Good evening.

You can hear me now.

Welcome to the regular meeting of the Olatha City Council for Tuesday, May 21st, 2024.

The next item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance.

Would you please stand with me for the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the United States of America.

One is with liberty justice for the other thing.

We have several ish uh special business items tonight.

Thousands of people move to Olatha each year as we grow in size.

We also grow in the variety of voices, cultures, and experiences that make up our neighborhoods.

This proclamation encourages us to get to know our neighbors better and to celebrate the contributions of our Asian American Pacific Islander community.

So here to accept the proclamation is Ann Rongish.

Anne is a graduate, a graduate of our Civic Academy program, a member of our Human Relations Commission, and just joined our conference planning committee review committee.

Anne, would you please join me at the uh front up here at the bike?

The proclamation reads whereas Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have had a supportive influence on our country through our history, our culture, and our success today.

And whereas Oletha is proud to be home of so many incredible Asian Americans and Society who have helped shape the foundation of our great community and laid out the path for our continued prosperity.

And whereas Asian American Heritage Week began in our country in 1978, before May was permanently designated as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in 1992.

And whereas in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month, cities across our nation will celebrate the culture, artistic educational, and historical community event and activities.

And whereas our Olathe is dedicated to celebrating our residents' accomplishments of the country, contributions, and thanking them for helping to make us who we are today.

Now, therefore, I job in Mayor of the City of Olatha do hereby proclaim May 2024 as Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month in Olatha, urging all citizens to join in observing this month by learning about and celebrating Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders history and culture.

It's not off.

Whoops.

Could you hear me?

I could see that being aloud.

First, I'd like to thank um Mayor Bacon and members of City Council and the City of Olatha for celebrating and honoring the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

Um it's really my honor to serve on the Olatha Human Relations Commission.

Um I'm deeply appreciative of the opportunity to be here tonight to accept this proclamation.

For our commission, um, one of our missions is to cultivate a welcoming and diverse community for our city.

And I think the proclamation does just that.

So some of the things that we've done with the commission have been creating events around the city where you get to know your neighbor.

And some of those examples have been knowing about the culture in India.

Or even a couple weeks ago, we had um culture fuss with the Olatha School District, um, where hundreds of people from around the city came together to experience the music, dance, and food from various cultures around the world, including Taiwan, Germany, Mexico, just to name a few.

Um so getting to know your neighbor is important because we come from so many different diverse backgrounds, and that just helps us grow as a city and as a community, and we can embrace that.

Um getting to know your neighbor means that we can get to know each other better and grow together as well.

So our human relations commission is looking forward to um working more and um coming up with more events to make sure our community continues to grow.

Thank you again.

So thanks, Ann, for being here tonight for sharing so much of her time and talent on our committee helping make a leaf a better place.

I mean uh next we're celebrating the 2024 Civic Academy class this March.

This group has committed their Thursday night about three or four hours on Thursday night to learning the ins and outs and behind the scenes activities of their local government.

So to introduce the class, I'd like to invite Ford Civic Academy coordinator.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm Megan Spence, and I work in the infrastructure department.

Tim Danaberg and I had the pleasure of coordinating Civic Academy this year.

And Civic Academy is a program we offer to the community, and it's to give people who live and work in Oletha an opportunity to learn more about how the city operates, how their tax dollars are put to use, and how they can be involved.

A program like this really allows city staff to showcase our passion for serving our community.

So first I want to thank the 24 participants who signed up, took time away from your personal life, from your families, and spent nine Thursday nights with us.

You all were very engaged, and you asked great questions.

Throughout the nine weeks, many graduates said they were impressed to learn about services they didn't know their city offered.

They also commented on the culture of our organization and said that it felt like family.

Thank you to the staff who made this program.

You put so much effort into making this a great experience for the class.

And thank you to council.

I know they really enjoy the opportunity to speak one-on-one with you.

Tonight we do have one graduate who has offered to speak about his experience.

So, Ron Fredman.

Thank you.

Mayor Bacon, members of the City Council, and employees of Olatha, thank you.

From the two dozen of us in the 2024 latha Civic Academy, from high school students to those of us of a certain age.

We thank you.

What an eye opener.