Yeah, so we have the matter.

No, I know it's fine or something like that.

Yeah, and then you have to go down this time.

All right, okay, so I should be on this one.

So I I have moved out of the screen.

No, Mom is in the controls.

Okay.

Yeah, we can't.

Yeah, of course.

I think you can go back.

I I have to do it.

Well I tried then.

Are you going to do that?

I think you're very good.

Yeah, me too.

I need Kyle.

Good morning, JC.

Good morning, Becky.

I do.

I heard you're like, we have something else.

I was saying that we have to do that.

Good morning, staff.

Can you please roll the video?

Thank you for attending today's city council meeting.

Please take a moment to silence your mobile device.

If you wish to speak on an agenda item after the mayor invites public comment, proceed to the podium, 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.

Let's pause a moment for our television audience to join us.

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

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

I call this meeting to order.

With us this morning is Pastor Karen Smith of Bethel Life Center to provide our invocation.

Following that invocation, we will have the Pledge of Allegiance.

Good morning.

As the mayor said, my name is Kieran Smith of Bethel Life Center, and I'm also the Hope Wichita Board member.

Will you bow your head with me, please?

Oh Heavenly Father, I come to you with a grateful heart.

Thank you for Mayor Wu and her passion for this city.

Thank you for each council person here, God, and what you've called them to do, representing their district.

May you guide and direct their thoughts, their actions, their words, and their steps.

Thank you for the privilege to live in a city where freedom abounds.

Thank you for the country we live in and the rights and privileges we have as Americans.

It is in your precious name I pray.

Amen.

Thank you, Pastor Smith.

Today also happens to be lunar new year for our Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean communities.

So Chukmung Namway and Gunghe Fa Chai.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the first item?

Approve the minutes of the regular meeting, February tenth, twenty twenty-six.

Council members, are there any items to be corrected from the minutes?

I see none.

I move to approve the minutes for the regular meeting, February tenth, twenty twenty-six.

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 proclamation is the Wichita African American Council of Elders Day.

Can I please ask the Council of Elders and its supporters to come forward at this time.

Whereas the council's service reflects a deep dedication to community empowerment, cultural pride, and the belief that collective wisdom and shared responsibility are essential to building a stronger, more inclusive Wichita, inspiring future leaders to serve with integrity, compassion, and purpose.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Wichita City Council does hereby proclaim Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 as Wichita African American Council of Elders Day.

Greetings and thank you.

My name is Michelle Armster, and I am the presiding elder for the Wichita African American Council of Elders.

I first would like to acknowledge our elder that is with us here today, Queen Mother, uh Geneva Holloway, who where she's she celebrated her 90th birthday.

This weekend, Sunday.

So we are blessed to continue to have her in our midst and continue to benefit from her wisdom.

And want to thank uh thank you to the Wichita Council of for the Wichita City Council for this esteemed proclamation honoring the Wichita African American Council of Elders.

The Council of Elders was established in 2001, and our council emerged from a shared vision to uplift, strengthen, and unify our community with through the wisdom and guidance of our elders.

Over the years, we have worked tirelessly to preserve our collective history, provide mentorship to youth and adults, and serve as a source of values and principled compass for our communities' growth and sustainability.

This recognition affirms the importance of our mission and inspires us to continue fostering unity, self-determination, and the strength of our heritage.

Recognizing the present uh political climate of anti-blackness, and as we look forward to the future, we embrace a vision that inspires intergenerational collaboration through learning events, shared dialogue, round tables, and other creative endeavors that connect wisdom with innovation.

We remain committed to lifting up both the challenges and the opportunities within the African American community in Wichita and Sedgwick County, working together to cultivate resilience, expand possibilities, and nurture the leadership that will guide generations to come.

We believe that when elders are heard, communities are strengthened, when history is remembered, futures are protected, and when we stand together, hope becomes action.

On behalf of the Council of Elders, we humbly accept the this honor and remain steadfast in our commitment to the people of the City of Wichita and Cedric County.

May our collective work continue to reflect the resilience of our past, the promise of our present, and the policy possibilities of a brighter, more unified tomorrow.

Thank you, Mickey.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Public agenda.

We now come to the public agenda.

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

Please bear in mind that this is not a period of dialogue with council or a question and answer period.

This is your opportunity to address the council with your concerns.

I ask that you address your remarks for the city council as a body and not it to any individual council member.

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

Speakers will please speak into the microphone.

Please state their name and address for the record.

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

Order and rules of decorum will be observed.

The first speaker is Derek Carleton Jackson Bay.

Correction to the record.

First of all, I'd like to say thank you for the opportunity to be here.

Thank you for the gracious prayer this morning and of the stuff of the pledge that we was taking, my favorite part is to the Republic.

I'm not political, but I am a Republican.

The purpose of me being here today, Derek Carlton Jackson Bay.

You can find me at 2658 East A Street.

We call it mom's.

It stands for Moors of Mariah Sanctum.

M-O-M-S.

The purpose of coming here to see if we can I can get some relief for grievous situation I've been dealing with for quite some time.

Going on 14 years with my wife, Karen Jackson.

We may be getting ready to come to uh some kind of agreement.

Um until then I want to say that I am a minister, and I'm gonna have to petition the Wichita members of Moore's um to help me with some financial situations because giving yourself into the most high is it's a noble and honorable thing to do for all ministers, but we don't actually make no money, you know, we don't have that.

So being able to petition some people until the um grievances answered, I'm gonna have to do that maybe through cash out.

I like to save my property, which is the sanctum for my grandchildren and for the people that come there to get the understanding about the Moors.

We mainly focus on that part, and what we teach is just the records of the future.

I mean, excuse me, of uh our past.

We search the records of the past, and but the purpose I'm here is today I want to talk about Donald Trump, this messages for Donald Trump, a man whom I'm adva admire greatly, but I'm gonna talk about another admirer, Ronald Reagan.

He came with the American Heart Month in 1983, and me being myself a person who had a stroke, and one of the um people that's working with me on this situation had a heart attack, and as I stress to him that you know, um I like to bring this to a close.

Enjoy the rest of my life with my grandkids if possible.

And with that being said, the right to bring before the government in redress of your grievances is Dare Carlton Jackson.

It's not hard to find me on the internet seeking to get some justice for my wife Karen Lynn Jackson.

I believe the attorney is working for my wife's children.

We'll do a great job if we presented with the opportunity for that trial, and I'll do my part in righteousness.

Um but I do want to reflect on it.

1981, February 3rd, 19 excuse me, 83, the American Heart Month.

This was done by Ronald Reagan, which I really admire him and his wife.

And um, what I want to just also say is in the same year, 1983, it was the year of the Bible.

So being the year of the Bible, I would like to say I am a believer of inheritance.

I want my inheritance.

I appreciate my inheritance.

I hope to pass uh inheritance down to my children.

I thank you for your time.

You again when you're looking at the clock, you start trying to remember what is the main parts, but I would like my issues with the city of Wichita, City of Wichita Police Department solved, resolved.

So we can move on.

I can move on.

My grandchildren have um some things resolved for their life.

I thank you for your time.

Also choose to say um sanctum.

I would like my freedom of speech rights.

I would like my freedom of religion rights.

That's all I have to say, really.

Um I want to say hopefully McGrievous would be um settled.

And I thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, other members of the city council.

I do not normally say I'm a citizen because being what I am, I know I study a lot of dictionaries, a lot of um material and certain things I say out of my mouth.

I want to be correct and not fraudulent in any way.

Again, I thank you for this time, this opportunity.

Derek Calton, Jackson Bay, 2658 East A Street.

I was born here, born in Sedgjack County.

So I thank you for your time.

Have a good day.

Thank you, Derek.

Madam Clerk, please call the next individual.

David Braddock, non-discrimination follow-up.

Good morning, Mayor Wu and members of council, and welcome to our city manager.

We're glad to have you here.

For those of you who don't know who I am, my name is David Braddock.

I'm a resident of Maggie Ballard's district, and my address is definitely on file.

I'm actually here as a follow-up to my discussion December 15th, actually 16th, regarding the apparent failure of the non-discrimination ordinance.

I actually waited a few weeks to actually let her new city manager get in place because this directly involves a direct subordinate of hers, one of which you rely on her counsel at all times.

During my last meeting as a follow-up, I requested that you probably need outside counsel as an assistance to review this matter because it's directly related to the director of law's performance.

As you may recall, I had to file a Freedom of Information Act to learn that the measurable success rate of the program.

When I got that data, there was zero positive outcome.

I'm hoping that those results have since changed since those findings were taken.

The core problem of the ordinance is actually structural.

Under the ordinance, the director of law wears multiple conflicting hats.

She acts as a police officer taking the report, the district attorney deciding what cases are actually prosecuted.

She then actually hires the judge if she doesn't do it herself, if mediation fails.

Remember, this is all designed to get things to mediation, not to binding arbitration.

No one can really simultaneously act as the investigator, prosecutor, judge, and just resolve a dispute between parties.

It's just undoable.

That's why we have separation of powers in this country.

In my case, it was quite unusual.

I was the first case to go through the arbitration process, and it was actually a religious discrimination case.

Even more interesting, 10 minutes before the event actually was filed under the case.

So I went to the case with a complaint with the opposing party fully admitting everything it did was wrong.

It was an unusual case.

Most interesting about the procedure is the director of law has to get voluntary participation against the plaintiff to participate.

So she has no way to force them into participation.

That's actually what happened with Walgreens.

She filed a request to actually hear the case.

She then actually did, I think, after getting a bit upset, convinced them to participate, but didn't quite explain the ordinance itself and why I chose to use this particular ordinance.

If you read the ordinance recently, you realize the main clause is not monetary compensation, it's actually re-education.

And since this is a religious case, my case was quite interesting because quite often into mediation, the immediate response was how much do you need to get this case to go away?

And I responded, I filed this here because this isn't re-education issue.

And my proposal was to have all of the leadership read the four books of the gospel in the book of Romans.

That didn't go over too well.

My next response was once again, well, how much do you want?

My response was, I don't think she tied the CEO on how much she made.

And I don't want that money because it wasn't offense against me, it was offense against my God.

So how about she donate to a church or charity of my choosing?

They didn't like that one either.

Mediation did crumble shortly thereafter.

So we have to understand it's a systematic failure of the process.

As indicated previously to communications to Maggie Ballard, I'm planning to file a removal of our law office's bar license by filing a complaint because of the data dump that was given to me after my case.

When the data was reviewed, it was never clear what hat she was wearing when she was having communications with opposing counsel.

If she was wearing the judge hat was clearly ex parte communications, which are ethics issue.

Ethics issues with the bar never expire.

I don't want to file a case against her.

I don't want her to lose her job, but she's been put in an untenable situation by the former mayor and the city council to do a law that she simply cannot do.

If the mayor will simply commit to getting the statistics of proving me wrong of the success or failure, I'll be glad to walk away.

That's all I'm really looking for.

Prove me wrong.

Thank you.

Thank you, David.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next individual?

We don't have any other individuals signed up, Mayor.

We have space for three individuals to address the council.

Please state your name and your address.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

Again, thank you so much for the proclamation.

I would just like to take this opportunity to recognize a person that we lost today, and that is Reverend Jesse Jackson.

Reverend Jesse Jackson was a huge civil rights organizer and generator during his time.

He spent the majority of his life championing civil rights.

He emerged as one of America's most prominent civil rights activists and a tireless champion for social justice.

Reverend Jackson fought not for one particular race.

He fought for all people.

And for that, we should be appreciative today.

So I just wanted to take this opportunity to help people to understand who he was, what he did, and how important his life was to all of us.

At one point, uh Reverend Jackson did come to Wichita, Kansas, and that was during some turmoil that we were having with one of our aircraft.

He settled and helped with that in a very um calm and peaceful way.

And so that was the way he led his life.

Peaceful civil rights.

And I want to thank him today.

And again, counsel, as you move forward looking at the one percent sales tax, remember the elders.

Remember the seniors of our community.

Thank you so much.

We have room for two more individuals.

Thank you, Lavanta.

That was news to me, so thank you.

Good morning, Mayor Wu and Council members.

My name is Alison Fleming and I serve on the board of the Sunflower Land Trust.

Our organization owns and stewards 27 acres directly adjacent to the West 21st Street expansion.

Located at 12630 West 21st Street.

Crucially, this property spans both sides of the Cowskin Creek and is a vital part of the District 5 landscape.

We recognize that as Wichita grows, our transportation needs evolve.

We are in support of making this road safer.

However, we are here to ensure that specific due diligence measures are incorporated into the final construction plans.

For example, providing appropriate lighting and deer signage.

Because the engineering requirements for protecting this watershed are complex.

Having walked the path myself, I did not feel safe.

So again, the Lanchest does support making this road safer for pedestrians.

Thank you, Mayor Wu and Council, for your time.

Thank you, Allison.

We have space for one more individual.

I see none.

Now we'll bring it to the bench.

Councilmember Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

Regards to request on 21st Street.

There will be ample time to uh for open houses and things like that.

Also, our district advisory board, they'll present it.

And you have plenty of input on it.

So I share your concerns, and I'm I'm sure they will be addressed.

So thank you.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Consent agenda items one through 25.

Council members, are there any items from consent to be pulled?

I see none.

I move to approve consent agenda items one through 25.

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.

Early financial reports for the period ended December 31st, 2025.

Good morning, Mayor, members of the city council.

I'm Mark Banding with the Department of Finance.

Today I want to present to you the fourth quarter of 2025 financial report.

The fourth quarter report is probably the most important quarterly report that we present to you.

And so I'll probably take a little extra time today to go over some additional topics that we ordinarily wouldn't talk about.

And this presentation also leads into our budget development phase, which as you know is coming up.

So I'll morph the discussion a little bit into what our forecasts look like and uh what we can learn from our performance this year and how that might uh impact the upcoming budget situation that uh that we're faced with.

And finally, uh we typically don't talk about this topic, but I thought it might be appropriate uh today to provide an update on star bonds.

I know we've had a lot of discussion about that in the past, uh so I wanted to uh provide some information about that today.

So, as I noted, the financial report reports unaudited financial activity in this case through December 31st of 2025.

Uh in other words, our final numbers may be a little bit different, but materially they will be very similar to what is in your quarterly report today.

Uh we're gonna use this to compare how we performed to how we thought we were going to perform, which is to say our budget for 2025.

And again, I'll spend most of my time today using that information to provide a context for the upcoming budget development, particularly the 2027 budget.

So last year we had very good performance in the general fund.

Uh I sound like a broken record, or at least I feel like a broken record in a lot of stuff that I tell you because we've talked about pretty much the exact same themes uh for several quarterly reports.

Uh, really the difference is just the magnitude of those themes and the timing of those themes.

Uh but we did perform very well last year.

Uh we had some final year-end adjustments that occurred after December that all broke into our favor, and some of our revenue streams that we've been concerned about also generally broke uh to our favor.

Uh so that's uh that's what I'll talk about here in a couple minutes.

Uh we talked about franchise fees a lot, they're weather dependent.

They actually did fairly well last year, a little bit better than we expected.

Sales tax actually performed better last year than we expected.

Uh not a lot, but a little bit.

We could kind of you know generally had a a assumption of a little bit of a slowdown in Q4.

This is back when we developed our estimates about a year ago, and uh to to date uh sales tax continues to be very strong.

Interest earnings is probably the largest story.

The fundamental outlook is unchanged.

Interest earnings will decline at some point in the future.

The challenge we have is we don't know when that point is, and based on Federal Reserve action, that point keeps getting pushed out further and further.

That is very, very beneficial to the city because it means we can maximize our interest earnings.

Uh however, it doesn't uh change the long-term forecast in which we expect interest earnings to decline, which is one reason we think we have challenges going ahead.

Expenditures did grow considerably last year, about approximately 20 million dollars.

Uh most of that is due to wages.

Wages are 75% of our general fund, as you know.

Most of those wages are in the public safety area.

That's where we're getting most of our expenditure pressure.

Uh so that that was primarily the reason why our expenditure growth was significant.

So this slide kind of shows you what guidance we had provided to you in the past in previous quarterly reports and what actually happened.

We expected property tax revenues to continue to be strong.

We were correct, but they were actually even a little bit better than what we thought.

That's primarily due to an adjustment that we made in January based on information from Sedgwick County.

They always give us final current year collection data and we accrue that back to 2025, and that broke to our benefit in early January.

I mentioned sales tax, sales tax was a little bit better than we expected, nowhere near the years that we had several years ago when we were having 10% sales tax growth.

But sales tax growth was very good last year.

Interest earnings, again, I'll show you a slide here in a second that shows you the magnitude.

There were three rate cuts in 2025, September, October, and December.

At one point, we were expecting five beginning as early as January of this year.

So that is a huge help to our interest earnings.

Charges for services were down a little bit.

That's based on activity levels, and typically it's offset a little bit by lower expenditures, so we're not too concerned there.

But generally, everything else, and I just lumped everything else into one category, that all performed pretty much as we expected.

And this chart kind of shows you what I talked about a little bit better.

I point out the yellow bar on property taxes and the yellow bar on interest earnings.

Those are the two areas where the yellow bar is materially higher than the uh than the light blue bar, uh which shows you that we're uh we're experiencing increases in those areas.

So, what do we expect on the expenditure side?

Well, we expected personal services or salaries and wage growth, uh, primarily for two reasons.

We knew that our wage rates were going up based on contracts that have been approved, and we also anticipated increased success in filling vacancies.

I think I talked about that during the third quarter report.

Uh that is pretty much not a problem in public safety, but it continues to be a challenge for us, particularly in public works and park.

So that typically results in under expenditures on wages.

Again, that's not something that we plan for.

It's not something that we necessarily want to occur, but it's a part of the dynamic in uh employee turnover and then challenges filling positions in some of those areas.

We told you in the third quarter that we expected jail fees to increase considerably, and that actually was accurate.

Jail fees are about two million dollars higher than what we have spent in prior years.

We provided guidance that we expected the general fund to be balanced, and that if we had excess earnings based on city council policy 40, we would initiate transfers to the reserve.

And that's exactly what happened, which I'll show you here in just a second.

We'll talk about that in a little bit more detail.

So this shows you public safety and all other expenditures.

You can see the growth in public safety there was approximately what uh 14, 15 million dollars.

Again, that's where most of our growth occurs.

You can see everything else is up about four or five million dollars.

Look to the far right, the little yellow bar there, that's 6.8 million dollars.

I'm gonna go into detail on that, but that is the effect of the property tax collections accrual and a few other things that really boosted our final year-end numbers last year.

So, in accordance with city council policy, we did run a surplus in the general fund of about two million, and that puts the balance at 15%, which again is in accordance with your city council policy number 40.

And again, consistent with that policy, we transferred the excess above a 15% balance into the permanent reserve or the stabilization reserve.

So this is probably one of the most illustrative slides, I think, so that I can explain our situation to you last year and what occurred.

Again, I told you we had a very good year, and these are generally the reasons why.

Now, the takeaway to me is in the comments field.

Most of these we do not expect to be recurring items.

There were a lot of one-time things that broke in our favor.

Interest earnings was considerably higher than what we expected.

Now, I will tell you that we would expect interest earnings to be higher than what we had budgeted in the future because we were pretty conservative in our budget, but I don't know that they'll continue at the current level in which we are earning interest.

Property tax collections again, that's current year collections.

That tends to fluctuate a lot on an annual basis.

We've been fortunate in that current year collections have been pretty attractive for the last couple years, and we're certainly appreciative of that that people are paying their taxes on time, but that doesn't always occur, unfortunately.

We canceled a lot of prior year encumbrances.

We do that every year, but we had an abnormally large amount last year, half a million dollars.

Again, that is not something that typically happens.

We took a real very close scrub on our prior year encumbrances.

These are commitments that we made maybe a year or two or three ago.

We had a contractual obligation.

We don't always spend the total amount that we obligate for a variety of reasons.

So we go in and scrub those and we basically liquidate those and collapse that revenue back into the general fund if we don't need it.

And that's what occurred there, and that was about a half a million dollars that we picked up there.

And again, we're gonna do that in January after the year-end close.

We also did something we don't usually do.

We canceled a current year encumbrance for about 1.2 million.

That seldom occurs.

That was a benefit to the general fund.

That was primarily in the area of curb cuts.

We encumber a lot of money for curb cuts, and those that activity level just did not materialize, so we canceled that encumbrance and generated approximately 1.2 million for the general fund.

We have 700,000 budgeted annually in the adopted budget for contingencies.

That's for fuel and that's for snow removal.

And we've had that in the budget for several years.

Again, when I present third quarter report, I'm not a meteorologist, so we were a little skeptical what the weather might bring for us in December.

So we anticipated that we would use that.

Turned out we did not need to tap into that contingency.

So that helped us on the revenue side.

And then finally, all the other adjustments are just a conglomeration of thousands of different adjustments.

So that's how we got to approximately $8.8 million to the good in the general fund.

Again, we kept $2 million of that in the general fund consistent with your policy, and the rest of it we move to the permanent reserve again, or the stabilization reserve again, consistent with your policy.

Again, to be redundant, takeaway is I don't know that all these are going to occur in the future, so I would not expect that level of performance in the future.

Let's look at our reserve levels.

That's very important.

This shows you our general fund reserve, shows you we ended the or we'll we will end the year approximately 51 million dollars in the general fund.

That again is 15% again, which is consistent with our policy.

Let's look at the stabilization reserve.

Stabilization reserve will have about 44 million dollars, give or take.

I use round numbers at the end of the year.

And again, that was not expected.

We did not expect to transfer that much in, but it's due to all the activity that occurred at the end of the year.

So that's a good thing.

We built that reserve, and I'll talk about some of the potential uses for that reserve here in just a minute.

So let's talk about City Council Policy 30.

I think this was adopted in 2023, if I remember correctly.

Uh that count that policy has several objectives.

One is to demonstrate financial strength to our rating agencies, which is very important.

That helps us when we borrow money, and we're a fairly significant borrower.

And that's one reason perhaps I would speculate that we have a triple A rating.

But reserves are also possible, are important for another lot of other reasons.

They provide funds for cash flow for us, they provide funds for unexpected emergencies, and they also help us smooth service delivery if we have significant swings in our revenues.

I hate to bring it up, but think about the pandemic.

Our revenues cratered to about $15 million that year, 2000, 2001.

And we were extraordinarily fortunate and that the federal government passed the uh CARES Act, which gave us about 12 million dollars.

But had it not been for that, that would have been a time when we likely would have significantly used our reserves to try to maintain service levels to some degree.

Again, we did not have to do that, but that's a good example of why reserves are very important to us.

So maybe at some point it might be appropriate to talk about reserve policies.

Uh so I just provide this information to you.

Again, this may be a topic for us during budget development.

Uh GFOA guidance, which is our professional organization, would tell you about a two-month reserve is probably a good standard.

That's about 17%.

Our rating agencies, they have matrix, which is the matrixes which they use for rating.

Now ratings are very complicated, and I'm telling you about one small piece of the entire rating methodology, but reserves are very important to them.

And for triple A status, generally they'd like to see somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 percent.

So those are maybe two metrics for consideration.

Uh guidance on reserves, as I mentioned, reserves are much better suited for one-time purposes or for planned purposes.

Uh, unpredicted use of reserves or use of reserves for ongoing forever expenditures, neither of those are our best practices, and those are things we would not recommend.

And again, you'll note that our policy is designed more around bullet number one and not bullet number two, and that's the reason why.

We mentioned the investment policy briefly in the past, and given the importance of investment earnings to our general fund portfolio.

I wanted to touch on it a little bit.

Our investment policy is dictated by state statute.

Now, there's some flexibility there, but it is fundamentally dictated by the state of Kansas.

And I would emphasize that earnings is not repeat, not our number one priority.

It's our third priority.

Safety of principle is priority number one.

Liquidity is priority number two.

And only after those two objectives are satisfied, do we focus on earnings?

But having said that, there is some flexibility within the statutory framework in which we could consider amending our investment policy.

Now, every time you do that, you're trading off perhaps a little bit increase in risk for increased earnings.

And again, we may come back to you at this at some point, but I just wanted to throw it out there today.

Some of the things we might look at is extending the duration of our portfolio.

Duration means how long out we invest.

Well, when rates are declining, it's typically better to invest longer term so that we can lock in rates today.

So that might be something we might want to look at.

Derivatives, I know is a really bad word, and believe me, we're not going to get into exotic derivatives, but we buy bonds that are callable occasionally, and we have some very tight restrictions there.

Might be some flexibility there to loosen up our our uh restrictions on the amount of callable bonds that we purchase, and again, we would generate a little bit extra yield by doing that.

And finally, to get really into the weeds, and I apologize for that.

We are allowed to purchase government secured entities.

That's Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, names like that that you probably heard of.

But we're pretty conservative on the ones we invest in, and there's a few others that we typically have not invested in but would be allowed by policy at the state, and uh that we might be able to generate a little extra yield there.

So just put that in the in your back pocket of things, maybe to think about at some point in the future if we uh present to you some uh considerations on our investment policy.

And again, I can't emphasize enough any adjustments to the policy would likely be a balance of earnings and risk.

So we'd want to be very careful on not only what we proposed but what we uh sought approval for.

So let me flip back into the quarterly report.

I want to touch on a few other funds just very briefly.

Uh I won't go into detail on the TIFFs except to point out two that are performing very well, which is to say the increment considerably exceeded our expectations last year, and that's the West Bank TIFF, and that's the center city TIFF.

Those increments were both significantly higher than what we expected, which is a really good thing.

We talked about water revenue in the third quarter and the impact of the drought and how that was depressing revenues.

Uh, fortunately, uh revenues generally have recovered.

I think they were relatively flat with last year, but that's actually a good thing considering that we had the drought uh during the summer and the impact that the drought had on water revenues.

Uh golf, uh probably one of my favorite funds to talk about.

Golf had an extraordinary year again.

Again, I know I sound like a broken record, but golf uh probably will transfer a million dollars into their capital improvement fund.

I think last year we transferred 600,000 or so.

Uh but it's just phenomenal.

It's just impressive.

I can't say the other word very well.

It's just impressive the performance that we've gotten from our golf fund and our golf leadership.

Now, this is important, as you know, we approved the irrigation uh investment a couple years ago, and I would probably argue that some of this is due to that investment because it improved the quality of our courses.

But this will let us, and I I think Jesse has we've talked to him about this, this will allow us to pay a little bit more cash down on some of those projects to reduce the golf debt even more than what we had initially planned.

So it's all very good in the golf world, and we're very appreciative for that.

Landfill had a strong year, revenue is up about a million dollars, uh, which is a little unusual, but that's good too.

We'll take that.

Uh debt, I show you this slide every time.

Uh the message is pretty much exactly the same.

Yes, our debt is growing, it's growing primarily on the water utility side, uh, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

Our general obligation at large debts about 68 million dollars or so, and that's about 4% of our total debt level.

So let's talk about how all this information that I gave you might be of use to you as we develop the 2027 budget.

So, to do that, the first place I need to go is to what our current financial plan is for the upcoming years.

So, what I'm providing you here is our current approved adopted financial plan, which dates back to August of last year.

So take that under consideration.

It's obviously going to change materially because that was what, eight months ago, seven months ago.

But this is the basis for which we will have our discussions.

And as we've talked a lot, we do forecast deficits in 28 and 29.

And again, fundamentally, that's due to two reasons.

We expect a significant decline in interest earnings at some point, and we expect continual upward pressure on our wages.

Fundamentally, that's why we have challenges in the future.

So let's take the results that I gave you and give you some very preliminary guidance on things that we might expect to happen.

Now we'll give you a lot more detail on this.

I can't remember whether our financial forecast workshop is in February or March, but whenever that occurs, we'll provide you a much more detailed outlook on this.

But if I could give you a few teasers on things that you might see in that workshop with a lot more specificity, I'll mention a few.

Interest earnings again, we think will decline.

But the key is we don't think they will decline as much as we had budgeted in 2026 and maybe even 2027.

So we think there's probably going to be room to increase again interest earnings.

We've done that for several years now.

And again, to be a broken record, it's because we know the decline is going to occur.

We just don't know when.

So likely we'll pick up some revenue there.

I don't like to align dollars to this because that's not really fair at this point.

But just to give you a little magnitude, interest earnings, maybe a couple million dollars, sales tax maybe a million dollars.

So maybe we might pick up two or three million dollars there in those areas, perhaps.

Now, some of the negatives, I mentioned jail fees, two million dollars higher.

We don't expect that to decline in the future.

So that's an area that we're gonna have extended expenditure pressure, and again, that number is about two million dollars.

As you know, we approved a wage agreement uh late last year, and that agreement had wage rates that were higher than what we included in the adoptive budget, so that's going to increase pressure on the general fund as we do our revised forecast.

And if I remember the agenda report correctly, I think the number was approximately two million dollars in that agenda report.

So again, ultra high level, some things are breaking to the good, some things are breaking to the bad.

We'll give you a much more detailed forecast here in a few weeks.

Let's look at even a little bit longer term.

Again, our challenge is public safety cost.

Uh, those uh operating costs are where most of our growth occurs.

Uh, and so we would probably will likely have some pressures there, particularly as we try to absorb some of the capital improvement projects that are planned in the future and the operating costs associated with those projects.

We have two contracts that will be negotiated in 2027.

Again, how those wage rates fall out is gonna have a significant impact on what our long-term forecast for the general fund is.

Group health, we've had a lot of success in group health in the last few years, and we've kept rates very, very low.

But we're starting to see some pressure on the expenditure side on group health.

It's way too early to make any conclusions on that.

And as you know, looking at group health is one of our items included in our strategic plan, and we're aggressively looking at options on group health.

Uh, but I would just note here that we're going to be continually concerned about group health and what those increases might look like for the general fund in the future.

And final point I would make is the last item.

Probably the biggest challenge that we have in providing forecasts for you is salaries and wages.

The challenge is identifying what positions are going to be vacated and how soon we're going to fill those positions.

And we make a variety of assumptions when we do that based on what we see in the past, and that forms the basis for our budget.

Well, if we assume positions are filled faster than what they actually are, which as I noted kind of occurred last year upon the non-public safety side, we underspend and our results are better than we expected.

Of course, the inverse is also true.

If we happen to fill positions a lot faster, had no turnover, we'd have the other challenge.

We tend to take a risk-averse approach.

We tend to be a little on the conservative side about our assumptions.

We base it on activity that's occurred in the past and what we hope to have happen.

But again, just I point out that's one of the most challenging estimates that we make.

Now, Elizabeth spends a lot of time developing that forecast.

It's something we take very seriously, but it's a huge challenge for us to do that.

I want to talk about uh stadium star bonds in particular.

We have we had two star bond districts, of course.

As you know, we paid off the K96 and Greenwich star bond district in March of last year, so I won't spend any time on that.

But I wanted to give you a little bit uh of information on the stadium star bond project.

We typically don't talk about this, and it'd probably be a good thing that we do.

Uh so I wanted to start with just a little background.

We issued about 42.2 million dollars in stadium star bonds a few years ago.

What I have for you on the left, and I apologize the fonts a little small.

I threw this slide together kind of at the last minute, but what this shows you is the amortization schedule for that debt when we will pay off that debt.

I bolded 2025 because that shows you where we're at today.

We've already paid off about 12 million dollars of that debt.

So our debt is actually only about 30 million dollars on the stadium star bond.

Why is why do we do that?

We have features in our bonds that we have what we call mandatory redemption feature, which basically requires us to take any surplus revenue and pay down our debt.

Now that that's a good thing.

It's a good thing our debt is lower.

It does provide us some challenges on the liquidity side going forward, which you'll see here in a second, but that's what's required, and so that's what we do.

I will tell you a benefit of that.

If you look at the total payments column, our total payments, I'm gonna round and say our total payments are about three and a half million dollars a year that we need to make.

Well, before we paid off all that debt, they were about 3.9 million dollars a year.

In other words, we're gonna save about 4.3 million in interest based on the debt that we've already paid down on the stadium star bonds to date.

And I would also tell you you can see the amortization schedule.

There's some zeros in 2036 and 2037, and 2020 2035 is a lot smaller number.

That's because of the methodology our trustee uses to adjust the amortization schedule when we do make previous payments.

But my takeaway with that would be that we're basically two and a half years ahead of schedule on paying off our star bonds.

All those are very good things.

Now let me tell you what the challenges are on star bonds.

Uh we have two phases.

Phase one, which is on the east side of the river.

That's the existing district that has been there for quite some time.

It's very mature, performs a pretty reliable and consistent uh increment.

Uh, you can see it varies, but it's somewhere, it's north of two million dollars a year, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.3 to 2.5 million dollars a year.

That is very strong performance.

And again, keep in mind our bogey is three and a half million.

We need basically three and a half million dollars a year pair of debt service, right?

So we're gonna generate, let's say two and a half million off the uh east bank side, phase one.

The west bank side, which is under development and is growing, currently generates somewhere in the neighborhood of a million dollars a year in increment.

So if you add those two together, and again, I'm using round numbers because there's a lot of timing differences, but generally we're generating two and a half million plus one million is three and a half million, our debt service is three and a half million, and that's why we're in the condition that we're in today.

Now, our challenge is phase one is going to expire on October 31st of 2027.

That's when that star bond portion expires.

So we will lose the increment from phase one, which is the more material increment today.

So our challenge is to develop the increment in phase two to the degree that it uh can sustain the district when phase one expires.

So is there risk in the star bond district?

I would affirm that yes, there is risk, there's risk in any forecast, but there is a potential risk in the star bond district, and that is that we need phase two to develop prior to the time that phase one terminates.

And again, that is approximately uh what a little over a year from now.

And again, there's a lot of timing differences.

I'm not going into here, so I'm giving you the ultra simplistic approach, but that's our fundamental challenge.

And by the way, I should point out that all the information I have on this page here is publicly available.

We are required to disclose this based on our bond covenants, and it's all available at the website that I put there.

It's a little cumbersome to get to, uh, but it is available and it is all fully disclosed, with the exception of 2025.

I have not submitted the report for the last six months of 2025, so that is not uh hasn't been included on EMA yet, but all this information here is all publicly available.

But fundamentally, that's our challenge.

That's our challenge with stadium star bonds.

That's why we have risk.

When will phase two fully develop, and uh will it develop in time for us to uh make our entire debt service payment.

I'll point out one last thing on this slide and then I'll move on.

Starbonds are sort of like TIFFs.

We typically expect periods of underperformance, but we have the ability to recapture any expenditures we spend early at the tail end of the star bond period to make the city whole.

Now, obviously, there's some cash flow challenges there, but as I pointed out on the prior slide, we're already two and a half years ahead of schedule, so there is seems to be probably not there's probably a high probability that that district will overproduce prior to its closure, and so if there are any amounts that the city has to provide in the meantime, it's highly likely that those amounts will be recovered and the city will be made whole prior to the termination of the star bond district.

So here's my conclusions, and then I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Again, we had a good year last year.

A lot of it was in non-recurring items, a lot of it occurred past December, but it is true that we had a very good year last year.

Most funds performed very well last year, which is very good.

Our reserve levels are strong, uh, but I would tell you that any future use of reserves should be considered cautiously and should be consistent with our policy direction.

And finally, of course, everything that I'm presenting to you here today is available online as always.

It's likely that we'll revise some of our estimates upward, which I noted, but it's likely that we'll have significant expenditure pressure as well.

We may want to consider some policy considerations later on down the process, reserve policy or investment policy may be appropriate topics at some point in the future.

So I apologize for the length, uh, but I want to give you a little bit of information, more information than I typically do on some of these topics, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mark.

Questions for staff beginning with Council Member Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you, Mark.

I appreciate that.

Going back to um the star bond, the the ballpark star bond.

Do we have any potential shortfalls written into the budget projections now?

We do not each year in the budget document, we do propose in the city council is approved an appropriation to cover any shortfall, and that's required in our bond covenants, but we have not used that to date, and we do not have any projection in our model uh to include any amount that we might use.

Okay, and that's 2028 when we might potentially see that happening when the first side expires.

I'm always careful about providing guidance, but I would tell you that our risk is probably going to increase significantly in 2028 and perhaps 2027, but more likely in 2028.

But again, it all depends on how much of development occurs and when that development occurs in phase one.

And it would just be fourth quarter and 27.

We make our large principal payment in the fourth quarter of 2027, that's right.

Okay.

Um I know the TIFF the TIFF is overperforming.

Um so we just use the TIFF money to pay off the debt from the TIFF.

Yeah, okay.

I could have spent a lot of time on the TIFS and perhaps in some quarterly report I will if you're interested in that.

But fundamentally, what that means is that that's gonna increase the probability that those TIFFs continue to pay their debt service on time, and that uh that that we perform better uh and don't have to recover all our extra money at the end at the end of the term.

Okay, so none of that none of that can be earmarked for the star bond.

No, no, that's uh not not possible.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Um so the process if we did dip into the stabilization reserve, is that council policy?

Would that take four votes, five votes?

Yes, that's city council policy.

I think it just would take a simple majority.

Uh basically the policy is written again just to provide guidance.

Obviously, city council can take whatever action they choose to, uh, but the policy uh says that it should be for one-time uses or any uses as designated by city council.

So you have total flexibility again.

Staff would recommend uh that as a best practice.

We use it for more of a one-time purposes, uh, certainly more for planned purposes, uh, but ultimately it's available at the discretion of the governing body.

Okay, appreciate that.

Um now the projections going forward.

I know this is kind of a tricky one with so many balls up in the air.

Um, how much consideration is being paid to some of the stuff going on the state level as far as capping property taxes, um any of that?

Does that affect our projections, our um bond rating, any anything like that?

That's a great question.

We typically produce the financial plan based on everything we know at that time, and this time was October or August of last year.

We don't speculate about what policies may occur or what may be changed.

So the short answer to your question is no, this does not contemplate any changes.

But having said that, uh, some of the stuff that I've heard that the legislature is considering, which would cap our AV growth, could have a pretty significant detrimental impact on the property tax revenue.

So we'll probably provide you some guidance on that when we do the workshops, uh, just to provide you some some uh context.

But yes, that would be a significant probably uh change to our financial picture.

Appreciate that.

Okay, last question.

Um where are we with our bond ratings?

We're still triple A with Yes, we are triple A with standard and poor, which is our favorite rating agency.

Okay, and then Moody's where not far off.

Where's that one looking?

Or double A2.

Moody's well, I probably shouldn't talk too much about Moody's.

They just they tend to have a little less favorable view of municipalities than standard and poorers does.

Okay, I'll just leave it at that.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Thanks, Mark.

Vice Mayor Glascon.

Thank you.

Could we quickly go to the slide about projections?

And this may be a specific department question.

May not.

Yes, that slide.

So when we're looking at 2027, we're looking at 2028, we're looking at 2029.

We have station 23 coming online.

Does the 2027, and obviously we're playing we're applying actively for the safer grant currently that could cover the cost of those?

Let's say that we were not to receive the safer grant.

Does the 2027 projection include the additional uh fire staff that we would need in 2027, full staffing and 28 and staffing 29?

No, that's one of the things I was mentioning on that slide when I talked about capital improvement projects in the future.

We do not have anything built into our financial model for station staffing, but generally for the reasons you noted, uh there's flexibility, hopefully, that we can receive grant funding for that, or uh perhaps there's uh options to reallocate staffing, but for whatever reason uh we did not include specific amounts in our financial forecast for that item.

So if we were not to receive the safe grant, hopefully we do.

If we were not to receive the safer grant, and we um need full staffing, which we would at the um fire station 23 then 2027 projections would actually show a net loss.

Uh likely a million million two net loss, yes, sir.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Mark, thanks for the good report on the golf system.

Uh it's hard to get a tea time, so I guess that's a good thing, right?

Yeah.

Um regarding the ballpark.

Yes, sir.

Uh phase one is a pretty large area that that's timing out here next year.

Um phase two, can you give us a like like a verbal visual of what that area is?

Yeah, uh phase two, I think is uh is it Lewis?

It's the street south of the baseball stadium, I believe, and actually I think it includes a little bit of area south of that as well, and then it extends north, I think all the way into Delano.

So it's it's fairly significant too.

There's a lot of undeveloped area in that uh in that district, so there's certainly a lot of potential, uh, but that's what that district is.

Yeah, right now it's not producing the revenue to cover the full debt.

It's producing revenue, but perhaps not to the potential that it could if it was fully developed.

Yeah, would you say the key asset in there is the hotel that's proposed on the river by the ballpark?

Yes, I would.

That that was, and I think we talked about this a lot when that was presented to the council year or two or three ago.

I can't remember when, and we mentioned then how that project was very important uh to begin so that it could begin producing increment and the uh importance of that project.

Yes.

Okay, we hope they get that started here pretty quick.

Okay.

Um lastly, I saw I noticed a lot of the bonds and CDs in that one to two percent range are coming due in 2026.

I think we only had one, right?

We had the one relatively small one.

You're looking at our investment report in the quarterly yeah, yeah, we had one very small one that uh we had in the one percent range if I remember correctly.

Those rates are typically set by the uh pool of uh money investment board, which is a state function.

They calculate a rate which we are statutorily required uh to pay as a uh minimum amount to our banks.

We can negotiate with them higher rates, but typically that's uh not not something we're able to do because they're well aware of the state rate as well.

But yes, we did have one that was a legacy C D that I think was at uh one and a quarter percent, if I remember correctly.

Yeah, I I see some treasuries too that are due.

And and 26 and stuff, quite a few of them.

Yeah, remember though, council member, that the that the coupon rate on a treasury, uh if the coupon rate is really low, that means we're gonna buy it at a discount, which means we're gonna amortize that discount.

So on the treasuries, I wouldn't get too uh concerned about the uh yield on the treasury, the coupon yield, because again, I'll buy a I'll buy a treasury with a half percent coupon yield if I can buy it at a 75% or a 95% discount.

Right.

Because then I'm gonna make it on the amortization of the principal and not on the answer.

So we're more concerned about the total yields.

Okay.

Is that an opportunity?

Does that pres I guess my point is that present an opportunity to increase the yield for interest coming up when those renew or not?

Well, the treasuries are what they are.

We really can't control what the yield on treasuries are, our potential is to extend the duration, because uh I can buy up to a four-year treasury today, but my entire pool can only have a duration of about a year and a half.

So if I load up on a bunch of four-year securities, I have to load up with a bunch of three month securities over here.

Uh if if I could extend my duration, I could load up on two and three and four-year maturities, which would allow me to lock in higher rates today.

Yeah, so well, for the rest of the council, I'd be interested in that discussion.

Yeah.

So I think that'd be a very good thing.

So thank you.

Yes, sir.

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, several people have already asked many of the questions that I that I wanted to ask.

Um Mark, you mentioned the jail fees that we saw higher or an increase in what we brought in through jail fees for those watching.

Can you explain what you mean by that?

Yeah, a lot of that is due to uh the strategies of our police department, particularly in the area of property crimes.

Uh they've ext they've put a lot of focus on property crimes, and they've been pretty aggressive in uh arresting and prosecuting those property crimes.

Uh to the extent that their state or that their city charges, think of your petite shop lists of things of that nature.

If we arrest and book people on city charges in that area, then we're liable for the jail fees.

So grant again, it's based on a strategic decision of the police department to produce better results in the clearance of property crimes.

That the net result of that is we're resting and re and holding more people in that area.

Again, it's based on the outcome that we want, but it does cause us to have some increased pressure on the expenditure side.

Thank you.

As a follow-up to that, can you explain once we um receive those fees?

Where do those dollars go?

Which which fees?

The jail fine.

Oh, we pay them to the county.

We're reimbursing Sedjuick County for the operating costs of their jail.

Uh maybe this isn't the best analogy, but think of the jail as a hotel.

We're renting more hotel rooms at the jail.

Maybe that's a bad analogy, but uh it's not a fancy hotel, that's for sure.

Um is there any opportunity to utilize those jail fees for intervention programs?

Again, that would be a strategic uh question for our police department.

Uh, but yes, jail fees are a direct result of what strategies we use on an operating level, particularly in the police department, and it's driven by whatever outcomes they want to produce.

So thank you, Mark.

I I just want the record to reflect that as we talk about public safety.

I think part of public safety is making sure that we uh look at restorative justice.

And I think the best way that we can maximize taxpayer dollars is not by throwing people in jail all the time, it's by re-rehabilitating them and making sure that they have the support that they need to reintegrate back into society.

That's obviously not a decision of you or your team, Mark.

Um, but I just want to name that out loud because I think we can't continue to talk about this without providing a solution.

Public safety is not arresting the problem away, it's rehabilitating the problem and looking at restorative justice.

Thank you.

Mark, I have several questions and thank you for the presentations regarding the star bond and also uh the budget deficit.

Those were two specific ones that I'm gonna be touching on.

Number one, regarding the budget deficit, um, you have the slide that currently shows a budget deficit in 28 and 29.

However, as you just mentioned, um, this is not take into account possible uh increases in personnel due to new infrastructure.

So if you took that into account, would these numbers be higher?

Uh most likely.

Uh again, as Councilmember Glascock mentioned, we have pretty aggressive fire station plan to the extent that those stations require new staffing and to the extent that we don't receive grant funds.

Uh, yes, uh, that's probably gonna have a positive influence on these.

Uh some of the police stations are materially larger, that's a lot lower magnitude.

Uh, but likely when we get into those stations, we'll experience some increased operating costs there, utilities and things of that nature.

But fundamentally, fire stations is probably our largest challenge on how this forecast could be impacted.

In addition, this does not take into account possible starbond uh expenditures that we'll have to uh use from the general fund to cover.

Can you also explain that that's not accounted for?

Uh yes, ma'am, you are exactly right.

As I noted, we will have increased risk uh perhaps in 2027, perhaps more likely in 2028, and to the extent that the policy direction is that the general fund cover any of those deficits, uh yes, that is not included in this model here today.

Can you please go to slide number 14 and 15?

So these are reserves for the city.

Can you specifically address how much does the city have in reserves that could cover the deficit?

Yes, the general fund reserve is shown on this slide is about $51 million, and again, I'm gonna use round numbers.

Uh so if the general fund runs a deficit, most likely that reserve would be diminished.

But again, based on our reserve policy, we have the stabilization reserve, which is designed basically to float the general fund at 15%.

So most likely what we would do if we have additional deficits is we would recommend transferring in from the stabilization reserve to stabilize the general fund at 15%.

Of course, the challenge with that is that means that the stabilization reserve fund would diminish.

As you can see that we already plan for it to do to some degree over the next several years.

But fundamentally, Mary to answer your question, the chart on this slide, these bars likely would be significantly lower if we ultimately do have deficits in the general fund.

In the community, there have been multiple numbers thrown around regarding reserves.

Can you address is it a $90 million dollar reserve?

Is it a 120 million reserve?

Can you please explain?

Well, the city has about 38 funds, and each one of those funds has a reserve level, which would be prudent.

I would hope it would be thought to be prudent to have reserve levels in most of our funds.

We have a few that don't.

A few are passed through funds, and we we have a zero reserve level there.

But we have reserves for a variety of reasons.

I'm not even going to talk about the general fund because we've just talked about that.

We want liquidity in our debt service fund.

We've got a bounce in the death service fund of 25 million dollars or so.

That's very important to our rating agencies.

It shows that we have liquidity, shows that we can handle our short-term financing needs.

Landfill postclosure has reserve of 17 million dollars.

That's because we have a legal liability for the uh pollution mitigation at the landfills that we operate.

So we are statutorily required to have a reserve there.

That's 17 million.

We have two TIFF districts, uh, decremental TIFF districts, Gilbert and Mosley and the Northeast Industrial TIFF district.

Those are very there for a very specific reason to mitigate underwater pollution in those areas, and that's in compliance with KDHE regulations.

We have reserves in both of those TIFF districts so that we can continue to mitigate the pollution in those areas.

Those are some examples.

Reserves are very important.

Uh, and we typically have policies that set those levels of reserves.

So I don't know if that answers your question, Mayor, but uh yes, we have a lot of reserves.

There's that is true.

What would be the accurate number to share in community regarding um discretionary or more uh non-restricted uh reserves?

Uh Mayor, I didn't come prepared to provide that today, but I certainly can.

I have heard it addressed uh by some that we have reserves, I think, of 128 million dollars.

Uh I would uh suggest maybe that's not exactly accurate.

Uh they're taking one page in the budget book, which shows a very restrictive portion of our reserves.

That purpose of that page is to show the reserves that the state of Kansas legally requires us to maintain.

That's a fraction of our reserve levels, and again, that's spread over a variety of different funds.

Uh so I would not use the 128 million dollar number or whatever was has been reported.

Uh, it's likely gonna be higher than that, but uh let me provide that to you if I can.

I can do that shortly.

I just don't have it with me today.

I would specifically like to know how much of reserves are discretionary.

Yes.

Very little because as you know, in a fund structure, and I won't go too much in detail on governmental accounting because I don't want to completely bore everyone, but each fund can only be used for a specific purpose.

Like I appreciate uh council member uh's uh creativity on asking about whether we could use TIFF funds on the star bond district, but the short answer is no, because TIFF bonds or TIFF uh funds are statutorily restricted for specific purposes, and that's generally true of every fund in our uh system.

So if we have extra money in the water fund, we can't hire police officers, for example, things like that.

We just can't do it.

Thank you, Mark.

Um, I have further questions.

This will be for star bond for uh shortfall, but I see council member Shepherd.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mayor, and I appreciate the dialogue back and forth between you, Mark, and the mayor specifically on this because um you you've shared a lot, and I think it it really showcases why you are where you are and why your team is where they where they are.

You all are the experts, and I think sometimes information is placed into the public.

Um that makes it sound so simple, right?

Um, there's a deficit, we have a reserve, and the reality is yes, and right?

It's it's yes, we have a reserve, and there is there are things that we have to think about credit rating, liquidity.

There are also legal liabilities and touching that, and so it's not fair to just say shortfall touch the reserves, right?

Our job is to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and to do our very best to uh eliminate any gaps.

I say all that to say, has the finance team um or department considered any federal legislation that may create additional financial hardships for the local local municipalities.

Um I'm thinking about changes to hood.

I'm thinking about if we decide to not abide by certain laws that are passed down by the federal government to protect um citizens, and we lose funding as a result of that.

I believe it was just at the beginning or last year.

Um, if we did not remove our DEI council, then that would have been a 20 million dollar hit to the transportation.

And so I'm I'm thinking long term about some of these things.

How do you plan for that?

If you can.

Well, the first thing we try to do is be cognizant of all those risks, because all those are risk as you identified.

Uh, but typically, again, when we do forecasting, we're going to base our forecasting based on policy guidance from the city council and how they feel that any federal restrictions could impact us and the policy directions that the city council may want to make in regard to that.

And probably only then will we incorporate it into our financial models, but you are correct, we definitely want to be cognizant of those risks today.

So thank you, Mark.

I would just name that as we are continuing conversations as a council out in the public, that we share what we've heard today publicly that when we hear folks talking about the reserves, um, that we also include all the information that we've been educated on today.

Um, because one of the biggest problems that I see or challenges is the misinformation that is being put out into the atmosphere, and I see it as our job, not your job, to correct that misinformation.

So thank you for providing that education for us.

Yes, sir.

Mark, I will now go to slides number 24 and 25, specific to the star bonds.

Um the reason why I asked you for these is because specifically I'm concerned about the new baseball stadium and that district, and how we will be able to cover through general fund dollars the star bond.

So specifically, um you said phase two would need to start as soon as possible, really, um, in order to help cover this.

What's the status of phase two?

Phase two includes a new hotel.

Can you tell us how many rooms?

What's the projected revenue that this is supposed to bring in?

That has not broken ground.

I drove by this weekend.

Yeah.

Well, as I noted, it is very important that we have development in phase two.

I'm not particularly in tune to the details on the uh hotel project, so if you don't mind, Mary, I'm gonna defer to assistant major uh Anderson.

Honorable Mayor, members of council, Troy Anderson, assistant city manager.

Um I do not have the number of rooms uh available with me.

That I'll be more than happy to get that to you.

But as you'll recall, last fall, uh we city council approved the first amendment to the development agreement, uh, which provided them with uh the ability to um secure all of their financing and uh remobilize their contractor.

So based on that exhibit in that first amendment, uh they have until July 31st of this year to commence vertical construction, and they have until July 31st of 2028 to achieve substantial completion, what we call a temporary certificate of occupancy.

Uh and so those deadlines were approved by city council back in I believe it was October of last year.

Uh I have had ongoing conversations with uh the development team.

Um everybody feels really bullish about achieving those deadlines, and so I've not been given any indication that those deadlines will not be met.

Thank you.

I'll have um Mark come back up.

Slide number 25.

Given the information that was just presented, if this begins construction starting at the latest, July 31st of this year, it's still gonna take two years before it's complete.

So tell me what's at risk right here when it comes to taxpayers and the general fund.

Well, Mayor, let me define for you if I if I can answer your question this way, let me define what the risk is that I believe that there is to the to the city from the star bond district uh probably beginning in when phase one expires.

As I noted, our debt service is in the neighborhood of 3.5 million dollars a year.

Phase two is pretty reliably generating around a million dollars a year.

That leaves uh what we would call gap of two and a half million dollars a year.

So if there is zero development on phase two between now and 2028, and there's zero growth in the existing base, uh, then I would tell you that it could possibly be likely that the general fund would be in a position to have to absorb a two and a half million dollar loss.

What I cannot tell you is whether that's accurate or not, because again, I can't forecast what other development will occur in that area.

Uh I can't forecast with any precision when the hotel will actually begin uh producing an increment.

And again, there's a number of businesses already in the district that are generating an increment.

You know, I can't tell you what their growth prospects are or whether there'll be other new businesses that occur.

So uh all I can tell you is what would be the worst case, which is probably that we would have a gap of somewhere in the neighborhood of two and a half million dollars if nothing changes from today.

So specifically, when is the city on the hook for paying the debt service?

Uh we make two payments a year, typically in March, and then in September, the March payment is typically relatively small.

It's an interest payment, it's in the neighborhood of $600,000 every March, and then the larger payment is another uh interest payment of about $600,000 in the and the principal for that year.

The September payment is by far the most challenging one uh that we make.

And again, there's some timing differences.

I didn't go into all this is ran through our trustee.

The city doesn't even receive or make these payments, our trustee does, and there's some stipulations where they actually reserve amounts for the upcoming payment.

Uh so they do have a small balance that which will help us, which is not reflective in this, too.

Uh but yeah, fundamentally uh the fall payment is going to be the one that likely will be a challenge if there is a challenge can you explain the only thing generating new sales tax would be the new hotel that again would be complete by July of 2028.

Is that accurate?

Well, I don't know that I characterize it that way.

Again, it's gonna be any development that occurs in the phase two.

The hotel project just happens to be by far the most visible new development that is under construction in phase two.

But if other development occurs in that area, that obviously will contribute to the district to what other development do we know is happening there besides this hotel that has come before the council?

Yeah, again.

Mayor, again, Troy Anderson.

Um we know specifically as part of this mixed use development, uh, immediately opposite the hotel, there is also some retail space.

My memory serves me correct.

I want to say 12 to 15,000 square feet of retail space that is slated, and so um we know that lease space will be available, whether or not it will be occupied and generating sales tax at the time of opening or not, and still yet to be determined.

Uh, but there is additional retail space that is also slated in addition to the hotel, just as part of this mixed-use development to kind of build on the the of what uh Mark was describing.

There could be other projects within the West Bank district that we don't even know about that could come to fruition in the next six, nine, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four months that would then also contribute to sales tax within the district.

Okay, so nothing has come to fruition just yet.

The only thing that this council does know is that there will be a new hotel that is to be completed by July of 2028, and across the street from the hotel will be a new apartment complex that will have retail on the bottom floor.

Those are all things that have been in the public.

So what how much is that projected to generate?

I don't have that number with me.

I apologize.

I'll I'll get together with um the development team and see what their projections are on annual sales tax revenue.

Yep.

Thank you.

Those follow-up questions have everything to do with why I'm asking all of these questions because I see a budget shortfall in 28, but that it has not taken into account the starbond under performance because nothing has happened just yet, and then in addition, additional staffing to a new facility that again has not been put into the deficit.

So these are all of great concern to me because they are literally on the horizon, and I think it's important to have these discussions and have it with a clear view that at the end of the day it will be the general fund that will be we will have major discussions on.

Is that accurate to say, Mark?

Uh yes, ma'am.

I would agree with you 100%.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I mean, I think Troy hit on one of my questions here.

Any potential room for growth within the uh phase two of the Starbond district.

So is that kind of what we're projecting is just that steady million dollars over the next couple of years?

Well, we typically don't provide guidance on the star bond district.

We typically don't provide projections, but yes, all I can tell you is the risk of this district would be significantly mitigated to the to the degree that the new hotel project generates additional increment.

Okay, on now uh if we get to the budget shortfall on it, uh just bear with me on this.

Um, so if we dig into the stabilization reserve, pay off that two million, two and a half million.

You indicated we would be able to recoup that further down the line in the back end when um hopefully the star bond is overperforming, or at least um hitting expectations.

Now, would there be room in there to designate that money to go back into the reserve to pay back any funds that we pull out for that?

Yes, that's exactly what we would recommend.

And again, that's typical of economic development projects, very typical of TIFFs.

They underperform in the first few years, they over, then they stabilize and then they overperform in the last few years, and the city is made whole.

That exact model is available to us on the uh Starbond project.

So any deficits that we may have to cover in the intermediate years, uh, we would likely be able to recover prior to the termination of the district.

Okay, thank you.

I see no further questions.

Thank you, Mark, and thank you, Troy, for answering those questions.

And I look forward to the follow-up.

Um, if you don't mind sending it to the whole council, that would be um greatly appreciated.

We will now open it up for public comment.

I see none.

I'm bringing it back to the bench.

Again, thank you, uh Mark, for the explanation regarding the budget deficit that we will be facing, in addition to the challenges uh that are forthcoming and the explanation regarding the star bond at the baseball stadium.

With that, I will move that the council receive and file the quarterly financial reports for the period ending December 31st, 2025.

Second.

Motion second, any further discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 70.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Golf point of sale and T sheet system.

All right, good morning, Mayor, City Council.

Uh Jesse Kaufman, I'm the manager of the golf division, and I'm here regarding a uh switch to a new point of sale and T sheet operating system.

Okay, a little background on this.

The City of Wichita Golf Division seeks a comprehensive point of sale system with the following requirements: multi-course T time scheduling, inventory tracking, full integration with payment processing, customer relationship management tools, reporting dashboards, support for tournaments, loyal loyalty programs, communication tools, mobile accessibility, application program, the interfaces interfaces, integrations, uh offline functionality, robust security compliance, vendor provided onboarding, vendor provided data migration, and continual support.

So this system really, everything that we do goes through this system.

Um analysis on September 10th of 25.

A request for proposal was issued.

We received five responses, and on November 25th of 25, uh selection committee interviewed three firms.

Member Sports LLC is recommended as the preferred vendor.

The evaluation criteria included the scope of services, proposer, proposer experience and resources, functional and technical requirements, proposals, hardware and software requirements, customer support, and warranty and maintenance, training and documentation, cost and minimal qualifications and mandatory elements.

A contract has been prepared for the initiation of services.

The member sports point of sale system was the best overall fit for the golf division at a lower cost.

Uh clear it provided clear demonstration that the point of sale system could meet state the stated goals of the golf division, including customer booking, inventory, and membership control, marketing and communication needs, tournament and event management, and member sports also met all of the IT security requirements.

Financial and legal considerations and recommended action.

Staff has prepared a contract with member sports with a fee of $25,000 annually with a one-time $10,000 implementation and training fee.

Funding is available in the 2026 adopted operating budget for the Golf Enterprise Fund.

The law department has reviewed and approved the contract as to form, and it is recommended that the city council approve the vendor selection, approve the contract, and authorize the necessary signatures.

And with the that I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thanks.

We'll go to a questions from council first.

We have uh council member ballard.

Oh Vice Mayor, Vice Mayor Glasscock.

Uh thank you, Jesse.

Just a question.

We heard a lot of um complaints about the um about the T sheet sign and all of that.

So I assume that this will repair all of those.

T time availability.

It will help.

There when you have way more demand than we have inventory, it I don't think there is a way to completely fix that.

Um but this definitely will help.

Um we can control um the groups that book a lot of TOMs at once.

We can we have more control with this system.

Um and then this current system we have we we have had issues, um, and uh this you know I think will take care of a lot of those.

So in a lot of ways, this will help with that situation.

Um, and I'm I'm excited once we get in and really see the functionality of this system that we can find other ways to to improve on that as well.

Awesome, thank you.

Councilmember Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

Jesse, first of all, just thank you for doing a great job.

You and your team do a really good job.

You've really turned around the attitude of the golf courses, and it's reflected and tea time's being booked solid, so especially Saturday and Sunday.

So thank you.

Also, just side note played Mac yesterday, the new traps look wonderful.

Uh, you're gonna have a big problem there too, because everybody's gonna want to play that when it's when it's all done.

So good.

So thank you for all your work.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Jesse, I also wanted to echo the sentiments of Councilmember Johnston.

Um, I had a meeting yesterday with First T and they uh have a remarkable experience with the city and sung gear praises, and I think it's really important for people to recognize that staff like you are the backbone of City Hall, and um our job is to delegate.

We work with you all, but you all get the work done.

And so just wanted to say publicly how much I appreciate you for making life uh a little bit easier uh for an organization that does phenomenal work in district one.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jesse.

I see no further questions, and I echo the same sentiments for your team.

Thank you.

We will now open it up for public comment.

I see none.

I'll bring it back to the bench.

Would any council member who has a golf course like to move this item?

Sure.

Uh I'd like to take staff's recommended action, approve the vendor selection, approve the contract, and authorize the necessary signatures.

Second.

Motion second, any further discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 7-0.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Ordinance codifying the food and farm council.

Good morning, Mayor, Council members.

Uh Nate Virtaler Johnson, assistant city attorney.

Uh, just requesting some help today with uh bookkeeping and our code.

Um so uh a few years back we adopted an ordinance, October 2222, uh establishing the food and farm council.

It's a joint thing with the county.

They've been doing great work since then.

When we prepared that ordinance for you, we set it in a place in the code that is in the same place as another board.

That doesn't affect the legal effectiveness of it.

Um we pass ordinances, resolutions, things that have uh effect all of the time without being put in the code, but we found that we can't actually add anything to the city code to codify this ordinance without an additional action of council.

So we tried to look a little more closely.

I did, so my apologies for picking the wrong spot before, but we have a spot in our code now to just clarify that the food and farm council exists in the city code.

Again, this ordinance has been effective since then.

They've been doing work.

We just need an action from council to update uh our online and continued code.

Um, so I'm happy to kind of talk about what the ordinance does again.

Again, this was passed previously, and it's just setting a spot uh in our kind of board's advisory board chapter of city code.

So it's recommended that council place this ordinance on first reading and authorize the necessary signatures.

Questions for staff, Vice Mayor Glascock.

Thank you.

Just a quick question for the manager.

I know that former manager latent had presented some maybe reformatting of our boards, consolidation of boards, and figure out how to use them more effectively.

What the food and farm council is that in staff's presentation that we're going to be talking about during our board retreat.

I think that's when we're gonna be having that conversation.

Yes, um, we did do a review of boards and commissions in the farm council was in there, and we will have that conversation in March.

Okay, thank you.

So a follow-up question is is it appropriate to do this action if we're going to do a conversation regarding consolidation?

Yeah.

Mayor, I would say yes, we do need to get it corrected, and then we can decide what to do with it.

Thank you.

And for correction, I believe this is in the March workshop.

Is that accurate?

Correct.

Thank you.

I see no further questions.

Thank you, Nate.

We'll now open it up for public comment.

I see none.

I'll bring it back to the bench.

With that, I move that the council place the ordinance on first reading and authorized the necessary signatures.

Second.

Motion, second discussion.

Oh, council member Todd.

Thank you.

I just wanted to make a few comments.

Um, Nate, thank you for your work in this and helping to get this cleaned up.

Um, I also want to thank the staff who support the food and farm council.

Um, part of the reason that this organ this um board was established is to help address the food desert issue that we have in our community.

Um, and so we worked really hard to get a publicly appointed board so that we could get community input on this.

I also want to thank all of the food and farm council members.

Um, it's slow going when you're starting a new board, a new coalition.

Um, and so I truly appreciate their time and their tenacity in addressing this issue.

We all know that addressing food deserts across the nation is a huge issue, and it's not something that just immediately gets solved because we form a board, but having a board makes us stay vigilant on this issue.

And then finally, I want to thank the Health and Wellness Coalition of which I know they provide a lot of external support for the Food and Farm Council, attend all the meetings and and provide feedback to the Food and Farm Council, but also to the Board of County Commissioners and the Wichita City Council.

So thanks for all that are involved.

Thank you, Councilmember Tuttle.

Any further discussion?

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 7-0.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Change order number one for biological nutrient removal program package three.

Uh, we've got all our portion of the next five items, so I'm gonna start the first one off here with the proposed change order number one for package three as part of our BNR project.

Uh the biological nutrient removal or BNR program, as we're often referred to, consists of six construction packages.

Uh, bids for this particular package were approved in May of 2024.

This package focuses on the new BNR structure and upgrades to the UV disinfection system.

The contractor, uh, as we have done with uh nearly all of the bid packages.

Staff has worked with the contractor up front to identify value engineering items for each package, including over $750,000 in savings for this particular one.

Construction contracts by way of the original contract include a work change directive process that allows the contractor to begin work prior to issuance of a formal change order.

This is the same project we previously stood uh discussed during the approval of the change order for package two.

Work change directives for package three have now exceeded that value engineering savings.

Um, and this particular change order is made up of 21 work change directives.

I'll highlight a few of those and where some of the biggest costs come from.

The largest work change directive is for acquisition and installation of an energy efficient dual core blower at a cost of just over 500,000.

Uh this particular wastewater treatment plant operates with six blowers at the aeration basins as a pilot project in 2020.

One of those was upgraded to a first generation energy efficient dual core blower.

I know there's a lot of technical stuff.

Um the package three itself project replaced the remaining five with also with dual core blowers from a different manufacturer.

Uh there's a lot of value going forward to have all of those be from the main of the same manufacturers.

So this work change directive replaces the pilot with the same so that they all match.

Other work change directive items include duct bank modifications, demolition of this existing manhole and electrical changes, amongst other things.

Um while we're here, I just want to give a quick update on this particular structure process and talk about a few other things related to BNR.

If you look to the left, you can see August of 2024 when some of the original site greetings started.

Fast forward to one year in the middle, and now to the main BNR structure that we're talking about today.

Water tightness testing will begin in early March.

We're making good progress within the staying within the schedule and generally doing a really good job with budget-wise so far.

So a lot of cool things happening.

Primary clarifier progress.

This is where we're gonna see improvements to odor control.

We're gonna see a lot of things happening that we will start to see an impact for odor control, especially over the next 12 months.

This is one of the uh covers for one of three primary clarifiers that's been covered.

The other two will be coming soon.

We're also gonna put covers on the sludge holding tanks.

All of those things, along with new bioturning filters, will help with odor control.

It's gonna make a really big difference by the time we're done here later in 2027.

The cost of this change order is just over 230,000, which is 0.15% of the package budget of just under 148 million dollars.

A lot of things happening here.

Uh funding is available within the overall BNR program budget, which is that number you see at the bottom.

That's just under 387 and a half million dollars.

387 million five hundred thousand dollars, just under that.

So all of the contracts have been bid for all of the packages.

Uh again, everything's moving forward.

We're in a good place schedule-wise right now.

We currently have an unencumbered balance of around 700,000 dollars, keeping a very close eye on budget.

We do have some other contingencies in place for this facility that are included in the CIP if we get to a point at any point at time that we need to start considering additional budget for the project.

As of right now, we do not need to increase the overall budget.

With that, staff recommends the city council approved change order number one for package three and authorize the necessary signatures, and I'd be happy to stand for any questions.

Thank you, Gary.

Questions for staff, beginning with Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, just one question on the blower.

Um, it looks like almost a half million dollars.

Are we getting reimbursed?

Did we sell the old blower that we purchased?

Um, could we're working on that now?

Um, we're gonna either uh find a reuse for it, but I think it's possible that we can likely sell it uh and hopefully be able to recoup a good portion of the original cost.

Okay, yeah, but I just saw under the budget here.

Um minus almost half a million dollars.

Correct.

Yeah, we're gonna make sure we do everything we can to recover that cost for that original trial.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Glascock.

Thank you.

Can we just go back uh to the financial consideration slide?

Some clarification.

So this will be coming from the unencumbered balance of the 699 and then so less 234 would be what we left over is that is the 699 as a result of already taking out the 234.

It is okay.

So that's what will be left after this.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

Uh only question I have is I know that the overall BNR schedule remains unchanged.

What is the completion date expected?

Uh it's the fall of 2027, probably um September to October, and I can get you an exact day, but fall of 2027 for sure.

Thank you, Gary.

I see no further questions for staff.

Uh with that, we'll open it up for public comment.

I see none.

I'll bring it back to the bench.

This is in council member Hoheisel's district.

Thank you, Mayor.

Always uh good uh work on the uh odor control here in Wichita.

Definitely a plus for my side of town.

So with that, I will move that the city council approve change order number one and authorize the necessary signatures motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 70.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Design concept, supplemental design agreement number one and funding for 21st Street North from 119th Street West to St.

Teresa.

Good morning, Mayor.

City Council members, Paul Gunzelman, public works and utilities for the record.

Uh, the first item first item that I will present to you this morning is design concept for West 21st Street.

On October 8th, 2024, the city council approved design funding for multiple capital improvement program projects, including 21st Street from 119th Street to St.

Teresa.

On April 8th, 2025, the city council approved an agreement with Benish to develop design concepts for the project.

And on January 5th, 2026 District 5 advisory board approved the design concept.

And the bicycle and pedestrian advisory board approved the design concept on January 26th, 2026.

Miss Fleming had spoken on this project on public agenda, and I had stepped out and spoke with her as well as Mr.

Michael, I believe is still in the audience, and have agreed to look at the document that she had provided you all and set up a meeting with them at a later date as we go through the design of the project.

Slide before you is the project limits, 119th Street to the east or of the right of the screen, St.

Teresa to the west, and the northwest YMCA west of 135th Street, as well as their soccer fields to the south or fields to the south.

The road was previously a two-lane roadway.

In 2024, it was restriped to a three-lane roadway, providing a center left turn lane or center lane.

This has resulted in a reduced number of crashes at 21st and Tealbook and 21st and Sunridge intersections.

Traffic counts along the corridor are nearing a threshold capacity of a five-lane roadway.

Therefore, that is what the concept will show.

This is the existing in front of the northwest YMCA.

There was a new right turn lane, westbound right turn lane added in 2025, as well as the entrance to the fields to the south.

A few photos looking west from 119th Street, again a three-lane roadway.

With the conversion in 2024, the shoulders were narrowed and striped for a bicycle lane.

Tubular markers were also installed.

However, most of those markers have been hit or removed.

And Sedgwick County will participate in the cost of replacing this bridge as they had it in their capital improvement program.

So we are working with them for an agreement for the project.

Slide before you shows the 135th and 21st Street intersection.

This intersection was approved in 2013 with the construction of 135th Street South and 21st Street project.

Slide before you shows the existing sidewalk and path network.

The dashed blue line is the project before you that will propose a sidewalk as well as a multi-use path.

The solid blue lines show existing sidewalk as well as path along those corridors, and the purple show existing sidewalk on both sides of the arterial street.

Currently, the multi-use path exists from 21st Street from 119th to Zoo Boulevard and continues south east to Central and McLean, connecting to the Arkansas River.

The multi-use path along 135th Street after completion of a project between Central and 13th will include four miles of multi-use path from Kellogg to 21st Street, and these will these proposed improvements will join the multi-use path along both corridors and extend to the YMCA.

I'll step through the concept again starting at the west end, moving to the east.

This would be in front of the YMCA.

We are proposing a five-lane roadway due to the amount of current traffic volumes as well as projected volumes, especially with further development towards 151st Street West.

Concept before you shows the bridge, which will be a four-lane bridge.

We don't need the turn lane across it with a multi-use path on the north side of the roadway and a six-foot path on the south side of the bridge.

And looking towards just west of 119th Street, where we will tie into the existing five-lane roadway.

Again, um show five lanes, center turn lane where needed near the intersections, and where possible, we would install raised medians.

These are sections of the roadway again, uh multi-use path, ten foot path on the north side of the roadway, two through lanes, a center left turn lane, and a six-foot sidewalk.

This is what a section would look like with the raised medians.

And we are proposing a couple of pedestrian crosswalks crossings, both signalized throughout the corridor.

One is right adjacent to the YMCA.

Um there is a petition on file from the YMCA for the signalized crosswalk.

So we will engage the YMCA as we move forward, and then we are also proposing another signalized pedestrian crosswalk just west of Tealbrook, and part of Miss Fleming's uh discussion I had in the hallway.

She wants to uh discuss that with us a little bit.

So I told her we would, you know, these are flexible and can be moved around as we go further into design and meet with adjacent owners.

Financial considerations.

The initial design fee is 346,000 dollars.

Supplemental design agreement is just under 1.5 million dollars for a total revised contract of 1.8 million dollars.

The existing budget that was approved by city council in October of 2024 has 1,270,000, and we are requesting additional budget authorization of 1 million dollars today.

That is 2026 funding, and then there is an additional 11 million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in 2029 for the project, and again, we are working with Statue County for their portion of that bridge cost.

We are also looking to submit this project for consideration through the Wichita Area Metropolitan Planning Organization for possible federal funding in the future as our next round of uh applications are due.

It is recommended that the city council approve the design concept, revise budget, supplementary supplemental design agreement number one, adopt the amending resolution and authorize the necessary signatures, and I will stand for questions.

Thank you, Paul.

Questions for staff.

I have a couple.

Um I bring this up every time because I do believe it's important to have this conversation about sidewalks.

So on each side, you're gonna have a 10-foot sidewalk called multi-use and a six-foot sidewalk that is just quote a sidewalk.

Can you tell me again why you have to have two sidewalks?

Remind me the ordinance and when that was passed.

The ordinance, yes, it was the ordinance and the ordinance was passed in 1979.

Um, and again, we also as we look at these projects, we also look at the 2013 and now updated 2024 bicycle master plan, and if it shows any facilities along there, um we would recommend the multi-use path and or on-street bike lanes.

So we do try to follow that, and we are connecting into existing multi-use paths with this project.

I will ask the same question I have to the city manager before.

I'd like to revisit the requirement rather than the option for two sidewalks, especially one that is 10-foot and a six-foot, all again, new infrastructure that then will need to be maintained.

I believe much of this new infrastructure is city property sidewalk, or are they property of uh other entities?

Can you please address who will have to maintain this new infrastructure?

It is city sidewalk, however, the adjacent properties per statute are required to maintain it.

Um we do share in the cost of any sidewalk that are is over six feet wide, though, so we would share that cost with the property owner.

Um back to the city manager.

I'd like when we do have this uh discussion to talk about how much it costs to maintain um both a six-foot sidewalk and a 10-foot sidewalk because again, we've been talking about maintaining assets, and when we're building new assets, which would be new sidewalks, uh, there will now have to be a cost for maintaining that new asset as well.

And so again, can you please have that in that presentation, City Manager?

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Glasscock.

Thank you, Paul.

Could you say the year that ordinance was passed again?

I didn't quite hear it.

It was 1979.

1979.

Okay, thank you.

With that, thank you, Paul.

We'll now open it up for public comment.

Anyone who would like to speak about this, please come forward, say your name and your address, please, and you'll have five minutes.

Hi, Tim Garut, uh 2010 North Tillbrook, which all be out there in that area.

So uh a couple things that I was concerned with, which I had in my notes if I can just get them back.

Uh one thing, we're uh I just want to say they need you to think about what they're gonna do with all that traffic, it's on 21st.

Because uh either probably gonna be going to 29th Street or 13th Street, 29th at uh at um 135 and 119 is always backed up during rush hour and I mean way back up now.

You start adding all this extra traffic that when I take out that bridge uh or even the construction itself is gonna be terrible.

So those are two four-way stops at 135th and 13th is a four-way stop.

And uh, and I'm not a construction guy, maybe they put in the temporary uh signals like you do out on the highway whenever they get a road down to one lane, but we need to consider uh what we're gonna do with all that extra traffic when it can't go down 21st any longer.

Because I mean it's like when I'm coming out of Tealbrook, I'm sitting there waiting to get on the 21st because it's always busy.

Uh another thing that I would like to bring up is that I think the city should try to get with the county on uh the bridges because that bridge at uh 21st and the cow skin ain't that old.

And uh I know that the county has already replaced bridges on 215, I think it's 137th, I think is the other one, and they're putting in back in two-lane bridges or maybe a three-lane at the most, and I know on 135th and um over by the uh sewage plant, that bridge is gonna have to be replaced.

Why not just make it a four-lane bridge now?

And it's gonna be cheaper to do it now than to do it later when it's gonna cost you more and all that.

That's just a thought.

And another question, I guess, off of what I just heard.

So you're gonna put the sidewalk.

Who's maintaining that sidewalk?

Is our HOA gonna have to maintain it?

Or I mean that's a question, I guess, for the other guy, but anyway, that's uh question we got.

We're always worried about what's gonna happen with our trees, and they say they're gonna replace the trees, and we got a wall.

What's gonna happen with the wall?

You know, I don't think that that thing will come over that far to get to the wall, but um anyway, that's what I have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tim.

Hello, council members.

I wish you the best.

Sorry.

I can holler, but that would really be terrible.

Uh I live at 12630 West 21st Street.

Place called Nailers Acres.

It's 27 acres of land that was dedicated to the Sunfire Land Trust.

We're a 501c3, federally recognized and recognize the state of Washington as a chair or state of Kansas as a charitable organization.

Our goal is to serve the same way as the nature conservancy does.

We own about 11 properties, either v sample or in conservation needs, most of them saturated in Sanford County.

Mayor Wu, I want to thank you for bringing up the topic of sidewalks.

Because there's a four-foot.

I live on the north side of the road.

There's a four-foot to five-foot bike path.

The gentleman was correct.

Most of those little fiberglass poles they put there have long ago been run over.

And when you walk on a four-foot bike path next to traffic, it's not a comfortable feeling.

I believe that in the best interest we should have the bike path widened, but keep the foot traffic on the other side.

People I have a master's degree in natural resources, park design.

People are a lot like dairy cows.

You turn them loose, they wander all around all over the place.

And we've had people drive into our place, get up to the house and realize somebody's living there, and speedily acit the property.

So I'm concerned about trespass.

Quite a chunk of visible barrier and noise barrier.

Project engineer said that the traffic pattern in 2030 is gonna double to what it is today.

But he made a statement that it won't be any noisier.

Just put the logic to that and see how that sounds.

The maintenance issue is a big issue for us.

So we need to figure out a way to prevent people from parking their bicycle and relieving themselves on our property.

It's pretty tempting when you're on a bicycle, I guess.

You've got a bunch of trees.

So we'll work with you any way we can.

So that said, thank you for your time.

Can you please state your name for us?

Jim Michael, I'm a CEO for the Sunflower Land Trust.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

Council Member Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Jim, for speaking.

Uh I spoke to your neighbor just to the west.

And uh they have concerns about trees too.

Paul, can you it looks like the trees are back off the roadway quite a ways?

Or you need to take any of those trees out.

We will need to get in design a little bit further before I can answer that question, but we are meeting with that property owner this afternoon at four o'clock as well.

Okay.

So yeah, so we'll have that discussion with them.

And once we get design a little bit further along, we'll know what truly impact trees are.

Okay, so thank you.

And Jim, thanks for your comments about the the bike path, because it it is dangerous.

Bike paths connected to the road.

Those bowlers do get run over.

Um, I got two flat tires on that road years ago, um, just from nails and stuff being kicked over there.

So I've changed two flat tires on that road on my bike, not on my car on my bike.

So I appreciate your comments, and uh Paul and his team will definitely work with you.

Thank you.

Good morning, mayor and city council.

My name's Ray Bachman.

I live at 12507 West Cornelison Street in the Cheelbrook Homeowners Association.

I'm actually president of the HOA.

So I've been in communication with Sean Millis, who is you know is the City of Wichita chief engineer design.

Um our concern with Killbrook, we're on the south side, is the uh tree removal.

We've been talking about trees quite a bit.

I couldn't understand everything that was said here just recently, but the trees are of uh real concern.

Number one, aesthetically, number two, noise abatement, although it's probably not a huge thing because the trees are spread out, but I believe that you make a difference.

The uh, and then we have a fence along 21st Street along our entire property line, split in the middle with the entrance to Tealbrook, which is the only interest we have in and out of our neighborhood.

Um, the uh the brick fence is 57 feet from the edge of the road, the current edge of the road.

Our trees, the closest tree to the road is 45 feet from the road.

So I'm hoping that the trees and our and our brick fence will not be affected with this road.

Uh, my comments to Sean were that if the trees do are removed, and you'll notice on the graph they put up, um, they showed a a red, a red bar on along either side of 21st Street for tree removal.

So our concern is removing those trees, and some of them are quite large.

We're not only affect the noise abatement and the aesthetic value of the of the area, but also affect the fence.

That's our real concern.

Remove these huge trees, big root systems die off.

What happens to your fence in the next couple years?

So I've addressed this with Sean.

He said he would they didn't expect all the trees to be removed.

If they were removed, some would be replaced, it would not be one for one, and any impact to our fence would be addressed by the city.

So my only point here was to reiterate those concerns and hope that we can come to an agreement.

Obviously, this uh road improvement needs to be done with everything, all the growth is happening on West 21st Street.

So we understand that.

Uh we just like to work with the city and make sure that our concerns are addressed, and we're all on the same page.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Ray.

Councilmember Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor Ray.

Good to see you again.

And uh, yeah, your concerns.

I'm sure uh Paul and his team and Sean will uh work with you on that.

I can't see how that would ever get to that fence.

Um, I don't think there's any way that road will get to your fence or even to your trees.

So, but they'll they'll certainly work with you.

So thank you.

Would anyone good morning, Mayor and Council?

My name is Holly Terrell, and I serve as the executive director of Bikewalk Wichita.

I'm here today to support the proposed design for the 21st Street West.

I want to start by saying thank you to the staff for the thoughtful work that's gone into this project.

The stretch of 21st is already one of the most active cycling corridors in West Wichita.

You can see riders heading out toward Cheney Lake nearly every day.

The Northwest YMCA brings regular bike traffic, and there are businesses including a preschool along this stretch.

This is a corridor people are already using.

The proposal includes two crosswalks, a side a six-foot sidewalk on the south side, and a ten foot shared youth path on the north side.

That common combination makes sense here.

The sidewalk provides direct access for pedestrians to a day properties, and the shared use path provides space for people traveling longer distances, including families, youth writers, and those who might not feel comfortable riding in the street.

I would gently offer that they serve different needs.

In a high use corridor like this one, separation actually reduces conflict and improves comfort for everyone.

I want to reassure you that a 10-foot-wide multi-use path is not excessive.

It's the nationally recognized minimum for shared use paths.

Organizations like the Federal Highway Administration and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recommend 10 feet as the lower limit in high use areas, even wider is suggested.

So this design is not ambitious, it's appropriate.

When we reconstruct a corridor that people already use this much, we have a chance to build it in a way that supports safety and comfort for decades.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you, Holly.

Any other individuals who would like to address the council.

I see none.

I'll bring it back to the bench.

Thank you to the four public comment speakers on this agenda item.

This resides in Council Member Johnston's district.

Thank you, Mayor.

I would like to mention I would like to recommend that the city council approve the design concept, revise the budget, supplemental design agreement number one, adopt the amending resolution and authorize the necessary signatures.

Second.

Motion and a second, any further discussion.

This is not against sidewalks, it is rather talking about reasonableness as well as maintaining new assets.

The width of a typical SUV is between six and seven feet.

This is a 10-foot sidewalk called multi-use.

So again, it's for perspective.

And knowing that the YMCA right there on 135th is highly utilized.

Uh, this road improvement makes sense, and this construction is anticipated to begin in 2029 and end in 2030 for perspective.

With that, I will be in favor.

So we have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 70.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Design concept, supplemental design agreement number one and funding for 127th Street East from Douglas to 13th Street North.

Thank you.

Mayor Paul Gunselman Public Works and Utility for the record.

Second item is 127th Street from Douglas to 13th Street.

And again on October 8th, 2024, the City Council approved design funding for multiple capital improvement program projects, including 127th Street from Douglas to 13th Street.

On April 8th of 2025, the City Council improved an agreement with professional engineering consultants to develop design concept for this project.

And on January 14th and January 26th, the District 2 Advisory Board, as well as the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board approved the design.

The project limits again 13th Street to the north or the right of the screen, south to Douglas.

The traffic and proposed the existing and proposed traffic volumes.

This is a slide looking between Douglas and the Kansas Turnpike Authority slash K96 ramp connection to 127th Street.

It's a two-lane roadway.

These were believe improved in the late 1990s.

This is looking north of the uh K96 or the bridge over K96 Highway.

Shows sidewalk only on the west side of the roadway or bridge.

And existing conditions, this is looking north near the Crestview Country Club.

And we have had discussion with uh members of the country club.

Um they were concerned with tree removal along Crestview.

Um staff staff met with Crestview on site.

Um we believe that there is flexibility to adjust the sidewalk alignment, and we will know more once elevations are set.

We will continue to coordinate with Crestview Country Club.

They also had raised concern about the timing and construction with the golf tournament that they have each summer, and we will we had committed to keep that tournament in mind and maybe look at special phasing if needed to to accommodate traffic during the tournament as best as possible.

And as I was sitting there after the during the other item, I wanted to remind uh the council that we do have the tree policy in place that was uh approved, and we do with that tree policy.

We do take another step and go back to the district advisory boards once we have plans further along and know the impact of the tree, so we can present that as well and reach out to those adjacent property owners who would be affected by tree removal.

This is a current uh lane configuration of the intersection of 13th and 127th Street.

Again, it was almost it improved almost 20 years ago.

Um 127th Street from 13th to 21st had been improved, and it is a three-lane roadway with on-street bike lanes to the north.

Again, um, this slide I know it's busy, but it does show the existing sidewalk and or path network in the surrounding area.

The blue represents sidewalk on only one side of the street, and most of these locations are within Cedric County.

They have uh subject county has jurisdiction over Central and 13th Street.

The orange is the uh K96 path that will intersect this project to the south as well as the red bud trail there between 13th and 21st Street.

The purple has sidewalk on both sides of the street, and the solid green indicates a multi-use path on one side of the street with a sidewalk on the other side of the street, and our proposed project right there in the center with a dashed green line.

We're proposing a sidewalk on one side with a multi-use path on the other.

We believe a proposed or we recommend a roundabout at this location.

Um we recommend 127th Street be three lanes, north to central.

And the 2024 bicycle plan does include um sidewalk or multi-use path on Douglas, connecting the multi-use path along Greenwich to 127th Street, and that project is in the CIP in a future years.

Moving north.

The concept at K96 or the bridge over K96.

Um we're proposing to again three lanes.

We are proposing to modify the lane configuration on the bridge to provide pedestrian route on the east side of the bridge.

So we would be taking away travel lanes.

This shows to the right of your screen a pedestrian crossing north of the bridge to connect to the K96 path.

And there will also be ADA and pedestrian upgrades at the intersection of Central and 127th Street.

At the north end of the project, 13th Street has been improved as mentioned before.

Financial considerations.

The existing budget that was approved in in October of 2024 is 700,000.

The budget initiation request today of 2026 local sales tax funding of 500,000, bringing a revised budget to 1.2 million dollars.

And then there is an additional budget in the capital improvement program in 2027 and 2028 for 8.6 million dollars.

And as a reminder, we do have $5,960,000 in change of federal funding in this project for construction.

With that, it is recommended that city council approve the design concept, revised budget, supplemental design agreement number one.

Adopt the amending resolution and authorize necessary signatures, and I will stand for questions.

Thank you, Paul.

Questions for staff.

I see none.

We'll open it up for public comment.

Good morning again.

For the record, my name is Holly Terrell, and I serve as the executive director of Bike Walk Wichita.

I would also like to share support for the proposed design of 127th Street between 13th and Douglas.

This corridor may not look busy today as 21st Street, but it plays an important role in the bigger picture of bike infrastructure in Wichita.

The 2024 bicycle master plan identifies this segment as part of the long-term network.

Moreover, one of the strengths of having a master plan is that it gives us guidance in moments exactly like this when reconstruction is happening.

The stretch helps connect the end of K96 bike path near 127th and 13th facilities further south.

Completing those connections is how we turn individual projects into usable systems.

The proposed sidewalk and 10-foot shared use path are consistent with national design guidance and with the master plan.

Even if current traffic is lighter, infrastructure shapes behavior.

When we build safe connected facilities, people use them.

When gaps remain, they do not.

This proposal reflects thoughtful planning and consistency with adopted policy.

Thank you for continued leadership and supporting connected safe streets.

Thank you, Holly.

Council will bring it back to the bench.

This is in Council Member Tuttle's district.

Thank you very much.

Um, Holly, just thank you for being here today.

Appreciate it and truly appreciate Bikewalk Wichita.

I've been involved with that organization since it began many years ago.

And Bikewalk Wichita and you just do a great job advocating for the Master Bike Plan, the Master Pedestrian Plan, connectivity, but mostly safety for when it comes to active transportation in our community.

So I appreciate your time and efforts.

Um thank you to Paul and to all of your team.

Thank you for your work on this.

Um thank you also for meeting with the community members.

I want to thank community members who came to the open house and to the district advisory board last month, and I appreciate your follow-up and meeting with them and their concerns, especially crusty country club.

So with that, I move that the city council approved the design concept supplemental design agreement number one, revised budget, adopt the amending resolution and authorize the necessary signatures.

Second motion and a second, any further discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passed us, seven zero.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Stormwater utility rate increases.

Morning, Mary and Council members Gary Janssen again, public works and utilities.

Uh the item before you this morning, it's a recommended increase to stormwater utility rates.

Uh so we're looking to the future of our stormwater utility fund, especially our ability to uh be able to fund future improvements within the core of our community.

What you're going to see is very similar, practically the same as the uh workshop discussion we had last November.

I've got a few additional pieces of information that came out of that discussion to provide today, and certainly be happy to answer questions when we get to the end of this.

Uh, some history on the stormwater utility, which was established in 1990.

Prior to that, uh funding for stormwater improvements, there was a period of time when it was through our sewer fund, uh, which is not uncommon in some communities and and general obligation for the most part.

Uh rates were implemented to uh then to fund the utility after 1990.

Uh, what we call an equivalent residential unit, which I'll talk about soon, was our original rate structure to build, maintain, and repair the drainage systems throughout the city and ensure compliance with federal and state regulations.

And I would emphasize that since that time, uh the focus has really been on maintaining and repairing the current drainage system because the funding hasn't allowed us to do much additional building.

A lot of the reason why we're here today.

Many neighborhoods in Wichita were constructed prior to current drainage standards.

Uh, neighborhoods in Wichita, new neighborhoods in Wichita are now constructed with uh very specific drainage requirements, which are financed through special assessments.

During the original development of our community, especially in the core area that we're going to talk quite a bit about today, portions of the city may not have adequately addressed drainage needs, and we know that they didn't.

And this picture is a good example of a core area concern that we see often.

Modern drainage standards that were established in 2012 and even some before then, uh, but there was a county-wide drainage manual established in 2012 that all new development follows at this time, have highlighted many areas of Wichita, which again were developed with inadequate drainage requirements.

This reality is directly driving the need to upsize and add drained and drainage infrastructure in Wichita's core neighborhoods.

I've had conversations with many of you uh over time about what we can do to help with drainage improvements without doing something uh looking to the future.

Uh, we're gonna probably remain about the same place status quo as far as being able to make really uh significant improvements.

Uh but I'll walk you through what maybe some of our options are here and what that looks like.

Uh, stormwater rate adjustments were last adopted in April of 2017.

At that time, a monthly base fee of a dollar fifty was added, and those residential tiers I talked about that equivalent residential unit, which I'll come to on a chart here in a little bit, were rescaled to make fees more equitable between residential and commercial customers.

So since 2017, that monthly base rate fee of $1.50 has been in place.

Um, and really we've been saving that up so that we can um move forward with the Blackley project, which is underway now.

Come back to that also.

The stormwater utility fund and expenses include operations and maintenance expenses annually for $950,000.

That's specifically for R of existing assets.

That's a big part of our program.

That's really the most of what we're getting done.

We do have a few stormwater capital projects, only two in the current CIP that I'll highlight in a moment.

This also includes the city's share of the city county joint funded flood control project capital expenses.

There's a lot happening on this chart.

The biggest portion of those CIP projects is Bleckley.

But just our operational costs to keep the stormwater utility moving forward.

We're going to be challenged in the coming 10 years if we don't look to do something sooner than later, even if it's not today.

Looking at the stormwater CIP itself, it includes switch taw drainage canal improvements and the MS Mitch Mitchell floodway improvements.

These are the city's share only.

These are the ones we share with Cedric County.

Pump station improvements, Bleckley, as I talked about, which is a big portion of it.

And the other project that is in the CIP now is improvements at Murdoch and Wabash.

And we'll look at inflation impacts on all of these here in just a moment.

Other than Bleckley, all capital projects have been cash funded since 2016, and all of that outstanding debt pays off in 2031.

So if we look at key rate drivers from 2017 to 2026, and especially what we've seen for inflationary impacts, the Bleckley project, the scope of that project has changed.

That's not all just inflationary impact in nine years, but that's jumped from 10 million original estimate to 36 million dollars.

We're getting ready to move into phase two of that project soon.

Flood control project with the city share that is primarily increased due to additional work being required by regulators, where that goes from 250,000 to 740.

Obviously, we see some uh impacts of inflation there too.

Murdoch and Wildback Wild Bash project has almost doubled in cost, OM cost, we'll see an increase of $2 million over that period of time.

We do think based on our decision support tool that the dedicated renewal and replacement funds we can still hold steady for some time.

I think we did a very good job from the beginning of optimizing what that needed to be.

So we have a multi-year, uh we we've had a multi-year in depth study of the stormwater utility fund spending strategy using a decision support tool.

You've heard us talk about our decision support tools for other asset classes.

We've done the same for the stormwater utility.

Uh I'll talk about that more in just a little bit, but I wanted to hit on some of the factors.

So those include presence of existing infrastructure, risk, probability, and consequence of failure, critical facilities and rainfall elasticity.

And one of the things I'll highlight on rainfall elasticity that's important to note.

This comes with a lot of institutional knowledge from our staff, but there are some areas of our community, especially in the core, where we can get a significant rain event and we'll see the streets fill up with water.

We also see those same areas that will clear out within 15 to 30 minutes.

That's a factor we need to include.

It's not ideal when water is ankle deep or up to the bottoms of doors of cars during certain rain events.

It's also not practical for us to look at million dollars investment, millions of dollars in investments to make sure that we can get the water out of there sooner than that period of time.

Hopefully that makes sense.

It's one of the factors we're looking at, uh knowing that we've got to stretch any funds that we have as far as we can.

One of the questions that came up during the workshop that I wanted to hit on right now while I was talking about the decision support tool is impact of properties, whether it's insurance, uh flood damage.

We unfortunately do not have that record information.

It's not available to us.

We FEMA does not provide that when there's previous property damage.

We don't have information for records for insurance.

We we do not know the impact in any areas of what flooding has caused in the past.

Unfortunately, that's not a factor uh in looking to where the the improvements are needed the most, but I do I do expect it goes hand in hand uh with the factors that we've used for a decision support tool and where we see the priorities.

Looking a little bit more at stormwater utility fund expenses, uh then revenue and expenses over a 20-year outlook.

Uh the blue line being the revenue, the orange, dotted orange being a linear, and then of course the dark orange being expenses, where you see some of those drops is where the debt service uh comes off.

Um again, we're always looking to balance cash funding versus debt service.

Unlike water and sewer revenues, which fluctuate based on volume and are influenced by the weather, stormwater revenue factors remain fairly constant.

Expenses continue to rise, and the next slide will break those down.

So 96% of stormwater revenue comes from the uh base fee of $1.50 that was implemented in 2017, and the ERU rates.

So looking at our fund balance, and Mark Manning talked earlier about all of our funds, practically all of our funds having uh some type of reserve target, which this one does too.

It's not by ordinance, but I'll explain to you what that reserve target is on the orange line in just a moment.

So a healthy fund balance has been maintained in recent years while the utility undertook the spending strategy assessment I talked about earlier.

A large portion of the fund balance we use to cash fund the Bluckley project.

Without a rate increase at this time, the fund balance is projected to meet the minimum reserve target through 2033.

So approximately seven years from now.

So you can see where that fund balance starts to drop below the line.

Our reserve target is calculated as 90 days of OM, 90 days of principal and interest, 60 days public safety fee, which is roughly $2.5 million between 2025 and 2030.

We have found historically that that's we think that's a healthy reserve fund, but we're gonna struggle to meet that relatively soon without considering doing something else.

So moving forward and really getting into what our recommendation is for today.

There are three goals.

Ensure long-term financial stability by maintaining an adequate fund balance.

Sorry, optimize investments to minimize risk at the lowest lifecycle cost and control rate adjustments as much as possible.

There's benefit in a lot more ways.

Obviously, the impact adjacent property owners is important.

It doesn't do certain pavements that good to sit underwater repeatedly, so we can also extend our pavement life by creating adequate drainage infrastructure to get that water underground and to where it needs to go to more effectively.

Three options are prepared for city council consideration, and these all focus on the change to the monthly base fee, which we would recommend recommend.

So I'm gonna look at this with you several ways to make sure that this is very clear and makes sense.

We do have an option to maintain the status quo, meaning there's no monthly base rate increase at this time.

That also means there will be no funding for neighborhood drainage improvements.

The final opportunity revise rates before the fund balance is depleted is 2033, and at that point in time, we would see a lot more significant bump in what we would need for the monthly rates as opposed to trying to smooth this out over time.

Option two is a minimum increase of 15 cents per month per year ongoing.

That would start in 2027.

And let me just say today, uh, we are recommending option three, which I'll come to in a moment.

Your only consideration today is for 2026.

You'll hear talk about this 15 cents per year and 2027 and beyond.

This 15% on option two would be for 2026.

Anything beyond 2026, we would bring back to the council for future consideration, even if it's just the 15 cents per month each year.

That would not automatically happen, just like we previously talked with water and sewer rates, we would come back to you with that.

So just let me go back to option two is a minimum increase of 15 cents per year.

That's 15 cents per month, the monthly rate per year ongoing starting this year.

That still would not provide any funding for neighborhood drainage improvements, only for operations and maintenance of our existing system, and but that would uh extend us out to 2024 before the fund balance is depleted.

Our recommended option is option three, uh, which includes a dollar increase in 2026 to the base rate fee.

It includes the projections we'll look at includes 15 cents annually in 2027 and ongoing.

Again, this is on the monthly rate.

Uh, we would come back to you next year for that 15 cents.

That's not part of the consideration today.

That would generate approximately 1.5 million dollars annually for capital improvements, and then going beyond this year with the 15 cents would help us keep us in the right place for OM.

That also extends us out to 2044 at this time.

Um, so I'm gonna run through some things here.

I won't spend a lot of time on, happy to come back to you.

We have talked to several of you uh in detail about some of these, but at a high level, uh utilizing our decision support tool, here's what one dollar gets us uh based on our recommendation for option three.

The left side of this, which is called decision support tool DST approach number one.

Um, what that does is is we got we looked out as far as we needed to with a $1 increase, million and a half dollars a year to where within each district, we ended up with an upsizing project and a neighborhood improvement project.

There's a lot of our neighborhoods that we can't just go in and fix the drainage without upsizing other infrastructure that it needs to extend into that neighborhood.

So generally one doesn't go without the other.

So by the time we got to two projects in each district at a one dollar increase, it takes 24 years to get there.

It's gonna take us some time, but this would be a good start.

So what that table on the left shows ends up being fairly equal.

Our goal was not to spread the funding, it was to look at the priority areas based on our decision support tool metrics.

And I was kind of surprised at where we ended up within each district.

Approach number two is district agnostic, and it looks at what we see are the highest priorities across the community.

Over 24 year period, we would see no improvements in district two or district five.

We would see considerable amount of improvements funding-wise in districts one and six and the balance in districts three and four.

We are not recommending that option.

We think it makes sense as we've done with our pavement preservation program that we should be looking across all districts with the DST approach number one.

But I wanted you to see what that looks like.

We can certainly talk about that more.

But let's move on to the next step that of that again.

Then what this looks like for approach number one.

This is the first 10 years, and I know it's a lot of information.

So first table was over a 24-year period because that's how long it takes to get to the point, $1 increase to have upsizing project, neighborhood improvement project in each district.

This is what the first 10 years looks like for each district.

And I just kind of want to give you some idea of the areas we're looking at.

These are blocked out areas.

Our decision support tool does have additional detail within those areas of the specific improvements we need to make.

Didn't want to quite go that far into the weeds here.

We can always talk about that more if we need to.

But you can see within each district, there's some UPZ is upsizing in AIDS as neighborhood improvements.

There's a variety of different work being done.

That's the first 10 years.

The balance of what we saw would come in years 10 through 24.

Approach number two, which again is not our recommendation.

If we don't consider districts, you can see that this shows no work in districts two, three, or five for the first 10 years.

That's why we think it makes sense to probably stay with our recommended option number one, so that we're doing work across the community.

Even if you look at outside the core area, like in districts two and five, we've seen neighborhoods that were annexed in from the county over the years where there was no drainage standards in place at the time.

So here's what the average monthly stormwater bill would look like.

And again, I know this is a lot of information.

So I talked about the equivalent residential unit.

I'm going to set that aside, but I would I would call your attention to class two.

That's where most of our properties reside.

And what an equivalent, but I will tell you what an equivalent residential unit is.

This is common across the country and municipalities to use this.

It assesses a fee based off runoff from the property, average runoff from the property.

So if you've got concrete pavement roofs, anything that does not allow water to permeate, you're going to get runoff to the stormwater system.

We establish an equivalent residential unit.

That's for all existing properties, that's for all new properties, whether there's a stormwater in front of the house or not, the stormwater system, any facilities, that ERU is assessed.

That part won't change.

The base fee that we established in 2017, it makes the most sense, we believe, to increase that base rate so that it's equitable share across the community to make improvements.

This is no different than what we do with our streets.

People who pay property taxes are not just to fix the street in front of their house, it's for the entire system.

In the same manner, paying the ERU and the base rate fee for stormwater improvements helps accommodate everything downstream.

The more water you pick up, the further you get downstream, the bigger the pipes get, the bigger the systems get.

Everybody contributes to paying for that, so that makes sense.

If we go back to line two, uh option one, nothing would change.

The current monthly bill is $3.50.

For uh option two, the 15 cents increase for OM would be $365.

Our recommended option is option three, again on class two, would go from $3.50 a month to $4.50 a month.

This would be for the majority of our citizens within our community.

That would be our recommendation.

I'm not gonna hit on anything else on there right now.

I'm happy to come back to that later if you want to talk about it.

As we do with our other utilities, we wanted to look at uh Pier Cities, comparison along the I-35 corridor, um, Des Moines, Tulsa, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, there's some of the ones we've looked at before, which saw fits uh again there in about the bottom third.

Um's Tulsa, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, there's some of the ones we've looked at before, which saw fits uh again there in about the bottom third.

Kansas City, Missouri, um, their stormwater funding is subsidized by their sewer to utility funding, so that doesn't paint a full picture of the of the cost.

And Omaha is the same way.

So we think we're still in a good place.

Um, as far as comparison to our pure cities, just as the R with water and sewer rates, we're gonna make sure that you saw that.

That was a lot of information, so I'll walk you through a summary uh and then the formal recommendation.

Uh stormwater revenue remains flat while expenses continue to climb.

I saw some information from uh national construction industry that showed since 2020 that construction prices across the industry have increased by almost 66 percent.

Some of that is due to what happened during COVID, but we haven't seen uh much recovery from that.

So everything that we do, uh, including our operations and maintenance of our stormwater system, anything that we do for new construction is certainly gonna cost more than it used to.

So even if we make no improvements to our system, even if we don't add any stormwater improvements to the core area, we're gonna see cost increase on everything that we do.

So we need to do something we feel like sooner than later.

Incremental increases avoids large rate spikes in the future.

Again, real quick option one, a status quo.

Without a rate increase, the fund balance is projected to last through 2033.

The minimum increase would be 15 cents per month.

Um, starting now, that would extend the life of the fund balance to 2044.

Our recommendation option three is one dollar in 2026, followed by 15 percent 15 cents annually.

That's not what you're would be recommending today.

That's not where we're asking for approval today.

We would come back to you on that.

That would extend the fund balance to 2024 and provide approximately 1.5 million dollars and annual neighborhood drainage improvements.

Um, if either option two or three is approved, the rate adjustment would take effect on April 1st.

Okay, so coming to a recommendation.

If option one is selected, no action is required.

If option two or three is selected, is recommend the city council place the corresponding ordinance on first reading and authorized necessary signatures.

Staff is recommending that option three be approved today.

With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Gary.

Questions for staff beginning with Vice Mayor Glascock.

Thank you, Mayor.

So the 1.5 gives us what we see on page 95, correct?

The 1.5 million annually for additional drainage improvements.

This is only for the first 10 years.

And sorry, I know that's a lot of information.

What about going back one slide?

So that one the left side of that is what you would see.

That 26.5 million dollars in improvements, that's what you would get over a 24-year period with a one dollar increase.

Okay, now let's go to the next slide, page 95.

District 4 in particular, Meridian, Seneca, Douglas to Waterman at the bottom, assess estimate project initiation.

Is that is just 2034 for the district five projects?

I know the district four project, the road construction is in the CIP, and I believe 2028.

So would this not delay those projects that were also doing the drainage improvements in line with when it's projected in the CIP?

Yes, sir.

Uh, very good question, and we're keeping a very close eye on that, working together.

Anywhere we have the opportunity to make improvements with capital projects, which will be significant in the coming years.

It's going to add to this benefit.

It's going to aid and help us maybe make some of these improvements sooner, but certainly make them more effective.

Okay.

Follow-up question.

I think this might be my last question, maybe two questions into one.

So when we're looking at option three, which says the monthly base fee would increase by the dollar, followed by 15 cents annually or annual increases beginning in 2027.

Today's vote is just to extend that in 2026, 2027, or is that to extend the 15 cent increase in perpetuity?

Today's vote is for the one dollar for 2026 only.

Only that.

Okay.

And so when we're looking at the additional, I mean, for me, makes sense that you have an escalator every month, or you had an escalator every year.

And right now, I would say that the additional dollar only maintains the fund balance through 2044.

What would be able to maintain the fund balance in perpetuity that we could continue to make investments that they that residents would know every month this is what an increase would be.

Something that we wouldn't have to worry about still the fund being insolvent in 2044 and just delaying it for future councils to make a decision.

What would make the fund solid in perpetuity?

Uh, I don't think I have that number, but I could certainly get that to you.

Um I'm not sure that we've necessarily looked at what happens to be able to go forward uh in perpetuity, but I'd be happy to provide that.

Um maybe something we can consider today is with the $1 in 2026 gets us off to a good start.

Uh our next discussion on this, then sometime this year.

Uh about this same time next year, we could certainly have a further discussion on that of what happens going to the future to extend us past 2044.

Yeah, just when we had the water rates conversation, what can we do to make sure this is consistent for the future that residents know what to expect, and that way we don't have to worry about any fund balance running dry.

I think that would be good stewardship.

So I would be interested in bringing that back when uh we bring back the uh 15 cents annual increases or how we could do that later.

Sure.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any further questions for staff?

I have a couple.

So when you're looking at uh slide number 85, can you go back to that please?

You talked about any of these new developments, particularly in districts two and five.

Um, they take into account storm water uh infrastructure.

However, a lot of the core did not.

Can you tell me when uh the drainage standards were updated?

Well, certainly in 2012, uh countywide.

Um the city and the county worked very closely together to develop a countywide drainage manual as far as what was expected and required of new development.

Even prior to then, I started with the city in 1995.

Uh, and new developments then there were drainage standards in place, they they've continued to develop.

So I would say post 1990, even uh sometime in that area, we started looking at more proper drainage standards, um, and it's evolved over the years.

2012 really formalized things countywide to make sure everybody was on the same page, neighboring communities that's really benefited a lot.

Uh, but it's been an evolving process.

Um, all of that though, with those new improvements is all funded by special assessment to the adjacent property owners, those who benefit from the improvements.

Can you give me some background?

Uh, we were not on this council in 2017 when this went into effect.

Um, and so this was a new fee on individuals in 2017.

Can you give us the reasoning in 2017 to start this?

I was not involved with it at the time, but from the information I have and what I know as much as anything, we were looking to the future then and looking at the um the fund itself, the fund balance.

Um, I don't know what the projection was at that point of where we were going to meet uh or be below the target for the fund balance or especially for the reserve part of it.

But one of the things I do know is we really started to look at the Bleckley project then, knowing that it was going to be uh costly.

Um the idea with that 2017 base rate addition was to start uh saving money so that we could eventually cash fund the bulk of that project, which is what we're doing and what we've done.

So again, uh you were talking about in 2017 there was foresight in trying to think about how to make improvements to Bleckley, which happens to be in district one.

Um, and remind us again how much this total project is, this Bleckley drainage project.

Our projection is 36 million dollars.

And so if we chose options one or two, the no change you can go back to I guess the slide that has the fee breakdown.

Sure.

There we go.

Um so if we chose one or two, there would be no further major um projects.

Correct.

Is that accurate?

There's only two projects in the CIP right now.

We would be able to finish Buckley.

Uh, and the other project was the core area one around 9th Street.

And yeah.

So only option three would allow for the next slide to happen.

Yes, correct.

That's the only way for us to move forward is with option three.

Um, again, I appreciate uh what you said that the preference is approach number one, which would allow each of the six districts to have some sort of drainage project be considered.

Um so I know that these council members get comments from their residents regarding drainage issues.

I think several of the pictures that you showed were in district number six in council member ballard's district.

So if we chose options one or two, none of those projects would be considered.

Is that accurate?

If we chose, if we chose to move forward with the what's considered approach number two here, um, there would be no projects in district two or five.

And and just for what it's worth, I I know again this is a lot of information.

This is projected on a 24-year period because we we didn't start with 24-year period.

We started with what it take to do an upsizing project, neighborhood improved project in each district.

I know I said that I just want to be clear.

If you look at the first 10 years, we actually see uh no improvements in two, three, or five for the first 10 years if approach number two is an option, which we don't think it should be.

Thank you.

So again, before the council are three options.

Um can you go back to the fees?

Option one, no changes in fees, but also no new projects.

Option two allows you to have a 15 cent increase, but also no new projects.

Correct.

That supports the project.

And then option three will allow you to again go back to the next slide, which is projects in at least all these six districts.

So is that accurate to say only option three, which is an increase of one dollar this year, would allow for these projects to move forward.

That is correct.

And I want to qualify one thing again while we're here, just so everybody is clear.

Uh this is gonna take some time.

So again, looking at 26 and a half million dollars in improvement projects based on our decision support tool where we think the most critical improvements are needed, it will take 24 years to make those improvements with the one dollar increase.

Just want to make sure everybody knows that.

Thank you.

And again, it's only it's a dollar per month.

Is that accurate?

So your fee right now is a dot uh three dollars and fifty cents in class two.

If we chose option three, it would increase by a dollar.

So your now monthly fee would be 450.

Is that accurate?

Correct, and that's the majority of our citizens.

But if we went with options two, which again would only increase it by 15 cents, I I keep getting comments about increases in cost.

So I'm just asking uh a fair question, which is only an option three, which increases the fee to an additional dollar, will actual drainage projects move forward.

Correct.

Outside of uh the two projects we have listed, including Blackley and the one on 9th Street.

Uh right now we would have no funding for any other improvements.

Thank you, uh, Gary.

I see no further questions for staff.

I will now open it up for public comment.

I see no individuals from the public who would like to speak.

Um I know that the staff recommended action is to increase it by a dollar, um, but I again have heard from this community that they don't like increases, so I'm gonna say that option two, which is the most minimal, um, is prudent, or um option one, which is don't make any changes, and then this would become insolvent by 2033.

Um so with that, I know that council members want to speak about this.

So, council member Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

I appreciate that.

Um fee improv um increases.

However, in my district, I see so many issues surrounding flooding.

Um the senior citizens who have to walk through a neighbor's yard in order to get to their front door.

Um, a number of issues like that.

So uh this time I am supportive of a fee increase, option three.

Again, I vote against most of these, but this one I do see the the need in my community directly for um additional services to address some of these flooding issues.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

Um Councilmember for your comments, and I echo them back this summer.

Um, I stood in Cul-de-Sax and Backyards, angled in water with public works team.

Um, some of it we can be responsible for, some of it we can't, but just to see the devastation that water does, um, there's an expression in construction called water will win, and we saw that this summer, and so we had 76 car water submersions during the rain this summer.

It was a 500-year rain.

And we talk about deferred maintenance from this bench quite a bit, and this is an opportunity for us to really be assertive in this area.

And so with that, I will make a substitute motion to adopt option number three.

There was no motion before.

Sorry, I thought you meant, but I will be supportive.

And if no one else makes the motion, I will for three.

Council member uh Vice Mayor Glascon.

Thank you, Mayor.

I was planning on making the motion for three now.

So uh I would move that the city council adopt option three, place the corresponding ordinance on first reading and authorize the necessary signatures.

Second motion and a second discussion, Councilmember Shepherd.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to reiterate that I think while representing District One, it would be very selfish of me to say our projects are underway with some of the options, and so the saving the increase while important to me would not be fair to the entire city.

And I think it's my responsibility to look after not just my district, but also to make decisions in the best interest of the entire city.

Um Bleckley is a project that has had lots of commentary and spirited debate to this day.

Um I continue to hear from constituents, and I think one of the number one questions we hear from constituents whenever we have to take on these projects after deferred maintenance is how did we get here?

So while I think it's important for us to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, we also have an ethical and moral responsibility to do the tough thing so that way 20 years down the road, we don't have another situation like Bleckley.

And with that, I will be supporting the motion by Vice Mayor Glasscock and secondhand by my colleague councilmember Tuttle.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you.

Um I just echo the comments of uh some of my colleagues and will be supportive of option three.

We have a motion and a second, and the discussion is over.

I will provide a substitute motion, the motion to approve option two, which is a 15 cent increase, not a one dollar increase.

And I see no second, so motion does not go forward.

We have a motion uh right now from Vice Mayor Glosscock, seconded by councilmember Tuttle.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 6-1.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Funding for Woodland Park North Public Art.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council members.

Uh Jana Irwin with Arts and Cultural Services for the Record.

And the item before you today is funding for uh 2026 capital improvement program for woodland park public art.

A little bit of background.

The cultural arts strategic plan outlines a mission for the city to ensure that everyone has equitable access to cultural arts opportunities by activating and strengthening the creative potential of the community.

The plan also identifies several strategies related to public art, including continuing to grow and restore the public art collection and supporting efforts to stimulate the creation of artwork and cultural opportunities.

The two percent for art ordinance requires that city staff including amount budgeted for public art, not less than two percent of the total amount budgeted for new CIP projects, financed from general obligation, at-large funding, local sales tax, and or transient guest tax.

Percent for art funds are allocated by the design council and are used for the selection, installation, administration, and maintenance of artworks.

Unallocated two percent for art funds are carried forward into the next fund year or allocated to design council recommended projects to ensure full and strategic utilization of program resources.

Other current project examples with this type of allocation are the downtown sculpture purchase initiative, art maintenance, and OJ Watson Park Neurals and Sculpture.

So the North End Wichita Historical Society approached park and recreation staff with a request to place a history walk in Woodland Park North, highlighting the history of the North End neighborhood and the significant achievements of its residents.

On August 5th, 2024, the design council recommended allocating public art funding and the amount of 50,000 to Woodland Park for a sculptural element as part of the history walk project.

The public art project will provide a gateway to Woodland Park North from 21st Street that celebrates the cultural richness of the North End community, its history and the residents that utilize the park daily.

The gateway will draw attention to the park and its amenities, including the new history walk.

Here's just some visual examples of gateways that have been done in other parks across the country.

For financial and legal considerations, the 2026 2035 adopted CIP includes 188,166 in general obligation bond funding in 2026 for unallocated public arts funds.

Staff recommends initiating 50,000 at this time for this project, and the law department has reviewed and approved the bonding resolution as to form.

So it is recommended that the city council approve the project, adopt the bonding resolution, and authorize the necessary signatures, and I will stand for questions.

Thank you.

Questions for staff.

Just wanted to know is 50,000 the maximum for this project, then it is.

And then uh the remaining of the 188,000, what will be what is what is being um allocated for the future?

In all likelihood, that will be rolled over into the 2027 funding year.

I had a quick question.

This is a follow-up to America's 250th conversation we had several weeks ago.

So would this be funding that could be used for America's 250?

This funding would be available.

Should city council uh should it be the will of city council that it be allocated toward that type of project.

Thank you, Jana.

You're welcome.

Any further questions for staff?

I see none.

We'll open it up for public comment.

I see none.

I'll bring it back to the bench.

This is in Maggie's district.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Janet, thank you so much.

We're very excited for the history walk and just all of the momentum right now in the North End.

So, with that, I'd like to take the recommended action, approve the project, adopt the bonding resolution, and authorize a necessary signature.

Second.

Motion second.

Any further discussion?

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 70.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

2026 community services block grant application.

Good morning and happy new year, even if it's in February, but this is my first time.

So good morning to Mayor and Council and everyone on the council this morning.

Special acknowledgments to you, Mr.

Joseph Shepherd.

Welcome to the bench and I look forward to working with you in the future.

My name is Nichelle Williams, and I currently work in our housing and community services department, and I oversee the division of the Wichita Cedric County Community Action Partnership.

Very long, we shorten it to call WISCAP.

So before you this morning, I bring to you a grant budget application.

We bring this to you before you every year to present this.

Um, and it is for our community service block grant application.

A little bit of background in regards to the application.

Um we receive this, like I stated before, once a year we apply for it.

Um there are a total of eight community action agencies inside of the state of Kansas.

We review all of that.

We receive a budget analysis from them throughout the entire state based off of our census track, and those funds are allocated to us based off of once again the census track.

The funds come directly from the U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services to the state of Kansas, which is also known as the KHRC.

In December 2025, we received the preliminary guidance on funding amounts received from KHRC, December the 12th.

Our CSBG review committee completed the funding recommendations, and then today I'm bringing before you the grant application for approval.

February the 28th, it is due to KHRC, and on April the 1st of this year, our grant year will begin.

The review committee, which most of you have heard about, I'm pretty sure all of you almost have got an email from me.

Um makes up of about 12 representatives.

Eight are appointed by the council, four are elected into the resource neighbors.

We currently have four vacancies, and that's one in District One, three, four, and six.

Thank you guys for the feedback in advance on getting those people placed.

So I really appreciate that.

The committee met on once again the 12th to review those guidance, review the recommendations, and also discuss the budget, the outcomes and the expenditures.

The 2026 program fund is based on the committee's recommendations.

Most of you have also heard of our IFD program.

Our program over the last year for our different accomplishments was 124.

Those individuals we insist of assisted with employment supportive services.

Sometimes that means on providing them guidance on helping them get a job, helping them pick up a secondary education, helping them with motivational interviewing.

We also allocate funds to Project Access, which is an amazing, amazing partner with us, and they provided 633 uninsured eligible individuals with opportunities for prescriptions and medical supplies.

Our employment training was also additional to that, which is 177, and we paid for people to go and get their CDLs through Kansas Truck Driving School or Allied Health.

Our summer activity camp is a great partnership with Park and Rets, where we're able to allow and supply scholarships for those youth and children between the ages of six to 13 to go to summer camp, and the parents are not receiving that financial burden, and our children have a safe place to engage for 10 weeks of summer camp.

The um the staff we have currently right now is funded of four city of Wichita's staff who operate in those expenditures that are before you.

Thank you.

Questions for staff, beginning with Council Member Hoh.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, and thank you, Michelle.

It's always such a pleasure to see you up here.

Um yeah, I have some questions on the way to work program.

Do you have any idea about how many jobs we are reducing?

Um, so we went from 175 to 140, and that is because of the COLA.

So the cost of living is increased, and so we are aligning with the city's expectations, and so because we don't receive an additional amount of funding for that, we have to make those adjustments and offer it for a little bit less of the amount of kids so that way we can still be able to offer a quality program.

Did we hit 175 last year full employment?

We started with 175.

We did.

We did.

We ended the um program with 156, and it wasn't all because of they just quit.

Some of them had um basketball camps, football camps, family things that have come up.

Some of them got other jobs, so they wanted to start the um different family dynamics, so it wasn't all and all in bad reasons.

Okay, yeah, that's reduction of 33,000.

So I'm allocating it elsewhere.

Now, if there was a couple of companies or public funds or private funds that could be leveraged, they can put it into the program and uh help us with the way to work program.

Absolutely.

So just recently we attended a coalition group with the Wichita Workforce Alliance, and that was one of the great things that we talked about was recognizing that we have received the decrease in a decrease.

So some of our youths who are between the ages of 16 and 17 were partnering more with workforce alliance to be able to offer those older youth an opportunity to work inside of different things like Textron, Cox Machine, um, not Spirit anymore, so Boeing, um, those different avenues, and so they were available there and also came up to us at the end and are looking at partner.

So we're hoping to be able to outsource some of those internship opportunities to those youth.

So no youth has does not have the opportunity to be employed.

So it's more redirecting them to other sources or or other groups who are doing the same thing.

Absolutely.

It's more about connecting.

Um, I'm a person who's all about connecting our youth and not just referring them over to there.

We want to ensure that we're providing a connecting opportunity so we can ensure that there's engagement.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Nishelle, how many slots do you have available now for the um way to work program?

We don't have any more slots, um, which is a great thing.

We opened up applications December the 20th, and we're very intentional because our youth went on um winter break, and so we won't we knew they didn't have anything kind of side distracting them.

So we opened it up on December the 20th, and we closed it February the 5th.

And at the time of closure, we closed it at 251 applications.

Now, I didn't struck you guys that we're only are able to hire 140.

Statistics have shown in the past that we have taken in a lot of those applications, but we don't have that many of them show up for Roundup.

In addition to that, we really really work hard on getting those additional youth engaged into parks and rec is our number one target because they are hiring at Aquatics, the pool.

So we refer a lot of those young people over to help fill in the gap for Reggie Davidson and his entire team, in addition to that, helping those young people go over to Wichita Workforce Alliance.

So it's not just a one stop, we really do look at those youth, and then we don't have them all 250 that show up for the roundup day, which is held March the 13th at Metroplex.

Is that now 140?

It is now 140.

We recently just um looked at the budget, and so I met with our finance team in our department and made some adjustments to ensure that we weren't overestimating.

Um, I am the guilty one of I believe all kids can come in and we have a wonderful finance assist, but you don't have the money to pay them.

So the 2026, I am listening to what they say instead of coming back begging for mercy later.

And how many total individuals applied again?

251 total.

We had 250, received 251 applications.

So again, we need uh more employers in our community that would like to take in youth this summer.

Um, thank you again for participating in the forum that we hosted with uh YMCA's job prep and uh the program through workforce centers called Yep.

So I wanted to know what are you guys doing again?

A lot of these kids, a hundred of these kids will not have a spot here at the way to work.

Explain again um if these kids do not receive a call back, what do you want them and their parents to know?

So we are 100% all about connecting, as I previously stated.

We communicate with Reggie Davison in Parks and Rec and get the entire list of all the applications that they have in the positions that they'll have over the summer, and we create a list of all of the potential positions that will be available for them and tell them to go on to online and apply and to let us know that they've applied so we can automatically let Reggie and his team know.

In addition to that, we also send those information over to Wichita Workforce because we want to become a create a more of a transition style.

So our 14 and 15 year olds who have never had the opportunity to engage, has the opportunity to have summer internships, and once they turn 16 and 17, we can transition them over to the workforce alliance job prep.

Um, yep, it doesn't really grow great for our 16 and 17 year olds when we could put them in a camp height because they've already did some sort of work, and so that's a one-week program, but there are a few of those young people between 16 and 17 who have never worked, and so we also offer that as well.

So it's more about collaborating a lot stronger because we recognize that there's a lot of gaps in our community.

Thank you, Nichelle.

Councilmember Shepard.

Nashville, I believe you've already said this, but just how long is the how many weeks?

It is 10 weeks.

So we start, believe it or not, our youth begin to engage with us beginning in December and January because our phones have been flooded, so there's been some sort of conversation.

They will start with us March the 13th, and at that time they come to Roundup and Roundup insists of interviewing, taking a picture for your badge.

That they go through all of the HR steps, provide their I-9 documents.

We have a parent meeting with the parents, um, so they begin to understand their first official work day as employee is May the 26th.

It's the day after Memorial Day.

I mix up every year, but it's the day after Memorial Day, and that's for four days Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and we will be at Wichita State Woolsley Hall for those four days to be able to do this.

So at any time you all would like to come and see how that program is structured.

Um please shoot me an email.

I'll be more than happy to add it to your calendar and let you know about what the program is if you want to come and speak.

I'm always looking for speakers.

Um, so if you would like to come and speak and engage, um please feel free to do that.

They will love to see your face.

Um, you guys have your former youth um council youth mayor was um Maya Williams, and she was a former TWTW youth as well.

So it does work by just coming and engaging with them during that time as well.

I would just add that I think that's a great idea.

I think having our mayor's youth council or any youth auxiliary organizations, anything we can do to help with that.

I also heard Vice Mayor Glasscock is willing to do a three-on-three basketball tournament uh with with those who are in the way to work program as well.

I will send you the invite.

Only if he's on the team as well.

We can even we can even create a flyer if you like.

Thank you.

And again, Nichelle, that website is hypecansas.com, which has all three of these summer youth programs.

HYPE Kansas.com.

So thank you again for the way to work program and look forward to having these young people here uh throughout the city working this summer.

Absolutely with that.

I see no further questions for staff.

We'll open it up for public comment.

I see none.

I'll bring it back to the bench.

And with that, I move that the council approve the 2026 community services block grant funding application and authorized and necessary signatures.

Second.

Motion, second discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 7-0.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Conditional home program funding for Mennonite Housing Rehabilitation Services Incorporated, Knox Court.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Carmen Hoffe, and I'm the real property section manager for the Department of Housing and Community Services.

And I'm here to present on the conditional home program funding for Mennonite Housing Rehabilitation Services Inc.

Knox Court.

On May 6th of 2025, the City Council approved allocations from the 2025-2026 annual action plan, which included approximately 11.1 million dollars in current year, home American Rescue Plan, ARP, and reallocated home investment partnership program home funds.

That allocation included approximately 1.6 million dollars in funding for the housing development loan program, also known as HDLP, which is designed to provide subsidies for in fill housing projects to support the development of real estate that is idle or underutilized, and to provide needed housing for underserved populations.

HDLP funding is available for nonprofit or for profit organizations.

Loan structure is dependent on the type of project to be financed.

Funding requests are received on an open application basis.

Mennonite Housing submitted an HDLP application for Knox Court ahead of the 2026 tax credit application process.

Knox Court is a proposed 46 unit senior housing development located across two sites at 8031 East Gilbert Street and 1511 West 27th Street South.

The project includes 11 fourplexes and one duplex with 23 one-bedroom and 23 two-bedroom units.

The development will address the critical need for affordable rental housing in Wichita, targeting senior and disabled populations.

This project will provide high quality affordable homes in a rail resource community for underserved senior households.

This site is situated in a primarily residential and retail neighborhood, offering convenient access to essential services and amenities.

The site located at 8031 East Gilbert is near South Rock Road in East Kellogg and is less than half a mile from a grocery store, shopping, pharmacy, childcale child care center, and a park, ensuring residents have easy access to daily necessities.

Public transportation is readily available with a nearby bus station, and the site is a quarter mile from Kellogg, providing a 10-minute drive to downtown Wichita.

The 1511 West 27th Street South site is located between South Meridian and South Seneca in a primarily residential area with essential services and amenities within half a mile.

Mennonite Housing is the proposed property management agent for this development.

They are a Wichita-based company with extensive experience managing LITECH and affordable housing properties.

For the next several slides, I'm going to ask Byron Adrian Adrian from Minnonite Housing to present Mayor, Council members.

And we are submitting a tax credit application this year to KHRC for Knox Court.

And Knox Court is two properties currently owned by Presbytery of Southern Kansas, 8031 East Gilbert in District 2, and 1511 West 27th Street in District 4.

And I'd like to thank Council Member Tuttle, Councilmember Glasscock for your support for this project.

And we've got Bill Hendricks with Presbytery of Southern Kansas.

He'd like to say a few words.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council members.

I'm Bill Hendricks, 708 North St.

Andrews.

I am moderator of the Presbytery of Southern Kansas.

These two properties are both church properties that are mostly undeveloped.

This is never developed land within the city limits of Wichita.

Both of them, original uh congregations started in uh nearly 65 years ago.

The original congregations of both of these locations have aged out, have closed.

So the presbytery owns these two properties.

In 2023, a group of seven elders determined what we should do with the two properties to provide a complementary adjustment or amendment to this uh neighborhood to honor the 65-year legacy of both of these locations and to serve additional ministry needs.

So after a lot of due diligence peripheral consideration, we decided to partner with Mennonite Housing to do affordable senior housing in both of these locations.

The location on East Gilbert is currently occupied by the Korean church congregation.

They are a congregation that was once several hundred members.

Today there are 10 in worship on Sunday.

We will work closely with them to help relocate them to a suitable location for their continued growth.

We've been able to help them secure a new minister for their congregation that they have not had in recent years.

We believe that these developments will assist city council in responding to the appeals of justice together.

I know several of you were there last time when we met together, so that will help you respond to that, and it will develop in fill land that has never before been developed within the city limits.

Any questions?

Byron.

So Mennonite Housing is a nonprofit organization.

We're located here in Wichita.

Our mission is to provide affordable housing in the communities we serve.

We have worked with Kansas Housing Resources Corporation for 35 years.

We've developed 22 LITECAC properties, over 900 units.

And we're a Kansas developer and property manager.

Majority of our properties are in the Wichita area.

We currently manage over 1,300 units at 35 properties across Kansas, and that includes 960 units at 24 properties here in Wichita, and included in those are the four City of Wichita RAD properties, 226 units at those four properties.

So we look at this as a great opportunity for two local organizations to come together, and we have a common goal, which is to provide additional affordable housing for seniors here in the local community.

Again, 46 units for seniors, that's 55 and older.

Split evenly between one bedroom and two bedroom.

Each unit includes a safe room, one car garage.

At both locations, there will be a clubhouse with amenities, and Minnonite Housing will be property manager, so we're going to be responsible for maintaining the properties.

Six of the four-plex buildings.

And then also one bedroom and one two bedroom for a total of 26 units at the East Gilbert, and then on the West 27th Street South, five fourplexes, so 20 units there, and then we would build a new structure for our office and clubhouse and maintenance area.

A little bit of information about the units, how many are at each income level, and this is typical on a LITEC to provide various different levels based on the applicant's income.

And we've been very fortunate on this to be able to keep the mix fairly even as we go through the 30, 50, and 60 levels, so that there's an adequate number for each of those.

And we like being able to provide a fair number of units for those that need it the most, say at the 30% level.

So 14 units at 30, 14 at 50, 14 at 60, and then we're a little restricted.

Um when we elect income averages, we have an opportunity to have a few over 60 at uh 80 percent and below, and so we got four at that level.

And you can see the rent uh amounts very affordable, starting at 360 a month for one bedroom at the lowest income going up to 840 for two-bedroom at the higher income level.

And then looking at the funding sources, the federal and state uh tax credit funding from the investors.

We'd end up with about 250,000 uh permanent loan.

We anticipate that we'd have funding uh for home funds and housing trust funds from KHRC, and then you can see the 200,000 dollars there for the home funds that we're requesting here, even though that is a small number on this sheet, relatively in terms of the application.

Having that 200,000 as part of this funding source allows the application to score better.

So the 200,000 that we're making application for here from the city of Wichita is a big deal, and we really appreciate the opportunity that we've been able to go through so far with affordable housing review board and their support, and so we're we're very fortunate, we believe, to be able to have this opportunity for these funds as part of this uh as far as this project.

Timeline, you can see the steps that we've already gone through.

We appreciate the council's approval a couple weeks ago of the zoning change that makes again makes our application a lot cleaner to show KHRC that uh we have the properties already zoned appropriately for the use.

And uh we've made application already, a preliminary application of KHRC, which is required.

We did that in uh January.

Next week we'll hear back from KHRC if they provide us an invitation to submit a full application.

We anticipate they will, and then that application would be due in May.

The uh tax credit award notification is in July by the end of July.

If uh we're fortunate enough to get uh the award approved, then we would begin construction about a year from now and uh end construction about two years from now.

So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Oh, for financial considerations, there is no impact to the general fund.

The whole total project is estimated to be approximately uh well twelve million seven hundred and seventy thousand and eleven dollars.

Anticipated funding sources include two hundred thousand dollars requested City of Wichita home funds, um one million a hundred and twenty thousand dollars for Kansas Housing Resources Corporation, home and national housing trust fund, 150,665 dollars for Mennonites deferred developer fee, 250,000 for a permanent loan, six million five hundred and forty-four thousand three hundred and forty-six dollars for federal LITEC, and four million five hundred and five thousand dollars for state light tech.

On January 26th of 2026, the HDLP application for this project was presented to the city's affordable housing review board to review the application and developer presentation.

The affordable housing review board approved the application and directed staff to refer it to the city council to approve the director of housing and community services, issuance of a conditional commitment letter for legal considerations, new construction of affordable rental housing is an eligible cost under the home program.

A funding agreement will be drafted, approved as to form by the law department, and will be placed on the city council agenda for agenda for approval on a future date, provided Mennonite Housing Rehabilitation Services Inc.

is the successful in securing all proposed sources of financing and meets all the terms set forth in the conditional commitment letter.

Our recommendation is that the city council approve issuance of a conditional commitment letter for home investment partnerships program financing in the amount of 200,000 dollars for the Mennonite Housing Rehabilitation Services Inc.

Knox Court Project and authorize the director of housing and community services to sign.

And I stand for questions.

Thank you very much, Carmen, and our guest speakers will begin with Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I appreciate the the work and the presentation.

Sounds like you guys, I think we've met before have quite an extensive background with LightTech.

Um that's promising.

Um just uh quick question is this uh project um dependent on LightTech.

Will it move forward if we it is it is dependent on Light Tech on both the federal and the state?

Yes.

Okay, so if if it doesn't go through, then we can recoup these funds and a lot of them elsewhere.

Okay.

That is correct.

Uh a second real quick.

I gotta ask um there's not another affordable housing project within the half mile or so of this one that would not I would have to get back to you on that one, and I don't know.

Well, Sally may know that.

I she knows, yeah, she knows why I'm asking she probably knows that Sally's saying housing and community services department for the record.

The the regulation in the Litech application about the half mile radiance is only for four percent application, so it is not um applicable to this because this is a nine percent okay.

All right, thank you.

You welcome any further questions for staff.

Um, can I just have Byron come back up?

I am very grateful to Mennonite Housing for providing this type of affordable housing in our community, and you have a proven track record.

Um I know that this project is toll point seven million, and there are gonna be 46 units, so per unit it's gonna cost 277,609 per unit.

Has have those been increasing, and if so, what can you attribute to that?

Um, you know, that's really a pretty good cost per unit.

As I look back over the last five years, we have uh seen those costs go up over 300, even to 350,000 per unit, not necessarily on the projects that we've gotten approved, but on others that have been approved.

So, you know, just general um increases in costs of materials and uh subcontractor expenses.

Um, one thing that's bumped it up also here in the last couple years is we may um, you know, you noticed in the funding sources, um, the home that we're talking about here, but also the home funds with KHRC and the housing trust funds by having those funds that requires us to be in compliance with uh BABA build build America by America.

And we find in talking with our general contractor that it's difficult to meet that criteria and keep the cost down.

So that's added some of the cost right there by having to meet the BABA requirements.

But 278,000 per unit is really a pretty good price given what we've seen over the last four or five years.

Thank you very much, Byron, and thank you to the group that is providing housing.

And I really appreciate seeing our faith-based communities seeing how they can utilize property that they own uh for one of our challenges, which is housing in our community.

So thank you for partnering up and then uh making this a strong application.

Good luck to you on that application.

I know that this is contingent upon actually receiving these funds.

Um, so uh putting this in the best position is um what we want to do.

Councilmember Shepherd.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to piggyback off of something you said.

Um, our our faith community being part of this this challenge.

Um Sally and I have talked at great length, right?

And we prefer to NIMBY, not in my backyard, but there is Yigby, yes, in God's backyard.

And this is an opportunity to really utilize our faith community to address the affordable housing crisis and the workforce housing crisis.

So I hope others who are watching come along and work with our housing department here at the city of Wichita so we can continue to close those gaps.

Appreciate that.

Yes.

Thank you.

With that, we'll open it up for public comment.

I see none.

I'll bring it back to the bench.

This is in both council member Tuttle's district and vice mayor Glasscock's district.

Thank you very much.

I would love to have this opportunity.

Thank you for all you've done.

We talk, I think, almost every week from this bench about we need housing.

We need all kinds of housing, but we specifically need affordable housing.

So I appreciate you willing to step up and address this important need.

I wish you all the best and all the luck.

And with that, I would move that the city council approve the issuance of the conditional commitment letter from home investment partnerships program financing in the amount of two thousand two hundred thousand dollars for the Menum Mennonite Housing Rehabilitation Services Inc.

Knox Court Project and authorized the director of housing and community services to sign.

Second.

Motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 70.

I will now ask for a 20-minute break to return at one o'clock so that we can take a short.

Okay, that is county finding here.

Very nice.

Thank you very much for allowing us to have a break.

We will now continue with the council meeting at 102 p.m.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Business agreement correction, business services agreement with NXTs incorporated.

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

Stand before you today with a business service agreement with uh between the city and Nextus.

Uh Nextus is a Wichita-based 501c3 nonprofit.

Their mission uh is really focused on early stage startups.

Uh they have three critical resources, uh, connection to mentors and support networks strategies to reach customers and generate revenue, and education and access to growth capital.

We generally refer to these or uh as accelerators.

Um, has supported more than 70 Kansas startups throughout its cohort since 2022 and expanded its res uh its reach to nearly half of Kansas counties.

Uh their accessing growth capital series has also helped 32 different startups raise over three million dollars since 2023.

Just some really amazing statistics for this group.

As it specifically relates to this business service agreement, Nexus has developed three programs in which prospective companies uh can choose to participate.

That cohort, um, the enterprise engagement series, um, and then ultimately the accessing growth capital series.

So programs run twice a year, January to May and July through November, and then following those uh output outcomes are to be measured and reported by Nextus as part of the agreement.

This is a one-year agreement for $50,000.

Uh we actually had a couple of applications uh this year for uh business support, uh, particularly in sort of the small business, either incubator or accelerator environment, right?

And so um we were actually able to find some additional funds this last year to make sure that we were able to provide funding for both.

More specifically, this $50 uh $50,000 came from uh the sort of current former propel loan program.

Uh a couple years ago, there was a transfer from the economic development subfund into the propel fund to help bolster the program.

And so this funding is uh we're gonna transfer with your approval that $50,000 back to the economic development subfund, and then subsequently fund this uh business service agreement.

Law has reviewed and approved the agreement as to form.

Recommendation before you today is to authorize the buzz budget adjustment, approve the business service agreement, and authorize the necessary signatures, and we do have a representative from the applicant here to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Troy.

Questions for staff.

Um, just wanted to double check with you.

The business support uh that the city provides so far are for WEBA.

This would be for Nexus, and the next item would be for Create Campaign.

Are those the three that the city provides support regarding businesses?

Uh we we generally also include in that conversation the agreement uh with the Greater Wichita Partnership, but otherwise, yes.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you so much.

Troy, thank you for your work on this.

And I'm very fond of the work of Nexus and then CREA campaign, which which I know we will be discussing next.

I'm curious.

How do we ensure that as these entities are doing remarkable work, especially serving as an economic driver for our economy, that we are being a good partner in recognizing that good work and looking to increase that funding?

Um as you mentioned, $50,000 is great.

I would like to see how we continue to increase that funding so they can continue to maximize their work.

Yeah, absolutely.

We we plan on this is probably the first year during the budget process.

We'll we'll probably introduce uh a request to at least access some additional funding to as you know.

We kind of had to go find some additional funds to try and support both of these applications.

Uh we'd love to see that carry on sort of more in perpetuity, right?

And in coming years, and so as part of the budget uh conversations this year, we'll continue to dive in to see if there are additional funds that we can continue to allocate towards sort of the business service, small business support.

Um we'll absolutely have that conversation in the coming weeks and months during the budget process.

Awesome.

I'd be very supportive of that and supporting you and finding some of that additional funding if it's there.

Um a follow-up though, in in regards to WIBA, we awarded 100,000, right?

That's correct.

And Nexus and Cree campaign receiving individually 50,000.

Um how do we make that determination, especially as we look at equity in all three of them doing remarkable work, all three of them serving as economic drivers.

How do we look at the equity and how we are allocating funding to these different entities?

Yeah, so probably the easiest way to answer that is um number one, sort of historical trends, right?

How we have continued to just build and forge and foster these relationships with these community partners.

I think number two is just the scale at which each of these partners are able to leverage those funds to support a much larger population membership, et cetera, right?

And so obviously, as I kind of alluded to a minute ago, our relationship and our partnership with the Greater Wichita Partnership and our ability to leverage roughly 400,000 a year with them generates exponentially more private funding, right?

Um at a scale of business attraction and retention and talent attraction and retention, right?

Kind of the top tier uh WIBA, same thing, right?

We have forged relationships and they're really kind of venturing out into specifically some programs and services that not that they have come to us with, but what we have steered them in, right?

In developing a small business database, working with other community partners like Wichita State University Center for Economic Development Business Research to really kind of bolster that small business database.

One of the things that they're gonna do this year is dig into gap analysis and how do we be intentional around uh responding specifically to gap industries within our community?

And so there's kind of a scale uh perspective that we have had, and the and the number and volume of their membership uh is larger.

And so as we kind of look at that next tier, next is create campaign, next is kind of in that accelerator space, right?

Uh where they're going out, this funding helps them be able to target what we call an industry sort of unicorns, right?

Those what are those businesses who are on the verge of becoming the next national thing, right?

That that could be homegrown, right?

Here in our own backyard, how do we help those businesses accelerate and then create campaign?

Like I said, the next item on the how are we helping small businesses continue to um grow and thrive, find the resources and the tools they need to be successful, and so it's probably a little bit of a combination of steps we've taken in the past, the scale at which these businesses interact with community partners, but and any additional funding in the future, we'd more than happy to continue to allocate to return the best investment.

Mayor, if I may follow up.

Um, I so when when we talk about equity, like I really would love to think about how we are tapping populations that the data is telling us we have the most opportunity for ROI.

And right now, I think that is Latino and Latina based entrepreneurs and businesses and certainly I think those who are focusing on local and and I think focusing on creating the next big thing nationally is great.

Um, but we also know that small business is the backbone of our economy.

So the folks who are being able to grow and and maybe think about how we are building for Wichita is also going to again give us the best return on our investment, especially as we look out.

Today we heard the projection of the deficits in future years, and how do we continue to support the small business to grow our base and grow our economy?

And then using data-informed decisions to invest there.

Um I also want to just say that I really appreciate Nexus and Create campaign, and WEBA, I'm sure, does this too.

I've only been able to look at these two because WIBA's application came before my time on council, but um what they are doing to connect their entrepreneurs and the people that they work with to additional funding.

Um, and so I know that that's been a very important conversation to our mayor and to us of how do we ensure that as they grow, they are tapping into other dollars to remain sustainable.

Um, the money is here today, and it's great, um, but in the case something happens, right?

How are we setting them up for long-term success?

So thank you for your work.

I just want to mention from the bench my desire to continue to expand who this reaches, um, diversify who it reaches, and making sure we're looking at data-informed decisions so that Wichitans get the best bank for their book long term.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Troy.

I see no further questions for staff.

We'll open it up for public comment, and I know that we have the applicant here as well.

Mayor, council members, Mary Beth Jarvis with Nextus.

We operate at 150 North Maine.

Uh, I have no desire to make this meeting longer for you, but I uh I'm grateful for the support uh offered here with this uh proposed business services agreement.

Just um a little bit of history, our organization is relatively small.

We're sort of a startup for startups.

Uh we're about 10 years old.

The city of Wichita has provided a total of 100,000 of uh funding that was in the 2324 time frame.

Uh we've got metrics that show that money spent by by some of you and your predecessors uh was highly leveraged.

Um 84 bucks a job created and millions of private capital leveraged into these startups that uh to these growth-minded entrepreneurs uh that are building uh the tomorrow's great businesses right here at home.

So we're excited about that and appreciate the trust you place in us to continue that work.

Um we will always be majority private funded.

Um but if you see us and our peers come back to you guys every now and then, it is because it sends a very powerful signal that our community is investing in these business builders.

Um the economic development world basically sort of outsources the grow your own to us little guys because that's not something that uh is easy for a greater witchdown partnership or other large organization to spend time on.

And uh and we do it's guerrilla warfare and we do it deeply, we do it broadly, and we build community among these entrepreneurs because it is never going to be an easy path, but we try to make it a connected path that connects them to peers, to mentors, to resources, and to capital, um, so that that engine of growth can continue to move on.

So thank you very much for your past support.

Hope that um this business support uh agreement uh passes and that we uh we will then uh knock the heck out of the ball uh in our attempts to get another home run for economic development for the region.

Thank you, Mary Beth.

I see no comments.

Thank you.

We'll continue to open it up for public comment.

I see none.

I'll bring it back to the bench.

With that, I will move that the council authorize the budget adjustment, approve the business services agreement, and authorize necessary signatures.

Second.

Motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 70.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Business services agreement with Create Campaign Incorporated Honorable Mayor, members of council again, Troy Anderson Assistant City Manager.

So uh this business service agreement with Create Campaign Incorporated, uh similar but uniquely different, right?

Uh really based fundamentally around the Spark Community Business Academy.

Spark's a nationally recognized 12-week business academy.

Uh they focus on sort of that small business development.

Uh there's some really good statistics around Spark and that program.

95% graduation rate, 59% able to access owner draw funds, 41% uh increased business revenue over the previous year, and 24% increased household income over the previous year.

So some really good measures that are just associated with the SPARC program.

Um, as part of this business service agreement, city support would uh offset some of the operational costs, allowing Create campaign to continue providing that high quality accessible entrepreneurship education to diverse set of entrepreneurs.

Uh this is a one-year program from sort of January 1, 26 to 1231 of 26, provides alumni coaching, those 12-week cohorts I described, um, sort of ongoing coaching and mentorship as well as technical assistance.

Uh create campaign will record and report metrics within 60 days following the conclusion of the cohorts.

Again, this is a one-year agreement for $50,000.

Funding's available in the 2026 economic development subfund budget, laws reviewed and approved the agreement as to form, and staff recommends approving the agreement authorizing the necessary signatures.

Unfortunately, I don't believe we have a representative of uh create cam here today.

I thought I saw her earlier today.

I wasn't sure whether she could stick around or not, but maybe I'm just imagining.

But um, I'll be more than happy to stand to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Troy.

Questions for staff?

I see none.

We'll open it up for public comment.

I see none.

I'll bring it back to the bench.

Councilmember Shepard, would you like to?

I will move this item.

I will move that the council approve the business services agreement and authorize the necessary signatures.

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.

Zone 2025-61 zone change requests in the city from single family residential district to limited commercial and general office district, generally located on the southeast corner of West 51st Street North and North Meridian Avenue.

Hello, good afternoon.

Scott Waidel from the planning department.

So for this item, the applicant is requesting a rezoning from SF5 to LC Limited Commercial and GO General Office.

There's the split there.

And first off, before we get uh much further involved in this, I've got a correction.

Uh the ordinance that is attached to the staff report includes an incorrect legal description.

This was discovered on Friday.

So we have the corrected legal description, and I simply want to make a note that it is our intention to use this corrected legal description, which was printed out and distributed to you.

And there's no need to read this as part of your motion.

So yeah, thank thank goodness.

Um just know that this is the version we will use because it's a correction.

It was not the intention to have uh the one that went out with it.

So in terms of the request, the applicant is indicated they are requesting the zone change in order to accommodate future development.

They have mentioned that they would have entered into a contract with a church to purchase the east portion of the property and would like to have two restaurants with parking on the west portion.

About the property itself, it's located at the southeast corner of 51st Street and Meridian.

It is approximately just over 13 acres in size, consists of a portion of one ownership parcel, and is currently undeveloped and in agricultural use.

In terms of context, properties to the north are zoned SF5 and developed with single family homes.

Properties to the east are likewise zoned SF5 and developed with single family homes.

Properties to the south are zoned SF5 and LC.

The LC portion has a protective overlay on it, and is developed with an entertainment establishment.

The SF5 property is owned by the applicant, and uh part of that is a drainage ditch.

Property to the west across North Meridian Avenue is zoned LC and within a CUP and is in agricultural use.

In terms of the staff report, the staff report provides information about development standards, compatibility standards, screening, landscaping, lighting, and parking.

In terms of review, on December 18th, the planning commission reviewed the request and recommended approval of the zone change per the applicant's request, but with a modification to the protective overlay.

And the vote on that was 130.

The MAPC's recommendation included modifying provision number two of the protective overlay in order to increase the allowable height of a sign from 12 feet to 15 feet.

There were no public comments on this case at that public hearing.

On January 5th, the district advisory board reviewed the request and recommended the following with an 8-0 vote.

It was approval of the LC district for the entire extent requested by the applicant, along with the protective overlay.

The PO recommended by the DAB would limit the height of a sign to 12 feet.

So the difference then between the M and the MAPC.

There was a second part to the DAB recommendation though, and they recommended denial of the GO request for the remainder of the property.

Therefore, the remainder of the property would remain in SF5 district.

In terms of protest, no protests were received against this application.

Therefore, the zone change can be per the MAPC recommendation can be approved by a simple majority vote or four of seven votes.

In terms of recommendation, it is recommended that the city count city council adopt the findings of the planning commission, approve the requested zone change per the applicant's request and with a modified protective overlay.

Authorize the necessary signatures and instruct the city clerk to publish the ordinance after approval.

Again, that would require four of seven votes.

Alternatives include the following.

As always, you can override the MAPC, adopt alternative findings, and deny the request.

That would require five of seven votes because it's an override.

Likewise, you can override the planning commission, adopt alternative findings and approve the request per the DAB.

And that likewise would require five of seven votes.

Or as always, you can return the case to the planning commission for additional consideration, which would require just a simple majority.

A note about the process, City Council policies that the public hearing for planning items occurs at the planning commission meeting.

According to the policies, City Council does not typically receive public comments on zoning items.

And a quick note also that I believe that the agent for the applicant and the applicant are here today.

So with that, I'll take you through some of the graphics.

So again, here's the outline of the entire uh zone change request area.

Here's the split that's requested between LC and GEO.

Here's the zoning map, which was described earlier.

Here's the map from the comprehensive plan showing it's recommended for new residential in this area.

Here are photos of the site and the surrounding area.

And with that, I'll stand for any questions.

Scott, I just had one question.

Can you go back to the slide right before this?

That's the new uh Church of Latter-day Saints Temple.

Is that accurate?

Uh yes.

Okay, thank you.

I was trying to position um where we were at.

Thank you.

Sure.

Questions for staff.

I see none.

This resides in Council Member Ballard's district.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, after lots of discussion, uh, I move to adopt the findings of the MAPC approve the zone change per the applicant's request.

And with the modified protective overlay number 469, authorize a necessary signatures and instruct the city clerk to publish the ordinance after approval.

Second.

Motion and a second discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 7-0.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

CON 2025-157, conditional use to permit a short-term rental on property zone single family residential district, generally located within one quarter mile north of East 13th Street North, and within one quarter mile east of Northwoodlawn Boulevard, located at 6845 East 14th Street North.

Hello again.

Scott Wedd from the planning department.

For this case, the applicant is requesting a conditional use in order to allow a short-term rental in the city at the site.

This case is being heard today because one, the district advisory board and planning commission recommendations are different, and two, because protests have been submitted against the application from within the notification area.

About the subject site, it's generally located as you can see here, to the north and east of Woodlawn and 13th Street.

Its address is 6845 East 14th Street.

A subject site is a just over a quarter of an acre in size.

It consists of one ownership parcel.

It is developed with a single family house and is zoned SF5 single family district.

In terms of the request, the applicant has indicated that they would like to operate the house as a short-term rental and then later relocate to live at the house.

The owner has not provided a timeline for when they would move to the home.

In terms of context, the property is surrounded by property zoned SF5 and developed with single-family homes.

In terms of review, on January 15th, the planning commission held the public hearing for this item and recommended approval of the conditional use.

The vote was eight to five.

And that included conditions which are listed in the staff report.

At that public hearing, one member of the public spoke in opposition to this request with concerns about the safety of the neighborhood when the possible introduction of a use that would have transient gas, increased traffic, and the placement of business in the middle of a neighborhood.

On January 14th, the district advisory board reviewed the request.

A motion for denial failed at that meeting.

The vote was three to three.

Therefore, there is no DAB recommendation.

One member of the public spoke at that meeting in opposition to this request with the concerns that similar to what was expressed at the MAPC.

In terms of protests, 13 protests were received against the conditional use application.

They accounted for 76% of the total protest area.

This exceeds the state threshold of 20%.

Therefore, in order to approve the request, a supermajority is required, or six of seven votes.

In terms of the recommended action, it is recommended that the city council adopt the findings of the planning commission and approve the requested conditional use with the MAPC conditions.

Authorize the necessary signatures and instruct the city clerk to publish the resolution after approval.

Again, it will require six of seven votes due to the protest.

Alternatives include the following.

Or as always, you can return the case back to the planning commission for additional consideration.

That would require a simple majority of four of seven votes.

And again, another note about the city council policy that the public hearing takes place at the planning commission.

And a note on that one, I believe there are at least one, maybe two individuals who have spoken on this case before present here today.

So with that, I'll take you through the graphics and images.

So here's the site.

Uh this is the zoning map.

Uh sorry if it's kind of uh faded out.

Oh, it looks good on there.

Um, it's SF5 zoning around it.

Here's the map from the comprehensive plan.

It shows just a little bit of a bubble of new residential uh expanding into the area.

Here's the protest map.

Again, the red uh indicates protests that were uh calculated towards the protest area.

Blue are protests that were received that were outside of the protest area.

Uh here's a graphic that was submitted uh as part of the application.

And here's a photo of the site and the surrounding area.

And with that, I'll stand for any questions.

Thank you, Scott.

Questions for staff?

I see none.

This is in council member Tuttle's district.

Thank you very much.

Um thank you to Scott and your team with MAPD.

Appreciate all of your um meetings and answering questions.

Thank you also to legal for your assistance.

Um I also want to state for the record that I have had ex parte communication with the applicant, and I've also had ex parte communication with community members regarding this.

Um I also just want to go on record saying this is probably one of the hardest zoning cases that I've had.

I talked to Scott again just this morning about this case.

There's kind of three options in my head, um, and and I think all of them could be justified and explained.

Um it is a 76% protest rate, which is one of the highest that I've had.

I think went to my head a threshold of 90, but 76 percent protest is significant.

Also, I know that the community members and the neighbors have taken the time to meet with all of my colleagues, and that also speaks to me for something.

So I am for property rights, I'm for essentially entrepreneurs and small businesses, but I do believe in this case that allowing this to happen would significantly change the character of this small neighborhood, and also because of the opposition of the neighbors.

I move that we override the MAPC decision and deny the request for the conditional use.

Second motion and a second discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes five to two.

This does not pass because it requires six votes.

So, Scott, or I'm sorry, I'm I just want to clarify so we all know what's gonna happen next.

Um, Scott, Jennifer, can you clarify then?

Will it be then the zoning is approved since it didn't have six?

If I may, uh please a because of the protest, it would require six votes in order to approve, but because it's a denial and it's an override of the planning commission, it only requires five of seven votes in order to override the planning commission.

So it motion passed.

So it's a motion passed.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you for the clarification.

First time for that one for me.

Councilmember Shepherd.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just I just want to share that.

I think it's really important as council member Tuttle mentioned that being a good neighbor matters, and to her point, also for small business, also for making sure that people have the opportunity to do what they wish within reason with their property.

But I believe that being a good neighbor matters.

I received several emails about this.

And one of the questions I always ask during my time on DAB uh for district one, and in this case is what has the conversation or efforts been to converse with the neighbors to reach a compromise, and it did not seem like there was enough conversation or efforts made, and so for that reason, that is why I supported this motion.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the next item?

Public housing recovery agreement status reports.

Good afternoon.

Honorable mayor, members of council, Sally Staying with the Housing and Community Services Department for the record.

The item I have for you is our monthly update to the P8 public housing recovery plan.

So for some background, in January of 25, the Housing Authority Board entered into a recovery agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the low public housing assessment score related to the disposition of public housing, the occupancy rate and condition of properties.

HUD requires that the status, this monthly status report be presented to the housing authority board each and every month.

That recovery agreement includes actions related to improving the physical condition of occupied units, repositioning the remaining public housing properties, and providing an update on capital fund projects.

So as far as improving the condition, all required maintenance plans, inspections, and work orders continue to be submitted to HUD as a required.

The react inspections completed in May of last year again scored 100% and 93%, respectively, on the two project prop groupings of properties.

The national standards for physical condition inspection of real estate inspections conducted by NAMCA and associates were completed on all vacant and occupied properties in July of 25, resulting in no life threatening or severe deficiencies in any occupied properties.

Concerning repositioning, we have 7.3% occupancy rate right now.

There's only nine occupied units.

Excuse me.

Six are being sold occupied under the project-based voucher contract approved last month.

That's actually scheduled to close on March 2nd.

Two are being sold to existing residents.

Those expect to close by the end of the month, and the final resident is relocating this week.

To date 200 are actually as of January 31st, 228 properties had sold.

54 were pending sale.

And a copy of a detailed disposition report was attached to the agenda report.

So our strategies for the remaining units.

The um South City units to be sold as affordable rentals.

Again, those will close on March 2nd.

And then we uh have still held some of the uh program income from the Affordable Housing Fund to it for an RFP related to the units within the floodplain or units that have environmental or other market challenges.

We're expecting that to be 25 to 30 total units.

Excuse me.

The RFP for country acres clusters closed last Friday.

So that'll be going to the Affordable Housing Review Board later this month.

And then the remaining units are being placed on the uh MLS, staggered not to flood the market.

Related to capital fund projects, we did receive that um allocation of capital funds in 2025.

Those funds can only be spent on the public housing properties.

And we had an RFP close in December for uh replacement of 19 roofs in the floodplain area.

We're still waiting the contract on that one.

There is no impact to the general fund.

The monthly update once again is required by the recovery plan agreement, and it's recommended that the Wichita Housing Authority Board receive and file the recovery plan status update report for February 2026.

Can I stand for any questions?

Thank you very much, Sally.

Questions for staff.

I see none.

With that, we'll open it up for public comment.

No one from the public is here.

I will bring it back to the bench.

With that, I will move to approve the monthly stat rec I will move that the Wichita Housing Authority Board receive file the HUD recovery agreement status update and public housing disposition update report.

Second.

Motion and a second discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 70.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Council member appointments and comments.

Before we go to council member appointments, uh, council member agenda is first, and I would like to um ask the city manager, uh, the fire chief and the public works director regarding Wichita Fire Station number 15.

Thank you, uh Mayor.

In front of you, you should have all received a handout.

Um we got a report this weekend of particular station 15.

Excuse me.

Having some mold issue.

We do have a history with um some mold complaints that have been addressed going back to last September.

So the timeline in front of you addresses it actually is at fire station number one, and the chief and our director of public works who will outline some more information.

Um we've done uh based upon that, taking it seriously that there's been some concern for a black substance of this case back in September at station one.

We did have that inspected at the end of September, and there was some discovery there, so there was some remediation work done, but then what transpired is it if there's some mold there?

But then what transpired is that if there's some mold there, and keep in mind at a fire station when you have several shifts, it depends on how many people are also staged at that station.

There can be multiple showers, a lot of moisture with the um employees coming in out if they've been on three runs.

So just the environment, I think in fire stations may have a high moisture content compared to some of our other facilities within the city.

So that has some unique stuff.

Um but also if you think about your own house situation, sometimes mold can be something that can be removed or mildew with a cleaner.

Sometimes it takes a stronger substance or a different approach.

And so there is some different um uh ways to address it.

But what was identified is that there we show last October is that we did go out to bid to look at every fire station to do a mold study or to do an environmental study, and so we did do testing of all of our fire stations, as well as a regional training center there at the end of October.

So we did complete that, and we did get the reports back here just this January from a third party vendor, and it does have some remediation plans for where it was identified.

And again, um also you have things when you think about mold also.

Is it just dust in a crawl space?

Is it around window?

Is it in a bathroom?

So there's different ways or different places.

So they've also done air tapes, and they can get into the uh methods used to determine mold because the testing was in a couple of different ways.

But I also want to highlight that we talk about preventive maintenance, that there's also been a lot of work by public works in coordination with the fire chief about different needs in the facilities.

So, for instance, we do have some roof leaks that get onto the tiles.

So our public work staff will work on those, but they'll also change out tiles.

They'll be doing some duct cleaning, they'll be doing other things within particularly the fire stations.

And this one will talk about station 15.

Actually, the work on Thursday Friday that triggered this concern may have been for other work related to some of the ceiling tiles.

So we're gonna get into that a little bit about what is the mold situation there.

Um, so that's just kind of said the context.

So this is to make sure that the public knows that you all certainly know that we have had this concern raised and we've taken it seriously going back to September.

And so we've done the studying, we've done the testing, and now we're looking at the remediation based upon those results.

And so I'll turn it over to Gary Jansen, our director of public works, who can talk about these results and the testing methodology that was used, and then talk about what work was being done on station 15 last week.

Thank you, manager Gary Jansen Public Works and Utilities.

So I'm gonna start with what we did in um January, October, when we hired a consultant to complete testing.

Again, this all started with back in September.

Uh, there was some concerns with some black material around some of the vents.

That particular material didn't turn out to be mold, but uh there was some tape lift samples done and some error monitoring, which isn't always 100% accurate, but I'm not a mold expert.

I've learned a lot more than I thought I was going to recently, which is good.

Um, but visible mold uh is is the is a good indicator, and also musty smells a lot of time within the industry or say is a good place to start.

But an evaluation of all 22 facilities, 21 fire stations, and the training facility, um, and got results back on all of those from different different ways.

Uh, some of the fire stations from an air monitoring perspective don't show the presence of mold, even when there's visible, what you would consider black mold because there's times when the mold is not it's not alive, and so it can happen that you have visible, what looks like visible mold and no register of air quality.

One of our biggest challenges is there are no regulations at any level of the government and anywhere, and I verified this with Sedget County Health Department this morning related to mold.

So there's no thresholds, there's no guidelines, there's no recommendations.

That if you find mold, what do you do?

What's the risk?

Um, what's the what's the level?

What's significant?

When should you consider occupancy or not?

So that's one of the challenges we're working through in that regard.

So I will tell you what we were working on right now.

Um the the consultant that we hired was was to for the evaluation only.

There are environmental hygienists uh that will go a step farther than that, and they are considered the industry experts, and we're trying to get somebody on board right now as quick as we can uh to perform further evaluation of all the test results that we've had, and hopefully, we'll make recommendations related to risk and help us prioritize uh remediation going forward.

We we've since October we've been working on remediation.

That's what we were doing at station 15, which I'll come to in just a moment.

Uh, we've done some things at station one, three, and four already.

Um we one of the things that the manager mentioned that I think we've come to realize, and there's always opportunities for process improvements.

I think we've done an outstanding job from my perspective.

What I've seen through our work order system is a very robust system.

This is at all facilities, not just fire.

Public works and utility staff meets on a monthly base uh basis with fire, with police, with cultural services, with parks, all of our end users.

We meet with them to look at outstanding work orders, uh, look at anything that would be considered deferred maintenance, mostly from a cost perspective.

We're trying to get to a point of getting it done.

And we see a lot.

I've got the last month's report just for fire only, it's 25 to 30 pages long of a lot of work orders.

That's not unheard of.

Uh, there's leaks on there.

I didn't see a single one of them that wasn't repaired within several days.