[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] Earlier in the afternoon and isn't one of the questions of what time you actually want to start. Normally we've been starting those in the last year or two at about four o'clock and then go into the evening for however long it takes. But again, that's your decision as a body when you want to get together at what time. And then October 18 is when you open the public hearings for
[0:29] or not only the city's budget, but also the NIGID, the ECAGID, and the ERAGID, all of those general improvement districts along with the Urban Renewal Authority.
[0:45] And so, it's budget hearing is opened, and then typically, again, you're not required to do this, but typically what we do then is
[0:59] What's the proper word? We suspend it or we hold it in bayons until the following
[1:05] Meeting on November 1st at which point again, you ask for additional comment from the public and
[1:12] Close it at that time and then act on the budget to either adopt or
[1:17] Or reject
[1:18] Hopefully you adopt
[1:21] What would happen if they failed to adopt a budget?
[1:25] The old ones
[1:26] continues for another year then, right?
[1:28] That has not happened in my history with the city,
[1:30] but yes, the charter says that they would officially
[1:33] then go with the prior years.
[1:35] But yeah.
[1:35] So again, you have choices, but sometimes there aren't
[1:40] good choices.
[1:41] So that's the process.
[1:43] And again, we are presenting this.
[1:47] It's my recommendation to you.
[1:49] But again, it's meant to be a conversation.
[1:52] and you get to direct us in terms of you know what you think should be in that budget.
[1:59] Now in terms of the budget process it establishes a link to the broad council goals and that's why
[2:08] we came to you earlier to ask you about the goals for 2022 because that informs our budget process
[2:17] us because we can't accomplish your goals if we don't budget for accomplishing those goals.
[2:24] So again, trying to focus the budget on not only carrying out the routine work of the
[2:29] city, but also what are your goals that you've established for the organization.
[2:36] And then the budget decisions are based on results and outcomes that you want.
[2:45] and for example during the pandemic we dealt with the pandemic we cut the
[2:52] revenue projection for last year it was reduced this year as well not as much
[3:00] as last year but was reduced and so again we have to respond to the economic
[3:05] conditions that are going on in the nation but at the same time we're still
[3:11] attempting to hit your high priority areas in terms of service needs, projects, that type
[3:19] of thing. And then the other purpose of a budget is to communicate to the public, our
[3:25] stakeholders, you know, what's the emphasis of council and what we're trying to achieve
[3:30] by budgeting for that purpose. From there, I'll turn it over to Cheryl, you're prepared
[3:38] right for the rest? All right.
[3:55] All right, back in business, sorry about that. Next
[3:58] slides, talk about the key considerations of the 2022 budget. So I'll elaborate a bit
[4:04] on what Mr. Tinklinberg has started talking about, but certainly in the information we're
[4:10] going to present tonight, one of the things we wanted to do was address the staffing needs
[4:14] across the organization. As part of addressing those staffing needs, we have to evaluate and
[4:20] prioritized critical service areas and levels based on the goals that City Council provided to us.
[4:28] Certainly want to continue to invest in our capital, strategically, which includes new capital,
[4:33] but also the repair maintenance of our existing infrastructure. And then a goal of ours is always to
[4:39] attract and retain high quality employees.
[4:45] Our fund balance is currently healthy. We are
[4:48] a recommending continued conservative approach to spending and saving for the 2022 City Manager recommended budget.
[4:57] We are going to be presenting the use.
[5:00] It's a fund balance of about $1.3 million. The majority of that is in one time expenditures. Additional slides here in a few moments. I'll go over that in detail. The additions to base were included for known contractual increases. Let me talk two minutes about the base budget. About three or four years ago, we adopted a base budget philosophy. So we work with department heads to identify what their minimum amount is needed to operate their department's
[5:29] divisions. In some years we have applied an inflation factor to base. That has not happened
[5:34] for the last two years. However, throughout the conversations we have with the department
[5:39] heads and their staff and my internal budget staff, we identify areas that would impact the
[5:46] base that really are an obligation of ours and we have to increase that base. So we have
[5:51] accounted for those items.
[5:57] For our internal service funds which is comprised of our fleet
[6:01] ITN facilities. The preliminary numbers have been updated, but those numbers will continue
[6:07] to change as we approve some of these budget requests that we'll be talking to you about.
[6:12] The initial budget request that came in from the departments was just shy of $7.4 million
[6:18] and the city managers with the input from the deputy city managers were recommending use
[6:24] of about or approval of about 5.1 million in those requests. And we're going to go through
[6:30] those in detail. I would like to take a quick minute and pause, and I'm going to apologize.
[6:35] I meant to do this right out of the gate with COVID last year. I didn't get the opportunity
[6:39] to introduce my budget team. So they are here tonight. I wanted to just acknowledge and introduce
[6:44] them to you. So Theresa Wilson is my deputy finance director. She's been here a little over a year,
[6:49] comes to us with over 20 years of budget experience. Been a great addition to my team.
[6:53] Angela Burgos is one of my business budget analysts and then Chris Johnson is my other
[7:00] budget analyst.
[7:01] He's on vacation so unfortunately he's not here but I just wanted to acknowledge all
[7:05] the work they do.
[7:06] A lot of collaboration has gone into this process so far and they're really key to making
[7:12] all of this come together so I just wanted to acknowledge them and I hope you'll have
[7:16] an opportunity to actually meet them tonight.
[7:19] Thanks for letting me do that.
[7:20] Okay, just as a reminder, one to talk to you about fund balance in our reserve policy.
[7:25] So we are required by law or contract to reserve fund balance for various reasons.
[7:33] There are three types of reserves.
[7:35] In addition to those reserves, there can also be specific funds that additional reserves
[7:41] can be maintained according to adopted policies.
[7:44] As a reminder, any use of fund balance reserves must be approved by City Council.
[7:48] So typically, when we bring a reappropriation ordinance to you, which we have done a few
[7:53] of those here in the past few weeks, that is use of fund balance reserve.
[7:59] The three that we do on an annual basis are the TABER reserve, which is required by
[8:04] law.
[8:04] It's 3% of fiscal spending.
[8:06] There are some items that are subtracted from that.
[8:10] That is a calculation that finance performs every year, and then a amount can change based
[8:16] on the expenditures in that year.
[8:17] The next is our safeguard reserve policy, which is 10% of expenditures, including capital
[8:24] improvement funds, and 50% of debt service.
[8:27] And that is intended to be used for operations or payment of debt service in the event that
[8:31] our revenues are not coming in.
[8:34] They can only, safeguard reserves can only be used for a few things.
[8:37] You can see listed natural disasters, acts of terrorism or war riots, similar emergencies.
[8:45] Then we have our operating reserves, which is a little more flexible, that is 50%, I'm
[8:51] sorry, 10% of our operating and expenditures, that can be used for an economic downturn.
[8:59] So for example, when COVID-19 first identified itself, and we work with department heads to
[9:05] identify potential cuts that we might have to do, if we would not have been able to identify
[9:10] and work within our budgets to be able to manage those, we could have come to City Council
[9:15] and asked for approval to use the operating reserve for that.
[9:19] We did not have to do that, but that certainly could have been a possibility and that's
[9:23] an item that would have qualified.
[9:28] So 2020, we, a couple of weeks ago, presented the 2020 financial statement information and
[9:34] part of that is the general fund fund balance.
[9:37] So overall, I mentioned to you that our fund balance reserves are very healthy, the total
[9:41] fund balance for general fund at the end of 2020 was just over $83 million.
[9:46] This slide shows you a breakdown of that.
[9:49] So, Gatsby 54 tells us which buckets we have to reserve our fund balance in.
[9:55] Again, these are calculations that we perform every year once we have determined.
[10:00] We're going to count it for all revenues and expenditures within the general fund. So, with our inventory prepaid items, we had about 268,000. The restricted items, those items that I just mentioned to you, table reserved, that 3% was just shy of 3 million. 2K capital, lay in operation. So, the 1% revenue that is generated and revenue off of the other 2K amenities has to be reserved for infrastructure identified in the bond issue or the ongoing M.
[10:28] So at the end of 2020, that was just shy of 16 million.
[10:33] The safeguard and operating is reserve amounts that I just talked about are listed there
[10:36] for you.
[10:38] The designated operating reserve of, I'm sorry, the assigned defined contribution of 5.2 million,
[10:44] we have a retiree health insurance plan and that is the balance in that account so that
[10:49] has to be assigned because it is for an intended purpose.
[10:53] So the unassigned amount that you guys could elect to use and we're going to ask you to use
[10:57] some of that in the recommendation for the 2022 budget is $41.3 million.
[11:08] This slide here takes that $41 million because that is essentially where we are starting
[11:13] the 2021 year.
[11:16] But we have brought several ordinances to you for approval throughout the year already.
[11:21] We identify those on the monthly report that is sent to you to continue to remind you those
[11:26] items that have been approved.
[11:27] So out of the 41 million, you can see that we did identify a small amount of 1.9 million
[11:33] to be used to balance the 2021 budget. And then the various ordinance that have been presented
[11:40] to City Council for approval. So the amount remaining in the unassigned is 34.8 million.
[11:46] And then the 2K, that's the 15.9. And then we're for 2021, there was an appropriation to use 7.3 million
[11:56] which would take that 2K fund balance as we project now at the end of 21 to be 8.6 million.
[12:06] I will continue to move along, but certainly if there are questions, please let me know.
[12:12] So in the packet we have three documents called our source and use. So the source and use is the
[12:17] document that I identify as total general fund revenues and total general fund expenditures
[12:22] and the amount that is remaining. The first slide that was in your packet is the combined,
[12:26] which means this is our regular general fund amount plus the 2K.
[12:31] So we show you here at the top are our revenue sources.
[12:35] We're projecting those to be 99.7 million.
[12:43] We transfer money in from the Water Acquisition Fund.
[12:46] That covers the Series 2017-B Water Portfolio debt service payment.
[12:51] And then 2K allocation is based on the O&M policy for 2K expenditures
[12:55] that was identified when the ballot
[12:58] and issue initiative passed.
[13:01] So we have total revenue of about 1.5 million dollars.
[13:09] The expenditures that you see here are broken down
[13:11] by the various departments,
[13:13] and that is comprised of those base budgets
[13:15] that I talked about earlier.
[13:16] So these are the total amounts needed
[13:18] for the operations of the various departments.
[13:21] That includes salaries, benefits,
[13:23] their operating expenditures, office supplies operating, et cetera.
[13:28] And then there are various transfers that happen each year, out of general fund to various funds for multiple reasons.
[13:36] 60,000 to the housing authority, the elected officials retirement fund.
[13:41] You see the various debt service that includes principal and
[13:44] interest on our various debt issues, 83,000 to the urban renewal authority.
[13:50] and then the CIP gets a small transfer based on the O&M policy.
[13:57] So that total is 93 million.
[14:01] So we're showing that we have about 7.4 million available in excess revenues to be able
[14:07] to use to consider those budget requests.
[14:12] The next two slides I'm not going to go over in as much detail, but what we wanted to show
[14:16] you is what the source and use looks like for regular general fund versus 2K.
[14:21] If you add these two together, it totals the combined on the front.
[14:26] So if we are talking about non-2K excess revenues over expenditures right now, we are showing
[14:33] just over $5 million available for consideration of the 2022 requests.
[14:41] For 2K, you will see that we are showing $2.4 million available of 2K excess revenues
[14:47] over expenditures to consider 2K-related 2022 requests.
[14:57] So this is a high-level summary of where
[15:00] There were kind of starting before we get into some of the position or the budget requests.
[15:06] So of that $5 million that is in the general fund doesn't include 2K, you considered a
[15:13] reappropriation ordinance that has been approved. That reappropriation ordinance for 2021 included
[15:19] several positions, salary, and benefits. Because those were approved, they are ongoing
[15:24] expenditures to the operations of the organization, so we have to consider that ongoing cost.
[15:29] that's $874,000. In addition, there were other reappropriation requests that were approved
[15:36] that do have an ongoing implication that are just not related to positions. That is
[15:41] another $604,000. So we had to back that out of the available amount because at the time
[15:47] we calculated the base budget, those of course were not considered.
[15:51] And then of the 2022 requests, I told you we got $7.4 million in requests, the city managers
[15:57] is recommending about 5.1 million, this amount is slightly different and that's because
[16:03] a portion that was requested has been identified to be used out of IT retained earnings.
[16:08] So the amount that is an implication to general fund is just shy of 5 million.
[16:13] So you can see considering all of those items that we have preliminarily said yes to, we
[16:18] are showing that we would need to use 1.3 million in general fund balance.
[16:24] And then the bottom portion of this shows the 2K related items.
[16:28] So that's the 2.4 million that I identified excess revenues over expenditures for 2K.
[16:33] There is one request that is 100% 2K eligible, $35,000.
[16:39] So then if we subtract that from the 2K fund balance, that would leave a remaining $2.3 million
[16:45] that would be added to the 2K fund balance at the end of 2022.
[16:56] This is a slide that we like to include so that you can see the changes that happen in the
[17:02] various departments in their base budgets.
[17:05] So keep in mind that if during the 2021
[17:08] Prague budget process, we approved requests.
[17:13] We determine if that has an ongoing implication
[17:17] which means it adds to their base in the next year
[17:19] or is it a one time cost that we then subtract out.
[17:23] So this is meant to show you what the 2021 adopted budget was
[17:27] and what we're telling you the 2022 base would be
[17:30] you can see the variance. The one area that sticks out here is certainly in the fleet department.
[17:37] You can see it appears that the fleet budget went down by almost $800,000. That is really
[17:43] attributed to the amount of vehicles that are purchased and requested any year. And when new
[17:48] vehicles are requested or replacement, that goes through a budget request process. So it isn't included
[17:53] as part of the base because it has not been approved yet. Once we get the initial nod that those
[17:59] are going to be approved, we will incorporate those and that base number would change for
[18:04] that reason.
[18:05] Bides, we broke down by the various departments so that we could identify at a high level
[18:10] what impacted the base in those areas, cases to salaries and benefit and get their performance
[18:17] evaluation.
[18:19] Some of those are the allocations from the internal service, proved in different years
[18:23] that can impact the allocation.
[18:24] Each of their budgets is considered in totality, and a percentage is charged off to the
[18:31] departments based on what they use.
[18:33] So for example, IT breaks down how many computers and other IT tech items we have, and they
[18:40] charge us an allocation, a percentage of their budget.
[18:43] Same thing happens with facility inflates.
[18:45] So allocations always fluctuate from year to year.
[18:49] And then you will see that in the majority of the departments, we did restore prior
[18:54] COVID-19 base budget decreases. We had a conversation with departments about, you know, was the reason
[19:01] you decreased it is because you were told, you know, to identify areas that you didn't have to
[19:08] spend because of the change in our operations. Some of those decreases did stay because departments
[19:15] determined they could operate that way, but for the majority of those COVID-19 previous decreases were
[19:21] are added back to the base budgets.
[19:26] You'll see there in community development,
[19:28] we're adding a plan or one.
[19:30] So the area that you see positions added,
[19:32] those were items went through on the reappropriation request.
[19:36] So, or they were approved at another point throughout the year.
[19:40] So again, we wanted to show you kind of high level
[19:42] what things impacted the base in some of the areas
[19:46] you can see it might have been a concern.
[20:04] Okay,
[20:13] so we're going to jump into department the various requests. I believe if you, Roger, correct
[20:23] me if you're wrong, if there are specific questions about the preliminary yeses or
[20:28] noes, then I believe the fine people on my right and left here are going to help answer
[20:33] those questions. So what happens with these enhancement requests are throughout the budget
[20:39] process early in the year. There are I think eight different forms that we send out to the
[20:43] departments and let them know it's time to be considering what you want to ask for in the new
[20:48] budget. These are things outside of their base. So it could be furniture or remodel request,
[20:56] it could be a new position, it could be a special what we call a special consideration item which
[21:01] is really intended to be a one-time cost for something. That happens early in the process.
[21:06] I want to say they were asked in April and May to submit those requests. There's a form
[21:12] depending on the type of request. All new positions after finance has looked at it,
[21:17] they get routed through our human resources department so they can verify that the salary and benefits
[21:22] identified were correct. If it's something that the fleet facility or IT folks need to look at,
[21:28] they have an opportunity to go through those requests and true up any costs in case there was
[21:33] something missing and then once those are finalized it comes back into finance for calculating.
[21:39] Once that's done we compile that list and we sent the initial list to both Mr. Rogers and
[21:44] Ms. Blakeman to be able to review, have discussions with their departments that they're responsible for
[21:50] and that's how the preliminary yeses came to be. Once I get into the slides you'll see that some of
[21:56] the slides indicate reappropriation beside it.
[21:59] So it might say no on the request,
[22:01] and that is because it was considered in 2021.
[22:04] Because of the timing of reappropriation
[22:06] and the budget request cycle,
[22:08] they kind of align together.
[22:10] Sometimes departments will put a request in both places
[22:15] to make sure that it's considered one way or the other.
[22:18] So we did try to identify those for you that are a no,
[22:21] but it's because it was approved as a reappropriation item.
[22:24] So, this is just a summary of the total of the requests.
[22:30] You can see it broken down by department, the amount of their total requests, and this,
[22:36] the grand total is just below that 7.4 million that I identified early in the presentation.
[22:45] Did you want to add something?
[22:48] Okay.
[22:49] So, we broke down the request by department, and then we gave you kind of a brief summary
[22:54] of what that request was, the request type, the total amount and the decision.
[23:00] We highlighted the yeses in green, the nose, and maybes are the preliminary decisions
[23:06] that were made.
[23:08] Here are a couple of examples of reappropriation items that say no on this list because
[23:13] they were approved on reappropriation.
[23:15] So for example, the permit tech supervisor, because that was approved on reappropriation
[23:21] for 2021. That is part of that ongoing cost that we had on that first slide to account
[23:27] for the positions and benefits for those approved positions.
[23:34] The, in the packet, I also
[23:36] included just the overall summary list. I didn't know if that might be easier to look
[23:40] at that list as opposed to the slides individually. So hopefully you found one or both of those
[23:46] helpful. I can continue to move on unless there's a specific question about community development
[23:54] that you wanted addressed.
[23:58] Okay. This next slide we combined legal and legislative on both of these
[24:04] slides. As Roger previously mentioned you are going to have an opportunity to discuss the legislative
[24:10] budget in detail. We listed the legislative item as a maybe because we knew that you wanted
[24:16] and would have an opportunity to discuss your budget in detail at a future meeting, but did want to list it here.
[24:27] City Manager's Office, you can see a variety of requests. There are a few items here that indicates that we said no on the reappropriation request.
[24:39] We can talk about that in more detail, but primarily based on timing and input that we received from the chief.
[24:46] We identified that as more information came to us, if this was identified as
[24:52] something that needed to be funded in 2021, there was a possibility of using
[24:57] contingency, which would then...
[25:00] Be brought to you in the future if that determination is made. That is why those particular items were listed as no.
[25:14] Human resources, you see, have they had a variety of requests. The three of their requests were approved. They're all new position related to try to address the various items that they feel they need to acquire in their department to be able to continue to reach, you know, as we mentioned. That was one of our key considerations to be able to attract and retain quality.
[25:35] staff. This is what Armando felt would serve that department the best in order to be able to do that.
[25:42] For IT, you can see they had four requests, preliminary yes to all of those items. And I mentioned
[25:49] earlier that one of their items was specifically identified to come out of our IT retained earnings,
[25:55] not out of general fund. That is that $193,000 item that is identified there.
[26:06] Park's recreation and
[26:07] golf. Variety of requests as well. The two that we said yes to that are directly 2K eligible.
[26:15] Both have to do with Paradise Island pool, which was a 2K identified amenity on the ballot initiative.
[26:22] So that is why we showed that 35,000 coming from the 2.4 million 2K fund balance.
[26:36] Is this when we ask questions? Okay. I would actually like to go back to some
[26:43] of the earlier pages, we don't have to do that right now to understand why some of these
[26:48] were knows that they got know, you know, because they look like good ideas, okay.
[26:54] And then I, on this page, I have a question about the community navigator being a maybe.
[27:06] Thank you, Council Member Noble.
[27:09] So I think at the time when we were going through the initial request, when we were looking
[27:14] I think overall request between this and I think some internal questions we had about the position already being in existence.
[27:25] As you might remember, we have the senior navigator position.
[27:28] That's the homeless navigator position.
[27:31] And then we also had a request for the community navigator as part of use of the ARP funds.
[27:39] So, when the discussion of the ARP funds was coming forward for council's consideration, we had put it maybe here because we didn't understand the full decision yet on those dollars and funds and use.
[27:54] So, I would say right now this is one that is still a maybe for us, depending upon where you all want to move forward.
[28:01] with, once again, the use of the ARP funds, and I think we've gotten some clear direction
[28:06] there about homelessness, mortgage and utility, fees assistance.
[28:11] But once again, that's not necessarily the end-all bill.
[28:15] And at that same time, we had the request here just as a, another stop-dap, per se.
[28:21] If it wasn't funded by the ARP funds, then we could look at it funding it through obviously
[28:25] our general fund request or budget enhancement.
[28:28] Which
[28:31] of the navigators have been, have any of the navigators been approved?
[28:39] I heard you say there's three different versions.
[28:42] So we have the homeless navigator that was approved in January.
[28:45] And who came and made a presentation to counsel just most recently.
[28:49] We had a similar request of the community navigator in two places.
[28:53] One was with the ARP funds and one was with the budget enhancement request for 2022.
[28:58] to. So we were maybe on the 2022 budget enhancement request because you all were also going to
[29:05] be deliberating this position as part of the use through the ARP funds.
[29:11] Where does the senior navigator fit into that?
[29:15] So when talking with staff, when we look at the community navigator resource connections,
[29:20] obviously initially was born out of being able to assist and work with our senior community,
[29:27] But as we began to better understand the needs of our community, it also included families.
[29:33] So we took a much broader approach to just not focusing on seniors, but
[29:36] also making sure that we're also looking more broad spectrum to our members of our community that are obviously
[29:45] have families and have young ones and have different, and once again, I'll say emerging needs as well.
[29:52] So we took that into account in this position.
[29:56] So, community to have a gator under parks and recreation is an
[30:00] We're in umbrella term for seniors and family. Yes, ma'am. And it's a maybe. It wasn't maybe at the time when we were discussing because like I said at the time we had those two requests. We were coming before you first and foremost with the ARP funds for the same position. And if you had approved it as part of the ARP funds, we would have flipped it to a no here. And would have outlined as Miss Carson has said as subject to
[30:29] separate funding, but since you all have not acted upon that, we still have our initial maybe, but obviously it's still up for discussion, and I think a desire by we as a staff and I would say as the general larger community about wanting to move forward with that.
[30:47] And what about CBDG funds?
[30:56] Are we thinking about, and my gears are trying to just try to make sure that I'm understanding the direction that you want to go with the question, is that leveraging CBBG funds that we receive as part of the annual action plan to help provide a funding source for seniors?
[31:17] So partly to that, obviously this position would be citywide, obviously with the use of any CDBG dollars and funding that we have, right, it has to be within qualified census tracks.
[31:30] Now, there's nothing saying that going forward that a request for an application or an
[31:41] application tied to the AAB funds be submitted for review and action of banks, the deciding
[31:49] body that we have here at the city who then bring those for your approval.
[31:55] No different than what we have done in the past for, per se, the SBRC, when we had initial staff there at Derby.
[32:04] So there's obviously an opportunity there, but it would not be able to cover the full extent of that position given that it would be outside of those qualified census tracks.
[32:15] Okay, I would just suggest going back to Shell Steinberg's presentation that she did within the last month, I think it was.
[32:26] And that navigator was number one or number two of the responses to the focus groups and surveys that she did.
[32:36] And it seemed to me that what she was saying is that there would be funds set up for that.
[32:45] And are this CBDG dollars rolled into this budget?
[32:51] Or is that a separate discussion as well?
[32:54] That is a separate discussion, ma'am.
[32:56] You all annually will take action on CBG's budget for the upcoming year.
[33:02] So, for example, when we brought forward the 2021-2025 Consolidated Plan, we were also
[33:10] required by HUD to bring forward the 2021 Annual Action Plan.
[33:17] And that Annual Action Plan identifies for the money that we receive, how we plan and
[33:22] intend to spend said money on various programs.
[33:25] It's domestic violence, pain-a-thon, minor home repair, kids first dental and so forth.
[33:35] It's at that time when you take that approval is when we then initiate going in the contract with those various applicants that have requested use of those dollars and cents that we've received.
[33:48] So, we wouldn't be able to look at any additional preparation of CDBD dollars until we start looking at the 2022 annual action plan and request, which would be in the beginning or early of next year.
[34:05] Well, I don't want the baby thrown out with the bath water.
[34:08] I think it's wonderful to do something for families as well, but I know that the group
[34:16] is very anxious to have that service again because the service ended from the city and
[34:23] they would like the service to resume.
[34:26] So that's all we're talking about is how do we make that happen again?
[34:31] Let me sum up everything that's been said. Our intent is to fund a position. The question is what mechanism do we use?
[34:43] Okay, that answer I get. Thank you.
[34:50] Thank you. I just had a question. I don't see the park ranger anywhere. Could we go into detail if we're going to
[35:00] I want to fund a park ranger. I know we've had discussions on council in previous meetings. And I know we're working with Adams County. But I think, you know, I know some of us got to me, those about some parks over the weekend. And it's needed. So where would that come out of or is there a discussion on that? So thank you for that council member Gordola. I actually have Carolyn Keith, parks, rec golf director here. We can speak to a little bit more of the new one.
[35:31] That's the details around the request for those positions.
[35:44] Council members, I'm out.
[35:47] On, can you hear me?
[35:48] Thank you.
[35:50] It's actually in ordinance 2310, the reappropriation that said community navigator.
[35:57] That included the park ranger program that we're currently finalizing in IGA with Adams County to allow us to recruit for
[36:08] that position through Adams County Open Space.
[36:11] Thank you.
[36:12] That was for one.
[36:17] Carolyn, you're referring to the ordinance
[36:18] that was approved in January of this year, correct?
[36:21] Okay, thank you.
[36:24] It was actually two positions.
[36:27] Yep.
[36:28] Okay.
[36:30] Please don't go anywhere, because now I'm confused
[36:32] because I thought that we just spent five minutes
[36:35] getting into description as far as this community
[36:38] navigator position was the senior navigator,
[36:42] slash family navigator rolled in and that's what I'm seeing on the slide up there but then
[36:47] the information that you just said the park ranger is that community navigator so can we get a
[36:52] little clarification here? Absolutely and maybe what we need to do in the future is so there is a
[36:59] community navigator slash homelessness that was the position that was approved in 2310 Sarah's position
[37:08] who made the presentation a couple weeks ago, that reappropriation ordinance also appropriated
[37:15] the funding for the park ranger.
[37:18] We are most agencies have a series of community navigators that have a specialty so we would
[37:27] have a community navigator homelessness, community navigator resource that we're referring
[37:33] to that would include both seniors and families, but if that's confusing, we can certainly
[37:40] look at our title structure for requests for positions.
[37:45] Yeah, I think it'd be helpful if there was a line there that just simply said park ranger
[37:49] and that way we knew that that's what we were funding with that request.
[37:53] So I get they have a greater title but I think that that'll help probably a majority of us
[37:58] to understand what's there.
[38:00] Also, I'd like to put another request in for the exact cost
[38:04] of how much that park ranger is on an annual basis
[38:07] so that we can make a determination on how many of those
[38:10] we want to fund in the coming years.
[38:14] And I can grab my computer and have it on my.
[38:16] It doesn't have to be right now.
[38:18] This is preliminary.
[38:19] I'm sure we'll get to that point of there.
[38:22] The other thing, and I appreciate all the information there,
[38:25] one thing that I'd like you to keep in the back of your mind
[38:27] and answer for us is,
[38:28] How much money is left over for your marks for lack of better term?
[38:32] I won't use the congressional direct spending as they like to call your marks now, but for council directed spending how much money is going to be left over for us to basically put out our pet ideas that we would like to see adopted within the city.
[38:45] So again, that doesn't need to be answered now, but as we go forward would like to know the answer.
[38:50] Thank you.
[38:50] Thank
[38:57] you.
[38:58] I was just curious also on the new positions with vehicles are those going to be new vehicles are they vehicles at the city already owns?
[39:07] There are new vehicles that would be added to the fleet allocation.
[39:12] So there's no vehicles at the city already owns to cover those positions.
[39:18] That is a conversation that we continue to have with public works.
[39:21] They have repurposed vehicles at times to various departments based on need,
[39:27] and that's always something that is considered throughout this process,
[39:30] as I mentioned, when a new position with a vehicle or just a vehicle request comes
[39:35] in, once finances had an opportunity to look at that and have kind of preliminary past it
[39:41] through the process, it does go to fleet to review so that they can give us that information,
[39:47] which is either we're going to use something else that we have or this is the new
[39:52] position the new vehicle cost for that position. Okay, thanks. And then on the
[39:58] slide. I'm just for clarification.
[40:10] Thank you, ma'am. No, we are not talking about marijuana with live well, and looking at the slide before us, are you talking about a previous slide? That was the last one.
[40:29] Yeah, it's slide number 23 where it says live well commerce city update it.
[40:34] Yes, that is not in regards to marijuana man, that's actually in regards to, and if you'll bear with you,
[40:46] then I have it and give you a little bit more details to that request.
[40:55] That 7,000 is in respect to the healthy active living and healthy places initiative collaboration that we have with Colt de Bondeau.
[41:10] Okay, thank you.
[41:11] We
[41:16] move on and Council Member Noelle will speak.
[41:18] I just want to thank Parks and Rec.
[41:19] I see up there some special events, wild for life, family, bike ride and run with the Buffalo Turkey trot.
[41:25] Thank you for putting set events together.
[41:27] I think that's one thing that we've been missing as our events like that in our community.
[41:30] So I greatly appreciate the effort to start things like that like
[41:40] this still on
[41:43] Can you tell the clarify for me please when when we see
[41:50] The request for an actual person
[41:53] Does that include benefits is that salary and benefits? It is salary and benefits and that is calculated by our HR department
[41:59] Okay, thank you. You're welcome
[42:03] So I will continue to kind of summarize each of the department slides and then
[42:08] And Councilwoman Noble, as you mentioned, you might have some additional questions about
[42:12] some of those items that said maybe or no, so I'm happy to go back to any slide for questions
[42:16] that you have or any other member of Council has.
[42:23] So for public safety, a number of requests, you will see the items listed as yes or no.
[42:30] One thing I'd like to point out is before we have this presentation with you, we do an
[42:36] all day retreat with department heads and all of us sitting at the end of this table here
[42:42] and we go through requests with them and we ask them to talk to us. We do get forms from them
[42:47] that provide justification but it is an opportunity for them to give updated information
[42:52] or to plead their case in many instances we ask them to prioritize requests. So a lot of the
[43:00] yeses that you are seeing are based on that feedback from them. Now certainly they would love to
[43:05] I have all of their requests approved, but you can see the dollars are limited, so there is a process that we all work through with them to be able to bring forward the preliminary yeses.
[43:17] These are not surprises to department heads, they've had an opportunity to have those conversations with either Ms. Blakeman or Mr. Rogers.
[43:24] And even Mr. Tinklinberg on that day of the, we call it the internal department budget retreat.
[43:30] So just wanted to share that information for your benefit as well.
[43:36] On this, I'd like to question a couple of these nose up here.
[43:40] The tuition assistance, what are we saying no to for $2,400?
[43:45] So if I made this request, was part of the FOP negotiations that just wrapped up.
[43:51] So based on those negotiations and some of the other items that were approved.
[43:55] This was a no because of other items that were agreed upon as part of the negotiation.
[44:02] So the chief and his staff felt confident that it was okay to say no to this because of other items that they brought forward and were approved by the city.
[44:12] Anything else you wanted to add to that chief?
[44:16] Okay, that seems like a small number that could have made the contract a little bit more enticing and perhaps help with recruitment.
[44:24] Am I wrong to think of it that way?
[44:25] We already have a tuition reimbursement program, so it's not like we don't have a program there already.
[44:35] Okay, overtime enhancement for 2022.
[44:52] Okay,
[44:56] so part of the base budget review is to go through.
[45:00] Each of their line items and some of the over time, the on call pay those types of things have been charged to various accounts throughout the budget. So we are realigned some of those things. Theresa Wilson, who I identified earlier, worked closely with Kirk Dominick from the police department to identify some of those areas that of items that needed to be trued up. And so based on that resulted in the items that were yes and some of them that were
[45:29] no. Again, this is in collaboration with the police department and Chief, I don't
[45:37] know if you want to talk specifically more about overtime. No. Historically our
[45:42] salaries and benefits budget did not take into account overtime. Special events
[45:47] on call pay, FTO pay, vacation, sell back. It was all lumped together. So us trying to
[45:54] determine what our true overtime budget was was extremely convoluted to do.
[45:58] There were so many line items hitting that budget.
[46:01] So this year we had a conversation with finance and we parsed those things out individually.
[46:07] And so that no is a reflection of the overtime budget did not go down.
[46:12] It's just true up now.
[46:13] And all of those line items are now broken out as to how much we are supposed to be spending per category.
[46:19] Before it was just salaries and benefits, $600,000.
[46:22] And every year we would go over that number because vacations sell back comp time over time on call pay all hit that line item is over time and it was not over time.
[46:33] Okay, thank you. My question is, would putting that money back in the budget allow you to have more officers on the street?
[46:42] The problem is not with the amount of overtime available. The problem is 12 hour shifts and when they're able to work over time.
[46:50] So there is a safety factor that comes into play when somebody has worked so many hours.
[46:56] It probably is not probably, it is not prudent to put them back out on the street even if
[47:01] we're paying overtime.
[47:02] And so that is the current hurdle that we're on.
[47:06] Okay.
[47:07] Thank you for that answer.
[47:14] That's all right.
[47:15] I can hear you.
[47:16] I'm happy to repeat it for you.
[47:18] I'll
[47:29] have to leave additional officers not in our officers work more than I misunderstood
[47:36] the question.
[47:42] Not directly, my question was, I mean, if we had more money in the overtime budget, then can we work officers more and provide them more of an opportunity to be on the streets?
[47:49] So I fully appreciate the answer that we're taxing them to the point of the public safety being a hindrance on unbearing there.
[47:58] I appreciate that, but I think the council member grants brings up another question.
[48:01] Can you take that $30,000 and $60,000 and fund three more police officers with that money?
[48:06] I don't know that that'll give us to three because again you have to take into account
[48:11] We're not where we hire full-time employees it comes with the full
[48:15] Complement of stuff okay in addition to their training so I don't know if that would get us to three
[48:20] But what is also not reflected on here is the number of insural correct. Oh, we have a second slide
[48:25] So I would suggest getting through all of this and and I'll just they see if there are questions
[48:32] Right. And I can see, I mean, 10 police officers for another 845,000, you know, in the four patrol sergeants.
[48:39] But again, if you had that 360,000 put back in your budget based on the fact that it's $84,532 per police officer,
[48:47] that looks to me like that's four police officers that you could put on a street with an additional 360,000.
[48:52] That is correct.
[48:53] Okay.
[48:53] And so I think that brings up to the council to see whether or not you want to try to put that money back into the budget and instead of only 10 police officers, 14 police officers, but of course, that brings up the next challenge of whether or not the police department can actively recruit and get through the training process, that level of police officers.
[49:11] There is no guarantee that we can get them all next year and to clear up any misnomer
[49:16] about it.
[49:18] The Commerce City Police Department has not had a problem hiring and finding qualified
[49:24] applicants.
[49:25] Our bottleneck is in getting them through an academy.
[49:27] We do not run our own, so we contract out through flat rock and other various entities to
[49:31] do that.
[49:32] And as you can imagine, most police agencies are going through exactly what we're going
[49:36] through.
[49:36] so those seats are at a premium, so we can get them where we can.
[49:41] Our prolonged strategy is to, when we put people in an academy,
[49:45] we want all of our employees to go through the same academy.
[49:49] Bill's camaraderie there together, they go through the academy together,
[49:52] generally speaking, they'll come here together, and the knowledge base
[49:55] is consistent across the board.
[49:58] We have split.
[50:00] New employees up to different academies, and when we come bring them back together to get them coalescing as one, that becomes even more difficult. And we find out that oftentimes they've bonded with other agencies before they get here, and that becomes a bit of a challenge for us. So there are some challenges with getting them all through the same academy consistently. Our staff is pretty good about it, but generally speaking, we are limited to about seven to ten.
[50:28] And at least that flat rock where we send our folks.
[50:32] And I think that's a great answer and I appreciate that.
[50:35] I think to sum it all up what we're looking for is what do you need in your budget to increase public safety?
[50:43] Increase boots on the street and get us to the point where we can adequately man our shifts with enough coverage in both halves of the city to make sure that we are able to reduce response times.
[50:57] and respond to issues in an appropriate manner and deal with some of the larger items
[51:04] that tend to take up a large swath of officers that are on shift at a certain time.
[51:09] What do you need?
[51:11] That's a good question.
[51:13] And I wish that I could tell you that there was a magic bullet that I said that we could fund this.
[51:18] This would take care of it.
[51:19] I believe last meeting DC moon came up to the podium and talked about the sort of narrative surrounding public safety nowadays.
[51:29] This is an absolutely trying time for the profession to not only recruit and retain, but it is a struggle overall for finding and identifying people that want to do this job.
[51:41] In addition to that, standards of the Commerce City Police Department are also pretty high. We are not just filling the seats with warm bodies.
[51:48] So here's what I will tell you if I had a magic solution fix and I'll follow it up with
[51:53] an analogy.
[51:54] When we bring new people in, we don't even have enough lockers for them.
[51:58] And so the subtle message that that sends to new employees is thanks for hiring me but
[52:02] I'm not really needed because you don't even have space for me.
[52:06] And it's not any law of any one person.
[52:09] We have just maxed out our space within the Civic Center.
[52:15] I appreciate that answer, because coincidentally, I think we're having a conversation earlier this afternoon about one of the solutions that we could explore to help out with that situation.
[52:25] So hopefully that helps us a little bit in getting that looked at to see whether or not we have that.
[52:30] But so that's great space is an issue.
[52:34] What else do you need in order to improve your standing in your department with regard to resources?
[52:42] Just to clarify, I'm not truly, I'm not worried about my standing with the department.
[52:47] Not personally, I'm saying to approve the department.
[52:51] I wasn't referring to personally to Chief Nichols.
[52:54] What do you need to improve the Commerce City Police Department to be able to
[53:02] patrol and provide public safety for our city?
[53:07] if you were to sit there and say this is what I need to have the perfect police
[53:12] department, what is it? Oh, I will tell you that we're none of us are in a
[53:17] position to fix it. My ability to hire quickly and get well-trained people in
[53:22] the department is a struggle. We just do not draw the types of folks from larger
[53:30] organizations that we would need to be able to do that. So the level of experience
[53:34] that we're getting is is a bit taxing. And I don't know that there's any one way to fix that.
[53:40] I will tell you we've looked at salaries and benefits and I will tell you I think the
[53:46] bargaining unit at a pretty decent job with the contract that they got. Our police officers
[53:50] are generally speaking within the top two or three percent of the entire state, which is pretty
[53:57] noble. But here's what I will tell you from my last few conversations with the folks that have
[54:02] just getting out of policing.
[54:04] Commerce City is a difficult place to work.
[54:05] It is fast paced and given our proximity to Denver,
[54:09] we deal with big city problems.
[54:11] And when we've tried to recruit from smaller agencies,
[54:15] those experienced folks that I believe we would need
[54:18] to quickly get us over the hump, they generally come here
[54:22] and they just are not used to working at this pace
[54:24] and they get frustrated and they leave.
[54:27] We've had that happen on numerous occasions.
[54:29] I will also tell you that because we are taxed, it sort of is a hamster wheel sort of.
[54:37] We fall short in staffing, everybody works harder.
[54:40] We don't do anything to change the way we're working, and so you just end up on this revolver
[54:44] wheel of those who can do and those who can't get out.
[54:49] So there isn't a one solution that fits all approach to immediately putting people on
[54:55] the street unfortunately.
[54:56] This profession challenges the character.
[55:01] We're going to do it well, or you're going to do it not well, and we have very low tolerance for people that are not going to do it well. This community is, and what I will tell you is, if you've been in Commerce City longer than 10 years, if you took a look at the police department 10 years ago, you will probably recognize they don't even look similar. And so as we try to change the culture of Commerce City and do things differently, we're going to have hurdles. And there is no quick fix for that.
[55:28] you just got to do the work. Part of that is I think we're getting very good candidates in the door.
[55:34] The recruiting team that I have has done a great job of identifying the pitfalls of police
[55:39] work sharing that with them up front. We lay out expectations to them and they're rising to the
[55:44] challenge. And I think we've got a very good group of the last three to four years of employees that
[55:50] are here that are doing a great job. But make no mistake about it. There's a sense of
[55:56] I want to go back to the old 90s days of policing.
[56:01] That's a dangerous thing.
[56:03] And so I think the best approach and I will tell you and
[56:06] talking to the city manager and the rest of the executive
[56:09] team about our approach to fixing some of the hills of
[56:11] commerce city.
[56:12] I think this is a good start.
[56:14] One of the things and I don't see it up here is up the
[56:17] staffing assessment that we're going to have complete it.
[56:20] That was done through reappropriation.
[56:22] We'll give all of council in our community a pretty good
[56:25] idea of what we're looking at and so what I would urge council to do is let's
[56:29] wait to get that done it get approved through reappropriation we hope to have
[56:33] that document in our hands by November December at the latest and it'll give
[56:37] you a pretty good idea of not only community feedback officer led feedback and
[56:43] some of our constituents about what we can do to improve and it'll give us a
[56:46] much better picture than me telling you if I had 30 more officers I could fix all
[56:51] all the problems. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Hopefully, I don't really answer
[56:56] your question. No, it's good. One of the things that's been brought up in the past complaint
[57:01] in the department has been the lack of take home cars. And is that still an issue that
[57:06] resonates with officers? The fact that we don't have that available? And is that something
[57:10] that if it is an issue could be eradicated? That is, I don't know where that complaint
[57:15] has never hit my desk. That's the first time I'm hearing it. The folks that are working
[57:19] in an on-call capacity have take on vehicles.
[57:22] Patrol officers do not, and I don't think that any one of them would want to take a black
[57:27] and white home and park it in their driveway.
[57:30] So to answer your question, I've never heard that complaint, that's not anything as reasonable
[57:34] my desk, but everybody on an on-call status that has to potentially respond 24-7 has a take
[57:41] on vehicle.
[57:42] Okay.
[57:43] Any council members?
[57:44] Any council members?
[57:46] Chief, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to-
[57:48] That's okay, I can hear you fine.
[57:49] Face away, so everyone else can hear me, but I'm just wondering, can we do things to make
[57:56] it more attractive to come be a police officer in Commerce City?
[57:59] Can we allocate some of this money to increase salaries?
[58:02] Are we competitive in the region for other police departments in terms of pay?
[58:06] Are there benefits that are attractive to police officers?
[58:13] I'll start there and then I have a follow-up question.
[58:15] Yes, and I will tell you part of our struggle is we work with a bargaining unit, so they have to bring those things forward on behalf of their members.
[58:24] I would not be a very good chief if I started bargaining for the bargaining unit and then sat across the table from them.
[58:31] And I think I've done some of that. That's why you saw the tuition enhancement, the approval of the master patrol officer positions.
[58:39] Those are things that I was going to ask for in the budget, that the bargaining unit brought to the table.
[58:44] So I don't sure I'll mention one issue that we said no to, and it's because they got a better deal in the bargaining unit.
[58:50] Are our salaries competitive in the region?
[58:52] Yes, top two to three percent.
[58:54] Usually the only people that beat us are Lakewood, which has to be by their state.
[59:00] They have to be the number one paid organization in the state.
[59:03] That's a weird contract, and then Aurora in Denver.
[59:07] And then in the news oh go ahead let me just add on to that we do an annual survey and then
[59:14] according to the agreement we pay 1% above the average of that entire survey. Okay and then in
[59:24] the news this week I see that Denver is going to start requiring their PD to be vaccinated. I'm
[59:29] wondering if we're going to see fallout in terms of officer turnover because of that and is there
[59:35] an opportunity to look at bringing police officers just across the city line here.
[59:42] I don't see that will be an option.
[59:44] Denver falls there with defined contribution plan, and sure, I may have the correct
[59:49] man.
[59:49] I don't think I'm getting the term right.
[59:50] They have FPPA.
[59:52] I don't see too many Denver officers leaving that system to come into our system.
[59:57] You get your years of service.
[1:00:00] Based upon how many years are in FPPA, we are not in that system, so for them to come here, they'd be leaving all that money on the table, so that makes it a little bit of a challenge just to get officers from bigger organizations. That's a retirement. Is that what it's called in Colorado? Is there an opportunity to join that? I mean, it seems like there's some potentially low hanging fruit to make ourselves look more attractive to other officers who are leaving another department.
[1:00:28] But there is an opportunity to join that and we did analyze that.
[1:00:32] I believe it was two years ago.
[1:00:34] We did expect during the negotiations this year that that may come up again, but they
[1:00:38] elected not to bring that up and not negotiate on that fact.
[1:00:42] I don't know the reason behind that decision, but it is something that I brought up early
[1:00:45] in the negotiation process, and they elected not to, not to say that it won't come up the
[1:00:50] next time they negotiate, but perhaps they wanted other things in place of that.
[1:00:55] but I don't really know the reason
[1:00:56] that drove their decision.
[1:00:59] I don't want to belabor it much more.
[1:01:01] I just, it's curious to me that we can't offer more.
[1:01:04] You know, I understand what you're saying.
[1:01:06] Like, they bring the bargaining to you,
[1:01:08] but why can't we offer more back to them?
[1:01:12] Is anyone gonna turn that down?
[1:01:13] If we say we want to give you more benefits, more pay, more?
[1:01:18] Well, they did bring up increasing their contribution
[1:01:22] to their retirement plan,
[1:01:24] but not trying to switch over to FPPA and so one of the things that we reminded them is they do have the opportunity to participate in 457 match and then get the match along with that.
[1:01:36] Many of them I think did not know or had not previously elected to do that.
[1:01:41] And once they were reminded that they already have that in place and can participate and receive a match on that, then they removed their request to increase their contribution and match.
[1:01:53] because that was already established so they are thinking about those things and
[1:01:59] bring up at the beginning of the negotiations bring up a variety of items that
[1:02:03] they want to talk about. Okay and then last question I know that we don't run
[1:02:08] our own academy is that something that we could look at budgeting for in the
[1:02:12] future?
[1:02:14] That would be a massive undertaking now you're talking about dedicated
[1:02:18] staff and we currently have like three people working out a desk right now
[1:02:23] Also, you're talking about a facility build and for all the things that police officers have to do at this point in time.
[1:02:29] It's much more cost effective to contract that service out.
[1:02:33] I will tell you it full build out that this city is ultimately going to get to.
[1:02:38] That would be a very wise decision.
[1:02:40] I would not want to rely upon a city of over 100,000 people contracting out their academy services.
[1:02:46] You end up getting a product that you paid for, not what you've instilled.
[1:02:51] Okay. Thank you.
[1:02:57] Chief, I wanted to ask about the status of the discussions with the fire department for another for a bigger station and a booking station in North
[1:03:09] Commerce City in the animal in the animal hospital rescue building that the fire department is purchasing. I don't see that in the budget either.
[1:03:22] It is not in there. I've had some brief conversations. I know some members of my staff have talked to South Adams County regarding it.
[1:03:30] While we generally agree that that would be a great idea. The one hurdle that we have is policing as a 24-7 operation.
[1:03:38] Fire department will normally sleep at night and let me, I don't know what fire department people do.
[1:03:44] I get they sleep, okay, it's been confirmed.
[1:03:48] And so with us being in and out of the building with suspects and all the things that take place at a police building,
[1:03:55] they may not necessarily work so well together.
[1:03:58] And our space needs are,
[1:04:02] for us to run an adequate police station will require an insurmountable amount of funds to turn it into something that is secure.
[1:04:09] That we can literally jail people in and now we're taking away from the function of a police department.
[1:04:15] So I think at this juncture what we decided is if we needed some people that had needed some place to go to take a break and sit down and take a report.
[1:04:23] It would be great for that, but for a working police facility it probably would not work.
[1:04:28] We wouldn't even have the space to put our vehicles up there.
[1:04:32] So there are some unique challenges that both organizations realized would probably make that not a worthwhile venture for us to pursue.
[1:04:41] So, in terms of staffing and I fully support extra officers for your department, we won't
[1:04:53] see the results of that for a year because of the training.
[1:05:00] That is correct. My believe these budgetate positions, these 10 would be starting the academy January 5th or 6th. They would not get out of the academy until about July and July. They would do an in-house academy for about 6 weeks. And early September, they will go in the field training. You won't see them out on their street fully capable of doing their job till about December, late December.
[1:05:28] So those 10 people you're hiring for 2022, you won't see the
[1:05:31] the realization of that till 2023.
[1:05:37] Is there anything that we could do that would help in the interim?
[1:05:44] Again, we could always, and I take from being honest,
[1:05:48] and then Rodgers in the room, I'm not trying to get brownie points.
[1:05:50] He's been absolutely great to work with regarding the overhires.
[1:05:54] Part of our problem has been specifically last year with the coronavirus
[1:06:00] and the full pandemic.
[1:06:01] We had nine officers leave and we were not able to do any recruitment.
[1:06:06] So, that is why we're feeling the pinch now.
[1:06:09] We were not able to run any academies.
[1:06:12] We couldn't do any hiring.
[1:06:13] There was just no way to replace the nine people that left.
[1:06:16] Generally speaking, we would fulfill those positions
[1:06:19] as they're occurring.
[1:06:21] So, we've not only lost nine last year.
[1:06:23] We lost an additional six this year.
[1:06:26] And so, when you take a look at that total volume,
[1:06:29] we just have not had the ability to replace those bodies
[1:06:32] as of yet.
[1:06:33] And they're leaving for all sorts of reasons.
[1:06:34] I believe the bulk of them left the profession all together.
[1:06:38] They just decided this is not something that they wanted to do.
[1:06:41] Some moved to other jurors, I know we've lost two of Texas and two to Florida, and they
[1:06:47] got $10,000 signing bonuses.
[1:06:49] So kind of difficult for us to compete with those.
[1:06:55] So we could do signing bonuses.
[1:06:58] We could do a whole lot of things, there's no guarantee that folks will, and again, the
[1:07:03] So the work in environment in Commerce City is, the joke I tell people is I came to
[1:07:08] Las Vegas and took this job as a retirement job.
[1:07:11] It has been anything but this place is busy.
[1:07:16] And if you are not used to fast-paced policing in this environment, case in point, we hired
[1:07:23] this last go-around, this last academy that just came to us.
[1:07:26] We hire three police officers with seven to ten years of experience from various towns, not in the Denver Metro region.
[1:07:36] And they all left within three months ago and this pace is ridiculous.
[1:07:40] We can't keep track.
[1:07:42] And so it is a difficult place to, part of that is the growth.
[1:07:48] We haven't exactly done a great job of managing it from a police department standpoint.
[1:07:53] We've added something like 3,000 homes, and I looked at Mr. Rogers to correct me, we've added a bunch of homes and not one police officer position in quite some time.
[1:08:03] And so this is just the chickens have come home to roost.
[1:08:07] I think this 10 will help us. I think getting that staffing assessment out of the way will certainly help us.
[1:08:13] It will give you a true picture of, here is how you anticipate it to grow, here is what you need to manage what you have now.
[1:08:20] and here's what we recommend you do if you're going to continue on this
[1:08:24] pace because some of Commer City's growth numbers are unreal, literally unreal
[1:08:31] and then you combine that with the environment that we work in and you combine
[1:08:36] that with the general narrative surrounding policing in general and it makes
[1:08:40] for a very unhappy situation. We had also asked about looking into a company
[1:08:50] that would only do parking tickets so that police officers wouldn't have to be involved in that, what's the status of that?
[1:08:59] That information, we did an RFP for that information.
[1:09:02] I believe it's been provided to Council twice already.
[1:09:05] And we're waiting to hear back from Council on if you want to pursue that or not.
[1:09:09] We've not heard anything back.
[1:09:11] I've not heard anything back.
[1:09:13] We've received information on it twice.
[1:09:16] Yes, ma'am.
[1:09:17] What was the cost and did you have companies that were interested?
[1:09:21] I don't have those quotes in front of me.
[1:09:24] I believe we received three quotes.
[1:09:26] One of them wanted to sell us parts.
[1:09:28] So we had two quotes and I can't say whether they were interested in pursuing it or not.
[1:09:35] They just replied to the request for information.
[1:09:39] Okay.
[1:09:40] So we would still have to negotiate the terms of that.
[1:09:42] And I would also be, again, you guys are the governing body, ultimately you make that decision.
[1:09:47] I think it's important to remember how we got on parking in the first place.
[1:09:52] For those of you that were on council when this came up, the police department generally did not do a very good job of parking enforcement at all.
[1:10:00] Despite the complaints, and I will tell you it is a great tool to get officers in and out of neighborhoods so that we know that they are there. Having said that, I will tell you, parking is a relatively low priority. We do it when we have to. We want to make sure it's proactive. But if we could certainly facilitate that moving somewhere else, the terms of the contract would need to be negotiated, but that is certainly something we could do.
[1:10:24] So the response on that came in email that was addressed everybody and I think most of you have had a conversation this evening with a net over how do we want to continue working with these issues and follow up and thing and that's spurred partly by the fact that we have not moved forward or had discussion on that so there was something that was emailed all the council members and unfortunately overlooked by many and so that's why we haven't moved forward with that.
[1:10:52] So we needed agendas and yes, we'll hopefully be having that conversation moving forward.
[1:10:59] I'm going to count some member Smith and then count some member Alan Thomas.
[1:11:03] So my question is about the overtime enhancement.
[1:11:06] Can we use that for hiring bonuses or hiring incentives for the PD that we do have?
[1:11:13] So if someone says like, I have a friend that's already qualified and then maybe do like
[1:11:18] a lateral academy, use that money for that.
[1:11:20] We absolutely could and I can tell you on occasion we do take advantage of that
[1:11:25] So while we don't have a program for hiring bonuses per say
[1:11:29] There is nothing that restricts me from getting hold of the city manager going. I've got a great candidate
[1:11:34] He needs $5,000 to move here and that gets okay
[1:11:37] So while we don't have a budgeted line item for it. There is nothing currently that would restrict us from doing that
[1:11:43] So yes to ask your question it would assist. Okay, and then
[1:11:47] And kind of going back to what Council Member Noble says, having like meter maids
[1:11:53] doing the parking so that the police officers can do policing.
[1:11:57] That would be something that would help them immensely, that way they can for
[1:12:01] these 10 officers that are going to be coming on.
[1:12:03] All the FTOs can actually be helping the police officers and not doing traffic or not
[1:12:08] traffic, not doing parking.
[1:12:11] I didn't know that I understood your question correctly.
[1:12:15] Using a company to enforce, to do parking enforcement so that the police officers can be police officers and not parking enforcement.
[1:12:23] And I guess my question would be the definition of a police officer is what because I will tell you my staff and I are very much in favor of addressing quality of life issues.
[1:12:37] parking is definitely a quality of life issue in Gomer City and so I would be
[1:12:42] hesitant to take that completely off of our plate. It still needs to be
[1:12:45] something we have the ability to do. I will tell you it doesn't need to be a
[1:12:49] top. It is not an A1 priority now and so contracting that service out is
[1:12:54] something we can look at but again I want to caution council that taking
[1:13:00] everything that police officers don't want to do off their plate means you've
[1:13:04] We got a ton of cops sitting around not doing anything and again I would be very careful in the message that we sent surrounding that so while that is one approach, I also want to make mention that my staff and I met last week to discuss some priorities that we're taking a look at in the police department parking is one of those issues that came up and we're going to be bringing those to the city manager within a week or two for him to take a look at our service levels about the staffing is a challenge right now and we need to make
[1:13:34] a decision about we can't continue to do the things we've been doing that are not a high priority so
[1:13:40] we do have that list coming and that will be available and you know they're operational and
[1:13:45] concerned but I'm pretty sure the city manager would share that with council and it's something we
[1:13:49] would certainly want to let our community know that you know due to some of these issues that we're
[1:13:53] dealing with here's some service level changes that are going to be making. I would suggest we wait
[1:14:00] for that and then if you determine that what we're proposing is it relates to parking does not
[1:14:05] jive with what council wants to see at that point we should council should make a decision regarding
[1:14:11] going to private entity route because that comes with its own set of frustrations that you will
[1:14:16] deal with as well. Okay thank you. Yes ma'am. Yes thank you chief I'm just curious most of the
[1:14:25] officers they work 12 hour shifts is that correct? Yes ma'am. Okay because I'm just curious. Is
[1:14:31] that evaluated like are they happy with that? I'm just curious like as a nurse is a lot of them
[1:14:35] get burnout working 12 hour shifts. So is that something that is evaluated to see like if maybe
[1:14:42] they prefer eight hour shifts and is that a possible reason why some of them mainly also are they
[1:14:48] happy with the 12 hours? Well here is here's what I will tell you 12 hour shifts are not my desired
[1:14:54] If I had my drawers, I would not prefer a tool of our shift.
[1:15:00] That can be exhausting, and I think you start to have mental errors. You know this from being a healthcare provider that that long of a shift sort of tends to dull your sharpness towards the end of your shift, particularly if you're not getting the rest that you're required to. I will also tell you the work in 12 hour shifts means they only work six months of the year. And so while it is something that is often brought up that we don't like a work at 12 hour shifts on two occasions,
[1:15:29] I've tried to change that and met resistance.
[1:15:32] So I think it is a, we like working three days a week
[1:15:35] and getting four days off.
[1:15:37] Yeah, 12 hours suck.
[1:15:39] But going to eight hours now means I'm here five days a week
[1:15:42] and I'm getting two days off.
[1:15:43] I think you can imagine what that would,
[1:15:45] that would probably be fought with a ton of resistance.
[1:15:49] And I will tell you one of the things I think that makes us attractive
[1:15:51] is a 12 hour shift.
[1:15:54] I'm still not a fan of it.
[1:15:56] I think there's enough research that's been done to suggest
[1:15:58] that that's not safe for a highly-scaled group of people to work those type of
[1:16:04] hours. And we certainly see it on our that fourth day on their 12 hour shifts is
[1:16:10] generally when we start having all of our accidents and mental errors take
[1:16:13] place. So not a fan of it but right now we're doing it simply based out of
[1:16:19] austerity. We have to. We don't have a choice. If I were to try to implement a 10
[1:16:22] hour schedule or particularly an eight hour schedule we would probably need way
[1:16:27] more than 10 additional bodies. Do you know are any other cities in Colorado practicing
[1:16:33] 12 hours? Yes ma'am, I know that several of them that are all experiencing staffing concerns
[1:16:39] have switched to 12 hours shifts. It is about the bare bones minimum that you can do, which
[1:16:45] are existing staff. And again, nobody likes it until you try to take it away and go, okay,
[1:16:51] now we're going to make it. Have you show up at work four days a week instead of three,
[1:16:54] in, you know, cops new value their time off.
[1:16:57] So that time to be off is, again, what I will tell you
[1:17:02] is it's an organizational decision.
[1:17:03] And we are bound by some language in the contract
[1:17:06] on what schedules we can do.
[1:17:07] So that's the other dynamic as well.
[1:17:10] I don't have full volition to state.
[1:17:12] We're going Monday through Friday.
[1:17:14] I can't do that either.
[1:17:15] OK, thanks.
[1:17:16] And then last question.
[1:17:18] Is housing this part of the budget
[1:17:21] or some are the officers offered some type of like housing ascentive or something you know
[1:17:27] is that in the budget? Do they already receive something like that?
[1:17:31] That is not in the that is not in my budget. I do know at one point the city offered a stipend
[1:17:37] for someone buying a home in Commerce City, but that was before I got here.
[1:17:43] We do have a program for those that want to purchase homes in the city that they can apply for
[1:17:49] and it has a tiered structure based on the amount of money they make, how many years
[1:17:55] of service it takes to repay that.
[1:17:57] And several people throughout the organization have taken advantage of that program.
[1:18:01] All right.
[1:18:02] Thank you.
[1:18:05] Thank you.
[1:18:06] I have, and this might be for Roger and Chief, what are we doing?
[1:18:11] We all know that we need a Northern Substation, a legit Northern Substation.
[1:18:16] And where in the budget are we putting money aside for that?
[1:18:21] Are we doing anything just so it could be a easier lift when we have to get that?
[1:18:28] Because we all know it has to happen in the near future.
[1:18:32] There's an item in the CIP budget that I put in for starting to plan for design of such a facility.
[1:18:42] Thank you.
[1:18:43] From our, sorry, it turned it off. And from our standpoint, we have started to look at facilities.
[1:18:50] Fire department beat us to the animal shelter. That was on my list of things.
[1:18:54] And we currently have somebody in ED looking for space large enough for us to accommodate.
[1:18:59] Again, part of our problem is we just can't move into a storefront.
[1:19:05] The security measures that we have to have and, you know, if you drove behind the substation of North,
[1:19:10] that we constantly get complaints about the police vehicles park that are on
[1:19:13] secured so our needs for space are high but what we need for space is also high
[1:19:20] so our ability to just move into a bad and darkened donut store is going to
[1:19:26] cost us more than they would if we just purchase land and put something up so
[1:19:30] we unfortunately we just have some unique challenges thank
[1:19:37] you I appreciate
[1:19:38] this candid conversation I think that what I'm taking away from it though is
[1:19:43] We want to support the department in any way we can and think outside the box and some of the measures that we can use and some of the money that we can use to better recruit people, especially those that are already trained police officers that wouldn't have to go through a six month academy and a year training process.
[1:20:00] As well as retention of our current officers. I look at that, not to nitpick on one item, but I look at that $2,400 for tuition reimbursement. Yes, we already have a program, but educating your police officers is something that is an investment. It is proven multiple studies out there that when you invest in your employees through education and training, that you reap the benefits for a long time. I hate seeing that such a small number as a no.
[1:20:29] So, you know, we should be doing everything that we can to help our officers and other
[1:20:33] employees as well to be as educated as possible.
[1:20:36] And, you know, the old fear of, well, as soon as they get their degree, they're going to
[1:20:40] go get a better job someplace else, you know, that has been disproven in multiple academic
[1:20:45] research studies to say that just doesn't happen.
[1:20:47] So, I would really like to see what can we do to make it more attractive to keep these officers,
[1:20:53] to make it more attractive for an officer to go back to school and continue in advance education and continue to learn in that regard in order to make themselves better and in doing so it's going to make them better for the residents in our community as well and sure good and if I may one of the things I want to point out one of the negotiated items that we actually brought forward that master police officer position is entitled to do just that.
[1:21:19] And so that position is not just a title it comes with a 5% pay raise I believe I believe so I forget what the actual percentage is
[1:21:28] So we are paying people to go and get themselves educated. So while that budget item that 24 hundred bucks
[1:21:34] I agree with you was a drop in the bucket what we're going to be getting on the back end of that master patrol officer position
[1:21:40] Farser passes the 24 hundred bucks
[1:21:43] So while you may see that and suggest it, that's a small amount, that money did get absorbed in that different position that that is going to be absorbed throughout the police department.
[1:21:52] So it did go somewhere.
[1:21:54] Sure, and I appreciate that.
[1:21:56] And I know one of the requirements to be a sergeant in our department is you have to have a degree, right?
[1:22:01] And so what program do we have in place that is going to take that young officer who just came out of the academy and get them that education to get the degree so that they can become a sergeant in a later time.
[1:22:11] And, you know, I look back to the military at several programs where enlisted members were afforded the opportunity to get their education to become a commission officer, what are we doing in order to use that as a tool to leverage to keep these young officers who come to Commerce City and give them a program that they can strive for knowing that eventually they'll be in a position of leadership and continue to serve our community, instead of coming in getting their FTO, getting all that done and lateraling to another department, where we've wasted all the time and energy in another department has the opportunity.
[1:22:41] opportunity to leverage our time and effort.
[1:22:44] So I just would ask that you explore more programs like that
[1:22:47] that are going to provide those opportunities
[1:22:50] in order to keep the retention where we need it to be
[1:22:53] and not lose these young officers
[1:22:54] to other departments that may seem more attractive.
[1:22:57] And I will tell you, I consider all of those things.
[1:23:01] Here are some things that you won't see that are up here.
[1:23:04] One of the things that Commerce City
[1:23:05] has a great tuition assistance program.
[1:23:08] There is a pot of money that you submit your grades for,
[1:23:11] and I believe as long as it's a C or above,
[1:23:14] you get money back on that.
[1:23:16] In addition to that, in relations to,
[1:23:19] when we talk about how great we have it in Commerce City,
[1:23:21] we're the only police department
[1:23:22] that pays you for a degree.
[1:23:25] So not only do we pay you to get it,
[1:23:27] once you've got it,
[1:23:28] you get, I believe, a monthly stipend,
[1:23:30] if I'm not mistaken, that you get,
[1:23:33] you don't get that anywhere else in Colorado.
[1:23:35] So we are police officers in their contract.
[1:23:38] In fact, they do pretty well, it's pretty unique, and we realize a lot of the things that you just stated, we also understand that education is important, and having a well-versed police forces
[1:23:52] vitally important to keeping this community safe and operating in a manner prudent with community standards.
[1:23:59] And so we fully understand that, and we certainly spend the money to make sure that that happens.
[1:24:05] So your comments did not go on her.
[1:24:09] Thank you.
[1:24:10] Does anybody else have anything, Council Member Smith?
[1:24:13] Master, please, softsters, that one position or is that a new title?
[1:24:18] That is a new title.
[1:24:20] We are contracted, not contracted now.
[1:24:24] We have some interns from some universities somewhere that are going to be helping us, and
[1:24:28] working with staff to build that position. And it is not just one position. If I'm not
[1:24:35] mistaken, I think we can have up to, I don't know the exact language in the contract.
[1:24:39] I think we can have up to 10. And so those are 10 potential positions for people that
[1:24:45] have demonstrated that they can operate at a high level. They're well trained and they can
[1:24:49] function on their own without the lack of supervision. We'll get that title and they will keep
[1:24:54] it for up to three years and it'll be a credentialing process. So there will always be
[1:24:58] after
[1:25:00] And to, towards furthering yourself and not just saying, I made sergeant, and now I never have to do anything I get. So it's like a position above sergeant, are they still patrol, are they like? They will be positions in not only patrol, but an investigation as well, but you can, you have to be a police officer to be a master police officer. So they do still fall under the sergeant structure. Okay. Well, if we have master police officers, and then you get four more sergeants.
[1:25:29] when that make it kind of like top heavy?
[1:25:33] No, when any time we hire 10 more police officers, we need more supervision.
[1:25:38] And the city has grown at such a rapid pace.
[1:25:40] One of the things that we're going to be experiencing next year is we're,
[1:25:44] this will probably go over most of your heads.
[1:25:46] But we're going to be splitting our patrol channel.
[1:25:49] So the north will be on its own patrol channel and the south will be on its own patrol channel.
[1:25:54] Because of the volume of calls having them combined on one channel
[1:25:57] is too much for a dispatcher so we'll be splitting those and that requires supervision
[1:26:02] beyond each of those channels so that's the point for the for additional sergeants
[1:26:06] when whenever we increase staffing we have to increase the level of first line supervision
[1:26:11] that does not take into there are no more command level positions in the budget that we
[1:26:16] ask for.
[1:26:17] Okay.
[1:26:18] Thank you.
[1:26:22] I know we've kind of the whole conversation is can we spend more money on the PD I want
[1:26:26] to ask it directly before this comes back to us. I'd like to see more in this budget when
[1:26:31] it comes back to us.
[1:26:35] Whatever it is that your wildest dreams could imagine to make your
[1:26:38] PDE department better, put something else in here for us, because we want to make it better.
[1:26:44] Whatever that takes.
[1:26:49] Again, appreciate the conversation. I think that we beat the horse to death
[1:26:53] and it came back to life and we beat it to death again. Let's go ahead and take a 10-minute break
[1:26:57] and come back with the next set of slides.
[1:38:44] Okay, again, want to thank everybody for the last conversation. Thank you, Chief, for your answers. Appreciate that. Cheryl, we'll go ahead and move on to the next slides. Great, thank you. So, oops, sorry, I've advanced one too many. So the last couple of slides are for public works. So again, variety of requests. Some of these are to add to line items that were outside of the normal base adjustment. And that is based on an average over a few years.
[1:39:14] years. So requests for that or let's see. I'll move to the next one. There is one item on this
[1:39:25] list. You'll see that it was a no. That's because it was added through the reappropriation ordinance.
[1:39:32] So again, the items that are added through reappropriation, if they're going to increase the base
[1:39:36] ongoing, we make sure to incorporate that into that base budget. So next year, you know, you will
[1:39:42] see that continued increase.
[1:39:50] I don't know if you have specific questions on these, and
[1:39:53] then the next couple of slides were to provide you a narrative of the various FTE requests
[1:39:59] That's it.
[1:40:00] That we had, and the ones that we said preliminary, yes, we provided a narrative description of why that is being requested. That is based on the department's assessments of what their needs are, what is going to be able to assist them with continuing to provide the service levels that they have identified within their departments or areas that, you know, they need to increase because of growth or other factors.
[1:40:28] So, I can stop at these slides, I don't know if now you want to go back to other slides
[1:40:34] that identified nose or maybe's that like it was previously mentioned, or if anyone has
[1:40:41] comments on position requests themselves.
[1:40:47] Council member Grimes.
[1:40:50] Thank you, Mayor.
[1:40:51] I did have a question about the legal administrator position.
[1:40:56] The budgeted salary seems really low to me, and I'm wondering if that will be competitive enough to get a quality.
[1:41:05] It is low on the request slide, and there is a reason for that.
[1:41:08] As we were having conversations with Mr. Sheasley, he identified another line item within his base budget that could be reduced.
[1:41:15] So instead of going back and reworking the base budget, we took that dollar amount that he identified and lowered it in the salary request.
[1:41:23] So that is not the true annual salary, but that will cover the cost once we add in that base adjustment.
[1:41:31] I was going to answer it differently that I think that low wages drive productivity as an incentive to do better.
[1:41:39] The amount will be competitive and in line with what other communities do for legal administrators in the range of benefits.
[1:41:47] I believe it was between 60 and 80 all in.
[1:41:49] And that sounds much more like what I would have expected, may thank you.
[1:41:59] Before we go back to those additional slides, I'd like to know from the community development standpoint,
[1:42:04] they are overworked and what is the budget due to help with that and
[1:42:12] reduce some of the backlog and make sure that we meet the timetables that are said for development review.
[1:42:19] Well,
[1:42:24] that's a great question mayor and I will tell you that is a question we have and I'm just not going to say it's community development.
[1:42:34] I think it's going to be our growth-related operations and quite frankly, that's the entire city in my estimation.
[1:42:44] And the reason why I say that and, you know, internally, it's what I've kind of bandied around Roger can weigh in as well because he and I've had this conversation.
[1:42:57] We are a city that's getting to a point which to no one's fault here around the table or at the time when initial counsels were thinking about where are we going to be at in two, five, seven, ten years.
[1:43:14] years, 15 years, even in the early 2000s, nobody really knew because we were still finding
[1:43:20] our sea legs as a city and I don't mean that negligence just was the reality.
[1:43:25] You look at us from 2000 to 2010, Congress City grew 248 percent, compared that to Adams
[1:43:32] County, that's 95 percent, compared that to the front range, that's 48 percent.
[1:43:40] We historically over the last five years have grown 3.3% year-over-year, whereas the rest
[1:43:47] of the front-range has grown 1 to 2%.
[1:43:51] So when you think about that, we were an organization in my estimation that was built,
[1:43:59] the service of community that was somewhere between 35 to 40,000 people.
[1:44:04] Now as we started to see that rapid expansion, that rapid growth of our community, where
[1:44:09] where you fast forward 15 years or not really even 15 years, we are going to be slightly
[1:44:16] below 70,000 people by the end of this year and what's been projected for next year
[1:44:22] will be at 75,000 if we continue along the same growth rate that we are expecting right
[1:44:29] now.
[1:44:30] Now the reason why I say that is what you see with either in community development, public
[1:44:37] works, parks, rec and golf, or PD in response to the growth, because they're all into
[1:44:44] related.
[1:44:45] Right?
[1:44:45] You throw that rock in the lake, you have those ripple effects.
[1:44:49] So with what we do of bringing in new housing means new amenities, which means being able
[1:44:54] to provide the necessary resources.
[1:44:56] And with where we're at we're starting to hit
[1:45:00] The tip of that iceberg for the amount of staff, and I would tell you, with a plans examiner, just as an example, you probably need two or three more. With an inspector, you probably need three or four more. Planner two, development review engineer, probably three or four. But you then start to get into the question, can we afford ourselves? And part of that, and I think when Roger starts to think about what is our vision as a community, right?
[1:45:29] economic sustainability, financial sustainability, right?
[1:45:33] How do we look at growing and structured and in a rate that were able to remain
[1:45:39] fiscally sustainable, and have a sustainable growth model that we can continue to keep
[1:45:44] providing the amenities and resources that all of our community members want?
[1:45:48] And that's where we're quite frankly, and once again, my first blush review of where we're at,
[1:45:54] the critical pivot point for us as a city, and where we have to go.
[1:45:57] So, how do we start to look at having development, start having and looking at some of the things that we provide, paying its way?
[1:46:06] Because, continuing the way we go down that path, we're going to get to that point where we're not going to be able to speak to having a positive fund balance.
[1:46:16] Or being able to meet all of the necessary needs of being able to get things out within a six weeks, five weeks, four weeks, just because the workload and
[1:46:26] the responsibility and the capacities, not there, and we don't have the fiscal resources
[1:46:30] to support in being able to keep up with that new level of service expectation.
[1:46:37] So I'll go back to a slide and say, you'll see it in the City Manager's office is looking at what is our impact in user fees so
[1:46:45] that we could start to think about how do we afford ourselves?
[1:46:49] How do we position ourselves?
[1:46:50] Not necessarily saying that growth is bad, but how do we look at growth, and how do we look at other
[1:46:57] Opportunities and mechanisms to fund the things that we need up front and continue with that as we continue to grow as the chief mention
[1:47:04] Our our growth is has been and will continue to be either sustained or exponential, right? Our comp plan
[1:47:11] Identifies us to be at a hundred and eighty thousand people when it's all said and done at full build out
[1:47:18] And, right, we're starting to see that development to start to bear that true, but it doesn't
[1:47:25] mean that we're not in a position to leverage that, to position ourselves, and to continue
[1:47:30] the evolution and the sophistication of our operations and ultimately what we deliver
[1:47:34] to our community along that path.
[1:47:38] And so I would say what we've tried to attempt in community development is to be tactical in
[1:47:42] our approach of knowing that right, what we can provide for, how and where we can provide space for our new staff looking at different options for adding new staff and continuing to provide what they need to be successful right resources tools and things of that nature with once again being able to continue to remain in the black from our operations so that we can continue to do that year over year.
[1:48:14] Thank you. I think that's a great answer. I'm curious to two questions that come from that when we talk about full build out, when were we projected originally to reach full build out and full build out? And what is the current estimation of when we would reach that?
[1:48:30] I can answer the first question because I haven't gone through the mathematics on the second, but in the first question, full build out was anticipated at 2040.
[1:48:37] around there, around about with 180,000 people.
[1:48:42] Historically, I'm looking to my friend to my left,
[1:48:47] because I know she's a human calculator.
[1:48:50] If we're looking at a 3.3 historic growth rate
[1:48:55] over a five-year period, and even if you look at right,
[1:48:58] there will be an eventual plateau of the market,
[1:49:02] but that's cyclical in the nature,
[1:49:03] so you'll have a low point, and then you'll have a high point.
[1:49:06] I don't think we're ever good. My assumption, this is my gut, and I hope my gut's right, is that I don't think we'll get back down to the levels that were
[1:49:16] pre-economic recession, so even then we're still growing at about 1.92 percent even during that time frame.
[1:49:24] So even if you look at that,
[1:49:26] But my best guess is that you'll probably still be somewhere around that build out in and
[1:49:34] around 2037, 2038, latest 2040.
[1:49:40] Once again, that's just looking at the 3.3% growth rate and in fact during a couple years
[1:49:45] at two.
[1:49:46] Once again, that's just the best guess even off the top of my head.
[1:49:52] I would like to direct everyone back to slide 15.
[1:49:58] If you could go back
[1:50:00] Or whoever's running the show? Sorry. I
[1:50:07] think slide 15, I mean, Cheryl covered it, but it's the impact of that that I want to direct you to. So what we did was took all of the base budget, took all of the requests, and figured out, okay, what number can we afford? That's based on the revenue estimate.
[1:50:34] So we
[1:50:38] started with the $5 million that we had to work with.
[1:50:44] We looked at, okay, where are we at in terms of reappropriation positions because that's
[1:50:51] a gift that keeps on giving every year.
[1:50:54] You pay for those positions.
[1:50:57] Reappropriations and then also the preliminary yeses that we, the preliminary requests we
[1:51:04] we said yes to, which was basically another $5 million.
[1:51:08] So right now as we stand, the recommendation puts us into the red by $1.3 million.
[1:51:17] So in other words, with the recommendations that I'm giving you, we would be dipping into
[1:51:23] fund balance, $1.3 million.
[1:51:26] Now, most of that is for one-time items.
[1:51:30] I feel okay dipping into fund balance for one-time items.
[1:51:36] I'm not okay with dipping into fund balance to pay for positions because that means ongoing
[1:51:42] deficits year after year after year.
[1:51:45] So just wanted to back up to this slide because it gives a basic philosophy of how I've tried
[1:51:51] to approach this in terms of what can we afford back to Jason's comments, what can we
[1:51:57] afford on an ongoing basis because we're responsible for the financial sustainability of
[1:52:04] this organization.
[1:52:06] So I don't know if that answers some of the questions, but again, Jason's absolutely
[1:52:12] right on point, we need more people in community development, in public works, in police department.
[1:52:20] It comes back to what's the balance in terms of what do we absolutely have to have?
[1:52:27] versus what would be good to have, but not absolutely central at this point in light of the revenue availability.
[1:52:38] And so I just wanted to encapsulate that as you move forward, thinking about these positions and requests for additional positions.
[1:52:48] Thank you, and I appreciate both those answers, and to my colleagues on the council, I think that what we're hearing is we're going to have to start looking at how it is.
[1:52:59] is that we supplement our budget in order to accommodate the amount of growth that we're having.
[1:53:04] I tell people all the time the year over year, we've been growing at 3000 residents and
[1:53:08] there's communities that won't do that in a decade and we've been doing a year over year over year.
[1:53:12] But at the same time, we continue to hemorrhage money on every house that gets built in the city.
[1:53:16] And we are not collecting enough revenue to cover that house for the garbage alone.
[1:53:21] But then whenever you add in the need to provide police services, public works, park and recreation,
[1:53:25] All the other amenities that a city is providing, we are losing on that, and we're going to have to think of a way that we can go about
[1:53:34] recouping some of that. And that's why whenever Mr. Rogers mentioned the study on impact fees, we're going to have to look at that.
[1:53:41] That's going to be something that we're going to have to explore, whether or not we need to be charging more for development in this city, in order to be able to
[1:53:49] to stave off us waking up two years, three years down the road and go on what did we do, you know, and I really believe that right now we are at a tipping point where if we don't make a decision, we're very soon over what is taking place, then we're going to lose control, and we're going to be stuck in a situation where it's going to take us even that much further to recover from where we are, so as we have those conversations, I'd like you to keep those things in mind. Councilmember Herst.
[1:54:15] Thank
[1:54:19] you.
[1:54:20] To build off the mayor's comment, I think that's a key fundamental portion of what we're
[1:54:27] talking about because Roger, I can appreciate living within our means, by all means.
[1:54:32] We have to do that, right?
[1:54:34] Especially when these economic times were the lot of unknowns in the next couple of years.
[1:54:39] But I do still question or ponder, can we bet on ourselves in a sense where we know we're
[1:54:47] going to grow?
[1:54:48] So we don't see slow down here in terms of overall growth and getting in front of that while
[1:54:54] kind of obviously the comment that the mayor just made is important.
[1:55:00] I'm pleased to that. But, you know, can we kind of maybe not dip and pay for a new position for one year, but expect to maybe see a bit of a loss for two to three years just to get in front, get the processing of new businesses and everything approved and done and then it'll that'll in and of itself ended up paying ourselves back by kind of that new development. I haven't seen the numbers and how that would work out. But to me, I'd be willing to bet on ourselves
[1:55:29] a little bit just to get in front of our growth with staff and then allow it to pay itself back
[1:55:35] as the development starts to come, you know, to fruition.
[1:55:39] There are certain positions. Sorry.
[1:55:43] There are certain positions where we could do that, but universally we can't do that.
[1:55:53] And I guess that's really just focused on, from my perspective, that part of the discussion,
[1:55:58] public safety and as well as kind of the approval side of all of our
[1:56:04] permitting process or development process because as you're approving those
[1:56:08] you're seeing you know attacks revenue bill the at least on the commercial or
[1:56:12] the or the business side and then you know a bigger discussion to be how to
[1:56:16] about impact fees for residential development.
[1:56:25] Thank you Mayor Hughesman. You make a
[1:56:29] good point, by the way, and it does concern me as well, and I wonder about continuing to approve projects if they can't pay their way and until we can find a way for them to pay their way, maybe we need to think about the speed at which these are being approved.
[1:56:56] I would like to also ask, in particular, about the American Rescue Plan, and so we have
[1:57:07] $10 million coming in and two tranches, and restoration of COVID-19-based budget decreases
[1:57:17] is part of the budget for virtually every department.
[1:57:21] My understanding is that American Rescue Plan Funds can be utilized to replace what was
[1:57:29] lost the previous year.
[1:57:33] And have we considered using a portion of the American Rescue Plan Funds to make up
[1:57:40] that difference so that we actually have more money to do more in the upcoming budget?
[1:57:49] Yes. Some of the requests that were listed on the list that was taken to
[1:57:55] council did exactly that. Now, again, it's up to council how those
[1:58:03] monies are directed and my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong, but my
[1:58:10] understanding is that you want to at least the bulk of the money aimed at
[1:58:14] homelessness. So, again, we'll have to go through and sort out how much money do you
[1:58:22] want to dedicate to that versus how much do you want to aim at some of the items that
[1:58:29] were requested by departments.
[1:58:34] And if I may, Roger, to the first question about why keep approving projects today, if
[1:58:43] we know right now development or we have a better opportunity for development to pay its
[1:58:49] way. And I will share with you just from maybe my professional opinion and past experience
[1:58:56] in that that is a double edged sword. Yes, growth and development growing at the city
[1:59:04] at a rampant pace causes the issues, the concerns, the constraints that we're all talking about
[1:59:12] around this table, at the same time when you take an action in response of that with respect
[1:59:19] to growth and development. The thing that we haven't been able to look at because we
[1:59:23] don't have is that long-term growth model. What is that growth model and the sustainability
[1:59:31] around that growth model? And by, for lack of better words, going into a more
[1:59:36] Torium on approving the development until we continue to work through the complexities of your impact fees and your diversification of what you collect impact fees on and your user fees, it does send a message out to the development community for those that is generating those impacts, but at the same time those that you're looking to attract and
[2:00:00] We're wanting to come to your city as well. Because if you're looking at, let's just first scenario say slowing down residential development, we've all heard either through site selectors or through our staff or through others who have seen the benefits of growth and being able to track retail is an example of that, right? Growth is driving response in certain sectors in certain asset classes. Now, by being able to undertake the studying, being able to go through the process,
[2:00:29] is concurrently, while the government is growing, still allows us to still have those transparent,
[2:00:35] forthright, and presentation of factual conversations with the development community about, hey,
[2:00:41] commerce city is going from the kid who's playing basketball in the backyard.
[2:00:45] That person who's playing in the front yard and call us showing off our skills.
[2:00:49] Right, we're growing, we're becoming more modernized, and we're stepping up to the plate to really look at how we provide
[2:00:56] provide for the resources for the amenities and the continued building of our infrastructure to meet that new challenge of where we're going as a city.
[2:01:07] As opposed to just saying stop, we're going to take a moment because like I said, that has the ability to send a different message that then starts to divert the attention from Commer City to other cities in and around.
[2:01:22] which then trying to pick that back up after we've had that start is a hurricane effort as well.
[2:01:29] So, right, we're in a position where we can take a calculated risk knowing that growth of development is going to occur and
[2:01:37] being able to undertake this effort and being able still to get something in front of the council for
[2:01:43] your deliberation, for your form decision making about where you want to be able to position the city,
[2:01:48] for the short term, midterm, and long term future in a relevant, in a relevant, quick time frame.
[2:01:59] I am still concerned though if it costs the city more to support the new homes that it is an imbalance that we can't sustain.
[2:02:12] It's the same issue that comes up with the schools.
[2:02:16] We're approving projects without knowing that the school bond will be approved in November, for example.
[2:02:24] And if for some reason it isn't, then we find ourselves in a very difficult position.
[2:02:31] I don't believe that our rooftops or population is an issue as I noted at an earlier meeting.
[2:02:39] other communities that are much smaller than ours actually have several of these retailers
[2:02:46] that we've discussed before that it hasn't been about the population.
[2:02:51] We have over 40,000 people living in the north, for example, over, you know, almost 65,000
[2:02:57] in Commerce City alone.
[2:02:59] So it is a worthwhile discussion for us to have in the future, but I do hope that we are
[2:03:04] looking at the American Rescue Plan Fund to help fill in some of these gaps.
[2:03:08] And to be able to do more for a commerce city, then we have, and to look at it in a far different way than we have because we have opportunities now that we didn't necessarily have a year ago.
[2:03:22] Thank you.
[2:03:27] Thank you.
[2:03:28] Also on slide number 29 going back a little bit, can someone just explain to me what it means when it says increased funding for outside services, high in their park facility, but it was, it's no, so I'm just trying to understand what that is.
[2:03:46] Bear
[2:03:58] with me one moment, ma'am, slide 29.
[2:04:02] Yeah, where it says increase funding for outside services, pie in their park facility, 15,000, and it's no public works.
[2:04:25] While you're fine, go ahead.
[2:04:28] Yes ma'am, at the time when we had the initial request,
[2:04:35] we were seeking additional information from public works as it related to.
[2:04:39] the item and we've received that request and we were still deliberating that
[2:04:47] internally based on that information.
[2:04:58] What we were
[2:05:00] Looking at initially was what we're seeing is a significant request. Obviously, vandalism related repairs, repairs to various facilities located with respect to that. Once again, bathrooms, vandalism graffiti, things of that nature, in which, with the expenditures versus the budgeted amount, we were coming in over and
[2:05:29] above that. So, when we had that initial conversation, like I said, we were still
[2:05:36] deliberating that internally with it being, as I have it on my files, and maybe, Cheryl,
[2:05:42] you can correct me, we had it as a maybe.
[2:05:47] Okay. So, that's something we'll have to clean
[2:05:48] up internally, but that was generally the reason why we had it as an initial decision
[2:05:58] that level? Because I'm just confused like when I went through the whole budget, I think myself and
[2:06:06] other council members and the mayor brought up concerns about I'm Pioneer Park and Monaco Park and
[2:06:13] I didn't see that addressed anywhere in the next year's budget either and then I believe we were told
[2:06:20] there wasn't any money for this year's budget so where is that then and then also a concern with
[2:06:27] the Pioneer Park facilities, who's responsible for the upkeep along, like the storage facility.
[2:06:36] There's the fence that's all along, that's down all along that park, so would that include
[2:06:42] like the outside services, because I was wondering why that is, and know, and then where is the
[2:06:47] budgeting, like I said, to possibly install those gates for safety at the Pioneer Park and
[2:06:53] and the safety concerns at Monaco Park.
[2:06:57] We've been working with the property owner
[2:07:00] to the south of Pioneer Park, is there a fence?
[2:07:05] What they have as a problem is that trucks keep backing
[2:07:09] into that fence and knocking it over.
[2:07:12] They were proposing these big Jersey barriers
[2:07:16] and I think staff talked to them about putting in ballards
[2:07:20] instead so that discussion is occurring
[2:07:22] that it's their responsibility to fix that fence, that's their fence.
[2:07:28] In terms of gates on the park,
[2:07:35] we discuss that and
[2:07:37] quite honestly think that's inconsistent with a park.
[2:07:42] But again, open to discussion on that, but a park is for
[2:07:48] use for people to enjoy.
[2:07:50] And so I fundamentally question whether, you know, putting gates on the parking lot for a park is really consistent with what we're trying to provide.
[2:08:05] Well, if it's consistent, I believe the chief was the one, you know, that suggested if I recall correctly, but even if we don't install gates, you know, how are they going to, like said, I know I repeatedly requested if gates aren't an option, you know, have we looked into possibly contracting with another outside company just to kind of patrol area more, you know, because ever since I've been on Council Monaco Park and
[2:08:34] and pioneer park or safety concerns for the residents living in those areas and I still
[2:08:40] don't see it addressed anywhere in the next year's budget either not necessarily gates
[2:08:45] but how are they going to do something that addresses concern for those residents living
[2:08:50] in those areas and I don't see it anywhere in the budget at all.
[2:09:05] Part of that is with the, part of the answer to that is it's multifaceted.
[2:09:11] But one is park ranger, that's not going to cure anything or everything for everyone.
[2:09:18] I know that, but it's a start of a program.
[2:09:21] In addition, as I recall, we included money for the pop-up trailer that
[2:09:32] it's a pop-up
[2:09:37] camera that is an aid in terms of reminding people that they're being watched and that, you
[2:09:46] know, we have a presence. So it's a variety of measures like that that we're attempting
[2:09:51] to do this without breaking the budget, basically.
[2:09:56] So then there, if I'm correct, then there is, it's just-
[2:10:00] It's been like thrown away for next year to, you know, period to address those concerns with Pioneer Park and Monaco Park, like even I, I thought we brought up increasing the lighting as well. It's not just the gates. It's other things that I thought was going to be looked into. So that's just totally was placed on the back burner again for another year in 2022. Well, again, we're trying various measures that, you know, in combination, hopefully have an impact.
[2:10:29] But again, just trying different measures basically without, again, going to the most expensive
[2:10:38] ones.
[2:10:39] Okay.
[2:10:40] Like I said, what are they?
[2:10:41] What are we trying to size the cameras?
[2:10:44] And like I said, I would like to see something in the budget for that.
[2:10:48] I'm not just talking about the case, I know we had talked about lighting because we get continuous
[2:10:53] complaints from residents and constituents in those areas and they're still not addressed.
[2:10:58] So I would like to see that and then as far as the positions I was curious with the talent acquisition specialist we don't have one currently the which position of the talent acquisition specialist talent out acquisition specialist we don't the
[2:11:19] generalist and the HR department are doing the recruitment board departments.
[2:11:24] Thank you because I said I was just curious about that because if we did have one I was going to ask why couldn't they be promoted to higher level position.
[2:11:37] Like I said, I still don't understand why that the parks are not in here. I'm paying their park and Monaco and it's not just the gates.
[2:11:46] So I would, you know, I've continuously repeated that and I think the mayor and other council, council members have addressed that and I don't see it anywhere on here.
[2:12:17] I'll move to the next slide.
[2:12:20] This slide shows you various budget balancing options.
[2:12:24] Here's where we are looking for some directions so that as we continue to move through the budget process we know which numbers request to incorporate at this stage of the game so that the next time we talk to you,
[2:12:37] we can move on, you know, to the next topic.
[2:12:40] So we could approve the base budgets as presented,
[2:12:43] which are included in the numbers you've seen tonight.
[2:12:47] We could approve the base budget plus all the yeses.
[2:12:50] We've shown you tonight.
[2:12:52] We could approve base budget plus only new position requests,
[2:12:57] base budget, yes decisions and new positions,
[2:13:00] some other modification of those various items I mentioned.
[2:13:04] We could consider base budget reductions which would require us to go back to the departments
[2:13:10] and talk about their ability to reduce any line items or we could approve the CM recommendations
[2:13:17] as we brought forth tonight which would show the use of 1.3 million in fund balance as presented.
[2:13:29] I want to move to this next slide just really quick while you're thinking about that for discussion.
[2:13:35] There are some items that are going to be subject to change throughout the process and
[2:13:39] I wanted to be able to highlight those for you.
[2:13:42] So obviously we will be incorporating any additions or changes per your direction based
[2:13:48] on these discussions.
[2:13:49] We will continue to look at our revenue estimates and it is likely those will change as we have
[2:13:54] more months of data for the 2021 year.
[2:13:58] In addition to that, as salaries and benefits are changing with performance evaluations happening,
[2:14:04] that changes base budget, so those numbers will be amended in the budget as we bring those forward.
[2:14:13] Any benefit plan increases that are identified, HR is in the process right now of working
[2:14:18] through with our benefit contacts. We did go out for RFP this year correct and so we do not have
[2:14:27] the numbers yet. Armando was able to give me an estimation to incorporate into the base numbers,
[2:14:33] but that could change, so I want to make sure, you know, there could potentially still be some fluctuation with that.
[2:14:38] And then our internal service fund allocations will also change. We will update the allocation as we go forward.
[2:14:45] Based on the discussion in the direction you give us, we will incorporate some of those requests into those allocations so that can change numbers too.
[2:14:53] So just like to point out that we're still in the preliminary stages of this and things are still subject to change.
[2:14:59] some numbers.
[2:15:00] We'll look different each time we come and talk to you, and we will try to identify those for you as we work through the process.
[2:15:10] That being said, I'll go back to the budget balancing slide.
[2:15:18] And thank you. I think what I'm hearing from some council members is they'd like to see some additions to the budget to take care of some of the issues that have been hanging over the city. And it goes back to my question of, you know, how much money is available for that council directed spending to say, you know,
[2:15:35] I'd like to address this issue and this is how and how much money do we have to spend that so I don't know that there's an answer
[2:15:42] They can be provided this evening, but you know the parks and the safety and the parks is of grave concern and
[2:15:48] You know, I while I agree that
[2:15:51] Park is open and available for people to enjoy. I think we also passed an ordinance
[2:15:56] It said parks close at a certain hour and trying to make sure that parks are not overrun by
[2:16:01] by groups of individuals and making it so that they're not enjoyable by community members.
[2:16:07] I think there's also an issue the other morning whenever I was touring one of the parks with the resident and the motor home that was parked there overnight.
[2:16:16] And in the past, the dirty diapers had been thrown out of the motor home and
[2:16:19] thrown on the left on the ground and things like that.
[2:16:22] So there's a need for balance in trying to determine how is it that we can make the parks
[2:16:30] It looks accessible to everybody and not allow a select few to make it so that it's not a desirable place to take your family.
[2:16:39] And those are, I think what Council member Alan Thomas is trying to drive at, that these were options that were presented to us to consider from the live view system and the cameras, which of course that could try and can we get IT to support that too?
[2:16:53] do we close down the parks at certain hours?
[2:16:55] Do we put gates up, solar powered gates to where,
[2:16:57] what do we do to make sure that the next morning,
[2:17:00] whenever people want to go out for their morning walk,
[2:17:02] they have a clean, safe, enjoyable park to be able to use?
[2:17:06] And so that challenge of how do you provide access to everybody,
[2:17:09] but at the same time, make sure that it's meeting
[2:17:12] the needs of a community amenity,
[2:17:14] I think is what you're being asked to come up with a solution for.
[2:17:19] And as Councilman Rontalma said,
[2:17:21] And that solution isn't reflected in the budget.
[2:17:24] So what is that solution cost and is that something that council wants to vote on in order to include in the budget?
[2:17:30] Without knowing the cost of it, we don't know whether or not we want to include it.
[2:17:34] In past, we have come into budget planning sessions and we've had our little sheets that show how much a certain thing is going to cost.
[2:17:41] And we've gone through the process of saying, okay, I'd like to get this approved and council has said, yes or no, we're going to approve that stuff.
[2:17:47] And I don't see that in this process this year, and maybe that's in a future meeting.
[2:17:53] And again, that goes back to how much money is available for us to take care of some of these issues that have been nagging at us and the issue itself and not the residents and making sure that we're able to solve these solutions to provide a better community for our residents.
[2:18:18] Council Member Nair.
[2:18:20] Yeah, I got a couple questions.
[2:18:23] One is for the substation, you said that you budgeted the money for the initial planning.
[2:18:31] When's the initial planning going to be completed?
[2:18:38] Yeah, we might also go into the CIPP, that's where it is.
[2:18:43] We can come back to this other stuff later.
[2:18:46] So, to give you basically overview of what the CIP process involves, we have a framework
[2:18:57] that we use, and I'll cover that, and I'll talk about the requests that have come in,
[2:19:04] as well as identifying the funding sources, and then how we plan for capital maintenance
[2:19:10] and providing information, so let's move ahead, whoever's running the show.
[2:19:18] Thank you.
[2:19:20] So the framework is that we have traditional capital projects and
[2:19:25] those are what you think of as the big construction projects.
[2:19:30] So widening a road, building a building, that type of thing.
[2:19:35] And so those are easy to talk about.
[2:19:38] But we also have operational capital projects, which are things like signals,
[2:19:45] bridge replacements, warning towers, sidewalk connections, all of that kind of ongoing stuff that we need to do.
[2:19:52] And then there's preservation projects, and those are long-term asset maintenance type of projects.
[2:19:59] Thanks.
[2:20:00] Whether it's replacement of a road or flat work or replacement of amenities in the parks, that type of thing. So, again, you know, trying to balance both maintenance, ongoing maintenance with new projects. So move on, please. Well, I guess. You know, the reason I was asking is because I was going to propose a different funding source that could perhaps, you know, over time, free up funding for some of these other
[2:20:29] programs. Could I think public safety is important to everyone and undertaking a project
[2:20:37] of that size is going to cost a lot. So what's the possibility of having a bond issuance
[2:20:47] and a middle-ever increase for building that Northern sub-station and continued operation?
[2:20:54] them. Well, I'll get into that in a moment, but to answer your question, excuse me directly,
[2:21:03] a city wide bond issue would require a city wide vote of the voters to authorize issuing
[2:21:10] the debt and also the increased mill levied to pay for that. I've proposed that we look
[2:21:19] at the NIGID for part of the funding for a substation in the north and so that's part
[2:21:27] of the mix of how do we fund those major projects like that. I think at the point where
[2:21:34] we build a substation the general fund will need to contribute as well, not just the NIGID.
[2:21:41] But again, being able to use the NIGID depends on the voters approving, expanding the purpose
[2:21:48] of the tax for the NIGID and also authorizing issuance of debt at some point.
[2:21:57] So it's a little, because I think, you know, this is something that I should go out to vote.
[2:22:04] And, you know, if it's not something that we do this year, then, you know,
[2:22:09] the next vote likely wouldn't be for another two years.
[2:22:12] So is this something that we need to start thinking about now is it too late for this
[2:22:19] election since it's coming up pretty soon or is this something that we're working towards
[2:22:25] in the future?
[2:22:27] Well, the Council sitting as the NIGID Board has authorized the ballot measure.
[2:22:35] There's actually two questions that you approved.
[2:22:38] and one is expanding, broadening the purpose of the tax revenue to allow paying for
[2:22:46] ongoing projects.
[2:22:47] And the second question then is to authorize the issuance of debt at some point in the future,
[2:22:56] most likely phased in over several years in terms of the amounts of money.
[2:23:01] because Chambers Road needs to be rebuilt, widened, 96th Avenue has to be widened.
[2:23:10] Continuation of 112th Avenue widening, all of those type of road projects need to be done.
[2:23:17] We're talking about the need for a park on the land surrounding the Buffalo, I'm sorry,
[2:23:24] the Bison Ridge Recreation Center. There's also a need for drainage improvements
[2:23:31] in second creek, you know, so those are all the type of needs that exist right within
[2:23:36] the NIGID boundaries or borders as it exists.
[2:23:40] So I guess, you know, the way I see it is, you know, everyone recognizes the need for
[2:23:44] public safety which, you know, similar to how you have your fire department, you know, special
[2:23:52] district. I think it's an easier sell having something more specific and instead of taking
[2:24:00] taking away from the NIG and all these other projects that are needed and that we're going
[2:24:06] to need to build over time as we grow and the needs are already there as it is.
[2:24:13] So I guess I think if we were able to create a new revenue stream this could help us future
[2:24:23] budgets to allocate more resources for all these other needs that we've been talking about
[2:24:28] because we recognize that our revenue is not growing consistently with our needs and our costs.
[2:24:36] And so at some point, we're going to need to find new sources of revenue.
[2:24:42] And our current model is based on sales and use tax.
[2:24:46] So unless we're planning on growing businesses exponentially to catch up with the residential,
[2:24:57] then we need to start coming up with some of these.
[2:25:00] Other sources that are more direct funding by the residents and put it out to vote, you know, and let them decide because I think, you know, as we've heard, these are some of the things that we hear on and on and, you know, it never stops. So, you know, I think something having something specific could really help us to increase that funding and help, you know, some of the growing
[2:25:30] pain that we're experiencing, because our bread and butter is industry and people don't
[2:25:36] want to see an explosion of industry to help cover the cause for the ongoing growth
[2:25:44] of residential.
[2:25:45] So just something that I wanted to put out there to consider and discuss as a council.
[2:25:53] And then, you know, going back to the parks, I just, I'm not crazy of shutting down the
[2:26:00] parks and gates because I saw it happen in the park at park by my house.
[2:26:05] And what you see is, you know, people stop using the park and now, you know, there's
[2:26:11] nowhere for them to come in and park because they put a gate and barrier on the parking lot.
[2:26:16] And so, you know, while it does, you know, solve some problems, then it creates other problems where now the people that we're using it, you know, as a park and using it for its intended purposes, they're not able to use it for those same purposes and to enjoy those.
[2:26:36] So, you know, I just think when we do think of solutions for parks, you've got to consider kind of everything that goes along with it.
[2:26:53] Okay.
[2:26:54] So, in terms of the current identified needs in the capital improvement program, drainage projects, one and a half million estimated for purchasing irondale properties.
[2:27:07] 45,000 for Fairfax Park, and that's just designed for drainage improvements there.
[2:27:19] We also have a request for 500,000 for ragweed draw, and that'd be a crossing under the
[2:27:26] O'Brien Canal.
[2:27:27] And then funding sources are basically transportation tax, general fund, and what's called direct
[2:27:37] flow area 53, so it's DFA 53 fee, that's an impact fee.
[2:27:44] And then in terms of park's recreation golf, the requests are $4 million for improving
[2:27:52] the golf course irrigation system.
[2:27:56] Funding sources would include Adams County open space and lottery money.
[2:28:00] And then also 71,000 for a disc golf course, that would be park impact fee.
[2:28:08] And then in street projects, requests of 19,977,000, and funding sources would be whole wide variety.
[2:28:19] General fund, highway user tax, my high Greyhound park, urban renewal area, NID, road impact fee, solid waste,
[2:28:28] transportation tax and also 2K fund balance. So the estimated total for all of those projects is
[2:28:35] over 28 million. Next slide please. Funding sources sort of touched on all of that already.
[2:28:43] Next slide. Just as a reminder 2K is a one-cent sales and use tax increase and that's used to fund
[2:28:51] projects and the maintenance of those projects and then initially all the money was dedicated
[2:28:58] to five major development projects and those were collaboratively chosen by residents
[2:29:04] and city officials. 38 million of the available bonding capacity is still available. The only
[2:29:14] caution I would give is that we need to have adequate revenue to repay the debt if we
[2:29:19] issued those bonds. And the other factor about 2K is that it may also fund capital projects
[2:29:28] on a pay-as-you-go basis. So that gives us flexibility. Next slide, please.
[2:29:36] There are some policy questions that we need to hash out, and that is the possibility
[2:29:46] of amending the policy for transfers from general fund, and also amending the contingency
[2:29:52] policy, there's a 5% contingency that's set aside for every project, and then that
[2:30:00] That money stays basically in the fund balance, so trying to figure out, how do we count for that and basically reuse that money later when the project is done. And then also loans and transfers for non-traditional projects. Next slide.
[2:30:21] Okay, apologize. There's tons of stuff on this slide. You have it in your packet. So basically,
[2:30:32] For example, running down the preservation projects, bridge maintenance is the first item.
[2:30:38] And then Buffalo Run Golf Course Irrigation, city parking lot maintenance.
[2:30:43] We have a number of parking lots that are getting in a little tough shape.
[2:30:49] Core city improvements, facility assessment projects, those are the projects that were presented to you.
[2:30:55] I want to say two weeks ago or four weeks ago in a study session.
[2:31:00] Payment management, PRG, preservation projects, which is like replacing playground structures
[2:31:08] supplementing the sand, whatever it's called, in ball fields. So long range striping, MSC,
[2:31:20] material storage bays, street reconstruction, and traffic signal maintenance. And so the funding
[2:31:26] The funding sources are a variety of funding sources for those and we have a limited amount of revenue that comes in.
[2:31:33] So what we try to do is balance the projects and the funding by year with the revenue that's available.
[2:31:41] And so you see 2022 on through 2026 in terms of how those projects will be funded over the various years.
[2:31:51] A street project from start to finish can take five, six, seven years, just depending on the complexity.
[2:31:59] First few years is design and then you get into right-of-way acquisition and then you actually get into construction.
[2:32:07] And so just design is usually a year by itself.
[2:32:11] And then you get into right-of-way acquisition and environmental impact and all of that type of stuff.
[2:32:16] and you're talking another year very likely before you actually get into construction.
[2:32:22] And so that's why a lot of these fundings for these projects are spread out over a number of years.
[2:32:29] In the case where we don't have enough money, it's a matter of laying aside enough money
[2:32:33] to actually fund the project in a future year.
[2:32:37] In terms of operational projects, we have ADA compliance and Parks Recreation Golf Flatwork,
[2:32:44] which is primarily for, again, making sure that we're compliant in terms of ADA access into
[2:32:53] facilities, sidewalks, curb cuts, all of that type of thing, as well as the amenities inside
[2:32:59] the facility. We have a small amount of money for automated traffic signal performance measures,
[2:33:08] and that's actually match money for a grant that the Public Works Department has obtained.
[2:33:15] We have Buffalo Run Area Drainage Study, again preparing for future capital projects.
[2:33:22] We have Concrete Flatwork Fairfax Park Drainage Outlet Reconstruction, H-S-I-P Grant Matches.
[2:33:32] Again, these are for safety improvements.
[2:33:34] Iarndale Regional Drainage, Ragweed Draw Drainage Railroad Crossing Reconstructions, that happens
[2:33:42] as the railroad comes through and determines that a crossing needs to be reconstructed.
[2:33:47] And they may give us 30-day notice or they may give us 24-hour notice and we just need
[2:33:55] to have money available to be able to accommodate that sidewalk connectivity traffic calming.
[2:34:01] So those are operational, and then traditional projects, we have 62nd Avenue in Vesca's intersection, and that would be funded out of the Mahai Greyhound Park Urban Renewal Authority, pending that body's approval of the use of tax increment finance money for that project.
[2:34:24] 88th Avenue widening. Again, contributing to that ongoing project. 96th Avenue widening
[2:34:31] that would start design work in 2024 to fund a future project. 104th Avenue South
[2:34:40] Flat River to Highway 85 widening. That's funded over a number of years again to be able
[2:34:48] to pay for that widening project. 112th Avenue widening, Parkside 2 Hyplanes Parkway,
[2:34:56] again funding for another project for additional widening.
[2:35:00] 120th Avenue in US 85 intersection. We made the commitment in our grant applications that we would commit $8 million in 2022. So this is fulfillment of that commitment. We have not received a federal grant for that project. So again, the question is what will happen with that. Bison Ridge Park put it in for 2023 on the assumption that the
[2:35:30] the NIGID ballot measure would pass.
[2:35:33] So if that doesn't pass, then that part has to be built later.
[2:35:40] Chambers Road, same proposition there.
[2:35:43] It assumes that the NIGID passes the two ballot measures.
[2:35:50] Color out a boulevard bicycle and pedestrian improvements, 680,000.
[2:35:54] That is a match, again, for grant money.
[2:35:57] Disc Golf Course, I mentioned that one earlier, Highway 2, median barrier.
[2:36:04] That is for design in 2022 with actual installation in 2023.
[2:36:13] And that would put basically the Jersey barrier style of median concrete barrier between
[2:36:21] the northbound lanes and the southbound lanes in Highway 2.
[2:36:25] That's where the traffic accident happened that took two lives and so attempting to prevent
[2:36:33] reoccurrence of that. I-76 on-ramp design work starting in 2025, but again,
[2:36:43] assuming the NIGID ballot measure would pass. Please substation design 2026. That's
[2:36:51] for design work, assuming the NIDID ballot measure passes.
[2:36:58] Rosemary Street widening that finishes out that project in terms of funding that project over 2022, 23, and 24.
[2:37:08] And then traffic signal installation.
[2:37:11] Those are every year anticipating that either we need to match money with a developer or over two years we can fund a project.
[2:37:23] Next slide, please.
[2:37:34] I was looking at mine.
[2:37:37] Yes, please.
[2:37:37] Sorry.
[2:37:40] Tell the disconnect there.
[2:37:43] So this is an overview of the requested projects.
[2:37:46] Talked about those.
[2:37:48] Unless there's a question on that, I'll move on.
[2:37:51] Next slide.
[2:37:55] So again, these are highlights from the 2022 portion
[2:38:00] of the five-year capital improvement program.
[2:38:02] and again happy to answer any questions on any of these items if if you have
[2:38:08] questions on them. Next slide. 2023 that gets out there two more two years from
[2:38:16] now. Basically again happy to answer questions on these but I don't want to
[2:38:21] take up your time because I've talked about some of this already. Next slide.
[2:38:25] 24. Next slide. And next slide.
[2:38:33] Moving on from there.
[2:38:37] We're into supplemental information.
[2:38:39] So let's go back to where you were at the wrap up of the general fund budget.
[2:38:44] I have a question I saw up there on one of those slides. It said 96 Avenue from 76 to highway 2.
[2:38:51] The north side of that road is unincorporated. So as our plan to either seek money from
[2:38:56] I'm an Adams County or is our plan to start annexing in those properties into the city in order to make it
[2:39:03] Help pay for itself. Well the portion that would be adjacent to Adams County
[2:39:08] We would request their assistance you know their contribution to that portion
[2:39:14] we
[2:39:16] Forced annexed quite a significant portion of it a number of years back. I think 2010 it was something like that and I'm
[2:39:24] I'm mostly opposed to forced annexation, but herein lies the problem of we get a one time cash infusion for the construction of the project, but then maintaining that road continues to be on the burden of the city and not on the county who gave us the one time cash infusion.
[2:39:41] And so I think that we have to have that conversation of do we annex if we're going to actually widen these sections of road and in order to use those property tax revenues to help us to maintain a road.
[2:39:55] And I think that's something that I just struggle with all the time and I know we keep doing these agreements with Adams County.
[2:40:00] And God love the commissioners and the management of the county who are always coming to the table and negotiating with us and helping us and support that. But those one-time cash infusions are not fully funding the long-term costs of having those roads redone. And it's just, at some point, we're going to have to step back and say, what are we going to do in here? Is this really the right path that we're going? And again, I think I'm for that. But long-term, what are we doing? Council member Grimes?
[2:40:30] Thank you, Mayor, along the same line, I'm not necessarily against forced annexation,
[2:40:36] but I wonder if there's another solution, like a road maintenance agreement with the
[2:40:40] county, that would be more ongoing, but not necessarily forced us to annex the properties.
[2:40:48] So just another thing to consider if we need additional funding sources on an ongoing
[2:40:53] basis for that type of project.
[2:40:58] Roger, I know there's some work done in Fairfax.
[2:41:01] a number of years, and didn't they reconstruct all that?
[2:41:05] What are we doing again?
[2:41:06] Or what was the work that they've done before
[2:41:09] to where it's at now?
[2:41:10] Those improvements were done internal
[2:41:13] to the park, primarily.
[2:41:15] There was some work on the outflow, basically.
[2:41:19] The problem with that outflow is that part of it has to be
[2:41:24] a Sump condition, and that Sump keeps plugging up.
[2:41:28] And so it really needs to be rebuilt and get rid of the sump so I don't know if Mr. Wilson has any other comments on that
[2:41:38] But that's the gist of it anyway. Okay. Thank you. Sure
[2:41:45] councilmember Ellen Thomas. Thank you
[2:41:48] I just know it's too like Roger from 2020 to through 2026
[2:41:54] I understand a lot of the other improvements, but what are some of the improvements for the core of the city case you're showing that they're 250,000 per year.
[2:42:06] So is that mainly like improving roads and then we mentioned Fairfax, but what are some of the other ones?
[2:42:13] Because I see very vaguely for core of the city, but it's 250,000 per year.
[2:42:19] So what are some of the other ones for the core of the city?
[2:42:22] Yes ma'am, it'd be a variety of projects, in some cases there may be drainage that needs to be improved, but primarily it's going to be street reconstructions and signals and that type of thing.
[2:42:39] Mr. Wilson, do you want to add anything to that or is that covered?
[2:42:43] Okay.
[2:42:44] Okay.
[2:42:45] Thank you.
[2:42:46] Sure.
[2:42:52] One of the things that we had talked about, Roger, and our one-on-ones is that now that
[2:43:00] we knew that SunCore provides Commerce City with $4 million a year, that it would make
[2:43:06] sense to earmark portion of the $4 million to South Commerce City.
[2:43:15] In particular, the core city or the areas around the Suncorro refinery.
[2:43:23] Can you point to where we are directing any of those funds for projects in South
[2:43:33] Commerce City that benefit the residents that are impacted by Suncorro refinery?
[2:43:38] Again, it would be a variety of projects ranging from the core city improvements to significant
[2:43:48] portion of our pavement management has been spent in the core city, as well as whenever
[2:43:55] we do a street reconstruction, those are the older streets in the historic core part
[2:44:04] of the city.
[2:44:07] I would think that Irondale improvements is part of the core city. I look
[2:44:16] to counsel if you think that's true or not, but it's part of the historic area. Much
[2:44:24] of our concrete flat work is in the core city, Fairfax Park drainage outlet reconstruction.
[2:44:31] that's that's core city so again it's a wide variety of projects we're going to have railroad crossing
[2:44:42] reconstructions many of those are going to be in the core city all of the sidewalk connectivity
[2:44:48] issues are primarily in in in the core city so again it comes back to wide variety of the types of
[2:44:59] I'm proud.
[2:45:01] I'm sorry, I can't be more specific than that, but it includes all of those. I'm kind of thinking about things that are specific to the area that wouldn't also be done in any other part of the city. I would really be interested in seeing a tally of what you have planned for the core city area in terms of funds directed to that area.
[2:45:29] As we move through the budget, we can see if we can pull that together by our next budget session.
[2:45:41] Yes, one of them during this month, please.
[2:45:48] Any other comments?
[2:45:50] Thank you for the overview on the five year plan and it's always good to see the long-term
[2:45:56] strategy of what we're going to do.
[2:45:59] One of the things that I've always struggled since being on council is, you know, I see these
[2:46:04] five year plans and I see the money there, but I don't ever, I don't want to say follow up,
[2:46:10] but I don't ever see the results of, you know, did we actually spend the money here?
[2:46:14] Did we not spend the money there?
[2:46:15] And that never really gets conveyed to us with this money this year.
[2:46:19] We accomplished this phase of this.
[2:46:21] You do a great job of sending us a sick report every month and I always enjoy reading that
[2:46:26] and seeing, you know, the progress on projects and everything.
[2:46:30] One of the things that I've always felt would be beneficial to us is if we had kind
[2:46:34] of a budget blue book that had all these projects listed in there with location, with photos,
[2:46:40] with satellite, screen capture, or whatever, aerial image capture to really help us to visualize
[2:46:46] a little bit better on what it is that is actually being requested and how we're devoting
[2:46:52] that money to it and where it is.
[2:46:54] And then receiving those updates of, yeah, we got the design done and here's a link to
[2:46:58] the website that you can go look at the design or the plans or things like that.
[2:47:02] It just feels like a lot of times this just happens in a vacuum and you know, I mean the Fairfax Park thing, I mean two years ago, I can remember standing in Fairfax Park talking about we've dedicated money to helping the outfall Fairfax Park, you know, and here it is two years later, we're still talking about Fairfax Park, you know, so where did that go?
[2:47:21] did we not actually do the project? Was the money actually never allocated to the project and
[2:47:25] things like that? And it's just it just feels like we're we're given this and that's great.
[2:47:31] But then you know two years from now we look back and go well what did we get done with it?
[2:47:35] So something that you know like I said a book that we can all carry around that has that in there.
[2:47:41] So whenever we say we've got extra money to reappropriate where do we want to send the money?
[2:47:45] You know again do we send that we spend that money on little things here and there?
[2:47:49] Do we take and say here we can knock off design for this project and be ready to go and knocking off design for the project
[2:47:55] It puts us in position to go out and seek a grant to help get it done and that kind of stuff
[2:47:58] You know, I know some organizations are very effective in getting grants because they say we're shovel ready
[2:48:04] The design work is done. Give us the money and we'll start construction tomorrow and a lot of times when we're saying give us money
[2:48:11] We're saying well we'll put money aside to help with this
[2:48:13] But you know, we need your money to actually do it and we're not to that phase yet
[2:48:17] And then maybe that's a hindrance on why we're not getting some of the grants that we keep applying for.
[2:48:22] So we'd just like to see the process revamped to make it more user friendly for
[2:48:27] the nine of us to be able to make decisions and be able to understand and be able to articulate where the money is being spent.
[2:48:34] You know, again, I love the idea that we're going to go seek money to improve an area and let that area spend that.
[2:48:40] And, you know, not to counter another council member suggestion of going out for, you know, bond issue and, you know, sales tax or mill levy, you know, again, we run up to this issue of we can't keep taking money from the core part of the city and spending it up north.
[2:48:55] We're going to have to find out how to make the northern part of the city stand on its own two legs.
[2:49:00] And that's part of that is being done with the NIGID.
[2:49:03] And, you know, and the other GIDs that are out there, and we're going to have to continue to come up with those ways, so that the money that is earned in the core part of our city can be spent in the core part of our city and make those improvements that the residents deserve to see.
[2:49:17] Yes, we're doing core city improvements, we're going to do sidewalks, we're going to do that.
[2:49:21] But these are things that are languishing behind on a daily basis versus the development that is taking place up north.
[2:49:28] different tax structure fully get that we understand that to a majority of
[2:49:33] people who see what is taking place in our city that picture is not painted
[2:49:37] as clearly so how do we continue to fund stuff that needs to be done north and
[2:49:42] south and use the money appropriately and I think that's the biggest challenge
[2:49:46] that any elected person moving forward in this city for the next 20 years is
[2:49:50] going to have to face and
[2:49:56] with that
[2:50:00] Yeah, let's go back to kind of the wrap up of this. And then see if there's additional questions. You know, we have a number of requests for other things to be considered. So I'll take a look at those, all right. I recall some of them. Hopefully, we have them all recorded captured. So, all right.
[2:50:25] So we basically left it at this slide, budget balancing options.
[2:50:32] options. One option is you're good with the recommendations. Yeah, there's other things
[2:50:38] you want, but we'll have to wait. I mean, that's one option. Another option is we take
[2:50:46] some more money out of fund balance for one time things. You know, if lighting in Pioneer
[2:50:54] Park is an issue, then, you know, do we take money out of fund balance and come up with
[2:51:00] the solution there, just using that as one illustration, I would recommend against taking
[2:51:07] fund balance for ongoing positions because, again, that's where you get into trouble a
[2:51:15] few years down the road. Do you want to take any of these options and have
[2:51:22] us explore some combination of these options? Where would you like to go with this for our
[2:51:36] You know, I think this was a good first step in laying it out there for us and I appreciate this
[2:51:43] It's been very informative. I think for everybody to know that
[2:51:46] You know, I think we've given some feedback on some line items that maybe we'd like to see re-addressed and and
[2:51:51] Where we want that to go. I also think that
[2:51:57] There's probably some line items that council members probably have in their pocket that they'd also like to see come before council in order to be approved
[2:52:04] and so maybe I know in the past we've had budget forms and stuff making sure
[2:52:09] that those are made available so that everybody can put down kind of what
[2:52:12] those requests are and figure out whether or not we can fund that stuff.
[2:52:16] Beyond that, you know, continue the budget process. The only thing I can think
[2:52:20] unless anybody has anything else that they want to add. Council member Alan Thomas.
[2:52:24] Thank you. One thing that I noticed throughout the presentation that was really
[2:52:28] concerning to me and there were yeses by all of them. Is that we're spending for
[2:52:33] that budget next year, 157,000 on furniture, and we haven't even used the furniture like in
[2:52:42] the last year.
[2:52:43] So I'm just concerned why all of those were yeses when I think, you know, that money
[2:52:48] for next year can be addressed and go towards something else like, you know, the homeless.
[2:52:53] I'm like, said the parks again.
[2:52:54] We have businesses struggling size just curious as to why we're spending that and we haven't
[2:53:00] even use the furniture like within the last year.
[2:53:04] And then another question, what do we do with the old furniture that the city has in
[2:53:10] the civic building?
[2:53:12] Well, a couple items there for your consideration.
[2:53:16] One is for an example of one of the furniture items I saw it here a minute ago.
[2:53:23] So briefing room, furniture replacement, and also, yeah, I'll just go with that one.
[2:53:34] As an example, that is used multiple times per day with police officers in the briefing
[2:53:41] room.
[2:53:43] There were in a lot of equipment, and unfortunately that tears up furniture.
[2:53:48] You know, and so it's a situation where you know furniture actually needs to be replaced because it's it's in bad condition.
[2:53:58] Same thing with audience seating here in the chambers. Now we have good chairs out.
[2:54:05] But there's also chairs that you know when people are in court, they're not necessarily happy customers.
[2:54:13] and so you'll find all kinds of damage in the webbing of these chairs so it's
[2:54:20] that kind of thing that we're trying to replace. You know could some of it wait
[2:54:26] another year potentially but again trying to get economy of scale you do a
[2:54:32] batch at a time so that's the answer on furniture. And then what do they do with
[2:54:38] the old furniture does that donate it to places or?
[2:54:42] Again, when it's torn up, it's trashed.
[2:54:46] Yeah, I don't know if we have a plan on some of the furniture that may be okay yet, but
[2:54:55] I would look to Mr. Wilson if there's typically we.
[2:54:59] We will.
[2:55:00] In the past, anyway, have held auctions, or we centered out to a company that held auctions. And I know on an ongoing basis our IT equipment, for example, when when it's passed, it's life with us, it's all wiped and goes to a contractor who then, you know, basically repurposes ourselves whatever they can do with it. Yeah, because I said just wrapping up,
[2:55:28] You know, like said, everyone has their own request, but like I said, 157,000.
[2:55:34] I think some of the things on the list, especially when it hasn't even been used in the last year.
[2:55:39] I hope that's really looked into you as a, you know, what is definitely needed on that list.
[2:55:45] Thank you.
[2:55:54] Use a microphone.
[2:56:03] Yes,
[2:56:07] about a half of that $88,000 part.
[2:56:12] I got to, I got to raise it up to.
[2:56:14] Okay, so there's a $88,000 is for the chairs here for the council chambers as well as all the furniture out in the atrium.
[2:56:22] None of that furniture has been replaced since 2007 when this building was first built.
[2:56:28] And about 70% of the chairs that are used here for the council chambers are not usable, frankly.
[2:56:35] So we've been kind of putting together our best outfit.
[2:56:39] But your point is, well taken out over the last year, we haven't used the council chamber.
[2:56:44] So that project was actually approved two years ago, and we've kind of held off on that project because we didn't have the need to execute that project, as well as that furniture out in the atrium.
[2:56:57] For example, another furniture request is for the engineering section, we added about six new personnel to our facilities.
[2:57:07] And we're not actually putting up furniture so we actually have one per desk, we're actually hot-bunking there, so they're actually sharing desks and things like that.
[2:57:17] So we're trying to best that we can to make sure that we minimize the amount of new elements that we have to add.
[2:57:23] And then lastly, for example, any of the modular furniture that we have, we store it and we repurpose it.
[2:57:30] There are several facilities in the MSC compound, for example, that we've used repurposed furnitures, pieces as opposed to going out and making new purchases as well.
[2:57:40] So we try to go through that process when a new request is made.
[2:57:44] It gets sent to our facilities shop and our folks examine what we have in inventory, what the legitimate requirement is and try and do it in the most cost effective way possible.
[2:57:54] Thank
[2:57:58] you, Mr. Wilson.
[2:57:59] I think it's also important to keep in mind that we may order it next year,
[2:58:04] but we may not see it for three or four years with the current supply chain
[2:58:07] shortages going on across the world.
[2:58:09] So Council member, no.
[2:58:14] I wanted to make sure that you added to the 2022 budget balancing options,
[2:58:20] the American Rescue Plan.
[2:58:21] We could at least have that conversation as number eight,
[2:58:25] Because it is possible to use funds from the American Rescue Plan to make up for losses from last year.
[2:58:32] And as we know, all departments except for the police department had to take reductions.
[2:58:38] So that can be made up by the American Rescue Plan Funds.
[2:58:41] Thank you.
[2:58:47] As far as what number on this list of options I would support or not support.
[2:58:54] I mean, I envision approving some version of one of these, but I'm not sure that I'm prepared to say tonight.
[2:58:59] Without seeing you guys come back with some of the things we've asked for, I'm not prepared to say which of those options just yet.
[2:59:07] So I don't know if that's a very answer, but I'd like to see us revisit some of the things talked about tonight before I'm willing to commit to which option.
[2:59:21] I will just remind you that some of the numbers may change even though you're not prepared
[2:59:26] to give us that direction.
[2:59:27] Some of the numbers may change based on those items that I told you were subject to change.
[2:59:32] As those things happen, we will have a slide that tells you, you know, these are the things
[2:59:38] that we know to be the case from the last meeting to the present meeting just to keep track
[2:59:44] of why there are changes in the numbers.
[2:59:48] I think, in Council Memograms, it makes a great point of, you know, I don't think anybody
[2:59:52] can really say, yes, let's do everything, but by the same token, I don't think anybody
[2:59:56] has said, steadfast, I object to this line item and throw it out.
[3:00:00] I think the biggest message I've heard is, well, why are you saying no to that? We should probably add a little bit more. So, I think that, I mean, we're pretty close to number seven. But, of course, we want to see some final stuff and want to see maybe some more additions and the like in order to get us to be able to get to that point. Council Member Render.
[3:00:21] Yeah, thank you. Summarize it pretty well, Mayor. You know, I'm, you know, probably more seven than any of the other options. At this point, I'm just looking at, you know,
[3:00:31] So our revenue projections and we're actually projected to bring in less revenue this year
[3:00:37] or in 2022 than we did in 2020.
[3:00:44] So just something to keep in mind, I don't know what goes into those projections but
[3:00:50] it seems like they're kind of based off of our 2021 Actuals through June.
[3:00:57] So, you know, just something to keep an eye out on and, you know, you don't want to budget
[3:01:03] more than you're bringing in and, you know, as we saw in the past year, things outside
[3:01:09] of our control happen.
[3:01:11] So, you know, just better to be conservative in that sense.
[3:01:20] Mr. Madera, if you want to point out to me how you're referring to those numbers because
[3:01:24] we are actually projecting an increase in revenues,
[3:01:30] so are you looking at actual
[3:01:31] to projection? Is the supplemental data slide at the end of the presentation?
[3:01:36] Okay.
[3:01:41] I'd kind of be shocked that we would not bring in as much revenue
[3:01:43] with Dutch brothers operating the way they are.
[3:01:49] I'll have my staff specifically look at that number.
[3:01:53] I'd be curious, I mean, that line is always crazy wrapped around that building
[3:01:56] and it's a double line usually but not only that but a couple new Starbucks out there
[3:02:01] and a couple other things that would be curious to see how we don't bring in more money.
[3:02:04] But finance
[3:02:19] typically looks back at the revenues as well as the other items that are subject to change like health insurance and those type of things.
[3:02:29] So the revenue numbers may change as well.
[3:02:33] I would anticipate they would and I don't know specifically the number you're looking at.
[3:02:36] But I'm guessing you're looking at maybe the total taxes number for 2019 actual or 2020 to 21.
[3:02:44] but keep in mind, it says those numbers are through June, meaning they were on the June report,
[3:02:49] but specifically for sales and use tax, that's actually four months of revenue,
[3:02:55] because there's a two month delay in sales and use tax, so it's really hard,
[3:03:00] depending on the timing of when we ran the numbers to give the report, things are already changing.
[3:03:05] And that's why I had mentioned that we continue each month to look at the revenues,
[3:03:09] and we'll amend those as we're going forward. I fully anticipate the revenue numbers to change
[3:03:13] as we have more data.
[3:03:17] Does that?
[3:03:17] I would expect the same, but I'm just going off of the slide 55 on there.
[3:03:28] The other thing I would also point out is that in 2020 we also have the ARPA revenue in there,
[3:03:34] so that $5.4 million really, 2020 creates an anomaly year that is hard to just look at,
[3:03:40] if you're looking at just bottom line numbers.
[3:03:43] Is that the miscellaneous slide?
[3:03:45] Yes.
[3:03:48] Thank you.
[3:03:50] Any other comments before we move on from our next agenda item for the meeting?
[3:03:56] Okay, well thank you very much to the entire finance team.
[3:03:59] I know this is a lot of work and appreciate all the effort that goes into it and
[3:04:03] providing us this information as well as to the city staff management team who
[3:04:08] sits and looks at these requests and makes the tough decisions in order to make
[3:04:12] sure that we are financially sound but also continuing to improve the city.
[3:04:16] So it's a lot of work and I just greatly appreciate all the work that does go into it and the effort that everybody does and the team work
[3:04:22] Everybody pulling together to make it all successful
[3:04:25] That being said we will move on to our next item which is reports and Mr. Tinklinberg you have the honor of going first
[3:04:35] Thank you mayor
[3:04:39] number of items to cover here
[3:04:43] Just a reminder that we have the joint meeting with Adams 14 school board again on August 30
[3:04:51] And joint meeting with the 27J School Board on August 31, City of Brighton is hosting that one.
[3:05:00] We held the candidate information meeting on August 4th. And as if I recall correctly, we had 12 candidates, I believe, nine candidates, sorry, who attended that. And so that went well. It was well attended. Dylan did a great job of talking about all the requirements for being a candidate.
[3:05:28] Community development, again, we're continuing to use the pop-up concerts to get more feedback
[3:05:37] from citizens, and I watch the planners pull people in and say, hey, come over here and
[3:05:46] give us your opinion, and every time they've gotten good response out of that, residential
[3:05:53] permits, if you recall, we had 82 residential permits issued in July last week.
[3:06:02] We had 31 just in one week, so that, again, it's continuing to increase.
[3:06:10] Case loads, land use cases were at 193 and emergency rental assistance.
[3:06:18] We've obligated $668,000 as of last week.
[3:06:23] Previous report at the end of July was $585,000, so nearly $100,000 increase.
[3:06:32] I mentioned that last time that the court, that the judge issued a mask order for anyone appearing in court.
[3:06:40] Just as a heads up to you, we are looking at doing that for the entire city operation.
[3:06:46] effect of next week and the reasons for that is the Delta variant is now the predominant
[3:06:54] COVID-19 variant that is out there and it's very much present here in Adams County.
[3:07:03] Adams County reached the threshold of 100 cases per 100,000 population and so that we're
[3:07:14] We're showing as a zone of high transmission.
[3:07:18] And so we're looking at that and assessing, okay, what do we do to, again, keep residents
[3:07:26] safe and keep the employees safe.
[3:07:28] So I just wanted to give you that heads up.
[3:07:32] In terms of economic development, just one reminder, the state of the city event will be held
[3:07:40] on September 23, that will be at the Bison Ridge Recreation Center.
[3:07:47] Monaco Park renovation, the RFP for design is being prepared right now, so that will go
[3:07:52] out soon.
[3:07:53] Turnberry Skate Park, that work is in progress, and then again a reminder beyond the call
[3:08:00] of duty that is going to be here on August 12, that memorial will be honoring Kurt Holland,
[3:08:08] and that will be at the Bison Ridge Recreation Center.
[3:08:12] August 20 is the Kurt Holland Memorial Golf Tournament.
[3:08:17] For those councilmembers not playing in the tournament,
[3:08:20] you're welcome to join the presentation,
[3:08:24] and so arrive at the Buffalo Run Golf Course
[3:08:28] between 1 and 2 p.m., and those will be for the presentations
[3:08:32] following the golf tournament.
[3:08:34] And then the following day, August 21, Saturday,
[3:08:37] that is celebration of Buffalo Runs 25th anniversary and that starts at 10 a.m. when staff will start welcoming customers and then at noon there will be welcoming remarks from the mayor and again will be at the term of the
[3:08:55] civilian as well as introduction of city council and the PRG advisory committee distribution
[3:09:01] of commemorative gifts and free barbecue and homemade desserts in the pavilion.
[3:09:09] There's a putting contest for city council at one o'clock, so if you feel like putting,
[3:09:14] you'll be able to participate in that and then closing at, while the ceremony is closed
[3:09:22] at 130 but it wraps up at two o'clock. And then again a reminder this Thursday in Fairfax Park,
[3:09:28] starting at 630 will be another pop-up concert. And Public Works reported that the Walden
[3:09:35] Traffic Signal, it became operational in July 29. The pedestrian push button in ADA ramps were
[3:09:43] finished on three corners, but waiting for the fourth corner to be completed. And that's expected by
[3:09:50] August 11th. There's two free events coming up. There's a free tire recycling event at MSC.
[3:10:00] That's on Saturday, the 21st. That's from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Residents can dispose of tires for free. Each resident can bring up to eight tires and that will be recycled. The only catch is got to provide proof of residency in Commerce City to do that. One week later, there is electronics recycling event. That will be at the Thornton Infrastructure Maintenance Center. And that's
[3:10:29] as I mentioned week later Saturday the 28th from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. the cost is
[3:10:36] $15 per vehicle for electronic waste which includes one TV or computer
[3:10:42] monitor. Side note on that if you bring it to some recycling place like best
[3:10:48] buy for example will recycle for you. You got to pay $25 per monitor so heck of a
[3:10:54] deal bring your monitors also you can you can actually expand that if you have
[3:11:02] three old TVs and you want to get rid of them it's $25 for the vehicle so
[3:11:08] instead of paying $75 pay $25 and get rid of all three of them and all
[3:11:15] commerce city and Adams County residents are eligible to participate in that so
[3:11:21] So even though it's being held in Thornton, it's a county wide event, so I encourage people to do that.
[3:11:27] The free landfill day occurred, that was on the seventh, so just this past Saturday.
[3:11:37] 535 loads were disposed of, and that would be equivalent to $53,000 worth of fees that it was free.
[3:11:48] So that's the benefit to Commerce City.
[3:11:51] So total of three of the four days have been held.
[3:11:55] And in those three days, 1,506 loads were brought in.
[3:12:01] So that's $150,000 worth of service.
[3:12:05] That was provided at no cost.
[3:12:06] Final day will be on November 6th.
[3:12:10] So again, encourage people if they have a lot of stuff
[3:12:14] they want to get rid of, load it up,
[3:12:16] Bring it over to landfill on November 6th, that's it for my report.
[3:12:22] Thank you, sir.
[3:12:24] Any questions regarding the city manager's report?
[3:12:28] Council Member Allen Thomas.
[3:12:30] Thank you, Mayor.
[3:12:31] And thank you, Mayor.
[3:12:32] I'm Roger for the report.
[3:12:33] But I was just curious, I think it'd be nice with the anniversary for the Buffalo run.
[3:12:39] Golf Course has that past mayor and that previous city council, just if someone from staff
[3:12:45] could reach out to them because there's still a lot of them that are living within the city,
[3:12:50] and I think it'd be nice to, if they got received some type of formal invite or some type of
[3:12:56] notification for the mayor at that time in the previous city council members, just to let them know
[3:13:03] it is an anniversary celebration. Sure. I know pressure recreation golf is often far more
[3:13:11] conscientious of that type of thing than I am. So I'd be surprised if they haven't already
[3:13:15] already taken care of it but I'll pass that on to them.
[3:13:18] Thanks.
[3:13:18] Okay, thank you.
[3:13:22] Hey Roger, can we get that on our calendar, calendar invite?
[3:13:27] We lost in that.
[3:13:30] Oh perfect.
[3:13:31] Thank you.
[3:13:33] Any other questions?
[3:13:36] Seeing none, thank you again for your report, sir.
[3:13:38] We will move on to Mr. Sheasley.
[3:13:40] Thank you, Mayor and Council.
[3:13:41] Good evening.
[3:13:43] Last week your email inboxes were blessed with the litigation and pending ordinance reports.
[3:13:47] There is information in that about an executive session that will be held at the end of the meeting next Monday about potential affirmative litigation.
[3:13:55] So be sure to be here for that because it will be interesting and other than that next week on the 19th we have a policy and governance subcommittee where the topic is going to be discussing request to staff and kind of a council.
[3:14:10] I'm sorry, the city manager management of responses to those.
[3:14:14] So that is of course, for your policies open to everyone, it'll be conducted via Zoom.
[3:14:18] And there will be some suggested policies, some drafts out there from our last discussion in the agenda.
[3:14:24] Thank you.
[3:14:26] Thanks, sir.
[3:14:27] Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Sheasley?
[3:14:30] Mr. Tinklinberg, I apologize.
[3:14:33] I forgot to give you a overview of the upcoming agenda.
[3:14:37] So if you would one look at one of the two screens,
[3:14:46] Next meeting is a loaded meeting. I mean that in the sense of there's lots of stuff.
[3:14:53] So we're starting off with board and commission subcommittee and then going into urban
[3:15:00] In renewal authority, and that's regarding the future hotel purchase and sale agreement. And then we go into city council meeting. Of course there's always citizen communication, but then following that is the Latino engagement task force report followed by the COVID-19 report, the 2021 work plan update for second quarter. Comprehensive plan update. And, uh,
[3:15:29] And then also ratification of the redistricting commission letter for the mayor's signature.
[3:15:40] And then we have quite a number of ordinances, primarily amending the budget for various either grant matches or transferring some funds.
[3:15:51] So you've seen all of those on first reading prior to this, I won't go through the detail on that.
[3:15:57] We also have a number of resolutions of items that you've seen before.
[3:16:03] One is intergovernmental agreement between the city and sea dot, and that's for right-of-way acquisition cost sharing.
[3:16:13] And that's regarding the highway 85 and 125 new interchange project.
[3:16:18] I apologize for looking at the big screen and turning my back to you, but I cannot read that small screen over there.
[3:16:24] So second, second resolution is establishing the Blue Ribbon Economic Development Panel.
[3:16:32] Next resolution is the Mending Policy, City Council Policy 16.
[3:16:38] And that would be modifying the City Council agenda regarding noticed business items.
[3:16:45] And then a resolution finding substantial compliance of annexation petition case.
[3:16:50] and that's for the can-am annexation and setting a public hearing. Resolution
[3:17:01] approving quit claim deed in favor of LGI homes and that's returning dedicated
[3:17:07] property basically to them in the second creek farm filing one.
[3:17:16] Then we have two
[3:17:18] zoning cases, one is ordinance approving the Buckley Crossing PUD amendment number one.
[3:17:24] And a second one is ordinance approving the Mile High Greyhound Park PUD zone document
[3:17:30] amendment one.
[3:17:31] We have a public hearing and so there's a resolution approving the amended and re-stated
[3:17:36] service plan for Buckley Crossing Metropolitan District and approving the intergovernmental agreement.
[3:17:42] and then we also have a resolution approving the service plan for Buckley Crossing, district number two,
[3:17:49] and a related inter-governmental agreement.
[3:17:53] We have a resolution adopting the revised storm drainage and technical criteria manual.
[3:18:03] Ordnance on first reading is ordnance mending the 2021 budget for transferring 350,000
[3:18:11] and to the facility's fund for costs associated with the facility assessment, priority one projects.
[3:18:20] Admin business, we have the municipal judge recruitment,
[3:18:24] and then executive session regarding legal advice,
[3:18:29] regarding pending litigation, as well as an executive session regarding mid-year performance goal assessments for the city attorney.
[3:18:37] And then as if that weren't enough, we have the ECA and ERA GID joint meeting.
[3:18:45] And that is to have the Third Creek West intergovernmental agreement for the GID reimbursement.
[3:18:54] The other two items are being moved back to a later meeting.
[3:18:58] So that's the full list for August 16th.
[3:19:04] As I say, that's a full agenda.
[3:19:07] And I can add on the Buckley Crossing metropolitan district applications for council direction.
[3:19:14] The city manager's office and I have been actively negotiating that over the past week.
[3:19:19] And I hope to have that in the packet if it's not completed sufficiently.
[3:19:23] It won't be in the packet and the hearing won't occur that night.
[3:19:25] And a couple of those items may move off as well based on their preparedness for the agenda
[3:19:31] tomorrow.
[3:19:34] Thank you. I appreciate the update. I hope everybody else appreciates knowing what's going to be on the agenda next week if you have feedback or you'd like to see changes to the agenda, please communicate directly with the city manager's office on things that you think should or should not be there for next week, but going forward, this will be part of the study session report from the city manager that an overview of the upcoming agenda is going to be given to us just weekend.
[3:20:00] We're going to have a game plan of what's coming up. Any questions? Seeing none, any council members wishing to make a report? Councilmember Wadiola? Thank you, Mayor. About three items. Just want to really promote music in the park. It's our last music in the park. It's our Fairfax on Thursday from 630 to 830, and it's part of the neighborhood outreach also. We're gearing up to do Carmer City Eats September 18 through the
[3:20:29] 26, I believe, we're actually voting tomorrow on the guidelines, but if you eat at businesses
[3:20:37] around Karma City, just let them know they'll begin a letter, an email, and possibly
[3:20:44] members of the Cultural Council will be stopping by to get them.
[3:20:47] They're not given a 10% discount this year, like we did the first year we did it.
[3:20:51] We just want them to be part of the program so we can really promote their business.
[3:20:55] So, um, and then the last thing is the subcommittee, uh,
[3:20:59] boards and commission subcommittee met Saturday with interviews.
[3:21:02] Um, again, it's, it's amazing to hear and from all our residents
[3:21:07] and how wonderful of residents we have.
[3:21:10] Um, we are still looking for four core, uh, city members.
[3:21:16] Um, so please south of 88.
[3:21:21] Um, so thank you Councilwoman Noble, Councilwoman Smith.
[3:21:25] and councilmember Hearst, we interviewed all day and we got some great candidates but we're still looking for four
[3:21:32] residents from south of 88th and the application should be open. So once we get those applications
[3:21:39] we'll set a time where we could interview. We are not waiting for quarter four for those interviews.
[3:21:46] We'll do it as soon as we can. Thank you, Mayor.
[3:21:54] Thank
[3:21:58] you. I attended Music in the Park at Frontera Park last Thursday, and it was really
[3:22:05] a great experience. Thank you, Cultural Council, for putting these events on. I was, I
[3:22:13] really, I think the best part of it for me, though, was walking party to party and just
[3:22:18] talking to people and thanking them for being there. You learn what everybody is interested
[3:22:23] in as well, and it's pretty consistent in our community about where their interests lie.
[3:22:29] Today, I represented the city at the Water Quality Control Commission.
[3:22:35] This was the ongoing discussion about the anti-degradation rule and St.
[3:22:42] Corrin soft-plat.
[3:22:45] I was, so I reiterated the mayor's letter and said that I was reading from the mayor's
[3:22:51] letter. Also, in attendance was Commissioner Oterizio and Commissioner Baca, and they also
[3:22:59] made the same comments that we did. I am hoping that they will revisit the decision that
[3:23:08] they made in June of last year, but that's still undecided. Thank you very much for including
[3:23:16] me at the boards and commission committee meeting. Now I know what you all are talking about
[3:23:20] when you're so excited afterwards about meeting people.
[3:23:24] And lastly, a letter has come in to the city about me, and
[3:23:29] I just wondered if what staff is going to do with the letter that was received.
[3:23:44] Thank you, Council Member.
[3:23:45] And the letter hasn't been distributed to all of Council.
[3:23:49] Should I characterize it generally, Council Member?
[3:23:51] Do you know I'm going to characterize it?
[3:23:53] I'm just asking you if you intend to send it out.
[3:23:55] Yes, the intention is to provide it to the remainder of council.
[3:24:00] Okay.
[3:24:00] Yes.
[3:24:00] Thank you very much.
[3:24:02] This involves a neighbor dispute, a neighbor across the street from us.
[3:24:11] In the letter,
[3:24:16] she accuses me of racial profiling, abusing my office intimidation and harassment.
[3:24:24] The letter was received in City Hall last Tuesday.
[3:24:30] I saw it for the first time this evening, so I didn't know it exist.
[3:24:35] In the meantime, I had also called Animal Control for the first time on Friday morning at 7.15.
[3:24:42] So unfortunately, that came four days after the letter was received in City Hall, which makes for a rather awkward situation, as you might imagine.
[3:24:54] So, I think that when you read it, it is quite-
[3:25:03] I'm not quite sure how to address the claims in order.
[3:25:12] I don't know how. That discussion hasn't occurred yet, but I did want you to know that it has come in. It is loaded
[3:25:25] with lots of, well, I'm not going to characterize it. I'll send you information later, but just know that when you read it, please. And I hope you know me.
[3:25:34] when you're reading. Thank you.
[3:25:39] Any other council members wish to make a report? Council member Grimes.
[3:25:42] Thank you, Mayor.
[3:25:45] Just wanted to let everybody know that the rotary peach orders have been submitted.
[3:25:49] So if you didn't get yours in this year, you'll have to wait until next year.
[3:25:53] Also wanted to talk about had the pleasure of attending the Adam's 14,
[3:25:59] 14 or Fest Gala last week on Thursday evening.
[3:26:02] And what an amazing event that is.
[3:26:04] and how special to be a part of that evening
[3:26:06] and see these students receive their scholarships
[3:26:08] and give their testimony about how they've grown up
[3:26:12] and the opportunity that this affords them,
[3:26:14] that they may not have otherwise been able to
[3:26:16] in some cases and it was just truly an inspiration
[3:26:18] to see these kids and the excitement in their families.
[3:26:23] Just looking forward to their futures in the next chapter
[3:26:25] and so really happy to be a part of that last week
[3:26:29] and I would encourage everybody to try to attend it
[3:26:31] next year if you can, just really inspiring.
[3:26:35] And then, lastly, on Saturday had the pleasure of attending a ribbon cutting for peak
[3:26:42] martial arts up in the reunion area, really excited to welcome them to the neighborhood
[3:26:47] and look forward to seeing them be successful.
[3:26:53] May I make one other comment in response to Council Member Noble's letter?
[3:27:02] As of late, I've really taken the thought process that the things we see come in like that and the things we see in the media are always hyped.
[3:27:13] There's two sides to every story, and I really, I just want to say to you, I hope it brings you comfort to know that I recognize that things are not always what they seem when those types of letters are received or when something is in the media.
[3:27:26] or I think that it's always, I look to our politicians at the higher levels and I see them go through these kinds of struggles publicly and I don't think it's fair.
[3:27:38] I think they always look for the worst in each situation and put it out there, right?
[3:27:42] And so just know that I will read that with an open mind when I do see it.
[3:27:47] Any
[3:27:53] other council members wishing to make a report? Council member Medair?
[3:27:59] Yeah, I want to first of all thank our police for the response that they had to the traumatic event last week in our community and
[3:28:08] I was fortunate enough to attend the event with the mayor that the police put on for the community where they want to provide some transparency and
[3:28:18] And you know, share the information that they could share with the community to let them
[3:28:23] know that, you know, we do live, we're fortunate to live in a community where this is in a
[3:28:29] regular occurrence.
[3:28:32] And so when things like this do happen, you know, it obviously shakes us up.
[3:28:38] And, you know, especially for the officers that were involved and, you know, no one ever
[3:28:43] expects what had happened to happen and just the fact that they put on this
[3:28:50] event for the community to be transparent to let the community know that they
[3:28:54] live in a safe community and that the officers did absolutely everything that
[3:28:59] they could protect you know the children in the park is the close proximity that
[3:29:04] this took place and and just let the community know reassure them that they're
[3:29:10] in a safe community, you know, they have done a lot of, you know, looking back on this
[3:29:18] event and incidents and seeing if there was anything that they could have done to prevent
[3:29:21] this or if they would have had any indication that this was going to happen and, you know,
[3:29:28] there wasn't, it was a pretty random event between two neighbors and just the fact that the
[3:29:38] Police Department, you know, put on this event, it says a lot about the professionalism that we have in our department, you know, shootings, unfortunately a regular current in metro area and a lot of places, you know, see them more often.
[3:29:56] and then there was, you know, like, four shootings and four...
[3:30:00] 4 hours last weekend. And so, I don't think their police go to the same lengths to reach out to the community and let them know what the police is doing to keep them safe. So, you know, thank you to the PD, our investigative unit, Commander Flynn, the chief, you know, deputy chief moon, and, you know, there are several other officers that were there,
[3:30:28] that we're in the community letting them know, so appreciate that.
[3:30:38] Any other councilmembers?
[3:30:41] Councilmember Allen Thomas?
[3:30:42] Yes, thank you, and I also just forgot to mention I last Tuesday night, I hosted the
[3:30:49] national, my family, and I hosted the national night out, and just would also like to thank
[3:30:55] I think the Commerce City Officers that came and participated and also the South Adams Firemen came and just seeing their interaction with the residents and constituents and just how they give back that part of the money to the residents in our area and it was an enjoyable event.
[3:31:13] So I just wanted to also tell them thank you for making that happen this year again. Thank you.
[3:31:18] Thank you. Any other reports? Seeing none, I'll go ahead and go through mine.
[3:31:28] Thursday evening, I had the privilege of judging the old-fashioned pie-baking contest at the
[3:31:32] Adams County Fair along with several other members in the community. We judged the eight to
[3:31:37] thirteen-year-olds and pretty amazing to see what those kids were able to produce in pie.
[3:31:40] I think I gained about five pounds in that event alone, but just absolutely phenomenal.
[3:31:45] and so greatly appreciate the invitation to be there and be part of that.
[3:31:49] Later that evening, attended the Adam's 14 education, 14 or fast.
[3:31:54] Would like to congratulate all the recipients of scholarships and extend a personal note of appreciation to the businesses and
[3:31:59] community members that donated money in their time to not only make that a venous success, but
[3:32:03] also promote education in our community.
[3:32:05] That is just absolutely a phenomenal organization.
[3:32:08] And I think it's great that we have businesses that have stepped up and
[3:32:12] and put together a program that gives the opportunity for people to go to school and go to school debt-free and not be saddled with years of paying back student loan debted extremely insane interest rates for that.
[3:32:23] So, thank you to everybody involved in that.
[3:32:25] Leaving the 14th of fest, I stopped by the third of our four music in the park events.
[3:32:29] Last of them will be this Thursday at Fairfax Park, and I look forward to seeing everybody there.
[3:32:34] Friday evening, I attended the Colorado Hispanic Chamber of Commerce sub-ore event at the Botanical Gardens.
[3:32:38] was happy to see El Coco Parate, a chain of restaurants with location here in
[3:32:42] Commerce City, represented at the event. And we'll say it's one of the one
[3:32:46] restaurants that we returned to for multiple bites of their delicious food. So
[3:32:50] if you have not been to that restaurant, I highly recommend going down there
[3:32:53] and trying out some of their food. It was knocked our socks off. And again, just
[3:32:56] glad to see them as part of the event. Sadly, morning was also at the ribbon
[3:33:00] cutting for peak martial arts. Congratulations to the Mitchell's on opening your
[3:33:03] second location. We're happy to have you as part of our community. It's gonna be a
[3:33:06] great resource for young adults and youth in our community
[3:33:09] to have another amenity for recreation.
[3:33:12] So glad to have you there.
[3:33:13] After that, I stopped by the Adams 14 School Resource Fair.
[3:33:16] Would like to thank the representatives
[3:33:18] of the Quality Community Foundation,
[3:33:19] Senior Commission, Youth Commission, Cultural Council,
[3:33:22] and Sheryl Steinberg with our CDBG office
[3:33:24] for being there to distribute information.
[3:33:26] I know Sheryl had a lot of people come by
[3:33:28] and get information on minor home repair program
[3:33:30] and the brother's painathon and things like that.
[3:33:33] And the youth commission there to try to recruit new members
[3:33:35] for the upcoming school year, great to see that in senior commission, I think they ran out of all their material within about 30 minutes of being there, so great to have all those organizations present in order to help distribute and be part of that resource fair. So thank you.
[3:33:50] After that, I also attended the public safety meeting held at the American Legion by our police department. I would like to thank Chief Nichols, Deputy Chief Moon and Commander Flynn for providing a very valuable update on last week's situation as well as the efforts in the community.
[3:34:01] And also to the residents who took the time to go and be involved.
[3:34:06] I also want to say thank you to all the officers that responded the way you did that evening.
[3:34:10] True acts of heroism, and it takes a brave person to run towards gunfire instead of run away from it.
[3:34:18] And our officers answered the call in a heroic fashion and deserved nothing but praise from every member of this community for the way that they responded for the way that they were able to keep the members of the park safe.
[3:34:29] and just everything about that response is just top notch and really goes to
[3:34:33] show what that police department is capable of and thank every single one of you
[3:34:37] for everything that you did to read them, cards to that. Today I had a meeting with
[3:34:41] the senior VP for the Northern area of ENT Credit Union and in the afternoon I
[3:34:45] met with representatives of McWinney who were negotiating a purchase and
[3:34:48] sale agreement for development at the Third Creek West property. I think it was
[3:34:51] very productive meeting and look forward to seeing them actually get that
[3:34:54] purchase and sale agreement finalized and start construction out there. They have
[3:34:58] and just create.
[3:35:03] We took a gamble a couple of years ago, whenever we authorize the loan of the ERAGID money to the Crowley Company, and we took a gamble thinking that it was going to pay off, and if what they plan on building comes to fruition, that gamble is going to pay off tenfold. So greatly appreciate the fact that that project is moving forward. Obviously, you saw we're going to have some votes coming up on some IGA's and everything, and it's great that we are going to be able to do that.
[3:35:29] tap into an area of land and what they really want to focus on is some aerospace and you know
[3:35:35] development and stuff like that out next to the airport and you know what a perfect opportunity
[3:35:40] and we talk all the time about Aerotropolis and what it brings to the to the market and here's
[3:35:45] an opportunity for us to start putting the routes out there and so I'm just very excited to see
[3:35:49] that go forward as with all the other projects that we have in the queue and you know what we set
[3:35:54] a couple weeks ago at the site selection guild we've got seven million square feet of industrial warehouse
[3:35:58] space that is being under construction or in the plans for construction and that's huge and
[3:36:03] every single person that I've repeated that line to has looked at me with the word wow and that
[3:36:08] is huge what we're doing and so when we talk about budget and we talk about growth and everything
[3:36:12] it's good to see that we're not just seeing the residential growth we're seeing the other side of it
[3:36:16] now we just got to focus on that commercial and that retail piece and this city is going to come alive
[3:36:21] so that is all I have for the report thank you very much your time and listening to me ramble on
[3:36:25] about all that and we will move on to an adjournment and we'll call the special meeting
[3:36:31] to order and ask the city clerk to call the roll.
[3:36:38] Mayor Hughesman.
[3:36:40] Present. Mayor Proton Frank. Present. Council Member Madera.
[3:36:44] Present. Council Member Ellen Thomas. Present. Council Member Noble.
[3:36:49] Present. Council Member Wardiola. Present. Council Member Hurst.
[3:36:52] Council Member Grimes. Present. Council Member Smith. Present.
[3:36:56] Mary you have a quorum and just as a reminder we'll be using the room recorder for the executive
[3:37:00] session tonight so please make sure your mics are turned on and you're speaking clearly
[3:37:04] into your microphones. Thank you. Thank you sir appreciate that. We are all present in
[3:37:08] accounted for so there is no need to have an additional voter motion. What I'm looking for now is
[3:37:13] a motion and a second to enter into an executive session pursuant to CRS24-6-4L2.
[3:37:18] parentheses for sub-rentices E for the purpose of determining positions relative to matters that
[3:37:23] It may be subject to negotiations concerning incentives for a potential economic development
[3:37:27] project within the city.
[3:37:30] Council member Grimes.
[3:37:32] So moved.
[3:37:36] Council member Wadiola.
[3:37:38] Second.
[3:37:39] Have a motion and a second to enter into executive session.
[3:37:42] For the reasons I stated prior and will not repeat for a second time, is there any discussion?
[3:37:48] Seeing the request for a discussion, we will do a voice vote all those in favor signify
[3:37:52] by saying aye.
[3:37:53] Aye.
[3:37:54] Any opposed?
[3:37:56] The motion carries 9-0, which is unanimous.
[3:37:59] The City Council will now enter into executive session.
[3:38:02] The City Council will not be taking action following the executive session, and the meeting
[3:38:07] will adjourn immediately following the executive session without further discussion of public
[3:38:10] business.
[3:38:11] The Zoom meeting and broadcast for this meeting will be ended at this time.
[3:38:14] Have a good night, have a good week, and we'll see you next week for a regularly scheduled
[3:38:17] Council meeting. Mayor Assuming this.