Save Taxpayers Vote No

BACK in Oct. 2023, our City signed a contract saying it would purchase a parking garage ($10 million) from a developer who would be constructing apartments by the Ball Stadium BEFORE knowing any terms of such agreement to do so. That contract specified certain exhibits applicable to such a purchase, but the exhibits did not exist so BLANK PAGES were included in the contract at that time.

Not only does our City NOT provide parking garages to other apartment/condo complexes, but NOW, almost 3 years later, the City has "negotiated" a purchase agreement and a lease agreement, both of which have QUESTIONABLE TERMS, even though the agreements were APPROVED FOR SIGNATURE at the 4/14 Council meeting.

IN ADDITION, at the 4/14 Council meeting, we learn that there will be a A SWIMMING POOL ON THE TOP OF THE PARKING GARAGE!!

NO CONTRACTUAL DETAILS EXIST REGARDING THE SWIMMING POOL. CAN THE CITY OWN A GARAGE BUT NOT OWN A POOL ON TOP OF THE GARAGE? IF THE POOL LEAKS AND CAUSES DAMAGE TO BELOW GARAGE FLOORS, WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR REPAIRS? THE LEASE AGREEMENT INDICATES THE CITY WILL PAY FOR GARAGE MAINTENANCE; DOES THAT MEAN THE POOL AS WELL?

OTHER PROBLEMS:
** The Parking Lease agreement says the City will pay for managment, operation, maintenance, etc., costs, including CONDOMINIUM DUES or assessments & OWNER ASSOCIATION DUES or fees. WHY??

** At the 4/14 Council meeting that approved this, the City did not know how much annual operation/maintenance expenses would likely be. THUS, the City does not know if monies collected from the lease will be enough to cover such expenses.

** The Developer intends to construct a multifamily residential facility containing at least 150 multifamily residential units and a minimum of 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail space. IS ONLY 10,000 SF RETAIL ENOUGH FOR COLLECTION OF SALES TAX TO PAY OFF BALL STADIUM STAR BOND DEBT???

The city of Wichita is hosting a series of budget town halls through the end of May.

The city said the town halls are to hear from residents on what their budget priorities are — ESPECIALLY if the city were to consider another SALES TAX vote.

Any new sales tax vote likely wouldn’t take place until next year.

Here’s how you can give input on the city of Wichita’s budget The town halls were requested by council members after voters overwhelmingly rejected a 1% sales tax.

Who in our City is responsible for analyzing the APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS to make sure we are not overpaying for products and services?

Wichita police will buy a single robot dog for $340,000, the Wichita City Council decided in a narrow 4-3 vote Tuesday.

The Topeka Police Department purchased a robot dog over 6 months ago for only $5,360!

Topeka Police Department acquires new robot dog TOPEKA (KSNT) – The Topeka Police Department (TPD) is introducing a new robot dog ‘Pepe’ to its force. The TPD said in a social media post on Aug. 7 the robot dog is a Go2 Pro from Unit…

ht/Wichita Century II
The ball stadium entertainment area for a hotel, luxury apartments, retail space, and parking spaces, was formerly under contract to Wichita Riverfront LP, but they didn’t build anything. So City Council released this group and EPC took over. Supposedly with tougher contract deadlines and clawbacks. They didn’t build anything either. So they were allowed to split the contract into two parts - hotel went to WBD-H and apartments went to WBD. Nothing was built. Again, city council extended and amended the contracts to build YET AGAIN and sweetened the pot with $11 Million in TIF funds to go to the developers INSTEAD of paying off the stadium debt. Now today on the city council agenda is a crazy unvetted plan to have taxpayers PAY for the as yet, unconstructed parking garages in a ridiculous lease agreement. There are no minimum lease units, there are no projected maintenance costs, there are no financial statements on the ‘parking fund’. No transparency. This is why 82% of taxpayers voted AGAINST THE 1% Sales Tax.

The WPD wants robodogs so badly that it will ask the City Council to spend $629,000 on two of them and will bring the item to the Council agenda again, a year ahead of when the department is scheduled to get them anyway.

Ha ha ha ha ha...
"My advice to the council is go ahead and approve the expenditure. As a father who raised twin boys, I can tell you that sometimes the better part of valor is to just buy the toys and save yourself a year of nagging."

"They’re handy for disposing of the random bombs that people in cities like Wichita tend to leave lying around."

"While some have suggested the city buy only one robodog instead of two, I wouldn’t recommend that. The bomb squad and the SWAT team would just be fighting over it all the time."

NEEDS VS. WANTS! NECESSITIES VS. TOYS! HOW DOES THIS HELP THE UPCOMING BUDGET DEFICITS?

Robodog’s back on Wichita council agenda. What could possibly go wrong? | Opinion Finally, a breed of dog that you don’t need to take outside to p**p in a blizzard. Who wouldn’t want one?

The city is thinking about charging a $25 flat fee for people to park at a lot or garage at Intrust Bank Arena for any small event under 5,000 people. For a medium event at Intrust of 5,000 to 9,000 people, it’s a $35 flat fee for a spot in a lot or garage. For an event larger than that, it’s $55.

That would definitely be something I’d be angry at once I got here,” said Jose Lerma, who was visiting downtown.

HEY, JOSE, MANY OF US WOULD BE ANGRY! How many people are going to STOP COMING DOWNTOWN?

Wichita considers event parking price increases downtown City proposes flat fees for lots and garages at Intrust Bank Arena, Century Two and Equity Bank Park

Where's the trust in City Hall to spend our taxpayer dollars judiciously?

(gift article)
"Here’s a pro tip for all you mayors out there: If you’re going to ask your constituents to trust your fiscal discipline, it’s best not to do it in a speech that cost the city $9,500 to stage.

It’s pretty incredibly frustrating coming about a week after the voters of the city rejected City Hall’s call for an $850 million sales tax package."

Wichita mayor’s speech on fiscal discipline cost the city $9,500 | Opinion City of Wichita got a “free” room at Century II for Lily Wu’s State of the City speech; paid thousands for audio-visual rentals.

Is this the start of our City officials doing what we asked, analyzing and prioritizing NEEDS vs. wants while asking for public input on each individually? Or the start of a yearly push for a sales tax?

City officials attended a retreat today, and it appears they are "interested in starting a conversation about a SECOND SALES TAX ELECTION in Wichita after nearly 82% of voters rejected the first proposal last week.

Council members directed the city manager to host a series of town halls in each district, and a citywide one at City Hall, by the end of May to gauge whether residents would be interested in another sales tax vote and what it should fund.

Any new sales tax vote likely wouldn’t take place until next year.

Council members said they weren’t interested in putting the sales tax question on the November ballot, as the Wichita school district is poised to put another school bond question on the ballot then."

(gift article)

‘It has to be community driven’: Wichita officials talk about another sales tax vote The discussion comes after an initial sales tax proposal failed March 3.

WELL, WELL, WELL...the stuff just keeps happening...without any apparent analysis as to if this expending of dollars is consistent with what citizens think should be the priorities of expenditures within the City. WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED?!

h/t Chase Billingham

"Also on Tuesday in this "broke" city:

- A new TIF district which will grant hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales tax exemptions.

- A new Community Improvement District which will impose a new 2% sales tax surcharge to help finance a private "golf, sports and entertainment venue."

- A renewed five-year property tax abatement for Groover Labs, despite the failure of Groover Labs to meet the job-creation requirements they agreed to in order to receive the last five-year property tax abatement. (That requirement will be waived on the renewal.)

- A new $85 million STAR bond district to "construct a multi-sport athletic complex."

(gift article)
"You could take the facts of this case and write a book called “Lose an Election and All Civic Credibility in Just 90 Days.”

The whole thing reeked of the council bending over backward to accommodate the will of a handful of wealthy and connected individuals, some known, some unknown.

While we don’t have any way to hold the CEOs who started it accountable, we need to make sure the City Council members understand this vote for what it is: a resounding message from the residents of this community that they need to clean up their act, pronto.

And that goes for all seven of them, who voted unanimously to put this atrocity on the ballot in the first place."

Wichita sales tax proposal crashes and burns, so what’s next? | Opinion The campaign for a 1% sales tax was an insulting disaster. The City Council needs to clean up its act and repair the damage, pronto.