September 1, 2020 — City Council Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:02] [Music] the Yampa Valley Regional Airport located in Hayden Colorado this airport serves as the gateway to Colorado's Northern Rockies the airport first opened in the fall of 1966 and it began serving the community with daily scheduled service from Denver by Frontier Airlines today the Yampa Valley Regional Airport is a vibrant economic generator and one of the key ingredients to the overall success of the booming local tourism industry Steamboat Springs is a western agricultural town that just happens to have a world class ski mountain the ski conditions that that powder brings a lot of people here over

[1:00] 75,000 people each year travel through the Yampa Valley Regional Airport in pursuit of Mount Warner's world-renowned champagne powder this accounts for nearly 70% of the total annual destination visitors of the steamboat ski area when it comes to the economy and employment the Yampa Valley Regional Airport can boast some impressive numbers the airport is linked to over 3,000 jobs nearly $105 million in payroll and it generates near nearly $300 million in overall economic output for the surrounding Community the economic benefit is undeniable to keep an economic engine like this running strong it takes solid Partnerships a passionate and knowledgeable staff as well as a safe and efficient airport [Music] infrastructure our partnership with the ski Corporation is very tight they know that the lifeblood of

[2:01] their business is riant on this airport even the people that work here how proud they are of the product they put out and uh the the care they take with the passengers that come through here it shows I couldn't ask for a a more talented and dedicated staff than I have and great Partners in the FBO next door it's important that we take pride in the airport and we take good care of the customers is we are the first impression for a lot of people so the first thing they see is when they get off the airplane here and they come to our terminal it's especially important at in Yampa Valley that we we keep the right attitude and we take good care of our passengers because we want them to come back and because they're a critical component of this community

[3:04] [Music] like it's not by accident the hills and the mountains are protected and it's not by accident the city today is one of the most desirable cities our four fathers and four mothers had the foresight uh to see the value of protecting our natural lands and having

[4:01] that open space buffer chaga itself was really founded in 1898 so shiak has been a part of Boulder for a very long time in fact um the buying of the bachelder ranch which is where shiaka is [Music] [Applause] today [Music]

[5:02] [Music]

[9:28] okay so I think we're all here and by my 00 shall we get going Jane all right I was muted yes let's get going okay all right welcome everyone to the September 1st regular meeting of the Boulder City Council um I have a couple of announcements before we um take roll um the first announcement is a reminder about the 2020 census um Boulder County

[10:00] is currently at a 73% response rate which is awesome but there is still time to respond to the 2020 census um everyone don't be left out your response matters a lot completing the census is safe easy and important the questionnaire only takes a few minutes to complete and your responses are secure and confidential um and results help direct funding um from the state and the federal government to our community including resources for emergencies and Disaster Response so please encourage your friends and family to respond by September 30th which is the deadline you can respond either online at my2020census.gov my2020 cns.gov or you can call 84433 2020 and then for tonight's meeting um in order to provide for interpretation

[11:01] Services we are going to shift the open comment until after the hearing on the public hearing on mobile home um ordinance and so we're anticipating the start at 800m for open comment so with that um could we call the role abolutely council member Brockett present friend here Joseph present stick present wallik present Weaver here Yates here young present mayor we have a quorum very good so the first thing that we need to do is to amend the agenda um we would like to remove item 8A um which is regarding the performance evaluations

[12:01] we'll do that in a future meeting um we would like to move the continuation of mobile homes public hearing to before open comment and then we'd like to change the order of items under Matters from the mayor and Council um to be 8A which would be motion to approve the order of city of Boulder ballot measures 8B city manager search subcommittee update 8C eviction Prov ition letter discussion and 8D appointing the um Police Department master plan process subcommittee members so if I could get a motion to amend the agenda so moved second very good any objections okay great seeing none um then we will amend the agenda and then we'll move into our Public Health briefing actually I believe that Sarah Huntley has an announcement to make very

[13:02] good good evening good evening Council um my name is Sarah Huntley I'm the director of communication and engagement as the mayor mentioned we are going to be conducting part of this meeting in English and Spanish we have two interpreters joining us so I just wanted to provide some quick instructions for people who may have joined us in Spanish and also for those of you who are in English because we will need you to choose your interpretation Channel as English I'm going to pull up a couple of slides that just help walk us through this

[14:02] okay it appears our screen sharing is not working at the moment so I'm going to talk us through this instead of showing slides so at the very bottom of your menu you should see something that looks a little bit like a globe and it says interpretation for folks who are on the call as attendees as well as our panelists this evening if you hover your mouse over that and click on that button you can choose a language we will either can choose to conduct the meeting completely in English or in Spanish for the portions of the meeting that are in Spanish which will be probably the first two hours of this meeting or so so please pick a channel we are going to ask you to choose one channel and stay in it and for those of you who speak English and Spanish it will be much easier for our interpreters if you choose one language and if you're speaking choose the language of the channel that you are in if you do not pick a um Channel I believe it will

[15:00] default you to English a couple of other tips that our interpreters asked me to share with you we do have two interpreters this is a very exhausting platform as those of us who participate in English can attest so they're going to do their best to support this meeting um in a collaborative fashion they do ask that people who are speaking whether it's English or Spanish speak a little more slowly than you might typically A good rule of thumb is to take a breath in between sentences enunciate as clearly as you can and try really hard not to speak over each other because when that happens The Interpreter is trying to um translate multiple voices at one time and as you might imagine that can be very challenging um if you do have a headset it is helpful for our interpreters if you're able to use that it's not required but it allows the audio to be a little bit clearer for them I think that that's all we have for now I would suggest mayor that when we

[16:02] get to the actual testimony from the public I maybe repeat a couple of these things to make sure people are in the right channel the other thing I'll let folks know who are on the line tonight whether you're here to testify for this public hearing or the open comment that you will be testifying by Audio Only so we do not show the video of members of the public at this time so um just so you know what to expect when it comes to your turn to testify the mayor will call your name and I will unmute or I will toggle a switch that allows you to unmute yourselves I think with that we probably can begin okay thank you Sarah um I believe that we're up to the public health briefing and the see you update yes we are and our first presenter is Jeff Zak Jeff thanks Jane and thanks mayor and council members uh I want to I just want to remind you

[17:02] I'll go through the data um fairly quickly here I'll try to highlight the key components from the last time that I presented that have changed and at the end of this um I'll talk a bit about the work that we are doing with the University of Colorado and with the city of Boulder specifically because it'll lead nicely into uh Pat and francis's presentation um so the next slide again this is our total numbers right now so we're at a total of 2324 cases in Boulder County um unfortunately I I know it's hard to say this number every time but we've got 79 folks that have deceased from covid-19 and the majority of those um as I've shared before has have come from long-term care facilities next slide this is again our regional data and it's um compared to our other uh counties that are up there on the right hand side and what I just just want to I know it's an extremely busy slide if you

[18:01] look at the red graph that's Boulder County um and if you look at our data comparative across multiple indicators in the Front Range um we are going to continue to be one of the lower counties in terms of the counts with covid so we are doing a good job in Boulder County you can see that little Spike between June and July 1 um that I'm going to talk about in a little more detail and when we get to the next slide we'll we'll see the State numbers so these are the State numbers you can see a pretty two pretty distinct Peaks uh one up one down um both early in the in the outbreak and then later in the outbreak and what's what's important to note here is that later in the outbreak um when we started to see the cases Rising again around mid July to early August that is when the governor's mask order went into place and when he put the public health order for bars um uh

[19:01] and nightclubs in place again so that definitely made a impact in where our our cases were headed so we have seen positive results from that next slide what you'll notice about Boulder County's data here is the peak in the middle so our data um would be very similar to the states and just to to level set on what you're looking at here these are the total number of newly reported cases per day um both not associated with long-term care facilities and in the orange graphs associated with long-term care facilities and what's important to note that I share pretty much every time I'm presenting here is that early on in the outbreak um we had long-term care facilities where that disease was spreading once it's in those facilities really difficult to control um and why we saw higher fatality rates associated with this disease in our older population um and we've we've really worked hard I always want to make sure I'm giving kudos to those long-term care

[20:02] facility directors who have been extremely cooperative and supportive uh and worked with us closely and that has really stopped those outbreaks as you can see in this graph that middle graph is what I want to talk about a little bit um and that is that and what I'm talking about in the middle graph is around 613 we started to see a pickup 620 we were into an outbreak scenario that was Associated um with with the hill parties that were occurring occurring early on and that's precisely what we want to prevent from happening luckily with that spread um we did not see spread throughout the entire Community it was isolated to the hill we were able to control that and the reason I want to talk about this specifically here is because it's important uh that we consider the amount of energy and effort that's necessary to control the spread of an outbreak like that so for every person who's a positive it's about two hours per investigation sometimes

[21:02] three hours um and then for every positive person there's typically four to five contacts on average that we have to do follow-ups with and those four to five contacts take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to do um follow-ups uh to determine if they were exposed um or not and so when we start to total up high numbers like that that's what puts a strain on on our resources here in older County um and you'll hear at the end that we have been spending a lot of time with the University of Colorado who's invested significant amount of time and effort in this uh in the effort to to Really reduce the spread associated with students and the city of Boulder has been a key partner with us as well so between Boulder County Public Health the the University of Colorado and the city of Boulder you'll see at the end and I know in uh when Francis and Pat talk the work that has been done to really try to prevent this from

[22:00] happening again what you're seeing there on the 20th um without that Spike we would have been a very similar case structure to what we saw with the state and the rest of the region that little tail in the middle is is unique to Boulder County next slide this is just an illustration over a f day average it makes it a little easier to see our cases have been overall declining since the last time I was here presenting um we're around 11 per day um at this point and we want to see that stay low and consistent next slide this is our total tests that are run um in Boulder County the the target number for us is 495 tests per day um or to make sure that we're testing all symptomatic patients and we easily are meeting that need in Boulder County we actually have capacity to go far beyond that we have over 10 testing facilities across the county um and we are able to test uh many more than we're testing right now now we just are not seeing uh

[23:00] any backup or needs for additional testing at this point but we definitely have capacity to test much more as you've seen in some of those spikes on that graph in front of you next slide this is our percent uh positivity rate and with without getting into a ton of detail the target rate for the state of Colorado is 5% or below and if you're below 5% you're testing enough of the people in the community to assure that you're not having disease spread and that you're getting um they picking up the symptomatic people and we have been consistently low ever since the end of May um our Target uh has been below uh 4% pretty consistently and more recently even down below um 2% which is which is where we are right now next slide I just wanted to show this slide because this is important um we are building long-term care facility testing capacity um we are working uh with the

[24:01] county and we are trying to get more mobile testing out and into this community so that we can increase the number of tests per facility we know as we go into the fall with flu and covid together that it's going to be hard to distinguish symptoms um from each other and we are working directly with these long-term care facilities um to both bolster testing as well as to build capacity in the county for additional testing we're working specifically um with Clinica and with Boulder Community Health um to develop that next slide this is our rates per 100,000 um per jurisdiction pretty consistent with what I've showed you uh the last several months that I've presented um with Boulder uh Boulder Lafia and Longmont really uh at the highest rates next slide this is um a this is our slide on our uh residents who've tested positive or are considered probable um by race

[25:02] and Hispanic origin and this is continues to be a unacceptable statistic we are still seeing a larger percentage of Hispanic latinx population as being positive as compared to the population that's out there we uh are I think I shared last time we are hiring a a cultural uh communication specialist that person we are working with them right now on negotiating and we expect to have them in place in the next week um we've also identified some funds to secure a resource coordinator um that will help support uh expanding our cultural Brokers and looking at the the um the cities emergency uh response uh program that is also out in communities that we want to we want to replicate and duplicate in Boulder County to help address part of his population next slide so we're continuing to see this slide just illustrates the number of

[26:01] cases that we're seeing in these different age groups along with um in the blue uh the number of hospitalizations light blue uh number of folks in ICU and then um and then again orange uh the number of folks deceased in each of these age categories we're cons continuing to see our highest case numbers in the 20 to 29 population um followed by the 10 to 19 population and then this over the last week we've also seen a slight increase in the 50 to 59 year old population that are seeing covid positives uh but we continue to see the highest impacts um and greatest severe uh impacts in our populations that are 50 and above next slide uh this is our Hospital hospitalization rate and I I like to show this because again it illustrates that Boulder County is doing a really great job in terms of keeping our hospitalization ation rate low our hospitalization rate per 100,000 is 60.1

[27:02] um you can see the states at 123 and the Nations at6 next slide this is our positivity rate I'm sorry this is our total number of patients hospitalized due to covid-19 um and similar to the other graphs I've showed you we've had a drop in hospitalizations uh at the end of May and we've kept that hospitalization number low um we did bump up a little bit um but are consistently staying low we also as I've showed you in earlier presentations we're tracking multiple indicators associated with each of our hospitals we're also meeting with them on a weekly basis so we know that the indicators that we're tracking are actually what we're hearing from them on the ground so our hospitals are doing great uh in terms of covid-19 cases and keeping that low next slide this is the state hospitalization rate and I'll call your attention to the blue which are confirmed positives again

[28:00] you can see that uh downward tail slight upward tail just like ours and then another downward tail so as a state we're also maintaining low hospitalizations across the state next slide um this is some great news uh I want to thank Boulder specifically you've been a leader in the masking ordinance and it makes a difference um this is our our latest masking survey um in our social distancing survey and as you can see in these numbers we've had really positive um response uh we did see that there was a Boost after the governor's Statewide order that did make a difference um and just really appreciative and happy to to see these numbers that we're seeing here I want to thank all of your folks who have who are watching today who are following this this makes a difference along with the social distancing um maintaining that six feet and and the good personal hygiene those three things are going to make a big difference in how this disease

[29:00] spreads as you've heard me say multiple times before it comes down to individual behavior when people are following um those those three simple things they can make a huge difference in controlling the spread of this disease so I want to thank all of you so much um that are following this and please continue to do that because that's what's going to make a difference for our society and our economy as we move forward into these next months next slide um this is the the projections that have been done by the Colorado school of health and what I wanted to point out here is the projections um and it says 41% social distancing current this is actually an old slide um but the same projections hold uh true to date so we were back in uh in middle of July we were at a very low social distancing percentage of 41% and just as a comparison um when we were at stay-at-home um when we were at our

[30:00] strictest point we were up around 80% so we were at a pretty low rate um in the middle of the summer and we were extremely concerned at that point that we were starting to see increases again following some of this um modeling that was done the mask order went into place again bars and Nightclub restrictions went into place um and our our social distancing actually bumped up quite a bit uh right now we are currently around the mid 70s is what the state is telling us and that can go up and down a little bit depending on what might happen on weekends if people are getting together and having large events that can change in multiple places in the state which is why it's so important as we go into this Labor Day weekend that we continue to again follow those three simple things of masking social distancing and and good personal hygiene and we can keep this um projection in the positive um what you can see on this graph is that low green bar we are in that scenario now for sure um and if we can keep it up

[31:02] we will we we will be in a good position as we move through the holiday next slide this is the reproductive number which I've also referred to in the past as our not um and just to make this simple if we take a three a number of three on the reproductive scale that means that for every person who H who is a positive uh covid they are going to infect three other people those three other people are then going to infect three other people those nine people are are then going to affect three other people per person you're going to be up to 27 and it escalates very quickly so keeping that AR not or that reproductive number below one is the target we want to make sure that we're focusing on that it's staying below one and we don't have unchecked disease spread in our communities we are currently below one um even though this graph was done on a a little bit after August 3rd we're continuing to remain below one now next

[32:03] slide um know I think I've talked to you multiple times about protect our neighbors I've also included the website on the bottom of this so if people want to be able to track where we are relative to this uh they can go to this website and track it themselves but currently um we are in safer at home um and in order to get to protect our neighbor we have to meet all nine of these metrics currently we're meeting five of the metrics and we're partially meeting another four of those metrics um and uh you can look at what the metrics specifically are if you go to the website so there's detailed measures for each of these things that you're seeing on the slide um and you can get more information about what the measure is itself and where we actually are in terms of this measure if you go to the website but we are not um we are not in a place where we're meeting this metric at this point and I don't anticipate that we will um before we move into um The Fall season of when we're going to see flu there is only one other County

[33:01] at least as of last week um in the entire state that was able to certify under protect our neighbors next slide um these last two slides I'm going to talk more about what we're doing to collaborate with schools um so early on um this was over a couple months ago we set up Liaisons with each of our schools we have teams that are currently in place that work with all of our schools that includes not just our public schools in K through2 but also our private schools and our early childhood centers we also have teams set up for our higher education facilities the University of Colorado Front Range Community College and naropa been working with them pretty consistently for um for many months now especially on the K through2 private and early childhood side of things next slide as I had mentioned there has been a a immense amount of work um between the city of Boulder CU in Boulder County Public Health and um none of us are are

[34:02] taking the work lightly we have invested a lot of time and a lot of effort we have lots of folks um that are working on not only education but enforcement we have groups that are meeting on a weekly basis multiple times per week as you can see on this slide we're bringing together our epidemiologists our enforcement folks our policy representatives and what's not stated on there is our education Representatives they are meeting together and talking about what's working what's worked this past week what hasn't what have we seen um how do we make adjustments how do we change things I can tell you that the chancellor um has been involved I have been involved in direct um Communications out to all all the students that have come in um to the university and we have been working really diligently to both track and also strategize on how we make a difference in this space we know that it's incredibly important important uh that we have students that come back in uh to

[35:01] college and that they do if they follow these things we can we can continue to progress as I showed on those last graphs in our community and again it really comes down to each and everyone's individual behaviors um and following those behaviors will make a difference in where we end up um as we move into these next months I know that Pat and Francis have um a lot of information they want to share with you in more detail about all the work that's gone into place but I just want to put a shout out to both city of Boulder folks as well as the university folks who've been 110% um behind us in this process and invested 110% of their energies to do everything that we can uh to to Really reduce the spread of disease associated with um university coming back into into play so I'll I'll stop here again I know Pat and Francis have a fair amount of more information to talk about relative to this great thank you Jeff and I'll just

[36:01] pause there and see do any council members have questions for Jeff I do not see any hands of Rachel and then Mary Rachel hey thanks Jeff for another great presentation um I had just a couple um so it seems like it's been um a little bit less risky to be outdoors than indoors and that the risk of transmission is less I was wondering if you've been doing contract contact tracing do you know um for people that are positive where the cases are being picked up right now are they inside are they Outdoors they're they're almost exclusively indoors at this point the only one that I'm aware of that was Outdoors was associated with a a yoga class that where they were just they were within six feet of each other when they were doing the yoga class but for sure outside I've heard the governor use Ed this um but I haven't validated it to be honest with you um in terms of the

[37:01] science but 20 times less risky Outdoors than it is indoors clearly indoors um you have buildup um of you can have buildup of the virus it can be spread more easily um but Outdoors it dissipates pretty quickly especially if there's any kind of wind outside it's just a much more open area so there is less risk outside for sure um so that's helpful and um comports with sort of what I I think I Ood from you in the past but it also is concerning to me then that we're all probably going to move indoors in the next couple months so I was just wondering if if we are doing contact tracing and um that that will be sort of a heightened concern then if if all the cases are indoors that you're seeing in Boulder County other than a yoga class yes absolutely anytime that we're moving indoors we're GNA have a higher risk so that and you know my message back to everybody that's listening here again is it's those those three things that are so I'm going to keep saying them over and over masking

[38:00] maintaining more uh than six feet social distancing and again hand hygiene is really important um and that can that really can prevent the spread if you think about um what the CDC reported a while back those hairdressers who both had masks served you know over a hundred people um and the folks that were coming in had masks as well as the the hairdressers and it prevented the spread of that disease even though it was indoors so those things are really important for us to keep focusing on as we move into these next months thanks and then just one more um you know there's a lot of concern as you noted with uh students having bigger parties and I assume some of them have been Outdoors recently some I would guess have some indoor components and see will speak to this but um are you satisfied with the amount of testing that's going on with off-campus um students and is there any uh capacity or anything that we could be doing to um ensure that we are testing people who are at those big

[39:01] parties sufficiently from the county perspective and I'm going to let Pat or Francis address that but I'm going to stay on the presentation so I'll wait until the end of theirs in case there's more questions from me but I know that CU is working on they have been and and continue to work on testing strategies that I know are going to address that so I'm going to let them talk about that um and again I will stay on though great thank you Jeff Mary thanks Jeff as usual for taking time out of this beautiful evening to be with us um so we saw in your presentation the the unacceptable as you called it um um bar graphs of the number of um Latinos that are Contracting and being hospitalized for the virus and what I'm wondering is um you also mentioned that you have an extra capacity unused capacity of testing and so I'm wondering

[40:01] how you're taking those two um pieces of data and merging them in order to address the the disproportionate number of people being affected yeah our our goal and we're not there yet otherwise we wouldn't continue to see that graph um but our goal is to have some mobile testing done that can actually go to some of the communities that we know are most impacted we know uh from our cultural Brokers and from taken from our latinx specifically Spanish uh serving agencies that we still have folks in our community that are not comfortable both seeking care and seeking testing and we need to change that um and that that is that needs to be a focus of how we move forward but part of that is to try to support and bring some mobile testing we'll be working again with our cultural Brokers um to look at how we we make that approach we do have an application that we have sent into the state in addition we're working with Boulder County to secure some funding that would

[41:00] allow us to expand um that mobile testing we expect to hear this week um if we'll have that funding or not but until we get that funding we can't really build the capacity that we need to get to those populations in the way that we need to get to them but it's I I 100% agree that that is a that is not in okay statistic and we've got to change it thank you very much Jeff great I see no more questions so I think we're ready for see you Francis great well thank you very much for inviting us tonight and I just like to take a second and say that um we feel very fortunate in having the partners of Boulder Community Health uh Boulder County Health and the City because I think Jeff's numbers show that we are having some results as compared to some of the other counties and I also want to let you know that we're always available to attend even if it's an 11th Hour ass which this was not but I just want to make sure you know that we're always

[42:01] available to attend city council and answer any questions you might have on any issues so tonight um we I was able to bring several people that you were probably more interested in hearing from them myself and the first one is Katherine Irwin and Katherine is our Chief Human Resources officer and she is here tonight to address the questions about our Frontline workers um Patrick aor whom you know is our interim Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer which has him managing the overall operations of the campus from police to infrastructure to Communications and he is going to update you on testing the metrics and responses to the various scenarios under which we might find ourselves operating and I think to some of the questions that Rachel was asking we also have with us tonight JB Austin and JB is actually brand new to the campus and he is our dean of students Affairs um and he are dean of students

[43:03] and he kindly agreed to join us tonight and has really jumped right into a lot of these issues on the hill has already visited the hill and is working with his excellent team which includes Devon Kramer who is assistant dean of students and he is here also tonight to address um the actions of his office along with those of our police department and those of the office of off housing and neighborhood relations to improve the situation on the hill so with that I'm going to turn this over to Katherine Irwin to address the first points around Frontline workers and maybe we could advance to the next slide great thank you Francis and thank you Council for inviting me to be here tonight to talk about protective measures for our Frontline staff um and I want to say a word um before I get into the slides about um who we're talking about um you know we have staff

[44:00] and faculty who have returned to campus um in many different roles I'm really talking today about what we consider to be our Frontline staff who are our custodians our dining services employees distribution services our bus drivers grounds Keepers these employes um interact a lot with our students and with other members the Campus Community they tend to be our lower wage earning employees they um many of these individuals are non-native English speakers um and most of them reside in either student affairs or infrastructure and safety and I want to thank student affairs and infrastructure and safety for providing a lot of the information that I'm going to share with you tonight um so I broke this down really into safety measures and then health and and

[45:00] Welfare measures and so on this first slide here you see safety measures um and on the the left hand side you're seeing the sorts of things that we're doing regarding safety for all of our employees so that's really uh everyone and then on the right hand side you're seeing the additional things that we are doing related to our Frontline employees and I want to draw your attention to a couple of things um on the left hand side uh towards the bottom increased hbac inspection and filters um the campus has really done a pretty comprehensive job of going into all buildings um evaluating analyzing the existing um HVAC systems airf flow and then uh have purchased in large numbers additional MV 13 filters and um HEPA filters and installed those throughout throughout all the buildings on campus

[46:01] and one of the things that I want to emphasize here is that this this population of Staff really interact in all the buildings on campus so they're in the same buildings with classrooms and faculty they're in the dorms they're in the dining areas they're really um across all of Campus um and and so uh all these safety and health measures are applying frankly equally to them as to faculty and other staff um I also want to point out on the right hand side a couple of points the first one um you know one of the keys to I think our strategy on campus to maintaining safety for everyone was to implement a mandatory training um around safety and returning to work on campus and I think it's important to know that um for our non-native English speakers this training has been translated it's also been made available in formats

[47:00] other than online some of it has been in person some of it has been um in print um and some of it has been directly supervisors working um to get through the training with these employees and then towards the bottom on the right hand side I also want to point out in particular um that we have stood up a trained volunteer team from envir enal health and safety it's actually two Crews of four people each that are specifically designated to perform contamination cleanings and so this is for areas on campus that need need urgent cleaning um following contamination primarily um areas that can't be shut down for a period of time days like 72 hours 24 48 72 hours um and um then in the dorms they we also have contracted with a third party um

[48:01] provider to do uh cleaning of isolation rooms um and then moving on to the next slide please here I want to talk about the sort of the health and safety or Health and Welfare measures that we put in place and I'll let me just mention to that this is really high level there's a lot more detail behind all of this but um in the interest of time I'm going to hit these on on pretty high level and happy to answer questions later if you have them um some of the protective measures related to health have really included of course first and foremost um following the state and local um orders around vulnerable populations and not compelling people to work there's a plethora of information on the HR site at CU and additionally on the co the main Co website um I would encourage you

[49:00] to take a look at both of those but there's information on everything I'm covering uh related to that but in particular guidance for um individuals who may have medical um needs or other reasons um that would fall into that first bucket and then I'm sure you all are familiar with the family first Corona virus response act which was another Fe piece of federal legislation that has provided leave under different scenarios and just to give you a couple of numbers uh we've had 51 staff take the FFC related to the sick leave portion of this the FFC and then we've had 149 in uh staff and faculty take the FFC leave um for child care and that breaks down about 5050 staff and faculty on the child care year usage and then we've also created clear guidance to give

[50:02] supervisors the ability to respond quickly to the work environment when we find out there there is someone covid positive or um symptomatic with within the workforce so that we can quickly isolate that individual and um quarantine others to reduce any chance of spread and then finally on the right hand side um a couple of things that we've done to support the financial needs um of our Frontline employees when uh back in the summer when the students were gone we did Furlow a good number of these employees um part of that Furlow process included an Outreach call from HR to every single individual that was furload as I said earlier many of these individuals have um uh language barri years we provided translation services and assistance in filing for unemployment claims for this

[51:02] population I'm happy to say that um come August one virtually all of our furload employees were returned to campus um and so they're back working with us now on campus also back in the spring uh we set up a an emergency fund the staff and faculty emergency fund specifically because of covid and that fund really addresses um hardship uh individuals facing hardship as a as a result of Co or it could cover other emergency situations the we have data on that as well to dat 336 um staff have received that fund um $161,000 of those 248 were our furled employees who received in total 124 almost $125,000 um some faculty have also received this award uh 24 to date and

[52:03] these these numbers are as of um August 24th so I will stop there and um thank you again for allowing to present so now we could move to Pat and if we could go to the next slide please so first wanted to thank Council for letting me come back um given how much time we've taken so far I'm going to move rather rapidly through uh these slides um but uh please stop me if you have questions and initially I also wanted to thank Jeff Zak and the uh Folks at the County Health Department as he described we've had a very good working relationship with them and together we're trying to implement strategies that will keep the community safe one of those strategies that we've talked about before relate to the testing capabilities on campus we had

[53:00] our first foray into testing when the students who were living on campus arrived the week of August 17th um and in that period of time we had over 5,000 people who brought tests that means that we conducted close to 3,000 tests that were on campus um and that uh we were able to respond to those and be able to Institute isolation and quarantine what we're currently doing is Shifting our testing strategies um in order to be able to move from the initial move in Phase into the ongoing phase as we've talked about before we've got a number of different surveillance strategies that we're using um including testing of patients with who have symptoms uh testing of our oncampus population hopefully on a weekly basis Wastewater testing and then also offering uh testing and on an as needed basis for off campus students faculty and staff particularly of those who have been

[54:01] identified we are also working on offering testing to those students who have gone to Gatherings um and have uh perhaps not fit in compliance with our expectations behaviorally could I get the next slide please um our contact tracing and isolation uh functions are working well um currently we are able to when we receive a positive test result with uh one of our patients or students who test positive for covid we're initiating that contact tracing within hours completing it the same day um we've been reporting our results back to Boulder County Public Health um and that we're using the daily Health questionnaire that we're uh having students faculty and staff fill out in order to be able to initiate that if they reporting positive symptoms as well we know that the students are using that as a tool um I

[55:01] believe on Monday there were 13,000 unique student identifiers that were used to be able to to fill out the daily Health questionnaire so that's a valuable surveillance tool we also have over 250 beds designated for isolation and quarantine and currently uh less than 5% of those beds are in use um so we have capacity right now can I get the next slide please what we're trying to do um similar to what Jeff was doing with the county is to be transparent about our data and what it's showing as we've uh learned over the last few days we need to continue to refine our dashboard we are currently um in a situation where we are when we're reporting the test results so you'll see on the right hand side of the slide the monitoring test and the PCR test those relate to two differ testing modalities the surveillance testing that we've talked about before is a saliva base test the

[56:03] PCR testing is the diagnostic confirmatory test for those populations that are either exposed or at a higher risk um uh and presenting with symptoms we are now tracking those not just on a five-day rolling average but that we're keeping track of our accumulative totals throughout the course of the semester um so you'll see those posted on an ongoing basis but it's important to be clear that those refer not to all positive tests that might relate to ACU student these are done through our own testing capacities if a student for example went to uh was parents had uh Kaiser health insurance and went to Kaiser to get tested and those results got reported back to the county those wouldn't be captured on our own internal dashboards but they would be captured in the county data which we also link to through our our dashboard itself could I grab the next slide

[57:00] please um been asked about kind of our plans a b and c and how we would move in between different phases what we're really talking about is right now our current status is what we are calling limited um where we have a mix of both in-person remote and um hybrid activities hybrid being those educational activities that have some input person components and some hybrid components um that's the phase that we're in now and that we're currently monitoring the next thing that we would be looking to do is to take enhanced measures with respect to particular environments where uh virus outbreak is determined to have occurred so for example if we had an outbreak in a residence hall we might move that residence hall into isolation and quarantine you've probably seen that for example in Colorado Springs uh Colorado College has reported moving some of its

[58:00] residence Halls into quarantine status after having uh some significant outbreaks in that environment and so those are being assessments of isolation and quarantine whether for a classroom or for a facility are being made in conjunction with our partners at Boulder County Public Health based upon the risk of transmission in a particular environment what we also looking at is our plan C which is what would we need to do in order to to impose campus wide measures to address more diffuse Community spread and that would be the situation when you would have the type of situation that Jeff showed where you would have the r not number reaching significantly above one so that you're at risk of Greater degree of infection we're currently working on being able to map that on top of what the proposed framework is from the State the state is now contemplating moving from the protect our neighbors to safer at home

[59:00] to stay at home with safer at home having three distinct phases based upon infectious rate in the population the percent of positive tests and that those would be triggers that we would use in being able to make those determinations one of the things that we're trying to be sensitive to as we do that is recognizing that if we move to remote instruction that is not going to be something that will eliminate risk entirely in the community and in fact I think JB Banks has had uh some of the conversations with our off-campus student population where they essentially confirmed that because they had leases for this upcoming year they would have come to Boulder even if the instruction had been offered fully remotely and if we convert to fully remote status they plan on remaining in Boulder to be able to fulfill their leases so we need to not be thinking about this as a situation where we would flip the switch to remote instruction

[60:00] and automatically that would address some of the issues with the student population and the possibility of spread of infection and so our response plans need to take that into account could I get the next slide please I'm gonna turn this port portion of the conversation over to Devin Kramer who directly works on this day but as a precursor what Jeff Zak mentioned earlier is we recognize that the behavioral issues that are occurring with students particularly those off campus are a vulnerability that we have to address we've been working on that in partnership with both the county health department and with the city police department and they've been remarkable um as partners for us to do that we've provided some financial support in order to enable enhance patrolling on the hill and we continue to want to work to be able to move forward I'm

[61:02] happy to report and you may have seen an article in the Denver Post that we are beginning to see the sign starting to call out those behaviors when they're inappropriate we are also in a position where the oops I broke up for a second we're also so I think Pat has Pat you are breaking up completely it may help Pat if you turn off your video so we just hear all audio sometimes that helps can you hear me now we can

[62:07] yes so Francis why don't we go to Devon uh to be able to address student issues that's great idea and then we can come back to questions that may relate to what you were saying so take it away Deon hi everyone and thanks for having me today I'm excited to to chat with you all so I'm going to do a brief overview of what we've done to really partner with various entities to address behavior um on the hill and and in other areas so um we've spent a lot of the summer really increasing some of the communication that has happened between Bara landlords um Boulder County Public Health Boulder Police city code enforcement um and and and the property management companies so on the next slide I want to show you some of the numbers that we've come to so

[63:03] far so in terms of the numbers of of incidents that we've addressed from that first weekend and and are starting to address this week um we received eight addresses from Boulder Police that received warnings uh from that first weekend of partying that was concerning and I was able to fortunately get information from landlords property management companies for all eight of those addresses and set up personally meetings with all of those students to address the behavior the meetings were interesting the students were confused and and unsure of what the public health orders were and I was able to set some very very clear expectations with them and go over the consequences that could arise if if they get into further trouble such as suspension I was also able to brainstorm with them particularly those students on 10th Street some of the issues that they were having and how they can proactively address those issues we also have 30 students going we have much more than 30 students going through conduct processes

[64:01] right now but in terms of nuisance party or noise violations we have 30 students going through most of which also violated Public Health orders and all of those students if you saw the message sent out from Akira Bradley um late last week we have a very strict stance on those students so if if they are found responsible for violating a public health order um those students will be exclud Ed from campus for two weeks and and we're doing that as an interim measure so it goes into effect immediately um and they'll be placed on probation and get educational sanctions and a second violation will result in a suspension um we saw a lot of mips come in through the first week that didn't have enough information for us to know whether or not there was a public health order violation and we were quickly able to resolve that with Boulder Police and as I was reviewing all the mips that we received Monday and today I was able to see that when Public Health order violation were occuring police were clearly notifying us of that so that we can address those behaviors appropriately we also got so I don't

[65:02] mean to interrupt could you tell us what MIP means oh absolutely sorry MIP is a minor in possession so that would be a student or a person who is under the age of 21 and is possess possessing alcohol or marijuana we mostly see that um in public areas on the Hill Neighborhood um we also got four four more um warnings from Boulder Police uh on Monday and I've reached out to the landlords for all of those and I have the names of tenants for two of those four properties and anticipate getting the other two tomorrow um I think it's also important to address what's going on with the fraternities when we know about a fraternity party I know there was a picture of SAE that that was posted on Reddit um what we're going to do is if we have names of people who attend that party we're going to adjudicate that and and treat that that appropriately if we don't have names of those who attend the party we're going to address the leader the student leadership within that organization and

[66:01] adjudicate them appropriately um and expect that they hold their members accountable um so Devon just to explain what that means that means that for example fraternity officers you would be issuing conduct charges against them on the basis that they had aided or abetted that violation of a public health order that is correct yes and I went over the first and second violations already so next slide great one thing I will mention uh that we sort of passed over is um BPD and cupd um have a new partnership we have a couple of officers that are patrolling the hill Thursday Friday and Saturday nights last weekend and for the next coming weekends I think Pat mentioned that we're helping with the cost of overtime for BPD and there's been an incredible ramp up in the amount of data sharing uh between the forces which has allowed Devon to really have his team jump into action and follow up quickly on some of these

[67:00] where in the past you know it might be a couple of weeks later now it's like the next day so that has really been a huge Improvement in collaboration we want to thank Maris and her department for that yeah I just to speak to that in the past it would take us seven to 14 days to get police reports and we're getting them every Monday for from the weekend prior which enables us to send out conduct notices issue inter room exclusions um and address those students as soon as possible great well thank you all um council members questions Mary thank you for that presentation um everyone from CU I have a whole bunch of questions um but I guess my first one comes from something um that was stated at the beginning of the second part of the presentation by Patrick where um or

[68:03] I can't remember who it was but um something about you're working with a whole bunch of Partners um that includes um um the Boulder Police and it includes other campus um folks and I didn't hear anything um about including a psychologist because I I think um with with the students on campus as well as students on the hill um it's a little bit like putting someone who really loves candy in a candy store and then telling them they can't have any candy um and so unless you're constantly watching um it's just not going to work so um what are you doing in um to prevent that um I mean they're they're going to do what they're going to do and in their defense it's just the age they're at so um so I'm wondering what kind of um steps are you taking from a

[69:04] um psychology standpoint of folks that age um to um induce better Behavior y um I appreciate that question so one of the things that we are working on is trying to figure out how to best address this student population we've gotten some messages back uh recently that have essentially said we get it quit threatening us and um you're not going to punish us into compliance um so we need to work on it from really a behavioral psychology standpoint in order to be able not just to send messages related to enforcement but also be able to send messages to encourage good behaviors and to reinforce those Behavior is where we see them occurring um so we are taking that type of approach that it can't just be a purely

[70:00] punitive approach responding to I think it was a question that Rachel had earlier one of the things that we are also trying to to work on is not to just drive the parties indoors and underground where the potential for in spread of the infection is higher um so that is an ongoing thing which is right now we know the risk of transmission is less in outdoor areas certainly we don't want to be in a position where uh we're encouraging large Gatherings of students to get together um but we also need to recognize that there are certain environments and choices that are better for them to make and not be in a situation where we're unwittingly encouraging the worst behaviors which could lead to a higher Community spread okay um thank you for that I um so I have a whole bunch of questions about um the Frontline workers and I

[71:01] guess my my first question is for you Patrick about um you presented um some testing strategies and um and and and data that you're collecting and I'm wondering if if there are two separate um testing strategies one for Frontline workers and one for students or is it all the same strategy applied to everyone equally different strategies applied I wouldn't want to say to different populations there are certain of our Frontline workers housing dining facilities that we are that we have testing for and put testing protocols into place as well as uh Health surveillance um so they're part of our testing routine but they're being they're not tested on the same interval that the students are being tested on campus um determined by individual units

[72:00] and so how do the intervals um vary is are the the students receiving them more frequently are the the Frontline workers receiving them more frequently how how is that determined it's based upon so our goal is on the students on campus is to have them tested at least once a week we'd like to get to the point within the next semester where that' be twice a week testing the testing that is for employees is based upon what their exposures are and what their work schedules are and so that's more variable depending upon uh what their their situations are so it sounds like it's not as fre by those units so it sounds like it's not as frequent as the students probably not thank you um and so um you also mentioned um or your colleague mentioned um that there is training that is happening so I'm

[73:00] wondering how inde depth the training and how long it takes and how do you know that um the the folks are um comprehending the training Katherine would you want to address the training yeah um so couple things um there is a training that every everyone returning to campus is taking all employees all faculty all staff are taking when they return to campus that training has been um translated into um five languages other than English um and um is being uh made available in a couple of different ways and it's hard to talk generally because there different strategies going on in infrastructure and safety than there are in student affairs um each area is sort of adjusting to meet the need the translation needs and the other needs of

[74:00] their populations but some of these trainings have been done um with social distancing in person um others have been done by printing out the material and then reviewing it um with the employees and when I say printing out in translated um translated so so that it's in their language um so it's been a combination of inperson um on some online and some um through through print and I don't I you know in terms of how are they evaluating the comprehension of that I I I I can't speak to that I don't actually know the answer to that um I will say that um these employees were working since the spring on campus many of them were off- campus um during the the break period um when the students were gone um and so

[75:01] they've they have been you know dealing with um the safety issues and their supervisors and these areas have been dealing with the safety issues really since day one I think I think we could probably get back to Mary on that point uh in terms of how they are evaluating it and and the Time by area because as Katherine says it's different to depending on where they are located in their duties and then actually I also did want to add that there is additional training for those that are doing specific cleaning um so safety measures around cleaning the sanitizers the materials um for the cleaning process I know um cleaning products have been bought um including I wrote it down because I knew I wouldn't remember it electrostatic disinfecting fogging units and power wash scrubbers for example example that limit the need to do hand cleaning for a lot of these Crews um and this is just normal cleaning I'm not

[76:00] talking about a contamination but just the the heightened need for cleaning during the P pandemic um and so there's also training that goes into proper sanitization techniques Etc and so you have folks that are watching making sure that all that is being properly um utilized I mean I wouldn't say that we're auditing of this if that's what you mean but what I would say is that um these Crews and their supervisors and their uplines are very dedicated to making sure that this this is occurring in a very safe way and I think um you know perhaps even the numbers that you're seeing reflect that okay thank you um which raises another question about um early on in the presid presentation you all mentioned that um about the Hippa filters in the HVAC systems and how all

[77:00] the buildings have been equipped with these hip of filters and um I'm wondering do the does the filtration system run 24 hours a day um or does it only run on certain schedules you know I can I don't know P if you can speak to that we're definitely not the experts on on that what I do know is that the buildings across campus have been evaluated for the amount of fresh clean air that is circulating throughout the buildings throughout the day the hours that the buildings are open and for people to be in them and that we're needed there have been um you know new Hippa filters Merv filters put in place where they evaluated that the um air circulation was inadequate um so the okay so it sounds like there's there's times when the

[78:00] filtration system may not be running and so I'm wondering if there are cleaning crews in there when the filtration system isn't running so in other words how are the Frontline staff the cleaning staff how are their their cleaning schedules being accommodated and is the air being filtrated when they're there as well as when the students are there I'd have to say that I'll have to check with our infrastructure and sustainability folks to look at the the schedules on when the the HVAC is running um and that's a a good question but I wouldn't want to give you an inaccurate answer off the without knowing it for sure yeah I would appreciate that um because you all mentioned I mean we we've all heard that the potential for infection is higher in indoors and if we're not running the HVAC system for everyone who could

[79:00] possibly be contaminated I think that is a very um um that could be contributing to some of the issues that we see with disproportionately affect affected populations um so I would appreciate a response for that to that um and then also about that I if I implied that they're not running at certain times I don't know that I know that they are or they are not um the one thing that I think is important to think about is that that the these employees are often in the same spaces for example the dorms that our students are living in um and so um I'm not I just don't know that that there's even a a distinction there um they're sort of circulating in the same buildings that that others are right and we also know that the Frontline staff are not being tested to the same frequency as students so um that could present an issue as well if they're living in the same spaces it

[80:00] seems to me they should be getting tested at the same frequency um and then I have a whole bunch of other questions but I'm going to um control myself a little bit here and um the you know in in one of the presentations um mentioned that um that you have um a no people aren't compelling to work and that um I think was the numbers were 51 and 149 and then you also gave some numbers for the emergency fund and how many people had applied and received um funds from the emergency fund and I'm wondering if you um disaggregate that data by um um by job um by job whether they're faculty Frontline staff or or or students and then um and then by race because I think that would be very telling as well especially since you don't test at the same frequency for

[81:04] everyone um I don't know that we have done it by race and or by job um again I'll point out that the majority um 248 out of 336 Awards went to our furl employees our fur employ employes were largely this population that we were talking about um they were supporting the students um keeping um the dorms clean Etc um and so when the students left this this population was furloughed um 248 then of those employees did receive the um emergency fund um applied and received the emergency fund out of the 336 that have been awarded to staff and the 20 before that have been awarded to faculty right um so I think it would be helpful to look at it to disaggregate it

[82:00] by race in ethnicity as well so um yeah that's all I have for now thank you Mary then we have Mark Rachel and juny Mark okay first I want to thank all of you for those presentations they were uh very very helpful uh particularly uh the information you've given us about the a more assertive approach to behaviors on the hill I know the residents up there have felt under siege for a long time and and this could be very very helpful my questions are are fairly simple um most of your students are obviously not on campus are there any particular protocols or programs for testing of those [Music] students I'm sorry Mark you cut out could you give me that again are there any particular programs or protocols for testing your off campus students not in terms of testing the whole off-campus population we don't have the capacity to do that who what we are

[83:00] doing is we're testing off campus students when they're identified through contact tracing or when as having been exposed or when we've identified them as being in a situation that poses a higher degree of risk okay um also you you indicated that um students who've engaged in prohibited parties uh violating social and medical protocols um uh can receive testing how many have actually of those individuals have actually requested a test so we've set up essentially some popup clinics for them to be able to to come in and receive that type of testing I can't give you the exact number off the top of my head but um I can look into the numbers for the off-campus population that have used it I'm curious and lastly um the concept of exclusion from campus how exactly does that

[84:00] work um I mean what is what is prohibited to someone who is excluded for two weeks from campus so Devin can you address that I'd be happy to address that so if you're excluded from campus for two weeks what that means is that you're not allowed to use any oncampus Services you're not allowed to attend classes um and that type of thing so if for those classes that are completely in person you're not able to attend those classes for two weeks for your classes that are online you are still able to attend those but you can't attend things like the UMC Etc the one thing we would make an exception for is if that student did need to be tested we would certainly give them access to testing facilities on campus how how is that monitored I mean if you just walk into a class is your name going to be on a list no your name's not going to be on a list but if you show up in any sort of event on on campus or or in class um and were aware of it you will likely get

[85:01] suspended and lose access to your education for the semester and I find that that's a pretty good deterrent for our students fair enough thank you I just want to jump in quickly and say that I've checked with our vice Chancellor of infrastructure and safety all Air F filtration systems run 24 hours a day thank you for that Francis and um yeah appreciate that just a a quick quick followup to Mark's questions um about the the students not being allowed back on campus um and the all inperson classes so are off-campus students coming on campus for in-person classes yes okay thank you and in fact we think that's a good way to keep them connected to the campus being reminded of the protocols you know whether they're coming in for specific classes or to study on campus and other things they have that access to the

[86:01] services that what Devon is essentially saying they would not have access to if they are excluded from campus but they aren't being um tested like the students that are living on campus that is true yes thank you all right thank you Mark um and Mary we have Rachel and juny Rachel thanks um my questions are uh also kind of similar to Mark's um so on the last point about being excluded from campus I guess I'm struggling to see how that would be a threat like can like for my son's classes who is a student at CU it's like on Tuesdays he goes onto campus and then Thursday he stays home so anytime you can kind of watch campus and so that just seems like a a question mark how much of a penalty is is it to lose out on going to campus for two weeks and and might that also as as people whose um job is also to safeguard the community

[87:00] just uh push more of that interaction into the community um without much penalty so that's confusing so Devin you may want to supplement there but this is part of what we need to be able to do for Progressive discipline in order to we don't want to jump immediately to ex including people from campus or suspending them on a on a permanent basis being able to be in a situation where we are putting in some interim sanctions in order to be able to address the seriousness of the conduct is a necessary step in order for us to be able to move to a higher degree of enforcement but Devon do you want to jump in on that no I'd like to Echo what you said and then um just make make the comment that um I I I've been talking to a lot of students on the hill I've been talking to a lot of houses um and that

[88:00] they want to continue their education um and I think any steps that we take to show them that we're taking this seriously are are important steps okay um thanks uh and then next just of of the positive tests that you've had and how many total have there been in the last been about a week that it's been I don't know what the time period is but since August 24th 25th how many total positives have there been let me check the dashboard and then of those I'm just wondering like how many of those tests were the result of people who were symptomatic versus just the required kind of mandatory testing and are any of those off- campus students and are they students and staff and faculty or is that all students I know you changed your dashboard today so I haven't I haven't been able to play around with it so I'm sorry if it's all self-explanatory right there it's all

[89:00] new to us too we're we're just getting adjusted so thanks for today hang on one [Music] second there it is sorry I thought that would be a softball like no I just want to make sure I just want to make sure I'm given the the right number um so it appears that um our cumulative total from August 15th to the present of confirmed positive PCR test results is 15 um I believe that there are is a mix of patients who were syndromic as well as those who were asymptomatic who were

[90:00] determined through surveillance but I can't give you the precise breakdown between uh which ones were symptom-driven and which ones were revealed in the surveillance testing and then confirmed by PCR I think that might be helpful for us to you know there's just so much Community concern over people off campus and and the lack of testing so if it were um the cased uh all 15 did you say it's only been 15 total any whatever the total is um if we could confirm whether it is people who are asymptomatic and and getting the mandatory testing versus people coming in symptomatic and especially if it includes any off-campus people taking advantage of um the availability I think that might help us to um know and hopefully rest assured that we're catching what we need to catch ideally oh okay and I need to be I need to correct one thing which is that 15 is

[91:00] the cumulative total from August 24th to the present um and that was our first day of classes okay that's all I had thanks thank you Rachel juny thank you Sam I just wanted to I have to question but before I start I just wanted to make a comment that is inspired by Mary's questions about the the health expectation test or the test that student have to take around covid-19 I had to take it as well because I'm a still a CU law student and I have to say it's a very rigorous test uh it's very you learn a lot I learned a lot about covid and how to and the type of precautions that I need to take so it was a very rigorous module and it took me a while to get through it but I learned a lot um my question is again I

[92:01] wanted to ask a question I don't have any classes on site even though I live here in Boulder some of the classes are hybrid so I was wondering because I think during the conversation I wonder are there any classes that are 100% on site like where all students have to be on site because I don't think at the law school I see any of my classes are 100% on site so I think Pat that would be for [Music] you I don't know if Pat is able to hear us um Pat can you hear us and maybe JB you can help us with this one but my understanding is uh we have hybrid we have online and we have some limited classes that are all in person

[93:02] but um very few so um and that tends to be the smaller ones um just because of the space limitations but JB maybe you can add into that conversation yeah um I would agree with that Francis and some of our students have chosen to uh to be in all remote classes and so um as Francis had mentioned that we do have you know a lot of students who are in a hybrid model you know they're taking some courses in person and taking some online so um there's there's sort of that that mixed U methodology of of taking courses and juny you're correct that some courses are all online that is the way they are being offered so depending on the mix you have selected you may have ended up that way yeah thank you I think my last question you talked about the emergency funding earlier I wonder um whether for let's say students that

[94:01] are financially poor uh if they get sick do you have a way to help them get back home let's say if they cannot stay on campus you have emergency funding for that as well did you mention that earlier I don't remember that it was two different funds Katherine was talking about the employee Relief Fund we do have also funds available for students on experiencing those type of circumstances and those type of travel related expenses would certainly be eligible um and we also had funding that was made available through the federal cares act program um that is available for students who are experiencing uh covid related hardships so there's there's different funding sources that are available to be able to address those contingencies and and and Pat can I add to that absolutely I've personally been overseeing the funding um that's available to DACA students and

[95:00] international students who um are prohibited by the federal government from access to car's funding um and we have a large sum of money for those students as well so that funding is available for all of our students regardless of whether or not they qualify for Car Act funding okay juny is that thank you Sam that was a really great presentation yep so I want to say thank you to see you for um letting us know how things are are working um there's obviously a great deal of community concern for um things like partying and I think that we will want to stay in touch with you as often as possible maybe even more than the once a month update so we look forward to keeping in touch about how how our situation is going to evolve going forward um so any

[96:00] information that you can provide to answer Mary's questions about um the staff would be great yeah we will follow up on that Sam and also um I do want to note that we've had some recent not going to count our chickens before they're hatch but we've had some recent Improvement in terms of the citations and parties on the Hill um it's a it's a slight you know Improvement so we're hoping that we'll continue and we're going to do some work for um to make sure that parties don't get out of hand as much as we are able this weekend coming weekend because we're very sensitive to that and we appreciate that this is an ongoing issue so we are more than happy to come and have these regular conversations um however you would like and if you have any specific questions in the interim just send them on over to me and we will get to the answer and thank you for inviting yes yep and so Mary I think you were holding yourself back um if you have more questions that you would like to send out to see you

[97:01] and all of us it'd be really great to hear the answers so yeah I'll I'll check my list and and send some on to Francis and um also I just um I find the just the the difference in frequency of testing between the Frontline workers and the students um a little um I guess disturbing and um just in terms of everything that we're hearing right now about the inequities that these particular types of employees have seen throughout this whole um pandemic and I would hope that you make an effort to make things a little more um on par for everyone thank you great all right thank you everyone and I think we are on to the Native American rights fund declaration Mary it's back to

[98:01] you all right um I want to welcome John eohw if he's here um he is let me promote him to panelist if you'd like him to be able to speak yes please well thank you he was here I do not see him at the moment in our attendee list let me again [Music] okay I apologize Mary I don't see him in our list at the moment all right well maybe

[99:01] he um he had to leave I did say that it was going to be at the beginning of the meeting so I will Begin by reading um the Declaration and um it is the Native American rights fund 50th anniversary in 1970 the Native American rights fund narf was organized as the national Indian legal defense fund to address the lack of legal counsel for Indian tribes organizations and individuals today we celebrate 50 years of this nonprofit organization its resilient staff and their work advancing tribal sovereignty treaty rights natural resource protection and Indian education however the need to protect Native American Rights far predates 1970 their displacement in the United States arguably began in 1492 with the arrival of Christopher

[100:01] Columbus since then western expansion efforts have created tensions which threatened the rights and safety of hundreds of native tribes that continued to reside here over centuries of legal battles Indian law emerged as the complex body of law which is used to govern relations between the federal government state governments and tribal governments nar's attorneys provide legal representation on important cases to preserve tribal existence protect tribal natural resources promote Native American human rights hold governments accountable to Native Americans and to develop and educate the public on Indian law so committed to this cause many of their staff have experienced salary freezes and sacrificed years of vacations to ensure continued funding for case litigation from 1970 to today narf has

[101:04] represented more than 250 tribes and have concentrated on existing laws and treaties taking on cases where those rights are threatened Boulder is proud to serve as the headquarters of this impressive organization and stands with them in the continued effort to protect the native the rights of native people the city council of the city of Boulder recognizes the 50 years of great achievements made by the contributors and staff of the Native American rights fund we urge all community members to join us in honoring their work on behalf of tribes and Native people who despite the many challenges they have in endured and continue to endure are some of the strongest and most resilient among us thank you

[102:01] Mary and is Mr echohawk in the meeting well I'm sorry um we missed him here um he was actually um the founder and one of the first um people to to graduate or Native Americans to graduate with a law degree from um the University of New Mexico and um and saw that there was no legal representation for Native Americans and um started this organization or was one of the founders in 50 years ago so um Kudos they recently won a big um victory at this at the um Supreme Court and so they're on their map and um we're proud to have them here in the city of Boulder thank you Mary and then next um I think council member sleck is going to um read something for pollinator appreciation

[103:01] month Sam just a sec there is a gentleman whose last name is D or maybe first name from the Native Americans rights fund who sent us a Q&A saying that he could speak on behalf of the organization see him let me bring him on in he is in your meeting now D are you here D can I mute yes can can you see me thank you yes okay I apologize for that I was trying to get to a little bit better of a signal let's try right

[104:02] here very good you are on okay yeah I'm I'm not quite sure I apologize uh for the technical difficulties John must be having but uh obviously on the on behalf of the Native American rights fund we're extremely grateful for the city of Boulder I think uh Boulder has been a wonderful Community to uh our organization uh we've been great partners with CU for 50 years and uh I know that we've accomplished a lot in the in the 50 years that we've been in existence and I'm I'm sure we still have a lot to look forward to in the next 50 years uh I wouldn't think that in this time of challenging racial Equity issues that our work has uh found an end on by any means uh but we look forward to

[105:00] continuing the work uh on behalf of tribal communities throughout the United States well thank you for being here thank you for saying that and thanks for all the work that Native American rights fund has done over the years so absolutely it's been our pleasure thank you all thank you okay Adam over to you thank you Sam um I try to continue the tradition of uh dressing up for this particular Proclamation so um since I am in the honey business uh I work at a small local honey company here in Boulder I figured I'd Dawn one of our suits for this um and I really do miss the dozens of people Who come out dressed in their bee outfits you know that was always a highlight of the year so um we'll give this a shot as we have it though so um Boulder County's 550

[106:01] native be species butterflies hummingbirds beetles flies and other pollinators maintain the health and beauty of our grasslands forests Meadows and other natural areas native pollinators and honeybees are indispensable Partners in the production of our food supply pollinators are essential for the diverse and driving ecosystems that support all life around the world pollinators and a majority of insects are declining precipitously this is placing our food security natural environment and human well-being in Peril urgent action is required by all of us we must respond to the biodiversity crisis we must develop Innovative and Equitable solutions to transform our food system we must provide highquality wildlife habitat in both Urban and natural lands and we must act now as our community enjoys the Bountiful Autumn Harvest and as we see the Regeneration of our natural lands from

[107:01] the tire tireless work of pollinators the city council and the city of Boulder Colorado declares September 2020 pollinator appreciation month and commits to taking action by collaborating with Boulders residents businesses and organizations to join together to protect pollinators and all the biodiversity for current and future Generations super and is there a video 2020 marks of fifth year of Boulders pollinator appreciation [Music] month it All Began back in the spring of 2014 when Melody Kapa neighbors an Bliss Molly GRE and David wheeler decided to take action after learning about pollinator Decline and the role of neonicotinoid insecticides they formed bsafe Boulder and within a few weeks of

[108:01] going door Todo convinced over 150 of their neighbors to pledge not to use neonicotinoids soon after their friend the late Janet Kilby formed another bsafe neighborhood in South Boulder and Leslie radica followed in East Boulder in 2015 B safe Boulder asked city council to officially ban neonicotinoids on city property Council as staff to hold a series of educational and fun events to inform the community with much excitement and Fanfare including a parade down Pearl Street and into council chambers pollinator appreciation month was born City departments CU nonprofits and businesses have come together to educate the community about the importance of biodiversity conservation through film premieres lectures Garden And Hive tours and the B Boulder family [Music]

[109:05] Festival the be Chas are key Partners who help plan and run pollinator events care for the libraries beehives and offer workshops through the library to people of all ages about Native pollinators gardening and honeybees pollinator appreciation month led to the boulder pollinator Garden Project which includes pollinator plantings on City properties pollinator pathway neighborhoods local businesses donating plants for volunteers to create pollinator Gardens and new initiatives like small gardens big change where dozens of seniors who are self-isolating to protect themselves from Co exposure are growing native plants from seeds that will later be installed to create pollinator hubs and corridors throughout the city due to covid-19 the B Boulder Festival is being held as a virtual event on Saturday September 12th in addition to activities and entertainment

[110:01] for kids top experts will be providing information workshops and answering questions about pollinators gardening native plants growing local food everything you could possibly want to learn about improving landscaping for people and for pollinators learn more at bbold .org and happy pollinator appreciation month that is awesome that is great who who made that film so I don't know but um I believe the narrator was our own re Abernathy and I'm sure that re worked with B Boulder to create it awesome well congratulations so um and then I think we're up to a public hearing next right yes we are debie yes yes we are we have the

[111:01] public hearing um it's a second reading and consideration of a motion to adopt ordinance 8383 which are the amendments to the mobile homes ordinance and Kurt Fern hobber and Crystal laer will present this matter uh good evening Council um so Boulder has a long history of progressive and Forward Thinking policies um and ordinance that improve the safety livability and Investments uh for residents of manufactured home communities Tonight We are continuing these efforts in an incremental approach and I'd like to thank the residents of the manufactured home communities in our city as well as the owners of those parks for contributing to this work through their inputs so this evening I'll introduce Crystal La she'll be doing the presentation and she oversees uh much of this work in the city she's been supported by Brenda rittenau um who assist with the Outreach

[112:01] of this and Aaron Poe with the city attorney's office is also on this evening um for any questions in that direction as well so I will hand it over to Crystal thank you Kurt good evening council members I'm krsta laer housing planner um and project man manager of the manufactured housing strategy let's see here tonight I will start by providing some background on manufactured housing laws that apply in Boulder how this ordinance relates to the manufactured housing strategy adopted around the same time last year and then touch on community engagement that informed the ordinance from there I will provide an overview of the key elements of the ordinance before I ask Council to consider consider adoption I will overview homeowner concerns regarding challenges some are encountering selling mobile homes issues currently not um

[113:00] addressed in the ordinance the next two slides include key advancements in manufactured housing policy items in teal exist locally the other items exist at the state level in 1991 the state mobile home park Act was enacted it was updated in 2010 locally two manufactured housing ordinances 8043 and 8216 have been enacted in The Last 5 Years these ordinances introduced landlord tenant protections that did not exist at the state level these include protections against the prohibition of sale of manufactured homes um manufactur Ed before 1976 protections against ex um excessive upgrades assigning the responsibility for tree maintenance to the community owner a

[114:03] right to privacy a Prohibition against retaliation and a mediation requirement manufactured housing policy has evolved a lot in the last two years at the state level City staff at the direction of council along with many others supported development and passage of three successful bills sponsored by representative Ed hooton these three bills introduced um a funded staffed State dispute resolution and enforcement program um for the mobile home park act it clarified and updated the mobile home park act and established the opportunity for residents to purchase a mobile home park locally the city adopted the manufactured housing strategy which includes guiding principles and a two-year action plan which we will touch

[115:01] on ordinance 8383 would Advance the manufactured housing strategy action plan adoption of the ordinance would address the topics of enforcement communication and information access key themes during strategy development one second the strategies for guiding principles were applied in developing the ordinances the ordinance these principles are affordability which is supporting manufactured housing to serve as an affordable market rate home ownership opportunity accountability the city's ordinances will have clearly defined and practical enforcement that the affected parties can use especially manufactured home Community residents Community programs and resources will be employed to support the needs of diverse

[116:00] manufactured home Community residents and viability manufactured homes in manufactured home communities will be safe well-maintained and able to be modernized related to uh [Music] um I apologize as we noted earlier the topics addressed in this ordinance are from the manufactured housing strategy action plan and informed by engagement that occurred through development of the strategy in preparation for this ordinance coming to council City staff provided all stakeholders with the opportunity to provide additional input on the ordinance um on online engagement included a beared boulder input form two homeowner events um one set up to engage English speakers and one for Spanish speakers and um City staff also received

[117:02] input through phone messages and emails and then between first and second reading additional um updates were made to the ordinance based on additional feedback from manufactured home Community residents and Community owners so now we will overview the ordinance touching on not repealing the state enacted provisions and what is actually included in the ordinance as we go through this section please note that the key guiding principles are found in the lower right hand corner of each Slide the first reading ordinance had included repeal of the three local Provisions that were recently enacted at the state level the rationale was that a funded staff and uniquely trained program would

[118:00] better support resolution of issues and enforcement complications would be reduced but mobile home owners raised concerns related to the high initial case load in the dispute resolution and enforcement program staff contacted staff at the dispute resolution and enforcement program and confirmed there was a high initial case load additional demands um on program staff from rule making for the two new laws and that the program will not be fully staffed until later this year or early 2021 so repeal of these Provisions is not included in the ordinance and the staff uh proposal is to revisit these topics later both staff and community members um have experienced some challenges navigating enforcement related to chapter 1012 mobile homes the ordinance updates um

[119:02] enforcement by changing the hearing body um from the board of building building appeals or Board of zoning adjustments to Municipal Court Municipal Court would be a better would be better able to support hearings related to landlord tenant issues than uh the board of zoning adjustments or Board of building appeals oops sorry got ahead of myself it would also allow enforcement staff to determine if mediation is appropriate in a given situation currently mediation is mandatory to all of chapter 1012 mobile homes which began as a as a building code section so before it was uh included landlord tenant Provisions um it was primarily Prim arily building codee um provisions and then finally um it would allow the hearing officer to decide whether a party's failure to mediate should be considered in assigning

[120:01] penalties currently failure to mediate results in an automatic presumption that the offering party prevails in a hearing um situations can arise when um where it may not be appropriate to assign a penalty for non-participation and this is particularly true now that local um code has overlap with State Law related to communication the ordinance would require that when providing a lease rules and regulations and any notice required by the lease Community owners would provide a notice in multiple languages that the city has language access resources available related to information access new tenants would be provided with information on the five-year history of rent increases for the lot they would be

[121:01] moving on to fees for late payments or Dishonored checks pet occupancy restrictions and deposits and use fees connected to facilities and amenities all tenants would be provided with 60 days notice when possible if the dimensions of the lot they live on were to change um a common situation where this issue arises is when a neighboring home is exchanged for a larger home finally rent receipts would be required immediately when a homeowner pays in person with cash or money order or a homeowner um who has received a notice of non-payment of rent pays in person and a rent receipt would also be provided within seven business days any any time any Resident requests that receed um there are a few other Provisions that don't really fall into those categories um one of those um is that um

[122:04] new language in the legislative intent is is proposed to be added to explain the purpose of the landlord tenant Provisions in this chapter and also language that informs any individual that would be referencing our local code um that there is additional regulation at the state level of mobile homes additionally um rule making Authority would be added to enable staff to provide detailed guidance um such as determining into Which languages the language access notice must be translated as council members are aware a large amount of homeowner Fe feedback to council has focused on concerns about home sales being made difficult or being discouraged these concerns include delays informing homeowners selling their homes of required um improvements

[123:02] for home sale delays processing applications of prospective home buyers and Improvement requirements changing over time also um current homeowners being required to address conditions that are on the lot and that pre-existed that homeowner living on that lot staff received a proposal last Tuesday by homeowners of changes they would like to see to two code Provisions 10225 the limitation on the prohibition sales of mobile homes and 10226 limitation on required upgrades to existing mobile homes residents have expressed that they need more time with their proposal um staff also would need more time with all stakeholders and to coordinate internally with staff with a staff team to develop ordinance

[124:01] language and I will end with the uh motion to adopt language for ordinance 8383 and I invite questions thank you thank you very much council members questions so I see no hands Rachel yeah um thank you for that presentation um is it um your recommendation that we pass this ordinance tonight but then you would go Circle back and we would come back with another one to address the um sales related concerns so staff's proposal is that we would um adopt um 8383 because um based on the feedback that we've re that I've seen um that's been received it's focused primarily on adding um additional items or addressing

[125:01] additional items that aren't in ordinance 8383 rather than issues with 8383 um so the staff proposal is that we you know quickly kind of um get into the mode of working with residents and other stakeholders um as well um as working within the city team to try to get something um to that would could potent be passed this year so I I think um I'm understanding that these are sort of two um separate issues and that we can pass 8383 and then we can work on another one yet in 2020 to address the other concerns y That's my understanding okay thanks for clarifying thank you Mary and then Mark Mary thank you Crystal for that presentation I just have one question with regards to um the new tenant information um that is to be provided

[126:02] how will um the city know that that is actually occurring so the new tenant information requirements um I think it would it would it would depend on um a complaint happening it weren't to happen so so the complaint um would have to be something like I they they have a pet for instance and um and then they are told that they can't have a pet and so the complaint would be I was never told I couldn't have a pet is that how we would find out um yeah that could be one way certainly it could be item by item um I've also um just from kind of watching how the mobile home park act um dispute resolution and

[127:00] enforcement program is getting up and running I'm seeing that there's also um comp complaints happening um when people know that notices should be provided or posting should happen and they're not seeing evidence of them um would it be PR iCal to require some sort of a um signage at at the the office um to that says in addition to the notification being given to them that there's also like a poster size notification or something for new tenants or um that they would require that they would be receiving that information that that it would be available just for anyone who walks into the office and and sees that posted would it be um feasible to do that so anybody in addition to new um new ten yeah it would just be a

[128:01] poster in in the uh leasing office or something that that included that information I mean it's POS yeah that is um we could look into that um and that would certainly require um a further work on ordinance 8383 yeah if if so you're saying it would be um and I'm sorry I hadn't thought of this before but um it would be it would take it to third reading is that what you're saying that's correct yes so Mary if I could just add on to that as well so a um a a a manual has been developed for uh residents of who live in in manufacturing home communities um that has been updated and it will be updated again uh once this ordinance passes and um that's widely available and known within the residents um of these

[129:00] communities and and that's that information will be included in their kind of front and center or something when the manual is updated yeah oops the manual would um um you know all of the aspects of their um and the expectations um that are laid out in the in our various ordinances as well as the at the state level thank you great Mark and then Aon Mark yeah thanks for that presentation um I note from the the memo that we ended up with four comments uh nine attendees uh on Zoom meetings and a dozen emails is there anything we can do to get a a more robust um public participation in this process um it seems 1300 household rather anemic response um how do we do better Mark I

[130:01] think one of the challenges we're facing is that we're actually competing with a lot of activity at this level at this point um we're also competing with covid last year when we were developing the manufactured housing strategy we had um a lot more robust participation I I think people also kind of understood this maybe um there there have been rule making there's been rule making activity happening um at the state level also the um uh dispute resolution and enforcement program has been getting up and running so I just I think um as much as anything it's a bandwidth issue that from my perspective um rather than a lack of um Outreach I mean certainly a challenge um at this time is that we are um you know entirely relying on remote connection to households and can you just go over one item for me um the deletion of the penalty for failure to

[131:02] mediate how is that helpful to the tenants um that's beneficial to tenants because um in one way one way that it can be beneficial is that really either a mobile home park owner or a mobile home park uh our mobile homeowner um could be the party that offers and in this and I've observed um pretty consistent use by some Community owners of um our mediation services so that could be one way it could benefit um another way um that that I think it's important is that we're about ready to enter um a situation where we will be enforcing the same code Provisions as exist at the the um in state law and so um there there will start to have some conflicting um enforcement happening and I'm already seeing some of that and and

[132:00] lastly you know look many of the emails that we received were were uniform in their concerns about res on restrictions on sale if we are passing this ordinance tonight are are we getting a commitment that these issues are going to be addressed in the next round or is it just maybe um I Kurt I would want you to kind of weigh in on that if you could please okay Kurt you're on the hot SE so our work plan on this is directed by you as Council um however our staff perspective and looking at these um issues which have mostly come up over the last week um we um I think we're in agreement that um their concerns are valid need to be addressed um however addressing them with the with an approach that works um and um can be implemented is is is important and we we don't want to rush into that process

[133:02] we're reluctant to try to throw some wording onto this ordinance to get that resolved and we've also heard from residents that they also understand that this is a an issue that will take some time to figure out how it's implemented um so certainly staff is committed to it I must say that we have a lot on our plate right now um we're also owners of a of a manufactured home community that we're uh putting new infrastructure into right now um we you know Crystal has been very involved with um the work at the state level as well we're committed to it but we need to work it into um our our workload as well okay I'm I'm urging you to do so because um we are getting a number of responses on that issue and I think we ought to address it I I understand not trying to tack something on to this statute which is ready to go

[134:00] um but I don't want to lose sight of what I think is perhaps a larger set of issues thanks thank you Mark Erin yeah thanks Crystal for that excellent presentation and uh for both you and Kurt on working so hard on this to increase the protections for our manufactured housing residents here in town uh my question was ended up being a followup to Marks which which was Kurt all totally understand what you're were saying about workload and such like that and you guys need to be able to have the time to uh work on this carefully but do you have a rough sense of what kind of a time frame it might look like to come back to with another round uh we did talk about that this afternoon um we we would want to get to it if we can in 2020 um and um uh I think we'll know better once we dive into it but we believe that it's um

[135:00] that that would be a a schedule that we would we would try to work with in good so something like a few months so it's not a two-year thing or something like that no not at all great thanks for that to hear great well thank you all um I think we're ready to move to um public comment I think Sarah may have something she wants to help us out with Sarah thank you we have had a few members of the community join us since we started our meeting so before people testify just like to quickly make sure people know how to select the right channel if you're listening in English or Spanish so um this slide which I could not pull up previously shows you um the little Globe like interpretation button on the right hand corner of the slide it should be on the horizontal menu on your screen if you click on it you can choose English or Spanish so if you are a Spanish speaker and you would like to address Council please choose Spanish

[136:02] and our interpreter will translate or interpret the language of Spanish back into English so our council members can understand and um hear from you tonight the next slide Chris Chris can you advance to the next slide it's not liking us tonight let me get uh this not to go forward for some reason there we go okay so we just encourage everybody who's speaking to understand that with an interpretation there are some best practices that can help us all understand each other we're going to ask for individuals to speak slowly clearly pronounce your words and it sometimes helps to stop and take a breath in between your sentences we are going to ask the people

[137:01] not interrupt just because it gets confusing for our interpreter if you own a headset with a microphone please use it if you speak English and Spanish both we're going to ask you to choose your language tonight and try your best to stick with that one language and we're all going to avoid using idioms or phrases that might be very difficult to translate also just as a reminder to community members who are testifying you'll be testifying by voice only so we will not turn on your video camera but when the mayor calls your name I will toggle a button that allows you to unmute yourself and begin speaking with that I think we are ready to go to our list of speakers for the evening thank you Chris very good thank you Chris thank you Sarah um our first three speakers are Lyn seagull Tanya Petty and Mark Robins

[138:05] Lynn you should be able to unmute now Lynn can I go to last um Lyn Lynn you're up yeah three minutes can I go to last may I go to last no you're up now so I was just waiting for an answer yes um I'd be concerned if there's anything that's going to further perpetrate housing and land cost in Boulder for these people um I know that I mix it up between Ponderosa and Panorama four cbls each but I know they one of the women there had really tended to the gardening really nicely and had a very nice Landscaping situation and then was ruined because of the upgrading and I

[139:00] know that there's flood issues there Kurt and that they had to have certain remediations that were done but I think people should be compensated when they put a lot of their heart and energy into their property that they're using anyway and that they're paying rent on for many years and um I'd hope that all those kind of Provisions could be made in other you know in a broader ordinance of of the mobile home community in interest of providing this vital resource to the community especially in times of a lot of evictions and now that older housing Partners is not going to be um required to pay their $75 and there's going to be a lot of eviction sprw there um that are unsupported and this is um a long-term problem as we approve more and more like the liquor mart and the higher end Market housing in Boulder causes more and more of a um impact on this

[140:01] demographic so um and I understand there's infrastructure issues and everything else but you know when we all do better we all do better and um I think one way to really better equalize wealth in this community and stop chasing our tales about homelessness and affordable housing is to put more constraints on these higher end um building projects that are going on I saw one last week on planning board for you know out in the flats um you know East Boulder Area Industrial Area and you know now our parking spaces are getting to be 50 to $200,000 a space and we're talking about homel people living in parking lots you know so it's a big deal to keep the people in the mobile home Community happy with what they're doing um which is a really good thing um under

[141:00] difficult situations and especially to keep their rents down and they um you know I know there's Bad actors too and that's fine but um there really have to be a protected class and that's that's it I'm done thanks thank you ly so next we have Tanya Petty who I believe has withdrawn so after Tanya is Mark Robbins Renee hmel and Amy Bo um Mark Mark you should be able to unmute yourself now well Mark is still showing as muted um I don't know if he's having technical difficulty let me see if I can unmute him from my

[142:04] end that is not working so let's move to our next speaker and Mark if you can see if you can resolve your microphone issues so you can unmute oh I think you're unmuted or you were for a moment let's come back to Mark in a few moments if we could sure next is Renee haml Renee you should be able to unmute now okay I've unmuted uh can you hear me we can is there any feedback for my speakers or anything no no okay all right so this is Rene this Village Boulder and unfortunately I had a computer glitch and the notes I had written to speak out to you are now gone except for what I already sent you so um first I just want to thank um Council

[143:00] for your attention to manufactured home communities um the and staff and Council all the work on the process around 8383 the mobile home strategy U I really appreciate that um I'm grateful for um the those certain Provisions are not being repealed now so thank you very much for all that um this issue around um invest Village especially the selling of homes in Orchard Grove um it's more I think buying of homes um what really brought it to the Forefront I'm I'm the vice president of our homeowners association here and people talk to me about things and also working with seob I I hear things and just of late uh the numerous Stories the distress the suffering um people actually describe describe it as trauma like this one woman I talked to on the phone yesterday you know people have moved out they're not here to testify you know she's she's off in another state and she says I almost don't want to talk about it

[144:00] because I'm literally trying to heal from the trauma of selling and moving out of this Village um another woman has you know these like physical symptoms that come up when I talk with her about it um and they say well we should stop talking she like no no I want to share my story but um yeah so it's just it's really come so much to the Forefront that people really are suffering from things that are happening and and you've seen the the emails and you know more detail on what's Happening and the the requests that are being made are in line with what people are experiencing um so I just really really really want to say that uh this is an area that needs to be addressed um some parts of it I know can't be fixed through ordinance but some things can and those things that can be helped by ordinance um I really hope that it can happen soon I I understand what they're saying about adopting 8383 now which you

[145:02] know I I can understand that part of me doesn't like it because it's like well if you have something open on your to-do list at the top it's more likely to get done but um I also realized this on the one hand came up late I I did actually wrote to the subject in an engagement meeting back in mid July but um there have been many many other issues and um it just it didn't happen to come together um for inclusion here so uh whatever can be done to advance that issue as soon as possible um I would very much appreciate it and so would many many homeowners here because there are people who will be selling soon or are in process now and having difficulty now so thank you for your time and um look forward to what um can happen thank you thank you Renee um so Sarah do we have Mark back we can give him a try again let just give him one more try and then we'll move on to Amy B and Tony pton it

[146:03] appears he we can yeah I guess I'm gonna have to hold down the space key uh to un just to be unmuted but um you may need to press that key again because you just um went back to mute I'm afraid holding down the space key is a way to address the issue hello can you hear me we can yeah the problem is when when I when I transfer over to my uh my speech it um uh it seems to lose you've muted yourself again Mark I'm

[147:00] afraid I'm afraid you may need to um press the space button and just address Council um without your speech if you need to go to a different screen okay why don't we move move on to Amy B and Tony pton and we'll come back to Mark at the end so Amy you should be able to unmute Amy hello this is Amy Bo from Bo Law Offices we can hear you oh wonderful um I am an attorney that represents um a number of mobile home parks um Boulder Meadows being one of them the first thing I'd like to say is just to thank Crystal for working with the manufactured home communities and

[148:01] talking um through this ordinance and what it means particularly in light in the amount of State regulation that is going on right now the mobile home park was amended in 2019 and 2020 as well as in the 2019 Amendment creating that DOA oversight program which is where tenants and also Park owners can go if they have complaints and we worked a lot with the city to make sure there wasn't duplication and to make sure that what you guys were proposing to do would uh work number one and not be duplicative so thank you very much Crystal for that um particularly in light of the translation services I think the compromise is a great way for many parks have many different types of languages spoken in their park and this will address the needs Beyond just the Spanish speakers so thank you again I would also like to address the idea of additional regulation as was mentioned

[149:00] today over um somehow regulating the sell of the park or sell of a home in a park that is an addition to already regulations at the state level and as we go forward in this process I would just like to remind everyone about all that regulation I just said about a minute ago we need a little time to breathe and see how it works for example right now at the state level for 38-12 d214 the recent Amendments have dealt with the issue of rule changes after a tency has began I noticed that crystal said one of the issues brought up before her is this idea of well you're selling your house now in 20 2020 when you moved in in 200 um 1 you weren't required to have the purple Hedges that well that has been addressed and indeed under the new statutes it is deemed unreasonable a

[150:01] new rule is now deemed unreasonable on its face value if it has been enacted after a tenant signed its lease it also provides for a 60-day process if a rule is being proposed for a resident to go to the DOA program so I would just ask you please be mindful that your regulations don't duplicate or hinder what's been going on um you know advocated by representative hooton for now two years going forward and um let's just work together as a community and once again Crystal thank you um I thought this was um a very pleasant and fruitful public interaction on this ordinance thank you Amy next we have Tony Payton and then we'll go back to Mark Robbins tnie good evening can you hear me we can oh super so I apologize first of all if

[151:02] my dogs are barking in the background um my name is Tony Payton I'm the executive director for the Rocky Mountain Home Association we represent the manufactured and modular home industry in Colorado um first and foremost I would like to recognize Crystal and Brenda and Kurt for all of their efforts um as they've worked through just the the strategy in general and all of the ordinances and the interactions that they have worked on for it feels like a really long time now but it's probably just been a couple years um I would like to acknowledge them and their openness and their willingness to um interact with us um and as Amy mentioned just considering our input when it really when it comes to this ordinance language and modifying

[152:01] the language um specifically one piece is the receipt language there's already a state law specific to receipt requirements and just the consideration that that be duplicated at the local level is appreciated just so that business owners landlords Etc aren't trying to figure out what the state is requiring and what the local jurisdiction is requiring Etc everybody is streamlined um we all appreciate that and so I want to acknowledge all of them for that um and also one piece that was mentioned earlier is is the the key component that uh the city of Boulder is also a community owner now and and so that makes the entire ordinance super unique not only to the Private Industry

[153:00] but also to the city because when we're talking about the sale of homes which I I I was sadden to see the communication today about the residents that were going to testify on behalf of the I guess the inability to sell their homes um because of challenges in their communities Etc that that the the ordinance that was passed a number of years ago has not addressed those issues um those now apply to the city of Boulder and the city owned property of Ponderosa so I I just ask that when it comes to those situations we all work together to to determine the best policy for the region so that it it works with the city and the land owners and the residents collectively so that we all um really get the the best outcome for

[154:02] everybody so um I mean that in a nutshell that's really my request is that the the sales piece I don't even know what the the complaints are because I thought that the inspection report Etc was a a benefit for both buyers and sellers but apparently that might not be working T thank you thank you your time is up okay thank you thank you and so Mark Robbins one more time yeah am I on muted now you are you are okay uh can you hear me we can uh can you hear me yes we

[155:03] can hello we can hear you mark [Music] hello Mark it appears that you cannot hear us hear you we can hear you so it looks as if we have technical difficulty can you can you hear me now yes okay good uh I'll begin sorry uh council members I'm here to concur with those asking for a delay uh in adopting 8383 so we can include meaning fixes to loopholes that some Park owners seem to be exploiting in recent months why is this happening now uh here's my theory the state law is pretty strict about

[156:00] prohibiting Park owners from profiting off of or interfering with the sale of a home within the park the park cannot require a seller to use one particular agent over another the park cannot accept bribes kickbacks from a real estate to favor the sale of their homes and the park must treat every buyer of a home equally when it comes to requiring them to meet certain standards in order to sign a lease and become a resident but there are still loopholes that the park can insisting on Draconian and and reasonable changes to the home porch Etc is one way to make a sale harder delaying things and coming up with new last minute requirements is is another eventually the seller who may be moving out of town or out of state may give up and be forced to abandon the home or sell it to the park suggested real estate company at a fraction of its market value uh the real estate company

[157:01] and this is things things happen can then remove the home and bring in a new one to sell and make even more money and the park can thereby circumvent the boulder la which allows older homes to remain in the park and be sold as long as they habitability requirements another possible reason for the recent Shenanigans by Park owners is simply that with the new state and city laws the playing field has been leveled and it's harder for par to keep residents fearful and intimidated yes this has been the modus operand for some but not all Park owners for decades thus the lack lackness around buying and selling has become a new L loophole for some Park owners to mess with the homeowners and to keep them fearful and on their toes for these reasons allow us to continue to work on this bill and to create some better protections at least in bilder if not on the state level thank you thank you Mark okay that will um

[158:02] close the public hearing and we'll bring this back to council um I don't see any hands up uh I think we could either do a motion or begin discussion really I think um it makes sense that um to follow staff's recommendation to go ahead and pass 8383 and then my preference would be to give staff direction to come back with revisions to the sale of mobile homes ordinance um prior to the end of the year that's all I have okay good Mark uh basically what she said um I would like to give that direction to

[159:01] staff and on that basis I'm prepared to support the passage of 8383 this evening great would you like to make a motion uh I move pass ordinance 8383 um revising certain practices in our uh manufactured home parks as indicated in the uh attached statute is there a second second okay thank you Adam any discussion if not let's have a show of hands just raise your hand on camera if you'd like to pass 8383 that looks unanimous to me so 83 83 passes and I think not that need to be a

[160:02] roll call okay thank you [Music] Debbie sorry I couldn't find the unmute button um council member wallik hi brend yes Joseph Brocket hi Weaver yes Yates yes young yes Nel hick yes unanimous very good so I think we're on to open comment now correct

[161:01] correct very good um the first three on open comment that I have are Shelly Dunbar cars pmiller and Riley manuso Shelly Shelly you should be able to unmute thank you my name is Shelley Dunbar I live at 305 Hollyberry Lane in Boulder I want to start off by thanking city council for previously passing the our mayor our choice ballot measure 72 at first reading we're asking you to stay that course and let the voters decide if they want to vote for the biggest election reform Boulders had in Generations it will be a huge step in evolving our election system to make it a more just inclusive and diverse form of government we have three years to work on with the county clerk's office and the state to iron out the process for implementation most cities have

[162:01] implemented rank Choice voting in far less time so this isn't a stretch in the event that we aren't ready by 2023 we would fully support Council asking the voters for more time some say this is a year Year too soon we feel now is the time as it's a commitment to Boulder residents that we're serious about increasing voter turnout creating greater inclusion reducing political polarization and giving voters more CH voice on Election reform does Boulder want to lead or to follow do we choose to wait hoping that Denver pays the paves the way for us or do we lead a new wave of election reform across the state by pass passing the our mayor our choice ballot measure Boulder is not alone in its pursuit of election reform Senator Michael Bennett is working on a legislation that would provide Financial Resources for communities to cover the expenses of changing their election systems our state legislature is also

[163:02] taking up a similar bill for Colorado on top of that right now Denver is currently working with the state to implement rank Choice voting for both its mayor and council elections in 2023 the county clerk senor letter to council I do believe RCV is coming and I would like for my team to help shape the implementation on a timeline that sets us up to be a successful as possible we couldn't agree more we asked that Council pass this measure so the city can work over the next thank you Shelley next we have cars Piller Riley manuso and James dun cars am I on you are carer PhD animal ecologist and ethologist the proposed plan to remove one quarter of all prairie dogs on City open school largely by killing them with carbon monoxide is overreaching

[164:00] unconscionable and unscientific the plan is not in line with the conscience of our city where residents pay for open space to live near abundant Wildlife that is treated humanely public comments to you our elected representatives have largely been in opposition to the proposed plan and in support of a common sense more balanced option that would minimize the killing concerned residents are standing up they are shouting to you that the plan as is is just not right tonight you have the opportunity to make the plan better by supporting keth Boulder Wild's win-win option that was painstakingly created with all interest in mind among other Provisions our proposed amendments would provide that any lethal control before any lethal control stakeholders and staff would analyze each parcel to determine where non-lethal and lethal methods would be most effective the key is that knowledgeable stakeholders must be engaged in the analysis to add science

[165:02] and experience we must trust in what where why and how we are killing Wildlife before we do so also the special permit would be used only on properties identified for lethal control through the stakeholders analysis that I mentioned we also ask that staff consider outside funding and resources to increase the number of animals relocated to the southern grasslands and to support coexistent strategies Jane Goodall recently said quote we meaning all living things are all connected if we don't get that lesson from this pandemic then maybe we never will unquote so please approve keep older white 's amendments to show that we have indeed learned something thank you thank you cars next Riley manuso James Duncan elen Wilson

[166:06] Riley hello we can hear you right yes we can okay hi um so I would like to ask the council um how many of you support uh Trump's uh racist immigration policies how many of you want a wall built across the southern border um and I want to ask that of of the broader residents of Boulder as well because all of us are living on the stolen and occupied lands of the you arapo and cheyen people um and many of you are landlords and using the laws of this colonizing government you claim ownership over this land unseeded by the treaty of fort laramy um and yet I hear nonstop complaints and

[167:00] targeting by Boulder Police of unhoused individuals in this community who are disproportionately themselves immigrants black or indigenous people um and I hear and I hear them stereotyped as Outsiders to our community from people like Tom Carr of Seattle Maris formerly of Cincinnati Jane Bram of Dublin Ohio Bob Yates of Omaha Mark wallik of New York Mary young of Texas Adam Fick of Green Bay juny Joseph of Porto Prince Rachel friend of Indiana Sam Weaver of wherever he came from which he's hiding well and Kurt ferer whose Exodus to South Africa for 16 years would disqualify him from service upon from Services Upon returning to Boulder um and you people demonize the homeless not coming here the right way even though the right way is a yearslong confusing process of means testing and paperwork that forces people to debase themselves between discrimin discriminatory officials and in the meantime people are trapped in a

[168:01] dangerous limbo and exposed to threats and violence that housing would protect them from and meanwhile Fern says that he is actively trying to discourage people by telling them that there are not enough beds and they are not welcome here think about what you are doing and what is wrong with you thank you Riley next we have James Duncan Alana Wilson and Theodore con James good evening Council thanks for uh doing this and thanks for all your hard work I really appreciate I I recognize the efforts that you're doing um I would like to have you reconsider the your intentions with the muni effort uh breaking with Excel and supporting the municipalization with over 70 speakers and the overwhelming majority in favor of not rushing the munity to a ballot issue it was surprising and I was chagrined to hear council's intention after I heard so many articulate and

[169:01] excellent AR uh uh arguments in a recent headline Greenland ice sheet has shrunk past the point of no return and it remarked the I sheet is going to be the canary in the cold mine and is pretty much dead at this point another headline read World on track for worst case ipcc climate change scenario in the presentation last week by the power Monopoly the representative said about the de democratized aspect of the deal where the city has the ability to participate in the planning oh wonderful how nice of them to let us participate how arrogant they're going to let us sit at the table well I got news for him him it's our table it's your table it's my table another uh headline I saw New York attorney general files lawsuit to dissolve the NRA in this country We the People Are The Sovereign a leader in the

[170:01] community Rights Movement as opposed to corporate rights recently said historically We the People established our federal government and business corporations to serve us with duties and responsibilities to act in the public interest corporations were charted to obey all laws to serve the common good and to cause no harm right he went on to say have we forgotten who we the people are citizens with tremendous constitutional authority to govern ourselves grab the bull by the horns insteading letting the Tail Wag us thank you thank you James next we have Alana Wilson Theodore kernig and Eric Bud Alana hi can you hear me you can good evening city council and Boulder my name is Elena Wilson and I'm an organizer with bedrooms are for people I am speaking tonight to council members young Yates Nigel and wallik and mayor Weaver we are here to keep a

[171:01] spotlight on your shameful shutdown of democracy and also to let you know that we are not going away you cannot stop our work down out our voices or indefinitely delay our and others quest for housing Justice in this town are two fundamental elements to what I watched unfold since I first met with City staff in December of 2019 understand what was needed for a citizen L initiative to be on the ballot first is that the state constitution gives us people right to access the ballot through petition second is that you each took an oath of office to uphold the state constitution we followed your advice and exceeded the requirements you laid out and yet you have used your power overtly explicit explicitly and intentionally sabotage our Democratic right to the ballot this is the definition of authoritarian control using your power to thwart others participation in the political process at will you may have stealed yourselves against our comments you know

[172:01] in your heart of hearts when all the noise subsides that we are right I know that you know what you have done is wrong what's more you've demonstrated very effectively to the public one of our core Mo motivations our fight is part of a larger fight for justice against the institutions and powers that have denied it for so long you have shown yourselves to be part of that problem in solidarity with countless other over occupied renters and residents I joined the call for a moratorium on occupancy enforcement housing is a human right we will keep working until the city has laws that reflect that and a council which understands that and uses it as a moral compass thank you Elana next we have Theodore kig Eric bud and Ali from zaglia Theodore hello can you hear me we can thank you good evening my name is Ted

[173:00] kig and I'm an organizer with bedrooms are for people I would like to begin by acknowledging our recent disappointment in the courts and I'm asking the city to heed our Governor's call and place a moratorium on occupancy related evictions until we can find a more Equitable solution I that City residents in the future when they learn about this year are likely to look back on it with a deep sense of Shame quite simply our processes have failed to function properly there has been a proposal put forward for a working group on occupancy limits alas quite frankly the events of these last months and statements public and private from various council members have severely undermined The credibility of this Council as a good faith actor in any such process on top of this uh this and past councils have repeated repeatedly failed to act on occupancy despite repeated recommendations from various working groups how can we expect a different result in the future contrary to the recommendations of City staff Council failed to fix the output of the 2018 elections working group which has since been revealed to

[174:01] be deeply flawed this further undermines trust in using working groups more generally to affect change in the city how can working groups even be relied on to deliver results I would like to wrap up by noting that I observed some real leadership from several of you uh during the discussion of the Exile deal and I do believe that you have the personal capacity to tackle Boulders challenges and to lead I would ask that you look closely at how recent events have profoundly undermined public trust in our Municipal processes and institutions and how Council can restore some credibility on the occupancy issue another working group will not solve this wound a moratorium on occupancy enforcement until a more Equitable solution is reached might start us on the path to Healing thank you for your time thank you Ted next we have Eric Bud Ali from zaglia and Lisa white Eric hello my name is Eric bud I'm an organizer with bedrooms are for people tonight we are asking that you immediately stop enforcement on

[175:01] occupancy limits until the city has addressed the harms of this law that evicts people and prevents people from affordable housing options in Boulder as many of you know a week after the Colorado Supreme Court took up our case where we had to sue the city of Boulder the court declined to make a ruling on our case and ruled that they had no opinion on the Mayers presented and they dismissed our appeal while we're disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to make a ruling the blame for why bedrooms are for people will not for why bedrooms are for people will not be on the ballot lies solely in the hands of five City Council Members Sam Weaver Mary young Mir by Nagel Mark wallik and Bob Yates you have shown yourselves unwilling to listen to voices in the community you've shown yourselves to be dishonest in upholding your office you have shown yourselves to be vindictive including Bob Yates inappropriate emails to nonprofits that endorsed us and you have shown yourselves unwilling to

[176:01] uphold the most basic form of democracy allowing people their right to vote the consistently corrupt and unprecedented actions from Boulder City Council are inexcusable and we will hold you accountable but through this process you have given us a gift throwing every obstacle in our way we have not only met the challenges but we've excelled we built the most incredible organization of people that I have ever worked with and we are not done yet I want every one of you to know that we will not stop until we bring more fair and Equitable housing to Boulder our team has decided that we are organized we are ready and we are determined to put bedrooms are for people on the ballot in 2021 because the people have the power to work for justice the people have the power to work for justice thank you thank you Eric next we have Ali from zaglia Lisa white and Rebecca Davies

[177:04] Ali hi um Ali fralia 54 Marine Street the Boulder County Clerk stated in her recent letter to council Colorado is recognized as a leader in elections and we are committed to continuing that reputation as we Forge ahead in the future those words make me feel proud and hopeful as both a Coloradoan and a boulder voter she is absolutely correct right now the entire nation is looking at us and how we hold elections why because we've never been afraid to be among the first to try something new like mail and ballots because we've never settled for status quo and we are willing to put in the work for better democracy because we pav the way and we set the standards that other States will eventually follow and adopt it's who we are and it's one of many reasons I'm grateful to call Colorado my home when we see a better way of doing things we don't wait coloradans were Boulder rites we're members of one of the most Progressive communities in the state and Boulder has

[178:00] its own history of Paving the way and setting the standards we're known for our Innovation not just in science and technology but in our commitment to each other and the stewardship of this community the Boulder County Clerk stated very clearly that she believes rank V voting is on its way and she would like her team to be part of its implementation in spite of concerns that she and others have expressed I fail to see how three years does not allow for adequate time we know that this transition will take some elbow grease that has never stopped Boulder from doing the right thing in the past and waiting another year does not lighten that load it only means waiting longer for the benefits of an improved system I want to thank all Boulder City Council Members for engaging in such robust and constructive discourse around this initiative and for making thousands of community members feel heard thank you to Sam Bob Aaron Adam Rachel juny and mirabi who voted in support of the first reading two weeks ago let's continue this work let's continue to be bolder and set the standard that others will

[179:00] follow thank you thank you Ally next we have Lisa white Rebecca Davies and Misha tour [Music] Lisa hello my my name is Lisa white and since a few months ago I have been volunteering with bedrooms are for people when I first heard about the bedroom campaign in February it seemed like a common sense approach to an Antiquated Rule and I was looking forward to voting for it to be totally honest I personally didn't have any intention of getting involved with the campaign but then a series of events ensued that changed my perspective I was astonished to learn that a slim slim majority on City Council were thwarting democracy by hindering ballot access during a pandemic I listened as city council ignored call to elevate democracy and protect Public Health with electronic petitioning and then Council refused to hold a public hearing to place initiatives on the ballot covid

[180:01] did not inhibit democracy by refusing to act by refusing to act Council inhibited democracy when city council forced inperson Signature Collection onto the campaign I could no longer sit back and just hope that bedrooms would gain valid access so I grabbed my mask and my hand sanitizer and joined the volunteer crew to collect signatures as safely as possible though knowingly assuming risk I've been inspired by the commitment of the bedrooms organizers and by the dedicated volunteers who have continued to join the movement for housing Justice along the way this group isn't going away and I'm excited to see what we can accomplish in both housing policies and and holding our elected representatives accountable to their constituents our current economic crisis has elevated the urgency of this already important issue and as many previous speakers have mentioned at a minimum Council should create a moratorium on

[181:00] occupancy enforcement until a more permanent solution can be put in place thank you for your time thank you Lisa next we have Rebecca Davies Misha tour and Jan Burton Rebecca Rebecca you should be able to unmute yourself because you're on the phone you may need to press star six to do so great can you hear me we can great thank you hi my name is Rebecca Davies and I'm an organizer with bedrooms are for people in the past nine months our campaign to bring fair housing to Boulder has faced more obstacles than any ballot initiative should after drafting our measure we were ready to collect signatures just when the Pand mic hit like everyone else we were forced to stay indoors and wait until the order lifted despite that Boulder voters passed a measure to allow electronic signatures nearly two years ago city council required we collected every one of the 4,048 signatures face to face so when the order lifted we

[182:01] fanned across the city baking in hours of hot sun and shielding our clip cords from the rain and collected nearly 8,000 signatures for our cause and yet the challenges of the pandemic were trivial compared to the legal battle we had to pursue to hold the city of Boulder accountable for failing to provide a fair playing field as it turns out Boulder's unique combination of poor rul making and 50 years of entrenched anti-h housing opposition from a small but powerful minority was more than our campaign could overcome and yet here we are bedrooms are for people has not stopped fighting for fair housing in Boulder in fact with every obstacle we face every time city council shows no interest in Fair fairness or compromise our ranks grow now that the inadequacies of Boulder's elections process and housing policy are on full display our support base is stronger than ever we look forward to pursuing this campaign again in 2021 and producing the biggest voter turnout the city has seen during an odd year so I'd

[183:02] like to thank city council and our opposition for making us stronger for shining daylight on the vast Gulf between the kind of housing choice that Boulder residents deserve and the total lack of choice they've been given a moratorium on evictions for over occupancy is a necessary first step for city council to show they care about the thousands of Boulder residents who support our campaign but let's be clear it will be just a first step thank you thank you Rebecca next we have Misha T Jan Burton and Kristen nordback Misha can you hear me we can um hi I'm Misha I'm 17 and I would like to read a statement from my friend Leslie who's the governor of the Occupy Boulder Movement we are demanding a repeal of the camping band and an end to police harassment and brutality we are always told to move but where too we ask the police the same question and all we get are deer and

[184:00] headlights the shelter is incredibly ableist and discriminatory against folks with disabilities I and Dan the artist of occupy Boulder suffer from bipolar disorder and paal seizures the shelter told me that if I cannot do things for myself I'm quote not fit to stay there so I left our friends Angela and Amos have service dogs which the shelter also does not accept I have watched time and time again the shelter turn disabled folks away just because they had service animals the elevator at the shelter doesn't work half the time so folks in wheelchairs are out of luck the police continue to move us but we have nowhere to go we are constant victims of an impossible system whose only solution is lifting the camping band otherwise the conclusion of this system is our eradication I'd like to add to Leslie's statement that Boulder's camping ban is unconscionable unconstitutional and in violation of international human rights laws you

[185:01] leave my friends with no legal options criminalizing their very existence the sweeps themselves are horrific and traumatic last week we watched for 4 hours as armed policemen forced our neighbors to do heavy lifting and difficult labor she was begging for a break for food and water and for her medication which the cops had thrown away we tried to offer water and medical care and tried to move her belongings for her but we were told we would be arrested if we helped her that day and this whole system give me nightmares thank you thank you RF next we have Jan Burton Christen nordback and Pam wanck who I believe will be replaced by Lindsay so Jan good evening the our mayor our choice ballot measure has led our efforts with intentions of voter fairness political inclusion and social equity and you supported us with a seven to2 vote we obviously did not intend to

[186:03] cause budgetary or operational surprises and we support the modifications made to the ballot language as presented in the memo requested by Mary Young we would also support the combination of option one and option two allowing Council flexibility in timing to run a mayoral election without arduous budgetary impacts and or if the Boulder County Clerk can Implement ranked Choice voting as part of a coordinated election Boulder has been a leader for many years with initiatives like open space Blue Line mun Etc now now we are recommending a progressive and more fair voting system ranked Choice voting also known as instant runoff which is clearly gaining Traction in Colorado it's important that we get this on the ballot and begin the conversation

[187:01] with the Colorado legislature Secretary of State and county clerk that Boulder is serious about voting reform if we decide not to participate in the discussion by shelving this initiative this year we will be following rather than leading let's lead on something that supports our values of political inclusion and voter fairness time is on our side if this measure passes we will have three years to work out the processes budget and systems we should make that effort by placing it on the ballot saying it can't be done isn't the Bolder way please vote to place this measure on the ballot thank you very much thank you Jan next Kristen nordback paman who will be replaced by Lindsay and then Dakota P

[188:01] Christa Christa you should be able to unmute yourself okay thank you hi Christa nordback Boulder resident and organizer with bedrooms are for people um thanks to council members Joseph sweetlake Brocket and friend for their support for direct democracy despite all efforts by others to keep bedrooms off the ballot we will not give up the fight we urge you to put the bedrooms initiative on the November ballot if Council does not do so it's imperative during this time of economic hardship and pandemic to place a moratorium on enforcement of occupancy limits immediately the needs of our lowincome residents are not going away and neither is the bedrooms are for people movement I leave you with Our Song edited in light of current events Boulder Boulder college town why are things so upside down mansions mansions on the hill but our friends are homeless still bedrooms are for people

[189:02] wind and rain and sun and snow petition Gathering we go pandemic tried to shut us down but voters signed from all around because bedrooms all for people then Council changed the laws cuz Equal Housing gives them pause this year they suppressed Your Voice next year they won't have a choice because bedrooms are for people Supreme Court said we don't know what the rules are so we go to the streets so we can show that bedrooms are for people we say housing is a human right that's why we'll stand and fight for opportunity and Justice won't back down you can trust us because bedrooms are for people city council city council hear what we say as you can see we're not going away put bedrooms on the ballot today bedrooms are for people bedrooms are for people bedrooms are for

[190:07] people thank you Christa next we have um Lindsay Sterling crank um stepping in for Pam wck Dakota peek and Blake Huber Lindsay okay well that was creative and cool um my name is Lindsay Sterling crank I live on Brook Road I'm a boulder resident with Kei Boulder wild and director for the prairie dog conflict resolution with Humane Society of the United States and I just wanted to start out by thanking all of you so much for listening to all of us over the last several months if we as we've worked through this complex issue and I also want to Echo Cara's points earlier every step of the way I've been proud of our group we've really listened to all the stakeholders and we've proposed solution after solution our Focus has truly been to apply our knowledge and our expertise into real working recommendations that

[191:00] would minimize lethal control for prairie dogs and their Associates and allow our community to only apply this management tool where or when other options don't work we've seen so much Community Support along the way that I've been so great ful for we've seen so much community support for non-lethal management and the prog ecosystem and we've shared this support with you guys our leaders and our decision makers individuals and organizations and Foundations have offered their support their resources their funding to increase relocation and coexistence opportunities and I urge Council to direct staff to work with us in the community on realizing that support for Innovation and non-lethal wild life Management on our public lands is widespread and it's healthy and it's alive and Boulder tonight and it is with all of this support from all of these people your people that I ask you to incorporate these recommendations into the plan before you tonight number one please direct staff to help form and participate in a community shared learning process number two please direct staff to work with stakeholders in a parcel by parcel analysis before

[192:02] lethal control is performed so that the best management practice can be analyzed and determined number three please collect Baseline data from all of the parcels in the project area prior to management implementation so that we can study and analyze soil Health carbon sequestration coexistence and vegetation as it relates to Agriculture and the prog ecosystem in our communities and number four please only Grant the use of the special use permit to Parcels that have gone through the partial by parel analysis thank you thank you Lindsay next we have Dakota pek Blake Huber and Jill ly to Corpi Dakota hello tonight I would like to speak on behalf of Clancy a formerly unhoused resident of Boulder with covid-19 deaths climbing rapidly towards 200,000 and absolutely no effort of the state and federal governments to prevent evictions I must implore you to address the matter of homelessness for the humanitarian crisis that it is whether you want to understand it or not housing

[193:02] is a human right maslo one of the fathers of modern psychology tells us that humans have a need for air shelter food water sleep clothes and reproduction to clarify that is the most basic of every's needs I understand that in a system that makes everything for profits it is easy to delude yourself into thinking that giving people those things is outside of your job but that couldn't be further from the truth as a concerned citizen who watches as you flail around and try I would think that you would at least consult basic modern psychology to understand how to best help other human beings like yourself the people you turn your noses up at in disgust are just as good as you and could probably be better were they given the resources that you squander daily they at least would have the compassion to house their fellow human and see to it that nobody else went hungry I implore you to look for your conscience if you still know where it is and see this crisis for what it is 40 million people are facing eviction in

[194:00] the nation and tens of thousands of those are in Colorado alone furthermore these evictions and these sweeps only perpetuate the spread of covid-19 all because you cannot be bothered to face the problems your greed and ignorance create we as citizens have taken it upon ourselves to care about these people since you our elected officials will not most of us that you see out there and ridicule are aware that we are all facing homelessness because of your soulless governance are a paycheck away from being in the streets of Boulder and when we are I can assure you you will not be able to sweep us all if you can't find your Humanity at least protect your reputation and stop the sweeps thank you thank you Dakota next we have Blake Huber Jill Lind corpy and Evan rabitz Blake good evening on a ballot November Boulder residents may be able to choose whether they want to directly elect the mayor rather than have the city council choose one and whether or not to use an

[195:00] alternative voting method in off voting congrat congratulations to Colorado has a history of finding uncommon Solutions for common problems our current system where you only Mark your ballot for one candidate can elect a candidate with 30% or fewer voters the problems an alternative voting method wants to solve is to encourage less divisive elections eliminate vote splitting and spoilers incur no additional cost to the current method and show an accurate measure of support for each candidate alternative voting methods enable the voter to rank the candidate or to mark their ballot from more than one candidate voters are able to more sincerely support the candidates they feel are best instead of choosing the lesser of evils there are many alternative voting methods available to a city but this initiative focuses on a single one

[196:01] instant runoff voting I suggest Boulder form a focus group to investigate multiple voting methods including instant runoff and approval voting as well as star voting and score voting I support approval voting because it satisfies all the above requirements each candidate gets a true level of support vote splitting is eliminated there is no additional cost to our current method UC Boulder students use approval voting in student elections and recently Fargo North Dakota had its first approval voting election how can I help you form a focus group so voters will have an opportunity to compare each alternative thank you thank you Blake next we have Jill Lind corpy Evan rabit and Lyn seagull Jill good evening it's easy to see the values that

[197:01] are near and dear to Boulder two of the tabs found on our City's website are the environment and trails and Recreation with sublinks to map of Boulder's 155 miles a trail and explanations of Boulder's commitment to responding to climate change fostering renewable energy and healthy ecosystems the these are the progressive values Boulder stands for osp's 50-year-old master plan that prioritizes water rights and a development over preserving native natural open space is no longer in line with the environmental priorities of Boulder smoking in restaurants and planes was a standard back when osmp 's mission was formed climate change greenhouse gases and urban density were not of concern back in the day when osmp prioritized egg in its plan times have changed irrigated egg is development who are we to protest the

[198:01] deforestation of the rainforest in Brazil if we are equally as guilty of selling out our native natural habitat for a interest our expanding Urban development has already mowed over 98% of our native grasslands and prairie dogs that are fundamental in the health and biodiversity of our Front Range ecosystem much of the proposed Peri dog removal area is adjacent to walk and bike paths that the public enjoys and can appreciate the natural resources there for generations to come please vote to reject osm's plan like one speaker said so well at the August 11th council meeting this vote May well be your legacy vote the way the people of Boulder want you to vote to protect diversity and Wildlife the change we want to see in the world needs to start in our own backyards if Boulder can't make it happen who will let's not plow Paradise to put up another monoculture in Boulder thank you for your time thank

[199:01] you Jill next we have Evan rabitz ly sigle and Paul colan Evan samam um Mr ravit has indicated that he's going to withdraw this evening so I think we can call on LY seagull next perfect Lyn you're talking about off ramps with Excel Energy we're doing the offramp we're in the we're at the end of the offramp my brother and I were talking about this he and I were 11 months apart you know he stole my bike once on Harrison Court in Martin Acres when I was in kindergarten and I screamed bloody murder at him but my brothers got it together now I asked him how many lawyers are there in Excel he said appropriately it's a law

[200:01] firm that sells electricity um speaking of opms we're on the Highway to Hell with Excel kind of Rhymes um I thought that you know smaller is better the virus has taught us now that smaller is better we have to be six feet apart we have to shrink the size of everything and we have to shrink the size of the power of a monopoly we have to shrink that with Don Trump and we have to shrink that with Excel Energy the undergrounding was some kind of a gift we paid for the undergrounding we never got the service Brad said if you're on Ice you don't crank on the brakes you're you

[201:01] don't steer all over you get off the ice we're on the ice if we go with Excel Energy I know you're going to change your Minds tonight but you folks that voted for this tonight um you are not going to be elected reelected by me most certainly um and I have to tell you it's interesting that you have a ballot measure for one thing that you want like the bedrooms and Excel and it's it's so interesting how with the bedrooms are for people you have you deny them a hearing and won't put it on the ballot yet with EXL energy you have a hearing and you don't listen to your over your time thanks so Paul Coleman is our last

[202:01] speaker okay am I unmuted you are good uh good evening mayor Weaver and council members my name is Paul colan I live in Boulder I saw a tweet the other day that said something like don't think of this year as one of the warmest years in the past 100 years think of this year 2020 as one of the coolest years of the next 100 years at the putter River Power Authority board meeting last week the board discussed their resource plans most of the public comments advocated 100% renewable energy the board chose the 90% Renewables plan but but they made it clear to staff that that was a floor not a ceiling contrast that to excel Excel has established a ceiling of 70% renewable energy on their system here's a little quiz a selling more electricity increases excel's

[203:00] profit or B selling more electricity decreases excel's profit or C selling more electricity has no effect on excel's profit the correct answer is C it's no effect excel's profit is based solely on the value of the stuff they own let's try another one selling cleaner energy electricity increases excel's profit or B selling cleaner electricity decreases excel's profit or selling cleaner electricity has no effect on excel's profit that correct answer is C excel's profit is based solely on the value of the stuff they own whether the electricity they sell is generated from coal gas wind or solar makes no difference if Excel owns the production facility they make a profit based on the value of the facility Excel does not make a profit on any energy that is introduced by is produced by someone else's facilities uh for instance solar Gardens or rooftop

[204:01] solar they get no profit off those the partnership is going to run into this bias exil will promote their own products and services and won't help us um putting our own cleaning energy on the grid thank you thank you Paul so that will bring open comment to a close I would turn to staff and see if you have any response no response for me I do not either great and Council anyone want to respond to what we heard Aaron well just uh there were a few people that talked about um having a moratorium on um over occupancy enforcement and uh I believe that's on our schedule for 2 weeks from tonight is that correct to discuss that possibility yes great I look forward to us talking that over in two weeks then thank you thank you Aon

[205:00] Rachel um yep and uh there were some speakers as well who talked about the camping ban and so I just wanted to update that I'm still working with um some stakeholders and active vists on coming up with a proposal for a motion that I'm hoping to bring next week or the week after for us to vote on a um emergency temporary sanctioned encampment so if anybody has questions on that feel free to give me a call thanks thank you Rachel so Debbie I think we're ready to move on okay next we have the consent agenda and we have items a through n so I think there's a few items here on the consent agenda that we're going to need to speak about Tom do you want to address threei yes thank you Sam I'd be happy to do that threei is um a motion that really follows on council's action last week moving forward the uh proposed

[206:01] franchise agreement with Excel U 3i is the settlement agreement which was attached as part of the materials last week in which you considered and which we described in our um in our presentation the the the motion would be to authorize the city manager to approve to to sign the uh settlement agreement that's attached or substantially the form attached there was some concern expressed in Council emails about a provision in paragraph F that um that would allow for would have allowed for the dismissal of certain litigation if uh the voters approved the franchise but did not also condition that on pu approval I posted a response on hotline today uh We've agreed to amend that language to include pu approval the franch the settlement agreement as you all know is is quite complicated and has various Provisions that are implemented

[207:01] at various times uh some Provisions a few go into effect on signature for example a provision that that allows for the parties to notify the courts that we have a tenative settlement pending approval if Council approves uh this tonight and uh James signs it we will file motions in the court of appeals in District Court and in the firk informing them that there's a pending settlement uh and asking that those cases be held in AB abayance until after the election um other Provisions such as the provisions for dismissal go only into effect at the time the franchise is approved by the voters and the Pu very good thank you Tom um I don't see any hands up any questions from Council Members Adam yeah question of process so since this is consent and there are yes votes and no votes for several of these what

[208:02] is the process of going through those do we do them individually or what's the what's your take as the mayor calls the role for the consent agenda council members who wish to vote against a particular item can just indicate that so Adam you could say I'm voting yes on everything except 3i 3 l 3K uh if that's what your desire is thank you got it and then I think the other consent um item that we might want to talk about is K 3K so Tom do you want to lead us into that and then and I think there's some council members who want to speak on it yes Council approved after a first reading public hearing uh ordinance 8420 you'll recall you had two choices one was a four-year option and one was a two-year option a council approved the two-year option which was ordinance 8420 uh in the interim there was a

[209:00] question raised about whether someone could run for both mayor and counil during the election uh we have prepared a different version of 8420 that prohibits someone from running for both mayor and City Council in the same election that's that is attached in the packet and that would be an emergency ordinance uh because you're amending it on second reading in addition uh as you know yesterday the uh Clerk and reporter Molly Fitzpatrick sent a memo to council explaining some of the challenges with imp implementing rank Choice voting but also suggest uh suggesting her ultimate support for uh trying it in Boulder County um um council member young asked that staff prepare some information the clerk's office worked with my office and Jane to put together a memorandum which uh is included in the online packet and which was posted on hotline this morning um we have proposed that um we we we the memorizer provid background information about costs associated and some work

[210:01] count the clerk's office did to investigate the the possibilities of implementing rank Choice voting as well as some potential language changes uh if Council wants to uh make a CH is one of the commentators mentioned very good thank you I've got Aaron's hand up Aaron yeah well uh maybe start with a process thing and then I have wanted to address the substance of the matter given that we have a few options in front of us uh for this do we want to maybe uh address this in a separate vote from um the rest of the consent agenda you could do that or you could just you make have made motion that incorporated particular changes spoken you talked about Sam what's your thought so I think we should just do it as part of the consent agenda I I think like Adam indicated um there will be separate votes on each of these I think most of them will approve but I think that I and

[211:02] K in particular um we want to talk about now okay there's just um there's the wrinkle of the amended emergency version versus the original non-emergency version so want to make sure we have the chance to consider consider both um so yeah so just on the the substance of it um I did reach out to Molly Fitzpatrick this morning and and we spoke for a few minutes and she basically reiterated what was in her Memo that the her office is um certainly uh willing to run a rank Choice vote election but there are a couple of things that have to happen before they could do that um which is some legis enabling legislation at the state legislature and then uh Rule and regulation making by the Secretary of State's office and then of course the county clerk's um office would have need some time once those were finished to then prepare for for such an election uh but she did say that that given those

[212:01] things happening and the time to prepare that they uh could certainly um run a rank Choice voting election so I I thought that the alternative proposed by staff in the memo today um made a lot of sense uh the one about making um the use of the rank Choice voting election contingent on the County Clerk and Recorder having the capacity to implement that so I thought that could very neatly deal um with the the timing issues that the clerk has brought up and um just would mean that we would uh start having rank Choice voting uh initiatives or elections if the voters approved this once the clerk was ready so I wanted to propose um that we use that revised language it was in the section 14 um of the ordinance or of the charter rather um that language change so I wanted to see what folks thought about taking that

[213:00] approach got it then I've got Mir by Bob and Mary Mir by I just wanted to see if when I mean I'm assuming it's around now but we might want to through questions first um thing is I was not able to be at the last couple meetings um when a good time would be to explain why I'm voting the way I am on I just for the public okay just to give a few words but I don't know if now's the right time I think now's a good time so we're doing the whole consent agenda so why don't you go ahead and say your pece okay so um just because I wasn't um able to put my input in uh during the last couple meetings regarding um the Excel settlement agreement this has been an extremely hard one seeing as I ran on supporting the mun and I 100% still do and so um I've done a lot of had a lot of discussions with Sam who I trust 100% to have done everything in his power to create the best opportunity for Boulder moving forward if we had to have a settlement agreement um and I put my

[214:02] trust in him because I knew that he was the biggest supporter of the me of anyone that I knew and he's one of the smartest people that I know and so um he's explained to me that if we do not move forward with putting this on the ballot this year which hopefully the voters could you know could vote down and we'd continue on with the mun which would be fantastic but if we don't um we could end up with absolutely nothing and so I know that there'll be many many people who unfortunately this will probably burn a bridge with and um I'm very sorry about that um but I had to put my trust in someone and I that is Sam and I think he's done a wonderful job along with Bob moving us forward so that one way or another we can at least get the best possibility and again I I truly hope um for those who support the mun along with myself we'll move forward and and vote it to move forward um once this is if it is put on the ballot so um just wanted to give a little bit of

[215:00] explanation of why I'll be voting this way thank you mayby and then Bob and Mary Bob well first I'll just thank mby for that courageous statement I appreciate that mirabi that's um that was very touching and we appreciate hearing from you since we didn't have a chance to hear from you last week um I wanted to kind of come back to couple both substance and process of what eron raised with respect to the rank chice voting thing um first from a substantive standpoint um if if um a majority wants to go backing up for the benefit of our listeners um because things moved a little bit today staff proposed two alternatives to section 14 one said um the rank Choice voting um would go forward in 2023 um provided that the clerk's office could accommodate that which I think is an entirely appropriate modification they also offered an alternative because u in some cities the the election rank chice election is handled by the city

[216:00] rather than the county because of the complications and so I think staff offered an alternative to section 14 that said um or if council do doesn't feel like it's a substantial U burden on the the budget I'm paraphrasing there I think both those alternatives are good ones and I'd suggest if Erin is is um amable to actually incorporate both those Provisions into an amendment if there's in fact six votes for an amendment if there's not six votes for the amendment I guess we'll just see if there's five votes to pass the um the measure as passed on on first read down on 7-2 vote um I know the concern currently is that um that the the clerk's office may not be able to accommodate this I think that the amendment that aon's proposed um actually does that so um it would be a little ironic that if we couldn't get six votes to fix the problem identified by those who were

[217:01] opposed um and so the Solutions in front of us we just have to do is have people support that um so Erin I I'd like to suggest that we actually have a two-part test or two alternative test one is we would have the vote in 2023 rank Choice voting 2023 if the um if the clerk's office uh can accommodate that but even if the clerk's office cannot accommodate that if Council whoever's on Council that point in time um determines that it's not a substantial burden on the budget that's the alternative that staff proposed and I would incorporate that as well if if that's something amendable to you uh and so um shifting a process I kind of agree with Aon that's going to be a little awkward because we don't know who supports what um there's actually two proposed amendments to to 8420 um and those amendments would require six votes or we could pass 8420 as on first reading which would require only five votes so it would be helpful to either do a straw poll or to take

[218:02] that out of the consent and have a separate motion um I'm fine either way but I think aon's corrected it's going to be a little awkward to Simply have someone make a motion um uh and pick one randomly uh and then have it fail and then have to make another motion so Tom you know I think these are good points um would you suggest that we pull um item K off of the consent agenda and have a separate vote on that well I wouldn't pull it off the consent agenda because that means having a public hearing but you can delay it to a separate portion of the consent agenda vote on that separately got it so so why didn't we do that um and I think there are um other than item K I think probably we're going to pass the consent agenda so what I would suggest is someone make a motion to pass a consent agenda um but deal with item 3K separately does that sound right Tom

[219:01] yep yes and Sam Bob asked me to draft the language that he has is suggesting I have that to display if that would be great so I've got Mary and mirbi [Music] Mary thanks um I really appreciate all of these efforts on this um ballot initiative and um this initiative and what we're doing here to try and put this on the ballot is essentially a favor to the proponents and um the last time I looked um favors were not part of how government has done and so I I'm really uncomfortable with doing this kind of thing and um I um I think that one of the things that we agree on is that an alternative voting method is something that would make our system of governance more inclusive and um and

[220:03] provide more choices um the proponents themselves said that um that's what they wanted and that they sort of chose direct election of the mayor as something to test this with um I find that very disquieting um that we would choose to test um something with a change in our Charter um I don't think I don't take changes to our Charter lightly um so I I I I can't support um putting this on the ballot at all and what I would support is that we re um engage the elections working group and um and give them the charter to um investigate first of all to identify the problem that we're trying to solve um

[221:01] instead of first um coming up with the solution and then um making up the problem um so I would like us to first identify the problem we're trying to solve and then um investigate What alternative um voting methods would make sense to solve that particular problem so that's my suggestion I feel really uncomfortable with um with putting this on the ballot in any way shape or form thank you Mary then we've got meby Mark and Rachel mirbi thank you for that Mary um and I've been uh you know after some investigation and discussions I've been leaning towards um Mary's thoughts as well but I'm sorry can someone clarify me because again I've been out of it a little bit um Ain I've seen this come in with the budget um the proposed over $300,000 is the amendment you're adding on Aeron just what's that due to the

[222:01] budget I'm I'm sorry I'm missing that portion well so what I started out with u would not involve the um that expense at all it would say that we would only hold this kind of election if the county clerk could hold it uh which would mean that the expenses would be similar to any other election um Bob has additionally suggested that that we might um add language that would retain the possibility of running election ourselves as a city which would have some additional cost um but only if council at that time determined that it could be done without adverse budgetary impacts so Bob would put that forward I'm I'm fine with adding both options because I think the way Bob proposed it it could be either if the county clerk can do it or if we feel like we could afford it um but if it if it lost somebody's vote um to include the the local election version with the extra cost i' I'm certainly fine Bob I don't know how you feel but I'm certainly fine doing just the county

[223:00] version where we would not incur additional cost I agree with you Aon what whatever whatever makes people happy okay thank you for clarifying can I just add a little bit um some um additional information just for the record is that the memo yesterday said that licensing alone for running of our own election would be $350,000 that is just for the license and then um an additional ongoing $70,000 a year that is just for the software um there I I would like to remind everyone that we are in a budgetary a very constrained budgetary situation which has required layoffs and um all sorts of budget reductions um to the extent that the city clerk's office right now is down to three people um and that we would be looking at something like this in the face of um rolling out the um um online petitioning

[224:03] with three people on the staff um additionally running elections require certain um skills of people and we're not sure how many people out there that could run a concurrent election with the county as well as the city that would um be able to have the skills and provide the labor to run our election at the same time as the county so um I I think we're um we would be wiser to um to make sure that we what we do is something that actually um is going to solve problems and that does not affect our budget and I think that putting a contingency in a ballot initiative is um just makes no sense at all to me I mean to ask voters to do something but if

[225:00] something doesn't work out then we don't do it I mean that just that just it doesn't sound very well thought through and um and I just I I have um a responsibility to put things that make sense on the ballot and this makes no sense at all to me thank you Mary next we've got Mark Rachel and Adam Mark I try not to uh disagree with Mary but I have to disagree with her on one point I think she has underestimated the expense of running our own election as staff has pointed out we would also be responsible for additional costs for ballot printing mailing and processing so I I think the number for running our own election could be quite substantial but my main comment is is that I am also very very uncomfortable with the process of how this has unfolded and let's just review the chronology a little bit um perhaps through no fault of their own uh the sponsors did not obtain the number of

[226:01] signatures required to get on the ballot however they were prepared to work with uh members of council and uh City attorneys off office to try to correct what were then found to be defects in the internal structure of the language and we have been changing that language 37 this evening um and at the last second we're now finding out that the county is incapable of accommodating a rank Choice voting system and cannot commit to doing so by the effective date of the amendment and we're looking at some very substantial costs if we want to do it on our own own um and on this basis with a system we have not really analyzed we have not identified the cost to the city and how much they will be and with an obligation to abandon our current method of conducting elections and Institute a new one essentially on no notice with today's language um and on this basis

[227:00] we're going to be amending Boulder's Constitution I would challenge anyone on this Council to find an analogous example of taking such significant action with so little understanding of what we're doing and the cost of doing it in the modern history of Boulder uh I I am absolutely agnostic about which type of election system we use there are obviously a myriad of them uh we ought to be looking at all of them and I'm sure we can we can come to a better one but to amend our constitution to say um this is what we're doing unless we can't do it in which case we're not going to do it um is rendering our constitution almost meaningless in in the plain in the terms of it of its plain language that this whole process has become a comedy of errors nobody's fault but that's the way it has played out um and I really think we need to be a little more reflective about what we're doing I would like us to take Mary's suggestion

[228:02] of uh you know setting up a a more serious analysis of what we do and how we do it and get members of the uh organizing committee for the charter Amendment on board for that and and and do this in a more systematic way we are racing to achieve something we don't even know what we're doing we don't even know what it will cost and I find that very Troublesome thank you thank you Mark next we've got Rachel Adam and Aon Rachel I'm gonna tack on a little bit to Mark's chronology which is that um again I asked at our retreat in January that we look into ranked choice voting and add that onto our um work plan and it was shot down and the rationale was that this wasn't something that was council's purview it should be a citizen driven effort so it's ironic to me that we would be saying like we're doing them a favor when I think they're doing us the favor because we said if somebody wants to do this um yeah it's interesting go

[229:00] forth and do it so um it has certainly been a comedy of heirs election uh ballot initiative season and there's no way around that but um I guess a couple points one is if we've got um five votes to put a version of this on the ballot I think that we need to um maybe have that straw poll so that other people can decide like do they do we want does a sixth person want to come on board and make it better or are we going to put the version on that has just five votes I think that's a um relevant conversation before we go too much further because it it may be dead in the water you you know my my next points are mostly about the different versions and if we've only got five votes then we really don't have to discuss those so I guess a process point there is do we want to stop and see if if we've got five if we don't then it's dead if we do then I think maybe we um want to discuss the other um permutations of this

[230:00] measure so um happy to to get into the other points but I I don't want to waste time either well I'd like to let everyone speak who's got their hand up and then I think we should address your your process Point Rachel I think it's good so we' got Adam Aon I will go ahead and make my other points then if if we're make now um sure so um I guess the the big one is that I like a the first version better um due to the budgetary concerns that maybi raised I think that we're it's cleaner if we only do this if the cler can um run it for us and then we don't have the the budget concerns and the expertise and and staffing issues so I would actually prefer that we um do the Amendments and hopefully can get to six votes and um run just the cleaner version we we're only doing it if the clerk can run it thanks thank you Rachel Adam Aon Bob and

[231:03] then I'll go thank you everyone for making your points they are um well heard uh when I look at this initiative I see the potential for Change and the fact that we have up to five years to make that change which we all pretty much agree is a positive one in terms of rank Choice voting um I think it's important that we move forward and put a deadline on it because change doesn't happen unless there is attenion and a deadline is a good way to put attention on things to put something in perspective um three years ago or sorry if we're talking about the fiveyear um five years ago I knew very very little about this city I had very little involvement in this city and fast forward to today I am a member of city council making a decision about this vote and we have five full years ahead of us to work out the details and

[232:00] make it the best version possible um if we put something in our SES as a goal and we move towards it I have no doubt that we can actually achieve it so um that's why I think we need to put this up there as a goal to improve our democracy thank you Aaron and then Bob yeah that was very well said Adam thanks I just real quickly in terms of a couple of the other points that have been brought up I mean I think if we do the initial version that I proposed no offense Bob I think we avoid the municipal budgetary issues that people have brought up because because then uh there wouldn't be any um it would be run as part of the county coordinated election when the county clerk is ready to do that when their office is ready um and just the other thing I just want to just remind people uh we had a pretty sharp disagreement about that but um the the the organizers of this effort did go out and collect thousands of signatures

[233:00] you know during the pandemic and they collected uh enough to meet the thresholds that they were given by the city so just you know this is not an arbitrary favor granting process um you know thousands of Boulder residents Express support for this fundamental idea and we've been refining it ever since and and I think you know we're just talking about adding a few words tonight um to make sure we get our um duxon row with County Clerk so I think it's on on a good track thank you thank you Aon Bob just touching on two or three things that have been said I first of all agree with Aon that this is not favor granting one of the other ballot measures that we're about to vote on which I think is going to get approved unanimously is actually um improvements to another ballot measure uh the the eviction one um that came to us and um we observed that there were probably a couple of improvements that could be made to that um the team that led that ballot measure agreed to those changes they were very gracious in in

[234:01] those discussions and we've made changes to make it a better ballot measure I think and I think that's exactly what we're doing with this one as well it's not favor Grant it's it's a ballot measure that has been signed by several thousand people and we have collaborated with um the petitioners to make it a better ballot measure and referring it ourselves just as we are with the eviction one second I apologize for confusing things by um trying to um to overreach on on two Alternatives so I withdraw my proposal about the alternative um and and I agree with Aon that let's just keep it simple and say listen it happens in 2023 unless the clerk says can't happen in 2023 and we'll forget about the city trying to run it so we'll take the budgetary question off then I do want to um uh build on what Adam said I I also spoke with Molly Fitzpatrick today and one of the challenges that she has is is um she needs enabling legislation from the state legislature and we have a little bit of a cheick and or egg problem here because the state legislator um may be

[235:01] not looking at this particularly seriously because there really hasn't been any sizable city in Colorado that's taken this up and so this is not been a priority for the legislature um tell you ride and basal are doing it but they kind of you know they're small towns and they do it they count by hand and and and Molly and the Secretary of State need some enabling legislation from the um State Legislature in order to make this work and that's really the blocker here and so we could sit around and say well geez we're not going to do this until Molly tells us she can do it and Molly's saying I'd love to try to do this but I can't do it until the state legislature Acts and so somebody's got to kind of go go first here and I think we should go first and say to the state legislature you know the clock's running um we would like to do this in in three years if we need to postpone it another two uh that that's fine we built that into the system but what we would like to going here and we would like to sit down with you now in 2021 and have you

[236:01] pass this enabling legislation so that our County Clerk and our secretary of state can then Implement something they actually really want to implement but if we don't act um there's no reason for the legislature to pass that enabling legislation so I think Adam's absolutely right um we have to be bold somebody's got to go first here and I think that should be us so I'm going to support this okay so I'll jump in here um I agree with Mary and Mark um I cannot imagine putting something contingent into our Charter so it is like our Constitution and why would we amend our constitution to say we'll do this maybe if if it works out and the other players who are part of determining how this is going to work um do their their job I also think that the rank Choice voting approach is far more powerful in a full Council election and not just a mayoral election so having a single seat up which is going to use some kind of

[237:01] instant runoff voting really isn't much different than just having that position be voted on with a plurality um so I I really don't feel like this is ready I do think that we want to get rank Choice voting um for better proportional representation um but I don't think this is it and you know the for me I was pretty ambivalent about supporting it on the first reading and I think what we've learned from the county clerk makes me much much more um uncertain that this is the right thing to do so I would agree with Mary I'd like to have us reconvene the election working group not only to fix the signature requirements and the deadlines make sure that we're all clear on what pertains to what as far as petition carrying goes but I also think that we want to explore rank Choice voting with our partners with the League of Women Voters you know with the rank

[238:00] Choice voting advocacy groups um with our clerk you know the clerk only really was contact Ed about this a few weeks ago and I think that's just a big weakness in trying to set up a change to our election rules in our constitution as Mark puts at our city Charter so I'm not going to support any flavor of this I don't know if that helps Rachel with your idea about whether we have five or six votes um I'm going to put my hand up and say I'm not going to support any version of this right now I do want to see rank choice vot and go ahead I think that what the proponents can know is that they've gotten this not only onto our radar but I think it's something that we need to plan and do do a good thorough job of getting input into how we move move ahead with any change to our electoral system

[239:01] so that being said I think we want to go back to what Rachel was asking and see how many people support doing this at all and if it's six then I think we can go ahead and and pass the changes Aaron has talked about but if it's not even five I don't think we have a a reason to go ahead with this so Tom I'm going to turn to you again and say how should we handle this should we pass the consent agenda and then come back to item 3K or what what's your process suggestion here it's really your choice Sam you could just ask for a show of hands now to how people are intending to vote of this and see whether there's five or six votes for any version of it and simplify it that way or you could just do that at the end I think doing it now makes sense we've heard from each other so I would

[240:00] just ask for straw pole not going to pass anything how many people would support some version of uh 84 20 just raise your hand so I see Adam juny Rachel Bob and Aaron so that's five so um I guess the question to the other four of us is would we want to support errands change and have one of the four um vote in favor of of 3K and Sam can I just note that I'm not goad sorry sorry to just jump in but could could I just note that that would also include the change in attachment B in our packet which would clarify that you could not run for Council and mayor at the same time so that it would be the two changes got it so I guess Mary mirbi Mark or me would any of you want to

[241:03] support 3K With The Changes errands proposed I'm not seeing any any hands here so I could go ahead and make a motion on the consent agenda since that seems to be settled go for it okay I will um move the consent agenda um just clarifying that for 3K 8420 that that is the original language in in the um in the memo and also Tom I believe we we should add a note that in 3i it would include the the changed language that that you were talking about earlier so that correct thank you yes and any other um there was an AATA sheet too about the um about the es scooter ones 3j should

[242:02] we include that as well yes please the change is that in the motion in the packet it only it would would only approve one of the three ordinances CAC asks that we approve all that you all approve all three on first reading and then decide which one to approve on second reading so if you adopt the aratus sheet you'll be doing that great which is what I would like to do so then with 3j adopting the AR sheet so that we're passing all three versions for consideration when we come back to it on second reading is that clear enough a second Aron's motion so this great so this is roll call right yes please um okay I'm ready council member Yates uh yes on all matters young yes and no on

[243:00] [Music] 3K rocket yes on all of them Bren M yes but no on 3 n Joseph yes and no in threei Nel yes but no on 3K swatti yes but no on 3 I and 3 n you said 3 n 3 n correct okay wall uh yes but no on 3K Weaver yes but no on 3K okay I guess it moves forward I'm not really sure how to say

[244:02] that because I mean yeah so guess it moves forward we're moving on the public Hearing in or the call well just to Debbie to clarify I believe it means that all items passed right correct with I think two no votes on 3 n four no votes on 3K and two no votes on threei I think juny and Adam were no on threei correct okay good enough move yeah I just want to make a comment um there was some confusion possibly caused by an article in the uh Daily Camera uh which usually gets it right but in this case I think was a little bit um confusing we've had a lot of people write to us or communicate with us that about es scooters and we're not taking really any action on E Scooters there's three Alternatives before us we as we just heard we didn't have any discussion on E Scooters we haven't had a public hearing on it we

[245:00] haven't had questions from Council and so I I wouldn't want anybody to come away from tonight's vote on 3j and passing all three versions of 3j to believe that we've approved E Scooters of one variety or another um It's Not Unusual for us for those of you who are not um accustomed to us to pass things on first reading sometimes even two or three versions on first reading without discussion or public hearing and then roll up our sleeves on second hearing and actually decide what if anything we pass we we might pass none of these versions on second reading after public hearing so I don't want I'd like to suggest the headline of the paper not tomorrow Council approves E Scooters in Boulder because we haven't done any such thing um we haven't even talked about uh E Scooters so I just want to be really really clear on that point in fact one of the three versions would prohibit them matter fact one of the three we we've passed three versions one of one of which is inconsistent with the other two so we've done absolutely

[246:00] nothing okay very good Debbie on to item four I think okay um now we're on to your call up tonight and it's 406 Pearl Street the demo and reconstruction is there any desire to call this up seeing none I think we're on to item five your public hearing uh your second public hearing tonight is the continuation of the August 11th consideration of a motion regarding the management of open space and Mountain Parks irrigated agricultural lands occupied by prairie dogs with no new public testimony excuse me very good Jane do we have staff presentation we don't have a staff presentation that I know of um I believe that this is open for your comment I note that Mark gersman is here and he

[247:00] was the presenter last time so Mark do you have a presentation no but um the uh Council uh believe invited Kurt Brown the chair of the open space Board of Trustees to make some remarks Kurt was in attendance at the August 11th meeting but we kind of got timed out um so he uh he's here again today and has a statement prepared for counsel I think Dan is also here but maybe on the phone that's correct mark thank you very good well then let's hear from ktk and then I think what we probably did didn't get to last time was Council questions of the staff presentation so Kurt if you want to kick us off and then I think we'll turn to council for questions thank you mayor good evening Council Kurt brown osbt chair thank you for your

[248:00] consideration of this important issue the expedited process requested by Council has been extremely challenging for City staff and we very much appreciate all of their intensive efforts we also appreciate all of the time and information that the public has contributed over the last year the Open Space Border of Trustees unanimously recommends that Council approve the preferred plan arrived at through many months of public consultation and Analysis the plan is designed to restore agricultural productivity and soil Health on irrigated AG lands in the project area through a combination of prairie dog relocation and lethal control and by facilitating customary agricultural activities in the project area through modification of the buau protection ordinance the plan also supports many types of land restoration and requires osmp to meet annually with the public to document project activities Trends on performance indicators and plans for the coming year in the past few weeks several statements have been made that the board believes are a

[249:00] misunderstanding of the current conditions or a mischaracterization of the preferred plan I would like to address just four of these excuse me first some have stated that the preferred plan is to extreme that we need a compromise plan the board strongly believes that the preferred plan is already a compromised plan it focuses only on osmp irrigated lands even though we also have prair dog conflicts on non- irrigated lands it focuses only on one section of our irrigated lands even though many have argued that all osmp irrigated land should be included in the project also many have argued including members of the the board for greater relief for our LES EAS from the burrow destruction ordinance beyond the depth limits proposed as such the board believes the plan is a compromise and balances Charter purposes second some have stated that lethal control of prairie dogs must not occur in fact the city's strict avoidance of lethal control has significantly contributed to the

[250:01] situation that we face today where every year many thousands of prairie dogs migrate from our are ated lands onto adjacent private properties where they are killed as one council member observed last year we simply outsourced our lethal control to our neighbors these ongoing PRI dog deaths are seldom acknowledged yet over the last five years they total far more than the lethal control expected during the entire preferred plan implementation and these thousands of prairie dog deaths will continue every year that these populations remain uncontrolled this is one of the reasons that the open space board during our March deliberations sought to increase as much as possible the speed and the effectiveness of the recommended plan third some have stated that if we stop farming or grazing these lands they will come they will become natural grasslands unlike our Southern grasslands which have never been plowed and which retain the soil structure and

[251:02] deep rooted plant communities of a true grass land our Northern irrigated lands have been plowed in many cases for more than 100 years the soil structure and plant communities are now nothing like a natural grassland the health and the stability of these lands now depends upon annual cropping and the application of irrigation water osmp has significant experience in this area with what happens when you walk away from these lands they do not become grasslands they become fields of invasive weeds or even worse be ground and blowing top soil even sustained osmp efforts at grassland restoration have taken decades to make significant progress and that is in the absence of prairie dogs finally some have stated that the plan will severely reduce or eliminate prairie dog populations on open space before osmp staff began formulating Alternatives the open space board stipulated that none of the Alternatives should adversely impact the efforts of

[252:01] osmp to support a healthy population of prairie dogs and the native grasslands on which they depend the department has a long and successful track record of prairie dog conservation and is in fact a leader among open space agencies across the range of this species this will not change under the preferred plan if all prairie dogs are removed from the 560 Acres of Target irrigated lands more than 100,000 prairie dogs will still reside on nearly 4,000 Acres of protected land in other words nearly 90% of the osmp land currently occupied by prairie dogs is unaffected by the preferred plan the board has also made clear that relocations of prairie dogs from irrigated lands should be undertaken Whenever there is a need and a capacity for additional population in the southern grasslands again Council we thank you for your deliberation on this important

[253:00] issue thank you Kurt so I think now um I would turn to council and see if there are questions nearby I have a number of different questions and they're probably going to range from different people but I just wanted to clarify something that was just said was that the lands on this Northern side were originally plowed so the fallacy that the prairie dogs have destroyed the soil health is actually not the case it's the fact that the lands have been plowed and so now the top soils are damaged and without further agricultural um production those lands cannot heal themselves because of the plowing that was done is that correct I think what i' I'd say is not exactly the lands were plowed to be put into agricultural production U much of

[254:02] them uh were plowed or disturbed um and plowed to establish pastures and hay Fields while those pastures and hay Fields um became established that stabilized the soils and created a situation where um the soils were maintained um I will say uh that there are a legacy of land uses uh That Vary throughout the northern grasslands uh that some areas uh may have had other contributing factors uh I wouldd agree that sometimes per par dogs do get a bad WP for lands lying idle in anticipation of development or overgrazing by livestock but um much of the plowing that occurred um or tilling of the soils in this area resulted in those uh lands being uh returned into a perennial cover by grasses although they were introduced grasses dependent upon Irrigation in Hay

[255:01] fields and pastures but without that continuation the lands now are diminished in terms of the soil Health correct if if it were not to continue being used in that manner meaning prair dogs existing so that they couldn't use them as irrigation irrigated lands correct we'd have to first restore those grass lands um to Native grasslands that we have as we have done in some places of the open space system um to allow native vegetation become established develop uh their root systems Etc so that um the grass SS could sustain uh prair dog occupation okay all right that answer is that um so I wanted to jump back to your presentation um and again I'm sorry I do have a number of questions because obviously we weren't able to get to them last time but uh your presentation um on our previous part part one of the meeting had a slide up um from the osmp um master plan where we were

[256:03] talking about the percentage of people in Boulder who supported lethal and I just wanted to make a clarifying statement for our community um it showed that a majority of like I think it was like 54% supported lethal um but that was not one I I don't believe that was actually and maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong Mark if that was a you had stated it was a significantly valid survey but I don't believe it actually was so I'd like to know that and then the other portion of it was the question was not whether you support lethal or not it was whether or not you supported lethal if all other options have been tried which they clearly have been not because there's about five other options on the table that um have been proven to work in the past uh in other parcels and so when the community stated that they support this they may but after all the options have been tried so why this is on the table for us is you know a little confusing for me at the moment but um it

[257:00] would be nice to at least have an answer regarding the statistic valid um survey if that if that was or was not it was a statistically valid survey okay so um so then it goes back to the fact that this is not what the community was actually pushing for they were pushing for after all of the other options had been tried that they would then support leth lethals so I just wanted the community to be aware of that um because that's a really important factor in where the percentages lie um next I had a question on so I get how you know I understand I've been following this since um I started working on it in 2015 2016 to save the Armory dogs and how we moved forward with um the prairie dog working group and our recommendations and so one clarification I did want to make for everyone is you know everyone keeps everyone on the ranching side has stated that we need to support staff's work for the past two years except for the fact that there was two years prior to that that Council had initiated a working

[258:01] group uh where I think pretty much every stakeholder was involved from ranchers biologists uh prairie dog Advocates um staff there was even a person who moderated the entire thing and they came up with a non-lethal option and they worked for two solid years with people volunteering their time and we've never given that a shot so when people say that we've worked so hard there was many people working prior to that for two solid years that was never even implemented um and I guess I'm kind of confused and maybe you guys can help explain it to me why is this new plan being implemented over the prairie dog working groups two years of work that involved all stakeholders and didn't include lethal um I can respond that the uh recommendations of the prairie dog working group um were evaluated and prioritized um by a multi- departmental staff group those recommendations were brought forth to a variety of City boards um in um the spring of last year

[259:00] and um uh for recommendation to council and then were brought forward to Council in May of last year uh along the way uh the open space Board of Trustees uh made observations um and there were comments from members of the community that uh the recommendations of the pr dog working group um did not uh address well the objectives of trying to operate irrigated agriculture in the in the presence of prairie dogs and the open space Board of Trustees uh made a recommendation and I can bring up that motion if you'd like um to um undertake the pro the project that culminated in our presentation on uh August 11th uh that recommendation was Advanced to city council and in May at the same time uh Council endorsed staff's recommendations on the implementation of the prey dog working group um report um Council also directed staff to undertake this review

[260:01] um and specifically identified among other things um lethal control as an option that could be considered in our evaluation okay thank you for that and so then that following that leads right into my next question of so in Lethal control was put on the table as an option um I remember Dan Burke standing up in front of council and told us that this may not be our Silver Bullet um meaning if we you know killed many many many animals that we may not receive the outcome that um we had hoped for and so my question and so then Council from my memory directed staff to hire a soil health expert to then get us data um on if killing prairie dogs would adjust and fix the soil health issue that we were concerned about and as far as I know we did hire um someone to be a who is a soil health expert and she's working with staff now but that we don't have

[261:00] those answers and so my question is where is the data uh where is any facts showing that killing prairie dogs will lead to improved soil health so are there other counties around um Colorado that have done this and measured soil Health from before uh the killing of the prairie dogs to after the killing of prairie dogs anything at all anywhere is there is there any data to prove this um I'd like to if I can um ask Lauren Co the City soil's Health coordinator uh to respond to that question great thank you hi um so I'm Lauren Co I'm the soil Health coordinator for the Department um I sampled over a 100 sites this year as part of a baseline soil Health assessment um for our agricultural lands so still waiting on some of those soil tests to come back from the lab as you can imagine with covid there's been

[262:01] some issues with um this lab getting set up and some of the tests that happened um however this this data in this collection primarily focused on agricultural lands that did not have prairie do occupation because they did not want that confounding factor that being said we have tested um the two removal sites from 2019 the new West and then Johnson property as part of Elizabeth blacks citizen science soil health project um and so that will be tested annually for the next uh 10 years and then we have two sites that we paired with that to look at what's happening on sites that have encroaching prairie dogs and looking at that Trend over 10 years as well um as you know we have not had many successful removals um at least in my tenure here at open space in the past eight years on irrigated alands and so there's not really data to say what happens before or after um however if we do go ahead with these

[263:00] removals and relocations at a larger scale we're certainly prepared to do um testing to to assess those Trends over time and I think you know even though we don't have data on specifically prairie dogs we have there's plenty of data in the literature um looking at overg grazing and the effects on soil quality and soil health over time and so I think that's the most comparable data that we can look at here because that is what we are seeing um on these fields is that we are having uh just loss of top soil due to lack of vegetation to hold that top soil in place okay so but what so what I'm understanding you saying then is that the option for killing is on the table with no scientific backing other than the possibility of overg grazing of which I've you know done a bit of research this on this myself and I know that some of those properties like Boulder Valley Ranch is actually due to having a lot of horses having been on the land um and not as much the prairie

[264:01] dogs and so what we're basically saying is that we have put killing on the table as an option with no factual data showing us that the soil health will improve is this correct that's not what I'm saying at all okay so what I'm understanding other than overg grazing is you're saying that that overg grazing can cause damage to soil Health but but where is the data showing that removal of prairie dogs will increase soil health so what I H just mentioned is that we don't have that data here locally because we haven't done removals and lethal control on the scale that you're asking about so as I mentioned that I've done the soil sampling in 2018 with those removals and we will continue to I'm sorry 2019 and then we'll continue to test those sites but without having I can't tell you specifically what's happened in Boulder County because we haven't tested it here um I don't think the county has tested it that would probably be a good place to look but I don't think they've done the testing on that um and so an

[265:00] analogous situation would be any irrigated lands that are over grazed no matter what anim is doing it so and and I fully understand what you're saying but I guess I'm trying to understand how we got lethal on the table as an option if it wasn't proven to increase soil health and I get that we haven't done it here but I'm assuming I would assume that then we have that data that let's say for example lmer County did it and they had excellent results with lethal killing in their soil health and improve drastically and so we're like oh hey they have great results let's try it here so that's where I'm assuming assuming the data has to come somewhere from choosing lethal as an option otherwise I don't understand why lethal would be on the table if it's not going to do what we want it to do I think the data comes from knowing that once you remove the over grazing pressure on any property and you spend the time restoring the vegetation through some of the methods that we outlined in our preferred alternative that we can see improvements

[266:00] in um vegetative growth and when you improve above ground vegetative growth you're going to improve below ground um soil food webs and especially on these irrigated lands where water is driving those systems I think we can see a pretty rapid response in soil health and so we couldn't just do that by relocating a portion like I know that you know the County's gone in and taken some prairie dogs out to decrease the the density of the occupancy but we're saying we have to remove every kill every animal in order to do this and then we let the cows graze there and so I know you understand this a very difficult problem and you know the problem with prairie dogs is they don't stay where we want them to stay so even if you remove them from a portion of the property they still graze anywhere they want to graze and so we can't really control that movement or that activity and so the idea I think with this preferred alternative is that we're removing them from an entire field or an entire complex of fields so that we can

[267:02] manage that vegetation and restore it and then once we see a positive response then we can look at you know livestock grazing manage grazing those kinds of things because that is the designation that we did um in the grassland plan um and honoring our Charter okay well I don't think it gets me where I want to be but um I think I think we're just going to have to move on um from that so uh thank you for those answers I do appreciate that um I'll if someone else has their hand up I'll let someone else while I regroup and look at the rest of my notes no there's no other hands but I do have some questions for Lauren as well um I'm I'm totally um interested in how you assess soil health so when you say you've taken a 100 measurements plus or minus um what are you measuring are you measuring moisture are you measuring

[268:01] carbon content like how are you assessing the the health of soils that's a really good question question so um to be compatible with some of the ongoing efforts in the region um I took soil course um so at the end of this month it'll be on 125 different irrigated agricultural fields and so these samples get sent off to a lab that does um a variety of testing that's looking at the chemical phys chemical physical and biological indicators of soil health so things like organic matter water extractable carbon um aggregate stability um macronutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus and potassium and so with this package of testing that we have selected we get a a kind of comprehensive picture of what's Happening below ground now for the the removal sites what we're anticipating is that not only will we do this testing that we're doing on these irrigated EGS

[269:00] that mostly do not have prairie dogs we're also going to look at vegetative structure so um doing transex I'm looking at uh density of plants canopy height litter cover that kind of thing and then also water infiltration and that gives you kind of a whole picture because like anything okay is my weight a good indicator of my body Health maybe but how about how fast can I run a mile what's my blood pressure and so you kind of need multiple indicators of your health to get an idea of the system so it's not enough to look at you know Carbon we have to look at the whole picture and that includes kind of an above ground an assessment of what's Happening got it and so I guess my my overarching question about you need decisions that are made for controlling wildlife in this case lethal control of prairie dogs or removal or cohabitation or you know whatever treatments are put in place um in each of the the parcels

[270:02] at issue how will we know what's good good and what's bad so how would we compare a plot where we do lethal control with a plot where we do relocation how would we know which is better um from a soil Health perspective and it seems to me like we'd want some kind of longitudinal study um and some kind of control which presumably would have prairie dogs on it right and then we got the land where we take the pr dogs away and so so how how are you planning to do that kind of longitudinal study great question so um absolutely it's not enough so ideally we're taking samples before we do the removal and then we're following it um every five years for 10 years 15 years just to see how what the trends are right because it's one you know one sample is a point in time and we want to see where things are headed right so we'll do that and

[271:00] we're also going to look at places that have never had prairie dogs and hopefully for the length of the time that we're doing sampling don't have Paradox can we see so we can see what those Trends are there and then also look at areas that we're not going to be doing removals okay and then track those Trends there so we'll have a good way to compare within the site right have that repeated measure over time and also compare that to sites that we have continuous PR doog occupation and also continuous um non-occupation got it and so in the context of this new new approach to prog management have you done the Baseline soil measurements from from where we're planning on removing perod dogs one way or the other uh so that I think is really hinging on what happens tonight and so uh I have not done that Baseline soil Health assessment on those removal areas because I don't know what they are yet um it really depends on on the decision made the C thing um for the removal that is planned for this year on

[272:01] the IBM property I will certainly be taking soil samples um either this fall or early next spring um to take that that kind of Baseline data for that for that site and we'll be following up with that in another five years so is that irrigated Agland or is that just correct the IBM the IBM where I'm specifically talking about is irrigated Eggland yes got it um and and so are there resources within the open space Department to do all the soil sampling that needs to be done is is you mentioned Elizabeth Black's kind of Citizen soil sampling is that something that you're engaging citizens in is helping you collect the soil samples so I I have with the creation of this position I have been given time in my work plan to take those soil samples um and there was a budget line item created

[273:01] to pay for that soil sampling in addition um the boulder opens space Conservancy also generously donated money to that effort they really felt like this was an important um project for the Department um and had a lot of importance as we're facing climate change and a rapidly changing um you know water hydrograph we want to look at ways that we can manage our water better and our alands better um so that's how this project is funded um and in terms of Elizabeth Black's citizen science so health project uh I open space is participating um by soil sampling on some of our properties and so her project is really looking at engaging farmers and so she has 50 farmer participants that are annually sampling their agricultural fields to determine what is happening um I think one of the interesting things is that not a lot of Growers are testing their soils with any kind of regularity in the area and so

[274:01] it's just really creating a new habit for folks and not only that also out how to interpret those soil tests which is like a huge part of getting those tests back is what does it mean and so I think that's been a really uh great outcome from that project and so if we we look forward you know I I see a conflict here right you got the folks who are trying to keep prairie dogs from being killed you got the folks who are very interested in the AGS being productive and not having interference with prairie dogs so it seems to me like one of the the um possibilities here would be some kind of Citizen collaborative shared learning process and I'm sure you've heard this before um but the concept would be to get the stakeholders there on the ground I think a lot of us sit here and have opinions about you know what the right thing to do as far as pray dogs or soils is but it seems like

[275:03] there's an opportunity here to educate everyone um and you're you pointed it out yourself that that it's not a typical thing for people on AGS to do soil sampling and so that's a new thing that's a new piece of education and then it seems to me really important that if we're going to do lethal control or relocation or whatever and we want to do it in order to preserve soil Health that we need to make sure that that's what's actually happening so the Baseline study seem important to me but also making sure to test as we go um for the various kinds of treatments and it seems like I would imagine open space is resource limited and so what could you do if you had volunteers who are helping you execute your study and so I just put that out there because I think there's an opportunity I mean we have this fight

[276:01] a lot right we hear about the prairie dog issue you know every couple years every three years and it seems to me like something needs to bring the sides together to understand each other and to understand the soil health so I'm just putting that out there um that's not really a question as much as maybe it is a question could you use that kind of assistance in the work that you're doing would it be possible to engage citizens in helping you and you know under your guidance assessing what the the treatment is doing to the soil I think there's opportunities for citizen science in this work absolutely I think for the actual like hard data Gathering soil sampling I'd want consistency with the person collecting that sample and that's why it's usually good to have somebody that's done it many times um however there are lots of

[277:01] um not lots there's an app called L PKS that that is um pretty userfriendly and it's a way of assessing soil and rangeland health and it's something that was developed by um the federal government the USDA and and BLM together and actually one of The Visionaries behind this app lives in Boulder and so I think there's an opportunity to do training in terms of like a holistic um soil and land assessment using that um it does require you know a little bit of Hands-On training but it's really up to the user to kind of calibrate themselves into what what they need to see on the land and so that that's a part that takes a little bit of work um I do know the county does have a soil monitoring volunteer program um it's morphed a little bit over time and so at the last iteration it was just taking a group of folks that were interested in soil Health out into the field and running a soil Health scoring card through with

[278:02] the entire group um with Co I can imagine IM that it's a little bit different um but it it certainly is a possibility and I I know um I've read more about the the collaborative and I would like Mark to speak more about that if he has U probably a more concise opinion or answer about that great well thank you for all those answers we've got Mary Rachel mirbi Adam and Mark Mary um I'd like to um kind of follow on to um some of Sam's questions with respect to the soil sampling in an effort to um try and tie it to our climate commitment goals and um in your soil sampling what soil testing and what you test for and the methodologies and and um what kind are you looking for

[279:01] um elements that would um Point towards um carbon sequestration or the efficacy of the efforts um towards carbon sequestration sure great question so one of the things we're measuring is um soil carbon so the way that the soil sampling was stratified across the system we're looking at you know Fields North the North End of the system the south end of the system and on the East End of the system and irrigated Agland fields and not only that we have a a an equation that determines how many fields you should sample based on how big a lease area an individual tenant has so the minimum number of samples was two and the maximum I think was 14 and so basically um they're stratified also by production type so we can take a look and see okay for our hay Fields What fields have the most carbon what can we deduce from these samples about how that land is being managed um what's the fertility regimen what's the cutting

[280:01] height um how many cuting are they taking and seeing how that's like influencing soil carbon and make um make management decisions from there so one of the things that you know immediately have noticed from soil sampling across the system is that you know the aggregate stability isn't there and and soil carbon is tending to Trend a lot lower than I would have anticipated even in some of our perennial grasslands or hayfields and so that speaks to me that we need to address um you know bringing in compost improving plant health so that it can pump more carbon into the soil soil um and looking at things like integrating livestock better so that we can get better nutrient cycling so that's that's basically the thing that you're looking for is so carbon I also took cores for bulk density so we can translate how much carbon we have in the top six inches of soil into a weight measurement so that's the other important part of the sampling that I did so um yeah that's how we can get at that that climate commitment um and really tie

[281:01] that into the preliminary work that was done by um mark Easter and Keith Pan's lab up at CSU and um and so what kinds of that sounds a lot like some of the stuff that's been going on at the Bennett property and what have we learned there because that seems to be um the beginning of answering some of these questions that were asked by Sam sure so what I've learned in Bennett is that things take longer than I want them to take and um that property is in the condition that it is due to many years of of many factors coming all together and so it's going to take a long time to really reverse those Trends on that property um we did find that key lining and compost were incredibly integral to getting plants to grow um but the soils there are in really poor shape they're

[282:00] very subject to um crusting which um limits water infiltration when we do get a precipitation event and also inhibits um successful germination of crops that we plant and so we're really just working on getting any kind of vegetative growth to sustain itself out there we do have prairie dogs still on the property they do continue to clip and eat um the plants that we are trying to grow and that makes things difficult um and we still have the burrow ordinance in place and that also makes things take longer so in terms of our like Grand knowledge and how we apply that to open space I think it's really more about taking an individual approach partial by partial and tenant by tenant right like you want you want our like our land Steward on board with us right and we don't want to just go in and tell people how to do things we want people to come along and be willing participants and at some point be um advocates for the work that we're doing

[283:00] and so we have gone out and with tenants Buy in we're we're spreading compost and we're seeing you know we had one property we spread 10 tons per acre of compost the yield doubled this year compared to last year similar water packs similar irrigation similar fertility it's really just about having um greater soil health and so I hope to see that play out over the coming years as we get these results back and as we try these um methods on different properties okay thank you um so my next question is about the you the time interval for taking the um soil samples you said that you would be looking at um 5 10 15 and so how do that does that time interval play with the proposed um um the preferred alternative in I I believe that time period is three

[284:00] years correct yeah so how H how are we going to know um what's transpired um in three years without with our only measurement being the Baseline measurement that's a really good question if I might be able to jump in the um the preferred alternative outline the first three years worth of uh implementation largely because that is um as far into the future as we felt we could gaze um to provide the board and city council with estimates um on costs and implementation the request with the preferred alternative is to go well beyond that um and the kinds of testing that Lauren's talking about uh are the kinds of measures that we knew back in 2010 when Council approved the grassland ecosystem management plan that we wanted to have it just took us a little while it took us a decade in this case to build the internal staff capacity um to bring um

[285:01] Lauren on board and then to create the position for Lauren and within the department uh to take advantage of her skills and knowledge um to help us establish our goals for uh soil condition that were called for in the grassland plan we just knew we needed them and we knew that we wanted uh the conditions to be acceptable but we just didn't at that point have the information so this is really a long-term look um at improving soil condition uh the ability to use uh these soils for carbon sequestration um and and I think as you've heard that it's it takes a while to gather these kind of data um Our Hope through the preferred alternative is you know not only to improve soil Health um and carbon sequestration in the soil but a number of other factors um so if you want to get back to Lauren that's great I just didn't want to leave her kind of um leave her kind of hang there with the thought that it was just a three-year plan the preferred alternative uh we're

[286:02] hoping uh will take us uh through the um the management of the project area so that we have compatible uh uses on irrigated lands so that that those lands uh have had the parade dogs move through relocation or other means such as lethal control uh so that they can continue to provide um the the best opportunities for agricultural producers thank you for that I'm still not understanding how if we're looking three years out and and then we've got the is it a permit or it's um tonight if if if what we do is allow the the preferred alternative um that three-year window there tonight is the notification of the the the permitting or refresh my memory of exactly how that works we're asking for um for the ability to uh seek

[287:01] a special permit um we haven't identified the particular end date for that permit and we've also are asking uh for implementation through the city manager's rule of modification of some of the W the Wild Life protection ordinance and again uh for that we're not proposing um a termination or or deadline so that would provide continue to provide the flexibility of management of these irrigated lands um in perpetuity so so I just want to be clear about that our goal is to um our goal is to um improve the conditions improve the situation within the project area um and I think what we've done is you know identified an annual level of removal by lethal control as well as by relocation how long that would take depends upon to a large degree the rate of growth of hurry dogs whether or not there's epizootic disease in the population like plague so we we don't actually know how long it might take uh to implement this

[288:01] um so that that's our proposal is is to move forward um until we're complete okay thank you for that um and then um in the the the plan um calls for um both lethal control and for um relocation and the relocation as I understand it requires the use of Delta dust from um the relocation site is that correct um the animals so there's two two aspects of the relocation process um that uh require uh Delta dust under the requirements or insecticides I should say uh under the requirements of the state agency that regulates the

[289:00] relocation of progs Colorado Division of parks and Wild life um prey dogss that are captured um have to be treated with an insecticidal spray um to kill any any fleas that may be on them so that when they are brought um to a receiving site they they don't bring fleas with them so their flea burden um is intended to be killed um and then there's also requirement that the sending site be treated uh to protect um the reloc the people doing the reloc location uh who are going to be handling the animals and in the Burrows you know hand and being an active around the Burrows so um the the insecticide that you're referring to is that the Delta dust that goes into the Burrows that's right the the Delta dust goes into the Burrows I'm not I don't believe that Delta dust is used to kill the fleas on the prairie dogs Heather Swanson or Val ma could answer that

[290:02] question okay so um so the Delta dust is sprayed is um applied to the the sending Burrows and um Delta dust as I understand it is a neonicotinoid so what it's not I'm sorry may I just wanted to clarify that it is not it is not um okayo um I'm not saying that's better I'm just saying it's not an end well it has um does does what is used on the uh Burrows have effects on um other um organisms yes it does okay it has it has a broad impacts on insects and re abery uh the city's IPM coordinator is here and can provide more specific information uh that you might want to know about that okay um well so for the moment that that that's good and what

[291:01] I'm trying to understand is in the areas where we would be um restoring uh soil health or or working to restore soil Health would we be doing both relocation and lethal control or relocation or lethal control only that's a really good question I don't believe um that we've had a lot of um specific conversation I think we would be looking at um particular particular concerns that might result from uh any of those activities um but I don't believe that we have established that it's one or the other where we're doing soil restoration so Lauren feel free to chime in yeah I guess and I guess what I would want where I'm going with this line of questioning is does the um the residue from the whatever is used in the Burrows um how does that

[292:02] affect the soil Health what we've we' we've had some conversations recently about Delta dust and um the Persistence of its activity and um I'd like to so I don't say anything wrong I want to make sure Council has correct information let re described kind of the the half-life or the duration at which Delta dust kind of maintains its toxicity to uh insects or other uh living things just saw you there for a second Bella [Music] the the let me undo my camera um yeah the Persistence of Delta dust um varies you know according to the soil type the amount of sunlight it receives um and since it's applied in and around Burrows and it adheres tightly to so the soil particles it could potentially be um persistent we know that when it's applied for flea control that it lasts

[293:00] for about a year and and so not only are the fleas impacted but anything that's living in the Burrows is impacted and there are non-target effects to um all insects and there are studies showing impacts to um many vertebrates including um amphibians and reptiles um even even some birds most birds that are tested in the the regulatory testing like um ducks or Quail don't show impacts but they other birds May and impacts EG for instance so there are those direct kind of um potential um impacts what what we've tried to do is May is try to get some kind of estimate about what the exposure would be around Burrows because it's not broadcast like you would have insecticides typically be used in an agricultural application and the closest thing that I can find is we we estimate what the what

[294:00] the concentration would be around the Burrows because it's not going to be that across the whole field is estimating we've estimated it two ways like the amount per acre and then the amount around the burrow which is going to be a greater concentration than in between the Burrows where it's not applied and a study showing spiders impacted by Delta dust um their ability to um walk the speed that they walk and their ability to evade Predators um is going to be similar to about to in the same range as what we would see around the burrow and the the the good thing though is that it would only be used this one time so it wouldn't be a repeat application so there are tradeoffs or a lot of unknowns we know that it's toxic it's it's difficult to know exactly what that would be or how long that would last and another major concern of the ground nesting bees you know we have over 500 species as Adam said tonight during the Declaration reading 80% of those species are tiny ground nesting

[295:00] bees wouldn't even be noticed by most people and those would be impacted from Delta dust because it's in Delta methine the active ingredient because it's very toxic to bees so there are those potential impacts um how great those are and how big of an impact those would have on the greater ecosystem from a one time application or unknown it wouldn't repeated applications can I call on that thank you R yes please so re are you I understand what you're saying um about about the Delta dust and you know done a lot of research on it myself but um I'm obviously not in your line of of work so my question is you know we're talking about um the nicotinoids herbicides things like that so are you telling me that all of the or do you know if all of the so let's say the prairie dogs get killed or removed and that land goes back to egland all of the land the crops hey everything that's

[296:01] growing there is that's going to be organic then or do the farmers use pesticides that would be a question for Andy about how those those those properties would be used and whether some of them would be in organic production or not if the Delta dust is applied the Delta methan is applied now there would be a time period of three years I believe before it could be certified as organic so that's one one potential impact I don't know how much that would apply to these specific Parcels but I'm just saying if we're worried about the impact of Delta dust on the bees and other insects in the area for soil Health purposes wouldn't we also be worried about Farmers using pesticides then moving forward because they'd be using them much more regularly than a one-time use of Delta dust I you know I post every single application of any pesticide in our entire system including agriculture on a hotline each week and most of our most almost all of our properties are managed without pesticides it's very rare that

[297:02] they're used and there are a couple sites occasionally an herbicide is used but we don't that that isn't an issue in the majority of our agricultural properties and Lauren or Andy could clarify that okay yeah I I can pitch in a little bit there um you asked if they would be certified organic many of them would not we don't um necessarily ask folks to do that that's their their business Choice um but as R mentioned um I believe and Lauren you can correct me if I'm wrong um we have only had um a pesticide applied to annual crop like dry land wheat in the last four years uh there is uh inorganic fertilizer does get applied to hayfields but generally no pesticides um pesticide use is very low on on EGS currently okay okay cool thank you thank you for that um thanks Rea and

[298:01] then um my final question has to do with the parcel by parcel review that was brought up um by um one of the speakers actually tonight and I I think in the previous hearing as well um what what is the plan if we have one in terms of um what does that mean exactly a parcel by parcel review and how would that play with um the plan for X number of um of prairie dog removals per year um how how would that work if if it was a route that we chose to go down well I think we've already as part of the preferred alternative um described a scenario that we would be doing a partial by parcel review um thanks to the recommendations of the

[299:00] prairie dog working group um there is a commitment that we started in October of last year um to host an annual meeting describing uh the past Year's activities associated with the management of prairie dogs and forecasting what was coming up in the future in fact the October meeting in 2019 or the first of these annual meetings in 2019 uh was also the kickoff for the um expedited um Community engagement process that Council directed us to under take so I can't speak to what others um may see as um a parcel by parcel review but we certainly um have have spent a lot of time with parcel by parcel data um as part of the development of the preferred alternative and um we uh certainly would anticipate at this annual meeting presenting our um

[300:00] plans for paray doog management for the upcoming year uh as part of a consultation with the community uh to gather input input and feedback on that approach and um the particular Parcels that we were intending uh to treat with the uh various treatments uh that were directed to by Council uh or allowed to by Council to use um we would you know summarize the prairie dog and soil Health Management activities that were accomplished in the previous year uh describe the plans for the coming year have they opportunity for people to ask questions provide us with their comments um you know collect document the kinds of feedback that are necessary and make adjustments before um proceeding on one of the things we know is we have a relatively short time each year to do all the things that are necessary uh to prepare for relocation um or lethal control of prairie dogs lining up contractors getting permits um Etc uh

[301:00] it's pretty timec consuming process so there may be a thought out in the community of a a more um robust um or um time consuming process of parcel by parcel review and that wouldn't be consistent with the um expectations uh or the the idea that staff has uh for conducting this and presenting it listening to what people have to say and making adjustments as we can to make uh it functional um so that's I don't know if that's an answer answer to your question uh Mary so what I hear you saying is that there is something that that resembles a parcel by parcel review and there there may be different opinions on exactly what that is but you do have a plan to do something like that yeah and and following that um community meeting Our intention would certainly be to meet with the open space Board of Trustees where we present the annual report of what we've done uh provide a

[302:00] summary of the community conversation how we use that information uh to adjust what we were planning to do um take whatever feedback the board would have and then after uh the open space board of trusteed do provide us with their feedback we would prepare uh an information packet item for Council containing that annual report summarizing again the community feedback uh as well as the open space Board of Trustees feedback and and providing kind of the course of action we propos for the future that certainly would give Council the opportunity if they felt necessary to call up uh staff intended activities um and in addition if there were other um other outside discussions for example there was mention of the CU Center for uh I'm sorry sustainable Landscapes and communities um having an involvement in a longer term kind of broader involvement uh shared learning collaborative something like that um we could certainly also um integrate that information uh with with that and

[303:01] participate uh as a appropriate and as fundings available in an effort like that but that's probably a more long-term thing as um as um mayor Weaver indicated for um addressing kind of some of the the wicked problems associated uh with prairie dog management thank you Mark that's all I have next we've got Rachel mirbi Adam and Mark Rachel all right thanks real quick um I do want to say thank you to Kurt Brown for the good um introductory overview and also want to thank staff for all the answers tonight and um answering a lot of questions in the leadup to this discussion so I just a couple more questions first did um we did we um explain either tonight or or um during the staff presentation a couple weeks ago why sterilization doesn't work because I've gotten that question a fair amount from the community and if not could there be just a brief explanation of that I don't think that we made mention of it um at

[304:01] the last meeting um sterilization of of wildlife kind of a in this case where you have lots of different animals spread out over the landscape is typically accomplished through chemosterilant rather than capturing and and doing any kind of surgical um intervention on the individual animals which would be very expensive very timec consuming and pretty um challenging for the animals uh there have been over the years um experimentation with a variety of chemerin uh some of them and right now we don't have any um and there's three major reasons for that um looking for chemerin that don't have um cascading impacts for the food chain uh has been challenging some of the um chemicals that have been identified uh turned out to accumulate in the fatty tissue of predators leading to uh unanticipated and undesirable sterilization of predators Hawks Eagles

[305:01] what have you so that's certainly something that we don't want to see happen uh second there are often um non intend unintended effects on the animal itself so that the prairie dogs can become sickened or weakened um through uh through the chemosterilant activities on other systems in its body and then third uh the challenge is um once a a chemical is is found finding a means to distribute it and produce it that's economically feasible as you can imagine far pharmaceutical um companies aren't anxious to develop things or produce things like this where there isn't the kind of Market that you know human populations you know a demand similar to human populations so supporting and um finding ways to bring these things to Market is another challenge having said that in our analysis um in our work with the pre dog working group uh the grassland plan management plans before

[306:00] that open space has uh been supporter of the various government agencies that are looking into chemerin um we look at the opportunities and possibilities of being staging areas uh for tests on that and um so we're we're continuing to support that as we can there just aren't any that are available at this point thank you um and then second is sort of a broad question um probably a lot of us heard from the um first gentleman of Colorado offering um supports for relocation and thought he might have um he along with uh ke Boulder wild and and some other um interested parties could have come up with funding and maybe land for relocation and um possible help with permitting um at the receiving land so I'm just wondering you know if if there was some magical group that came

[307:01] together and said here we have money and land where you can take these prairie dogs to how could we accomplish that um is there some lag time that's needed where people would have to put together a proposal to help and would staff need any direction to facilitate that if it were possible I think that the recommendations of the prairie dog working group that Council endorsed uh last year provide uh more than adequate um support for those Alternatives um we certainly would be be wide open to um any kinds of efforts that would give us the opportunity to uh have a greater Reliance on non-lethal means um we have staff capacity limits on our ability to oversee projects so that's one thing um that we would have to bear into consideration um if additional relocation sites were made available that could be a very big um a very big

[308:00] benefit to the overall um overall um project here and and elsewhere uh in the jurisdiction of the city and elsewhere along the Front Range currently state law prohibits the relocation of PR dogs outside of the sending uh the sending site to a a county to another County where the receiving site would be without the county commissioner's permission so that's a real challenge um open space and Mountain Parks lands have more often been the uh receiving site for others than we have um had opportunities to bring perie dogs relocated from open space to other sites so that would be uh certainly a bonus to have more available receding sites currently there are only a limited number of contractors uh who are able to do this work certainly if funding and demand were to increase one would it to expect that there uh the availability of folks to to do that work would increase um but

[309:00] because of the liability issues associated with volunteers working around prie dogs with plague Etc our our practice and the advice that we've received uh from the city attorney's office has been it would be it's more um it's preferable to work with contractors who then in turn work with the volunteers okay just one one just to clarify that um a little bit so in that we are I think authorizing and that mandating use of lethal control if we um vote for this tonight is there a timeline that you would need some concrete proposal from group like how quickly would youee imp putting together oh I'm sorry um putting together I'm sorry you're broken up there well I thought you had finished apologize council member friend um yeah we would um need it's again a longer term thing uh to work with folks to find a receiving site um to have you know

[310:01] clear agreement about that to work with the division of Parks and Wildlife to come up with a permit that takes that into consideration um to receive the funding and and have um agreements with funding agencies apply for Grants Etc things like that those things you take a little while to structure so they'd have to be built into um the kind of the long-term implementation and of course the same people who do that are the ones who are going to be supervising and overseeing uh the relocation projects that that we have on the book and the other work so it would have to be balanced but but certainly we're always open to other ways to improve our capacity to get the work done all right and um sorry sorry that I'm cutting out thank you so much thank you Rachel next we got miror by Adam and Mark nearby I'm actually going to cqu off what Rachel was just talking about so um

[311:03] we have hundreds and hundreds of Acres on the southern grasslands that um David Lucas would love to see build and for those who are not familiar with David Lucas he is um manages the Rocky Flats and the Arsenal lands and uh he's been working on projects to reintroduce blackf footed ferret over into those lands and we need a certain number of contiguous Acres um for that to happen and so I spent half a day with him and he kept telling me that he wished Boulder County would relocate more into those lands and so um to to create that con continuous um amount of prairie dogs needed for the re the introduction of the blackf footed faer and so you know I know we have those lands and we're down to 3% of the lands so if the lands are taken care of um and we need more prairie dogs over there um I know for a fact that um the first gentleman is willing to uh work to help raise money and get volunteers and I know for a fact that there's relocators who are willing to help train and take on that is there a reason we can't start moving forward

[312:01] with that I mean we talk about having um and I'm sorry it's getting really late and brain's not fully working here but so my words are I'm missing my my vocabulary at the moment um we talk about having collaborative work and you know Mr Reese came up wrote a wonderful um oped in the paper saying that we can be more inventive than the base the base model of killing and so we have the tools we have people willing we have the first gentleman giving us the offer to do this so is there a reason we can't start moving forward with this well I understand also we can move forward with portions of this plan but I mean we literally have a huge portion of an answer here to start working if we do a partial by partial analysis to move forward so I guess the hurdles don't seem to be here yet I keep hearing being pushed off I guess I'm kind of

[313:00] confused we're certainly uh prepared to work with the first gentleman um we hadn't heard um his participation in the process came within the last of couple of weeks uh we're very welcome very welcome to hear from him and appreciate uh folks who have brought him on board to the conversation he hasn't approached staff at this point uh with directly uh with any of the ideas but we would be happy if directed by Council um to work with uh the first gentleman uh more on that project okay well I have a text right here from him saying true basically once I know what's needed I can help figure out how to get it I wish they would include an amendment allowing enough time to find any receiving sites and raise money so um that's directly from him and um so there you have it from that so I'll move on to some of my other questions um and so maybe Council can just take into account what he's the first gentleman has just said um in his willingness to actually help so um I

[314:00] wanted to jump and I'm going to jump around a little bit but just from my recollection of the beginning of this entire movement to kill um came from two very upset leases which was the Axel Johnson and the Boulder Valley Ranch site and so I understand that we're moving forward with killing on Axel Johnson but I'm confused as to why we've included all of these other sites that weren't um necessarily as um in desperation and why the Boulder Valley Ranch is not included onto this and so it makes me think that um be be cap older Wild's proposal of a stakeholder involved implementation of um parcel by parcel analysis would be needed because we're we're missing one of the initial major Le's who was having an issue so can you explain why they're not part of this they are part of this well but down the road not not immediately um they they're part of the project area

[315:00] and they're part of the uh the calculations and they're part of the uh overall implementation um so that's I'm not sure exactly what you're saying we haven't developed any of the specific recommendations for um the use of any technique immediately if the reference is to the fact that much of the Boulder Valley Ranch property falls within the grassland preserve and the uh priorities for early implementation are resolving transition area and um removal areas um yeah that that is indeed the case for the removal areas because we feel that is where um the conflict is the highest with both policy and conditions um but so that yeah so that I guess I'll respond that way okay all right I just I thought is very much part of this uh project and um and the grassland plan identifies um that in grassland

[316:00] preserves as well as any management designation where prairie dogs have occupied irrigated agriculture um those areas um the parad can be removed from those areas so that's I think an important consideration I see Andy's clicked on so I'll I'll let him join in as well sure and I would just clarify that um the lover family leases properties other than Boulder Valley Ranch uh so other properties that they lease are in the early years of the priority system ah okay that's that may also explain why there are other properties involved other than Boulder Valley Ranch and and the axles that's that was the piece I'm missing okay cool um thank you um all right so I wanted to jump back to something that um Lauren said and she was talking about water management and how we were moving forward and so I think that was just a perfect intro into the discussion of how do we manage our a

[317:00] lands and I get that this is out of the prairie dog management technically and the smaller discussion for tonight but I just want to put it out for Council is that you know again we're talking about how do we work in an integrated way where we can you know work in tandem with nature and um the hurdles that naturally exist on our lands rather than going to again the base model of killing and so we do as we can talk about climate change and we see a shortage of our Waters and increased fire um there are lots of other crop well not lots but there are other crops that create um less need that that have a less need for water one of which is hemp and so it still fulfills the charter Amendments of of AGS um but we need far less water and the best part about the hemp is it also works in tandem with the prairie dog so again there's another um point right there that I just wanted to bring up and I guess I'd like to again we talk about Innovation and why aren't we looking into to this more and I know

[318:01] specifically there's been one person that has really um tried this in Longmont and been extremely successful and he's tried to get leases here and has come up against a brick wall um but yet he's doing it in Longmont with our neighbors so again I'm putting that out there on the table that there's another beautiful option um for non-kill using our AGS under the charter and using less water um so that that's just there um so then one of the other points I guess I just want to clarify here is so again we talk about management of our lands in terms of we've done the soil samples we're going to continue to do the soil samples we've done them prior to the prairie dogs or while they're there then we're going to continue on but we're going to do it on for many years or continue the sampling on for many years and Mark you were stating that um we just don't know how long we're going to have to do this so I guess the question is we're going to go kill a bunch of animals as an experiment but yet we don't know an end date we don't know any outcomes but so so basically I guess yes

[319:01] or answer we're killing animals as an experiment to see if the soils are going to heal themselves no I think there's a lot of strong inference beyond the detailed information that Lauren described um and I don't think one like you said I don't think it would be ever appropriate to lay blame on prie dogs but what we do know is that once these agricultural lands um are no longer irrigated uh the vegetation tends to collapse and when the veget ation tends to collapse um the soil blows away uh on these properties that we've observed our ability you know an interest in measuring uh what's going on within that soil is is certainly interesting while it's there but when we lose the top layers of soil where much of the carbon is uh accumulated it takes quite a while for that to come back what we have happening in our irrigated lands is a situation where we

[320:01] don't have the ability to continue to irrigate those lands as staff um and there's little motivation for our leses to irrigate lands where prairie dogs are occupying them so we see a um a kind of macro level loss of soils so are at that level um I think it's it's easier to say that our thinking is if we can um stabilize those soils which is far easier to do in the absence of prairie dogs than in the presence of prairie dogs as uh Lauren described on the Bon property again where the history is from a lot of different causes we would be able to stop the soil from blowing away off of our lands so that's that's kind of the fundamental and macro level issue of trying to conserve the soils on the properties that the the city has purchased made the investment in and be able to use the water again that the

[321:00] city has uh uh invested and made the purchase of so I think that's that's kind of the macro level is it's very difficult for us for our neighbors for our ranchers I think for most open space visitors to see that that soil loss and and um we'd like to um first start by being able to contain that okay um so is then I guess leads into the next question do you know if there's any type of vegetation other than I know the hemp works with prie dogs are there other ve vegetations there was a study done in Mexico scientific published study in Mexico of using vegetation um the prairie dogs wouldn't eat and then they would help to sequester carbon and it's thought that carbon sequestration actually happened much deeper down in the soils rather than just like the top six inches of soil so I mean are there options of putting crops in that could possibly work in tandem this way or do you know I I'll let um Lauren um or Andy respond uh

[322:00] in detail I can say is that we've been part of the conversation uh regarding prairie dogs along the Front Range for many years um scientists working with the national um I'm sorry the US fish and wildlife service at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal have been working for years to try to identify species that can become established and grow in the presence of prairie dogs and um there there's there's a list of some species that can do that the establish M of these mostly native grassland species but some Exotics take quite a while and quite a while longer in the presence of prie dogs um I have not read all the work that saos has uh put together um in the anos of of Mexico maybe Lauren knows more about that um but I can say um that we've had very limited success in having uh successful uh restoration projects in

[323:01] the presence of prog especially at the outset I will add on to that we we do have a agricultural land um restoration specialist on staff um and we are learning more about plants that are more tolerant to prair dogs uh occupation and that's one thing we are working on on some of our staff managed properties is uh seeding more diverse species that may be more tolerant to pray dog activity uh we are are aware of some as markk mentioned more so in the context of native grasslands and and we've been able to plants that that can tolerate that kind of grazing okay that's great um Lauren did you have anything to add or should I move on um you know I guess to the hemp point you brought up that I guess are you speaking about Jeremy Gregory applying for yeah and I

[324:00] know he had tried a while ago and and now with the city of Boulder so I can't really speak to his lack of success that way because we've never received an application well he he tried last year but it's fine we don't need to go into it here but I I think he's going to try again this year so I mean it'd be great to see if we can see how that production works with anyways that that gets into the weeds a little bit so um anyways um okay well I guess so my final question question I guess goes back to the stakeholder meetings in the once a year but it doesn't seem like and correct me if I'm wrong um I I think what keep older wild and others were asking for is that it really was a stakeholder meeting with partiel by parel analysis on a more frequent basis which would involve again all of the stakeholders so you know biologists ranchers Farmers gray dog Advocates staff Etc um where they could

[325:00] really dive in more than a once a year that didn't involve all the individual stakeholders to the meeting but more staff so I mean is this something you're saying it takes a lot of Staff time to do this it but so that's that's what the hurdle that's why we can't have a more frequent partiel by paral analysis when when each spot comes up I think that our commitment would be to have um you you've heard today from a number of the open space staff you there's um others who you haven't heard from here Heather Swanson life ecologist Tory pton our per dog coordinator a lot of people with um a lot of expertise in the management of these species I think our recommendation uh to allow for operational efficiency um and Effectiveness to to move forward not only in the management of PR dogs but um and not only for this project but the 30 or so recommendations of the pr dog working group that we've committed to is

[326:00] that we were just looking for um efficiencies if it's the um the desire of council to see um a more extensive public process associated with um the annual review within the project area on irrigated land certainly that would be something that that we would do uh I we just have to recognize that PR dog are one of many species on open space and Mountain Parks lands that our commitments to conserve prairie dogs uh go well beyond uh the the actions here our our commitments to conserve grassland productivity and irrigated uh pastures or agricultural productivity and irrigated pastures hayfields uh local Diversified vegetable operations there's a lot of programs going on and uh we have limited staff capacity so I think that's the point Council certainly can set what the priority is for that okay well then the last thing I'll just say before I turn it over to Adam is that um again the first gentleman um

[327:00] tell me that he is interested and he'll be happy to set up a meeting with you and staff and um discuss how he can help so I mean he's ready to move along with that right away and I think that again just for Council to know that that's sitting on the table and I think that's a lot I he has a big reach to the community of Colorado and all of The Advocates and fundraising efforts that could be done and so I do know that budget is a huge concern but I mean even putting up barrier fencing and getting volunteers out there to put up barrier fencing could be really quite effective um where identified as well as a combination of relocation and I think it's unprecedented to have the type of help at the state level that we're being offered and I would hate to squander that um I think it's quite special and I think it shows the interest of the state and how we care about our Wildlife so I'll just put that up there for Council to consider prior to the vote thank you meby um Adam and Mark Adam thanks Sam uh luckily Mary asked

[328:00] most of my questions about pollinators and other insects uh and the use of Delta dust I really appreciate that Mary um I have one more question regarding Delta dust though and in the reading that I did on it um I found that it's actually the worst when it's in water and uh can leech in the groundwater and we're literally talking about irrigated EG GLS which is itself the closest thing we can have to water um sources near the the Delta dust so uh I guess my main question then would be how are we going to make sure we don't um allow or allow as little Delta dust as possible into the irrigation system and are we at any liability for Downstream purposes uh by applying Delta dust I don't think that I'll be able to answer your question about liability we we have Janet Michaels the City attorney

[329:01] on this call but I don't know that she would be fair to ask her to jump into respond to a liability question like that so that may be something we have to get back to on um I'd ask Rel to respond to the first question um we have been in conversations with both um representatives of the um Colorado Department of Agriculture around this question uh with regards to the label restrictions for Delta dust because another part portion of the state um the division of Parks and Wildlife requires these applications so determining the best way to ensure that we can do these applications in a manner that's consistent with the label requirements um and allows us to meet the requirements of the Division of Wildlife uh division of Parks and Wildlife uh has certainly been on our mind uh sella I don't know if you're the right person to take this or if somebody else would yeah the main thing Adam is that when the prayer do relocations occur is in the fall when we're not we wouldn't be irrigating anyway um and there are

[330:00] some restrictions according to the label the label is hard to interpret for this type of thing because you don't ordinarily have people treating um doing relocations from irrigated lands um but we would work closely with the Department of Agriculture to make sure that we were following the the label exactly and there may be Parcels that this would not be appropriate or legal for us to do but we would be you know very cautious in making sure that we were not only following the label what we do at the city is we don't use the majority of pesticides anyway so we we would go above and beyond to make sure that if we were using Delta dust for relocations from these lands that we were doing everything possible to keep it from getting into um water sources thanks for that I I totally understand that the rules are actually being set above us so that's not you know we have to abide by them um in order to do the relocations it's just maybe something

[331:00] that we should follow up with um sorry what organization was it again Forest Department oh Department of Agriculture that there are some conflicting you know sort of natural needs there um that they're they're asking for so that may just be worth following up on um in the long term too thanks for that answer thank you Adam mark yeah really just one issue for for Mark um I want to pick up on an exchange that we had by email earlier today and that's with respect to tillage restrictions [Music] um they seem to be highly arbitrary to me um in your email response to me when I questioned them you you said it was a balancing of interests of agricultural operators versus other values um

[332:01] how many agricultural operators did you actually speak to in connection with the tillage restrictions and how many were supportive that's a great question I don't know that I have that exact number um so I I'll ask Andy if if you've got a number like that to to provide a response to council number well well let me also give you the follow-up question as you're considering that which is what is the actual standard that was used to determine the 3612 regime as opposed to a 4816 or a 124 I mean is it is it coming out of thin air or is there a scientific basis for setting these limits it seems rather arbitrary to me but perhaps I am incorrect so have at it

[333:01] um so we did hear from specific operators regarding uh what their um tillage intentions would be and we are well aware that the agricultural Community would want as broad an exemption uh in the ordinance for that um we certainly wanted thought about accommodating organic producers for example who plow at a deeper dep uh to bury seeds Etc uh Eric and jills cocaine for example um would want permission to plow at significant depths um we also heard from members who wanted to implement keyline plowing which can be done to depths up to 22 Ines um so we did hear from a pretty broad group of agricultural producers based on that depth um did any producers say 3612 is great that's that's the way we want to go um no we did hear generally hear from the agricultural community at that they

[334:00] would prefer as deep a depth as possible then then what is the science behind 3612 uh and um I think Valen Heather can pitch in at some point but I I will kind of talk briefly about the 36 uh 12 part of of the scenario uh most of our conflict is happening in perennial systems where it's hay fields or irrigated pasture um and in minor field leveling done at a 3in level would greatly increase um flexibility for these operators to improve the irrigation system and manage uh kind of The Perennial systems um that would also allow for some light tillage to for example seed hay crops or seed cover crops that we we might use um to try to establish more vegetation on these sites um and then the 12 kind of the 12 Ines by permit we felt would accommodate

[335:01] keyline plowing or deeper tillage in in areas with permission from open space um and I don't know if Val and Heather if you would want to weigh in more on kind of the Restriction side of that but agriculturally that that's kind of um where we came down yeah okay it still seems rather arbitrary to me but I do have one related um and highly primitive question given what I know about agriculture how do you enforce this does somebody go out with a ruler and look at the furrows how is this done um yeah good question I guess you know we would we would explain what the requirements are and um use our best judgment in in that enforcement thank you Mark this is Dan I just want to just also just clarify that uh the 3612 are

[336:01] are restrictions uh when you're operating in the presence of active prairie dog burls so obviously there would not be restrictions uh if there are either uh prairie dog burls that are no longer occupied or there isn't presence of prairie dog burls and thank you for that clarification it's helpful okay very good so I see no more hands up um I have two more questions and then I think we can go on with um figuring out what we're going to do with the issue in front of us my question is for Lauren um Lauren so a as we move forward with whatever it is we're going to end up doing as far as control of PR dog populations will you partial by parcel do a baseline before um some treatment for the dogs is authorized like how how

[337:02] are we going to make sure that whatever we're doing has the results on the soil that we're hoping for that's the goal is to to test those sites and you know I know we're talking about a lot of acreages or a lot of acreage but it's you know field by field it's not an excessive amount of fields especially compared to the sampling that I've already done so ideally we're taking a representative sample or or every single field and and monitoring that as we go forward and I think as the data comes in we can make an assessment of like how repetitive this data is if it's actually telling us the same thing over and over again and maybe we can cut down on our sampling or if there's sufficient variability that we do want to kind of track every single field individually and I think you know given our experiences with removals we're going to have a lot of variability in how successful these um lethal control is where we'll have to you know we're maybe it's not successful in the first year the first two years the first three years and so we can kind of follow those trajectories um as this progresses so

[338:01] but yeah the point is is that we would we would make a full effort to monitor before and after on these removal areas got it and so would that be kind of a a process where um there'd be a parcel identified that has too many prair dogs on it and then you would go in and make soil Health measurements and then the prairie dogs would be relocated or lethal control and then I want to get back to Mary's question um Mary asked about you know is it every five years or 10 years or 15 or would it be more frequently than that because you know we're talking about a three-year plan moving forward and and so doing you know a second assessment five years after whatever treatment's done with the prairie dogs seems like it would miss a lot of um time and what could be something that would would change in the first year or two after

[339:01] the prair dogs are removed so what what's your plan for how often you'd measure I treated it the recommendation from CSU and some of the other so researchers I've talked to is is five years is kind of the minimum three to five years just because some of those indicators do take a long time to show up a a long I mean short in the relative like like sense of time you know but long in terms of what we're talking about for this project there's certainly indicators that we can look at um if we wanted to sample more frequently and not do as extensive sampling so we could look at vegetation uh more frequently than once every five years it just um I think we just want to be careful about collecting so much data that you know it just becomes overwhelming and so the fiveyear Benchmark is a good Benchmark for most of the soil samples were talking about water extractable carbon you could probably do on a more frequent time scale um C more uh qualitative

[340:01] assessments of soil we could do like a that soil health card that I had mentioned earlier that's something that could be done probably every three years but anything more than that unless we're seeing very dramatic changes that you can you know visually observe I don't think um you know in the scales that we're talking about and with the interventions we're talking about that we're going to see big changes in in less than five years below ground got it okay and then um this isn't just to you Lauren but it's to to all of Staff um there's this idea of a collaborative shared learning process which is citizen science which is to get everyone who's concerned with the perod doog issue and the agricultural issue to speak the same language and agree on the same data um that's being um assessed both before and after the removal of the prairie dogs so um one idea that's been floated out

[341:00] there is it could be CSU could be CU could be nature conservancy has there been any thought to um how we can make this kind of holistic process that involves the people who are most concerned with this because I I fear just moving forward with a a staff-led program that we're going to end up not necessarily educating the the people who are most concerned about you know how this is going to evolve so I just ask you know what's the community outreach thinking on staff's part around this project I can take a a first shot at that and Dan if if you would prefer just chime in and and you could go with this but we um you know the the direction we received from Council and from the recommendation from the board was that um we had a pretty urgent need to take some action on the ground

[342:00] and in fact council's Direction was for an expedit public process so our Focus was largely on engagement with the community on a relatively narrow scope of issues and a relatively narrow Geographic scope to come up with a set of recommendations to address this one aspect of parade dog management we have a broader grassland ecosystem management plan uh which did have uh involvement in a number of different ways Community groups uh were were involved in that and I think that having a longer term larger scale um larger Geographic scale and larger conceptual scale conversation about grassland conservation and prey dogs would be a really healthy thing for the community um for our grasslands um we haven't um given it all the thought or included in our recommendations all the uh the thinking that would need to go into that to figure out what the implications would be for staff capacity and costs um Brett uh Ken Karen and

[343:03] myself I I worked with the nature conservancy uh in their National Science Program for a number of years um doing conservation planning and and working with Collaborative Learning uh groups uh and Brett has worked with them elsewhere uh in on Forest Service old growth issues uh in the Pacific Northwest uh I think we both feel that they have a lot of Promise um but we sure would like to do a little bit more um analysis uh before we presented something to Council in terms of a recommendation on that got it so it is in your thinking it's just not fully developed yet is that correct yeah it wasn't developed as part of the scope of of of the this response uh to to Council on this project but um it certainly has come up um in the recommendations of members of the community and it and so um we've we've started to put pencil to paper to say hey what would that look like um but

[344:00] again there we have limited staff capacity and a lot of stuff on the ground to take care of and so I just want to make sure that um before we looked at any um commitments that we've had the opportunity to to kind of uh lay it out in in terms of what the scope and budget and timeline would look like we've had a long-term relationship with CU and with Sharon collinge um and uh and staff at open space and Mountain Parks were instrumental in working with Sharon on the development of the center uh for sustainable Landscapes and communities so that would be a very exciting prospect um working with Folks at TNC would be great or at uh at CSU where they have a similar kind of ecosystem management Community initiatives um and in fact SE slack it um atcu has worked with some of the um Collaborative Learning uh efforts at CSU on um on forestry and wildfire uction issues

[345:02] already okay super thank you for that so I guess I would open it up back to council and say um I think we're ready for either more discussion or a motion so I see no hands Mary I see your hand yeah I would like to make a motion and I just need to find it in the memo pop of page four and there it is yeah I think yep found it um all right um so I move that the city council accept and approve

[346:03] the management review of arable agricultural Fields um occupied by parod dogs and showing signs of soil loss ecological impact and loss of agricultural viability OS osbt recommended preferred alternative as amended dated July 30th 2020 and the staff recommendations on burrow damage and accept and approve the same as necessary public Improvement projects for the management of City lands and other assess assets to be administered through the development of a city manager Rule and special use permit um so I'll move that motion and then um would be happy to entertain amendments I'll secondly great so we've got a motion and a second I have some ideas for amendments um mir's got her

[347:02] hand up nearby so um well I yes I would like to bring the four amendments from keep wer wild um that have been proposed and sent to us many times by many many many residents um and so if I need to bring those up I do have them up on my computer if anyone needs refreshing do let me know um but I guess seeing as no one else is going to talk to this I would like to talk to this this um because this topic literally is what got me on Counsel um my father always said you catch more beads with honey um and so he always said to speak with your heart excuse me because I'm highly impassionate on this topic and it's not something sadly that I think is going to change many of your minds and so be it um but I find it ironically h are that we have pollinator

[348:01] month promoting the importance of our wonderful bee community and and their deep importance to our our our food and and the entire world and the pollination that they they bring to each plant that is vital to life um and that we forget how important the prairie dogs are and I understand the charter I understand that these are on AGS that is not lost on me and especially Mary's Point really has hit me for over a year now since she made it about Outsourcing how we handle our prairie dogs so I the killing of our prairie dogs and so I do fully understand that point as well what I don't understand from being a born and raised resident of Boulder and Boulder County alike then is that we allow killing and that we cannot be smarter than that that we cannot be raise ourselves from this base pathetic level of of killing these animals when there are many other residents in a deep

[349:01] passion within our community and our state for the Wildlife that exists I understand that animals can get in the way I understand that there are problems but there is a a plethora of of options here that we can use and and there are people including the first gentleman who are willing to help and I will be out there breaking my back over and over again to help build barrier fencing and relocating with the best of them if this is the option we can move forward with I this community and the job that I do leads me the community has provided such a support my whole life for knowing that our animals are safe while seeing so many other communities that that kill and and the job that I do leads me on social media on a daily basis to see the most horrific things that are done to animals across the world and I hate to use the word PTSD for civilians because I think it should be left our military but for the lack of better term civilian

[350:02] PTSD is something that I have for the animals and the Carnage that I see in the way that they're treated and to now be living in a town that I thought they were safe is it it's literally kept me up for so many nights since this issue came and it's it's heartbreaking it's heartbreaking that this is what we've degraded ourselves to do it's heartbreaking that this is what we're using our tax dollars for we've heard over and over from residents that this is not how we want to use our tax dollars and and that they wouldn't have voted for open space Amendment or open space funding if this is how they knew their tox dollars were going to be used um I think that as the Next Generation being the millennial generation and especially having three of us on here that we can find better ways of changing our Charter and using our agricultural lands in different methods where we can live in Tandem and in harmony with with these Special creatures that bless our land and to hear people say they live in the county and they kill the prairie dogs that are on their land it makes me sick I mean I would be so blessed to

[351:00] have them on my land I I live right next to a colony and I daily enjoy their little squeals chirps and millions of language that they have telling their friends that I'm wearing a blue shirt that day um you should be keepers of the land like the the American Indians were and and to be killing them is a desecration of what we are here to care for so I'm deeply ashamed if we move forward with this without keep Boulder Wilds amendments and I just pass from the bottom of my heart as a resident that we show the compassion and understanding that this this is our land to protect these are our animals to protect and that we can find smarter and better ways to work so that all involved can have success and that all of keep older Wild and the residents also want to see healthy populations of lands of agricultural lands so let's work with barrier fencing let's work with relocation let's work with crops that that allow for them all to live together in Harmony

[352:00] and so I just ask that we at least add on the keep B the wild amendment I four amendments I still don't agree with the killing at all of any single parcel but it's the best option that I've seen moving forward and I ask that we consider them so mirbi thank you for that would you like to put those on the table the four I think it would be helpful if you would say those out loud so that we would know what your proposing yes and of course I just had it in my email and here it is okay so the four amendments hold I'm sorry I had it up course went away just opening it right now so one of them was to reduce the project area from 967 Acres um on down to 406 Acres one of them was to um prior to implementation of any lethal control on property within

[353:00] the reduced project area perform and Analysis of each property and knowled with knowledgeable stakeholders uh ask the city manager to authorize a special use permit for use only on the properties within the 22000 sorry 2021 and 2022 prioritized removal and transition transition areas that have been identified for lethal control through a parcel by parcel analysis and to work with entities including the state office to consider outside funding and resources to increase annual relocation and cod distance techniques they become available I don't know if I open a right email on those I think those are most of them so I heard four things reduce the project area size partial by paral analysis ahead of any lethal control um then the license for lethal control that the city manager would issue would

[354:02] expire in 2022 and then I think the last one was that we seek and accept outside funding for um avoiding as much lethal control as possible is that a fair summary I think so and again with the whole point about the stakeholders um being involved with partial by paral analysis making sure that the stakeholder option is is in there okay so and then of course the Comm oh I'm sorry in the community shared learning process that as well so um the the community um the collaborative research group um as some have called it um I think I could accept if you are amenable to um

[355:02] terming a collaborative research group with a diverse set of stakeholders and um to for it to be um focused on um soil Health recovery and um climate change um efforts yeah definitely we that's the whole point is we want an entire we want it just like the prairie dog working group we want want all the stakeholders involved and and coexist I would like to add coexistence into that but yeah those those are all major points that we would like as part of that Community Learning Experience and and I I would I wouldn't want it to go to like a prairie dog working group too I think it really needs to be a collaborative research group um that is working together to um to really um do the science on this project because I agree that um we're basically embarking

[356:01] on um a project that we're establishing the science ahead of us so um I will accept um that Amendment Mark I can accept that Amendment as well um provided we structure it in a way that it doesn't it doesn't restrict um open space from carrying out uh its program they have to occur simultaneously um it should not be simply another mechanism for kicking this can down the road which I think we've done for many years and has led us to the this space that we are in um and it's an unfortunate place but that's that's where we are I more research is good more knowledge is good um but I think it has to be something that is

[357:00] operated in tandem um with osp's program um otherwise we're just we're just spinning our Wheels again thank you Mark Rachel's got her hand up Mary Rachel just I just wanted to clarify is the amendment now incorporating all four keep Boulder wild points or is it just no going one by one going one by by one the first one um that yeah so that was just one back thank you okay um so um the next one um the partiel by parcel analysis um I did ask about that one and I would accept that as described by um staff during my questioning I think that's what the program already entails does it not yeah and and so I would accept it as it is described it was described by staff and it does entail it is entailed in in the

[358:01] current um proposal um and um I cannot except accept um reducing the project [Music] area um and then um I have a question for staff on the Performing analysis of each property um is is that something that is intended anyway um as as I described before um staff uh has a number of uh Parcels within the project area prior to uh the development of a work plan for any year um we would develop our recommendations on what would be done that year to achieve um the outcomes in the preferred alternative and that that would be shared with the

[359:00] community at the annual meeting at which time we' seek to consult gather answer people's questions gather input on that use that input to make modifications uh return to the open space Board of Trustees uh report back uh what we said what we heard how we had made changes um take further feedback from the open space board then prepare an information packet uh for council with that information uh as along with the open space Board of Trustees uh input or feedback and and how that was incorporated uh and that would be kind of the approach that we're proposing and um and that would be the approach that um is in the preferred alternative I don't believe it's that specific because um it this issue hadn't come up um prior to the development of the preferred alternative uh open space Board of Trustees uh action on it so this was developed in

[360:01] response um to the comments that were shared with Council um by keth fer wild okay so um I would um accept the perform analysis of each property as described um just now by staff okay but so that doesn't include all of the stakeholders then corre Mark well it it does include Outreach community Outreach for so for each single partial there will be Outreach where all stakeholders can participate but is that going to be every time a property comes up or is that going to be just once a year just as described by um by staff I mean that's I you know again that's it's not where I'm going with this so I I don't really know what to say on that so Rachel you got your hand up

[361:00] yeah um just on two and three if if what we're saying is um that we were going to do what staff was already going to do I guess I don't see the benefit of an amendment at all because that just seems to confuse things like are we I I would really want to like crystallize what we're adding in that already was not in the staff's um proposal so that the staff is clear and the community is clear and I understand what we're voting on that's that's just one point is like what is what is the difference between the preferred alternative and and what staff's explanation was and then yeah so the on the on the analysis of each property um Mark just said that it was not it is not in the preferred alternative that it came up during conversations so um to the first one um the amendment was not accepted the second one um is accepted as described

[362:00] just now by Mark um assuming that Mark wallik accepts it and um and then the um the collaborative research group um is not part of the preferred alternative um so that would be an additional Amendment um the permits um allowing an expiration um I won't accept that one but I would accept um a review at three years I would as well and I think I think go ahead can you clarify what you mean by a review in that threee well that's that's that's actually what is in the preferred alternative yeah so so that would not actually be in a um so just as imagined in the preferred

[363:01] alternative thanks as imagined so it's not really an amendment um and I'm wondering I I I still have um in my mind the you know the the soil um analysis that happens 5 10 15 um what would happen at the three-year period um so so that's a question I'm not clear Mary this this this is Dan um if I could get some clarification on a review um so what we propose right now um is that we will go to the community to our stakeholders our community we we report back to the board and Dan I think you dropped off could you say that again Dan okay sorry about that um I I just wanted um

[364:01] some clarifi can you hear me now y okay clarification um from Mary right now on an annual basis uh at least annually we will meet with our stakeholders in the community go back to our board and then report out through an IP from Council what I'm hearing is that at the end of um year three is that instead of an IP it would be a form noral report out to council is that what the three-year review would be is that we would report back uh more in presentation form uh to council at the end of three years um that's what I was thinking um and I was trying to reconcile that with um information regarding soil Health yeah so um I think from soil all the soil Health components that Lauren is is researching I think what I heard

[365:02] from Lauren uh tonight and in past conversations is that some of the specific characteristics of soil Health probably would not show um changes within within a couple of years but we certainly could report out on uh vegetation type uh vegetation cover uh whether anecdotally we're experiencing um um you know the soil blowing away uh we get a number of reports over the years of of dust storms and and and so there'll be that type of report out which we certainly could do on are we able to uh get the irrigation water flowing again what type of vegetation cover uh do we see in year one versus year three um I do think that some of the more scientific analysis of all the compositions of soil Health uh uh uh what I heard from Lauren is that those some of those things we probably would you know wait for a five-year increment to report out on okay so

[366:03] um at year three do what Dan just described yeah and if I could weigh in actually I got some other hands up I'm sorry Rachel Bob and Adam Rachel I was just still trying to understand a little better with the first amendment that had to do with sort of um stakeholders or education or or uh convening some group of people if I understood it correctly I wanted to understand what the impacts on staff would be because I think sometimes we ask staff to um engage and it can um create some um difficulty in them completing their work so what is that exactly that we're so uming on that one so I I should clarify that um I think that should be an independent um group so something that perhaps is um pulled together by um an outside organization like CU for

[367:00] example um and Sharon is that the person's name that's been brought up several times tonight Collin yeah somebody like that so that it would be sorry go ahead no just that it would be independent from um staff working on it so it that sort of seems like something that could happen without us saying in emotion that it needed to happen and I'm not sure that we could demand that it happen if it's not directing staff so maybe I'm just confused still about what what it is that we would be like requiring and that or adding on if it's if it's not a direction to staff and we can't really control what CU does or doesn't do if that makes sense so let's just go down the list here Bob and Adam and then I want to comment on Rachel's question so I have the same problem Rachel does I'm not sure what we voting on here I'm getting a little bit frustrated and I'm not prepared to vote right now um I want someone to write down in words on a

[368:03] piece of paper and put them on the screen what the actual amendments are because we're having a lot of chitchat about stuff and then we're kind of discovering a lot of the Amendments kind of already in the staff recommendations so I'd like to understand specifically what derivations from the staff recommendation are on the motion because I'm not going to vote until I understand what I'm voting on so that's where I'm at so um somebody needs to clarify what it is that we're doing other than the staff recommendation and I maybe somebody could dictate to Tom and he could write it up it's kind of 59 but if that's what we need to do I guess we'll have to do that Adam yeah I don't want to add to the pile but I also had a couple ideas for amendments that are more specific um one being that if the plague is showing a Resurgence during this three-year period that we reassess the implementation of lethal control and

[369:01] relocation simply because we don't want to be lethally controlling something that's being overtaken by the plague again and I didn't see that in the preferred alternative um and the second being that we um allow changes for the plan if new resources and land become available for relocation as we had an offer on the table and I don't see that in the preferred alternative can ially on that sure go ahead yeah thanks for that Adam I think the one of the um amendments that mirbi offered up um was the from the keep Boulder wild which was the um work with other entities including the state office to consider outside funding and resources to increase annual relocations in coexistence Tex techniques if they become available so I think if we accepted that Amendment do you think

[370:01] that would cover what you were just addressing you're absolutely right Aon that was my mistake I didn't hear that one clearly from arbi yeah and we hadn't quite talked it through yet but that's an amendment that I would be supportive of that I think would cover that that question thank you Aon juny I've got your hand up yeah I'm looking at the amendment the proposed amendments and and i would support the reducing of the project areas with the caveat that we would accept the funding from other sources because I I'm not sure if I mentioned this the last time I Tred to Crunch the numbers of how much it would cost us to relocate and it would be just in so it's very expensive it's in the millions of dollars and the thing is I wonder what would happen as of right now if we were

[371:00] to make that decision that we would accept funding from other sources and reduce the project area does that somehow stop or current process does it delay so so reducing the project area is something that um I would not accept as an amendment um and here's why because um if we're going to relocate and um accept funding there's plenty of prairie dogs to go um that can be relocated and and funded that way um there is really um I I don't I don't see reducing the project area as anything that would um help us help save money thank you Mary May

[372:02] by [Music] Amendment to Tom if someone wants to dictate him or write them down so they can go up on the stre screen no I have the I can put up the keep Boulder wild amendments okay I have four very short clear points right here okay without the big lots of other stuff so or I can just read them again to make it clear for everyone I don't know if you want to read them I'll type them and put them up on the screen if that helps folks okay and and again these These are short and easy versions versus the big long ones um number one is prior to implementation of any lethal control knowledgeable stakeholders will do a partiel by parcel analysis to determine where lethal and non-lethal methods are most effective and to collect Baseline soil

[373:01] data tell me when you're ready Tom I I I've got prior to implementation of any lethal control knowledgeable stakeholders we'll do a parcel by parcel analysis what was the rest uh uh partial by paral analysis to determine where lethal and non-lethal methods are most effective and to collect Baseline soil data that's number one number two and then just let me know when you're ready and two the special use permit will terminate in late 2022 and be used only only on properties identified for lethal

[374:00] control through the above paral by paral analysis and then I'm ready for three when you are okay ready for three staff will consider outside funding and resources to increase annual relocations and coexistance techniques if they become available and I have the last one when you're ready

[375:06] okay collaborative shared learning process convened by an outside party and that staff partici participates in not leads okay Sarah can you share my [Music] screen I made you a co-host Tom so you should be able to share it yourself which I think would be easiest okay so share screen

[376:00] there you go is that what you wanted Mir yeah and so I think um one of the number one most important which is why it's been organized this way actually is um that this number one point which I know Mary has said she is not going to accept is probably one of the most important points which then leads into point two um because well again you can you can understand why this is important I'm reading it so one and two were not accepted um three is um assuming that um we consider the the extra relocation and the effects of the the Delta dust on the land and um for that four was

[377:03] accepted um assuming that it includes um soil Health recovery and climate change initiatives all right let's go ahead so I've got Bob's hand up and then I'm GNA make a suggestion on number one Bob just to clarify on number three when we say funding and resources I I I assume that the resources includes land right now in other words this not a problem this simply fixable by money you actually have to have land private land non-op space land in in Boulder County that could receive um prair dogs is that um is that what's intended there it's not just money we we have the land we have the entire Southern grasslands which is only 3% occupancy what they don't have is the money to do the relocation because they

[378:00] don't have the resources um because it takes time and energy and that's where I was saying with the offer from Marlin and multiple other relocators they are willing to use volunteers that they have trained and help raise funds that the city now doesn't have to pay and they will go do those relocations because we do have the lands well let me ask St that question then this probably for Dan Dan if if money was no object if somebody showed up with a huge pile of money would you relocate um prie dogs to the southern grasslands and are there other considerations yeah there's there's there are several uh other constraints uh with the relocation program um one is contractor availability um we've uh we're we have difficulty in in getting uh contractor availability uh when it comes to relocations um and then also going through the state permanent process process uh last uh our last relocation was quite a difficult process for us to

[379:02] get a permit because uh uh part of the state's uh sort of stepwise uh process in term in terms of getting a relocation permit is you is you check in with neighboring land owners and that's becoming a more difficult uh part of the process and we had a a landowner object objection on our last uh uh receiving site proposal and it took mons and months of negotiation where we finally were able to uh uh do some things to um appease their uh their concerns and so we finally did get a a permit but it was quite a lengthy process so money alone is is is not the only consideration there's there's several others that come into play and and Heather Swanson who helps uh program I don't know if she has anything to add add to that but so I have a I have a question there is if you relocate so many prairie dogs

[380:00] that then you're just transferring the problem um to the southern grasslands I mean is that a a possibility yeah our gr our grassland management plan uh considered considered that question and so that part part of that parcel pipe parcel analysis that's what we've done through the grassland plan to determine where the appropriate relocation sites are in the southern grasslands so we have a really good idea of where where desirably uh uh the prairie dogs would Thrive uh in the southern grasslands and so some of that parsal by paral analysis has actually has been done and and Heather might want to just add to that yeah I would just add quickly exactly um what you were saying Dan that southern grasslands is a a pretty interesting landscape and one thing that's very characteristic down there is Rocky soils that have come off of the Rocky Flats maces to the South and so we have um pockets of areas that are very

[381:02] highly suitable for prairie dogs based on the soils and the vegetation and then we have other areas that um really are not and so there are there's a large portion of the Southern grasslands that through 20 years of um unmanaged growth pray dogs never did occupy and So within those areas that have previously been occupied in our high suitability you know we we look at where the best opportunities are where the veget A's in the best shape to support the prairie dogs once they get there and so we've been relocating to the southern grasslands every year since 2013 so it it's certainly a project that we're um up to and undertaking um but like Dan said each receiving site is um a a pretty major undertaking um and and this past year it required that we install um about $150,000 worth of barriers in order just to get the permit for that receiving site in that giant chunk of habitat of the Southern grasslands so um neighbor concerns are something that um we don't

[382:01] just find in kind of the Checker Board of our Northern properties so while we look for as many opportunities as we can to do relocation in every year um you know we also don't want to be um committed to a level that is just simply not feasible um from a number of things many of which are are very much out of our control in any given year so I I think you know I would be certainly willing and um you know would love to work with people who could could help us to increase what we're able to do I just also don't want to create unrealistic expectations that just throwing money at it is just going to be able to increase relocations um to a point that it it will address everything that we're talking about here because that that's not a realistic um scenario got it so I'm going to jump in here um it seems like the third amendment um is not controversial right staff will tell us

[383:01] how much they can accept and and what they'd be able to do with it I don't think there's any regrets around considering outside funding um you know Heather made a great point that it's not all about money but I don't think there's any downside to going ahead with with the third amendment I would also put out there um Mary this is a question to you if we looked at the proposed amendment number one and changed knowledgeable stakeholders to staff um would that be something that you might be able to accept because you know I think what we've heard from Dan and Heather is that there is this already going on it's part of the plan um I I don't know that we want to say knowledgeable stakeholders because who is that um staff can certainly lean on whoever they'd like to get information from or knowledge or input but I for me

[384:02] I would think the the first amendment is acceptable if we just make knowledgeable stakeholders and the staff um and and Dan you could weigh in here Heather do you think that first proposed amendment is necessary um given what you're already planning well um I think uh uh that First Amendment actually goes with the first statement of our preferred alternative which is to meet with stakeholders annually um in which we do plan to not only say here's exactly what we did uh this past season on these particular properties but then also daylight what we're going to do in the year ahead um based on you know population Trends I I mean things are constantly changing so uh we're we want to go on a annual basis of of reaching out to our stakeholders and reaching out to our board in which we say here are the properties where we intend to do

[385:01] these soil Health initiatives these restoration initiatives these removal uh uh initiatives in the coming year and to Daylight that and to get comment on what the staff is proposing and we will take that comment and make any changes and report back to our board and that's where Mark added and we we'd be more than happy to report back out through an IP to council um and then what I also heard is perhaps on a third year we would do more of a substantial report out to council same can I sure go for it Mark yeah it as described by Dan I think I'm this is putting me back into Rachel's position how is this additive to what we are already doing do you mean number one number one or do you mean all four number one number one yeah and I I I don't think it is so so hearing what I just heard from Dan it sounds like number one is already

[386:00] in the plan is that correct Dan it's in the preferred Al LEL of details if if we want to add to the fact that we will report out on our annual meeting with stakeholders to the board and to council those specific details are not uh specifically spelled out in the preferred alternative so that could be a small change to the preferred alternative and that that are and annual report out to stakeholder should be be report out to our board and to councel those that that those two things are not specifically mentioned to that level of detail I don't think it's um so what I'm hearing is that um the additive piece would be to report out to councel uh to the board and to council and I would not want a reporting out to councel I think the board would be um good enough um and so that that would be the

[387:02] additive piece to report out to the board on an annual basis and I guess Dan the other question I'd have is um in number one it says to collect Baseline soil data so is that part of the plan um you know I kind of got the impression from Lauren that we intend to do Baseline soil data whenever there's going to be some kind of prairie dog treatment is that a correct statement yeah and and Lauren you can correct me if I'm off on this our our soil health program is systemwide it's not it's not just specific to our project area so the soil Health um and the and the Baseline soil um project is a systemwide project and I'm not sure sure whether the preferred alternative actually uh uh provides detailed guid on when soil Health Baseline data will be collected um I I may be wrong on that

[388:02] but if that level of detail is is wanting to be captured uh in council's um Amendment to the that that I think that detail is not in the preferred alternative but uh Lauren you can correct me if I'm wrong on that you're right Dan that detail I don't think is in the preferred alternative um but yeah the goal would be to take that Baseline data for those removal areas and I think just recording that would be important because to me it's one of the most important features of this project is that we are going to try different ways of controlling prairie dogs but we want to know in the long run does it have the impact that we hope for and so the Baseline soil data is just a way to kind of have a look at what can conditions are before we start messing around with the wildlife there so anyway to me that's a really important piece of

[389:01] this and if that's not in the preferred alternative that's a component that I would like to see in it so I'll turn to hands raise we got Adam mirbi and Rachel so I'm sorry I interrupted someone oh that was me Sam I just want to say that that that was a goal laid out in the grassland management plan so uh that it would be consistent if it was also part of this plan great thank you Adam uh my amendment is being put up right now by Tom that's all I wanted to share um I'm sorry Adam will you tell me what it is yeah it's it's in your chat so you can just copy and paste out of your chat or your email that way we don't have to okay nearby and then Rachel um so I just wanted to go back to um the point one where I think the big issue is the the stakeholder and the

[390:03] stakeholder issue in terms of once they have the annual meeting it's kind of too late the animals are already dead by that point and so I guess then the question becomes how does staff plan on um how do how do stakeholders actually have a say in the annual presentation and how is it going to be mean meaningful and implemented um on a once a year basis and I think that's why keep Boulder wild was asking for number one because again once a year versus going partial by partial to even understand if it needs lethal or not because that's part of why they asked for reduced paral sizes much of this is grass lines that doesn't really technically need removal or there's stakeholders that are willing to um not use lethal or want lethal there so it's or in their area and so that they they went in tandem but having stakeholders meaning all involved parties the Lees the city the biologists

[391:05] the people their wild people would all work together to come out to a collaborative effort to keep lethal to a minimum again it may have to be used on a few but there's many many options and then when that falls back to point three of the money yes you can't throw money at a problem all the time but the point is we can raise money so maybe instead of doing lethal we could create the barrier fencing and we get volunteers out there to help with the barrier fencing and the money is raised to help with the cost of the barrier fencing so you see that they kind of all work together in Tandem and so yes I I'm fine if we kind of play with the wording as Sam suggested on number one but that's why number one is so important but it sounded like that's already going to happen like staff is already going to do an analysis of each parcel prior to um to decide what will be done to what

[392:01] parcel um I think what is not in what I'm hearing that is not in the preferred alternative is collecting Baseline soil data um prior to um lethal and non-lethal methods and that's fine if if the stakeholders are also involved because from what I'm understanding of the preferred alternative is that it's just staff and so I yeah and I think it needs to be just staff because then who are the knowledgeable stakeholders I mean it I I agree with Sam you know defining who I mean I could Proclaim myself a knowledgeable stakeholder anybody can Proclaim themselves a knowledgeable stakeholders and um so I'm reluctant to leave it um to that descript um but I would accept St uh Sam's um replacement of with staff and um and to

[393:03] collect the Baseline soil data okay so if one was changed to staff and Baseline soil data it will that sorry I'm just repeating to make sure because it's late and I I'm not sure um I'm not clear on the prior to implementation of any lethal control that's and this is a question for staff that was going to be done anyway right yeah so it takes we we basically need a Year's planning time I we need to know how much we're going to budget for the next year we need to know uh where we're going to seek uh relocation permits um all of that so let's say we have a annual stakeholder meeting in October or November we will report out on what we did the previous year so if we had it this year we would report on what relocation projects we were we did uh why we didn't uh why we were unable to do more of them some of it might be covid related other might be other

[394:00] capacity issues for this particular year and we will also daylight what's coming up down in the next year what particular properties are we going to have soil Health Restoration going on are we going to have relocation both with uh or or or removal both relocation and lethal and so we will report out on that before those activities actually take place okay okay so so so what I just heard is that really number one you're going to be doing if we change the knowledgeable stakeholders to staff you're going to be doing all of that anyway and the only thing that would need that would be left of number one would be to collect the Baseline soil data and if you look at what Tom's got up on the screen that's his other potential amendment number two so I you know for me I would just support what Tom has up for number two for the amendment so so wait and I just want to throw in then so

[395:00] prior to implementation of any lethal control staff will do a partial by partial analysis to determine where lethal and non-lethal meth methods are most effective and to collect Baseline soil data and then what I'd like to add in there because this is the huge Point stakeholders would like to say prior to lethal being used so if that portion that's the one Crux of where we're missing this is that's fine if we have a year-by-year analysis but it needs to be that the analysis and the plan comes out so that the Stak holders who are involved can then comment and have a discussion and give their feedback prior to its implementation so can we have that that's what it says okay that's what it says prior to implementation of any lethal control staff will do a parcel by parcel analysis to determine where lethal and non-lethal methods are most right but that's but that's staff it's not the stakeholder still so it's not but I will not accept knowledgeable stakeholders and what I'm saying is the plan we already agreed that they're

[396:00] doing a once of a year once a year stakeholder meeting correct that's already in the plan that's moving forward well that's in the that's in the plan right so what so what I'm asking is that this portion all of that plan be done at the beginning of the year before the lethal is happened so that the stakeholders can comment not at the end of the year where they can't yeah they can comment but the animals are already dead but they have I don't think that's what this is saying can I just just quickly clarify so right now the scheduling as we would do it moving forward is we would have a stakeholder meeting in October or November we would present what our thoughts were for the upcoming year be collecting feedback at that meeting from stakeholders going back to the drawing board and then presenting our final plan to the Board of Trustees somewhere near the end of the year early the following year and then after we had heard back from them um we then would move towards

[397:01] implementation um for that next year so it it would be months before any on the ground implementation was planned that we would lay the plan out to the stakeholders and be collecting that feedback and then modifying plans as necessary so the intention is that it it would always be well before implementation is actually occurring okay okay and that's fine I just wanted to make sure that and so that that eases that fear so then how will the stakeholders know their ideas were incorporated then Mark I don't know if you have any thoughts on that this isn't something that we had necessarily sketched out as part of the um recommendation except that we already had the intention of having the annual meeting with stakeholders because that was part of the perog working group recommendations and we did do that this past fall um so the additional pieces of then reporting out to the board in city council and and presenting the final plan I'm not sure that we have sketched that out yet but Mark you might have something to add

[398:00] there well I think we we'd use a a fairly typical process of you know listening to people's ideas of how we could improve the situation you know we may not be able to incorporate every idea because there are a lot of um interconnected things and available funding and proximity to places that determine where different kinds of control are going to be effective I think our intention though is to say we're here you know we understand what the objectives overall objectives of the preferred alternative are why we're here we're trying to improve the situation and this is our proposal for do it if there's ways that we can make it more efficient less costly um you know reduce the impacts to um the amount of lethal control in some way but still you know meet our objectives we would make our adjustments to do that um and I think that would be at the discretion of Staff okay great thank

[399:01] you okay Rachel yep um so I feel like everything we're suggesting staff is coming back and explaining like that there are seven steps ahead of us and like how they've already thought of it and what their plan is so my inclination would actually be just to accept staff's recommendation and not make any amendments and simplify it and we're not the experts they are and um trust that that they have the best interests um of open space including prairie dogs believe it or not in mind like when I met with staff um with Mark W and I took a tour together like uh we were describing how how this is such a a sort of moral conundrum issue and they were saying you know we all went to work you know in open space because we love nature and animals like they're not psyched to go and use more lethal control than they need to they want to do the soil samples if somebody comes with um money and land and volunteers who can relocate the prairie dogs they're going to be excited about that

[400:01] so I guess I just feel like we are second guessing our clearly highly intelligent expert staff and I'm not sure because on why we're doing that because at every turn they are um giving us really concrete um good answers on on ways that they've already thought through this so my inclination would honestly be just and so maybe I'm making a counter motion I would like to just accept staff's preferred preferred alternative without any amendments thanks Bob I I agree completely with Rachel I think this has been well thought out by not only our staff but also our open space Board of Trustees and I think that tinkering with this around the margins is not adding a whole lot and is micromanaging and this is exactly the type of thing that we promised that we would not do we can certainly by way of Direction say out loud to staff without putting in our motion hey would you please check in with the open space Board of Trustees once a year and they say sure and I

[401:01] trust that Dan and his team will do that um and obviously you know if there's a devastating plague that hits the prairie dog population staff's not going to just keep blindly going forward and and doing the 2020 plan they're going to come back to the open space board and maybe to us and say hey guys you know the situation on the ground has changed pretty dramatically we need to revisit this so I think trying to anticipate every eventuality of micromanaging staff and and and adding stuff to to a very well thought out plan that has been um vetted through the community through a really really smart staff and through our own open space Board of Trustees is just dangerous so I I agree with Rachel let's just adopt the plan as recommended by our staff and our board and move on um okay well I will agree to that um because we seem to be going into the weeds with each of these and um going round and round circles and um I do agree that it seems like every time we

[402:01] come to an amendment staff says we've already done this or it's already included or we've already thought of that um I do want to make sure or give direction that the the collaborative um or if that's an outside thing that's going to happen I do want to make sure that um it includes um climate commitment strategies so um but I I I agree um and will accept um that there be no amendments go ahead Mark yeah I I agree with that as well as the second um I would use three and four as suggestions uh that staff take into account as uh without being formal amendments um because I think the the the content and goals of three and four are worth

[403:01] considering but we could be here until next Tuesday um trying to uh parse every word of of their proposal uh and improve it and I I I think it's time to just act so U I would I would use three and four as guidance but not as formal amendments uh I think number three Adam's concern is is something obviously I think they will do I think they should do it um but I think the simple approach here is going to be better so yes I am I am in favor of that as well thank you Mark Aaron yeah I think that's fine I I think um you know Steph and the open space board uh worked incredibly hard for a long period of time to come up with this preferred alternative which in has involved a series of compromises in a number of ways and so I I support um

[404:03] moving ahead with that plan I mean I think the intention of these amendments is you know to reflect the great deal of concern that exists in in our community around this issue um people feel very strongly about this for for you know good reasons as we've heard very vividly through the phone calls and emails and such like that so you know whether we do these as amendments or as guidance I think it's fine either way but I I think it's just important to to show that um you know that that we're listening and that um some of these ideas for increased resources to reduce lethal control um are important to carry forward and also that to make sure that um that we're creating the data that shows that we're following um a plan that's working right so it becomes data driven and and we're sure that we're successful so I think that's the intention in in these and so I'm fine leaving them as guidance but we just I

[405:01] think it's important that we've carried these ideas forward thank you Aaron and I agree with that 100% um for me I'm happy to have these as guidance to staff rather than formal amendments I I do think the most important on this list to me is getting the Baseline soil data so I'll just come back to that I also I think the collaborative shared learning process is something that we definitely want to take forward because I think members of the community want to learn they want to you know figure out how can we you know minimize lethal control and how can we make sure that our leses um on our irrigated AG are being successful so I think however it formally comes about I think as Mark said number three and number four um outside funding collaborative shared learning and Baseline soil data those are I don't care if they're formal

[406:01] amendments as long as staff hears you know our Direction and and tries to make it happen so I I'm perfectly happy to support Mark and Mary's motion and I think it's been valuable to at least get these issues out so staff hears our thoughts on them so and that anyways Sam I just wonder if if we might bring this to a close yeah I was going to suggest that we have a motion on the table um and a second which is to accept staff's recommendation um any other comments on that okay so I think we're ready for a vote um all in favor raise your hand count looks like eight of us nearby you're opposed yep so and Adam you're you support

[407:02] right yes okay so that passes 8 to one okay that was a lot of fun um so let me pull back up my agenda I think we're on to the easy part now um so Debbie I think we're done with um item five and then we're on to eight Matters from the mayor and members of council your first item is consideration of a motion to approve the order of the city of Boulder ballot measures in the 2020 coordinated election great Tom do you have advice on this yeah I I have a a slide here which you should see that shows the um ballot measures that you have approved for the ballot um the 2A has to be the Taber so

[408:05] that's the uh newer ballot measure ordinance 8412 because it's a new tax you can rank the other four in any way that you want um there's case law I believe that says that the utility occupation tax it doesn't need to be considered a Taber measure because it's not a tax increase uh it is really a repurposing so um these These are the four uh and I would just like a proposal from Council in what order you would like them on the ballot which will be b c d and e great and I see Bob's hand up um I I'd like to recommend that the um utility utation tax and the franchise be next to each other on the ballot and I think the franchise should go first because the utility occupation tax is contingent upon the franchise passing and it might be a little bit weird to do the tax first so I'd like I'm just going to

[409:01] throw this out there make XL franchise 2B make utility occupation 2C I don't really care between the other two 2D and 2 E I don't care about the other two but I think I think we should have franchise and occupation taex next to each other with franchise first and then Mark I agree with with Bob I would actually put Excel uh yeah I would put xels 2B uh utilities 2C um I think the the mayoral um Charter Amendment probably carries a little more weight than the Arts commission increase so I would put that next um and I would have the Arts commission increase at the bottom at 2E okay Adam just want to say I agree with Mark I do

[410:01] too so does anyone have any objections to what we've got on the screen to A's Taber 2 B Excel franchise 2 C utility occupation tax 2D direct election of the mayor and to e the Arts commission increase so you're asking if we agree uh with is it Tob or not Tob is that the question too much sorry it must be very 41 nice one any objection all right perfect we're done with that one there's a motion valid order in that order correct and accepted uh would someone like Bob do you want to move that so moved as as reflected on the slide second okay any opposed passes unanimously thank

[411:01] you Sam I will point out that Mary um got bumped out of the meeting we're trying to get her back in so she did not I don't believe she voted on that last issue okay let's wait till we get her back in then and Rachel points out um that we did not extend the meeting past 11 so I'll will take a motion someone to extend the meeting so moved move second second any opposed seeing none that motion passes and I take that as a ratification of all acts taken after 11 o'clock right okay yes right Tom just a question while we're waiting for Mary are those the actual letters or um I know that some years the clerk's office um picks up where they left off the pr year and some some years

[412:00] they start back at a and I always lose track of what what the rule is on that are those the actual numbers or that's just the order and Molly will assign them letters they may be m n o PQ uh is Diane Marshall still on the call she might know the answer to that I don't remember Bob I I I thought there was some rule that they did that they didn't assign they assigned unique me letters to all Municipal ballot measures so they could give Lafayette ABC and we could be DF I think that's it goes but I'm not sure it's it's Diane that's correct so we know that they're going to go in this particular order but we don't know what the letters will be so we don't want any ballot measure committee saying oh I've got 2A we'll tell them when they've got 2A thank you D that's exact that's exactly what I was worried about is tomorrow morning they would all go out and print literature and say vote Yes on 2D and yeah not it may not be 2D yeah Sam Mary back in the meeting very

[413:00] good Mary did you see the um order of ballot measures did you approve you're muted I didn't see him sorry Tom do you have that slide you can bring back up um that looks fine to me super so that passes unanimously now that we have Mary um and then go I think we have the um city manager search committee report out yes um Aaron would you like to kick that off he said yes so Chris uh accepted um Mary and I

[414:04] extended an offer um of employment to Chris meschuk for the inter room C manager position and he said yes Mary you want to put in any more details yeah um the a couple of updates additional updates um and yes he said yes and we're very exced excited to have um Chris as our interim city manager I think he's going to do a great job and um we're looking forward to it um so I am bringing up um a couple of things one is um Heather gance the um search consultant will be in town um next week and um on Wednesday and Friday uh Thursday she'll be here for another project but on Wednesday and Friday she will be attempting to meet with um council members to speak with each one

[415:02] of us regarding our expectations for a new city manager um so that's one thing and then um the other thing that has happened is we have a schedule um for the city manager search which kicked off actually kicked off on Monday um August 31st and will um is scheduled to finalize um around February 15 um with an offer and salary negotiations for a new city manager so it's an aggressive schedule but I think it's realistic and um that's the update very good thank you um anything else on this great um juny would you like to talk about the eviction letter can I ask a question of before we move on sure um um Mary and and eron a few community

[416:01] members have asked um it sounds like we'll be asked to weigh in on kind of characteristics and criteria and so on and so forth next week which is great will community members have that opportunity um if they would like to share with the committee or with the recruiter what their views are on characteristics and criteria they will have um they will have an opportunity to weigh in and um I'm I'm looking for the schedule right now so I can um go through it and kind of look at if you want to just publish the schedule sounds like you've got more detail if you want to just publish that that on hotline that'd be great um I'll double check um with um Heather and with um with Jen to make sure we can do that but yes i' I'd be happy to do that well yeah actually I'll just read it the the schedule for September number is the recruiter will complete position backgrounding with city council City leadership team City staff Community Partners and

[417:00] residents so um I I don't think we know exactly what that looks like right now but it is part of the process so sounds like that's a kind of more less a September activity Erin yeah September that's probably good enough for now thank you Erin I was having a hard time finding it I actually had it up before I um was kicked off so I see Adam's hand up thanks Sam uh my only question about that is that puts the hiring of the city manager right behind the annual Retreat as far as I know is that okay with everybody I guess is it's kind of a broad question but that seems just two weeks odd to me well funny you should mention that Adam because the retreat committee is actually meeting I think next week here is that right we we meet I believe so yeah um and so this would be a really great time for Council to weigh in for Mary and I because we're The Retreat

[418:00] committee this year about whether you want to have a retreat in January per usual um knowing that we we' sit down with the new city manager after he or she gets gets her feet under him um and revamp or do you want to just simply defer the retreat until March for example um and let the city manager get um situated first what what would be the will of councel Rachel i' go forward as usual since we can't guarantee a start date necessarily and um I uh really want to make sure that we record The Retreat this year so the city manager could still watch it and Chris M I'm sure would do a great job of shepherding us you know from the city manager's perspective through it so I would record it have that be some fun first week viewing for the new city manager and go forward as usual thanks if if I can I I'll just agree with that just because the search

[419:00] process May well take longer and if things didn't go well it could take much longer so hopefully not but yeah I agree with that as well okay sounds like we have direction for next week Bob okay um juny would you like to talk about the eviction prevention letter and just see if we can get council's agreement on sending that out okay sure yes um so back in March late March early April uh when the pandemic first hit uh Sam and I reached toara in the chamber to advocate for better protections for renters we had several meetings with them to discuss this particular letter which is modeled after after a similar letter drafted by the Philadelphia city council to protect uh renters and tenants in their city so

[420:01] as mentioned in the letter we encourage landlords to work with their tenants by providing them support which may include a lower rent payment extension of lease fee waivers partial use of security deposit and non eviction based on terms that they agreed on uh and also as you have noticed in the letter we did reach out to our legislators and also other Regional stakeholders so we're asking Council to join all these stakeholders in supporting this letter right and so if anyone has an objection or question um it'd be great to hear it now um we would love to send this out next week and have it be signed by all of council so I assume that you've all seen it juny sent it out on hotline is there any objection would any council member not want their name on

[421:02] this no thank thank you guys for doing this really appreciate it yeah thanks very much you bet we'll get that sent out next week and copy all all council members okay we're the last item appoint the uh police department master plan process subcommittee members um to my knowledge we've had three folks raise their hand and I see Adam has his hand up now I will withdraw my name from contention okay so unless I've missed something we've got two folks who have volunteered is that right Bob and juny is there someone else besides Adam so I think we could just do that by acclamation if unless other council members have want to step

[422:00] forward okay so seeing none um is there any objection to Bob and juny great seeing N I think you guys are our um Police Department master plan process sub committee members congratulations the other yeah congratulations thank you any other items to bring up great well this is the longest meeting I've been responsible for keeping us up till 1 I apologize for that um but thank you all for all the hard work you put in tonight and this meeting is adjourned thank you hi good night or good morning yeah bye everybody

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