District 5 Advisory Board

District 5 Advisory Board Minutes Wednesday, July 7, 2021 • 6:30 p.m. Virtual meeting via Zoom Attendance Members Present Staff Present Rachel Murphy-Thomas Chief John Eck, Wichita Fire Department Dennis Clary Officer Kimrey, Wichita Police Department Trevor Kurth David McGuire, Park and Recreation Wendy Carter Tracie Partridge, Wichita Public Library Lamont Anderson Kathy Morgan, MAPD Roman Rodriguez Cory Buchta, Community Services Jose Gutierrez Representative, City Manager’s Office JV Johnston Jill Kerschen Brynn Murphy – Youth Member Council Member Bryan Frye Members Absent Angela Breer Trey Rios • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Order of Business Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by JV Johnston. Approval of July 7, 2021 Agenda: Motion PASSED 9-0-0 Approval of Minutes from June 7, 2021: Motion PASSED 9-0-0 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Board Agenda DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 •Minutes• Page 1 1. Updates, Issues, and Reports 13th street 135th to 119th construct. Long project with some delays. Cracks developed in the intersection at 13th and 135th. Had to get fixed. Supposed to be finished and open completely by Friday. Heard a presentation recently to create dry detention ponds for Calf Skin and Cow Skin. Known for flooding. There’ve been quite a few studies. Opportunity with some federal funding, that could take land out of flood plain and developable. Could really solve some major issues. Working on budget and CIP for next year and ARPA funding. Wichita getting over $73 million. Working on capital infrastructure and special project. Agreed yesterday to sell acres on Kellogg to Phil Ruffin. That money will go back into roads and bridges. We gave staff approval to issue letter of intent to BNR, water facility down south. Did that for Water Treatment Facility. Doing same process for BNR plant. With Nancy leaving board, we need replacement for Access Advisory Board. If someone would like to volunteer for Access Advisory Board. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Public Agenda 2. Scheduled Items James Espinoza – Served community for over 25 years as police officer. Was in all 3 divisions, field, support, investigations. Increase in violent crimes since Gordon Ramsay was hired. Mother was robbed at gun point. No arrests. Pleading to CM Frye. Start asking the hard questions. On Ramsay’s watch and your watch. Comes from Duluth Minn. Robert Layton failed in this process. Paid salary of over $205k. More than ordinance. Since being hired, several lawsuits filed against city. Gordon made it a money grab. Broke homicide record last year. On pace to break it again. Past weekend another murder occurred, 14 year old shot. Doesn’t need to happen again. Gordon Ramsay has created issues. Poor planning. Taking officers off streets. Call times are up. Meaning officers taking more time to respond. Department says numbers are good, but staffing is bad. Politician and not a police officer. I worked overseeing teams that are now disbanded. He has damaged communications between field and communications. Created teams for his own agenda. Requested KORA requests. Charged me to get statistics everyone should have. Suffering from lack of support. Can’t share concerns because of retaliation. Disrupting families. Frye, you work for citizens. Survey officers, but make it anonymous because he will retaliate. Vehicle pursuit that took life of a woman with a child. Raised homicide rate to 29. Lead and ask the right questions. 3. Off-Agenda Items None Action Taken: Received and filed. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 •Minutes• Page 2  Staff Reports 4. Wichita Fire Department Report Chief John Eck presented: June 2021, 9 fire alarms, 271 medical, 38 service, 70 other, total of 388 incidents. Station 16 made majority of alarms, then station 17, 21, and 8. Shared joint response with County diagram. Station 33 responds to calls in District 5. Still putting together data on 4th of July. Hit hotspots before hand to hand out flyers and safety information and non-emergency number. Wrote 88 citations on July 3 and 4. 10 total teams. 2 police officers and a firefighter. 38 tickets. Had 8 structure fires all on July 4. 3 related to fireworks. Still data on dumpster fires and other fires. Will have more on that next month. No major fires investigated by FIU this month. 5. Wichita Police Department Report Officer Kimrey reported: Increase in homeless camps here lately. Hot Team working on that. Got a call from a business today. Have ordinances to follow regarding homeless camps. Let us know if you hear complaints. C (CM Frye): Reports of one on Maize across from Buffalo Park. Pond on west side. A: Officer was trying to work on that one. I know which one you are talking about. A lot of speeding complaints. Set up stealth stat in those areas. Average is under 30. Still looks fast in residential area. Second Chance Thursdays were going well, but numbers were decreasing. Will be taking a few months off and come back in September. Officer Kimrey shared a success story about a man that got his license back after 8 years. Downtown area let us borrow e-bikes to do some special assignments to address thefts in the area. Hoping it will help catch catalytic converter thieves. Q (DAB): Can you speak to what happens when HOT team intervenes? A: HOT team has a lot of resources. They even provide apartments. A lot of the people turn down the help. But it’s kind of like giving an eviction notice. We have to give them time to move their stuff out. Q (DAB): Can you speak at all to Mr. Espinoza’s data? A: Duff will do that. C (DAB): Just want to say thank you for what you’ve done with Second Chance Thursday. A: We enjoy doing it. It’s fun. People are afraid we’re tricking them, but we aren’t. People are ecstatic to get their license back. We try to have fun and reassure we’re there to help them. DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 • Minutes • Page 2  Captain Paul Duff reported: Second Chance Thursday is phenomenal. Put them in for a national award with DOJ. Last time I told you we were focusing on Patrol West data analytics for violent crime hot spots. Been doing it for 2 months. Shared some successful stats. 2019 did a program with federal partners. Best it’s ever been. Increase in violent crime is up around the country. Are success rate is at 95% and that’s phenomenal. COVID and releasing prisoners hurt everyone. Youth weren’t in school. Not exclusive to Wichita. Have been doing a lot of things to curb violent crime. We have support of our community. We have moved resources around to focus on violent crime. All data driven. We have technology to go after shell casings. Doing a bunch of different work. Other Police Departments are coming to us to ask questions about our innovative programs. Triple Beam focuses on violent crime hot spots. Resulted in lots of arrests and decrease in violent crime by 40% then 2020 hit and that was an anomaly. We’ve been doing a great job. Q (DAB): Can you explain what floc cameras area? A: Camera system we can move around the City. Shared how it could work to help catch catalytic converter thieves. We could put in areas where we know there’s a lot of violent crime. It will read tag on car and we can follow the car and hopefully lead to an arrest. Q (DAB): Can HOA purchase flock cameras? A: Yes. Q (DAB): And you can access that? A: Yes. Hooks into police system. Phenomenal tool. $2,500 per year per camera. Put at the entrance and you can see every car coming in and every car going out. HOA has access to own camera data but not City-wide data. Jose Saucedo, Deputy Chief reported: I grew up here. I live in a neighborhood where you had to contend with the manner and style of policing Espinoza is advocating for. Ramsay has made a lot of changes. You can’t just cast a wide net. This last year was challenging. 125 murder charges bonded out and reoffended. Community trusts us not because we do it wrong, but because we do it right. I policed under the old system and that ruins relationships with the community. I see his passion. I’d be mad if my mom was attacked in that manner. But it’s an open case and I can’t give details, but we will catch the suspects. 18% of our inmate population has meth connections. Shootings this year, 17 fatalities with hand guns, last year we had 22 this time. Coming off COVID. Chicago had 18 murders last weekend. We are doing a lot of things, but we can’t arrest our way out of this problem. Working on fixes. We are planning to work people off the gang list. I know Chief Ramsay not popular with old guard, but I wouldn’t be here talking to you if he didn’t have faith in me and I have faith in his leadership. Questions? I know catalytic converter thefts are a problem. We are working with attorney general’s office. We went to the metal yards and there are so many catalytic converters there and not a single one was reported. 6. Park and Recreation Department Report David McGuire reported: First part of June, really rainy. Had issues with recreation activities on river. First river float scheduled for Saturday morning. Learn how to kayak and canoe. At the end there’s breakfast for you. Sign up with Parks and Recreation. Offering scuba diving classes at Harvest Park Pool. DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 • Minutes • Page 3  Forestry Department was busy in June with downed branches. If you have any down branches between sidewalk and curb, call us and we’re try to get them cleaned up. Rain scheduled for this weekend, so more mowing. Trying to catch up. Homeless issue and illegal trash is an issue at parks. Dealing with that. 4 th of July lost 8 poly carts being burnt down, one was blown up. Looking forward to July being better. Fall classes are coming up. Camps are going well. Golf is going well. C (Frye): Want to compliment Parks and Recreation. We had ribbon cuttings and grand openings for Aquatics plan. If you haven’t been to Aley, Harvest, MacAfee, and Minisa, and all the new water playgrounds. All phenomenal. Numbers are doing well. Q (DAB): Rumors about golf courses. Being sold or leased? A: Potential of striking a deal with a company. Discussions and negotiations are still moving forward. Final decisions haven’t been made. Working on an RFP. A (CM Frye): Park board had a meeting. Golf advisory committee made a recommendation about the RFP. Will need to be made to Park Board then Council. Negotiation with First Tee has ended. COVID was great for golf, but it’s also a strain on staffing. New roof at Tex and irrigation work at MacDonald. We are investing in our courses and people are playing. We don’t have a golf superintendent right now. At Park Board level right now. We looked at this 11 years ago and decided to stay internal, but a lot has changed. 7. Wichita Public Library Report Tracie Partridge reported: The Summer Reading Program continues this month with tons of great programming – both virtual and in person – along with early learning activities for ages 0-2 and reading challenges for ages 3-18. It’s not too late to sign up – visit www.wichitalibrary.org/summerreading to learn more and register. And don’t forget – if you have a child or teen registered for the Summer Reading Program already, they can now stop by their Library location and redeem prizes Beginning July 12, customers can place holds to borrow a telescope from the Library. The Orion StarBlast Astronomical Telescope has been reviewed by a number of astronomical publications and is found to be a great resource for stargazing and learning about the solar system. Each telescope is mounted on a base and has a large optical tube, meaning objects will appear in great detail. There are 11 telescopes available. Customers may borrow a telescope for 14 days. The Georgia Eakins Family through the Wichita Public Library Foundation generously underwrites telescopes. Visit www.wichitalibrary.org/things to learn more. If you want to learn more about book recommendations for the ReadICT Reading Challenge, as well as discuss different topics with professionals in Wichita and across the United States, listen to the Library’s podcast, “Read. Return. Repeat.” available wherever you get your podcasts. This month, we’re discussing ReadICT category nine, “a challenged book.” Host Sara McNeil interviews Deborah Caldwell- Stone, the director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom to explore the roles the Office has in supporting libraries to collect and customers to freely access information. You can listen to this and past episodes of the podcast at www.wichitalibrary.org/podcast. DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 • Minutes • Page 4  Here are some programs coming to the Westlink Branch this month you should check out: • Monkey Tales Storytime with Ms. Anne is Friday, July 9, 10:30-11 a.m. outside on the lawn. Ms. Anne and her friend, Monkey, will bring some tail-swinging fun with an interactive monkey-themed storytime. This is a great program for ages 2-8. • Turtle Tales with the Great Plains Nature Center is Tuesday, July 20, 10:30-11:15 a.m. Experience the world of a Kansas turtle with a story and the opportunity to see a live turtle. This program is for ages 3-11. For other programming opportunities, visit www.wichitalibrary.org/events. Roman reported he earned a bingo in the library bingo game. He received an award from Tracie. Action Taken: Received and filed. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • New Business 8. CON2021-00029 and CON2021-00030 Kathy Morgan, Metropolitan Area Planning Department, presented an application on behalf of Leonel Perez (owner), GLMV Architecture, Jeff Kuhn (Agent). The applicant submitted a Conditional Use request for Group Residence, Limited on property zoned TF-3 Two-Family residential on the north side of West 37th Street North and 1,970 feet west of North Maize Road (10932 W. 37th Street N) and a conditional Use for an accessory apartment in an existing building on the site. The two conditional use requests would allow the applicant to operate a Home Plus on the property, provide four to five staff members to cover shifts 24-7 and an administrator that will live on-site in the proposed accessory apartment in an existing building on the site. Going to Planning Commission tomorrow. Received several emails. Group residence and accessory apartment meets comprehensive plan for utilizing existing infrastructure to in some cases increase density. Staff reviewed the compliance with plans we have in place and it meets those requirements that are supporting use of existing infrastructure and growth. In staff report, Q (DAB): Biggest concern you’ve heard? A: Drainage. What traffic might increase? What ages? They will be taking children that need assistance with daily living needs. Will hire 4 or 5 staff people. Overnight there will be 1 staff person and during the day there will be 2. The accessory apartment will be used by permanent employee that will stay on site all the time. Traffic is a concern. Will people be walking up and down the street? No parking on the street there. That’s why they had to show provided onsite parking. Main ones that caught my eye, but I got quite a bit of emails this morning. Applicant is here and he can answer more questions. Q (DAB): Per state law, they can operate with 8 individuals without any zoning changes? They just need the Conditional Use to expand? A: Yes. Q (DAB): That 8 includes the staff? So we’re going from 8 to 12 total? A: Yes. Q (DAB): Are there similar homes throughout the City? DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 • Minutes • Page 5 A: Yes, we’ve had 4 cases in the last month. Leonel Perez reported. When you hear term group home. It’s for assisted living. Not going to be young kids court ordered. Will be for older people who have needs for activities of daily living. We will be building a beautiful home for those people. Q (DAB): Do you run other homes like this? A: There are multiple homes like that in the area, but we don’t operate them. This would be our first home that we operate. We have a lot of family members in the business. We’re very familiar with the whole business part of it, we’ve just never jumped in with our own home plus like this. Q (DAB): What made you decide this location and to do this business? Do you know people who need this or is this just a business decision? A: We have a lot of friends and family that need this type of business. My wife’s mom is currently in a nursing home. When COVID hit, most elderly people couldn’t even leave their room. This provides a smaller setting for residents. It’s more like their own home. Q (DAB): One email I saw, someone was concerned about safety. It’s a family neighborhood. Are there any types of issues you see in terms of safety for the neighborhood? A: I think people hear group home and think court-ordered kids or something like that. This is nothing like that. Just older people. Not going to have any issues. Will be a nice, quiet home. Will be the quietest home in the whole neighborhood. Q (DAB): You said people over 18, what are the guidelines? A: Anyone that qualifies for assisted living. Goal is to create independence and something more home-y. We have friends whose parents are getting older and they’re worried. Q (DAB): Will do you take Medicare and Medicaid? A: Looking into it. Have to get passed this point first. (Public) Mary and Clyde Ketzner 10913 West Waterside Court: Adjacent to proposed property. WE have a high interest in this. Backyard deck looks directly onto this property. Have a question – will you own the property yourself? A: We will own the property. Q (Public): Will you live on the property? A: The accessory apartment will be ours. It will be the residence of the operator. Q (Public): So you will be the administrator? A: Yes. Q (Public): There was a comment made that the residence in this home will be facing an exam to be admitted. Who gives the exam? A: It’s a state requirement. I agree there are trees between our properties. But the leaves will fall. Then we will see the property for 8 months out of the year. To help these people is wonderful. We bought residence a year ago, and this puts a whole new light on our retirement. DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 • Minutes • Page 6 C (CM Frye): Just to clarify, the zoning isn’t changing. It’s still TF-3, which allows duplexes. This is just a conditional use for a group home. C (DAB): This means they could build duplexes without any changes. A: Duplexes require 6,000 sq ft per building and have to allow for traffic. There could be as many as 8-10 duplexes built on that site by right. Without changing anything. C (Public) Mary and Clyde Ketzner: I get that. Still doesn’t change our concern. We have not seen a plat map. We’ve seen a picture but not how close parking lot will be to our fence. We bought property last year. Nice neighborhood. We bought home because it has expansive back yard. Tree line has been there for some time. Mulberry trees. Cedar trees. Site itself is somewhat of an anomaly. Like an island next to Hampton Lakes. Yard has not been maintained. Nice homes in Hampton Lakes. This property has not been kept up to any condition. Mowed once in a while. Grass is native grass. Concerned about parking. Perez family parks in backyard of residence. Drive in drive-way, in between two homes facing master bedroom. Car lights in our bedroom all hours. We don’t feel too comfortable with this. At this time, it is an entrance to the two homes. Considered to me a residential driveway. Now bringing how many cars parking up against privacy fence toward our home. Inconvenience. C (Public) Angie Kendal 10915 West: I’ve lived across street in horse farm for 20 years. South side is rural. Hampton Lakes addition went in. Beautiful addition. Great interaction. Putting my personal and sentimental reasons aside. Concerned about exterior lighting. Signage. Hours of operation. 5 staff, 8 people with families coming in and out. What they are doing is admirable, but we’re opposed. We know the situation with the residents. We know Amy and Leonel live there, but will it be sold to a corporation? Drainage is a big issue. Has been a major problem for years. Water sits consistently in those ditches. Mowers can’t mow it because it’s too wet. Drains into my pond. How will trash be handled? Where will trash receptacle be? Right now they don’t park on driveway, 5 or 6 vehicles on the lawn. That concerns me. How many staff members will live on property? A: Won’t have 5 staff members at once. In daytime, only 3 during a time. Afternoon shift would have 1. C (Public) Angie Kendal: History on property. Main house original farm house built in 1961. People who owned before were carpenters. Were big in church. Would house missionaries when they were there. Reason for 2nd building. A (Perez): Agree with parking issue. We’ve only owned property for 3 months. Not any good parking spots right now. We have to drive around and park towards the back. But the plans fix that. Parking will face the east not the north. Parking lot will be a huge improvement. Some of the requirements that come with this, no big signs and no big lights. Just a house we’ll expand a little bit. No big lighting. Working with incredible architect. Will be beautiful. A: Single story ranch home. Similar aesthetic and design. Will address all drainage issues. Has to be addressed with building permit. C (Public) Tanner Vincent 4126 N Rutgers Circle. I provided written questions. This was rushed through June 30 with holiday weekend ahead. Miscommunication if the meeting was Monday or Wednesday. A lot of confusion. I care about future uses. You mentioned duplexes, but that still requires licensing and other DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 • Minutes • Page 7 things. If this was well intended, I think community should have been involved and it wasn’t at all. Land owners were shell shocked to hear about this. Never once heard about this. Purchased 90 days ago with intent to be a commercial venture. In no way does this fit with zoning in that area. I have questions that hint around, is there an unlicensed group residence already in existence? Why was there intentional misleading and excluding of community members? What are all use cases of a property like this now and in future? While it is aging and those with need, there are also other categories at discretion of business owner. This board has obligation to enforce state law. I have a lot of questions. Reality is nobody in City of Maize was contacted, nobody in HOA was contacted, homeowners not contacted. A: Process for notification, sending out letters to all property owners within 200 feet. I have record those letters were sent out. I don’t know where Mr. Vincent lives in this area. Very possible he could not have received notice. There are signs on the property. We do give notice to HOA if we have their contact info on file. I cannot remember looking at mailing label if HOA was on mailing list. This was published according to state law. Staff report gets prepared and then it becomes public when it gets sent out to Planning Commission members. I understand 4th of July, but there were no corners cut. I did have some other email contact about what the process is. Tomorrow is a public hearing at City Council chambers. You can attend in person or virtual. After that meeting is over there is a 14 day protest period. Anyone can submit a protest period. Need original signatures on protest and have to reflect owner name of register of deeds and sent to clerk’s office. Will end 5pm July 22. After the period has ended it will determine if Planning Commission actions is final or if it requires action by City Council. Q (Public): On the protest, can it only be signed by people who received a letter? A: No, anybody within the area could get a protest petition and fill it out. But what is calculated is those property owners that are within the 200 feet. You can certainly send in a protest petition if you’re outside of that. Q (Public): If you file a protest petition, it will take a super majority vote? A: If more than 20% of the 200 foot area protest, then City Council would require 6 of 7 votes to approve. Q (Pubic): Can you tell me the number of people that were notified within 200 feet of this. A: I sent out a map earlier today that showed the 200 foot notification area. I would say there are maybe 20 at most. Q (Public): What percent of the 23 homes would have to sign the protest petition? A: It’s 20% of the land area, not 20% of the number of property owners, but the land area within the 200 foot notification. C (DAB): This land is going to be developed. It’s just too good not to be developed. What’s the worst thing that could go there? What’s the best thing? The worst thing is 8 duplexes. That could go in right now. 16 neighbors. 32 cars. I think this is one of the best uses you could have. I’m familiar with group homes, care homes. You usually don’t even know they are care homes. They are going to keep it up. It’s going to be mowed. It will be nice. Just my view. Action Taken: Motion to APPROVE the application (CON2021-00029) as presented made by JV Johnston. Seconded by Rachel Thomas-Murphy. MOTION PASSED 8-1-0 Motion to APPROVE the application (CON2021-00030) as presented made by JV Johnston. Seconded by Rachel Thomas-Murphy. MOTION PASSED 9-0-0 DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 • Minutes • Page 8 9. Northwest Water Treatment Facility Bill Perkins, Public Works and Utilities Department, will present an update on the Northwest Water Treatment Facility. Provided information regarding each phase of the construction. Showed detailed diagrams of each structure in the plant. There is no redundancy in the current water treatment plant. Two sources of water, Cheney and equus beds. In 1999, City purchased property to stay thinking about Water Treatment Plant. Explained the makeup of Wichita Water Partners. Ty McGown presented 3D models of the structures. Explained the function of each structure. Recognize the need to hire an artist for the aesthetics. Along the road, there is a question about what they can do to make it look better. Rod iron fence with zoo animals. Should we extend that out? Working with design council and steering committee to let an artist help decide how to include artistic elements to soften the view on the other side of the railroad tracks. Will also add art element inside the public building. Also working with Evergy to get power to the site. DAB has already heard this project. Evergy building a substation along 13th street. Will keep power lines underground. No new poles or anything. Brian Meier presented information about other aspects and initiatives of the project. Education and entrepreneurship programs. Working with WSU Tech to improve training opportunities like an apprenticeship opportunities. Providing scholarships to students getting into the construction industry to help with this project. Two-year program. Q (CM Frye): What’s the largest number of people on site working at one time? A: About 350 towards the end of 2022. Q (CM Frye): And right now we’re on time and on budget? A: Slightly ahead. Throughout hardships of last year, there was enough momentum and effort put in that we were able to stay on schedule. C (CM Frye): Opportunity for onsite tour on July 22 in afternoon. We’ll send out reminder email to DAB. How long does it last? A: Hard to judge, it was a downpour. 15 to 20 minutes out on site. Have to be on site to really appreciate the scale. There will be other opportunities. Action Taken: Received and filed 10. Non-Discrimination Ordinance CM Frye provided a brief explanation of the situation regarding the Non-Discrimination Ordinance being considered by City Council, as well as some of the issues that have been raised. You call got the email I shared prior to yesterday’s vote. Started in June. This was sprung on us. Didn’t have a lot of communication and a rushed vote. Council said this isn’t how we do things. We need to have more engagement with community. Challenges with first draft. Was modeled after Topeka NDO. It was presented to us on Friday. Got changed Monday night. Public didn’t see it until Tuesday morning. City Legal started to address questions and concerns by Council. Came up with new version 2.06. Sent you a comparison of 1st draft and June 24th version modeled after Overland Park NDO. They spent 2 years. We DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 • Minutes • Page 9 were trying to do this in a short time. Several of us objected to the process. I never said we don’t need an NDO. We need to be inviting. Welcoming, opening, desirable and inclusive. We need to do something right. We saw a lot of confusion, angst, questions, bigotry. So uncertain. Questions about process. Questions about what it’s asking of court system. What we had yesterday was an improved version. June 24th version better than June 15th. Focusing on lack of community engagement. Not letting community have a seat at the table from the beginning. Don’t rush it. Let everyone have equal opportunity to be heard. Still object to way it was ambushed on us. Yesterday public comment ended at 1:15. Still have questions about effect of municipal court system. No certainty how it will be administered Have to codify it. We will be enforcing agent. It was voted on 4-3. Second reading on Tuesday. Not all DABs have had opportunity to hear it. That’s a shame. Lack of civic engagement speaks volumes. I’m getting feedback, emails, and phone calls. I think there will be a lot of questions. I wanted tonight to be an importunity for you all to ask questions and share concerns. You see the “no” vote I made, it wasn’t because I oppose NDO. You can’t rush something like this. It has to be done where everyone has an opportunity to be heard. I thought there were groups being left out. Q (DAB): It took Overland Park 2 years. Can we get that design? A: I don’t have that info. I don’t know how it all went down. Q (DAB): Can you speak to 2nd reading process? Will it be on consent agenda? A: Ordinance gets voted on 1st reading and 2nd reading it’s on consent. Most of our ordinances do not, we can pull any consent item for any reason. Depending on what happens this week, what kind of comments and concern, it could be pulled from consent. I anticipate a lot of people will want to be heard in the chambers. We had overflow room and people waiting outside. If there’s a huge turnout again, I imagine it will get pulled from consent to allow public comment. Q (DAB): I’m hearing your concern about process. Does a week allow voices to be heard? A: I don’t think that’s enough time. And the effect on our municipal court. Should we have that information before second vote? I would like that. It can be added later. So much is unknown. I don’t know what else can come between now and then besides just comment. Several people asked for referendum, a public vote. It’s already pitting people against each other. I don’t know how a public vote would effect that. For the 7 of us C (DAB): It came during pride month. Entire process seems disingenuous. Seems hastily written. Second draft was much better written. First was all over the place. An agenda didn’t honor the reasons for an NDO. It was done in such a way that overshadowed the reason. Why are we rushing through this why aren’t we taking the time. Vote happened and our DAB didn’t get a chance to talk about it. Done so hastily it dishonored reason why we need NDO. Knowing you are a council member that honors process and policy, can we slow this down? Q (DAB): Can you help me understand, I work with minority populations. Can you help me understand why we need NDO that isn’t covered by state and federal? A: There is protection for everyone else that’s not sexual orientation and gender identity. Until recently KS human rights initiative wasn’t recognized protection of sexual orientation and gender identity, and I think this is one of the things this was trying to address. Also create easier and quicker path to address complaints. Now if you take to state, it could take up to a year for case to be heard. It could be heard local much quicker. Better path to access. State should figure out how to get cases heard quicker. C (Public): Liz Hamor Community Outreach Director of Equality Kansas. Organization has helped write NDOs around the state. Overland Park is one of them. OP is better. Topeka is a weaker one. We would DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 • Minutes • Page 10 not have supported that one. This new one modeled after Overland Park. I’m not sure it took them 2 years to pass it, not draft it. I’m here to answer any questions I can. I’m new with equality Kansas. Our executive director has been working on NDOs for 16 years. Excited about the one in front of Wichita right now. Q (DAB): Having 16 years of history, why not go to state and go statewide instead of different municipalities. A: We have tried several times. Kansas Act Against Discrimination. Legislators in statehouse believe in local control. Q (DAB): Equality Kansas didn’t approach City first, right? Things were in motion, then your group came in to improve. A: Yes. We saw it same time City Council people saw it and HRC saw it and we were saying it’s not a good policy based on Topeka’s Our executive director was working HRC head legal to develop one that had more accountability. Still not as good as what we were hoping would happen. Still need to clear up some issues. C (DAB): If I had a point, the special interest you represent was to try and improve a product in short time frame. A: Yes. Since we publicly opposed the first one, we were asked to help. C (CM Frye): We met with Equality Kansas to learn more and work hand in hand to make this the best we can on such short time frame. A: (Hamor): HRC only started looking at sexual identity recently and it’s not state law. It’s at discretion of governor. That could change. Q (DAB): So this could be stronger than what is at state level? A: Yes C (Public) Bret Warkentine, Forrest Lakes: In favor of NDO. I recognize collision when trying to protect rights of one group that discriminates against another group. I’m the pastor of church across from all-star sports. My concern is pretty narrow. Mayor Whipple said yesterday religious organizations were exempt, but way I read policy – not really. Want to clarify and ask, proposed policy exempts religious organizations that to hire teachers in a church we are exempt. In other words, 1 st amendment we can practice our religion. We can be exempt if we choose to not hire LGBTQ teachers. We only have 8 teachers. If we choose we don’t want to hire that person, we can determine that. Policy that exempts religious organizations for teachers, but not other staff – janitors, graphic designers, admins. Really significant issue. All I’m asking is you exempt entire religious organization employment, not just teachers. Correct me if I’m off. My narrow concern. Could lead to a law suit if we’re hauled in if non-teachers are not exempt. C (Public): John West: I don’t want to see anyone discriminated against. If you don’t discriminate against one then you discriminate against another. Nobody wins. Nobody wants to discriminate. But to out of the blue, expect to have something in 2 weeks something that isn’t necessary but could be harmless. It’s wreckless. I just closed my business. One of the reasons I only hired 1 person is because of all the rules. Small business guy that doesn’t have a law degree. People yesterday had a great point. Hypothetical would you hire this person. Why would that even come up in a job interview? Concerned about who gets the power. Made a good point about court system. If we start having more lawsuits. Those are my concerns. DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 • Minutes • Page 11 C (Public) Dana Galfer: I was at the meeting yesterday. Seems so confusing. This came out of nowhere. A lot of things going on. A lot of things weren’t defined. These are issues that are hard to define and make work for everybody. What works for one protected class may not work for another. I appreciate you wanting to see more of a process. To put out an ordinance that even you thought was poor, what was council doing? Do you know why it was pushed out so fast? A (CM Frye): It was an agenda by the mayor. It was not shared with the rest of us. Maybe one other council member had an idea. C (Public): That’s disturbing to me personally. C (Public) Mike Hewitt: Learned today former 12 anchor Roger Cornish died. Good man. Condolences to his family. Overland Park came out with a good ordinance. Went over it and I don’t see anything wrong with it. If we can do all we do, we can accommodate this. Things can be done. Words gotten out. People know about this ordinance. We have to be a welcoming community. Welcoming everyone. Welcome and open to all people regardless of what community. Shouldn’t let this go to dumpster of good intentions. All arguing back and forth, political. With all respect to others, I think this is a pretty good ordinance. Don’t think we should throw it out because people don’t understand. Use meetings to explain. Don’t think we should throw it aside. It’s working in Overland Park. I think people should read it and decide. We should have a welcome and open community. We don’t want to discriminate against anyone. I’ve never known discrimination, but I’ve known people who have in this community. C (Public) Russell Fox. 605 N. Westlink: I watched most of the meeting yesterday. I share opinions I think are sheared by quite a few. Process was messy. Think there was political gamesmanship in the process. I think some of that is what happened in Overland Park. Sounded to me like there were many days just like yesterday leading to similarly frustrating results. Sometimes sausage making cuts corners and that’s not good. If you take a look at that kind of sausage making and determine it’s disrespectful, I suspect you might want to look at people who ordinance is most affected by. Like Equality Kansas. They didn’t show up against because they weren’t disrespected by it. But biggest point. Question is City ought to lead in making policy on anti-discrimination. You mention principal of home rule. In state of Kansas principal of home rule is observed in breech than in actual fact. Good opportunity for city of Wichita as largest city in state to be able to say to state and people in city that this is a principal worth enacting and defending even if it means working out details afterwards like state does. I think it’s appropriate. C (Public) Denise Chavez: I wonder prior to proposal had there been any discussion on council of NDO? A: No not to my knowledge. Not between mayor and council member, council members and staff. C (Public): Why not? Clearly we have a problem. I have grandchildren that are multi-cultural and with learning disabilities. I don’t want that to be the case. My husband is a minority. I’ve seen discrimination though I haven’t been a victim. If it hasn’t been talked about prior to now it’s too late. C (Public) Bruce Sandlin: One item not brought up yesterday, concerned about effect will have on speech in workplace. Citizens will be less likely to discuss issues of gender identity. I looked at HR policy. Does have language about gender identity and disciplinary to some extent already covered. Within ordinance, have to consider situation without it and situation with it. Worry about risk of frivolous complaints. Recent allegations can be devastating to people and businesses who are proven innocent. C (Public): Caroline New: Live outside of Goddard. I shared your frustration for how this was given to council. It was not right. As the mother to half Vietnamese children, one disabled. Step mother of 2 black DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 • Minutes • Page 12 children. Lot of friends in LGBT community. Faced discrimination in Wichita. Doesn’t affect me, but people I love. I understand it was rushed and there are concerns. I have been afraid to let my son get an apartment on his own. I see discrimination of disabled people everywhere. I want recourse locally. When you have been victimized you aren’t going to go to state or federal level for help. If you are a gay black man 22 year old between jobs, you don’t have emotional energy to go to state or federal campaign to ask for help. You don’t a have a year to get help. City needs to do that. It’s been long enough. C (Public) Tina: I’m Hispanic and have dealt with discrimination various times in my life. I let it roll off of me. I have a husband who is disabled. Ridiculous how many time people with disabilities in wheel chairs are discriminated against. Athletic places. I have a grand daughter who is gay and one transgender. My concern is what is this part about civil penalties in amount of $2,000 per day? If businesses involved if waitress was rude and disrespectful then small business will have to deal with that. On top of that, fines used to offset cost of enforcement of ordinance. Is this Nazi Germany where we are going to be re- educated? Why are we going to be re-educated? I think its fine the way it is right now. Sex is sex, why do we have to get into transgender and be specific about it. We are all human. Why does it have to be all about the transgender and gays? Why do us who have been discriminated against if we don’t support their choices? C (Public) Liz Hamor: It’s been hard work. It’s been really hard to listen to people make this about sexual orientation and transgender and not want a policy because they believe LGBTQ people don’t deserve respect and protection. The Chung report said Wichita needed to do better on diversity and inclusion. I have worked with several schools on diversity, equity and inclusion. Policy is how we start to create that tone for how we are going to treat people in our community. Why Wichita is hemorrhaging talent. Young, LGBTQ, differently abled, don’t want to be here in Wichita. Not attracting new talent. In my former job, we were working on LGBTQ issues in state of Kansas. Regularly fielded calls and emails from people – do you have inclusive policies, where can we go to school, safe neighborhoods. People decided to not come here. I work with several corporations. Many have policies but it’s not enough. C (DAB): I think it’s very important to young people especially right in policy. Some of us old people have hard time understanding that. I agree with you Bryan, maybe we ought to take more time. A: I’m not advocating for more time just to take more time, I don’t want to find middle ground I want to find common ground. It shouldn’t be politicized. How emotional this is. Figure out how we can advance this quicker rather than later. C (DAB): 40% of our patience are going to die and this does nothing for them. They still live in the shadows. C (DAB): Other piece people are forgetting about are small business owner. Regulation can hurt them and hinder them. I think there needs to be more education. A: I’ve heard some of the same comments about small business especially coming out of COVID. Confusion. C (DAB): Sounds like legal team and council members, there’s been effort to work with equality Kansas. Hope other voices that are affected by this. Small businesses, ministerial league. Other voices that can provide value to version of what’s best for all Wichitans. Some value in making sure all stake holders are on board. If you don’t feel comfortable talking tonight, email me. Talk to your friends coworkers neighbors and get back to me. DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 • Minutes • Page 13 Recognize this process left a lot to be desired. Appreciate robust conversation. I am disappointed certain voices weren’t engaged. But I am absolutely in support of NDO. Just the humanity piece of it all. That’s where I stand. Pro NDO. Disappointed in process but separate conversation for a different time. Action Taken: Received and filed • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 9:56 p.m. The next District 5 Advisory Board meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, August 2, 2021. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Guests Brian Meier Ty McGown Katy Morgan Jose Salcido Angie Kendell Kelly Kendell James Espinosa Mary and Clyde Ketzner Russell Fox Tina Liz Hamor Caroline New Bruce Sandlin Denise Chavez Dana Galfer Mike Hewitt Tanner Bret Warkentine John West • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Respectfully submitted, Cory Buchta, Community Services Representative, District 5 DAB 5 • July 7, 2021 • Minutes • Page 14