I will call this meeting to order. We will start   with the pledge of allegiance and we  ask that you please stand for that. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United  States of America and to the republic for which   it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with  liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Madame   clerk, can you please call the first item? Approve  the minutes of the regular meeting November 6th,   2025 and the special meetings November 10th,  2025 and November 17th, 2025. I move to approve   the minutes for the regular meetings. Second  and the executive sessions. Second motion and   a second. Any further discussion? I see  none. Madam actually, no. Madame clerk,   all those in favor say I. I. All those opposed,  same sign. Motion passes. 70. Madame clerk,   please call the next item. Special recognition  of late firefighter Captain Steve Atkinson. I have asked USD259 school board president Diane  Albert and her mother to attend our workshop   meeting for November. Um I had the opportunity  to hear Diane speak at the Veterans Day   uh salute to veterans celebration um at WSU's  Cook Arena. And her speech and the dedication   uh to her father was very moving. And this is the  month of November. I believe that the whole month   um we should be thinking um about our veterans and  what we're thankful for. And so I invited Diane uh   to share a bit about um her late father, Cedric  County Fire retired captain Steve K. Atkinson.   And in his obituary, uh, it said that Steve lived  his life in selfless service to others, guided   by honor, duty, and an unshakable commitment  to helping those in need. Diane, thank you,   Mayor. I originally gave this speech during the  JROTC Veterans Day ceremony to the cadetses of   the Witchaw Public Schools on November 12th,  2025. And that day was also my dad's birthday.   The longer you live, the more you start to realize  that life is really a collection of stories,   all woven together. Some small, some grand, but  all are meaningful. One thread of my story takes   us back to 1996, where I was a wideeyed freshman  cadet in Jerot at Southeast High School. My   classmates and I were standing in formation  at that same Veterans Day ceremony all those   years ago. We were all standing in attention,  proud, nervous, and trying to look the part.   But as the speeches went on and on, one by one,  cadets started to wobble, knees started to lock,   blood flow would cut off, and suddenly fellow  cadets would hit the ground with a thud after   passing out. And that is when my dad would step  in as a quiet guardian in the back of the room.   He would rush forward, revive the fainted cadet,  and calmly get everyone back on their feet. No   fanfare, no spotlight, just service and action.  Those moments weren't about saving a ceremony.   They were a small snapshot of a much bigger story.  A story of a man who lived his life running toward   need, not away from it. His simple act sparked  a tradition that lasted 28 years. Every single   JOTC Veterans Day ceremony since 1996. My  dad stood quietly at the back of the room,   not for recognition, not for applause, but just  to be there, ready to help anyone who needed it.   And because there were so many cadets who  would lock their knees trying to stand   still and would pass out. That is why today  cadets sit during the ceremony. Because long   speeches and locked knees made this ceremony  a full contact sport back then. I stand before   you with a heart full of gratitude and a  story that bridges my family's legacy of   service to a timeless honor that we pay to our  veterans. This day isn't just about parades or   poppies. It's about the quiet courage that  binds us all. This year marked the first first JROTC date ceremony  that my dad was not there. My dad, retired captain Steve Atinson unexpectedly  passed away earlier this year. While at times we   cannot comprehend this loss, I know he's still  here with us, just not standing in the back of   this room right now. He's standing watch in a  different way. We honor those who have worn the   uniform, stood the watch, and sacrificed so much  for the freedoms that we cherish. And for me,   it is also a celebration of veterans like my  husband, Marco Albert, an Army veteran, my dad's   best friend, Dan Wagner, a Marine veteran, and  the remembrance of my dad, Captain Steve Atinson,   whose life of selfless service mirrored the very  spirit of those we salute today. even though   he never wore a military uniform. Ladies and  gentlemen, cadetses, veterans, and honored guests,   thank you for inviting me to be here today as we  celebrate the JRTC Veterans Day ceremony. I am   Diane Albert, president of the board of education  for the Witchaw Public Schools and a former cadet.   And is my profound honor to speak to you today.  We honor all those who have served our nation with   an unwavering courage, sacrifice, and humility.  However, for me, today holds a deeply personal   significance. It allows me to honor my late  father, whose life reflected the very essence   of what it means to be a veteran. Each of us is  living a story right now. The question isn't if   our story matters. It's how we will choose to live  it. And my dad's story was written through decades   of quiet service. Veterans stories are written  through sacrifice, courage, and a love of country.   In your story, each one of you sitting here today  will be written by the choices you make to serve,   to lead, and to lift others. Service is what keeps  the fabric of freedom from unraveling. It teaches   us that courage isn't the absence of fear. It's  the decision to act in spite of it. That humility   isn't weakness. It's strength expressed through  grace. And sacrifice, it's a love that says,   "Send me." In a world chasing viral moments and  fleeting fame, veterans and men like my dad remind   us that the most powerful stories are not built  in the spotlight, but in the quiet moments of   faithfulness. They are written one unseen act at  a time. My dad and our veterans live by a simple   principle, service above self. He ran toward need  when others stepped back, whether fighting fires,   lending a hand to a neighbor, or simply showing  up. He believed that to live fully was to serve   faithfully to God, country, to family, and to  others. And that is the same story every veteran   tells through their actions. Because service isn't  just about duty. It's about love. Love of freedom,   of country, and of the people beside you.  My dad lived that story every day, quietly,   and consistently. He taught us that courage  isn't found in titles or applause. It's found   in the choice to serve others. first. Sometimes  the quietest servant leaves the strongest legacy.   Cadetses, look around you. You're stepping  into that same lineage of leaders who turn   principles into action, building resilience,  showing compassion, and leading with humility.   Because those are the choices that shape your  story and to give it meaning. But true service   begins with faith. Our stories are grounded  in faith and believing that there is a greater   author at work writing a far bigger story than we  can imagine. God sent his only son to show us the   perfect example of what a life of service looks  like through Jesus. We see compassion in action,   love that reaches beyond boundaries and the  ultimate act of sacrifice by laying down his life   for his friends. Let us always look to Jesus's  story for the perfect example of what true love   looks like, of what character looks like, and what  true service looks like. Because he is the perfect   example. Faith fueled my dad and a steady belief  that he was called to a service just as Jesus did,   to put others first, to show kindness without  condition, and to love through action. Let that   same faith be part of your story, too. Because  when we serve others and we follow Jesus's example   and our stories begin to reflect his love, that  makes us part of a far greater story. Cadets, your   story is just beginning. You represent the next  generation of leaders, soldiers, firefighters,   teachers, entrepreneurs, and citizens who will  shape the future of this country, this community,   and this nation. But leadership doesn't start  when you earn title or put on a uniform. It starts   right now with your character. Be the kind of  person others can count on. Be the one who notices   when someone's struggling and steps in. And be  the one who stands up for what's right, even when   it's hard and when it costs you something. Because  that's what veterans do. That's what my dad did.   And that's what strong communities and lasting  legacies are built on. ordinary people choosing   to write extraordinary stories of service, one act  of courage and compassion at a time. We live in a   world that often glorifies fame, attention,  and followers. But veterans remind us that   true honor doesn't come from applause. It comes  from sacrifice and service. They remind us that   freedom isn't free. Each of us has been created  and designed for a purpose and a destiny calling.   God has given us each unique gifts and talents  to use in blessing others. And that's what my dad   did. That's what veterans do every day. So here's  my challenge to the cadetses. Carry yourselves   with honor, but serve with humility. Invest in  your character. Be the quiet helper who steps up,   leads by example, and serves others. Live a life  of service. To the veterans, thank you for showing   us what honor and duty truly mean. Thank you for  your sacrifices, your stories, and your enduring   example. You are the heartbeat of our nation, and  we are forever in your debt. And for the rest of   us, let's honor our veterans, not only with our  words, but with our actions. Let us live lives   worthy of their sacrifice. In a divided world,  let's unite through acts of kindness and courage.   Use your gifts to lift others just as my  dad did, just as veterans do every day.   Because freedom isn't free, and neither is a  strong society. It's earned through service,   one selfless act at a time. Because as long as we  carry courage, gratitude, and service, the legacy   of heroes like my dad, Captain Steve Atinson, and  veterans everywhere will live on, not just in our   memories, but in the stories that we continue  to write through how we live, lead, and love   others. May God bless our veterans, our family,  and our great nation. Thank you. [Applause]   Thank you very much for sharing  that with all of us. At this moment,   can I just ask the veterans in our room  to please stand so we can honor you? And to every public servant who's  in this room, can you please stand? [Applause]   Thank you very much. Uh I think that sets  the tone for how we all want to serve our   communities. And so thank you very much Diane  for sharing that wonderful speech but also the   story of your father. Um, I would like to now  ask our clerk to please call the next 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  relevant 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. The time clock  will display the speaker remaining time to speak.   and rules of the quorum will be observed. The  first speaker today is Arthur Stokes Black. Good morning. I'm Arthur Stokes. Uh I reside  2614 South Topa. Uh live in apartment 202. Uh   the reason I'm here is for the community for start  but hopefully uh in in dealing with that topic I'm   I'm hoping and it expands for the whole state you  know we all know that there's issues here with   uh the homelessness there's issues with uh well  you know sort of like the community with housing   and when you get these people off the street.  They should have decent facilities and also be   free of the environment. You know, if we don't  have safety, you know, we don't have anything.   You know, I notice I see people with hard hats  on or the uh it's always safety first. That's in   war. that's in domestic, that's in everything that  we do. So, in in dealing with that, it it has to   be addressed. And it it's almost like, you know,  you got to have a team, you know, when you when   when we look at I know we got a lot of Kansas City  Chief fans in here. When you look at Kansas City,   they always supposed to have a plan and you got  to keep people in. And when you don't have that   going on, you have a a system that fails, it does  not work. You got to have people to keep these   uh landlords and all of these people that's power  hungry in check. And when you don't have that,   you going to have some greedy people. You going  to have some people that are going to suffer.   And you know, that's what this all about. You  know, I was listening at a old school song by   Cooling the Gang and they they was talking about  uh all of us doing our part in this, you know,   and who's going to take the weight of all of  this? And you know, that's the way I look at   this situation. Who's going to take the weight if  we don't clean up this this this mess? When you   got people in a situation where it's it's really  no plan and they're in combat, you call that   uh broken arrow. All hell break loose. And that's  what's happening in this situation. All hell has   broke loose. It has happened. I try to keep this  podium as sacred as I can because I'm afraid for   we was talking about future generations. If kids  and families get in this stuff, you're going to   hurt them. You're going to wound them. You know,  it's it's it's a very costly price. Like the young   lady was just speaking, freedom ain't always free.  Uh-uh. We pay a penalty sometime to be free. So,   uh, I won't be here next month. My family in  Florida, uh, want me to come home. I got one   uncle left out of all of the siblings I haven't  seen. Uh, I'm going to spend time with them,   but I'm going to try to spend as much time  advocating uh, next year as as possible on   this. Strive for perfection in everything. Take  the best that exists and make it better. If it   doesn't exist, create it. Except nothing nearly  right or good enough. Henry Ross from Rose. That's that's my dedication for the day.  Thoughts, comments, questions? I appreciate   you coming up here and um hope you have a good  time in Florida. On the 9th is when we will be   hearing property maintenance, I believe, which  includes things such as new safety standards. Um,   cracking down on some problematic landlords.  The 9th, the 9th of December. How can you make   it? It'll also be on YouTube. So, if you are  in Florida, watch out for them gators and go   ahead and pop that on YouTube during the  day. All right. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Stokes. Madame Clerk,  can you please call the next individual?   420 gym. Bad officers in the way rights  were violated and how we might fix this. Is 420 Jim here? I see he's not here. Madam clerk,   can you please call the next individual?  Barb Myers Cemetery Advisory Board. Good morning. So, basically, I just wanted to  give you all an update of of kind of where we   are right now. Uh we've been um of course I'm  Barb My Me Myers. I live at 1322 Stackman and I   represent Friends of the Witchaw Pioneers. We take  care of Highland Cemetery. Um so in the last six   months we have uh hosted several very successful  tours of Highland Cemetery. Uh we just finished a   collaboration with Cow Town. So we met the first  week at Cowtown and the second week at Highland.   So we were able to actually introduce the people  and what they did and then basically where they   are now. So that was a that was a new thing and we  could we intend to follow through with that again   next year. So I think that was that was a really  good thing for both of us. Uh we've had several   other tours and work days. Uh we're just getting  started. We you know in the last six months we're   just getting our name back out there. uh we're  letting people know that what we're doing uh   we're still going to be doing for a long time and  um we're going to be doing a lot more work days,   fundraising, that kind of thing. Um I just also  wanted to let you all know that we did I'm working   in collaboration of course with WSU and uh now  KU to do uh uh some grant uh research. We were   we did receive a grant uh from the National  Science Foundation that we will be doing some   uh GPR and photoggramometry research out there.  Uh the goal being that we want to be able to get   data together to be able to make a website that'll  actually be uh something that people can interact   with and actually go in and find out. They can  zoom in. They can see the the cemetery. Uh this   is something that Cambridge Cemetery did. uh you  can actually zoom in and see the people and get   the information even possibly get the pictures.  So this is where historians like myself come in   where we provide the information to the people  who do the science. So uh we did receive that   grant and uh we have commenced work on it. Any  work that we do out there is noninvasive. It's   not something that we're ever going to have  to touch anything. We're not going to have   to break ground or anything like that. We're  just going to do a GPR that goes right across   the ground or we're going to take uh drones  and go around the top. So, um, we have been,   uh, doing the preliminary work to get that started  and this, this particular project is supposed   to be done by the end of May. So, I'll keep you  informed as to where we are on that. And, um, one   of the people that we intend to find with that is  is uh, I know where Rich Robinson is buried. He's   the sole uh, African-American signer of the city  charter, and he doesn't presently have a marked   grave. So that's something that we want to find  and we hope to work with u you know maybe get the   fire department involved because his descendants  were members of the fire department both here and   in Hutcherson. So we have large reaching programs  that we want to work with other groups on to get   these uh projects done. Uh the last thing uh that  I wanted to bring to your attention and I don't   know if you've all seen it yet is the letter uh  from the historic preservation board in support   of a cemetery advisory board. Um, I know they  they signed it and I don't know where it is   in the process right now, but it was signed on  October 13th basically stating uh that they want   to see a cemetery advisory board and I think they  worded it specifically for Highland, but it should   be actually for the entire uh five cemeteries that  the city actually runs right now. But what we're   looking at is is a greater oversight. We'd still  work entirely uh with the city of course. I mean,   that's without we're not trying to make it  freestanding, but we're trying to make an advisory   board. Uh people like myself that know more about  cemeteries, know about cemetery law, procedure,   preservation, what kind of things have to be  done at a cemetery to make it done right. Um,   and I'm not saying that the park hasn't done  a great job taking care of the cemetery,   but we'd like to see more. We'd like to  see more historic preservation as well.   Um, I do want to uh commend the parks department  um for for keeping in contact with me, staying   uh we're all being um we're all working with each  other to to a great, you know, to the same goal.   Uh they do contact me, I do contact them, let them  know when something is going on. They let me know   when something's available. So, um I want to thank  you all for that. Um but basically, we just want   to see more historic preservation done in a in  in that manner. So, that's what we're pushing for   and we're hoping that in the process of of your  workshops and your budget hearings that maybe   um more money is found to be able to take care of  these cemeteries. Uh right now it's very minimal   and I know that there's a lot of work that still  needs to be done like with the roads and um I   know there's some issues with security and stuff  like that. So, that those are the kinds of things   that we're advocating for in the long run. So,  anyway, I just wanted to give you all an update   of where we are. Uh we we kind of hit the end  of our season uh this week. As a matter of fact,   uh we don't have any more uh tours per se planned,  but if anyone ever wants to come out, they can   always get a hold of me. We will actually uh  have the mausoleum open on Christmas Day. That's   something I go out and do. And uh then we start  kind of in earnest back about March. So uh in the   meantime, we're just kind of doing the you know,  you know what they say, everything's done with   the paperwork. So that's what I wanted to say. Are  there any questions? I don't have a question. I do   have a comment. Just thank you for uh everything  that you were doing. You you do a great job. Um   you actually came up yesterday. I was meeting with  the NAACP and that fact about Richard Robertson   came up. I know you had met with council member  elect Shepard and he was talking about that. Um   they might be interested in joining that effort  to to support one learning more about Richard   Robinson and all the history that you have. So I  definitely encourage that and I can connect you if   you'd like. I would appreciate that. Just a quick  question on the um the committee there. Would   that be a subcommittee? Yes. Okay. So, it would be  the historic preservation board. It's an advisory   board to the historic preservation board. Okay.  All right. Thank you. Is Reggie here? Ferris. I'm   sorry. He's out of town. Oh. Um does anybody from  the parks department know updates? Okay, great.   Do you know any updates from the conversation  in uh March when she was here talking about I   know that we've cleaned up the trees and stuff  that were down, but um we talked about security.   We talked about um a possible uh closing of the  gate. I know it was closed during um the cleanup. March was a long time ago. I know. Uh yes, the  gates were closed during and after the storms   this summer. Uh forestry did a great job  cleaning things up. Um there's always more   forestry work to do in there. Uh but the storm  damage is cleaned up. Uh but for public safety,   we did close the gates. Gates are open now  and have been for quite some time. Um the   mausoleia remains locked on a regular basis.  there's no one there to monitor that. So,   we do keep that locked. Um, in terms of security,  we are exploring several different options. Uh,   we've got some bids from different companies  for uh some security options. Uh, we ran into a   financial problem with installing electric gates.  Uh, that that is exorally expensive to do that.   and you have the uh design problems with how close  the gate is to uh hillside. So, we would have to   completely restructure the entry uh in order to be  able to do that. That became cost prohibitive uh   for the amount of uh money that we currently have  in the uh in the fund that would be appropriate to   spend on that. So, but what about the camera?  Uh that's what that is what we're working on   right now. We we have uh working through a company  that I believe it's going to be a solar operated   uh system. So we do not have to run electric  lines. Um we've been working with it and   uh Sandifer uh to be able to get that  installed. We haven't pulled the trigger yet,   but we are communicating with that uh that  company and through the planning process   right now. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Thank  you, Barb, for all your awesome work. Thank you, Barb. City clerk,   can you please call the next individual?  Andrew Crane. Housing and HUD vouchers. Andrew Crane. I don't see Andrew.  And Andrew Crane. Madame clerk,   can you please call the next individual? We don't  have any more individuals signed up. Madam cler   madame mayor Janette Peterson. She rescheduled  to December 9th. Thank you. We have room for any   individuals who would like to address the council.  I see none. Madame clerk, can you please call   the next item? Consent agenda items 1 through 27.  Council members, are there any items to be pulled? I have one consent agenda item 5A. I move to approve consent agenda items 1  through 27 without 5A. Second. Motion and   a second. Any further discussion? I see none.  All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed,   same sign. Motion passes. 70. Consent agenda  item 5A is in regards to the supplemental   agreement number one and revised budget for  plain view community center in district three. I had a couple of questions regarding the  $300,000 uh that will now increase the budget to   $10.2 million. Can we address uh what this public  art will be for? Sure. Good morning. Becca Johnson   from the Office of Community Services. to the  record. Uh the 300,000 was designated by the   design council as part of their CIP approval  process um for public art to add to the Plane   View project because they deemed it a project  of significance. We are adding the addendum to   our architect agreement to make sure that we can  get that art figured out. We don't have exactly   where that will go yet other than throughout the  facility. Can you address uh so we have another uh   center that's opening up and it's actually really  great for our community to know um about the   Brewer Center that's opening up um on district in  district 1. Can you tell us how much in public art   was allocated to Brewer Center? Sure. Uh 200,000  was allocated that was outside of the CIP process. There are multiple pieces of art that are part of  that $200,000. Council member Johnson actually is   probably the best source on that. Yeah. Um  and also the art budget I was hoping to be a   little larger. It was based on in a calculation  of the initial cost of the facility. Uh but for   the Brewer Center, um there is a combination of uh  murals, tiles, lighting. Um you'd have to see it.   It It looks amazing. But there's multiple types  of art. Um there's contract work with two Ganaian   artists from Ghana. Um working with a the artist  that won the RFP, which is from out of town,   who also contracted with three local artists.  So, there's quite a few people in pieces of the   artwork of the Brewer Center and looking forward  to the same thing happening at Plain View. Um,   so yeah, thank you. And city manager, just  so that everyone has the same information,   um, how much was the Brewer Center and only  200,000 was given to public art at that center?   Is that correct? That is correct. Um, I'm sorry,  I don't know. I I've forgotten the total dollar   amount on the Brewer Center. Was it So it it ended  up about 10 million at one point. It had inflated   to 13.7 million um and then back down after  construction cost decreased. Yeah, that was my   recollection. Mayor, you had also asked about the  schedule for plain view. Um so we are looking at   a construction beginning in September, October  of 2026 with a completion date by Q4 of 2027. Thank you. And then I think it might be a council  member Johnson question. I also asked this would   be a great opportunity to remind our community of  the grand opening of the Brewer Center. Would you   like to say anything about that? Yeah. Saturday,  uh, December 6th, 8:30 a.m. All were welcome. Love   for you to be there. I think everyone will be  amazed um with the facility, not only from what   it is now compared to what it used to be, but the  wonderful art inside of it. I think is going to be   very inspiring. Also, the first 200 guests get a  little surprise. So, make sure you get there early   and we'll have um some food as well. The best  breakfast in the city of Witchah out of every   district. But definitely would love to have folks  there December 6:30 a.m. If you don't know where   the Brewer Center is at, it's at Mac Adams Park.  We actually have over a 100 new parking spaces,   so you should be able to park close as well. Will  there be brisket at BR? There should be brisket.   There should be, but there's a secret chili recipe  that will be given out as well. Well, thank you   all very much for the hard work in getting uh  community centers um available for our community,   not only in district 1, but in district 3 um  and multiple other areas around the city. I just   wanted to make sure that um community understood  that it's a small allocation towards public art   in the grand scheme of that major project. Um, and  I just wanted to again uh commend Council Member   Johnson who's been working very hard at the Brewer  Center so that it can be open by December 6. So,   thank you. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you,  Becca. We will now open it up for public comment   regarding this item. I see none. I'll bring it  back to the bench. I know I pulled it, but it   is in district three. Would you like to move it?  Thank you, mayor. I move that the city council   approve supplemental agreement number one and  revised budget, adopt the necessary the amending   resolution and authorize the necessary signatures.  Second motion and a second. Any further   discussion? I see none. All those in favor say  I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes   70. Madame clerk, please call the next item.  Board of contracts dated November 24th, 2025. Morning, Mayor, City Council, Josh, Department  of Finance. Uh, the board of bids and contracts   convened yesterday, November 24th, 2025  for the following items. For engineering,   we have the 21st Street IT improvements  Cleveland to 159 for Philips Southern   Electric Company Incorporated for an  aggregate bid total of $4,223,542. We have the water distribution system  phase one storm water drain number 544   sanitary sewer street improvements phase  one for Green Witch Legacy Edition Tide   for NOA Construction Incorporated for an  aggregate bid total of $882,579. Uh subject   to your approval of the revised engineers  estimate budget authorization for group two.   We have the 2026 utility cut repair of  streets, driveways, and sidewalks for   PPJ Construction Incorporated for 3,474,30  awarded from the original bid of $2,961,765 within the engineer's estimate. We have the  excavation of soils at Apex site. This project   is being deferred uh given there is a bidder  protest. So, I'll be bringing this back to you,   but today I need to defer it to respect the  administrative process. Uh, for purchasing,   we have 19,000 gross vehicle weight  4x4 crew cab with utility bed truck   for Rusty E Ford Incorporated for  an aggregate bid total of $146,814. We have the 10,700 gross vehicle weight two-w  wheelel drive regular cab pickup truck for Don   Hatton Chevrolet Incorporated for  an aggregate bid total of $70,285. We have the Century 2 energy plant chilled water   pump and valve replacement for Central  Consolidated Incorporated for $515,25412. We have the 31st Street South Senica and Meridian   data fiber installation for Ideate  Techch Telecom LLC for $73,228.70. We have the Harry I35 to Green Witch Data Fiber   installation for Ideate Techch  Telecom LLC for $159,227.92. We have the Oliver Harry to I35 data fiber   installation for Idea Tech  Telecom LLC for 97,52567. We have the Pawne Oliver to I35 data fiber  installation for IdeaTate Telecom LLC for $93,544. We have the Synica McCormick to 31st Street South   data fiber installation for Ideate  Techch Telecom LLC for 174,213.65. We have the Meridian 31st Street South to   MacArthur Data Fiber installation for  Ideate Techch Telecom LLC for $82,183. And I have the four-wheel  drive sixyard wheel loader   for Murphy Tractor and Equipment  Company Incorporated for $429,950. We have the security and video  surveillance system for Century 2,   Sandifer Engineering Controls  Incorporated for $116,292. We have the online auction of released property  and evidence for property.com incorporated for   an estimated annual revenue of 15,000 per  year. We have the integrated library system   service agreement renewal for innovative  interfaces incorporated for $82,726.78. We have the process server contract change order  for Red Spade Investigations Incorporated for an   amended amount of $90 per line item one. And for  airport, we have the liquid deicer for runways for   Nature's Alpine Solutions LLC doing business  as Nature's Alpine Solutions Industrial. for   $75,720 estimated per year. This is how to  become a vendor with the city. This is our   purchasing calendar of small business  resource partner events that the city's   hosting or participating in. And these are  open public opportunities out on the street   today. And I'd be happy to try to answer any  questions. Questions for staff? Go ahead. Josh,   I have a question. Could you  go to slide five, please? Sure. Um, we recently had um a situation in district  six um with this company. I was just wondering   after projects if you guys have any type  of debrief. I've never seen a situation   like this kind of go a little south maybe.  Um but just with them um winning the highest   bid which I think is fantastic. I just want to  make sure that we don't have another situation   um like we did a couple weeks ago. So is that  ever part of the conversation? Yes. So in contract   management in general, we want to work with our  departments to outline deficiency of performance.   So we in those instances will work with our  departments, our subject matter experts to   say these are documented issues that we are having  at the operating level that we need to outline in   the contract as not acceptable. So, if you have  instances in a contract where there's concerns,   we will document a what's called a vendor  do better letter. It's a contractual breach   of performance. Um, we will work closely  with our law department to outline areas   of concern to bring them back into alignment.  Um, you also within the contract formation,   you can outline a couple different areas um  of concern. Uh, specifically with that type   of situation, you could have a pollution liability  underwriter for certificate of insurance that you   can pull. Um you can also outline um contractual  instruments of liquidated damages or incentives or   um different areas that you can outline to  ensure that type of performance is encouraged or   prevented. Um outside of that, those are the big  toolkits that we have in the purchasing office.   Um hopefully that answers your question. Yeah, I  have to say Gary and uh Paul have been fantastic,   but um I was just curious before um if  there's anything that can be in place,   I guess in general or unless something has to  happen before those extra measures are taken.   So you can um outline in a contract specific  considerations and and areas of concern. Um   reactively you can outline that that breach  process. Um, we would have to work on a case-   by case basis specifically, not trying to um,  knowing anecdotally some concerns going on,   but but diving into the actual contract details  of the project and a and a vendor of concern. We   need to work with the law department, the  operating department to bring that to our   concern of these are the instances we have issues  with. Okay, I appreciate it. Thanks so much,   Josh. Excuse me. I also have a question about  this slide. How'd you get from 2.9 to 3.4? So,   that would be something our city engineer need to  speak to. Um, they're awarding it from what the   original bid is. They're requesting it to award it  above that amount within the engineer's estimate. Good morning, mayor, city council member  Paul Gman, public works and utilities for   the record. Vice Mayor Johnston, that's  uh we wrote it for the engineers estimate   um the utility cut repair of streets. we don't  know how much work will actually be completed by   franchise utilities. So, this provides us some  more um quantities to to go above the original   bid price if we come across additional work that  needs to be done. We pay them for the measured   quantities that they complete and we won't go  above that 3.47. And Paul, they submitted their   bids by odd quantities. Yes. Measured. Yes. Their  bids are based on Yes. unit price. We'll pay unit   price per quantity bid. Okay. So, it may not end  up being 3.4. Correct. That's correct. In fact,   this year's utility cut repairs rates was under  the uh engineers estimate. We hadn't used all   the quantities that we had originally  planned for. So, this provides us some   opportunity to go above that. So, the bidding  was fair then, correct? Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. Josh, just a quick question regarding items 10  through 15. Uh that was the data fiber with idea   techch. Were there no other biders? So this  was requested by our engineer department to   not bid it out. And the reason that it was  requested not to bid out within the packet   um they outlined rationale that these uh this  utility provider will explicitly be in these   areas completing work that if was bidded out they  estimated engineers estimate to be significantly   higher. Um it is at council's prerogative that  we are we are happy to facilitate a bid. Uh   but it was strongly encouraged to request that we  have an opportunity to exempt competitive bidding   um to take advantage of these prices that would be  cheaper. Um instances outlined within the agenda   report was at 50% or greater discounts because  they're just so happen to be working within that   area. So that made a strong compelling case  for my review to say that this didn't have to   go out for bid under high technology. So that's  work being done outside of council's perview,   not the work that the independent contractor is  doing for a utility. The specific work the city is   requesting is all within council's perview being  requested today. Yeah. But that's what what I'm   saying is the work that they're currently doing  is their own work, right? Yes, sir. Okay. And I   and I can have a city engineer speak to that, but  that that is my understanding as well. Okay. Yeah.   We've we've just had uh some interesting phone  calls about it over the last month or so. So,   I just wanted to make sure I was relaying the  correct information to my uh my constituents.   Sure. And any interested public, I would encourage  um each each agenda item, each project item has   a full paragraph explanation from the requesting  pro project manager. In this instance, the public   works engineers office um that I would defer for  any members of the public also interested in these   items. Okay. So with this extra work that's going  to be done on our behalf now, if there are some   concerns as far as dirt not getting filled in  the holes completely or anything like that,   we send them to our engineering department to um  kind of rectify any of the concerns. I'm having   an engineer shaking their head. Yes. Okay. All  right. Thank you. And lastly, I think we have   a lot of folks who are tuning in that don't know  the process. uh this is exempt because it is at a   lower price and I'm sure you guys did the research  uh regarding the justification. So whatever this   amount is according to what we're just talking  about would be twice as much as what this would be   uh estimated. Um but normal process of business  with the city of Witchah is an open bid process.   Is that correct? Sure. So thank you for the  question. City council outlines in our purchasing   ordinance and in city code 2.64 64 the purchasing  policy and procedures. Um within that it it it   vests it within a purchasing officer which is  myself the purchasing manager to review anytime   a department request is exceeding 50,000 there's  a review with a very very specific parameters   or criteria that say there are listed explicit  definitions of exemptions to competitive bidding.   Uh this specific item is a high technology item.  So that in city code outlines instances of high   technology can be exempted. Um this specifically  was reviewed by myself. Um our project managers   uh review the the need the identified need the  market research to provide that to us for our   consideration as all-incclusive review. Um within  their preliminary review the engineer estimate   outlines the project cost estimation and that  project cost estimation would be significantly   higher causing them to request this today. Thank  you for your team and all um in purchasing. I see   no further questions. This does not get  public comment. So I move to approve the   board of bids and contracts dated November  24th, 2025. Second motion and a second. Any   further discussion? I see none. All those in  favor say I. I. All those opposed, same sign.   Motion passes 70. Madame clerk, please call the  next item. Petitions for public improvements. Thank you. Morning, mayor, city council  members, Paul Gman with the public works   and utilities. For the record, I have a few  petitions for your consideration this morning.   Signatures on the petitions represent 100% of  the improvement districts and the petitions are   valid per Kansas statute. Northgate fifth edition  located in district 6 project will provide water,   drainage, sewer, and paving improvements required  for a new commercial development and to cover the   cost of a private bid. Northgate fifth edition  again located in district 6. On May 18th,   2021 and November 9th, 2021, the city  council approved water, storm water, sewer,   sanitary sewer, and paving improvements required  for a new residential development. The developer   has submitted revised petitions with increased  budgets to reflect current market conditions. And   the revised petitions also shift project financing  from publicly bid improvements to acquisition of   privately constructed improvements. Whispering  creek edition located in district 2. On January   17th, 2024, the city council approved sanitary  sewer and paving improvements required for a   new residential development. The developer has  submitted revised petitions and revised budgets   to reflect current market conditions. And it  is recommended that the city council approve   the new and revised petitions and budgets, adopt  the new and amending resolutions, and authorize   necessary signatures. And as a reminder, we have  quite a few folks in the audience that these are   all paid by special assessment. And I'll stand  for questions. Thank you for that added note,   Paul, because I was about to ask that  question. Are there any comments? I see   none. I move to approve the petitions for  public improvements. Second. Motion and   a second. Any further discussion? I see none.  All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed,   same sign. Motion passes. 70. Madame clerk,  please call the next item. Council member   appointments and comments. Council members,  any appointments? I want like to uh appoint   Andrea Scarpelli to the what's the library  board? Advisory board, I guess. Is that right? I'd like to appoint Barb Myers to  the Historic Preservation Board. I see no one else. I move to approve the two  uh appointments. Second motion and a second.   Any further discussion? I see none. All  those in favor say I. I. All those opposed,   same sign. Motion passes. 70. Council member  comments. I have one. Um, this last week I   was in Salt Lake City with a couple of my  colleagues for National League of Cities.   The city of Witchah actually won second place in  the digital city survey. So, shout out to it. Um,   we are second place in the city the city group  of 250,000 to 499,999. So, was able to get that,   brought it here today. I'll give this to Mike  later, but city of Witchah second place. It's   always awesome to go collect um a plaque  or trophy or award on behalf of the city.   We do great work and I told a few people we'll  get hers next time. So, we'll be back. Mayor,   if I could just add to that, I'm really proud of  the work that's been done by it and the uh amount   of uh effort that's gone into developing policies  specifically around AI and cyber security. Those   were things that we were recognized for and  they felt that we were were exceptional in   terms of the work we were doing right now. This  is the highest we've uh uh finished in this uh   award competition and we're still shooting for  number one. Uh Long Beach is a great competitor,   but we'd love to knock them off next time. Um  but if you look at the list of cities that were   also recognized in our category, it's a who's who  of those that are involved in uh I think advanced   IT work around the country. So very proud of  that award and the work that our staff has done. Congratulations to the IT department. Are there  any further comments? I see none. We will move   on. We are not adjourning. Uh we are now moving on  to the workshop portion. City Manager Leightton.   Mayor, thank you very much. Um, over the last  year, council's had a number of discussions about   um homelessness uh in Witchah and some of  the efforts that uh have been taken in order   to address this serious concern. However, I  think whenever we've had those discussions,   they've been a little bit peacemeal. Um and so I  think the most important thing to do is to take a   holistic approach to the homelessness efforts that  are being um realized in this community and there   are so many agencies that are touching this issue  today. We'd like to talk about that what we're   calling the e ecosystem for homelessness. I think  give you it'll give you a great idea about uh the   breadth of the effort as also I think it will  provide additional information in the community   about the type of resources that are going into  attacking this serious issue. So with that I'm   going to turn over to Steve Bert who's going  to serve as our master of ceremony so to speak   um as we stop uh step through uh discussion  of the process. Thank you mayor. Thank you   councel. Um I am going to with partners we came  together to craft this presentation with the VA   second light and the coalition and homelessness  of witchah cedro county. So our intention here   is to give you a broad overview. Um there's a  lot there's about 77 slides here because this   system is so large and has been functioning  for so long. Um we expect questions we expect   this via dialogue because this is just simply  a lot of information. So our agenda today,   I'm obviously kicking it off and then I'm going  to hand it over to Matt Low with the Coalition   at homelessness in Witchah Central County.  He's going to talk about the COC's efforts,   etc. Then he's going to hand it off to Kenny  Barker with the Robert J. Dole VA Medical   Center. Then we're going to hand it off to Dan  Clifford with uh Second Light. And then I'll   come back and give an overview of what the  city's investments have been actually over   the last 10 years towards homelessness.  With that, I'll ask Malo to come on up. Good morning, U Matt Low, United Way of the  Plains. Um, I saw all of you get nervous   about the 77 slides. We'll try to move through  them quickly, I promise. Um, as Steve said,   I work with the Coalition in Homelessness in  Witchaw and Seduit County. and and really the   the coalition is uh a lot of times thought of  as you know being the United Way or that kind   of thing but the coalition while we have staff at  the United Way it is really a group of many many   partners. There are nonprofit partners. There's  government. There's law enforcement. There's the   faith group. There's individual citizens. There  are many many people that make up the coalition.   And so um just to give kind of an overview of  what a coalition where where the continuum of   care is what it used to be called where it came  from back in the 90s sometime when we started   to see homelessness kind of take go on a rise  across the country um the department of housing   and urban development made an investment  into communities all across the country.   um they said, "Hey, we'll make an investment into  you, but in order to to receive these funds and in   order to use these funds, you must form what is  called a continuum of care where we need all of   the providers working together to determine how  you're going to spend this money and what you're   going to do with it to solve homelessness in your  community. So, um the funding was provided uh for   the purposes of rapidly rehousing individuals  and families, reducing trauma and disruption   caused by homelessness. Um, one key fact that  I always like to point out is that zero dollars   of that funding that we receive into into this  community can be used for shelters. It all has   to go into permanent housing resources or  that's how it's been up to this point. Uh,   there are over 400 COC's nationwide, each  covering a distinct geographic area. In Kansas,   there are five continuums of care. There is the  Witchah Sedick County continuum of care. There's   Shaunie County, which covers Topeka. There's  Johnson County. Kansas City metro has its own   excluding Johnson County and then there's what  they call the balance of state continuum of care   which is all of the other uh counties across the  state. Um in Witchah um if I could real quick I'm   sorry to start delaying our process already. Um  there are other changes that are being proposed   on the federal level as far as how you guys can  allocate money as well. Is that correct? And yes   I have the I have a slide dedicated to that. All  right. Thank you. Sure. Sure thing. Um, in order   to receive the funds into a community, each each  community must designate a lead agency in Witchah,   as I said, United Way is that lead agency. Uh,  this is we we currently have 24 voting members.   So, I mentioned this big coalition. There are a  lot of people that are involved that come to our   coalition meetings that are on committees. We have  a whole structure that's involved, but we have   24 voting members that kind of help uh decide the  day-to-day operational direction of the coalition.   Um, I I kind of, you know, as we're going to  this overview, some of this may be redundant.   You may be aware of some of these, but I thought  it was it was pertinent to to kind of share like a   little bit more about the ecosystem of who who the  providers are, the types of services are available   for homelessness across our community. Uh, there  are street outreach providers. Um, a lot of those   are like niche populations or they have outreach  staff to go out to a to reach certain population   such as veterans or youth or you know that kind  of thing. Um, I I just tend to distinguish street   outreach from housing navigation as being two  kind of distinct things though they are very   related because you have street outreach. When I  think of street outreach, it's going out making   contact with someone providing for their basic  needs and pointing them to shelter. like it's   very low touch, like it's very much on the street.  And then we have housing navigation which takes it   up a level and it's more using that that meeting  of basic needs but not just leaving it there. It's   it's using that to open the the conversation to  point towards housing. And so and it's staff who   are walking alongside people while they're living  on the street and helping moving them directly   into housing. Um, we also have emergency shelter  providers who do just night by night services   where anybody can show up at 4:00 or 5:00 in  the afternoon regardless of condition. They're   they're given a bed for the night. Usually  they have to leave in the morning. Currently,   Union Rescue Mission does this work and second  light as well. Oh, sorry. Can we go back? Sorry,   I'm already asking questions. Uh, for street  outreach. So there are no resources in terms   of street outreach other than Witchaw Police  Department's homeless outreach team from the city   of Witchaw doing just street outreach. Is that  correct? For the purposes of just moving people   like either into shelter or just giving out,  you know, like blankets or tents or those kinds   of things. There are a whole lot of grassroots  organizations. I I I there were too many to to   name on any of these slides. These are just the  ones that we work with uh in the coalition in   homelessness primarily. So the homeless outreach  team goes out, of course, they're law enforcement   officers. They're out there during the daytime  Monday to Friday. Um the Robert J. Lova, you know,   they go out to reach veterans. Uh they're real  good about if other street outreach providers   contact a veteran veteran, they can literally  pick up the phone and they'll dispatch an outreach   staff pretty quick. The Children's Home does  youth, transition age youth. Humankind Ministries   does have one staff that does street outreach  that can go out and serve any population of   of people. Um, and like I said, they do a pretty  good job about trying to push people towards um,   shelter and that kind of thing. And then the ICT  street team is street outreach and they do a lot   of medical services. They currently have clinics  down on Ponti and Broadway as well as at Third   and Topeka uh, weekly. And that same slide, sorry.  Um, the emergency shelter. So, Second Light more   than 125 beds. Yeah, I realize that as I put that  number that well that this is just night by night   and I think it's just winter shelter as well or  possibly whenever construction is done. I'll let   Dan speak to the specific numbers on his because  I realize that they have been fluctuating over the   last few months with different construction and  he's going to share uh shortly. But the rescue   mission during the winter they've upped their  beds from 40 to 90 and I I believe second light is   during the winter it's it's 125 uh just for night  by night. they still have their entry exit shelter   which I was going to cover on the next slide. Any  more questions about difference between street   outreach, our community housing navigators uh and  night by shelter. Okay. Uh then we have entry exit   shelters. These are a little bit more in the sense  of like you go in for an intake and you can stay   in the shelter as long as you need to, as long  as you're working a housing plan um or you don't   violate rules or something of that nature. Again,  we have several providers in this community. Um,   I've listed the number of beds as best as I  could. Um, and so you'll see that Second Life   can serve men and women. Humankind has 60 beds.  Currently, they're serving a lot of families. Um,   St. Anthony Family Shelter only serves families.  You have Family Promise, again, families with   minor children. Crossroads Shelter serves youth,  Emporia House for Veterans, Harbor House, Witchaw   Family Crisis, Domestic Violence, and then you  have the mod homeless resource center, which is   just a day shelter. So, of all of these shelters,  you'll notice that most of them again are niche   populations, uh, with Second Light and Humankind  Edin kind of being the outliers who will serve   most anyone. Um, which I think is a good strategy  just because we have so many family shelters, um,   that, you know, you need something for everyone  else. Do you know how many openings are currently   in these um, locations? I don't have the exact  number of openings because it's so fluid. Like I   could say there's five openings at shelter A right  now. By the time we finish with the conversation   they could be full. And so it's it's a very  fluid thing. We are in the process of developing   a shelter app which is meant to be a real time  shelter app that the providers as they do intakes   they will take beds offline as well as add them  back on when people leave. That will be open for   all outreach advocates, law enforcement, emergency  responders and that kind of thing. And um it's in   process of being developed. Uh we hope to have  it live you know by the time the construction   is finished at second light so maybe March. Who's  created that app by the way? Um I have it's it's   kind of a complicated like we started with just  developing like a Google app internally like with   just staff and providers and then we realized we  want something more professional. So we met with   an agency. It's currently we don't have the bids  have not been signed yet, but we're looking at   Spectrum Wear is who we're working with currently.  Like I said though, the contract has not been   signed, but should be signed any day. Matt, can  I add something? Yes, sir. Um, I think there's a   tremendous shortage of shelters for families.  Uh, at at Quality Clinic, we try to get people   in shelter and we can almost never get them in.  um somebody needs to step up and increase their   capacity for families because it is not being met  right now. It it is a challenge. Um humankind has   kind of been stepping in that space as much as  they can. They have not they're not officially at   the humankind end like a family shelter, but they  are primarily serving families there. But yes,   I agree. As we continue to to struggle with  inflation and the cost of housing, we're we   see more and more families and others who are  experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness. All right, next type of service we have  available and these these are kind of   designed to be a continuum. So we start  with street outreach, we have shelter,   then you have transitional housing. Um, up to this  point, this has not typically been something that   HUD has been funding, though there is a change as  we go forward. Um, these are we have a handful,   but you'll see we only have 97 beds really of  transitional housing in our community. Union   Rescue Mission has their C2C program. They do have  other programs. They have an eagle's wings program   that, you know, as people move through their  little internal continuum that they can move   into their own apartment. They have a solid  ground program which is more substance use,   but just a bonafide straight transitional program.  C2C um is kind of their primary. Salvation Army   has a interrupt. Sorry, really quick. Um, I  know that council member Tuttle, I think, uh,   is a board member of Union Rescue Mission, but  I I know for a fact that there are more beds   in transitional housing than that at Union Rescue  Mission for men. Specifically, they just opened up   this year a second chances program for individuals  who have exited out of the prison system and   wanting to transition into um, civic life. And  so that number is actually very deflated right   there. Well, it's 30 in the C2C program. I've I  listed those by program as I mentioned. I did not   mention I did not include solid ground or their  Eagle's Wings program. And it is um I overlooked   the prison program because it's I'm looking at  programs that are open to your average person   that are that is on the street, not necessarily  coming out of an incarceration or something like   that. But yes, that probably should be listed  up there. That was an oversight on my part.   Um, Family Promise, Empowerment Center, bridges.  Again, a lot of these are population specific or   even with that, you mentioned the Union Rescue  Mission. Again, niche population. You're coming   out of prison. So, therefore, it's not just  open to anyone. You have to meet this this   niche population to be qualified for that bed.  Uh, then we have rapid rehousing and permanent   supportive housing. This has been the coalition in  homelessness really bread and butter over the last   at least decade 10 to 15 years. These are the  two primary types of programs that we provide   funding for. Rapid rehousing uh designed to for  people to be short-term case management with   um housing supports. So up to a year of case  management and housing and then permanent   supportive housing more for long-term people with  chronic homelessness and uh disabling conditions. So, the mission of the Coalition of Homelessness  is to u is to end homelessness in central county   through housing, supportive services, and  communitywide partnerships. We can't do it   on our own. Our our focus has been very heavily on  housing and providing those supportive services,   but building a network of providers as much  as we can to be able to attack this issue to   be able to strategize and work together, you  know, constantly trying to make improvements   um to to reduce homelessness in our community. Our  vision or where we're going is that homelessness   should be rare, brief, and non-reoccurring for  all of our neighbors in Central County. How we   kind of organize our coalition team, uh we found  that there are three essential components that   must be in place in order for us to succeed in our  mission. Uh first would be grant compliance and   system improvement. The the federal government  currently uh invests just over $3 million into   Witchah Cedric County uh for the purposes of  providing these permanent housing resources to   our community. that is not meant to be the the all  in all of of what is needed to end homelessness,   but it is a sizable investment that the federal  government made specifically to address this   issue. Um, so we have a grant component, system  improvement, coordinated entry and housing   navigation. This is how people access those  housing resources. And then we have our data   collection and analysis, which is our homeless  management information system. I'll go into a   couple of these in a little more detail. So grant  management and system improvement, our goal is   really trying to build a system that works and as  you all know it is it is a very challenging thing   because as we seem to to start making movements  in one direction there's these new things that   uh come into place that new challenges that we  have to address with our federal funding. We're   always delayed. So it's like if we're working  on our our federal grant right now, we won't   see those dollars for a year and a year and a half  from now. So whatever strategy we set today always   seems like there is a delay in the implementation  of that strategy. So I'll talk about point in time   count. Um 130 volunteers canvas you know all of  Cedric County. I will say the point in time count   in 2025 was probably it was our most exhaustive  um and detailed point in time count to date. Uh   with over 130 volunteers going out to every nook  and cranny all across Sedwick County um to do the   count. We used our homeless management information  system to count people that were in shelters. And   with that, oops, we had 736 people that were total  counted. That is the highest it's been over the   last four years and probably ever. Uh, but we've  we've been hovering around that 700 number for the   last four years. Like so we've been remaining  relatively flat when it comes to total overall   homelessness, but the number that we're seeing  continue to increase is our unsheltered. Um,   and you'll notice that it's gone from 124 in 2022  all the way to 195 in 2025. That's a significant   increase over the last four years. And one  thing that stands out to me is that even with   uh the multi- agency center, the winter shelter  being online this last year and with all of the   push and with all of the the people going out,  law enforcement compelling people to come into   shelter, we still had record-breaking unsheltered  numbers. So, but for that work being done,   who knows what that number would have been. So,  we're very very thankful for for that uh shelter   coming online. I will say our point in time count  is scheduled for January 29th of 2026. Um we're   of course looking for volunteers. So, uh please  go to united wayplains.org to sign up. How how do   those numbers line up with the national average?  We are actually as far as nationally and there is   on our website it kind of has some comparison  to other cities our size. We're holding pretty   strong compared to other cities who are seeing  record-breaking numbers of homelessness. Um it   sounds terrible and I wouldn't say it. I'm saying  it publicly but we have been in a lot of ways all   of the work that's been going done been been going  on has kept us pretty flat. But I can I see that   as a success because like I said, Oklahoma City,  Tulsa, all the other cities that are around us,   I mean, it's record-breaking numbers um of  homelessness. So, I'm very proud of our system,   though I know that there's so much more work to  be done, and as long as we see one person sleeping   outside, our job is not complete. A couple years  back, we set a goal of reaching what we call   functional zero. Um, and that's a milestone where  there are more people exiting homelessness than   are entering it. um when it's achieved, we'll have  accomplished our vision where homelessness is rare   and brief uh for the populations that we serve.  The kind of the the philosophy of functional zero   is that you focus on one population at a time.  So in 2023, we launched a a kind of initiative   with the VA and with the city of Witchah and  the Cedric County to reach functional zero for   veterans. Um and we've been very hard at that  work and there's been a lot of successes that   have taken place. We've learned a lot. We thought  it was going to be an easier population to address   and we found out that it was not as as easy as we  thought. We have a regional VA here for example.   So people who are experiencing homelessness in  our region come to Witchah to be served by the   VA. That's just one example of a challenge that  we would have. Um so this is also sometimes called   system equilibrium where we have the right number  of resources for the right number of people who   are entering homelessness. Um and so as I said in  2023 we launched a initiative to reach functional   zero. We've housed 356 veterans since that launch  which is about four veterans a week. And I want   you to do that m I mean that to me is a successful  system. That's more that's almost one a day for a   5-day work week that our veteran system is housing  someone a veteran who's experiencing homelessness.   Uh the average time identification from the time  we identify them to when we sign that lease to   move them is just 52 days. Um we have outflow has  exceeded inflow in 13 of the last 27 months about   50%. We need to that's that's kind of our big  growing point. We've got to see that number go up.   We need to we need outflow to exceed inflow more.  Um we we will have periods throughout the year.   we've got enough data where we see where we'll  be constantly we'll be going downhill and we'll   be moving quickly towards reaching that functional  zero metric and then something happens and I don't   we have not been able to identify exactly what  those things are but we'll just see spikes for a   couple of months it'll go down to 24 23 22 up to  38 like it'll just be a sudden spike and so then   we have to recoil and we start going back down so  we've just seen that happen at least three or four   times over the last couple of years um knowing  that the veterans are not the only population   of people who are experiencing homelessness. We  have also running a parallel track um where we're   trying to address chronic homelessness in our  community. Our goal, current goal is to reduce   long-term homelessness by 75% by 2028. Uh we  have housed 112 long-term homeless individuals   since January 1st of 2024. Can I ask another  question? Sorry, I'm looking at your website   that breaks down uh the statistic regarding  736 individuals facing homelessness. Of those,   140 are chronically homeless. Um and then those  are the key pro populations including veterans,   youth, chronically homeless, seniors, households  with minor children. So, is it accurate to say   that actually the large majority of the 736  are not part of the key populations that I   just mentioned? Um, that would be correct  because even with the 140 you mentioned,   that's self-reported. In order to be considered  chronically homeless, which is why I kind of put   that slash with long-term because to be considered  chronically homeless, you have to have a year of   documented homelessness as well as a disabling  condition. And so sometimes, as you well know,   there are people who are experiencing homelessness  in our community that are hidden back in the woods   somewhere and they're not coming out for services  and they may very very well meet that pop that   definition of chronic, but we don't have it  documented anywhere. And so they wouldn't go   on the technical list of chronic homelessness,  but they certainly are considered long-term,   which is why we're including them in our in our  measurement. But yes, a majority of the people,   we had a um a consultant that came in and helped  us run some reports on the last three years of   our data. Um and they showed about we'll say 2500  households that run through our system every year.   And about 2,000 of those self-resolve like they  come in, they go to shelter, we work with them,   and then they they go on and we don't see them  anymore. They may go into housing, they may move   to another community, they may move move in with  family or friends, but they self-resolve. And so   yeah, a majority do and it's the that smaller  number that is that ends up being the chronic   homeless and the ones that we end up working with.  Any more questions? I just would encourage people   to look at um the point in time count for their  details. They're on your website at United Way.   Um but it does show you a breakdown that a  majority of the individuals facing homelessness   um is 66% are men um and 75% are adults between  the ages of 25 to 64 and it also has demographic   um further demographic breakdown. So I highly  encourage people to look at those numbers   um the data that you guys collect for sure. Thank  you mayor. Um this year we we we received a grant   from Healthy Blue and to do a specific thing which  is basically develop a like a Zillow if you will   like a landlord engagement software that we call  Next Tenant. Um it's it's we just launched it in   August and and the whole goal being that we have  a place where case managers in the community can   go and they can identify units that are available  right now with landlords who will work with people   who have barriers. we'll say. Um, and so it's it's  shown to be a very good benefit to the landlords   because we also have a dedicated staff person who  can step in and help mediate things should there   be challenges with the tenant while they're in the  housing before they rise to the level of eviction   or property destruction or those kinds of things  to the point where we can um we have some funds   available that we can help make landlords right  if you will. we can cover rent in the uh the   periods of time when the the units are empty and  we can also move tenants into other units and then   backfill those pro those uh empty units with new  tenants. So it's a it's a pretty neat thing. Like   I said, just launched in August. We've already  partnered. This slide says 27 staff reported   to me the other day. This actually 39 now with  over,00 a portfolio of over 1100 units listed.   That doesn't mean there's 1100 units available. Uh  currently at the time of this I believe there are   about 50 available. So a lot of those are family  homes. We talked about the need for families.   There are units for families. um whether they can  afford them or not is another another story. But   there are there are certainly housing there's more  housing options for families because Witchaw was   built around families um than there are for single  people. All right. So next I'll talk a little bit   about coordinated entry and housing navigation.  This is how we move people through the system. You   know we go out to the street outreach, we go into  the shelters, we do an assessment, we put them   on the bot list and then they get referred for  housing. This picture that you see on the screen   is actually a picture of a meeting that is taking  place right now over at the United Methodist   Open Door. Every week we have providers that meet  together to do case conferencing. They talk about   people by name and by need. Uh this group here is  talking about those experiencing that long-term   homelessness. You can see you don't know all of  these staff, but there are staff from Humankind,   the city of Witchah, Mental Health Assoc. I  mean all of the providers are there. Uh this   morning we also had a meeting just like this over  teams for the veteran population and we meet once   a month for youth as well transition age youth  and looking to add families online uh here in   the near f future. So what is coordinated entry?  It's just a system that's designed to ensure that   the most vulnerable people are the ones who are  receiving the resources. We have limited dollars   that come into our community for rapid rehousing  and permanent supportive housing. We want to make   sure that the person who's most likely to have  something bad happen to them on the street or as a   result of their homelessness are the ones that we  serve first. Um, so this is kind of how it works.   You have access points that can be a shelter. That  can be street outreach. It can really be anywhere   that someone is experiencing homelessness. We  get calls all the time where someone will call   and say, "Hey, there's a person. They're sleeping  out uh in the alleyway behind my house. Is there   anything y'all can do about that?" we will deploy  one of our housing navigators to go out and make   contact with that person, check our system to see  if they're on our by name list. If they're not,   they will do the assessment, put them on the list.  If they are, they will work with them on whatever   the next steps are to move them towards housing.  So, we do access points, we do our assessment,   by name list, and then we refer by need. So,  referral and by name list. There are currently   1,190 people on the byame list. I'm already  anticipating the question of why is that more than   the 736 people on the point in time count, right?  Because with our by name list, there is a 90-day   inactivity period. Uh the the point in time count  is just one day. That's just that one day. So if   we took those 736 people and put them on the bot  name list that one day they have 90 days of um if   they disappear then after 90 days they fall off.  but we'll continue to be adding people to it over   that course of that 90 days as more people come  into homelessness. So that's kind of why there's   a difference in numbers. Um you'll see that only  56 have have are individuals that are identified   as having chronic homelessness via the timeline  as a disabling condition. At this time there are   33 veterans, 86 individuals over the age of 65, 59  transition age youth, and 96 families with minor   children. So yes, and the rest of all of those  people are most likely single men, single women   between ages 25 and 64, mostly men. So I already  talked about weekly case conferencing, so I won't   belabor that. Housing navigators is something  that we added to the system a couple years ago. We   recognize this gap between the permanent housing  resources that we have available and the people   who are experiencing homelessness. We started it  at least at the United Way as a pilot. I had one   staff in the on our whole coordinated entry team  and her job was mostly working that by name list   and the referral system, but we carved out time  to send her over to United Methodist Open Door for   about 10 hours a week just to make t contact with  clients to do an assessment because we found that   there were so many people that were just not on  our buying list. They're at open door. They were,   you know, out on the streets. Homeless outreach  team knew them. they were working with them,   but none of the assessments, none of the things  that were needed to be done to put people on a   list so that we can move them through the  system into housing were taking place. So,   we sent over one staff and, you know, our theory  was proved correct and she was able to get a   lot of people onto the body list quickly. So, we  expanded our team and um while I thought in in the   early days it was going to be primarily doing a  lot around that body list, um why stop there? So,   they started working with people and moving them  into housing. These are actually a couple of our   navigators. You see, they do it all. They  do everything from connecting with someone   on the street to making sure that they have the  IDs that they need to making sure that they are   connected to all of the resources and benefits  that they need. They help them move, find units,   sign leases, move into housing, and then they walk  alongside them while they're in housing to ensure   that they don't fall back into homelessness.  About a year and a half ago, we also started doing   uh coordinated street outreach because again  there's street outreach happening and there are   more needs that were identified than the street  outreach providers individually could provide. So,   we started doing multidisciplinary street outreach  on a bi-weekly basis where all of the providers   from the VA, from the Witch Doll Children's Home,  the ICT Street team, Humankind, United Way, City   of Witchah, everybody coming together and then  adding even more and going out in teams and going   out into all of the encampments and providing  services as a group to ensure that uh people   are being served in a holistic manner, at least  they're having some access to those services.   While we're doing that, um, we've connected with  over 400 people in places not meant for habitation   since that time. Uh, we did find that about a  third, as we suspected, had no prior engagement   with housing services. And we have housed  directly from encampments, 83 individuals uh,   directly from those unsheltered environments since  we launched that work, which is about one a week.   So consider that to be very successful. It's  something that we would like to scale. Like we   would like to see more of that. Um it's not that  shelter is not important. We just recognize that   there is there is a population of people who are  just not they're either not going to go to shelter   or they're not going to be successful in shelter.  And to just leave them out with no one serving   them is is a disservice. Um now I want I want to  not going to spend a lot of time talking about the   homeless management information system. I thought  it more important to talk about our grant, our COC   notice of funding opportunity because about a week  ago, the federal government released our annual   application for that $3 million that comes into  our community. And as Councilman Hohheisle said,   there were significant changes to this um to  this grant application. As I mentioned, we had   traditionally served rapid rehousing, permanent  supportive housing. We found those programs to   be uh pretty effective. 82% of the participants  that went through these programs have remained   housed for at least two years after receiving  the housing subsidy. Um so I consider that to   be pretty successful. This slide here just talks a  little bit about the grant and how it's allocated.   Um currently 52% over half goes directly to rental  assistance with another 22% to provide like the   case management and other things that are needed  to keep people in housing and then the other 20%   more administrative HMIS you know those kinds of  things. So 52% 1.683 1,683,000 going directly to   rental assistance. Is and is that um based off  like a federal formula? I know with some grants   that you do have to have the supportive services  or social workers to go along with it. So, is this   formula kind of cooked in the books or is this  something you have a little more or had anyways   a little more um leeway over? We had we had the  community, you know, is having the continuum of   care, they make the decisions on how the the  dollars are allocated. And so, it's considered   a competition. We're in competition with all of  the other communities across the nation. And so   we have individual programs that submit kind of  like their application for how they would use the   money. Then there's a collaborative application  of all of the programs and the the continuum of   care that submits the whole thing to HUD. And so  while HUD gives some kind of general guidance,   it's up to the community uh to decide how they  want to allocate the funds. And so, but it is   typically best practice that if you're going to  provide the rental subsidy that you need some form   of case management to go along with it to ensure  that people don't fall back into homelessness.   That's the only way we get that 82% success  rate. Without it, it would probably be much   less much lower. Thank you. All right. So, this  is the upcoming changes to the coalition grant.   This and then probably some others. Um, this year  the federal government put a cap. First of all,   uh there's we're only guaranteed 30% of that $3  million that we typically get. That's all that   they will guarantee. The rest of it is meant  to be competitive. And so depending on how we   write the application will depend on whether we  get the full 3 million or if we get some portion   thereof. I don't think we're going to have that  low amount. I know I'm very very confident that   it will be significantly higher than that.  But they did put a cap on only 30% of the   funds requested can be for projects providing  permanent housing. So like I said last year 86%   of funding was requested for permanent housing.  There are currently about 300 people in what we   call permanent supportive housing which is where  they receive ongoing case management because they   are the chronically homeless with disabling  conditions. Um if we can only fund 30% we're   at risk of almost all of those probably going back  to homelessness if we can't figure out a path to   move them on. Um the federal government while  they're allowing permanent supportive housing,   they really want it to be reserved for the elderly  and for those who are not able to work in any   way. Um and as in instead the coalition funding  can now fund new transitional housing projects,   street outreach, and standalone programs providing  wraparound services such as workforce development,   mental health services, and substance use.  So, the the focus is on self-sufficiency and um I'm sorry, I'm losing my voice, but all  transitional and permanent housing projects have   extensive participation requirements.  So, if someone's going in transitional,   they have a 40hour a week um service  requirement that goes along with it. And so,   it's it's of it's of concern. I mean, we  see opportunities here, but I also see a   lot of concerns and a lot of concerns about  it. When you say service requirement, is that   people can volunteer? Okay. It's a program.  Yeah. So, volunteer can be part of it. Um,   thank you. Um, it's going to be substance  use, you know, looking for jobs, working,   meeting with case manager, doing mental  health treatment, all of those things. So, I'm I'm concerned because while I think  that transitional um is is a good pathway,   I think it's a good pathway for some, but not  all. Um the the beauty of housing first was that,   you know, you could put people in housing and  then there wasn't the requirement. Many of   them would take advantage of it, but sometimes it  may take a little while just for them to kind of   get acclimated to being housed again. Once they  learn how to just self-care and live in a home,   then they'll start engaging more. This is  requiring it on the front end, which we think,   well, statistics will show that there's going to  be a high um rate of people who are not able to be   successful in transitional and will thus end up  back out on the street because they're not able   to pass the drug test. They're not fulfilling the  work requ the the service requirements and other   things. All right. Well, that's all the slides  that I have. I do want to end with one story.   I always like to end on a high note because that  was kind of a downer. Uh just a little bit of the   work in action. Um a few months back, um while we  were doing street outreach, our team encountered   a family that was living under the bridge. There  was a mom and a dad and they had a a transition   age youth son who had autism. So, he was like 21,  22, but he had severe autism. And so they did the   assessment, they put him on the buy by name list,  they did all the things. They said, "We'll be back   with you as soon as we you housing resources  available." Uh because of the kid's autism,   he was prioritized for housing. A week later,  they went back out to look for the the family   and they were gone. They had been moved on. The  notice had been posted that they couldn't camp   there and they had to leave. And so, um, our  staff put out an APB, you know, to try to find   this family so that we could provide the housing  resource that was needed. It took about two weeks,   but Officer Nate contacted our staff, said, "We  found them." Uh, they were under another bridge   uh where they were living. And so, unfortunately,  our staff was not able to get out immediately. So,   they contacted City of Witchah housing department.  And, um, they had, you all had a staff that was   able to be deployed to go out to that bridge to  fill out the the rapid rehousing paperwork that   was needed. The family got into housing. Since  that time, they have received SNAP benefits.   They've got the sun connected to both mental  health care as well as physical health care and   they are doing very well. That is what our system  looks like on a day-to-day basis. It it it shows   it shines light on a little bit of our challenges  with a very transient population as well as the   hope that we're constantly trying to instill in  the families that there is something available.   If you'll just stick with us, we can get you  there as well as um what can be accomplished once   they're in housing. And I have many more stories  like that, but I know we're short on time. So,   I will introduce uh Kenny Barker to come up  and share a little bit about the veteran work. All right. Thank you very much, Matt. Yes, my  name is Kenny Barker. I am the homeless program   supervisor at the Robert J. Do VA Medical  Center. I'm excited to be here this morning.   I um we do a lot at the VA uh not just providing  health care, but specifically for the population   like the homeless veterans that we get to serve.  Um I'm going to highlight just three of our main   programs, but as you see here on the slide, we  have lots of programs that serve the homeless   population. Uh and we serve over 60 counties in  the state of Kansas. So the Cedric County Witaw   County COC is just one COC that we work with.  We also work with balance of state and so uh we   we do a lot for our veteran population. We're  happy to do it and I've got a really awesome   team. This morning I'm going to walk through kind  of the successes and challenges we've had since   we announced um our initiative to try to reach  functional zero for veteran homelessness. But   like I said, I'm going to focus on the HUD  bash program, uh our grant predium program,   and then the SSVF grantee programs. So I want  to highlight initially the HUD bash program and   how that partnership between the housing urban  development that's public housing authority and   the VA supported housing program that's our case  management staff our social workers our nurses our   employment specialists and how we wrap services  around and get veterans engaged in that permanent   supportive housing program. First off though I  highlight some of the numbers here that you see   on the top right. Uh nationally we have we had a  goal of uh those who are initially vouchered to   to have them get into housing within 70 days. So  from the day they get their voucher that the goal   was to get them into housing within 70 days.  Our region was just over that at 77 days and   the dole VA reached that by 46 days. You might  notice if you're a lot of slides, right? But   but there's a a a number that Matt shared about  how we're getting um our population into housing   within 52 days of identification. So just kind of  breaking down some of those numbers. We also have   a goal with our outreach team of this was created  through the the efforts to reach functional zeros   to do street outreach. And when we do street  outreach, we're we're not just handing out socks   and soups are great. Blankets are wonderful.  Tents, you have have your own opinions about   it. But when we're looking trying to get veterans  into housing. We want to leverage the resources as   quick as possible. And so we has we have a goal in  the VA, not just the Witchaw VA, big VA to refer   veterans to housing programs within 5 days.  And so that 46 number shows that we're a high   performing community where we're identifying  veterans who need housing in an unsheltered   or sheltered environment and we're getting them  the resources they need, specifically HUD bash.   And so th this is a highlight for our community,  highlight for what we're doing as a system, and   it brings to bear the the news, the good news that  we we have to share that this we're headed in the   right direction. So, as I continue kind of going  down there, like I said, early identification of   veterans by our HHV outreach team. Matt mentioned  how we have three specific HHV outreach um social   workers. There are street um on the on the front  lines um accessing resources for veterans. Uh, and   one of the things that we've recognized is that we  need to do a coordinated industry outreach. This   isn't just a siloed. When we go out and we work  with the the population, we're seeing veterans,   but we're also seeing the the community that needs  support. And so, we go together with Humankind,   with United Way, and we go out together in  teams to support those who are in sheltered. Uh,   and we do those specific kinds of dates, but  we'll we'll go all as as many as as many times   we can to get them uh the resources they need. So  that coordinated effort also on the part of the   Witchaw Housing Authority, uh they've allowed us  to they've sit in on meetings that we have at the   VA and they provide us with a lot of oversight  and support uh as we're working with veterans   who need to break through some of the barriers to  get into housing. So some of those we we talked   about is expediting application process, making  sure they quickly move through that the system,   and then completing some pre-insspections  on units uh that we have that might might   be eligible for veterans to move into. And then  also um bringing on new landlords with they they   walk land new landlords and get them vendor with  the city so we can work through that system with   them. Um through this process just specifically  with the HUD bash program we've learned kind of   some new innovative practices that really work  on uh keeping veterans housed. You we talk about   veterans and recidivism rate not just veterans but  when you get in permanent housing and they they   we want to keep them in housing right. So um the  the national average is around 10%. It's I last I   looked actually it's 13% for recidivism those who  are in permanent housing. Uh so it's kind of been   increasing slowly. Our VA uh and the veterans  that we serve the recent rate is under 5%. So   we're once they're getting into housing we're  we're doing our best to keep them housed. Um   we've also recognized that there's a need for just  new life. uh we we bring in new partners that are   are part of this initiative. And so when we when  we highlight that we're moving towards functional   zero, people want to know what we're up to. And  so uh a a national agency called Tunnels of Towers   heard about our initiative. And so they gave us  a call and said, "We want to bring you online to   make sure that we're giving deposits, upfront  rental assistance, and access to resources for   specifically for HUDVASH veterans." And so that  that was an opportunity for my team to get trained   to because it's a case management referral process  only. So the case managers refer so they can do   double deposits, they can do um tenant incentives,  they can do a lot of things for those HUD bash   veterans. So that's a great agency that we've been  leveraging for our community, for our veterans.   It's really awesome endeavor that we're working  on. And then Canvets, uh, they're a huge partner   of ours that they've, um, the last three years  they they've spent over $30,000 specifically to   keep veterans into housing. Um, and they've been  working through that buy name list with us and   and partnering with us really closely. So, we're  really happy to have them on. There's there's tons   that I could bring up as well that that just kind  of brought to bear, but those are two wanted to   highlight this morning. We've also have some new  innovative practices. is the mobile DMV clinic.   We have the uh the department of revenue comes on  site um at the VA to provide uh ID assistance that   for free of charge um for veterans to get their  uh state ID whether it's just an identification   or driver's license. And so we've been doing that.  We've had really good success with that over the   last three years. And the municipal IDs just that  came online. You can't get into housing. You can't   get into these programs without identification.  And so that's that that uh opportunity to get for   municipal aids for them get to get identification,  get things moving forward. And then our vet   veteran benefits office does a great job of uh  getting veterans through the the pipeline of   getting service connected. We can work with them  on their their uh claims quicker once they get   identification that they're they're working with  our program. So that's also a huge highlight for   us. And lastly, uh Matt mentioned it. It just  it can't be mentioned enough. Case conferencing   uh is is a national best practice. In fact, this  morning I have a VA that's twice the size of our   VA that's sitting in on our meeting to to see how  they can replicate what we've been doing uh in our   case caring. And it's it's not just led by the VA.  It's not just the United Way. We have nine plus   agencies working together with over 40 different  providers walking through and it's it it's like   clock. I mean it's it's just a really good dance  and you know it really works out really well.   There's challenges we we kind of work through the  process of getting through coordinated entry for   get veterans getting access to those resources but  uh it's it's a great process and it's something   like I said is nationally uh recognized. We've  also added to to that process a disruptive case   management meeting that we meet weekly to  make sure that recidivism number stays low. So, a couple things that have been going  on both locally and nationally. Uh,   the the feder the functional zero initiative  has brought a lot of focus and we've kind of   been ahead of the game when it comes to oversight  and standardization. So, we hear that a lot in the   federal government. We we want to make sure that  we're the federal dollars that are being spent   for resources like a vulnerable population like  veteran veteran homelessness that they're they're   allocated properly and that programs are being run  effectively and efficiently. And so uh one of the   things that happened recently within the last  year is our SSVF grantee program. It's a they   they provide rapid rehousing shallow subsidies  and homeless prevention dollars to our community.   And so over the last several years, we've we've  been working together with multiple agencies. Um   due to the oversight and sanization process that  we've been going through, we were we were working   uh we now work with one specific agency that  is a high performing agency and they received   all the federal funding for our Witaw County uh  uh continuing care in our community. So we can   leverage those dollars and those those that money  is allocated specifically for veterans that are   in need of it. And so it's a huge uh award. Um,  and we're excited to to get the things rolling.   That started October one, this new fiscal year.  Uh, and we've been working with that agency um,   very closely doing everything we can to rapidly  move veterans off our bing list and into housing   uh, with those federal dollars. Which agency?  That's the Catholic Charities. This is a I'm   sorry, this is a one-time grant. This is a  recurring grant. It's it's awarded through   uh through the VA but it's not it's um the the  funding is actually from to goes to those agencies   and they use it for those programs. Okay. Thank  you. And then lastly for for me we got the grant   predium uh transitional housing and they also have  uh pdium only that it's it's a federal grant that   um provides transitional housing specifically  for veterans who are both healthcare eligible   and non-health health healthcare eligible. So,  we serve veterans who may have a uncharacterized   discharge on their DT14 and get them access to  some of our uh housing programs specifically,   but they they can't enter into our shelter that's  contracted with mental health association. So,   we have an opportunity as a community not to  just shelter veterans, but to provide them with   transitional housing to move them through that  continuum that we've been talking about into   permanent housing. And so, it's a it's a great  opportunity. the notice of funding opportunity   will be uh live in our community in starting in  December. And so we're looking for applicants.   In fact, nationwide there they expect over 600  different applicants for the federal funding.   And this came about because of the oversight  standardization that's happened again nationwide.   We're we're reallocating funding to those high  performing agencies that that are interested in   doing things like reaching functional zero for  veteran homelessness. So we as a community are   highlighting that as we're working towards that.  So that's going to go a long ways into getting   those dollars into our community because we're  we're already ahead of the game. There's several   communities that are just starting that phil  philosophical change is hasn't even shifted in in   their minds in their agencies. And so we're we're  way ahead of the game and look forward to getting   uh some dollars into our community, some  support for our veterans. Yes. Kenny,   can you address I think a lot of folks may not  still understand the difference between emergency   sheltering to transitional housing and can you  talk just about the transitional housing and why   it's been so successful? Yeah, definitely. So,  uh, from the VA side, we have emergency shelter,   the the contracted shelter that we operate,  it's a 30 to 90 day shelter. And so,   you're working quickly on getting them to their  next step in in their housing journey. And so   it's very time limited. You want to make sure  they're on a housing plan and you the stress is   to move quickly through the system. And I'm glad  you brought that up because my my case example   I'll kind of go through next really highlights  how there there are some that we want to take   not a pause on but strategically work with them to  help them get access to the resources and services   whether it's med medical care, mental health care  or just it's going to be a longer slower process.   And so the urgency that we have as a community  to get specifically for veterans into housing   quickly, we we don't want we want to get them to  housing and say keep have them stay in housing.   So transitional housing is an opportunity for  them to uh stay for a longer period of time.   It's anywhere from 12 to 48 months at for the  for this project specifically. And so the the   identification or the the work that they're  doing in that transitional housing model is   getting things like a pay, maybe getting more  identification there to lower barriers so that   maybe it takes them longer to get their birth  certificate. So some of that just can take a   long time. Maybe they're waiting for you,  you know, surgery and so getting them into   permanent housing while they're alone isn't the  best step for them in their housing journey.   And so we use transitional housing strategically  for those individuals who need it. And that's that   that's how that coordinated entry process works  that you have the list of resources available and   the community works off that list of resources  to leverage those resources specifically for   veterans in our case who need need those  different resources. So happy to elaborate   if I need to go further. Okay. Lastly, I  just want to give a a kind of an example   of a snapshot of what this actually looks like  for a veteran that we're serving today. Um, we   identified a 70 74 year old Vietnam era veteran  who had significant health barriers. In fact,   he was picked up with a trespassing charge and  and placed in our 7 county jail in November of   last year. And so, um, I actually h we we  I say I have a we have great staff members   um throughout the VA. uh one of it was a veteran  justice outreach worker who goes into our jails   and identifies veterans who not only have legal  issues but also housing and security and need   to access our our services. So he then moved that  veteran quickly out of incarceration and into our   uh our veteran shelter. And so from there  we quickly moved him out of shelter to find   uh some uh access to programs and supports. We  recognized at the time that he needed more family   support who were out of town. And so we we worked  with that family to have them become a temporary   guardian and a pay conservator for that veteran  so that we can get them the get him the medical   care he needed um and have him on his on a path to  get into housing. Well, in in April last year or   April this year, he was placed into transitional  housing. And so that that was an opportunity for   him to uh get all those services he needed, make  sure his finances were in alignment, and make sure   he's getting into medical care. Those were our  plans for this veteran. He had other plans. Uh   he kind of used his housing as a resource that  oftentimes happens for uh not just veterans,   but those who have experienced homelessness.  And so his his time in the transitional housing   program was short. And in fact, we're so grateful  that we had a a resource in Second Light where   that veteran felt comfortable not staying on  the streets, not picking up more legal charges,   but actually finding a a place to rest his head  at night so that he wasn't being exploited by our   our other community members. So, we worked  diligently with that veteran to get him he   went from transitional housing to Second Life and  into a permanent guardian placement where he now   resides in a hotel uh and while he's waiting  for a long-term care placement. So, all this   kind of sounds like maybe not a success. This is  what what this looks like is is how you work in   a system that works together because this veteran  touched not just the VA that touched Second Light,   United Way and multiple different programs along  the way. This is what it looks like. It kind of   feels messy at times. Uh but what what you need  is a a ecosystem that works just for the specific   population that we're working with. Uh we're not  it's not a hammer nail scenario. We got to work   as these individuals need our support. We're  going to work with them all along the way. So,   that's all I've got. Thank you very much. Um,  next up I have Dan Clifford with Second Light. Good morning. I'm being joined by James Roberts  with Witaw State's Public Policy Advancement   Center. James and the PPMC have been integral  parts of Second Light since before its inception.   So today we're going to talk about Second  Light operations. We're talk about construction   um financials and where we're headed as an  organization. But before we begin, I want   to tell the story of one individual that came to  Second Light earlier this year. So this individual   receives mental health services in our community.  Um during high school they lost a parent, moved in   with a family member, actually lost that family  member as well. And throughout that loss, really   struggled to cope, turn to substances, quickly  spiraled out of control. Um they moved in with   another family member and that family member had  young children in the home and rather than expose   those young children to his substance use, they  elected to become homeless. And they were homeless   for a number of years. They came to Second Light  earlier this year and I'm really happy to announce   that they're using the housing first program and  they moved into their first apartment yesterday.   So that's the story of Second Light. You come to  Second Light, you receive services and you get   housed. So what is our role? Our role in the  community, we are a bridge between crisis and   stability. So we are part of a community response  to homelessness and we offer that catalyst for   healing and housing. And again, we're just a  collaborative partner in a systemwide response. So, we have so many partners that  offer services. Um, from Humankind,   that is our shelter operator to the  Lor's Diner that provides 12 meals a   week in an inind donation. We have our FQs that  provide medical services. Uh, we have Comare,   Mental Health America, and SAC that offer  mental health and substitute services.   And we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all  of our partners for the work they do every single   day at Second Light. Uh without our partners,  the Second Light model would not be effective. So a quick note about our timeline. So  the building was acquired in September   of 2024. Park Elementary School. The emergency  winter shelter opened up this time last year.   Macboard or Second Light became the managing  operator in April of this of this year.   The building design was complete  and construction began in July. So,   we're still going through construction. We  started our shelter plus services program in   August and we anticipate construction to be  done in early 2025 or excuse me, early 2026. So, a construction update. So, the women's  shelter space opened up on October 11th.   We're really pleased with how that turned  out. see in our picture. We elected to have   7 foot walls separating the bunks because we  put a premium on dignity and privacy for all   of our guests. And we're excited to announce  that actually two weeks ahead of schedule,   we're opening up the men's shelter  sleep space on December 5th. So,   we have working on our bathrooms. We'll have  11 shower stalls for men and five shower   stalls for women. We have our north wall built  north of the campus. That wall will actually   extend south along Main Street and offering  a very good campus feel for our environment. Some accomplishments as of October 1st. So since  we started our shelter plus services program,   we've served almost 400 individuals at Second  Light. Uh a point that's worth noting is that   120 of those guests were over the age of 55.  So we are seeing a significant older adult   population at Second Light that requires a  unique response. We're partnering with the   county to come in and offer services to this  population. We have 16 organizations that   have signed agreements to provide services at  Second Light. And within those organizations,   almost 200 individual providers are coming in  and offering services to our Second Light guests.   Those services range from mental health, substance  abuse support, medical, housing, and others. Shifting to our financials. So, our six month  spending as of September 30th is a little over   1.6 million. Our monthly spend has varied, as you  can imagine, as we are working with construction   and finalizing what our operational model is  going to look like, but we're looking at about   $270,000 a month of expenses. Then our estimated  spend by the end of 2025 is about 2.4 million. Looking at our estimated budget for 2026,  that is about 3.5 million. If you do the math,   that's a little more than $270,000 a month.  That's because we need to increase our operational   capacity at Second Light. Additionally, this does  not account for inind services such as meals,   IT, and medical services, which would add  about another half million dollars in inind   uh donations. We anticipate the ARPA investment  end date to go through September of next year and   really funding beyond ARPA. We anticipate  some level of public private partnership. So, a note about our shelter plus services  program. So shelter plus services is this   holistic and wraparound service to set every  individual in Second Light on a path to housing   and we do that through a a process using  evidence-based screening tools where we   identify risk in an individual. We  connect that individual to resources   to help mitigate that risk and then we  work to put them on a path to housing.   We are partnering with Mental Health America to  provide three case managers to work exclusively   with our shelter plus services guests to put  every individual on that path to housing. So, some pictures of what the facility is looking  like currently under construction. We have   consult rooms for mental health and substitute  services. We wanted to have private spaces for   those sensitive conversations. So, we have four  individual consult rooms and two group rooms that   we can utilize for these conversations.  We also have additional provider spaces   um for connection. We're going to put some  cubicles in these rooms and have less sensitive   conversations and look at things like municipal  IDs, housing, case management, and having those   conversations in these spaces. And this is  all on the first floor of that provider space. So defining success because we are ARPA funded  we want to make sure we are building in metrics   to track the work that we are doing. So  within everyou we are requiring partner   reporting. So we're tracking monthly and  quarterly impact number of unduplicated   clients number of encounters. We're looking  at the demographics of our individuals served   and of course with our case management  services coming online in the next few   months. We're going to be collecting a  lot of really good data that's going to   tell the story of Second Light and how  we put everyone on a path to housing. So, communication, uh, we want to keep  all of our stakeholders updated. So,   we have regular neighborhood meetings where we  update folks on operations, on construction,   on what to expect moving forward. We hear their  feedback and concerns. We try to mitigate those   concerns through changes in our operations. We  have a lot of guest communication. We send out   regular communication. We collect monthly  guest feedback about folks experience at   Second Light. And also we have a monthly  guest advisory board where guests have   access to me to offer their feedback  about their experience. And we learn   of what we can do to be more effective and  more efficient at offering services at Second   Light. We also provide quarterly community  updates and stakeholder updates as needed. So, emergency winter shelter, we are launching  emergency winter shelter from December 1st to   March 15th. We're actually opening up a little  bit earlier this year because we have some cold   weather coming in this week. Uh we'll provide an  update on that. Right now, we are open the 26th,   27th, and 28th and we'll likely open up for the  just the rest of the month moving forward and open   up Winter Shelter a little earlier. Uh because the  men's sleeping space is becoming open sooner on   December 5th, we actually anticipate regaining the  gym for that additional sleeping area very soon in   December. And we'll have a total capacity of 295  individuals. So that's 170 folks in our shelter   plus services program and then 125 available for  our emergency winter shelter. For some context,   on our coldest night last year, we never saw  more than 275 individuals at Second Light. Uh   we are also partnering with Union Rescue Mission  for them to serve as an overflow for us and they   are increasing their night by capacity from  40 to 90. So we have a community response for   cold weather this year. All of our guests will  have access to meals, showers, and services. We   do have a curfew at 11:00 p.m. Law enforcement  can bring in folks afterwards. And of course,   if there's someone outside our door and  it's cold out, we will always let them in. So I want to talk about our role in the  community and really we've heard about   this continuum of care and second light  really exists in this first part of the   response to homelessness as a continuum  in that emergency shelter space where we   offer these resources and services in that  shelter capacity. But really there's all   these steps that come afterwards that are  needed for a successful continuum of care   and a systemwide response to homelessness.  So, Second Light really serves as that first   step in many parts of a systemwide response to  homelessness, that emergency shelter component. And talking about our service population, uh folks  that are experiencing homelessness typically fall   into one of three categories. Those that are  housing insecure, they're experiencing some   light barriers. um those that are experiencing  more significant barriers, they might need uh   comprehensive coordinated response in order to  be successfully housed and then those with severe   complex needs. Second light is uniquely situated  to serve really those first two populations,   those that are housing insecure that require that  light touch that will likely become stable very   quickly and then will likely never see them again  in Second Light because they will be launched   and successful. those that are experiencing  barriers that need that wraparound holistic care,   maybe have mental health or substance  use issues that need to be addressed,   uh help stabilize and support those  individuals, put them on a path to housing,   and we will serve anyone that comes in our  door, but really we are not well equipped   to serve those with that high level of  complex needs. Our community is working   on responses and a a strategy to serve that subpop  of individuals that are experiencing homelessness. And finally, I want to just make a note of our  role in the community. We've heard Matt talk about   from the coalition and and really at the center  of our community's response to homelessness is   the coalition to end homelessness. We have our  shelters offering services and then a variety of   partners that are in this ecosystem providing  services to this population. So again, it's a   community effort. Second Light is one part of the  response to homelessness in our community. Dan,   great job. Can I ask a quick question? Um, just  because my background and I'm super curious. So,   for complex needs, you know, having not just  a here's a card and a referral, but you know,   a touch and making sure that there's a warm  handoff, if you will. I know we're short on time,   but just can you maybe give an example of do you  have a process set up or do you have resources?   You know, some sort of procedure. How are you  going to do that for the folks that um have   those more complex needs and you know aren't  going to go through the system pretty quickly   as you mentioned much better than I am. Sure. So  I think really our operations are being rolled   out in two phases. The first phase is focusing on  the primary factors that influence homelessness.   It's going to be medical care, mental health,  and substance use. So, we have those partners   in the building and we expect anyone that comes  in that would screen positive for needing those   services will get that touch and get that service.  And then really comes the care coordination. If   we feel like folks are going to be a better  fit for another resource in our community,   we want to connect them to that resource. An  example, we had a veteran come in a couple months   ago and very quickly responded to the VA. They  had someone out that day and they recognized that,   you know, Second Light is a good resource but  not the best resource for a veteran experiencing   homelessness. So, they moved them into um Emporia  House. Another example, we had an 18-year-old   female that came to the shelter recognized really  quickly that we could serve her, but um that Waw   Children's Home was a much better fit for her and  her needs. So, we transitioned her to that. So,   it's really about identifying what are the risk  factors, what population do they belong to,   and then what resource in the community is best  um utilized to serve that individual. I wonder if   if I could interrupt for just a second. Um, James,  you may want to talk about there's some discussion   about how you put a program together for that 10%  that are seriously uh are the most serious cases,   the most chronic. And I I believe there's going  to be some work um that will be funded by the   county to help look for solutions. Is that right?  Sure. Manager, what you're referring to is and   was work that ran parallel to and and came from  the homelessness task force over the last three   years. Persons in this room, some of the providers  who have already spoken were part of examining   uh and looking at what is the network of care and  response that's needed for folks facing these most   complex needs. And so really what that 18-month  process resulted in was an understanding that   um it there's a homeless service network, there's  a set of service providers, there's a shelter   service, but there's a there's an additional step  that's needed. And so as the metric referenced,   there's some ongoing work from a number of  stakeholders to try and identify what does   that network really look like and what does  that support system look like. Great. Thank   you for the great answer and thanks to Steve,  James, Dan, Matt, and Kenny. Great job so far. Sorry, I have one more. I apologize. Can you go  back to the second lights role in the community?   There we go. Thank you very much. I think it's  important to note I really appreciate uh for   full disclosure, council member Ballard and I are  both um members uh board members of Second Light.   And so we understand uh this ecosystem and very  much appreciate Dan and PPMC for the leadership   regarding Second Life, formerly known as Multi-  Agency Center MAC. Um my question is about triage.   Um so would it be safe to say that Second Light  can be that triage that then would refer people   to the other resources in the community? as you  just mentioned those two examples of a young   lady at the age of 18 considered an adult.  However, we do have Witchaw Children's Home   uh specifically they have a homeless um team  for youth between the ages up to 24 I believe.   And so can you talk about the triaging that Second  Light really is there for um as we try to provide   a resource for community when they say we want  to help out with homelessness. Where should we   plug in first? Would Second Light be that plug-in  first? Sure. Well, that's a a great question. So,   somewhat of a the challenge we're facing right now  is the limitations on space due to construction.   We anticipate construction largely being done um  by mid December with the followup being done by   March. Um so, we haven't had a space where we can  have daytime visitors at second light. Right now,   we're considering sort of the suspension of  normal operations as we respond to the winter   weather. And so, our emergency winter shelter is  a crisis emergency response to our community. So,   once emergency winter shelter uh  concludes at the mid March or so,   um weather dependent, of course, we'll be able to  turn online our our daytime services. And really,   we're still in the process of developing  what those operations are going to look like.   again focusing on medical, mental health,  substance use being that first phase with   the second phase being things like workforce  development uh training like that. So we want to   have kind of a multi-phase roll out of operation  at Second Light and I do believe daytime services   would be an appropriate place to triage someone in  our community and connect them to those resources. I will turn it over to Steve Bird at the city. Okay, we ready for the rapid fire around? This  is the city's involvement, the presentation. So,   there's a little bit of rapid fire here and  I promise that if it gets too complicated,   I'll have to ask Sally up here to answer some  questions. Sort of an overview um slide. And   you know, I know this is allegible. I'm very  clear that this is allegible, but this is the   10 years of data that has been called out of the  city's investment in homelessness services over   the last 10 years. You have this slide. We can  certainly provide this spreadsheet to you later,   but this is a quick review of at least the last  seven years. Last year's commitment of the city   of Witchah towards homelessness services. And I'm  going to break down this number of 3341189 in the   slides that follow, but that's the commitment  2425. So this is where that 334189 is coming   from. Community development block grant, emergency  solutions grant, ESG cares act, the public housing   authority, and that investment I'll detail a  little bit later. And that is in the specialty   vouchers for people coming from homelessness. the  other funding which includes um housing first, the   county um general fund, department of justice and  the the um project hope stuff and then the public   housing authority investments and that's the the  reinvestment of the sales of public housing units.   The investment in Park Elementary, there's the  budget over on the left. It totals 14,537,25. The original idea behind Park Elementary was to  reduce barriers for unsheltered households. Uh,   Second Light was envisioned to be a one-stop  congregation of all service providers who can   quickly resolve the household's homelessness by  connecting them to rapid re resolution housing   and other social services. Adding in 24-hour low  barrier, year-round shelter for those that need   that service fills a gap in our community  that didn't previously exist. if we haven't   already said that. The investment in project  three. Project three yet unnamed. We're taking   suggestions at the feedback box. Um this is  the threestory building that is being built and   designed currently behind Park Elementary School.  The first floor is 25 units of non- congregate   shelter. And then you've got two floors, 25 units  each on floors two and three that are small units   meant to be permanent supportive housing for  those people. The idea here is that we have   the continuum happening. We've got 9 by9 shelter  at Second Light. We've got entry exit shelter at   Second Light. We move into non- congregate shelter  in the building behind. And then we move upstairs.   The idea being that we've created this flow of  individuals who are meeting the housing plan   requirements and moving on to the next step  with the idea that they're not going to want   to be here forever either. We built those units  to be small and compact and hopefully that they   will move on to something else elsewhere in the  community once they've spent their time here.   The number of program participants that have  been accessing specific delivery of witchaw   services include the in our HCV programs those  specialty vouchers I'll break down a little bit   later but in homeless preference foster youth  to independence the veterans administrative   supportive housing 1312 we've got about 49 folks  that ran through our uh rapid rehousing program in   the last year housing first served 94 folks and  our outreach and services only program which is   the remnants of some of the project health folks  as well as our new uh witch unhoused resource   coordinator. They've touched 175 individuals in  the last well they've touched them in the last   year. This is a breakdown of the programs  currently delivered out of the department   of housing and community services are direct to  housing tenant based rental assistance. I'll talk   about each of these on their individual slides  but that's why I called it the rapid fire round.   um the need for direct to housing strategies.  Now, we've talked about shelter, we've talked   about permanent housing projects, including Rapid  and PSH, but we also need to create a pathway,   and that's going to be my next couple of slides,  for people to be housed directly out of either   encampments or out of other places not meant for  human habitation. Not everybody's going to go to   shelter, and there are various reasons for that.  They're not all bad. You've got folks that can't   be with their partner um and there's no room in  a family shelter. You've got folks with animals.   There's a lot of people who are unsheltered who  are with animals. It might be traumatic for them   to be in a congregate space. They can't bring  all of their things. They're going to lose their   things. They're going to lose their space. Their  tent's going to get disposed of. All of those   things that create a trouble for them when they're  just merely trying to survive. And then some   just struggle with the autonomy and the rules and  following the structure when they have not had any   of that. They haven't transitioned to it. This is  a complicated slide because at the end of the day,   the bottom right hand corner is the goal. And  how we get to the goal can take so many different   pathways. The traditional pathway that one would  think of is that you're going to be communicated   with by a street outreach worker. You're going to  go to shelter. You're going to go to some sort of   transitional housing project. You're going to go  to some sort of rapid rehousing. You're going to   transition to permanent supportive housing. You're  going to go to HCV. But at the end of the day,   if we don't have all the pathways that respect  the human experience, then we're going to have   an increase in either unsheltered homelessness  or sheltered homelessness. We create log jams   if we throw all of our resources into one  pot. So, this presents that pathway. It's a   little bit messy because it didn't originally  look like this. I was the one that put in the   self-sufficiency over in the right hand corner.  We do have a lot of people who access shelter,   they go into permanent supportive housing or rapid  rehousing and then we do also transition them to   the section 8 HCV voucher. Some of them um stay  there for a while and those are the me the people   who are meant to be there. They are they have  disability income and they're never going to   be able to work again and perhaps that they belong  there. But if there are people who are employable,   we certainly want to get them down to that  righthand corner. And through this process   somewhere, they're going to find employment.  They're going to start generating income,   and they're going to be able to start generating  their own resources to pay their rent. Now,   our home tenant based rental assistance program is  homefunded. It's not a traditional funding source.   And this is um a new program that we are just  now bringing online intended to create a rental   resource, a rental assistance program for people  coming out of directly unshelteredness. Although   we will also apply this to people who are rapid  resolving out of Second Life entry exit shelter.   It's a rapid rehousing source. It's not permanent.  It's designed to get them quickly housed, get a   roof over their head so that we can do the rest  of the work. Um, this is a payment resource for   our community providers to house their clients  and the provider will contribute their case   management. Ongoing housing acuity assessments  will determine the appropriate level of that   case management. It will also determine when and  what the next step for them will be. We're going   to apply an objective process that housing  acuity assessment is just now coming online.   If ongoing support is deemed necessary, the  client will be referred back for a different   housing resource, but will stay in the loop.  Not unlike the loop that Kenny demonstrated,   right? When one source taps out or ends or is  no longer appropriate, we need to be able to   move them to the next resource. We're going to be  targeting home tenant based rental assistance to   people in encampments and for rapid resolution  for people at Second Light. However, due to a   shortage of community-based case management, those  with low to moderate case management needs will be   prioritized for this. Project Hope, many of you um  are familiar with Project Hope. Project Hope was   funded by the United States Department of Justice.  The initiative identified a specific geographic   area that is known for high levels of serious  and violent crime. All activities focused both   attention and project resources on the targeted  portion of downtown Witchah with focus on specific   crime hotspots. The question was what happens to  crime rates in a specific targeted area if we end   homelessness for the individuals present in that  area. What this did though, and this is the really   cool part of this, it implemented something that  was relatively new to our community at the time   and is now a little bit more standard operating  practice. It was the implementation of a care   coordination team. This model now continues in  our community. It was a professional housing   specialist, a social work intern. We currently  have three on our floor now, and a peer recovery   specialist, somebody with lived experience in  homelessness, substance abuse, mental health,   or a combination of all of those things, right?  Like you just are able to connect with somebody   who you've experienced similar things. There  was also a public education campaign built into   this project hope process and that included the  community resource fairs that brought providers   and consumers together inside outside wherever it  was we were meeting the clients where they were   at. It also generated hope in the heartland the  feature length film that brought attention to the   challenges our community faces. That documentary  was awarded a 2025 Heartland Family Award. to to   wrap that up. The project hope data we have a a a  draft of the final report that we will be happy to   share with council uh following the completion of  that report. Steve, couple questions on that. So,   it's supposed to end by the end of this year.  Is that correct? Project Hope technically ended   funding on 9:30. 9:30. Okay. And we're now just  working on getting the final report in I'm very   interested in that data. Um, in addition, first  I want to go back a little bit. Care coordination   teams. So these three people teams, how are they  deployed? When are they deployed? How often are   they deployed? Right now we are focusing those  teams on the folks that we housed with the project   housing resources to make sure that we keep  them housed. That's their primary mission. Now,   we don't actually have much funding into our  department to do street outreach and to reach   out to those. And I'll get to the coach on house  resource coordinator program somewhat separately   that does create a little bit of that but these  teams now are currently working diligently to keep   those people housed which is no small effort. One  quick question. So, you had talked about we don't   really have the um funds currently for the street  outreach team. Continuum care talked about that   a majority of their funds have to be spent on  street outreach now. Is that correct? Yes. I've   put together a model and of course this is all  happening in real time and so I'm saying this   with a little bit of trepidation actually, but I  am transparent. I'm working on putting together   that clutch model that is street outreach to  housing navigation to housing stabilization and   then long-term supports using the COC resources.  I've crafted a little bit of a budget. At the end   of the day, whether that funding comes from the  COC or we need to generate it some other way.   It is a big missing piece in our community to do  that overlay. We can house people all day long,   but we have a 25% returns to homelessness rate,  which is essentially when we house somebody,   they fail to stay in that unit for two years  or more. And that's the successful benchmark   we're working on. And I have another program  that I'm doing a little bit of a pilot on to   see if we can't reduce that number. Going back to  that 25%. Um, again, congratulations to the folks   that did the film. Um, however, I do remember  that the individual that they featured did not   stay housed. Do you have an update? That person  is housed today. So, she got housed in the film,   uh, became unhoused again, but then is now  rehoused. Correct. Good. I'm glad to hear that.   No small effort, and we continue to work with  our teams to to help those that we have housed   who have complex needs stay housed. Witchah  Cedric County Housing First program. It's our   permanent supportive housing program and it  provides rent, utility assistance, and case   management to place chronically homeless persons  in rental housing. Um it was created in 2014 as   one of five recommendations of the 2014 and 2015  homelessness task force. It's funded 5050 by the   city of Witchaw and Cedric County until 2025 when  we were able to apply for and receive COC funds to   add to that which expanded the housing capacity  and case management. Our emergency solutions   grant pays for two programs right now that we're  doing internally among other things out into the   community. Um our ESG rapid rehousing resource  provides short-term rent utility assistance for   homeless persons. It can pay for security deposit,  two months of rent, utility deposits. It's for up   to six months utility arars and while maximum  amount isn't determined, it is intended to end   their homelessness. So that kind of frees up the  spend the money it takes to do that within um a   short amount of time. This is not a huge amount of  resources. Our ESG homelessness prevention, this   is where I talked about my goal here because we  have this funds to do it. It's not a large amount   of money, but we're applying it and targeting  it towards people who are currently housed,   who have been homeless in the prior 24 months with  the goal of positively impacting that 25% returns   to homelessness. If we focus in on people who are  starting to struggle, who have an eviction notice,   who are have a a threat of eviction from their  landlord, but they were previously homeless,   we're going to do what it takes by paying  rental, rental application fees, utility   payments to get them right so that they don't fall  back into homelessness. That way, we may be able   to affect positively our communitywide  metric of 25% returns to homelessness,   which interestingly is factored into our CFC  application in that federal competition level.   The studios at Humankind are on this slide because  we will remind you that in the program year 2020,   the city of Witchah allocated $2 million received  from the county's CARES funds and $2,62,00 grant CARES Act funding to humankind ministries  towards the construction renovation of the former   316 hotel. that over $4 million in funding  went towards the creation of 54 affordable   housing units specifically aimed into supporting  those living in homelessness. To be eligible, you   must be referred from one of our homeless service  providers. They have a on-site case management.   Real quick on this one, do we have a average  stay of a person who's going through the end?   Looking to Sally, we can get that for you. Okay.  And do you know if there are any openings there   currently? Um, I do believe they've got a little  bit of of a few openings here and there. Okay.   Thank you, Steve. That is is that's not considered  transitional housing, correct? No, it's considered   permanent supportive housing with the hopes that  they will move on to, and I'm being careful not to   use the word transition, move on to something else  so that they may create a space for somebody else   newly coming out of homelessness. The minute we  start putting people and keeping people case man   on to the next resource. We create log jams not  only in shelters but in our transitional housing   programs and our permanent supportive housing  programs. So that work flow through that I   showed you on an earlier slide. We've been really  diligent in our department. And I'm going to come   back to this and start talking about it on this  slide. To allow access to our homeless service   providers to move people from their permanent  supportive housing programs like at the studios   onto vouchers and out into the general market  that started here. Can I ask a question back to   the studios? I really appreciate council member  Hohheisle's question about the average stay. um   the sense of urgency that you just mentioned about  the log jam that I understand everyone's different   and some might need to stay longer and might need  further assistance. What is the sense of urgency   in really trying to encourage people to uh move  on to the next resource or how do you elevate? Uh   I guess I'm asking this question because Union  Rescue Mission has their um launching programs   and they really their motto is really launching  people uh launching men um and so there is a sense   of urgency. Can you address the sense of urgency  and moving people so that there is no lock jam?   We've been working diligently over the last year  to create that sense of urgency to remind our   community partners that if all of your beds are  full, then you're not creating a new resource for   somebody coming out of homelessness. If I were to  describe the community's sense of urgency in the   PSH programs and the rapid rehousing programs, I  would suggest that it probably could use a little   bit of of a push. I will talk about that a little  bit on this slide because at the end of the day,   the public housing authority and through the the  housing choice voucher program has intended to   create these processes for people to move on out  of whatever project they're in. So in 2020, as you   know, the housing authority may assign preference  points to households. And you guys see this as the   housing board, and you have allowed all of this  to happen, which is really wonderful. In 2020,   up to 10% of all of the vouchers may be issued  for households coming from homelessness. In 2024,   you all changed that to 15% of all vouchers may  be issued for households coming from homelessness.   And these are people specifically coming either  directly from unsheltered or shelter or from one   of the rapids or one of the permanent supportive  housing programs. And then you just approved   moving that up to 20% and changing the name from  HPPS which stands for homeless preference program   to limited referral-based preference vouchers  and also includes the caveat of individuals   coming from criminal justice re-entry program.  And I've met with Union Rescue Mission and I   also will address another number on the last  slide because I used to run a prisoner re-entry   program and if we're not addressing the needs of  that population then we are risking actual inflow   coming from the into the homeless system from  the criminal justice system and we have to cut   that off in some ways and so we'll talk a little  bit about that investment here moving forward   just because I thought you'd ask um our housing  choice vouchers under contract as of 111 is 2767   the homeless preference amount to 356 of those  which put us at 14.14%. With the strategy that   we need to bump it up, we need to bump it up to 20  because we're about to hit 15. So, the idea that   we have this option, this opportunity for people  who really need the ongoing um rental assistance,   have it in our community has been a really big  push of our housing authority and the housing   authority board. Are we expecting these vouchers  to remain steady? I know there was some talk with   some expectations of commerce. We just don't  know what's going to happen. So, we're playing   it conservatively while we sort of wait and see.  Um, at this point though, we are still pulling   particularly HPV vouchers and a few others. We're  we're pulling them. We're keeping up with them on   a weekly basis. So, at the moment, the resource  exists. And then if we go to it, the I can't   remember correctly, the House bill had a 46% cut  and the Senate bill a 17% cut to housing vouchers.   So, we're planning on something maybe in between,  maybe a 25% cut at this time. Yes. When we're   facing these challenges, we're taking a wait and  see and and and cautiously optimistic, although   planning for anything that may come. Thank you.  These are the subsects of our housing choice   voucher program. The veterans affairs supportive  housing is the collaboration between HUD and VA.   And we're so thankful for this partnership. We're  working with the VA. We are at every one of these   phone calls or case conferencing. Um we're at the  disruptive case conferencing. When we hear about   somebody potentially losing their housing, um we  reach out to the VA. They reach out to us and we   figure out the common solution that can keep them  in their housing. Our foster youth independence   program is for those 18 to 24 year olds who have  exited foster care. Um and that is a a partnership   with uh child and family services. And then the  emergency housing vouchers um HUD provided those   housing choice vouchers. We're no longer issuing  those but they remain on the street and that   program will expire on 1231. Although we have a  plan in place to move them to other vouchers. You   say Congress cut that one as well. Correct. We  have a plan to to move them to other vouchers.   They they got the emergency housing vouchers.  It and it came along during the height of COVID,   too. So, you know, it's been it's been a minute.  Okay. There's 80 something folks on that voucher   right now. Um, counting the interactions,  we've provided 687 case management visits,   um, encampment visits, 132, home visits, 388.  We've done 2,222 annual assessments and some   other stuff for a total of 3506. This number of  course is is deflated because we transitioned our   homeless management information system which  I was a part of before I came over here. And   uh those services and some of that data didn't  come forward into the new system. So that's a   lot of the aster data is from 1210 2024. So this  number will be going up as we capture better data,   not better, more data. Um, these were the folks  from homelessness that entered all of those   various programs that you saw before. If I run a  number, I see the 71% of them came from emergency   shelter and 11% of them came from places not meant  for human habitation. Current state, as I come to   sort of a an overarching wide conclusion. Some of  these numbers you saw before in an earlier slide   from Matt, there are currently,90 people on the by  name list. 56 identify as long-term, 33 veterans,   86 individuals over the age of 65, 59 transition  age youth, 96 families with binder children, and   KDOC told me in a meeting on 1112 that there may  be up to 86 unsheltered paroleies and probationers   in Witchah. And that is something I'm going to  dig into because with the leverage of a parole   officer, with the leverage of a court, with the  leverage of the criminal justice system, um I feel   like we can make some movement on that number.  homelessness in our community is a crisis. Making   these investments are setting our community up  for success. In addition to the Second Life campus   that fills a gap of one-stop services, um which  also implies a proper housing focus strategy,   the campus's primary responsibility should be  to triage all folks entering homelessness and   and Dan said that they're going to get there  after construction and get them connected to   the appropriate housing resource, not to warehouse  them only to stay full and inaccessible. Further,   the need to house individuals and families who  choose not to access shelter. It's also clear   if we do not create multiple pathways out  of homelessness. The numbers will continue   to grow. When we don't house people out of  shelter, shelter beds get full. When we don't   house people directly from the shelteredness, then  unsheltered homelessness grows. So, this is a lean   into creating the multiple pathways. And I and the  team that presented today stand for any questions.   Steve, thank you. Uh along with all the guests  who spoke about the ecosystem, I want to use   this opportunity to start dispelling rumors or  misinformation. So, one of the misinformation   pieces or maybe it's information pieces, I'd like  to know how many folks um from the whether the   uh by name list actually it would be better  by the with the by name list. Uh those are   all individuals in the HMIS system. Correct.  Correct. Um, how many of them um originate   from Cedric County? Matt, can you please  come up here? He actually has that number. And because the people on the  recording can't see what's happening,   he's handing out a handout to the council members. My apologies. I was going to put this on a slide,  but then I didn't and so I just printed it and   brought it just in case it came up. Um, we started  running this data, you know, several months ago,   uh, once we transition to our new system  and you will see with the top graph that,   um, we asked the question, how long have you been  in Cedric County? And one year or longer was 81%.   Uh so roughly 19% of the people that are in our  homeless service system come from counties other   than Cedric County within the last year. Um if  they've been in Cedric County for 90 days or less,   where did they come from? About 54% came from out  of state and the other 44% came from out of the   county but somewhere in Kansas. And then well 2%  came from out of the country. And then we asked   the last section was where were they released  incarcerated the last seven days? You know,   prior to us doing our assessment, 98% said  they were not incarcerated. It's only 2%. Um, okay. I I was Thank you, Matt. San Antonio  at the uh Haven for Hope here recently and   I learned that in order to qualify for their  services, you have to have been in the county   for at least 6 months. Is that something  any of the shelters around are considering   um maybe second light or Matt needs to come up and  represent the coalition? But we're making you burn   some calories today. Yeah. I I think at the end of  the day, there's two routes to how the coalition   and how our community handles these numbers. So  I think number one is some version of close the   borders and don't offer services to people who  don't meet a certain residency requirement. But   I think that there's other opportunity perhaps  to ask the communities from which they're coming   to maybe chip in. But I'm going to def that was  just my opinion. I'm going to let Matt speak on   the coalition. Yeah. No, thank you Steve. Yes.  This is a question that we have been diving into   or leaning into with the coalition members. We  spent an entire uh coalition members meeting   talking about this. you know, the the sentiment,  you know, amongst the providers, you know,   they're very caring and they want to serve whoever  shows up, you know, at the front door. However,   I do uh often, and I kept bringing up the  point, not that I'm saying I'm for or against,   but that the communities that make significant  um strides towards reaching functional zero,   including reaching functional zero, typically only  serve the people within their community, within   their demographic area. So, and there's a couple  ways to look at that. If um if the continuum of   care funds, the $3 million that we talk about, HUD  says we're going to give Cedric County $3 million   to serve the people experiencing homelessness  within Sedick County. Whenever we use those   dollars to serve people who are coming outside  of Cedric County, we're actually taking money,   taking resources away from people who are from  Cedric County. The balance of state or the rural   communities around Cedric County get their own  designation of funds to serve serve their people.   So that's one way to look at same with your  section 8 resources and other other types   of things of that nature. I've never been one to  necessarily say we only are going to serve people   from Cedric County, but Steve brought up a good  point. Is there a way that we can work with other   municipalities that they could make, you know,  investments into our communities so that they can   have access to such things as Second Light and and  some of the resources. It's it is crazy. You know,   we talked about this also from a statewide  perspective because I know that Lawrence is a   community that's been in the news a lot for making  significant headways of addressing homelessness in   their community, but again, they only serve the  people who are from Douglas County. And so when   it came up, we had uh robust conversations. We  can't expect, you know, Pratt Kansas or Ark City   or some of these smaller communities to stand  up a whole shelter and be able to to serve the   smaller numbers. So it makes sense that they may  come into the bigger community, but what kind of   partnerships can we form so that we're able to  uh to sustain the work and do the work here in   our community? We're in conversations with the  rest of the state can tell that story. That's   I think an important part of the story. Okay.  Yeah. So, we're part of the statewide movement,   the functional wide functional zero statewide  movement. And we're pretty frequently in the   room with our statewide partners, not only from  the actual state itself, but from the other COC's   across the our communities. And it's a robust  conversation we're all having. And we're not   real sure on the path forward because we're just  starting the conversation. There is a data sharing   movement kind of we're heading towards a data  sharing movement. It's currently a deidentified   movement so that we can track numbers across the  state. We hope someday to get to the point where   that data between the COC's and HMI systems can  actually speak with one another and we can see   people moving between the systems so that we can  more appropriately resolve the problem based on   the data that that system is telling us. So  I have a quick question. I just want to make   sure I'm on the right track. So I broke down the  names of that are currently on the by name list   1,190 and then you're looking at 19% came from  outside of the community. So that's about 226   people that we served outside of our community.  Out of that 122 came from outside of the state,   104 came from other counties in Kansas. What is  the cost per head on I mean I know it's different   based on what services we're offering and whether  it's temporary shelter, whether it's transitional,   whether it's permanent housing solutions. What  would maybe be the average cost per head in   how much it takes to serve an individual that's  experiencing homelessness right now? So, u Dan,   you you know, correct me if I'm wrong. I believe  you said it was about $5,000 per bed. Was that   per quarter or per for 90 days? For 90 days. So,  that gives you some indication. $5,000 per person   to shelter them to shelter them. Uh street  outreach, you know, there's no telling what   the cost is to the emergency services system. I  believe there's been some reports done on that,   some studies done on that to house people.  Um, you know, it's much cheaper. So,   we can house someone and keep them in housing  for about six to 7,000 a year because we're just   paying those rental subsidies and case management  support. So housing is the the cheapest, which is   one of the reasons why the the federal government  leans so hard into rapid rehousing and permanent   supportive housing solutions over the last several  years because again, transitional housing works,   but it's a program that goes up to two years. And  so if you've got 20 bids in transitional housing,   you're only serving 20 people for about two years.  So, so when we're looking at 5,000 per 90 days on   average and we're looking at 226 people, so  let's just say those 226 stay homeless for 90   days in that period, we're looking at 1,130,000.  And then let's say we serve them for a year,   which probably is not likely of serving  everybody a year, but that's up to 4,500,000 for people outside of Witchah that we would  serve if they would be homeless for a year in our   community. 100% correct. Yeah, you're starting to  do the the math that that we do a lot. I know you   do as well. Homelessness is very expensive. Um,  and if we're spending we're spending significant   resources on people that are outside of Sedu  County. Um, but that's not to diminish, you know,   that again 81% come from right here in our own  community. Um, and we should serve them because   they're it looks like there's continue on that.  Looks like there's three counties that probably   should keep care take care of their own. Uh,  Marino County has 24, Shauny County has 22,   uh, Seline County has 18. Have we talked to these  counties about taking care of their own people?   Um, that is a conversation that we can enter  into. I'm not sure at what level, you know,   who all needs to be involved in that conversation,  but um, it might, but it's certainly something   we need to look at. I know Topeka is another  Wani County that only serves people, you know,   from Topeka at the rescue mission and whatnot.  So that that is a very common practice around   um the people of Witchah are very very giving,  very very caring and that you know we've we just   serve whoever shows up at the door. But I you know  when we had we had a meeting with the providers I   mean the reason I brought it up to them because  I felt that this conversation would come up like   it's going to come up progressively at a higher  level to say like like how many people are are   coming into our community. We want to solve  homelessness in Cedric County. In order to do   that, it it's really hard to solve something when  you constantly have an in inflow of people that   are coming in that you your system wasn't designed  to necessarily care for. One more followup to that   regarding the top three counties that Councilman  Johnson mentioned or Vice Mayor Johnson mentioned,   Reno, Shaunie, Seline, do either three of them  have a shelter space currently? Shaunie Shaunie   has a rescue mission. Um, Salina has I think  it's a family shelter. I don't know if they   have a individual shelter and I'm not sure about  Hutchinson or Reno County I should say. I don't   think they do. There might be domestic violence  shelter but I don't think there's a robust because   I had saw a news report about a church that was  stepping up to do kind of a winter shelter thing   this winter. So that's I might suggest that  we put this on our legislative agenda for the   state. Uh if we getting this many people from  other counties, we we should get some some help   from the state. We should Can I also add into the  conversation when we I know that the 5,000 is just   for shelter bed at second light. Um there are  also services that local government provides to   these individuals whether it's fire services, EMS  services, police services. How do you how do you   actually um show that number of the other services  including medical services? James, do you have the   the numbers at least off the top of your head  from the cost of homelessness study that Nigel   I can tell you the round number. Can you come up  here and tell us the round number and do a mic? So um The public policy management center last  year uh reviewed those interactions with emergency   service providers uh EMS, fire, police. Um and  what we found was though I'm not I'm not looking   at the report right now, we saw a total amount  of $20 million for the homeless service system   or the emergency service costs over the course of  the year if you take the aggregate of what we're   spending on homeless service systems. But the cost  per emergency I know it's been quoted before as   500 per emergency EMS response, but we've got  the report we can come back with on uh exactly   what that amount looks like. I think it would  be important to uh show also the other services   or local government services that are utilized for  individuals facing homelessness. As council member   Glascock mentioned, if 19% of individuals that are  facing homelessness in Cedric County are not even   from Cedric County and Cedric County residents  are having to bear that uh burden, there should   be some sort of recoup of costs um so that we can  continue serving our Sedu County residents by the   Sed County residents who pay into those services.  May I ask a quick question? I'm not sure which of   you three experts can answer it, but you know,  I see the other side of the coin on this that,   you know, I I understand it's our taxpayer dollars  and it's our responsibility to take care of our   residents, but if it's so bitterly cold outside  and somebody goes to a shelter and we say,   "You're not from Witchaw, so you have to go back  outside." I mean, that doesn't seem compassionate.   And then it just adds to the problem that we hear  from residents that people are on the sidewalks   or they're camping or whatever. And and I'm going  to take a point of privilege and quote my friend,   assistant city manager Troy Anderson. I was at  a presentation one time and somebody brought up   this very topic of people coming from outside of  our community who are homeless. And you said, and   if I mess this up, I hope you'll correct me, but  I thought it was quite elegant eloquent that you   said you hope that they'll go to our shelter. You  hope that they'll utilize our services, they'll   get in transitional housing, they'll get in  housing and then they'll become gainfully employed   in Witchah because we know we don't have enough  people in Witchaw to fill the jobs that we have.   So if people, you know, the flip side of this is  if people do come from another community, there's   a chance that they could come have a life-changing  experience and become a a well functioning   witchin. So, you know, it's a hard issue because  it would be hard for me to think just because   you're from Salena, Kansas, and it's freezing cold  outside, we just turn you away. So, I think it's   an important discussion to have and to look at all  sides of it. And thanks, T, for letting me steal   your story. And I I agree with council member  Tuttle, but I think the thing we need to focus on   is how do we compel other communities to take care  of their people as well and collaborate in this   um if everybody every community actually did what  we are doing. Um this would be a lot easier issue   to tackle. So I and I I think that's just kind of  the gist of where I'm wanting to take it is how   do we reach out because we know that there have  been communities around us who view oh this is an   issue that witchah can tackle and so point them in  our direction um and here they are 20 miles away   and should have some skin in the game at least  to help take care of their their residents. So   it's just more of an overarching broader topic  that we need to discuss. I I I agree. Nobody's   suggesting that we should throw them out in the  street or leave them in the street. I think we're   suggesting that maybe somebody should help pay for  that cost or they deliver their own services. So,   we have to be compassionate and I think everybody  here is compassionate. It's just who pays for it.   And a tagalong conversation to that is emergency  winter sheltering does not ask for the question   of, you know, we will not serve you because you're  not from Cedric County. And I don't think that's   ever been the intention. Uh so that's a misleading  uh statement because I don't believe any of the   shelters here in our community, especially the  emergency winter or emergency shelters, would   ever kick anyone out for just not being a Cedric  County resident. So I just want to make sure that   our wonderful partners here in our community who  do provide that service know that we know that you   would not do that and you would not quote kick  someone out. Um, however, I do have a question.   Um, I know that in New Jersey, um, we have a  consultant that is helping here in Cedric County.   Um, tell me a little bit more about their story  because if I remember correctly, in New Jersey,   they have reached functional zero homelessness.  However, they also ask other communities to either   chip in or they um provide the transportation to  take them back to their communities. So it's not   like they're again kicking people out. However,  they're providing uh the opportunity for them to   go back to their home. Uh can you share a little  bit more about New Jersey? Um Bergen County,   New Jersey is that multi- agency center that  reached functional zero. Julia Orlando is the   consultant. I just got a text. Good job on my  watch so I know she's watching. Um they did um   create their system not unlike our multi- agency  center where you've got congregate shelter um non-   congregate shelter and then more resources if you  are working your housing plan. They did restrict   to residents of Burton County, New Jersey.  I'm not aware of the transportation resources,   but she's watching and I'm sure she'll send me  a text and I can certainly send that off to you. Again, uh appreciate all of the um presentation  information. Uh encourage people to continue   engaging in this. And again, we're  entering the season of Thanksgiving   um and the holiday season and Christmas. Uh I  just want to make mention that I'm so grateful   to this wonderful community that supports all  these nonprofits that are part of this larger   ecosystem and I was very proud to see all those  partners together in in one slide and there it's   not exhaustive. So there are other partners too  and I know that this is a compassionate community.   I've lived in this community for over 30 years.  I know how compassionate this community is and I   also understand that all of us have challenges and  so when we ask questions uh regarding the cost of   housing someone who is facing homelessness is not  because we are not compassionate but we have to be   cognizant that there are only so many resources  and this compassionate community has been giving   a lot of resources to those who are most in need  and I know that they're doing that because I see   the good work that they do. And so, keep on doing  that great work. But for those who are watching   and want to engage and help out, help out some of  these nonprofits that are already in existence,   uh, Union Rescue Mission, Second Light, Humankind  Ministries, um, among the many other partners,   but they really are doing that great  work. And if you instead of doing your   um donation at a street corner, donate that money  to one of these nonprofits who can who can really   maximize those dollars and really help change  the life of an individual. And I know that you   do that day in and day out. I know how difficult  it is. And so, thank you so very much for that   ecosystem that really is helping those individuals  who are facing homelessness. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, thank you. I sorry for the length  of that, but I think it was important for   us to talk about the comprehensive nature of our  homelessness efforts. Um, next item is, I think,   an exciting one for the council to to review. As  you know, um we have a Starbond district and the   K96 K96 and Green Witch area which has been one  of the most successful in the state and um we've   had two phases of development in that area and  there has been a proposal that has come to us   uh for phase three which would be the final phase  of development um in that uh target area. So with   that, I'm going to turn over to Troy Anderson to  give you a real brief background on the district   and then we have uh the development group who's  going to make a presentation on their proposal.   Honorable me mayor, members of council,  Troy Anderson, assistant city manager, as   uh city manager late alluded to. I'll introduce  the uh family destination development team here   in just a minute, but just to give you a little  bit of background context. Um, so back in 2012,   uh, is when a lot of this really started kicking  off, I'm not going to read all of these slides.   In fact, I want to try to probably transition  through these pretty quickly just to be respectful   of everybody's time, just so you understand  at a really high level, right? There's three   parts to each of these transactions, right?  There's either something that relates to the   district. There's either something that relates to  a project plan or there's something that relates   to the development agreement. That development  agreement being uh an agreement between the city   and a developer to go out and sort of just  build the things that are contemplated in   the plan and subsequently the district. So back  in 2012, there was ultimately a public hearing   and subsequently an ordinance that created the  district. uh shortly thereafter uh came back to   city council about June 2020 2012 had to amend  the district sort of rules and regulations to   to take into consideration all of the eligible  sort of projects. Um shortly thereafter 2013   uh there's a public hearing and ultimately an  ordinance approving a a project plan specifically   phase one project plan. Uh later on in 2013 in  June, we received a letter from the Secretary of   Commerce author approving the project plan and  ultimately authorizing the issuance of bonds.   Later that year in September 2013, enter into the  development agreement. Subsequently December 2013,   STAR bonds are issued. So then uh fast forward  to 2014 and there was another sort of minor   adjustment that needed to be made. There was a  realization that uh the original district did not   contemplate sort of improvements to 27th Street  North. So we had to go back hold public hearing   approve an ordinance that amended the district  boundaries to then include 27th Street North.   So that part of the project then commenced and  we found wild success in the original sort of   uh influx of development particularly around  the multisports and so in November of 2016   uh we came back to city council held a public  hearing ultimately and passed an ordinance   expanding the district to now also include um the  opportunity to make improvements to Striker soccer   complex. text. And then ultimately uh in December  of 2016, we amended the project plan associated   with that first amendment to the project plan and  the associated development agreement. And then at   that point in time that also contemplated what is  referred to as sort of part A and part B. Part A   was the improvements to Striker. Part B was the  Drive Golf Lounge and Brew House that later became   Top Golf, but that really kind of set the stage  for all of the council related action items and   approvals that took place to really launch. And  so now at this point in time, uh, the development   team has come back and want to introduce phase  three to this ultimate Starbond Development   District. And at this time, I'll turn it over  to Marty Cordo and the Family Destination team. Thanks, Troy. Mayor, council, thank you for  having me and hearing me today. My name is   Marty Corno. Excuse me, got a little frog in  my throat. I'm the managing partner of Family   Destination Development. Um, and I'm here today  requesting to put be put on the first reading and   approval of the K96 and Greenwich phase three star  bond project. Here with me today with my team is   a good friend and partner Ashley Kosine, Council  Morgan [ __ ] and then I have with me beside me is   uh Mark Abbott with the Pulsenoli Law Group  who represents us and has been involved with   the Starbond project from the outset. So they're  very familiar from back in 2010 as Troy alluded   to to today which will be which will be helpful  for hopefully for everybody. The current Starbond   district was initially approved in 13. As Troy  mentioned, it includes Witchaw Sports Forum,   Green Witch Plaza Shopping Center, Top Golf, and  Striker Sports Complex, among others, and supports   more than 900,000 square feet of commercial space,  and generates nearly $12 million in annual sales   tax revenue. Our proposed phase three in the  current district is strategically located south   of K96 and east of Green Witch and north of 21st.  To be familiar, it's to the east of Academy Sports   and wraps around 96 all the way to 21st Street. If  you're not familiar, the majority of our property   was owned by the Cozine family and it's their  30-year dream to develop this into in this site   into the destination location soon to be Ignite  at K96. a multi-port athletic facility that will   become home to Witchah State tennis NCAA tennis  facility, indooroutdoor interactive mini golf,   go-kart racing, surfing, home run dugout baseball,  synthetic ice skating rink, and a family resort   destination hotel, and many other food and family  entertainment options to go along with everything   I described. through numerous meetings and we've  been working on this project probably for the past   two years and through numerous meetings and and  discussion with the state the Kansas Department   of Commerce along with their independent studies  performed by PGAV this project meets the starbond   criteria from the state's perspective with both  revenue and tourism and will enhance both phase   one and phase two for years to come. I appreciate  the time and energy everyone all the city staff   has put forth to this point. It has been it's  been a road and I know everybody put a lot of   time and effort into this. I much appreciate it.  Um but I will tell you this is a project I will   be very proud of once complete at this time  and I know there's going to be questions. I'm   going to pass it on to Mark Abbott who's standing  beside me to give more detail related to uh the   process and numbers. And at that point in time,  it probably best if we stand for questions. Marty,   quick question. I don't know if the slides  are supposed to go in while you're talking.   That's my bad problem. So, we might just want to  try to review some of the slides that we have. You got take over to the  beginning. 100 slides ago. There we go. I'll go back through them  slowly just so you can review. That's okay. Play some music. Good morning, mayor, council members. Mark Abbott  with Pulselli Council for the developer. We have   represented the developers for um this  K96 Starbond project. This is a second   development group, but we started off  with the original development group. So,   Pulsonelli has been involved with this project  from the inception. Um I would like to uh give a   comprehensive but efficient um presentation today  u considering the timeliness and starting off uh   go back one please just so the principles of this  are Ron and Marty Corno Dave Murphin uh Mr. Mr.   Murph was also involved with the group that did  the original project, the phase one project. Um,   also involved in the FA the phase 2B project, the  golf project that was sold to the O'Reilly family.   Um, and now Dave's involved as well, Mr. Ashley  Kosine in this group also. Next slide, please.   So I would like to highlight just a few of the um  uh successes of the starbond project the starbond   district as of today. So the bottom leftand  corner placer AI is a software that will track   um both tracks cell phone data um which is  a little bit brotherish but it tracks cell   phone data. Presumably most of the people that  are out in the world today have cell phones.   There are going to be younger children and other  those others that are not picked up, but there   have been um on an annual basis 14,000 visits to  the Starbond District uh almost 3,000 individual   um Starbond visitors to the district. So, um  2013 went million,00 million. Yes, I misspoke.   So before the starbond district existed, this type  of commercial activity was non-existent. We are   now at the point today where um a the district is  proving to be a huge success. Um this is again the   uh the corner of the property uh that Marty  described. Um there are a couple different parcels   that are either um owned by the development  group, under contract, under active negotiation,   but this is where the project would be located.  Next slide, please. So, this will then go into   a couple different um aerial views um what  qualifies it as a starbot project and then   we will briefly touch on each of the individual  components within the overall development. So,   this is an aerial view. Um yeah, that's fine. So  this is just an aerial view of that quadrant. Um   there are various ways you can qualify to be  a starbond project under the um under under   the statutes under the starbond act. One is as a  major multiport athletic facility. So the entire   quadrant and that there will be different athletic  activities available in different facilities   but the entire project area will be a major  multiport athletic project. Next slide please.   So, one of the highlights of the um of the  project um will be the new tennis center for   Witchaw State. Um so, there will be 12 outdoor  courts. Um six indoor climate controlled courts.   Um and again, if I'm covering any of this  too quickly, um you like me to slow down,   please speak up. Um but this will be um building  on the tradition of tennis excellence at Witchah   State. Um and then also having FAC that  will now enable WSU to host um division   one division one events and competitions.  Real quick. Oh, sorry. Over here. Yeah,   sorry. Um, so how does this get into possession  of Witchah State? Are you guys giving it to them,   selling it to them? Is there a contract involved?  The the discussions have been ongoing. Um,   the Witchah State will end up owning it. um the  way that the star bond um the uh construction and   then the reimbursement from the star bonds  that is still being determined of how it   will ultimately happen but that will be a witchah  stateowned and operated facility. Okay. Thank you. Um one of the other uh components is an ice  skating facility, ice skating rink. It will   be a synthetic ice. So, it will be able to be  used 12 months out of the year. It will not be   an ice facility. It will be a synthetic surface.  Um, but the uh the ice skating rink will be one   of the highlighted attractions um at the project.  Next slide, please. Um this is an indoor uh golf   experience um cafe bar component. Um that uh it  is not Um although you see kind of a windmill up   in the top right, it is not the mini golf that  what you would be accustomed to seeing um in   years past. It is a very upscale um uh branded  component um featuring mini golf indoors. Next   slide please. Um although this is shown as being  outdoors, this would be an enclosed facility.   there would be um available it would be able to  be operated 12 months out of the year. Um it is a   surfing venue. Um it is a constant wave motion  machine that you start up on the top and then   you are able to um uh surf the facility. So there  will be um the the capability of lessons open to   the public. Um in other cities this would be the  first one in the state. Um this is highly popular   um in the southwest um and on the on the west  coast, but this would be the first one in the   state of Kansas. Um this is um interactive  baseball facility. So, if you could generally   think Top Golf or baseball that um balls would  pop up out of the ground and this would be the   type of facility that would be able to be used uh  by children, adults, those with disabilities that   it is able to be used by um uh people of all all  ages and abilities. Um and again with dining and   um type atmosphere and that type of entertainment  uh capabilities. Next slide, please. Uh this would   be an indoor uh go-kart um racing attraction.  Um this is again I grew up in Branson,   Missouri. Uh the go-karts that we were used to in  Branson, Missouri that put it around at 10 miles   an hour are not what would be at this facility. Um  there will be helmets, there will be neck braces.   Um and it will be the thrill of a lifetime. So um  this will be another one of the different types of   uh athletic facilities that make the overall  project a multiport athletic project. Next slide. So the last uh kind of component would be a  resort hotel. Um we are proposing 150 unit   um resort hotel located on site. Um it would be  major flag, it would be branded and that would be   all included in the development agreement. Next  slide, please. So, these are the total costs of   the project. Um, we have of the three columns,  we have the line items on the left. We have the   total project costs there in the middle. Um,  total project cost of about $191 million. Um   the total eligible costs, not the total costs  that are going would ultimately be be reimbursed,   but that are eligible under the statute. Um  approximately 86 million. PGAV um was contracted   by the Department of Commerce to do a feasibility  study um that satisfied the statutory requirement   of showing the visitation uh and the various other  um uh conditions required by the Starbond Act.   that feasibility study. Um, PGAB estimated that  there could be up to $73 million in net star bond   uh proceeds um after issuance costs and whatnot.  So that there could be $73 million um available to   pay for the $86 million of eligible costs. the  underwriter for the 2018 refunding bonds that   paid for Striker and Topgolf. That underwriter um  we have been speaking to. The way that you get to   73 million um you make various assumptions of um  how quickly will the buildout um occur? Uh what   will be the um uh rate of inflation? How much will  growth annual growth um increase year-over-year?   the underwriter that did the 2018 bonds that we're  speaking to now believes there will be in excess   um able to be in excess of 73 million. So that  the request is um 73 million or the amount that   the underwriter is actually able to sell. We  have spoken with the department of commerce and   they have put a cap on that of 79 and a half.  Um but the numbers in the feasibility study   uh the assumptions are somewhat conservative. Um  so it would be whatever number is able to be sold   up to 79 and a half the underwriter can sell.  Next slide please. Quick question while we're   on that slide too. Um just so going down the  major multisport athletic complex. It looks   like you have brands already for ice skating,  surfing, obviously the tennis facility and the   So, you're still looking for a brand for  the golf facility and then go-kart racing. You want to speak? Good question. Yeah, that is correct. And  and I will say on the go-kart and mini golf,   they're both indoor and outdoor. So, it's it's  grown. And the reason we are still looking is   there's a lot of people that want to come into  the market. We have to get past this phase to be   able to tell them what what we have to offer to  bring them to town because we're to your point,   there are names that you all know of when they're  announced, but at this point, I'm not able to   uh to say that because we're we're between a few.  And again, once we get past this point and back   the state state gives us back the green light,  then we'll uh we'll make that announcement. Okay.   And last question, you briefly hit on this. All  these are very unique. Um Witchaw doesn't have   any of these. The go-kart racing is different than  what's currently at the alley. It's a different   experience. Completely different. Yeah. Like Mark  said, it's more uh it's more competitive and I   don't know if you've been to an Andredis. That's  probably my best way to put it. If you haven't   been to Andredd, you should. It'll be at that  level, both indoor and outdoor. Correct. Awesome.   Thanks, Mark. You're welcome. Real quick on the  driving. I'm a really good driver, so if we need   a test driver when it gets here, I volunteer.  You're in. It's probably as good as your shot. So, this just goes to illustrate the overall  um of the faces. one, two, and three. Um,   how much this has truly been a public  private partnership for the development. Um,   and we saw the visitation numbers earlier of how  big a success this Starbond district has been   uh for not just the city of Witchaw but for the  state for approximately 69% of all the investment   that has gone into this project. This is including  if the phase three project um is approved. Um 69%   is going to be all private. 31% um is then going  to be the public participation portion. Um the   star bond portion. Um two things that I would like  to describe um or I would like to add about the   star bonds. Um the if this project were approved  um uh the remaining of the 20-year term, the star   bonds that are generated, the revenues that are  generated in the district would continue to be   collected for the remainder of the 20-year term.  Right now, the city of Witchah is contributing   approximately $500,000 of sales taxes are being  of of the city of Witchah's county portion um are   being captured as sales tax um star bond revenues  that are then going be available dead service   on the bonds. So approximately $500,000 of city  revenue or what arguably is city revenue is being   contributed. I would like to add that of starbonds  uh revenues total star bonds across the state   uh vary between 86 to 89 90% of those revenues  that are captured are state revenues. So the   500,000 is is significant for the city but it is a  very small percentage of the overall revenues that   are captured. It is it is significantly higher  percentage of the revenues captured are state tax   dollars. Okay. So $500,000 um state pardon me uh  city sales taxes uh at stabilization. There are no   the property taxes being captured on this property  right now um are a pittance. Um at stabilization   at about year three I believe um we are pardon me  year five we are estimating $423,000 of property   taxes. Property taxes are not captured under star  bonds. So by year five once construction occurs   once construction completion occurs um we are  approaching the amount of sales taxes that the   city would be contributing. Now once the bonds  pay off um in year nine um since there will be   property taxes collected and new sales taxes if  we develop the phase three project there will be   phase three property taxes. There will be phase  three sales taxes that right now are not being   generated. In year nine, we're estimating that  the $500,000 that the city um could access today   um we are looking at the city collecting about  $230 of that for about $1.2 million in year 9.   So, by the time year nine rolls around, the m  the funds to the city to the city's general fund   um would be approximately $1.2 million. Um, one  other thing I would like to add is if this uh   project is approved, if the star bonds are issued,  the city's uh general fund um the city security is   not at risk at all. the only revenues that they  are special limited obligations. Um uh the bonds   are special limited obligations of the city. The  sole security for these bonds are the sales taxes   that are captured as star bond revenues. There  is no uh no risk to the city's general fund um   as part of this. No no city back stop. No city tax  dollars. No city back. No city back stop. at all   or or Troy if if I may just to take that a little  step further because I want it to be really really   clear. Um there what if any risk to the city as  Mark has described in this case for this project   there would be no risk. We have confirmed with the  department of commerce that they would not require   a backs stop and Mark has explained that where  the risk out lies and it's with the bond holders   not with the city and we have confirmation from  the state on that. Correct. We do. We do. Okay.   And then just my other quick question then you  know not everybody in this room not everybody   watching is an expert on on star bonds. So the  reward portion, if I understand it correctly, for   the city is that we'll get increased property tax  and increased um sales tax, especially year five   and then it sounded like year nine and then into  the future. Can you maybe just say that better   than I said it? I'm not sure it'll be better than  what you just said, but um we've uh we've worked   with the developer. We've looked at their model.  We played around a little bit with some of the   assumptions to make to be very conservative, but  at the end of the 10-year period, there's a return   on investment. So, for the 500,000 you're giving  up in sales tax revenue, you actually have a net   gain that's pro that's about 17%. Uh, and then in  the 15-year period, that grows to about 26%. And   and Mark has already said that when you reach uh  the year nine, which uh you're at about $1.2 $2   million in benefit to the city. So for a few years  of that loss of a half million um by the end of   five years you're in a net positive and then in  year nine a significant return to the city. Okay.   Thank you so much. Thank you. And so then the  only um final comment that I would have is that we   would um if the the council would choose, we would  request that a public hearing on the project plan   amendment. This is an amendment of the existing  project plan that was first approved back in 2013   2014. Um that a public hearing be held on December  9th for this project plan amendment. I just have   two more questions for clarifying questions for  Bob and or Troy. Um, this is not a new star bond,   correct? Right. And this is not expanding the  starbond district. It's expanding the timeline.   Correct. Or again, say that better. This is not  This is not a new Starbond district. This is an   existing Starbond district. This does not expand  the district boundaries. This introduces a new   project plan, new phase of the district. And  so the the timeline is what the timeline is. Um   the district has a shelf life of 20 years. And so  this captures the the revenue that remains within   the timeline of the district. Um so no, this is  not a new district. This is not an expansion of   the district. This is simply a new phase or a  new project plan within the existing Starbach   district. Okay. I have one more question then  I promise I'll be good. Um so you had mentioned   um working with the state and can you just explain  maybe a little bit about that process and then   what their level of support for this project is.  I know they said that you said there's no risk   from the state and that they've confirmed that,  but just again for for the audience listening   for us in the room just a little bit about the  discussions with the state of Kansas. Thank you.   Thank you. And honestly, probably the development  team is probably better poised to respond to that   as they've had a lot of those we we've sort of  trust but verified those conversations with the   state department. So we've had conversations to  kind of verify that those conversations were had.   Do you guys want to talk about the conversations  you had with the state? Sure. We originally   pitched the state on uh the idea for this  project two years ago and it probably had six 10 different conversations with the Department  of Commerce during that time. Um yesterday we did   receive an email from uh uh the general counsel  from the department of commerce saying that   they were supportive of the project. Um that's  where they did give the bond amount cap. Um but   uh not only is Congress has Congress not made  any comments that they would require any type   of city back stop, any type of city um security  for this project, but the bonds themselves will   actually say on the face of them, these are  special limited obligations. There is no city   revenues that are pledged to this project. there  are no state revenues that are pledged to this   project other than the star bond revenues um that  they will say that on the face of the bond. So the   only bet the only party that will um be at risk  and that's why they earn an interest rate will be   the bond holders um and then the underwriter  to calculate based on based on the various   assumptions and all the sales um will there be  sufficient revenues by the time this 20-year term   um expires to pay off the bonds? The there  is no economic risk to the city. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mayor, just to repeat what Mark said,   this will come to you on December  9th for formal consideration. If you can bear with us, we just have one more  item and it has to do with our storm water   utility. Um, we're at a um interesting point now  that we're undertaking the Bleley project that   we wanted to review the financial performance  of our utility and bring some options to you   to consider for the future. So with that, I'm  going to turn it over to Gary Jansen. Thank you,   Mr. Manager. Uh mayor and city council members  again, Gary Jansen, public works and utilities. Um   I'll to respect your time, I'll try to get through  this pretty quick. Happy to answer some questions.   As much as anything today, I want to make sure uh  to provide a good understanding of where we have   been with storm water funding drain funding for  drainage projects historically for our operations   uh and kind of take a look at the storm water  utility fund where it's headed uh based on   current revenue for the budget and look at some  possible options for moving forward. So the storm   water utility was first established in 1990.  Prior to that, uh, the best that we can tell   is anything related to storm water operations,  capital improvements was all general obligations   funding. So, at that time, fees were implemented.  I'll talk about just a little bit. We came up with   this equivalent residential unit based on the size  of the property, how much impervious area that   there was. Uh, and that was to fund the utility  to build, maintain, and repair the drainage system   throughout the city and ensure compliance  with federal and state regulations. Uh at   that time some things were starting to change with  development requirements too. I'll talk about in   just a moment. One thing to keep in mind uh except  in 2017 when a a base rate fee was added which   I'll talk about soon there has been no increases  uh to the rates uh to the funding revenue source   for the storm water utility except for that one  time. You know if we look at kind of compared to   what we do with water and sewer utility and we  discuss annual rate increases there's been no   rate increases. So, as many of you know, and we've  talked about for some time, when we have drainage   challenges, especially in older neighborhoods,  we we are we are really uh struggle to find a   way to fund those improvements. So getting to that  point, many of the neighborhoods in Witchto were   constructed prior to current granting standards,  especially when the core of the city and you'll   see here shortly, we have uh through a decision  support tool support tool have analyzed the   biggest priorities for drainage improvements going  forward and you'll see a lot of those in the core.   Um, since 2012, some things have really changed,  but prior to that, probably even back in the '9s,   neighborhoods in Witchto have been constructed  with drainage requirements. There's drainage plans   that our staff approves. Um, all of that has done  so and financed through special assessments. So,   the picture like you see here, these older  areas that we're continuing to deal with,   the standards were not in place. There were very  few drainage requirements. the minimum was done   to try to get some of the drainage off the street  and what happened was there was no strategic plan   of how those connect together where ultimately  the drainage goes uh and so it's created a lot   of the challenges that we see I talked to many  of you after the big rains in June and and what   happened in some of the neighborhoods now that's  not a good example of how we respond to drainage   issues that was really a historic event there's  nothing we could have dov avoided that however it   brought about the conversation what has happened  over the years in these neighborhoods. Once an old   neighborhood developed, there was minimum drainage  improvements, another neighborhood developed,   it just added to it, compounded the problem.  So, we have a lot to overcome at this point.   The reason why I say that is because we're  going to look at some funding scenarios   uh that would generate a million half dollars a  year and it just doesn't go very far because this   is something we've been trying to catch up to for  so long. So, I mentioned that in April of 2017,   there was a storm water rate adjustment, the only  one that's been made since 1990. Uh, a $1.50 per   month base fee was added. Residential tiers that  I talked about there, rescaled to make sure it was   equitable, that the cost coverage was fair between  residential and commercial. Uh, this was done in   an effort to sustain the fund and consider some  capital improvements. The manager mentioned the   Bleley project effectively since 2017. Uh we  have bolstered some of our operational costs,   but we have been uh setting aside funding to where  we could get moving on this Blackley project which   is under construction now, but it's left us with  uh not a lot of room to grow. So just real quick,   I won't spend a lot of time on this. Storm water  utility fund expenses. Uh we have O andM expenses   including $950,000 annually for renewal and  replacement of existing assets. That's been very   critical for us. Uh I'll talk about that more in  a moment. Some storm water capital projects. It's   not a lot. And then the city's share of the city  county joint funded flood control project which is   critical for all of us. Looking at what is in the  cap tenure capital improvement program for storm   water. Everything you see here is what is in the  CIP only. We have $100,000 annually for the WTO   drainage canal improvements. Just under $650,000  for flood wave. That's the city share only. That's   50%. The county contributes the other 50%. We  have pump stations we improve $100,000 annually.   Uh Bleley project is projected to be $36 million.  We're about to move into phase two. And then we've   got another project where we have some historic  historic drainage issues near Murd Murdoch and   Wavash that is funded here in the next coming  years for just under $4 million. That's what's   in the CIP right now. We don't have the capacity  to add anything else in the absence of considering   another revenue source or an increase in fees.  So looking at rate drivers and what has happened   since 2017 uh do some quick comparisons so that in  this next couple slides when I show you what the   fund balance looks like you'll understand where  this comes from. The Bleley project originally   started with a $10 million projection that's not  um inflation that's taken up 36 million. The scope   has changed significantly. back in 2017. We just  didn't have the best feel of what it was going   to take and the magnitude of that project. Our  flood control uh has increased due to additional   work being required by regulators. So that's  almost tripled since 2017 from 250,740. Murdoch   and Wbash project has become a bigger project by  scope and also inflationary impacts. Our onm costs   have increased just like you've seen on other  utilities. We uh we have developed a decision   support tool uh for looking at a multi-year  in-depth study of the storm water utility. We   weighed factors like risk, probability of failure,  consequence of failure, life cycle cost. That   $950,000 we've had in place annually. We still  think that that can work. Uh it's serving us   well. Uh again, through the decision support  tool, we optimize renewal and replacement.   We think we can hold on that for now, especially  if we look at potential increases to the fees that   those could go more towards capital improvements  and neighborhood improvements. So, looking at   the fund expenses, uh what you see on the orange  line is expenses. The reason why that jumps up and   down quite a bit is retiring debt from previous  projects. But if you look at the projection, you   can see our expenses are increasing uh based on a  flat line of revenue, which is the blue line. So,   we need to be looking to the future here before  we hit a cliff, before we get to a point and   we have to look at much higher rate increases.  That's a lot of what we're talking about today.   This does a really good job of showing the uh  storm water utility fund balance over time.   uh a healthy fund balance has been maintained  in recent years while the utility undertook the   spending strategy assessment. We had that $150  base rate increase that went in effect in 2017.   We've been effectively banking that. Um so that's  why we got to a healthier spot. A large portion of   the fund will be used for Blackley without a rate  increase. Uh you see that drops below the line   uh or at least not meeting the minimum reserve  through 2033. We do not uh you've heard me talk   about debt coverage ratio that's required uh  effectively for other utilities. We do not   maintain a debt coverage ratio here. But what  you see for that orange line is the reserve   target. Uh we've used this for a long time. Kind  of an industry standard. It makes sense uh when   talking to our experts. But it's calculated as 90  days of O andM 90 days of uh debt payment 60 days   public safety fee. That's roughly $2.5 million  between 2025 and 2030. Just to give you some idea   of what that how we set that reserve target as a  good place to be no matter how you look at that.   Uh if we continue at the path that we're on in  2034, we are no longer solvent within this fund.   So we need to start looking at what happens in the  future because we've had no annual rate increases.   So moving forward, we have our goals are to ensure  long-term financial stability by maintaining an   adequate fund balance, optimizing investments so  we minimize risk and certainly looking at lowest   uh life cycle cost for any improvements and then  control rate adjustments as much as possible   because we don't want to get to a point that we  need a much more significant rate increase. Three,   we've looked at three options I'd like to discuss  now and then these would be a change to that base   fee that I talked about before. So, if we maintain  a status quo, uh what is listed as column number   one, no base rate increase, uh we would have no  funding for neighborhood drainage improvements.   The last opportunity to revise rates before  the fund balance is depleted is 2033. If we   wait till then, we risk a much larger increase  as opposed to looking at stepped increases. Now,   we think a minimum increase uh right now would  be 15 cents per year ongoing. that still would   not allow funding for neighborhood drainage  improvements. That would effectively extend   us out another 10 or 11 years uh before we've  depleted the fund. Gary, may I ask a quick   question just to make sure I understand? So, it's  15 cents per household annually. Is that correct?   Correct. That base rate would be applied to  every single customer. 15 cents annually.   Annually. Okay. Thank you. And I'll show some  more numbers here in a minute. That'll make a   little bit more sense. More monthly. Sorry, not  annually. 50. Yeah, I didn't mean to say 15ent.   15 cents monthly. That makes more sense. Okay.  Thank you. Sorry. Sorry. Sounded great for annual   picture. Yeah. Yeah. It wouldn't get us very far.  Monthly. Sorry, I said the wrong word. So, is the   slide just inaccurate on item base rate increase  item number two? Because that does say 15 cents.   add 15 cents every year. Yeah. What what that what  I should have put in here was 15 cents per month,   but it's annually ongoing that every single year  we would bump it another 15 cents then per month.   Correct. Okay. That's what this projection is to  get us to 2044. Thank you for that. Sorry for the   confusion. So, one option we've looked at then  uh is to look at a dollar increase in 2026 along   with the 15 cents annually in 2027. This would  generate approximately $1.5 million annually. Um   this would still extend us to 2044, but it would  give us the opportunity to really start looking   at neighborhood drainage improvements with that  $ 1.5 million per year. So, we looked at several   approaches. I'm not going to go into the weeds  here. I'm happy to discuss what these uh look   like. We can dig more into our model, but just  especially out of respect to time, I want to talk   about several approaches we looked at. So, the  first approach we looked at through this decision   support tool addresses the top neighborhood  improvement. And so, I think you everybody   probably understands this, but I'll explain  real quick. When we've got drainage issues,   especially in the core of the city, it's not just  a matter of putting pipe underground, getting   water to the point because uh water to some point  underground because then it's likely got nowhere   to go. What we need to look at is upsizing the  existing system, putting in bigger pipe, extending   those pipes further to the point I talked about  earlier, when you develop one neighborhood with   no standards, you develop the next one, it starts  to compound its is the the issue. there's nowhere   to take any of that. So, we need to extend bigger  systems. So, what this contemplates uh is the top   two projects within each district for upsizing  and neighborhood improvements. Uh this is based   on historic issues and problems that we've seen  across the community, especially in the core area.   Uh we've got pretty good data for documenting  those issues. So, top two projects on the left,   the DST approach number one. uh we have to get to  a point of 24 years to have enough funding to have   those top two projects in each district. You can  see how that split works out. That's almost $26   million. And I'll show you more details on this  in just a moment. We've got other approaches we   could possibly take. We thought this made some  sense strategically to try to look at going in   some direction. before this discussion today  and in the past and I' I've talked to some of   you about this. Uh we used to have what we call a  hotspot program and we were just kind of throwing   darts and seeing what came up next. I mean that's  the best that we could do. Problems would arise.   We would try to throw funding at something but  then something else would come up. That's why a   more strategic approach decision support tool we  think makes a lot of sense. If we wanted to be uh   district agnostic, if you will, and not consider  the districts and just look at the worst areas,   that's what DST approach number two looks like.  Effectively getting to that same point of $28   million in funding. This is over 24 years. If  you look to the table to the right, uh you'll   see that district 2 and district 5 no longer  would be funded for any projects within that   24-year period. A little bit newer areas of the  community. A lot of the standards were in place   for drainage at the time. U there's considerable  focus on districts one and six and then the   balance in districts three and four. Again, this  is based on the data that we have, the problems   that we looked at over the years. I won't spend  a lot of time on this. I can provide follow-up   information. Wanted to give you uh some idea of  the magnitude of what we're looking at over the   course of time. Still not a lot that can be done.  Uh but starting off at something that we feel like   is manageable and a potential $1 increase. This is  where we end up to expand that just a little bit.   uh the DST approach number one, which again was  the top two projects for upsizing and neighborhood   improvements in each district. This breaks it  down to the first 10 years. I wanted you to see   this mostly so you understand how we kind of did  this and we looked at areas. So in district one,   it'd be between Hillside and Oliver, Doug, and  Waterman. I won't walk you through all of those,   but there's multiple projects within each of those  areas. Um the not all districts got an upsizing   and neighborhood improvements project in the  first 10 years, but if I showed you the next 14,   that's where that would balance out. Again, that's  a lot of information. Didn't want to overload this   today. Just want you to understand where we  think we could go with a $1 increase. We can   start making some improvements. And so you kind of  see what the magnitude of that looks like. If we   stepped away from the districts and again looked  at citywide priorities, this is kind of what this   would look like. You see a little bit of a change  from where that was at. Um this actually in the   first 10 years u the projects are in districts  1, four, and six. The next 14 years, district   three comes back in. But you can see that it takes  some time to get there. So feasibly even with $1   increase with where we would be headed depending  on how we wanted to do this. It's going to take   over the course of 24 years to really even make a  difference and start having a big impact. That is   illustrates the need that illustrates where  we've been. Uh it's a result of development   standards how these improvements were funded uh  and trying to get to a place where we need to be.   So then looking at the impact average monthly  storm water bills a lot of information here what's   on the left is what I talked about is the eru that  was established in 1990 uh one if the class 2 is   most of our customers one eru is $2 a month. Uh  this shows uh the base rate included is at 350. If   you go to the column to the right, uh the monthly  bill, one option we looked at just discussed is   15 cents a month. That would go to 365. If there  was a desire to add the dollar, that would go to   450. And then that's the 15 cents per month that  we would recommend going from there to get us that   point. That's a lot of numbers, but I just wanted  to have you give you some idea. So, right now,   uh if nothing changes, most of our customers,  residential customers pay $3.50 50 cents a month   for storm water improvements. Uh $42 if I think  if I'm doing the math right. Uh obviously if there   was a consideration of bumping the dollar  to generate a million half dollars a year,   uh we would be raising that $12 a year. $1  a month. We'd be increasing the storm water   utility bill for most of our customers $12 a  year. lots of numbers, but I just want to give   you some idea of kind of the threshold or the uh  the magnitude of that that we're talking about.   Quick comparison of where we've been we are with  Pier cities just like we looked with uh water and   sewer. These again are the I35 corridor cities.  De Moines's Iowa has a considerable storm water   utility fee. Uh and then you see it start to  step down. Kansas City and Missouri and Omaha,   their funding may be subsidized by the sewer  utility. We've got some combined systems with   storm water and sanitary sewer and some cities  just find other ways to do it. As I said,   prior to 1990 here in Witchaw, we generally funded  it by general obligation. So, it's not always the   easiest to compare. But if you look at generally  in the cities, we're still in a pretty good place.   This $4.50 contemplates a $1 a month increase if  we were so to look at that. So, to wrap things up,   the storm water revenue remains flat while  expenses continue to climb. uh incremental   increases avoid large rate spikes in the future.  Again, we looked at one option that's put 15   cents a month. That could extend our fund out  another 10 to 11 years. Wouldn't add any capital   improvements, any neighborhood improvements. Uh  without a rate increase, the fund balance will   only last through 2033. With the minimum rate  increase, uh we can extend that to 2044. What   we would recommend considering uh and I don't have  a date necessarily to bring this back to council,   probably sometime in January if we want to have  further discussion is the option three for onetime   increase of $1 in 2026. That's $1 a month followed  by 15 cents per month annually ongoing. We could   extend the fund balance to 2024 and provide  a million half dollars in annual neighborhood   drainage improvements. Staff, we will pending  further discussion. We'll plan to bring this back   at a later date uh for official consideration of  a rate adjustment. That was a lot of information.   I know went through that pretty fast. I'm happy  to go back to anything. Couple of questions,   Gary. Quick one. Um so, this says the increase, if  recommended and passed, would begin in 2026. So,   but you won't be coming back by the end of this  year to talk about this. Uh no, I think it's   most likely we would have this discussion  in January. Probably makes at this point. Other question is uh regarding the decision  support tool and approach one versus approach   two. Um I believe that equity is important. There  are six districts in Witchah and I understand   that there are priorities for each of these  communities. these six districts. Personally,   I think equity is important to debate divvy it  out between the six districts. Thank you. I mean,   this is not unlike what we've done with our  outsource pavement preservation program and   how the funding is allocated for that based  on the lane miles within each district. So,   that's why we started that way. But  wanted you to have some understanding,   you know, as we've gone on when we looked at the  supplemental funding for concrete pavement with   the OP3. We did talk about this notion of maybe  you go worst first. So, we just wanted you to see   what that looks like. I'll just tune in my usual.  I think we should deal with the worst first. Um,   and not necessarily equity in that sense, dealing  with our challenges. And if again, like I said,   on third roads in district one did not benefit  from that. If there's areas that have worse   um issues, I think we should deal with those. Just  a quick comment for me. I would be supportive of   option three. And as I know, I'm sure many of  my colleagues I have talked with council member   Ballard, but on the historic June 3rd flood,  um Gary, you and your team were with me with   many neighborhoods standing in people's  culde-sacs where their basements flooded.   um windows broke out, lots of damage,  lots of different things. Um you know,   we hope that doesn't happen again for a very  long time, but I think it's a proactive approach   for us to be able to try and make sure that our  residents homes and their properties are safe. So,   I would very much be supportive of option three.  And thank you for being considerate of keeping   the cost down. I know we don't like to raise  rates. We don't like to do that to anyone, but   it's $12 a year. Um so I feel that that could be a  manageable amount that residents could handle. So   and and also um for commercial. So thank you for  your work on this. Very quick question and mine in   both approaches are the exact same which is pretty  consistent actually when um staff presents things.   My percentage is usually the same for district 4.  Regarding the long-term cost of each as well. So   obviously the DST1 is 26,000. DST2 is 28,000. I'd  be interested in a larger projection of what this   would cost and you extend this beyond um both of  these approaches. So, do we save more by doing   horse to first than doing approach number one  or is it basically a wash longterm? I can get   you that information. Just a reminder, this is a  24year program that you're looking at here. So,   if you were to go to $2 instead of a dollar,  you could in theory shrink that in half.   So if your concern is how quickly you address the  some of the outstanding issues, then anything you   did above a dollar would shrink your time frame.  Yeah. I mean to council member Tuttle's point,   I'd be interested and this maybe not data we  have. I imagine the state insurance commissioner   has this is how many insurance claims have to be  made every year, what the cost to local taxpayers   um in terms of just home improvements after  large scale flooding incidents as well. So   that would be helpful just in context when we're  looking at this is how much we're actually saving   holistically for taxpayers beyond just what this  is. The the best thing I'd be able to tell you and   I can get you this information because I'm not  remembering the time frame right now but we we   have a long list of projects in our DST and I  think it probably goes out 50 years or longer   um just of the the issues that we know right now  and so that becomes part of that discussion too.   So, how how do you decide on the DST worst to  first? Like what are some of the benchmarks   that pass a little further up that list? So,  we again we do some historic information.   Uh, one of the things I'll tell you that's worked  best here is legacy information that we've had   uh that staff has documented areas that  have some of the worst flooding issues,   impacts to properties, impacts, potential  impacts to vehicles, number of properties,   um, depending on where it's at, the density of  the neighborhood. There's multiple factors that   we've included there, but first and foremost  uh it's where we we we where we've recorded   significant number of calls. Uh the frequency of  events because especially, you know, going back   to June and and it was really unfortunate. We saw  flooding that in my career hadn't seen in certain   areas of the city. It was such a big event. And so  it's not easy to tell everybody that, but kind of   all bets are off at that point. There's not a lot  we we can do. But the thing that I told them was   make sure you let us know as soon as we get a half  inch rain and one inch rain and you see those same   types of problems because that's where the address  issues we need to address. So to that point,   we try to find the areas where the smaller  rains have the bigger impacts. Some of them   we've talked about in your district before. One  of them we were able to affect in the last year,   which I think was a really good improvement.  uh depending on how an area was developed,   the things that were done or not done with  drainage improvements. We're looking for the   areas that during smaller rain events create a lot  worse situation and possible property loss. So,   we've got multiple factors in there. I'd be happy  to look and and dig in a little bit more with any   of you inside these boundaries that we talked  about of some of the data that we've gathered   and where these projects come from. Because again,  within these areas, some of these areas are fairly   large. We've got multiple locations and projects  that would be part of these improvements. Yeah,   love to dig into that a little more with you. I'  I'd be interested in that too, Gary. Um and and   maybe there's a hybrid approach. You know, maybe  do more of the worst worst ones. And but but you   know, it'd be hard to explain to my residents in  district five. They've complained about flooding.   You're not going to get anything done in a quarter  century. And I understand that'd be hard. There   are still areas I can tell you in district two  and district there's just a lot here. Like I said,   this list is long that we've developed over time  of where drainage needs are. There's still areas   in district 2 and district five. One of them  that we took on in the last three or four years   over on rolling hills were had been in the county  and was annexed into the city and there were no   drainage standards at that time in the county.  So those issues are still there. I think this   is a reasonable approach that we're looking at on  number one still taking on the worst areas across   the community. I have a couple questions over  here. Um I'm sad to see Midtown's not on there. So, let me give you some perspective on something  real quick. Thank you for asking that question   because this just came up the other day. So, I  can't tell you that this is a this is still we're   doing everything we can to make this a datadriven  decision, but I'll give you a quick example of one   area of Midtown that you and I have talked about  before. Uh there's an area up in there that will   flood fairly quickly. It's in bigger rain events,  but we also have to keep in mind that it evacuates   fairly quickly. We've got some areas in the core  of our city that water will fill up from curb to   curb during a certain rain event and if you go out  an hour later the water's all gone. That that has   to be a consideration. Uh it's it's a big cost to  put in infrastructure just to make sure that water   gets out of there sooner because of the needs the  large needs this huge list. And you can see even   at a million and a half dollars a year it takes  us a long time to start having an impact. That's   also a factor I should have mentioned that we've  looked at historically and I've talked to a lot of   folks over the years. It's not ideal answer, but  you again you get areas that clear the water out   in 30 30 to 60 minutes. That should be a factor.  And so some of Midtown is like that. In fact,   a good part of Midtown is like that. Um, are some  of these projects specifically the Midtown area   and part of District One, the ones that were going  to be covered potentially under that competitive   grant? Yes, some of them would have been for sure.  The one that it was called the protect grant that   we submitted and then it got you have any idea if  any we have not heard if that's coming back out.   I've been watching uh but so far there's nothing  to indicate that they're going to reissue that   grant. But th there is uh a fair amount of this  that because even if you look at uh and kind of   look at these areas you see M and Senica show up a  lot but whether you look at this list or this list   um you still see a lot of that core area. So some  of those projects some of those issues would have   been taken care of with that grant. Correct.  Okay. Last question. Um, I know a lot of this is   just aging infrastructure. Like you mentioned, we  have do things a lot differently differently than   we have in the past. Is some of this because we  haven't increased prices in some time or has it   just not been like a top priority just or is it  all just aging kind of all at once? I appreciate   you asking that question because I definitely  need to clarify based on that question. The   majority of the issues we're looking at here  is because there is no infrastructure. This   isn't aging infrastructure. There's none there.  When these older neighborhoods were developed,   uh, because there was not the system we have in  place now requiring drainage plans, you know,   I can't tell you, I'm surprised to go into some  neighborhoods. What was done to save costs was to   try to make the street grade to a certain point,  make it keep on grading the next block, and before   you know, you got half a mile to a mile of flat  street that just kept trying to move the water   down, and there was nowhere to take it. Um, so it  is the fact that the infrastructure is not there.   We've done a really good job with the $950,000 a  year on our renewal and replacement project that   also is um informed by decision support tool, a  separate one. I think we're in a really good place   with infrastructure, existing infrastructure.  This is to add infrastructure where we don't have   any. That's the problem. And because we've had no  rate increases since 1990 except for the one base   rate increase in 2017 and most of that's gone to  Blackfly, we still don't have uh adequate funding   in place. All new developments, I might mention  this one more time. Uh improvements are made,   necessary improvements are made that all connect  together. They look at what's happening upstream   and downstream. Future system will work. That's  all special assessment. We get calls from some   areas now and we do talk to folks and tell them  that they have an option to special assess it if   they so choose and we'll provide them a cost  estimate what the assessment would look like.   That still is a viable option. We wanted to show  you what this might look like to start coming at   this from another angle. Thank you. Thank  you, Gary. Thank you, city manager. Mayor,   that is all we have for workshop. for workshops.  Yes. Now we move to the next phase of this   meeting and that is we're going to have uh two  executive sessions. So we will have one motion,   complete that motion and then do that executive  session and then come back. So I'm going to read   a motion first. Um, I move that the city  council recess into executive session for   20 minutes to receive information on  a contract pursuant to KSA 75-4319B2 for legal consultation with the city attorney,  which would be deemed privilege in the attorney   client relationship for legal advice. The  executive session is required to protect   attorney client privilege and the public  interest. This executive session will begin   at 1:00 and end at 1:20 p.m. so that we  have room for a break. Second motion and   a second. Any further discussion? I see none.  All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed,   same sign. Motion passes.  70. We will return at 120. staff and the consultant along with our attorney  to enter into negotiations on a contract   for city manager with Dennis Marstall.  Second motion and a second discussion. Uh I spent some time over the weekend talking  to current city managers and past city managers   because I wanted to get their expertise  on this process, working in the field,   um working with professional organizations  within this field. and all of them recommended   that you know proceeding with with a  current candidate in this pool would   be their recommendation. So with  that I'll be supportive today. Uh as for me I am deeply concerned about this  process. I will not be supporting either finalist   moving forward. To be clear this is more about  the process than the specific finalist. Mr.   Fry Tag is a quality individual. grateful for  his service to our nation, but I do not feel   this is the best place for his leadership. Mr.  Marstall is a quality individual as well. I share   a similar sentiment. Initially, my concerns  were minor, but within the last two weeks,   my concerns have grown significantly. I am  concerned about potential undue influence   by elected officials on the process and  potentially the selection committee. I am   concerned about an expectation that immediately  excludes one of the finalists. I am concerned   about how finalists were scored. I am concerned  about significant differences between one group   versus the others within the process. I honestly  believe that we should stop the process now,   clearly state the expectations that the council  was looking for, all of them, and go back out on   search. I believe that when that occurs, all  elected members of this body should abide by   what was outlined and refrain from speaking with  any member of the selection committee until they   have completed their piece of the process.  Lastly, my hope is that the information we   receive as a council, specifically the summary of  input document, be made public uh going forward. Quick comments, I look forward to working with Mr.  Marstell if contract negotiations move forward and   we're able to extend an offer next week. I think  this is unique opportunity for Witchah since 2008.   Um, we've been under the leadership of  Mr. Leightton. I want to thank him for   his service to our community. I think he's  um guided us through a lot of difficult times   and cast a vision for our community. The last  time we went through this process as a council,   I was in 8th grade and in middle school and so  it was an honor to be part of this process. I   look forward to working with whoever our  new manager is to move forward together   with this council. and um I'm excited for  uh the next chapter of Witto's history. I would like to thank um every individual on  the selection committee that helped select the   consultant go through 89 applications,  narrowed it down to 17 individuals,   and then down to three finalists. Um, I want to  say that all three finalists were fine candidates   and I do believe that they have the best at heart  in public service. Um, I am very grateful to the   service of both veterans. Um, Mr. Fry and Mr.  Martin who both served in our military. Um,   Mr. Barstal uh brings with him multiple different  experiences from local government to nonprofit   sector and from smaller communities to larger  communities including a large metropolitan   city. And so I am really grateful that this  process allowed for someone that will bring   a new perspective and leadership into Witchah. Um,  as someone that just joined the council last year,   I know that many folks don't understand the  difference between what a mayor does and what   a city manager currently does here in the city of  Witchah. The city manager, Mr. Leighton has served   our community for 16 years and we are grateful for  his public service in leading an organization of   3,000 people within 16 departments while also  working collaboratively with this council.   I want to make mention that in our form of  government, it requires seven individuals on the   council to reach some sort of consensus in order  for us to move forward. And in this situation,   there was a consensus. And so I am hopeful that  the negotiations will be successful so that the   city of Witchah can have a new chapter  um beginning next year with a new city   manager. And again, thank you for the service  of Mr. Leighton who again has served 16 years   here in our community. With that, we have a  motion and a second. Any further discussion? I see none. We'll do a vote call uh for voting.  Um Council Member Johnson, nay. Council member   Tuttle, I. Council member Hohheisel, nay. Coun,  Vice Mayor Johnston, I. Council member Glasscock,   I. Council member Ballard, I. And  Mayor Woo, I. Motion carries 5 to two.   We will now adjourn this meeting at 3:28  p.m. to I move to I move to adjourn this   meeting at 3:28 p.m. Second motion and  a second. Any further discussion? I see   none. All those in favor say I. I.  All those opposed, same sign. Nay.