City of Topeka plans to open buildings to public Monday

Topeka city manager Brent Trout plans to reopen city government buildings, including Topeka Municipal Court, to the public for business on Monday, he said Tuesday.

Trout made that announcement near the end of that evening’s city council meeting.

That gathering was closed to the public in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, though citizens could submit comments by email in advance. The meeting was aired live on the city of Topeka’s Facebook page, the city’s website and on City4, the city’s cable TV channel.

No official action was taken at Tuesday’s meeting, where council members Karen Hiller, Tony Emerson, Neil Dobler and Spencer Duncan were physically present. Trout, seven other city employees and one reporter, from The Capital-Journal, were also on hand.

Mayor Michelle De La Isla and council members Christina Valdivia-Alcala, Sylvia Ortiz, Mike Padilla, Hannah Naeger and Mike Lesser all took part using the Zoom teleconferencing application, as did various other high-level city employees.

The mayor and council discussed but took no action on Trout’s proposed 2021-23 capital improvement budget and 2021-30 capital improvement plan, which they are scheduled to consider for approval next week.

The mayor and council each year adopt a CIB listing capital improvements the city may carry out in the next three years and a CIP listing priorities for improvements to be carried out in each of the next 10 years.

Hiller discussed various proposed revisions to the CIB and CIP, which she had shared with De La Isla and her fellow council members in a three-page document on Tuesday afternoon. Council members said they would like to spend more time absorbing HIller’s suggestions before acting on any of them.

Emerson said he appreciated Hiller’s work and supported “a lot” of her recommendations. He said those included a proposed shift of the funding used for the city’s Stages of Resource Targeting program — which helps neighborhoods experiencing problems with blight, crime and deteriorating infrastructure — to be used on a more citywide basis.

That would be a significant change from what the city is doing now, Trout said.

Tuesday’s meeting lasted about two hours and 15 minutes. Near the end, the mayor and council met behind closed doors in executive session to discuss employer-employee negotiations and a personnel matter.