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

Thank you for joining us for this morning's City Council meeting.

We'll call this meeting to order.

With us this morning is Pastor Ryan Emmons of Friendship Baptist Church by I one thirty-five and Pawnee.

Pastor Emmons will provide our invocation.

Following that, we will have our Pledge of Allegiance, and we ask that you please stand for both.

Dear Heavenly Father, as we bow our heads in prayer, we just know that as your word says that unless you build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

And so we ask that you would give us wisdom and direction this morning.

Lord, we ask for your wisdom in the ways that would help not only for protection, Lord, but would help each citizen be able to be the best they they can be in a city where there's lots of people with different varying opinions and varying backgrounds.

And we recognize there are many cities problems that we have, and we we understand, Lord, that there are wicked people out there in the world.

And so it's our desire that we would just be the best light that we could possibly be, and that you would give us protection and wisdom discerning these types of things.

And then Father, obviously, by the crowd this morning, there's a lot of people that are here for varying reasons, and I know that days like this can be very stressful, so I ask that you would just give calm hearts and a readiness of mind, and that the proceedings would happen very um refreshing, and at the end of the day, people would be look at today's meeting as very impactful and helpful for the different tasks that are laid ahead.

And then lastly, we think of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins and gave his life and came back to life again to prove he was almighty God.

And we thank you for the relationship we get to have with you because of what your son did on the cross for us.

Amen.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Pastor Emmons.

And again, thank you to all of you who are still coming in.

We do have an overflow room in the council chamber.

Um sorry, the council boardroom on the other side of this hallway.

Thank you again for joining us this morning.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the first item?

Approve the minutes of the regular meeting, October 14th, 2025.

Council members, any items to be edited.

I see none.

I move to approve the minutes of the regular meeting October 14th, 2025.

Second.

Motion and a second, any further discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes seven zero.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Awards and proclamations.

Today's proclamations are domestic violence month, National Chiropractor Month, and Mindful ICT coming to our hearts day.

May I please ask the City of Wichita Law Department and anyone in support of the Domestic Violence Month awareness proclamation to come forward at this time.

The proclamation reads, the City of Wichita, Kansas founded in 1870, whereas the City of Wichita and Sedwick County coordinated community response team are committed to taking a firm position against domestic violence and remain focused on ensuring that victims are safe and abusers are held accountable for their crimes.

Whereas domestic violence and sexual assault result in widespread victimization of adults, children, and families throughout the world.

Whereas in 2024, more than 17,000 calls for service related to domestic violence offenses were made in Wichita, and the local criminal justice system dedicates tremendous resources to arrest and prosecute perpetrators.

Whereas the theme of this year's domestic violence awareness month campaign is Love Shouldn't Hurt.

This campaign calls on new partners and community members to help expand domestic violence prevention and awareness efforts, ensuring that the next generation fosters attitudes that promote healthy relationships, equality, and respect.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Wichita City Council does hereby proclaim domestic violence awareness monthly.

Good morning.

My name is Amanda Myers.

I'm the executive director of the Wichita Family Crisis Center.

We are a one of the shelters and crisis centers for survivors of domestic violence.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month is about educating the public about domestic violence, about supporting survivors, and about uniting to prevent domestic violence in the future.

Unfortunately, I don't think that Wichita needs any educating about domestic violence.

In the past few months, we've heard about some pretty severe domestic violence.

And unfortunately, I um I am going to talk about it a little bit.

It's really hard to hear, but it's incumbent upon us to bear witness on behalf of these survivors.

There was a 20-year-old young woman who was pregnant and lost her life as a result of domestic violence.

A law enforcement officer was gunned down reporting to a domestic violence incident in Hayes.

And it was recorded on a ring camera, and it took days to identify her.

So education is not the issue.

Supporting survivors is about honoring the heroes that stand behind me, and some of whom didn't come up here this morning.

The community support workers, the law enforcement, the victim service providers, they are heroes.

But you all here today are also heroes because I know that prevention and uniting to prevent domestic violence is a priority for this community, both with the city council, the mayor, and you all here today.

So thank you very much for this proclamation and for being here to support survivors and ending domestic violence.

Thank you.

One, two, three, one, two.

May I please ask the Kansas Chiropractic Association to come forward at this time.

The City of Wichita, Kansas founded in 1870, whereas chronic musculoskeletal pain is a widespread problem in the United States, including Wichita, due to factors such as aging, obesity, and sedentary lifestyles, and back pain remains the single leading cause of disability worldwide.

Whereas pain medications, especially opioids, have long been a default treatment for these conditions.

However, research shows they are not an effective long-term strategy for car chronic low back pain and safer non-drug approaches are preferred by many patients.

Whereas national clinical guidelines, including those from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American College of Physicians recommend that patients with common musculoskeletal pain seek non-drug treatments first, and research demonstrates that chiropractic care can help reduce reliance on prescription opioids.

Whereas chiropractors are experts in musculoskeletal health and provide evidence-based non-drug approaches to address back pain, neck pain, joint pain, and headaches, while also offering guidance on nutrition, ergonomics, injury prevention, and healthy lifestyle choices.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Wichita City Council does hereby proclaim October 2025 as National Chiropractic Health Month.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Uh, I obviously should have brought more friends.

I am happy to share this message, though it's such a packed house today, though.

Um, on behalf of the Kansas Chiropractic Association and the American Chiropractic Association, I'm honored today to speak as we celebrate National Chiropractic Health Month 2025.

This year's theme, Get Started with Chiropractic, highlights how chiropractic care can be the first step in managing car managing pain and improving health without drugs.

The American Chiropractic Association emphasizes that chiropractic care can help reduce reliance on opioids, supporting a safer and healthier approach to pain management.

Today we extend our deepest gratitude to Mayor Lily Wu and the Wichita City Council for officially proclaiming October as chiropractic health month in Wichita.

This proclamation underscores our community's commitment to health and wellness, and we encourage everyone to take this opportunity to learn how chiropractic care can be a key part of their journey toward better health.

Let's celebrate this month by celebr by spreading awareness of the benefits of chiropractic care and by encouraging friends, family, and our neighbors to get started with chiropractic and embrace a healthier lifestyle.

Thank you.

May I please ask Council Member Ballard and Retreat to Joy to come forward at this time.

Hi, good morning.

The City of Wichita, Kansas, founded in 1870, whereas Mindful ICT is a grassroots public health initiative sponsored by Retreat to Joy, created to increase both mental and physical wellness in the Wichita community through mindfulness practices, education, and connection.

Whereas Mindful ICT brings together community partners, including Network Kansas, the Reardon Clinic, Mindful Leader, and the Mindful Teacher Community Network, MTCN, to expand opportunities for mindfulness-based learning, collaboration, and community growth.

Whereas this proclamation celebrates the inaugural Mindful Teacher Community Network Retreat coming to our hearts, which honors teachers and community leaders for bringing mindfulness into our hearts, workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods.

Whereas Wichita is a community rooted in compassion, innovation, and collaboration, proud to support initiatives that elevate wellness, strengthen connection, and showcase the city's beauty, strength, and heart.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Wichita City Council does hereby proclaim October 18th, 2025 as mindful ICT coming home to our heart day.

Wow, good morning.

This is the biggest crowd I've seen, and I'm so happy to be here.

My name is Constance Perasca, and I am founder of Retreat to Joy, and it was a lifetime in the making.

I come to mindfulness from mental illness background.

And right now we have collective insanity going on.

It's it's an epidemic.

So 57 million Americans struggle with depression, anxiety, relationship problems.

That's one in four Cansons.

So my company has been around for 10 years, and I have it's the biggest transformation I've had in my mental health, and I could give you, you know, some occurrences, but we don't need to go there.

This is fresh.

So this came about, it's a public health initiative because the old ways that we've treated just mental illness is it's not working.

So mindfulness offers more prevention, management of excellent mental health.

So I'm very happy that I was teamed with Reardon Clinic, Network Kansas, Mindful Leader, and Mindful Teacher Community Network, and we're gonna pick up other businesses, other individuals along the way who can contribute to mental wellness.

Thank you so much.

May please now ask the nonprofit organization gathered and its supporters to come forward at this time.

Gathered has strengthened the network of care surrounding Sedgwick County's most vulnerable.

Their commitment to supporting those who care for those others embodies the spirit of unity and service that defines Wichita.

The City of Wichita celebrates gathered's fifth anniversary and continued efforts to build stronger families, connected communities, and lasting hope.

Thank you.com.

If you want to help us build a continuum of care to support the vulnerable children and families in our community, we would definitely appreciate that because anything that we're facing, whether it's domestic violence, drug addiction, other substances, um, that's a community problem, and the only way we'll solve them or get any progress is working together.

Thank you.

One, two, three.

May I please ask Councilmember Becky Tuttle to come forward, Matt Martinez, and the Parks and Rec department to come forward at this time.

Good morning.

Thank you.

I'm Becky Tuttle, and it is my honor to be here today to recognize someone whose vision and dedication has transformed the way Wichita moves, connects, and celebrates our great community, Matt Martinez.

Matt is the recreation supervisor with the City of Wichita Park and Recreation Department.

Back in 2016, Matt traveled all the way to Portland, Oregon to see how their open streets events were done.

He came home inspired, full of ideas, and determined to bring the same energy and sense of community to Wichita.

And because of his passion and his incredible leadership, the very first open streets ICT was held in 2017 on Douglas Street.

That first event was something special.

We closed more than four miles of Douglas on a Sunday in September, all to get people outside active and connecting with other people and local businesses.

More than 15,000 people came to the first Open Streets ICT event to walk, dance, scooter, stroller, and explore our beautiful downtown.

Many saying they hadn't been downtown in years.

And from there, the event has just kept growing.

It's estimated by 2019 we had 35,000 people attend Open Streets ICT.

But Matt didn't stop there.

The success of Open Streets ICT on Douglas inspired other neighborhoods to want to join in.

And then in 2022, Wichita State University came on board, hoping hosting their first event on 17th Street.

Since then, Matt has been organizing three Open Streets ICT events each year on Douglas in Nomar and at WSU.

Each of them brings thousands of people together to be active, engage with local businesses, and enjoy everything that makes Wichita so special.

Behind the scenes, people don't see it, but Matt works diligently with park maintenance with the Wichita Police Department and community partners and other city agencies to ensure every event is safe, successful, and enjoyable for everyone.

His teamwork and attention to detail have been key to the program's continued success.

The impact has been incredible.

Families getting together outside, neighbors connecting, local businesses thriving, and a stronger, healthier community.

The feedback from residents has been overwhelmingly positive, and it's clear that Open Streets ICT has become one of Wichita's most beloved traditions.

Matt, your leadership, energy, and passion for the community has made a lasting impact in our city.

On behalf of the City of Wichita, it is my pleasure to present you with the Open Streets ICT Championship Belt and a symbol of your championship spirit and your dedication to make Wichita a more active, connected, and vibrant place to live.

Matt, congratulations, and thank you for all you have done for our community.

Thank you so much, Becky.

I appreciate everybody's support.

If it wasn't for the team behind me, these events couldn't happen, so I appreciate everything.

And it's a great team to work with.

It was in 1994 when I applied for the administrative assistant position.

Never ever thinking I would get the job because I was six months pregnant.

And my husband and I thought, there's no way.

Well, God had another plan for me.

And in April of 1994, Bayless Bell, who was the director of the airport, hired me.

Later I asked him, you know, why did he do that?

And he said, well, you're gonna get pregnant sooner or later.

So I I had no airport experience, but I quickly learned the job.

I studied the consultant reports, I learned from my mentors, and I quickly learned how dynamic and exciting the airport industry is, and I just loved it.

And I learned and I studied and got involved in more projects.

Twelve years later, the air service and marketing position opened up.

And Victor White was the director at that time.

I reluctantly applied for it because it would involve public speaking.

It would involve media interviews, and I was always one to shy away from the camera.

But I felt I could do it, and so I applied the very last day that they were taking applications.

And once again, God showed up and he got me the job.

And I will have to say that it has been a career that I have loved.

Um I have enjoyed the people in this industry.

My co-workers back at the airport authority are the best people you'll ever meet because they are hardworking, they are dedicated to the airport and to its success and its safety, and they're fun people, and they're like family to me, and I will miss them.

I've had the privilege of meeting so many people in the city.

Um leaders in the city that I would never have been able to meet before.

They're good people, there's so many good people in this city.

Um as I reflect on my career.

We are seeing record traffic.

In fact, the first quarter of this year, we had lower average itinerary fares than Kansas City had, which has never happened before.

Um so I want to thank Jesse for putting up with me.

Of course, I think it goes both ways.

Um my husband, my family who have not seen me much during my career because I put in pretty long days.

But I feel like any successes that I have had been blessings from God, and he gets all the credit.

I want to thank you for this recognition.

One, two, three.

One, two, three, thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, 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 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 speaker's remaining time to speak.

Order and rules of decorum will be observed.

The first speaker for today is Arthur Stokes, Black Mold.

Good morning, everybody.

My name is Arthur.

Uh I'm at 2614 South Topeker Partment 202.

And I'm speaking on the topic of black mold, but it really talks on the topic of environmental indoor health quality, is like the mental health, but indoors.

I mean, you have a a lot of different uh type of indoor problems.

And uh mold is to me, it's kind of sneaky.

You know, you don't really have it's kind of like COVID 19 that we just experienced.

You don't really have a list of one group of symptoms from it, and uh, you know, it it really sneaked up into my life, you know.

I had so many different symptoms from it.

I had planned it uh this morning to try to get uh speakers in, but I I'm end up I'm doing what I can to hold the podium.

I've been talking to a lot of people, and people just aren't really processing on how really graphic this topic really is.

You know, we don't really want to talk about that.

This is a topic, you know, it's it's kind of on the ground, but you know, my target is to try to like bring people in that spent more money, but uh you know, and let them share their experiences and strength and you know, and talk about really how really bad this stuff is really affected them, and you know, trying to come out on the other side.

I feel like uh this topic chose me.

I didn't choose this topic because it it affected me.

You know, I have uh I have numerous experience.

I have an athletic background.

Uh I played some high school all-Americans.

Uh, one of them was OJ Simpson's protege Tyrone Young, who's now deceased, and uh, you know, life hits us all in in some type of way, but this was one that was, you know, really had me looking around with you know, trying to keep inventory on my life and you know, my finances and stuff, and the the amount of uh goals that I had set for myself.

I came up really short.

I mean, this stuff can really clean you out.

It can clean your bank account out.

Big pharma can clean your bank account out.

So, you know, my goal is if uh to try to talk to legislature, city council, and uh next year hopefully try to bring more people in on this with me.

This is such a huge topic.

Uh we have the auditorium full this morning, the auditorium should be full of people that have stories to share uh about how this stuff has affected them as well as their families.

I mean I've I've talked to a few.

I think I'm gonna get a few on board, but you know, it's it's a slow process in getting people to open up.

I think a lot of us are really not processing uh how this stuff has affected us, or else they're embarrassed to how much money they spend and remodeling the house.

And then when you're talking about finances, you know, all of us want to cover that up.

I mean, I don't have a whole lot of money, so you know I didn't have no problems in open up, you know, it's it's still affecting me.

I have uh yet to get uh ulcers, but I'm right on the mountain for it, so I I really have to be cool.

I have to kind of like stay defused from uh external situations that I can't control because uh I don't want us, you know.

Uh I'm gonna pick one of these meetings to talk about my early experiences and challenges that almost took me out.

So I feel like I'm a miracle being here.

If the council members have anything to add or say, thank you, Mr.

Stokes.

Uh, you may have a seat.

We will have comments.

Council member Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Stokes, for being here and continuing to use your voice as always.

Sorry that you went through that experience, but uh promise kept today.

We have items to hopefully address that.

Um we'll see how that goes today, but there are a number of things uh in our first item that would address the things that you've talked to us about.

You and others, so I just again appreciate you continuing to use your voice and show the living conditions that some people have to deal with here in Wichita.

I know that we have a lot of new people in the room at the current moment.

There is an overflow room across uh the hallway if you would like a seat.

Um, there are also some seats right at the front if you would like to again have that seat.

In addition, I just wanted to make uh folks who may not have been to city council before aware of public agenda.

There are five individuals that have signed up either early um or will be able to speak uh during public agenda.

However, the very first item that I think a lot of you are here to speak about will be coming up in shortly, so you don't have to speak during the public agenda.

There will be public comment for that item.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the second individual?

Rhonda White's public safety.

Is Rhonda here this morning?

Madam Clerk, can you please call the third individual?

Laura McIntyre Religious Freedom and Human Flourishing Summit.

Good morning.

I'm here to announce not only to the city council but to everybody present that on this Thursday, October 23rd, from 9 to 130 p.m., people from all faiths and no faith at all will gather at the Wichita Marriott for the Kansas religious freedom and human flourishing summit.

This gathering is free and open to the public.

It is not a conference for one religion or one point of view.

It's a chance for all of us to come together, learn from one another, and explore how the freedom to believe and to worship contributes to the well-being of individuals and our entire community.

The theme for the summit is religious freedom and human flourishing.

Studies from across the world have shown that when people are free to live according to their conscience, to gather in community, and to express their own values, everyone benefits.

People are healthier, communities are more resilient, and nations are stronger.

At the summit, we'll hear from three respected leaders and scholars who've devoted their lives to protecting that freedom for all, including those who believe differently.

There'll be time for dialogue and asking questions and building friendships across faith lines.

It's about promoting respect.

It's about creating a culture where we can disagree without division and where differences become a source of strength.

So again, I invite everyone on this Thursday in two days to come to the Wichita Marriott at nine o'clock in the morning for the religious freedom and human flourishing summit.

Thank you.

Thank you, Laura.

Uh city, sorry, Vice Mayor John Stone.

Thank you, Mayor Laura.

Thank you very much for uh coming to speak and promoting the event.

Uh I plan on being there at least for uh part of it.

So uh I do appreciate it, and I think it's a great thing in our city to get everyone together.

So thank you.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the fourth individual?

Karen June Cahale, homelessness.

Um, last year um last year when I spoke to you, um I talked to you about some initiatives about homelessness that actually have been proven to work, like direct payments to people.

Now instead of making the direct payments to people, you're just spending 440,000 to clean up the encampments.

But you could have just given that money to the people and they could have, you know, added that to if they hadn't got some place to live.

And um you decided to go ahead and go your way.

That's what you did last year when I talked to you.

And um, this is where we are now.

I mean, 440,000 to clean up homeless encampments when you could just give that money to the people who are homeless and they'd have a home.

It doesn't make any sense.

You're um keeping people homeless, you're wasting taxpayer money.

And do you know that with the silly thing where you have to have three times the income for rent?

Um, I've never in my life, except for two years, had three times my um my my rent and income.

Ever.

And some of us are poor, and for somebody, they say the average price of an apartment is 600 to 1200.

I go with the middle, 800.

But to rent an apartment that's $800 a month.

A person working minimum wage would have to work 80 hours a week.

Eight hours a week.

You have to make $15 an hour to only work 40 hours a week to be able to rent that apartment.

And so I think that's stupid, and we should get rid of that.

And um I feel about that.

And also, um there's some policies at Sedwick County um that's making people homeless that are on Social Security.

Because if they set your, you know, if you don't have a if you get arrested in in January for probation violation you did in December, you don't go to court until February 22nd, and then you get out March 5th, which should have been three days after, but um then the court sets your official hearing date two months before your hearing.

And so that way the jail gets $400 a month, and you get saddled with a three-month overpayment, and you come out of there with two months not paid, plus you're not getting your whole check, and the average um social security check is like $1,800.

So that would be a $5,500 overpayment they get saddled with, so that the jail would get $400 a month.

And um, I think that's a bad policy that needs to change because Social Security laws that until a person is convicted and sentenced and they start serving their time, ignoring all time before the the trial, there has to be 30 continuous days if they're locked up.

If you only get sentenced to three days, then there shouldn't have even been an overpayment.

They're causing it for some people that are on Social Security, and that's ridiculous.

And um I heard you talking about um the thing about the tenants and the um the landlords.

And I'm wondering why um the landlords would be mad.

I mean, why aren't you working with them to help them get the grants for the community, you know, or the lot grants or the the 504 thing?

I mean, there's grants out there to bring things the places up to code for low-income people.

So why aren't you guys working together to help them um get those grants?

That's another question I have.

And um anyway, those are my concerns, and I just um sometimes get a little frustrated with you guys.

Um spending all that money on cleaning, throwing people's stuff away.

I mean, there's people they already don't have enough stuff.

I mean, they already are already out there homeless, and you take all their stuff away and go throw it away when you could just give them the money so that they could have a place to live.

And it would make a lot more sense, and then we wouldn't have any homeless people.

And um, I'm done, I'm not gonna use the rest of my time, but thank you.

I'm gonna ask for some decorum in this council chambers.

I know that there's gonna be a lot of conversation between two stakeholder groups.

I'm gonna ask that clapping stop at this moment just to have decorum here in this chamber.

Um, so I'm just asking kindly to please follow the rules that we have had set for council chamber uh decorum.

Council member Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Uh, to our last speaker, just two of the points that you made.

Um, your last one, the Kansas Housing Resource Conference is a great place for landlords to go and learn about all the resources there and get connected with that.

Our um housing director also goes to that, so that is a great place to do that.

I believe it was your second point.

Um, that is not a policy of the council that folks are required to pay two or three times or make two or three times their rent.

That's up to the property management company or and or landlord.

Um to your point, it is very hard for some people to do that, and that's why some people live in substandard conditions today.

Two people can be fully employed, gainfully employed, and not make that amount, and they cannot move from wherever they're at.

That's a terrible place and go to another one just because of those arbitrary rules.

But again, that's up to their property management company and landlord.

Um that's something I've been saying for a number of years, and I hope more people pay attention to that and understand that it is um causing some people to not be able to have housing, even though they can afford it, they just don't make that that amount of funding.

But I just wanted to highlight that's not a policy of the council that's in the free market.

I just want to address something uh since this topic was regarding homelessness on the agenda.

Uh the park and recreation operations uh is available online for folks to see um homeless remediation uh in 2023.

There were 289 work orders totaling 229,795 so far this year.

There have been 375 work orders, and the total cost has been down to 156,704, and that is due to having this now in-house rather than contract it out.

Um again, the topic was regarding homelessness on um the public agenda item.

This means that we have two open spots for anyone who would like to address the council on any other topic beyond the scope of what we will be talking about during council today.

Are there any individuals who would like to address the council?

I see none.

Oh, I see someone right over here.

Can you please state your name and your address?

My name's Sarah Cowling, and my address is 2116 South Seneca number 302.

I actually have an address now.

Um I just wanted to speak on kind of building on something.

I wanted to, I guess I talked to Steve from housing, and the municipal ID has been a really good idea.

It's helped a lot, but there's been a couple things that I wanted to address because I've got some friends like right now, like we're not gonna be able to house all the homeless by the winter, but it's gonna be cold.

And so I kind of talked to some people out there, and one thing that I'm seeing is um a lot of people have like menial warrants, things for like missed court dates out there, and I just wanted to ask for like maybe a recommendation as uh how we would go about maybe changing some policies that when people come in for like the municipal IDs if they have warrants for those things, maybe setting out a court date.

Um I presented something to you guys, I think in March, talking about like how cost efficient it would actually be to in order for them to set out court dates instead of have people arrested, book them, house them just to come out and get an ID because right now the easiest thing they tell people is if you go to jail, you can get things taken care of.

You know, I think that that's a lot of wasted money and a lot of wasted effort, and it also reduces the security that these people have.

You know, we have people that don't want to get caught because they don't want to sit in jail where you know you might wait a month or two to go because you missed court and being out there not having a phone or even like a time, something to remind you what time it is.

You know, I just there's a couple things.

Um, another thing that we're finding people are having issues with with the I-9 compliance, is that um it's not on the drop-down menu, so some people are still not taking those uh municipal IDs.

Um that's basically what I have for right now on this topic.

So I'm glad to see you guys.

And I'm also in the Civic Engagement Academy, and supposedly next week you guys are supposed to be there at least some.

I hope to see all of you.

Thank you very much, Sarah.

Thank you for participating in the Citizens Engagement Academy.

Um we really want to have more individuals in our community participate in that.

And I'm glad that you're now housed and uh talked about the municipal ID.

Um, I do want to make mention that tomorrow, uh sorry, Thursday, second chance Thursday is happening over at Evergreen Community Center and Library again this Thursday, October 23rd from 9 a.m.

to 4 p.m.

That's where you can have um resolutions regarding traffic, uh notices to appear, as well as environmental warrants.

Uh so again, that's second chance Thursday this upcoming week.

Councilmember Glascock.

Sarah, thank you for coming out today.

Congratulations on housing and congratulations on moving to District 4.

Um I'll be your representative.

And so if there's any way, um, I would love to sit down one-on-one and talk about some of the items you just mentioned.

And so my email is DGlascock at Wichita.gov.

Um, reach out and I would love to connect over coffee.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ho Heisel.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Sarah, for coming up.

Um, I'm wondering if our COM staff um I just like to echo the mayor's uh sentiments as far as second chance Thursday goes.

I wonder if maybe we could print flyers with those and have them up there whenever we are doing IDs.

Um, just that way people are aware of when those are coming up.

So more a comment to our comm staff to maybe see if that's something we can jump on.

We have room for one more individual who would like to address the council.

Thank you, Mayor Wu.

I would like consent agenda item number eight pulled from the agenda for separate discussion.

Thank you.

I see no other individuals as we had five individuals speak for public agenda.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next item?

Consent agenda items one through 16 council members, items to be pulled.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

I would like to pull item 15 and 16.

Thank you.

I will pull item number eight.

With that, I will move to approve the consent agenda without items eight, 15 and 16.

Second.

Motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 70.

We will go in numerical order.

We will start with consent agenda item number eight.

The subject is funding for Crystal Prairie Lake Park Phase One in Council Member Maggie Ballard's district.

I would like to get a briefing regarding this project.

And also I would like to know if this project will have any further phases.

I know that the community has been uh shown graphics and renderings regarding future plans.

I would like to know if that is happening.

Mayor, I'm gonna ask um maybe Reggie Davidson to talk about the park as a whole.

I will tell you the approved capital improvement program has 2,250,000 over a 10-year period allocated for improvements at Crystal Prairie Lake Park.

Reggie, you can correct me if I'm wrong.

I believe that is for bike path extensions around the lake.

None of the development that is outlined in the master plan other than bike trails is anticipated at this time.

At least that's my understanding.

Reggie and Tim.

So Tim's gonna give an overview of where we are with the process.

Uh but the master plan was done uh roughly about 10 years ago with what uh Crystal Prairie Lake, what's gonna be the improvements?

And the first phase of that is gonna be the trail and access to the park in the parking lot along Hoover in that area.

So we're in the process now of getting ready to go to our park master plan, and part of that is gonna be looking at all of our assets that we have and see how we move forward with future development.

So that's kicking off uh at the beginning of next month.

Hello, uh Tim Kellums, Public Works and Utilities.

Uh so a little bit of background on January 7th, uh earlier this year.

City Council approved supplemental design agreement number three with RDG.

RDG was part of the team that has worked on the master plan, uh, and they've been working here in Wichita for uh decades and on the project for for many years.

Uh so this was a uh supplemental design agreement to kick start uh phase one for improvements.

I will note that there is um public art as part of the project that'll be coming back to uh city council at a later date, so that's not part of this uh agenda item.

Um so analysis just kind of giving you a graphic on on uh the project.

This is pretty similar to what was shown uh back in January.

The parking lot has uh moved uh to the north to help increase with traffic flow, uh made more sense to move it up there.

Otherwise, the uh project has stayed pretty much exactly the same as what was presented to you uh in January.

Uh so it kind of uh a brief overview.

It'll be a multi-use trail along Hoover Road.

There'll be a gravel parking lot, gravel parking lot is proposed because if there are future improvements, we're not building some giant parking lot that we're gonna have to renovate or move later.

So feel that gravel parking lot would be a good idea to do for phase one.

There will be a fence around the landfill.

Again, that's to self help separate the park from the landfill.

Right now there's no fence, so we need to put a fence in to help uh protect the park and the landfill.

And then the multi-use trail will ultimately go down to um will be along Hoover Road and collect uh Crystal Prairie Lake Park down with Sedwick County Park.

Um here is a graphic uh showing the lesser of site plan.

Um I will note that uh kind of going back one slide here.

The uh Crystal Prairie Lake will uh or the trail along Hoover Road.

There are a few gaps in that project connecting from the Crystal Prairie Lake Park down to Sedgwick County Park.

The renovation or um improvements along Hoover Road will help create that connection.

So ultimately there'll be a connection after these two projects are done, connecting uh these two parks.

So just a lesser site plan again, uh creating a connection that's 45th Street uh on the left there, so that will um be able to go into the park pretty smoothly.

Um there will be a trail that runs along Hoover Road.

Um kind of going down here a little bit further again.

Uh trail will be inside the park, moving it off of the um uh off of Hoover Road.

This allows some separation and provides a safer environment for users.

And again, there'll be a seating node with future art in that area again.

That's not part of this conversation now.

We still need to go to design council for approval.

And then there will be a pedestrian crossing across uh Hoover Road there connecting, I believe that's edgewater development to the park.

So creating a safe signalized uh crossing for pedestrians to go back and forth between the community.

Again, this will be going down further.

One of the biggest challenges with the project is getting under K96.

Uh so that's kind of we've had been having conversations with K Dot uh in order to do that.

Um there'll be a retaining wall under the bridge again, trying to make sure that we provide a safe environment for all users, and eventually we'll go down and connect to the uh the existing trail.

You can kind of see there at the lower part of the screen uh that they'll connect again into the existing uh pathway that's already there.

Just a few photos uh of kind of some examples again.

You see there on the left example of a trail under highway, pretty straightforward.

Uh the biggest thing is just getting that retaining wall in to make enough room for the trail, and then there'll be the uh signalized crossing to allow people to get across Tuver Road.

Just want to chat a little bit about um the donation agreement.

Um there was a donation uh made to help uh kick start the project.

Uh that was one million dollars, and again, that was part of the uh agenda item that came before you on January 7th of this year.

Um there is um about 2.5 million dollars in ongoing projects for Crystal Prairie Lake Park.

Again, part of that is the one million dollar donation to help start the project, and then there's $50,000 allocated for our work.

Wanted to pull a few notable uh provisions within the agreement.

Um again, that was the uh donation there that uh notes the one million dollars that will be donated, and then here just kind of want to describe exactly what park is agreeing to, what the city's agreeing to.

Um there is you can see there on point B the minimum donation of one to one uh over the aggregate of the term.

We would then be fulfilling that agreement by already by allocating the money to do the project.

So we would be absolved of any required future matching or anything along those lines uh with this.

Did want to point out here that the um these are future funding.

I will point out that there is ongoing section.

Uh I'll go back just one slide for you, or a few slides here.

There is that 2.5 roughly, it runs out to about 2.6 if you add in the art budget that was already approved.

That's already in the ongoing section.

So we're here today to help initiate the remainder of those funds that was uh allocated in 2000 or 2025.

And then here is the remaining funds uh allocated in the CIP for Crystal Prairie Lake Park.

There's no associated grants or agreements or anything along those lines with future funding.

This is just uh wanting to help push forward, continue to develop the park.

We know that it's a big interest of the community uh to uh have improvements and get this park activated, so that's what this is for.

Um so staff recommends initiating uh two million three hundred and seventy thousand dollars with a budget of a little over 2.6 million.

Uh the law department has reviewed and approved the amending bonding resolution and is recommended that city council approve the revised budget, adopt the amending body resolution and authorize the necessary signatures.

And I'm happy to stand for any questions.

Thank you.

Questions from council members, beginning with council member Glaska.

Thank you, Mayor.

Can we go back to slide three real fast?

Okay, just to confirm when we're talking about the blue area that says future phases, those are bike lanes, those are not phase alleged uh development projects in these areas.

Uh correct.

We don't know, you know, we have the master plan again.

That's that that's an old master plan that uh is a great thing to kind of provide us as we move forward, but no, I don't think we have anything locked in place or anything along those lines.

I think Reggie mentioned having the uh the system wide park master plan will help us determine kind of what's needed in the community.

If something should come up, that'd be great, but no, there's no so that's not what these future phases are.

Correct.

Yeah, if it if they're bike plates, great.

If there's something else, we're gonna want to get feedback from the public for that.

And then can we go to slide 12 real fast?

So this will work.

Um, with the second one, the future CIP funding is not associated with any grants or agreements.

Um, our exception or our accepting of the donation doesn't stipulate or require anything beyond the economic match, correct?

Correct.

We would by I guess moving forward and doing the project for this first phase, we would fulfill the agreement of the matching requirements.

There's no subsequent things we have to fill.

Correct.

You're correct.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, Councilmember Glasscock just answered one of my questions here.

Uh can we go back to slide 10, please?

Okay, so essentially we are we obligated to do 200,000 a year, or if we decide not to do 200,000 a year, um what does that agreement look like?

Does that just simply mean that the donation wouldn't come in in that amount?

So if it's 800,000, would it just be matched up to 800,000?

Um I believe right now we have um the one million dollars to help get through the project.

I'm not sure exactly uh the exact timing of all the funds that have been paid.

I'm not sure if uh what Mr.

Russell's numbers are on that yet, but I do know that obligated to provide that one million dollars.

Okay, and he did donate in 24, correct?

I believe so, yes.

Okay.

And that was before we had the agreement signed.

Correct.

Okay, so we brought it.

Wait a second.

Uh no, I believe we do have, yeah, I guess that would be from 23 to 27, so yes.

Okay, and 25 is when the agreement in January 25 came to us.

That'd be correct, yes.

Okay.

Was there any violation of policy in that or as far as um locking in an agreement before it comes to council?

Uh I'm not sure I'd have to ask the city manager or law to help with that one.

Councilmember, uh no, we had we had that money um in an account, and if the council had not approved the project, we would have returned the funding.

Okay, so it had not been spent, it has not been spent by the city at this point.

Okay, so that would have just been that would have just canceled the contract if we had not approved it.

Well, there was no contract to cancel if you had not approved it.

Right.

Okay.

I I see.

Um just a bit more history about this project.

It was a 25 million dollar project a couple of years ago.

And we took that money from the CIP and spent it on fire stations, if I remember correctly.

I I think some funds may have been used for the ballpark as well.

I don't recall exactly what where and where all those went.

Okay, yeah.

Um, just wanting to just put that out there into the public as well, that it was a $25 million project, and now it's two and a half million.

So I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Mayor City Manager.

My recollection is a portion of the funding was uh used for the baseball stadium.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

I was just gonna ask Bob to clarify that there was five million dollars in the CIP that was pulled for the uh ball stadium.

Thank you.

Can I go back to the map one more time?

There, thank you.

Again, the proposal that came forward ten years ago is not the same proposal that is here before us in 2025.

Is that correct?

I in the master plan there was always a trail along Hoover Road.

This is just a portion of that.

So um I guess this would be a part of the master plan, but the big ideas that were part of the master plan, um they have not come to fruition and they are not uh planned or anything beyond them staying in the master plan.

I will ask that question to the city manager.

What are beyond our commitment to just make sure that there is a connection between Sedgwick County Park and Crystal Prairie Park?

Do we have any other commitments that we have outstanding with this person who is donating a portion of the dollars?

No, Mayor, we do not.

And and in fact, I think the future of this park will be determined by the park master plan update.

And I know that the community has seen um renderings of uh the proposal of this master plan for this park.

Can you tell us how likely that actually is gonna come to fruition?

Well, until the council considers uh the new master plan or the park plan.

I uh it's hard for me to answer that.

The council, when it diverted money to the baseball stadium, at that time they stated their intent not to move forward with the original master plan.

Um, but that can always change with every council, and then when a new plan comes forward, um it'll be up to the council to make a decision on what they would like to do.

Um I can I can't guess where we'll be after you know during that process.

And again, this will just be a 10-foot uh multi-use sidewalk that can have bicyclists, scooters, individuals walking, and it will connect the final piece between Sedgwick County Park and Crystal Prairie Park, is that correct?

Is that correct?

Uh yes, in conjunction with the uh Hoover Road project.

So those two tie it together will help make this total connection.

Thank you.

Councilmember Glascock.

One last question.

The item we approved and consent item 4A is part of this contiguous path that's going to connect this project, the existing path, and then uh the project approved in 4A will be the final connector from Central County Park all the way.

Correct.

Uh I'm not sure what, yeah.

I'm looking at a map that may show that Paul Guncilman Public Works and Utilities.

Yes, that will connect the path.

That is the Hoover Road project that is uh scheduled to begin construction in 2026 from 21st Street to 29th Street.

Okay, thank you.

I see no further questions for staff.

Thank you.

We will now open it up for public comment regarding this item.

Thank you, Mayor Wu.

Um Celeste Rossette West Wichita, long time Wichita native.

The reason why I bring this up and I apologize to everybody who's waiting is what bothers me about this whole situation is we accepted donations from a local developer, Jay Russell, two of 200,000 dollars in 2024 before we had any kind of agreement with City Council.

And there is a policy, I'm just not able to pull it up right now.

I think it's an administrative rag that discusses accepting money ahead of your approval of accepting that money.

He also, you know, as a local developer, has been advertising Crystal Lake on his subdivisions for years now.

Edgewater advertises the lake.

If you go to his website, he's been advertising Crystal Prairie Lake Park for years in the hopes that his donations would spur you to do this development out there.

And it says phase one.

So if you say phase one, that leads me to believe that we could be going on to phase two and phase three, not that we are, but it could lead to the 9.5 million dollars he wants for Crystal Lake Prairie Development.

And that was in the original master plan.

So I guess what I'm here to say is I know he makes company campaign contributions, and I'm not gonna go there, but my concern is when you accept money from developers a year ahead of having an agreement, you're going down a shady path with our taxpayer money.

So thank you for allowing me to pull this agenda.

I won't go on any longer, but I'm concerned it's phase one.

What is phase two gonna cost us?

And that's why I'm bringing this to your attention, and I will find that administrative regulation and send it to Bob when I get back to the office.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So last council member Glascock.

Mayor, one quick question to Bob just to solidify the fact.

Any phase two, any phase three beyond what we passed today would have to come back to this body to be approved and have some public comment.

Multiple occasions.

To start off with it has to be in the uh park plan.

Second, it needs to be in the CIP, and actually a third time, then you have to approve the project.

So a lot of action and review by the council and the public.

Okay, thank you.

And one more clarifying question.

Since there were dollars allocated in the CIP in 28, 30, 32, and 34, those are for what phases or what will those dollars be used for?

Mayor, right now, those are placeholders.

Um if you were to ask me today, I would say probably for bike path extensions.

But the projects had there are no projects that have been designed, and the council actually would have to approve those projects before they go forward.

And I said, and I said before, I think the park master plan will determine direction for the park going forward.

And again, that park master plan will begin next month.

So we will have lots of opportunities for community to be engaged in the park master plan process as we're wanting to be cognizant that we have over 120 parks and we want to be responsible with the assets we currently have and think forward with what to do with our park system as a whole.

So again, this will only be for phase one.

Uh even if there were other phases beyond today, they would still have to come back to the council for public comment.

Is that correct, City Manager?

That is correct, Mayor.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Ms.

Rossette.

Um could you please also send that email to the rest of us as well as soon as you find the administrative right?

All right, thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Anyone else from the community who would like to speak to the I'm Craig Gable, 150 East 44th Street South.

Yes.

I'm Craig Gable, 150 East 44th Street South.

And I didn't come here to speak on this issue, but it came up.

And yeah, I just wanted to point out another thing.

If you I'm taking this picture from my head and whatnot, there's no housing to the east because we've got the landfill.

There's no housing to the north and whatnot.

There's no housing to the south because the highway's there.

Now we're gonna make some kind of crossing thing, but I don't remember much housing over there.

So basically, this park and this expansion and this what we're talking about today is going to have one beneficiary, Jay Russell, and his one community or multiple communities.

He's building it to the west of it.

And it just doesn't seem quite set quite right.

You know what I mean?

When was the last time we built a spent 2.5 million dollars on a park in South Wichita?

Long time whatnot.

So unless I said there would be beneficiaries all the way around because there are no areas where there's land.

Well, maybe the sewer plant might keep keep it, but you know what I mean.

You there's and then the maintenance for years, these are just the beginning numbers.

What is the cost to maintain a park, especially when you build it up so that it's made for daily use for people getting in there and use it?

You've got to mow everything right down at the water, you've got to keep it up and stuff like that.

And we're having a hard time with that.

I go to Watson Park and it's covered in trash.

It's not being taken care of, it's eroding into the ponds and stuff like that.

Let's spend the money on the assets we already have instead of expanding them out for a single beneficiary.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, thank you, Mr.

Gable.

Uh, a couple of points.

One, we do have to work on uh connectedness throughout our community, so it's not just the beneficiary of somebody nearby, but it's the beneficiary of anybody on the north side or west side who wants to get from one part of town to another.

I'm glad you brought up uh spending on parks down south.

I guess you're not familiar with the five million dollars we spent recently on Clatt Park, uh built a playground for kids with disabilities.

So it's really neat.

I encourage you to come out and check it out.

There's a big boom.

You can take a kid up on a wheelchair, they can go to the top of a slide, go down the slide, zip lines for kids on wheelchairs, a little section for kids with hearing disabilities to actually be able to talk to other kids as well, uh, like a little sign language post.

And as far as the sewage treatment plant goes, yeah, I'm hopeful that after the major odor control upgrades that we have going on right now that should be complete this time next year, that there will be a lot more room for development down south, both with amenities and with housing as well.

So I appreciate your opinions on this, sir.

Just wanted to offer a little more background as far as the things we do have going on down south.

Councilmember Glascom.

Thank you, Mayor Mr.

Gable.

Thank you for speaking.

I'll also kind of tack on to what Councilman Ahoheisel said.

Uh, we've invested in the last couple years more than 1.8 million dollars, Pawnee Prairie Park, a little bit further southwest.

In addition, we just approved the Osage Park Fitness Court, which will be the second in the community.

Uh the other one is over in District 6 in Maggie's district.

We spent more than 130,000 for an outdoor fitness center that's currently be constructed.

It should open in the I believe it's the second quarter of 2025.

Reggie, you could probably correct me if I'm wrong, and uh made significant investments to the basketball court there as well, and then looking at some investments.

Uh we're working on an RFP and a partnership at South Lakes as well to activate South Lakes uh with some potential um uh outside organizations as well.

So there is development happening in a lot of the parks in South Wichita, and uh CLAP is a great facility and a uh great example of that too.

Any further public comment regarding this item Richard Hill, 4555 South Laura.

Is it the area we're talking about on this?

Is that county or is that city?

If it's county, let the county deal with it.

If it's city, we need to examine where the money's going.

But if you're taking my city money and putting it in the county, even though it may end up doing good.

I don't trust Jay Russell, and that's all I've got.

City manager, this city manager, this is city property.

Is this correct?

That is correct, Mayor.

Thank you.

Any further public comment regarding this item?

I see none.

I want to say thank you to Celeste to Mr.

Gable and Mr.

Hill for speaking during public comment regarding this item.

I was the one that pulled this item.

Um, and again, it's only for phase one, and I see no further uh commitments regarding phase two.

So I am going to move that this item uh get approved with the revised budget, adopt the amending bonding resolution, and authorize necessary signatures.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you.

Since this is in my district, I have a couple um comments to share.

The beneficiaries of this project or are all of the people that live in the community.

There are several HOAs in the area.

We talk about providing a walkable writable community almost every week, somehow on council.

So I'm excited for this project and for all of the residents that live in the area.

And I'll second your motion.

Thank you, Councilmember Ballard.

We have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 7-0.

Madam Clerk, please call sorry, counts consent agenda item number 15.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

Due to a conflict of interest, I will be abstaining from this vote.

Any questions for staff regarding this item?

I see none.

This gets public comment.

Would anyone like to comment on hangar dynamics Jabara 2020?

Uh LLC.

I see none.

I'll bring it back to the bench.

I move to approve the agreement and authorize the necessary signatures.

Second.

Motion and a second.

Any further discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Aye.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, same sign.

All those who abstain.

Aye.

Motion passes 6-0 with one abstention.

Consent agenda item number 16.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

Due to a conflict of interest, I will be abstaining from this vote.

Any questions for staff regarding this item?

Again, this item is Wichita State University Campus of Applied Science and Technology Recognition.

I see none.

We will open it up for public comment.

I see none.

I'll bring it back to the bench.

I move that the Wichita Airport Authority approve the recognition, attorment, consent, and a stoppable agreement and the memorandum of lease and authorized and necessary signatures.

Second.

Motion and a second, any further discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 6-0 with one abstention.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Board of Bids and Contracts dated October 20th, 2025.

Morning.

Mayor, City Council, Josh Lobber, Department of Finance.

I've never seen so many members of the public interested in bids today, so I'm excited to see that.

Um for engineering, we have the water main extension from via Christie Street to Teresa's secondary feed for NOAAC Construction Company Incorporated for $805,341.75s.

We have the water distribution system to serve Clear Creek 3rd and 4th edition phase eight for Mies Construction Incorporated for 105,607.

We have the sanitary sewer to serve Clear Creek 4th edition phase 8 for Mies Construction Incorporated for 119,469 and 60 cents.

We have the downtown two-way street conversion concrete street repair phase four for Roston Construction LLC as the lowest responsive bidder for 120,100 awarded from their original bid of 114,332.

This is how to become a vendor with the city of Wichita.

This is our purchasing calendar, small business resource partner events and items that will be occurring specifically on 1024 and Topeka.

We have our reverse vendor fare for professional association.

Encourage anybody that wants to attend.

Thank you, Josh.

Questions for staff.

I see none.

This does not get public comment.

So I will move to approve the Board of Bids and Contracts dated October 20th, 2025.

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.

Bear with me, it's a long one.

A charter ordinance repealing charter ordinance number 159 pertaining to judges of the municipal court by the addition of the position of judge of the neighborhood court, a charter ordinance amending sections 2 and 11 of Charter Ordinance number 223 pertaining to judges of the Wichita Municipal Court, an ordinance of repealing section 104-150 of the code of the city pertaining to the establishment of the neighborhood court, an ordinance sunsetting Title 801 and Title 2004 of the Code of the City of Wichita, repealing sections applicable to property maintenance, an ordinance creating chapter 2005 adopting the International Property Maintenance Code with amendments, an ordinance reinstating the Board of Codes standards and appeals, an ordinance adopting a procedure for the acceptance of fire insurance proceeds, an ordinance amending the city's non-discrimination ordinance to include source of income and an ordinance, chapter 2006 requiring registration of rental units with property maintenance violations.

Honorable mayor, members of council, Troy Anderson, Assistant City Manager.

So I'll try to go over this at a really really high level, but again, at any point in time, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, feel free to jump in.

So first and foremost, a little bit about how we got to where we are today, right?

This has been a conversation that's been gone been ongoing for several years now.

More specifically, we can kind of point back to August 2023.

Um staff, particularly myself, stood here in front of City Council and presented to City Council.

Um a little bit of background in property owner rights, but also property owner responsibilities, and then the enforcement process, uh, particularly as it relates to property maintenance codes.

Uh at that point in time, staff was directed to review the city's existing property maintenance codes, our existing policies and procedures, and performance measures, and we at that point in time promised to come back to you all with a recommendation.

As part of that conversation, we also introduced the idea of adoption of the International Property Maintenance Code.

So fast forward to earlier this year, uh specifically June 3rd, 2025.

Uh, we stood in front of you again with some of those recommendations, right?

Um, we provided again a high-level overview at that point in time of how we arrived at where we are at that point in time.

We started diving into uh the existing codes and ordinances, a recommendation to consider the international property maintenance code, and then we even walked through sort of a little bit of chapter and verse of how that property maintenance code works, um, as well as kind of through out some recommendations, uh, but also at the same time we asked for your feedback on a couple of items and and a couple of issues as it relates to property maintenance codes and enforcement.

Uh so following that we went out to uh before I go on.

We went out to uh the various district advisory boards um through the course of uh July, August, September.

We uh took that presentation out to all the district advisory boards, also got feedback from the community in that context, and are coming back to you with those recommendations today.

During that conversation back in June, however, though, there were also conversations around including a source of income as a discriminatory uh protected class.

Um I'm just gonna read this so I don't misrepresent this.

A source of income discrimination refers to the practice of denying housing or imposing different terms on applicants based on the lawful source of funds used to pay rent.

Commonly affected sources include housing choice vouchers, social security disability benefits, veterans' benefits, child support, and other public or private assistance.

During that time period, uh there were also discussions around rental registry, uh, creating up again a formal record of rental properties, uh, helping municipalities oversee rental housing quality and enforced property maintenance codes.

Um there were a couple of different iterations of where a landlord registry or a uh a rental property registry, even so far as inspections might uh go.

And so based on all of the conversations we've had, feedback we had uh were able to kind of garner the drafts that are before you today are simply that drafts.

It's the first turn at what a community might use to start to create uh a rental property registry.

I'm gonna go back and touch on that point, the last one too.

Also, that there is uh some language in there about a um having a point of contact for out-of-state or out-of-region landlords.

Okay.

So then this kind of dives into the documents that have been put in front of you.

Um, more specifically as it relates to kind of the first tranche, uh the uh property maintenance code and the adoption of an international property maintenance code.

There was an ordinance drafted creating chapter 20.05, adopting the international property maintenance code, and then thereafter a handful of local amendments.

Um that code would become effective as drafted uh January 1, 2026.

There are also amendments to the IPMC that were drafted to bring that code into compliance with Kansas statutes, specifically the nuisance abatement procedures, condemnation proceedings, and unsafe structure removal.

We also included amendments to create an exception process.

Uh owners may request an administrative exception through the Board of Code Standards and Appeals.

Uh again, this allows an opportunity for property owners and homeowners to claim economic or other hardships.

Along those same lines, uh, an ordinance was drafted specifically to repeal section 1.04.150 of the city municipal code establishing neighborhood court.

Um there are also two charter ordinances in your packet that were drafted to repeal charter ordinance 159, which established the position of a neighborhood court judge, and sections two and 11 of Charter Ordinance 223.

Additionally, uh an ordinance was drafted sunsetting existing property maintenance codes in chapters 8.01 and 20.04 with an effective date of December 31, 2026.

I'm going to pause there and just make sure that everybody understands, right, that there's an overlap.

Those are not kind of misrepresented dates.

There's an overlap.

So as we continue to transition from our existing codes and ordinances, properties that may be going through the abatement process or the violation process today.

And then the new international property maintenance codes can go into effect January 1, 2026.

There'll be about a year overlap where we can start to transition, again, develop solid policies, efficient processes and procedures for proper enforcement without compromising our ability to enforce either the rules and regulations we have on the books today or the new rules and regulations that we're proposing.

Additionally, uh during the IPMC ordinance amendment process, it was discovered that uh there were two ordinances that were repealed previously during the adoption of the latest version of the building code.

Uh so we're coming back and uh introducing ordinances to reinstate the Board of Code standards and appeals and a procedure to accept fire insurance proceeds.

So that's kind of the first tranche of and I'll get to the recommendations here in just a minute on property maintenance codes.

As it relates specifically to kind of income discrimination, an ordinance was drafted to amend Section 2.06060 of the non-discrimination ordinance to also include source of income as a protected class, which would include lawful income from work, legal benefits, and public assistance.

And again, I'm just gonna continue to read this just to make sure that I don't misrepresent any of this.

The amendments would clarify in City Code Section 2.06060 that the prohibition on source of income discrimination would also not limit the authority of landlords to participate in public rental assistance programs, would not prevent real estate transactions and cash and will not otherwise affect the legal obligations of landlords and tenants.

Again, there will be a $50 registration fee, it's valid for one year.

Property will remain registered for a period of two years after the latest code violation is corrected or adjudicated.

Any property owned by an individual or corporation located within 60 miles outside the city limits must have that locally designated agent.

Um we touched on that a little bit ago.

With that being said, there is no impact to the general fund contemplated at this time.

Okay, so again, our recommendation is that you consider this in sort of three parts or in three tranches.

The first one is as it relates to property maintenance codes and sort of environmental court.

Action number one, we would recommend city council place one, the charter ordinance repealing charter ordinance number one five nine pertaining to judges of the municipal court by the addition of the position of judge or neighborhood court.

Number two, the charter ordinance amending section two and eleven of charter ordinance number two two three pertaining to judges of the Wichita Municipal Court.

Number three, the ordinance repealing section 1.04.150 pertaining to the establishment of the neighborhood court.

Number four, the ordinance sunsetting title 8.01 and Title 20.04 of the code of the city of Wichita repealing sections applicable to property maintenance codes.

Number five, the ordinance adopting the International Property Maintenance Code with amendments.

Number six, the ordinance reinstating the board of code standards and appeals.

And seven, the ordinance adopting a procedure for acceptance of fire insurance proceeds, placing all of those on first reading and authorizing the necessary signatures.

Again, we want to just pause just a minute to make sure that knowing and understanding those are charter ordinances, they do require supermajority vote.

I'm sorry, I missed that.

Could you read that again?

The second action item that we would recommend that you all uh consider today is to place the ordinance amending the city's non-discrimination ordinance to include source of income on first reading, authorize the necessary signatures.

And then the third action that we would recommend you all consider here today is to place the ordinance requiring registration of rental units with property maintenance violations on first reading, authorize the necessary signatures.

And with that being said, I'll stand for questions.

Uh our humble assistant city attorney, Sharon Decraft was also instrumental in all of this, would be more than happy to answer any questions.

And also, we wouldn't be standing here today without folks from uh uh project management, Denise Peters and her team did an amazing job uh of bringing all this together.

So I just wanted to take two minutes and just acknowledge and thank everybody for bringing all this to fruition.

Thank you, Troy.

We'll begin with Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I have a feeling there's going to be more questions coming along in the following discussion.

Uh just a few right here.

Um, how many international codes do we already have in play through our building and inspections department?

I I'd have to go back.

My if I had to say off the top of my I think six-ish.

I mean, I international building code, residential code, um, existing building code, um, probably mechanical code, uh, fire code.

There might be one or two others, but probably about a half dozen of the international code series.

Okay, when we talk about um having uh point of contact for people who live more than 60 miles outside of the city limit.

Um, I know one thing that we had looked, and I think most people here would agree.

Um, there's a big problem with uh out of state owners.

Um that was something that I looked at when I first got on council and learned there's a whole not a whole lot we can do about it because of uh constitutional issues, the interstate commerce clause.

Um if we have that requirement for point of um management, is that something that we're confident passes uh the constitutional muster there?

I'm gonna defer to legal on constitutionality.

Under under the current ordinance as it's stated, yes.

Um the registered agent isn't required unless there has been a policy violation, so there would be a rational basis to require that extra um enforcement or extra information from the property owner.

Um, about 12 to 14 um cities around uh Kansas have similar type registration ordinances, and most of them have the similar type of provision.

Okay, thank you.

Can you go through this process now?

Like if you get a violation, currently we give you 30 days to fix any violation, whether it's tall grass and weeds or aesthetic violations or anything like that.

If this passes, what would that process look like?

And I understand we're still kind of developing some of that.

That's that gap here to come up with the policy, but what are the general ideas now as far as how would that go?

So at a really high level, generally speaking, yes.

Um if there is a violation that is identified, a property owner is giving a given a period of time to abate that violation, right?

Um it depends on the violation type, right?

Uh some violations may only require a couple of days to abate, other violations may require perhaps several months to abate, right?

And so uh there's always going to be a period of opportunity to comply with sort of self performing abatement of that violation.

Uh that doesn't change in this.

Uh what this and you may recall back in our June conversation, right, where we went through uh how kind of the property maintenance code and how shifting from environmental court uh to other court models, right?

Is this an opportunity to sort of reimagine sort of re retool our enforcement to become slightly more assertive, right?

Uh a lot of the uh processes and procedures that we have in place today are uh as they were intentionally designed, right?

To continue to work with property owners, continue to work with property owners to the point where we may not ever see improvements ever completed, right?

And so some of the feedback that we've heard over the years is uh a want or a desire to become slightly more conservative, and that's what this process does is provides policies and procedures leads to policies and procedures that allow us to be a little bit more assertive in getting these property maintenance violations corrected.

Right.

We have an 85% compliance rate, voluntary compliance rate when people get the fixed ticket.

So I just want to make sure that's still in here, that's still possible.

We don't want to crack down on people, especially little grandma who has no means to mower lawn, making sure that we give that period for people to address and fix the issue.

It's the 15%, the problem properties that come up over and over and over again and continue to get delay and delay and delay and uh to the negativity of the surrounding areas.

Um so uh another question.

Um, the two code violations that would trigger this.

Um, is that per property?

Is that per ownership group?

Um yeah, just a little clarification on that one.

That's gonna be per dwelling unit as that is um defined in the in the code, which is currently a building or a portion of a building, so that would be per unit.

Um, and as Troy and I have discussed, this is a draft, it can be amended and changed however the council wants to after this conversation.

Um I was asked to come up with options, and this was one of the options that has been moved forward.

Okay, so two proper or two violations per unit per year.

Within a 12-month period.

Within a 12-month period.

Um, and currently, I know one bone of contention is that it is not require a conviction.

Again, you can require conviction.

If you required a conviction, I would recommend that you increase the amount of the look back time because by the time it goes through the court process.

Yeah, it you're you're not gonna be able to get too many uh violations through the entire system within a 12-month period, depending upon the violation.

Thank you.

Councilmember Glascock.

Thank you, Mayor.

Troy, I'm gonna do rapid fire questions because I have this many questions for you.

And I'm gonna do round questions of you, take a break, and I'll do round of questions for Sally as well.

Uh first off, um, I'll start with uh really the code as well.

When we're talking about um the code official could enter or inspect your property when they whenever they have reasonable cause.

Would this be a the same standards as a criminal search warrant, or would this be different standards than a criminal search warrant?

So there's two ways in which uh uh code enforcement officer uh could enter into a property and inspect for a violation, uh, either one with the property owner's permission, or two, they would have to go through the administrative search warrant process.

That's the same process that exists today.

We're not suggesting making any changes to that process.

You'd have to go make sort of a case to a judge and obtain an administrative search warrant in order to get into a property to confirm or deny a violation exists.

Okay, the standard is slightly less in an administrative case than a criminal case.

Um you still do have to show a level of probable cause, a warrant would have to be approved by a district court judge.

Municipal court judges don't have the authority to approve any sort of a warrant.

And I again know there's been allegations made that this is a terrible, horrible thing.

All of those provisions are already in our code.

Um Title 20.04.090 has pretty much mirrored what is in this ordinance regarding um authority to entry and authority to entry is not a right to entry.

Um the officers are still gonna have to comply with all of the legal requirements for search and seizure under the fourth amendment.

Okay.

When we talk about source of income includes child support, also includes tips.

How are we verifying TIP income?

How would a landlord verify that?

So we should probably talk a little bit about just kind of what the non-discrimination ordinance talks about, right?

It becomes a scenario and a situation by which, and I'm gonna tread lightly here until my attorney steps in and corrects me, right?

But uh the relationship between either an existing landlord or a potential landlord and an existing tenant or a potential tenant, is that if for whatever reason that tenant existing or or considered feels as though their renewal or their um denial of uh a lease agreement is a result of a income or income discrimination, then that is a cause for that tenant to then sort of file a non-discrimination claim, and then there's an investigation.

If there's sufficient evidence to believe that there's an investment, then it goes through the entire non-discrimination process.

There's nobody doing sort of oversight, so to speak, of that landlord tenant transaction.

It's only in those cases where a tenant, again, either existing or considered, feels as though they were they were denied a lease agreement for income and income discrimination.

Would they be able to file a claim and then it goes through the process just like any of the other discrimination?

How many cases have we had go through the NDO process so far in regards to income discrimination?

Regards to anything.

Oh, I don't have that information.

I I believe that 15 and none of them have been found to be.

None of them have been found.

Okay.

Yeah, have been upheld.

So when we look at um regarding the rental registry, does this include let's say trivial or administrative citations?

Is there any difference between let's say a landlord knowingly having a facility that has mold in it actively growing versus a lawn that is too long?

Is there any difference in terms of citations that is mentioned in this ordinance?

Or are both of those treated the same?

I'm gonna venture to say a violation is a violation is a violation.

So there's no difference if somebody knowingly has mold versus just a long yard.

Currently, no, and I need to clarify something.

None of these offenses are require an intent.

They're all strict liability offenses.

They've always been strict liability offenses.

So whether I intentionally let the mold grow or whether I just didn't care and didn't know, um, there's no distinction.

Currently, as the registry uh ordinance is written, it would be any type of violation.

Again, that can be significantly narrowed if the council wants it to exclude the I'm gonna say exterior, the nuisance type, the cars, the weeds, um, if if it wants to be limited to interior type violations and structural type violations, that that's something that could be easily done through this discussion process.

And it's not a conviction, correct?

Currently is not a conviction, but again, that could be changed, but I would recommend that your time frame be extended.

Okay.

And if I could chime in for just a minute, too, right?

Simply because the code enforcement officer goes out to inspect the property and identifies a violation, we're also not necessarily suggesting that have they been given an opportunity to abate that violation that it would then require this registration, right?

There's always going to be that opportunity for that property owner to abate that violation voluntarily.

Okay.

I may let you off the hook now.

All the other questions for Sally in a minute.

Thank you.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

First, thank you, Troy.

There's a lot of people to thank and Sally and the team and Councilmember Hoheisel and Becca and Tasha and Becca or Brooke.

Just a lot of work has been done.

Appreciate that over the years.

Just two quick questions for you.

You answered one or Sharon answered one, but my first one, there was some talk about the administrative process.

Got a few emails and uh even a couple phone calls yesterday that complained that MABCD would write a violation.

MABCD then hears an appeal to that, but there was no mention of the Board of Code Standards and Appeals.

Could you walk through maybe what that process would look like as written today?

Yeah, so Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department is different than the building code standard of appeals, right?

I just want to make sure that those are two different groups.

They have overlapping sort of uh interests, right, in building code standards, right?

But at the same time, um probably giving you too much information here, but uh the entire international city uh uh international code council in every volume there's a provision that addresses the building board of appeals, right?

And what that is is it specifically lays out where that body who is members appointed by you all, governing body, right, to serve in that role and that responsibility to hear cases in which they uh uh an individual feels as though the building official is incorrect in their interpretation or application of the particular code section, number one, or number two, uh it's usually a little more nuanced in that there may be new technology that exists usually or an alternative means of compliance with a building code provision, right?

That maybe hasn't been adopted or considered by the International Code Council, that the building code standard of appeals could hear those cases, right, and rule separately from the building official, and in this case MABCD.

Those are the two that sort of International Code Council lays out for this body.

The third role that this body is is in the code sort of adoption recommendation process, right?

So this body makes recommendations around what codes could should be adopted, local amendments, so on and so forth, with all which ultimately come to you all for adoption.

The way this has been crafted, right?

That this body could would then sort of take on this fourth role and responsibility of hearing those appeals or those exceptions, right?

Where uh we talked about hardship or economic hardship, right?

An individual who feels as though maybe, again, one the code enforcement officer's interpretation of the codes or ordinances is wrong or inaccurately applied.

Maybe there's a different way of complying.

Um maybe it's an ad uh hardship, it would be that body that would then hear that appeal that would stay any proceedings or process, depending on how that body uh rules, we would then sort of pick up and make a determination on whether or not that satisfies abatement of the violation or otherwise, or whether or not we need to continue through the prosecution of that.

And then for what what's in our packets now, the Board of Code Standards and Appeals would be folks with a specific expertise that would be appointed.

That's correct.

Okay.

Can can I correct something because it's been misinterpreted, I think.

Um the current um ordinance creating 1810 essentially puts back in place what was there before regarding the appointment of the Board of Code Standard and Appeals.

There's been some literature that those are all city appointments, and that's not correct.

I mean, the the composition of the board has not been changed by any of the proposed ordinances.

Um the proposed ordinance brings back the code of standards and appeals because sections were deleted.

Um it also to add this exception process is gonna require some ratification by Sedjuick County, um, which is why that particular ordinance is written in the manner that it is, is that it goes effective on January 1, subject to their ratification of adding this exception process onto the Board of Code Standards responsibilities.

Okay.

Uh my other question, also have to thank Chris and Kaylen.

Um I'm pretty sure I got on you guys' nerves for a little bit.

Um we look at the number of violations.

I know right now it just says two, and and there was a comment made about potentially looking at um when you look at the registry.

I think back to and rest in peace to Miss Overton.

She would always complain about five to ten maybe specific properties, and it was always an external thing.

Our staff always knew that these properties were probably going to come up every year, and they normally did like clockwork.

So it would we would be able to increase that number for external.

Therefore, we're dealing with life and safety, but also dealing with some of those outside issues that we continue to hear about from neighborhood presidents.

So it I guess that would be a discussion for later after we hear from the public.

But I I do think with every change that we've made, we're also looking to address some of those issues because there are specific properties that we know of that will continue to have tall grass and weeds or some type of blight or some form of dumping on it, and it's year after year.

And as you said, Troy going through environmental courts sometimes gets resolution, but oftentimes we also don't see resolution.

So I think it's definitely worth considering as we're going to hear from the public what that looks like.

Um either two or more, what the what what may happen, but again, addressing some of the more serious issues that we've seen.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, two quick questions.

One was spurred by council member Glasscock's uh question.

Um we said that there were two as an administrative warrant, and then also invited in by the property owner as far as being able to get inside to do inspections.

Um is the tenant inviting us?

Is that part of the administrative warrant?

Or is that separate?

No.

A tenant has a response or has the ability to have a code inspector enter the premises.

Um it's their lease.

Um they can control who comes in and out.

Um and we'll just leave it there.

Okay, so that's essentially the same as the property owner.

Yes.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure that that was clear as well.

Uh the second, there had been some dialogue going around that we were considering uh rental caps.

Is that part of this at all?

Rental caps.

Uh caps on rent.

Oh, oh no, that is not included in any of this.

No, okay.

So that's an untruth that's out there.

No.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilmember Glasgow.

Thank you, Mayor.

Back for round two, but this time I have questions for Sally.

Hello, Sally.

Good morning.

Sally staying with the housing and community services department.

Thank you.

This actually might be for legal or you.

Maybe one of these can answer it.

So I was reviewing the notes from um stakeholder meetings that Councilman Johnson had sent out.

One of the notes said there's not a landlord registry.

It's illegal for city governments to have a landlord registry.

Lawrence and another city did it, and the legislator banned it.

Can maybe Councilman Johnson can speak to what was in his notes or legal could speak to what was in the notes.

I can probably answer that.

Um there are two two two two things at work.

There is a state statute which bans rental registries which require interior inspections.

Um nothing that we is before you today is talking about an interior inspection.

Does section eight require an interior inspection?

Yes, it does.

So those things would actually conflict, correct?

We we we can't have a city ordinance that requires annual or interior inspections from an ordinance standpoint.

Now the state can't overrule a federal program because of supremacy issues.

So Section 8 and the Federal Government could certainly require inspections.

And there was a bill the last session that Topeka asked for that ability for section housing, for section eight housing.

I would think under the federal laws they would have that ability anyway, um, but that bill was not passed and the ordin or the statute was not amended.

So by forcing a landlord to accept Section 8 vouchers, we're not necessarily requiring for interior inspections, but we are if they accept a voucher because they have to get an inspection from the federal government.

There's nothing in the income discrimination ordinance that would require a landlord to accept those types of payments.

It it is discrimination if I come to you and and I'm already have my voucher, and you say no, we're not gonna do that.

Okay.

Sally now my questions are probably directed towards you.

How many vouchers go unused in Wichita currently?

Well, we have more vouchers than we have funding available.

So HUD allocates us just about 3,500 vouchers.

Right now we're only able to use 2700 of them just due to the cost of housing and not increases from HUD for uh for those rentals.

But every voucher is being used currently.

We we have people that are out looking for units consistently.

We have 30 to 40 uh vouchers that turn over every month.

So we have 30 to 40 people who go off the program, so for good reasons for bad reasons.

Um so those units are consistently turning over.

But it is about 30 to 40 per month.

Okay, and then just confirming HUD does require annual inspections.

Biannual inspections actually unless the property goes into abatement, which means they did not correct uh a previous deficiency within the time frame, and then it it reverts to annual.

Okay.

And then also bypassing, let's say the uh section eight portion of this or the non-discrimination income non-discrimination, um, would we be compelling landlords to do business with the federal government?

No, that the contract is not between um the landlord and the federal government, it's actually between the landlord and the PHA.

Okay.

Um sorry, I have a few more questions.

Um may be all my questions for you.

Thank you.

I'm gonna go back to a couple of things.

Um, can someone give the background on the non-discrimination ordinance and reiterate how many cases have come before and how many have been substantiated, how many have been thrown out?

Um would like us to all level set on the MDO.

I'll I'll try to answer what I can.

Um there's been about, as the manager said, 15 cases that were filed.

The processes that the law department um we assign an investigator, the investigator then um reviews all the information provided by the person making the complaint.

Um it can be referred to mediation if both parties want to go to mediation.

Um I think we've had two attempted mediations that I'm aware of.

Um none of the allegations um have been found to have violated the non-discrimination ordinance.

A few of those I do know were appealed to district court, and eventually those were dismissed at the district court level.

And I wanted to know since environmental court would be um eliminated from this.

Can we uh get data regarding how many cases come through environmental court?

Um, how many are found guilty, not guilty, um, and also some background regarding charge dispositions yes, we can work on getting you that information.

I can supply that information, Mayor.

Um, you had asked for some data on environmental court outcomes from for the last five years, from 2019 to 2024.

Um during that period of time, there were a total of six of roughly 6900 cases of about just slightly less than 4500 of those uh which is about 65 percent had were dismissed.

Um about 900 guilty or diversions and five were non-guilty, and then there were about 1,500 where we couldn't process, couldn't serve the um person uh because uh for various reasons that uh that we couldn't find them for service.

Is it accurate to say that over the last five years of environmental court, a large majority of these cases are dismissed?

Yes, Mayor.

But require time from both staff as well as individuals involved in those cases in order for it to come to this final stage.

That's that is correct.

Can you quantify that amount?

I don't know that we provided that information in terms of the hours involved in the cases.

I think it would be important to have this data point for community to understand the amount of time both for tenants, landlords, and the court system to go through each of these cases.

I feel like our green sheet does not provide enough data.

This data that I asked was only provided to me because I asked for it.

However, I think it would be appropriate for the rest of the council to receive it.

I just got it last night.

So I'm asking these questions because I feel like oftentimes we are locking data and trying to make decisions without full data.

And again, this would be eliminating that final process that currently is being utilized.

So I want to know if this can be provided to community also.

City manager.

Yes, we can figure out a way to do that.

Thank you.

Councilmember Glascock.

Thank you.

Sally, I'm sorry, I have one more question that just popped up.

How does the current government shut down, especially owners' relation to HUD affect payments to uh landlords?

I know that there is reserve funding through November, but if it extends beyond that, what would happen uh in terms of payment vouchers?

So we were just notified yesterday um that HUD is allocated actually through just the end of December.

So the PHA funding budget actually doesn't run on the federal fiscal year, it runs calendar year.

And so this last quarter was covered under last year's appropriations.

So for the voucher program, we are definitely covered through the end of December.

Um if it were to roll into January, I sure hope it doesn't.

Um, we do have some reserves that could come into play for at least most of January.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so what happens to the 1500 complaints that are not able to be processed or served.

They just go away or what they are generally dismissed for lack of process.

Um in some cases, the inspectors will uh go out and try to find better addresses.

Um, but generally those are dismissed along with those that we can't get served.

Okay, thank you.

I see no further questions from the bench at this moment.

Um, so we will open it up for public comment.

Here are a few um ground rules that are at every single city council meeting.

Please come up to the bench, say your name so that the clerk can have your name for the record.

Please state your address again for the record.

You will have up to five minutes, and the time clock will be at each of these monitors once five minutes has expired.

We ask that you please sit down.

Uh the next individual can then come forward, and the process begins yet again.

We will now open it up for public comment regarding this item.

Good morning, Mayor Wu, Council members, staff.

I'm Tony Porter, Vice President of Government Relations and Military Affairs at the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce.

I'm here today to express our opposition to the proposed charter ordinance that would significantly restructure Wichita's property maintenance, rental housing, and municipal code enforcement systems.

While we support efforts to improve neighborhood standards, this ordinance introduces sweeping changes that risk unintended harm to Wichita's housing market and business climate.

First, adopting the international property maintenance code replaces our local responsive standards with a rigid national model.

This could lead to inconsistent enforcement and higher compliance costs for small property owners.

Second, the rental registry adds bureaucracy and fees for landlords, even those who promptly address minor issues.

This discourages reinvestment in older neighborhoods and adds unnecessary administrative burden.

Most concerning is the elimination of the neighborhood court.

This specialized court has been a proven efficient tool for resolving nuisance and housing cases.

Moving these matters to general dockets will delay resolutions and increase costs for both the city and property owners.

We urge the council to defer action and convene a working group of business, housing, and neighborhood stakeholders.

Together we can modernize our codes without over-regulating or dismantling systems that work.

Thank you for your time and leadership.

Before we continue, I did ask for decorum, and I appreciate that there are individuals for and against multiple issues.

So I'm going to ask that you please not clap during this portion of public common.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Because our practice has been in existence for over 40 years, we have a large network of rental groups, the apartment association of Wichita, as well as hundreds of landlords.

We believe that if a policy is going to be implemented that affects landlords, the landlords and property managers should be informed.

These are major ordinances that all of us, for the most part, had four days to review before being voted upon.

This is done with little collaboration from the groups that I have mentioned and affects so many households in the city.

Given that these ordinances are being implemented in response to properties like Emory Gardens that has become the poster child for change.

In our 40 years of practice, I've seen that property rehabbed, I've seen it destroyed, and I've seen a continual cycle.

And now we have it houses tenants that's being reported that have mold and bugs.

That's wrong.

We all agree.

Many tenants don't know that, and the lease can be terminated and they can be allowed to move.

I would suggest more workshops be done to get new Section 8 landlords.

I would like to see that housing be approved immediately or be approved immediately with plans for immediate payment while any see that while any items that need to be repaired be done in association with the tenant and inspector.

Taking three months to implement a new house and having inconsistent inspectors and lack of oversight discourages many landlords from taking Section 8.

It needs to be voluntary.

This is an example of a win-win for both tenants and landlords.

If a house has to be torn down, then a new one needs to be built so that tenants can have quality housing that they can afford.

Any ordinance that seeks a source of income in its protected class is problematic for landlords.

Turn down a one-time payment for a tribe, say no to a one-time payment for a nonprofit, or say no to an assistance program that the owner may then face a discrimination complaint.

An ordinance that requires tenants or requires registration of residents can and will result from minor infractions where the registered owner becomes the offender and warning other renters to avoid renting from them with little safeguard to the causes that puts the owner there.

Finally, um again, these hurt property owners and discourage investment in housing.

Finally, why pass an ordinance that threatens to put property owners in our city in jail, fine them exorbitant amounts, and remove any judicial discretion.

We all know that this is uh this will not happen with LLCs and outside owners who are protected by that.

Property owners and um property managers should never be threatened with jail for code violations.

We can't house our criminals now.

You have the tools, use them.

Let's work together.

I encourage you uh to vote no on these ordinances.

Let's find ways to help both the tenants and landlords operate in a market that for many is very tough and financially draining.

I thank you for your time.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I just uh had a point of clarification.

I don't know if Troy wants to speak to it to uh Mrs.

Porter's um comments earlier.

It's not just the international code, but we are also keeping many of our codes with property maintenance in the uh in this proposed ordinance as well.

Is that correct?

So I'm gonna try to answer your question.

There's the overlap between the existing property maintenance codes that we have on record today.

So those are if adopted today, that would sunset those codes December 31st, 2026.

It would adopt the International Property Maintenance Code effect of January 1, 2026.

Um so there would be that overlap.

But yes, eventually by January 1, 2027, the property maintenance codes that would be on the books are the International Property Maintenance Code with local amendments.

With the local amendments, it includes all of the local amendments, right?

Uh in fact, the International Code Council recommends local amendments.

In fact, there's a number of local amendments where the property maintenance code is actually drafted in such a way where it says sort of fill in the blank, depending on your local jurisdictions preference of certain standards, right?

And so included in the is not just adoption of the international property maintenance code carte blanche.

It is amended with local amendments to comply with state statute as well as to coincide with the history and practice of property maintenance codes locally.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure that was clear to everybody.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Sally, could I ask you a question really quick?

Sorry.

I just want to say also thank you so much for everybody being here.

Um the question that I wanted to ask Sally is I'm grateful for everyone that is here, whichever side you're on, or whatever um feedback you're able to offer us, because uh Sally has worked hard on working with landlords, and it has been really difficult.

I don't know if we're not getting the word out in the right way, but we have tried to engage landlords, even had incentive programs, even for damages that could potentially happen, and we just have not gotten very much traction on it.

So I sorry that you're all pissed off, and that is what to be for you to get here, but we really have tried to engage.

Um so if you guys have any other ideas of how we can communicate some of these programs that we have been trying to work on, um, I think we would all be grateful for that.

But can you speak to the couple things that we've done just to try to engage landlords?

Sure.

Um obviously we hold the Greater Witchcott Housing Conference.

It's an opportunity to try and engage landlords, also provide training on fair housing and other issues.

Uh when funding was available through the CARES Act, we launched uh a landlord incentive program.

It at that point it was ESG funding, so it was um designed just for landlords who are taking people coming from homelessness.

And we had CARES money set aside for that program, uh, held a hundred thousand dollars for damage claims, rental vacancy.

In a year, we had zero claims, and that funding went away and it is dissolved.

Based on that experience, we actually launched when we had ARPA funding available, an additional landlord incentive program that wasn't limited to just new tenancies for people coming from homelessness, it was all tenancies.

That started in January of 2023.

Um for new landlords who had never leased Section 8 previously, there was a thousand dollar signing bonus.

For those that were returners, so someone who hadn't had a tenancy in the last year, um, but took a new tenancy, they got a $500 signing bonus.

We also made vacancy um claims available as well as damage claims.

We actually had two claims.

We had one for vacancy that was a domestic violence situation where we had to move the client in the middle of the term, and we had one damage claim, covered six hundred and eighty-three tenancies in 18 months and had two claims.

So we still have a couple more questions, sorry, uh, to the rest of the individuals.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

Um and this is for Troy.

I feel like Troy and Sally should just kind of perk it right there, right?

You're gonna burn a lot of calories today.

Um Troy, thank you for all your great information.

Thank you for all your work on this.

Um I have lots of comments and questions for leaders kind of waiting to have the process.

But you did say something that um I wasn't aware of and didn't see it in in the packet, that the international property maintenance code kind of has a section where it says fill in the blank locally, correct?

So when we are filling in the blank, who do we consult to get that information?

Are we reaching out to property owners?

Are we reaching out to tenants?

Are we using staff?

Obviously, content expert, but has there been who do we reach out to to fill in the blank?

So probably one of the easiest examples, right, is in the property management.

For example, highweeds and grass, right?

It says highweeds and grass shall be maintained at a height of no more than fill in the blank.

Well, we already have those provisions in our codes and ordinances today.

I think it's 12 inches.

12 inches?

Sorry.

So we just took that from our existing codes and ordinances and sort of filled in the blank, right?

So uh a lot of it is taking from uh what we already have on our in our codes and ordinances today.

Uh number two is uh uh just throughout the years, better understand.

There's another uh we we made a local amendment while we're on that topic, right?

Uh uh we went to one of the district advisory boards earlier this year, right?

And we uh I met some ladies who talked about uh some of these alternative garden types, right?

And so we said, yeah, you're right, we've got some of that language on the books today.

That language does not appear in the International Property Maintenance Code.

So as part of the draft before you all today, we've incorporated that language, uh, being responsive to folks in and around the community who have said we also need to understand that there are these sustainable gardens and those kind of things, and strict interpretation and literal interpretation should be amended, right, and looked at to take into consideration what we're now seeing out in the course.

So just other examples.

Thank you for that.

And and not a question, but just a comment that one of the things that I have heard consistently in the last few days is especially for landowners, property owners, landlords, whatever term we want to use, they haven't felt like they've been engaged enough, especially in this process.

So wanted to see if there was some engagement, you know, all the way along as there should be.

So thank you very much, Troy.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um I was gonna wait, but Mr.

Holmes said something that um I really think should be out in the nexus.

So we talk about Emory Gardens and everyone's seen that in the news and how terrible it is for a lot of the folks there.

Um, as the council member who's probably been in the most terrible spaces, it's not just Emory Gardens.

There's apartment complexes on the west side, there's apartment complexes also on the south side, there's more in District One.

I've been in individual homes.

And I know that in the code when we talk about the fines or even the jail, it may not be some of you fine folks in this room.

But there are some people that probably need some much more assertive penalty for what they're doing and forcing people to live in those conditions.

So that's not saying that the folks in this room need to go to jail, but when you go into a space where there's a pregnant woman who has a nine-month old and they've been to the emergency room eight times, and they can show you how many times they've reached out to try to get something addressed or to get something remedied, and it doesn't, and it gets ignored.

What do you do with that person?

You just keep finding them.

What happens for the justice for that young lady or that baby?

And that's just one story.

I've got plenty in my phone.

I've been in those places.

Anybody who follows me on Facebook has seen those.

So as we've talked about being a little more assertive, council did say uh at the workshop we wanted a hybrid model, so it's not just big stick on every landlord, but there are certain situations that somebody should get a bigger punishment, and they deserve it for what they're treating people like and the conditions that they're putting them in.

And those folks aren't selling their properties to good folks like you all.

They're continuing to get a paycheck and they're not fixing the problem.

So somewhere in there, there needs to be more assertiveness, and that's what this is trying to get at.

Happy to hear more ideas on uh what folks think about that.

But when you have seen what I have seen, when you've seen these folks break down, Councilmember Ballard and I went into a space where a woman uh in district six who had been to the emergency room, I think eight times and went to the emergency room the same day that we left after that.

Something's wrong with that.

And we've got to be able to do something to address that.

So some of this may seem assertive, and I know folks are uh concerned about some of that, but those are the issues that we're dealing with.

Again, it might not be y'all in this room, but there are some folks who have to deal with these types of things.

And to the point of if we were to do something about Emory Gardens, where are these folks going?

The speaker this morning already talked about that.

What happens when we say they give their 30-day notice because things aren't being addressed and they want to move out, but when they find a place, they have to have three times the rent that they're making.

They can't go if they don't make it.

They're stuck.

They are very much stuck in a space like that.

And there's a lot more people than what you might realize in those situations.

So again, people's real lived experiences out there, and you may hear from some of them today, but most of them get retaliated against.

So you may not see them at the podium.

And some of them won't even send emails to us because it's a public record.

It happens.

It truly does.

You've seen it, and if anybody invites me back out, most of the time they get retaliated against, happy to show you.

But I've seen some real terrible stuff.

I've even had staff tell me I shouldn't have gone somewhere because it was so much black mold and pest infestation.

These are some bad spaces here.

And unless we do something more than what we have been doing, people are going to continue to live in those spaces.

So happy to hear more ideas on that, but just wanted to say it.

This is not just some one off in one apartment complex.

It's a lot happening in the city of Wichita.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

I I guess I was going to save some comments for later too, but I just want people to understand where we're coming from in the Emory Gardens incident.

And it's not just again to Councilmember Johnson's point.

It's not just unique to Emory Gardens, but I will speak on this one.

We had pictures coming in from people with their children with their backs just ridden with bedbug bites.

These people had been paying four dollars a month for pest control.

Um this particular property owner was taking that money and not actually doing the pest control.

So that that was an issue right there.

Um we went in there, we looked around, we saw just again the black mold, uh, doors off their hinges, all the conditions that we were looking at there.

We reported it, we tried to work to get it addressed.

Um a couple weeks later, we finally tracked down the property owner after going through I believe seven different LLCs, a couple of different states.

Um he was out there that day.

Uh, we went out there.

Um he had in his hand a list of people who had made complaints, a list of people who had been open with their criticisms, a list of people who have worked with the uh current property management system, who the current property manager said, okay, we understand about this uh infestation issue.

You don't have to pay rent until we either get it taken care of or you find someplace else.

He had in his hand this list and was going around that day evicting people, including single moms.

I had to look a single mom in her eyes who was getting evicted.

This is illegal on the state level, but there was no enforcement arm on it at the time.

Um that's when we came up with the landlord retaliation.

But seeing a single mom who shared the pictures of her one-year-old child with the bed bugs just ridden up and down that child's back, and knowing there was very little that we could do.

So talking to her about it, my the reason I'm here is because my family at home, uh, drug issues, major drug issues.

I will not have my child around that.

So getting the eviction notice in her hand, she looks me in the eye and she says, Well, I have a car.

So my child and I will be sleeping in this car until we can find housing.

We managed to actually get her into some temporary housing until she was able to find a place.

But just understand looking a woman like this in the eyes, seeing elderly people who are getting evicted, uh, people with disabilities who are getting evicted, and knowing there was very little that we could do to actually protect them and help them.

That's what spurred this.

That's what has spurred this entire conversation.

So, like Councilmember Johnson said, I'm eager to find ways that we can work with people.

I'm eager to find ways that we can actually address these issues.

That's the goal here.

It's not to be punitive on anybody, but it's actually to hold the people accountable who are making a profit off of people living in substandard living conditions, who run it extra just straight like a business, dollars and science, dollars and cents, that's all that they're looking at right here.

So I did just want to put that out here before this discussion.

And again, please, if if you have suggestions to make this more effective, less punitive on people, uh the good landlords, but more effective for the bad landlords for the people who are forcing people to live on this, especially people who have nowhere else to go.

Let's let's have this conversation.

So I appreciate that.

Thank you.

We will continue with public comment.

Hello, my name is Dakota.

I am with ICT Tenant Union.

My address is 1746 South Glenn.

I also work at Pixis, a program that provides a safe and stable environment for children in foster care without personal um permanent housing.

I'm speaking out for future renters and all workers who couldn't make it here today because they can't afford to miss a day of work or didn't have enough time to plan ahead.

I do see a lot of landlords uh in line behind me.

Um, but the decisions today impact the renters of this city.

Their honest hard work can hardly make up for rent, bills, and basic health care, let alone groceries, schooling, or emergency crises.

A lot of these emergency crises are due to the state that their property is in.

Whether it's a flood, infestation, destruction of personal property, health hazard, or the foundation of their home deteriorating.

Most renters are the working class of Wichita and the backbone of the city.

They're what's keeping things moving, yet they're being taken advantage of.

Everyone deserves safe and affordable housing.

If you can't supply that as a landlord, then why are you renting out your home?

Forcing people to live in a home that you wouldn't consider fit to occupy for yourself or your family is inhumane.

I'm speaking from personal experience, not only living in uninhabitable conditions, but being treated as though my safety was not a concern.

I dealt with infestation, constant flooding, mold, and eventually unlawful eviction.

This was ten years ago, and I was only 16 years old.

Now, all this time later, I am hearing the same stories and the same treatment from tenants living in the same building with the same landlord.

No child should have to suffer unsafe housing.

No parent should feel the burden of not being able to supply a stable home because the demands from landlords are unaffordable and the lack of care is unlivable.

It's not just big landlords like the one I experienced.

We've been hurt by the small landlords too.

They learn all the tricks of the trade from the out of state developers, and they're only mad at the big landlords because they're losing money from them.

This has nothing to do with their concern for tenants.

Not only that, but children are constantly aging out of foster care, having suffered unfair treatment and unstable housing their entire lives.

Ensuring landlords accept Section 8 housing or any form of assistance and holding landlords accountable for providing safe housing would mean children who have a disadvantage growing up can not only find a home but feel safe and secure for the first time in their lives.

Slipping through the cracks of an unjust system begins before many people even become working class citizens.

It's time we strengthen the renting class to not only benefit individuals and families, but our community as a whole.

And don't forget, tenants are the core of our economy.

Thank you.

We just waited just one or two minutes.

Cool.

Hi, I'm Kat.

I'm a staff member at Safe Streets.

I'm an advocate, and I'm also a member of the ICT Tenants Union, and I live in District One's.

Protecting tenant rights, such as income protections, and access to habital habitable living conditions and freedom from discrimination helps reduce harm by preventing housing insecurity, which is a major risk factor for poor health, substance use crises, and criminalization.

Now I got laid off during COVID, and I learned firsthand how brutal the housing system can be for people who are working and without it.

Without steady income, I got screened out of every rental, even though I was actively looking for work.

It took me seven applications to actually secure housing, and that spent $350 to get those in.

I couldn't imagine uh doing that if I were like homeless or had less funds available.

It felt like extra discrimination and screening for conditions that are beyond my control.

Renters like me need protections that recognize housing as a necessity and not a luxury.

Renters in Wichita are some of the hardest working individuals in this city.

They are young people looking to buy and save homes, elderly who have retired from a long life in the industry, working class people working to just get by.

Our tenants union knows that strength comes from the home.

These tenants need strengthened.

They deserve homes conducive to building strength.

Sorry, conducive to building strength and maintaining their health.

These ordinances don't just take the heat off of some of those that we've mentioned, like Emory Gardens, but uplifts and it uplifts and strengthens the tenants of tomorrow.

Mayor, we stated during your campaign that Wichita needs to focus on the basics.

These ordinances are the basic rules and regulations for rental homes.

If landlords are to lord over their tenants, they ought to respect and steward the land and property that their tenants live on.

Vote yes for the good of the tenants and strengthening of the workers in Wichita.

Thank you.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, my name's Garrett Holmes at 445 North Waco.

I'm also an attorney here in Wichita.

Uh and I come from the same office as uh Mr.

Kurt Holmes who spoke earlier.

Uh like he said, our office represents property owners and landlords across the city, from large apartment communities to small family-run operations, mom and pops.

Uh, those are the people who who love Wichita and who are keeping Wichita housed.

When these ordinances were released last week, our office issued a memorandum explaining why we think they're dangerous.

They're an unprecedented expansion of the city's power and an infringement upon property owners' rights.

Unfortunately, the proposed ordinances, if made law, would not uh be effective policy and achieve their stated goals that uh we've been told that they would achieve.

The truth is that the ordinances weren't born from collaboration, they were written with one side in mind.

The very people who provide housing, the ones in this room weren't invited to that table.

And that matters because when policy is written without collaboration, you don't get cooperation, you get conflict.

Instead of building bridges between landlords and tenants, these ordinances build walls, they divide, they discourage investment, they create red tape and resentment.

Now we've all seen the headlines.

Um council member uh Johnson just spoke about them.

Uh Wichita doesn't have a landlord problem, it has an emery gardens problem and some other properties, and we all know who those properties are.

A handful of bad actors have ignored the city for years, they've ignored the headlines, the news articles, um, and they've allowed the conditions and those in their properties to rot.

They've made every responsible landlord, the ones in this room in this city look like a villain, and that's wrong.

The city already has the power to deal with these properties.

Uh you can find them, you can inspect them, and when they refuse to comply, you can shut them down.

That's where the focus should be, not on punishing everyone, but to enforce the laws you already have against those properties who refuse to comply.

These ordinances, if made law, would not get the properties like Emory Gardens uh to all of a sudden probably clean up.

Uh property like that isn't gonna pay your fines, they're not going to and all of a sudden invest millions into the rehab process because they've already ignored it for years.

The only action that the city can take against a bad actor like that is to uh take the stand that we're not going to allow that, shut that place down.

Um, and when a property is shut down, you need uh a place for those those people to go, and that's where the collaboration should really come from the city's perspective and where the focus needs to be.

Work with the good landlords, the people in this room who care about Wichita, incentivize them to take in the displaced tenants, help fill those gaps, incentivize those government programs that already exist, um, strengthen those and really try to build build real solutions.

The best way to move forward is not through blame, but through partnership.

These ordinances, they don't uh they don't achieve the goals that they're set out to.

They expand power, uh, but they don't expand fairness.

In particular, the proposed property maintenance code gives a single official the power to be the investigator, the prosecutor, and the judge.

That's not due process, and that's not how a fair system should work.

Landlords are long-term stakeholders.

Long after you all have moved on to your next opportunities, uh, wherever that may be, the properties are still going to be here.

And a lot of the property owners will still be owning the same properties.

They're here for decades.

They maintain properties, improve neighborhoods, um, and provide homes to our community.

They're not the enemy, but part of the solution.

So I'm asking you respectfully to vote no on these ordinances, not because you don't care about tenants, but because you care enough to get it right and invite everybody to the table.

Use the enforcement tools you already have, shut down bad properties, work with the good ones to rehouse tenants, build trust, not tension.

And this is our opportunity to turn a divisive moment into a collaborative one to show that Wichita can solve problems without punishing the very people who keep our city moving.

So let's take this opportunity together.

Thank you.

Before we move on, Councilmember Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Uh, I do want to highlight it's been said a couple times.

I was looking for my list.

Um, while we again may not have met with everybody in this room, we did actually meet with uh private landlords, landlord companies, and I know personally went to rental owners incorporated twice, and which in those meetings I think there were anywhere from 25 to 40 um landlords in there at the time.

So uh as it continues to say um that we did not, we did, and we talked about these things and we got some feedback.

That's where some of the um current even amendments came from because there were some additional things that we were interested in, and that feedback uh helped out.

But that did happen.

Just want to put that out there.

It wasn't us doing this in a vacuum.

We have been talking to people.

Councilmember Johnson, do you have those dates so that people know?

Yes, the um we met with private landlords.

This was back when this was supposed to come up in 2023.

We met with private landlords in August, September, um, October of 22, January of 23, and then there were some additional conversations I had in 24 over at Water Neighborhood Resource Center with private landlords.

I before we move on, I did ask for this very question, which is can you provide a list of dates in 2025 where you have engaged all stakeholders?

So uh going back to sort of public meetings that have been conducted.

Um I can say specifically we had the city council meeting back on June 3rd, 2025.

We went to District Advisory Board 1 on Monday, June 7th, District Advisory Board 2 on Monday, September 8th, District Advisory Board 3 on July 2nd, District Advisory Board 4 on August 11th, District Advisory Board 5 on August 4th, District Advisory Board 6 on July 14th.

And I know that I met with a gentleman representing some landlords specifically.

I don't know why his name is It's gonna come to me representing some landlords.

I met with him personally during this period.

I'd have to go back and get exactly when uh I met with that that one gentleman.

Um this is just a comment really quick before we move on to um more public comment.

To me, that is not full public engagement.

Um and I understand that each of the six council members have monthly district advisory board meetings.

However, as I've gone around the city, um I've asked people, do you know which district you live in?

And most people don't even know that very answer.

They don't know that their council member hosts monthly meetings that are specific to their districts and specific comments uh that come out of there, then at some point we'll come to a city council meeting.

And so I feel like there has not been enough engagement because of that very reason.

The dates I think thank you, Councilmember Johnson, for reiterating that some of the dates that you have were from 2022, 2023, and now um assistant city manager Troy mentioned 2025 dates.

I always believe that you have a seat at the table, and I can understand the frustration whether it's tenants or even landlords that just saw this item come forward last week, even though it has been discussed in multiple different settings, however, never in this length and in this detail.

And so I first and foremost want to encourage people to number one get to know these uh individuals who represent your districts as they have these monthly council meetings, and then in addition to I believe that um you mentioned the renters association.

Um that was not engagement recently, and um a greater group of stakeholders needs to be engaged, and that is the landlords, as well as the tenants.

And I hear that there's that association for tenants.

So I want to make sure that real full engagement is actually happening, not just one landlord and one tenant speaking on behalf of all tenants and all landlords.

So I see that there needs to be further engagement.

Councilmember Glasgow.

Thank you, Mayor.

I think this room is evident uh evidence that we did not properly engage people because when we properly engage people, this many people don't show up to meeting.

So I think that's evidence number one.

Second off, and this might be somewhat disingenuous about the district four meeting on August 11th.

I did not our district four board, I'm there every single month to not hear source of income.

We did not hear rental registry.

The only thing was about the International Property Maintenance Code, and it was more of a high level, and so we have not had public engagement since the language of these ordinances and published at my district advisory board or any other meeting.

A lot of the meetings that happened in 2023, I was not even on the council during that time.

We didn't come in until August of 2024.

And again, I think today shows that we did not do proper engagement because that would not be the outcome that we would hear from people, not even mentioned the hundreds of emails we've all received over the past couple weeks.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Troy, I also don't have his name written down, but he is actually the new president of the group that I've mentioned that I spoke with.

So you did talk to that gentleman.

And then two just want to highlight as we talk about public engagement.

There is it's it's tough.

We always say we want public engagement, and we encourage people to go to district advisory boards, and that is public engagement, I guess in that sense.

But at this point, when we talk about going to district advisory boards, it's it's definitely not enough.

Now, yes, we can reach out to more groups, but I can guarantee that with naming specific groups and having that, we still wouldn't touch everyone.

So the goal is to get out there and get as much feedback as possible from as many people as possible.

Often that is a district advisory board, but uh there's always gonna be some named gap in trying to reach people where they are.

And so again, I'm glad to see so many people here today.

However, you found out about this was coming.

I hope that everybody stays engaged, not only um as this continues to get developed, but over the next several years, because there's always some issues to engage with, and it's great to have people to be able to talk to, and we don't always have an ability to reach out to this many folks.

So again, thank you all for being here.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

Um, and and it also I appreciate everyone who's here today, everyone who has reached out, um, either email, text, phone call, grabbing me at the restaurant last night.

Um, I do want to have a call to action if I can for the people who are speaking, other people who may come up and speak, people who may email us or contact us after this.

I I I think I'm hearing there's gonna be consensus probably that we want to delay this um to try and get more feedback from landowners and from tenants.

I I can't say um I'm prepared for a motion when the time comes, if if that's a a probability.

But when you are speaking to us, if you could provide, I know it's last minute, some of you towards the back will have more time to think.

But how do you want to be engaged?

What might that process look like to be the most effective?

Um, you know, is it having a town hall like this and letting landowners and tenants come and speak to us?

Is it a committee that we form to help us look through the international proper maintenance property property maintenance code and see what revisions might be possible?

I'm just really curious if we can take this unique opportunity when we have so many um passionate witch it's here to see if we could also not only hear your opinion but provide us with suggestions on next steps.

So thank you.

We will continue with public comments.

You can't do that.

Sorry, there's a line.

You have to go that we don't start up.

There's there have been two lines that have formed since the beginning of this public comment series.

If you mind, please stand in line.

I know that there a line has naturally formed on each side.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

We have someone at the podium that had done it before, and I just wanted to make sure that I was getting it.

No, yeah, they should not have done it.

But thank you.

Well, it's a passionate topic.

But uh, my name's Nella Bay Youth.

I'm the owner of Cedar Mills property management here in Wichita.

Um opposed to this being passed today.

However, I think that this has a lot of very important merits that we as a community need to talk about and make action uh forward on.

Uh, I think the reason there's so much presence from both tenants and landlords is there's a lot of ambiguity that people don't understand exactly some of those gaps of how it will play out, how will a small nuisance be compared to like the larger ones like Dalton Asked?

How will um the protected class of source of income impact the people's ability to actually pay or a landlord's potential to be exposed to getting sued?

So I think these are the concerns we have.

I think that we need to move forward with this, and we need to have a more strict process to deal with folks who are not complaining because it makes the rest of us look very bad.

And most of us are good landlords.

Like I know my company, we do a make ready checklist before any tenant moves in.

We proactively try to address any maintenance issues, cleanliness, smells, all the things.

And I don't know if everybody does that, but I think being proactive provides the tenant a better move-in experience, and it creates a better partnership for us to work together.

Um so most people are doing those types of things, but that 15% that are not getting hammered when they need to.

I think that's the issue we need to resolve.

We need to find a path to effectively holding people accountable, like Councilman Johnson said.

And I would like to participate, and I think there are a lot of other property managers and folks who are stakeholders in the community and tenants alike that have opinions and have good ideas because we are in the trenches, so to speak, every day dealing with these problems that arise.

I mean, we've seen what inflation's done to our community and the affordability of housing.

But at the end of the day, if you want me to follow fair housing laws, I have to have standards and precedents to outline what are the qualifying criteria.

And a three times the rental income is one of those because we have found when we make exceptions, people struggle and then they end up getting evicted and on the street, and that's not really a good solution.

I don't want to move a family in or a single mom and or a young person in and then have to evict them because they are behind and they cannot pay rent.

So while there may be other ways to create uh process that we as a community come together to have more emergency funding for people who are in bad living situations, I'll use the Wichita flag license place as an example.

That program is so successful.

I mean, people pay $50 a year to have this specialized license plate, and there's a huge fund for parks and rec and they're trying to come up with ways to use it in the community.

What if we did something along those lines, but that benefited housing and make it voluntary, not a tax, not a forced item.

But I bet you if you had something really cool to offer, like a flag you can hang outside or some other, I mean, I'm not creative on the spot right now, but something like that, where people can say, hey, I care about my neighbors and my friends, and I want to make sure that if they are in a hardship, there is something we can draw upon to get them out of a bad situation.

I think you would get a lot of support and participation.

So I guess my point is I think we need to take a little bit more time because it is such an important topic and and bridge those gaps of the details that are lacking and come together and support each other and then hold those people accountable who are not carrying their weight and are not doing the right thing, and make sure that they have the appropriate consequence so they can either get out of the rental market or do whatever they need to do, but so the right people can start administering those properties.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you.

We have questions from council members.

Councilmember Glascock.

Mayor, uh, to the speaker's point of this would be maybe for the city manager and council member Tuttle's comments.

If people want to stay engaged, I know we don't have a list that people are writing their information down right now.

What's the best way for them to continue to gauge the process?

Do we want to put a list outside if they want to engage?

Is there an email that they should reach out to so that they can be involved in perhaps future correspondence?

Well, as much as we have people identify themselves and their addresses, the clerk captures that.

Uh, in terms of follow-up, um, we could probably get a list out in the lobby if people want to sign up for that.

Okay, so let's maybe plan on that.

Maybe on your way out, there'll be a list that will be outside of these two doors in the middle that you could put your information down, and we'll have comms put that out there.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you very much for your comments.

I do want to just clarify one thing that the flag revenue goes to the parks and recs foundation.

Which does help parks and rent.

For instance, they pay part of the uh the fee for the uh uh planning, the year-long planning they're going through.

I want to say that I've engaged with a lot of landlords, uh, some tenants also, and all the landlords I've engaged with want the bad landlords taken care of and punished.

They absolutely want that.

So they want to find a way to do that, and they want to be engaged and finding to do that.

And uh one of them gave me a pretty good analogy.

He said, You don't kill a fly with a sledgehammer.

And I I think in some respects, that's what we're doing here.

Um we do need to take care of it.

Uh I'm with Councilmember Johnson.

I would do something needs to be done.

Um I'm just don't think we're there yet.

So but I do want something done, but we do we have to make it so it does punishes those 15% or six or seven landlords, not all the good ones.

So thank you.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, did just uh want to add give some additional information to the last speaker uh regarding our ability to help with affordable housing, affordable housing funds and whatnot.

Um a lot of it's been cut.

I think 98% of our housing department is funded through HUD.

And uh currently we are looking at somewhere between a 17% cut to those services and the Senate bill, and a 43% cut and that the House bill.

And a 43% cut and the House bill.

So with the upcoming budget discussions, the upcoming budget, our ability to actually help with vouchers with affordable housing with any of that will be severely limited and less effective going forward.

So that will have to be part of our discussions as well as how do we help with affordable housing?

How do we help with vouchers with the people, including seniors who are getting squeezed in the middle?

It's the same thing with property taxes, went up 8.6%.

That's not keeping up with that.

Disability, that's not keeping up with that.

Rental prices have gone up more than that as well.

So there's a lot of people who are being hurt and are being squeezed in the middle.

And that's going to have to be part of our community discussion also going forward because our housing departments in for um a number of issues in the upcoming years due to uh federal budget.

Mayor Council on Joseph Tex Dozier 215, North Parkwood Lane.

Um here today also as a dab one uh uh dab one member.

Um this came up uh in large part focused on the codes, as council member Glasscoff mentioned, and there was only one single slide at the end that referenced some potential policies that makes makes up the bulk of this.

So I just found out a few days ago, and I'm more here in my capacity as a dab member giving feedback as I would having found out like before a dab meeting on some things.

Um I'm not a landlord, uh, but I have done password advocacy work with local property owners as well as community organizing in Texas, Chicago, and elsewhere.

And so we have a good opportunity to look at comparatively to other cities at what they've done, not a sledgehammer, as Councilmember Johnston said, but maybe a scalpel approach that is able to focus on the bad actors.

First and foremost, predictable rules protect good housing, not bad actors.

And right now, we don't have much prediction and much clarity on certain things.

Councilmember Hohesel might say that this is not mean to uh crack down on people who who maybe the grass is a little too long, but unless the letter and the law is there on clarifying, we don't we need to do that.

After all, I think about politicians who uh when they came up with federal income tax said only the top one to three percent would be taxed at a one to three percent rate, but because we didn't put it in writing, we now deal with what we deal with these today.

So I I like the idea that we have if we adopt the international codes, we need to have our own American guidelines within them.

Uh administrative warrant, I would say uh skimming through this, define imminent hazard clearly and narrowly for no no warrant emergencies.

I would pause per day fines while verified work is underway, and most importantly, uh it was brought up earlier, prevent stacking penalties across overlapping codes for the same defect.

Uh with the reinstatement of the boards of code standards and appeals.

I'm not sure on their full process, but out of respect for landlords, there should be a guaranteed timelines of like 30 days for a hearing, 15 days for a decision, ideally.

And then the biggest threat, I think, and potential risk for a backlog is the cross-the board's violations registry.

I would uh probably look at cities that uh have success with the risk risk tier system.

Uh violations across the board often just bogs down the system.

Detroit's own violation heavy registry became a failure, and Buffalo's got weighed down so much so many years that the courts had to step in, higher courts had to step in.

It's lots of paper, little compliance in single digits, percent digits on compliance, huge backlog.

Let's learn from others and look at cities like Minneapolis, where risk-tiered system is triggered from adjudication for life safety violations.

Minneapolis has a one-two-three model where the first tier for best performers on an eight-year cycle and a chronic three tiers get annual visits and higher fees.

Grand Rapids and other other cities in Iowa and cities in Iowa also use longer certificates for clean records, and they don't drown city staff while punishing good actors.

So we should look at these and tie fees to risk, not too many local wichetons who fix things when you actually call them.

Source of income, if you want landlords open to vouchers, make it don't make it a big government unfunded mandate.

Make it a good deal for them.

If this is about housing, clearly limit the SOI to housing within the language so it addresses some of the things that homes and others have brought up.

I heard the ESG there was some funding, but maybe we could look at Kansas City.

Kansas City has a one million dollar landlord risk mitigation fund when they updated their policy, and so we can maybe see if there's success from that.

They don't dictate to their own property owning citizens, they recruit them to be a part of the solution.

They pull housing supply into voucher acceptance voluntarily and much more efficiently than just by SOI alone, which is slower.

Finally, fees and transparency.

If fees must be set by council resolution, I would encourage a specific addition of public notice before such would happen.

Maybe include a brief cost recovery memo, and if there is a reasonable annual cap or any discussion of that, uh that could maybe bar be only exception barred for the Supreme Majority vote of the council.

It sounds like there's a good sunset and transition policy in place, but it's important to measure to manage and public publish the trust for the predictability.

But that's the opposite here.

Going big even with well-intentioned policies can often keep us from real reforms that make the greatest lasting impact.

It can mean higher rents and fewer providers, especially the smaller local ones who we care about so much and against the frustration of a lot of the out-of-state folks that I know we've encountered with zoning cases in District One.

So the council should provide strong tiered oversight that targets the worst while not talk taxing the rest and the best, especially our local wichetins who keep so many housed.

By doing so, we'll hopefully get safer homes, faster fixes, more voucher leases as proven in those incentive programs, and most importantly, more places for Wichitsons to live in peace and in prosperity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm just going to make uh mention communications has wichita.gov slash outreach.

Again, wichita.gov slash outreach as a way for you to stay connected to tell us how you want to be communicated.

Again, wichita.gov slash outreach.

We'll continue with public comment.

My name is Gail Clark.

Uh live in Sedgwick, Kansas.

I don't reside in the city of Wichita, but my husband and I have nine rentals here in town.

I don't know what districts they are in.

I would guess out of all you guys, we are going to hit at least half of you.

So for us to pay attention, not pay attention, but to investigate when you're having your uh neighborhood meetings.

Um I find it odd that I can get phone calls every week at least five and written communication from investors who want to buy my home, but the city can't notify us of um when this uh type of uh communication and and uh meetings occur.

Um one of the I have uh two pages that I have spent a couple days on preparing, and a lot of people have already covered the issues, so I won't recover it.

However, in the people that have talked here, I've heard the word high level come up five times.

And if this has been brought up since 2022 and started to be looked at at that time, why wasn't the devil's in the details?

And this has got a lot of devil in it.

Um why wasn't uh the details presented at that time.

The assistant city manager was mentioning that pass this and and we'll work on policies.

No, that's not good.

You either pass the policies before you approve the ordinance, or then you get more public input as it moves forward.

So that's a concern.

I also think there's a big concern where we're trying to add more bureaucracy to an 85% compliance rate.

I don't have any examples of people or industries that have an 85% compliance rate.

But if my occupancy rate was 85%, I'd be I'd be skipping rope here.

I'd be loving it.

So 15% complaints, um, the none were found guilty.

Again, making the issue out of a non-issue.

Um the register or registry of landlords who have violated or maybe not violated.

Um I would say that's a really bad idea, and if it passes, I would like to see a registry of tenants who have willfully damaged our properties.

And that's illegal.

Again, I just asked for decorum in this council chambers.

So we have our networks, but um unfortunately they're not far-reaching enough.

So um keep that in mind when you're when you're thinking about the registry.

Um the uh reduced appeal rights uh when you consolidate and you remove um uh oversight down to a few minute people, um, you know, that's just unconstitutional.

Uh first amendment amendment gives um citizens the the right to petition government for uh what's called a regress of grievances or the right um to correct a wrong.

And I see that being ignored by if these ordinances were passed.

With respect to a suggestion on how we get better housing and for tenants, socioeconomic status does not absolve someone from keeping property clean, whether it's a landlord or a tenant.

Okay.

So that is a huge issue.

Just because someone is on uh disability or what have you doesn't absolve them from taking care of your property.

But did you know that I cannot garnish disability or social security?

So if you want to make that a protected income, probably ought to work at a higher level, whether it be state or federal, for me to garnish said protected income.

Because right now we can't do it.

So if I'm gonna rent to someone whose sole income is on is social security, um I'm I have to look really hard uh about doing that, not because I don't want to be a good landlord, but because I have no repercussions of getting my money back for damages and lost rent.

I I hope that you defer voting on this issue.

We'll continue with public comment.

You can go.

No, okay.

I guess I was here first, but thank you so much.

I really appreciate this.

My name is Beth Snyder, and I live at 2302 North Rosemont Circle.

Me and my husband own Empower Homes LLC, a small family-run business here in Wichita.

We're what people call mom and pop landlords.

For us, this isn't just an income, it's a mission.

We take great pride in providing safe, beautiful homes that are well maintained and thoughtfully decorated.

These three proposed landlord ordinances were introduced with almost no notice or collaboration with local local property owners.

I believe your intentions may be good, but the process was too rushed, and the consequences could harm the very people who are keeping Wichita's housing stable and affordable.

First, the property maintenance ordinance adds new fines and inspection layers that will punish small responsible landlords right alongside with the bad actors.

Empower homes already maintains its properties with great care, yet one misrepair or subjective inspection could bring heavy penalties.

That's not fair or sustainable.

Second, requiring landlords to accept all housing vouchers may sound fair, but it forces small landlords into complex federal programs they aren't equipped to manage.

If that becomes mandatory, many of us will leave the market, reducing, not expanding, quality affordable housing.

Third, the expanded tenant protection ordinance, while well-intentioned, goes too far.

In reality, 90% of tenants are wonderful people, hardworking and respectful, but about 10% know exactly how to exploit the system.

They file false complaints, delay payments, or weaponize laws to harm honest landlords like us.

These new ordinances would would hand that small group even more ammunition.

I've learned that not everyone shares the same honest values I do, and these rules could easily destroy the very people trying to do the community good, like me and my husband.

If these measures pass as written, good landlords like us will leave Wichita's rental market, and that will increase homelessness and housing shortages, not solve the problems.

I respectfully urge you pause these votes and invite landlords to the table.

Let's work together to craft fair balanced solutions that protect tenants and preserve the small local landlords who make Wichita a wonderful place.

People are proud to call home.

Thank you for your time and for listening to those of us who truly care about this community.

And I think it's wonderful.

I can I can hear on both sides, you know, there are definite reasons for this.

And what I would like to say is I think 90% of landlords are just like me and my husband.

We're trying our best to provide quality affordable housing for the citizens of the city, and I really hope that you will go in, the city will get stronger to punish those truly bad actors.

I mean, it sounds terrible to live in places like that, but that is definitely not what we have.

In fact, I would say my husband and I, through trying to be really good, honest landlords, sometimes end up getting abused by some of the tenants that we had great faith in because there are those people that do know how to exploit the system.

Thank you so much.

No questions.

Craig Gable, 150 East 44th Street South.

Um I want to you know to understand up front, I want good landlords.

I want everybody to be a good landlord, and I want tenants to have good good places to live.

And you know, you've got put forth an idea here that uh seems we already have the mechanism out there.

We already have laws that should punish people.

I do agree on one thing there should be a landlord registry for anybody that lives or any group that owns rental property from outside the city limits, just outside the city limits, not 60 miles, not 100 miles, not whatever.

Anyhow, because those people are the ones with all the empty houses that the homeless people are breaking into.

Those are the people that you can't get served and they get by over and over and over.

Anyhow, so with that said, uh I want to tell you a little bit about myself before we get started.

Uh I bought my first rental house in 74.

I think it's 74, a huge percentage of these people were in grade school or younger.

Anyhow, and uh I bought my first rental house here in Wichita in 84 at one time.

I owned one-tenth of one percent of all the rental houses in Wichita.

Anyhow, that's a lot, and it was crazy.

I was crazy when I was younger.

Anyhow, um, but I said I've been in it a long time.

I've been on the end where you know we're short on money and didn't do as good a job as I should have, and I've you know, I learned and learned as I've gone along.

And uh what I've learned is if you make a house as nice as possible, you you're pretty discreet on how who you rent it to, that they'll stay with you forever, and if you answer their call and do fix something within 24 hours, you're gonna keep that renter forever.

And I've had renters that one 17 years and one 26 years, and both of them died before they moved.

Anyhow, so with that I have recommendations as opposed to uh complaining about this thing.

Um the problem is this communication to start with, okay.

Um anyhow, to fix this this communication problem, it's both for the renters and for the landlords, okay.

The uh to fix the problems, require every lease to contain a rental checklist for in and out, in when they sign in, out when they sign out.

14 it should contain a 14-day 30 notice, which allows the tenant, if the property is not fixed properly within a reasonable period of time, a few days, to give a 1430 to their landlord, and that gives them if they don't fix it in 14 days, they're out in 30 days.

They can go find something better.

Uh contact info for uh central inspection.

There should be a sheet in there so that they know who to call if they have a problem.

And it's theoretically, if they have a 14, give a 14-day 30 notice, they should call central inspection.

Let's get central inspection out of there.

Um we need a section eight.

If you want us to take Section 8 renters, we need a Section 8 checkout, outgoing checklist, because what happens with Section 8, and I did Section 8 for years and I finally quit it.

Uh, is the uh the tenant gets in there and they some of them have to pay a partial of their rent.

Well, if you give them a notice to pay part of that rent, they do some damage in the house, pull plug in out, take a smoke detector down, and they call the inspector.

Well, then you can't collect your rent that much.

You get it up there.

You'd call the inspector to come out, and by the time he gets back out there, it's down again.

And then when they finally do get around to move and their lease is over and you're not going to renew it and stuff, they leave the place this deep or trashed.

And I said they need a checkout list, and those people need to be penalized inside the system so that they don't rent again or at least a month or so they can't rent in in order to be fair.

Um require an automatic small claims case whenever an eviction is filed.

So that the, you know, right now a person has to go evict somebody, and then you have to go file a small claims code.

It turns into a nightmare and a time-consuming one.

Um, let's talk about Emory Gardens, okay?

You know it's bad.

Okay.

You could get with that inspector, you could get a uh uh a warrant to go in and inspect every one of those properties.

You could put a case against every property, you could put the the bill for that into the hundreds of thousands and whatnot.

And Less said, then whenever you uh you guys identify those 15 percent, make sure that there's some kind of little resource out there to just help somebody get from one to the other.

Maybe the the uh deposit, you know, it might be 300, might be 500 or something like that.

And I said uh the you could fix this problem a lot.

Please to bel please to delay this item until it can be fixed.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh, I did just want to I appreciate some of the insight there.

I did just want to touch on one thing that you had brought up, um, the vacant homes.

That is a big issue in a lot of our neighborhoods for a variety of reasons.

You're not lying.

A lot of people do break in there, they cause damage, um squatters and whatnot, some drug issues that come with it.

Um so I did want to just talk about um two things here real quick.

One, the state has been considering uh doing a probate process because one of the reasons for a lot of vacant homes is there's no designated um inheritor after somebody passes away.

So the state is looking at possibly doing a probate process for homes under I think maybe they were looking 180,000 or so to help with that process because it can often be an expensive and time-consuming um issue that leads to little or no resolution.

Um another one is so uh just want to put that on your radars, and that way if we are having discussions with some of your elected officials, you might bring this up and see if that's something you would support or not.

Another one is um, and this one is kind of touchy, but right now we have to wait for vacant properties to fall five years behind on taxes before we can have any action.

Um that's that's fine because I want to give everybody, I don't want to kick people out of their homes for not being able to afford their taxes.

Um, but whenever there are bad actors who are just letting their properties sit on a corner and depreciate and fall into disrepair, uh it would be nice to have some sort of recourse to get that property, either we crack down on it and are able to uh move it along or get somebody in there who will actually take care of their property.

So those are two issues that we are facing with vacant properties in our neighborhoods and some solutions that we are looking at, including on the state level.

So again, just um some information to provide for the public out there.

Okay, so it's back to public comment now.

Okay.

Um, Tracy Terrell, um address 1526 Northwest Lena, Wichita District 6.

Um, but I also have property in every single one of your districts.

Um I do want to thank you for the ones that took my call and text messages over the weekend to try to understand this clearly.

Um couple of things that I do want to mention.

Um, I was gonna get up here and give a speech pretty much that everyone else has already given, right?

But as a realtor and somebody who cares about every housing, everyone's housing needs in this city, even our unhoused neighbors.

There's a couple of recommendations.

Um council member Tuttle that I would like to bring up.

Uh Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called The Tipping Point, and one of the things that they were able to change, make major systemic changes in the New York system or a New York City crime system was about doing something very small, like catching people who were jumping bears to get on the subway.

And what they found is whenever they had enforcement on those little issues, systemically, it created the ability to be able to change the directory later.

And I think sometimes on these complex social issues, we have to look at what are some things that are within our control to be able to facilitate this conversation further.

Well, there are some really great things on this, and one of my biggest concerns is that all of this will be completely tabled, and I know most of you from having conversations know that we do need to have accountability to property owners.

I have vacant houses right now because they were just remodeled and they were trashed in two and a half months later, right?

And with that, those properties that property is gonna sit until I'm able to get back to it and rehab that, right?

Um with that being said, there are also things and initiatives that are going on right now to increase landlord engagement.

United Way, the COC, continuum of care, um, is currently hosting landlord engagement times to try to increase the number of landlords that can learn about all the bureaucracy and the things that happen behind the scenes with section eight housing or housing choice vouchers, right?

So it all goes back to when Mr.

Anderson, when you first presented this back in August of 2023, one of the very first items on that agenda was education.

And education for property owners, education for tenants, right?

So the City of Wichita Housing Authority created a handbook, and that handbook is available on the City of Wichita's website.

Now, following you on Facebook, I see all of the concerns from tenants that are voicing their opinions and feeling like they have been unheard, right?

So I think it's an opportunity for us right now to then go out and say what's the communication strategy that tenants have to feel respected and validated when there are concerns to ensure that there isn't going to be retaliation and uh having evictions and understanding what that process looks like.

I have a tenant right now across the street from one of my properties who's having an issue with their property owner, and she's like, Well, what do I do?

And I said, Well, hun, these are real concerns.

I'm not providing legal advice, but what I would tell you is that there is an avenue called a 14 day 30.

I said, But you have to be prepared at the end of that 14 days.

If he doesn't correct it, then you need to be finding another place.

And she's like, Well, I can't afford to find another place.

And I said, Okay, so here's the thing here's the power that you do have is let's come up with a plan, an action plan of how we can try to get you out of this situation.

Now, it may not be right now, but it could be that next step.

So when we go back and we look at these issues, I also have to look at where's the community support services to protect individuals that are facing these types of situations.

And we are having those discussions, and those discussions are ongoing, but I do think as our council, we need to be doing a better job of communicating what are things that tenants can do, what are things that property owners can do to start bridging that communication gap.

Because at the end of the day, guys, it doesn't matter what relationship you're in, whether it's a tenant, landlord situation, whether it's a council and your constituents, it all starts with having communication with one another to bridge that gap.

Thank you very much for your time today.

I'm short.

Hello, good morning, council mayor woo.

It's nice to see you guys again.

For those of you who are not familiar with my work, my name is Donna Garcia.

I'm a nurse and a family nurse practitioner doctorate student.

I'm getting ready to graduate.

Next time you see me, I'll be Dr.

Donna.

Um, what we do, I'm the executive director and co-founder of Grassroots Bridge Builders ICT.

We're a nonprofit organization providing trauma-informed homeless um uh advocacy and peer-based housing navigation.

So every day I'm working alongside tenants and landlords, case managers to help individuals transition from homelessness into stable housing.

One of our uh our team operates at the direct intersection of public health and housing access.

Grassroots builders is built on collaboration.

We partner with property owners who open their doors to voucher recipients, low-income families, and individuals rebuilding their lives.

Most of these landlords are not large corporations, they're small business owners who live here.

They care deeply about their tenants, and they often carry the financial and emotional burdens of maintaining older properties on super tight margins.

So these partnerships, we've learned that communication and collaboration work.

When landlords, outreach providers, and tenants collaborate, evictions decrease, units stay habitable, and neighborhoods stabilize.

That's why I'm concerned about the proposed landlord registration and code enforcement changes, which we don't have time or my personal scope to go into right now.

So while the intent is to improve housing safety, is commendable, a broad registration system without a path to resolution could unintentionally harm the very people that we rely on to uh keep housing affordable.

Many code violations already fall under HUD's Inspire inspection requirements, which I believe Sally can correct me, are coming on line in 2026.

Creating the second level layer of reporting and penalties can result in duplications and conflicting standards, particularly for landers, landlords who are renting to our voucher holders.

If we uh increase this regulatory complexity, as we've heard, without support, we're risking losing these good landlords that we work so hard to identify.

They're doing their best, but they simply lack the capital or the manpower to upgrade immediately.

And every lost landlord means fewer affordable houses for the next family trying to get off the street.

There's a better way.

Wichita already manages restoration and rehabilitation funds through that we've heard of.

Um, these funds can be expanded or redistributed to help small property owners achieve the compliance rather than penalizing them for a lack of resources.

Imagine if we created a clearly advertised pathway within City Hall, a one-stop application process, connecting landlords on the registry to local nonprofits, LLCs, and contractors who can assist with affordable repairs or make ready work.

This would transform the registry from a list of violations into a community problem solving tool, one that promotes collaboration, transparency, and a shared accountability.

Now I didn't come to you with just recommendations.

I came with results today.

At Bridge Builders, we've developed exactly that kind of pathway, and you'll probably hear from a couple ambassadors who are living it.

Our trauma-informed housing restoration program pairs property repair and healing with skill building.

When a unit is vacated or in disrepair, we bring on individuals who are waiting for housing, many overcoming trauma, addiction, and years of instability, and they help prepare the unit for the next family moving in.

This approach gives landlords labor and fast turns around and helps participants get hands-on job experience structure and most importantly, purpose.

It transforms code compliance into a community act of rebuilding.

Each project involves the property strengthens the neighborhood and helps people rebuild their own stability at the same time.

It's proof that restorative housing is both possible and effective.

Real solutions that save money, build equity, and restore dignity.

If the city supported and scaled community based restoration like this, and if tenants got involved feeling so passionately to give their time and their sweat equity, then we can see uh compliance that no longer relies on property loss and punitive uh measures.

We would be able to achieve safety and health without sacrificing ownership.

I do have a couple recommendations for the council as written.

We should add citizens and nonprofit oversight to any advisor or appeals board, as is mentioned in the language, um, create city uh hall restoration pathways that connect those landlords on the registry, um, and publish annual resort uh reports, all those good things that we can do to keep accountability.

Mayor Wu and Council members, Wichita's housing future depends on collaboration, not on punishment.

The registry alone cannot fix code issues, but a registry with built-in pathways for assistance in partnership can.

Let's connect people with those who need uh help and are ready to provide that kind of help.

The resources are available to keep units safe, preserve affordable housing, and promote dignity.

So thank you for your time.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

Good morning, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, and Mr.

City Manager.

I do have a couple of questions.

My name is Levonta Williams, and I do have a question, even just starting out.

I thought I heard something about 69 cases that have been presented and went forward.

I thought I heard 4500 were dismissed, and maybe another 500 that went nowhere.

Are we asking why they're dismissed, why they didn't go any place?

That would be one thing that I would ask and that I would like to know.

Why are the cases not going anywhere?

Especially if there's something wrong.

I appreciate everybody who is here.

Everybody that is here.

I appreciate the landlords, but you're hearing very little from renters, especially renters that have some type of a situation in the place they are in.

So, yes, I I hear the landlords, and I just want to say from the beginning, it's not an attack on landlords.

We know that there are many, many, many responsible property owners doing great work and doing great things to provide safe quality housing.

But this is about some that don't do this.

Some are not there.

That could be for mole.

I'm talking about kids that could pass away from being exposed to some of the things that our young people are being exposed to today.

Then, as a teacher, I see those kids.

As a person who looks at equity and wondering, are all rental homes the same?

No.

There are some people who fix up a home just barely enough that it will pass code.

That it will pass code, and sometimes it doesn't pass code, and sometimes we don't know what happened.

There are some landlords who have a hundred-plus homes that they rent out.

What is the quality that they're renting out?

Do we have any idea of those types of issues as well?

And then I look at things from uh the position of myself as being a AARP volunteer, and I'm looking out for my seniors because that was what I stood on as a council member.

My seniors and my young people as a teacher, and now as a senior myself.

Those are very important things that we need to look at.

Are all rentals the same?

Obviously not.

And then I look at the time that I was a city council member.

And I look at some of the things that I did that really hit the tip of the deal, pretty much like Councilmember Johnson Hoheisel, who went into some of these places that were not livable.

Later on, I went, I went into one and found out you should have worn a hazmat suit.

Because that's what the inspectors put on.

A hazmat suit.

No, I didn't do that.

And then there was an area that is a huge, it was a huge concern for me.

It was an area where we took a survey of that part of the community, and they told us that the city forgot that they lived there.

It was in terrible condition.

The city forgot they lived there.

That was the way that group of people felt.

And so we checked even further.

Person that was working with me at the time, she said, Ms.

Williams, don't go in there and sit down.

Well, I did.

I went in there and I sat down and I talked with people.

But there was one lady who just sit on the porch.

A seniorly lady, just sit on the porch most of her time.

She had a bed sheet that was around her porch area, and she would sit there.

I lost this little old lady to death.

And I know that it was because of the living condition that she was in.

Is that on the document, her death certificate?

Probably not.

But I know that she died because of the living conditions that she was in.

So I applaud you, I applaud you for moving this and looking at this again.

But think of all of those that you don't know that have passed away because of where they live.

That is so important.

Please think about this, don't wait another year for 10 years.

We didn't move it.

You had the opportunity to move this in the direction that it needs to go.

Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Levant.

I appreciate all that.

Um I don't want to be respectful of the people standing in line.

So when we're done with that comment, if maybe we could have somebody from our inspection units or MABCD or maybe Troy come up and talk about some of our difficulties in prosecuting some of these cases.

And then also to touch on Levantas issue, one of the complaints I get most commonly is slum lords essentially just painting over black mold, trying to cover it up that way in order to pass inspection.

So yeah, that's another concern that I hear quite a bit of as well.

My name is Rochelle Small Clifford.

330 West 2nd Street North, number 48812, Wichita Kansas 67201.

This is Darla, my service dog.

I'm here to provide a more personal first hand account to what it's like living in a contaminated space.

There are many uh opportunities to abate for a watchful landowner, a watchful landlord.

The International Building Code.

Also, I'd like to amend.

It does not specifically address mold, mildew, or fungus.

However, it does include provisions related to moisture control and unsafe conditions that can could contribute to mold growth, emphasizing the need to treat the underlying causes of excess moisture.

Experts have said that mold can cause respiratory issues, but it's not against Wichita's housing code.

You can read more on this at HTTPS, WWW, Kansas.com, and an article provided by Celia Hack from KMUW, July 10th, 2023.

Our National Institutes of Health Clinical Center writes, chronic exposure to air pollution causes cytogenic damage, DNA strand breakage, epigenetic changes, and altered gene expression.

I think this is very important.

We need to understand, landlords, that it's tantamount to holding a loaded gun to the heads of your tenants.

Okay.

All these changes are associated with higher risk factors for many diseases, especially for cancers.

Gurani Azam and others, 2016.

Mold is present in every environment to some extent, but when a resident claims that mold is causing or worsening a health condition, it then becomes a fair housing issue.

I want to say thank you, as many others have to the landlords who cared enough to show up, the property managers who care enough to keep the properties in good good condition for those of us who need places to live that are safe.

But I sadly want to highlight that the memorandum which Councilman Johnson has cared enough to move his feet to put on the board today.

It's in minority compared to the number of states across the country which have bothered to do the same on behalf of their paying citizens, many of them well paying.

I know someone who spends $2,500 a month on rent in a luxury building and has had a problem getting their maintenance to remove a black moldy mini split.

That's a relatively easy problem to fix.

Nonetheless, we do have predatory landlords, predatorial property management companies who are slow to respond.

They have a tendency to ignore or avoid the states where the laws are more stringent and they tend to go to places where the laws are more lax and they can find vulnerable populations on which to feed.

They make their money on the backs of sick people, eventually sick people.

And I have to say that they're often underinsured.

So we spend our days, well, not me anymore since I'm disabled, but honest people spend their time going to work day after day to pay the bulk of their expense, which is rent or mortgage, and then they find that after all of that, they're left with tremendous medical debt and nowhere to live after their homes are found to be condemned and unlivable, and they're recommended to move out by their doctors.

So we have to stand up.

There has to be a standard.

Wichita has to make a law to say that mold is not okay in homes.

It's got to be illegal.

Thank you.

Hi everyone, my name is Lisa Hattrup.

Um my address is 297 South Pershing.

Um Madam Mayor and Council members, uh, my husband and I have accepted Section 8 in the past and would like to relate to you why we stopped.

We have been hearing it claimed that if we had problems with Section 8 tenants, the city will back up landlords and hold tenants responsible for any damage they cause.

But in our experience, we have never had a Section 8 tenant that did not cause damages, far exceeding their deposit, and the city has been of no help whatsoever.

Our last experience with Section 8, the experience that resulted in our decision to no longer accept Section 8 was a tenant who deliberately vandalized our property.

Briefly, every single wall in the entire house had multiple holes, multiple windows were broken, every window screen on the house had been sliced.

And there is more, but I won't go into the entire list.

This house has passed Section 8 inspection for her to move in.

These were most certainly not pre-existing conditions.

We did call the Section 8 office to inform them of the damages.

We thought they might like to know what this tenant had done because this tenant was still in the Section 8 program and still had a voucher.

We requested that an inspector come out to view the damages.

The first person we spoke to actually laughed out loud.

She said only a supervisor can authorize an inspector to come out, so we requested to speak to a supervisor.

A supervisor did call the next day only to tell us the damages were our own fault because we did not mitigate by conducting monthly walkthrough inspections.

So we informed the supervisor that we would no longer that we would mitigate against future damages by no longer accepting Section 8.

He responded that he did not care.

What m what landlord does a monthly walk through?

Would you not consider that harassment?

The cost to repair that house was $4,400 in excess of the deposit.

And we received no help from the city.

Instead, we received laughter and blame.

Every single Section 8 tenant that we have ever had caused damage, and that comes out of our pockets, a mom and pop operation.

Why would you force Section 8 on us?

We do the majority of our work and we pride ourselves on being good landlords and taking care of our tenants and our property.

We have tenants that have stayed with us for over a decade, but Section 8 has been nothing but a nightmare for us.

We don't understand why you're punishing us.

Thank you very much.

I have a follow-up question to that, and that will be if you can provide the name of the individual that inspector's name or supervisor who laughed at you and basically uh did not hear you.

Can you just provide that name to the city manager?

Okay.

Hello, uh, good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, councilman, thank you for having us.

Uh thank you for this opportunity to speak with you all.

Uh my name is Cody Arnett.

I um my family and I own PMI Wichita, it's a property management company here in town.

Also a landlord, I'm also a tenant.

I've been a tenant in slums before.

Uh I'm born and raised Wichita.

I love the city, I love the people here.

I I can't express enough of to my to all of you, tenants, landlords, my heart's with you.

Because I've been in multiple situations.

I've been, you know, the kid whose mom's trying to make it, and we're living with mold.

And we're living with I've had to, just as you, Councilman Johnson.

I've had to look a uh single mother in the eye and tell her I don't know what to do for you, because she has mold and she can't afford to move, and the landlord can't afford it afford to remediate the issue.

Well, then the questions ask, well, if you can't afford it, you you shouldn't rent out your home.

Well, they they were able to afford it before, but then taxes and insurance go up.

Uh maybe neglect and abuse from the tenant happens, just as we've heard before.

We've made it, we've made this property as clean and as functional as possible.

We we vetted the tenant, we made sure that they were good, um, and that they were qualified and they take care of the home.

Something happens, you know, they get hit in in a car accident, they get hooked up on pain kit painkillers, crack, whatever.

Mental health issue, this perfectly fine tenant destroys the place in months.

Well, what a situation.

And I I've just I've seen it in so many being a property manager, I've seen both sides, and our job in property management is to be in the middle and to be an advocate for both sides, just as your job is in the city to a degree, right?

I I want tenants to have good homes.

I want landlords to be able to be landlords and to afford it.

We have to have some better collaboration here.

Uh these these ordinance, though I don't oppose the intention, I oppose punishing the landlords.

Let's collaborate, let's not punish.

If you pass these ordinance today, or if you pass them as they are, I I'm I'm telling you, mark my words.

It's going to give, it's gonna be an adverse effect.

Rents are gonna have to jump, they're gonna have to increase.

They're already so high in the years that I've been doing, the years I've been doing this.

I've seen rents go way up.

And as a landlord, great, but it's just a key, it's just a break-even, man.

Like it's it's not to make money, we're not rolling it down here.

We're just trying to survive as landlords, but same as tenants.

How can how can you afford three times the rent when rent's so high?

Well, I can't move you into a property and half or more of your income is going to rent.

That's not gonna work.

I'm putting you at a disadvantage.

I'm putting the landlord at disadvantage or myself at a disadvantage.

That's not fair for anybody.

So if we're going to make that a protected class, good luck, you're gonna see tons of evictions.

And that's terrible, and I don't want that for anybody.

And I just I can't express enough that this is important.

I'm glad this is happening.

Probably unpopular opinion, but I'm glad it's happening because we're finally getting a dialogue going here.

And instead of passing these ordinance the way they are, let's keep the momentum going.

Let's keep the conversation going.

Let's bring everyone to the table and let's solve these problems for our community.

Because it's it's generations after us that are going to get the negative or the positive impact from our decisions today.

And you know that I know that let's let's get together.

Let's solve these problems together.

Let's not just punish one side or the other.

Both sides have their issues.

And we shouldn't have this division.

We should be people.

We're human beings at the end of the day.

We're human beings.

Let's be human beings to each other.

Thank you.

I'm just gonna make a quick comment.

Uh please put your name uh on the list outside uh communications has uh provided a list uh outside these doors if you want to be part of that engagement process.

Before we continue, I just want to make mention that we did order pizza for the individuals who are here today.

I know that this is gonna be a very long meeting.

So outside the chamber um hall, you'll be able to grab a slice of pizza.

You had me a pizza.

Hello everybody, uh Madam Mayor, vice vice mayor and council members.

Uh my name's Jerry Mendoza.

I work for Mennonite Housing uh 2145 North Topeka, and we focus on um affordable housing um and uh income based housing.

And so uh we work with Litech, uh HUD and Section 8 uh programs throughout the city.

And I my values uh go in line with what uh Mennonite Housing is as a transplant from uh inner city Dallas.

Uh don't hold that against me though.

Uh appreciate it.

Um but uh there Section 8 was a bad phrase to hear when I was growing up.

It meant like it like he was saying, there is there's unlivable conditions, and what we strive to do is make these conditions for these tenants uh that can't normally afford regular housing to where it's it you can't tell the difference between regular housing and affordable housing, and so that's our goal.

Um, and so with that, we we see I'm um we're advocates for the tenants as well.

Um we want to make sure we we are offering anything we can.

We're working with programs too that uh are reaching out to homeless individuals as well.

Um but with this with with this new ordinances, I feel like we're it's it's open-ended to where it's gonna it's gonna double uh or it's gonna duplicate the charges that we work with uh as are the inspections that we have with Inspire, our Litech and our uh our Section 8s are are with Inspire, and as they mentioned HUD is gonna start in 20 uh 26.

Um, and as they also mentioned, HUD um has more vouchers than than they do um uh funds for these this program, and so I'm afraid that with these increased fees uh we will not be able to offer as much uh affordable housing as we have in the past because of the of the the increases in fees, and so we'll have to increase uh rental um rates, and so we want to make sure that uh like they they've said before, we have an open dialogue and uh have a um uh a round a round table or a uh a gathering where you get both tenants and landlords to come together, uh both from the the affordable housing side and the regular um conventional housing, and so to get to get an idea of where we can meet in the middle because it is a problem.

Uh we do see it.

Um I'm standing here, I can't say that all our housing is perfect.

There are some issues with some of our aging housing.

You know, we have issues that that come up more regularly, and and we try to to get in front of those, but there are issues, there are times where you know it it it has to it it it's more time than when we we feel like it needs to be, and so um we we feel like if we get together and work together, we can create a program that that benefits both sides.

Uh it doesn't harm one or the other, it it it penalizes those people that are are are doing it on purpose, or are out there for just the money, and they don't care who gets in in the way of that of that money train.

And so I appreciate you guys all the hard work that you've done, and I just ask that we just uh temporarily delay it so we can get more information and more and and figure out who can come to the table and and work as a team and and get that get that program to the best of anywhere.

Um, you know, in in other states, they'll they'll replicate what we have here in Wichita.

Thank you very much.

Have a great day.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, just one quick question, sir.

And for anybody else in the crowd who maybe has uh experience with us.

How is the new Inspire um methods?

It's very strict, very strict.

But yes, yes, we've been working with it with for Lightch uh a while now, and so we know what to expect, and so um we get in front of it.

I'd like to say most of our uh well, our maintenance team has gotten an average of maybe 97, 98 percent on all most of our inspections.

So uh it is it is meant to keep us on on the straight and narrow, and so and they they get they get on us if we have any issues.

Okay, I know it was also designed to maybe give some leeway on the bottom and with things that aren't necessarily as serious as an issue.

So I am curious.

They give us a uh a uh variable date time to get those uh corrected.

Some are are life threatening, so they give us a 24 to 48 hour uh time to turn it around.

Others are not so much, so they give us a little more leeway.

Um but the ones that that do affect the tenants, they they do focus on getting them uh turned very quickly.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, I have just been curious how that's been working out since it's rolled out.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Hello again.

Um excuse me, I'm gonna get really good at this one of these days.

Um my name is Sarah Cowling and I'm 2116 South Seneca, number 302.

Formerly I was homeless at 10 City.

I also lived at the Economy Inn.

I also lived at the frontier.

I also lived at 2141 South Erie, and before that I lived at the residence behind Grace Baptist Church as a facility manager.

Um some of those addresses you might recognize as things that have had violations, and some of those things um the house I had before I was homeless on Erie, um it had an incident that happened there.

But before something had happened there, we had several nuisance reports on um whether we had no trash service at our house after during COVID when we lost our jobs.

Um our grasses too long, we didn't have uh carport that was enclosed enough.

Uh if we had our trailer on the side of our house, it could not have trash on it.

It was repeated um repeated calls and um violations, like in a certain amount of time, and it came to the point where like our yard, we had moved into a house that had been basically abandoned.

It the person, the land uh landlord was um the pastor's stepmom, and there had been she took care of the house, it had electricity, which meant that people were breaking into the house, and you know, but she didn't want to lose that house.

And we moved in into it after our pastor had passed away.

We had I'm trying to think of how many calls we had just as far as the trash.

When we moved into it was trashed.

And so we'd moved in, and there was things that we had to do in order to make sure that it was um safe, but we were getting calls about stuff that was happening in the yard.

And my point, long story short, um some of these calls that people get our neighbors that multiple calls, and a lot of the times people aren't seeing what's going on with the tenants, you know.

And this hold on.

Sorry, I have one hand, and this is something that's perfect.

I just got housing, and then I was in a car accident.

I broke both my ankles and my wrist, which could jeopardize me because I can unable to unenvelop the work.

And uh sorry, I'm sorry.

Okay, on pain cleaning safe, healthy, and compliant house housing is essential.

We must recognize that removing homelessness starts before we put people in homelessness.

And this is our chance, as Witch Tom, maybe to start something new.

Because if we always do what we always do, we're always gonna get what we always get.

We keep changing ordinances and making policies to enforce on these tenants and on these landowners.

But what we're not doing is addressing the people inside of those houses.

Like with the church, the house is only as valuable as the people that are inside of it, and people are real people.

You know, I like that um gathered with gathered strong.

I love the idea that they have all of these organizations that collaborate.

And like we have all these resources that are provided for the homeless, but a lot of people are disqualified because they might fall under certain categories, but not others.

I mean, some of the people that we have that are homeless don't have a phone or contact to them.

But before they were homeless, they did have houses too.

You know, they didn't.

I was a according to my neighborhood, I became one of those bad tenants.

You know, it didn't matter that nobody saw that my grandson had passed away or that my son-in-law was killed.

They saw my trash was piling up.

We need to, I believe, and before we start just cracking down on things because they don't fit into code or because they're they're violations.

We need to address maybe why these things are happening in these neighborhoods.

Why is the person down the street?

Why isn't their lawn getting taken care of?

Why did all of a sudden their trash pile up and you know things looks they look vacated?

Yeah, it's usually something that has nothing to do with the actual building.

It has to do with people going through things.

You know, maybe their lawnmower broke down a violation or penalizing them, or the glass gets too long.

Something breaks in a house, and a lot of people are at too afraid to ask their landlord to fix it because they're worried that they're gonna be moved when stuff like that piles up, then I think I wanted to say a lot more.

Um I will write it, but I I think that this gives us a chance to maybe create a board of people that will go and before it becomes a violation, talk to these people, you know, have services and like an umbrella to if they are having problems taking care of these violations.

Services provided so that nobody loses their home.

Nobody gets it's not a legal problem, it is a person problem.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ho Heisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, we do have a program like that with the city.

They do reach out um and try and help people, especially people who do have issues, disability issues, aging issues.

I know we've worked with SB mowing uh quite a bit to help get some issues resolved that way as well.

So we do have that program out there.

Um I think we can request it whenever people do call in to see if that's an appropriate um path to go or go on.

And of course, we don't want to be punitive.

A lot of times we start with the education piece, given a 30-day fix a ticket, um, and really try to be humane in how we deal with a lot of these issues.

We'll take two more, one from this side and one from this side and take a short break if that hurts is sure.

When we do that, can we also have a list so these individuals can go in the line that they've already lined up as well?

So we don't have to recreate the line.

That would be great.

Can the clerk provide a list of names for each side?

So we'll take one from this side and one from this side, and then we'll take a short break.

Hi, my name is Destiny Williams, and I am an ambassador for the grassroots bridge builders.

Um I became homeless in um at the end of April.

I do now have Hello's housing.

I am happy that I have someplace to call along.

Um, but it was a struggle to even get to that destination.

Um I went through the whole summer with looking at buildings while I'm walking down the street of having my homeless moments, you know.

Looking at like empty buildings that are, you know, across the city.

Why couldn't these be, you know, refurbished?

Why can't you know, like the hospital that's just vacant, you know.

Why can't that be something that is for you know transitional housing for the homeless?

Um I went through a lot just being in that situation.

But I also understood understanding what was the point for me being out there.

You know, I have education, I am a CNA by trade.

Um, you know, and it was hard when I lost my job back in April.

I'd lost it at the beginning of the month.

And then towards the end, it was just one of those wow, you're on the streets.

Look at this.

Nobody to help me, no, no nothing.

And at that moment I decided that I wasn't going to ask anybody for help.

But one particular day I see my friend, she's coming along with this uh RV.

She kind of helped me out of my situation.

There is no kind of to it.

She helped me out of my situation, guiding me to a destination that has me with my daughter.

And we are both striving and surviving.

I just want to say that maybe I'll should revisit the whole landlord thing because some landlords are pretty good, but their houses, you know, their facilities might be in some type of disarray.

Maybe, you know, look into seeing how you can help them instead of uh throwing people out because their uh their housing isn't up to par.

Um I thank you for at least uh hearing my side of the story.

Thank you.

My name's Kristen Williams, um 8603 East Mulberry.

I own a property management company called Granite Key.

Um the reason that I created that company, I'm not gonna take a lot of time, but I was on the opposite end.

I used to work in aviation, um, and I was a single mom for a while, and I would always have trouble with landlords getting something fixed, whether I was paying for a higher end house or a low-end house when you're single mom, you just get the end of your lease and you get.

But a lot of times I've I've had landlords show up while I was breastfeeding, and come I mean it's I'm being graphic, but and walk in your door with no notice.

I've had air conditioners go out and say, I don't know what to tell you.

And but however, that said, I was also an aviation professional, and my um studies at Wichita State University is international business.

One of the things you have to remember, I know everybody's focusing on, and I do care for people, I love people, but it's a business primarily.

There's a small percentage, you inherit property, it's been in your family a long time, and you're just the landlord by default, um, and you don't really know all the laws, and that's why um when I decided to create uh the company, I did have um was working on a homelessness um project with Wichita State, and we interviewed and videoed, we we made a whole production of different people that have been in and out of homelessness.

Found out some came from really good homes, went through a divorce, some had drug issues, some were abused and abandoned.

There's a we are just an area of people.

So one of the things I get is a lot of my clients are international.

Some of them are not even American citizens, and they just want you to take this certain amount on.

It's all about budget, it's all about profit and loss statements, it's all about.

But one of the things that I do when I first get somebody is I I try to look them up and find out more about who they are.

Cedric County does not have a good database for that.

It just tells you who owns it.

You gotta see a lot of LLCs, like you said, you gotta look them up, you've got to dig down and find out more about that person, or the owners of the conglomerate.

The individuals that um I do a lot of work for um, all in Kansas, and we're also in Oklahoma, so uh Oklahoma City has a situation like this.

One of the things is that I would suggest that we table this, and you have to remember we have multifamily properties, we have single family properties, we have different kinds of situations that where you can't just put it all in low housing section eight.

I couldn't take a section eight customer recently because their voucher was for 2400, but the zip code said that the rent was too high, and it was only 1300.

It was a really nice fully remodeled home, and they could not use their voucher because they were turned down by section eight.

So there's a lot more than you realize that goes on.

It is a business and it's governmental.

You've got to have a finance background, a marketing background, you're you're a counselor sometimes.

I there's times I love hearing a tenant's gotten married or they had a baby, um, different things.

But then we also have real issues.

If I have an owner that will not fix a mold issue, if I I we literally, this whole pile here is checklist.

I'm very nerdy.

So we get the property, we checklist the house, we do a property inventory inspection, and then we make a uh report for the owner.

Say, listen, this is what we're seeing.

We have all the assets, your HVAC is bad, you need to clean your vents, and then they get mad they think you're trying to spend all their money because it is again a business.

So we try to find the spread.

What do you need to have?

And then we have to sing first upper as a property management company to say we also have to fault fair housing laws, fair credit act, uh, American with Disabilities Act, and on and on and on, and every new thing that comes forward.

That's why for people that wonder about why they say three times the rent, it's just an average put out there.

But what that means is your rent is one amount, but you have electric gas, water, insurance, utilities, I mean, yard care, cleaning the house on top of that.

That's why we say it's not that you have to be a millionaire to rent the house, but if your rent is $500, well, then you've got you know, you're gonna have City of Wichita water, you know, it it adds up.

So what we want to make sure you can afford to move in, or you need to look at a different house.

And so we have there's a song called Um, well, I'm not gonna sing it, but um, Fiddler on the Roof has a song called Matchmaker, and we we do interviews to match people with their properties.

So honestly, there's owners that I have quit because they won't, and it and I've lost income.

But there's also owners that I praise, and most of our landlords are awesome.

So some of them here spoke today that we do some leasing for, and we know that every checklist that the tenant has the chance to find out what's wrong, because we see every house has scars because they do brand new ones.

I've seen them put faucets in backwards.

But though the point of it is I really think we need to table it into workshops based on is it multifamily, single family, rural, local, and then really give it a more serious thought on how to handle the situations case by case.

Thank you.

Thank you again.

And we have now taken the names of individuals in both lines.

We have not.

The city clerk will be doing that right now.

We will take a short 15 minute break.

So everyone can go take a quick break.

15 minutes.

120, we will return.

Thank you very much.

Sorry, I'm late.

I was born late.

My wife says I'm always late, so I'm late again.

Thank you for hearing me.

Thank you for the council for having this meeting.

My name's Joe Corey.

I live at 3117 North Ridgeport Street, Wichita, Kansas.

My wife and I are small landlords.

I have a small property management company.

I'm the single employee.

I've had a hard time convincing my wife to come work for me because she doesn't like spiders, uh, roaches and mice.

So you're looking at the only employee here today for my company.

First, I'd like to say that uh as a small landlord, I consider these proposed changes to be an undue financial responsibility put on myself and my wife as well as other companies.

Um we have a lot of financial responsibilities that you don't hear about every week, every month, every year, uh, and we don't need you know undue necessary undue unnecessary uh uh financial responsibilities anymore.

I kind of like in this sort of, and I don't want to put this all out of context, but as another attempt by a ruling class to play Robin Hood and to take from the rich and give to the poor.

Except most of the people that you're taking from aren't rich.

We're not, you know, we're not rich people, we're just everyday tax paying people, just like most of you in the city council are I think that most of the rules and proposed changes you're talking about are already on the books in one fashion or another, maybe not specifically spelled out, but there are rules and regulations in the Kansas statute for landlords and tenants.

Uh, you have local ordinances that are that are on file already for things like mold and and uh the health issues you're talking about that can be enforced with the current laws.

Uh currently, a landlord has no recourse and no way to capture money on a tenant causing some of these property violations, either interior or exteriorly.

I went through this several times this year already, where tenants were causing violations to the yard with trash and debris and tall grass, and I ended up cleaning those up because the tenant would not do so, even had to go to court and pay fines for those because the tenant would not do that, even under the the rest of a 30-day notice or 1430, they still would not do it.

So I ended up doing that to save the place from being shut down by the city.

Um there are like I said, there are other solutions for the tenants.

Uh they can give written notices to the landlord, they can call the city inspectors, they can even call the police perhaps for violations.

And uh they eventually at the end, they can also give a thirty-day notice to move out and have the landlord pay for those moving charges and also pay for you know uh lost money by going to small claims court.

So they have legal recourses that they can do on their own.

Uh also I'm thinking that at this time I'm I'm recently uh cleaning up two properties at this time that the tenants left out many violations, code violations like tall grass, uh debris and furniture outside in the yard, uh repairing damaged walls, ceilings, lighting fixtures, water damage floors, broken doors, windows, pet damaged carpeting with pet urine and pet defecation stains in them.

These are all caused by the tenants, uh, not to mention the uh loss of rent.

Uh so in the end here, I'm trying to say that basically if you're seriously considering this new proposal, and it's been mentioned earlier by several people, that if you're gonna start some type of uh uh penalty system and develop lists for tenants, you should also possibly do that for tenants as well.

You know, we have a lot of proposed lists nationally for people, you know.

You're talking about putting landlords on a list, you know, what would be next?

You know, somebody who carries around two 200 bills in their wallet, or maybe a single mom who has more than three kids.

We don't need any more list or uh or or type things like that where people are publicly noted for that.

Uh but if you're gonna have this type of list, I also would say you need to create another list and another violation list for tenants who do these things purposely and repeatedly.

I've had many tenants do it repeatedly, and if you're gonna if you're gonna put me on a list and take me to jail, you should also allow us to do that for tenants as well that do this repeatedly.

Uh, and I'd say that if there would be a fine or a fee to pay, I and most of the landlords in this room would probably gladly pay the tenants fee if they're not able to to be put on that list and be registered as a as a as a uh uh repeated violator.

Thank you very much for your time today.

Hello, my name is Lonnie.

I live on 837 North Gow, and I'm a tenant and member of the ICT tenant union.

Members of the union have been involved in bettering the community of Wichita for years and other organizations.

They urge all of you to vote yes on new IPMC standards.

Yes to ordinance number 52827, yes to ordinance number 52828, and yes to the reinstatement of the Board of Code standards in appeals.

To ensure housing is habitable, there should be updated code standards to include black mold, for example, to be a safety and health hazard, plus the bare minimum standards to hold property owners accountable.

Tenants provide their landlords their livelihoods, meaning they pay rent and are expected to do so even if the property has issues and is uninhabitable, and renters have nowhere else to go.

If city council voted yes, this could help reduce slum lords.

The regular landlord that is doing their due diligence should have nothing to be concerned about.

Renters are the backbone for the city to function, their time, labor, and money contribute to the future of Wichita, and if we want to keep dedicated individuals to investing in their future of the city, we must establish protections for them that are long overdue.

Just as regulations for hospitals that are a core function to society.

Landlords also need to have some set regulations because they provide housing also a co-function to the society.

Yet have the least amount.

Broken appliances, no functional AC in the summer, no heat for their families in the winter, their foundations of their home are falling apart and the list goes on.

Yet their concerns are met with demands to pay rent instead.

Tenants need to live in habitable homes and feel safe enough to bring up any issues that may arise without fear of retaliation.

Currently, there are more repercussions for tenants who do not pay rent.

If they are rather than when landlords do not acknowledge or pay or make necessary repairs to rented homes.

They were so sick that they didn't understand that the beeping was to tell them that they were in danger.

They called their parents to tell them like maybe you need a call 911, and they ended up in the hospital.

So whether it may be mold leak or other hazards, tenants have to survive and are expected to pay rent because there's nowhere else for them to go.

And income protections, for example, aren't necessary to ending homelessness in Wichita.

It's inconceivable to expect someone in Wichita to find a home if discrimination on income is enabled.

It is compassionate to vote yes on income protections.

And a bit hypocritical to vote no if preaching to end homelessness in this city.

As someone who works in grassroots efforts with our unhoused neighbors and income discrimination is one of the biggest obstacles that people face when looking for housing.

If you want to make Wichita an attractive city, please vote yes.

Keep tenants safe from arbitrary standards set by landlords.

If residents cannot afford to buy a home, they look to rent.

If they cannot afford to rent or cannot find a property that will accept their form of income, they become unhouse.

Landlords choose to be landlords.

Renters do not have many other options.

So why not make renting safe and an accessible option?

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your time Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, thank you so much for your time.

My name is Pat Daniels.

I'm the uh I'm sorry, my address is 14700 East Timberlake Road in Wichita, 67230.

I'm the president and government relations officer for rental owners Incorporated, which is the largest independent landlord group in Wichita.

Um we are not a haven for slumlords or for anybody that is a negligent property manager.

Our group was formed in 1967 with the charter of helping good landlords become better landlords.

Every month we seek speakers, we've had Sally Stang speak about Section 8, and it's very encouraging some of the changes in that group.

However, we have had tons of reports about horrible issues dealing with Section 8 in the past, and that is one reason that a lot of property owners are very gun shy about taking that.

Uh, there are tremendous variances from one inspector to the next.

Um will pass the house, another one would violate it from multiple different things dealing with the same house.

And again, this is older information.

This does not necessarily impact what's happening there now.

But that is a real concern for people about being forced to take Section 8.

Um, I believe I am the mystery person that council member Johnson was trying to think of their name, and the same thing with Troy Anderson.

Uh I did meet with Troy Anderson on July 24th.

We met for a little over an hour.

I did not get a copy of the uh IPMC, but he showed me different excerpts on his computer.

It was a productive and positive meeting, and I did go online and look through it.

However, what I saw online was a generic boilerplate version of it.

It did not have all of the modifications in it.

Um I begged him at that time during the meeting to please be involved in the process.

We have worked hand in hand with the city on previous ordinances, worked with staff in a positive manner.

It was not adversarial in any way, shape, or form.

And at the end of that, we ended up putting our full support behind the legislation that came forward.

But we did need a little bit of input into that.

Being in this industry and professionals, we do have insights that may not be something that staff or others would think of.

Uh so we very much want to be at the table on this and work positively to move forward and try to reach a point.

I'm not even sure if this is needed or necessary, but as we delve into it, we can determine that.

The number one thing that I see as an issue with MABCD was back when it was called central inspection.

Tom Stoltz became the director, and he was trying to solve a problem that nobody before him could solve.

So he tightened up the amount of time on the inspections to a 30-day window with one possible extension beyond that.

The courts were immediately flooded with minor nuisance things, exterior paint jobs.

This is the middle of winter.

You cannot paint a house in December, January, February.

And at that time, there was a no tolerance policy.

I think they have taken a little more common sense on that now, but there's still a very short window before you end up in court.

And I think the courts may have inadvertently become a little apathetic about it because they're so flooded with cases.

That should be the person that makes a decision about extensions along with their direct supervisor.

As long as you're making demonstrable progress on the property, it's a large house, you've got it 20% painted, maybe 30% painted in the first 30 days.

That is absolutely grounds to give another extension.

Now, when they give an extension and an extension and nothing happens, and there's no valid reason for that, then maybe it's time to look forward to going into court.

But I think under the current system, things are rolling into court too quickly, and it's almost a production line type of thing once it gets to court.

But we need to have a lot of carrot and a lot of stick, but there needs to be a large divide between those two.

And as far as Emory Gardens and places like that, it is my understanding that they have the authority to close that down now.

But there is a huge problem with displacing the people that are living there.

That's bad optics, and it's a human tragedy.

They're living in horrible conditions, but at least they have a roof over their heads.

So that's a decision that has to be made by the council and by MABCD.

Um, but it's a very, very tough call, but that can be dealt with without any of this being added into it.

Uh, thank you very much for your time, and I look forward to working with uh city staff and council.

And and I've talked to the city manager on numerous occasions, and he's been very proactive and has always been positive to work with on it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Pat.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Uh Pat, glad you're here.

Sorry that you were a mystery earlier, but I'm glad you were here.

I just had a quick question for you, though.

You said the court process is too fast.

Is that the process now or the process that's being proposed?

They go into court too quickly now.

There's a very short window.

You receive your notice of violation, you get one extension, and then a uniform criminal complaint, and you're appearing in court.

And again, I think Tom Stoltz did the very best that he could at the time trying to cure a problem that nobody had been able to cure up to that point, and it still seems to be a somewhat unheared problem.

But the inspector themselves, it's our belief, should have the latitude to grant more extensions, maybe two or three, depending on the size of the project, an 800 square foot house versus a 3,000 square foot house, and it's on the same time frame to do an exterior paint job and rescreen and re-window.

They're not comparable.

And then, of course, with their direct supervisor, but these are the boots on the brown people that are really dealing with it, walking around and looking at it.

When it gets to the judge, it's almost abstract.

He just has to listen to what the inspector says, and I think we're wasting the judicial time.

Um I think that needs to be reserved for the people that are really violative and negligent on their properties.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh good afternoon, councilman, uh, vice mayor, madam mayor.

Uh, my name is Michael Muscaro, and as a member of both ICT Alerta and the ICT Tenants Union, I want to speak today on behalf of the workers and immigrant tenants in our community, the ones who are hard at work right this moment because they can't afford to take time off.

I urge you to support the proposed ordinances on income protection, the landlord registry, and stronger housing uh code standards.

The union has uncovered landlords in a local online group openly advising one another to call a U.S.

immigration and customs enforcement ICE on tenants as an act of intimidation, discrimination, and violence that cannot be tolerated.

At the end of last summer in Aurora, Colorado, a property manager and his property management company spread rumors of a gang taking over an immigrant majority apartment complex.

That complex had long since grown dilapidated.

Tenants were asking for menial repairs, and the property manager was facing legal repercussions for multiple code violations at multiple properties.

Instead, these rumors were used to justify intimidation and evictions.

In February of this year, an Illinois landlord faced consequences for their discrimination when they were ordered to pay more than 80,000 for threatening to call ice on tenants based on perceived immigration status.

Despite that win for tenants and immigrants, those inflammatory narratives from last year had real consequences.

At the end of last month, a South Shore Chicago landlord profited from the violation of their tenants' constitutional and human rights, regardless of tenant citizens citizenship status for the purpose of evicting 37 people and intimidating the remaining tenants in an act uh in an attempt to evict them.

This is the violence that our landlords have been joking about.

And tenants are already being met with violence and retaliation because they have asked for repairs by landlords that say, if you think tenants are annoying now, in reference to repair requests and the power these ordinances offer us.

The question I have to ask when an inconvenienced landlord, property manager, or rental company is able to profile a tenant rather than provide the required updates to keep their property in code.

Are my immigrant friends and family safe under this current system?

The tenant union believes no.

If this is how local landlords speak in public when they think no one is listening, what kind of culture exists behind closed doors that leads one to think this isn't this is appropriate, not just from not just as mom and pops or small business owners, but as individuals in our community.

Without a robust landlord registry, code enforcement and income protection protections.

Our most vulnerable renters remain at risk of being exploited, harassed, evicted, or even having their lives further threatened with immigration enforcement.

These ordinance are not only about housing, they are about dignity, equity, and safety for all workers and immigrants who simply want a home and to live without fear.

If we must delay, then I must ask on behalf of the working tenants that I am representing today that we return at an accessible time in the evening after most are finished with their work for the day.

It isn't fair to the hardworking tenants of Wichita to go without representation after paying the wages of these landlords to come and represent themselves.

Thank you each for your time today.

Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members, Eric Baby, maybe property inspections.

Address is 143, North Rock Island, unit 202, which tall 67202, District 1.

I come as an inspector.

I'm a third-party inspector.

I inspect hundreds of homes every year.

I see a lot of what Brandon Johnson does see.

I see it from both tenants and landlords on both sides.

One of the things that I do like about this bill is the incorporation of the code, international maintenance code.

One, it sets a standard of what we're inspecting.

Two, when I go to inspect for a tenant, I can pull through that if I go to inspect for a landlord.

Again, I'm independent.

But we do inspect hundreds of properties that are neglected, either from tenants or landlords.

We talk about 15%.

When we put that into numbers, we're talking thousands of homes that are in that condition.

15% sounds small until we we talk about the number of homes.

That being said, it needs to be fair on both sides, because we do see the complaints from both sides.

I do I hold mold spoke a lot today.

There are landlords out there that do take mold seriously that do do mold test and do follow-up.

Those landlords should be, you know, uh put on the spotlight because they're doing what they should be ahead of time before this even came up.

That being said, there are landlords, you could do a million tests, you could do a million inspections, and nothing's ever going to be done.

MABC, I kind of I don't have a lot of trust in them.

We do a lot of new inspection, new construction inspections, and they're scary.

Um, and now we're adding one more thing to their plate.

I don't see how that's going to accomplish anything.

Something else needs to be done.

Um, as far as that goes as well.

Um I heard HUD and Inspire brought up the difference about international maintenance property code.

It actually does have tenant responsibilities where HUD only has the financial responsibilities, it doesn't actually have the maintain maintenance responsibilities.

My name is Adelia Carter, and I live at 4831 Eastwood.

I'm a tenant, a civic engagement graduate, and a found sorry, civic engagement academy graduate and a founding member with the ICT tenant union.

I'm here today because of my conviction that every one of my neighbors deserves a safe and affordable place to live.

Here in Wichita, Kansas, the minimum wage still sits at 725 an hour.

At that rate, a tenant would need to work 81 hours per week to afford a one-bedroom home at fair market rent.

That any one of my neighbors is spending their days hard at work only to return home at night to pest, black mold, inadequate heating and cooling, or hazardous structural conditions is unthinkable.

And yet the time I have spent going door to door and speaking with my fellow tenants has confirmed that not only is it happening, it's common.

United not only by the fact that they are elders and on a fixed income, living with COPD and asthma, but by their conditions.

Burst pipes and other units led to issues like a sagging ceiling and rampant mold growth.

The mold was painted over, but quickly grew back.

One tenant confided in me that they suspected the mold spread to their air ducts, saying that coming home to their apartment and turning on the air made them feel sicker and that they were afraid of what they might be breathing in.

As if the blow to their health wasn't injustice enough, when their AC broke, maintenance did not address it.

The unit ran nonstop, unable to keep up, racking up a staggering bill month after month.

The alternative was suffering through the heat of the summer while ill with no airflow at all.

They fear getting on management's bad side because they cannot afford to go anywhere else.

Pest control refuses to spray every room in the unit, so they are few forced to use their own money to fight off the roaches and bed bugs, desperate for some relief.

Again, their story is not uncommon.

It is reflected in countless properties across our city, owned by slum lords who neglect and take advantage of our neighbors.

We are here today to put a stop to it.

My heart is also with those of our neighbors who are waiting with housing vouchers, tribal benefits, or social security in hand.

If only they could find a landlord to accept them.

Their money is good, regardless of where it came from, and their need is dire.

Some case managers report needing months to find a landlord willing to say yes to housing their client.

It is unacceptable to me that multiple people have lost their vouchers altogether because they expired before they could secure housing.

The city of Wichita has made a great financial commitment towards ending homelessness, and many city leaders have been vocal in their support of that goal.

The next step is voting for policies that make it possible for people to find and keep their housing.

The point has been introduced that landlords also have grievances with their tenants, that there are they are sometimes faced with thousands of dollars of damage and repair costs after somebody moves out of or is evicted from their unit.

To put it bluntly, this is a red herring.

There are avenues that a dissatisfied landlord can take to seek resolution, but the aim of these standards and ordinances is to make immediate improvements to the protections offered to the tenants of Wichita, and they will do that.

The landlords of Wichita should not hold the safety of their neighbors hostage until they get what they want.

To close out my comment today, I would like to read a quote from Pope Leo the 14th's apostolic exhortation, I have loved you.

Popular movements invite us to overcome the idea of social policies being a policy for the poor, but never with the poor, and never of the poor, much less part of a project which can bring people back together.

If politicians and professionals do not listen to them, democracy atrophies turns into a slogan or formality.

It loses its representative character and becomes disembodied since it leaves out the people in their daily struggle for dignity in the building of their future.

Thank you.

Hello, mayor, vice mayor, and council members.

My name is David Robinson.

I live at 11603 West Burdock.

I'm a landlord.

I'm very, very lucky because my wife is very, very active in our business.

I had a whole bunch of stuff drawn out and it was been mentioned over and over.

I did want to key on something that the lawyer had said on the registry, she, because I didn't read it this way, but she said it was two violations on a property, not two violations on properties.

I am concerned with that because there's a vast difference, and obviously you know it and you know it, there's a vast difference how some landlords react to getting a notice of violation.

I got one last summer.

I had a tenant.

He got informed by FedEx that he wasn't going to make the cut when they merged, his mower broke.

He just locked up.

He went home and went to sleep every day.

The day I got the notice, I loaded my mower up and I went and mowed the yard.

Well, if I had gotten two of those, the way I read the law, then I'm gonna have to register, even though my reaction wasn't to give him a 1430 notice.

I went out and took care of the problem on that because I was concerned about that.

I don't want to put up with things and I won't I won't put up with things in the neighborhoods I have homes in that I wouldn't put up with in my neighborhood.

And I have, I said I told JV, I have a house just up the streets from the clinic that he does great work at.

I don't think I have one in yours.

Um, possibly not yours and then Maggie's, but everybody else I have rentals in.

We start in college hill and go all the way to 119th in Central.

Okay, I wasn't sure.

Um the issue of Section 8.

I've never applied for Section 8.

I've heard horror stories from some of my friends that have taken it.

I'm really have an issue with the law that's compelling me to have to enroll into a voluntary federal program.

And I understand, I said as I've heard the horror stories about Emerald Gardens, I'm actually going to go by there this week just to look at it.

Just to drive through.

Those landlords need to be held accountable.

I'm wondering why that there's not a vehicle right now to do that.

You know, you talked about tenants being afraid of retaliatory landlords.

Is there not a law that the landlord cannot do in a retaliatory eviction?

Is there not a process that if someone feels that they were evicted in a retaliatory manner that they can seek redress in courts?

Just like that young woman said if I have a tenant that destroys my property, I can seek redress.

I can go in and sue that person in court.

Now, whether I get paid or not on it is a completely different matter if I win.

But isn't author a process that prevents the landlord from doing a retaliatory eviction?

And the lastly, I'm I'm really concerned with this.

I before I Googled what an average landlord was, I actually thought I was a real small landlord, but the average landlord has his home and two properties.

What's the landlord with two properties gonna think when he goes, oh wow, look at all this stuff I've got to do now?

There may be a consequence of going through and passing everything that's been listed here, and what that's gonna mean is you're gonna have less rental properties available.

And probably the ones you're gonna lose are not the Emerald Gardens, and not the guy, not the people that are that you've been in the homes to see how horrible they are.

They're gonna be the guy that's just doing a really decent job, and he's renting houses that he would not have a problem living in, and he's gonna go out and seek a different investment.

Thank you for your time.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor, and I appreciate you coming up and speaking, sir.

You do sound like a very responsive landlord, so I do appreciate that.

Um, two of the issues that you were talking about.

Uh one, I don't believe that it's just simply getting a fix it ticket that will trigger or getting two fix it tickets.

It's having that go without it being taken care of.

So the 30 days if I read it, it said notice of violation, no conviction required, and it said two notices of violation, it didn't say per property.

She did clarify it.

I would love the law to be adjusted to clarify to two violations per property.

I still think that's a little obvious, especially if I'm able to react and get everything handled on that.

The landlord that is my mentor, one of the things he always said to do is before you do a 1430 notice, if you've got a problem with a tenant, you need to sit down with them.

You need to see if you can find a solution before you have to start putting pen to paper.

And that gives you the quickest way to resolve problems.

So if you got a car park where it's not supposed to be parked in a backyard or in a drive in in a front yard or whatever, if you can talk to the person, you can get them to move it.

If you put the notice up there, then everybody's got their back straight up and they don't want to agree to it, and then the tenant's gonna wait 15 days to move the car.

It's just an instance.

No, I I can appreciate that, and I know council member Johnson's the same as myself, and any time we do discuss these issues with landlords or tenants, we um we encourage dialogue and we also encourage keeping a record of that dialogue to the point of some landlords.

I remember council member Johnson talking about um a time that it was written in the lease to actually there was no fan in the bathroom, so you have to have the window cracked in order to uh give some air throughout the space, and the tenant hadn't been doing that.

And that's um something he had talked about as far as making sure you keep records of your dialogue and whatnot, so that way we can get to the bottom of a lot of these cases.

Um, the second one I did want to touch on is a landlord retaliation.

You're correct, it was illegal on the state level.

The problem was there was no actual enforcement arm to it.

Um and then also we are beholden to the landlord tenant act.

So what landlords can do, it was obvious to us that the reason that they were being kicked out was, and the guy admitted it to me.

We didn't have any enforcement at the time.

Um but you can go back and you can look six months in the past and say, you know, you were three days late with your rent six months ago, and that can still be grounds for eviction.

We can know that that's retaliation straight up.

Um, but just having that, and that again, that's the state landlord tenant law that we are um preempted on that we have to uphold as well.

I'm not super sure that's true, and Kurt and Garrell, Garrett would probably be able to confer.

I don't know, would you ever take anybody to court because your landlord came to you and said, hey, the tenant was three days late three months ago for an eviction?

He's asking you.

I'm just I I'm doing it.

We'll keep this conversation at the bench.

If there are direct questions asked of uh the individual, would you like that individual to come forward?

Uh Councilmember Hulheisel.

Um Sally's the one who uh if he wants to, yes.

Um but Sally's also the one who um has talked this issue through as Sally, can you address this?

Oh, there she is way back there.

Yeah.

I know I should have said it.

Thank you.

Um we are beholden to the landlord tenant act for sure.

Uh we don't see a lot of cases.

We do see cases though where someone will file a complaint and then all of a sudden they're um being uh will be served eviction notice for things that have been allowed in the past, that's for sure.

Okay, yeah, that's I mean that was one that we had talked about during that the whole landlord retaliation.

So it's correct.

I mean I I understand, and I again I I understand your perspective here, sir, and I respect that.

I just um I don't take section A.

So I I don't I I I don't have her to call and complain.

If I've got to move somebody out because they're not paying rent, then I'm dealing with with my lawyer, and I'm pretty sure my lawyer would look at me and just tell me I'm stupid if I was gonna want to want to get somebody evicted for not paying part of rent three months ago and they're still living there.

I I can appreciate that, sir.

Thank you.

Councilmember Glasscock.

Thank you, Mayor.

This might be for MABCD.

Uh quick question.

So um without aiming particular ones, let's say we have a bad faith act or they have a multi-family uh dwelling place.

Instead of condemning the whole property and pushing hundreds of people at the same time or dozens of people at the same time out into homelessness or try to find another solutions.

Is there a way that unit by unit could be condemned um to try to get them in compliance unit by unit, and then that way we're not exacerbating the system with so many people on the streets?

The the unit by unit strategy is exactly what we normally employ.

That's what we find to be the most effective with what we have at hand.

So we would not specifically condemn a unit, but uh we would uh list it as uninhabitable.

So if if a tenant is in it at the time, then we would seek to work with the property manager or the landlord to uh get them temporary uh quarters if if it was needed for the repairs.

If the unit is vacant, then they're to repair it before uh they move someone else in.

So we have existing tools already in place that we can utilize to do that.

And and that tends to be the most effective again, given given access and authorization, if we can keep a tenant engaged where we have a valid complaint and a tenant who is still there and still engaged.

Um that's the way we work through it.

And we're we were actually just like everything else that's been discussed today, high percentage of our cases go exactly like that.

Uh, there is always that percentage of outliers where we have problems that bring us bring us to a discussion like this today.

But even on those outliers, we could still do a unit by unit display to make sure that's correct.

The biggest challenge we have there is so many of those complaints come to us after or as the tenant is leaving.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Hull Heisen.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Chris just actually answered my question about what happens and how far in the process it are we able to actually do an inspection and reinspection of the unit.

So sometimes accessibility is the issue, and again, we have to rely on the tenants to actually invite us in or the landlord um to actually be able to inspect a lot of these units.

So I uh follow up to that, and this would have been a question for legal earlier when we had said that we already have administrative tools to be able to do that administrative warrants to be able to do that.

Wouldn't that be able to solve that problem?

It and it is a possibility we do have that uh at our disposal.

The challenge there tends to be getting the evidence to uh gain the warrant and and to to get that.

So if you look at a large multifamily uh complex, uh the effort um that is involved in trying to to bring that through a process like that is is fairly large.

And then again, too, and uh Sharon could could probably speak to this better than I, but we we have to have just like with any other case, we we have to have enough hard evidence to uh to warrant the warrant.

Uh well this seems like a great tool to be able to hold bad faith actors accountable if we figure out a way to refine this process, what you're talking about, and maybe add more teeth to that particular process than the rest of this conversation may not be needed if we can make sure we're holding bad faith actors accountable through that type of process.

Exactly.

So we feel the same at that that, and then you know, anything that helps us kind of increase our ability to retain uh access where we know we've got violations, but based on a technicality we're not authorized back in.