State your name and address.

And you will be given five minutes to speak.

A timer can be viewed on the podium screen.

You may speak one time per agenda item.

Please refrain from clapping after other speakers.

Thank you again for joining us today.

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

Welcome to City Hall.

I'm calling this meeting to order.

With us this morning to provide our invoction is Reverend Ben Staley of Chapel Hill United Methodist Church.

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

Let's pray together.

Oh Lord, we give you thanks and praise for you have come for us, and we celebrate that in this season.

You've come to give us light and darkness and hope in difficult times.

Be the wonderful counselor, for we need your guidance and calming presence.

Be the mighty God who promised always to come and help when we are weak.

The eternal father when we need someone who's promised never to leave us nor forsake us and the Prince of Peace in our troubled world on dangerous streets and in our own longing souls.

Bless the city council, the mayor, and the council members, and bless our new city manager that we might have wisdom and your grace as they guide the city.

And we ask, Lord, that we might reflect the love of Christ in all things, especially in our care and consideration of one another.

And we pray it all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flight of the United States of America.

Under God with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Reverend Daly.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the first item?

Approve the minutes of the regular meeting December 2nd, 2025.

Council members, any items to be edited.

I see none.

With that, I move to approve the minutes of the regular meeting, December 2nd, 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 award is the budget GFOA award.

At this moment, may I please ask the City of Wichita Budget Office and City Manager Bob Leighton to come forward.

This is the thirty-ninth consecutive year that the City of Wichita has earned this award.

Criteria for the Distinguished Budget Award are based on budget documents serving four purposes.

As a financial plan, policy document, operations guide, and a communication device.

Each year, the budget is reviewed by peers to ensure that these standards continue to be met.gov slash budget.

Outstanding ratings were received on criteria such as revenues, priorities and issues, fund balance, financial policies, long-range financial plans, capital improvement program.

The 2026 adopted budget received special recognition in the strategic goals category, with one reviewer stating that the strategic plan serves as a strong framework for the budget.

Congratulations.

As you all know, City Manager Leighton has served 16 years as our city manager, so I would love for him to say a few words regarding this award.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll keep my comments very brief because all of the gratitude that uh we all should have is for the work of our budget staff.

They put in tremendous uh hours in order to prepare the document and do so in a way that I believe it's uh easy to understand if you want to uh drill down about uh to learn more about our expenses and uh how we're uh spending our uh taxpayer dollars.

Um I was especially uh proud of our budget staff for the way they worked through the strategic plan, not just with my office, but more importantly with the mayor and council.

I think it's the strongest budget document we've had in the 16 years I've been here.

Each year we try to get uh better and better, and that's reflected in the GFOA recognition of this year's budget.

Uh again, my thanks to the staff for all the work they've done, especially Elizabeth Goltry, who heads up the group as well.

Well, as Mark Manning, our finance director.

With that, I'm gonna turn over to Elizabeth just to talk a few minutes if she can possibly do that.

Um thank you.

Um I'm also always grateful to all.

There's hundreds of GFOA reviewers who review these budgets every month.

Um, I am also a volunteer reviewer, and so to receive, as a as a group, we're generally not um in the business of much in the way of effusive praise.

So to get a budget review like this is truly outstanding.

Um today, joining um me up here is some of our budget staff, Lindsay Vote, Trin Bowie, and um Sheila Vy Sheila Vital, as well as Aurora Gonzalez, who wasn't able to make it today, and then we have three summer interns each summer.

Um, as a group in the budget office, as we prepare for next year, we've been talking about how we connect our work back to the City of Wichita values that are part of our mission statement.

And the day that we talked about excellence, it's as if people were floating to the ceiling.

It's such um a core value for the budget office, um, not necessarily to be the best or to be better than, but to be leaders and to um to be leaders in the area of budgeting and then leaders in the organization in a way that pulls together the strategic plan and kits it throughout the budget process.

So I'm grateful to work with them and also grateful for all the efforts of department staff across the departments.

Um, it's not easy to net a strategic plan through a budget.

Um, when I asked people for advice for about how to do it, a lot of people from external people said that it's not generally done.

And so that we were able to do that this year is pretty outstanding.

Um, with that, um, on to next year.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you again.

Thank you again to the budget staff at the city of Wichita.

That is one of the 16 departments here in the city of Wichita that are uh direct departments for the city manager to oversee.

With that, Madam Clerk, please call the first 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.

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

Order and rules of decorum will be observed.

The first speaker today is Jeanette Peterson, Wichita Animal Shelter and Animals in Wichita.

Janette Peterson, 3522 North Lake Ridge Court.

Um, September 11th, 2025, a day when many of us reflect on loss, a sacrifice made by others and the heroes that come from ordinary people.

That morning, as I was reflecting on these things, I got a call asking if I wanted to save a life.

Of course I jumped at the chance because who wouldn't want to save a life, especially on a day like that?

I was asked to pick up a dog from WAS that was out of time and take care of her for a few days until arrangements could be made.

My son and I immediately got in the car and went to WAS.

When they brought the dog out to us, her tail was wagging and she was obviously so happy to be getting out of the kennel, possibly for the first time in days.

I immediately told my son to get her out of the car, get her out to the car because experience has shown that if she had happened to sneeze or cough, it would be enough reason not to let her go.

Brown gunk was running down from her ears.

This concerned me because I don't know how long she had been there, but to have an infection this noticeable, she must have had it for some time.

This got me asking a lot of why questions.

The first was why, when the city of Wichita pays KHS $7,722 a month for vet care, am I picking up a dog that has a simple ear infection that anyone could diagnose?

As the days followed, I found that this dog was potty trained, rarely barked, loves anyone she meets, and just wants to be loved as well as as we all do.

I decided to foster her for a longer period of time, and as I watched her over the next few weeks, the why questions kept building in my mind since there are so many and we have a limited amount of time.

I've just picked a few to talk about.

First, why would anyone that loves animals work at WAS, especially when 30% of the animals that enter that building don't ever come out?

We are failing the animals at WASP, but as but also seem to fail the workers too.

I am really surprised we have anyone that would work there.

Second, why does our chief of police appear to be okay with the abuse and killing of animals?

The lack of changes and the continued response I keep hearing of we are just not the experts seems to show an attitude of acceptance from how things are.

In most professions, if someone doesn't learn their job and becomes somewhat of an expert in their field, they usually get fired.

Third, why does the city council seem to continue to ignore the public's pleas and allow the situation to continue?

It is definitely a broken system and not the system the people want.

For this budget cycle, we were told the budget was based on survey responses from 461 people.

As of Monday morning, a petition I started asking for change had 804 signatures on it, another 9,100 or another 9,012 views, leads us to believe the public is interested in the topic, or at least looking to be more educated about our shelter.

Fourth, and maybe the most important, why did the people of Wichita appear to have forgotten that we are supposed to have a representative government that represents the will of the people?

Many times I am told or have read that our leadership won't listen, so what is the point of trying?

Somewhere along the line, many of us seem to have forgotten that our voice and our tax dollars should be reflected in the priorities of our city government, and that we can ask for and expect change.

So I've been asking myself, what can I do?

I realize that since I only have a five-minute window in a meeting like this, and it's such a big topic, I can come back at a later date to share more.

I made you each a folder showing some of the things I have learned and hope you will take a time to look over and consider how some positive changes can be made.

I work daily to educate everyone I talk to.

In public, I often wear advocacy apparel that invites people to ask questions and look for ways to talk to people about the tragedy of the animal situation in Wichita and ways they can make their voices heard.

Why do I do this?

Because doing nothing would make me part of the problem rather than advocating for solutions, and I just can't accept being part of the problem.

And so I have a folder for each of you.

Thanks.

Thank you, Jeanette.

City manager, can you just address how much of the budget goes towards animal control services?

Mayor, I'm sorry off the top of my head, I don't remember that number.

I mean um, I have the budget, but yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Go ahead and look at page number 312 on the police department's budget.

The police department's budget is 142 million dollars.

Uh the animal control services is 3.4 million dollars.

Um I know that Miss Jeanette, I appreciate that you're a foster uh parent.

There you are.

Thank you uh for your advocacy for animals.

Um I know that there are multiple priorities.

I know that um multiple individuals here in our community are here to talk about individuals, uh people who are homeless, and I know that you care a lot about uh animals who are homeless.

Um, and so I know that we're trying our very best uh to prioritize all of these needs in our community.

Um so can the city manager just explain has that budget for animal services increased over time, uh Mayor, thank you.

Um it has increased over time.

Um probably not as significantly as other portions of the police budget.

Um and uh we've um I I think if you remember from the workshop, we have a long-term plan for continued improvement at the animal shelter, uh, both from an operating standpoint as well as a capital standpoint.

Um the comments that um were just made have not fallen on deaf ears.

We know there are concerns uh about the ongoing operations as well as the partnerships that we have.

I think that our current staff are working hard to develop better relationships with the rescues who can also help us with uh the issue of overcrowding and the significant number of abandoned animals here in the community.

Um so I would say that you'll continue to receive uh plans uh from the staff to enhance the animal control operation over time.

Thank you, city manager.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next individual?

Victor Mariani, neighbor problems.

Victor Marianne, 3216 Countryside Plaza.

I live in a corner lot.

My neighbor next door, 3210.

They moved in an in last September of last year.

They immediately parked three trucks in the front yard along with two mo motorcycles.

I didn't like that, but I put up with it.

Then they started driving.

They drive to the end of my driveway about 20, 30 miles an hour, hit the curb, and hop over and drive through about 15 feet through my yard into their yard.

They do this all the time.

I have to park my Honda pilot, literally almost in the street in the driveway to keep doing this.

They do this if I can't be home all the time, and I can't leave it there at night, so they come at night too.

I've seen these people out in their backyard at midnight with flashlights and headlights.

Literally, the police have been over there Monday for last Christmas.

A policeman came to my house and said, I want to look in your backyard because your neighbor has stolen car.

So we went back to he wouldn't allow it in their yard, so he came to my yard and I said, Sure, no problem.

You know, I he said, you know, asked me if I knew that truck.

I think it was a truck.

Was there how long?

Oh, is it?

They've been there about a week.

Okay.

Then he said it was also a trailer missing.

Well, both of them were gone a couple of days.

The police never came there.

February of this year.

All of a sudden, my next door neighbor, you know, they were burning brush and tree stumps in the backyard, nine o'clock at night.

I my neighbor called the fire department.

I didn't even know this until George Theorosis.

I think that's his last name.

Anyway, he called me, said the fire department's coming, and they pulled up immediately, put it out.

They did this three more times this year.

Finally, after the fourth time, the fire department, they quit doing it.

That's one thing.

Then at February this year.

The police showed up and they uh came to my door and said, Hey, you know, where that how long is that truck in the backyard on a trailer been sitting there?

I said it's been there for out a week.

Okay, the police department hauled off.

It was a stolen truck and trailer.

Then literally, you know, and every time they do this, my neighbors stay away from about a week.

Right now they're gone, and they come at night and I stay there for a while and they leave right now.

I mean, I don't know if they know about this or what.

I have no idea.

I don't speak to them.

These people are potential criminals.

I stay away from them.

Then they drive in their yard.

They've literally got ruts in their yard, a part of their front yard, six inches deep, trailers and trucks pulling in and out of there.

And they do this stuff at night.

Because I'll look over there one morning and there'll be a truck or a car sitting there next morning, it's gone.

Or it's sitting out in front of the house.

So they're off and they do that for a few days.

So they're storing this stuff for people.

Right now they don't have much back there.

A motorcycle and a trailer, a couple, about three trucks and three cars, and they're junk.

The backyard's a junkyard.

It just makes me sick.

I really hate these people.

I really do.

I mean, I don't speak to them, I just stay away from them because they're potentially dangerous to me.

Okay.

Last March, or this, yeah, last March.

Police department was uh called again.

It was early morning, 7 a.m.

in the morning.

I looked at a Saturday morning, and literally two fire trucks pulled up, then an ambulance pulled up line at.

Then the EMS supervisor pulled up in an ad.

Then three police cars pulled up.

I have no idea what went on.

They went left off about about a half hour.

And one of the people who lives there, there's about 20 people a week come to this house on a regular basis.

I have no idea who actually lives there.

I mean, it's really bizarre.

And this woman who I've seen her there before, she runs up in her socks, and it's really cold, and it's wet, you know, it rained.

And the supervisory EMS supervisor told her to get out of the street.

She parked her truck right in the middle of the street blocking traffic.

You know, this is the stuff that normally goes on there.

And this is just what happens.

It's just over and over again.

They come at night, like I said, I'm seeing they're out there at midnight.

I don't know what they're doing, and they're just junk everywhere in a backyard.

Right now it's not too bad.

You know, they moved most of the vehicles, except for five or six of them, they're still there.

And it was a small mini bulldozer, and they got you know, wood, trash, and they put up a privacy fence to keep people from looking back there.

But you can see it all in my yard, and my neighbor in back of them can see it.

And literally, you know, it just you know, this is crazy.

You know, I'm just living there real quietly.

And these people, what are they doing?

I have no idea.

I just stay away from them.

That's to me, they scare scare me to death.

They really do bad.

So I have nothing to do with them.

I'm terrified there's gonna be a shootout over there.

Thank you for listening to me.

Thank you, Victor.

I actually uh just commented to one of our police officers.

Uh, if your contact information is accurate on the request form, uh, the city clerk will provide that and will connect you with Captain Beard.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, please call the next individual.

George Theo Harris, new city manager protecting the citizens.

I brought my little gang with me.

Uh George Theo Harris, 2115, South Chautauqua.

Hello, Mayor, City Manager, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Council, City Manager, City Legal.

You just heard from my neighbor Vic, and I hope you're as sick and broken hearted as I am.

I feel as though I've let this kind man down, but at the end of the day, was it really I or M A B C D that let him down?

Regardless of what you guys think or don't think, M A B C D have police powers.

And for them to let this to continue to happen at this address is beyond comprehension.

Everyone wants to tell about how everyone's doing so great.

Well, here's another case we're not doing so great.

The city council should be ashamed of themselves to let this happen to poor old Vic because I definitely am.

This other young lady with us is the back door neighbor to Vic's dilemma.

I would have her speak, but none of you need your hair curled.

She is very fed up, as she always gets it from across the street renters, also.

We just had the search for city manager, and although this current city manager was macro, I need some help with the micro down in the neighborhoods.

So I hope this new city manager is not worried just about what four of you think, but what the citizens think, and he can help us down here where we live.

We've had a continuing problem on Clifton, just north of Skinner, with a guy who keeps doing all kinds of crazy stuff with trailers, leaving them unattached across from each other, which you can't do for two seconds.

My records show five plus years with pictures.

I went when they were interviewing Chief Sullivan, and I asked the question to him, what was his take on community policing?

And what he told me was that he wanted every officer to be a community police officer.

Well, ain't that nice?

But guess what?

I can't even get the one that's supposed to be my community police officer to do much about this for three years.

So finally, it seems like actually we will get some problems work, which I am grateful because of dumb luck or whatever, they gave me CP Officer Miller.

And we also have Lieutenant Vaught, uh, both from Mayor Whipplefain.

He's been helping quite a bit on four shift.

We're finally getting Clifton Av, which is emergency route for fire trucks and ambulances cleared so those vehicles and other vehicles can get up and down the street at this pinch point at Funston on Clifton.

He's got it resolved for now, but at what expense?

The guy that lives there came by my house while I was out painting.

He first drove by and called me a faggot.

My wife is right here.

So there's that.

Um he rode by my house again and sat in the middle of Clifton, all on the video, mind you, and just north of Skinner and revved up his engine to try to intimidate me.

Then he came back later, all about within 40 minutes or so, screaming at me out his window.

Then pulled up the street, got out of his truck and came toward me, and I told him as soon as the police got there, I would be up there because I was on the phone with 911.

The guy came back still within this 40 minute window, this 40-minute window.

He calls me the N word.

I don't know.

Uh, I don't know why I have to put up with this kind of behavior.

And when I called 9 1 1, I'm thinking murder, rape is ahead of my call, but it got to be high on the priority list.

I had to finally go get my gun and arm myself.

The guy tried to ram my wife and I one month before this, and my wife's a witness to this.

It didn't pick up on my my cameras because my cameras it was down a little further south on Clifton.

But all the other stuff is on video.

And it just seems like I can't get the police to do what they need to do.

Five years this has been going on.

All we need to do is go up and talk to the guy and explain to him what the parking is, because the rules of parking on the street are state law, not George's law.

Thanks.

Help me in my hood.

Thank you.

Thank you, George.

I know that uh Councilmember Hoheisel has been in contact with George for some time.

That's in district number three, and he will continue to answer to those uh concerns.

Madam Clerk, please call the next individual.

Rabbi Andrew Pepperstone, affordable housing.

Um Andrew Pepperstone, 573 North Armour Street.

Uh good morning, Mayor and Council members.

I am Rabbi Andrew Pepperstone.

I am the co-president of Justice Together, which represents 40 faith communities in Sedgwick County.

In the Jewish tradition, we inherit the charge to be partners in the ongoing work of creation and to repair what is broken in our world, which we call Tikunola.

The prophets remind us again and again that God's presence is found where justice is pursued, and our sages teach that a community stands or falls on how it shelters the most vulnerable.

This past year, our commitment to that sacred work led us to engage nearly 800 people across Wichita in a deep listening process.

Over the last three years, we have gathered more than 2,000 stories in response to one essential question what weighs heaviest on your heart.

Year after year, the answers rise with painful consistency.

Affordable housing sits atop amongst the top concerns alongside the growing crisis of homelessness.

Both issues call us with urgency a summons to build and sustain homes that are stable, accessible, and dignified for all who dwell in our city.

After listening to hundreds of people, we engage roughly 450 people to set our priorities for the year.

Our grassroots research groups then bring together dozens of local and national stakeholders.

Over those next four months, more than 150 participants meet regularly to process data, testimonies, crafting problem statements, solutions, and concrete viable proposals.

These proposals are vetted by our issue steering committees, research committees, executive committee, and board representing all 40 of these communities.

Only with approval from each body do we mobilize our members to take action.

It's a long nine-month process, but it ensures that what we present to officials has broad community backing.

That process is not what our community has experienced with this sales tax proposal.

It went public the week of Thanksgiving.

Less than a week later, we gathered in prayer in the foyer before this chamber.

Days after that, the ordinance was released, and now it is before you for a vote.

In short order, many of us are still learning key details.

We are not idle.

Since last Tuesday, we've held a community gathering of more than 100 people to parse what is known and unknown, met with Councilmember Hoheisel, met with Aaron Bastion of Wichita Forward, read the proposed ordinance, and attended the Wichita Forward public presentation.

Still, we are discerning the three core questions that Pastor Wade surfaced last week.

So once again, we ask you, as people entrusted with the public good to consider these essential questions before you advance this proposal.

Will it address Wichita's growing affordable housing need?

We understand funding will flow into an investment fund for homelessness and housing, but we need clarity.

How much of the seven-year total will create permanent affordable housing?

What are the unit goals?

How will the money be balanced between shelter, services, and the housing we know is needed?

Will it secure 10 million annually for the Wichita Affordable Housing Fund?

It could a commitment to 10 million annually was voiced publicly at our Neamai Assembly.

That promise could be met through this proposal, through the general fund or a combination.

We need to know how much will be dedicated to affordable housing, what role the Affordable Housing Fund and its review board will have, and what governance structures will oversee the proposed investment fund.

Will it avoid worsening inequity for those already struggling?

As sales tax is inherently grasp is inherently regressive.

Coupled with property tax relief, it could disproportionately benefit the wealthiest unless there are targeted protections, rebates, exemptions, or direct support for low-income households.

The ordinance currently lacks a clear rebate program or targeted relief with written into it.

We approach this in good faith, hoping this proposal can truly move all of Wichita forward, but good faith requires good answers.

So ask yourselves will this address our housing crisis?

Will it secure 10 million annually for the Affordable Housing Fund?

Will it avoid deeping inequity?

You have the power today to make each answer yes before advancing this proposal.

If you do, just as together and our multi-faith community stand ready to mobilize to help pass the package that helps build homes, restore dignity, and lift our neighbors up.

We pray you will lead with wisdom, courage, and compassion.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Rabbi Pepperstone.

We also received your letter on behalf of Justice Together.

Madam Clerk, please call the next individual.

Mina Lucas, affordable housing.

Mina Lucas, 1322, West Stackman Drive.

I'm a Wichita native.

I've lived other places, but Kansas is in my blood.

There's no place like home, right?

Unless you're homeless.

A few years ago I got sick and lost everything.

But the Salvation Army Women's Shelter helped me get housing and benefits.

On paper, I'm a success story.

So why am I here today?

For the past 12 years, I have lived in conditions that you wouldn't wish on a dog.

My apartment has bugs in black mold.

The roof leaks.

There are holes in the walls and ceiling and wood rot in the floors.

So why don't I report my landlord?

Well, if I did, the housing authority would give him two weeks to fix the problems.

The last time he came to fix something, he threw a screaming fit and threatened to evict me.

If he doesn't fix the problems, the housing authority will take back my voucher and I will have to move immediately.

With what money?

There are no emergency funds to protect us against negligent landlords.

They break the rules, we lose our housing.

How is that fair?

And where would I go?

Second lights waiting list is a mile long.

The Salvation Army women's shelter closed down.

Good low-income housing is rare as hens' teeth in this town.

And if I can't find a new place in 60 days, I will lose my voucher for good.

But that's just a scenario, right?

Long as I keep my mouth shut and don't report my landlord, I'll be fine, right?

Wrong.

As it happens, my regular housing inspection is actually tomorrow.

I'm terrified.

No inspector could possibly miss the peeling wallpaper from my leaky roof or the bare moldy carpet pad at the entrance, since I can't open my door without pulling back the rain's rain soaked rug.

My landlord knows all this.

I've told him repeatedly.

Each time he assures me he will fix the problem, and each time he does absolutely nothing.

Just like this council, every time tenant protections come up.

On October 21st, you voted not to keep a list of negligent property owners because landlords worried about losing their second or third income.

Tenants fear losing our lives on the streets.

How could you even pretend that those two things carry equal weight?

You also skirted an ordinance that asked, should renting out units unfit for human habitation be illegal.

This is bare minimum stuff, especially for tenants who don't have the extra protection of a housing voucher like I do.

And yet it can't get passed in Wichita because everyone here is so scared of the landlords.

Affordable housing and landlord accountability are two sides of one problem.

You cannot solve one without addressing the other.

So please do it.

To the council members who have tried so hard to push this through, I want to say thank you.

We see you, we appreciate you, and we are sure gonna miss you.

The rest of you, we see you as well, and we vote.

Setting aside at least 10 million dollars for affordable housing will save paying tenants like me from homelessness, and holding negligent landlords to account will save us from losing our homes in the first place.

Please don't put this off another year, another month, another day.

On behalf of all Wichitans, please do something now.

Thank you, Mina.

We asked for decorum.

Um, but I do have a question for you, Mina.

Which district do you reside?

Um, I think it's um six.

Maggie Ballard is my representative.

Thank you very much, Mina.

You've been in contact with councilmember Ballard.

Uh I have not, but I hope to be.

Thank you.

Mayor Council Member Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Uh Mina, I appreciate you.

If you could shoot me an email because a tomorrow does not go well for you.

I think I know some people who can help you out.

Please reach out to me.

City Manager Leighton.

Mayor, I just want to point out that the um city council appointed a special task force to review property maintenance concerns similar to what Ms.

Lucas just talked about.

You're receiving that uh report this today.

I believe that almost all of the issues that were raised will be coming back to you as recommendations for action.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Consent agenda items one through 11.

Council members, are there any items to be pulled?

I see none.

With that, I move to approve consent agenda items one through 11.

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.

Board of Bids and Contracts, dated December 8th, 2025.

Morning.

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

The Board of Bids and Conjoints convened yesterday, December 8th, 2025, for the following items.

We have for engineering, the 17th Street North from I 135 to Hillside for Pearson Construction LLC for $4,97,495 and 32 cents.

Subject to your new engineer's estimate and budget authorization approved today.

We have for purchasing the removal of mattress and box springs for recycling for Freedom Challenge Incorporated for an estimated annual usage of 120,000, recommending awarding a secondary vendor for this contract.

We have the shelving units at property and evidence facility for Southwest Solutions Group Incorporated for 148,491.60 cents.

We have fire hydrants change order for group and main LP requesting authorization to extend the contract 60 days.

This is our purchasing calendar, small business resource partner events and items that the city's hosting or participating in.

And this is our open public opportunities out on the street today.

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

Thank you, Josh.

Two questions.

Can you go back to number 14?

Sure.

So these are some of the uh opportunities that the community, if they have a business, small business can apply.

Um can you just quickly just share how people, if they're not familiar with the process, how they can become a vendor and how the vetting process actually works.

Sure.

Thank you for the question.

Um anyone who doesn't understand city buying processes, wanting to be a vendor with the city, first stop first and foremost can be at the purchasing division.

We're at 316, 268 4636, purchasing at Witchstall.gov, uh send us a note.

We frequently get referrals from council manager departments of vendors who are interested in working with us.

We'll typically sit down with them.

We'll go through the process of registering on our procurement portal, which is kind of our way of knowing you exist as a vendor.

Um, when we have aggregates uh or aggregated um economies of scale where we need to buy something, so we need to buy, you know, for every single department temporary services or temporary seasonal employee services.

We have uh a number that's identified that can send all the registered vendors that register for that process, and then we go through the bids and proposals, which were about 370 right now for the year.

Thank you, Josh.

And the only other question I have is uh slide number six.

Um, this council voted to um help out with illegal dumping this year to curb that down, and this is one of the areas where we see a problem.

People illegally dumping mattresses, and there is a cost for the city to go and remove and then recycle uh said item.

Can the city manager just address um the illegal dumping uh or portions that this council voted so that there could be a curb in the number of illegal dumping uh incidents?

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll try to remember this off the top of my head.

Um the council has asked us uh to be more aggressive and to experiment with some new strategies for uh effective uh removal of debris and and actually the prosecution of those who um are illegally dumping on vacant lots or on private property as well as public uh property.

The council has increased the penalties uh for those who are found in violation, also have approved funding for increased technology to try to be able to detect uh those who are responsible for the dumping, and we believe that using that strategy uh on a pilot basis that we'll have some good results that will translate into a uh regular program.

Thank you.

Thank you, City Manager, and thank you, Josh.

With that, council members, any questions?

I see none.

I move to approve the board of bids and contracts dated December 8th, 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.

Recommendations of task force reviewing proposed adoption of the International Property Maintenance Code.

Good morning, Sharon de Graft City Law Department.

I'm going to introduce Nella Bayoth, who is the uh chairperson, spokesperson of the task force that was appointed by the city council who will start the presentation.

Thank you, Sharon.

As she said, my name is Nella Bay Youth.

I'm here to represent the task force that was put together in October to review some of the issues that Ms.

Lucas hit on today.

We all recognize there's a problem and a need, and this task force was put together essentially to try to find efficient ways to address some of those issues.

On October 21st, the city council was presented with a series of proposed ordinances regarding housing and exterior property conditions within the city.

They had a lot of different parts to repeal the current environmental court structure, correction of ordinances regarding the Board of Code Standards and Appeals and Fire Proceeds, as well as the adoption of the International Property Management Code.

Following a significant public comment, several of the proposed ordinances were deferred, and the city council directed that a task force be appointed to review these proposed changes.

The task force was nominated and approved on October 28th to review these ordinances and related as they related to nuisance and housing code violations and the adoption of the property international property management code.

The task force met in November on the 5th, 12th, 19th, and then December 3rd, where we also took public comment at that evening meeting.

Basically, the process we found was very overwhelming to go through the entire IPMC code.

And we felt like the 40 days that was given was not enough time for that, but we felt that there was a very imperative need to act in some way to help give the resources and tools to the folks specifically at MABCD that work on these every day.

So one of the things we did is we spent the first meeting really diving into what is the process now and what are the short shortcomings of the process.

Once we identified those items, we were able to come together with ideas where we felt like would actually make meaningful change in the items that were requested of us.

So the committee focused on improving the existing enforcement tools, increasing the penalties for chronic offenders.

And basically, we felt that there are three categories that these issues come up in.

So we have slum lords, they just refuse to fix stuff.

We have homeowners that maybe don't have the knowledge or means to address property hazards with their homes.

And then we also hear about tenants that are intimidated to call out problems because of potential retaliation or not enough affordable housing.

So what we came up with was basically that if we make those penalties harsher, that we can force some compliance until the issue is resolved.

And the legal staff is going to go through the analysis of the actual addendums and then I'll kind of tie it back to what we're recommending and asking of counsel today.

The proposed amendments do a number of different things.

Outdated verbiage for departments, which makes me very happy.

Office of Central Inspection is corrected.

Amendments to Title VII and Title 20.04 are revised to provide municipal court judges direction towards timely adjudication of these cases, as well as factors that are set forth in items or conditions that the court should consider in sentencing offenders.

The goal, I think, of the committee was to have uh quicker adjudication of these offenses and allow the court some options to effectively impose the sentence that is appropriate under the circumstances.

The sentencing structure has been increased.

The proposed amendments that were presented to you 45 days ago requiring jail time after the third or fourth offense have been removed.

The sentencing criteria again has been added to help provide the court guidance.

There are mandatory fines that are increased for multiple offenses, and the look back for that increasing of fines has been increased from three years to five years.

Title 8, which is the nuisance code, which is the tall grass and weeds, junk cars, stuff in your driveway.

First offense, there is not a mandatory fine required.

Second offense, a mandatory minimum fine of 200, third offense, mandatory minimum fine of 500, fourth or subsequent offense, a mandatory minimum fine of 1,000.

The court retains the ability to assess jail sentences in these cases.

Housing amendments likewise have been increased for penalty violations.

First offense, a minimum fine of $300, second offense, a minimum fine of $500, third offense, a fine of not less than $1,000 and fourth offense, 2,000.

I'm not going to speak for the task force, but I think the thought was that the housing code violations tend to be more health and safety than maybe the more visual tall grass and weeds, junk cars.

Again, the court can assess the jail fines and has the ability to put folks on probation.

The group also looked at the removal of a placard allowing people to reside in properties that have been deemed unfit for habitation should those penalties be increased.

And we did that in this section.

If you take off the placard or you allow a tenant to live in property that has been deemed that it's unfit, there's a mandatory minimum fine of a thousand dollars, maximum up to $2,500.

And again, the court could assess jail time and put the person on probation.

Title 30, which is a new group of ordinances that were not presented to you previously.

Title 30 is a code to register neglected buildings.

The code has been clarified that it does apply to dwellings.

That has been a question through the history of the ordinance as to whether it was a commercial or residential.

The amendments make clear that it applies to both.

If those things apply, then you have to register your property with MABCD.

It allows MABCD to assess administrative penalties.

So unlike the other ordinances that we've been talking about, these violations would not go through municipal court.

They would go through an administrative process with the director of MABCD and then an appeal process of those.

And I'm going to turn it back over to Nella.

So in going through all these various recommendations, we are asking the city council to also appoint a subcommittee to further work on this topic.

We do feel it is a very important topic and not one that we could have addressed in that short period of time, but we do feel like what we're presenting today will make a meaningful impact and has I will point out joint buy-in from all the stakeholders, nonprofits, tenants, landlords, everybody that participated, we all are on the same page as we feel that this is the right way to go.

Um, we also recognize that sometimes by being more strict with these processes that it's going to create difficult situations, like Miss Lucas pointed out.

And so we want to ask council to explore funding opportunities to establish programs to assist with um homelessness uh prevention and community outreach when tenants can be displaced because the property is placarded or found to be unfit for human um habitation.

Um this could be using some sort of these five portion of the fines or um other resources, but we do think it's important to do that in parallel so that we can address kind of both items at once, holding the landlord accountable, but helping those people who are um in the most vulnerable situation to be able to fight for themselves and not tolerate those type of living conditions.

Um we recommend adaptation of the amendments to the chapter ordinances 159, 223 and the repeal of section 1.04150 regarding the structure of municipal court docket regarding nuisance and housing ordinance violations.

Um we recommend the adaptation of the ordinances creating chapter 18.10 of the code of the city, which saw regarding the structure of Board of Code Standards and Appeals and the creation of chapter 18.17 regarding the processing of insurance proceeds for fire damage structures.

We recommend amendments to the chapter 8.01 and 20.04 regarding sentencing for offenses to provide municipal court judges factors to consider and sentencing violators of nuisance and housing code violations.

We recommend removing prior amendments calling for mandatory jail time for sentencing.

The task force recommends increasing the minimum mandatory fines for multiple offenses and registrations of buildings or dwellings on the neglect neglected building or dwelling list.

Registration fees and penalties are increased to address long-term neglected structured and MABCD will adopt policies and procedures for greater utilization of the code.

We recommend increasing penalties for removal of a placard and request MABCD explore posting negligent building and placard structures on its website.

We recommend adaptation of ordinances amendments to nuisance and how to housing codes to correctly identify which departments are responsible for code enforcement.

And we recommend adaptation of the ordinance amendments to Title 8.01 to recognize landscaping options for pollinator type gardens.

So today we asked city council to take action and take these recommendations that we're putting in front of you and place the packet of ordinances on the first reading and authorize all necessary signatures.

Any questions?

Thank you, Nella.

Appreciate the presentation and city staff for working with the task force first and foremost.

Um thank you for volunteering your time along with multiple individuals in our community that wanted to comb through this entire manual and see ways to start moving forward within 40 days.

So I appreciate your time and all the uh individuals on the task force.

We have multiple questions.

We'll begin with council member Maggie Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Nell, I just wanted to say thank you and to everyone that was on the task force.

I know you guys weren't given a ton of time and appreciate all of the thoughtfulness and listening uh that went into all of these suggestions.

So that was my first thing.

Um do you recommend the same people on the task force moving forward?

Should they be interested, or do you think it should be a different group?

Um, I think it could be comprised of those people, it might be more productive to have a little bit smaller group.

Um, one of the challenges when you have 20 some people in a room and you're trying to go line by line through something.

I mean, it becomes very tedious.

Um I think um, yeah, it could be volunteers from our group that could do it, or if we felt like there was too many, we could look to you guys to kind of help narrow the focus of that group down.

Okay.

Um, and then I have a question for MABCD.

I don't know if this is appropriate time for them, or if I should wait.

Hi.

Hello, Chris.

I just wanted to get your perspective if the suggested or recommendations you feel like will be helpful to actually accomplish what we're trying to accomplish.

We do, thank you, Councilmember Ballard.

We're very happy with where this uh ended up with the involvement, uh, especially the approach that the task force took to this, uh robusting some of the tools that we have now but have not proven as effective.

Uh some of that is based on the compliance nature that we've uh kind of always sought.

Once uh problem was complied with, everything just kind of went away for lack of a better term, and we started over.

Uh, as you saw in the presentation, uh, this would give instances, especially when we're dealing with uh tenant issues and and those housing issues where you uh you may have a tenant out of the property, you may have done some work with the property, but we still have uh those uniform criminal complaints for some of those other actions that can be dealt with, and uh kind of uh definitely uh force uh more of a focused approach and um compliance with our overall regulations.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Glascock.

Thank you.

Um I believe you hit on this briefly, but this was a unanimous vote of the committee to send this to the council, correct?

Yes.

Awesome.

Thank you.

And we even got support when we took public comment, there were several folks, um gentry from the real estate government affairs board came and they were in support.

Um there were a couple of um neighbors, Vince was um on the Delano, I think, neighborhood association and Lori.

Um I'm not sure what district she's in, and Councilman Johnson actually came and um heard kind of our final comment.

And the committee was made up of tenants, landlords, community members, everybody to come to the same conclusion.

People and approved it on the 28th of October.

So there was um home inspectors, there was a couple um landlord tenant attorneys, there was property management such as myself, there were nonprofit organizations that work with advocating for tenants' rights and then providing resources for various other programs to help with preventing homelessness.

Um I missing anybody, I think that's well when you have such a diverse group of people for that to be brought back unanimous, I think is a testament of your work.

So thank you for that.

Thank you.

I will add a comment uh so that individuals who are looking for that list.

If you simply go to Wichita.gov and you go to departments, Wichita Sedwood County Planning, followed by codes and regulations.

There's an option for the International Property Maintenance Code, and it lists out all the task force members, and I'm going to read them for the record.

Uh Brady Scriffers, current WT Lieutenant, and landlord Jayhawk Properties.

Next individual, Cody Stout, President of the Apartment Association of Greater Wichita.

Third, Pat Daniels, president of Rental Owners Inc.

Paul Gray, former council member, Mike Health Stab, H2 Management, Francis Ballman owns over 700 units and manages another 900 units and is an attorney with Folston.

David Robinson, landlord with 13 units, Garrett Holmes, attorney representing rental owners, Ann Fox, former executive director of Habitat for Humanity, Eric Maby, an independent inspector, Dakota Horner, ICT tenant uh group, Adalia Carter, also of ICT Tenant Group, Nala Bay Youth, Cedar Mills property management owner, Corey Harkle Road, commercial tenant and landlord, and Shiley Zayad, landlord liaison, and coalition to end homelessness in Wichita.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Sorry, thank you, Mayor.

Um a couple of questions.

I think maybe Chris could answer most of these, but I'll start out.

Um when we talk about the the grant and underfunding opportunities to establish a program to assist with homelessness and community outreach.

I I'm what I'm hearing is people who are affected by some of these big places possibly getting shut down.

I know that's one of the things we're facing with some of the properties of my district is you shut them down and all of a sudden you're gonna have a hundred people.

Where are they going to go?

How are they going to apply and whatnot?

Um what are some of the the ideas as far as fees or funding opportunities to help with this?

Is there like a target goal as far as the funding goes for it?

I wish I could say we'd gone that far, but we we just have a conceptual idea.

We haven't worked through all the details of how that funding would work, but we do feel it is necessary.

So I think we'd all need to kind of work together, put our brains together on what that process looks like.

But you know, I think if a unit is in really poor conditions, but somebody can't afford to move and is terrified, like the speaker earlier, you know, a lot of times that's the type of situation that has been holding us up from making meaningful progress on actually holding people accountable.

And so we don't want you know to create more homelessness or put these people who are already vulnerable in a worse situation, but how do you solve it without some sort of assistance?

So giving them you know an ability to get maybe like a deposit first month's rent and moving expense of some amount in a fairly quick format, it would have to be reactive to a few days' time, probably a week, not months, because obviously when that comes up, you're limited on the time you have.

So we think that's very important that these things work in parallel because if we really want to hold those landlords accountable that are continuously taking advantage of people, I mean we can do it through these different avenues of much greater um fines, but also having where if they go to court, they are not just off the hook if they haven't fixed anything, and that's where that MABCD holding them accountable and the fines continuing to grow because at the end of the day, slum lords they're really motivated by money in their pocket, right?

So if we burden them with extra fees, that'll help, but some of those fees could then be kind of recycled back to those programs.

Um but I know that in the past it's been one of the reluctancies of the court or even you know, people to enforce it because they don't want to then displace those individuals who have nowhere to go.

Yeah, that's that is a challenge with a lot of people in my district who do reach out about violations and there always has to be kind of that misnomer when I talk to them about yes, we can report this, we can get people started on it.

I don't know what the reaction of the landlord's going to be.

You have to kind of parse through that on the own the from a person-to-person basis.

So, you know, if the landlord decides not to do anything or decides to retaliate, we have as much protections as we can have on the city level.

Um, so I I do appreciate this this program right here, or this thought right here of continuing on that because that would help quite a bit.

Um I don't know if you can answer this, or maybe this is a Chris or a Sharon.

Um we talk Title Eight, one thing I do hear from a lot of landlords, and this one is more aesthetic violations, tall grass and weeds and whatnot.

Um, how do we parse through what is the landlord's responsibility, or how does that fall on the landlord as opposed to how does that fall on the tenant when there are some of those violations that are more the fault of the tenant?

Tall grass and weeds is kind of one of the ones, like if they have a mowing agreement and the tenants not following through.

Thanks.

Uh yes, sir, Chris Labor McGan, director of MABCD.

So the the property owner has ultimate responsibility for that, depending on how their contract is drafted with the tenant uh as to what they're expecting there.

Uh this does uh the discussion and and the changes that we have does give us some increased um ability to notify all and help uh so that all are aware and and have a little more time to deal with that again in the end uh that we are going to hold the property owner uh responsible for it being in compliance.

Uh we also of course understand that uh tenants bear some responsibility there.

Uh when we talk about uh the program that you just mentioned and some of these uh situations, we do have the code liaison program, uh, and that is uh the avenue in which which we manage these now, and and we would expect to kind of expand that uh with some of these changes to to better be able to assist in those situations.

Okay, and in Title Eight, um that does not put you on the the list, right?

Correct.

So uh Title Eight deals with the nuisances as Sharon described earlier, and in those situations, we do have uh an action in which we can abate.

So uh at that point, if um it if compliance is not achieved unless we have um a specific reason to, we will not go the route of a of a UCC on those generally and take them to court.

Uh we will go straight to an abatement action.

If there are challenges there, we uh have really robust in our processes recently, and we'll even do so more now with this of achieving a uh administrative search warrant and abating the nuisances uh through that method.

Okay, so um one thing before we get to the UCC.

So these are convictions, these are not violations.

So if you have tall grass and weeds and within the 30 days you get it taken care of, that does not count as a correction.

Okay.

Um did you go through the process of a UCC just in that way everybody's clear on that?

Yes, sir.

So uh well, if you've received a notice of violation and they meant that may have multiple violations within that notice, there is a compliance period associated with that.

Uh we have a tiered system depending on uh the level of severity, uh severity, and it accounts for the time it would take to remedy something like that.

So uh somewhere uh between 10 and 30 days is generally going to be that period.

At the end of that, uh the inspector reevaluates if progress is being made and it warrants some additional time that will be granted.

Um if no progress has been made, then it uh is generally going to go straight to a uniform criminal complaint.

Uh at some point in that process when we're not achieving an attempt towards compliance or or compliance, then that UCC is filed, and that uh that is similar to receiving a speeding ticket from a police officer.

Uh, in this case, though, you don't have the option to pay out, you receive a uh court date, and um oftentimes people uh arrive in court and have at that point then made the corrections, so that is evaluated by the court.

Uh there still could be some level of fine assessed.

Uh, we would expect that to probably be a little more robust after this than it has been in the past.

Um, but uh then that is dealt with accordingly.

Okay, and it's is it two UCCs per property or per property owner?

Per per property, yes, per per address per property.

Okay, thank you.

That's all.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

Um, a couple of my questions were stolen by my colleagues, so it stopped going through my notes, but I would just like to make a few comments while they're relevant for me.

Um, thank you to staff, thank you to legal and MABCD, but most importantly, thank you to the task force.

I'm just so impressed with your time and your tenacity.

I learned back in October, no one dislikes a bad landlord more than a good landlord.

So I I truly appreciate all your efforts, and I've heard so many good comments in the community from landlords who said thank you for listening to us and for giving us a voice.

Um, I just also it's not lost in me.

I've been in council for seven years, and I think this is the first time that a community member has made the recommended action to us and not the staff, and that's really really important to me.

That meant a lot.

So thank you for being here.

Thank you for doing that.

I see Chris giving a thumbs up that he agreed.

That was that's a really really awesome uh gesture.

The that the community task force made the recommendations to us and not staff.

And and this is what happens when we listen and we give community members a voice.

So thank you for all your efforts.

Looking forward to seeing what happens in the future.

Vice Mayor Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

I too echo what councilman Tuttle said.

Uh very much appreciate the the committee's work.

Uh I want to call out a couple committee members, uh, Francis Ballman and Garrett Holmes, uh, both of them attorneys, and Francis is retired from uh Folsom Siefgan, but uh they they put a lot of work into it.

There's one thing to have an idea of what it should be.

There's another thing to put into legal speak.

And uh they helped do that, and uh they very much complimented uh uh Sharon City Attorney.

So thank you, Sharon.

Um, they worked well together and came up with I think a very good solution uh that the committee endorsed.

So thank you all very much.

I see no further questions from the bench.

We will now open it up for public comment, and I'm gonna use my point of privilege really quickly by saying that uh Senator Oletha Faust Gado was in our audience uh just a few minutes ago, and former council member Pete Meitzner, current commissioner Pete Meitzner is also here in attendance this morning.

We will start with public comment morning, council.

Uh Faith Martin, I live in District 2.

Um, our neighborhood association has been having issues with this for a long time.

Uh Becky's quite aware of it.

MABCD has been wonderful trying to work with us about vacant properties.

I really support all of the recommendations.

Will the court be empowered to put liens on these properties once the fines have been assessed past the third and fourth mark because a lot of the properties in our neighborhood are out-of-state property owners or banks out of state.

So I didn't see how that was going to be handled.

Uh, because in the past I have heard it's been difficult to go after out-of-state property owners.

So I guess I support what's up there.

I hope you vote to pass it, but that would be my only question.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Faith may ask legal staff to address that.

State statutes currently don't allow fines and court costs to be assessed on the tax rolls.

We can assess cleanup costs as a special assessment.

Um, if landlords or anyone owns or owes fines and court guys to municipal court, um, the municipal court has a collection agency, it also uses the state set-off program.

Um, so there are ways to collect those, um, but at this point, absent of statutory change, we don't have the ability to do that.

Mayor, if I could uh Sharon, could you talk about the committee had significant discussion about how the state landlords and there is a provision in here regarding a local agent?

If they're on the neglected building list, yeah.

If if they are a real problem landlord, whether they're in state or out of state, we we will have that uh registered agent provisions, which were similar to the original concept for the rental registration, however, this is limited and I think better focused to those owners, landlords or otherwise, that that don't take care of their properties and and have a notice to register under Title 30, they have to delegate an in-state in area 60 miles per 60 miles per hour, 60 mile radius of the city of Wichita.

Thank you very much.

Um, I'm gonna use my point of privilege one more time again.

Uh Senator Letha Fausca Doe is in the back of the room.

Uh Commissioner Pete Meitzner is also in the room, and Representative Henry Helgerson is also in this room.

Thank you.

We will continue with public comment.

Uh Trish Heilman, President of Wichita Independent Neighborhoods, and I just wanted to thank you so much for creating the task force, creating the um the care in our community for people who are dealing with landlords that are not doing what they need to, uh, especially as has already been mentioned out of state landlords.

Um, it's a real tough situation, and one that I think we want to keep Wichitans protected from, making every place in Wichita, uh north, south, east, west, every council district a great place in Wichita to live.

So thank you for your time and energy and passion in pursuing this.

Um, and we just support people having great places to live at all price points in Wichita, and um want to help in any way we can to get that accomplished.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Trish.

We'll continue with public comment.

Thank you all.

Lori Lawrence, District One, 321 North Lorraine in Wichita.

I sat in on most of these meetings, and this group of landlords that you appointed was very passionate about this, and they put a lot of time and effort into doing this.

The tenants unfortunately were not able to come because of the scheduling issue until the very last meeting when we did it at five.

So I appreciate that they were at least able to come and speak their point then.

I would ask, because it seems like there's some support, it looks like among the council.

I hope that's true.

But the fund that they had tried to they're they're put asking to be put in place.

If you all and city staff can work to get that funded as soon as possible, because once this goes into effect, people are going to be ready to get that help so that they can file complaints against their landlords because that's that's vital.

So please work as quickly as you can to get that fund up and running.

These fines are going to be a little time consuming to get that fund in place.

So if you all and city staff can help to get that set up, that would be awesome.

Thank you.

I look forward to you all voting on for this and supporting it.

I think they've done a great job.

Richard Hill, District 3, 4555, Laura.

Y'all think this is the answer to everything, and I'm telling you, as sure as I'm standing here, it's not.

You've got a problem with out of state landlords, you need to address that.

I can't move an abandoned car off my rental property because I don't own it.

That needs to go back on the tenant.

I get fined, I've been through it all.

Been in this business 35 years.

I have higher standards than the city.

When the people move in, it's a nice place.

In 30 days, they can destroy it.

Every landlord's got one of those stories.

You can't always hold the land owner responsible because part of it's got to come back on the tenant.

And if you're talking about affordable housing, the easier you can make it on the landlord.

It still needs to be within reason, but the easier you can make it on them, the cheaper the housing can be.

Out of 18 properties now, I've got two.

Electrician did it, don't worry about it.

Why do I want to raise their rent?

I've got places, half of my places are going for about half of what standard rates are in Wichita because of that.

Kevin Kimmel started a deal partners for responsible neighborhoods, and it was to work with the tenants to make them responsible for a lot of their actions.

You've guys all heard the different stories through the this ordeal about raising a window to get the uh humidity out.

Uh getting a fan, a fan blown will remove humidity and mold.

If you don't draw the water up, you're gonna have mold, whether it's lack of ventilation.

You gotta remember something built in 1950 is not going to meet today's standards without spending a lot of money.

And when they spend that lot of money to update that, the rents go up, your affordable housing goes down.

When I've got a tenant that's trying to live on 400 a month on Social Security, how he does it, I don't know.

But he hustles a little bit on the side, but he's been there for six years.

About every six, eight months about something, and he takes care of the problem, gets them taken care of.

But I've got others that that's your problem, I'm not gonna mess with it.

All I'm saying is be careful about the laws that you pass because when you hold individuals responsible for somebody else's actions, you're gonna have troubles and you're gonna have a failed system.

I do agree there's things that need to be done.

I always said go after the management on the apartment complexes because they're in charge of managing the apartment complex.

They should be the one managing getting it fixed.

Most department complexes have maintenance people.

If they're not getting the work orders, it's not getting done.

That's all I've got.

Thank you, Mr.

Hill.

I do have a question follow-up for city manager.

City manager, I know that it's been addressed multiple times that there's an issue with out-of-state landlords.

Can that be addressed in any way?

Sharon is uh the resident expert on this.

The we are very limited in what we can do, and I think she started to say that when we were talking about the assessments.

Very little we can do uh initially with uh and we can't treat them differently than we do local um landlords.

However, we can make it easier to do business with those who are problematic, and that's what Sharon addressed.

Those who are would go onto the registry.

Um they will not have the protection of distance because they must have a local agent.

And I think Mr.

Hill, thank you for the word of wisdom about being careful about passing laws.

Again, the point is not to punish individuals who are trying to provide housing in our community, especially the responsible landlords who are doing the work, but also in collaboration with the tenants who also have some responsibilities of taking care of certain things while they're living in a property that's owned by someone else.

Can that be addressed in any way also from the maybe task force?

Has that been addressed about we did hear multiple times?

Um how do you balance the two tenants who are responsible as well as tenants who are not responsible, um, and then having the accountability be on the land board.

Um I mean, we didn't go into great detail on that during the meetings, but I can say from personal um process as our property management company in each lease, we have a very clear explanation of what is the landlord's obligation, what is the tenant's obligation.

So if we receive a letter from MABCD saying the grass hasn't been mowed, and if by such and such date they will come and abate the issue, we immediately reach out to the tenant and say, hey, we received this letter from the city per year lease, lawn mowing is your responsibility.

If you do not comply, any of these costs that are incurred by the landlord will then be added to your ledger and passed through to you.

Um those charges are valid, so if over time um people are accumulating a negative kind of debt, so to speak, with the landlord, the landlord does have ways to evict them if they choose for a non-compliance of the lease.

Um I mean, I've never had it come to that for those type of nuisance issues.

Usually the tenants are like, yeah, sorry, my land, my lawnmower broke, and I didn't have anybody.

Do you have somebody I could use?

We can put them in touch with the lawn mowing company, for example, and they get it taken care of, or we take care of it and bill it back.

But I again I think there are ways to hold people accountable legally and in an organized manner, but it you know also takes being communicative with both parties.

Thank you, Mala.

We'll continue with public comment.

Good morning, um, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members.

My name is Pat Daniels.

I live at 14700 East Timber Lake Road in Wichita.

I'm the president and government relations officer for rental owners incorporated, or Wichita's largest nonprofit independent landlord group.

Um I was honored to be a member on the task force, and I truly appreciate the trust that was placed in me by those that recommended me to be on there.

Um, I don't think I've ever been in a room with a better group of real well-rounded qualified people uh to deal with this issue.

Um there was virtually no argument, uh, everything was thoughtfully worked through, and we've reached a strong consensus.

Um, our group, rental owners, uh, wants to put our support 100% behind the task force recommendation, and also any further um action that the council would want to take moving forward.

We would like to be uh either a party to that or at least involved with it in some extent.

Uh, it was a very positive situation, and uh, we thank you very much.

I would answer any questions any council members might have.

Thank you again for your time, really appreciate it.

Thank you, Pat.

Good morning, uh, Madam Mayor and uh everyone else on city council, um Luana D.

Shazer, District One.

I just want to say, first of all, the sound like the committee was very top-heavy on property owners, and so I just wanted to put that out there.

But my question is is we've heard several questions about out-of-state owners.

Um, but how will the city enforce out-of-state owners to appoint a local agent?

And what happens if they don't?

I know you mentioned something about not having protections, but can we just go into a little bit more in depth about that?

What would the consequence be if they don't appoint the local agent?

Thank you.

Thank you, Londa.

Could we have that question answered by legal?

The way the ordinances are currently structured now, if there's not a local agent appointed, then MABCD would have the authority to assess an administrative penalty.

Um, since it is an administrative penalty, there would be collection avenues.

We have to get them served.

We have to get them in court or some sort of manner to collect those, and we'll do the best that we can.

Excuse me, we'd like to go back to your question about just all out of state owners.

We did have originally a rental registry that required anybody that lived outside of 60.

I think it originally was 60 or outside of Sedgwick County to have a local agent, and that did not move forward.

So there is an option that if you want all out of state owners to register, and I'm not here advocating that because I think it died pretty quickly.

Um that is still an option was not something that this committee was given authority to look at or within the guidelines of what they were asked to do.

Good morning, Mayor, City Council.

My name is Gentry Tesson.

I am the government affairs director for the Realtors of South Central Kansas.

RCK is committed to advancing safe, stable, and quality quality housing for all Wichitans.

Our primary objective in this process was to ensure due process in both the development and the enforcement of these measures, preserve judicial discretion and sentencing, and strengthen enforcement mechanisms before adopting new code standards.

Wichitans deserve transparency and defensible, well-vetted policy and processes, which is why we originally requested a minimum 90-day delay to engage landlords, tenants, and housing experts in crafting balanced and practical solutions.

The recommendation of the property maintenance task force is a testament to the fact that the entirety of this work cannot be done in six weeks.

I would like to offer my gratitude to the property maintenance task force for your immediate action and thoughtful contributions to this work.

The realtors of South Central Kansas support the recommendations from the task force and staff as presented today.

And as always, RSCK and our members stand ready to partner with the city in developing balanced solutions that improve housing quality without compromising property rights or affordability.

Thank you so much.

This is a problem I'm currently dealing with here.

Emergency call from the landlord that the tenant has uh no lights, HVAC or power.

Arrived on site to discover that illegal tampering to the power line upstream to the utility meter in order to attempt to receive free unmetered electricity, uh had been the cause of the problem.

Had to replace the exterior electric service for the repair after repair is completed, discover that tampering with power line had burned out 90% of the interior LED lights, the furnace transformer, um, and likely a few blown motors.

I find it illogical that you want to hold me accountable for the actions of another.

I cannot imagine being in a situation where right now where we are currently having lawyers involved in this.

Um there's an eviction uh date here that's going on, and this is through uh SPC, which is a uh Wichita government program, and I cannot imagine on top of all of the stress and strain that we are dealing with here of having to deal with an inspection or uh you know being accused of uh doing something unethical with this type of a problem.

And I am concerned is is that what I am hearing is is that we as a landlord here are being blamed.

Now I came here to you a couple months ago, and I told you this is that I've got about 80 doors between uh Wichita, El Dorado, and the city of Winfield.

Vast majority of them are HUD housing.

Let me tell you what's gonna happen right now.

In the last let's just say five years, I have probably invested in in total about $8 million.

Uh vast majority of that here is in Wichita.

We accept this ordinance there, I'm done.

Um, and the reason why is that I kind of feel uh that I've been taken advantage of in some respects, because I have gone into Plainview, and I have poured just in the probably the last uh year, about 750,000 upgrading these uh properties there.

And what has been my you know, uh reward out of this, it has been increased property taxes, increase insurance, and oh, by the way, trying to do good, trying to invest there, I'm the bad guy, and now on top of this, we're gonna hold me accountable, potentially legally, for these types of changes.

And so I ask you all is that I get it, we're all kumbay on with this agreement here, but my concern is is that with some of these uh, you know, you we're saying we want affordable housing.

Well, dealing with affordable housing also means is is that we're dealing with the general public, and the general public, you know, you get all walks of life.

You may get the person that pays all the time every day on the first, or you may need that person who needs to split up their monthly payment twice a month, or you may need that per, you know, that person that we're gonna be dealing with here that um you know they're not the greatest when it comes to mate making their financial obligations.

Increasing my risk here is going to end up shutting all of those avenues down.

And I know that that is not the intention here, but I am telling you is that this is going to lead us to situations uh down the road there where we're gonna have less inventory, higher rents, and again, like I said, is is that going after landlords um is gonna have less market participants there.

This is not the solution.

Um I can tell you is that I agree with the sentiment of uh you know holding individuals accountable here.

But I can tell you right now is is from my legal exposure after hearing this, I don't wanna play this game anymore.

So I thank you all for listening to me.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carl.

Uh, there are several council members that have questions.

Councilmember Hoheisen.

Thank you, Mayor, and I appreciate you, Carl.

And I'd hate to lose you.

But I do have a question because that's what I was talking about earlier about protections and not cracking down on when it's not your fault.

Uh Chris, if the situation he talked about came up, what would be that process?

How would that be investigated?

Would they be held liable for that, or would that be unfounded?

Council member, that's a great question.

So it does sound like that some of this discussion uh is based on section eight and HUD vouchers, which would kind of uh be a little bit of a separate situation.

Now uh the situation with uh illegal power or something like that, we do see that uh sadly more a lot more often than we'd like to.

So uh the only violation though associated with the property owner there would be uh so that there would not be a violation against them necessarily for doing that.

Uh we would not allow them to move someone into that property while the uh power is in that situation with that many appliances and different things uh not repaired.

Um so that that's what we would be seeking is the situation to be rectified.

Now, granted, on any property, uh no matter uh what happened, that there would be a level of responsibility for the property owner to have to get the electricity repaired, uh, and it would be a civil matter with uh the person who had tampered or uh caused those issues, but there would there would be no inherent violation as I see it, and I'll look to Sharon uh as well.

Though there would be no inherent violation against or risk of a uniform criminal complaint against that property owner unless they were to not take appropriate action after that was identified.

So would that be the same process before and after the passage of those?

Correct.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

And I'm just gonna point out that in that situation, the landlord would still have to pay for the repairs, even though he did not create the problem.

And and that is correct, unless they were able to uh gain civil restitution from the individual who did that.

If I may, and just this is a scenario here I'd like to point out is is that yes, I get it.

I have to bear the financial responsibilities of that.

However, what I'm most concerned about is is that for the individual who does this, let's say that they turned around, they're calling.

Hey, I have no power.

My landlord won't fix this, and now we're starting this investigation.

And so now you're putting me through having to come up with a repair investigation.

It's just this is why I'm saying is that it's a very complicated issue that there's no simple solutions here.

And trust me, I've been doing this now for five, six years, and yes, this is the first time I've you know, in my wildest dreams was I like, are we gonna deal with a tenant, you know, that's gonna be stealing power?

But here we are.

So thank you.

Council member Glasscott.

Thank you.

Quick question, Carl.

And I know we all have busy schedules, so if the answer is no, that's fine.

Did you express any of these concerns on November 5th, 19th, or December 3rd to the task force when they were meeting and coming up with this to be presented before us today?

So uh not to poo-poo on uh the the meetings or anything like that.

I knew that the a council was being formed.

Um I did not, you know, uh, you know, uh it was not nearly as advertised as the October meeting, I will just say that.

Okay.

Councilmember Jonathan.

Thanks, Mayor.

Uh I appreciate that um letting us know what's going on.

Approximately how long did it take you to find out that they were getting a legal power from when they sent you that emergency message.

So this is kind of the interesting thing is, and I'll get to the exact date, uh, councilman.

Um this ended up happening on November uh November 26th.

And in this particular instance here, uh, after we sent out the electrician, um we f I finally got a text message uh after uh you know numerous attempts at communication uh to the tenant itself there last night.

Um so this has been going on now for since you know, right around Thanksgiving.

Okay.

I I just asked, um that's a terrible situation, but I don't see where this would impact you if you prove that the tenant did that you without this passing today would have to repair your property anyway.

I agree with you wholeheartedly.

So these additional um I guess opportunities we have to address folks who don't address that really doesn't impact you in this situation.

Your situation is more civil with the the tenant.

Uh absolutely, but here's the the issue though, is is that I can tell you right now is is because of this, and now I have to worry about giving you the example here.

If this individual decided to call up and say, hey, my landlord has turned my power off, or isn't doing you know what I'm supposed to do.

This is gonna create this investigation, and it can lead to you know all sorts of things.

And so what I'm saying to you is is that you are now adding more time, energy, and effort onto these types of very complicated situations that I can't raise the rent enough to uh factor this in.

Does that make sense to you?

Uh yeah, I'd I guess I'm just I won't say I fully disagree with you.

I've just experienced different.

So let me give you an example.

Yeah, there was a tenant that reached out to me in a complex that said that they were suffering with black mold in their unit, I think an adjacent unit as well.

Um property manager, I had reached out to personally as I sent the email to inspectors, their property manager, and it and this was a um housing choice voucher unit.

That property manager then proceeded to show us me first and then staff, several emails, signed documents with this person to tell them how to vent the space, leave the fan on, all of that, and it was the tenants doing.

There was no fine or any issue with that property manager because they were able to prove that was a tenant issue.

So for you and what you're saying, and the documentation that you say you have, you'd be able to prove that's not your issue, so you wouldn't be punished in this.

And that's work that you would do anyway.

I I think is is that in this particular instance here, it is I am relying on uh everybody to, you know, uh be able to look at this situation without bias or prejudice and say, okay, this is in fact a tenant issue.

And so when we allow these situations to be open to interpretation, you may have dealt with 30 bad landlords, and I may be the good landlord that you deal with.

Um, and when they're looking at this situation, they may not see it that way.

And so then I have to potentially hire lawyers, or I may end up having to deal with uh other issues here uh that can stem from that.

And that's where my concern is is with something like this is we're adding layers and we're adding more human judgment onto this.

I may not get the gr uh an inspector.

In fact, actually, earlier this year I dealt with an issue where an inspector, you know, we had a uh gentleman with you know uh mental disabilities that was trying to play card the house, and the inspector like calls me up and he's like, hey, something's not right here.

What what's really going on?

And you know, we were able to educate the inspector and and get you know everything handled here, and that's where you know, like I said, is you know, I get it.

I'm a second and third chance landlord.

Um, you know, this is part of the game, but I'm saying is it's making it too risky now.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carl.

Thank you.

We'll continue with public comment.

I see no further individuals who would like to address the council.

We will now close public comment and bring it back to the bench.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, lots to say on this item, uh, but let me first say thank you to Dante, Troy, and Sharon, Chris.

I don't see Kaylin in here, Chris Lavram, all the inspectors that I have ever dealt with, worked with, um, and seen some some really bad things.

Also want to thank Councilmember Ho Heisel, Becca Brooke, Tasha, Andrew Lee.

Definitely thankful to the task force for your work on this.

You didn't have to, you volunteered, and you work through all of these challenges.

Um, today, as we heard, you you don't always get perfect.

I want to do more for out-of-state landlords as well.

A lot of that is going to be work at the state level to see what different powers we make and get from the state and let them know how bad the situation is.

And some of those representatives and senators do know, but we have some work to do to let them know more about that.

But I'm also not one to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and today this is good.

These are some solid first steps.

I appreciate the work that the task force put into it in the discussions, and I did attend two of those meetings just to listen.

Um these are necessary.

We've continued to hear from people who've come up here and talk.

We heard from a speaker this morning.

We always hear from Mr.

Stokes, who I saw here, don't see him right now.

And I think that these are the necessary first steps to get toward that.

And I think a subcommittee working on IPMC going forward is good.

And I think council uh in the future should always share some of the challenges we face with whatever subcommittee that we have to have other people work through these challenges with us.

I am happy about this as I asked for at the time when we created the task force, would love to see us do something, and this is something.

So I'm appreciative.

I did not want to see this get kicked down the road another decade, and I'm glad to see stronger enforcement tools, higher fines against those who continue to choose to allow people to leave and live in poor housing.

So again, thank you all.

I appreciate everybody who's worked through this.

There has been a lot of people.

I hope I didn't forget anybody who we've worked with through the years.

I'd be remiss if I didn't shout out Miss Overton who passed away a few years ago who continued to call me weekly about issues.

So definitely want to recognize her and her efforts.

But again, I think these are positive steps forward, and I appreciate everyone's work on this and look forward to um what will happen in the future with IPMC.

And I love the program idea to um help people move out.

That's been a big challenge.

That was something Councilmember Hoheisel and I would always hear those heartbreaking stories of people who needed to get out but didn't have the the funds to make those deposits.

So lots of great suggestions and recommendations, and I am grateful.

Councilmember Johnson, you take the leadership on this.

Yes, so it's really long.

I'm only reading it once.

I would move that the council place on first reading a charter ordinance repealing charter ordinance number 159 pertaining to judges of the municipal court, a charter ordinance amending sections two and eleven of charter ordinance number 223 pertaining to judges of the Wichita Municipal Court, and an ordinance repealing section 1.04.150 of the code of the city of Wichita pertaining to the neighborhood municipal courts, place on first reading ordinances creating chapter 18.10 of the code of the city of Wichita regarding the structure of Board of Code standards and appeals, and chapter 18.17 regarding the processing of insurance proceeds for the fire damage structures, place on first reading amendments to chapters 8.01 and 20.04 regarding sentencing options and guidelines for processing of cases by the court and nuisance and housing code cases, place on first reading amendments to section 8.01.130 regarding weeds to recognize pollinator gardens as an exception if certain conditions are met.

Place on first reading amendments to chapter 30.01 regarding neglected buildings to clarify that the registration requirements apply to dwellings as well as commercial buildings and authorize a director of metropolitan area building and construction department to assess civil penalties for non-compliance with registration requirements and direct staff to explore options for additional funding resources, including the adoption of a court cost or fee to be used for homeless and housing services or initiatives.

Second.

Motion and a second.

Any further discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

We're missing one council member.

Do you want to do a voice vote?

Motion passes 7-0.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Thank you.

Overnaming Ash Street at 13th Street to honor Pastor J.P.

Dennis Jr.

This is a Maria Ball Management Fellow with the City Manager's Office, presenting an overnaming Ash Street at 13th Street North to honor Pastor JP Dennis Jr.

In October 2025, the city received a formal request to honor the late Pastor JP Dennis with an honorary overnaming of Ash Street at 13th Street North.

This is an honorary overnaming and would not change any official mailing addresses.

Pastor Dennis led St.

James Missionary Baptist Church from 1962 to 2015 and played a significant role in shaping the church into a major spiritual and community institution.

His leadership reached far beyond the church walls, influencing generations through outreach, community advocacy, and public service.

Pastor Dennis was known not only as a spiritual leader, but also as a civic leader whose work touched every part of the community.

He transformed St.

James's outreach and discipleship efforts, emphasizing service to residents, families, and youth across Wichita.

His guidance extended into civic life, voter registration drives, community forums, peaceful social justice advocacy, and health initiatives designed to reduce disparities.

He served on boards including Spirit Era Systems, the Center for Health and Wellness, and Weed and Seed.

He also worked as a police chaplain, a security officer for USD 259, and with the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

His leadership in the Wichita Baptist Ministers Union further amplified his influence across denominations and generations.

Pastor Dennis's impact was recognized at local, state, and national levels.

He recorded a gospel album titled A Man Who Brought His Brother to Jesus and was inducted into the religious hall of fame in Dallas.

He was honored as a trailblazer by the Kansas African American Museum and named an unsung hero by the City of Wichita in 2002.

His contributions were further acknowledged by the Wichita NAACP, the National Urban League, and the National Baptist Convention.

His influence has extended through his family as well.

His nine children, known as the Dennis Family, have carried forward his legacy of service and philanthropy for more than 40 years, giving to charitable causes locally and internationally.

This honorary overnaming would apply to Ash Street at 13th Street North, the original site where St.

James Missionary Baptist Church was established.

This location is historically meaningful as it is where Pastor Dennis spent more than 50 years serving as a visionary leader and community advocate.

The estimated cost of the manufacturing installation of two honorary sign blades is $500.

Funding for these costs are available within the city manager's office budget, and the city would retain responsibility for installation and maintenance consistent with all honorary signage across Wichita.

DAB 1 has served as the naming advisory committee and has already reviewed the proposal.

The law department has reviewed the process and it is compliant with City Council Policy 13, which governs the naming or renaming of public facilities.

It is recommended that the City Council approve the overnaming of Astry at 13th Street North to honor Pastor JP Dennis Jr.

And I will stand for questions.

Questions for staff.

I just have one.

I can speak to a few.

My time, I think there's probably been just a handful of those.

Um, and um all have followed a similar process.

I actually did the research, so I'm asking the question, I guess with the answer already in mind.

Um, we have honored um uh former mayor Saul Kahn Lane in front of the Jewish Center in District 2, Chisholm Trail, uh, which is on Douglas Street between Walnut and McLean, Dr.

W.

G.

Williams Drive at 27th and Lorraine.

Uh is it Tony Bovey Avenue?

Is that how we say his name?

Uh, at Pine and Main.

Uh L.

E.

Montgomery at Volusia between 17th to 18th.

And in District 3, this council passed Air Capital of the World overnaming for George Washington Boulevard honorary, and it was paid for by the Kansas Aviation Museum.

So those are the ones that I have.

If there are any others, I would like that record to show where the other overnames have occurred.

They are a handful, they're very special, and so again, I appreciate uh the research that you have put into this overnaming.

With that, I see no further questions from the bench.

We will now open it up for public comment.

Good morning, Mayor, and to the council members.

Find it an honor to stand here today.

And though there has been much information submitted, and we think we're thankful for what the neighborhood advisory board has done so far, but it has been said that if a place of worship is considering to have a new clergy person, that they first look at their family.

And there is even scripture that supports this.

It says, How can a person lead a spiritual congregation if they have not been a shepherd over their own family?

And is one of nine of the children of the late Pastor J.

P.

Dennis Jr.

and Mrs.

Sarah Dennis, who were married for 63 years, who raised all nine of us, and we are all still citizens, proud citizens of Wichita, Kansas, have attended the schools and the universities of this state.

And I'm grateful that last weekend my eldest brother Larry Dennis was honored at what was formerly known as Mac Adams and now known as the Carl Brewer Community Center.

He was honored for his leadership with the park board.

My eldest sister Annie, one of her first jobs, was as the director of the citizens' rights and services of the city of Wichita.

We are proud to be citizens, and we are proud of our parents and for what they have done.

They showed us the love for self, a love for family, friends, and a love for this great community.

I would just like to mention that it is a blessing that our father was not just concerned about the group of people that he was leading spiritually, but he also had a great concern for this community.

Where he served for 53 years at the St.

James Church, he also celebrated and supported voter registration public forums for political views and other ideas for panels, debates, citizens' rights advocacy, community health initiatives to reduce disparities and prevent diseases through education, outreach and partnerships, peaceful protests to achieve goals of social justice, the widening of East 13th Street, prison ministry initiatives, scholarships for students.

He was also a well-respected and influential longtime president of the Wichita Baptist Ministers Union, and one pastor once said that he was one of few that could lead pastors, and I thought that was interesting.

I also want to say that it is a blessing to be able to stand here and say that he was a great father.

Many times the children of clergy, they run away from their spiritual places of worship because of how much their family has invested in that place of worship, but we are all still supporting the great legacy, and as has been mentioned, our parents discovered that for some reason all nine of us were able to sing, and I think every part of the voices were covered.

And we have served for 40 plus years in having a charitable Christmas concert annually.

We've donated thousands to charities that are local at the state level, national, and international.

This is because of Pastor JP Dennis Jr.

and our mom, Mrs.

Sarah Dennis, who in the 1960s was selected by the local newspaper is one of the outstanding homemakers, and we can attest to that.

We have here today my siblings, also foster siblings that our parents loved so well, as well as one young grandchild who is in elementary school, but insisted on being here today.

We are thankful for this consideration, and we are grateful for the lives and the legacy of our parents, and we want to let this stand as a lasting memorial in the scripture too.

It also lists about the people of God laying stones out so they could be a memorial so that it could be told to future generations.

And this is what we would hope this overnaming of the street would represent as well.

And we thank you for your time.

I see no one else in the community who would like to speak on.

Hi, Lawana DeShazer again, District One.

I just want to say the Dennis family have been a pillar in the black community for so long.

And a testament of their dad is the children themselves.

If there's a funeral, if there is something to celebrate, somebody, if not all, of the Dennis family will be there.

And so I am a bit advocate of honoring the people from Wichita to have roots here.

Let's honor those that have given back so much to our own community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lawanda.

Anyone else in the community who'd like to speak?

I see none.

I before I close public comment, I'm going to use another point of privilege.

May I ask the family of Pastor Dennis to come forward when this motion gets read.

I know that there's a young person here, and I always love seeing young people attend our city council meetings.

And since he took time out of his day to be here, I wanted him to be with his family as this motion will get read into the record.

With that, I see no further comments regarding this item from public uh comment.

So we will close public agenda, uh public comment rather, and bring it back to the bench.

And this resides in council member Brandon Johnson's district.

Thank you, Mayor.

I won't belabor the point.

All the points were made.

The Dennis family is amazing and super involved in the community.

You can see the legacy of Pastor Dennis through their involvement.

They go above and beyond for our community in every way possible, both seen and unseen.

So I am grateful for them and honored to make the motion that the council approve the overnaming of Ash Street at 13th Street North to honor Pastor J.P.

Dennis Jr.

Second.

Motion and a second, any further discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion unanimously passes 7-0.

Thank you.

And young man, you are always welcome to come back to City Council.

I hope you will connect with your council members, and I hope to see you leading our community one day.

But you can also lead right now.

So thank you for leading by example by exemplifying your family's history.

And Mayor Woolwin, Council Persons, we thank you all.

And thank you so much for your outstanding service, Councilman Johnson.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next item?

Ordinance calling for special question election to impose one percent sales tax.

Bob Leighton, city manager, before I start on this item, I just want to say that I did not have the good fortune to know Pastor Dennis, but I did get to work with his son, Larry, and I will tell you he's one of the finest public servants I've ever served with.

So I think it's reflective of Pastor and his wife.

Today I'm uh going to uh present to you uh a discussion regarding uh calling for a special election to impose a 1% sales tax.

I'm gonna talk about mostly the technical aspects of uh putting an item on a ballot for sales tax, and then uh there'll be a representative from a group called Wichtaw Forward uh who will talk more about the details of the proposal that's come uh from them.

As I mentioned, uh a community coalition named Wichita Forward uh developed a community improvement plan and recently presented it to the city council and to the community.

It uh suggests uh public investments for public safety, homeless and housing services, uh century two and the convention center improvements, property tax relief, and the construction of a downtown public performing arts center.

To fund these initiatives, Wichita Forward has suggested the use of a 1% sales tax.

Uh the uh sales tax would be in effect for no more than seven years.

Approval of the referendum would require a majority of the voters uh in that election to vote in the affirmative.

Excuse me.

Uh recent changes in state uh election laws limit special question elections to just three dates, uh either in a general or primary election or in a special election held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March.

In order to move forward with uh sales tax question, uh three things, three actions need to take place.

First of all, the council needs to approve an ordinance calling for a special questions election.

Secondly, they need to transmit uh the ballot question to the county election officer, and then finally uh a notice needs to be published of the special question election uh by the county election officer.

Uh these steps all need to be completed prior to December 19th, 2025 in order to be on the ballot uh in March.

Uh the schedule uh for the city council to consider this and to get it on a March ballot is as follows.

December 9th today would be the first reading of the ordinance calling for the election and setting the ballot question.

Council then would have to have a second uh consideration of the ordinance on December 16th, and then the ordinance would need would need to be published on December 19th.

Uh the ballot question would also then be provided to the county election officer on the 19th, and then there are some notice requirements uh in January and shortly before the election, with the election on March 3rd.

Uh, based on Wichita Forward's financial analysis, it's predicted that a 1% sales tax for seven years would generate the following revenue streams, and again, you'll hear more from uh representatives of the coalition in a few minutes about these items.

Public safety would receive up to 225 million dollars, homelessness and housing services up to 150 million dollars, revitalization of century two and convention center improvements up to 250 million dollars, property tax relief up to 150 million dollars, and the development and construction of a new downtown public performing arts center up to 75 million dollars.

Additionally, the the ordinance in front of you would require the city council to establish an oversight committee within 90 days of the passage of the sales tax.

The committee would be composed of no more than 15 members appointed by the city council, and the committee would meet at least twice a year and would be responsible for providing an annual financial audit of sales tax expenditures and providing a report to the community.

Uh proposed one percent sales tax is estimated to generate approximately $850 million over the seven-year period.

The election commissioner has estimated that the cost of a special election for in-person voting would be 150,000.

Sufficient funds are available in the city manager's office uh 2026 budget to finance that campaign.

Excuse me, that election.

And I'm sorry for making that mistake because that's a very important distinction.

This city would not be involved in the campaign.

So with that, uh council has two options.

One is to place the ordinance uh that is in front of you today on first reading and approve the appropriate notice of special election.

Um then uh as an alternative, the council could take no action uh on the calling for a special election.

Uh that's all I have regarding the details on how to put an item on the ballot.

Um, and be glad to answer any questions before uh we talk about the details or ask uh uh the uh uh Wichtaw forward representatives come and present.

Thank you, City Manager.

There are questions from the bench beginning with council member Hoheisl.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um says 150,000 to put it on the ballot, but then it also talks about uh approximately 455,000 for mail ballot.

Does that just if we went to a direct mail ballot, that would be the cost?

Or is that a cost for any potential mail ballots included in the 150,000?

So 150 is in is included in the 455,000 estimate.

So that would be if you will had an election that allowed for in-person voting and mail-in ballots.

So would this election also allow for mail ballots?

It will not, it will if you designate 455,000 dollars for election.

If you if you only do 150,000, it would only be in person.

So if there are people with disabilities, um not able to access the polls, would they still be eligible to get a mail ballot?

Uh I need legal help, yes.

Yes.

Okay, so that would that cost be covered out of 150 million or 150,000?

Yeah, the 400,000 plus was for a complete mail-in ballot.

Or complete mail ballot.

It was a complete mail ballot.

Oh, I'm sorry, I apologize.

That's for complete mail ballot.

I misunderstood that.

Sorry.

Okay.

Yeah, that's what I was concerned about there.

Okay, thank you.

Yep, sorry.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um Bob, I'm sure it would come up in the public, but since we'd be appointing a committee, would that be open to the public, any meetings that they have and documents that they have?

Uh yes, we've looked into that.

And I I think the committee will talk more about what their recommendation is for the selection of the oversight committee.

So I'll let them get into those details.

But yes, they would be subject uh subject to open meetings and open records as well.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Bob, can you go over the figures one more time for the 455 and the 150?

Can you think I'm gonna turn it over to Sharon to make sure I don't misspeak regarding what's in the 150 and what's in the 455?

Thank you.

I appreciate it for the election costs the 150,000 dollars is for what we would consider to be a traditional in-person election.

Um, you would still have the capabilities to request a mail-in ballot as you would for any other in-person election.

The 400,000 dollars is for a complete mail only option to every resident within the city, and then those would be mailed back in.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Leighton for the presentation.

I appreciate it.

I had my district advisory board meeting last night, so I wasn't able to attend the Wichita Forward meeting.

Did want to remind the community that there'll be another Wichita forward meeting next Monday at 5 30 at the advanced learning library.

Someone from the community did come to speak at my district advisory board on the public agenda.

They asked a question, I answered it, but I just want to confirm that I was correct.

So if the projected um the estimated amount generated from a seven-year sales tax would be 850 million, correct?

Correct.

If for some reason our community had an economic downturn or the nation had a uh advanced recession, whatever the case may be, and we didn't generate 850 million as this is.

Would the oversight committee then be responsible for making a recommendation to the council and how the numbers would be adjusted in the five different categories?

Uh councilmember, great question.

The oversight committee would not have the ability to make changes uh to the allocation process.

And so if there were a downturn in the economy and a reduction in the revenue, that would be uh since this is a pay as you go proposal, that would be across the board across all of the categories.

So all of the categories would be cut and it wouldn't be we're gonna take it out at one and not the other.

They all would receive the same proportional cut.

That is my understanding.

Okay, yay.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

City manager, uh quick questions.

This question is simply to put it on a ballot or not.

It's not necessarily to the designations.

Is that correct?

No, it would also include uh excuse me.

Your action is to place it on the ballot.

That's the first action, but you also would be adopting the language for the ballot, and that includes the allocation by category of dollars.

Thank you, City Manager.

Councilmember Glasgow.

Thank you, Mr.

Manager.

One of confirm one aspect as well.

So you had said based on which top four its projections, but on May 27th, city staff presented a one-sheeter projection sheet that also outlined what a sales tax base model would be.

Um just want to confirm it was 303.2 for one half percent, comes out to about 606, multiply that by seven, it's 847 million.

And so that was that recommendation would also be based on staff's recommendation on May 27th and finance its proposal to us.

Their projections are consistent with what we projected.

If you remember at that time, we were asked to look at five years, so what you've done is extrapolate it out for seven years.

But the staff has reviewed what the projections would be.

We believe that there it's an accurate projection.

Okay, thank you.

Vice Mayor Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

A question, part of this includes property tax relief.

Yes.

After seven years, this has to go back to ballot again that the sales tax goes off unless it's re-upped.

What happens to that property tax reduction after seven years?

Does it go back on?

If the council took no action, then there were two things could happen.

One, you would not have the sales tax.

So either you would need to make a corresponding reduction in your operating budget or your operating capital budget, or you would need to increase the mill rate back to where it was uh today.

Okay, thank you.

I asked this question to uh finance director.

Can you tell us what the budget deficit is?

The incoming budget deficit?

Sure.

Um Mayor Ford, 2026 and 220 uh 2027, um, we have a balanced budget.

In 2028, we're projecting a little over four million dollars, if I remember correctly, in deficit, Mark, is that right?

And then what is it eight?

7.9 almost 8 million dollars for 2029.

And again, those are early projections, but a part of our long-term planning and does that budget deficit include any incoming debt regarding the baseball stadium?

Mayor, we uh allocate annually uh the ultimate re uh liability the city would have if there was not a revenue stream for um from star for from sales tax for the star bonds.

Uh but that those deficit numbers don't anticipate that we would actually not meet our sales uh projections for the district.

So is it accurate to say that according to the current city projections, there's not there's a balanced budget in 26 and 27.

However, there's a budget deficit starting in 2028 of 4 million, and then in 2029 of 8 million.

And can you explain why there's a budget deficit?

Uh Mayor, I we we're uh very conservative on our estimates of anticipated revenue going forward, so it takes into account uh what we believe is to be a um somewhat limited growth or more historic growth in property values as well as uh straight line projections on sales tax, if I remember correctly, so on that revenue side, very conservative estimates, and then uh continued uh wage pressures and uh uh commodity uh increases that we've been experiencing over the last several years.

I have another question regarding wage uh pressures that you mentioned.

Just last week we uh passed multiple uh contracts, and one of them was um an increase that was not projected in the budget.

How will can you explain to our community why we're seeing these wage pressures?

Uh Mayor, a lot of it has had to do with our competitive position to comparable cities, not just in the state of Kansas, but also in what we call the I-35 corridor, and we've shared that information with the council on a regular basis.

Uh the idea was that we would um try to we'd be competitive with both in-state and out-of-state cities, it would take us several years to get there, and the contracts that have been we brought forward our last several years have been an attempt to get us in favorable positions.

Um I uh many cases we want to be in the state of Kansas because of our size and complexity.

We'd like to be able to pay our employees, our union employees, somewhere near the top, and that has been, I think, the shared sentiment by the council as we've had these discussions.

Doesn't mean necessarily they'll be the top paid throughout the state, but at least they'll be up in the top two or three uh and then in the I-35 corridor, we'd like to be at about the midpoint, and the wage increases have put us in those positions.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um in regards to the question about the property tax earlier.

Would we have to put it in the ordinance that it would automatically go back up?

No.

No.

No.

That will be a council decision if the sales tax expires and there's no additional action taken.

So if we put it in the ordinance, that it would automatically go back up.

Is that a possibility?

That's up to the council.

I it's I don't I think it would be a little difficult to tie the hands of a future council.

And I think maybe I don't want to be, I don't want practice law, but I think that would be maybe somewhat limiting to a future council.

I I don't know that it would be limiting, it would clarify things for individuals and the public about what would happen further down the road.

Yeah.

I understand I would argue that it actually forces that council to take action.

Um that is uh maybe beyond the scope of this council.

I I guess I would disagree with that.

I guess I would like the city attorney to address that probably.

Under under Kansas case law, uh elected governing body may not use legislative power to constrain future governing bodies to follow its governmental, legislative or policy decisions.

So I'm not sure that it forces it.

I'm I'm just saying that would be the expectation, unless council takes other actions.

I could still take other actions to reduce it at a later point.

Um but if we're going to follow through and that's kind of the whole idea of this it's a temporarily lower the mill levy.

Um then in the future, I would say they would raise back up unless the the plan is um voted on again and react at a later time.

I don't know what my colleagues up here's thoughts are on that one.

Councilmember Glasgow.

Thank you, Mayor Bob.

I'm having some rapid fire questions, but I think they're easy questions for you.

Um, how often will financial reports on the sales tax be generated as presented in the green sheet?

At a minimum once a year, the uh committee can do it uh more frequently, and if I remember correctly, I believe with um the um uh intrust bank arena oversight committee.

I believe they met on a more regular basis, and I believe the reports were available, those periodic reports, but uh uh they may have also had a requirement for one year.

So there has to be financial report it has to be an audience of us, it'll be from this third party committee.

Those reports will be made available to the public, yes.

Yes, okay.

And the audits would be uh performed by an outside independent uh auditor.

Outside independent auditor, and then they're also subject to quarrel request as codified in the ordinance.

Correct.

And then in addition that because of the ballot language, uh any revenue would not be used to pay off additional debt because it has to be spent on each funding category, correct?

That's correct.

And then it'll be capped from each of these areas because state law requires their cap and the ordinance and ballot initiative caps it based on language, correct?

That's my understanding.

And then um really the last question, there is maybe an accusation that um some of this was not included in the 2026 budget process.

Can you talk about maybe some of these aspects when it comes to how the budget addresses homelessness, um public safety, how it addresses this past year with the mill levy reduction, how it addresses and outlines that the city actually does have an RSCIP convention center in performing arts, but also says that the uh debt or the funding is yet to be determined.

Can you briefly talk about that?

Um just one rapid fire question.

But I'm not gonna the other ones are rapid fire except that one.

You're correct.

Um you're correct in terms of the city's financing of homelessness initiatives.

Um we've documented documented for you on a number of occasions, uh, over 10 million dollars that has gone into the second light uh project.

Council has um put uh five million dollars into assisting the operating costs for two years.

We have ten million dollars that will go into phase three of the which is supportive housing for that project.

Uh in terms of let me take the hardest one, and that's century two.

I probably am the third or fourth city manager to wrestle with the issue of how to improve century two and how to address the problem that we have on the um erosion of our convention business and the economic um uh impact that's had on our community.

And uh we had a we prepared a plan for community uh review.

And uh we had a we prepared a plan for community uh review, uh I think it was maybe two years ago, that was uh conducted by a group called Populist.

It's the first time since I've been here, and I think in looking at the history, first time we've had actually some community support for doing um improvements to Bob Brown and also keeping Century 2 and making improvements so it can be more of a relevant community facility.

Um in terms of um the public safety, uh we the council has consistently uh increased its expenses on the operating side and on the capital side to make sure that we address uh our facility needs and our equipment needs and technology needs in the both departments.

Um what else am I missing?

Property tax relief, the council um reduce the property tax mill by one half mil for this this uh 2026 budget, first time in over 30 years that that's happened.

Um what else, Councilmember?

That would be everything, but could you say that those the issues that are coming forward from the Wichita Ford group are probably the issues you hear most from members of this body and most of the public, and they're also the top priority items in our uh budget.

Um I I think generally speaking, you're correct.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um I was just gonna chime in with council member Hoheisel.

I um I actually like that idea, but um if we are not able to do that via ordinance, I think council policy could work.

I mean, we have a policy to go out for a public vote on the future of century two, and that doesn't technically um I guess legally bind a council, but as a very strong suggestion to go out for a public vote, so we could have a council policy that should this pass, unless I'm wrong, Jennifer, that we are strongly urging a future council to um either raise the mill levy if it doesn't pass again, if the uh sales tax sunsets, or if it continues and keep that current mill levy reduction, so it's not an ordinance but a council policy.

Ice Mayor Johnston.

Thank you.

Uh Manager Leighton, are we able to exempt food from this one percent sales tax?

Uh uh great question, Vice Mayor.

At this point, we are not.

Um, there has been discussion at the council um table or a bench in the uh past about asking the legislature to change that so that a local sales tax would allow for uh food exemption, but at this point, it's my understanding the state law does not allow that.

It would require a state statutory change to KSA 12 8189A as an apple that specifically provides um items that are subject to local sales tax, and that includes all sales of food and food ingredients.

Um another statute dealing with this election in process indicates that that the Department of Revenue is bound by um its internal regulations in collecting sales tax, so we can't go in and accept things, and we can't go in and rebate items that aren't authorized in the state statutes.

So it would take a statutory change.

Okay.

Thank you, Chair.

This issue is very important to me.

Um Guadalupe Clinic and our patients probably pay 90% of their of their money towards food and rent.

So it would hit them harder, it would hit the poor harder.

Um so I think it's very important.

I know many of us, if not all of us, would advocate um to our lobbyists to have the state uh do exempt, be able us to exempt that from the state.

So I think that's very, very important.

Uh manager manager, I got another question for you.

If we were able to the state did change the law, and we were able to exempt food from this, how would that affect the 850 million?

That would have a reduced, it would reduce that dollar amount, and therefore it would reduce the amount available for each of those categories.

Do we know how much?

Um Mark, I'm not sure we've done uh any analysis of that.

Okay, okay.

Thank you.

Yep.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um question, I guess, for Sharon and you, Bob.

Um, so two questions, I guess.

One is if the state does allow the for us to exempt food food from the sales tax, that would have to go out for a vote.

I believe it would be on the August ballot.

Is that what?

Or is that something we can unilaterally do ourselves?

Yeah.

The state legislature would have to make the legislative change.

Um that would have to occur before this item was placed on a ballot or a vote.

So you can't retroactively, so if we put it on a ballot that sales that food is going to be taxed, um that that would be the case until the Department of Revenue and the legislature made a change, and I don't know whether they would apply that retroactively or not.

So we'd be the idea.

I I don't know.

So we don't know if we can even take food off of this.

I would say at this point the answer is no, you cannot, um, because the state statute says that food will be taxed for a local sales tax.

I will point out that the public safety component of this is to fund projects.

Some that are included or almost all of them are included in the capital improvement program.

So you pick up some capacity as a result of that.

Uh if the council were to look at some kind of circuit breaker, some kind of relief they want to provide to taxpayers, you would have some revenue that could be available to you to do that.

But that would be up to the council to consider that make it and make that decision.

Yeah, because if we can't exempt food, that's kind of what I've been I don't know, I guess, led to believe this whole time, and then now we find out that we can't actually exempt food from this.

We have to have a rebate.

We have to have some sort of a rebate.

Council does in the if you remember, we you do have a precedent in that regard, and that is you provided uh property tax relief for those who qualified for certain state programs that um had um that were low income, uh were uh uh disabled or seniors.

Council could consider a similar type of program uh if it wanted to going forward.

Yeah, and that program, and I do support that because that program, but that was also property tax relief.

Well, that's what I'm saying is I'm I'm not sure that I mean a sales tax rebate, so to speak, would be difficult, I think, to administer.

So it's you know, the reason that that program went forward is because we were able to piggyback with state assistance programs targeted to the low income and seniors in the community, and so we had a vehicle already to establish uh eligibility.

So what a rebate, a quality rebate that actually helps people, would that be you bring in your tax return, and if you're making under an arbitrary number, let's say 50,000 that you'd be eligible for like a $50 rebate.

Well, I I Mark may remember some of the details better than I do in terms of what we did.

If you wanted to go beyond or have a different design staff, there's probably a lot of different combinations.

The idea is try to make the administrative burden as uh limited as possible.

Well, my my And I mean that for the individual, not just us.

You don't want somebody to be required to bring in 10 documents to prove right.

That's why I was just talking about just your simple tax return.

Right.

Something to think on.

Councilmember Ballard.

Uh Bob, what authority would the council have on the for the oversight board?

The council.

Yes, ultimately the council would appoint the members.

Um I'll let the committee talk about their thoughts, but I believe uh the not speaking for them, but I believe the proposal is that the council would appoint seven, the mayor and council would appoint seven of their own selection and then or their own nominees, and then there would be citizen interest expressed for the other eight positions, and ultimately the council would appoint all of them.

And the group would then provide its reports to the mayor, council, and community uh on an annual basis.

Thank you.

Councilmember Glasscock.

Thank you to just address one of Councilman Hoheisel's points.

Um if the state doesn't act and allow the municipality to be able to make that decision, and we aren't able to, I'd be fully interested in some type of rebate program to help with uh the food cost.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bob.

Um Councilmember Ballard's question, your answer sparked a question.

So council members will each appoint one appointee to the oversight committee, correct?

Uh that would that's one I can do.

And then yes.

That part I didn't understand.

There'll also be uh requests for uh members uh out in the community, and then there would be eight uh people who are either self-nominated or nominated by others.

Council could then pick from those folks who have come forward and do another eight, appoint another eight.

But the council will still have discretion over the entire 15 member.

That's correct.

Yeah, and again, I'll let the the Wichita Forward group talk about what they want because this issue of oversight, I think is extremely important to the community.

I'd be more comfortable if they talked about their concept.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you.

City manager, a couple of questions.

I know that multiple things in this proposal are for new or improved um facilities.

Can you address?

Um, I think a lot of folks may not understand our CIP.

Can you talk about the CIP first and foremost?

These are capital improvement projects, so things that um may take years before it even gets funded, if ever.

Um, can you address that portion first?

Um, and then also how will new facilities be maintained?

Is there a budget?

Maybe that's a question for Wichita Forward.

Is there a budget to maintain current assets as well as these new assets if it gets approved?

Good questions, Mayor.

The uh in terms of our capital improvement program, that's our 10-year infrastructure improvement uh plan, and the uh some of the projects, many of the projects that are in the public safety category are already in the CIP, but over an entire 10-year period.

This program as being proposed uh by Wichita Forward would allow for those to be done in a shorter period of time and at the same time on a pay as you go basis.

So uh we would incur debt probably in about for about 50 percent of those expenses if we did it traditionally through the CIP.

So it's over a longer period of time and with the use of debt as well as cash.

The sales tax proposal would allow for a faster schedule and on a full cash payment uh for those improvements.

Um the um I'm sorry, Mayor, what was the second part of your follow-up to that really quick?

You said so police and fire stations are a majority of this public safety CIP.

So, in total, in the CIP book, it's 197.6 million dollars worth of public safety capital improvement projects.

They include new police stations, new fire stations or improved fire stations as well.

Um can you address if it was to go through the CIP, how much debt would the city have to incur and then interest that the city would have to pay?

Whereas in this program, are you saying that it would all be cash funded?

So no interest rates?

That that is correct, Mayor.

I would say about half of that um funding, so probably roughly a hundred million dollars would be incurred in debt based on the council policy of a 50-50 split.

Mark um I I'll let Mark put maybe a finer point on that confirmation.

Uh yes, ma'am, mayor.

Like the manager said, uh, in our CIP, we typically try to cash fund about 50 percent, but debt fund about 50 percent.

So that's what we would do with the 198 million dollars or so in public safety improvements over the 10-year period.

So, like the major said, that'd be somewhere in the neighborhood of about 100 million, is what we would expect to bond uh if the city continues to geo finance all these uh CIP improvements.

Now we're gonna do that over 10 years, and obviously the interest would depend on what rates we could uh borrow at over those years, but it would not surprise me if there'd probably be at least another 30 or 35 million in interest on top of the 100 million.

It would be dependent on the rates of which it which we could issue at, but so let me clarify.

So, does that mean that if the city cash funded these uh new police stations and fire stations, we would not have to incur debt on it or interest potentially, and that interest would be approximately 30 to 35 million?

Yes, ma'am.

I think you'd have two things that would happen if we funded this with a proposed sales tax.

One, like the manager noted, we would have more cash flow sooner, which would allow us to accelerate the projects rather than space them out over 10-year period, and secondly, we would uh avoid the need to issue approximately 100 million dollars in debt over that 10-year period, and we'd obviously save the interest costs associated with that debt.

Thank you, Mark.

The second question I had was about maintaining uh not only current assets that the city of Wichita has, but also I think this proposal has new items or new buildings.

How will that be maintained?

How will there be a budget to maintain?

Well, this is an issue that I think uh we've had some evolutionary thinking about, especially uh with the council in terms of the city putting aside a sufficient funds to maintain our assets, especially new assets as they come on board.

The Wichita forward proposal doesn't put money aside.

However, uh what I will note is that with uh intrust bank arena, the uh if I remember correctly, they wound up satisfying their um uh obligation for construction of the building with at with money still available in the sales tax, and they put money aside for maintenance of intrust bank arena uh since they exceeded uh their estimates on sales tax.

And I would imagine that something similar could be done for uh especially the the new building would be the performing arts center, to be public arts center that would be funded both publicly and privately.

Um the rest most of the other facilities would be part of our normal uh uh improv excuse me, part of our normal operating budget for uh ongoing maintenance and improvements.

I have a quick follow-up, uh a third question, and that is another proposal within this one percent sales tax is funding for homelessness.

In particular, um, myself and council member Ballard serve on the second light board.

Second light is the former multi-agency center at the former park elementary school.

Um, you just mentioned that the council approved five million dollars of two years of operation through ARPA dollars or federal dollars.

Correct.

They're gonna come due next year, so there won't be any funding.

Can you address has the city allocated any funding within its budget to operate second light?

Uh the council's 2026 budget only anticipated the remaining uh ARPA dollars to be allocated uh for operations.

So beyond that and going into 2027, we had not projected that would be uh city obligation.

However, I think we also recognize uh that there could be some deficit uh after fundraising for that facility, and so um that would be an issue that would the council would be um along with others would have to wrestle with for 2027.

And remind us what's the operating budget for second light right now?

Um actually you may be in a better position.

I it started out as two million, but I think it's closer to three million a year.

Is that where I or three to four million?

Is that right?

Okay.

Okay, it's four to five million, it's a little higher than I expected.

So we had thought that it would be when we budgeted, we had or at two and a half million from the uh original operating budget estimates.

So what you're telling me is in 2026, the city's general budget does not account for the operating uh for operating for any deficit mayor, that is correct.

And so that means in 2027, that also has not been allocated.

So there are currently no allocated dollars towards homelessness other than the ARPA dollars that have already been assigned.

Uh there are no current dollars in the budget to help with operating second light.

Is that correct?

That would be correct.

And then unless you count what we would be doing in through our housing department for um uh caseworkers and other assistants in the building.

So there's some offsetting costs in that regard.

Sally would have to talk more about what's there, but um no, that the we had not anticipated stepping in under the original model.

That was not that was to be the nonprofits um liability or responsibility, not the cities.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

Thank you, um Bob.

One follow-up question.

I and I'm watching the comments on YouTube.

There's 124 people following us right now.

Um, and I wanted to clean up one misconception, and and I might have caused the confusion, so I'm sorry for that.

And if it's a Wichita forward question, I can delay it until then.

But there seems to be the misconception that the oversight committee is only going to meet once a year.

Um, I think what we were saying is that they would present to council once a year.

Is that correct?

They they were I if I remember correctly, they would provide an annual report and they would have to meet at a minimum, I believe, of two times a year.

But again, if you follow the model from Intrust Bank Arena, I believe they met on a much more frequent basis or a subcommittee of the group did.

Okay, I just wanted to clear up the misconception in the community that's following us.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um do we need to put in an ordinance specifically second light, just to make sure that is clarified.

That's where we're wanting funding to go.

Uh council member, the language that is in there actually is broader than that.

Um and it's meant to help fund any multi-agency center.

So let's just say that the that second light in year five um is no longer the managed manager or is no longer managing um the facility and another nonprofit steps forward.

This would allow that nonprofit to be supported in its work.

Um so that's why it's got that sort of that language in to make sure that it's evergreen.

And then also affordable housing options.

What would that look like?

Uh the I believe again, I'll let the group speak to that, but ultimately I believe the council will determine what the most effective uh use of those dollars would be for affordable housing uh for that component.

And um I'm sure there'll be some guidelines or some uh initial thoughts about how that should go forward.

But I think that I believe that the council would have the freedom to be able to come alongside the community and best determine what the need is and how public dollars could assist.

So that would be council policy to set that up.

I believe that is correct.

I'll let the group speak to their thoughts uh in terms of what they've brought forward because I don't want to misspeak.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, not trying to get too in the weeds, but uh council member Hoheisel's question about the uh sales tax on food.

Could there be trigger language that if the legislature were to approve something that would allow municipality to not tax food that this could automatically be removed from food?

I know that was super technical, but Councilmember Johnson, I understand your question.

I don't want to make any representations about what the Kansas Department Revenue may or may not do on collecting that.

Uh so I I cannot provide you with an answer whether they would uh whether they would uh administer our local tax without food if we if if statute change, I just I simply don't know, so I can check with Department of Revenue, but I I can't tell you that.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions from council.

If there are no other questions, uh Vice Mayor, what I'd like to do is turn this over to a representative from uh Wichita Forward to make their presentation.

Um thank you.

Good morning, uh Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Uh really grateful for the opportunity, Linda voice to this very important conversation.

Uh Wichita Ford is an organization, a non-partisan coalition of community and business leaders whose singular aim is to advocate for ideas that advance the flourishing and prosperity of Wichita.

I want to say on the onset that uh we're making recommendations that we believe uh accurately reflect the voices of Bush Taw, the commitments of this council, and hopefully the needs of our citizens.

Our goal walking in was not with a project in mind and an aspiration to find a funding source, but rather to understand the projects and programs that resonated most with our citizenry.

In doing so, we've conducted research and not just a poll, which I think is a common misperception, but for the last five years reviewing master plans, strategic plans, listening to the voices in the context of elections and community listening sessions and going to organizations and understanding their needs and priorities.

We're in a really fortunate position that over the course of those conversations of the last five years and those reviews and the poll that we most recently did mirror those same levels of commitment.

And so for Wichita Ford's next steps, we engaged experts analysis, consultants, uh research analysis, um reviewing adopted master plans to come up with a proposal that we believe meets the needs of citizens and and the core commitments of the city council moving forward.

Um the data that we had most recently, and you'll see here in the project support, 77% of Wichitans supported investments from a sales tax into second light into first responders.

That's more specifically around the capital improvement program and around updating century two.

Wishons also supported um investments in housing programs, which we've included in our home assistant housing section.

We polled the city versus the county.

This is a nominally insignificant number between the two, but a city sales tax, which Wichita is currently at 7.5%, raising it 1% puts us at parity of our surrounding suburbs, which eliminates a county sales tax from consideration.

And then duration, we did test three, five, and seven-year terms.

Wichtens by and large, over the five and seven years, again, statistical and kind of neutral.

But when we dove a little deeper into that with our expert analysis and some of our consultants, the belief is that citizens across the country, but reflects here in Wichita, have voter fatigue and don't want to go to the polls over and over and over again to continue to affirm programs like a sales tax.

So 57% support a seven-year term, which is how we got to this point.

So the program overall, we are proposing a new 1% city wild sales tax, which Wichita currently has as a 0% sales tax to bring to secure predictable non-property tax revenue significantly enhancing public safety and implementing a multi-agency strategy to address homelessness.

It does have a seven-year sunset clause, as we proposed, with anticipated revenue of $850 million, roughly $120 million a year.

And all those estimates are general in nature.

You can imagine if we had a sales tax this year and what a band year we might have had with the inclusion of the national figure skating championships and insulated tournament and all the guests coming to the city, which addresses that variability.

Why now and why the challenges?

The council and city manager, I think have beautifully articulated already that all we have made significant commitments, appropriately so, to invest in strategic areas of our city that advances the prosperity of Wichita.

One of those is public safety, of which over the next 10 years, roughly 200 million dollars will be dedicated to enhancing their facilities and equipment to ensure they can do their jobs effectively and do it safely, which we think is a noble commitment to our fire and safety professionals.

But without a clear funding mechanism or a debt-related funding mechanism, we know that costs the city additional resources.

Again, same with homelessness and housing.

We we recognize how important it is to serve our unhomed community in a way that uh increases dignity but also economic mobility with the ARPA funding expiring in October 2026, and the conservative estimate of cost to the city of over 20 million dollars a year.

This critical investment in homeless services ensures that we are serving the most vulnerable among us, as well as alleviating a budget shortfall that would be anticipated in 2027.

And then diversified funding model.

Right now, uh, in an effort to pay for the majority of things that we pay for, uh, we really rely heavily on property taxes, and our hope is that a sales tax creates a diversity of funding mechanisms for the city council to ensure that we can both lever property taxes, sales taxes, and other fees to uh to address the needs of our citizens and our city overall.

Uh, and so I'm gonna go into an area deep dive into some of these specific areas and and I'll say on the onset of this.

Um, we are simply a body as recommending.

Uh we uh trust and believe in the city council to apply what we're recommending in a way that would best serve the citizens of Wichita.

Um, and in doing so uh would help us to advance a sales tax initiative that's that's uh really is for all.

Um on the onset of this, so I think one thing that's really important to note um, depending on whose estimate you take into consideration, anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of the overall dollar figures will not come from citizens of Wichita.

They come from outside our city.

So uh anywhere between 175 to 250 million associated with this specific overall number would be people coming into our city and spending money and not citizens themselves.

So the area deep dive.

Project one is building a safe and resilient community with investment of 375 million dollars.

The breakdown of that would be initially investing in our uh public safety officials.

Um listed on the screen right here is as not our numbers, these are the projections from the current capital improvement program and what has already been approved before 2026 to 2037, uh 2036, excuse me.

Um 65 million dollars dedicated to Wichita Police, 2003.

To Wichita Fire.

You'll notice that uh that 197.5, uh we did account for 225 million dollars, knowing that some of these projects will happen a handful of years from now, particularly those in construction, uh assuming that some prices or costs of these uh particular items may go up, as well as uh a little bit of margin built in for those improvements you discussed as relates to ongoing maintenance and upkeep.

The next one is investments in our homeless and housing initiative.

Uh, as noted, the ordinance is a broad ordinance allowing for some discretion within this bucket.

But we believe that dedicating 125 million to a permanent fund that will be invested by the city to develop a revenue stream of roughly 5% off that 125 million to create a consistent budget allocation for homeless and housing services.

Typically, we would not do this within a sales tax initiative.

It's important that you don't build in operational costs of temporary funds.

But in this category, we recognize that homelessness and housing in Wichita is unlikely to be resolved in five to seven years.

We know that's a long-term game that we're playing to ensure that we are serving the most vulnerable in our community.

So developing this segregated fund that would develop that would have it that would be invested by the city to create ongoing budget support, create stability for the multi-agency center or other organizations that are serving the unhomed and Wichita, as well as provide frees up private philanthropy and city resources to invest in other areas.

Within this certain category, we've also dedicated 20 million dollars to invest in housing.

That's in real-time cash dollars and $5 million into programming.

The next area is building a uh investing in our community and culture.

It's $250 million.

This is where Century 2 and Bob Brown are being addressed.

Uh we are recommending that $25 million be dedicated to revitalize Century 2 to address deferred maintenance and essential updates to the facility to ensure it maintains its status as a place to be within our community.

225 million dollars dedicated to renovate and expand on the Bob Brown Convention Center in an effort to continue to both mitigate any convention losses that we have and continue to build upon some of the great opportunities we have in the city to welcome guests to Wichita.

Project three is property tax relief.

This investment be 150 million dollars.

The hope here is that we're able to mitigate, not as a dollar for dollar at this point, but as a modest mitigation of the impact of a sales tax by reducing property taxes, dedicating 21 million dollars a year for immediate property tax relief to be allocated by the city council.

And project four is an investment in a performing arts center of 75 million dollars.

This would be a pure public private partnership.

Estimates from those who manage current uh organizations that would take advantage of a pouring art center say that a performing arts center can cost anywhere between 150 and 200 million dollars.

So we see this as a 6040 partnership where 40% would be dedicated by public dollars and then 60% will be dedicated by private dollars.

This will still be owned and managed by the city, allowing opportunities for uh other organizations like USD 259, Wichita State University, and other civic organizations that utilize the facility alongside of the tenants like Music Theater Wichita or the Symphony or Opera or Ballet.

This is a critical part of the overall uh project, is a citizen oversight committee.

We recognize that public trust in these processes is essential and that having a public third-party uh independent voice will be critical to that oversight mechanism to ensure that the dollars being spent aligned with the ballot and aligned with the aspirations of the citizens as they consider this measure.

So key recommendations for implementation implementation, that the that their independence uh is essential, that members may not be current employees, elected officials or relatives of the such, with the exception of union representatives for specific public safety needs or others.

They do have a limited scope that although the committee uh will review projects and make recommendations to the council, um, they are not approving projects.

Um they are simply making recommendations based on the based on uh uh collaborations with experts and organizations that are most impacted to ensure they align with the citizens' aspirations and the dollars that are available within the sales tax.

Uh the committee, similar to the sales tax, will have a sunset clause that when the sales tax ends, so does the committee.

And then the annual audit.

And the the uh committee would conduct uh at least one annual audit of the expenditures associated with the projects and make that there'll be a third-party audit from an independent agency and then make those available to the public and to the city council to ensure that the resources being allocated to projects and the expenses that go with them align with the ballot measure and the aspirations of the citizens as approved by city council.

As far as a uh at the appointment authority, we propose a 15-member board.

Um, this is the primary oversight board, but it would not include the subcommittees or other content experts.

In this context, we hope that this committee establishes bylaws and governing documents that allow for subcommittees that are content experts related to any one of these issues.

It could be uh the renovation of century two, it could be uh housing and homeless services, that as dollars come into the city, that they're making recommendations based on expert analysis and collaboration with organizations or individuals, then uh to have an informed opinion back to the city council, but that uh uh every single council member, including the mayor, would have one appointee at their discretion, and that we hope that the remaining board, the other eight members, are appointed by either themselves, organizations or other individuals within the community to be considered for uh service on this committee.

Uh the current uh uh ballot measure says that each committee member would have uh up to a three-year term and could have three consecutive three year terms if deemed necessary.

So uh the group Wishdraw Ford is a coalition.

Um I know there's been a lot of conversations around uh the founders, but the reality is it's a coalition of business and community leaders.

We've done uh uh uh dozens uh presentations, included voices from any number of organizations, and we have over 50 people in organizations, both representative nonprofits, community, business, and individual citizens who have signed up to be supportive of the effort that we're undertaking here to recommend a uh one percent sales tax be added to the ballot on behalf of Wichitens everywhere.

And so with that, I will open up for questions.

Matt, can you please um identify yourself who you represent and uh give some background?

Yeah, so my name is Matt Bruchette.

Um I would say I'm a choose Wichita guy.

Um I moved here from Texas two years ago.

Um, mainly because I saw uh what the city had to offer for my family and for myself, and uh the things that the momentum that Witchell had moving forward uh was really exciting to me.

And so I made a choice to move here and relocate my family.

Um I'm a board member with Shaw Ford.

Um my uh my day job is I receive philanthropy and social impact for Thrive Restaurant Group.

Um in my previous roles, I was an administrator and professor in higher education, and so um I am your rare PhD working for a restaurant company um uh here in Wichita, but it's it's been a delightful and and um amazing transition for me as I've gotten to do the city and its leaders.

Thank you, Matt.

Multiple questions beginning with council member Glasgow.

Hey Matt, just a couple quick questions to solidify.

Um based on your research, Wichita is the only municipality, first class municipality in the state that isn't capturing the full one percent of sales tax, correct?

That that is my understanding, yes.

And estimates are 20 to 30 percent of visitors from our community are currently not helping the tax base of Wichita because of the lack of a sales tax, correct?

That's our understanding.

And then your research is available online from what I could see.

There's more than 300 pages of research that Wichitans could look at.

How can people learn more about it?

And we're continuing to add to that research documentation, but if you go to WichitaForward.org, we listed a number of existing studies, master plans that we've been reviewing to inform the opinions that we have today.

Those documents are more than 300 pages.

Yes, thank you.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um so those the oversight committee based off of uh maps, the maps program.

It's it's a similar uh the maps program had 28 uh individuals on their initial two oversight committees for maps one and maps two in Oklahoma City.

Those are exclusively appointed by the mayor in our adaptation of that model or similar models that we've seen across the country.

We reduce it down to 15 members and created more diversity representation from across the city council.

Are there certain qualifications or areas that they're looking for, such as banker, community people, um anything like that as far as specifications?

We've made no specifications other than the disqualification of individuals if they're a current elected government employer relative of the of those two.

Um is that similar for the maps program that there's no specifications?

Yes.

Okay.

Um, according to your guys' plan, who owns the performance arts center?

The city to the city would.

So would the city also be getting a majority, if not all of the funding that goes to it?

You mean the revenue generated from the Yes sir?

Yes.

Okay.

Um it doesn't specify in here, but would that be dependent on that being um built on public land?

We we have not identified the land that would uh uh so we I think one of the things that's really important this proposal is that we don't believe to we presume that we are content experts and we're not gonna dictate where things like a performing art center would necessarily go as much as be reliant on that citizen oversight committee and then the discretion of the council where that would be located.

So we yeah, so that would be more of a council.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Council member Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Mike kind of touched on one of my questions, but uh the city will uh remain ownership of all of the projects, everything that's going on, correct?

Yes, that's right, um, and the my last question is um if this passes the the seven year tax, will I like to ensure that the committee would surpass the seven years or go through the completion of all of the projects?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, the the at least our recommendation, the three three-year terms create a two-year allowance for projects to be wrapped up and accountability and audit to continue even past the sales tax expiration after seven years.

Okay.

Thank you.

Can we go back to uh maybe one of the first slides regarding background?

One more.

One more.

Right here.

Yeah.

Um we often get compared to uh cities like Oklahoma City, um, Tulsa, Omaha, uh, Kansas City.

Uh Wichita is uniquely Wichita, and that's why I love her.

Yeah.

And um, I know that there have been attempts at things like a maps plan here.

However, they have failed.

Can you address what has been the failure point of why it has not come to fruition?

Oh, that's a great question.

One I don't know if I'm qualified to answer based on my somewhat brief tenure here in the city.

Um I would say if you if you're looking at these, you know, the idea of the research was not to necessarily uh mirror the maps program as much as it was to identify experts that that know how to identify the priorities of a city and how to specifically identify those priorities in the context of a sales tax.

And so when we when we when we um when we uh uh uh asked uh for this particular poll and this person to do this poll, um that was our aspiration is to say who's a content expert in this area that can help us understand Wichita and and how the wit how Wichtens would um uh articulate their preferences in the context of a sales tax where they want to spend their resources.

So but as far as the measures that happened in the past, 2014 and and even the success of uh initiatives like Interest Bank Arena, I don't know if I can speak to the specifics of uh why those were not successful here.

Which then leads to the next slide.

Can you go to the next slide again?

So, based off of what that current polling shows, these are the things that this community wants us to invest in.

Is this accurate?

Yeah, that's the way the questions were worded, and I think in support of this specific data, um, it reflects the commitments of the council uh and the passing of the budgets both in 2026 and in future budgets.

It also reflects the aspirations of a number of different organizations who've done community lessons listening sessions and master plans and strategic planning.

And so um we triangulated the data.

Um this wasn't a this wasn't a uh a breakdown on just one poll at one point in time.

We recognize that um, although we believe it's accurate and re and representative, um, it's not the total package.

And so, but when you look at the last five years and the commitments that this council has had and that our community has had, um, these really reflect the ones that we've already identified as far as projects are concerned.

Um the city's investment into helping individuals facing homelessness, that had a tied percentage with first responders, police and fire.

Can you share uh maybe actually this question's for the city manager?

Um I asked the question earlier.

Second light is something that this council unanimously wanted to help fund through federal dollars, however, federal dollars will stop next year.

Um, and there is currently no funding allocated into the budget to fund second light.

Can you address how will I guess this council um see second light come to fruition because it still hasn't even been fully uh constructed?

Uh it's still not a full shelter plus services and affordable housing that's there.

Can you address that's still not part of the budget, correct?

Yes, Mayor, that's correct.

Uh again, the the model as adopted by the council initially was that the city would be responsible for the capital expenses and would uh help the second light board get on its feet and try to provide a safety net for the first two years uh with the understanding that the uh community then would be responsible for stepping up and helping with a long-term solution.

And there were a number of discussions with members of the business community about their willingness to help support with ongoing operating expenses.

I think the concern that's been expressed, and again um I'll I'll let uh Wichita Forward talk about it, yeah is I think the concern is that that's a significant uh challenge for a nonprofit board to try to raise the kind of money necessary to have uh uh annual operating uh expenses fully covered through uh benevolent giving.

And uh so again, I believe that's why the sales tax proposals in front of you to recognize that we can only go so far with private investment, but they're uh in order to have uh to move us towards functional zero, we're gonna probably need some kind of public assistance as well.

Yeah, I I think we would um affirm that assumption that um we had reservations um uh that the private philanthropic community would be able to fund uh the four to five million dollars annually for the operational expenses for second light, and that um ultimately um that would put us put second light in a position um to uh particularly as it relates to um you know even moving in October of 2026 as we move into winter, how critical it is that those uh the sheltering services in particular are available and well funded and well staffed for those who are vulnerable in our community.

Um I would also say that as we've gone and had these community conversations all across the city, um we did engage uh six of our organizations that serve the unhomed.

And um, and and they would have, even though the the ballot language I think is intentionally broad to allow for the citizen oversight committee and ultimately the city council to allocate those resources in a way that best serves uh the city at the time, because uh I think um city manager Leighton also described this as uh what is the issue today may not be the issue six years from now or seven years from now.

Um hope that we have made significant progress in serving our homeless community and that we're able to adjust that spending strategy to other needs as we see fit as a as a community.

Um but our but uh the organization serving the homeless right now um had kind of five primary areas of investment they've articulated.

Um again in our in our vision of this particular project that would go to a citizen oversight committee who would hear those recommendations and then come to the city council and say this is where we believe the resources may be allocated to best serve uh the homeless in our community.

But um they've articulated these uh five points uh fully fund second light, invest in homeless prevention, diversion funding to keep people out of homelessness, uh, create rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing programs, uh providing housing subsidies, support those uh exiting homelessness, develop landlord mitigation fund to support landlords who rent to those coming out of homelessness and create supportive housing for those with the highest level of need.

And so um, although not everyone in that group would have would affirm that collective list, a majority in the room said uh these are the categories where we would see that we can make the most difference in advan and addressing homelessness in Wichita.

Um, but again, the the ballot is is worded in such a way to create um specificity in the dollar figure, but flexibility so they said the citizen oversight committee and the council can make adjustments over time as the needs change and shift for our community.

One more question on this slide.

Um I see that property tax relief is not on there.

Yeah, um, I've gotten a lot of emails from individuals who just recently got their property tax bill, and uh it obviously has increased, and they are upset about the increases.

Um however, the city of Wichita is just a portion of that property tax bill.

Uh then there's the county, and then there's the state, and then there's USD 259 um and WSU.

Um was that addressed at all in the survey regarding property taxes?

I um it was addressed.

It wasn't uh it wasn't mentioned as a uh specific line item, but we did ask if any of these projects included any kind of reduction or alleviation of a property tax, would that increase or decrease your uh likelihood of uh voting for that package?

Um so and I would say that when asked if they believe a sales tax is a better option than increasing property taxes, and that would come in at 74 percent, would be in the affirmative.

Um, and then uh if asked, um make sure um and if it if if property tax alleviation was included in the projects that were listed, would you vote affirmative and 64% said yes just so that we have it on the record when I mentioned the um property tax bill, I want to make sure that it's on the record showing that your property taxes, the city of Wichita is 28.7 percent.

Cedric County is 23.8 percent, WSU is 1.3%, USD 259 is 44.9 percent, and the state is 1.3 percent of property taxes.

Thank you.

Council member Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

And following along her thoughts, um Are you guys going to release any of the survey data?

Uh I think we I think we do have plans to release it in greater detail, yes.

Can I be here within the next week?

It can't be here in the next week.

Okay.

Also, this might not be a question for you, maybe more a question for Mark.

When we run these numbers, how we got do we have a breakdown as to how this will impact each income bracket?

I'm sorry, Councilmember, could you repeat that?

How this how this one percent tax will uh affect each income bracket?

So you know, people making 40,000 a year.

How much would they be paying?

That's a real challenge to answer.

We've looked at that previously when we've talked about sales tax uh things, uh like Mr.

Councilmember Glasscock was talking about uh last year.

Uh all we can do is use data we get from census uh people and things like that.

Um they estimated that uh in Kansas the average income was about 70,000, and they estimated that taxable food sales of that was about five thousand dollars.

So you can do the math there.

I don't know if that does that answer your question.

Is that I just mean overall, not even just food, but just overall.

How much extra is a person, for example, excluding the property tax exemption?

Well, the impact on it just it's too difficult for me to determine, council member, because there's so many different income levels, people consume different portions of their income for items that are taxable.

Uh about all we can do is just uh make estimates based on average income levels.

Okay, so can we get an estimate here in the next week?

Well, again, based on the census data that we used uh a couple years ago when we looked at this, the average uh income in Kansas uh was about 70,000, and approximately 50 percent of that was spent based on the data on taxable items, which would be about 35,000, so one percent of 35,000 would be roughly 350 dollars a year.

Okay, but again, that's gonna vary across the spectrum of of incomes and and how people choose to utilize their income.

So, what did you say half of the 70,000, about half of that is they spend on taxable items?

Again, that's what the census data that we looked at a couple years ago indicated, yes, sir.

Okay, councilman, I just re-forwarded you the document we received in May of some of that information.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

Matt, went to the website, witchdawforward.org, and I would encourage people to go to that if they have questions.

A lot of misconceptions about it.

I would encourage you to put the the survey results and questions on that website.

I think that'd be good.

Um and the margin of error and how you did that survey would also be good.

I know it's very scientific.

You are a PhD, so you you got that down.

But I'm not a math PhD, so okay.

Well, still you're presumed to be smart.

Presuming.

Presumed, yeah.

To be determined, our colleagues here in the room.

Um if this does go on the ballot and pass.

Will you go out and speak to different groups about it?

Yeah, uh, we again we've done uh over 30 presentations so far.

Uh I have two more scheduled for today and four for tomorrow.

And so um we're hoping to get out in the community and do these presentations over and over and over again as we continue to listen and learn and understand and articulate um what we believe to be a reflection of the values of the city and the commitments of the council um to our to our colleagues uh out in the city.

So uh we'll continue those presentations as long as we're invited.

Okay, if it does pass, I would like you to come to my district advisory board.

Yes, sir.

Um and then what would could you put a something on the website where people could request a speaker?

Yeah, this army actually at the very bottom, you'll see there's a contact form.

You can fill in your name and affiliation, send the email directly to us to request an opportunity for us to come state to your organization.

Okay, great.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, thank you.

You can also find us on Facebook and LinkedIn if you see so fit.

Matt, um another question popped up as I'm looking at that uh slide.

Um, I know that Save Century 2 is here today, and that initiative was an investment and a vision by the then mayor of the community, Century 2, and then Bob Brown is also named after another mayor, Mayor Bob Brown.

Um, and so I wanted to know what research has been done regarding um the need to update or renovate Century 2.

Maybe you could go a couple slides forward.

Um, but these are cultural arts investments.

Um, and I've always talked about we need to take care of the basics first, and that's police, fire, public works.

Uh the next things are your cultural arts, including libraries, parks, and convention uh slash performing arts.

The next things are your cultural arts, including libraries, parks, and convention slash performing arts.

Can you address?

I guess is Century 2 specifically the thing that individuals wanted to see improved.

Do they want to see?

I think you mentioned the new performing arts center.

Can you address the differences between those two?

Yeah, certainly.

Yes, at least in the data that we were reviewing, that the citizens of Wichita specifically noted that the preservation or revitalization of Century 2 were important to them, which is why it's included in the project.

And I would also note that Century 2 and Bob Brown are also in the current CIP budget.

Scheduled, I think, for 2030 and 2031.

It's page one.

City Manager Leighton.

I can't recall.

I think I get those years right, but 30 and 31 is currently scheduled in that broader budget.

And so at least for those first three projects that we've articulated the investment in public safety, the investments in homeless and housing services, then investments in revitalization of Century 2 and Bob Brown are already scheduled within the CIP budget.

It's been approved by the city council.

Subsequently, as the city manager noted, all three of those projects don't currently have a funding methodology identified.

And this allows for that funding methodology to be both secured and with 20 to 30% of that being paid for by people visiting our city and not currently residing here.

Going back to the performing arts or the public arts piece of that equation, we recognize how important it is to have a vibrant uh public arts program, whether it be convention or or the performing arts.

We also recognize that particularly with the performing arts center, um, how important it is to have private investment in those areas.

Umthough we hope that it has a broad range of uses.

Um again, mentioning USD 259 or Wichita State or other civic organizations that would be coming in utilizing that facility.

Um there are a number of programs that happened in a performing arts center that um uh uh uh are from private organizations, and so we know that philanthropy has to play a critical role in that.

It doesn't have to be solely on the um uh uh sales tax to fund that collective initiative.

We also believe that all three of those facilities um will generate significant revenue for the city, and that as we invest um in these projects as a city that the resources would be returned back to us as people take advantage of great performances and art and convention and visiting and in doing so generate more sales tax, which helps us to create a secure funding model for the city overall.

Um I'm gonna make mention that the CIP budget book uh or CIP book, pages 68 and 69 show the public facilities.

Century two improvements is allocated for 11 million dollars over the next 10 years, and convention facility is budgeted at 400 million dollars uh over the next 10 years.

City manager Leighton, where's the funding gonna come from?

Uh Mayor, there's uh I believe a asterisk or a note in that document that indicates that there is not an identified funding source for the Bob Brown improvements.

We do have money for the Century 2 uh improvements.

I uh we went back and visited with populists regarding the their previous plan, and uh they've come forward with a plan that's probably uh just a little less uh expensive or ambitious.

It would provide about a little over 60,000 square feet of additional space of Bob Brown as well as remodeling of existing space and the addition of ballroom space.

Um, and all another 20 and so we'd have those improvements as well as enhancements to the round building, century two itself that would make it more community focused that would allow community organizations and nonprofits to be able to use that space uh at a reduced rate, uh, one that they can afford instead of going into the larger new convention space.

We also asked CSL, who's done a number of financial projections for us to look at the economic impact of the Bob Brown improvements and also enhancements of Century 2.

They believe that once we get to a point of stabilization, which would be in the third year of uh full operations, that over 40 million dollars in new direct spending would come into our economy as a result.

Uh they also had some roll-up numbers beyond that, but I think it's probably best to look at what that at the direct spending itself, which is over 41 million or 40 million, excuse me.

Thank you.

And again, uh, are there any further questions from this bench at this time?

I see none.

Matt, thank you, and thank you to staff for that presentation.

We and city manager Leighton.

We will now open it up for public comment.

Each person gets five minutes, and again, uh, we'll open it up to public comment now.

Hello, Faith Martin again.

Um I am not necessarily here to talk about uh the minutiae of the sales tax.

Ideologically, I oppose any new taxes, but I'm also a big fan of ballot initiatives uh to let the public decide if they want that.

My concern is with the speed, cost, and clarity of the special election.

Um I don't know if you guys remember the NDO or our budget process or parking, but we didn't rush that in two weeks.

We allowed for a lot of public and civic engagement, we allowed for outside groups, staff.

There was a lot of uh dabs.

This hasn't gone to any of the dabs yet.

You even requested to have it come to the dab.

I'm really shocked at the speed, and I know there's deadlines for a March, uh, but we have an election in August that's already paid for by Sedgwick County.

So I'm not sure why the rush to a March special election, just because the state allows for it, doesn't mean we have to have Wichita taxpayers fund that um the uh cost that we've already talked about, the 155,000 versus 455.

Uh I'm concerned that we would even spend a penny of that when we have an election in August and November that's already funded through Sedgway County.

Um I'm concerned good ideas don't require force.

If the public supported this and the public was interested in these things, you brought up the maps, um, that's a penny tax, not a 1% tax.

There's so many confusions around what's gonna happen, your questions, social media's questions, a lot of us that pay attention's questions.

There needs to be a lot more work done on this.

I would hope that you would go with the second option that the city manager provided you.

Do not pass this today.

Allow the public and yourselves to get all the information needed.

There's too many questions.

I know he said he's done a lot of public presentations.

There's two that I heard of, both of them are on Mondays at the same time when I have board meetings.

One of them is a dab meeting, so I couldn't go last night either.

So people that care and pay attention and love this city, uh, would like to see the council do the due diligence to give us the time needed to make sure that our questions and your questions are addressed before we rush something into a March special election.

Thank you.

Good morning, madam mayor, city council, and congratulations, city manager on a fantastic career.

My name is Ben Salceta here, and I am the chair of the Wichita Attractions Council here in Wichita, and the president of the Kansas Aviation Museum.

And I rise today just to support uh putting this on the ballot to let voters decide that is the best way to get public input.

Uh I have been had I have had uh the presentation presented to our organization uh and have had an opportunity to engage with that.

There are some very critical issues in which our city is facing and things that we can look ahead to, and this is a pivotal moment for the growth of our community.

Uh concerning the one cent and one percent.

I know there's a lot of misnomer.

I started on the city council in Park City when we had a similar sales tax initiative come forward.

Uh, it is semantics in the wording, it is the same thing.

A one cent is the same thing as one percent.

It's one percent of the dollar uh is how that is viewed, and so it is the same thing when it comes down to how that is funded uh or what that mechanism is on that.

Uh but again, on behalf of uh the Kansas Aviation Museum, and again representing or being the chair of the Wichita Attractions Council, we would very much appreciate your support in putting this to the public vote on the March 3rd ballot initiative.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Janice Bradley, and I'm in district six.

Maggie Ballards.

I'm really appalled at the rush that this is going to.

Uh I can recall in 2014.

The uh proposal for a sales tax at that time involved a tremendous amount of community engagement, not just I mean, in the whole beginning of it, to the point of the election, there were all kinds of meetings.

This involved uh the proposals were for uh transit, water.

Uh there was there were several things, but one of them was uh an 80 or 85 million dollar allotment for uh developers, and people were really upset about that, and people wanted to change or be able to vote individually on things, and that was of course not allowed.

But the the comparison to what's going on now is just phenomenal because there was so much engagement back then, and this is such a rush thing that you guys are talking about.

This March 3rd, you're trying to suppress votes.

That's why you want it on March 3rd, or that's why they want it on March 3rd.

So we can have fewer voters deciding these things.

And that's just not right.

We've got an election, a primary election in August that the county is paying for, like Faith said.

Why would we go to spend up to 455,000 dollars if it includes mail in ballots, which it should, to have an election on this?

We should be waiting.

We should allow people to learn more about this or to make more proposals or different proposals.

I beg the council to uh to take that no action today and to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to do this right.

Thank you.

There, there, uh Councilmember Glasgow.

Thank you, Mr.

Manager.

I have a few questions uh based on Miss Bradley's comments.

First off, 150,000 includes a traditional election as confirmed by Sharon that mail in ballots will be a part of that if requested, just like any other election.

That's correct.

And that was my mistake when I first spoke.

The um, as I understand it, it would be the higher numbers for solely a mail in camp uh ballot.

In addition, when is the first time that city staff brought the data behind a city one percent sales tax uh before this body?

Well, um, councilmember, I'd have to think you brought up the concept of a sales tax during budget workshops.

And then I think it was mid-summer when we started to talk in more detail about the provisions.

Okay, I think the date that I have is May 27th, 2025.

There's an eight-page uh document regarding the consideration of a titled consideration of a city of Wichita local sales tax.

And then I also have that the council talked about it on the June 30th meeting, August 7th meeting, October 4th meeting as well.

Um, and then um I did have one more question for you, but I forgot.

So I'll save it.

Okay.

We will now continue with public comment.

Hello, my name's John Rolfe, uh, a lifelong Wichita.

Have 10 businesses here in town, and uh a member of Wichita Forward and supportive of this uh sales tax.

Um, the idea of having this election in March is similar to the idea that we have the city elections and school board elections and off years from national elections, that oftentimes local matters can get lost in the the coattails of what's happening on a state or national level and doesn't get the due consideration.

So we actually believe this gives more consideration for the community to look at this.

We also know that there are some impending funding issues coming, as was talked about with uh second light and other matters that are not answered, and so I think for you all to be able to move forward as a body, it's gonna be important to have in consideration uh where the community is and if they're willing to uh pay for um these parts of our community and priorities of our community through the sales tax measure.

I always think of these as community uh as these community conversations really as family conversations.

Um we probably know that there's 40 percent of the community that's gonna say yes to any kind of investment like this.

There's 40 percent of the community is probably gonna say no.

Uh, but we have to get together, look at our priorities as a community and say, hey, what do we want to do and how do we want to pay for things right now?

That's really what's up in front of you today, is to give the community that opportunity to have that discussion over the next four months uh to say um as we look at these priorities, and I think they clearly reflect the community conversations the last five years, what we've seen in surveys in elections and all those types of things.

Uh they're they're they're priorities that we need to figure out uh solutions for and funding for.

And um, so I would appreciate it as uh a supporter of this that the community be given this consideration, particularly at this moment.

As I've been involved civically for the last 20 years, I've never felt which stall have more momentum than it does right now.

Uh the wind is at our back as a community, and when you have momentum and you can keep momentum as the powerful decades of growth for community, and so I think this continues to put this community in its best posture for future success.

It'll be up to Wichita Ford and supporters of that to plead to plead that case to the community and let the family have a decision on where they want this community to go in the future.

So thank you for consideration.

Thanks for your service to this community.

It's greatly appreciated.

Questions?

Howdy Council, Joseph Tex Dozier, uh Dab One, and I started my political career working with a nonprofit with the state policy network that specializes in ballot initiatives.

I love the ability to petition your government, but I'm really worried.

Um I'm here today, just like I was a few weeks ago with the landlord thing about how I see a pattern from like the whiplash whippling of Wichita with the last mayor, the parking meters, um, the landlord policy being written and then putting out the last minute.

I see a pattern of time and trust, uh treasurer and time just being wasted away for opportunities to build trust within our community.

And what I saw last night was really surreal, where the night before ballot language would be finalized is a public forum, and the public should be co-authors as a part of this language, not an audience.

And I remember the line that was said in the one hour that was allotted.

We only want your questions, we don't want your comments.

And I think that sums up the experience of many Wichitans from different political backgrounds when it comes to this.

I like how maps was brought up.

It's like this is like the wish.com version of maps.

It's like we and a lot of wishes in the fact that it's broad in its hopes and aspirations, but it's lit is missing any specifics.

And what did MAPS, how did MAPS become a success story over 30 years and four positive votes, with the last one going 70% for 16 unique projects, very clear specifics.

It was the exact opposite approach because we've seen too many cities with a broad base run amok between new mayors, new councils, and not good oversight and clear guidelines on where money is going to go.

So I want to invest in our community, I want to see us, I'm open to a sales tax, but the the idea that we didn't even have a chance, and the mayor you mentioned public safety and homelessness being priorities within this.

Well, we're looking at final language right now instead of for months potentially saying why don't we sequence this?

Why don't we say you can use language, not less than 40% for property tax relief?

You can designate mill levy amount, you can say this this area and this area with these specifics within it are going to be fully funded first.

MAPS also had funding for um dedicated staff.

They also put in clear uh clear language around subcommittees within each group, which I'm as glad to hear that mentioned as something, but they codified it in language, uh monthly meetings.

Um, and the other thing to note is it's another bump, it's a bumble, it's a bundling and a fumbling because we're bundling.

I'm worried that we're gonna waste an opportunity for political capital where we the citizens are the ones who can trigger the sales tax.

And I'm worried, like in 2014, I looked last night to see what happened, and there was it was another um uh bundle, and the issue was we talk about core services, homelessness, public safety, very similar.

They were looking at water and some other core services, and then there was economic development attached to it.

And there was concern about where the money was going to go.

And there was um a folks involved with that then who gave, based on the news accounts, three different stories on where it was going to go, or they didn't know where exactly it was gonna go, and that was a fatal flaw for its passing.

And now it's been a decade, and it seems like the only lesson learned from that was to just change the election day to a uniform one, then and it's even worse because in 2014, the city, four months before the city council voted on language, provided detailed reports in each of these areas based on the language.

And there was months of discussion of the language for that would go on the ballot.

Wichitans do not even get a final say here because they didn't get a say in the beginning on being able to provide specifics.

We should be able to vote and be excited by putting something on the ballot like this, where our our arguments or discussions are about which project we're specifically we're more excited about as we get close to that election day.

The idea of launching a coalition, it's you gotta launch a coalition where you're already got the coalition, and you already have plenty of draft language, and you then you take it out and have those meetings and solidify what your priorities are.

You know, Cansans right now, we're in top threshold for our taxes, and the idea of doing a billion dollars with broad, almost a billion dollars of revenue with broad based categories with no seek sequencing, with no prioritization, with no codification language around subcommittees, doesn't seem right.

It doesn't seem right.

And I want us to do this right, and so I believe it is not fair, especially considering in 2014 there were three full months after the four months of discussion.

And if you look at the maps program in Oklahoma City, the mayor each year, each time spearheaded a full year design plan before language was finalized.

And their success story is one that we should look at and try to for ourselves.

Thank you.

Councilmember Glascock.

Thank you.

I have a quick question for representative Wichita Forward.

Right there.

Okay, sorry, I lost you.

Um it was mentioned uh just in the last speaker that there's um that a coalition needs formed.

From what I see on the website, it seems that there has been.

How many people have signed on to be part of that coalition that you've engaged so far?

As at this point, we have over 50 a combination of representative organizations, organizations, a collective who said we support this as an organization which has a broader base than simply this one individual, citizens, nonprofits, business, and business leaders.

So one, you know, some of the coalitions I see on there are the Wichita Firefighters Union, nonprofits.

I see the neighbor uh representative from the neighboring movement, music theater Wichita Create Campaign, Invision.

I see about 15 business owners and 50 names.

Is that a correct visit Wichita, among others?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Hello, Lamana DeShazer again.

I had a lot to say today.

So just want to start by saying District One, longtime resident of that district, and I'm really perplexed as how a group of business people get to bring a plan to city council, and it got so much traction so quickly.

And here we are a couple of weeks out, months out, and we're ready to make a uh uh a statement on our citizens' tax dollars and how they will be spent.

And I I have a problem with that.

I'm just also wondering, just like with the budget process, we've always been presented with what is important to the citizens, but the citizens didn't create the the um things that are supposed to be important, just like this proposal.

Who who said that fire?

I mean, we always say we want police, we want fire, but there's so many other things that maybe citizens want to see tax dollars go to as well that contributes to our quality of life, our parks, things like that.

You know, it's not included in here, so I'm still perplexed as to who gets to decide what's important to the citizens when it's our tax dollars that are going to be expended.

Um also perplexed that we're gonna uh create another committee with no teeth, an oversight committee on almost a billion dollars worth of funds with no teeth.

Um, like Tech said, the projects aren't outlined, we don't know what comes first, how many dollars goes to this project first?

I mean, dollars go to this project last.

There's really not a plan in place, and with the oversight committee is supposed to be citizens except possible union members, the same union members who benefit from the tax dollars.

That's not oversight.

And so I think we need to table this or just say no for now, go back to the drawing board, reach out to the citizens and see what's really important to us because it's our tax dollars that are going to be expended, and then let's create another plan that really encompasses our communities.

Again, this has been rushed, let's wait.

Um, it's too much ambiguity into this plan.

There's not enough this, this, this involved, and so let's table it, let's break it out back to the people, and then let's regroup after that.

Oh, and also why spend 150,000 to 400,000 to vote on something when we can just wait down the road and there will be no additional expenses.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Pastor Wade Miller, uh, co-chair of the Justice Together Steering Committee for Affordable Housing.

Uh, I'm in District 1, 11 North North Burr Oak in Rockwood.

Um Justice Together brings more than 40 congregations together to bring out the call of Micah 68 to do justice, uh, to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God.

Last week I stood before you and raised three simple questions.

And since then, we have worked diligently to find answers to those questions.

On Thursday night, more than a hundred of our members met to ask, what do we know?

What do we not know?

Who do we ask?

Since then, we've met with Councilmember Hoheisel, we've met with Aaron Bastion and Matt from Wichita Forward.

Uh, we attended last night's public listening session, and we've read the proposed ordinance closely.

Yesterday we delivered a letter to you requesting 10 million dollars in annual funding for the affordable housing fund.

That letter carried the signatures of more than 230 faith leaders and people of faith.

We also delivered nearly 600 notes from constituents to Mayor Wu.

She had a lot of postcards on her desk.

These voices reflected the depth of concern and the yearning for clarity and justice across our congregations.

And after all that, our same three questions still remain.

Will any sales tax meet Wichita's growing housing need?

We've learned that a proposed 150 million dollar silo for homelessness and affordable housing, and roughly 125 million of that would go into an endowment that cannot be touched until it generates return to fund second light.

The remaining dollars, around 20 million dollars or more, are less clear, and no one we have met with has been able to explain how those funds would be spent.

Wichita Forward representatives have said those decisions are up to you.

We also know that in our 2024 Neamaya Assembly with over 1,400 people.

It was surprising to hear that we didn't have a commitment to second light from the city and ongoing commitment because at that gathering there was a commitment, a public commitment of $600,000 from the city going on.

You had stepped up for that.

And for that we are truly, truly grateful.

But our second question will it secure at least 10 million dollars for the Wichita Affordable Housing Fund, which we have researched and found is probably the most powerful way to build the business infrastructure and build affordable housing here in Wichita.

This is within the council's power, but every person we've met with has indicated they do not yet see a path to that level investment in these current priorities.

Third, will it avoid worsening inequality for those already struggling the most?

And we've heard those promising conversations about targeted property tax relief, which is possible.

But these measures again are in your authority, but they're not in the ordinance today.

As a justice ministry, we can't yet answer yes to these three questions.

That means we have not taken a position on the sales tax proposal.

We know today is an important day.

We also know that much can still be done after today to build trust to create a better uh to create a better, more just proposal.

And our letter is a request to meet with each of you, and we hope that we have a chance to do that in the next couple of weeks.

You have the power to ensure that Wichita meets its housing need.

You have the power to make sure that we impact homelessness in a powerful way.

You have the power to help build up the affordable housing infrastructure that's necessary for a community to meet a 14,000 unit shortfall.

And we believe Wichita can rise to this moment.

We stand ready to work with you to help make that possible.

Thank you, and may God guide your decisions and bless the work of your heart, soul, mind, and actions.

Mark Barlow here.

I'm in District 2.

All of the proposed spending through this tax makes sense and represents programs and initiatives we ought to be tackling.

I just think it's ridiculous to push for additional taxation against already struggling Wichitans when we should be talking about levying taxes on our local oligarchs.

The Koch and other subversive mega wealth hoarders already unduly influence our politics and our democracy.

And it's high time we, the people, put this tax burden where their dark money resides.

The Koch's are all over this proposal.

This mess stinks of their ongoing manipulation of this city and this city council.

Tax them and their hyper-wealthy ilk, not us.

You start taxing food and diapers, you'll only put more families at risk and make more people homeless.

No new taxation on the poor.

Good afternoon, Mayor Wu and City Council members.

My name is Angela Cassette.

I live at 1080 Patricia Street in District 1, and I'm the managing director of Music Theater Wichita.

I come to voice my support for the Wichita Forward Plan is presented.

As an arts leader in this community, I've spent the last 12 years discussing and watching and hoping for forward movement on arts and convention spaces, which would in turn create a virtuous cycle of new dollars into our city.

A couple of quick facts about Music Theater Wichita's patrons.

We serve multiple generations, including 50,000 patrons during the summer season.

Our academy programs, which are focused on ages five to eighteen, served 11,434 in 2025.

And while a majority of our patrons come from Wichita, last year we had visitors from 2,891 unique zip codes who could be paying taxes to help support our city.

We are ready to see investment in a new performing arts center to serve our younger generations for their lifetimes.

And as someone who chose to move to Wichita and chooses to stay in Wichita, I love my community and recognize there are nuances to every decision, and that we need to work to mitigate harm with each forward movement.

But I've been disheartened to see how often Wichita says no to things, including at the top layers of leadership in our various sectors.

This is a wonderful moment for our community to have an opportunity to say yes to the thoughtful projects, which are Wichita Forward is submitting to council.

I ask that you please give Wichitans the chance to say yes to a purpose-driven sales tax, just like so many bedroom communities in our region already have, just like virtually every other city of our stature has.

This is a great movement to look to move Wichita forward.

Thank you.

Now you might say, wait a minute.

I have the rights under the Kansas Constitution, under the US Constitution, I'm equal.

But one important way I'm not equal.

When I petition City Hall, I get sued.

As the lead defendant five years ago in the Save Century 2 petition drive, we worked in the middle of the pandemic and collected 17,000 signatures to meet a 12,500 signature requirement to have the council act.

And I know many of you were not on that council.

But I'm here today saying why the disparate treatment.

Perhaps Councilman Glasscock, his seat wasn't up, so I didn't see him out campaigning the way Councilwoman Ballard and Councilman Loheisel were doing so.

But I'm standing here saying solutions.

You were given two options.

I'm going to give you a third option.

And when I was had the privilege of being a county commissioner, I really appreciated when people testifying would provide another option.

And my option is this.

Of course, I'm just a third-class Wichita.

But that's another option because there's no reason to be in a hurry for moving forward on this.

And there's good reasons.

I mean, doubling the local grocery tax.

100% increase.

A 13% increase in the sales tax.

That's what we're looking at here.

Spending somewhere between 800 and 900 million if the estimates are good.

I presume they are.

I can run polls to you know get people come here and say, hey, most folks think the moon's made out of green cheese if I get to phrase the question right.

The real answer would become empower the voters at the polls.

For many years I've been trying, and I still continue to do so, to require all mill of the increases to be increased with voter approval.

Many other states have that progressive uh position.

Unfortunately, Kansas, except for school bond elections, does not allow that.

But you all today should take a deep breath and get more public input.

And what does folks with Wichita Ford?

And I didn't see them during the campaign we just finished a month ago for three city councils seats.

I didn't see them at that point.

We've got an election coming up in August and November.

Let's proceed with deliberation, but I'd love to see them do a petition drive in 180 days and get 12,550 some valid signatures from Wichita voters.

Save Century 2 did that.

And by the way, for the record, I was not the leader of that.

I was a leader.

I just happened to be because of uh legal city legal.

They made me the league lead defendant, which is kind of a cruel paradox because Jennifer used to work for me.

Uh you all have a good day.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh thank you, Carl.

I always appreciate your uh candid ability to speak to us plainly.

Uh you're first class citizen to me, so just wanted to clarify that.

Also, um a sales tax discussion did come up during the campaign, um, during the forum that I did have, a public forum uh that is on I think still on YouTube.

But to be straight honest with you, none of these specifics were discussed.

It was just an overall broad potential for a sales tax.

Did Wichita afford bring that forward at that?

No, sir.

Oh.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council members.

My name is Susie Santo at 515 South Main Street.

I'm the president and CEO of Visit Wichita.

Um, our mission is to drive visitors and positive economic impact into the city of Wichita, and I'm here speaking on behalf of the Travel and Tourism Perspective and our board of uh directors.

So thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of the proposed Wichita Forward Sales Tax Initiative for our city.

Our community stands at an important moment, one where we have the opportunity to strengthen our economy and make strategic investments that will benefit residents and visitors for decades to come.

Visit Wichita supports placing this referment on the ballot because of its significant positive impact on the tourism economy, which is an economic driver for Wichita.

In 2024 alone, visitors spent more than 1.5 billion in the greater Wichita area.

That spending supports local jobs, uh, fuels our small businesses, restaurants, hotels, attractions, benefits that ripple across the entire community.

And because this initiative is funded through a sales tax, it's not shouldered by residents alone.

Every visitor who shops, dines, stays overnights, or attends an event in Wichita helps pay into these improvements.

In other words, this approach brings outside dollars to the table and eases the load on local taxpayers while still strengthening the service and amenities that make Wichita a great place to live and visit.

This sales tax initiative will strengthen Wichita as a destination of choice for leisure visitors, convention and meeting groups, and sports visitors alike.

And it does that in several critical ways.

First and foremost, ensuring a safe and welcoming environment is critical.

The investment in public safety and homelessness and housing solutions is not just about residents' well-being, it also ensures that leisure visitors, sports families, convention attendees feel confident and comfortable visiting Wichita.

Compassionate homelessness solutions and a strong safety presence create a positive first impression for all who come to our city.

Secondly, the revitalization of Century 2 and our convention space complex is vital.

Specifically, the renewed convention space identified in the plan is essential if it's structure if Wichita wants to compete and win in the meetings and convention space.

Competition is intense, and our pure cities have the advantage of updated or new industry standard facilities.

Meeting planners evaluate destinations based on many factors.

Today's planners expect flexible layouts, hotel um advanced technology, accessibility features, sustainability standards, and these are just a few of those features.

If Wichita had an industry standard facility, it would drive approximately 54 million annually an incremental economic impact.

Those are incremental dollars that Wichita is leaving on the table for every year that we do not have an industry standard facility.

And thirdly, investing in new performing arts center is about enriching our city's cultural scene and providing a state-of-the-art venue for the incredible talent we have here in Wichita.

From the Wichita Symphony to Music Theater Wichita to our many other local arts organizations and educational institutions.

This new space will give them a home to shine even brighter.

It will also attract top-tier touring shows and culture events, boosting tourism and creating even more opportunities for everyone to enjoy a vibrant downtown.

And importantly, this thriving art center will support local businesses from restaurants to hotels as we bring more culture vibrancy and foot traffic to the heart of our city and create more reasons for visitors to choose Wichita.

And lastly, the property tax relief will support the overall economic health of our city.

By easing the tax load on property owners on owners, we help local businesses, including those that serve our visitors, stay stable and competitive.

This practical step supports the entire community, making Wichita a more vibrant and welcome, welcoming destinations for residents and tourists alike.

In summary, these investments are crucial for the future success of Wichita's tourism industry and our broader economic health.

This sales tax initiative is about keeping Wichita competitive, welcoming, and thriving.

It's about bringing more outside dollars and supporting local jobs and building the kind of city residents are proud of, and visitors can't wait to experience.

Visit Wichita supports this initiative being on the ballot for voters in March, and we urge you to do the same.

Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your commitment to building a stronger future for our community.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Or afternoon, I should say.

Mayor, council members, uh, manager, and city staff, thank you for considering this important proposal.

You know, I think we face some real challenges as a community.

Our homeless population is growing, rising property taxes are becoming a burden for many, and city budget issues, as we heard this morning, are looming in future years, possibly leading to cuts in essential services or even further increases in property taxes.

Over these past months, we've spoken with each of you and many other groups in town about a potential solution to some of these issues.

And mostly we've heard strong support.

The questions or resistance that the plan has met have largely fallen into a few buckets.

First, we hear questions about timing.

This is too fast.

After some time working in Colorado, I moved back to Wichita in 2006, actually March of 2006.

And that summer, I got involved in our community through a number of issues or a number of uh community um organizations.

We've been talking about these same issues since then.

We've done surveys, countless studies, uh, both by this body as well as those uh by others, held community engagement uh meetings, created proposals, but we've had no real follow-up or action that's come from any of those.

For me, this next April or March will mark 20 years of these conversations.

For some in this room, it's been even longer than that.

This timing, I don't think is too fast.

I think we're a decade late.

We're a decade behind.

Further, while the proposal is new, we are not asking for an immediate decision today.

We're asking for a four-month community discussion and debate and then a vote.

Another area of questions that we hear concern mistrust of government.

We've heard a lot about this.

How will the money be protected?

How can I know that it will be spent?

How you say?

I understand this concern, uh, but I cannot remake the past with a ballot initiative, and I I can't earn instant trust with an idea.

But this is exactly why our proposal includes an independent and transparent citizen oversight committee with the ability to audit and oversee all that this plan entails.

Another bucket is we hear others say, I want more of what I care about in this package.

I understand that we all have specific issues or causes that we care about most.

If it were up to each of you or up to me, the suggested projects included in the plan would be different or maybe differently funded, but it's not.

The plan was created by combining the issues that we know we face as a city with the results of a poll asking the citizens what they want, not you or me.

Many, though, we've heard support this plan.

They recognize the issues in front of us, and that while this doesn't solve all of them, it goes a long way towards it.

It cares for the most vulnerable in our population while lowering property tax burdens.

It invests in the Century 2 campus, preserving it for future generations, while giving the tools to our first responders they need to keep us safe.

They also appreciate that 20 to 30% of it will be paid for by visitors from outside of our community, friends from Kansas City or Oklahoma City that visit for a concert or a sports game, or neighbors even from Mays and Goddard and Andover that work and shop in our community but currently don't participate in funding its infrastructure.

We are here today with a plan that we believe addresses the issues at hand in a fair and balanced way, and we are asking for you to let the community decide.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, mayor and city council.

My name's Aaron Bastion, and I lead my family's business, which is Fidelity Bank, located at 100 East English in District 1.

I'm here today to advocate for allowing the public to vote on the sales tax proposal that you're considering.

This temporary tax would make generational investments in our city while supporting our first responders and the unhoused.

This proposal would fund 225 million for the fixed asset, i.e.

equipment and facility needs of Wichita Fire and Police.

These brave citizens put their lives on the line for us every day.

And I believe they should be fully equipped with the best available equipment, technology, and facilities to do their jobs.

This plan would also create a funding plan for support for the homeless in our community.

It would provide long-term funding for the multi-agency center, currently run by Second Light, and provide $25 million for investments in housing and programs in support of the multi-agency center.

This plan will also reduce property taxes across the city by roughly 21 million per year, or about 12% of the city collected property tax.

Next, this plan would revitalize the Century 2 district by providing 225 million toward an expansion of our convention center along with 25 million for Century 2.

This investment would allow us to capture the estimated 40 million per year of economic benefit that would be available to Wichita with more modern convention offerings.

Finally, this plan would provide roughly half the cost of a new public, publicly owned performing arts center to be built in downtown Wichita.

I believe the arts are what make life interesting.

Life without TV or art on the walls or music would be much less enjoyable, at least in my opinion.

And our performing arts group should be able to perform in a facility that is amazing as their performance art.

All of these projects would provide meaningful investment in our city that will power Wichita Forward.

Many of our peer communities, such as Tulsa and Oklahoma City, have implemented similar sales tax programs that help grow their communities while making long-term investments in their city.

I've seen it firsthand as a former citizen of Oklahoma City, and our company does business today in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

Another feature of this sales tax is that visitors to our city pay approximately 20 to 30% of the sales tax.

That would mean roughly or nearly 200 million would be paid by visitors to Wichita over the course of the seven years.

So you suggest this number would greatly increase once an expansion expanded convention center is built.

This plan is a temporary tax that makes investments in Wichita that would benefit our community for decades.

One thing that I just want to comment on that is not in my prepared comments is that one thing that's very personally important to me is that this tax does not land on those who can least afford to pay it.

And I would welcome, and I know the the uh our coalition would welcome discussion about with the state level regarding tax on groceries, as well as any sort of sales tax rebate program that we would really enjoy and help lead that discussion.

All in all, this is a good plan for our city, and I urge you to vote in favor of allowing a public vote on this plan.

Let's invest in us.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, I guess.

I'm Jim Garvey, retired, uh, used to be in real estate uh development and property management.

But I'm just speaking on behalf of myself.

I live in Becky Tuttle's district, or my home is there anyway.

Umway, uh just a cute few points.

Yeah, number one, uh I heard about this two weeks ago, and then that we're gonna vote on it in two months.

Uh 850 million dollars of John and Mary Taxpayers' money.

What's the hurry?

Why are you so anxious to spend Joe on John and Mary Taxpayers' money?

That's my was my first question reaction, actually.

Um just a few points, and they a little diversion, but yesterday I did go to the forum that Wichtaff Ward put forth, and one of the uh key people there afterwards and speaking to him, his concern.

He said he was very concerned on the budget outlook for the city of Wichita, and that's a big reason he wanted to have sales tax to help help in that regard.

Today I heard some numbers.

It didn't maybe sound as dire as I'd been led to believe, but maybe it is.

Uh I think when you're proposing uh subsidies for developments, we now have multiple CID, uh TIFF districts, star bonds, lots of subsidies, and I know you're concerned now about the ballpark star bond, 40 million dollars that they haven't generated sales tax revenue for.

So John John and Mary Taxpayer will get to pay for that.

I understand also the CID attached to the ballparks, $13 million.

So that's $53 million or $55 million that John and Mary taxpayer will get to pay.

I know a number of years ago, Dion Leffler wrote an article about water walk, and the city, as I recall, city had put up 30 to 40 million dollars, and it had negligible return.

Every deal now has multiple subsidies.

And I think you need to analyze is it gonna get paid back?

Because the ballpark, no.

So you you're on the hook.

The city, it impacts your financial viability, and it impacts Joe and John and Mary taxpayers' ability to pay.

So I think that's something you need you need to think about when you're giving lots of subsidies.

Uh for 120 years, the Wichita was developed pretty much without subsidy, somehow.

Somehow we got buildings built and developments done with no tax fee, the developer risk risked it.

And if it doesn't make sense, they shouldn't do it without it.

If they can't, if if they have to have a subsidy, it it can end up on Joe and John and Mary taxpayers bill.

So I think for your financial viability, that's something to think about.

And the only reason I bring it up is because one of the key people with the group was one reason they won the sales taxes that they helped your dire outlook on the budget.

On uh the homelessness, my only suggestion is I'm sure you're doing a good job, but San Antonio has Haven of Hope, uh run by a nonprofit, been around 15 years, uh 80% decline in homelessness in San Francisco.

Uh economic study showed for every dollar invested, 42 benefit to the city.

So I suggest you might look into their example.

One rise is kind of trying to follow their example here in Wichita.

And the final point with a few questions on the proposed uh performing arts center.

Number one, do you have a drawing of it?

Number two, where will it be located?

Number three, how many square feet is it?

Number four, what's the seating capacity?

Number five, will it mothball 2200 seat concert hall, the 5,000 seat convention hall, and the 6,500 seat Mary Jane Teal Theater.

Also, while you're at it, we have a $575 million water treatment plant, a year past due, and over budget.

I would suggest you solve that before putting an $850 million tax proposal on the budget, and we don't even know what the performing arts center will look like.

We'll replace what we've got.

Uh and uh you know, we have priorities and drinking water is fairly important.

I I suggest you do defer this until you can give us more information.

I would like a picture of and where it's gonna be the performing arts and seating capacity, and if it is in fact gonna replace our 7850 seats currently in Century 2.

Thank you.

Council member Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, just one point real quick.

Um, the MAC, the second line, is actually based off of the model of the Haven Fort Hope in San Antonio, which has gotten up to a point to where 65% of people who go through there end up finding housing.

Um, so that is something that we are striving for.

Hopefully, we can match those efforts at some point in the near future.

Hello.

Um, my name is Cecilia Long.

I'm our director of programs at Family Promise, and I wanted to thank you for the generous time that you offer for public comment.

These are some of the longest uh council meetings I have attended.

Um I'm here to advocate for our families uh recovering and experiencing homelessness in our community.

Um, and I kind of want to ask you to do a little activity with me.

Um, if you could uh close your eyes, just trust me, let's just be a minute.

Um, and I just I want you to um imagine that uh when you get off work today, and when you get into your car, you don't have a place to sleep tonight, and you have your children with you.

I know many of you have children.

Um you don't have any family or friends that you could stay with, and um you've called the shelters and they're full, and you don't really have any other options.

I I'm kind of giving you some homework tonight when you get off work to sit in your cold car and just imagine that you don't have anywhere to be and how um helpless that feels and so yeah, thank you.

Um we at Family Promise use a trauma-informed holistic approach when we support our families recovering from homelessness.

Um we use wraparound support, building um connections and community, and we have um worked with over 70 churches in the community to offer 365 days a year 24-7 shelter to our families.

Um, we have nearly 2,000 children documented um with McKinney Vinto that don't have a place to sleep at night.

80% of our children in district 259 live in poverty.

Um shelter is important to us.

We offer shelter, but more importantly, um having safe and affordable housing is more important to us.

And so if we can uh move families out of shelter into housing faster, um that reduces the amount of homelessness that we see in our community.

And so um, I'm not here to speak in support or against the sales tax.

I feel like we don't know enough about it to know if um affordable housing will be included, but um, we at Family Promise do support a $10 million, at least $10 million investment annually for a Wichita Affordable Housing Fund.

Um we we look to you as leaders um to act on this urgently, and we encourage you to collaborate with us.

We see ourselves as experts when it comes to family homelessness.

Um we spend every day working day and sometimes our weekends thinking about this problem, trying to address it.

So as you're making these decisions around huge funding sources, we ask you to include us in that process.

Um, you know, Wichita isn't gonna be Chicago or um, like Mayor Wu said, Oklahoma City or Dallas, but we could be a greater Wichita, and I think that means addressing the needs of all of our working class people.

Um, and I I don't know, I have a great vision that we could end homelessness here.

I I think it's possible, and I I believe in all of you that you could be leaders in pushing that forward, and we could hit national headlines addressing that issue.

So yeah, I just uh ask you to urgently put your priority in thinking about family homelessness.

Um, the Mac currently doesn't serve families, nor do I think it's the appropriate place for it.

Um, so we would just like to be included in that conversation when you're talking about funding for housing.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, Mayor Wu, Council members, staff.

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

Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the chamber and the business community we represent.

The chamber recognizes that Wichita Ford addresses important priorities public safety, economic development, and quality of life investments that will help strengthen our city's competitiveness.

For that reason, the chamber fully supports giving voters the opportunity to decide on this initiative.

However, the chamber and much of the business community are concerned that the proposal does not allocate a greater share of sales tax revenue to property tax relief.

Property tax burdens remain one of the most significant challenges for businesses and homeowners, affecting affordability, competitiveness, and our ability to retrain, retain, excuse me, and attract a strong workforce.

While the initiative includes 150 million dollars for property tax relief, we believe this amount may not provide the level of impact needed given rising valuations and limited mill levy reductions.

We encourage the city council to identify additional and sustainable strategies to deliver significant property property tax relief to Wichitans.

This must remain a top priority alongside other investments, as reducing property tax pressure is critical to economic vitality and workforce development.

In addition, the chamber believes that a clear, detailed information about the oversight committee structure, responsibilities, and accountability is essential to build confidence in its transparency and effectiveness.

While the proposed 1% sales tax includes a sunset provision and an oversight component, greater clarity is needed to ensure this mechanism provides truly transparent and responsible management of funds, not only for property tax, but also for the other critical priorities, such as the convention facilities, homelessness solutions, and public safety.

The chamber is committed to being a valuable partner in this process.

Thank you for your leadership and commitment to Wichita's future.

The chamber looks forward to working with you to ensure this initiative reflects the priorities of both residents and businesses.

Thank you.

One follow-up question really quick.

What's the actual mill levy reduction?

Maybe that's for Wichita fillers.

Pardon.

Four mil reduction.

That's our estimate.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

That's not um solidified in this, correct?

Because we have to make adjustments from year to year to year.

That's correct.

The maximum amount for each category is established, and so the amount of money that would go in in any one year would depend on sales tax collections.

Thank you.

My name is Vicky Evans, and I live in West Wichita at 259 South Byron Court.

And I'm here to say that I have a vote, and it's for the 1% sales tax.

And I can vote yes or no.

What I don't have is any say on where the money from the sales tax is going.

Because if I vote yes on the sales tax, then I automatically am voting for giving the money to the program that's been presented.

And that bothers me that I don't have any say in where the sales tax money goes.

Thank you.

Hello and good afternoon, I guess.

My name is Roshonda.

I'm the mother of two beautiful children, a veteran and a proud survivor of an abusive relationship.

I'm here today because I believe housing is not a luxury.

It is a basic human right.

And I'm standing here, just not only for myself but for other families struggling with the same things that I know a lot of us, or maybe a lot of us haven't went through before.

There are so many of us that are still drowning and debt and everything else, and we're trying everything we can to stay housed, and it's hard enough.

It really is.

And honestly, just thinking about it now, just think about the blessings that I got just from just people's leniency and just being nice, but not the people that I needed.

I waited for a housing voucher for four years.

And during that four years, I stayed in basements, I stayed in friends' houses.

I had to send my kids to live with relatives.

And as a mother, that's like the hardest thing in the world to not be able to see your kids.

But the even hardest thing is to just to maintain my housing, if that makes any sense.

Because it's constantly changing.

Like one minute I have money for rent, the next minute I don't have money for all the utilities.

I just want affordable housing to stay affordable.

If this 10 million dollar funding is gonna help with that and anything else, then I'm gonna say yes.

I'm gonna say vote for it, please.

At least please consider it.

A lot of us are still out here struggling, and we dress it up and we make it look decent, but it's hard.

It's so hard out here.

Right now, this morning I find myself trying to figure out which utility I'm gonna not pay because I have to make Christmas happen and I have to have rent.

It's hard telling kids no, especially kids as grateful as mine who have seen me struggle, watched me cry, patted my back, when told me it was gonna be okay.

These are kids telling me, Mom, you're gonna be okay.

And I I can't even believe it because like just standing here now, like I'm I'm nervous.

I'm nervous that it won't work out.

I'm nervous that I'm getting my hopes up for nothing.

I'm nervous that I'll be in the same situation next year to where I'm gonna have to figure out am I gonna be paying rent?

Am I gonna be paying this utility?

Am I gonna lose my car?

Will I have car insurance?

What if I get stopped?

When one if I do get this house, will I be able to afford the renter's insurance?

Like it's hard, it's so hard.

And I feel like a person like me, I'm not a bad person.

I like I work hard.

Like I said, I've done so many jobs, I've held down so many positions, and I feel like I have nothing to show for.

All I want is a house that I can maintain, not even a bought house.

Like if I can just rent a house and be able to maintain that house, anything, like anything would help.

The 10 million dollars in funding won't solve every problem.

But it's a good start, and I really hope you guys consider it.

Thank you for your time.

Vice Mayor Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

And thank you for coming up and speaking.

Very much, very much appreciated.

Um, you're you're the reason an example of why this is so important, uh, why housing is so important.

So I appreciate the courage to come up and talk about it.

Um of all the people needing housing are single moms with one or two kids.

You're a classic example of that.

So that's why it's so important.

So excuse me.

Choked up.

So thank you very much.

And uh we'll see what we can do.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um I had a different question, but before that, I just want to say thank you for coming up here and sharing um what you have been through.

Thank you for your service to our country.

And um sorry that you have had to go through everything you have.

Uh my question was from the previous speaker who mentioned um or a few people have mentioned today that they don't know if this money will go where it's supposed to go, or what we've been talking about.

I guess legally if the question that is in the packet is on the ballot that allocates those dollar amounts to those specific areas, because we're not talking items.

Would we legally have to spend that money on what's on the ballot?

So if it's 225 million for public safety, do we legally have to spend 225 million for that allocation towards public safety?

Uh council member, yes.

Um I don't believe that you can deviate from those categories uh in terms of how that can be spent.

Also, the council has a track record of following voter um intent uh with the last sales tax.

Council was to put 50 percent back into the operating budget to help relieve property tax burden and the other 50 percent into streets uh and road improvements, and the council has done that since the adoption of that sales tax.

Okay, so we can at least give some reassurance to people that legally we have to do what's on that ballot in those buckets.

Okay.

Yes, I agree.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

To the speaker, thank you for showing up and sharing your story.

Um, it's definitely something everybody on this body should be aware of and keep in mind with all the decisions that we make.

So thank you.

Before we continue, thank you again, Rishandra, for speaking up.

Can I um have law read specifically item D, which would be if this went to a vote, item D would be specific to what Rishandra is speaking about.

Can that be read out loud?

Section one D an amount not to exceed 150 million dollars.

Mayor, is that the correct?

Okay, yes, an amount not to exceed 150 million dollars of such tax applied to establish a restricted special fund with earnings from such fund to be reinvested into this special fund to support homeless and housing services by funding affordable housing projects and programs, shelter facilities, a multi-agency center, and its operations and related services for people experiencing homelessness.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ho Heisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

So does that mean uh Jennifer that 125 million could potentially go to affordable housing out of that fund?

150 million, it says not to exceed 150 million.

So the whole 150.

Okay, thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor Wu, members of the council.

Thank you for your time today.

My name is Dustin Winter, uh, the vice president of local 135 Wichita professional firefighters, and also a 17-year uh veteran of the fire department.

I'm here on behalf of local 135 President Ted Bush and local 135 to voice our full support for the proposed one cent sales tax.

For us, this isn't a small adjustment, it's a turning point in our ability to deliver the fire service which doll expects and deserves.

For years, the fire department has struggled to keep our apparatus and our fire stations in reliable working order.

We've rotated fire trucks in and out of service more than anyone would like, simply because we don't have the resources to maintain or place them on schedule.

We also lack the number of fire stations needed to fully cover our growing city.

That gap shows up in one place that matters the most, and that's response times.

Response times are the lifeblood of a successful 911 outcome.

When someone calls for help every second counts.

The faster we can reach them, the better the chance we can change the outcome for the good.

Right now, we're doing everything we can, but we're stretched thin.

This sales tax paired with clear assurances that the funds will support fire equipment, stations, and apparatus gives us something we haven't had in a long time.

The ability to plan and move forward to keep our fleet healthy and to build the coverage our community needs and deserves.

It makes the job safer for us firefighters, and more importantly, it makes Wichita safer for the people that we serve.

We can't overstate how much this would change our day-to-day work and operations and the long-term health of our department.

Thank you for considering it and for your continued support of public safety here in Wichita.

Mayor Councilmember Glascock.

Thank you, Dustin.

I appreciate you coming up, especially on behalf of TED as well.

Um quick question to the manager.

Um the proposal presented by Witchtaw Ford would cash fund projects outlining our CIP for public safety, correct?

That's correct.

And that is, and this would be for director of finance, Mark Manning, that has the capacity to save more than 30 million dollars in interest payments for the fire safety and the public um or in the police aspect as well, right?

And then I think for Dustin, enlisted in the CIP, you just have a confirmation of it.

So that means that these would be the items potentially funded if they sort of pass for new stations.

Uh, we're looking at 3 million 921,000.

I'm just gonna round these up.

So three around $4 million for fire apparatus replacement.

We're looking at $45 million for fire communication system replacement.

We're looking at around $7 million for fire equipment for new stations.

We can have around a million for fire equipment replacement.

Again, looking around $5 million fire facilities maintenance, around $4 million.

Um, another replacement around 3.4 for fire stations as a whole, up to 45 million fire stations, uh new 15 million, and then fire training center improvements.

Is that sound correct, Dustin?

Yes, thank you.

Council Member Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Dustin, I have a quick question for you.

When is the last time we built a new fire station?

I believe it was 2009, was the last year that station 22 was opened.

Thank you.

Yep.

Okay, my name's Carl Dennett.

Uh I have an apartment in District 6, and I also have a residence in Augusta Township.

Uh apologize for the vanity of the hat, because last time I looked on YouTube when I was here, the top of my head looked like Neil Armstrong's lunar landing site.

So I'm wearing the hat.

Okay, first off, I want to say I'm not opposed to a new convention center.

I'm just saying there's a better way to go about it.

And my notes are here kind of convoluted because we didn't have much time because of this.

So if a new convention center is a slam dunk money maker, then why is not an entrepreneur written a business plan and asked for a bank for financing?

And that's because I think in the book convention center follies, subtitled Politics, Power, and Public Investment in American Cities by Haywood Sanders, emphatically proves that convention centers don't get a return on investment.

And in fact, he gives example after example where a convention center fails, and then the answer is to build a bigger convention center.

So I'd leave that, and I'm not opposed to a convention center.

I just think they're a loss leader for the city.

And so now we're going to finance this convention center with a sales tax paid largely by citizens who can least afford it.

I'm going to end up paying, I figured about anywhere from two to three thousand dollars over seven years on this deal.

And what I'd like to do is I'd like to call attention to the Orlando Public Library.

Not what happened to our public library.

I would also like to mention the Bartlesville Community Center.

It's a dead ringer for Century 2.

Even the color of the paint, except it has no convention activities.

It's just a theater and a and a uh Symphony Hall.

So I would also call attention to a meeting that was held on November 29th, 2022 at the Board of Park Commissioners Special Meeting Retreat.

It was a hate fest for the Broodless Library in Century 2.

And one of the things they brought up is if we could move, it was brought up brand new about the new performing arts center.

And if we can just move Symphony Hall Symphony Hall out and music theater, well, then we could demolish Century 2.

That was the gist of that meeting.

And also at that meeting, they asked what would be the best thing to do with the broodless library, and they said blow it up.

And they just had a big laugh fest over that one.

And also, this has been planned a long time ago, I believe, because Wilner Auditorium at Wichita State is to be demolished.

That's the theater at Wichita State.

And it's due to unperform maintenance, and so that precludes the ability to pay for it, to pay for to rehabilitate it.

Oh man, my time's going fast.

So I believe there's no valid reason for a new performing arts center.

What I propose is you remodel Century 2 and make it a just like in Bartlesville, a civic center, and build your new convention center where you're going to build the new performing arts center and build it clean sheet and go bigger than what you're planning with adding on to uh what's that?

Yeah, Brown.

Don't add on to Bob Brown.

The west side of the river where you're going to build the new performing arts center.

That's where you should build your clean sheet.

Civic center.

That way it would be uh more advantageous, and it wouldn't just be an add-on to Bob Brown.

Uh anyway, that was my thoughts.

So uh yeah, rehabilitate Century 2, because I don't think there's any way, shape, or form you can spend 150 million dollars and come up with something better than what we have now at Symphony Hall and Mary Jane Teal Theater.

And you could rehabilitate it to where music theater could find it workable.

All right, thanks for your time.

Thank you, Carl.

Council Micro Glasgow.

Thank you, Mr.

Manager.

Quick questions regarding the concerns on Century 2.

From what I can see, page 24 of our current CIP projects 12.1 million dollars to in the maintenance of century two over the next 10 years.

That's my recollection.

I don't have it in front of me, but yes.

And then Wichita Ford, your presentation as presented, actually allocates 25 million over the next seven years to preserve Century 2.

Okay, thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor Woons, City Council members, Celeste Rossette, District 5, Wichita Native, Community Advocate.

My background is in finance.

I have an accounting degree from KU, an MBA from WSU.

I'm a former chief internal auditor and bank examiner with the FDIC.

I'm mentioning this because last night one of you told me if I didn't support the sales tax proposal, Century 2 would be torn down and destroyed.

As a fraud investigator, if I've been lied to, threatened, or attempted to be bribed, it really puts me on a fight.

And so you're in for it on this one.

If you're using this kind of pressure to get this approved, shame on you.

Six years ago, I stood in front of you, two of you currently sitting here, and asked former mayor Jeff Longwell questions about the proposed new ball stadium.

My questions were not answered.

The ball stadium was approved, and now the city is facing a deficit.

Seven acres on the West Bank were sold for a dollar an acre, and in six years, nothing's gone up.

Now I'm standing before you again asking questions about an even larger proposal with even a larger amount of bond debt and being asked to trust you all to provide the details.

I'm sorry.

This time it isn't good enough.

I want to verify, trust, and verify how the money will be spent, where the buildings will be, how funding will be capped, and how oversight will occur.

I submitted my list of questions to both City Council and Wichita Ford last night at the Advanced Learning Library.

Would you allow me to leave a copy here with you today?

Thank you.

This is not like Omaha's MAPS maps program, which it's compared to there is no citizen input, there's no blueprint, and there are no really specified guardrails.

Why are we in such a hurry to pass this without vetting through the budget process?

Why are you in such a hurry?

Oklahoma City also was not burdened with previous failed projects and outstanding bond debt.

And Wichita Ford is incorrect.

We do have a city sales tax.

We have 13 CID districts that charge anywhere up to 2% on items within that district.

So they're incorrect when they say we don't have a sales tax.

There are two projects hanging over the city's head right now.

The Wichita water plant project has failed because of bad management, cost overruns, and bid rigging.

The water plant is a pending financial burden on citizens, and we are paying increased water rates to prevent it from failing.

Who knows what will happen next year with the water plant and if it truly will open?

The second disaster is the new ball stadium with bad management, misguided revenue estimates, and stalled retail development.

Even with increased taxpayer incentives, we gave 11 million to EPC to boost that hotel, restaurant, garage.

Taxpayers could still be burdened in our general fund.

The total annual star bond payments are not even shown in our financial statements.

Only a limited amount of the total payment shows up.

So the big problem with our local city government is you've lost credibility, not you all, but some of you older ones through bad past decisions of Kenmar, Genesis Gyms, Jim Corricks fight Fairfield Inn, Waterwalk, water plant cost overruns, 20 million and counting, and the new ballpark.

This is not the time to ask for more money.

Solve our problems first, show you have the expertise to handle Sandy finances, and then put this on the regular budget to vet.

I was asked to serve on a bipartisan efficiency group to find operational efficiencies and cost savings.

We had several recommendations, and it's funny because Visit Wichita's salary and expenses was one of our targets.

City manager Leighton promised to sit down with our group before he retired.

His last day is December 31st.

When are we meeting?

This was one way to save money.

We had recommendations to how to save with the budget going forward, and all of our hard work has not been answered by your current city manager who will shortly leave the office.

And having an outside audit means nothing.

The city's audited financial statements lied for three years, stating that an internal auditor had reviewed all projects over $50,000.

We had no internal auditor.

And that was against administrative regulations.

And I brought this up before city council numerous times, and yet the financial statements still lied.

We had an internal auditor looking over our big contracts.

When we finally hired an internal auditor, she found $13 million in uncollected revenues.

So who knows what we've missed because of lack of controls and oversight.

It's too big, it's too vague, it's too rushed, and you have to pick one project and be successful.

And you need to fix these two looming financial deficits we have with the water plant and the ball stadium before you propose almost a billion dollars in spending.

But thank you for your time.

I appreciate it.

Thanks, Celeste.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Celeste.

54.

Okay, never mind.

They're in different categories.

I know I'm an accountant.

I'm sorry, but one has to do with how much we've paid Wichita Forward.

Another has to do with actually the audit oversight and how that's gonna work.

But I Celeste, can you come to the microphone?

Us your top five questions from that list.

Okay.

So the first one was how much have we spent so far?

Like I only heard about this a few weeks ago.

But Wichita Ford's been working on it.

We've done publicity, you know.

So I want to know what's the staff costs, office costs, supplies, populists revised their plans.

I want to know what have we spent so far, or what are, you know, what have we shelled out?

The second one was administrative questions about the financial reports.