District 3 Advisory Board

District III Advisory Board Minutes for March 1, 2017 District III Advisory Board Minutes March 1, 2017 www.wichita.gov The District III Advisory Board meeting was held at 6:30 p.m. at the WATER Center, 101 E. Pawnee, Wichita, KS 67211; Councilman James Clendenin, nine District Advisory Board members, two City staff and two signed in members of the public were present. Members Present Elena Ingle Marco Alcocer Members Absent David Robbins Bruce Gass Paul Davis Daisy Olivar Emily “Emy” Winterhalter (Youth Member) Catherine Johnson Gerald Henry Jessica Hutton Staff Present Ron Tracy Teia Wair, Community Services Representative Cindy Miles Officer Josh Hayes, WPD Councilman James Clendenin Guests Listed on last page ORDER OF BUSINESS At 6:30 p.m. Councilman James Clendenin called the meeting to order. Minutes from the February 1, 2017 meeting were approved. The agenda for the current meeting was approved. STAFF REPORTS Fire Report No Fire Report Police Report Officer Josh Hayes (Beat 28/29): 2017 is at a five-year low for burglaries in DAB III. South Patrol came in below 90%. Auto larceny is down as well as aggravated assault. Residential burglary is at a three-month low. Auto theft is still relatively high. There is a common trend of individuals breaking into vehicles to obtain paraphernalia left insight. Encouraged citizens to clean-up the areas around their garage and driveway areas. The chili cook-off was a huge success. Gave thanks to all that participated. Paul Davis (DAB): Who is the new detective for the automotive department? Officer Josh Hayes: Unsure Emily “Emy” Winterhalter (Youth DAB Member): Is there a reason the stats are at a five year low? Officer Josh Hayes: Community Policing is back, so that might have something to do with the numbers. WPD was down officers but are now fully or almost fully staffed. Ron Tracy (DAB): Have you seen a decrease in the trailer thefts? Officer Josh Hayes: I have not seen to many emails regarding the trailer thefts so I believe it has decreased. 1  District III Advisory Board Minutes for March 1, 2017 Dave Robbins (DAB): Has I.C.E been involved in our community? Officer Josh Hayes: I.C.E does not typically operate in the manner that the public thinks. They are not just out in the field apprehending illegal immigrants. Cindy Miles (DAB): The Law Enforcement Parade is Saturday, April 8th 2017. Citizens can pick up an application from South Patrol if you wish to have your NHA walk in the parade. PUBLIC AGENDA Scheduled Items W.A. Stoffer (Public): Is working with MABCD on re-establishing the citizen volunteer nuisance controller program as a pilot program. About seven years ago the city conducted this type of operation; however it is no longer active. Across the City/County there are only 17 trained MABCD inspectors. The goal is to re-establish the task force to monitor or help address neighborhood nuisance/blight issues. The program will not focus on tall, weeds and grass. The goal is to focus on trash/blight issues. Incentivize additional resources to assist in combating neighborhood nuisance/blight issues. Increase public awareness as well. If you formerly participated in the previous program or you are interested/have suggestions please email billstofer@gmail.com. Paul Davis (DAB): Back in the day when the program was functional, the volunteers were only equipped with a name tag. It will be beneficial for the volunteers to have a better way to identify themselves. Marco Alcocer (DAB): Are there 17 volunteers currently? W.A. Stoffer: No, there are 17 trained MABCD inspectors. NEW BUSINESS Scheduled Items None Off-agenda items Elena Ingle (DAB): Will there be an opportunity to re-visit the pool issue? Councilman James Clendenin: The pool situation was re-visited four different times in the past five years. There were several notifications and several attempts to try to increase the attendance of people attending the pools. The cost for admission to the pool was not close to meeting the $300,000 to $400,000 a year expense it cost the city to maintain the pools. Not all of the City pools will close. District III does not have a City owned pool. The College Hill Neighborhood created a benefit District, which allowed their pool to remain open. The neighborhood property owners pay a portion per year for pool maintenance or upgrades. Any neighborhood is eligible to establish a benefit District. 2  District III Advisory Board Minutes for March 1, 2017 The city of Wichita will administer a voucher program for those that want to attend the YMCA. The program is designed to assist with the financial expense for those children that would like to attend. Water Parks will be added in place of some of the pools. The city was spending entirely too much money on an attempt to maintain and keep the public pools open. Citizens were not utilizing the pools. The money that was being spent on the pools can now be utilized in other areas of the city. The city of Wichita is one of three cities without a sales tax. Adding a 1% sales tax would allow the city to create or to do things like maintain the pools. Marco Alcocer (DAB): What is the entrance fee for children to attend the City of Wichita pools? Councilman James Clendenin: Roughly $2.00 or so. Emily “Emy” Winterhalter (Youth DAB Member): At South High all freshmen are required to take swimming in order to pass Physical Education. Councilman James Clendenin: There are pools in all of the High Schools. Across the City of Wichita there are two hundred sixty-nine non-residential pools. The City of Wichita pools were only open three months out the year. Councilman James Clendenin: The pools that are being removed are the pools that require demolition and rebuilt. The Edgemor Pool was leaking six to seven inches of water a day. Gerald Henry (DAB): Why are the pools unable to be repaired? Councilman James Clendenin: The required repairs would cost millions of dollars.Planeview Park will receive a Water Park. This is a positive for District III. Councilman James Clendenin: In 2008 the stock market crashed causing property values to plummet and reductions to occur. It is taking time for the economy to recover. Nine years later (2017) we are starting to recover. Adding four million back to Street Maintenance to slowly return to eight million. The revenue is not close to where it was in 2006-2007. The state of Kansas has placed a cap on the revenue that the City can receive. There is now a limited budget. Cant increase the assessments. The Mill Levy stays flat and property taxes remain the same. The City of Wichita has added three-hunred thousand to the Bulky Waste pick-up. W.A. Stoffer (Public): Was health and safety brought up? Councilman James Clendenin: If eight-teen million dollars was added to the CIP for the pools that would still require four out of the six pools to close. The CIP would be bonded, half would be paid in cash. Paul Davis (DAB): There are small towns having to give up their EMS. The county will have to pick up the cost. Councilman James Clendenin: Yes, the City of Sedgwick/Bently shifted there EMS department. The Derby Water Park was paid for with a one cent sales tax increase. 3  District III Advisory Board Minutes for March 1, 2017 Updates/Issues/Reports BOARD AGENDA Meeting was adjourned. The next District Advisory Board III meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m., April 5, 2017, at the WATER Center, 101 E. Pawnee, Wichita, KS 67211. Respectfully submitted, Teia Wair, Community Service Representative – District III Guests W.A. Stofer Trisha Epps 4