Press Releases

Since January 2024, Topeka and Shawnee County’s homeless population has increased by nine individuals according to the City of Topeka’s July Point in Time Homeless Count released Thursday, August 1.

The count took place on July 17, 2024. The one-day event provides a snapshot of the individuals in the community who are experiencing homelessness, as defined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). More than 40 people helped with this July’s count.

According to the count, of 546 people and 433 households are experiencing homelessness in Topeka and Shawnee County. Of the 546 individuals 59% of those are male, while 40% are female, and 216 are unsheltered, or not living in an emergency shelter or transitional housing.

“With the rising numbers of those experiencing homelessness nationwide, we believe it’s crucial to collect data more regularly,” said Carrie Higgins, housing services division director. “Given the warmer weather and anticipated increase, we are encouraged to see only a modest rise since January. The count also provides a valuable opportunity to connect individuals experiencing homelessness to services and resources in the community.”

Below is a chart that breaks down the numbers from the previous four counts. For a more detailed look at the July 2024 numbers, visit: Summer PIT flyer.pdf (Summer+PIT+flyer.pdf (citymanager.s3.amazonaws.com)

To receive funding for programs, HUD requires communities complete a count each year. The count ensures the city can obtain the appropriate level of funding to be able to provide needed services to those experiencing homelessness and those at risk of homelessness.

On Tuesday, the City of Topeka’s Administrative and Financial Services Department released the proposed 2023 operating budget.

The total City budget for FY23 is $340.1 million, a small 0.33% increase from FY22. Of this, the City’s General Fund budget is $104.1 million. The City’s General Fund is the largest single fund and funds many of the City’s municipal services.

Overall, the general Fund budget increased by 6.2% from the FY22 budget. Over the last five years, the General Fund budget has not increased more than 2% from the previous year. The larger increase this year is a direct result of inflationary costs which are as high as 8.6%. The City recognizes the impact this has on taxpayers and has raised costs carefully and with intention.

“We are excited to present the 2023 operating budget for the City of Topeka. We are confident that the budget will allow the City to offer high-quality services at an appropriate cost to taxpayers. We continue to work to align City resources with the needs and values of our community, and this budget puts us in a great place to do that,” said Stephen Wade, Director of the Administrative and Financial Services Department.

Budget priorities

The proposed 2023 budget supports the following budget priorities established by the Governing Body; investing in infrastructure, continuing a commitment to public safety, continuing a commitment to developing neighborhoods, selected strategic investments toward quality of life, and good governance.

At the beginning of this budget cycle, the City held six community workshops centered on the five budget priorities established by the Governing Body. During these workshops, the City received feedback on what the community’s goals and objectives are for each of the priorities. Since the workshops, City staff has worked to incorporate the ideas from the community into the budget, along with developing key indicators to measure progress towards each of the Governing Body’s budget priorities.

Expenditure highlights

The largest portion of the General Fund budget (77.8%) is personnel costs at $80.9 million. Personnel costs, including wages and benefits, have seen a 5.7% increase compared to the FY22 budget.

Commodities, which includes materials for asphalt, rock, sand, salt, fuel, chemicals, and office supplies, have seen the largest increase as a result of inflation, increasing 15.5% from the FY22 budget. Contractual expenses have increased 6.8%.

Like other government entities and businesses, the City faces challenges in recruiting employees. As of the publication of this budget, the vacancy rate in the City is approximately 12%. This budget includes $100,000 that has been added to the Human Resources budget for the purpose of recruiting talent to the City.

Mill levy

Each year the City adopts a mill levy rate that determines the amount of property tax the City will receive. 1 mill is roughly $1.3 million. For the previous ten years, the City’s mill levy has remained flat with no increases or decreases. After an assessed value increase of 8.5%, the Governing Body directed staff to decrease the mill levy by 1 mill.

Next steps

The Governing Body and City staff will host a Budget Workshop on Tuesday, July 26 at 6:00 p.m. at the Holliday Building. Community members can attend the workshop in person, or watch on the City’s Facebook page, the City’s Livestream, or on Cox Local Channel 4.

On July 12, the Governing Body will vote on whether or not to exceed the Revenue Neutral Rate from the previous budget year.

The budget will be presented at the July 19, August 9, and August 16 City Council Meetings. Community members can make public comment at these meetings. A public budget hearing will be held on September 6 where citizens will be given another opportunity to offer feedback on the budget. The proposed budget can be viewed online at https://www.topeka.org/finance/budget/.

2023 Citizen’s Guide to City Budget

On Monday, the City of Topeka’s Administrative and Financial Services Department released the proposed 2024 operating budget.

The total city budget for FY24 is $371.9 million. Of this, the city’s general fund budget is $116.2 million. The general fund is the city’s largest single fund, which supports many of the city’s municipal services.

The city’s budget continues to see cost increases as a result of inflation. As an example, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, the cost of building and maintaining highways has risen 50% since 2020. This, and other cost increases, has forced city departments to carefully monitor and propose budgets that allow the city to continue to provide high-quality services to its citizens.

“We have prepared a budget for FY24 that will allow for the city to provide needed services to the citizens of Topeka. The City of Topeka’s finance team did a phenomenal job balancing the needs of the present with the long-term sustainability of the future. We have worked to align city resources with the areas of greatest importance to our taxpayers. This budget will allow us to continue to move the City of Topeka forward,” said Freddy Mawyin, Chief Financial Officer.

Budget priorities

This is the second year the city has utilized the Outcome Based Budgeting (OBB) process.

At the beginning of the year, city staff engaged the Governing Body in a strategic planning process. The purpose of the strategic plan is to ensure city staff are aligning resources with the priority outcomes of the Governing Body and the community. During this process, the Governing Body established the city’s priority outcomes as Community Appearance, Growth, and Housing.

During the OBB process, city staff continue to work to align city resources with the priority outcomes. In addition to the three priority outcomes, a fourth area known as Operations was created, which captures many of the city’s functions that are statutorily or otherwise needed for the city to function properly.

In presenting the budget this year, the city focused on priority outcomes and their associated services.

Expenditure highlights

The largest portion of the general fund is personnel costs at 75% of the total budget. Personnel costs increased by about $6.6 million or 8.1% compared to the FY23 budget.

New to the FY24 budget is a proposed $500,000 that would be set aside for individuals who qualify for property tax rebates. This new program would be modeled after the state’s Homestead Refund program, and would provide further relief for those who need it.

Another new initiative is a proposed $1 million that would be dedicated to supporting the city’s unsheltered homeless neighbors. The city is in the process of working with a coach and facilitator, as well as community partners, as part of a task force to discuss the needs and gaps in the community related to our unsheltered neighbors. The proposed $1 million does not have a dedicated use yet, but would be made available to support recommendations made from the task force.

During the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) process, the Governing Body made the decision to move $2.3 million worth of debt financing into the FY24 operating budget. This move will allow for long-term savings from not having to pay interest costs from debt financing.

Next steps

On July 18, the Governing Body will vote on whether or not to hold a vote to exceed the Revenue Neutral Rate from the previous budget year.

The Governing Body and city staff will host a Budget Workshop on Tuesday, July 25 at 6 p.m. at the Holliday Building. Community members can attend the workshop in person, or watch on the city’s Facebook page, the city’s Livestream, or on Cox Local Channel 4.

The budget will be discussed at the July 18, August 8, 15 and August 22 Governing Body meetings. Community members can make public comment at these meetings.

A public budget hearing will be held on September 5, where citizens will be given another opportunity to offer feedback on the budget. City staff anticipate the budget to be adopted on September 12.

The proposed budget can be viewed online at https://www.topeka.org/finance/budget/.

On Tuesday, the City of Topeka’s Department of Administrative and Financial Services unveiled the proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2025.

The total city budget for fiscal year 2025 is $400.3 million, with a balanced General Fund budget of $128.4 million. The General Fund is the largest single fund, supporting many of the city’s municipal services. In response to inflation, as well as an increase in employee wages, city departments have had to meticulously manage and propose their budgets to ensure continued service delivery to residents.

“We have developed a budget for fiscal year 2025 that will allow the city to provide essential services to the citizens of Topeka. The Finance team has done an outstanding job balancing current needs with long-term sustainability. We have aligned city resources with our taxpayers’ highest priorities, and this budget will enable us to advance the City of Topeka,” said Ben Hart, Acting Chief Financial Officer.

Expenditure Highlights

• Increased Costs: Personnel and contracting costs comprising of 75.83% of the General Fund budget, increased by approximately $9.43 million, or 10.72% for personnel and $4.2 million, or 20% for contractual services. These cost increases are a combination of union contracts, inflation, and other contractual obligations.
• Property Tax Rebate Program: Continuing the success from last year’s budget, the city is keeping the Property Tax Rebate Program in place at $300,000. This program, modeled after the state’s Homestead Act, provides additional relief to eligible individuals.

Next Steps

• August 13, August 20, August 27: The budget will be presented at Governing Body meetings, where community members can offer public comment.
• September 3: A public budget hearing will provide another opportunity for citizens to give feedback on the budget.
• September 10: The anticipated date for budget adoption.

The proposed budget can be viewed online at City of Topeka Budget.

The City of Topeka is receiving questions in regards to an odor in South Topeka.

The City is aware of the odor, and wants community members to know there are no safety concerns related to this. Kansas Gas Service confirmed the odor is not related to natural gas.

The odor is due to the failing of a private businesses’ water waste pre-treatment system. The City is working with the private business to better understand the timeline for repair of their system.

The City is working on ways to mitigate the issue, by feeding chemicals to help neutralize the odor in the waste stream. Due to the City’s infrastructure, the odor may spread to other areas.

Regarding recent contract negotiations, the City of Topeka is disappointed by the divisive comments made by the Fraternal Order of Police this week. The comments are untrue and distract from the actual issues being negotiated by the parties. Throughout negotiations, the City has offered to make concessions with regard to wages, in exchange for changes to current discipline record retention policies.  The Public Employer Employees Relations Act (PEERA) requires that negotiations between the City and the police union be kept confidential. The City respects the process outlined by PEERA and therefore will not refute individual comments.

However, the City takes seriously its obligations to be transparent and keep the conversation focused on the real issues. Here, the two major, remaining issues are compensation and employee accountability. Regarding compensation, the City has designated public safety as its first budgetary priority; it already makes up 77% of the City’s entire proposed budget for 2022, with the overwhelming majority of that being allocated to personnel.

Recent recruitment and retention challenges are valid concerns shared by the City and FOP. However these are part of a national, systemic issue that cannot be solved simply by increasing wages. The City has fully funded all authorized public safety positions while also remaining committed to holding the line on property taxes.

In prior statements, FOP has failed to address the other major issue in the ongoing negotiations—police accountability. Currently, disciplinary records are removed from officers’ files after two years and not considered for purposes of promotion, progressive discipline, or employment verification requests. This is simply out of touch with standard employment practices.

The next step is a fact-finding hearing under PEERA before a neutral fact-finder. If no agreement is reached after fact-finding, the governing body will decide the remaining issues.

PEERA provides that public employees cannot strike.  Therefore, the parties will continue to operate under the existing contract until either an agreement is reached, or a unilateral contract is implemented by the governing body.

The City is still hopeful that an agreement can be reached.

The City of Topeka’s Public Works Department is actively monitoring the current weather
forecast, which predicts the possibility of significant snowfall in the area Tuesday night into Wednesday.

Road crews have been pretreating roads in anticipation of this storm. As weather conditions change,
crews will adapt treatment as necessary. Once the snow starts in Topeka, road crews will prioritize
clearing arterial and collector roads. The decision as to whether crews will work to treat residential
streets will be made based on the total amount of snowfall that we receive. In anticipation of the
possibility of significant snowfall, the city asks residents to park off the street where possible. For more
information about the city’s snow removal policies at

Snow Removal

To help road crews more efficiently clear snow downtown, the city will open parking garages free of
charge from 3:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 11, and from 6:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Wednesday,
February 12. We encourage the public to utilize the downtown parking garages and leave on-street
parking open for snowplows to clear the parking spots during and after the storm.
To contact the city, call 785-368-3111, or report an issue using the SeeClickFix app:

SeeClickFix

City of Topeka and contracted road crews continue 24-hour snow-fighting efforts following last weekend’s record 14-inch snowfall and ice, along with additional snowfall on Thursday night. 

After completing main roads and arterials Friday morning, 21 city trucks and 6 contractor trucks have refocused efforts to treating and plowing residential streets. Crews will continue their efforts until all city streets are passable. 

Thanks to pretreatment before the January 4 and 5 snow event, main roads and collector streets were cleared more effectively than residential areas that were not pretreated. We’ve heard from many residents regarding Thursday’s update and want to reassure the public that we are actively addressing the areas that have been reported as not having received an initial pass by plows. 

The Topeka Fire Department remains fully operational, responding to fire and medical calls as usual. The Topeka Police Department continues to operate under the walk-in accident reporting phase but is responding to all other calls for service. 

We appreciate the community’s support and ask for continued patience and understanding as we address road conditions following the third largest snowfall in Topeka history. 

The City of Topeka is calling on community-minded residents to apply for the newly re-established Citizen Government Review Committee. This committee will play a vital role in examining and evaluating the City of Topeka’s form of government, with the goal of making thoughtful recommendations for potential amendments and modifications to improve its effectiveness and alignment with the community’s needs. 

The Governing Body seeks five civically minded individuals who reflect the diversity of Topeka’s population. Committee members will be tasked with a comprehensive review and analysis of current governmental structures, working collaboratively to provide insights that will shape the city’s future governance. The past Citizen Government Review Committee in 2014 helped define the current roles of the Mayor. Topeka Citizen Government Review Committees date back to 1983. Click here for more information about the roles of our Topeka Government. 

Required Qualifications: 

• Applicants must be registered voters living within Topeka city limits. 

• Candidates must be available for a substantial time commitment from January to June 2025 to attend meetings, participate in discussions, and contribute to the completion of a final report for the Governing Body. 

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Familiarity with the city’s governmental form is advantageous. 

• Candidates should demonstrate an ability to evaluate issues fairly and without bias. 

• Members will need to articulate ideas effectively and listen to diverse perspectives. 

• Ability to lead and work cohesively within a group is essential. 

Applications are being accepted now through December 3, 2024. Interested individuals can apply online by clicking this link.