Welcome and good morning.

We'll call this meeting to order.

And with us today is Pastor Amy Lipple from First United Methodist Church to provide our invocation.

Following the invocation, we'll have a pledge of allegiance, and I invite you to stand for both.

God, today we pray for the residents of Wichita, the vulnerable and the strong, the longtime neighbor and the newcomer, the well-known and the barely seen.

Help us to remember them all while decisions are made in this room.

We thank you, God for the city and the chance to make it home.

We pray for it to be a place of peace and wholeness.

And as we work for Wichita, God, may your favor be upon us and may you prosper the work of our hands.

Amen.

I pledge to me to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

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

We will move on to proclamations.

Madam Clerk, will you read what the proclamations are?

Yes, today's proclamations are a day of remembrance in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, National Volunteer Week, Child Abuse Prevention Month, and City of Wichita Drug Endangered Children's Awareness Day.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We'll start with a day in remembrance of the memories of the victims of the Holocaust.

Will anybody in attendance for that proclamation, please join me up front?

Good morning.

Good to see you.

A proclamation of the city of Wichita, Kansas, founded in 1870, whereas the Holocaust was a state-sponsored systemic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945.

Six million Jews and millions of other people perished under Nazi tyranny.

And whereas the history of the Holocaust offers an opportunity to reflect on the moral responsibilities of individuals, societies, and governments.

And whereas we the people of the city of Wichita should always remember the terrible events of the Holocaust and remain vigilant against hatred and anti-Semitism, persecution, and tyranny, and should actively rededicate ourselves to the principles of individual freedom in a just society.

And whereas the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, pursuant to an act of Congress in 1980, designated the day of remembrance to remember the terrible events of the Holocaust, as well as to reflect upon our own humanity and the needs and respects for all people.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Wichita City Council does here priority proclaim April 14th, 2026 as a day of remembrance in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

And would a representative like to provide a few remarks?

Thank you on behalf of the entire Wichita Jewish community for acknowledging this day of remembrance in one of the darkest times in Jewish history.

I have no more two minutes.

Next, I would like to invite uh Councilmember Ballard to read the proclamation for National Volunteer Week.

Is there anyone here to accept this proclamation?

Okay, just share it with the crowd.

This is the proclamation of the city of Wichita, Kansas, founded in 1870.

Whereas the entire community can inspire, equip, and mobilize people to take action that changes the world.

And whereas volunteers can connect with local community service opportunities through thousands or through hundreds of community service organizations like Volunteer Kansas.

And whereas individuals and communities are at the center of social change, discovering their power to make a difference.

And whereas during this week, all over the nation, service projects will be performed in volunteers recognized for their commitment to service.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Wichita City Council does hereby proclaim April 19th through the 25th, 2026 as National Volunteer Week.

Next, I'd like to invite Councilmember Tuttle to read the proclamation for Child Abuse Prevention Month.

And ask its supporters to come up front.

Thank you.

You're ready to see.

Good morning.

Thank you for allowing me to read the proclamation today.

I brought my pinwheel because I read this proclamation on April 3rd at the WSU Child Development Center, and we did a pinwheel planting with all the little kiddos, and I know there's been pinwheel plantings across the city, and my husband and I have planted our pinwheels in our flower pots at home.

This is something that's very personal to me.

In the past, I've been a mandatory reporter for child abuse and neglect.

And so it's my honor to be able to read the proclamate proclamation today of the city of Wichita founded in 1870, whereas the early experiences of child impact throughout their lives, both positively and negatively.

Whereas prevention is possible with the right policies and investments, families and children can thrive and avoid contact with child welfare and other costly systems.

And whereas every family and child is filled with tremendous promise and possibility, and we all have a collective responsibility to prevent adverse childhood experiences, foster the potential of every child, and promote positive childhood experiences.

Whereas positive childhood experiences such as loving caregivers and a safe, stable, and nurturing relationships, play a vital role in helping children thrive by mitigating trauma and the negative impact of adverse childhood experiences.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Wichita City Council does hereby proclaim April 2026 as Child Abuse Prevention Month, and I welcome my friend from the Kansas Children's Service League to be able to say a few comments.

Thank you for inviting us today and for signing the proclamation declaring April Child Abuse Prevention Month.

My name is Rachel Harper.

I am the assistant director of the Prevent Child Abuse Kansas at Kansas Children's Service League.

Kansas was the first state to establish its own chapter 50 years ago.

April has been recognized as Child Abuse Prevention Month since 1983, with the blue pinwheel adopted as the national symbol in 2008.

Each year, KCSL, along with our community partners, coordinates statewide activities, provides support, and strengthens local efforts to raise awareness.

Together, we work to foster community action and promote policies that ensure that safety and well-being of children and families.

The national theme for this year's Child Abuse Prevention Month is Pinwheels of Possibility, celebrating the limitless potential of children and families when communities come together to support them.

The spinning pinwheel shows us that the support can look like with families at the center.

Each turn represents the networks, programs, policies, and everyday acts of care that strengthen them and help them thrive.

From home visiting to health and economic policy, every turn unlocks new possibilities, showing how supportive systems and communities expand what's possible for every child and family.

In many ways, the pinwheel is also a call to action, highlighting the shared responsibility all our cross-sector partners have in centering families.

Families, communities, policymakers, and organizations must work together to provide economic and social support, including affordable child care, paid leave, and financial stability, community-based solutions, ensuring to look sharing access to local resources and networks, and stronger prevention policies with investments that uplift family before harm occurs.

Prevention isn't just about preventing avoiding harm.

It's about centering opportunities for families to thrive.

Positive childhood experiences, including stable relationships and nurturing environments, help children thrive and mitigate adverse childhood experiences.

During the past year, KCSL and our other community partners have been working hard to continue building a strong community in Sedgwick County.

The Wichita Coalition for Child Abuse Prevention continues to focus on projects using data to create action.

The WCCAP Community Awareness Group has recently been working with the Wichita Police Department, the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Department, and Wesley Hospital to provide information and access to gun locks at community events, with the focus being on keeping children safe in homes where firearms are present.

They were able to distribute approximately 150 gun locks so far this year.

The child care work group, headed by Tanya Bullock, Child Start CEO, and Mandy Waugh, early childhood connections program director, worked with other leaders from the Workforce Alliance at South Central Kansas, the City of Wichita, Sherm, Wichita, and all in for Kansas kids to hold the business of care tackling child care through workplace innovation.

This was a free event designed to strengthen connections with local and regional employers while highlighting the critical role that child care plays in workforce stability and growth.

The 120 attendees from 60 plus businesses explored actionable ways to support local child care needs that employees are facing, such as accessibility and affordability, in addition to working on the development of a replicable model that other regions in Kansas could benefit from.

Prevention is hard work, but it's also heart work.

And to celebrate Child Abuse Prevention Month, you can help plan a pinball garden, a visual reminder of the world we want for all children to grow up healthy, happy, and prepared to succeed.

I have invited members of the Wichita Coalition for Child Abuse Prevention to stand up here with me, and I would like for each one of them to introduce themselves and their agency.

Hi, I'm Kim Osbar, and I'm with Kansas Children's Service League.

Hello, I'm Sarah Robinson with Urban League.

I'm Stephanie Ulick.

I'm the assessment and prevention program administrator for the Department for Children and Families.

Good morning.

I'm Diana Shun, I'm the CEO for the Child Advocacy Center of Cedric County.

Becky Tettle with the City of Wichita.

I'm Clifton Whitley, Head Start Director with Child Start.

Tanya Bullock, CEO of Child Start, and my shirt says their fight is my fight.

Good morning, Cindy Chapman with a Wichita Children's Home.

We like each other.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And finally, for the last proclamation of the day, I'd like to invite Councilmember Hoheisel to read the proclamation for the City of Wichita for Drug Endangered Children's Awareness Day.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I appreciate this opportunity.

Would any representatives with this foundation care to come forward?

Thank you all.

Whereas substance abuse impacts the children of all cultures, economic statute, and before birth, and whereas causes for drug-endangered children need to be prevented and addressed immediately, and whereas drug-endangered children are at a high risk of abuse or neglect, and whereas Wichitans can help prevent, identify, and provide hope to all children when they learn about the risk for dug and drug-endangered children.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Wichita City Council does hereby proclaim April 29th, 2026, as City of Wichita Drug Endangered Children's Awareness Day.

I don't know if anybody would like to come and say a few words.

Good morning, and thank you, everybody.

As you can probably know, that drug-endangered children is a big part of child abuse prevention.

So we are all in this together.

And then it was volunteer appreciation week.

How do you think a lot of that work gets done?

So thank you for allowing me to be here.

Thank you, Counsel, for all you do to take care of Wichita.

My name is Sarah Robinson.

I know I said Urban League, but I also am with the Drug Endangered Children's Coalition for Sedgwick County.

We call ourselves an alliance.

And our goal is, of course, to reduce a child's tendency to become a drug-endangered child.

So what exactly is a drug-endangered child?

There's information that's being passed out, and they're long, long definitions about these children.

But of course, we consider the caretaker is a caretaker taking the best care of the child because of their situation.

Maybe it's not just about that.

Maybe it's about the trafficking of the drugs.

Maybe it's about the marketing.

Maybe it's about paraphernalia.

So there are all kinds of things that are involved that allow us to identify drug-endangered children.

So the coalition for the Alliance for Drug Endangered Children wants to identify the children, and we want to talk about ways to approach how we prevent more drug-endangered children and care for the children who are already impacted by drugs.

You need to know that those children often come into the child welfare system.

You need to know that this tendency for physical abuse and for neglect is very high for those children.

And you need to know it is intergenerational.

So we need to do our best to stop it or at least slow it down.

So what is the Sedgwick County Alliance for Drug Endangered Children doing?

Well, meet Lamby, Lamby.

You can tell all your secrets too if your parent has a substance use disorder.

We have books where Lamby talks about telling her friends or his friends, we really don't know, about the issue and about you didn't cause your parents' drug alcohol issue, you can't cure it, but you need to learn how to cope with it.

We call those our seven Cs.

And then we have a great book on social emotional skills, and it's not just about drug-endangered children, it's about really all of us.

I look at this book every day and I think hmm, I need to do that.

If you ever heard of bunny taps, you might want to do that after you do your breathing exercise.

Those both of those things help you.

So what we've done with these Lambies through this grant, we've allowed to get lambies into schools, lambies with our colleagues behind me who are working with children and helping children understand their situation as a drug-endangered child.

We provided a free conference for the community because we want to educate the community about drug-endangered children, and it is a very holistic approach.

We had folks from the KBI, we had folks from Sedgwick County, Sheriff's Office.

We had a course which taught PD.

We also had the district attorney, we had folks who provide therapy and treatment to children who are drug addicted, and we had folks with lived experience.

That was quite a day in the fall, and it was a free conference, which was great for folks to get their CEEs and their education.

And we're also tabling all over the place.

We've got, and as is everybody else behind me, there are a lot of tabling events this time of year.

So we get all the information we can on the tables for children to pick up or for parents to view.

And we've got some Sesame Street literature that has Carly.

Carly is the drug-endangered child that's on Sesame Street.

So we have information about Carly where children can color sheets and learn about Carly and the seven C's.

And what are we doing now?

Again, with many of the folks behind me.

We're working to figure out how we can early identify.

What's the earliest way we can identify children who are drug affected?

Now we sure would like to prevent drug abuse children, but we're not going to.

But we need to reduce the stigma.

We need to figure out how to get that mom to tell us to tell the doc to tell someone that they've been using drugs, and this little bit of baby could be suffering from that.

So we don't want that baby to suffer at all.

But if we can reach mom as soon as we can, then maybe that baby won't suffer as much.

So I invite you all to be part of what we're doing.

We're all part of this.

Drug endangered.

I think about drug endangered, somebody driving down the street that's in impaired.

So drug-endangered children is a big issue, and it's a big part of taking care of children.

So thanks for listening.

And anything you want to do, let me know.

You can find us online at Cedric County.org, Cedric County Deck.org.

DEC is drug-endangered children.

Thanks for listening.

Thank you to everyone who is here for a proclamation for those that help remember and those that volunteer in our community.

Madam Clerk, will you open public comment?

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 council with your concerns.

I ask that you address the remarks in 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 say speak into the microphone, state their name and address for the record.

A time clock will display the speaker's remaining time to speak.

Order and rules of decorum will be observed.

The first speaker today is Zachary Knopp, flock safety cameras.

Good morning, City Council members.

My name is Zach Knopp.

I live at 2330 South Prescott Street.

I am represented by Councilman Glasscock.

Morning, Mr.

Glasscock.

Currently, I train the IT that keeps Boeing, NASA, and their subsidiaries up and running.

I volunteer as the tech administrator for a local political group leading Kansas.

And I'm currently a student at WSU with aspirations of going into AI ethics and safety and AI engineering.

And one day, uh slapping Jeff Bezos with an AI ethics violation fine so big that he has to remortgage his yacht.

Not one of his super yachts, just one of his regular peasant yachts, you know.

I'm here to pour my heart out to you about flock.

A word you're going to hear so much from now on that you're gonna forget it means a flock of birds, a group of birds.

Can't use the same word in the definition.

I think there was a guy here last week talking about this, something about budgets and line items.

What a nerd.

I'm just kidding.

Um he's actually a friend of mine, Andrew.

We are obviously coordinating this, and we have a lot more people asking to help.

So please enjoy the merry-go-round of angry people over the next year or so.

One of the things many of the uh voters I've talked to are upset about a very specific retort people have gotten frequently from the council members, which is some version of it helps solve crimes.

And our response to that is hold on.

I have a I have a note here from them.

Obviously, yeah.

Obviously, that helps solve crimes.

That is literally its singular purpose.

So, yes, for half a million dollars a year, I sure hope it's achieving its sole purpose.

But when your answer to concerns like mass surveillance, technical vulnerabilities, many well-documented cases of mistaken identity, abuse, stalking, harassment, etc.

When your answer to all of these is, well, sometimes it helps solve crimes faster.

It's impossible to take you seriously.

Instead of deflecting serious issues by saying it's doing the actual literal bare minimum.

I hope that we can sit down and have real genuine adult conversations about ways to not only improve the system but also improve the public's outlook on it.

And there are many extremely reasonable ways to achieve this.

There are also many ways to achieve the exact opposite.

Things like letting the police audit themselves.

Doing pen testing.

I know they're not doing adequate audits because nobody there is qualified to do adequate audits.

Not Fred and the uh investigative unit or whatever.

Over the next year or more, every month, I'm going to be at this podium, whining to you about this.

Next next month, I'll be going more in depth about auditing and technical vulnerabilities.

Vulnerabilities, by the way, that include things like easily gaining access to the cameras and being able to track police officers in real time.

That's a real thing, by the way.

You can do that.

Any uh random guy in a gas station could do that.

It's embarrassingly easy.

Uh maybe next month I'll show a little flock camera montage of all the city council members driving to City Hall that morning.

But I'd probably get in trouble for that.

Luckily for me, I have it on good authority that our city council are big fans of internal audits.

So I guess I just look into it myself and let you all know if I was above board.

Thank you, Zachary, for coming today.

Thank you for your time, so council members.

I'll see you good in a month.

Madam Clerk, is there anybody else on the uh public comment?

Uh no, sir.

Okay.

Uh we that means we have four open spots.

If there is anybody here today that would like to speak in public comment.

Seeing none, we will move on to the next item, which is consent agenda.

Are there any items to be polled for the consent agenda for discussion or clarification?

Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

Madam Clerk, can you open the rule?

Looks like we have one more.

Okay.

And we have a verbal yes.

Um, the motion passes.

Move on to Board of Bids and Contracts.

Board of Bids and Contracts dated April 13th, 2026.

Good morning, Vice Mayor and Council, Josh Lauber, Department of Finance, the Board of Bids and Contracts convened yesterday, April 13th, 2026, for the following items for engineering.

We have pump station three, six through nine repairs, rebid for Atlas Electric LLC and the amount of 166,820.

We have 58,000 gross vehicle weight restriction cab and chassis dump truck for truck center companies for an aggregate bid of 186,983.

We have the Canopy Media Streaming Subscription Agreement Renewal for Canopy Incorporated for $55,000 estimated annual usage.

We have the park point of sales system change order for rec track LLC doing business as Vermont Systems for a four-year total amended of 271,111.36 cents.30 cents per year.

This is how to become a vendor with the city.

This is our purchasing calendar of small business resource partners, the city's hosting or participating in.

Council, are there any questions?

Seeing none, is there a motion to approve?

I'll move to approve.

There's a second.

Second.

Madam Clerk, can you open the rule?

Motion passes 6-0.

We'll move on to the next item.

There is no petition for public improvements that I see.

And so, Madam Clerk, will you call the first item?

Approval of a purchase and sale agreement for a parking garage and subsequent lease agreement, WBDLLC.

Good morning.

Jerry Ford with the manager's office for the record.

The item before you today is uh deferred an item that was deferred from last week.

The approval of the purchase and sale agreement with the lease agreement with WBDLLC.

It was on August 15th of 2023 that City Council approved an amended and restated development agreement with EPC Real Estate Group for the development of land at Maple and McLean.

The development agreement dated October 16th of 2025 is when it was signed by all parties.

The development agreement identified the purpose of developing multifamily residential units, ground floor retail, a parking garage, a hotel with a ground floor restaurant, and or a rooftop bar and eatery.

On September 30th of 2024, EPC assigned its rights, duties, and obligations to WBDH LLC, which is the hotel, and WBDLLC, the residential apartment retail and parking structure site.

On October 21st, 2025, the City Council approved the first amendment of the development agreement extending the vertical construction milestone to July 31 of 2026 and substantial completion by July 31st of 2028.

Promptly after the completion of the project, the agreement requires the developer to submit a certificate of substantial completion to the city, which means the developer has been granted a temporary certificate of occupancy for the structure built in the park in within the project and has completed all work as required by the construction plans with respect to the project.

The city's execution of the certificate of substantial completion will constitute evidence of the satisfaction of the developers' agreements and covenants to construct the project.

The agreement requires upon substantial completion of the project, the city shall purchase the parking garage in the amount of 32,000 per stall.

There is not a substantial, if there is not substantial completion, there is not a purchase obligation.

The parking garage is anticipated to have 300 parking stalls, which means a purchase price of 9.6 million.

When purchased, the city may lease 85% of the parking stalls in the parking garage to WBD at a monthly rate of 60 per stall.

After one year, this rate will increase annually in an amount equal to the consumer price index.

Upon substantial completion of the garage, the city will purchase the garage for an estimated 9.6 million, which would be financed with general obligation bonds, most likely with a 20-year maturity.

The city will be responsible for maintenance costs of the garage.

The financial activity of the garage, debt service maintenance costs, and lease revenue will be recorded in the parking fund.

Any excess TIFF revenues estimated at 3.3 million will be available to service city debt.

It is recommended that the city approve the resolution and authorize the necessary signatures.

And I stand for any questions.

Fantastic.

The first question will be from Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um will that 3.3 million be able to be um reimburses for the parking garage, the cost of the parking garage.

Is that at the end of the TIFF district or the the life?

It's a good question.

The lifetime of the TIFF district.

Good question.

I had that same question myself.

The um the city's debt obligation will be paid out at the end of the TIFF.

So the TIFF is set up as a pay as you go, meaning all of the expenses that are received or all of the funds that are received and are eligible for reimbursement to the developer would be paid, and therefore the debt city debt thereafter.

So remind me again is that when does that tip?

Um the lifetime of that tip um expire.

Uh that I do not have handy.

33, I think.

Councilmember Hose.

Uh I believe uh since we amended the project plan, uh, the project plan usually runs 20 years from the amendment date, so I believe that date is 2044, if I remember correctly.

And on the TIFF, just a little bit more color on that.

Uh the projections are the TIFF will generate somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 million dollars over its lifetime, and based on the development agreement, uh, the first 11 million or so, as Jerry noted, uh, we will uh provide to the developer on a pay as you go basis.

We will not issue any debt, so there'll be no risk to the city once we meet that obligation, any additional TIFF revenue again, as Jerry noted, we would estimate around 3.3 million will be available to the city for uh purposes we deem appropriate, which in this case would be to uh retire any uh debt associated with the garage, but that would most likely be towards the tail end of the TIFF period.

Okay, thank you.

Um we have maintenance costs written into the the plan.

Uh at this time we I do not have that.

Okay, yeah, we've lost a lot of staff who've been working on this project here.

Um we discuss um well that that's all the questions I have for now, actually.

Thank you.

Are there any other questions from the council?

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you.

Uh Vice Mayor.

Quick question.

When you say I don't have that, do you mean that's not incorporated in the price, or you just don't have that information with you today?

That is not information that I have available to me at this time.

I know that the parking fund is going to be the backstop for the operation of the garage.

Um, but I do not have the details on what the operational costs and maintenance will look like.

So I'll say uh Dennis Marstall, uh, city manager, the maintenance will be on the city's responsibility.

And so as we maintain our other structures facilities, you'll see the maintenance wrap up like in year three, year five, more so than the first three years, um, but that will be on the city's list to do as part of our obligation.

So we haven't done a great job in the past of maintaining how can we assure the public that we and us that we will continue to make that a priority so that we don't fall into similar patterns like we're in now.

Learn from the lesson.

Nope.

Learn from the lessons of the past.

I think um, as you've already heard, part of the establishment of the parking fund, we do have budget projections for how much can be spent for maintenance, how much is spent for debt service.

So bringing this next one on, and with the amount of funding that we'll just have to balance out between the two expenses of debt service and maintenance.

But there's nothing baked into the price, it will it will come out of the parking fund.

Correct maintenance.

Correct.

Thank you.

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I want to just reiterate what I heard from the city manager is that the maintenance on the parking garage does look a little different from the past because we've learned from those lessons and we've now factored in how to make sure that we are maintaining the parking garage at a rate in which uh satisfies the public as well as make sure that it's addressing the deferred maintenance as it's ongoing, right?

Perfect.

Thank you, City Manager.

Is there a representative from EPC that would like to Austin Bradley should be online?

I'll should be on right.

I can.

Can you hear me okay?

Yes.

If you could please speak a little louder, that would be appreciated.

Uh yeah, you bet.

Um Austin Bradley, executive vice president with EPC, uh, Vice Mayor and Council.

Thank you guys for your time today.

Um, obviously talked a lot about this item last week.

Um, really just want to make sure you guys know I'm available to answer any questions here or subsequent questions beyond today.

Not not a whole lot more to offer.

Um, but certainly let me know if I can address anything here uh this morning.

There are any questions for the representative from EPC.

Seeing none, we'll move on to public comment.

Is there anyone in the public that would like to speak on this item?

You have five minutes.

Good morning, city council members.

Thank you for pulling the parking garage lease contract from the consent agenda last week.

The ball stadium in development has been full of missed deadlines, failed agreements, and increased economic development incentives to jumpstart development around the ball stadium.

It was one of the first economic development projects I spoke about before you all almost seven years ago.

The failed one percent sales tax initiative is a direct result of taxpayers' mistrust of city decisions.

I want to emphasize that.

On August 15, 2023, an amended and restated development agreement with EPC was approved, and Ridge Taw Riverfront LP was allowed out of the original ball stadium development contract with no penalties for failure to perform, and they were allowed to keep two tracks of public riverfront land with no development requirements required.

We're so generous to people who fail on delivery of contracts.

They were also given an option agreement on the third track, and they've been given seven years to pay for the land.

Another generous give to these failed developers.

On October 16th, 2023, an amended and restated development agreement was signed.

And on September 30th, 2024, we learned that EPC assigned its rights and duties away to WPDH and WPD.

This was not even in the timeline out there for this meeting today.

On October 21st, 2025, the developers asked to extend the hotel completion milestones to 2028.

This was the first time any contractual agreement mentioned the transfer of development rights to WBD and WBDH.

Now this agreement is being further amended for the parking garage agreement where we buy it for 9.6 million.

Here's my questions.

Why has retail space dropped from 65,000 square feet to only 10,000 square feet?

Who in the city of Wichita will ensure enforcement of the parking garage lease agreement for the contract CPI increases?

I have filed a quarry to get the parking garage fund revenue because just like your questions, I have no idea what's in there.

I have no idea if there will be enough to support maintenance on this parking garage.

Good question.

Did anyone from economic development put together a projected budget?

Because when you look at this agreement you're signing today, oh my gosh, we have never taken care of a building like this.

Two pages of what we have to do to take care of this parking garage.

So my question to you is do we have the staff to do this right now?

Is Public Works prepared to do this kind of work right now?

Because it's on page four and five of the agreement you're signing today, and it includes so much detail, even TEGG service testing of electrical equipment that when I go to Century 2 and I see plywood boards over the building as I'm going to Verde's Requiem, and I look at this agreement where we're even dusting high use areas.

I'm stunned that we're doing this for a parking garage, and we can't maintain our public buildings now.

It just floors me.

Um did anyone create a 30-year budget for this parking garage purchase lease agreement?

I didn't see that on the website for today, but I would assume a budget with maintenance expenses against revenue would be out there somewhere for taxpayers to see how our money's being spent.

Is WPD owned owed owned?

Excuse me, are they the same people that are behind EPC?

I've no idea who those people are.

Did the city receive the assignment agreement between EPC and WPD?

I filed a core this morning to see if we did because we were supposed to.

We were also supposed to have the city's independent analyst look over that assignment agreement.

I don't know if that happened either.

Exhibit K in the lease agreement.

Who's responsible for maintaining the swimming pool on top of the parking garage?

And if it leaks, according to the agreement, we're supposed to take care of any water damage.

So does that mean if the pool leaks, we're responsible for cleaning up that damage from the swimming pool?

I'm assuming you've asked these questions.

What does it mean in Exhibit J purchase agreement that the parking garage will be converted to a condominium form of ownership?

And what are the dues and assessments we're supposed to pay?

There's a lot of questions still.

Thank you for your comments.

You're glad it was pulled from the consent agenda.

Thank you.

Is there anybody else in the public that would like to speak on this item?

See none.

We'll bring it back to the bench.

Are there any further questions from the city council?

I'm curious if uh the representatives from EPC have any comments to the previous speaker.

Yeah, this is Austin Bradley.

Um I mean, councilman, there's a lot to unpack there, of course.

Anything in particular you'd like me to address.

Uh, maybe particularly um your WBD, your relationship with WBD or subsidiary, I guess.

Yeah, yeah, that that's really just a formality.

It's it's EPC.

Um, this is putting the project obviously.

This was a former item, not what's before you today, but nonetheless.

Um it is special purpose entities for each the mixed use in the hotel project.

Uh EPC is uh managing member of both entities, so uh the people behind have not changed uh whatsoever.

Okay, is there anything else that you'd like to add in?

Um only if you'd like me to address any specific questions again.

There's a lot to unpack with all that, and just to make the best use of your time.

Um I'll leave it to you, councilman, if you'd like me to address anything in particular there, just please let me know.

If you'd like me to address anything in particular there, just please let me know.

Uh, how about the pool?

Um the pool in terms of maintenance is something we will maintain.

Obviously, if there's a leak from that pool, that's something that our staff would handle.

Okay.

Um the other council members have questions.

Is the pool on the parking garage or on the uh apartments?

It's on the top of the parking garage.

Okay.

So if that leaks and causes damage, it'll be the responsibility of EPC.

Correct.

Is there anybody?

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you.

Austin, is that in the contract?

Um I'm not sure that's specific example is in that contract, but in terms of maintenance of what you're buying, I think that's clear in the contract.

Obviously, the pool would fall beyond that.

So I do believe that's clear, but I'm I'm not sure that a swimming pool specifically is is mentioned in there.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Any other questions from the council?

I I got a lot.

Councilmember Johnston.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um Austin, that swimming pool, will it be supported by a tilt-up or precast parking garage?

I'm not an engineer, so it would be a good idea.

It is a it's a precast parking garage with a podium uh port in place slab that'll be our our courtyard.

So the the condominium mechanism mentioned by the speaker, um, will essentially create a a 3D parcel, if you will.

I'm getting into technicalities.

Um, and then that 3D parcel is essentially what the city's acquiring here, and that's how you decipher what's in the garage and what's not, what's not being the pool in that courtyard.

Okay, I'm not sure I understood that completely.

So the the pool will be on top of the parking garage.

Correct.

It will be supported by uh basically pre-cast parking garage.

Correct.

And that that's always been the case.

Okay, okay.

Any other questions from my colleagues?

I would also like for the record to show since 2020 the city spent 10.8 million dollars on Century 2 improvements.

There's an additional 7.8 million in projects underway, including the promenade, and then in the CIP budget, uh, there's 12.66 million improvements to C2 projected over the next 10 years as well.

Any other questions for seeing none?

Is there a motion?

Oh, Councilmember Hoheisel.

I just have a couple of quick comments before we vote on this.

Um, just a history for people.

This is something that um is a mess that we kind of inherited because of the fallouts of COVID and deals that were put together years ago.

Um, so we're trying to work our way through this as best as we can.

We did transfer the land to a developer that we feel would actually build and get the project going because if not, if we don't get something built, we will be paying out of the general fund the debt that we have on this on this ballpark.

So that means we would be laying off park staff, we would be laying off librarians, we would be laying off firefighters or police officers if we don't get something built uh here soon to actually start paying down the debt that we had.

So this might not be an ideal situation, but this is something that weighs heavy on our mind as we work through this.

Um that bond payment, the star bond payments, those are coming up really quick here.

So again, we need to make sure that we get something built.

And uh it seems like there's if this project does not get done, then we are not on the hook for this parking garage.

That's another thing I'd like to bring up to people.

So um, I just wanted to throw a couple comments, just explaining this a little more in depth to the public that if we don't get something built in this track of land, and that's what the deals have been about, is trying to get this development into the hands of people that will actually develop it so we can start paying off that debt without having to dig into our general fund.

Thank you.

Councilmember Shepherd.

Oh, you have drawn uh council member Johnston.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I I echo those comments also.

I'm I was very concerned about this last fall, uh getting built.

I was happy to uh hear they have uh a flag for the hotel, so that is maybe an indication they have the the capital stack to make it go.

So uh we definitely like council member Hoheis will say we definitely need it to go, or the taxpayers will be on the hook for it.

So this is something we inherited.

I understand our sales tax vote.

Uh they don't trust us, but uh we inherited this, and we're gonna deal with the best we can.

And uh just hope we see construction by uh by July 31st.

Councilmember Shepherd.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, and I want to thank my colleagues for their comments as someone new here.

I appreciate the historical context as I'm learning how to make the best decisions for us to move forward.

I believe that we can honor the past by not staying in it, but truly learning from it together.

I've seen this council, I've seen our staff really working hard behind the scenes, which people don't always get to see that every day, but really learning from the past.

And I think that that's how we can truly show our community and our constituents that we honor what we are hearing, um, but also we have to make a decision to move forward together through collaboration, transparency, and accountability.

We heard the city manager say today that the reason why you see so much effort being put into maintaining this parking garage is because we've learned from the past.

We've learned from those opportunities to see where we were falling short.

And I hope that that's an indication that we don't always get it right, but where when we fall short, our staff and the council are committed to making sure that we are establishing a new foundation.

Trust can't be rebuilt overnight.

I know that this is one small step towards doing that, but I truly hope that you will join this council in recognizing yes, we have fallen short.

Today's a new day, and we have an opportunity to work together to move our community forward.

And with that, I'll be supportive of this today.

Thank you.

I see no one else on the board.

Is there a motion?

See none.

I would approve of the resolution and authorize the necessary signatures.

Second, uh, Madam Clerk, can you open the rule?

Motion passes six to zero.

Madam Clerk, next item.

Update ethics ordinance.

Morning, council members.

Kathy Sexton here, your ethics officer.

I'm so pleased to be here today and making sure we also introduce um uh our members of the board, two of whom are here today, uh, Al Higdon and Constance Paraska, right behind me here.

I think they're the only two who could make it today.

So many thanks to the volunteers that you have appointed to this board and for working on these updates.

Um, just a little background for you as well.

Uh, I work for the Wichita State University Public Policy Management Center, whom you have contracted with since 2022 to serve as that third party trying to be um administer this ordinance and handle any complaints that uh are filed.

We also provide education, so it once if you approve uh this new ordinance update, we will update our educational materials for both you as well as the rest of the city officials.

As you all know, this ordinance covers all your volunteers on all your boards and commissions as well as yourselves.

Um, just to jump right into the updates, you have in your packet uh a marked up version of the ordinance with in color, so it's a little bit easier to follow along as we go this morning.

I'm just gonna cover highlights of the changes that are substantive and not every uh technical or um clarity type of change that's in the document.

But we do start on page three at the bottom as we look at section three here.

Um, really just trying to tighten up the language to focus on conduct as opposed to uh principles.

Currently, the language in section A is being dedicated to honor and integrity, and in section B conducting yourselves to maintain public confidence.

We're suggesting that you would replace A and B with very much more specific wording about not committing a criminal act that reflects adversely on the city officials' honesty, trustworthiness, or abilities as a city official in other respects, as well as um fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, that type of thing.

So trying to use very specific words instead of the general words, it will help you all know what is needed for behaviors, and it helps the public know better what is appropriate for a complaint.

It certainly helps the ethics board uh better handle any complaints that are raised.

We're also suggesting rewording the whistleblower section, which is currently at the very back of the ordinance and it's like a whole page.

We put that down to a very specific sentence in section C at the top of page four, which is refrain from retaliating against anyone who files an ethics complaint.

The new substantive change here is that we're adding in refrain from retaliating against anyone who serves as a witness in an investigation or otherwise provides evidence or information.

I feel confident that when this was originally written, nobody just really had thought about that.

But as we have had some experience the last couple years in investigating and adjudicating, it it just impressed upon is how people are scared to talk to us sometimes.

And so we wanted to get this in the ordinance and to make sure everyone's comfortable knowing that if they have information that's relevant to an investigation, they should come forward with that.

So on page four also is Section D.

And we just took out some extraneous wording to be clear about what the role of the council is and the uh volunteer boards.

The volunteer boards are not in charge of improving city management and operations.

That is a function of the staff.

So just taking that out.

Rewording section H as well at the bottom of that page four helps a little bit in terms of uh clarity, and there's more um uh clarifications on this page, and and I'm skipping over them and just to carry on the uh primary items here.

So on page six, we'll skip over there to section N2.

And what we have on page six is a change that doesn't apply to council, it applies to all the volunteer members, and this loosens up the policy a little bit to make it okay for the volunteers that you appoint to city boards to accept complimentary food or or admission to certain events that are delineated in the ordinance, and essentially what it does is makes them have the same level as the mayor and council.

This was literally the only part of the ordinance that applied to boards that did not apply to council, and your ethics board believes it's just better to be consistent and clear and simple, and this is something that doesn't come up very often and should not pose uh risk to the city.

Rewriting section subsection S then is on page seven, so we'll flip over that page and see in S that this is about currently the ordinance uh just uh refers to hiring city staff and and prohibiting city officials, that'd be council members as well as the volunteer board members to from interfering in hiring.

Well, we're asking that you would expand this section to be clear that uh that interference not just with hiring but also any administration of personnel policies or employment decisions.

Again, just not something anyone really thought of at the time the ordinance was originally written, but as we've uh worked with it more, we see you know, this probably ought to be a little bigger than just patronage and taking out that kind of an older word patronage that people just don't really uh isn't self-explanatory in our in our uh lexicon today.

So moving on then to page, let's see, section four gets us on page nine, then in your marked up version of the ordinance in your packet.

So we're looking at section five E, and this one is about moral turpitude.

Um, the word was used in here in this section, which is defining the qualifications for those who serve on the ethics board itself.

This section of the ordinance is not about the city officials but the qualifications of the board members.

And so taking out that term moral turpitude, I should mention that some of these came up, some of these recommendations came from our experience, and some of them came from some of you all as you all were reading this document for some for the first time as you were newer members on council and asking me questions like what does this mean?

And me saying moral turpitude, good question.

We all think we know what it means, but now we know with your approval of these changes, we would not use that old term anymore, but we would use specific words like dishonesty, fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation.

Going on then to page uh to subsection eight, uh, right below that.

Um, we're suggesting we're just removing this section of be representative of the demographics of the city because really um that's all baked into the process on the previous two pages of saying how do you and who do you appoint to the ethics board.

So you've got that geographic diversity already built in, and the way this is worded, we're just suggesting it's too broad to measure, it hasn't been measured.

We didn't know how to measure it, and it's one more of those items you've dealt with in some other areas of your code that is needed at this point in our history to avoid any confusion with some of the uh federal anti-discrimination laws coming down.

So uh next uh is uh page, I think I'm on page nine.

Let me see here.

Let me flip over my page.

We are now on page 11 in the middle of page 11 of your marked up version.

We have a new section G1 that is being a new sentence in section G1 to request that you add the the term the sentence complaints based on the complaint's disagreement with city councils, city officials, beliefs, statements, or voting record are insufficient to warrant investigation.

What we're trying to do with this is better informed the public in the document as to what is and what is not a valid complaint, just to keep people from thinking that this is a process for them to sort of argue with your politics or the way you vote on a matter or the way one of your board members, volunteer board members on a city board votes on a matter.

Um, those kinds of statements are consistent.

This new statement is consistent with statements that the board has put, the ethics board has put in their reports recently that says that it is not our job to make a judgment about policy matters of decisions of the legislative body, which is you all, and so this just clears that up with the public.

Also in G1, this other new sentence, excuse me, is that the ethics officer shall inform any complaint if their complaint that they filed is found to be not sufficient to be investigated.

That not only do we I always respond to them and tell them it's not sufficient, and here's why, but I also realize you know what the ordinance says I need to that the ordinance already says they have a right to appeal.

This says I have the duty to tell them that they have the right to appeal at that moment in time.

So not that I didn't do it before, but I wasn't required to, and as I've dead it, I thought, you know, this really ought to be in the in the ordinance for future.

Same reason on this next one on G3 on the next page, is that we would ask the board members, the ethics board members, to declare any conflicts of interest they have prior to discussing or voting.

So you see, when a new complaint comes in, we go into executive session and all the members read the complaint first.

At that time, we ask, do you know any of these people involved in this complaint?

Are you familiar with this?

Is this your family?

Is this your friend?

Is this your do you have a conflict of interest?

And so that's another thing we thought this really should be in the ordinance to be very clear with the public as well that if there that every board member cannot always have a say and a vote on every complaint because they may know someone.

So this is good for transparency and certainly for trust.

Also in G3, um, we also added this new piece.

Again, it was a suggestion that made a lot of sense that we would say to the public here's the standard or level of evidence that is required for the ethics board to make a finding that some that a city official uh may be in violation of a code of ethics, and that standard is that it would be based on a preponderance of evidence, and generally that means that it's more probably true than not true.

And if you've ever served on a judy jury, that I got the privilege of doing that last year, and hearing the judge tell you, I mean, here it can't be, you know, what is the standard?

It does it have to be without a doubt, or does it have to be more probably true than not true?

And based on the evidence, this would just be an added level of clarity and transparency for this ordinance.

And then there's the new section five on public records that we added in, and that one is on page 14 of your marked up version.

So we had a nice debate and conversation about what should be kept and what should not, and we've been keeping records, but it wasn't in the ordinance to clarify what are we keeping and not.

So to be clear, we we chose permanent retention because that is consistent with your agenda packets.

Um that is what your current code requires council agenda packets to be kept.

So we thought, well, this is as important, if not more so, than an agenda packet.

So permanent retention is recommended, and that's for the complaint that the member of the public files, the response received from the uh the city officials, and then the ethics board's reports and conclusions.

So those are the things that we would say are permanently retained as city records and therefore could be obtained by the public through open records requests.

And then section B on the next page shows you that we would also specify what is going on the website.

And I think you all know we have a little dashboard on the website showing this information, but again, that was not in the ordinance.

So we want to make sure it's clear that we're not just deciding to put something on the website for convenience.

Um it is a matter of being very transparent with the public that the ethics board reports would stay on the website uh available to the public, but will also be removed once the person in question um has ended their term of service.

So it's still a public record kept by the clerk, open to public records request.

But the website, if you can imagine, um, that what was intended to be a dashboard small table would get really long if we keep things on there that occurred five years ago from somebody who's not even serving anymore.

So that's the recommendation here for that site.

So that concludes my review of the main substantive changes, and then there's a few in there for clarity and grammar and that type of thing.

But generally speaking, our intent is to provide more guidance to the public as they file requests, um, reduce confusion uh in interpreting some general or vague areas of the policy, and then enhance transparency and all this to build trust.

Your attorney and the board uh ethic board's attorney have been involved in developing these recommendations and have approved, and so we recommend your approval, and I would certainly be available for any questions.

Thank you, Ms.

Sexton.

We will start with Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um Thank you, Kathy.

I appreciate you and the board, all your work on this.

Um statements from board members when page 11 section G.

Um here, and they talk about complaints based on the complaint's disagreement with city officials' beliefs statements or voting record.

Um what are your thoughts or the board's thoughts around statements?

Because I know that in some of the board meetings, things have gotten a little choppy, and sometimes board members have expressed themselves sometimes in uh less than professional ways.

Is that still covered by anything else in the ethics um the ethics policy that we have here?

I think that's a great question, and I think generally speaking, um, we're not trying to um curtail people's comments about what they believe or any of their First Amendment rights to say what they think.

Obviously, there needs to be decorum in public meetings, um, and and statements need to be relevant to the conversation at hand, and it's up to each chairman of those board meetings to make sure they're keeping relevant comments.

But no, as far as ethics, it would be probably pretty hard to make a complaint based on someone's beliefs stated uh in a meeting if I'm understanding your question um correctly.

It's not so much the beliefs, it would be in the back and forth with members of the public, for example, who are there to speak.

And again, sometimes things get a little heated in some of these meetings, and um so if there is an unprofessional response by a board member, um would that be elsewhere?

Because if we do talk about the quorum in here as well, so do you think that would fall under that subsection?

I'm gonna I'm gonna ask Jennifer Magani, your city attorney to address this, and and I would also just say that that it it um any member of the public should feel free to file a complaint if they see something they think, and then we'll look at that complaint and see if it applies.

It's otherwise difficult for me to speculate on that at this time, but um Jennifer, I just wanted to point out on section three, um three A.

There is there is the uh sorry, three B.

There is the language may not engage in conduct involving among other things, and or conduct that adver reflects adversely on abilities as a city official.

That may be broad and maybe something that if it's what you're thinking, someone you know, statements are just out of line or unethical.

I I think that might be broad enough to capture what you're talking about.

Okay.

Kathy, I'd welcome your thoughts on that.

Yeah.

Like a broad broad language there.

Okay.

Uh and then two more questions here.

One.

Yeah.

Um, permanent retention is that every single complaint that comes in.

So if I have somebody who sends eight complaints and you don't find any of them valid, um, so you immediately dismiss them.

Um, are those complaints retained as well?

I think that's a great question.

And no, it is not, they may have filed a document, but if it is found to be insufficient to be called an actual complaint and then investigated, then that's not a permanent retention thing.

Sometimes this is important because I I think you you think, well, everything should be no.

Sometimes they're complaining about the police department, or they're complaining about different things that are not our jurisdiction have no relevance at all to this code of ethics.

So those would not be considered official complaints.

They're an attempt.

Sometimes it's an email or a phone call.

So I don't think that those are gonna fall under that same level.

Okay, at last question.

Um, when we are talking about whistleblowers here, I do appreciate um on page four where we expand that to include just people in the public as well, um, because sometimes they can be retaliated against as well.

So I I do appreciate that.

Um but we narrowed it down quite a bit here on page 15.

So I mean I can appreciate a good portion of this again being narrowed down and expanded.

Um I'm just curious.

Do we think that any of this will fall off the radar as far as being able to be qualified under whistleblower?

Thank you for that.

Some of that reason we crossed that out on page 15 is because we as the ethics board don't have the ability to enforce any of that.

So some of it's about employees, so it's not really in the right place.

That is in should be and is in the personnel policy manual, anything related to employees, because it was it was in here, but it wasn't really something that we could do anything about or in the right place because as you know, this whole ordinance only applies to you as elected officials and to the 300 or so volunteer board and and commission members.

This ordinance has nothing to do with the city employees.

I hope that helps clarify.

Is there a process where HR is alerted when the board does have concerns that whistleblowers have been uh retaliated against any time I get word on anything that doesn't uh that I don't have the authority to do in this ordinance and that and your board doesn't have the authority, I pass that along to the appropriate city staff to handle.

Okay, I guess maybe that's just a little concern of mine, maybe something to look at is refining that process.

I don't know how we can exactly give it teeth, but whistleblower protection, I think is at the heart of this ordinance, if I'm being completely honest with you.

So I'd be curious to hear some of my colleagues' thoughts later on during discussion and seeing maybe we come back and look at that later or work on it now, but I'd be curious to hear that.

Thank you.

And I and I do hear you on that, and I believe the changes we're suggesting actually are better for whistleblowers, and the reason is we moved it from at the end of the ordinance, page 15 afterthought, to putting it in the actual code of ethics.

Only a a portion of this ordinance is the code of ethics.

The code of ethics is what says you shall not do da-da-da-da-da.

It's there now, so it's at the top on the first um page saying refrain from retaliating, and and I think that that makes you all more aware and any board and volunteers more aware of your duty because you know what?

When you get an ethics uh violation of an ethics complaint filed against you, it is an emotional time.

It's very much like, oh my gosh, what did I do wrong?

And I can't believe someone thought I'd you know what I mean, and so we put that up front early, so everyone's real clear.

If you get something filed against you, be quiet, don't talk to those people, don't do anything, don't do anything that could be considered harassing or cons of concern.

The way it is now, it's it's longer written, but it wasn't actually in the code of ethics, and so moving it up, shortening it down, making it very clear, do not do this, and expanding it to not just be those who file complaints but also those who provide evidence or act as a witness really makes it stronger than what it is now.

I can appreciate that.

Um making sure that they feel confident in the process and that they will be protected as well.

Because I outside of the city government, I know before with other whistleblowers and other places I've been.

That's always been one of the main concerns.

So I just want to make sure that we give that teeth and the ability to actually enforce that to protect the whistleblowers and make sure that they can come forward in good faith with any concerns that they have.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, and thank you so much for your work on this.

And I appreciate the opportunity to meet with you and share some thoughts as well.

A couple of questions that I have for you, uh, stemming from Councilmember Hoheisel's question as it relates to the violation of you know, decorum.

And I'm curious how cultural competency might play a role in this, or what has that looked like in the past as folks have engaged, um, particularly for me as a black man.

I know that oftentimes people perceive my approach as aggressive, and I I'm fearful that that may result in an ethics violation.

And so when we talk about intent versus impact, can you talk to me how you all are working through cultural competency awareness and ensuring that what people may perceive as disrespect through one cultural lens may not be how it's intended through another cultural lens?

Yeah.

Well, that's a great question, and I don't have a lot to say about that.

Um, I would say that the ethics, the code of ethics embedded in here is trying to be very clear that it is behavior-based.

So I can tell you no matter how many numbers of complaints we've actually investigated and adjudicated.

There have been many more that are a phone call or an email or a complaint that isn't isn't valid.

I I have to go back to the person to say, you know, thanks for for letting me know about this, but you need to read the code of ethics and tell me which behavior does this apply to.

So having that type of program is considered a best practice that it's not about what how you felt, or it's not about I don't agree with his belief or his vote on something or how he said this, but it is about did you do one of these things?

And then I would say in response is as soon as we determine which code which piece of the code of ethics is the actual complaint based on, then the investigation begins with asking the person being complained about, one of you or one of the board members, um, to give us their side of the story.

So I think that would be the best time to make your case for that.

Is not what I meant, that is not what I said.

Here is my way of doing so.

That's your cultural competence.

Your ability before we start interviewing any witnesses or gathering any information at all, we get your side of the story.

Once we get that, that's when we start investigating and going that bit deeper.

I do believe that that would be a part of that.

As far as board members, you know, if you're many boards, I don't know how much you know, training, I know that's hard to do, but training of board members and volunteers, the cultural competence piece might be uh part of that.

I don't know if it is already or if it could be perhaps just to help people, because obviously we have quite the diverse um groups of folks on on the different boards, and a lot of people aren't used to being on boards, and so any level of training could be good for them.

Thank you so much, and and I agree with everything you said, and that brings a level of peace for me.

Um I I don't know what that could look like given the federal legislation right now or movement on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Um, but you know, I mentioned the example of race, but I also worked at an institution where 70% of the student body were from rural parts of Kansas, and you know, people don't know what they don't know, and just because they say or do or behave in such a manner does not always mean that they intend harm.

And um, I just hope that we can, you know, maybe train or look at how do we how do we embed that into the culture of our boards and of our team?

Um the second question I have is on section C in section C of page four, it says refrain from retaliating against anyone who files an ethics complaint, serves as a witness in an investigation or otherwise provides evidence information.

You've already kind of talked a lot about this, but are we using the legal definition of retaliation?

So, like when we look at this particular of what qualifies as retaliation, are we looking at the legal definition of the word retaliation?

Because retaliation could be in passive ways, it could be in very direct ways, and so again, I I just want us to define clearly maybe what we believe retaliation is.

Just a thought.

Um it's not something I'm necessarily gonna not vote on this because of, but I just want to name that out loud.

Okay, thank you very much.

Any other questions?

Seeing none, we'll turn it over to public comment.

Is there anybody from the public that would like to speak on this item?

Seeing none, we'll bring it back to the board.

Are there any comments from my colleagues?

Councilmember Howeisel.

Just one real quick.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, next meeting, whenever you guys do.

Um, I would appreciate anyways if you would bring up something along the lines of can we make the whistleblower protection stronger?

Um again, something that has some teeth that way.

Um, members of the staff, members of public can feel a little more confident that they're gonna be protected.

Thank you.

Ms.

Sexton, I just want to thank you for your work on this.

I think when expectations are clear and also accountability is real, it provides comfort for the public to know that people in these positions are held to a different standard, and I think the ethics board ensures that accountability from the sport.

So I just want to thank you.

I want to thank the members of the board that are here as well for your time and service and seeing no other members on the board.

Or is there a motion at the on the table?

I'll make the motion to approve an ordinance to update the code of ethics.

Second.

Okay, seeing there's a motion and a second, and there's nobody else on the board.

Madam Clerk, will you call the rule?

And Councilmember Ballard says aye.

The motion passes six to oh.

Madam Clerk, uh, may you call the next item.

Amendments to charter ordinance 230 regarding the police and fire retirement system and creation of chapter 2.22 of the city code of the city of Wichita relating to law, stolen, and mislaid or unclaimed property.

Good morning, Sharon Dickraft City Law Department.

Here today to present some amendments to charter ordinances regarding the fire and police pension fund, as well as creating a new chapter in the city code regarding the disposition of lost or unclaimed property.

A little history, 1945, the Kansas legislature authorized first class cities to establish pension plans for police and fire.

The state statutes provided at that time and currently provide that uh revenue or items uh lost, unclaimed, or stolen proceeds are to go to pension funds established by those first class cities.

In October of 1964, the year is born.

Um, charter ordinances were passed that exempted um the city from state statutes uh regarding the police and fire pension funds.

Um the ordinances did not uh provide supplemental provisions regarding uh the proceeds of unclaimed property.

Um currently we have chapter 2.20, which is a simple ordinance provides that um unclaimed personal property should be disposed of and given to the police benefit fund.

Um, if it's property that isn't uh recovered, it can be sold for cash.

Um, and the uh policies have been that the proceeds have gone to the Wichita police benefit fund.

Uh the Wichtop Police Benefit Fund is a 501c9 nonprofit that is a resource for um police officers uh to help offset out-of-pocket co-pays that are not covered by insurance.

Um, since 2018, about 1.2 million dollars have been paid to the police benefit fund.

Um, proceeds were both cash and unclaimed personal property.

Um, the amendments charter out of ordinance or amend charter ordinance 230 to make it clear what's to happen with those proceeds and that the proceeds are to go to the police benefit fund.

Um, chapter 2.2 is updated to can't and contains new provisions and details about notice for unclaimed property, um, what the disposition of those uh proceeds from sales and cash, and that those would all be provided or sent to the police benefit fund.

Um, additionally, something that the old code did not provide.

There are reporting and audit requirements of the police benefit fund to account for those funds that are transferred from the police department to the benefit fund.

Um recommendation is to place the ordinance on first reading and authorize all necessary signatures.

There is a representative from the benefit fund here.

Um, due to his current assignment, he would ask not to be on camera.

So if there are questions, I can ferret answers back and forth uh if you have questions or need information.

Okay, fantastic.

I only have one quick question.

Yes.

The state has their unclaimed property.

Is this different because of state statute that we separated into a pension fund versus the normal unclaimed property route in the state of Kansas?

Yes.

Legislatures presumed to have acted with knowledge of those state statutes, so it would still allow the city the opportunity to either provide those to a pension fund or charter out of that state statute and provide them to a third party, which is what we're doing here.

Okay, fantastic.

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you.

Does this tie into the state civil asset forfeiture law?

No.

Okay, thank you.

See no other questions for my colleagues.

We'll open up to public comment.

If there's anybody in the public that would like to speak on this item.

Seeing none, we'll bring it back to the bench.

Is there any comments from any of my colleagues?

See none.

Is there a motion?

I'll move.

I'll move to place the ordinances on the first reading and authorizing necessary signatures.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay.

Um, Madam Clerk, will you call the role?

Motion passes six to zero.

Uh, Madam Clerk, can you call the next item?

2026 legacy cultural institution operating partnership agreements.

Good morning, Vice Mayor Council Lindsay Banaco at the city manager's office division of arts and cultural services here with an annual allocation adjustment request for our cultural institutions or specifically our legacy cultural institutions.

A little bit of background, we have a cultural arts strategic plan that was adopted in 2024.

It's a five-year plan running through 2028.

Our mission is to ensure that everyone is equitable access to cultural arts opportunities by activating and strengthening the creative potential of our community.

We have a couple strategies listed in the strategic plan that are specific to our cultural funding program that are relevant to today's action item.

Uh, in particular, uh 2.2.7 to evaluate our cultural institution program to assess accountability and community impact and measurements.

And we've made some adjustments over the last few years that are informing this current uh process or our past process to inform our future process as well.

Our cultural funding program is a pretty dynamic.

We have three specific uh funding opportunities, the bulk of which fall under operational grants.

We're uh this time last year we redeveloped that that program to have three different tiers a cultural partner, cultural anchor, and cultural institutions.

We have a long-standing cultural institution program that we now have kind of a pipeline to where new organizations can become institutions and our existing institutions now have performance measures that don't uh that that we can now assess their their performance against.

We also have activation project grants and then Arts Thrive project grants as well.

And that that third category is pending federal funding if if we do receive it.

Um, our cultural funding committee reviews the grant applications, they review annual reports and they make recommendations to you all.

Uh, there are 11 members on the committee, seven of which are appointed by city council and the mayor, and four who are appointed by the arts council.

Uh, new for this year, we had the committee review of the annual reports submitted by our cultural institutions.

Previously, we had only reviewed those internally by staff.

We're now sending those through the committee for review.

Um, performance measures vary uh organization to organization, but for the most part, they um hit all of these different categories, alignment with our strategic plan, obviously, uh, maintain vitality in its governing board, maintain a financial operating reserve and demonstrate financial stability, and they must demonstrate annual growth and earned income and demonstrate efforts to increase community partnerships, educational programming, and efforts to reach historically underserved audiences.

This is kind of our big bucket of cultural institutions.

Um the organizations are asterisk here, are the ones that we're considering today that by their contract they're eligible for A V growth allocation adjustments year over year.

Uh, the other organizations are some that we have some sort of ownership or um not direct ownership but operational uh capacity where they're funded kind of in a different uh level.

And then that last bullet are the new institutions that came on board for 2026 who will be uh considered for AV growth adjustments next year and beyond.

So looking at the the request for today is uh that that last column, the allocation adjustment at 8.59%.

Um looking comparatively to their uh 2025 allocation.

We always take into consideration the economic impact of what the city does dollars or taxpayer dollars are uh yielding in return into to the community.

So you know uh any dollar that's going into an arts organization has a direct return, and that that number is calculated through our arts and economic impact calculator uh from our national study that we participate in.

So for your financial consideration, the allocation adjustment for 2026 is 8.59%, which is aligned with the adopted budget.

For legal consideration, this language exists to some extent within all of our operating agreements for the organizations that are for consideration today.

And it's recommended that you approve the funding allocation adjustments as presented by the cultural funding program.

And with that, I'm happy to answer questions.

I do know we have a couple representatives from institutions in the room as well if you have questions for them specifically.

Thank you, Lindsay.

We'll turn it over to Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, thank you, Lindsay.

Appreciate you and the arts council, all your guys' work.

Can we go to slide 56 real quick?

I just need to refresher every because it is a complicated our relationship with all the museums.

Um all of these are eligible for this funding.

Umly the the ones that you have see with the asterisks on it, those are the ones that are eligible for um the AV growth increase because these are ones we paid directly.

The other ones for the most part are exist within our own operating budget for the city, so they've receive increases through our just regular budgeting process.

Okay, so all five of them are receiving funding, not our eligible.

Yes.

Okay, now so next year, or I guess later this year, the ones at the bottom are eligible as well, or they could be eligible.

They will be eligible.

We're still in contracting with all of them, uh, but the same clause, this legal clause um will exist and to a certain extent within all of their contracts.

Um so 2027, you'll see that list go.

You'll see this requested list of five organizations will now be 10 organizations, so that'll include the new organizations, MTW Symphony Arts Partners, and the other two.

Okay, and then the art, yeah, yeah.

Okay, and then the arts council will be making or the decision on this?

Uh the cultural funding committee, which includes um four representatives of the arts council.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Johnston.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Lindsay, thanks for the work you do.

Um, can you give a little background on slide 57?

Uh, why Wichita Art Museum really gets most of the funding?

Great question.

Um, we have the largest ownership interest in in that operation, the museum and its entire collection is owned by the city.

Uh so with that in mind, the significant I'm gonna say 10,000 piece collection and plus our CEO of the art museum is uh concurring with that.

We have a really large operation there and a very large investment, and thus the operating agreement uh represents that.

Um it is our biggest operation across all organizations that we we work with.

Okay, okay, thank you.

Councilmember Shepard, thank you, Vice Mayor.

Uh Lindsay, can you educate me on how one would become a legacy institution?

I think it was slide 56 that's been referred to a lot of the ones that are eligible in 2026.

Curious, how does how does an institution become even qualified to be considered for great question?

I thought I had it in my notes, but I might not have my notes directly here.

Um essentially, the if we go back to the these tiers, cultural partner, cultural anchor, and cultural institutions.

Uh any new organization uh within the cultural funding program uh would start as a partner, so they have to have two two to three years of operating history within the community.

Um they're eligible for a certain level of funding.

Once they hit the 10-year capacity, then they can go into cultural anchor, and I think 20 years.

20 years total would then make them eligible for the cultural institution.

So it's by length of service uh serving the community, length of stewardship of public funds, and some other performance measures so that they can kind of stair step their way up at the same level.

Um, this new system has allowed us to address uh if there are any issues within our institutions, then we we aren't just guaranteed to provide that funding.

They could also drop down if there are any issues.

Thank you so much.

I feel every time you all come before us, you have clear and concise answers, and so I uh appreciate you all doing your own work.

Um I'm curious as it relates to the Wichita Sedgwick County Historical Museum.

It does the county also contribute.

Yes.

I don't know that number off the top of my head, it's on the county's budget, but they do have a financial contribution.

Okay, I would just be curious if it's equal or close to equal as what we're contributing.

I can definitely get that information for you.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilmember Tuttle.

Thank you.

Lindsay, thank you so much for all you do.

I, as a proud member of the Arts Council board of directors, just get an opportunity to work with you and your team and the rest of the arts champions in the community.

I'm also glad you always mentioned the strategic plan that was passed in 2024.

And just a quick comment on our green sheet versus slide 57.

I love that you added the economic impact for each of those organizations.

I mentioned all the time the arts and economic impact study and the huge impact that arts has in our community in terms of bringing not only vitality but also the economic impact that it has.

So thank you for adding that on this slide.

I think it's really important for people to see that we are making an investment, but there's a bigger return on investment if we look at the whole picture.

So thank you.

See no other questions.

We'll open it up to public comment.

Is there anybody in the public that would like to speak?

Good morning.

I'm Molly McPherson, director and CEO of the Wichita Art Museum, and I'm here today to thank the City of Wichita for the funding that we receive and to share some of the ways that this support impacts our community.

WAMP's mission is to connect people, ideas, and art through remarkable experiences, and we aim to foster creativity, joy, and belonging.

Funding from the city of Wichita is crucial for both our ability to care for our collection for generations to come and to be a vibrant and welcoming gathering place for our community.

I'm happy to share that in 2025, we had the highest number of visitors that we've had since COVID.

We offer free general admission every day, providing access to our world class collection of American art.

We also offer a wide variety of free programming for visitors of all ages, from preschoolers to seniors.

We're open late every Friday night until 9 p.m.

with a different program planned with our community partners each week, ranging from our annual Spanish night to community conversations and artist talks.

All of the information in our galleries is in both English and Spanish.

We have a free interactive space for families called Play that supports childhood development and creative thinking skills, as well as an art lab with free art making supplies where visitors are encouraged to explore their own creativity.

We host six free family days each year that include art making, performances, and many other activities for families to participate in together.

We offer free field trips for K-12 school groups, including 100% bus reimbursement.

And these are just some of the examples of the work we do to make Wichita Art Museum accessible and engaging for our community.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the staff at the Wichita Art Museum, we are deeply grateful for your financial support that allows us to continue to do this work for our city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Molly.

Does anybody else would like to speak on this item?

Seeing none, I will bring it back to the council.

Is there anybody on the council that has any further comments?

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Glasscock.

I just want to say that all of these organizations are worthy of this funding.

They do remarkable work.

Molly, thank you for being here.

Thank you for the investment that you have made since taking over Wichita Art Museum.

I just want to mention, had the opportunity to go and uh listen to Ponder This, which was a community conversation, integrating the arts into issues that are impacting our entire community, gun violence, health, uh cultural competency and awareness.

And it was an opportunity to bring diverse voices into that conversation.

I also appreciate the fact that you offer information in English and Spanish.

The economic data is very clear as we look at the outlook, you know, in the future, we will be a majority minority, and it's important for us to begin heading in that direction now and not waiting till later.

And the way we do that is by integrating uh that into the art our offerings.

Um, also want to mention envision Kansas Health Foundation.

A lot of these uh entities on this list are supported by very diverse communities, and so I'll be very supportive of this, and I'm really grateful for the way that you spark conversation through the arts.

Thank you, Councilmember Tuttle.

Um, I just also wanted to add to my comments um previously, but also a thanks to the Cultural Funding Committee for taking the time to review all these and and to bring this recommendation to us.

We couldn't do this work without the input of the community, and so this just really helps us to solidify our commitment and investment in arts in Wichita.

So as Lindsay likes to say, art means business in Wichita.

So thanks again to the committee for their time and effort on this initiative.

Thank you, Councilmember Tuttle.

I'll just have brief comments.

Thank you to everybody on this list.

I think I've been to every single one of these institutions probably in the last month, and I appreciate that.

Um, I will recuse myself today.

I said I was a member of the arts council as a community member, and then I also said um as a voting member of the Witch to Art Museum.

I'm very supportive of the arts, and thank you for the work that you do every single day.

Uh Councilmember Tuttle.

I have a question for legal um Jennifer.

I I am also a member of the arts council, and I stated that intentionally because of this.

Every year I voted for this, and I've always asked for guidance from legal, and it's they've indicated that it's fine for us to vote.

But Jennifer, will you just clarify again?

It's discretionary.

The state law prohibits you to have a you know you have a conflict when you receive income or have a business relationship.

This is also maybe you know a perception issue too.

It's not a clear bright line conflict, but I think you know it's a perception issue, so it's discretionary.

If you want to recuse, you can.

If you feel that that's appropriate, you can.

Um Vice Mayor, are you gonna recuse?

I think we should probably be consistent from the bench.

Um, like I said, every year I've and I'm fine either way, but every year I've s for guidance, and I've always been told it was okay.

It is not mandatory that you be recuse.

I mean, I don't gain anything personally from being on the arts council board except the satisfaction of serving the community and being a part of the team.

Um, but I'm fine either way, but I just think it would look really inconsistent if we aren't consistent from this voting, and I'm fine either way.

Yeah, we have these situations arise from time to time.

Um, you know, you're on both.

I think you're on the museum in the arts committee.

Because I'm on both.

I think that is a more single.

I have respect the yeah um difference of that.

So if I can just add a comment that uh your appointments are contractual obligations for the city to have a representative, so you are representing the city as part of your board leadership, it's not um you as an individual or personal community member.

You are representing the city in that.

So I don't know if that helps.

Jennifer, does that help or not?

It means means it's it's absolutely it's permissible to to vote on this.

I mean, there's just not a requirement that you recuse.

I'm not giving you it's a perception matter.

I think that's permissible.

I think both of us have uh expressed that we're on the council, so I think that's enough transparency for it.

So thank you for the clarification.

Yeah, thank you.

Is there a motion?

I will now reluctantly.

No, I'm just kidding.

I will enthusiastically move that we approve the city of Wichita Council approve the funding allocations recommended by the cultural funding committee and authorize the necessary signatures.

Happy to second the motion from my colleague to a motion and a second.

Madam Clerk, can you open the roll?

Motion passes six to zero.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, next item.

Home program funding and regulatory agreement, Commonwealth Development Corporation of America, Arc River Residences Project.

Good morning, City Council.

My name is Carmen Hoffein, and I'm the real property section manager for the Department of Housing and Community Services, and I am here to present the home program funding and regulatory agreement for Commonwealth Development Corporation of America, Arc River Residences.

Before I begin, I did want to make a note that the development budget that is within the agenda packet reflects the updated financial figures and the financial consideration portion on the agenda report and on one of my slides.

Reflects prior um financial figures from when we brought the conditional commitment to city council last year.

I do have a representative that will be um presenting remotely that will provide the updated figures in their presentation.

For a little bit of background, on May 14th of 24, the City Council approved final allocations from the 2425 annual action plan, which included 1,404,112 in home investment partnership program, home funding for the housing development loan program, which I'll refer to as HCLP.

The HDLP is designed to provide subsidies for infill housing projects to support the development of real estate that is idle or underutilized, and to provide needed housing for underserved populations.

HDLB funding is available for nonprofits or for-profit organizations.

Loan structure is dependent on the type of project to be financed.

Historically, the funding has been made available within the boundaries of the city's redevelopment incentives areas, neighborhood revitalization area or local investments areas.

Funding requests are received on an open application basis.

Commonwealth Development Corporation of America submitted an HDLP application for Arc River residences ahead of the 2025 tax credit application process.

Arc River Residences is a proposed 42 unit apartment project designed for families to be located at 5136 South Broadway.

The project includes two multifamily residential buildings and one non-residential building.

For the analysis, the development will address the critical need for affordable rental housing in Wichita as highlighted by HUD comprehensive housing affordability strategy data, which identifies over 28,175 households with unmet housing needs in the area.

This project will provide high quality affordable homes in a well-resourced community for underserved families.

The site is situated in a primarily residential and retail neighborhood, offering convenient access to essential services and amenities.

The development is less than half a mile from a grocery store, shopping, pharmacy, child care center, and a park, ensuring residents have easy access to daily necessities.

Public transportation is readily available with a nearby bus station, and the site is just one mile from I 135, providing a 12-minute drive to downtown Wichita.

By integrating into a well-resourced community, the development will support the long-term stability and well-being of its future residents.

Wigan Omega is the proposed property management agent for this development.

They are Wichita-based company with extensive experience managing low-income housing tax credit, which is also known as Litech and affordable housing properties.

Next, I'll turn it over to Adam Waking, who should be logged in remotely to continue and present on the next few slides.

Adam, are you there?

Yep.

Hi, everybody.

Can you hear me?

You might want to talk a little bit louder.

Okay.

How's that?

Louder, please.

All right.

Uh, yeah, I can speak up a little bit.

Um, I'm Adam Waking with Commonwealth Development Corporation.

Um, here to present a little bit just on Arc River residences, um, as mentioned at 5136 South Broadway.

Um, thank you for having me and for considering this.

Um, so I believe about a year ago, my colleague Liz presented for mayor and council, so um, some of this will be a review, but as mentioned, some of it will be new with some of the financing pieces.

So Commonwealth Development Corporation, a little bit on us.

We are an affordable housing developer.

We've developed over 125 projects, including over 8,000 units in 15 states, um, and we're a long-term owner, so we'd like to maintain affordability past the 15-year requirement.

Um, we're committed to working and serving uh the communities that we're in.

Um, so we like to maintain that affordability for longer than the minimum requirement.

Um, Carmen, you can go to the Arc River residences slide, please.

Um, here you can see a site plan.

Um, the development consists of two three-story walk-up buildings, um, both housing uh 21 24 units in one and then 18 units in the other.

Um, the walk-up style, the site will also house a clubhouse, um, which will have an on-site leasing office, a fitness center, uh, business center, um, and then outdoor amenities include bike racks and a playground for children and their families to use.

Uh, as mentioned before, this development is near a lot of retail, um, public transportation, child care, and other local amenities, which situates this site and development in a great area for low-income families.

Um, we can go to the next slide.

Um, this development will serve uh special needs populations.

So we're in talks and working on supportive services with local nonprofits to support 10% of units for physically and mentally disabled individuals.

Some of the service providers that we've been working with are the Wichita Children's Home, United Methodist Open Door Center for Home Hope Homeless Prevention Program, and others.

We're also working closely with our property manager Wig and Omega as they have uh prior experience with these groups and are helping us navigate selecting a potential partner for these services.

Can go to the next slide.

Here we can see a picture of a comparable unit.

We have energy efficient appliances, um, all electric appliances.

We can kind of go through the next few slides here.

Can see modern finishes, ceiling fans, lots of open space, natural light.

We have washer and dryer hookups in each of the units for residents as well as the washers and dryers.

And then moving to the project timeline.

Last year, around this time, last May, we received an award in August of last year.

We will be closing on the property.

Construction will last about 14 months.

So that will finish up in June of 2027, and lease up will begin then.

And then we anticipate that the property will be fully occupied and stabilized in September of 2027.

Commonwealth has in-house design, so uh throughout the process thus far and um going forward with construction oversight, it will really allow for us to play a critical role in overseeing project timeline and budget to make sure that this is um delivered on time for residents.

Can go to sources and uses next.

Um it was mentioned that some of these numbers have changed.

Um this project is really financially feasible because of an award of uh KHRC tax credits and home fronts from the city of Wichita.

Um you can see here we have a development budget, um, key construction uh local general contractor will be the general contractor working on this project when we have a finalized construction contract with them.

Um, as I mentioned, we'll be starting construction in about two weeks with them.

Um that's all I have.

Thanks.

Thank you, Adam.

So next is financial considerations.

And as I stated before, these figures are from last year.

The one thing that has not changed is the uh 420,000 from the city of Wichita home funds that does remain the same.

There's no impact to the general fund.

The city's home funding is to be provided in the form of an interest-bearing loan with an interest rate not exceeding one percent.

On March 31st of 25, the HDLP application for this project was presented to the city's affordable housing review board, who reviewed the application and developer presentation.

The affordable housing review board approved the application and directed staff to refer it to the city council to approve the director of housing and community service services issuance of a conditional commitment letter.

City Council approved the issuance of a conditional commitment letter for home investment partnerships program financing in the amount of 420,000 on May 6th of 25.

The developers nine percent LITEC application was awarded in August of 25.

Staff have recently worked with the developer to ensure environmental review compliance is completed prior to closing on the project site.

For legal considerations, new construction of affordable rental housing is an eligible cost under the home program.

Regulatory and funding agreements have been drafted and approved as to form by the law department.

Closing and any choice limiting actions may not occur until HUD environmental clearance is received, which the department expects during the week of April 13th, which is this week.

Recommendations, it is recommended that the city council approve the allocation of 420,000 dollars in home investment partnerships program for the Commonwealth Development Corporation of America, Arc River Residences Project, and authorize the execution of the home regulatory agreement and funding agreement once HUD environmental clearance is received and authorized the necessary signatures.

And I stand for questions, and if there's anything project specific, Adam is on will remain online for those as well.

Thank you.

Both you and Adam.

Are there any questions from the council?

Seeing none is there, I will move to public comment.

Is there anybody in the public that would like to speak on this item?

See none.

We'll bring it back to the council.

There are any comments from the council.

Also see none.

Is there a motion?

With a motion from uh Councilheisel.

Thank you, uh Vice Mayor.

Um, first off, thank you to Housing Department.

Thank you to this group coming in.

Um Commonwealth Development, um very much a need in the city, very much a need in my district.

So I am thrilled to see this happening in South Wichita.

Um with that, I move that we approve the allocation of 420,000 in home investment partnerships program for the Commonwealth Development Corporation of America, Arc River Residences Project, and authorize the execution of the home regulatory agreement and funding agreement once HUD environment clearance is received and authorized and necessary signatures.

Second.

Fantastic with a motion and a second.

Seeing nobody else on the board to speak.

Madam Clerk, can you call the rule?

Motion passes 6 to 0.

Madam Clerk, can you present the next item?

Call that presentation of the Wichita Retirement System Actuarial Reports as of December 31st, 2025, and setting employer contribution rates for 2027.

Good morning, Vice Mayor.

Uh Mark Manning with the Department of Finance.

Today I want to present to you the actuarial reports for our two retirement systems here in the city of Wichita.

We do have two entire retirement systems, uh, which saw employees retirement, which is more for our civilian employees, and we also have the Wichita Police and Fire Retirement System, which focuses on benefits for our police and fire employees.

Uh the fund assets and performance uh are governed by a layered structure.

Each board has their own board of trustees, and then we also have a joint investment committee made up of representatives from those two those two boards that monitor uh investment performance.

And finally, uh finance staff uh provides administrative support for the boards and our pensioners for that matter through our pension management office, which is managed by Latonya Williams, who is here today as well.

And she does a fantastic job, by the way.

Some of you have met with her.

Uh so what strategies do we employ in the pension office?

Uh we have a very uh good investment policy that dictates where we invest our pension assets.

We have a very diversified and well-mixed uh well-diversified uh group of assets.

Uh, we also have a funding policy which uh specifies uh specifically in regards to today that we want to strive to minimize variations in employer or city contribution rates, and finally, both boards are very aggressive at reviewing our assumptions.

That is very important because the tighter our assumptions are, the more that we can reduce volatility in employer rates.

So we do that very frequently.

So each year we do have our actuary review both our plans.

Uh they are going to report two very important metrics along with a lot of other interesting stuff, but they're going to report to you the funded ratio of our plans and the required city contribution rates.

Now, one reason our plans are in excellent shape, by the way, which you'll see here in a couple minutes.

Uh, one reason they are is because the city has a long history of always providing the required city contributions, so those kind of go hand in hand.

So their work's very comprehensive.

I won't go into everything they do here.

I'll let them do that.

Uh so with that, uh, I'd like to introduce our two actuaries, and I think Jake will take it from here.

We have Jake and Janet here, and they're uh they're from Chiron, and they'll make their presentation, then I'll wrap up with our recommendation.

Thank you.

Good morning, Vice Mayor Glascock and City Council members.

Uh, as Mark said, I'm Jake Labowskis, and with me is Janet Crana.

And we're here today to present the results of the December 31st, 2025 actuary valuation.

So the purpose of the valuation is to calculate the assets and the liabilities of each of the systems, and then we calculate the ratio of those two, which is called the funded ratio.

How much assets do you have compared to your liabilities?

And we also calculate the contribution rate that the city contributes uh for next year.

So this year's valuation determines the contribution rate that will be in effect for 2027.

We review the experience of the system, both the demographic experience as well as the financial experience, how well the investments performed, and we compare the experience to the assumptions and see how accurate our uh assumptions were to what actually occurred.

Then we project not only what the current funded ratio is and what the current contribution rates are, but what they look to be in the future.

So it's not the evaluation is a snapshot as of the end of the last calendar year, but a snapshot only has a limited amount of information, so we look to see where's the system headed, is it going in the right direction?

And it is, um, but that's an important part of our process as well.

And of course, as part of that, we identify and assess the primary primary risks.

Uh, the most significant risk being investment risk, risk that the return will be less than assumed over the long term.

This page is a graphic from the 1965 Harvard Business Review.

Uh, not much has changed in the operation of a pension plan over the last 60 years.

The tank represents the liabilities of the system.

That's basically how much assets you should have on hand, and the water in the tank represents the assets.

And so the assets aren't always, you know, you don't always have a full tank, but you're striving to have a full tank.

And those assets are funded by investment returns each year, as well as both member and city contributions that fill up the tank.

And the assets are used to pay retiree benefits and the expenses of administering the plan.

So each year we re-measure the size of the tank and compare to see how much assets you have.

And the city's contribution rate nozzle is adjusted each year to make sure that the funds are appropriately funded and maintained so there's always assets to pay the retiree benefits.

So this year, an overview, the investment experience for 2025 was very favorable.

And so the funded ratio increased for the employee plan from 88% to 91%, and for police and fire from 87% to 89%.

And corresponding the unfunded liability, the portion of the tank that isn't filled with assets, decreased for the employee plan, it decreased 21 million, and for police and fire, it decreased 15 million.

This page shows the calculation of the city contribution rate.

There's two main components of the contribution rate.

The first is what we call normal cost.

That's the cost of benefits accruing for all the active members working for the city in the year.

And the at the first top of the line, we show the total cost of benefits as a percentage of payroll.

For the employee plan, it's 14.5% of pay, and for police and fire is 25.1%.

Now the members contribute a portion.

Employees pay 4.7% of pay, and police and fire contribute seven.

And so the city is liable for the rest of the cost of benefits accruing or the normal cost.

So it's 9.8% and 18.1 for police and fire.

And in addition to the cost of current benefits accruing, we want to shore up the contribution short or the liability shortfall, the portion of the tank that's not fully funded.

And so a portion of the contributions go to fully funding the system over the long term.

And so that's 5.2% of pay for the employee plan and 8.2 for police and fire, resulting in total city contribution rates for 2027 of 15% and 26.3%, respectively.

This page shows a reconciliation from the contribution rates from last year's valuation, and the contribution rates have declined.

So last year, when I presented these results to you all, the contribution rates were 17% and 28%, respectively.

And we show some of the line items on sources of why the contribution rate has gone down, primarily investment experience, as you'll see.

The asset gain resulted in 1.4% and 1.7% decreases to the contribution rate.

The liability gain loss is basically demographic experience.

There was virtually no experience or the gains and losses offset each other for the employee plan.

There was a slight loss on the police and fire plan due to higher pay raises than expected.

But those were also offset by what's the other line, which is essentially as we determine the cost of these plans and put them as a percentage of payroll.

When there's larger payroll increases, it becomes a smaller percentage of pay.

And so that's part of the reason why there is a decrease in the other, but that results in the final contribution rates of 15% and 26.3.

This page shows a 10-year history of where the city contribution rates have been for each of the plans.

The police and fire plan is in yellow and the employee plan is in blue.

And you can see compared to last year, the contribution rates have declined, somewhat elevated from in the past, but still a decline from the most recent two years essentially.

This page shows the historical funded ratios, again, that ratio of assets to liabilities.

Again, police and fire is in yellow and the employee plan is in blue.

And you see generally they move in tandem because they're invested the same.

When deviations occur between the two, it's normally just demographic differences, and given the significant significant pay increases that police and fire members have had, that's the reason why their plan is slightly lower funded ratio wise.

But I also want to point out that this is a very zoomed-in view.

We're looking at 80 to 100% funded ratio, which is a very small range.

So while it looks like there has been significant changes, it's really relatively muted.

We started 10 years ago at 93 and 94%, and now they're at 91 and 89.

So not significant changes, but this is a zoomed-in view.

The next page shows a, I would say a zoomed out view, and it compares the systems to the universe of public pension plans in terms of the funded ratio.

So your two plans are represented the police and fire as a black diamond and the employee plan is a yellow diamond.

They often overlap, so if you only see one, it's because they're right on top of each other.

But it shows where your systems have been historically compared to the universe of public pension plans as illustrated by the colored bars.

And your plans being generally within the light blue mean you're among the top quartile of plans.

The most recent year 2024, you're pretty much right at the 75th percentile, which means that you're better funded than about 75% of the plans across the country.

Information for other plans is not yet available for the current year, as everyone's doing their evaluations right now, but it'll be available next year.

Finally, as I mentioned before, uh these plans have risks.

Uh we use one set of assumptions to determine the cost and liabilities of these plans.

We know experience is going to be different.

We hope it's not significantly, but it might be significantly different.

And so we're required to disclose that information to you.

We have a whole section in our full report dedicated to identifying and assessing the risks.

That's section two.

Um, but just to highlight the investment risk, interest rate risk, longevity, and demographic risk, basically any risk that would increase the cost of the plan uh are risk that uh we want to make aware to you all.

Um with that, the recommendation is to receive and file the reports and approve the uh you want to cover this, Mark?

Yep.

Jake, you're trying to hone in on my slide.

Uh final slide here.

I wanted to explain our recommendation here.

Uh, first of all, it's just receive and file the reports.

Uh but uh one of your functions today is to approve our employer contribution rates.

And I wanted to point out uh Jake mentioned what the actuarial contribution rates are, and we are proposing a decline in both of our rates compared to last year.

But staff is recommending that we uh transfer a small portion into the pension reserve fund, which means that we would reduce the uh police and fire rate uh from uh 28 percent to 27 percent, and we would reduce the wichita employees rate from 17 percent to 15 and a half percent.

And our strategy, as I noted earlier, is to try to generate rates that are smooth over time.

Uh so that's one reason we recommend that.

And also, as I noted, we continually review our assumptions, which again provides smoothing smoothness to the rates, and for uh for that reason, if we have any assumption changes in the future, this strategy would also help to mute those.

So, with that, uh Jake and I would be happy to answer any questions.

Uh, Jake will handle the really hard ones.

If you have any easy ones, I'll take care of those.

So I just have one quick question.

When looking at the recommended actions, and it says um the contribution rates are 27% and 15.5%.

Do we have to add the uh recommendation to move money to the pension reserve fund, or is that just assumed in the larger motion?

Uh in my opinion, it would it would be uh approved if you approve the recommended action since it's included in the agenda report.

But my our city attorney may have a I think the motion as recommended is appropriate.

It will be done administratively as part of the contribution you make.

Okay, I just want to make sure there are any other my colleagues that have any questions.

See none.

We'll open it up to public comment.

Seeing that there's nobody in public comment, we'll bring it back to the board.

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, just uh a challenge to our state um cohorts there.

Uh 90 percentile or 90 percent as far as funding capers is 75 percent or so.

I think I know a representative who um needs to have his uh have some goals set out for them.

Hey, now they're out of session, you have more time to contact.

Right, they can get on our level here.

So just wanted to throw that seeing no other comments.

Is there a motion from the board?

Yeah, I'll move to receive and file the wish taught employees retirement and police and fire retirement systems currently evaluation reports as of December 31st, 2025 and approve recommended 2027 contribution rates of 27 percent for the police and fire retirement system and 15.5 percent for the Wichita employees retirement system.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, um, we have a motion and a second.

Uh Madam Clerk, can you call the rule?

Motion passes 6 to 0.

We will move on to the next item.

Madam Clerk, can you call the next item?

DER 2025-15 amendment to the Wichita Sedgwick County Unified Zoning Code regarding public notifications in the city.

Good morning.

Scott Weddle from the planning department here to present this item.

The recommended action is to adopt the findings of the planning commission, approve the proposed amendments, uh, authorize assigning the ordinance and authorize the ordinance to be published.

In terms of the background on this item, um, interest was expressed in having mailed notice go to the uh residents of properties, not just the property owners.

This has come up from members of the public also at district advisory boards.

This has been mentioned and during the city council workshop back in 2024.

In terms of the process, it's a multi-year process.

The conversation about this has been going on since that time.

I would point out on this that this was presented to the district advisory boards back in 2024, and I can share in information about that if desired.

But here we are in 2026.

In terms of analysis, we reviewed what other communities are doing.

So we contacted 19 different communities.

What we discovered from that survey was that all of these cities are distributing mailed notices to exclusively to the property owners.

You'll notice that Overland Park in here is listed as having recommended to renters.

In their process, they require that the notification go to the property owner, but they recommend that the applicant send it to the renters as well.

In terms of state of the practice, the American Planning Association, we look to them for insights on what's going on around the country.

They have a publication that recommends distributing notices also to renters, especially in areas with high tenant populations.

Now, as you all know, public notification in terms of how it's done for zoning cases, the state requires that letters are distributed to property owners, and that's cited here in Kansas statutes.

So what it does when we distribute this notice is it notifies property owners about it.

Again, it just goes to the property owners and it's required by the state statutes.

For the city of Wichita, the notification area varies depending on how large the property is.

The minimum size distance is 200 feet.

It goes all the way up to a thousand feet.

We also distribute notices to registered HOAs and neighborhood associations.

The way that this is done is that the applicants are responsible for purchasing a list certified by a title company.

This is done in order to ensure that it's accurate and also just to ensure a smooth process.

So and that is a requirement, not in the zoning code, but that's required as part of the application process.

Currently, in terms of cost, it's $18 per property for an applicant to purchase that from a title company, and there's a minimum of $175.

So even if it's fewer than 10 addresses, they have to spend 175 dollars to get the list.

So to implement this policy after we've reached out to the title company to find out how much this would be.

Currently, it's again $18 per property.

It would increase by $5 to $23 per property.

And again, our cost would remain the same at about $2.64.

Although there could be additional letters that would be required because we would be sending a notification in some instances to the property owner as well as the property.

So here's example of what that would look like.

So we have the existing one on the left, we have the proposed change on the right, and you'll see that the property address is the new column that's added in there.

Here's a slide that shows the text changes that are recommended for the zoning code.

So it very clearly indicates that this is only applicable to city cases and is not does not apply to cases in the unincorporated county.

There is one nuance with this, and that is in order to make this easy for implementation.

The reason for this is just to make it easier for staff in terms of processing which one is in Wichita and which one's not.

What would happen as a result of this is that there is a small portion of the unincorporated county where Wichita is identified as their community on their mailing address, and this is because mailing addresses are based on school districts if you're in the unincorporated county.

So the illustration here shows that that would be primarily in southeast Sedgwick County and kind of up north near the Park City Keychai area.

And again, this would grow smaller over time as cities uh annex different properties.

So again, the recommended action is to adopt the findings of the planning commission, approve the proposed amendment and sign the ordinance and allow it to be published.

There is an alternative action that I do want to bring up right now, though.

So the recommended action requires four of seven votes because it's it's in line with what the planning commission is recommending to you.

An alternative action that you have, which would require an override of the planning commission, so five out of seven votes.

It's the very same as what the MAPC is recommending, except that it would make an effective date on June 2nd, 2026.

The reason why I'm presenting this today is because this would provide time for notification to applicants and also would provide time for people who have already purchased their uh mailing list to have that still be valid, they wouldn't have to go back and get a new one.

Because in some instances, people procure the list before they actually submit the application, so this would provide a small amount of time, a window of time for those to be used.

And with that, I'll stand for any questions.

Thank you, Scott.

We'll start with Councilmember Tuttle.

Okay, Scott, so pretend we're neighbors and we're getting mail at the same time.

Explain this to me.

Okay.

Um so uh the part about who gets notification.

Okay.

So let's pretend let's say that you uh live in your house, you're the owner and you live in your house.

Um I'm the owner, but I live in Florida, which would sound really nice, right?

Beach property.

Um so what would happen is that uh by state statute and during our current process, uh you would receive a notification because you live in your house and you're the owner.

I would receive a notification in Florida because I'm the owner of the house next door to you, but the person, the renter who's living in the house next to you, would not receive notification because they're not the owner.

Right.

So if this uh if this update, this amendment is approved, what would happen is that uh you would still receive notice because you're the owner and you live in the property.

I would still receive notice because I'm the owner and I live in Florida, but I would receive notice there.

But the tenant who lives in my property would also receive notice because the mailing addresses are different, and we can tell that from the ownership list.

We can tell that the property address for the house next to you is different than my mailing address in Florida, so we would send notices to both.

That was beautiful.

So basically, my understanding, and tell me when I'm wrong, what I hear you saying is that now the property owner and the renter is going to get the notification, including if it was uh multifamily lake apartment complexes.

I'm so glad you brought that up.

Well, you're welcome.

So thank you.

There's a uh there's a new nuance to this, and that is uh if it's a multifamily apartment, we don't know necessarily how many units are in it and what the specific addresses of those units are.

So we would send a notification to the to the property, and the intent is that the owner, the manager of the facility would then receive the notice and have the option to distribute that to the tenants.

Okay, so one last kind of and thank you.

That was great, and I appreciate it.

I just want to make sure I had a good understanding.

You and I talked about this before, but I just wanted to make sure.

Um the one thing that I'm not sure if I understood, and I don't know exactly what slide it was, but you talked about what their increased cost would be when the applicant has to mail it out, correct?

So um this is just for the title list.

Uh we and thank you for the question to allow me to explain the process a little bit better.

So uh the way that the process works is that the applicant is responsible for securing the uh list, the ownership list from the title company.

They bring that in with their application and that's attached to it and submitted to us.

Planning staff use that list to produce the mailing labors, labels, and the letters that go out to the various properties.

So in this instance, uh all that would change in terms of that process is that the cost would go up for the applicant and increases by five dollars per per property as part of that ownership list.

Uh and that ownership list then contains an additional column which will show us the actual property address, because it currently does not.

It just simply shows the uh owner address.

So the $2.64 cents additional from MAPD.

That is uh per the additional uh letters that go out.

So instead of one prop one letter that would go in in the imaginary uh scenario, I would as under state statute, I would currently receive a letter.

But if a letter also goes to the tenant, then that's an additional two dollar and sixty-four cent cost, because it's per letter, and we would imagine that those would increase just the number of letters that would go.

Thank you.

You're doing great.

So the genesis of all this is the probably I could have just probably asked it easier, but for me, this is great, just to make sure I understand.

In the green sheet, under financial considerations, it said it's not gonna create any financial obligations for the city.

Yes.

Uh I just want to make sure I'm I'm tracking and understanding.

No, um, and thank you for the opportunity to clarify that.

You're welcome.

Yeah.

Thanks for doing it.

No, when when we were preparing this, um, I think what we were looking at is uh whether we would be obligated to uh uh for a certain cost.

In this it it would be variable, but you are correct, there would be an additional cost to the city and to the county for that matter, because of the increase in postage that would be sent out.

And the staff time and whatever.

So not having it be multifamily apartments is probably gonna significantly minimize that.

But there so there will be cost, but it's probably gonna be minimal.

I would imagine so.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure, because when I saw on the green sheet, no financial but then when I saw the PowerPoint today, I went, wait a minute, there is gonna be a cost.

We estimate um when we started this research, we we ended up with a median number of about 30 notices that per case.

Um out of that, uh, we also ran another calculation and it showed about six properties on average uh were to uh w included ones where the owner address was different than the property address.

Now that that can vary wildly depending on what case it is, but I just want to give you a sense uh kind of a ballpark uh frame of mind about how much we're expecting.

Thank you, and that's minimal, and I appreciate that.

Is uh my concern too was if we ever decided to think about multifamily apartment complexes, that could be hundreds and uh that sometimes a thousand, so okay.

And at this point, I I would recommend against as as a director.

I would recommend against including multifamily units just simply because the the data complexity.

Okay, thank you so much.

You did a great job.

I appreciate answering on my questions.

Councilmember Hoisel.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Uh just one quick question.

Why is the recommended action not uh override MAPC to kind of delay the implementation of this while the ones who are currently in the pipeline are cleared out?

Well, sir, uh that falls on me.

Um in the discussions between current plans and advanced plans at our staff meeting, someone pointed out hey, uh, you know, they the the logistics of implementation and how there could be a benefit to having a delay.

Um that came from our current plans division, and so I just wanted to present that as an option so that you could consider it.

Um but that's why it didn't wasn't in the staff report.

It was uh it was uh uh something that we noticed late, but I wanted to make sure that you had an opportunity to consider it.

All right, appreciate it.

Thank you.

Let me do a couple of few rapid fire questions.

So this is still has to go to the board of county commissioners.

Um it would because it is a change to the unified zoning code.

However, if the city council adopts it, then uh I believe it would be implemented, it would be effective for the city.

What was the vote recommendation from MAPC?

I don't know if I could find it on here.

That is an excellent question, sir.

Um let me see if I can find the minutes real quick.

Ah I'm told that it was eight zero, but let me eight zero one abstention.

Okay.

And then this doesn't change that um the let's say the tenant is not included in the pro this doesn't change the protest petition requirements, this is just notification.

No, sir, that's correct.

Okay, and then you had used the analogy of Eastboro, uh tied to the school district, that would be a Wichita address.

I have uh Goddard addresses in my district because they're tied to the Goddard School District.

How would that would that be handled in the same way that they would still be included in this because now they're in have a Goddard address opposed to a Wichita address?

No, uh they would not because either they're in the city, which if they if they are in the city of Wichita, then it applies.

If they are in the unincorporated county and they have Wichita, they live in and they're in the Wichita School District, so their address is Wichita, then they would also receive uh an additional letter.

But if they are in the unincorporated county and they show Goddard or any other uh school district or city is their address, no, they would not receive a notice.

So I have residents that live in Wichita, but they have a Goddard address.

They would be included.

Yes, they would because they're in the city of Wichita.

Okay.

I just don't know if it excluded with the Goddard address associated with it.

Yeah, I'll have to look into that some more, but the intent is that if they're in the city of Wichita, they will receive a notice.

Okay.

They would be eligible for receiving.

So that's the intent.

We'll clarify whether that's the case or not.

There's a few other things just regarding the workshop that I don't see maybe mentioned in this that I just had quick questions about.

Um it talked about different types of notifications, perhaps the postcard.

Um the other ones were additional languages, and then it looks like we're probably meeting the last one uh regarding property tenants as property owners because we're mailing to the resident.

Could you talk more about the different languages and then also the postcard suggestion?

Certainly.

Um so we looked at the postcard um suggestion.

Uh it would save money on the short term in terms of the actual mailer itself.

The challenge though was the staff time in terms of differentiating who should get a postcard, who should get a letter, the complexity involved, and for that reason, as a planning director, I recommend that we not move forward with a postcard just because of the complexities and the the chances that increase for us to have an error that would affect uh proper notification.

Okay.

Um, also uh it's also because the cost savings was not significant enough to warrant the risk, in my opinion.

Um, in terms of the languages, what we ran into was uh there were concerns about adequate notification there as well.

Uh, what if we were to translate something incorrectly?

Um there were concerns about equity and fairness as well.

So for that reason, uh we recommended against uh moving forward with the uh notifications in a variety of languages.

Thank you, Scott.

Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, and I completely understand the um the concern about maybe translating things in a way that isn't correct or may come across differently.

I I think that raises a larger point of the city investing in those who can speak and transcribe in different languages so that in cases like this, there's there's someone on our staff who can provide that information again, thinking of being future focused and ready now.

Um we know that in the future we will run into this issue potentially, and so making sure that we get ahead of that.

Also, we know in our Wichita public schools there's over 140 languages already spoken in our schools.

So um it's actually here now, and so we probably should look at that as an opportunity to help mitigate those concerns for departments like yours.

And I hope that if we were to do that, we would could revisit that concern about maybe translating it into different languages so that households whose primary language isn't English are able to at least be a part of the process.

Um I was on the dab when this came before uh the dab in 2022 as the renter on city council.

I am very grateful and appreciative of this.

I care what's happening in my community and my neighborhood just as much as homeowners do, and I think many residents do as well.

Nearly 50% of the folks who live in district one uh are brinters, and roughly 66% of a portion of my district, uh African American renters are renters as well, and um want to make sure that they have a voice in the process too.

I I just want to make sure I also understood you correctly, Scott.

There is no legal obligation for a landlord who is overseeing an apartment complex or a property with multiple residents to notify the tenants that there's a zoning case happening.

That is correct.

Okay, so uh it would kind of be a good faith.

We're hoping that they would act in good faith and communicate with those tenants.

Um in this case, they would have the option, and so we are providing them with the information to they can make it for them to make a decision.

And I'm assuming that is because we can't make it legally obligatory for them to share that information.

Um we've not investigated that one, so I don't know that I have a an answer for you on that one.

I'd have to look into it.

Uh, but again, it was just because of the complexity of the situation, yes, sir.

Can you maybe elaborate a little bit on that for me?

As someone who lives in an apartment, I certainly understand the complexities piece, but I want to make sure that I'm understanding.

So as I'm out in the community, I can mobilize the thought process.

Sure.

Um, so the way that uh addresses are collected are from the ownership records that the county maintains.

For condominiums, uh they are our ownership records for each of the units.

For apartments, there are not.

So in that instance, um, I I suppose you would have to go to MABCD or to FIRE and different databases to try and pull what apartments are there, are the apartment numbers correct?

So for that reason, it it becomes very difficult to tell even how many units are necessarily at an apartment.

Thank you.

And again, I just want to say thank you for doing the work on this.

Conversations for many years on this, and I think this is a testament of we're listening, we're trying to build pathways to incorporate the voices of many in our community, not just a subset.

And I think this is a great example of trying to do that.

So thank you for your work.

Well, thank you, sir.

And I do want to point out we've had a number of planning staff who have been working on this for a number of years.

So we've been very fortunate to have them working on it.

We have no other questions from the council, so we'll go out to the public.

Is there anybody from the public that would like to speak on this item?

See none, we'll bring it back to the board.

Can we get a page or slide 127?

Thank you.

Is there a recommendation or a motion from the council?

Councilmember Hoeisel.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, I move that we take the alternative motion and make modifications to the language or other findings and override.

The MAPC requires a two-thirds majority or 507.

Second.

Okay, with a motion and a second.

Seeing no one else on the board, madam clerk.

Can you open the roll?

Motion passes 6 to 0.

Madam Clerk, can you call the next item?

Supplemental agreement with Sedgwick County for the employment of behavioral health workers.

Good morning, Vice Mayor, City Council.

Jason Cooley, Captain Wichita Police Department.

Today I bring before you the behavioral health worker program contract.

I think we're probably all more familiar with it as the ICT 1 program.

The background of the program in 2019, the Wichita Police Department partnered with Sudwick County and their ComCare system to launch the ICT1 program, the integrative care team.

That program included a behavioral health professional, a Wichita police officer, and a paramedic.

In 23, we expanded the partnership with Sedwick County ComCare to launch ICT two through five.

At that time, uh two through five included behavioral health professionals.

In 2025, we expanded the program further with the Sudget County ComCare by adding a WPD police officer to ICT three through five, which resulted in now those three units, including uh behavioral health professionals and a WPD police officer.

Uh some of what they're tasked with is uh they they currently have their crisis mobile clinicians, integrative care specialists, uh WPD police officers, and uh we're currently housing them at the Central Bureau as they respond to situations all through the city of Wichita.

Uh they're involved in proactive engagement strategies where they're meeting up with uh individuals during crisis.

Uh they do post-incident follow-up when not responding to those calls.

Uh they help reduce repeated calls for service, and they bring some normalization to the race relationship between uh public health professionals and law enforcement.

Uh I wanted to give you just some uh brief uh year-to-date stats of 26.

Uh, these are current as of the end of March.

Uh so the program itself, ICT one through five have responded to 853 requests for services.

Of those 677 came from law enforcement officers, 131 were self-dispatch, which is calls they hear coming out or phone calls are receiving, and they will get on the radio themselves and say we're needed to go to that call.

And of those 653, six, or I'm sorry, 853, 647 of them uh have been in the field as field responses.

Uh during patient contact, uh, 479 patients have been engaged with the unit, and uh that results in almost a 60 percent treat in place.

Um, for the financial considerations, there is no additional uh funding request.

The funding for the program is already adopted in the uh 2026 uh Wichita Police Department budget.

Uh the recommended action is to approve the agreement with Sedwick County and authorize the necessary signatures.

Uh and in summary, the agreement is essentially uh it had a term date.

Um, so the agreement uh had to be uh renewed and extended.

Uh that term date now just continues unless either the city Wichita or the county provide a 60-day written notice that we want that one of these parties want out of this agreement.

With that, I'll stand for questions.

Thank you, Captain Cooley.

Oh, Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Uh, just one question more on how the these units operate.

Um, how do they rotate?

How do we decide which unit is it just whichever ones on call?

Is it we have all of them on standby at the moment?

Nope.

So they uh they report to their normal shift.

Um they work uh their 24 hour coverage, which is why we expanded it from uh ICT one to two, three, and five.

ICT one was and still is um eight to five for lack of better terms, weekends off.

Um that doesn't get you 24 coverage throughout the day and on weekends.

So when we expanded it, uh their model, uh, I can't give you the specifics of who's coming to work, but I can tell you they they overlap.

Um they've adjusted the model from when uh in 23 when I did the expansion and created the model.

Um, you know, I made it very clear.

This is the idea of the coverage.

I don't know if it's gonna work.

I don't know what call loads are gonna look like at different times.

So through the years since 23, uh the the various captains that have taken over that program have adjusted their work hours and their days, and um so now they have full coverage.

So they report to work uh just like we do.

Um, they log in, they're available through the computer system just like we do, and they can be dispatched by the phone or by radio.

Okay, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

See no other questions.

Is there anybody from the public that would like to speak on this item?

If not, I'll bring it back to the bench.

Is there a motion?

I move that we approve the supplemental agreement with Sedgwood County and approve the necessary budget adjustments.

Second.

Okay, uh, Madam Clerk, can you call the rule?

Motion passes six to oh, madam clerk.

Can you call the next item?

Councilmember appointments and comments.

Thank you.

We'll begin with appointments.

Is there anybody that have appointments to make?

Uh, Councilmember Shepard.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I would like to appoint John Williams Bay to the MAC MAPC board.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you.

I would like to reappoint Josh Stevenaller to uh CRB.

And I will uh move to approve those appointments.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay.

Uh Madam Clerk, can you call the roll?

Those appointments passed 6 to 0.

Now we'll move on to comments.

Is there any comments from anybody on the council?

Councilmember Hoheisel.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, we had a great breakfast last week.

We had some really good discussions around the budget.

Um moving forward.

Um I know the rest of you have your listening session set up.

I just wanted to report back about 30 people there at the breakfast, and um, I hope that we got some good data from it.

So looking forward to all your guys' um listening sessions as well coming up.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you.

Uh ICT Trees gave away a hundred trees on Saturday.

It was so awesome.

They had about 50 of them pre-registered for people in 67214, and then after three o'clock, they were free game to anyone that was there.

And they um it was over at three, and there was a line that started about two o'clock for free trees.

So I think that shows that there's a lot of people interested in trees, but sometimes they're a little bit expensive to get in the ground that are a big enough tree to uh get established.

So just wanted to share that and also say thank you to ICT Trees.

I know they worked really hard on working on the grant.

So thanks.

Councilmember Shepherd.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

First of all, shout out to you for running a great meeting today and planning ahead of time to make sure we were all on one accord.

Appreciate that.

Um, I also want to make sure that I take a moment to uh just share a couple of thoughts.

This weekend, district one and our entire city was reminded that gun violence is not distant.

It is here and it is impacting our families, our neighborhoods, and our young people.

Let me be clear that I believe that gun violence is a public health crisis.

And let me also be clear that it's not just about policing, it's about how people are choosing to respond to the pain, the frustration, and the conflict that they are wrestling with.

And while I deeply understand the influences that shape that mindset, violence is not an acceptable solution.

I'm old enough to remember that when uh disagreements happen, we you know, squared up in the front yard, we put on the box and gloves, and we shook hands afterwards.

Maybe that's not a culture a lot of people come from, but it's one that I come from.

And today too many conflicts end in the irreversible harm.

We're seeing families and individuals being shot and killed due to gun violence.

Over the weekend, I was brief with the police chief about violence that occurred in district one.

This morning I woke up and was reminded again that there was an individual in district one who was shot.

We talk about public safety a lot from the bench.

Public safety has become a buzzword for many people in public service because we know that it makes a lot of constituents feel good to know that people who represent our communities care about their safety and security.

But law enforcement is only one piece of the puzzle.

We need prevention, and we need to know that stronger neighborhoods also resolves around trust.

That's on each and every one of us.

Also, I want folks to hear me clearly that if you bring violence in our community, and if you put lives at risk, there will be accountability.

At the same time, we must invest in prevention.

Come together as a community and work towards a solution and invest in those solutions without question at the same rate as we invest in other areas of keeping our community safe.

I want to let each and every one of my colleagues know that I've been in conversation with partners to have conversations on a strategy and building out a network that works in tandem with the police, but brings community into that conversation.

I invite you all in to be a part of that conversation when that happens, uh, because I truly do believe that prevention starts with us.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

Good good words, Councilmember Shepard.

I just want to recognize uh the passing of an institution and a good man, Wes Gallion, who is the head of Wichita Area Builders Association for uh quite a while, uh passed away this week, and I just wanted to recognize him from this bench as well.

We cannot adjourn.

We have an executive session, and so I moved to the city council recess into executive session for 20 minutes to receive information on two level civil lawsuits pursuant to KSA 754319 B2 for legal cons consultation with the city attorney, which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship, pinning litigation and legal advice.

The executive session will begin at 1150 a.m.

and end at 1210 p.m.

The meeting will resume in council chambers.

Is there a motion to approve?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, all in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed the same.

Okay, we'll go to executive session.

I tried to get to say yes.

Yeah, I know.

I don't know what to do when it says