City Council Report /w Gordon Basham; Downtown Wichita Development

And this is going to be the city council agenda preview report. Short report number one, followed by short report two, followed by the long report. The two short reports to air on 12/17/90, the long report to air on 12/18/90. Tomorrow morning's council meeting will be the last one this year and it will be a busy one. One major item up for consideration will be a request by council member Sheldon Kamen to hold a non-binding public referendum on one phase of the redevelopment of downtown Wichita. Specifically, Kamen wants the public to vote in an advisory referendum on the issuance of thirty-two and a half million dollars in general obligation bonds to finance what's called the additional capacity portion of the public money to be spent on the redevelopment. City Finance Director Ray Trail likens the additional capacity funds to those a person might have left over in their personal budget. Kamen says the bond sale will not increase the city's current nine point eight mil tax levy. Kamen wants to put the issue before the voters as a way of getting more citizen involvement in the downtown project.

The money Kamen wants to have funded by bond money represents a little less than one third of the one hundred and thirteen million dollar public commitment. Kamen says he wants to make it a non binding resolution so that what becomes important is not whether the issue passes or fails but the percentage by which it passes or fails. Kamen says he would prefer the referendum be placed on the February city primary election ballot, the same ballot in which the voters will get a chance to give the thumbs up or thumbs down to a pay raise for the mayor, vice mayor, and council members. In other action, the council will consider a contract to carry live broadcasts of its meetings on Friends University's radio station KSOF. The broadcasts were carried live on KMUW until September of this year. If approved, the council will spend about six hundred dollars a month on the broadcast. They would begin sometime after the first of the year. The city's 1991-92 budget is also in its final form. The '91 budget is just under two hundred and five million dollars compared to just under two hundred and two million for 1990. The

city's '92 proposed budget is just over two hundred and three million. Some of the features of the budget include adding twenty new police officers, six percent water rate increases to each in '91 and '92 and a planned ten percent sewer rate increase next year that will help pay for expansion costs of the city's water treatment plant as well as setting money aside to pay for the development of a new water supply. The council meeting gets underway at nine tomorrow morning in the council chambers of city hall and as usual it's open to the public. For KMUW, I'm Gordon Basham. And short report number two. The redevelop downtown Wichita will once again be an issue debated when the council meets tomorrow morning. Specifically, the council will consider a proposal by member Sheldon Kamen to hold a non-binding public referendum on issuing thirty two and a half million dollars in general obligation bonds to pay for part of the one hundred and thirteen million dollar public commitment to the funding of the three hundred million dollar project to redevelop downtown

Wichita. Kamen says the bond issue will not increase the city's nine point 8 mil tax levy and will not be binding on the council. He says, rather, what's important is not whether the issue passes or fails but by how much it passes or fails. Kamen told KMUW that he feels it's important issue be put before the voters as a way of getting more citizen involvement in the downtown redevelopment project. He says he would like to see the referendum placed on the city's February primary election ballot, along with a question about whether to raise the pay and limit to two consecutive terms the vice mayor, mayor, and council members. The city council will also vote on whether to sign a contract with KSOF radio, Friends University's radio station, to carry live coverage of the council meetings. KMUW carried the meetings live for several years but discontinued that coverage in favor of in-depth reports on the council's agenda and meeting activity. If approved, the coverage would cost the city six hundred dollars per meeting and offer coverage from nine in the morning until noon each

Tuesday. The council will also hear a request by Presbyterian Manors for the issuance of forty seven and a half million dollars in industrial revenue bonds. Back in October the city approved a letter of intent to issue the bonds. The money will be used to refund nearly forty million dollars in outstanding IRBs and to pay for construction and equipment costs of improving PMI's existing health care facilities. The council meeting gets underway tomorrow morning at nine in the council chambers at city hall and as usual the meeting is open to the public. For KMUW, I'm Gordon Basham. And here comes the long council report for airing on the morning of 12/18/90. This morning's council meeting will be the last this year, and because of that, there will be a lot of cleanup business on the council's agenda. One agenda item though, which is likely to spark debate is Sheldon Kamen's plan to place part of the public funding of the redevelopment of downtown Wichita before the voters in a nonbinding referendum. Kamen explains. [Sheldon Kamen]I would like to get the citizens involved in the downtown project, not

in certain segments of it which are already set or which have to be debated yet, but in this particular bonded issue which'll furnish about a one-third of the funds necessary to do the project. This is all, this is really a bond issue, is what it is. For thirty two point five million dollars principle which with principal and interest will amount to fifty three million five hundred and twenty four thousand dollars. [Gordon Bassham]This is a nonbinding referendum. Does it have any significance as far as the people are concerned? [Sheldon Kamen] I think it will tell us quite a bit. The two basic reasons I'm putting this forth is one, that from the many calls I've been getting and letters, most people do not understand. It's a pretty complex issue, downtown redevelopment. It certainly is one of the biggest issues we've faced since I've been on the council. I think this will make it, if it passes, it will make it

very probable that those who are for it will educate the people as to what it involves and then the people'll have to make a decision. I think I made it non binding because I think it's important, not necessary whether it wins or loses but by what percentage. [Gordon Bassham] Is this something that is going to happen on the primary or is it going to happen on the general election? [Sheldon Kamen] Well, my preference would be the same election as the mayor's referendums coming up. [Bassham] Is this a trend as far as the council is concerned, here we have this nonbinding referendum going before the people, we have the pay raise issue going before the people. Is the council intend on making a habit now of major issues going before the people? [Sheldon Kamen] You'll have to ask the mayor about the other one because that's his decision, but mine was that this entire project you're talking about, eventually hundreds of millions of dollars, and I think certainly downtown isn't a subject just for the

council to discuss. It's not a subject just for WISE to discuss, it's a subject that needs to be discussed among the citizenry and they certainly have to have some input into it. [Gordon Bassham] If this were a binding referendum, wouldn't it carry more weight as far as the people is concerned? What is the council goes in and votes contrary to what the referendum indicates? [Sheldon Kamen] I think we have to make our own interpretations of what the outcome is. [Gordon Bassham] Kamen says he's concerned with making sure the public gets good, clear information about the plan to redevelop downtown Wichita. As vice mayor Rip Gooch put it, if you only talk about the downside of it, then naturally that's the only thing people know. Gooch was asked who's job is it to sell the project? [Rip Gooch] I think it's the selling job has to be done a lot by the government, has to be done by the business people, and most of all

all, it's the work that they do selling it, got to be placed before the public in the right perspective by the news. As I just said, most of the people don't get to listen to my statement, don't get to listen to the mayor's statement, don't get to listen to the downtown redevelopment group's statement. most of 'em don't come out and listen to that. They decide that it's gonna be told to me tomorrow or this evening on the news, so I'll just wait and see what they have to say about it. The question is downtown redevelopment is going to move ahead with great taxation on you What am I... Well, what I'm going to get for it? [Gordon Bassham]Gooch also said many people he's talked to are behind the redevelopment of downtown Wichita. [Rip Gooch] If you survey the people, if you would make

a survey of all the people who attend the meetings on the downtown redevelopment, you'll probably find that it's a great percent convinced that its at worth least a try. Because they got the message [inaudible] I'm not saying that its should be the news people's responsibility to feel this deal, I think that people should get out and get the information themselves. That's the reason I was disappointed when they took the city council meeting off of the radio, and I have people day after day coming to me even yet, telling me how disappointed they are because they said I got all the information and I made my own decision. [Gordon Bassham] Gooch's sentiments about KMUW's decision to provide reports rather than live coverage of council meetings, and a review of the council's agenda reflects a broader sentiment on the council. Because of that, it's probable that council will approve another agenda item: a proposed contract with Friends University's radio station, KSOF, to

carry live broadcasts of the council meetings. Cyndra Cross, the city's public information officer. [Cyndra Cross] This will convince sometime after the first of the year. There are some licensing requirements that they need to get out of the way, so we'll be looking forward to that probably sometime in January or February. [Gordon Bassham] Can you talk about how much this is going to cost the city? [Cyndra Cross] It's not much more than it was before, in fact it comes out to be a little bit less in terms of payment to the radio station for coverage. We were paying the previous radio station roughly five hundred dollars, and this is going to cost approximately the same. There's some trade-off in terms of equipment provided and so forth. [Gordon Bassham] Is this something that the city sees as a very high priority? Obviously it is, I mean, the city is putting the council meetings back on the air. This is something the city sees as a high priority? [Cynda Cross] I think so. I know I've received a number of calls, and so have the council members, although there's a limited audience, and of course we hope that expands, they are very diligent about tuning in and being

informed, which we're grateful for. We had a great a listenership amongst the working professionals, because obviously they don't have access to a television during their work hours, but most of them can have access to a radio. And we also had a lot of visually-impaired persons who tuned in. That was their way of staying informed. [Bassham] The council will also consider spending between fifty thousand one hundred and thirty thousand dollars to add more programming to channel thirty-five, the city's cable channel. Presently, the council meetings are broadcast live and replayed once on channel thirty-five. The channel also carries a bulletin board service outlining various city announcements. Cross says, if given council approval, the city will add programming to the channel, such as a live call-in show, where viewers can talk to elected officials or appointed city officials. And, says Cross, the city will propose adding C-Span 2 coverage of the United States Senate. According to Cross, the actual amount of money spent on such programming would depend on how much additional coverage the council is willing to adopt. adopt. The council meeting gets underway at nine this morning in the council chambers at City Hall, and

as usual, it's open to the public. For KMUW, i'm Gordon Basham. [BASHAM]: And this is going to be the city council long report, I have the short report number one, followed by short report number two, followed by the long report for the city council meeting on 12/18/90. Here comes the first short report. [SILENCE] [BASHAM]: The last council meeting of the year turned out to be one of the longest of the year, and as expected, the issue over whether or not to let the public vote on a portion of the public funding of downtown Wichita, took a lot of time and drew both council and public comment. Council member Sheldon Kamen wanted the public to be able to vote in a nonbinding referendum on the issuance of $32.5 million dollars in general obligation bonds to fund some of the unspecified projects associated with the redevelopment. Specifically, Kamen wanted the referendum on less than a

third of the public funds, which the city says will not increase the public's tax burden. He felt the public should have the opportunity to become more involved in the project. Public sentiment ran in favor of Kanen's motion at the conference, with four speakers telling the council they felt the referendum would give the public a clearer picture about whether the citizens of Wichita are behind the project as a whole. Mayor Bob Knight commented, most of the comment he's heard from the public so far since the council's November vote to move forward on the project, has been positive. When the final vote was taken on the measure, Kamen voted alone at his motion. That sparked Knight to offer a motion, allowing the council the chance to reaffirm its November vote authorizing the project. In that vote, Kamen was, again, alone -- this time, in the negative. The council in its more than six-hour session did conduct other business. It voted to pass on first reading an emergency ordinance essentially repairing some language in a city ordinance outlawing nude dancing. The ordinance was struck down last week by a municipal court judge, who felt portions of it were vague. Attorney Charles O'Hara, representing the nude dancing clubs

in Wichita, told the council it was wrong to try to legislate morality, and vowed to keep "chipping away," as he put it, at the city's ordinance, telling council member his clients would be willing to settle the issue through some sort of compromise. Mayor Knight told O'Hara, he felt the council in many ways, most of the time makes moral decisions and enacts legislation, and said, in essence, the city was not interested in settling. The vote to enact the emergency ordinance was unanimous. The council also voted unanimously to approve a contract with Friends University's radio station, KSOF, to carry live broadcasts of council meetings beginning next year. And the council voted 4 to 2, with Knight and council member Martinez in the negative, to ask the metropolitan area planning commission to reconsider the zoning status of property in Southeast Wichita, where developers want to build a low-income apartment complex. The issue was brought before the council by member Kamen, in whose district the project is to be built. Nearby residents remain concerned the project will be built and lower their property values as a result. For KMUW, I'm Gordon Basham. [BASHAM]: And we have short report number two

coming up. It was both a long meeting and one filled with distinctly differing points of view on several subjects. Specifically, the issue which drew the strongest debate was whether to place a public referendum on the February general election ballot on a portion of the public funding of the redevelopment of downtown Wichita. Council member Sheldon Kamen announced last Friday he would call for the referendum on the so-called "additional capacity money," a $32.5 million dollar chunk of the $113 million dollar public money the council voted last month to spend on the $375 million dollar redevelopment project. The vote, said Kamen, would allow greater public participation in the project, and allow the public a chance to decide, in a nonbinding way, whether the money should be raised through general obligation bonds. For the most part, council sentiment ran against Kamen, with Mayor Bob Knight expressing the strongest disagreement. Knight, who read a letter from developer

Jack DeBoer, the leading figure behind the redevelopment plan, said Kamen's proposed referendum would in all probability scuttle the project, since a large portion of the money to be raised for the plan would come from donations made by private businesses. That donated money must be raised by the middle of February in order to allow the plan to proceed on schedule. When the final vote on Kamen's motion was taken, Kamen stood alone in favor of it. It was Knight who offered a followup motion, reaffirming the council's November decision to move forward on the project. That motion also passed 5 to 1, with Kamen alone in the negative this time. The council was unanimous, though, in its decision to plug some loopholes in the city's nude dancing ordinance. Last week, a municipal court judge ruled the ordinance was vague in some of its language, freeing up clubs in the city to offer nude dancing once again. Attorney Charles O'Hara, representing many of the nude dancing clubs in Wichita, told the council his clients would keep "chipping away," as he put it, at the ordinance, thereby continuing to challenge the city and running up everyone's legal expenses.

Director of law, Tom Powell, reminded O'Hara and the council it's the purpose of the city legal staff to handle such litigation -- a fight, said Powell, which will not raise the city's expenses, win or lose. The council also rejected O'Hara's offer to settle the issue through compromise, a solution opted for by the county not long ago. The council voted unanimously to approve a contract with Friends University's radio station, KSOF, that will allow KSOF to begin broadcasting, live, the council's weekly meetings. Those broadcasts will begin sometime after the first of next year. For KMUW, I'm Gordon Basham. [BASHAM]: And here comes the long version -- it starts out with an actuality of Sheldon Kamen -- the long version. [KAMEN]: You have a partner in this project, and basically what you said to this partner, is, "Here's some details of my expensive plan -- and it is expensive. I really don't want your input so much, but I do want your money." [BASHAM]: That's

council member Sheldon Kamen, explaining the crux of why he wanted to call a non-binding public referendum on a portion of the funding by the public of the downtown redevelopment project. It was Kamen's plan which brought out both council and public comment on the issue, comment that was direct, to-the-point, and quite divided. That portion of the public funding Kamen wanted the comment and the vote on, amounts to a $32.5 million dollar chunk of the $113 million dollar public commitment to the $375 million dollar plan. That money, which is not committed to any one project, said Kamen, should be funded through the sale of general obligation bonds, only after the public has had its say in the referendum. There was sentiment on the council the public is behind the projects, but the naysayers are getting all the attention. That brought comment first from council member Frank Ojile, then vice-mayor Rip Gooch, then member Greg Ferris. [OJILE]: If the people, as we feel, are for it, then why waste our time with a referendum. Um, I'm tired of hearing all the naysayers -- as I call them, the Eeyore Syndrome People...and you have to be a

fan of A.A. Milne to understand what I'm talking about -- but we hear everybody coming up here time after time, "Oh, you gotta do this, and oh, you gotta do that." Well, sounds like to me that all they think we're going to do is flush $113 million dollars down the toilet. No, that's not what we're going to do. We're trying to make a stake in this community. You've got to look at some of the positive factors - all the jobs that we're going to create building downtown; all the jobs that are going to be created once downtown is built; all the outside money that will come in. I see this as an exciting time, and I'm tired of just sitting around and debating the issues on whether or not we should go forward. When I was elected two years ago, the people in the 3rd District knew where I stood on downtown development, and I'm ready to move ahead with this. And I don't feel that putting on a referendum is going to solve anything. [RIP GOOCH]: I think the only thing in the middle of the road is a yellow line. Now, I think we ought to, you know -- we voted before that we're for it, we're saying today we are for it... We either ought to vote against the total project, which all the people that's been here and spoke today are against

the total project. They're not worried about pulling out the 30-some thousand or whatever -- they're against the project. Now, if we're not going to vote down the project, we ought to get along with trying to *do* the project. [KAMEN]: The reason, Mr. Ojile, that you do put this on there is to silence the naysayers, and so that, you know in my estimation, is the way to go. I think that ends it. They no longer could come down here and parade, and every time there's a project on the agenda say "Well, you know, we're against this." I mean, the people have spoken, and it's over, and it's through. You may not agree with it - that's fine -- but that's one reason you do it, because I have confidence in this. Mr. Gooch, to answer your claims -- if I, if this was to be on the ballot, I would campaign *for* this, uh, if this was...as a ballot question. I would be able, then, to explain to people why they should be for this. I do this every day. [BASHAM]: It was Mayor Bob Knight, though, who was most sharply critical of Kamen's plan. [KNIGHT]: There's a tremendous challenge facing this community. What we're doing today,

really, we're in the process of -- I think -- of scuttling thousands of hours of community discussions; thousands of hours of community assessments; debates; discussions; uh, thousands of hours of staff work; and tens of thousands of dollars. And I believe that we're coming very close to rendering that lost. [BASHAM]: Knight read a letter from developer Jack DeBoer, the most identifiably leading proponent of the downtown redevelopment plan. It was DeBoer who warned the council, the project as a whole would fail, if Kamen's proposal were adopted -- largely because the action would send a negative message to the business community, which has until February 15 to come up with over $50 million dollars in private contributions, in order to make the plan succeed. When the final vote was taken on Kamen's motion, he voted alone -- in the positive -- with the rest of those present voting in the negative. Following that vote, Knight offered a motion reaffirming the council's original November

vote to redevelop downtown. That motion passed 5 to 1, this time with Kamen casting the only negative vote. The issue of nude dancing also came before the council in the form of a request by the city legal department that the council adopt an emergency ordinance once-again outlawing nude dancing. Last week, a municipal court judge said the ten year old ordinance was vague and not easily understood by the average person. City law director Tom Powell outlined the problem. [POWELL]: First, the ordinance as to the definition of licensee, refers to licenses issued by the Department of Revenue. The judge-- in fact, licenses are currently issued by the Director of Alcohol Beverage of the Department of Revenue. He found the ordinance vague, because we left out of the definition Director of Alcohol Beverage Control. He also found the ordinance vague, because at the time the ordinance was enacted, the state law referred to private clubs as "private

clubs." The state law as it now exists, refers to private clubs as "clubs." Our ordinance contains the phrase "private clubs" -- he found that this was vague. The 3rd item that he found to be vague was -- our ordinance refers to temporary lights and holders. The state law refers to temporary permits. The 4th item that he found that was vague about our ordinance, is that our ordinance prohibits "nude dancing in drinking establishments *and* in drinking establishment restaurants." [BASHAM]: Attorney Charles O'Hara told the council, the owners of the nude dancing clubs are willing to settle the case. Otherwise, said O'Hara, his clients will continue to "chip away," as he put it, at the city's ordinance banning nude dancing. [O'HARA]: There are other parts of the ordinance that we believe -- the other attorney that's helping me, and myself, along with my clients -- believe are also unconstitutionally vague. Twice in the last six months, this same ordinance has been knocked

down -- one by Judge Bush, one by Judge Flaigel. It's our opinion there are many more things that could be attacked that we haven't even brought up yet -- and we plan to bring them up. I guess what we're asking this council to do is, is what the city commission did, when they finally decided this could go on forever and ever, and we can spend everybody's money forever and ever, and fight about little -- whether we say Kansas Department of Revenue, or whatever -- it's a moral issue. There should be a way to settle the issue so that everyone's happy and nobody gets hurt. We're not asking that people break the law, all we're asking is that the city council here be a little reasonable. My clients are willing to be reasonable. The county commission settled this matter -- there's been no problem since. There's been no enforcement problems, there's been no problems with violence, there's been no problems with crime. I know that a lot of people have different ideas about what morals are. But I don't think, and it has never worked in the United States, that you've been able to legislate morality. And what we're asking, is that you table this matter, or at least go through the normal procedures, with the intent on attempting to settle the

matter -- to be reasonable with the people involved. And that's what we're asking -- we're willing to settle. If not, we're going to continue to chip away and take pot shots at that ordinance, and there's more wrong with the ordinance. In another two or three months, I may be here again, offering to settle again. [BASHAM]: O'Hara's criticism that the council is trying to legislate morality, brought this response from Mayor Bob Knight. [KNIGHT]: To just glibly say we're legislating morals, and you can't do that, and history's shown you can't do that -- I don't believe that, uh, that really makes much sense. The statement itself, I guess if you say it often enough, it's supposed to have a special meaning. But I happen to believe that life and death and a whole host of things in between that legislation deals with certainly has moral implications. I think whether or not something is fair and just or true or wrong have moral implications. So I guess I'm one who believes that every day that we sit up here, we *do* deal with issues that certainly have moral implications --

and then we certainly legislate. [BASHAM]: When the final vote was taken, the council voted to adopt on first reading that emergency ordinance, once again outlawing nude dancing in Wichita. The council also voted unanimously to approve a contract with Friends University's radio station, KSOF, to carry live broadcasts of council meetings. Those broadcasts will begin sometime early next year. For KMUW, I'm Gordon Basham.