Good morning, Wichita, and good morning to all of you.

Welcome to City Hall.

We'll call this meeting to order.

With us this morning is Pastor Philip Moore of Eden Fellowship Ministries to provide our invocation.

Following that invocation, we will have the Pledge of Allegiance, and we ask that you please stand for both morning to the mayor and the city council members and the citizens of Wichita.

Let's bow our heads in prayer.

Grant our leaders discernment to seek justice, fairness, and the common good.

Bless the citizens of Wichita with safety, peace, and opportunity.

We pray for unity, collaboration, and respect in this chamber.

That the work done here reflects your will for the good of all.

In your mighty and matchless name, we pray.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which we stand one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice.

Thank you, Pastor Moore.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the first item?

Approve the minutes of the regular meeting, August 7th, 2025.

Council members, any corrections to those minutes?

I see none.

I move to approve the minutes for August 7th, 2025.

Second.

Motion and a second, any further discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

We'll do a voice vote for this.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, same sign.

Motion passes, seven zero.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next item?

Awards and proclamations.

Proclamation, Saint Paul African Episcopal Church, 150th anniversary day and self-awareness month.

Please ask the individuals from the St.

Paul AME Church to please come forward at this time.

The proclamation reads, the City of Wichita, Kansas, founded in 1870, whereas churches are the cornerstone of every community, providing guidance, fellowship, counseling, support, and concern for families and individuals within their congregations and through ministry to those outside their congregations.

Whereas Wichita's oldest African American church, St.

Paul AME, is celebrating its one hundred fiftieth anniversary with the theme, Proclaim the Year of Jubilee, and the AME Church is celebrating two hundred nine years on Sunday, August 24th, 2025.

Whereas this celebration promoting community inclusion in our neighborhoods through participating in fellowship is a unique opportunity for the church and the congregation to share information, worship, and fellowship with family and friends.

Whereas the City of Wichita shares the pride of the St.

Paul AME Church promoting community inclusion in our neighborhoods through participative fellowship under the leadership of the Reverend Dr.

Pamela M.

Hughes, pastor, the Reverend Dr.

Carla J.

Cooper, President of the Elder Midwest South District, and the right Reverend Francine A.

Brookins, Brookins, Esquire, presiding prelate of the Fifth Episcopal District.

And now therefore be it resolved that the Wichita City Council does hereby proclaim August 24, 2025 as Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church 150th Anniversary Day.

On behalf of the St.

Paul family, we are waiting and expecting an awesome celebration this week.

So we thank God for our mayor and our city council honoring us on this day.

What do we come to do?

Proclaim the year of Jubilee.

Thank you.

May I please ask Councilmember Brandon Johnson, who's part of the congregation to please come forward and take this picture as well.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

Thank you.

Thank you again to the St.

Paul Amy Church.

May I please ask Miss Juneteenth and her supporters to come forward at this time.

May I also ask Councilmember Brandon Johnson to come forward at this time.

Hi.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

The proclamation reads, the city of Wichita, Kansas, founded in 1870, whereas Self-Awareness Month emphasizes the importance of understanding oneself, including one's mental state as a foundation of well-being.

Whereas it is important to encourage state, local, and community-based organizations, faith leaders, health care providers, and individuals to educate their communities about mental health stigmas.

Whereas mental health stigma is a characterized by unfair attitudes or beliefs about individuals experiencing mental health challenges.

Whereas it is important to encourage the community to donate to and to volunteer for mental health organizations that support self-awareness and provide access to resources needed for good mental health.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Wichita City Council does hereby proclaim the month of August 2025 as self-awareness month.

And I'm so elated to be here standing as an advocate for mental health and not only for mental health, um, for all the black youth out there.

Um we always get painted in a negative light, so just to be that positive light means so much to me.

So thank you all for coming out, and I will do as much as I can to make sure I advocate for not only young people for the black community as well.

Thank you.

One, two, three.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Juneteenth and her supporters.

May I please now ask Roy Moy the Third and any of his supporters to come forward with the STEM music project.

Today is National Aviation Day 2025.

With that, I want to introduce Roy Moy the Third, a local community partner, uh, an engineer in aerospace and an artist who has created an amazing video to help showcase the aviation industry in our community, the importance of the air capital of the world, and the importance of STEAM.

The Arts Partners STEM Music Project received a $25,000 grant to create a bilingual album for kids by reaching artists, and Roy Moy the third with several community partners were part of that project.

The intent is to promote STEAM and career opportunities in spaces right here in Wichita.

Let's watch a portion of that music video.

The aerospace industry lives here.

It's Wichita, Kansas to be very keen.

A disagreement happened now, the trio is due.

And they add a steer minute beast to the crew.

ICT says everything.

And to celebrate National Aviation Day, Roy Moy the Third.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thanks to Mayor Lily Wu, City Council, the City of Wichita, and Ella from Arts Partners.

You know, it always starts with a dream.

I had a vision.

I, you know, majored in aerospace engineering, been loving playing since I was a little kid, and um also singer songwriter and created STEM Music, my small business, and had an idea for an album.

We saw the Arts Thrive Grant and said, Oh my gosh, we have to apply for this.

Um I'm a teaching artist with Arts Partners, a nonprofit here in town that does incredible work uh with art, you know, students and people in the community.

And so with this camp, we had from started June 2nd into July 19th, and they the students worked with me to songwrite to make beats with uh Corey Rolfe, my producer in town.

Uh, we filmed music videos with Dream to Reality, Francois Jedges, um, and other you know partners.

They got to make digital art murals in the city, um, created songs, uh, got to record, and so much went into this in this particular song.

We wanted to celebrate the city.

The new album that will be coming out next year is called STEM Music Takes Flight.

And I I couldn't be a son, an adopted son of the city of Wichita, and not put a song about Air Capital of the World on that project.

And so this celebrates our city.

It's out now on YouTube, on Facebook, so go watch the full thing later today showing love.

And I think one thing I would love to say is um this program employed students through the way to work program that got to be a part of this camp.

So students were getting paid and learning actual skill sets that they can take with them.

And two, those two rappers, those students you saw on the video, they made their own song post camp and they shot a music video.

They were DMing me, like Roy, look at us, look at our music video.

So they learned stuff in this camp that they're actually now putting into practice.

And I think it's something when we think about our youth in the city of Wichita, how do we keep them engaged?

How do we inspire them with Steam, which is science, technology, engineering, art and math, and how do we make sure that the future is bright in this city with the youth that we support?

So I'm really excited.

I'm hoping that we can continue to partner in the future to do more youth um apprenticeships in art and how that really transforms our city.

We even did something with League 42, a mural there as well.

Um, and so um I leave you with this.

Never forget we are air capital of the world, air capital of the world, air capital of the world, air capital of the world.

God bless you, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you again to all of our proclamation recipients and Roy Moy as well as the STEM Music Project and Arts Partners this morning.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next item?

Public agenda.

The public agenda allows for up to five speakers to have five minutes each to address the council.

No action will be taken relative to the items on the public agenda other than referral to the city manager for information as necessary.

Speakers will please state their name and address for the record.

A time clock will display the speakers' remaining time to speak.

Order and rules of decorum will be observed.

This first speaker is Arthur Stokes, Black Mold.

Good morning, everyone, Mirwoo and staff.

I'm Arthur Stokes Jr.

I live at uh I preside at 2614 South Topeka in uh Wichita, Kansas.

And uh I've been talking about black mold, but I also is a part of uh that topic.

I've been doing the Titanic in talking about standards, you know, in dealing with our city uh situation with with black mold is it's a big topic.

I'm starting to hear more and more of it, you know, getting into the dwellings.

It's a problem, you know.

I've I've been having a real rough time trying to uh I've always been able to adapt to some situations, but this has really been rough.

Uh in dealing with the Titanic, the biggest secrets.

I'm just gonna round it up on this meeting.

The biggest secrets with Titanics was that the steel when they built the Titanic and it was unsankable, that still at that time would not have helped the Titanic when it hit that iceberg because uh of the sulfur in it.

And uh Blasco, they did the experiment.

They went down and they they they took a piece of it, they took a sample of it.

And I didn't know what it a coupon was, but it was a script from the Titanic.

They had to go down there under 30 feet of uh dirt and uh sand to retrieve this, and it basically the paint was still almost intact from when it was down there.

But they they did the experiment with the modern piece of steel, and what happened was it bent.

It was it it made a V shape.

It it never broke.

But when they did it, they used like uh a pendulum.

And when the pendulum finally struck it, the Titanic just that piece just kind of like shared it, it went every different direction.

And that was due to it was not suitable for the condition.

They also they they set the condition, you know, in their experiment just like it was when it hit the iceberg and the temperature out there.

I think they use alcohol or or something to get that temperature to that level, you know.

So you have to have standards.

It uh it should have never been there.

They'd have been better off by hitting the iceberg head home.

They would have lost two tiers, they wouldn't have lost all of the tiers that they lost, they'd have been able to save more lives.

See, and you know, that's that's one of the biggest major secrets that they came up with that situation.

And you know, I relate to my situation, you know.

I've been sick uh a lot lately with uh I'm just about to get ulcers, so you know, trying to adapt to that.

I don't know how that is for me, but it's you know, it's it's a challenge every day, you know.

I I have to change uh a lot of my agendas, you know, stress, you know.

I try to just take every day, and you know, I I do the best I can with it, you know.

Uh somewhere in me trying to help families and myself, and I wear my wristband loosely, family matters.

You know, I don't have a whole bunch of supporters rah-rah in me on up here, but this is a situation that if the wolf don't bite you today, he's gonna bite you tomorrow.

You know, this is a situation that it happens just like everything else happens, you know, nothing's made to last forever.

But uh lately I'm I'm getting ready to go and see uh gastrologist.

Uh my menu is changed.

A lot of the foods that I've been changed has been like crazy.

I've been kicking and screaming and rail rolling.

I can't even have watermelon, man.

I'm like, oh my God.

I mean, that's that's one of my perfect foods, you know.

You know, I throw out uh uh in and even all of the perfect stuff like uh avocados, stuff that I normally thought was healthy in this game here is totally different when you get sick from uh black mold and trying to, I guess, basically recover back how much of your life that you can.

Thank you, Mr.

Stokes.

I believe there are council members that want to speak.

Councilmember Hoheisal.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Bob, do we have any idea when the property maintenance ordinances will be coming before council?

Councilmember, we have one more dab presentation to make, and so we're shooting sometime in September or October, depending on how we take all that feedback and put it together for you.

Okay, thank you.

I would love to know when that is and participated slow at its wheel for me to to be in with uh with that, you know, so I can uh see how y'all organize it.

Yes, sir.

We'll make sure to get you an invite to that one.

All right.

Thank you, Mr.

Stokes.

All right.

Any any questions.

Thank you again.

All right.

Appreciate it.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next individual?

John De Cesaro, the value of continued investment in the Wichita Public Library System.

Good morning, Council members.

My name is John De Cessero.

I live in District 1 at 7507 East Norfolk Circle, and I'm here to discuss the library system.

I'm the son of a USD 259 eighth grade English teacher who taught at Truesdale Middle School for many years.

As she did in the classroom at home, my mom stressed the value of an education and instilled in me a love of reading.

This is something my wife and I have passed on to our children, and our library system is a big reason that they've grown to be avid readers and exemplary students.

The advanced learning library, in particular, unlocked their imaginations.

This is one of the reasons I serve as a volunteer board member on the Wichita Library Foundation.

You know, the Advanced Library Learning Library is a shining example of what is possible through the combination of committed investments by the city and impassioned fundraising by the foundation.

This responsible collaboration takes a library beyond a place to check out books to being a valued educational and cultural community hub.

I'm here to remind you of the important role the city plays and how fulfilling that role enables the work of the foundation.

Here's the recipe for success.

One, the city council and city of Wichita commits to the foundational funding to maintain library facilities, keep them adequately staffed by trained librarians and support personnel and filled with a wide variety of materials for use by all Wichitans across age, ability, and interest levels.

Two, the library foundation then leverages those investments to fund impact initiatives, innovative services, and valuable programming.

We often call this the margin of excellence, which is engaging the philanthropic community to ensure that the library continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of our citizens.

It's important to know that the margin of excellence for the foundation is future-facing, not filling gaps of underinvestment in the library's core functions.

Together we make the library a vital community resource for tackling literacy literacy challenges for people of all ages, creating measurable impact throughout the library programs.

Public library services contribute to the type of vibrancy that help us attract and retain talent.

Libraries also play a role in our public safety.

Short term, their neighborhood gathering places during after school hours in summertime with spaces for programming and activities that build skills and confidence, keeping at-risk kids safe and occupied.

Long-term libraries support childhood literacy, setting young Wichita's down a path toward education and employment, reducing the likelihood of incarceration during their life.

The library is uniquely positioned to make a lasting impact, and with no private sector alternatives to what they deliver, it's critical that the collaboration between the city and the foundation continues.

So, what is success look like?

It looks like the reimagination of the Westlink and Maya Angelou branches, where the city's commitment has been leveraged to garner philanthropic support and create transformative places with usage statistics that are higher than ever.

It looks like the book bus made possible when the foundation secured a $50,000 grant from the Kansas Health Foundation, and the city contributed both a decommissioned transit bus and a family family literacy coordinator position.

Since hitting the ignition in 2023, the book bus has reached over 50,000 residents, delivering library resources to underserved areas of the city.

Just this summer, the program served 6,427 people through events and neighborhood stops.

Success looks like a partnership with the United Way that resulted in 35 young readers receiving a 162 one-on-one reading sessions with a volunteer reading coach.

In just eight weeks, half of the parents surveyed reported that their child demonstrated improved reading competence and more interest in reading at home.

All of the parents reported that their child was more confident and asked to visit the library more.

Success looks like a summer reading program operated by a small staff on a tight budget through which 3,934 young readers reach their personal reading goals.

The program delivered 6,500 community member engagements and 4,860 minutes of literacy skill practice with more funding staff and outreach capacity.

Imagine what the library could do for literacy rates in our community.

So here are my asks of you.

Please continue the city's investment in the foundational elements of our library system, which is a living and dynamic system that must continue to adapt.

Please strive to meet the staffing commitments laid out in the current master plan so that there are adequate staff to meet the demand for services.

Please include the library as a key stakeholder in the development of the next capital improvement plan so that library maintenance is proactively planned for.

This work is underway through a memorandum of understanding with the foundation that will result in 200,000 from the foundation to ensure maintenance of our beautiful buildings.

Please consider the library fully in your upcoming comprehensive plan revision or commit today to a plan to improve library resources and staffing levels.

Without this commitment, there will be an immediate erosion to the branch master plan we have made together.

Your serious attention to these matters will enable the foundation to share the inspiring story of our public libraries and acquire new donors.

Your investment will be amplified and be a win for every Wichiton.

Thank you.

Thank you, John.

We have questions or comments from council members.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, John, for being here.

Um the data you shared and your support of the library.

I think it's very important that not only we keep up support of the library, but everything that you mentioned, seeing the revitalization of the branch libraries has been truly awesome.

Um I'm especially excited for my Angelo branch library, and I think that sign is still coming.

And then everything else that we're doing in the system.

Um of the data you shared, I think is really important.

I don't always tell this story, and I think I'm far enough removed or I shouldn't get in trouble for it.

But I worked at a group home one time, and as we talk about these investments and quality of life, libraries also so much crime prevention.

And a young man that had decided to join a gang, only did so because he couldn't read.

And he told me that he got tired of being bullied, so he started fighting, and then he found family and the gang life, and that was kind of his thing.

And he just at that point started to spiral.

And it really just came from not being able to read.

He told me that in a moment that we were talking about life choices.

So I think about that all the time, and investment in the public library means more opportunities for young people to have a love of reading, learn how to read, have volunteers to help them, and maybe it shifts their life path in a different way.

So I appreciate your words.

I think about that young person all the time, and I'm always committed to supporting libraries as a council member, and even when I'm off the council finding ways to do so because they have so much impact in our community.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

Thank you again, John.

I'll just ask City Manager Leighton, can you tell us what the budget is for libraries and how that has fluctuated from 24 to 25, 26, and then projected?

If not, I can I have the numbers if you'd like me to read them.

Just so happens I have my budget.

The 2024 actuals for library operations was 11.7 million dollars.

The 2025 adopted is 9.8.

However, the revised is expected to come in at 12.2 million.

2026 has a 12.2 million uh allocated in 2027 at 12.2.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, John.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next individual?

Faith Martin, share information about the Racial Profiling Citizens Advisory Board annual workshop.

Hello, Faith Martin, Vice Chair of the Wichita Racial Profiling Advisory Board.

Um, for those that don't know, the Racial Profiling Advisory Board in Wichita was formed in 2000.

And in 2004, this board drafted the Kansas Racial Profiling Statutes, which were passed into law in 2005.

Our board consists of elected officials, uh people that work in the judicial branch and members of the community that advocate for elimination of racial profiling.

Our board's mission is to is focused on improving relationships between law enforcement and the community by working with law enforcement to change policies to eliminate racial bias.

We work to encourage elected officials to advocate and pass stronger legislation that creates greater accountability for law enforcement, as well as preventing any officer from using their bias to profile drivers.

Today I'm here to talk about uh the last of our mission, which is striving to increase knowledge and awareness in our citizens regarding their constitutional rights and responsibilities.

We do that every year by putting on multiple workshops.

This year we're combining workshops and we're having a large one instead, uh, where we have multiple partners come.

Uh we have City of Wichita's warp office, which uh was put into place after the racial profiling board lobbied heavily at the Kansas legislature to update and change laws around uh driver's license suspensions for failure to pay and driver's revocation for failure to pay.

Uh so it's created a path, and the city of Wichita wisely invested in that and created the warp office.

They'll be there on hand.

People can find out the status of their driver's license and next steps.

Uh, we'll also have um the Sedgwick County Jail will be there to talk about the score program, which um if you or a loved one have been recently relieved from the Sedgwick County jail, it tells you about all of the resources uh and ways to get back into society, help you get documents you need.

They have quite a bit of services for people that are in jail and a reminder to people just because you're in jail doesn't mean that you've been convicted of any crimes.

Sometimes people are just in jail while they're awaiting uh also for failure to pay.

So the score will help family members find out what resources are available to them as well.

We also have Sedgwate elections will be on site to get people registered to vote.

So we have another election coming up in November.

And then lastly, the ACLU was going to be there to uh talk about felon restoring felon voting rights in the state of Kansas.

Once everyone has served uh their sentence and all of the things that go along with that sentence, they are allowed by Kansas law to reclaim their right to vote.

A lot of felons don't know that, and we uh since Cedric County elections will be there and the ACU will be there giving people the tools they need to get back uh where they need to go.

We are uh cordially inviting all of our city council members to attend.

It's August 30th from 10 to 1.

It's a drop-in event because all of our partners will just be working with people as they come in.

So there's no set program.

Uh it's a drop-in program so that anyone uh schedules they can kind of fit in there.

It'll be at the WSU Metroplex, which is 5015 East 29th Street North.

And again, uh we would uh encourage you to like and share.

I'll be following up with an email of the flyer so that you can send it out to people in your district uh that may take advantage of this workshop that we put on every year.

And this is also thanks to a grant from uh WSU.

We get a lot of grant funds to help us with our workshop.

So thank you so much, and I'll stand for any questions.

Thank you, Faith.

Several comments from council members, beginning with council member Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Faith.

Appreciate all the work that you all do.

Um on your resources, do you have any of the health clinics there?

Uh no, we've our focus has been on justice-involved individuals, and that's that may be a future way that we go.

Right now, there's still uh thousands and thousands of people that have had their driver's license suspended or revoked for failure to pay.

And uh the ACLU is a great partner, and felon voting rights is also really important to us.

But that could be something that we look on in the future.

Yeah, if you do, let me know.

I used to um pre-pandemic, it's weird to say that now.

Pre-pandemic, we used to have some of the folks returning citizens that were coming into 214, 208 or 219 meet over at water.

Um, and we'd have the health clinics there and some of the resources you're talking about, but just to make sure they also stayed healthy.

Perfect.

So if you want to let me know.

Yeah, that's great.

Thank you.

Okay.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Faith, thanks for being here.

Would you mind emailing us the information about the event on the 30th?

Yeah, absolutely.

I'll follow up with the Facebook link and the actual flyer.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

Councilmember Tata.

Thank you.

Thank you, Faith, for being here, and thank you for serving on my district advisory board.

And I was trying to get the information done.

So if you mentioned this, I'm sorry.

But you had asked if you could present at my district advisory board.

Is that something that the racial profiling board is trying to do is to go to every district advisory board?

Yes.

Um, the what I was talking about with the Citizens Review Board.

Oh, my bad.

But that's okay.

You're in a lot.

So I'm sorry.

Um, but actually, yes, uh, the racial profiling board has come to district meetings before.

I think I presented at uh Councilman Hoheisel's district before, but we try to talk about issues that are important to the racial profiling board, whether it's helping provide feedback around budget or FOP contracts or uh getting the residents connected with the services that city and county provide.

Um so we will be doing that again over this year, but this workshop has been a lot.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

Fake, thank you very much.

I just will like to mention that uh Gualupe Clinic had a uh driver's license, the Kansas Legal Service, Kansas Legal Clinic out to be ahead at a uh get your driver's license back, uh, which the city of Wichita participated and and also the state of Kansas participated.

Um 20 attorneys from Coke Industries and Stenson Law Firm came to the clinic and helped over 90 people get their licenses back.

We're gonna do it again.

Write this date down.

Uh September 17th.

And this time instead of doing it from 10 to 4, they're gonna do it so we can go in the evening.

So they're gonna do it from tentatively from noon until 7.

So at Guadalupe Clinic, 940, South St.

Francis, uh, Kansas Legal Clinic, uh, September 17th.

If you could reply back to the email that I send you, we have other organizations that'll be providing flyers for upcoming events.

Um, since it's we had like 300 people come to the last workshop we did, so uh, we're hoping that we can spread information about other events exactly like that.

Good.

We appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Faith.

And one more thing, uh, a plug for tonight.

District one has a town hall.

That's right.

Uh with the police chief, and so it would be good information to pass out about your workshop at that event.

All right, thank you so much.

Faith.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next individual?

Twila Purity Fire Department Wellness Initiative.

Good morning, council and mayor.

It's a privilege to be up here again this morning.

Uh my name's Twilight Purity.

I live in Polo Club.

I am a proud member of District One.

Um speaking of district one, we had an amazing August breakfast, and Chief Snow went into detail about the uh health initiative for the health initiative for the fire department.

I I learned a lot, and then uh uh council member Tuttle reached out to me and gave me a little more information on this initiative and what you're finding.

I I don't I'm not gonna recap it here because you all know what's going on about that.

Um but at the neighborhood night out, the fire department was well represented at many of our events.

I got to sit in a fire engine.

It was so exciting.

But anyway, while I was talking to them, I asked what that health initiative meant to them.

And um, and I talked about how in general they look like a pretty fit group.

And one of the things I learned was that they hold themselves accountable for fitness within their um, I don't know what little fire department groups are, but within their whatever it's called.

But anyway, they they hold each other accountable to fitness.

If they see somebody's you know getting a little paunchy, they'll mention it.

But he also made a comment about you know that there are fitness standards when folks join the department, and then it made me think about something that I've kind of observed, and that's with our police department.

Hopefully, this program can come to them, you know, the wellness initiatives or initiatives.

I understand that it's expensive, but if you look in general, and this is probably anyway, a lot of our police officers could use help with fitness.

It's a win for everybody.

It's a win for the officers if they're healthy, obviously.

It's a win for their families if health and fitness becomes um a priority for the family.

It's a win for the city, because if they're healthier or more fit, then they'll lose uh use less resources in health care and so forth.

And that's a win for our community as well, which is also very important.

There's a simple way, in my view, and I just want to share it a simple way, and maybe a less expensive way.

So because of these standards when they have to come into their academies, right?

Why don't I aren't they held accountable to maintaining these fitness standards going forward?

People pay attention to what's measured.

I've said that here before.

If I come in and I'm um wonderfully fit, and then six months later, if I know that I'm gonna have that measurement again of fitness, then it will become a priority for me because it's important at my job.

It's a simple uh a simple solution or a simple start.

If you just start holding holding folks accountable to their fitness from academy going forward.

You'll save money in the long term.

The city deserves this.

With the highest paid police department in the state, we should have fit, healthy officers for all the reasons I mentioned above.

So that's just a simple thing.

I don't know if it makes sense.

Um I have a minute and a half.

We had an encounter.

Um one of our sons made a real dumb move and got himself arrested uh a week ago.

The officers involved were so professional, so kind.

We had ICT one was there as well.

I mean, everything's gonna work out well, but my husband and I were blown away, and we thanked them.

They waited for us to get there so we could pick up our son's car, but it was beyond it went beyond our expectations as an encounter with local law enforcement.

So I thought you might want to hear that.

Thank you for your time.

I stand for questions.

Thank you, Twila.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, thank you, Twila.

Um first off, I'm glad to hear that we have a high expectation for our men and women in blue, and to the chief's credit, he holds them to the same standards.

And I I think we really do have a top-flight um police force here in Wichita.

We still, like everybody else, we still have room that we can't improve in all areas, council members as well.

Um, maybe we should do the fitness thing for council members as well.

It'd be hard for them to actually keep up to my uh physical standards here.

I think I also did want to take this opportunity to thank um Ted Bush, Chief Snow, and uh Councilmember Tuttle for their work on the health initiative, the cancer screenings.

Um you guys are saving lives out there, and I really do appreciate the work.

Um we still have a number of other things we can do to show our firefighters uh appreciation as well.

So we're kind of in discussions with that now, but um they deserve all the help and support that we can possibly give them, all of our first responders do.

So thank you for coming up and chatting with us today.

Sure.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

Thank you, Twilight, for being here.

Really appreciate it.

Um it was great chatting with you on on Friday, and I was glad to see your name on the agenda.

I I just and thank you, Mike, excuse me, Councilmember Hullhagen, for your kind words.

Um I do want to thank Chief Snow who is with us today, and also President Bush.

Um, out of all of the initiatives I worked on, not just on council, but my career, this may be the one that I'm the most proud of.

And you are exactly right.

We are not just impacting lives, we are literally saving them with the number of cancers that we've already identified from these screenings.

I also want to thank Chief Sullivan and give him a happy birthday shout out, um, because he is also embracing this.

And we, through the help of the Kansas Health Foundation, so it's a public-private partnership and ascension via Christie.

We are now developing the same concept of creating a culture of wellness within our police department, and we will be focusing on cardiovascular health, which is the number one cause of death among um police across the nation, and then also mental and behavioral health, which is a huge issue for our police department.

They see so much trauma every day.

Um, and so extremely grateful for everyone involved, especially for the leadership in our police and fire department.

We need to make sure that those who take care of us are taken care of.

So thank you again for bringing this highlight and I'll continue to provide updates to my my colleagues on council in the community.

Thank you.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you, Twila.

Um, I was gonna say, since you had such a great experience, yes, you should get with Captain Moses in the back and let him know the officers' names, and then they can get like a compliment file for them.

That's something that I know that they appreciate, and I don't know if they're ever told that they get that, but makes it good for them.

It's good motivation.

I would love that.

I don't have their names, but I bet we can figure it out if I get with him, like the location and date.

Yeah, it was extraordinary.

It really was.

Well, and I forgot to mention for folks who may not know, my son's a young black man, right?

And so then you're heightened anyway.

So um it was fantastic.

Thank you, Twilight.

You're welcome.

We have space for one more individual.

This is my poor man's uh briefcase.

Uh, when we're out in Andover, can't afford uh briefcase with with the taxes out there.

Um I just wanted to say also uh Twila, uh the speed limit is 30 miles away from here, so when you leave in 30 miles an hour after what you said about the police officers and their weight, uh you might want to just make sure you do the speed limit.

All right.

Um next uh week is are we having the um uh well hold on a minute?

Mayor, vice mayor, city council, city manager, city legal.

Um is next week the uh the um workshop on animal service is not next week.

Okay.

All right, all right.

Well, whenever it is, um uh is it next month then?

Is it in September?

We're trying to figure that out.

We have a pretty busy schedule for workshops going forward to the end of the year.

So we're trying to figure out which when we're gonna put it in.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Well, some people wanted to make sure that they could talk too.

I mean, I know a lot of times on the workshop, they can't.

But anyhow, I just handed you all a city of Wichita community service booklet.

The city is making citizens jump through hoops about illegal vehicles, and yet you have and had a booklet all along.

We as a city are looking dumb.

Shifting gears now.

I'm asking that we start a citizen's board to hold MABCD's feet to the fire on some slow-moving cases through the system.

Ordinances need to be tweaked or changed altogether.

There are problem properties that aren't progressing swiftly enough.

Mike Hole Isle.

You know I am a very passionate person.

And even if you agree with me wholeheartedly, please don't acknowledge me if I show this mayor, this city council, and the city of Wichita, such disrespect, and won't sit down when nicely told to do so.

You could agree to that.

Thank you.

The chief may be in jest, and is one of his cost-cutting measures is to take animal services from the police department.

You guys may have heard of that.

I think it was in jest, but maybe not.

Talk about passing the buck.

Someone has to add it to their budget if you take it from the police's budget.

It's all the city of Wichita's budget.

So we're not gaining anything.

If you take a nickel over here and put it over here, they got a nickel.

So and in closing, I want to I want to say that I show people this picture.

And I ask them, I ask them, does it look like this guy doesn't like me or I don't like this guy?

And they all say, no, looks like you guys like each other.

Well, I want to tell Bob right here that Bob, I've always liked you.

I I have.

And I and I appreciate you.

So I know sometimes you feel like I come at you a little bit, but this picture big volumes.

I appreciate you, and I've always liked you, and I still do.

Thank you.

Thank you, George.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, thank you, George.

It's always a good time to see you up here.

Um, you didn't let me know this time.

This was a surprise.

Um I do believe we are looking at adding many of these into our ordinances.

Um, I think that might be one of the year end of the year things that we do to kind of sweep up and tidy up some of our ordinances.

Um, in regards to animal control and all our talks with county, I would be interested in looking to combine.

Um that might be one of the areas that shared services makes sense because county does have an animal control, and we already do work with them quite a bit.

Um, and then in regards to the workshops, I think this might be the time to ask.

Um, we do have a ordinance drafted, a couple of ordinances regarding the hotels and motels, um licensing them and also um increasing the nuisance laws on those, and I haven't been able to talk to every council member, but the ones I have talked to have asked that it does get presented to our district advisory boards.

So is that something that we can do before September's uh dab meetings and potentially get that on workshop for the end of September Mayor?

So we'll try.

If we're gonna circle back to DABs, I'm also trying to get industry input so that we don't have a lot of surprises for some for the hotels.

Um so we'll keep moving diligently that way.

If I can get it on September, we will.

But I got a lot of process.

Okay, uh yeah, I appreciate that.

If possible, I'd like to move forward with this one.

And I think a month and a half anyways would be uh sufficient time for the businesses to look at the the ordinance and uh express their their thoughts on it.

So I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next item?

Consent agenda items one through 31.

Council members, are there any items to be discussed and pulled?

I see none.

I move to approve the consent agenda items one through 31.

Second.

Motion and a second, any further discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 7-0.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next item?

Board of Bids Contracts dated August 18th, 2025.

Good morning, Mayor, City Council, Josh Lauber, Department of Finance.

Uh, the Board of Bids and Contracts convened yesterday, August 18th, for the following items.

Reporting, we have the telehandler 8,000 pound rated capacity for all-around access LLC for 132,895.

We have the grinding tree debris at Brooks Landfill for Evergreen Recycle LLC for group one for an annual estimated usage of 357,600.

We have the BroDart McNaughton book leasing subscription for BroDart Company for a five-year aggregate total of 11,900.

This is how to become a vendor with the city.

This is our purchasing calendar of events, including the one going on right now with Evergy Connect that the city is hosting or participating in.

And this is our calendar of open public opportunities of items on the street today.

And I'd be happy to try to answer your questions and I recommend your approval.

Thanks, Josh.

Any questions for staff?

I see none.

I move to approve the Board of Bids and Contracts dated August 18th, 2025.

Second.

Motion and a second, any further discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 7-0.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next item?

Petitions for public improvements.

Good morning, Mayor, City Council members, Paul Gunsleman, Public Works and Utilities for the record.

I have some new petitions for your consideration this morning.

The signatures on the petitions represent 100% of the improvement district, and the petitions are valid per Kansas statute.

Cedar View Village, second edition, located in district two.

The project will provide stormwater drain and sanitary sewer improvements required for a new residential development.

Charisse Point edition located in district four.

The project will provide water, stormwater drain, sanitary sewer and paving improvements required for a new residential development.

And Regency Park addition located in District 2.

The project will provide water improvements required for a new residential development.

It is recommended that the city council approve the new petitions and budgets adopt the new resolutions and authorize the necessary signatures, and I will stand for questions.

Thank you, Paul.

Any questions for staff?

I see none.

I move to approve the petitions for public improvements.

Second.

Motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

I see none.

Madam Clerk, can you please open the roll?

Motion passes 70.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Design contract for Plainview Community Center.

Morning again, Mayor.

Paul Gunsman Public Works and Utilities for the Record.

The Colvin Neighborhood Resource Center was constructed in the 1970s and is attached to Colvin Elementary School in the Plainview neighborhood.

The approximately 3,000 square feet building primarily primarily consists of the office space, is functionally challenged and not adequate for the Office of Community Services Operations, the Department of Park and Recreation Programming, or the needs of the community.

A key challenge is the lack of infrastructure for technology and resource engagement, which limits the programming opportunities.

There is a critical need for a facility that provides a functional, safe, and engaging environment for a diverse collection of programming and activities that will serve to increase the quality of life in the neighborhood.

Planned programming will focus on technology, educational services, health and fitness, outdoor amenities, and other community programs.

To accommodate these programs, a new computer lab, gymnasium, meeting space, and training rooms are needed.

In March of 2024, the City Council, or I'm sorry, the City of Wichita staff began to evaluate Jardine Middle School as a potential home for the new Plainview Community Center.

And in May 2024, Jardine closed to all current and future USD 259 school operations.

And through the summer of 2024, an evaluation of existing Jardine Middle School was completed.

Haney and Associates Architects conducted an on-site architectural evaluation.

Schaefer architecture supplied prior facility evaluation performed by USD 259.

Paradigm group performed hazardous material inspection evaluation.

And tours of the premises were completed by multi-departmental City Wichita staff to examine conditions and layout for planned programmatic needs and possibilities.

This is an aerial view of the project site that includes to the left center, North East Ross Parkway, the existing Jardine Middle School.

And then as you move to the right, the Colvin Neighborhood Resource Center as well as Colvin Elementary School is there to the to the right of the screen.

And I also want to bring to your attention to the very right of the screen, the square box.

Those are existing tennis courts, and that will be the is the future location of the Plainview Community Center.

This is the existing footprint of Jordine Middle School, and that in the color is the approximately 40,000 square feet.

That was evaluated of the 114,000 total square feet.

The Jardine Middle School space would be rolled into the project, which would be more than double the size necessary for programming needs.

Structural layout of the look and location of the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing equipment that is located in the red box, limits how the building can be parceled out.

In the center there, there is the auditorium, approximately 8,000, which includes 8,000 square feet of 40,000 square feet, which would limit programming space.

Additionally, interior interior remodel is required for planned renovation areas.

Building modifications will be needed to meet current fire and ADA codes.

Remediation would be needed, and roof replacement is necessary.

The recommendation also included a new entry for administrative office space that would be proposed to be constructed there to the right of the screen, and that would be adjacent to the parking lot, providing better access to the facility.

This is the uh location of the proposed new uh proposed facility, which is uh again those existing tenant courts, which I had uh pointed out in previous slides.

Um this would be directly northeast of the Colvin neighborhood resource center.

Um it is also in close proximity to Colvin Elementary School, allowing students to walk to the facility for before and after school programs.

The proposed layout of the new facility.

This layout provides space for all current and existing programming, including computer lab for digital skill building and workforce development, classrooms for before and after school programs, and summer activity camp and office space.

Additional room for expanded services include community meeting spaces, a permanent food pantry, open gym space, and flexible multi-purpose rooms to utilize for recreation programming in addition to the community partner programming.

The cost evaluation that was completed, the existing building space is approximately four forty thousand square feet as mentioned before.

The uh new facility would be 17,000 square feet, new construction cost for the lobby, new entryway is estimated to be two million dollars.

The new uh facility is um approximately 9.9 million dollars.

Deferred maintenance of the existing facility for the 40,000 square feet is estimated to be $8 million, and properties acquisition and demo costs, which would be um as proposed USD 259.

Um so total estimated cost for renovating Jardine Middle School is 11 million dollars, and the new facility just under 10 million.

Annual operating costs for both.

The 40,000 square feet is estimated to be 250,800 as opposed to 81,900.

In February of 2025, a request for call qualifications for architectural services was issued to design the new facility.

Four proposals were received.

SFS architecture was recommended by the staff, screening and selection committee based on presentation, understanding of project objectives, qualifications, and experience of value engineering and interview performance.

The design fee is $820,565, and funding is available within the existing budget of $9.9,937,299, which was approved by City Council on January 2nd 2024, and is funded by general obligation bonds.

I will stand for questions.

Thank you, Paul.

We'll begin with Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Paul, can we go back to the slide with uh the cost?

Um yeah, this slide right here.

Now this is one million for property acquisition and building demo costs estimated.

Can you delve into that a little more?

So our proposal was that I think the existing building is um the market for 2.9 million dollars for the 114,000 square feet, which equates to 25 dollars per square foot approximately.

Um we we multiplied that by the 40,000 square feet that we would need, and then we would also uh so that would be our offer to USD 259 as well as offer uh them to demo the remaining of the building.

So that's what the expenses here we buy the section we're interested in, and then we rely on USD 259 to demo the rest of the building.

Correct.

Yes, okay.

I just wanted to make sure that's clear here.

Thank you.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor Paul on slide 31, the um outlay of the building.

I wanted to know what J is right under the family restroom.

Is that like a lactation space?

Yeah, sorry.

You're fine.

It's a janitor's closet.

Becca Johnson from the Office of Community Services for the record.

Okay.

I didn't see one in here.

Love seeing the family restroom.

Um also is there any space that could be used?

Open to the public for a lactation space, so someone wouldn't have to go into a bathroom.

Sorry.

It is on our list of uses that we would like to see in the building once we are in the actual design process instead of conceptual design.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

Um thank you for the presentation.

I appreciate it.

Thank you to Councilmember Holeheisel for all of your work on this.

I know it's been um a couple years coming.

Um can you maybe explain Paul or perhaps Becca or even Councilmember Holeheisel?

How is the community been engaged in this process of determining what the needs are, what the facility should be like, um discussions regarding because what I think is happening is we're just trying to decide today if we move forward with the design work for the new concept or we consider Jardine.

So can you just give a little background on how the community has been engaged and and what they they told us?

Absolutely, Councilmember Tuttle.

Uh well before my time at the city, the last three generations of CSRs in District Three have been continuously asked for expanded programming in Plainview at the neighborhood resource center, specifically looking for spaces for our youth to be more involved in, so they are not roaming plain view uh as well as more technical job skill building.

We, when Mike and I both came on board, decided were engaged in many conversations at the Plainview Neighborhood Association.

They were really the leaders of what uh services and and specific items in the building we were looking for.

They put together um a video also with help from the city of Wichita advocating for this specific built.

Um in specifically making sure a gymnasium was included for youth space that they could do digital skill building and have continued classrooms for more skills for job um prep.

We have engaged the district advisory board, dab three several times about this, as well as the Plainview community um in smaller sex is and the different stakeholders who do a lot of work in Plainview.

Um that includes Chapel Hill.

They've been a really big advocate.

They were trying to donate space specifically to see this happen.

Um, and we're kind of the the group that got the ball rolling for us to eventually have a community center conversation at all.

Is there anything else you would like comment?

No, that's great.

I have two more questions, but they're probably for Paul.

Okay.

Paul, if you could advance to slide 32.

Thank you.

I I just want to make sure I understood this because I I heard something that Councilmember Holheisel said, but something's not clicking with me.

So under property acquisition and building demo cost, the cost of the the property right now from 259 is listed at 2.9 million.

Is that correct?

That is correct, yes.

So in this estimate, we're assuming that we're gonna get a really good deal of going from 2.9 million to 1 million, and we're going to ask them to scrape part of the building and remove it.

That would be our offer to yes, D 259, yes.

Okay.

So not only are we asking for a 1.9 million dollar reduction in the cost of the property, but then we're assuming that they would then assume the responsibility of paying for the scraping of the portion of the building we don't want.

Correct.

Everything that is left of which is begins with two-story of this uh colored portion that we have and do we have any sort of tentative memorandum of understanding with 259 that they would be willing to do that because it's a 1.9 million dollar reduction in the cost, but then also asking them to scrape and remove part of the building could I don't even have a clue how much that could cost, but substantial.

Correct, yes, and we do not that I'm aware of.

Okay, so it's it's just uh uh speculation that okay.

My last question is something that's really important to me that you mentioned, and I appreciate it.

Um, is that they'd be be before and after school programming for kiddos, um, the gymnasium, but then also computer classes, tutoring, ESL, that's what I heard, correct?

And part of the reason that this location is selected is because the Colvin students could walk to the new location.

Is that accurate?

That is correct.

Instead of yes, instead of being transported to the existing Jardine Middle School.

Could they walk from Jardine?

I think we had looked at that.

That is approximately a half a mile, and it's probably a 10-minute walk, which with students probably longer.

Okay, okay.

Thanks so much, appreciate it.

Councilmember Glascock.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Paul, just a few quick questions, and we may have to bring in the city manager or somebody from the CSR department too.

What are the number of rec centers or community centers per district right now?

I would need to reach out to probably Reggie on that.

I can see that question.

So currently there are three in district one, uh one in district three, uh, one in district six, uh, one in district four, and one in district two.

So thank you.

A few additional questions.

I know Colvin's right across the street.

If we can go back to that image.

Okay.

So we're looking at the far right part of the image.

Colvin, from what I could find, has a gym located there just directly across the street.

So let's say we build a neighbor or build a community center aspect of it, but have a shared gym space.

That's probably often not used in the evenings of an elementary school.

Have we had conversations specifically with USD 259 just about the rental space of a gym or the use of a gym in the evening that we don't maybe need the rest of the office space, but just the gym portion of it.

Sorry.

There were existing partnerships with 259 in the past for the NRC to use the neighborhood resource center to use the gym for open gym space for youth.

Um that was ended, and they are not been open to renegotiating that program.

Is that with the district specifically or with the school?

The district.

So with the district.

Okay.

Um two other questions.

So looking at the budget allocation, it's 9,937,299 exactly.

The exact construction cost estimated as 9,937,299.

That comes out to $584 per square foot for the facility, which is seemingly pretty high in new construction cost, while the Jardine Middle School portion comes out to 275 per square foot.

Can you just talk about the discrepancy of what is the average cost per square foot of a new build versus reconstruction?

And 584 just sounds pretty high for new build.

So have there been multiple bids, multiple construction estimates yet.

I think that was the budget that we probably put in there, Councilmember Glasscock.

Um we would probably we would need to get it designed and then have the uh actual cost come out.

So that was the budgeted number I put in that slide.

What is our average per square foot for a new build?

I don't know that I have that.

I would have to get back with you on that, Councilmember.

I don't think I may have additional questions, but that's probably my biggest question right now.

I have multiple questions, so um, I think I should probably give some background.

Um thank you, Councilmember Johnson, for mentioning the lactation uh room, because I actually was looking at the minutes from the January 2nd, 2024 meeting when this was discussed and passed, and you did ask about the J for janitorial, and you asked about lactation.

So I'm appreciative that you keep bringing that uh topic up.

Um however, as I was looking at these minutes, uh this was the meeting right before uh a new council came into office, and uh in that meeting, uh the vote was 6-1 with council member then Fry uh voting against it, and he did raise some questions that I wanted to bring back up because I I'm just curious where we're at when it comes to the deferred maintenance and the park main maintenance system because this was I guess money that was then transferred over to create this new rec center uh from park maintenance.

So, where are we at on park maintenance first?

So, mayor, I want to make sure I understand your question uh specifically.

Are you referring to existing facilities that we're working on in the dollars that we have allocated there?

Uh so during the January 2nd, 2024 meeting, council member Fry asked specifically uh because that agenda item showed that deferred um by doing this project, the community center, there would be an impact to the park maintenance system.

So I wanted to know has that changed or is that still as is?

Does anyone know?

If I can help, I believe that the discussion was about building a second maintenance facility out west, if I remember correctly, and we had that originally in the CIP at that time in 2031 for design and 2033 for construction.

Alsked about making sure that there was a recenter master plan.

I know that we're undergoing a park master plan at this current moment.

Can you address a rec center master plan?

So uh what we were referring to on the master plan is the overall plan that we actually do for uh all of our amenities and everything that we do in this in the system itself, and that's what we're currently going through now.

What he may be uh referring to as our recreation master plan that we do with the type of programs that we offer in the community.

So this will be consistent with that with the type of programs that we offer to serve that community where there's a need.

Thank you, Reggie.

Um, since I am looking at the recreation center budgets operating, can we go back to the slide regarding the operating costs between Jardine and uh a new build?

Can you provide uh the work behind those two numbers?

Uh this is really for Paul regarding the operating budget because I'm looking right now at the rec operating budgets for brewer uh at 13,864 square feet, but it will increase to 30,000 by this November, and that operating budget is 230,000, whereas also Edgemore has 14,925 square feet, and the operating budget is 261,662.

And so those two square footages are below the new build, which is 17,000, and the operating budget is 80 something thousand.

So we had Mayor, we had looked at um existing facilities that we have for maintenance costs, is what we base the number on.

Um I think part of those operating costs that you have include staff as well.

So these were just maintenance costs of the building.

So it was a we took the average of what we have in 2025 for operational maintenance cost of existing facilities.

Um we use that as a square foot basis, and then we increase the existing um approximately 30 percent for existing space per square foot.

So it was just maintenance cost of the square footage, it did not include um staff time because we believe that staff would probably be equal in both either Jardine renovated space or the new facility.

Same amount of staff for either space, 40,000 or 17,000.

Also, um in the January 2nd minutes, um, and also what was passed was an 18,000 square foot building, and now we're talking about 17,000.

Has that now been reduced in size?

Now I think it's yeah, I think I had approximately 17,000 square feet.

So which one should I work off of?

The one from January 2nd, 2024, which says 18,000 square feet, or this new one that's a 17,000 square feet.

I'm trying to see if there was square footage on this mayor.

Apologize I would sorry, I would work off the 17 square feet, 17,000 square feet as it is today.

Thank you.

So I have a follow-up question to council member uh Glasscock's question.

Uh sorry, I'm correct.

It is 18,400.

I see it down at the bottom of the sheet now.

Apologize.

So our green sheet is incorrect.

Correct, based on this, yes.

This is starting to frustrate me seeing that green sheets are inaccurate.

Um I would just like to make sure that when we're comparing apples to apples in this situation, we're actually talking about a specific amount.

The reason why I'm asking is because I have a question specifically to the square footage.

So now it's 18,000 square feet.

Um the question was per square foot.

I think council member uh Glascock asked this, but I want you to calculate it so that we have it accurately.

I believe jardine would remain the same as the renovation space because that square footage is not changing.

I do not have the estimated dollar per square foot for new to multiply that out by the eighteen thousand four hundred.

If you don't mind going back to that slide so that we're there we go, thank you.

Um so for jardine, eleven million divided by 40,000.

Um so that one would be approximately 275 dollars per square foot.

Okay.

And then jardine, it is inaccurate, 17,000 is incorrect.

We'll go with 18,000.

Um 18,000 would be 555 per square foot.

Can you just tell me just based off of the cost of the space?

Why would I guess the recommendation is new build, but the square footage per square foot is actually lower at jardine versus at a new build?

Again, this nine million nine hundred and thirty-seven thousand two hundred ninety-nine, that was the budgeted amount that we have for within the budget right now.

So I did not have a estimated construction cost at this time based on we do not have it completely designed.

I have several more questions.

Um the contract itself with SFS architecture actually says new build is going to be 7.87 million dollars.

But again, our green sheet says 9.9.

Can you break that down for me?

Which one is accurate?

And does 9.9 include furnishings?

Oh, sorry.

I can't speak to the first half, but 9.9 does include furnishings and technology and AV.

9.9 will include furnishings and technology as well as the new build and design.

So all encompassing 9.9.

Is that accurate?

So I I believe this uh you're right.

I see this uh project understanding and budget that's you do have the construction budget of 7.87 million dollars.

Um design costs are approximately 1.12 million dollars.

So that that does leave the uh uh from the budget approximately eight million dollars for construction.

Thank you.

Councilmember Glasscock, I have several questions left.

I just have one.

So the total budget amount is nine thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven two hundred and eighty-nine without construction estimates, correct?

So that's just our budgeted amount.

That's our budgeting amount.

So taking it's five hundred and forty dollars per square foot.

The advanced learning library granite before COVID was three hundred and thirty-three dollars per square foot.

So what is the incentive for staff to be able to go under budget on this project and not go to the full capacity of five hundred and forty dollars per square foot, which seems above market value?

What is the incentive for us to go under budget on this project?

So let me back up just a little minute, Councilmember Glasscock.

So if we have the 9.9 million dollar budget, as you mentioned.

And we have approximately 1.2 million dollars in design costs, leaves $8.7 million of the budget for construction cost.

Leaves $8.7 million of the budget for construction cost.

If we divided that by the $18,400, that's approximately $474 per square foot.

But that's those are estimates at this time without final design.

So I guess this would be more of a policy question, Member for Bob.

What is the incentive for us to try to save money on this project?

Because I don't most projects that come before this body have not been under budget.

They've sometimes we've exceeded budget allocations for it or had it come for additional allocations.

So 474 still seems probably above market value.

But I know doing the cost of government is a little more expensive than the private sector.

What is the incentive?

Do we have any incentive to not capitalize on the total $9,937,000 budget?

I can talk about what it's taken to get to this point.

We have tried to fix the budget, get a target amount, and then have reduced programming in order to try to bring that within the estimate.

Sorry, I've got blank on the term.

Value engineering.

Yeah, value engineering to bring the cost down, and we will do that frequently with architects.

Okay.

So you don't expect during the construction that we're going to come back and have to increase this budget at all from the 9 million 937,000.

We'll continue to look if if the estimates come in significantly higher than that, we will regroup and talk about re again reprogramming.

How to fit within this budget.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

Paul, I think you said the actual building cost was 7.8 million plus the design cost.

If you take the 7.8 million divided by 184 square, 18,400 square feet, I think it's 424 dollars a square foot.

Yeah, I took the 9.937 minus the the uh our total budget minus the design cost to come up with.

Yeah, yeah.

There's some furniture fixtures in there too, though.

Correct, correct.

Yeah, it really said 7.8 million.

So to count Councilman Glasscock's point, I think that's in line post-COVID.

I think you're seeing a 25-30 percent increase in building cost.

So I'm comfortable with that.

I have a couple council member total.

Sorry about that.

Um, I just have a question, and it's probably for legal or maybe for city manager, but we have the green sheet, right?

And then I I just want to make sure I understand this.

We have the contract for design services, and it's with SFS architecture, and it was on August 7th of 2025, so a couple weeks ago, and it's already signed.

So was that signed be I I guess if you could just maybe help me understand.

Have we already signed an agreement with them?

And is it too late to go back?

Um checking on that.

I thought this was to approve the agreement.

I'm not sure why that is signed and attached.

It was I believe this was originally scheduled for the consent agenda on August 7th at that time.

So I guess my question then, and and I am asking a question I obviously don't know the answer to.

If the agreement's already been signed, is it I mean no mayor?

That's an error.

I don't know how it got into the mayor's signature folder, but that should not go to the that it's not valid until it's approved by the council.

Okay, thank you.

I have several more questions.

So I'm looking at the green sheet, and forty thousand square feet is obviously more than the allotted 18,400 for a new build.

Um, and it says, quote, more than double the size necessary for programming needs.

And that may be true, but then I'm confused because the following sentences say approximately 8,000 of the 40,000 square feet is auditorium, which then limits programmable space.

So even if you you took away the 8,000 in the auditorium, that's about 32,000.

Isn't that more programmable space than the new build?

It would be.

I think the what we were trying to get at is this how we can parcel up this building to meet our needs.

And with the location of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing um room there in red, which is to the left, you know, it's uh that space has to be included because it serves um you know the the building, all of the building.

Um so we can't cut that out, and unfortunately, the auditorium space is kind of right in the middle of the of the whole 40,000 square feet.

So, but to your point, yeah, 32,000 would still be um usable, but again, you know, it's the it's difficult to parse it out look knowing where the mechanical electrical plumbing room is.

Thank you.

And I also have a question regarding the entrance, the new entrance that would be proposed in this Jardine uh redraw.

My question then is there are two purple uh rooms that are where the auditorium is located.

I believe those are classroom size or office size.

Why was that not considered as the front door to the center?

And why would a new build have to be uh constructed over there when you literally have no, you can go back to that drawing?

Sorry.

Um what why was the front door currently not being considered as the front door to uh to the new community center?

And mayor, I I I skipped over to this uh drawing because that is uh as you can see that the um the proposed expansion is adjacent to the existing parking lot providing better access to if you look at the Jardine school here over to the left of the screen.

The expansion would be to the northeast of it, adjacent to the parking lot instead of folks parking and then having to walk around the building into the existing entrance.

Isn't that what people currently do?

And it's okay to do it, would you walk around?

We thought this would be a better experience.

So, in other words, not necessary, but this so this red area is necessary, or you could modify the current front door to the facility with those two purple rooms that could be offices or classroom space.

You could modify that space.

The reason the entrance was relocated is we serve different populations.

Jardine Middle School serves middle school students, um, most of whom are able-bodied.

The neighborhood resource center serves a vastly elderly and disabled population, so giving them clearer access to a front door was seen as important.

Thank you.

And then I know that someone mentioned transportation.

Um it is actually 0.4 miles from Jardine to Colvin, and it is a 10-minute walk.

Um, and so I just wanted to know when I was talking to some community members.

Um, community would like to be helpful in any ideas.

Have we thought about maybe even activating churches or even groups that have vans um that are nonprofit organizations in helping transport the little kids, whereas the older kids can walk to this location?

And one of the challenges with that is because we are a licensed childcare facility, so anyone that's there has to go through FBI uh fingerprint background check uh poor to be able to transport to be in the same space where the kids are.

And sometimes that can be a challenge with working with some community groups.

And then wanted to know um what other community partners have decided that they're going to lease space in the new build.

We have made no uh decisions on who will be leased in the new build.

We are gonna go through an RFQ process for that based on community needs and what they want to see in their community center.

And so the city would still be a uh uh property owner that then would have tenants.

Is that correct with a new build?

Neighborhood resource centers don't really lease.

We share space because we are not allowed to make money on CDBG funded specific buildings.

Um housing can get more into that than I can, but we we typically just share partners and have MOUs, but we would still go through an RFQ process for that.

City manager, any other buildings um have similar arrangements?

Uh Evergreen's a great example.

Um we also have partners in um the Atwater Center as well.

And then lastly, can you go back to um just the drawing of Jardine?

There we go.

Thank you.

So I I've walked around this space multiple times now, and for full disclosure, um, again, you provided background.

Councilmember Hoheisel has been really great at trying to make this work.

Um, and unfortunately, it seems like there's multiple barriers every single time.

Um my big thing is I don't want to see a blighted building in that neighborhood, which is within walking distance of a new community center that we're about to build.

So I know that councilmember Hoheisel has a reasoning why we need to move forward with this.

Can you tell me again why Jardine just does not work?

Uh there's a number of reasons.

Uh, we did pause the project for eight months to do due diligence.

Um, and in that time costs did rise as well.

Uh, costs continue to rise on materials.

That's why I'm hesitant to delay this any further because then our footprint gets smaller, and our ability to actually have the full build that we have planned continues to decrease.

Uh, there's a number of issues.

If we do buy jardine, it would be like buying the downtown library with all the deferred maintenance that we would be responsible for further down the line.

That's also reliant on a number of things.

The proposal that we had, USD 259 coming down two-thirds on the price, agreeing to demo, finding suitable partners who would want to come in and be able to actually do the maintenance as well.

We have the heating and cooling costs for the entire building.

We have responsibilities also for Grace Med who is on the campus as well, that we would inherit from USD 259 for this.

Uh, this it's just if we go back to the ongoing cost as well, the ongoing maintenance that would happen.

This is something that was very painful for me to accept.

I try to look every possible way of making this work, and I just think we owe it to the taxpayers to not get into a boondoggle that would affect us further down the line with ongoing cost every single year.

Um, our estimates match USD 259 as well.

So this isn't us trying to um overestimate the actual rehab that we have to go into this building.

I I love this building.

I would love nothing more for us to be able to go in and program it.

It's too big of a bite of an apple for us to really get into at this time.

Thank you, Councilmember Hoheisel.

And I know that he has been working hard with his community service representative Becca on trying to see if Jardine could work.

And I have again walked through this space three times.

The entire building is 110,000 square feet, and we don't need that much space.

And 40,000 is more than the uh current 18,400 new build.

And so I just want to make sure that we've looked at all of our options, and so I want to know so the options right now on the table are just new build and buy Jardine and have a portion of it demolished by USD 259.

Are there any other options, City Manager?

Well, I think the the only thing that we did look at, Mayor, that you mentioned was buying the entire facility, and of course that comes with significant investment uh into the building, and then you'd have to find community partners who probably will not cover the operating costs.

So that was the biggest concern we had.

When we analyze the building, it's as you mentioned it's over 100,000 square feet of space, significant deferred maintenance.

That's one of the reasons why the school board um voted to close it down.

We believe it would take about 20 million dollars to deal with the deferred maintenance with the additional money required going forward.

So I'm not sure the I think the most viable options are the ones that are in front of you today, and that would be a new facility or uh trying to make the 40,000 square feet work.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, can we go to the slide with uh the new build, please?

We we have had contact with a couple of organizations who was interested at the front of this project at the front end of this project as well.

Um funding has dried up for them as well over the past year or so with budget cuts and uh federal grants disappearing and whatnot.

They have still expressed interest in helping out with this.

Uh you'll see new attachments, future additions on this as well.

We are setting this up so that way in the future, if more funding does become available, if other partners want to come in and put some of their resources towards us as well.

Uh that we could build onto this in the future and partner with them so that way we do have shared space, and they wouldn't have to do a new build themselves as well.

So we are trying to be respectful and mindful of the partners who want to come in.

We want to support these partners as much as we can, uh, and we want to do it responsibly for the community and for the shareholders as well, the taxpayers as well.

So one of the major ones expressed again interest in partnering with us further down the road.

Uh we met with them earlier this year, and this is um kind of what they were telling us after they found out we were not going into Jardine, and they said they did not have the capital to actually help out with ongoing maintenance costs and investing in the building as well.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

Um, this is a question for legal.

Um put you to work today, Jennifer.

Sorry.

So I just want to something I said earlier, and then I heard it repeated again, and I just want to make sure that I have a good understanding.

So the recommended action right now is that we approve the design contract, correct?

That is the recommended action.

Yeah.

So the vote today is yes for the design contract or no for the design contract.

That that doesn't necessarily mean we move forward with jardine because that's a whole new agenda item, and we have a council policy that says any new agenda items will be put on the agenda the Thursday prior to the meeting, because it's not one or the other, it's approving the contract or not approving the contract, and then we'd have to decide how to proceed, correct?

That's how I would interpret it.

Okay, because I I said it before, and I'll I'll just say it again.

Um my concern, I have lots of concerns, but I in this real estate market, I'm just not confident that USD 259 is going to accept 1.9 million dollars less and agree to scrape part of the building.

So I the that's what's resonating in my mind right now.

So thank you for the clarification, Jennifer.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

No.

Um, I have one more question.

Uh this is more about programming the space.

So I'm looking at various uh community centers and uh revenue that's coming into those centers is meeting room rental.

So we charge for some of that space.

Maybe I'll ask Reggie that question.

Um how are these rec centers?

Do they generate any revenue?

They do.

We actually have uh uh set rental rates for each of the spaces there, and we have a standard rate, and then we also have a 25% discount for nonprofits that are actually use it.

But we also partner with uh community groups like neighborhood associations who host meeting meetings there on site.

There may not be a cost for those type of organizations uh that use the space.

And also I see that so meeting room rentals is a revenue generator, and another one is lessons and classes.

Can you address that?

Would this rec center also have lessons and classes?

That's correct.

So part of what we do with it as well, we go out to the community and get feedback on what type of programs and services they want to see offered at the site, and then we look at options either through grant funding or through other funding opportunities to offset some of that cost so it's affordable for the community to take advantage of.

Can you also address if anywhere in our park and rec system, do we have an auditorium, an indoor auditorium besides the city council chambers?

Uh we do not have an indoor auditorium area.

So would that be a uh revenue possible revenue generator to rent out the space in that auditorium if Jardine was one of the uh locations?

To my notice, we haven't received any requests for auditorium space for usage from the community.

Uh so I wouldn't be able to give uh accurate assessment if that would be something that would generate revenue.

So, as of right now, no need for auditorium space in the city of Wichita.

Not with our rec program is that we currently offer.

Thank you very much.

With that, I see no further questions.

We will now open it up for public comment.

Anyone from the public can state their name, and you have five minutes to speak.

Well, good morning.

Uh Chuck Knowles, uh 1945 North Meridian.

Thank you, Mayor and Council members for the opportunity to share our perspectives as we uh look at a multi-million dollar building.

Um as a taxpayer, I believe it's essential to evaluate not only the financial cost of a new building, but also the broader perspective of how it will impact or the impact it'll have on our community.

Uh a building is more than brick and mortar.

It can be a vessel a vessel for programs, services, and opportunities to shape lives.

I would like to ask that we consider how this investment will enhance the well-being of all who call this community home.

I'm the founder and CEO of McAdams Academy.

McAdams serves high-risk youth expelled from school or youth who are unable to function in traditional school settings due to behavioral issues.

Most citizens do not know or believe that uh when students are expelled from school, they have no educational options during their expulsion.

McAdams steps in to fill that gap, offering not just academic but behavioral and inter behavioral intervention and uh support their families.

Uh for over a decade, McAdams staff and volunteers have helped transform the lives of these neglected youth.

Last year, uh while expelled from school, instead of sending it home on or in the streets, uh 14 young people at McAdams completed enough credits to earn a Kansas high school diploma, and one even earned dual high school and uh college credits.

We also provide daily mentorship uh counseling, tutoring, a GED program for students and parents, life skills and job readiness training.

Each student has an individualized behavioral and academic plan that allows them to continue earning high school credits while addressing their behavior uh that continues to negatively uh impact their lives.

For the past three years, McAdams has been looking at for a permanent home to bring together under one roof city and community-based programs, uh other 501c3 organizations and businesses that have uh day-to-day contact within our economically disadvantaged communities and know their real uh day-to-day needs.

The reason I'm speaking this morning is that over the past year, McAdams, along with other organizations, has been exploring the possibility of transforming Jardine Middle School into a collaboration center dedicated to meeting the practical needs of our struggling youth and the neighborhoods they come from.

Uh for that reason I've submitted a letter of intent to purchase Jardine Middle School.

Jardine would be a great collaboration center that could uh immediately start addressing the needs of the Plainview area without spending millions of dollars and waiting 18 to 24 months uh for a new building.

Uh there are areas within Jardine that have been updated to meet current safety requirements and building codes, and uh keep in mind that children were attending classes in Jardine during the 23-24 school year.

Uh last school year was the first year the city uh the school sat empty.

A thriving community understands the value of a strong working relationship between local city government and community-based organizations.

Uh, no matter what role we play in that partnership, we must continue asking ourselves uh are we helping neighbors towards success or are we unknowingly setting them up for failure?

Uh spending several uh millions of dollars on a new building is not necessarily wrong, but bricks and mortar alone do not change lives.

It's the relationships, the accessibility, and the collaboration within that space uh that create uh real transformation within individuals.

So I appreciate the opportunity to come and speak, and I would be uh open to any questions you might have.

Thank you, Chuck.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Chuck, for coming and meeting again today with us.

Um I believe in your mission.

I believe in what you do.

I believe there's definitely a need in the community.

Um I would like to continue to support you.

I have written a letter of support.

I have also um indicated our willingness to to look at having you guys in the new community center as well.

Um this building is if it was right sized, it would be perfect for a collaboration if it wasn't so far behind in some of the maintenance issues, and when it does transfer hands, we are held to a different set of standards, HUD standards as far as what we have to invest in the building.

So I do appreciate you coming forward and talking and just pushing the message out there because it's something I do want more people to be aware of.

Again, I do support you guys.

Yep, I appreciate that.

And I want to make sure, and again, um we talked about the future editions.

We talked about some of the programming in our building.

Um, and I would be more than happy to have you guys in there helping us out.

The difficult thing with um with uh McAdams is that uh our children, once they're expelled, they're not allowed on uh public school uh grounds.

So I'm not sure our kids could go to a building or we could lease space new space, you know, in in a building you would build.

Uh uh so that that's a big uh hurdle to jump.

I I appreciate it.

I think um you wouldn't have to the because we are exchanging land with the school district for the parking law.

So I don't think there would have to be any part of you guys actually being on school property um after this project goes through.

Thank you.

It's good information.

Yes, sir.

Councilmember Hoheisel, you mentioned exchanging land with the school district with the new build, there's still an exchange.

The the current Colvin Center, which is maybe a third of the size of this room, if not less, um, would be exchanged for um additional parking space at the end of their parking lot.

Uh Becca, could you clarify that one a little more?

We're still on talks with that one.

There is a small strip at the very back of the playground fields for Colvin Elementary that are not utilized, that we would be putting a uh small road on that you could access the parking lot for the new facility without having to cut through the existing clothing parking lot.

Thank you.

So there are opportunities.

Um I know that Councilmember Tuttle mentioned uh we it would be a hope that 259 would do some of the things that have been um discussed.

Council uh before I ask further questions to McAdams, city manager, can you address what have conversations been like over the last year with USD 259?

I know that uh the city of Wichita was very fortunate in getting a collaboration with USD 259 with Park Elementary School, and we're very grateful that they wanted to be a partner in helping address homelessness in our community by having a shuttered school in midtown, now become the second light campus.

How is the this is obviously different?

This is a community center.

Can you address where conversations have been with USD 259?

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I have had conversations with the superintendent, they have been just preliminary conversations, no negotiations.

He indicated that uh the school board looks at this building differently than they did park elementary, um, and that they um would they they are still trying to recover, they'd like to recover something close to what they deem to be fair market value on the property.

Doesn't mean necessarily it would be a 2.9 million, but that is the asking price, and it's listed with a broker as you know.

Um I have uh so we've had discussions, he confirmed that their estimates for uh upgrade and addressing deferred maintenance are similar to ours, so he knows the amount of money that we would have to put into the building uh over time.

He um so he he hasn't given me a number, but he believes it has to be much closer to the 2.9 if we were to buy the whole building.

I on Friday I did tell him that we were having this discussion uh today and indicated that we were going to at least broach the uh the concept of paying the same square foot cost for a reduced footprint, and that we would then ask the soup the uh district to um uh uh demolish the remainder of the building.

He appreciated knowing that, didn't agree or disagree, just simply at that point we are I I wanted to make sure he wasn't surprised and he knew the concept that we were exploring with the council.

And so if we were to move in that direction, we would have to have much more discussion with them regarding what the fair value of the building would be and the responsibilities for the remainder of Jardine if we only purchased a portion of it.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mayor Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

Chuck, thanks for coming today.

You bet.

Uh we talked yesterday, um, had a nice conversation, always appreciate that.

Uh, can you give an update on where you are with your fundraising?

How much you have in the bank, how much you have committed to where I'm at in the fundraising.

I mean, it's yeah, how much do you have in the bank right now?

That's that's ongoing.

But uh my my fundraising dollar amount is uh like 1.2 is what what we've raised to uh buy a building.

We've been going at this for three years, had have had several disappointments.

Uh but uh that's about where we're at.

It's cash and commitments, pledges, yeah.

Pledges.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um I also suggested the idea of you possibly adding on, building on to a new recenter.

So and I know you have a board meeting tonight.

Yes.

Okay.

So I hope you bring that forward to them.

I think that might be a good option.

Could still share spaces, could share the gym, uh maybe some other meeting rooms also.

So just as a possibility.

One of our unique positions is that as a 501c3, and plus what we do, believe it or not, is not real popular.

It's it's always a challenge to get people to understand the real need of our students and their families.

And uh so I'm looking for different revenues of income or streams of uh income.

And so part of it is we can start small in Jardine, and then we will uh there are several organizations that have already interested in leasing space from us, and so that's how we plan to continue uh to slowly expand.

We don't have to come in and uh demolish everything.

Um budget wise and the way we have designed the concept, I think we're it'll be a challenge, but uh at least our kids will have a permanent home uh for a school.

Yeah, I believe in what you're doing.

Yeah, thank you great job.

I appreciate it very much.

Years ago, uh Willard Elementary used to do that for 259, and they closed it a long time ago.

And so now you've picked that up.

So it's much needed, and I I really appreciate you doing it.

Well, thank you for your encouragement.

Chuck, thank you again for not just what you do, but also trying to see how you can better invest in District Three.

Um I really appreciate you saying that what you want is the vision as a collaboration center.

Yes.

So my question then is would we be in competition with you if we built a city community center with collaborators, and you would too, and two separate gyms, one at your location and a gym 0.4 miles from you.

Are you we in direct competition with you?

Well, uh, I would hope not.

Um the problem with most organizations is they become inward looking and become selfish, and I hope that we could not do that.

My concern is is uh our students and their families.

You can change students, uh you can change families.

Ultimately, we need to change the community, and that's how we do this.

Uh but uh I I think there are so many advantages uh partnering uh with the city and finding out what our real strengths are.

Uh being a uh a 501c3, our hands are not restricted and tied as much as uh a city organization.

So I I don't see that.

Um I see it as a positive, and and especially with as much support as as a council uh has for McHannams.

I uh I think it's a it's a win-win.

So and I appreciate that there is more flexibility with a 501c3 than here with City of Wichita slash HUD dollars.

Can you so I see right now obviously we have an opportunity to build a new building?

That's option one.

Option two is renovate a portion of Jardine, possibly, that's option two.

Option three, again, the city of Wichita owning this former middle school, and then possibly leasing out space to others.

That's option three, possibly.

And then what you've also mentioned now is option four, which is you want to buy jardine.

So my question then is has that been explored if we became the the tenant instead of the owner of the space.

Uh mayor, good question.

If for that to work, the owner would have to be able to make improvements, the improvements that we anticipate to the 40,000 square foot space or some space, so it would be usable for us.

Um we could not invest in that because it's owned by someone else, so we'd be investing in their leasehold interest.

So that would have to be they'd have to incur those expenses, and then that would be reflected in our ongoing lease.

Difficulty in that is that those a lease payment will be operating budget, so we'd have to come up with operating funds on an annual basis versus capital improvement funds, which are designated right now that we could put in the front end of the project, probably 50% cash, 50% debt funded.

So that would that's the downside to that.

Somebody would have to make that space um usable for us.

And our estimate today is 11 million dollars.

It's maybe if someone could do it uh at a different price, um, you know, that that would be factored into what they would charge us for rent, which I imagine would be pretty substantial because they'd want to recover that over, I don't know, a 10 or 20 year period.

So if the city, so what I'm hearing, I guess right now is possibly McAdams buying this property, and if we were to lease, they would have to make all the improvements.

Correct.

We wouldn't want to invest our dollars into somebody else's building and and not know how we would recover that.

Thank you, City Manager.

And thank you again, Chuck.

Thank you.

We'll continue with public comment.

Um might be afternoon by now, but um I'm in resident of district three under my co-heizel.

So um I'm Genevieve Howerton.

Um I'm very excited about the prospect of this um community center district three.

It's a huge consideration, and we're desperately need some investment in that district.

So um the idea of an updated community center is exciting for everyone.

They are friends that I have.

Um it's a great idea.

So um the need is clear residents in that area.

Um we have higher levels, higher levels of pro poverty and limited access to youth and educational programs.

So the center would truly change lives.

Um that said, there have been a lot of questions today and proposals, and I believe it's our duty to make sure that this project is handled with care and financial responsibility.

So I want to thank everyone, especially you, for all the time that you've spent on this.

And I would respectfully request that the council consider holding off on approving this budget, this design contract today, and take additional time to allow any of the questions that were asked today.

Um, just resolve some of those, and then we can review the projected plans, the cost, the and evaluate all available options.

Uh District 3 deserves not just an updated facility, but also the confidence that this project was managed with full transparency and financial accountability.

So I'm truly excited about the future of the center, and as district three desperately needs this investment, so I look forward to seeing it grow our community.

Uh but before moving ahead, I urge you to ensure that all options have been explored and give this project one more careful review.

So when we do move forward, it can be so do so with confidence.

So thank you.

Thank you, Genevieve.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Jenna, for coming up and uh given your perspective today.

I agree this is something that we need to have happen for the good of our constituents and our neighbors in district three.

It has been um quite a while since we have invested in basic amenities in our district like that.

Um we did just delay this for a couple of weeks to get additional information out there.

Um to be completely honest, the clock is ticking.

Um I think we are already uh losing some ground as far as the delay originally, six-month delay to uh look into the feasibility of going into jardine.

Um prices continue to go up.

We have tariffs just around the corner.

Sometimes you hear that, sometimes it gets delayed even longer.

Um I I do feel like we have been open and transparent and looked at um all the scenarios of possibilities with it so far.

So I do appreciate you coming up and um given your support to the project overall.

Um I I do feel like we have exercised transparency and our due diligence so far with this.

So thank you again.

Thank you, Councilmember Hoheisel.

I will address this.

Thank you for um delaying it for two weeks, a week and a half or so.

Uh this was delayed from the August 4th evening meeting to today.

Um and so it did allow for more time for discussion, but I want to make mention that during that consent agenda item on August the 4th, it did not have any information regarding jardine.

So uh with that, I think that this is new information, and I agree with Councilmember Tuttle.

You know, we have a lot of uh things that still need answered.

Um, and so my question then to the staff and city manager is according to uh councilmember Hoheisel, the clock is ticking.

Can you address what a delay of another week, what a delay of a month before coming back to the council would mean in terms of any financial uh additional costs or um any obligations that we would have Mayor?

I don't I in terms of obligations, I don't think there are any obligations that we have that would be impacted.

Um this is uh we're in a different time now, and I think the the only wild card in all of this is what will happen with construction cost and and the impact of tariffs, those are pretty been those it seems as if those are pretty well established, although they continue to move that target moves.

Um it's I can't tell you for sure that it's um that a one-week delay is gonna make any difference in that regard.

Uh the further we go, the later our design is, and then you know, do we miss a construction season?

I don't know, we'd have to plot all of that out.

Um, but it's always the will of the council in terms of the direction you want to go.

Maybe this question is more for Paul then.

Uh what is that construction timeline?

So this specific agenda item is for $820,565 just for the design, not for the build, just the design.

Can you address the timeline it would take as of right now?

For once design is complete for construction time.

Can you give some timeline measurements?

For instance, how long it would take for design, when construction would approximately be when construction would commence and end, and when actual individuals could be inside a new facility.

So I think um product contract, I think they're estimating design to take approximately 28 weeks, which is six months or so.

Um my guess is construction would probably be maybe a year.

Would be my guess.

So this really would not even have individuals until 2027.

At this time, yeah, that'd be yes.

So in the meantime, we have a lot of space in a current building.

They even have a gym.

My my question really is about how to best utilize taxpayer dollars.

And I understand that USD 259 uh gets taxpayer dollars for that building, different than the city of Wichita and our tax dollars, but they are the same taxed individuals, so property tax owners.

I guess I'm asking there are so many options here at the table that still haven't been fully flushed out, and the only delay would be delaying more design work, which will take another six months anyways.

Why cannot we del pause this for another month to really flush out some of these ideas?

Um I guess that's my question really to Councilmember Hoheisel.

Just a delay, especially a delay of a month to flush out some of these ideas.

I I would say that we would have over we have eight million dollars that would have to be rehabbed in the current building.

So it's not move in ready.

It would probably be a full year anyways to get that construction done before the building would be able to be open and operating.

Um and again, we've we've delayed this, we've ran the traps, we've talked to the partners who have been interested.

Uh we've reached out repeatedly, uh, we've delayed this project already.

Um we can still have conversations, and there are still opportunities to work with partners coming in on this project.

Um I again I also have uh consternation about um transporting kids from the center to the new center from school to the new center.

Umgoing maintenance costs.

Uh this is this is the responsible move to the taxpayers, in my opinion, is to make sure we don't have ongoing costs.

Again, this would be like putting the downtown library attached to a community center with the ongoing maintenance costs.

We are already having trouble just trying to find people who can't go into the downtown library and do the necessary maintenance upgrades on that one as is.

So I I don't foresee this happening.

Again, we've reached out to multiple organizations looking for the feasibility of going in.

And even before the budget cuts, we only had a certain few responses.

I think this is just continuing to uh delay a project that we can move forward in and that we have done due diligence in.

Thank you for bringing up the former central library, and it's a prime example of why I always say if there's something currently there, how can you make that possible?

Um the current central library is still doesn't have a use right now, and we have not prioritized that.

Uh so it continues to deteriorate.

However, a new roof was put in place uh this year.

And so I appreciate that at least some of the deferred maintenance is getting addressed, but again, this is a prime example of another building.

While we don't own the former Jardine Middle School, that is USD 259.

We do have a an a former central library that the city of Wichita does own, and we have not talked about that.

Yet we're about to build something new.

So it just to me seems like we're not being prudent with taxpayer dollars right now.

And so that's why I'm asking, can we have another delay?

And this delay would be to flush out some of these ideas to see what community partners.

I have also heard from some micro schools that are interested in space.

I've heard from other nonprofits also that would like to utilize some of this space, but maybe it shouldn't be the city of Wichita owning it.

Maybe the city of Wichita should be a lead uh a tenant instead.

And so I'd like to explore those ideas.

So I'm just one person on this council, and my thought on this is halting this or delaying this for just a little bit longer is the prudent thing to do for taxpayers.

But again, we're still continuing with public comment, and we'll come back to some of this uh further in conversation.

But again, it just makes common sense that we would be asking there's a current vacant building not utilized, it has a gym, multiple classrooms.

It could be right now activated with some small improvements.

I mean, kids were there just last year in May, before it shut shuttered down, and I believe the uh boiler um system was upgraded last year as well.

So there are there have been improvements made to that building as well.

And so I'm I'm thinking that this has not been flushed out fully.

So we'll continue with public comment, but I have at this moment in time I still have a major concern of pausing this for another month.

We'll continue with public comment.

Oh, sorry, Councilmember Ballard.

Or council member.

Thank you.

Uh is there anyone here from 259?

Because we're talking an awful lot about a property that is not ours, and I wish there were someone here from USD 259 that would maybe be able to answer some of these questions.

Thank you.

That is a great point, Councilmember Ballard, which is why I think having a pause would be necessary so that there would be some responses.

This was really thrown at them if again the consent agenda, if you look at it on August 4th, did not even talk about Jardine Middle School.

Had it not been for the pause, we would not have had this information in public record.

That's a problem.

So I do believe having a pause is the most prudent and responsible thing to do, especially because we're asking questions about 259 and they're not here.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

I I was trying to wait until we got done with public agenda, but I do want to address that.

Um I don't believe staff had that in the agenda packet because it's not feasible.

The option is to build new with all the work that Councilmember Hoheisel had been doing with Becca and also talking to 259.

It just is not a feasible option.

Um can say it's an option, but also the recommendation was that the best option, which is to build something new and something that Plainview deserves.

So I think that's probably why you didn't see Jardine.

The delay was let's talk about the things that we've already talked about, the things we've already looked into.

Um but I believe that's kind of where we are today.

Many in the community knew about it.

Councilmember Hoheisel's been talking about this for quite some time.

I've been to a Plainview meeting with him.

He talked to the neighborhood about it.

So it it's been talked about, especially in the area.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

And on the track, um, 8.6 million, those aren't small improvements.

I know it might sound that way, but if you work in the trade, that's there's going to be some time behind that.

And also 259, we've been the day that I heard Jardine was closing was the first day that we reached out to them about Jardine.

So we have been in contact with 259.

I think there was a last ditch effort on behalf of people who saw that this was coming up and they wanted to try again to um explore the possibility of getting in there.

But we've done our diligence.

We've done six work uh six months worth of look at it, tried to make it work.

You can talk to the city manager.

I even kind of threw a fit that we weren't going in there uh when we first did it.

But again, we have to be responsible to the taxpayers, and I don't see any way that that would be feasible going into the current building.

We'll continue with public comment.

I see none.

We'll bring it back to the bench.

Councilmember Glascock.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just have some brief comments before we vote.

Um I will be supportive of this today.

Um I do want to express concerns I have about um it's not an often pattern, but it does happen where there's an accuracies in our green sheet.

And if we're set to vote on the documents presented to us before us, it um creates an impediment for us to go back decades old and look at documents that we should be relying on staff to also provide us accurate information.

So that's something that I just want to change for the future, and that's happened a few times from the bench.

Regardless of that, um, I do believe that we do need to do community service or community centers differently in the future.

Um, we need a partner schools in the evenings, and USD 259 has talked about partnerships.

They want the sort of in a moment to step up and figure out how to engage differently.

I'm thankful for their partnership at Park Elementary, but we just recently had an enk about how we can partner better together, and I hope we can continue those conversations as well.

Often people aren't using community centers, but in this neighborhood, people will benefit from community centers.

If there's one spot in our community that it makes sense to have a community center and these resources for kids and families in this area, it is in Plainview.

And I'm thankful for the work, Councilman Hoheisel.

I do think we've explored all options.

Um, and I look forward to supporting this project and uh seeing hopefully the lives that are changed as a result of it.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you very much.

I just wanted to highlight a few things from the green sheet.

Um that you know, if you're in the audience or your viewing, you may not see.

But 40 almost 44% of the households within um Plainview has someone with a disability, and 18% of the population is without health insurance.

Also, almost 34% of the population are 18 years or younger, and half of those of the age of 18, 14 percent lack high school educ diploma, highlighting the need for education and programming.

Um it goes on to tell you more about the average cost of a home, the average cost of a home in Wichita's 270,000 here.

I think it's less than 70,000.

So there's more crime in this area than almost any other part of the city.

So this is a high need area.

Um I think it's an area that it Councilmember Hole Heisel represents well, and he continually reminds us of the need in this area.

And so by offering classes, um, English a second language classes, youth programming to help with middle school and after school students, all the things again, health care programming that are listed, it helps to address the needs of our residents.

And I feel like we reached out to the residents and we asked them what they wanted.

We asked them what we they need.

We say from this bench consistently, our job is to listen to our residents.

They've told us what they wanted, they told us what they needed, they didn't tell us another option.

They said this is how we want to move forward.

Um thank you for letting me share all of that.

My last comment is there's just too many ifs in delaying this.

Uh, I think that this has been going on since 2023.

Um, so it's it's certainly been um uh thoroughly thought out, discussed.

Um we could just keep kicking the can down down the street, but I think we're gonna come back to this option because it is the least expensive option.

If we look at the hope that we'll get it for a million dollars and the hope that they'll scrape it for free, it's still more than a million dollars more than a new build.

A new build is cheaper even under the best options.

So um with that I'm gonna be supportive.

Vice Mayor Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh I did walk through this also with the mayor one whenever three times.

Um when Mr.

Martin said it was 2.9 million.

I looked at him like he was crazy.

And he said, JV, we gotta start somewhere.

Well, you know, probably not gonna get that.

So 2.9 is way too high for that building.

But that being said, I think it has been fully vetted.

I think I Councilmember Hoheisel's done a great job of that.

Uh the need is there.

Uh I spent a couple hours plus down with my CSR, Teresa Visi uh was covering down there, and we had a meeting, and uh it took over two hours.

A 30-minute meeting took over two hours because she kept getting interrupted by the high number of traffic in that in that uh community center.

And there were nine and ten year old kids on their own.

Um people computers were busy the whole time I was there.

Tremendous need for that in this community.

Um also grew up not too far from that community.

We used to ride our bikes down there, so I know it well.

And we have a a clinic just really close to there on Hillside.

So I do know it well, it does need it.

Um I am concerned about taxpayers, and I do think that the new build is the best option for taxpayers.

Uh it will cost less, as councilman uh Tuttle said.

Um, but even more than that, the initial cost, I think the ongoing maintenance cost are what we really need to look at, and there'll be far less in a new build than at Jardine.

So that being said, I will be supportive of this, and uh I appreciate all the efforts been put into it.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

I too will be supportive of this.

Um I believe it has been vetted to the fullest extent, and I don't always share frustrations, but even Councilmember Hoheisel remembers me bugging him about pushing forward with a new building as he continued to look through if Jardine was going to be feasible.

Um so I'll be supportive for those reasons.

I think it is right to invest new in Plain View.

Plain View deserves this type of investment.

I remember the comments from the meetings that we attended, even the neighborhood cleanup I just went to.

Um the the need is there, and this will provide a great opportunity for the folks in Plainview for programming for collaboration for everything.

But uh we heard a lot of good news today.

So we don't own Jardine, USD 259 does.

So what we're hearing today is we can move forward with a new center for Plain View that can provide all those opportunities, and we even have nonprofits looking to purchase Jardine.

That's a win for the community because now the nonprofits can work with the school district to acquire that space, renovate it, and the city will have this facility there.

And I will say I don't feel that there cannot be too much help in Plainview.

There's a lot of need in Plain View.

Um, and us building a community center is gonna be great, and these nonprofit partners taking over Jardine if they can would be even better for that community and the community surrounding it, even looking at proximity a little further away to Oakland.

There's a lot of need there, and I think there should be that type of investment, both from the city and a new center and from nonprofits or whoever in the private sector might want to look into Jardine.

So today I think there's an opportunity for a win-win, and I'll be supportive of this item.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, this has been a long project, but this is one that you do because you see the need in the community.

Um I always think about the kids watching them out there at summer camp, watching them out there walking to and from school, a lot of the needs that they have in the community, the seniors there, um, refugees that live there.

Uh just it's it's a beautiful community.

Um, it's multicultural.

There's so much need there, but there's so much opportunity there.

Um it's all about the residents, it's all about the people that we can help.

And that extends across to other partners who are looking to get in there as well.

I'd love to help out as much as I can to anybody who wants to do work in plain view.

Um, we have a number of groups that we brought in there already.

Um violence interrupters, wall is doing spay and neuter clinics, and we are gonna uh help with some support for them here shortly as well.

Um there's just a number of groups that are already doing the work down there that we want to support.

There's going to be great opportunities for other collaborations as well, whether it be in our building or whether it be in Jardine trying to get people in there to utilize that as well.

I've always had the concern about Jardine being used, um being laying vacant there.

Again, that's why the first day that I heard it was closing.

That's what we started exploring.

Um I also have to maintain the trust of the taxpayers that we're using their funds to intelligently to the best of our ability.

So again, this has been a passion project because I see the real need and I see the real opportunities to help people who need it.

This will also stem crime, not only in the community, but it'll also extend crime that begins in plain view and spreads throughout the community.

Um same thing with poverty as well.

So this is this again.

This has been a while that we've been working on this.

This is a passion project, and so I will recommend that city council approve the design contract and authorized the necessary signatures.

Second motion and a second, any discussion.

I will put my two cents in on why I will be voting no for this.

First and foremost, um, I do believe that it's important to look at all options, and I understand that there has been months of consideration regarding Jardine.

However, I do believe that community partners were not at the table at the same time talking about these.

And if the whole purpose is to have a community collaboration space, whether at Jardine or at the new build, I don't want to see competition with one another.

And especially when there is a building right now with a gym and space that could technically start moving into with very few renovations in some parts of this building.

Kids can start having that activity right now or by the end of this year.

And again, that's why I said pausing and delaying so that we can explore up all options is something that we should do for taxpayers to be prudent with a major investment of nearly 10 million dollars.

And as I've been told from the bench today, it will go no more than 9.9 million dollars.

And I'm very glad to hear that uh that that budget will be set and it will not go any higher.

Um, again, I think that putting a pause for an additional month to explore more options was not a non-prudent idea, but actually a more prudent idea, especially as we're talking about taxpayer dollars.

And so my vote no is not because I don't believe that Plainview and Southeast Wichita deserve this because they do.

I know the resources that are needed, and I'm very grateful that Councilmember Hoheisel has made this his passion project because this will take until 2027 before it's even realized.

However, I think that there is a building right now that is currently shuttered, and while I hope that McAdams Academy is able to get this building and get it activated as soon as possible.

I also think that it would make for a great community center right now, with literally a gym available at this current moment.

And so uh with that, I I will be voting no, and I also don't um like seeing design contracts in the amount that this has been brought to us.

I feel like these design contracts always are over uh in estimates, eight hundred twenty thousand dollars, not for construction, but simply for design.

So, this is what we're approving a design contract for eight hundred and twenty thousand dollars, and so uh with that I will be voting no, and I see that we already started voting.

Um, but uh madam clerk, can you please open the roll?

Motion passes 6-1.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next item?

2026 annual operating budget in 2026 through 2035 capital improvement programs.

Good morning.

My name is Elizabeth Goldtree.

I work in the finance department in the budget office, and I'm here today to present this item.

Um, today is a third of four public hearings about the 2026 proposed budget and the CIP.

Um, this meeting is an opportunity for residents to come and provide feedback, and also as a reminder, ordinarily at this meeting, if there's any feedback from the city council um about the proposed budget, um, we generally receive it at this time.

The development of the proposed budget in the CIP was guided by contributions from residents, the city council, and employees.

Resident engagement included the community survey last fall, stab meetings in May, and creating budgets in the online simulator as well as public hearings like this one today.

The city council was engaged in the budget process in monthly workshops since January.

And then finally, employees were engaged in developing tactics that will result in implementation of the strategic plan.

The community survey is one that is conducted annually, as I mentioned, that happened last fall.

The top line results are summarized in this matrix, which plots quality on the Y or left side and then importance on the X or the bottom part of the matrix.

This visualization has guided strategic planning as well as development of the budget and the CIP.

This slide zooms in on the lower right hand side of the matrix.

And so you can better see the labels for items that residents rated as being the most important, but they also rate as being of lower quality in the community survey.

So the online budget simulator, I'm going to go into a little more detail on that today.

It was launched in May at the same time as the DAB meetings that we attended, and it's available through today.

We'll be closing it this evening.

At this point, we have nearly, when I checked yesterday, we had nearly 900 responses, so we got about 100 more since the last city council meeting.

The increases and decreases are based on priorities and also the financial impact.

And I like to bring that up because if you go back to the citizen survey, there's no dollars attached to it, but on this one, the increases and decreases.

The objective here is for people who are participating to balance the budget.

The largest average increases across the services have been in street repair, city parks, and public library services.

As a reminder, unlike the community survey, the results from the simulator are not scientific.

This is a voluntary activity.

We posted on social media and it was reposted to lots of other groups around Wichita of concern people.

And then also as a reminder, not every possible budget item is included in the budget simulator.

For example, one of the comments, which was great feedback, is water, you know, drinking water is rated as a really high is very high importance in the survey.

Why is this not in the simulator?

And that's because the simulator is only for general fund services.

So, yes, so it's been shared a lot in the community, and we see that in the number of responses we've seen.

And just also in the feedback that we've received as well.

When I went out to the DAB meetings in May, I told people, I'm like, even if you don't like what it takes to balance the budget, please please provide us comments at the end, and we'll get to that in a little bit.

We received a lot of comments.

So this table here reports on the most common services selected in each increase and decrease option.

So the five options that were available on the for services on the right side of the community survey were plus 10%, plus 5%, zero, so no change, negative five and negative 10.

Then for services on the left side, the only options were zero, negative five, and negative ten.

So I've also included the expenditures on here just to give you a frame of reference.

So to increase something that's in maybe the one to three million dollar range doesn't have as great of an impact as to increase something that's cost more.

And the converse is true to decrease something that's two or three million dollars doesn't have as great of an impact as the alternative would be.

And then municipal court is interesting because it is in the lower importance category, but 706 people of all, and that's there's around 880 budgets.

706 people held that one at zero.

So that is noteworthy.

And as a reminder, we've talked about municipal court a lot in this budget, and there's a lot of changes related to efficiency and levels of service in that department, but the concepts presented in this were more about service levels rather than efficiency.

On police services, that was the most common item to have a decrease of 10%.

If one were in the simulator and attempting to balance their budget, that would be a relatively easy way to do that.

And that's like a reason why it was probably chosen pretty often.

And as a reminder, the option for that one was to eliminate 47 unfilled positions at this time, which was based on it was about two-thirds of the vacancies they had at the time that the simulator was created.

So we'll have more information once we close the simulator and create a report.

So about the comments.

As I said, I encourage people to provide comments because by definition, balancing a budget is kind of frustrating and difficult.

About 100 people provided comments after their budgets were finished.

And there were some main themes that we use the data to extract some main themes of the comments, and so you can see it adds up to more than 100 because many times people hit all of these themes in one comment or several of them.

A big one is the police budget.

A lot of people provided feedback that they feel that the police budget is large and it can consumes too much of the resources.

And I'm just reading, I'm just summarizing these comments.

These are not my opinions, these are the comments from the simulator.

Many suggestions include cutting vacant positions, reallocating funds to social services, are restructuring police responsibilities.

A minority defended the need for police funding, and a lot there was also feedback about tying it to public safety and crime control.

The second big category was fiscal responsibility.

There was a strong resistance, a lot of comments about resistance to tax increases, particularly regarding property taxes, which many said were already too high.

There was an interest in cutting wasteful spending, as well as advocacy for raising revenue differently, like sales tax for public safety, taxing businesses or non-residents, and sponsorships for recreation.

The third big category, which isn't, is roads and infrastructure.

There was persistent frustration voiced about street conditions, flooding, and bridges, and this was open when there was a lot of flooding that took place in the late spring.

Criticism of patch fixes, and significant advocacy for public transportation expansion.

And then the last category for which there were a lot of comments was what was grouped together is quality of life and community services.

There was a desire for investments in libraries, parks, arts and cultural programs as drivers of long-term community well-being.

There were calls for mental health services, youth programs, and rehabilitation rather than punitive approaches to crime.

And then some people emphasized homelessness present prevention, affordable housing, and flight reduction is higher return investments on crime prevention.

So again, to as I noted, this was shared with a lot of groups.

It was a lot of people participated in it just from already following City of Wichita channels, but we feel that it represented a lot of different voices in the community.

But again, it is not statistically valid.

Strategic planning was a focus of budget workshops in January, April, and May.

Each of these workshops resulted in different layers of the strategic plan.

And of course, as I mentioned before, they guided development of the budget in the strategic plan.

And these different layers are shown here in the slide.

In the interest of time, I won't dive into them.

But generally, each meeting, each month, we worked a different layer of the strategic plan was addressed.

So the City of Wichita budget is inclusive of 36 different funds.

We focus a lot on the general fund, but there are 35 more funds that make up the general make up the all fund summary.

In total, net of interfund transfers, the budget's about 776 million dollars this year.

On the left side, when it comes to revenue charges for services, are a large slice because of water, sewer, and stormwater utilities.

So the general fund is what most of the time is spent focusing on.

The largest slice of general fund revenue is property tax, and then that's followed by franchise fees, and then the countywide sales tax.

These two pie charts are different ways of looking at expenditures.

So police fire and public works comprise about a little over two-thirds of the general fund budget.

And then on this on the other pie chart, this is how the funds are spent or the type of expenditure, and salaries and benefits are about again.

I said two thirds on the other side.

Police fire and public works are three fourths.

And then on salaries and benefits are three fourths of the budget.

So if you kind of smash those together, police wages are about a third of the general fund budget, and fire wages are about a fifth.

This slide here shows the mill levy change between 2025 and 2026.

Property tax again is the largest source of revenue for the general fund.

It's split between the general fund and the debt service fund.

Overall, it will be one half mil lower in 2026 than it is in 2025.

As a reminder, at the meeting on July 15th, so about a month ago, that set the maximum taxes to be levied for each of this these funds.

So it set the bottom line maximum taxes, and then for also for each of the funds.

This feels like success to me because this table is displaying correctly this time.

This is a five-year forecast of the general fund.

And so the general fund is balanced in 2026 and 2027 as a result of adjustments to the budget.

Those include research topics that we shared, I think that was in February, things that we worked through in May and June, a lot of different changes that were made along the way.

Due to the uncertainty in the remainder of the planning period, a deficit is projected in 2028 and 2029.

As always, the fundamental reason for this is growth in wages, that it's expected to outpace revenue growth.

And as I mentioned before, wages is three-fourths of the general fund budget.

Revenue growth is hampered by an anticipated decrease in interest earnings during the planning period.

We continue to update projections as information is made available.

So we'll be back together again early next year, and we typically provide an updated forecast each year as we kick off the budget process.

So as a reminder, there were research topics that were presented in February, the budget options in May.

And here is a summary of those changes.

Most of the work was done in 2025 and impacts also 2027.

So that is what I have today for the general fund overview, and then I'll have a few slides on the self-supported municipal improvement district.

It is a special district, which is located downtown.

So each year the downtown Wichita Schmidt Advisory Board provides a formal budget request to the City of Wichita, and this year they requested a budget funded with 10 mills.

That being the case, the mill levy would increase from 6.807 to 10, and it would be used to implement the clean and save program.

So that and that action to the maximum taxes to be levied and the notification and all of that action occurred at the meeting of July 15th.

So that's an overview on the Schmidt budget.

And there's more information about the dollars in the agenda report.

So the final element for today is the CIP.

It has a variety of funding sources.

Where the expenditures go in the budget.

Because of their funding sources, most of the focus is generally the GO projects are in public facilities, park and rec and heavy equipment.

As a reminder, in 2026, the general debt service fund mill levy rate is set at seven, with 0.17 mills shifted to the general fund in 2027 and beyond.

The seven was the maximum taxes to be levied that was approved on July 15th.

The lesser amount in 2027 is modeled at this point, and adopting the budget does not change the mill levy yet for 2027.

That's an action you would take then.

The CIP is guided by the community investments plan and an update for you all as we presented the CIP at the MAPC meeting on August 14th, and they affirmed it's in conformance with the community investments plan.

And then it also was guided by the strategic plan and fund balances for each of the funds that fund the CIP are within appropriate levels.

So at the end of this month, next week is when we are scheduled for the final public hearing.

It was poached plus sorry, published in the Wichita Eagle and online in mid-July.

That that would be the date.

So today is this budget hearing in the budget simulator closes, and we will work on a report for your consideration.

And then on August 26th, there actually be three items.

The first will be related to the RR for the Schmid, the second being the R for the City of Wichita, and then the third is approval of the operating budget in the capital improvement program.

With that, that concludes my presentation.

I'm here to answer any questions, or we can open it up for residents.

Any questions from the council?

No, hearing none, we'll open it up for public improvement.

Is that okay, Mayor?

Public comment, yes.

Improvement comment.

Would anyone from the public like to speak on the budget or CIP?

Good morning, Celeste Rosset.

I'll be brief.

Um just real quick.

I appreciate that we had a chance to be a citizen-led bipartisan committee to look for savings in the budget.

And I it looks like some of them have already been taken into account.

So I appreciate that.

Two questions for the budget that was just presented.

Um, the budget simulator, did they account for multiple IP address submissions on the survey because that could sway your results?

I know we did when we did a survey.

We allowed two per IP address.

Yeah, the budget simulator is set up in such a way that is completely anonymous.

We don't collect any personally identifiable information, and people can submit budgets from the same IP address multiple times.

So as I mentioned, it is not um, it's not statistically valid, and we don't purport it to be so.

It's um it's a learning tool, it's also an opportunity for feedback.

Okay.

Thank you.

The only thing I would say in response to her's answer is they can sway the results of the survey for people who feel a certain way.

Just wanted to point that out.

Um the other comment I wanted to make is I know that sometimes I wish we had a little bit more information when we publish like what you're spending in streets repair, because actually, when you look at how Wichita has expanded, you should do streets repair per mile of street, because we've added new subdivisions throughout north, west, east, south, around Wichita that's part of the street repair.

So even though we're spending more, if you look at per mile of street, it could actually be declining.

So the numbers can be misleading too.

So I just wanted to point that out.

With the CIP, I know that um going into the adopted budget for this year.

We had budgeted 400 million dollars for a new convention facility.

What's been budgeted this year?

Uh that's a question.

And then the other thing I wanted to point out.

Well, actually, two more, and then I'll stop.

Crystal Prairie Park.

You've heard me speak about that.

I think before we do any new parks, we ought to take care of the parks we currently have.

And price water park is deplorable, even though we did a lot of work in that park and used Lowe's Heroes project.

We're still waiting for the irrigation to get turned on, and all those plants have basically a lot of them have died, trees have been cut.

It's a hot zone now with no water in the ponds.

So I'd say before we do a new park, that's going to cost two and a half million per the budget for the pathways, and then another seven for the park itself.

We need to take care of what we have.

And park facility maintenance for this year's budget was actually less about the same as the new bike path for Crystal Prairie Park.

And that just seems completely unbalanced for me.

I would let the developer pay for its own park.

So I wanted to comment.

Thanks so much.

Thank you, Celeste.

I will ask those two questions to the city manager.

Number one, regarding the 400 million dollar new construction of a convention center.

Mayor, we have the I believe the convention center is in as a placeholder for discussion, but there are correct.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

But there is no funding source identified.

So it's simply there for planning purposes and to recognize a need.

But the council's not done anything at this point to designate any hard dollars for that project.

I have a follow-up question to that, and that is another adjacent property, which is the former central library.

Are there any dollars in the CIP to assist with getting that building back up to at least some functionality?

Mayor, the only dollars that would be available would be from our public facilities maintenance budget.

We do not have anything earmarked for the old library itself.

I think I've mentioned previously that we are having ongoing discussions with the management firm for C2 to see if there is some repurposing in that building that could be done with minimal improvements that would not require the full breadth of improvements that have been outlined by our architects.

Where would those dollars come from if those conversations are being had?

Uh we would have to it again it depends on the scope, Mayor.

If it's a small amount of money, which we hope, then we would be able to accommodate that uh through our public facilities budget.

If it's going to be significant improvements, for instance, an elevator or some other significant changes in the building, then we would have to program those.

And when you say small amount, what is small?

Well, probably anything a million or lower would be able to be accommodated with existing.

Um I would like to see the former central library be operational again.

I I know that I had mentioned at one point this year regarding police, but if that's not the space for it, it still needs to be activated.

Um my concern with the previous item was also about an abandoned building or a building that has been shuttered.

This is the same topic really, but just a different building and one that the city actually owns.

So I would like to see emphasis on trying to get it back up to at least some functionality so that it doesn't become just a blighted building.

Yes, thank you.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Celeste, just one of your points about the road construction.

Um, that would also, there's a little bit of um nuance there as well, because it also depends on whether or not you're spending money on more on asphalt roads during that period or concrete roads, the concrete roads like we see in the core are almost twice as much as the asphalt roads.

So if we did you know, expand on uh the information we put out there, that would have to be taken into consideration to maybe splitting it up between what we spend on asphalt roads as opposed to concrete roads.

So appreciate that.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Bob, can you please talk about Crystal Prairie Lake?

I feel like there's some confusion about maybe what plans might have been decades ago or years ago, um, and what is in the current CIP, what the current plans are, and where we are.

Thank you.

Councilmember, thank you for the question.

The CIP right now, over the 10-year period includes $2,250,000, and those uh allocations are it starts with $750,000 in 2028, and then every other year, not the next year, but the following year has $500,000.

Those are basically anticipating um paved or excuse me, um, path improvements, no development cost uh that would be consistent with the master plan.

So there's not seven million dollars in the CIP at this point, uh, anticipating changes in Crystal Prairie Lake.

And what are the current plans that were as far as the little gravel parking lot and um the match?

That that work has been designed and is uh is anticipated to be completed, I think before the end of the year, if I remember correctly.

Which is providing a small gravel parking lot and then a path and a path to tie under 96.

That's correct.

That will tie then back to um the Segway County Park.

Thank you.

If Mayor, if I could just go back to pavement maintenance, uh, two comments.

First of all, a majority of our pavement uh improvement work is in the capital improvement program, not in the operating budget.

Um, so it's a little misleading when we show you a number in the operating budget because that doesn't represent a majority of what we're spending.

But if you look at our road rehabilitation expenditures on a per capita basis, they are increasing uh during this budget period.

Uh right now we estimated that uh actually we know that last year it was $38 roughly per person or per capita.

This year it'll be 3931.

The following year 2026, the budget you're considering will go up to 40 dollars and 37 cents.

But if you do it on a per lane uh or paved lane mile, as um Ms.

Rissette talked about, those numbers are going up as well from 2800 last year, 2900 this year, uh, and 3,000 next year.

So we are putting that that's a council priority, and we are putting those dollars in either way that you decide to to measure that performance.

Thank you.

We'll continue with public comment.

I see no one from the public.

We'll bring it back to the bench.

Council members.

I see none.

I will go ahead and move that the city council receive public comment on the 2026 proposed budget and the 2026-2035 proposed capital improvement program.

Second.

Motion and a second, any further discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 7-0.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Public hearing and request by WUG Radiation LLC doing business as advanced cancer therapies for approval of a letter of intent to issue industrial revenue bonds.

Honorable mayor, members of council, Troy Anderson, assistant city manager.

This is a request that came to us from the Wichita Urology Group Radiation LLC.

You'll hear me refer to them as WUG or WUG Radiation, an affiliate of advanced cancer therapies.

Uh, they're an outpatient cancer center treatment located at 2077 North Webb Road.

Um again, which advanced cancer therapies occupies.

Over the last year, they've seen experienced rapid growth in the number of patients.

Uh again, serving a population even outside of the Wichita metropolitan area.

Uh they estimate more than 30 percent of their patients are even outside the Wichita metropolitan area.

Due to this rapid growth, they're looking to expand their facility.

This particular expansion project consists of uh uh 2,000 square foot expansion uh and also includes acquisition installation of a linear accelerator.

Uh Wuggs requesting a letter of intent to issue industrial revenue bonds to not exceed six million dollars.

Uh includes a 10-year property tax abatement and sales tax exemption.

So, under our guidelines, the project qualifies for a 10-year 90% property tax abatement broken down as follows for uh capital investment between five and ten million dollars, 50% abatement, uh the creation of five new jobs, 30%, and being located within uh regional growth plan sector, uh, an additional 10%.

The estimated 90% of the abatement for the first full year is about $55,000 a year, broken down as follows on the screen in front of you.

These numbers are also provided in the green sheet.

Projects also eligible for sales tax exemption, the approximate sales tax exemptions about 350,000, city share being about 27,000.

Uh cost benefit analysis was performed.

Uh the following ratios uh of benefits to cost uh have been provided uh additionally in the green sheet, but are on the screen here in front of you.

Standard disclaimer around revenue bonds, revenue bonds are a mechanism for achieving a sales tax exemption and or property tax abatement only in a revenue bond transaction.

The city is not lending any money, bears no risk.

The owner developers required to achieve all of their own financing, no taxpayer dollars are at risk.

So uh financial considerations before you today.

Wag Wug Radiation agrees to pay all costs of issuing the bonds and agrees to pay the annual obligation fees.

Bonds will be purchased by WUG or a related entity.

Actual bond documents uh required for the issuance of the bonds will be prepared by outside bond council, but ultimately law department will review and approve all final form.

That being said, it's recommended city council hold a public hearing, ultimately close a public hearing, adopt the resolution, authorize the necessary signatures, and otherwise I'll stand for questions.

Thank you, Troy.

Councilmember Glascock.

Thank you, Mayor.

Troy, I have a few questions regarding the 90s 90 percent property tax uh for the first full year or the 90 percent property tax abatement.

Does that cover their existing tax obligations?

I don't see anything in here about a pilot.

No, the existing tax base continues to pay uh to be paid.

Um and so this is on just the capital investment.

Okay, not only for the um physical expansion, but also any furniture fixture and equipment that includes included in it.

Yeah, just want to make sure that was the case.

Um, in addition, regarding the ROI, the city uh general fund is one to one, which is right at our policy.

I don't think we've approved anything since I mean here that's exactly at 101, uh one to one.

Can you give the rationale for that?

Because it's very close to not being I just want to make sure we're not adjusting the numbers that it's actually point nine nine to one, and we figure out a way to get it to one to one just so it can be presented before council.

Yeah, so uh appreciate the opportunity to kind of lean into this a little bit.

That is um just looking at the general fund cost benefit return.

Um the overall city of Wichita is the 1.12.

But something else to take into consideration is that only looks at the 10-year period as well, right?

Uh I don't have the cost benefit analysis in front of me, but years ago we started also looking at uh kind of the 20-year impact as well, knowing and understanding that these properties are uh maybe abated over that first 10-year period if those properties are abated over that first 10-year period and you're only looking at sort of the return on investment or the cost benefit analysis for that same term, uh then obviously you're immediately going to start in the red and then you start looking at things like job creation and those kind of things.

We all know that then too, once it comes back on the tax roll, we've seen an a significant capital investment and ad valerum taxes that will be added to the tax rule in year 11 through 20.

And so we've also started looking at sort of that 20-year cost benefit analysis.

Again, I don't have the numbers in front of me today, but this is just looking at that 10-year return based on the period that it um that the taxes are gonna be abated.

You're right.

It is one to one that does meet our guidelines, but it is in the future.

I'd be interested of the 20-year.

I know well, you know, we had a meeting yesterday that the 20 years discussed, and I think it shows a clearer picture of what the capital investment does.

And so just including that, I think would give a better idea to the community of hey, this is just when we're abating some of the property tax.

This is also an investment after.

I think that's helpful information for people.

Um there was one question I had uh in the green sheet that said it's anticipated that the expansion will result in shorter wait times for patients.

It doesn't talk about more patients coming into the community, more outside investment from people engaging.

Can you maybe elaborate more or maybe the applicant could elaborate more?

Yep, thank you so much.

We do have representatives from the applicant here that can probably answer that question.

Thank you.

Hello, hi, good morning.

Well, afternoon, I made it to the afternoon.

Uh my name's Alicia Sanger.

I'm the director of operations at Witch Tower Urology.

Um, right now we're treating about 55 patients per day, which they're there from 7 a.m.

our our uh therapists are there from 7 a.m.

till 9 p.m.

So with this, we'll be able to treat more throughout the day.

So we will draw in more patients from the outside communities and all of that.

So you will draw in more patients and shorter wait times, not just shorter wait times as presenting you can.

So we'll be able to yeah, and and because of that, because they're in conjunction there, we'll be able to treat more patients.

So you're not limiting the number of patients at the current capacity.

Yep.

Thank you.

Any further questions for Alicia first?

I have one.

Uh this says that this will create five new jobs.

Yes.

What's the salary for these types of jobs?

Um most of them will be radiation therapists, so they're paid pretty high.

Um, so they'll generally be around a hundred thousand.

Uh I mean, we're also looking for possibly another office manager over there, so that could be around a hundred thousand as well.

Thank you, Alicia.

Councilmember Hohysal.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, Councilmember Glasspop took a number of my questions there, actually.

So Troy, I I did notice you talked about this being the appropriate employment field as far as qualifying for some of these exemptions here.

Could you delve into that one a little more?

Because if there's one area that I think we can all agree on, uh cancer therapy is one area to look at every option to give them all the opportunity that we can.

So yeah, if you could just touch on that point just a little bit more and clarify that for us.

Yeah, so I'll uh pull it up here.

There are six um categories under the regional growth plan sector.

Um, and so I'll just read those off here.

Actually, there's seven, I apologize.

Uh advanced manufacturing and materials, uh, aerospace, agriculture, energy, health care, IT systems and support, and transportation and logistics.

Okay, so that does that qualify them for a greater percentage of the tax abatement, or how does that necessarily work?

Yes, so that's the additional 10% under the um if the the scope of work is a project that is located as part of one of the regional growth plan sectors, yes.

Okay, thank you.

Yep.

I have a couple questions, but they actually stem from a meeting that was held back in June of 2021.

So June 1st of 2021, there was a similar project that came before the then council.

Uh it was regarding the plastic surgery center.

And at that point, there were multiple questions regarding a plastic surgery center or medical facility getting uh tax abatement.

Uh, what has been done since that conversation, because there were multiple points that council member Fry brought up and was worried about, including Councilmember Blue Ball.

Um what has been what has changed from 2021 to 2025?

Because I believe this is the first time a medical facility is asking for incentives.

So I don't know about the June 2021.

I I know that which tell Urology Group, and again I took some notes.

I think these are the right dates, but again, I'd have to go back and just confirm this.

I think back in June of 2020, there was a letter of intent uh for a 26,000 300 square foot facility, it was about a 10.7 million dollar capital investment.

They were to create 22 new jobs as part of that.

Uh in December of 2021, the project was complete.

The actual bonds were issued, and so at the end of this year, um, so 22, 23, 24, 25, actually 26.

At the end of the next year, we will do that five-year review on that.

So uh I I'd have to get together with um the urology group.

Uh I I don't have information on kind of exactly how well they're performing on satisfying the five-year review of that today.

A follow-up question, it actually is June 1st of 2021, that specific item.

I'm looking at the agenda and the minutes, June 1st, 2021.

Um I would like to see.

I know that there's five-year reviews, including that one that will be coming up next year.

I think it would be um responsible for the community and transparent to put that on our um transparency portal or in the economic development uh tab on these five-year reviews.

If they have performed um what they promised, if they have not, it should be very easy for people to see why a tax abatement or an incentive was necessary and if they fulfilled their promise.

Um I think we need to have a more uh accessible way to see uh these companies that are getting tax abatement.

So I would like to see that really for the community to be able to see these uh incentives more easily.

Uh then my next question is about um oh I apologize.

Nope, I'm good.

Councilmember Tuttle wanted to speak.

Okay, okay.

Um wanted to know.

I know that this is one of the quote regional growth plan sectors, and it only gets 10% tax abatement, um, but in accumulation, it gets 90% tax abatement because they're putting more capital and creating jobs and then regional growth plan.

My concern then is about the property tax abatement.

So they're not only getting a sales tax abatement of 349,000, but in addition to are also getting a property tax abatement.

Can you uh again tell us why in this situation they got the and instead of the or so the and is part of our economic development guidelines, right?

That that projects can qualify for a whole host of tools in the toolbox, so to speak, right?

Whether it's tax increment financing, whether it's a community improvement district, sales tax, or whether that's the use of um revenue bonds uh, which include both a property tax abatement and sales tax exemption.

The the tool allows for both.

Our economic development guidelines allow for both.

So we're simply processing these applications as the economic development guidelines have been written and adopted today.

Mayor I think this is opening up a floodgate of individuals then coming to City Council asking for more tax abatements.

So I'm very concerned about this because again, since we've been on this council for a year and a half, this this current council, we have not had a medical facility asking for this type of abatement.

Um, whereas it was discussed in 2021, and there were questions because there were at least two council members that were concerned about what this would this be a slippery slope.

And so I'm concerned about voting for this, especially on the property tax abatement.

Uh go ahead, city manager leading.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, you're gonna have an opportunity to do dive deep much deeper into this in September during the September workshop.

That's I think the uh you all asked to bring the guidelines back for refinement, recognizing there's a uh I think an evolution in terms of our thoughts on uh property tax abatement and as well as sales tax and and other uh incentives.

And so uh I'm I'm gonna get we'll introduce it in September.

I'm not sure you'll all want to reach you'll reach consensus, but these are the kinds of issues to talk about.

And I think with the opening of the biomed center, the question is what should our role be in the medical field and where do you draw those distinctions?

And is it something that's more geared towards research and development and other uh services that would be support of supportive of that biomed mission, or is it the medical field overall because it's one of our growing right now, our plan recognizes as a growing sector and one that we want to encourage, and that's why the incentives are written the way they are.

But that was after a lot of discussion by the council to refine what we were doing previously to put a finer point on it.

That's when we went to this scoring system.

It used to be almost an all or nothing approach where it was if you've got a property tax abatement, I think it was 100 percent, and now the council said we're not comfortable with that, you're gonna have to check some boxes to determine exactly how if you're gonna get property tax, what that looks like and how much.

So more than happy to have that discussion about refining that that even more.

And I know others in the community want to uh be involved in that discussion as well.

And then looking at this green sheet, just one quick question regarding the green sheet.

So this is a six million dollar investment.

However, the actual property is only 2.5 million of the six million dollars.

It's the equipment is 3.5 million.

So 58 percent of the six million dollar project costs is a piece of equipment.

Um I am having trouble seeing this as something that we as a council should be incentivizing.

I know I know other doctors that have made investments in their facilities without coming to city council and asking for a handout.

So I have a major concern regarding this.

Um, but I'll leave my comments for further uh discussion.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

I appreciate you, Troy.

Um just to give a little more insight on 2021.

Uh the council at the time and council prior was looking to change the economic development guidelines because we had only really been incentivizing larger companies, so you had to create 50 to 100 jobs, you had to make, I think, at least 25 or 30 million dollars in investment.

It would it was just really high, and smaller business was not getting any type of help from the city of Wichita.

So changes were made to economic development guidelines at that point to allow smaller businesses to use the same economic development tools.

We see one today, we saw one then that you were referring to, Mayor.

Um, and we've seen some other ones.

And again, the goal was to support small business and not just our larger businesses in the community.

I think the September conversation is a good time for this council to have those discussions and find out ways we can continue to support small business and not just larger businesses, because there's a lot of folks in Wichita who may want to make some investments and expand, and I think they should have access to the same tools as we allow our larger businesses.

Um welcome that discussion, just a little insight on where that happened in 21.

Thank you, Councilmember Johnson.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Troy, thanks for the presentation.

Uh my comment is for Bob.

You and I have spoke a little bit about talking more about the gaps.

If that's I don't know if this is the appropriate time for that, but I definitely want to make sure that that is included in the workshop or the conversation in September.

Based on the conversation we've had, I already talked to Troy about introducing that into the discussion and about whether uh a financial gap needs to be present in order for the city to bring some type of incentive to the table.

That's not applied right now to IRBs.

Councilmember Glasscott.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm trying to review the meeting or the meeting minutes from June 1st, 2021 and have that pulled up as well.

One of the points of discussion looks like and that vote did pass 7 to 0 even after the conversation.

But one of the points of discussion regarding the last project was they had stated 30 percent of their patients from outside the community.

That's our current economic guideline, correct?

There is not a requirement that a percentage of that be served outside it it leans into the fact that it's not just uh serving the Wichita population, but it's uh serving a larger regional area.

Did that policy change from 2021 to now?

I'd have to go back and confirm that.

Okay, if the policy didn't change the green sheet in 2021 was inaccurate where it says the current economic development guidelines require medical groups to derive at least 30 percent of their participants from outside of the Cedra County.

I'd have to go back and confirm that.

Okay.

I'd be interested if that is a requirement of our current economic guidelines now, or if that's just an accuracy from back then, because looking at the green sheet as well, currently they're exceeding 30 percent of the patients.

The argument in 2021 had to do with increasing that uh the PSC who had come before um the council previously estimates that 50 percent of its patients would come from outside of Sedgwood County.

And so they actually saw an increase.

I don't see an increase of patients from outside the community in this proposed um uh application.

And so I would be interested in what our guidelines are now.

Um to if it is 30 percent, how are we measuring the 30 percent as well?

Or do we just say 30 percent?

Because that might have been in the guidelines previously, um, because that would be very interesting if it's that 30 percent of their patients seek exactly 30 percent of their patients seek it, and then our guideline is 30 percent.

That would just be uh unique happenstance.

So I'd I'd have to go back and verify that.

Okay.

I would probably need that information before I feel comfortable voting to make sure it seeks our guidelines.

So Councilmember Tuttle.

Sorry, just as a as a follow-up, um, other than this caveat, which I don't remember that ever being a requirement that they had to have 30 percent from outside of the city or the region, but yeah, that's my old memory.

But um based on the application, has the applicant met all of the criteria that we we require?

Yes.

And I've said this from the bench before, and I'm super glad we're having an economic development tool workshop in the future.

But if they have met all of the criteria for the application at this time, I don't think it's fair for us to inject new rules that we want to see happen in the future now.

Um we've done that a couple times, and that's really uncomfortable for me because the applicant or anybody else who's applying is playing by the rules, and then we change the rules so people don't know what the rules are.

So I I just want to to confirm the applicant at this point has completed all the requirements that we have set forth to be eligible for economic development tools.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Thank you.

So can you answer council member Glasscock's question?

Yes.

And that 30 percent or more of revenues must be derived from transactions originating outside Sedgwa County.

So that is in the existing guidelines.

So they just happen to have exactly 30 percent of their revenues from outside of the community when that just is our guideline.

That's I don't know if they are I don't know if this is a statement that they meet the th 30 percent and that they exceed a representative from the company, we'd have to speak to that.

Okay, but it is in your guidelines.

I'd be interested in hearing from a representative of the company.

I'm sorry, it's also under health care.

There's a separate section on health care as well.

Regional medical centers, and especially hospitals considered likely to attract at least 30% of patients from outside the company.

Thank you.

So we did pull our data and um we pull by zip code, obviously, and it did come out to, I mean, it was actually just above 30% of the patients that we've treated in the past year, have come from outside outside zip codes and all of that from Wichita.

So that that data is accurate to that number.

Do you expect that to increase?

Um, I mean, so with um not being able to treat patients timely, they're seeking care other places.

So if they're like closer to Colorado or you know, Oklahoma, they'll go there.

So, yes, we can now treat those patients sooner instead of them waiting and seeking care elsewhere here in Wichita.

Okay, thank you.

I appreciate I see no further questions for staff or the applicant.

We will now open it up for public comment.

Hello, uh, Twilight Purity, I live in Polo Club.

I was the CEO for Wichita Urology for 11 years, and I personally pulled the data when we were uh working on the surgery center.

So let me give you a little bit of background on Wichita urology, and it may make some of this data maybe a little more believable or palatable.

So Wichita urology is right now the only urology practice in Wichita.

They're very large.

Now things have changed perhaps since I retired nearly two years ago.

But think about it like this.

You have cancer, your loved one has cancer.

You could go to a medical oncologist where they had the responsibility of dealing with over a hundred different types of cancers.

But if you have a specific GU cancer, let's say prostate cancer, which is pretty prevalent.

Would you rather be treated by a medical oncologist who has to know a little bit about a wide range of cancers, or a specialist who knows a lot about your special cut type of cancer, as in prostate cancer?

I would super proud of the expertise and knowledge of which tiny urology and how they treat cancer.

Um that group is their physicians are nationally known.

One of them travels the country speaking on treatment of prostate cancer.

So circling back, um you have a loved one who has cancer, you want to see the specialists.

The physicians, your primary care is will send you to the best provider for that.

So I have no qualms in believing that there's a large number of patients coming from outside of Wichita.

That was our case when we built the surgery center, and I believe it's probably more.

When we built a surgery center a couple years ago, there was another urology group in Wichita, and that has changed right now that it's this only one.

So I'm very much support this.

They do good work.

And they have the reputation in the practice uh in the community to support this work.

Uh, when we were working on the surgery center, um council member Tuttle came out to see us and talked with us.

I I would just highly recommend that you go ahead and support this for them.

I stand for questions.

I'm gonna steal somebody's pen.

No, I'll leave it.

Thank you, Kyla.

We'll continue with public comment.

Celeste.

Oh, okay.

Celeste Rossette, and I'll be speaking again when we come up on economic development for the new community improvement districts because I've seen a lot of problems with the economic development not being fully staffed, not being compliant.

So I'm gonna start with this one when I talk about economic development.

Yes, Wichita Urology Group is a great group.

I also have had with my family personal experience with their expertise.

But the question I'll put out to you is did we pay for the cyber knife at St.

Francis Hospital?

And if not, why not?

So when we open this up and say this medical piece of equipment, the new linear accelerator must receive abatements, sales tax exemptions and property tax abatements.

What's to prevent a new cyber knife coming to St.

Francis?

Or some other new piece of equipment that's specialized, because as we know in the medical profession, and I was married to a surgeon, you're gonna get more and more advanced technology.

So is this opening up the floodgate now for any new piece of technology or equipment coming to us?

And I really have problems with back in 2021 plastic surgery getting a tax abatement or getting any kind of special treatment for their facility because plastic surgery, the majority of the time is elective surgery.

And I really have problems with back in 2021 plastic surgery getting a tax abatement or getting any kind of special treatment for their facility because plastic surgery, the majority of the time is elective surgery, can be elective surgery, and that could open up again.

I'm thinking of there's been other anesthetic types of treatment that involve Botox that evolve plastic surgery.

You really have to be careful when you look at your guidelines.

And here's one thing I'm gonna bring up that wasn't mentioned.

We talked briefly about how these are supposed to be reviewed, and I've got the policy right here.

And yes, it's supposed to bring more than 30 percent under health services and professional.

But one thing I bet we're not doing, though I'd love to be corrected.

Tax abatements on real property will be reviewed after initial term of five years.

Continued abatement is subject to review and approval by the city council.

And yet when I look at some of the properties that have received tax abatements, we already have Wichita Urology Group, we already have the plastic surgery group, and we have several parking lots on North Emporia.

And I'm just so curious where is the five-year review of these properties that justified the tax abatements, especially when we're talking about budget, and we're talking about property tax increases for the individual taxpayers of Wichita.

Seeing these special incentives, I would like to know if the um five-year reviews are done, get them posted on the city's website.

And I would also like to know what kind of discounted value is used in the cost-benefit analysis for the one-to-one ratio.

That's my questions.

My concern is we're opening up Bailiwick.

It's not clearly defined in the policy.

The follow-up's not there for me to see that we're staying on top of these.

So I have severe questions, uh concerns about this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Celeste.

I will ask City Manager to address again, as I mentioned earlier.

I would like to see the five-year review easily accessible for anyone in the community to see what has been promised and when what has been delivered within the five-year time frame, and then obviously during the 10-year end of that agreement.

Thank you, Mayor, and we will put that on our economic development page.

Uh, the results of those.

I just want to point out to you that you approved on the consent agenda today of second five-year reports for four different projects.

Um, we have had a little bit of a staff shortage in the department, so we're a little behind on those reviews, but we will continue to bring those forward on all of those that have reached the end of their five-year period.

Um, and those that do not meet the target will be on regular agenda, not on consent, so the council can discuss that.

Thank you, City Manager.

Councilmember Glasgow.

Thank you.

Quick follow-up to that.

Do we expect any to come before us this year that did not meet the obligations?

I believe it's possible.

Okay.

And they should come at some point in the reindeer.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will continue with public comment.

I see none.

We'll bring it back to the bench.

I know this resides in Councilmember Tuttle's district, but I would like to add a couple comments before that.

Um, I know that council member Tuttle will move this item.

Um, as I mentioned earlier, my concern is that we're not just doing um a sales tax abatement, which sales taxes are for uh the construction costs of a new build.

That sales tax exemption is 349,000, and then this property tax abatement is 90% of the property tax newly generated in that area.

And right now, that would be estimated in the first full year to be about $55,000.

The city's portion of that would be $17,800.

So again, I don't mind um seeing, I really love seeing development, and I appreciate when people want to invest in our community, and I'm very grateful to the Wichita Urology Group for what you do for our community and really for Canzans.

However, I'm uncomfortable with property tax abatement for a portion of this request, especially when I see that 58% of that request is for a piece of equipment.

If this were housing or a material number of jobs, I would feel much more different about this.

Um I just feel like this opens up the floodgates, and it's a slippery slope of more individuals coming to City Council and asking for tax abatements.

I have seen a lot of improvements in multiple areas of this community without people asking us for tax incentives.

And so I am very worried that again, this is a slippery slope, which is why I'm grateful that there's gonna be a discussion specifically on tax abatements, and there will be more transparency on holding people accountable to their promises.

So with that, I will not be voting in favor of this because I do believe that this will generate more individuals asking for more tax abatements, and then it becomes a slippery slope.

Councilmember Glasgow.

Thank you, Mayor.

I agree with Councilmember Tuttle that as long as they met the existing guidelines as required by the staff that we should likely move forward with this, but I do have challenges with the existing guidelines.

I believe that we should need stricter guidelines.

Mr.

Manager, do you know when we're having the EcoDevo presentation?

I know we've talked about it.

Isn't that the one that's remote shop?

Okay, fantastic.

Well, I look forward to having that.

I believe that we should have stricter guidelines, increasing the number of out-of-state.

If they're already at 30%, how do we encourage more people from outside the community to come?

I think that should be topic of consideration.

And then I think to one point, um, and I this is not um an attack on anybody that's in staff right now.

We have to know the current guidelines.

The current guidelines are not in this.

I had to look at a proposal from 2021 to find out that one of our guidelines was was 30 percent when it's not included in here.

So I just want to make sure that the reports that we're getting again are comprehensive when we're examining what our current guidelines are.

Um and so I will be supportive of this because they meet it, but I believe that we should change um how we're offering incentives in the future.

Councilmember Todd.

Thank you.

And thank you, Councilmember Glasscock.

I concur with everything you say.

Um I agree.

If we want to look at the the and I've said this from the bench, I like I said, three or four times, because we've done this before to other applicants, and I find it completely unfair that if we want to change our guidelines, we should change our guidelines.

But if people come to us with an application and they meet all of the guidelines that we require, it's incredibly unfair for us to change the game rules in the middle of the game.

Um, no one will trust the city if we do that, and we continue to do that.

So I I just want to thank Troy and your team.

I know that you work incredibly hard to find opportunities for our community to grow.

This is one of our seven sectors that we focus on.

As our city manager mentioned with the Bio Med Center.

I anticipate even more of these coming to us.

And so I'm gonna go into the workshop not thinking that we shouldn't have these.

We need to refine it, right?

But we don't want to miss opportunities that could come to us.

Um, I do want to thank Twila too for helping to remind us, and it was a great process to go with you through you back then, and and I learned a lot about this organization and and how respected it is in the medical community.

Um, I do agree too that other entities haven't come and asked us for these incentives, but they could have, and they didn't.

So because this group did, does it mean we should you know not move forward because other groups didn't?

That was their choice.

So I personally want to thank the Wichita Urology group.

Thank you for being a part of our community.

Thank you for growing and expanding.

Thank you for providing conditional serve additional services, not only to our residents, but also probably the region and across the state for people who need who need health care and come to Wichita because we are the largest city in the state of Kansas.

Um finally, I just wanted to mention that I have had no ex parte communication with the applicant.

Um so this is the first time that I've had the opportunity to thank you.

So thank you in person.

With that, I will move that the Wichita City Council close the public hearing, adopt the resolution, and authorize the necessary signatures.

Second.

Motion and a second, any further discussion.

Madam Clerk, can you please open the roll?

Motion passes six to one.

It is 1238 right now, and I've been asked to uh have a break, so I will ask if we can have a 15-minute break and return at 125.

It will give us a little bit more time.

So we will just break until 1255.

Thank you.

Um so my motion is to start with first part of public comment now I'll second motion and a second all those in favor uh madam clerk can you open the role motion passes four to two we will now have public comment first half of public comment regarding water restrictions if you would like to address the council please state your name your address and you have five minutes to speak afternoon mayor woo and uh members of Wichita City or the yeah the Wichita City Council.

Uh my name is Jim Banaj.

I am the mayor of Bel Air, Kansas, and I live at 4437 Rushwood Court in Bel Air.

But uh I thank you for accommodating uh this.

I do have a meeting coming up this afternoon.

I need to attend, so uh I wanted to take some time to just go over the proposed uh permanent water restrictions that uh we just learned that these were being proposed to be adopted today uh yesterday, so this is kind of news to us.

I mean, we knew there was some talk about this, but the the talk sounded more like it was a something Wichita would do for Wichita residents, but now we're seeing you're wanting to do it uh the proposal is to do it for the wholesale water customers, and so um this is a is a concern because uh as you may know, um our contract with Wichita and I think all the contracts with Wichita require us to have our own water conservation plans, and we've worked a lot to do that, and we have that water conservation in place and and we've actually got done a lot of work this last year revising those plans uh in response to some of the drought issues.

Um to change that again suddenly like this is is a major deal uh for us.

And um and I'm not sure that it's uh beneficial.

Uh I think that and I don't want you to misunderstand, we're very concerned about water and conservation of water.

Uh Bel Air has we we I I am the chair of the Chisholm Creek Utility Authority, which uh provides uh water to uh Bel Air and to Park City.

Um and and we also do the wastewater treatment for those two cities as well.

Uh and we we already send sewer effluent to the Willow Creek uh Willow Bend uh golf course.

So we we're already doing some things on trying to s conserve water and been doing that for a number of years.

And I've also talked with uh Gary Jansen just just uh idea if not discussion, not total discussion, but about uh maybe doing some pilot project on making sewer effluent potable water, uh, which would be a uh that's a significant step.

It is done in some other states.

There's currently nobody in Kansas doing that, but it's so so we know that there's an issue with water, but we just think that uh we need to have a a better discussion among the communities that especially the the uh cities that can have contracts with Wichita for water so that uh we put something in place that really makes sense for those communities as well as Wichita.

Uh I'm not opposed to putting some permanent restrictions in.

I'm just uh want to make sure we have a good clear discussion about it.

So my uh only uh request of you is to table this item and let's bring those those uh those different stakeholders in to a discussion, and that would be uh Bel Air, Park City, uh Andover.

I I know there are other communities I know a lot.

I think Goddard also buys water from from Wichita.

But I I don't know all the numbers, but I I know that that's um that is known and uh have a uh just have a a discussion and a meeting of hour or two of those stakeholders and making sure that we put something together that makes sense for the what wholesale water users and then and then we maybe make maybe you make an appropriate ordinance with regard to that.

Um that's really the main thing I was just trying to point out.

I sent each of you an email yesterday uh after I learned about this because it was kind of a big surprise to us, and so I appreciate your taking the time.

I'll thank you for questions.

Thank you, Mayor Benaj.

Uh Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh this is more a question for Gary.

Uh and and the mayor.

Uh, how I noticed in your email that you had talked about um how you guys enforce and you don't enforce on the weekends, and that's one of the problems you have with this.

Um Gary, is that do we go based off of reporting there as well?

Do we rely on um to have public works or I don't know who would go out and actually check on this?

How is that process done with um some of the the surrounding communities that rely on our water?

So thank you for the question, Councilmember Mayor and Councilmembers Gary Jansen.

Sorry I was a little late getting back down here.

Um of the things I failed to mention in my most recent correspondence with wholesale customers, which was anything but the first time they've heard about all of this because we've been in discussions of looking at long-term watering restrictions literally for months since late last year.

Uh but to your point specifically, and I can come back to that.

Uh, one of the things I failed to mention, this is no different than when we went into uh watering restrictions for one day a week within the wholesale water agreements that we have with our 11 wholesale water customers.

That's eight neighboring cities, three rural water districts.

They are required to follow the same conservation requirements that Wichita puts in place.

Um when we went to one-day week watering restrictions, they were required to limit watering to one day a week.

They could do that however they wanted.

The enforcement is up to them.

The penalty penalty schedule is up to them.

The information I sent out to the wholesale customers just gave an example of what we're planning to do, what the proposal is today for three days a week.

That's up to wholesale customers.

They can do whatever three days a week that they want.

We pending our discussion, and if the council so chooses to move forward with long-term watering restrictions to three days a week, all wholesale customers by way of their wholesale water agreement with the city will be required to limit watering to three days a week.

They can do that however they want, whenever they want, enforcement's up to them.

Okay, and and the restrictions that we're planning to put in would become active in October, probably, whenever we move from stage two to stage one of the drought.

Well, I guess it depends on how far you want me to go into that because we're a little bit backwards here.

That's all part of the presentation I'm gonna make here at some point, but I I can go ahead and start with that.

Our recommendation today for the information that's in the agenda item was for these new watering restrictions to go into place when we get to back to stage one.

So when we get to 70 percent uh on the 12-month running average, which right now we're predicting to be October.

Okay, thank you.

Gary, just uh two follow-up questions.

Wanted to know has there been a table discussion or a gathering of wholesale customers, uh including the rural districts regarding these restrictions?

There has there I won't say that there's been a specific direct conversation focused only on this.

Probably within the last few months, we invited all wholesale customers.

Uh Bell Air City Manager was there to our new water treatment plant.

I think almost all wholesale customers were represented.

We talked about where we were at with our drought response plan.

It was very clear that we expected to move forward with some type of alternate day watering plan for long-term watering restrictions.

Uh so we had that discussion there, got a lot of feedback.

I went out and made presentations to the Bel Air City Council, to the Andover City Council, the Valley Center City Council, numerous other groups talking about this plan moving forward.

It didn't have the kind of detail at that point that you will see today.

Uh, but we've been having this conversation since last fall with all of our wholesale customers.

May I also ask one more question?

Um you mentioned several neighboring communities get Wichita Water.

Can you name them off for those that may be watching?

And the I'm gonna see if I can get all eight of them right.

It's Benton, Bentley, Park City, Bel Air, Ke Chi, Valley Center, Derby, Rose Hill.

That's eight.

Rural water districts one, three, and five.

Thank you very much, Gary.

Thank you, Mayor Banaj.

One little quick follow-up, if I could.

Um and I'm sorry, we we don't allow for further comments.

I just want to respect our council members process.

We appreciate your comments and again appreciate you putting that under the public record.

Uh, we will continue with public comment from I think several individuals that still want to talk.

Very good.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Good afternoon.

Uh my name is Robert Foster.

I'm at 14220 East Gilbert Circle, and I'm in District 2.

Um Wichidaw's drought plan does not work.

And I'm not sure if it has ever has worked.

When the plan uh was set, its only action was to change the status from no stage to stage one.

And if I understand that correctly, that changed us from unlimited watering to unlimited watering, but please try to conserve.

When the water level dropped in Cheney in late May of 2024, we dropped to 69%.

The plan did nothing.

The 12-month rolling average was too slow to keep up.

In August after the action, after no action, the city council intervened and changed us to stage two.

When the level continued to drop to 51%, the city council was um planning again to prepare for stage three.

Now, fortunately, we received plenty of rain and stage three never happened.

We are now at the conservation pool, but the 12-month rolling average is too slow to keep up.

And we're once again waiting council intervention to fix it.

The plan does not fix it, the council does.

I can wake up six mornings in a row and have a watered yard, and I'm still completely compliant.

This loophole cannot be closed, but it can be controlled.

To control it, the loophole needs to be embraced and then counted for.

We then limit the frequency in which that loophole can be exploited.

Therefore, I recommend we move to two days a week instead of three.

We all want the same thing.

We want a simple plan that is effective and flexible.

I'll give you an example of what I perceive as simple, flexible, and effective.

April to October is considered our watering season.

I propose that on April 1st, we look at the level of Chini.

And the level of cheening determines our watering level.

For example, if we're above 100%, three times a week.

If we're 70 to 100, two times a week.

If we're 50 to 70, one time a week.

On July 1st, we take a look at it again.

That is after our spring rains.

We will know did we have high rains or a drought?

And we re-evaluate.

Do we need to loosen the restrictions, tighten them, or leave them the same?

We run through the rest of the year at that same watering level.

If you want to continue to water past October 31st, that's fine.

One day a week.

So when I'm making decisions on reseeding my yard, planting trees, anything, I will know the plant climate appropriate landscaping.

Also, every box store, nursery, hardware store, everyone else will know the watering plan.

They will then be able to give better advice for climate appropriate planting.

With a flexible plan, the August 2024 intervention would not have been necessary, because on July 1st, the plan would have automatically caught it.

We're now here again to have the council fix the plan, and if we were on a tiered system this last July, it would have moved us up.

We would not have this conversation.

We would not have this conversation please scrap the current drought plan and replace it with a simple, effective, and flexible plan that adapts to our changing additions.

Anyone have any questions?

Thank you, Robert.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for being here.

Um I appreciate your comments.

I like you would wish we would go to watering twice a week.

Um I think it's more than enough.

There are some communities I know that think that you know using treated water for your irrigation just shouldn't happen at all.

And I'm really proud of our community.

Um want to applaud um public works, our director Gary Jansen, as we're thinking about water reuse, we're trying to be forward thinking, we're trying to think about conservation.

Water is the most precious resource that we have, right?

And and I've said this a million times, I'll say it a million and one, um, not only for us as residents, but if we're thinking about economic development, if we are trying to attract business and industry to come here and they look at infrastructure and utilities and they see that we are in drought at any time and we're not aggressively addressing it, they will assume that we're gonna raise our water rates, and it may prohibit from us attracting new business and industry.

So thank you for your comments.

I would invite um public works director Gary Janssen to come.

You talked about the potential loophole.

I'm not sure I exactly understand what you're saying.

It's been a long meeting, so I'm sorry.

But Gary, could you maybe help me understand and maybe anyone else who maybe didn't catch it all?

Well, I'll start by saying I don't understand how three days become six days because three days is three days, just like two days is two days.

We went to one day a week watering restrictions.

Uh if the council chooses to move forward today with our recommendation of three days, that is literally three 24 hour days.

I'm not sure there's a loophole of getting out of that, but I'd be happy to talk more about that to make sure we're not missing something.

I don't think that we are.

We've looked at what uh other communities do.

I was just actually in a conversation with somebody from Aurora, Colorado last week who's been on three-day watering for quite some time and it works well for them, and they've seen a definite uh savings of water uh for the future.

Uh I would go back to the start and say that uh number one, I agree wholeheartedly that the city council, mayor and city council have done a wonderful job working with us and collaborating through what has been a truly adaptive challenge.

This is the first time we've uh activated a drought response plan since 2013, coming off the heels of that.

We suffered truly through a historic drought the last four years.

Uh the impacts that we've never seen before.

Last November Chini Reservoir was at all-time low since it was built in the early 1960s.

This drought response plan 1,000 percent did exactly what it needed to do, and it worked, and it could not have worked any better.

Had it not been for our drought response plan and the timing of our drought response plan.

You'll recall I talked before about our drought response plan was designed to carry us through an eight-year drought, a one percent dust bowl type drought.

It's not easy.

It was starting to get hard as we were going through the one-day a week watering.

That the comment was made, we were getting very close to going into stage three.

Nothing would have helped at that point to have to have looked at flexibility and to start coming out of that.

It would have just gotten worse a lot quicker.

We were very fortunate uh to that we've got record rains in June.

And I might repeat that again.

We got record rains in June.

That's not stability.

That's not something that we can count on.

Had we not had that, we did.

Uh that's just not something we can count on long-term and into the future.

This is why we're here today to talk about long-term outdoor watering restrictions.

Um and I'll talk a little bit more later about how we came about with three days, why we think that's the optimal approach.

I've had other people reach out to and talk about two days.

We think that's going to create some real challenges, that one additional day uh to be able to properly maintain landscaping and lawn.

So thank you, Gary, and thank you, Robert.

And I can't expand on the uh if you'd like to.

You can talk to Gary.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We'll continue with public comment regarding water restrictions.

Sorry, uh Vice Mayor Johnston.

Yeah, I I can help explain it.

What he's saying is if you watered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you could water at 1201 a.m.

That would count for Monday.

And then you could water again at 1130 p.m.

for Tuesday.

So then do the same thing on Wednesday, 1201, 11:30 p.m.

And then Friday, 12.

So you could water six what he's saying is you could water actually water six times in only three days a week.

Yeah, I don't think that's still true.

With all due respect, Vice Mayor, that's still three 24-hour periods, even if they happen to span over the course of two days, that's not six days.

That's not what he's saying, though.

He's saying he can water six times, essentially taking care of every day, watering before every day.

That's what he's saying.

Right.

And so if that's the case, then we'll make sure that the ordinance is very clear because that's not the intent.

We're not interested in in there being a loophole to that.

I understand.

And I don't think people are gonna do that.

Okay.

Thank you.

You may come forward.

Afternoon, everybody.

Uh Damian Vosper, my address is 500 Southeast, 1250.

Oh Damian Vosberg.

Um I've been a landscape owner operator for 13 years.

I've worked in Wichita for about 25 years in the landscape industry.

Um just a couple things.

Uh this we went into phase two, I believe, back in 2016, 2017.

Uh the difference between then and now is new lawns were taxed or uh water exempt back then.

So you could still put in a new lawn, uh, water it accordingly, and then go down to your uh regulated watering.

Um just a few things that maybe you guys don't know.

Uh warm season grass grasses that we have, Bermuda, Zoizer, Buffalo, those are our three main ones that grow well here in Wichita.

Uh we're just far enough south where those grasses do do well.

Uh but if any of you, and I'm sure a lot of you guys are in here, ladies too, uh, golf.

You saw last uh 2024, um, we had a bad winter kill.

A lot of the golf courses just got destroyed.

Uh uh cost.

Uh somebody buys a home, uh they're young, whoever it is, not and not everybody's rich.

Uh cost, warm season grasses versus fescue, roughly three times the cost.

Uh if you buy a home and uh you want to put a yard in, uh short of doing like Arizona where you just put pea gravel in, uh it's gonna be very expensive, and a lot of people can't afford it.

So uh next thing would be uh better homes and gardens, April 2025 uh had a deal from uh uh Texas University out of Arlington, did a study that said uh curb appeal, uh Wichita, just in general.

You're talking about the businesses the earlier with the proposed uh recreational center.

I noticed that there was a lot of green on that.

I assume that that has to be some sort of turf.

Um you're not gonna do that.

It's gonna look horrible.

Uh if you try to water three times a week uh with any new lawn, it will perish, whether it's warm season or fescue.

Um seven percent loss from curb appeal, according to Better Homes and Garden.

Um he was talking about uh four-year drought.

It was a horrible drought.

Um versus record rain.

Uh we've been on water restrictions since uh well last year, almost 13 13 days from today.

And uh immediately within the first three days, I lost over 30 jobs, and I had to return deposits.

Um I'm here today because I am completely out of work.

My phone has not called uh rang.

Um it's the decision to do this is gonna be very big.

Uh it's gonna put a lot of people out of business.

Um I employ three people, I'm not a super big company, but uh feel like we do a pretty good job, and I've taken a lot of pride in the work that we've done in Wichita to improve it.

So uh with that being said, I'll leave you with that.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Damien, and thank you for being a small business owner.

Can you provide your address so we know which district you reside?

Southeast.

Which district do you reside in?

Oh, I'm counting.

I'm on a county line.

County line.

Thank you very much, Damien.

Uh, there are several council members who want to speak.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Vice Mayor Johnston.

Also from before.

Okay, nobody wants to speak.

Uh we will continue with public comment.

Afternoon to everybody.

Uh my name is Jeremy Coster.

I'm the general manager of the SOD shop, but we're located at 3601 North Hillside.

Um, just to go upon what pretty much everybody else has said, obviously, water restrictions affect our business uh quite a bit.

Um what we would like to do is kind of work hand in hand to try to change the narrative.

Um let's get it to the water.

Let's not I'm gonna get up here and talk to you about the grasses and the benefits of fescue versus warm seasons or anything like that.

But uh water is the deal.

I like to drink water just like everybody else.

Um perhaps we could uh promote the uh watering, how many how much people water their lawns the same way that uh like my father when I was a kid, if we left one light on in the house, you know, he would get really angry at us.

Maybe a smack on the head, you know.

And if you left that light on all day, you're talking about 30 cents, you know, or something like that, something cheap.

I would like to get that uh concept into people about watering as well, you know.

Um I uh have my own uh well for my lawn, my lawn looks great.

It's bad advertising if I don't have a nice lawn.

But it still drives me crazy every morning when I back out of my house and see people that do have even have a well and they're watering and it's actively raining outside.

So my thing is just maybe we promote incentives, you know, for possibly getting rain gauges, people that are gonna put in uh um sprinkler systems and just make it uh you know, during the bad times we are doing uh fines for people that are watering um more than one day a week.

Maybe we do that when times are good, you know.

If you see people that are watering when it's raining or something like that, uh just to promote the water.

Let's talk about the water part and not so much about the the grass.

That's all gonna take care of itself.

But um, yeah, get mad at people for watering when they shouldn't shouldn't be watering.

You know, don't just set your clock at the beginning of the season to water three, four, four times a day every day from like I said, beginning of April to October.

You don't need to do that.

I have ran my system uh probably a total of 15 times this whole season because of how much rain we've had.

So, anyways, that's it.

I appreciate your time and would love to talk to you guys about, like I said, promoting watering and correct watering as opposed to uh having no grass at all.

So thank you, Jeremy.

I do have one quick question before I uh have more council members speak.

Can you address do you water between uh the high evaporation times?

Because the proposal is no watering between 10 a.m.

and 6 p.m.

Do you water with your well water during those times?

It depends on what the temperatures are.

I mean, yes, sometimes yes, um, you know, it's something if I'll notice I stress it out or whatever, I'll do it you know, during the day if I know it's not gonna be real windy.

But I mean, if it's 95 or 100 degrees, it's not really a good idea, no.

Um, but like I said, the amount of rain we've had this year, even with the one-day water restrictions.

Um, you could look at our the front of our business, the the the grass from our business is stressed and like the edges around the the uh curbs or you know, getting some weeds and stuff like that because the grass is just weaker, you know.

But uh, you know, if we if we go to three days, um uh obviously it'll be a lot better, you know.

Um, so but like I said, let's promote uh correct watering and and start with that before we go too drastic one day a week to where it's really impossible.

And also, like I said, people uh wanting to put in a new lawn, possibly giving a sentence for uh rain sensors, you know, smart clocks and stuff like that to stop the it's April.

I'm gonna turn my sprinkler system on, it's gonna run three, four times a day every day, you know, no matter what.

So that's it.

Thank you, Jeremy.

I have several council members who want to speak.

Councilmember Glask.

Thank you.

Jeremy, I don't have a question for you.

I have a question for Gary, real fast.

Um, and this has to do with the last two speakers' question regarding new lawns.

Um what is our general consensus of people will have to plant new lawns at some point, and so if these are permanent restrictions, then it's three days a week.

How are we accommodating that long term?

Or is our argument that lawns can survive three days a week under due planting?

How do we accommodate that if these are permanent in the future?

Good question, thank you.

And if we get to the point of of being able to make this whole presentation, you'll see.

But I'll tell you again here right now, we do have a variance process in place that I'll hit on again here in a little bit.

But we you know, we want to try to get back to some semblance of normal, right?

Uh, you've heard me talk before about uh some years as much as 20% of our water consumption is outdoor discretionary water use.

That's where we can do the most for long-term conservation.

Uh, three days a week, uh, we still think is optimal, but to that point, we are going to allow variances for new yards for establishment of seeded yards, sodded yards.

We're gonna be as flexible as we can.

Oklahoma City's had a uh similar process in place since 2013.

We talked to them, they think they've got a really successful variance program, and and we're gonna be open and willing to talk.

I've already talked to one uh citizen about this, in fact, in advance of this, who is in a really tough situation, and and we're gonna try to work with them.

So we we great points.

Uh we we are gonna provide variances for that.

I think we can make that work, and it's understandable, and we know the impact that it has.

I've heard that from the Realtors Association.

We want to make sure everybody's working with us, but we will provide variances.

And I might provide one more quick comment if you don't mind to one of the uh the last comments.

I could not agree more about education folks on proper watering.

We have been doing this very robustly since January of 2023.

Save Wichitawater.com has got tons of information about proper watering.

We've had K-State Extension.

They were at the July 22nd workshop talking about proper watering.

We have said all along this was not about finding people.

It was not about being punitive.

It was about being educational and collaborative.

Best case is for everybody to get on board.

We don't have the resources to go out and enforce this.

Nobody wants to ride out their neighbor.

We want people to get on board and recognize the value for long-term water resilience for our region.

But we've talked to businesses about promoting education with us.

We think that makes sense.

One quick last comment.

Those businesses whose economic activity revolves around water use, sod shops, these exemptions do not apply.

They still can water if it's part of their business and they don't have to go to the three days a week.

Thank you.

To those that may be attending for the first time or those listening online for the first time, we're going out of order today.

So normally we would have a presentation to maybe answer a lot of these questions.

And so apologize if Gary's presentation is going to be having this information in a little bit, but this is just backwards for our normal process.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you so much.

And I want to thank the speaker certainly for coming today.

And one of the things Gary and I are have been on a roadshow for the last several months.

We've probably made two dozen presentations talking about drought and talking about water reuse.

And thank you to Councilmember Holehazel for sitting on the water reuse task force with me.

I really appreciate it.

And one of the things that I think I said every day since we went into stage two of drought is we don't want to go into stage three because we will literally put small businesses out of business, right?

So thank you for coming here today and to share your concerns.

Gary, I hate to make you keep jumping up and down, but I'd just like to ask one more question.

I appreciate your comments.

Could you maybe, and you said it uh I think a little bit before, but just maybe reiterate um us working with the builders, with the realtors with WABA to try and maybe rethink, not mandate, but rethink how we um do uh grass, for example, to not promote Bermuda to think about Fescue or to the other way around.

Uh we want to not think always about Fescue, but think about Bermuda or Buffalo grass.

And then also how have we engaged and partnered and gotten feedback from the landscaping companies even before we went into stage two of drought.

If you could just let the community know and our guests here today know, we're trying to be good partners and trying to get community engagement.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So on the first part, we have uh engaged the Witch Sorry Builders Association and the development community, uh, really looking for their input on on how we can go forward.

We're not unlike many communities, a lot of new housing developments, Fescue sods being put in place, and we're going on down the road.

Fescue obviously takes more water even if you get past the establishment period, but people want fescue yards.

You know, we've heard the talk about uh property value, sellability.

We've heard that.

I heard that from the Realtors Association also.

I've challenged the the Builders Association and Development Community to see what they think could be done in the future uh to take off in a different direction.

One of the challenges we faced when we went into watering restrictions was HOA covenants, and you've heard me talk about this before now.

HOA Covenants do not take precedent over local ordinance.

So the question was initially I'm gonna get fined because my yard's not green enough.

What am I supposed to do?

We advised them that they needed to follow local ordinance, but we did what we did more than anything was spend time, considerable time, uh, with as many HOAs as we could we could connect with.

So HOA management company here in Wichita, they have oversight of two or three hundred HOAs across the community, so it was really good to talk to them, focused with them.

They realized uh the situation we were in, what we were dealing with, and they started looking for ways to change how they were enforcing.

Uh they were encouraging conservation within their neighborhoods.

I don't know that I saw any of them actually make a change to say you can do something other than fescue grass, but they started talking about differing watering techniques.

We saw uh numerous homeowners' associations in their commons areas that they did trade out Fescu for uh zeroscape type landscaping, something that was more water tolerant.

And some have talked about going to a different grass type.

So we're gonna keep that communication going.

We're gonna keep talking to them.

The landscape companies, the nurseries play right into that.

As we were contemplating going into stage two, uh, I heard from numerous companies, most of them that said don't do it.

It's gonna have a big impact on us.

We did not take that lightly, knowing where we needed to be to protect our long-term water supply.

Uh, we did things, and I we didn't see as many people take advantage of it as we wish they would have, but we were offering free water at the water center at Herman Hill Park to anybody who can take water, landscape contractors, they could take as much water as they want at no cost uh to be able to put landscaping in.

Um we encourage landscape companies, nurseries, those to look at uh a better way to landscape.

Uh one of the local companies, as we went into stage one, put out a flyer, which I think made a lot of sense, not try to dictate how folks should do business, but it said we can get you through the drought.

We'll work with you on more drought tolerant plans.

That seems to make a lot of sense to me.

We would hope that others would do that too.

So as we move forward, we'll continue those conversations, continue talking.

That's real, and and that's been our concern.

When the drought response plan was developed in 2013, the goal was to have as little impact on business as possible, and that's why there's the exemptions that they are.

The challenge that you face is just because a landscape company can still grow soldered trees.

What do you do when the property owner can't use their irrigation system?

Going forward with the plan that we're talking about today, there are going to be we will have the ability to overcome that.

I hope that answered your question.

Thank you, Gary.

Councilmember Glascoff.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just have a couple comments.

Um Gary, thank you for all your comments, and thank you to the speakers.

Um, I just want to say thank you for the common sense approach.

I just can't believe how many people still don't know that we've been in a drought and are irresponsibly watering.

Um, so I just appreciate some of your uh suggestions.

Um it's definitely uh I feel personally feel like a culture shift, and you don't have to water every day.

This is just how we've always done it, and so people are really in this routine, um, and there is a better way and more responsible way for people to water.

So appreciate you guys hanging in there through this long meeting, but uh, water is really important to me and conservation, and we need to continue to shift the message that this is we're in this for the long game and not just um because people want a beautiful on tomorrow.

We need to be thinking about for years to come.

So appreciate all of your comments.

Thank you.

Do I see any other individuals who would like to address the council during the first half of this public comment time?

I see none.

I want to just halt public comment until we actually listen to item number 10.

We're actually gonna be in item number three next.

So I appreciate uh the council for voting in favor of allowing public comment to come ahead of time.

Uh, a lot of the questions that Gary will uh address yet again will be when it's presented as item number 10.

But again, we're item number three still.

So thank you again for uh the four individuals who came forward to just give some uh comments ahead of time.

At this moment, oh, do we have one more, Councilmember Ballard?

Okay, it just didn't clear.

Um we will now ask the city clerk.

Can you please call the next item?

Public hearing and request by the Douglas Apartments LLC for approval of a letter of intent to issue industrial revenue bonds.

Honorable mayor, members of council, Troy Anderson, Assistant City Manager.

Um this is a request that we received from uh group, Douglas Partments LLC.

Uh there's specifically a Kansas limited liability company that was formed for the purposes of developing and constructing uh this project, which includes two three-story buildings uh with 18 units in each building for a total of about 36 units.

Douglas Apartments is requesting the issuance of about 3.2 million dollars in revenue bonds to finance the project.

Uh currently the property at 1301 West Douglas is vacant, undeveloped, and so this project will be built with workforce housing in mind, offering rents that are below market rate.

According to the economic development guidelines, the project qualifies for a 40% property tax abatement based on their new capital investment between a million and five million dollars.

The estimated 40% property tax abatement uh for the first full year is about 34,000.

The project is also eligible for a sales tax exemption.

The approximate sales tax exemptions valued at about 117,000 dollars, with the city share being a uh just a little over 9,000.

A cost benefit analysis was performed.

Um and those ratios have been provided to you not only in the green sheet but on the screen in front of you here today.

I won't read through those.

Standard disclaimer revenue bonds are a mechanism for achieving a sales tax exemption and or a property tax abatement in a revenue bond transaction, the city's not lending any money, bears no risk.

The owner developers required to achieve its own financing, and again, no taxpayer dollars are at risk.

Douglas Apartments agrees to pay all the costs of issuing the bonds and agrees to pay the annual origination fee.

The bonds will be purchased by Douglas Apartments or a related entity.

Bond documents will be prepared by outside bond council, but ultimately law department will rem review and approve the final form.

With that being said, it's recommended the city council hold a public hearing, close the public hearing, adopt the resolution and authorize the necessary signatures.

We do have a representative from the applicant here to answer any questions you might have.

Otherwise, I'll stand for questions.

Thank you, Troy.

Questions for staff.

I just have a couple just to give it a contrast to the previous item that got 90% tax abatement.

This one is getting 40% tax abatement.

Um the green sheet talks about the first full year of tax abatement would be 34,000.

Is that based off of already improved because this will now have buildings?

Um is that the amount of post improvements or is this pre-improvements?

So that's post improvements.

So the cost benefit analysis analyzes the capital investment that is made and then makes those projections based on the uh investment that's already made.

As previously brought up, you know, the payment in lieu of taxes, the base value that exists today will be continued to be paid.

It's only on the capital investment and the future value of those top tax obligation that's being abated.

And is this a 10-year abatement?

Yes.

It didn't say that on the green sheet, that's why I'm asking.

I apologize.

It is a 10-year abatement.

Um in this one, there is no uh job creation, right?

And so it becomes a little bit nuanced.

Again, we're we're gonna try to hope hopefully clarify this in the next round of guidelines, right?

But um because this is entirely based on the capital investment, we'll know that the capital investment is made at the time that the bonds are issued.

So, in essence, this one doesn't necessarily need a five-year review because there's no job creation, we'll know whether or not the capital investment was made at the time that we actually issue the bonds.

But again, we'll we're gonna kind of hope to clarify some of that stuff when the new guidelines come out.

But this one is not projected to sort of have a five-year review.

I would like to see that.

Okay.

I think it would be important for community to know that this is a 10-year abatement.

While it doesn't have a job creation component, they may hire somebody.

Um, and so I'm just I would like to make sure that when we're giving these 10-year abatements, there's always an opportunity to come back and look, uh, a look back or look forward, I guess.

Um, and so I would like to see that, especially in our presentation in September, that that be added.

Um, I would like to see that these agreements have a performance measurement.

And again, I think Twila mentioned it what gets measured gets um you know recorded, and so I really would like to see more measurements and more plainly uh visible measurements that are on our website.

So again, any 10-year abatements should have a five-year look back and show community there was an investment made, and I think that that again provides transparency and and people want to see more housing.

I think that's what I heard from this entire council last week.

We want to see more housing, and I'm looking forward to more housing.

Um, but I think it would be helpful.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, here they talks about um below market rents.

Um, is that part of the requirement here?

No, again, this is just the developer's um intent that by utilizing this incentive, uh, they can make the units more affordable.

They're gonna pass that cost savings on to uh their tenants in the form of rent reductions to be more competitive into the workforce housing market, um, but no, there's not a requirement that they do it.

Okay, thank you.

Just wanted to clarify that.

Yep.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

And I was just going to emphasize workforce housing, first time I ever heard it was the other project from the applicant, so greatly appreciate that.

Regarding the five-year adding in the five-year when we don't have to, I'm fine with having that discussion.

Um, I think that's another thing that we can add to when we have our workshop on our economic incentives in um September.

Um, I think it would be a little trickier when there isn't job.

Um, but I just wanted to emphasize that that's something that won't be tied to this boat today.

That's something that's aspirational that we'll be talking about when we have our workshop in September.

Thank you.

I would like to add one more thing to Councilmember Tuttle's discussion for the September workshop, and that is clawbacks.

I want to know that if a company receives any type of IRB, will there be a um a more uh I I would like to see the development happen as soon as they've gotten the green light.

I know that there are some projects that have been stalled, and there's nothing for us to say, hey, hey, you need to continue with the project, you got approved by the council.

Are there opportunities to put that in the workshop?

Um maybe some clawbacks or some performance measurements uh to really encourage them to move ahead with their development versus stall for another two years or three years.

I know that in district number two in council member Tuttle's district, there's a project that did not get any city incentives, but it's been stalled and a lot of residents have been upset.

And so if you're getting city incentives, there could be something where we could say you need to move along with the development.

Yeah, we can absolutely uh introduce some of these concepts, right?

Um clawbacks traditionally, as that has been used in the context of economic development, is to sort of claw back some sort of dollar or benefit that went to a project, right?

If it's not satisfied again, if we're gonna shift all of the risk on to the owner-developer for performance and it's pay as you go, and the city's not putting any taxpayer dollars into the project, uh, there's probably not much to claw back, so to speak.

But yes, you're right.

But if you were to get 40 percent approved by this council, but if you don't start developing within the one year time frame, and you've now waited three years instead of 40 percent abatement, you get a 30 percent abatement.

So that would encourage that developer to move a little bit faster.

So those are the types of clawbacks that I would like to see because again, we had this long discussion last week about stalled development, um, and we've seen those around our community, and people expect that if you're getting some city incentives that you're gonna move along.

Yeah, absolutely.