District 3 Advisory Board

District III Advisory Board Minutes for July 2, 2014 District III Advisory Board Minutes July 2, 2014 www.wichita.gov The District III Advisory Board meeting was held at 6:30 p.m. at the Wichita WATER Center; Council Member Clendenin, seven District Advisory Board members; four City staff and five signed in members of the public were present. Members Present Paul Davis Staff Present Connie White Case Bell, Community Liaison Elena Ingle Officer Hinners, Wichita Police Wendy Ratliff Captain Snyder, Wichita Fire Eric Bell Brice Woods, Wichita Fire David Robbins Jody Bennett Guests Gabrielle Harshberger (Youth Member) Listed on last page Council Member James Clendenin Members Absent Terry Brewster Marjorie Griffith ORDER OF BUSINESS At 6:30 p.m. Council Member Clendenin called the meeting to order. Minutes from the May 7, 2014, meeting were approved. The agenda for the current meeting was approved. STAFF AGENDA Officer Hinners, Police, reported on Beat 35. The biggest issue in the past six months has been residential burglaries which have averaged 41 per month over the past six months. Some arrests were made in June to cut that number down to 20. Recently non-residential burglaries are going up. There have been some copper and trailer thefts. DAB? Will the arrested people do jail time? A: Two that were arrested were for parole violations, everyone else is either a juvenile or 18 so probably some time in the Juvenile Detention Center. Captain Snyder, Fire, reported on District III. For 911 calls, in May in District III there were 931. Of those 931, 709 calls were EMS/Rescue. There were 28 fire calls, of which 11 were structured, one accidental, and one arson. On July 3rd, 4th, and 5th the Wichita Fire Department will be working from dusk until midnight on firework complaints. They have to catch the perpetrator in the act. Snyder reported that the rule is that you can only shoot fireworks where you buy them. There is also a survey on the Wichita.gov website to get public input on fireworks ordinances. There was a recruit class that just started and they will be on the streets on September 12th. DAB? What are the hours for fireworks? A: 6am-midnight. DAB? Is there overlap when fire and EMS are both called to an emergency? A: Fire shows up first because they have more stationed, though they are dispatched at the same time. 1  District III Advisory Board Minutes for July 2, 2014 DAB? Are there any joint ventures between EMS and Fire? A: They share a station out east. Public? What percentage of calls are firefighters at risk due to crime? A: 911 advises if there are safety issues, they tell them to wait until police secure the scene. There is also a code they can give that gets police to speed up the response. PUBLIC AGENDA Scheduled Items Laura Meyers, Sedgwick County Emergency Communications, reported on the “Don’t Play Around and Lock It Down” initiative. There were 80517 cell phone calls last year to 911 that were not emergencies. 3300 hours were taken from real emergencies. They are encouraging people to put a lock on their cell phone and keep small children away or take the battery out. If you call accidentally, stay on the line for them to make sure it’s not an emergency as they will have to call back if you hang up. DAB? What about other nuisance calls (traffic accident), possibly need a non-emergency number? A: They are looking at starting a non-emergency hotline. DAB? Do you prioritize the calls? A: Yes they do. DAB? How soon are the officers notified? A: Dispatchers have 60 seconds to get the call out to first responders on the highest priority (E). Priority One is three minutes, Priority Two is seven minutes. Public? Are you full Sedgwick County employees? A: Yes 82 employees at 911. Public? Who is the head? A: Kim Pennington, but they are under their own umbrella and not police. DAB? Average response time on police emergency call? A: There are many factors that determine response time such as are they coming from their station or are they out driving around. NEW BUSINESS Scheduled Items ZON2014-10: Request for TF-3 Two-Family Residential zoning Item was removed from the agenda. BOARD AGENDA DAB? What is the current drought status? Councilmember Clendenin: Last year Cheney Reservoir was down 40% or less, but was filled with a rain event last year. Spring so far has been good and we are good on water for the short term. Citizens should still refrain from watering lawn if it’s rained within a week. There still need to be precautions and conservation measures in place. Last year when it was needed Wichita reduced water consumption by 24% through education. DAB: The Planeview Activity Camp is full. DAB? What is the plan for the transit center (needs repairs)? Councilmember Clendenin: There are cleanliness issues and safety issues. There is plan in the works to take care of the building. It is a hangout for less desirables, but its public domain so you can’t kick them out unless they are actually causing a problem. 2  District III Advisory Board Minutes for July 2, 2014 Councilmember Clendenin: The Central Library has deferred maintenance because they don’t know if they are going to renovate or build a new one. The City Council has gone through a process to ask the citizens if they wanted a new library downtown and what it should look like. They need to think outside of the box so that the library is more relevant. The instruction given to the developers is that it has to have some wow factor and would utilize technology to the max. They have not made a commitment yet. In the past the City Council directed the City Manager to keep the debt in check. Debt has been reduced last year over 100 million dollars and 160 million dollars over the past three years. Councilmember Clendenin feels that they need to make the commitment to not just build a book museum. They are also looking for donors. Some different things that might be in the library would be: conservation of art and documents with new storage being climate controlled and digitized genealogy sources. The current library is unsustainable in its current state. It has leaks, asbestos, and the AC is not efficient. It is virtually the same cost to build a new library then to renovate the old library. There is also very little room to expand the current library though the building could be utilized in the Century Two Plans. Some money to pay for a new library would come from Brooks Landfill. The total cost of the library would be around 30 million dollars. Public: Don’t spend too much money glamorizing the outside. Councilmember Clendenin: They have looked at that and at things that you can do in architecture that are unique but do not cost extra. Public? How old is the library? Councilperson Clendenin: Roughly 50 years old. DAB: We need to build so that the library can be expanded vertically and horizontally. Public? Would it be beneficial to move away from downtown? A: They are looking at a sight on 2nd and Mclean. Councilmember Clendenin: If there is to be a sales tax, it will go on a referendum. There were four top priorities that came from ACT ICT. A long term water supply by either utilizing ASR (build a new reservoir) or buying treated or untreated from El Dorado. Streets, of which the current budget is eight million dollars with plans to add another 2 million. With sales tax they would pump more money to help play catch up on the projects that haven’t been done due to funding. Transit, currently all income sources for Wichita Transit total 10 million dollars per year in comparison to a town like Des Moines that funds at 26 million dollars. Nighttime service would cost three million dollars more per year and weekend expanded service another 2-3 million dollars per year. Economic Development was also identified as a need. This would not be a slush fund for businesses. The 80 million dollars in sales tax revenue would be 40% going to infrastructure, 40% going to job training (partnering with WSU, innovation campus), 20% going to relocation/expansion costs (specific tangible costs). There would be periodic reviews, a review board. There would also be a focus on measuring success and being transparent. DAB? What is the sunset time limit? A: It will be five years unless there is another referendum. DAB? Who will get access to the 20% on relocation/expansion costs? A: It would work like TIF projects where companies have to create value, pay taxes, and then could get a reimbursement. DAB? What are the specific percentages for the distribution? A: 63% of one penny goes to water, 20% goes to economic development, 10% to transit, 7% to roads. Roughly 400 million over five years. Councilmember Clendenin: Wichita does not currently have a sales tax. The County has a sales tax and Wichita has the lowest property tax in the area at 32 mills (Derby has 47 mills). 3  District III Advisory Board Minutes for July 2, 2014 Meeting was adjourned. The next meeting for District Advisory Board III will be held at 6:30 p.m., August 6, 2014, at Wichita WATER Center, 101 E Pawnee. Respectfully submitted, Case Bell, Community Liaison – District III Guests Lonny Wright Belly Strickland Tom Strickland Leila Jones T.P. Crowley 4