Welcome to business session.

Our first item is approval of minutes for business session of August 14th, 2025.

Is there a motion?

Oh, May.

Second.

It's been moved in second.

All in favor in the case by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Resolution.

Motion passes.

Resident Satisfaction Survey.

Here to hear.

All right.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council, and City Manager.

Andy Sexteen or Deputy Director for Neighborhood Services Department.

I'm here with Alex Atoli, our chief data officer.

We'll be presenting our 2024-25 resident satisfaction survey.

Thank you.

So I will go through the 2024-2025 survey report.

These are results of the data that was collected from the month of May 2024 to June 2025.

So that's the data that I'm going to present.

But I would say that the way I'm going to present these results is I'm going to go through the executive summary methods overview, and then I will skip on to the charts which will be on satisfaction rates for major categories of city services.

So that's the way I will do the presentation.

So in terms of the methods that were used, again, this is a survey that was conducted by ETC through May 2024 to June to 2025.

For these results here, we are looking at 4,05 surveys that were completed.

Again, we see they had a randomly selected 9,000 households.

So these results here, they should have a precision for citywide on a citywide rating of plus or minus 5%.

And then just to make sure that we can get valid uh data.

And at the very bottom, we still have uh maintenance uh of streets, sidewalks, and infrastructure uh with uh a rating of uh 18.3.

So it's very important when we look at these results that uh what we need to remember is to look at uh low satisfaction and very high importance because that's what will help us to identify uh high uh areas of priorities.

So uh in terms of the trends, uh we can see that in this case, this is more like a heat map, if you would call it, uh, where the green uh shows uh high rates and the rate uh indicate uh areas with uh low ratings.

So we can still see that uh there are some uh areas where we still have uh consistently uh low ratings, as you can see uh at the very bottom, which is um the uh sidewalks, uh infrastructure, uh, and then step storm water, they are the ones at the uh very bottom.

We started collecting uh housing data in 2024, 2025.

So you see where it says NA, it means those questions were not asked in that uh particular fiscal year.

Uh we also see on the same heat map, uh, if you look at police services, for example, uh it's one of those services that uh has been consistently decreasing.

I think if you look at it starting from 2015 uh 16 uh results.

But overall, if we go to the next page, what we see is uh there is uh a tremendous change uh in terms of uh in terms of our trends, uh the 2024, 2025 results compared to 2023.

The 2024-2025 results compared to 2023, we can see that that's the last column that we have, which is written as change from the 2023-2024.

They are mostly positive.

Even the ones that are still negative.

Compare that to the 2023-2024, we see that the decrease is declining, which shows that there is an improvement overall.

So consistently, Kansas City has been scoring way above compared to the national uh national average.

Looking at the perceptions uh of Kansas City, Missouri as a community, we also see that uh there are two areas at the very bottom there, value received for city tax dollars and fees, and overall feeling of safety in the city, those are the ones that are uh we can see consistently red, which means they are consistently low.

Uh again, if we look at the changes, we can see that the 2023-24 compare 2025, uh 2024-2025 compared to 2023-2024, we see the there are positive changes.

That means there is uh an improvement.

Uh looking at the overall ratings of uh Kansas City in terms of a place to live, a place to work, a place to raise children, we see that again there is one at the very bottom, which is a place to raise children consistently, low.

Overall, we can say that a place to raise children went up three points.

Uh, and the other one, which is the place to work, this one we can't tell because it's within the margin of error of plus or minus 5%.

Uh, a slight decrease, we can see a decrease again uh for uh as a place to live.

But if we compare to the 2019-2020, we see that there was a 12.5% decrease, but it uh we are moving to a negative 2.4, so that's an improvement again that we uh that we are observing.

Then we move on to the residence priorities.

Uh overall, we also see in this case, just as we have as we have observed in the first slide that uh maintenance of street sidewalks and infrastructure had the lowest rating, but uh very high importance.

So in this case, it tops the list maintenance of streets, sidewalks and infrastructure, and then followed by uh quality of police services uh and housing services.

Those are high priority areas.

Uh and then we now look at uh police services here.

We can see that these are all high priorities, but at the very top at the very top, we see that crime prevention response times, again they top the priorities for police services.

Uh for fire and medical uh services, uh we also see a high priorities, but again, response time uh is uh at the very top.

Again, that's uh a top priority for fire and uh emergent services.

On the uh papers that have been printed, uh it says crime rate times, something like that.

It should be response times as shown on the screen.

Uh that was a typo.

Uh sidewalks, uh street uh six streets and infrastructure on the top again of the priority list, we have got maintenance of street and maintenance of streets in your neighborhood, conditions of sidewalks, those top uh the list uh of uh services uh where residents think uh there is more attention uh to be given.

Um neighborhood services, uh we see that enforcing uh clean up of threshold debris uh on private property and demolishing vacant properties.

Again, those are the ones that top uh very uh high priority uh list, and then we have other things like uh mowing and cutting weeds on private uh property coming down the list.

uh services uh where residents think uh there is more attention uh to be given um neighborhood services uh we see that enforcing uh clean up of threshold debris uh on private property and demolishing vacant properties again those are the ones that top uh very uh high priority uh list and then we have other things like uh mowing and cutting weeds on private uh property coming down the list um then we look at uh municipal court services um when we rated this on the IS call again we notice that uh everything uh just falls on very high priority level ability to be fair and uh impartial also is the of online ticket payment uh information system uh environmental and sustainability uh services uh on the top list pollution prevention programs they top the list uh water quality and lats and streams um those are the uh top uh priorities but we also have high priorities there like energy efficiency climate actions initiatives by the city three canopy uh solid uh waste services uh on the top list very high priority cleanliness of uh city streets and other public areas and then we have uh city efforts to clean up uh illegal dumping sites uh those are the two top list for solid waste services I will move on to parks and recreation uh on parks and recreation we have high priority area street trimming along city streets and other public areas and we also have the city youth programs and adult uh programs and activities those are the ones that are on the top of the list um on airport services availability of parking tops the list followed by easy of moving through airport security so what we see here from the data that we have gone through uh there are some uh takeaways uh in this case we see there are some areas that uh still require agent investment we see that infrastructure maintenance uh is at the very top we notice that 18% are satisfied with streets and sidewalks public safety comes second again concerns about crime prevention traffic enforcement response times they are on the second list on the third list we have housing quality uh we had a 29% satisfaction we see the need for affordable housing I think these are the major points that I wanted to drive on the last here the last slide uh this is simply where you can find all the information about all the uh uh resident surveys they're available publicly on the uh city's website uh starting from 2011 until present thank you thank you questions for our presenters councilman Rayo thank you Mr.

Mayor uh staff thank you for the presentation um is this publicly available yet this year's survivors I don't see it on the link that I get access to the last yes it should be publicly available they're uploading it probably before end of day it will be there okay yes I did the latest here is still 2023 and 2024 um so in lieu of having that full report I will just ask on um under neighborhood services there is an item for appearance of neighborhood uh cleanliness uh no that's not it sorry give me a sec enforcing cleanup of trash debris on private property I'm assuming that is the indicator we use for illegal dumping is that right uh we have um let's see here you want to respond to that yeah so this one here is referring to our legal dumping programs and our preservation programs in terms of nuisance abatement that we do so that would be reflected in that okay um and it looks like there is just under 30 percent I would estimate 20 percent level of satisfaction is that right um yes that's correct I uh so in the previous year's budget we approved a number of items that included hiring more inspectors purchasing more equipment we made some changes in the um the fines and uh of course we did uh the bulky item program expanding bulky item and I think the year before there was a level of satisfaction around 12 percent does that sound correct from it would have been 2022 to 2023 I may have to check that because I don't have it on on the based on your second to last slide it looked like this was an area you indicated where there was a significant increase in the level of satisfaction.

Um I may have to check that because I don't have it on on the based on your second to last slide, it looked like this was an area you indicated where there was um a significant increase in the level of satisfaction.

Uh yes, these uh relative to 2024, uh 2023, 2024, yes, there's uh uh an increase uh on almost like all of the services except if you um thank you and then uh just a general question about the citizen satisfaction survey.

Um how many surveys did we mail out and what was our response rate this year?

Um would you repeat again?

How many surveys because we usually mail these to residents' homes?

It's 9,000 uh households uh with uh sampled randomly.

And then out of those 9,000, we received 4,000, they received 4,05, which is about 44 percent.

Okay.

It's a pretty good sample size, I think, for any kind of um survey, and those are generally broken down between each council district, is that right?

Yeah, exactly.

Okay.

Um what's the calendar we have for citizen satisfaction scores moving forward?

When do we send out the surveys?

When do we start collecting the data and assembling it, and then when do we present it to council?

Um I would say the timeline is um they usually start collecting the data sometime uh in June, because in May that's when we look review the questions, and then they will be back and forth.

But after that, then like right now, they should be starting collecting for next uh for this uh fiscal year 25-26.

So they are already beginning to work on that.

Okay.

Um that might be, Mr.

City Manager, something we explore moving forward is codifying to that calendar uh in ordinance somewhere.

And I I've I've been thinking about this for a little while in that making sure we have the information both on the staff side and on the council side with enough and with enough time so that it can be properly considered in budget conversations.

Uh I think last year we were making some budget decisions and still waiting on some data and didn't have updated scores uh in some critical areas, and so you know that's something I would like to discuss a little further.

Is can we can we codify this calendar somewhere in ordinance so that we're starting to collect the data by a certain time and that we receive it by a certain date and it's presented to the council by a certain date so we can rely on it for budget conversations?

So maybe I could add to say that um it the timelines are actually stated in the contract uh with ETC.

So maybe we will wait with those.

So it should be easy to put into an ordinance then.

Um I I think councilman, I uh probably the best practice would be to make sure that this data is available at as we begin to prepare the the next year's budget.

So um rather than kind of finding an ordinance, it would it does become the practice of making sure there's the information is available with uh with budget prepared preparation instructions.

Um I think that might be the best approach.

I would hate to have something scodified by ordinance that not tracking with you know how this information helps feed um our our how we set priorities for the coming year.

But it's also good to know that uh the time period in which we have collected this data informs how we have performed uh on prior years activities.

So uh so I guess I'm saying maybe not best to do by ordinance, but do make sure that making sure that it is part of practice and and and budgeting we can discuss further.

So I'm saying not a good idea to do it by ordinance because it may budget changes might shift, uh, but we do want to want to make sure this is available to you as prepared budget council Robinson.

Um thank you, uh Mr.

Mayor, thank you for your presentation.

Um and I uh also appreciate the acknowledgement that this is data that's important during the budgetary process.

I also am curious about the citywide business plan process because that's what establishes uh what goes into the budget, and so uh Mr.

Manager, how do you uh plan to include this data in a decision making making process as it relates to our strategies and our investments?

Well, I think presenting this data today is a bit the start of it, right?

I think um the the findings of the survey point to you know four very specific um priorities that we should be uh paying attention to infrastructure and affordable housing, etc.

etc.

So um as we begin to put our budget together and as we begin to compare this data with um the priorities that you're setting through the um priority-based budgeting process, we'll make sure these this information is reflected in the recommendations that come to you earlier, or I guess later early next year with our preliminary budget to the middle.

Okay.

Um and Mr.

Dr.

Satoli, um why did you and there's a lot of slides here, we don't have um page numbers, so I can't refer to a page, but under the overall ratings of the Kansas City Missouri, um that slide where it talks about overall ratings of the city.

Why did you choose 2019 to 20 to 2020 and that change from present versus 2011 when you have captured the data?

Uh so the idea was uh 2019, 2020 was the pre-COVID period.

So we just wanted to see what changes that now.

I think it's because why is that important?

Uh well, I mean, we are trying to look at where we were before, and now that we are almost like past COVID, are we getting the same level where we were or we are below?

So basically that's that's the that was the idea.

But we could just do it for any yeah, I mean, which everyone I think it's important to do it from the years that we have the data available, which would be representative of 2011, uh, because I think that someone would have a credible argument that we're trying to specify time periods in which is more beneficial.

I think people are having a difficult time hearing folks, so if you can speak into the microphone, that would be helpful.

Um, I'm most concerned about this slide because um as a mother and as um we're trying to grow our population, we went from 50% satisfaction in 2011 for places to raise a kid.

So 40 49.1.

Um places to live and places to work uh don't fare much better, but uh we have a critical concern if only 59 for 49 percent of those surveys said that this was uh a place where we can raise um a good place to raise children.

Um I would like to see Mr.

Manager um some strategic approaches uh from our department directors as to how we're going to improve in these areas uh regarding overall satisfaction.

Um and then we need to be more mindful when we're making critical decisions and reflecting upon the satisfaction survey.

So for example, and I'll just pose this question to you, Dr.

Satole.

Um, on the slide where it talks about satisfaction with major categories of city services, it talks about the quality of public transportation, something that is extremely important for the residents I serve.

We went from a negative 6.2 to uh uh plus three point 3.1 period.

That's 2019 to 2024.

Well, one uh I'm curious as to the drivers as to how we improved in that area, and we're making a critical decision right now to bring back fares um to the system.

And so my question would be do we have any data to say that was that bump due to our zero fare policy decision?

And if so um reversing that, is that going to also reverse resident satisfaction?

Can we drill down on that more or will we have to commission a new survey to get that?

Uh I would uh say that will require a new survey because the one that we have does not go uh deeper to the point of looking at what is caused this change.

So we may need another another survey to uh look into this.

To figure that out, okay.

All right.

Um thank you so much.

Councilman Duncan.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um my questions are very closely related to that to those of councilwoman Robinson specifically that surveys are good, but then how do we use it, right?

So what how do we dig in more granularly on the information?

Um things that councilwoman Robinson brought up, such as transportation.

I'm also seeing that some of our lowest rated city services are housing quality.

Um, you know, what what were the answers given related to those?

Um when we talk about street sidewalk and infrastructure maintenance, what was the location um of those, you know, where do those people live in the city?

Um we know that uh this city is one of the most segregated cities in the country, and that the we have a histor history of um not providing equal services to certain parts of the city.

So I would want to know where are those, where are those responses coming from so that we can know where to where to focus our efforts?

Um regarding housing quality, I would like to know what specific portion of our housing are they talking about?

Um what which program are they talking about so that we can actually have that information to then act on, just simply stating that housing quality is low, what am I supposed to do with that as a policymaker?

To Councilman Robinson's point, um, how do we know what portion of transportation that they were really enjoyed that that that improved the score?

Um so while this information is good, I don't know what to do with it now.

So what what are we doing with this information after we receive it, other than comparing it to other cities?

Uh let me add a few things here.

So the data that we have, it goes down to zip code level.

So what we do is we analyze this further to look at what is happening in each district.

So this is just a very high level because I only had 15 minutes allocated.

So but if you would ask want us to provide it uh district level, uh we do have that information.

It's available.

And do we know, like to councilman Robinson's point, do we know you know what what is the reason for the score?

Do we have like individual responses?

So we had a we had a public engagement meeting last night where we went over responses regarding Blue River Road, and uh city staff did an excellent job to state that you know Johnny said X had a question about X regarding Blue River Road.

How do we ensure that this road is going to stay stable for the next 20, 40, 50, 60, 100 years?

Um had a question about why.

So I think like for me, I would want to know, and I think it would be important to to Councilman Robinson's point um for our for our department heads to know what is the granular level responses that they can actually dig their teeth into so we can take actionable steps to improve our scores next time.

Um so we do we have that data.

Uh sure.

The challenge I think that we have been running into is because the surveys are anonymous, uh, they try by all means to make sure that uh residents feel free and they don't feel like if we collect that information, we will use it for whatever purposes.

So uh because of that.

What's the identifiable information for the for the participants?

Yeah, so the only thing that they collect, I think, is just zip code level.

Maybe that we can ask ETC if they could provide additional information, maybe.

I I I guess my my thing is surveys are great, how do we use them?

I mean, the information is neat.

Um I love seeing that we've improved in areas, that feels good, but I want to know like what's the next step?

How do we take actionable steps to continue to improve our scores?

That's that's that's the information I'm looking for.

Sure.

And I might add also that we've met with some of our department directors as the reason results can't came about available.

Um so even after we posted this presentation yesterday, you know, directors are already contacting our office to find out more as to why did they score this or that?

So I think there'll be further conversations in-house and trying to provide more clarity because I think the directors do want to make a difference and improve their scores.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Um, Mr.

Savestino.

I think that what I'm looking for is what is what is our modus operandi when we have when we've when we receive the information and then what are our next following steps, like in a standard operating procedure that every department director knows that that they are responsible to take next.

Sure.

I might just um just one thought more for city staff and um my colleagues.

Um I understand that a lot of how we address these issues is in how we budget, and I guess I'm with that, but let's just use two finite examples where we've seen declines or low scores where we have enhanced budgets.

In housing, granted it's a new area, but to Councilman Duncan's point, housing services rated quite low.

That being said, the city of Kansas City has actually invested quite a bit.

What that would suggest to me is that from the staff side, there is actual work to do as to where we arrive, what are the issues and the challenges, and maybe it's more than just the money.

And I know budgets are moral documents and all those sorts of things, but if I've had a qualm over a decade at City Hall, often we uh looked at the inputs rather than the outputs of how we're performing.

So X or Y issue is a problem, we'll put money there, it will solve it.

I'll use another example of streets and sidewalks, right?

When I arrived at City Council in 2015, the people of Kansas City said it was both their most important, one of their most important issues, and they were unsatisfied.

We passed general obligation bonds in 2017 to help address funding of those.

That thus we answered the monetary issue.

After that, however, right, we still saw the performance issue.

Series of elections, we put more money in, we see the same problem.

And we've actually done more roads in some phases and others.

So from the city council side, what I'm interested in is all right, is there a communication problem?

Is there a way that we deploy our assets and services?

Less than just do we need to triple the amount of money we spend on road resurfacing next year.

I would argue the same point with police services, which have had a precipitous decline.

Some of that might be external, but it's where frankly your study with the surveys work, because obviously since 2011, our policing budget has increased um significantly, right?

And so just a sheer budget answer that says even more, maybe not, but maybe there's more in connection with what it is we need to do.

And that's that's where I think the hard work in these surveys is.

Um because if we're doing the simple work, we would just say we should have a budget, we should put like 80 well, 50 percent of it in roads, 45 percent police, and see what else exists after that.

Um I imagine we can't do that tomorrow.

Uh and maybe come in with a more iterative process is where we'd need to be.

Councilman Bunch.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I'm I might point out I would I would actually love to see the comparison of the of the subcategories.

You mentioned streets and sidewalks.

Um I would be interested to see the change and uh in um satisfaction on each of those things over I mean, I see that what it is right now, but it would be interesting to see because it by just looking at it, it appears sidewalks is actually improved to some degree um while condition maintenance of streets has maybe gone down or stayed about the same.

So it'd be interesting to see those that change split out.

Because I would mention that you you said Mr.

Mayor, you mentioned something about tripling the street resurfacing budget.

That's essentially what we've done since since you've been in office as mayor, um, you know, around 2019-2020, we went from something like 17 million to over 40 million dollars, and just in the street maintenance budget, the street preservation budget.

And and I think that this points out a challenge with this type of satisfaction survey, and that you know, you can you can nearly triple your your street resurfacing budget, and you really don't have a lot to show for it in terms of citizen satisfaction.

Money doesn't go quite as far, but more importantly, I think it's just such an easy thing for people to pick at because it's something that they see on a daily basis versus the housing department, as you brought up.

Um I don't know how often the average citizen interacts with with our housing, even though it is vitally important for us to have a housing department that's working on developing more affordable housing.

Um I'm not sure that your average Kansas Cityan who answers this questionnaire is going to be able to weigh in adequately or or or accurately on that.

And so I just want to bring up the challenge of comparing things that are that people interact with every single day.

Streets, parks, uh what have you versus things that they don't, even the airport.

Um I would hope I was glad to see that we had such high marks for the airport because we we spent a lot of money and energy on it, and I believe it's an amazing airport.

Um so uh you know, I don't know how to unpack those things, but maybe uh something that I would like to see uh is the is the district by district detail.

Uh it's it sounds like you have uh representative sample size uh per district to to show those types of crosstabs.

Um I would be interested to see kind of how the things have changed over the last few years, broken down by district, because you can start to maybe see uh uh a different picture based on you know where the where the lack of satisfaction is on things that you know the Northland's probably gonna see something differently on streets versus uh in the heart of the city.

And uh I just think it'd be really fascinating to see that, and so as soon as we're able to see the district by district stuff, I'd really love to dig into that.

Mayor Pro Tim.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Good to see you.

Um thank you for the presentation, and I want to also thank uh city manager for ensuring that we receive this information, as I know we've we've asked uh several times for this, so thank you for bringing this forward.

Uh the questions that I have relate to the um questions and understanding that how these questions that were altered or changed from prior surveys that went out.

And I think some of this may have occurred prior to you even taking your seat or being in your in your role.

Um, but I you know, because ultimately we are evaluating the this based upon a continuous flow, but if the questions change, if the surveys change, we also need to take that into consideration.

Um and I'll and I'll just give an example of what I see.

So the police service over from 2011 to now dropped the quality of police service looked like the scores dropped in half.

So, but when you look in detail at the slide that says residence priorities for police services, you know, we don't know whether or not or when though, if there were different questions that were asked that were that now give a reason for that to be changed.

So for example, one of the questions or the summaries that you provide, I don't know if this is an actual question or not, says the relationship between the neighborhood and the police.

So if that was a question, if that was something that was not previously recorded, but it is now that it that will have an impact on the score, which can potentially skew this.

And so my question really is around whether or not you took that those changes into consideration and have have you address that in a manner that is statistically significant, or is there a statistically significant impact to the results that we see today?

Uh let me uh respond by saying that uh most of the questions that we see, like on major categories of the city uh city services, uh, those ones are never changed because we use them as benchmark questions.

So we don't usually touch those.

Uh the changes that I can speak to, which you will see in the next survey, uh additional questions that we put that we added, it was mostly because of the uh priority uh best budgeting coming in.

So what we did is we went through all the questions and then reviewed to make sure they aligned with citywide uh business plan.

So we discovered there was some questions that we're supposed to have been asked which are needed to uh align with objectives in the uh citywide business plan.

So we added those, but for most of the questions that you see on there, they will still be there in the next survey.

We didn't change those.

Okay, so thank you for that clarification.

Um what I would like to see, I think it would be helpful if if the council was able to understand where when and where those changes were made, those additional questions were made, uh, because it will have an impact on what the scores look like if people were were not evaluating them previously and now they are.

So if you could provide information or guidance on those changes and when they were made, I think that would be beneficial.

I know in the prior uh under the prior uh city manager, there were changes that were made uh when we were in transition um of not having uh or data casing staffing changed.

There were some other changes that were made, and I don't know that um the individuals that were in charge of making those changes had the um skill set necessary to be able to adequately do that in a statistically significant manner, and so I just want to make sure that as we are looking to evaluate and make budgetary decisions that we have good information that we're basing this on.

My other question or comment really is for the city manager to um understand how this will play into the budget, the priority-based budgeting process, and I'll use as an example uh again just this police services.

You know, if we are looking at this, we can't if we're if the council is trying to make a budgetary decision based upon police services, understanding the relationship between neighborhood and police that isn't necessarily a budget, that's not uh necessarily a budget question, or does not drop, shouldn't wouldn't drive the budget.

And so my question, city manager, is how will you utilize utilize this data?

How do you cross-reference it from in this butt priority-based budgeting process as that you were putting together now?

I mean, I think uh the data is informative in budgeting, it's also informative in and identifying goals for you.

So what is actually mutually beneficial, right?

They have the data available to both of us.

Um this isn't necessarily a Formula Egg type of approach.

You know, we're not deciding how much goes to where based on what percentage.

Uh it is just basically looking at well, what improvements are we seeing on one program versus another, and whether one program that's being successful needs, you know, we need to supplement it more.

And if one program is not being successful or isn't getting the results that we're wanting, uh, that's the one maybe we we decide on perhaps there's a better or different approach.

So it's beneficial to the council to to the to the budget office and to the departments to see um you know how the movement of uh satisfaction is moving uh is is working throughout the uh throughout the city with this information.

Um I don't know if I've asked your question, but it's a pretty good not really, but let me clarify.

Yeah, so in the priority-based budgeting process, part of it part of one one component of that is establishing the priority, the residents establishing their priority.

So you clearly have that data, you have that information here in these charts of what are the residents' priorities.

Right.

I know that um well, in this past year, some under your leadership, some prior, uh, the the departments were asked to start looking at ways to reduce their expenses or their programs prioritize based upon some of the priorities that this this council had established as well as residents.

And so now that you have this data, um my question is how will you incorporate this information as you are building out next year's budget?

And I don't necessarily have to have the answer today, but I think that this you know definitely my hope is that it will inform the the budgetary process as you move forward.

If you have high have areas that are of high priority to residents that are low that are you know have low satisfaction, in my view that you know, and in under the priority-based budgeting process, you would weight those higher.

I think the mayor somewhat alluded to this in his comments, and so I'm really just looking for more process information so that we can better understand the expectation coming up in the next budget cycle.

Understood.

I think as we're as we present and begin to prepare the budget for next year police department, we'll make sure that you know the the results and citizen satisfaction are reflected on recommendations so you can see how we're how we're addressing both you know the stated priorities of the council and also relative priority by the residents that's expressing the results of the survey.

Okay, so my final comment regarding this is to just to uh make us a strong request that when we have our budget sessions uh where we hear from different departments that this information is included uh in years past, we haven't always had the satisfaction survey information, and it didn't necessarily align with the KPIs that we were receiving.

In some cases it did, in other in some department reviews we saw it, it didn't even relate.

And so um I'm hopeful that you will align this information with the KPIs and make adjustments where necessary so that we can, you know, especially on baseline issues like in housing, so that we can establish our baseline and be able to determine whether or not the policy decisions that we're making, the budgetary decisions that we're making are truly making an impact.

Thank you.

I can add uh Tammy Queen, Assistant City Manager.

So I think this information truly comes at probably the right time for what you all are working on.

Um the finance committee specifically has been looking at each of the goal areas over the last four weeks or so and asking for your input in kind of a mid-term review of the goals and objectives that are in the citywide business plan.

A lot of the 75% of the score that a program receives under priority-based budgeting is from alignment with the citywide business plan.

So if there are things, and what we'll do, we'll go back and process all of this as well and suggest changes to you, but if there are things you're seeing in this resident satisfaction survey result that you want to see reflected in the citywide business plan now is the exact right time to be saying, I want more of this, um, and this is a goal of this council or a new objective of this council.

We are refining those, and we'll be working on that over the next three or so weeks continuing in the finance committee, and that uh information and you know is available, and we're happy to meet with anybody who wants to talk about how that might fit together.

So thank you for that.

And given that, I would say now that you have these uh priorities based upon the surveys that um if they are not already in the citywide business plan, I would say that we need to the council needs to know that so we can make sure we add them into the citywide business plan, or at least aware aware and be able to discuss that now that we have these results.

Right.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Patterson has it.

Thank you, Mayor Lucas.

I was just gonna suggest that um the question that the Mayor Proxan was raising about new items in the survey.

Perhaps you can just extract them and run the new analysis and see how the outcome compares.

You should be able to just like if item 12 is new, you should be able to just remove it from your analysis, run it again, and see if it or I don't know how sophisticated your stat you want to do, but you could also wait them and see if the new items are having what level of contribution to get after what she said.

Councilwoman Robinson.

Um, thank you.

Just to um add a finer point, um, because I think it's almost impossible for us to add all of this into the citywide business plan, but I think we need to make sure that uh we're looking at it from a professional lien, which we have pay staff to do.

Um so Mr.

Manager, um just to provide uh more feedback and get some affirmation that in the citywide business plan you are going to have a section that speaks to resident satisfaction in the citywide business plan, and then furthermore in the budget, there will be another section that talks about alignment with resident satisfaction.

Um, and then furthermore, um, as we look at policy decisions that are coming up down the pike.

Um, if you could also keep us informed about that alignment with the citywide business plan.

Um, I'm just thinking of the whole public transit piece because we're um bringing back zero fare, but I think it's important for us to always be thinking about this the resident satisfaction survey as we're making those critical decisions.

So just re-emphasize the point that Councilman Bunch made, which is a challenge to staff, and we haven't necessarily come up with a vehicle on, right?

We've doubled the road resurfacing budget, for example, and the satisfaction on that issue likely has declined precipitously.

So it's not just the budget.

How are you picking the streets?

How are they deployed?

How is it shared?

What you're doing.

I find those things interesting in the implementation side, which is something that I think would still be worthwhile for us to learn.

But with that, thank you so very much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

We'll hear the uh planning update, performance review.

Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the council, city manager, uh, intern director Kyle Elliott to my right is Drew Erdman.

To his right is Lauren Holchick.

Or sorry, Morgan Holichek.

Apologize for that.

Uh what we're here to present to you today is uh an overview of our process mapping of our development process right now.

Uh we will run through it as quickly as we can.

Uh but we want to make sure that we give you enough time to uh understand and ask as many questions as you would like as well.

Um now, while I am here as a representative of the planning department, I think it's also important to know that this included all departments and agencies that were associated with our development process.

That includes our public works department, water services, uh parks, health, KC fire, KCPD.

Uh, and also our department or development agents as well.

Uh, the approach that we took on this was to make sure that uh we were as thoughtful uh moving forward as we can.

We embraced all uh issues that came forward with a a positive approach towards finding ways to improve them.

So, what we're gonna present to you today is the scope that we went through, the approach uh that we took to get there, and this was approach where every time uh questions came up, we asked uh continually why was it that way?

Uh generally go over the findings and then quickly go over the the next steps.

With that, I will hand it over to Mr.

Thank you very much.

We'll dive right in.

Um just to introduce myself, partner from McKinsey and company, which we were privileged to work with the city staff, and a number of you uh provided input in the process as we went forward.

I will just quickly, again, in the interest of time, move forward.

First of all, starting with the project scope, as you see as you see on the left-hand side, we were focused on the mapping of the processes, the identifying identification of the current challenges in those processes, and then what could be those improvements, both from a process standpoint for the city staff, but also importantly for the customers who are using them.

Want to note what was not in scope because we get many of these questions.

Um we did not look at, for example, economic development policy or housing policy.

We did not look at the code itself.

We looked at the existing processes and took those as givens.

We were not creating dashboards or databases in this, and also importantly, we were not assessing staff or any recent organizational changes.

We were focusing on the processes themselves.

So just wanted to help set that up.

Moving forward very rapidly, again, the scope, it spanned the entire development process, as Kyle noted, ranging from the planning review and zoning and entitlements all the way through the building infrastructure building review process through the main steps, and to be highlighted again and emphasized, these were interdepartmental teams that did this work, and want to stress that by design.

This is not meant to be a consultant's report to the city, it is meant to be the work created by the city staff to diagnose and design and identify those challenges moving forward.

And you see that the representatives from represent across the involved departments.

At a very, very high level to the approach, want to emphasize from the start, customer engagement through multiple forms, interviews, focus groups, active workshops.

We have there one of the photos of active workshops to identify what are those pain points very candidly, and we'll get to some of those findings in a second, but also what are those priority changes that they'd like to see, and would want to note that uh across the customers representing diverse array, some of those who who operate quite frankly across multiple states, to some of those who are more local, some of those who have a high volume of permitting requests with the city, to some of those that are more limited.

In the center, we want to emphasize this, which is the backbone of the work was really centered upon working with the city staff.

We had over 50 city city staff involved throughout this process through both interviews but intensive hands-on workshops, sometimes lasting an entire day to map these processes inside and out, identify the improvements, and want to emphasize again, bridge the silos.

Oftentimes the teams had never worked together before, and there was a lot of discovery, quite frankly, in the complexity of the processes and the interdependencies.

Even people who had worked for multiple years, sometimes over a decade, they had not communicated in some respects or not seen the complexities.

And also, this is all about building capabilities for the teams to continue to do this work going into the future, so this is not one and done.

And again, uh critical to this is not just uh workshops building capabilities, there's ongoing coaching so that the action is being taken, and and uh we can highlight some of the progress that is taken place since the end of the project.

This is where I imagine you'll have uh the most questions or interest, which is of course, well, what were the findings?

Uh we identify five here at a very high level.

Want to stress that one of the things that we want to emphasize, and it was great to see some of the data that was just shared on the public satisfaction.

There is want to emphasize the staff deeply committed to serving their customers and also serving the community.

Now there are challenges with that that we can get to.

Also, the staff managed to map about a hundred processes and sub-processes.

We cannot go through all of those in depth today, but getting down to very tactical challenges and quite frankly, a series of improvements that they are identifying and already working to move forward on, and there's already some impact on that front.

Want to note point number three, which is customers and staff, quite frankly, are frustrated with the current processes, and we can dig into that because I imagine that may be one of the points of special uh emphasis.

And at the same time, customers and staff aligned upon what are some of those pain points and what are some of those priority improvements that would yield the biggest outcome on both sides of that relationship.

And want to note that the staff also identified some particular organizational constraints that they operate under.

For example, the high turnover of skilled staff.

Okay.

So those are, I want to hit at the wave tops at least, and introduce to you some of the core elements.

Um the staff did define the why of what they're about in this, and this is we want to stress this, which is without a clear shared sense of purpose, it's hard to design any process.

And there's the threefold elements here.

The idea that this is about this, and again, this is from the staff uh through a series of workshops developies, the idea of, and you can see it on the page, the community itself, there's a part of that.

The idea of the customer service and satisfaction for all, and we can come back to the for all, because at times the idea of the small businesses or first-time users have perhaps exceptional difficulties or particular difficulties navigating the process.

And then the final point of the idea of building a development team culture that is the right one to deliver that customer orientation, transparency, and reliability.

And notice that that's a team, not a division or a department, it's just spans the entire city government is part of that team.

Um we won't quiz anyone on this.

This is actually with high level process flow.

Imagine this decomposed one of these sub-elements being mapped out.

A question that you may say to yourself is this unusually complex?

Actually, at this level, the answer is no.

Doing this kind of regulatory function is inherently complicated in multiple jurisdictions, okay.

It is the devil in the details that once you get beneath this, but we wanted to just highlight this is kind of the product, but imagine layers of detail beneath it that the teams are really wrestling with, and that's where the improvements can take place.

Okay, the customer voices want to hit this right up front very candidly.

Um this is when we asked, and we have a word cloud here through a series of of discussions, focus groups where we capture this and just said, what is in one word?

How would you describe the current processes?

You see the impression there, the size of the word is the frequency in which it appeared.

Okay.

At the same time, want to note, and I want to emphasize that uh in the dialogue with the customers through multiple forum, they did note that improvements over the last year and the trajectory and the nature of their interactions.

That's qualitative, but just want to note that as well, that there's a sense of heading in a positive direction, and it's interesting to see that reflected in the data that we didn't see that uh beforehand, but that was just shared before us.

But want to stop here, and I realize that this is a little fine print, but I think this is actually very important to getting the design right going forward, which is through the conversations, workshops, interviews uh with the customers, and want to stress that in some of our workshops, we actually brought in customers to have the dialogue directly with the city staff as they're working on the processes and have those questions going back and forth to build that understanding.

Want to note that there's nuance in the priorities.

Intuitively, we think speed, and that is obviously important.

Faster maybe better, and the clarity of the processes.

That was highlighted.

But the second column there actually is sometimes equally or even more important, which is we can the idea of reliability and predictability.

The challenge that was highlighted by many of the customers was we do one thing and it takes three months, we do one thing and it takes 15 months.

How do we plan around that?

And that causes real problems is we can plan as long as it's predictable.

And so that is one of the questions of at times you want to get more predictable as opposed to pushing for just faster, faster, faster, that might have great variations in it.

The third column there want to emphasize, and it depends on the stakeholder, obviously, but there was clearly a sense from, let's say, the smaller developers, but also those from community groups that were voicing the concerns of the first-time users, that it's one thing if you're an experienced practitioner who's putting through multiple permitting requests and you have consulting support, but the idea of designing it so that it's easy to use for everyone.

And then lastly, the broader theme of how to improve communications and the culture of responsiveness and customer service.

There was the point that oftentimes, quite frankly, people knew individual staff members and appreciated how that could work, but quite frankly, at times there's variations in the responsiveness that they were receiving.

Um through the again, just to hit the wave tops, staff and customers alike identified some initial opportunities for improvement.

So this was not cookie cutter or from the outside perspective.

This is emergent through these dialogues.

We can provide these details as you like.

But the idea that there's a series of just do it initiatives, and we can speak to what's already underway.

There are some that are high priorities that were identified that require more detailed work is the juice worth to squeeze.

That's category B.

There are actually some that were being identified that may require council consideration.

The city staff needs to work through those in greater detail, but there may be some for uh city council.

And then lastly, there are ideas for potential innovations, such as how do you streamline processes or acceler accelerate manual processes through the adoption of things like artificial intelligence, which other jurisdictions have already done and proven with success.

Um lastly, as we go to the next steps, this is the final section of uh the work.

We're to take all this complexity down to some perspectives on if you want to continue this momentum, because otherwise this could be one of those one and done very candidly, and that is not what the intention or design of this effort has been.

But first of all, the executive prioritization across departments to sustain it.

Secondly, and again, this can be spoken to um by my colleagues, that the idea of keep the momentum going by really implementing what's already been identified and that the city staff can tackle those just do it initiatives that maintains momentum and signals progress.

But looking forward, so this is not just one project, but that it continues onwards.

The idea of somewhere in the city government establishing a small team that has the expertise in these techniques to coach and drive forward, coach, communicate, build these capabilities long term, that this becomes more the new normal.

Few folks that again, this has been uh demonstrated in multiple jurisdictions.

Um our elements of how do you get the customer service to stick?

Um we highlight some of these below.

If you don't have sustained leadership engagement, doesn't happen very bluntly.

Um the capability building and coaching for staff to continue to build those skills.

Quite frankly, regular reporting and transparency, regular reporting of the performance that improves learning, transparency, and accountability.

So getting that so that all of you are seeing that on a regular basis, and establishing quite frankly, more regular forums and engagement between the city staff and and all of you, but also customers, that that becomes more formalized and regular as opposed to episodic and anecdotal.

And then lastly, potentially to consider how the city government operates.

A lot of city governments that we see are adapting new tools and new technologies that accelerate, eliminate manual processes.

The last point that we'll not go through in detail, but there's a little bit that you can see in one page, which is kind of mapping out a journey that again this has been shared with the mayor, it's been shared with the city manager, but no explicit endorsement, but basically um outlining that this is the kind of roadmap that you might consider to use this project as a starting point, but is it will not be an ending point, but a starting point if you want to get this change to stick, where you have a the ongoing customer engagement and continuous improvement that drives real results that we've seen elsewhere.

So those are the highlights of the work.

I'll turn it back.

Yeah, and just in closing, uh we had one of our last workshops in July since that time period.

Uh, you know, it's been very positive as we've worked through uh items with staff.

We're already working on uh 11 to 12 different things.

Now very few of those are the really large ones, but they are ones that do make processes work faster.

They do things in that make things work better for communications and create better transparency on the outside, set a better expectation.

And I really need to give credit to all the staff that worked on this and all the multiple uh departments who provided leadership to it.

So this is something that we're pretty proud of, and something I do think there will be an opportunity to continue to do.

But that will answer any questions.

Okay.

Council, thank you, by the way.

Councilwoman Patterson has.

Thank you, uh, Mayor Lucas.

So the most interesting part of the presentation is the, for example, the 11 opportunities that you can just do, the five priorities identified by staff.

But am I understanding this presentation correctly that you didn't tell us what these items are?

So don't go through now.

Um because well, I don't want you to.

Other people may.

Sorry.

But that's something I think you can send to us.

So what what are the actual actionable recommendations that you're that you, sir, in the middle have put forth, um, and that perhaps manager uh director Elliott is is implementing that that would be what's most useful of your work here.

We will definitely do that.

A little context around this.

We had this scheduled for a little more in the middle of the process, uh, so it was for a little more influence.

We that is an item that we are expecting to provide to to everyone as well.

It's actually the implementation pieces that we will be working on as well.

So that is information we will be providing.

I'll be I'll be quick and and God love you.

I'm excited to have you here.

Uh I had a chat with the housing department a while back, and they're pushing a thing that sounds like a wonderful idea, but it would require consultants to help us build it out.

And I really tend to abhor um their involvement in many situations.

The reason being because I fear sometimes that it frustrates our effectiveness in implementing solutions, and it ends up extending the amount of time that we're doing um naval gazing, really.

So on the why discussion, and I can put this in the form of a question to explain more of why, but I don't want to slow us down either, so I'll just push this for you all to let us know.

For example, my colleague Councilman O'Neill introduced ordinances to try to reform the planning department, not I think because he was um particularly aggressive, but just because we have been hearing these concerns for some time, hence the why.

Um concerns me is if we're spending too much time on the why and not I can I can articulate the why.

All of my colleagues on the city council who have been in community meetings and other forums hear it regularly.

Now, granted, there's a staff why, and I'm I welcome learning that, but that being said, part of it is that right, we all want to just move this ahead.

So I think what I will ask you to do coming out of this is to assess for us how can we most expeditiously, particularly because we were just talking about the budget and all the things we want to do.

I think all of us would want to say, yes, how can we accelerate permitting?

How can we improve satisfaction, and how can we have some influence on it?

Um while I recognize knowing all of our issues, and it's helpful.

I think that getting to that next step is going to be key, and that's where you'll get excitement from us.

And I would encourage you all, um, and maybe this is the value of consultants because you've seen all the places where folks have improved it, hopefully efficiently, um, to kind of get to that next step.

Because that's I think that's desperately where we all wish to be, and we recognize both the community concerns, our own, perhaps staff's frustrations that we hear, and any number of others.

Are there any other questions from um Council Councilman Will?

Oh, sorry, Councilman Rogers.

Okay, thank you.

Um so um I do appreciate the just do it and the culture change because we know we can have all the strategies, and if we don't change our culture, um staff will continue to uh unfortunately create bottlenecks and challenges.

So I appreciate that.

Now, how much did we pay for this?

This what do we what was our investment?

What what do we pay for this?

How much was it?

Was this 500,000?

I will I can get back to you here.

I kind of I vaguely remember the ordinance.

I think it was about five, but I'll uh 400,000.

Thank you.

So we paid a half a million dollars to um come up with these strategies.

Okay, I have a problem with that, but I won't um get into that right now.

Uh we're interested in policies.

What policy changes that need to happen?

What are technical things that need to happen?

This is a huge point of concern, even in the third district where we don't have a lot of cranes and buildings and all of that.

Um we even get challenges uh with uh folks having problems with our um planning department.

So um part of the feedback that we've get we've gotten is around the first bite of the apple being the final bite of the apple.

Like when we go out and we do inspections, we tell people what to do, and then they do it, and then we come back and then we say, Oh, well, you forgot this part, but we didn't tell them in the first place that that part was a part.

Like, what are we what are we doing with that?

Are is that is that going to be incorporated in a policy decision that we don't create the continual bureaucracy?

Um, secondarily, um, the challenge um is the whole one-stop shop that we've heard um from our community around like making sure things are streamlined.

Is that a policy that we're going to look at?

Um, these are all good.

I mean, we could have probably just read a book about Star Will Buy on some of these, but what are the policies and the things and how are we going to impact change?

What are the measurable results that we're going to see based off of a half a million dollar investment in these theories and concepts?

So I think the first one was how do we we make sure that uh when we're in the field better inspection information comes back and forth and you're not coming back multiple times, correct?

Yeah, first and final bid at the apple.

Yeah.

So on that one, though those issues were identified uh multiple times internally and externally.

There's a series of individual items that talk about that.

Some is having one reviewer throughout the entire process, which normally we do, uh, but that's one that we'll refine further.

Also having turnaround times, is it?

Sorry, I'm not spiking speaking directly into the mic.

There's a there's a several issues on that that we can we can address.

Uh the one stop shop.

Uh we are looking at ways to uh make unified uh things such as our C of O's and things like that.

This particular effort didn't look just at that, but that is something that's actually why we're working with multiple departments to make sure when there's an opportunity to consolidate those things we we do.

It's not exactly what this study did, but many of those components will work towards that.

Uh and then impact of change and making sure that we're transparent with where that goes, data collection, data tracking, uh, and making sure that the data that we're using actually does point towards the real issue will be a component of this and likely one of the asks that we'll we'll we'll reach out for later on when we get to the final stages of it.

Well, um Mr.

Mayor, is there a point in which we're gonna get some actual tangible things from this in terms of what changes are going to be made?

Can we come back with another presentation in a couple of months?

I assume so.

Yeah, but um councilmember Robinson.

The idea here, of course, is to begin to look at the operational improvements that can the departments have to make within the established uh code of ordinances and co and and um standards.

But the items that need you know your input in order for us to drive the change that we need, you know, those are things that are gonna come to you and in the matter of a code change.

But you know, the challenge to staff here, and I do want to thank Kyle and team for taking this on because this is a significant endeavor.

I mean, talking about culture change is is not a simple thing.

Yeah, it is it is a significant uh direction that we have to take and give staff the notion that say you have the authority and power to make this happen.

You know, uh and what I what I say by that is a the policy consensus of this body is to say we want to have development easy uh and and fair throughout the city, more or less, you know.

And what our customers experience is challenges and difficulties with our you know, and somewhat driven by processing staff.

So that those things need to change in order to be able to be able to implement your policy, and and so those are the things that I'm gonna the things that we can change, we're going to change, and that's a challenge for staff.

Um, but the things that need um uh what I would say um systemic change, you know, things that we're just prohibited from doing because the code is written a certain way, those are the things that are being forwarded to you for consideration.

Yeah, I just finally I'm I mean, like this on page 13 is something we could have literally pulled out of a referee article, like and we're paying 500,000, you know.

So I just I mean, like we need things that say this is how we're going to move Kansas City forward, and these are what we're going to be accountable to.

So that's it, that's all.

Thank you, Councilman Watts.

Councilman Willett.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh, appreciate the presentation and gathering the data, and I've seen many comments um with expletives um on such uh responses to a question like this.

Um it's unfortunate.

I know we talk a lot about the building community in terms of homes and terms of uh commercial, but uh I'm gonna talk about school districts, Park Hill, Park Hill South, both building a gym, one open for the volleyball season for Park Hill South Girls, August.

Today is the first day that the Park Hill girls are gonna able to play in their gym for volleyball.

That's not great, and I've heard that from public schools, private schools in the Northland.

Um we are half the time having to make sure that we expedite certain things so we're able to get school uh kids in there.

It's not just a park hill thing, it's a North Kansas City thing, it's a Platt County School District thing, it's a St.

Pius thing, it's a North Lane Christian thing.

Um the um private schools have are thinking that they're getting attacked, and I'm like, nope, it's a public schools too, they're going through problems.

Um so this is something that I want to uh bring in the fold is our school districts.

So this is something that I want to uh bring in the fold is our school districts.

We've had um KCPS approve a half a billion dollar bond.

We've had North Kansas City's uh pass a hundred and fifty uh million dollar bond.

Um we want to make sure that tax dollars from our minute or from our school districts are uh efficiently gone um used, and a lot of times these delays um are affecting uh how they spend their dollars, and so uh I want that to be included into the conversation.

Councilman Rogers.

So going back to this just do it, the 11 opportunities.

Um how many of those have we done?

So of those 11, I also just want to mention that you know, of all these listed here, there's still a multitude of ones that staff is working to identify and work through.

Of those 11 since uh July, sorry, July, we were working on uh roughly 10 of those.

So they're not all complete.

Some of them were really as simple as uh making sure that the communication loop between multiple departments is is better and improved.

Some of them were internal things that were inside our permitting system that required just communication between multiple divisions inside one department to do.

Those were the just do it.

We don't need to come to a body like this and make sure we we did that was some of the value, and there's more value in the process than just that, but it was making sure that we're actually having those internal communications and not just doing the daily daily work.

So this allowed us to take some time, look at the broad scale things, and start fixing that.

That is some of that culture of change that we we need to build in and we need to invest time in.

So I'll just leave with a comment.

So I I came into the council as a small business owner who does business in both Kansas and Missouri and in every jurisdiction, county, and municipality in the region.

Um already jaded at the city of Kansas City.

And what I found when I got here was frankly, not what I expected.

That the people that work at City Hall are some of the smartest, most dedicated people that I've ever met, frankly.

We've got really good people in this building.

Um so that just leads me to know I I know we can do better because I've met all the people who work here, and I just hope that we continue to do what we're doing right now to acknowledge that that the processes and the culture are not working as well as the people in this building are capable of.

So I'm I'm glad to hear that we're gonna make some changes.

Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tim.

Thank you, Uncle Mayor.

Um, thank you for the presentation.

And uh while I am a huge supporter of continuous quality improvement uh performance improvement, I think this and I appreciate the work here.

I think this is one piece of the story, uh, one piece of the work that needs to be done.

Uh because I know in our committee we receive, and just in my opportunity talking with developers, a lot of concern from you know, in terms of the dashboard, even though I know you all have done great work uh there, they're still concerned with uh getting from start to market.

Uh councilwoman Robinson talked about some of the challenges for residents in the third district, I know the fifth district as well.

For those I've I've heard of a story of somebody who it took three years to get their permits uh process so that they can do their deck, they could upgrade their deck.

So we have issues across the city.

One of the things that I think we also need to consider in addition to this, um, because accountability and uh culture change is necessary, but I know culture changes are difficult.

This that's not gonna happen overnight.

So I would like to understand, and maybe city manager you can address this.

Um is there a plan to do a thorough review of our zoning and development code because it hasn't been codified, or I know we've had bits and pieces being changed, but it's been 2012, and I think that we have you know antiquated, we we have some policies and codes that also prevent from us being able to expedite the development process.

I for one would like to see what opportunities we have to be able to streamline and improve our development code.

Um yeah, I think you know, when I when I think of development process, um I sort of keep a tally of what calls I get, uh, you know, and you think there's entitlement process, just planning and development code, and then there's the building permit process, which is really what these folks are talking about, you know, how how long it takes to get a building permit.

Uh in my mind, you know, it's probably 80, 85 percent building permit issues uh that that come in, and more so than development and zoning and town issues that come in now.

I think there's opportunity to improve uh on the development code you're right, it's 10 plus years old.

Um we are going through a process now of looking at all of our codes and modernizing all of our codes, and we've kind of left that one alone because it's believe it or not, it's one of the newer ones.

code and then there's the building permit process which is really what these folks are talking about you know how how long it takes to get a building permit uh in my mind you know it's probably 80 85 percent building permit issues uh uh that that that come in and more so than development and zoning entitlement issues that that come in out I think there's opportunity to improve uh on the development code you're right it's 10 plus years old uh we are going through a process now of looking at all of our codes and modernizing all of our codes and we've kind of left that one alone because it's believe it or not it's one of the newer ones you know some of the other ones are old are antiquated but I um there are some things that are prescribed by statute we can't we can't really overcome but in terms of priority to me uh you know fixing um the the the building permit process you know how people you know what it takes to get from you know once you've passed entitlement that time period is something that we need to fix and that's a high priority and I think what this study is telling us is that you know the the staff itself sees uh the silos that have been created within this organization uh and they want to work together and we have created you know barriers to that kind of cooperation and so the next step I think is to try to figure out how do we break down those barriers so we can so we can get people to work together.

Okay thank you all right thank you all so much for the time we look forward to learning more about our implementation ahead appreciate you being with us uh there thank you you're good to go we may have other issues but we'll just raise those in potential closed session discussion as we go through our legislative session and perhaps at the end of our legislative session if we except for that we'll stand adjourned and we'll start in