I need something on time.

Yes, they were fantastic.

So that works, I guess.

Yeah, I'm not in the morning.

Oh my god.

I didn't really like how much it's like.

And I'm usually the thing.

That's the problem.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Oh, that'll work.

Next to you.

I don't think that's really I guess.

I can think about it.

Maybe they're smart.

I found that just counting on the other.

Good afternoon, 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.

Heavenly Father, we pause in this moment with humility and gratitude, recognizing that every good gift and every opportunity to serve comes from you.

Today we thank you for the city of Wichita for its people, for its neighborhoods, its businesses, its schools, and for the many lives represented in this room.

Lord, we lift up these elected officers today who carry the responsibility of making decisions that affect thousands of lives.

Grant them wisdom that is greater than personal interests, courage that stands above pressure, and compassion that sees every citizen with dignity and worth.

Heal the places where there is division, bring peace where there is conflict, and provide hope where there is struggle.

Bless our first responders, educators, community leaders, and all those who labor daily to strengthen this city.

And Lord, remind us all that strength of our city is not only found in buildings and budgets, but in the character, compassion, and unity of our people.

The proclamation reads the City of Wichita, Kansas founded in eighteen seventy, whereas intellectual and or developmental disabilities are lifelong conditions which affect statistically more than nine thousand Wichita area children and adults and their families, many of whom wait on long lists for needed services and support.

Whereas public awareness and education enhance a community's acceptance and understanding of issues affecting youth and adults living with developmental disabilities.

Whereas recognition of the contributions of individuals living with developmental disabilities is an effective way to overcome negative stereotypes and eliminate physical and barriers to full participation in all aspects of community life, including education, recreation, employment, and worship.

Whereas 2026 serves as the thirtieth anniversary of the implementation of the Developmental Disability Reform Act, landmark legislation advancing inclusion, choice, and opportunities for Kansas with developmental disabilities.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Wichita City Council does hereby proclaim March twenty twenty-six as intellectual and developmental disability awareness month.

Mayor and Council members, thank you so much for this uh proclamation and to the City of Wichita for years of support uh in inclusion and accessibility.

Um we have greatly appreciated all that you have done uh to kind of highlight uh the impact that is making on one of our families, one of our amazing moms, Aldana Carney is going to share.

Hello, everyone.

Good evening, Mayor Wu, Vice Mayor Johnston, Council Councilwomen and Councilmen.

My name is Aldana Carney, my husband Pat and I are the parent guardians to Neil Carney, who is our thirty-one year old son with severe nonverbal autism.

Neil is the youngest of our five children.

My councilman JV Johnston and his wife Veronica have actually watched Neil grow up.

Neil takes the same walking route in our neighborhood every time we take him for a walk, and that route takes them right paths past the Johnston's backyard.

Our four older children and the Johnston boys all attended the same parochial grade school and high school together.

Neil has many complex needs and behavioral challenges, so he attended Levy Special Education Day School, which also happens to be in our neighborhood.

However, the Johnstons didn't see the constant struggle we had to secure supports and services for our son while he was in school and how those struggles increased after his transition into the scary world of adult services.

As shared in the proclamation, the DD Reform Act is 30 years old this year.

It is a valuable piece of legislation that has helped guide the state of Kansas to provide appropriate services to those individuals like Neil who have an intellectual and developmental disability.

The DD Reform Act has helped those with disabilities to live in their own communities.

But it is only through understanding, acceptance, and inclusion that they feel that they are a part of their community.

In the state of Kansas, there is currently a wait list for the IDD waiver that is close to 5,000 individuals, and an approximate wait time of eight years to receive services.

Thank you for your commitment to help those with developmental disabilities and their families to ensure that they have a voice.

May please ask senior services of Wichita to come forward at this time.

The proclamation reads: the City of Wichita, Kansas, founded in 1870, whereas the City of Wichita is committed to supporting the health, independence, and dignity of older adults, recognizing that proper nutrition and social connection are essential to aging safely at home.

Whereas Senior Services of Wichita is the local provider of meals on wheels, delivering nutritious meals, safety checks, and meaningful connection to homeboys while helping reduce food insecurity and social isolation.

Whereas in 2025 alone, senior services of Wichita serve more than one hundred eighty thousand meals to homeboys, demonstrating a significant impact on health and well-being of our community.

Whereas Meals on Wheels mobilizes dedicated staff, volunteers, and community partners in a shared commitment to care for older adults, reflecting Wichita's spirit of service and strengthening connections across generations.

Now, therefore be it resolved that the Wichita City Council does hereby proclaim March 2026 as Senior Services of Wichita Meals on Wheels Month.

I'm Wyatt Sheeter, Executive Director of Senior Services of Wichita.

On behalf of our incredible staff, volunteers, and community partners who make the services possible every day, I thank the City of Wichita for this recognition.

Programs like Meals on Wheels do more than deliver food.

They help seniors remain healthy, independent, and safe in their homes.

How many of you here know someone that receives meals on wheels?

How many of you have been one of our volunteers?

I love to see that.

Supporting our older adults strengthens the health and well-being of Wichita as a whole.

Seniors are often forgotten as part of our community.

We're grateful for the community's continued support of seniors that we serve.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I'm here tonight to read the proclamation proudly for Transgender Day of Visibility.

As shared in the media today, as a point personal point of privilege, I would like to share that I was asked by the mayor to read tonight's Transgender Day of Visibility Proclamation, and I said yes without any hesitation or question.

And I said yes because city policy is clear.

Proclamations are ceremonial documents recognizing important issues, events, or accomplishments meaningful to Wichita, and the lives of my transgender neighbors are meaningful to this city.

This proclamation celebrates the lives, achievements, and resilience of transgender people and acknowledges the hardships that they face.

As a black LGBTQ man who has experiences the challenge who has experienced the challenges tied to the color of my skin and my orientation, I know how important it is to understand and respect the lived experiences of those whose identities may differ from mine.

This is no different from all the other proclamations that we issue to other communities that recognize and celebrate the marginalized identities of those who make up the fabric of our community.

As seen tonight, the disability, both intellectual and physical, as well as Asian Americans, black, and pride that celebrates the lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals in our community.

The transgender community is no different.

This time last year, I watched as some of the council members' actions hurt our community.

Those who are transgender, their loved ones, their neighbors, their family members, and simply those who support them.

At the state of our city on Sunday, our mayor called for the community to unify.

And tonight, I am making sure my actions show her that I am committed to doing just that by embracing the beauty of our community's diversity.

Doing so is not just the right thing morally.

It strengthens public health.

It grows our economy, it builds our workforce, it enriches the cultural fabric of who we are.

Inclusion must be more than just words.

It's one thing to say, you're invited to the dance.

It's an entirely different thing to say.

You can dance with me once you are there.

And tonight I want our transgender neighbors to know you can dance with me as long as you want to.

You matter.

Your safety matters.

Your lived experience matters in the city of Wichita.

Even when it feels like your life and humanity is under attack, I want each and every one of you to know you belong here in the city of Wichita.

You matter.

And there are members of this council that have your back and that support you, not just for show, but for real.

Language matters.

And tonight I want everyone in our community to feel that they belong and that we as a city are committed to making this a reality.

The question that I have for each and every one of you tonight, whether you agree with this proclamation or not, is simply a question.

Don't you want to feel loved, seen, and valued in the community that you dedicate your time to?

That's what this proclamation is about.

And with that, Mayor, I will read the proclamation.

Proclamation of the city of Wichita, Kansas, founded in 1870, whereas Transgender Day of Visibility is an annual international day dedicated to celebrating the achievements and resilience of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals.

And whereas on March 31st, 2009, Rachel Crandal Crocker created Transgender Day of Visibility to go beyond the day of mourning and resemblance and move towards celebrating the lives, achievements, and the resilience in transgender people.

And whereas no one, and I repeat, no one should have to be brave just to be themselves, and that transgender people face an increasing lack of legal protection, including legislation specifically designed to prohibit them from accessing public bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, elevated poverty rates, considerable stigma, employment harassment, and discrimination, higher rates of violence against them, lack of gender-affirming healthcare coverage, and lack of accurate identity documentation.

And whereas on March 31st, 2026 is a day to celebrate and lift up the lives of voices of transgender people throughout our community and to work towards eliminating violence and discrimination based on gender identity.

Now, therefore be a resolve that the Wichita City Council does hereby proclaim March 31st, 2026 Transgender Day of Visibility, and it is signed by Mayor Lily Wu.

I ask for the supporters of the Transgender Day of Visibility Proclamation and the supporters on the City Council to join me.

I stand here today as a non-binary person who uses any and all pronouns.

A reminder that gender diversity is not theoretical.

It's lived.

It is local, and it's part of the fabric of Wichita.

Hello, uh, my name is June.

I serve Wichita Pride as the communications director, and I am an out and proud trans woman who lives, loves, works, and volunteers right here in the city of Wichita.

I've lived my entire life in the state of Kansas.

I am as Kansas as they come.

I want to take this moment to go over some quick history to make sure that everyone is up to date with where we stand today and how we got here.

I'll be brief, I promise.

While I'll be brief, I will say that our history is not.

We have been here since the beginning of time.

Our history is expansive.

Our documented history is expansive.

We can go all the way back to the 1940s, where Michael Dillon, a trans man and physician, wrote the first medical book on medical transition, not just social transitioning, but the medical transition.

World War II vet and actress Christine Jorgeson underwent her transition in the 1950s.

And these are just talking about people in Western culture.

If we go further back in cultures around the world, we have been carved out as a part of society since the beginning of time.

If we get a little bit more recent, 2009 was when we saw the first trans day of visibility.

It was in direct relation to the Trans Day of Remembrance, the day that we remember and mourn those that we lost to violence.

We decided that we needed to celebrate that we are here, celebrate our accomplishments, celebrate what we do every single day.

2015 was when we started to see this modern fascination with the anti-trans bill.

There were 17 bills proposed that year.

2021 was when we saw the first major spike with 140 bills introduced that year.

2023 was when we saw a prominent political personality get on a national stage and tell us that there is no middle ground.

And this whole ideology must be eradicated.

2023 was the same year that Kansas SB 180 passed, and it is 370 words of legal jargon trying to explain my existence.

It fails.

Trying to say how I can live, how we can live our lives.

2025 was the same year that a prominent local politician got up in front of everyone and told us that these proclamations segregate the community.

To my knowledge, she still hasn't sat down with any member of the community to discuss just how wrong and harmful that statement was.

What have we done to deserve to lose the safety to engage in basic human functions and public spaces without fear of legal consequences or violence, egged on by those who will never know us.

What atrocities have we committed against you that these politicians are so rapidly trying to erase us?

A community whose whole existence revolves around love, authenticity, acceptance, and empathy.

Today we recognize the Transgender Day of Visibility later this month, a day that honors the brilliance, resilience, and humanity of transgender, non-binary, and gender expansive people.

But here in Kansas, visibility is not just a celebration.

It's an act of courage.

It's an act of resistance, and it's an act of hope.

Across our state, transgender Kansans have faced a wave of legislation aimed at erasing their identities, restricting their health care, limiting their participation in public life, and undermining their basic dignity.

These bills do not reflect the values of fairness, compassion, or freedom that Kansans hold dear.

They do not make our communities safer, they do not protect our children, they only cause harm.

And yet, despite these barriers, transgender people in Kansas continue to lead, to create, to advocate, to parent, to serve, and to thrive.

It calls us to stand up for the community.

It calls us to challenge misinformation, to confront discrimination, and to refuse the narrative that transgender lives are up for debate.

Supported, and celebrated.

As Wichita Pride, we see the strength of our transgender community every day.

We see young people navigating a world that often misunderstands them, yet still choosing authenticity.

We see adults who have fought for decades to live openly, offering wisdom and leadership.

We see families learning, growing, and standing fiercely beside their transgender children.

And we see allies who are stepping forward, ready to do the work.

Wichita is at its best when we choose compassion over fear, truth over distortion, and community over division.

We have the power to model what a welcoming city looks like, even when the statewide climate is difficult.

We have the power to say clearly that transgender people belong here, that their health care is valid, and that their identities are real, and that their futures matter.

So today, with this proclamation, we affirm transgender Kansans deserve safety.

They deserve respect.

And transgender Kansans deserve a future in this state.

Not in spite of who they are, but because of who they are.

To every transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive person in Wichita and across Kansas.

We see you.

We honor you.

We fight alongside you.

And we will not stop until this state reflects the dignity you already carry.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Public agenda.

We now come to 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 city council with your concerns.

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

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

Speakers will please 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 Christina Clagg.

Three lane roads.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

Um I wanted to thank Mr.

Shepard for that because I have trans family members, and it's as a straight woman, it's still thank you.

Thank you for they don't feel safe and um don't feel like they can come out, and it's hard on all of us.

So it doesn't just affect trans, it affects all of us.

Thank you.

Um my name is Christina Clagg Jackson.

I live at 2307 North Inwood Circle, North 21st and Rock.

And my topic is the forced three-lane roads the city is doing for either road diets or the uh stripes of paint for bike lanes and the problems I see with this.

Um don't understand why the city is purposely making commutes longer and congesting traffic.

Wichita has been recognized as one of the top fastest commutes in America, and we've been very proud of that.

I hear people, I can drive from one area of town to the other in 30 minutes or 20 minutes, and now the city is purposely creating three-lane roads to slow down traffic or cause it to go into side streets.

Um of the problems I see is connected to the Ozone Awareness Month.

When you have traffic jams, you're gonna have cars stuck and idling, which is causing more pollution in the city.

A longer commute means cars are driving longer, which means more pollution in the city.

Um 13th and Broadway is uh the 21st around five o'clock, especially if there's a train's bumper to bumper from 13th to 21st.

I've been there.

And when that happens, um, cars like me, we drive either you know, across 17th over to park or Maine or Waco, and it puts more traffic into those residential streets, which makes it more dangerous for those residents.

Um Broadway is an arterial street.

It was made for large amounts of traffic, it has businesses, so it's not children playing in streets where we're adding more traffic, congesting or restricting that traffic, like I said, um, causes cars to funnel into side streets.

And um, like I said, uh you know, in Broadway, I've done it myself.

So um 13th, you can't turn right because it's so backed up, you go straight and you go usually down Waco, which causes more traffic in that residential street, which is a three-lane road that was forced.

Um, three-lane roads are dangerous in the fact that people use that middle lane that's supposed to be a turn lane to pass, especially when people are going slow.

Drag racing occurs.

My mom lives on 18th and Waco, right?

When uh North High gets out, there are drag races constantly in the street.

I've had personally experienced road rage myself on 13 on Waco when I backed out of my mom's driveway.

I had my 80-year-old mom in the car, and a truck behind me started honking, blaring his horn, going around me, and as soon as he got in front of me, he slammed on his brakes, and he was angry because how dare I got in front of him, you know.

But this three-lane road, he was rushing um up because there's nothing to stop him from driving fast down that lane.

No cars turning, you know, no cars turning left because they have the turn lane, so he can just go as fast as he wants.

Um, I also had that at 37th Street one night where I went, I went because the car was going 40, then 35, then 30.

I went to go around them, and it was like a Camaro, and then they started a drag race me.

And I automatically started going faster, and you know, it's just dangerous.

And then when I went back behind them, they slammed on their brakes.

So I'm sure people here have probably experienced a similar situation.

These three lane roads aren't safer, they cause other problems.

Um, another issue I have is where the money is being spent with the bicycle board and um pedestrian.

Um, a lot of money is being prioritized to the redbud trail crossings.

Uh the three million dollar bridge, it's eight million dollar bridge, but the city of Wichita is paying three million for a bridge over Rock Road for people that will bicycle out of Wichita to other cities.

But paint um paint is missing, and ADA signs are missing on many street crossings.

One I know is at 21st and Pyot in front of the Dollar General food market.

There's no street markings for cars or people.

It has the old fashioned crossing.

Um, 21st and Rock doesn't have ADA signage.

I sent that in.

Street lights are missing at intersections, such at 21st and Oliver, where the WSU students cross.

There's a lot of areas where it needs to be focused on.

The the bicycle board gets 12 million in three years, and then the city gave them an extra 50%.

So now they're getting 18 million dollars in three years.

And a lot of that money is you know, lipstick on a pig, throw down two stripes of paint, which is the least safest by federal guidelines.

Let's start paying to get like Waco sidewalk paid.

People use that 18th Street sidewalk paved.

Let's pay for that.

So thank you.

Thank you, Christina.

Yeah, Madam Clerk, please call the next individual.

Alison Bell, continued deterioration of the Commodore.

Hello.

Good evening, Mayor and members of City Council.

My name is Dr.

Alison Bell, and I'm a lifelong Wichita resident, a doctoral level board certified behavior analyst and an autism specialist.

My life's work has been dedicated to Wichita's children, specifically those in our central corridor who rely on us for critical medically necessary services.

My clinic, New Hope Therapy Services, is located at 609 North Broadway, immediately adjacent the historic Commodore.

We've intentionally operated in the central business district and downtown for the last three and a half years to ensure that transportation is never a barrier to care for any family seeking services for their child.

We moved 600 feet to the north from market to Broadway in January.

The Commodore does have a powerful history, but it's unchecked deterioration and failing ownership has moved beyond a neighborhood nuisance and is now a direct threat to the clinical services and the well-being of the children that I serve.

Right now, the broken window theory is playing out at our doorstep every single day.

The concentration of blight has created a vacuum for crime.

And in the last week, there has been a shooting and a stabbing three weeks or three blocks north of us.

Furthermore, I had to contact law enforcement several times in the last week, including Sunday when I had an individual brandish a knife when I was asking him to leave our parking lot.

Last Friday and today, the fire alarms at the Commodore were going off for the entirety of the day.

When Wichita Fire Department arrives, they can inspect the building, but there is nothing that they can do to silence that alarm.

I have to then act as a liaison, calling the realtor that's listed for the auction to have them and demand that they call the owner to silence that alarm.

Noise permeates into our clinic, disrupts our sessions, and causes unnecessary distress for the children that I serve.

The brick facade on the building is failing.

And despite my own efforts to sweep and clear debris, falling brick and glass from the unsecured windows constantly litters our parking lot and the walking pathways.

The current security is just simply razor wire and have haphazardous boarding is not only an eyesore, but it's also a failure.

Since the recent snowstorm, events have been pried open and individuals are actively trespassing in the building to escape the elements.

The data is undeniable.

Since moving to this location just two months ago, my team has had to contact law enforcement more time in 60 days, more times in 60 days in the previous three and a half years of our operations.

We are working to build futures for the Wichita's most vulnerable children, while an out-of-state investor treats our city as a line item on a ledger.

The building has gone to auction and failed twice, and it's going up for auction again soon.

But the market has spoken, and the current situation is untenable.

It is deeply frustrating that while we struggle to keep our area safe, these owners continue to profit.

They keep the power on specifically to collect revenue from rooftop cell towers, refuse to secure the building, and dodge accountability by rotating registered agents so frequently that even MABCD cannot verify who is responsible.

The burden of neglect has been shifted to the taxpayers through constant emergency calls and to my small business through the literal labor of cleaning up their debris and their crises.

I'm a behavior analyst and not a city manager.

I am not just here to complain.

I am here to ask for the enforcement of existing tools in the pursuit of new ones.

Under city code, owners must name a local registered agent.

And since they have failed to maintain a verifiable agent, I'm requesting the immediate assessment of penalties and the force appointment of a local agent who can be served legal papers in person.

I'm also requesting that the city exercise its power to power to professionally board and secure the perimeter, assessing the cost as a tax lien against that property.

Lastly, I'm asking for a formal audit of Wichita PD and Wichita Fire Department's man hours been at this location over the last 36 months, and that the city seek cost recovery from the owners for these preventable responses.

Lastly, I'm urging the city to explore an injunction, redirecting cell phone tower releases.

Payments to pay for outstanding code violations and safety.

Wichita's growth depends on a safe and vibrant downtown.

If the current owners continue to hide behind a rotating door of agents, we must stop treating this as a negotiation and start treating it as abandonment.

I'm asking that the city council move forward with towards receivership or condemnation.

And if they because if these people will not be in a neighbor, they should not be an owner.

We either need to bring the Commodore back to its former glory or clear the way for someone that will.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alison.

I have a couple of council members that wanted to speak.

Councilmember Batwick.

Thank you, Mayor.

Alison, thank you so much for being here.

Um I share your frustration with the Commodore.

Um Chris Labram, can I pick on you for a second?

Sorry.

So uh good evening, uh, Mayor, Council members.

Chris Labram, director of MABCD.

Uh so a nuisance letter specifically being violations and cases, or are you speaking directly to uh our new okay?

So uh there are multiple cases against uh that property.

Uh they have worked to secure it, which has made that a little bit difficult.

Uh totally understand what the uh speakers talking about.

We did, we have put an injunction against permits on the cell towers, so they did have to stop work for a time.

We got to the point that we realized that in an effort to punish the owner, we were also punishing uh companies that that did not uh had not done anything wrong.

So we let them complete the cell tower work, but uh we are not allowing any other permits or works to continue on that.

Uh we obviously are uh very aware that uh the shoring that the fire department put in place some time ago is starting to deteriorate.

Uh we have not seen um uh we we haven't seen a more significant fall of that.

Uh trying to keep an eye on that the best we can.

Uh we do have a few engineers' reports that say that while there's obviously some deflection in the structure that caused that, they're not seeing structural issues with the building.

Um we were like everyone else, very hopeful that something would happen with the sales, but it is not uh specific to the question of next steps.

Uh it is it has been very recent December that uh we have the new uh guidance put in place by you all that gives us uh extra tools to register this on uh under Title 30 as a uh neglected building, and we are working towards that.

It is one of one of a few buildings uh the other one was referenced uh in that discussion or in those words as well that uh are moving rapidly towards uh that list.

We hope to serve the owners with that fairly soon.

So if I remember right, it's an out-of-state owner.

That is correct.

Correct.

Yes, ma'am.

Have they been difficult to communicate with?

Uh in they have not been very responsive.

They have uh at times had local agents uh that have contacted us uh recently and has been very difficult to reach them.

So what is the more aggressive approach if the out-of-state owner is not participating in the conversation and there's businesses that are adjacent that are also you and your staff and fire and police and everybody is spending resources that we have plenty of other places that they could be utilized on properties that are not participating in the conversation and kind of out of side out of mind.

So uh, when we move towards registering them under Title 30, they will have to provide us a local owner or face the increased penalties.

Uh, that will add monetary penalties to the owner that we uh certainly are helpful will offset um anything else they may be gaining and motivate them towards uh doing something more productive with the building.

Okay, city manager, could you please follow up on the Commodore?

It's been at least since I've been on council that the out of state owner kicked everybody out that was on some type of voucher program a couple weeks before Christmas, and nothing has happened really since.

So sorry to put you on the spot, but I appreciate the update.

And Ms.

Allison, I will um be in touch with you as soon as I get an update.

Thank you for being here.

No problem.

I will coordinate with uh police department as well about uh we we're we're trying to definitely coordinate the both of those um ordinances and when we move buildings that direction.

And depending on what that looks like, if there's a way to um initiate the nuisance um ordinance that we just talked about and updated a couple weeks ago.

Um whatever we need to do to get their attention that it's not fair to everybody.

I'm reasonable, yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to say Allison, I agree with you.

I think that we have an ordinance to uh enforce encampments for homeless people.

We need to enforce how to hold bad landlords and folks accountable as well.

So we need to do the same thing, two things at one time.

So I appreciate you coming and asking for accountability.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Allison.

It sounds like you uh really know your stuff with the list there.

Um I would just point out also with um to people who are listening, there's a lot of uh red tape that's thrown our way as far as being able to enforce um property management on the state level.

Uh there's a couple of bills that have been heard here this year and in the future as well.

So make sure you reach out to your state representatives and state senators and express the issues as well.

So that way we have more tools in our toolbox to deal with um absentee landlords and owners.

So thank you for coming tonight.

Madam Clerk, please call the next individual.

See Ameri Campos spending money on art instead of the drought.

Is C O Mara here?

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please call the next individual.

The next person on the public agenda, Catherine Kane cancelled earlier this afternoon.

That means we have three spots for any individuals who would like to address the council.

Please state your name and your address, and you will have five minutes.

Good evening.

My name is Mark Barlow, aka sign of the Times.

I'm running for Kansas House representatives in the District 99.

Um, I want to start tonight by reading a Star Trek quote that I find is pretty applicable to what happened tonight.

Uh with the first link, the chain is forged.

The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.

The first time any person's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged.

I want to thank Joseph Shepherd for reading tonight's transgender proclamation.

I just want to point out that it's specifically the mayor's job to read all proclamations regardless of their position on that particular subject that's in the city charter.

She abandons her duties in her office by abdicating that responsibility, and Wichitans have noticed her lackluster cowardice.

Thank you to all present here tonight, except for our feckless coke mouthpieces.

Wichita can do so much better than you, and we will.

Thank you, Mark.

Any other individuals who would like to address the council, please state your name, and you will have five minutes.

And uh wanted to uh say I have uh visited uh a couple dabs uh meetings, and uh each one of your your districts.

Um I haven't uh been to district four yet or district of one yet, um, and uh I will be coming.

But uh I wanted to uh let you guys know the uh guiding pause is gonna be having a grand opening uh on April the 9th, and you guys are all welcome to come.

And uh in that, and then another question that I had on the sidewalks and bus uh bus stops.

Um that's something that you guys need to look at.

Um, and uh I also got an email um from a person from the uh bike bike walk, Wichita.

Um that uh it needs to be addressed and curb cuts and and all that.

So um and that so that needs to be uh worked worked out and uh to help out the disability community because you got you got folks that are in wheelchairs that are trying to cross the street, and uh you got blind individuals that are trying to cross the street too.

Um, and I I'm one of them, and uh and that, and I have got hit by a car, and I was I was in the right way.

Um, and that so um that really needs to be looked at, guys.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Thank you, Andrew.

You're welcome.

My name is Nancy Brown.

I reside at 11707 East Crestwood Street here in Wichita in District 2.

I'm here today to speak about how this body could follow up on the defeat last week of the 1% sales tax.

It's very easy in the face of defeat to just give up and move on.

But in all of my conversations and all of the meetings I attended, everyone found at least something in that measure that they favored, some unmet need that could be relieved by that the sales tax.

Their concerns were less about what was in the measure and more about how it came into being, and frankly, a lack of trust in the ability of city officials to follow through on resolutions that were passed to further define its implementation.

As most of you may recall, I'm very aware of how quickly a resolution can be overturned by a simple majority, despite public outcry, if the right person speaks in favor of its repeal.

And I know I'm not the only one who has seen resolutions overturned, projects approved, and relief denied, despite public sentiment.

Every resolution relies on the political will of the council, and that will can be changeable.

Much good work was done by this council and the city staff to flesh out the requirements and guardrails for implementing apportioning and utilizing proceeds from the proposed one percent sales tax.

I propose that instead of letting all of that good work and all the time spent by all of you, all the staff, all these stakeholders who met with you over and over.

Uh, instead of letting all of that go to waste, perhaps re-tool the tax proposal to include and codify all of those resolutions that you've developed.

In the process, additional stipulations as to selection criteria and rules for the members of the oversight board and relief programs for our low wealth and renter citizens could be developed and included.

The result of this work would be a fully developed, comprehensive and transparent ballot measure with built-in accountability, binding not only this council, but future councils for the next seven years or however long the term was decided to be.

Such a process would take some time, which would address one of the concerns I heard most that the measure was just rammed through in a very great hurry.

Town halls and voter education using consistent accurate messaging would give residents clarity and confidence when it comes time to vote, countering the misinformation issues that surrounded the recent campaign.

Incorporating the guardrails into the measure would go a long way toward improving voter trust.

That promises made in that measure would be promises they could watch you keep.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Nancy.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Consent agenda items one through 12.

Council members, are there any items to be pulled?

I'd like to pull item number six.

Is the contract documents for main water treatment plant conversion to emergency use?

Can I just ask the clarifying question?

This is consent agenda item number 10.

This is in regards to a board up.

Um I wanted to know.

Uh, what are the next steps to the board up at 2430 North 127th Street East?

This would be the Calamar apartments.

Good evening again, Mayor.

Uh Chris Labram, M A B C D.

So the building is also now fenced, and the owners of that building are seeking a sale.

I know they have a few different interested parties uh seeking to uh purchase that project and try to complete the project.

So at this point in time, we have it boarded, we've assessed that board.

Uh we are keeping an eye on the property, it is also fenced, and uh they are in the process of trying to sell it and then complete the the unfinished apartment building.

And the board up happened.

I know it's fenced, but when is the board up happening?

Uh so we did board it.

Um that was it it had been the project had not been worked for a while, so going back several months now, uh, probably probably close to five or six.

The um when Calamar uh so the bank foreclosed on the current owner, and with that, the company who had placed the fence removed their fence, they were leasing it to the company, so they removed it.

At that point in time, we went ahead and boarded the building uh as a safety measure to uh discourage any illicit activity there.

The once the bank then again had control, they replaced the fence.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Mayor.

I see no other items to be pulled, so with that I will move to approve consent agenda items without consent agenda item number six.

Second.

Motion second discussion.

See none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, same sign.

Motion passes 7-0.

We're now at consent agenda item number six.

Councilmember Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I still do not understand why we have not had a backup water treatment plant forever in Wichita.

I don't see why we need another one when our new water treatment plant when operating will have multiple redundancies to it.

So I will be voting against this.

So thank you.

With that, since the item was pulled, uh, do you want any uh comments from staff?

We will now open it up for public comment if anyone in the public would like to speak on this item.

I see none.

I'll bring it back to the bench.

I will go ahead and move to approve receive and file the contract documents.

Second.

Motion, second discussion.

See none, Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, same sign.

Motion passes 6-1.

Madam Clerk, please call it the next item.

Board of bids and contracts dated March 2nd, 2026.

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

Uh, the Board of Bids and Contracts convened yesterday, March 9th, 2026 for the following items.

For engineering, we have water distribution system, sanitary sewer improvements, paving to serve Whispering Creek addition for NOAAC Construction Company Incorporated for an aggregate bid total of $1,435,986 and 22 cents, subject to your approval of the new engineers estimate and budget authorization just now.

We have the sanitary sewer improvements for Lyft Station 4 for Wildcat Construction Company Incorporated for an aggregate bid total of 386,170.

We have the Wichita Valley Center Flood Control Project, Stormwater Sewer Repairs for Dutton Construction Services LLC and the amount of 248,600.

We have the real-time information center or Arctic Expansion for Constant Technologies Incorporated for 198,777 and 22 cents.50 cents estimated annually.

For airport, we have the high-speed runway broom parts contract for United Rotary Brush Corporation for an estimated annual usage of 12,371 dollars and eighty-eight cents for one year with two one-year options.

And we have the Flex Technical Service Agreement for Building Controls and Services Incorporated for an estimated annual usage of 60,000.

This is how to become a vendor with the city.

This is our purchasing calendar with our small business resource partner events that the city's hosting or participating.

And I'll be remiss if I don't speak to the staff training.

The purchasing and the law department will be hosting on Thursday.

We look forward to speaking with our city staff on purchasing policies and procedures.

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

And I've been stuck at two slides historically, and you'll see I'm starting to pick up traction.

So with that, uh I'll be happy to try to answer your questions and I recommend your approval.

Thank you, Josh.

Questions for staff beginning with Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, if you could go to slide seven, please.

Sure.

Could you just explain the one bid?

Sure.

So this was the one.

I actually had notes about it during agenda review.

Um so when I talked with the buyer, we worked on this during our board of bids agenda review.

Um email was sent to a frequent vendor that does this work, utility maintenance contractors.

Um they were not able to participate or did not express interest.

We notified another common firm, Donlinger stating previously that they haven't bidded because they are quote too busy, so there's lots of work available.

Um, and then we had a notification from Wildcat that they are historically not competitive for these types of projects, and they did not respond being a rebid project.

And this uh was confirmed that this was something uh past six months plus that we had rejected the bids and put back out.

Can you explain like just receiving one bid like you guys know the floor?

I assume where the bids can be.

We've just had questions before on only receiving one bid on big projects like this.

So if you could just explain that, please.

Sure.

So how do you gauge the market and the barometer of what's competitive or not competitive?

Um a lot of that's going to be with our operating department, ensuring that the engineers estimate um is in alignment.

So the engineer that is assigned will have detailed specifications that they submit for this plan.

Um that outlines the budget estimated budget that purchasing staff will not see um until the project is released and we present it to you.

Um, and the only other thing I'd be remiss in stating is is um $248,000 for me is a lot of money, but in the in the broader scheme of the procurement process, really the dollar thresholds come into play.

You've seen vendors openly express to city staff that the purchasing thresholds we're engaging in.

Um I don't have to engage in these types of services with my my private clients.

Um these are processes that are more difficult for me, um, and just some quite frankly declining to participate.

Okay, thank you.

I see no further questions from the bench.

I will move to approve the board of bids and contracts dated March 2nd, 2026.

Second.

Motion second discussion.

See none, madam clerk.

Please open the roll.

Motion passes 70.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Petitions for public improvements.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members.

I have new petitions for your consideration tonight.

And I'm Paul Gunsman with Public Works and Utilities.

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

Young East Edition located in District 2.

The project will provide water, stormwater drain, sanitary sewer and paving improvements required for a new residential development and to cover costs of a private bid.

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

Questions for staff?

I see none.

Thank you, Paul.

With that, I move to approve the petitions for public improvements.

Second.

Motion second discussion.

See none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 7.0.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Public hearings considering an amendment to a tax increment financing project plan 3A.

Request for approval of a letter of intent to issue industrial revenue bonds and approval of a development agreement for one, two, three South Market LLC.

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

Uh stand before you today with a request for a mixed-use project that involves a couple of incentives.

Back in August, you may recall City Council adopted a TIFF project plan for Area 3A of the Center City South TIFF district.

At that time, the adoption of the project plan was for the purposes of a redevelopment and rehabilitation of a property at 221 South Broadway.

That was part of a full service hotel.

You may recall that as a hotel indigo.

So we already have a project plan that has been identified for this area of the larger district.

That project plan based on the introduction last year is set to expire in 2045 or when the TIFF reimbursement has been reached.

Since then, we have received a new request.

This is for a property within those boundaries located at 123 South Market, conveniently the name also of the LLC owner and developer of the project.

They're requesting an amendment to that TIFF project plan area 3A to now incorporate their project as well, and then also use uh industrial revenue bonds for sales tax exemption on all other construction uh commodities, furniture fixture, and equipment.

Projects consists of a comprehensive adaptive reuse and vertical expansion of the existing uh vacant undeveloped building and one two three south market building will be converted into a mixed-use project with ground floor commercial and about 50 market rate residential units.

Developer will pay all construction costs associated with the project.

City's not bonding any of this work.

The incremental TIFF revenues will then be used to reimburse the owner developer for certain eligible expenses based on the pay as you go basis.

Owner developer assumes all the risk.

Again, no risk to the taxpayers in this project.

Project estimated about a 10.7 million dollar capital investment with TIFF eligible expenses totaling about 2.2 million dollars.

In addition, the developer is requesting again that IRB and an amount not to exceed 8.25 million for purposes of sales tax exemption only.

So I want to make sure that we're communicated to everybody involved that that $8.25 million dollars is not the incentive that is being offered up as part of the IRB.

We are simply bonding all of that work to assure that the sales tax associated with any of that work is then sales tax exempt.

More specifically, the actual or approximate value of the sales tax exemption is really only about $600,000, in which the city share is approximately 45,000.

The developers requested the use of TIFF on a pay as you go basis.

City will not issue debt for the project.

Developer agrees to pay all costs of issuing the bonds and agrees to pay the city's $2,500 annual IRB origination fee.

Bonds will be purchased by the developer related entity.

Law departments reviewed and approved the ordinance resolution and development agreement has to form.

Bond documents will uh ultimately be prepared by outside outside council.

Um final form will be approved by city's law department.

Additionally, law department will review and approve all those bond documents again prior to the issuance of any of those bonds.

That being said, it's recommended city council hold a public hearing, close a public hearing, and uh approve a project plan amendment and letter of intent as well as a development agreement resolution, place the ordinance on second reading and authorize the necessary signatures.

We do have a representative from the applicant here today who would like to address the council good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Appreciate your time this evening and uh as we get to review a project that we're really excited about.

Um 1936 building was built, and then in 1939, it took three years to get it open, and it opened as a Sears and Robux store.

Um little less than a hundred years ago.

Um it served Wichita well.

Um everybody's seeing this building.

A lot of us know it is the Sterling Building downtown.

Um, it was a Sears and Roebuck, it was uh then also a drug store, it was a bank for a little while, it has the Sterling Water Company.

Um, and for the last roughly 25 years, it's been sparsely occupied and mostly vacant.

Uh we uh took a shining of the building, loved the Art Deco history behind it, um, but also struggled to figure out a solution of what could we do with the building?

Um, and so somebody on our team had the solution.

Maybe we can go vertical with it.

Uh and so we put a project plan together and an ideas and started investigating to figure out if we could use the existing building that was there and go vertical with additional floors.

Uh, and so uh teaming with both PEC to do a structural review and then reading back through the Wichita Eagle.

There's a note in there, and I'm not gonna spare everybody the time, but it talks about how in 1939, when it was opened, they had planned to go additional floors, so it was structurally built to uh sustain additional floors back in 1939, but they never did it.

Um, and so our building is set downtown uh with just two floors for nearly a hundred years.

So the project that we're proposing takes that existing building which has been vacant for quite some time, and it has two additional floors to the roof.

That's the way we're able to get 50 apartments uh in the area, and then roughly 11,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor.

It's quite innovative and different.

Um, it's about the only way that we can find that takes this building and actually um gives it a future because we get the floor space without additional square footage or additional property.

So we're really excited about it and ready to go.

And so with that, I'll answer any questions anybody has about it.

That's okay.

We'll begin with questions from Councilmember Hohe.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um you talked about uh market rate apartments here, and I think this might also be a question for Troy.

And I think this might also be a question for Troy.

So is that locked into the language?

Um market rate, like do we do a look back and see if that's part of the contract, if that's um they're adhering to that, or what is that that process look like?

So I'd go I'd have to go back and double check, but no, I don't believe anything in the agreement uh restricts the owner-developer from uh marketing the property and charging rents uh that are outside of market rents.

I don't know if that answers your question or not, but no, I don't think there's anything in the agreement that specifically restricts them to just market rents.

Um, I would imagine, and I'll let uh Ms.

Blazedell respond, right?

That they're probably going to set rents at a rate that's comparable in order to achieve the desired occupancy, but I'll in my terms market rent is what we can charge for the apartment to be able to for somebody to be able to live in it, and so from a market standpoint, it's really set by everybody downtown.

Right.

Um our goal is to fill it up once it's built.

Uh yeah, I yeah, I get that, I understand.

And that's um just some clarification on the current policy.

It might be something that we revisit here in the next couple of weeks, especially with our workshop coming up, kind of tightening up some of these uh rules.

Uh we we all know the uh the need for affordable housing, and I'd love to um give more incentives towards that.

But um I did just want to ask that clarifying question as far as our current policies go, and if that's maybe something we need to look at in the future.

So thank you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Matt.

Vice Mayor Glasscock.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Kyle, a few questions.

What is the projected timeline for the project?

Yeah, we would like to start this summer and then be open before Biomed opens in the fall of 27.

So the intentions develop before Biomed.

Yep.

Um, thank you for looking at City Info.

I think that's always a great thing.

Um, when we're looking at how many tenants are currently on the first or second floor, it's empty and it's been empty for years.

That was gonna be my second question.

The most tenants we had were the homeless that were in it that we've had to continue to keep out.

Well, yeah, my second question was how long has the building set empty at this corner?

So, from a full-fledged tenant, it's been decades.

Um, a couple people have temporarily occupied it.

Um, I believe King of Freight was in it for a little while as they were kind of hopping around.

I believe Fidelity Bank used it as some overflow when they were doing some renovations in their office, but it's been decades uh plural since it was a full tenant in the whole building.

Okay, thank you.

I'm gonna go back to the market um rents.

Can you tell me approximately the rents?

Yeah, and so each unit would be a little bit different, and so from uh we look at them at a dollar per square foot, and so they'll be between that a dollar and seventy a square foot to a dollar and ninety a square foot.

Wanna know what's the current property taxes on this specific property right now?

Yeah, so mayor, uh 2025, the uh general tax obligation was about 41,000 dollars.

Uh 2024 about 38,000, so roughly 40,000 a year.

And they would still continue paying those property taxes without the improvements, but just what it currently is.

Is that accurate?

That's correct.

Under the TIFF model, the the base value continues to be um assessed and tax obligations owed, and then all of the taxing jurisdictions continue to receive the base value.

It's only the increase in the value above the base value that is then rebated back to the owner developer over the next 20 years to repay those eligible expenses.

Any other questions, council members?

I see none.

Thank you, Kyle.

Um, and again, this council has talked about the need for housing, and knowing that there are 50 new units that would be within walking distance of biomedical campus, I know is a need.

Um, so thank you for thinking about housing in the community, especially in the downtown core.

You bet.

With that, we will open it up for public comment.

I see no one from the public who would like to speak.

I'm gonna bring it back to the bench.

This is in council member Shepherd's district.

Thank you, Mayor.

And I live downtown, and so I completely understand about the need for affordable housing, and again, right now with the biomedical center in several new developments coming online uh in regards to housing, we are completely uh prepared for that.

And so I think it's important that we look at not only how we celebrate the good things coming, but how we prepare for the things that are coming as well.

Right now, downtown is near 90% occupancy, if not closer.

And so want to make sure that people have access to housing, quality housing, affordable housing, and workforce housing.

Also agree with uh the sentiments from Councilmember Hoheisel that as we are looking at incentives in the future.

Um, given what has been the status quo prior to my time here, um, I think it's fine.

I will abide by that today, but I do think city manager, we do need to discuss in the retreat.

What does that look like to create guidelines that as we are providing incentives?

What does it look like to ensure that we have set asides for those of all income brackets to live in downtown because if we say it's everyone's backyard, it should be available to everyone regardless of their income.

With that being said, mayor, I would recommend that we close the public hearings for the tax increment increment financing project plan amendment and letter of intent, approve the development agreement, place the ordinance on second reading, and authorize the necessary signatures.

Second motion, second discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the role.

Motion passes 70.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Public hearings considering the establishment of a community improvement district.

Request for approval of a letter of intent to issue industrial revenue bonds and development agreement for Mammoth Clubhouse.

Honorable Mayor, members of council, Troy Anderson, Assistant City Manager, stand before you with another request.

This one from Mammoth Gulf, Wichita, SPV, LLC.

I'll refer to them as Mammoth throughout.

Um has acquired and owns property near 1010 North Webb and East Wichita.

Mammoth is proposing to construct a multi-purpose commercial golf, sports, and entertainment venue that includes a T line building, clubhouse, and mini golf facility.

Mammoth has requested a community improvement district to assist in the redevelopment construction of the project as well as the use of industrial revenue bonds for that sales tax exemption.

The CID petition is signed by 100% of the landowners.

The estimated investment in the project is about 12.8 million dollars.

The maximum eligible eligible amount for reimbursement under the CID program is about $2 million.

The proposed amount of CID sales tax for the district is proposed to be 2% distributed on a pay as you go basis for the next 22 years.

No taxpayer dollars are at risk.

In addition, Mammoth has requested the use of IRBs and an amount not to exceed $7 million for a sales tax exemption only.

Again, that's simply bonding for the construction cost to assure that all of those costs remain sales tax exempt eligible.

The approximate value of the sales tax exemption is about 252,000 dollars to all the taxing jurisdictions, of which the city shares about 18.9,000.

Developers agreed to pay all construction costs associated with the project.

City will not issue any debt for the project.

Proceeds will be held by the city and dispersed pursuant to a development agreement until the maximum amount identified in the petition.

That approximate $2 million has been either reimbursed or the 22-year term has expired, whichever is earlier.

There's been some questions floating around just for clarification, right?

That the once the facility is open and the sales taxes are collected from patrons, those sales taxes are then remitted to the state.

The state remits those back to the city, and the city will reimburse and disperse those sales tax proceeds to uh the developer in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement.

So I just wanted to make sure that everybody knew and understand kind of the life cycle of those sales tax dollars.

Mammoth agrees to pay all costs of issuing the bonds and the city's annual origination fees.

Bonds will be purchased by Mammoth or a related entity.

But law department will review and approve the final form prior to any issuance.

With that being said, staff's recommendation uh city council hold a public hearing, close a public hearing for the establishment of the Mammoth Clubhouse Community Improvement District, and approve the industrial revenue bond, approve the development agreement, place the ordinance on second reading, and authorize the necessary signatures.

And with that, we have representatives from the applicant that would that would like to address council.

Thank you, Troy.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the council, thank you very much for having us here tonight.

My name is Bob Johnson.

I'm appearing on behalf of Mammoth.

Mammoth is represented here tonight by Jason Ferrant, its president, also Tanner McKelly, the executive vice president of real estate development is here tonight.

This is a very important project to Mammoth.

It's their first foray into Kansas, and they are a Kansas based company.

They're based out of Meriden, Kansas, born and raised Kansas company, involved in a number of uh sports related projects in particular.

Um, you know, they you if you watch the KU games, you'll see the Mammoth logo on the field.

They do turf installation in high schools and colleges and things of that nature, and have also uh developed some projects in the sports uh industry.

Um this is um the mammoth clubhouse iteration of their business uh you know product line, and it is again their first investment in Kansas.

They targeted Wichita in particular.

It is the perfect market, frankly, for what they're trying to achieve for this facility.

Um they've studied Wichita extensively, they've spent um countless hours down here with their full team, um boots on the ground, uh hiring subs, making sure that they're tied into the community, and and it frankly parlays into their long-term goal, which is to be a long-term owner and operator in this community.

This is not uh a goal to be out of this project in a short period of time.

Mammoth is a owner and operator of their facilities, and and that expertise is important here, and it's reflected in the development agreement.

You have approval over future transferees of that development agreement.

We agreed to that term because we know we can adhere to that, and if if it ever was transferred, we'd come in front of you and ask for that.

Don't anticipate that happening anytime soon.

If we could go to slides, project, as Troy indicated, is at 1010 North Webb on North Webb, just north of Central.

If you could move to the next slide.

Thank you.

So these are renderings of the project.

It gives uh an indication of the the type of project we're trying to bring here, which is is a unique first to market type of project where you're combining kind of the unique and elevated putting experience with the game and five driving range experience, which would be additive and complementary to other entertainment opportunities in the city.

Um, Wichita has a strong golf community, but by no means do you have to have golfing skill to come here?

This is a facility meant to be accessible for all.

That's the goal.

Any age, anyone can come.

It is birthday parties, it is family gatherings, it is certainly you know, corporate events, uh, strong business community in this area.

We anticipate we'll uh patronize the facility and we'll be part of our community uh at Mammoth.

Um, you know, uh in partnership with that or in line and synergy with that, young professionals in this community.

This is the type of experiential retail that young professionals look for in a community, uh, so that there is a wealth of options and things that they're excited about in their city.

And we think we're we're part of that solution.

Uh part of what you already have, which is uh excellent, but we can be additive to that and complementary to the entertainment offerings in Wichita.

Um as you can see, the the putting experience, it rendering doesn't fully pop out the uh what this will be.

It's really immersive when you're in it.

Um this is not a 1970s putt-putt course.

This is something where the installation of uh both native uh aesthetics as well as as the kind of palm tree aesthetic will create a very unique experience to where when you're in there with your group, you're you feel like you are uh you're you are secluded in doing your own thing there, if you will, and and also have the ability to kind of go back and forth between the different offerings and also the access the food and beverage options as well.

Um this is of course redevelopment.

Um, some may know this site as the former All-Star Sports uh facility.

Um certainly redevelopment brings some additional costs that are not present in greenfield development, which is why we're here before you tonight.

Um costs you know, unique to redevelopment, obviously, as everyone knows and is seen on in many projects, uh, would include the demolition, site work, irrigation, reconfiguration of the site, include and in addition, the top quality uh and again frankly expensive features that uh mammoth is going to invest in in the project, um, including things that maybe don't pop right out, as I said, in the rending rendering, like the quality of the turf and using particularly the particular grasses that look a lot better than you know the than the alternative, frankly.

Um, you know, really night and day better than the existing defunct site and a turnaround of what's there today, uh, which of course doesn't produce any sales taxes as we sit there today in minimal property taxes.

I believe it's it's about $32,000 of property taxes that are there today.

We certainly think that once this project is constructed on the books, that those property taxes will increase uh dramatically, um, all of which will accrue to the city and the other tax and jurisdictions.

We're not asking for a property tax incentive.

We're not asking asking for a sales tax incentive uh with regard to the sales taxes that will be produced by the project itself.

All of those will accrue to the city and the tax and jurisdictions as well.

Um we believe that what we're asking for is narrowly tailored to the type of project that we have here.

CID add on sales taxes used throughout the state quite commonly in experiential retail projects.

Uh we which is again why we targeted that here.

That tax is only on sales on our property.

So again, doesn't add a sales tax beyond the the boundaries of our property, no sales tax on the citizenry of of Wichita in general.

Uh if you visit the project, um you're essentially investing in the project by paying an additional uh add on CID sales tax.

Um the property taxes and sales taxes were true to the taxing jurisdictions.

That leads us to what we believe and what our intent is is to bring forward a balanced public-private partnership, where certainly the developer is going to benefit and be able to bring forth this project to fruition.

Uh, but we also believe that the city, the public, and the other tax and jurisdictions will benefit here as well through the full fruition of the project, uh, which again was intentional in something throughout our our conversations with the city.

Uh we expressed and and we intend to see through.

We're excited to bring this project, as I said, to full fruition.

And I want to affirmatively and clearly address uh where we are in construction in relation to the incentive timeline.

Now we started the conversations last fall or early late summer with the city uh on this incentive request.

Construction was not commenced at that time.

There's uh discussions progressed well and have progressed well since that time.

Um in meetings, discussions, negotiations, it unfolded that we mammoth gained increasing confidence throughout that process and had confidence they were on the right track in the process.

Now, to be clear, we were never promised anything.

All uh activities on the site have been undertaken on mammoths risk.

They know that they absolutely have taken some minimal risk here at the upfront to begin some work so that we could move forward and meet the summer season for the project.

Not ideal that we had to commence construction in the last month to get to opening for that summer season.

That that did overlap somewhat here with this incentive process, but again, increasing confidence on mammoth's behalf, motivated motivated them to underwrite the project, motivated them to move forward with the project with confidence that they would be able to execute on the project.

Again, want to be clear that we we weren't promised anything uh in the last month that uh would lead us to believe that we weren't here tonight asking for your vote, which we certainly are.

But that confidence is important in that it led them to decide to underwrite the incentives into the pro forma.

It's a critical part of the capital stack, certainly.

Um it will allow us to move forward and bring the project to full fruition.

Um that's the vision.

And again, to kind of reiterate the point about the timing.

The summer season is when up 60 to 75 percent of the sales for this project will occur.

They couldn't miss that season.

They couldn't start in the fall or the winter opening the project and falter and start off on the back foot.

That wouldn't have led to long-term success, and certainly could have been a stumble right out of the gate, and not something that would have been wise for the project uh overall, and and not a smart business decision and not something that would have uh frankly been good for for any of us with the risk that that project could have been encumbered with some difficulty right off the bat.

So again, um understanding that we were moving forward targeting tonight.

Uh we ask for your vote.

We ask for the ability to see this project through to its fruition.

Uh we are extremely excited, and we I really mean Jason and Mammoth are extremely excited about the Wichita market.

Want to emphasize that point again, as demonstrated by the commitment to this capital investment in your community as its first and and primary target here in the state of Kansas with regard to this this concept.

Again, believe that bringing this concept to life will be a huge benefit to to the area and a perfect fit for Mammoth and to the city.

Thank you very much.

And I would stand for questions or could come back after the public hearing if you'd like.

Thank you, Bob.

We'll begin with Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

This is more a question for Troy.

Uh first I'd like to say I do appreciate the investment in it.

I'm gonna miss the batting cages there, but um I'm glad to see something's being done with this area.

Thank you, Councilman.

Um Troy, I just um, and this is also maybe a procedure question for the future as well.

Are there ways that we can split this if we're okay with one part of it but not okay with the other?

I have concerns about the IRB aspect of it, even though it's not a lot.

Um, but again, just looking at um procedural issues for the future, uh the CID part of it I am okay with.

Is that doable or so uh and again I'm I'm not gonna speak for the applicant, right?

We we have two parties here.

Um obviously any amendments to a development agreement would have to be mutually agreed to by both parties.

Um which in theory you could propose an amendment uh if that's the will of the governing body.

I mean, we can go back.

I'm sure that the applicant would have their investors, they would have to go back to.

So I I mean, I don't know, I don't want to speak for the applicant, but it would just be a procedural, we'd probably end up laying this over uh and negotiating alternative terms and conditions.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Glascock.

Thank you.

Maybe I have one question for you, and maybe two for the applicant.

Have there been other public improvements, specials, anything else that have been applied for by the applicant?

No, not that I'm aware of.

Thank you, Councilmember Glasscock.

No, there have not.

I think potentially if I could uh assume what you might be asking, we're the ground lease tenant of the property.

I believe the landowner is involved in a special benefit district for some public improvements.

That's not us, and that's a different application, and I don't know much more than that.

I think those relate to some of the public improvements in and around Webb and maybe sewer.

I I don't know exactly, but that is not us or our application.

I did want to make one point that I did omit, which was that in addition to our CID cap, there will be a uh an amount that is dedicated to a public purpose that we will work with the city in the future uh to uh really frankly what what the city wants to use as a public purpose.

We're we're going to commit to that and be cooperative to whatever that amount and and whatever that allocated use is.

Um that is in our development agreement, and something we are agreeing to when we execute that agreement.

So that will be to a public purpose as identified in the future by the city.

Okay, thank you.

I want to echo Councilman House's comments.

I'm glad for investment in Wichita.

Thank you for choosing to do business here.

I did find maybe some things concerning in what you said, and so I just want to clarification that you said that your the incentives are written into the performa.

That's correct.

Correct.

And construction has already begun on the site, correct?

Correct.

What happens if today's vote fails for you?

Very fair question.

A very fair question, and I appreciate the question.

I don't have a firm answer for you, and I've of course asked Jason that, and the answer is it is written into our pro forma.

We are it we would have to go back and look at what that means and talk to the investors and and figure out what it means.

I I can't tell you it is not something where we have a plan because it is part of the capital stack that we've underwritten.

Again, that's why I referred to at our risk, we understand that.

Um I cannot tell you what that means today, other than that as part of the pro forma for the project, that's what is underwritten to bring this project to full fruition, and that's not a statement to say that we are changing something specific.

I don't know at this point in time.

We would have to go back and revisit that.

Okay.

I will look forward to maybe discussion for my colleagues.

I find that concerning, and I'm sorry that maybe you're in that place where the timing didn't align.

Um, but I don't knowing that it probably gives me pause in supporting the application.

And so I'm interested in maybe discussion for my colleagues as well.

So thank you for uh your forthrightness and answering the questions as well.

I appreciate that.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

This isn't a question, but just a point of clarification.

You talked about the public purpose, and I just wanted to mention it.

I was gonna uh mention it when I make the motion and some other comments, but we did have a call last week, and one of the suggestions that Troy and I made, and then I followed up with um Gary Jansen, director of public works, is that we are going to be doing much needed safety um upgrades from on Webb Road from 13th to Central and making sure that um especially the two schools within that corridor have dedicated turn lane, have sidewalks, and so that would be a really great project for the potential public purpose.

So just wanted to highlight that to my colleagues that we've already had that discussion.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor Troy.

Um in the process does that 10% for the public good have to be identified.

Um it can be identified at any point.

Uh as you heard council member Tuttle identify um a potential project.

Um in all reality, that's probably the project, right?

And I say that in the context that uh we always want to maintain a nexus, right?

And given the site location, there's probably not a lot of whole lot uh of other opportunities really to make sort of that public investment that improves the quality of life and quality of place to the public, but also has kind of that ancillary benefit to the development of as well, right?

There's got to be that nexus.

Um, as you heard me describe uh uh during my presentation, the kind of flow of sales tax dollars, right?

So as the sales tax dollars are collected, they're remitted to the states, state remits it back to the city, city will set aside that 10% origination fee, and it will just continue to accumulate and either be used to reimburse the city for certain identified eligible expenses, or those dollars can be saved up until such time as a project is specifically identified, but then uh again the city will set aside that 10% origination fee, and any of the remaining proceeds will go back to the developer.

Okay, yeah, I was just questioning uh curious one in the process because I I guess maybe my mind's a little slippery here, it's just everyone that I'm familiar with.

We had that identified before.

So I appreciate the info here.

Thank you.

So a question to Troy.

Um, I think the applicant mentioned it, but property taxes on this specific area.

What are they now?

And will they still continue to pay those same property taxes?

Yeah, so the we pulled it before the meeting, the 2025 tax billings for the property is about 32,000 a year.

And yes, the uh develop owner developer would continue to pay not only that value of the base value, but as uh indicated by the applicant, there's no property tax abatement uh or exemption being requested.

So any value that they add to the property above and beyond what it's appraised and assessed at today, they will continue to pay that tax bill to all the taxing jurisdictions as well.

And can you also address um this is a CID, so it's a two percent CID.

So only for the individuals who would participate in attending this venue would be charged that two percent.

Can you address the CID?

Yeah, so appreciate that.

Um yeah, this is two percent on top of um the base state and countywide one percent sales tax that's split between uh county and city.

In fact, I ran some numbers uh a week or so ago, and after over the course of kind of the 22-year term, that additional tax that is being um based on the revenue projections that were provided that could generate about $568,000 to the city over the next 22 years to again continue to invest back into uh roads and bridges and and infrastructure based on that countywide sales tax.

But again, that two percent that um is on top of the state and the local uh countywide sales tax goes back to uh again rebate uh rebate and reinvest back into the project short of the 10% origination fee, and so as the applicant described, right?

That those folks who are uh are visiting and frequenting the establishment are the ones that are investing back into uh the development, and no other properties are gonna see that that same tax.

I see no other comments from council members.

Thank you to the applicant and Troy.

We will now open it up for public comment.

I see no one from the public who would like to speak.

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

This resides in Councilmember Tuttle's district.

I just want to thank staff.

Um thank you, Troy, for all your hard work on this for you and your team.

Um also to thank Mammoth Gulf Wichita.

We've had several meetings, we've exchanged uh emails, had a phone call last week.

So I truly appreciate you investing in Wichita.

We say all the time, Wichita needs to grow.

And for us to grow, we have to have attractions, we have to have amenities, we have to have reasons for people to come into play and just to have a vibrant lifestyle.

Um, one of the things that I really like that you said, Bob, is that we will create more experiential retail opportunities that help attract and retain talent, and I think that's exactly what this will do.

I also think it's just great timing with the safety improvements on Webb Road.

You could help with that.

And then what happens then is some of that money that's been allocated in the CIP for that project can come out of the CIP potentially and help out fund other projects.

So lots of benefit for this.

So with that, I will enthusiastically move that the Wichita City Council close the public hearings for the establishment of Mammoth Clubhouse, community improvement district, and industrial revenue bonds, approve the development agreement, place the ordinance on second rating, and authorize the necessary signatures.

Council member, can I interrupt real fast?

Please.

My fault.

Can you also include if it's your desire to include the resolution for the letter of intent to issue the industrial revenue bonds?

Can we add that to the motion?

Yes, if you would agree to add the words adopt the resolution.

I agree to add the words adopt the resolution.

Did I forget to read it?

Thank you.

I will second this.

We have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

I will just add that again, this is a two percent additional sales tax only for this area, and that there will be again uh no property tax abatement for this property, so they will have to continue paying property taxes on this property.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 6-1.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item authorization of second five-year tax abatement, Gridley Family Foundation.

Honorable Mayor, members of council, again, Troy Anderson, Assistant City Manager.

Uh so this request, uh, a little bit different.

So this is a five-year review of uh an industrial revenue bond that was previously uh approved by city council.

Um give you a little bit of background.

First and foremost, Gridley Family Foundation.

You'll hear me uh refer to them as Gridley throughout, was founded in 2000 uh by Tracy Hoover, who is with us here this evening and um will be available for questions.

Um should council desire uh and her late husband Kurt Gridley for charitable and philanthropic initiatives.

Gridley acquired the former printing ink building as part of some of their early investments uh with the intention of renovating it into a co-working event space, office and conference room, studio and manufacturing labs, all intended disperse startup tech company.

You'll hear me refer to the space as Groover Labs.

So back on December 8th, 2020, City Council approved an issuance of an industrial revenue bond and an amount not to exceed 3.1 million dollars to fund the project.

Uh and then Groover Labs opened in late January 2020, as you all know, just a few weeks before the COVID shutdown.

Throughout that period, though, however, Gridley contributed significantly to the Greater Wichita metropolitan area, offering collaboration space, co-working memberships at below market rates, programming and educational events, growth of small business startups and uh space available for maker lab.

Gridley provided an extensive network of service providers such as attorneys, accountants, marketers, and other concerns, uh consultants to assist their members.

They also leverage their investment to uh pursue other state and federal support.

And so one in particular is uh Gridley was the recipient of a base grant uh to renovate and attract a company by the name of nomadics to establish a cybersecurity of excellence at Groover.

Cybersecurity of Excellence addressed challenges in areas of electronic warfare, cyber solutions, space resilience, and security, and based on that success, nomadics uh previously announced that they were going to relocate their corporate headquarters to Wichita.

So one of the things that we want to point out is that unfortunately Gridley themselves were not able to create uh the seven net new jobs that you see there on the left hand side of your screen.

The original projection was that they were going to make a capital investment of more than three million dollars, create seven net new jobs, they were gonna locate it in a redevelopment area and invest in entrepreneurship.

You tally those up, and they at that point in time qualified for 120% abatement.

We all know you can only receive 100% abatement, and uh that was the basis for which city council at the time recommended it and approved uh the 100% abase.

Again, having not met the new uh jobs, uh they did achieve uh three new full-time equivalent positions.

Um it's kind of an interesting five-year review.

If we had known then what we know now, right?

We would have probably looked at it differently.

Uh we would have used their total capital investment of more than six million dollars.

We would have used the same locating in a redevelopment area and investing in entrepreneurship, but then they also would have qualified for leveraging their investment and utilizing state and federal incentives, still would have qualified at that point in time for 110% or 100% abatement.

Therefore, we are recommending that the uh city council continue the 100% property tax abatement or the over the final five years of the term.

We went back to uh Wichita State University Center for Economic Development Business Research, had them run a new cost benefit analysis, even with the new figures, the cost benefit analysis still exceeds the one-to-one threshold.

So other financial considerations.

Gridley continues to agree to pay the annual $2,500 administrative fee for the remaining term of the bonds.

The terms in the economic development incentives agreement provide the city council has the discretion to extend the exemption for a second five-year period based upon performance.

Again, it's recommended that the city council approve the second five-year 100% advalarum tax exemption.

And again, with that being said, we have representatives from uh Gridley that can answer any questions.

Otherwise, I will stand for questions as well.

And I know that we have a host of folks here that would love to come up during public comment and say a few words.

Thank you, Troy.

We'll begin with Councilmember Hohezel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Troy, can we go back to slide 60, please?

So was um utilizing state federal incentives not available during the first application?

It wasn't contemplated that they weren't sure at that point in time, right, that they were going to pursue or be successful enough that Tracy can tell you about how the state awarded uh a grant and the authority to then disperse that grant among uh sort of sub-recipients, and so not realizing maybe how successful their business model was going to be, uh they didn't contemplate uh pursuing any state or federal incentives at the time.

Okay, so it was an option, but it just wasn't the option that they wanted to go to.

That's correct.

Okay, so that means does that mean during the five-year look back that we can switch over to something, um, such as locating and redevelopment, investing in entrepreneurship, utilizing uh federal state incentives, if they're not meeting their goal, are those other options and option to go with.

Okay, so that means does that mean during the five-year look back that we can switch over to something such as locating and redevelopment, investing in entrepreneurship, utilizing uh federal state incentives, if they're not meeting their goal, are those other options and option to go with so council has the discretion to do sort of whatever they choose, right?

Uh the way the guidelines are written, they're guidelines, right?

You're allowed to take whatever information necessary or prudent in order to uh make a decision, right?

We're we're presenting to you all that that well, yes, the original projection um was not satisfied in the context that unfortunately while Gridley themselves were not able to create jobs within the gridly foundation.

Um it's also sort of this compelling story, too, of all of the jobs that were created by all of their memberships.

Unfortunately Gridley did not track that information, so um it would be uh a guess at best, but uh the applicant speak to they have over close to 240, 250 members, right?

And so there's an anticipation that probably throughout all of that, there was probably significant job creation amongst their members.

Um but again, without having tracked that, we just don't have reliable source for uh pointing to that.

So we looked at the original projection, kind of stood it up to this.

Well, if we had known now, sort of post-COVID what we knew then, uh, we might have looked at it differently.

Okay, so under the old, I guess the old benchmarks they would have been um eligible for 90 percent.

That's correct.

Okay, what does that look like in terms of dollars?

So theoretically at the time, had they only qualified for 90 percent, we would have entered into uh a pilot payment, a payment in lieu of taxes.

We looked at the numbers, um, and it's about five thousand fifty, five hundred dollars a year uh is what that pilot payment would have been obligated.

Okay, thank you.

Yep, Vice Mayor Glascock.

Thank you.

I think Councilman Hoheis will ask my question.

My my one question, and I just want to hear maybe the logic to get to it too, is when we had talked in the meeting, it was that they were qualified for 90% abatement under the original projections.

I understand the actuals is different, but then I just feel like we're trying to make it get to 100% instead of what they would have actually qualified for, which is 90 percent.

Is that a possibility for next the next five years to keep it at 90 percent moving forward?

If your desire here this evening is to um reduce the property tax abatement from 100% to 90 percent, yes, your action would then be to uh recommend to staff that we enter into that payment in lieu of tax uh agreement that would establish what uh pilot payment would be over the next five years.

Okay, and so I might have more questions.

That answered my question for now.

Yep.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Couple questions.

How do you get to 120 percent?

Can you help me understand that you don't?

Right?

I'm just making sure I'm not missing something.

Yeah, no, you get to 100% and then you're at 100%, right?

In the guidelines, um there are percentages that you can achieve based on certain things, right?

There's a there's a gradient of capital investment.

The more capital investment you make, the higher percentage.

Uh the more jobs you create, the higher the percentage, right?

And then there's some of these additional considerations like geographically where you're investing, uh, redevelopment area.

There's a map within the guidelines that kind of shows hey, if you're investing in this area, you could achieve up to a 25% abatement.

Um, and there's kind of a laundry list of other things that as you sort of start additive through that application.

Once you get to 100%, you get to 100%, right?

We can't abate more than we're not gonna take property, we're not gonna take taxes off the tax role, so to speak.

Um, this just sort of shows the side-by-side comparison of either the original projection or had we known now what we know then, they still would have achieved the hundred percent.

Okay, and I share the same concern as um Vice Mayor Glasscock that when we met it was 90 percent, and I totally understand the jobs.

I just don't know what happened to get it to a hundred.

I just want to make sure again we everything is on the up and up because it's strange.

No, um we wanted to kind of show city council early on in the process, right?

Without looking at what they actually did, right?

Um yes, if all we looked at was the original commitment and the original projection, um, if you only looked at sort of the left-hand side of that table, yes, they did not achieve the net new jobs.

Uh so if you took 30 percent from the 120 percent, they only would have qualified at that point in time for a 90% abatement.

Thank you.

Yep.

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor Troy.

I have several questions, so please bear with me.

Can you please explain to me under what circumstances have job requirements been waived previously?

So that's a great question.

Historically, and I'd have to go back and get you specific numbers.

City has revised their approval and continued an abatement where jobs were not met, where a new cost benefit analysis still exceeded the one-to-one ratio.

Um years ago, and again, it's it's a practice that we have since tried to help educate applicants to better predict what and anticipate what their job creation was going to actually be.

We've had projects in the past where uh applicants were incredibly ambitious and they created um an incredibly high hurdle of creating hundreds of jobs, which resulted in a uh an extremely high cost benefit ratio, and they didn't meet it, right?

And so again, kind of coming back to the table, and there's some provisions in the guidelines that allow us to do this, right?

That we come back and go, okay, what job creation did they actually create, and had they made that commitment at the time that the um that the IRBs were approved, would they still have satisfied the um uh the cost benefit ratio?

And historically the answer has yes, but there's been maybe a half dozen or so over the years that council has continued the abatement because while they didn't achieve what originally they had projected, the job creation that they did achieve did still exceed the one to one.

Thank you, Troy.

A follow-up to that, and and I asked this question because I believe that um a lot of people talk about equal.

I I speak to equity because I think equity refers to an inclusive nature of the rules and application of how we do things, and it and depends on the consistency of the application of the rules in my personal opinion.

I have several minority-owned businesses in district one that are contributing to uh the economy, and I'm just curious um, would these waivers or would these waivers be granted to similar businesses in the district that I reside in?

Given the metrics, I would say yes, right?

Given given the metrics, can you explain that to me?

Uh in other, as described in the guidelines, right?

Depending on how much capital investment you create, how many jobs that you propose, uh, locating in a redevelopment area, you could qualify under an industrial revenue bond for a certain percentage of property tax abatement, yes, regardless of general proximity.

For example, we have requests for industrial revenue bonds that are outside of the redevelopment area that may not qualify for the 25%, but they do qualify for capital investment, job creation, maybe investing in entrepreneurship, right?

And so it just depends on the project and exactly what it is that they're proposing.

You mentioned something really important, you mentioned capital.

Yeah.

That's I have I struggle with that.

Um so my question is what measurable benefits does the community receive if the job requirement is waived?

Because seven was the original three were created, right?

Yes.

So three were created.

There has been again kind of capital investment that has been made.

So not only will uh after the 10 years that the capital investment that's been created in the site will increase all of the advalarum taxes to all of the taxing jurisdictions.

That's one.

Um job creation is generally another uh high sort of when we describe economic development, we generally describe it as a three-legged stool, right?

Capital investment job creation and improving the overall quality of life, quality of place.

That third component is a little bit harder to that's the intangibles, right?

That's the where are you investing, right?

Are you investing in entrepreneurship?

I think you're gonna hear a lot of testimony here from a lot of the members uh that are going to tell you stories about but for Groover Labs, they may not have had a space in order to become a business, right?

I would love to hear how many, particularly our minority owned businesses.

Um and and curious if the job requirement is waived today, what level of accountability measures remain?

So the accountability measures are could be whatever council sets forth, right?

But um if you extend the 100% abatement for the next five years, you're extending the abatement for the next five years.

At the end of that five years, again, all of the property comes on to the tax role for all of the taxing jurisdictions.

Um unless council wants to introduce some other sort of uh condition, right?

That then we would then monitor monitor, administer and and track.

Um I mean we're certainly open to and again, I I think that representative from Gridley is here that would be more than happy to kind of entertain and understand she might have better numbers on minority owned businesses.

Unfortunately, I don't have that information.

I appreciate that.

And my final question, and I want to also be very clear that I know it makes a lot of people sometimes uncomfortable when I mention what needs to be said out loud.

Um, but I'm gonna say it out loud.

So my final question for you is will there be reporting on the workforce?

What was the question?

Will there be reporting on the workforce generated if council decides to move forward with waiving the requirements?

We can absolutely report on um any metrics you want.

If if you want us to gather from the applicant over the next five years, um jobs that are created, uh, what types of jobs are created, salaries, um, demographics of jobs created.

We can collect and report on what inform whatever information you want us to collect.

Thank you, Troy.

Yes, Councilmember Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

If the applicant, if I could have a couple questions, if you don't mind Hi.

Thank you for coming.

Uh a lot of the discussion has been on jobs.

And just to be clear, you've created three new jobs in the foundation, and you promise seven.

However, can you talk about the jobs of the other partners you brought into the building?

How many jobs they have created?

Um as Troy mentioned, you know, we don't do a good job of tracking those numbers.

We have over the whole course of Groover Labs, we've had about 240 member companies.

Um, a fair number of those are one-person companies, but we do have others who have outgrown Groover because you know they've added people to their staff, they've moved on to other places that could accommodate them.

Um Groover also um, you know, my husband Kurt Gridley and I work at Groover on a volunteer basis.

I continue to do so.

Kurt did so until he had his final illness.

Um we have other volunteers, our IT um person who manages our network does so on a volunteer basis.

So we have very enthusiastic community of volunteers and members.

Can you qualify how many volunteers?

I mean, they're taking place of somebody who you would give a job to.

That's true, but you know, Groover, I I can't afford to pay those all those people yet.

I mean, the intention is to hire an executive director in the fullness of time.

Um, you know, once I exit from Groover, which is at some point in the future, um, you know, I'm I'm doing that work with a happy heart.

Sure.

Um but you know, we started, and we you know, we have a very lean staff, we can do a lot with a very lean staff, and again, we have an enthusiastic community of volunteers.

Yeah.

Would you characterize your project as an incubator for small businesses?

Um we wanted to create a place where all elements of a thriving tech ecosystem could come together and and rub elbows and collaborate.

That's part of what makes a thriving tech ecosystem.

Um so we do have elements of an what you might call an incubator, but it's a community.

We've been building a community these last five years.

Okay, thank you.

And that includes minorities.

Yes.

In that incubator.

Yes, it does.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

I appreciate it.

All right, thank you.

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Councilmember Johnston, for asking those questions.

I appreciate that context.

Um Troy, why why is it that they can't is it like law that they can't include that?

I mean, that information about the incubator space, even uh the jobs that were created outside of that space.

Why is that not included in the number?

Excuse my ignorance.

I don't know.

That's it's a great question.

We would love to have included it in the number, you're right, because I know that um Tracy is probably humble, right?

I would imagine we're talking dozens and dozens of jobs that have been created as a result of Groover Labs.

Um, in fact, you're in the tech space, right?

There's these are probably really good, high paying jobs.

Um, I love telling the story about nomadics, right?

Uh how but for Groover Labs, we wouldn't have companies like Nomadics who have planted their flag here and said that yes, we are in this cybersecurity space, and this is going to be our corporate headquarters.

Um, and so the partnerships with McConnell and other, but for Groover Labs, none of this is possible, right?

So I think you're hearing a very humble story here.

We would love to brag on this more, but you're right.

When the original application came in, the request was well, how many jobs are you gonna create?

They could only commit to and control the number of jobs that they could control within Gridly, not really knowing what that ecosystem was going to look like.

Um, they could, right?

They could, absolutely.

From this day forward, we could uh probably set up a system in which we could identify, you know, how many of their members have employees and and what are their salaries and what are their demographics, those kind of things, and then we could start better tracking um you know new employment and job growth within that ecosystem.

That's absolutely it just wasn't part of the context of the conversation early on.

Yeah, there's no prohibition.

We could do it kind of moving from this day forward, but uh it just wasn't part of the conversation five years ago.

Yep.

I will add a quick comment to that.

I'm part of Bloomberg Harvard Mayors, and the city is part of a thing called data track, and I think the lesson from what I'm hearing amongst all these council members is we want more data, and data is good, and data tracking is good.

It's not tracking people for the sake of tracking, but rather to make better decisions, and knowing that there is job creation within Groover Labs through its collaborators and that community does make the story about job creation.

While you may not have created the jobs within Gridly, you created jobs amongst that community, and I think that's the story we don't often talk about, but it would be helpful if that story was talked about through data and through tracking that information.

And I think that I would appreciate that data-driven or data-informed conversation moving forward, and it would be a challenge back to Groover Labs if you can start tracking that information so that then this council can tell a story about the job creation that does happen in our community, and I'm so grateful to that community because that community includes uh a million cups and many others who are collaborating, but for that space, there wouldn't be these new businesses.

So I I would appreciate more data, and it's a challenge back to not just the community but to the city staff that we would like to see more data.

I think that that's that's the overarching message from this council.

With that, I see no further questions.

We will now open it up for public comment.

I'll jump up first.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Andrew Nay with the Greater Witch Top Partnership 505 East Douglas Avenue.

Um I wanted to jump in first before the team Groover uh descends on you, and and I'll be brief in my comments, but uh I think I can add some additional context.

I appreciate the discussion tonight and the and the staff's uh great work and analysis on this.

Um I was a part of the the team that kind of helped your staff five years ago in 2020 bring this forward and and to the discussion about kind of the uh kind of where this fits.

I think you're absolutely spot on that this is a little bit of a kind of a square peg and around a hole, that we have essentially kind of a nonprofit entity, and and and and I won't uh tell Tracy's story of her family's legacy and what they've uh contributed.

But this is a an entrepreneurial family that that made great investments and great uh strides in hardware technology and had what we all want entrepreneurs to do to have a successful exit and sold that company and chose to come back to Wichita, chose to come back to this place and kind of see their kids through school and get their kids uh off to college, and then you know that they were active and and and strong supporters of Wichita State and remain so, but saw an opportunity to do something different in downtown and invest uniquely in their skill sets in the heart of downtown, and so took that nonprofit foundation resources and energy and effort and passion and took it to a building that quite frankly was was vacant and dilapidated for for years and years and years, and and right next to Wave now that is that part of downtown is so successful.

So we're at the Grid Wichita Partnership, we're exceedingly proud of the work of Tracy and her team at Groover.

Um Troy stole my thunder on the nomadic story, but I'll I'll add to one to it that we have nomadics inside Groover Labs inside the building, creating cybersecurity jobs.

We use Groover Labs, we use them regularly when we are hosting prospects of all types in Wichita.

One of the most succinct that I remember and most uh important visits we had was another headquarters that we have in downtown Wichita Nova Coast, another cybersecurity company ended up leasing another office building on their second and third site visits.

We hosted events for them to get a feel, get an essence, a flavor of the Wichita Tech Community, a flavor of the ecosystem at Groover Labs, and the leadership of Nova Coast was blown away by what we have.

I would also remind you that that our team and the partnership we led an effort in 2021 uh called Accelerate Wichita, which was an ecosystem analysis of kind of entrepreneurship in Wichita, kind of an ecosystem map of entrepreneurship.

A gentleman by the name of Tom Chapman of Omaha drafted that as kind of an entrepreneurial guru in the Midwest.

He called out Groover Labs more than any other asset in our community as unique and rare and something to take advantage of.

So much so that Tracy can again tell you the story better than I can.

He's connected a number of his entrepreneurs in Omaha back to Groover because they can do at Groover what there cannot be done in Omaha or in Des Moines and other places.

So we have truly an asset here with Groover Labs.

It doesn't quite fit into our standard matrix.

That's why I so appreciate that it's a guideline for you all as our elected leaders to look at that and adapt that uh with your discretion as a guideline.

So on behalf of the partnership, we uh robustly uh ask for your continued support of Groover Labs and what they mean for our ecosystem.

And and publicly, Tracy, thank you to you and your team for what you've done for Wichita.

So thank you very much.

Thank you, Andrew.

We'll continue with public comment.

Hi, counsel, thank you so much for this time.

My name is Jocelyn Powell, and I'm a local entrepreneur and a very proud member of Groover Labs, my favorite place in Wichita besides the Belmont.

So Groover Labs is incredible, it is magical.

It is a place where diverse folk come with big ideas and they turn them into reality.

Um my father came here with 50 here to the US with 50 dollars in his pocket.

I grew up on 21st in Broadway.

Um I had really not much growing up.

But I had a dream of becoming entrepreneur and starting things and having ideas and creating good jobs and creating products and services that were of value to this community.

And um I am proud to say that I have done that with the support of Groover Labs and their the community there.

Um I own a restaurant, a store, healthcare training school, and I'm a part of operating and running two tech companies as well.

Um I've met my incredible mentors who are sitting right there today through Groover Labs, and they have empowered me with resources, funding, um, encouragement.

I've cried in front of them.

They've continued to encourage me in my big dreams.

Um, and Groover Labs is making dreams possible.

So Groover Labs keeps talent here in Wichita, it grows our tax base by creating incredible innovative companies, and it turns Wichitans into innovators.

Instead of leaving Wichita to build something, people can build it right here because Groover Labs provides the support and the tools uh necessary.

I've seen founders launch companies, I've seen students find career paths and collaborations that are magical that happened that would not have existed without this space.

If Wichita wants to continue growing as a place where innovation and entrepreneurship thrive, uh spaces like Groover Labs are absolutely essential.

With that said, I'm sorry we did not track how many jobs have been creative, but I can guarantee you it is hundreds or thousands just from what I have seen myself personally.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jocelyn.

We'll continue with public comment.

Hello, counsel.

Thanks for letting me address you.

My name is Mark Jansen.

I'm a lifelong uh tech entrepreneur in Wichita.

In 2014, I sold my company to a company in Seattle and moved out to the West Coast.

And while I was there, I uh read about Groover Labs and the Wichita Eagle.

And on a trip back here in 2020, I stopped by, looked in the window, it wasn't open yet, and then Kurt and Tracy came to the front door.

And they gave me a tour and told me about their vision of creating a place in Wichita for tech entrepreneurs.

And I had longed for something like this my entire career.

And I was very, very moved by their commitment and their vision and what they were giving back to Wichita.

And in the few months after that, my partner Jessica and I moved from Seattle back to Wichita.

I became an active member of the Groover community.

I became a mentor, a teacher.

I got to meet many wonderful entrepreneurs like Jocelyn and eventually started founding more startups here in Wichita.

In the last year, my companies have created four jobs in Groover Labs alone and more around the country.

And I just want to say, like I'm here in Wichita and not on the West Coast because of Groover Labs.

I have family here, but Groover Labs created a place where I'm like, these are my people.

This is where the entrepreneurs are.

This is an innovation space I want to be part of.

So I'm grateful for the opportunity to be part of Groover Labs and thank you for allowing me to talk today.

Thank you, Mark.

Evening, council.

Um you just heard two great stories of folks who are from this area and have stayed here because of Groover Labs.

Mine is a story of someone who came here because of it.

Uh my name is James.

I am the chief strategy officer of a brand and technology consultancy called Historic that mostly serves large nonprofits and social impact groups like International Justice Mission, AmeriCorps, Tebow group.

Um my wife and I moved here uh from downtown Chicago during COVID.

Uh we had called Chicago home for years, had no intention of leaving.

And COVID happened, many of the benefits of living in the city disappeared overnight.

We started to look where we might go.

Uh we moved to Wichita originally for one year just to get some space spread out a little bit.

There was a parking spot every year we're here, which is amazing for us.

Uh one year turned into two years, turned into three years.

I'm now proud to say that we're homeowners in Wichita, and as of six months ago, now foster parents in this community as well.

Um we first moved here though, I worked from home.

Um, and I became lonely quickly.

So I started to look for co-working spaces in Wichita.

I found Groover.

I first came to, I don't know if you know this or not, they every Wednesday open uh free co-working to the community.

I showed up to one of those Wednesday events, the community embraced me pretty soon.

I had my own office inside of Groover.

Um Groover Labs has kept uh myself and my family here in Wichita.

I also travel significantly for my job.

According to American Airlines, I was in the top 10% of departing travelers from Eisenhower last year.

Um, because of that, I end up working out of co-working spaces nationally.

Pick a city in our country.

I've probably been in a co-working space there.

I was in one in Nashville yesterday.

Most of these co-working spaces compete on amenities.

Sparkling water taps, how many IPAs they have on tap, ping pong tables, stuff like that.

And Groover Labs has some fantastic amenities.

Don't get me wrong.

They have this maker space that they don't let me touch, because I would have been told I would break things in it.

Anyway, they don't compete on amenities.

They could, but they compete on relationship.

I've been in many of these co-working spaces in our country, and people have headphones on, they're hunkered down, they're not collaborating.

Conversations break out in Groover Labs.

People care for one another.

They collaborate with one another.

Groover Labs might be a co-working space categorically, but Groover Labs is executive coaching, it's mentorship, it's care, it's work therapy in some ways.

That's the contribution that Groover Labs really makes to this place.

On top of that, there's other executives leaders there who are also foster parents, on top of being business leaders in this community, also check in on me and how my journey with foster care is going.

Groover Labs represents the kind of work and the kind of people we want in this community.

It's held my family and I here and will continue to.

So thank you.

Thank you, James.

Hello.

My name is Barrett Morgan.

I've lived in Wichita and surrounding areas my entire life.

I'm a graduate of Wichita State University where I received a mechanical engineering degree and also learned that I really needed more creative outlets in my life.

Immediately after school, I became a web design contractor.

I hopped around small offices for a while and finally landed at a local co-working space where I learned community is an imperative part of our daily lives.

Today, I'm a remote creative director of an integrated marketing and creative design firm called Trailmark Creative.

Pardon me.

We have offices in Denver and Wichita, and we immersed, we're immersed in a variety of industries that flood us daily with new challenges and opportunities.

I've been a member of Groover Labs for almost four years.

As a hot seat member, I work in an open space.

We don't have doors or walls or barriers.

Often when someone in the hot seat encounters a problem, they'll source it out loud for others sitting nearby.

And then we all try to solve the problem together.

It's a community of collaboration.

This has helped numerous times when Trailmark gets clients in new industries or clients challenging our capabilities.

We've even been able to find a contract skilled programmer through DevICT group that meets they're at Groover every Thursday morning at Code and Coffee.

Even though professionally I didn't continue down the engineering path, I still use those problem-solving skills daily at Groover.

Charged with a learning mindset and never underestimating my ability to do things myself.

He needed help 3D modeling a casing to hold electronics for his device.

And after recently taking Groover Lab's 3D printing class, I stepped in to help.

Together we designed and then used the community 3D printers in the Groover lobby to make a working prototype.

And to give you an idea of what we were working on, this particular device uses proprietary technology to evaluate the health of components inside wind turbines.

Ideally, he'll be able to predict problems within the turbine bearings before significant problems occur.

And these devices are already out in the field testing and gathering data.

With over 4,000 turbines in operation, according to the U.S.

Energy Information Administration, wind accounted for 52% of Kansas's total net electricity, surpassing coal, nuclear, and natural gas combined, and that's over 9,000 megawatts of power here in Kansas.

We've got a fleet of aging wind turbines that this device will help keep running.

And this is the kind of collaboration that happens at Groover Labs.

Groover has provided a mission to help grow the Kansas tech economy.

They've provided a rapid product prototyping lab that members get to experience firsthand, and they offer below market rates to benefit early stage founders and entrepreneurs.

They have soundproof call booths where I can make my Zoom calls with my clients.

And all of these things and more make Groover very special.

And for my perspective and experience, it's worth the renewal of the IRB so that Groover Labs and its members can continue to grow the technology economy in Kansas.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Barrett.

Sorry.

My name is Oleg Alba.

I am the CEO and founder of Acre Strong.

Full transparency.

I'm brand new to your city.

Been here for eight weeks.

I moved here from New York City.

First, let me tell you a little about me.

Eight year, eight-year Navy combat veteran.

I did counterjar operations in South America.

I track Russian subs in the Baltic Sea.

And my last tour of duty, I was chasing pirates off the Horn of Africa.

I started my startup, and what I do is I help municipalities and landowners structure and get fair energy deals across Kansas.

So I moved here because of Groover Labs.

I was flying between New York City and Kansas every two weeks.

Now in eight weeks, let me tell you what we've done.

Because of Groover and the help of the ecosystem there, I have met with Senate Utilities Committee leadership, house utilities committee leader leadership here in here in Kansas.

We've grown revenue 400%.

We just hired our first employee.

I met with leadership from no more because I'm looking for somebody local there.

This is because of Groover Labs.

This is part of this ecosystem.

It's exactly what you were told earlier.

You come out into the open space and you scream, I got a problem, I don't know what to do.

Give me a hand.

And somebody has an idea, they're gonna listen to you and they're gonna help you.

Now this directly impacts Wichita.

Moreover, Councilmember Shepard, humbly and respectfully but loudly.

You'll soy Latino.

And these I feel very included in that ecosystem.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Would anyone else from the public like to address the council on this topic?

I see none.

I want to think that oh, we have one more.

This will be quick.

Hi, Steve Falky, uh, three Crestview Lakes Estates.

Um Madam Mayor, Council.

I am not a member of Groover Labs.

Um I started my entrepreneurial journey in Wichita, Kansas in 1977.

In 1995, I was the SBA young entrepreneur of the year for the Wichita district.

Had I had some place like Groover Labs in 1995, some things that I've done in my entrepreneurial journey might have been a little bit different.

I've known Barrett Morgan for almost 20 years, and he is still plugging away and contributing and being an active active entrepreneur in this city and community.

Everyone staying back here, you as a city council.

I can just look at the overall of this and see that you guys have a chance to plant a flag for entrepreneurial ship, which is the DNA of Wichita.

And uh I agree, more data could be helpful.

But as you can imagine when 2020 happened and COVID happened, I'm sure a lot of things were going through their minds trying to get Groover Labs off the ground.

So I would encourage you to vote to accept their proposals and continue the RRBs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Again, thank you to the seven speakers who spoke on behalf of this item.

We will now close public comment and bring it back to the bench, and we'll begin with council member Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh I will enthusiastically vote for this.

Um Groover said they would invest three million dollars, they invested six million dollars.

Um they said they'd get seven jobs, they've given three through the foundation, but I would say it's probably hundreds of jobs that have been created for them.

I know we all want more data, but having run a small business, small businesses don't have the mechanisms to gather data that large businesses do.

So it's very hard when you're a small business to gather data.

It costs money, it takes people to gather data.

So I understand your your your problem in gathering data completely.

This is exactly what Wichita is.

This is what it is.

We are an entrepreneural city, uh, we support people.

We want people to succeed, grow their businesses.

This is exactly what we should be supporting in Wichita.

And so we can chase the big companies all day long and they'll come and they'll go.

But people who come to Griver Labs are staying in Wichita, creating good sound jobs.

So I I will enthusiastically support it.

And Tracy, thank you.

Um I just like succession plan.

I hope it goes well.

Because we want you around for a long time.

Thank you.

Council member Tuttle.

Thank you.

I'll I'll try and be brief.

Um, thank you to staff as always.

Thank you, Andrew with the Greater Wichita Partnership for joining us this evening.

Thank you to the Gridley Family Foundation.

We had a wonderful discussion.

I am the only council member here is on December 8th of 2020 when this originally was brought to us.

And I remember being incredibly curious and excited.

I'm not an entrepreneur, I don't have that part of my brain developed, but I certainly appreciate people who do because that's what we're known for in Wichita.

We are an entrepreneur of city.

Um I also during the meeting mentioned I'm sure that maybe you haven't meant the seven goals, the seven jobs here, but all of the people who are involved in Griffith Labs have created jobs, and I think that's really important.

The one thing I did want to mention too is I printed off the Cedric County Wichita City of Wichita economic development guidelines.

These were adopted in um 2020, they were updated in 2021 and in 2022.

And they are guidelines.

And one of the statements they make is the following that it's ours.

This is ours with the county.

The following guidelines are intended to provide a framework for consideration of incentives.

It may not be the only factors to consider regarding incentives.

The guidelines are primary qualitative considerations, excuse me, quantitative considerations, but qualitative considerations should also factor in the decisions regarding the grant of incentives.

And real quick, I'm gonna read this as fast as I can.

I don't think they all apply, but I think most of them do.

We're supposed to be looking at creating and retaining quality jobs, broadening and diversifying the tax base, encouraging capital investments, encouraging the regional global competitiveness, promoting the growth and welfare of the city of Wichita and Sedgwick County, reducing crime, maybe not as much, improving community reputation, certainly, redevelopment of key neighborhoods, encouraging regional cooperation and education of the community about public benefits.

When I look at why we created our economic development guidelines, this is what I'm thinking.

So I will be supportive today.

Thank you, and good luck.

Vice Mayor Klaskopp.

Thank you, Mayor.

Can we go back to just the slide about the analysis real fast?

And I'll preface what this is Tracy, thank you for investing in Wichita.

Thank you for everybody at Groover for investing in our community as well.

Um I know there's a lot of excitement when I've been at the building before, and I know you're doing a lot of good work for our community as well.

And so I don't want to discount the work because I think you're making an incredible impact.

But uh not that page, the other one, sorry.

I still have concerns when we have a standard, we've established a standard, that standard isn't being met, and the projections change.

When we have a lot of discussions before the bench, the question is the incentive before us and whether or not the incentive is good, and we set standards to measure that as a yardstick, and I don't think this hit those standards, and I think that could be a failure from um the cities as an institution to make sure that we didn't show maybe other options like actuals versus projected, but I also don't want to sit here and make a precedent that individuals can come back that don't hit our objectives.

And I looked at the I was trying to find a reason to get to yes.

And when I looked at the projected versus the actual, when you look at the cost-benefit ratio and every single metric from City of Wichita, City General Fund, City Debt Service Fund, Central County, USD 259, the state of Kansas, the actuals are less than the projected.

And I still have concerns by that as well.

And so while I wouldn't support full denial, um, because I do believe that you have done good work and you've hit most of the metrics, I would support something that's a 90% of what you would have hit with the original projection.

And so while it may not be a hundred percent approval, I think that moves us in the right direction to be able to have other people that come before this body as well.

That when you don't hit the standard, we can adjust to what the original standard was and use that as our um our measurement.

So I'm still interested to see if there's further calling or further discussion for my colleagues, but um I would have a tough time supporting the hundred percent Adlorm tax exemption, but I think 90% uh makes sense.

I think it fits with the standard we've established, and I think it also um and still encourages the work that you're doing every day and the good work that you guys are encourag uh doing every day as well.

I have a follow-up question maybe for Troy.

Uh with the 100% tax abatement, uh, what is the actual tax abatement amount and what it would what would it be at 90%?

What would that amount be?

Oh man, I unfortunately I don't have that information.

Again, we kind of did um a little bit of back and napkin math, and we came up with I want to say it was like 5200 or 5300 a year as what that pilot payment would be for that 10 percent.

So I mean I guess if you multiply that by the appropriate factors, you would come up with the overall tax obligation.

But if we entered into a pilot for 10 percent, it'd be about 5200, 5300 uh a year if my memory serves me correctly, and that would be across all taxing jurisdictions.

So the city's percentage of that would be what 25% ish of that $52 to $5300 a year.

Isn't the city's portion 39% or 29% rather?

What's the actual amount?

City manager I believe you did identify that we do have uh 29% is a portion we've done a percentage-wise based upon all the taxing jurisdictions.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

I would be curious to have more conversation with my colleagues.

I am very conflicted.

Um I love all things, you know, Grober Lab, and I love everything that you're doing, but we also have a responsibility to um follow the guidelines as well.

Um I was a young entrepreneur or two.

I would have you know loved the opportunity if I was in the tech world to have you know um a resource like you all are providing.

So um would love any more insight from my colleagues, councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Councilmember Ballard.

I too feel very conflicted about this.

I first of all want to say thank you to Gruber Labs.

Um in my previous job, we did business with Grouber Labs, and so we know the impact of Gruber Labs, and I'm not questioning the impact, the purpose, or the value.

I want to make that very clear.

But what I am questioning is the consistency, the fairness and the consistency in how we approach these issues.

And I know that um I want to name the big elephant in the room that I I know that that's what the community has asked us, asked of us, is to ask questions and to evaluate fairness and consistency, and I think that that is our responsibility.

In weighing that out though, um, I am I am really struggling with the part of the standard in which we created and and how do we create a clear standard?

And I don't know that we have done that so far.

So I don't know if it's fair to Groover Labs to use them as the litmus test uh tonight, but rather to look at what does it look like to act in good faith and acknowledging the great works that has been done, and we have a retreat this week, and I think that can be a part of the conversation of of establishing that fair and consistent standard.

Um but in acknowledging the work that has been done by Gruber Labs, the testimony that has been given tonight.

I see you.

Shout out to the veterans, shout out to Latinos too, who are in in our community doing great work and supporting small business and entrepreneurs.

Um so council member ballard, I hope that that kind of from my standpoint at least gives you some clarity of moving forward and approving this, and this week having further conversation in the retreat about what that fair and consistent standard might be.

I I do struggle too, because tonight we also did 7-0 vote on tax abatement under the same kind of circumstances of moving forward, we would like to have clear guidelines on what it takes to get there, but right now we don't really have that clarity.

So I think it's only fair to give the same to Gruber Labs.

And for quick correction, it is 29%.

So if the pilot was $5200 a year, Wichita would get 29% in property taxes, that would be $1,500.

The county would be $1,196.

USD 259 would be $2300, and $52 each to the state of Kansas' WSU, just so that everyone understands those percentages.

Council member Johnston.

Thank you, Mayor.

I appreciate the concerns from Councilmember Ballard, Glasscock and Shepard.

Um, I think the key word is guidelines versus standards.

If we make them standards, we have to abide to those.

It's set in stone, we have to abide.

Right now it's guidelines.

And then the community elects us to interpret those guidelines on a case-by-case basis.

I think that's what we need to do.

Um I think if it's a small, small company and and data is not always collected in small companies.

I realize that.

If that data was collected, Councilman Glasscock, those actuals would be much much higher than the projected.

Or not.

So they just it's really hard to collect that data when you're small, when you're a small business.

It really is.

I get it, because you do everything.

You sweep the floors, you you you do the IT, you do everything.

And so it's really hard to collect that data.

You mean you're working probably 50-60 hours a week, you know, anyway, and then to try to collect data on top of that is very very difficult.

So I know that because that come from those shoes.

Um I just think that this is really what we want in Wichita, and we should take care of the people who are investing in which six million dollars in Wichita.

We've got people coming from around the country to which to be here.

They're taxpayers.

Um I think it's very, very important that we take care of this type of incubator for businesses.

Um that's why I would fully support 100%.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

I think we're all in agreement here.

Um we need to look at dusty and up some of these standards and making sure that it's uniform, just because we need to stay consistent.

We we need to stay across uh consistent across the board.

Um, the policy that we have now allows for these exemptions.

Um and that's fine under the current policy because you guys are doing great work.

Um, and I'm eager to see what you guys have in the future.

Uh again, yeah, making I guess another little staple to our um our retreat here in a couple of days to talk about just cleaning up some of these incentives, just again make them consistent across the board so that way we can remain um consistent and fair.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Is there a motion currently?

There's not currently.

Okay.

I would like to take their recommended action to approve the second five year 100% adularium tax exemption.

Second motion and two seconds.

Which one came first?

Okay.

JB Johnston, second.

Vice Mayor Glasscock.

Thank you, Mayor.

I would make a substitute motion that the city council conditionally approve the second five-year 100% out of law and tax exemption after entering into a pilot agreement with the Gridley Family Foundation for 10%.

How about this?

Is there any way to defer this item?

Um question, because I think we need clarity.

I gave numbers that were given by uh assistant city manager on the pilot, but those are not they were just guesstimates, which was 5200 a year, and that would go into what um Vice Mayor Glasscock is asking.

We would need to know those clear numbers and then have that discussion.

Um I'm gonna ask the city attorney.

You you may make a motion, a substitute motion because this there's not a second on council on Vice Mayor Glasscock's at this time.

We have a motion and a second to take the recommended action.

If you wish to defer, then you need to make a substitute motion to defer to a certain date or a specific date.

This is in council member ballard's district.

Would you entertain a deferment of this item to get further information from assistant city manager on what that pilot program would be?

I'd rather follow through with my motion.

Thank you for asking.

Count uh Vice Mayor Glasscock Councilmember Johnston.

Thank you.

I re I respect that deferring, but we seem to defer a lot of things, and the family is all here, and I think they'd like to have an answer, and I think uh we're prepared to give that answer to them by vote.

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to reiterate my support for councilmember Ballard's motion.

And I'll be supporting her motion tonight.

Council, there are two more on the bench.

You still won't do these.

Okay.

I see no one else on the bench now, Vice Mayor Glasscock.

Thank you.

One final comment.

While the motion didn't get a second, I still value the work you're doing.

Um, I will also be supportive of the abatement.

We should look at the guidelines.

We should move forward.

Um, I think that we could have done 90 percent um and set a standard, but I think the standard should be set now when we're at our workshop this upcoming week and be able to move forward on a policy, whether it's standards or guidelines or uh how we move forward.

With that, we have a motion and a second discussion.

None, Madam Clerk.

Please open the roll.

Motion passes 7-0.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Contracts for grounds maintenance of city property.

No, we skipped one.

My apologies.

Resolution authorizing the offering for sale of sales tax special obligation revenue bonds, K96 Greenwich Star Bond Phase 3 project.

Honorable Mayor, members of council.

Again, Troy Anderson, Assistant City Manager.

Um, try to run through this fairly quickly simply because this is uh authorizing the offering of the uh the revenue bonds, but a little bit of background.

December 9th, 2025, council approved the second amendment to the K96 Renastar uh bond project plan for a multi-sport athletic complex.

Um on December 16th, 2025, council approved a development agreement with family destination outlining the rights and responsibilities of both parties with the city's previous approval.

City has received notice from the Kansas Secretary of Commerce of approval of the star bond project plan and the authorization of bonds and an amount uh to fund a maximum of 79.5 million dollars of project costs.

The resolution authorizes the issuance of the bonds in one or more series, and the preparation and use of preliminary limited offering memoranda.

Crew and associates will be the underwriter for the bonds.

Confirmation of the sell of the bonds shall be subject to the execution of one or more bond purchase agreements between the underwriter and the city.

City staff will return in April seeking consideration of an ordinance actually authorizing issuance of the bonds, assuming there's successful marketing financial consideration, star bonds will be issued as special obligation bonds payable solely from incremental city and state sales tax revenues received from the retail sales within the district, shall not be general obligation bond debt of the city of Wichita.

In other words, cities not backstopping these.

Um these are entirely being uh supported by the sales tax within the district.

Resolution authorizes the issuance bonds in an aggregate aggregate amount not to exceed 85.25 million resolution and related documents have been drafted by cities outside bond council, city law departments reviewed and approved the documents as to form recommendation is that city council adopt the resolution authorizing crew and associates to proceed with the offering for sale of sales tax, special obligation revenue bonds, approving the preparation of preliminary offering memoranda related to the bonds and authorizing execution of bond purchase agreements if specified parameters are met, and we have a representative from uh the applicant developer uh who is here to answer any questions might have.

I also have bond council here to answer any questions you might have, and otherwise I will staff questions.

Thank you, Troy.

Questions for staff.

Can you just remind us the construction timeline on this?

Yeah, I'm gonna defer to uh the developer on that one.

This is good.

This yeah, yeah.

Maybe it was December 16th.

So Mayor, Council Marty Corneho, managing partner of FD.

Um, to answer your question, Mayor.

Um we're really anxious to get these bonds uh sold and bat.

Uh we actually are starting.

Uh we're with engineering groups, we're the architects and Ari and design stage ahead of the project.

So we should have uh shovels in the ground.

I'm gonna say mid-spring.

So um we're we're ready to go.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I see no further questions for uh we see council member Shepard.

And this is not for the the agent, but Troy, I just want to clarify that this did come before the council already, right?

Yeah, yeah, December 16th.

Yes, that was the development agreement that I'll go back to yes, December 9th was the second amendment to the plan, and then we had to take that second step in December 16th to uh approve the development agreement.

It was a two-step process.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate that.

I see no further questions from the bench.

We'll now open it up for public comment.

I see no one from the public who would like to speak.

This is in council member Tuttle's design.

Thank you.

Again, thank you to staff, Troy.

We've put you to work today.

Appreciate you and your very lean team right now and everything that they're doing.

So thank you and keep up the good work.

The one of our pillars of our mission is to grow our economy.

And that's exactly what this project will continue to do.

Thank you to Family Destination Development.

Appreciate you willing to invest in Wichita.

Um I've said back in December, I've said it many times regarding this project.

This will help make Wichita more vibrant.

It will help attract and retain talent.

One of the things I talk about all the time is making Wichita the best city in the nation to live, learn, earn, play, and pray.

It's a cooperation with WSU, it's gonna bring jobs, it's gonna give people leisure and recreation options.

So this is just a wonderful addition to our community.

And with that, I will enthusiastically move that the Wichita City Council adopt the resolution authorizing crew and associates Inc.

to proceed with the offering of the sale of sales tax special obligation revenue bonds, K96 Greenwich Greenwich Star Bond Project Phase Three, approving the preparation of preliminary offering memoranda related to the bonds and authorizing execution of bond purchase agreements if specified parameters are met.

Motion second discussion.

I see none.

Madam Clerk, please open the roll.

Motion passes 7-0.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Contracts for ground maintenance of city property.

Good evening, Mayor Council, Gary Afferris, Park and Recreation.

The Department Department of Park and Recreation is responsible for grounds maintenance for approximately 5,000 acres of parkland rights of way, turf, and uh city properties around the building and landscape areas around Old Town.

The city successfully outsourced grounds maintenance functions in 2010.

Since that time time, uh contracts were rebid in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2030, 23, and now 2026.

And in 2016, staff began uh developing plans to transform the grounds maintenance uh model based on staff working with the team from what works cities.

Uh this effort focused on transforming grounds maintenance contracting into effort into a performance-based contract model with the technical assistance from the what works city team.

Staff developed a request for proposal that it outlined this desired outcomes for grounds maintenance, and the city encourages proposals that provide outcome measures for turf maintenance and proposed strategies to achieve those outcomes.

On November 10, 2025, city staff issued a request for proposal for grounds maintenance services.

Twelve responses were received.

Uh the staff screening and selection committee reviewed the submissions and interviewed nine vendors on January 20th and 22nd.

Uh in based on performance methodology, proven success on similar projects, meeting all proposal requirements and overall cost.

The staff screening selection committee recommends awarding contracts to eight vendors based on complementary strengths and capacity to meet city needs.

Uh contracts have been prepared accordingly.

A three percent fuel surcharge will be added if fuel prices exceed 589 per gallon.

Good.

Park and recreation determines the service level for each site based on its use, visibility, and operational needs.

High use or high visibility areas are mowed more frequently, while low use or underdeveloped uh areas are placed on an extended rotation.

Each site is evaluated individually and corresponding mowing frequency is specified in the contract for the site or service group.

During 2026 rebid process, staff adjusted service areas and responsibilities to reduce costs while maintaining priority service levels.

Changes included modifying service levels on non-park sites, removing more than 1,900 right-of-way locations, which is approximately accounts for 300 acres.

That city code requires adjacent property owners to maintain and transferring grounds maintenance for certain facilities to other responsible parties.

The total cost of the grounds maintenance contracts can vary based on mowing rotations, which is largely impacted by weather.

Total expenditures in 2025 were 3.52 million based on uh expected mowing rotations.

Base bid cost will be approximately 3.41 million in 2026 from the park operations budget.

If the 3% fuel surcharge and the 5% incentive payments are fully expended, contracted grounds maintenance costs could reach $3.68 million in 2026 from the park operations budget.

Park and recreation overseas grounds maintenance for services for other city operating units with expenses charged to those respective division orb codes.

Additional costs beyond the park and recreation budget are estimated at uh 177,000 dollars in 2026.

Staff will recommend adjustments as necessary in the 2026 revised budget based on the 2026 contract costs.

The law department has reviewed the uh reviewed and approved the contracts as to form, and the recommended action is for the city council to approve the vendor selections, approve the contracts, and authorize the necessary signature.

So with that, I'll stand for questions.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hohaison.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so is this what all goes into maintenance of property?

Is it 98% mowing?

Um, what other extra things are part of the contract?

So there's mowing, there's uh litter collection, uh trimming, edging, that kind of thing.

About how many employees of the city did this would that take to um continue and and at the rate that if we did all of it, yeah.

I want to defer to some historical information here because we used to.

Yep.

Warren McCoskey Park and Recreation.

Um, prior to 2009, all this work was done in-house, and if I recall correctly, um, when we outsourced um we reduced 68 FTEs and around 100 seasonal positions, 68 and 100.

Oh six, yeah.

I believe it was 68 FTE full full-time employees, and then around 100 seasonal positions.

Okay.

So do you remember perhaps how much savings that did give the city?

I'm sorry, I didn't catch all the questions.

How much savings?

Um, how much did that save the city to move to contract account?

The goal at that point was stated that they wanted to save the city a million dollars a year.

So is that about what you think we are saving right now?

I know I'm asking you to spitball here.

Every contract, the contract costs have gone up, but we also know that just everything has gone up.

Um I would not be able to estimate what our current savings would be.

Um we sold huge amounts of rolling stock, tractors, mowers, trucks, trailers, string trimmers, so on and so forth.

Um the capitalization cost would be mind-boggling if we were to try to put the wheels back on.

I can appreciate that.

Um, I would like to maybe see some figures at some point, just kind of estimates.

We can certainly put that together for you.

And if if we were to look at that, I think a phased approach would be the most uh realistic approach.

Okay, yep.

Uh again, just curious about that.

Uh, the second question I have is um last year we did get some savings because uh quite frankly, there was a drought and we didn't need to mow as often.

Uh just could you tell me about the process for that?

Um, I think we put most of it towards tree removal, if I remember correctly.

So the savings that I believe that you're talking about really had to do with um not watering as much.

We had a lot of savings in uh the fact that we didn't irrigate.

Uh most of the irrigated spaces that we have within the park and recreation system are uh not contracted out.

And so the spaces that the contractors are uh contract vendors are are maintaining are not going to be our irrigated spaces.

So I don't think that we saved a whole lot of money in terms of the contract that we then were able to move over to other things, but we certainly saved money in uh irrigation.

Do you recall it?

Because it was 2024, not 25, when we attempted to uh pause our rotations.

Uh that turned out to not be a cost-saving event.

Okay.

We also did not pay any fuel charges during the last fuel surcharges during the last three year old.

Well, fingers crossed we don't get up to over five dollars a gallon.

Yes.

Um that's actually for diesel fuel.

It's based off of the triple A for Wichita on the day that the contracts were or excuse me, the proposals were due, and then a two dollar inflation on top of that price that triple A published.

Okay.

Thank you for that information.

Thank you, guys.

Councilmember Shepard?

Thank you.

I just want to make sure that I'm understanding correctly that does this include um the folks who go out and clean up the encampments as well?

No, it does not.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Gary question.

So at the bottom of the green sheet it says during the 2026 rebid process, staff adjusted service levels and responsibilities to reduce cost while maintaining priority service levels in 1900 right-of-way locations.

Are those like the medians that they put on extended rotation and some of the little pieces of land that the city used to mow that maybe now property owners are?

Do you know what I'm talking about?

Yes, I do know what you're talking about.

Is that the same thing?

Okay.

Uh where a uh median is a space between two lanes of traffic.

That's not going to be included in that uh because we wouldn't expect a proper an adjacent property owner to mow that.

But did that part get extended like to three weeks instead of two or something like that?

In some cases, yes.

Okay.

Uh so the properties that got removed off of the list were where there was a private property adjacent to a right-of-way, and according to city code, the adjacent property owners supposed to uh maintain that right of way.

So to align with city code, we made that announcement.

And so letters went out for that.

Yes, it did.

I feel like I heard from every single one of them.

We certainly heard from a few, yes.

Yes.

Um also do you happen to know how much money we saved by I don't have that number in front of me, but I know that I can get it to you.

Perfect.

I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Classcock.

Thank you, Mayor.

My comments are probably questions or more online with Councilman Hoheisels.

I I believe there's a role and function of government, and so I think we need to be cautious of what we outsource some things or sometimes, and if the outcomes aren't exceeding expectations or the uh cost is not under, um, then I think we should be evaluating what we in-house and we don't in-house.

Um, and so those would be really one of my questions.

Um, and so I would love more follow-up to that in terms of I would imagine, and this is probably anecdotally, but if they were city employees, they would probably get um better benefits than they might in contracting.

And so I just want to make sure that we're not we're trying to lowbid it by going out, and then people are getting less benefits, and we don't have a cost savings, then I would like to evaluate a now the ship has probably sailed since this has been implemented, mentioning how much that we've um sold of our inventory, but I would still be interested in that data.

So when we look at outsourcing future things to make sure there was one line in here, so the city successfully outsourced ground maintenance, but yet I don't have the data to prove that we successfully outsourced ground maintenance.

Well, we successfully outsourced ground maintenance now.

To your point, how successful has the public been in this and what kind of benefit have they received?

I think that's the question that I'm hearing you ask.

Uh and are the public getting the best bang for their buck.

Correct.

Has has our performance exceeded since we outsourced versus when we in-housed and have our costs decreased since we've outsourced since we've in-house, and if both of those things are met, then I think we should look at that when we look at further outsourcing as well, especially given that likely a lot of these individuals may not be getting benefits that they would have got with the city.

I would look forward to having that conversation with you.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Hoheis.

Thank you, Mayor.

Spurred a question.

Is there a protest process for the people who we did?

Um we are having them take care of some of these properties.

Is there a protest ability for them?

Councilman Hill.

I'm not sure what the letter said, but I I would be happy to look at the letter.

I mean, there is probably due process for someone who does disagree.

And we are trying to comply with the ordinance, so we can check that out and find what processes entail.

Do you happen to know what the letter said?

I just haven't seen it.

Well, it it's I can't recite it.

Um I can certainly provide it.

Uh but in terms of making their voice known, certainly we can take uh the you want to call it a protest.

We could take the protest, uh, try to answer that.

Um, I know that some people have uh spoken to you individually uh uh about it.

Uh I know that we've received at least one uh letter from a uh attorney represented individual.

Uh so there's different paths like that.

The uh in terms of a protest, I don't know how to exempt someone from following city code.

Uh so I would have to refer to to law on that.

Okay, yeah, I'm just curious about that process and if there is an avenue for them to protest.

Yeah, well, we we certainly supplied our contact information so that we can be contacted.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember John Sten.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh I was very interested in this conversation in 2010, uh, when it was going on, and and uh they did estimate they would save a million dollars a year.

So that includes uh capital costs, depreciation, those 68 full-time employees would be employed for 12 months instead of eight.

Um that the mowing season is about eight eight months.

Um so what do you do with them the other four months?

So there's there's a lot of things involved.

I'll give you another example.

Um for years, Clark Inns put on the uh Wish Law Marathon and Half Marathon.

Uh we at Johnston's we partnered with him to put the half marathon on.

Basically, I raised the money for him to do it.

And uh when we I don't want it to bash the city too bad, but when the city was in charge of mowing, we didn't know if Riverside Park was gonna get mowed.

If it looked even like it was gonna rain, they did not mow.

If it rained in the last two days, they didn't mow because the grass was wet.

Um as soon as they changed it over to uh contract mowing, it could be raining, they're out there mowing because they want to get it done.

And so there's the result was a lot better, and we knew it was gonna be mowed and it was gonna look nice.

So that's that's another thing to consider between city staff doing it versus contracting doing it.

Those contractors only get paid if they mow.

So I I think it it has worked out well.

I'd be interested in analysis too, if that's still the case, if we're still saying saving a million dollars or not.

Um but I suspect we probably are Vice Mayor Glascock.

Oh um, I was just gonna say to Councilman Johnson's point, all that could be accurate.

I just want to see the numbers and be able to see the data behind that.

To your point, uh Councilmember uh Johnston, uh Riverside has remained in-house uh the entire time it has not been outsourced.

Um good to know.

Is it always been even in 2010?

Yes, we've not outsourced it.

Okay, we were told differently at the time.

Okay, so yeah.

Thank you.

Um I think there was just one follow-up question that council member Ballard asked, and it was a question I had on slide number 77.

I wanted to know if there was a cost savings for the 1900 right-of-way locations, and if so, what was that cost savings about?

Thank you.

I I do not have that figure with me, but I can certainly email you.

I could totally be wrong, but for some reason I feel like it was around 150,000 dollars, because I was like that's it for 1900 right-away.

I mean, it just seems like a small number for a lot of pieces of right-away.

So I could be totally wrong.

But I don't think you're very far off.

Did you guys hear that?

Just get thank you.

I see no further questions from this bench.

Um, we'll now open it up for public comment.

I see no one from the public who would like to address this item.

With that, I will move to approve the vendor selections, approve the contracts, and authorize the 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.

Police robotic dog.

Morning, Mayor, Council.

Jason Cooley, Captain Wichita Police Department.

Give you a little background on uh this project.

The Wichita Police Department uses a variety of can you guys hear me?

Of equipment to protect staff in the community during emergency situations.

And of that equipment, robotic dogs are included.

I'm sorry, robotics are included.

The Wichita Police Department relies on specialized equipment, including robotics, to effectively respond to emergencies across the South Central region of Kansas, and any time and under all environmental conditions.

These robot assets must be maintained at a high level to maintain the reliability and ensure the safety of both personnel and the community.

Technology diminishes operational effectiveness and increases the risk to both the public and the responding personnel during high-risk situations.

Robotics serves a valuable tool for de-escalation, significantly increasing the likelihood of an incident concluding safely and peacefully.

Just want to uh put out that uh WPD supports de-escalation technology and equipment and believes in providing that to our police department and our police officers to help protect the community.

This de-escalation technology and equipment increases the chances of a safe outcome for everybody providing this priceless situational awareness.

I want to talk a little bit more about the actual robot.

The proposal for the initiation of funds is uh actually for the initiation of funds for two uh robots.

Same robot, different capabilities.

Uh the robot is uh typically known as SPOT, uh, which is uh manufactured by Boston Dynamics.

Originally it was developed to reduce health and safety risk for workers and make data driven decisions.

You'll see these robots in uh many um manufactured uh plants, uh distribution companies.

Um they they'll take inventory with them around the uh Boston uh bombing incident time frame, Boston Dynamics started to consider uh what can we do to maybe help public safety over the last six years with some of their partnerships uh here locally with WSU Tech.

Um they have developed SPOT.

Uh spot at the time was a yellow inventory uh dog that most people are familiar with that has sensors on the front and will you know walk down the aisles and and scan uh inventory.

Uh I would say actually I was out there in either 2019 or 20, so it probably was six years ago.

I was at WSU Tech when they were helping design spot.

Uh it was clear it wasn't ready.

Uh it wasn't performing uh like it was supposed to.

Um, so they continued to develop that over the last six years.

Uh spot is now ready.

Departments have been buying spot.

There's over 70 police departments, local and county departments across the nation who have SPOT already, who've been operating SPOT for many years.

Some of those are Massachusetts State Police, which their spot was actually shot and save those state troopers going in.

The Houston Police Department, the fire department in New York actually has a spot.

Around us, there is Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.

There is Bentonville, Arkansas.

Those are the only two closest to us.

Outside of that, you got to start getting into the Houston area.

Some of the other things I want to discuss in regards to what Spot actually is and what it can do, the capabilities, is we do have robotics.

Robotics isn't new to the police department.

In fact, we had a scenario where there was a large, I don't know if it was an abandoned water pipe or what exactly it was underneath over in the riverside area, and we were trying to figure out between all the departments in the city who has a robot that can actually go into that pipe and see what's actually in that pipe so we can reseal it.

So there are many departments that have robotics.

We do have robotics, whether you count drones as robotics, or we actually have a set of robotics for our SWAT and our bomb team.

However, SPOT's different in many ways.

So going up and down stairs, the video that hopefully you guys all watch where Spot walks up a flight of stairs and it takes I don't know, five seconds, maybe ten seconds.

That's a 30-minute procedure with the current robots we have, and it's all navigated by hand by the operator on a tiny screen, controlling the robot to tell it exactly what to do.

If at any moment the arm or the or the robot becomes off balance, the robot falls down, and once it's tipped over, it can't self-right itself.

Spot can we've had incidents where the robot actually fell down the stairs and was stuck.

Our current robot is 250-ish pounds, spot 70.

So our current ones are they're large.

Once it fell to the end of that stairs, there was no rescuing that robot.

That situation actually ended in the suspect shooting at our entry team as our SWAT team as they navigated those stairs to go down there.

So that is just one example of why we use robotics.

If the dog was to do that same task, that same procedure, it walks down the stairs effortlessly, would have turned the corner, and we could have seen the individual down the stairs.

Instead, the robot we had tipped over was pointless at that moment.

Officers did have to go in.

They started taking gunfire, had to retreat, and took more gunfire outside the house.

So that's a little bit about spot's different capabilities.

If there are clothing inside the residence or a blanket or a mattress laying down, we're not getting over that.

We can't get over that.

We can with a throwbot.

We do have a robot we throw.

That has to be in the hand of a human being who has to be close enough to throw it where it needs to go.

So just you know, kind of think of it as you throw in your iPhone or phone or whatever as far as you can, that is your camera.

That's the limitations of it.

The other robot we have cannot navigate over those clothing.

With Spot's arm, it is able to open and close doors and not just normal doors, push doors, pull doors, uh, push bar doors, doors with handles, doors with knobs, and it does it all effortsly.

You you uh tap on the screen, you show it the door handle, and it's IR admitters, figure out what it needs to do for that door handle and opens it.

We do have some of that limited capability right now, but once we open the door, our robots are done.

There is no, there's nothing else.

You can't send the robots in, they're out.

They don't do anything else.

Spot will open the door and walk in the door.

He can hold the door open itself and walk in the door and put cameras downrange where you can see what's going on behind that door, who's there, it opens it up for two-way communication.

So as our negotiators are going up, you know, to try and negotiate through a phone or whatever.

If the robot is stuck, because its only job now is to hold the door, our communications break down.

So with SPOT, that's not a problem.

It opens a door, pushes through the door, and then walks itself through the door to continues the communication.

And one of those incidents uh we highlighted here recently uh in a call out we had an old town.

I'm sorry, call out is our term of a SWOT activation.

I apologize for that, but um in a SWOT activation we had in Old Town.

Uh the video uh still shot that we posted is uh actual footage of the SWOT operators going up to the front of that door to deploying the throw phone.

They are at the front of that door.

There is no option but for us to put live people, human beings at the front of that door where there could be firearms.

That is the current technology we have.

Um as time has gone on, um, we continue to evaluate the technology and the needs for technology.

Uh you know, New York City just had an improvised device thrown at some officers.

And even though they were clear and arrested the individual, something has to be done with that device.

You can't just pick it up.

Um we do have uh containment capsules where we can put it there, but you got to get it there.

And to get it there, you have to put a human being in a heavy suit, and they've got to walk with this explosive in their hand.

Those suits do not protect that human being from that blast pressure.

So with our robot capability, we could pick those devices up and put them in our total containment vessel safely outside of harm's way.

Uh when I was doing some research on other agencies that had spot, um, I came across multiple articles.

It's about as endless as you as you want to keep searching.

Um, but what kept sticking out in my research was uh LAPD, and they um purchased SPOT, and within 24 hours, they found themselves in an armed engagement in an alley with an individual.

They ended up shooting that individual and he went down.

They sent SPOT in, remove the firearm, went up safely, and was able to save that individual's life.

That's what SPOT can do.

If not, then we have to send the SWAT team up to that individual.

Uh coincidentally, that same week, they had another individual on a city bus armed with a firearm.

Um as they cleared off the bus, surrounded the bus, they waited.

The individual appeared to be sleeping.

SPOT walked up into the bus, down the bus, picked up the firearm, and brought it off the bus.

So they were able to save everybody on the bus and get the individual in custody off the bus.

That's just two incidents that a quick search will do to tell you a little bit about what SPOT can do.

Additionally, I talked about some of the surfaces in the doors.

Um there's a video out there from Boston Dynamics where they show Spot walking up a few flights of stairs.

I think he turns on a concrete platform, walks over like a railroad tie looking thing, and then like a bed of rocks.

Um that capability doesn't exist with the track robots we have.

You you may be able to navigate up the stairs.

You can turn.

Getting over the railroad tie is going to take uh some operational skill, and then walking through those rocks.

Um, we're routinely replacing the the treads and the uh gears on our robots because they're just not designed to do that.

And then one of the uh last things I want to uh highlight on spot's capability is the technology that comes with spot.

Uh I think it's safe to say that we do have a robot that has an arm and can open a door, and then that's it.

Uh that arm does provide a very hard grainy camera to see.

With spot, you get a high definition camera with 30 times zoom with two-way communication inside the grappler.

I'm sorry, the claw, and on the back of the device.

The back of the device also provides uh infrared technology.

So whether it's dark, whether you're looking under a bed, whether there's a heat source, all those things SPOC can pick up.

And he can do it with those two sensors.

So as the negotiators are negotiating an incident to resolve it peacefully, SWAT can SPOT can go in there and we can negotiate through SPOT where we can't get phones, where we can't get any of our other robots.

We can send spot in there to negotiate.

We can deliver food, we can deliver water.

I mean, it's endless what you can do as long as he can pick it up.

You know, for for lack of better terms, the the the SWAT spot and the bomb spot.

Um again, we're we're restricted on some of the stuff we can disclose in reference to the bomb team for FBI uh requirements, but I will tell you that uh spot does come with a piece of capability that we don't have, and that's CBRN.

Um chemical biological radiology and nuclear detection, we can send SPOT in, can walk wherever, whatever event we have, it can test the air quality for that.

For those chemicals for explosives present in those things, so whether we have an NCAA tournament, we can walk SWAT, I'm sorry, SPOT around inside of the facility and detect the air quality for a chemical device, an explosive device, something we do not have right now.

I think that's pretty much the the highlights and the in the high notes of uh of the capabilities of the of the of the robot.

Um I will tell you that uh you know, on our last discussion, there was some questions on maybe for lack of better terms, how busy is the SWAT team or bomb team.

Um in 24 uh the SWAT team was activated 40 times, and in 25 is activated 43 times, which we talked about uh last time, so just nine shy of once a week.

Uh when we evaluated uh the bomb team's uh response in 25 they were activated 61 times, and I'll tell you out of those 61 times, 37 times there were explosives that our bomb teams collected in 26.

Here we are on March 10th, which we just had a bomb activation today.

We went out on a device today.

That's our 26th call out of 2026 here on March 10th, and we've already collected 11 explosives from the community just from March 10th.

So that kind of hopefully puts in perspective.

I guess from management, what we're asking our SWAT and bomb officers to do to go out and put themselves in even a higher risk of danger than what we're asking our police officers to do.

Uh these teams are who we call on when the officers are stuck for lack of a better terms, where a situation does need to end peacefully.

These are the highly trained, highly capable teams that we call in.

So that's why from management uh we try and look at and evaluate you know holistically on our uh equipment.

Is there anything that we can give them to help save their lives?

Because they're it, they're the last line of defense.

Is there anything we can give them to help save their lives?

When they show up on scene, the officers get to clear back and just direct traffic at that point.

These other two teams don't get that luxury.

They're relying on Sergeant Inklar's negotiation skills to end these things peacefully.

Uh so with that, the financial consideration uh for the two uh robots uh is already in the adopted 26 to 35 capital improvement uh for 650,000 in general obligation bonds.

Um I'll stand for questions in reference to um that financial considerations and uh the CIP uh request for that.

Um, but the recommendation um today is for uh the mayor and city council to approve the initiation of funding and authorize the necessary signatures.

Uh behind me I do have uh the team of subject matter experts.

These are the commanders, the first hand people using these uh devices.

Um with that we'll stand for questions, and if we have specific questions, maybe I can't answer.

I'll turn it over to one of the subject matter experts.

Thank you, Captain Cooley.

We'll begin with Council Member Ballard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Captain Cooley.

I have a lot of questions, but I'll just ask a couple and wait for my colleagues to chime in.

Um and I'm sorry if you already covered any of this.

What is the expected lifespan of the robotic unit?

So I don't know that we know that.

Um it's been operational, I would say, in the police department world for six years.

Um I went to a expo uh to see this robot firsthand before we just you know come and ask for it for a device, whatever it is that we don't even uh haven't experienced.

Um I actually ran into uh some other jurisdictions there who have been operating spot for for many years.

Um they've had to replace a few pieces because of their own uh issues of doing something to it.

Uh, all those have been replaced, and they told me that it operates the same as it has three years ago when they purchased theirs.

Okay.

Um thank you.

Um what training will operators receive before deployment?

So uh the company that uh uh if selected uh comes here uh firsthand, these are all uh people who uh know spot in and out.

Uh they fly here, they bring the robots here, and they provide um the firsthand knowledge to every single member of those teams on how to operate it, what it can and can't do, um, what to do if it you know tips over, how to upright it, how to tell it to, you know, because you got to pick is it a push door or a pull door?

They walk you through all that.

I'll tell you that uh uh Lieutenant Goward, the SWAT commander, actually went to the expo with me and he got to operate the the robot firsthand.

I I mean I I'd have to ask him, but I bet in probably 30 seconds he had the dog up the stairs and going through a door.

So it's very user friendly.

Um, all of that has already been programmed in the robot, and that's where they're different.

If if I was to maneuver our current robots to grab this mic, all of that is gauged by the operator.

You know, a lot of times we're banging in different areas or something.

Spot doesn't operate that way.

You click on the device on the screen and it figures out what it needs to do.

So it prevents it from banging into stuff, and um, but they fly here.

The short answer is they fly here, they bring uh the equipment here and they train uh those two teams before they leave.

Okay, uh two more questions.

Um what is the operational battery life and how quickly can it be redeployed?

So it's 90 minutes on the battery life.

Um sorry if you already said that.

Nope, I did not.

Um so it's 90 minutes on the battery life.

Um, and you simply bring the robot back to you.

Um, I guess you could go down to wherever the robot is, um, but you bring the robot back to you, and it's literally like switching out a leaf blower.

If you have an electric leaf blower, you you unplug one battery and you plug another one in, you put it on the charger.

Okay.

Um, last question is um will it have the capability to connect to the real-time crime center?

Yep, it does.

Uh so all that stuff can be streamed to the real-time crime center.

Um, and the goal of that is I wish I could put it in percentage, but I'll tell you we're very, very close to being able to operate any major event in the city from the real-time crime center.

So, with all the technology we have, all the camera streaming possibilities, uh, this uh can integrate into the real-time information center.

Yes.

Thank you.

Councilmember Horace.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um appreciate a lot of the questions so far and appreciate your work and presentation on this.

Um AI is not involved in this at all.

Nope, it's a pre-programmed system into the computer.

Um I even have the specific, it's a stereoscopic camera to navigate the IR admitter.

So that's technically what they use to program it.

Okay, would this be used in criminal apprehension in any way?

Um, it does not have that capability.

In fact, the company prohibits you weaponizing this uh robot at all.

You cannot put a weapon on it, it's not designed for that.

This is a de-escalation uh device all built from the ground up.

Um so you can drag up to 50 pounds, but you're not gonna, it doesn't grip like that.

There is no um arresting somebody with it or holding them down, or it's not designed to do any of that.

Okay, I appreciate that.

So this was in the budget in the CIP for 2027.

Correct.

Um, and you guys want to move it up to 2026.

Is there any reason for that?

Um, some background on that, or sure.

Yep.

Thoughts, anyways.

Sure.

Yeah.

So um the reason uh we're asking to initiate it a year early is because we uh keep having uh continuous incidents like the old town incidents where we keep finding ourselves having to put human beings in a in a dangerous uh life or death situation where they're going up and deploying something when we know this technology is available and could prevent an officer's death or a death of the community member when we know it exists.

That's why we're asking for it early instead of waiting a year and just praying nothing happens in the meantime.

Okay, so this would be that's not a swap, so it's taking the budget from next year, adding it to this year's budget, but then having a savings in next year's budget.

Um kind of I would say the savings would be after the 10-year bond is over.

So in 20 uh whatever the math comes out to be 2037, roughly.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, that at least the first half of it, I guess, would be yeah.

If you're looking at yearly allocations, um, then yes, it would from the 27 portion of the CIP, uh, it would be it would have been initiated a year early, yes.

So about 300,000 or so, about half of the I'm about half is what we would pay down in the CIP, correct?

Half is what you'd pay down?

I'm sorry.

I believe so.

Pay cash, usually in the CIP, I think that's oh, are you talking about if we bonded or cash fund it?

Yeah, yeah.

Mark's not here.

I don't know if the man the manager wants to speak.

I can tell you based on some conversations.

Um my my assumption is this is gonna be cash funded, not bond funded.

If that's your if that's the root of your question.

Okay.

Um there's two dogs for two different um scenarios here, one for the bomb squad and one for SWAT.

Now, is is the equipment interchangeable between the two?

Because I know it would take two different it's two different actions that they're pretty much performing.

So is it like the same base dog, and then we add equipment to it?

So the company Boston Dynamics partners with a separate company, Boston Dynamics designs just the basic dog.

Um, the dog that you can get to run your factory.

Um it's not uplifted in any way for any type of law enforcement scenarios.

So then there's another company that uplifts those, and they install different railing systems along the dog depending on what you want.

So when we were having the conversation with them about the uh bomb unit, and we found out they actually do make a uh chemical detection device, they build the mount for that to go on the dog.

So they're the only ones that offer that package for the robots.

So can that be taken off?

It can, but not everything is interchangeable.

So you know, if they wanted to store the CBR in a way, that way they're not damaging it, they could, but they can't take um some of the uh parts.

I mean some of these parts can render explosives safe, so it's very difficult to take that piece off of one robot and put it on another one unless we have a mount, all the mounts on both robots.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Um quick question, just our conversation here is kind of stirred another question.

Um, out of the ex the incidents where we had the bomb squat out and we discover explosives.

How many of these are criminal intent?

How many are undetonated fireworks?

Um, suspicious things just kind of found that do have a little bit of um flammability, I guess, to it.

Yeah, uh me up here, the bomb commander.

Uh, I'll tell you, uh, and I'm sure he'll he'll tell you too.

Um, is to us an explosive is an explosive.

Uh whether it's crystallized dynamite, someone bought years ago that's very volatile and we can't move it, and they found it in their shed when they're cleaning it out, or it's an actual IED uh that someone is making to create harm.

Uh the danger and the tactics are the same, but I'll invite Lieutenant Reem.

Okay, and I appreciate that.

This isn't like just to get the grammar.

I'm just generally curious as far as this goes, like what's going on in the city with okay.

Yeah, I see what you're saying.

Uh, do you know any of those figures?

Good evening, mayor.

Good evening, counsel.

Uh, I'd have to pull those numbers for you.

Um specific um criminal or uh recovered explosives.

Um we have a lot of uh rural counties that we respond to.

We respond to 19 counties uh in the south central uh portion of Kansas.

Um as you're aware, a lot of them outside of Cedric County are rural districts, uh, and up to about 2000, 2001.

Uh anybody that owned land or a rock quarry could buy dynamite and uh uh initiators.

So unfortunately, we respond to a lot of those out in the rural counties as well.

Um, but we do have our our uh call load where people are making different things, um powders, um TATP, that sort of stuff.

Yeah, Southside, we got Tana Ride all over the place.

Um so along those lines, is there room?

Is this part of the regional response and to the um the vehicle that we purchased last week?

It um it is not um this anything purchased.

I'm gonna I'm gonna answer because I think I understand what you're asking here.

Um this anything we buy from the region is I guess the freedom of the regions, like it's it's it's gotta be uh available to respond to the region.

Anything that is purchased uh from the city of Wichita belongs solely to the city of Wichita.

So it's it's exactly the same uh scenario that we discussed last week, where that is solely at the discretion of the chief of police on what items you know he removes from the city for what incident.

Um our objective with these not to drive them from the bomb perspective to all the 19 other counties, and um the number one priority of our department is the city of Wichita.

Um so and we always prioritize that.

Um however, our bomb team is a regional bomb team.

That is how we get funded, that is the restrictions that we're under.

You can't just form a bomb team.

Um, you're only slated so many in a specific area.

Um, so unfortunately, we do have an obligation to respond to those 19 counties.

However, what equipment goes and when it goes is all at the discretion of the city and the police department.

Okay, any potential funding opportunities there.

I'm just trying to dig in the couch cushions.

That's what we were talking about uh last week with their uh vehicle that needs replaced.

They have two um both of them need replaced.

Uh one of them is a regional uh asset, it was purchased by uh the South Central Region.

Um it is at end of life.

We've asked for replacement for that.

It's about half a million dollars.

We feel like we're gonna get about 200,000.

So the money isn't even gonna go to about half the vehicle, let alone other gear.

Um I will tell you that um, and maybe I mentioned this last week.

A lot of the items the bomb team has are purchased from the South Central region.

They're they're very good to us.

So a lot of bomb suits, which are very expensive, uh, are purchased from the South Central Region, uh, a lot of x-rays, a lot of things that we don't have to bring in front of this uh governing body or purchase from the South Central Region because they do understand that we respond to a lot of calls all over those 19 counties.

So unfortunately, the funding source of the South Central Region uh just isn't what it used to be.

Um, which you know has brought us in front of you for many different items here recently.

So that's all I have for now.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Glasscock.

Thank you.

I want to try to um keep my question short but also comprehensive as well.

You said we have current robots in the system.

What were what was the original cost of those robots that are currently being utilized?

So the robot we call the throwbot, um, a little handheld, just kind of a RC car style, if you will, to get a visual, about 20, 25,000.

Um it's an older model.

Um it does the trick if you can land it where you need to land it.

Um you've got to get close enough to land it where you need to land it.

Um the larger robot that we do have that weighs 250 pounds on tracks, uh, that was just shy of 300,000.

So they're all in the same ballpark.

Um spot uh for the SWAT team is roughly 315,000.

So we're in the same ballpark.

Um we're talking many years ago, the other one, so you know, with price increases.

Um, I think when you weigh the price uh increase from the year that that robot was bought to current, and you add in the the just sheer overwhelming capabilities that spot has that our robots can't do probably you know much higher than a 315 value to 270, 280 at that time.

Given that it's still operable in some capacity, are we looking at reselling that to other communities, smaller communities?

Uh we have not had that discussion.

Um a lot of times we if if we only have one of something, just to give you kind of equipment theory here on how I kind of operate in our in our budget is if we have one of something, uh having two with a backup is always better than having none.

So if we're able to keep one as a spare or send it into another operation, or maybe it I don't know, holds a door because that's all we need, and then spot has to continue the next level of entrance or something.

Um that is always more of a value to preserve those pieces of equipment than to sell them, uh, and then you know, now we are replacing it with a human.

Um, but we have not had that discussion.

Uh I believe the the bombs robot was purchased by the region, uh so that is not an option.

We'd have to donate it.

We we couldn't get anything in return uh from that.

Um the um SWAT's uh robot they have that was bought with a different funding source.

I'll have to check uh there's some state requirements on that one on the guidelines of what we can actually do with it.

Okay, and I I know you talked about the the SWAT team one and the bomb squad one would have different capabilities.

Um how often are they deployed at the same time?

Uh so we were having that conversation earlier too.

Um I don't have those stats, unfortunately, for you.

We were we were just having that discussion.

Um the so I'm the bomb incident commander and Captain Lemons is the SWAT incident commander.

So when we're deployed at the same time, um, you know, I might be conducting an operation over here and he's conducting over here, and they're you exclusive from each other on an active shooter, both of our teams would deploy together because uh bomb and SWAT are both gonna need to be activated on that for devices and then the perimeter search.

Um, but activated at the same time uh on a same incident, uh, very rarely we do train together, um activated the same time on two completely separate incidents.

I don't have those figures, um, but unfortunately, you know, with 43 activations on bomb and 61 on on, or I'm sorry, 43 on SWAT and 61 on BOM.

Uh the phones are busy.

We are busy, we are out there.

Um, but Lemons and I typically don't coordinate.

Hey, I'm over here for a bomb and I'm over here for SWAT, we just handle those incidents.

So I don't have that exact figure for I mean, only have like one, maybe two more questions.

Uh, currently there's no staffing attached to this uh this as well.

Like no additional staff that uh an officer is not gonna be pulled off the street to be able to operate this, that it's currently with staffing.

No additional staff, no additional uh budgetary increases.

There's there's nothing else tied except purchasing the equipment.

Okay.

Um I know that you know we've talked about multiple times, and I will likely probably have um consideration during council member agenda about public safety and the staffing that we have in public safety, that I believe that we should have CIPs to be able to look at public safety investment in the future and make sure that our staffing levels fit with what we currently have.

Um and so that may be coming later as well.

Um I may have other comments, but that's all I have right now.

Thank you.

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you so much for answering my questions earlier as well.

A couple questions that I have uh as you were giving your presentation.

What is the cost if, in the case, you know, in a scenario, this the robot dog or spot is is damaged.

Would we have to just pay the 300,000 or 325,000 to replace it?

So I've had some of those conversations with Boston Dynamics.

Um I will tell you that uh they were very gracious to the Massachusetts State Police when they're when their robot was uh shot and disabled.

Um they didn't disclose exactly what that meant.

I think I'm assuming I know what that means.

Um that's the only incident that we could really discover with Boston Dynamics where one of the robots has been shot.

Um so I don't think that situation has presented itself to the manufacturer very often.

Um so I guess the answer would be I I I think they took care of Massachusetts on that one.

So you actually answered my follow-up question, which was going to be how much damage it can withstand, but I I think you kind of answered that already, so thank you.

I had a couple questions.

I'll start off with maintaining this new piece of equipment.

Can you talk about the maintenance of this robot?

Sure.

So outside of uh the jurisdiction jurisdiction I met um at the expo, who again damaged it themselves, um, trying to make it do something it wasn't designed to do, um, trying to try to test its limits to see how far it can go.

Um, albeit we appreciate that RD from other agencies.

Uh that's not something we're looking to do.

We understand its capabilities, the training has proven itself.

Uh, these other agencies have proven itself from from talking to that individual uh on their SWAT team, uh, the cost was so minimal that it wasn't even a consideration, and I think Boston Dynamics even helped them out with that.

In fact, I think they were waiting on a part, and when we were standing there talking to Boston Dynamics, um, she even uh put a rush on their part for them to get them to get it there.

So uh that's the only agency I know that's really had to even make repairs on this, uh, not saying there's not others, um, but I couldn't find them or have contact with them.

Is there a warranty for these robots?

If so, what is the warranty?

Yeah, uh I don't have that uh in front of me.

Um I'd have to I I could check and get back to you.

Wanted to um ask maybe this question is more for the city manager.

Um do you know for a fact that this will be cash funded or will it be bond funded?

Because I had asked Mark a question about if this is bond funded, there will be an interest rate that we will have to pay.

Can you address that?

Yes, um so the thought is that these would be debt financing, and so we would um we usually when we assume uh debt financing for bond and it's usually over 10 years.

We are assuming roughly a 4.5% interest rate that would be um charge over the course of that.

So the interest on that $650,000 would be about $171,000 over 10 years.

So it'd be the $650 for the cost of the two robotics, and then the financing car uh charges would be $171.

There is there could still be an option to do some cash um funding of this, but the initial approach would be to do bond funding.

Uh and I'm I'm sorry to interject here, Mayor.

The the uh chief has informed me that it's a one-year warranty.

Another question I had, I know that you mentioned 43 SWOT call-outs, 61 bomb call-outs.

Um would could you talk about more cost per use?

Will you be utilizing at every one of these?

Um, if you were obviously in hindsight right now, thinking about spot being part of the department, would you have utilized spot in all 43 SWOT call-outs and all 61 bomb call-outs.

Good evening, mayor and counsel, sorry.

I'm Lieutenant Goward, I'm the SWAT commander.

Uh, to answer your question in short, uh the idea resolution for any SWAT call out is for peaceful negotiation through our crisis negotiators.

That's always our first deployable tactic.

Um, before we introduce any sort of technology into a residence or a building or whatever uh to further advance the call, uh, it would be because our negotiations um have come to a cease.

We're not getting any sort of response from this uh the person inside or any sort of activity that would uh further our crisis negotiation tactics, and we would then introduce that technology.

So to answer whether they would be deployed on every single call out, the answer would be no, because we have such a high rate of successful resolutions through our CNT teams.

Excuse me.

And then to answer a question we had a little bit earlier about the uh repairs on these.

The the nice thing about this is Captain Cooley mentioned earlier with Wichita State University helping design this thing.

Uh they have they are able to repair some of the some of the the needs that we would have without actually having to go back to Boston Dynamics.

And just to give you a little bit of a background on our current SWAT robot, it's an ICOR brand, which is a Canadian brand.

It does have to have repairs from time to time.

He mentioned tracks, other electronic things that go with it, camera systems.

We've had to order those, and as of recent with tariffs and everything else, it does take a little bit of time to get the parts that we need, and this in the shipping is pretty expensive for that.

Even if the part only would cost $10, the shipping's quite a bit more.

So having a local university here to help us with some repairs would be very beneficial as well.

And I believe this will be the first one in the state of Kansas.

Can you talk about I think you mentioned Arkansas, Bentonville being the closest as well as Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma?

Would this be the first one in Kansas?

Yes.

Sorry, I confirmed that with uh Boston Dynamics that this is the first one in Kansas.

Um there are other jurisdictions in discussion, but none of them have this robot.

And um just I'm sorry, real quick before I forget they they pointed out some keynotes I forgot the the the iCor robots, the current robot we have.

Uh you can't negotiate through it.

There is no two-way communication.

So even if we take it up there, um, we're we're operationally incapable of negotiating through the robot.

We have to find some other way to negotiate to resolve it peacefully.

And then um, you know, um, I guess the other thing I want to point out with um us being the first one um is we are a regional team, so there's not too many in Kansas.

There's only a few bomb teams.

Um, and we were contacted by um not the last line of duty officer, that was COVID, but uh the last uh officer to die from an explosion, which is right before COVID, so it would have been our last officer in line of duty death.

That widow actually reached out to us and um showed her support for these robotics as her husband at that time actually died from an explosion while he was operating in the bomb unit.

Thank you, Captain Killy.

Uh Vice Mayor Glascock.

Uh something that was just said sparked something in my head too, especially because it would be a regional asset.

We'd be going out there and using it in the region.

Um we often apply for state or federal grants, or there's any grant opportunities for using this type of technology, or would we expect there to be any grant opportunities to use this type of technology, especially because we're covering more than just municipality, it's the region and then likely um other areas as well.

Um, yeah, uh two parts there to clarify this robotic piece of equipment, if purchased by the city, is not obligated to respond to the region as as a regional asset has you know is obligated.

Um that's a decision internally if we do do that.

So um, but yes, uh, I oversee our grant uh program for the department as well.

Um, we spend all day scouring what's out there, what's available, what are we going to apply, can we apply for it?

What's the what's the fine print?

What's is there a match?

Is you know, is it 6040?

What are we talking?

Um we have looked all over for this.

Um we've had uh one other company, um actually it's the uplifting company reach out to me on this and said, Hey, um, there are grant opportunities, just so you know, but good luck.

Um, all these other agencies have tried to do them for this, and and they're not getting them.

Um, we haven't even seen the grant he's talking about.

Um, I'll tell you that the uh vehicle that we um brought to you last week, 10 years ago, grants were all over the place to buy that vehicle.

Today I haven't seen one in the time I've been monitoring grants.

They're just not options.

Um what we typically use for our equipment, uh, the JAG, the Justice Assistant grant, um has been steadily declining the amount of money we get.

Um in 204, we got roughly 160,000, and we divide that over many many pieces of things, and it could dwindled down.

Uh, the 25 grant uh for justice, uh, the JAG grant.

Um we should have been notified in October.

Um, we just got notified a few weeks ago that that is going to be an option.

So everything, even the grants that are coming, are six months delayed.

Um to so we don't even know if there are going to be options anymore, let alone how much are we going to get in 24?

We got less than we did in 23, and so on and so on.

Can I ask?

Um, so I sent an email uh to Chief, and this is a he responded uh very very eloquently.

I asked how high on the Woodshaw Police Department's priority priority list are these, and how urgent is the need.

And I asked, can they be delayed?

And I think he had very um good commentary regarding this.

And I'm a very big supporter of the chief and the technology that has been deployed within the Wichita Police Department, particularly the Arctic, the real-time information center, and the drone technology that even now uh a public uh entity like um sorry, a private entity like QuickTrip is wanting to buy another drone hive for the city of Wichita.

So can maybe the chief talk about technology and how all this integrates, and is this the highest priority right now?

Mayor, definitely it is because it involves keeping my officers safe as well as keeping the community safe.

And that could include someone that is barricaded after committing a crime, and it also could be somebody who's in a mental health crisis, could be a veteran.

And it Dave's team, they work miracles in in terms of negotiating things that I don't think they're ever gonna be able to negotiate, and they do it.

But they have to be able to communicate with that person.

And as was eloquently stated by the captain, we don't have robots that enable Dave and his team to put eyes on the person, be able to hear the person, the person can hear them.

They can look at his at their verbal and physical cues to better decide what direction we need to go.

Um we're unique here in Wichita.

The reason that these gentlemen are here behind me is because they command these special units and they command the men and women that staff these special units, and every one of them are volunteers.

They all have their day jobs, if you will, their full-time assignments, but they take on this extra responsibility to staff these units that are you know do a very dangerous job.

Uh you know, I've I know what it's like to be a SWAT operator, I know what it's like to go through that door with the unknown on the other side, but I have no idea what it's like to put on that bomb suit and go downrange to a sus to a suspicious device, an unknown device, and place that X-ray or or or to go hands-on.

And yes, it's true.

You know, we we the bomb suits, if it's any kind of a high order detonation, it's not going to save you.

Um, and this gives this is a what we call game changer for us.

So um the ability to resolve a crisis situation, to get someone out, even after they've shot at us.

Um last time we were shot at three times.

I mean, last year we we were shot at three different times, I believe.

Um, and we talked about that with the special vehicle that we uh the rescue vehicle we asked for.

Um drone technology is a great example.

If I come to you for technology, there is a nexus to de-escalation, and uh the drones are a perfect example of that when you think of you just look at our well-done Wednesdays and all the different times when we have apprehended someone safely, because we were able to identify where they were in advance, and then we were able to measure our response based on that intelligence.

The more intelligence that we have, the more likely we will be able to resolve the crisis in incident peacefully and safely.

You know, we are we're very proud that we're an ICAT department, and that is a is part of our commitment to de-escalation.

And and that's what ICAT says.

You know, it's no longer we all go home, it's everyone goes home.

The reason that we're asking for these is because that will enable us to make sure that everyone goes home.

The other thing is, you know, when when we talk about uh we we have exhausted other financing opportunities.

But you know, this morning when when I was sending out my many emails at seven o'clock in the morning, and I was looking at Good Morning America, and they they talked about DHS and the many alerts that they have put out to local law enforcement about to be on the on the awareness for sleeper cells that are here and maybe activate it in response to the crisis in Iran.

Um, I would say time is of the essence.

Uh even grant opportunities, even if we could find them.

That would be this would be something we might see next year.

And it might be partially funded with their there might be a match.

So grants are really not, and this is why you know Captain Cooley has done an unbelievable job in planning out our our work and our purchases under the CIP, but only after he's gotten the input from throughout the entire department to identify what the gaps are and then prioritize those gaps.

And the prioritation prioritization of those gaps is why we move this forward.

And we did it working very closely with Mark Manning to make sure that the funding was available.

There were funds in CIP that were not being utilized.

And because we thought this was such a priority to the safety of our personnel and our community, we decided to move forward working together with them.

And that's why this project was approved back in August.

And I I do I believe very intensely that this is important to the city of Wichita and will enable us to continue to make de-escalation.

So again, so everyone goes home.

Thank you, Chief.

Thanks, Mayor Glascock.

This question for the manager, um, just one quick question.

I know there's I think maybe been some misinformation, but I think it's just based on how the process works in terms of our CIP and in terms of last week's vote and the funding mechanism for both.

That um, because of uh the failure of last week's vote, that it doesn't uh that there wasn't funds allocated in the CIP for this project, that this isn't something that we've moved forward.

Can we just talk about the the alternative funding mechanism for it?

Um, and that's what the question was addressing, not uh any necessarily additional needs of the department.

So I don't know if the chief wants to take that, the manager wants to take that.

Can we just maybe clarify that CIP process for individuals?

Yes, I'll be glad to.

Thank you, council member.

Um, as was discussed even during the sales tax conversation, is we've always had a plan for public safety.

Our plan for public safety is really encapsulated in our 10-year plan for a capital improvement program.

That is where we do these large equipment purchases where we do non-operating things where we do need bulk money so we can do bond financing or use some cash reserves for these.

And so police, like every other department within the city, has identified their long-term needs, and so police has identified the robotics as some needs going forward, which was identified and adopted in the budget.

So when we shared during the sales tax discussion funding for public safety, it is this information that does have the robotics dog, but even we've programmed in 2026, which you've already acted on, was the big vehicle rescue vehicle.

We also have other things that we're currently going to bring before you again, still here in 26, some more equipment, but talking about some uh mobile command vehicles, some mobile operations um vehicle.

We will bring together some facility maintenance things that we need to address in 2026 and through the next 10 years.

Um, so we do have a lot of these things outlined that are in the budget for everyone to see, and this has always been the harder basis.

Our approach was can we fund these earlier through the sales tax initiative?

That was no longer an option, and so thankfully we do have this plan still outlined.

It is our plan B, where we have our CIP funding, we have our debt service funding, we have some cash to support that, and so now we are still executing that plan, and that we'll look to do for the next 10 years, no matter if we find some other avenues before then we can do that at expediated rate or accelerated rate.

Um, but for now, I just want to make sure everyone understands this has been thought of, it's been thought out in terms of timing and funding.

We do have the money.

There's been some other assertions made during the discussions about the city being broke.

That is not the case, and we can articulate that in a whole bunch of data.

We pay our bills, we don't owe anyone.

We are able to make payroll, we have 15% reserves for our fund balance.

We have an additional fund for a total of over 90 million dollars in reserves.

We are not broke.

I will not submit a budget that's unbalanced.

You have always adopted a fund balance as part of our budget, part of our strong budget operations has been validated by our triple A bond rating, by our bond rates that we're able to get for interest.

I can give you more data about our reserve funds, the policy that you've adopted about a 15% um fund balance rate has always been adhered to.

Um our budget process outlines all this, so there's a lot in there that we can expand upon on the budget process.

But the short answer is this has been thought out by police.

It's been identified for funding through budget and through your actions with the budget last year, and we have funding to move forward.

That was a much more comprehensive answer than I was saying.

I know you already asked for, but I appreciate it.

Um this would be one question just for the chief, I promise.

Final question.

Um we talked about today in a one-on-one meeting about this and about this request, about um needs that the police department um that were not incorporated in the CIP uh budget.

Um and so I would be interested in getting that list of items that you've requested previously that haven't been put in the CIP, uh, so we can look at those as well.

Um, and I think that just helps with the conversation of there are still things that have been denied that were not put in the CIP, and how can we look at um how we're um maybe holistically how you're looking at policing of the 21st century, uh, maybe to different ways.

Yeah, we would love to uh provide that to you, and always happy to make any presentation counsel would like to see.

Um but last year when Captain Cooley was working this through, the departments were asked to cut some things back, and and and we complied.

Um so we're we're happy to show you.

But I mean, we were very happy with with the plan that he that he came up with because it did represent our priorities and our most pressing needs.

And prime example is just that.

When I'm when I'm out so with these gentlemen while they're resolving some critical incident that often takes eight or more hours, and sometimes it's awful cold out there.

You know, we don't have a command post to work out of, but but that's not our priority right now.

Our priority is the tools we need to resolve the situation, and that's what these bots are.

And if you look at the price of what we have and the price of these, then you begin to realize that for the ex for all of the gain capability, it really is not it.

It's it it is a value, and we will have these for several years, and using them as we've shown you the numbers of the responses, but it's something that you just want to know that you have available and you can deploy if you need to.

And yes, there'll be times when we will assist our partner agencies, um, but that'll be done judiciously because the priority is ensuring that Wichita is safe, and that is why we would not get rid of any of our existing robots.

So we have that flexibility, so that if part of the team has to leave the city, the city is still covered with with frontline equipment.

Um, you know, the other there's a lot going.

We talk I talked about Iran, but remember we have FIFA, we expect to see crowds from that.

We expect to see watch parties.

We have you know the 250-50th celebration.

So there are a lot of events that are also going to be require extra security and extra extra scrutiny this year, like Riverfest, because of events that are occurring overseas.

Um I receive bulletins like this every single day, telling me as the chief of police that I need to I need to pay extra attention to special events, and that I have to be better prepared to respond.

There have been three uh incidents of TATP attacks, and that's a homemade explosive that can be well, it's very dangerous and very volatile to uh to produce.

It's also easy to produce, and that is what you saw at uh New York mayor's residence uh just this last weekend, which uh also resulted in an explosive assignment for uh law enforcement in Central Pennsylvania.

So I'm keeping all of that in mind as well, and to me, that has only hastened this request or and and made this an even greater priority to make sure that we are prepared here in Wichita for whatever may occur.

We occur we hope nothing occurs.

I'd like to think we never need to use this equipment, but we will.

Well, if we get this far and we come to you, this is gone through extensive conversations.

This has gone through debriefs after critical incidents.

We do debriefs and we talk about what were the gaps.

Um matter how well something turns out, you could have always done it better in some way.

Um and we have those discussions to find out and think about how we can do things better in the future, and that's kind of like the genesis of how this began.

Uh, we realized that we had limitations in our robotics and began to look at options, and that's how I spend my mornings, and um we we found this this product, and then we began that investigation, which led the captain and the lieutenant to go out and see it, use it, touch it in in person.

And again, there will these the people that will be using this equipment.

This is their part-time obligation.

And they're all they already know how to use robotics.

This is actually going to make their life easier because it's far more user-friendly than what they're utilizing now.

So there will be no additional drain on manpower.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you, Chief.

Um, I have just one question for the city manager.

I asked the chief, is this the highest priority?

And he said yes.

Can you, city manager, tell me where this ranks compared to overall city priorities?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Um, certainly within the CIP, and again, it's hard to boil down city finances in a soundbite.

Um, but when you look at the context of the city budget in the CIP, this is one of the priorities in the CIP.

So clearly within public safety, again, we want to show we can do multiple things.

We are planning for a new fire station.

We can also do this robotic purchase.

We can also do CIP for public works, we can also do CIP for library.

So this in the CIP context is a priority that will fit within our other budget operating priorities.

We just did our contracts tonight for lawn maintenance and grounds, all these things can move in tandem.

It's not an either-or choice, um, but we had the funding, the debt service, and availability for this in this fiscal year in this month.

I see no further questions from the council.

We will now open it up for public comment.

Faith Martin District 2.

I did not realize I would need my Jamies.

Uh it's pretty late for me.

I have not had dinner yet.

Um I appreciate the council and mayor being here so late.

I know you guys also haven't had dinner yet.

Um, I have a lot of notes, and I was struggling to even find a way to talk myself around this issue.

I've been getting scads of messages and emails about this just while we were waiting.

Um, the conversation earlier where all of you were talking about fiscal responsibility and you were nickel and diming.

I don't see those conversations being had here, and I also don't hear anyone asking about securing the rights of citizens around the uh, you know, what are we gonna do with footage?

If there's if we struggle as public to see body cam footage, how are we gonna get access to footage that's on a dog when they go into someone's house?

It's not a dog, it's a piece of military equipment, it's a robot.

Um protecting our rights should mean that we have a policy drafted before we're asking citizens to spend more money and have more um interest to pay than we even spend on transit.

So when we look at those kind of things, people are rightfully upset.

I mean, there are we you you answered some of my questions, but the cost per use is a big one.

Not having a policy in place for the uh people to look at before this is approved is a problem, especially when there's incidents and other communities that have gotten these and have already removed them.

New York had it for one year and then they got rid of it.

Dallas uh had an issue ten years ago where a five officers were killed in a mass shooting in a bomb, they used the robot with a bomb to kill that person that did that mass shooting.

Um we are struggling to uh get what we need as the public to understand what's going on.

I understand that the city is having multiple conversations with PD and with staff, but the public does still does not understand, even with all the conversation here tonight.

I still don't understand.

You know, we have more and more surveillance, we have more and more flock cameras, more and more listening devices.

Now we have drones, we have risk terrain modeling, and now we're gonna have robots with cameras on them.

And I don't hear any, I haven't heard a single one of you talk about how we're gonna protect citizens' rights through this, besides just well, it's the law, so we're gonna do that.

Well, the law gets bent a lot, and there's a lot of people that are still waiting for justice that haven't seen that.

Justice takes a long time for some people.

The citizen oversight that I would like to see around these, there's a lot of information out there about citizen oversight.

Surveillance technology should not be funded, acquired, or used without considering their financial impact, which we've heard a little bit tonight, to verify legal compliance, surveillance technology use and deployment data should be reported publicly on an annual basis.

There should be a public approval process for the acquisition and use of surveillance technologies, and that will be limited to value the limited value unless city council and public can verify the legal requirements pertaining to its use, including those regarding the protection of civil rights and civil liberties have been adhered to.

Annual reporting requirements will empower city council and the public to monitor the use and deployment of approved surveillance technologies.

It's been a struggle, and I appreciate all the work that uh WPD did when the gunshot detectors were being rolled out.

They did a lot of community feedback to understand how is this going to affect you, what does this look like?

Whether or not this technology is going to make a difference, I think it's not the issue right now.

It's the cost, and I know we're not broke, thank you for that.

Um, but the cost and then the use and protecting our civil liberties.

That is what I'd like to hear, because when I hear it's a top priority, we put it in 2027 CIP, but it's the top priority now.

When all through the last special election cycle, we heard that we can't fund the things that we need, and now we can fund things that we want.

I think the public is just concerned about the mixed messaging and feels like this is not the highest priority for the public.

I've said many times before, public safety is not just the police, even though they work really hard and they do a great job.

Public safety is libraries and parks and street lights and sidewalks and you know the neighborhood.

And I hope that we focus a little more on community policing and a little bit more less on technology.

Thank you.

Councilmember Battler.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, this might be for the chief or Captain Cooley.

Uh, one of my questions that I didn't get to is what cybersecurity protections are in place to prevent hacking and unauthorized access.

Oh, well.

Just to clarify maybe some of Faith's concerns.

I know that's just a part of it, but it was one of the questions I had.

Um I'd have to get with Boston Dynamics on that.

Um that never came up in any of the 70 uh jurisdictions that have this, or with Boston Dynamics or at the Expo.

Um there is a separate um specialized transmitter/slash radio that goes on the back of these robots that transmits a completely different frequency.

Um, but as far as um the technology of how you hack into that, I'm that's out of my realm that's in the IT world.

I'd have to go ask those questions.

Okay, I would appreciate it just to maybe um make sure that we're tracking all of our boxes with concerns that that community might have.

Thank you.

I assume they're encrypted, but I'll verify.

I appreciate it.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you, Faith.

I just want to say I agree with you as far as public safety.

Um, obviously, the men and women of the police department are the most important factor with that, but that also talks about how we raise our children, how we light our roads, how we light our streets, walkability and whatnot, uh maintaining solid neighborhoods as well, and a sense of community.

So I didn't want to say that is very much a part of public safety as well.

And I think we up here need to keep that in mind as well.

Thank you.

Adam Mayor, Council members.

My name is Julia Falke.

I'm at three Crestview Lakes Estates, and I've been on the receiving end of being in a neighborhood that was basically being held hostage.

And when you're told by the police that you need to shelter in place and you need to shelter in a basement, or you need to be at the back of your house away from your windows, I want my police, and they are my police because my tax pay, my taxes help pay them.

I want my police to be equipped with what it takes to try to de-escalate a situation as quickly as they can, and I don't want to ever be sitting in my house for four hours waiting to see what's happening with drones flying and officers lining the streets.

So if they say that it's of highest priority, I have faith in them that it is of highest priority for their protection and my protection.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, Vince Hancock District 4.

First of all, I want to thank you again for having an evening meeting so that citizens can more appropriately participate.

And I don't believe last time I spoke up here, I introduced myself to Joe.

My background professionally is in mass communication and information technology.

Something that we're talking about right now.

I can guarantee you, we've got technicians in this town who can add the nose to the tracked robot without even breaking a sweat.

We've got resources to do this.

And anybody in the tech field who has been under a rock for five and a half years still knows about Boston Dynamics and the phenomenal research and development that they've been doing on getting this platform out for a long time.

That being said, did everybody see the slide of spot?

Trick question.

As our beloved legal scholarship tell us, that's evidence not present.

They got a better term for art than I do.

During last week's discussion about police armored rescue vehicles, we learned that there have been supposedly 43 SWAT deployments or call-outs in 2025.

That is an unsubstantiated fact because WPD hasn't created an annual report in five years.

They rarely denote SWAT involvement in the incident summaries that are published in the daily media reports.

Trust can only be built by transparency.

On February 2nd at 109 p.m., WPD shut down old town streets for supposed hostage situation with a barricaded suspect.

In truth, the victim had safely departed the scene at 11 a.m.

WPD knew this by at least 3 30 p.m.

yet still chose to actuate SWAT within I just lost my prompter.

Uh they chose to opt to swap just within 15 minutes after that just to find out that the uh supposed suspect had been asleep.

He was mischaracterized as being an uncooperative suspect.

He was asleep.

Uh here we've got it.

Um his slumber was lately publicly dismissed uh mischaracterized as being uncooperative and non-compliant.

If you search the WPD website, you won't find any evidence that we have a WEP SWAT team or EOD team.

This is further evidence of poor transparency.

My tax dollars cover 486,000 a year to rent over 195 flock safety cameras, which have been hacked publicly online.

They're 2500 apiece annually until June of last year, the WPD had published a transparency portal that showed the number of devices, hitless totals, investigators, investigatory searches, and other things.

Now they've hidden the portal from the public, blaming technical difficulty.

Yet, Wichita State, Bel Air, Derby, and Park City all have working transparency portals.

Park City even published their flock contract on their website last December.

Again, trust will be built by transparency.

Community members have complained that our citizens review board has merely become an extension of the department due to influence by the union during creating of the charter ordinance.

Every time they investigate a case, it's done behind closed doors to supposedly protect the due process rights of our officers, just more transparency.

Seven years ago, Chief Ramsey complained we must recognize incredible scrutiny police are currently under.

Where he saw scrutiny, I saw accountability.

In a free and open society, the freedom of access to information is essential for our democracy as it informs the public, hold public, holds power accountable, and ensures transparency in government actions.

It helps our citizens make more informed decisions and protects against censorship and abuse of power.

At a district six coffee, Gordon promised that transparently marked patrol vehicles would never be used for traffic enforcement.

Last Monday, I witnessed that promise broken on North Broadway.

This practice does not put local, they it puts local drivers at risk of carjacking by police impersonators.

Transparent markings are not the transparency that makes us safer.

The WPD until tonight.

And for this slide, do you think that that dog wasn't on the slide for a reason?

It was planned.

Until tonight, they did not release the manufacturer, the model number of the robots they intend to purchase.

The expected service lifetime, the annual training and maintenance costs, nor published any policy regulating their safe use.

I'm not saying no.

I'm saying not yet.

Is it too much to ask that my tax dollars be invested in a department that has meaning oversight, accountability, and transparency.

Any questions?

No.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you to the three speakers who wanted to address the council on this matter.

We will now bring this back to the bench.

Councilmember Tuttle.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Um and City Manager, thank you.

I so appreciated your statements and helping to debunk some of the misstatements that are often said about our financial status.

So truly, thank you.

And I I hope you say exactly what you said many more times.

Okay.

So regarding this issue, thank you to the Wichita Police Department.

I truly appreciate all you do.

I say it all the time.

I come from a law enforcement family.

So I understand, and I appreciate what you do.

Chief and I talked a lot last night.

We've talked a couple times today.

Um thank you for being forward thinking.

Um when we're talking about police, we're talking about staffing.

We have to be thinking of how we're going to be a 21st century police department.

And that includes utilizing technology.

And what I think, and you know, whether or not I'm supportive or not, I know that some of my colleagues maybe need some more information.

And I'm hearing that the community, not just the folks who thank you, come to speak today on both sides of it, that they might need some more information as well.

And I know that Chief, you and your awesome leadership team have a strategic vision for the city of Wichita for our police department, especially regarding technology.

So I think it might be an appropriate time to let everyone else get caught up to speed and what that looks like.

I think it will garner more support for this initiative and for other initiatives that you have in the CIP for technology needs.

Um I think a workshop would be a great place to do that for you to come and let us know your thoughts, what you're thinking, how you want to take this department in the future.

So with that, I'm gonna make the motion that we have a presentation on 21st century policing and the use of technology at the April 28th workshop and bring this item back to City Council on May 5th.

Vice Mayor Glascock.

Thank you.

I just have one question.

I know we still have one, and I thank you, uh, Councilmember Tuttle for that.

The chief has, I think, expressed um an immediate need from the department's perspective.

I still think we can have that conversation.

And so, would you be interested in further minor that we talk about on March 24th?

Absolutely.

And I because I really want this by Riverfest.

I I mean, we council Vice Mayor Glascock and I told I wish we could have by St.

Patrick's Day, but that's not realistic even if it back today, right?

Because it's only a week away.

But I would, if if Chief feels that he that's ample time for him, I would absolutely accept that friendly amendment.

Not a problem.

Okay.

I'll second your friendly amendment.

So it would be March 24th, and then it would be presented at a regular meeting on April 7th, because the 31st, we have an en banc, so by April 7th.

Is that your substitute motion?

Yes.

I will second.

We have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

Workshop on the 24th and regular meeting on uh April 7th to vote on this matter.

I see no further discussion.

Madam Clerk, can you please open the roll?

Motion passes 7-0.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Council member agenda, the rotor act.

Thank you, Mayor.

Appreciate that.

Um I want to thank the families of Flight 53 AA 5342 for being here the entire time.

Uh to make sure that you are able to speak to this if you wish, but to more importantly, see that you know what the outcome of this is, Mayor, if I may, I think it's important to read this resolution.

And as noted, I want to point out that there is a version handed in your agenda packet, it's the delineated version, and it reads for the public's awareness a resolution of the city of Wichita, urging the United States House of Representatives to pass the Rotor Act.

Where the city of Wichita, Kansas, the city proudly known as the Air Capital of the World has long stood at the forefront of aviation, innovation, safety, and leadership.

And whereas the safety of passengers, pilots, crew members, and communities impacted by aviation activity remains a paramount concern to the residents of Wichita and to the aviation industry nationwide.

And whereas the Rotor Act Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform Rotor Act proposes enhanced aviation safety standards, including improved aircraft trafficking and transparency measures designed to prevent avoidable tragedies.

And whereas the January 2025 aviation incident involving American Airline 5342 has been widely described as 100% preventable, underscoring the urgent need for strengthened safety safeguards and modernize oversight.

And whereas preventable aviation tragedies demand responsive action, accountability, and bipartisan cooperation to ensure that lessons learned translate into meaningful reform.

And whereas as a national hub for aerospace manufacturing engineering and aviation workforce development, the city of Wichita recognizes that safety leadership is inseparable from industry leadership.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City of Wichita expresses gratitude to the members of the Kansas delegation who have supported the Rotor Act and formally urges the United States House of Representatives to take immediate action to pass the Rotor Act, requiring both ADSB in receiving and ADSB out broadcasting for all civil and military aircraft operating in high density air space class B and C by 2031 and advance comprehensive aviation safety reforms, and be it further resolved that the City of Wichita calls upon members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to prioritize the consideration of this legislation and work collaboratively to ensure its swift passage, and be it further resolved that a certified copy of this resolution be transmitted to the United States House of Representatives and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for their consideration and witness thereof this resolution is adopted by the governing body of the city of Wichita, Kansas, this 10th day of March 2026.

With that, Mayor, I yield my time.

Council members, any questions, any comments?

Was that an official motion to adopt that and Senate?

Absolutely, Vice Mayor.

I move to approve resolution 2612A, resolution of the City of Wichita, urging the United States House of Representatives to pass the Rotor Act.

Second.

I have a quick matter of procedure.

I know that we have individuals who would like to speak on the matter, and it's under council agenda, which usually does not get uh public comment.

How can I allow public comment in council member agenda?

I think that's really up to you, Mayor.

I would move to allow public comment during the council member agenda.

Second.

Motion second, Madam Clerk, can you please open the roll?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, same sign.

Motion passes 7-0.

Um, and we will now open it up for public comment before we actually vote.

We will now open it up for public comment.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, council members.

Uh my name's Dean Maxwell.

My daughter was Grace Maxwell.

Uh she was on flight 5342.

All I really wanted to do was lend maybe a little perspective to what you're bringing to the floor here, and I want to thank you for doing that.

Uh, one, uh, this morning I downloaded an app on my phone, uh, which actually showed me where airplanes were in the sky.

And I looked up, and sure enough, there was an airplane right where it said on my phone.

And that was uh better technology than than those pilots had on that night.

Um that technology was first recommended to uh by the NTSB in 2008.

Uh first iPhone came out in 2007 for a little perspective.

I the chairwoman of the NTSB said this would not have happened had they had that technology.

And in that time, the NTSB is recommended 17 times that that technology be in use.

And they wanted to do a comprehensive plan that builds the building.