases. Um the goal of that being that the court  could put these cases on probation um and monitor   uh defendants's compliance to try to get uh the  situation resolved. Housing amendments likewise   have been increased for penalty violations. First  offense, a minimum fine of $300. Second offense,   a minimum fine of $500. Third offense, a fine of  not less than $1,000. And fourth offense, 2,000.   Um, I'm not going to speak for the task force,  but I think the thought was that the housing code   violations tend to be more health and safety than  maybe um the uh more visual tall grass and weeds,   junk cars. Again, the court can assist the  jail fines and has the ability to put folks   on probation. Um, the group also looked at the  removal of a placard, allowing people to reside   in properties that have been deemed unfit for  habitation should those penalties be increased.   And we did that in this section. Um, if you take  off the placard or you allow a tenant to live in   property that has been deemed that it's unfit,  um, there's a mandatory minimum fine of $1,000,   maximum up to $2,500. And again, the court could  assess jail time and put the person on probation.   Title 30, which is a new group of ordinances that  were not presented to you previously. Um, title   30 is a code to register neglected buildings. Um,  the code has been clarified that it does apply to   dwellings. That has been a question um through  the history of the ordinance as to whether it   was a commercial or residential. The amendments  make clear that it applies to both. Um, you get   on a neglected building list if you have two or  more UCCC's, actual criminal complaint complaints   that have been filed in 18 months. If it's been  placarded and you're not trying to do anything   with the property or your case has been through  court and it still hasn't been resolved. Um, if   those things apply, then you have to register your  property with MABC. uh the registration amounts   are increased to $100 per unit. Um it allows MABCD  to assess administrative penalties. So unlike the   other ordinances that we've been talking about,  these violations would not go through municipal   court. They would go through an administrative  process with um the director of MABCD and then   a appeal process of those. Um there's a 50 may  be assessed up to a $50 administrative penalty   for each 90 days. um that the property remains  on the register. So, the goal is to try to get   those properties cleaned up off the register and  then once they're off the register, MABC would   no longer monitor those properties. Um if you are  required to register the properties, um the owner   has to appoint a local agent or someone within 60  miles of the city of limits of Witchah. And again,   once it's brought in compliance, you're off the  list. and I'm gonna turn it back over to Nella. So, um in going through all these various uh  recommendations, um we are asking the city   council to um also appoint a subcommittee to  further work on this topic. We do feel it is   a very important topic and not one that we could  have addressed in that short period of time. But   we do feel like what we're presenting today  will make a meaningful impact and has I will   point out joint buyin from all the stakeholders  uh nonprofits, tenants, um landlords, everybody   that participated. We all are on the same page  is we feel that this is the right way to go. Um,   we also recognize that sometimes by being more  strict with these processes that it's going to   create difficult situations like Miss Lucas  pointed out. And so we want to um ask council   to explore funding opportunities to establish  programs to assist with um homelessness uh   prevention and community outreach um when tenants  can be displaced because a property is placarded   or found to be unfit for human um habitation.  um this could be using some sort of these fine   a portion of the fines or um other resources, but  we do think it's important to do that in parallel   so that we can address kind of both items  at once. Holding the landlord accountable,   but helping those people who are um in the  most vulnerable situation to be able to fight   for themselves and not tolerate those type of  living conditions. Um we recommend adaptation of   the amendments to the chapter ordinances 159 223  and the repeal of section 1.041 150 regarding the   structure of municipal court docket regarding  nuisance and housing ordinance violations. Um we recommend the adaptation of the ordinances  creating chapter 18.10 10 of the code of the city   which are regarding the structure of board of code  standards and appeals and the creation of chapter   18.17 regarding the processing of insurance  proceeds for fire damage structures. We recommend   amendments to chapter 8.01 and 20.04 regarding  sentencing for offenses to provide municipal   court judges factors to consider in sentencing  violators of nuisance and housing code violations.   Uh we recommend removing prior amendments calling  for mandatory jail time for sentencing. The task   force recommends increasing the minim  mandatory fines for multiple offenses   and registrations of buildings or dwellings on  the neg neglected building or dwelling list.   Uh we recommend ordinance amendments to title 30  regarding neg neglected buildings and structures   to clarify that it applies to residential  structures. Registration fees and penalties   are increased to address long-term neglected  structured and MABC will adopt policies and   procedures for greater utilization of the  code. We recommend increasing penalties for   removal of a placard and request MABCD  explore posting negligent building and   placard structures on its website. We recommend  adaptation of ordinances amendments to nuisance   and how housing codes to correctly identify  which departments are responsible for code   enforcement. And we recommend adaptation  of the ordinance amendments to title 8.01   1 to recognize landscaping options for pollinator  type gardens. So, um today we ask city council to   take action and take these recommendations that  we are putting in front of you and place the   packet of ordinances on the first reading  and authorize all necessary signatures. Any questions? Thank you, Nella. appreciate the  presentation and city staff for working with the   task force. First and foremost, um thank you  for volunteering your time along with multiple   individuals in our community that wanted to  comb through this entire uh manual and see ways   to start moving forward within 40 days. Um so I  appreciate your time and all the uh individuals   on the task force. We have multiple questions.  We'll begin with Council Member Maggie Ballard.   Thank you, Mayor Nell. I just wanted to say  thank you and to everyone that was on the task   force. I know you guys weren't given a ton of  time and appreciate all of the thoughtfulness   um and listening uh that went  into all of these suggestions. So,   that's my first thing. Um do you recommend  the same people on the task force moving   forward? Should they be interested or do  you think it should be a different group?   Um I think it could be comprised of those people.  It might be more productive to have a little bit   smaller group. Um one of the challenges when  you have 20ome people in a room and you're   trying to go line by line through something.  I mean it becomes very tedious. Um so I think   um yeah it could be volunteers from our group  um that could do it or if we felt like there was   too many we could look to you guys to kind of help  narrow the focus of that group down. Okay. Um, and   then I have a question for MABC. I don't know if  this is appropriate time for them or if I should. Hello, Chris. I just wanted to get  your perspective um if the suggested   or recommendations you feel like will be helpful  um to actually accomplish what we're trying to   accomplish. Uh we do. Thank you, Council Member  Allard. We're very happy with where this ended   up with the involvement uh especially the  approach that the task force took to this   uh robusting some of the tools that we have  now but have not proven as effective. Uh some   of that is based on the compliance nature  that we've uh kind of always sought once   a problem was complied with everything just kind  of went away uh for lack of a better term and we   started over as you saw in the presentation.  And uh this would give instances especially   when we're dealing with tenant issues  and and those housing issues where you   uh you may have a tenant out of the property,  you may have done some work with the property,   but we still have uh those uniform criminal  complaints for some of those other actions that   can be dealt with and uh kind of uh definitely  uh force a more of a a focused approach and   um compliance with our overall regulations. Okay.  Thank you. Council member Glascow. Thank you. Um,   I believe you hit on this briefly, but this  was unanimous vote of the committee to send   this to the council. Correct. Yes. Awesome. Thank  you. And we even got support when we took public   comment. There were several folks um Gentry from  the real estate government affairs board came and   they were in support. Um, there were a couple  of um neighbors. Vince was um on the Deleno I   think neighborhood association and Lori um I'm not  sure what district she's in and Councilman Johnson   actually came and um heard kind of our final  call and the committee was made up of tenants,   landlords, community members, everybody to  come to the same conclusion on this nominated   I think people and approved it on the 28th  of October. So there was um home inspectors,   there was a couple um landlord tenant attorneys,  there was property management such as myself,   there were nprofit organizations that work with  advocating for tenants rights and then providing   resources for various other programs to help with  preventing homelessness. Um am I missing anybody?   I think that's well and you have such a diverse  group of people for that to be brought back   unanimous I think is a testament of your work. So  thank you for that. Thank you. I will add a quick   comment uh so that individuals who are looking for  that list if you simply go to witchah.gov gov and   you go to departments witchah ced county planning  followed by codes and regulations there's an   option for the international property maintenance  code and it lists out all the task force members   and I'm going to read them for the record uh  Brady Griffers current WFT Lieutenant and and   landlord Jay-Hawk Properties next individual Cody  Stout president of the apartment associ Assiation   of Greater Witchah. Third, Pat Daniels, president  of Rental Owners, Inc. Paul Gray, former council   member. Mike Helstab, H2 Management. Francis  Balman, owns over 700 units and manages another   900 units and is an attorney with Folston. David  Robinson, landlord with 13 units. Garrett Holmes,   attorney representing rental owners. Anne  Fox, former executive director of Habitat   for Humanity. Eric May, an independent inspector.  Dakota her, ICT tenant uh group. Adalia Carter,   also of ICT tenant group. Nella Bay Youth,  Cedar Mills property management owner. Corey   Harkkel Road, commercial tenant and landlord. and  Shily Zad, landlord liaison and coalition to end   homelessness in Witchah. Council member Hoheisel.  Thank you, Mayor. Sorry. Thank you, Mayor. Um,   a couple of questions. I think maybe Chris could  answer most of these, but I'll start out. Um,   when we talk about the the grant and underfunding  opportunities to establish a program to assist   with homelessness and community outreach, I I'm  what I'm hearing is people who are affected by   some of these big places um possibly getting shut  down. I know that's one of the things we're facing   with um some of the properties in my district  is you shut them down and all of a sudden you're   going to have 100 people. Where are they going to  go? How are they going to apply and whatnot? Um,   what are some of the the ideas as far as fees or  funding opportunities to help with this? Is there   like a target goal? Um, as far as the funding goes  for it, I wish I could say we had gotten that far,   but we we just have a conceptual idea. We haven't  worked through all the details of how that funding   would work, but we do feel it is necessary. So,  I think we'd all need to kind of work together,   put our brains together on what that process  looks like. But, you know, I think if a unit   is in really poor conditions, but somebody  can't afford to move and is terrified,   like the speaker earlier, you know, a lot of times  that's the type of situation that has been holding   us up from making meaningful progress on actually  holding people accountable. And so, we don't want,   you know, to create more homelessness or put  these people who are already vulnerable in a   worse situation. But how do you solve it without  some sort of assistance? So giving them, you know,   an ability to get maybe like a deposit, first  month's rent and moving expense of some amount   in a fairly quick format. It would have to be  reactive to a few days time probably or week,   not months because obviously when that comes  up, you're limited on the time you have. So, um,   we think that's very important that these things  work in parallel because if we really want to hold   those landlords accountable that are continuously  taking advantage of people, I mean, we can do it   through these different avenues of much greater  um, fines, but also having where if they go   to court, they are not just off the hook if they  haven't fixed anything. And that's where that MABC   holding them accountable and the fines continuing  to grow because at the end of the day slum lords   they're only motivated by money in their pocket,  right? So if we burden them with extra fees   that'll help but some of those fees could then  be kind of recycled back to those programs. Um,   but I know that in the past it's been one of  the reluctancies of the court or even, you know,   people to enforce it because they don't want to  then displace those individuals who have nowhere   to go. Yeah, that's that is a challenge with a  lot of people in my district who do reach out   about violations and they're always has to be kind  of that misnomer when I talk to them about yes,   we can report this, we can get people started  on it. I don't know what the reaction of the   landlord's going to be. You have to kind of parse  through that on the own from a persontoperson   basis. You know, if the landlord decides not to  do anything or decides to retaliate, we have as   much protections as we can have on the city level.  Um, so I I do appreciate this this program right   here or this thought right here continuing on  that because that would help quite a bit. Um,   I don't know if you can answer this or maybe this  is a Chris or a Sharon. Um, when we talk Title 8,   one thing I do hear from a lot of landlords,  and this one is more aesthetic violations, tall   grass and weeds and whatnot. um how do we parse  through what is the landlord's responsibility or   how does that fall on the landlord as opposed  to how does that fall on the tenant when um   there are some of those violations that are more  the fault of the tenant tall grass and weeds is   kind of one of the ones like if they have a mowing  agreement and the tenants's not following through. Uh yes sir, Chris Labram again, director  of MABCD. So um the the property owner has   ultimate responsibility for that depending on how  their contract is drafted with the tenant uh as to   what they're expecting there. Uh this does uh the  discussion and and the changes that we have does   give us some increased um ability to notify all  and help uh so that all are are aware and and have   a little more time to deal with that. Um again in  the end uh that we are going to hold the property   owner uh responsible for it being in compliance.  Uh we also of course understand that tenants bear   some responsibility there. Uh when we talk about  uh the program that you just mentioned and some of   these uh situations, we do have the code leaison  program uh and that is uh the avenue in which   which we manage these now and and we would expect  to kind of expand that uh with with some of these   changes to to better be able to assist in those  situations. Okay. And in title 8 um that does   not put you on the the the list, right? Correct.  So uh title 8 deals with the nuisances as Sharon   described earlier and in those situations we do  have uh an action in which we can abate. So uh at   that point if um if compliance is not achieved  unless we have um a specific reason to we will   not go the route of a of a UCCC on those generally  and take them to court. Uh we will go straight to   an abatement action. um if there are challenges  there. We uh have really robusted our processes   recently and will even do so more now with this  of achieving a uh administrative search warrant   and abating the nuisances uh through that method.  Okay. Um one thing before we get to the UCCC. So   these are convictions. These are not violations.  So if you have tall grass and weeds and within the   30 days you get it taken care of, that does not  count as a correction. Okay. Um did you go through   the process of a UCCC just in that way everybody's  clear on that? Yes sir. So uh if you've received   a notice of violation and they that may have  multiple violations within that notice there is a   compliance period associated with that uh we have  a tiered system depending on the level of severity   uh severity and it accounts for the time it  would take to remedy something like that. So   uh somewhere between 10 and 30 days is generally  going to be that period. At the end of that   uh the inspector re-evaluates if progress is  being made and it warrants some additional time   that will be granted. Um if no progress has been  made then it is generally going to go straight to   a uniform criminal complaint. uh at some point in  that process when we're not achieving an attempt   towards compliance or or compliance then that UCCC  is filed and that uh that is similar to receiving   a speeding ticket from a police officer. Uh in in  this case though you don't have the option to pay   out. You receive a uh court date and um oftentimes  people uh arrive in court and have at that point   then made the corrections. So that is evaluated by  the court. there still could be some level of fine   assessed. Uh we would expect that to probably be a  little more robust after this than it has been in   the past. Um but uh then then that is dealt with  accordingly. Okay. And it's is it two UCCC's per   property or per property owner? Per per property.  Yes. Per per address per property. Okay. Thank   you. That's all. Council member Tuttle. Thank you.  Um, a couple of my questions were stolen by my   colleagues, so I stopped going through my notes,  but I would just like to make a few comments while   they're relevant for me. Um, thank you to staff.  Thank you to legal and MABC, but most importantly,   thank you to the task force. I'm just so  impressed with your time and your tenacity.   I learned back in October, no one dislikes a  bad landlord more than a good landlord. So,   I I truly appreciate all your efforts and I've  heard so many good comments in the community from   landlords who said, "Thank you for listening to  us and for giving us a voice." Um, I just also,   it's not lost in me. I've been in council for  seven years and I think this is the first time   that a community member has made the recommended  action to us and not the staff. And that's really,   really important to me. That meant a lot. So,  thank you for being here. Thank you for doing   that. I see Chris giving a thumbs up that he  agreed. That was that's a really really awesome   uh gesture that that the community task force  made the recommendations to us and not staff   and and this is what happens when we listen and  we give community members a voice. So, thank you   for all your efforts. Looking forward to seeing  what happens in the future. Vice Mayor Johnston.   Thank you, Mayor. I too echo what Councilman  Tuttle said. Uh very much appreciate the the   committee's work. Uh I want to call out a couple  committee members uh Francis Balman and Garrett   Holmes. Uh both of them attorneys and Francis is  retired from uh Fulsson. But uh they they put a a   lot of work into it. There's there's one thing to  have an idea of what it should be. There's another   thing to put it into legal speaking. and uh they  helped do that and uh they very much complimented   uh uh Sharon, city attorney. So, thank you  Sharon. Um they worked well together and came   up with I think a very good solution uh that the  committee endorsed. So, thank you all very much. I see no further questions from the bench. We  will now open it up for public comment. And I'm   going to use my point of privilege really quickly  by saying that uh Senator Oltha Fa Gadoau was in   our audience uh just a few minutes ago and former  council member Pete Mitner, current commissioner   Pete Mitner is also here in attendance this  morning. We will start with public comment. Morning council uh FaZe Martin. I live in  district 2. Um, our neighborhood association   has been having issues with this for a long  time. Uh, Becky's quite aware of it. MABCD   has been wonderful trying to work with us about  vacant properties. I really support all of the   recommendations. My one question is, uh, for out  ofstate landlords, will the court be empowered to   put leans on these properties once the fines  have been assessed past the third and fourth   mark? because a lot of the properties in our  neighborhood are out of state property owners   or banks out of state. So, I didn't see how that  was going to be handled. Uh because in the past,   I have heard it's been difficult to go  after out of state property owners. So,   I guess I support what's up there. I hope you  vote to pass it, but that would be my only   question. Thank you. Thank you. Faith,  may I ask legal staff to address that? State statutes currently don't allow fines  and court costs to be assessed on the tax   roles. We can assess cleanup costs as a special  assessment. Um if landlords or anyone owns or   owes fines and court costs to municipal court,  um the municipal court has a collection agency.   It also uses the state set off program. Um  so there are ways to collect those. Um but   at this point absent a statutory change we  don't have the ability to do that. Mayor if   I could you talk about committee had significant  discussion about how the state is regarding if   they're on the neglected building list. Yeah. if  if if they are a real problem landlord whether   they're instate or out of state we we will  have that u registered agent provisions which   were similar to the original concept for the  rental registration however this is limited   and I think better focused to those owners  landlords or otherwise that that don't take   care of their properties and and have a notice  to register under title 30 they have to delegate   in a instate in area 60 miles per 60 miles per  hour 60 mile radius of the city of Witchto. Thank you very much. Um I'm going to  use my point of privilege one more   time again. Uh Senator Altha Foscado is in  the back of the room. Uh Commissioner Pete   Mitner is also in the room and  Representative Henry Helgerson   is also in this room. Thank you. We  will continue with public comment. Uh Trish Hileman, president of Witchah Independent  Neighborhoods, and I just wanted to thank you so   much for creating the task force, creating  the um the the care in our community for   people who are dealing with landlords that are  not doing what they need to. Uh especially as   has already been mentioned, out of state  landlords. Um, it's a real tough situation   and one that I think we want to keep witchins  protected from making every place in Witchah,   uh, north, south, east, west, every council  district a great place in Witchah to live. So,   thank you for, um, your time and energy  and passion in pursuing this. Um,   and we just support people having great places  to live at all price points in Witchah and um,   want to help in any way we can to get  that accomplished. Thank you very much. Thank you, Trish. We'll  continue with public comment. Thank you all. Lori Lawrence, District 1, 321  North Lraine in Witchah. I sat in on most of   these meetings and this group of landlords that  you appointed was very passionate about this   and they put a lot of time and effort into doing  this. The tenants unfortunately were not able to   come because of the scheduling issue until the  very last meeting when we did it at five. So I   appreciate that they were at least able to come  and speak their point. Then I would ask because   it seems like there's some support. it looks  like among the council. I hope that's true.   But the fund that they had tried to they they're  put asking to be put in place. If you all and city   staff can work to get that funded as soon as  possible because once this goes into effect,   people are going to be ready to get that help  so that they can file complaints against their   landlords because that's that's vital. So, please  work as quickly as you can to get that fund up and   running. These fines are going to be a little  time consuming to get that fund in place. So,   if you all and city staff can help to get that  set up, that would be awesome. Thank you. I   look forward to you all voting on for this and  supporting it. I think they've done a great job. Richard Hill, District 3, 4555. Laura, you  all think this is the answer to everything.   And I'm telling you, as sure as I'm standing here,  it's not. You've got a problem with out of state   landlords. You need to address that. I can't  move an abandoned car off my rental property   because I don't own it. That needs to go back  on the tenant. I get fined. I've been through it   all. Been in this business 35 years. I have higher  standards than the city. When the people move in,   it's a nice place. In 30 days, they can destroy  it. Every landlord's got one of those stories.   You can't always hold the land owner responsible  because part of it got to come back on the tenant.   And if you're talking about affordable housing,  the easier you can make it on the landlord,   it still needs to be within reason,  but the easier you can make it on them,   the cheaper the housing can be. My niece  and nephew in Plano, Texas, rented a house   for about half of what it should have gone for.  They went in and painted it, put new carpet in,   did whatever. They had cheap rent the whole time  they was there. You don't see that in Woodstock.   I've got out of 18 properties now, I've got two.  Hey, the light switch went bad. I had it fixed.   Electrician did it. Don't worry about it. Why  do I want to raise their rent? I've got places,   half of my places are going for about half of what  standard rates are in Witchaw. Because of that,   Kevin Kimmel started a deal partners for  responsible neighborhoods and it was to   work with the tenants to make them responsible  for a lot of their actions. You've guys all   heard the different stories through the the  this ordeal about raising a window to get the humidity out. Uh getting a fan a fan blowing  will remove humidity and mold. If you don't   dry the water up, you're going to have mold.  Whether it's lack of ventilation, you got to   remember something built in 1950 is not going to  meet today's standards without spending a lot of   money. And when they spend that lot of money to  update that, the rents go up. Your affordable   housing goes down. When I've got a tenant that's  trying to live on $400 a month on social security.   How he does it, I don't know. But he hustles a  little bit on the side, but he's been there for   six years. I'm not going to raise his rent. I get  a letter from city about every six, eight months   about something and he takes care of the problem,  gets them taken care of. But I've got others that   that's your problem. I'm not going to mess with  it. All I'm saying is be careful about the laws   that you pass because when you hold individuals  responsible for somebody else's actions, you're   going to have troubles and you're going to have a  failed system. I do agree there's things that need   to be done. I always said go after the management  on the apartment complexes uh because they're in   charge of managing the the apartment complex.  They should be the one managing getting it   fixed. Most apartment complexes have maintenance  people. If they're not getting the work orders,   it's not getting done. That's all I've got. Thank  you, Mr. Hill. I do have a question followup for   city manager. City manager, I know that it's been  addressed multiple times that there is an issue   with out ofstate landlords. Can that be addressed  in any way? Sharon is the resident expert on this.   the we are very limited in what we can do and  I think she started to say that when we were   talking about the assessments very little we can  do uh initially um and with uh and we can't treat   them differently than we do local um landlords  however we can make it easier to do business with   those who are problematic and that's what Sharon  addressed those who are would go onto the registry   um they will not have the protection of  distance because they must have a local agent And I think Mr. Hill, thank you for the word of  wisdom about being careful about passing laws.   Again, the point is not to punish individuals who  are trying to provide housing in our community,   especially the responsible landlords who are  doing the work, but also in collaboration with   the tenants who also have um some responsibilities  of taking care of certain things u while they're   living in a property that's owned by someone  else. Um can that be addressed in any way   also from the maybe task force? has that been  addressed about um we did hear multiple times   um how do you balance the two tenants who  are responsible as well as tenants who are   not responsible um and then having the  the accountability be on the landlord. Um I mean we didn't go into great detail on that  during the meetings but I can say from personal   um process as our property management company  in each lease we have a very clear explanation   of what is the landlord's obligation what is  the tenants's obligation. So if we receive a   letter from MABCD saying the grass hasn't been  mowed and if by such and such date they will   come and abate the issue, we immediately  reach out to the tenant and say, "Hey,   we received this letter from the city. Per your  lease, lawnmowing is your responsibility. If you   do not comply, any of these costs that are  incurred by the landlord will then be added   to your ledger and passed through to you."  Um those charges are valid. So if over time   um people are accumulating a negative kind of  debt so to speak with the landlord, the landlord   does have ways to evict them if they choose for  non-compliance of the lease. Um most of I mean   I've never had it come to that for those type of  nuisance issues. Usually the tenants are like,   "Yeah, sorry my land my lawn mower broke and I  didn't have anybody. Do you have somebody I could   use? we can put them in touch with a lawnmowing  company for example and they get it taken care   of or we take care of it bill it back but I again  I think there are ways to hold people accountable   legally and in an organized manner but it you know  also takes being communicative with both parties we'll continue with public comment Good morning, madame mayor, vice mayor, council  members. My name is Pat Daniels. I live at 14700   East Timberlake Road in Witchah. I'm the  president and government relations officer   for Rental Owners Incorporated. We're Witchah's  largest nonprofit independent landlord group.   Um, I was honored to be a member on  the task force and I truly appreciate   the trust that was placed in me by those  that recommended me to be on there. Um,   I don't think I've ever been in a room  with a better group of well well-rounded,   qualified people uh to deal with this issue.  Um, there was virtually no argument. Uh,   everything was thoughtfully worked through and we  reached a strong consensus. um our group rental   owners uh wants to put our support 100% behind  the task force recommendation and also any further   um action that the council would want to take  moving forward. We would like to be uh either a   party to that or at least involved with it in some  extent. Uh it was a very positive situation and   uh we thank you very much. I would answer  any questions any council members might have. Thank you again for your time.  Really appreciate it. Thank you, Pat. Good morning, uh, Madame Mayor and  everyone else on city council. Um,   Lana Dazer, District 1. I just want to  say first of all, that sounded like the   committee was very topheavy on property  owners and so I just wanted to put that   out there. But my question is is we've heard  several questions about outofstate owners. Um,   but how will the city enforce out of state owners  to appoint a local agent and what happens if they   don't? I know you mentioned something about  not having protections, but can we just go   into a little bit more in depth about that? What  would the consequence be if they don't appoint   a local agent? Thank you. Thank you, Lolanda.  Could we have that question answered by legal? The way the ordinances are currently structured  now, if there's not a local agent appointed,   then MABCD would have the authority to  assess an administrative penalty. Um,   since it is an administrative penalty, there  would be collection avenues. Um, I'm not going   to sit here and say this is a foolproof method.  um we have to find that person. We have to get   them served. We have to get them in court um  or some sort of manner to to collect those and   we'll do the best that we can. Um I would like  to go oh excuse me would like to go back to your   question about just all out of state owners.  Um, we did have originally a rental registry   that required anybody that lived outside of 60.  I think it originally was 60 or outside of Sedu   County to have a local agent and and that did not  move forward. So, so there is an option that if   you want all out of state owners to register and  I'm not here advocating that because I think it   died pretty quickly. Um, that is still an option.  was not something that this committee was given   um authority to look at or within the  guidelines of what they were asked to do. Good morning, mayor, city council. My name is  Gentry Tissson. I am the government affairs   director for the Realtors of South Central  Kansas. RCK is committed to advancing safe,   stable and quality quality housing for  all Witchans. Our primary objective in   this process was to ensure due process in both the  development and the enforcement of these measures,   preserve judicial discretion and sentencing and  strengthen enforcement mechanisms before adopting   new code standards. Witchans deserve transparency  and defensible, well-vetted policy and processes,   which is why we originally requested a minimum  90-day delay to engage landlords, tenants, and   housing experts in crafting balanced and practical  solutions. The recommendation of the property   maintenance task force is a testament to the fact  that the entirety of this work cannot be done in   six weeks. I would like to offer my gratitude  to the property maintenance task force for your   immediate action and thoughtful contributions to  this work. The realtors of South Central Kansas   support the recommendations from the task force  and staff as presented today. And as always, RSCK   and our members stand ready to partner with the  city in developing balanced solutions that improve   housing quality without compromising property  rights or affordability. Thank you so much. Would anyone else from the community  like to speak on this topic? Hello. Uh Carl Mashwick, uh currently residing  in Elorado, Kansas. Uh madame mayor, vice mayor,   council, uh folks, um I want to read to you  an invoice. This is a problem I'm currently   dealing with here. Um, emergency call  from the landlord that the tenant has   uh no lights, HVAC, or power. Arrived on site  to discover that illegal tampering to the power   line upstream to the utility meter in order to  attempt to receive free unmetered electricity   uh had been the cause of the problem. Had to  replace the exterior electric service for the   repair. After repairs completed, discover  that tampering with power line had burned   out 90% of the interior LED lights, the furnace,  transformer, um, and likely a few blown motors. I find it illogical that you want to hold  me accountable for the actions of another.   I cannot imagine being in a situation where  right now where we are currently having lawyers   involved in this. Um there's an eviction uh  date here that's going on and this is through   uh SPC which is a uh witchah government program  and I cannot imagine on top of all of the stress   and strain that we are dealing with here of having  to deal with an inspection or uh you know being   accused of uh doing something unethical um with  this type of a problem. And I am concerned is is   that what I am hearing is is that we as a landlord  here are being blamed. Now I came here to you a   couple months ago and I told you is is that I've  got about 80 doors between uh Witchah, El Dredo   and the city of Winfield. Vast majority of them  are HUD housing. Let me tell you what's going to   happen right now. In the last, let's just say five  years, I have probably invested in in total about   $8 million. Uh vast majority of that here is in  Witchah. We accept this ordinance there. I'm done.   Um, the reason why is is that I kind of feel uh  that I've been taken advantage of in some respects   because I have gone into plain view and I have  poured just in the probably the last uh year about   $750,000 upgrading these uh properties there. And  what has been my, you know, uh reward out of this?   It has been increase property taxes, increase  insurance, and oh by the way, trying to do good,   trying to invest there. I'm the bad guy. And now  on top of this, we're going to hold me accountable   potentially legally for these types of changes.  And so I ask you all is is that I get it. we're   all kumbayan with this agreement here, but my  concern is is that with some of these uh you know,   we're saying we want affordable housing. Well,  dealing with affordable housing also means is is   that we're dealing with the general public. And  the general public, you know, you get all walks   of life. You may get the person that pays all the  time every day on the first or you may need that   person who needs to split up their monthly payment  twice a month. Or you may need that per, you know,   that person that we're going to be dealing with  here that um you know, they're not the greatest   when it comes to ma making their financial  obligations. Increasing my risk here is going   to end up shutting all of those avenues down.  And I know that that is not the intention here,   but I am telling you is is that this is going  to lead us to situations uh down the road there   where we're going to have less inventory, higher  rents, and again like I said is is that going   after landlords um is going to have less market  participants there. This is not the solution.   Um, I can tell you is is that I agree with the  sentiment of uh, you know, holding individuals   accountable here, but I can tell you right now is  is from my legal exposure after hearing this, I   don't want to play this game anymore. So, I thank  you all for listening to me. Thank you. Thank you,   Carl. Uh, there are several council members that  have questions. Council member Hoiser. Thank you,   mayor, and I appreciate you, Carl, and I'd hate to  lose you. But I do have a question because that's   what I was talking about earlier about protections  and not cracking down on when it's not your fault.   Uh Chris, if the situation he talked about came  up, what would be that process, how would that   be investigated? Would they be held liable for  that or would that be unfounded? Council member,   that's a great question. So it does sound like  that some of this discussion uh is based on   section 8 and HUD vouchers which would kind of uh  be a little bit of a separate situation. Now uh   the situation with illegal power or something like  that we do see that uh sadly more a lot more often   than we'd like to. So uh the only violation though  associated with the property owner there would be   uh so that there would not be a violation against  them necessarily for doing that. uh we would not   allow them to move someone into that property  while the uh power is in that situation with that   many appliances and different things not repaired.  Um so that that's what we would be seeking is the   situation to be rectified. Now granted on any  property uh no matter uh what happened that   there there would be a level of responsibility for  the property owner to have to get the electricity   repaired uh and it would be a civil matter with  the person who had tampered or uh or caused those   issues. But there there would be no inherent  violation as I see it and I'll look to Sharon   uh as well. there there would be no inherent  violation against or risk of a uniform criminal   complaint against that property owner unless they  were to not take appropriate action after that was   identified. So would that be the same process  before and after the passage of this? Correct.   Okay. All right. Thank you. And I'm just going  to point out that in that situation, the landlord   would still have to pay for the repairs even  though he did not create the problem. And and that   is correct. Unless they were able to gain civil  restitution from the individual who did that. If I   may, and just this is a scenario here I'd like to  point out is is that yes, I get it. I have to bear   the financial responsibilities of that. However,  what I'm most concerned about is is that for the   individual who does this, let's say that they  turned around, they're calling, "Hey, I have no   power. My landlord won't fix this." And now we're  starting this investigation. And so now you're   putting me through having to come up with a repair  investigation. It's just this is why I'm saying is   is that it's a very complicated issue that there's  no simple solutions here. And trust me, I've been   doing this now for five, six years. And yes, this  is the first time I've, you know, in my wildest   dreams was I like, are we going to deal with a  tenant, you know, that's going to be stealing   power? But here we are. So, thank you, Council  Member Glascott. Thank you. Quick question, Carl,   and I know we all have busy schedules, so if the  answer is no, that's fine. Did you express any of   these concerns on November 5th, 19th, or December  3rd to the task force when they were meeting and   coming up with this to be presented before us  today? So, uh, not to poo poo on, uh, the the   meetings or anything like that, I knew that the a  council was being formed. Um, I did not, you know,   uh, you know, uh, it was not nearly as advertised  as the October meeting. I will just say that.   Okay. Council member Jonathan, thanks, Mayor. I  I appreciate that. Um, um, letting us know what's   going on. approximately how long did it take you  to find out that they were getting illegal power   from when they sent you that emergency message?  So, this is kind of the interesting thing is   and I'll get to the exact date. Uh, Councilman,  um, so this ended up happening on November uh,   November 26. And in this particular instance  here, uh after we sent out the electrician,   um we I finally got a text message, uh after uh  you know, numerous attempts at communication,   uh to the tenant itself there last night. Um so  this has been going on now for since you know,   right around Thanksgiving. Okay. I I just asked  um that's a terrible situation, but I don't see   where this would impact you if you prove that the  tenant did that. You without this passing today   would have to repair your property anyway. I I  agree with you wholeheartedly. So these additional   um I guess opportunities we have to address folks  who don't address that really doesn't impact you   in this situation. your situation is more civil  with the the tenant. Absolutely. But here's the   the issue though is is that I can tell you right  now is is because of this and now I have to worry   about I'm giving you the example here. If this  individual decided to call up and say, "Hey,   my landlord has turned my power off or isn't doing  you know what I'm supposed to do." This is going   to create this investigation and it can lead to,  you know, all sorts of things. And so what I'm   saying to you is is that you are now adding more  time, energy, and effort onto these types of very   complicated situations that I can't raise the rent  enough to uh factor this in. Does that make sense   to you? Yeah. I I guess I'm just I won't say I  fully disagree with you. I've just experienced   different. So let me give you an example. There  was a tenant that reached out to me in a complex   that said that they were suffering with black mold  and their unit. I think an adjacent unit as well.   U property manager I had reached out to personally  as I sent the email to inspectors. That property   manager and this was a um housing choice voucher  unit. That property manager then proceeded to show   us, me first and then staff, several emails,  signed documents with this person to tell them   how to vent the space, leave the fan on, all of  that. And it was the tenants doing. There was   no fine or any issue with that property manager  because they were able to prove that was a tenant   issue. So for you and what you're saying and the  documentation that you say you have, you'd be able   to prove that's not your issue. So you wouldn't be  punished in this. And that's work that you would   do anyway. I I think is is that in this particular  instance here it is I am relying on uh everybody   to you know uh be able to look at this situation  without bias or prejudice and say okay this is   in fact a tenant issue. And so when we allow  these situations to be open to interpretation   you may have dealt with 30 bad landlords and I  may be the good landlord that you deal with. Um,   and when they're looking at this situation,  they may not see it that way. And so then I   have to potentially hire lawyers or I may end up  having to deal with uh other issues here uh that   can stem from that. And that's where my concern is  is with something like this is we're adding layers   and we're adding more human judgment onto this. I  may not get the uh an inspector. In fact, actually   earlier this year, I dealt with an issue um where  an inspector, you know, we had a a gentleman with,   you know, uh mental disabilities that was trying  to play cardart the house. And the inspector like   calls me up and he's like, "Hey, something's not  right here. What what's really going on?" And,   you know, we were able to educate the inspector  and and get, you know, everything handled here.   And that's where, you know, like I said is, you  know, I get it. I'm a second and third chance   landlord. Um, you know, this is part of the game.  What I'm saying is is it's making it too risky   now. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Carl.  Thank you. We'll continue with public comment. I see no further individuals who would like  to address the council. We will now close   public comment and bring it back to the bench.  Council member Johnson. Thank you, Mayor. Um,   lots to say on this item. Uh, but let me first  say thank you to Dante, Troy, and Sharon. Chris,   I don't see Kayyn in here, Chris Labram, all the  inspectors that I have ever dealt with, worked   with, um, and seen some some really bad things.  Also want to thank Council Member Hoheisle, Becca,   Brooke, Tasha, Andrew Lee. Definitely thankful to  the task force for your work on this. You didn't   have to. you volunteered and you worked through  all of these challenges. Um, today, as we heard,   you you don't always get perfect. I want to do  more for out of state landlords as well. A lot   of that is going to be work at the state level  to see what different powers we may get from the   state and let them know how um bad the situation  is. And some of those representatives and senators   do know, but we have some work to do to let them  know more about that. But I'm also not one to let   the perfect be the enemy of the good. And today,  this is good. These are some solid first steps. I   appreciate the work that the task force put into  it and the discussions and I did attend two of   those meetings just to listen. Um these these  are necessary. We've continued to hear from   people who've come up here and talked. We heard  from a speaker this morning. We always hear from   Mr. Stokes who I saw here. Don't see him right  now. And I think that these are the necessary   first steps to get toward that. And I think a  subcommittee working on IPMC going forward is   good. And I think council uh in the future should  always share some of the challenges we face with   whatever subcommittee that we have to have other  people work through these challenges with us. I   am happy about this. Um as I asked for at the  time when we created the task force would love   to see us do something and this is something.  So I'm appreciative. I did not want to see this   get kicked down the road another decade. And  I'm glad to see stronger enforcement tools,   higher fines against those who continue to choose  to allow people to leave and live in um poor   housing. So again, thank you all. I appreciate  everybody who's worked through this. There has   been a lot of people. I hope I didn't forget  anybody who we've worked with through the years.   I'd be remissed if I didn't shout out Miss Overton  who passed away a few years ago who continued to   call me weekly about issues. So definitely want  to recognize her and her efforts. But again,   I think these are positive steps forward  and I appreciate everyone's work on this and   look forward to um what will happen in the future  with IPMC. And I love the program idea to um help   people move out. That's been a big challenge. That  was something council member Hohisel and I would   always hear those heartbreaking stories of people  who needed to get out but didn't have the the   funds to make those deposits. So, lots of great  suggestions and recommendations and I am grateful. Council member Johnson, you  took the leadership on this. Yes. So, it's really long.  I'm only reading it once.   I would move that the council place on first  reading a charter ordinance repealing charter   ordinance number 159 pertaining to judges of  the municipal court a charter ordinance amending   sections 2 and 11 of charter ordinance number  223 pertaining to judges of the witchah municipal   court and an ordinance repealing section 1.04.150  of the code of the city of Witchah pertaining to   the neighborhood municipal courts place on first  reading ordinances creating chapter 18.10 10 of   the code of the city of Witchah regarding the  structure of board of code standards and appeals   and chapter 18.17 regarding the processing of  insurance proceeds for the fire damage structures.   Place on first reading amendments to chapters  8.01 and 20.04 regarding sentencing options and   guidelines for processing of cases by the court  in nuisance and housing code cases. Place on   first reading amendments to section 8.0. 01.130  regarding weeds to recognize pollinator gardens   as an exception if certain conditions are met.  Place on first reading amendments to chapter 30.01   01 regarding neglected buildings to clarify that  the registration requirements apply to dwellings   as well as commercial buildings and authorize  the director of metropolitan area building and   construction department to assess civil penalties  for non-compliance with registration requirements   and direct staff to explore options for additional  funding resources including the adoption of a   court cost or fee to be used for homeless  and housing services or initiatives. Second   motion and a second. Any further discussion? I  see none. Madame clerk, please open the roll. We're missing one. Do you want to do a voice? Motion passes 70. Madame clerk,  please call the next item. Thank   you. Over naming Ash Street at 13th  Street to honor Pastor JP Dennis Jr. This is Maria Ballal management fellow  with the city manager's office presenting   a overnaming Ash Street at 13th Street  North to honor Pastor JP Dennis Jr.   In October 2025, the city received a formal  request to honor the late pastor JP Dennis   with an honorary overnaming of Ash Street at 13th  Street North. This is an honorary overnaming and   would not change any official mailing addresses.  Pastor Dennis led St. James Missionary Baptist   Church from 1962 to 2015 and played a  significant role in shaping the church into   a major spiritual and community institution. His  leadership reached far beyond the church walls,   influencing generations through outreach,  community advocacy, and public service. Pastor Dennis was known not only as a  spiritual leader, but also as a civic   leader whose work touched every part of the  community. He transformed St. James outreach   and disciplehip efforts emphasizing service  to residents, families, and youth across   Witchah. His guidance extended into civic life,  voter registration drives, community forums,   peaceful social justice advocacy and health  initiatives designed to reduce disparities.   He served on boards including Spirit Aeros  Systems, the Center for Health and Wellness,   and Weed and Seed. He also worked as a police  chaplain, a security officer for USD 259,   and with the Metropolitan Transit Authority.  His leadership in the Witchah Baptist Ministers   Union further amplified his influence  across denominations and generations. Pastor Dennis's impact was recognized  at local, state, and national levels.   He recorded a gospel album titled A Man  Who Brought His Brother to Jesus and was   inducted into the Religious Hall of Fame in  Dallas. He was honored as a trailblazer by   the Kansas African-American Museum and named  an unsung hero by the city of Witchah in 2002.   His contributions were further acknowledged by  the Witchah NAACP, the National Urban League,   and the National Baptist Convention. His influence  has extended through his family as well. His nine   children known as the Dennis family have  carried forward his legacy of service and   philanthropy for more than 40 years giving to  charitable causes locally and internationally. This honorary overnaming would apply  to Ash Street at 13th Street North,   the original site where St. James Missionary  Baptist Church was established. This location   is historically meaningful as it is  where Pastor Dennis spent more than   50 years serving as a visionary  leader and community advocate. This request aligns with city  council policy 13 which governs   naming and overnaming of public facilities. The estimated cost of the manufacturing  installation of two honorary sign blades is   $500. Funding for these costs  are available within the city   manager's office budget and the city would  retain responsibility for installation and   maintenance consistent with all  honorary signage across Witchah. DAB 1 has served as the naming advisory  committee and has already reviewed the   proposal. The law department has reviewed the  process and it is compliant with city council   policy 13 which governs the naming  or renaming of public facilities.   It is recommended that the city council  approve the overnaming of Astri at 13th   Street North to honor Pastor JP Dennis  Jr. and I will stand for questions. Questions for staff? I just have one. Um I know  that there are few overnamings here in the city of   Witchaw. Can anyone share what other overnamings  the city of Witchaw has passed? I can speak to   a few. Um during this process uh I actually found  out that Montgomery Street has overnaming and that   is actually the son-in-law of Pastor JB Dennis Jr.  there anymore? In my time I think there's probably   been just a handful of those um and um all have  followed a similar process. I actually did the   research so I'm asking the question I guess with  the answer already in mind. Um we have honored   um a former mayor Saul Khan Lane in front of  the Jewish center in district two. Chisum Trail   uh which is on Douglas Street between Walnut and  Mlan. Dr. WG Williams Drive at 27th and Lraine. Uh   is it Tony Bo Avenue? Is that how you say it? Uh  at Pine and Maine. uh LE Montgomery at Valuchia uh   between 17th to 18th. And in district three, this  council passed air capital of the world overnaming   for George Washington Boulevard um honorary and  it was paid for by the Kansas Aviation Museum.   So those are the ones that I have. If there are  any uh others, I would like that record to show   uh where the other overnamings have occurred. Uh  they are a handful. They're very special and so   again I appreciate uh the research that you  have put into uh this overnaming. With that   I see no further questions from the bench.  We will now open it up for public comment. Good morning, mayor, and to the council members.  Find it an honor to stand here today. And though   there has been much information submitted and we  think we're thankful for what the neighborhood   advisory board has done so far, but it has been  said that if a place of worship is considering   to have a new clergy person that they first look  at their family and there is even scripture that   supports this. It says, "How can a person lead  a spiritual congregation if they have not been a   shepherd over their own family and is one of nine  of the children of the late Pastor JP Dennis Jr.   and Mrs. Sarah Dennis, who were married for 63  years, who raised all nine of us, and we are all   still citizens, proud citizens of Witchah, Kansas,  have attended the schools and the universities of   this state. And I'm grateful that last weekend, my  eldest brother, Larry Dennis, was honored at what   was formerly known as McAdams and now known as the  Carl Brewer Community Center. He was honored for   his leadership with the park board. My eldest  sister Annie, one of her first jobs was as the   director of the citizens rights and services of  the city of Witchah. We are proud to be citizens   and we are proud of our parents and for what  they have done. They showed us a love for self,   a love for family, friends, and a love for this  great community. I would just like to mention that it is a blessing that our father was not just  concerned about the group of people that he was   leading spiritually but he also had a great  concern for this community where he served   for 53 years at the St. James Church. He also  celebrated and supported voter registration,   public forums for political views and other ideas  for panels, debates, citizens rights advocacy,   community health initiatives to reduce disparities  and prevent diseases through education, outreach   and partnerships, peaceful protests to achieve  goals of social justice. The widening of East 13th   Street. Prison ministry initiatives. scholarships  for students. He was also a wellrespected and   influential longtime president of the Witchah  Baptist Ministers Union. And one pastor once   said that he was one of few that could lead  pastors. And I thought that was interesting. I   also want to say that it is a blessing to be able  to stand here and say that he was a great father.   Many times the children of clergy, they run  away from their spiritual places of worship   because of how much their family has invested  in that place of worship. But we are all still   supporting the great legacy. And as has been  mentioned, our parents discovered that for   some reason all nine of us were able to sing and  I think every part of the voices were covered.   and we have served for 40 plus years in having  a charitable Christmas concert annually. We've   donated thousands to charities that are local at  the state level, national, and international. This   is because of Pastor JP Dennis Jr. and our mom,  Mrs. Sarah Dennis, who in the 1960s was selected   by the local newspaper is one of the outstanding  homemakers, and we can attest to that. We have   here today my siblings, also foster siblings  that our parents loved so well, as well as   one young grandchild who is in elementary  school but insisted on being here today.   We are thankful for this consideration and we  are grateful for the lives and the legacy of   our parents and we want to let this stand as a  lasting memorial in the scripture too. It also   lists about the people of God laying stones out  so they could be a memorial so that it could be   told to future generations. And this is what we  would hope this overnaming of the street would   represent as well. And we thank you for your time,  Miss Dennis. Thank you very much for your words. I see no one else in the community  who would like to speak on Hi Lana Dazer again, District 1. I just want to  say the Dennis family have been a pillar in the   black community for so long and a testament  of their dad is the children themselves. If   there's a funeral, if there is something to  celebrate, somebody if not all of the Dennis   family will be there. And so I am a big advocate  of honoring the people from Witchah that have   roots here. Let's honor those that have given  back so much to our own community. Thank you. Thank you, Landa. Anyone else in the  community who'd like to speak? I see   none. I Before I close public comment, I'm  going to use another point of privilege.   May I ask the family of Pastor Dennis to  come forward when this um motion gets read? I know that there's a young person here  and I always love seeing young people   attend our city council meetings and  since he took time out of his day to be   here I wanted him to be with his family as  this motion will get read into the record. With that I see no further comments regarding  this item from public uh comment. So,   we will close public agenda uh public  comment rather and bring it back to the   bench and this resides in council member  Brandon Johnson's district. Thank you,   Mayor. I won't belabor the point. All the points  were made. The Dennis family is amazing and   super involved in the community. You can see the  legacy of Pastor Dennis through their involvement.   They go above and beyond for our community in  every way possible, both seen and unseen. So,   I am grateful for them and honored to  make the motion that the council approve   the overnaming of Ash Street at 13th Street  North to honor Pastor JP Dennis Jr. Second.   Motion and a second. Any further discussion? I  see none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion unanimously passes 70. Thank you for the and young man, you are always welcome to come back  to city council. I hope you will connect with your   council members and I hope to see you leading our  community one day. But you can also lead right   now. So, thank you for leading u by example by  exemplifying your uh family's history. And Mayor   Wu and Council persons, we thank you all and  thank you so much for your outstanding service.   Councilman Johnson, thank you. Madame Clerk,  can you please call the next item? Ordinance   calling for special question election to impose 1%  sales tax. Uh Bob Leighton, city manager. Before I   start on this item, I just want to say that I did  not have the good fortune to know Pastor Dennis,   but I did get to work with his son, Larry. And  I will tell you, he's one of the finest public   servants I've ever served with. So, I think  it's reflective of pastor and his wife. Um,   today I'm uh going to uh present to you uh  a discussion regarding calling for a special   election to impose a 1% sales tax. I'm going  to talk about mostly the technical aspects of   uh putting an item on a ballot for sales tax and  then uh there'll be a representative from a group   called Witchto Forward uh who will talk more  about the details of the proposal that's come   uh from them. As I mentioned, a community  coalition named Witchaw Ford uh developed a   community improvement plan and recently presented  it to to the city council and to the community.   It uh suggests uh public investments for  public safety, homeless and housing services,   uh Century 2 and the convention center  improvements, property tax relief,   and the construction of a downtown public  performing arts center. To fund these initiatives,   Witchaw Forward has suggested the use of a 1%  sales tax. Uh the sales tax would be in effect   for no more than seven years. Approval of the  referendum would require a majority of the voters   uh in that election to vote in the affirmative.  Excuse me. Uh recent changes in state uh election   laws limit special question elections to just  three dates uh either in a general or primary   election or in an special election held on the  first Tuesday after the first Monday in March. In order to move forward with a  sales tax question, uh three things,   three actions need to take place. First of all,  the council needs to approve an ordinance calling   for a special questions election. Secondly,  they need to transmit uh the ballot question   to the county election officer. And then  finally, uh a notice needs to be published   of the special question election uh by the  county election officer. Uh these steps all   need to be completed prior to December 19th,  2025 in order to be on the ballot uh in March. U the schedule uh for the city council to  consider this and to get it on a March ballot   is as follows. December 9th today would be the  first reading of the ordinance calling for the   election and setting the ballot question.  Council then would have to have a second   uh consideration of the ordinance on December  16th and then the ordinance would need need excuse   me it would need to be published on December  19th. Uh the ballot question would also then   be provided to the county election officer on the  19th and then there are some notice requirements   uh in January and shortly before the  election with the election on March 3rd. Uh based on Witchaw Forward's financial analysis,  it's predicted that a 1% sales tax for seven years   would generate the following revenue streams. And  again, you'll hear more from uh representatives   of the coalition in a few minutes about these  items. Public safety would receive up to $225   million. Homelessness and housing services up  to $150 million. Revitalization of Century 2 and   Convention Center improvements up to $250 million.  Property tax relief up to $150 million. And the   development and construction of a new downtown  public performing arts center up to $75 million.   Additionally, the ordinance in front of you  would require the city council to establish   an oversight committee uh within 90 days of the  passage of the sales tax. The committee would   be composed of no more than 15 members  appointed by the city council. And the   committee would meet at least twice a year and  would be responsible for providing an annual   financial audit of sales tax expenditures  and providing a report to the community. A proposed 1% sales tax is estimated to generate  approximately $850 million over the seven-year   period. The election commissioner has estimated  that the cost of a special election for in-person   voting would be $150,000. Sufficient funds  are available in the city manager's office   uh 2026 budget to finance that campaign,  excuse me, that election. I'm sorry for making   that mistake because that's a very important  distinction. This city would not be involved   in the campaign. So with that, council has two  options. One is to place the ordinance uh that is   in front of you today on first reading and approve  the appropriate notice of special election. Um and   then uh as an alternative, the council could take  no action on the calling for a special election.   Uh that's all I have regarding the details  on how to put an item on the ballot. Um and   be glad to answer any questions before uh  we talk about the details or ask uh uh the   uh witchaw forward representatives come and  present. Thank you, city manager. There are   questions from the bench beginning with council  member Ho Heisel. Yes. Thank you, mayor. Um,   okay. So, it says 150,000 to put it on the ballot,  but then it also talks about approximately 455,000   for mail ballot. Does that just if we went to a  direct mail ballot, that would be the cost or is   that cost for any potential mail ballots included  in the 150,000? That so 150 is in is included in   the 455,000 estimate. So that would be if you had  an election that allowed for in-person voting and   mail-in ballots. So would this election also  allow for mail ballots? It will not. It will if   you designate $455,000 for an election. If you if  you only do 150,000, it would only be in person.   So, if there are people with disabilities um  not able to access the polls, would they still   be eligible to get a mail ballot? I I need  legal help. Yes. Yes. Okay. So, would that   cost be covered out of the 150 million or 150,000?  Yeah. The $400,000 plus was for a complete mail.   A complete mail. Polling places. every mail  ballot. I'm sorry. I apologize. That's for   complete mail ballot. Misunder misunderstood that.  Sorry. Okay. Yeah, that's what I was concerned   about there. All right. Thank you. Yep. Sorry,  Council Member Johnson. Thanks, Mayor. Um Bob,   I'm sure it would come up in the public, but  since we'd be appointing a committee, would   that be open to the public? Any meetings that  they have and documents that they have? Uh, yes,   we've looked into that and I I think the committee  will talk more about what their recommendation is   for the selection of the oversight committee.  So, I'll let them get into those details,   but yes, they would be sub subject to open  meetings and open records as well. Thank you,   Council Member Ballard. Thank you, Mayor Bob.  Can you go over the the figures one more time   for the 455 and the 150? Could you Yes. In fact,  I'm going to turn it over to Sharon to make sure   I don't misspeak regarding what's in the 150,  what's in the 450. Thank you. I appreciate it. For the election costs, the $150,000 is for  what we would consider to be a traditional   in-person election. um you would still have the  capabilities to request a mail-in ballot as you   would for any other in-person election.  The $400,000 is for a complete mail only   option to every resident within the city  and then those would be mailed back in. Council member Tuttle. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.  Leighton, for the presentation. I appreciate it.   I had my district advisory board meeting last  night, so I wasn't able to attend the Witchaw   Ford meeting. Did want to remind the community  that there'll be another Witchaw Ford meeting   next Monday at 5:30 at the Advanced Learning  Library. Someone from the community did come to   speak at my district advisory board on the public  agenda. They asked a question, I answered it,   but I just want to confirm that I was correct.  So, if the projected am um the estimated amount   generated from a 7-year sales tax would be 850  million. Correct. Correct. If for some reason our   community had an economic downturn or the nation  had a a advanced recession, whatever the case may   be, and we didn't generate 850 million as this is,  would the oversight committee then be responsible   for making a recommendation to the council and  how the numbers would be adjusted in the five   different categories? Uh, council member, great  question. the oversight committee would not have   the ability to make changes uh to the allocation  process. And so if there were a downturn in   the economy and a reduction in the revenue that  would be since this is a pay as you go proposal   that would be across the board across all of the  categories. So all of the categories would be cut   and it wouldn't be we're going to take it out of  one and not the other. They all would receive the   same proportional cut. That is my understanding.  Yes. Okay. Yay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. City Manager. Um, quick question. This question  is simply to put it on a ballot or not. It's   not necessarily to the designations. Is that  correct? No, it would also include, excuse me,   your action is to place it on the ballot.  That's the first action, but you also would   be adopting the language for the ballot and that  includes the allocation by category of dollars.   Thank you, city manager. Council member, thank  you, Mr. Manager. Want to confirm one aspect   as well. So, you had said based on Witchaw Ford's  projections, but on May 27th, city staff presented   a one sheeter projection sheet that also outlined  what a sales tax based model would be. Um,   and just want to confirm it was 303.2 for 1.5%  comes out to about 606. Multiply that by 7, it's   847 million. And so that was that recommendation  would also be based on staff's recommendation on   May 27th and finance it's proposal to us. Their  projections are consistent with what we projected.   If you remember at that time we were asked to look  at five years. So what you've done is extrapolated   out for seven years. But that's correct. The staff  has reviewed what the projections would be. We   believe that there it's an accurate projection.  Okay. Thank you, Vice Mayor Johnston. Thank you,   Mayor. A question. Part of this includes property  tax relief. After seven years, this has to go back   to the ballot again. That the sales tax goes  off unless it's re-uped. What happens to that   property tax reduction after seven years? Does  it go back on? If the council took no action,   then there were two things could happen. One, you  would not have the sales tax. So either you would   need to make a corresponding reduction in your  operating budget or your operating capital budget   or you would need to increase the mill rate back  to where it was uh today. Okay. Thank you. I asked   this question to um finance director. Can you tell  us what the budget deficit is? The incoming budget   deficit. Sure. Uh, mayor for 2026 and 220 uh 20  2027 um we have a balanced budget in 2028 we're   projecting a little over $4 million if I remember  correctly in deficit Mark is that right and then   what is it 7.9 almost $8 million for 2029 and  again those are early projections but part of our   long-term planning and does that budget deficit  include clude any incoming debt regarding the   baseball stadium. Mayor, we uh allocate annually  the ultimate re liability the city would have if   there was not a revenue stream um from star for  from sales tax for the star bonds. Uh but that   those deficit numbers don't anticipate that we  would actually not meet our sales uh projections   for the district. So, is it accurate to say  that according to the current city projections,   there's not there's a balanced budget in 26 and  27. However, there's a budget deficit starting   in 2028 of 4 million and then in 2029 of 8 million  and can you explain why there's a budget deficit?   Uh, mayor, I we're uh very conservative on our  estimates of anticipated revenue going forward.   So it takes into account uh what we believe  is to be a um somewhat limited growth or more   historic growth in property values as well as  uh straight line projections on sales tax if I   remember correctly. So on that revenue side very  conservative estimates and then uh continued uh   wage pressures and uh uh commodity uh increases  that we've been experiencing over the last several   years. I have another question regarding wage uh  pressures that you mentioned. Just last week we   uh passed multiple uh contracts and one of them  was um an increase that was not projected in the   budget. How will can you explain to our community  why we're seeing these wage pressures? Uh, mayor,   a lot of it has had to do with our competitive  position to comparable cities, not just in the   state of Kansas, but also in what we call the I35  corridor, and we've shared that information with   the council on a regular basis. Uh, the idea was  that we would um try we be competitive with both   instate and out of state cities. it would take  us several years to get there and the contracts   that have been we brought forward over the last  several years have been an attempt to get us in   favorable positions. Um I many cases we want to  be in the state of Kansas because of our size   and complexity. We'd like to be able to pay our  employees, our union employees somewhere near the   top and that has been I think the shared sentiment  by the council as we've had these discussions.   doesn't mean necessarily they'll be the top paid  throughout the state, but at least they'll be up   in the top two or three. Um, and then in the I35  corridor, we'd like to be at about the midpoint,   and the wage increases have put us in  those positions. Council member Hoheisle. Thank you, Mayor. Um, in regards to the  question about the property tax earlier, would   we have to put it in the ordinance that it would  automatically go back up? No, no, no. That will   be a council decision if the sales tax expires and  there's no additional action taken. So, if we put   it in the ordinance that it would automatically go  back up. Uh, is that a possibility? That's up to   the council. It's I I I think it would be a little  difficult to tie the hands of a future council   and I think maybe I don't want to be I don't want  to practice law, but I think that would be maybe   somewhat limiting to a future council. I I don't  know that it would be limiting. It would clarify   things for individuals and the public about what  would happen further down the road. I understand.   I would argue that it actually forces that council  to take action. um that is may maybe beyond the   scope of this council. I I guess I would disagree  with that. I guess I would like the city attorney   to address that. Probably under under Kansas  case law, a elected governing body may not use   legislative power to constrain future governing  bodies to follow its governmental, legislative,   or policy decisions. See, I'm not sure that it  forces it. I'm just saying that would be the   expectation unless council takes other actions.  They could still take other actions to reduce   it at a later point. Um but if we're going to  follow through and that's kind of the whole   idea of this is to temporarily lower the mill  levy. Um, and then in the future, I would say   it would raise back up unless the the plan is um  voted on again and react at a later time. I don't   know what my colleagues up here's thoughts are on  that one. Council member Glass. Thank you, Mayor   Bob. I'm going have some rapid fire questions,  but I think they're easy questions for you. Um,   how often will the financial reports on the sales  tax be generated as presented in the green sheet?   At a minimum once a year. The committee can do it  uh more frequently and if I remember correctly,   I believe with um the um uh in trust bank arena  oversight committee. believe they met on a more   regular basis and I believe the reports were  available those periodic reports but uh they   may have also had a requirement for one year so  there has to be financial report it has to be an   independent of us it'll be from this third party  committee those reports will be made available   to the public yes yes okay and the audits  will be performed by an outside independent a   uh auditor outside independent auditor and then  they're also subject to corora request as codified   in the ordinance That's correct. And then in  addition that because of the ballot language,   uh any revenue would not be used to pay off  additional debt because it has to be spent on   each funding category. Correct. That's correct.  And then it'll be capped from each of these areas   because state law requires there are cap and the  ordinance and ballot initiative caps it based on   language. Correct. That's my understanding.  And then um really the last question,   there is maybe an accusation that um some of this  was not included in the 2026 budget process. Can   you talk about maybe some of these aspects when  it comes to how the budget addresses homelessness   um public safety, how it addresses this past year  with the mill levy reduction, how it addresses and   outlines that the city actually does have an RCIP  convention center in performing arts, but also   says that the uh debt or the funding is yet to be  determined. Can you briefly talk about that? Yes,   that's more than just one rapid fire question, but  now all the other ones were rapid fire except that   one. You're correct. Um you're correct in terms of  the city's financing of homelessness initiatives.   Um we've documented documented for you um on a  a number of occasions uh over $10 million that   has gone into the second light uh project. Council  has um put $5 million into assisting the operating   costs for two years. We have $10 million that will  go into phase three of the which is supportive   housing um for that project. Uh in terms of let  me take the hardest one and that's Century 2.   I probably am the third or fourth city manager to  wrestle with the issue of how to improve Century   2 and how to address the problem that we have on  the um erosion of our convention business and the   economic um uh impact that's had on our community.  And uh we had a we prepared a plan for community   uh review uh I think it was maybe two years ago  that was uh conducted by a group called populist.   It's the first time since I've been here and I  think in looking at the history first time we've   had actually some community support for doing um  improvements to Bob Brown and also keeping Century   2 and making improvements so it can be more of  a relevant community facility. Um in terms of   um the public safety, uh we the council has  consistently uh increased its expenses on the   operating side and on the capital side to make  sure that we address uh our facility needs and   our equipment needs and technology needs in in  both departments. Um what else am I missing?   Property tax relief. the council um reduce the  property tax mill by 1 half mil for this this   uh 2026 budget. First time in over 30 years that  that's happened. Um what else? Council member,   that'd be everything, but could you say that  those the issues that are coming forward from   the Witchaw Ford group are probably the issues  you hear most from members of this body and most   of the public and they're also the top priority  items in our uh budget. Um I I think generally   speaking, you're correct. Okay. Thank you.  Council member Johnson. Thanks, Mayor. Um,   I was just going to chime in with Council Member  Hohheisle. I um I actually like that idea, but   um if we are not able to do that via ordinance,  I think council policy could work. I mean, we   have a policy to go out for a public vote on the  future of Century 2, and that doesn't technically   um I guess legally bind a council, but is a very  strong suggestion to go out for a public vote. So,   we could have a council policy that should this  pass, unless I'm wrong, Jennifer, that we are   strongly urging a future council to um either  raise the mill levy if it doesn't pass again if   the um sales tax sunsets or if it continues  and keep that current mill levy reduction. So, it's not an ordinance, but a council policy. Vice Mayor Johnston, you Manager Leighton, are we  able to exempt food from this 1% sales tax? Uh,   great question, Vice Mayor. At this point, we are  not. Um there has been discussion at the council   um table or bench in the uh past about  asking the legislature to change that   so that a local sales tax would allow  for food exemption. But at this point,   it's my understanding the  state law does not allow that. It would require a state statutory change to  KSA12-8189A as an apple. Um that specifically   provides um items that are subject to local  sales tax and that includes all sales of food   and food ingredients. Um, another statute dealing  with this election in process um indicates that   that the Department of Revenue is bound by um its  internal regulations in collecting sales tax. So,   we can't go in and and accept things and we can't  go in and rebate items um that aren't authorized   in the state statutes. So, it would take a  statutory change. Okay. Thank you, Sharon.   This issue is very important to me. Um, I run  Guadal Guadalupe Clinic and our patients probably   pay 90% of their of their their money towards food  and rent. So, it would hit them harder. It would   hit the poor harder. Um, so I think it's very  important. I know many of us, if not all of us,   would advocate um to our lobbyists to have  the state uh do exempt be able us to exempt   that from the state. So, I think that's very very  important. Man, manager, I got another question   for you. If we were able to, the state did change  the law and we were able to exempt food from this,   how would that affect the 850 million that would  have a reduc it would reduce that dollar amount   and there therefore it would reduce the amount  available for each of those categories. Do we know   how much? I'm not Mark I I'm not sure we've done  uh any analysis of that. Okay. Okay. Thank you.   Council member Hohisel. Thank you, Mayor. Um,  a question I guess for Sharon and and you,   Bob. Um, so two questions, I guess. One is if  the state does allow the for us to exempt food   food from the sales tax, that would have to  go out for a vote. I believe it would be on   the August ballot. Is that what or is that  something we can unilaterally do ourselves? the state legislature would have to make the  legislative change. Um, that would have to   occur before this item was placed on a ballot or  a vote. So, you can't retroactively. So, if we   put it on a ballot that sales that food is going  to be taxed, um that that would be the case until   the Department of Revenue and the legislature  made a change. And I don't know whether they   would apply that retroactively or not. So, we  do you have any idea? I I I don't know. So,   we don't know if we can even take food off of  this. I would say at this point the answer is no,   you cannot. um because the state statute says  that food will be taxed for a local sales tax. I will point out that the public safety component  of this is to fund projects some that are included   or almost all of them are included in the capital  improvement program. So you pick up some capacity   uh as a result of that. uh if the council were to  look at some kind of circuit breaker, some kind   of relief they want to provide to taxpayers, you  would have some revenue that could be available   to you to do that. But that would be up to the  council to consider that make make that decision.   Yeah. Because if we can't exempt food, that's  kind of what I've been I don't know, I guess led   to believe this whole time and then now we find  out that we can't actually exempt food from this.   We have to have a rebate. We have to have some  sort of a rebate. Council does in the if you   remember we you do have a precedent in that regard  and that is you provided uh property tax relief   for those who qualified for certain state programs  that um had um that were low income or disabled or   seniors. Council could consider a similar type of  program uh if it wanted to um going forward. Yeah.   in that program and I do support that because  that program but that was also property tax   relief. Well, that's what I'm saying is I'm I'm  not sure that I mean a sales tax rebate so to   speak would be difficult I think to administer.  So it's you know the reason that that program   went forward is because we were able to piggyback  with state assistance programs targeted to the   lowincome and seniors in the community. And so we  had a vehicle already to establish uh eligibility So, what a rebate, a quality rebate that  actually helps people. Would that be you   bring in your tax return? And if you're making  under an arbitrary number, let's say 50,000,   that you'd be eligible for like a $50 rebate.  Well, I I Mark may remember some of the details   better than I do in terms of what we did. If you  wanted to go beyond or have a different design   staff, there's probably a lot of different  combinations. The idea is try to make the   administrative burden as uh limited as possible.  Well, my my and I mean that for the individual,   not just us. You don't want somebody to be  required to bring in 10 documents to prove.   Right. Right. That's why I was just talking  about just your simple tax return. Right. Something to think on. Council member  Ballard. Thank you, mayor. Uh Bob,   what authority would the council have on the  for the oversight board? The Yes, ultimately   the council would appoint the members. Um, I'll  let the committee talk about their thoughts,   but I believe the they're not speaking for them,  but I believe the proposal is that the council   would appoint seven, the mayor and council  would appoint seven of their own selection   and then or their own nominees and then there  would be citizen interest expressed for the   other eight positions and ultimately the council  would group point all of them and the group would   then provide its reports to the mayor, council  and community uh on an annual basis. Thank you,   Council Member Glasco. Thank you. To just address  one of Councilman Hohisel's points, um if the   state doesn't act and allow the municipality to be  able to make that decision and we aren't able to,   I'd be fully interested in some type of  rebate program to help with uh the food cost. Council member Tuttle. Thank you. Thank you,  Bob. Um, council member Ballard's question,   your answer sparked a question. So, council  members will each appoint one appointee to the   oversight committee. Correct. Uh, that that's  one and then what was it about the community?   That part I didn't understand. There also be uh  requests for uh members uh out in the community   and then there would be eight uh people who  were either self-nominated or nominated by   others. Council could then pick from those  folks who have come forward and do another   eight appoint another eight but the council will  still have discretion over the entire 15 member.   That's correct. Okay. And again, I'll let the  the Witchaw Forward group talk about what they   want because this issue of oversight, I think,  is extremely important to the community. I I'd   be more comfortable if they talked about their  concept. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you, city   manager. Couple of questions. I know that multiple  things in this proposal are for new or improved   um facilities. Can you address um I think a  lot of folks may not understand our CIP. Can   you talk about the CIP first and foremost? These  are capital improvement projects. So things that   um may take years before it even gets funded  if ever. Um can you address that portion first?   Um and then also how will new facilities be  maintained? Is there a budget? Maybe that's a   question for Witchaw Forward. Is there a budget  to maintain current assets as well as these new   assets if it gets approved? Good questions, Mayor.  The in terms of our capital improvement program,   that's our 10-year infrastructure improvement  uh plan. And the uh some of the projects,   many of the projects that are in the public  safety category are already in the CIP,   but over an entire 10-year period. this program as  being proposed by Witchaw Forward would allow for   those to be done in a shorter period of time um  and at the same time on a pay as you go basis. So   uh we would incur debt probably in about for about  50% of those expenses if we did it traditionally   through the CIP. So it's over a longer period of  time and with the use of debt as well as cash.   The sales tax proposal would allow for a faster  schedule and a full cash payment uh for those   improvements. Um the um I'm sorry, mayor, what was  the second part of your followup to that really   quick? You said so police and fire stations are  a majority of this public safety CIP. So in total   in the CIP book, it's 197.6 6 million worth of  public safety capital improvement projects. They   include new police stations, new fire stations  or improved fire stations as well. Um, can you   address if it was to go through the CIP, how  much debt would the city have to incur and then   interest that the city would have to pay? Whereas  in this program, are you saying that it would all   be cash funded? no interest rates. That That is  correct, Mayor. I would say about half of that   um funding, so probably roughly a hundred million  dollars would be incurred in debt based on the   council policy of a 50-50 split. Mark, I'm  let Mark put maybe a finer point on that. Uh yes, ma'am. Mayor, like the manager said, uh,  in our CIP, we typically try to cash fund about   50% but debt fund about 50%. So, that's  what we would do with the 198 million or   so in public safety improvements over the  10-year period. So, like the manager said,   that'd be somewhere in the neighborhood of about a  hundred million is what we would expect to bond uh   if the city continues to geo finance all these uh  CIP improvements. Now, we're going to do that over   10 years. And obviously, the interest would depend  on what rates we could borrow at over those years,   but it would not surprise me if there'd probably  be at least another 30 or 35 million in interest   on top of the 100 million. It would be dependent  on the rates at which at which we could issue at,   but So, so let me clarify. So, does that mean  that if the city cash funded these uh new police   stations and fire stations, we would not have to  incur debt on it or interest potentially and that   interest would be approximately 30 to 35 million?  Yes, ma'am. I think you'd have two things that   would happen if we funded this with a proposed  sales tax. One, like the manager noted, we would   have more cash flow sooner, which would allow us  to accelerate the projects rather than space them   out over 10-year period. And secondly, we would  uh avoid the need to issue approximately hund00   million in debt over that 10-year period. And we'd  obviously save the interest cost associated with   that debt. Thank you, Mark. The second question  I had was about maintaining uh not only current   assets that the city of Witchah has but also  I think this proposal has new items or new   buildings. How will that be maintained? How will  there be a budget to maintain? Well, this is an   issue that I think uh we've had some evolutionary  thinking about, especially with the council in   terms of the city putting aside sufficient funds  to maintain our assets, especially new assets as   they come on board. The WISH forward proposal  doesn't put money aside. However, what I will   note is that with uh Inrust Bank Arena, if I  remember correctly, they wound up satisfying their   um uh obligation for construction of the building  with at with money still available in the sales   tax and they put money aside for maintenance of in  Trust Bank Arena uh since they exceeded uh their   estimates on sales tax. And I would imagine that  something similar could be done for especially   the the new building would be the performing arts  center. There' be public arts center that would be   funded both publicly and privately. Um the rest  most of the other facilities would part of our   normal uh improve excuse me part of our normal  operating budget for uh ongoing maintenance and   improvements. I have a quick followup uh a third  question and that is another proposal within   this 1% sales tax is funding for homelessness in  particular. Um myself and council member Ballard   serve on the Second Light board. Second Light is  the former multi- agency center um at the former   Park Elementary School. Um, you just mentioned  that the council approved $5 million of two years   of operation through ARPA dollars or federal  dollars. They're going to come due next year,   so there won't be any funding. Can you address has  the city allocated any funding within its budget   to operate Second Life? Uh, the council's 2026  budget only anticipated the remaining ARPA dollars   to be allocated uh for operations. So beyond that  and going into 2027, we had not projected that   would be uh city obligation. However, I think we  also recognize uh that there could be some deficit   after fundraising for that facility. And so um  that would be an issue that what the council would   be um along with others would have to wrestle  with for 2027. And remind us what's the operating   budget for Second Light right now. Um actually  you may be in a better position. I It started out   as two million but I think it's closer to three  million a year. Is that where I or three to four   million is that right? Okay. Okay. Four to five  million. It's a little higher than I expected. So   we had thought that it would be when we budgeted  we had we're at two and a half million from the   uh original operating budget estimates. So what  you're telling me is in 2026 the city's general   budget does not account for the operating uh for  any def for any deficit. Mayor, that is correct.   And so that means in 2027 that also has not been  allocated. So there are currently no allocated   dollars towards homelessness other than the ARPA  dollars that have already been assigned. Uh there   are no current dollars in the budget to help  with operating Second Light. Is that correct?   That would be correct. And unless you count  what we would be doing in through our housing   department for um uh case workers and other  assistance in the building. So there's some   offsetting cost in that regard. Sally would  have to talk more about what's there, but   um no that the we had not anticipated stepping in  under the original model. That was not that was to   be the nonprofit's um liability or responsibility,  not the cities. Council member Tuttle, thank you.   Thank you. Um Bob, one follow-up question, and  I'm watching the comments on YouTube. There's   124 people following us right now. Um, and I  wanted to clean up one misconception and and   I might have caused the confusion. So, I'm sorry  for that. And if it's a Witchaw forward question,   I can delay until then, but there seems to be  the misconception that the oversight committee   is only going to meet once a year. Um, I think  what we were saying is that they would present   to council once a year. Is that correct? They they  were I if I remember correctly, they would provide   an annual report and they would have to meet at a  minimum I believe of two times a year. But again,   if you follow the model from Inust Bank Arena,  I believe they met on a much more frequent basis   or a subcommittee of the group did. Okay. I  just wanted to clear up the misconception in   the community that's following us. Thank you.  Council member Hoheisel. Thank you, Mayor. Um,   do we need to put in an ordinance specifically  second light just to make sure that is clarified?   That's where we're wanting funding to go. Council  member, the language that is in there actually   is broader than that. Um, and it's meant to help  fund any multi- agency center. So, let's just say   that the that Second Light in year five um is no  longer the manage manager or is no longer managing   um the facility and another nonprofit steps  forward. this would allow that nonprofit to be   supported in its work. Um, so that's why it's got  that's why we got that language in to make sure   that it's evergreen. And then also affordable  housing options. What would that look like?   uh the I I believe and again I'll let the group  speak to that but ultimately I believe the council   will determine what the most effective use of  those dollars would be for affordable housing   uh for that component and um I'm sure there'll  be some guidelines or some uh initial thoughts   about how that should go forward but I think that  I believe that the council would have the freedom   to be able to come alongside the community and  best determine what the needs need is and how   public dollars could assist. So that would be  council policy to set that up. I believe that   is correct. I'll let the group speak to their  thoughts in terms of what they've brought forward   because I don't want to misspeak. Okay. Thank you.  Council member Johnson. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um   not trying to get too in the weeds, but to Council  Member Hohisel's question about the uh sales tax   on food. Could there be trigger language that if  the legislature were to approve something that   would allow municipality to not tax food that  this could automatically be removed from food? I know that was super technical, but council member Johnson, I understand  your question. I don't want to make any   representations about what the Kansas Department  of Revenue may or may not do on collecting that.   Uh so I I cannot provide you with an answer  whether they would uh whether they would uh   administer our local tax without uh food if we  if statute change. I just I simply don't know.   So I can check with Department of Revenue,  but I I can't tell you that. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions from council? If there are no other questions, uh, Vice  Mayor, what I'd like to do is turn this   over to a representative from, um, Witchaw Forward  to make their presentation. Um, Matt. Thank you. Good morning, uh, Madame Mayor, Vice  Mayor, and council. I'm really grateful   for the opportunity to lend a voice  to this very important conversation.   Uh Witchaw Forward is an organization, a  nonpartisan coalition, a community and business   leaders whose singular aim is to advocate  for ideas that advance the flourishing and   prosperity of Witchita. I want to say on the  onset that we're making recommendations that   we believe uh accurately reflect the voices  of Bushaw, the commitments of this council,   and hopefully the needs of our citizens. Our  goal walking in was not with a project in mind   and an aspiration to find a funding source, but  rather to understand the projects and programs   that resonated most with our citizenry. In doing  so, we've conducted research and not just a poll,   which I think is a common misperception. But  for the last five years, reviewing master plans,   strategic plans, listening to the voices within  the context of elections and community listening   sessions and going to organizations and  understanding their needs and priorities.   We're in a really fortunate position that over  the course of those conversations over the last   five years and those reviews and the poll that  we most recently did mirror those same levels   of commitment. And so for Waw Forward's next  steps, we engaged experts analysis, consultants,   uh research analysis, um reviewing adopted master  plans to come up with a proposal that we believe   meets the needs of citizens and and the core  commitments of the city council moving forward.   um some of the data that we had most recently  and you'll see here in the project support 77%   of witchins supported investments from a sales  tax into second light into first responders   that's more specifically around the capital  improvement program and around updating Century   2. Wishon's also supported um investments in  housing programs which we've included in our   homelessness and housing section. We pulled the  city versus the county. Uh this is a nominally   uh insignificant number between the two, but  a c city sales tax, which is currently at 7.5,   raising it 1% puts us at parody of our surrounding  suburbs, um which eliminates a county sales tax   from consideration. And then duration, we did test  three, five, and sevenyear terms. uh Witchton's uh   by and large over the five and seven years again  statistical an uh uh kind of neutral but when we   dove a little deeper into that uh with our expert  analysis and some of our consultants the belief is   that citizens across the country but reflects here  in Witchah um have voter fatigue and don't want   to go to the polls over and over and over again  to um continue to affirm programs like a sales   tax. So 57% support a seven-year term is how we  got to this point. So the program overall we are   um proposing a new 1% city-wise sales tax with  which Witchaw currently has a a 0% sales tax   to predict to um secure predictable nonpropy tax  revenue significantly enhancing public safety and   implementing a multi- agency strategy to address  homelessness. It does have a seven-year sunset   clause as we proposed with anticipated revenue  of $850 million roughly $120 million a year.   And u all those estimates are um general in  nature. Um you can imagine if we had a sales   tax this year and what a banner year we might  have had with the uh inclusion of the national   figure skating championships and insulate lake  tournament and all the guests coming to the city   which addresses that variability. Why now and  why the challenges? The council and city manager   I think have beautifully articulated already  that all we have made significant commitments   appropriately so to invest in strategic areas of  our city that advances the prosperity of Witchah.   One of those is public safety, of which over  the next 10 years, roughly $200 million will   be dedicated to en enhancing their facilities  equipment to ensure they can do their jobs   effectively and do it safely, which we think  is a a noble commitment to our fire and safety   professionals. Um, but without a a clear funding  mechanism or a debt related funding mechanism,   we know that cost the city additional resources.  Again, same with homelessness and housing. We we   recognize how important it is to serve our unhome  community in a way that uh increases dignity but   also economic mobility. Um with the ARPA funding  expiring in October 20 26 um and the conservative   estimate of cost to the city of over $20 million  a year, this critical investment in homeless   services ensures that we are serving the most  vulnerable among us as well as um uh alleviating   a budget shortfall that would be anticipated  in 2027. And then diversified funding model.   Right now uh in effort to pay for the majority of  things that we pay for uh we really rely heavily   on property taxes and our hope that sales tax  creates the diversity of funding mechanisms for   the city council to ensure that we can both lever  property taxes, sales taxes and other fees to uh   to address the needs of our citizens and our city  overall. Uh and so I'm going to go into an area a   deep dive into some of these specific areas and  and and I'll say on the onset of this um we are   simply a body is recommending uh we uh trust and  believe in the city council to apply um what we're   recommending in a way that would best serve the  citizens of Witchah. Um and in doing so would help   us to advance a sales tax initiative that's that's  uh really is is for all. Um uh and on the onset of   this, I think one thing that's really important  to note, um depending on whose estimate you take   into consideration, anywhere from 20 to 30% of the  overall dollar figures will not come from citizens   of Witchaw. They come from outside our city. So uh  anywhere between 175 to 250 million um associated   with this specific overall number would be people  coming into our city and spending money and not   citizens themselves. So area deep dive project one  is building a safe and resilient community with   investment of $375 million. The breakdown of that  would be initially um investing in our uh public   safety officials. Um uh listed on the screen  right here is is not our numbers. These are the   projections from the current capital improvement  program and what has already been approved before   2026 to 2037 uh 20 36 excuse me. um $65 million  dedicated to Witchaw police, 200 $132.5 million to   Witchaw fire. You'll notice that uh that $197.5 uh  we did account for $225 million knowing that some   of these projects will happen a handful of years  from now, particularly those in construction.   uh assuming that some prices or costs of these  uh particular items may go up as well as a little   bit of margin built in for those improvements you  discussed as it relates to um ongoing maintenance   and and upkeep. The next one is investments in  our homeless and housing initiative. Uh as noted,   the ordinance is a broad ordinance allowing  for some discretion within this bucket. Um   but we believe that uh dedicating 125 million to  a permanent fund that will be invested by the city   um to develop a revenue stream uh of roughly  5% off that 125 million to create a consistent   budget allocation um for homelessness and housing  services. Um typically we would not do this within   a sales tax initiative. It's important that you  don't build in operational costs of temporary   funds. But in this category, we recognize that  homelessness and housing in Witchto is unlikely   to be resolved in five to seven years. We know  that's a long-term game that we're playing to   ensure that we are serving the most vulnerable in  our community. So developing this segregated fund   that would devel that would have it that would  be invested by the city to create ongoing budget   support create stability um for the multi- agency  center or other organizations that are serving the   unhomed and witchaw as well as provide frees up  private philanthropy and city resources to invest   in other areas within this certain category. We've  also dedicated $20 million to invest in housing.   That's in real time cash dollars and $5 million  into programming. The next area is building a uh   investing in our community and culture. It's $250  million. This is where Century 2 and Bob Brown   are being addressed. Uh we are recommending that  $25 million uh be dedicated to revitalize Century   2 to address deferred maintenance and essential  updates to the facility to ensure it maintains its   status as a place to be within our community. Uh  $225 million dedicated to renovate and expand on   the Bob Brown Convention Center um in an effort  to continue to uh both mitigate any convention   losses that we have and continue to build upon  some of the great opportunities we have in the   city to welcome guests to Witchaw. Project three  is property tax relief. Uh this investment be   $150 million. The hope here is that we're able to  mitigate not as a dollar for dollar at this point   um but as a a modest mitigation of the impact of  a sales tax by reducing property taxes dedicating   $21 million a year for immediate property tax  relief to be allocated by the city council. And   project four uh is investment in a performing arts  center of $75 million. This would be a pure public   private partnership. Uh estimates from those who  uh manage current uh organizations that would take   advantage of a of a performing arts center say  that a performing arts center can cost anywhere   between 150 and $200 million. So we see this as  a 6040 partnership where 40% will be dedicated by   public dollars and then 60% will be dedicated by  private dollars. Um this will still be owned and   managed by the city. Um allowing opportunities  for uh other organizations like USD 259, Witchaw   State University and other civic organizations  to utilize the facility alongside of the tenants   um like music theater witchaw or the symphony  or opera or ballet. This is a critical part   of the overall uh project is a citizen oversight  committee. We recognize that public trust in these   processes is essential and that having a public  third-party uh independent voice will be critical   to that oversight mechanism to ensure that the  dollars being spent aligned with the ballot and   aligned with the aspirations of the citizens as  they consider this measure. So key recommendations   for implementation implementation that the that  their independence uh is essential that members   may not be current employees, elected officials or  relatives of the such with the exception of union   representatives um for specific public safety  needs or others. They do have a limited scope that   although the committee uh will review projects  and make recommendations to the council um they   are not approving projects. Um they are simply  making recommendations based on the based on uh   uh collaborations with experts and organizations  that are most impacted to ensure they align with   the citizens aspirations and the dollars that are  available within the sales tax. uh the committee   similar to the sales tax will have a sunset  clause that when the sales tax ends so does   the committee and then the annual audit and the  the uh committee would conduct uh at least one   annual audit of the expenditures associated with  the projects and make that it'll be a third-party   audit from an independent agency and then make  those available to the public and to the city   council to ensure the resources being allocated to  projects and the expenses that go with them align   with the ballot measure and the aspirations  of the citizens as approved by city council.   As far as a uh the appointment authority,  we propose a 15 member board. Um this is the   primary oversight board, but would not include the  subcommittees or other content experts. In this   context, we hope that this committee establishes  bylaws and governing documents that allow for   subcommittees that are content experts related  to any one of these issues. It could be uh the   renovation of Century 2. It could be uh housing  and homeless services that as dollars come into   the city that they're making recommendations  based on expert analysis and collaboration with   organizations or individuals. Then uh to have  an informed opinion back to the city council,   but that uh uh every single council member,  including the mayor, would have one appointee   uh at their discretion. and that we hope that  the remaining board, the other eight members are   appointed by either themselves, organizations,  or other individuals within the community to be   considered for uh service on this committee. Uh  the current uh uh ballot measure says that each   committee member would have up to a three-year  term and could have three consecutive three-year   terms if deemed necessary. So, uh the grow wish  forward is a coalition. Um, I know there's been   a lot of conversations around uh the founders,  but the reality is it's a coalition of business   and community leaders. We've done uh uh uh dozens  of presentations included voices from any number   of organizations. And we have over 50 people in  organizations, both representative, nonprofits,   community, business, and individual citizens who  have signed up to be supportive of the effort that   we're undertaking here to recommend a uh 1% sales  tax be added to the ballot on behalf of Witchins   Everywhere. And so with that, I will open up  for questions. Matt, can you please um identify   yourself, who you represent, and uh give some  background? Yeah, so my name is Matt Brchett. Um,   I would say I'm a choose Witchaw guy. Um, I moved  here from Texas two years ago. Um, uh, mainly   because I saw, uh, what the city had to offer,  um, for my family and for myself and, uh, the   things that the momentum that Witchaw had moving  forward was really exciting to me. And so, I made   a choice to to move here and relocate my family.  Um, I'm a board member Ford. Um, my my uh my day   job is I oversee philanthropy and social impact  for Thrive Restaurant Group. Um, in my previous   roles, I was an administrator and professor in  higher education. And so, um, I am your rare PhD   working for a restaurant company um, uh, here in  Witchaw, but it's it's been a delightful and and,   um, amazing transition for me as I've gotten  to know the city and its leaders. Thank you,   Matt. Multiple questions beginning with council  member. Hey, Matt. Just a couple quick questions   to solidify. Um, based on your research, Witchaw  is the only municipality, first class municipality   in the state that isn't capturing the full 1% of  sales tax. Correct. That that is my understanding.   Yes. And estimates are 20 to 30% of visitors  from our community are currently not helping   the tax base of Witchaw because of the lack of a  sales tax. Correct. That's our understanding. And   then your research is available online. From  what I could see, there's more than 300 pages   of research that can look at. how can people um  learn more about it? And we're continuing to add   to that research documentation, but if you go to  witchawforward.org, we list a number of existing   studies, master plans that we've been reviewing  to inform the opinions that we have today. Those   documents are more than 300 pages. Yes. Thank  you, Council Member Hoheisle. Thank you, Mayor. Um   Okay. The So, is the oversight committee based off  of uh MAPS the MAPS program? It's it's a similar   uh the MAPS program had 28 uh individuals on their  initial two oversight committees for maps one and   maps two in Oklahoma City. Those are exclusively  appointed by the mayor. In our adaptation of that   model or similar models that we've seen across  the country, we reduced it down to 15 members and   created more diversity representation from across  the city council. Are there certain qualifications   or areas that they're looking for such as banker,  community people, um, anything like that as far   as specifications? We've made no specifications  other than the disqualification of individuals   if they're a current elected government  employee or relative of the of those two. Um,   is that similar for the MAPS program that there's  no specifications? Yes. Okay. Um, according to   your guys's plan, who owns the performance arts  center? The city would the city would. So would   the city also be getting a majority if not all of  the funding that goes to it? You mean the revenue   generated from the Yes, sir. Yes. Okay. Um and  it doesn't specify in here, but would that be   dependent on that being um built on public land?  We we have not identified the land that would   uh uh so I think one of the things that's really  important in this proposal is that we don't   believe to we presume that we are content experts  and we're not going to dictate where things like   a performing arts center would necessarily go  as much as be reliant on that citizen oversight   committee and then the discretion of the council  where that be located. So we yeah so that would be   more of a council. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Council  member Ballard. Thank you mayor. Uh Mike kind of   touched on one of my questions, but uh the city  will uh remain ownership of all of the projects,   everything that's going on. Correct? Yes.  Um and the my last question is um if this   passes the the seven-year tax, will I'd like to  ensure that the committee would surpass the seven   years or go through the completion of all of the  projects. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The the the at least   our recommendation, the three three-year terms  would create a two-year allowance for projects   to be wrapped up and accountably and audit to  continue even past the sales tax expiration after   seven years. Thank you. Can we go back to maybe  one of the first slides regarding background? One more. One more right here. Yeah. Um we often  get compared to uh cities like Oklahoma City,   um Tulsa, Omaha, uh Kansas City. Uh Witchah is  uniquely Witchah and that's why I love her. Yeah.   And um I know that there have been attempts at  things like a maps plan here. However, they have   failed. Can you address what has been the failure  point of why it has not come to fruition? Oh,   that's a that's a great question and one I  don't know if I'm qualified to answer based on   my somewhat brief tenure here in the city. Uh,  I would say if you if you're looking at these,   you know, the idea of the research was not to  necessarily mirror the maps program as much   as it was to identify experts that that know  how to identify the priorities of a city and   how to specifically identify those priorities  in the context of a sales tax. And so when we   when we when we um when we uh uh asked for this  particular poll and this person to do this poll   um that was our aspiration is to say who's  a content expert in this area that can help   us understand Witchita and and how the Wii  how witchins would um uh articulate their   preferences in the context of a sales tax where  they will spend their resources. So, but as far   as the measures that have happened in the past,  2014 and and even the success of of initiatives   like Interest Bank Arena, I don't know if I can  speak to the specifics of of why those were not   successful here, which then leads to the next  slide. Can you go to the next slide again? So,   based off of what that current polling shows,  these are the things that this community wants us   to invest in. Is this accurate? Yeah, that's the  way the questions were worded. And I think in in   support of this specific data um it reflects the  commitments of the council and the passing of the   the budgets both in 2026 and in future budgets.  It also reflects the aspirations of a number   of different organizations who've done community  listening listening sessions and master plans and   strategic planning. And so um we triangulated  the data. Um this wasn't a this wasn't a   uh a breakdown on just one poll at one point in  time. We recognize that um although we believe   it's accurate and rep and representative um it's  not the total package and so but when you look at   the last five years and the commitments that this  council has had and that our community has had um   these really reflect the ones that we've already  identified as far as projects are concerned. Um,   going back to the percentages of support, Second  Light being our the city's investment into helping   individuals facing homelessness that had a  tied percentage with first responders, police,   and fire. Can you share uh maybe actually  this question is for the city manager. Um,   I asked the question earlier, Second Light  is something that this council unanimously   wanted to help fund through federal dollars.  However, federal dollars will stop next year. Um,   and there is currently no funding allocated into  the budget to fund Second Light. Can you address how will, I guess, this council um see Second  Light come to fruition because it still hasn't   even been fully uh constructed. Uh it's still not  a full shelter plus services and the affordable   housing that's there. Can you address that's  still not part of the budget? Correct. Yes,   mayor. That's correct. Uh again, the the model as  adopted by the council initially was that the city   would be responsible for the capital expenses and  would uh help the second light board get on its   feet and try to provide a safety net for the first  two years. uh with the understanding that the uh   community then would be responsible for stepping  up and helping with a long-term solution and there   were a number of discussions with members of  the business community about their willingness   to help support with ongoing operating expenses. I  think the concern that's been expressed and again   um I'll I'll let Witchaw Forward talk about  it is I think the concern is that that's an a   significant uh challenge for a nonprofit board to  try to raise the kind of money necessary to have   uh annual operating uh expenses fully covered  through uh benevolent giving. And uh so again,   I believe that's why the sales tax proposal is in  front of you to recognize that we can only go so   far with private investment, but there u in order  to have uh to move us towards functional zero,   we're going to probably need some kind of public  assistance as well. Yeah, I I think we would um   affirm that assumption that um we had reservations  um uh that the private philanthropic community   would be able to fund uh the four to5 million  annually for the operational expenses for Second   Light and that um ultimately um that would put us  put Second Light in a position um to uh particular are available. able and wellunded and well staffed  um for those who are vulnerable in our community.   Um, I would also say that as we've gone and had  these community conversations all across city,   um, we did engage uh, six of our organizations  that serve the unhomed and um, and and they   would have even though the the ballot language  I think is intentionally broad to allow for the   citizen oversight committee and ultimately the  city council to allocate those resources in a   way that best serves uh, the city at the time  because uh, I think um, city manager Leighton   also described this as uh, what is the issue  today may not be the issue do six years from   now or seven years from now. I'm hope that we have  made significant progress in serving our homeless   community and that we're able to adjust that  spending strategy to other needs as we see fit   um as a as a community. Um but our but the  organization serving the homeless right now   um had kind of five primary areas of investment  they've articulated. Um again in our in our vision   of this particular project that would go to a  citizen oversight committee who would hear those   recommendations and then come to the city council  and say this is where we believe the resources may   be allocated to best serve uh the homeless in our  community. But um they've articulated these five   points uh fully fund second light invest in  homeless prevention diversion funding to keep   people out of homelessness. Uh create rapid  rehousing and permanent supportive housing   programs uh are providing housing subsidies  support those uh exiting homelessness. developed   landlord mitigation fund to support landlords  who rent to those coming out of homelessness   and create supportive housing for those with the  highest level of need. And so um although not   everyone in that group would would affirm that  collective list, a majority in the room said   uh these are the categories where we would see  that we can make the most difference in advancing   homelessness in Witchah. Um but again the the  ballot is is worded in such a way to create um   specificity in the dollar figure but flexibility  so the so the citizen oversight committee and   the council can make adjustments over time as  the needs change and shift for our community.   One more question on this slide. Um I see that  property tax relief is not on there. Yeah. Um,   I've gotten a lot of emails from individuals  who just recently got their their property tax   bill and it obviously has increased and they are  upset about the increases. Um, however, the city   of Witchah is just a portion of that property tax  bill. Uh, then there's the county and then there's   the state and then there's USD259 um and WSU. Um,  was that addressed at all in the survey regarding   property taxes? I um, it was addressed. It wasn't  u it wasn't mentioned as a uh specific line item,   but we did ask if any of these projects included  an a uh any kind of reduction or alleviation of   a property tax, would that increase or decrease  your uh likelihood of of voting for that package?   Um, so and I would say that when asked if they  believe a sales tax is a better option than   increasing property taxes, that would come  in at 74% would be in the affirmative. Um,   and then uh if asked um make sure um and  if it if if if property tax alleviation   was included in the projects that were listed,  would you vote affirmative? And 64% said yes. Just so that we have it on the record,  when I mention the um property tax bill,   I want to make sure that it's on the  record showing that your property taxes,   the city of Witchah is 28.7%. Cedric County  is 23.8%. WSU is 1.3%. USD 259 is 44.9% and   the state is 1.3% of property taxes. Thank you,  Council Member Hohisel. Thank you, Mayor. And   following along her thoughts, um, are you guys  going to release any of the survey data? Uh,   I think we I think we do have plans to  release it in greater detail. Yes. Uh,   it cannot be here within the next week. It can't  be here in the next week. Okay. Um, also this   might not be a question for you, maybe more a  question for Mark. When we run these numbers,   have we got do we have a breakdown as to um  how this will impact each income bracket? I'm sorry, council member, could you repeat  that? How this how this 1% tax will uh affect   each income bracket. So, you know, people making  $40,000 a year, how much would they be paying?   That's a real challenge to answer. We've looked at  that previously when we've talked about sales tax   uh things like Mr. like Council Member Glascock  was talking about last year. Uh all we can do is   use data we get from census uh people and things  like that. Uh they estimated that uh in Kansas the   average income was about 70,000 and they estimated  that taxable food sales of that was about $5,000.   So you can do the math there. I don't know if that  does that answer your question. Is it I just mean   overall not even just food but just overall how  much extra is a person for example excluding the   property tax exemption? Well, the impact on it  just it's too difficult for me to to determine,   council member, because there's so many different  income levels. People consume different portions   of their income for items that are taxable. Uh  about all we can do is just uh make estimates   based on average income levels. Okay. So, can  we get an an estimate here in the next week?   Well, again, based on the census data that we  used a couple years ago when we looked at this,   the average income in Kansas was about 70,000  and approximately 50% of that was spent based   on the data on taxable items, which would be  about 35,000. So 1% of 35,000 be roughly $350   a year. Okay. But again, that's going to vary  across the spectrum of of incomes and and how   people choose to utilize their income. So what  what did you say half of the 70,000 about half   of that is they spend on taxable items? Again,  that's what the census data that we looked at   a couple years ago indicated. Yes, sir. Okay.  Councilman, I just reforwarded you the document   we received in May of some of the information  that Vice Mayor Johnston. Thank you, Mayor Matt.   I went to your website wishtoff forward.org and I  would encourage people to go to that if they have   questions. a lot of m misconceptions about it. I  would encourage you to put the the survey results   and questions on that website. I think that'd be  good. Um, and the margin of error and how you did   that survey would also be good. I know it's very  scientific. You are a PhD, so you got that down,   but I'm not a math PhD, so Okay. Well, still, you  presumed to be smart. Presuming. Presumed. Yeah.   To be determined by our colleagues here in the  room. Um, if this does go on the ballot and pass,   will you go out and speak to different groups  about it? Yeah, we again, we've done, uh,   over 30 presentations so far. Uh, I have two more  scheduled for today and four for tomorrow. And so,   um, we're hoping to get out in the community  and do these presentations over and over and   over again as we continue to listen and learn and  understand and articulate, um, what we believe to   be a reflection of the values of of the city and  and the commitments of the council, um, to our to   our colleagues, uh, out in the city. So, we'll  continue those presentations as long as we're   invited. Okay. If it does pass, I would like you  to come to my district advisory board. Yes, sir.   Um, and then what could you put a something on  the website where people could request a speaker?   Yeah, it's already on there. Actually, at the  very bottom, you'll see there's a contact form.   You can fill in your name and affiliation. Sends  an email directly to us to request an opportunity   for us to come speak to your organization. Okay,  great. I appreciate that. Yeah, thank you. You   can also find us on Facebook and LinkedIn if you  see so fit. Matt, um, another question popped up   as I'm looking at that uh, slide. Um, I know that  Safe Century 2 is here today and that initiative   uh was an investment um and a vision by the then  mayor um of the community, Century 2 and then Bob   Brown is also named after another mayor, Mayor  Bob Brown. Um, and so I wanted to know um what   research has been done regarding um the need to  update or renovate Century 2. Maybe you could go   a couple slides forward. Um but these are cultural  arts investments. Um and I've always talked about   we need to take care of the basics first and  that's police, fire, public works. Uh the next   things are your cultural arts including libraries,  parks and convention uh slashperforming arts. Can   you address I guess is Century 2 specifically the  thing that individuals wanted to see improved?   uh do they want to see uh I think you mentioned  a new performing arts center. Can you address   the differences between those two? Yeah,  certainly. Um uh to answer your first question,   yes. At least in the data that we were reviewing  that the citizens of Witchaw specifically noted   that the preservation or revitalization of Centry  2 were important to them. Um which is why it's   included in the project. Um, and I would also  note that Century 2 and Bob Brown are also in   the current CIP budget scheduled I think for 2030  and 2031. Um, it's page one. See, Amanda Leighton,   I can't recall. I think I get those years  right, but 30 and 31 is currently scheduled in   that broader budget. And so at least for those  first three projects that we've articulated,   the investment in public safety, the investments  in homeless and housing services, then investments   in revitalization of Century 2 and Bob Brown  are already scheduled um within the CIP budget   uh that's been approved by the city council.  Subsequently, um, as the city manager noted,   uh, all three of those projects don't currently  have a funding, uh, methodology identified.   And this allows for that funding methodology to  be, um, both secured and with 20 to 30% of that   being paid for by people visiting our city and  not currently residing here. Going back to the   performing arts or the public public arts piece of  that equation, um, we recognize how important it   is to have a vibrant uh, uh, public arts program,  whether it be convention or the performing arts.   Um we also recognize that um particularly with  the performing arts center um uh how important it   is to have private investment in those areas. Um  although we hope that it has a broad range of uses   um again mentioning USD 259 or Witchaw State or  other civic organizations that would be coming in   utilizing that facility. Um there are a number of  programs that happen in a performing arts center   that um uh uh uh are from private organizations.  And so we know that philanthropy has to play a   critical role in that. it doesn't have to  be solely on the um uh uh sales tax to fund   that collective initiative. We also believe that  all three of those facilities um will generate   significant revenue for the city and that as  we invest um in these projects as a city that   the resources will be returned back to us as  people take advantage of great performances and   art and convention and visiting um and in doing so  generate more sales tax which helps us to create a   secure funding model for the city overall. Um, I'm  going to make mention that the CIP budget book,   uh, or CIP book, pages 68 and 69 show the public  facilities. Century 2 improvements is allocated   for $11 million um, over the next 10 years. And  convention facility is budgeted at $400 million   uh, over the next 10 years. City manager Leighton,  where's the funding going to come from? Uh, mayor,   there's, I believe, a asterisk or a note in  that document um that indicates that there is   not an identified funding source for the Bob Brown  improvements. We do have money for the Century 2   uh improvements. I we went back and visited with  populace regarding the their previous plan and uh   they've come forward with a plan that's probably  just a little less uh expensive or ambitious. It   would provide about a little over 60,000 square  feet of additional space at Bob Brown as well as   remodeling of existing space and the addition of  ballroom space. Um, and all another 20. So, we'd   have those improvements as well as enhancements to  the round building, Century 2 itself, that would   make it more community focused that would allow um  community organizations and nonprofits to be able   to use that space uh at a reduced rate uh one that  they can afford instead of going into the larger   new convention space. We also asked CSL, who's  done a number of financial projections for us,   to look at the economic impact of the Bob Brown  improvements and also enhancements to Century   2. They believe that once we get to a point of  stabilization, which would be in the third year of   uh full operations, that over $40 million in  new direct spending would come into our economy   as a result. Uh they also had some rollup numbers  beyond that but I think it's probably best to look   at what that at the direct spending itself which  is over 41 million or 40 million excuse me. Thank   you. And again uh are there any further questions  from this bench at this time? I see none. Matt,   thank you and thank you to staff for that  presentation. We and city manager Leighton.   We will now open it up for public comment. Uh each  person gets five minutes and again uh we'll open   it up to public comment now. Hello Faith Martin  again. Um I am not necessarily here to talk about   uh the minutia of the sales tax. Ideologically  I oppose any new taxes, but I'm also a big fan   of ballot initiatives uh to let the public decide  if they want that. My concern is with the speed,   cost, and clarity of the special election. Um,  I don't know if you guys remember the NDO or our   budget process or parking, but we didn't rush that  in two weeks. We allowed for a lot of public and   civic engagement. We allowed for outside groups,  staff. There was a lot of uh dabs. This hasn't   gone to any of the dabs yet. You even requested to  have it come to the dab. I'm really shocked at the   speed and I know there's deadlines for a march. Uh  but we have an election in August that's already   paid for by Seduit County. So I'm not sure why the  rush to a March special election just because the   state allows for it doesn't mean we have to  have Witchaw taxpayers fund that. Um the uh   cost that we've already talked about the 155,000  versus 455. Uh I'm concerned that we would even   spend a penny of that when we have an election in  August and November that's already funded through   Sedua County. Um I I'm concerned good ideas don't  require force. If the public supported this and   the public was interested in these things you  brought up the maps. Um that's a a penny tax,   not a 1% tax. There is so many confusions  around what's going to happen. your questions,   social media's questions, a lot of us that  pay attention's questions. There needs to   be a lot more work done on this. I would hope  that you would go with the second option that   the city manager provided you. Do not pass this  today. Allow the public and yourselves to get   all the information needed. There's too many  questions. I know he said he's done a lot of   public presentations. There's two that I heard of.  Both of them are on Mondays at the same time when   I have board meetings. One of them is a DAB  meeting, so I couldn't go last night either.   So, people that care and pay attention and love  this city uh would like to see the council do   the due diligence to give us the time needed to  make sure that our questions and your questions   are addressed before we rush something  into a March special election. Thank you. Good morning, Madame Mayor, City Council, and  congratulations city manager on a fantastic   career. My name is Ben Saletta here and I am  the chair of the Witchita Attractions Council   here in Witchah and the president of the Kansas  Aviation Museum and I rise today just to support   uh putting this on the ballot to let voters decide  that is the best way to get public input. Uh I   have been had I have had uh the presentation  presented to our organization uh and have had   opportunity to engage with that. There are some  very critical issues in which our city is facing   and things that we can look ahead to and this is  a pivotal moment for the growth of our community.   Uh concerning the 1 cent and one one% I know  there's a lot of misnomer. I served on the city   council in Park City when we had a similar sales  tax initiative come forward. Uh it is semantics   in the wording. It is the same thing a 1 cent  is the same thing as 1%. It's 1% of the dollar   uh is how that is viewed. And so it is the same  thing when it comes down to how that is funded   or what that mechanism is on that. Uh but again on  behalf of uh the Kansas Aviation Museum and again   representing or being the chair of the Witchaw  Trashman's Council, we would very much appreciate   your support and putting this to the public vote  on the March 3rd ballot initiative. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Janice Bradley and I'm in  District 6. Maggie Ballards. I'm really appalled   at the rush that this is going to uh I can recall  in 2014 the uh proposal for a sales tax at that   time involved a tremendous amount of community  engagement. Not just I mean in the whole beginning   of it to the point of the election there were all  kinds of meetings. This involved uh the proposals   were for uh transit, water. Uh there was there  were several things, but one of them was uh an   808 80 or $85 million aotment for uh developers  and people were really upset about that and people   wanted to change or be able to vote individually  on things and that was of course not allowed. But   the the comparison to what's going on now is just  phenomenal because there was so much engagement   back then and this is such a rush thing that  you guys are talking about. This March 3rd,   you're trying to suppress votes. That's why  you want it on March 3rd or that's why they   want it on March 3rd so we can have fewer voters  deciding these things. And that's just not right.   We've got an election, a primary election in  August that the county is paying for, like Faith   said. Why would we go to spend up to $455,000  if it includes mail-in ballots, which it should,   to have an election on this? We should be waiting.  we should allow people to to learn more about this   or to make more proposals or different proposals.  I I beg the council to uh to take that no action   today and to go back to the drawing board and  figure out how to do this right. Thank you. There. Hello. Uh oh, sorry, Council Member Glas.  Thank you, Mr. Manager. I have a few questions   uh based on Miss Bradley's comments. First  off, 150,000 includes a traditional election   as confirmed by Sharon that mail and ballots will  be a part of that if requested just like any other   election. That That's correct. And that was my  mistake when I first spoke. The um as I understand   it, it would be the higher numbers for solely a  mailin camp uh ballot. In addition, when is the   first time that city staff brought the data behind  a city 1% sales tax uh before this body? Well,   um Council, I'd have to think you brought up the  concept of a sales tax during budget workshops and   I think it was midsummer when we started to talk  in more detail about the provisions. Okay. I think   the date that I have is May 27th, 2025. There's an  eight-page uh document regarding the consideration   of a titled consideration of a city of Witchaw  local sales tax. And then I also have that the   council talked about it on the June 30th meeting,  August 7th meeting, October 4th meeting as well.   Um and then um I did have one more question  for you, but I forgot so I'll save it. Okay,   we will now continue with public comment. Hello,  my name is John Ralph uh a lifelong Witchton.   have 10 businesses here in town and uh am a member  of Witchaw Forward and supportive of this uh sales   tax. Um you know the idea of having this election  in March is similar to the idea that we have the   city elections and schoolboard elections and off  years from national elections that oftentimes   local matters can get lost in the the coattales of  what's happening on a state or national level and   doesn't get the due consideration. We actually  believe this gives more consideration for the   community to look at this. We also know that  there are some impending funding issues coming   as was talked about with uh second light and other  matters that are not answered. And so I think for   you all to be able to move forward as a body, it's  going to be important to have in consideration   uh where the community is and if they're willing  to uh pay for um these parts of our community   and priorities of our community through the sales  tax measure. I always think of these as community   uh as these these community conversations really  as family conversations. Um we probably know that   there's 40% of the community that's going  to say yes to any kind of investment like   this. there's 40% of the community is probably  going to say no. Uh but we have to get together,   look at our priorities as a community and  say, "Hey, what do we want to do and how do   we want to pay for things right now?" That's  really what's up in front of you today is to   give the community that opportunity to have that  discussion over the next four months. Uh to say   um as we look at these priorities, I think they  clearly reflect the community conversations the   last five years, what we've seen in surveys,  in elections, and all those types of things.   uh their their their priorities that we need to  figure out uh solutions for and funding for and um   so I would appreciate it as a a supporter of this  that the community be given this consideration   particularly at this moment as I've been involved  civically for the last 20 years. I've never felt   Witchaw have more momentum than it does right now.  uh the wind is at our back as a community and when   you have momentum and you can keep momentum as  the powerful decades of growth for community and   so I think this continues to put this community  in its best posture for future success. It'll be   up to Witchaw Ford and supporters of that to  plea to plead that case to the community and   let the family have a decision on where they want  this community to go in the future. So thank you   for your consideration. Thanks for your service  to this community. It's greatly appreciated. Howdy, council. Joseph text doer dab 1 and  I started my political career working with   a nonprofit with the state policy network that  specializes in ballot initiatives. I love the   ability to petition your government, but I'm  really worried. Um, and I'm here today just   like I was a few weeks ago with the landlord  thing about how I see a pattern from like the   whiplash whippling of Witchah with the last  mayor, the parking meters, um, the landlord   policy being written and then putting out at the  last minute. I see a pattern of time and trust,   treasure and time just being wasted away for  opportunities to build trust within our community.   And what I saw last night was really surreal  where the night before ballot language would be   finalized is a public forum and the public should  be co-authors as a part of this language, not an   audience. And I remember the line that was said  in the one hour that was allotted. We only want   your questions. We don't want your comments. And I  think that sums up the experience of many Witchans   from different political backgrounds when it comes  to this. I like how maps was brought up. It's like   this is like the Wish.com version of maps. It's  like we and and a lot of wishes and that in the   fact that it's broad in its hopes and aspirations,  but it's it's missing any specifics. And what did   maps how did maps become a success story over 30  years and four positive votes with the last one   going 70% for 16 unique projects, very clear  specifics. It was the exact opposite approach   because we've seen too many cities with a broad  base run a muck between new mayors, new councils,   and not good oversight and clear guidelines on  where money is going to go. So, I want to invest   in our community. I want to see us I'm open to a  sales tax. But the the idea that we didn't even   have a chance and the mayor you mentioned public  safety and homelessness being priorities within   this. Well, we're looking at final language right  now instead of for months potentially saying,   "Why don't we sequence this? Why don't we say  you can use language not less than 40% for   property tax relief?" You can designate mill levy  amount. You can say this this this area and this   area with these specifics within it are going to  be fully funded first. MAPS also had funding for   um dedicated staff. They also put in clear uh  clear language around subcommittees within each   group which I was glad to hear that mentioned as  something but they codified it in language. Uh   monthly meetings. Um and the other thing to note  is it's another b it's a bumble. It's a bundling   and a fumbling because we're bundling. I'm worried  that we're going to waste an opportunity for   political capital where we the citizens are  the ones who can trigger the sales tax. And   I'm worried like in 2014 I looked last night to  see what happened and there was it was another   um uh bundle and the issue was we talk about  core services, homelessness, public safety,   very similar. They were looking at water and  some other core services and then there was   economic development attached to it and there  was concern about where the money was going to   go and there was um folks involved with that  then who gave based on the news accounts three   different stories on where it was going to  go or they didn't know where exactly it was   going to go and that was a a fatal flaw for its  passing and now it's been a decade and it seems   like the only lesson learned from that was to  just change the election day to a uniform one   then and and and it's even worse because in 2014  14 the city four months before the city council   voted on language provided detailed reports in  each of these areas based on the language and   there was months of discussion of the language  for that would go on the ballot which do not   even get a final say here because they didn't  get a say in the beginning on being able to   provide specifics we should be able to vote and  be excited by putting something on the ballot   like this where our our arguments or discussions  are about which project specifically we're more   excited excited about as we get close to that  election day. The idea of launching a coalition,   it you got to launch a coalition where you're  already got the coalition and you already have   plenty of draft language and you then you take  it out and have those meetings and solidify what   your priorities are. You know, canons right  now we're in top threshold for our taxes   and the idea of doing a billion dollars with  broad almost a billion dollars of revenue with   broadbased categories with no se sequencing with  no prioritization with no codification language   around subcommittees doesn't seem right. it  doesn't seem right and I want us to do this   right and so I believe it is not fair especially  considering in 2014 there were three full months   after the four months of discussion and if you  look at the maps program in Oklahoma City the   mayor each year each time spearheaded a fullear  design plan before language was finalized and   their success story is one that we should look  at and try to adapt for ourselves. Thank you, Council Member Glass [ __ ] Thank you. I have  a quick question for Representative Witchto   forward right there. Okay. Sorry, I lost you. Um  it was mentioned uh just on the last speaker that   there's um that a coalition needs formed. From  what I see on the website, it seems that there   has been. How many people have signed on to be  part of that coalition that you've engaged so far?   As at this point we have over 50 a combination  of representative organizations. So organizations   as a collective who said we support this as an  organization which has a broader base than simply   this one individual citizens nonprofits business  and business leaders. So one you know some of   the coalitions I see on there are the Witchaw  firefighters union nonprofits. I see the neighborh   from the neighboring movement music theater  witchaw create campaign and vision. I see about   15 business owners and 50 names. Is that correct?  visit Woodshaw among others. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Hello Lana D. Shazer again. I had a lot to say  today. So, just want to start by saying district   one, longtime resident of that district and I'm  really perplexed as how a group of business people   get to bring a plan to city council and it got so  much traction so quickly and here we are a couple   of weeks out, months out and we're ready to make  a a a a statement on our citizens tax dollars and   how they will be spent. And I I have a problem  with that. I'm just also wondering just like with   the budget process, we've always been presented  with with what is important to the citizens,   but the citizens didn't create the the um things  that are supposed to be important just like this   proposal. Who who said that fire? I mean, we  always say we want police, we want fire, but   there's so many other things that maybe citizens  want to see, tax dollars go to as well that   contributes to our quality of life, our parks,  things like that. You know, it's not included   in here. So, I'm still perplexed as to who gets to  decide what's important to the citizens when it's   our tax dollars that are going to be expended.  I'm also perplexed that we're going to com create   another committee with no teeth, an oversight  committee on almost a billion dollars worth of   funds with no teeth. Um, like Tech said, the  projects aren't outlined. We don't know what   comes first, how many dollars goes to this project  first. I mean, dollars goes to this project last.   There's really not a plan in place. And with the  oversight committee is supposed to be citizens   except possible union members, the same union  members who benefit from the tax dollars. That's   not oversight. And so I think we need to table  this or just say no for now. Go back to the uh   drawing board, reach out to the citizens and see  what's really important to us because it's our tax   dollars that are going to be expended. and then  let's create another plan that really encompasses   our communities. Again, this has been rushed.  Let's wait. Um it's too much ambiguity into this   plan. There's not enough this this this involved.  And so, let's table it. Let's break it out back to   the people and then let's regroup after that. Oh,  and also why spend $150,000 to $400,000 to vote on   something when we can just wait down the road and  there will be no additional expenses. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Pastor Wade Miller,  uh co-chair of the Justice Together Steering   Committee for Affordable Housing. Uh I'm  in District 1, 111 North North Burr Oak in   Rockwood. Um justice together brings more than 40  congregations together to bring out the call of   Micah 68 to do justice, uh to love kindness, and  to walk humbly with our God. Last week, I stood   before you and raised three simple questions.  And since then, we have worked diligently to find   answers to those questions. On Thursday night,  more than a hundred of our members met to ask,   "What do we know? What do we not know? Who do we  ask?" Since then, we've met with Council Member   Hohheisle. We've met with Aaron Bastion and  and Matt from Witchaw Forward. Uh we attended   last night's public listening session, and we've  read the proposed ordinance closely. Yesterday, we   delivered a letter to you requesting $10 million  in annual funding for the affordable housing fund.   That letter carried the signatures of more than  230 faith leaders and people of faith. We also   delivered nearly 600 notes from constituents  to Mayor Woo. She had a lot of postcards on   her desk. These voices reflected the depth  of concern and the yearning for clarity and   justice across our congregations. And after all  that, our same three questions still remain.   Will any sales tax meet Witchah's growing housing  need? We've learned that a proposed $150 million   silo for homelessness and affordable housing,  and roughly 125 million of that would go into   an endowment. They cannot be touched until  it generates return to fund Second Light. The   remaining dollars, around $20 million or more, are  less clear, and no one we have met with has been   able to explain how those funds would be spent.  Witchah Forward representatives have said those   decisions are up to you. We also know that in our  2024 Nehemiah assembly with over 1,400 people,   it was surprising to hear that we didn't have  a commitment to Second Light uh from the city,   an ongoing commitment because at that gathering  there was a commitment, a public commitment of   $600,000 from the city going on. you had stepped  up for that and for that we are truly truly   grateful. But our our second question, will it  secure at least $10 million annually for the   Witchah Affordable Housing Fund, which we have uh  researched and found is probably the most powerful   way uh to to build the business infrastructure  and build affordable housing here in Witchah.   This is within the council's power, but every  person we've met with has indicated they do   not yet see a path to that level investment  in these current priorities. Third, will it   avoid worsening inequality for those already  struggling the most? And we've heard those   promising conversations about targeted property  tax relief, which is possible. Uh the the rebates,   which sound like it's not possible. Um, but  these measures again are in your authority,   but they're not in the ordinance today. As a  justice ministry, we can't yet answer yes to   these three questions. That means we have not  taken a position on the sales tax proposal. We   know today is an important day. We also know that  much can still be done after today to build trust,   to create a better uh to create a better, more  just proposal. in and our letter is a request to   meet with each of you and we hope that we have a  chance to do that in the next couple of weeks. You   have the power to ensure that Witchah meets its  housing need. You have the power to make sure that   we impact homelessness in a powerful way. You have  the power to help build up the affordable housing   infrastructure that's necessary for a community  to meet a 14,000 unit uh shortfall and we believe   Witchah can rise to this moment. We stand ready  to work with you to help make that possible. Thank   you and may God guide your decisions and bless  the work of your heart, soul, mind, and actions. Mark Barlo here. I'm in District 2. All of  the proposed spending through this tax makes   sense and represents programs and initiatives  we ought to be tackling. I just think it's   ridiculous to push for additional taxation  against already struggling witchans when   we should be talking about levying taxes on our  local oligarchs. The Kokes and other subversive   mega wealth hoarders already unduly influence  our politics and our democracy. And it's high   time we the people put this tax burden where  their dark money resides. The Cokes are all   over this proposal. This mess stinks of their  ongoing manipulation of this city and this   city council. Tax them and their hyperwealthy  ilk, not us. You start taxing food and diapers,   you'll only put more families at risk and make  more people homeless. No new taxation on the poor. Good afternoon, Mayor Woo and city council  members. My name is Angela Cassette. I live   at 1080 Patricia Street in District 1, and I'm the  managing director of Music Theater Witchah. I come   to voice my support for the Witchah Forward Plan.  is presented. As an arts leader in this community,   I've spent the last 12 years discussing and  watching and hoping for forward movement on   arts and convention spaces, which would in turn  create a virtuous cycle of new dollars into our   city. A couple of quick facts about music theater  witchah's patrons. We serve multiple generations,   including 50,000 patrons during the summer season.  Our academy programs, which are focused on ages   5 to 18, served 11,434 in 2025. And while a  majority of our patrons come from Witchah,   last year we had visitors from 2,891 unique zip  codes who could be paying taxes to help support   our city. We are ready to see investment in a  new performing arts center to serve our younger   generations for their lifetimes. And as someone  who chose to move to Witchah and chooses to stay   in Witchah, I love my community and recognize  there are nuances to every decision and that we   need to work to mitigate harm with each forward  movement. But I've been disheartened to see how   often Witchah says no to things, including at  the top layers of leadership in our various   sectors. This is a wonderful moment for our  community to have an opportunity to say yes   to the thoughtful projects which are Witchah  Forward is submitting to council. I ask that   you please give Witchens the chance to say yes  to a purpose-driven sales tax just like so many   bedroom communities in our region already  have just like virtually every other city   of our stature has. This is a great movement  to look to move Witchah forward. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor Woo, council members.  My name is Carl Peter John. For the record,   I live in count vice mayor Johnston's district.  I'm here as a third class witchin. Now,   you might say, "Wait a minute. Third class. I have  rights under the Kansas Constitution. Under the   US Constitution, I'm equal." But one important  way, I'm not equal. When I petition city hall,   I get sued. As the lead defendant five years  ago in the Save Century 2 petition drive,   we worked in the middle of the pandemic and  collected 17,000 signatures to meet a 12,500   signature requirement to have the council act.  Now, I know many of you are not on that council,   but I'm here today saying, why the disperate  treatment? We have a group that I didn't hear   anything during the city council election about  this proposal. Perhaps Councilman Glascock,   his seat wasn't up, so I didn't see him out  campaigning the way Councilwoman Ballard and   uh Councilman Lohisel were doing.  So, but I'm standing here saying solutions. You were given two options. I'm going  to give you a third option. And when I was had   the privilege of being a county commissioner, I  really appreciated when people testifying would   provide another option. And my option is this. Let  Witchah Ford start a petition drive and get 12,500   signatures in a 180day time frame. They don't have  to do it during a pandemic. And I would urge you,   don't sue them like I was personally sued for  circulating a petition to city hall. Of course,   I'm just a third class witchin. But that's  another option because there's no reason to   be in a hurry for moving forward on this. And  there's good reasons. I like the idea. I mean,   doubling the local grocery tax, 100% increase,  a 13% increase in the sales tax. That's what   we're looking at here. Spending somewhere between  800 and 900 million. If the estimates are good,   I presume they are, but I am very frustrated with  the idea that we have a small amount for saving   Century 2 and nine times more for Bob Brown. Give  me a break. I implore you that moving in haste   has serious risks and you need more input from  the citizenry. I I can run polls to, you know,   get people come here and say, "Hey, most folks  think the moon's made out of green cheese." If I   get to phrase the question right, the real answer  would become empower the voters at the polls. For   many years, I've been trying and I still continue  to do so to require all mill levy increases to be   increased with voter approval. Many other states  have that progressive uh position. Unfortunately,   Kansas, except for school bond elections, does  not allow that. But you all today should take a   deep breath and get more public input and let  this folks with Witchah Ford and I didn't see   them during the campaign we just finished  a month ago for three city council seats.   I didn't see them at that point. We've got an  election. It's coming up in August and November.   Let's proceed with deliberation, but I'd love  to see them do a petition drive in 180 days   and get 12,550 some valid signatures from Witchah  voters. Save Century 2 did that. And by the way,   for the record, I was not the leader of that. I  was a leader. I just happened to be because of   uh the legal city legal. They made me the  league lead defendant, which is kind of   a cruel paradox because Jennifer used to  work for me. Uh, you all have a good day. Council member Ho Heisel. Thank you, Mayor.  Uh, thank you, Carl. I always appreciate your   uh candid ability to speak to us plainly.  Uh, you're first class citizen to me,   so just wanted to clarify that. Also, um, a sales  tax discussion did come up during the campaign,   um, during the a forum that I did have, a public  forum, uh, that is on, I think still on YouTube,   but to be straight honest with you, none of these  specifics were discussed. It was just an overall   broad potential for a sales tax. Did Witchita Ford  bring that forward at that? No, sir. Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor, council members. My name is   Susie Santo at 515 South Main Street. I'm  the president and CEO of Visit Witchah. Um,   our mission is to drive visitors and positive  economic impact into the city of Witchah and   I'm here speaking on behalf of the travel  and tourism perspective and our board of   uh directors. So, thank you for the opportunity  to speak in support of the proposed Witchaw Ford   sales tax initiative for our city. Our  community stands at an important moment,   one where we have the opportunity to strengthen  our economy and make strategic investments that   will benefit residents and visitors for decades  to come. Visit Witchah supports placing this refer   on the ballot because of its significant positive  impact on the tourism economy which is an economic   driver for Witchah. In 2024 alone, visitors spent  more than 1.5 billion in the greater Witchah area.   That spending supports local jobs, uh, fuels  our small businesses, restaurants, hotels,   attractions, benefits that ripple across the  entire community. And because this initiative is   funded through a sales tax, it's not shouldered by  residents alone. Every visitor who shops, dines,   stays overnights, or attends an event in Witchah  helps pay into these improvements. In other words,   this approach brings outside dollars to the table  and eases the load on local taxpayers while still   strengthening the service and amenities that  make Witchaw a great place to live and visit.   This sales tax initiative will strengthen Witchaw  as a destination of choice for leisure visitors,   convention many groups, and sports visitors  alike. And it does that in several critical   ways. First and foremost, ensuring a safe  and welcoming environment is critical.   The investment in public safety and homelessness  and housing solutions is not just about residents   well-being. It also ensures that leisure  visitors, sports families, convention   attendees feel confident and comfortable visiting  Witchah. Compassionate homelessness solutions and   a strong safety presence create a positive first  impression for all who come to our city. Secondly,   the revitalization of Century 2 and our  convention space complex is vital. Specifically,   the renewed convention space identified in the  plan is essential infrastructure if Witchah wants   to compete and win in the meetings and convention  space. Competition is intense and our peer cities   have the advantage of updated or new industry  standard facilities. Meeting planners evaluate   destinations based on many factors. Today's  planners expect flexible layouts, hotel,   um, advanced technology, accessibility features,  sustainability standards, and these are just a few   of those features. Witchah M must meet those  expectations to stay competitive. If Witchah   had an industry standard facility, it would drive  approximately 54 million annually in incremental   economic impact. Those are incremental dollars  that Witchaw is leaving on the table for every   year that we do not have an industry standard  facility. And thirdly, investing a new performing   arts center is about enriching our city's cultural  scene and providing a state-of-the-art venue for   the incredible talent we have here in Witchah.  From the Witchah Symphony to Music Theater Witchah   to our many other local arts organizations and  educational institutions, this new space will   give them a home to shine even brighter. It  will also attract top tier touring shows and   cultural events, boosting tourism and creating  even more opportunities for everyone to enjoy a   vibrant downtown. And importantly, this thriving  art center will support local businesses from   restaurants to hotels as we bring more cultural  vibrancy and foot traffic to the heart of our city   and create more reasons for visitors to choose  Witchah Witchah. And lastly, the property tax   relief will support the overall economic health of  our city by easing the tax load on property owners   on owners. We help local businesses, including  those that serve our visitors, stay stable and   competitive. This practical step supports the  entire community, making Witchah a more vibrant   and welcome welcoming destinations for residents  and tourists alike. In summary, these investments   are crucial for the future success of Witchah's  tourism industry and our broader economic health.   This sales tax initiative is about keeping Witchah  competitive, welcoming, and thriving. It's about   bringing more outside dollars and supporting local  jobs and building the kind of city residents are   proud of and visitors can't wait to experience.  Visit Witchaw supports this initiative being on   the ballot for voters in March and we urge  you to do the same. Thank you for your time,   your leadership, and your commitment to building  a stronger future for our community. Thank you. Good morning or afternoon I should say. Um Ben  Hatton I live in district 2. Uh work throughout   the community. Mayor, council members, uh manager  and city staff. Thank you for considering this   important proposal. You know, I think we face  some real challenges as a community. Our homeless   population is growing. Rising property taxes are  becoming a burden for many and city budget issues,   as we heard this morning, are looming uh in future  years, possibly leading to cuts in essential   services or even further increases in property  taxes. Over these past months, we've spoken with   each of you and many other groups in town about  a potential solution to some of these issues,   and mostly we've heard strong support. The  questions or resistance that the plan has   met have largely fallen into a few buckets. First,  we hear questions about timing. This is too fast.   After some time working in Colorado, I moved back  to Witchah in 2006, actually March of 2006. And   that summer, I got involved in our community  through a number of issues or a number of   uh community um organizations. We've been  talking about these same issues since then.   We've done surveys, countless studies uh both  by this body as well as those uh by others,   held community engagement uh meetings, created  proposals, but we've had no real follow-up or   action that's come from any of those. For me, this  next April or March will mark 20 years of these   conversations. For some in this room, it's been  even longer than that. This timing, I don't think,   is too fast. I think we're a decade late. We're a  decade behind. Further, while the proposal is new,   we are not asking for an immediate decision  today. We are asking for a four-month community   discussion and debate and then a vote. Another  area of questions that we hear concern mistrust   of government. We've heard a lot about this. How  will the money be protected? How can I know that   it will be spent how you say? I understand this  concern. Uh but I cannot remake the past with a   ballot initiative and I I can't earn instant trust  with an idea. But this is exactly why our proposal   includes an independent and transparent citizen  oversight committee with the ability to audit and   oversee all that this plan entails. Another bucket  is we hear others say, "I want more of what I care   about in this package." I understand that we all  have specific issues or causes that we care about   most. If it were up to each of you or up to me,  the suggested projects included in the plan would   be different or maybe differently funded. But it's  not. The plan was created by combining the issues   that we know we face as a city with the results  of a poll asking the citizens what they want,   not you or me. Many though we've heard support  this plan. They recognize the issues in front   of us and that while this doesn't solve  all of them, it goes a long way towards   it. It cares for the most vulnerable in our  population while lowering property tax burdens.   It invests in the Century 2 campus, preserving  it for future generations while giving the tools   to our first responders they need to keep us  safe. They also appreciate that 20 to 30% of it   will be paid for by visitors from outside of our  community, friends from Kansas City or Oklahoma   City that visit for a concert or a sports game or  neighbors even from Maize and Goddard and Andover   that work and shop in our community but currently  don't participate in funding its infrastructure.   We are here today with a plan that we  believe addresses the issues at hand in   a fair and balanced way and we are asking for  you to let the community decide. Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor and city council. My name  is Aaron Bastion and I lead my family's business   which is Fidelity Bank located at 100 East  English in District 1. I'm here today to advocate   for allowing the public to vote on the sales tax  proposal that you're considering. This temporary   tax would make generational investments in our  city while supporting our first responders and   the unhoused. This proposal would fund 225 million  for the fixed asset i.e. equipment and facility   needs of Witchaw Fire and Police. These brave  citizens put their life on the line for us every   day. And I believe they should be fully equipped  with the best available equipment, technology,   and facilities to do their jobs. This plan would  also create a funding plan for support for the   homeless in our community. It would provide  long-term funding for the multi- agency center,   currently run by Second Light, and provide 25  million for investments in housing and programs   in support of the multi- agency center. This plan  would also reduce property taxes across the city   by roughly 21 million per year or about 12% of the  city collected property tax. Next, this plan would   revitalize the Century 2 district by providing  225 million toward an expansion of our convention   center along with 25 million for Century 2. This  investment would allow us to capture the estimated   40 million per year of economic benefit that  would be available to Witchah with more modern   convention offerings. Finally, this plan would  provide roughly half the cost of a new public   publiclyowned performing arts center to be built  in downtown Witchah. I believe the arts are what   make life interesting. Life without TV or art on  the walls or music would be much less enjoyable,   at least in my opinion. And um our performing arts  group should be able to perform in a facility that   is amazing as their performance art. All of these  projects would provide meaningful investment in   our city that will power Witchah Forward. Many of  our peer communities such as Tulsa and Oklahoma   City have implemented similar sales tax programs  that help grow their communities while making   long-term investments in their city. I've seen it  firsthand as a former citizen of Oklahoma City and   our company does business today in both Tulsa and  Oklahoma City. Another feature of this sales tax   is that visitors to our city pay approximately 20  to 30% of the sales tax. That would mean roughly   or nearly uh 200 million would be paid by visitors  to Witchah over the course of the seven years.   Studies suggest this number would greatly increase  once an expansion expanded convention center   uh is built. This plan is a temporary tax that  makes investments in Witchah that would benefit   our community for decades. Uh, one thing that I  just want to comment on that is not in my prepared   comments is that uh, one thing that's very  personally important to me is that that this tax   does not land on those who can least afford to pay  it. And what I would welcome and I know the the   uh our coalition would welcome discussion  about um with the state level regarding tax   on groceries as well as any sort of sales tax  rebate program that um we would really enjoy   and help lead that discussion. All in all,  this is a good plan for our city and I urge   you to vote in favor of allowing a public vote  on this plan. Let's invest in us. Thank you. Good afternoon. I guess I'm Jim Garvey, retired  uh used to be in real estate uh development and   property management, but I'm just speaking  on behalf of myself. I live in Becky Tuttles   district or my home is there anyway. Um anyway,  uh just a few few points. Yeah. Number one,   uh I heard about this two weeks ago and then  we're going to vote on it in two months. Uh   $850 million of Joe John and Mary taxpayers money.  What's the hurry? Why are you so anxious to spend   Joe and John and Mary taxpayers money? That's  my was my first question reaction actually. Um just a few points and they a little diversion  but yesterday I did go to the forum that witto   forward put forth and one of the uh key people  there afterwards and speaking to him his concern   he said he was very concerned on the budget  outlook for the city of Witchah and that's a big   reason he wanted to have sales tax to help help in  that regard. Today I heard some numbers. It didn't   maybe sound as dire as I'd been led to believe,  but maybe it is. But anyway, along that subject,   uh I think when you're proposing uh subsidies  for developments, we now have multiple CD   uh tiff districts, star bonds, lots of  subsidies. And I know you're concerned   now about the ballpark star bond $40 million  that they haven't generated sales tax revenue   for. So John John and Mary taxpayer will get to  pay for that. I understand also the CI attached   to the ballparks 13 million. So that's 53 million  or 55 million that John and Mary taxpayer will get   to pay. I know a number of years ago Dion Leler  wrote an article about Waterwalk and the city as   I recall city had put up 30 to$40 million and it  had negligible return. Every deal now has multiple   subsidies and and I think you need to analyze is  it going to get paid back because the ballpark no.   So you you you're on the hook. The city it impacts  your financial viability and it impacts Joe and M   John and Mary taxpayers ability to pay. So I  think that's something you you need to think   about when you're giving lots of subsidies. Uh for  120 years Witch was developed pretty much without   subsidy. Somehow somehow we got buildings built  and developments done with no tax. the developer   risk risked it and if it doesn't make sense they  shouldn't do it without it if they can't if if   they have to have a subsidy it it can end up on  Joe and John and Mary taxpayers bill. So I think   for your financial viability that's something to  think about and the only reason I bring it up is   because one of the key people with the group was  one reason they won the sales taxes to help your   dire outlook on the budget on uh the homelessness.  My only suggestion is I'm sure you're doing a good   job, but San Antonio has haven of hope run by a  nonprofit been around 15 years. 80% decline in   homelessness in San Francisco. Uh economic study  showed for every dollar invested $42 benefit to   the city. So I suggest you might look into their  example. One Rise is kind of trying to follow   their example here in Witchah. And the final point  with a few questions on the proposed uh performing   arts center. Number one, do you have a drawing  of it? Number two, where will it be located?   Number three, how many square feet is it? Number  four, what's the seating capacity? Number five,   will it mothball 2200 seat concert hall? called  the 5,000 seat convention hall and the 6,500 seat   Mary Jane Teal Theater. Also, while you're at it,  we have a $575 million water treatment plant a   year past due and over budget. I would suggest  you solve that before putting an $850 million   tax proposal on the budget. And we don't even  know what the performing arts center will look   like. Will replace what we've got. Uh and uh uh  you know, we have priorities and drinking water   is fairly important. I I suggest you defer  this until you can give us more information.   I would like a picture of and where it's going to  be the performing arts and how seating capacity   and if it is in fact going to replace our 7850  seats currently in Century 2. Thank you, Council   Member Hoheisle. Thank you, Mayor. Uh just one  point real quick. Um, the MAC, the second light   is actually based off of the model of the Haven  for Hope in San Antonio, which has gotten up to a   point to where 65% of people who go through there  end up finding housing. Um, so that is something   that we are striving for. Hopefully, we can match  those efforts at some point in the near future. Hello. Um, my name is Cecilia Long. I'm our  director of programs at Family Promise. And I   wanted to thank you for um the generous time that  you offer for public comment. These are some of   the longest uh council meetings I have attended.  Um, I'm here to advocate for our families   uh recovering and experiencing homelessness in  our community. Um, and I kind of want to ask   you to do a little activity with me. Um, if you  could uh close your eyes, just trust me. Just be   a minute. Um, and I just I want you to um imagine  that uh when you get off work today, when you get   into your car, you don't have a place to sleep  tonight and you have your children with you. I   know many of you have children. Um you don't have  any family or friends that you could stay with and   um you've called the shelters and they're full  and you don't really have any other options. I   I I'm kind of giving you some homework tonight  when you get off work to sit in your cold car   um and just imagine that you don't have anywhere  to be. um and how um helpless that feels. And so   yeah, thank you. Um we at Family Promise use a  trauma-informed holistic approach when we support   our families recovering from homelessness. Um we  use wraparound support building um connections   and community. And we have um worked with over  70 churches in the community to offer 365 days   a year, 247 um shelter to our families. Um we  have nearly 2,000 children documented um with   McKenna Vento that don't have a place to sleep at  night. 80% of our children in district 259 live in   poverty. Um and we shelter is important to us. We  offer shelter, but more importantly um having safe   and affordable housing um is more important to us.  And so if we can u move families out of shelter   into housing faster, um that reduces the amount of  homelessness that we see in our community. And so   um I'm not here to speak in support or against um  the sales tax. I feel like we don't know enough   about it to know if um affordable housing will be  included, but um we at Family Promise do support   a $10 million at least $10 million investment  annually for Witchah affordable housing fund.   Um and we we look to you as leaders um to  act on this urgently and we encourage you   to collaborate with us. We see ourselves as  experts when it comes to family homelessness.   um we spend every day, working day and sometimes  our weekends thinking about this problem,   trying to address it. So um as you're making  these decisions around huge funding sources,   we ask you to include us in that process. Um  you know, Witchah isn't going to be Chicago or   um like Mayor Woo said, Oklahoma City or  Dallas, but we could be a greater Witchah,   and I think that means addressing the needs of all  of our workingclass people. Um, and I don't know,   I have a great vision that we could end  homelessness here. I I think it's possible   and I I believe in all of you that you could be  leaders in pushing that forward and we could hit   national headlines um addressing that issue. So,  um yeah, I just uh ask you to urgently put your   priority in thinking about family homelessness.  Um the MAC currently doesn't serve families,   nor do I think it's the appropriate place for  it. Um, so we would just like to be included in   that conversation when you're talking about  funding for housing. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Mayor Woo, council members, staff.  I'm Tony Porter, vice president of government   relations and military affairs at the Witchah  Regional Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for the   opportunity to speak on behalf of the chamber and  the business community we represent. The chamber   recognizes that Witchah Ford addresses important  priorities public safety, economic development,   and quality of life investments that will help  strengthen our city's competitiveness. For that   reason, the chamber fully supports giving voters  the opportunity to decide on this initiative.   However, the chamber and much of the business  community are concerned that the proposal does   not allocate a greater share of sales tax  revenue to property tax relief. Property tax   burdens remain one of the most significant  challenges for businesses and homeowners   affecting affordability, competitiveness, and  our ability to retrain retain, excuse me, and   attract a strong workforce. While the initiative  includes $150 million for property tax relief,   we believe this amount may not provide the level  of impact needed given rising valuations and   limited mill levy reductions. We encourage  the city council to identify additional and   sustainable strategies to deliver significant  property property tax relief to witchans.   This must remain a top priority alongside other  investments as reducing property tax pressure   is critical to economic vitality and workforce  development. In addition, the chamber believes   that a clear, detailed information about the  oversight committee structure, responsibilities,   and accountability is essential to build  confidence in its transparency and effectiveness.   While the proposed 1% sales tax includes a  sunset provision and an oversight component,   greater clarity is needed to ensure this  mechanism provides truly transparent and   responsible management of funds not only for  property tax but also for the other critical   priorities such as the convention facilities,  homelessness solutions and public safety. The   chamber is committed to being a valuable partner  in this process. Thank you for your leadership and   commitment to Witchah's future. The chamber  looks forward to working with you to ensure   this initiative reflects the priorities of  both residents and businesses. Thank you. One follow-up question really quick.  What's the actual mill levy reduction? Maybe that's for Witchaw. Pardon me. Yeah, mayor. Our  estimate is approximately   four mil 4 mil reduction. 4 mil  reduction. That's our estimate. Council member Hohheisel. Thank you, Mayor.  Uh that's not um solidified in this correct   because we have to make adjustments from  year to year to year. That's correct. the   the maximum amount for each category  is established and so um the amount of   money that would go in in any one year would  depend on sales tax collection. Thank you. My name is Vicky Evans and I live in West Witchah  at 259 South Byron Court. And I'm here to say that   I have a vote and it's for the 1% sales tax.  And I can vote yes or no. What I don't have is   any say on where the money from the sales tax  is going because if I vote yes on the sales   tax then I automatically am voting for giving  the money to the program that's been presented   and that bothers me that I don't have any say  in where the sales tax money goes. Thank you. Hello and good afternoon, I guess. My name  is Rashanda. I am the mother of two beautiful   children, a veteran, and a proud survivor of an  abusive relationship. I'm here today because I   believe housing is not a luxury. It is a basic  human right. And I'm standing here just not only   for myself but for other families struggling with  the same things that I know a lot of us or maybe a   lot of us haven't went through before. There are  so many of us that are still drowning and debt   and everything else and we're trying everything  we can to to stay housed and it's hard enough.   It really is. I served this country because I I  believed in it. And honestly, here lately, I've   been finding myself wavering because honestly, I'm  not getting the same thing back from my country.   When I finally got the courage to leave my ex, I  had nowhere else to go. I had two kids and a beat   up Impala. Reality hit really fast. And honestly,  just thinking about it now, just think about all   the blessings that I got just from just people's  leniency and just being nice, but not the people   that I needed. I waited for a housing voucher  for four years. And during that four years,   I stayed in basement. I stayed in friends houses.  I had to send my kids to live with relatives. And   as a mother, that's like the hardest thing in  the world to not be able to see your kids. But   the even hardest thing is to just to maintain my  housing, if that makes any sense. Because it's   constantly changing. Like one minute I have money  for rent, the next minute I don't have money for   all the utilities. I just want affordable housing  to stay affordable. If this $10 million funding is   going to help with that and anything else, then  I'm going to say yes. I'm going to say vote for   it. Please at least please consider it. A lot of  us are still out here struggling and we dress it   up and we make it look decent, but it's hard.  It's so hard out here right now. This morning,   I find myself trying to figure out which utility  I'm going to not pay because I have to make   Christmas happen and I have to have rent. It's  hard telling kids no, especially kids as grateful   as mine who have seen me struggle, watched me cry,  patted my back when and told me it was going to be   okay. These aren't kids telling me, "Mom, you're  going to be okay." And I I can't even believe it   because like just standing here now like I'm I'm  nervous. I'm nervous that it won't work out. I'm   nervous that I'm getting my hopes up for nothing.  I'm nervous that I'll be in the same situation   next year to where I'm going to have to figure  out, am I going to be paying rent? Am I going to   be paying this utility? Am I going to lose my  car? Will I have car insurance? What if I get   stopped? And what if I do get this house? Will I  be able to afford the renters's insurance? Like,   it's hard. It's so hard. And I feel like a person  like me, I'm not a bad person. I like I work hard.   Like I said, I've done so many jobs. I've held  down so many positions. And I feel like I have   nothing to show for. All I want is a a house that  I can maintain. Not even a bought house. Like,   if I could just rent a house and be able to  maintain that house. anything like anything   would help. The $10 million in funding won't  solve every problem, but it's a good start and   I really hope you guys consider it. Thank you  for your time. [Laughter] Vice Mayor Johnston,   thank you, Mayor, and thank you for coming up  and speaking. Very much, very much appreciate it.   um you're you're the reason an example of why this  is so important, why housing is so important. So,   I appreciate the courage to come up and talk  about it. Um 60% of all the people needing   housing are single moms with one or two kids.  You're a classic example of that. So, that's   why it's so important. So, excuse me, choked up.  So, thank you very much and uh we'll see what we   can do. Council member Johnson. Thanks, mayor.  Um, I had a different question, but before that,   I just want to say thank you for coming up here  and sharing um, what you have been through. Thank   you for your service to our country and um, sorry  that you have had to go through everything you   have. Uh my question was from the previous speaker  who mentioned um or a few people have mentioned   today that they don't know if this money will  go where it's supposed to go or what we've been   talking about. I guess legally if the question  that is in the packet is on the ballot that   allocates those dollar amounts to those specific  areas because we're not talking items. Would we   legally have to spend that money on what's on the  ballot? So, if it's 225 million for public safety,   do we legally have to spend 225 million or  that allocation towards public safety? Uh,   council member, yes. Um, you I don't believe that  you can deviate from those categories uh in terms   of how that can be spent. Also, the council has  a track record of following voter um intent. Uh   with the last sales tax, council was to put 50%  back into the operating budget to help relieve   property tax burden and the other 50% into streets  uh and road improvements. And the council has   done that since the adoption of that sales tax.  Okay? So we can at least give some reassurance   to people that legally we have to do what's on  that ballot in those buckets. Okay. Yes, I agree. Council member Ho Heisel to the speaker. Thank  you for showing up and sharing your story. Um   it's definitely something everybody on this body  should be aware of and keep in mind with all the   decisions that we make. So thank you. Before  we continue, thank you again, Rashandra, for   speaking up. Can I um have law read specifically  item D, which would be if this went to a vote,   item D would be specific to what Rashandre  is speaking about. Can that be read out loud? Section 1D, an amount not to exceed $150  million. Mayor, is that the correct? Okay.   Yes. An amount not to exceed $150 million of such  tax applied to establish a restricted special fund   with earnings from such fund to be reinvested into  this special fund to support homeless and housing   services by funding affordable housing projects  and programs. Shelter facilities and multi-   agency center and its operations and related  services for people experiencing homelessness.   Thank you, Council Member Hoheisel. Thank  you, Mayor. So, does that mean uh Jennifer,   that 125 million could potentially go to  affordable housing out of that fund? 150   million. It says not to exceed 15.  So, the whole 150. Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor Woo, members of the  council. Thank you for your time today.   My name is Dustin Winter. I'm the vice president  of Local 135 Witchaw Professional Firefighters and   also a 17-year veteran of the fire department.  I'm here on behalf of Local 135 President Ted   Bush and Local 135 to voice our full support  for the proposed 1-cent sales tax. For us,   this isn't a small adjustment. It's a turning  point in our ability to deliver the fire service   which doll expects and deserves. For years,  the fire department has struggled to keep   our apparatus and our fire stations in reliable  working order. We've rotated fire trucks in and   out of service more than any one would like simply  because we don't have the resources to maintain or   replace them on schedule. We also lack the number  of fire stations needed to fully cover our growing   city. That gap shows up in one place and that  matters the most and that's response times.   Response times are the lifeblood of a successful  911 outcome. When someone calls for help,   every second counts. The faster we can reach them,  the better the chance we can change the outcome   for the good. Right now, we're doing everything  we can, but we're stretched thin. This sales tax,   paired with clear assurances that the funds  will support fire equipment, stations,   and apparatus gives us something we haven't had  in a long time. and the ability to plan and move   forward to keep our fleet healthy and to build  the coverage our community needs and deserves.   It makes the job safer for us firefighters.  And more importantly, it makes Witchaw safer   for the people that we serve. We can't overstate  how much this would change our day-to-day work   and operations and the long-term health of our  department. Thank you for considering it and   for your continued support of public safety here  in Witchaw. Council member Glascock. Thank you,   Dustin. I appreciate you coming up,  especially on behalf of TED as well. Um,   quick question to the manager. Um, the proposal  presented by Witchto Ford would cash fund projects   outlining our CIP for public safety. Correct.  That's correct. And that is and this would be   for director of finance Mark Manning that has  the capacity to save more than $30 million in   interest payments for the fire safety and the  public um or in the police aspect as well.   Right. And then I think for Dustin listed in the  CIP, you just have a confirmation of it. So that   means that these would be the items potentially  funded if this were to pass. For new stations,   uh we're looking at $3,921. I'm just  going to round these up. So, three around   $4 million for fire apparatus replacement. We're  looking at $45 million. For fire communication   system replacement, we're looking at around 7  million. For fire equipment for new stations,   we're looking at around a million. For fire  equipment replacement, again, looking around   5 million. Fire facilities maintenance, around 4  million. Um, another replacement around 3.4. For   fire stations as a whole, up to 45 million. Fire  stations uh new 15 million. And then fire training   center improvements. Does that sound correct,  Dustin? Yes. Thank you, Council Member Ballard.   Thank you, Mayor. Dustin, I have a quick question  for you. When is the last time we built a new   fire station? I believe it was 2009 was the last  year that station 22 was opened. Thank you. Yep. Okay. My name is Carl Dennett. Uh, I have  an apartment in District 6 and I also have   a residence in Augusta Township. Uh, apologize  for the vanity of the hat because the last time   I looked on YouTube when I was here, the top  of my head looked like Neil Armstrong's lunar   landing site. So, I'm wearing the hat. Okay.  First off, I want to say I'm not opposed to a   new convention center. I'm just saying there's a  better way to go about it. And my notes are here   kind of convoluted because we didn't have much  time because of this. So if a new convention   center is a slam dunk money maker, then why  is not a entrepreneur written a business plan   and ask for a bank for financing? And that's  because I think in the book Convention Center   follies subtitled Politics, Power and Public  Investment in American Cities by Haywood Sanders,   emphatically proves that convention centers  don't get a return on investment. And in fact,   he gives example after example where a convention  center fails and then the answer is to build a   bigger convention center. So, I'd leave that and  I'm not opposed to a convention center. I just   think they're a loss leader for the city. And so,  now we're going to finance this convention center   with a sales tax paid largely by citizens who  can least afford it. I'm going to end up paying,   I figured, about anywhere from $2 to $3,000 over  seven years on this deal. And what I'd like to   do is I'd like to call attention to the Orlando  Public Library. It's a brutalist style library   and it's coveted by Orlando, not what happened to  our public library. I would also like to mention   the Bartlesville Community Center. It's a dead  ringer for Century 2. even the color of the paint   except it has no convention activities. It's  just a theater and a and a uh symphony hall.   So I would also call attention to a meeting that  was held on November 29th, 2022 at the board of   park commissioner special meeting retreat. It  was a hatefest for the Brutalist Library in   Century 2. And one of the things they brought  up is if we can move, it was brought up brand   new about the new performing arts center. And if  we can just move Symphony Hall, Symphony Hall out   and music theater, why then we could demolish  Century 2. That was the gist of that meeting. And also at that meeting they asked what would be  the best thing to do with the brutalist library   and they said blow it up and they just had a big  laugh fest over that one. And also this has been   planned a long time ago I believe because Wilner  Auditorium at Witchaw State is to be demolished.   That's the theater at Witto State and it's  due to unperformed maintenance and so that   precludes the ability to pay for it to pay for to  rehabilitate it. Oh man, my time's going fast. So,   I believe there's no valid reason for a new  performing arts center. What I propose is you   remodel Century 2 and make it a just like  in Bartlesville a civic center and build   your new convention center where you're going to  build the new performing arts center and build   it clean sheet and go bigger than what you're  planning with adding on to uh what's that? Yeah,   Brown. Don't add on to Bob Brown. The west side  of the river where you're going to build the new   performing arts center. That's where you should  build your clean sheet civic center. That way it   would be uh more advantageous and it wouldn't  just be an add-on to Bob Brown. Uh anyway,   that was my thoughts. So, uh, yeah, rehabilitate  Century 2 because I don't think there's any way,   shape, or form you can spend $150 million and  come up with something better than what we have   now at Symphony Hall and Mary Jane Teal  Theater and you could rehabilitate it to   where music theater could find it workable. All  right, thanks for your time. Thank you, Carl.   Council member Glass. Thank you, Mr. Manager.  Questions regarding the concerns on Century 2.   From what I can see, page 24 of our current CIP  projects $12.1 million to in the maintenance of   Century 2 over the next 10 years. That that's my  recollection. I don't have that in front of me,   but yes. And then WA Ford, your  presentation as presented actually   allocates 25 million over the next seven  years to preserve Century 2. Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor Woon, city council  members. Celeste, District 5, Witchita native,   community advocate. My background is in finance.  I have an accounting degree from KU, an MBA from   WSU. I'm a former chief internal auditor and  bank examiner with the FDIC. I'm mentioning   this because last night one of you told me if I  didn't support this sales tax proposal, Century   2 would be torn down and destroyed. As a fraud  investigator, if I've been lied to, threatened,   or attempted to be bribed, it really puts me on  a fight. And so, you're in for it on this one.   If you're using this kind of pressure to get this  approved, shame on you. Six years ago, I stood in   front of you, two of you currently sitting here,  and asked former mayor Jeff Longwell, questions   about the proposed new ball stadium. My questions  were not answered. The ball stadium was approved,   and now the city is facing a deficit. Seven acres  on the West Bank were sold for a dollar an acre,   and in six years, nothing's gone up. Now, I'm  standing before you again asking questions about   an even larger proposal with even a larger amount  of bond debt and being asked to trust you all to   provide the details. I'm sorry. This time it isn't  good enough. I want to verify trust and verify how   the money will be spent, where the buildings will  be, how funding will be capped, and how oversight   will occur. I submitted my list of questions  to both city council and Witchaw Ford forward   last night at the advanced learning library.  Would you allow me to leave a copy here with   you today? Thank you. This is not like Omaha's  MAPS maps program which is compared to there is   no citizen input. There is no blueprint and there  are no really specified guard rails. Why are we in   such a hurry to pass this without vetting through  the budget process? Why are you in such a hurry?   Oklahoma City also was not burdened with previous  failed projects and outstanding bond debt. And   Witchah Ford is incorrect. We do have a city  sales tax. We have 13 CID districts that charge   anywhere up to 2% on items within that district.  So they're incorrect when they say we don't have   a sales tax. There are two projects hanging over  the city's head right now. The Witchaw Water Plant   project has failed because of bad management, cost  overruns, and bid rigging. The water plant is a   pending financial burden on citizens and we are  paying increased water rates to prevent it from   failing. Who knows what will happen next year  with the water plant and if it truly will open.   The second disaster is the new ball stadium with  bad management, misguided revenue estimates, and   stalled retail development. Even with increased  taxpayer incentives, we gave 11 million to EPC   to boost that hotel restaurant garage. taxpayers  could still be burdened in our general fund. The   total annual star bond payments are not even shown  in our financial statements. Only a limited amount   of the total payment shows up. So the big problem  with our local city government is you've lost   credibility. Not you all but some of you older  ones through bad past decisions of Kenmar Genesis   gyms Jim Cork's fight Fairfield in Waterwalk water  plant cost overruns 20 million in counting and the   new ballpark. This is not the time to ask for more  money. Solve our problems first. Show you have the   expertise to handle Sandy finances and then put  this on the regular budget to vet. I was asked   to serve on a bipartisan efficiency group to find  operational efficiencies and cost savings. We had   several recommendations and it's funny because  Visit Witchah's salary and expenses was one of   our targets. City manager Leighton promised to sit  down with our group before he retired. His last   day is December 31st. When are we meeting? This  was one way to save money. We had recommendations   to how to save with the budget going forward and  all of our hard work has not been answered by your   current city manager who will shortly leave  the office. And having an outside audit means   nothing. The city's audited financial statements  lied for three years stating that an internal   auditor had reviewed all projects over $50,000.  We had no internal auditor. And that was against   administrative regulations. And I brought this  up before city council numerous times. And yet   the financial statements still lied. We had an  internal auditor looking over our big contracts.   When we finally hired an internal auditor, she  found 13 million in uncollected revenues. So,   who knows what we've missed because of lack of  controls and oversight. It's too big. It's too   vague. It's too rushed. And you have to pick one  project and be successful. and you need to fix   these two looming financial deficits we have with  the water plant and the ball stadium before you   propose almost a billion dollars in spending. But  thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Thanks,   Celeste. Council member Hoheisel. Thank you,  Mayor. Uh Celeste, uh your sheet of questions.   How many questions are on there? 54. Okay, never  mind. They're in different categories. I know. I'm   going to count. I'm sorry. has to do with how  much we pay W forward. Another has to do with   um actually the audit oversight and how that's  going to work. But I Celeste, can you come to   the microphone and ask your top five questions  from that list that can be addressed? So the   first one was how much have we spent so far?  Like I only heard about this a few weeks ago,   but Witchah Ford's been working on it. We've  done publicity, you know, so I want to know   what's the staff costs, office costs, supplies.  Populace has revised their plans. I want to know   what have we spent so far or what are, you know,  what what what have we shelled out. The second one   was administrative questions about the financial  reports like I can't quora visit Witchaw. I can't   core a Susie Santos salary. You're telling  me that I'll be able to cor this detail,   but I haven't been able to whenever there's  private money involved. So, I'm asking you really,   will I get all the detail to see what's been  spent? Will I be able to corora the detail I   ask for that I don't get from visit witchaw? So,  that's number two. How will spending be capped   is a big one because we've seen the water plant  was supposed to be capped at 500 million. It's   574 million. So if you start building a building  like a convention center and you run out of money,   you hit that cap, what are you going to do then?  Leave it unfinished. So that's the third question.   How are you going to cap these expenses? Um I can  ask five. So two more. Um gosh, I have so many. Um why wasn't this proposal brought forward last year  in the budget process? That's number four, a big   one. we should be allowed to vet this. We should  see the blueprints. We should see the footprint.   It's just like the ball stadium when I spoke in  front of Jeff Lwell and basically he laughed and   said, "Oh, we'll take care of all of that."  And yet we still don't collect all of the CD   tax from retailers that we should. So that's the  fourth question. And I guess the fifth one was um the transient guest tax. I saw that was on the  agenda. You know, the hotel guest tax is a charter   ordinance that was created to take care of the  expenses with the convention center, cultural   arts, century 2, and any other arts program we  had. But I see that the hotel guest tax has been   siphoned off so that visit witchaw gets a chunk,  the t-bid people and the businesses in the t-bid   get a chunk. And we're sitting on $10 million  in the convention fund unspent. So I I worry   when we cause these taxes, they get misdirected.  money gets pulled over here and it gets diverted   for a whole bunch of other reasons than what that  tax was created for. So the transient guest tax I   see is coming up on your agenda later in the  month. That's a charter ordinance and it was   supposed to be supporting these buildings that  you are now asking for more money from. I would   go back and look at who siphoned that money away  and provide a better accounting without spent.   So that's five. Thank you Celeste. Um I know that  you have a list of questions that you were going   to provide to the clerk who then will provide it  to the council which we will then also provide   uh to f uh witchaw forward. But I would like  some answers. You can have a seat. Thank you   Celeste. And have that meeting with city manager  Leightton. City manager Leighton. Um I will have   that conversation hopefully between the two of  you regarding um the visit witchah conversation.   Um may I please just before the next speaker if  forward witchah forward can speak on the behalf   of witchah forward itself. Um there are obviously  lots of questions. We've been hearing already so   far 21 people um and a lot of unanswered questions  and we understand we're hearing a lot of feedback   uh during this public comment section.  Can you address some of the concerns that   um the last speaker had or even other speakers um  since this moment in time? Uh yeah, certainly we   can address um Witchaw Ford is a is an independent  nonprofit um organization that has not received   any compensation from the city as it relates to  the operations that we've been enacting to um   we're independent citizen um and and community  and business coalition and so we have not been   uh commissioned um to do any work on behalf of  the city nor the city paid us for any work that   we're doing so far. Strictly volunteer. Um, as  it relates to some of the concerns, um, you know,   I I would venture to say we walked in with really  similar concerns. Uh, the time frame is fast. Um,   and, uh, and and ideally we'd have, uh, a lengthy  amount of time to to discuss and vet and continue   the conversation. Um that said, um when we  looked at uh what was in front of us, immediately   in front of us, I think one of our primary  concerns was that we have challenges starting   in the next fiscal year, uh as it relates to the  incurrence of debt to pay for the first responders   uh and ensuring that uh Second Light and other  homeless related services are being paid for and   and and um there's budget allocations for those  resources. um and that the continued concern of of   uh the citizens it relates to property tax uh  rising as it relates to the ongoing city expenses   um and then the impending budget deficits you  mentioned already 2027 2028 and it progressively   gets more challenging as the years go on um that  we felt like uh uh addressing this immediately   um in a March election would give the council  enough flexibility to then u be able to apply uh   those resources the next fiscal year and begin  to make adjustments to serve the citizens of   Witchaw. Um as it relates to the specificity  um uh it's a heavy reliance on the citizen   oversight committee in those subcommittees. We  recognize there are experts in these areas that   have intimate knowledge, expertise and insight  that will be offered to a process that will allow   the programs and and and projects to be shaped  in a way that best represents the needs of the   city. And so that system oversight committee  and the subcommittees associated with them   would then bring those proposals with expert  analysis and coordination with city employees   to the city council to ultimately be approved.  But nothing goes through without that citizen   oversight committee making a recommendation and  ultimately the approval of city council. And   ultimately when we look at the uh audit that will  be conducted, I think we believe there's enough   layers of accountability um in the audit  oversight, subcommittees, city employees, and   ultimately the um vote of the city council that  the needs of which will both be heard and be met   throughout this process. The question is actually  now for city manager Leighton. Um Celeste's   question at the very beginning was what has been  the staff cost or any city expenses uh regarding   this uh proposal? Uh mayor, the only thing that  I can recall at this point is about um a little   over $6,000 for an update of the um projections on  the benefit of a convention center project similar   to the one that's being talked about now. Um I  don't believe we've incurred any other expenses. The other uh question I have and I think  it has been alluded by multiple individuals   um who have spoken up is regarding the  time frame. Um you addressed that $150,000   is available out of is it your budget, the  city manager's budget. Can you address that?   Um I know that this would be a special  election. Therefore, it would require   um Cedra County Election Office to gather  within the next 90 days. Is that is that   correct? Is the deadline specifically next week?  Yes. Um the council needs to submit some final   um ballot question to the uh election office  by I believe by the 19th. So the council   would need to have its second reading by the  16th. And can you again address the $150,000   Yes, mayor. Um, city manager's budget uh for  2026 has a contingency built into it of about   $288,000 if I remember correctly. And that is for  unexpected um expenses during the fiscal year for   uh special initiatives for special projects for  council requested projects that had not been   um anticipated when we put the budget together.  Some years we don't use any of that. Uh but   in this case, what I'm recommending is 150,000  would go from that contingency for the election.   Council member Johnson. Thanks, Mayor. Um  Bob or Mark, I I learned something new,   so I just wanted to clarify. The previous speaker  mentioned that we do have a citywide sales tax. Is   that true? I know we have CIDs, but that's not a  citywide sales tax, is it? No, it is not. We uh we   participate with the county's uh sales tax. Okay.  So that'd be a countywide sales tax then kind of   what you alluded to earlier, but we don't have a  1% citywide sales tax. We do not. Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor Woo and council members.  Thank you for the opportunity to to speak today.   Um my name is Victor Ojle and I live in Witchah  um district 2. Um, I'm a young professional and   this is my second time living in Witchaw  for a total of nine years. Uh, and um,   this is the longest tenure I've had in any city  other than my hometown of Ottawa, Kansas. Um,   I bought a house last year as a way to say I'm  committed to building a life and a family here.   Um, so, uh, when I say that, I I know what it  means to pay property taxes, and I also know   the responsibility of what it means to be a good  neighbor and to look for, um, look after those,   um, you live near and help uplift the quality of  life of your own neighborhood. Um, I've served at   schools, on boards, um, in community outreach  efforts around the city. I volunteer my time   to help youth every day through mentoring and my  hope is that our community and our leaders think   of how our decisions impact the next generation.  This is a good plan. While it may seem fast, I   believe the time is now. The projects in the plan  reflect the programs and initiatives that resonate   with Witchans and it does a very important thing  in establishing oversight committee that will   work in collaboration with you, our elected  leaders. You have heard today from citizens,   community leaders, and representatives from  first responders, performing arts, homelessness,   and other areas today. Their help will ensure that  the projects in this plan supports uh what makes   a lasting impact and helps you, our leaders. Some  might say they want to see specifics of the plan,   and this excludes other topics widgets  care about. Yes. While this plan identifies   public safety and homelessness and property  taxes and convention and other key areas,   I believe this is not an or, it's an and because  it supplements the city's budget and work that   must continue in parallel. This is a plan offering  a solution to provide sustainable solutions to   um help our city continue to tackle the most  important issues that matter to our people.   We must do this together and we must ask today  to support by putting this to our citizens to   continue to the conversation to make a plan make  this plan better before voting to fully implement.   So we still have room which forward's intent is to  be humble and not to be the experts and they have   done the work to put forward a plan something  that we haven't seen and builds on other ideas   that you've had before as council members. They're  creating the conditions for us to work together as   a community to shape the plan. Thank you, council,  for your leadership. Your work is not easy,   but I believe each of you shares a heart for our  community and our city. Thank you for considering   this plan and helping to commit to allowing our  city determine how we move our city forward. Good morning or good afternoon, mayor and council.  I'm John Axtell. I'm from the northwest part of   Witchah in Council Member Johnston's district  and homeowners and business owners in this city   have already been punished by huge property tax  hikes over the last several years. And frankly,   we feel that we've already offered, so to  speak, our pound of flesh to the increased   spending appetite of city council. And while  the property tax provision in this plan might   be considered to address the property tax issue,  it really doesn't address the problem. That way   of dealing with this is just one way of robbing  from Peter to pay Paul, so to speak. It just moves   the tax from property tax to a sales tax. And  it effectively doubles the current tax on food   in this area being paid by the homeless. That'll  go from 1% to 2% tax on food. The problem is not   just taxes. That's the symptom. The symptom is  taxes. The problem is your appetite for spending.   And we've seen how this appetite has manifest  itself in some of the ridiculous projects.   Actually, the $600,000 plus that was recently  spent on installing what I would consider to   be two glorified permanent portaotties in city  parks. That's an outrageous expense. That's the   cost of two homes in nice neighborhoods  in Witchah. Three-bedroom, two baths,   twocar homes in very respectable neighborhoods in  Witchah. That was spent on permanent portaotties. The problem again is the spending. Taxes are the  symptom. And the recent installation of parking   meters, which is in effect a kind of tax, is I  believe showing right now that additional taxes   can backfire. Now, I haven't vetted this for  myself, but I saw a respected friend of mine   post that this person had gone to one of the  restaurants downtown, saw a parking meter in   front, parked away from the meters, walked to  the restaurant, and then suddenly realized, well,   there's almost no business here in a restaurant  that has typically been packed on that day at that   time. And they remarked that the venue across the  street has closed. And this is where the parking   meters have been newly located. So taxes can  actually result in driving people away and driving   businesses out of a particular jurisdiction. And  so one of the questions I asked last night at the   meeting was how do you know that this additional  increment in taxes will not have that particular   effect of actually driving customers away from  Witchah and driving businesses out of town. The problem is the spending. That's what needs to  be addressed. Moving taxes around doesn't address   the problem of spending. So, I urge you to vote  against putting this project on the ballot next   spring. Thank you for your time. Council member  Hoisel, thank you, Mayor. Um, I appreciate you   coming up and sharing. I would push back a  little on the glorified portaotties. they they   do have water lines and sewer lines. So, that's  a little more unique than the portaotties. Um,   but let me assure you that the vast majority of  the spending increases that we've had over the   last four years, at least since I've been  on council, has been uh raising personnel,   giving employees raises in order to actually  back fill. When I first got on council,   we were over a 100 police officers short. And a  big part of that is simply because our wages were   not keeping up with the rest of the state as far  as that goes. Uh same thing with fire personnel.   Um they did get a pretty big bump in raises. Uh  but again that was just to catch them up to what   we are averaging out along the I35 corridor and  with the rest of the state. That's most of the   increases that we've had over the past four years.  And that's something I don't know that we can even   fight back because if you keep the wages low,  you're just going to have openings continuing.   And I that's not something I want to play with,  especially when it comes to public safety. Well,   we could debate about the portaotties. $190,000  was for the purchase price of those units coming   from a company in Portland and being transported  all the way across the country. and the remainder   of the 100,000 plus I believe it was on the  order of 130 140,000 was for installation   but the point is that that is the cost of a  reasonably nice three-bedroom two bath twocar   garage home in Witchah Kansas that's what you're  competing price to price against you're telling   people in this city that that's the value that  we got out of two glorified portaotties that are   permanent now being installed in those parks.  That's the value proposition we're comparing. Thank you, John. Thank you. I'll just ask the  question to the city manager. Um the comment   was about an appetite for spending being the  problem. Can you address the rising costs for   salaries and benefits for the core services of  local government? I think we touched on that   when you'd asked a question earlier about  the what's been contributing to our budget   um and our expenses over the last several years  and going into the future. And that and I think   uh council member Hullheisle alluded to it as  well. Um we have um um we had a significant issue   especially in the police department regarding the  competitiveness competitiveness of our salaries,   the inability to retain um our uh department  employees. We were underst staffed and his   number is correct. At one point we were probably a  hundred officers short of our authorized strength.   Uh we've been able to uh increase our salaries  over time to make them competitive. Uh we have   done the same thing on the in the fire department.  We just the council approved a uh agreement with   SEIU. Um and SEIU represents a lot of our  field staff in public works and in parks and   uh we are also trying to become more competitive  in that regard so that we don't have constant   turnover of those employees. Those are our as you  know over 70% of our budget goes for just police,   fire and public works. So um we take it  seriously in terms of paying fair wages   uh but most importantly to be competitive so that  we can maintain a a good working a good workforce. Can you also maybe it's a mark  question. Can you address how   much of the budget is actually  property taxes versus other funds? Uh, yes, mayor. Of the general fund, property  taxes reflect somewhere around 36% of our revenue   stream into the general fund. I actually have the  numbers, so I'm going to utilize these numbers.   In 2025, a total of $164 million was collected  in property taxes. And if I remember correctly   from earlier this morning when I talked about the  police budget itself, um that number, I apologize,   but I want to be accurate. So the police budget is  $142.6 million. And I just mentioned that in 2025,   the total amount in property taxes collected  was 164. So that doesn't even co It covers a   portion of it, but then we still have fire and  public works that are not covered through just   the property taxes. Can you tell me how that  is covered then? How are core services, which   I consider core services, police, fire, public  works, your streets, water, sewer, uh storm water.   Can can you address how it's covered because  property taxes does not cover it? Yeah. Yes,   ma'am. All of those are funded out of our general  fund and property tax is our largest revenue   stream into the general fund as you pointed out.  Uh but we do have other revenue streams like our   portion of the countywide sales tax and franchise  fees. I will tell you this though to your point   uh we look at the revenues that departments  generate to determine their net uh general   fund cost and typically police and fire don't  generate very many department specific revenues.   So to your point, that is in fact where most of  our property tax dollars go is public safety. Thank you very much. We'll  continue with public comment. Afternoon, Mayor Woo and council. U my name  is Corey Swagger, 7213 Chelsea Street. Uh   represented uh for so many years from uh the Becky  Tuttle. Thank you so much. The fighting second.   Um um I know that uh I really have appreciate that  you open this up um to the public so much. I know   that um you don't get a lot of happy faces up here  and you have to deal with the pitchforks. Well,   you don't have to deal with the pitchforks. That's  why we got the scanners out there, right? Um but   anyhow um um I went to uh last night I went to  Witchaw Forward's presentation you know and I had   heard beforehand about you know the possibility of  maybe $10 million um a year um maybe coming out of   that fund to help with the affordable housing. Um  but then I see these uh um figures u uh you know   the $150 million $125 million in a segregated  account to permanently fund the MAC agency. You   know that's that's good because you you need a  stream to build and keep building um going on   there. Uh 5 million for program development and  then uh 20 million in capital improvements and   investments focused on housing. That's a a far cry  and in reality is u probably going to be less than   that. Um um I don't want to go into the weeds with  that too much. I mean there uh at the meeting last   night though there was a lot of uh public outcry.  There was over 100 people there. I know that   Representative Hoheisel and I believe uh u repres  excuse me Councilman Glascock was there as well.   Um um people um had there was a a general theme  of distrust and and I know that you don't want to   have that. And um I want to hearken back to um um  how this um um public comments opened up um with   uh with Faith and uh and Janice saying that there  is no reason to hurry this on to um to the March   um ballot. I mean $150,000 doesn't sound like  much. It's still 15% of a million dollars. And   um for a measure that what I'm gathering just from  the limited u um exposure last night would fail.   Um, I I don't understand why you would want  to spend money and time um um on something   that would fail when you could spend more time  building up momentum, getting the word out more   um a better understanding of what u um this this  could be. And I also was concerned more even more   today coming up here when uh um Councilman Hohisel  brought up the part about um um food being taxed   and that and then and then we find out that  the the state makes it so we can't exempt that   and it's going to be complicated if we want to do  something about that. As others have said before,   this is it's it's very regressive tax and the  people that are already hitting getting hit hard   that can't afford their um housing um are going  to be paying this tax um um on you know on vital   services and and so what just to address the point  that was brought up earlier that Celeste brought   up about um um taxes the CIS so yeah that's in  limited pockets of the city um that's going on,   but that's still this 1% would be on top of  that. So there would be all that and um the   previous gentleman's um notion about doubling  the tax on food um that would be a reality. So,   I urge you um to please um not try to push this  through and try to get this in March and consider   um taking a longer approach to um to get  it better developed and to so that the   uh um the community also has input and has  faith in the process because in the long haul   um we all want to be able to trust each other and  work together. Isn't that what it's all about?   So, um again, thank you for your  service and um please don't rush this. Hello, Mayor, council members. My name is Richard  Patterson, uh 8:15 South Emporia, um and I'm with   the Alliance of Overlook Neighbors. Uh we're an  advoc advocacy group for homeless and I want to   talk today about what it really means to invest in  ending homelessness and why Witchaw needs to make   that investment in creating in the creation of new  affordable housing. For six years I lived on the   streets. Every day was chaos. You don't know where  your next meal or your next place of rest will be.   And people will say, "Why don't you get just get  a job?" The truth is, the majority of us wanted   to work, but nobody wants to hire you when you're  homeless. I did some day labor, but it's hard to   save for first and last month's rent when you're  living handtomouth. And it's even harder when your   belongings are stolen at night. And people think  being homeless means doing nothing. But it's a 247   job just trying to survive. There's nothing lazy  about it. That's why housing first matters. You   can't fix your life when you're living in chaos.  You can tell someone a thousand times to get help,   but until they're ready, and until there's housing  available when they are ready, nothing changes.   For me, it started when I hit rock bottom and  I turned myself in on a warrant and I ended   up in mental health court. And that's how I got  connected to Comare and my case manager who was   a big jolly guy with a good heart who truly wanted  me to be housed. He got me into the Union Rescue   Mission and from there I worked on finding  housing. But even with help, it took months.   There were delays, records to fix, IDs to track  down. If I could have gone from a tent to a home,   I would have. And we need the one-stop shop for  housing placement, which Second Light will be,   where people can get help navigating all of this.  And we need more investment in actual units, not   just vouchers. A voucher means nothing if there's  nowhere to use it. When I finally got a place,   I moved in with nothing but a roll of toilet  paper and a cup to drink out of. It didn't feel   like much at first, but after years of living in  chaos, having a door that locked and a roof over   my head gave me the space to think again. That's  what housing does. It gives you room to breathe,   to plan, to dream. From there, I could focus on my  mental health, on building community, on helping   others through the same journey. We talk a lot  about shelters and services, and yes, those are   important, but the foundation of recovery is  housing. Housing is what makes all the other   help work. I just asked it if we're going to spend  the money, let's spend it on housing. Thank you. [Applause] Good afternoon, mayor. Good afternoon, council  members. My name is Steve Dixon. I reside in   district two and also the board chair for Macboard  Inc. also known as Second Light. Here today just   to talk about and bring up some things that have,  you know, as you know, you've been well aware,   the city's been exceptionally generous in  funding Second Light operationally. We've been   very transparent with where those ARPA funds  have gone and how those ARPA funds are being   spent. We've talked about our budget. The budget  will run through the end of October of next year.   At that point in time, you know, we will be  actively as a board seeking public funding,   but also private dollars, uh, philanthropic  dollars, you name it, we start that process.   We've been engaged in that process currently  ongoing. However, there is great concern.   This budget is large. This budget to take care of  people, to serve the roughly 200 to 300 people we   are seeing on a nightly basis is roughly about  four to$4.5 million dollars a year. Now, as we   talk a little bit about what's going on at Second  Light, all of us understand that there's an active   construction site, right? This project started  uh back last November, has been running now for   a year. It's been the first time that we've had a  yearround full boore shelter, low barrier shelter   in the city of Witchah ever. And we've done it  for a year. So, thank you for that. Thank you   for the opportunity to provide that service to  the people who have utilized the service. But   what we're seeing and what we see going forward  is, you know, Second Light is the front door,   right? Previous speaker talked about how do we,  you know, you have to get off the street, you have   to find rest, but you have to find a way. And so  what Second Light is getting ready to start doing,   we'll be bringing online three full-time housing  navigators to start working with the guests within   the building. Those folks will start either  at the end of this month or the 1 of January.   We are also working with Comare, SAC, and Mental  Health America. We will have 10 people working in   the mental health space 40 hours a week, five  days. So, five days a week, 40 hours a week,   opening up time and space for persons who are  needing help with mental health to get the help   and the care that they need in the space where  they are currently residing. They don't have to   go to appointments. They can get that care right  in the building where it exists. As the rest of   the building comes online, hopefully by January,  February time frame, additional services will be   wrapping around those guests in the building and  continuing to provide a way for people to identify   and overcome the hurdles they have towards getting  into housing. Our mission, our goal is not to be a   permanent destination for people. It is to be a  place to come in off the street, come in out of   the cold, come in out of the heat with be treated  with dignity, be treated with respect, and then   find a way and a path towards housing by helping  to overcome hurdles by providing services directly   within the building where they reside. So again,  funding is what it is. We understand that. We   understand what we look at every day, every night  when I go to bed. That's the one thing I think   about is where are we going to get the money? The  money is important. Um, we also understand we're   just part of the homeless ecosystem, right? We  understand that we do not need to suck up every   dollar because there are other pieces of this  puzzle, whether it's rapid rehousing, permanent   housing or transitional housing, permanent  supportive housing, and eventually um fullbore   rent rental assistance housing. So again, the  ecosystem for homelessness and homeless prevention   is large. It is working in a very collaborative  manner. Even though we still have hiccups, we   still have warts, we are working through those. We  are working collaboratively together with multiple   partners already within the space and we'll be  adding additional partners as we go forward. Steve, just one more question. I asked this  question earlier and you made mention of the   operating costs. um roughly four to four and a  half million dollars to operate annually and right   now you have funds up until October of 2026. What  will happen if you don't get any funds? I don't   think failure is an option, mayor. Uh so we are  going to find those funds. Um but unfortunately,   I mean reality is reality. If the dollars  are not there and we can't pay staff,   the building would have to close. Now, I don't  think that's likelihood. I don't think that is   but it's going to be hard work and you know as the  board we can have the option of either working to   raise funds in a tight environment or we can  go and work on programming and enhancing guest   experience within the building really building a  world worldass facility where people from other   cities come to visit witchaw to see how we  are working with our unhoused neighbors. Um   but yeah reality is reality when the dollars run  out the dollars are gone. Council member Ballard Sorry, I didn't know you had that. Thank you  again, Steve. But I appreciate you mentioned   just really quickly um the winter shelter is  happening right now, which means there is a   247 shelter for individuals facing homelessness.  You're not turning away people. If um obviously   between now and what was the date of when winter  shelter will end? And second light continues as   shelter plus tentatively March 15th. Again, that  will be somewhat dependent upon whether if we're   still experiencing cold nights or winter type  precipitation will stay open later if we have   to. And I'm assuming since I'm on the board  with council member Ballard, both of us know   that there's a dire need. Um what is your plea to  this community when it comes to Second Light to   understand that this is a community-based issue?  This is not just a government issue. This is not   just a philanthropic issue. This is an issue for  our entire community that if we want to solve   this and get to functional zero homelessness, we  understand that there will always be people that   are homeless in our community. But to in order  to reach a point to where there are fewer people   entering homelessness than are exiting out into  permanent housing, we have to work together as a   community. Um, end of story, end of sentence. That  requires business. That requires philanthropy.   It requires our nonprofit partners and our  government partners. All of us working together,   pulling the rope together with a common goal again  of reaching functional zero homelessness and doing   that by treating people with again dignity,  care, and respect and not as a problem to be   solved. Vice Mayor Johnston. Thank you, Mayor  Steve. I want to just say thank you. I know   you've got a family. I know you've got a wife. I  know you've got a business. and you put up in a   lot of time on this. So, just sincerely thank you  very much. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you. I'm Darwin Eids. I live at 1508 North Ridge  Street in District 2 and I'm here to advocate for   functional zero. Three years ago, uh, the city of  Witchah was bringing in lots of experts into town   and people were doing research on how does a city  get to functional zero. And Witchah is a unique   place. We are unique and unto ourselves and what  all the research and the data shows that Witchah   is the size of town that can actually get their  arms around the homeless situation and fix it.   And uh I noticed that some of the council members  in Second Light uh referring to the MAC Second   Light is not a multi- agency center. Uh where we  get to functional zero is we had a had plans for a   campus. We had plans for low barrier entry. We had  plans to build out the whole elementary school,   build 250 units to be able to have all the uh uh  services on campus uh from uh the library to job   counseling to addiction counseling to alcohol  counseling to uh uh budgeting and it was to   get people up and out of homelessness. Uh second  light is uh shelter plus the number of beds they   have is around 170 give or take uh and uh 60 I  don't know the accurate numbers it's but but it's   uh uh 60 beds maybe for women and the rest are for  women for men and they call the the homeless that   they're going to treat guests and they name  uh they say that uh it is a light touch. So   the people going into the shelter as guests with a  light touch means they don't have serious problems   and uh there isn't help there and shelter for  people that have serious mental health problems   uh that have serious addiction problems uh that  have the kind of problems that it was originally   designed and envisioned to do. And so, uh, Witchah  Forward has done a good job of saying, uh, 77% of   the people in Witchah want us to address and fix  this issue. And how many businesses wouldn't like   to come into town? And how many businesses could  you attract to locate and relocate into Witchah if   they had a city that actually fixed the homeless  problem and is addressing it and affordable   housing? And so um Witchah Forward didn't seem  to have this the kind of background in how you   can get to functional zero and how you can pay for  it. Uh but they probably worked with Second Light   to say we don't have any money in 2026 and how are  we going to fund this? And so they came up with a   silo of money of $225 million uh uh to be uh put  into an endowment fund that will over time get   there in seven years. And you have the interest  then to be able to afford ongoing after seven   years probably second light as it is today. that  doesn't start to get us to go uh to uh functional   zero. And I think, and I don't have the numbers,  but if you have time to consider it, uh, $70   million or $80 million in seven years is probably  enough money to build out the infrastructure and   provide all that space and the 250 units and the  dog kennels for their pets and all the kinds of   things we talked about that you you didn't have  that $70 million then, but you have that now if   this if this passes and $10,000 every year for  seven years to make a good dent into housing,   affordable housing, into the affordable housing  fund. Uh it wasn't being considered because you   didn't have that money consider it. I hope you  now uh have enough time to consider that that   money could be used as a uh differently than the  way that Witchah Forward has proposed. Thank you.   City manager is not there, but I believe that  Sally was here at one point. I wanted to maybe   city manager. Um, can you address the vision  for Second Light, the multi- agency center,   and there is, I believe, a groundbreaking coming  up regarding affordable housing on the campus.   Uh yes, mayor. Um the third phase uh or the  third piece of the second light concept,   there is a groundbreaking schedule for tomorrow  afternoon. Um it's to provide for um 75 units   of supportive housing. Wait, is it 50 or so? 50  50 units of supportive housing and 25 units of   um non- congregate shelter space. And that  would be the next step of getting people   uh transitional transitional housing uh to  move them from a homeless situation into   uh protective housing. Thank you. We'll  continue. Mayor and city councilman,   thank you for listening to us today.  Congratulations on your retirement. I didn't come with any notes, anything on a  phone. I was going to sit over there and just   be quiet as what I promised my wife I would do.  Um, but I've got this slow burn in my stomach and   it's been growing and growing. So, I want to say  something. Um, I worked for Cardio for 35 years   and retired from there. And I knew probably the  last 10 years of my career that when I retired,   I was going to find a nonprofit that I could  work with to give back to the community. And it   took me two years to find that nonprofit, Justice  Together. And I wish these seats were as full as   they were five hours ago because it's real easy  to stand in line for 20 minutes and then talk   to you guys and complain and not do anything but  complain. We have been studying affordable housing   for well over a year now. We got major changes  done in the mental health areas in this town   three years ago. So we can we can make things  happen. I do have a hidden agenda today and my   hidden agenda today is laying on the streets  outside. They're down at the MAC with First   Light for the young lady that sat here and spoke  about her two kids and so many other 2,000 kids   that don't have a home. There are statistics of  what the rest of their life is going to be like.   So that's who I'm that's my hidden agenda  and that's who I'm advocating for today. That's all these guys are doing is advocating  for a chance. All they're asking you to do is   vote. Vote to give them a chance. Yes, there  are many things in this that I question. I'm   in JV Johnston's uh district and him and  I sent emails back and forth last week,   rather long ones, and I appreciate  you taking the time to do that. But   um they still have 10 weeks to communicate to  this community what their plans are going to be.   And I think we owe it to them to have those  10 weeks because we're going to have people   laying on the streets for longer than 10 weeks  dying because we don't take care of them. So that's my hidden agenda today. Give  these guys a chance. It's all they're   asking for. I don't even know if I'm for it  or against it yet. But we worked for over a   year on affordable housing and at a steering  committee meeting after our Nehemiah session,   I brought up, let's get a sales tax for the city.  They don't have one. First words out of some of   the mouths was, well, that's regressive, Allan.  We can't do that. My response back to them was,   "Yes, we can." Because you think about all the  people that come into this town, youth soccer,   youth basketball, youth baseball, youth softball.  Those people have to stay somewhere. You know,   they've mentioned people coming in for  concerts and other things that we have   been putting on here in this city. I said,  "Let them pay to make our people safe." And that's all I'm going to ask for you guys  today to do is give these guys a chance. Let   the let the citizens decide in May or  in March. But that's all we're going to   do today is a chance. And yes, I want to  have some money come out of this that we   have requested for affordable housing because  we've studied and we've worked with some of the   city councilmen already on this. We can make a  difference with 10,000 or $10 million. Thanks. Thank you, Al. Thank you, Alan, for speaking  um and being called to speak. I I wanted to   address again the ballot item includes  homelessness and housing services. Is   that accurate? Law related services for people  experiencing homelessness. Thank you very much. Mayor and city council people, I'm thankful to  be here today. My name is Nancy Denell. I live   in Maggie Ballard's district, six, but I raised  my two sons in my cohisel's district. And why I'm   here today is because I owned a home in Mike's  district, but I lived around a lot of people who   did not. I know what it's like to struggle. I was  a single mother during that time. I saw people who   came and went. I worked with people who came and  went with housing. I saw how hard it was for them.   I worked with a lot of immigrants to this country  out at Sherwin Williams paint factory in Andover,   Kansas. I helped them become citizens. And I know  what it's like for people to struggle without   affordable housing. I know how hard it is when  we don't have housing that they can afford good,   safe, stable housing. I'm asking you  to please consider part of that money   that this tax could afford, 10 million of it  annually for affordable housing. If you don't,   those that are struggling already, those that are  coming out of housing at the MAC at Second Light   are going to continue to fall back into house  into homelessness. They're going to continue   to couch surf. They're going to continue  to be families that are going to live at   Family Promise. I know because I'm a volunteer  there. I volunteer over at Riverside Christian   Church and for two weeks in a row we had five  families. Five families. These are part of the   over 2,000 school children in Witchah that  don't have a safe, stable place to live. We met last May. Maggie Ballard, Mike Hohisel,  and Becky Tuttle committed to that $10 million by   fiscal June 2026. I'm asking you to please honor  your commitment. This is the way we help families   in Witchah, Kansas, live stable lives. I'm all  for all the things that make the city creative   and blooming. I love art and music. If you know  me very well, you know those are things I dig,   too. But if we have people laying in the streets  dying, and it does happen. All you have to do is   look on the map and look at where the police  and fire are going to rescue people. It's not   fun to go to those things and it will happen  if we don't take action and help the least   of us. I ask you to remember those things when  we put this ballot before our city. Thank you. I guess I'm picking up the rear here. I don't  know. Um, Mayor Woo, members of the city council,   good afternoon. My name is Greg Kite. I'm a  local attorney and president of the Historic   Preservation Alliance of Witchah and Cedric  County. I'm the treasure of the Save Century   2 committee. My law office address is 129 East  2nd Street North. I want to thank you for the   opportunity of sharing some thoughts with you.  After reading the recent articles concerning   the 1% sales tax, I was struck by the total and  complete lack of tangible facts, data, and studies   to support the $850 million proposal by Witchah  Ford relating to and with respect to Century   2 and a new performing arts building. There is  absolutely no detailed description as to what is   envisioned for each of these two categories,  only vague generalities. The estimated costs   resemble pie in the sky figures that have simply  been rounded off to the nearest million dollars.   There was nothing to suggest, let alone detail  the calculation of any of these values or numbers.   The suggesting wording of the ballot question is  equally absent any subsidy description. Voters   are left to try to imagine the actual work  to be done. One of the three proponents of   Witchah Forward is John Rolf who I believe spoke  earlier today who not coincidentally was co-chair   of the Greater Witchah Partnership and a member  of the Riverfront Legacy Master Plan Committee.   In describing the riverfront plan, Sedric  County's representative on the committee,   former commissioner Michael O'Donnell stated,  and I quote, "It is a farce designed mainly   to drum up support for tearing down Century  2 and replacing it with more than$1 billion   dollar in new public and private development. The  Witchah Eagle, December the 8th, 2019. Recently,   I attended the open house sponsored by  downtown Witchah, which was held at its   Douglas Street offices. Post-it notes were  provided to attendees for placement of ideas   on display tables and picture boards. I saw  absolutely no suggestions that Witchans needed   or wanted a new performing arts center. What  I did see was the following on post-it notes,   and I will quote these. Number one, don't need  a new performing arts building. Century 2 can   handle everything, including Hamilton. Number  two, Century 2 can be upgraded for 10 cents   on the dollar compared to a new performing  arts building. Century 2 is the most iconic   building in Witchah and serves as its landmark.  The Central Library, which is a grand building,   should be used for displays and exhibits. Earlier  today, Witchah Ford put forth some polling numbers   which I thought were interesting and I just want  to touch on that very very quickly. With respect   to updating Century 2, I saw an approval of 59%.  Correct me if I'm wrong. I saw no percentages that   were provided by poll numbers for building a  new performing arts center. Where was that? Let's think about some of the prior city  projects. The track record that we have,   Equity Bank Ballpark, Riverfront Stadium is a  potential star bonds disaster of $43 million.   The water treatment plant is $20 million over  budget and doesn't even function. According to the   newspaper article November the 30th, 2025, quote,  "Former mayor Jeff Longwell steered the contract   to the Witchah Water Partners in 2019 after the  city's selection committee voted unanimously to   award the contract to Jacob's Engineering." And  of course, Downtown Waterwalk never materialized. I'd like to conclude by reading a um a review  that was on the Century 2 Performing Arts   website. We never hear anything from the ASM  Global who operate that so effectively. It it   it's too bad they're not asked to come up and  and discuss how successful Century 2 is, but I   want to read this very very quickly. I know I'm  running out of time. Love this place. Witchah's   performing arts and symphony are spectacular.  I know there's a lot of talk around this place,   but I love it. It's such a unique venue that has  history and character. When I fly over the city,   it's the building that makes me recognize I'm  home. I've lived in cities all over this country   with buildings that outdate Century 2 by more than  a century. I get the struggle with modernization,   but that's exactly the point of in innovation,  to overcome obstacles. Who knows what challenges   the future will bring? When that time comes,  are we going to tear other buildings down?   The controversy over this is really shocking  to me because I'd like to think of my home   city as forwardthinking and innovative.  Getting help from those who've overcome   similar challenges isn't a bad thing.  It's a smart thing. Thank you very much. Mayor and City Council, Vince Hancock. I'm in  Dalton's district. I want to thank the two of   you who were able to come to my neighborhood last  night and uh hear directly from the public. And   I also want to reiterate for those in the room  and those online that may not understand, our   city council functions in two ways. You're both  our executive branch and our legislative branch.   And most of us remember from government class, the  most important function of the legislative branch   is the power of the purse. Couple of things. Uh  first of all, I do appreciate each and every one   of you, even the one who stepped out, that you  do view this as a public service. You are not   our rulers. You do not rule over us. You find  ways of serving your neighbors. I appreciate   each and every one of you for that. But what I  can't stand with this proposal is that it is a   revitalization of the riversfront legacy master  plan by putting lipstick on a pig. They want to   bring this back and they want control over it. I  didn't elect anybody in Witchah forward to spend   my tax dollars. I elected you, each and every one  of you. And I know two of you in particular who   read every single page of that proposed budget.  And it was a big budget, but every year you go   through that budgeting process to help us, our  community, figure out where are our needs and how   do we one of the toughest thing in the legislature  is to say, I've got this much need and this much   cash. How do I make that cash work to serve  our communities? We already have a process to   do that. And if you vote for this as proposed,  you're giving away your authority to spend my   tax dollars to an unaccountable organization.  An organization which by the way celebrates   their birthday tomorrow. According to the state of  Kansas, they turn one month old tomorrow. There's   been discussions earlier speakers talked about  how we had robust discussion over the years.   I'm going to call that what that is on the farm.  We would call that a bovine secretion. It's not   true. And that's evidenced by the people who came  to my neighborhood last night. That room was so   full the director of libraries had to ask people  to leave because it was unsafe for the number of   people that were in there. That is not evidence  of robust community discussion. And for those of   you who attended, you know that the overwhelming  sentiment was, "How's this come out of nowhere?"   the the organization was chartered on November  10th. Their website went up on the 14th and I   asked one of their board members last night. I  said, "Hey, can I get a copy of that presentation?   Will it be available on your website? How  about your stats and everything?" They said,   "No, it's not available." That speaks towards  their openness and their transparency or lack   thereof. Uh don't get me wrong, I do agree and  Dalton will back me on this easily. We are losing   out on sales tax. It's simple math. Those most of  you who've had econ classes and marketing classes,   you know that when we go to Oklahoma City, we're  helping fund some of their stuff. 20 25%. It's   the 8020 rule. And we do need to capture that.  To every one of you, you know what has to happen   before we can take a half percent or 1% from  our citizens. We have to fix the state first.   We can't do that to our impoverished citizens  to say, "Hi, you're paying double on your food."   Before this can even be a discussion, we have  to fix that at the state level. I will drive   the bus going up there. We need to get this fixed  in Topeka before we can do that to our neighbors.   That's number one. Number two, it is too fast. If  this has been a robust discussion for a long time,   then why was there so many people wanting to  voice their opinions last night? That's that's   not honest. It's not academically honest. I will  say this to my neighbors. I'm not going to lie to   them. I'm not going to use marketing speak to call  this, and I quote, an alternative revenue source.   It's not an altern. It's a tax. And that will mean  taxes will go up. But if the ability to choose how   those tax dollars are spent resides with the body  that I elected to do so, I can get on board with   that. if it's going to be an unelected group  who is essentially just an astroturf for the   Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Chamber of  Commerce under another name working out of a PO   box in the east part of Witchaw. We won't stand  for that and you guys know this. So, let's defer   this. I'm not saying we're go completely back  to the table, but let's have the responsibility   for spending the money being amongst elected  officials. put it into the general budget. Put   it into the CIP where it belongs. You guys should  be in charge of it. Not any unelected people with   ulterior motives. Appreciate your time. Stand  for questions. Thank you. City Manager Let Manager Leighton question is regarding the  spend of these dollars. The council would   allocate where the dollars are spent. Is  that accurate? So, is the statement that   was just said inaccurate? Yes. To be blunt, the  council uh is responsible for the collection as   ultimately responsible for the revenue that  comes in and the expenditure of that revenue.   Um and there are some uh issues or points that  have been brought up by Witchah Forward that   uh I think talk about the council's discretion  and for instance looking at affordable housing   and where the homelessness dollars go. Um but  uh your citizen oversight committees to make   sure that the spending decisions are consistent  with the ballot initiative and to provide any   guidance that you ask for. But ultimately  the council has to allocate the dollars   So the council is not taking away the power of al  the allocation of those dollars. Is that accurate?   That is correct. But I take exception with that.  The ballot initiative itself, the numbers that   are in those. Brandon pointed out earlier that  is hog tying you to those numbers that's in the   ballot initiative. None of us, none of you voted  on the numbers that are in the ballot initiative.   That's the unelected part of it. Council member  Glascott. Thank you, Vincent. We are voting on   that this afternoon and so the council will  have direction and control over what will be   on the ballot and every single expenditure. So I  encourage you to those numbers maybe they don't   uh maybe all of you don't feel that those are  the right numbers. I think you should have been   the one coming up with those numbers instead  of an unelected group. Appreciate you guys. I think I'm the last one. I'm Henry Helgerson. Um,  and I have a lot of hats on. Uh, I've been setting   conventions in this town that are our arenas  uh back in well starting in the 1950s, 1960s.   We I own the largest convention business here in  Kansas. Uh, I'm also a state legislator. I also uh   was executive director for a home a homeless comp  construction company Menanite Housing for many   years. So have an appreciation for all this. But  I'm also a state legislator. So I wanted to offer   right now. It sounds like you're going to need  some legislation introduced uh with regards to   the exemption and whether or not you can get food  out of this. I'm volunteering right now. Usually   we have a meeting at uh first part of December to  talk with you about issues that you have before.   I'm offering right now staff has uh if you take  the if you decide to go in this direction, feel   free to let us know. I can tell you it's going  to be a difficult session to get anything through   and but if this is a priority uh as of today I'm  still on the tax committee. we can introduce it   in the tax committee. Um, second point I wanted to  make was I didn't hear did the city staff make a   recommendation on this? No. Okay. Um, third last  was it last week? Last week I had breakfast with   a city council person and a county commissioner.  County Commissioner asked me and said, "You know   that that fund that we created to take care of the  expenses at Interest Arena is running out. We're   going to come before you or we're looking to come  before you and the county and get permanent money   set aside from the sales tax to take care of the  operation." That's what's in there. Now, I mention   that because we live in this community together,  the city, the county, and the school board.   And while you're putting this proposal together,  county probably has some requests and some other   proposals that are going to need to be weighed  uh in comparison and the schools are going to be   asking for another bond issue and that's going  to be difficult to try to decide what dollar   goes where. Um finally, I wanted to mention that  operating costs. You know, most of this all of   this is uh construction costs and new buildings,  etc. Well, after working on the budgets in the   state for so long, the operating costs, the  staff costs, which eat you up right now,   are going to get bigger with these expenditures.  The new facility for the conventions, it's going   to cost more labor. The new performing arts is  going to cost more labor. And let no one tell   you that they're going to break even. Convention  centers, performing arts facilities lose money.   They make money for the entire community,  but they lose money for that one entity. So,   you'll get some money back from the hotels and  the restaurants, but you're going to lose money   because you're you have to make those decisions  about funding the money upfront. I got one minute.   You know, I also was on uh Jack Dbor's, you know,  that vision witchah that we had and I proposed the   children's museum and moving across the street  many years ago. Um we have a situation where the so many needs that we have. We have to be very  clear about what we're choosing. At that time   we had peer cities. We had Omaha. We  had De Moine. We had Tulsa. We had   uh Oklahoma City. Those were our  peers that we were looking at.   If we compare ourselves now to all those cities,  I would I would believe that most everyone would   say they have far surpassed us in whatever the  decisions they've made and that we have not made. So, you know, I won't waffle on this. I'm not in  favor of this at this time because I think that   there are other decisions that have to happen  first. But I think that we need to make some   big decisions if we are going to move ahead  to the future that we need to as a community.   That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Representative  Helerson. Council member Glasco. Thank you, Mayor.   Representative, I just have one quick statement  while you're speaking. Uh the other Hohheisle,   Representative Hohisel, texted me and said that  he's currently working on language and also would   like to be a co-sponsor. So, it looks like the  bill are to be bipartisan from Wittens's. So,   um, I just wanted to share that he had  texted that he's actively working on it,   too. I think what we need  to do is get the revisers,   uh, involved first. I looked at the some  of the language you were having and maybe   somewhat difficult and yeah, it should be  bipartisan. It should be a committee bill,   but understand we have very little time up there.  And you know what? Our number one priority is property tax relief. Mhm. That's that's what  the legislature is going to be talking day one   until the end of the session. Yeah. Well, I just  want to pass it along. Thank you for being here,   Council Member Hoheisle. Thank you, Mayor. Um,  I just want to reiterate, and I don't know,   Henry, if you have, Representative, any inside  information with this, but even if they get it   done this session, since it would already be  on the ballot, it would not be retroactive. I had that same question. I don't know  if we could write it in such a way. Uh   that's why it's important to get the dra  the legislation drafted early and take it   over to the department of revenue and see  if they're going to sign off on it if Yeah,   we definitely need to get that  information solidified. Thank you,   Council Member Tuttle. Thank you. And thank  you, Representative Helgerson. Um I I was   the council member that meets with him once  a month for breakfast and it's great and I   always learn a lot and consider to be a great  me mentor. I also have been receiving texts   from legislators in Topeka saying that they're  interested in working on it and potentially see   if it could be retroactive. So it looks like a  lot of people are watching this meeting today. Good afternoon. My name is Christopher Parisho.  I'm in district 4, uh, GlassCox, uh, district. Um,   kind of as a followup to some of what's  been discussed here in the last few minutes,   um, how much would it cost for the city to  put this on the ballot in August or November? You can continue your comments and we'll have  answers. I'm just wondering why if we've already   got people interested in trying to take care  of the legislative issue to exempt groceries,   why we can't delay this for a few months, work  out some of the technical issues. If that means   maybe there's a little less revenue coming in from  one area, maybe change the plan a little bit and   extend the sales tax another year to make up for  that change in the revenue. tweak it a little bit   and make this a little bit better plan than it is.  Even the representative here from Witchaw Forward   said that he didn't care for how quickly this was  coming together. So why not just push things back   a few months. I'm assuming that if you're going  to do it for the August or or November ballots,   there's cut off dates there as well. So this  timeline that we have to do it now before the   March cut off gets extended out and then everybody  can kind of breathe, learn about what's being   proposed, have better community input than we've  had because quite frankly that has sucked. Thank   you. Thank you Chris. The question will be  to both city manager and Witchaw Forward. Um,   the question was asked, how much would it cost  if it was put on the August 2026 ballot? Mayor,   I can't answer that. Um, d exactly. We would  be uh charged by the election office, I think,   for our proportionate share of the of putting it  on a primary or general election because it it's   out of cycle for us. So, they would not normally  have be handling an issue. If I remember back to   when there was a special election on the marijuana  issue, I believe we were charged a certain   uh amount of the total election expense for  that special issue that was on a general   election ballot. Do you have an approximate  amount? I don't. Mark, do you remember what the the city was build about $59,000 for  that election on April 7th of 2015 was   our portion of that election cost? And April of  2015 was an off cycle year though, correct, Mark? Actually, there was a primary for the I'm sorry,   2019. It was a primary for our  mayor race back then, mayor. So,   it was a quoteunquote normal election and then  the the other issue was added to that election. And maybe this question is for  the city manager or someone from   elections regarding what is on the  August ballot right now and why that what is on the actual August 2026 ballot  currently. There may be others that can   remember this as well. I believe that would be  primary for county uh offices and I do believe   the constitutional amendment is on that ballot  as well. I don't know if there are any other   primary races that would be involved. Yeah,  gubernatorial should be on there, right? Um, can someone address that? Just I want to know what  will be on the August ballot that already would   council member we will not know until June 1st  of this year because that's the filing deadline.   If races don't have primary contestants,  then it's not going to go forward. So,   the answer is we don't know till June  1st of every single race that'll be on   the ballot. And then the question  will be to Witchaw Forward. Um,   multiple individuals have asked the question  about March versus August. Can that be addressed? Um and and I I think there's two two questions  in there. One is the the um why so fast and then   and then why March. Um I want to I want to just  offer up as an alternative um assumption here   that being fast and not necessarily being  without thought or intention or research.   Um I I think being fast or quick um can still  include those things and we think we have   um as far as by March um again we go back to the  the imminent expenses that are forthcoming. Um   uh in 2026 budget uh uh we have the city has  to initiate based on it current commitment to   the CIP expenditures associated with  fire and police uh investments. Um,   and we and we've already heard on multiple  occasions that that would be a 50-50 split   between current dollars and then bonded dollars to  then uh begin to initiate the interest associated   with that which would be a a use of $35 million in  just interest fees on an estimate. Additionally,   we've heard from our friends who uh run Second  Light and other ministries or organizations in   town that are addressing housing and homelessness  that the $5 million roughly the main the operating   dollars currently um run out in October 2026.  And so there's a a critical need to address those   uh uh immediately to ensure those services  both remain intact and can serve uh our most   vulnerable population in in a way that is  consistent with our values as a community. I see no further individuals who would like to  address the council. Is that correct? That's   correct. So, we will now close public comment.  I want to say thank you first and foremost to   the 33 individuals who spoke in front of the  council uh to address this very uh topic.   Um, I want to also say thank you uh to individuals  who care about these various needs in our   community from housing are unhoused to homeless  individuals seeking services at Second Light to   Century 2 that holds a special place in my heart  as I've held multiple events at that facility   um to just the future of our community.  Um, I just really appreciate that there are   concerned citizens that want to make sure that our  community is responsible and that this council is   transparent and is also listening to our community  members. And so I'm just very grateful to each and   every person who chose to spend time today uh from  morning until now 3:10 in the afternoon to speak   about the future of this community. Um I know that  I've heard those comments from our community of   whether or not people should have a say in the  future of this city. And I always want people to   be engaged, first informed, engaged, and then go  out to vote. And in this situation, um I know that   the hearts of these people are for the betterment  of our community. All of us want Witchah to get   better. Um but how we do it is probably where we  differ. And so I am so grateful that you chose to   spend time to come to city council. also send  emails to the entire council. Um, we've heard   you guys and we are trying our very best to really  adapt to what you're wanting. Do you want to have   a say in the future of Witchah? And so again,  I'm just grateful that you all chose to come   here today and say many things to not just the  council, but share your stories, especially our   individuals facing homelessness. Um, thank you for  sharing your stories and sharing your testimony. Council member Glass. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I  have a few comments. Um, and then I'll make a   motion. We can have discussion on a motion.  Um, I believe that Witchaw is at one of the   rare moments where we get to choose the future  instead of just settling in one uh by default.   And I support today's um ask because I believe  investing ourselves in safer neighborhoods,   stronger infrastructure, and the kind of spaces  and opportunities that make Witchita home. I   believe that a 1% sales tax finally relieves  the burden on Witchans and invites visitors   and people from outside of our community to  pay for things that we rely on every day by   nearly 20 to 30%. That means we can stabilize  funds for public safety. we can move forward on   projects we've talked about for decades and we can  create room for property tax relief. And I want to   say I hear concerns about trust in this body. I  too have a healthy distrust of government and I   think I've exhibited that from this bench  over the last two years that I've served   in this position. But that also can't paralyze  progress and we've been paralyzed for decades.   One of the speakers talked about specifically in  2006 that they've seen multiple pro proposals come   forward with no movement. I think that's failed  hopes and failed aspirations for Witchaw. The   last time the city passed property tax relief and  funding transformational projects, I was not born.   My parents were not even together. And my entire  life has been filled with questions about the East   Bank, about challenges we face as a city. And  I believe that we can finally show leadership   that we can cast a vision and we can give voters  the choice. And I think that's what matters the   most. If the voters come back and reject this, the  voters are making a determination for Witchita.   And I think we're empowering with them with that.  And so I believe that Witchaw's invest uh is worth   investing in. I believe that our best days ahead.  And I think this is just one step on how we can   get there together as a community. And we've had  this conversation. And I'm glad for a group that   has stepped up to push this forward to bring this  before council. And I think now it should be in   the hands of the citizens to determine whether or  not we will take a generational step forward. So   with that, and I know there's more discussion  to be had as well, I would make a motion that   the city council place the ordinance on first  reading and approve the appropriate notice of   special question election. Second motion and a  second. Uh there are multiple individuals on the   board. Council member Hoheisle. Thank you, Mayor.  Um, I got a lot of concerns with this. I do have   concerns with the timeline and the speed of this.  Um, I'm curious if the rest of my colleagues up   here on council have any of those concerns and are  thinking about possibly delaying it till August. Okay. I will have more comments later. Council  member Johnson. Thanks, Mayor. Um, I second it   because I agree with council member Glascock. More  importantly, over my time on city council, um, if   you go back to, I think it was a workshop in 2018,  I've suggested some form of additional revenue for   local government. At the time, I set a sales tax.  Um, I've also been very vocal about increasing our   meal levy, uh, which did not happen, but these are  projects that could be funded that are necessary.   have continued to say we need to invest in  ourselves and I think this gives voters an   opportunity to say they want to or they don't.  Um I believe that folks should have that right   to a vote. The investments in public safety and  the infrastructure there I think also frees up   opportunities for future council to discuss other  projects in the CIP that would be worth investing   in. And I look forward to those debates with  uh council at that time. Um this isn't perfect.   It's not everything I would want. Uh I won't get  specific, but there are some things in here that   I think could be in other spaces, but we never get  everything we want in one of these opportunities.   There'll be some things that we like and some  things that we don't like, but I think that   this is overall a really good step forward. Um  and especially when we look at convention space,   we've been talking about that for a while and we  know the challenges we face with convention space   right now. This offers an opportunity to improve  those things. that offers an opportunity to   improve public safety. Homelessness is something  we've continued to talk about and again this is an   option that was given to us to put on the ballot.  I would encourage um wittens to engage look at   witchah forward engage with those folks. Let's  have these conversations talk to us about what you   uh think is good or not in there. But if this were  to pass I would just hope for continued engagement   over the next several months. I do agree with  having one item on the ballot and it does not get   um diluted with everything else. That's why  I love our local elections. We don't have to   deal with too much of national politics. This  gives everybody an opportunity to vet this one   thing. Let's talk about that one thing and then  vote on that one thing. So that is why I second   it. That is why I'll be supportive today. And  again, I have long said we need to invest in   ourselves and this is one of those ways we can  do that. Council member Tuttle. Thank you. Um   I of course want to thank staff for your work on  this. Um I want to thank Witchaw Forward for your   effort on this and your leadership. And I again  um want to reiterate I'm being a little redundant,   but thank the community not only for being here  today, for attending last week again next Monday.   There's one more session at 5:30 p.m. at the  Advanced Learning Library. The people who've,   you know, emailed, called, texted, stopped me in  the grocery um all the ways just to to let us know   what they think. I truly appreciate it. Um, we've  done this before. We had a dedicated sales tax for   the inrust arena and it changed the core of our  city. Everything that we are loving about Witchah,   the biomed and um, all of the new growth and  development started because of interest arena and   we saw that it was successful. I was on a panel  last week and somebody asked me if they thought   this project was going to be maps one and one of  my colleague unelected in another municipality   said um maps one was interest arena. This would be  considered maps two. Um the other thing that's a   concern for me is Witchaw is not growing. We're  not growing as quickly as our peer cities. One   of the speakers mentioned that and I appreciate  it. I've had conversations with folks in Topeka,   not just legislators, but also with the Kansas  Department of Transportation, and when they're   looking where they're going to allocate their  treasure, one of their concerns is Witchah's not   growing, but other communities are. Should they  continue to put as much money in our community,   and it's just transportation. There's other  departments that feel the same way. Um,   I've said this a million times from the bench, and  I'll say it a million in one. We can't cut our way   into prosperity. We have to invest in ourselves if  we want to grow. And this is an incredibly unique   opportunity to ask the residents of our great city  what they want for the future of Witchaw. You've   got seven people here. We obviously are invested,  but this is a chance where we can say to Witchens,   what do you want to do? So again, today we're  not deciding if this is going to happen. We're   deciding if the residents of Witchaw get to vote.  and they tell us all the time even though we're a   representative Republic, they wish they had more  opportunity to be engaged and to share their   voice. So today's the opportunity to do that. Um,  one last thing, I do think that there the five   areas are are relevant to what we are hearing in  the community. The community survey tells us that   public safety is one of their top priorities.  We know that homelessness is something that we   hear about every day and have invested significant  time and treasure. We hear from the middle class   that property taxes are too high. So all of the  things that are in this I think are relevant that   our community deserves to have a voice in.  Thank you, Vice Mayor Johnston. Thank you,   Mayor. I'll re reiterate what Councilman Tuttle  said. Um I think this is a coalation of coalating   of what the community has been telling us for a  long time and I would add centritude to that also.   Um, so I I think it has been talked about for a  long time and I think there is a uh a need to fund   uh Second Light and that is is coming to a head  will be coming to head this fall. Um, personally   I would like more property tax relief. I've said  that before and I say it again and as Councilman   uh Glascock and Hohisel and Johnson tell me at  local government's about compromise. So, took me   a while to to get that message, but I'm finally  getting it. So, yeah, finally. Um, you know, Lou   Holtz has a saying which I always love. He said,  "When all is said and done, a lot more is said   than done." And I think Witchaw's been doing that  for way too long. We need to do something. So,   I will be supporting it. Council member Hoheisle.  Thank you, Mayor. Um, so next week would be second   reading. Um, is that on the agenda or is that in  consent? I think I saw it on the agenda during the   preview. Um, traditionally that would appear  on a consent agenda on second readings. Okay. I have a lot of concern here. A lot of concern.  Um, I also see this as probably going through   and being the one chance that we have at  funding homeless services, affordable housing,   and public safety, which are important to me. So,  I will be voting for it today, but I will also be   putting on the council member agenda at the end of  this meeting uh for next week um a rebate program   policy that we can vote on before second reading  because I have to make sure that we're not going   to be hitting people over the head who can't take  it. Um, also an outline for an affordable housing   board, the process that could set up for that and  whatever policy we can garner to ensure that the   property taxes are sunset at the end of the seven  years. Council member Ballard. Thank you, Mayor.   When Representative Helgerson said that he looked  at what he saw when he looked at his peer cities,   he's right when he said other peer cities  are doing lapse around us. Sometimes Witchah   feels like they say no to everything and we're  actually stunting our own growth. Is this perfect?   Absolutely not. Do I still have questions? Of  course. But I feel like we should put this on the   ballot and leave it up to the public and let them  tell us. I know we've had an opportunity where,   you know, some people have shown up today. It  9:00 on Tuesday mornings is not convenient all   the time for everybody to participate. So, I know  there's going to be lots more engagement as there   should be, but um some of the initiatives that  are listed are core initiatives that have been   ignored for for far too long. So, like I said, I  still have questions. I'll be supporting I will be   supportive of this and uh asking the public  what they think the future of Witchah looks   like. Council member Tuttle. Sorry, it's been a  long day. Um, Council Member Hull High School,   may I ask you a question? So, and I guess we'll,  you know, hash it out at the end, but the policy   is for, you said a rebate for grocery groceries or  necessities. And who will fund that? That's what   we're going to lobby for for the state. That's  what we will know. That's um since we are taking   money out of the CIP um spread around as far  as public safety goes. I think that would be a   reasonable avenue to pursue. And may I ask another  question? Yes, ma'am. Clarifying, so you are going   to bring it up. So the a policy will be drafted  by next week. Yep. Okay. And we'll have a chance   to provide input on what necessities are. Yep.  Okay. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying. Okay.   And just another clarification, if that's not  passed, I'm I can't vote for the second reading. I would ask that the second reading, if this  passes, actually gets to new council business   and not gets buried into consent agenda. I would  want more individuals and I think that would allow   for even more time for staff for Witchaw Forward  um to address a lot of the questions that have   been asked from community members. Um and so I  would encourage actually no I I think I can have   um if council is okay if this passes then I would  want to we should want to see it on the council   agenda in new business not in consent. I don't  see any objection. Council member Johnson. Um,   I was just going to say we don't need  to add that to the motion. That can be   council directive to staff. Uh, Vice Mayor  Johnston, I just think we should make Bob's   last one of his last meetings absolutely longest  we possibly can. I think we're accomplishing that. I'm just going to add a couple of um comments.  The budget deficit has been on my mind since   day one when I took office. Um, and knowing that  the budget deficit is incoming and it's partially   because we need to pay fairly our police officers,  our firefighters, our public works workers,   the city staff in the city of Witchah here at the  city of Witchai believe that the minimum wage is   $15 an hour. My dad just started making $15 an  hour not too long ago before he retired. So,   I'm really grateful that the city of Witchah  wants to provide a living wage for individuals   and $15 is still higher than the minimum wage, the  federal minimum wage. And it does require often   more than one income. My mom's a hair stylist and  it really depends on if people come to her to dye   their hair or cut their hair. Um, and together the  two of them, their income actually helps them just   survive. However, they have two children that  they raised and they wanted to make sure that   they would be able to help them out when they got  older, which is what I do. And I'm really grateful   for my parents. So every time these conversations  regarding property taxes and sales taxes come,   I think about my parents. It is very difficult  because I know how difficult it is to be on a   fixed income. That's what my dad is on. I was just  talking to him about insurance just yesterday. And   yes, the rising costs are real, but paying people  fairly is also real. And so the budget deficit   comes around because we have to pay people what  they're worth and their skills and the value that   we give them for the services they provide. And  so the budget deficit is coming not because of   irresponsible spending. I can't speak on the  other councils, but I can speak on behalf of   this council. We are trying our very best to make  sure that we are looking at all expenses. And for   the first time in recent history, this council  voted to reduce the mill levy in nearly 40 years.   And so I know that I can speak about these  individuals that we are going to try our very   best to make sure that we are responsible and  that we are transparent and that we do question   bureaucracy. And so I can only speak on these  of of these people. But again, it's causing me   a lot of pause because I know that it does mean  that it will be difficult for some, which is why   I'm so grateful that Representative Helgerson and  Representative Hohheisle have said that they want   to talk about a grocery tax exemption, which then  would help the individuals that this would be a a   possible burden on the Another thing that causes  me pause is homeless services. Being on the board   of Second Light with Council Member Ballard, I  know that it's difficult um to raise funds right   now. Every organization wants to help individuals  and there's no funding source right now for   operating Second Light. This would be a funding  source to help second light. The other is property   tax relief. There would be another mill levy  reduction, but only if a if the sales tax passes.   And last but not least, cash funding public safety  facilities. That would mean that there would not   be debt incurred by the city, so interest rates.  And so these are all things that I'm considering.   However, I can only speak for myself. And so I  know that what our community wants is to have a   say. Have a say and have a public vote. And so my  vote in favor of this is to let the community make   the decision. Letting the community have a voice  of whether or not this passes. This will allow   individuals to really vet if this is the best  idea. And so I'm in favor of letting the community   make that decision of having a public vote. And so  with that, um, we have a motion and a second and   I see no further individuals wanting to speak. So  C, uh, city clerk, can you please open the role? Motion passes 70. We will take a 20 minute break   before we continue with the  rest of the council meeting. our city council meeting. Madame Clerk, can you please call the third item? City of Witchah Agreement with the Greater  Witchah Partnership for Economic Development   Services. Honorable mayor, members of council,  Troy Anderson, assistant city manager. Um,   in the interest of time, I'm going to try to get  through most of this as quickly as possible. Um,   give you a little bit of background. the Greater  Witchaw Partnership. Throughout the documents,   you'll see it as maybe GWP. You might also  hear me refer to them as the partnership.   Originally launched back in 2015 as  part of a collaborative initiative   um issue. Their focus has been around sort  of uh creation of jobs, attraction of talent,   and then obviously create a distinctive quality  of place. Um in 2023, the city council approved   a new three-year contract. Over the last several  years, G GWP or the partnership has experienced   significant results. Rather than hear it from  me, I'm going to turn it over to Jeff Flur,   uh, president CEO of the partnership, uh, to  tell you a little bit about what they've been   working on and where they're headed, and then I'll  come back with the analysis and recommendation. Thank you, Troy. Uh, thank you, mayor, vice mayor,  city council members, Mr. Manager, for the next   week or two. Thank you for the opportunity to be  before you today uh to discuss the agreement that   we have with the city as far as investment. Um you  have been uh an investor in the partnership and we   greatly appreciate that. It helps us leverage  assets if you will to advance the development   of our community. You see on the screen here uh  three areas that we concentrate on jobs, talent,   quality of place. When the partnership was created  10 years ago now, this was one of the big goals   was to really become focused so that we would  see advancement in economic development from   job creation, talent development, and quality of  place. In the center, you see our budget. Uh it's   comprised of private sector uh this year is $3.7  million. The Cedric County and the city of Witchaw   both invest 400,000. Uh so you see there's a  leveraging of your investment from day one by   the private sector to maximize the opportunities  of development. You also see on the right hand   side of the screen all the different industry  sectors that we focus in on. There's purpose   behind that and that those are where we have  capital investment. So infrastructure but also   we have deep talent opportunities because many  of you have worked with us as we have cultivated   opportunities with prospects and it comes down  to you have the talent to be able to do this.   Uh on this slide we want just to kind of give you  an overview of how we are leveraging investment.   So if you take every dollar that's been invested  in the in the partnership both private and public   since its beginning to current we've been able  to leverage that 138 to one. So that means in   the built environment in capital investment. So  things that you can go out actually and touch and   feel and experience in that in that capital uh  development 28 to one hits the payroll increase   again over that 10-year period. What we've been  able to leverage that's creating wealth in our   community. So that gets into individuals and to  families. We've been able to compile for you in   the next couple of lines just what we've been  seeing with capital investment over the last 10   years. You'll see 3.5 billion over 14,000 jobs.  We do not create jobs. We come ac along with the   companies that do. So we've been able to be  engaged at that capacity. The annual payroll   now is approaching three quarters of a billion  dollars of new investment or as far as payroll   in our community. You see, the last three years  we've had over $878 million in capital investment   on over to $128 million in new annual payroll. I  failed to mention Andrew Nave is here today. So,   if you ask me hard questions, I'm going to get  Andrew up here, but Andrew is the individual   that leads our economic development, and I would  tell you that he's done an incredible job over   the last nine years that he's been with us to  really build a coalition across the region.   If you look at the pipeline right now, we  have 5.3 billion dollars in the pipeline. So,   these are projects that our team is working on.  Uh I ask Andrew to get all of them uh because we   want to see our community to continue to grow in  any way that we can in every aspect. That would   represent another 16,000 jobs and opportunities  and again almost almost a billion dollars of new   payroll that could come in. You see on the right  hand side of this of the screen the number of jobs   that we've been opening up. This last year the  mayor was with us actually the last two years at   the international air show. This particular year  we actually saw the highest in 13 new projects   coming out of that air show in just that one  year. So again incredible opportunities. This is   uh if you will an overview of all the companies  that we have the pleasure of working with over   the last 10 years. Uh some of these names you're  going to recognize. They're global uh companies   that are anchored here headquartered here in our  region or they maybe have a regional headquarters.   One of the great things in the headline yesterday  was about Boeing. Boeing is the largest aerospace   manufacturing company in the world and they now  have ownership back in our city and again it   helped us position ourselves as a global economy.  One of the things that we've been working on with   Senator Moran because again one of the key things  with the partnership when it was being created was   how is it that we create industry depth? How is  it that we diversify? Aerospace has been one of   those that we've been working on diligently. So  with Senator Moran, we've had the opportunity   with defense and space. So companies as Blue  Origin, Gwen Shotwell with uh SpaceX was here   as as the leader of that. Northre Grumman, Lheed  Martin, United Launch Alliance. These are all new   opportunities in the last four to five years that  we've seen as a result of relationships with the   senator. They will ask for the senators uh to have  a meeting because he's a key appropriator with   uh space and defense. And he always says, "I  am glad to do that, but I'm going to do it in   Witchah." So again, it's an opportunity for us to  showcase who we are as a city and who we can be in   working with them as we go forward potentially as  a company and partnership. The next slide is from   the International Air Show this year. I would tell  you that it was an incredible year. Uh we've been   doing this air show for a number of years. This  one though seemed to work really well for us in a   lot of different ways. We now have the Air Capital  of the World reception that kicks off the air   show. Over 500 individuals were there. Secretary  Duffy from the uh the transportation secretary   was there in person. Uh but again we had over 500  people there over 90 different organizations the   CEOs seuite individuals who make decisions with  global companies were in that room hearing about   the air capital of the world and that has grown  since 2019. Again we've also increased I know   uh commissioner meer was here earlier. I'm not  sure if he's still here. uh he has been with   us in that event as well representing and again  it's an opportunity for us to have Senator Moran,   Congressman Estus, the governor or lieutenant  governor, the mayor and and uh county commission   all represented as they come and and talk to us  as prospects. So again uh incredible moments of   opportunity talent in our role with talent, you'll  hear that a lot in the community is like how is it   that people are working? We work to bring industry  and talent and education together. So how is it   that we work with WSU friends Newman Butler  all to understand where is industry today but   importantly where does it want to go? One of the  things that you all helped us invest in several   years ago during the pandemic was a talent roadmap  with deote and again that became a roadmap that we   are working on the implementation of that today to  help solve things like child care transportation   issues are important. So how is it we work those  together? Well, we're actually working with the   health foundation right now at Omali on economic  mobility. So, how is it that we take individuals   that have incredible potential but connect  them to that potential and get them to the   training that they need? I was telling the mayor,  I had the opportunity just before Thanksgiving,   a young man who's 19, he has certificates in  composits and metal fab from Sherry Utach at WTE,   but he was really intimidated by the size of  Textron. Well, Textron invested $40 million   this last year in a new training center.  Offered to go with him, went in, went in,   helped him do the application with their help. He  did an interview and he got a job offer this week.   A 19year-old has got a whole new trajectory now  because of what's happening in our city. And so,   again, your investment is helping us be able to  make those connections. As we look at talent as   well, we look at the portal, the information. So  this is a direct imit uh opportunity for people to   connect to stories that they can identify with.  It also gives them demographic information to   understand if you're getting an offer in Witchah  versus Dallas, Denver, what is the advantages to   being here in our city? And we help sell that  through choose witchah. At the end of the day,   we all build Witchah. We all have a role. That  was a big part of today's conversation is that   we all play a very important role in the city's  development and its future. Your investment in   the partnership is critical. Uh we can't do it  without you. You often hear us say it's not a   partnership without you because we need you to  be a part of what's going on. Certainly, I can   answer any questions. Again, our goal is is that  we'll leverage every dollar that you invest to   maximize the opportunities for our our companies,  but also the community at large. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Continuing on with uh just a  little bit of an analysis and recommendation. So,   as you heard, uh, continued excitement over  what, uh, the partnership brings to the table   year after year. So, city staff's renegotiated  a new contract with the partnership. Uh,   the city will continue to have representation on  the the SAT team, the strategic advisory team,   provide input and direction on initiatives  and policies. Mayor will also continue to have   exeicio seat on the executive board of directors  and they'll continue to regularly engage staff   and provide updates on economic development  initiatives. So over the next three years,   city will provide 450,000 in 2026 and then 500,000  in 27 and again in 2028. Uh this uh agreement   that's before you today includes an option for two  additional two-year terms. Funding is available in   the 2026 adopted budget for that 2026 allocation.  Law department has reviewed and approved the   agreement as to form. With that being with that  being said, it's the recommendation the city   council approve the agreement and uh authorize  the necessary signatures. Otherwise, uh both Jeff   and I will stand for questions. Thank you, Troy  and Jeff. Questions for staff or Greater Witchaw   Partnership? Um I just have one. uh if you can  go back to the very maybe second slide that you   had regarding the city and the county investment  but what the community private dollar investment   is into this. Can you just address um how you  again you gained some public dollars through   the city and through the county? Yes, ma'am. But  really a majority of it is private dollars. Yes,   ma'am. Um the $3.7 million represents uh companies  within our city, our region and actually even   within the larger regional area that are investing  in the partnership itself. Uh our board is very   active. Uh it's a sea suite individuals  of industry across both finance aviation   uh you're dealing with in universities, you're  dealing with um educational uh aspects. You have   small business, large business all a part  of this again really working collectively.   uh we work diligently on this private sector  because we believe in having a model where   we average about 80% private to 20% public. We  feel like that's a good combination and Andrew   will tell you as you look at economic development  organizations across the country that's not how it   usually is and so but again we feel like it's  really important for the private sector to be   at the table have them aligned and then working  with you as the elected with the political will   we can make some really great things happen.  Thank you Jeff. I see no further questions for   staff or for Greater Witchaw Partnership.  We will open it up for public comment. Hello, Lana Dazer again, District 1. Um, okay. So,  the Greater Witchah Partnership is requesting a   an extension of 400 to $500,000. And while I  acknowledge that new businesses have entered   our market and that some job creation has taken  place, I believe we must ensure that our growth   is meaningful and sustainable, especially to  our underserved districts. Um, again, I lived   in District 1 my entire life and rarely do I see  any type of investment or development and there   are prime locations for those type of things.  And while we are investing in bringing these   global companies to Witchah, we still have not  yet gotten grocery stores to come to this area.   Even in the downtown area, it has been um noted  as a food desert. So, we're bringing in jobs,   we're bringing in people, but they can't even go  and buy groceries, especially in the underserved   areas like District 1. So, I'm just advocating  that while we're spending $400 to $500,000 to   to organizations to bring things to Witchah,  I want us to not forget the underserved areas   that are starving for some of this development  and for things just as basic as grocery stores.   There are over 3,000 food chains in America.  Surely, you all can entice somebody to come and   help us out in that area. So again, I just want  to say while we're investing these big dollars,   let's not forget about underserved areas that they  want to thrive and flourish as well. Thank you,   Council Member Ballard. Thank you, Mayor Jeeoff.  I know we have spoken before about this is   specific to downtown, but you made a comment, I  don't it's probably been a year or two ago that   grocery stores look for a certain amount of  units potentially to be in an area that would   obviously support the grocery store. So, I just  wonder if you could touch a little bit on that.   Be glad to. Um, there are numbers that you need  to be adhering to or getting to as far as like a   residential base. And I will I will tell you that  with the biomed um the witchaw biomedical campus   going in with commare and heartring I think you're  going to see an acceleration toward that. You need   about 8,000 residents that are right there in that  first ring neighborhoods areas if you will. Uh   and so again we're achieving those numbers right  now. We started out in 2010 with like 1300 people   living downtown. We're now pushing over 3,000.  Again, you've got 4,000 medical students that   are going to be coming on to downtown starting  in the spring, actually the fall of 27. And so,   again, right there, you're going to see an influx  of individuals that I believe it will be living in   our core. The osteopathic school uh is approaching  800 students. Last time I I checked there,   well over 50% were living in the core. So, again,  we're getting to that critical mass. Uh we're also   seeing the importance of having office there as  well because it's in addition to and so as you've   seen IMA come into downtown Cargill uh you're  seeing new investment coming around with the   biomet again that's all going to be feeding into  that so I do believe we're on the threshold of   being able to see that one of the projects that I  think that is talking about our neighborhoods is   ICT21 uh and what that has done uh for that  old refinery site where JTM foods has gone   into a warehouse there that the rene have built  they're creating jobs in that neighborhood. So,   if you do live in that neighborhood and maybe you  have one car, there's still a way for you to get   to JTM and other entities that are emerging in  that site. So, I do think there's an opportunity   to work and we want to continue to do that as we  go forward. Council member Hoheisle. Thank you,   Mayor. Uh Jeff, yes, sir. uh community benefit  agreements. How prevalent are those in your line   of work or attracted uh communities or jobs to the  community or employment centers to the community?   I suppose if you'd repeat your question, sir.  I'm sorry. Uh community benefit agreements. Um   are they pretty prevalent in the work that you  do bringing businesses to Witchah? We certainly   we work as far as the company working with  neighborhoods and things of that nature. Um,   I believe what we what we see with it, Councilman,  is how is it that we create the opportunities,   uh, the jobs that they're creating, the entry  jobs that are there, and then how is it we work   with that neighborhood to get connected to  it. Uh, I haven't worked with a company to   say there's a a contractual thing between what  you do and what would be the benefit to the   neighborhood itself other than to say we work to  make sure and educate the community. This is the   benefit that's coming into it and this is how  you can tap into that. Okay. I know especially   with incentives that was we have been seeing not  necessarily in Witchah but in other places around   the around the country um more the community  benefits agreements being worked out so that way   uh to Lwanda's point there um community grocery  stores or other benefits perhaps to the community.   So I was just curious if that's something that  you've seen that you've worked on. I have not   worked on that personally. I think one of the  things that uh in fact Andrew where's Andrew?   Maybe Andrew can speak into a little bit more.  One of the things that we will do is as we work   in the in the core or even the region is if we  can collaborate with companies to to help get   to the next threshold, we will definitely do  that uh as far as opportunities. But Andrew, yes, happy to address it. Yeah, we we certainly  work with a wide variety of tools and work   um across the region. Each community approaches  kind of their growth and development from public   private partnerships a little bit differently. So  terms of when you say community benefit region,   I mean exactly what you're talking about kind of  making a comparison. We're happy to look at that.   But I would say that the um the work that you all  have done and previous governing bodies have done   of updating our economic incentive tools has been  replicated by other cities in Sedick County and   then even other communities and cities in our  region. So you guys really quite frankly are   leading leading by example. So we appreciate that.  But we'll continue to look for new ways to do   that. Okay. Yeah. I'll shoot you guys some stuff.  Sure. Council member Tuttle. Thank you. Just two   quick questions for me. Um two quick comments for  me. Pardon me. Um we would be remiss if we didn't   say thank you truly. Um you know helping our  community grow. We need to have attract and retain   business which means we attract and retain talent.  So thank you for all you do. truly appreciate it.   Um, regarding the food deserts and a grocery store  downtown, I've been working on this issue for 13   years now. Um, and um the the it's there's a shift  and it's not as much about getting people to food.   Now, grocery stores are focusing on getting food  to people and so click lists and all the things.   So, so grocery store chains are actually going  to be less likely to to do more brickandmortar.   And if we do get a grocery store downtown, it's  probably going to be more of a specialty store   than in a discount store. So, uh, Mr. Staser,  happy to have conversations with you. We've   talked about this before. Thank you for staying  vigilant and interested in this topic because   it is important and we need to make sure that  everyone has access to healthy food, but didn't   want to get derailed to say thank you for all you  do. Truly appreciate your partnership. Thank you. Thank you. We will continue with public comment. I  see no one else from the public who would like to   speak. We will close public comment. We will bring  it back to the bench. Council member Johnson.   Thanks, Mayor. Um, appreciate the presentation.  Just wanted to say I think this is probably my   last time voting on this as a council member. So,  thank you for all the work that you have done. I'm   supportive of this today. you all have made a true  impact. Love to see all the new businesses coming   in. I miss the code names you used to give us when  we were going those dinners. Um, but it's great   to see that some of those have really turned  into folks being here locating in Witchah and   creating those jobs. So, I definitely see the  value in this and again continue to appreciate   uh supporting you all even though I was never  invited to Paris, but I definitely support you with that. Um, again, uh, as the mayor, I get  to serve as an exofficial member on the Greater   Witchaw Partnership Board, and I have seen  the dedication towards trying to bring new   businesses into our community. And I always  share this, every other city wants our people   and our opportunities. And so for us, um, I'm  very proud of our air capital of the world,   history, but also our future. And that  does not mean that we cannot also evolve.   And we are a city of innovators. I am grateful  that there have been so many entrepreneurs that   have come out of our community and continue  uh with efforts that even Weeba and Nexus have   helped with. Um so I'm grateful that there are  businesses that are really not just expanding   in our community but also taking a look at  our community as a potential to set up their   headquarters here. And so I am looking forward  to Witchah really getting its renaissance with   the new biomedical campus in downtown Witchah  and getting more people in the downtown core   exploring this great city from enjoying the  amenities we currently have to the amenities   that will come in the future. Um so thank you  again for trying to bring new business into our   community because we have to grow Witchah. And so  thank you again. Uh, with that, I am going to be   um moving this item. I move that the city council  approve the agreement for economic development   services with the Greater Witchaw Partnership  and authorize the necessary signatures. Second.   Motion and a second. Any further discussion? I see  none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion   passes. 70. And thank you, Commissioner Mitner,  who also serves um with uh multiple of these   initiatives. You've stayed since the beginning.  So, thank you very much. Madame Clerk, please   call the next item. Business service agreement  with Witchaw Independent Business Association. Honorable mayor, members of council. Again,  Troy Anderson, assistant city manager. as you   mentioned. Uh we also have a business service  agreement uh to present to you to hear today.   Uh give you a little bit of background context.  The Witchah Independent Business Association   since 2016, the city's been involved in helping  uh to promote and encourage and uh not only   directly but indirectly uh contract with Weeba  uh to support the small business community. Uh   more specifically, back in 2023, city council  approved a new agreement focusing on business   solution seminars, women and leadership, and a  startup plus community. So since then, in 2024,   council approved a renewal, also supported  business forward, which was a small business   resource center that's gone over incredibly well.  In 2024, we've also partnered with Witchah State   University, Center for Economic Development,  Business Research, developed this small business   database, uh continuing to see how that helps  us make more datadriven decisions about our   small small business environment, particularly one  around industry gaps, and we'll hit on that here   in just a second. So, with that being said, and  I won't read through uh the numbers here. These   these are all numbers that were included in the  green sheet, but uh in 2025 alone, we've had an an   amazing impact on uh the small business community.  As a result, city staff has uh negotiated a   renewal of the contract for 2026. It includes an  expansion of that business forward initiative,   expanding the incubator, which is that uh business  forward initiative, but we're going to really   focus over the next year on that industry gap uh  analysis, understanding where within our local   community. Uh this was really kind of born out of  uh the Witchaw scorecard that came out of uh some   research. How do we start better identifying  some of those industry gaps and then how do we   become intentional about filling those gaps with  businesses and incubating businesses with real   intentionality. So I think you're going to u be  really excited about maybe uh what 26 might bring   uh with our uh business service agreement with  last one is just to continue that small business   research and data initiative. The one-year  agreements for $100,000. Funding is available   in the 26 economic development fund budget. Law  department has reviewed and approved the business   service agreement as to form. Therefore, it's  re uh recommended the city council approved the   agreement and authorize the necessary signatures.  We do have uh representative we have Wendel Funk,   president CEO of Weeba here to answer any  questions and otherwise we'll stand for questions.   Thank you, Troy. Questions for staff? I see none.  I'll open it up for public comment. I see none.   I'm bringing it back to the bench. I want to say  thank you to Wendell and his team at Weeba. Um,   small businesses are the backbone of this  community. So, thank you for trying to support   um those new as well as established small  businesses through Weeba. Uh, Council Member   Johnson would like to speak. Thanks, Mayor. Uh,  same to you, Wendle. It's my last time voting for   this, but appreciate the work that Weeba has done  in the community with small businesses and even   some of the reforms that you all did over the last  couple years to serve businesses even better. Um,   I've heard a lot of good things from folks going  to some of those networking opportunities and   receiving help and resources. So, I'm supportive  and again appreciate the work that you all do   to support small businesses in Witchah. Council  member Tuttle, thank you. I know it's a long day,   but I can't help myself. Um, I always tell  Wendell, I'm your number one fan. I truly   appreciate all that you do. Um, I've had the  opportunity to speak at your women's events   before Level Up and and stay in contact with their  participants afterwards. Um, I just want to also   highlight one thing that I appreciate about WEA  is you're so incredibly flexible and nimble. Um,   I brought you an idea about trying to help child  care providers and what can we do to support them   as entrepreneurs because they are, but they  can't come to traditional events. And so,   um, Wendell and, um, uh, Steve Dixon, your chair,  and I have been meeting trying to figure out what   kind of network we could create to help support  our child care providers in our community who   are a vital part of our uh, um, economic  development. So, just thank you for all you   do for Witchaw. It's truly appreciated. Keep up  the great work. With that, I move that the city   council approve the business service agreement  and authorize necessary signatures. Second   motion and a second. Any further discussion? I  see none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 70. Madame clerk, please call  the next item. Public hearing considering an   amendment to the K96 Greenwood Star Bond project  plan. Honorable mayor, members of council, again,   Troy Anderson, assistant city manager. So, uh,  you may recall a couple of weeks ago we introduced   this to you at the workshop. Um, I won't belabor  all of the history. We're going to cycle through   some of the slides fairly quickly from that  workshop presentation, but we always have those   available if you have any questions. Um, I've  tried to synthesize the background a little bit,   but you might recall what we emphasized was  there's three parts of this, right? There's   the district, there's the redevelopment plan,  and then there's the development agreement. So,   back in March 2012, following receipt of the  approval of the state secretary of commerce,   council approved, passed an ordinance creating  the district. Then on February 5th, 2013,   council passed an ordinance adopting the  phase one project plan. On September 10th,   city council approved the development agreement,  and that really launched uh the district and the   plan and the redevelopment. Then on December 6,  2016, council approved an amendment. This was   the first amendment to the project plan that was  uh that's what helped lead to the Striker Sports   Complex expansion and the Top Golf project. The  district itself uh includes more than a million   square feet of commercial space and uh last year  alone welcomed more than 7.7 million visitors.   So now coming before you here today, Family  Destination Development uh has provided plans to   develop a multis-port complex on about 40 acres of  undeveloped land. Uh you can see on the screen in   front of you kind of highlighted there in yellow.  Uh we're going to refer to this as sort of phase   three periodically. Again, we presented uh this  concept back at the November workshop. These were   the slides. I'm going to just cycle through these  fairly quickly for you to u refresh your memory on   what was presented. Showing the partners, showing  a little bit of overview, subject property, the various facilities. A little bit about the project budget. projections. Okay. So, the multisport complex will consist  of approximately 150 room resort style hotel,   90,000 square ft of additional commercial  development, a tennis facility, ice skating   facility, baseball facility, surfing facility,  golf facility, go-kart facility. With that being   said, as required by the Department of Commerce,  a feasibility study was needed for the Starbond   project. That feasibility study was conducted. As  a result, the study projects that uh the project   is expected to create an additional 250,000  visitors to the metropolitan area annually.   More than 35% of those will come from beyond 100  miles, 32% more specifically being out of state.   So the overall project costs are anticipated to  be about $191 or $192 million of which $86 million   are project eligible sort of star bond eligible  expenses that may be re reimbursed. However,   star bonds as proposed to be issued um only total  of about 7073 million or such other amount as the   selected underwriter may determine can be  supported. Obviously again all of this has   to be underwritten. The actual amount of  star bonds issued uh is further subject   to approval of the department of commerce and  again that independent underwriting analysis.   The project anticipates producing approximately  $240 million in annual retail sales, which then   drives about 16 million in annual Starbond revenue  supporting about $14 million in debt service. Okay. So, financial considerations before you.  If the star bond phase three amendments approved   by the city, star bonds can then be issued in  an amount again as approved by the secretary   of the department of commerce and subsequently  underwritten. Little bit on the disclaimer here,   right? Any star bonds issued will be special  obligation bonds of the city payable solely with   the incremental sales tax revenue generated from  the district. sort of I'm going to just read this   to make sure that we're not misrepresenting any of  this. No other funds of the city will be pledged   for the payment of such star bonds. A shortfall in  the incremental sales tax revenue available to pay   the debt service on will not expose any other  funds of the city. In other words, we are not   backstopping any of the debt service on that.  It is only the revenue that is created within   the district that will be used to support the  repayment of the debt. With that being said, law   departments reviewed and approved the ordinance  amending the project plan as to form. I'm going   to pause here for just a minute and remind you  that the development agreement aspect of this will   come next week. This is just on the project plan  amendment. So, it's recommended city council hold   a public hearing, close a public hearing, and then  place the ordinance on the project plan amendment   on first reading and authorize the necessary  signatures. We do have representatives available   from the applicant and otherwise we will stand  for questions. Thank you Troy. Council member   Tuttle. Thank you Troy. Great job as always. I  appreciated all your work on this. Thanks Bob too.   I know you've been involved with this heavily. Um  Troy, I asked this during workshop and I'm going   to be redundant but I just want to make sure the  community completely understands. Is there any   risk to the city in this project? No. Thank you.  Council member Ballard. Thank you, mayor. Well,   um, Council Member Tuttle took one of my  questions. The other one is this is not a new   Starbond district, correct? That's correct. This  is an existing Starbond district. This is just   uh an amendment to the project plan to allow  area within the district that was previously   undeveloped to be developed and continuing the  um timeline of the existence of the district to   capture that sales tax revenue to to reimburse the  developer for those eligible expenses to continue   the district for the next about seven to eight  years. Okay. My last question, and I don't know   if this is appropriate for this week or next week,  but I have to ask about all the trees because it   is very lots of trees over in that area. So, I  just am I'm sure some of them have to be removed,   but is there any type of plan to replace any  of them or I would love to hear how you're   going to save all my trees, please. I'm going to  defer to the applicant on that one. Thank you. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, Marty Corno, the  managing partner of FDD. Um, good question.   I'm a tree guy as well. And Mar, obviously  a lot of trees are going to have to go. If   you've been by the project, which is on 96 in  Green Witch, uh, it's a wooded area. In fact,   most people don't even pay attention to it because  it's been wooded for so long. Our intent is to,   um, obviously keep as many as possible, but we're  going to lose the majority simply because of the   development. Um there's there's a gorgeous pond  back there that we're going to take advantage of.   Walkability is a big portion of this project  which is very important. So we are obviously   going to keep as many trees as possible for the  walkability portion for the shade around certain   venues and and things going on but uh we will do  our very best with our engineering firm to make   that happen. Thank you. Council member Ho Heisel.  Thank you, Mayor. Uh Troy, and I already know the   answer to this. I just want to make sure it's out  there. Uh were was shutting down the star bond and   returning some of that revenue um was that aotted  in future budgets or have we been holding back on   that? No, that was not included in any the revenue  stream that you're referring to if the district   were retired and the sales tax coming to the  city. No, that was not contemplated. My finance   director is not here anymore, but as far as I was  understand the it was not contemplated in any of   our future budgets. Okay. Um, also this star bond  overperformed. It did. It actually uh retired or   was eligible for retirement almost eight years  sooner. Uh, and so we've been wildly pleased with   with the performance of the district. uh hence the  opportunity to continue to build on that momentum.   Okay. Thank you. If I can pick up on that just  a little bit, we did do a financial analysis   um and the u if you had assumed that the  district would close um this year and   that 500,000 coming into the budget, we factor  that into a return on investment, so to speak,   analysis. And over a uh 10-year period, the return  to the city would be approximately 16% and over a   15-year period about 25%. So, in other words, the  city would be in a much better financial position   uh at the end of a 15-year period than  if we were to terminate a district today. Thank you, Marty. question for you just about the  reason why this is a passion project I think for   yourself and um I sure I want people to know I  think the question was asked by council member   Tuttle is there a risk to the city and again Troy  mentioned no backstopping this project um this is   going to be a risk on you guys good good question  mayor thank you for that sure I'll go back to the   very beginning I'll brief because I know it's been  a long day, but uh it's a project that I was asked   to get involved with by by the Cozine family who  owned the property. It's been a dream of theirs   to develop for many many years going back to their  father's days. And uh long story short, he called   me into the office and asked me some development  questions and one a couple weeks later he asked   me if I'd be a part of it. So, it's a passion  of mine for the community. When you talk risk,   the risk for is truly on the developers.  I would say we've got the $120 million of   personal private investment that's going into this  alongside the 70 plus million of star bonds. So,   uh um pretty much I'm going to be uh living  and breathing this project because there's a   lot on the line for for the developers on this  particular project. So, very exciting. I think   it'll be great things for not only Witchah,  the region, the state. Um the the state's been   fully supportive of this. Obviously, it's been a  shining star um in the Starbond era. Um so, we're   real excited to get this going and timeline ought  to be uh ought to be pretty quick. And then last,   I did have a um constituent email both myself  and council member Tuttle. They were concerned   about anticipated traffic. Can you address some  of um how individuals will be able to enter and   exit this development? So, I spent this weekend  with my grandson at uh Avi8 and traffic is a bear   out there, which to me that's a great problem to  have. Um, we're going to have three entrances into   the property. The one off Green Witch was at the  which is at the light that will be improved going   into where I would best say the uh Oaken Pie area  is that will be improved clear out to Green Witch   and widened and uh a lot of roundabouts done.  We'll also make another entrance off of the   21st Street side um that will when you get off  96. So we'll have a kind of a thoroughfare if   you will. So we'll have another major entrance  off 21st that will really help the traffic flow   not only for Ignite but for the whole area uh on  Green Witch. Council member Glass Cop. Thank you,   Mayor. It was just a brief comment. I'm glad  that you had mentioned particular the Kosines   development. Um, I would urge any citizen to  drive by uh their development out east and see   um what an incredible property is and also all  of your developments uh specifically on the north   side and the investment that you both are making  in the community. I think your record testifies   what you can do in the future as well. So, thank  you for taking a risk on Witch also developing   this project knowing that there's not risk to  taxpayers. There's obviously a risk to you. So,   thank you uh for doing business and leading on  this. Thank you all for the confidence. Thank you.   With that, I see no further questions for staff  or the applicant. We will open it up for public   comment. I see none. I'm closing public comment  and bringing it back to the bench. This resides   in council member Tuttles district. Thank you very  much. Um I would just like to thank again Bob and   Troy and all of staff for your work on this. I  want to thank the Family Destination Development   LLC. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to see this  day finally come to fruition. I remember the first   time that you reached out to me to tell me about  it and I thought this is a big dream and now we're   going to see that big dream come true. So, I'm  very excited. Um I truly truly invest your and   appreciate you investing in trusting Witchah.  Um I said it during the other agenda item and   I'll say it again. We need to grow. Witchah has  to grow. We have to grow to stay competitive.   We need to attract and retain new businesses and  this will. We need to attract and retain talent   and this will when I talked to sea suite um in  our especially in our anchor industries they   say we can get people to come to Witchaw for our  jobs but you need to have cool things for them to   do so they'll stay um we also need to attract  and attract new visitors and 250,000 visitors   to our community many of them from out of state I  think 35% that means they're eating in our hotels   they're sleeping in our they're they're staying  in our hotels they're eating in our restaurants   they're shopping. They're putting gas in their  car. They're doing all the things that we want   visitors from our community to do. So, I really  truly appreciate that. This investment is going   to continue to make Witchah a better place  to live, learn, earn, play, and pray. And I   mean that because it's not only going to create  entertainment or play, but it's going to create   jobs. And it's also going to create sales tax and  it's going to create property tax what then goes   in our coffers so we can continue to do the great  work that we do at the city of Witchah. And the   icing on the cake is there is no risk to the city  of Witchah. So with that, I would enthusiastically   make the motion that the city council close the  public hearing, place the ordinance approving the   project plan on first reading, and authorize the  necessary signatures. Second. Motion and a second.   Any further discussion? I see none. Madame clerk,  please open the role. Motion passes 70. Madame   clerk, please call the next item. PUD 2025-17  zone change requests in the city from multifamily   residential district and general commercial  district to plan unit development to create   the 944 Southa planned unit development number  149 generally located one block east of South   Broadway and three blocks south of East Kellogg  at 944 South Pika before you begin Scott Council   member Hoheisle. Yeah, let's make this nice and  easy. Um, as easy as this case can be, I guess,   um, the applicant asked for a oneweek extension  to make sure that you guys had all the information   from the new plans. So, if there's not any  objections, we'll go ahead and skip through   the presentation. And I move to once again uh move  this item to the December 16th regular meeting. motion. I second that. Second. And I do have to  add one more thing. In the presentation next week,   can we make sure that we have the updated slides  uh any of the renderings if they're not accurate?   Can we get the correct new uh floor plan, etc.  Okay. Um including renderings. Motion and a   second. Any further discussion? I see none.  Madam clerk, please open the role. Motion   passes 70. Madame clerk, please call the next  item. Council member appointments and comments.   Start with appointments. Council members.  Council member Hoheisle. Not an appointment,   just a council member agenda. So I don't know.  Do we circle back to that after appointments   and comments? Member Tuttle. I would like to  appoint Amy Drought to the Food and Farm Council. Any further appointments? I see none. I move  to approve the board appointment. Second motion   and a second. Any further discussion? I see  none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 70. We will now move to council  member comments. if this is acceptable to do under   comments or agenda. Um I'll break this into three  different ones that way because I I don't think   we'll have consensus among all three of them.  But um again from the earlier discussions before   we fully um are fully strapped in with the uh  potential sales tax. I would like to um have the   outlines of a rebate program um for necessities,  specifically groceries, uh targeted towards   seniors, uh people with disabilities and families  who make under $63,000 a year, which is the medium   income for Witchah, and individuals under three  uh 30,000 a year. And we can play with those a   little bit if we want to um adjust it. Um, I just  want to make sure that the people who really need   it are not getting hit over the head as much as uh  presently construed. And I'm sorry. I apologize to   any of my state friends, but um waiting and hoping  that they act this session. I don't think it's   proven. Is that a motion? Council member, could  you repeat those? Okay. Yeah. I move that we have   an outline, put together an outline of council  policy of um a rebate program um upon passage of   the sales tax, a proposed sales tax that targets  seniors, people with disabilities, families that   make under $63,000 a year, and individuals  under $30,000 a year um for grocery rebates.   Second motion and a second. Council member Tuttle,  I just and I'm absolutely um interested in having   the conversation. I just wonder for staff but  then also for myself if there's some guard rails   like if you say a rebate program, is it 5%, is it  10%, is it the amount? I mean, I'm just curious if   there's like a and and you know, what do you  consider groceries? And how would it happen?   Like at the end of the year, do they have to bring  all the receipts for all the groceries that they   bought? I'm just I have y'all know me, my mind is  very logistical. It's just like flooding and and   I wonder for staff to give them more direction,  especially in a week. Um could you provide more   context just so I understand? I appreciate  that. Yeah. Um, I would expect that it would   be something to where you could just bring your  tax return showing you fit within those income   brackets and whatever the best estimates we  have as far as how much money you spent on   um, groceries during the year would be part of  that would be the target. Just to follow up then,   are you proposing the average Witchin spends  $5,500 a year on groceries? um a family,   the average family, not person, but family. Um  are you proposing like a tenth of that? I mean,   we wouldn't give them the whole 5,500 back.  Well, no. You would have only paid the tax on   $55 for that, I believe. If you spend $5,500, the  1% tax of that would be $55. Okay. So that would   be the rebate is what you would get as far as the  estimate on that. And then would that be like the   city of Witchaw writing them a rebate check? I  believe so. I'd like to look at options. Um but   yeah, that that was the the design earlier when  we were talking about um taking it out of any   potential CIP. And then my other question, and I'm  not being argumentative, I'm just asking questions   that maybe can get us to where you want to go  so we can all see a draft. But like for example,   um is that considered income then and would they  have to pay income tax on that? I wouldn't think   so. I'd like to hear legals. Yeah. Legals appear.  Definitely look at that. Yeah. Because if I know   like if as an employee even if you get like  a bonus or refund or I don't know a t-shirt,   you have to claim it, right? So I just I'm I'm  just trying to ask questions to keep us out of   trouble. So thank you. I'll have a lot more, I'm  sure. And would this rebate be contingent on the   state not acting it? Yes, it could be. Council  member Johnson, I I appreciate the thought. Uh   I mean I'm in the same camp for you. Maybe not the  same way, but uh I don't I don't think we have to   do this now. We can wait to see if the state acts.  Then if we need to do it, and if it does pass,   then we can put it into place. Well, it could be  contingent on if the state acts or not. I'm not   comfortable attaching my name to the sales  tax next week on second reading if we don't   have some guarantees. I I just don't want to put  the staff through all this time and say, "Well,   if this happens and if this happens, then we'll do  this." Oh, job security, man. Well, I think they   have enough job security as it is. But, uh, this  might be a question for the manager, too. It might   be best since every other first class city in the  state of Kansas has a sales tax that we look if   there's any other city that offers city a similar  program because it already exists in every other   municipality. I appreciate that question. However,  for just the practical piece of this, I have three   days to get so um I think we have to do our best  in terms of estimates and as council members asked   for it's going to be simply an outline. Um,  and council member Holheisel referenced this,   but we will not be able to do this as a sales tax  rebate with sales tax going back to them because   it's not a stated purpose in the referendum. So,  um, I think council member talked about using   property tax to help pay for the rebate. Council  member Tuttle, thank you. Um, I'm gonna think out   loud a little bit, which I normally don't like to  do from the bench, right? Obviously, I don't like   to make sausage from the vench. And, and council  member, I don't mean to put you on the spot,   but I'm just trying to be a realist here. Is there  any way that you would be agreeable to maybe not   having a policy that we pass next week because we  won't have a chance to vet it? We won't, you know,   have a chance for whatever. um that we would  I don't know how to say this in a better way,   but like make a formal agreement that if the  state doesn't follow through, then we will take   action like ma maybe like a resolution or like a  a a commitment. I help me here, manager, please,   and maybe I'm being silly, but I just don't  know if we could get to a really good rebate   policy by next week, but I understand what you're  saying. I I feel it in your heart that you want   something to be able to to proceed next week, but  is there something like a compromise of we will do   something if the state doesn't manager? Does this  make sense? Apparently not. No, it does. I mean,   um and there's a underlying implication of that  already, but just a matter of You're right.   I mean, three days to put a program together is  the best we're going to do is have some concepts.   U but we wouldn't be able to have something  that the council would be comfortable adopting. I appreciate seeing at least options. Vice Mayor Johnston, I just I just question  whether people would actually use it even if it   was there. I can guarantee of the 4,500 patients  at Guilia Bay Clinic, there would be less than   five that would do that. I'm going to put a sign  up right at the front. Well, we we put signs we   put signs everywhere and they won't do it. Um  they're not even used to filing income taxes. So,   they're not going to they're not going to do  that either. This would still be better than   nothing. I just think we need we can't let this  state have an out. If we don't do this, do this,   they're going to do a rebate prime. They'll  be fine. We have to hold the state feet to the   fire. Say we need this. The state hasn't I I can't  put that faith in the state. I'm sorry. It's your   own brother, man. I I know. I know. I'm hoping  for the best. I just Yeah. Okay. Realistically,   three days you can have just an outline. Is that  what I'm hearing? Would that suffice. I'd like   to see options. Can an outline with options?  Probably going to be one option. I I may I what   I I mentioned previously the council had approved  a property tax rebate program previously. We can   utilize that infrastructure to outline a a  possibility. It's not a direct tie to sales tax,   but it would go back to the funding source, which  is property tax, and it would target pretty much   the people that you're trying to target. It's  would not have necessarily there is an income   provision, but it allows us to piggyback with what  people are already filing with the state. Doesn't   create a brand new set of standards for us, and  it was easy to administer. So I would frankly   prefer to move in that direction than trying  to estimate what people would pay in sales,   use property tax to rebate that and then come up  with our own guidelines. I think that would be   troublesome. Some some some other sort of program  out the state that would reflect our target here   and piggy backing off of that. Yeah. And I think  I think we already got we had the framework of   that is just updating it. Okay. Council member  Tuttle. I I was just gonna ask then council member   Hullheiser like if I didn't know if you were gonna  well you'll have to I guess revise your motion but   is that I mean to make for us to make some sort of  commitment that we will do it but it gives it time   to put it in put it together so it's done well and  people would be more likely to use it if they're   going to and we'd be more likely to have a better  product that might not be as um burdensome on on   our system here because some department's going  to have to pick this up and and create everything   and the criteria and the forms and you know all  that. So is is that okay if we don't actually   do the policy but more what Bob says. Okay. I  withdraw the motion. I move that staff come up   with policies that would help alleviate the burden  um from those most needy with um any potential   sales tax increase uh by next Tuesday. Second  motion and a second. Council member Vice Mayor   John St. Thank you. Uh, city manager Leightton,  would this So, it's a property tax rebate. Does   that mean that you have to own a home and pay  property tax to get the rebate? U, I I think   that's just the outline that they're looking at.  I don't think it's property tax based. Yeah, I I   have to go I don't I apologize. I don't remember  the all of the details about it, so I've got to   go back and refresh my memory. Let staff go back,  take a look at what the old program was. Not only   will we bring those details, we'll also let you  know how many people took advantage of it and how   much we paid out that in that year. But see, that  one is property tax based. That's the homestead   tax rebate. Well, that was a piece of it. A piece  of it. Yeah. The That's why I I don't remember   all the moving pieces. There were multiple  state programs, at least two state programs.   made under $41,000 a year and um disabled American  veterans, but I do believe that they were all   property tax based. Yeah, I it's possible why I  go back and double check. So any any state program   that does provide really for the most needy. It  doesn't necessarily have to be because the idea is   to take that that matrix of people, those people  that are identified within any said program and   help provide relief. Right. Okay. Got it. that  would that I mean 98% of the people are going to   be runners. Would that include them? Well, that's  what we're saying is it's not based off of that,   but any like program. So, there might be another  program that is geared towards blank, you know,   okay, people who are living in poverty or single  mothers, you know, any of those bad need groups. Okay, we have a motion and a second. And again,  it's to to draft policies to alleviate burden for   those who are most needy. Any further comments?  I see none. Madam clerk, please open the role. Motion passes. 61. Okay. So, now  we are back to any other council   member comments. I have two more. Two  more. Another one would be a policy   um not committing because we cannot commit but  um it was identified during the discussion that   the property taxes will go back up at the  end of the said sales tax unless the sales   tax is renewed. And I think that's just good  fiscal policy as far as I'll I'll second that. Council member Tuttle. I'm sorry. It's just  been the end of a long day. What exactly is   your motion? Like what is the what are what  is the action that you're requesting? Well,   during the earlier discussions, we had talked  about what happens at the end of this. And   um I had been under the impression that if this  seven-year sales tax runs out and does not get   revoted on that the property taxes automatically  go back up to cover that four mill deficit.   Mhm. Um so, um hearing that we can't tie future  council's hands in that way, but we can come up   with a policy, I believe, is what was identified  earlier. Um I'd like to see that policy. So,   you're just asking that a policy be drafted. We're  not voting that there will be a policy. I I mean,   if it's drafted, I think we should vote on it.  Oh, we vote on But I mean, you're not Yeah. So,   we're not voting on a policy today. you're  just voting. We're voting that you're drafting   it because I'm not sure I want to tell future  councils what's going to happen. Cuz if you would   have told me seven years ago when I first started  what the world would be like today, I would have   never guessed it in my wildest dreams with COVID  and recession and you know everything else. So I   will be I will vote to have a policy drafted, but  I'll be super curious to see the policy. Okay.   Okay. Thank you. Y Vice Mayor Johnston, thank you.  Just a note that council in seven years if a sales   tax is not renewed will be looking for money. This  would give them an easy out not raising property   taxes give them easy out to go back to what we  had. So it would safeguard a lot of services in   our city I think. Council member Glascado. Thank  you to echo council member Tuttles's comments. I'm   fine looking at a policy though. I don't know if  that one needs to be on Tuesday agenda and rush   staff to come up with multiple policies. I think  that one doesn't have to be. We have seven years   to have that conversation and that's if s pass.  I don't know if that needs to be on Tuesday and   rush staff anymore. I I can understand that. Um  I guess what what's your guys' thoughts? Is that   too much for you? I think Dennis would love  to work on this. Um, I mean it is something   that I think needs to be needs to be discussed  and identified as we go along these sales tax. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I guess bring it up uh January 21st  and I and it's I think it's important because it   also does impact the future of the sales tax. Um,  one of the people's big concerns out there is that   um, we don't have any clear direction as far  as what happens at the end of that and I think   that would go to help reassure people for our  fiscal state after seven years. So the motion is   to revisit ask staff to draft policies regarding  property taxes going back to the current mill levy   if the sales tax gets approved. Um, in addition,  it will be discussed at the January 21st meeting.   Yes, ma'am. And we have a motion and a second.  Council member Glass. Thank you. Mayor Legal,   I imagine you'll review that and offer  recommendation. We will. Okay. Thank you.   Just council member Johnson, January 20th.  Is a council meeting January 20th. 20. Oh,   okay. I'm sorry. I'm looking at the end. Sorry.  Yeah. Okay. January 20th. friendly amendment.   Council member Johnson. Uh much like Bob, I  am happy to allow Council Member Shepard to   have that vote. Okay. So, we have a motion and  a second again to revisit this on January 20th   uh with draft policy regarding property tax  no levy going back to what it currently is   if the sales tax gets approved. Is that  accurate? Y. Okay. We have a motion and   a second. Any further discussion? I see  none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 70. Council member Hohheisle.  One more. One more. And um I think this one   isn't immediate, but over the next month or so,  um an outline of the affordable housing board   um process for how how that would be set up.  I mean I imagine the main oversight committee   would be the main ones overseeing but they  have talked about including with Ford Witchah   um a subboard um potentially um looking at the  affordable housing process with that as well. So   I think here in the next month or two we need to  identify what that looks like. U mayor um I'm I'm   sorry to push back a little bit on this one.  I I think it's going to take a comprehensive   review of how you want to allocate dollars towards  homelessness and second light and other homeless   services and then how you would approach um the  housing uh affordable housing needs and what's   the best way of using those dollars. And I think  it's a pretty it's it's a sophisticated analysis   and one that's going to involve a lot of players  that are in that space. So it's not something that   staff could do easily. I don't it seems to me that  you're kind of jumping to a conclusion on the role   of the affordable housing board when I think there  are so many other players in all of this and the   council's going to have to determine what your  priorities are and whether or not homelessness   is the first use of your dollars and then once  and what those needs will be, how much you'll   allocate annually. Um, and I do think it would  help for the public as as they consider the vote,   but I just don't want to have a a conclusion  dictated. What I'd rather do is bring make sure   the staff brings back a wellvetted uh plan and  that you have an opportunity to visit on that   workshop. Um, actually that wouldn't be a bad  idea at all to have a workshop. Maybe target   the January workshop gives us time to work with  people in the community. January workshop. Yes. Uh rephrase that. So January's  workshop will one of the topics will be   uh how we set up the dispersion  of the homeless and affordable   housing funds from the sales tax  if it passes. if if it passes. Okay. So, we will have a workshop in January,  comprehensive review of housing and homelessness.   Um, is that accurate? Yeah. This version  of the funds if the sales tax even gets   approved. Okay. Uh, do we need a vote on that?  This is just a workshop. Just direct staff. Yeah,   direct. You're directed. Okay. And future  staff. And future staff. Yes. All right. So,   that did not require a motion. Okay. Any further  comments from council members? I see none. Uh,   council member Johnson. I lied. Okay. There you  go. Thanks, Mayor. Uh, I just wanted to quickly   say, uh, thank you to everyone who made the Brewer  Center grand opening this weekend happen. our park   and recck staff, public works, uh all the hurdles  we had to jump through with FEMA and Senator   Moran helping out Denise Peters, Bob, Dante, just  everyone who um has made this weekend. It was it   was a wonderful wonderful celebration. We needed  a lot of Kleenex. A lot of Kleenex was used, but   um great turnout. It's a wonderful facility  and just can't thank people enough for the   work that they did. I know staff was  there probably like 6 6:30 a.m. So,   it's a long day, but it was a meaningful day  and many people were still talking about the   great experience they had and the Brewer family  was um wonderful and appreciative as well. So,   just wanted to say thank you to everybody  and colleagues who made it as well. But   some wonderful, wonderful ribbon cutting  and um a lot of people are excited about   using the facility and the breakfast was  good too. It was better than district 3. I see no further comments. We cannot adjourn.  I am sorry. We have executive session now. So   I will read the first of three motions and  we will start with motion one and go into   executive session and then return and then  do motion two and then return and do motion   three. Is that accurate? That that is correct,  mayor, and I apologize but that is what we need   to do. All right. Okay. First one. I move  that the city council recess into executive   session for 20 minutes to receive information  on two civil lawsuits and two potential civil   lawsuits pursuant to KSA 75-4319B2 for legal  consultation with the city attorney which would   be deemed privilege in the attorney client  relationship pending litigation potential   litigation and legal advice. The executive session  is required to protect attorney client privilege   and the public interest. The executive session  will begin at 5:10 p.m. and end at 5:30 p.m. Second. Motion and a second.  Any further discussion? I see   none. Madame clerk, please open the role. Motion passes 70. We will be in  executive session starting at 510.