Councilmember Courtney McFadden presented the proclamation for Women’s History Month that we dedicated to the women of Ukraine. See packet link below for proclamation language.

Legislative Update

Mallory Lutz, Little Government Relations, presented this update. There is (was) 3 weeks until the end of the regular session.

Kansas may have several constitutional amendments on the ballot come August. Stay tuned and on top of the legislature to see what they’re going to try to slip by.
The Food Sales Tax Exemption is no longer one clean bill. There are a now several variations of the bill with different details. Pay close attention.
The Suicide Prevention Lifeline funding did pass out of the health committee, but it was sent back to the utilities committee.

Committee Reports

Tree Board

Councilmember Shelton reminded us that Arbor Day is coming up in April. Mark your calendar for an April 30th event, and watch for more information.

Environmental Committee

Welcomed several new committee members, talked about the electronics recycling program, the monarch proclamation, and more.

Teen Council

Will be presenting their annual projects at the first meeting in April.

Arts Council

I noted the newest artwork on display in the Endres Gallery. Go up to check it out!

The 2022 Art of Photography Call for Entries is (was) STILL open! We extended the deadline by 8 days.

Diversity Committee

Councilperson Selders shared the successes of the MLK event. Village Church shared that the event was the first time their sanctuary had been so full since before the pandemic.

The Diversity Committee is next convening a Housing Panel on Sunday April 3rd at Meadowbrook Park Clubhouse. (This is not affiliated with the Ad Hoc Housing Committee.)

Mayor’s report

COVID Update:
- JoCo numbers continue to plunge. From a 236 to a 111 incidence rate.
- We’re the only county in the region that is in the “low” risk category.
- PV’s mask mandate expired last week; well-timed.
Special event kickoff honoring Buck O’Neil, 2:00 this Thursday (postponed due to weather)

Staff reports

School Resource Officer Update

Seth Meyer & Matt Hubert are PVPD’s two SROs in SMSD schools, at SME and IHMS respectively. Both officers have kids of their own and connect well with the students to build relationships.

The SRO program itself was borne out of a pipe bomb incident at SME in 1992, pre-Columbine. The department learned at that time that they needed to be better prepared for catastrophic events, and so they now know the buildings inside and outside and are trained on how to respond in a crisis.

Ukraine

Wes Jordan has been in contact with our former Sister City liaison/interpreter in Ukraine. He read an excerpt from an email from her of last Friday. “The only thing you can do for us now is ask NATO to close the sky.” Staff will be updating our website with organizations that you can donate to to help the residents of Ukraine. They are losing fellow countrymen and women…. Links.

City Clerk

Adam Geffert stated that there is about $6,700 left in the Tax Rebate Program. They have helped 27 residents so far, and hope to help more. Please continue to advertise the program. See link below.

Chief Roberson

Police Chief Byron Roberson went to a Town Hall hosted by Senator Moran and FBI Director Wray for a conversation among FBI and local law enforcement. Most important takeaway: the FBI #1 goal is still to help local law enforcement with crime, even though they also do all those other FBI things.

He was in Topeka at this town hall when he received news of the Olathe East High School shooting. The discussion at the town hall turned to mitigation, prevention (if prevention is possible), and preparation for events like that. Active Shooter training is now apart of academy training. Annual training and CFD2/MedAct partnerships keep them prepared. They even know the layout of the schools, because that knowledge is necessary in these critical response situations.

PVPD sent two police officers to Olathe East, as did other departments in the metro, to assist. One officer held the perimeter, and the other helped clear the building. We are very lucky in JoCo: we’re all on the same radio system and the same report writing system, so most situations wouldn’t even require a call for assistance – other departments will already know about it and know what to do because of their pre-planning.

Design Contract for Permanent Restroom at WINDSOR PARK!!

Approved! Coming 2023!

2023 Budget goals and objectives

Nickie Lee, Finance Director, continued gearing us up for the 2023 budget discussion by reviewing the Transient Guest Tax from the Meadowbrook Inn that we are now collecting and the updated Budget Goals and Objectives for Prairie Village. Council approved the goals and objectives as outlined below and referred the transient guest tax discussion to the Finance Committee.

Agenda Packet for your reference

Some things you may have missed:

Infographic for new Property Tax Rebate Program. Details at link.

Closing

So that’s it for this week.

Some things I’ve been up to:

Traveled to Wichita for a full-weekend volleyball tournament, and had “porch pirate” visitors while we were away:

Participated in the 3-day Midwest Tackle! Upstander Training facilitated by JCRB/AJC and funded in part by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant.
Received and installed local artwork for the March/April exhibit at the R.G. Endres Gallery at City Hall.

Attended the unveiling of the 154 heart designs for the Parade of Hearts and met many of the artists!

Attended LWVJoCo‘s Annual Meeting on the theme of Restoring Faith in Our Democracy
Met with JCPRD on a possible upcoming event at Meadowbrook Park. Stay tuned!

Let me know if you have any questions. Be well and have a great week!

🙂