good morning which time good morning to all of you  thank you for joining us for this morning's city   council meeting Tuesday April 22nd i call this  meeting to order with us this morning is Father   Lee with Catholic Dascese of Witchah who will  provide our invocation following the invocation   we will have the pledge of allegiance  we ask that you please stand for both mayor Woo and honorable council members thank  you for the invitation to lead today's prayer   um you know in our Catholic tradition um for  the next eight days we celebrate Easter the   octave of Easter um so we we worked hard in Lent  leading up to it with 40 days of preparation kind   of our March Madness leading up to Easter and of  course the championship team wants to celebrate   as long as they can after the victory so we are  celebrating in in our tradition so the second   Tuesday of of of Easter week we call to mind still  the grace of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus   and and certainly um on behalf of the Catholic  community would ask your prayers as you know now   we are mourning the loss of Pope Francis at the  venerable age of 88 years old uh he will be um   laid to rest uh at a funeral mass uh this Saturday  at 10:00 a.m in Rome uh so the entire uh Catholic   community throughout the world um prays for the  Holy Spirit's guidance uh in this time of of   transition uh and so we we appreciate your prayers  in in the local community for supporting us and on   behalf of our bishop Carl Kimmy uh we thank you  for those prayers in the name of the Father and   of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen father in  heaven we thank you for the gift of the life of   your son Jesus Christ who came into our world as  a man who led us to you our father in heaven and   by the suffering that he endured by the death  on his cross and the resurrection into eternal   life has opened a way for us from this life to our  heavenly home but Lord today we pray for this home   of ours in Witchah we pray for our city we pray  for all of our citizens we pray for those most   in need send your holy spirit upon these council  members gathered together today for the good of   our city bless those who will bring business on  the agenda today uh fill this space with your   peace with your concord that we may be a witchah  community truly united for the good of one another   and experiencing your Easter blessings father with  your son and the holy spirit you live and reign   as God forever and ever amen in the name of the  Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen aliance to the flag of the  United States of America and   to the republic it stands one nation under  God indivisible liberty justice for all thank you Father Lee mr clerk please call the  first item approve the minutes of the regular   meeting April 15 2025 are there any corrections i  see none i move to approve the minutes for April   15 2025 second motion and a second any further  discussion i see none mr clerk please open the role motion passes 70 mr clerk  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 relative to items   on the public agenda other than referral  to the city manager for information as   necessary speakers will please state  their name and address for the record   a time clock will display the speaker's remaining  time to speak order and rules of decorum will be observed are there any individuals who would like   to address the council please state  your name and the district you reside george Theo Harris District Three what  I'm trying to get out of this city   so but anyhow um I need this city council at  least four of you oh well first off welcome   uh mayor vice mayor city council city manager  city legal i need the four of you just to ask   Mr leighton before he leaves because he'll take  that knowledge with him i've asked previous boards   here why was the animal advisory board started uh  10 years ago in 2015 and they all have amnesia so   we need to know could you please ask him why it  was started because if we don't know why it was   started we don't know where to go from here  or from there actually so can we do it now or   I know you guys don't like to answer you answer  everyone else except for George but that's okay   um can we ask four of you to ask him because he's  here right now uh no don't address George everyone   else you address okay so a year ago I turned in  a tree across the sidewalk over on Pawnie west   of George Washington Boulevard and although she  doesn't like to be called a neighborhood assistant   she's the assistant to my city counselor i got  it i got it a year later went by there today tree   still on the sidewalk dangerous there's a pipe  that's sitting out there for the life of me I   can't figure that out i called in a tree branch  that had fallen from a person's tree but it's   just over the into their property i've brought two  discount tree service people to trim the tree or   cut it down cuz it's a dead tree i sent something  to our forestry department he said "You got to go   through MABC." MABCD won't talk with me so and so  only in Witchah again so the director of MABC I   was calling in a property and the property has  all kinds of discrepancies so I listed him and   so he sends back to me and I I will quote "I am a  bit confused about the content of your email." And   I'll always tell them is about a property that's  got all kinds of problems and they haven't done   anything about it mabcd however if part of the  intent is for your neighborhood association to   offer assistance to the owner or tenant of this  property I would encourage you to do so and I   hope they would accept and appreciate that so  what do they do they park on the grass well   there's no grass anymore it's all dirt they want  me to go plant grass seed i I don't I don't know   what he wants me to do to help them they have  illegally uh parked cars stored on the property   does he want me to buy them does he want me to  insure them what What would he want me to do with   their illegal cars and then there's miscellaneous  crap everywhere how do we help them i'm a disabled   veteran and he's asking me to help them i said  "How about we have no help for them they need MABC   to do their job that they're paid for in whatever  funding sources they receive those monies from   so with that being said um I I I just I'm  I'm just blown away by the by everything so   um thank you and I've been trying to get a  hold of since Mr leighton won't talk to me   and that's fine i tried to get a hold of Dante  who's an attorney with the city manager they   won't he won't call me so what are we doing  people what are we doing thank you thank you   George and to answer your question the Animal  Services Advisory Board reviews existing animal   control regulations and makes recommendations  for changes seeks constructive solutions to the   concerns of community members regarding animal  control regulations and assists in providing   education to the community one of the purposes  of this board is to enhance the ability of animal   control officers to communicate with the community  and determine operating policies which further its   mission of both public safety and the humane care  of animals it is the goal of this board to have   at least one member to be a licensed veterinarian  and one member from a certified local rescue group   at this moment there are two vacancies and  uh council member Ballard and I are both   looking for two individuals to join this animal  advisory board uh the individual I need requires   um the certification of being a veterinarian  whereas council member Ballard can be anyone   in the community um so again we are looking for  individuals to be on the board and you can find   that information at witchah.gov gov and click on  departments uh sorry government and then boards uh   those are the answers to your question thank you  and I appreciate that um if I had 55 seconds left   and I'm glad you brought up that point because I  didn't have a written uh uh a written uh so right   now I've been asking for the I'm on the animal  advisory board i've been asking for them to move   the venue so we could start later i was on the  bicycle board for seven years we met at 5:30 so   boards can meet later when people can be off work  and there's a lot of people that have animals and   stuff and concerns so I asked them for a couple  years now hey let's move it let's move it let's   move it so because they were kicking us out at  6:00 at the Humane Society wouldn't do it wouldn't   do it for George but lo and behold someone in  their bright wisdom took someone from the humane   society that had resigned from there that can't  supposedly go back into the humane society so now   because it's they have to they can't go in there  they've moved it so now we're going to meet at   the library which so animal services and humane  society supposed to work together and we hired   someone that can't go in the humane society who's  making the decisions around here people please council member Ho Heisel thank you Mayor uh Reggie  um could you come up and chat just real quick   about the program we have on um concentrating  to try and catch up on the tree removal yes so uh at the end of last year we had some uh  cost savings that was from uh the fuel s taxes   that we didn't pay out for the previous year so we  were able to extend the contract to have a vendor   that comes out and look at the certain radius  in different communities to do tree and stump   removals so we actually look at different  communities to see the highest to highest   concentration and then start in a seven milei  radius from there to start doing those removals   as far as I know that George and I talked briefly  before the meeting and for the tree removals that   he was referring to uh when he reports it to our  team we go out and inspect it and see if it's a   hazard see what condition it's in and whether  it's on city property or not and if it's not on   city property that's why he's referred to MACB  for them to address it okay i appreciate that   um and I think it's a third we're going to catch  up on the third of the orders with this um tree   removal program with the savings that's correct  okay so that should help in the future try and get   to some of these a little quicker all right thank  you Reggie appreciate it reggie can I have can I   ask a couple more questions regarding that we have  been getting uh questions regarding dead trees and   wanted to know can you talk about the process of  just reporting it in the first place and how that   finally comes to a city of Witchaw worker sure so  we have a couple different option we have C click   a fix where we can actually go in and report it  there and it comes to the appropriate person on   our team or they can call in directly to the parks  department and once we receive those we go out and   do an inspection of determine where they are and  then they're prioritized based on the condition of   the tree when they're actually removed and then  we assign it to our team to actually address it   from there council member Ballard thank you Mayor  um Reggie has the uh fuel surplus money that is   being used to catch up on some of the backlog is  that work already done uh a lot of the work is   done one of the challenges we ran into the company  that we were working with initially um had a death   in the ownership so that delayed us getting some  of those projects completed but we do still have   option to use some of that to move forward  with some uh with some other removals as well   and it did cut our backlog by around one/3 that's  correct so we did have 2500 and we've cut that by   one third that's correct thank you thank you would  anyone else from the public like to address the council i see none mr clerk  please call the next item board of Bids and Contracts dated April 21st 2025 i think we missed consent agenda  sorry I was a little thrown off by that consent agenda items 1 through 20 thank  you Mr clerk are there any items to be   pulled council member Ballard thank  you Mayor i'd like to pull 3B and 5A i'd like to pull item number 10 i see no further items to be pulled i  move to Approve all items except for 3B 5A   and 10 second motion and a second any further  discussion i see none mr clerk please open the role okay motion passes 70   we'll start with 3B thank you Mayor i just um  we've talked a lot about parking and a lot about   uh this specific um corner so if anyone could  just bring us up to speed on this corner lot sorry Troy okay uh Troy Anderson assistant  i also have uh with me our parking manager   Stephanie Canabel uh this is a sort of an ongoing  lease agreement with uh GSA uh they continually uh   lease spaces in this parking lot from the city um  we recently responded to an RFP uh in regards to   that governmental request to allow them to lease  parking from the city within that parking lot   thank you any further questions i see none  mayor if I could just a a note because there   has been talk about reuse of this property  the uh contract with the GSA does have an   exit ramp and so um with 180day notice we  can terminate the agreement at any time thank you city manager see no further questions  we'll now open it up for public comment regarding   this item i see none we'll bring it back to  the bench council member Ballard sure oop sorry i would like to or I move to approve the  lease agreement and authorize all necessary   signatures second motion and a second any further  discussion i see none mr mr clerk please open the role motion passes 70 council member  Ballard um item 5A thank you um I   already spoke with staff a little bit  about this but the change order seems   significant so um I just wanted to give the  opportunity to talk about it a little bit good morning mayor and city council aaron Henning  with public works and utilities uh yeah this it is   a rather sizable uh change order uh this project  is uh sentry 2 elevators replacing single jack   lifts with double jack lifts which is required by  code there's no grandfathering them in uh staff is   not experts in elevators we engaged a uh an expert  to help develop specifications for this project   uh went out for bid for this project during the  uh pre-bid meetings this concern was raised that   perhaps the oil might be contaminated so there was  an addendum done with the bid to add testing to   the contract but it did not go so far as to add  remediation not knowing what the testing would   show so unfortunately the testing did show that  the hydraulic oil does have PCBs in it so now it's   going to require a pretty extensive cleanup effort  to remove that oil get the contaminants out and   then safely dispose of them i think one of the one  of the disposal sites for some of the equipment   that will come out that I think is the casings uh  and maybe the uh cylinders is in Utah so they're   going to have to transport that all the way out to  to Utah to do that so it is costly unfortunately   okay thank you so much thank you any further  questions for staff i see none we'll open it up   for public comment regarding this item i see none  we'll bring it back to the bench council member   Ballard thank you i move to approve the change  order number one and authorize the necessary   signatures second motion in a second any further  discussion i see none mr clerk please open the role council member Ho motion passes 70  we'll now move to item number 10 i'd like   more clarification regarding this item maybe from Reggie or whomever from staff  can answer questions this is a $700,000 to $750,000 project but this in  particular only takes into account $450,000   can you please explain the difference and uh what  this project is sure uh Tim Kellum's Park Works   Utilities um the idea here is is that we would uh  use a guaranteed maximum price so the consultant   would come on board and do public engagement to  figure out exactly um the scope of the project   mostly engaging with the community central  Riverside Park is one of our highest use park   um and we envision this being a very a highly used  playground um didn't want to move forward without   having a robust amount of uh public engagement  with that um given the size and intended and   expected use for the playground um figured that we  would need to use 2026 funding to help supplement   this um the guaranteed maximum price that we  had planned to have in this RFQ um would then   come back to city council for approval and then we  would initiate 2026 money at that time uh and then   the project would get rolling further uh so most  of this upfront work is to do um public engagement   figure out exactly what the community wants get a  a a pretty good idea on what the design should be   one of the reasons why we're doing uh or needs  some help with consultant is because there's there   is a bunch of different playground equipment out  there and then if the community say says that they   want something specific this allows us a little  bit more flexibility rather than trying to pull   something from one vendor uh that we've done in  the past this allows us again more flexibility to   get and um implement designs that the community  is looking for we don't enision envision this   as being kind of your standard playground  per se knowing that this is probably have   uh some type of theming things like that knowing  the character and history of Central Riverside   so a little bit unique compared to our typical  playground and what is the total budget according   to an email I received from city manager um it  was 700 to 750,000 so the max will be $750,000   for this entire project is that correct uh  yes that's what we're budgeting internally   i think between 2025 and 2026 there's 900,000  we plan on using some of that money to address   other playgrounds so we don't intend on using that  fully on this playground once we get into design   and engagement with the community that budget may  come down let's say they want the community wants   something different something um as you know maybe  they don't want a a large tower those things start   to get expensive so once we engage with community  we can kind of right size this to the right the   right amount it may be a little bit less but  internally we are budgeting about 700 to 750,000   most of that has to do with steel most of these  playgrounds are steel and there are different   type of safety surfacing we are moving towards a  it's called PIP pour in place surfacing uh which   is a higher quality and provides less maintenance  down the road um we're doing that on most of our   playgrounds now um it actually just got done at  uh LW Clap should you want to go out and take a   look at it uh it's looking great and that's kind  of the the standard premier for safety surfacing   especially for kids when I believe it's about 60  or 70% of injuries for playgrounds are due to head   injuries so try to make sure we're having a safe  playground out here so they do cost a little bit   more rather than just sand or or lower cost  options can you tell me how much Clap Park   playground equipment costs oh gosh um so we went a  variety of different routes with this I believe uh   in total are you asking for just the equipment  or everything outside of the equipment as well   you can break it down into both um the equipment  I believe is around 1.2 1.3 million um most of the   site work um outside of that uh helped add to that  cost we also added a dog park with the project   and a parking lot so that's kind of kind a little  bit hard to break down there but um we also had a   separate contract with the vendor to do the safety  surfacing and then the different BMS and concrete   underneath the safety surfacing gets broken out  a little differently but in terms of playground   equipment it's probably 1.3 somewhere in that  range so this would be quite a bit less because   we would have to do um the concrete underneath the  playground the safety surfacing on top removal of   an existing one whereas at CLAP we didn't have  to remove an existing playground so there is   some added cost to trying to to demo an existing  playground which we'd be doing in this case for   Central Riverside so that we can um have the clear  expectation from community while they may see Clap   Park with this playground equipment that is not  necessarily what you will see at Central Riverside   Park just to set expectations clearly sure great  point we don't uh there's an exist there's two   existing playgrounds out at Central Riverside one  of them has that rubberized surface and was done   um I believe within the last 15 years 10 to 15  years it's in pretty good shape the one that   we're concerned about is the sand playground the  sand playground is over 30 years old and doesn't   meet our current standards number one and number  two it just doesn't provide the play value for our   our highest use park um and the pretty much the  playground for for downtown Witchaw so um that   one they expected to to stay by itself and not be  used again we'll listen to the public and see what   they have to say but internally we don't envision  touching the uh the larger I guess rubberized   surface playground this is mostly focusing on  the sand playground uh which is a little bit to   the south and then last but not least maybe this  question is more for the city manager how does   this play into the park master plan good question  mayor i was going to actually ask to speak on that   the council has not adopted the philosophy um or  the policy guidance that will shape the master   plan but you will be involved in that process what  I've been hearing from um the council discussions   over the last year is a heavier emphasis on our  regional parks and that's uh this is as uh Tim   mentioned this is probably one of the most active  parks that we have and it is I would classify it   as a regional park same as Clap um but until  we know exactly where we're headed with the   master plan I can't tell you um if we'll have a  heavier emphasis on these types of parks versus   smaller neighborhood parks that that will be  a determination you'll make going forward um I   also want to mention mayor you had asked about the  budget for this we talked about an estimate of 700   750,000 we'll know more after we do the go out for  the proposals we're asking for permission to send   out an RFP with the design build for design build  team we also have the ability to cap the amount   that we put in and so after we hear back from the  design build teams and select a consultant we can   then tell them what the cap will be um or what  the negotiated price will be and that will allow   us to have additional funding for some of the  other parks that um are planned for improvements   in the next year council member Johnson thank you  Mayor Tim i appreciate the presentation um I just   want to add to the public dialogue we love the  rocket at Riverside and more rockets are not a   bad thing so as people discuss what they want  would love to see more rockets at Riverside we'll be happy to share the safety guidelines that  we have for playgrounds council member Hoheisle   thank you Mayor yeah that was what I was going  to ask is is is there going to be any work on   the rocket or is it pretty much just a memorial at  this point to days past yes yeah the uh the rocket   uh is pretty much a memorial at this point it's  been taken out throughout other communities across   the country it it was actually a very popular  one throughout the country um I don't know many   of them that still have them left but I'm glad  that we still have ours at least to for for memory   for everyone but um no unfortunately does not meet  safety standards to play on okay I appreciate that   thank you and then last question just want to make  sure since it was mentioned that $900,000 would be   allocated for playgrounds in the whole system and  a good chunk would go to Central Riverside Park   have we planned well enough to take care of the  other parks and their playgrounds with that amount   um yes yeah i we have a number of I kind of the  the current plan right now is to try to address   sand playgrounds that's kind of the biggest thing  um the sand playgrounds they don't provide impact   attenuation which is basically for those head  injuries and fall injuries um as well as the   rubberized surface and the um wood chips I  guess you could say so our target right now   is to address um all of the um sand playgrounds  as we can again doing new playgrounds tends to   get expensive but we do have repairs throughout  the system to different um rubberized surfaces   or things along those lines so we try to address  those as well trying to find that right balance   between replacement and then making those  necessary repairs to different surfaces   throughout the throughout the park system um as I  mentioned this one Central Riverside is one of the   oldest if not the oldest um playground in our park  system right now um few years ago we took care of   uh OJ Watson Park which was at the time one of  the oldest ones so we're slowly going through   and checking off and getting through those same  playground um again most of them are are pretty   costly to do so generally we are only able  to address one playground and then try one   replacement playground and try to um kind of  take care of those other I would say call them   lowhanging fruit but they're they still make an  impact but we don't have enough to fully repair   or replace a new one um so in this case given  the the size and complexity and the impact or the   um usage that we feel at Central Riverside  thought that allocating two years worth would be   um important and seen as value to the community  given the high use at the playground uh we do plan   to utilize I believe um Evergreen Rec Center one  of their uh playground or their safety surfacing   there that is also on our list to replace um so  there are smaller projects that we are checking   off with this money thank you Tim and city manager  you mentioned um you're hearing obviously from   this council more emphasis on regional parks  can you address which ones are regional parks   i think I need Reggie's help on that thank you i  know that we have roughly 120 parks so I would I   would like to know what you consider regional  parks Reggie so what we consider when we look   at some of uh as regional park are going to be  our larger gathering spaces that we have mac   Adams Park will be one of them lj uh Clap will be  one watson Park Central Riverside will be another   location that we consider are kind of the larger  ones that we have in in our system buffalo also   yeah Buffalo will be a larger one also evergreen  evergreen is considered more of a community park   uh than a larger regional park oj Watson yes  thank you very much you're welcome i see no   further questions for staff we'll now open  it up for public comment regarding this item hi I'm Sha i was just wondering uh with the  parks would they be able to put any like   uh military activities or wall  rock wall climbing some more   uh physical activity for the  kids besides swings and slides council member Ballard thank you Mayor uh to the  speaker's point we do have the national fitness   uh court over at the Pat Garcia Park over on  the north end that is a has you use all of your   own body um weight to get a full body workout  it's very impressive i would highly encourage   you to check it out okay Council Member  Johnson thanks Mayor um to the point of   your question there's going to be a lot of  public engagement going forward on that so   um I know Tim hears that but if you  ever attend any of the meetings or   any way that they're taking that  uh feedback definitely share that any further comments i'm going to stay here i'm going to talk um  no I'm the president of Grand View Heights   Neighborhood Association where Clark Park sits um  we appreciate it's long overdue that dang co kind   of kicked us in the butt but um it's going to get  done midday or something but we appreciate the new   uh the new dog park and the new uh multi-purpose  so I just wanted to pass that on eventually we   finally got it still waiting on the bike path from  uh Woodlon to the river but that's coming also uh   six years late but I think they were just waiting  till I couldn't ride a bike but anyhow thank you   Council Member Ho Heisel thank you Mayor um June  4th at 11 a.m i believe will be the ribbon cutting   for the all access playground at Clap Park um  playground that is designed so that way all kids   um including kids with disabilities will  be able to get out there and play and   um slide for the kids in the wheelchairs um  zip line for kids in wheelchairs swings for   kids in wheelchairs it's it's really neat so uh  June 4th get as many people out there as we can thank you for the public comment i see no  further comments we'll bring it back to the bench i will move to if it's okay with Council  Member Ballard this is in your district but I   will move to approve uh this item since I pulled  it i move to approve the progressive design build   project implementation strategy strategy  project delivery and RFQ criteria second   motion and a second any further discussion  i see none mr clerk please open the role yeah none of ours work uh all those in  favor say I i um motion passes 70 mr   clerk please call the next item board of  Bids and Contracts dated April 21st 2025 morning Mayor City Council Josh Lober  Department of Finance the board of   bids and contracts convened yesterday  April 21st 2025 for the following items   for engineering we have the 2025 outsource  pavement preservation program CIP microsurfacing   and street repair for PP ppj construction  incorporated for 3 million 932,000 awarded   within the engineer's estimate from the original  bid we have the Hurst Street and Beach Street to   serve Town Park 10th edition phase 2 for Conspect  Incorporated doing business as Kansas paving for $171,269.60 we have the water distribution  system to serve Town Park 10th edition   phase 2 for Dueling Construction Company  Incorporated for $68,315 for purchasing   we have two high-pressure sewer cleaner trucks for  Elliot Equipment Company for an aggregate total of 773,714 we have the interior and exterior  modifications of seven single family homes   for Gray and Suns Construction LLC  for an aggregate total of 500,000   we have for uh the ground maintenance services  production and pumping contract change order   for Choice Industries Incorporated doing  businesses choice landscaping and lawn care   adding the 21st and Hoover admin building  for 15,000 we have the veterary consulting   services contract change order requesting your  authorization to renew the contract for another   year for the rates listed with Kansas Humane  Society doing businesses Kansas Humane Society   we have the liquid chlorine bulk delivery  contract change order for Brent Tag Southwest   Incorporated requesting your authorization  to extend the contract 60 days we have trash   and recycling containers and collection  for Transit Police and Library contract   change order for Waste Management Kansas  Incorporated for the amended amount of $39,397.92 estimated per year and we have  the false alarm registration and management   services contract change order for Central Square  Technologies requesting your authorization to   extend the contract for 90 days this is how  to become a vendor with the city this is a   purchasing calendar of small uh resource partner  events and items that the city will be 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 of your questions and I  recommend your approval thanks Josh questions for   staff beginning with Council Member Ballard thank  you Mayor josh could we go to page eight sure it just said there's no other bids received  correct so are we we're just taking the only   bid that we got is the only responsive  bid um and it met within the budget of   the department request okay do we ever ask  any other businesses that we send it out to   like why they're not interested or seems like  a very large project to only get one bid yeah   we do that's a great question it comes up  frequently um we'll ask our our contractors   what they're seeing in the market and  a lot of it is labor a lot of it is   um the influx of federal funding you're seeing  that the labor market is tight and they're not   not able to either complete the work or  the work that they're bidding is so high   that it's not cost reasonable um but it's really  difficult to tell why vendors aren't bidding um okay thank you and then page 11 so I've received several emails  um about this and I see that   um there's some people from uh animal  control here uh it sounds like there's   been several core requests to make sure  that the vaccines are actually being given   that seems to be the main sticking point  in the emails that I have received do we   know anything about that or Yeah I'd have  to defer to WTO Police Department thank you the the question on the vaccines being given  at intake is that okay yes the staff at our   front desk is trained to give those that's  the DAP for cats and the Bordetella parvo   for dogs so I guess my question is why are  the core or request for the data um being   denied i think she has requested it like  four times uh I I'm not for sure on all   the core request stuff i know there was  one time I had asked but I would have to   pull the records for each individual animal  which would take me forever to do um but yeah anybody else it seems to be the concern is that  they're wanting to make sure that   the vaccines are actually being given um  considering the amount that we're paying council member Glascock thank you i guess a  followup to Councilwoman Ballard's comments   i imagine we track the vaccines in a database  when they're administered yes there's the the   way it's done is that we have a what's called a  medical screen in our records management system   and so when it's given an entry is made in  that screen i don't have a report where I can   pull that data so I have to individually query  each individual animal to go into that screen   to find it so our system doesn't allow just  an export of all of those documents i would   have to work with our vendor to get a report  for that and I can do that it's not a problem i'll have a follow-up question  so it's intake vaccines is   $2,500 per month on average how  many vaccines are administered   with the $2,500 a month uh we take in 9  to10,000 animals a month so um maybe 800 i don't have the specific numbers but 800 vaccines  per month yeah we we take in 9 to 10,000 animals a   year so just dividing that by 12 okay 9 to 10  10,000 per year you initially said months i'm   sorry yeah 9 to 10,000 per year per year okay got  it so 800 on average per year vaccines per month   per month we're doing the same thing now so you  were asking who was asking for that information   one of my constituents has been asking  for um the numbers of are we are the   animals getting the vaccines that we're  paying for for them to get and if you   could work with your vendor I don't know  what that looks like but it seems like a   really easy ask but I'm not techy on all  of that stuff um but I think maybe that's   I mean it's obviously important to some  people that are requesting it I guess um yeah if if your if your constituent wants to  reach out to me she can come to the shelter   and I will show her the medical records if she  wants to see that pass the word thank you Josh   uh slide number nine can you explain are these the  single family homes that will be   um remodeled so that they can become affordable  housing here in the community housing good morning mayor members of council sally  staying with the housing department for the   record these are part of the public housing  units um we are expending additional capital   funds received to renovate those units to put back  into the market um as newly rehabbed units once   sold so they will become affordable housing in the  community correct thank you very much Sally and   thank you Sally for hosting the greater housing  um conference last week again the big topic was   affordable housing in our community and so we  appreciate seeing that houses will be remodeled   so that they can become affordable housing yet  again for the community thank you Josh thank you   very much i see no further questions for you  or any staff please do not get public comment   sir they mentioned something about the animal  advisory board i'm on the advisory board question   i'm pretty sure Mag there's no public comment  regarding that sorry George u but we did have   staff speak on behalf of that you could talk  to um Captain PCEL i can talk to that wall i will move to approve the board  of bids and contracts second motion   and a second any further discussion i  see none mr clerk please open the role i motion passes 70 mr clerk please call the next item public hearing in request by Lang Gin Y LLC   for approval of a letter of intent  to issue industrial revenue bonds honorable mayor members of council Troy  Anderson assistant city manager um so   this item was presented to you all last week  uh it was deferred to today there was some   uh questions uh that uh we we had provided answers  to yesterday uh but just real fast running through   the slide deck again lang Gen Y is a real estate  holding company that will lease to Lang Companies   the subject property the requesting issuance  of revenue bonds in the amount of $3 million   for renovation of the former Royal Caribbean  call center building lang recently purchased   building plans to use it for their corporate  headquarters renovations include exterior refresh   redesign front entry lobby second floor remodel  basement facilities the plan is that construction   would begin immediately be completed by the  end of the year this request is for uh sales   tax exemption only uh approximate value of the  sales tax exemption to all taxing jurisdictions   $112,000 city share of which is about $8,700 uh  again we kind of share this with all revenue bond   uh applications uh revenue bonds are a mechanism  for achieving either a sales tax exemption and   or a property tax abatement in a revenue bond  transaction the city is not lending any money   bears no risk company's required to acquire  all of its own financing there is no taxpayer   dollars that are at risk in this transaction all  costs are born by the company requesting the use   of the bonds lang agrees to pay all the cost  of issuing the bonds agrees to pay the annual   origination fees bonds will be purchased by Lang  or a related entity the bond documents will be   prepared by outside council but ultimately  law department will will review and approve   the final form of the bond documents prior to the  issuance of any bonds with that being said it re   staff's recommendation that city council adopt the  resolution authorize the necessary signatures and   we do have representatives from here to answer  any questions you might have today thanks Troy   we'll begin with council member Glasco thank you  Mayor Troy i have a few questions some will be the   same as last week some might be a little bit  different first off what has changed in this   document since last week is there any updates to  the agenda packet it's the exact same request as   made previously correct yep it was uh deferred  in this context uh again the there were some   questions that were asked um by city council last  week we provided response to those in an email   yesterday um so as it stands for the application  nothing has changed from the deferral last week if   we were to vote on this is there anything is the  sales tax exemption contingent on anything except   the construction of the $3 million of uh fixtures  and equipments from laying so is there any jobs   tied to this is there any requirement that they  have to uphold as a benefit to the taxpayers to   to receive the sales tax exemption to answer the  first part of the question it is performancebased   yes they must complete the improvements that  they say they want to perform right and so upon   completion of the improvements is when we bring  all of those sort of receipts back and that's   when we issue the bonds for um uh for the for the  bond issuance process uh no there are no jobs that   are required as part of a sales tax exemption that  was one of the questions that was asked last week   we went back we did some research the laundry list  kind of went on and on so we kind of just stopped   it didn't take us very long we went to back  back about 2023 there were at least 12 different   revenue bond applications that city council had  reviewed and approved and none of those required   any jobs so I looked at the requests made in 2024  and 2025 that's just since I've been here so I   didn't go back to 2023 in 2025 Commonwealth was  affordable housing correct correct okay in 2024   Empower and Orpheium were both nonprofits correct  i I I didn't dig into the actual contents of the   application so I I don't have that okay but those  requests Empower and Orphium were nonprofited I   believe so yes and then housing just to make sure  I have all my um information correct Timbers Mako   212 Market Opco Hyde and 333 English were  all housing projects i'd have to go back   and confirm that but that sounds I just want  to make sure that there there might not be one   that wasn't a housing project no I'd have to go  back and and confirm that but that sounds about   right and then so out of 2024 and 2025 it looks  like the only one that may be different um would   be the Clemens Aviation which was on the airport  agenda authority board not the city council agenda   and my understanding is that um the airport uh  any projects on airport authority are exempt from   property taxes correct so there would be no option  for Clemens Aviation to come for a property tax   exemption they would have had to seek the sales  tax exemption that's correct okay i was just   trying to make sure that I had the right context  especially with the different application so this   one is unique in that in 2024 and 2025 it's the  only one that would be a non not a nonprofit or   a housing request that could very well be okay um  in terms of the ROI to the city you had sent kind   of reform regarding the 420 or 4729 South Palisade  information could you elaborate on the ROI to the   city how long do we get the full investment back  based on if we were to um offer the sales tax   exemption today yeah so I had a couple of extra  slides prepared just in case the questions were   asked um this slide here talks a little bit about  how we've arrived at where we are today right so   I can come back to this slide if you need me  to but as far as ROI really really high level   uh what we had prepared to you all were sort of  three scenarios we took the 2025 sort of combined   property tax and sales tax what it would look like  in 2026 and then ultimately kind of carried that   out to a 10-year projection which is why you  see 2035 so you see um in the first six rows   um currently in 2025 the appraised value is about  $1.8 8 million uh resulting in an assessed value   of about $450,000 so the overall tax obligation to  all taxing jurisdictions about $52,000 a year city   shares about just under $15,000 a year so what  we added here in this next line is the city of   Witchah sales tax exemption that is being sort of  considered here today right it's a value of about   $8,700 which is why you don't see it in  26 27 beyond clear out to 2035 is sort   of a one-time but combining property tax and  sales tax into a a combined so if you looked   at sort of the the balance right of what you  see here in this first column is the various   net gain or net loss positions by the city  combining both property tax and sales tax   the first row there you see at the bottom is the  net gain without a sales tax exemption so if for   whatever reason city council does not approve the  re the the sales tax exemption and let's just say   for a moment that they do go ahead and do the  project anyway the city's net gain would be   that $8,700 in 2025 that's the only additional  net gain the city would see in sort of 2025   the next scenario that you see there is that net  gain with the sales tax exemption right so let's   say you do approve the sales tax exemption they  go on and do the project as they have anticipated   the city's net gain in 2025 would be zero we will  have foregone that sales tax u again about $8,700   the last scenario I presented to you all is  sort of that idea of if you all don't approve   the sales tax exemption and for whatever reason  they don't do the project right so without the   project again we don't realize those sales taxes  anyway city's net gain position is still zero in 2025 in 2026 the numbers you see there at the top  assume that the project is is completed right so   you see that uptick in appraised value from about  1.8 to about 4.3 million so we spent some time   with our real estate division um we analyzed kind  of looked at some other comparables in and around   the area um we figured that um it's probably not  going to get back up to the $7 million appraised   value that it was a couple years ago best case  scenario is it's probably going to increase   from 1.8 8 to 4.3 for the 2026 with then which  then changes all of the assessed values general   tax obligation city share again you'll notice  there's no sales tax exemption in 2026 and then   you see that sort of compounding balance that's  added in 2026 you see the net gain position in   26 without the sales tax exemption with the  sales tax exemption and without the project   we actually start sort of losing money right in  that last scenario I kind of put that asterisk   explanation down there at the bottom that when  we looked at the net gain without the project   what we've seen is about a 3% decline since  2023 we saw in 2024 a 3% decline let me back   up in 2024 we saw the appeal and the reduction  in the prop in 2025 we saw about a 3% reduction   so our estimates assume that there's a continued  3% reduction in the property value over the next   10 years if the project doesn't go forward so  you see there clear out to 2035 that without the   sales tax exemption if the project moves forward  the city is in a position to sort of gain about   $416,000 in property tax um property tax and sales  tax without the sales tax exemption the next one   is the net gain with the sales tax exemption  about 47,000 again that difference is that   $8,700 sales tax exemption the last row is without  the project again over a 10-year period we our net   loss position is about $4,000 so that's a really  lengthy explanation i hope that kind of answers no   that's helpful and I'm thankful for the analysis  thank you for preparing it uh that's something   I requested last time so there's two assumptions  bane in this first assumption is this project will   not move forward unless the city grants a sales  tax to get this performant correct there's three   assumptions there's the assumption that that the  project goes forward either without the sales tax   exemption or with the sales tax exemption those  are modeled two different that delta is the $8,700   the third assumption is if the sales tax  exemption is not granted and the project   doesn't move forward that's the third so  the city still has the gain even if the   sales tax assumption if we don't award the  sales tax correct and that's the first line   correct the second line is if we do so that's one  assumption another assumption is that this is the   property tax that we'll receive if there's  not a property tax abatement in the future   that's correct so if the applicant comes with a  property tax abatement in the future then that   negate it could negate at least a portion of  the gains realized on this performance correct   and ultimately at that point in time what  the applicant would qualify in a property tax   abatement and what the costbenefit analysis would  show as a result of kind of that ongoing either   additional capital investment or jobs created  absolutely would completely overhaul this model   so this is the highest possible gain the city  could receive given if the applicant doesn't   come back for a property tax exemption as well  as a number of other assumptions such as the   appraised value etc but yes does the applicant  plan on coming back with a property tax exemption   later i'd have to defer to the applicant at  that point and we have the applicant come forward mayor Council thank you for having us  today appreciate your time the direct question   was will you be seeking property tax abatement  at this point it is on the table this project is   part of what is a planned multiplephased  expansion and um of the what we call the   advanced manufacturing facilities for Redguard  manufacturing which is located here in South   Witchah as well as the Lang plan corporate  headquarters with the exclusion of the real   estate division so at this point we are working  on a multitude of different um elements of that   in in planning and diligence stages currently um  it is on the table that we could likely be coming   back for an abatement that would be requested in  line with what the costbenefit analysis and the   appropriate return on investment would be to the  city of Witchah and for this project specifically   last week a representative from your company  said no so I'm very confused right now because   if we would have passed it last week with  that answer knowing that you actually are   going to be asking for property tax abatement  the answer immediately for me would have been   no um so I feel misled right now i apologize for  that um and he is not here today apologize for   that our intent was not to mislead this council  and this governing body in any way our intent   was to make sure that this project is planned  and um organized in a fashion that is eligible   and most applicable for utilization of these  incentives and we approach all of our projects   um through that lens and with that intent he did  not have that information available to him last   week to be able to probably answer you adequately  in your in your comment or your question to him   i apologize for that council member Tuttle  thank you this question is for Troy thank you so Troy you and I met last week to chat about  this because I'm a little confused yep um I   understand there's you know different scenarios  and different questions but the most basic answer   is did the applicant meet all of the requirements  for this to come to us yes okay and if we wanted   to have future discussions of sales tax abatement  maybe just for nonprofits or for housing or you   know whatever that could be a future discussion  but in theory did the applicant meet all of the   requirements for this to be approved today  as those requirements are spelled out in the   economic development guidelines yes okay thank you  Council Member Johnson thanks Mayor Troy just real   quick are the assumptions on the net gain that  the any future council would take in the full   valuation of the property and not partial like  is this tied to any type of property valuations   going forward as those continue to go up or was  the assumption that a council would fully take   in the property valuations and not like cap it  at inflation rates our model simply took into   consideration a very modest uh 3% inflationary  adjustment if for whatever reason again this   model if in 2026 that appraised value isn't  4.3 obviously all of these numbers change if   uh in 2027 we see a 7% increase in those valuation  again all of these numbers change so our modeling   simply assumed a an approximate 3% inflationary  adjustment year-over-year from 2026 to 2035 okay i see no further questions for staff  we will now open it up for public comment i see no one from the public  we will bring it back to the bench   this resides in council member GlassCox's  district council member Hohheisle thank   you mayor um I would be interested to hear  what they have as far as a presentation goes could the applicant please come forward and share  plans for this location yes um so plans for this   location the former Royal Caribbean building  now um rebranded as Portico Chase is for the   consolidation and active recruitment and for  the Lang corporate offices and specifically   also Redguard Manufacturing um administrative  engineering um engineering employees the project   management teams the sales teams and the executive  teams approximately 90 of the existing jobs will   be um located at this facility in addition to the  um active recruitment and fulfillment of current   jobs that we have um active across the line  companies so that ranges from like I described   administrative to executive to uh manufacturing  jobs that would be here as well as one of the more   recent initiatives that we've been working on that  is um a joint venture and and a investment into a   technology firm that would be helping facilitate  the um smart shipping containers that we are   planning to do here that will create um a handful  of jobs here approximately five to six technology   based as well as all of the shared services  and support services needed for the use of   that in addition we have um been actively working  within um a division of Redguard inline companies   is module which is a modular um QSR quick service  restaurant manufacturing capability where we have   um been able to achieve success in in um  working for some national franchisees brands   i think it's important to also understand that  about 95% of the manufacturing um product that   is built in the city of Witchah is exported  outside of the state of Kansas so those jobs   are retained created actively recruited to this  market um with intentionality this is home for   laying companies and Redguard and has all plans  to remain as such the reason in part that this   request is being brought initially is again this  is phase one of what is a multiplephased plan um   across the street from Portico Chase is the Red  Guard current uh production center where final   assembly and manufacturing takes place we are  actively working on a um expansion plan for our   advanced manufacturing capabilities here in the  city of Witchah um most of the again 95% of this   product is shipped outside of the state of Kansas  um in order to make sure that we are as competit   you know as competitive as we need to be and be  able to grow and continue to um experience success   and continued success into the future setting up  this administrative facility executive offices the   the support offices for this manufacturing effort  is the first phase of of Porticochase and where   the offices and and all that I described would  be held does that answer your question council   member yeah yeah i was just wanting to give you  guys an opportunity to talk a little more about   this um and sorry if I the other part of that as  part of the property tax abatement there are some   qualifications as it relates to state incentives  so we through HPIP and some other state-led   um incentive programs based around manufacturing  we want to make sure that we are coupling any   property tax abatement requests related to this  IRB in its best form and that the city of Witchah   is receiving its best return on investment  and that we are packaging that adequately   um we acquired this this property um about a  little over a year ago um came kind of together   fairly quickly we had to act very uh very fast  it set um empty for some period of time postcoid   um when Royal Caribbean moved their corporate  offices out of here in and sales center um and   we acquired this property for about $2.25 million  we immediately put about $83,000 of improvements   into the building when we acquired it to get it  into functional um semifunctional form or safe and   habitable form from new roof to certain mechanical  systems to um securing the facility the prior   owner was spending a tremendous amount of money  um in security and and policing this facility   because of transient trespassing that was taking  place um on the property so this is an example of   lane companies making active investment in South  Witchah and I think um you've you've continued   to see that and we plan to for you to continue to  see that so we have a number of projects in South   Witchah from the Paddock Industrial Park to the  Saddle Creek Crossing redevelopment to Onerise   um behavioral health campus to um Iron Horse  Industrial Park all of which are economic   development you know stimulators and growth um  and we we do that across the city of Witchah we   are actively reinvesting into the city of Witchah  and plan and intend to continue to do that this is   a a measure to help ensure that we are putting  this project in it's able to happen and that   this project is able to to um realize its best  potential in my opinion um when would you guys   plan on bringing the property tax portion of this  to i I believe in this calendar year um I think it   could be the latter part of this calendar year the  advanced um you know manufacturing facility and   planning around it is going to take a little bit  more time and development to understand exactly   what is the right um project to build there and  what are all of the needs that as we look into   the future of what uh Redguard Manufacturing  is currently and where it's planning to go so   I would anticipate it to be this calendar year  i apologize for being vague okay but I would   imagine sometime in third quarter of this year  I would anticipate that we have that organized   well enough and understand from the state inside  of this as well how to appropriately package that   and bring that to this governing body thank you  you're currently located at 47th and Broadway   Southeast corner what will happen to that location  um we are so um mayor the the real estate office   was located there we have um relocated  that to 1101 West Douglas in Deleno there   on the southwest corner um there's approximately  about 6,000 square feet of that retail center um   formally occupied by Kmart days back um so we have  seen tremendous activation of that location with   um th this is really the only current vacancy  right now and we're in active negotiations with a   um health related provider for potential lease  up of that that space um we developed the out   parcels in that location as well with Club Car  Wash and and a host of others that um has really   enhanced and and brought that area to life and I  think the investment there is been demonstrated   as well sorry I have a couple of more questions  that I should have asked during questions but you   mentioned 95% of your manufacturing is actually  exported out of Witchah Kansas um and one of the   criteria that I look for when I look for IRB um  approve approving of these projects is jobs and I   know you you can't say exactly but Sure currently  how many employees do you have at Redguard and how   many do you plan to hire further um I think you  said 90 exist existing jobs but you also have some   vacancies do you expect to continue increasing  the number of employees at Redguard absolutely   yes um and and increasing them growing them here  uh the plan is in the city of Witchah so when I   when I speak to 90 jobs that is the amount of  jobs that we plan to occupy um if we move this   project forward immediately into the Portico Chase  building this building can adequately house around   220 to 250 employees so we per you know purchase  this with the plan for continued growth and we   see that across really all of the lane companies  and the the segments and the business units that   they touch um so without making you a promise of  what that exact job total would be there would be   90 new jobs what I can tell you is that there's  five to eight full-time positions uh related to   the smart shipping containers in the technology  base that are new that would be created for this   location um and filled there are approximately  eight existing um posted openings within the lane   companies right now that we're actively recruiting  and trying to fill um and I so I would anticipate   that this location would create roughly 13 to 16  full-time roles between shared services as well as   um the those business segments that I spoke to the  other would be module module is a rapidly growing   company we've been in um kind of organization  of that business segment now for probably three   years and um have finally been able to garner  some momentum on manufacturing the modular QSRs   that would and most of that client base is outside  most of those units are being shipped outside of   the state of Kansas as well council member Tuttle  thank you and this is a question not a comment   is that just because we're having the discussion  if I could bring Troy back up again please thank you i have two questions for you and if I  should know the answer to either of these   I apologize regarding sales tax abatement  is there a requirement that jobs have to   be a part of it no okay is there a way and  this is just making sausage from the bench   but if because I think if I can hear my  colleagues that's the concern right but   it isn't a requirement so you know there  wasn't a box that wasn't checked if this   got approved but if we said in the future they  did want to come link did want to come forward   with a property tax abatement that there could  be then there is requirements for jobs correct Or could we say there's a requirement you could  right so do you understand what I'm asking i think   so cuz because I see what the angst is i mean I  understand but I just am cognizant of the fact   that they followed all the rules and they you know  they checked all the boxes for this application   from what I understand i could be wrong and if  I'm wrong I would welcome anyone to correct me   but then since the jobs are the angst how could  we maybe do something for that in the future yeah   so go let let me let me talk a little bit about  jobs real fast without going down a rabbit hole   too far right part of where jobs has come into  the conversation not with sales tax exemption   but with property tax abatement was uh years  ago there was the costbenefit analysis model   that only looked at the 10-year window in which  a property tax abatement was being considered   so if you can imagine just for a moment really  really high level right that if I'm only looking   at the 10-year abatement window and I'm  taking sort of tax dollars off the table   I'm immediately operating from a in the red right  from a a negative position so what came into the   conversation was job creation right and so as part  of the costbenefit an analysis model the number of   jobs that were created offset the sort of loss  in potential property tax revenue another way to   look at that and we've been working closely with  uh Witchaw State University Center for Economic   Development Business Research previously  Jeremy Hill now Craig Compton right is not   just looking at that 10-year window but what  does the 15 and the 20-year window look like   right if you can imagine even if we're looking at  just the capital investment and we're also seeing   a lot of with new technology and and new projects  that are coming to market manufacturing equipment   etc right you're seeing ex extremely large capital  outlays being invested in our community which then   ultimately drives ad valerum property taxes  particularly in years 11 12 13 and beyond right   so if now all of a sudden you're looking at that  15-year proform or that 20-year proforma it's   very reasonable to anticipate and expect that I'm  just going to guess but by year 15 the additional   property taxes that are added to the tax role  not just for the city of Witchaw but for all   taxing jurisdictions by sort of say year 15 will  offset any property tax abatement that you might   have created in years one through without creating  any jobs right and so it's all about kind kind of   how you look at the costbenefit analysis and that  term by which you're evaluating sort of the return   on the investment that's where jobs came into  the conversation was sort of offset that if all   you were looking at is the 10-year window there's  nothing that specifically requires job creation as   part of any project and any consideration as part  of either a sales tax or property tax abatement   but job creation is incredibly important just as  you heard job retention right when we talk about   jobs and talent we talk about talent retention  and we talk about talent attraction so jobs are   incredibly important and the creation of  additional jobs are incredibly important   to this community i don't want to dismiss any of  that right but there's not a requirement that you   actually create any jobs but job creation can help  improve the ratio in a costbenefit analysis to   achieve the desired outcomes that may be too much  information but mayor may I supplement um this   is somewhat a nuanced issue what Troy indicated  regarding capital investment and the calculation   beyond 10 years really in my mind only works if  you're talking about a sizable capital investment   not just a remodeling of offices or of a building  but what would when you'd have substantial   improvements or new construction that's why  we've relied on job creation for so long and   also used a 10-year window for that analysis  um when we talked about introducing long-term   um benefit from capital investment we were looking  at some of the larger projects uh in the uh city   and especially in the manufacturing area so I just  want to kind of put a little different spin on   what Troy is talking about i I I still believe and  maybe we have a little bit of a staff disagreement   um but I believe that if you're going to if a  company comes in with um a request for property   tax abatement if they don't have a substantial  capital investment I think then we really are   going to be heavily reliant on the job creation  during that 10-year window as we always have   been and that will be reflected in the model that  Witchaw State runs for us on benefit cost analysis council me Vice Mayor Johnston thank you Mayor um  I'm see both sides of this i really like what the   land company's doing i like local companies  expanding not just giving to companies that   come in from outside so support local companies  that being said this is the first time that we're   giving a sales tax exemption to a private business  to build a corporate office that I have a problem   with um come back with a property tax abatement  for expanding your business manufacturing i   don't have a problem with that i do have a problem  with giving a sales tax exemption for a corporate   office you've already invested $3 million in  this building you could sell it maybe it's on   the market for quite some time um before that  it's a good location for you it's right across   the street from your manufacturing facility  um I I'm not going to support this just I just   don't think it's a good precedent that we're  setting businesses to come to us for corporate   headquarters model corporate headquarters  think you understand hope you understand   that I do support you I support businesses great  especially that you want to stay in south witchah   it's fantastic property tax abatements  for supporting expansion of your of your   manufacturing definitely support that But this I  just I'm just tell you my reasoning why I can't council member Tuttle great comments truly and I'm caught in the  middle too um I I do think and and Troy this   is just a comment to make while I completely  agree with your comment that we've never done   it for a corporate office before nowhere says  they can't right and so if that's the direction   of this council that we need some more guidance  in the rule making then that's something that we   we need to consider because that to me  the it it doesn't say they can't right   and so that's a a little bit of a struggle for  me and might be this seems like it provides us   with an opportunity that we need to revisit some  of our tools in our toolkit vice Mayor Johnston thank you i appreciate your comments very much  i think this is changing policy for what we give   tax exemptions to changing policy it's the first  time it's been done so in essence we are changing   the policy was to say the next person that wants  to build a new corporate headquarters won't come   to us and they will will come to us time and  time again um I don't think that was the intent   of property tax payments so that that's just my  thoughts like I say I do support land companies   great company do a great job just my reasoning  i think we're resetting policy here sure thank   you this is a slippery slope I think where we're  at again because this would set precedent and so   my question to Lang really is this irbs are a  mechanism for achieving a sales tax exemption   and or this is very key and or a property tax  abatement for so long we've been giving the and   but never really starting off with the or and  I think that that's where I am having trouble   with this because um if we give away u the and  right away but don't give the or as an eitheror   option we're now giving away all these benefits to  developers that I don't think is what the intent   was and so again I am very um concerned about this  and I do believe that this does set a precedent   and a slippery slope for another company to come  forward and say "Let's do this for my corporate   headquarters." And I don't believe that that  was again the intent and I think that's what I'm   hearing from my colleagues council member Ballard  I I hit her council member Ho so I appreciate   that um Troy uh quick question here if so this  process they they keep the receipts and then   they come back for an abatement on the receipts  of the improvements when the project is done is   that how the sales tax part of this works that's  correct the all of the expenses that they incur   um are tallied in preparation for what ultimately  is the bond issuance yes so it does that count   towards receipts that are collected before the IRB  passes no so we will not issue a a tax exemption   certificate until such time as this action  a letter of intent to issue IRBs is approved   and executed okay so if we motion to delay this  until they come with the whole package of property   tax included the what they spend in the meantime  would not be eligible for um reimbursement that's   correct okay thank you Council Member Ballard  no more council member Glascock thank you Mayor   um to the applicant thank you for investing in  South Witchaw thank you for investing in Witchaw   in general i echo Councilman Johnston's comments  that I can't in good faith support this i do think   it establishes a precedent it's very different  than the applications that at least come since   I've been on the council uh so I can only speak  from 2024 and 2025 but every single application   has been either for a nonprofit entity or for  housing which has been a priority of this council   universally again with the exception of the one  that was on the airport airport agenda where   they weren't eligible for property tax exemption  um I do believe this sets a precedent for other   businesses and I see no benefit to the taxpayers  regarding a complete building refresh updated   landscaping a redesigned front entry modern  landscaping to showcase the company's culture   and a dedicated media room uh in the existing  gym facility i don't think that's a benefit to   the taxpayer um I think what could be a benefit  to the taxpayers when you come to the property   tax exemption that also adds jobs to the facility  and also expands operations and to I think address   Councilman Tuttle's point is yeah I may have  checked every box but this body also determines   the will of the general public and the voters  if we just check everything that checks every   checklist and then it comes to the council then we  have no then we would just rubber stamp everything   from this council and so I believe we have to take  everything on its merit i think this establishes a   precedent and I've spoken with you all uh numerous  times this week and asked for holistic approach i   asked you to bring this together with a property  tax and tie this contingent on jobs and investment   in the area and that's not what this is this is a  sales tax exemption that's separate than that and   again thank you for the investment um I will not  be supportive of this today and I'll be offering   a motion i see that um Councilman Tuttles is  on the agenda though council member Tuttle seem   like this is working there we go um I did not  know that there had been a discussion of trying   to get it to be combined because that seems like  the best option and and I don't know if anybody's   willing it's it's your district and I would lean  into you but to even make that substitute motion   that we delay this i think council member Holisil  kind of alluded to that and then the I just want   to make a clarifying statement the part about you  know they've followed all the rules doesn't mean   that anything other than in the future we need  to address that um if if we want guard rails of   what we can and we can't then I think that's our  opportunity slash responsibility to make sure that   people know oh I can't apply for this because and  that's not in here i'm not saying that we should   just rubber stamp everything i'm just saying this  is a pause point for us to try and do this better is there any thought of a substitute motion i I  don't know it's your district and I I appreciate   your thoughts i did not know those discussions  that happened so thank you for sharing that   yeah I think I've spoken numerous times with  the applicant regarding that um I don't have   interest in offering this uh a substitute  motion or to delay it because this was   delayed to this week and I asked to see if there  would be a more holistic approach and it wasn't   um requested and so I would be making a motion  and I'll be interested in discussion that we close   the public hearing would deny the resolution and  authorize the necessary signatures council member   Hoheisel thank you Mayor could I have a represent  or you're right here sorry um when do you guys   plan on starting the improvements here immediately  immediately yeah they're through design and ready   to commence immediately thus the reason that  this is being brought into this current request   is in order to accommodate that timing and planned  schedule i think it's you know I understand that   we're looking from 2023 to 2025 i think that  there's other examples and precedent that has   been prior set we could look at Cargill we could  look at other examples in order to retain keep and   attract corporate headquarters i think it is very  important for me to to state that I mean Redguard   given the type of product that it manufactures  and this facility is not just an office for   Redguard these are the support systems that allow  Redguard manufacturing to be a worldwide leader in   the prokim and um blast contained space as well as  with the Department of Defense as we look at what   we're trying to package for the state of Kansas  through some of the eligible programs that are   there in order to ensure retention of this company  which is being attracted by multiple other states   that it pro uh works within currently and does has  options available to it and that's not me coming   here giving any kind of loaded threat or that I  mean witchah is home witchah will always be home   and plan to be home for redguard but these type of  economic incentives ensure the longevity of these   companies to be able to stay in Witchah remain in  Witchah and put the most our best foot forward as   we're actively recruiting so to some degree I I  challenge you Mr glass Councilman Glascock from   the standpoint of all of these improvements are  for job retention for active job recruitment we're   re recruiting a I mean we have a company that is  planning on on officing here with us as well that   now Lang has investment and ownership in around  the smart shipping containers module um as well   as all of the multiple segments that Redguard is  already manufacturing within so I I'm challenged   a little bit by that statement candidly i I think  that in order to retain and recruit talent for the   city of Witchah this is an important part  of being able to successfully do that and   um I think that this application has been brought  to you this governing body with under under the   lens that it checks the boxes to councilwoman  Miss to Tuttle i think that we see that as this   is very eligible and there would be a multitude  of locations that would accommodate this type of   request and support it um with what lane companies  have done and what they continue to plan to do   um in in the city of Witchaw and otherwise so  it would not be a help to you if we delay this   until you come back with the property tax um on  this on this initial phase i think it could be   challenged i mean um to to be as much of a help  i think that that's a better alternative than   um denying it today candidly but I think that um  the the timing that we're trying to adhere to for   um occupancy in in this building would there would  be some diminished value to to not um passing this   today yeah and you know candidly it'll probably  impact the level of which that we evaluate what   gets built in the city of Witchah on the next  phase so I mean the advanced manufacturing   facility to I mean it it it plays a part in it  there's there's um th those lines cross over   significantly as we plan what these next layers of  expansion are going to be for for this facility i   appreciate it thank you Council Member Glascop  thank you because you challenged I'll offer a   challenge back there are thousands of businesses  in this community literal thousands that don't   make requests for this body sure lang Development  in particular has had three this year two this   year one pending regarding a facade improvement at  a location on Douglas regarding a vacation request   on 47th Street this as the sales tax exemption  and then based on your own words a property tax   exemption and subsequently coming later this  summer and so this body has committed to making   sure investments are made in Lang and trying to  encourage job creation but there are thousands of   businesses that don't do that and your business is  coming with four requests this year and so there   is an assumption that we are trying to support you  all as well but also supporting you when it makes   sense and also allowing private development and  private enterprise to happen when it doesn't make   sense from this body when there's not a benefit  to taxpayers yeah and and we appreciate Witchah's   city of Witchaw's support in all of those measures  and you know as we look at you know kind of to   speak back to that I I mean I think part of the  reason why you see those requests is because of   the amount of activity that we're driving within  this market and our belief and our love for   the city of Witchah and plan to have that to be  continued um you know Crossgate District in South   Witchah has seen in excess of 80 million 8090  million dollars of langled investment take place   in South Witchah that historically didn't exist  um this is this would be another example of that   coming we've activated around 120 120 plus doors  in south um Witchah through Sycamore Ponds and an   area that was undeveloped and fully stabilized and  a great example of the multitude of of um segments   that we touch we have about 500 other doors that  are in active development in the city of Witchah   with Cypress Glenn which is uh located on the west  boundary of of the city of Witchah from Pineway   um and then a multitude of of others um north  downtown the area around Ascension has became   a targeted area for us you will see us again and  we will continue to bring appropriate requests   that that meet the lens in which that they're um  drafted and and what their intent is um so I I   think part of the reason Councilman that you you  see these requests is because we're not sitting   on the sideline and um we passively letting others  do it we we believe in this and we believe in the   economic opportunities that um city of Witchah  and the neighboring communities provide and we   want to establish the best and we do a lot of  projects that don't seek any incentive basis   i mean we we bring we do a lot of projects that  um we don't bring those requests to you because   we judge them on our own merit first and make  sure that they are adequately qualified for the   request that's being brought to the governing  body there's a motion and I'm going to second   it we have a motion and a second any further  discussion i see none mr clerk please open the role my machine's not working so all those  in favor say I raise your hand so that   uh the clerk can one two three four five  for the motion the motion is to deny it   deny it okay 70 motion is denied  mr clerk please call the next item approve approve request for  a proposal for a consultant   to guide the recruitment and  selection process for city manager good morning good morning Mayor  and Council pam Pennington human resources   so I wanted to spend just a few minutes kind  of walking you through the highlights of   the draft RFP that you did receive  to kind of give you an indication   uh kind of a bird's eye view if you  will um of the RFP that we created so most recruitment activities follow the same  process um because things have to go in some   kind of order before the next thing can take  place um but there are two main points that I   want to kind of um point out here um for you that  would be different for the city manager search and   this does mirror what we did for the police chief  search as well so I want to kind of talk a little   bit about the citizen engagement piece um because  that plays a huge role very upfront in the process   and so just to give you an idea of what we did  for the the chief of police search which we could   ask the vendor that's selected to do this same  process is we held a lot of citizen engagement   upfront and the reason for that was we needed  that input for the vendor to get a very good   idea of what needed to be in the job analysis and  also what it needed to be in the candidate profile   so just to give you an idea of what that  entailed was we had um probably I would   say 50 people involved in the first focus group  which was citizens that cut across a very wide   broad swath um across the city of community  leaders we also had internal stakeholders   um that we did focus groups with and these were  all led by the vendor so it was a very neutral   um activity we also did internal stakeholders  which included all of the department directors   and we also um had a cross-section of all police  department personnel we also had a separate focus   group for the fraternal order of police um and  then we had a search selection committee that was   um put together that was throughout the  entire process but they even had their own   um focus group process and then in addition  to that while that was all going on we also   had the vendor um had created um an online  community survey so those comments and and   engagement could be collected at the same time  so that entire process took us about four weeks   um and I will tell you the reason for that was  because the Fourth of July landed in there so we   probably could have gotten it done in three but  we had a little break um because of the holiday   so that is a very big piece of what we're asking  for in this RFP that whoever the the submitters   are they need to be able to know how to engage the  community in the process so when you get down from   this list um to the interview participation  that was the next phase where we also did   um public engagement and when the finalists for  the role were selected we actually had a public   forum where the public could come forward and  get to know the two candidates that were the   finalists and then also ask them questions and  I thought that was very helpful because the   um candidates got a sense about what was going on  in our community and where the concerns were and   then of course the community got a sense of the  two candidates so it was really a great um forum   to allow that additional um public engagement so  that is really the two additional things we have   added to this um RFP to make sure that the vendors  who are chosen have the capacity and ability to do that so some of the preferred qualifications  I know you got the draft RFP and there are a   litany of things in there some of it is things we  put in every RFP and some of it is things that we   wanted to very well specify for the selected uh  vendor to make sure that they could perform these   things and the first thing was we definitely  think five years is a minimum that they should   have um they've got to have a strong knowledge  of municipal government operations um I am very   uh concerned I want them to have a very specific  experience sourcing city manager roles um and then   we also put in performance guarantees i know  Councilman Johnson asked about that before   and that is very common for recruiting firms  to have that but we want to make sure that   it's in there and that is a performance not  only of the vendor but also of the candidate   so if the candidate is hired there's usually a  guarantee that if something should happen and   they don't make it their first full year then  they will start the process over at no cost   so those were major uh things we wanted  added plus of course the public engagement   piece that they have to be able to show  that they can do that um as part of their submitt so the tenative timeline was also in um  your RFP draft and I think this is very doable   um because we've kind of had experience at this  so we know how to do that and it also is going to   uh depend on the vendor that is selected but um  with approval today we'd like to get this started   uh next Monday um to get it out there  and get the the process started and   then we you can see there's just  some standard things that we do   um have to put into the RFP process and uh  what those deadlines would be for those as   well and then hopefully we'd have the the vendor  selected and council would approve it um in early June i will be the s the search process lead  for this project um and I really coordinate   um the entire thing i I have a  lot of people help me but I am   the main point of contact for the vendor um  to maintain some consistency in that process so I've also recommended for your consideration  uh the vendor selection process um to have the   staff at screening and selection committee  which is the group that will select the vendor   um the initial members is definitely  representatives from mayor and council   um the department directors and myself  um to be on that vendor selection committee and so the recommendation today is that  council um approve the draft of the RFP that you   received for finalization and solicitation  and the proposed timeline so we can begin   the process of the search for city manager  and I'll stand for questions thank you Pam   we'll begin with Council Member Johnson thank you  Pam appreciate the presentation um actually your   um slides answered three things I was going to say  already so the fiveyear minimum experience I think   is good um in this would it be I know you uh said  we would be looking for someone who has specific   experience around city managers would that also  ask them um percentage of success historically in   finding those and percentage of placements that  remain more than 24 months or is that something   that we would want them to share with us on their  own yes so I think I've added that in the RFP   itself where I'm asking them to give um examples  of their successful searches okay so I saw that   I just meant this yeah we can be more clear and  ask for percentages but I I'd like to know their   most recent and how many i think I want to know  the more clear but leaving it open allows them   to share what they think we need to know and  then that will I think help us make a better   decision on that sure absolutely um on the public  engagement I agree with that um having been around   out of office and in office for police chiefs I  loved how we went and engaged the community in   that way um well we also asked them on the back  end outside of the one public forum because I   think with chiefs took the candidates around to  different groups as well yes okay and then much   like how you brought up the um police chief um  search and the FOP had a special um one-on-one   session i think the managers total should have  that bob having so much experience and kind of   knowing hurdles in Witchah and then also our two  assistant city managers is to talk with them as   well about um just their thoughts on what another  manager could be maybe what will be facing them   and just kind of having their input from the city  manager office i think that would be good as well   absolutely i think that is everything I have but  I'm definitely supportive of all of that front-end   engagement as well as taking the candidates one of  these questions on the original draft was a short   list so I was thinking no less than two candidates  and maybe up to four or if we wanted to add number   five i don't know if that's too many but if we  if we just have two and we get into a situation   where neither one might be what public or overall  majority of groups and everything want rather than   go back out if we had three that might help yeah  and I think that depending on the interviews we   do with the vendors themselves we're going to be  able to answer some of that as well as to what are   they seeing how many candidates do they think  is realistic um so we might get that more from   the interview from the vendors okay i have Thank  you sure council member Ballard that's me again   appreciate that um Council Member Johnson kind of  touched on it yeah um on page four part four they   talk about a short list of no less than 10 six to  10 top candidates um that does seem a little much   i think we had two finalists for police chief um  and I can't remember was that two to four was what   we did for that RS yeah the finalist ended up  being two but I think the six to 10 is where we   start with doing interview the initial interviews  and so then we get down to the two finalists   this number the 6 to 10 is that's how many  qualified candidates we're asking for before   we even start the first set of interviews okay  i I appreciate that that clears it up a little   bit because I I thought that was a little high  there and I didn't know how many um Okay so it   comes to us with six to 10 and then we start  parsing it down correct okay i appreciate that   clarification thank you Pam yes i know you spoke  to the Witchaw Police Chief's uh selection process   can you reiterate the 2008 process um and why we  now have a request for a guarantee um because if   I remember correctly a couple of weeks ago city  manager late alluded to that and I think we should   all be on the same level of information can you  talk about the 2008 process was there a search   firm can you talk about were there any guarantees  can you talk about that um I actually do not have   information on the 2008 firm search bob may  remember better than me i was not here in 2008   um and I all I have is the RFP from 2008 i could  not find any other documents manager Leighton yes   Mayor i was not involved in the first round of  this but the council um selected a U consultant   uh consultant went through an exhaust exhaustive  process with the mayor and council i believe there   was some community involvement at that time uh the  candidate was selected was offered the position   and it's my understanding that that individual at  the very end of the process decided not to to come   to Witchah not to move into the position so that  firm operating under its guarantee requirement um   then started the process all over and went through  solicitation and um uh I think I've outlined what   that process was that they followed for the second  search thank you city manager Vice Mayor Johnston   thank you Mayor appreciate the presentation um  there's about 26 days for people for firms to   get their proposals in to you is that a normal  amount of time is that enough time for companies   to get their proposals together i think it is um  in the past two years I've been collecting firms   already that specialize in municipalities or city  manager roles so right now I'm at 30 firms that   across the United States um I've reached out to  all of them uh asked who should be getting the RFP   invitation and they've all responded so they're  very excited to see this come through um so that's   30 firms right there okay when would the public  engagement occur occur after the firms are after   the firm is selected yes okay because it's very  important that the vendor um control that process   as a third party um and so that is this first  part of the job analysis and candidate profile   that's what the firms usually do in order to  get as much information as they can to build the   um profile and the job that they're going to  market so they need all of that in order to   do that so they would do that upfront before we  would ever have them start marketing the position   and then is a month long enough or a short month  from May 23rd to June our third meeting is in June   is that enough time to evaluate candidates the for  the vendors for the vendors um I think that it is   I think that it is how many how many do you It's  hard to tell i can tell you when we did the police   chief the firms that we really wanted to submit  um they ended up declining because they already   had enough work so you know you just don't know  who all is really going to have the capacity to   do that we're hoping that we get a good response  um and you know we'll get people too that aren't   on my list you know that we'll submit so um we're  just trying to make sure we get the most qualified   up front but um I think that actually we can do  that it it is doable to finalize the list and get   a list so we can start selecting thank you can  you address who was the firm that helped select   the police chief and where were they out of public  sector search and they were out of California and   they specialized in uh police chief search and in  2008 who was that firm uh Slavven and Associates of where don't quote me i think  out of Atlanta at the time thank you any further questions for staff i see none um we will now open it up  public comment regarding this item i see none we'll bring it back to the  bench one question for you Pam really   quick uh this says the financial  consideration is approximately 30%   of the position salary can you give us  a number please uh let's see based on   what Bob shared last time that would be  probably in the what 50 to $60,000 range 30 higher oh sorry oh yeah three 70 75,000 sorry  can't do math in my head so it' be upwards um   above $70,000 for a consultant uh to be part  of this process i also want to I guess make   a challenge um if there are any firms either  locally uh whether it's in the city or in the   state to also be solicited um I would encourage um  the process to also reach out to uh the League of   Kansas Municipalities um US Conference of Mayors  National League of Cities um the city managers   have an organization that city manager Leighton  belongs to these are all obvious uh groups that   should be um should be aware of this RFP process  so it's just my challenge that again uh since the   consultant was hired back in 2008 to lead this  process um and now we're here 16 plus years later   um another consultant will be um hired to help  with the process pam can you just one more time   address why you guys cannot do it in house and why  that process uh requires someone with expertise i think in in this level of role you really  do need um a professional that can handle the   community engagement piece um I think having  a third party um that is more neutral in the   process is also very good for these highle  roles um not saying we couldn't do it um   but there is a lot of work that the the firm  would do that takes that load from from staff   thank you Pam with that again because we've had  a consultant for 2008 and now a new consultant   for 2025 um I will move to approve the RFP  and authorize the solicitation process second   motion and a second any further discussion  i see none mr clerk please open the role it's still not working all those  in favor raise your hand please   motion passes 70 mr clerk  please call the next item council member agenda council member appointments  and comments we'll start with appointments and it   still looks like it's not working so we'll go down  the list district one thanks Mayor i would like   to appoint Stephanie Kohley to the Witchah Land  Bank Board of Trustees i just want to give a quick   shout out that is a CA member that I asked last  week and she got her application in which also   reminds the community you can still apply for  boards that have vacancies and please go check   them out at witchaw.gov district no one else okay  we um I move to approve the appointment second   motion and a second any further discussion i see  none mr clerk actually all those in favor say I   i all those opposed same sign motion passes 70  we will now have council member comments council   member Tuttle thank you i just wanted to state  on record that I had been approved to attend   the community leaders of America conference in  Colombia South Carolina this week uh they were   going to pay the trip and there was no cost to the  city but due to some um conflicts in my schedule I   was not able to attend i spoke with them and  they were able to cancel the airline and the   hotel and everything so I had been approved but  just wanted to go on record that I'm not attending   and then just as a interesting highlight I will be  attending with our very own Don Henry tomorrow the   Kansas Municipal Utilities Conference um just  for the section on direct portable reuse water   in Kansas so excited to be able to attend that  so thank you Council Member Hoheisle thank you   Mayor um I would like to uh thank the people that  joined me last Saturday for a nice soggy uh park   cleanup at Lincoln Park we've got it all ready for  a nice Easter egg hunt so uh there are a handful   of community members that also joined me there so  I appreciate that um also this upcoming Saturday   uh we will be having um Earth Day out at Clap Park  so 1:00 to 4:00 I think uh Council Member Tuttle   and I will be at a kickball um event right before  that so um I'll be going from there to the Earth   Day event but please come out we like to have as  many people there as possible and uh part of the   discussion will be a direct portable reuse so it's  good to keep getting that message out there thank   you i see no further comments we can Well actually  do you want us to do the special meeting and then   workshop mayor it's up to you you're welcome to  go into workshop and have this after the workshop   how about we'll go into this executive session  so that then we can come back for the workshop so   um I request an executive session i move  that the city council recess into executive   session for 10 minutes to receive information  from property management staff pursuant to KSA75-4319B2 for the preliminary discussion  of the acquisition of real property the   executive session is required to protect  the city's right to the confidentiality   of its negotiating position and the public  interest the executive session will begin   at 11:10 a.m and it we will return at 11:20  a.m motion second and a second all those in   favor say I i all those opposed same sign  motion passes 70 we will begin at 11:10 executive session no binding action took place uh  we will move to adjourn this meeting to start the   workshop meeting all I have a motion and a and a  second uh all those in favor of adjourning say I   i all those opposed same sign motion passes 6 we  are now adjourned and we will now begin workshop   i know it's really cold city manager Leighton  thank you Mayor um so we have just one workshop   item today and that's discussion of the budget  our current status uh what we're learning as we   go through um uh expenditures and revenues for  25 how we're uh now rethinking a little bit on   26 and 27 bring you up to date uh with all of  that um we have new estimates on expenditures   that reflect the projects that we shared  with you in workshop before that were our   offseason projects so that has helped the budget  a little bit and then also we're going to present   uh some initial thoughts on the CIP um we the  staff has put together uh an initial draft however   we're out of balance with the CIP and so we're  going to be asking for some general direction   as we bring that uh document into balance um  and I uh we're going to bring some some policy   consideration forward on the CIB so with that  I'm going to turn it over to Elizabeth Colry good morning um my name is Elizabeth Golry i'm  from the finance department and I'm here to   give you an update on the operating budget um if  you're just joining us online for the first time   today just as a reminder we also had budget  workshops on January 28th and February 25th   you can find that information on YouTube  and if you're interested in the budget   documents for example you can find  them at witchah.gov by searching for budget the outline for today's presentation is  that I will provide an update on the operating   budget then Mark Manning the finance director  will provide an update on the app on the capital   improvement program or CIP and then I'll finish  us up with some next steps as we move forward um   as far as a budget operating budget goes right  now we're we're in the middle of the story so to   speak um we kicked off the process in January  and the budget will be presented in July at   this point we are continuing to update and update  our models um review data to um we're constantly   reviewing and updating the models um I will go  into a little more detail on forecasting risks   generally those remain the same as the last time  we provided a budget update um and then just   generally the trends overall are consistent with  expectations um the biggest change in the model   compared to last time is an adjustment to pension  rates as far as our forecasting risks go just to   be um transparent with all of you position vacancy  rates are um a forecast risk um both when it comes   to overspending or under spending um we've been  monitoring the level of position vacancies right   now there are slightly fewer position vacancies  than there were at this point last year which is   really good news um but that was a factor when  it came to our ending position in 2024 so we   continue to moni monitor that so that we have  the right amount of position vacancies modeled   in the budget that don't prevent departments  from filling positions but reflect the reality   of our position our staffing as it is right now um  there's a lot of uncertainty related to economic   pi conditions and monetary prop monetary policy  excuse me um and then property tax growth rates   um is another forecasting risk that I'll go into  more detail on um and then the final forecasting   risk is labor rates for 2026 and 2027 um at this  point there are three labor contracts that expire   at the end of 2025 so that's a risk for 2026 a  risk in the sense a forecasting risk in the sense   that we don't know exactly what those labor  rates will be and then for 2027 we don't have   any contracts in place for that year so that is a  forecasting risk when it comes to estimating labor costs these are some items that we've um  provided an update on last time so just   going to give you another update this time  court revenues last time we told you that   they were performing underperforming compared to  the 2025 adopted budget that trend is continuing   um com I looked at the first quarter of this  year and compared it to um the first quarter   is generally a good quart um the quarter when  municipal court receives the most revenue in a   given year um based on the first quarter of  this year I expect that court revenues will   be a million dollars less than what I predict  projected at the last workshop franchise fees   on the other hand the first quarter was very  strong um particularly in the area of natural   gas as a result of the very cold weather that we  experienced during that period interest earnings   are something that we're constantly watching  um where where we have risk with interest   earnings is in reinvestment risk and so that  is when when item when investments mature and   they need to be reinvested and there's some  um uncertainty in that area at this point so next I'll move into property tax growth  components property tax as a reminder is   the largest element the largest component  of revenue for the general fund and also   for the debt service fund the column um for  2025 the first thing that's the best to the   first I guess the starting point to look at  that is the 7.9% that's the growth in 2025   um that's based on the notice that we received  from the county last June and that was used to   finalize the 2025 budget um there are a number of  components of assess valuation growth um one of   them is new construction which has been it seems  that it's been strong in the community based on   um information that we've received from places  like MABC however that was 1.3% of assessed   valuation growth for this current year expiring  exemptions that's for things like IRBs EDXs and   also TIFFs that finish um reappraisal this is the  average across the entire city so this isn't one   person's reapprais well it could be one person's  reappraisal amount but it's the average amount   and then other is for machinery exemp machinery  and equipment exemptions usually that's negative   um but it was a positive amount last year  so what we are forecasting for 2026 or what   was presented to you last time was 5.9% growth  in 2026 and then slower growth the subsequent year whoops okay so as a reminder um we will  receive the estimated valuation notice from the   county by June 15th right now um staff estimate  5.9% growth for next year but that growth could   be as high as 7% um there though there was a  lot of discussion in the state legislature this   year about local property tax no action was taken  therefore the statute the same statute from last   year remains in effect for this year and you  do have an option of capturing less than the   total AV growth um as a reminder um connected  back to bullet point number two last year the   same thing happened we estimated growth that  was less than the AV notice and what happened   is that the mill levy for this general fund was  lowered and the mill levy for the debt service   fund was increased by.7 mills and that helps  improve the sustainability of that fund long term so I have a number of forecasts for you  um as just as a reminder we will continue to   review vacancy rates um we are looking at  first quarter trends that they're overall   they're consistent but April and May will be  other months that we review as those are closed   in the accounting system and pension costs  are expected to be $.6 million higher in 2026   it's not the result of investment performance um  but it's the result of using more recent tables   um for items such as how long um employees  are expected to live so that's good news   they're living longer it's just a general in  it's not just our employees but all just more   table new tables for all pension systems um this  is the baseline general fund forecast so this is   the same this is a very similar forecast to what  was presented two months ago the only change is   the increased expenditures for the pension um the  pension contribution and a few other minor updates uh real quick on the pensions yes um what  are we funded at are we still over 90% of the   pension funded i think that'll be presented that  hasn't Yeah it'll be presented in a few months that's a very good question council member uh  you are about two weeks ahead of me because we   will present the actuarial report I think  on May 13th we do have some preliminary   information from our actuary we are very  close to 90% we may be slightly below that   uh having said that we are still one  of the best funded pension systems in   the United States but yes our fund ratio may  drop slightly below 90% okay appreciate that okay here's the next okay so this forecast here  same as same as the February forecast with the   pension rate increase rolled in but now growth is  mo um AV growth is modeled at 7% instead of 5.9%   um and I think something worth noting  here is in 2026 even though there's a   surplus at the bottom that's  actually structurally still   a $2.1 million deficit because there'd  be a transfer in from the stabilization reserve um this one as far as property tax goes  it's relatively easy to forecast because property   tax would be the same as it is in 2025 this is a  RNR compliant um model um the deficit at the end   of the deficit in 2026 even with a stabilization  transfer in would be 8.3% um just as a frame of   reference I think it's sometimes it's hard to  imagine amounts compare you know comparatively   it's about that would be about the same amount  as the entire budget for municipal court   um about half of the park department um those  are things that are around $8 million so and   then it grows in the next year and then this  one here um is a general foreign forecast for   modified growth so the concept with this one  is that the city council would take action to   exceed the revenue neutral rate but rather than  leaving the uh mil levy flat the dis the policy   direction would be to only take the AV growth  equivalent to new construction and inflation   um so that would result in a deficit of $3.8  million or structurally be $6.8 million in 2026   um one of the concerns that I have with  the notices is that the amount of new con   the percentage of growth from new construction  just seems lower than it should be um we just   we receive the notice but I'm some I'm sometimes  I don't know i just have some misgivings about   how they calculate new construction so and we  when the last property tax lid was in effect we   um we advocated for having renovation um included  in the c in the information that was provided to   us from the county clerk because there are a lot  of buildings that they're the same building that   but there's a lot of work being done to them  and it really especially downtown for example   and so we wanted to make sure that we were able  to capture that growth uh one other question here   real quick um these projections what is the  outlook for the Fed interest rate when you're   making these projections i know it's it's such a  tricky and that's kind of why I'm asking is are   we trying to meet the middle ground as to where  we expect or project them to remain high or lower   or I got to tell you council member if I could  answer that question I would not be here today   I would be somewhere else probably uh we our our  general modeling uh which we started earlier in   the year was that rates would decline this year uh  we didn't know the number but we anticipated rates   to decline and if you look at what the market was  expecting earlier this year uh I would have told   you somewhere between three and six rates declines  most likely throughout the year uh you know you've   probably seen the headlines recently where the  Fed uh did not uh decrease interest rates and   now based on what I'm reading there might be two  or three between now and the end of the year so   fundamentally we are still expecting rates to  decline uh but I don't know if they'll decline   quite as rapidly as what we thought that'll  probably be more of an impact for us next year   because like Elizabeth said a lot of our portfolio  is locked in our risk this year is only our   reinvestment risk on things that mature between  now and the end of the year uh probably have   more of an impact on us next year uh but again  that's that's the best answer I could give you   so these projections are based more on a lower  interest rate than what's currently happening   anyway yes that is correct yes okay thank you  quick question um Mark I love the tie how much   um additional revenue would raising the mill levy  one bring in uh roughly in the neighborhood of   $5 million and then so two would be like $10  million generally roughly okay yes thank you anything else before I move along all right i  was the one that actually Can you go back to   that slide this one uh yes yeah you go um so  even with a stabilization reserve the actual   deficit is 6.8 million correct for 2026 yeah the  structural deficit yeah so also the structural   deficit in 2027 would then be 13.8 million yeah  correct yes um this was a question I asked last   year back in August uh of what could we see  in terms of a budget that took into account   just new construction and inflation rates and it  was too far in the process now we're in April so   we can have this discussion um as you know the  legislature had considered this very option of   uh rewarding municipalities that did not increase  and took the full assessed valuation but rather   just new construction and inflation uh a more  prudent approach as I'm hearing from community   members maybe not everyone else but I'm hearing  from community members that want us to lower   or have some sort of relief when it comes to  property taxes so with this modified growth plan   um and really a $6.8 8 million deficit next year  what are things structurally are we going to   address that in the next couple of slides that  we could be doing to put ourselves out of this   $6.8 million hole mayor we um have direction  from the council to give you two budgets and   basically we have a base budget if you go back  to slide 10 the base budget will be developed   um there i'm sorry 53 sorry yeah um the base  budget will uh reflect these numbers and then   if we advance to the your the last slide you  were on we will bring back a series of changes   in the budget in order to be able to meet the  the these numbers and the council then will   uh need to make a decision about how to go forward  we're still meeting with the department directors   there will be another round of um meetings or  actions by the departments because we're not   where we need to be in terms of giving you the  list of what the options are to get to these   numbers so this departments will be working um  to prepare that information a little more we're   also trying to better align to the strategies that  council's approved as part of the the goals that   u you uh I endorsed early in the year so we'll  have that information for you as well um trying to   get it all tied up in a timing um that gives you  ample opportunity to have just those discussions sorry I'm not used to but now we know what we're  shooting at not used to using the mic in workshop   so um apologize about that regarding or a followup  to Councilman Johnson's question regarding a raise   of the mill levy of 1 mil would be 5 million if uh  subsequently or let's say a sales tax portion what   would what would be a 1% sales tax in terms of  increased revenue for the city yeah that's pretty   speculative because our sales tax is actually a  part of the countywide sales tax so we don't know   exactly what it would be but right now um our half  of the sales tax that goes into the general fund   is around 30 yeah so what do you think i mean it's  like is is your question council member how much   a one cent city only sales tax would generate uh  that's a challenging question too uh because we   don't have a tax base upon which to estimate but  we can cut get pretty close we can take what the   county generates we can guesstimate how much we'd  be generating in the city of Witchto last time I   did that it's probably been a year or so ago  uh but if I remember the number was north of   100 million million yeah each tenth is roughly 10  million or somewhere in that ballpark or a 1% or a   1 cent same difference 1 cent or 1% yeah it would  be somewhere i think it was 108 million last time   I calculated it okay thank you so just to add to  the conversation so um I have heard differently   bob is actually a witness at my breakfast i had  multiple people say we should raise the mill   levy um that was without prompting for me or even  talking to them about it so looking at raising the   meal one giving us $5 million helps us out quite  a bit raising it too helps us out a lot more and   as we talk about the state wanting to reward  municipalities for basically doing what they   want the reality is it's all of our tax dollars  anyway so they were going to take tax dollars that   we were paying that they received and try to award  municipalities for doing what they wanted and it's   our money anyway so really it's just kind of a cat  and mouse game that the legislature was playing   i really think that given the situation we were in  we need to continue to strongly consider raising   the mill levy i know it's unpopular but again it  puts the city in a difficult position even going   with the newly proposed way in the second budget  anything outside of the base budget is going to   make the city struggle for years to come and at  some point there's going to be a stronger demand   to raise a mill levy and instead of raising  it one or two to catch up it's going to be   a lot more than that so I hope that is strongly  considered even the numbers that we talked about   today and I asked a question so it could be in  the public record raising the mill one you see   the revised deficit would be $5 million wouldn't  have that deficit raising the mill two would be   $10 million and you see the revised deficit for  2027 that would then be8 instead of 10.8 so again   if people want to continue the service level  that we continue to provide now as we see that   um labor wages are going to go up and most  of our budget is staff as we talk about   not taking in enough money that leads to our  people not getting the pay that they deserve   or us not having those people and that's going  to be a struggle for future councils so I hope   we take it seriously now might be a painful  decision but it's going to be more painful in   the future rather than just looking at doing  what we can to try to cut our way out of this councilman Johnson's uh points I had a breakfast  and almost every single person universally said   "Do not raise my property taxes." So I think it  shows maybe distinctions of different communities   and different uh districts as well and so when  we're talking about revenue increase I think we   should have a holistic conversation again raising  no loving one brings 5 million even having a sales   talks conversation I think should be on the table  about how we fund government um an example that   I'll use is a 90-year-old woman who lives in South  Witchah isn't using our park system she isn't   benefiting from culture arts and services as much  what she is doing is she's using our road system   um police fire when needed and so not putting the  burden on property tax owners when they already   own the property and taxing them out of their  homes how can we still seek revenue but make   sure it's in a more equitable way so I think it's  a conversation that we should continue as well uh   in future discussions regarding especially when it  comes to upcoming deficits i will ask city manager   to also send out um I requested the property taxes  levied per district uh for 2024 and thankfully   Mark Manning was able to do that and so this will  be sent out to all council members but I do want   to put it on the public record um so that people  are aware of where property taxes are coming from   uh a total of $164 million in property taxes were  levied uh the highest number of property taxes   levied was in district number two that was 28% at  45.2 million followed by district number five at   19% 30.8 million followed by district number four  at 16% 26.9 million followed by district number   six at 15% at 24.4 million um and then after that  it is district number one at 14% of 23.2 2 million   and then the last is district number three at  8% $13.3 million and so I only bring this up   because we're having a discussion about property  taxes and um again I have heard from individuals   that want property taxes to be lowered um I have  not heard specifically emails to me or inerson   interactions that they want mill levies to keep  increasing but I would welcome any uh discussion   regarding property taxes i would like to get  more information though on the sales tax portion   uh that council member Glascock asked about a 1%  or a 1 cent sales tax and what that would uh levy i would I would be in favor of that too my concern  is all these bedroom communities are using our   services but not paying for any of it um they're  using our roads a lot of times they're using our   libraries uh our parks they're not paying for any  of it so we did it did have a sales tax it they   would be paying for some of it so I I would look  for uh property tax relief and uh substitute with   the sales tax well I'll go ahead and chime in on  this conversation a bit um it's been a mixed bag   in my district but surprisingly the people that  u have urged me the most to increase uh the mill   levy have been elderly people um I just recently  did another um fireside chat i do it every 3   months the Lynwood Rec uh Lynwood Rec Center and  the past two conversations this has come up and   almost universally the people there talked about  wanting to leave something for their grandkids   make sure that they have a community that is  strong and that can uh respond to the needs of the   community and continue to invest in our community  um I am open to the sales tax i would want to   make sure um first that the public comes along and  tells us that they want it and I think that would   have to go out for a vote i'd also want to make  sure that necessities hygiene products and whatnot   are part of that um being excluded because the  last thing we want to do is put a bigger burden   on some of the people who are struggling right now  and sales tax does do that it is a regressive tax   so um what we can do to to best make sure that the  necessities that people rely on to actually live   are excluded from any possible sales talk tax top  going forward and again a lot of dialogue with the   community and say um something akin to the MAPS  plan I think to where the community has a say in   how we spend it this might be a bit of a relief  for the CIP so um I I I okay with continuing on   that conversation as well but I did also want to  just put my two cents in on the uh what I've heard   from my constituents as in regards to property  taxes ditto owe to council member Hohheisle um   I'm supportive of sales tax conversation coming  along with the community i just think it needs   to only be capital investment and not any type  of city operations sales tax can be volatile at   times and just looking at current events right now  we don't know what type of global trade wars will   happen and if people start spending less because  of higher cost then that's uh less reliability on   that whereas if it was capital you know we just  be able to keep some money into the reserve until   the next year until something could be built  so it eases us a little bit budget-wise but I   would be favor of capital investment from sales  tax but nothing else to to that question this   would be a question for staff too when would  we have to let you know what percent of the   um taxation of the mill goes to CIP verse general  operating budget i know we had this discussion   briefly last year and it was like a timetable of  a week so yeah no I think that we would start by   updating the model for what we would estimate 1  cent of sales tax would generate right that would   be the starting place based on how much revenue  we generated last year and what we expect this   year and next year and so forth um and then from  there you you can you know what a you know a tenth   two tenths and so forth um and then I guess you  would look at if you were looking at it from a   standpoint of substituting like substituting mills  and you know substituting it for debt service fund   mills or general fund mills you would go from  there okay and that has to be done by the time   that we seek revenue neutral to exceed revenue  neutral from Yeah i think yeah I'm not real   familiar with the election deadlines and I think  this Are you talking about having an election for   sales tax not the election deadlines so last year  when we were having conversations of whether or   not to exceed revenue neutral or not the percent  of the mill towards the operating budget versus   CIP had to be set by a certain date oh I'm so  sorry yeah the split between Yeah there's all the   property tax and the split um I think that's set  with the cert forms yeah the publication of notice   that would be it's the would be the same day that  you would exceed the revenue neutral rate but then   there's a second action on the maximum taxes to  be levied in the maximum budget and that's the   day where the split between the general fund and  the debt service fund is locked in July 15 yeah   okay sorry about that it was a different question  i was trying to figure out how to Yeah no no but   yes i'm so sorry i caught up with you thank  you for your patience yes and I guess my last   thing would be just to differentiate um I support  again sales tax looking at capital investments my   suggestion on the mill levy when we look at  cost um is probably a lot more affordable so   1% on pretty much everything you're buying except  for necessities if we did that versus one meal is   equal to these are a little older numbers $11  for every $100,000 valuation of your property   so if you have a property worth worth $100,000 one  meal would raise your property tax $11 that's just   $11 more that you're paying a year versus 1% on  everything else so when we talk about that and   what it means for the city that's also why you  see those revenue differences 5 million and 10   million versus $7500 million so this funding the  government and the things that we are doing again   not huge expansions of services and programs but  maintaining service levels um is pretty affordable   in that sense if you go out grab a pizza you know  how expensive Starbucks is if you get one or two   coffees there that's pretty much the cost per  year of raising a meal one or two and again that's   about $11 for every $100,000 valuation of your  property those numbers may be a little different   going forward by little probably in the terms of  cents not dollars but I just want people to really   think about that it's not a large investment in  that sense yes it is property tax and that's a   conversation that is all over the place right now  but in real numbers those are real numbers for you okay you all ready to move forward just making  sure okay so um in in January this the community   survey results were shared with everybody and  then then in February there was a workshop about   um really building out our mission statement with  um goals and defining the pillars and then having   goals and also strategies 46 strategies have been  aligned to the 23 goals and right now there's a   lot um I'll have some examp I have a couple  examples of the strategies in the alignment   that follows um incorporating these elements  into the budget um is been the central focus   of budget discussions so just like we have  these budget workshops um the city council   has workshops um staff and departments and the  budget office the finance department city manager   etc or have discussions about um the budgets  as well um and as a reminder the budget is a   financial planning document but it's also a  strategic planning document so some of these   strategies stretch across into other parts of the  community other funding sources um a lot of these   strategies will require a lot of collaboration  across the community i've got three examples of   these pillars goals and strategies to share with  you um the first one is in the keeping witchah   safe goal and this is related to behavioral  health and substance abuse um this strategy   um it's my understanding that there are ongoing  efforts with the mental health and substance   abuse coalition regarding this very issue um  the city of Witchah has received funds from   the opioid settlement and is working with Sedick  County on a plan for that so that's an example of   how these strategies reach across just our budget  document across the community and those the opioid   settlement funds are not included in our budget  correct actually the there is an opioid settlement   fund it's one of our 35 funds that we appropriate  every year and so the city of Witchah revenue and   then the expenditures that go out of that fund  are in our budget so it is included because that   funding has to be allocated specifically for I  think new treatment as opposed to backfilling   anything we're currently funded yeah i'm not  familiar with all the spec specifics but at   that this point I think those funds have been used  for planning efforts and then for some purchases   in the police department for um it shows out that  it it's allocated just so you have the authority   to spend it even though you haven't approved  the actual annual financing or expenditure plan   so um the next pillar um there are five a  total of five pillars and in the grow our   economy pillar um there's a um strategy related  to affordable housing and we asked a question   about affordable housing in the community  survey this for the first time in 2024   um and the results of the survey match the  feedback that people are getting from the   community and that it's a high priority but it's  considered a lower quality service at this point   in time um and this is just another example of um  these strategies taking more than one superstar   or one highly committed person but that there's  going to take a lot of collaboration and effort   across this community and that we are a partner  in this um but and we do have a special role as   um with our housing department and some other  things but that it's it's going to be a big effort and the last one to highlight today  is also something that was it's related to   something that was asked for the first time in the  community survey um which is homelessness services   it was in the same area as affordable housing in  that magenta quadrant um and again there's been   work that's been ongoing this isn't the first time  the city of Witchah has been partnering with the   community on this issue um but this this strategy  um really puts a point on some of the efforts that   are ongoing so just wanted to familiarize you  with that and to provide some context in ongoing discussions and so how that really before  I move on how that really um connects with   the budget is that many of these services  are things that we've been engaged in with   the past in the past but there's a different  challenge ahead of us now as there than there   used to be so the budget really is um there's  the revenue forecasting part which we just went   through but also a matter of reallocation and  determining what goals or outcomes that we're   driving toward so these strategies um really  provide some focus as we're considering the   budget this year um so additionally um in  February I believe you were presented some   updates on research projects that were a result  of adopting the budget last August and those   are being formalized in a department budget so  we're lining those out um and then also we're   going to be having cost recovery reviews across  departments so we've already started on some of   those i know that I think that dog licensing  changes have already been approved by the city   council um there have been some a variety of  other efforts that are various places in the   process and other departments with that I'm  going to turn it over to Mark to talk about   the capital improvement program unless you have  questions about this section I'm sorry or feedback well good afternoon Mark Manning Department  of Finance i recognize that I'm the only thing   standing between you and lunch so I'll try to  be as brief as I can having said that we haven't   talked about the CIP much this year so I will  go into a little bit of detail on some of the   concepts but I'll keep it conceptual and high  level so uh takeaway on this slide the numbers   are still moving around but the CIP is about a $3  billion 10-year plan and has a variety of funding   sources today I'm going to focus most of my energy  on the slice I have kind of pulled out there and   that's the go at large slice i'm going to focus on  that because that is the slice that is funded with   property taxes which kind of ties into some of the  discussion we had a little bit earlier today so   this shows you where we spend our money and again  the slices I have pulled out are the slices that   are generally funded from general obligation  at large or debt service fund property taxf   funded bonds and that is uh things like uh heavy  equipment uh which is dump trucks and bulldozers   and things that public works uses to in their  maintenance activities it's a lot of park and   wreck expenditures it's a lot of public facility  expenditures maintaining our buildings but by far   the largest slice of go at large funding is for  public safety which is that slice down at the   bottom uh so again keep in mind that I'm going  to focus on uh debt service fund specifically   property tax funded debt service fund and that  means I'm going to focus on generally public   safety uh building maintenance heavy equipment uh  park things like that again the rest of the CIP is   very important but a lot of it's utility finance  and a lot of the issues are a little bit different   one thing that is the same in the entire CIP is  that it is based on the community investments   plan the community investment plan priorities are  very clear they have three spending priorities   priority number one is to maintain our assets  and that's uh incorporated in uh the discussion   the staff has had at this point priority number  two and three is to enhance and expand our our   uh our assets so again uh we interpret that to  focus on maintenance in the CIP and you'll see   that in just a minute uh we're also just like  the operating budget we're aligned to the city   council's goals and pillars and you'll see an  example of that here in just a second so that is   what guides the staff committee in our development  of our capital improvement program recommendation   it's also a very data-driven process uh we involve  engineers and if you know any engineers they're   very data driven uh so we use a lot of things  like uh we're going to use asset condition data   replacement schedules we use a lot of engineering  data on our roads and bridges for uh empirical uh   methodologies on what to replace and finally our  CIP is structured to be financially viable that's   our Yes ma'am before you move on can you tell us  you just mentioned staff driven um so can you talk   about the process does each department propose to  the city manager how does that process go about   can you tell me who presents the CIP that's a  perfect lead in to my next slide mayor thank   you we the way the CIP is developed is we form a  committee of staff which we call the CIP committee   and that is generally a committee of departments  that are involved heavily in the CIP public works   uh engineering staff park uh airport uh transit  uh those kind of departments and then we also   include other departments that also have a  role which is our public safety departments   uh library and things like that so it's very  inclusive basically we involve anyone that has   a stake in the capital improvement program which  is most of our departments uh the committee's job   is basically to serve as a filter so we review  all the all the requests from departments uh we   just kind of review them to talk about strategic  alignment again we uh question whether it's a   maintenance or enhancement expand we look at the  strategic alignment uh to the city council goals   and pillars and uh and and then we incorporate  that into a model then finance staff gets involved   and we develop the financial models particularly  for the debt service fund local sales tax fund   and others and then we work with our partners in  public works on the water and sewer utility fund   so basically we review projects we review for  strategic alignment uh we create a model we try   to ensure it's financially viable and then we  present that model uh we are not quite at the   last step right now again we have created a model  we're in the trying to make it financially viable   step right now which the manager mentioned earlier  and that's my last bullet in ballpark terms we're   overallocated somewhere in the neighborhood of $25  million uh in GEO projects uh and primarily that's   in the first few years of projects projects  tend to accelerate towards the earlier years   that's bad from a financing standpoint but it's  you know understandable because everybody wants   to get their projects done sooner but that's  our challenge as the manager alluded to and and   that'll be the next step of the committee who are  the filters again for the CIP committee are there   three people is it the entire committee is all the  departments it's probably 10 to 15 depending on   who is able to come to particular meetings again  it'll be director airport director public works   uh the engine city engineer uh park director  finance director planning director i'm sure   I'm missing others and then again we invite the  police chief and the fire chief library director   typically shows up so it is most department  directors uh just real quick Mark two questions   um one is can you talk a little bit how we pay the  CIP if I'm not mistaken there there's a number of   projects we pay half down and then the other half  over the five of the 10 the later years five of   the 10 because it's a 10-year project is you're  a slide or two ahead of me council member okay   we'll get but yes fundamentally you are correct  we generally like to pay about 50% of our costs   in cash and we like to debt finance about 50% and  you're also correct in that the timing of projects   the way projects are timed we obviously don't pay  the entire project cost on the day it's initiated   it is spread out over time and that's what gives  us a little bit of flexibility and then a second   question I'm sure you got another slide uh  for this one as well um the interest rates   being high work for us on the general obligation  but as far as CIP it's the reverse the lower the   interest rates actually the more bang for the  buck we will get for the CIP if they come down   that is completely correct it's a tailwind for  the general fund but it's a headwind for the   debt service fund that is correct okay thank you  so so again our challenge right now is we're in   the creating a CIP that is financially viable  and uh so we use policy direction that we had   a great discussion on that earlier but the amount  of mills in the debt service fund and the portion   of the assessed valuation growth uh we choose  to capture will have a direct bearing on the   condition of the debt service fund in addition to  the general fund so uh council member Glascock I   think alluded to that but that would be something  that would have a direct impact uh positively or   negatively depending on the pol policy direction  on the debt service fund therefore on the capacity   of us to finance geo projects uh the other primary  thing that influences the CIP is the water and   sewer rates which are based of course on the KOSA  that public works develops and presents to you   each year and we generally try to align the CIP to  that modeling as well there's a variety of other   revenue streams but those are the two primary ones  that we look at again why do we want to align the   CIP uh financially well it aligns to the pillars  and goals we want to be a well-run city so what we   want to do in context of debt service fund some  we look at basically three fundamental things   uh we want our debt level to be consistent with  our guidelines and that's what I was talking to   council member Hoshiso about uh we generally want  to spend about 50% for cash and about 50% for debt   we also obviously want the debt service fund  to be balanced each year there's a little bit   more flexibility in the general fund uh but  fundamentally we want it to be balanced on an   annual basis and finally probably most importantly  we want to maintain our fund balances in the   debt service fund as you can imagine our rating  agencies in addition to looking at our liquidity   in the general fund are also very attuned to our  debt service fund and they get very nervous when   our fund balances in the debt service fund  drop unless it's for a specific reason which   occasionally it is but so this is a busy chart  uh can I go back to that slide in our handouts   it says consistent at 7.5 ms but the slide is 7.0  yes thank you i forgot to mention that uh I had a   typo in your written material so I corrected it in  the PowerPoint seven mills is what uh our policy   now we actually as Elizabeth mentioned it was  increased last year uh to actually about 7.7 but   consistently the policy direction has been seven  mills in the in the general fund but again that   is a policy determination you will make and as  Elizabeth said that's something we'd need to know   by July 15th when we do our publication notice and  again can you explain the reason why it increased   to 7.7 was the 7 was the vacancies rate uh the  7 was uh since the policy direction last year   was to capture all the assessed valuation growth  uh that provided the flexibility to direct that   growth towards one-time capital improvement needs  and the way to accomplish that was to shift that   mill levy into the debt service fund so that we  could do that we we call that the glasscock plan   that's good so very busy chart but just let me  give you a couple takeaways this is my effort to   try to simplify a 10-year projection for the debt  service fund hopefully I accomplish that perhaps   not the first takeaway is the yellow line on the  top is our revenues we want the bars to be at or   below the revenues that means we're balanced if  the little red bar there is above the yellow line   that means we're imbalanced and you can see that  is the case for a lot of the years here that's our   challenge we we need to push those red bars down  a little bit so how do we push those red bars down   we shrink the uh I'm going to call it the blue bar  it's either blue or purple I'm told but whichever   color that is that is new debt that's debt that  we need to issue to finance the CIP that's the   50% of projects that we'll issue debt for we  need to shrink that bar basically in order to   pull the entire bar below the yellow line so how  do we shrink that we either push projects out or   we push them forward that's fundamentally ultra  simplistically the challenge that we have on the   debt service fund finally I put our ending balance  on this slide here that's the uh light blue line   down at the bottom uh you can see it would erode  from somewhere a little bit north of 20 million   now to a little south of 10 million that would  probably not be a very good look for people that   scrutinize our debt service fund so we want to  kind of try to avoid that if possible so again   what will we do uh what will we do to try to come  up with a financially viable plan well we have a   couple technical things we can do and when I mean  we I mean the committee uh we'll look at areas   in which funds have previously been appropriated  but perhaps not spent and sometimes that happens   due to a variety of factors sometimes it's timing  issues but some projects we appropriate year after   year after year and sometimes we're a little  slower spending money that has already been   appropriated so I'll look in areas like that and  see if we can maybe skip a year or two based on   amounts that have previously been appropriated but  not necessarily spent another thing we'll look at   is project scheduling i mentioned earlier a lot  of departments maybe get a little aggressive in   how they want their projects scheduled and for  good reason but sometimes we look at that and   see whether it's actually practical practical  or not and so we may make some adjustments in   timing schedules which is to say move projects  out a little bit maybe to a more realistic   time table and then the last thing we'll do is  again we'll go back to our our core strategic   guidelines which is maintenance is priority  number one we'll rescrutinize all our projects   and ensure that we have funded maintenance first  because there are some enhancement and expansion   projects included in the previous in the current  draft so that's our methodology i wanted to show   you this slide this shows you the emphasis on  maintenance now uh I show you the geo column is   probably the most important right now we're at  60% which is actually pretty high usually we're   in the mid50s so this CIP would allocate 60% of  our property tax revenue to maintenance projects   and you can see the expand projects is relatively  small at 11% now the total CIP is 41% maintenance   let me give you a couple caveats why that's uh  shown that way uh freeways are not considered   a maintenance project freeways are $300 million  for K96 uh we also have special assessments which   again is not considered a maintenance project  that's not GO but that's another 300 million so   there's a couple humongous chunks that skew the  percentage of the total CIP uh but again I would   focus primarily on the GO and the LST and we're at  60% local sales tax sorry I shouldn't use acronyms   uh we are at 60% right now of GO spending would  be for maintenance and about half of the local   sales tax would be for maintenance activities but  again we we'll look at that uh we'll focus on the   enhance and expand projects and we'll determine  if there's any uh better strategic alignment to   focus more on maintenance than we already have uh  I just want to give you a few brief examples of   some projects that are maintenance i mentioned a  few earlier heavy equipment we're going to spend   maybe $40 million on heavy equipment that's  dump trucks bulldozers things like that that   allow public works to perform their role in  the operating budget to maintain our assets   we spend a lot of money on city buildings again  for maintenance activities we spend a lot of money   on public safety facilities and equipment uh for  maintenance activities and then park and wreck i   identified a few there that we have i I probably  forgot to put one of the more important ones that   we've included in our draft and that's maintenance  for our parking system we've got about $18 million   in for maintenance on our parking system mark I  have a quick question um sorry on the last slide   um for the city buildings oh no sorry I think  you went one too far um when you're talking about   maintenance are you talking about like schedule  type maintenance or like deferred maintenance that   is I'm talking about maintenance activities that  public works has identified through their decision   support tool uh which is you know I would tell  you mostly it's scheduled maintenance and I think   they try to attack deferred maintenance to the  extent possible but these are the projects that   you typically I think you approved them a month  or two ago we have general building maintenance   projects and then public works will develop a  schedule of what they think the priorities are   and then they'll align their expenditures to  those priorities and again that's going to be   guided by their decision support tool so okay I  appreciate it thanks y can we stay on that slide   for another second in regards to heavy equipment  that's obviously a very large number um have we   thought about other ways i know that I attended  the Cedro County Association of Cities and the   smaller communities in Cedro County talked to the  county about sharing some of the heavy equipment   uh costs um have we ever thought about even that  uh you're getting more into the operational realm   which I may not be qualified to discuss but I  will tell you this my understanding is that most   of this equipment is pretty heavily utilized  by our current public works staff so I don't   know if they have any excess capacity that would  be available to share but I'm sure public works   staff could provide you more detail or more  information about that i would be curious not   necessarily with the smaller communities but even  with the county are there any opportunities there   of co-utilizing heavy equipment maybe they might  have equipment that they just bought that we could   utilize vice versa i'm just trying to think  of other ways since 38 million is a lot of   dollars here how we can better utilize  our friends across the street i think a   challenge you might also run into is we're  basically both in the same business at the   same time i mean we don't we're not busy in  the winter and they're busier in the summer   which would allow more equipment sharing we  basically do the same thing at the same time so   uh again I'm not qualified to provide  you answer in any more detail than that   uh certainly something we can look into maybe city  manager if you could take note on that thank you uh let me give you a few examples of enhancement  and expansion projects uh public safety is where   the bulk of those are and that of course is  our fire station building plan and our police   station building plan for the most part uh so  a lot of enhancement and expansion projects   in in the public safety area uh we've  got a few in in streets and parks and   public facilities but again the vast majority of  those you're going to find in the public safety space so what's our next steps and then  I'll wrap up here uh again we will review   uh our debt service fund revenues based on any  policy direction uh some of the stuff we mentioned   earlier because that'll have a direct bearing on  our capacity uh we'll also look at a variety of   technical things to make sure we have the right  amounts in the right time for our projects and   then finally most importantly probably we will  look at strategic alignment issues maintenance   versus enhancement and expansion things of that  nature and strategic alignment so the committee   will meet we'll do that we'll provide a  draft to the city manager and ultimately   I think that draft will be provided to you once  we come up with one that's financially viable so   I'll take a pause point there before Elizabeth  finishes up she just has a couple more slides   to go over and if there's any more questions  about CIP I'd be happy to try to respond to them okay if we could just pause for a second i want to  make sure that the council is comfortable with   the way we've prioritized CIP and that as we look  at trying to balance the 25 million that we'll   primarily be looking at enhancement um and um  expansion projects protecting the maintenance as   much as possible if you're in general agreement  with that then that's where we'll focus the   committee's attention i am in favor of maintaining  more than the other two E and I do like the 60%   right now at maintenance i know um Mark mentioned  usually it's in the mid50s uh so it's a bit high   but I I am hearing again um maintaining what we  have is something that we should prioritize slide   number 28 great okay thank you i' I'd just like to  maybe can we stay up to date be kept up to date as   far as what projects are being looked at being  moved further down the line that way it's not   going to take anybody by surprise yes if we try  to do that after we get to a balanced document I   I think we normally do a sheet of what was what  was pushed out either out of the CIP or into   later years so that you have that information okay  because in most cases we're talking about projects   that were already in the document and it's just  a matter of switching them right deleting them   thank you and I just hope that publicly uh the  community pays attention to that conversation   as well maintaining means maintaining what we  have and where it is and if you were hoping to   see something expanded or new in your area and it  gets kicked down the path so that we can maintain   that means you don't see what you were hoping  to see so also if you don't like that please   be vocal and let us know your thoughts about that  as well because again a lot of the neighborhoods   that we have seen where they want something  expanded enhanced new will then be forced to   only have to maintain what they have if they have  anything so again it it is a balance maintaining   is important but also people deserve to have  other investments in their neighborhoods as well right so I will wrap this up so next steps on the  CIP we've already talked Mark already mentioned a   lot of this um updating the projects and the  timing the scale and things like that so you   will probably be seeing more of that as we move  through the process then in on the operating   budget side we'll continue monitoring revenue data  um for April and May um and then this inventory   of strategy alignment across departments that's  ongoing it's very interesting and it's definitely   guiding the process this year um and then  continuing resident engagement so we have   um we'll be visiting all the DAB meetings  in May so hopefully we'll get to experience   um the feedback that you're getting  firsthand um it sounds like there's   some interesting conversations going on in  on in the community and it's very edifying   to hear that so many people are engaged in the  budget process just because it is very hard work   um for all of us um and then we're continuing to  connect back to the community survey results and   then we'll launch the budget simulator in May so  just as far as what it looks like as a calendar   um we'll be attending all the DAB meetings in May  and then there'll be a workshop on May 27th um and   then in midJune of course is when the AV notice  is received and that workshop in late June um   it'll be a tight turn but we'll be we don't  usually have a workshop in June but that'll   be an opportunity to um incorporate the assess  valuation notice into budgeting concepts rather   than having a longer gap like we've had in the  past between the AV notice and the budget being printed and then the budget will be presented on  July 15th this year um and that's when the RNR   notice would be considered and also the maximum  taxes to be levied um as we talked about before   August 7th is the date for the evening meeting  i think that's on a Thursday and then we'll have   some time to consider um concepts and research  between then and the August 19th that third   public hearing and then the adoption this year  is relatively late on August 26th because of the   um the calendar that's set by state statute so  that is what we have for you today um thanks   for all of your engagement like I said  this is hard work but it's really great   to get the feedback and know how invested  and involved everyone is in the community i want to add my thanks to the work that you  did early this year the establishment of the   goals and then our ability to put strategies  together has really helped shape this budget   process and bring a lot it's brought  a lot more focus to the discussion so   thank you i appreciate the conversation and  one more time we should raise the mill levy   um also if there are any substantial changes along  the way as far as our projections depending on   what happens nationally globally um please keep us  updated as far as I know it's real dynamic right   now and it's really tough to kind of try and  predict um what's going on but yeah I I would   expect that that would be the kind of content  that would be shared at the workshop in May   i wouldn't expect anything to be very different  between now and going out to the DAB meetings   i would expect the content that we share today  to be very similar to what we would have at the   DAB so your lips to God's ears so I would uh  challenge for the presentations in May at all   the DAB meetings if we can have a breakdown  of all the 16 departments and how much each   receives in terms of a budget um I think we need  to be guided by what currently is in the adopted   budget um and I know that um a lot of folks  don't know that a lot of these services are   fully funded by property taxes and I think that  would be helpful in in individuals understanding   um what what each department is allocated in terms  of a budget so um I created the pamphlet um that   shows how local government works i would maybe  ask if there could be maybe a slide or a couple   of slides or a handout to give to individuals  that shows the 16 departments and what each gets   in terms of a budget yeah we do have a a document  that we could I guess turn into a handout I think   the budget facts and so it shows the budget  for each department and then how much of it   is funded by property tax so that sounds like you  what you're talking about and if you could also   maybe include the number of staff members per each  of those departments I think it would be a great   way to have that discussion um just like I asked  uh city manager to send out the property taxes   uh levied by each district i think that's also  important information so that individuals can   have a well-informed idea of not just property  taxes but how other uh sources of funding help   with the local budget yeah and then we'll also  be launching the budget simulator which is almost   universally unpopular because it forces people  to make tough decisions to balance the budget   and usually the I mean people like it as a tool  but it's difficult if that makes sense so this   is difficult work so one suggestion that came  from our breakfast I'm glad you brought that up   because I forgot about it was that on the budget  simulator and maybe even at the DAB could we have   like an asterisk that says raising the meal one  would be this amount and raising it two would be   this it doesn't play with the simulator but just  showing an asterisk that shows what it would look   like yeah so there's a couple different ways that  you can choose to set up the simulator and one of   them which we don't have that option set up it  would allow people to fill in the deficit with   increasing property tax but we don't have that  option this year that does that make sense like   you can't do both you can there's it's not it's  not us right it's there's limits to what it can   do it's just a software program when we facilitate  the discussion us whoever is doing on staff can   address that issue and I it's a it's a legitimate  question because it comes out so often that the   that exercise results in people not wanting to  cut service and then they say you didn't give   me an option to raise revenue so then we can talk  about that as an alternative but what we've tried   to do is create the environment that we currently  have for the budget process And that's limited   resources going into funding existing services i  think that would be great and just even from our   breakfast when every time you got to the next item  someone was like well we should sweep our streets   more we should do this and we need more investment  in the neighborhood and that wasn't an option and   then that's when people started saying to raise  the mill but I just think even if it was just in   bold for the simulator and then staff talking  about it at the dabs i'm not asking for like a   button or anything just some words that say right  and we also there's a there's a landing page for   the simulator and that still needs to be updated  or built again for this year so that's the place   to put it and then there's also a place at the end  where people can provide their feedback and it's   kind of fascinating because it seems like for  every person who says one thing there's another   person who says the opposite thing which is it's  it's just it feels like the same conversation   that's happening in the community but online you  know it's just really it's very consistent this   conversation i think the hardest thing is to to  remind everybody that we've set the simulator up   to reflect the survey results and now we have two  years where we've done the quadrants and so there   are certain buttons you can't move for additional  expense because they were in low importance in the   survey and so I know every service seems to have  an advocate but at the same time you go you're   really not in step with where the rest of where  the majority of the community is and so that's   but again that's understanding the trade-offs  of the budget the Other feedback I've heard is   people will say "I want to just get rid of all of  this department of a particular department." And   I just don't think that modeling the simulator  to be built that way i I think I've I've heard   of communities that have allowed people to do  that and then the city council has no interest   in doing that and so it makes sense i feel like  when we talk when we talk about the budget or you   talk about the budget we're trying to make things  better and balanced we've not been interested in   just there's not been an interest expect expressed  in eliminating an entire department so that's   another kind of feedback I've gotten we'll just  add a couple of thoughts um I appreciate council   member Johnson uh bringing up this discussion um  and I think a couple of months ago we actually   had that discussion about who on this council  out of seven is interested in raising the mill   levy um and if I remember correctly I don't think  there was the majority but maybe I'm wrong this   time around and we could do it again um but I  do believe that there are seven members on this   committee this council and if a majority wants  us to lower taxes or raise taxes increase mill   levy lower mill levy we can have that discussion  do we want to have that discussion so I I think   we will naturally have that discussion anyway  uh sometime in July when it's time to vote on   setting the mill levy raising the mill levy or  lowering the mill levy um then there's also the   votes here that we'll see so council will have  that discussion today people raising hands it's   not that's not the actual vote so when it comes  time to put the numbers to the paper and get all   that submitted and look at our realistic budget  situation and the tough decisions we'll have in   the future then this body will have to vote  and this body will be voting not only on this   year but what type of position the council will  be in years prior i know before I was elected   the council made a lot of tough decisions to  make sure that the council that took over in   2018 didn't have as bad of a situation as it could  have been and this council will be doing the same   so I think that vote will naturally happen and  this discussion will continue in the community i think we're good thank you we will now  adjourn the workshop have a great week