District 5 Advisory Board

District 5 Advisory Board Minutes Monday, April 5, 2021 • 6:30 p.m. Virtual meeting via Zoom Attendance Members Present Staff Present JV Johnston Chief E.C. Snow, Wichita Fire Department Rachel Murphy-Thomas Chief Allan Gattis, Wichita Fire Department Dennis Clary Officer Lori Kimrey, Wichita Police Department Jose Gutierrez Captain Paul Duff, Wichita Police Department Trey Rios David McGuire, Park and Recreation Jill Kerschen Tracie Partridge, Wichita Public Library Angela Breer Cory Buchta, Community Services Trevor Kurth Representative, City Manager’s Office Wendy Carter Council Member Bryan Frye Members Absent Lamont Anderson Roman Rodriguez • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Board Agenda 1. Updates, Issues, and Reports CM Frye: We will discuss the ethics policy a little later. This week we have a budget retreat to look at 22/23 operating budget and next 10 year CIP. We did get another round of federal stimulus money. We are still learning all of the strings attached to that. Hoping to put at least half towards public safety. Biden’s infrastructure plan is being talked about. Has to be shovel ready. We don’t have many should ready projects. Discussed the projects in Wichita that might qualify. Q (DAB): Any money for the water treatment plant? DAB 5 • April 5, 2021 •Minutes• Page 1  A: It is a year under construction. Everything is still on schedule. We financed that at 1.17% interest so that’s locked in. We are still working on the next project which is the water treatment plant down south, plant number 2. We’re in the 5% design stage on it. We haven’t applied for WIFIA financing yet or any of that. It wouldn’t be part of this Biden infrastructure package. Things are going very well. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Order of Business Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by JV Johnston. Approval of April 5, 2021 Agenda: Motion PASSED 9-0-0 Approval of Minutes from March 1, 2021: Motion PASSED 9-0-0 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Public Agenda 2. Scheduled Items None 3. Off-Agenda Items None Action Taken: Received and filed. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Staff Reports 4. Wichita Fire Department Report Chief Snow, Chief Gattis, and Chief Eck presented: Gave background of pilot program on fire data. Shared the dashboard for the fire data pilot program. Shared FIU report for March, 2021. March 9 – 400 block or North Westfield. Accidental fire. Caused $140,000 damages. Vehicle ran into a house and caught on fire. Shared the dashboard with fire department data for the city and explained some of the features. Explained how apparatus Brush 17 is deployed. Explained situation with fire at 2600 block of South Yellowstone. DAB 5 • April 5, 2021 •Minutes• Page 2  11 fires in the city, 6 accidental, 1 arson fire, a couple undetermined, a couple under investigation $285,500 in structure damages, $212,200 in content damages. Check your smoke alarms. No fires in District 5. C (CM Frye): When I saw this in a presentation last month, I was very excited for the amount of detailed information it provides. Being able to track which station is helping cover. Helpful in looking at where we need to staff. And the County mutual aid data. There is a lot of misconception that that’s all we do and they never help us. As you saw, that’s not the case. There’s a lot of cooperation. It’s good to see the data. 5. Wichita Police Department Report Officer Lori Kimrey reported: Don’t have a lot of crime in DAB 5 but a lot of complaints. Motorized scooters. Larceny to auto and theft from garages. Another hot topic is street racing. Will focus on that more this summer. Looking at ordinances to pass. 2nd chance is moving to another district. April 29 at St Marks Church. Captain Paul Duff City wide – property crimes going down. Only thing spiked was violent crime in 2020. Closing courts didn’t help. Releasing inmates didn’t help. Lots of factors for why that happened. Focusing on motels in the district. C (Public) Celeste Racette: Reflection ridge has a lot of complaints on our Facebook page, people are stealing cars out of driveways in our neighborhood in broad daylight. That’s a different kind of crime in our area. We actually have data for Reflection Ridge we can share with you. A: A lot of auto thefts usually spike with the weather, people warming up their vehicles in the morning. (Discussed crime data for Reflection Ridge). C: We’re just amazed at the brazen crime. Police provided crime statistics specific to Reflection Ridge to the questioner. 6. Park and Recreation Department Report David McGuire reported: Promoting summer camps. Spring classes are going well. Met with Recreation Centers and classes are full. On maintenance side, time to start mowing. Issued first contract on grounds maintenance. Will start mowing parks next week. There is no winter trash pick up in the parks, so we’re getting ready to resume trach pick up. Parks will look better when that happens. Some of the landscaping could be affected by the recent freeze. C (CM Frye): Approved CIP for Harvest Park basketball court. Will be replaced sometime this summer. We need lifeguards for the summer. Go on the website and sign up. 16 and up. A: We will get them trained up. It’s a tough job. Q (DAB): How much does it pay? A: $8.25 and up. Manager jobs are $10.50 and up. They have to pass some physical tests. C (CM Frye): With Aquatics Master Plan getting to be complete, I think people are really going to be out using the pools. Attendance will be up. 7. Wichita Public Library Report Tracie Partridge reported: DAB 5 • April 5, 2021 • Minutes • Page 2  Reopened on March 8 to in-building services. Not full services. People over 5 needs face covering. Can browse selection, but can’t read in library. Computers open for use and tables for people needing Wi-Fi, but people can’t sit in the lounge areas and read bets quite yet. Full COVID procedures listed on website. April Zoom programs: Senior Wednesday Music Theatre Wichita – explained details and how to register. Tuesday Topics – Police Reform. Cooperation between Library and League of Women Voters. Present two sides of challenging topics – explained details. Some test taking resources available for people preparing for ACT/SAT/PSAT/AP Exams. Physical resources and databases. Can take virtual tests online. Go to library website for access. Resources tools portion. Gearing up for summer reading. Encourage children to read during the summer. Explained the different levels. Early registration is Monday, May 17. Program starts Tuesday, June 1st. Action Taken: Received and filed. C (CM Frye): Discussed a couple of items DAB might be interested in regarding Public Works projects. 13th street from 119th to 135th had final asphalt overlay that needs to get laid down and striping. Should get done this month. On Schedule. Street lights at 37th and Tyler are operational. Flashing stop sigh 29th and 199th. Now has flashing lights at the 4-way stop. Stop light at Hoover and Zoo still in the works. Equipment is here, but working on getting that crossing in place. Those are the major projects. Why we moved them to presenting quarterly since we don’t have a lot of things going on this month. If you see anything, let me know. Shoot me an email. One more stop light working on. Ridge Road and K-96. A lot of development activity happening right now. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • New Business 8. CON2021-00011 Matt Williams, Metropolitan Area Planning Department, presented an application on behalf of City of Wichita, Bill Perkins (Applicant) Professional Engineering Consultants, Rebecca Mellies (Agent). The applicant requests a Conditional Use to allow a new electrical substation to be constructed on the south side of West 13th Street North and east of North Ridge Road. The new electrical substation will provide service to the Northwest Water Treatment Plant at North Hoover Road and West 21st Street North. Q (DAB): Didn’t we already have a presentation on this? A (CM Frye): Yes, but that was for acquisition of the property and the zoning. This is for the Conditional Use overlay on top of it to use it as a substation. Q (DAB): So everything he’s said, we’ve already heard before. A (CM Frye): True, except this is the Conditional Use. Q (DAB): Is there anything new we haven’t heard? A: Not really, this was just part of our preparation. DAB 5 • April 5, 2021 • Minutes • Page 3  C (CM Frye): You have all seen the design and the placement, this is just the last piece that needs to happen. Q (CM Frye): Has it been to MAPC yet? A: No, it’s going on the 8th. Action Taken: Motion to APPROVE the application as presented made by Trevor Kurth. Seconded by Dennis Clary. MOTION PASSED 9-0-0 9. Proposed City Council Ethics Policy The City of Wichita, with input from National League of Cities and through discussions with the City Council, has put together a proposed ethics policy in order to establish consistent and transparent ethical standards for city leaders and appointed boards. The policy would help promote public confidence in elected and appointed leaders, and assist officials with ethical decision making. Staff asked for comment regarding the proposed policy. CM Frye gave an overview of the work that has already been done on the Ethics Policy since 2019. CM Frye discussed that boards will be subject to the Ethics Policy. Q (DAB): When I think of ethics, I think of campaign finance and campaign ethics. Is there any part of this that applies to campaign finance ethics? A (CM Frye): Campaign ethics reform is a separate piece that has to be dealt with separately. My first year on council we allowed PACs and businesses to make campaign contributions. The council changed that. I voted against it. I was quoted in the paper, corporations shouldn’t decide, people should. It’s been in place for five years now. If we attack that next, that might come out. But that is separate from this. I have always practiced, that there has been an issue before the council that has a donor that his given to me, I have disclosed that voluntarily. And I know other council members have as well. Disclosed the relationship. Some of these donors to my campaign I have been friends with since before they were developers, before they ever brought this project. So, that’s kind of what we have to decide also, what constitutes a “friend” what constitutes an exception. That’s what we’re working on as well right now. But campaign ethics and finance has to be a different thing that we’d have to tackle next. C (Public) Celeste Racette - 2239 N Tee Time Court, Reflection Ridge: Campaign reform is needed next because not all city council members disclose their contributions, and it’s easy to find that on the Sedgwick County election website, and you can see where they’ve got the same LLC address over and over and over again amounting to thousands of dollars. I had to address that first. Just so you know who I am, I am a certified internal auditor. I was a chief internal auditor many years in banking, and a certified internal auditor means I had to take a pretty tough exam and pass four parts. I worked for the FDIC as a bank examiner and a fraud investigator. So when I talk to you, I’m talking to you as an expert in ethics. I did white collar crime investigation, and when you don’t have an ethics policy, you are leaving the door wide open for fraud. And it angers me being a native Wichitan, we don’t have an ethics policy and it’s taking us still dragging on two years to get one. Inexcusable. Here are some things I’m going to point out that I think are still needing to be addressed in this ethics policy. You’ve got to have a clear definition of words, such as “encourage impartial decision making.” What does “encourage” mean? Does that mean you can’t accept a gift? When I was with the FDIC I couldn’t accept as much as an iced tea, let alone a lunch. Does a gift mean someone gets HOA fees excused because they’re in the same condo as the developer? We’ve got that situation right now. Does that mean they can’t accept lunch, dinner, golf trips? That needs to be clearly defined and it hasn’t been yet. I haven’t seen that definition yet. The DAB 5 • April 5, 2021 • Minutes • Page 4 establishment of an independent ethics advisory board – who is going to be the composition of those board members? How are they going to establish independency and accountability? Requirements for ethics training, that better be mandatory. If you don’t take your training, you should get off the board immediately. Whistleblower protection guidelines. It’s key with the whistleblower hotline, wherever that call goes, it has to be an independent person held accountable to a group. The results of that whistleblower investigation need to go to an independent board, not to City Manager Layton. City Manager Layton right now has a lot of power and I don’t mind saying that. I’m beholden to nobody here. The internal auditor that they used to have she no longer words for the city so you’re violating right now the City of Wichita their administrative regulations because there is no internal auditor for the City of Wichita. And that means there is no independent review of contracts over $150,000 that’s inexcusable. So keep in mind you got to have independent whistleblower protection. I’m not really sure who exactly is monitoring this ethics policy and establishing definitions. I know you put a lot of faith, Bryan, in this National League of Cities. I just checked their website and when I did a search on ethics, ethics policy, ethics code, I got one article. I’m wondering what their background is in ethics. What their background is in auditing, internal controls, and whistleblower protections. CM Frye: Just to be clear, I did not seek them out. They came via another council member. I have questions as well. Q (Public) Racette: Who was it? A: CM Johnson. C (Public) Racette: I’ll pose that question to him then. C (Public) Racette: You also need to have penalties. This is worthless if there are no penalties. That means if you find out later that there was a city council member who was the friend of a developer who did get public land free without any competition for that land, there needs to be penalties for that friendship not being disclosed. And I mean losing their job. Seriously, you need to have these. Consequences defined from minor infractions like not reporting on a small meal or iced tea, all the way up to getting HOA fees excused, got a discount on a condo, and then they gave public land away for development, let’s say in Riverside or some other area. They gotta lose their job. That’s a serious violation. Clear conflict of interest. And it must be disclosed. I’m serious about this. This was my job for 25 year. I’m experienced in this area. Bryan this is one of the most serious things you’ll do. Campaign reform has got to come next because when they changed the campaign laws that opened the doors for companies, LLCs, that made these campaigns for city council run into thousands and thousands of dollars. James Clendenin was the one that brought that forward to city council and I don’t mind saying his name. We’ve got to do a lot of changes. You guys have an important responsibility and I’m glad to see that the boards will also be held accountable. Mandatory training. So I’ll be watching every step of the way with this ethics policy because that’s my background. It’s a serious responsibility. And the city is a lot of money and only one person in some cases is actually approving these invoices and that worries me seriously. C (CM Frye): We have had a very loose policy. That’s one of the reasons James Clendenin is out. He faced ouster because of the way the policy was written. The Sedgwick County DA was going to press charges. It did work. It needs to be stronger. We all agree on that. No one is fighting this. We all want to do it right and not have to come back. We’re going to review it every year. But we want to get it as right as possible right out of the box. Q (DAB): The current draft (of the ethics policy) that is online, do you think that is stronger (than the previous ethics policy)? DAB 5 • April 5, 2021 • Minutes • Page 5 A: It is, I do think it could be stronger. I think there is a little concern about who leads the independent body. How that person is selected. The Ethics Review Board, the way it is designed right now, it would be done randomly. They would pick a random name from the appointed board positions. The ethics chair would lead that, and that is a critical person and would be really tough to find. You don’t want to have to find somebody new every time. You want to have some consistency. We’re hoping that everyone is on their best behavior and there’s not a lot of complaints and this doesn’t happen a lot. But we want to get it right. Same thing if there’s a question about someone on the DAB, same process. Q (DAB): Are you confident with the schedule, voting next month? A: Yeah, I think we’ve been through it so much now. Getting through nuances. I agree with a lot of what she said, better definitions, finding that body, mandatory training, and whistleblowing. I’ve been saying that from the beginning, it’s not new. Q (DAB): So will every ethics complaint go through the ethics board? Who would be the one that would decide which ones go to the ethics board? A: Something we still need to figure out. We need to keep it from being frivolous. Action Taken: Provided feedback • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m. The next District 5 Advisory Board meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 3, 2021. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Guests Celeste Racette • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Respectfully submitted, Cory Buchta, Community Services Representative, District 5 DAB 5 • April 5, 2021 • Minutes • Page 6