Vernon
Vernon. >> Yes.
» I'm doing roll call. >> Okay. Here.
» Ben >> here.
» Mike >> here.
» Sherry here. >> Vicki. Show all five here please.
[clears throat] Will everybody please stand for the
pledge of allegiance.
I'd like to call for a moment of silence, please.
Thank you. [clears throat] Now we have the introduction of our new
police officer. Chief,
Mayor and Council, Chief Jeff Short. Um, wasn't long ago I was here introducing
another officer, but uh, today we're going to introduce um, Officer Phil
Logman. Would you please join me at the podium?
Uh, mayor and councel, this is officer Phil Logman. Um, he, uh, grew up around
the St. Louis area, Missouri. Uh he came to Kansas, went to college, uh local
junior college, and then he actually was also a collegiate athlete at St. Mary's
where he was the captain of his um cross country team.
» Cross country and track. >> I know nothing about that, so I have to
ask for help. >> These short legs don't get me far in
races. Um anyway, this is just another addition to the professional police
department we're trying to assemble for you guys. Um the level of service that
uh we expect out of him is going to match everybody else on our uh team. Um
he comes to us from the Levworth County Sheriff's Office. He uh did his time on
the correct side of things in the jail. Um he did a lot of detention work,
transport, and he recently served civil papers throughout the county. So he's
very familiar with the We do county, excuse me, Levvenworth County Way,
forgive me. I won't put you in that light. Um anyway, so we're very happy to
have him. Um he's going to be immediate addition to our team and thank you for
supporting us in our recruitment efforts. It makes bringing people like
Officer Logman to our team very easy. So, thank you very much, Officer Logman.
Welcome to the team. >> Your chance, sir.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
Call of the public. Public comment will be allowed at the mayor's discretion.
This is exclusive of items requiring a public hearing. Each speaker is limited
to two minutes. There are two public hearings regarding the budget which have
been noticed for tonight. If you would like to speak about one of the budget
items that require a public hearing, please wait to do so until the public
hearing is open. This portion of the public comment will be open to any
members of the public who wish to speak about any item on the agenda other than
the two budgeted items that require a public hearing. As a reminder to the
public and the city council members alike, the city council staff will not
engage in a dialogue or debate with any speaker pertaining to any comments made.
Members of the public wishing to speak must keep their comments germanine or
relevant to the specific agenda item before the council. Please wait to be
recognized by the mayor. Remember to state your name and address for the
record. Is there anyone here that would like to speak on any agenda item other
than the two budget items that require public hearing?
Not see anybody. Kathy, is there anybody online?
Move on then. Uh, I need a motion for the consent agenda.
» Mayor, I app I move to approve the consent agenda as stated. Have
» a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second a motion and a second. I'll
call for a vote. Vicki. >> Gary.
» Hi. >> Mike.
» Hi. >> Ben.
» Hi. >> Vernon.
» Hi. >> Passes. 50.
Go on to item number two. Public hearing. Revenue neutral rate.
[clears throat] Public hearing for the public's revenue
rate neutral rate. I will now entertain a motion to open the public hearing.
» Mayor, I I move to uh open the public hearing.
» I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second.
» Call for vote. Mike, >> hi.
» Sherry. >> Hi.
» Vicki. >> Ben.
» Hi. >> Vernon.
» I 50.
City staff will make the presentation regarding the revenue neutral rate and
budget on the agenda item agenda first. The presentation will last about 30
minutes. Once staff's presentation is completed, we will hear public comment
from those who would like to speak on the item for which the public hearing
was noticed. Each speaker is limited to two minutes. The public hearing that is
open currently is the hearing regarding the revenue neutral rate. Once public
comment is completed on that item, we will have council discussion regarding
the revenue neutral rate and the council will consider formal action. Then we
will close the public hearing and open up the next public hearing which is
regarding the 2027 operating budget. As a reminder to the public and city
councils alike, city council staff will not engage in any dialogue or debate
with the speaker pertaining to any comments made. Members of the public
wishing to speak must keep their comments gerine or relevant to the
specific item for which the public hearing was noticed. At this time, I
will turn it over to our deputy city administrator, Mattie Boutton, to make a
presentation regarding the revenue neutral rate.
» Thank you, mayor and council. Mattie Bountton, deputy city administrator.
Before I begin, I just want to say a very sincere thank you to the mayor and
city council for all of their work on this proposed budget. I know some of the
presentations that we make um can seem repetitive um but we think that the
information is incredibly important to the public. That's why we publish all
the information online and also record these meetings as well. So um very very
sincere thank you to each and every one of you.
Um so a little bit of background about how to stay informed with the city.
There are a lot of opportunities on how to stay informed. first and foremost is
to attend city council meetings located here at our beautiful Baser City Hall on
the uh second and fourth Wednesday of every month at 6:00 p.m.
If folks aren't able to attend that is uh we totally understand. We record all
of these meetings and upload them to YouTube. You can see us navigating to
our YouTube channel uh on the screen. Just go to YouTube, type in city of
Baser. You can pull up our page and look at all the meetings uh that we have
available uh for the public to view. If you're not able to watch the meetings on
YouTube, we also put all of our budget presentations on our website, including
a draft line item budget that was published two weeks ago. Um, you can see
us navigating to it on the screen there. From the menu, just select departments,
administration, and then budget. And we have all of our PowerPoint
presentations. So, um, we certainly understand these meetings can get long
and so if people just want to see the data, we respect that, too. And we want
to make sure to have that available for the public.
And then finally, we put all of our agenda packets and and meeting minutes
available online as well. Um, if you go to the city's website and then from the
menu, you can select uh government and then agenda and minutes and you can pull
up the entire agenda packet. This is the eighth budget presentation
that I've made in to the public and a lot of great discussion and dialogue and
feedback that we've received from this governing body. Uh, like I said, two
weeks ago, we published the draft line item budget that was on our website for
two weeks. So, if members of the public wanted to see that in advance of
tonight's public hearings, they had an opportunity to review that well in
advance of tonight. Uh, so tonight we do have the two budget public hearings that
the mayor uh mentioned in his opening remarks. Um, and so that would conclude
uh our budget cycle for tonight. How are meetings noticed to the public? first is
um on the city's website and we really encourage folks to go on to our website.
You can sign up for email or text notifications. That way you don't have
to question whether or not the city's having a meeting. You could just get a
text right on your phone that says, "Hey, uh they're having a public meeting
tonight and it links you directly to the agenda." It's a really helpful tool.
Secondly, in the city's e-news, which is emailed to subscribers at least once per
month, but most often twice per month. uh in the city's Baser quarterly
newsletter which is mailed to everybody inside city limits and has a lot of
really great information about what's happening in the city on the city social
media pages including Facebook, Instagram and X. Um we encourage
everybody to like us and follow us at city of Baser. And then certain meetings
that are required in state statute, we have to um notice them in a newspaper
Levmore times or Tonganoxy. For this particular uh public hearings, we notice
them in the Levvenworth Times. So in the state of Kansas, if you are a
taxing authority and you levy property taxes in the state, you're required to
make certain information available to the public. And in our opinion, that
information that's required is really minimal. It's what you see on the
screen. There's not a lot of information there. It doesn't show you where the
dollars are going. It doesn't break down really anything. It's just a one-page
document. So, what we do is we publish our line
item budget on the website, and you can see us navigating to it on the on the
screen. It has information about our elected officials. It has information
about our budget priorities. It has a letter from the city administrator about
the direction of that particular operating budget. So, a wealth of
information above and beyond of what is required um by the state for us to be a
taxing authority. Some fast facts about the city of Baser.
Um very similar to your personal credit, organizations also have a credit rating
and very similar to your personal credit, the higher your um credit
rating, the better interest rates you get when you are borrowing money. Uh the
city of Baser has a double A plus bond rating which is the second highest
credit rating that you can receive. Uh we received that from S&P Global Ratings
which is a national uh credit rating reading rating agency excuse me. Um and
they have some great comments in our most recent report some of which are on
the screen for you to see. Um and we're very proud of that AA plus bond rating
and they have told us that the only thing that's keeping us back from AAA is
our size. Um, so hopefully over the next 10 years we'll be able to upgrade and be
a AAA community, which would be fantastic. Uh, secondly, we're audited
every year by an external auditor. We continue to receive what's called an
unmodified opinion, which is the highest rate of opinion that you can receive
from an external auditor. Uh, we received that again most recently this
year. Uh, and there's a quote from one of our previous auditors on the screen
about um the city's preparedness for its audit as well as our controls throughout
the year. Our estimated population is 8,500. We're ranked as the third safest
city in Kansas and the second fastest growing city in Kansas as of the last
certified census. One of our guiding posts for building
the budget document is our community survey results or our citizen
satisfaction citizen satisfaction survey results. We completed one in early 2025.
Um, it was a statistically valid survey with a 95% level of confidence, which
means if the city were to complete that survey over and over and over and over
again, there's a 95% chance that those results are not going to change by much.
Um, residents overall have a very high perception of living inside city limits.
87% responded that they are either very satisfied or satisfied with the overall
quality of life in Baser which represents a 5% increase from 2019.
Overall satisfaction with city services are much higher than other communities
including both on the regional level and national level.
So from that from those survey documents, this governing body sets its
priorities for its budget and these are very um we've had the same uh priorities
over the last several years and that's very common in a community like Baser, a
community that's growing that has a common vision. Um so in no particular
order all of these are working together as to maintain Baser as a community of
choice. We are a place where we take pride in our community and its safety.
We are improving, modernizing, and maintaining roads. We are proposing no
property tax rate increase. We are a desirable place to live, work, and grow
a business. And we're continuing to promote fiscal transparency and
stewardship. In the city, we have several different
types of funds. Um, and they're broken out on the screen for you. Starting from
the left, we have the governmental activity funds. Those are primarily
funded by property tax. We have our capital project and equipment funds
primarily funded by sales tax. We have two enterprise funds that are funded by
the utility charges for those particular services. We have two fiduciary funds.
These funds are held by the city but not controlled by the city in any way. And
then we have some a few special funds and they have special restrictions about
the revenues and expenditures. For example, we have the mayor's charity
fund and once a year we hold a mayor's annual golf tournament where we raise
money for community needs. Uh the mayor and his wife adopt annually um usually
around 30 kids from the school district to give them Christmas presents and make
sure that they have a really happy holiday season. So um no tax dollars,
property tax, sales tax, no city revenue goes into that fund. there are specific
restrictions related to that fund to make sure that only proceeds from
fundraising efforts go into that fund. So that's just an example of one of the
funds that we have, special funds that we have here at the city.
In tonight's presentation, I'll talk a lot about how property taxes are
calculated. Um, you know, some of the strategies that the city deploys when
putting together its budget. And a word that you're going to hear a lot is mill.
So what is a mill? I get that question a lot. It's just a unit of measurement
that is used to calculate property taxes. In practical terms, a mill is $1
of property taxes for $1,000 of assessed value. Um, MIL ML and MIL ML both are
used synonymously. They they mean the same thing. Um, so just wanted to call
that out to make sure that the public is aware.
So, how are property taxes calculated on a home? We first start with our
appraised value. that's set by the Levvenworth County Appraisers Office. We
multiply that by the assessment percentage that is set in state statute.
The assessment for percentage for residential properties is 11.5 12%.
Commercial properties is 25%. So from a rate perspective, commercial properties
pay more than double the rate of property taxes than residential uh
properties in the state of Kansas. You multiply those two together to get the
assessed value. You multiply that by the mill rate. uh divide that by a th00and
to get the city's portion of the tax bill.
The average home value in the city of Baser is $423,000.
You multiply that by the residential assessment percentage of 11.5% to get
the assessed value. Multiply that by the city's proposed mill rate of 33.938.
Divide that by a,000 to get the city's portion of the tax bill. Um I get this
question a lot when I make this presentation and I do this presentation
a lot. Um, I pay a lot more in taxes than that. So, where is my money going?
This is where your property tax dollars are going if you live inside city
limits. Uh, this is for the last year's tax cycle. These taxing jurisdictions
have not yet, were the first one other than Loveorth County to hold the budget
hearing um and approve their budget. So, all of these other taxing authorities
have only published what their intent is to do with their mill rate and not
necessarily approved it. Um, so I'll go through what it was last year and what
they're proposing for this year. So last year, for every $1 of property taxes
that you paid in Baser, about a penny went to the state, 25 cents goes to the
county, 23 cents to the city, 6 cents to the fire district, 41 cents goes to the
school district, and 4 cents goes to the library. For this upcoming tax cycle,
the state of Kansas actually passed legislation to remove that one and a
half mills. So that will come off. Levvenworth County decided to go revenue
neutral. So they reduced their mill rate by about two and a quarter mills. Uh
that was approved today. Uh as the city we're recommending a flat mill rate.
Fairmont Township Fire has published that their maximum mill rate would be an
increase of about a half a mill. Uh the school district is uh maximum would be
about a mill and a half increase. And then the Baser Community Library uh
published about a half mil increase. So, um, state of Kansas would be falling
off. Levvenworth County went down about two and a quarter. We're proposing to
stay flat and the remaining taxing authorities are, uh, could possibly see
an increase in their mill rate.
Here's the history of property values in the city of Baser. Our value for this
upcoming budget cycle is uh, a little over 161 million. That's two 10 12%
increase from 2026. About half of that is due to new construction in our
community and the other half is due to appreciation of existing structures.
This is the history of the mill rate in the city of Baser. You can see that
there has not been a a vote to increase the property tax rate since 2018.
Residents and businesses are probably paying more in taxes because one or two
things are happening at the same time. either your property value is
increasing, other taxing jurisdictions are increasing their mill rate, or both.
Um, and of course, this governing body has continued to advocate uh for
legislation at the state level to cap property valuation increases for the
purposes of taxation.
This is a this is a slide that I've included in previous budget
presentations, and I think it's really important to demonstrate the strategy,
the long-term strategy of a flat mill rate. We get the question a lot of well
why don't you just decrease a half mill a half mill and then just reset back to
where you were when you know the city needs the needs additional resources and
so in the top section you can see um two different scenarios. So the assumptions
in this particular calculation is a home value that had a home value of three
$300,000 in 2022. Five years of growth on average of a 7% increase in home
value year-over-year. That's our basic um assumption in this calculation. In
the green there you can see uh yearbyear the city portion of the taxes will
increase because the city is keeping the mill rate flat and the property value is
increasing by 7%. Year-over-year. So you can see in that scenario the total
amount over a 5-year period that you would pay in additional city taxes is
$363.90. In the bottom scenario, we decreased the
mill rate by a half a mill each year until we got to 2026 and we reset back
to the original mill rate. And you can see that that would cost residents on
average 5% more because the values of those mills go up because the home value
is increasing. So that is the reason why the city has continued to keep a flat
mill rate and try to advocate for capping property valuation increases for
the purposes of taxation. In another scenario, we looked at, okay,
well, why don't we just decrease it by two mills? What what what would that
look like? And what would that look like compared to a property value cap at 3%.
So, if we took an existing home um that was valued at 20 $325,000 in 2022,
um this year it would be appraised at $426,000
and that would be about $1,500 um for their particular portion. That's
with a 2 mil decrease. On a new home, $500,000,
same scenario, they'd be paying about $1,800.
This next scenario will demonstrate why it's so important in our professional
opinion to have a property tax cap. If we had a cap at 3%, that same home
would be paying $1,400 instead of over $1,500 and the new home
would be paying about $1,900. So this demonstrates at least to us
mathematically that if you instituted a cap and you kept a flat mill rate,
existing property owners would have a manageable expectation of how to how
much their property taxes will increase. And also the new homes that are coming
onto the system that require additional services will also pay their fair share
for the services that they require. So we've we've done these calculations
before. We just wanted to call those out in the two different scenarios to
demonstrate why it's so important in our opinion to cap property value increases
for the purposes of taxation. The revenue neutral rate um which is
what the public hearing is open for at this moment is the mill rate that would
allow the city to generate the same amount of property tax dollars in this
year uh I'm sorry next year as we did in this year. And so the city of Baser's
revenue neutral rate is 30.702 and the proposed uh mill rate in the
proposed budget is the same mill rate as 2026 which is 33.938.
Now revenue neutral does not guarantee that people's property taxes will
decrease. If their home value increases beyond the commensurate percentage that
the mill rate is reduced, they will pay more in taxes. So revenue neutral does
not guarantee that people's property taxes will go down. It's our belief that
the one factor in the entire property tax calculation formula that has run a
muck is the property values. And if we can cap that, we can get a hold of of
this situation with property taxes.
So property taxes and baser, what do they fund? Property taxes generally fund
recurring expenses such as personnel. sales tax is a little bit more volatile
revenue source and so we budget those conservatively. Those are for one-time
expenditures such as roadway improvements. Um you can see the
majority of your property taxes go to the general fund. They also fund the
bond and interest fund, employee benefits fund, and the parks and parks
and w fund. Sales tax is just the opposite. The
majority of the your sales tax dollars in Baser go to the capital improvement
funds while only uh less than a third go to the general fund.
What is the biggest expense of the general fund? The biggest expense of the
general fund is the police department. About 40% of the general fund expenses
is the police department. And I think that's representative of this governing
body's intent to um support and promote our police department to maintain Baser
as a very safe community.
We do an analysis of other cities and what their mill rates are and how do we
compare and how do we measure up against cities regardless of class or regardless
of population. So in the state of Kansas there are three classes of cities uh
first, second and third class. It has nothing to do with how nice a community
is and everything to do with how a government is set up. Baser is a city of
the third class. Um, and so when we look at our mill rate versus the average mill
rate of those classes of cities, third class, second class, and and first
class, you can see in each one of those categories, our mill rate is
significantly lower than the average in each of those categories. If you look at
503 cities of the third class in the state of Kansas, and we rank all of
those mill rates from highest mill rate to lowest mill rate, Baser is 315 at a
503. So, if we look at other cities,
regardless of class, and just look at population,
there are 10 cities in the state of Kansas that have a population similar to
ours between 7 and 9,000. The average mill rate of those cities is a little
over 41 a.5 mills, which again, our proposed mill rate is 33.938.
When I rank the all those cities, those 10 cities from highest mill rate to
lowest mill rate, Baser is eight out of 10.
One of the things we're really proud of at Baser is our ability to secure grants
and external funding for capital projects in our community. We've been
able to secure over $22 million in grants uh for projects that are
happening um around 155th Street, 158th Street, all these trails, a significant
amount of grant dollars. And those grants can go anywhere. And we're just
incredibly proud to be able to compete and bring those property taxes to our
residents as opposed to those dollars going somewhere else because those
dollars are going to get spent and we want them to be spent here. Um just for
some context, that's about six times the amount of property taxes that we collect
in a single year. So on average for the last several years, we've actually
collected more in grants than we have in property taxes every single year. And
that is why the city's been able to do all of these incredible improvements
without increasing the property tax rate.
Here are the 2027 proposed budget focus areas. Of course, maintenance of
existing facilities. We talk about this all the time in our budget workshops.
It's not enough to build nice things. You got to keep them nice, and that
takes resources. And so we established uh a reserve fund uh to be able to
properly maintain these nice amenities that have been um built in the last few
years. Um we're investing in the city's roadway network, including the new
special sales tax that was approved. Um we're continuing to host quality parks
and wreck events. We are continuing to try to leverage external dollars for
roadway improvements and infrastructure improvements. This budget includes an
additional FTE um that will be allocated by the city administrator. Um she's
preliminary said that she'd like to allocate that to the police department.
Um as we continue to grow, we're going to need more additional resources in
that area. We are recommending a property tax relief initiative and I'll
talk about that more on a subsequent slide. And then recruitment and
retention of city staff. This proposed budget does include a cost of living
adjustment for all staff of 2.4%.
We've completed some significant roadway improvements for 2026. You can see our
guys on the on the screen doing some crack sealing. Um we did a street
sweeping uh in the spring. We'll do one in the fall. We've upgraded our pavement
pavement markings. Um we did two neighborhoods of 2-in mill and overlay.
We did two neighborhoods of curb replacement. And we did several
neighborhoods of crack sealing. And crack sealing is a a pavement
preservation uh process where we um put material in cracks to prevent moisture
from penetrating down into the subbase and therefore preserving the life of the
pavement. We are working on updating the um
roadway map. Um we should have it released by the end of September and
we'll update it every year thereafter. So when the sales tax passed, we
immediately got with our uh engineers to update the map so that community members
can go online and see when their roadway will be improved and what maintenance
materials will be provided to that roadway.
Uh this governing body has put a significant effort into uh recruiting uh
commercial businesses because like I said in the beginning uh commercial
businesses are taxed at more than double the rate of as residential property. So,
it's really important that every city have a balanced tax portfolio of
residential and commercial properties. Um, and so this governing body has put a
significant amount of effort into that. From 2019 to current, our uh percentage
of commercial of assessed value has increased by uh 2.1% from 7.8% to 9.9%.
Uh that may not sound like a lot but it is especially considering the wave of
residential development that you have been uh basically swimming up against a
current of uh for the last six years. Um so it is a really significant um victory
there. Since 2020, the city has welcomed several new businesses. Most recently,
the city announced McDonald's and Duncan are coming to town. It's important to
note that those uh announcements, those developments received exactly 0 in
property tax incentives from the city. Um they are also paying full sales tax
to the city. The city did not forego any of its portion of sales tax that will be
generated from those developments. And we're hopeful to be able to make
additional announcements later this year and early in 2027.
This is a history of the uh city sales tax collections. And you can see that
your um priority of bringing more commercial development to the community
is working. These are dollars that we use for roadway improvements, for
capital investments. Um and it just shows that the city's sales tax
collections continue to be strong year-over-year, uh despite some of the
surrounding communities not experiencing the same.
In 2021, the city of Baser um approved resolution 2021-36 and that established
our reserve and and cash reserve policy and debt policy. Um it is because this
governing body approved that policy that we've been able to get a really great
foundation to make sure that all the decisions that we're making point back
to that document and as staff it is a really great roadmap um for putting this
budget together. Um, so because you did that work back in 2021, it's really set
us on a path for success related to our cash reserves and our debt management
policy. Um, what is a capital improvement plan?
A capital improvement plan is a long-term uh, financial management plan
that includes all the city's capital investments over a long period of time.
Um, some of them can be recurring, some of them can be non-recurring, but all of
the city's investments back into its infrastructure is encapsulated in that
document. We have a few foundations of the capital improvement plan. Um, first
is we're going to do whatever we can to secure as many grants as we can for
whatever project we recommend. Secondly, we're going to use funded plans,
preferably by grants, uh, to use community um, input to be able to put
projects forward. So, um, we really like doing plans in advance and in including
the community before big developments happen. And we think that that's a good
foundation moving forward. And then finally, this city staff will not
recommend anything to this governing body that's going to jeopardize our
doubleA plus bond rating. We just won't do it. It's not worth it.
We did an analysis of other surrounding communities and the value of their
capital improvement plan and what is that as a percentage of their assessed
value. Basically, how by a percentage, what are they reinvesting back into the
city? And you can see that the city of Baser is reinvesting from a percentage
perspective back into the community at the second highest rate of the cities
that we evaluated. Uh which is great to see.
I spoke about this earlier about uh the importance of advocating for a property
tax cap for the purposes of taxation. We went up to Topeka several times. Um we
thought maybe we were going to get it over the finish line. Um we provided
verbal testimony in person. We were the only city in the entire state of Kansas
that provided verbal testimony in support of a property tax cap and it
passed in the Senate, failed in the House. So, we were pretty disappointed
in that. Um, but what we appreciate about this governing body is you guys
told us, let's try to figure a way how to do something locally. And so, what
we've put together in this budget is what's called Baser's Back to You uh
program. It's a residential rebate program. There's no income restriction,
no age restriction. Uh simply put, if you are an live in your home and own
your home, your owner occupied unit in a residential home and you don't have any
code violations or you don't owe anything back to the city and you're not
living in a brand new home, um if your property value increased by beyond 3%,
the city will rebate back to you whatever excess of the city portion of
the taxes back to you in the form of a check. Um, we recognize that we only
control as a city 23% of the city's tax bill um of the tax bill that our
residents pay, but we really believe strongly in the cap and it's no longer
working to just go up and advocate in Topeka. So, we're going to try to prove
to them that it can work. Um, and so our recommended start would be for this year
for the tax bills that are going to be sent out in 2026. We'd recommend
releasing an FAQ right around when tax bills go out so that we can start
answering some questions from our community. We'd recommend in December to
send out a direct mailer so that everybody is aware of this program. Um
and then in January of 2027, we'd recommend a opening up applications. And
by application, I mean a very simple um fillable form. We don't want to over
complicate things. We don't want to prevent people from actually applying
and taking advantage of this program. So, it will be our priority to make this
as easy as possible. We'll make it available online. People can come into
city hall and we'll help you fill out the form. People can mail it in. People
can drop it off in the dropbox. Truly, however people want to bring it back to
us, we will help them. Um, and we will process their check and and mail them
their rebate check. Again, we can only control 23%. Um, but we think that it's
the right thing to do. So, I do an analysis every year of,
okay, we're keeping the property tax rate flat. Property values are up.
What's that mean for the average property owner? So, I calculate every
year what is the monthly impact for residential properties and what is the
monthly impact for commercial properties? because we wanted to do an
analysis of um we get the question, well, why don't you just decrease the
mill rate by whatever that same budget impact is for your property tax rebate?
Well, this illustrates why we're doing that. Um, so if we did nothing, if we
just kept it flat and didn't offer a rebate, residential properties can
expect to pay about $5.30 per month more and commercial properties about 26.50.
The budget impact for the rebate program we estimate at $75,000.
That is about half of a mill. So if we decreased
the mill rate by half a mill, you can see residential properties are still
going to pay an additional $5.22 more per month, which is only 8 cents less
than the previous scenario. There's just not a lot of movement there. um because
we're trying to target existing homes, people that have been in their home year
over year over year. And so we did the same analysis for okay, what what does
it look like if we have the cap? You can see residential properties can expect to
pay uh $3.50 per month per per month more, which is significantly less than
the flat mill rate with no rebate. And so that is why we think it's in the best
interest for us to do the rebate program as opposed to just reducing the mill by
the commensurate amount in the budget. This is a real example. Um it's actually
a home of um somebody that's sitting in this room. Um the 2025 appraised value
was $366,000, a little over that. The 2026 appraised
value increased by 7%. Um, so in this particular scenario, this person would
be rebated back about $51.54. Um, you know, every little bit helps,
especially when you're trying to uh, you know, manage a home and manage a
household. This is, um, just to demonstrate how this would work. This is
not the average amount that people will receive. Um, but, you know, if
somebody's home increased by 10%, they're obviously going to get rebated
back more because they're being taxed more um, by a percentage perspective.
So, this is just an example to show um what the rebate program would do um in
the proposed line item budget. And then also in the packet, we included a um
summary of the 2027 proposed budget. Um so, each one of those funds have a line
item budget that's attached in the PDF that folks can go on online and and see
where their money is being spent for that particular item.
U Mayor, that concludes my comments at this point. Um, I believe that the next
step is to uh hear from the public now that the public hearing is open.
» Good job. >> Thank you, mayor.
» We will now hear from the public. Please wait to be recognized by the mayor.
Remember to state your name and address for the record. Is there anyone here who
would like to speak about the revenue neutral rate?
Not seeing anybody here. Uh Kathy, is there anybody online?
Okay, go ahead and now hear from the city
council. Does the city council have any comments regarding the revenue neutral
rate?
» I just want to say thank you, Maddie. Uh when I hear the budget, what I hear
is not just talk. It's being transparent.
It's helping with the understanding. It is providing examples that people can
can hand can get their hands on. So, thank you very much. And if anybody
winds up having questions, I can tell you there's a person you can
go to. Sorry,
» no questions. Just simply want to say great job, Maddie. As you always do,
explain it so well. Um, should be a teacher. You know, you you make a very,
in my opinion, difficult subjects very easy. So, job.
» Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just want to say, um, first off, thank you to our
staff, Leslie and Maddie, both for bringing in all that grant money. I know
you've got a considerable amount that we're um I I think it's about 17 million
that we're hoping to maybe receive. We'll see how it goes. I know you guys
have been working diligently on that many, many hours, weeks. Thank you. Um
also, I'm really pleased with all the commercial development that's coming,
especially when they're paying not only full property tax, but sales tax. That's
huge. That's improvements to our roads. Um because I do have some concerns with
some of the roads surrounding the city. Um I was mentioning to some people that
are actually in the room. I'm I'm actually concerned about safety on
Levvenworth Road right now coming into Baser. So um I feel strongly that it's
good to not raise the mill rate, but also be able to continue to build our
city in a good way, quality way, a safe way. Um, but I also am extremely
impressed that you guys thought outside the box. I mean, I'm not aware of any
other city or maybe even taxing entity in the state of Kansas that's looking at
capping and doing a refund. So, thank you. I mean, you two absolutely amaze me
and we're just blessed to have you both on board and helping our city. So, thank
you. >> Thank you, council member. And if I may,
mayor, um I actually spoke to the um Senate Taxation Committee chair uh about
our program and um she was very excited and to her knowledge, no one else is
proposing that. So to Council Member Standford's point, um I I think we're
probably the first and um happy to be the first and hopefully other folks
catch on and the state finally does something about the property value
problem. >> Thank you. I'll now enter obtain a
motion for resolution 2026-17.
Mr. >> Mayor, I move to approve resolution
2026-17, a resolution of the city of Baser, Kansas, regarding the governing
body's approval to levy a property tax rate exceeding the revenue neutral rate,
having held a public hearing regarding the same. I have a motion. Do I have a
second? >> Second. I have a motion and a second.
I'll call for a vote. Vernon
Vernon. >> Hi
» Vicki. >> Hi
» Jerry. >> Hi
» Mike. >> Hi
» Ben. >> Hi.
» Passes 50.
I will now entertain a motion to close the public hearing for the revenue
neutral rate. >> Mr. Mayor, I move we close the public
hearing for the revenue neutral rate. A motion. Do I have a second?
» I'll second. >> A motion and a second. I'll call for a
vote. Ben. >> Hi.
» Vernon. >> I.
» Vicki. >> Hi.
» Sherry. >> Hi.
» Mike. >> Hi.
» Passes 50.
We'll move on to item number three, public hearing for the city of Baser's
operating budget for 2027. I will now entertain a motion for the
public hearing. Council,
I apologize. Um, the mayor is asking for a motion to open the public hearing
regarding the 2027 operating budget. >> Mayor, I move we approve we open the the
public hearing for the 2027 uh operating budget.
» I have a motion. Do I have a second?
I have a motion and a second. I'll call for a vote. Cherry.
» Hi. >> Mike.
» Hi. >> Ben.
» Hi. >> Vernon.
» Hi. >> Vicki.
» Hi. [clears throat] >> Passes 50.
» Public hearing that is open currently is the hearing regarding the city's
proposed 2027 budget.
We now hear from the public. Please wait to be recognized by the mayor. Remember
to state your name and address for the record. Is there anyone here that would
like to speak about the 2027 proposed budget?
Not seeing anybody. Kathy, is anybody online?
I will now entertain a motion to close the public hearing for the 20
27 operating budget. Mayor, I move to close the public hearing for the 2027 uh
operating budget. >> A motion. Do I have a second?
» A second. >> A motion a second. I'll call for a vote.
Vicki. >> Hi.
» Hi. >> Cherry.
» Hi. >> Ben.
» Hi. >> Vernon.
» Hi. >> Passes 50.
Item number four, resolution 2026-18, a resolution approving the 2027 city of
Baser operation operating budget as authorized by the Kansas state law.
» Thank you, Mayor. Mattie Bton, deputy city administrator. Staff does not have
any additional comments, but we'd be happy to stand for questions.
» Anybody got any questions, Sherry? >> No, just thanks for all the hard work. I
know you guys extensive hours and time, and thanks for your thorough
presentation. Appreciate it. >> Have additional questions. Thank you.
» Hi.
» Mayor, we have a proposed motion on the screen if you would like to entertain
that. >> Mr. Mayor, I move to approve resolution
2026-18, a resolution approving the 2027 city of Baser operating budget as
presented. >> Have a motion. Do I have a second?
» Second. >> A motion and a second. Call for a vote.
Ben >> I.
» Vernon >> I.
» Mike. >> Hi.
» Jerry. >> Hi.
» Vicki. >> Hi.
» Passes by vote. [clears throat]
» Moving on to item number five. Resolution 202619.
The resolution accepting the 5-year capital improvement plan CIP for the
city of Baser. >> Thank you, Mayor Matty Bal, deputy city
administrator. staff does not have any additional comments, but we have be
happy to stand for questions. And our city clerk has a recommended motion on
the screen if you're ready to entertain it, sir.
» Uh you take a motion. Does anybody have any discussion they want to talk about
on that? >> Okay, I'll entertain a motion.
» Uh Mr. Mayor, this is Sher. I would move to approve resolution 2025-9,
a resolution accepting the 5-year capital improvement plan for the city of
Baser. You said >> Oh, I'm My apologies. 2026-19.
» Just want to make sure. >> Eyes.
» Apologize. >> I'll second that. Have
» a motion in a second. I'll call for a vote. Jerry
» I. >> Ben.
» Hi. >> Vern. Vernon.
» I. >> Vicki.
» Mike. >> Hi. Passes. Five.
» Mayor and council. That concludes our budget presentations this tonight. And I
just want to say again, thank you for all of your feedback um over the course
of these last few months and uh it's an honor and a privilege to serve this
community. Thank you. >> Thank you, Maddie.
Move on to item number six, first amendment to the development agreement,
Baser Boulevard Holdings LLC in city of Baser, Kansas.
» Mayor, thank you very much. Leslie Riverola, city administrator. Um, the
item that you have in front of you this evening represents the first amendment
to the development agreement between the city of Baser and Baser Boulevard
Holdings LLC. The representative of the development is here this evening, Mr.
Dustin Baker. Um, a little bit of background on why the request is being
made for the amendment. Um, as you can imagine, the timing and um, necessary
components to get the project moving forward hit a little bit of a delay. Um
nothing that's earthshattering, but the city is uh moving forward with our
notice to proceed with construction for the sanitary sewer improvements before
the end of August. So work is set to start um very quickly and um the Baser
Boulevard Holdings team has been diligently working through their plan
design as well as some mass grading that needs to happen um for the site uh
alongside their own sanitary sewer um plans for the internal collection
system. So we feel very uh pleased with the progress. The request that they have
in front of you is to extend the first deadline for their development through
June 30th, 2027. You may recall the development agreement had several
performance metrics that needed to be hit within certain time frames. They
will still maintain all of the other deadlines. So no other deadlines shift
in the development agreement, just the first performance deadline. So you may
recall there's a requirement for traffic signals once we hit a certain occupancy.
All of those remain unchanged. So, um, your special counsel, Pete Heaven,
actually, uh, reviewed this with, um, the developer's attorney and had no
concerns. Staff has no concerns. We recommend approval. The developer is
here if you should have any questions for him about progress and timeline, but
we stand in support and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might
have. Good. >> You have any questions for less?
No. >> Thanks, Mr. Coming today.
I stand for questions. So, >> is anybody
question for Dustin?
» No, I'll just say that we are um we do feel like we're making really good
progress. We've been working with Jim um and other and Alex and city staff on
architectural um design standards, making sure that we're meeting um our
preliminary uh development plan as it was presented. Um we are uh diligently
working on um submitting the final development plan for the first phase
which should be submitted in in next month sometime. um you know, fingers
crossed we're we're working on that. So, we feel really good about the progress.
It's just a couple of snags just caused us to um have a little bit of a delay,
but uh city staff has been great and we feel like we're um we're we're just
we're almost right there. >> Thank you, Jeff.
» Thank you. >> Need a motion.
Mayor, I move to approve the first amendment to development agreement
between Baser Boulevard Holdings LLC and the city of Baser, Kansas as presented
and authorized the mayor to execute the same.
» A motion. Do I have a second? >> Second.
» A motion and a second. I'll call for a vote. Mike,
» I cherry >> I.
» Vicki, >> I.
» Vernon, I passes 5.
» Thank you. Thank you, Dustin.
Item number seven, board of zoning appeals appointment. Uh, I'm asking for
you to approve Nathan Shimp. Um, Maddie, what was name of the the academy? He was
at the academy. >> Yes, mayor. The citizens academy that
the mayor and council authorized, this is our first year. um he was he is a
participant currently in the citizens academy and voiced interest in um
working for and being appointed to the BCA and um so the mayor was very
gracious and reached out to him and that's what's included in the packet for
consideration >> and he seemed very excited and and
wanting to do something I'm asking
I need a motion Mayor, I move to approve the appointment
of Mr. Nathan Shimp to the city of Baser Board of Zoning Appeals with term
expiring in October of 2026. >> Have a motion. Do I have a second?
Have a motion and a second. I'll call for a vote. Vicki,
» I Vernon I
Ben, S is 50.
» [clears throat]
» on the city administrator reports. Uh chief, I'll start with you.
» Uh thank you, Mayor Council. Um first I just I would like to say as your chief
of police and the department head, thank you for supporting all the services
we're trying to provide. Um working for Wesley and and Maddie, I'll tell you the
presentation and the bud the budget preparedness is second to none. and it
really gives me no excuses. So, uh I look forward to the next next year and
what we have as far as we're budgeting this. Thank you. Um the latest thing
that we've been really working hard is the new school year. Um I've said it
before and I'll keep saying it that I think the center of our community really
is um our families, single family homes and all the children that go to all our
schools and our school district. Um, our police officers are very visible in all
the school zones on foot on drop offs and pickups. It's been very intentional.
So, if you see us, there's a reason for that. Um, that's where we think that we
are most valuable, especially this time of the year. Everybody's getting back in
the swing of things. Uh, I'll just say two things. One, put your phone down.
Two, slow down. Expect to take it. Guys are out there working hard. So, anybody
has any questions or needs anything, we'll waste it.
Thank you, Chief. Great job, Chief. Thank you.
» Also, in case people didn't know it and didn't go by at that certain time, but
at night or at the end of the high school time, there is usually an officer
in the median reminding people to slow down. So, you can't say the pe the
police department is just looking to hand out tickets. It's a great asset.
Thank you. Thank you, G.
» Good evening, mayor, city council. G may Service. Um on the sewer side, we've
been uh keeping a lot of the electrical components going in the lift stations
with all the heat. Um the recent couple storms we had uh did knock out some
electrical items that we had to replace. Um guys been doing some jetting of some
problem sewer lines. Um they try to do them about every six months. Um we call
a restaurant row up off Parkway to 155th and then back to the north. So they've
been out doing that. Um street side dirt work, asphalt work, replacing signs from
the storms up through Falcon Lakes, uh through a couple other center point. Uh
I don't know how they can classify that as a tornado. Uh we used 30 B 30 inch
base post and the base post was like a pretzel not the sign post the base in
the ground. So I think it was actual tornado but uh like city administrator
Leslie stated working hard with the contractors to move forward on the
residents on bothard city's portion of the san sewer. um had another meeting
with the contractor today where he's going to come out tomorrow at 9:00.
We're calling the engineer of record. We need to get the base map so he be able
to start getting everything surveyed out. The dirt contractors want to start
hauling equipment in next week and plowing through dirt starting um no
later than the first week of September. Um his portion scheduled for about two
weeks. Contractor will be jumping in right behind him. He's scheduled
generally right now for about a 30 30 day construction period, weather
permitting, and then we'll probably add about another five to seven days for
testing, factor testing, pressure testing, manual testing. Uh we will be
use utilizing our um inspector that we use on development
projects. Um we require that for all the other developers. So, we want to keep
above the board on having it inspected. It's a KDH requirement. Um, also again,
thank you. The new trucks are working out great. I mean, it's awesome. Um,
besides that, we're doing a lot of cleaning in the upper lot of plant. Um,
just working on the 158 project, getting it done, working through some punch list
items with a couple other developers, keeping that going. work on Jim on some
things. So
» you have anything? >> Um
Ortiz, communication specialists. Uh I'll keep it short. I'll talk about
Citizens Academy. Um this last Wednesday we had uh Jim Sherman and Alex Van Dyke
uh cover planning and zoning uh for the citizens academy class and uh
councilwoman McEnroe joined us which was super helpful to give a different
perspective um and answer some questions that some of the citizens had. So I
invite the council again to u our next one which will be municipal services. So
Jean and his team um then we're going to go out to the wastewater treatment plant
if you would like to join us for that. Hopefully it doesn't smell too much like
sewage that day. [laughter]
But uh we are we do in you know invite anybody who wants to join us that night.
And then um I did want to add that if you do plan on coming uh September 16th
is going to be rescheduled to the 17th because it is the same day as the
mayor's golf tournament. So we wanted to kind of do a little split but um that's
about so >> thank you very much Jim
» being mayor council Jim Sherman playing zoning director um yes we had a good
time at the citizens academy I think it turned out really well as our field trip
we took them out to the uh bas on the boulevard to give them a perspective we
gave them plot plans development plans and then said look at the blank slate
and then this is how we do our job we we have to work with uh conceptual drawings
but also u keeping in mind how it works and fits with the community. So um I
think it was very successful. Um certainly enjoyed the shred event at the
mayor shred event this last weekend. We dodged some rain, but it sure was a good
time. Um and I had more probably more positive comments from people driving up
than any activity I think I've had since I started here. they're just thinking
here that we're doing that. So, congratulations on uh supporting the
community like that. Uh we're close to Dunkin Donuts. We've got our last uh
civil engineering review completed today.
We're close on Sundance Villas. There was just a little bit of a uh last
minute design on their outflow to their detention basin which is significant
because it abuts the based on the boulevard large development. So, they're
a little bit downream. essential that we make sure we manage that zero flow
capability. Um we are um we'll be moving to this body soon, the Chestnut Villas,
that's a 55 and older plus u development and past the pling commission. Um we're
excited because we uh we'll show some uh elevation drawings, but it's a it's a
quality uh development. U if anybody knows my background, I love infill. Uh I
I've done so much we used to call green field clear cutting but I I really enjoy
infill and this is just a super project here in town and then uh we'll kick off
I think what eventually be some more infill uh followed by the alco
development basart. Um thanks to Jean's help we are now
kicking loose building permits for base 2 out of Boulders for Falcons. Um,
that's a pretty rapidly developing area. Uh, I don't know that anybody thought it
would go as fast as it is, but u once they finish that, they will start the
next link u from the northern duplexes linking Falcon back to Falcon uh
Boulevard. So, we're excited about those two finishing up.
And so, that's kind of we have quite quite a bit more. Alex and I did our
quick little we had over 30 projects today, but that's just a high level
recap of where we're at. Anytime they need anybody has questions, feel free to
give me a shout. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Bey
» mayor, city council Kathy, city cler, as Jim stated, uh your community shout out
event was very well attended. You had 56 cars and a lot of positive feedback.
» Thank you, Maddie.
» Thank you, Mayor. Matty Boutton, deputy city administrator. Um, I don't I think
the community has probably heard me speak enough tonight. [laughter] Um, so
I will just say again, um, thank you to the mayor and council and to our city
administrator, Leslie Riverola, for the opportunity to serve here. I'm very
grateful to be here and I hope that my work is always representative of that.
Thank you,
» Mayor. Thank you. It's good to be back um in person with you all. Um, okay. I
will uh I probably will go a little bit longer than usual. I'll try to keep it
somewhat brief, but um just a couple of uh procedural things or technical
things. Um we have our governing body retreat hopefully getting rescheduled.
So uh if you have not had an opportunity to see your email from Kathy, please
take a look. Uh please let us know every date that you're available, not just
like your preferred date. So we want to know what dates are potential. Um, also
if you have any additional topics that you would like to be considered, please
let us know. We'll recirculate the draft that we had um from earlier in the year,
but we realize, you know, a few months have passed, so you may have additional
topics that you'd like um for consideration. We uh have been
diligently working on the what we're now calling the community meeting space. I'm
sure we'll have a new better title for it after the governing body retreat, but
I call it former OG city hall. Uh I think it's going to be a great uh really
a showpiece for downtown of um what this community represents, right? The ability
to come together um to dream big dreams um and really open up a space that would
be rentable. As you know, we get a lot of feedback from the Baser Community
Library that they're really the only game in town with a rentable or
available space. um that's free um or nominal charge. And so we think this
will be a great opportunity to really give back to the community and and be
able to repurpose a facility that otherwise is sitting vacant. Um we
continue to have our meetings monthly with the school superintendent and a
number of topics continue to circulate. One of them is a request for an
evaluation of an additional crosswalk at Greyhawk uh elementary. For those of you
that have driven that area, it is bustling in the morning. it is busy and
um while the one crosswalk is working well um not all of our pedestrians cross
at the crosswalk that makes sense and so we want to make
sure that we're connecting children and their families safely to where they're
trying to go. So um Maddie and I just released I think this week the
evaluation uh with our engineering team to figure out if another crosswalk would
be appropriate and where best to sign it and place it. Of course, we'll
coordinate that with the school superintendent. One of the other things
that the school superintendent brought um up was the idea of uh I guess some of
the schoolboard members were interested in hosting smaller group meetings like
you know a couple of council members and a couple of schoolboard meetings. My
suggestion back was why not just have both bodies meet because trying to
identify who on our city council would be be the two to participate. you know,
everybody is interested in what the school district has going on and um we
could certainly host them here, have a nice meal, uh have it noticed, and if
members of the public are interested, they can come and attend as well. Uh the
other hot topic that comes up, as each of you know, is the topic of when, uh
will there be an additional school resource officer? And so, just to
publicly address that, the city stands ready to fund our portion of the SRO at
any time. Um, I do understand that the school district um financially says
they're not ready to to make that um that investment just yet, but just know
that from a city perspective, we're ready to mobilize a second SRO um when
they're ready. So, uh we are excited about that. I also wanted to um just
express a few thanks uh to staff from all of the events for from this summer.
I mean, Olivia, you have just jumped in and you are communicating with people.
You're running the Citizens Academy. I mean, the Citizens Academy is something
that I think as a group we've dreamed about and talked about for a couple of
years and this was really the first year that we were able to make it happen and
I think it's working really well. I think our participants are really
enjoying it and I think that is really reflective of the work that you've put
into it. So, thank you. Um Ellie who's joined our team is just off to the races
hosting these events. She jumped in. I think we were mid-season and does not
appear to miss a beat. Um, I actually had an opportunity to attend last
Thursday's concert and the staff were a glow. They were smiling. I also happened
to manage to be there on the day that it was not quite as hot as the surface of
of the sun. So, that was nice. Um, but it was a really great third Thursday
concert. I think a nice way to end the season. I look forward to the
candlelight one coming up. Um, so huge thanks to Ellie. Obviously, none of
those events happen without our staff volunteering to come and work them. And
um you can tell that we're getting to the end of season with uh volunteer
fatigue, but everybody that was there had a smile on their face and ready to
serve the public. And I I think that is also representative of the culture that
not only that we've built, but that you've helped establish and build here.
And I hope you're all proud of that. Um a huge thanks to Dave Brewer and the
parks and recck team. When I drive this community, our parks are outstanding.
They're beautiful. And when we talk about it in the budget about the
importance of maintaining what we've built, I hope each of you feels an
immense sense of pride. Our parks are not littered with trash. Um the people
here are pleasant. When you go to the parks, people aren't fighting with each
other. Um you know, it's a place that anybody would be proud to bring their
family. And I think that's indicative of the number of license plates that we see
that are not only from here but from all areas around the metropolitan. And I
think that's awesome and I hope to see more of that. So huge thank you to Dave
and his team. If you have not seen it, we are in the midst of construction of a
pollinator garden at um Baser City Park and it's going to be magnificent and
spectacular. So we're very excited about that.
Um Jean and his team have just been absolutely crushing it on um I I would
say a little bit more proactive crack sealing and um they have just jumped
head into our sanitary sewer review. That is um taking a tremendous effort
and it is just a lot of time and energy. Um, as you all know, we're doing a
comprehensive review of the entire sanitary sewer system. Not just to
evaluate the sewer system that we have today, but what is the um quality of
that infrastructure, how is it maintaining over time, but also are we
ready for the development that's happening? We um are excited about that
and that's not always the glamorous work, but it's important work and so a
tremendous thanks to Jean and his team. Um the chief, thank you. the police
department is at all of these community events. Um I frequently see patrol
officers out and about um in this community and they're always
professional and smiling and thank you for your recruitment efforts and
everything that you're doing to really um professionalize um the department. We
really appreciate that and so thank you. Um, and I am also excited to say that I
am really confident that we are going to receive a planning sustainable places
grant. And I think that mayor will really um be a great tip of the spear to
your efforts to see safety really come into action on State Avenue. And
obviously that's a personal story for both you and several members of your
family. Um, but I I'm glad to see that that application did as well as it did
with Mark. We don't always have great scores in planning sustainable places
just because of some of the scoring matrix, but that one did. And I think
that project, that um planning grant will give us the opportunity to really
evaluate and explore long-term how do we make 2440 safer? How do we get the
traffic reduced in a longer stretch of that corridor? What are some design
elements that we can do to not only bring the speeds down, but make it more
inviting, make it more visually appealing, just like we did with 155th
Street. So, um, is that going to be a short-term project? No. Do I think it
will be funded this year? Yes. Do I think it gives us a great, um, plan and
look to the future? Absolutely. Um, and then finally, I'm just going to close
out with a tremendous thank you to Maddie on the budget. Uh, I think that
you don't give yourself enough credit that um, Senator Karen Tyson has your
cell phone number and you call her and she answers. Um, I think she was
probably like bailing hay or something when you were talking to her on the
phone. I mean, she really truly values, I think, the professionalism that Maddie
brings and um, so do I. I think that is really reflective in the work and I
appreciate the public coming tonight to listen to our budget presentation and
honestly staying for the full meeting. We don't often get that either. People
come then they leave and it's awesome that you stayed. Thank you. Um but I
hope that each of you are proud of the budget that you passed. Budgets aren't
fun. Um but it's the most important thing that you do as a body. It really
sets the tone and it not only sets the tone for the community, but it sets the
tone for your staff and your team. And year after year, you demonstrate through
your actions both with the public and our our team that you mean what you say
and um I think that's something to be incredibly proud of. So, I'm grateful to
be your city administrator. I'm grateful to be here and thank you for the
opportunity. And it feels really good to be back among you in person. So, thank
you. >> Thank you. Todd, do you have anything?
» Uh, good evening. Todd Luckman, city attorney.
Uh, just I don't like to brag about my legal acumen. You know that. But, uh,
today I successfully convinced a Johnson County judge that Baser is not under his
jurisdiction. So, if you have never met a Johnson
County judge, you would know what a what a difficult lift that was. Um,
and just the other thing since I know that you guys have got McDonald's
coming, I I wanted to give my show everybody my bonafides. This is my uh
1983 McDonald's name tag. Just got to mention if any McDonald's people are out
there that I am available for fry duty. Now, I don't want to I don't want to
drop any names, but I was trained by Coach McNugget.
True story. >> I'm glad I left you last.
» I was I was saying this was a wise idea to have Leslie before.
» Hey guys, trying to follow that one.
» Number nine, council member report. Sherry, I'll start with you.
» Thank you, mayor. I'll put my readers on so I can read numbers.
Okay, so let's see. On August 14th, I attended the Mid America Regional
Council Award lunchon over in Kansas City, Missouri. Um, it was at a new
venue this year. It was really nice. They did a good job. Um, and then on
August 18th, as your appointee for the city of Baser, I attended the
Levvenworth County Port Authority meeting.
um when they asked for the city's presentations, I did bring up the um
back to you program and there was a lot of ears perked up. I
mean, there was a lot of interest in that and it wasn't just, you know, other
city staff there. There was elected officials there from all across the
state. Some are running for office, some are currently in office, and there was a
lot of interest. So, I I think that we're going to start seeing some of this
take take steps. So, I'm really excited about that. Um, also for the director of
LCDC, she's attending the following meetings um in the next couple months.
The KC Industrial Conference, the BIZ Now Conference, and then the Kansas
Department of Commerce meeting. Um, on September 10th, it'll be the LCDC's
third quarter lunchon. It's going to be held in Tonganoxy
and Congressman Derek Schmidt is going to be the speaker.
Um, and then the LCDC is going to be doing
another fundraiser. Um, this time on September 11th, they're going to be
holding a golf tournament up at the Levvenworth Army Fort. So, that'll be on
the Trails West Golf Course. And then on August 19th in that
capacity, I also dialed into a webinar by the Kansas Commerce Department on
reinvestment housing incentive districts.
Um, also I want to say thank you to all everybody that's here this evening. It's
awesome to see people come and listen to our meetings. And then as far as the um
mayor's golf tournament, um I appreciate that you guys have an online raffle. I
actually went out and bought some tickets. there's some amazing events and
options that we could um donate to and also purchase tickets to try and win.
So, I went out and hopefully you'll draw my numbers and I'll win. So, thank you.
» Thank you, Shar. >> No update. I just simply want to say
welcome back, Leslie. I think it's wonderful to see you back here again. Um
it's been a long road, but wonderful. It's wonderful to have you back. Um I
haven't been to a whole lot of events. I've had a lot of personal stuff going
on in my own life um as well. It was nice to go to that Mark lunchon as well,
but um it's great seeing you all out again and uh no additional updates.
Thank you guys.
» I attended the open house for the high school and for the early childhood
center. amazing facilities, a such an asset for our school district, but an
asset for our city, too. So, that was exciting to see. And if you haven't been
able to see it, I hope you have a chance.
The Mark session on the 14th was great. There are so many exciting projects
happening in the Kansas City area and it's just a statement to how much can be
done when there's teamwork going on. It makes such a difference.
I enjoyed being at the city citizens academy. There are what 12 15 12 uh
members of the community and they seem so dedicated to attending including two
high school students. That's awesome. and M Alex, you did a wonderful job in
presenting and people act have a chance to see the professionalism that's here
and the extremely high level of professionalism and Olivia, you're right
there with it. It was so organized and so well done. So, thank you. It was
exciting to be there. Um, Jean, I assume it's your group that's
working on parallel and 158 to clean all that up. If people hadn't been down
there before, oh my gosh, you had so much work to do and you were working so
hard on it. You look at that corner down there where the um the Baser brothers
statue is. Oh my gosh, that was a mess. and you can see all the work that's
being done. And don't forget the candle light uh concert. Is it September 3rd?
Good deal. And that's more of an adult concert. Not that the whole family can't
attend. It's just the atmosphere. Thank you.
» Hi. >> I'm going to keep it short and sweet so
I don't start coughing. seven days into school and we've already brought home
some sort of ailment. So, no, it the last two weeks at work have been
absolutely crazy. So, super hard to keep up. But, thank you. Thank you. Thank you
guys. Thank you. Knock it out of the park every single week. It makes this
side of things relatively easy when everything that we see is so well put
together. So, thank you very very much.
[clears throat]
Vernon,
» I have no report. >> Thank you.
» Moving on the mayor's report. Uh, I want to thank Lesley, Maddie, the staff
for the golf tournament. The because of you guys is why it's such a sold out in
17 minutes. So, thank you guys all very much. Uh, much appreciated. Um, I want
Maddie, fantastic job on presenting the budget. Um,
put in terms that dumb people can't understand.
Thank you for everything. So, other than that, um, golf tournament is
the 16th. We are sold out. I don't know if we have any teams drop out yet.
» Nope. >> Right. I've received many phone calls,
but
» [laughter]
» Oh, thank you. Thank you you and all the staff for all the hard work that you've
done on the golf tour. So much appreciated. Uh do we have a need for an
executive session?
» Hey, I need an adjournment for the regular meeting.
» Mr. Mayor, I move we adjourn the regular meeting.
» Have a motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second.
» A motion second. I'll call for a vote. Vernon.
» Hi.
» Uh Ben. >> Hi.
» Mike. >> Hi.
» Sherry. >> Hi.
» Vicki. >> Hi.
» Passes 50. And there's no nothing to add on the work session.
Thanks. Thank you everybody for coming tonight. Okay, thank you.