I know. Good morning. We're going to get started this morning with an invocation from Pastor Douglas Bell of Sooner Rose Baptist Church. And that'll be followed by the pledge of allegiance led by Griffin Cannon representing Girl Scout Troop 7309. Please stand as you are able. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you in Jesus's name. Uh thanking you Lord for the day and this opportunity to serve you. Pray according to the scriptures. You exhort us to pray for uh our leaders, those that are in authority and for all men. And we pray that uh that you would uh be with us as we uh as we come today uh in the city council meeting. And Lord, you also exhort us in the scriptures that uh uh that we can um pray to you Lord for wisdom. We ask pray that you would uh give wisdom to each and every uh one of our city's leaders. Thank you Lord for our city and thank you Lord for all that you've done and are doing. uh we pray and ask that you would uh just lead them and direct them in all the decisions that they face and and the things that they make uh on the behalf of the citizens and the citizenry and the and the city uh itself. We pray and ask that you would uh according to the scriptures. You you're a god of order and uh you say uh that all things be done decently and in order. And we pray and ask that all the proceedings today uh will be just that decent and in order. We ask and pray your blessings upon our mayor and our city councilman and other city leaders and our city. And we thank you Lord for all that you're doing uh in it as we hear in the news. And we just praise you and thank you Lord for your goodness and your graces. We ask and pray these things in Christ's name. Amen and amen. Will everybody sing the pledge of allegiance, please? I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh well, thank you Griffin and thank you Pastor Bell. I call this meeting of the city council to order and we have no items at items three and four. Um which brings us to item five, city manager reports. >> We don't have any city manager reports this morning other than the claims and payroll and that can be found on okc.gov. >> All right, thank you. Item six is journal of council proceedings. We have items A and B. We could take with one motion. Have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item eight, revocable permits and events. Item 8A is revocable rightway use permit. Oh, seven. Yes. Request for uncontested continuences. Uh, we have items 9A and 11 I that are already deferred to upcoming meetings. Uh, what else might we have, Mr. City Manager? >> Uh, we have two items on page 16, item 11, AB1, unsecured structures. Both of these are stricken from the agenda. Item E, 221 Southwest 38th Street, the owner is secured. And item G, 1136 Southwest 61st Street, the owner is secured. That's all the items that I have. >> All right. Now, we're at item 8. Uh 8A is a revoc revocable rightway use permit with uh downtown Oklahoma City Partnership to hold the Oklahoma City Treelighting Festival. Um I don't see a slip, but if you would mind introducing yourself. >> Hello. Um good morning, council. Thank you for having me. I am Olivia Branskum with Downtown Oklahoma City Partnership. We are requesting the closure of Mickey Manel Avenue in Bricktown on November 13th for the Oklahoma City Treelighting Festival presented by Global Payments. We're really excited for the 24th year of the festival. We're going to have a great program um of two hours of entertainment from any everything from Kai Dawson and the Experience to Oklahoma Opry and the Oklahoma City Ballet. Um, we'll also have the mayor lighting the Christmas tree at 6 PM. So, come join us as we kick off the holiday season in downtown Oklahoma City, November 13th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. >> Very cool. Um, I think Councilman Hinkle is carrying award seven items this morning. Wish you the best of luck and move forward with approval. And don't let David play with fire lighting a tree. All right, we have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Now we'll recess council and convene as the Oklahoma City Municipal Facilities Authority where we have items A and B we could take with one motion. There's a motion and a second. cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Now we'll adjourn OC MFA and convene as the Oklahoma City Public Property Authority. I want to draw your attention uh to the fact that there was an amendment to the city council agenda that was properly noticed that adds an item C here. That item C is the schematic design plans uh with the city of Oklahoma City for the new Oklahoma City arena. And we actually also have a presentation associated with that item. So maybe we'll start there. >> Yes. David Todd, our maps program manager, will do an introduction to this item. As you can imagine that um in the design of something as as significant as this arena, the work that goes into this and I call this the early stages and I don't want to offend the team, the early stages of design, but there's still they've done a significant amount of work to get us to this place and there's even more to come. and just really appreciate the teamwork and uh the partnership here. And so I'll let David introduce the item. >> Right. Good morning. David Todd, MAPS, program manager. As city manager said, a lot of people have worked a lot of hours already, but just recognize that this is about 30% complete on the design, but as part of the development agreement, we bring it to you to keep you up to date as to what's going on. Today we have Rob Swedberg from TVS and David Manaka from Mannequa Architecture is here. David Manica is going to take you through where we are on the design right now. >> Thank you, David. Um, good morning, council members. Nice to see you all, mayor. Good to be here. I appreciate the invitation to talk uh about the project and I'm honored on behalf of the entire design team um CA Icon and of course the Thunder to be here today. There's an army of people working on this project as was already mentioned and uh everyone's heart is 100% in it and I'm excited to have a chance to walk you through it. Um a quick location as if uh you know no one know doesn't know where it's going. Um but uh you know this is a very special site and I and I want to take the time to say that I've been working on these projects around the world for 30 plus years and this is really a dream site um for us to to do this project with you all. Um right across the street from the myriad gardens um a nice spacious site with plenty of elbow room for circulation around it and access and right it's a part of the downtown um city. So, it's really an incredible opportunity uh and transformative project and we're we're excited uh not just to be a part of it, but about what we've come up with together um with the collaborative input of everyone on the project. Um I'm just going to point out very quickly a few key points. So, the arena is generally centered on the site. That gives us really nice flexibility around the whole project for people to circulate and access it. Um we have large entrance plazas on the uh northwest and southwest corners. um um the beginnings of some ideas for Thunder Alley. Then on Ron Noric Boulevard, right across the street from Marriott Gardens, um there's a a parking structure and parking garage on the uh on the eastern side. And then we also have entrances on the southeast corner as well to help uh uh access from that those areas of the site. And then Bricktown. Um just zooming in a little bit more, you can see the open air truck dock on the northeast corner. Um this will be below grade, so you won't see the trucks um and all the servicing all the servicing of the building from street level. So I think that's a real plus as well. And um and again uh the the large entrance plazas with the grand staircases up to the main plaza on the western side. I'm going to not give you the janitor's tour of every level of the building. I promise um that would be annoying and boring for you, but I do want to help you understand the progress that we're making and generally how the building stacks. So, the event level as we call it is uh slightly below ground. Um that's where the uh the the the parking for the team and the and the buses and the uh concert trucks will all come. Again, I said the below grade um so that you can't see it all from the street. That's unlike uh Paycom currently where you can see all those things at street level. This is the hardest working and sort of least appreciated level of the building. We have some premium seats down there, but that's also where all the locker rooms go. Um, all the plant areas, all the support areas of the project. So, a lot of these areas are back house, but uh, you know, I can confirm for you that we have the area in the project to make this a first class building. This is the kind of building that concert tours are going to want to come to because it works so easily for them to uh, to load the building and unload it. And then of course there's an incredible uh um uh compound let's say for the Thunder to keep them competitive in the market which we all know is important and it's sort of success uh story. Uh and then there are some like I said some premium areas that are not unusual for uh uh buildings like this around the country and even consistent with some of the amenities that you already enjoy in Paycom. Uh now we're at street level. So this is more of a mezzanine level actually. Um we have entrances uh into the building at street level. Um and then we also have some offices for uh for the operations of the building. Um it's nice in this particular building because they're not in the basement of the building. They have some natural light and some easy access at street level too. So that's a real plus for the people that get to go to the arena every day and work and keep it a success. team store located on the west side off of uh off the beginnings of the Thunder Alley Plaza across the street from the Myriad Gardens. Now, let's go up to the main concourse. This is really the, you know, the main uh level of the building for a great population of the uh and capacity of the building. You'll see what I want to show you here is really the beginnings of an incredible story of the project. You know, I came here without any preconceptions of what I wanted the design to be and I really listened to all of you. Actually, we had some early meetings um with some of you uh in the visioning session and we really listened carefully to what we wanted the project to be. Words like togetherness, unity, transparency, authenticity began were really ringing true um from everyone's um perspective. And this project's really about uh a circle and the sort of symmetry of that um the purity um and the meaning of what it means to be sort of together in unity around around you know this space. And I've pulled you can see in this plan I've pulled everything inside the concourse so that you walk around 360 degrees and you always have views out of the building and I'll show you some renderings in a second. I know you've seen them as well but I want to tell you a little bit more about those. Um we have uh we have a good distribution of uh food amenities and toilets. So there's more toilets in this building than there are uh in the current building. I know everyone's always curious about that. But also more food amenities. So there's it's a more comfortable, spacious uh sort of elevated experience for everyone in the building. Next level up is the suite level. It's configured in a horseshoe configuration that is intentional so that when the concerts roll in, the concert can play to all the suites and there's no suites behind. That's a really important um sort of uh programming uh design uh element for the project. Um uh and uh and then also at this level is the beginning of the Thunder offices which you can see on the east side. So those offices are behind the stage uh during concerts. Um, as I point this I want to point this slide out. When you see uh in the drawings you see a sort of yellow cream color that's open concourse area. And you can see here how the suite level looks down to the concourse of the main concourse below. So what I'm beginning to do is stack all of these levels of the building into one volume of space so that everyone's together, you know, and can see everyone else in the building. That's really unusual for a building like this. Usually when you go to the upper concourse, you're cut off from everyone else in the building and and you don't really see or get a sense of of the rest of the crowd. That's not the way it is in this building here. You can see I'm moving up through the uh the various Thunder offices on the east side here to get to the upper concourse. And you can see another 360°ree outer concourse that looks down into that volume of space. So again that idea of togetherness um symmetry unity all everyone being in one space that was at the heart of this project and again at this level uh really great distribution of toilets and food amenities spacious concourses great views out of the building um and uh and again more amenities at this level than than you currently enjoy at Paycom. um plant areas and catwalks. Um again, maybe not as important uh you know to you all. Um and the and the uh and the spectators will never see this, but this is what brings uh concerts back. This is what makes the building really easy to operate uh load and unload. And and I'm absolutely confident that this project will be uh at the top of the list for for tours because of all the amenities and and the built-in infrastructure that it'll that it'll uh accommodate. All right, now we're into the renderings. So, you can really see its presence on the site here. This is looking towards the west. You can see the mirrored gardens in the background. You can see that circular um transparent uh facade of the project. Um and um the the the parking garage happens to be in the foreground of this particular shot. And you can see the open air truck dock down below grade and how it basically sits uh you know adjacent to and a part of the downtown skyline. It's really important uh for me that the that the that the city of Oklahoma City be the backdrop for the entire experience um when you're in the building. And so as we get into these interiors, you'll see how as you walk around these open concourses uh you'll c catch views of the city and the park and and the skyline and the sunset um from from every angle. This is a great shot of the uh the corner um looking at the the grand staircase up to the main plaza and the entrance at the main concourse. And you can see how you look through that building and it becomes a lantern and it's really iconic um uh you know building on the skyline and and something that becomes again very transparent and and animated. This is a great shot of the main concourse. Here you can see that wide 360°ree concourse with the inboard amenities. The suite level slightly above it just above where it says Oklahoma City Thunder. That's the suite level. And then that curving shape um just below the highest ceiling. That's the upper concourse. This is another great shot looking down into the club um more at suite level. And you can begin to get an idea of what those views out of the building will look like. Inside the uh the suite levels, there's a lounge area outside the suites for the loge boxes, theater boxes, and the suites again with those incredible views out to the city. And the city becomes the backdrop for the entire experience for everyone in the building. Upper concourse here, you can see that balcony edge looking down onto the main concourse and out to the city. We use a lot of natural wood materials in the project. um uh it was important to us that it feel sort of timeless and sophisticated in its uh in its design. So that the the way the facade is transparent and you can look through the building and the it's in a lot of ways the interiors of the project become a part of the facade of the design as well intentionally. So you can see how we were very careful about the uh the material selection and the way that we call it the vessel the the the the vessel of the of of the experience sits inside that glass drum. >> Hey David, if you could just go back one slide. >> Um I just want to point out I'm pretty sure this is an older slide. This has been a topic of conversation just in lest anyone be concerned that railing is now significantly higher. >> Yeah. Than what is shown here? >> Mayor and I also appreciate the interruption. And I should have invited you to ask me questions when I play. Um I'm certainly go backwards with anything, but yeah, >> it's a minor thing other than when I first saw that slide, it was like nightmare fuel. So I So it has been raised and it's much safer now. >> Yeah, that's right. I appreciate that uh point. Yeah, we we did play with the height of that quite a bit. Um we've now pulled it up to bar height with a glass railing that goes even higher so you don't have that um sort of awkward feeling of vertigo at the end. We want people to feel comfortable up there in every way. Um, and now the seating bowl, which I'm very, very proud of. Um, and and this is a little bit of a technical explanation, but it's important and I want to take the time to explain it. Um, your existing building, PayCom, is designed around a hockey rink. Um, it is not prioritized for basketball. And what that does is, as you can imagine, that the hockey rink is actually longer than a basketball court. All the seats in your existing building and many other buildings like it honestly are designed around the hockey rink and that pulls the ends further away from the basketball court than we would be optimal. This design still um can accommodate uh that kind of configuration, but we pulled the ends in very tight and optimized them for basketball. So the ends of the the seating are much much much closer to the basketball court. And what that does is will create a much an even more sort of dynamic and exciting atmosphere uh in the bowl environment than you can uh in Paycom. I know that's hard to imagine because you have you know one of the loudest most incredible sort of fan bases here in in Oklahoma City and it animates that bowl uh the existing bowl very very much but this is going to like turn that up to 11 basically. It's going to be incredible. Really excited about it. And also I just want to highlight um how everyone in this bowl in the seating environment feels like it's part of one crowd and and we've taken a lot of time and a lot of care to make sure that the delineation or the different differentiation in the diversity of seating in the bowl is is um is blurred a little bit so that everyone feels as though they're part of the same experience and same same seating bowl. And hopefully you can see that here. very seamless bowl. No vomitatories, you know, everything feeds from the back. So, it's really dense and really intense. And of course, it's optimized for concerts as well. It's not just thunder, but this will be a premier um uh entertainment facility. And uh and we've been very careful to make sure we've gotten a lot of input from ASM and other um uh programming partners to make sure that it's optimized in every way for those events as well. Um I I'll go through next steps really quickly and then I'd be open to answer any questions that you might have. But as David Todd mentioned, we are um in in the still in the early days of design. I would say um we are, you know, wrapped up with schematic design, which David Todd rightly said was about 30% of the total effort. Um and there's a lot more hard work to come. Uh, and uh, I'm excited about the the design progress, but I'm even more excited about the work that we have yet to to do and the way it's going to bring the whole project to life. Questions? >> So, what you're saying is because this time it's not designed for a hockey rink, it's designed for a basketball court, all our fans will be sitting closer to the court. Correct. Yeah, that's exactly right. E especially on the ends. >> So, how loud can it be? >> How loud can it be? Um louder than it is now. Um I all I can tell you is it's a it's a matter of physics. Um basically air is your number one um inhibitor to volume, right? It's like the difference between me yelling in your ear or yelling at you from across the hall or or across the room. It's the same thing with a crowd. So if you suck the air out of an an environment and you put everyone closer together, it gets louder. Um, so the the volume of the building will of course depend on how loud the crowd is, but I assure you that this building is intentionally designed to be even louder and even more exciting than than the existing one. >> And then you mentioned concerts and third party events. The the one knock is not a good word, but things I hear once in a while is about loading dock capacity at the current facility and then acoustics. Can you tell us a little bit about loading and acoustics and how we're going to improve that? >> Yeah, very good. So, um the loading dock has been designed to have um sort of optimal turning radiuses and and holding areas for the trucks as they come in and unload and then come in, load, unload quickly and get out. That's really the number one thing that we have to do. The other thing that's really important in this building is the rigging grid. So, you have an optimal rigging grid. So what happens is that crew comes in, they need to lift everything up quickly and then get the next truck out, that truck out and the next truck in. So I, you know, we have really optimized the loading um and the adjacency of that dock to the rigging area. Um and of course all the back of house support for uh for stars they're going to want to come back to. Um with regard to acoustics, yeah, we have a set in the um in the uh you can see it in the in this shot here. Um there's a set that goes around the upper deck. So that's going to bounce sound back down for um for concerts uh for uh for uh sporting events, I mean, and actually make that make that upper deck um sound even louder. But we're also, of course, um fine-tuning the attenuation of the reverberation inside the bowl to make sure that's optimal for concerts as well. So it it is a delicate balance between making the building loud for sports and quiet for concerts. Um but we're finding that uh we're finding that sweet spot. >> Great. Thank you. >> You're welcome. I just want to say one last thing if that's uh if that's my closing if these are my closing comments. Um, you know, I mentioned that uh that I I didn't come here with preconceptions and I listened and and and one of the things that we did at the very beginning was I met with some of you and we had the visioning session and that meant a lot to me and I just want to help explain actually I got an email or a call from from one of the council members shortly after that and she said, "David, um, I really hope that you don't look down when you think about this project like we don't need more red dirt, you know, analog ologies. She said, "I hope you look up and that you think about this project in wonder and that you think about our sunsets and you think about the sort of skyline and you think about what it means to look up at this project instead of looking down at the ground." And that really hit me and I I hope that when you look at this project, you can see that kind of inspiration, that kind of wonder, that kind of feeling of looking up and gazing up rather than looking down at the ground. So, I appreciate that input and thank you very much for today. >> Thank you, David. And obviously, we are well aware of your reputation and we've been very grateful that we've had this opportunity to work with you and certainly since July, I think the design has been received across the city with much fanfare. I think people are very, very excited. >> Thanks, mayor. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Good day. >> All right. Well, that concludes our presentations on the PPA agenda. We have items A through C we could take with one motion. I have motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. And by the way, that item will appear again on uh an amended consent docket. Well, now we'll adjourn OCPA and reconvene as the council where we are in fact at item nine, the consent docket. Um, one item was previously deferred and we do have a scheduled presentation for item BQ. Is there anything else that a council member wishes to pull out for a separate vote or conversation or question? >> Can we call Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Go ahead. uh for conversation AS please. >> Can we pull item H out for a separate vote please? >> Sure. Okay. So AS and as in Sam >> and then um Council Curry, what was your item? >> H hotel >> for a separate vote. >> And then we have a little discussion on item W and item A D. W and what was the other one? AB >> A anything else? >> Yes. Where did it go? It's about the May Avenue Bridge and it is a please. A. Okay. Anything else? And just to draw to your attention, as previously previewed, item 9CC is a uh new item that was on an amended agenda that was properly noticed. That is the mirror uh item to what we just discussed, the schematic design plans uh with PPA for the new Oklahoma City Arena. Okay, we will now take these items as discussed in order, which means we'll have a separate vote um on item 9H. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes six to one. Um and then next up we will have um a little bit of a discussion about item W. Councilman Stone. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'm just curious on this if we I know this is just an introduction, uh, but I'm curious if we've done any kind of a traffic count on it. Uh, we have Jeff, planning director, uh, we have not yet. Um, we can look into that certainly. There is some information available u for the streets itself. Uh it kind of depends on the we have some availability of information we get back to you on if if that's desired. There's a few different data sources we can look at. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Is that it? >> All right. >> Yep. Well then we'll stay with you for item AB. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh this one confuses me just a little bit honestly. Um, I guess I have a couple of different questions on this thing. It looks like formally it was roughly 570,000. Now it's jumping up to 650,000. And then another part of that is since we have been doing the health services with the fire department. Um I know we've been utilizing that in that and I know that I have talked to some firefighters that uh told me that the fire department is doing fantastic work in that mode. Um, so I'm kind of curious when we've started kind of branching that up why we're accelerating or at least going higher on this side when we would think we'd be utilizing it a little bit less. >> Mhm. I I think and Jeff, do you know is Jared shaded here? They could speak Jared could speak to it. So basically I I'll help answer this. Like basically what this does is gives us the homeless outreach teams that they're specifically going out and uh doing direct outreach for homeless and they they participate when we do uh a clamp a camp closure they're involved with that. If we've got a problem area they go out and make that contact. So they're out there on the street trying to help every day. So it's a different work than what fire does and what they're doing is working trying to get connection with the folks that are homeless and trying to help them get into services and get help. So, it's a different it's it's a different type of service. >> Gotcha. >> Isn't that called key to home? >> What's that? >> Isn't that called key to home? >> This team is part of key to home. They serve as part of key to home. >> Uh Jared Shaded with the Columbus City Planning Department. I'm the program planner for homeless services. Uh uh city manager Freeman is right. This is a different type of project. While the name of the organization can be a little misleading given the type of given that it's called mental health association. This is not specifically mental health specific outreach. It serves all clientele and yes they do assist with keto home. They're not one of the primary like contracted specifically for just that purpose. They provide more services than just keto home but they do participate in the camp uh project with keto home. One of the recommendations that came back from the um the uh homelessness task force was that we have these teams that go out in the city and we debated do we do that inhouse or we do that with um other services you know you contracted services we made the decision to contract these services mental health we did an RFP mental health association proposed on this we worked with them but it's specifically it's mental health association but like Jared said it's directed at going out and making direct contact the people who are homeless. >> So, my big problem with this is that for some reason we have a really big issue with transient crime and we're not addressing it. I don't believe in any way. Um, and I'm not putting that blame on anyone else. I think it's council's fault. >> I think we've got to come together. We've got to figure out some way to be able to address the transient crime issues. Um, and I can tell you in my ward over at 44th and I35, right? We've had key to home. I mean, it was horrendous. Key to home went in there, cleaned it out, cleaned it up. It was great. And they're all back. >> Mhm. >> We've got crackouses over there. We can't do anything about those. We've got all the transients are coming back in again and committing crimes on the businesses in that area. And I get calls on it all the time from surrounding businesses. It it is something we're focused on and it's like the the other thing I would mention is recognizing this like when we've got problem areas trying to get focused on that with the police response. This part of it is definitely not an enforcement part. This is really trying to make the connection, build the trust, build the relationship so we can help get people into services and housing. Um the other is the homeless outreach team with police which you know is a very small unit. They also are engaged. They have the ability to engage with the enforcement, but they're also another arm that's there from police trying to make that connection and de develop the relationship so we can help encourage people not to be involved in this activity. When we do have to get to that place, we do enforcements um and we will arrest people if we have to. But it's really the goal is trying to help them get out of the situation that they're in. But it's definitely, you know, 44th we can get back and look at that area again. And I know periodically most of our camp closures and Jamie Caves is here too, but mo most of our camp closures we've had success with keeping them closed. We'll have a few people come back in, but the teams can go out and reach out, help connect with them and try to keep people from camping in those areas again. That's a particularly difficult one that I think we may have to go back and run again. I think it's just one that we've got to be focused on continuing this. And I think this work too, it's it's an imperfect work. you know, it's you're dealing with people who have really um are are in in difficult situations in their lives and trying to get them help. You know, we'll have people that come in and we get them help and then they fall back into it. And it's like you just got to stay at that. And I think it's that balance of where we have to, we have to enforce the law. But it's like if enforcement isn't going to solve homelessness, and that's what we really have tried to focus on is making sure we're trying to focus to where we can provide the services and make the connection. So, we're balanced on that in our approach and I I want to make sure that we're staying focused there. Um, we we can go back and check that area again. >> So, I'm all for helping the homeless, right? Uh, those that are needing some help and seeking some help. Man, I want to help them as much as we possibly can. The problem I have is that a lot of those homeless don't, when I say a lot of those homeless, I'm talking about a very specific area, right? They don't want help. they don't care. They they want to be able to raise some funds, right, so they can do what they need to do. And I mean, there's just there's a lot of businesses over in that area that are just continuing to decline. >> Um, so I don't know. I don't understand necessarily why we're raising this one when we still don't have a way to deal with transient crime. I just that's kind of me personally is I'm like >> until we figure out a way to work on that side of it as well, I have a problem with it. >> Yeah. I I just want to go on the record. I agree 100% with what Todd just said. Uh in the past, um my the the number one call I received was always about roads or potholes and today the number one call I receive is about homelessness. And we just need to keep thinking. I know Jaime's working hard, but and and we all want to pitch in and we all want to help, but um like I said, the number one call I get is on homeless issues in my ward. >> So, should we defer this for a couple weeks and talk about it? >> I would ask that we move forward with this because I think whatever else we do, this still needs to happen. Like, we can't take this part out of what we're doing. Like, it's got to be an important part of this. We can defer it and move it forward and and discuss it again. I'm still going to come back with whatever else happens to recommend that we go forward with this partnership with them continuing to provide this service while we're working on trying to find other solutions. I don't think minimizing this part of the of the plan or this part of the program is helpful. >> Can I Hi Jared, >> how are you? >> How are you doing? Um, can I ask how many people serve on Jaime's um street outreach team? Like how many people serve on it? >> I'm going to turn that over to Jamie. >> Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you. >> Well, hi there Jamie. Good morning. >> Hi. Good morning. Um, ask the question again. How many people serve on my team? >> Yeah, for Yeah, forgive me. How many people literally serve on the street outreach team? like on this >> on the street outreach team, it's five teams. So there's 10 people that are serving on street outreach team and that's for the community response outreach team that responds to our action center tickets and the housing focused outreach team that's helping uh create pathways to move people into housing and stability and and off the streets. >> So if I'm hearing you correctly, I just want to make sure I am and feel free to correct me. There are kind of two moments here as we just heard counselor Carter mention. So there's the key to home which is the second one you were just um mentioning. So we have the street outreach teams that are going out to the encampments just as we also heard from counselor stone when key to home went out there. So that's one time the street outreach teams are responding. The other if I'm hearing you correctly is when residents report someone experiencing homelessness to the action center. So in each of these two instances that activates the street outreach team to go out. >> That's correct. They kind of work in conjunction with each other. So the community response outreach team will respond to action center tickets. So a community member sends in um a text, email, whatever that there is someone that needs support, the community response outreach team goes and engages. And if they go out um twice and there are people at the same location like the people are staying at this location then they will transfer that over to the housing focused outreach team. The housing focused outreach team will continue to engage. They'll go by like weekly. They're wanting to build rapport, meet basic needs and help connect to services. And then in addition to we have the encampment rehousing initiative which you all know is when we select a site for closure and then the housing focused outreach team goes in every single day and works very intensively on that location until we're able to move those folks into housing within four to six weeks. >> How many people at I44 and Penn whenever we uh I want to say it was December of 23. How many people at Interstate 44 and Penn uh turned down the services of that street outreach team? I believe we housed 17. How many said no? >> Um I would have I would have to pull that number up, but it's uh overall 93% of people living in encampments that have been offered housing have accepted. Some are a little higher, some are a little lower, but all are in that vicinity. >> Okay. So to my colleagues, I am not a begging person. So I'll choose a different verb. I implore us. Implore. We not make the same mistake that the great city of Salt Lake City made a few years ago when they took this approach. They took this approach. They hired street outreach teams. They went out. They did exactly the work we just heard Jamie describe. homelessness numbers went down in Salt Lake City. And so their council and mayor said, "Great, mission accomplished. Dropped the banner and they stopped funding that service." Guess what went up? Homelessness again. We You think it's bad now, friends? If we stop this service, it will get worse. It is not my wish or desire to see homelessness get worse. And if you're going, "Well, it's pretty bad right now." I agree. I hear me. I agree. I was something I've had to reckon with. I don't know about you all as counselors, something really in the last week that's been hitting me kind of harder. Uh, I can't remember which of you I might have been discussing this with, but now when I go out into the city, and maybe it's just a byproduct of being a city counselor, but now when I go out into the city, all I see are the problems. I see the potholes. I see the lack of sidewalks where I think they need to go. I see the development opportunities. I see the homelessness. I see it. It's all I see. and I have to literally intervene to see then the the progress we're making on when we were building the new sidewalks or whatever it might be. But I see what you're seeing. I I please do not misunderstand me. It I would be gaslighting you and lying to you if I got up here and said, "Counselor Stone, what you're talking about, that's just not the reality. It absolutely is the reality." We have to acknowledge that, of course. So, understand that solidarity. What I am imploring us to do in this moment is to literally look at the examples where other cities have turned away when they were making the progress of stabilizing people in their cities experiencing homelessness and connecting them to those services and to the housing to stabilize them. That's not to say that everyone out there you're ex there are sometimes people out there who they're not ready for it and they're going to commit whichever crimes that that that is that too but it's apparently about that 7% but sometimes that 7% whether it's homelessness or whether it's people with gun violence they their numbers might be smaller but their impact can be mightier >> and you see it in the gang world too. It's not everyone living in a neighborhood's in a gang, but it's that smaller number who are the meanest and the loudest and the most violent and they're causing the most disruption. So, I just really want to pause and and acknowledge that truth and that reality. I don't want to get into a back and forth up here of going this isn't a problem. We absolutely have to acknowledge that. But being in the spirit of solutiondriven policies, we know that Houston reduced homelessness by 64% with this approach and we know the Salt Lake City example. The thing that held Salt Lake City back is, as I just said, the thing that's holding Houston back is that they used, you remember this, temporary funding to build housing, temporary funding, which was ARPA, and then ran out. like ARPA runs out >> and so now they're stuck like they can't finish the job because they can't identify a funding source to keep increasing their housing supply. I think the great news about the city of OKC right now um is that we just approved in our bond funding to increase our housing supply. So we're about to increase our housing supply and we're not just going to do it willy-nilly. you as a council member, all of us will be working with Jamie and the planning department to shape the policy about the type of housing we're going to need to really address this. Could it have been more money? Now, Todd, you know, I would have I would have gone further, but it really is about supply and it's about her team. And I'll wrap up by saying this and I for everyone's consideration. The reason why I asked 12 people 12 people mental health providers and case managers are responsible for going out to ward 4 I44 and you said uh I35 and 44. >> That same 12 group of people think about this. OKC that same 12 group of people case managers and mental health providers are responsible for going to counselor stones ward to interstate 35 and 44th street is the same team that has to go over here to interstate 44 and Pennsylvania who also have to go to 23rd and MacArthur who also have to go to 122nd in Pennsylvania who also have to go to 240 in Penn 12 people 600 121 square miles. I would go further. I think instead of talking about deferring, we should be doubling down and recruiting more people for these teams so that they can be even more strategic in the work they're doing. I I that same that Salt Lake City example haunts me and has haunted me for the six years since I've learned it. And so that's what I I and by the way, I would love the opportunity to go to a Salt Lake City with this council and to sit with their mayor and council and we should have the the strongest questions possible when we do or if we need a virtual meeting, but we need to ask them what happened and why they took their foot off the pedal with their street outreach teams, how it made them fall backward and see an increase in homelessness. So that something this council does really well and our city manager and mayor too is we study best practices. We have been doing that for all six years that I've been on this council. We study best practices and we take lessons learned. Um but I hear you about the crime. I'm worried about it. I see it every day with uh just the the issues that we need to address. But I'm here to tell you the only way we're going to address it is by stabilizing the folk we can. And then the the then we're going then we do need to be a bit more surgical and strategic about that 7% that is going to be the tougher population just tougher in terms of the the despair and the misery and sometimes the crime that comes from the desperation the acts of desperation the crime whatever it might be um but I implore this council we it is in our city's best interest in terms of public safety to not turn back the clock but to instead go forward and maybe even double down, triple down. 12 people for 621 square miles just does not strike me as enough. Thank you for hearing that. >> Thank you, Councilman. Um, and I totally agree that the work that these people are doing, y'all are doing great work. The problem that I have is we're not addressing that other side, right? which is putting businesses out of business, which means people lose their job, which means there's more of an opportunity for them to become homeless as well. And it's just I feel like we're in a vacuum there. Does this stuff need to continue? 100% agree. Um I'm still I would agree with Councilman Carter that maybe we defer it because I still have some questions on why there's a 20% increase on it. Um, overall though, I mean, it's great work. I totally get it, but I just don't feel that we're focusing on on the other side that's putting businesses out of business. >> Are you going to make a motion to defer? >> So, to the point of the increase, >> might I clarify something here? The project funding for the overall funding for this project is actually not being increased. Previously, there was $75,000 that was coming out of ESG funds. That is federal. Now, there was $75,000 coming out of opioid funds. >> It wasn't included in this contract. >> No, ESG is contracted completely separately. So, it would not show would not have shown up on this contract. >> And we're using some of our opioid abatement funds for a portion of this program that does deal with helping people with >> Yes. >> who are dealing with crisis of >> Yes. >> addictions and things like that. So, what you're saying is overall the incre there's not an increase in what we're doing now. We had an ESG contract before that was separate because it's a grant program and we had this program and now we're just combining the two. >> Correct. >> So I was I was trying to check on that to make sure that I was clear. >> But with that being said, then we don't even have a clear accounting of all the funds like we've even been asking for >> of of this program >> of this program of all of it. When we've when we've sat down, we've asked for these these statements. So I'm still going to push forward for a twoe deferral. Okay. so that we can have some meetings, get some understanding and understand this thing better. Maybe we need to put more money into it. Maybe 20% isn't enough growth. Maybe we need to look at this. But I'd like to have those questions answered. >> Okay. I'm going to add some food for thought. Couple of years ago, I was on a panel with one of the ex-orsers of Norman and she said something that struck me as very odd. She goes, "It doesn't matter how much we build or how much we do, they keep coming. The better we get at solving the homeless problem, the more homeless we end up with." And that's, like I said, that's just food for thought. I thought that was very odd coming from her as a proponent for, you know, homeless advocacy. But, uh, I was I was in a meeting with her and the Cleveland County Sheriff at the time, and the look on his face was like, "Well, what' you expect?" and the look on her face was very perplexed. So, thank you. I >> I just want to say like there's no data that supports that statement. We we know what is how what percentage of people in our last uh point in time count became homeless in Oklahoma City, not somewhere else. >> 76%. >> Yeah. I mean, there's just no data that demonstrates that. And and the rest of them came from somewhere else in Oklahoma, which is certainly possible. But this idea, every city in America, every mayor in America tells me everyone in their community thinks their homeless people came from somewhere else and it's just not true. So I just I know people still say that. I just always feel compelled whenever people say that to say that there's just no evidence that that's the case. So I think these are our friends and neighbors and our family members for the most part, 76% anyways, and we got to figure out how to get them off the street. And that's and I think people at kind of the whole spectrum of politics have that in common. They want them off the street. Whether it's through empathy or whether it's not, they want the same thing to get them off the street. But but again, I don't see any evidence, and I'm certainly receptive to different data, but I see no evidence that people are coming from elsewhere or that different services are somehow attracting people. We've just never seen that in Oklahoma City, and I don't know any city that has. California is a little different situation. Weather's so nice. I think they do maybe draw people from around the country, but we have not seen any evidence here. If you have any response, of course. Um just telling you what she told me. I didn't I didn't ask for data. >> Say it all the time. >> And another thing that is a huge issue is the 1,900 evictions that happen every month in Oklahoma County. I mean, we can't solve a problem with the the funnel that big coming that way. So, I mean, that's a whole another >> as you know, we we like lead the country in that if not >> close to it. >> We're in the top six. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> but I would say if y'all are going to defer this, which I will not be supporting because I I will tell you right now, never will the day come that I will go back to W two and tell them that that I have done anything other than taking the best practices to address this issue and that I think we should just pedal to the middle. And it is such a great day, I think, in our country where you can across political parties, someone who is a registered Republican running this city in a nonpartisan body and a Democrat over here, both of us through research and mayors across this country saying there is a solution to this and we should be doing more of it. I just think that is a wonderful opportunity uh and a bit of a mandate to go out there and actually address public safety and to stabilize people and to stabilize our city. And I would implore us not only to just move forward, but if you're going to take two weeks to defer, then we should bring a seriousness to that two weeks to really drill into what will it take to get to that harder to reach um 7%. And in front of us, we have Jamie who I'm sure would be able to do that deep dive with us. But that take that take that time to actually dig into what it would take. I loved your openness by the way, councelor Carter. Maybe it is more money. I believe it is. Um, and I think it's all hands- on deck. I think the private sector has an opportunity to really continue investing the way they have with the key to home and we should be grateful that they have stepped up to match what we are doing at the city level. Um, but I would implore this council, do not turn backwards and use the next two weeks to really dig in to the the crime part. I I I I mean truly dig in. So, thanks. >> I I don't understand why you're trying to politicize this thing. To me, it's absolutely not political in any way. I mean, I'm in total agreement with you that great work is being done. Again, I appreciate everything y'all are doing. I think it's up to council to sit here and go, "Okay, but how are we going to address the other 7%, if you will." Um, I think the number is higher than that, but somehow we've got to be able to address that because it is crushing businesses in those areas. >> So, the I wouldn't say I'm politicizing it. What I'm mentioning is political parties. And I literally just said that I think it is a wonderful day, counselor, when we have someone who is on the other side of the political aisle when we can't even agree on the color of the sky these days across political divisions. I think it is a wonderful moment when we see people of different political parties actually come together and agree on the solutions. As you just heard, our mayor and myself, we we agree on this issue and and what to do with it. And I think we have to name that because if we can create a coalition between the private sector and the public sector, a coalition of people whether they're independents, Republicans or Democrats, that is worth acknowledging and building a coalition to actually address this. And I will go further and sometimes say that yeah, there are moments where people actually are trying to politicize this and try and move us away from the solutions that we know work to give people like a temporary reprieve and a belief that if we just uh if we just go in and force everyone out of a city who's homeless, that will solve it. And we that it doesn't. All it does is move them to Ada or move them to Tulsa. and and that so I would say those are the moments I'm trying to get us to avoid is having a coalition of people who actually across political class whatever divides that are ready to really um hunker down and get to work on the actual solutions here. >> Okay. So, I don't know that we actually have a motion to defer, but we would certainly entertain that if folks are done discussing. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. This is for a two-eek deferral of this particular item. Passes six to three. All right. That's deferred for two weeks. Now we'll move forward to item 8H which had a resident signed up to speak. Wendy Hampton perhaps. Wendy, if you wouldn't mind saying your name and address and keep your remarks to three minutes or less. This is on item ah. >> Yes. Wendy Hampton, executive director of the Western Avenue Association and my address is 3813 East Sora Mill, Edmund, Oklahoma 73034. And um just to recap what you guys were talking about in our specific district, we are having major problems with the homelessness. Um it is affecting our business owners. It is affecting our residents. Um we definitely support you moving forward with approving that funding. I agree with James. Um it's not an increase. It's just to keep it flat the way it is and we definitely need more money because the amount of money we have right now is not affecting anything. We email and call the action center multiple times a week and we haven't seen anyone. I call the police department at least once a week. We don't see anyone. So, if we can have more case workers out there helping remove 90% of them who do want to go to a home, myself and my district agree and we would love for you to approve that. So, that's just my two cents on that. Um, we're also very excited and grateful that the GEO bond passed. Um, thank you for the improvements that we have for our district. So, we're excited about that. U, just some things that we've been working on. Our flagship event is this week, Test of Western. Um, we are focusing on raising money this year for our Route 66 celebration next year. We are going to be the official location for the Centennial Car Show on September 26. So, if you guys want to come out to that, that would be um, appreciative. Um, yeah. So, I'd really just want to say we're thankful for our funds and we hope that you all vote unanimous unanimously to approve. And that's all unless anyone has any questions from me. >> I just want to say you your district was >> literally on my mind when I was saying the words I was because I I've been I've been following. So, thank you. And also, congrats on the bond. I'm so excited. I don't know. I think I've mentioned to you before, you all as a district, the streetscape that you all did inspired me years ago to start thinking about that work for other main streets across W 2. So, just wanted to say I'm grateful for your leadership and your work there. >> Thank you. >> All right, next up is item AS. Councilman Stencip. >> Thank you, your honor. Uh, this is about a preliminary engineering report for Lone Oak Park. Um there is a summary uh on the engineering report and I wanted Debbie Miller to come up. Uh we need one point of clarification concerning the report and I want to I do want to emphasize that this is preliminary. Uh we're going to continue to look at this. This is a beginning stage. And so with that, I'll turn it over to Debbie to clarify that one point. >> Good morning, Mayor and Council. Debbie Miller with the public works department. This is a preliminary report for the Lone Oak Park up at 164th in Portland. Um the preliminary report does show some race platforms to meet the flood plane requirements, but as we move forward with the final plans, we will adjust that alignment to where it'll be an AT grade at the ground level for the trail. >> And then there are several phases as we move forward that will come back to you. You know, I I've mentioned this before and um I'm really excited about Lone Oak Park, but parks take a lot of time and I I talked about Martin Nature Park last week and you know, we acquired the land in 1961, but the park didn't open its doors till 1975. And with this park, we've dealt with uh coverts, Bluff Creek. Um we dealt with FEMA, we've dealt with uh uh roads, we've dealt with roads, whether they're owned by the county or the city, and making those determinations. And so, a lot of work has gone into this. And I want to thank our great parks director, Melinda McMillan Miller. I want to thank Debbie Miller, who does outstanding works uh at public works as our public works director. I want to thank Debbie Martin, Tim Smith, but I especially want to stay thank Estella Hernandez from Senator Langford's office that really helped us when we were dealing with Bluff Creek and some issues with FEMA. So, thanks everybody for getting us to this point. I really appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Next up is Councilman Cooper. You wanted to talk about item AZ. >> Yes. Thank you. Uh, I would just like to hear more about this project. I was pleasantly surprised because I know from the bond we have I44 I'm sorry, I keep went into I44 things today. We have Northwest Expressway and May Avenue from the infamous bridge collapse in 2016 from our We know that our previous bond is going to be replacing that bridge. I was aware of it, but it wasn't until uh my bond representative Lindseay Paver brought to my attention that we're also going to be doing uh this other bridge here uh at I44 and May. And I was wondering if we could hear a little bit more information about it. >> Wait, did I get it right? Yes. AZ, >> good morning. Um this is a project at I44 over May. If you've ever driven north going over I44 on the May Avenue, there's a big bump. And so we are trying to this project will fix that. The approaches, we're actually not replacing that bridge. That would be an ODOT project. But this will take care of that. We'll redo the approaches coming up to the bridge. And if there's any bridge work, we can work with ODOT. The great thing about this project is Senator Bice gave us $2.4 $4 million as a congressionally directed spending program. So, we've been we've known this has been an issue. So, we finally found some funding to help us get that done. >> Neato mosquito. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Now, we have a presentation for item BQ. >> Yes, David Todd will sorry, David Todd will give us an introduction on this item. Uh this is on the youth centers on the preliminary report for the youth centers. So I'll let David take that. >> Morning David Todd Maps program manager. Today we have the preliminary report for the much awaited first maps for youth center. Remember there's four uh in the program. This is the first one and this is the preliminary report. Colin Fleck is here today from Bacus Payne to take you through this great design. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Excited to be here. Um I know that the Thunder Arena was really exciting. I think the youth centers is a little bit more exciting personally, but no offense. Great job, Mr. Manica. Um just wanted to say that we're grateful to be here. Uh we've we've worked with some really great people. There's been a lot of people put effort into this. Um there's a lot of heart in it. um uh Tina Bellick with the Boys and Girls Club, the MAPS office, everyone has really worked well together and uh this is a great culmination of that effort. U so if you all remember from the site selection process back u over the last couple years, we've selected these sites based on uh area of need and this is the first of those four. Uh so this was our objective was to try and instill these safe places for kids to go as an afterchool program and a summer program. I won't uh drag you through all of the different uh program areas. All I wanted to point to is that we've got a full program for this first youth center. So we don't have anything excluded from this program. So the operator should have everything that they need to run the successful youth center at Woodson Park. Just to draw your attention to the project area if you're not familiar. This is at uh Southwest 29th and I44. The west side of the park has already been built out with um soccer fields, baseball fields. The south side of the park recently finished up a year or two ago with the softball field soft uh soccer field combos. And so this site um that has some flood zones on the north side just south of that fire station. So that that box you see there in the middle is generally where we're looking to build. And as we zoom in, you'll see the the existing buildings that are in the northeast corner of this map here are the uh existing in-grade pool and pool building. There's a a basketball gymnasium there in the middle. And then on the east side is the um current Boys and Girls Club. It's just an elementary school program right now. Um it used to be a senior wellness center back in the day. And so what we're planning to do is to keep Southwest 33rd Street as long as we can and to extend off of that. We're trying to reuse as much of this parking as we can uh and reduce new parking. Um so what we are proposing is that we just tie on to the end of that existing Southwest 33rd Street with a roundabout and some new parking. Uh and what we're trying to do is we're trying to spread out these drop off and pickup areas because that's one of the current problems at the Memorial Park facility. they spill out their their traffic lanes onto Western Avenue and it becomes a larger traffic issue. What we like here is that we can pull cars in and we can actually spread them out. We can have a high school drop off pickup area and a a youth uh drop off and pickup area. It is a four-sided building, so we're trying to direct attention to all four sides of this building. Um to the south to the park, back to the east to May, and it's really got great visibility along I 44 as you travel north and south. So, we want to be mindful of that. You'll see over on the west side, we've got a a fenced in soccer field with a file basketball court combo, some playground areas. Um, and so right now, we're just dedicating that space. We're we're trying to see what we can do with getting some of those items in as alternates in our budget. Um, let's see here. We'll go ahead and go into the floor plan. Uh so the first thing that Tina um the the CEO of the Boys and Girls Club told us whenever we first met was that safety and security of the kids was the number one thing that she was concerned with. So I've had that in my head uh from day one. Our whole team has been working to make sure that we keep kids safe uh while they're in this facility. So we are looking at ballistic rated glazing on some of the uh vestibules and we're also making sure that we've got line of sight from the front desk to both of the entries. That is one of the things that the kids like is that that the older kids don't want to be seen walking in with the little kids. And so they've got their own entry there on the east. I don't know if this will work. No. Um so there's an entry on the east to the teen suite and there's an entry on the south for the youth suite and the front desk has really good visibility of both of those. Uh, and both suites are partitioned off from the main lobby, the community space, and the gymnasium, which can be used on the weekends and after hours. And so there there's multiple levels of entry to get to where the kids are actually going to be located. And then we've also got a storm shelter, safe room type of space in the uh where we've got some of the other program areas for inclement weather or active active shooter type situations. Um the western half of this floor plan on the west side of the gymnasium is primarily the youth suite. We've got youth lounges, we've got classrooms, we've got breakout suites, uh we've got a dining hall and kitchen, a dance studio, an art studio, a music studio. The administrative suite has counseling offices, offices for staff, break rooms and workrooms. And then our our community space has a uh a concession stand that can double as a small catering kitchen. we can have community events. That's that yellow block there on the bottom right. And then we've got our double gymnasium in the middle. And so that will serve the kids during the day. And they can host basketball tournaments or other events on the weekend. Um we've got porches and outdoor spaces for the for both sides, the teen and the youth. And then on the western bottom left corner there, you'll see we've got kind of our service entry back of house for the kitchen deliveries and things like that. Uh, another thing that we wanted to to try and do and something that we continue to hear Tina say is we don't want this to look like a like a jail or a prison. We want it to look like a happy place that kids want to go to. We wanted to integrate colors. And this is in the southwest part of town. It's, you know, more of a Hispanic centric culture down there. And so we wanted to play to that a little bit with our color schemes and materials. So, we're we're looking at concrete block and prefinished metal um which helps us with our budget as well. And then we wanted to infuse a little bit of color where we could. So, this is our front elevation of the south entry of the building. And you'll notice that we've got our concrete block. We've got kind of a speckling of different colors of that and textures. And then our our lobby space is actually projected up as a Clare story window with some translucent panels so so that we can bring daylighting into this lobby space and really make it bright and welcoming. You'll see we've got some of the colors that were on that color palette integrated into these frames at the entry. Um and then you'll see the the gymnasium in the back is actually a metal building with a terracotta color uh cladding on it. And we think we've got a really good opportunity for some signage um up on these translucent panels that will actually glow at night as well. And so as we move around the building just at different angles here, you'll notice the different volumes of space and the different u opportunities for integrating color. This is an aerial view from the souththeast. So this is kind of a bird's eye view. And you can see on this side we've got the the youth entry um on the east and this is the primary entrance from southwest 33rd off of May. So all vehicles will come from this approach. And then at night we think we have a good opportunity to let it glow, have the signage opportunity, really be a beacon um at all times of day for the community. And then to the interior, this is that the the lobby space that you'll see that's projected up that's got the translucent panels on it. It's got clear story windows, so it's bringing light in. Um, but it also keeps fewer windows on the ground, opportunities for breakins and and vandalism. So, uh, we're we're looking at some sort of a public art element with either kites or umbrellas or something like that that brings some color to the interiors here. Um, we've got, um, the youth of the year award, uh, wall and views into the gymnasium. Um, so there's a lot of transparency and visibility. And looking back the opposite direction, just more color and and vibrance in this space. And the front desk is the main control point. the gymnasium. Um, we're looking at different colors and textures to try and keep it nice and bright. We want to avoid it feeling sterile. And the the corridors will have um tile and uh rounded corners for durability and cleanability. And then the the youth suites are um large volumes, bright, colorful places for kids to play, different types of activities. We're looking at overhead doors to make some of these rooms expandable and flexible and the dining hall as well. Uh let's see. I think we're going to just go past this is just a recap of the floor plan if anyone has any questions. have been moving kind of quick. >> This is a really exciting day to see phase one with this preliminary report. Um I'm reminded back in 2016, a group of people came together starting to look at these wellness centers and to see these renditions and drawings is is really exciting. And it was people like Peter Deli and Tim Mclofflin and Chief Bill City. And they all dreamt of coming up with these youth centers. and we're starting to see them become a reality reality today. I think one of the neatest things is Tim a few months ago found some of the original notes from these early meetings and he had them blown up and they they hang on my wall in my office and I'm very proud of those. So, thank you for your work and congratulations on getting us to this point. >> Thank you. And and I like I mentioned there's been a lot of people and th just as you point out there there's many years many people putting a lot of effort into this. So it is really exciting. Uh let's see. So we've got uh our budget is uh we've got some different alternates and and base bids. Um, uh, we're looking at a a 13 almost $14 million base bid with a few different alternates that will take us up into the 20 to $21 million range uh, for this project. Right now, our preliminary report we submitted in October and final plans we believe will be done in April with bidding and construction following there in the summer. Um, around a 14 to 18month construction schedule. So, um, you know, we think end of 2027, this first one will be open and, uh, any other questions you all have, I'd be happy to take. >> All right. Thank you all. >> Exciting. Thanks. >> All right. That concludes all presentations and discussions for the consent docket. So, we can now um adopt it in its entirety except for those items previously deferred or passed. And again, I would mention add to that item CC. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Item 10 is the concurrence docket. We have items A through Q we could take with one motion. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Okay. Item 11 are items for individual consideration. Um we have a resident who signed up to just make a statement I guess on all the zoning cases sort of. Maybe we'll start there. Uh Alicia Standifer. If you could state your name and address and keep your remarks to three minutes or less. >> Okay. My name is Alicia Stander. My address is 1413 Tekwood Drive in Norman, Oklahoma. I'm the property manager. I'm sorry. Oh, can y'all hear me now? >> Better. Yeah. >> Okay. Alicia Stander, 13 1413 Takwood Drive in Norman. Um, I'm the property manager for Earth Properties 102 and 110 and Plains Great Plains. I don't remember the name. Sorry, I don't do that one much. Um, I need to see if we can reszone uh 20 Southeast 27th over to residential so they can get an appraisal and get it refinanced for housing. >> So, you're saying you have a >> I'm sorry, >> you're you're an applicant. So, you wrote on here that you wanted to talk all the cases were listed. >> Okay. So, >> which case are you actually here for? So it's A >> um it's A D E through D F and G. So >> B and C my husband is actually working on a property on the same street as that but it is not theirs. So I got them confused. So B and C is not with >> So you're multiple cases. Got it. >> All right. Uh so you are in fact relative to item A on the at the very least. So, uh, Councilwoman Hammond. >> Yeah, these are all pretty straightforward. Just, um, reszoning to single family or residential. Um, so move for approval. >> And so, this will just be on A. We're going have to take them one by one. Right. >> And you're not completely in order, so you're going to come and go, but >> Right. Okay. Sorry. >> Item A for now. We'll see if we can get a motion in a second on that. Okay. Cast your votes. >> Yeah. passes unanimously. Okay. Item 11B is an ordinance on final hearing reszoning 625 East Eubanks from R1 R2. Councilman Pennington. >> Thank you, Mayor. This is a simple um reasonzone case for um taking it from single family to multif family. I'll point out that it is close to um Lincoln and close to our great Homeland grocery store. So, we want more customers to live in the area. So, I'm going to move approval. Have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. All right. Item 11 C is an ordinance on final hearing. Recommended for approval resoning 629 East U Banks from R1 to R3. Back to you, Councilman Pennington. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, same thing, but right next door. I move approval. >> Excuse me. This is a quadplex, but same same motivation. A motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item 11D is an ordinance on final hearing that was recommended for approval reszoning to Southeast 27th from I2 to R1. Councilwoman Hammond, >> I'll move approval. >> Have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item E is an ordinance on final hearing recommended for approval resoning 17 Southeast 27th from I2 to R1. Councilwoman Hammond, >> I'll move approval. Have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. 11F is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval reszoning 27 Southeast 27s from I2 to R1. and Councilwoman Hammond. >> I'll move approval. >> Have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. 11G is an ordinance on final hearing recommended for approval resoning 34 Southeast 27 from I2 to R1. Councilwoman Hammond. >> I'll move approval. >> Have a motion, a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. I think that's all your cases. Thank you. >> Okay. 11H is an ordinance on final hearing recommended for approval reszoning 1325 East Road from PUD 1443 to PUD 1529. Councilman Pennington. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, this is adding some great new housing to our community in W 7 and I move approval. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Uh item I was previously deferred which brings us to item J. This is an ordinance on final hearing recommended for approval. Reszoning 12635 North Morgan from double A to PUD2091. Councilman Carter. Thank you, mayor. Anyone sign up to speak? >> They have not. >> Okay. I met with the uh de developers representative and we are moving for approval. Have a motion, a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Uh item K is an ordinance on final hearing recommended for approval reszoning 16901 North Portland from PUD 737 to PUD2093. Councilman Stone Cipher. >> Amy, any protest? >> No. >> I'd move for approval at this time. >> A motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. 11 L uh is an ordinance on final hearing recommended for approval reszoning 1404 Northwest 22nd from R1 and PUD 393 to PUD 2095. There's also an amendment to the master design statement. Uh Councilman Pennington. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um once again supporting some more housing being built in our community in W 7. I move approval >> and I'm going to assume that is a motion for the amendment. >> Oh, excuse me. A motion. Let me move the amendment first to move approval of the amendment. Excuse me. Try again on that. We have a motion and a second for the amendment found at L1. Uh cast your votes. passes unanimously. And now we'll take up the ordinance found at L2. >> And I move approval of the um item. >> Motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item M1 uh is an amendment to the master design statement that relates to item M2 which is an ordinance on final hearing recommended for approval reszoning 3223 Northwest 178 from PUD 1891 SPD 1705. This item was deferred several times previously. Uh Councilman Stone Cipher. >> Thank you. I think we first need to move for the amendment. Is that correct David? Good morning, David Box, 525 Northwest 11th Street. So, on this one, um, we need to amend the amendment to add the word evergreen and then make clear that the version being adopted is the October 17th version of the SPUD, which added those words uh, regarding the evergreen trees, which is very important to the neighbors to the south. >> That's my motion. All right, that's so we'll amendment to the amendment. Okay, as stated, let's see if we can pick that up electronically. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. >> I did want to thank mayor, if it's okay, um Barbie Taylor from Rose Creek who was instrumental in moving this forward. Uh her father was former mayor Guy Leeman and she was a big help. Thank you. >> All right. So now we need to move the amendment as amended. >> Yes. >> M1. All right. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. And now we're on M2. The ordinance. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. >> Thank you. Passes unanimously. Item N is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval reszoning 10203 Northwest 10th from R1 to SPUD1746. Um, and we do have someone signed up to speak, Councilman Carter, but I do not know their position on the matter. Okay, let's listen to them. >> All right, James Macy. >> James Macy. >> Okay, guess they're not here. >> You're more than welcome to. I guess I don't know that it's needed. >> Are you for the applicant? >> Uh, yes. Jessica Boy with Johnson Associates representing the applicant Wy Sheridan. I'm happy to answer any questions. I know there were several protests on this one, so I just wanted to come. Actually, I was just going to say thank you to Johnson Associates and Mark. I know he's on his honeymoon right now, but for working with the the residents as well as the developer and the developer willing to make some of the concessions that they did. Um, I know we're not going to make everybody happy in this one, but at this moment, we will move for approval. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Uh item O is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval resoning 2308 North Florida from R1 and UC to SPUD 1764. Councilwoman Hammond. >> Yes. This is um just two new uh dwellings on empty lots in the Gatewood neighborhood. So I will move approval. Have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item P is an ordinance on final hearing that was recommended for approval reszoning 14809 Southeast 149th from double A to SPD 1770. Uh, Councilman Stone. >> Thank you, Mayor. This is a small commercial area going in off Southeast 149th. Recommended for approval with no protest. So I will move for its approval. Have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item Q is an ordinance on final hearing. was recommended for approval reszoning 2620 South Mustang from double A to SPD 1771. Councilwoman Aers approve A motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item 11 R is an ordinance on final hearing that was recommended for approval at 10003 South Penn going from C3 and SR OD to SPD 1772. Councilwoman Hammond, >> I'll move approval. >> We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Item 11 S is an ordinance on final hearing recommended for approval closing a portion of the East West right ofway at Northeast 115th east of Eer. Uh, Councilman Pennington. >> Thank you, Mayor. Pretty simple. Just closing the right of way has full support of the planning commission. I move approval. Quick hands. >> Motion. Motion and a second. Cast your votes. >> Passes unanimously. Item T is an ordinance on final hearing. Closing 50 ft of the 20 foot East West Alley in block one of Epworth Edition, etc. Uh, Councilman Cooper. >> Yes. This is just an Oh, almost. There we go. Yeah, this is an item that um it's actually going to if you look at that, there's already a new development there. Um and so this is just to help with the parking a little bit. So I would move for approval. A motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item U is an ordinance on final hearing recommended for approval closing a portion of the east west alley in block one of Lindley's addition uh etc. Councilwoman Hammond. >> I'll move approval. >> Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. >> Are you going to go? >> Passes unanimously. Item B is an ordinance on finally hearing closing a portion of the north south utility easement on lot 10 and block 10 of Abbott Lake etc. Councilman Stone. Uh thank you. Yep. It's a 5 by 30 foot. And I'll move for its approval. Have a motion to second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Item W is an ordinance on final hearing that was recommended for denial uh reszoning 12516 Roberts Road from double A to SPD 173. There is uh enough protests here that if a motion were made to approve that would require a supermajority. Councilman Pennington. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um I think we're getting ready to hear from the applicant about a motion to defer. So >> uh yes uh Mason Schwarz 522 call core drive on behalf of the applicant. We are asking for um a twoe continuence. Uh this case is involves our client the seller uh has a property under contract for a buyer. Um so the buyer is actively involved in any revisions to the spud. Um a large p portion of the protesters are represented by Mr. Kelly Work who's here. Um Mr. Kelly work representing yesterday that he does not have a problem with the continuence. um we are working through active negotiations revisions on the SPUD document hopeful we can come to something that will at least satisfy his group in the next two weeks if possible. So we would ask for the continuence until I believe it is November 4th. >> Thank you. I'm going to move that we continue this item till the November 4th meeting of the council. >> Okay. There's a motion to defer with a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. >> Thank you. >> Item X uh is public hearing. Item X1 is the public hearing regarding the Western Avenue Business Improvement District. Uh Amy, has anyone signed up to speak? >> No, they haven't. >> They have not. So, we'll advance the resolution found at X2 adopting and confirming an assessment role for the Western Avenue Business Improvement District. Have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Item Y is related. It's an ordinance on final hearing adopting and setting the assessment role for the Western Avenue Business Improvement District. There's no presentation. We can take a motion. Motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item Z is an ordinance on final hearing uh relating to parks. This is the second of two meetings. There was a presentation at the previous meeting. This is the ordinance you may recall codifying uh our golf commission which had previously been existed only through an agreement with between city and PPA. This will make it a little more official after all these years. So, if there's no discussion or questions, we could take a motion to adopt this ordinance. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Okay. Double A1. Uh, this is a public hearing regarding the dilapidated structures here listed. Amy, has anyone sent to speak? >> No, they haven't. >> They have not. So, we'll advance to the resolution declaring structures are dilapidated found at A2. Have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. AB1 is a public hearing regarding unsecured structures here listed. Uh Amy, has anyone time to speak? >> No, they haven't. They >> have not. So, we'll advance to the resolution found at AB2 declaring structures are unsecured. We have a motion to second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. AC1 is a public hearing regarding the abandoned buildings here listed. Uh Amy, isn't anyone to speak? >> No, they haven't. >> They have not. And so we'll advance to the resolution found at AC2 declaring the buildings are abandoned. A motion in a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. AD1 is our second public hearing regarding amending the June 18th, 2024 resolution approving certain fire and uh other sales tax expenditures. Amy, has anyone signed to speak? >> No, they haven't. >> We have not. And so we have the resolution at AD2 uh amending the June 18th, 2024 resolution regarding fire expenditures. This is the second of two meetings on this topic. I believe we had a little bit of a presentation last time. There's a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Uh okay. AE is a resolution receiving an amendment to the comp plan. And I believe we have a presentation. >> Jeff Butler, our planning director, give us a quick update on um this proposed item. Uh thank you. Um yeah, I'll take you through a a few slides briefly, but mainly this is intended to uh just update the comp plan. Uh I've described it as a minor update. Uh we've got several maps that will be updating um some information in the back of the plan that's meant to be designed for kind of a um some some data that is uh helps us to remain accountable and see how we're doing. Um, so the the maps relate mainly to waterlines and so forth. Um, here we go. There we go. I'll skip to those. Um so we uh to begin with we've got a couple of um areas that we have that the planning commission u decided to bring into the urban low area which is kind of this this area in the northwest of the city. There's a lot of water and sewer expansion utilities are expanding as the de demand for residential development grows. Uh so there's a couple um you can see kind of in the middle slide there a couple additions that are now uh in a situation that can be suburban uh developed at a suburban density. Uh we eliminated uh there were when we originally did the comprehensive plan back in 2015 uh we weren't as far along now as we are with transit planning. So, uh, we've removed a few, um, these red circles that you see. We've removed a few areas that had previously been indicated as, uh, transit oriented development, uh, centers. Um, as the city grows, we can certainly expand, um, and we'll be planning additional transit as the decades roll by. Uh, but now that we have a much better, uh, idea of what's going on and what will be going on, uh, we decided to remove these just to reflect better what our current reality is. Um, we also uh added a an uh with the megasite annexation on the southwest of the city, we've given it an appropriate designation. Uh, that doesn't automatically happen when we bring in a piece of land. So, we needed to do that as part of the comprehensive plan amendment. Uh, and here are the maps that I mentioned earlier. Uh, as our sewer and water systems expand, we like to keep those maps updated in the comprehensive plan. Um, so there's uh you can kind of see uh just a gradual uh change as we expand a little bit. And finally, emergency services. As we add, uh fire stations, we're able to serve a little bit a larger area. So you see some of the stations and um we uh we have notably in the northwest where we're going to have a new station. So we're seeing that uh expanded coverage area there. Uh we expect as we add more stations uh now that 2025 bond has been approved that we will uh see even more coverage uh in the future. And we've also updated some environmentally sensitive area maps uh made some minor adjustments there. And finally here are the uh the tables that I mentioned earlier uh where we kind of track how we're doing. there's some uh indicators, data indicators so that people can see how we've done over the past five years or so and we continue to update those every so often. Um and uh with that I'll take any questions. >> Thank you. >> Thanks Jeff. >> Thanks Jeeoff. All right, we can take up the resolution then found at AE. We have a motion in a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Uh now we have three executive sessions. We'll take the votes on each one to go into executive session and then we'll handle them at the end of our other business. First up is AF. This is regarding Gallow B. City of OKC. Motion a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item AG is an executive session on uh McGuffy v Progressive parking, city of OKC, etc. Motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Ah is an executive session. Um, in the case of lock supply vcot. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. 11 A1 uh I'm sorry. AI one are claims recommended for denial. Executive session is not requested. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item 11 AJ1 are claims recommended for approval. Executive session is not requested. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Uh that concludes votes for today. Item 12 are comments from council. Ward one. W two. Yes. Thank you, mayor. Uh city clerk. Yes. Thank you. Cool. Uh, I wanted to extend my gratitude to city staff who uh made possible this moment where we installed and I'll enlarge the photo here. We installed a plaque uh at the new multi-use trail uh on Northwest 30th Street uh in along Shepard neighborhood. Uh the folk you see in this photo, Ryan Marshall lives in Cleveland neighborhood. he advocated for for this trail. Uh but there are some other familiar faces I'm guessing for some of you with longer memories. Uh you'll see April uh and Samantha who are uh the daughters of Sam Bowman who's my predecessor in Ward 2. He served on city council. You'll see Jane Wheeler who was uh Sam's partner. And uh we installed this plaque because councelor uh Bowman was the first city councelor since World War II to advocate for sidewalk funding. We had not built sidewalks in the city since World War II. Um in fact, we stopped requiring the building of those sidewalks. And uh before Sam passed away a couple years ago, Debbie Martin in our council office actually found Sam's final letter, his resignation letter, where he walked us through that history. And so MAPS 3 is the first sidewalk funding that the city has had since World War II. And he also advocated not only for that funding, but for a sidewalk master plan. And so now this plaque exists in this multi-use trail honoring that history. Um, this trail will connect to sidewalks to the west at May Avenue where you'll find Northwest Classen High School. So, students will now have an access instead of walking on 30th, which we've seen students do, or walking in a ride of way so close to traffic with no sidewalks, that's now going to be something they'll have access to. Cleveland neighbors asked all the time about access to Suadic Park and they didn't have it. And the way Ryan tells it is a lot of the residents, their families, they they do not go to Swadik because they did not have that connectivity. This connectivity here gets them also to a new uh new sidewalks on Villa that go all the way down to about General Persing and a new bike uh protected bike path there too. Uh and then these sidewalks continue to the east to Pennsylvania and then go all the way down uh into the Asian district and um ultimately the PO. So it was really an honor to honor um my predecessor and it was wonderful to see uh Sam's family there. Um we can remove this. Thank you so much and really thank you to Director Miller uh and her team for helping make this possible. Shemica uh Smith, Mike Clark, uh Justin and um Justin Henry and Max uh Harris over in planning as well. Um couple more comments if I might uh honored to do this work. I'm largely uh reflecting I I find myself as my mother as one of the biggest Thunder fans. She's very excited. She disconnected her cable and she was really worried that she was not going to be able to watch some of the local channels and see the games, but bless her heart, she uh actually found uh an antenna to put on her TV and she texted me earlier this morning. She's like, "You'd be so proud of me. I'm I'm going to be able to watch the Thunder on NBC tonight." And so she's she's uh she's ready for for the game. I I think I see the mayor's got a Is that some sort of thunder swag? Okay. All right. I had a feeling that was what was happening over there. Uh, but I actually mention my mother not just because she's arguably the city's biggest Thunder fan, but I mention her because in W 2, uh, about a week ago, um, Cisu Youth asked me to come to Pony Boy, uh, which is of course a reference to, uh, The Outsiders. And, um, it was on National Coming Out Day. and National Coming Out Day um exists within LGBT history month which we are in right now. And as the first openly um gay council member um I always think about one of the first openly gay elected officials and that's Harvey Mil. And when I think of the sidewalk, the multi-use trail, I always think of this quote from Harvey Mil who fell victim to an assassin's bullet. um when he was elected in the 1970s, but this was the quote and it just guides me and I think of that that new infrastructure all the time. He says, "Let's make no mistake about this. The American dream starts with the neighborhoods. If we wish to rebuild our cities, we must first rebuild our neighborhoods. And to do that, we must understand that the quality of life is more important than the standard of living. To sit on the front steps, whether it's a veranda in a small town or a concrete stoop in a big city, and to talk with our neighbors in our neighborhoods, is infinitely more important than to huddle on the living room lounger and watch a makebelieve world and not quite living color. In Sam's final letter, his ask for us to invest in sidewalks was an argument he said based in quality of life. He said he was ready for MAPS to start investing not just in big projects but truly in our residents quality of life. And so that is really heavy on my mind because of National Coming Out Day. Uh when my mother when I came out to her when I was 19 in 2001 uh she said I know and I love you. I know and I love you. And I'm guessing she was so ready to do that because she knew the history of discrimination and violence. And I just want to read uh one of the scariest stories I've ever heard. Um when I saw Stephen King's It as a TV movie back in 1990, I was 8 years old growing up in Midwest City. Uh and I didn't know at the time that a real life 1984 Bangor, Maine, uh murder of a gay man inspired one of the novel's scariest scenes. Uh, in real life, walking home arm in-armm, 23-year-old Charlie Howard and his boyfriend saw a car stop near them. 15-year-old Jim exited and he confronted Charlie. "Are you gay?" Jim asked. Then with two friends, Jim attacked Charlie, throwing him from the town's Main Street Bridge during a festival celebrating July 4th and the anniversary of Banggar's founding. Asthmatic Charlie drowned. King lived in Bangor and with his novel It, he recreates Charlie's story with Charlie now a gay character named Adrien who is killed in front of his boyfriend. It 1990 TV adaptation premiered without this scene. Back then, being gay was illegal in most states, punishable in Oklahoma with a 10-year imprisonment until a 2003 United States Supreme Court decision ruled such laws unconstitutional. My mother accepted me judgmentfree two years earlier because she knew the real danger to my body out there. But she also knew that the laws were not on my side and that this was the consequence facing me. I say that during LGBT history month because we must always remember where we've come from to celebrate where we are now. And that is in a much more accepting city, a much safer city. Whether it's the new sidewalks we're putting in that keep our neighborhoods safer and our residents safer. Whether it is the acceptance and the nonjudgment that we bring to residents regardless of whom they love. Unfortunately though, we have some statistics. I call them the 40s here that I would like to bring to bear. Going back to homelessness, uh, LGBT youth make up 40% of youth homelessness. And they make up 40% of youth homelessness because too many of our kids, whether they live in Ada or Oklahoma City, unfortunately, don't have a Mama Cooper. They don't have the mother or the father who says to them, "I know and I love you, and now let's watch the thunder." And so they run away. They run away and the city had not built the youth centers you saw in the presentations earlier today. There's no place for them to go. Unfortunately then then that leads and this is especially true for our transgender residents who we know from data are likely to report 40% of them have attempted to take their own lives. 40% of our transgender residents though they make up about 1% of the population. Um these numbers of when it comes to poverty are even higher amongst our transgender neighbors. If you are transgender and Latino, you are 48% more likely to experience poverty. If you are transgender and black, you are 39% more likely to experience poverty. Um, if you are LGBTQ, you uh make up in the workforce, you are more likely to work in retail, in hospitality, and not have access to healthcare. So these are the statistics, the real statistics when it comes to can you get a job, can you provide for yourself and pay the rent and the mortgage? And unfortunately, a history of discrimination, a history that said that queer people belong in prison, that they weren't human, that they weren't a part of the American dream in our neighborhoods. We have to acknowledge that history if we're going to move forward and actually address this data. And I think LGBT history month is the moment to do it. And for any parent out there who's struggling with how do you talk to your child, I have a mama Cooper who is ready to talk to you about it. I have a Mama Cooper who's also ready to talk to you about every thunder stat you could ever want to know. And I just want to say to her publicly today during LGBT history month how grateful I am that I get to share her story. um the story of someone who dropped out of school in the seventh grade and then picked herself back up and became a registered nurse. Um I'm just so grateful that someone like she exists in this city. And to anyone who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender out there, please hear my mother's love and non-judgment and carry it in your heart when those voices tell you you are not worthy of love because you are. And you need to hear that not just in LGBTQ history month, you need to hear that every day of every month because it is true. So, thank you for letting me share that. That was the message I shared at Pony Boy in W 2 and is the message I'm happy to bring here today uh to city council. >> Thank you. W three, W four, W five, W six, W seven, W eight. Just briefly, uh, hats off to airport director Jeff Moulder. Uh, he announced Friday that we have a new direct flight from Oklahoma City to Cancun, Mexico. Um, it there's a ribbon cutting at 6:30 a.m. The flight boards at 8:30 a.m. Uh, I want to thank American Airlines uh for this direct flight because I think direct flights are imperative and and much needed for the success and growth of this city. So, thank you American Airlines for this direct flight. >> Yeah, big deal. first international flight in modern times. All right, that concludes comments from council, which brings us to item 13, citizens to be heard. Uh Ronnie Kirk, my name is Ronnie Kirk. My address is 2328 North Missouri. Friday, I explained to the I was on the radio talk show and I explained to the people about the the bills passing. Most of the things that were offered has already been done to the northeast side of town. the bike trails, the walking trails, the park areas, the street pavs, the addition to Douglas High School, the addition to our library. It's been done three months ago. They still working on Douglas today. Most of the streets in Capitol Hill is already paved and they're over there paving more right now. The infrastructure that's good. When you cross Bryant, you go down to Sona Road, you can look on both sides of the street. They're putting us driveways in as we speak. It's not something they f to start doing. It's something they already have been doing. They put the water them. A lot of people don't know when they see them orange and red and blue pipes on side of the street. They don't tear your yard up no more. They putting that stuff underground. And most of that stuff is already finished. Now when it come to this cloop bridge, it's a special word used. Let me think for a second. It's not Clar Loopa bridge was built 50 years ago. When they build bridges, they bridge them to last 75 years. So that the word is enhancement. We need that enhancement for Cloopa Bridge. Trim those trees. Brighten the lights around it. Paint that bridge. That's what I come down to say today. That part of this bill. Hope it don't take another 10 years. We got the money today. I want to say thank y'all today. So, let's get working on that. It's not much to ask. You probably send a crew out there within a week and have that done. Thank you. >> Thank you, Adele Marie Alex. I have you to state your name and address and keep your remarks for 3 minutes or less. >> Good morning. My name is Adele Maria Leaks. I'm a senior at Oklahoma City University, a student organizer, a journalist, and a proud lesbian. Speaking of lesbians, I actually saw you, Mayor Holt, at the Indigo Girls concert on Saturday night. You were seated right behind me the whole time. I watched as you spoke on stage and I listened as the Indigo Girls thanked you. They said, "This is what happens when a city invests in its people." Investing in your people is not just about funding or infrastructure. It's about having the courage of your convictions. It means ensuring that trans and queer residents of this city are not treated as expendable. I've heard different stories about Mayor Hull and this council. Some describe you as an ally to the queer community. And others say you hesitate when it matters most. But allyship is not measured by pride parades or public gestures. It's measured by action. What you do when the vulnerable are under attack. Which brings me to Paula, our former director of counseling services at OCU, where you, Mayor Hol, serve as dean of the law school. Paula is a transgender woman, but most importantly, she is a cherished member of this community. She built a safe haven where OCU's students knew they were seen and supported. Paula's firing came after she exercised her right to free speech in a post about Charlie Kirk, a person who had actively targeted our community, calling us a social contagion. Speaking out about oppression should never be grounds for losing one's livelihood. And yet, that is exactly what happened on your watch. Clients learned of the termination in an email claiming she had left her position, which implies consent. There was no transition plan for these clients, no effort to ensure continuity of care, placing countless individuals directly at risk. And this termination came without policybased justification. I've done my due diligence. I organized a petition advocating for Paula, which so far has gathered over a thousand signatures from the community and everyone at OCU. I communicated respectfully with President Kenneth Evans and his office. Yet, despite seven email exchanges and repeated attempts to schedule a meeting, the administration has now fallen silent. Mayor Hull, on Saturday night, you stood behind myself and a group of young queer OKC residents, soaking up applause for having invested in your people. Does your investment include your trans residents, your queer residents, your students whose descent has been met with silence? To every member of the council here today, this is your moment to act with integrity, to demonstrate that Oklahoma City's commitment to inclusion is authentic. >> 30 seconds remaining. >> Mayor Hol, prove to us that your oath carries weight. Prove to us that we can believe in the story of a man who's an ally to the queer community. Prove to us that this city truly invests in all its people. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Samuel Terry. Mr. Terry, if you would state your name and address and keep your remarks to three minutes. >> My name is Samuel Terry. My address is 113000 North Lee Avenue, Oklahoma City. Uh, I can't talk as fast as she did uh because I'm a Vietnam veteran and I suffer from PTSD. So, I'll try to put the burden back on the city like it's been. I was up here in two Well, I bought my land in 2000. Uh anyway, I bought my land and uh I was here before the council because of the same issue that I'm here for now. Uh the and the uh the uh uh the gentleman that was here uh at the time, Charles Lock, I went before the committee. uh it was uh December it well my note says it's December 15, 2016 and he said that uh as a result of me coming before the council and as a results of the issues that were at hand that the city would uh remove the charge of the uh that the county had placed for removing the grass and everything. Okay. My my problem is is that the burden of proof was on me when the city code enforcement. I don't have any problem with the code enforcement people. But the thing is is that this issue has already been discussed and I have already been relieved. No, I haven't tested I haven't touched the area since the city has already said that they were being liable for it. But my issue is is that because the city is not doing their due diligence in keeping records, how they're putting the the burden back on me. And that's not fair. That is not fair. So I hope I don't know if the city the the uh whatever the uh the Anyway, any questions? We we can have a staff member talk to you after the meeting and get the information on the property and what the issues are. >> Okay. >> All right. >> All right. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Thank you. That concludes citizens to be heard. Uh we're now going to go do those three executive sessions and then we'll come back. And that brings us to item 14, adjournment. We are journed.