Kansas City Council Business Session – October 14, 2021: Snow Plan, Violence Prevention Update, Ordinance Introductions
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Kansas City Council Business Session – October 14, 2021
The meeting began with approval of minutes, followed by a presentation on the city's snow plan for the 2021-2022 winter season from Public Works Director Michael Shaw and Deputy Director Forrest Ecker. Council then received an update on the Blueprint for Violence Prevention from Councilwoman Robinson, Councilwoman Parkshaw, and Health Department officials. The session concluded with introductions of ordinances by Council members.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes (September 30, 2021 Business Session): Motion passed unanimously by voice vote.
Discussion Items
- Snow Plan Presentation: Director Shaw outlined the city's five-stage snow response, covering arterial (37 routes, 2,700 lane miles) and residential (66 routes, 3,300 lane miles) plowing. The city has 296 trucks available (up from ~200 last year), 40,000 tons of salt in storage (plus 10,000 tons on order), 20,000 gallons of calcium chloride, and 1,200 tons of ice band salt. Last winter, 27,000 tons of salt, 1,100 gallons of ice band were used; crews drove over 340,000 miles and logged 56,000 hours. Successes included 50 new plows, 100 additional drivers, 24-hour residential plowing for stage 4/5 events, and a 5% increase in citizen satisfaction. Lessons learned emphasized communication, staff training, technology (tablets for routing), and better salting strategies. Councilwoman Boo asked about bike lane plowing (parks department has specialized equipment, plowed on a secondary schedule). Councilwoman Robinson requested performance metrics (response times) and public communication updates (city communications on daily calls). Councilman Fowler volunteered for plow training with other council members.
- Blueprint for Violence Prevention Update: Dr. Jones and Councilwoman Robinson reported on the implementation of 24 local government recommendations: 6 completed, 8 in progress, 4 not started, 1 abandoned due to state preemption. Completed items included Quality of Life Investment District (QLID) for 38 parks in low life-expectancy zip codes, expanded bulky item pickup (new ordinance forthcoming), and concentration of alcohol establishment reforms (Chapter 10 reform led by Councilwoman Boo). Key updates: Aim for Peace outreach team remains disbanded pending new funding; hospital response team operates but future funding uncertain; Community Capital Fund partnership delivered 282 hours of class training, 105 hours of technical assistance, 26 participants, and 12 new registered businesses. A summer program with youth (COGO Kids, Lyrics Institute, etc.) showed improvements in resilience (self-awareness, empathy). The 1% for Violence Prevention resolution passed in January 2021; the city manager is developing a fund development strategy. Next steps include collaborative discussions with the Board of Police Commissioners as recommended by the KC Chamber and Civic Council, and council members taking ownership of specific strategies.
Key Outcomes
- Snow Plan: Councilman Fowler and others volunteered for snow plow training. Councilwoman Robinson requested a report on response times and complaint resolution. Director Shaw noted that trash and recycling will be suspended during stage 5 events to free up personnel.
- Violence Prevention: Councilman Allen criticized the city manager for not filling a previously approved grant writer position in the Office of Citizen Engagement, emphasizing the need to hire to expand DOJ and other grant opportunities. Councilwoman Robinson and Parkshaw will contact colleagues to assign leadership for remaining strategies.
- Ordinances Introduced: Councilman Allen announced an ordinance restricting collection of personal information (e.g., sexual orientation, health status) for entering public buildings; it will be referred to the Transportation, Infrastructure & Public Safety (TIPS) committee. Councilwoman Shields introduced an ordinance adopting an asset management policy for the Public Works department, prepared too late for the printed docket; it will go to committee without discussion.
Meeting Transcript
I got that coming for me. All right. Should be enough. I think we're good. Three. Six and seven. Welcome to business session. Our first item is approval of minutes for business session of September 30, 2021. Is there a motion? So moved. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor of approving minutes from business session of September 30. Indicate by saying I. Aye. Aye. All opposed. The motion passes. The next item. This used to just be in the Transportation Infrastructure Committee, but we decided to make it go big. And it is our snow plan presentation. As temperatures are getting a little cooler, it's something that we always get excited to discuss. So I believe Director Shaw or others, once they're available, or are here for the discussion. Or Mr. Decker. We'll also note today Councilman Allenton has a new legislative aide, this young man on the game boy, who's really into the game boy. He doesn't even know I'm talking about him. Alright. Go ahead, gentlemen. Good afternoon, uh mayor and council. Uh Michael Shaw, Director of Public Works, and also have with me. Oh, Deputy Director Forrest Ecker. Um, so what we came here to talk a little bit about is snow. Um, we know that um the old ad is not preparing for preparing to fail. And so we're we're here to talk today about being prepared for um the snow season that's uh only unfortunately a little bit away. So um we want to talk a little bit about our snow plan, what a snow process is, what we've done, what we learned from last year, and then what we're gonna be doing going forward. So that's kind of what the overview is. So next slide. Um so our snow prep the overview is this we have two basically two things that we plow is the arterial streets and the residential streets. Um not gonna read everything there, but you should have the presentation in front of you. But on the arterial programs is where we use our big dump trucks, they have 10 foot plows, and we have um uh salt with all of those. We currently we run those 24 hours a day, keep the major streets and collectors clear, and we have 37 plow routes, and we do about 2700 lane miles when we do that. On the residential program, we have smaller trucks, the pickup trucks, it's about seven and a half foot. The plows are about seven and a half foot wide, a little smaller plows to get in a residential neighborhood. We have sixty-six of those routes. We do about thirty-three hundred miles of that. And we do the daytime and night time, and we'll talk a little bit about when we uh we'll switch between day and night. Um go ahead. So the next is we have essentially five stages of our plow operation. So stage one is when we have a forecast where the weather or the precipitation or humidity gets uh at or around freezing or below freezing, and uh it creates creates what we call bridge frost or you know, some type of icy conditions over bridges and overpasses. So we actually send people out to go and salt those locations in order to ensure that people can travel through those without you know sliding and having accidents.
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