September 7, 2023 — City Council Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

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[21:35] of the Boulder City Council we're going to get started with a couple of announcements first of all is about what's up Boulder the city of Boulder invites all of our community members to what's up Boulder an event to have fun and chat with staff about current and future plans and projects across the city what's up Boulder will take place to 3:30 p.m. at Foothills Community Park in North Boulder in The Pavilions area come join us is for family activities free entertainment and to learn more about

[22:01] your local government and what could be more exciting than that and our other announcement is about the better public meetings project so the city of Boulder is partner partnering with the national civic league on a nationwide effort to make Council meetings more engaging and satisfying for everyone who participates as part of this effort we want to hear about your experiences with our meetings we invite community members who are either in person or online for Council meetings starting tonight and running through our December 7th meeting to rate your experience okay this makes me nervous we have an online scorecard that takes about 2 minutes to fill out the link to it is on the screen now and for the online audience we're putting a link and QR code in the chat you may complete the scorecard once for each time you participate in a council meeting over the next 3 months okay will Audi will people be timed in that 2 minutes it takes some that's right I'll G them shut if they take too long all right and with

[23:00] that I will go ahead and call to order this September 7th meeting of the Boulder City Council and if we could start with the roll call please Elicia yes sir thank you and good evening everyone we'll start as usual with council member Benjamin present mayor bronet present council member fulus present friend here Joseph present spear present mayor Pro Tim wall present council member Wier present and Yates happy to be here mayor we have our quarum thanks so much Elicia so uh first item of business I would request a motion to amend the agenda to remove item 6B which is the update and request for direction regarding the intergovernmental agreement with the Boulder Public Library District which is being moved to the September 14th study session so moved second all right we've got a motion and a second all in favor of the motion

[24:00] raise your hands and that is unanimous the agenda is amended and now we have some declarations to read starting with a declaration recognized in the 10th anniversary of the September 2013 flood presented by council member friend thank you mayor is anyone here to receive this I don't think so so if not I'm just going to stay seated hearing nothing okay um it is my honor to read this declaration commemorating 10 years since the 2013 Front Range flood today on September 7th 2023 from September 11th through 15th 2013 the Front Range region received more than 18 inches of rain causing flooding loss of life and widespread damage Boulder County including the city of Boulder was designated a federal disaster area that week the region

[25:00] received more rain than than it would receive in a typical full year with Scientists generally agreeing that the magnitude of rainfall occurs in the region once every 100 to 1,000 years the floods were a defining moment for the Boulder Community we experienced tragic losses of loved ones and devastating damage to property and infrastructure we also experienced the strength of our community as we as we came together to help each other during and after the floods the response relied on members of the community such as former Boulder County Sheriff Joe py former Boulder police chief Mark Beckner and units of the National Weather Service and US National Guard First Responders volunteers City staff relief organizations and neighbors all showed up to lend a hand recovery is a multi-year commitment for Boulder as the community builds back stronger and more resilient than before and as the 10year commemoration of the floods near the city council of the city of Boulder extends our solidarity and support to those who were lost and to the families

[26:00] impacted as well as our gratitude to all involved in the response and Recovery thank you thank you for that Rachel it's a solemn moment indeed now we have National voter registration day declar declaration presented by mayor protm wallik thank you thank you voting is the Bedrock of our democracy without it we would not be free and both our city and our country would not be able to function having a say in your future is a basic human right and we believe that it should be accessible and protected at all costs centuries of tireless work have expanded voting rights and access but the systems for participation in our democracy still maintain barriers for Access or simply deny many members of our community their right to vote everyone deserves a say in their government and and it is up to us to make sure that voting is a universal

[27:00] right which includes exercising the right to vote for all who can while the United States as a whole has one of the lowest voting rates in the world the state of Colorado leads the nation in voter turnout and Universal mail in ballots according to ballotpedia in 2020 about 67% of eligible voters in the US cast their ballot but that same year in Colorado there was a 76% turnout although there were roughly 80 million people who did not vote that year that was still the highest voter turnout of the 21st century this year the city of Boulder is administering inaugural voting methods in our community Through rank Choice voting and direct election of the mayor our voters approved this change in 2020 to enhance the way voters choices are counted we the city council of Boulder declare September 19 2023 as National voting registration day and urge all

[28:00] community members to take recognition of this event and participate in its observance thank you thank you Mark and now we have National Suicide Prevention month declaration presented by council member forwards and I believe we have Jenna card um on online um to receive it she's the executive director of Rise Against suicide September is National Suicide Prevention month and is intended to promote awareness and share Suicide Prevention Resources with the goal of learning how to help those around us and how to talk about suicide without increasing the risk of harm Suicidal Thoughts can affect anyone regardless of age gender race sexual orientation income level religion or background according to the Center for Disease Control each year more than

[29:00] 41,000 people die from suicide nationally it is the 10th leading cause of death among adults in the US and the second leading cause of death among people aged 10 to 24 not only does suicide tragically take lives but it is also devastating to its victim's loved ones local organizations like Rise Against suicide are on the front lines of an issue that may feel uncomfortable discussing due to the taboo surrounding mental illness and suicide rise is a nonprofit organization that funds therapy sessions for atrisk youth struggling with suicidal ideation in the Boulder Valley School District and St Vine Valley School District the fact is ignoring conversations like these perpetuates the stigma against mental health and can put those at risk in Greater danger due to to lack of support National Suicide Prevention

[30:01] month reminds us that every member of our community is silently facing their own challenges the coid pandemic created additional economic stress and increased social isolation these effects continue to impact many in our community including our youth we encourage all community members to take the time to check in on the well-being of their family friends and neighbors and to offer support it can be hard to find Hope in these challenging time times but luckily hope is contagious a simple phone call message greeting or hug can be enough to change someone's day and could save a life we the city council of Boulder Colorado declare September 203 uh 2023 as National Suicide Prevention month and urge all community members to take cognizance of this event and participate fittingly in its observance thank you you thank you for that important message

[31:00] Lauren and Jenna would you like to share a few words sure thank you Lauren um and and thank you everyone for this honor and it really does touch my my heart um that people in the city recognize um the challenge that our kiddos are having right now and you're right Lauren it's not just the kiddos it's um many people in general and they lack the resources when they're suicidal and I'm really grateful that the community has come together to support Rise Against suicide because we can't do this alone we can't help save these children's lives really um alone it takes our whole community and I want to thank each and every one of you for your continued support and understanding and most importantly Care thank you thanks so much for that jenet and for the important work that you and Rise Against suicide does in this area and with that we will move on to

[32:01] open comment and Ryan I believe you will share the public participation guidelines sure thing thank you uh my name is Ryan Hansen serving the people of Boulder as Community engagement manager and we have slides that are coming up and I want to make sure um everyone here knows that the city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive meaningful and inclusive Civ 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 experiences and political perspectives there's more information on this vision and the city's web page and a few examples moving to the next slide of rules of decorum found in the boulder rised code um include all remarks and testimonies shall be limited to matters related to City

[33:01] 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 conduct the meeting are prohibited participants uh sign up to speak using the name they are commonly known by uh in sharing your full name uh when speaking online currently only audio testimony is permitted online and then inperson participants in council chambers are asked to refrain from expressing support or disagreement verbally or with Applause uh with the exception of support for declarations traditionally support is shown silently through American Sign Language Applause or jazz hands thank you for being here tonight to share your input and your perspectives we appreciate your participation thank you thanks for that Ryan all right we've got eight people signed up to speak in person and and one remote each of you will have 2 minutes to speak if you can

[34:00] just please come up a little bit before your turn comes up so our first three speakers are Michaela Galler Michelle Rodriguez and Phoenix Lou hi my name is Michaela Galler and I'm a 17-year-old high school student and I implore you to reconsider the per proposal to close Boulder airport many often underestimate the significance of the smaller airports like Boulder within the the broader Aviation Community what commonly escapes the notice in The crucial role airports like Boulder play in addressing in the ongoing pilot shortage while some may believe there are alternative Flight Training options in the local area they often fail to recognize Boulder's unique advantages in Boulder you can access single engine training at much as a more affordable rate compared to other nearb airports mainly because there is no need

[35:00] to acquire expenses expenses while waiting on the taxi rate for extended periods of time additionally kbd provides the added benefit of glider training further enhancing the appeal as a valuable asset in aviation education like so many Pilots kbu has been the foundation of my Aviation Journey the community has supported me in every critical point from the moment of age 15 I applied for and won my first flight scholarship for gliders to when I cross paths with my mentor Bronson McDonald and Mile High gliding who gave me my first job which allowed me to gain important knowledge not only about flying gliders but also the essential aspects of ground operations as a bonus I was able to get a discount on my flights enabling me to finish my private pilot's license with a glider rating and have money returned to the flight scholarships for future glider Pilots closing kbu would not only deprive current and new pilots of important place to learn and train but it would also take away the vibrant and supportive community that has been in

[36:00] instrumental for many other in my personal path this airport serves as a Gateway for dreams to take flight providing countless individuals with opportunity to discover their passions and pursu careers in aviation thank you thank you Michael I really appreciate that it's uh rare that we see people under 20 come and testify to us so really appreciate you you taking the time and speaking so eloquently thank you now Michelle Rodriguez Phoenix Lou and making calls hi guys um first I wanted to uh congratulate the police department on um all the reform and chief Herold the accomplishment you made your anniversary um of your announcement of Reform is on the same day of my anniversary of um my Rodriguez versus Lola Tha um that being said I'm also so grateful for the new police monitor that's being accepted in

[37:01] and I I need to address some things haven't been unable to get in touch with you but um today officer styman told me I could email Nuria but I've got her on speed dial so um I figured um officer styman um was subject of of some concerns I F back before the last police monitor left and and you're aware of that because I have spok on that have concerns about um some very serious things but today he told me I filed frivolous reports against him working in the community with the Outreach most recently and being forly from the homeless crowd I have big concerns having my lawsuit haven't been dropped and stuff I'm very respectfully requesting that this new police monitor um review those I do happen to have a couple of uh names of some very awesome officers that I spoke with today though I'd like to recognize David Kaufman T mcqueeny and um John howy I haven't

[38:02] had the privilege of being um before them they were witness to some things but um I just wanted to say I'm I'm very excited about the reform and I support it and it needs to continue in its best proximity and if there's anything I'm doing inappropriate I want to be held accountable and if there's anything they're doing I'd like the same to occur and um I appreciate you guys hearing me and you know I don't just throw you emails just on the random and um I try really hard not to speak out of line and be out of character and you guys know that's that's hard for me but I appreciate you guys thank you Michelle Now Phoenix LOM making Kohl's and Lisa Spalding hi everyone Phoenix u i was particularly interested in the last time that I came for open comment and wanted to speak

[39:02] about some things that came up for me sorry wanted to um speak about some things that came up for me one being with the minimum wage increase my interest in ways that we could um get people to step into more responsibility and stewardship of that money within the Boulder City Limits instead of of the I think status quo which is just make your money and go um and with that I wonder if there's a way for businesses to be able to um make enough money to maintain their rent while not having to up their prices in the face of further inflation so with a wage increase would that also mean that businesses increase with pricing um and then as for the 50-50 allotment I was thinking that to us it may look as though there's a split

[40:02] between the two and it's very black and white but I wonder if the heads of these organizations could come together as their own sort of council um because a lot of the members that I saw speaking from Human Resources I think could come together with members who are heads of the arts department and so then the 5050 is no longer split it's then uh creates a bridge between those two things and so people in the arts district may be able to receive human resources or general funding that they may need and vice versa those in Human Resources who might be artists and don't know how to explore their passions could then get access to deeper exploration and refinement of their skills and unique gifts so those were some ideas and visions that came to me and I wanted to share thank you thank you Phoenix now we have Mak Kohl's Lisa Spalding and Brenda Lee is Mak in the

[41:04] house not seeing him so Lisa I think you're up Lisa Spalding representing the university do you mind pulling that there you go sorry there you go is that okay okay Lisa spaling represent pres ing the University Hill neighborhood association executive committee when we were reading the evening's agenda we noticed an item that will impact the hill and decided it would be a good idea to get ahead of it by speaking to you now item C on the consent agenda refers to a summary of the study session on the hill commercial area revitalist you have to bring the down revitalization um update we were taken by surprised when removing the special liquor license regulations featured prominently in this

[42:01] revitalization update no one even asked the neighbors or former council members who worked for a year on those regulations why they were instituted we were aware of the fact that the planning department wanted to remove the regulations in its use table update to make their job easier and followed the update when it was presented to the planning board the board was surprised that the proposal was made without a full conversation with theill neighborhood and unanimously recommended leaving the regulations in place until they could be fully dealt with as a separate work plan the Ed table update will come before you for first reading October 19th and a public hearing and vote on November 2nd those of us who worked on the regulations in 2013 had firsthand experience with the hill when there were 17 liquor licenses bars open and 2 a.m. with a high volume low price business model and violent bar fights we are at a crucial turning point for the hill business district and

[43:01] everyone is hoping that the hill hotel and the CU Conference Center will um help to revitalize it abandoning these regulations without a complete understanding of why they were introduced and the possible consequences of removing them would be a serious mistake we recommend that you remove the regulations from the use table update now and schedule this issue in 2024 as either a separate work plan are a significant component of the Hill commercial area revitalization update thank you thank you Lisa now Brenda Lee Mark rushon and Evan rabitz hi good evening um this is supposed to be a video so it's not clicking it looks like for a video click through it just to click on that one will it come up as a video not able to okay um all right so

[44:03] maybe just go to the next one so um I'm Brenda Lee and I'm the founder and president of Boulder bear Coalition on nonprofit that I started about 10 years ago so I'm updating you on some things that are going on right now and I'm going to kind of rush through since I don't have a lot of time so uh this was just from this month um these pictures here um you can go to the next one um and on the left uh was the alleyway that I Came Upon a bear that was eating in the trash so that was what the video was of actually the bear looking at me I looked at him and he took off um okay so the next one um in 2014 we passed the bear protection ordinance city council was amazing on doing that and the city and my organization worked quite closely on that um so there's that area west side of uh Broadway next slide um so why this matters to me is because these are three bears that are

[45:00] in the uni Hill area right now um and uh so they're the ones I don't know if they're particularly getting into the trash but uh we know bears are getting into trash next one um we know that there's very specific areas there the same alleys every year um all the red dots are bears that I've personally seen in this the just this summer next one um so the problem is really gotten bad in the last two years it got really good after the ordinance was passed and it this year was the worst I think I've seen it even before the ordinance which is saying a lot um out of 160 reports of stream trash that I made only 18% were given tickets code enforcement I've worked with them closely and they just don't have the resources they don't have an officer who can be out there in the morning they're very comp that's complaint driven so basically if I'm out 00 in the morning um using inquire the trash trucks coming through 30 there's not enough time to be driven by that complaint so the other

[46:01] 82% is by the time they got there it was already resolved because the trash truck came through okay ah sorry well brend if you can email us the rest of your comments please all right thank you so much yeah thanks now Mark rushon and Evan ravitz uh good evening Mark rushon resident of ers Avenue South Boulder uh I think there's three quick slides here but um and I do want to support Brenda's work this Boulder bear Coalition uh I'm the founder of caned and back in the day when that ordinance was passed it was a good news but support her work but to the point um drawing attention to the South Boulder and South Broadway uh next slide please so this wooden fence was put up 20 some plus years ago so I really encourage the transportation department

[47:00] to take a look at I mean just from a safety perspective and Aesthetics um this really needs attention um and next slide uh this is the 61 the corner Broadway in Table Mesa this is kind of a vacated gas station 10 years I mean what's going on so what the city buy this property turn into a green space and and be done with it you know it's starting to be a a safety and an aesthetic issue and you know there's 11,000 12,000 residents in South Boulder all paying good tax money and we're not getting our fair share of that um in just kind of the upkeep of the area so just wanted to draw your attention to that thank you thank you Mark yeah Evan rabbits is our last inperson speaker my friend Mark hner was homeless got

[48:01] housed and spent hundreds of hours working with the city on homeless issues Mike was one of over 20 people the city sent to Portland and Eugene in 2016 to look at legal homeless camps and Tiny home villages with most of council including Yates and Brockett Mike lives across the street from Brockett and called him a friend until Brocket betrayed his longtime public prise to open a legal camp and is instead starting another multi-year cycle of consultants and millions of dollars for sweeps Mike like most formerly homeless has health problems so I'm reading some of his emails quote Eugene city council was really proud of what they had set up and created much to the dismay of our city council those totally against any solution included mayor Suzanne Jones and Bob Yates when we went to each place

[49:03] with tiny H home City staff would start making remarks on how we couldn't do that in Boulder first it was too cold compared with Argan I reminded everyone that this was replicated in Michigan where it's a lot colder then they said it would never work in the wind we have our Architects said we had mobile homes in Boulder that require St in and that could easily be adapted to tiny homes they were thinking up excuses why it wouldn't work here from the moment they saw it in 2016 the city also identified four properties we already own that are suitable for a homeless Camp nothing was done just another city fraud thanks s so our virtual speaker Christina Willis is not present so that brings open comment to a close I'll turn to City staff for any follow-ups thank you mayor I'll as

[50:01] always say thank you for folks for um sharing their opinions and their voices and I think Mark and Brenda have left but know that I will be following up with some of the concerns they have raised thanks Teresa nothing from me mayor counselors Bob just to correct the record um Mr Rabbits indicated that I went to the on the trip to Oregon I I did not attend that trip and just while we're speaking to that if I may Mike commer is still my neighbor I still talk to him on a regular basis he's never spoken to me about being betrayed but I'll check in with him the next time I talk to him yeah Nicole Matt Rachel Rachel first I feel like I'm always in the seat that isn't seen not sure how that works um I just it sounds like Mark rush and left but just wanted to point out that um I have looked into that proper property myself and that is owned by uh a national corporate drugstore chain

[51:01] that apparently buys properties and and doesn't open stores there so I don't know that the the city can do much about that um and also wanted to point out to Mr Rabbits that we are going to be discussing a safe outdoor space um of some variety in two weeks that well we have we have to get to a vot of five to to do it so I'll I'll keep pushing and and we'll see if we get to five cool I was just wondering Aria has anything changed on that hill with regard to be kinds of issues and the fact that that's increasing is it just a a busier bear season or is there anything different that's going on so say that it's funny that you asked me because I live uh I guess uh closer to East what we could call East Boulder and we had a bear recently and got ourselves a bear resistant container um and what I heard when I reported it cuz I want to do my bit for making sure our map is filled out is that has been an inordinately very busy bare season and they are all over the city a very bare season um no

[52:01] yeah we we also had one in our neighborhood um last week which is also quite unusual got Matt then Genie uh thanks mayor um I just wanted to give get clarification with regards to uh Michaela's testimony that um we are not solely considering closing the airport in fact it is an option of that plus keeping it open or even enhancing it so I just want to make sure michaa understands that we have a Suite of options at our fingertips and uh your testimony was was was heard and we'll take in so um just want to make sure that you know we got a suite in front of us and we'll be making those decisions soon thank you juny yeah thank you uh mayor rocket that's exactly what I was gonna talk about is that uh to thank Michaela for her testimony and my understanding uh is that you know there was no uh decision to close the airp report at this time in that during that council meeting that was not even um what the city was

[53:01] advocating for as well so but thank you for this testimony and it's great to hear about your flight license that you were talking about so that's that's wonderful wonderful so thank you for sharing your story with us right yes Tera in regards to Brenda Lee Nua is it true then that we are down I believe we're down uh some code Code Enforcement uh Personnel in that area or are we not down I believe we do have some vacancies um but one vacancy apparently isn't it fortuitous that uh BPD is there one just one great we'll seeing no other hands raised thanks everyone who came out to speak to us tonight appreciate your testimony and let's move to the consent agenda please yes sir thank you our consent agenda is item three on the agenda tonight tonight and it consists of items 3 a through 3i any questions or comments on this

[54:01] Tara and then Bob I just wanted to make sure staff saw the very detailed comment from the Community member in regards to I believe it was uh 3H and that they take into account the many um changes that he would like to see or at least discuss okay thanks Bob yeah just elaborate on what Tera just said I I guess I have a question is there anybody from planning staff here oh Carl guer Carl all right hey Carl hey Carl a question for you um so we also saw the letter from from um former planning board member with with a number of questions and concerns and I think there's been some other correspondents about this I'm trying to understand is is this just like where staff and these former planning board members disagree or were there actually some errors in what staff presented that need to be corrected between first and second

[55:01] reading I don't know that there's errors I think there might be some level of disagreement but obviously every time we work with design professionals they are designing projects every day so that we we treat them as experts um so we I've been meeting with Sofer Architects on this and plan to meet with them tomorrow uh to discuss their letter uh so it's it's common for us to talk through these issues it's hard to forecast how you know every bit of the regulations will inform a development but they certainly help us with that okay it seem to me like there were more high level didn't seem to be a Project Specific there were more high level things and at least at least in my read of letter it l it looked to me like there was some some potentially mistakes or or things that didn't really hang together I I guess I'm just struggling a little bit procedurally we can obviously move this forward on first reading but then if there's significant changes as a result of your conversations with various people in the community we'll have to move this to third reading which is perfectly fine there's no rush on any of this stuff or or we could just carry this over and not do first reading

[56:01] tonight and let you guys have a little bit more time to work it out what's your what's your preference uh we we intended to to bring this to Second reading on September 21st uh there's the planning board recommendations that we'll be providing an analysis on in the second reading memo um we'll actually be recommending that those planning board recommend recommendations be incorporated um there's also some other uh feedback we've got from the community that we thought will probably make sense to be incorporated so we're anticipating there'll probably will be a third reading on this okay that's helpful thanks Carl Carl before you go can you just introduce yourself for the record please uh Carl guer senior policy adviser planning and development services thanks so much all right and then if people will permit me um item 3i is a resolution that we're voting um to adopt this evening and I would like to read it um so I think it's important for the community and timely so if I may resolution 13 39 is a resolution in support of lgbtq plus people to obtain Goods Services facilities privileges

[57:01] advantages or accommodations offered to the public without discrimination and setting forth related details so the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado hereby finds and recites that whereas the Colorado anti-discrimination act prohibits businesses from refusing services or Goods to individuals or groups of people based upon various characteristics or perceived characteristics including sexual orientation gender identity and gender expression and whereas all coloradans are entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of goods Services facilities privileges advantages or accommodations offered to the public regardless of protected classification and whereas the human rights ordinance of the city of Boulder's Municipal Code states that the ordinance affords protection against discrimination in the area of public accommodations based on protected classes including sexual orientation gender identity and gender expression and whereas as a Colorado business 303 creative LLC has explicitly sought to discriminate against lgbtq plus

[58:01] individuals by proposing to deny business services for persons related to same-sex marriages based on the case 303 creative versus elennis and whereas the decision handed down on June 30th 2023 by the Supreme Court of the United States on the 303 creative versus elenis case is Monumental and that the court has granted some businesses to openly discriminate against members of the lgbtq plus Community by seriously weakening public accommodation laws including those in Colorado and whereas this decision not only runs counter to the intent of the Colorado anti-discrimination act but also opens the door for businesses to deny services or Goods to other persons based on protected characteristics such as race ethnicity religion and marital status and thereby weakens the intent of the act and whereas Colorado businesses generally provide goods and business services to lgbtq plus persons as well as people from all backgrounds and whereas Colorado lgbtq plus individuals

[59:00] and advocacy groups have mobilized with the state's business Community to ensure non-discriminatory business practices are upheld in the state of Colorado now therefore based on the findings made in this resolution above be it resolved by the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado that it be it resolved that the city of Boulder concurs herein that this States ethics of fairness and non-discrimination should be applied without exception to the lgbtq plus community and all other members of classes protected by Boulder or Colorado law and this resolution shall take effect upon its adoption by the city council tonight thank you for listening to that uh with me and thank you to out Boulder County for bringing this resolution forward any other notes before we uh have a vote seeing none I would invite a motion I'll move the consent agenda second have a motion and a second uh we

[60:00] have a roll call vote please Elicia yes sir thank you we'll start the roll call vote for the consent agenda items a through I with council member Joseph yes spear yes mayor Pro Tim Wally yes council member Wier yes Yates yes and a resounding yes on item 3i which uh is resolution that Aon just read Benjamin yes mayor Brockett uh yes with also special attention to threei thank you council member fuls yes and friend yes the consent agenda items a through I are hereby approved unanimously all right thanks so much if we can go to our call up check in please yes sir call up check-ins are item four on tonight's agenda 4 a is the call of consideration of a site and use review to redevelop the property at 1345 28th

[61:00] Street with three with three four-story buildings containing 303 student housing residential Apartments this is reviewed under case number l2222 any interest in calling this up or questions on this matter Mark you just turned off yeah for me this was a a pretty close call but I'm I'm going to defer to planning board on this and uh not call it up okay uh seeing no other interest in this one looks like we're not calling this item up so if we can move to our public hearing except we need a little bit of instruction on interpretation so if we could hear from that first before we officially start the the item uh Ryan can you speak to this please absolutely thank you um again briyan henin Community engagement manager um I will describe Jinan

[62:00] interpretation in English and turn to one of our terrific interpreters here tonight uh to describe in Spanish as well we also have Spanish speaking uh staff and partners in the room uh to help connect folks I will go ahead and pull up this um quick diagram here so folks know um if you are joining by Zoom there is a icon that looks like a globe and your's a menu and there you can select participating in English or in Spanish and let me pause there and um Tanya if You' be able to share that uh brief description in Spanish uh then we can make sure folks are hearing instructions

[63:08] um we T I think if you you're able to speak in in Spanish into the English Channel uh then everyone will be able to hear that yes thank you technical difficulties it looks like Leticia you're in the Spanish Channel but Tonio you're in the English Channel and you're unmuted um yes please finish up the instructions in in Spanish in the English Channel channel so we can make sure to catch everyone and then we'll um transition to the the

[64:09] channels if I had the Spanish text I'd read it but I don't think I can impro improv that so what I'd say is maybe if I could get an email or a text with the Spanish instructions I'll read them but maybe we can proceed for now and I'll come back to them as as soon as we have those ready or or maybe you could just do it right now I don't want to leave anybody behind so I don't know if anybody can send those to me quickly um mayor I will go ahead and and add those in in chat um in Spanish as well so we're we're ready to move forward thank you all right is that right with folks okay um so Elish if we can start the public hearing please thank you sir our public hearings

[65:01] are item number five on tonight's agenda 5A is the consideration of a motion to accept the reimagining policing plan n I'll turn to you thank you so much mayor so even before I got here the city had been on a trajectory to reimagine policing and I'll say I'm really excited for staff to present this reimagining plan it is not quite a master plan in the traditional sense of the word uh this plan is really a Visionary document a blueprint or a road map of what policing should look like in Boulder in the future and I'm excited to ask the Chief and the rest of the team to share the result of many many conversations in community as this plan was being created Chief well good evening mayor Brockett good evening mayor protim wall and members of council I am so excited to be here tonight I want to begin by telling tell you a personal story about why this reimagined plan is vitally important to this community and the police department

[66:03] and why after 32 years in policing that I believe strongly that policing is too important to fail next slide please the image on the left is uh me and my mother now deputy chief Redfern over here recommended that I point myself out because he feared that you would not recognize me since as I look in his words a little bit too nice and a little bit too sweet now I don't know what he meant by that but we'll uh continue for those of you don't know my mother was a civil rights activist she walked alongside some of the greats in the Civil Rights Movement both in California and in the South later in life my mother became an animal rights activist and she was one of the first to link Animal Welfare with climate change

[67:00] in the environment but my mother grew up in crippling poverty in Appalachia as a child she had no Plumbing or running water her childhood experiences with police were negative her community saw the police's oppressors and not peacekeepers but my mother desperately wanted me to become a pilot like any good daughter I became a pilot I didn't want to tell my mother that I wanted something different that I wanted more purpose but at the same time I applied to the FBI in the Cincinnati Police Department but I was on my way to the cir flight school in academy in Fort Lauderdale Florida when I got the call from Cincinnati Police Department and they said you have a week to decide if you want to join our Police Academy so I had to break the news to my

[68:00] mother that I was not going to join the Flight Academy in Fort Lauderdale but I was going to join the police academy now I thought my mother would be devastated by this news but when we sat down together and I told her she Rec remained calm then my mother told me two things that I have never forgotten in my life and I never will first she said Maris please promise me that you will never lose your compassion for the people that you will serve because most of the people that you serve will be disenfranchised and suffering from crippling poverty I believe I've kept that promise and it has guided me in my philosophy and my actions throughout my career then she said one more thing to me you can fight Injustice in systems on the

[69:00] inside or the outside you probably will have greater impact on the inside but your ro road will be exceptionally hard so why did I choose then and now to fight from the inside it has been an extremely difficult Journey so my mother was right but throughout my policing career I have learned that our democracy is heavily dependent upon its police to maintain a degree of order that makes a free Society possible it looks to the police to prevent people from praying on one another to facilitate movement to resolve conflicts and to protect basic rights such such as free elections freedom of assembly and Free

[70:00] Speech next slide so how can we support our democratic values and and ensure that all community members are treated compassionately policing must focus on these outcomes this has become the Boulder Police Department's Mantra we have have to ask ourselves before adopting any new training any new policy changes any interventions any strategies these four questions is what we're about to implement is it effective will it work to prevent crime is it ethical will we be transparent and are we willing to ask ourselves are we defending the sanctity of human life on every critical decision that we make is it Equitable are we having a disproportionate impact on our most

[71:01] vulnerable within our community and is it efficient are we good stewards of the city's resources I believe this reimagine plan is emblematic of good governance and this is why I hope you support this plan tonight I have a few thank yous if you stand with me for a little bit here I first want to thank the community who has been with me for three and a half years through some of the most challenging times that I've ever faced in policing I also want to say thank you to the men and women of the Boulder Police Department and my command staff and my management team behind me who have done nothing but support me and all of the new ideas that I'm throwing at them constantly I want to thank Wendy Schwarz um who who is the her uh human services policy manager for her dedication throughout this process deputy chief

[72:00] Redfern deputy chief gosage Pam Davis assistant city manager Sarah Huntley director of communication and engagement Dr Don Daniel Reinhardt senior data analyst Amy Kae Equity manager Taylor Ryman at the time city council administrator Mark wolf budget senior manager Gina ki our senior manager for the police department J siet Communications Senior Management and Manuel Manuel C wines um thank you I also want to thank Chris rangos from the planning team who helped in the beginning and also the pro process subcommittee council member Yates thank you council member Joseph thank you council member friend thank you council member Wier thank you I know it's been a long road but thank you very much Marina L lrav from the community and mallerie Kates from the community I couldn't do this without everybody's support and I

[73:01] am going to turn it over to Wendy and thank you for listening to my story thanks so much Chief appreciate that okay thank you Chief Wendy Schwarz housing and Human Services but for the last couple of years I've had this other little project called reimagine policing um in the interest of oops I forgot to advance my slide in the interest of time tonight I won't read through everything on our agenda um but what we will be doing is talking about the process we took to get to this plan highlighting some of the engagement and then going over some key components of the plan um you'll note this presentation is bilingual that's part of our effort throughout the project to make make the material as accessible to as many people as possible so you're going to see we have more words on the slides and I think as Ryan

[74:03] reminded us earlier we're all supposed to be speaking more slowly for the interpreters that's hard for some of us we have our suggested motion tonight which will repeat at the end of the presentation um we did have a process subcommittee the reimagine policing process subcommittee for this project and we'll talk a little bit more about that later when we're highlighting this but the motion for tonight is um or the suggested motion rather is to accept the reimagined policing plan and disband the reimagined policing process subcommittee so for an overview of the reimagine

[75:00] policing process um Council and the community may remember from our previous presentations that we had four major engagement Windows on this project and we used the and those ran from about summer 2021 to early 2023 we used the time between those major engagement Windows to analyze the feedback we got and turn it into more specific documents for the community to react to more specific plans with the final window which was managed by our consultant National policing Institute um covering our previous our draft reimagine policing plan which was released late last summer and that was also the topic of the last Council study session on this item can you swing your mic a little closer to you

[76:00] please okay is this better it's better okay thanks so uh do you do you need me to repeat anything Aon okay um so we use that feedback to do the revisions to get to the updated plan that you have before you tonight and so with that I'm going to turn it over to Sarah to further discuss the engagement process is the mic okay okay good evening Council I'm Sarah Huntley director of communication and engagement and tonight I'm honored to talk a little bit about the engagement approach that we've taken over those four windows that Wendy talked about Guided by a process subcommittee that included two community members both of whom you'll hear from briefly later as well as two sets of council members we've spent nearly 2 years seeking to understand what our community wants from its Police Department we were committed to hearing from the whole Community because

[77:00] policing affects the whole Community but we were pretty sure that those who are most vocal in government would be able to leverage a lot of our existing techniques so we decided to demonstrate equity in action we used our limited resources to Champion Innovation and practice active listening specifically with populations that have been disproportionately impacted by pleasing we really wanted to lift their voices to create a new vision for pleasing in our community the result has been one of the most inclusive engagement efforts to date and Boulder I'm not going to stand here and tell you everything about it has been perfect but we've learned a lot and we've made some progress in the right direction this meant partnering in new ways giving up some of our control getting outside of our comfort zone emphasiz izing bilingual communication which as we saw tonight is sometimes challenging and experimenting with ideas that did not always work as we

[78:01] hoped the slideshow before you shows some of the Innovative techniques we tried the rectangle in the top leftand corner is sort of our more typical approach we had beard Boulder options for people to participate in over the entire process we also had Town Hall opportunities to talk about issues related to policing in this plan but all of the rest of the boxes on this slide were innovations that we tried I don't have time to highlight them all but I'm going to highlight one of them to tell a story about some of the progress that we've made the one I'm going to use tonight is the trauma informed youth engagement here in Boulder we're fortunate to have a frequent opportunity to partner with a nonprofit called growing up Boulder this nonprofit helps us hear from young people when we're making important decisions the reimagine policing Plan gave us a chance to talk with youth and hear their thoughts about a very challenging and sometimes emotional

[79:01] topic when I approached growing up Boulder the wise and white women at the organization were excited to work with us but they recognized as did I that we would need additional help if the goal was to reach non-white young people particularly those who may have had negative interactions with police themselves or may have had family members who have had negative interactions so growing up Boulder challenged us to be courageous and even more deliberate in this effort they introduced us to a boulder resident named Maya Soul Dany who runs a company or firm or business called my emotion healing Maya soul is a clinical social worker who grew up in Boulder as the daughter of immigrant parents Maya Soul brought to this process Mental Health Training her culture her own lived experiences and Powerful heartfelt practices to reach young people who might not otherwise participate in our

[80:01] processes at all through this she sought to empower youth voices while minimizing the chance for additional trauma and harm this plan was informed by candid reports prepared by growing up Boulder and my emotion healing as partners in each stage of this journey we learned so much both about the youth vision for leing and some other their skepticism about our ability to get there as well as what inclusive engagement that recognizes and seeks to address trauma needs to look like this learning could be helpful in lots of future contexts youth feedback shows up in various places in this plan most notably in a commitment to co-create an onage ongoing engagement program this work is just beginning we've already created a work group with the youth opportunities Advisory Board board and newly appointed youth ambassadors from Boulder PD they're eager to work together I expect their collaboration will include new

[81:01] ways for police and young people to build trusting relationships some of this can be achieved through fun activities but the truth is it must also provide opportunities for honest conversations about issues that matter most to youth ideally it will include opportunities for the officers and youth to solve problems together that are affecting Young people in Boulder today next slide please this list is designed to Showcase examples just some examples of our efforts to reach out to a diverse set of stakeholders through some of the techniques shown on the previous slide I'm not going to read the list but I think you can see that we tried to reach a large swath of community members with that particular Equity Focus one of the fundamental pieces of work we we did with Community was to develop a set of values and um we created these drafts Community safety

[82:00] values in one of the early engagement windows but sought to to validate them and refine them throughout subsequent Windows these are values that resonate with a wide range of people and they're so important because they shaped so much of the work that followed I'd like to run through these values um now they all start with can you go back to the previous slide they all start with the we feel safe in our community when beginning next slide we demonstrate that we we are all free to enjoy public and private spaces without fear of harm laws are enforced equitably police respond professionally and respectfully when we need them but we have alternative and creative resources to address problems not well suited to policing we demonstrate we are a compassionate community that supports the basic needs and right to be free from crime for all

[83:01] community members criminal behavior is met with accountability measures that are fair and just within placing and other systems with opportunities for individuals to be supported in underlying issues lastly officers are part of the communities they serve building relationships and understanding and addressing problems before having to step up enforcement and resort to force we got a lot of feedback about a lot of things in this process but a few themes or key questions really stood out you can see them here on this slide as you review the slide I want to point out that the first three questions recognize that there is a need for change throughout this process there was an acknowledge ment by everybody involved of past Harms in history that includes examples of Oppression and racism this

[84:00] plan seeks to address this truth but I also want to be clear that our engagement showed there is a companion Viewpoint there is deep concern in this community about crime and issues related to safety much of the feedback we heard emphasized the importance of continuing to find solutions for these problems and many community members see police as essential Partners in this they want to see the department appropriately resourced it is rarely the case that engagement leads to clear consensus and certainly this process did not but the team that sought to integrate these perspectives resisted any urge to see these as contradictory ideas the reimagine policing plan you have before you tonight seeks to strike a new balance in recognition of the many important priorities in Boulder I'm now going to invite another speaker Dr Robin Engel to talk about engagement that occurred later in the process after the release of the draft

[85:05] plan good evening thank you uh for having me to your beautiful Community I'm Robin Engel and I'm the senior vice president at the National policeing Institute and I find myself traveling all around the country and around around the world for that matter working with communities of all shapes and sizes and I have to say I'm thrilled absolutely thrilled to be here in Boulder in such a beautiful Community both inside and out so thank you so much for your hospitality that I've experienced over the last couple of days while I've been here during my time just a little bit about the national policing Institute for those of you who may not be familiar with our organization we are a nonprofit nonpartisan and non-membership organization ation that is dedicated solely and exclusively to science and innovation in public safety and policing our goal is to

[86:02] advance uh policing as a whole but also to make our communities safer vibrant places and to make interactions between police and Community safer we were um actually in 1970 was when we were founded and that was straight out of the civil unrest from in the 1960s uh given a a grant um an endowment from the Ford foundation with the sole purpose to improve policing here we are decades later often dealing with some of the same crisis and issues that we were at that time that's why I'm so pleased to be here today because one of the things that I would like to note is that the reimagine policing plan that's been put before your community is one of the most Progressive and Innovative plans that I've seen in all of my time in policing which I hate to date myself

[87:01] here but I am approaching my third decade of study and work directly in this field so with that I've been asked to spend I think I was told less than five minutes to give you an overview of an over 100 page report that was produced by the National Police you so thank you Chief Harold for that assignment I'm I'm I'm no doubt I will I will make that I will I will do my to 2 minutes 20 seconds now very good well then uh then I'll go really fast let me say that I actually inherited this project I came to the National policing Institute in September as the senior vice president last September so I've been there now a full year I'm trained as an academic and when I came the the uh contract had already been in process and the work had begun the research team that put this that put this plan together included four of our

[88:03] team members and then was evaluated by me after the fact along with a series of outside Consultants that we hired to look at our statistical techniques our approach our research methodologies we used two distinct but complimentary approaches all of this to just get an assessment of our community um here in Boulder and what we found was first a survey that was designed to have a quantitative assessment of community perceptions something that was a representative sample that we could generalize to the community as a whole we used a stratified random sample um and 140 respondents we use statistical techniques to analyze that information and we presented as part of the report those findings we also o use though a qualitative assessment and I think this is really one of the key and most interesting pieces of This research because often times we don't really hear

[89:02] the voices around us particularly in groups that have been historically marginalized or disadvantaged and so we used a non-representative survey a convenience sample to reach those voices and we also use targeted interviews and focus groups again with particularly identified individuals that we wanted to make sure that we understood their perspectives as well the key findings from this research most of our respondents actually had little involvement or knowledge of the previous steps that had been in place at the time for the planning of the reimagined uh Boulder policing plan the survey respondents believed that at least five of the six safety values from the draft plan were more successful than then not successful already before the plan had even moved forward so there was a lot of buyin from your community at the onset but still a number of unformed opinions

[90:02] so anywhere from 30 to 50% of the respondents to this survey had not yet formed impressions of the Boulder Police Department across the six core values that they identified for this plan this represents a great opportunity for additional engagement by the police department and by members of city council and others in this community the second approach the qualitative data analysis we used that convenience sample and we identified six core themes those core themes I was so proud to see that those core themes that we identified through our research in these qualitative methods was then used as a theme throughout the updated plan those core themes included compassion and empathy dignity and respect Rapport and relationships care and concern communication and being trauma

[91:01] informed these findings showed that there was broad support for building stronger Partnerships with community-based organizations to help prevent crime it was also suggested that the Boulder Police dep Department could more fully utilize Community expertise to deliver training and other components within the police department and then finally and I think this is probably one of the most important pieces there was a recommendation from your residents of the importance to acknowledge the history of policing in training by the Boulder Police Department now as I mentioned to you I travel all the time I'm always on the road last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Montgomery Alabama and Selma Alabama abama the reason that I was there over the weekend was to have the kickoff for what we're calling the 54th mile policing project

[92:02] this project is a new training for police departments it's been sponsored by the Department of Justice there's been over a $1 million investment in this work and it follows three African-American police Executives as they walked the 54 miles between Selma and Montgomery as a Reep in the process of that historic moment when the uh over the Pettis bridge for those of you who are familiar with our history that was a pivotal moment and one unfortunately that many Americans the police included have forgotten along with a long painful tragic history of the role of the police in oppressing those in our community we are committed to moving forward with teaching that history to our law enforcement Executives and police

[93:02] officers and I'm so proud and pleased that the Boulder Police Department Executives feel the same they recognize the value of that um and are willing to move forward with our pilot test work I'm also pleased to tell you that after I reviewed this new plan recall that I'd only seen the initial draft plan so I reviewed this plan just this week when I was traveling here I found it to be comprehensive holistic bold it's science-based it's inclusive it's Progressive it's Innovative and quite frankly it is visionary and the first thing I did after I read this on Monday was I sent a text message to the director of the Bureau of Justice assistance and I said have have you seen this plan and then I contacted other officials at the Department of Justice and I said have you seen this plan and now we are working to include this in

[94:02] what we call the knowledge lab the knowledge lab is a bja funded Bureau of Justice assistance funded $9 million investment to prop up the most positive examples that we have in policing and this will be a part of that Foundation as well I encourage you to take a very close look at this it's not perfect no plan is but I don't know of any other plan across the country that's as Visionary as this one thank you thanks for that Robin that's very powerful who are we turning to next chief sorry kind of got swept up in that um so this map of Boulder is uh basically calls for service and crime uh

[95:01] the only thing that I really want to point out on this slide is that it shows that crime is heavily concentrated in particular places what I'd like to emphasize here is that crime Trends uh tends to concentrate in highly susceptible areas in our city and places and this allows crime to impact our most vulnerable able populations next slide thanks really when you're talking about changing a policing culture what I'm really asking this Police Department to do is a radical radical departure from traditional police work the conventional policing model has been in place for most of my career the one uh the slide on the left an officer receives an i1 on one call he responds as quickly as possible the off the officer either uh takes a report or makes an arrest and if

[96:00] arrest is made then the suspect is processed through the criminal justice system where it is difficult to ass assess the likelihood of future harm both to the community given recidivism rates in Colorado and the offender the problem solving model which is on the right is data driven requires complex analysis collaboration evaluation in Partnerships the first model that we talked about that I spent most of my career in is reactionary and relies heavily on traditional criminal justice mechanisms while the second offers a preventative policing model next slide please this plan speaks to e Equity because it rejects the notion that crime which is disproportionately impacts our most vulnerable communities can only be prevented by traditional criminal justice responses such as Arrest once a

[97:02] crime occurs we must stop those engaged in crime from committing further harm and we do that by leveraging the Justice responses but what is predictable is preventable research shows that when crime is patterned and heavily concentrated we can develop effective prevention strategies we can reduce arrest in other Justice responses only if we can find alternative ways to reduce crime our plan ask officers to engage in complex problem solving in partnership with the community to find unique and effective Solutions one of the primary responsibilities of local government is to ensure Community safety it's pretty good um this approach will allow us to achieve this goal while

[98:02] directly addressing equity in all of our city values next slide please as you know I think we've talked about it before the Boulder Police Department has taken a holistic approach to policing and I a big geek I study uh the United Kingdom um their holistic governance model models and they are way ahead of the United States and I've realized that other city city departments uh play such a key role in public safety and Public Safety outcomes we have started this holistic approach with several major projects that we work together in partnership with other s uh City Department directors including our work with SS our chronic nuisance work and most certainly our high utilizer uh working group as well and um I think think I'm at this point I'm going to turn this back over to deputy chief Redfern thanks Chief good evening Council and mayor Steve Redfern Deputy police chief I'm going to expand a little bit on uh some of the concepts

[99:02] the chief brought up and I just want to talk a little bit about how we are already implementing some of the things in this plan and then how we will move it forward so as you know the backbone of this plan is problem solving and problem oriented policing um we use a couple of models to help us in these efforts um the first one is called cheers and it determines if a problem is suitable for us to focus a problem solving project on uh if so then we use a traditional model you may have heard of called Sarah Sarah the Sarah model involves scanning analysis response and assessment the cheers has six areas that must be met before we engage on a problem solving uh Endeavor the first is community the problem must be one that the community is experiencing second is harm people or institutions must be experiencing some sort of harm not necessarily criminal uh next is expectations some members of the community must expect the police to address those harms the role of analysis will uncover the problem next is events

[100:01] they must be able to describe the type of event that makes up the problem followed by recurrence the events must recur they cannot be oneoff single incidents recurrence is symptomatic of acute troubles or a chronic problem finally a similarity the recurring events must have something in common an example um no this is the same slide an example of a real world problem solving project is one that you've heard about before called The Table Mesa park and ride um we've discussed this with you on prior occasions and as of this date we continue to see few calls at this location each month and very few crime incidents we utilize the sah model as part of a problem solving initiative through our stratified policing program to solve the issue for example we use the scanning phase we identified prioritized and selected this problem using data and Community input we then moved to the analysis phase which deeply uh analyzed the root cause of the problem on a wide level we then determined our response our response phase uh determined and implemented the

[101:02] resp appropriate response using all stakeholders and community and City Partners once we felt we made adequate progress on the project we moved to the assessment phase which is often the most ignored part of the sah model um that assesses the impact of a particular response and trying something different if it's not working we still analyze and assess I'm sorry we still assess this project every month to ensure it doesn't come back up as a problem location next slide please so I want to talk briefly Switching gears just a little bit um as you read in chapter four of the plan we have broken down the steps our agency will take in the next two to five years um into three Focus areas the first is department and officer Readiness this is broken into three areas the first is adjusting Staffing now the rule of 60 which was developed by the mcma or International City County Managers Association recommends that approximately 60% of sworn personnel should be assigned to patrol the average workload for patrol Staffing should not

[102:00] exceed 60% what does this mean this means that 60% of our officers time on patrol should be spent responding to calls for service and 40% should be spent working with the community identifi working on problems identified by the community and proactive policing as you can read in the plan an independent researcher conducted a historical analys of our calls for service as well as the complexity of our calls for service and determine that we are not at the Staffing level we should be in order to accomplish the icma rule of 60 the next topic is training we train all officers on deescalation and other best practices this is well underway in our agency and we have ongoing training in Crisis Intervention AEL which is active bystanders ship for law enforcement and icat and others this dep uh deployment of our joint police academy will continue to further the these Endeavors the next is prioritizing staff well-being the best of plans will not work if our staff are not healthy and coming to work uh fully engaged both

[103:00] mentally and physically well it has been a difficult time to be in policing and thus we are focused on things like officer Wellness utilizing EAP peer support and other resources for example recently we've had several critical incidents uh that were highly impactful on our staff um we are offering Innovative things like EMDR and other techniques to uh make sure that they are well we hired a part-time family support coordinator that's doing fun and Innovative things uh and events to engage our families of our officers and Foster better cohesion throughout the department we're focusing on physical health to encourage Fitness and physical wellness and offering programs focused in these areas and finally we're investing in a Personnel early intervention system all of those things I just described will help with recruiting and retention next slide please you mov oh perfect Focus area 2 is enhanced Community engagement and relationships we will utilize P place-based problem solving with Equity Focus such as problem

[104:00] solving policing stratified policing all using data to focus our efforts properly and increase Equity we'll strengthen relationships with communities negatively impacted by policing including and this includes hiring more diverse candidates we will include diverse Community perspectives and key decisions that we make in the police department next slide the third area is improved accountability and transparency I mentioned we will we are engaging in an enhanced officer performance and early warning system and we will have a community ranking for every interaction with new technology to allow for robust Community feedback on police interaction and we will continue sharing information in our dashboard and other accountability tools to be transparent next slide please so obviously we need to figure out how we will know if this is effective in order to be responsive to the common themes we heard from from the community dur during this process we have several proposed indicators that will guide the department and the community in tracking progress the first is effective and improving I'm sorry

[105:00] Effectiveness and improving Public Safety it will involve a deeper analysis of crime associated with the problem solving policing efforts in areas with focused interventions we'll continue to contribute to and review The Benchmark cities data to use or to see improvements versus like-sized US cities and will continue to Leverage The CommunityWide survey two to three times I'm sorry every two to three years to evaluate perceptions of crime and safety the next area is appropriate use of resources we will work with our partners to continue our holistic approach to determine the most appropriate response for public safety issues with that we will collect data and annual report the percentage of calls that resulted in the utilization of a co-responder and the percentage of calls that the result in a care team being dispatched in lie of officers next we will continue our commitment to equity and reducing in disparities we will use a multitude of metrics including publishing stop data analyzing uses of force continuing public information updates on major events using technology platforms to get

[106:01] public feedback tracking percentages of officers attending evidence-based training and we will also increase the number of Spanish speaking officers and continue our commitment to the 30x30 initiative to attract and hire more women to the police department finally the ability to sustain meaningful engagement we will report annually with the number of problem solving projects completed with neighborhoods and communities with historically disproportionate policing impacts and stakeholder satisfaction with those processes in addition we will participate in ongoing partnership projects uh developed in collaboration with the youth opportunities Advisory board with collaborative projects as well as consultation with the Boulder Police oversight panel on training needs and policy updates I hope this provided some insight into the plan and its implementation in our department I will now turn it back over to the city manager thank you uh and Under the Umbrella of other duties as assigned uh I've been asked to sort of jump in on

[107:01] funding at a high level and I'm going to do my best impression of Mark wolf and so apologize to him in advance as we were going through this but I'll say similar to previous Master plans this one calls for more resources which is uh what we see in most of our Master plans but the predominant one here really involves Personnel it's not surprising as this new approach focuses on shifting culture and the Very orientation of policing to create space for more proactive strategies and increase time spent with Community but the way this plan is structured also means that there could be other factors that impact funding in different ways for examples as we lean into the holistic governance model it could be that additional monies spent on Behavioral Health responses such as the existing co-responder team and the launch of the new care team in the coming months result in a diversion of calls that PD would ordinarily respond to similarly as funding for more social services and housing addresses the issues of our unhoused community

[108:00] increase increases we would hope to see a corresponding reduction in the calls for service PD receives in this regard this will require an ongoing assessment and Analysis of calls for service that will need to incorporate into the city's annual budget process and just like other plans we will need a thoughtful evaluation of phasing over a period of years importantly the rule of 60 Benchmark is a critical aspect of this plan at its core this methodology espoused by icma itself as a best practice essentially focuses on workload analysis by way of calls for service as Illustrated in the report done by Dr pain the shift to the rule of 6 60 looks to require between 8 to 14 new officers but the report also points to other factors that we need to consider as well and in a year where the budgetary word of the day for 2024 for I'm sure you can all say it with me it's constraint uh we take to heart the notion that BPD must focus on filling its vacancies something it is working hard to do already currently approved at

[109:02] 191 sworn officers we are at 174 and that is likely the initial focus of Staffing for the coming year that also allows us to see if additional strategies such as care have an impact on call reduction and how to phase in additional Staffing request as part of the future budgetary Cycles as needed it is for this reason that the funding aspects of the plan are a bit different than other plans as a traditional tiered approach of fiscally constrained action and vision just don't quite work here Staffing based on calls for service in the rule of 60 model are impacted by other levers that could be pulled by other departments and will'll need to continue to address future Staffing by examining all those within this holistic governance model including BPD I think I share the chief's hope that acceptance of this plan and the shift to leverage additional partners that could overtime reduce calls for service that BPD would need to respond to could reduce the workload analysis for BPD in the future but it could also mean that the demand for calls in the future could also shift

[110:02] to address other possibilities like increase in in crime Trends or increase in drug related calls for service given the influx of fentel we're seeing now Across the Nation and in our city that may require us to actually increase Staffing even more in the future so while the plan includes an aspirational goal of 14 addition officers to hit a potential go number of 205 per the more fullsome recommendation offered by Dr pay will need to continue this analysis to see if additional levers in other areas could impact that number in different ways just like other Master plans many of you have seen acceptance of this plan speaks to acceptance of its vision and goals strategies like additional resources for funding and programs are not set in stone as those must go through the regular budget cycles and are subject to budgetary approval by me and certainly by you as well as in as all Personnel uh request a final note on Staffing on funding as well there are different aspects of this plan that may require

[111:01] additional resources in the future but the extent of those resources is as yet unknown as a plan leans into existing Partnerships with internal Services departments like HR it and comms and engagement for some support leveraging potential Outreach Solutions and resources offered by hr's Talent acquisition team for example could reduce the need for BPD to scale up increased funding for diverse recruitment in the future or may require us as a city to add to hr's outreach buckets to ensure it can fully support diverse Outreach in all areas of Public Safety including police and fire similarly leveraging the engagement Enterprise of the comm's team expertise of the comm's team and amplify engagement and relationship strategies could address the increased engagement strategies that this plan calls for finally I'll say that likely increased resources would be needed for a joint BPD CU Academy I'm particularly excited about this possibility it was really enable us to train officers in

[112:00] ways that reflect our values better but frankly we need to get it through the hurdle of post certification first before we think of earm maring resources for this endeavor so we have not included this in the upcoming 2024 budget yet it could be that it comes to counsel in the form of a future ATB or depending on timing or approval in the 2025 budget but we'll certainly be coming back to council if we're able to move forward on this aspect of the plan at uh as it is one of the most critical aspects um and one of those in which we really lift our values and priorities as a city all this to say is that we're committed to continuing to work with uh BPD to best determine its exact resource needs in the future and we'll be having continued conversations with all of you uh through our budgetary cycle process as we see the needs and impact of this Innovative problem solving model and I will send it back to W thanks Nia sorry Mark and Emily I think um you're ready we have a short video and then we're we're almost done folks uh

[113:02] so Emily's going to play it the last 3 years have been really hard George Flo's arrest and death J did you have something no Emily would it help uh who we've got some Echoes here would it help if I had um I I have a subcommittee member here and I can

[114:02] introduce her and she can do her two minutes um for Council while you're sorting that out does that work yeah it's just the volume um situation but yeah that work okay uh so Council earlier we mentioned the process subcommittee which obviously some of our council members have been on and I want to say that our two community members that were mentioned while our council members rotated halfway through our two community members have hung in there with us for two and a half years that's Marina lrav and mallerie Kate so we cannot thank them enough for their their service and um Marina uh would you like to come up come up to the podium I know you were going to say a few words about um your experience in in the process hi good evening uh Marina I'm here as a community member and part of the committee um I was just thrilled

[115:01] when I was elected as part of this committee because I've been a victim's advocate for Boulder PD for over 20 years so I have seen you know firsthand what happens with an old system I just want to say that it was amazing to see uh seven leaders that join me in this committee to really make sure that we brought meaningful conversations and our communities concerns and voices to the space so we make sure that we integrated those voices throughout the two and a half years of work um it was also an amazing experience for me personally seeing how these leaders connected uh with um The Academy of policing and so many officers and it was really a DI Deep dive to to this conversation uh that resulted in a last meeting um I think it was on the 21st 24th yeah last week somehow um when

[116:00] the community members I think 17 Community next community members came to Boulder PD for dinner and uh being exposed to this master plan final draft for them to um to also you know see the results of such hard work uh four of them are here tonight with me um they were so engaged during this time that they can you raise your hands see so so they were engaged for two and a half years and they are here today to testify and we know that this is not an easy task to have our light um Community come forward and grab um share their opinions I personally want to say that I fully endorse uh and I'm excited about this plan um because it really brings some something that the latinx or communities of color have suffered um for ages not to say decades but uh that they conversations need to be had and

[117:02] compassion needs to be brought to the table before punishment is applied so I am really excited about this master plan that's all I have to say thank you so much well Marina um you're just we're very much in your debt thank you for that two and a half years of service pleas much appreciated thank you for all you do as well thanks and to the community members who participated as well can I just say as a a sub Committee Member my thanks to Marina as well you brought really um helpful and no you you could sit down please I just wanted to gush over you for a second you you had just such useful perspective and you thought um just broadly about engagement in ways that we would have missed without you so thank you for putting in all those hours it it meant a lot and it help helped and it got us to a better place thanks well thank you and I will say that it's an amazing City and County that I have the pleasure of being a member for 30 years so I'm just my pleasure thank

[118:02] you how are we doing Emily I think we got all right I think they're I think they're ready to go with the video so I think you're good how I getting somewhere thank you Emily all right I've seen some really hard things in policing but the last 3 years have been really hard George Floyd's arrest and death in police custody but started as a

[119:02] call for the end of the Denver Police Department certainly here in Boulder tonight investigators searching for answers after a mass shooting in Boulder it's been a very impactful time different than any we've ever experienced in our careers to die and this is a critical Junction policing the community's told us loud and clear uh we need to do things differently one way to start getting at some of these issues that we've seen in the last few years with policing we can address by following a plan the plan is called reimagine policing because that's exactly what we're doing in Boulder we are going to engage in problem Waring policing we have chosen problem solving is our principal strategy to reduce crime and disorder across the city and we do that holistically by working with other City

[120:01] departments other City directors social service agencies and even at times private sector corporations that can help also problem oriented identifies the problem assessment process and allows us to reduce the number of 911s that organization should rear depart service we're just trying to make sure that they hear it on Zoom

[121:15] too so is there an option is we had some success playing it here in Chambers earlier this afternoon um and I know that that causes challenges on Zoom is there an option if this isn't working for us to play it in Chambers and then um post the link the police department identifies patterns in calls for service patterns and crimes then you put teams around that problem and you partner and collaborate to solve the problem the reimagining policing plan I do like how it's being thought of as connected to the whole city and not just something the department is doing in isolation and bringing in the city bringing in housing and Human

[122:03] Services you go back yeah begin I vent problems before there are victims it's really a proactive model of policing makes an enormous difference problem Orient policing is based on research and evidence we know it works once the police department identifies patterns in calls for service patterns in crimes then you put teams around that problem and you partner and you collaborate to solve the problem the reimagining policing plan I do like how it's being thought of as connected to the whole city and not just something the Department's doing in isolation and bringing in the city bringing in housing and Human Services forcing people to collaborate that's what I would give

[123:01] props for just things moving in the right direction we have a new recruiting plan that we've implemented we're talking to underrepresented populations we're going to be going on to historically black colleges areas that we haven't historically looked at in the past and what we're finding is people that are coming in that want to be part of the change I wanted to become a police officer just so that I could do better for my community we have a focus on problem solving that we start from day one in the Academy I want to be a new face of policing and let my generation know and my people know that they have someone behind there 17th and Iris intoxicated person in the roadway some people suffering from mental health crisises honestly sometimes just need an ear to talk to we have to ensure a good safety make it doesn't really help people to just throw them in jail and hope that their problems are going to go away although there's criminal Behavior the main problem was her intoxication level was causing her an issue and

[124:00] ultimately got her the medical help that uh she needed I have had the opportunity to see how so many of our resources here can help us solve a problem so much easier compared to just enforcing a lawn and cracking down the hammer imagine a world where people think of Serve and Protect vot the police department but serve protect and respect Hey sir I need you get out of the car your car's on fire and it starts with the reimagining police it starts with Community engagement and a community understanding that you know at the end of the day we all have a stake about the wellness of this community I think this plan of reimagining policing is necessary it's a crucial piece that Police Department really play and they have a big role um but so do everybody else we need a collaborative approach and I think that this is what the plan really highlights brings people together that can address some of the root problems and it allows the community to be a part

[125:01] of the solution and not just the police responding reacting and telling people what they should do the level of community engagement in this reimagining policing plan is amazing we've met with every segment of the community I think it's completely a game changer I'm very optimistic about the plan I love change and I love things when people are able to say you know what what we have has gotten us this far but it's not going to get us further I think it's about time we know that things have not been working right and it can sometimes be really hard to think what else do we do change is hard this type of policing is so important just is critical my expectations for policing is that I want them to be the ambassadors for this community out thank you our goal is and I see it every day hey an officer walks in somewhere and people say that that officer's here to help it will be successful

[126:03] yeah all right thanks everyone for working out the Kinks there um so the uh oh we still have the [Laughter] echo nothing nothing to see here folks um so I I will also um we had Marina come and speak earlier while we're working on our technical difficulties um I also our other subcommittee uh Community member malary Kates was not able to be here tonight but she did send a written statement uh that she asked me to read so I'll read that for her now my name is mallerie Kates I've been a resident of Boulder for over 25 years and have lived at the pelaton condominium complex since 2015 I now serve as the president of its homeowners association board a board that represents nearly 400 homes seven on-site businesses and a population of

[127:01] approximately 650 residents my involvement with our Police Department began with the citizens engagement panel under Chief Greg Testa and I continued on that panel after chief Harold came on board I've also been part of the reimagine policing process subcommittee since its Inception I believe that almost everyone on city council as well as my Fel fellow panelists on this subcommittee are well-intentioned and want what is best for Boulder but my experience with this process committee has left me feeling worried about where our city is headed I think we wasted money resources in time by dragging out an important step toward improving policing in Boulder just a few key participants working together with Chief heral could have achieved the same result in a fraction of the time and what's more important could have sent a better message to all our communities and the women and men of our police force what I hear every day is that people in my community are angry and afraid they are afraid to walk or ride on the bike paths they are nervous and

[128:00] disgusted by what they see downtown and they are angry about the thefts in our locked underground garage and they are really upset at what they perceive is a police department that is being poorly supported by the majority of our city council yes policing in Boulder and in cities across this County can and must do better our current chief seems to have a cleared view of what it would take to improve not only our police department but also the Safety and Security of all residents those who live in homes and those who do not Boulder citizens would be best served by a city council whose majority supported its police chief and really cared to know what a reimagined police department looked like so that's the end of mallerie's statement so with that that oh dear I think we chose the wrong staff member to run the slideshow tonight as part of our ongoing Emily ah

[129:00] there we go the motion so we're back to our Mo our motion our suggested motion that we showed at the beginning of the presentation and um then we will turn it over to council for uh the next steps in our public hearing questions and disc discussion all right well Wendy thanks so much for the presentation and deputy chief Redfern and chief Harold and Robin and um everyone who spoke tonight really appreciate all of that information on this very exciting reaging plan so uh our order actually now would be uh clarifying questions from Council and then public testimony so if we can get to questions but just keeping in mind we have three 35 people that are waiting to speak to us if we can be succinct in our questions that would be phenomenal do we have any I got Mark and then Nicole uh some of these are going to be information requests that that we're not going to satisfy tonight but I I just

[130:00] want to ask the questions and perhaps we can develop the information um I I saw that in looking at the distribution of calls for service the only other Colorado City in the group of midsize cities is Fort Collins um can we develop or get any information with respect to say longm and Colorado Springs I yes we can council member wall yes we can at your convenience um second um the idea that 1% of the addresses in Boulder are the source of onethird of all calls for service and 10% are the source of 72% of calls for service is is really quite shocking are the particular characteristics of these addresses yeah so Boulder's not unique this is uh crime science principles that are the same in Denver as they are anywhere in the United States but yes what we see uh in the majority of these

[131:00] locations is either overwhelmed landlords uh uh landlords that are absentee uh Management systems that uh fail to address the complexities of some of the people that they Place into uh you know whether they be apartment complexes businesses um that have bad management practices um just an inability from management ownership teams to block opportunities from crime and disorder to happen in the first place then leaving um you know the work uh to the police department to uh manage for them thank you and last question um uh take a concrete example how would this program handle say current conditions on the mall which are affecting a lot of businesses and we're hearing a lot of uh you know calls for assistance from those businesses uh how would this actually differ in terms of uh how we're dealing with that yeah so the issues on Pearl

[132:02] Street that we're seeing right now um really have a lot to do uh with the unfortunate Fentanyl and meth uh methamphetamine uh issues that we're being flooded with right now and so again a whole list approach working with other City departments which we started this work on Pearl Street um but we are lacking police visibility on Pearl Street right now I have gone from an eight person Pearl Street team Mall team to a three-person uh Mall team um which is a reflection of Staffing most of the problems on Pearl Street can be addressed with high visibility patrols um but there's other things other City dep departments could do to help and you know we're working through some of these issues right now with the city manager's office um uh the municipal court system the prosecutors you know parks and wrecks so we would like to put a whole problem solving team around these issues but a lot of the stuff that we see on the business Community is partnership and

[133:02] doing crime prevention assessments with the businesses but literally um May PRM wallik we we are understaffed on the Pearl Street Mall and I really believe that as Staffing increases uh deputy chief Redfern has to get some more police officers down on Pearl Street that's just the number one thing because visibility stops a lot of this from happening in the first place I hope that's helpful yes it is my then my question is for city manager uh is there any possibility of uh providing those resources this year or is that going to have to be for the 2025 budget I will say that it depends right again in my um in my word of the day constraint uh it will depend on when we're able to move forward I if we are able to fill the current vacancies which is the first um I would say priority uh and I know that PD is hoping to have between 8 and 12 and maybe all 17 filled by the end of

[134:01] the year then we could be coming back to council with an ATB to discuss uh potentially additional resources if that is what it takes but we've got some vacancies to fill right now and I would say that that is what our initial focus is on thank you I hope that is the case Nicole Mani thank you and i' got some questions for different people so I think this first one may be for Sarah um actually thank you um so on the the engagement summary document thank you for providing that and putting it all together like that um there were a bunch of groups that were listed as having been reached out to for engagement and I was just wondering how many of those groups engaged in that without looking at the list I can't give you an exact count um I would say that we got some engagement from almost every group some was more

[135:00] some had more participants some had fewer participants and one of the things that we realize is that depending on where folks are starting from their ability to engage in this kind of conversation might be limited so for example for reaching out to people who have experienced homeless or home lessness or currently unhoused we were a were more successful at talking to folks who have recently transitioned to housing because some of their basic needs have been addressed so they are able to have a conversation in this vein and that was one of the things that we learned is that we have to meet people's basic needs before they can engage in their civic life so we were more successful for example reaching people who have transitioned we did have a couple of um one opportunity in particular at the shelter as folks were checking in so they were getting their basic needs met and also being able to give us feedback and that was quite successful okay thank you and then N I think these next couple may be for you

[136:01] um so you know when we're looking at for example the additional Staffing that's proposed in the plan where are we at in terms of writing these strategic plans um at a vision level versus not a vision level because I know um I think Bob you were the one who oh well Bob hopefully you can he was that you know one of the initial ones who raised this when I first got on Council like hey is this really the right thing to do and I think you know we've generally been in agreement that maybe we want to move away from that so I'm just wondering how this plan fits in with that approach I love the question council member uh it is something that we will be engaging FSC the financial strategies committee as well it it is part of our um year three of financial improvements that we have been on a journey on with staff along with kpis we we hope to uh a first of all not call these Master plans anymore the term master has some historical connotations that we want to get away from um and think about more about um holistic strategic plans as we move forward um

[137:01] and we are in that process of thinking about Citywide strategic plans that don't throw away previous there are existing plans that exist how do we braid them all together so I think that is work that you're going to continue to see in 2024 along with um some work that I know mayor protm is along with me very active in seeing which your kpi so that we can perhaps even next year talk about things we stop doing so we can fund other things great thank you um and then my other question is uh just one of the sections in the plan ends with a note about how unusual it is for cities to fund housing and Human Services at the same level that we fund police which was um cool to hear um and I think you know looking at Staffing the police department has almost 200 sworn officers or at least open positions um and about 80 or 90 other positions um it's the highest staff department by far um housing and Human Services has around 70 or so positions um and I don't think

[138:00] they're pay being paid four times what are police are being paid if so we should that would be awesome I have to say we not hear constraint I know exactly um so I I was just wondering you know given um the amount each dep spend is about the same what accounts for those big differences in Staffing sure so um council member spear thank you for that question um whereas the police department has a lot of individual staff members delivering services on the ground housing and Human Services has some staff members like that but we're predominantly in the business of providing money to community organizations to provide human servic or there's our housing funds which go into affordable housing and so the difference is the really the the needs of the two departments in terms of how

[139:00] do you get the help on the ground to the people yep thank you and was it last year that we started switching to kind of take into account the money we were spending on building and development in our HHS budget too that's it so I feel like it if there was a massive like a double that happened I do and I think that shift did happen last year I can confirm for you I believe so got to imitate Mark a little better there I know right I'm apologizing constantly to Mark in the universe out there that's my memory as well yeah yep okay cool um and then I just had a question for the chief if you don't mind I can get you to stand up um and it's just kind of around the process and you know how this all unfolded took an awful long time um you know the scope kind of um expanded a bit and I'm just wondering Looking Back Now as you know we're at the end of it tonight is there anything that you would change about how this unfolded or where it has led us well that's a great question council

[140:02] member spear um honestly I wish it wouldn't have taken so much time um and I wish I always wish that we have really good dialogue with everybody in our community um so things you know you have to think that you just you got to remain at the table um until we get everybody talking um and I'm I'm willing to be the last person at the table um but those two things um I am so passionate about implementation of these ideas um because I know it will it will safeguard against all of the tragedies that that I've witnessed for 30 years in my career this is the best

[141:01] shot that we know of right now science Partnerships collaboration this is our best shot to ensure that we do not see another George Floyd um and I'm pretty darn confident of that I hope I answered your question but it was that was a tough one thank you appreciate it right thanks Nicole juny thank you thank you for the presentation and I do have some comments for later now we're just asking for clarifying questions uh Deputy Chief Red Fern mentioned 20 by 30 hiring more women and I wanted to ask him how many women are currently in the force at this time I'm going to defer that to one of my colleagues that has better data than I do on

[142:05] that good evening Council I'm Ron gosage deputy chief with the Boulder Police Department uh have some demographics for you currently sorry I put on my old guy glasses as discussed earlier currently we have 174 officers of those 174 we have 140 males we have 34 females uh right now that's 19.5% which is above the national average we have work to do uh but those are the females we have 11 black officers that equates to 6% we have 22 Hispanic officers that's 13% six Asian officers that's 3% and one multi-racial officer for half a percent thank you for that uh I have a my next question is is a bit of a hybrid

[143:03] question uh it's it Encompass both the funding piece that uh my CD manager was talking about um it sounding as if the funding will be needed for 14 more officers and also it would cover Outreach and so Community Solutions but I feel like as part of the presentation what I didn't hear as much because I heard all the great ways that we're making the community better uh engaging and also ensuring that officers are properly trained or better trained through acmis um but I didn't hear as much about the mental health support piece and again we hear how important is mental health in community especially for police officers that are working on the front line and I wanted to know is that also reflected as part of the budgetary

[144:00] funding uh that you were looking at for allocation it's a great question council member Joseph and something as the police Command Staff that we're trying to address every single day um I can say that we do currently have some funding uh in our current budget as well as a 2024 budget to specifically deal with uh Wellness for our support and commissioned officers it is something um that we will continue to ask for funding for um so we can ensure that our officers are providing the best service uh coming to work mentally and physically well thank you for that that's it for now thank you I have comments for later great well seeing no other questions then we can go to the public hearing we've got 35 people signed up that's 26 in person and nine remote you'll each have two minutes to speak if you can start queuing up as your name is called that would be wonderful and you are entitled to your 2 minutes but if other people have said something similar

[145:00] to what you're going to say uh you can always cut a little shorter if you would like just saying our first three speakers are Laura Hager Myra Martinez and Anna Sophia Laura you can get us started do we have Laura with us no say good evening oh hi good evening my name is Myra

[146:15] Martinez um is so my name is Myra Martinez Myra Martinez and I am delighted to be here this is my first time talking to city council so a little bit nervous but excited as well I had the honor of um being presented uh the the the final draft of the master plan and I think it's spoton and it really uh will will bring back the confidence that the community is lacking towards the police department in

[147:01] law enforcement see thank you okay well uh and next we have Anna Sophia so Anna Sophia didn't come she's absent okay Carlos Valdez Carlos Valdez Carlos hi my name is caros and I'm here uh supporting the uh reimagining uh policing plan C

[148:01] plan I think this is a good plan that really um um will benefit all of the citizens especially those who don't trust the police department so in order to implement this plan we most certainly have to work collaboratively and where um everybody is able to collaborate and work with the police uh the government and Community leaders and the community at Large I have learned uh firsthand from uh people from the latinx community and the African-American Community about the

[149:00] lack of trust that they have in the police department and this is why we most definitely have to work in collaboration with the police department and this is why we're here and representing the community so that we can really look uh uh endorse the changes that we're trying to uh move forward graas thank you good night Carlos now we have Mara Sanchez Ana paa and Susan leevy okay hello how are you my name is Mara Sanchez we have the the great benefit to listen to the whole plan and uh I was very much impressed by you know the whole concept behind division especially because it was a a a a process that was moving from reactive

[150:00] approach to proactive approach it was very much into the connecting with the community and creating relationship of trust that I think it's so important and integrate the whole community in many ways um the words trust compassion safety and really caring about the community was what impacted me the most um and also the leadership was very very I I was very much impacted by that because they truly meaning mean it you know you have a plan many times but the there the people behind it they don't they don't truly mean it so in my opinion this team is is going to make it happen so thank you very much okay thank you Mara I have Anna paa Susan leevy and David Campbell um hi I'm Ana and thank you both everyone um it's also my first time

[151:01] here so it's nice um I was able to see the plan last two weeks ago and I feel like it's a very powerful plan and also it really like Visions in Visions like all the values that the police has and also like how are they willing to really make a change and also taking into consideration the community so thank you thank you Anna now Susan Levy David Campbell and Russell Chandler do we have Susana here not looking like it so David Campbell and then yes good evening I'm David Campell uh I came to Boulder in 1994 earned a degree from CU in '98 uh and as an entrepreneur I've created hundreds of jobs here in Boulder my partner is a 10-year professor at the University for 16 years

[152:01] we are proud parents of five children in Boulder the youngest is in elementary school two high schoolers and two college students uh over the past few years we have been appalled at the State of Affairs as it relates to law enforcement in Boulder and uh our children don't feel safe riding the bus they don't feel safe riding their bikes to school uh and I call upon this city council to support Chief Harold and the rest of the fine folks at Boulder Police to allow them to do their job uh our children are our future and we are not adequately investing in protect protecting their future right now thank you thanks David now Russell Chandler Terry takot Smith and Trish Emer friends on Council um my name is 30 Hawthorne see class of 1985 homeowner

[153:01] since 88 resident since '94 small business owner and a commercial tenant um I'm asking my friends on the council please vote for the reimagine policing plan um policing in many communities does not work well because it is reaction Ary and not proactive what BPD is proposing represents a paradigm shift in how we care for all members of our community especially those not historically well represented traditional policing involves responding to repeated emergencies usually coming from known trouble areas in town and then failing to solve the crimes due to lack of resources very often the crime could have been prevented in the first place based upon the data available this Progressive plan will follow the example set in New Zealand and other Forward Thinking governments around the world by leveraging our police force as active community members preventing crimes instead of waiting for them to occur our chief has taken a bold step forward that many others in her role would shy away from she deserves a unanimous vote of council approving and funding this plan

[154:02] uh lastly I would just like to see us do a little bit more to get more than 10 police officers out of the 171 uh actually being able to live in the community and be with us in this community and that's a that's a big housing issue that we all know about thank you thanks Russ Terry takot Smith Trish imer and Michael broer good evening I'm Terry Takata Smith the interim director of the downtown Boulder partnership tonight I'm representing the 17 members of the downtown Boulder partnership board of directors who provide oversight of our 501 C6 organization focusing on membership and advocacy I'm here to convey our board's endorsement of the reimagined police leasing plan signifying our support of the Boulder Police Department and every individual officer who tirelessly serves our community this plan outlines Innovative strategies to provide enhanced safety of our shared public spaces and offers

[155:01] Chief heral and her team the opportunity to streamline internal processes fostering greater efficiency solving today's complex societal issues requires a collaborative mindset shared responsibility among a variety of stakeholders and cross-disciplinary efforts just as the plan suggests the plan ensures the continuation of vital resources such as the homeless Outreach team and dedicated officers assigned to the downtown district these resources are essential to our business community and must not only persist but unequivocally be expanded to create safe and welcoming public spaces the plan is well informed by Community insights and comprehensive data analysis objectives are transparent arent and action oriented and the evaluation framework is robust our community's challenges are multifaceted and not isolated to Boulder Place Management organizations Chambers tourism offices service providers as

[156:01] well as La law enforcement and City officials Nationwide are all contending with issues related to unsheltered individuals drug abuse crime and the acute shortage of Mental Health Resources the reimagined policing plan offers a roadmap potential Solutions and most crucially much needed support for our officers the downtown Wilder partnership board of directors respectfully urges Council to demonstrate your commitment to prioritizing Public Safety and supporting our officers thank you thanks Terry Trish Emer Michael broer and Terry berich good evening um we all know that crime mental health and drug addiction and Boulder is impacting all of us I looked for some data dat to compare Boulder with other cities the most recent I could find is according to the FBI Uniform Crime reporting data in 2021 as reported in 2022 I found it interesting that one in 27 people in Boulder were Crime Victims

[157:01] in 2021 Boulder crime rates are 63% higher than the national average at that time crime was Rising year-over-year by almost 20% I continue to be both personally shocked and fearful for for my family trying to recreate in Boulder there's a lot of extreme aggressions and few consequences in our Boulder Public spaces city council I really hope that you will trust the citizens the city staff and the experts who brought forth the reimagine policing plan please support and fund our police keep our friends and family safe thank you thank you ch now Michael Brer Terry burnit and Michael wheen hi I'm Michael broer I feel very safe here with a dozen uh Boulder Police behind me um I think it's safe to say

[158:02] that one's personal property and safety along with wholesale disregard for laws has increased in the past several years this should not be an acceptable option last week a friend and I decided to look at the issue of crime and safety from the perspective of business owners uh on Pearl Street our sandals on the ground research and discussions with shopkeepers yielded seever several takeaways 100% of owners have seen a market increase in crime especially in the last three years broken windows uh grab and go theft and burglary are common police interaction when a situation arises has been exceptional rapid response many times uh within minutes and always responsible and professional assistance our observation overall is that the owners are totally exasperated and do not know how to respond um other than to rely on the

[159:00] police when an incident occurs it doesn't appear to be a great long-term strategy and way for them to uh conduct or stay in business we spotted a police officer walking the beat and engaged in a uh longer conversation concerning safety and crime several takeaways the force is terribly understaffed example uh his shift has eight officers if one calls in six they're down to seven when a mental health incident uh occurs they respond with two officers thus five officers are there to cover the city which also includes Gun Barrel so the police department's mission is to partner with the community and provide services and safety uh it the officer said it's critical to have community and Council support for the Department to effectively provide safety and service and um tapping out vote for the increase

[160:00] of headcount by mere 7% or 15 recruits thank you thanks Michael now Terry bernich Michael wheen and Lisa Spalding hi there it's Terry renich um thanks for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight I'm here to express my support for the reimagining policing plan Chief heral is recognized as one of the most Progressive police Chiefs in the country and has consistently demonstrated through her actions over the past three years a thorough understanding of the issues and an intense motivation for excellence through her Relentless focus on metrics and results she has elevated the entire Boulder policing operation the reimagining policing plan supports evidence-based strategies that will effectively and ethically address crime in a proactive manner the plan is supported by a diverse group of community members Who provided input towards its development and addresses many of the concerns around police best practices and accountability that City leadership has been asking for our community has demanded policing reforms

[161:01] and our police department has responded with this comprehensive data informed plan now we just need to let them execute and provide them with the support needed to do it in a way that will have the maximum chance of success please support this plan thanks thanks Terry now Michael wheen Lisa Spalding and Kelvin Draves Boulder belongs to a rare class of cities in America you get right in that mic maybe that There You Go Boulder belongs to a rare class of cities in America and offers neo-european walkability this special class includes Santa Barbara Burlington Vermont Santa Fe New Mexico Jackson Hill Wyoming Etc there's been no talk of the national movement and flow of almost 400,000 homeless people so if you actually look at the number and how we're interconnected just finding homes and treating people is not enough we need a

[162:02] a way to deter and eject violent individuals that arrive from other cities especially Republican cities that like to bust them to us um and I think that uh this is a really complex problem and uh let's not ruin our city as Burlington Vermont did by defunding their police instead let's invest in police so I support this plan thanks thanks Michael now Lisa Spalding Calvin Draves and Linda Quigley Lisa Spalding representing the University Hill neighborhood association executive Comm committee the University Hill neighborhood association or una has had a very long and very close relationship with the Boulder Police Department and we are proud to support Chief herold's outstanding plan to advance effective and proactive policing

[163:00] in Boulder as one of the major hotpots on the heat map of Calla for Crime the Hill Neighborhood encourages you to not only accept the reimagining policing plan but also to fully fund it we founded una in 2000 after there were two large alcohol fueled riots within the first two weeks of students returning for the Autumn semester it's hard to describe the fear and frustration permanent residents had between during the 10 riots between 1997 and 2004 things began to turn around when a young petite police Sergeant named Kim Stewart was appointed to the head of the Hill team she embarked on a remarkable campaign to establish personal relationships between her officers the neighbors and student Representatives we made many improvements to our physical and

[164:00] cultural environment with the help of the Hill team and learned how Central the police can be to positive change in the community Chief heral and her team have carefully developed a plan that embodies Boulder's values and respects all members of the community although the reimagining policing plan reports that people calling police gave them high scores for fighting crime it also states that there's room for improvement in how police deal with neighborhood problems I suspect that score was brought down by the hill but the acceptance and full funding of the reimagining policing plan which will give officers the opportunity to work proactively with the community members should bring that score back up to the top of the chart that aspect of the plan worked in 2000 and it will again thank you thanks Lisa Calvin Draves Linda Quigley and Valerie love hello my name is Calvin Draves uh I'm a senior at Boulder High School uh

[165:01] and tonight I'm speaking to endorse the reimagining policing plan uh having biked and walked through these areas around Boulder high school every day over the past few years the situation seems to be getting worse I've seen two separate in es where police retreating an overdose victim my brother was evacuated from the sports field due to the propane a propane explosion my friend was approached by a man who tried to assault him and steal his bike and another friend was harassed during photography class and just yesterday A man was arrested for dealing fentanyl within 1,000 ft of BHS after being arrested 2 weeks ago for a stabbing incident in the same area in all these cases the police responded as quickly as possible to to reass reassure us that we were safe and protected the situation isn't going to improve unless we start thinking about the problem differently taking a proactive approach toward crime prevention will be a much needed step in the right direction and I hope the city council will approve this

[166:00] measure thank you thanks Calvin appreciate hearing from a local high school student thanks for coming out tonight we have Linda Quigley Valerie love and Charlene Hoffman the first time I came to speak to council I naively asked when you'd begin to represent me I'd like to address my thanks primarily to the council minority and perhaps the most Progressive professional in the room Chief Harris as she's presented an evidence-based method of policing for Boulder but for the holistic governance portion of this to be a success those other government Partners the so-called Progressive 63 majority on Council cannot continue enabling the problem as you have the community wants to see the laws

[167:02] apply equally to everyone not endless excuses for people who break our camping bike and car theft vandalism illicit drug use and shoplifting laws who wants to be H or die at the hands of someone who was just arrested by the police for stabbing someone or worse I want to be able to use Pearl Street Mall our bike paths and many of the other special places I help pay for in my 41 years in Boulder without being worried about being assaulted injured by flying shrapnel from exploding propane tanks fires or worse personally I don't need a lecture from Matt Benjamin on Democracy when he votes to overturn the will of a 53% majority who did not want more housing density no for the progressives you

[168:01] might have fooled us once with your campaigns I've watched your meetings every Thursday night for years I saw Nicole's recent Victory salute after she voted against our 53% majority who didn't want any increase in housing density it's you who do not believe in representative democracy therefore it's you who should be voted out thanks [Applause] Linda uh just reminding folks that we ask you to refrain from U audible expressions of support or disagreement feel free to do a jazz hands thing if you hear something that you like to hear that's part of our Rules of Engagement so next three Valerie we got you right here and then Charlene Hoffman and George caran hi thanks for this um Valerie love uh Boulder stabbing suspect arrested again your number one duty is to create a safe Community violent crimes are up over the past 5 years on a

[169:00] daily basis our children fear for their lives living in Boulder because we do not have enough police on duty nor a proper judicial system to enforce the laws that are supposed to keep the community safe officers arrested the same man they arrested two weeks ago for stabbing someone outside the city's municipal building in the middle of the day in addition to the stolen bike he was riding he had a large amount of cash and more than 23 grams of fentanyl he was released from jail without having to post cash Bond and then arrested again I called the police twice in the past two weeks to report over 20 people in encampments doing drugs right outside of sporos on Pearl Street where my high school daughter works she's consistently harassed by transients and feels so scared walking from her job to the car car only 100 ft away that she always carries pepper spray the dispatcher said they didn't have anyone to come because they're underst staffed I asked how many officers are on a typical shift to protect our city of over a 100,000 taxpayers guess what she said I'll fill

[170:01] you on a secret Chipotle has more people on a given shift than our Police Department we have eight eight officers on a shift for all 100,000 citizens as Chief Herold said Simply Having a police presence on Pearl Street and anywhere in our community deters criminal Behavior 24/7 365 these wonderful men and women risk their lives for us it's got to be scary being an officer starting pay is only 71,000 they have to approach people who are breaking the law who look unstable and don't know if they have weapons as mentioned earlier our valuable public protectors are traumatized by this demanding work they have physical and mental health issues and are exhausted because they're understaffed and they do do deserve our full support they have to deal with the public bus station and Library shutting down because of meth and Fentanyl I support our police and I really hope you guys do too thank you thanks Valerie now Charlene Hoffman George K Kean and Paul

[171:06] tweedley good evening can you hear me I'm Charlene Hoffman I'm the CEO of visit Boulder I'm also um on the board of the boulder Restaurant Association I've been a resident for 25 years and we have three children two of which attend schools in Boulder it was a a year ago in August this past August that I had removed the Boulder Creek path from Boulder Colorado USA website and from all of our marketing materials because of safety concerns I didn't realize it at the time but it's become a bit of a symbol for me on how we're doing in Boulder with all these problems that we're facing and today's situation is much worse and it's a hell of a lot more complicated than it was a year ago with all the drugs and the Fentanyl and everything that's coming into town and it still impacts our Boulder Creek but it also impacts our restaurants our retailers our Hospitality Partners our

[172:02] residents our visitors and another big Prime Crown Jewel of ours the Pearl Street Mall I think we can all agree that we need big comprehensive strategies at this point for drug addiction mental illness housing crime and Public Safety so a big thank you to our police chief and her team for bringing this plan forward it's comprehensive it has a vision for Change and different approaches and that is what we need the only thing that I would like to advocate for is re-engagement with our black community and the NAACP because their voices are also needed to ensure the goals identified in this plan are met Equity Trust and transparency bottom line we need our police I support our police and I hope you do too thank you thank you Charlene now we have George Ken Paul tweedley and Peter mayor council this is the first time

[173:02] that I have been back to these Chambers since I left seven years ago um I felt compelled um I completely support this it's it's it's too we're not doing enough if you only knew how bad it is on Pearl Street you you you would you would be depressed you have the ability to change that how can we have three officers and we're getting people assaulted daily employees I mean it think about that may maybe 50% of what actually happens gets reported and yet this is what we have to live with I must tell you uh when I was on Council I heard the same thing about

[174:00] the police department being underst staffed that was 13 years or longer ago we need to do something we have the most expensive housing in the Front Range why don't we pay our police higher than anyone perhaps that might stimulate a few more I must tell you I see us going downhill quickly and you all need to understand how desperate we are downtown my employees my I had one that was assaulted my female employees are not comfortable walking out the door at night without them being more than one one this is your community this is our community and it's not safe we need to do something not worry about the money find it we are a wealthy

[175:01] community and we need to change things downtown before it it really is too late thank you George okay now we have Paul tweedley Peter mayor and hope Michelson good evening my name is Paul tley I live in Fourth Street I've lived there for 20 years I'd like to Echo my support for police Herald and her wonderful officers and the great job that they're doing in a very tough situation also Al Echo many people are spoking here that safe safety is the number one priority the safety of our communities and the safety is safety of our families one thing I would like to add is I'd like to challenge city council to set the tone in our community

[176:00] what do I mean to set the tone it's a sports term for example I used to play soccer out here at Pleasant View Fields it's so much fun I'm too old now but uh I used to play a sweeper which is a defensive role I shared with a team captain vtus and one time he said to me Paul do you want to take the first stt here and I said no vus say you're the team captain and it's your job to set the team for the set the tone for the team so I'd like to challenge city council you are our team leaders please set the do it thank you thanks Paul now we have Peter Mayer hope nichelson and John N slage good evening I'm Peter mayor I'm the co-chair of plan Boulder County plan Boulder County offers strong support for

[177:00] the reimagining policing plan it's based on hundreds of hours of community engagement real data and new thinking this Visionary plan offers our city a thoughtful path forward to improve Public Safety and strengthen the relationship between us and the police officers who Serve and Protect US the reimagining policing plan proposes an Innovative proven core strategy called problemsolving policing which is focused on reducing crimes from occurring rather than responding retroactively other important aspects of the plan include Innovations in training and Technology neighborhood policing and youth engagement programs ways to increase police accountability and diversity and significantly the development and use of data to establish key metrics to guide the Boulder Police Department and work and to measure success plan Boulder views the reimagining policing plan as a

[178:01] constructive way to improve policing in Boulder and as a new paradigm that offers the possibility of resolving many of our conflicts and problems around Public Safety bringing the community together to reduce crime create a welcoming public space and improve conditions for all please fund this plan thank you very much thank you Peter now hope Mickelson John nest and John T my name is Hope Michaelson I'm a boulder resident and I'm here to ask you to support the reimagine and policing plan this plan is a community collaboration initiated by police chief meis heral and an inov an innovated approach to solving some of our Town's persist consistent in escalating problems this plan represents data-driven policy at its best and most effective I know there have been calls to defund the B police largely in response to incidents that have happened elsewhere these calls have been made predominantly by activists not living in

[179:00] parts of Boulder with high and increasing incidents of both violent and nonviolent crimes I've lived on the hill and in downtown Boulder um I actually live right across from together homes right now um both areas with serious problems and I have observed firsthand the care and comp compassion with which Boulder police officers interact with our community despite the explosion of drug trafficking in the dangerous situations Boulder Police encounter on a daily basis now responses of our officers have been exemplary in the same way that both that police officers need to react objectively and without prejudice when they are making decisions please keep an open mind as you consider this promising Innovative approach and I I um second Russell Chandler's request to find a way to help Boulder Police um uh have uh homes in Boulder thank you thank you hope now John Nest John T and Peter

[180:00] Waters good evening I came with some prepared remarks this evening but I'd like to abandon them I I really want to First Express and Signal my support for chief Harold and for the Boulder Police Department for the reimagining policing plan it's an outstanding plan it's enlightened we're very fortunate to have Chief heral in our community she signals transparency accountability uh I know she training deescalation tactics uh she's very Progressive Chief we're very blessed to have her being in the room together here tonight with you all reminded me of a shared experience we've all had not even seven months ago when we were in this room in January when we were discussing uh the police oversight panel and there were members here who claimed that there were uniform police in the chambers and that they were intimidated and that this was some sort of a violation and that that and that there was there were complaints filed this this was meritless and an embarrassment when we have a staffing shortage and we wonder why you also look

[181:01] at your role in the PO in the appointment of Lisa Sweeney Moran which was improper some of you even ignored the advice of your own hired special counsel you chose to vote anyway it didn't matter what he what he said and now on the PO you have a convicted felon I'm confused I'd like to know what the mechanism will be to remove her how that's going to work and who will take her place consider the message that you send when we have a shortage of police officers we want to recruit new police officers why would they want to come when they're treated that way why thank you right folks I'm going to remind you again please no audible signals of supported disagreement you can do your jazz hands if you want to uh so thanks John and now up next John T and then Peter Waters thank you mayor Brocket member city council um I stand here uh I'm John ter president CEO of the boulder chamber and I stand Here In Praise of the reimagining police plan um

[182:00] not for Unique reasons but they're worth repeating uh one because we have a problem in Boulder uh two because the strategy and approach is innovative and second or third because it's responsive um we have a problem in Boulder we see the numbers that indicate the rising crime continuing um to uh indicate that we have numerically TR uh difficult challenge fighting crime in our community but I can tell you about individual business uh Business Leaders who are experiencing the crime on their own in terms of threats to their staff in terms of difficulty at their B places of business um in terms of the crime that occurs right in their in their very uh places of work um we need to address those challenges um it is a problem for our business community and is affecting the character of our community um this plan is innovative in its approach um we notice that for it's using research

[183:00] which is very characteristic of uh a city of Boulder um and the kind of character of our University Le um Department we know that we have a opportunity to address crime in a way that's different than what we would normally see um in uh communities that don't take that kind of research-based datab based approach um and it's a credit to the character of their police chief uh Chief Maris Harold um and her um uh I would say character of an individual who approaches policing in a different Manner and finally it's responsive it's responsive to uh community that demands equity in its policing and that demands that we take a different collaborative approach to addressing crime that doesn't necessarily put police officers out in front um but uses all of the resources that we have at our disposal and finally IT addresses that ultimate problem which is the rising crime rate

[184:00] so support the reimagine policing plan thank you but thank you so much Peter you're our last inperson testifier good evening um first of all thank you to our council members I don't know why in the hell any of you guys would put yourself through this um on a weekly basis but um I do appreciate your time that you guys put in um secondly a very heartfelt thank you to our police force back here um once again in terms of what these guys put themselves through and women um it's just incredible that they're volunteering to do this on a daily basis um my name is Peter Waters I own two businesses down downtown um I'm a resident downtown so um in addition to patronizing downtown businesses I am operating and employing people um and I live here I am in downtown Boulder 247 I see it at all hours I walk by it on the way home I

[185:00] have a perspective that I doubt many people in this room have um as a resident at 15th in Spruce it is non-stop um when you hear a loud noise in Boulder Colorado your first concern should not be whether or not that was a firework or a firearm and that's where we are today um it's sad but it's the truth and um for me on March 2021 I walked out of my house to find a gentleman trying to break into my neighboring building at 15th in Spruce he revealed that he had a machete and when I said I'm calling the cops he said go ahead they're not going to do anything here I am standing without weapon in my front yard at 15th in Spruce with 170 lb dog that this gentleman has decided he's going to take me on with a machete and a flashlight much like the ones that our officers carry two weapons to my none um I thought this was an isolated incident until 5 months later I walked out of our

[186:02] restaurant at 1175 Walnut and encountered yet another man who when asked to leave our premise revealed that he had a knife much like a machete talking blades this big um let's not become a tombstone government thank you so much I appreciate all your time thank you Peter all right we're going to go to our virtual testifiers now our first three are Jill Oliver David Middlebrooks and Karen susin thank you can you guys hear me okay yes awesome well first of all I just want to thank uh city council for everything you do in this service uh you're giving our our town I know it's not easy and I want to thank all of you uh for being here tonight and I also want to publicly acknowledge Chief Harold because I don't think it's been said um I've lived in Boulder 38 years

[187:01] and I live in South Boulder and she really uh took us through and helped our community during our king supers mass shooting and I can't thank her enough uh she's helped our community she's helped our Police Department uh and I'm really proud of what she's done um I support the new policing uh program I think it's thoughtful informative and it's a much and much needed in a town like ours where we like to have Community input um I like that we have data that we can use because it squashes misinformation and it also allows us to determine what works and what doesn't work um the data shows crime is up we all know that but this plan is a plan that I think will keep our community safer which is our human right and it's our human right for everyone to feel safe I fully support this plan but let's not do it halfway I

[188:00] do believe when you when you build something it'll come so let's fully fund this plan I don't know if you're voting on funding this tonight it doesn't seem like it but I think in order to have a safe Community we need fund it and so I'm asking city council to approve her reimagining policing plan and please fund it and thank you to the Boulder Police Department for everything you do to keep us safe and go see you beat Nebraska on Saturday thank [Applause] you all right well we all agree with that one but I'd still ask you to avoid the audible uh things of uh of support uh thanks for that Jill I understand David Middlebrooks is not in the meeting so we have Karen susin and then Connie Brenton and Elaine Dana Miller mayor Karen suin has with drawn

[189:00] all right then Connie Brenton you're up it's tough to be a retailer criminal Behavior has increased extensively and across all fronts from individuals defecating in front of our businesses to Smashing store Windows to stealing with impunity to confronting and ACC costing store owners and workers to using drugs in our public bathrooms on our streets in our library in our parks to violence between those on the streets the problems are so bad and the response is so anemic that most actions go unreported business owners are scared or jaded so no one says anything most of the time to Jeff's to George's point the stats that are presented are undercounted by a huge percentage it's getting harder to hire and keep workers with crime and violence on the rise people are fed up scared and angry Mall ambassadors are a good step forward but they are no replacement for police

[190:01] presence I've owned artart on the Pearl Street Mall for 30 years it's never been this bad the police respon presence is nearly non-existent until we call for help 100 % of my staff have experienced verbal and in some cases physical violence in our store in the last 12 months couple recent examples someone came into the store a couple weeks ago looked like they were putting merchandise into their pockets I asked them to give it to me and to leave he went berserk screaming obscenities as I followed him out when I when he left I again asked him to return what he had stolen and he dropped into my hand jewelry that he' stolen from artart and other stores along the mall into my my hand I called the police shared the picture with downtown Boulders so other businesses could be alerted and a week later the exact same thing happened same guide just a different business the retailers and our employees have become responsible for policing our stores and the downtown mall all my employers are

[191:01] either high school students or college students and most of them are women I've offered selfdefense training to our employees because work on the boulder mall is dangerous and increase police presence will help prevent the crime We Know by experence Miss Brenton I'm afraid your time is up if you have further comments uh please uh email them to us we'd be Delight to hear them will you read them is the question yes we will okay all right next up is uh Elaine danam Miller is Elaine in the uh is she with us yes can you hear me yes we can can you're up good thank you good evening Council please support this reimagined policing plan not just the plan but the plan and any subsequent Staffing and funding requests we have one of the most Progressive police departments and Chiefs in the country in my opinion some of this Council have

[192:01] been too slow to support them we all advocate for equity and the equal application of the laws let's be sure those words are reflected in our actions this community routinely makes excuses and special exceptions for repeat offenders thieves those who travel here to do methan fental in the Parks and flagrantly ignore our camping ban the fact that the police just rearrested a man who stabbed someone in the middle of the park in the middle of the day who was immediately released to Steel bikes and sell fenel is a failure that should not happen again so for the holistic governance piece of this plan to succeed we need all other government partners and community members to stop the policies and practices that are enabling the problem the charts and the reimagine plan show that in Boulder property and violent crimes are up safety is down and the police are overwhelmingly called to fix it do your part and support this

[193:01] plan and the requests for Staffing and funding so the police can heavily Patrol crime hotspots and engage more non-p police resources where appropriate so I want to thank Chief Harold deputy chief Redfern and the entire BPD Chief Harold you have been connecting with all community members from day one and the community appreciates you thank you Council thanks Elaine now I have Aiden Reed Thomas bender and Ryan Harwood good evening council is everyone able are you able to hear me yes okay good evening Council uh my name is Aiden re and uh thank you for hearing me this evening um I just wanted to note um on page 30 it states under number two holistic governance crime can be driven by indirect factors like lack like lack of housing food security and transportation access since police have less influence in these areas the whole city is called to relieve social burdens

[194:01] that can that can stop crime from ever happening it helps identify non- enforcement solutions to our community's most pressing safety problems and emphasizes prevention rather than reactive measures and I thought that was quite striking and I I hope that if uh if indeed the council goes forward in um approving this reimagining policing plan um it also takes steps to to follow that to make it easier for people to afford to live here including raising the minimum wage um and making transitional housing more available and affordable housing as well as middle- income housing um and I hope you will take all of the plans uh suggestions and proposals into consideration thank you thanks Aiden now Thomas Bender Ryan Harwood and Christopher Norris can you hear me yes excellent um my name is Thomas Bender I've been a

[195:01] Boulder County resident since 92 lived in the city of Boulder since 2017 and I'm kind of like what happened to our city um it is it appalling and I'm so hopeful that we actually have a plan now um anyone who's lived through this and seeing what's going on in the streets um it's it's frightening right the the number one priority in the value statements I thought was fantastic thanks to everybody who's poured their heart and soul into this especially Maris Garland and all the work that she's done and everyone to support this we feel safe in our community when we are all free to enjoy public and private spaces without fear of harm that's not Boulder today and that is that is sad and we have an opportunity and support to fix this uh and also set a a path forward for the rest of America

[196:01] um we have a mental health crisis that needs to be solved we have a drug addiction crisis that needs to be solved and we have a homeless Priceless crisis that needs to be solved and I think if we solve and focus on the drug addiction first it's a huge problem then you can actually deal with the mental health and then I think homelessness and unhoused will be a much simpler problem not easy but much simpler so I'm in full and 100 support of this approach I hope the uh city council will support this plan and we can carry this forward support our police get the numbers up we need to make Boulder safe again for our kids uh and for the community thank you very much thank you Thomas I understand Ryan Harwood is not present so our last speaker will be Christopher Norris Christoper you can bring us

[197:02] home can you all hear me now yes great um hello I operate two of the vendor carts downtown I sell sunglasses and hats on the 13300 block of Pearl Street Mall so I'm on the front lines of some pretty bad behavior from the unhoused and the plan being proposed does indeed sound interesting and maybe even enlightened but I worry that Boulder may be following in the enlightened footsteps of San Francisco California Portland Oregon whose communities appear to be falling apart apart altogether so I have a a short anecdote this past Sunday was just a a terrible day on the mall there was a group of 15 homeless people they were smoking meth openly there were fist fights there were screaming matches there was a scary panhandler guy demanding money from passers by or else he threatened he would get their kids addicted to crack

[198:01] another homeless guy um took a burning Torch from a street performer and tried to ignite a mouthful of his vodka in order to create a fire breather effect you know it's just just a terrible day um I don't understand why I really I want to say really quickly that I support the police and I understand that they are um they need our support but I also want to say I don't understand why that day the behavior did not apparently rise to the level of tickets being issued or arrests being made fast forward two days the Boulder Police made at least six arrests in the downtown area for drug dealing and drug use and possessing Stolen Bikes and for the following two days up to today the 1300 block has been very subdued um and my point is just that arresting people who commit crimes seems to in fact have a very positive effect on our community and I hope that the arresting of Bad actors does not end um by way of this

[199:00] this very interesting plan thank you very much thank you Christopher and thanks so much to everyone who came and spoke to us tonight we really appreciate your input so that brings us to the end of the public ing portion and so we can bring it back now to council for discussion so who would like to get us started on discussion of the plan I see that not to neily start discussion just to maybe um have a little clarification from some stuff that some speakers brought up so I was wondering if I could ask Chief Harold a question um a number of speakers brought up um that recent arrest of an individual who had just previously been arrested regarding a stabbing and I just wanted to get some of uh your input with regards to are these City policies um that are driving this PR Bond situation Andor an individual who commits a crime like a stabbing from going to jail and then coming right back out and getting rearrested because I think it's important for Community to understand um not only what's causing

[200:02] some of these problems but also perhaps where and more importantly where to focus their advocacy um and passion for Solutions and so I'm I'm just wondering if you can add some clarity as to the the IR at at Council in this dis versus maybe where um those challenges really do persist well first and foremost um I don't disagree with anything this community has said um we have real problems in Boulder and I think it's going to be it's going to take all of us and all of our work to impact some of these larger structural issues that we have seen happen uh over the last several years and listen all of these interventions were really well intended but unfortunately the state did not put their money uh before they passed really unthoughtful legislation um and then we have people

[201:02] giving PR bonds we have judges giving PR Bonds on violent offenders that should not be out until their trial date and so you know the state has passed some really harmful legislation without ensuring like just the decriminalization of drugs without spending money to have mandated treatment options for our local uh jurisdictions our state we're last in the state of Colorado with mental health services we're not too far behind that with drug addiction uh Services these are large structural issues that will impact us locally and so we all have to figure this out um through very thoughtful mechanisms listen when people do bad things there has to be consequences to that and I'm

[202:01] not saying I'm not a lock them up throw them in jail person but before we pass unthoughtful legislation we have to ensure that there's other mechanisms there's other Safety Systems in place or else these community members are harmed and remember that most of the crime is perpetrated against the most vulnerable and it is way under reported so if we're compassionate about our unhoused they're the ones being victimized there's a strong offender victim overlap in this city and that's why we all have to work together and we have to be thoughtful at the state and local before we make big policy changes that impact us all I hope that's helpful in addition we're still dealing with pandemic effects with trials I think the

[203:02] da said he has 80 people still awaiting trials from pre pandemic our jail is full uh the department um uh where we send people that need uh care uh before trials uh they're not staff they're half full so the jail is full and these issues are very complex and it will take all of us to figure this out I hope that's helpful it is gief and so I thank you for for that response and I think that's helpful for Community to understand that there's more than just the city um there's County and state partners and some of those issues impact what we're able to do and certainly impact what you and your team were able to accomplish so it's that that Clarity is is a helpful reminder for all of us so thank you for that welcome okay discussion

[204:00] CH actually don't want to discuss anything I just want to say how sorry I am to the small businesses we have said that we would stand by you after the pandemic and this is what happens you can't your your employees aren't safe the women don't feel safe business owners somebody called me today from a store on the 13th Street part of the mall she said that every single day she gets shoplifted every day all the business shoplifting and how much can a business take a small business it's not like they're making a it's not between the rent and now the shoplifting and everything else that's and everything else is going on Staffing shortages we have to wonder how long some of our businesses are going to stay in business so I am very happy that so many businesses tonight spoke uh I know I spoke to some of them and asked them to speak and I appreciate that they did and I just want to say to all the women who are employees I feel so bad and I'm going to do everything that I can to be

[205:00] a part of the solution and that's what I have to say is that your comment on the plan no do you want to do that while you have the floor sure I love the plan it's awesome thank you succinct I like it somebody else I got Matt and Mark we just jump at it all at once um let me get my notes up here um so there have been uh major challenges in policing and and the chief will be the first to admit that nationally and and even here in Boulder uh BPD could have easily doubled down on the status quo and and chock these issues up to maybe a few bad apples uh but instead through Chief herold's leadership um they've recognized the systematic inequities and limitations of traditional policing and um our chief chose to lean in to transformational change to truly protect and uh serve our community um this is an

[206:01] aspirational plan uh while also providing concrete actions to better serve our community um congratulations to the chief their team and really the community members that helped shape this plan that has received national attention and accolades passing this plan is just the beginning um now we have to turn these words into actions and more importantly results um I fully support this plan and it's emblematic of the community it intends to serve that's empowered by our shared values of safety equity and compassion thank you thanks Mark then Rachel well well first I want to thank thank the merchants and the private citizens who've given up their evening to be entertained by us tonight um I want to say that I share my colleague Matt's frustration and and the police chief's frustration with policies from other branches of government that have made our job that much more difficult but at

[207:03] the end of the day for better or wor the buck stops here and we need to do something and that's why I support the reimagine policing plan as a forward-looking and imaginative approach to bring our police tactics to The Cutting Edge of police enforcement and I also want to express my support for the men and women of the police department who put their lives on the line to protect this community and they do so every single day and deserve our support and respect they have mine and I support our police chief for her role in creating this plan and for the leadership of her department and her dedication to improving policing and life in this city and I really look forward to that adjustment to base in early 2024 to provide our department with the resources they require to carry out their mission to protect each and every

[208:00] one of us I am looking forward to that with great anticipation thank you Rachel thank you Erin um so a couple thank yous I want to uh thank the reimagining subcommittee um everyone who's still here and uh Wendy and for for leading that there were that was a lot to juggle so thank you for doing a good job on that um and Tara for joining during my tenure um I want to thank uh the subcommittee and the community for patience with the second draft I know that uh we got some push back for that um but this plan um the the Inception of reimagining was post George Floyd and I was um mentored by a council colleague who's no longer on Counsel to do things in a way that stick and U I think that we could have slowed or we could have uh sped this up by maybe 8 to 10 months uh

[209:00] but we slowed down a bit to hire the national experts who were here tonight and gave us such good feedback and to get feedback on our first draft so that we could Implement count 's feedback as well as communities and then go out for a second round um and make sure that we uh had knocked it out of the park so we're hearing things tonight like this draft shows trust and compassion and safety and I may be forgetting an email but I don't recall any opposition to this plan which is fairly remarkable so I'm confident that this is going to stick it's going to meet sort of um both sides if you will of the needs for reimagination policing and I think that's remarkable I don't know that that would have happened if we had moved forward faster um or or with the first plan so um I I am grateful to to the patience of everyone for that and grateful that we got to a place where again we almost never get no opposition this is truly like a

[210:02] remarkable moment in my tenure so thanks for participating and um also just want to say that it it doesn't fall on deaf ears the painful stories that we heard tonight I think that um I had hope early in my tenure that that we were having some um things go differently because of pandemic and that when we sort of re rewrited societally things would would shift and and um sort of default back to a norm and they have they have not so um I I do think that that we need to make some changes because the the current trajectory and what we're seeing now is is not allowing anyone to feel particularly safe thanks my uh my great-grandfather was a chief of police uh as a matter of fact I still

[211:01] have his badge is one of my my proudest possessions uh he was a chief of police in a small town in Nebraska don't worry I'll be I'll be working ruing for the Buffs on Saturday I I am from Nebraska I promise not to wear any red that's kind of reddish actually your shirt right now this is his res I'm going to get this week don't worry wor I'll be wearing black and gold on Saturday um and and I know from my family and my my wife's great-grandfather was a chief of police in California as well and I know from my family that that policing is probably the toughest job in the world I don't know how you guys do what you do or why you do it quite frankly I you put your life on the line for us every day and and uh we we owe just tremendous gratitude to you um you know when we I like like Rachel and Taran Jun I had the opportunity to work on on the um the this plan over the last two and a half years with Wendy thank you so much for your leadership in this um and we didn't know two and a half years ago that um we thought things were a little

[212:02] rough and then we needed to improve things um what has happened unfortunately why we've been building this plan is is um things have gotten worse as we've heard from so many community members and businesses tonight and so we have a lot of work ahead of us I mean uh this is a great plan but this is just a road map right we now have to go down this road and so our our tough our tough work is still ahead of us this is this is great as good as this is um we need need to implement this and make this work and measure ourselves and hold ourselves accountable so that two or three years from now we don't have community members like you all coming here and saying this is a really really rough place to be um and and this plan is is going to help us uh to to get to get to that place and so I'll I'll conclude as as my colleague from West Philly said this plan is awesome awesome Lauren I deeply appreciate many aspects

[213:02] of this plan especially the portion that describes holistic government governance and how it plays into crime prevention I hope that we will find new and innovative ways to continue a strong dialogue between officers in the community and between officers and Council I strongly believe that difficult conversations are the key to finding real solutions the level and engagement the level of Engagement and innov Innovative strategies used were really unprecedented in this community I especially appreciated the attention brought to youth voices many but not all of the concerns I had and have heard from Community have been addressed and I truly believe that the significant improvements in this plan are largely due to these challenging conversations our community has participated in and thank you to everyone for your work in that process when asked how we can trust

[214:01] police to treat people equitably I appreciate the answer this plan gives that focuses on how when done well problem solving police can create experiences that help build trust and make the policing portion of the justice system more Equitable but I also see that if problem solving policing were implemented poorly the opposite could also be true as Mara said policing cannot continue as it is a tremendous amount of work is needed and it will not end with the finalization of this plan this is the first step and we will need to continue to to evaluate what's working what's not working and make adjustments I know this has been a difficult process and there are deep issues our community is facing without easy solutions I hope everyone will keep coming to the table and challenging each other so that we can come up with the

[215:00] best Solutions possible thank you Rachel you got some else I just wanted to double dip I I I wasn't reading from my notes so I'm sorry but I had written a A plus one to the Community member who thanked Maris for the king supers um moment you really did lead our our community through a very dark time so I wanted to say thank you again that's on behalf of all of us absolutely go okay uh and apologies colleagues I I have a bit um that I want to say tonight just because I've got a lot of thoughts um but but I will try to keep my comment shorter later um so some of the things that I'm kind of thinking about as we're looking at this uh decision I think one of them is just around getting our Scopes a little bit crossed on this I think what was supposed to be you know a strategic Plan update um ended up because of the times and what was going

[216:00] on u in that situation just ended up expanding bit so I just want to acknowledge um the work of staff to um meet the moment or you know trying to um and I think for Council you know something that we can perhaps learn from is how can we make sure to kind of give give each part it's it's due and um not try to sort of combine things that um maybe we could do a better job of separately I think this was one of the things that uh one of the there were so many additional documents to look through um so I appreciate everything that you did to put this plan together and looking for all these too but um one of the people was talking about how um oftentimes when this sort of reimagining process is done it's done in a different way it's not necessarily led by uh the police department but maybe by a community group with with some feedback and so that was just it was an interesting thing and it just really made me reflect on um how we added a lot

[217:01] to the work and and to what this process should have been so I hope that's a lesson for for Council um you know I'm also just sitting with the knowledge of just how atic the last few years have done have been for the entire Community for you all especially there was the King Super shooting um I work with the brother of uh the murder victim that you all were um dealing with last week and I'm sorry I'm so sorry that you had to do that um so you know I'm holding that I know it's hard um I'm thinking about just the trauma of the community what they've had to deal with some of the high profile incidents of brutality that we've been looking at in the last um couple of years um and bias as well as the experience of the people many who are here tonight who are victims of crime none of this is acceptable I think we all agree on the problem that not everyone feels safe in our community some of us differ on how we can achieve safety but it's wrong for

[218:02] anyone regardless of their perspective on policing to claim that any of us in this community do not want safety it is a common goal it's what we all aspire to as humans I want to speak a little bit to the challenge of speaking up when you have feedback to give as well as to the challenge of hearing feedback in this really charged environment that's not easy either and I appreciate your willingness to stay at the table Chief and I want to also Echo what some folks have said about the role of elected officials in creating an environment that reduces crime it's partly our fault that we don't have places for people with mental illness and addiction to go it's partly our fault that we have adult assault weapons it's partly our fault that some people commit crimes because they can't afford food so we need to step up too because the situations that some of us some of our policies are creating for police to deal with are really not acceptable when I was uh talking to my

[219:01] mom last night um I was mentioning that I was planning to give a little bit of feedback on what I would have liked to see in this plan um and she said be careful Nikki it's dangerous to let police know that you don't agree with them on everything um and and I hear that right I hear that and I hear that that's some that is the approach that some of us in the community have please and I would really appreciate the chance to talk because the people I really want to talk to is our police department and I appreciate what you're doing and what this plan is doing to try to move to a different place so that we don't have that experience I really see that I see that that's that's where we're trying to go I'm really glad there are people in the community who feel safer with police and I'm glad there are so many more who don't have any impression of the police as you were noting um that is a really good place to

[220:01] start and I think it's a strength and a place to start from we're also missing folks tonight who didn't feel safe coming here and speaking up or felt that it wouldn't matter and I understand that many of the folks who are here tonight often feel the same so just want to note that um and I just also want to knowe I don't really feel completely safe being honest tonight because any feedback that I give is going to be attacked by some in the community as me not caring about public safety and not supporting police officers or the many ways you show up and put your lives at risk and not recognizing the trauma that you experience on behalf of this community especially those of you with marginalized identity ities but like you I'm going to try to do the hard thing and offer some feedback as we get this plan started and I hope it matters I really do because just like you I want this Vision to be successful I really do so I'll stay at the table with you tonight what I feel like is missing from this plan is what I asked for when we

[221:00] discussed it last summer and then talked with the project team about an acknowledgement of the institutional racism and systemic overp policing of bipot communities lgbtq Plus communities disabled communities and low-income communities that have created the current environment of trauma and distress which harms all of us I'm so glad to hear that we're going to be doing training that gets at this and I wish that we'd include a bit of it it in the plan um these past and present conditions are the reasons that we arrived at this moment of reimagining policing and thinking about what it could be when we were only supposed to be doing a strategic planning process and as some of the engagement comments mentioned if we're saying we're reimagining the future it really does help to be open about where we are and where we came from and I saw much of that in the presentation tonight so I hope we can get some updates on how the training is proceeding as we move forward and make sure that we're talking openly about this history maybe at the quarterly updates that we receive as an example of why this

[222:00] matters just yesterday we put a video on social media that talked about this plan and how transformational it will be and I agree it will be transformational it was a good of the vision and where we're headed and the background for this video was a blue lives matter flag and I know that for many in the police Community this symbol is a way of finding strength and support in the situations where you're putting your life at risk to help others and for people who are members of groups that have been experiencing police brutality it's a symbol that makes them feel unheard and even threatened both things are true our plan has a stated goal of building trust including equity and supporting Community value values having a shared understanding of issues like this can help prevent these issues I also want to note a gap between how the plan represents the relationships between the police and certain communities visually in the photos and what those community members said the relationships felt like during the engagement there was also a bit of a gap for me in the data presented in the

[223:01] plan and the breadth of the data in the accompanying original sources I really appreciate the focus on making a plan shorter more approachable um and I hope that over the years we don't lose track of the breadth of the data that we received from this process because it really was extraordinary so I'm torn because I see the possibilities and I also see some places um where I would have liked to see us do things a little bit differently in this plan I really do support the vision and I want to make sure that's clear I appreciate where you all are headed I would like to have seen an accounting of the harm that the traditional methods of policing have caused to specific groups in our community um also some tangible and measurable and material actions for some of the stated goals especially those that relate to improving Rapport and relationships and communication with communities that have experienced harm and some specifics on how we're going to

[224:00] track our progress over time for some of the indicators of success that seem critical to success like the sustained and meaningful engagement I think if we can address these gaps this plan stands a better chance of achieving the successful outcomes that everybody in our community is hoping for so whether we're people who feel safe with police or people who don't feel safe with police we all want this plan to succeed and I hope that some of these missing details can be incorporated into the quarterly updates that we get in the coming years so that future councils and Community can follow along and see how our actions and indicators are doing thank you for hearing my feedback thank you for listening and thank you so much for all the work we got juny next thank you mayor Brocket um I have several comments I want to make and I'll start with the one uh that is not um as

[225:02] positive as the one I will end with uh it is hard um for me to hear earlier that um legislation passed a criminal you know the criminal justice uh bills that we passed uh has not been helpful to Chief mayis and my understanding has been that uh bills at the state legislature a lot of times it is very hard to pass bills without the support of police associations and also the attorney councel which is sedak at the state level uh there's usually a lot of stakeholding and some when bills are passed a lot of time it's based on you know uh a lot of stakeholding and coming together of varying groups throughout the community and coming to somehow a middle ground um as part of it as opposed to you know

[226:01] just bills Rim through I just know since I've been at the legislature um you know a lot of my colleagues are pretty thoughtful about that stakeholding process to ensure that Community comes along uh so it was very hard for me to hear um that some of our criminal justice bill has not um has not made it uh helpful or effective for a chief Mar to do her work at the CD level uh so hopefully in the future as you know as a member of the state legislature Chief Maris will um will join us at the table and be part of those conversations as well uh I want to move on to the part that I wanted to really the feedback I wanted to give uh I just wanted to say earlier today I was very impressed by the comments made by Chief Harris I have to say as I was listening to your comments they were very very heartfelt for me so I want to thank you for your

[227:01] presentation and I wanted to reflect as well as you were talking that governing is not easy uh to put it simply it is hard and we don't always get it right as we heard but identifying our values in using it as a road map to action is critical and I heard that tonight that you're striving to be effective ethical Equitable and efficient all under the umbrella of defending the S sanctity of human life while at the same time I'm questioning whether the work or our actions desperately impact or most vulnerable community members and for that Chief Maris I am very grateful and thankful and I hope these values are never forgotten and thank you as well

[228:02] for acknowledging earlier the uh history of policing by the way I can't see very well what is going on it seems like my camera is a little bit uh out of focus but I support this plan moving forward and um thank you for all the work that all the community members have done thank you Marina for being a member of the subcomittee and for all the work that she has done as well it's just been um very very impressive to see the work tonight and thank you right thanks J I will finish this up um I just want to start by saying thank you to everybody who's been involved in this lengthy and thorough process the public engagement on this has been extraordinary so Sarah thanks to your department for doing so much and uh Wendy just enormous enormous thank you for for p pulling this together and seeing it through uh this

[229:00] entire process and the number of people that have been touched and talked to and engaged is just extraordinary I found it particularly moving to hear the test testimony from some of our Spanish speaking residents and a big thanks to Marina lra for being on that subcommittee and helping to engage those folks as well as I know Manuela sentes has been here tonight helping with the translation services so I really really appreciate all of that Outreach um I know this uh the the work here is uh not easy um you all are going out the police department here speaking to going out into the community every day um dealing with a lot of very difficult situations often people on the worst days of their lives right as a crime victim or um so it's um incredibly difficult but I really appreciate the work that you do um the thanks for the um arrests yesterday I know things have been getting very dangerous downtown and so appreciate the work that you did um to arrest some of those um drug dealers and other offends and also there was a um

[230:03] Nicole mentioned this there's a horrible murder a block away from my home um just recently and the response to that was uh really extraordinary and you all are doing that work um every day so for that I really thank you and appreciate you um it is really remarkable and we're hearing from some community members who are definitely impacted by crime and and I hear you and I hear the challenges that the downtown businesses and other others are experiencing and I know the department is working really hard each and every day to make that better and so I'm really pleased to see this plan because I think it is absolutely moving Us in the right direction with a problem solving policing approach I had the opportunity to say a few opening remarks at the problem oriented policing um conference uh a few weeks ago and it was really impressive to see people from all over the country coming together to talk about how policing could be done uh better differently uh more data driven uh more problem focused way so there was uh it was an honor to have that in on our town people working on those issues

[231:00] and I see that integrated into this plan um it was really wonderful to hear from our national expert uh here Robin thanks for being here with us tonight and that was quite the ringing endorsement of this certainly when I read it through I found it to be um Innovative um Progressive and even Visionary in uh moving us towards a 21st century vision of policing that is different from the past and moving us in a positive direction so um Chief haral thanks so much for all that you've done for the department and putting this together deputy chief Redfern um and other department members I think we've got a road map for some really positive things to come and I thank you for all the work that you've done and look forward to continuing it together thank you and with that unless anybody wants to double dip perhaps someone might be interested in making a motion I would like to move the uh approval and Adoption of the reimagined policing plan there's a second half to it there wait I I don't think we do that

[232:01] yep yeah not adopt if you don't mind reading the language okay a motion to accept the reimagined policing plan and disband the reimagine policing process subcommittee second got a motion in a second um is this a show of hands Elicia I would prefer aoll let's do a roll call I'd prefer that too all right thank you sir we'll start the roll call with council member spear going to be a hopeful yes mayor Pro Tim wall I'm going to be an emphatic yes council member Wier I'm going to be an overwhelming yes okay council member y yes thank you council member Benjamin thanks for bringing us back to Earth Bob yes mayor Brockett yes council member

[233:03] fuls yes friend yes and Joseph yes the reimagining policing plan and the disband of the reimagining policing process subcommittee is hereby accepted unanimously all right I'll let you all get away with this just that one uh thanks to everybody who came and joined us tonight um and for your input and congratulations again congratulations all right we'll give we'll just just

[234:00] give us one minute here thanks so much Wendy all right so if I could encourage folks to take your conversations into the hallway and while you're doing that we need a time check from Council Council 37 are we up for continuing yep yep yep okay very good so we'll just take you can use your Gap if you li oh I never get to use the gavl I know right and if I could just ask folks to clear the room if you don't mind we got one more agenda item well you can stay you could if you stay you just need to be quiet if you want to keep talking you need to leave the

[235:06] room all right so um with that Elicia can we get started on the next item please yes sir our last item on tonight's agenda is item number six Matters from the city manager and that is 6a the inclusion Area Housing update thank you so much and to kick us off we have uh Kurt Fern Harbor to um talk a little bit about inclusionary housing good evening Council I'm Kurt Fern I support the Department of Housing and Human Services I'm a little disappointed I thought they were all are all here to hear this presentation um but um so we're we're going to talk about really one of the foundational uh policies and ordinances of our city over the last more than 20 years um uh inclusionary housing um the city of

[236:00] Boulder was one of the first 10 cities in the country um to adopt inclusionary housing now there's well over a thousand cities with inclusionary housing um we're here tonight um as partly a city council priority um that you put forward to us so we're going to be focusing on some of the feedback that we've heard from you and um and hopefully that will turn into an ordinance very soon um within this Council and uh cashen L is one of the things we'll talk about CASL uh can sometimes be controversial in our community but it's actually the work course of our affordable housing program and um every few years we do an update um and um uh the last one was about five years ago I believe and um so we're we're doing it again now um we're going to be led tonight by Michelle Allen and uh uh Salone Walbert and I think salon's gonna start us off thank

[237:05] you thank you Kur um so just to give some background so staff requested Direction on this IH update at a study session before Council on October 27th and at that meeting Council directed staff to explore strengthening incentives for on-site for sale middle income housing applying cash andl differently to particularly larger homes and possibly applying cash andly requirements to demolitions of homes that are replaced with larger more expensive expensive homes um Andor large additions um so for the project schedule the projects currently in the evaluation and feedback stage Kaiser marsten Associates was a hired in February to support the program update and they conducted a financial feasibility study and best practice is analysis to

[238:02] identify Housing Development Trends and inform potential alternatives to the IH program so K's findings were attached to the memo and David Dosa from kma will be presenting following staff and also available for questions um also planning board considered the proposed updates to the program on Tuesday night the board was supportive of the proposed changes in code cleanup items they recommended that staff consider how inclusionary housing updates would work with the recent zoning changes or the ones that are being considered on first reading tonight and also Al being mindful about Gathering data going forward and evaluating if the changes are doing what was intended and in ordinance with the updated code language is scheduled for consideration this fall um Mid October and then early November would be second reading in terms of community engagement um the project has been following the City's community engagement framework

[239:02] which is shown um because of the technical nature of the program in this update our team has worked closely with engagement staff to sort of identify appropriate and meaningful public engagement um and so the purpose tonight is to present update options and receive feedback to shape these code changes um that we'll be drafting in the next month there's no formal action or motion necessary but this is really your opportunity to shape the code development phase give input ask questions particularly from the consultant um and and the current as um Kurt mentioned the current program produces few affordable units directly through the on-site or offsite options um but a significant amount of units are produced through the cash andl contributions and based on the findings from K this isn't going to change anytime soon and K is going to give a

[240:01] short presentation but just to quickly summarize there'll be continued difficulty in achieving on-site for sale outcomes unless we make some changes to the program um and that proposed square footage methodology would remove those disincentives we currently have to smaller and more affordable market rate units and at this point I'm going to turn it over to Michelle to talk through some of the specifics of the update good evening Michelle there we go that's better good evening Michelle Allen housing services so um I'm going to run over the three major uh update items that we want you to u to get feedback on and then there is a table in the memo that has more of the more minor updates and you know less impactful updates so first we'll talk about the cash and lo modifications then approaches for how we can achieve some

[241:02] on-site for sale middle income affordable units and then talk about um whether you want to explore a Nexus study to possibly support a residential linkage fee for these demo and replacement scenarios so the first item that we're proposing to update in the code is the way we do cash and lo we are um based on K's recommendation would like to adopt a square footage based cash andl what we have right now is sort of a hybrid of square footage and units and it's kind of of unnecessarily complicated actually um we would go to a more pure per square foot structure we would adopt a feasible Cash Cash andl range that would uh result in um roughly equivalent cash andl revenues and conduct a feasibility analysis at least every 5

[242:03] years so the rationale for this change is that this cash and loop I Square foot the pure sort of approach is a best practice and it's a widely used approach it it results in cash and L that scales with unit size um and a fair burden across different sized units which ours has some sort of unintended um incentives for um some un undesired outcomes the way we have it now um which is an incentive for larger market rate units that that's sort of built into the the um methodology right now and it's it's a lot um more simplified and straightforward to administer and for developers to understand and very important um to note that as part of this update to the cash andl we would remove the existing 1200q foot cap um and the way that works right now is that any units larger than 12200 ft are all assessed at the same amount um that was

[243:02] adopted when the program was adopted um back in 2000 um and it's out lived its usefulness at this point so the second update we want to um propose is reducing the for sale on-site requirement um from the current 25% to 15% um allowing middle income pricing for all affordable units that would that could um be put on site and reduce um this would reduce the on-site cost to be competitive with the uh cash andl the rationale is that the current 25% requirement is financially infeasible um and K can talk to you more about that uh developers uh uh have been and will choose cash and L if we um leave it the way it is uh it simplifies the program by removing we built in in 2018 when we did the last major update to the program we built in a bunch of carrots and sticks and found that none

[244:02] of them were very effective they didn't um actually move the needle at all so we want to kind of take those out which will simplify the program and um we think that uh if developers have U real options an on-site option and a cash and lo option both of which are financially feasible that they will in some cases choose to put those units on site so I want to um emphasize that changing the percent requirement does not change the amount of cash and Li that would be assessed on a project um cash andl the square footage me methodology is looking at the entire um residential square foot in a project and assessing it um for the the cash and low amount it it's not assessed by affordable unit it's just the entire residential square footage so the percentage on site requirement will not change the amount of cash and L the last

[245:02] thing is to explore a Nexus study um to inform the viability of a linkage fee we would need to conduct that separately from this IH update and um we talked to planning board on Tuesday and they actually um really like this idea and wanted to recommend that we move forward recommend to you that um we move move forward on this um in 2024 so the rationale for the Nexus study is that demo rebuilds and significant additions um replace smaller more affordable homes with larger less affordable homes um and the re we can't do it through IH is that IH only applies to new residential development demo rebuilds is is replacing one house for another so it's not a net increase um and of course additions are not new residential development so we would um approach this uh issue by doing an exit study and possibly instituting a a for

[246:02] affordable housing linkage fee in these development scenarios so in encourage you to look at the proposal as a package um because I know on the face of it it seems counterintuitive to reduce the percentage requirement um to get more units on site but the fact is that 25% of nothing is nothing so and that's sort of what we're getting now 15% we um would hope that we would have some middle income units um coming through the program and of course there will be additional codeup updates uh there is a table in your memo and also some like minor tweaks we have to um make sure all the details for any approved program updates work in the code bring IH in line with uh some program implementation implementation that we do and address some undesired outcomes so the next steps is um are

[247:02] that we will be attending the whats up Boulder event on Sunday we're excited about that um in late September we will go back to Hab the housing Advisory Board um which we did talk to about this update uh a couple weeks ago and then we will go to planning board um which will make a recommendation to you on the ordinance language then in October late October and early November we are hoping to come back to you with the public hearings for adoption of the ordinance so um David DOA from K is going to do a short presentation thank you um mayor and Council uh David dozo with Kaiser Maron Associates um have just a few slides to share with you um as as was mentioned we prepared a real estate Financial feasibility analysis to help support the

[248:03] update to the program and we also looked at uh best practice around the country focusing on Provisions related to cash andl and middle inome affordable units um if you can see the slide that's up now it illustrates uh one of the example Prof foras that we prepared looking at the costs and revenues associated with a new development um under your existing requirements and this example that we're looking at illustrates a performa for a small three story condo project um looking at the left hand side of the slide first that illustrates a scenario where that project pays cash and Li and this this example uh the pricing for a small condo 1400 ft² in size is a little over a million dollar $750 a square foot and the costs per unit um roughly $1.1

[249:04] million including land construction fees and permits payment of cash and L under the inclusion area program uh and a profit to the developer so that the project is close to penciling um in this example it's not not quite there but it's close um then moving over to the right hand side of the slide it shows you that same uh same example project where the project instead of using the cash andl option that's available to it uh opts to provide those 25% affordable units on site um so looking at that sales revenue column it shows you the average sales price across both market rate and affordable units so just blending those together and just on an average um with 25% affordable units on site the pricing is about $200,000 per unit less overall um and then the costs also

[250:02] decrease with on-site affordable units because there's no longer a need to pay and L because the affordable units are on site another factor that was considered in the analysis is the flexibility that your program provides for projects to provide affordable units that are just a little bit smaller than the market rate which is one incentive to the developer to include units on site is is that flexibility um but even with that um we see that sales revenues and costs are are out of balance so the project the project does doesn't doesn't pencil um the sales prices don't support the cost in that 25% scenario it's also uh clearly shows that it's less favorable overall to the developer compared to the cash and lo option in this this illustration um this next slide presents the results a little bit of a different

[251:00] way um it expresses the cost of cash and Li under your current requirements as a dollar per square foot amount so even though even though your your requirements currently aren't on a per square foot basis it converts the amounts a developer would be required to pay and do a per square foot basis um and then the tall tall darker blue bars are the cost associated with that same project providing the units on site so it's a way to just easily compare the costs of the two options uh and as you can see just using the town home Row Home Project as an example um the cash and Li in that for that project is approximately $46 per square foot currently and then providing 25% units on site equates to a cost a net cost to the project of approximately $100 a square foot so it's a clear choice for the developer to Pro pay that cash and Li and and that that incentive to pay

[252:00] cash and Li exists across all five of the project types that we looked at in the study under your current requirements so this kind of summarizes some of the takeaways of the feasibility analysis um one that projects can support a cash and L amount of in the approximate range of $35 to $50 per square foot of of livable area um four sale projects are able to support an on-site requirement of approximately 12% to 15% depending on how those affordable units are priced rental projects are estimated to support between 12 and 22% on site and then larger sites where there the ability to set aside a portion of that larger site uh to do a standalone affordable project that is able to leverage outside funding sources is able to do the full 25% uh on site so our our recommendations are to um is part of

[253:02] this update that you're considering limit limit to Reserve feasibility limit the overall cost of your requirement to within approximately the $40 to $50 per foot range and that that cost can be in the form of a cash and move payment or in the form of on-site units it's just sort of overall guidance uh for structuring the requirement within a range that's feasible and then in terms of how your cash andl option is expressed um as has been mentioned earlier we we suggested new moving towards a per square foot structure that's a lot of programs are moving in that direction it's considered a best practice it's it's very simple to apply uh it scales with the size of the unit so you don't create on you know on the positive side an incentive to build a very large unit or you know in terms of a disincentive a dis a disincentive to build smaller more

[254:00] affordable market rate units um in terms of how cash and L rates adjust from year we suggest that you link them to costs as construction costs increase uh that cash and L amount would increase um we we project that that'll be more stable over time a little bit it's going to increase over time but at a more stable rate than the current approach which effectively produces a 10% annual increase every year which if you just do the the compound interest calculation it's 7% doubles every seven years and then you know like like many programs you need to monitor the outcomes keep track of of how things are going whether it's still meeting your needs and objectives and and you're getting the outcomes that you want and so keep keep looking at it come back to it every 3 to five years uh so that's the end of the presentation and and thank

[255:02] you City staff do you have more or is that it for the presentation that's all we have great so uh Council questions for staff or consultant David thanks for being here um especially given the hour I hope you enjoyed our presentation on policing mark thank you for the presentation David um when you move to the per square foot uh metric uh is at 15% um is that 15 % of the unit of of units or 15% of the square feet it it can be done either way you can provide the flexibility to make it 15% of the units and I think that's my understanding what's been proposed here 15% of the units some programs have provided flexibility to make it 15% of the sare footage of the

[256:01] units um and I think uh there's a couple programs recently out there that have have moved in that direction to and I think it's typically at the option of the developer 15% of the square footage or 15% I mean it if you're eliminating the one-bedroom requirement um for on-site units you're going to end up with three efficiencies representing perhaps eight or 9% of the square footage and and I'm not sure that's the the result we want I mean why would you build more than the smallest units you could possibly build to meet your on-site obligation so I think I think I don't think the proposal is to eliminate the link between um the size of the market rate units and the size of the affordable units you would still have to have some parity there um so you

[257:00] wouldn't you wouldn't get a situation where a developer simply allowed to make all the affordable units Studios and then have the market rates be three bedrooms that wouldn't you know I don't think that would be permitted under what's being proposed here well I'm I'm not sure there's anything that that bars that and that's kind of what I'm asking where's the where's the guard rail so go ahead sorry yeah so the code requires and we're not proposing to change that the affordable units have to be proportional to the market units so if you have half two-bedroom and half one bedroom the affordable units have to be half two-bedroom and half okay thank you um also in terms of your performance and and I wrote this in my hotline I I I think you're a little behind the times in terms of um the numbers you're using um for those performs at $800 a square foot um if you

[258:00] look at the MLS um with any frequency you'll see that that $900,000 is much more common today than it used to be for new construction and I don't know if that impacts the feasibility of projects but I would think it would have some impact and um it might be useful to look at it uh if not at $1,000 at least at $900 because um um again as I wrote uh uh 21 of 29 listings uh in the MLS last week were well in excess of uh $800 per square foot so I mean almost every unit that was for sale um especially in the the million dollar an up category was just much higher and uh I'm just not sure we're using the right numbers so the when we when we prepared the analysis we were aware of pricing in

[259:03] the range that you're indicating and if I don't expect people to have made it all the way to the very back of the appendices but you'll find there that that we show list prices in sort of the Ranger sighting um but we made a decision in the analysis not to reflect sort of the top end of the pricing that's out there you also see pricing that's as low as $600 a square foot in a new project that's not that's less common I think um there's there have have been pricing at $800 a square foot um we in preparing this work recognize that it's something that's going to guide a city-wide policy so we don't want to reflect the sort of the top end of the pricing range all the time um we also in in preparing this performance we want to be we're internally consistent so if we have pricing at $800 a square foot we're representing a land cost that

[260:03] is achievable you know in a location where un still sell for $800 a square foot as opposed to the higher land cost that might be associated with a with a project that can sell for $1,200 a square as an example and and with respect to the linkage fee which I think is an interesting idea um are there any exceptions I mean the the intent is to assess a fee against someone who uh demolishes a, 1400 SQ F foot house and builds a 5500t house what if somebody gut renovates a, 1400t house and leaves it as is or maybe adds two or 300 Square F feet is there is there some Metric um by which you would have a little bit of leeway on that or ye yeah that that would be Our intention that we would allow people to replace square footage that they have without any additional

[261:02] requirement but if they um build a larger home and so so as you say replace what they have maybe with a little bit of wiggle room there but if they go from 1500 square feet to 4,000 sare ft there would be an assessment on that and I've got lots of questions but I'll just ask one more um um in doing this change first are we are we going to put in some sort of look back to see how it's actually working um you know two three 5 years to to determine its results and um second Are We Now pitting um the development of middle-income housing against affordable housing because um most developments with the cash and L are providing the source of funding for our affordable housing program and now we're trying to incentivize something else and

[262:03] there's still only one piie and are we now pitting one against the other in terms of what it is we're trying to develop so a couple thoughts about that um first of all the change is only proposed for for sale okay units um which are have been over the last few years about 10% of the units subject to inclusionary housing so it's actually a pretty small percentage most development as you know in Boulder is rental at this Point National Trend um that's not projected to change anytime soon it could but it probably won't so there's that but there's also just that the cash and L is then you know put put to use producing affordable units if somebody chooses not to pay cash in L and produce affordable units like you still get affordable

[263:00] units right um so so you know getting cash in L and then turning it into affordable units is one way to do it getting the units on site is another way to do it and um I don't know does that answer your question I'm not I'm not quite sure do you mind if I drill into the numbers because I just I want to make sure I understand this Cu uh granted this I get that this is for sale so if uh currently if somebody had like a 100 unit project they would be if they wanted to do it on site that'd be 25 units right if they paid cash and loot we would then use that money to fund units somewhere else and my understanding is we'd get probably a little more than 25 units maybe 28 units or something like that do I have that approxim probably double but but but the big the big difference is that if you had a condo project of for you mind do you mind if I Fin and then and then please fill in but then if we um if we change the requirement if it's on site to 15% then the alternate thing

[264:00] that we would get would be 15 units of on-site middle inome affordable housing is that correct yes so we've got kind of a trade-off here between 15 units of middle income onsite versus 25 to 35 or something off-site affordable units do I have the is that the rough yeah can I just clarify and then and then please clarify yeah so so the offset units you you might get as many as double but they're going to be rental units sure um because you know we we we do put cash andl into for sale units but we most of the cash and L is used to produce rental units it's leveraged with litec financing which can only be used for rentals whereas the 15 on site will be for sale middle income got it yeah it's a tradeoffs right yeah okay just wanted to make sure I understood the numbers that was what I had anybody else yes I got Nicole M um thank you for the presentation I

[265:00] had a question about the U Middle income affordable and is that in our um so it's home home ownership right and so um is that again the sort of um it's going to be permanently affordable so there's going to be limits on Equity is this like taking advantage of the new middle income down payment program like what is it about that that's making it affordable does that make sense like what's the um it's just that it's being sold at that price or is this part of our affordable home ownership program oh yeah it would be part of the affordable home ownership program would have a permanent affordable Covenant every um the initial sale plus every resale would have to be to an affordable at an affordable price to a income qualified household right okay and so a a unit where people are not going to be um getting market rate equity on their home no they get Equity that's built into the program between 0.5 and 3% I believe annually okay thank you

[266:02] mat um I just want to piggy back a little bit on where I think Mark and Aaron were on these trade-offs and um just for a reminder our a what what are you remind us what our affordable housing inventory goals are and what our middle income uh housing Target goals are H Kurt and and also where our progresses in achieving those goals uh thanks for that question um so the the middle income Strate strategy um well we have a few goals out there first of all when we do the Regional Housing Partnership um our city adopted a 15% goal so 15% of all housing units in the city um including existing units would be permanently affordable we're currently at um 8.4% so we've we've made very good

[267:02] progress um we um uh we have about 1,400 units that are in the pipeline um I believe about 200 of those are for sale homes and um some of those are through annexations um as well and so we're making good progress overall on our on our 15% targets um however it takes a long time to get there and um uh our goal was 10% for for many years um when we moved it from 10 to 15 I think we were at about 7 and a half perc so we've moved a percent whole percentage Point since uh since setting that goal um the the last few years towards our our middle income targets um it's gone slower than we anticipated and

[268:01] that's why uh changes were made to the IH ordinance um back in 2018 um that was the carrots and sticks and Mark was asking are we going to go back and look at this yes that's what we're doing right now we're actually looking back at the changes that we made um back in 2018 and we're now observing what's worked and what hasn't worked Matt May sure yeah I had to follow yeah did we not have in 2016 a separate uh goal of 1,500 middle inome units by 2030 that's correct yes and how are we doing on that we uh we currently have um I think about 810 or 815 um units of um uh for sale um homes um we've we've probably been adding I don't know over the last few years only about 10 units per year 10 to 12 units

[269:02] per year so it's been fairly low okay thank you that was kind of I was going to thanks for asking that Mark so with this where where where my question really kind of goes after kind of getting that Foundation is where's our greatest deficit and in which case to me that kind of then answers the direction we go with the tradeoffs right is if our deficit if we're further behind on the middle income then we throttle that direction if we're further behind the so that's where I think this moving Target is so important for us to keep adapting these levers as we keep checking in every 3 to five years so uh in your assessment would you say we are which one are we further behind on is it that sort of deed-restricted affordable or is it that middle income where do you think we are further behind reaching our goals so as far as reaching the goals we're further behind on the on the middle income for sale um units however the need throughout the entire Community is is significant I agree um and it really

[270:00] does also come down to sort of a values tradeoff of which one you're going to prioritize yeah and I I'll just say sorry one more thing while I'm here um my assumption is that if if this is passed um as an ordinance or an update to the ordinance we'll probably double the number of middle inome units we'll probably get an additional you know 15 units a year something in that you know ballpark thank you Kurt I appreciate that I got juny and then Rachel thank you I just have a couple of questions I think based on the presentation the conversation that we are we've been having is that we're trying to incentivize onsite building behavior um but also my understanding it may reduce the amount of cash and lo that we receive because it is not a guaranteed that a developer will build

[271:03] just because we said hey we are lowering the threshold to 15% did I get that correct um yeah the it's not a guarantee that they will choose to put the units on site they will still have a choice and um the way we're proposing it is to make the two options roughly equivalent so that they have a feasible Avenue for either onsite units or cash yeah I mean I was trying to do the math in my head or at least thinking of what seems to be a middle ground here because I I'm just not sold on yet um this particular approach because to me I'm thinking a middle ground would be a hybrid approach if you're building on site 15 per but if you're doing cash and

[272:02] loot then you would still have to do 25 because I just again we're trying to incentivize a behavior that that is not guaranteed so ultimately I do understand what um uh Kurt is saying that that might give us a 15 additional for sale but nonetheless we don't know that to be a guaranteed we might still be exactly where we are today thank you thanks uh did you have another question Junior was that it that's it thank you I got Rachel and then Lauren my questions are very basic I'm sorry Everybody Knows by now this is this not my strong suit planning stuff um planning housing uh intersection so first question is are adus implicated at all in this discussion thank you no so we we wouldn't do anything that would create okay um that's a comment I wanted

[273:03] to understand on the additional update and cleanup code we um I'm looking at page eight under required rents we would be looking at changing 80% Ami to 50% Ami households and wanted to understand where that applies what what the scenarios are for that for the rental proposed rental change required rents so I these These are kind of out of context because they cleanup code changes so I I didn't I didn't have a great context for like where what we're talking about for I think that the language change is going from 20% of affordable units would be for 80% Ami households to 20% would be for 50% Ami and I just don't know where that applies correct and and the reason that uh yeah I at least think of that as a cleanup is that um so the developers have a hard time you typically they say we're going to price them all do all the rents at 60% we

[274:02] can't use the 80% rents because litex don't function well with 80% rents so they just say we're we're just not going to do any at 80% so it's sort of a it's not a a functional um split the way we have it right now with 60 and 80 um they're they're doing them all at 60 um and that that's the conversation because they want to utilize litex and in fact sometimes to utilize the LX even though don't we don't require lower rents they're actually throwing some in there because it makes their litech project look more attractive and they want to attract those funds so we're kind of aligning the the rents that would be required through inclusionary housing with the reality out there in the construction World which is that affordable rentals are going to be financed with litex and litex are not friendly to 80% rents so but we're already doing 80% for 60% Ami and we'd

[275:00] be taking the 20% that was going to 80% Ami to 50% Ami so it seems like we be sort of in one sense moving away from the more uh uh upper income affordable housing units if we're going if we're dropping the 80 and and requiring either 50 or 60% for 100% Kurt's nodding at me so I think I'm reading it right but that I it it almost seems like contrary to some of the rest of this discussion so I I don't know when we're when we're looking at this for a vote but I'm just flagging it right cuz we're not just flagging it for future discussion maybe sure maybe I'll just add something here so um uh our approach to rentals are very different um and and again this is a cleanup that will um apply to a project probably every few years we've had two on-site rental projects um in

[276:00] the time that I've been at at the city um and um so it would only apply to on-site rental um developments and what we also want to get away from is when a project only does 60% Amis it's only serving a certain slice of the of our community and by introducing 50s we're also um encouraging them to um rent to um lower um Amis which actually helps our entire community as well and this is something that BHP has basically baked into every project that they do and so we would and it's really worked out quite well and so for for on-site projects we'd like to see that same um approach and these would be mostly mixed income onsite yes yeah all okay council member if I may I just wanted to I was just

[277:01] looking at our schedule and we are targeting second reading on this ordinance for November 2nd I will be here thank you okay look at that I get one more okay um let's see I think I have a couple more questions so again under the cleanups for proposed changes I'm now on page 10 um and it's saying we would um the options for meeting new IH program changes we would be revising to indicate that this would go into effect 3 months from adoption and apply to developments that have an approved technical document um or have submitted at least one residential building permit I guess I I wonder why not just exempt everybody who's already in the pipeline that seems like it could be honorous to you know if you've already gotten a a permit or like planned out a project and penel it out or whatever why is that maybe that's just how it's always

[278:01] done some some of the changes are if you're doing a for sale project you want to go buy the new rules they better if you're doing a rental project you want to go buy the old rules so it's kind of splitting that difference um and I I do need to flesh that out a little bit more and and provide a little more detail what you'll see in the ordinance language but the intent is to be fair and to allow um a a bunch of De developments that are in the pipeline the choice of going by the older the new rules but you do have to put a fine line in there somewhere yeah well it would seem to me anybody who had like almost the opposite of the line that's in here like if you haven't applied for a you know or gotten a permit yet then you're you're just under the new rules but if you're already in the in the pipeline I love the idea of a choice like pick choose choose your adventure okay great um and then kind of the same thing on the Demolition and replacement we currently have no time time limit to replace units destroyed by fire flood wind and we're going to make that a little bit harsher I would say by

[279:01] putting an 8-year time limit for dwelling units removed by so I assume this is like you know in the event that your home were destroyed in a fire you've got eight years to rebuild it and I um like Matt and I were talking to somebody yesterday whose home was was lost in the in the Marshall fire um and and I think she's waiting for some things to fall into place that are out of her control that government actors need to do so I wondered what about just if you're the same homeowner not having a time limit like if the property changes hands then then you would pay but I don't know I I that seemed potentially still harsh to me so just flagging and wondering if there are are other ways we could do it that I do understand the intent like you know it it at some point 30 years from now if you haven't rebuilt that house like it's not it's not a delay and I and I don't know how we got it eight years maybe that's the question how' we land on eight years um I just picked it as a reasonable time

[280:00] frame so open to suggestions okay thanks I think those are all my questions Lauren and then yeah I wanted to clarify something juny had brought up um related to the cash and Li and option where are those yes um so when we look at decreasing to the 15% onsite we're not decreasing the amount of cash and L the cash and Li we if we go forward with the square footage or I guess either way however we go forward with cash and Lou it would stay the same no matter what the onsite percentage requirements are yeah that's correct and both Hab and planning board struggle with that concept a little bit um because they're sort of tied together right now but under this proposal they become really

[281:01] essentially divorced from each other the cash and Le is just app apped to the total residential square footage of the project doesn't matter what the on-site percentage is the on-site percentage is if you want to do units instead of cash andl the percentage would dictate how many units and the work that kma did basically tells us that the 15% is roughly equivalent to that $40 to $50 cash and L amount that they are recommending thank you Kurt you had mentioned that you thought that this might bring us 15 middle income units um can you tell me what would be the equivalent number of affordable units you could build with cash andl or middle inome units you could build with cash and L so with the equivalent cash and Li of of 15 units

[282:02] um so let's let's start with 10 units um because the Math's easier I like it yeah um we can probably do we can probably do 25 units of of rental um uh for that same amount of cash probably 25 to 30 um uh again they're a different product um if we did um under our so under our current program we're we're getting about uh six or seven units a year where we're going out and purchasing existing units and turning them into for sale deed restricted units those are units that are 20 or 30 years old um and we do some uh upgrading to them as well um that's going to be somewhere in the middle we for for those 10 units of new construction we'll probably get you know 15 to 17

[283:00] units um under our current program with that cash and lo does that make sense yeah so with the cash and L you could build more units either affordable or middle income than they would do on site that's correct um but again you're getting new units new units versus old units yep um I think that's it for me thank you Teran we can move towards some to go first okay um Teresa Tate's predecessor um often uh cautioned us about being too aggressive on on certain things so for example our um uh we always had to have a cash andl safety valve because of rent control restrictions in the in the state of Colorado and similarly I think we felt a a little uncomfortable when we nudged the number from 20% to 25% and he

[284:00] cautioned us that we were probably pushing the envelope there as well um there was a bill obviously in the legislature this year um that didn't pass that would have allowed cities to have um impose rent control and um that bill may come back and if it does the preemption is lifted the city mayor may not um take on rent control but kind of setting all that aside do do we feel are are we are we doing these things under the assumption that rent control is is still prohibited in in um Colorado and and if if that goes away how would we change some of these numbers or or or are these numbers driven more by operational considerations than they are legal ones in other words we we may have some operators that just don't want to operate low-income housing and so they they're happy to write a check and just pass that on to their buyers or their renters um and has less to do with legal constraints and more to do just with their their preference and how they run their

[285:01] business thanks for that question mark I'm going to um Bob sorry I'm I'm better looking than Mark excuse me well we've we've been answering questions for Mark all day [Laughter] so um so the first thing I'll say is that the um and I think that's been a um that's something we realized particularly through David doa's work is that the amount of cash and Li that we're charging um doesn't necessarily relate to that 25% number and um uh and so that becomes sort of a communication challenge as well around um how our affordable housing program works um the other thing that that the um that David's work showed us is that we're right now we're at the very top of what we can charge

[286:00] for cash andl um some projects could probably still pay slightly more but by and large most projects if we go much higher we'll decide to build in some other community um and that was one of the things that we talked about when we went from 20% to 25% that is something that we I think the council at that time said you know we need to watch that we're five years later we're watching it um and the assessment that David did was incredibly helpful in highlighting that for us so so that's our reason for saying we've reached the top of cash andl that's the most we can extract before having really negative impacts um so let's not let's not mess with that um city council ask us to go back and find a solution to getting more onsite uh middle inome units um and what we're presenting you tonight is what that would take so it sounds like the answer is is is um the

[287:02] the the legal constraints not be The Driver here in other words even if even if rent was rent control was was allowed by cities and even if older adopted rent controls we would still be doing some of the things that you're recommending tonight I I I think so and and the the last thing that I'll say is even under our current um state laws the options that we give developers should theoretically be somewhat Equitable right now we know that they're not and we got a little bit of help from the state legislature a couple years ago didn't we that that like lifted some of the problems with the tellure IDE decision and so Exempted inclusionary um programs from the rent control do I remember that correctly well it it also um took out the provision um that that um on-site um developments had to be done or completed by a um Housing Authority or or someone equal to that so so we got

[288:00] a little help there good is that answer your questions good great t um there was a section in the report I can't remember if it was um the K report or the uh first 10 or 15 pages or the next 100 or 200 Pages anyway it say smaller sites developments on smaller sites and infill development will typically lack the scale to set aside a portion of the site so um let's say that do you think it's worth our while I personally do but I'm like uh Rachel not an expert worth our while to get more smaller sites and infill developments to add more onsite affordable units because right now according to that report it said it's not it just they can't do it a 25% um do you know what I mean right they they can't do it at 15% they can't do it at all no so if you really wanted them to be able to put them on site we

[289:02] would have to reduce that that okay yeah do you think it's valid for us to want to uh involve this small I would think that infill those smaller infi developments are pretty important since we don't have that M I mean how many large tracks do we have we have plenty of small things we can do so we should pay attention to this shouldn't we how important those smaller sites are or are they're not that important well I mean so small sites are small numbers of units so if you have like eight or 10 15% is only one um and you they can't do 15% so let's say it's 10% I I wonder if David I'm sure he's still with us he might want it was in his report actually I'm here and I I think I think this the sentence that was referenced there what what I was trying to describe with that with that is that um to do for a a tax credit

[290:01] affordable project to make where you're able to leverage outside subsidies and actually do 25% on site you need you need a large enough site so that there's enough units involved that that 25% affordable requirement results in something like you know 50 units or more affordable units that are that are required and that's that's where you can do 25% feasibly and that's where you've seen it happen um this the sense about smaller sites was really about those projects don't have the scale to make that solution work and so therefore that 25% requirement is not feasible for them but the the 15% that's being discussed here at at 120% Ami in a for sale project that that would be feasible oh it would be I would think yeah it would be I stand

[291:00] corrected um my next question what you want to cqu no no no I'm just looking forward to the discussion but please continue my next question actually is for David again why was why was the land at weather vean half the price did you remember when you wrote about Weathervane I don't I don't know why I don't know why it was I don't know if it was a conversion from from industrial use or something that was re entitled and that that was part of the price you know pricing consideration but I think I think it was like 25,000 a unit for that land whereas most of the other projects are like 50,000 un and 60,000 un it I wonder if there's any of that land left I've got excited about it yeah that's a good question I think but I think I think what it shows you is that where there's an opportunity to re entitle land that that is restricted to a use that's not residential um and by that restrict you

[292:02] know land use BR use limitation is is therefore less valuable There's an opport opportunity created um for you know greater feasibility um that that wasn't the focus of this this work the focus of this work was on you know where residentials isn't improved use um right but you had all these nuggets in that giant report I'm just saying so I might just instead of bore everybody here because I think Aaron's ready to move on I might just give you a call because I have a few more questions okay taking it offline all right if you must must it's a short question um at the end of the or near the end of the report you set out the best practices from other cities and you list them and the best practices in creating middle-income housing and you list them could at some point as we're considering this get the detail as to what the results of those best practices

[293:00] were in city by City because you simply list what their policies are but you don't tell us how they worked how well they worked could we get that information that's that's that's a fair request um and you know I certainly understand the motivation behind it and we can I I can speak to it now if you'd like or we can no no no no thank you okay got it we're all done Mark and I will call you but if you could provide that it would be very helpful thank you okay great so if we can move to our discussion I wonder if we could get the presentation the um questions for Council and see if we can be brisk doubt okay do you have a finer grained breakdown of the policy because you had

[294:00] several things that we considering very good because these are our our three main ones right cash and L modifications well hear let's do one by one are people comfortable with the proposed cash andl modifications moving towards the per square foot and such we good yeah all right I'm seeing nodding heads um how do people feel about the change in the on-site for sale middle inome affordable units got a I have a comment on this one yeah do you mind if I call myself to get it started here the um so anyway there there's a trade-off here in terms of how many of What kinds of units you're getting and and so it would be wonderful to produce more for sale on-site middle income affordable housing but I'm afraid I I just wouldn't trade um for example 15 units of middle

[295:02] income on site for sale for approximately 30 units of off-site um uh low-income rental product so that's where I fall in this I would say the tradeoff is not quite worth it so we need more middle income but I'm not willing to trade this much to get it so that that's my thing I I'm going to agree with you on that I used I've always been an advocate for on-site affordable and middle income housing but when you look at the numbers and you look at the number of people who are waiting in line for Bolding housing Boulder housing Partners affordable units it's not a good trade-off anymore I'd rather that's a market that's in Greater need and that's the market I think we ought to be serving uh if if if we're looking at a two for one or even greater than two for one um uh swap um and so I I think the I I would rather serve better the affordable

[296:02] um rental housing market Market than a few units uh of for sale doesn't mean I don't want to see it I just don't think changing the policy in this way is a good um is a good policy to to make that swap okay I got Lauren ter of Matt I think Nicole um yeah I agree with what you said Erin I also think that um you know the development's probably going to build a certain number of units and anyway and when we get cash and like we have a housing crisis and when we get cash and Li we also get to go build other additional units and so that also creates more housing in general in our community um and maybe with some of these updates we're making it might not be deed restricted middle- income housing but maybe we're incentivizing smaller units and might get some sort of uh market

[297:00] rate more affordable slightly more afford leness in our community thanks well um two things I'm I'm going to disagree on this one and I think we should switch over to Middle income first of all I guess uh income diversity and housing diversity is important I think for our community just to have I'm not going to say like rich and poor exactly but a lower income and just higher income without that middle I think really affects us as a community and we're not I know would be great if we can do middle income but it hasn't happened yet so unless we force it I can't see how it's going to happen and I'm willing to take the chance to try this um is my opinion about it I'm not I see where you're coming from I just see this as an opportunity to actually get some middle inome housing yeah Nicole um I I agree with where tera's

[298:00] going here I I mean I just if we're behind behind our goals on middle Income At what point do we play catchup at what point do we wait till we've reached 15% of affordable by 2030 and then go okay now it's our turn the ship will be sailed by then the community will will will be toast more or less in terms of it'll be insurmountable to make up on middle income at that point um so I I just don't see why we don't move in that direction now I and I also wonder if if it's that trade-off of oh maybe 15 versus you know 30 or 40 for affordable won't that over time that Divergence get bigger and bigger and bigger with the cost of building and therefore where the rental market is versus ownership because the rental market is just going to keep taking off and keep moving past the ownership model so that's just going to become even harder and it's become an even worse trade-off year-over-year I would imagine so I I if we don't start making chipping away now I I I'm not sure we're going to uh be able to crawl

[299:02] uh crawl it back back and get to our goals Nicole we can straw p in a minute here to um thanks so I mean I think I'm let let me just State the issue that I am struggling with and that maybe um somebody can advise me or just just something to think about as as we're considering this so um there's research that shows that living among the wealthy even as an upper middle class person is actually detrimental to your mental health so you know I worry if we're thinking about making the number of people who are um in these sort of locked in uh not market rate homes smaller I wonder you know if we're exacerbating that and just creating a worse experience for the people who are locked into these homes um and you know you all have heard me talk before that um I really do struggle with this idea of limiting the equity that people have in their homes just period And so from

[300:01] my perspective anything of um anything we can do to not do that is something that I would be in favor of moving towards so I would much rather have more rental housing um than have these uh Equity limited affordable housing units um because I I think it's it's hard for people to save up the money that they need to then move into retirement homes or or do other things that those of us with market rate homes have the opportunity to do so Rachel so I I think we asked for this um just yeah put that out there um I I I think we are having a middle inome housing crisis and we just don't see the list as readily because people are moving out of town because they can't afford to live here and we heard tonight like let's figure out a way to make more than 10 police officers be able to live in our town and I think we are like we just jump around so much on like I think we

[301:02] sort of have to like you know uh follow through on on what we see as a need 12 months ago and and staff does all this work on it and then we're like I don't like let's just stick with you know lower income affordable housing I I don't I I think it's going to be a a a not great Community when teachers and nurses and police officers and Baristas cannot live in this community cuz we've only done the you know under 80% Ami and I think that's what we were trying to tackle I think that um most of those people you know kind of in that income bracket are you know engaged in in in volunteerism and um coach little leagues and stuff so I I just think we really in addition to not having people able to um do those jobs we we lose out on it as a community if we don't like Bob's always talking about the what is it the barbell like we we we are not meeting the middle of that barbell and this is a little

[302:00] step we could take so i' I'd keep moving forward with it on that one I would like to do a straw PLL here in a second but real quick just um I I'm not sure I agree um with I'm not sure I understand what you're saying Nicole just because I think for me like the holiday neighborhood has different income levels and that is a healthy healthy place to me to be able to have um a like um a neighborhood or like a development that has different types of people of different incomes to me is much better than just one income because then you get to see what other people are like as opposed to just living with people that are like you so I think from a social point of view that's even a good idea middle income um and adding affordable units on site so uh can we do a a straw pull here U how how many people would like to switch to the 15% middle- income approach just hand show of hands okay one two three and and juny I can't tell

[303:02] if your hand is raised or or not not not raised okay so it looks like we have three people interested in taking that approach so I have to say I kind of apologize here a year ago we said what would it take to get more on-site affordable units and so that was like we'd love to have more onside affordable and I just speak for me myself first was like oh that's what it would take well now we've checked it out now we know what it would take and I would say I don't think it's worth the tradeoff so kudos to you for doing the work we asked you to do the work thank you for doing the work and it's just just that the reality of the situation is not necessarily A trade-off that we're willing to make so appreciate your what the the work you put into it how about the Nexus study to support the residential linkage fee are we good with this y oh wait got I got a hand here I I just I don't know that I'm psyched about us um putting a linkage fee on the missing middle that we really want to encourage people to develop so as I read this this is including things like

[304:01] duplexes um I don't know if it would draw in things like adus as well but if I'm reading that right I I don't I don't know that I support the staff rack because um when we are talking about applying this to missing middle I we got to we got to encourage no okay Kurt am am I reading it wrong um let me make sure I understand your your concern um because you mentioned duplexes so um as I always do yeah um so I think um how this would apply um there's an older existing 1500 foot home in Martin Acres let's say they take that down um in some of the new planning things that we're working on that could potentially be a duplex or it could be a larger single family home under a duplex scenario you're actually creating an

[305:01] additional unit so that one additional unit you're you're actually going to pay cash On LAN currently and if we do the Nexus study for that unit that you're rebuilding if it also becomes much larger then you'll pay um an impact fee um on the first unit um so even under the current environment you're going to pay cash andl if you take a single family and turn it into a duplex so this wouldn't this wouldn't impact that uh in any way thanks for that but it will make it also apply to the other half right or no I thought I read somewhere in here that it would it would hit duplexes triplexus so Cur currently if there's a single family home you rebuild it into a duplex you only pay cash on Lo for the second unit but what would the change bring the change would bring an impact fee that would probably be somewhat similar to the cash andl but

[306:02] for that first unit right if it was sign if it was significantly larger only expanded square foot yes okay yeah so it's it's going to be a for for that situation it's going to be a a relatively small Financial impact where the big impact is is if they make build a much larger home um that's where it's going to have the the financial impact okay thanks okay well I generally saw strong support for this I R if you're still on the okay but I think we got the Thumb Thumbs Up uh for this one and is uh Rachel you made a couple um flags on the cleanups but are we generally comfortable with the cleanups and updates and clarifications occurring yeah I have a comment um on back to the required rents so as I understand it we've now said we're not going to create any middle income for owning so if we

[307:01] take away the 80% option under the required rents for mixed income I think I've done this ma stop me if I'm just totally reading this like whole chart wrong but like at 80% of Ami two people making 85,000 a year could qualify for one of those units I think they would be dis they're not going to be eligible under the the affordable rent they'd have to pay Market Rent Now 60,000 is what would be the top of affordable now cuz the rest would be 50% so 60% or 50% 60% for two people 63,000 so I think that's if you work 40 hours a week 50 weeks a year at $16 an hour between two people each making 32,000 you're at 64,000 and you're out so I think we're not having any Workforce housing really in those in those units so we we really going the opposite on on middle income here I don't like I'd like to see more

[308:01] middle income I hear you saying that it doesn't work under litec but like I I just don't get it C can I ask add one clarification to that as well so the the rent is is set at 60% but you can rent it to someone who makes more than 60% I can't remember exactly what the percentage is but I think it can go up to um about 85% um uh of the Ami income to still um fall within the um your the qualification for that 60% Ami rent so it's a it's a broad range for each um Ami category so I mean I'm I like I said this is all out of context so I can only see what's here but it says proposed rent mix is 80% affordable units for 60% Ami households you're saying that can go up to 85% it's not really 60% well the rent is set set at 60 but you you'll never find a a family that just makes

[309:00] 60% of the of the Mi it's always a range for for for each level David did you want to chime in on that I I I did I think I think one one thing to keep in mind is uh the average market rate rent just overall for Boulder according to co-star is $2,100 a month so that's market rate and the affordable rent for an 80% Ami unit um this is like kind of a blend of size but it's about1 19950 a month so it's not that far off a market rate so your your sort of discount to the average market rate is just not very much so I think that's sort of a consideration to keep in mind too on the 80% Ami rents thanks for that although I would say like I think I think we've heard loud and cleared that you know $150 a month for uh people right on the edge there is pretty meaningful

[310:05] okay so we got got a comment there thanks to that Rachel but I think in general we're in favor of moving forward with these cleanups and codes and such right okay great so that's the feedback does that give you what you need can I can I ask a quick question of course so if we're not going to move forward with the um the change for Middle income we do have incentives built into the program and um I don't even know how this would work because I don't want to I don't want to get us off our schedule for adoption but um I would want to um strengthen those a little bit M um it wouldn't hurt might not help but it but it won't hurt um and they both they basically um revolve around if you put a certain amount on site you get more middle- inome units that that's the incentive we've had build into the program I would just sort of strengthen that a little bit does that make sense that one more time so the way we have it

[311:02] right now it's 25% um and there are there are incentives in the program so if you put um 75% of the required units on site you get a you get a different mix of of pricing H in other words and you get more middle income it's an incentive so I would want to strengthen that um and there's a couple others that are similar so if you have a smaller project uh right now it says if you have a project of 20 units or smaller all the pricing is Middle income I I was thinking to raise that to like 40 units or smaller all you know all all the pricing could be middle income so I would just suggest that we strengthen those incentives again it might not help because the 25% is so um kind of infeasible but um it wouldn't hurt either so I'm seeing some nodding heads I sounds interesting I mean we're

[312:00] this is very on the fly so I don't say yes or yes or no but it sounds interesting I just wouldn't want to delay the other work right yeah I think we'll have to consider if we can look at that within our current scope yeah yeah okay thanks for all your work on this again really appreciate it and um Aon wants to end this meeting what do you feel I don't I mean it's so early why would I want to end the meeting any any final thoughts folks all right seeing none I'll gav 55 p.m. thanks [Music]

[313:00] everybody [Music]