April 5, 2022 — City Council Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] [Music] [Music] those little sheep were avoiding getting

[1:00] their uh their haircut that's I had all sorts of reasons in my head that I will not share publicly but [Music] that [Music] oh I'm just a pessimist that [Music] way the reminder absolutely yes between open comment and

[2:01] we have Ken can I ask can you see is my jacket doing this no on my side it's doing this thanks no it's it's staying nicely in place thank you all right St on tradition what do you get from a pampered cow spoiled milk oh I think that might be your best one yet M that was funny I reached Rock Bottom I think a couple weeks ago so I had nowhere else to go about where are you sourcing these oh it's it these dad journals there's these

[3:02] you can subscribe to these like little dad blogs that just send you this stuff at nauseum so you pluck it out that will I do appreciate a good that J I think you should see Matt the answer should be I'm naturally funny person I'm naturally charismatic as opposed to say I read it somewhere a that that'd be plagiarism I'd be lying to everybody in the community right off the bat so uh Bob is going to be late this evening so we're going to start without him I think we missing one other person let's see Tara was on a minute ago oh there's Tara sorry here you are okay eight I count eight um Alicia are we ready to go we are ready to go is channel a need to go

[4:03] someone answer that question oh I apologize I think Ryan was moving location so I don't know if um anyone who's at the tape building can tell us if Channel 8 is ready to go oh I hear that they are good thank you well then let's get started we are live Alicia so whenever you're ready our mayor has to take us into the meeting and welcome everyone and do the announcements right did we get the recording started that that's the only question I [Music] had I am not a co-host so I can't start that the recording has been started so

[5:01] okay great good afternoon and welcome everyone to the Tuesday April 5th meeting of the Boulder City Council uh we've got a packed agenda tonight including a joint meeting with the Boulder County Commissioners so uh buckle up and join us for the evening so let's start with a roll call please Elicia all right hello everyone and welcome back council member Benjamin pres mayor Brockett present council member fit present mayor protim friend here council member joseon here SP here wallet here ler here and council member y will be

[6:01] late sir so we do have our qu thanks so much Elicia uh so now if I could possibly get a motion to amend the agenda at to add item 1B the Nar fire update so moved second right motion and second any objections seeing none the agenda is amended and let's move on into um announcements all right little out of practice here we haven't done this in a few weeks okay covid-19 testing and vaccinations uh for testing information and provider locations for free covid-19 testing please go to www.oc.org testing and the boulder site is at 2445 stazio drive that's open seven days a a.m. to 6 p.m. and for vaccine information and provider locations go to www.b.org

[7:04] vaccine boards and commissions well our regular annual recruitment period has closed but we are still recruiting for the following boards to due to an insufficient number of applications received and I'll list those real quickly the beverage licensing Authority Boulder Junction access District parking as well as travel demand management Board of zoning adjustment cannabis licensing Advisory Board design Advisory board downtown management Commission Library commission and the University Hill commercial area management commission and you can find descriptions and information about the vacancies at www.boulder call.gov board- commissions if you have any questions or need assistance please contact our city clerk's office at City Clerks Office bouldercolorado.gov okay I think that ends our announcement there so we are going to move on into item one a which is a declaration

[8:00] declaring April as space science month to be presented by council member Benjamin Matt take it away uh thank you Aaron and I think we have a little um content to go with it so Taylor if we got that look at that there we go oh just went away awesome I think it's planned there we go there it is slowly but surely in December 1968 the astronauts of Apollo 8 were attempting to be the first humans to ever leave low earth orbit and circle the moon roughly a quarter of a million miles away it was on their fourth lunar orbit that the astronaut named William Anders took a picture of the Earth rising as seen from The Far Side of the Moon this is arguably one of the most famous pictures ever taken most histori Ians attribute the galvanizing force of

[9:01] establishing Earth Day on April 22nd to this famous earthrise photo it was truly the first time we saw our planet surrounded by The Emptiness of space and perhaps more importantly we saw the fragility of our home as the atmosphere appeared as nothing more than the skin of an apple the environmental movement as we know it today was in large part created by Humanity's pursuit of the cosmos well the video is going slower than I thought so I'll keep going over 60 years our home of Boulder Colorado has carried on this Legacy of Space Science and helped Forge countless new discoveries Technologies and industries the University of Colorado Boulder often carries the distinction as being the number one NASA funded Public University in the country C Boulder has also prepared and graduated generations of students that go on to make lasting contributions to the combined fields of Space Science around the world the university also hosts our community's celebration of astronomy day in April ball Aerospace is Boulder's number one

[10:01] employer while building many of the instruments and Technologies for the most well-known and consequential spacecraft and orbiting telescopes ever assembled like the Hubble Space Telescope the Kepler space telescope worldview 1 and two and the Mars reconnaissance Orbiter as well as the James web Space Telescope just to name a few accompanying ball Aerospace are numerous other Aerospace and defense contractors that make huge contributions to our national security Boulder hosts more than half of Colorado 30 plus federally funded research Labs including the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration the laboratory for atmospheric space physics the national Center for atmospheric research and the National Institute of Standards and technology and so many more it is estimated that Boulder space science Community generates over a billion dollars to our state's economy spaning unimaginable scales of space time from that of quantum physics to the origins of the Universe and everything in between Boulder is home to world-renowned science scientists researchers administrators and staff

[11:01] that continue to expand the knowledge of New Frontiers as such Boulder stands out as one of but a few cities around the world that lay host to so many of these industries and researchers as is often joked one can throw a rock in town and likelihood of scientist which is a testament to the reputation of Boulder we the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado declare April 2022 as space science month and we celebrate the people institutions and industries that have informed inspired and Unleashed generations of imaginations that seek to understand our place in the cosmos thank you for the opportunity to read that declaration and really do hope we can celebrate this amazing industry that's been here for quite a long time and will be here for generations to come so thanks for the opportunity thanks so much for that Matt and what a lovely video to go along with it and is there anyone here to receive the Declaration tonight or

[12:00] no that would be many thousands of people from various different groups so a little insurmountable there it would be tough it is a phenomenal uh group of individuals and scientists we have in our community so we're very grateful to have them okay uh moving on to item 1B which is an incar fire update Mar I'll hand it over to you thank you so much uh mayor and good evening tall um as we start off tonight's meeting I want to acknowledge um what we all know right we had a significant event that impacted our community since we were last together and uh that open uh Wildfire broke out on open space near the national Center for atmospheric research speaking of Science in South Boulder on Saturday March 26 dub the endar fire the blaze resulted in the temporary evacuation of more than 19,000 people over the course of the weekend the fire followed on the heels of the devastating Marshall fire which decimated residential communities

[13:00] near ours just three months earlier and understandably our community is on considerable Edge as we approach what has traditionally been considered the Wildfire season later this spring and early summer we have scheduled a study session to discuss with all of you some lessons learned during both of these major emergencies as well as an overall climate resilience and mitigation work the city is doing that is scheduled for April 26 and because we have such a full agenda tonight and guests from the County Commission are coming and joining us the mayor and I have agreed to ask you all to hold your questions until then because I know it is of extreme interest to you and to all of our community I did think it might be helpful however to give you a quick overview of the situation as well as a preview of some of the areas in which we believe Improvement is necessary the incar fire was first reported at 2m on an afternoon that was both warm and blustery resulting in immediate concern about neighborhoods that form our Urban Wildland border as well as the many hikers and recreational

[14:00] users out in our open space Crews arrived on scene within four minutes of the first call and launched a strategic and ultimately successful containment approach while traumatic for many the ncar fire resulted in no losses of life or structures than goodness and thanks in large part of the effective and coordinated response of Boulder fire rescue open space and Mountain Parks the police department and many partner agencies from jurisdictions in the local area and we are thankful for their partnership one of the re one of the areas of success I'd like to highlight is the mitigation work done on our open space in recent years within the South Boulder area specifically staff have completed over 600 acres of forest thinning of forest thinning to decrease the risk of intense wildfires these projects decrease Fuels enhan Forest habitat and improved overall Forest Health in addition to Forest thinning 500 Acres of cattle grazing that occurs each spring naturally decreases fuel

[15:00] loads due to the concerns that the winds could blow the fire toward town the first responsed made the call to order to order evacuations the quick cooperation of our city departments and massare agencies allowed for a shelter to be established quickly and transportation was made available to those who needed assistance in all 33 people stayed overnight in the community shelter many others stayed with generous and welcoming family and friends this community of sharing and caring is really part of what makes Boulder so special getting the word out in the first hour of an emergency is often a challenge and that was definitely the case here it was a busy Saturday afternoon in Boulder with people out and about engaged in a variety of activities I do want to thank our Emergency Services dispatchers and incident command for launching evacuation notices quickly even before our public information officers were able to fully mobilize the decision was made to use both everbridge our long-standing alert system which dials

[16:01] landlines and cell phones for people that have registered for that service in advance we also utilized our new wireless emergency alert system known as WEA which was just implemented last month we will certainly go into more detail about the various emergency communication systems used in this response at the April 26 study session but we'll note a little bit because we have had many questions on the different types of alerting systems that the weia system pushes an emergency alert out to most cell phones in a format similar to an amber alert the benefit of the WEA system is that individuals do not need to register their numbers in advance for WEA alerts using both system gave us a better chance of reaching anyone In Harm's Way but no technology is perfect WEA uses cell tower technology to identify phones that should be pinged and most cell towers cover large areas that might be needed in an evacuation situation emergency officials knew in

[17:01] sending out the WEA alert that we would be notifying some people more people than we would be then would be necessary but made the decision that the situation warranted casting as broad a net as possible I certainly support this decision but also want to acknowledge that this caused some confusion as did the publication of two slightly different maps with the five with the first two evacuation orders as again I mentioned before we have a study session on April 26 and we're going to go into more detail on the city's various alert systems and why the issues occurred in the assistance as well as improvements that are already underway in the meantime I want to assure you and our community that we understand that accurate and timely Communication in an emergency as an emergency unfolds is essential to Life Safety after every critical incident City staff take stock of what went well and what can be approved on in the case of the Marshall and enar fire this includes a careful review of our operational and communication tactics

[18:01] resources and capabilities and I look forward to having more of this complete discussion of Lessons Learned as well as the action items we recommend to staff at our April 26 study session thank you mayor thanks so much for that Maria um I really appreciate you teeing up that conversation um and for City St bringing that to us quickly on April 26 that we can have a full discussion and ask all of the questions about the response um at that time but I do just want to very much offer my thanks to City staff as well and the Nar fire was yet another extraordinary and frightening event for our community and I'm so grateful to all of our many City staff colleagues um and people from other agencies Who Rose to the occasion to help keep Boulders safe so on behalf of the city council um I want to express my appreciation to the many many City staff members who responded to the disaster with amazing skill and emergency expertise as well as

[19:01] compassion uh and with their unwavering commitment to serve our community so we see you and we appreciate you very very much and with that uh we'll come back to this on April 26th um unless anyone wanted to offer any other words but seeing none uh thanks again for that and we will move on so it is now time for open comment and I think Ryan is unavailable Brenda would you be able to go over the guidelines for us I'm happy to Mayor Brockett thank you um thank you Emily for sharing these slides um and I have a few black boxes on your screen there Emily um but I can do my best to read them aloud regardless um so thank you everyone for joining us for open comment tonight we're happy to have you here um we have these rules to help everything go

[20:00] smoothly and easily and keep everyone safe so the city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive meaningful and inclusive Civic conversations the vision vision is designed to support physical and emotional safety for community members for staff and for Council as well as supporting democracy for people of all ages identities lived experiences and political perspectives for more information we invite you to visit our website if you um click on the search bar and put in productive atmospheres you can learn more about the project that led to these slides next slide please Emily and here are some examples of the rules of decorum that will be found in the B that are found in the boulder Revised Code and will be upheld during tonight's meeting all remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to City business for open comment that is things that are not on tonight's agenda no participant shall

[21:01] make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person obscenity racial epithets and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the ability of this meeting to continue are prohibited and participants are required to sign up to speak using the name they're commonly known as and individuals must display their whole name before being allowed to speak online currently only audio testimony is permitted online if you see that your name is not listed in the way that you registered please reach out to me in the Q&A box and I can help you change it thank you thanks so much for that Brenda all right we have 20 people signed up for open comment each person gets two minutes and our first three speakers are Valerie Beltran Sher hack and Chester Ward you should be able to unmute Valerie okay hello my name is Valerie

[22:02] pan and I live in Boulder and I'm here to speak in favor of the push to decriminalize entheogenic plants and fungi I'm a license mft who specializes in trauma in 2019 I did a year-long training in psychedelic assisted therapy at the California Institute of integral studies in San Francisco during the training I volunteered as a guide at a clinic in Amsterdam where participants ingested siloc cybin over a weekend retreat I'm also a supervisor at Sage Institute a community mental health clinic that offers lowy ketamine assisted therapy during my time in these settings I have witnessed exceptional healing take place in participants who had tried countless forms of therapy or medication in the past had symptoms of PTSD depression anxiety and so on and who experienced long-term healing after just one or a few sessions with psychedelics I remember one client who experienced significant child abuse and an assault in their teenage years who

[23:02] consistently felt unsafe in the world worthless as a human being and couldn't remember the last time he felt happy with the effects of the psilocybin he experienced the feeling of safety trust and happiness for what he recalled is the first time and has maintained a sense of peace and acceptance since the experience another patient whose wife wanted to leave him because he was an absent father was able to reframe his entire view on life and family after his single experience with siloc cybin and he became a completely different father and husband he is now still happily married and has a healthy relationship with his children because of all of this I believe that these substances should be decriminalized because no one should be going into jail for the use or possession of these substances thank you for your time thank you Valerie next Sher hack chest Ward and Ron Bennett

[24:07] I am not seeing Sherry on the list let me take another look we also have three callers who've called in by phone I do see see Sher in the attendee list you do thank you um I'm I'm sorry I'm scrolling through my S's and not seeing it I oh there it is thank you and you should be able to speak now Sherry okay thank you can you hear me yes okay thank you I want to thank our firefighters and First Responders for saving our community from the potential Devastation during last week's and carire as an evacu away and as an evacuee from this fire the reality sunk

[25:02] in that I might lose everything in one afternoon as I packed up my car deciding what to leave behind and what to take I took a moment to think about what life might be like tomorrow if this fire were to spread and I thought about the Marshal fire victims and what a terrible night that was being faced with potentially losing everything you worked your whole life for is traumatic to say the least and my first thought was to wonder how the fire started I was a started by cigarette a campfire or is it started by a fire buug who enjoys setting fires and watching them burn or could it have been from uh the use of propane tanks used by um illegal campers that we have in this city it brought to mind that the quality of life uh for the citizens of Boulder is slowly being taken from us due the um my quality of life could have been devastated in that one afternoon and it brought to my mind how the quality of life is being being taken from Boulder citizens Slowly by the rising crime and

[26:01] endanger endangering Public Safety that we Face daily at your April 26 study session I urge you to address the threat of propane tanks being used in our public and Open Spaces by illegal campers um and also the frequent grass grass fires that have been set around town and what can be done to mitigate this the use of propane tanks by illegal campers and Republican open space spaces and boulders is a grim and dangerous threat this brings to mind the March one presentation by Chief Herald and Dr Reinhard regarding the rising crime in Boulder Chief Harold said that what she needed from city council was the support of city council and um what I heard from a lot of the city council folks was they wanted to know what the reasons for the crime was I'll tell you what the reason is the reason is that the city is soft on crime and also Chief Harold said that am I I can't see the timer thank you for

[27:00] listening thank you next we have Chester Ward Ron Bennett and Christopher Al all right hi my name is Chester Ward I work for the 14er we're located at 2897 Mapleton Avenue Suite 800 I'd like to start by thanking mayor Brockett city manager Rivera Vander and the members of the city council for allowing me to make a comment um this regarding the uh license renewal and ongoing construction for 14 her Holistics um I believe that the 14er license should be renewed pending our completion of the approved for plans um the 14er has been an integral part of the community for over a decade and continues to serve and promote health and unity to uh Boulder visitors and residents as an individual living with combined generalized and focal epilepsy forer has helped not only myself but the needs of many suffering with chronical chronic medical conditions in the

[28:00] Boulder Community sustainable helps Health helps Foster a community of inclusivity helpful Outreach not only inside the company but in the greater Boulder Community considering the demonstrable attempts to conform with all requests and requirements from the city of Boulder and the overall positive benefits that the renewal and ongoing maintenance of sustainable Health license renewal will bring to the Boulder Community I again ask that you consider our request to allow 14ers to complete the plan that we're working under to return to compliance and continue to communicate with the city again I would like to thank mayor Brocket city manager Rivera Vander might and the members of the city council for their time thank you thank you Chester next Ron Bennett L Nelson hello mayor city managers council members and Commissioners thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening my name is Ron Bennett and I reside in the city of Boulder as an

[29:01] architect I design efficient all electric buildings that could be heated and powerered entirely with renewable energy as a volunteer for 350 Colorado I understand the urgency with which policy makers must Embrace a clean energy transition to avoid the worst impacts of global heating I'm thankful for and proud of Boulder's commitment to 100% renewable energy by 2030 but I was perplexed when I learned that the city of signed on to excel's recent settlement agreement that would allow pleo unit 3 to burn coal until 2035 hopefully the Public Utilities Commission will modify or reject this agreement considering unit 3's distinction as an expensive and unreliable burden on rate payers the Pu is charged with ensuring that coloradans have access to Affordable reliable and clean electricity at its March meeting pu Commissioners discussed either deciding on an early retirement date now for pleo 3 or waiting until the second

[30:00] phase of the case to decide the retirement date if the commission rejects the settlement and chooses either of these options the commission's decision should be respected given the evidence that retiring PBA 3 before 20130 will reduce both emissions and costs at the same March meeting all three pu Commissioners stated that they support requiring tax payments from EXL to the Pueblo Community through 2040 regardless of pleo 3's uh retirement date such tax payments will support pbo's transition to the new energy economy regardless of whether the settlement is rejected or accepted I respectfully ask that if the Pu modifies or rejects the settlement the city of Boulder should accept that decision I'd like to thank the Boulder County Commissioners for signing a recent letter asking the PO pu to require Exel to re retire Pueblo 3 by 2030 at the latest three Denver City Council Members also sign the same letter reflecting

[31:01] both cities thank you thank you next we have Christopher aled R Nelson Mar Parker good evening Council hi my name is Chris aled from Longmont and today I'm hoping to address three topics for your consideration first I'm speaking on behalf of the Colorado Coalition for the prevention of nuclear war I'm requesting that you please pass a resolution in support of the UN treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons this is following up on a request made to the previous Council by Usama khed in October 2021 in March of 2021 Denver city council unanimously passed a resolution supporting the tpnw it would be a rageous statement for Boulder to join in solidarity especially

[32:01] in the current times when nuclear war has again risen to the surface of public Consciousness but alas the threat of nuclear war has been a shadow upon us for decades and the US continues to fuel a new nuclear arms race by budgeting nearly $2 trillion dollar over the next 30 Years to modernize nuclear weapons this is in violation of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and we must hold our government accountable from the local level on up to the federal Boulder's history is intricately woven into the history of nuclear weapons which brings me to the second topic Rocky Flats I would like to announce on 00 am to 5:00 P PM a symposium on Rocky Flats hosted by physicians for social responsibility this event has an impressive lineup of scientists and will be broadcasted nationally that's April 2 3rd 8: a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and more info can be found at psrc

[33:02] col.org and the third topic please announce in a community newsletter that the city is allowing paper and online petitions for de direct democracy this year thank you to the new city manager and thank you to Evan ravitz for his steadfast work to make this possible thank you all for your time thank you Chris um okay we've gotten a couple comments about the timer not being visible but now it's being shared so should hopefully people can see it now next we have laon Nelson Laura Parker and Ramsey AB hello uh my name is lon Nelson I'm the GM of Rocky Road Remedies up here in Vil um it is a recreational dispensary first I just want to thank mayor rocket and um city manager Rivier bmine

[34:02] for uh and the council members for allowing me to make this comment regarding uh the licensed renewal of 14er and Boulder um I've worked with Rocky Road for eight years six of which I've been in a management role um I've been working with sustainable um or 14er for majority of this time over the this time um they've been of the most compliant companies I've had the pleasure to work with in the state um they've been on top of compliance with packaging labeling all the way down to manifesting and transferring their products um they always include everything that needs to be um presented down to the extra email that is sent out with each manifest um and that is one reason why I continue to

[35:00] keep them on my shelf um I'm sure whatever caus this hearing today was not intentional and can be resolved I'm positive that 14er will be able to complete and comply with any Appliance plan presented to them and I this is why I think their license should be renewed um it is my belief that they are a staple in Boulders community and have been since 2010 and uh yeah again I'd like to thank the mayor and uh city manager and the all the council members for allowing me to make this comment um thanks for your consideration have a great night thank you L next we have Laura Parker Ramy Abu and David poek um Mr Mayor I have an L Parker then I'm going to go ahead and enable the microphone for um please let us know if this is [Music] Lara yes this is Lara can you help me or

[36:02] can you hear me we can hear you okay great thank you so much my name is Lara Parker uh I am a Boulder City and County resident for almost six years now and have actually lived in Boulder area three times now throughout my life it's a place that I love I adore calling this my home it's something I feel completely on to um throughout my life um I've also been a 14er employee for three and a half years and I do compliance specifically with them uh I am speaking today about the threat that 14er uh might not be able to renew our dispensary license here in Boulder uh I'll let my associates go into more detail about the specifics of the issue at hand but personally I'd like to speak to the importance that 14er places on compliance uh my official job title is met metric director uh my position alone

[37:02] I feel is a testament to 14ers dedication to compliance you know the fact that we have a full-time employee on staff to do and oversee the tracking of our product I do constant Audits and inventories inventory controls and also General compliance in many other areas throughout the company um I feel that this speaks volumes to to how important and how much of a priority compliance is at forer uh I've been in the Cannabis industry in Colorado for eight years and forer is by far an industry leader in how to do regulated marijuana right and this is very similar to how I feel that Boulder City is handling this new industry uh we go above and beyond uh all the time uh forer has worked and continues to try to work with the city to achieve and maintain compliance I truly hope that this can be settled copacetically with bould City and city managers uh we have 60 plus employees

[38:00] that are part of this community you know we're your friends we're your neighbors our kids go to school with your kids our dogs play with your dogs at the dog park we're law abiding taxpaying productive members of this community this is our time is out but thank you so much for your testimony next we have Ramsey Abu David pek and Daniel Sidman can you guys hear me yes all right hello my name is Ramsey abua I live in Boulder I have a degree in neuroscience and I work in the clinical research industry I'm here to give some updates on our push to get entheogenic plants and fungi decriminalized in Boulder we recently had a large community rally that was really successful and drout the community we sold out the venue and had to turn away dozens of people at the door so this is an issue that Community really cares about just want to say a huge thank you to the members of city council that reached out an interest about this initiative there were a few of you and I look forward to continuing to work with you to make progress towards this goal

[39:01] about 15 cities around the country have passed the criminalization resolutions usually unanimously two of them are an Arbor Michigan and Cambridge Massachusetts two other college towns so we have plenty of precedent in how these things unfold in cities like Boulder and all the data shows that bad things have not happened in those cities Denver recently published a year summary of what happened in the city after they decriminalized suicide and mushrooms and found no ill effects the report is available online to read the resolution we are suggesting for Boulder expands on Denver's resolution and includes more substances within the Psychedelic class I will expand in detail via email which substances were included in our language and why they're included the resolution does not allow for large-scale Commerce of these substances it does not create mushroom dispensaries all it does is tell law enforcement to deprioritize the investigation arrest and prosecution for the use possession and cultiv a of these medicines nobody should be going to jail for using these medicines we will be

[40:01] clearing the language with the city attorney to make sure it's within the perview of city council and finally I will be sending everyone on city council an email with the proposed language attached so you can read it and offer feedback or questions that I may answer I look forward to continuing to work with city council to advance Progressive drug policy reform thank you for your time thank you Ramsey next we have David poch Daniel Sidman and Annie Buckley I do not see David um in the meeting at the moment so I will enable the microphone for Daniel Sidman thank you hi there thank you for having me on um I've been a a long-term dugin member of this community here in Boulder um and uh I've been working hard to construct um our cannabis retail store for the last 5 days

[41:02] um it I'd like to go through the timeline that led us led me to this uh to this moment the dark days of covid uh we did we did a lot of demo at our store space more perhaps more than we should have and uh we then we got a building permit um we were then closed down in April for uh for non-compliance um we appeased um the the um regulatory bodies and we reopened 4 days later we appealed to the courts and it was determined that we had messed up in July we agreed on a compliance plan with the city and we've been following that diligently ever since we learned we learned a hard lesson there that major modifications with licensing had to be completed before um before building permits and that was step one so we've been working with licensing to develop a floor plan but the safe storage

[42:00] requirements were unclear they were um finally established in September in October we met multiple times with licensing to review those floor plans in November the major modification was approved the architect was contacted two days later um and we worked with him through December in January and February after the holidays we worked with engineering and contractors to finalize those plans on March 24th we were threatened by the licensing department to not have our license renewed if not complete if the building project wasn't completed by April 8th we managed to get a building building permit last week and we spent the last five days um constructing this place um please let us finish with our agreed upon compliance plan and please communicate with us licensing thank you Daniel now we have Annie Buckley Katie Rodriguez and Russell Sid

[43:00] can you hear me yes good evening my name is Annie Buckley and I have worked for 14 Holistics located at 2897 Mapleton for 10 years I currently serve as the VP of HR and oversee 60 plus employees and members of our community I'm here to make a comment regarding the licens renewal for 1400 Holistics also known as forer I believe that forer's business license should be renewed pending there are complete of the approved floor plans as I mentioned I have been with forer for 10 years over the last 10 years I've worked closely with City Licensing and submitted each renewal application for 14er and I have never missed a due date per city code we are required to submit our renewal application 45 days before expiration which I did on February 21st 2022 City Licensing did not reach out to us in regards our application until March 24th 2022 at this time City Licensing stated they would revoke our license on April 8th if we did not complete construction by this day date why did it take the city City Licensing 30 days to respond to us with this

[44:00] crucial due date and why was this the first time 14er was given a due date for our major modification complete completion as a business we are required to submit our applications in a timely F fashion to the city or we Face hes suspensions or possible revocations but City Licensing has not granted us the same courtesy and waited a month after submission to inform us of a critical piece of information that could result in the closure of our store and layoffs 14ers should be allowed to renew license while pending completion of our approved floor plan and finish the path to compliance that we started on and are almost finished with we got our uh building permit on April 1st and we have we are more than halfway completed uh to our compliance goal and we are in full compliance and I ask that we are able to finish that path to compliance so we can continue to employ and serve members of our wonderful Community thank you for your time and attention to this matter I appreciate it so much thank you Annie next we have Katie Rodriguez Russell surage and Russell

[45:02] Chandler uh I don't see a Katie Rodriguez on the list I do have a few other names that Katie might be um an alternate name for so if that's you please reach out to me in the Q&A and let me know um what name I might be seeing on the screen if you're here Katie um so in this case I will um I am seeing Russell Chandler although not um Russell s whose name I will not butcher so let's move on to Russell Chandler then all right I'm here okay U hey thank you everybody L for letting me speak tonight uh I'm the owner of full cycle Bike Shop longtime resident uh I just want to speak out on RIS crime we've been affected by it quite a bit our customers and employees are being heavily affected uh it's having a very negative effect on everyone um in fact our employees are not safe they don't

[46:00] feel safe anymore they don't feel safe sending people out on our Goose Creek path nearby uh we're almost daily visited by bike thieves shoplifters and people strung out on hard drugs who are sometimes violent one of our employees was actually assaulted recently past nine months we've had two bikes stolen with bolt cutters and broad daylight during business hours two more were stolen using fake stolen IDs another attempt was made just last week than thanks to a tip from another bike shop and rapid response by BPD uh they were able to bust the person in the shop uh that wasn't a great U scene for the Shoppers entering for the next hour but it felt pretty good to get that a little bit of progress um we've had repeat Fons enter our shop very next day uh somebody showed up with bolt cutters in his backpack needing a little bit of help with a $112,000 stolen bike um again we called 911 again two days in a row uh thankfully we were able to uh get the person apprehended I have no idea if either of these people are are uh are still in any type of detention I suspect they may not be my staff no longer feels

[47:01] safe they don't feel comfortable as I said Sending out test rides um there are active shop shops right within our store many are in camper vans or city subsidized apartments uh just a few yards 100 yards from our uh our location some of them are gag members many of them are they traffic drugs and stolen property we're making it easier for them by allowing legal encampments that linger for days and weeks before being broken up only to be coming in again um repeat camping band violators need to be detained yes we need to detain them if we don't have any other place for them to treat their illnesses they cannot be allowed to continue to uh sleep outside at night and get taken in by the criminal gangs that are taking advantage of them they refuse Services you got to keep them in I'm sorry until W your time is up but thank you very much for your testimony thank you R please I believe we have Katy r every guests available now there was a little garbling there

[48:00] was one thing that you said that was kind of hello can you hear me yes awesome thank you for the opportunity to speak at this meeting my name is Katie Rodriguez I am a student at CU Boulder and I also work for 350 Colorado I want to encourage you to do everything in your power to make sure that we move away from coal and gas as soon as possible excel's proposed resource plan is a bad deal and doesn't align with Colorado's climate goals it allows Excel to burn coal at the expensive and unreliable PUO 3 plant until 20135 and prohibits it from retiring before this date this is 5 years longer than any other coal plant in the state together pllo 1 2 and three are responsible for 84% of toxic chemical pollution in the Pau area the p 3 coal plant needs to retire as soon as possible 2030 the latest this unit is the single largest source of carbon pollution in the state of Colorado shutting this plant down would

[49:00] be the equivalent of taking more than 500,000 passenger vehicles off the road per year in addition pbl 3 is excel's most unreliable generating unit in the state according to a 2021 PU Report the unit averaged 91.5 days per year of outages over a decade and has been 45% more expensive to build and operate than Excel originally planned this plan is a blatant examp example of environmental racism especially when you consider that poblo 3 doesn't provide Power for the homes in poblo which is the community it pollutes the current settlement forces Excel rate payers to foot the entire bill for the early retirement of the plan instead of making Excel shareholders pay the settlement would also put Excel on a path to build new gas plants that would burn for at least 40 years if the Public Utilities Commission modifies excel's Erp settlement to ask for an earlier retirement of pleo 3 Boulder should support that decision and not join the expected appeal by Excel Boulder residents do not want to support coal and want to hold Excel accountable for

[50:01] its pollution of Colorado communities and contribution to climate change thank you for your consideration of this issue and your time thank you Katie next we have Alex ellsburg Mickey pie and Joseph Wright hi my name is Alex ellberg can you hear me yes all right my name's Alex ellberg I'm the director of wholesale distribution for sustainable Health uh dba1 14er and I was born and raised in Boulder County I would like to mention a few things on behalf of the 65 people that rely on 14er for their livelihood and healthc care to highlight the confusion that has been created throughout our major modification process as we all know the covid pandemic has created several challenges for all businesses over these last two years 14er has only had the best intentions in all of the efforts to provide a safe work envir environment a safe retail experience for our customers and the community many regulations and

[51:01] practices have changed multiple times as our community has navigated through the covid pandemic fora has been working under a compliance plan that was agreed upon by the city and the company and we would like to ask the uh the council to support us in allowing us to complete the plan as was set forth communication has been one of the largest hurdles in this project and I would like to ask all parties involved to try and work with us to improve communication please allow us the privilege of getting back to full compliance and earn back the trust and respect of the city and our community there's a lot of people counting on us and I would really like the council's support and helping us renew our life thank you very much thank you Alex next Mickey pie Joseph Wright and Nicholas BR hello hi my name is Tera rodai and I'm the general manager of Thorton location for

[52:01] Rocky Road Remedies i' would like to thank mayor Rockett city manager Rivier Vander might and the members of city council for allowing me to make a comment regarding the license renewal for forer Holistics also know known as forer I believe that forer's license should be renewed pending their completion for their approve approved Fork plans I myself have been a marijuana enforcement division employee badge holder for 12 plus years badge number m1087 six I regard compliance to be my number one priority during my entire career since day one while working with 14ers Boulder over many years they have been 110% complying when it comes to their products packaging labeling invoices and manifest I've never countered any issues with the city of Boulders additional requirements for their transfers which includes the email print out to go along with those manifest and Del deliveries I have had nothing but great communication and compliance during the whole time I've

[53:00] worked with 14 14er Boulder to this day again I believe that 14ers license should be renewed pending their completion for their appr approved floor plans I send my thanks to Mayor Brockett city manager Rivier Vander might and the members of city council for your time and consideration thank you thank you next Joseph Wright Nicholas Brodrick and Michelle Rodriguez I do not see Joseph in the meeting Joseph if you're here please let me know in the Q&A so I will enable the mute button for Nick [Music] broadrick hello uh my name is Nick bradrick um first of all thank you Council and uh City staff for taking the time to uh uh provide the opportunity to speak to you today um I was born in Boulder long time ago and uh been a resident for 20 years I'm one of the original Founders and owner um of sustain aable Health known as 14er Holistics um I am now the acting CEO of

[54:00] the company um last year we did have see we seem to have lost Nick Nick you should be able to unmute okay yeah sorry about that um so I'm the owner and uh founder of sustainable health known as 14er Holistics we are a vertically integrated cannabis company located in the city of Boulder um I currently employe 65 people uh we pay an excess of a million dollars in taxes per year and we have six locations and six landlords um in the city um last year my partner uh Evan Anderson acted in in a pretty poor manner without notifying uh legal councel um City uh requesting information from the city or communicating to the necessary parties and uh we got a violation for that um we certainly deserve that violation um he was fired immediately upon the ruling I

[55:01] took over a CEO and my uh goal here is to is to rebuild the confidence with the city and rebuild trust um I graduated from CU um as an engineer and I understand the importance of compliance it assists in uh operating in a civil society and ultimately keeps um our our citizens safe um so I I I do really appreciate uh the regulatory aspect of our business and you know I what I'm asking for is the opportunity to finish the compliance plan that was a result of the violations and ultimately um asking you to not make me fire 65 people because these people's livelihoods and their families don't deserve this um so if there's anything you can do to help us in this I would really appreciate your your consideration of this um issue um I I will remain steadfast in my my uh opportunity to get into compliance and

[56:00] remain in compliance and whatever it takes I will do it um thank you very much for your time and consideration thank you Nick I believe we have uh Joe right now yes can you hear me yes evening Council uh my name is Joseph Wright and I am the senior VP of mar for 14 located at 2897 Mapleton I've had the pleasure of working with 14ers since its Inception in February 2010 to that point obviously our 65 employees the city of Boulder and this company mean a great deal to me let me start by saying I am very appreciative of the committee's and I want to thank mayor brette city manager Rivera Vander and the members of city council over the past decade our company has evolved into a vertically integrated business that now employs more than 60 people that Services the surrounding Boulder Community I'd like to start by saying I fully support the renewal 14ers

[57:01] license because our company has and continue to comply with all the necessary requests from the city of Boulder in a transparent and timely manner we have always just wanted to finish what we had started furthermore our company took actions internally by selecting new executive leadership to oversee all future compliance and regulations with the city of Boulder to ensure the highest level of transparency and compliance I can promise the committee here tonight that our new CEO who just spoke Nick bradrick has all of my trust and I have full confidence in his character and Leadership abilities you should too at 14er we often say we are in the business of compliance and we also happen to sell cannabis so we take this in every compliance issue extremely seriously as one of the original cannabis companies licensed here in Boulder we have always been extremely transparent and up to code in every facet of our business our live Liv hoods people who we employ depend on us doing so forer has

[58:00] completed all the requests pertaining to the city's orders to submit a monthly written request report progress reports and have completed all the necessary for plan improvements to date I am highly confident that our relationship with the city will be strengthened through our complete transparency in the past and here today we want to continue to be a beacon of what a safe professional and premium cannabis company looks like in the city of Boulder I'd like to thank the city and the council once again thanks Joe and uh I knew you were in the meeting before apologies that we missed you um brenon I'm no longer seeing the timer when people speak so I don't know if we can get that back it is coming back it is coming the timer got kicked out and we're getting it back on screen hope it didn't misbehave in some way okay uh two more speakers we've got Michelle Rodriguez and Stephanie Hall and I am not currently seeing Michelle Rodriguez um and so Michelle if you are here please reach out in the Q&A um so I

[59:01] am enabling the mute button for Stephanie Hall can you hear me yes yes hello my name is Stephanie Hall um I'm the director of operations for Rocky Road Remedies I want to thank mayor Brockett Cindy manager city manager Rivera Vander might and the members of city council for allowing me to make a comment regarding the licensed renewal for 14er Holistics also known as 14er I've been working for Rocky Road remed Remedies as the Director of operations for seven years and I've completed multiple build outs modification of premises and the opening of new locations in different municipalities in the state of Colorado as we're all aware remaining compliant with the state of Colorado the local municipalities is the number one priority in the initial phase of construction day-to-day operations the importance of this is ensuring Public Health safety all licensed and regulated companies within the industry strive to obtain that goal taking Extraordinary

[60:00] Measures to remain open and operational including um Boulder 14er and having worked with the city council and other municipalities I understand your role representing the community in which you serve I also know and understand the many difficulties related regulated cannabis companies face in following enforcing policies and procedures and in keeping our staff and customers compliant and no doubt one of the most highest regulated Industries in America Rocky Road Remedies has worked and collaborated with Boulder 14 and I'm certain that there was no ill intentions or malice in their actions which have resulted in us all being here today Boulder 14 is willing and able to comply with the compliance plan I would ask that the city council of Boulder remain open to continuing to work with forer to achieve the compliance required in your municipality and consider the action taken we live in interesting times in the we all work together the better Community we build there's a quote by ketta Scott King the greatest of a

[61:01] community is most accurately measured by the compassionate action of its members so as an individual working in the industry and a Community member I would ask again that you reconsider and allow 14er to renew their license pending the completion of any requir your time is up but thank you for your T okay that brings us to a close on open comment uh do we have any staff responses to open comment mayor I'll defer to the City attorney on the um the matters concerning sustainable health or 14er but really just want to acknowledge that we have heard them and we have received their correspondence and I'll pass it on to Teresa mayor members of council Teresa Taylor Tate City attorney um I want to assure you that we have indeed been in contact with 14er holistic um we are looking to determine compliance um and we are committed to finding a resolution um that meets the the law and um

[62:02] hopefully satisfies all parties that's great to hear hopefully we can find a a path to get to a resolution as we heard is earnestly desired by a number of people tonight so appreciate that response um any responses from Council Members I see Terry you have your hand up Ross I don't know if you're still here from full cycle but I wanted to say how sorry I am that all about all your uh you and your employees are going through I want to personally thank you for your testimony tonight and thank you for helping us understand how you and your employees are so greatly affected by the bike theft issues that you're constantly having to deal with so all we can do is just apologize for what you're going through right now thanks for that ter well said okay not seeing any other hands raised then I think we can move on to

[63:00] the consent agenda if we could please Alicia all right sir thank you our consent agenda for tonight is items item number three and it is items a through F do we have any questions or comments about these items or possib motion adopt the consent agenda second that second great we got a a motion in a second and I believe we have a roll call yes sir we do we'll start tonight with council member Winer here I think yes or no Tera momentarily not listening for one second sorry Community repeat the

[64:02] question we'll start the roll call with council member W it's a motion to approve the consent agenda oh I definitely approve the consent agenda it's awesome great we'll count that as a yes thank you thank you council member Benjamin yes mayor Brockett yes council member fuls yes mayor protim friend yes council member Joseph yes Speer yes and wallik yes mayor our consent agenda is approved with a vote 8 to Zero thanks so much Alicia and now we have a callup check in I have to actually recuse myself from this one so I'm going to mute myself turn off my video and hand it over to Mayor proam friend to conduct this thank you mayor Brackett so

[65:02] um Alicia yes ma'am our callup check-ins are number four on tonight's agenda item 4A is the use review number l221 D30 and administrative parking reduction number ADR 2022-23 for existing non-residential uses at 777 popper Avenue within the residential-2 rl2 zoning District this site is within the area originally conceived as the Village Center of the Wonderland Hill planned unit development PUD thank you Elisha do is there I assume there's no staff presentation but checking on that first n is that I believe that's true but we have Sloan to answer any questions unless there is um if there are any questions okay hi Sloan so I'll

[66:02] turn that over to council any questions okay I'll count to three hearing no questions or concerns would anyone like to call this up okay I'm counting to three again I got a lot knows okay uh with that do we need a vote on that Alicia or can we just can I text the mayor you can text the mayor all right sit back for a moment CL unless unless I think that's all that we do that right that is all we do thank you you are so welcome thank you all right we're we're back all right thanks for taking care of that Rachel appreciate it um okay so now we move into our one

[67:01] public hearing for the evening on the library district and uh we are going to be joined by our County Commissioners here tonight um so very very happy to welcome uh Claire Levy and Mara lman and Matt Jones to our meeting this evening and then I'll turn it over to to City staff to to get us started thank thanks so much mayor and we're going to try our hybrid technology out as we have our library team assembled in the DAT I believe David gear is going to be kicking us off all right good evening everyone my name is David gear and I'm an attorney who has been working with the city attorney's office and our library staff on the library district issues with me tonight is Janet Michaels also from the city attorney's office also with our team is our Deputy city manager uh Chris bestu and um Library director David Fon and Deputy Library director Jennifer

[68:00] fisy so we will all be available here tonight to answer your questions um I guess maybe somebody should somebody wants to put up the slideshow I would be at slide two now great and I'll just as we get to start I'll just note that um we're going to have our staff presentation here and then if we can just hold any questions until the end of the staff presentation and then Council and Commissioners will all have the opportunity to ask questions at that point so thanks so much David all right can we forward one there we go thank you um tonight we hope to complete the following first staff is going to present the background of the community conversation and the process around the library district review the proposed resolutions which if passed will form a library district and set the d stage for forming a Library District in the city and the grounding area that will provide our library Services instead of the city of Boulder the primary purpose of the

[69:04] um resolution is to in fact create the district set the Library District boundaries and described a recommended property tax Mill Levy to fund the district we will also describe tonight the cost of funding Library District Services um based on the service level standards that were adopted as part of the boulder Library master plan which was adopted by our city council in 2018 the second objective tonight is to hold a public hearing as required by the Colorado law and to listen to the testimony of the residents and visitors that are interested in whether the city and county should take the next step in forming the library district finally after the public hearing the County Commissioners will adjourn their meeting and continue it to April 7th at

[70:00] 1:30 the city council thereafter will deliberate to determine whether or not to pass the resolution and and form the district if it decides to do so we also ask that the council consider a motion to point two of its members to a committee that will act as appointees together with two members from the Boulder County Commissioners for the purpose of appointing an initial Library District Board of Trustees uh the recommendations of that committee will ultimately be ratified by the entire Council and the Commissioners as I noted uh the Commissioners will uh consider Sim similar actions to what I just described for the city council at its April 7th meeting uh funding for the library has been a topic of conversation for for some time as many of you are are aware the library is predominantly funded with sales tax sales tax is often subject to

[71:02] the whims of the economy and from time to time we've needed to balance the services when there's a dip in the sales tax this affects many general fund funded city services most recently funding of the library was the subject of the 2018 Boulder Library master plan one of the primary objectives in the plan was to study and establish a sustainable funding source for the library as part of the implementation of the master plan staff the council directed staff to do a comprehensive analysis I think we need just slide next slide all right in 2019 the boulder Library Champions which is a local advocacy group supporting the library proposed a district uh um a district by the petition process in the

[72:00] Colorado library law thereafter they withdrew it after discussions with the city manager about approaches and the process for considering other Library funding ideas staff presented the council with information about the two processes to form a Library District which are by petition or resolution in 2020 staff also prepared a draft IG and presented it to our Council in an effort to understand how the city county and Library District the library district would deliver Library services in 2021 the council was presented information on Municipal and District governance and funding options the options included the status quo as to how the library is funded dedicated city taxes with city council governance and then finally to a Library

[73:00] District that would include boundaries beyond the city limits and be funded by property taxes the council held a public hearing on this topic and thereafter directed the city staff to continue to explore the district by resolution process and form a citizen resident committee to discuss the terms of a potential IGA this winter the staff convened a Library District advisory committee that included a diverse and inclusive membership from both inside and outside the city limits to develop recommendations and terms for the intergovernmental agreement the ldac recommendations were presented to the council in February of 22 um thereafter the council had has had further conversations about what it would anticipate would be in that IGA

[74:00] and there are still some remaining issues that are the topic of conversation around for the most part the transfer of building and line building and land options for trustee appointment after the initial appointment of both the trustees and the deadline and process for dissolution should um potential tber measures um fail at the ballot ex slite please the Colorado library law provides some of the elements that should be addressed and discussed at the public hearing including the purposes of a Library District uh as proposed the Builder Library District if form will be a public library as defined under the Colorado library law and have all the powers and responsibilities set forth in that law uh the purpose of the library

[75:02] district is to provide facilities materials media computers programming public meeting spaces community services and other services provided by Library districts to obtain financial support from The District's voters for Taxation and um that the city of that thereafter that the city of Boulder and Boulder County will not provide direct financial support for districtwide Library Services next slide please uh the library law has a number of requirements related to the creation of the district it provides that entities creating the district including the city county and the district enter into an intergovernmental agreement within 90 days of District formation the IGA will have the rights obligations responsibilities financial

[76:01] and otherwise of the governmental entities including the following topics the inter funding and the appointment of the Board of Trustees uh the plan is is that the city of Boulder will provide financial support for the district during the time between the formation of the district and and the establishment of a revenue source for operation of the district the appointment of the Library District Board of Trustees is proposed to be done as set forth in the statute using the process I described above with subcommittees of the council and the district uh appointing the boards with the full legislative bodies ratifying their terms there are a number of terms that address the transition from City to District Operations including services for the operation of the district moving city employees to district employment and the transfer of city property to the

[77:03] district the resolution and the IGA will also address what happens if a t t measure fails at the ballot which U I'll talk about in a little bit so at this point I would like to turn the presentation over to David Ferman our library director to discuss like District boundaries the cost of Library services and the revenue needs for those Services all right next slide please good evening Council um mayor and members of board of County Commissioners I'm David faran I'm the library director for the city of Boulder um we believe there are two uh critical items in the resolution that being the boundaries of the math and the mevy that you wish to discuss tonight and so I'm going to cover both of those um briefly and I'll start out initially with the proposed um Library District boundaries the library

[78:01] district advisory committee established six Criterion which are on the screen before you now um to establish what the the Library District boundaries would be and they are essentially to keep the boundaries uh easy for voters to understand following a rational boundary that's is simple to explain um make those boundaries consistent with voting precincts to the that was possible maximize the number of library card holders within the district um in order to maximize Revenue while at the same time respecting the other criteria in the list um include all of the areas within the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan avoid any conflict or area of influence by another town site or municipality um for the provision of Library services and to exclude all those areas where the primary Road access occurs in another County next slide please so the map then that the library

[79:00] district advisory committee recommended is this one that you see before you now um it includes a number of precincts roughly 91,000 registered voters and generates a revenue in the vicinity of $20 million annually at a 3.8 mil rate next slide please so I do want to call attention to Jamestown um the city staff is not really we have not weighed in on the map up until this time but did so recently in a hotline post and due to um the lack of conversations between the township of Jamestown and this initiative we were recommending that the entire voting Precinct 913 which includes the Jamestown Township be eliminated um from consider a uh to be included in the district um the the entire Precinct 913

[80:00] represents less than 1% of all the registered voters within the entire district and less than 1% of the entire Revenue that the proposed Library District would raise by having them elevated in the what whatever rate it would be so we are proposing this evening that that be um eliminated be considered for elimination from the map we have also developed Maps which we're happy to discuss with you later because we know that there's been some discussion around the Marshall fire and then further we've developed a map which excludes um the area of the township of nwat um that has been an area where there has been conversations but um the conversations have gone in both ways and we'd like to hear that Community out fully as to whether or not it wants to be included into the area the map uh as well we have done the calculations on the um percentage of registered voters and the percentage of revenue generated

[81:00] by both of those areas so again the Marshall fire area uh is right around 1% of the total number of electors less than 1% of the total revenue that the the proposed District would generate nwat represents about two and a half% of the register voters in the entire area and slightly over 3% of the overall Revenue um the three combined are less than 5% of both revenue and register voters now if we can jump to the next slide please the library district also the library district advisory committee had proposed um a library Mill Levy up to not to exceed $3.8 million and not to exceed $20 million um if that if the resolutions are adopted by the city and the county um that that would be the amount that we're looking at this evening but we realize you also want to weigh in on that topic so using the currently proposed Library District Bing 3.8 Mills

[82:02] would provide adequate funding for Library Services goals to complete the expanded version of the Builder 2018 Boulder Library master plan can we go to the next slide please I want to talk a little bit about um what it currently costs to run the library um go ahead and flip to the next slide fin department has been consistent in this representation um since we initially brought this topic up in 2018 but there have been some questions uh about what the cost of running the library is and perhaps some confusion I hope to be able to clarify that this evening so this uses the actual costs for the 2022 uh Library budget um the 2022 operating budget is 9.18 million that's the item that shows up on page I think 331 of the city's budget um it is essentially the cost for materials but books and the

[83:01] staff what we call the administrative overhead budget or is commonly referred to by City staff as cost allocation um covers the cost for facilities maintenance it infrastructure software Hardware HR staff and HR software it it it covers the cost of payroll uh attorneys Insurance risk management it's a whole lot of costs they are actually budgeted costs which do show up in the overall City budget but do not show up under the library page on 331 because they are a part the library as other departments many other departments are part of the general fund we've also analyzed the average Capital maintenance capital budget um you know know the number is inconsistent from year to year but if you take a five or 10 year average the average uh cost

[84:01] annually is right around $1 million in capital in the capital budget which brings the true cost um to the taxpayers of taxpayer Revenue that goes to funding the library annually to right around 13.78 million now depending upon the capital that might be 13.9 one year or 13.5 one year but in the entire time I've been here it's roughly in this area 13.7 million so in the February memo that we prepared for Council um prior to this meeting we also outlined the estimated costs for 2023 um for the city and both for the library district so the in 2023 we anticipate uh the north poer library branch will open um the cost for running that Library inclusive of Staff books cleaning security utilities all those costs is roughly $1 million per year um

[85:03] the library staff also intend to request in the 20123 budget cycle the operating deficit that was cut due to the pandemic that is equivalent to roughly $700,000 um those requests will be made there is not currently a designated Revenue source uh identified for them because we haven't really begun the budget process and then separately um the facilities master plan calls for roughly a two to 4% investment in um City facilities in maintenance cost in order to address the Deferred maintenance on buildings the library's portion of that cost which is currently unfunded is $1.3 million annually for 15 years the library district budgeting the finances for the Library District budget takes that $1.3 million into account

[86:01] with the assumption that it would adhere to the facilities the city of Boulders facilities master plan to invest between two to four% um annual annually in the capital of of the capital um costs of each of those buildings to ensure that we both um keep the buildings in preferred working order and then also to do things to decrease um the climate emissions the carbon emissions uh from many of those buildings by improving windows and the envelopes the roofs that kind of thing which brings the estimated future total of the library to roughly $16.78 million in 2023 let's go to the next slide please so as some of you will remember in 201 18 we did a deep dive on the financial projections for the library over the course of 15 years in the context of the master plan and what it

[87:01] would cost to meet certain service levels the maintained service level is the uh level that we are currently at 14.5 million is the estimated cost for doing so those costs do include uh the the projections by George k b company do include the cost of Maintenance of the buildings and that's why there's that discrepancy between 14 and a half and 137 where it is right now the goal to address Community demand which was entailed in um opening up the nobo corner library and fully addressing the capital expenses related to um the facilities brings the budget projections to around $18.9 million and then the service expansion level which um includes opening a library and Gun Barrel reopening the canyon theater and making it available to the public reopening the Carnegie Library for local history and making it also available and

[88:01] fully staffed from the public and a number of other items brings the the total of the projected budget that George Cap B did to roughly $20 million a year next slide please so this is also a document which we shared with the library district advisory committee when we were asking them to weigh in on the cost uh at what service level did they want to recommend that the library district go forward with a M ra so as you can see at the maintained service levels if you translate the current $ 13.78 million into a milary that would Encompass the entire District right so the district as they had designed it um the cost of doing so is roughly 2.74 Mills that is the cost um that we would operate at the current level that we have to reach the address

[89:01] Community demand level we would obviously add the operation of the North Boulder library branch and address the Deferred maintenance and building a capital and operating expenses which jumps that mil ly up to a total of 3.37 uh to address to to the addressed Unity demand level and then at the servicing expansion level this lists a number of the things um that were intended in the library master plan to be completed and what that translates to in a dollar amount for Mill rates to achieve so I I realized this kind of looks a little bit like a shopping list that is I assure you not Our intention um Our intention really was to show that the 3.8 mil number wasn't something that was um thought up through thin air this actually ties back into the actual costs that were determined by G George K Bound in 2018 and shows those costs over

[90:01] the course of time so it's a 15-year projection uh it makes some assumptions about the increased cost of Labor and the increased cost of materials throughout that document and so these Mill rates attach to um the cost of actually providing these Services which gets us to 3.72 Ms um there were some things that were unanticipated and are still unresolved uh with regard to the 3.8 and the reason why the library district advisory committee recommend going up to 3.8 as you remember the library district advisory committee recommended um giving all the facilities and their ground and in some cases the grounds to the library district uh the library district financing does not anticipate in any place the cost associated with Grounds Maintenance around any of their buildings so that was a cost that we did not anticipate that was something that the library district advisory committee felt was necessary to add and to get it

[91:00] to the 3.8 the other um cost centered uh interest that the library district advisory committee had was around Equity of wages and they wanted to um have some assurances that a library Board of Trustees would have at least the option of increasing Library staff wages beyond what their current level is uh which is established by the city's looking and I believe that completes my slides and I am turning it back over to David K all right thank you U so just um kind of what we're here to do tonight is to consider resolutions to form a Library District um they are formed by resolutions that are passed by both bodies um and the resolutions have a number of required elements um including the prop proposed name of the district which will be the wer Public Library District uh the purpose of the library district which we went through in a slide above um acknowledging the terms

[92:02] of financial support for the district which will be the city of Boulder um until the library district develops its own Revenue Source establishes a proposed Mill Levy it defines the process for appointing the initial Board of liary District Board of Trustees acknowledges that we will in fact be creating an intergovernmental agreement to address the transition and um how the parties will cooperate um there is a deadline in the resolution that sets um a time limit on the time that the district has to obtain tax funding and if they fail to get um tax funding approved in a taper type voter approv roval election the library district will dissolve as as now proposed in 2024 um and of course I talk in terms of

[93:04] resolutions that these U the resolutions in basically the substantially same form need to be passed by the Boulder City Council and the Boulder County Board of the Moulder County um Commissioners so okay next slide please so here's the timeline if if we are um if a district is formed by resolutions the next steps will include the appointment of the board U negotiation and approval of an intergovernmental agreement between the city county and the library district the creation of the interim funding plan followed by the tabber election to approv District taxation um next slide um in closing we look forward to

[94:00] hearing from the community tonight um if after considering the testimony the council and the board of County Commissioners um think it's a good idea to go forward with the next step in the exploration of providing Library Services through a Library District we will ask the council and the County Commissioners to pass resolution forming the district and start the process for appointing the library district trustees so with that said thank you we are all available for questions or at your pleasure you may proceed to the public hearing thanks so much uh David and David that was extremely informative and very helpful so this is our chance to ask questions of City staff so if any council members or Commissioners would like to do so please raise your Zoom hand and I'll call on you in the order that you raise it and we've got juny and then Mar thank you mayor Brocket I just have

[95:02] a question based on the um the presentation and I just wanted to ask you mentioned the maintening service level it would be 14 Millions addressing Community needs would be 18 million 18.9 million so address in community needs with the North Boulder Life Community Library that's where we are heading anyway right that is my understanding without districting that that's correct J we we anticipate that the North Boulder Library will be funded in 2023 okay and then the service expansion would be 20 million so I'm just thinking because I we get questions from community members a lot who believed in their own mind that essentially creating this Library District would double the library budget

[96:01] or the amount that need to be spent on the library but I think I'm just looking at this slide that you just showed us with the Ming Services of 14.5 million and addressing Community needs to it would be 18.9 million and the service expansion would be 20 million so it seemed to me that distri in would really cost us just a little bit over about $1.1 million um I'm not sure I follow the last part I mean as far as the percentages go um you know adding adding noo helps address Community demand that adds a million dollars the the cost um associated with maintaining the buildings at the recommended level that is a significant cost it's not insubstantial that is roughly two to two half million doll annually for at least 15 years so the increase in cost from going where we are currently to the

[97:00] meeting Community demand level which is essentially opening noo and taking care of what we have is roughly a 23% increase um to go to the added to the additional level which is the service expansion and is what the library district advisory committee recommended that adds another 10% and that is for uh opening Carnegie opening a library in Gun Barrel potentially opening a library in nyatt um opening the canyon theater and building a robust outreach program for early literacy uh more broadly in the community to reach underserved communities so that so it's the total increase cost um roughly 33% so roughly a third um a large chunk of that that 20 of the of the of the 33% I think onethird of that is really the cost of maintaining the

[98:01] buildings if if we if we project that as GK bound did and if we use the facilities master plan recommended level of investment in the capital infrastructure at two to four% of its overall value that leads to us investing roughly two to two and a half million dollars annually that is a significant cost without a doubt thank you the buildings are old I mean the buildings are quite old I mean we're looking at the average age of Library buildings is slightly over 60 years currently um and if you remember from the facility's master plan um a couple of them grade out at a d level um and they're in need of you know some attention soon Janise that answer your question thank you so much mayor Bret great U Marta and then Claire Nicole and mark thank you mayor rocket good evening everybody want to start this I I have a

[99:02] ton of questions but I'm just going to start with really the presentation and focus on that and I'm sure I'll learn from other folks questions and I'm sure we have some repetitive thoughts going around so the just from the from the presentation the very last slide went really quickly on the timeline and I think it would be really helpful for us to understand not just how you get to the next meeting but what that means for residents what that might mean for voters Could you um presenters maybe just spend more than that brief time just talking about the timeline because I also heard there there's some negotiation there's some questions there might be opportunities to look at that list of different items um that would be involved in a resolution that could be resolved in an IGA that might take some time and so I just think it would be helpful for all of us to know in that timeline really where are the cut off dates um so that

[100:02] we know you know if this doesn't happen in 2022 what that timeline really looks like so that's my first question and wonder if the presenters would go back to that slide for just a [Music] moment yeah pull the slide up I think I heard David and David um but I might be wrong yeah we'll see if we can get them to pull the slide out so so um I think that right now the um the timeline is um well it's based you know it's based on the November election and we've kind of backed out a schedule in terms of what we'll how to get there um one of the things that I think that we hoped that we would be able to do uh that we don't think that the IGA negotiation necessarily um has to um be long and drawn out um of course

[101:01] there's always the potential that that could happen but um I think that our Council asked us to engage in a pretty um robust public process in terms of putting out kind of at least the city's expectations on what a draft IGA would look like and then um and then we the city staff had to defend those and with a bunch of people who were um from a variety of walks of life in terms of what what would be an appropriate and a fair um IGA so I think that that part um probably um we've we've done an awful lot of work already um on that and I don't know that that will be a terrible um time syn um but then and um the rest of the issues you know it's I think that the other issue the other big work item or I'm not quite sure how big it'll be but um

[102:01] will'll be appointing a Board of Trustees um and you know the statutory procedure is pretty clear on how to do that but you know like all um you know efforts to get volunteers to do something there is you know there's a recruitment process an interview process a selection process on a ratification process um but we did try to kind of work in all the time that would be necessary to do those issues um and then of course you know I think ultimately the big thank you Chris um the big uh issue in all of this in terms of um I guess public engagement will be once the library district uh Board of trustee puts on a Taber measure and I think that that will focus the community conversation in terms of whether or not

[103:00] to to pass a tax to within the district to do this um as to whether or not there's there is truly the kind of support that you would need to get that to get funding passed okay so on the resolution if let's just focus on the resolution then because we're here this evening to ask some questions I think one of the questions specific to that is what what will be agreed on obviously by city of Boulder this evening and then by the board of County Commissioners on the 7th but what in that resolution could be changed or is it the resolution and then that would be that would be it is there any room for movement and if so what would the process be so that that folks know what go ahead sure so um you know the I think just about everything in the resolution

[104:00] can be changed um I think the issue is is hopefully there there will be some level of agreement the the library law itself it sets forth a number of issues that are required to be addressed in the resolutions um I think that we have uh hit all those and and really um when it comes down to it at least um what I've been hearing from the commun from the community and I I'm guessing David as well as the the kind of the big issues are what is the appropriate District boundary um for this um and David can talk about the rationale for um why this why the boundary that was chosen was chosen um and then of course the mill Levy the amount of Revenue necessary to actually fund the district okay those are the two big

[105:02] issues um commissioner and the the we we understand that there may be a difference in terms of what is recommended by the board of County Commissioners and the city council about both those issues the boundary and about the mill rate so what we will do is the um if C Council decides tonight and then there's a difference of opinion in the board of County Commissioners we will bring that recommendation back to the board from the board of County Commissioners back to city council to see if we can't find agreement yeah okay and so I think the question there then is from the process and the timeline in a public process how would that happen because we are going to separate at the end of public comment this evening and so if you all the excuse me not if you all but if the city Boulder comes up with a different Rec recommendation for resolution and the board of County Commissioners come up with a different recommendation around the boundaries around mil Levy around fill in the blank what is that

[106:00] public process that fits into the timeline so that the public understands what the process will be well our anticipation is that it will look a lot like the adoption of the comprehensive plan whereby you know we typically in terms of you know that's approved by both the city and the county there isn't always a meeting of the minds the first time around and that we would just we would um try to find common ground and then and um and you know if the county commissioner you know that I I believe the council is at least scheduled to act first if the County Commissioners um did not agree with everything that the Boulder City Council um proposed in in its resolution then we would bring the whatever the commissioner's resolution was back to the council and try to find Middle Ground okay my go

[107:00] ahead oh well I you know I guess you know the bottom line is you know since we are kind of backed up to the schedule is backed up based on the election right uh that the longer it takes the more likely it would be that um any ultimate decision would have to be moved to the 23 election Okay assum resolution T sure the last question I had um at this moment was around your comments in the presentation around Jamestown it wasn't clear to me about why you were recommending removal you just stated that you had talked with somebody up in Jamestown I wonder if you could just speak to that a little bit more and then also you said that you would be checking in with nyatt and so again just concerned about your timeline what that process would look like and I'm also happy to share what I've seen from the nyatt Community Association that I believe davidon also received and I just don't know if the rest of the city council at Boulder received that survey as well to

[108:02] so Deputy city manager mtic will address the question about Jamestown I'm happy to talk about my one but yes specifically regarding Jamestown uh as uh as we were preparing for this public hearing tonight uh in in conver ations with both uh City and and County staff as well as uh the uh the various folks in the community um it was unclear to us what engagement had occurred with the town of Jamestown which is an incorporated town uh and has its own local governing body um so we did reach out to the town of Jamestown uh and I did speak with mayor box and indeed they had have not really been engaged on the conversations of the library District uh and so that's what brought us to the recommendation uh to you tonight to exclude uh that area of Jamestown and that's based on the

[109:01] library district so far not engaging with the town of Jamestown yeah in the conversations it what it sounds like is is there really hasn't been a lot of Engagement with the town of Jamestown um and because this would be another governmental entity that would essentially overlay with the town of James town uh it it didn't feel appropriate to proceed without uh further conversation with the town of Jamestown on whether they would be interested I I I did speak with mayor Box about that today as well as their their town clerk so um that that's really what brought us to the recommendation for today okay thank you and the question on nyatt and for nyatt there have been ongoing Community meetings you know various times through the past two to three years so the community there are a number of community stakeholders that we're obviously quite aware of it and they have recently conducted a poll the community as you mentioned the Community Association condu a poll and I believe um the chair of the Community Association is going to speak tonight so

[110:02] I do not know if that um poll was shared with city council um but I know it was shared with the County Commissioners and in the end these are all policy decisions right so we don't we don't have a you know the the areas of nyatt and also I guess the Marshal fire the Criterion that the library district advisory committee recommended Jamestown is a little bit looser on that fitting that Criterion that the library district advisory Comm committee advis but as far as determination of where the boundaries lie that is the policy decision which we're are looking to city council and the board of County Commissioners to determine for us okay thank you thanks everyone for your patience thanks Mara uh Claire then Nicole and then Mark yeah thank you um and thank you for uh arranging this joint meeting I hope the members of the public find it convenient to H get to speak to both city council

[111:01] and County Commissioners all in one evening I know it makes for a long evening uh I have several questions and I hope it's okay if I just ask them all now um so that you know we can get them out of the way some of them have to do with process some have to do with financing but I think it's just going to be helpful for me anyway um and this seems like the best time to to ask those questions um so and and the first is just to do some level setting for um the people who've tuned in you know we've gotten a lot of email I'm sure members of city council and staff have as well from people who are asking us to vote no on this resolution um for various reasons um it needs more work uh they think think it's a bad idea um you know whatever the reasons um and I my understanding is we're sort of in a situation with we

[112:01] either do it by resolution or it happens by petition and so it's you know heads you lose Tails I win um is there anything in between um you know for for folks who Maybe you know wondering if there is a way for us to continue this dialogue get more Community input examine different funding scenarios um or do we really just have two choices do you want to take that you know um I appreciate the question um the the query about are there other funding scenarios um we have proposed to city council over the past four years we've we've been I know I've been either in memos or in person in front of council 16 times um tonight is the 16th on this very issue since um the summer of 2018

[113:02] when we first approach the issue of the idea of a district so the the the the conversations have been um ongoing I feel like there's been a lot of community engagement there have been at least two polls now now a third um that we've heard of so um has been some level of community engagement in terms of what the different items are we we proposed to put in front yeah we in front of city council the the issue of different forms of funding um over the course of the year so Municipal funding leading things as is a dedicated uh tax within the city so those have all been entertained by various councils and either dismissed uh or not not taken up no and excuse me just that wasn't my question I so I'm sorry speak over you it's it it seems like the situation is um One Way or Another this is going forward uh it's

[114:02] either going to happen through this resolution process or it's going to happen by petition and I I'm just looking for some confirmation um that that in you know that for what some members of the community are asking for which is some additional time to examine other Alternatives uh gather more Community input um that that at this point is not really an option that so it's you know yes to a resolution or if we say no then it goes on the ballot by petition is yeah so so I would agree with what or just how you character I it under the library law it's incredibly easy to get a petition for the voters to form a Library District so you have that on the one hand um we were there in 2019

[115:04] 2020 um where we asked the committee of the petitioners to withdraw their petition um and have the conversation that we've had so far now could we go back and ask you know well you don't necessarily have control over whether a petition gets submitted um but it there is always the possibility that we could have a a a conversation with at least the boulder Library Champions who have been kind of one of the primary groups if there would be um the need to do additional public process okay thank you so thanks I I I think it's just important for members of the public to realize that uh we only have so much control here and and so we for those who are looking to us you know some of us anyway

[116:00] and hoping that this will not go forward um that that's probably not a realistic scenario most of my questions actually have to do with the funding proposal and I did spend some time with the analysis by um bman company that that was based on 2009 19 um assess values and budget projections and um I um I did ask uh Chris um metek earlier whether you have more recent assess valuation figures uh that um that the current proposal is based on um and the the figure I got was um the total total assess valuation within the proposed District I think was 5.56 billion in value does that sound

[117:01] correct that is correct and in the bomb study it was 4.7 billion um and the reason I asked for that is you know we we've seen when we do our budget forecasting we you know we look at projections for property tax revenues and the line goes up um because we know what's happening to property values in the city of Boulder and Boulder County in general um and I I think I did the math um not my strong suit but I think that's a 16% increase um from the time this study was done uh and so I I think where I'm going with this is is the the 3 Point 8 Ms that are requested now unless something crazy happens that the revenues are going to escalate a you

[118:02] know a pretty rapid clip to this do Library District and I'm wondering about whether there whether we could discuss starting with a reduced M Levy not with the intention of hampering the ability of the library to fully serve the district but with the understanding that it will take a while for for the district to get established you know fully with and reinstate services and get the plans for the gun barrel Library uh on the drawing boards find the the land all of those things and and then you know that by which time property values will have increased to the point where you know they'll have have those revenues and so that's one thing I'd like to explore and just for sort of a point of reference in the balm study on page 28 um The Proposal with a property tax

[119:04] only um and the service expansion um the the uh if I'm reading this correctly the thought was 3.3 Ms would be adequate um for all of that there is a footnote that these scenarios don't include the um now the little indicator thing has covered up this language the $3.38 million cost allocation um because the Assumption was that that was going to continue to be covered by the general fund but you know there's there's the property values have gone up 16% within the district um and the mill Lev the proposed millage has increased so I'm just wondering you know how about that and whether we could start with a smaller millage yeah it's a great question I

[120:00] don't know if you're asking me if you're answering asking question your other governing officials but uh yes I agree there is some flexibility we did so the way in which the bound study worked we kept up with all the property tax increases over the course of the last three years to arrive at the number we we recently in the past week have uploaded the 2021 actuals uh which amounted to not a 16% increase but a two and a half% increase we we had already we had already accounted for the percent increase in tax assessments what we didn't account for was new inventory so the total value was already in the bound model when we were meeting with the library district advisory committee was already at 5.3 billion so we went up another two and a half% so is there room to adjust the M Levy yes there is how much I can't really say until you guys have finalized a map once you finalize a map it's relatively easy to do calculations to

[121:01] understand what amount of money that produces and then you could adjust the M accordingly well I think the my question is a little bit more complicated than that just in that what would be what would be a a starting revenue generated by the assess valuation and the proposed Mill Levy that would allow um the um the community demand to be met with the under with you know with the understanding that property values will increase um and um and we know costs go up but not at the rate that property values increase so you know what what would be a reasonable starting revenue for the library um so we don't need to answer that right now but that's something I'm looking for I think the last question and I don't want to monopolize the time I think well I guess

[122:00] part and parcel of the B analysis all of the scenarios I believe did ass did assume that the cost allocation um would continue to be covered by the general fund um and and it it sounds like that assumption is no longer um uh no longer valid so um is that perhaps I'm looking for ways to make this more affordable to people I'm very very sensitive to to the the affordability issue for people in Boulder who are trying to stay here uh who we don't want to drive out and I'm just wondering about about the fact that in 2019 the Assumption was that the city would cover that cost allocation I I don't know I'm I appreciate the question I don't believe city council ever agreed to such a notion I we presented in the bound study

[123:02] we presented a lot of different options to the city including dedicated tax um a lot of different things I don't believe the city ever even gave much consideration to the idea that somehow the city would continue to fund support for Library districts internal cost allocation we may have proposed that as a possibility I don't believe Council ever took us up on such an idea okay well I I'd invite you to revisit the report because the scenario is assumed the three 333 mil Levy is maintained and um they do not include the 3.38 million that so just the the last thing I guess I am wondering about is is governance and how we build in accountability um it appears that that the only and I'm you know accountability for um responsible expenditures of the budget for delivering on the services

[124:02] that um you know that the community members of the community are hoping to get um it appears that the only accountability is our opportunity to approve or remove for cause members of the Board of Trustees and that's a little bit concerning to me here we approve a mill Levy um big big chunk of money and then nothing further um bu an elected body well I Claire I think that you hit the nail on the head um in terms of um how in terms of governance and and accountability um I think that those are pretty much the only things that are set forth in the um in the statute I don't know if there would be other approaches that could be um U negotiated into an

[125:03] IGA uh to make to ensure accountability um but that said um there are most liaries in the state are governed by the same type of board of directors um with the same set of oversights with quite great success okay thank you I think um that that's it for now thanks so much yeah thank you thanks Claire we've got Nicole and then Mark and then juny and then Rachel thank you um and thank you to uh staff just for the the really informative presentation I feel like the more more I get this um the more it starts to come together a bit um one of the questions I have some of these are just following up on some previous questions um as I understand and I think we talked about this at our um last discussion about this on Council um the mill Levy that is kind of being tossed

[126:00] around this 3.8 Ms am I correct in understanding that that's actually kind of on the low end of what other Library districts do um here in Colorado and especially in you know some of our neighboring communities like I think Netherlands is maybe over six or something like that I'm just sort of just wanting get some clarity on um where this sort of 3.8 is on that spectrum and then I've got a follow-up question on that do we have that thank you for the question um councelor spear I think we had that slide that shows the comparisons that's that's not how we arriv I mean just so you know that that's not no no yeah it was very clear how how you got there thank you right so the um I apologize um I don't I don't know that we have that side in the back pocket but yes um the different libraries around the state have different M levies 3.8 I

[127:00] I don't I I be hard pressed to say it's an average rate or a lower than average rate um there are a number of Front Range libraries who certainly have no rates a much higher rate and and your correct that Ned uh is I believe six Mills or roughly that um you know um arapo county is about 5.8 um Jefferson County which is not a District Library but a county library has a m of around 4.3 I believe Douglas County has four Mills exactly um I uh I I need to see the list to show to to to be able to confirm that but I um yeah 3.8 is not a at the higher end of the M rates that's for but it is adequate to the cost that we predicted would be there for a Library District so that is where we arve thank you and that sort of um just

[128:01] leads into my other question which I think is just a clarification of a point that Claire was talking about that if we were to decide not to move forward with this as a resolution and I correct and understanding that we sort of we Council and um the County Commissioners lose our ability to control what Mill Levy limit is on the ballot if it were to move through by petition am my understanding that that that's like this sort of is our chance to have a say in and where we want that M ly to be it would depend upon how the position was written right so in all like the petition that was submitted in 2019 name City Council and the Boulder County Commissioners as the establishing so it would depend upon how what that petition stated I believe they would have to name someone as an establishing entity I don't think they

[129:01] can just say we're doing this but but that's for the lawyers to determin but I I think it would probably just initiate the same process over again to some extent it would have to go back um and they would look to in part the establishing entities for confirmation of the boundary and confirmation of the m but um but yeah in order for you to have a role city council and dor Boulder County Commissioners you have to become an establishing entity by forming a resolution which then gives you the ability policy decision of establishing the boundaries and of establishing the mill rate and establishing uh the conditions under which a Library District would be dissolved if it did not have funding but I'd love for one of the other one of the lawyers not I'm not a lawyer one of the lawyers to jump in on this and and confirm that for me I I think that that's accurate that you have a you have a lot more flexibility if you're the one creating it and when you get into the petition

[130:01] process um kind of one of the the remedy is kind of drastic as an you know as a as a an entity that already has a public library that would be the city of Boulder um are kind of Main I guess leverage if you will in the statute is that if we don't like what's being proposed we can opt out of the district so it's kind of you gather up your marbl and go home um thank you and then my other question was around um some of the services that could be provided um with the funding and I think this was one of the last slides that you all were showing um kind of breaking down that the different M levies and one of the programs that um I had heard about and I think this this may be related to the um I think you had it labeled as latinx community outreach um was a pilot program that was going out into um some

[131:01] of our manufactured home communities uh Ponderosa the St Village Meadows um and I believe it was because part of the process of forming the library master plan um the most recent one in 2018 was well actually and in 2007 was this recognition that were people in our community who didn't have easy access to the library so the idea was sort of to go to them and so I was just wondering if you could kind of expand on um you know what what some of those programs are um I believe that pilot program kind of fell apart with the pandemic and all the Staffing cuts that you took which was really unfortunate that was kind of when when when kids and families really needed that support um but it you know I'm just wondering about whether we can meet some of the equity goals that are laid out in the library master plan plans um without this Library District yes so I can go on about this for hours and I know that's not what you're asking for but yeah we did have a

[132:00] pilot program for outreach to the L next Community it had been described as a goal of the master plan in 2007 it was reiterated in 2018 and we we put slightly higher emphasis on it and over the course of the prior to the pandemic yeah we were running a number of programs bookr environments is a partnership with the boulder housing Partners uh reading buddies is a program with the community which we also work with bbsd and some of the um Title One schools so all of the programs are designed to help with early literacy um bi early literacy you know 10 years of AG or younger and improving literacy um skills and aptitudes that and advantages that the various families have and it's not it is primarily focused on the latinx community Community but it's truly to serve the underserved if you have um two working parents the likelihood of you being able to get to Story Time on a regular basis which story time is our prate program in terms

[133:00] of early literacy is limited and so our idea was really to take that program to the community and so the um the whole concept of the outreach program is one in which we're taking early literacy tools and not just early literacy in terms of reading but also in terms of SCH uh science technology engineering and math so that everyone in the community has access to the tools that they need to um you know not just uh survive in our society but to thrive in our society so that we have a lot of programs going on prior to the pandemic you're correct that those programs were suspended and we are currently looking to build that program back um and we'll have requests for funding in 2023 and the district funding and the master The District budget which outlines funding all of the things within the master plan funds that program thank you thanks Nicole we got Mark and Jenny

[134:02] Rachel Matt Matt Claire hey um I want to start by going back to something commissioner Levy spoke about which was sort of the inevitability of a Library District by petition if we do not do it um by res solution but so my question is and I just don't know the answer if we have an opt out in the event of a petition it would seem to me that would um vitiate the the idea that this is inevitable one way or the other am I misreading the the statute or our ability to opt out of it um we can opt out of it um as an entity that has its own library and then um I think as David mentioned earlier in the in the process of the petition once the petition is submitted to the to the um establishing entities you have two

[135:00] choices the first choice is the establishing entities can create a resolution and I I guess there's probably some level of control there to get things ready for um the election or you just refer their petition to the ballot and um let the voters decide okay um my second question is actually I guess more for our city manager or or Chris's uh Deputy um at 3.8 Ms uh the library system would be funded basically at a vision level am I am I not correct in that that's correct okay so my my question then is how many of our other departments are currently being funded at a vision level uh I think that's a really fair question to ask and as as council members know and for the commissioner benefit we we prepare kind of Master

[136:00] plans or business plans for each department in the city and they get updated at various Cycles uh uh typically between every five and 10 years and so it's a bit of a rolling case um so there's there's always not kind of one where every master plan has been updated so of the current Master plans that we have the vast majority of our departments uh are at kind of a current funding uh uh level um we have uh a couple of departments that are working on action plan levels of funding um uh but we we have very few City departments that are funded at the full vision level um and part of that is a nature of uh the current you know available funding of we're we're balancing our Services across the city and part of that is also as we achieve things in master plans and we update those Master plans and we add new new things to that that Vision list uh so it it's a little bit rolling but I think uh

[137:02] Mark to your key question what what you're really getting at is there's a trade-off conversation to have here of Municipal Services uh and and that's that's part of uh the consideration that that we have to make is balancing all of those Services uh that that are provided by local governments thank you Chris and my next question is um assuming there is a resolution to form this Library District um the interests of the city are not entirely uh identical to the interests of the library district or those who advocate for it and my question is a process question um how do we ensure that when we are sitting when representatives are sitting in a room um negotiating an IGA that that somebody is actually advocating for the interests of the city when the those interests diverge

[138:00] from the interests of the library district Because unless you define one as being um consistent with the other in every respect and I don't think that's the case um there needs to be somebody in there advocating for interests of the city not not simply facilitating um whatever it is that the library district would prefer it it would seem to me it ought to be um negotiation with two sides not one side how do we ensure that well I think that that is it's just built into the process so I think that probably one of the first things that would happen as soon as a Board of Trustees is appointed is U they would uh higher counsel and they would have a legal counsel I'm told by our our legal adviser on this that then the legal council would negotiate on behalf of the district and it would be more of your

[139:01] typical traditional um negotiation where it's either you know interest based or positional or however however the the negotiations go thank you and and my last question is and I don't know if anybody actually has this information on a Statewide basis how many residents actually live under a district um regime versus um Library systems operated by a municipality as I looked at the 20 largest cities in in Colorado it seemed to me that 12 or 60% of them do not have districts and I'm just curious do we know on a state level how many people are actually um functioning under a district organization a structure for their libraries out of the I think the population is 5.77 million for the state yeah Mark I used to know those numbers off the top of my head I don't have them it's around 6 60% so roughly 60% of the

[140:02] U library card holders in the state of Colorado are served by districts so I don't know what 12 municipalities you're talking about the three the only three municipalities that are well I guess there are five municipalities above 100,000 population that do not have a district that is Denver Boulder Longmont Aurora and Westminster um all of those libraries are municipal Andor County Libraries um and as you know I mean Boulder is having this discussion as is Longmont as is Denver um the only two that are not currently considering formation of a district are Aurora and Westminster Aurora did put a ballot uh forward in 2008 I believe that ballot initiative was unsuccessful the district dissolved and back to what about Broomfield what about Broomfield Castle Rock Highlands Ranch I mean are they Castle Rockland Ranch yes bfield is not a community that I'm aware of that

[141:00] has 100,000 people okay hland Ranch is a community of 100,000 it's served by a district Castle Rock I don't believe has 100,000 but perhaps it does it is also served by a district all right thank you appreciate it can I just make one more comment I was told that maybe my voice was a little off but when I was describing the when a petition is submitted the two options one is that we can not cannot opt out and the other one is if we choose not to opt out um well you can opt out or you can um what is it just pass a resolution yeah pass a resolution or or let it go to a vote let it go to the vote just so I can be clear because you you broke up for me broke up on me for a minute you can opt out or cannot can if you have a public library you are able to opt out okay so I the only point

[142:01] of that is is is simply to address the issue of the inevitability of a Library District if it is done by um res it's Sun by petition it's not the case okay yeah okay now done thanks Mark JY thank you Erin I have a question I just wanted to go back to the question about the different mevy and I just want to thank commissioner ly Ley for her comments and one thing to look at how to make it a balance to go forward with this but also uh ensuring that people can um can really afford this particular meal Levy and my question would be what would you have to do to look into this do you have to go back and do a poll or is this something that we can just do ourselves

[143:01] without doing any kind of poll within the community Jun just to ask for a little bit of clarification are you asking just on once a boundary is set how how do we determine the the mevy amount yes so the once a boundary is set we use uh uh essentially we can use assessor data of current assessed values of all the property within that District within the District boundary to estimate what that Revenue would be what um Council and the Commissioners are doing through the resolution process if you are to pass a resolution you set a ceiling so up to 3.8 mil or up to $20 million is essentially you'll set the ceiling and then the district is allowed to to essentially set a mill Levy up to that maximum ceiling but not above it so

[144:00] that's really the decision for all of you to make tonight is where do you want to set the ceiling but I do have a question for you and I think that's where I'm slightly not sure when you ask that question because I'm looking at you know the vision level and what is required and just give me a moment I'm looking at the slides for the service expansion for instance opening the gun barrel and naat Corner libraries renovate and activate Canyon theater outreach program to latinx community members which I believe my council member just mentioned here Nichol Spear and renovate and increase staff at carnagey library so I guess my question would be if we were to lower the mill every lower than 3.7 what would we be giving up yeah that so again yeah the list that

[145:00] we shared um on the midle rate equivalences for Library Services it's not a shopping list but yeah if you were to say we want it to be 3.5 um you would have to make some decisions about what you don't want right so you don't want a library in gun you don't want you know you would you I'd want you to be able to have the information that you knew what decision you were making right so you you don't want an outreach program to the LA next Community or you don't want to renovate the carneg library right so those are all certainly within your purview uh the reason for putting up the list is so that you understand what the impacts of those decisions are right and and I mean I I don't want to Blade with the point it's the the difference in um between address Community demand and the full expansion is. 35 Ms um within the district it's a it's about it's about you know per $100,000 of

[146:01] value it's about $3.50 difference in $100,000 value per resident um so quadruple that for a business it's about a $15 value um per per $100,000 thank you I certainly within your but certainly within your prerogative to do so thank you so much for this I'll reserve my comments for whenever we're allowed comment thank you we got uh Rachel then Matt Jones Matt Benjamin Lauren thanks mayor rocket and um nice to see all the Commissioners here this was a little fun wish we were in person um I have a couple questions um so want to confirm that tonight sort of what we will be voting on is whether to adopt this resolution and then uh kind of two sub points of

[147:01] the District boundary and the kind of upper level of the of the mil of is that right that's correct so um for people who are we have like a hundred people who 100 plus people who are going to speak on public comment which is awesome and I thank you all for waiting patiently for this um for the things that we won't be talking about voting on tonight will there be a way and this is Marta got got to something like this earlier will there be a way for them to engage or give feedback on the IGA points um for example we've we've had a lot of emails about uh people feeling strongly about whether to lease or um or dispose of Library assets how will community members get to engage on on the stuff that we're not talking about tonight we're we're currently accepting emails um on all things District um as is Council um and yeah I don't know that we've measured like a like a straw pole

[148:01] as to whether or not some people think it should be owned or be leased but certainly there's been feedback and we're continuing to get it well maybe maybe I'll ask that differently let's say that we you know will will drafts of the IGA be uh public and we can receive input and people maybe won't like uh where we landed on things and we'll hear that or I don't know what i is going to go in there so is is open yeah comment on this the recommended IG is public now the library district advisory recommended IG is public now and will remain so so we can accept and solicit feedback on and I think you're probably talking about the three issues that we've talked about with Council ownership releasing uh appointment of the trustees and and disolution and the disolution time frame so of the district yeah those those could all beigh in by and David if it's helpful and Rachel to add just a little bit is if you uh each pass

[149:00] resolutions to form the district uh and then um the the Board of Trustees is appointed then that kind of IgA negotiation period starts and Janet correct me if I'm wrong but it's 90 days from the date of the resolutions being approved is that 90 days from ratification so once the bo is appointed so so there's essentially 90 days so it's it's through the summer into the late summer early fall that um Council and the Commissioners and the Library District board trustees would each consider approval of that so there's lots of time to still um gather feedback from the community on the terms that would be reflected in the IGA and will there be like listening sessions or is that to be deter and later like in the hasn't been designed yet but uh I think that's the sort of thing if there's if there's feedback on on what the desire is happy to but we haven't designed that engagement process yet but of course we would want to hear feedback from the

[150:01] community yeah I mean again just the the volume of people who are here tonight indicates to me that there's a lot of interest in in uh us hearing from from the community um okay next is H uh commissioner Levy had asked some questions about accountability and I just want to check in I know that there's um like a report that's that's a couple times a year maybe that would be expected to be filed would that get to to any of those concerns or what's what's in that report and and what could we do with that information it's a financial report and an annual report so the the district uh color of state law requires that the financing report is done to the establishing entities annually and then there's also a requirement for an annual report there's a number of there's a laundry list of of requirements that a library district has to adhere to those are the two big ones that would concern I believe an establishing instance such as city council or a board of County Commissioners okay um let's see and then

[151:03] just one point on an early slide um it was mentioned that in 2019 there were conversations with the city manager and and so the petitioners pulled the uh petition that would have otherwise maybe gone on the ballot in 2019 and you know there's been a lot of questions about like are there other options is this like is this the path we have to go down and my understanding is sort of we we kind of committed to petitioners that we would work kind of with them to get this on the ballot so I just was hoping somebody would know the history there and I I think it would be poor for form for us to say pull it as a city and then not do what we said we would do so I I'm trying to understand if if that would be the scenario we'd be looking at if we were like no let's not do this on second thought yeah Rachel I I appreciate the question and I'll start and then uh look to others to add in anything that I missed and in 2019 my understanding is there were some conversations and a commitment of we're going to have a really serious conversation around Library funding and

[152:01] there was lots of work done around that and lots of conversations and then in February if I recall February of 2020 we had a study session to to build up towards a public hearing that was going to be in March I think of 2020 and then Co happened and we kind of hit the brakes on everything and then in 2021 we resurfaced that conversation and and had that conversation with Council around really the there's two approaches here there's one around continuing to explore a municipal funding model and Municipal governance model and a district funding and District governance model and then Council held a public hearing and gave us direction as staff to proceed down the district RCT governance and funding model um so that was the direction we took that brought us to today's conversation uh and if if resolutions are not approved uh of course we could always go back and and begin the

[153:00] municipal funding conversation again if if folks were interested uh but we are following through on that direction that we received to uh to explore what district funding and District governance would look like that kind of brings us to today so anything I missed team I think that that's a good summary I'm jealous that you're sitting there with the team it's so it's so isolating um okay one last question and this is sort of um my like attorney Boogeyman worst case scenario brain at work here but um commissioner Levy said something about you know in in the time since we started looking at this our assessed property values have gone up or property values have gone up 16% is there a scenario where like something you like could a library become too extravagantly funded under a a certain M Levy and what would be the remedy for that if it happened I'm sure that that is not likely to happen and again it's

[154:02] it's a an outlier scenario but just to Think Through um you know if my property value quadrupled this year and and we were we had a A M Levy set at a certain rate what would become of of sort of what What scenario would that lead to and are there safeguards we could bu so it's a fair question right and it I can confirm that it is very rarely happened where it has happened on a couple of occasions has been around oil and gas money so the boom and bus cycles of oil and gas um there are at least two instances where District Libraries received far excess Revenue than they imagined they just didn't collect next year so they can they can either set up for a refund for that year which their County felt was uh honorous on um staff time or just the following year they chose not to collect the tax so that has happened in two libraries in Colorado

[155:00] that I'm aware of um would it be I'm not sure where it's okay is there is there language one could add to the IG that would sort of buffer against that extravagance scenario like you know if property value rates escalate x and x time period Then you know we we drop to a different M Levy or something like that I don't think so I you know from our conversations with um Library District Council it kind of sounds like the decisions on on you know once the library district formed once it's formed that's part of the fiduciary responsibilities of the Board of Trustees so I think that you know the real where you would really get into the um where where does oversight happen it probably happens a lot in who you're um Putting On The Board of Trustees that's that's where your control is all right thanks those are all my questions than Rachel and I'll note that

[156:02] council member Bob Yates has joined us welcome Bob okay Matt Jones good evening everybody unfortunately we don't have a bunch of oil and gas in this area I'm happy about that um so we will have that stage tax problem but um uh it's fun this is actually kind of fun I've never done this before so it's good to see all of you in the meeting here and for the public to wait for us I apologize it's taking a while we're all learning about this uh first I wanted to say I like libraries I think everybody does here my mother didn't tell me to say that she would have I guarantee you um but you know the boulder library has been really generous through time they've allowed people to check out materials that don't live in the city uh and get carts and do all that so I just want to say that and uh I just want be honest I I haven't decided where I'm going to vote on this um I wanted to understand it it's unusual it's an unusual kind of setup

[157:01] and here from residents uh both Incorporated and an incorporated through the emails and tonight so thanks for everybody for testifying um and the County's role uh is driven by Colorado law uh it's very explicit uh what we do uh and it's not the proponents of this it's just we're asked to come in and weigh in on this because we're elected representatives of the folks in the district both in the city and un Incorporated areas so we're required to vote on that and what I learned along there and this has been said a couple times tonight it's really easy to put this on the ballot 100 signatures um so it's it's kind of funny like what would you want the perfect thing to be it would be what do you think is important that's in so that it doesn't go to signatures kind of thing so it's a little different that way as well um and so um I I looked at the statute that sets us up to 2490 108 and uh look through

[158:03] what could be in a resolution and there it says you shall put in a mill Levy you shall put it it doesn't say anything about what you can't put in there so I would like I'm curious from staff um if we were to for instance in this resolution which I think what should be in it uh say that uh the members of the governing body will be appointed by the council and Commissioners I know that might be in the IGA later negotiation but I think it's a really important concept because you know the idea of tax leers and without representation you you have elected officials looking over the taxing matters in a jurisdiction and these folk could appoint themselves the Board of Trustees could point the future Board of Trustees and in fact they do in some districts and I think that's a problem the next

[159:00] best thing to being elected is having a appointed by the boards so there's nothing in law that restricts us from um requiring that that uh the Commission in the in the city County Commissioners and city council appoint Representatives I don't think so I there's two approaches in the statute you you identified both of them so I I don't I wouldn't see a problem with that yeah and it's pretty easy to effectuate too you just take uh item number seven and you just use the same exact words that after members you put appointed by Boulder City Count Council and the Boulder County Commission so it' be easy to do um and I just think it's important to do too um uh to uh the boundaries um I've brought up the Marshall fire survivors I live in lville I feel extraordinarily

[160:02] lucky just have to replace insulation in our attic and clean up Ash um and this community and unincorporated areas near we're going through a lot of trauma and um there's a real problem with thur and being able to build people's houses back you might you might know about I'm sure you know about actually um and so I've wondered about adding a property tax to people who are in that situation and the District boundary uh solution was uh an option it's basically removing one Precinct um and in Jamestown the precinct was removed about the same size 1% because they hadn't been talked to have we talked to the fire survivors about including them we have in the engagement a lot of the engagement uh up leading up to this conversation happened pre Marshal fire

[161:01] uh I think you know there have been various emails that community members have submitted uh to the council and to the Commissioners and including a if I go from recollection some from that area but has there been a specific engagement process with the properties impacted by the Marshall fire uh on this exact topic no okay and earlier in your study session um it was mentioned maybe we could do a rebate and have a more temporary solution and I've recently learned that you cannot do rebates is that correct the library district cannot okay so the the solution for these folks is to exclude that Precinct basically I just make make note of that uh and this also uh allows for three bites at the Apple if you will three elections in a r do you know of any other setup that allows three election

[162:01] votes If instead of just doing one and seeing if it's yes or no well um the most recent one was uh I think in Lions Colorado their Library District they had three or four bites at the end um in terms of what was in their um resolution at I that's interesting I was guaranteed you know typically you can't find Future legisl legislators and legislative bodies and it's very odd for me to see that um and not it's not binding um bodies this this is just the number of times that the library or the the time period that the Library District Board of Directors has to put on um a Taber measure one year two year three year so it's it's and if they fail it's really a limitation if they fail in whatever time

[163:02] period you set under the terms um the district just dissolves and it goes back to being a plain old Municipal Library and the city would provide services okay so in other words they get one by the Apple but they could do it any one or three years well I think that Lions just said you if you don't have a funding source approved by and there was a date set I believe in the resolution then the district shall result dissolve so it just gave a time period it did not I don't believe that that one specified the number of fites in the Apple it was it was just a date um commissioner and and there there first bite was 2013 right after the flood their ballot lost by a few hundred votes they went back in 2014 after recovery had started and they won on that ballot so that the the the

[164:00] the establishing a date um far out gave them the opportunity to run again in the time when it wasn't um in a November right after September FL okay that that's that's helpful um and this is an unusual process in that one body is voting on it and then the second body votes on what the first body says should happen and doesn't have ability to change that it's a yes or no typically you negotiate these things and then vote to ratify um so what what happens if the council approves something that the Commissioners do not support we have a choice to vote Yes or no or if we vote no in that case is that corre yeah we would be in a stand still and I think to maybe add to that is let's say the the the council approves version a and the Commissioners approved version B depending on the

[165:00] order of who goes first then essentially you you'd want to bring that conversation back around let's say the order is the the council votes tonight the Commissioners vote on Thursday they don't match we would bring that then back to the council to say uh uh are are you in support of changing a few items to match the version of the Commissioners yes or no maybe there's some back and forth or if there is an agreement then it would be a standstill as as David has described where then they're they would not match okay thanks and I Claire covered the affordability issues but I have the same concerns about our property tax race I mean we all get litters to that effect so I just want to put that out there thanks very much right thanks Matt on to other Matt all right um so well thanks staff for for really a great uh presentation and just further clarification of of what we've been discussing now for quite some time and and also pleasure to see

[166:00] all our County Commissioners uh it's great to see you all um hope we can do this in person again but I understand how unique these opportunities uh come or how rare they are um couple clarify couple questions but also some clarifying Ones based of uh things that staff have said and perhaps some of my Council colle in um some of our our County Commissioners um wanted to sort of touch on you know a clarifying point in terms of the maybe the competing interests between the city and the library district um and I I'm sort of want to just really clarify in terms of fiduciary responsibility um is the primary fiduciary responsibility of the city to the library or the overall Financial Health of the city and as such is the primary fiduciary responsibility of the Library District the Financial Health and success of said Library District um I would agree with that statement in terms of the city you know like the city council as our board of directors um has a fiduciary responsibility to running running the

[167:02] organization called the city of Boulder so that's where your primary fiduciary responsibility is um just in terms of developing Revenue sources Services all of the things that we do um every day and the same is true for the library district district and that accept that they would have a much narrower um set of services that they delivered and limited they're limited by Statute the Council of courses has all of the benefits of the home rule amendment in the state constitution I appreciate that so it's probably fair to to say that um in terms of you know which entity has the uh greatest stake or the most most core responsibility to the Financial Health and security of the libraries it would be that of the library district rather than than the city in that sense so the long-term health and stability would be better suited under the guise of perhaps a Library District whose sole fiduciary responsibility is that

[168:02] District yeah that's a value judgment but sure I understand your point thanks David um uh the other one is uh maybe and you know you know I um you know commissioner um Jones brought this up about commonality of this form of governance and I too thought this was also uncommon and and it was it was brought up in a previous um staff uh thing and so I just wanted to maybe ask out here um isn't Library District the most common form of governance for libraries throughout the state of Colorado that correct that is correct that's helpful um so so that gives us a lot of precedent from which to work from in order to think about forming this and and certainly guide our our our you know our process through that which I think is probably quite helpful um and the other question I have is um with regards to um we talked about

[169:02] sort of rebate I think Rachel asked this question of you know if the revenues sort of get way out of whack from the needs of the district and I and I and and and I think as as commissioner Jones brought up rebates are not really allowed certainly maybe for um uh the Marshall fire survivors and that I think there was a point made by David about you could just sort of not take the um the the mill on a particular year could the Board of Trustees go back to the voters at any point and request a lower Mill Levy um and just therefore just change the mill Levy at some point um to maybe re throttle that um be back a little bit more in parody is that also a process to calibrate things and and bring things back to even kill yes and I don't think that they would even have to go to the voters so typically under taper it sets the upper limit of Taxation um and the legislative body has the authority to tax at a rate that's lower than that

[170:02] so okay so to clarify the Board of Trustees could at any point just say well 3.8 is getting us 50 million we don't need that we'll just take it down to three just to get us back to closer to our needs and just that they could decide that themselves yes okay um that's helpful um and the other part that I wanted to maybe um touch on is is a point that we've been sort of hearing a lot about in the community which is you know um there's going to be this amount of money roughly about $10 million that the city is going to you know have available uh if should the library district get formed and that there's concerns about this sort of being just duly absorbed into the general fund and I maybe want to clarify this for you know our the County Commissioners is that you know at a previous meeting Council said that we are going to go through a process of actually defining what to do with that money and so I think that's a great opportunity for process for the community to weigh in on what is really transformative investment because as you

[171:01] guys know with budgeting usually when you want to add budget to something you got to take something from someone else but in this instance right that's not going to be the case that's that's an opportunity to do really big things with up to $10 million and so I just want I think want to give you guys the confidence and those listening that the city's going to go through a really good process to try to help Define that obviously we can't dictate future budgets but we're going to stipulate the goals and and really the the areas of need and where we want to invest that money and I think that will be a great place for the community to feel confidence that this money is going to be properly reinvested in the community in ways that are quite transformative um because we're talking about you know substantial amount of money of about $10 million so um I just wanted to sort of clarify that because I think that's important for people to to get out there and and certainly understand um that covers some of my my questions and certainly clarifying so thanks for the opportunity thanks Matt uh Lauren then Mara and then I have one quick question I apologize to all of the people waiting for public comment um I

[172:01] just have a couple quick questions so Marta you kind of touched on this at the beginning um and I just wanted to clarify so if Boulder if the city of Boulder and the Boulder County Commission um put uh support a different boundary or a different Mill Levy how long do we have to come to agreement um if we were going to want to see this on um the 2022 um ballot I would say probably this is a very rough guesstimate um early summer we would we would want to get this done sometime in early summer summer so that U once the District board is seated that they still have time to do a ballot measure um uh for the taper election and Janet if you want to further tighten that yeah I actually think it might it's closer to May um which is when the Board

[173:03] of Trustees has to give notice to the county assessor of their intent to begin collecting property taxes in 2022 so because the Library District Board of Trustees has that deadline we should have it nailed down between the two governing bodies by that deadline that the assessor has imposed and just looking ahead at some of the meetings that city council has I know the agendas are very tight but it looks like we have maybe three opportunities to come back to council um so we could do a little bit of back and forth um if we in order to meet that deadline so that the District Board of Trustees can give notice to the county assessor of its intent to um to begin collecting property taxes thank you um and then I also wanted to touch base on the um you know

[174:01] multiple bytes the Apple question so if we only allowed one um one vote on this IGA and it failed petitioners could still petition the following year to have and we'd be back in the same boat you know the next year to right in basically the room that we're in having the same discussion again and sort of relaying out the rules of the IGA potentially is that true yeah that's correct okay thank you thanks Lauren Mara thank you and thanks to the the for the patience from folks waiting toh participate two pieces I wanted to ask a question and Matt Benjamin brought it up councilman Benjamin brought up the the uh what hadn't been spoken about yet that fiscal impact the 9.2 9.5 somewhere

[175:02] between 9.5 and 10.25 million and um appreciate the Assurance to community that there will be a public process and some discussion and the other question around that is if there's an opportunity and where would it lie if there I it looks like in the analysis and the paperwork and the FAQ questions Etc that there is deferred maintenance that the library is not currently running how um one might want it to be it's certainly not to the vision level that folks are talking about that there are already planned increases in salary or wages for folks to get uh so it sounds like there's number already and I don't want to say it's in the the red I just don't have those numbers but it sounds like there's a deferred amount of Maintenance and and other issues and so I'm just curious about is that an opportunity with that 9.5 On The Low End number and if so

[176:02] where is the commitment to kind of get it get us closer to that current wish list of of Library so that community members would know that it is likely um even in less than a 3.8 mil uh resolution that we would get to a full service expanded meeting everybody's needs that's what I'm seeing on the district the language in there um so I just want I don't know who that question goes to U because I don't know I can't see from my all is at that table I don't know that it's The Davids but who could respond to that yeah Mara I'll uh I'll start this is Chris and I yeah we've zoomed out so our heads are a little small now uh so you can see all of us but um I think you asked a good question and there's a couple pieces to it the I think the the piece that you just ended with is the the work that's been done to

[177:01] sketch out what would a Library District budget look like that would um maintain facilities at the the full level that is kind of the industry accepted state standard for facility maintenance that's what's been built into that budget um and that that was presented to you tonight and so uh if the district is formed and approved by voters then the The District Board of Trustees would be able to make those decisions on allocating the funds but we we've kind of sketched in the the anticipated budget that they would be able to do uh facility maintenance to to catch up on that deferred maintenance and really maintain it at an industry industry standard um and then uh you know depending on exactly what the final disposition of who owns the assets there's a a bit of a conversation there on on responsibility for maintenance

[178:00] we've assumed that if the district uh is the tenant of those buildings they would be responsible for uh those for that facility maintenance uh and so I just want to pause there and make sure is did that kind of address what your question was or is there a piece on the earlier part that I missed does somebody have an actual number of what the kind of annual cost is where where where is the gap right now in current funding to run a the library where it should be ran to have the salaries that are being um potentially requested it sounds like there's some numbers formulated like that would helpful from a transparency standpoint yeah so there there are numbers associated with each one of the items so you know we have priced out what it cost to run a gun barrel Branch what it cost to run an outreach program what it cost to do facilities maintenance what it would cost to do a staff increase all of those are components of a a financial document which projects the cost of the district

[179:00] the difference between where we are currently funded now which is roughly $ 13.78 million and the projected 20 million is is what the it's that $6 million difference the different the between what the library master plan to fund fully fund the 2018 Library master plan from where we are right now and that that's about a$6 million difference um a large portion of that as Chris pointed out is um maintenance Capital maintenance of facilities okay um oh and I'm sorry I'm looking through my notes Here I will I think what I'll do is just wait until we get through the the public comment thank you thanks Mara uh we got one from Bob now hi folks I'm sorry I'm joining late and I I heard most of your questions but maybe not all of them so I apologize in advance if the questions already been asked and answered but but um

[180:00] commissioner Jones's um question prompted this in my my head it's probably a question for either David gear or Janet Michaels what we're being asked to do I think this week is to council and and commissioner is a former Library District and if if the two bodies do that presumably the library district trustees which would then be pretty quickly appointed would then pose a question to the voters in the fall about a M Levy a new property tax so I I I kind of get all that if for whatever reason these two bodies don't form a Library District this week I understand that um a group of residents can uh get 100 signatures on a petition but my question is is what would that petition ask for because I I don't think it would automatically form a district I think it would ask the voters the question shall a district be formed and that would go on the November Val is that correct lawyers that's correct yes and I know that like with uh Fort the Fort Collins Library District was formed that way and

[181:03] the way that they structured the uh the question it was shall the district be formed and then they integrated their Taber question into into that bot question sure so they could they could combine it they could either say should there be a district and leave it at that question later or they could ask both questions at the same time is that right yeah that's what they yeah so I I just wanted to make sure I was clear on that so it's not as if if if the district isn't formed this week then 100 people can just simply form a District 100 people can put a question on the ballot to ask the voters whether the district should be formed is that correct that's correct great thanks I appreciate good yeah and they would have to go through the accounting process of giving the petition certified and all those election Parts yeah and this is this is Janet Michaels you might not have um heard the conversation but there is an opportunity if the Commissioners and the

[182:02] council do not land on the same um res uh conditions for the resolution that there is a window of opportunity for us to do a little bit of back and forth so you know the Commissioners come back with the council takes some action tonight and the Commissioners do something differently then we could come back to council um before the end of May um which is when we have to when the library district has to give notice to the county assessor that they're going to start taxing the properties so there's a little bit of it doesn't have to be this week but it has to be um within the next several weeks great thanks J that's really helpful because I I I I would very much value the wisdom of the Commissioners and I wouldn't want them to be stuck with whatever binary decision that that we might make tonight I'd love to hear what they have to say on Thursday and if if it's slightly different I'd love for that to come back to council so thank you for that Janet that's all I have

[183:00] Erin thanks Bob right one quick question for me and we'll move on to public comment and my question is you were talking about notifying the assessor office if let's say a Taber measure passed this November in 2022 What would the first year that residents of the district would be paying the additional mill rate 2023 and I believe that those I believe those assessments start coming in if I remember from Finance correctly in the first quarter of of 2023 okay so it would start right next year thanks for that all right so I think we're done with questions we will uh be able to ask a handful of additional ones after public testimony if we would like but uh let's go ahead and move to the public hearing here we do have well over 100 people signed up so really appreciate everyone being here and excited to share your thoughts on the library district question uh I am uh going to be pretty strict about the time so the two minutes timer will when that

[184:02] runs out I'm going to thank you for your testimony and and move us on and just to note that um you do not necessarily have to use your full two minutes if you've heard some uh similar thoughts from other folks in the past you can ditto those if you would like um and and then relinquish some of your time but you're also very welcome to use the full T minutes we're very interested in hearing what you have to say so Ryan do you want to bring us into that absolutely thank you and thank you all so much for being here to share your perspectives and your experience this evening um we'll have two minutes as as the mayor mentioned and Emily do you want to go ahead and pull up our meeting rules please we'll go through and and cover those before we open public comment hi Ryan yes I am bringing them

[185:02] up for you just one moment wonderful thank you all right thank you again for being here this evening we want you to know that the city has engaged with Queen members to co-create a vision for productive meaningful and inclusive Civic conversations this Vision supports physical and emotional safety for community members staff and Council as well as democracy for people of all ages identities lived experience and political perspectives next slide please I want to make sure that everyone is clear uh on rules of decorum uh that will be in place for this evening and that support this Vision uh these include all remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to City

[186:01] business no participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person obscenity racial EPs and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the ability to the meeting are prohibited and participants are required to sign up using uh their name they're commonly known by uh display their whole name and audio testimony uh will be allowed this evening thank you and we can turn to our first participant thanks for that Ryan all right first three Barbara cant Timothy Williams Eric noodleman oh can can you hear me yes oh good my name is Barbara quason I'm a senior citizen who loves living in Boulder and who strongly supports the creation of a boulder Library District even though I live on a fixed income I wholeheartedly support the district

[187:00] concept because I understand from a career at the Smithsonian institution how difficult it is for cultural institutions that are the soul of our cities and Nation to survive much less Thrive it's a heartbreaking truth in American society generally as a senior citizen I believe it is essential for a city like Boulder to have a library system with a truly stable Financial base so that it can take care of its buildings responsibly rehire much-needed staff and reinstate vital Services I personally have deeply appreciated many creative art exhibitions wonderful movies and excellent concerts at Canyon theater in the past and would love to see it open again both of my grandchildren love attending story time at the library and I hope this and other literacy programs can be reinstated and expanded with sustainable funding Boulder Library means a lot because when I first came here six years ago it was a

[188:01] refuge for me and my grandson we walked along beautiful Boulder Creek to the main entrance and first checked out the mesmerizing fish tank and the train that Drew us like a magnet then we spent several hours in the play area tucked among the stacks of enticing books for children where I made friends and so did Daniel it felt like community in conclusion I implore you Commissioners and council members to please vote on this important issue with your hearts especially so all of us can look forward to a Kinder and brighter future thank you thank you Barbara Timothy Williams Eric nlman and Chris barge I'm Tim Williams Gunbarrel resident and incoming president of the boulder Library Foundation I've been fortunate to spend my career working in startups it's rewarding work creating innovative solutions to complex problems using new approaches and new thinking as we've seen at the national level it's much

[189:00] easier to dismantle existing institutions or block progress towards new Solutions so I'm extremely proud of the difficult work those of us supporting the library have done to create something that can solve long-standing budget issues for the library and the City I'm disappointed that some members of council have chosen to adopt the national model of obstruction or obfuscation to attempt to knock that progress down are there areas for debate in the proposed Library District of course but they are exactly the decisions you are making now if you want to keep the buildings great if you want to delineate how Library Board District members are appointed great if you want to come up with your own solution for reopening the Carnegie branch and the canyon theater restoring service hours at other branches clearing the maintenance backlogs for all the buildings fully funding construction and Staffing for the voter approved North Boulder branch and opening and Staffing branches in gumb barrel and NAA great but so far all I've heard are the same deflect and Confused style arguments we see at the national level that don't propose Solutions but instead fuel

[190:01] resentment and divisions without any ideas of how to actually solve the fundamental problems so for those of you intending to vote no I want to hear your Alternatives as president of the boulder Library Foundation I vow to work with you to explore any viable solution that addresses all the issues noted but as of right now after years and years of debate and negotiation this district is the Only Solution on the table and polling shows it has strong public support I implore you to vote Yes for the for formation of the district and allow the voters to decide whether they will quote notice the difference and whether it's worth the investment after all you get what you pay for and I'm willing to bet the voters are informed enough to weigh that equation for themselves thank you thank you Tim Eric nlman Chris bar and Rebecca De Michelle hello I'm Eric nlman from Iris Avenue in North Boulder moving here

[191:00] seven years ago I'm quite active in the community and I strongly support the creation of a boulder Library District I attend the building 61 maker space twice weekly for for the past four years it's Cutting Edge and allows for Community Building creating recycling repurposing building and it's a ton of fun I've worked on over 75 projects that range from Home Improvement Garden gardening beekeeping and of course personalized holiday gifts the maker space is grossly underfunded it's amazing what the two and a half staff does with what they're given with proper funding it could graduate from the current three days a week to a full seven and impact many more people where else in the world can we have free access to 3D printers laser cutters a CNC machine a full wood Workshop an Electronics lab and expert advice if you can describe it you can

[192:00] build it however it needs a ton more funding to keep it open and to connect with many more community members Commissioners city council please please please create a Library District to keep this space and other spaces open and accessible thank you thank you Eric uh now we have Chris barge Rebecca n Michelle and Nicole perilman greetings commissioner and councils uh I'm Chris barge Boulder resident and executive director of Boulder Library Foundation I'm I'm here to ask that you form a library district and allow our generous voters to decide whether to fund it Boulder Public Library has been underfunded for decades there are leaks in the roof Canyon theater has been shut for two years Carnegie is practically closed we are decades late offering Gun Barrel residents a branch they can walk to this

[193:02] proposal is a once in a generation opportunity to put our library on sustainable Financial footing fresh polling indicates seven in 10 likely voters will approve an increase in their property taxes to adequately fund our library if given the opportunity to fall for that reason alone you should put it on the ballot the vast majority who support this proposal understand that libraries are more than the sum of their parts sure they like the idea of longer hours new branches and improved programs but what they really want is a well-funded library that has the bandwidth to transform lives they want our libraries to partner with our schools and nonprofits to improve library and literacy programs for youth seniors and underserved populations they want more funding for more materials like books ebooks music and movies they want safe public spaces for the community to have meetings workshops and programs they want to expand literacy and stem programs and give more access to Wi-Fi for young people seniors and

[194:01] the underserved they want more access to maker spaces where people from all walks of life can use tools and Technologies like 3D printers woodworking tools software and other equipment for Creative projects libraries level the playing field they are based on the fundamental the fundamentally decent concept of sharing let's put this on the ballot and let our generous voters decide whether to share their wealth with others so that we all may benefit for generations to come thank you thank you Chris next we have Rebecca D Michelle Nicole Pearlman and Jenna McAfee hello Council and commissioner I confess when I first heard of the library district proposal I wasn't sure that I would support additional property taxes after all my home in Boulder Junction is already subject to additional Mill levies to support the bad districts and now that I own property in the county as well I'll pay any new taxes

[195:01] twice however it's become clear to me that the library district is the best and most Equitable path forward to providing stable funding for our treasured Library expanding services to our neighbors who drive in from surrounding areas often the only areas where any attainable housing remains and offers an opportunity to fund other City departments and priorities with the general fund dollars that are feed up libraries provide books yes but also internet access classes the maker space and children's activities that give our neighbors opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have the larger debate about giving our library the funding it needs has been going on for 30 years years and it's time to move ahead we can't keep claiming that we love our library and then continue to push off a concrete plan for supporting it it's our duty to independently fund our library against future political changes and economic downturns please support our future through the creation of a Library

[196:00] District that serves everyone regardless of their economic class I yield my time thank you Rebecca now we have Nicole Perlman Jenna maffy and Julie HK hi it's Nicole can you hear me yes great my name is Nicole Pearlman and I live at 5785 Old Stage Road in Boulder County for 40 years the city and the county has had many opportunities to give the library reliable funding and neither the city or the county has done it I can't believe we're having this conversation again and again and again the library has remained chronically underfunded while the population the wealth and the AG demand has grown so I see a pattern where the library keeps getting pushed aside and we're close right now to Breaking that pattern now while I understand cost increases over time let's be honest and say that as Boulder County residents our property taxes gone up 20% in the past decade what have you done with that tax revenue

[197:00] that's tangible for me and for my kid this district is a small increase and I know exactly what I'm going to get for that something for me for my family for the community something I will notice something that is worth it now I wanted to speak briefly about some of the opposition you'll probably hear tonight and these concerns about Rising property taxes this is a danic I am just playing tired of I have kids I care about more than money more than myself I care about our community our kids reading literacy programs community events citizenship classes according to Zillow as of today I own a home in Boulder County worth a million dollars that is unbelievable to me I bought it five years ago for about half of that and honestly I couldn't give less if I have to pay a little more money every month for this public good I did the math on my own property tax and we're talking $517 a week at the highest possible amount and I will say that I spent more on that on a latte this morning at OZO which is probably the most Bolder thing I could actually say I don't represent

[198:00] the majority of County residents I'm extremely privileged this isn't about Rising taxes or city control over the budget this is time to think about our kids our community people other than ourselves it's not time to complain about saving money that you could spend on a Latte when you have a million doll or a multi-million doll home people like me are the majority of Boulder County residents not necessarily people in my financial situation but people who care about kids Community sorry your time is up but thank you so much for your testimony next we have Jenna mcaffe Julia Hank and Ellie Goldberg hi this is Jenna McAfee and I live in Eldorado Canyon in unincorp opor at Boulder County um I'm speaking tonight in favor of a Library District we lived in the city for about 30 years and used the library a lot when my kids were young in 2017 well after we moved to the county um I continued to use the

[199:00] library for meeting spaces and as a community resource because I was working with immigrants and others who needed a free welcoming space this is like public radio or open space a library is a Community Asset that we all need to pay for we easily approve ballot issues for more open space taxes let's do it for libraries thank you thank you Jenna next Julia Hank then Ellie Goldberg and Jennifer y hi my name is Julia hanky I am the proud homeowner in unincorporated area of gumb barrel I support the formation of a library district and the expansion of services into the garel area my family currently utilizes a library for accessing diverse reading materials I also believe in the value of Library

[200:01] access to all individuals and its foundational importance to our community we should put our money to support this vital asset and ensure its long-term funding by the creation of a Library District I personally have been involved in this topic for 5 years and spoke in public testimony last year to city council let's not waste more time now is the time to move forward I urge both the Boulder City Council Members and my Boulder County Commissioners to vote in support of the library district formation and to set the M Levy to fully fund the vision of a gumb barrel Branch thank you for your time thank you Julia next Ellie Goldberg and Jennifer he and Eric Bud hi my name is Ellie Goldberg and I live in Martin acres in South Boulder and I'm speaking tonight in support of the boulder Library District as a reading teacher and mother to two

[201:00] Elementary School students I use the library on a near daily basis just yesterday I met with a new student who needs to build better reading habits her eyes lit up as we walked through getting her very own library card PR book list online and placed holds the book collection at the Boulder Public Library really does Open the Eyes hearts and minds of kids raising readers raising strong readers benefits our entire community and we cannot do it without the incredible Library System I support a Library District because I'd like to see expanded Partnerships with schools and nonprofits to improve library and literacy programs for youth we know the pandemic led to seemingly insurmountable learning loss particularly for K3 students and literacy and we need to get creative as a community to help address the gaps in our kids learning reliably funding our library system can be of great value in this endeavor I'd also like to see the boulder reads program reactivated and Staffing levels restored so that the library can continue helping adults in our community build literacy skills I

[202:00] urge city council and the County Commissioners to work to create a library district and so we can vote on sustainable funding this fall thank you thank you Ellie now we have Jen for ye then Eric bud and Andrew Harris good evening everyone um thank you to the city council and County Commissioners for the opportunity to speak tonight um my name is Jennifer Y and I am a resident of unincorporated Boulder County uh Google Maps tells me I live about 305 feet inside the northern boundary of the proposed Library districts um I'm also a small business owner and investor along with my husband I own the waxing the city Boulder Studio on 28th Street um I am speaking tonight to share my support as well for the creation of the boulder Library District I have two young children who are seven and four and who have spent their whole lives in Boulder the public library has been a central part of our family's experience in Boulder including story times public programs on race and

[203:01] climate change and the rest bit the library provides on the rare few days the weather isn't perfect here um I only recently came to understand that at this time I am a library card holder that currently benefits from a source of funding that I do not pay into um I want to be a good corporate Citizen and contribute to the sustainability and the growth of the library and its services um as a business person and entrepreneur I also see a lot of benefit in to the city of freeing up funds to allocate to other impactful projects um as mentioned by councilman Benjamin and others earlier tonight I'm most excited about the new branches that could be be closer to my home including the one in North Boulder satellite branches in Gun Barrel in nyatt um as well as expanded and Equitable access to library services for all Boulder residents um I urge city council and County Commissioners to continue this work to create a Library District so we can vote on sustainable funding this fall thank you very

[204:01] much thank you Jennifer next Eric Bud then Andrew Harris and Henry k um thank you Council and Commissioners I'm also speaking in support of the library district and I would I really appreciate hearing all the dialogue tonight about um how these are managed um but the reality is that the library districts are um enabled in state law and they've been done over 50 times in Colorado and what we're doing here is not new but what really what we're doing is we're giving permanent sustainable funding for for public spaces and places that anyone can go and anyone can uh learn and they they can take their children to and these are places that you know are not these are accessible and they're they're affordable because they're free we provide them as a community we pay for that and so you know some people say well I don't know what libraries are going to look like decades from now and that sort of thing

[205:00] and and I say like we're preserving our public spaces we're investing in them and right now what I what I've seen during the pandemic is I've seen that we've don't have these um permanent funding stable funding sources and so what we have is the services that are not available um the canyon theater being closed the the Carnegie Library is is largely unavailable and we can solve this this is really not a novel concept this is just doing what is in the best interests of our whole community and so I'm asking you all to move forward thank you thank you Eric next Andrea Harris then Henry Corin and Lyla hick he you folks thanks for the introduction I'm a six-year resident of Boulder now living in Gun Barrel who's experienced the city both as a graduate student at CU and now as one of those resident phds

[206:02] that occasionally takes a rock for the sake of a a joke uh but I'm here to speak in support of the library district uh Library symbolize a community commitment to not only learning but to support of its citizens regardless of their means they're one of the few remaining public spaces in which access is not predicated on ability to pay or uh or trying to sell you something one of few spaces that are truly intended for Access by the general public on top of that libraries provide critical access to information and services for everyone in the community providing a rare opportunity for the less fortunate among us to get a leg up and for the more fortunate among us to avoid buying our own laser cutter bowler's library system is clearly intended to uphold these views but has been let down by the funding provided by its Community leaving would should be Stellar facilities like the canyon theater maker space and the carav library closed for unlimited hours in addition as a gun barrel resident my access to Boulder's library system is heavily predicated on

[207:02] my ability to drive into town with all the costs and extra alties involved I'm convinced that the formation of a Library District to separate Library funding from City finances can help address both of these problems I urge Council and the County Commissioners to work towards creating a liary district to safeguard and expand this critical community resource H thank you I yield my time thank you Andrew next we have Henry Corin Layla hickey and Sarah Don Hayes my name is Henry Corin I live in Table Mesa I moved here 13 years ago I first lived in unincorporated bowler County where I rented an apartment provided by Boulder housing Partners my wife and I walked our two baby girls from our affordable Boulder housing Partners apartment at people's Crossing to the downtown library at the library my kids would hear their very first musical Story Time my wife and I saw the library staff modeling the behavior we as parents would go on to emulate as we had not yet moved into the

[208:01] city we paid nothing for the amazing library that changed our lives the good people of gun barel and iwatt deserve the same opportunity my family had which is only possible by the creation of the Library District my Boulder business has grown to employ almost 30 people there exists a pipeline of developing Bright Young citizens that starts with the library and continues on to bbsd CU and eventually into the workplace when it comes to hiring finding workers who already live here enables my company to grow without further exacerbating our housing crisis my company is happy to pay an additional tax to invest in our community by funding the creation of a Library District as a citizen I recognize that funding is a limiting factor that prevents us from achieving a multitude of worthwhile objectives funds freed up by the creation of Library District can help be directed towards addressing ambitious transportation and housing priorities that will enable us to fully actualize our potential thank

[209:04] you sorry my uh Zoom freaked out there for a second uh next thank you Henry next we have lla Sarah Don Haynes and Jean Hayworth Council Commissioners and staff thank you for your time this evening my name is Layla hickey I live in Boulder and I'm here to express my enthusiastic support for a boulder Library District as a child I consumed books at a rate that would literally have bankrupted my parents if they had to purchase every book I read they actually would have had to choose between food and books but access to Library made me who I am today and is fundamental to my ability to thrive in our increasingly complicated Society no one should have to choose between books and food nor struggle with whether they have time to drive into Boulder from Gun Barrel to reach the nearest Branch or whether they can make

[210:00] it to the library before it closes because of reduced hours Let's create a library district and guarantee stable funding for the future of one of our most fundamental yet fun Fally overlooked Services thank you thank you L now Sarah Don Haynes then Jean Hayworth and Gary erling hi everyone my name is Sarah Don hayn I'm a resident of South Boulder and Henry who spoke a few minutes ago um neighbor he's great thanks Henry I am thinking about my two good friends who work for Boulder Public Library almost 20 years ago and couldn't afford to stay on the wages they were making one went off to Du and one worked in Denver public libraries and they they both still do and they're both they have ties um to our community and come and visit and I think it's really sad that we

[211:02] couldn't keep them here I think about the 100 job openings that we've had in the city staff and that we should take care of our our city staff and doing this would do that as well as take care of our community it's a win-win um I'm really excited for all things that I've learned tonight that have just reinforced what I first thought three years ago in 2019 when Library Champions started to bring this to the table and to community events and engage us um so I hope we find the commissioners and the council support thank you thank teron next Jean Hayworth and Gary earling and Kate

[212:06] McQuade Jean your mic is open you'll just need to unmute yourself can you hear me now yes I'm sorry thank you uh good evening my name is Jee Hayworth I'd like to thank mayor Brockett the city council and the Baldi counter Commissioners and staff for this opportunity to express my thoughts on the proposed Boulder Library District I'm also very grateful to have a chance to hear comments from my other community members in the public forum I'm a resident a homeowner and also a small business owner in N I own inber books a small bookstore here in town many of my customers have asked me whether I'm worried that a library would compete with my business I believe a library would only reinforce the value of books and access to information and lla fortunately thanks to libraries you don't have to choose between books and food I certainly understand the tax ramifications of creating a library district for a homeowner and for a business owner that I believe the

[213:00] benefits to the community offset these tax implications I was also a librarian for over 20 years and I support this proposal for a variety of reasons first I believe a Library District would provide a dedicated funding source to create a system that meets the needs of all residents including the Latin Community economically disadvantaged residents families and seniors I know there's no guarantee that if this initiative passes we'll get a library here in nwat my understanding is that we would need to petition the Board of Trustees but what I'd really like to see here is a full service Branch library in iwatt rather than a corner Library an iwatt Branch Library would offer additional and expanded free public spaces for the Community to have meetings uh workshops and programs which is something we currently lack also the total minority enrollment in iwatt high school is 41% and 23% of the students are economically disadvantaged the high school has a good library but a public library would greatly enrich those students educational opportunities I do have I do have to say

[214:00] there's one thing about the proposal that disappoints me I'd like to see some mechanism put into place that would guarantee that all the communities within the district boundaries have representation on the board of P and I hope that if the proposal passes the Commissioners will keep this in mind when appointing the trustees I urge the city council and C County Commissioners to work to create a Library District so the public can vote on this proposal in the fall thank you Jean next Gary erling then Kate mcade and Neil Anderson we do have uh Gary on the line Gary I'm hoping you can unmute yourself and let us know know your full name I think I just unmuted my name's Gary Gary erling and I'm opposed to the library district as it's defined I would have no issue if we had well I would be a big supporter of a countywide Library

[215:03] District equally funded across the whole County and equally representing the whole County the reason Boulder has a poor library has nothing to do with the taxpayers being willing to pay for a library it has a problem with our councils having other priorities I also have a problem because in Boulder we have kind of a unique situation that most other County cities don't have our larger property owners are tax exempt the see pay no property tax the boulder housing Partners pays no property tax there are several homeowners who own properties that are the underneath property is owned by the city so they pay 40% or more of the count or the city are

[216:04] renters they don't feel they pay and two of our city repres representative City Council Members either work for CU and one of them actually lives on CU property which would be exempt so their employee or their employer and their clients are exempt from paying property taxes that's not fair everybody should pay for a library I go to library in Longmont I see how Longmont takes care of their Library I come to Boulder in the library is not even safe so I'm I'm through just I wish the County Commissioners thank you for your testimony okay next um we have Kate McQuade then Neil Anderson and Rosie fivan hi I'm Kate mcve and I live on

[217:02] Martin Drive in South Boulder I love our library for all the different things it provides me but I also like taking my graduate students there teach Museum studies at CU and why take future Museum workers to a public library because I hope they'll make museums better at serving their communities so we take a field trip to the library downtown as an example of how an institution can improve people's lives while we're there I explain how there's not a single place in Boulder where I feel more like I live in a diverse Community it's a great feeling I don't feel it on campus at the grocery store or on hiking trails I'm grateful there's a place in Boulder where everyone comes together our library is not just a value added enhancement to Boulder City and County it is a consequential part of our community's health this isn't just me talking researchers and analysts studying American society are pointing it out Deborah Fallows for instance

[218:00] she's been studying us communities since 2013 and she calls public libraries quote the most heartening story I've witnessed of American resilience end quot over and over she's seen libraries serve as what she calls second responders helping their communities return to normaly after hurricanes floods shootings and fires so our library is among our most crucial institutions but as a line item in the city's budget its funding is vulnerable when the money gets tight like this moment right now please take the steps in front of you to stabilize this community resource thank you so much for your Marathon of attention thank you Kate next we have Neil Anderson then Rosie fivian and Rachel Dy yes good evening this is Neil Anderson I'm a 30-year resident of nwat um I am also a prior president of the Ana Community Association and a

[219:02] member of the Boulder County Planning Commission uh I am not in support of this district for a variety of different reasons uh I am a holder of a boulder library card which I have not used in 15 years simple reason is I go to Longmont Longmont has all the services I need it is short closer I don't have to fight through Boulder traffic um and the parking is ample and free so the real question here is is this process Democratic and are the voters in Boulder unincorporated Boulder County likely to be fairly represented there are 20 times more voters in Boulder than there are in IA so if the district is formed as currently with the current boundaries the reality is that whatever however we vote in nwat will have no influence on the result of this election you know the voters in Boulder will determine whether the residents in nwat

[220:00] pay a tax and that's fundamentally what I think is VI wrong with this whole process furthermore since we all I think most of us in I tend to use the Longmont Library if we going to use a library including us in the boulder Library District deprives the Longmont Library of future pres participation in what is likely to be a district there so I would support a Library District of nwat being Incorporated within the Longmont Library but I don't think it's appropriate to incorporate it within Boulder at this point in time thank you thank you Neil I'm just going to make a note uh some some of our speakers coming up are not present I'll just note David Martis Nathan Schneider honor Bernett and Lisa Seaman are not present if you all um show up later if you're listening um let us know and we can get you in later in in the sequence okay uh now we have Rosie fivian Rachel Daly and Amanda

[221:01] graier hi there my name is Rosie fivian I live in Boulders table Mason neighborhood but have also lived in Gun Barrel and work with clients in I own two small businesses in the city of Boulder and I'm a homeowner I strongly support creating a Library District this vote is so important for the future of the county earlier tonight I voted for Joon muus at cd2 assembly he received 100% of the votes that's something I hope most of us can agree on here Joe said fear is contagious but so is hope this is such a beautiful sentiment and I hope we can think about these words tonight as there have been a lot of outrageous fear-mongering claims around this issue and overblown claims of huge tax increases which are in reality less than a primer and Netflix subscription and we have some of the lowest property taxes Nationwide I've done the math using my 2022 property tax statement and the library district would cost my household

[222:02] $17.68 a month with two incomes and two Library users it amounts to 8.84 per person a house of four would be paying $442 per Patron using the same Figures it's well worth it because of the value that the library provides to everyone Colorado is number 45 out of 50 in the US in terms of property taxes according to the US Census Bureau and the county is around number 35 every 15minute neighborhood needs a library including North Boulder nwat and gun Barrow it completes a neighborhood and provides value to so many of us Library build community bring people together and they continue to evolve and Spark creativity thank you thank you Rosie next we have Rachel Daly Amanda grak and Lauren lattes hi my name is Rachel Daly um I'm

[223:02] a mom of two school age kids I'm also a small business owner and I live in gun barl I'm speaking once again to support the cre creation of a boulder Library District I love Boulder's existing libraries but it would be great to have some more accessible branches for folks who live in unincorporated Boulder County and outside of Boulder proper libraries are for everyone and supporting a library district is one way to make real progress towards inclusivity and equity in Boulder County I love hearing all the enthusiastic voices tonight highlighting the amazing services our libraries offer um C members and Commissioners if it's been a minute since you've been to the library please take the time to visit one soon so you can experience the magic and feel the community thank you thank you Rachel youel next we have Amanda gak honor Bernett and Lauren

[224:03] lattes hello can you hear me yes hello my name is Amanda grak I am a boulder resident and I would like to speak in support of the creation of a new Library District um I wanted to reread to you some of the crucial benefits of the library district as published on the boulder Library website uh because I know we've had a long meeting um they would address facility maintenance backlog restore Library hours to pre pandemic levels reopen Carnegie Library for local history with adequate staff reopen Canyon theater with adequate staff rehire staff for Boulder reads program and expand program rehire staff for building 61 maker space and resume Services fully fund the North Boulder Library open Gun Barrel branch open nyatt branch and create an early literacy outreach program for latinx youth um in my opinion libraries are some of the best spaces in cities and

[225:00] provide numerous resources to Residents they are one of the last spaces in our in our society where people can exist without the expectation of spending money um we really need to prioritize helping libraries recover from the economic impacts of the covid pandemic um some additional benefits of public libraries in general include access to health information for instance according to a study by The Institute of Museum and Library Sciences 59% of libraries help patrons find health insurance resources 18% bring in healthc care providers to offer free limited screening services and 23% provide free Fitness classes um libraries also offer free educational resources to everyone they are safe refugees for the homeless and underserved populations they help boost local economies they play an important role in English language learning um they make communities healthier um provide important business resources especially for local businesses and

[226:00] lastly at a time when book Banning is on the rise supporting libraries and free access to books and information should be a priority for the city of Boulder thank you thank you Amanda next we have honor Bernett Lauren lattes and Nathan Schneider hello my name is Anora Bernett I live at 10009 Lincoln Street and I am speaking up tonight to share my support for the creation of the boulder Library District I was born and raised in Boulder and I spent a large chunk of my childhood checking out every Nancy Drew book I could from the main library I'm now a local pediatrician and I serve Children and Families from all socioeconomic spectrums it's my firm belief that libraries form the Cornerstone of early literacy as a pediatrician it is a magical thing to tell families many of whom struggle financially during the pandemic that their children can get a new book every week or even every day as a parent I love watching my children learn about the world from the books we check out no matter the age background or language

[227:01] the boulder Library offers a safe place for learning study and conversation books are a powerful tool for social justice and good for this community I would like to see expanded Partnerships with schools and nonprofits to improve literacy and literacy programs for youth seniors and the underserved many of whom struggle during this pandemic I know this expansion might come with the cost of increased taxes and as a local taxpayer I support this I urge you all to work to create a Library District so we can vote on sustainable funding this fall thank you thank you Nora uh next Lauren lattes Nathan Schneider and Philip augen hello my name is Lauren ltis I've lived in the city of Boulder for over 30 years and I'd like to share with you why I strongly support creating a Library District I have so many reasons to love

[228:00] our libraries um I've raised my now adult three kids going to story times checking out books um program especially shout out to summer reading programs um I personally check out more than a book a week but tonight I want to talk to you and share my perspective as a Boulder Public School librarian at Whittier Elementary our public libraries are vital in the work we need to do as a community around diversity equity and inclusion specifically they help all of our students and they don't even have to have a library card we now have the student one card which is a collaboration between Boulder Valley School schools and Boulder Public Libraries where students can access All Digital resources using their school ID number the reality of our school district is that some schools can fund raise for student resources research databases books While others cannot this is one example of many where Boulder Public Library is helping to level the

[229:00] field by giving access to high quality materials to all these supports need to continue even and especially during times of economic hardship there are so many important reasons that the majority of public libraries in the state have formed Library districts to govern and fund their libraries it is time we join them thank you thank you Lauren and I'll just note uh we do not see Jason Bush Bill moose or Richard Russell let us know if you are in fact here we mistaken okay uh now we have Nathan Schneider Philip Ogen and Thomas [Music] Meer hello I'm Nathan Schneider I'm a professor of media studies at CU Boulder as well as a parent of two kids who love the library and a homeowner in the city um it's striking that the library is

[230:01] funded you know under current conditions by necessity at a moment when misinformation and disinformation spiking in our communities and and across the country um this is uh reflective of a much broader problem and a need to invest in the future of the information ecosystem and to me that's a big part of what's at stck here um research that I others have been involved in doing for for years now have demonstrated that you know our problems with misinformation don't just come down to a business model or or a set of regulations that need to change but really a need for public investment a need to ensure that we as a community as a public um uh set a bar for the kind of information that we want to make sure to provide to each other and ensure that that's available at no cost to anybody regardless of their circumstances to ensure that people can find the best information possible in a world full of

[231:02] complex issues uh that can often be confusing and and difficult to through libraries are an essential Commons and we need to set up a structure that ensures that they are prioritized and stable especially in the times of most urgent need um and our deepest crisis so I think these last few years have indicated how important it is to ensure that we're supporting our libraries in a stable way that will be resistant to any shocks that come to us in the future thank you thank you Nathan next Philip ogan then Thomas Meyer and Market Clinton hello my name is Philip Ogen and I rent a house in Boulder near Baseline in Foothills and I support the creation of a Library District I welcome a new districtwide property tax and will gladly do my part with civic pride to help fund the important work of supporting a world-class Library System

[232:02] I feel fortunate to live in a community that has the economic resources and the social capital to pull this C together and I want to thank all the organizers who have worked to put this proposal together and I look forward to voting yes on this in November I am confident this will be a wildly popular ballot measure and that the resulting library system will do much good in our community thank you for your time thank you philli next we have Thomas Meyer then Margaret Clinton and Holly Carlson hi there can you hear me yes hi uh my name is Tom Meyer I am calling in to give my full support for the creation of a h District my wife hope and I live in unincorporated gum barel just east of 75 75th Street we moved here uh from Austin Texas in December 2019 and so many folks that we met here in Boulder have welcomed us with open arms and I've heard many of those voices many of those

[233:00] familiar voices on this call tonight why do I support this Library District uh in the United States right now there are twin very problematic troubling Rising Tides the first is social and income inequality and the second is a prevalence of very loud voices spreading misinformation and disinformation both of these tides are highly damaging to our democracy and our society and a fully funded Library can help roll back both of those Tides thank you so much I yield my time thanks very much Tom next Margaret Clinton Holly Carlson and Joan Sullivan I'm Margaret Clinton can you hear me yes thanks um I'm a single mom living in unincorporated Gun Barrel libraries have played an important role in my parenting

[234:01] for both my child and myself the world and its people and communities are better because of libraries solidifying boulders libraries or the library district will be good for all of us even if we never visit or use the services of a library connected and informed communities and individuals are better able to contribute to a democracy and construct a fair and just world when my son and I lived in North Boulder we frequented the noo Corner library and our reading dropped off dramatically when it closed during during the pandemic now that we live in Gunbarrel we miss the convenient access especially since I don't even drive it to town for work anymore aside from fiction and non-fiction books we have particularly appreciated access to Consumer Reports ebooks the you Fixit clinic and the teen room I am even more appreciative of the resources it offers families who have less resources at home than we do I'm a homeowner and I'm happy to contribute a couple of1 a year for this purpose thank

[235:01] you thank you Margaret next we have Holly Carlson Joan Sullivan and Sharon cing hi my name is Holly Carlson and I am a resident in your affordable housing here in Boulder Colorado in north central Boulder Colorado particularly Depot Square we are a crime Hub we have one of the highest crime rates here currently in north central Boulder um and we have one of the highest police activity complexes here in North Central Boulder I also cannot take my two children in as I'm a single mom and also getting my master's degree to the library in Offa Canyon because a it's not affordable I have to pay for parking if there is parking and also it's habited by unhoused individuals and a lot of them are suffering from mental health and drug addiction I cannot take my son to the playground as we have found many

[236:00] needles in that sand over by the playground I do not think we need any more taxes when the taxes that are already being asked of us through sugar tax plastic bag tax Etc don't seem to be putting any help into our city as our city is being swallowed up by the crime and theft issues currently going on in Boulder with the encampments surrounding both the library and this and the surrounding areas I am not in favor of this tax and I do hope that you vote no thank you thank you Holly next we have Joan Sullivan then Sharon cing and James Ruger hi um can you hear me yes yes we can hear you Joanne would you please confirm your last name oh yes my name is Joanne Sullivan and I live in North Boulder um I just wanted to voice my support for the formation of the library district it's a matter of priority and a district

[237:00] is AI is my priority and here a few reasons why pre- pandemic Library story time and the playground was a great Gathering Place for my two daughters and me I made many many supportive friendships with other new moms and their kids and many of these friendships have become our family and we still meet at the library and the playground during the pandemic the library was an essential resource for the homeschooling curriculums I was using with my daughters and books just soothe my kids we borrowed 40 plus books every two weeks um and currently my eight-year-old School um does not have a dedicated in school library it relies on the Boulder Public Library to supplement their classroom libraries very useful um and there are so many more meaningful experiences I could share but um I I would gladly contribute the equivalent of eating breakfast out by myself once a month in order to fund

[238:00] a Library District which would provide more access and services to more households in the city of Boulder and Boulder County and just a reminder that tonight's vote isn't about approving any tax it's about moving the district forward to the ballot so that I can vote on it and I would vote yes thank you thank you Joan next Sharon calling Jan shuger and Jud veski what's so funny good evening my name is Sharon Collins and I'm a homeowner on pyute Avenue in nyatt can you hear me yes when I first moved to Boulder nearly 30 years ago one of the first things that I did was get a library card my family and I have used the libraries in Boulder County since our children were toddlers we go to the library usually

[239:00] about once a week and each of my two kids checks out 20 books or more we participated in storytime concerts and events at the canyon theater and many art exhibits over the years I've done the math as others on on this meeting have done and this increase in Mills would be the equivalent cost of our family going out to dinner once and not at an expensive restaurant I am fully willing to pay the cost to support the library district the boulder Library needs a dedicated funding source so we have a system that meets the needs of all residents including seniors families and people with low or fix fixed incomes we talk the talk in Boulder County about trying to promote diversity equity and inclusion and I would assert that libraries are the most inclusive spaces in our community where people from all demographic categories have access to Rich opportunities for learning personal enrichment and enjoyment a library district is a tried

[240:00] and true method of sustainably funding outstanding libraries throughout Colorado the majority of public libraries in the state have elected this form of governance communities as different as peblo and Fort Collins and Colorado Springs and Estus Park have decided that a district is the best way to govern and fund their Library Walter kronite is is quoted as saying whatever the cost of our libraries the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant Nation I think that libraries May the be most may be the most Brilliant Invention of humanity and I strongly support the creation of the boulder Library District thank you you thank you Sharon next we have James Ruger Jud veski and miosa hello this is uh James zuger I've lived in Boulder for 30 years at first all I want to start off I uh read statements by Mr Yates and Mr wallet which I agree

[241:03] to uh on the issues that they rais with the problems of the library dist District but I want to touch another point it's clear from the people that have testified today to the that the library is a very important and should be a PRI prior priority with the city I don't disagree with that but it should be a priority with the city of Boulder in their budget and it should be an essential part of the budget and therefore we want to need a Library District the S the Boulder City budget is projected to be $462 million $300 million in operating budget and 162 million in Capital Improvements clearly there is money in there to take care of the library and that's how it should be funded it shouldn't be funded to a Library District it should be made a priority with the city as an essential

[242:00] part of the city in their funding and instead of allocating money to non-essential uh social engineering programs that money should be straightly allocated to the library also if you're going to put something on the ballot you should reallocate the sugar tax to go to the library because the sugar tax is for education so in short the library should be a priority for the city of Boulder to take care of as an essential uh element of the city's uh responsibility thank you thank you James next Jud veski mihoa and Grant couch hi there J veski here uh my family moved here in 79 been here a while have enjoyed our libraries uh throughout in lots of different configurations during this time I uh James comments I thought

[243:01] were were pretty well spot on there actually um my issue is is less about uh the library setup and uh a distraction from uh much more pressing uh needs that the city has uh today and and frankly when I saw this come up I was just kind of shocked we're we're we're in a crisis with respect to our transient population um open air drug use um and and this this Dynamic we've been dealing with over you know increasingly over the past one two three years and uh I'm just you know my descent is around spending as much time energy and ultimately potentially money on uh a luxury uh in the in the library Arena when we have these Baseline um uh

[244:02] criminal and safety issues at hand so you know Les hard to argue against wonderful uh Library Dynamics in a community that's that's all great um but we've got we've got much greater pressing needs at hand and I'd like us all focused on those our money as well as everyone on this Call's time so that's all I have to say thanks for the time thanks Jen Now miosa Grant couch and William Kramer hi my name is miosa and I live in unincorporated Gun Barrel I support the creation of a Library District because the amount of money I would have to pay as a homeowner is an incredible bargain for what I and the entire Community as well as future Generations would receive in return thank you hey you have the brevity record

[245:02] thank you Miho uh next we have Grant couch William Kramer and Heidi jackal hi there um I'm Grant couch and I've lived in downtown Boulder for 15 years and love it and I want to start by expressing my deep appreciation for the effort that each member of the council and commission put into managing our city and county I know it's big and I thank you I also want to say that I'm a big fan of our current Library System our granddaughters are Avid readers and when they come for sleepovers they love to go go to the library to pick out books it works perfectly well and they love the playground too I've always thought our library is as good as any Municipal Library I've ever experienced and so I'm stunned by the stories Boulder residents have shared tonight to be clear I'm not opposed to increased taxes per se if we need service increases such as more Outreach

[246:00] and literacy efforts Etc I would be supportive but they should be handled by our elected representatives and if tax tax need to be raised for that purpose I'm fine with that the community needs a strong library but I also think the community needs Safe Streets without potholes good policing and all the other necessary services do we need special district funding for each of those I don't think so to be clear I'm opposed to this Library District plan as proposed for two reasons the lack of elected official oversight which makes no sense to me and reminds me of our country's founding proposition of no taxation without representation I also don't like how the proposal forces taxpayers to have to say they don't want this program three different times don't you think the voters know what they want you all know elections are expensive for both sides why put us through that however after tonight's comments I

[247:00] Now understand this question will be on the ballot whether we like the concept or not therefore I ask that you don't Advance this res resolution as it's currently proposed instead please require that the trustees are appointed by the council and the commission and put it in front of the voters only once so that we don't have to go through the effort over and over thank you thank you grant next we have William Kramer Heidi Jackal and Tom Wilkey good evening my name is Bill Kramer and I'm a Boulder City resident please excuse my croak it's a gift from our grandson's daycare I can visualize the knowing Smiles I wish to address as a district supporter one of the principal challenges namely adding tax burdens to individuals including including seniors like myself and businesses it's a real concern as you have done many times in

[248:00] the past I believe that you and the district team will address the equity issues and resolve other technical issues both the city and the county have full Quivers of taxing and expenditure tools to assist in redressing real inequities if they occur that said over many decades we have found good cause to tax ourselves to express widely held Community Values and to achieve broad Community goals we should celebrate the commitments of our predecessors for they made today's vibrant Boulder and all of us elected officials and voters should emulate them the past generations of Boulder rights invested in the future a fully funded library system is a remarkably efficient and virtually Limitless dividend paying investment in our Collective future but more

[249:02] importantly it is an investment in each and every one of our children and Grand Grand children the new Library District will be a lasting and positive Legacy of your public service and a powerful benefit to current and future residents what Andrew Carnegie the father of mother modern public libraries wrote about libraries more than a century ago Rings true today upon no Foundation but that of popular education can man erect the structure of an enduring civilization thank you thank you now we have Heidi Jackal Tom wiy and [Music]

[250:00] Christ does not look like Heidi is currently present let's move next to Tom hi can this is Tom wiy can you hear me yes and my name shows up as lesle wilky because this is my wife's computer uh my wife and I have lived in North Boulder since 1984 we've been praying taxes property taxes for the last 38 years um I'm concerned about the funding proposal for this um this IGA and uh if you if on slide 13 that was shown at the beginning of the meeting it showed that the existing funding amounts to 2.74 Ms and the library district requires 3.72 Ms there's already 2.74 Mills available only an additional Mill is needed to fund to fully fund this new District so I think this is Fuzzy Math you're doing here that and several of the earlier speakers have said well we can reallocate that money but what we're

[251:00] doing is raising taxes for other reasons I think that's inappropriate uh another point that was brought up earlier about uh Grant c c a speaker a couple um slots before me was about creating a new government entity I don't think anybody's in favor of creating more government entity you are our government we expect you to be able to manage the libraries we expect you as our elected representatives to do this without creating another government entity to take over a function that you can do just like as was mentioned earlier you take all po take care of potholes you take care of Fire protection you can take care of the library my last point is about the threat of a small number of people um putting forth a uh a resolution uh to be on the ballot you should not be afraid of that that your job is to govern your job is to make decisions and you shouldn't be voting in favor of this just because

[252:01] there's a threat that a small group of people will put this on the ballot let them put it on the ballot let the voter decide but if you say that you're in favor of this you imply that you're taking that uh you're taking the position that you like this and there are a lot of Voters like me who are opposed to the property tax increase that you've proposed thanks for your time thank you Tom now we have Christen Eller Alicia cidel and Michelle brov hi my name's Kristen Eller thank you all for your time and staying up late as you'll prob probably be staying up later than me but I just wanted to say so I'm first off I'm a gun barrel resident I am an unincorporated Boulder and I am so excited to be able to have a library in my area to be able to have one that I can bike to I can walk to and that I can use on a daily basis that I don't have to you know go only when I commute into and another thing I wanted

[253:00] to mention is that I'm also a renter and I know one of the things that has been proposed as um a reason why we should avoid putting money into libraries is that it potentially could be a cost that's put on to renters and I want to say that as a renter um I know for example that I'm excited to have something that you know if this cost is put on to me it's something directly that I know I'm using and that will benefit me and any increases that we're seeing in rent will not really be due to the library this if we really care about housing and the increase in rent and pushing people out the excuse is not the libraries and we need to look at housing scarcity so that's just really not the problem here and then finally I just want to say that I think I've heard a lot overall in general that everyone loves a library I mean almost everyone has said it that they love their library and I think it's just time that we put our money where our mouth is and really put our values

[254:00] into perspective what do we value more you know um a little bit more in property taxes is that where we value more than our library and the community benefit that can we can gain from that so I'm excited and I am fully supportive of a Library District so thank you thank you Kristen just note that we don't have Kate Wier or or Michael Shriner present let us know if we're mistaken about that Kate or Michael Now we move to Alicia cidel Michelle Brokaw and benette deman hi thanks so much for having me I'm Alicia cidel I have Residential Properties both in the city of Boulder and in un unincorporated Boulder County near gumb barrel and I have small business I would be taxed multiple times to this initiative and I love it I recognize my privilege and I have a responsibility to share my wealth that's one of the reasons I'm a huge supporter of the library district I have been a library commissioner between 2014 2018

[255:02] so I had a hand in writing that master plan I was president of the boulder Library Foundation board and I was a member of the library district advisory Council I have studied the data the budgets the funding I know that our city is not going to give us more funding as much as we ask and I have been involved with Community input in all of those roles our community wants more Library residents of guno used to come to the commission meetings begging for a library and their neighborhood and for those of you who are new to the um County Commission I wish that you could have heard some of those voices it is clear to me that the library needs sustainable funding and that the sustainable funding after everything I've studied is through a district this became crystal clear and erased any doubts I had during the pandemic when District Libraries in Colorado were able to remain open and have static funding through the pandemic and City libraries

[256:01] in Colorado such as ours and Boulder closed and had budget cuts if you're concerned about the mevy I think the best thing you can do is from a taxpayer perspective is be forth as forthcoming as possible about where that current 9 to 13 million will go that will no longer flow from the city to the library I'm super excited that council member Matt Benjamin brought up that there will be a process around that if you're concerned about the mevy give back the property tax that is currently collected for the library which I realize is much less but if that's truly a concern it's one way to bring down the Total Property Tax Bill libraries are democracy please let your time is up but thank you so much for your testimony appreciate it uh now we have Michelle Brokaw benette bean and Brenda poio good evening I'm Michelle brokan and I represent a group of Investment Partners and our tenants who office at

[257:01] Sienna square a 55,000 foot building located at 2060 Broadway a half block off the Pearl Street Mall our building is home to office and Retail tenants with a medium size of just over 1300 square feet and we own properties across metro Denver and nowhere are our property taxes and overall operating expenses as high as they are in Boulder tenants pay a base rent plus triple net operating expenses that means tenants pay a proat a share of their taxes insurance and common area maintenance taxes are a straight pass through to the tenants so any increase to taxes doesn't hit the landlords it's paid by the tenants these small businesses are the backbone of downtown Boulder and we have seen a migration out of Boulder that started way before covid due to the high cost of taxes and parking at a time when folks are figuring out how to reopen their office we are increasing the prices of the price of doing business in Boulder it's absurd we are pricing ourselves out of the market for Unique

[258:00] retailers and businesses those that can afford to these increases are the Googles and Amazon of the world is that really what we want more of and Boulder what is the real value of this Library District to those that are going to shoulder the primary burden of this 3.8 mil increase it was mentioned tonight that the reason for the this new library district is that since it is currently funded by a sales tax it is subject to the whims of the economy and that a mill Levy increase provides a sustainable funding source for the library our small businesses are subject to the whims of an economy that's business that's a free market this tax trans transfers all the risk and burden to our small businesses with no benefit to them and no help from large institutions like CU I ask that you not approve this tax against an already overburdened business community and let it go to a vote by the people thank you thank you Michelle next we have benette bean Brenda poio and Peter

[259:05] Mayer okay okay all right bonette Bean North Boulder I don't believe the library district tax is a good use of our time or money it is clearly not the greatest good for all concerned or Boulder as a whole my agenda does not involve my taxes or property value I live in government subsidized housing with Section 8 support I am not prejudicial towards the homeless living around the library my son has lived on the streets of Boulder and is now in the county jail he is in in jail for being ill mentally ill if we put our energy and creativity towards mental illness I believe it will substantially reduce homelessness and drug use this population is grossly underserved and an alternative sentencing facilities staffed by professionals would give me hope for him and many it would be steps towards solving the problem not changing the

[260:02] location of it the ghosts that surround our downtown library are also members of our community it is my sincere hope that we can support the homeless sub Community with tools new Professional Medical programs and compassion this includes setting clear boundaries and holding them accountable for laws broken relationships don't heal without both sides winning we cannot redo refurbish redecorate before we care for our foundation we will be able to will we be able to access these proposed facilities safely it is difficult to enjoy something beautiful if you're looking over your shoulder by the way my friend says a library as it stands is one of the most beautiful she's ever seen if we park our cars will our cars and bikes be safe I am not only talking expensive cars my 1997 Honda was stolen 2 months

[261:02] ago in Boulder can we safely do a Creek Walk can we go tubing on the creek used as a bathroom can we go wiggle our bare feet in the water without worrying what we'll step on thank you so much for your testimony that's okay thanks uh next we have Brenda pucho and I understand that Peter Mayer is not here so we will have Katherine Phoenix and Alicia Murray hi I'm Brenda pucho can you hear me yes yes um I am a South Boulder resident and homeowner I am not in favor of a new Library District with a new Mill Levy to fund it Boulder already has a worldclass library system and it already has a funding source please instead direct attention towards solving the homeless crisis in Boulder I would far prefer tax increases if it meant improve mental health and other Human

[262:00] Services for the homeless population this will have the added benefit of restoring Boulder to the Town it was before encampments proliferated several years back I stopped taking my children to both the George Reynolds branch which is walking distance from my house and the main library because it didn't feel safe it was apparent that these buildings were being used as day shelters for unhoused residents looking for respit from the elements I have compassion for those looking for a warm safe place so I think rather than focusing additional money on Library service expansions the city should f focus on sustainable long-term solutions to days Sheltering in recent years I've also stopped taking my children to the children's fishing pond EB and Fine park and the Boulder Creek path because of encounters with drug use violence and other criminal activity these are all Community assets that are becoming inaccessible to Residents who value personal safety I I do not understand all the complexities of helping the

[263:01] unhoused but I do know focusing time money and energy on a library district is a distraction from what I think is Boulder's most pressing issue the homeless crisis thank you for considering my input thank you Brenda um next we have Katherine Phoenix Alicia Murray and Steven Frost hi my name is Katherine Phoenix I've lived in Boulder for 34 years I'm speaking in favor of the Boulder Public Library District because I had lived worked through and seen the benefits of a library tax District I was an adult Services librarian with the Adams County library system for 17 years the Adams County Library used to be the lowest funded and poorest of the seven Library systems in the Denver metro area in 2004 18 years ago the library broke away from

[264:00] the county to become a dedicated tax District we were no longer in competition with for example the police and fire departments for funds to manage our services two years later in 2006 we had a United Library user Community which voted to raise the m l to 3.69 that made us just the third Forest Library District in the metro area but we were finally able to count on stable funding for long-term planing the Adams County library system is now known as anything a revolution of rang libraries and winner of numerous national awards for Library service the thing is we were able to plan longterm but also shift mimy when called upon our goal is not just good public service but inclusive Hospitality while Staffing the reference and circulation desks at the library we all felt directly responsible to the taxpayers we serve as Andrew Carnegie

[265:00] has said a library outruns any other one thing a community can do to benefit its it is a never failing spring in the desert I would add now more than ever Boulder County needs an integrated countywide Library service because democracy demands an integrated population thank you Katherine I'll note Fred Bratman is not present so we are going to go to Alicia Murray then Steven Frost and Kathleen aie thank you this is Alicia Murray uh Brenda pucha who spoke a few minutes ago is my neighbor hi Brenda if you're still listening um so uh so Brenda and I are in opposite sides of the uh the coin here but I think we do agree on a lot um I too would love to uh see a lot more

[266:02] Mental Health Care um in Boulder um I'm not aware of any way that we can come up with a mental hair a mental Mental Health Care taxing district um that's just not an option someone an earlier speaker said taxing tools are at your disposal they're in your quiver to my knowledge just like every other government organization in Colorado you don't have any taxing Tools in your quiver all you can do is circulate the money around that already exists um if I were in your shoose I think I would be thrilled to have the opportunity to uh get rid of the library I don't mean that because you don't like the library I mean that because you have so many other priorities to deal with you have a very um a very excited and committed uh Library community that wants to run a

[267:00] library uh and can take that off your plate and yes you can either give the taxpayers back some money or you can that use that money for other priorities sometimes you need to invest more in order to get the best return on investment the city of Boulder simply cannot and has not invested enough in the Boulder Public Library to create a stable robust Library System to shore up the Third Leg of our Public Library System the first being public education the second being our community college system we need city council to vote for the creation of the boulder Library District and the County Commission and we need to you to advocate for the mil Levy that goes along with that creation thank you thank you Alicia now we have Steven Frost Kathleen Ai and Dorothy riddle good evening mayor Brockett Boulder County Commissioners City counselors and members of the community including David and his tireless staff who worked on this proposal for years um

[268:02] my name is Stephen Frost I'm a resident of yellow pine in North Boulder I'm a libr commissioner and assistant professor in the department of media studies here at Cu uh today I'm here in my capacity as a boulder resident to offer my support for the proposed Library District um I must confess that last week I did something that I swore I would never do I I went on the website next door and and I read comments uh related to the proposed Library District after reading through a sea of opinions I I came to the understanding that some members of our communities don't support the library district because of the LI rising cost of living in our city city um believe me I understand that the right living cost of living here is super high um most of my colleagues live in other cities because they can't afford property or rent in this beautiful place actions clearly need to be taken to address the rising cost of living in Boulder County but striking down the proposed Library District or further delaying this decision it it won't solve that problem many people here agree that the library is not a

[269:00] luxury but a necessity but unfortunately has not been a priority for the city for many many many years our elected officials have pulled money from the library for their own priorities for decades and I ask tonight that you secure funding for our library by supporting the formation of a library district and allow the public to vote on funding this fall thank you all thank you for being here tonight thank you Stephen now Kathleen aie Dorothy riddle and Joseph Gibson Aloha um I'm C AI some people also know me as Pua I live in South Boulder I am heartedly in favor of um you voting in resol uh voting to favor a resolution to form a Library District um I'm especially interested in the additional and expanded offerings of free of uh actually reading and literacy programs I am a mentor at a elementary

[270:02] school here in Boulder and uh the ability to use the public library has greatly helped my work with the young students that I work with at this Boulder Elementary School I know that through the summer reading programs a student that I have been mentoring she was reading at below grade level her mother enrolled her in the summer reading programs and she is now at the reading uh her grade level reading level and above um I can't say enough about how much the library helps me in that work um also as a uh former board member of a Hawaiian Civic organization I also cannot stress the um importance of access of free meeting and public community space for um other community organizations has been very helpful for a Hawaiian Community to be able to meet for culture and language classes at the library um and also to expand access to the

[271:01] library I've heard people saying that they want libraries in their communities I GRE up where I was very privileged to be able to go to our community school library in kah Kahuku Hawaii but the next library was 26 miles away so um I can very much resonate with that and I just want to end by saying we've been watching the series about Ben Franklin who helped found the first lending library in our country and he believed that what we can do together far out ways and exceeds what we can accomplish individually so thank you for voting yes for the resolution thank you Kathleen I see John Walker is not present so our next three speakers are Dorothy riddle Joseph Gibson and Matt Bonet your mic is open and you are

[272:04] unmuted Dy may be ahead go ahead and begin to speak mayor why don't we move on to the next speaker I'll reach out to Dorothy and see if we can troubleshoot some technical support sounds good Ryan so Joseph Gibson then all right can you hear me yes thanks good evening my name is Joseph Gibson and I live near Iris and Broadway um I support increasing funding to the library but I do have some concerns with the proposal small businesses renters and retired homeowners will feel every bit of the 3.8 mil tax levy the current system uses dollars spent in town by visitors and locals alike to fund the library through

[273:00] sales taxes and City Revenue much of that is discretionary spending I like having visitors $500 downtown dinners pay for our library and now we're considering shifting that responsibility the whole thing onto our local cost of living I would like to see the new voices on city council who I supported to uh supported look out for those who struggle with access to living in Boulder it's not accurate to describe Services as free citizens pay for them and businesses pay for them that's not trivial for all citizens or businesses that continue to survive the effects of the pandemic there are options between the current onethird of a mill which is 15% of current Library funding and 3.8 Ms was one mil considered or 1.5 mil with City funds making up the difference those options would mean more stability in the funding without a complete shift I support increasing funding for the library but I think the proposal needs a level of moderation should not include giving away City assets and that

[274:02] the library district commission should be accountable accountable to voters via the City and County Commissioners if the proposal goes through and the voters approve the 3.8 Ms I'll be looking for the council to make the most of the $10 million windfall with an eye on transparency and efficiency thanks for your time thank you Joseph now we have Matt vet Angela McCormack and pegy sanss hi can you hear me yes okay thank you um hi Matt B resident of the city of Boulder and um I am a huge fan of the library I have three young kids that love to read and we go to the library about every 10 days and um well I'm a big fan of Library I'm opposed to the

[275:00] creation of the library district is proposed um one of the main duties of our city council members is to preserve and nurture the city's assets and what's being proposed here is to give away absolutely for free one of the city's most cheris assets that we spent generations and millions of dollars creating our libraries another role of our elected officials is decide is to decide how to spend our tax dollars and this proposal would transfer that duty to an unaccountable board and with regard to how we govern ourselves this proposal would have taxes go up and accountability go down and and this is a path I feel to a dysfunctional government um that we see in many of our larger cities in our country we're fortunate I think to have the accountability that we have in Boulder and have the elected officials we have um arguments I've heard for this proposal are it's a dedicated sustainable funding source and that would be great but there are also many other worthy needs in our community affordable housing open space and Parks the fire department um do we create a a

[276:03] special district for all of these um and the other one is to build new libraries but we we don't need a Library District to build new libraries we've been doing that for years in Boulder without a Library District so the city of citizens of Boulder have elected you all to represent our interests and our community's assets and I appreciate very much the time thought and effort that each of you commit to our community every week it's a a lot of work and I know a lot of time and effort that all the members on the council put into um to their duties so I would ask that you please keep doing your job and don't Advance a proposal that give away City assets and remove yourselves our elected officials from the duties we entrust in you uh including deciding how to allocate our tax dollars please don't Advance an initiative that gives away one of the city's most cherished assets time is up but thank you so much for your testimony and I think we may have Dorothy riddle available now let's give her a

[277:03] try d your mic is open and looks like you are unmuted please go ahead and begin speaking Dorothy we cannot hear you it's still not working so I'm afraid we'll have to try again later uh so let's move back to Angela McCormack and then Peggy Sans and L seel thank you Angela your mic is open you'll just press star six to unmute on the phone hi can you hear me yes hi hey um I want you to know that I am a lifelong library card holder and I personally read every single Nancy Drew mystery in the stacks of my very small

[278:00] town library and I am a regular digital subscriber through our library for Mike Kindle um and I also wanted to say tonight that I do not support the city conveying any real estate assets to a newly created Library District is passed by voters November and I would like to see the draft IG amended to reflect a three or fiveyear trial period with the newly seated District board to ensure fiscal and operational management ability um I would recommend that we be a landlord to the district first and convey last and I would also like to see oversight on the District board I don't have any specific recommendations for that but I second a lot of what Joseph Gibson said and Matt deset said with regard to we are taking away a sales tax funded Community Asset or resource and now placing it squarely on property

[279:00] owners both residential and Commercial and that doesn't sit well with me so I would like Council and County Commissioners to continue to weigh in on who sits on this board if if the district does get created by voters to ensure that it's managed correctly and it's doing what it needs to do according to its projected budgets and that's that's what I have to offer thanks very much for your time thank you Angela Peggy Sans now and then ly seagull and Linda quickly hey can you hear me yes hi I'm Peggy Sans um thank you very much for the opportunity to speak I'm a local artist I do public art projects and one of the people who rents here I am in the situation where I have to move out I've lived here for nine years now and uh I'm priced out of

[280:00] Boulder and I would like to point out how many people like me simply can't afford to live here anymore and when this property tax happens it all comes to us it's always passed on so that's the first thing um I would like to also mention somebody spoke about the wonderful shows they've seen in the library well I'm one of those people and you're not going to see my work is I'm leaving most likely unless something opens up for me I another person spoke about lattes you know and it's only the price of a latte well well I don't drink lattes every day so there's a a real Gap there's a wealth level in this city and I hear a lot of those people speaking tonight but there's a huge gap between those of us who are simply not at that level our current Library by the way I love the library I spend a lot of time there um our library is gorgeous it's one of the nicest ones I've ever seen and I've lived all over the world I'm

[281:01] wondering why there's the way people speak it's as if this thing is like falling apart and just a mess I don't understand why there aren't other ways that could possibly fund what's needed in the library I don't understand why we'd ever consider give that giving that asset away I don't understand why we're talking about taxing people without having them be able to represent themselves there's no accountability for the people for the board so that's I know this is a thorny issue and um I want to thank you for listening and that's where I'm at with it I think it's time to be a little more creative with what we do in this situation instead of just throwing the burden on basically lower income Boulder thank you now we have Lynn seagull Linda quickley and Beth

[282:03] Bennett I follow five City boards very closely eight of them three of them overlap I'm fighting my property taxes at the board of assessment appeals I love the library get it I love the library it's not a matter of the library it's a matter of where the money comes from we have property taxes Rising like crazy $80 a year for me I've got my water bill just went up $15 a month starting in October I've got Medicare 2160 a month I've got Excel Energy since we didn't pass the municipalization that's Rising like crazy we've got inflation going nuts because of Ukraine what could you be thinking this should never even be thought of to go onto a ballot measure for $40,000 I

[283:00] don't want to pay for that charge Ali okay the developer from Aspen that's down building and taking over the whole block at fome and pearl charge him charge Adrien sopur at the Olive charge the Millennium people charge the university for all the housing they're taking over in Boulder charge the people that can pay for it get a per capita on every citizen in in Boulder for every development how much they are worth in the library in the rec center in all the services they use in the in the in 42inch Interceptor for the when we get the 500-year flood because we want to do a 100e flood mitigation at CU South all of these things are really what this issue is about it's not about we don't we don't love libraries or we

[284:01] do love libraries it's not about that it's where the money comes from look at Aspen the guy building here and charge the developer because I see you I follow every every and that's where the money's going so put it in the right place your time is up thank you okay we've had a few people who have withdrawn Kate Lawrence Steven Clark Sylvia Perez lson and uh Katherine hogo now we will move on to Linda quickley Beth Bennett and vicus ready hi this is Linda Quigley I've lived in South Boulder since 1982 and I want to thank the council and the Commissioners for this chance to speak it's hard to speak against um the library district because you sound like you're against the library and that's

[285:00] the farthest thing from the truth I think for 99 person of this very intellectual Community but I'm against the LD for more reasons than two minutes could could Embrace um one of course is the timing we're just peeking out from behind our covid pandemic um many businesses and families have not recovered from the last two years of financial hardships our own city council still meets by Zoom despite most everything else being open our city government is one of the few things I'm aware of that still operates without our access without being able to look at the council or them seeing us according to the latest poll a 100% property tax was only approved by what 15% of the people as a sole means of funding for an LD and yet

[286:03] this is how we're looking at it I I don't quite understand the disconnect there but I do despite my own nervousness understand people being upset by that I don't want to see those who see the library as a pet or a special project with direct access to my property taxes um I didn't elect them um and the library is wonderful but so is the police force child protection and everything else on on our city budget and finally I'm just asking you please um are you relinquishing the governing of our assets after we've paid for them for our entire lives your time is out but thank you for your testimony all right we have next Beth Bennett vicus ready and Leslie

[287:03] Barrett hello Beth your mic is open would you go ahead and confirm your last name please you have my name is Beth berand not Beth Bennett all right thank you for confirming we'll come back to you in a moment do we have Beth benett present I have another bath present sorry you do or do not we do not have another Beth present all right so let's move on to VI us ready then um hi can you all hear me yes great um hi everyone my name is vas ready I'm

[288:02] speaking in strong support of the boulder Library District um I've lived and worked in Boulder for over 14 years um my wife at Ela and I have two young kids a two-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son so first I wanted to say that the public libraries are one of the last free welcoming and open spaces for communities to gather learn and meet um I think it's a critical part of having a more educated and integrated Community um and wanted to say that Boulders library in particular has been an amazing resource for my family we've checked out hundreds of of books for the kids we've loved the playground downtown Boulder where the kids go several times a week There's been countless rainy or snowy days where the library has been a welcoming place for us to get out of the house the library is literally the only place I can think of that I don't mind getting fines from because I'm sure the money will be well spent however I'm really embarrassed to say that until re recently I didn't realize how poorly we were funding our library system as use the library has

[289:01] grown the funding hasn't kept up the library distt would solve this with a dedicated property tax one that I hope uh most in Boulder would agree is money well spent I'm strongly in favor us joining many other similarly sized cities across the state and Country and creating a Library District lastly I wanted to thank everyone that works at the buor public library you've made a huge difference in my family's lives and I'm sure your work over the past several years has been especially difficult thank you for everything to do and thank you to the council for hearing this feedback thank you and Elicia I see that your hand is up did you have something you want to add oh no sorry my apologies I must have been something on here okay no worries all right so that's takes us now to Leslie Barrett Caren HG and Scott Milan hi can you hear me yes hi my name is lesie Barrett I live in unincorporated gun barrel and prior had

[290:01] lived in Boulder proper for six years I'm also sharing my support for the creation of a Library District Libraries are one of the only public spaces and specifically indoor public spaces that do not require people to spend money to spend time in them they've been a core part of how I engage in community whether it's spending time writing with friends or taking a free class and getting to meet others in the community outside of my regular circles I would love to have access to that closer to my area of town a few people tonight have talked about how homelessness is an issue impacting their use of the library on the contrary to their staying away it pulls me closer the boulder library is one of the only places where I've seen a staff member address a houseless neighbor by name and ask how they were the sign inside says all are welcome and it is one of the only spaces where that feels true that's a good thing it gives us the opportunity to build stronger Community there are many reasons I support the creation of a district among them is that at a time when digital Community has become more common than

[291:01] real life connection we need to ensure the library is consistently funded to make space for our communities to gather and learn from each other thank you thank you Leslie now we have Karen holg Scott Milan and Vicky wolf hello this is Karen hwg I'm a longtime Boulder resident I've valued librar since I got my my first library card as a child and I agree with many of the effusive comments about libraries that we've heard tonight I think it's time to restore the libraries pandemic funding Cuts but I want to see our libraries funded in an e fiscally Equitable way I'm a retired teacher and I own a townhouse I have serious questions about the affordability of implementing the

[292:01] vision level in the library master plan I'm opposed to adding taxes for a library district and continuing to collect and spend the 10 million dollar in government in um basic funds that we now give to the library and I'm concerned about Boulders Library assets that our taxes have acquired over many decades getting passed on to a Library District at no cost like others who have spoken tonight I think Library budget decisions need to be made in the context of all of our budget priorities I know there are high priorities for the fire department and emergency uh Communications among agencies I know the entire Community thinks that affordable housing is a top priority personally I must live within my budget and I ask Council to live within reasonable budget limits too and set budget

[293:01] priorities if you vote for Library District I urge you to find a more Equitable and constrained way to fund the library district thank you thank you Karen now we have Scott Milan Vicky wolf and Elaine Dan [Music] Miller I'm Scott me and I'm a resident of Boulder uh I'd like to use my time to ask you some questions uh about city and county funding in this format obviously rhetorical questions and and some of these have been touched on in your discussion now let me be clear I'm a book lover more importantly I recognize and value how good books can educate entertain and motivate readers especially younger readers unfortunately the current proposal goes too far too fast thus I'm

[294:00] opposed to it in its current form and the way it is currently structured as you all know better than I do funding is very competitive so let me ask you do you believe our public health and safety programs are appropriately funded and that our firefighters law enforcement and city and county staff have the resources they need to protect us what about Transportation funds funding that help employees get to their jobs and what about better bike safety that would save lives budget decisions are not made in a vacuum also I'm concerned with the process somebody as a former political science major a former lobbyist a large Association and Law Firm very rarely have I seen a tax proposal that

[295:01] allows multiple bats if we were playing baseball okay but we're not for credibility sake let's have one boat vote which is the normal way what's wrong with letting the proposal rise or fall on its merits some would say if you have to stretch the ends and then maybe it was not meant to be the ends do not justify the means in any Endeavor we are not talking about less funding here we are talking about how much time out but thank you for your test thank you very much thanks okay now we have Vicky wolf elain Dan Miller and Diane Connelly can you hear me yes hi I'm Vicky wolf a boulder resident I value libraries but oppose a Library District this year is the wrong time to start an

[296:00] LD because taxpayers are already experiencing pandemic mic and War related substantial inflation for everyday needs residents cannot afford another financial burden right now owning a home in Boulder valued at the median of $1 million does not mean people have unlimited discretionary income we have mortgages almost $400 per year per house for a library with little to no accountability is not reasonable and businesses cannot afford the significant tax increase in LD would impose on them they are already stretched to to the Limit and businesses have been closing the city should not impose this on us will sales taxes go down if the libraries are funded through an LD the question of an LD should be tabled for at least five years to give residents and businesses time to recover if affordable housing is a concern a new tax for an unnecessary LD will make it worse and renters and students will also F the tax because landlords will pass it through to them if the LD is pushed

[297:00] through the city should expect taxpayers to say no to Future tax increases for other things money is fungible but not infinite Council let it go to a petition one time and let us taxpayers vote it down one time we shouldn't give away our library assets to an LD either our libraries are really good already and should continue to be governed by our elected officials and supported by sales taxes right now the city has bigger issues to deal with such as drugs used needles staffs unsafe bike trails and encampments that prohibit people from using the libraries and other public spaces We already pay for the city needs to deal with the serious issues it faces rather than embarking on an LD at this time please do not approve a resolution make the taxpayers vote and let us vote it down thank you thank you Vicki now we have Elaine danam Miller Diane Connelly and AA Merz thank you mayor Brockett Council

[298:00] Commissioners and City staff I'm a fan of the library and I use it I love the maker space I frequented seeds Cafe and I love everything the library offers most of the comments that we've heard tonight have been about what a valuable asset the library is for the community and polling supports that everyone loves the library I don't think you'll find anyone who says Ah libraries H who needs them so while I'm a fan of the library I'm opposed to the formation of a Library District so let's start with the process we hear a lot about the precedent for Library districts but of the 57 cities in Colorado who have a Library District only seven were formed through an election that was a statistic presented to Council in 2020 by a consultant that they hired I think that the process of forming a Library District should be put to the voters so next about the purpose of the library there was a slide discussing the purpose of the library district and one of the

[299:00] bullet points said that the purpose of the district was to Prov facilities materials media and programs those are all things we already provide so my question to council and Commissioners uh is are there assets and programs that can only be provided if a library district is formed so then on to governance I was a bit confused by the draft IGA so if a library district is formed who controls the library sections 1.1 and 1.2 state that the library district and the board of trustees shall operate and maintain the BPL and have all powers and duties but then in section 1.3 it says the city will continue to operate the BPL so from formation of a Library District uh to securing the funding who's going to make decisions for the library will we have two conflicting entities or will the likely uh trustees be the same people who already run the library in which case why do we need a Library District

[300:02] so my next comment is about assets I know I'm running out of time I appreciate your time thank you thank you um Elaine now we have Diane connley Lula Merz and Daniel Miller but before we do that uh Rachel your hand is up yeah uh thank you mayor I wondered if we needed a motion at this point to extend the meeting uh I I would certainly accept that I would like to move that we uh extend the meeting because I believe we will be going past the appointed time for and and I'm sorry I don't know I don't know Commissioners if you get to weigh in on this or not this is a city of Boulder thing but I welcome your vote too I'll second formally but I would like to also hear from uh our our friends at the county level well let's just say does anyone object to the motion on on the floor and seeing no objections I'll I'll say that passes

[301:00] unanimously all right thank you Rachel for keeping us legal here uh so let's now go on to Diane Connelly hi my name is Diane Connelly I live in Table Mesa and I've lived in Boulder County and Boulder and other cities and Boulder County for about 28 years I voted for every single proposal for a tax increase in that time I will not be voting for this one um I've used the libraries love the libraries I too have taken out thousands of books I've attended classes I use the online resources the libraries here are amazing and the resources are ones that are rich and um used by just about every resident if not every resident when um so it's obviously not an issue of whether we should continue having libraries nobody um and I've

[302:01] listened to all the comments ERS nobody said let's get rid of the libraries it's a matter of whether we fund them at what was termed the vision level when other things aren't funded at the vision level my life isn't funded at the vision level odds are yours aren't either right so we all have to make decisions how we work with finite resources so my taxes went up $800 last year over this year in a non-assessment year they've never gone up that much I don't where that money is going but then an a proposal to add another $400 to my taxes to pay for a resource that from my perspective I already have I'm already paying for nobody's talking about refunding the 10 million already allocated to um the libraries to existing taxpayers so I agree I don't want to go on and on

[303:00] about the things that other people have said but the issue of accountability the issue of giving away the asset the library assets that the folks in Boulder that we've been paying for I think those are all very important ones to consider and making reasonable allocation of resources um when they're by definition limited thank you and thanks for hanging out it's a long night yes it is uh thanks Diane uh now we have Ula Merz Daniel Miller and Beth Berling unmute okay can you hear me yes great my name is ulat and I'm a longtime resident of the city of Boulder and I'm also co-owner of a small business located in the city of Baler let me Begin by saying

[304:00] I think that the library is a fabulous institution that offers equal access to people from all walks of life I'm also a past volunteer of the Maria Rogers oral history program I do not oppose the proposed property tax increase on my personal home but I have three concerns about the proposed Library District its funding source its governance and its funding amount as a tenant leasing industrial property with a triple net lease I will be responsible for the proposed 3.18 increase in M Levy industrial commercial properties are taxed at four times Residential Properties this means that instead of the $270 per1 million value commercial tenants will pay $1,080 a year for $1 million value if you would ask Boulder citizens if they would be willing to pay four times an

[305:01] increase in assess property tax uh I would think that you don't get an enthusiastic approval I also have concerns about the proposed governing structure that trustees appoint their successors I've seen in organizations where this is the case that group think develops in self- congratulating board that celebrates their their uniform opinions wor accountability to Citizens that foot the bill I also have a concern about the proposed funding increase to almost double of the current budget this funding will Inc increase as the property values will increase creating an ever increasing burden on businesses finally I'm not opposed to apologize but your your time is up but thank you so much for your

[306:01] testimony okay well the the late hour is causing some some losses here from our testimony list we do not have Moren West George Boon Jill Adler Grano Jean Garing Deborah mcamera Kenneth Stickney or Jim helgoth pres uh let us know if any of you are actually present and then um ran might we try M riddle again I believe she's still in the meeting sure [Music] thing Dorothy your mic is open go ahead and unmute yourself it looks like you are unmuted we should be able to hear you I don't know if there's a different microphone that you can use using the popup button next to the microphone button in

[307:00] Zoom you can choose to select a microphone you have now muted yourself all right Dorothy your mic is open well seems like it's just not working Dorothy so sorry if you wanted to write us a quick email uh we can get that if you'd like before the meeting's over all right right uh so moving on we've got Daniel Miller Beth Vin and ridge wrath hello are we live yes great uh I'm Dan Miller I've been a boulder resident for over 40 years and I'm also very Avid

[308:02] Boulder Library user and I've been on this call for six hours now I can't believe how you guys do this this often but anyways I'll carry on here um first of all I'd like to thank you all for having this public meeting tonight second of all I'd also let you know that I'm a firm supporter of the Boulder Public Library system and a reliable and and adequate funding level but I would also urge you to deny approval of resolution 1305 um I think the current library system is great everything I think I've heard tonight portrays the library system as a broken nonfunctional system but it's a great Library uh the buildings are wonderful

[309:00] the stacks are full the library uh staff is wonderful and welcoming uh so it it's not like we have this broken system that needs this huge repair what we're looking for is [Music] a funding system moving forward um I don't think the proper funding mechanism is an increase in property tax the increase in property tax is significant ific and it's regressive and it hits our business Community particularly hard and I don't think that's a good place for us to be moving to um I would suggest that we' take a look back at a dedicated uh sales tax and however we have to adjust that sales tax whether it be through a new sales tax it's renewable maybe after

[310:02] three years or five years and then we look and see if that worked or not or whether we look at uh current sunshing sales tax and see if we can't move your time is up but thank you very much for your testimony all right so now we go to Beth barene Ridge wrath and anari Morales that okay hello my name is Beth berand and I love libraries what's with all the talk of losing the libraries they aren't going away our current tax dollars can be better spent and We Know It libraries aren't a city of Boulder priority we know this five years and hundreds of thousands of tax dollars has been wasted to study this issue and Shuffle it around no other community started with Library districts should be compared with Boulder which did not if our buildings were in such terrible shape why did you spend Millions on a

[311:00] refurbishment of the main Library only recently this issue is not one for the city council or Commissioners to decide if there are citizens in favor of this measure let those petitioners take their chances with a detailed proposal to the voters let this private group set the boundaries the tax rates the governance and then let's let the citizens of this community decide this additional tax provides unlimited and expanding funding into the future which is unacceptable sales tax makes the life Library subject to the whims of the changing economic landscape just as our individual circumstances dictate I don't spend any time at the library at is as it has been made into a comfortable destination for alcoholics drug addicts and the mentally ill yet Council and Commissioners continue to avoid this horrific problem in our community and instead you focused your time on bigger and more inclusive libraries help the addicts and the mentally ill make this town safe and

[312:02] clean again I'll happily pay for that a group of cronies would oversee a $20 million budget with no government over sites you would give away buildings valued at over $40 million without compensation what special interest groups are benefiting here and here's a hard note of the $10 million money Shuffle proposed by Matt Benjamin fund libraries from the city budget if it's a priority if not let's just admit it run them like a business rent out the main theater to interesting parties at a fair price theth of value appreciate it okay next we have Ridge wrath anelli Morales and Maximillian Knight thank you mayor Brockett and thank you council members for staying up so late with us my name is Ridge wrath I'm a graduate student at CU and I'm

[313:02] here to speak in support of the formation of the Boulder Public Library District the impact that public libraries have had on my early childhood development is immeasurable uh and I credit it immensely with helping me to obtain a post-secondary education as we fully reopen our libraries it's imperative that we take this opportunity to address the shortcomings of our current library system by forming the Boulder Public Library District by creating a Public Library District we afford our libraries an opportunity to secure their own source of funding and no longer be relying on the city budget that has been neglecting them for years additionally with the city reline control of the library system an extra $9 million is freed up in the city budget to address more pressing issues in our community even as the median home price in Boulder near as a million dollars The increased property tax to fund the 3.8 Mills proposal would only amount to $270 annually for the medium Boulder homeowner an extra $270 a year in

[314:00] property taxes is not going to displace anyone from their home and Boulder but it will potentially free up Millions to help other residents find affordable housing one thing that I encourage the council take into consideration if the resolution is adopted is the importance of having adequate representation of the Library District Board of Trustees to ensure that the library district is able to reach its goals of expanded services and maintaining Community demand it is imperative that the Board of Trustees represent the communities intends to serve appointing trustees to the board who are from the community's outside Boulder City Limits as well as trustees represent many frequent visitors of our libraries like Spanish speaking population is Paramount to achieving the goals of this resolution I encourage the council to adopt the resolution forming the Boulder Public Library District and I encourageable to Residents to vote to approve the Tibor measure this upcoming election thank you thank you very much appreciate that Ridge okay now we have Ani Morales

[315:01] maximilan night and Adriana poola palasio Luna hello um this is Anna Morales can you hear me yes hi um my name is anell Morales I live in the city of Boulder and I strongly support the creation of a Library District I've been volunteering with the Boulder Public Library since 2018 as a technology coach and one a very few Spanish-speaking volunteers I have witnessed how valuable the Library resources are to the community Community especially our senior citizens and those with limited funds in the summer of 2020 I helped loan out hundreds of Wi-Fi hotspots to families and people who needed reliable internet access all free of charge through the library these hotspots were vital for their children to learn remotely and provide internet resources for all family members needing to work from home because of the pandemic to our Spanish language speaking community members that may be listening La biota the boulder

[316:17] the library deserves a stable funding source to continue to support the most vulnerable in our community I want to see more staff that are bilingual in Spanish and American Sign Language I ask council members and County commiss support the plan for a fair a Library District thank you thank you anari we have maximilan Knight Adriana poola palasio Luna and David limbach can you hear me yes hi my name is Max Millian Knight currently live in Longmont and lived in uh before that I lived in Boulder for seven years I'm originally from Brooklyn New York and moved out here to to study engineering

[317:00] at CU I uh got my degree in environmental engineering and minored in ethnic studies and just graduated a couple years ago since graduating I started a product business which uh kind of pivoted into a robotics company that focuses on vertical farming and both of these Ventures have benefited um greatly from the resources at the maker space we often have to create parts that can't be bought they don't exist um we have to design them ourselves and the laser cutters and 3D rers been a huge help and also really affordable and really allows us to scale our business in a really like cheap way um the biggest problem with this has always been that the they're only open twice a week and so we often have to plan our design Cycles around that so um you know getting the maker space open five days a week is really important to us and I think would really help the the uh entrepreneurial Community as well as the various people

[318:00] who use the maker space to create unique gifts and experiment with art and learn new skills um and yeah so for those reasons I support the library district and something else I wanted to note that I haven't really heard much of tonight was that I think like you know a community where the library is like providing all these Services is probably going to increase property values and um I think that's you know kind of being left out of the conversation so I'll just finish up the side note like really impressed with all of you guys have been watching your faces here all night and you're actually paying attention so I appreciate you um doing that have a good night thanks Max Milan all right now we have Adriana paa palasio Luna followed by David limbach and Ken MCL well

[319:09] biblio in Boulder I want to share as a community member and as a Latino woman tiny business owner and as a single mom that I definitely support a Library District because I this will allow more community members to access these amazes amazing services and programs that I know um me and my kids are a a testimony of how an inclusive place is that provides you access to information and resources um available for all people can actually change lives um and it supports our communities to thrive so I really uh encourage to support this initiative uh for some of of us this is also as a place to access Mental Health

[320:01] is no is not only to accessing books it's accessing art culture and Cinema and films music The Amazing maker space the team space the steam activities and so much more and this is a place where we can be ourselves it's a diverse and inclusive community where you can see a lot of different identities and we know that um this is what actually makes a community triy because you can build community you can build Reserves resources for the people and then we can uh address all the other issues that we are um fighting around our communities so I really thank you for listening at us today we know that it's late and you probably very tired but we we will appreciate your support on these amazing resources for our community thank you thank you all right I've heard that Ken mclone and Ronald carski are not present so uh

[321:00] next we have David limbach Shan Oshman and Kelly Donovan and David I understand you have two people pooling with you who are present tonight so you will get four minutes thank you my name is David limbach I am a resident of nwat I am the current nwat Community Association president and as I shared with the Commissioners at their virtual town hall meeting last month I was concerned that many members of the nalk community were unaware of this Library proposal and its impact possible impacts on them so as a result the NW Community Association and many other organizations started an information campaign uh the NCA campaign was factually based neutral in its message and tried not to bias anybody's opinion and it was uh followed up by a survey and the results of that survey I'm going to share with you now we received almost 200 responses and of those we were focused in on the numbers

[322:00] that we could validate and we reduced that to 111 responses that we could validate and the following slides will represent their responses next SL slide please the first three questions were demographic in uh library card usage the question was do you currently have a library card and as you can see uh a number of uh most residents have a a longm library card uh or both and then a small minority have just the Boulder library card next slide please speaking to the people who say they have a boulder library card you can see that 62% say they don't but of the people that have a library card you can see the activity has been very minimal if you com if you add the monthly and weekly statistics uh that's just 6% of card holders have used it this month uh next slide please asking the same question for people who have a Longmont life library card you can see

[323:02] that a third of them say that they don't have one but of the people that do have the one have one if you combine the weekly and monthly you see that about a third of those people have used their library card in the last month so that gets us through our demographic questions uh our next question next slide please uh goes to the heart of the matter and this is as it says at the bottom in the context that the current proposal represents a mle M Levy increase of $26 per year for every $100,000 of assessed residential value the question is would you be in favor of this tax increase overwhelmingly the response is no uh with 84% saying no and six only 16% saying yes uh next slide please uh trying to get to what people could stomach in terms of a tax increase uh you can see that 45% of the people are adamant that they don't want any tax

[324:00] increase but you do see 31% would be willing to support about a $10 annual increase per $1,000 of assessed value and then you've got some smaller numbers for 20 and then above 20 uh next slide please uh there is talk that there is the formation of a Longmont Public Library District which is about a year or two behind this effort and so the question is here do you want to be part of either a boulder or a Longmont Public Library District and you can see that uh 61% say no and 39% say yes so there is some wiggle room there uh next slide please and assuming that the proposal for either a Longmont or a p or a boulder Library District would be identical which would they prefer to align with and overwhelmingly naans have said that 80% of us want to I I

[325:03] shouldn't have used us because I'm keeping myself out of this 80% of our respondents said that they would prefer to be part of a Longmont Library District as opposed to a boulder Library District last slide please uh this last slide just kind of represents how information is made it out to our community you can see the anca is the the leading source of getting people engaged in this uh afraid your time is up was that your last slide that is my last slide I hope this information helps you make your decision and thank you for staying up late thank you thank you for your testimony okay uh next we have Shan Oshman Kelly Donovan and Nathan seidle hello uh can you hear me yes great this is sea Ashman and I moved to Boulder here in 2009 and I am for

[326:01] the formation of the library district when I moved here in 2009 I started a business and in that time I got to employ a bunch of people and in that journey of eight years I was a commercial property owner so I paid commercial property taxes and also a residential property owner so I'm familiar with the burden of property tax and also understand where it goes to I mean Boulder over the years has a reputation of innovation uh business Innovation and people are attracted to Boulder because Boulder is always thought to invest in its own future and it does that by having the business improvement district being as strong as it is uh downtown Boulder Inc and these are things that might not have direct immediate tangible benefits these are long-term investments in our area and

[327:00] they spr to Boulder County so far outside of the city limits of Boulder uh this new business that uh we just started a couple years ago is a product based business and we've been able to use building 61 to do prototyping and that's just another example of Bolder investing in entrepreneurship and uh I can say the state of the buildings uh could use improving and to see the facilities maximized with better programs better staff um and just giving them all the resources that they want and the scaling of taxes with property values as far as being able to put money into Endeavors such as the library it makes sense because as the area increases in value then people need to be able to get paid enough money in places like the library to be able to stay in the city so it makes sense that it would scale

[328:00] um thank you so much for staying up late you guys are awesome appreciate the time thanks Sean now we have Kelly Donovan naan Jean Ashen good such a good talk kind of nervous hello um my name is Kelly Donovan and I am a homeowner in unincorporated gunbar I've lived in gunbar for 15 years and have always wanted a library branch in our area I'm a working mom with three kids who are all big readers I would happily pay the1 15 to $20 extra per month in property taxes to give my children unlimited access to a wide variety of books and programs at the library including shows at the canyon theater one of my issues is finding the time to go across town on a regular basis to pick up and drop off books and participate in the programs I would love to see a gun barrel Branch available Not only would

[329:00] it be more convenient for me and my family but would also bring some much needed community space to the area Boulder is surrounded by towns with Library districts already in place it's crazy that being such an affluent City Boulder has doesn't have a stable funding for their Library program as a long-term Library user and supporter I am asking the city council and County Commissioners to vote in favor of the library district I would love to see my dream of a Gunbarrel Library branch become a reality thank you for your time and appreciate the opportunity opportunity to speak about this thank you Kelly we have Nathan seidle Jean Ashen Brer and Alice G there my name is Nathan Sidle and I the owner of sparkin electronics a business in Bolter County with 104 employees we own and operate an 880,000 square foot manufacturing facility on gber in 2021 we paid $34,000

[330:00] in property taxes to the county while this amount has been increasing at a staggering rate we would love to be taxed more for a Library District in addition I do not know any business owners in my network who would be against increasing taxes for the library increased funding to a library means a more educated Workforce to me a 2019 survey represents the will of the people the people that love the library in 2019 want to continue to want it and as a father of two young children who love the library we would really benefit from a library district and are ready and willing to pay for it please don't waste more time and money doing nothing please do something as a business person looking at the predicament both the library and the city are in financially it just makes sense to move to form a Library District thank you thank you Nathan uh I have heard that Emily Reynolds Crystal gray Chelsea

[331:00] castalano and Jane Hummer are not present so now we've got Jean Ashen brener Alice Ginther and Ben Katz Moses my name is Jean Ashen brener I've lived in Boulder for 38 years and I've been paying taxes and voting for the library and supporting it during that time I'm opposed to the library district because it will increase my taxes even more more as I see it I will be paying double I will be paying taxes to the district as well as the old taxes to the city for the M Levy and sales tax that I pay for the library currently but the city's going to use that money for something else it seems to me that if since we voted those taxes in to be used for the library I'm very surprised that they can be used for something

[332:02] else I want to talk about the North Boulder library for years we've been wanting it we finally passed um voted in $5 million to build it but then we were told that we don't have enough money to it for it when I investigated I discovered that the plans for this library in creates a jewel in North Boulder it seems wonderful with a playground beautiful Plaza a culinary maker space Etc but our goal was a library so kids in North Boulder could get books out of the library why did planners choose to create a super expensive place when they knew the budget was tight now we don't even get the library however recently I read that it would be affordable if some of the fancier aspects were sacrificed the city needs to learn to identify priorities and stick with them so that we get what we want I want to

[333:00] talk about homeless in the library if the district is established who's going to be taking care of the homeless will there be security guards there that the district pays for or will Boulder City police have to step in thank you very much for listening to me thank you Jean now we have Alice Ginther Ben cat Moses and Andy sailor hi everybody my name is Alice Ginther also known as Lisa I live at 4519 Street Lot 637 in Boulder I work for the University of Colorado and I'm chair of the eviction prevention and rental assistance committee and I am speaking tonight as a stakeholder in support of the proposed B Boulder Library District this District would support expanded Education Services that would directly help my neighborhood of almost

[334:01] 1,000 families in Boulder Meadows that means computer help reading and language help homework help and access to the internet for us I also hope this would all I also hope this would mean a new and larger branch that is a 10-minute walk from my neighborhood to use sales tax in funding the library puts a larger burden on the lowest incomes as the lower your income the proportion Ally higher the burden of sales taxes become using a small property tax increase to create a funding district is more Equitable for all please support for forming a Boulder Public Library District thank you thank you Alice now we have Ben cats Moses Andy sailor and Jane syes Wilson

[335:00] hi my name is Ben Catz Moses and I rent in the Newlands neighborhood and I'm speaking up tonight uh and to share my support for creation of the boulder Library District just this morning my four-year-old went into a room and brought out a big stack of library books and she said to me Daddy here's what you need to do today and then she proceeded to go through each one and tell me whether I should return it and get the next one in the series or hold on to it so we can re it needless to say we are big Library fans in our house it's the space where my daughter can play make friends learn and grow and when my daughter is doing those things I actually get to read to myself for a change I want the same opportunity and more for everyone I want to see new branches in Gun Barrel and Nyan my daughter spends a fair amount of time in Gun Barrel with her grandparents and I know they would love to take her to a library out there libraries are great and everyone knows it but this is a about how we fund our library system

[336:02] instead of continuing to choose regressive and unreliable funding sources let's choose this small property tax increase if we do that we get much needed stability for our library system we will also make sure that our library system can Thrive and grow and meet the needs of our community so I urge city council and County Commissioners to work to create a Library District so we can vote on a sustainable funding in the future or in this fall thank you thank you Ben uh I have heard that Emily Reynolds and Jane Hummer are now present but that Gary sprung is not so we've got Ellie Reynolds Edy sailor and Jane Sykes Wilson let's choose this small property tax good evening Council and Commissioners I'm Emily Reynolds thank you for the opportunity to speak my mother was a reference librarian I love libraries however this is a bad idea the

[337:01] library district proposes the budget twice what our libraries receive today and then we're going to give the buildings away and probably not return to taxpayers the 10.2 million We already pay for the Library Boulder would make up about on Tenth of the geography of the new Library District but Boulder residents and businesses would pay 80% of the costs it seems quite a bit skewed what does Boulder get in return for a 90% increase to the library budget we gain $1 do from the sale of each building we lose all control and oversight we establish yet another self-perpetuating government entity I'm not clear on what Outreach has been done but I've heard that the library Champions did a survey of 500 people which they feel represents valid data with 7 of 10 people positive on the

[338:02] issue so never mind the other 99.5% of the population they did their phone survey of 500 citizens representing one half of 1% coloradans face massive property tax increases we're in the process of pricing ourselves out of our own State this proposal has huge implications for small business a recent study says property owners in Colorado will get hit by a 20% property tax increases on average over the next four years if the state doesn't come up with a solution when was the last time you visited the downtown library or don't you go anymore because of the encampments and people washing up in the bathrooms as long as the main library is being used as a de facto day shelter I'm afraid your time is up but thank you for your

[339:00] testimony there was a little background noise there but I was able to understand Emily just fine hopefully others were as well okay now we have Andy sailor Jane Sykes Wilson and Jane Hummer my name is Andy sailor and I'm a resident of North Boulder thank you to the Boulder City Council and Boulder County Commissioners for holding this meeting this evening as we have now been going on for over five hours I imagine we are all a bit tired of discussing this topic I'd like to start by noting that this meeting is a very poor proxy for assessing public sentiment by its very nature we are limiting participation to those who are able to spend five hours of their week night and stay up past 11 p.m. to lend their voice to this topic this is no way to run a democracy fortunately we have a much better way to measure public sentiment holding a vote all that is being asked of you our elected officials is to do just that we have been discussing the topic of a Library District since 2007 and have been discussing the vote since 2019 spending over three years just

[340:01] discussing whether or not to vote is extremely slow even by Bolder governance standards let us not delay further let us stop kicking this can down the road this is ultimately a decision the voters will make and you as stewards of our democracy must facilitate that vote I'd like to address a few of the comments those opposed have raised this evening the first is the idea that we are giving away the liary that's not what is occurring here the library is owned by the residents of Boulder that is true today and it'll remain true under the district several commenters have raised concerns about Boulder becoming increasingly unaffordable the library is not the issue driving this problem it's the fact that we have failed to build enough housing to meet demand over the past 40 years let us not conflate our housing failures with the opportunity to advance our library finally all funding decisions involve tradeoffs echoing Alice moving the library funding away from regressive sales taxes toward more Equitable property taxes is a necessary step if we wish to unburden the most vulnerable in our community I'd encourage the city to consider shifting

[341:01] more of our funding away from sales taxes and toward wealth taxes like a property tax that scale with one's ability to pay the only thing being asked of you this evening is to allow the people to vote please do so thank you for your time thank you Andy now we have Jane syes Wilson Jane Hummer and Claud Claudia them hi my name is Jane syes Wilson I live in the city of Boulder first of all I really want to thank you all for staying up so late and hearing everybody who signed up to speak tonight I'm a supporter of the formation of the library district I'm a heavy Library user I'm the current chair of the boulder Library commission I was previously on the boulder Library foundation and I was also a member of the elap committee I just wanted to comment on one thing tonight and that's the question of alternative funding methods and whether they have been explored for 40 plus years Boulder has

[342:01] been debating whether to put the library on a reliable stable funding pth in more recent history alternative ways to fund the library have been extensively studied since 2017 policy goals pros and cons around alternative ways to fund the library and the pros and cons of a Library District have been a major topic on the council's agenda 11 times over the past four years two City councils have considered this issue four Library commissions have studied analyzed and r reviewed this funding issue the elat committee undertook further analysis for four months with a report submitted to the council in February 2022 this was a 12 member Committee of volunteers who represent both the city and the county library users community members and the business Community we spent over 150 hours studying the community need the levels of service the levels of funding the building the contents the governance the process the timeline and Colorado library law so yes alternative funding

[343:00] methods have been considered but a viable solution has not been found the boulder Library needs a dedicated funding source so that we can have a system that meets the needs of all residents now it's time to let the public vote on The Proposal of a Library District thanks again thank you Jane uh now we have Jane Hummer and then Claudia theme and CLA Kelly hi can you hear me yes hi you got two James in a row what a treat um uh thank you to the council members and County Commissioners for holding this joint hearing tonight and listening patiently to so many comments I support the library district my mother was a school librarian so I grew up in libraries and it's been gratifying to hear so much support for the Boulder Public Library which I view as the physical embodiment of our community's love of knowledge and now we

[344:02] need to fund the library commensurately with our love for it as a librarian's daughter and while aware of librarians abilities to make magic happen even with inadequate and unpredictable budgets but in a community with so much wealth why should they have to we need all the magic we can get Gun Barrel needs some Library magic North Boulder needs some more Library magic and the library district is the way to ensure that our library system has the stable funding it needs for years to come so Council I'm asking you to vote to adopt the resolution tonight you've heard some resistance to a new property tax but that's not the decision before you tonight despite what some of the speakers seem to think all you're doing is giving the voters the opportunity to approve or deny the property tax in November and we're ready to vote on this the presentation by the library staff and echoed by the speaker just before me made clear how thoroughly this funding option and the Alternatives have been researched and discussed uh as Tim

[345:02] Williams said much much earlier tonight after years and years of debate and negotiation the district is the Only Solution on the table so please give us a chance or three to vote on it thank you thank you Jane uh I understand that Molly Lipman and Laura Clark are not present so next we have Claudia de CLA Kelly and duck Hamilton good evening members of council and County Commissioners my name is Claudia Hansen theme I'm a parent of two Elementary School aged kids in Boulder and I'm part of the boulder Library Champions team I wholeheartedly support the creation of a Library District to stabilize Library finances and to better serve our neighbors Beyond City Limits I'm normally here at Boulder City Council to talk about housing and land use and how we use these tools to make stronger and more Equitable communities and my support for the library comes

[346:00] very much from the same place for all the reasons you've heard already tonight our libraries are both beloved places and critical social infrastructure and libraries are amongst the most popular and important Services local governments provide but in Boulder we've been asking our Public Library to do too much for too many people with too little and for too long as you know funding was an issue for years before the 2018 Library master plan recommended a district solution we know from both Community feedback and card holder data that today's Boulder library is a truly Regional resource and one of the most heartening things I've learned in working with the library Champions is that the library also has broad regional support at least from the general public our survey of likely voters included 150 residents of unincorporated Boulder County and found that two-thirds of them favored the proposed district and I find that an astonishing number given that those residents currently pay no dedicated Library taxes what we've found

[347:02] is when people hear the facts about the mismatch between funding and service area most of them understand the need for a district and they want their library to thrive please approve this Library District let the voters decide on funding and thank you for listening to our stories tonight thank you Clum I understand uh Peter mayor is present in the meeting so we're going to do clear Kelly Doug Hamilton and then Peter so Claire you're up great my name is CLA Kelly city council members and especially County Commissioners I'm speaking tonight to ask you to please form a Library District by resolution and let voters decide whether to fund it this fall Boulder City staff and legal counsel have been working on this for a

[348:00] long time and have the information you need to understand why this is the most common form of Library governance in the state of Colorado creation of a Library District would be a historic moment for our city and county in 1902 a boulder resident named Charles ambrook wrote to Andrew Carnegie to ask for a library building Carnegie agreed but only if there was a guaranteed yearly tax to support the library because Carnegie wanted to be sure that the community would support his gift of a building with sustainable funding to maintain its services far into the future even at that time there were citizens in Boulder who did not want to pay taxes that would be a contingent part of the gift but women campaigned and secured the location for the library on Pine Street today the library the Carnegie Library branch is not open to the public It Is by appointment only the branch manager position has been left vacant the building is old and needs careful maintenance because of the Boulder Public Library's permanent cuts when the pandemic hit services in hours have not been restored Fort Collins which has a Library

[349:00] District does not have these problems these are not new problems for Boulder Public Library they have happened over and over again for decades and going back to the city budget is not going to solve them today with the boulder Library Champions a group of citizens been fighting for for three years is not different from what citizens in Boulder County have been stewards of for over a century and that is advocating to sustain and fund the library as a truly Democratic institution and that is open to all the bottom line is that that this this Library District will strengthen our city and county because well-funded and consistently funded libraries allow them to plan ahead benefitting students seniors immigrants businesses now is not the time to delay this decision now is the time to bring the question of Voters happy Library workers day which is today April 5th thanks thank you Claire all right we have Doug Hamilton Peter mayor and then finally Johnny Teter

[350:03] hey uh this is Doug Hamilton uh really late um I'm a boulder Library Champion uh I write for the Daily Camera I'm a founder of the boulder beat opinion page um and on and I'm here to talk to you a little bit about kind of the some of the misconceptions that were shared tonight I think one thing I want to talk about is is businesses um there was a a story in the Daily Camera um this weekend on Sunday that um talked about the library and opposite that story was a story about uh the PPP loan for Boulder County businesses receiving $ 1.56 billion in pppp loans uh that's enough to fund the library for a century they got it in one year okay uh my wife is also a business owner uh I lease uh we leas space here in Boulder um we we

[351:02] calculated what the what the increase on her space would be um it's 17 cents um for her triple n 17 cents uh per square foot per year um I think earlier uh Miss brool spoke about um her her space um that would increase and they passed that on it would be about 17 cents per square foot per year um she also received $21,000 in PPP funds so uh enough to fund this probably for at least a couple years on her on her PPP funds um so um the tax increase um is a tax increase and I think it it allows you to use the freed up funds uh um for your most pressing issues so uh in the city of Boulder and you know all of these issues that other opponents have have said um they don't

[352:00] like I mean you could use the money for that and I press you to do that and that's the end of my time so hey thank you Doug we have Peter mayor and then Johnny terer Peter you're now able to to unmute yourself it doesn't look like Peter is opening is unmuting themselves let's move to Tony terer okay sorry Mr Peter all right uh Johnny you're bat and cleanup

[353:01] here we go good evening everyone thank you so much for hanging in there Johnny terer um I just want to speak to three points this evening um first to the accountability issues that were raised by commissioner Levy early on Colorado law establishes very specific responsibilities for accountability and transparency for the Board of Trustees including the requirement that a report be presented to the establishing entities twice a year detailing exactly how Library District tax revenues are spent second point nwat and the mountain communities were included in the original PR proposal because a previous Board of County Commissioners asked us to include them that board believed that Library districts are an effective and Equitable way to provide Library services to unincorporated County residents we've heard a lot of support for Library services from nwat folks in the 3 years we've been doing Outreach

[354:01] there however we have no horse in this race it's up to this board of County Commissioners to decide whether nyatt folks will get Library services in their Community through this proposal and finally approving this resolution will put this question on the ballot in a way that ensures accurate and complete information for our community much of the opposition we have heard is based on misinformation or mistaken assumptions the IGA will answer outstanding questions and fill in details so the community knows exactly what we are voting on Boulder Library Champions believe strongly in a well-informed community that is why we pulled our petition and have worked with selected electeds low these many years to put this question on the ballot through the legislative process a large segment of our community has been asking to vote on Library funding for a generation please let us finally vote and thank you

[355:00] hopefully we can all now go to bed thank you Johnny and that brings us to the end of our public comment uh just enormous thank you to all the many community members who stayed with us tonight and shared your thoughts on this important question really appreciate the level of Engagement and I also have to give a a real shout out to Ryan henen here at the city who has just done a phenomenal job uh working our way through this 115 person speaker list so really appreciate that Ryan thank you okay so now it's back to us um so I know it's really late but can we do a a five minute break or would people be okay with that because I think we have a little bit more to do and gosh we've been sitting here for a long time can give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down all right I'm seeing some thumbs up here so let's come back uh let's make it 30 and we'll finish up thanks so

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[361:45] hi Mark hi [Music] Nel hi Claire I see Aaron I see does everybody have their second pot of coffee

[362:04] now no I went the other way with it I put my pajamas on we'll be going right to bed more coffee going for heavy metal in the break would it be unseemly to start drinking beer how about you wait till after we adour okay I would announce it you know attorney to attorney at least all right looks like we got everybody back here all right thanks for taking that break I feel a little more human now so um we now have the opportunity to ask any follow-up questions and get any uh final thoughts from our uh County commissioners before we say good evening to them so um any follow-up questions um or words from the County Commissioners Aron have like 10 questions can I ask them just

[363:02] kidding honey I go ahead and jump in okay Claire go ahead oh you're muted Claire I am muted I was deferring to Marta I thought were you jumping in Marta you go ahead okay well I I did just want to come back to a question I asked earlier that I may not have phrased very artfully um and I again maybe there it's not possible to answer it this evening but um I I do I would like to um understand um whether it's possible to well if we approved a lower Mill Levy um seeing as how the assess valuation in the proposed bound has increased so dramatically over the last

[364:00] three years since the orig since the bomb study was done um and we know we can pretty well project the increase in funding um could we could we match up when the library district if the voters approve it would be in a position to expend the additional funds on a a a built out noo branch on a gun barrel branch on these other services that that um sound phenomenal um you know and have and have that funding come online as as the the the mill Levy you know whatever it is 3.2 2.7 uh as it creates more Revenue uh and I'm not used to speaking at this hour of the night I'm usually sleeping so forgive me if I'm stumbling but that's

[365:00] what that's that's that's my concern is that um property values are rising quickly um we need a well-funded library with stable funding I don't oppose that um I am concerned about the mill Levy the so that's one the other and you know we'll we'll noodle on this on Thursday and you guys go about your business tonight so you have to make your decision tonight the the other thing is that um I guess I would like some consideration for the city to continue to um fund a portion of the budget with the sales with its existing Revenue um and um you know unincorporated Boulder County uh residents shop in the city of Boulder and pay those sales taxes as somebody testified to uh out of town visitors pay

[366:00] sales tax um so it's not a it wouldn't be a situation of exclusively city of residents double paying for this uh but I think that would be a way to lessen the property tax burden um and um uh so that without compromising funding so those are two they're not really questions that possibly can be answered tonight but those are two things on my mind that I would like to be able to uh I'd like to have that information on Thursday when we uh vote on this thanks thanks Claire and Mar did you have something uh Matt jumped off mute as well so I didn't want to interrupt go ahead Mar okay great yeah thank you and first of all as electeds we I mean I think this is part of the job we're on call whenever but certainly thank you to

[367:00] Boulder staff for and uh County staff that are still on uh for supporting the work that we're doing so I just want to make sure that's clear also just want to just from kind of a statement standpoint just to be clear it sounded like there might be a little bit of um question in regards to the role of the county and so just want to make sure that it's clear for folks and residents who are on the on the line or who'll be listening later that we are here Board of County Commissioners as an invitation from city of Boulder to your joint hearing as well as uh an invitation from the boulder Library District and and those that are working on this initiative and uh we have also been um really put in a position where we need to respond despite all the work that we're doing as well separately and and so I I I want to say thank you to Boulder County staff who have um jumped in not on initiative that we were putting forward as much as an initiative that was coming from from other sectors

[368:01] of our community and we sent out over almost 12,000 postcards you saw that in the NCA uh quick survey that they had a few minutes to share um and that's where some of the residents found out about this hearing uh we have done a lot of other work gotten on the website connected with your staff so just want to appreciate the work that everybody's been doing to respond to this initiative that that's come forward um just in regards to some questions I was I'm hoping that someone in maybe City staff or or someone else can respond to uh and I won't go through absolutely everybody's but it just happens to be the first question that was Eugene uh asking about um and it was it brought up a question for me so we love some clarification asking he's the statement was something around would they need to petition the Board of Trustees to and so I just was curious about and I

[369:00] don't know who might have been taking notes on staff but it just it brought up a question to me if that was um in regards to the the statement or something around they that the um to do the IGA then they would they would have to be petitioning the Board of Trustees to get services for unincorporated Boulder County so I just I don't know if somebody has a I apologize I don't know typic I don't know who your staff is normally I would know who to ask on my staff um hearing he is correct they would request Library services from the Board of Trustees I can tell you that the library district the financial projections assume that a library that residents in nwat would ask for a library and so the funding is in place in that Mill Levy that you've seen before 3.72 to do a library and not and so I think the

[370:00] question that it brought up for me was if when I hear a resent are gonna have to go petition that concerns me well there are two options that the way to ensure it and this is obviously not within the city's control or the county commissioner's control but the the people who write the ballot language which is I understand that is the library Board of Trustees so if the library Board of Trustees would enter into the ballot Language by saying that they were going to have a library in NAD then that would be their commitment to having that so they could include in the ballot language um that would be something other would wouldn't require necessarily the citizens comp petition okay so if if the the city and the County Commissioners were to approve a resolution but what I just heard you say is that there would still be an opportunity in there for the language to be written in a petition that ultimately might take out a

[371:01] facility for Gun Barrel or nyatt or other unincorporated Boulder County residents is that true does that potential exist yeah I think maybe uh in the district formation process the the council and the Commissioners would would set the geographic area so the physical area The District covers and a ceiling for U the amount of Revenue V that the district could have but then it would be up to the Board of Trustees of that future District to decide how to provide those Services uh and so it would be up to that Board of Trustees to decide whether to uh establish a a a say a corner library or or services in nyatt or gun barel what we've uh what we brought forward is what's represented in the 2018 master plan which has a vision of providing that uh but I think as what

[372:00] David was describing was uh that we've heard from some residents to say I want kind of a guarantee that you're going to give me a library in my my area of the county and the only way to guarantee that would be probably through a a ballot language commitment is my understanding does that help what I hear you saying is that the hundred and so folks that just said they wanted this to either pass or not pass are basing that on very preliminary information as are we in which case what ends up being on that ballot might be something different than what any of us are expecting there because you're saying there are no guarantees and that a resident is going to have to go then petition this Board of Trustees that right now we don't know who will be on the Board of Trustees is that

[373:02] correct yeah the so the the Board of Trustees would be set and then the Board of Trustees would have the responsibility to uh to put together the services of that Library District right uh and um and if the district includes say the geographic area of nwat uh then it would be the resp responsibility of that Board of Trustees to determine how to best deliver those services to that area say of NAD does that any anyone want to add anything no I'll at the financial projections so a lot depends right so a lot depends if if you approve of up to three if you approve of an up to 3.8 Mills there is adequate funds to open a library in gun barel and a library in NAA and there's no reason why they wouldn't do it especially if they committed to doing so in the ballot language if you approved an up to 3.4

[374:03] mil as we saw from the thing that does not actually allow for it doesn't create adequate funds they may decide to do a library in guno and iwatt even still but the mill rate wouldn't generate enough Revenue to do all of the things that you're talking about if you were to set the mill rate at 3.4 or 3.3 But ultimately depending on who that Board of Trustees is they could use the 2018 master plan they could use something else that they come up with between now and when this actually goes to a ballot and gets approved is that correct I think so yeah Board of Trustees would be that they would have the ultimate fiduciary responsibility for the library district okay um so I think then one of my questions for for Thursday would will just be what and it I feel like I'm five hours from where we are right now with

[375:02] the same question what can we guarantee to Residents about what they'll ultimately be voting on in in the resolution process because right now it feels like all we can do is say we would either say yes or no on a resolution and then the details get worked out in in IGA and the details get worked out with a Board of Trustees so that would be helpful to me and um but I don't know that that has to be answered tonight unless somebody else has a similar question on he it and then the other the only other question that I wanted to know that's similar is around that nine and half million on the low-end number and again I'll ask the question is there any way in this process of this decision about the resolution to know if the city of Boulder is can guarantee can give some kind of

[376:00] indication that's a strong indication that they would support and get this these facilities the services the wages Etc up to a place where it is um more reasonable to then hand over to a new organization and ask them to start running this all of these programs and and get every all the maintenance going Etc so that's that's another question which I think is also the piece of it's connected to the fun so I'll be quick mayor Brockett you did a great job I realized you sat there the whole time so spectacular you did that and You' ran a great meeting and thanks for the all the public testimony uh I won't you know I'll just hit the highlights I'm I'm concerned about the council and the commission appointing the bo of Trustees I'm concerned about the boundary for the fire survivors and I'm also concerned about with Clare I mean there's $10 million that's going to library that will presumably go someplace else and so it's

[377:02] a net increase for people and uh because the property tax is such a concern for folks and I know it's a separate district and all that but it just just seems like a so okay thanks for that Marty and Matt um any other last uh comments or questions from our county commissioner before we say good night Claire I I think I'm going to try uh a run another run at I think what Marta was asking and maybe try a different way or maybe I maybe it's a different question um you know it when when we put tax increases on the ballot say for transportation there's a list of projects so people know what they're going to get and then that creates some accountability even though there's never a

[378:00] guarantee and so I I think maybe the question is um would there be in the ballot language in addition to you know shall property taxes be increased by X you know $20 million um etc etc would there be a a list of services and facilities to be funded by that so that there is some level of accountability well I think it could I the question that I that I would want to think about a little bit is how you could make something like that binding but I know that when the city of Boulder drafts its ballot titles generally speaking for tax for tax measures that are especially Capital oriented um it's very routine for as I know the for the county and the school district as well to list the actual

[379:01] projects um that would be funded with the tax measures so it's a very common ballot title drafting technique and it's very transparent to the voters who are voting for the tax so that they know what's coming out of their pocket and what they can expect in services or you know Capital Improvements great so so in other words it's something that could be done right like we we're not deciding the about language tonight but it is something that could be done as part of the ballot language Claire does that answer your question yeah that's what I heard and I know it's you know it's never binding you can't you know can't make something get built um if there's no one C EG Northwest rail to touch the third rail here let's not go there right now but

[380:00] yes and Michelle I see you popped up with your hand up yes thank you hello everybody I think the other thing commissioner Le I just add is there's I apologize do you mind introducing yourself oh yeah sorry Michelle cic Chief of Staff to the board of County Commissioners um the other piece of this is there's a ballot title but there's also a ballot resolution and that's generally at least the way the county does it that's generally where we would put all those projects and those would be in the resolution and so that while again the project that you mentioned Claire that I won't talk about um that was probably in a resolution as well but for the county that's what we use as our guide for what what is built and I think as you work with the Board of Trustees you could ask for that same level of detail in the resolution so that you have some guarantee that those projects are out there and the Public's talking about them

[381:00] understand all right well I'm not seeing anything else really quick I'm sorry yeah just last kind of comments more than anything um I I just just to clarify from the from the board and the and the three of us as the board I um although I'm sensitive to the Marshall fire residents I'm also worried about um I don't share the same worry about cutting them out of the boundar simply because they're folks that will be rebuilding and returning to our community and so if the resolution was to be passed I would just hate for that whole group of folks to be cut out from that opportunity and and from all the that we heard from folks so I just wanted to say that and also one of the concerns and and we haven't you know there's another other conversation about just the ballot and what other asks will be out there for voters to have to side about and so Library um and then housing

[382:00] and then transportation and then um some the City ballot initiatives Etc so I just want to state that out there because that's the other piece that folks are going to have to be dealing with and I heard someone ask earlier about the one two3 strike or whatever the different terminology was but that's something also to take into consideration um and just knowing you know whether or not it's the 2022 or the 202 3 or so I'm sure you all are going to talk about that a little bit but that's just one thing that was on my mind as well from a timing standpoint so but just want to say thanks again for the invitation for inviting the board of County Commissioners to participate and we'll certainly be interested in and hearing about the outcome for you all this evening thanks for that well Marta Matt and Claire we so appreciate your time this evening we know that this was not on your to-do list necessarily for this year um so really appreciate you taking the time and working this through with us and you know we'll be very interested to hear what you all come up with on

[383:01] Thursday and I'm sure if what we each uh separately come up with are a little different um that we can talk together and you come to a point of agreement um if that's where we end up so thanks again we'll say good night to you and take care and then we'll come back to thank you have a good night good night all right uh City Council Members you don't get off that easy so I wanted to take a a temperature check U it is quite late but uh do we feel like we can finish this out here in the next few minutes uh I will say that um when neither Wednesday nor Thursday is available for every council member so if we did not want to finish it tonight we would have to go to next Tuesday um ify in order to include everybody U Mark yeah um I would urge us to do that to to put it to next Tuesday for the following

[384:00] reasons we've all had conversations in the past about how uh difficult or almost inappropriate it is to be making decisions at 12 o'clock at night but more importantly um it's an important issue for the community I have a sense of of where the vote will go but I think it is important for the community to hear us and to see us making those decisions um as opposed to the seven people who are still watching channel 8 and trying to stay awake awake um I don't think this is going to NE change the result but I think as a as a process um since we've all had these prior conversations of you know it's ridiculous to be making decisions at midnight [Music] um the result as I said will probably be the same I would expect it to be the same but I think it's important for the as a matter of transparency to give the community an opportunity to see us

[385:00] articulate our views and come to a decision um and and that's that's really my only argument okay thanks for that Mark and we got other people so I would really like to not spend a long time talking about whether we extend the meeting so real quick comments and then let's take a straw poll uh and we'll go with the will of councel whatever that happens to be so Matt and then Lauren I I just point out we we we are already scheduling special meetings throughout the next many months because we have a schedule that is Fuller than the time that we a lot um and so kicking this to Tuesday only burdens our schedule even further and so I think for the sake of just all of that that's down the pipeline I think we got to knock this out and plus it creates a great Cadence for reconciliation if we make a decision then the Commissioners then we get the bite at the Apple to try to reconcile the differences between the two and since we've sort of been driving some of this at least from the city level I think that process makes the

[386:00] most sense SM Lauren yeah while I don't love making decisions at the middle of the night I think that because of the timeline for when we have to be reconciled by I think it would be wise to get that going all right so I'm going to ask for a straw poll how many people would like to finish it out tonight just hand up if you'd like to finish out tonight I got six I believe so um if if you all can live with it um we've got a majority that would like to finish tonight so but let's see if we can be expeditious about this discussion uh we've heard a lot of testimony we have a resolution in our packet that that um so we could people want to open a discussion make some quick points and maybe get to a motion before too long don't be shy okay we got Matt and then

[387:02] Mark um just maybe to take this in bites um is it it's Pro would it be worth going back to David Fen Taran and David gear to be like well what are the very specifics that are required at the resolution and is there a way to maybe put that on screen and just be like can we agree on uh Lis or own uh can we agree on a mill like can we just mark Mar through like that versus a scattershot of thoughts that we're trying to piece together live I'm just trying to think of how we can most efficiently March through the process to make sure staff has exactly what's needed to form a resolution great well I I'll I'll respond if you don't mind because we do we do have the text of the resolution that that you know we could just pass um as I understand there are two key variables that are contained within that resolution in in addition to the various text that's in there and that is what is the maximum Mill Levy that the that the uh District could could tax at and that's a maximum right it does it's not a requirement but it's

[388:01] the most that they could do and then the other is the map with the boundaries and so I think those are our two major variables that we're looking at uh Davids is there anything else the date for dissolution and the amendment that um commissioner Jones put forward which which specific one was that the specific appointment it was about the appointment process that would be done by the trustees exactly that the appointment process would be done by the board of County Commissioners and and city council as opposed to delegating it to the Board of Trustees for new appointments and if I have that correct that's not currently specified in the resolution right that would would I think we were anticipating specifying that in the GA that right it could be in either place and we do have um amended language

[389:01] that we could offer to the council okay very good so date of dissolution currently is I believe 12312 24 so if people wanted to offer an amendment to that so I think currently the resolution has the maximum mill rate of 3.8 it has the district boundaries uh well it's a map anyway um and it has dissolution data the end 2024 so and then there's this possible of specifying how we appoint people and adding that to the resolution so people want to speak to those things I think the questions that I might start with is if you have a ways that you think the resolution should change from how it is currently in our packet please propose those and advocate for them Matt does that does that work for yeah I'm good with that great thanks thanks for asking from organization that's helpful uh mark my my comments are more General so if you

[390:01] just want us to speak at the moment to the resolution itself I will defer until General comments are called for okay so let let's ask if people um to start out if people would like uh to specifically change what's in the resolution is proposed Bob yeah I'll just make a comment on on one of those issues and and and and by way of of kind of splitting the the baby um know we talked a week or two ago about having uh a three-year window in which to have the tax approved I'd like to suggest um and onee window or one time shot I I like to suggest by way of compromise it' be two years and that's really two election Cycles this year and next year it seems to me if it fails twice it's probably problematic I get the fact that people want to have more than one shot at it um but I I would suggest that three is too many so i' like to throw it to as a

[391:01] compromise okay we did talk this through at another meeting but we could always reconsider tonight um I'll I'll just throw out for a straw how many people would be interested in changing the dissolution date to be a year earlier 2023 I just get a show of hands here strle there I've got I got three I'm sorry did you say two years years Aon that's correct two years what Bob just said the end of 2023 I got I got three hands on that so thanks for suggestion Bob but looks like doesn't have majority support um uh Rachel well just on that like if if the Commissioners are are super eager to limit it to two years I'd rather it be two years and not two years sequentially like I would prefer that the option be left open for 2022 and 2024 if uh the library District would like to go that route so just not interested in us changing it but uh if they want to

[392:01] suggest that and then I had a couple thoughts on the boundaries if while I have the mic if that's okay um I I don't favor um carving out the the Marshall area where we had the fire for a couple reasons um as as Marto was getting at I think that that um they shouldn't be excluded and we would hope that by the time we start uh the attacks several years down the line um people will be while recovering and also I think it would be a a strange thing to do especially given that we've had um a couple other you know sign semi significant at least apartment fires recently um and and I you know we also had another fire and Boulder and I imagine that over the coming years we may have more and so um I just I think that that just picking one group might just be an odd precedent so I don't think I would exclude um that area

[393:00] and and I maybe would just like a little bit more guidance from staff on the nyatt issue um I'm a little bit confused as to whether uh that was a statistically valid survey that was done that we heard about tonight um or or if we really understand what the the desires are of that community in terms of surveys well I I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't characterize it as a statistically valid survey it was a survey of the members of an organization um and there were 111 of those members that weighed on it um yeah no it's not a statistically Val okay thanks and Rachel did you have an opinion on the Jamestown the staff recommendation to exclude Jamestown I'm supportive of that great all right so let's talk about the boundaries uh we've got Matt and Tara and I'll go thanks Aaron and thanks for bringing up that piece um Rachel um I so I I

[394:03] support uh keeping Jamestown out um I'm also looking at where areas that we might be already seeing a need for some reconciliation um given we've heard some general some agnosticism from from the boulder Library CH Champions and realizing that there may not be a major uh just a major part of either population Andor funding and given what we're seeing in the survey I would be okay with carving out nyatt um in order for them to you know generally maybe control their Destiny of maybe being a little bit more related to Longmont and respecting that um I do hear issues of the survey perhaps but I think that might be something where the County Commissioners are leaning and so might leave one less area to reconcile down the road so I would be open to uh carving that out uh but to Rachel's point I would like to see the Marshall folks stay in because I'm thinking about you know uh uh the the tax base 20 30 years from now when we're you know well into recovery and making sure that they

[395:02] still have a chip in the game at that point not ter it's so late I can't even work my mute button I'm GNA agree with Matt about NAD it just seems they sounds to me like people in nwat feel like they're more close they're closer to longm so so I I know we listen to five or six hours can you remind me if we're the only ones voting or if for instance the people who are affected by the Marshall fire and I would are going to vote or not going to vote so whatever District boundaries gets put into the resolution those are the people that will vote on the tax okay so are we going to discuss the M Levy or you're going to leave it at 3 we'll get there I think finish out the boundaries and then we'll okay I'm done I'm good okay great um so I'll call on myself just on the boundaries I thought

[396:00] the excluding Jamestown made sense I agree with Matt and Rachel that the I would prefer to keep the Marshall fire areas inside I'm open to running a some kind of rebate program through the city you know if the Commissioners felt like that that were important um you for a handful of years uh so even if the library district itself can't can't refund it you know I'd be open to some kind of rebate program so I'll just put that out there for the Commissioners um when they discuss it but I would I would continue to include them I mean on on nwat I'm I'm fine excluding them it's you know uh I'm interested in what the Commissioners have to say so I would probably follow the lead of the Commissioners on that one uh as it is of course in their area so I could either support removing it and then see if they agree or leaving it in and see if they'd rather take them out um kind of agnostic on that so whoever makes the motion eventually wants to just pick one I I I

[397:01] could work with either approach any other thoughts on the boundaries Nicole I'm joining Tara and having trouble with the mute um I I think I would just have a slight preference for um just including nwat um as as it is just kind of as it's been recommended but again if the commission commers who likely know that area better than I do um are not interested in having NAD included I'm fine with that too but um my slight preference would be just to keep it in for now um and then uh have it taken out later thanks one yeah I I agree with that okay succinct I like it uh okay so sounds like we're talked through the the boundaries so mil Levy so right now we've got a 3.8 maximum does anybody have interest in changing that maximum number in the resolution

[398:01] Tara I want I would like it to be lower much lower I I liked what Claire said actually she was very concerned about it I made an entire speech everybody I just want you to know instead of just rambling on I actually wrote my little speech down on a piece of paper and didn't even get to use it tonight how sad I mean you have floor Tara if you really want to say say something more really it's such a good speech well first is all right I might as well say it for anybody that's listening everybody has to stay awake from me now it's the one time I'm really speaking I want to thank the many community members who wrote EXC excellent and wellth thought out emails and those who spoke tonight earlier in the evening our city manager called us a community of caring and sharing I want to ask our fellow community members and I'm asking myself as well that we treat those who disagree with us in regard to the library district with love and respect we all love the library we disagree how to fund it let's not have Library shaming please

[399:02] on either side thank you very much okay um so my thought is if you think you like that speech eron think which is great okay go ahead I know I like short speeches if you think about a $2 million house which is right it's almost believe me I've been housing shopping with some of my kids that's almost the um median house price now that's $540 a year so much for the Free Library I think it is so much money because these little these people who bought their houses when they were $100,000 they have a $2 million house now no fault of their own they have to pay $550 a year year after year on a fixed income it just seems so much to me for the people that can't afford it fixed income so security and those whose income is not increasing as fast as inflation and property values so I think

[400:02] we should pull it down I'm going to defer to those that know a lot more than me to give a number though okay lower but you're not sure don't have a number in mind okay U mark would also like to lower the the mill Levy and and I want to address one thing that that U Tara said you know it's not just $540 a year increase it's $540 a year on top of the increase everyone has already experienced from increased valuations so I I I I think the at some point the tax burdens do become oppressive I think the people who described it as just a few lattes a month are really not looking at it correctly the other reason I want to lower it is with respect to our businesses this will be the third tax increase inre they will have experienced this year every business has experienced a tax increase simply because of the

[401:01] increase in valuation we're intending to put on the ballot an extension of the climate Action Tax which has been restructured to place a greatly increased portion of that tax burden on our commercial and Industrial properties and of course any of these tax increases whatever the mid Levy rate is it's four times the tax rate for those properties as it is for residential and where I'm coming out is I I almost feel that we are treating the business Community as a lemon to be squeezed whenever we want to have some lemonade and I just think there got to be some limitations to that and we're not recognizing those limitations we're placing a great burden on that community and that's that's of course why the chamber has sent us a letter saying that they oppose this um it it not a proportional increase for those properties so yeah I would like it to be

[402:00] substantially lower I happen to like CLA Levy's suggestion that maybe we we have a hybrid funding model part from sales taxes and part from U M Levy which could decrease the M Levy I agree with that okay thanks Mark juny thank you you um I think for more conversation so in the resolution it says nothing less than 333 which is three threes uh for the meal Levy we have that floor and as far as the maximum or the ceiling maybe that's something that we may want to leave to the IGA to figure out what that looks like but also we're still working on that boundary so how can we know for sure what that meal Levy should be as of

[403:03] tonight well I do say that the the ceiling we do have to pick a ceiling of the mill Levy for the resolution it has to be written into the resolution so but it just it can always go lower right like what goes on the ballot can be something a little bit lower or much lower than the ceiling this is only uh the very maximum that allowed does does that answer your last concern jany it does but I think I I I want to do I think we should definitely do the right thing when it comes to meeting the Commissioners somewhere in the middle but I just don't know what that low number looks like for them to agree so they've never said tonight that they would not agree to um to the ceiling that we've provided tonight so that's just my thought so

[404:00] since they haven't said anything that they would not I think from my understanding from commissioner Levy that would be her preference um but I didn't hear that she said she would not support okay thanks Janie uh we got Matt Nicole and I'll call on myself uh thanks Aaron um I'm going to well for one I think just um it's not it's not the library proposed Library District's fault that the Gallagher amendment is the way it is and so I think penalizing the library district based on a Statewide Gallagher is maybe not a fair apportionment of the blame so I just want to toss That Into The Ether um but maybe thinking about this maybe a little bit in Reverse might be helpful instead of focusing right off the bat on a mill Levy and and this might be helpful for the IGA and the ballot is to figure out once we settle the boundary work backwards to a mill based on the support we want which clearly is

[405:01] roughly about 19 and a half million so whatever the boundary is and as long as we can maintain the support of 19 and a half million then whatever that Mill Levy shakes out to be should be what we place on the ballot um and so I I I I so I agree at least at this stage let's keep it at 3.8 but let's as we move forward keep in the back of our heads that let's not be stuck on a mill on the front side figure out well what is based on the boundary and maintaining 19 and a half million what's that Target Mill Levy based on assessment so I would maybe just reframe the order in which we arrive at it rather than starting at a Mill and then going from there I I think that might allow us to actually maybe perhaps lower things but all depends on what the map is and where the current assessments are so that would just be sort of my thing but to answer the question I say stick at 3.8 but recognize it might go lower based on what our map is and what the assessments are to achieve 19.5 million which is the targeted funding thanks Nicole and then myself and I'll see if we can straw pull this one um yeah I'm just G to Echo what's

[406:01] been said before and my what I'm thinking about is that wonderful slide that um folks in the Penfield tape building um showed us tonight where we sort of had a it it was kind of a menu but it really wasn't a menu um I just don't know what of those things I would pull out is at the latinx community outreach um I I don't there's nothing in there automatically that I would want to pull out to lower it right so um I I'm I'm in favor of just moving forward with 3.8 it may end up being less depending on the boundary but we're not setting what it exactly is we're just setting an upper limit um for now and and I think our our conversation with the Commissioners um through the course of resolving this will help too but I I just don't know what I would cut out of there I don't I don't know what things I would pull out to try to get a to a lower um number but I I expect that maybe once the boundaries are firmed up um we may get to a lower number

[407:01] naturally but I'm I'm fine with moving forward with 3.8 thanks Nicole yeah I agree with that that statement as well and just keeping in mind that this is a this upper ceiling is going to be the upper ceiling for a long time right and so the the future needs of the district you know might require something um that number eventually you know it may well be that the ballot um this year comes in lower than that to Matt's point about depending on the map and such so but I would like to leave the flexibility for sometime in the future you know the system might might need that that upper number um so I wouldn't want to to make that permanent decision to have a lower ceiling than that and you know to Mark's point about the the business Community I'm very open and interested in uh having um a support program you know the that say small businesses that for whom this was the extra expenses were

[408:01] particular challenge that we might be able to offer some support uh with some of the funding that we have available if this passes so I I'd like to offer some support for folks who are in that situation you know and you know for for and then for some of our seniors you know there are a couple of programs to assist with property taxes there as well so you know we do want to I would just I would argue for leaving the ceiling higher and then offering targeted ways of helping those people who might be disproportionately impacted um by an increase in property taxes um and then I just have to say you know I appreciate Claire's point about the the hybrid funding model but I would I would really love to see the district be um self-sufficient and and not have to have a back and forth kind of arguing with the city over funding levels um over over the decades so I would really rather see the district to be you know an entity that can run the library system as best as it as it can rather

[409:00] than negotiating a hybrid funding model for for many years to come so that's my just my thought on that um Rachel and then let's let's drw all this one yeah I amum I want to empathize I guess with Mark's point about businesses and the hit that they will be taking this year in particular and and every year and um it's it's a harsh climate due to the gallager Amendment for sure and I'm fine leaving the the ceiling where it is but um guess I and and I look forward to hearing what the Commissioners come back with but would also caution like you know for um a handful of us to be comfortable with something um whoever puts together that final number that's going to go to voters should be um you know just very aware that it it it doesn't have to get voted on and just because we're comfortable with it doesn't mean that voters are going to be comfortable with that high of a number and so I hope that people are sensitive to um you know we may not

[410:01] be able to get everything you want and the the gold Platinum whatever uh standard that we we are would love like we whoever said it earlier tonight like often we don't get get everything that we want so um I would just say to be to be sensitive to to um the fact that that it's going to come down to voters and not our wishes and and to be uh mindful of of while shaping that what what is a realistic thing to put on the ballot can I just cqu on that really quickly Erin and just note that we've now had three polls um that suggest that that amount is one that voters will support I believe including this most recent one um that was a um I forget the exact term that they use in um polling in the polling world but a valid in the polling World um poll that tells us that really voters um didn't didn't have too much difference there so um anyway I I I

[411:00] do hope that we can get to something maybe slightly lower once we get the boundary set but um I think the voters at least the polling from the voters is telling us that they'll support that because they do see this programming as really valuable and very important um for the community okay thanks all right so just to get a straw P here um how many people people would like to see the number remain at the 3.8 that's currently in the resolution get a show hands let see six I got six on that one so it looks like we got a majority that would like to see that ceiling remain at 3.8 the the one uh last question I think that we had to address was um was about the idea of including in the resolution that the city council and the County Commissioners would select the trustees going forward uh uh any like to advocate for changing the resolution to include that Nicole I just want to make sure because this came up in the comments a

[412:00] bunch and it's been coming up in the um emails we've been getting when we say that we will select um we we we are basically saying that we'll review the applications and decide who we're going to advance to vote on um the alternative would be that um the current trustees review the applications and promote somebody to us to say hey we think this person's a good candidate would you vote on them you know and then and then we would vote Yes or No we in the county um Commissioners I I just want to make sure that those are the two things that we are deciding between um because I think there's some confusion that that um we may lose our ability to decide who gets on but that's never going to be the case is that right and maybe somebody could clarify that I believe those are the Alternatives I see David gears popped up David did you you're muted

[413:01] David you're muted David we can't hear you and you're like you're on the screen in two places this is getting very confusing but we can't hear you talk in either of them Desperately Seeking David I'll try my computer can you hear me now we can hear you now looks like oh now we lost you okay can you hear me now yes okay great so the way that this we got a bad Echo there you go great okay so the way this the statute and David I apologize no video from you there is a a um a committee that gets appointed um where you will have two

[414:00] city council members and the Commissioners will appoint two um committee members and those committee members actually select the um the the trustees so it's done by the the committee and then once the committee has made its selections it's sent to the to the city council as a body and the Commissioners as a body and those bodies either ratify those selections or they reject them so um yeah thank you so basically either way electeds will always be the ones who are um accepting or rejecting candidates for these positions yes I well then between those option I don't care Aaron um but but but I think that that's right okay good Bob then I'll call it myself yeah I might I might just um

[415:02] suggest to those of you who are going to vote for the library district that um you will have less resistance from the community if you leave the selecting uh in the hands of the Committees that David just described as opposed to having the trustees select and then Council ratifying Nicole I think you're right I think it's potentially the same outcome but I think this is one of those things that's Optics I mean and we do this all the time right we we pick boards and commissions every year we interview people and uh then we make our selections and I think optically it looks better for the Committees of councel and the Commissioners to do the interviewing and the selection subject to obviously the big vote of of those respective bodies rather than having the trustees pick their own successors and then have it be ratified because it's really kind of hard to kind of like reject someone else's recommendations so I'm just going to suggest um trying to help you guys out here um that if you want to get this um approved by the voters in November you might want to go along the route of um having the

[416:01] selections be by the uh committees from the council and the Commissioners but do as you wish thanks for that Bob I'll call myself I I agree with you on on that um I I feel like we are hearing concerns from the community from some community members about uh concern about accountability and I think having the electeds uh do the interviewing and the choosing of the trustees would be a step in the direction of reassuring people that there is continued additional elected oversight I mean we we'd approve either way but I think having a little bit of a bigger role could be reassuring to people so I would take Matt up on this idea and including included in the the resolution that would be my thought other Matt Benjamin it's weird having two mats around um a question about maybe somewhere in the middle um so I certainly in the early formation of this I wholly support having us uh Council and County Commissioners do the whole

[417:00] process for continuity and to get this thing launched I wholly agree with that I'm just wondering you know 10 years from now it's the well Machine and it's working like we're thinking about in other aspects of our work to try to you know let others and and not micromanage every single thing all the time and so I'm wondering is there a way in the resolution to say yeah we we'll run this for some period of time and then you know let let the trustees take over it's working well or is that a decision that can be made later on and maybe that's a question for David gear or or David Faron but I'm just wondering is it once you said it is it in perpetuity one way or the other or is there a way to modify it or or give it some you know time period before it moves to a different uh option yes I'll just build on that if you don't mind Matt just the the question of because the resolution is an establishing document that I don't really believe can be amended particularly so I wonder if the language

[418:01] in the resolution could be something on the order of we will start off this way unless like a majority or or a super majority of the city council and County Commissioners agree in the future to to change it I'm looking for a David answer here D yeah we're having technical problems in the room um but yes in the future you would be able to amend the resolutions and I don't know that you would need to say anything in the resolution of itself if the time came that you wanted to change to a different process then we would just propose the city and count County amend their resolutions that's really helpful okay so so it could be changed in the future then then I'll KN that so just knowing that for casee of any straw po or disposition I'm good keep going with we will run that process from beginning middle and end and we'll let future

[419:01] councils and and count County Commissioners decide whether to change that at some future date but we'll stick with it for now at least that's my perspective so why don't I straw hold this then if that's right so how how many people are would like to change the resolution to include that the Commissioners and the city council would make the um nominations so show your hands I've got I've got a solid eight I think nine okay that's unanimous and I believe we you had um sample language for that you have proposed did I hear that we do have proposed language for that and it would come at section six of the draft resolution and it would what I can't do is show oh there we go a thank you Chris wonderful okay so we' add language

[420:00] to say wherein city of Boulder and Boulder County shall appoint two of their members to a committee that shall appoint the initial Board of Trustees thereafter City Boulder and Boulder County she'll continue the committee to recommend new trustees great thanks so much for having that at the ready so I think we we've gotten the four issues here that we've talked through this one that we just did uh leave the dissolution date at the end of 2024 um the boundary to remove jamest toown and then maybe remove nwat um um and then the mill Levy at 3.8 would anyone like to make a a motion or is there additional discussion that he would like to offer before we get to that point uh Lauren I think Bob you've got a hand up but I think it may be old it was just a process question I one one thing we haven't talked about tonight I think we don't need to talk about tonight is is the um the real estate question is that something we can reserve for the IGA later on is that

[421:02] right that's correct that'll be part of the IG discussions that's fine that's what I thought thank you thanks for ask should we straw pole nyatt uh sure who who would uh how many people would like to uh exclude nwat from the boundaries I got I got one I'm seeing a lot of like I don't know but so there I got one full vote for excluding so it sounds like probably majority is fine including it and then but like we say we're interested in the county commissioner feedback on that one all right great question Lauren anybody want to make a motion or Nicole I would like to make a motion especially if it includes that's going to bed um okay so I would like to make the motion um as written with the modifications to remove Jamestown from

[422:01] the bound from the boundary The District boundary area um so that the county uh Commissioners and city council would select and appoint the trustees and um looking at an upper limit on the mill Levy of 3.8 did I capture all the I think maybe just say with the using the suggested language the proposed using the suggested language thank you I'd like to second right motion by Nicole second by Lauren um Nicole do you want to speak to the motion briefly um I I mostly just want to say an enormous thank you um to the staff and to everybody who has worked for years um really over a decade uh for the folks who've served our library um on the commission um kind of putting this out there again and again um all the work and engagement thousands of people um who've been communicated with over the last three or four years um the

[423:01] patience of the petitioners and letting us wait until we got a little bit past 2020 um to to uh figure out what was what we were going to do to meet the needs of our community um and just thank you to all the people who stuck with us tonight to give us public comment um everybody who's engaged over the years um and previous councils as well um for supporting this process along the way so um just want to thank everybody and uh you know again I think for the folks who are out in the community really concerned about um this proposal I just want to remind everybody we are not deciding tonight to increase um property taxes or to impose this M Levy um you the voters will decide that uh in November if we come to an IGA with the uh count or to an agreement with the County Commissioners um it really will be up to our community and to everybody who would be a part of this Library District to decide whether

[424:00] or not we are going to move forward with this so I just want to remind folks that this is um us sort of putting forward an issue to be voted on um not not necessarily deciding that we're doing this uh tonight thanks for that Nicole Lauren did you want to say a couple words no I'm good no no is fine all right uh so we got a motion on the table with second uh let's go ahead and call for a vote Elicia oh yes if you don't mind me interrupting real quick just to make sure that we're super clear from a a record standpoint on the map item uh and I'm gonna we're going to share a screen here real quick is uh just to make sure the recommended boundary excludes precinct 9913 which also includes James so would be the map as shown on the screen here Nicole motion maker you want to confirm that yes that is my understanding of what I was making a

[425:00] motion for okay great thank you I see a nod from the second bir as well thanks for clarifying Chris all right Elicia what kind of of a vote do we have here we are going to do a roll call vote here sir excellent all right we will start with council member Yates council member Yates votes [Music] no council member Benjamin yes mayor Brockett yes council member folit yes mayor proen friend yep c m [Music] Joseph yes spere

[426:01] yes mik we'll vote no Ander uh no mayor resolution 1305 passed with a vote of six to three thank so much does anybody want to make some final comments before I wrap this up Matt I mean just in as succinctly as I can say uh we have a generational opportunity to bring about transform transformative change to our libraries and the support that our libraries not only do but have always been meant to do and in doing so we also get to free up money to take care of things we've long needed to take care of um and hearing from the public about homelessness and drugs and crime we now have some money

[427:00] that allows us to take care of those priorities that we've set without having to take money from other departments who also desperately need to meet our community goals so so this is just such a unique opportunity to take care of so many different things and stabilize our community in some meaningful ways and so uh I just look forward for the the community to support this um as we March forward and we'll still have some nuts and bolts to to work out thanks Bob and then Nicole yeah I just want to observe that you know we we heard from a lot of people tonight some said yes some said no um we receive I went back actually counted we received 322 no emails um a fewer number of yes emails 322 from people not three we more than 322 emails with 322 from Unique Individuals I I'm I'm I regret the fact it makes me a little s quite frankly make regret the fact that this puts us in a really awkward situation um I I really respect my colleagues who had voted yes tonight this is not a criticism of you all but I think we put

[428:01] ourselves in a very awkward situation here where people are going to assume that we are not respecting their views or their opinions there's a lot of people who've expressed their views and um I think they're going to wake up tomorrow morning and say gosh I got ignored um and maybe that's fair maybe that's not fair but I I think that's going to be the unfortunate result of this I also predict um I'm not saying that I wish this I'm saying I predict that the tax will fail at least the first time so I think we're we're putting our library into a limbo for a really long time and it may take two or three or maybe it'll never happen votes to get this thing passed and so I I I um I'm I'm not happy with where we're at not because I got out voted that happens all the time but I'm ha unhappy with where we're at because I think this is going to tonight's decision is going to reflect reflect badly on this Council and I think we're going to come into a lot of criticism um over the next few months

[429:02] and after the tax fails in the fall for not listening to our constituents and that's um that's regrettable so that makes me a little bit sad but we are where we are Nicole then Tera this is just in um response to Matt but it also applies to Bob's comment as well and that again I just want to remind us we didn't vote on taking this money from the library tonight right we voted so that um we as a city are entering into the next steps of being able to put it on the ballot so that people can decide there I mean that that's sort of is you know what our democracy is right is hopefully deciding things at The Ballot Box and I think that's that's what we're giving the community the opportunity to say because we have also heard from a lot of people over the last three or four years um who have said that yes they want to see this happen yes this is the most sustainable way to fund our library um and I think it's it's just going to give it to a

[430:01] test and and um you know I think you know when when I think about this I don't think about it as reflecting um badly on us but rather just on us giving our community a chance to do something that folks have been working toward and talking about for a really long time um so I I hope that everybody who um wrote emails um and um spoke tonight and everybody who's been involved in all the polling and everything um if this does make it to the ballot in November I hope everyone will show up there and let us know thanks and Taran I'll wrap us up I do want to end with once again a plea that we have so much going on in this world we have to worry about fires here and drought Etc and if we can as a city not be yelling at each other if we disagree about the library but instead at care for each other and be there for each other that would be really great I'm asking for people also that are on social media Etc that we shouldn't pit

[431:00] each other against each other on this particular subject because it's just a way of looking at funding differently and likewise as I'm worried about people not being a able to afford it I can also see the other side where people who really want it so I'm hoping that we can all you know what I'm hoping Aaron and if say a good sentence for me to end it off that we can all go to bed no yes that we can all come together despite our differen yes approaches thank you thanks for that Tara so anyway thanks so much to everyone there's been an enormous amount of work that's got us to this point and um you know there there's a choice here do we uh move forward with proposing Library District or not and you know we've heard from lots of people have differences of opinion but I'm excited that that we're taking this next step for the sustainability um of the library and looking forward to getting it in front of the voters right and that's who will make the ultimate decision um and

[432:02] looking forward to hearing from the community about that and I think Jam Sykes Wilson put it well in the public testimony about how many years this has been worked over and how much Outreach that's there's been and about uh how so many people who care a great deal about the library have concluded that this is the best approach so really hoping for a successful outcome for the community and the library coming forward from this and so here we are it's been just over um 7 hours uh so I really appreciate everybody hanging in there and your stamina and all your thoughts and hard work and uh with that maybe we can 40 am good night everybody

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