June 6, 2024 — City Council Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:28] e e

[1:28] e e

[2:28] e e

[3:28] e e

[4:28] e e e

[5:32] right well welcome everyone to the Thursday June 6th regular meeting of the Boulder City Council I'll go ahead and call us to order and Elicia if we could do a roll call please yes sir thank you and good evening everyone we'll start the night's roll call with council member Adams present Benjamin present mayor bronet present council member fuls present

[6:00] marus present Sho hard here mayor Pro Tim beer present virtually council member Walling presid and Wier and I'll note that council member Wier has um a very bad migraine and is hoping to join us a little bit later if it hopefully passes thank you mayor we have our call thanks so much I'd like to start with a consideration of a motion to um amend our agenda to remove item 3C uh consideration of a motion to amend Council rules of procedures and move that to the June 13th study session for further discussion so moved second all in favor please raise your hand it's unanimous the agenda has been amended and we now are going to our declarations our first declaration is item 1A the juneth Declaration to be presented by council member Adams TAA if

[7:01] you wouldn't mind joining us up here at the front and do we have our um representative here to receive the Declaration there she is Norma so good to have you with us and so norra if you'd like to join us for the Declaration we'd love to have you juneth is the oldest celebration of the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans and is so named after the events that took place on June 19th 1865 in galvaston Texas on June 19 1865 union leaders led by Major General Gordon gringer arrived in galison's Texas with news that the Civil War had ended and

[8:00] that the enslaved were free reactions to this news ranged from shock to Jubilation news of the end of slavery did not reach Frontier areas however um until two years later after president um Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of January 1st 1865 and months after the conclusion of the Civil War even after word had spread some slave Masters or slave owners chose to withhold the information enslaving them through one more harvest season on June 19th we recognize the historical significance of the end of cadow slavery in the United States many African-Americans continue the tradition of celebrating juneth as inspiration and encouragement for future generations for more than 155 years Jun celebrations

[9:00] have been held to honor and remember the substantial contributions of African-American to American history The Fight For Freedom does not exist in a vacuum and the struggle against oppression and for sovereignty is one we collectively share and is intrinsically linked to juneth celebrates the unity and mutuality of American Liberty realized which makes juneth a celebration of freedom and justice for all Americans not only those who were enslaved and their Descendants the faith and strength of character demonstrated by former enslaved African Americans remains an example for all people of the United States regardless of background religion or race um the late Lula Briggs Galloway of sagona Michigan an author social activist curator of African-American history was the originator of the interim juneth creative Culture Center

[10:00] and museum in Saga Michigan Mrs Galloway successfully W uh worked to bring National recognition to juneth Independence Day and encouraged Congress to pass a resolution in 1997 to honor the day in a Continuum of those efforts Miss opal Lee spent years laboring Congress to make juneth a Federal holiday and on June 17 2021 um President Biden signed juneth National Independence Day act and officially recognize juneth day of observation making juneth a Federal holiday in 2001 the executive committee of African-American cultural events Boulder County in partnership with the indac of Boulder County hosted the city's first juneth flag raising ceremony which has since become an annual event in 2022 the city of borderer joined the federal and state government in officially recognizing

[11:01] juneth as a holiday juneth celebrates celebrations will undoubtedly continue to grow in the city of Boulder through the cherished Partnerships and the strength of current and Future Leaders in celebration the city encourages community members to attend local events hosted by the city of Boulder the NAACP of Boulder County and the executive committee for African-American cultural events Boulder County from June 14th through June 17th including flag raising ceremonies and celebrations across Boulder County we the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado declare June 19th 2024 as juneth the Declaration underscores the freedom with dignity of every human being as a governmental body we oppose and reject any form of Oppression and pledge to support our community members and local entities working to achieve achieve equality and protect human

[12:01] rights and signed by our mayor mayor mayor Aaron Brockett thank [Applause] you uh thank you for that wonderful history and reading of the Declaration um Jubilee Day emancipation day Freedom Day black Independence Day juneth I've been acknowledging juneth since the 1970s when I first learned about it while living in California I've been a part of juneth celebrations here in Boulder since the late 1990s those were coordinated by the United black women of Boulder Valley a organization who had a powerfully positive influence on racial equity and C C ation of africanamerican

[13:01] culture Heritage and contributions when I arriv there was already an annual juneth picnic for black families to gather and in the following years a public juneth celebration that took place at such places as the dairy Art Center there's an African proverb that says If We Stand Tall it is because we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors and right here in our Boulder Community we have our own history of Standing Tall all of you are now a part of that Legacy that uplifts unacknowledged stories into the framework of dominant American story and specifically that of Boulder

[14:00] always [Music] remember that each of us is a part of the circle and that one day we too will be ancestors to all those who contributed to making this declaration and event possible thank you for being a good ancestor and for your contribution of time and energy to building up this better local Society this holiday is significant because it's an acknowledgment not only of Independence but of belonging thank you [Applause]

[15:01] thank you Taisha for reading that powerful declaration and for M Norma Johnson for sharing your wisdom with us thank you for being here with us today our second declaration is the ntion item 1B National Gun Violence Awareness Day declaration presented by council member Benjamin and I think we have someone here to receive it as well if you'd like to come up and join on the Das please we have uh our Mom's demand action our tireless volunteers from to my's action here thank you guys um so today we're here to celebrate and to recognize National Gun Violence awareness day and the work being done here in our community and Beyond every day more than 120 Americans are killed by gun violence let that sink in for a second and Americans are 26 times more likely to die by gun homicide than

[16:01] people in other high inome countries Colorado has an average of 951 gun deaths every year with a rate of 15.9 deaths per 100,000 people Colorado has the 22nd highest rate of gun deaths in the US gun homicides predominantly occur in cities with more than half of all firearm homicides in the nation occurring in just 20 cities cities Across the Nation including Boulder are working to end gun violence with evidence-based Solutions protecting Public Safety in the communities they serve is the highest responsibility of city council support for the Second Amendment rights of people of responsible community members goes hand inand with keeping guns away from people with dangerous and violent histories Council and Law Enforcement Officers know their communities are most familiar with local criminal activity and how to address it and are well positioned to understand how their community members can be kept safe in January 2013 hadia Pendleton a

[17:02] teenager who marched in the Presidential Inaugural Parade was tragically shot and killed just weeks later she she should be now celebrating her 26th birthday to help honor hadia and the more than 120 Americans who whose lives are cut short every day and are and the countless survivors who are injured by shootings Every Day a National Coalition of organizations has designated the first Friday in June as National Gun violence Awareness Day the idea was inspired by a group of hadia's friends who asked their classmates to commemorate her life by wearing orange they chose this color because Hunters wear orange to announce themselves to other Hunters when out in the woods and orange is the color that symbolize symbolizes the value of human life following the king su's um Table Mesa mass shooting on March 22nd 2021 in the city of Boulder we renew our commitment to reduce gun violence now more than ever and pledge to do do all we can to keep Firearms out of the wrong

[18:01] hands and encourage responsible gun ownership to keep our community safe we the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado declare June 7th 2024 as National Gun Violence awareness day and encourage all community members to support their local communities efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and value human lives thank you um with that we have U our current local lead um Tina here to say a few words on behalf of Mom's demand action our tireless volunteer group that is really inspired and led much of the work we've been able to do here in Boulder to protect people from gun violence thank you so much we want to thank the city council mayor Brockett and especially councelor Benjamin for this declaration what an honor to be here tonight in addition to some of the statistics you cited in the Declaration it's worth noting that Firearms are the leading cause of death among kids and teens in America now

[19:01] millions of Americans lives are shaped by gun violence indirectly they know someone who is shot they know about someone who is shot they live in fear of the next shooting the mental health costs of gun violence are incalculable in Boulder we know all too well about the enduring Legacy of gun violence gun violence can show up in very public ways like the mass shooting at king supers um but it can also show up in ways that you may know less about in Colorado 70% of firearm deaths are suicides fortunately in Boulder our city council has worked for a number of years in enacting measures to make our community safer those measures have also been an inspiration for other communities other cities who wish to make their citizens safer as well well and has no doubt

[20:00] shaped some of the legislation that is introduced and been passed at the state level in the last legislative session we passed six out of eight of the gun violence prevention measures that were introduced so we are so happy to be citizens of Boulder um to live in a community that cares so much about the safety of its citizens and continues to raise awareness about gun violence um through through all kinds of things that yall do including this declaration it's an honor thank [Applause] you dring mic it's a mic drop that was a mic drop moment there Matt thanks for reading that and thanks

[21:00] for all the phenomenal Moms Demand Action volunteers for everything that you do and for joining us here today okay we're now going to move to agenda item two which is open comment um Elisha if you could go over our public participation guidelines please yes sir thank you and good evening again everyone and thank you for joining us both in person and online I'll now review our public participation at city council meeting guidelines the city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive meaningful and inclusive Civic conversations this Vision supports physical and emotional safety for community members staff and Council as well as democracy for people of all ages identities lived experiences and political perspectives for more information about this vision and the community engagement processes please visit our website at bouldercolorado.gov service slpr deductive

[22:04] atmospheres the following are examples of rules of decorum found in the boulder Revised Code and other guidelines that support this Vision these will be upheld during the meeting participants are required to sign up to speak using the name they are commonly known by and individuals must display their whole name before allowing being allowed to speak online currently only audio testimony is permitted online only one person at a time at the podium unless an accommodation like an interpreter is required our remarks and testimonies shall be limited to matters related to City business no standing in or otherwise blocking the aisles no participant shall stand or hold items such as Flags or signs in a manner that block the view of another

[23:01] person no participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person we ask that you not AIX items to the podium or deis or walls or other surfaces of the chamber signs Flags or other items used to communicate must be held by one person when displayed obscenity other epithets based on race gender or religion and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the meeting will not be tolerated in-person participants are asked to refrain from expressing support or disagreement verbally or with sounds such as Applause or snapping with the exception of declarations traditionally support is shown through American Sign Language Applause or jazz hands again thank you for listening and thank you for joining us thank you for that Elicia all right we've got 12 people signed up in person and eight virtually each person will

[24:01] have 2 minutes to speak I'll call three names at a time if you can start coming down when your name is called and just be aware that for fairness purposes I will uh be restricting people to their two minutes our first three in-person speakers are Raphael ernandez Guerrero Harry Ross and Robert bhel Raphael sorry I thought Raphael was coming down no okay then we're at Harry Ross and after that Robert Bell and Leslie glustrom hi my name is Harry Ross I'm an Emergency Physician if you can speak into the mic please hi my name is Harry Ross I'm an Emergency Physician and I came to talk to you tonight about emergency services and Disaster Response

[25:00] but quite honestly first I want to thank the uh Firearms advoc uh violence group MDA first they're doing great work and whatever anybody else talks about their saving lives tonight so I want to thank them um I'm here to talk about ambulances everybody agrees that they save lives I'm here specifically to talk about Medevac and emergency services at the airport if you mind getting right into that mic there so everybody can hear you so when helicopters fly it's a matter of power versus weight and they have limited power and on hot days like this they're very limited in how much they can carry so when you see that helicopter parked on top of Boulder Community Hospital on a day like today it can only fill with half a tank of gas it can not get off that pad with more gas than that and so they keep a half a tank that gives them enough gas with

[26:00] their crew and their equipment to get to Boulder Canyon and that's it otherwise they stop at our airport and they refuel helicopters do much better with what they describe as a running start where they come up at an angle or down at an angle they can carry an awful lot more weight and if we lose this helicopter if we lose this airport they're gone and they have a number of items that they specifically need they need hangers they need maintenance they need the fuel infrastructure that everybody agrees goes away and having just a helipad there doesn't work they'll be gone I strongly encourage you to talk to the helicopter Pilots that fly medac and they will tell you what they can and cannot do and they will they should be the ones that help you make the decisions on what's available thank you for your time thank you now we have Robert pel Leslie glustrom and Michelle Rodriguez

[27:07] all right do I to start yep down into the mic please Perfect uh good evening uh thank you for the opportunity to comment my name is Robert Bell I'm sure you've heard about leted gas from perspective of Aviation enthusiasts and lobbyists but from the perspective of doctors and scientists is far different I all a doctorate in chemistry from UCLA and I'm trained on the haard of Leed nanom materials but what I site today comes from Pure reved literature there are now four peer-reviewed studies that have explicitly examined proximity to airports and children's blood Le levels all of the same conclusion Leed Avgas has significant adverse effects on children's blood lead levels and the health in proximate communities this means that dozens of authors reviewers editors all experts in their field um uh with papers containing thousands of research hours all contain come come to the same conclusion the infamous Reed Hillview airport study has many parallels with a recent Colorado study that was just released in both instances

[28:02] Aviation groups pushed the idea that since no elevated lead levels if uh were found near any airports or that the increase in blood light levels were small it must be safe however the science paints a completely different picture Bruce lanere co-author of the Reed Hillview study testified in March in front of Colorado's transport committee staing the blood Le levels seen in a study corresponding to an increase in miscarriage rates in women increase behavioral issues in children and lower test scores in school even the lowest detectable blood Le concentrations are uh uh create a measurable quantifiable IQ deficiencies in children and in pregnant women there is no lower threshold that is safe for lead exposure the Colorado study saw the same results as the Reed Hill viw study even stating in their in their report the results are generally consistent in magnitude Direction goodness of fit with those observed in the three previous peerreview studies that explicitly link uh proximity to airports to Children's

[29:01] blood levels keeping Boulder airport open perpetuates the harm done to nearby communities and robs those children of their potential with the closure of Boulder airport on the table ultimately this is an issue that the residents will have to choose for themselves however your your time's up thank you okay now Leslie glustrom Michelle Rodriguez and Laura Kaplan is there a Point guess we're getting a presentation up here thank you uh thanks very much good evening Council my name is lesie glustrom and as always I want to thank you with all sincerity for all your service to our community the hard work the commitment I'm super grateful so thank you um and I kind of hate to do this but we really need you to start yet another thing which is a conversation about our Energy Future had a few years off we've been under the franchise with

[30:00] EXL since 2021 um but we have a decision Point coming up next year so I'm here to begin the conversation with Council and with the community I'll do this in kind of two-minute slots over the next many months um I always want to honor the people who work for Excel they're very good people they work hard they're competent but they working for a monopoly and as we go forward on climate change electricity is fundament m al to everything we do we are getting after 20 years of work a much cleaner source of electricity XL didn't get there by themselves let's just say that respectfully but the price is just not frankly appropriate so we have to make a decision as a community do we want to stay with Exel you've seen this graph before blue line is sales it's their flat profits have tripled in the time that I've worked we could go forward a slide and then another slide but you

[31:00] would see that excel's taking over 20 million a year out of our and then we'll go to the next slide if yeah there it is taking over 20 million a year out of our community just in profits it's that's a lot of money and we have providers that could bring us much lower cost electricity that has huge implications for how we go forward the equity considerations that we face can we use some of that money that we could save to help lower income and small business members of the community through this energy transition thank you so much I appreciate it all right now we have and no clapping please um we have Michelle Rodriguez Laura Kaplan and ly seel hi guys I'm going to go pretty fast tonight first off I wanted to express my uh gratitude and um I was honored this morning to be a part of of the community Court coming to the city building um we

[32:01] had resources and stuff you guys can show up next week on a Thursday and probably hang out in nura's office and see what great work was done downstairs right outside the building they brought the community Court the clinic the resources here for the homeless next I wanted to speak about some heavy stuff my extreme condolences to the police officers and the First Responders that had to respond to the back of the Bandshell Tuesday morning to retrieve the body of a senior man who was had overdosed and was stuck in the position of still using his drugs I wanted to say that compliments courtesy of a community health this is Nay locken it's subcutanous I'd be hor I was horrified to see the size of this this is administered to the public to be able as a a reversal for drug overdose look at the size of this needle and they give this to the public now if I stick somebody with this to pull them out of a an overdose and possibly end up killing them this this horrifies me we do have nasal stuff we we just we've got to do

[33:01] something more and I I asked about this today and um one of our locals had it on them and I said you know because I have somebody I love right now nodding out across the street I I just really we got to do better this is this is our harm reduction remedy so they hand out the stuff to use safely and then they give you something like this to reverse the effects of what you're going to get out of using drugs safely we we we just got to do better and I'm not scared needles but this thing right here an adct walked up to me and he says what's that we pulled that off and he said oh hell no he walked away he was I was like this is you know if you go too far with what you're using over there I'll slam you with this you know he like he didn't want nothing to do with it thank you guys for listening appreciate y'all thank you now we have Laura kin ly seagull and L Gonzalez good evening members of council Laura

[34:01] Kaplan here tonight in my personal capacity uh and also as an organizer for the airport neighborhood campaign we wanted to give you all a little bit of an update on the campaign and then also invite you to an event that we are having next week so where we are right now I think you all know we delivered over 4200 signatures for each of the two ballot measure initiatives that we petitioned for that is uh repurpose our runways and runways to neighborhoods and we are waiting for for our wonderful clerk's office staff to give us the verdict on whether we are sufficient or not and we should hear no later than June 13th uh I did deliver you all a memo hopefully you had a chance to read it about some of our experiences petitioning which were largely wonderful and great conversations and we learned a lot but there were a few experiences that tipped over into intimidation harassment uh threats of violence which nobody likes to see in our community so we are asking for your help and for City staff's help to send the message that that kind of behavior is not acceptable

[35:00] and that nobody who is petitioning in our Democratic process should fear for their safety when they are out circulating a petition so um on to something much nicer uh we do have an event coming up 00 30 p.m. you heard Dr boutel speaking earlier about lead studies our webinar is about one particular lead study for Reed Hill viiew airport our invited speakers are uh supervisor Chavez Cindy Chavez of uh Santa Clara County and also Dr um lambier who was one of the lead authors of the study that they commissioned to look over time at Children's blood Le levels and uh the results that they found correlating children's blood Le levels with both proximity to the airport and being downwind of the airport uh and they used the results of that study to immediately cease selling Leed aviation fuel at all airports in Santa Clara County and they were success ful in that even though the FAA told them they were not allowed to

[36:01] do that so please do join us on Wednesday it' be a great opportunity for a good conversation and thank you for your service thank you now we have Lyn seagull laa Gonzalez and James Duncan once we lose the airport we can't bring it back again we're going to go all electric as the chemist said earlier we're going to so let's just relax a little bit um the most local issue here is Gaza no point in being here if we go up in a mushroom cloud has bah is hitting northern northern Israel Iran China Russia boom got to stop it

[37:02] now 75 were killed yesterday I think it was or the day before it's utterly unconscionable what's going on um for you Travelers Israelis cannot go to the Maldives no touristing from Israelis in the Maldives serious step and the button on the microphone there you go oh again press it one more time um okay we'll give you a few extra seconds we have 700 people in Gaza for one

[38:02] toilet in Boulder at The Bluebird we have one person for one toilet that's a you know an incorrigible I forget the name the high utilizers right so we got a wealth disparity here we got a big problem here if we want to have people traveling to Boulder okay they have to be traveling here for something because the way of going our landmarks are demolitions okay um 20 more seconds go ahead thank you for giving me my time back um orange Court was just demoed yesterday it's a house it's an Old English cottage it went down for no reason this is adding to our landfill and there it's on a a half acre they could have built on the other side if they needed to build a new place as well but we shouldn't have these

[39:00] demos like this it's the contrast is 40,000 a month at 311 Mapleton if you have the penthouse there or 10,000 a month I mean the wealth disparity is greater and greater and it's happening okay that's the extra time thank you okay now we have laa Gonzalez James Duncan and adelene Marquez you can leave it here I can leave it here thank you okay as you know me I don't need an introduction and I am here to pretty much call in every single city council member including uh the city manager and every single staff that's here to the audience on to you about how you uphold white supremacist cultural norms in the

[40:00] city council you change the Norms to protect physical and emotional wellbeing well um some sists call me a [ __ ] which is a gender based insult that's not supposed to be allowed by Johnson City Clerk however you major you did nothing about that you know and the only thing that I did to protect myself was call him a settler again I am here to educate all of you again around racial Equity a settler is not an insult but you allow that to happen and I hope that you repair that but I don't think you will you also changed the rules after we started showing up you changed the podium to the site right but before you had all the Israeli Flags covering all the people in the back but once people black and brown people show up what do you do oh let's have rules because this black and brown people are too violent for white people so yeah you're doing the white supremacy stuff you also Chang the py and the epidat about gender you allow them to happen so what is this BS

[41:02] that you're doing about this Norms if you're not going to take action when people actually do this I was even surprised that a cop had my back more than you did when I called you to do something about it I also would like to call out the hypocrisy that everyone has here honestly it's so dystopian to see two black women talk about the history of slavery Liberation and juneth as the rest of the council ignores a racist and SU premises genocide with our tax dollars so please remove all that hypocrisy we don't what do you want to do you want to have a Palestine 19th is that what you want to have in 10 20 years from now once you kill all the Palestinians with our tax dollars um I know you're dying for my time to be off wak but I hope that you're paying attention to me um also it is ridiculous I want you to revoke the sister C your your time is up your time is up it's time for you to leave the

[42:02] podium it is time for you to leave the podium In fairness to other people if you will not leave the podium we'll just need to call a recess no no no we'll just call a recess can you leave the podium please I okay I'll call it recess take a little break e

[43:26] e e

[44:26] e e

[45:25] e e

[46:25] e e

[47:25] e e

[48:25] e e

[49:25] e e

[50:25] e e

[51:25] e e

[52:13] all right everybody we're back hopefully we can get uh quiet in the chamber so that we can allow our other public speakers to be heard so would like to hear from everyone who signed up thank you all right our next three speakers are James Duncan adelene Marquez and Philip Ogen good evening Council thanks my name is James Duncan I live here in Boulder thank you for your service I've got a couple things to say first two local issues nuclear Armageddon and terrorism the Cavalier provocations by the military of the US and NATO against Russia are hurling us towards worldwide Annihilation that's local the ongoing genocide and famine are creating terrorists by the thousands

[53:03] which could happen anywhere including here that's local regarding uh a talk that Naomi Klein gave on a couple weeks ago she says that to there's two competing stories about the birth of the modern world two very different sets of ideas about what European fascism and Nazi representative represented Within These two stories the first thing she says about that is that uh one is that the story doesn't require much like the first story doesn't require much explanation since it is the air we breathe right and that story is very convenient because all these countries the US Canada Germany UK have their own geopolitical economic reasons for wanting a western Outpost in the middle of the oil and gasr Arab

[54:00] world and how convenient it is to wrap that in a virtue of learning from the sins of the past all right um for the story number two she quotes web Deo who says there was no Nazi atrocity concentration camps wholesale maming and murder defilement of women and or Gastly blasphemy of childhood which Christian civilization of Europe had not long practiced against colored folk in all parts of the world in the name of and for the defense of a superior race Born To Rule The World what was new was that the genocide was coming home if you can conclude your comments thank you okay and now we have adelene Marquez Philip Ogen and Evan rabits hi my name is AD Len Marquez I'm glad you all got to take a break however families and children in Gaza get no

[55:00] breaks they are being bombarded decapitated and burned alive or starve to death they are facing um a slow death whether it's starvation or injury or a fast death by the arms that the US is supplying to Israel and the IDF that's why you all do need to take a stance and vote for a ceasefire from Mexico to Palestine these border walls have got to go juneth reminds us of the struggles that black people had have in this country and how we still don't have Liberation for all Angela Davis was the leader in the civil rights movement and has shown support for our student encampments here in Colorado gun violence awareness month and that just reminds us that we keep supplying the IDF with these bombs and arms to continue continue killing innocent civilians including Woodward here in Fort Collins Colorado also you might ask why push for a ceasefire if this is a global issue well we're interconnected

[56:01] it's also a local issue here in the city of Boulder we send 1.5 million to Israel where we could you be using that to forgive 41 student loans 185 public housing units 17 Elementary School teachers and paying for 542 children's uh free health care or low cost here in the city of Boulder so we support um you must support are migrants being pushed out of their countries because of what the Us and other countries have done to um de deconstruct their infrastructure and you all here support um human rights is what I would think so you must not support the liberal agenda and what President Biden has done in harsh immigration policies that would just lead to more debts at the border again who who is the supplier of guns to Mexico the us thank you now we have

[57:01] Philip Ogen Evan ravitz and then I understand that Patty fer agiler is going to be in person so Phillip my name is Philip ogren and I a member of the airport neighborhood campaign I'm one of the five petitioners the campaign Treasurer and was an active signature gatherer right up until last Wednesday when Laura Kaplan and I came to this very building and turned in over 4200 signatures each for both of our ballot measures repurpose our rways and runways to neighborhoods I couldn't be prouder of our accomplishment I come here tonight to share some Reflections on our signature gathering campaign I'm happy to report that democracy is not dead yet I want to thank our community for showing up in a big way to take time to listen research debate give feedback and to sign our two petitions this is an issue that has wide appeal to many people in our community and I'm heartened by the encouragement and support we received and I'm optimistic about our chances of getting these two ballot measures passed in the fall people often ask me why I care so much

[58:01] about this issue as a housing Advocate it's true that I am very excited about the beautiful neighborhoods that are possible to build on these 180 Acres that the city owns my vision is something like holiday neighborhood but way better but I also remind people that our campaign is a coalition of both housing Advocates and neighbors of the airport who have seen their concerns about toxins and increased noise dismissed and their demands for reasonable improvements ignored for decades and treated like so much background noise it's not neighborly to remind people you were there first when you are called out for dramatically increased noise it's not enough to be embarrassed about the leaded fuel that sends hundreds of pounds of vaporized lead nanop particles every year over our city and to wave your hands around while explaining how it will eventually be phased out it's not right that we heavily subsidize airport activity while having very little ability to sensibly regulate it I look forward to a lively campaign season and I'm excited about the new possibilities these ballot measures offer thank

[59:00] you thank you now we have Evan ravitz and then Patty fer Aguilera last time I gave four examples of the city's contempt for voters the truth Etc I didn't have time to say that the only law the city respects is kiss up and [ __ ] down many local politicians kiss up to governor polus and are rewarded mayor Brockett after years of voting for legal homeless camps flip-flopped and instead led the decision to spend $3 million each year to sweep the homeless like trash Brockett was also the only Colorado mayor to back Po Po's attempt to usurp local zoning control last year so pus backed Brocket in the last election polus in turn kisses up to Big Oil and

[60:03] Gas his commission approved over 8,000 new Drilling and fracking permits he protected filthy suncore Refinery from shutdown both ensure thousands more get nose beds asthma CPD and later cancer and polus kisses up to APAC which gave him and Joe nus tens of thousands of Blood Money Joe's April newsletter boasts of bringing home the bacon $9 million to the second district but Joe just voted 17 billion for Israel's genocide almost 2,000 times what he got us war is the whole congress's Soul where all the money goes

[61:00] Israel calls its own policy security without peace it's the grown-up version of Boulder's policy towards unsheltered homelessness kissing up and [ __ ] down works but what happens when the last becomes first and the first become La all right now we have Patty fer Aguilera um hi my name is uh Dr P fer Aila first uh I would like transparency on how much you're spending for the extra CBS that you're bringing here because there used to be one you're discussing budget uh you don't address us when we talk about asking you for a ceas fire not every single time you mayor has not addressed us and so discuss this right you're spending more money on Cops because you don't feel safe about ourselves come on I also want you to think about how a

[62:01] Palestinian person must feel right now right like I don't know if you've done this exercise like how a Palestinian child must feel right now when they kill their whole family they destroy everything that they had like you have this excuse of like oh Israel can like have the right to defend thems they have to destroy Hamas that's not possible if they kill your whole family if they destroy everything you don't think that there's going to be a Hamas 2.0 it's just nonsense they keep saying that they are you know trying to finish with Hamas and they're committing a genocide they're just killing so many people I also I think that like I want to I want you to do this exercise I'm a mathematician and I thought oh I don't know any Palestinian mathematician how come but I know many Israeli pal uh mathematicians well it is like virually

[63:02] impossible for Palestinians to get visas number one because it's controlled by Israel right so we don't hear the their stories because we don't get to know them right how many Palestinian people do you know right and if you know somebody like go and talk to them because I don't know what else to tell you all to like address us like I at this point like I'm so angry at you all I'm so angry at this wall it's too much it's too much you're doing nothing thank you okay we're moving to our virtual speakers and those are um our first three are Travis leberge Elise Edson and Aram Bingham

[64:06] Travis yes hi um can you hear me okay yes can you hear me yes thank you thanks very much my name is Travis leers I'm the founder and executive director of parando school of musical arts here in Boulder we teach all instruments ages and abilities and during the school year we provide lessons and classes to over 600 students every week including over 100 students who receive tuition assistance to ensure Equitable access to the Arts we provide programming for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities as well as neuro diversities Early Childhood students and senior citizens and during the last school year our SC outreach program provided support to over 3,000 music classrooms and various High need schools creating over 100,000 students interactions like many other Arts organizations in Boulder we provide

[65:00] programming that no one else does this is why we were in full support of ballot measure 2A last fall and this is also why it is disappointing to find out that staff and Council are considering cutting back or eliminating previous Arts funding from the budget and considering only using two2 a dollar to fund the Arts this is an insult to the Arts organizations who broker to compromise with the city over the sales tax and flies directly in the face of the 7 95% of Voters who voted to add to city funding not to play with the numbers after the fact this is not quite repeal and replace but it's certainly a bait and switch the through line in all of par Lando's programming is that what we do we do what is right for our students and Community more than just music and the Arts we try to instill what it means to be decent humans with 75% of the voters supporting 2A and its clear message and intent now is your opportunity to do what is right please honor the Goodwill of your community's Arts organ organizations their tens of thousands of audience members and supporters and the will of the voters

[66:01] don't cut the the city's artsline item 2A is meant to add to that number that's what we agreed upon that's what was promised and that is what 75% of the voters overwhelmingly supported thank you so much for your time and consideration thank you now we have Elise Edson Aram Bingham and incarn K Rodriguez good evening mayor Brockett Council and staff thank thank you for your service our city is renowned for its commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship so we therefore cannot ignore the significant impact Boulder airport has on our community and natural surroundings the constant noise and Lead pollution adversely affects residents quality of life and there is no safe level of lead for children they are the most at risk and the areas highly impacted by planes taking off and landing at Boulder airport include at least six preschools daycare centers as well as the SC Park Bike Park soccer fields and ball fields think of it this way every time you hear

[67:01] a toe plane overhead or another small plane engine overhead that is lead particles being released into the air our children are breathing it's been proven that aviation fuel lead particles are significantly more harmful than the form that was in car fuel the Environmental Protection Agency has acknowledged Aviation lead pollution as a National Health crisis additionally the airport's operations contribute substantially to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions conflicting with our City's climate goals moreover the land occupied by the airport could be repurposed to better serve the needs of our community imagine converting this space into Parks community centers housing facilities that would directly benefit all residents rather than a small percentage of pivate pivate private pilots and travelers closing the airport is not just an environmental necessity but a step towards a healthier more vibrant and inclusive Boulder let's take this bold move together for the betterment of our community and future Generations thank

[68:01] you thank you now we have Aram Bingham Incarnation K Rodriguez and Kev and Ma hello can you hear me yes I believe I had slides the slides are up thank you okay my name is Dr Aram Bingham and I am back this week not because I believe this Council has the moral fiber to call for a ceasefire um but because um I don't think you all have been seeing the same things that those of us that show up week after week have been seeing for these past eight months and I want to use this time to continue to educate last meeting I explained about the spart bomb technology manufactured here in Colorado that is being used to mer murder entire families in Gaza these are the Abu Malik and Anar families killed by jams the Munitions produced in

[69:02] part by Woodward Corporation of Fort Collins according to CNN 21 members of the Abu mik family were killed by a single bomb on October 10th and 18 members of the Anar family by a bomb that destroyed their three houses on October 22nd i showing these smiling families because I think we have all been conditioned in the United States to think of Arab lives Muslim lives and above all Palestinian lives as cheap and our media does not show us human cost of the wars we have waged from Iraq to Afghanistan and Palestine next slide please I fear that your tolerance of this violence aided and embedded by our government and corporations and individuals in our backyard is a result of your practice willful ignorance as is the case within the Israeli media bubble where many continue to support this war with no plan and no end and also where no images of Devastation are shown and critical media such as Al jaaz is now banned as people two weeks ago burn turned alive a child was decapitated 45 were killed and more than 200 injured by another bomb in another safe Zone this

[70:01] time in Rafa the most the Israeli media is willing to show is a bomb fragment again traced to Woodward with the lead that these smart bombs are supposed to limit casualties except of course when you aim them at civilians in tents fleeing for the eenth time the media you consume is probably not showing you the dead and maimed sh meanwhile next slide please in the West Bank and in our sister city noblis Israel occupation forces continue to murder youth with impunity at least 129 since October these stories and videos are not hard to find children are being shot on site while playing in the Street Boulder is silent next slide please Palestinian men and male youth above a certain age are automatically considered violent threats your time is up but thank you for your testimony um and FYI um we have been joined by council member Tera minor who's now present virtually okay now we have incaran K

[71:00] Rodriguez kevn Ma and Steve Whitaker if we can have quiet in the audience please this caresan here okay we'll come back and check in later so let's go to Kevin L Ma and then Steve Whitaker and Elizabeth Maguire hi can you hear me yes awesome um as adopters of a race Equity plan that Co-op social justice rhetoric I ask you tell me one movement where the best action was to stay silent when our communities are hurting I will not let the entire diverse Jewish diaspora be conf conflated with an openly right-wing government party and its violent policies I will not let our Muslim and Arab siblings be conflated with the

[72:01] violent acts of a militarized resistance group leftist Jews and Muslims stood with us for LGBT rights black lives matter Reproductive Rights and more we now stand with them I encourage you to read the writings of leftist and ethnical Zionist Jews such as Albert Einstein who believed in other ways to connect with the holy land that didn't involve militarized Force the same way we look to right-wing Christian extremism that led to the genocide of native peoples the global slave trade far-right Christian Germany that led to the Holocaust and say that that does not represent our Christian comrades we must offer that same humility to our Jewish and Muslim siblings colado sends $18 million of our tax dollars a year on offensive Weaponry alone to a right-wing policy party in Israel where could that go instead as our residents continue to struggle with substance use Mental Illness unaffordable housing and gun violence as representatives of Boulder you represent not only the interests of the city but are responsible for the healing of this community I respect your personal freedoms but I urge caution on the narratives you nurture council member Wier it is unfortunate that you publicly engage with content that dismisses the actions of Advocates

[73:00] calling for a ceasefire in Denver mocking the so-called useless impact a city council can have on International conflict this is a slap in the face to our black Jewish LGBT indigenous and other comrades that stood against globalized slavery the Vietnam War the Afghanistan war the Holocaust the Border crisis and so much more it's unfortunate that historic literacy is not a requirement for our Representatives if our work really does nothing why has the president of the United States called called for a permanent ceasefire Aid in diplomacy Chicago Seattle Detroit San Francisco Minneapolis Glennwood Springs and 100 more US cities I publicly thank you we don't come here um for you to do anything but that's so our words are documented so that years from now when Palestine is Free Our Generation my generation will look at this Council and say how did we stay silent thanks now our last please quiet in the audience our last two speakers are Steve Whitaker and Elizabeth McGuire

[74:00] thank you mayor and council members it has been over three years since the city entered into a franchise agreement with Excel that included a partnership agreement with the signing of the agreement the city council marked this as done and done all is good I'm here to tell you that all is not good since we entered the franchise agreement the local grid that Excel owns and manages has been shown to be increasingly dangerous and unreliable now every time a strong wind is forecast we need to worry about grid generated wildfires and intentional power outages but this is not all the bad news we have learned that a key part of the partnership agreement excel's promise to meet specific pollution reduction goals has not been reached and is not likely to be reached in the next reporting period And there's more bad news though the partnership through the

[75:01] partnership agreement Excel led the city council and the public to believe it would take action as a result of the agreement that would assist Boulder to achieving its climate goals in following the actual on ground results of the partnership I cannot identify any meaningful reduction of pollution arising from the action Tak solely as the result of the agreement the partnership agreement has been ineffective in moving Boulder towards achieving its climate goals Excel is a Sole Provider of the bol of electricity within Boulder it is failing to meet the needs of the city it is time for the city council to begin studying this failure and considering its options we have the right to exit the franchise agreement next year thank you thanks our last speaker is Elizabeth

[76:05] Maguire good evening I'm Elizabeth Maguire executive director of the Colorado music festival and Center for musical arts and a member of the Boulder County Arts Alliance board of directors I'm here because I want to ask that you reconsider the diversion of 2A funds which as my colleague Travis stated the intent of the ballot measure and the overwhelming 75% support it received from voters in November of 2023 in an editorial last fall Jan Burton did an excellent job of outlining the economic impact of my organization the Colorado music festival and the Boulder Daily Camera the festival receives $50,000 a year that according to the calculator on the city Zone website results in a $68,000 return that's a 36,00 36% increase on your investment and I have to ask does the city make other lowrisk

[77:01] Investments that yield a 36% return this morning I submitted our annual report to scfd and was astonished to learn that in this process only onethird of our audiences actually reside in Boulder which means that two-thirds of our of our audiences are visitors that statistically spend at a higher rate while they're here in Boulder Jan mentioned that the festival likely generated over half a million dollars last October but I think it's more based on this new information so in a nutshell I'm here to tell you the Colorado Music Festival is doing its part for Boulder we're in lock step with this City's cultural plan we present and Lodge a diverse group of the world's most talented guest artists we have a reputable Festival fellows program that is designed to diversify our Orchestra and Inter turn American orchestras on the whole we pay to house over 100 All-Star orchestral musicians and local local apartments in fact you won't find a group of people that love Boulder more than our Orchestra and they

[78:00] look forward to shopping eating and playing while they're here we produced performances at such a high level that we are featured in articles by the New York Times Wall Street Journal BBC music musical America and more Last Summer the strad magazine came to Boulders your time is up unfortunately but thank you for your testimony okay that brings us to the end of open comment is incaran here they have not shown what's that they have not shown okay so we will I will go ahead and um close the speaking portion of open comment and turn to City staff for any responses thank you so much mayor and uh as always we appreciate uh everyone who's come out and shared their voices for um some specific responses in terms of staff I want to just say uh appreciate those who spoke specifically about the airport I'll say that we will just a reminder for those in community and the council we'll be talking specifically about the airport I believe

[79:00] at the end of July so stay tuned for more on that conversation um Michelle appreciate uh your uh words we certainly did start um municipal court and uh in partnership with the city attorney's office um their activities in front of the municipal building but I want to follow up with you on the harm reduction um conversation or comment that you brought to to our attention um I'll say too that while tonight we will be talking about uh to a fund I mean we'll be talking about ATB I know that we will have continuing conversation about funding in general certainly funding for the Arts and two-way funding in future conversations with budget and then before I get off of the airport conversation I just wanted to appreciate Laura um and uh appreciate your comments about your experiences and just note to council that I have um reached out and we'll be having further conversations about our experiences thanks so

[80:00] much thank you Aaron do you have anything no thank you Mr Mayor uh thanks City Council Members any responses okay seeing none then we'll go ahead and bring the open comment period to close and go on to our next item which is our consent agenda Ela if you could take us to that please yes sir thank you our consent agenda is item number three on tonight's agenda and it consists of items 3 a 3B 3 D if we have uh quiet in the chambers please quiet in the chambers please I'll need to call a recess so we don't get quiet all right let's go into a recess

[81:23] shame e

[82:23] e e

[83:23] e e

[84:23] e e

[85:23] e e

[86:23] e e

[87:23] e e

[88:23] e e e

[89:46] going to gavel us back into order and I believe we were at our consent agenda see leici is over here but thank you sorry about that I was going

[90:01] to help council member W with something well our consent agenda is item number three on tonight's agenda it consists of items 3A 3 B 3D through 3F very good any questions or comments on the consent agenda seeing none maybe a motion I move the consent agenda I'll second we have a motion in second uh if we can get a roll call please Elicia yes sir the roll call for the consent agenda items as listed will begin with council member shuar yes mayor protim spear yes council member wall yes Wier yes Adams yes Benjamin yes mayor bronet

[91:01] yes council member farts yes and Maris yes the consent consent agenda items a b d through f are hereby approved unanimously very good can we do our callup check in please yes sir thank you call up check-ins are item number four on tonight's agenda 4 A is the site review and a use review at 3300 penr place for a 100% permanently affordable housing Redevelopment with 113 residential units an on-site leasing office and a daycare center Head Start classroom with play area The Proposal includes pursuant of landmarking and repurposing of the original portion of the Geological Society of America building and developing four additional residential buildings on the site the proposed daycare requires a use review this is reviewed under case number L

[92:02] 2023 d44 any questions or comments or desire to call this item up Lauren um I just wanted to uh thank the applicant for um preserving the GSA building I think that that it's great to see it um have a new life um but I also just wanted to put a plug in there you know that building has these really amazing arches on it and it would have been fun to see something like that follow through in the buildings they didn't really the new buildings didn't have a ton of response to the existing architecture and you have an architect on Council now let's do some fun things like I don't just just a little plug for that but um in all I thought it was a great proposal thank you was that a comment on the architecture

[93:03] there thank you thank you okay anything else on that one all right seeing none looks like no desire to call this up if we can go to our first public hearing please yes sir public hearings are item number five on tonight's agenda 5A is the second reading and consideration of a motion to adopt ordinance 8632 approving annual supplemental Appropriations to the 2024 budget and setting forth related details Mar I'll turn to you thank you mayor and as the team gets situated uh I'm going to send it over to our CFO but as a reminder our first ATB is that adjustment to base it is something we do routinely um certainly at the end of any fiscal year we come back and think about how do we reconcile um our budget at the end of the year but also think about those uh monies um that

[94:01] were also received uh particularly those grants that weren't accounted for in the original budget as we move forward and think I have spoken enough to give Cara enough time to get situated so pass it on to car thank you ah good evening mayor mayor proam council members cars skin our Chief Financial Officer first time with the new technology so it's working anyway thank you for stalling uh Nua as we got behind the chairs um we are here tonight to request approval of a supplemental appropriation to the 2024 budget that is otherwise known as the first adjustment to base next slide this chart depicts the annual budget cycle and as Nua mentioned uh the most significant event is the annual budget approval in the fall of each year which sets the budget or what we call the spending plan and the appropriation or the spending Authority for the following year so in October of 2023 the

[95:02] 2024 annual budget was approved the annual budget is effective beginning January 2024 the budget cycle also includes these two planned scheduled adjustments to base uh we call the annual budget also the base budget those adjustments are needed in part because actual spending does not all always align perfectly with the fiscal year so some previous year's dollars committed to a program or a project have not been spent yet the appropriation or spending Authority lapses at year end per the ordinance so those dollars technically fall to fund balance at the end of the year and that requires us to reappropriate and reauthorize the spending of those dollars for those original purposes the city also continuously applies for Grants and receives them so we often need to appropriate in atb1 new uh grants that we have received since the development of the budget last year

[96:01] the city also receives unanticipated donations or other new revenues that are committed to specific uses that require appropriation sometimes there are changes to timelines due to certain circumstance or opportunities and some planned projects are accelerated which requires appropriation and last atbs sometimes include appropriation for unanticipated Emer needs so the budget cycle also includes a second adjustment to base in the time frame of November to December and that is another opportunity to make adjustments and so with that I will now turn it over to Charlotte husky our budget officer and she will give you a high level summary and some highlights thanks Cara good evening council members good to be here with you tonight I'm Charlotte husky budget officer for the city uh the slide in front of us is a summary of uh what is brought forward uh tonight in our atb1 for 2024 that includes a total of 46.4 million requested additional appropriation

[97:01] Authority Cara just walked through some of the themes associated with atbs um one of the the points that we want to emphasize in this ATB in particular is that the majority is a reappropriation of one-time unspent funds as well as additional Grant uh and donation revenues we'd also like to emphasize Within in this ATB that 98% of the additional Appropriations supports existing programs and services and so we are not uh adding new programs with this increased appropriation we are uh extending and continuing our existing programs and services that we have within the city over the next few slides I'll walk through some of the themes that are included within this ATV the first includes homelessness and affordable housing this includes a $2 million grant that is a transformational homelessness response grant that was received from the Department of local Affairs for

[98:01] respit services as part of the day Services Center operations at Boulder shelter for the homeless a total of 1.6 million included in this ATB will support the affordable uh housing modular Factory project 1.1 million of that is associated with a reappropriation of unspent balance of a section 108 loan and 56,000 of that is a federal earmark that the city received approval for for an economic development incentive Grant just as a reminder of this project this supports the Assembly of affordable Mo uh modular homes while providing Workforce training to uh Boulder Valley School District students the second category included in our atb1 highlights includes Capital maintenance and infrastructure needs that includes uh some uh uh couple items associated with Fleet electrification we have 1.8 million associated with the electric fire trucks that we anticipate

[99:02] receiving early uh we originally anticipated receiving the fire trucks uh the fire apparatuses in 2025 and we are uh planned to receive the delivery of them this fall and so this additional appropriation will support that uh early delivery of the electric fire apparatuses um I should note that within this 1.8 million uh there is Grant uh dollars that are associated with uh the support of the electric uh fir truck and we're uh excited that we successfully uh secured those grants to support that uh that purchase additionally included within the ATB is 8.1 million to support the conversion of seven hop bus vehicles from diesel to zero emission battery buses and this supports the goal of uh converting the entire fleet to zero emission battery by 2030 uh under our Capital maintenance needs and infrastructure replacement there's a handful of items here I won't go through each line by line but a

[100:01] couple of them are associated with Transportation projects 19th Street and EAS arapo that's primarily due to cost escalation associated with inflation factors particularly post-pandemic period and seeing the inflation and construction projects of existing projects um so that additional appropriation supports those uh those items there are a couple items associated with maintenance and renovation and replacement repairs for facilities of City build of City facilities as well as an annual maintenance and infrastructure transfer to the governmental Capital fund this is a uh annual transfer that we've been uh performing over the past couple of years and utilizing uh one-time uh savings to support one-time planned expenses for items such as uh construction projects uh such as Alpine Balsam at Western City Campus as well as uh Citywide Fleet replacement and uh equipment replacement um items that are needed across the

[101:03] city the next uh category that's included within our ATB includes Cultural Arts and Community programming we have a total of 250,000 included within this ATB to support the paint and restoration work for the dambi tea house by an artist from Tajikistan this funding originates from the facilities and Fleet departments from lease payments that are received by The Tea House a total of 200,000 will support the program extension of experiments and public art program for temporary art installations lectures and Community workshops and 300,000 will support the continuation of the ebike program for 2024 that was onetime funded in 2023 and these vouchers to community members uh will go to community members for bike purchases to expand ebike access as well as encourage ebike adoption across the community and finally the last two

[102:01] slides focus on uh Grant funds uh across the the organization uh we have a total of 8.3 million in arpa reappropriation for programmatic expenses this supports expanded city services such as Behavioral Health Services financial and rental assistance Services as well as economic recovery support the remaining dollars uh associated with arpa are due to be spent by year end of 2024 and uh or sorry uh encumbered or obligated by year end of 2024 and then fully spent by the end of the year in 2026 we have successfully secured grants for several City programs and services across the organization there is a an example list here with Parks and Recreation open space in Mountain Parks as well as police including supporting items such as tree mitigation and forestry services youth education Wetland and rior rip riparian

[103:02] restoration as well as the victim Services Unit and police and then finally we are uh continuing to focus on Grant seeking for high priority initiatives um the the two included here are the high utilizers program to acquire housing for unhoused individual individuals we submitted a a uh $3 million uh Federal earmark request and recently heard word that that is uh approved to move forward in the Appropriations Committee while the application is still pending um on both of these items we are excited that is moving forward in the process and finally the uh there's a Dr Cog Regional Grant uh to support climate action efforts of 200 million um and I want to clarify that would not come directly to the city um but it would support community members um um in the community and finally uh we have included an update to our budget Appropriations ordinance this is within section two of

[104:02] the budget Appropriations ordinance that would shift our uh Grant appropriation for uh multi-year appropriation Authority for grant-funded projects this is similar to how we currently treat capital projects where Grant funded projects will receive multi-year approval from Council for grant funding what this will mean is that all unspent funding will carry forward on a multi-year basis until the grant funding is fully expended or until the grant period ends and staff will continue to bring forward uh for Council approval any new grants that are received uh such as uh new grants received uh midye and we're looking forward to adjusting this uh within the ordinance for uh heightened and enhanced Administration and tracking um of Grants across the organization and with that happy to take any Council questions in the suggested motion languages uh here as

[105:01] well thanks very much for that informative yet sixin presentation questions from uh council members I got Mark let's see if I can Master this thing um first I wanted to thank staff for the extremely substantive reply to that hotline that I sent out um you you really nailed it and and answered everything that I asked and I thank you for that I really have two questions um I'll do them in reverse order um the Dr Cog funds do we have any sense of if it goes through how much of that will directly benefit Boulder that is a good question and uh I actually do not have the answer uh to that of the proportion or the portion that would go directly to support um folder community members but we can look into that yeah you know just be an interesting thing to know and lastly

[106:03] um you you showed a maintenance and infrastructure transfer to government Capital fund of $6 million um under the capital maintenance needs can you explain that a little more so this is a annual maintenance and infrastructure transfer from uh the general fund to the C uh to the governmental Capital fund we've been performing this as best practice to be able to support one-time expenses and utilizing one-time savings uh to transfer over to the governmental Capital fund which supports capital projects across the organization Citywide um we recognize and we've shared uh uh previously the underfunded and uh unfunded Capital maintenance uh needs across the organization and so this is really to help support building that up uh in in terms of Fleet replacement equipment replacement as well as supporting uh capital projects such as our Alpine ballson projects that's on the Alpine ballson project

[107:01] that's on the horizon I I'm just a little confused is maintenance and infrastructure um a a synonym for government Capital fund I mean because if we're transferring it to provide for maintenance uh wouldn't those funds be better left in the maintenance and infrastructure category I think I'm following but um I and maybe maintenance is um M we we do Capital maintenance and some Capital maintenance is funded out of the governmental Capital fund and certainly our infrastructure is funded out of the governmental Capital fund so it's really moving those dollars over to that fund that we tried to um isolate from for those types of expenditures okay thank you turn off your mic if you're not

[108:00] speaking we're getting a little feedback um that was that was that it Mark okay I got Tina and then Matt yeah um I had a question on the grant funding that's being um used for uh Behavioral Services and um of the 8.2 that'll be expended or whatever it was um in the next two a half years if we're expanding services with that or hiring people how does that look from a hiring perspective is it considered a limited term contract until we devote future funding and and I do want to just comment how um consistent staff has been in reminding us that we have a term a limit on those funds um but I'm just kind of wondering how it looks to us in a year and a half and and also what the expectations are when we if we find find out we can't further them or we don't prioritize them or however that is um I will and just to clarify on the question we're speaking

[109:01] about in-house staff city employees or uh contracted it could be either okay um the grant uh funded staff um and car feel fre to chime in on this but the the grant funded staff will um uh uh typically be funded and supported by um ongoing going dollars after the grant uh sunsets um I will uh say that uh to the behavioral health uh program they are uh the the behavior the staff within the behavioral health program um are supported and backed by ongoing dollars and so once the grant period ends they'll continue to be funded um and we've planned for that on a multi-year basis and phased in or phased out the grant funding um so we won't see there's a decision point that there this will be continued over time and it will end abruptly correct correct specifically to the uh specifically to the behavioral health

[110:01] and I will uh let Elizabeth uh crowen our uh housing and Human Services Department deputy director uh add to that if I missed anything am I good please all right hi good evening Council Elizabeth Crow deputy director housing and Human Services Department um for the arpa um strengthening the behavioral health uh support uh category we have a lot of Grants out now that are really designed intentionally to be one-time support so our um the agencies that we have provided to whom we've provided funding are not expecting any more funds um again just considering all of the arpa guidelines and not wanting to fund things that we then would leave them you know kind of holding the bag um that's been intentional that just a couple of examples are um providing some one-time support to Mental Health Partners to

[111:00] really help them work on staff Recruitment and Retention training so that they can have more longer term impacts um some of their Dei or diversity Equity inclusion work um just to strengthen their own staff base um a couple of other examples are supporting the wellness centers that are a fairly new feature at Boulder Valley uh high schools uh that are and Boulder um some support to Clinica um to help with the Medicaid uh Behavioral Health unwind the Medicaid unwind uh covid Public Health Emergency and wine specifically for Behavioral Health Services which has been a huge impact um to that organization and all others so they're really designed again just to be true one-time support um which is not to say there's not extreme ongoing need but that's been the intention hope that's helpful that's perfect thanks so much I'm good man uh one appreciate the presentation

[112:00] and sort of how you responded to this my question really centers around uh the ordinance change um to go multi-year um for when I think that's probably one of the most substant changes we can make in in this capacity and so I appreciate you know FSC and the work of your team to come up with that idea um my question really centers around how would if we had had multi-year ability how would that have changed maybe this ATB um at accuracy would we have seen it down to like maybe the 12 or 14 million Mark or I'm just what would have been sort of a tried if that's even a word um but removed from this particular ATB if multi-year were existing I appreciate the question uh approximately 54% of the the ATB is grant funding so all right appreciate it well thanks for that work and look forward to seeing the impacts of going multi-year sort of making this seem like a little bit more of a reasonable chunk of money to uh be working with two times a year uh thank you MH all right any other questions seeing none we'll go to the public hearing we've got one person

[113:00] signed up to speak which is Lynn seagull signed up virtually do we have Lynn in the meeting Lynn does not appear to be online okay and we're not seeing her in Chambers either so um since she's the only speaker and not present I will go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back to city council for a discussion on the proposed Motion in front of us who would like to get us started I know one of you wants to get started I move we adopt ordinance 8632 you me just just finishing the sentence there okay approving annual supplemental Appropriations to the 2024 budget and setting forth related

[114:04] details second great we got a motion and second Mark did you want to speak to your motion um not in great detail I think these expenditures are are needed and appropriate um and it's a good use of of the funds that are available to us so I'll stand on that m' anybody else yes tasa uh I have no problem with this so I'm a big fan um I'm more so just taking this as an opportunity because there wasn't a comment opportunity it was just if we had questions and so again thank you I agree um with the the grain size of the materials provided it was really helpful and if anything it reminded me um the importance of a fiscal note um for when we're making Council decisions like we can't wait until this conversation to have meaningful

[115:00] conversations about the budget or when audit comes or you know some of these other pieces and so I look forward to that fiscal note and a more rigorous conversation as a council around and staff around the grain size of that um so that it's useful not only for us but also for the public as we are um preparing everyone um for the comprehensive Plan update which is is going to be significant so I just wanted to lift that up um I also wanted to lift up um I know our federal program Federal grant manager is that the right title okay grants man grants manager um has been working on compiling all of our federal grants that we just have a handle on all of them in one place and I just wanted to lift up I'm eager to learn more about that um especially one of the things that you did that um is in my mind from the presentation was the interest to continue to obtain grants and so it would just be helpful um it is not solely the staff's responsibility to go find grants it's everybody's

[116:00] responsibility to do that and I'm again reminded of the opportunities that we had at the National League of cities conference to connect directly with Federal staff around these very grants and so my goal is to go to that meeting next year with my list and be like okay what's missing what's not on the table what are we not taking advantage of and so again just how we um I look forward to that higher level of transparency so that we all have a better understanding of where that goes and to Elizabeth's comment about um the arpa funds and that they're closing and we want didn't want to leave those programs holding the bag but we are leaving those participants and those who receive that with the bag so um although I appreciate that we had tried to design that money knowing that there weren't monies coming back um they're still not going to be receiving those services so I I want to honor that although the design we were very responsible in the design the outcome is still that they're not receiving those services and so I'm just wondering how

[117:01] we can what we can do to fill that Gap in that an wrap I'm still thinking of that joint homelessness conversation as well there were a significant number of programs that were going to end because of arpa um and so again I just look forward to additional conversations around that particular piece um not only for us but also for our partners and most importantly for those who are receiving whatever Services they have so those are just some comments but thank you so much thanks for that TAA and want to say it's a great point about all of our responsibility on the grants as I know periodically I'll get an email that says hey did you know there's this grant program out there and I'm always forwarding it to the relevant director said are you all tracking this about 95% of the time you are because you all are really good at this but it's good for us sometimes people say oh it's a surprise so thanks for that reminder um I'll just call on myself for a quick comment just phenomenal job as always um and a couple things just to call out the as Matt mentioned the multi-year grant appr appropriation I

[118:00] remember my first year on Council that really confused me why are we re what is this it took me a long time to understand that so I think it's helpful for our understanding and it'll just smooth the process forward and make for better tracking so thanks for bringing that forward and then uh I just a couple times a year have to reth than you for taking advantage of our fund balances to make uh onetime expenditures to make sure that the money is getting out the community and improving the lives of our community members you all are doing a phenomenal job with that right now so thank you for that any last comments before we go to vote seeing none uh Elisha if we can do a roll call please with on the motion in front of us yes sir thank you we'll start tonight's roll call on ordinance 8632 with mayor Pro Tim spear yeah and thank you to staff for all the work council member I Wier yes

[119:00] Adams yes Benjamin yes mayor bronet yes council member fards yes Marquis yes and shuart yes ordinance 8632 is hereby adopted unanimously right thanks again for all your great work if we can go to our next public hearing pleas Elicia yes sir thank you next we have item 5B second reading and consideration of a motion to adopt ordinance 8622 amending Title 9 land use code brc1 1981 to simplify certain development review processes and setting forth the related details I'll say mayor as we start this item that nothing makes me more excited than good process Improvement and I realize that that demonstrates a little little bit The Geek that I am but this is a long time coming and before I pass it on to our director of planning and development services I'll say it is so

[120:02] exciting to come before you today with changes that really will change uh I believe the trajectory of what uh development could be in the city to simplify processes in ways that would really make a difference and I am beyond giddy at uh the presentation you're about to see so with that Brad it is yours to say I do like a city manager who gets giddy over process Improvement so it's great Brad uh good evening I I feel like I just got out geeked um so I'll see what I can do with that uh Brad Mueller uh director of planning and development services uh just a little preview before uh Lisa and Carl give the presentation it was over a year ago that I came to you uh in response to some complaints that we had about a uh a per that didn't go well and uh and it represented a trend and to some degree a bit of a legacy um I was very fortunate

[121:01] as I think I've shared with all of you individually and and uh as a body to walk into a position where there had already been a lot of thought about how to make administrative changes some in response to technology like electronic plan review uh some accelerated because of covid some because of um wanting to be and needing to be more more efficient with uh the dollars and resources that we have at the city um but I was privileged to walk into uh a situation where we were continuing to elevate that and move forward on that uh that is not what we're talking about tonight uh I'm looking forward to an update that we can provide you later this year on that but aside from those administrative uh improvements that uh we talked about again over a year ago you asked me the question well in addition to that are there things in the code that uh have implications for the timelines for uh development and development review and and the answer is yes and was yes so uh we appreciated

[122:03] that uh opening the door wide open to be able to go back and then explore opportunities to bring options for you this evening and um having done this work for a while now uh I've have been a frequent receiver of comments throughout the various jurisdictions I've worked about uh Bureau Ry and there's too much bureaucracy and that type of thing but I've learned to make a distinct uh distinction between good bureaucracy and bad bureaucracy um because we do have checks and balances in place and it's important to us as staff and and we know you as Council to recognize that these codes that have evolved over time were done with good intent and with probably good purpose at the time to provide those checks and balances but things uh change and so uh we want to strive towards good bureaucracy bureaucracy is what allowed for Henry Ford to do you know systemi building of cars and things like that I worked for a large organization that um

[123:02] private organization that had a very big bureaucracy um but that uh that can be good or bad and in fact I had uh a person I respect one time say that one person's bureaucracy is another person's quality control and that's really stuck with me and so the things that we have brought forward or bringing forward to this evening are done in a thoughtful way that still acknowledges our responsibility uh certainly as staff but as a city at whole to uh keep those keep reasonable checks and balances and to reflect the city's values as as represented and implemented through the codes and distilled over many years um both through feedback more recently by you as Council but also through other uh very intentional engagement processes so we think we found a balance with the um there's always uh opportunity for discussion around that and and for improvement uh we are committed to monitoring and adjusting so uh this is

[124:01] not a once and done forever but uh we do think that this represents a milestone for a while and are really excited to be able to present this so with that I'll turn it over to Lisa all right good evening I'm Lisa HUD I'm a senior city planner with our Planning and Development Services Department Brad gave a great background but I'm really excited to bring these code updates related to process simplification to you tonight in ordinance 8622 Brad already gave a little bit of an intro but this project U was originally initiated at your 2023 Retreat as he mentioned pnds was uh directed to investigate potential policy or code changes that would make our processes simpler more efficient more predictable and as you know you hear um and staff hears as well uh some challenges with the duration of land use approvals in Boulder we also did some boards and commission analysis last year that noted The increased workloads for those appointed groups so kind of all of

[125:02] those came together um to direct this project again um this this uh work was reinforced in the the most recent Retreat so for 2024 and 2025 in your priority about the economic development plan and program enhancements so focusing on permitting all across the organization not just the land use and development process but um improvements there that address the needs of the local business community and allow the city to have a greater role in supporting a strong and resilient local economy and I think this project is a really good example of kind of the one Bolder philosophy of all of these Frameworks and plans from our strategic plan our comprehensive plan the S framework the sustainab sustainability equity and resilience framework um to even our comprehensive plan uh there's several policies that are supported with this these ordinance changes from built environment and economy policies to

[126:01] local governance all of those combined um as well as our strategic plan from the staff perspective so uh the most recent strategic plan really focused around that s framework and the economically vital part we have a strategy that identify streamlining processes for land use identifying and implementing ways to reduce bureaucracy improve efficiency and facilitate quicker approvals so from Council Retreat priorities comprehensive plan policies and our strategic planning all of these support the changes that are in this ordinance before you tonight I also wanted to note that um this ordinance has a number of changes but there's also been many efforts related to process simplification that we've completed recently from the kind of service Administration side which broad noted um changing to our online phone and inperson um Services Staffing arrangements to pnds this is an ongoing process to improve that administrative side as well as having a number of

[127:02] ordinances that have come before you in the last year or two related to process improvements from the site review criteria becoming more predictable and descriptive to the improvements to the accessory dwelling unit process making that much simpler um the Ed table and standards project which had multiple different ordinances that that made many more uses Allowed by WR and providing more flexibilities on our land use approvals that was really a an a reaction to um some of the challenges businesses were facing during covid more flexibility for housing types in the Zoning for affordable housing project and then also faster permit Times by eliminating the residential growth management system so there's already been a lot of great work done related to process Improvement and this this ordinance reflects um an even more specific uh Target targeted change on those process improvements front so this project um for engagement um we really focused on a consult level

[128:01] of Engagement we wanted to hear targeted engagement with our applicants especially those are the the folks that are most familiar with some of the issues um and and certainly the timing issues with the applications and we also uh focused a lot of engagement on the planning board because a lot of these changes involve um planning board decision and timelines related to them so we talked with planning board back in January we had a few stakeholder meetings with applicants both frequent applicants who are very familiar with the process and also some less familiar with the process to understand both of those perspectives we had Outreach to groups like better Boulder plan Boulder the downtown Boulder partnership and the Chamber of Commerce and then also we've been doing of course the formal public review process uh with public hearings at the planning board in May and here tonight um on at City Council in addition to that engagement um the process of developing this ordinance and the kind of Suite of

[129:01] changes that are involved also started with pretty intensive um issue identification with our internal staff so these are our planners and case managers who uh live and breed these applications every day and they're very familiar um with the common complaints of applicants um and issues that they run into while processing the applications and so we did a lot of brainstorming with them about potential areas of the code that could be improved as well as we did a significant amount of data analysis so we took our online permitting system um and looked at every single application type related to development review and um how many of those applications we do per year how long they're taking uh the median approval time is something we looked out at especially because we're looking at the timeliness of all of these applications so there's some examples of the results of that data and then I know you can't read the bottom one but that just shows how many different types of applications there are um um but really

[130:02] looking at that timeliness was really important to identifying some of the major issues that we wanted to tackle so I mentioned this ordinance is a whole Suite of changes and um everyone's already G geeked out on the CH on this but I was going to say there's there's nothing more thrilling to me than zoning but I know that that's that's not um everyone's cup of tea but especially talking about zoning processes is is kind of a hard cell um but so bear with me while we get a little bit into the weeds because processes are naturally in the weeds but I am going to focus um knowing that I'm going to focus on two of the topics uh planning board call-ups and use reviews most but I do want to make sure to highlight all of the changes so you're aware of everything in the ordinance but we'll focus most on the cops and the and the use reviews as you know any change to the land use code goes to the planning board first they make a recommendation on what the changes should be so we brought this to the planning board in may they had an

[131:00] unanimous recommendation to approve the ordinance they did have one change that they recommended staff had originally recommended changing the number of planning board members that are required to call up an item and they requested that that be or recommended that that be removed and so we did make the change to the ordinance to reflect that planning board recommendation so the one you the ordinance for you uh does not make any change to the planning board uh members that needed to call an item up so that brings us um to the first main topic which is the planning board call-ups you all are familiar with the callup process because you see them on your agenda to call up things every meeting it works similarly for planning board so um planning board has the opportunity to call up staff decisions so staff does the analysis makes the decision they bring it to planning board planning board um determines whether they want to call it up or not call it up if it's not called up then that staff decision is final if it is called up then uh planning board makes the decision after

[132:00] a public hearing um and then any decision of the planning board can be called up by you so that's kind of the process for call-ups um I mentioned we did a lot of data analysis so we looked at all of the planning board call-ups so applications that were brought to planning board potentially for callup between 2018 and 2023 and in those years 174 applications were brought to them for to potentially call up and only six applications were actually called up so that's about 3% of applications ultimately are called up I will note um only one of those had significant changes um from what the original staff decision had been and when we looked at the types of applications that uh were being brought for callup one thing that you might see when you look at that pie chart is that the flood plane permits and Wetland permits take up a vast percentage of these types of applications so that really showed to us that that was something we wanted to Target um there's I think almost 70

[133:00] flood plane and Wetland I think 72 uh flood plane and Wetland permits and only one in the last 5 years was ever called up so that's 1% of applications and all of those applications represent staff time preparing a callup memo planning board time to review those memos so it does all add up and um can take away from staff time working on other applications and the efficiency of other applications you also see that use review is another common application for callup so that's that's another main topic that I'll talk about in a bit we I mentioned we had stakeholder meetings so we got some really good feedback that also informed the changes that are proposed to call-ups what we heard from stakeholders so those are applicants um was that call-ups add significant time to their process and something that we heard from a lot of them was that it adds a a real layer of unpredictability because you don't know um whether it's going to be called up or not and whether that staff decision is going to be final or whether you're on the another path that could be many months longer and so that

[134:00] unpredictability of the callup was a major issue they also noted that from their perspective the callup rarely leads to a different outcome which is sort of validated by that um data that only six of the applications were actually called up when we talked to planning board about this uh they were supportive of removing the callup requirements for flood plane and Wetland permits they were interested in maintaining it for some other applications and then we had a robust discussion about the question of how many board members should be required to call up an item right now the code only requires one planning board member to call up an item talked about one or three or um there were varying opinions among the planning board from that initial um feedback so what's proposed in the ordinance before you tonight is um removing the callup for flood plane and Wetland permits also removing the callup for non-residential use reviews without site changes I'll get into that one more a bit more in the use review topic and then as I mentioned staff had originally recommended um requiring two

[135:01] planning board members to call an item up and then based on planning board's recommendation that was that change was removed from the ordinance I also wanted to note that um in the process of this whole project we also identified not just Pro um issues that could be changed through the code but some additional process improvements that could be done just administrative so we've also talked with staff about process improvements to standardize and increase the efficiency of drafting those callup memos so even for other applications that would still require a call up how can we make that faster so that staff is not um spending an inordinate amount of time preparing these memos um and so that is more to come with this project as well um the anticipated result for these uh callup changes is we think that based on the data from The Last 5 Years we could reduce the number of callup applications by about 40% and for that for our staff that that um represents a significant amount of

[136:00] time and then also for the applicant that makes their process at least two to four weeks shorter Pro probably longer for all of those applications that's kind of a summary of the planning board call-ups next major topic is use reviews so use reviews you're probably familiar with they're a discretionary review process almost every Community has something like them they're called different things in different places they might have heard of them called conditional use permit or use by special Review in Boulder we call them a use review and essentially a use review is an additional layer of review which ensures that the proposed use in that proposed location is appropriate and compatible we have a set of review criteria to ensure that and then also um there can be standards and conditions added to ensure the compatibility and also mitigate any potential impact so use reviews were identified as a major major thing to look at because it is a common application we have about 19 applications per year and one of the

[137:00] things when we were looking at the data that really stuck out to us is that use reviews are taking about 200 days uh for approval so that's almost seven months to get a US review approved through our process um in the last couple of years and um when we dug in deeper we looked at the different types of businesses and uses that are subject to use review to try to understand that that the situation more you can see that in the pie chart that restaurants are a sign significant portion or most one of the most common business that requires a use review you might remember that Council passed an ordinance in November related to the use table project um that specifically targeted neighborhood centers but talked a lot about restaurants and um we think that that ordinance are weex that that ordinance will have a significant impact on a few of these uses so we think that about 85% of restaurants um would not require use

[138:00] review any longer based on the ordinance that was already passed so there's been significant progress like I said through other projects but still restaurants are only 20% of the businesses that um require use review so there's still more work to do for those 80% of other businesses um and that's why we still wanted to tackle the use review issue with this project so um I wanted to walk you through just all of the steps of the use review approval process because I think it really illustrates the different points where additional time can be added to the process and and this is a a helpful way to see how it can kind of add up to 200 days so an applicant a business owner um would submit their application for use review first it gets routed to all the city reviewers so that goes to many different departments planning Landscaping engineering building code open space um they all review the application based on their standards and requirements um best case scenario that can take about three weeks to get

[139:01] through all of those comments um or get through the process but a lot of times it turns into kind of an iterative process where um the applicant is revising their plans to address the comments um and it can take up several months to get through that step of the process and I did want to note that it can be highly variable B variable based on the case and also not all of the time of those 200 days is sitting in the app sitting in the city's Court we looked at the data and about 20% of the time for use reviews as just the applicant revising plans or getting a step that the applicant needs to take so um that's an important part to note too but once they get through all the comments staff has done all their analysis makes the decision then we go into the callup opportunity which I already talked through so gets taken to planning board that can take two to four weeks just to get on an agenda for that call up and then planning board has to decide whether to call it up or not call it up they don't call it up like I mentioned then the staff decision is final if they do call it up it's another 30 days to

[140:01] wait for the the public hearing and then wait again for 30 days for the city council call up opportunity and then finally assuming it's approved um in either circumstance then it's approved there's actually a last step for use reviews so use reviews are required to complete a development agreement which is a legal document between the city and the applicant which basically says that the applicant has to comply with the conditions of their approval and that process can actually take up to 90 days so you can see that all of these different things can kind of turn into pain points that make the process take a long time when we looked at the applications over the last five years kind of the best case scenario applications were taking about 80 days that was the fastest that you could get through all of these steps um but again our median is 7even months so that's where this really Rose as something that we need needed to take a look at to address um that would have a Major Impact we also heard a lot of really helpful feedback from the stakeholders too about some the issues that they were

[141:02] seeing with use reviews so from our stakeholder perspective the use reviews are represent a significant barrier for new businesses especially for tenant changeover and existing structures so the approval time and the high fees they were saying discourages new tenants from coming to Boulder basically um from their perspective the review process rarely added unique conditions at the end um and then they also noted that the development agreement step is unusual for those applicants that work in different communities it's unusual for use reviews um and it adds more time to the process planning board had um kind of we had originally brought forward an idea of what should we do for or perhaps we could have a different process for straightforward use reviews that don't have site changes and we had a good conversation with them about some potential consequences and loopholes if there weren't guard rails put around um how that would be put into place um and then they also had some interest in

[142:00] limiting the development agreement requirements so all of that feedback as well as the data and the internal staff um discussions led to our proposal which is this new minor use review process and it would only apply to non-residential uses in non-residential zoning districts that don't have site changes proposed so that really is like a new business it's intending to support those new businesses going into existing space so that they're not stuck in a seven-month review PR review process um and that we're we're supporting um those new businesses coming in so in order to do that we would remove the callup requirement and then also the development agreement because it's still a use review there'd still be public notice that would go out to neighbors as all use reviews do now and then those use reviews the minor use reviews could also be appealed to the planning board so rather than taking every single use review proactively as a callup to planning board um it would just be those those use reviews that have major issues that would be appealed to planning board

[143:00] to make the decision and then like I said for the planning board call-ups um there's additional process improvements outside of the code that we've identified that could expedite that development agreement process just coordination with the city attorney's office making different templates things like that that we could also speed up that side of the process as well the anticipated result for this change this one's a little bit harder to take the data and figure out because we made all those additional changes to like restaurants and the requirements for um what types of businesses would need use reviews so we're already anticipating fewer use reviews based on those past changes but in looking in The Last 5 Years the use reviews that were required 40% of those we think would have qualified for this minor use review process so that means that 40% of those applications would have this reduced uh um approval timeline so going back to the flowchart I just want to show you graphically so this is the typical use review and then with the changes in the ordinance it would the process would become this um so the potential

[144:01] reduction by skipping just the callup and the development agreement um is potentially six months in the process um by making those changes so it would be a significant Improvement for those applications that qualify for the minor use review all right so those are the two major topics with multiple slides the next ones only have one slide each um so next one is non-residential uses in residential districts um so this is something this is also a use review so same type of application but it has a unique quality in our code that's been in there since the 1980s where instead of going to call up where it's potentially going to be called up and have to go to public hearing it is automatically has to get a public hearing and so that that step adds at least 60 days to the approval process for the scheduling to get an actual public hearing before the planning board it's easier to bring get a call up on an agenda uh we've actually had several recently brought to the planning board and even the planning board has asked us why do we see these as automatic public

[145:00] hearings they've all been approved um so it's already been identified as something that could be changed in the code so the proposed change is to remove that automatic review um there would still be an appeal process or callup could remain um and then there's also a similar change um or a similar language in the code for residential uses in public zoning districts that we saw as an opportunity to eliminate but that hasn't come up much um but the anticipated result is to eliminate based on the last few that have happened in the last couple years a few public hearings at planning board per year so that reflects time saved for the planning board and staff and the at least 60 days for those applicants so much shorter process for applicants with these types of applications the next topic that I want to highlight is our development review extension changes so right now if you got all the way through that process and you have your approval we the code gives you three years to substantially complete the work before it appr before

[146:00] it expires we can extend that staff can extend it by um two six month extensions and then planning board can extend it even further through a public hearing the proposal in the ordinance is to allow to one-year extension so extending the amount of time that staff can um extend the approval and then removing the planning board extension because the major change related to this is replacing the substantially complete requirement with just a requirement to obtain the applicable building permits and start construction within 3 years we also I hadn't mentioned this but uh we looked at a lot of comparable communities there's more info in the um memos about the results of that but having a requirement to substantially complete is very unique to Boulder most communities just have the permit and start of construction and don't run into issues with that um so that's that would be the major change we'd expect with these changes to development review extensions uh we'd expect a reduction in the planning board hearings because they

[147:00] wouldn't have it and reduction in staff time but really we think there'd be a lot fewer extensions requested um because they do not have to substantially complete a project within three years but rather just have to get the permit and start construction and I noted this in the hotline post but we are seeing a significant increase in the request for extens ions as the impacts of the pandemic have impacted construction timelines and the feasibility of finishing a project within 3 years just is getting less and less feasible um so those are the changes related to development review extensions I also want to talk about Minor amendments so another this is another um application related to um site reviews so once a site review is approved the there are three ways that you can change that approval a minor modification a minor Amendment or a site review Amendment and they kind of increase in complexity um as well as level of um of review so minor

[148:00] modification is Administrative minor amendment has a call up um site review amendment is for more complex major changes so the what we found through what we heard through our applicant stakeholders and also internally is that the existing minor Amendment standards were really hard for proposals to meet and so small projects that that would not have much of an impact were actually getting pushed into the full site review Amendment and so that was a major issue that we wanted to identify or we we identify to fix and so the proposal in the ordinance is we change the standards for minor amendments and also minor modifications which is the smaller uh administrative changes to make sure that the small changes are falling into those proper buckets basically and not having to go through the full site review Amendment um which is a a much more um complex long expensive process and making sure that that minor amendment is really doing what it's intended to do which is provide kind of a middle path

[149:01] for um fairly minor changes um but that are one step larger than a minor modification and then we cleaned up some language in the ordinance as well so we think we'll see more with these changes we'd see more minor amendments rather than site review amendments which is good because that reduces the cost significantly for applicants and then Al the staff review time and the appointed appointed board time associated with it final changes as we're in the zoning procedure weeds uh just a few miscellaneous ones that I want to highlight because uh these are minor changes but they add up to a lot of efficiency and flexibility which is the intent of the project so related to subdivisions we've removed a current requirement for planning board notification of lot line eliminations related to um substitution of use and non-conforming uses there's some interet related language that we've just cleaned up um that would make uh impact some administrative reviews uh

[150:01] related to City Council call-ups in particular right now you may have noticed on your agenda you see every so often vacations of utility and drainage easements and the proposal is to remove that city council callup and make that just an administrative um application reviewed by staff we've also included a new alternative parking standard option for parkings for parking for unlisted uses so uses that are not in the use table uh there was kind of just a missing piece of flexibility for those types of uses that we've put into the code and then related to both solar exceptions and solar fences we have some minor tweaks that would increase flexibility and remove potential barriers that we were seeing related to our solar regulations and then the final one is adding some procedural flexibility for for multiple buildings in our rl2 zoning district and so all of these changes are Incorporated in the ordinance and we think that with those changes they we

[151:00] can reallocate staff time that's currently spent on these these items um and that can increase the efficiency of other applications by using that time for um other other work it also provides flexibility for applicants all of these changes are um would be improvements on the applicant side as well so we've made it all the way through and I just have a suggested motion but I'm happy to take any questions I know that's and I do have this summary slide to remind you of all the topics if it's helpful all right Lisa thanks so much for all that lots of information packed full so um appreciate all that uh questions for City staff Tina then Matt yeah could you just share a couple of examples of non-residential uses in residential zoning districts sure so only a few um non-residential uses are allowed in residential districts and almost all of them are only allowed through use review so it things like Offices Medical

[152:00] Offices we have um several planned unit developments that were approved in the past that are office complexes basically but they happen to be in residential districts and so those were the ones that were triggering that required public hearing okay thank you and then is there anything that during this application process like how was the quality of the input of the applications from the applicants is it usually pretty high that's a great question so with use reviews it's often um business owners that don't interact with the city don't ask for permits you know multiple times a year it might be their only time that they interface with the with the city government and so they aren't the season applicants that know all of the steps and all of the requirements and so I would say that um those use review applications especially as we're trying to bring them in for new businesses can be um it can be a little bit more

[153:00] challenging to get all of the application requirements just right in the way that um applicants who go through the process many times a year are able to kind of package their application does that answer your question it does I just how what kind of supports do we offer to new business owners or people who aren't as familiar with our landscape yeah we have um I mean we have a a full Suite of customer service uh through our inquire Boulder system and also we have our booking we have bookings and hub I know Brad would probably explain this much better than me but um we have many staff who are devoted to helping people through their application process um and helping them get their submitt uh complete and so lots of people are working every day to help with that and then I think there's additional assistance with Community vitality and things other programs of the city outside of planning and development services that help with new businesses as well we also have pre-application which is cost-free to applicants to submit questions to staff and if necessary we actually meet with

[154:01] them to go over the process and next steps okay thank you and um and I I really appreciate the way you talked about the timeline it gives me personally um a lot to think about you know that when we call something up it really is quite impactful and it's just um I the way this was framed was great and it would be a great part of our training as new Council people just to be very thoughtful about the impact we have on new businesses coming into our community and um call-ups are not really the Welcome Wagon necessarily so thank you got Matt then Nicole Welcome Wagon I like that um my question has to do with sort of in the use review and the proposed changes under the minor use review process um could you explain to me the planning board appeal process and and how that would how would that uh go about um in this sure you mean that like the member

[155:00] of the public appeal well just says uh can be appealed to planning board and so what what is what is that particular process sure so the code says that any interested person so anybody can appeal a decision of staff to the planning board um and so and then once that happens the process is essentially the same as if a member of the planning board had called the item up so it's brought to the planning board for a public hearing we schedule the public hearing and then planning board makes the decision and then from there it's it's essentially identical to the call up process um so my followup is is that written in ordinance or our Charter it's written in the ordinance it's written in the ordinance and how often does that happen it's really infrequent okay okay I think we've had I know of one in the last few years so yeah it's not it's not used very often appreciate it thank you Nicole thank you than for the presentation um I just had a quick question about um the planning board's

[156:01] desire to have just um one planning board member be able to do a call up um do you have any sense of whether it were two would it make a difference at all in that two to four weight timeline that you're estimating it will take yeah that's a great question so we like I mentioned with the data we've only saw six applications actually get called up and that's with the threshold of one planning board member oh oh mic M turn sorry mining um so with with just one planning board member um we only saw six of those applications get called up so it's not a major issue like um having you know a ton of call-ups for um no reason but also the planning board changes so that's the planning board that we've had in the last 5 years they haven't exercised the right their right to call up every single application U that doesn't mean that it wouldn't happen again but um the

[157:01] original staff rationale for why we recommended the change to two planning board members is that with the typical Roberts Rules of Order for anything to happen you have to have a motion in a second and so we just thought it was logical that for for them to call something up you would have to have a motion in a second and for Council to call something up you have to have a majority um so the proposal was to kind of align it with the Roberts Rules of Order with two and um they did not support that change so they made a different recommendation thank you so much Tara did you have your hand up Tara you're M yeah there you go I'm not on all the cylinders right now um I did have my hand up so should we want reinstitute too and go back with your go back with your uh suggestion is that something that we can do

[158:00] absolutely okay Ryan it's a colloquy on this one um I'm trying to just understand the logic then from planning board's perspective and I'm wondering if if if part of the the reason to have it for them to ask for it to be just one is it because that would put that would sort of be in congruous with a member of the public can also just be one and shouldn't the planning board have some greater difference or I don't know could you could you speak to that yeah that was part of their conversation was that if a a single member of the public can appeal an item um then it would then from their perspective it would make sense that a single member of the planning board would able would be able to call that item up thank you and so would it be a a large monkey wrench to ask to consider we talk about one planning board member and zero eliminating the option of the interested members of the public a monkey wrench um I think that it's not something that

[159:00] we focused on with our public engagement and I would say that that's probably a significant um change to the public engagement Pro the public part of this process um that we'd want to do you know more engagement and kind of highlight that change more than we have because we we didn't identify the appeal process was something that was uh a barrier or slowing down the process or anything like that so that's not something we focused on in this project um so I would say that at this point that change um we'd probably want to hear more from the public about that change because it impacts their ability to um exercise their opinion in those these applications thanks and I have a separate topic but if it's on this happy to Lauren you have a call yeah so so if the member member of the public brings that up for appeal you would have that delay and if

[160:00] there isn't a single member of the planning board who is interested in that hearing then you're essentially just creating that delay with no hope of any alteration in the outcome is that true well it it gives the opportunity for a public hearing and so um by that the member of the public raising it for a public hearing um then that gives the opportunity to hear from others from the public like it might not just be that one person and so the planning board would be able to hear the more of the community perspective and I will note that Boulder is fairly rare um or unique and a lot of these applications would actually all come for public Hearing in other communities um so the fact that we um just bring it as call up or something like that is somewhat um more flexible and so um still having that I think it's important to still have that opportunity for people to appeal what about the potential of

[161:00] having like again because I I understand planning board's concern about want not wanting to be like disempowered below like a random Community member showing up to a meeting so what about raising the level the required number of community m members to request an appeal to two to sort of match the number of planning board members if that if we chose to go that direction yeah there's certainly a number of ways that you could do that other communities also have um like requirements for who can who can appeal like it has to be an applicant or someone that lives within a certain distance or you know ours is fairly open that it's any member of the public and so there are other examples that um you could take to add some guard rails into to who that appeal is but one thing also to keep in mind is that the applicant can be one of those members of the public so increasing it to two people when it might just be a single applicant who wants to appeal could be a hindrance

[162:00] for that one person that is an applicant but they would also have a opportunity to petition the planning board members is that correct CH to to get them to call something up potentially if they want wanted right the applicant could yeah okay thank you I guess I'll just ask so that this is an interesting thing that we hadn't talked about before but um so here your point about public engagement do you feel like if we ra were're potentially interested in raising the threshold from one to two for a member of the public do you feel like that's something that might would require public engagement as well or is that more of a targeted change I think that would be more of a targeted change I think totally eliminating the public right to would be a pretty major change okay that makes sense thanks Ryan you had another question thank you mayor um I'm just curious totally shifting gears um thinking about the overall scope of this

[163:01] um how much bigger is the set of things that you may have looked at that's potentially on the horizon or might be available for future consideration I'm just wondering is did you look at a lot more stuff than just this or is this really kind of the most of the universe of what you considered yeah I would say that this this represents a lot of our most frequent applications one of the one of the items that's not represented here is our site review process but we just uh did a major update to the site review criteria and so we're hopeful that that will have major um M or will reduce the timelines for that and so we're kind of you know making in incremental changes to that process to see how that goes before making changes but otherwise this represents the major pain points for both staff and stakeholders that we heard and um and does cover the vast majority of our application types thank you and then to followup and I'm sorry if I missed this but then does this represent a a finality an an end to this to this

[164:01] process or are there additional phases of looking at um improve process improvements I think B um to what Brad said at the beginning I think this is a continuous and ongoing to always be working on processes and uh one example that we did recently was the updates to the accessory dwelling unit process where after a couple years after changes we looked at the data and everything and tried to see what the impact of those code changes had been so we did talk about this with planning board about coming back in a couple years and and look doing some analysis of okay we made those changes what happened what other opportunities might there be so I think continuous process Improvement is something we're always going to be working towards we happen to have had specific direction to make these code changes now but we're always thinking of ways we can improve okay great I think that's it thanks for all this and excited to continue to continue the the work thanks very good any other Les yeah got TAA Mark did you have one too okay TAA um thank you so I had uh you

[165:00] actually um Ryan made me think of something that I almost just forgot what were you [Laughter] talk um continuous process improvements yes thank you yes tell you it's almost n o'cl um so I I know Brad I remember during our Council Retreat we had a conversation about code changes as a result of the update to the comprehensive plan and so I was just kind of wondering from that perspective like what what's the intersection there as far as you know is that another kind of opportunity to do some more structural changes um based off of the results of that plan or yeah just was curious about that intersection thank you yeah thank you uh council member Adams um I think there's a couple different answers to that one is we will always uh be on the lookout for uh monitoring

[166:01] adjusted uh as we just referenced um my recollection of that conversation was the comprehensive plan being the vision document the goal document and the way we Implement that is through codes and through the CIP budget and other things like that um my hope would be if there's a policy shift through the comprehensive plan or before that in other policy undertakings that Council may make um that we are really strategic in thinking about what the practical application is in implementing it through code so in other words that we now do it through the lens of okay there's a code that's needed to make this policy happen maybe that's without dispute but there six different ways we could do it and which of those has the least impact to the public which one is most Equitable which one is most uh intuitive which one is least cost implicating so um that that's

[167:03] really the uh expectation of how I would see us moving forward and being uh I think uh Carl and Lisa and the rest of the team have done a really good job of giving us a framework to start thinking about when we are bringing new codes forward and the lens with which we give that uh consideration okay is that it was it okay you have a call no okay Mark and then Marlin just one one quick question um with so many processes being moved online um does there remain any sort of walk-in capability um you know office hours where you can go in um sit for 15 minutes and and get a simple question answered uh I I'll go ahead and take that thank you uh council member wallik um that really gets to the first set of things I alluded to as far as administrative improvements that's been a longer row

[168:00] and and continuous Improvement uh we are scheduled to bring you an overview of that in the future but a short response to that is that we've had walk-in capability for over a year now two years now actually um that took a while to socialize a lot of people didn't know that and we also learned that um some of the communication about that could be improved so we've done that since okay um but it is a but I want to be uh clear too that it is a shift in terms of the model the model was there's always somebody there to answer every question of every complexity um what are the studies that took place four and five years ago found is we had a lot of expensive people sitting around uh answering that one question that would come in or conversely we had people who were expected staff who were expected to know everything about everything and it turns out that's impossible so they would get incomplete answers or wrong answers or things like that so that's why there was a big shift in the model and what really drove that home for me

[169:02] uh council member is uh the recollection that I used to be able to go into a bank and meet with the non-t teller staff for a new checking account or whatever and you'd kind of just walk in and do that and I discovered here postco that the world doesn't work that way anymore you have to make an appointment um and that's very similar to our model right now um people can call in uh and get routed to a generally fairly quick answer people can use inquire Boulder which is basically a web-based or the email equivalent of that uh people can visit the the service Hub uh we're going to do a lot of handson helping them uh get to the right right resource to make an application or answer a question um but sometimes it is an appointment and we have those available with no more than a week uh time and and at times people um you know a variety of times that people can pick from so we'll

[170:00] elaborate on this a lot more uh when we come forward with an overview of all that but that's kind of the short version thank you yeah laen thank you first I wanted to kind of follow up with some of the questions mark was asking um one of the things Brad when you come back that would be great to know is um what kind of the utilization of the walk-in Services is looking like um I know that you've said you've sort of stepped up communication about how that works I haven't seen that in my professional life so I question how what the reach of that has been and whether people really are aware of the changes yeah we we'll be happy to bring that forward I I will just very quickly note that um in some cases it is level or even less because we're seeing successful diversion where people are

[171:01] able to say oh okay I got the answer this other way thank you and that was better than me coming in so but we've we've got statistics and all that that we'll share with you okay and and including the pinch Point still we we are still working on it to be sure okay I mean we just get quite a few comments saying yeah we would love Walkin services and being able to talk to a real human being and yeah I understand um and then my other question was related to the hotline Aaron put out about um nonresidential um let's see the allowing non-residential in residential zoning districts and um and I was just interested in having staff um respond to that I know we got a community concern around um noise and

[172:00] being needing to be able to monitor those kinds of things and if you could just speak to that that would be great sure so that's in relation to that minor use review process and as I mentioned we talked to planning board about it we brought a initial recommendation or kind of a thought like how could we approach these straightforward use review applications that are going into existing spaces they're not having any site changes maybe it's a restaurant going into a retail space you wouldn't even know from the outside um and they were concerned that we do have some districts that have um requirements like for ground four ground floor non-residential uses and so we kind of talked through some scenarios where that could be kind of used as a loophole for people to get spaces um in originally with the the main use review and then use the use review process to kind of change the use and so we thought through that and then um in thinking through that we added some limitations to the minor use review so and thinking about the the overall goal is kind of that tenant change out and so focused it on

[173:02] non-residential uses the non-residential zoning districts and then the no site changes and the idea with the non-residential zoning districts is that right now we're at a we're at a a um a spot in the code where a non-residential use in a res residential zoning District automatically requires the public hearing so that's kind of the highest threshold for a use review and so the changes that we're proposing would remove that automatic use review and so it's taking it kind of like one step down so the thought process was that it was incremental changes so we rather than going all the way to uh minor use review in residential zoning districts it would be one step more flexible but I think um based on the hotline discussion I think that we do have that limitation where it has to go into existing non-residential space and it and remember that it is still a use review and so there's still the criteria about compatibility and all of the more detailed level of review that staff would be doing with the minor use review

[174:01] and can put standards and conditions and there's neighborhood notification so they would neighbors would not it would be notified and be able to contact staff with any concerns um so I think that with that with that limitation that it's going into existing non-residential space there probably wouldn't be major issu but it is um something to consider that it's kind of a larger incremental step than the original proposal and I'll just add um relative to the public comment we received it's still a use review application that has public notice so if there were concerns about noise or other impacts the person could uh still appeal that application to planning board thanks for that answer all right I'm not seeing any other questions so why don't we go ahead and go to the public hearing we've got three people signed up to speak to in person and one virtual each of you will get three minutes to speak and our inperson

[175:01] speakers are Jonathan singer and Lynn seagull Jonathan come on down thank you mayor uh members of council I'm Jonathan singer senior director of policy programs at the boulder chamber uh before I begin I just wanted to thank Carl Lisa Brad and the entire planning and development services staff for truly Yan's work that they put together you saw in the presentation um almost no stone was left unturned this was serious in-depth work with a high degree of Engagement and we genuinely genuinely appreciate the work the second thing I want to point out is hopefully all of you received letters from downtown Boulder partnership as well as a better Boulder I will not repeat their comments because those comments are reflected in the record there but uh the boulder chamber fully supports those comments as well um there's always ample 30

[176:01] at night um but my hope is is that if there's one message here it's thank you for the work that you've done if there's two messages here it's keep going keep going um there there are additional processes where we can look at small projects to to get rid of certain reasons to do things unless there's a public safety issue um we can look at moving um certain inconsistencies for example one group brought up there was a fire department regulation conflicting with the utilities regulation staff should be able to be more Hands-On to help applicants figure those things out not put those the onus on the applicants and um when we talk about or when you talk about having more of that face-to-face contact we would love to see that we appreciate what's happening right now but we would love to see that and just a response to the callup procedure whether it's one whether it's two I I hope the council also considers

[177:00] uh criteria you know what are the criteria on the callup is it it would just be interesting to talk about if so 30 at night on a Thursday night when the Boston Celtics are playing the finals is not the best time for that but maybe it is important to take a look at those things in context whether it's one or whether it's to I think the what and the how are incredibly important to consider um I also once again just want to effusively thank Planning Development staff for the process improvements that they've engaged in without what we're seeing here today um the speed at which things are getting processed greatly improved uh if you weren't at the downtown Boulder Partnerships uh Town Hall that they hosted just about a month ago we had one Community member said somebody cares somebody cares that somebody is a lot of people actually in this room right now and so I I want to thank once again the staff for that faith without function doesn't work function without faith doesn't work

[178:02] there's function and faith will follow and that will create an efficient s service system that will respond to the needs of our entire community so thank you please support this and I look forward to the conversation thank you our other person speaker is ly seagull and form follows function what we need in Boulder in response to use review profile going faster is to leverage this with reasonable growth we are far away from reasonable growth in boulders that's why we have this problem so I've counted 20 different

[179:01] major high volume units of rental apartment buildings going up all around town I I generally support what what's your name again Lisa right what Lisa is doing love Lisa good work however she's just doing her job and you're the ones that direct her and we need to stop already this is ridiculous you weren't around Matt when East Point you know like got redeveloped into unaffordable housing and what the contrast that we have now is so extreme in the wealth Des sparity of this community and that is a poor reflection on Boulder I mean pretty soon you know with Open Studios with our Gallery being

[180:02] closed I have to commute out to what IW watch if I want to go to an art thing you know there's the I'm out commuting now for what should be in my community in the 15minute neighborhoods that Lisa is working on right so like I agree with what Lis is doing basically but it needs to be tempered with these 20 developments of multi-unit you know the Geological Society like just bigger more four levels everywhere I go I'm in the shade now but not for the right reasons on my bike right the shade from all the buildings so please do the right thing manage the population make this community

[181:02] Thrive the real way not Thrive vegan restaurant with eight high-end condos across from Boulder high it's every corner we're looking at you'll open your eyes I know because I go to planning board meetings and I know there's three going out there's one across from king supers and Gun Barrel there's two more at at Celestial Seasons there's the GSA every as far as the I time's up but thank you and our one virtual speaker is Elizabeth Patterson good evening I'm Elizabeth Patterson executive director for better Boulder better Boulder supports approving this ordinance we recognize the outstanding

[182:00] work of Brad Carl and Lisa and all of their team speaking for an organization that submits recommendations regularly to council a streamlined consistent and easily navigable process has been on the top of our wish list for years we see real progress towards the goal of timely resolution of issues and removal of impediments that delay the much needed housing for which we Advocate there's a lot to like here we look forward to reduced use review for commercial and housing projects increased speed and predictable timing will reap tangible benefits for residents and businesses and will help avoid caring costs for long lead times better Boulder does support requiring two planning board members to initiate a call up we submitted a detailed letter earlier today which included a look at Future changes which we will Circle back on but tonight we

[183:01] are happily asking for the approval of the ordinance thanks for this and for all you do and have a good night thank you all right I'm going to close the public hearing bring it back to city council I'll just make a note to my colleagues that we are a bit behind on our schedule so I'm hoping our remaining discussions can be pretty um efficient so what I'm going to suggest for this is I know I had put a possible change out on the hotline people might have one or two others perhaps maybe we can move through those proposed changes straw poll to see if they have support and then go towards a vote on the ordinance of a whole does that work out okay and if people don't mind since I had mine out on hotline last night maybe I can start there um Lauren referenced it in her question so just briefly the the existing proposal is create to create these minor use reviews in the specific circumstance where applications meet all the following criteria that it's a non-residential use replacing

[184:02] existing non-residential space with no site changes and in a zoning District that is not residential and my proposal is just to remove that last criteria so that if it met those first three criteria that it could be in a zoning District that's residential or non-residential and just briefly the reason for that is just to incre increase flexibility and timing for our small businesses I did hear a story of a beauty salon that wanted to locate where a chiropractor had been in a residential district and decided to just not even apply because they didn't want to go through the expense and the time of the full use review um and then we did hear pera's question that there are only very limited uses that are allowed in residential zones that are non-residential so their guard rails there as well so that's my pitch um people are welcome to add a comment or I can just go to a straw pole okay so not seeing any and um Nicole and terara do you mind coming on camera great thanks that I can see your hand so um all in favor of this proposed

[185:02] change I got looks like unanimous okay so we'll move forward with that one um thanks for the consideration any anyone else want to offer a suggestion yes Lauren I really appreciate staff's recommendation to align um planning board procedure more with Robert's Rules of Order um by requiring two planning board members to um call up an item and I think it would make sense to align the um sort of interested person's appeal process to be the same and require two um community members for that appeals process as well so suggestion to increase both the number of planning board members the number of interested parties to two from the current one um any comments or question or yeah I have a question on that um since the

[186:00] applicant could be one of those individuals I'm wondering do we want to create an ex an exemption just that the applicant could only the applicant could then singly appeal without a second because it would just seem a little odd that the applicant would have to go shop in the community for someone to join them when the applicant is sort of uniquely impacted by the decision and I so I mean and the fact that the appan is even considered just any other person in this process is odd to begin with unto itself so seems like we would be correcting the original wrong more or less so I'm just wondering if you'd be open to that so that they're not having a shop for some random person do you mind have a thought on that I I would just say Matt to maybe keep things simpler an applicant is very rarely one individual but um often either a couple or a small business or it seems like it would be very likely that they'd be able to grab another person to chim in on that could I jump in there the ordinance actually calls out applicant separately from interested person so applicant can do it on their own even if you move to

[187:01] two interested persons your idea was so good it was already implemented um if any other things to say on that if not we can straw pull it all in favor of that proposal I got anous very good anything else not seeing anything else maybe somebody would like to put a motion on table Lauren I'd like to make a motion to adopt ordinance 862 amending Title 9 land use 8622 8622 I'm a little dyslexic sorry um Title 9 land use code BRC 1981 to simplify certain development review processes and changing the number of planning board members from one to two for a call up and changing the number of

[188:00] interested persons to appeal from one to two where referenced in Title 9 changing 9-2-1 15i to remove proposed in a zoning District other than a residential district from the first sentence and setting forth related details can I offer one small change that it be a motion to amend and pass on second reading versus adopt because this will kick it over to third reading do I have to read it all again no if you'd like to accept that I would like to accept that modification I'll second that would you like to speak to your motion Lauren I really appreciate all these changes that staff brought forward I um love how into the details you got on this and um like has been mentioned by others

[189:03] um we sort of Welcome this and also continued feedback about how we can continue to make these processes more straightforward so that we get the outcomes that we want for our community um and don't create unnecessary burden so thank you for that and thank you for colleagues for being interested in making some last minute amendments to this I think they're all really great well I'll call on myself as a seconder and Echo that and just to say staff this is extraordinary work just absolutely top-notch I mean we're maybe what a year and a half into this discovery of improvements and you brought us two full Suites ahead of time um and the use review changes um or the use table changes and then this one when I got it I was amazed by the amount of detail and the depth of thinking that had gone into this and how you really did find every nooking cranny where we

[190:00] could improve the process and improve applicant situations and affordability and timeline but only in ways that still retain the safeguards on incompatible uses and negative outcomes so we're leaving more in staff's hands but your hands are very very able and I trust that for example the minor use review process that you'll go through the criteria and make sure that people adhere to them carefully so in part we're trusting your amazing work um because it is so high quality but um as Nuri mentioned earlier I am also giddy with excitement I sense shared giddiness all around um so just just thank you so much for this and you know continue as you know you know you're I know you're doing this to look for other opportunities but this is a huge positive step forward so just really grateful U for all the work anybody else all right seeing none uh let's have a roll call vote please yes sir thank you we'll start the roll call for

[191:01] ordinance 8622 with council member Walling yes Wier a very excited yes Adams yes Benjamin yes mayor Brockett yes council member Furs yes Marquis yes shoe hard yes and mayor Pro Tim spear yes ordinance 8622 is hereby amended and passed as amended and held over for third reading all right thanks again everyone all right Elicia can we go to our item 8A please yes sir our and item eight are uh Matters from this mayor and members of council item 8A is the national civic league

[192:00] better public meetings recommendation discussion okay I think we're going to start with Matt here as this is a matter from mayor members Council and I know you've been working hard on this m appreciate it and thanks for uh terara joining us virtually on this um uh this is some work that um as we've reported to council before was really sort of sparked by a partnership with the national civic league um and the center for democracy Innovation and through that Grant and partnership we really looked at and you'll see it in the memo we really looked at ways in which we can improve our engagement directly with Council really stemming from what we've heard as regular concerns if not outright complaints that when we hear from community in this setting we're hearing from community at the 11th Hour moments before we make a decision and that sometimes or oftentimes Community feels like that decision has is that process is per for pro proforma and not um in the interest of wanting to hear

[193:00] from Community because in large part the decision's already been made and so in response to that sort of understanding from Community um we've been working with this process with the national civic league to S figure out how can we do better engagement and how can we work with community in a way um further um Upstream of those decisions in order to make sure that even if a decision doesn't go a particular Community member's way that they can come out of that still feeling heard and validated and that's really critical um when things go particular groups way of course they feel like the process worked for them but when it doesn't go their way they feel like the process maybe failed them and so we want to make sure that we can do better and that's really the core of this work and in particular where we came to this sort of community study session pilot so um that's really sort of an overview of how we got here and and I'll turn it over to um Ryan to sort of go through the nuts and bolts of that and certainly um you know Council if there's uh any questions you have myself and ter can certainly answer how we arrived at some of those decisions through your input as well as Ryan and so take it away well if you can hold one

[194:01] second thanks for that Matt well explained just we do have our 9ish uh time checkin so just a reminder to everybody we are a little bit behind schedule this is scheduled for 60 minutes maybe we could get it done faster we'll see and with that Ryan I'll turn it over to you thing thank thank you so much uh thank you Council and good evening my name is Ryan Hansen heem and I serve the people of Boulder as Community engagement manager and I'm honored to serve this uh subcommittee the Council subcommittee on a engagement and a welcoming Council environment and bringing this recommendation forward this morning so thank you Matt uh for for that framing um if we can pull up the slides we'll have a bit on our agenda coming up were you rning all

[195:10] right beautiful thank you um on to the next slide just a bit about our agenda um want to make sure we begin with the council input that's requested uh this evening share a brief uh bit of background before we get into the objectives and overview of the pilot we'll turn to council questions and discussion uh before we come back to that Council input requested thank you and next slide uh reflecting meaningful Community engagement practices I want to make sure we begin with the input that's requested U of council this evening first does council agree that we should move forward uh with this pilot of community St sessions this fall and if yes does council have additional feedback on this topic elements or procedures the next slide please just want to ground us a bit in the city's

[196:00] approach to community engagement and share a little context before diving into the recommendation and reaffirming that the city of Boulder recognizes that local government makes better decisions and creates more responsive programs and services when the community it serves has a meaningful voice and to support this approach to City strengthening a culture of meaningful engagement that is inclusive consistent transparent our community next slide please and please know that you know as as council member Benjamin mentioned these recommendations really reflect our partnership uh with the ntl center for democracy Innovation and the better public meetings project and we've been working together with them last fall and uh the final report is up on on the city's website and this really focuses on two of their highest recommendations being heard uh and transparency of decision-making as well as interactions with elected officials at Council meetings and public

[197:03] comment on the next slide please um you recall we shared a high level um overview of of this uh proposal at the council Retreat and we're bringing further details tonight so starting with the objectives right we want to make sure that this is increasing opportunity for Meaningful engagement by responding to community desire to engage on Council decisions sooner in the decision-making process and we want to strengthen that decision-making process by hearing diverse Community perspectives from individuals and organizations who share valuable input with Council that may shape uh those projects and outcomes next slide we dive a bit deeper and look at Community participants and the council subcommittee and staff recommend 10 Community participants uh that would be selected through a random Lottery we wanted to be sure to have specific

[198:00] Outreach to communities and organizations who are most impacted by this topic um and we having a a robust communication uh plan in place we can make sure to you know increase the invitations of folks to participate in this uh I think there's also the opportunity for um you know given the topic uh for Community connectors and residents to give feedback ahead of time and could be included in the staff presentation uh the sign up would look similar to open comment and public hearing and then you'll see a number of specific prompts uh up on the screen that we really uh encourage to to channel uh Community input into kind of the the most uh productive and uh most on point uh uh few back and so these these touch on lived experience touch on clarifying questions recommendations they have or things for Council just consider during decision making process on the next slide please we'll

[199:00] look at recommended implementation um subcommittee and and staff recommend let's look at one Community study session uh this year we do have that support from the national civic league uh continuing through the end of this calendar year so tentatively looking at a fall study session with additional sessions uh could be planned for 2025 we do recommend that these would be in-person sessions uh which be different than current uh study sessions where Council and community and staff could be seated on the same physical level uh and have a a bit of a better position uh to begin that dialogue together and then we want to make sure that we're doing a thorough evaluation of of the pilot and so would look to hear council's uh perspective on on the sessions as well as commity participants on the sessions and then also mentioning that budgetary imp impacts uh to the city organization are minimal um this this would require staff time and we believe

[200:00] that can be included into existing work plans on the next slide please we have uh recommended topic uh the the subcommittee and staff do recommend one topic per study session this would be a change from from two uh to give a bit more time for that dialogue uh back and forth and thinking about ideal topics you know would really be early in that Council decision-making process uh would have a high level of of interest of of community and still be accessible uh enough of a topic um one that is under consideration is really looking at a recommendation to have economic development plan uh be a topic that is tedly scheduled for September uh this year and really aligning with some of the existing Council priorities as well as the above criteria and the next slide please a bit about the the recommended format we wanted to make sure to begin um with a suspension of council meeting rules

[201:00] because it'd be different than an ordinary study session um CAO would provide that language necessary we want to give a bit of context about the agenda and in the process and then really opening it up for Community participants to share a bit about their lived experience and Council ask clarifying questions we'd have the staff presentation of topic as usual uh with 30 minutes there before we dive into Community uh participant questions curiosity uh things that are coming up for for them again we have those specific prompts uh to guide that input opening up for clarifying questions uh from Council to staff and then continuing with comments both from Community participants and Council before we move to closing making sure to summarize and talk through some of those next steps and moving on to to the next slide I'm I'm thrilled that we have our our colleague and our partner in this work um NC Laos who has joined us from the

[202:01] national Civic Le Center for democracy Innovation and wanted to share a few thoughts um on the their perspective on this specific proposal so Nick I'll turn over to you thank you for being here great thanks for having me apologies for for the uh delay uh it seems that my internet connection might be a little bit shaky so do let me know if if you're not hearing me um so I'm Nick flos I'm the deputy director at the center for democracy Innovation at the national civic league I work very closely with with folks that you're you're familiar with uh Bonita Duran and Matt lier calling in from Denver uh in preparation of the All America cities Awards and so congrats by the way for being a finalist and I'm sure I'll see several of you uh uh starting tomorrow so so our team has been working on on the Democracy Innovations for better public meetings project for several months and we've provided several recommendations to the council to consider we're delighted to see the current proposal on the table uh for

[203:00] official consideration I'd like to give a shout out to the council members and staff that we've been working closely with uh who've been a delight to interact with and champion in this work to engage the public in innovative ways which includes but not limited to Rachel friend Matt Benjamin Tara Wier Sarah R Ryan Hansen and of course other members of the community that we've engaged with over the course of several months we started this project with a goal in mind uh which is to help communities establish new ways to build relationships with constituents and community members by working specifically on opportunities to engage the public during official meetings so in the Democracy Innovation world this Niche world that I'm a part of there are really interesting things that are taking place but none of which that involve public public interactions with elected officials during official meetings so outside of these meetings absolutely but within actual legislative processes no so this makes the project unique one especially in UN in the

[204:00] United States it's somewhat Uncharted Territory so to see the current measured proposal before us seek open study sessions to public participation I think marks a milestone and a great opportunity for not only the community but for us to and even the world uh I mean I constantly write about this and amplify this work and so uh I'll be sure to be sharing this with with the broader community and practitioners in this space so to our knowledge we haven't come across other cities Beyond this project that have attempted to make an official meeting more participatory during actual sessions so this is just a congrats for myself and we hope to continue to support the work going forward thank you thank you thank you so much Nick for for being here and and for sharing uh perspective um we yeah we appreciate your your feedback and and thoughts there on the next slide we'll come come back to the input requested of council uh and I'll turn it back to council member Benjamin uh for Council questions and discussion

[205:01] thank you are we back to Matt did you say or maybe that is back to Mayor Brackett to facilitate the council questions and discussion okay no I thought you were me Matt had additional things through here we'll go to questions Council questions for Ryan Matt Nick or anyone else and Nick by the way thank you for joining us really appreciate your input and having you here TAA thank you so much I did have a question again these are questions not comments right I'm getting better this is questions all right um so I was curious um if the um if and in what ways the community connectors informed the this work uh particularly the proposed pilot um again it's great to have

[206:00] National Partners um some of whom actually live in our community and I'm more much more interested in community-led Community Driven so I'm curious about um just the level of community engagement in this pilot proposal um so that's one question the other was outside of Community Connector specifically at the um feedback session that we had in East Boulder the feedback session we had in East Boulder okay because some people looking at me like I don't know what you're talking about like um I know you remember because you were there and you're presenting um and so one of the things that came up in that conversation was um or rather that was clarified was the scope of this project focused on those who already come to meetings but weren't necessarily um as engaged or involved in the meetings this is something that was raised at that meeting um and that there was an interest to make sure that we are

[207:01] also engaging people who typically don't come to the meeting at all and so I was curious um to that point if there was any additional Outreach made with those constituent groups and representatives to ensure that those voices of people who don't partic bate at all um were included in this and informed the pilot yeah absolutely thank you um and to to come back to kind of the the formation of that final report um from National civic league and Center for democracy Innovation um was twofold they did have a uh very specific uh scorecard that people who were participating in Council meetings did participate and share their feedback and they also Al had a Civic infrastructure scan and that consisted of of many different interviews conversations kind of reviewing materials reviewing uh past engagement and uh we did specifically include a number of commun connectors in those in-depth interviews uh to inform

[208:02] those recommendations and in the first place and while commute connectors haven't given specific feedback on this exact proposal I think they would be open to um seeing that increased to dialogue and opportunity to have back and forth and in conversations with city council I want to think from that uh from the from that meeting um that was a specific comment you're referring to from Anna Fernandez from EA and so um Ryan myself and Tera have been continuing to talk with with Anna with regards to trying to set up an actual conversation specifically centered around EA and the folks that they serve and hearing more acutely as to what are those barriers for engagement but at a much more foundational level let let alone getting into this room but how are we engaging them in a much grander sense and building those Pathways at trust because it's going to require building that long before they show up to the days and so that's where that

[209:01] conversation is is sparking from and we're in the process of getting that scheduled and coordinated and and location making sure everyone's comfortable to participate in that okay and I guess I'm just again the the questions are really because I didn't necessarily see that additional um piece around the community connectors and their level of Engagement and involvement and just in general like as we're doing this work I'm hopeful that we move in that direction so thank you that was my only question okay thanks tasa I got Nicole and then Tina thank you um I just had a couple of questions about this and thanks so much for the presentation and all the work that's gone into it um one is that I think one of the things I'm struggling with is just trying to understand what success looks like for this project um and it it feels like you know it's kind of work work for us and there's something that's going to come out of it but I don't entirely know what that is um I I um it sounds like it's really exciting that you know we're one of the first to do something like this in the country um but I'm just wondering you

[210:01] know beyond being the first to do something what is what are we expecting to see what is success how do you define that for this project and how will we know if it's been successful after this pilot uh sure thank you and um I think coming back to to the objectives that we we shared earlier um I think part of that success is is ensuring that you know we're we're thinking about how Community has more meaningful voice and so I'm I'm really curious to see how we can make sure that we have um some caping of that initial conversation of of that lived experience that we hear um some things that we're we're making sure that we can follow through towards the end of that decision and seeing how that did shift things how that did shape how that did influence how that process moves forward excuse me um I think we're also really eager to hear from community

[211:00] members during this process about what council should consider and who are organizations or communities who want to make sure that we're hearing from and so I think um that Community engagement process um from that point you know would would be altered and and we'd want to make sure that we're reflecting what we're hearing from Community thank you sorry I didn't didn't quite hit the button right um so given given that you know we already have uh we've been doing a lot of work around engagement and trying to engage people who don't typically come to us for for quite some time now um do we have a basis for comparison so that we can see is this mechanism doing a better job of uh getting different people here of you know generating different conversations than we would have if we were um continuing with our other engagement mechanisms basically is there do we have a comparison group as

[212:02] we're thinking about success interesting um I'm trying to think of what that comparison group is and and I'm also thinking through you know the evaluation prompts that we can have in there about if it is their first time that's being part of of a council meeting um you know their their level of of confidence in participating um in in that session if it is their their first um I I'll have to to think and and chat with the team about kind of what that comparison group may be I'm not thinking about that top of Mind Nico I'll just add to that we have the infrastructure scan and that provides a very detailed baseline from where various groups and and people in community evaluated where we're currently at and so I think it would be appropriate to assume that after we do this from some time we repeat that scan and in many ways re-engage those folks

[213:00] and see do we have marked difference do we have it or or or not and I think those are ways in which we but we do have a decent baseline from which we can evaluate some success going forward um are we engaging people and is that engagement more meaningful here in the day and I think that Baseline can help us it's not perfect but I think it's a good starting point and that and sorry Matt just to make sure that I'm following um which group you're referring to are you referring to the surveys that we were doing for a while of the people who came to Council meetings and participated that way or is there a different Baseline no that is the infrastructure scan that that was part of it not complete right that was just when we were surveying people after they did they participated in this meeting but in that scan were specific interviews of individuals of various groups including Community connectors and so so there's there's the whole body of work as part of the scan that that can be used as both a uh Baseline in sort of the the formative and and formal assessment tools okay cool thank you and sorry just

[214:00] that triggered one one more question um with that I think that was a fairly large effort is that the kind of thing where we wanted to go back if we wanted to go back and do it again would that require um funding in order to do that um I think that there I think that there are ways that we could could come back to a sample of those interviews um I think we could certainly reach out and and have some of those conversations um I do I do think it's helpful to have right a third party having those conversations so it's not directly City staff or city council um and so I wonder if there's you know other organizations or if that's a contract with with NCL perhaps but I think looking looking into you know how we come back to those interviews and seeing what's changed over time thank you yeah Nick we're looking at [Music]

[215:00] you [Music] absolutely okay I got Tina and then Ryan and then um Tara um yeah so just on the process piece of it would this replace a study session entirely uh correct we would plan to have you know the evening of a day session be one topic um only and would be you know taking that 180 minutes for that whole time and then any subsequent change would then have a public comment attached to it that would so if the so if the study session then resulted in an ordinance or a funding um initiative or something we vote on we would then have public comment at that point in addition addition to this is that correct yes um so under your rules at a study session you can't vote so you would discuss and then have some official action at a regular meeting okay um and and I do I appreciate all

[216:02] this work and this idea of bringing more dialogue into the into the um council chambers is is really interesting um I have some concerns about the selection process for the participants um and it gets to this idea of who gets to speak and who doesn't get to speak and um 10 is a very small number in an active Community but I also see with the three minute introductions and the comments that over 10 would be extraordinarily long and we've given a lot of feedback about shorter meetings if anything um I'm and we are suggesting uh random Lottery do we feel that there needs to be any specific criter IA or Would we not exclude on the lottery and and who would make the criteria do you mind if I add on to that question and and also like would we like rebalance you know like if you you know

[217:02] if if 150 people applied and somehow we pulled out 10 people all identified as male like that wouldn't be fully representative of our community but with only a 10 person sample you might get skews like that so that's another one I'm wondering about my understanding is that our City attorney Teresa Taylor Tate has recommended the lottery system be a full Lottery system so I think maybe another option would be to add people with particular lived experience or expertise possibly in another Manner and what I'm thinking about is when we've had affordable housing conversations and we've invited special guests like BHP or thistle who have you know almost more of an educational role to provide to councel versus feedback so I think maybe there are some options to be looked at um but that's the advice that I believe

[218:00] has been given thus far okay um and then I have a question about is the the names of the people participating in the study session are they made public and I I will admit I'm a little worried that they might be approached by advocates in the community prior to the study session would there be some idea that we would um attempt to make sure that the individuals looking to participate feel safe going in and are not overly lobbied I guess prior to showing or do we think it probably wouldn't be like that my my understanding is it would not be like that and I looked to the city clerk's office for a correction but I think those lists are not necessarily public at a time and so I think those lists of participants would be similar to open comment or public hearing can I just add to that in the conversation in our committee we were pretty deliberate in that in the process and so the jury is still out on the

[219:01] hybridization of how we get people because I I I don't I think probably be we don't want to repeat of every other public and open comment like we need to make this different um and so having that that intentional set of speakers is core to at least the work Tara and I are trying to do with the committee so we're going to find a way to do that but but I think back to your question um what what's really critical for us is that because we're in because once people are getting selected we want to make sure that they're well prepared to have this conversation and study session and so the goal is that staff will reach out to them early on and so we will have a process that starts a little bit earlier than perhaps our regular public testimony where they have to sign up a little bit earlier so that staff can say hey here's the agenda here's the memo like be prepared with the materials that you come in you sort of know what's going on versus sort of showing up blind and hoping they read we want that to be a more informed conversation but but that's a dialogue between staff and the individuals how it gets posted would be deferred to um you know the city clerk's office but we would be doing more front-end work to get them ready to

[220:00] go and then and I guess this is for Matt and Tara or and Ryan do we view this more as a listening session or an actual the formation of a Direction with this subset of people I think we have um designed it as more than a learn listening session um and in that format making sure that there's some back and forth that there's time for curiosity that there's some questions um but that it's right not a another uh moment where it's sort of one-sided Community speaking to to council but that there's some back and forth and some dialogue and and some questions there and I I think it's important in thinking about this proposal to appreciate that there'll be an expectation that the voice of this group of 10 people is represented in the direction we choose and it will be an interesting process I think um for us bance questions oh is that okay sorry

[221:02] that was a question okay I think that's all the questions I have okay we'll come back to you yeah sure uh Ryan terara Mark Lauren excuse me thank you Ryan Nick uh council member colleagues and everybody for all the work on this uh so I'm a I'm a big fan of innovation we we need more shots on goal to try and learn things I also think it's important that we're structured when we when we do Innovation and think about the overall balance of what we're trying to achieve um and so I I guess my I want to ask a question about the possible opportunity costs of doing this um so as well as I'm when I think about some of the goals I would imagine we'd have around public engagement with meetings one big area of that is bringing more people into our process that we we just don't hear from and um I guess I just love to hear um how this might fit into a wider set of goals that could in that could

[222:00] include that sort of um effort and then maybe just talk about does this get in the way of that in any way are are we spending resources on this at the expense of of that or or or or not thank you sure thank thank you for the question um I do think that this would would strengthen any existing engagement process that a specific topic would have um right and and you know immediately we'd be bringing in 10 uh individuals at the very beginning of of the process um where right typically that study session would be would be zero community members um and I think that as as we really look at the feedback that folks have about you know who are communities that we want to make sure that we engaging who are those organizations who do we want to hear from throughout that process that will help to strengthen Community engagement kind of throughout the um the whole engagement process thank you

[223:01] Tera I actually only have a comment so I will wait till comments okay finish out our questions mark and then Lauren am I correct that this will in effect cut our capacity for study sessions in half if we do this now we're only having one topic per St per study session well this is proposed as excuse me proposed as a a pilot okay and so you know for for one uh Community stud session this fall yes that would shift one topic uh to another evening for a study session okay thank you can I clarify on that a little for you Mark um this community study session would not be if successful replacing all study sessions going forward okay it would be just for very select topics where this type of Engagement would be of great benefit we would Implement a community study session format and how would we

[224:00] determine which projects meet that criteria I think that's part of the exploration I think that's part of why we have an initial topic that's going to be economic development plan and kind of see how does that resonate is there are there are there topics that are too big in scope uh to to have this conversation with some that are too narrow is there a sweet spot of the type of topics where this type of format uh serves greatest benefit I think that's part of the exploration we'll go to and it's also an important conversation for all of us to have as we go through regular work planning process be it Retreat or midyear and sort of Define what those topics may be with consultation with staff and such but but that's an evolution for us to undertake thank you laen I'm I was wondering if we could or if there had been thought given to having a higher number of participants and maybe break out into smaller groups for a larger portion of the meeting um I think 10 it's hard for

[225:00] 10 people to be anywhere near a representative sample of any group in our community um and I also this is just bringing me back to the old good old days of boards and commissions interviews where all nine council members would simultaneously interview nine applicants and while an interview is different than a discussion it just made me think about how distant and kind of alienating that process is I mean even as we sit up here and try to all give feedback on something it just takes a tremendous amount of time for us to each participate and so I feel like smaller groups would be helpful in making sort of the sense of community stronger in a way so your question is whether they considered larger numbers of people and smaller groups smaller groups so yes we we actually considered a wide range of numbers of people and with regards to

[226:01] smaller groups now keep in mind one of the recommendations from the national civic league was to um use deliberative dialogue um types of formats and and settings in fact that's what we did when we had our town hall that was over at the osmp Hub was to sort of use that deliberative dialogue format in a breakout form um and so what we s and the reason we settled on 10 was and this goes to Tina's point if we H the more people it it's really a question of quantity or quality the more people you have the less you hear from them because you can't fit it all in and so it begs the question of do we want to have a more deeper conversation with fewer or do we want to have a a just two minutes from everybody and then that's it and so we wanted to strike a balance that given the structure of having to get the go through the staff presentation and have different segments of Q&A and curiosity that 10 people allowed us to hear from those folks and have three different

[227:00] times of Engagement where their time here would be well rewarded with some thorough discussion and engagement with Council not hey come to a study session here's your two minutes and be on your way which is what we currently do so it was meant to be different and the reason we didn't do deliberative dialogue was mostly because we were stuck with logistically how to actually execute that here in this space and having the people and the resources to facilitate those breakouts and so um that may be an eventual Evolution and that's been a conversation we've had with with with national civic league but I think this is an initial step and then if it's successful maybe building on that deliberative dialogue maybe a next phase of that but we thought phase one would be sort of this first and we'd grow to that so there was some thought thought that went into that and those those whether you agree or not those are reasons we sort of settled here is that Curry and did you have another question yeah sorry okay um I also am curious about how does this work potentially or could this work potentially support some

[228:00] of the bvs bvsd sorry the Boulder Valley comp plan update so again I know that we the the team that the staff is already working on the process for engagement on that plan it seems like a great opportunity to try some different ways and mechanisms of Engagement you've got something that's tangible that's real that and it still works with the first topic of economic right um and so you know for me I'm not I'm always thinking to Ryan's earlier Point how does this one leaf on the engagement tree right connect with the branches the trunk and the root systems of Engagement and and meaningful engagement across the board and so um I I'm assuming we're on comment section so that's really my question is um do you see was there conversation about um some of these strategies being used as a part of the BB the Boulder Valley comp plan update and um yeah that's that's my over

[229:02] there thank you the quick answer is we started this work before we embarked on the bbcp comp plan update but the community assembly was ABS was definitely part of the larger conversation we had and some of that recommendation and work that came from the national civic league and in many ways they actually helped point us to our partners who are going to help us help us help us facilitate the community assembly that we're going to embark on for the initiation of some of our conversations with the comp plan um and so I see Sarah came to maybe add some more context to that and and maybe quick Sarah Huntley director of communication and engagement thank you for your question um I think the way it connects is it is a when you think about the tree of Engagement there's lots of different ways that we're innovating um and this is one format that we could innovate in addition to the community assembly that we're going to talk about at the Boulder Valley comp plan in addition to some of the many other things we're doing to engage unheard voices so um I mean it's it's a an an

[230:00] attempt to to build out our toolkit a ways we can try new things great and I just have one little question all my questions have got insed I have one technical question which is it says the recommended format starts with a suspension of council meeting rules but is a study session we don't generally are not able to make motions so I don't know if that's compatible with a study session to suspend our rules so maybe it needs to be done in a different way no need to answer that now but that's a question for you all to think about as we move forward thank you um okay great well so I I can tell people have thoughts which is great so we have two questions in front of us do we agree that we should move forward with this pilot and if yes do you have additional feedback on the topic so I would invite comments from people to maybe give a like a yes no and then if you have additional comments or thoughts about how we approach it to include those in your response who would like to start mark look to at me

[231:01] first um I'm always interested in in Pilots so I'm I'm happy to have us move forward and try this as an experiment but I I must say that I'm a little bit skeptical in terms of um the um what we will get out of it what staff will get out of it what resources will be required to implement this um at the end of the day uh we use our study sessions generally to provide some guidance to staff as to how we want to go um and that still becomes our responsibility and our province and I I some of the topics we we are discussing uh in study sessions are pretty complex okay and they require um subject matter knowledge not just of what we're doing that week but what

[232:00] we're doing across a range of programs that intersect with what we're studying that week um so again I'm happy to do it uh to to see if um Happ happily I would be totally incorrect uh on this but I I'm I'm expressing a certain skepticism about its utility in light of what the purpose of study sessions are and what we have to do uh in order to provide proper direction to staff uh when we have those study sessions so I I you know I I would urge you to uh focus on Simplicity um I would uh uh urge you to to to focus on sort of the fairness and Equity of the procedures um and if you want to give it a go I'm I'm happy to give it a go but I I I have trouble seeing it as a

[233:01] replacement on a large scale of what we do in our study sessions U because it's also just not fair to give uh 10 people or five people a memo and say learn this uh because it's it's going to be an incomplete um picture of what we're doing and what we have to decide and how we have to focus our our own efforts so let's try it but um I I'm you know I don't I don't need to keep saying it I have a certain skepticism gotcha thanks B Tera I don't think it's meant to it I'm sure it's not meant to tell us what the community thinks about a certain subject I think why we chose why I chose this of the many options that we had from the um from our original list of possible things we could do for this

[234:01] pilot program is I go back two and a half years of listening to people on Council um during city council complain at the public hearings that this is the F first time they're hearing why aren't they evolved in the beginning how can we already made up our minds those type of things which we've all heard especially it seems like we've already made up our minds so what's the point of a public hearing so it was my thought to get the community or even just a few people involved with hopefully people watching from the very beginning what it's like to hear the information we first get we we get a packet we read about it um it's sometimes very complicated we have a lot of super smart people in this community um I think that the 200 p p page package should suffice for information that was just a joke um so I think that this is why I personally

[235:01] chose this of all the things that we could have done just to see if we can increase the community's understanding of what we go through when listen to a topic and also have them be a part of it and feel like they were there from the beginning so that was my choice uh that was my reason for picking this option of all the choices the details that you all brought up I thought were really great and I have a fair amount of skepticism myself you know I'm a skeptic anyway but I can't really visualize this being working well but I'm going to be really excited if it does how's that and it's only one so I'm hoping that we can proceed with it try thanks ter I got Nicole I see you laughing Matt from

[236:00] here good eyes terara um my my I just want to dto Mark I think he kind of captured a lot of the comments that I had so I will not repeat them um the only thing that I will ask as we move forward is just making sure that we and whoever is participating in these sessions have a very clear understanding of what the indicators of success are going to be and what it is we're going to look for so that when we come back from the pilot we will all have that shared understanding of whether or not it was um giving us the information that we were looking for thank you thanks again for just thank you Matt and Tara and thank you Nick and um everyone at NCL for all the work that you put into this and thank staff um too for um for coming up with a way that we can try to implement this I appreciate all of your work thanks Nicole Taisha and then Lauren oh Lauren's first sorry Lauren then Taisha

[237:01] um I'm a little bit lukewarm on this I I appreciate the idea and the intention um but I I do have some concerns I don't know that this is makes sense as Mark was saying if as a study session swap it kind of seems like it might be its own thing um and maybe as such it might make sense for our engagement team to try it out first like I was saying I don't think that really all 10 of us can engage with 10 other people and all listen to each other very effectively and so I think that there is some sense to maybe a smaller team of us participating in this first um in terms of the topics I would like to see maybe that's an area where Community connectors could be engaged to help us in the selections of the topics themselves

[238:01] um and [Music] then maybe the engagement team could bring back what suc you know bring tell us about the ways that they feel like it has been successful in order to kind of sell it to more of us to participate in or as a bigger thing that we do thanks thanks tasa um so I I actually love that idea Lord of of I am I'm not convinced that this um is best structured for to replace a study session um my biggest pain point is the 10 um I I fear we will have a over representation as we similarly to our community survey if we did it by random um and that actually just uh deepens um the over representation um that we already that already exists um

[239:03] as far as using this report as a baseline I you know you know me and surveys I looked at the survey I looked at the scorecard first of all the scorecard had no re no respondents who were who identified as black or Asian so that you know again and the survey um actually says in the report was not a representative sample so again the idea that we would use this report as a baseline when it is not would not meet the threshold of valid and reliable is concerning um but but I'd say the biggest piece for me is I appreciate this topic this conversation and this need for deeper engagement particularly by those who have not had the opportunity to be in these rooms and have these discussions but when I hear they want to you know we want to engage them on the front end this isn't the front end this in when it gets to this room we've already done a lot and so if

[240:02] anything I'm I would be more interested in having more Council chats because I just experienced my first one and it was powerful to be in a small group with 10 people and just you and they have more than two minutes to talk to you about something it was just I mean at the end of the day the goal was to build relationships with council members so that you can have more meaningful iterative ongoing conversations around not just your shiny penny topic but all of the topics that are impacting your life and so that's where I'm just not sure the structure of this I would be more interested in what we're considering for the uh Boulder Valley comp plan update like you know like a bigger thing with breakout rooms and two council members in each room I still like the 10 concept I think that that definitely has legs it's just if it's only happening once a year it's 10 people even for a pilot it's hard to even get the legs on a pilot if you're

[241:01] only implementing it once a year so um those are some some general things um that are coming to mind for me um that make it hard for me to say 100% yes on this um at this time in the way that it's structured but as I said I am definitely a proponent for identifying more meaningful ways for people who do not traditionally because again I did not have any meaningful relationship with a council member until Lauren Nicole and juny Joseph got on Council there was not I never received any meaningful effort to engage me in any meaningful way until the three of them got on no shade to anybody else this is just my lived experience and so um because of that and because I know how valuable those relationships are I'm eager to find more meaningful ways to nourish those relationships so I'm not willing to throw all of this out but I am saying I'm just curious if this particular um piece as as proposed um um

[242:00] fits our need right now thank you thank you I got Tara no we are Tara Tina all these T names sorry Tina I apologize and then Ryan I can change my name um yeah I mean um I have some concerns about the selection of the people who participate and um and what it looks like and how we'll feel if one of the indicators of success is that there's a direct reflection if that's how we measure ourselves or if it's closer to what Tara was explaining which was giving people sort of a an inside view and a seat at the table during that moment in time but maybe not not influencing the decision or the direct not the decision but the direction so it could be you know those are different goals one is exposure and access but the other would actually be influence I think those are different and it would be um helpful to clarify um and uh and I I really do like

[243:03] the approach we're taking in general with engagement that we're trying lots of different things the community connectors um the other thing that I like about um the event that Taisha and I went to is that we went out into the community and this is interesting because it's bringing people back to the to the chamber um and I think it's good to do it all because I think that we're trying all these different things and finding out what works so I'm I'm fine to do a pilot but I just would like to set expectations that we don't really know the outcome um and it may be also that it's not that the study session isn't the right venue but we pick a different way of creating it whether it's a a lunch and learn with community members that has a little less weight to it um and also that may not require a huge packet because some of our packets are are are not accessible to a lot of individuals and I think that's an issue so it would be um difficult to do that and the other piece just on the topic

[244:00] I'm open to any topic but when I think about economic Vitality I I know that there are a lot of people with a lot of voice around this issue and we have a lot of established structures like the downtown partnership or the chamber um the Small Business Bureau the Latino chamber um and just making sure that we know how we're balancing all those voices as we lead up to that study session so those are my comments for that so thanks thanks Ryan and then I'll call myself okay I uh first I agree with Taisha and I feel like she keeps saying the same thing that we need to be more deliberate about race and have greater Fidelity with the demographic data that we're collecting and we need to do more to to over represent um communities that we are not representing I feel like should keep saying that and I and I would like for us when we when we come back to this to see that um we've uh addressed this in a meaningful

[245:02] way through this process so um that's the first thing um as far as going through the the the the questions so I feel a lot of love and energy going into this that gives me uh great confidence I also have some trepidation in um not seeing how this fits into a wider balance of how we want to improve public engagement slash counil learning um and I'm I think it's interesting to think about this as a replacement for or a an alternative or or at least being compared to study sessions because um I was talking um with a few colleagues about study sessions recently and about how study sessions are generally about informing Council Council learning and there's other ways Council can learn including through bound bags and other things we can do that don't necessarily require study sessions um so it just makes me think that um we we would do well to as

[246:01] we go forward with with this initiative to think about or I guess to illustrate in in a in a place that we can all see what are what is our broad set of goals and ideas around public engagement and and then also city council learning and then have a a menu that we can all kind of make sense of together and um I think yeah so I'm I'm I'm I'm happy to go forward with this but I but I would just offer one kind of final cautionary thought which is Pilots demonstration projects and Pilots are exciting they're fun and they come before bigger things but bigger things don't happen just because of Pilots um they're necessary but not sufficient you need hypothesis driven learning and structured um approaches to basically using the scientific method to in order to make something become that is small be become bigger and successful so it's not totally clear to me that we have that here but I think we can build it in and and I hope we will so um I like what

[247:00] we when we had a conversation about social streets we ended up saying let's let's pull back on this for now um I I hope that as we go into this that we can have a clear understanding of what would it take for this to be successful and move on what would it take for us to to pull it back um and that we know what that looks like and you know we would sort of feel clinical when we get to that point um so please go forward under those those uh terms for my view and then on what to do what what topics um I guess I sort of feel like asking but I'll just I'll just say I I think um that some of the initiatives that we already have in play and that are maybe somewhat technical wonky in nature might be good candidates I think our climate action plan update might be a good place to to try this um I don't want to just voice that on the climate initiatives team so I would say please con consider it but there could be I am planning on introducing some some some um subject matter that might you know that might be a um something that that could uh

[248:01] consider that for um also in the transportation space we have some pretty weedy stuff coming up with the transportation demand management ordinance and um some of those enhancements that may be a good place to bring in um some people for a more focused discussion to to really see that through I mean we've got academics from CU and others who really are close to some of this this weedy detail that study sessions don't work well for forums like you know our business meetings don't work well for so um I'd encourage that we think about that thank you thanks Ryan so I'll call on myself Matt if that's right yeah um so just wanted to say that I'm kind of similar to where other people have been in terms of I'm excited to give this a try uh but have some skepticism as well and so want to Echo some of my colleagues comments like Nicole talked about what are the metrics of success so I think that's important that we go into this thinking about that carefully is like after we've done it and we turn around look uh we how do we evaluate and

[249:01] say yeah that was great or that was problematic here's how we'd make it better or gosh that wasn't worth our time we probably shouldn't do that again so you want to be thinking about that clearly um and then and appreciate all the work and thought that people have put into this and Matt you and Tara and Rachel before and Nick and other folks so um yeah I think this has has a lot of promise but we have to um think about how we do it and I I want to Echo the the comments that Taisha made and that um Ryan echoed and and um that Tina also pointed out about how we're selecting people I have to say I am deeply uncomfortable with selecting 10 people by a lottery um I think we're unlikely to get a um representative sample of our community and many different ways um if we do that so I I would you know maybe it's 15 people instead of 10 that might help some um but I think we we might want to uh wait the Selections in some way some certain ways or another so I'd be interested in learning more about uh terca Taylor Tate's recommendation of

[250:01] the pure Lottery and where that's coming from and if there's some flexibility about that because you if we ended up with you know 10 of all people of a certain demographic I don't think that would give us the outcomes that we're looking for uh so that's what I got um and do you mind if I summarize kind of where we've gone Matt do you want to add some additional comments yeah no I mean I for one I just hearing this and I don't know if I can speak on behalf of Tara and I um being on the committee this is really helpful I mean we've we've we've had conversations and calls ahead of this and then hearing this again this is really helpful for us I I presume it's also helpful for Nick as well to hear this um as he's sort of he and his team are sort of our resident experts on how to formulate these things with relation to other cities so thank you for this feedback and I'll just say that skepticism is good skepticism is healthy um and and I'm excited for us to to March forward and and see where we go with this so thank you for all the great feedback and and uh we'll March forward appreciate that yeah because I do think I did hear from a majority of council an

[251:00] interest in giving this a try but you did hear some healthy skepticism from also a majority of council about how this might work out so do you want to ask for any additional feedback from what you've heard or and it was a lot so feel free to go back in process rather than thank you um I do think this is is really helpful to have have your feedback and and perspective and and skepticism and I think there um you know is is some flexibility and exactly what that format looks like and so I think we're um eager to to move forward and you know to experiment in some different ways and make sure that we're right setting those those measures of success ahead of time um and that we're circling back with Council to to say here's where we started and um you know here's how we were able to evaluate success of this or not appreciate that and I'm just noticing Nicole you have your hand up is that the previous hand or did you have something additional to add yeah sorry that's an old hand okay no worries previous not old um great

[252:02] well with that thank you so much uh Ryan for coming and and talking to us about that and Nick for joining us as well remotely appreciate your input and again to Tara and Matt for bringing this forward and with that I have to check if it's are we okay to do our last 10-minute item finish this out it 10 10 minute can we make a commitment to 10 minute okay all right let's see if we can get through this quickly um this is item 8B right do you want to introduce it Lea yes sir it is item 8B it is the extended summer recess discussion and this is matter from members should I run this or does somebody else want to pick this up um mayor certainly uh you can and I will say that we uh stand at the ready to um move forward with whatever Council would like to do great and just to get us started can you remind us currently what the recess is scheduled for yeah

[253:00] currently um uh Council recesses after the last meeting in June which is scheduled for June 27 7th um and then comes back on July 11th okay so currently it's scheduled to miss one meeting for we M okay so I know council members have expressed an interest in extending this potentially um so I I'm going to just open with a Gambit here and feel free to agree or disagree which is I in previous years our um recess has been three weeks with two missed meetings um I believe our schedule can accommodate uh Missing the July 11th meeting and still getting in all of our business it I've heard from City staff it might be tougher to accommodate schedules maybe not impossible possible but tougher if we were to extend it longer than that so any how do people feel about canel canceling the July 11th meeting yes Taisha um not only do I feel good about that I'm also feeling good about the hotline Matt put out about revisiting our study sessions and the

[254:01] frequency and amount of the study sessions and potentially converting some of those to business meetings thank you that was a great Point does anyone want to offer an alternative Al or just I I put out a Gambit of uh skipping the July 11th meeting does anybody have an alternative to offer so I would be in favor of a four-week Break um so I've talked a little bit about it well okay oh great I already have a second fantastic okay well I think that part of it is the Cadence of our work with staff so staff prepares their material two weeks prior so for staff and and I think a break when we are we all do a lot of work together there's a lot of opinions that are thrown and these mental breaks I think are very good um for groups like this the Boulder Valley School District takes an eight we break eight-week break I'm not suggesting that um but I also think it's

[255:02] good because a lot of people aren't here the community the students aren't here in July a lot of parents aren't here in July people with children that we talk a lot about so they're not here to participate and listen in our meetings and I do think we need to be thoughtful about what we're discussing in sort of the peak time when a lot of people aren't here and I am speaking about specific groups um so you know I would push it a little bit and and say that for us to get a place where staff has even right now we're looking at one week without councel because they have to be preparing the materials two weeks ahead and that also means that council members are connecting with them quite frequently because that's our nature as we're trying to get more information during that process so um so I personally would prefer the four weeks I absolutely can do the three weeks but I am just making my pitch so okay thanks for and then and I would then support having two more business meetings to offset that during the year um and

[256:00] hopefully picking items there that we might want some public comment on uh before the study session item so might be actually useful okay very good Mark did you want to throw something in and then maybe I'll straw pole yeah not U I don't think it'll be a surprise to anybody that I would also support that 4-week stretch I I think we tend to um ascribe more importance to what we do on a weekly basis um than is exactly necessary I think staff would be delighted not to see us for an extra week um not that you don't love us um but I I I you know I think that break allows people to come back with a fresher mind and the the year is long we will get a lot of business done um I don't think we should be um operating under the assumption that if we do this

[257:00] um we will only get to five out of our 10 work plan priorities we got to all of them last time I have no reason to think that one way or the other we won't get to all of them this time possibly by dropping a uh one or two study sessions uh and converting them to business meetings so I I I don't think there's any reason to believe that we're not going to get our uh our work done um U but we have what could be the worst job in in the Front Range uh given and I I if one of the our objectives ultimately is to attract um other people to run for this office and to serve uh we need to make the uh conditions of service a little more Humane so um great benefits four weeks off in the summer

[258:00] yeah don't lose that part it's clut what's not the light thanks that Mark N I saw your light turn on did you want to throw something in or uh no mayor I'm happy to answer questions and n's like I'm not touching any of that I got Nicole and then Tara thank you yeah I think that the July 11th is fine with me um I I'm a little just knowing what's coming up on the schedule recognizing that staff does need input at various points from us in order to make the work happen that's coming later this year um I'm a little skeptical of doing the the four weeks um this year and I don't want to totally rule it out and so I'm wondering if we can just kind of offer to CAC um can we be taking a look at this as it comes up if we think that there is an option for being able to do that um try to let people know in the next couple of weeks

[259:02] um so I'm not totally opposed to it I think that um it can just be helpful because our planning happens so much earlier than before we're actually getting there um getting sorry getting to the dates of the meetings um it's helpful to have a little bit more of a Runway when we are thinking about um when we will have these more extended breaks so that is um my only suggestion and and I think if we're going to move to having um uh some fewer meetings especially in the summer um I would just encourage us to get to use the time to get really practiced and disciplined in um our the length of our conversations even in the meetings so that we don't just end up with a year full of 1030 meetings to get our work done if we're having a summer break because I don't know that that would be um a a win in my book Thank you got it and if if I can

[260:00] just pop in here just to be clear that whatever decision we make about this year next year we can reopen the discussion like if people would like a longer recess next year than this year with more time to prepare that's definitely still an option um did you have a cqu Mar before I get no I have a cqu ho ho ho ho ho ho is this Christmas yeah go ahead surprisingly I hardly said anything tonight and I don't miss listening to and I don't miss listening to myself talk so I agree with what Nicole said we can all talk for shorter but anyway how about since you didn't like my idea of the study session I have another idea why don't we take three weeks off and make the last week a business meeting because I have to be in Philly the week of the 18th so I'm not going to be here anyway it's not all about me but why don't we do that that's a compromise would we be planning if we take three weeks off to do the 18th and the 25th is business meetings or would

[261:01] that subject to CAC so subject to CAC and as I mentioned at CAC on Monday we had at least preliminarily anticipated taking actually the two meetings off um in July so we had actually thought about this already and planned ahead um and that could change and so we have been thinking about this ahead of time so I think two things can happen is that the time and the dates can change depending on what council would like and there is of necessity it whether it's three weeks or whether it's four weeks it is critical that then we then have the discipline to think about what comes on the agenda in the future because I think that the critical moment so we um it depends on the timing of you can do September I mean you can do July 18th and the 25th you could do June 27th and J and July SE and July 11th so the configurations are up to councel okay

[262:00] very good and I just I'd love to move to straw pole here pretty quick wait can you just can I just ask you something can we not do the 11th and the 18th and make the 25th a business meeting or is that not appropriate said I think I think that'd be subject to CAC I think the the currently the the proposals on the table are either to take one additional meeting off on the 11th or two additional meetings off with one of them being the 11th and the other one I guess would then be either the 27th or the 27th of June or the 18th of July all right let's get let's get quick to I'll I'll be very quick on this um uh I would be happy to have CAC look to to uh be off until the 18th and let CAC decide whether the schedule permits us to go to the 25th um I must say we may be the only uh governmental body in North America um

[263:02] that wants less vacation but that's you know um I've had Lauren ceed up for a while can I go real quick um yeah so I am going to be virtual for the month of August and so for me there's a little bit of like I would love to see your P faces in person um you know not miss you guys all for two months um so I'm a fan of taking the 11th off and I not as big a fan of the bigger break but I could be convinced okay that's very sweet of you we like spending time with you too well I'm going to approach this actually quite differently I don't think we've earned this yet um and I'm going to say that because I feel a little uncomfortable rewarding

[264:00] ourselves with vacation when we haven't done the work to better form the criteria and and create that discipline that is actually needed for us to to actually have this as a reward we we need to Define what our study sessions should be I I think I think we have these processes and I said it in my hotline I just feel uncomfortable not having these things tightened up and we're going to say hey let's have a big vacation with no guarantee that we're going to tighten up the things that these directly impact I think it's critical that we be very clear in our process that study sessions are only for things that staff needs clear Direction on in order for an ordinance or or project to move forward and we trim more than just two study sessions off the list because we're here to do work and those business meetings are critical I I think we shave a bunch of those study sessions off and make them for business because that's what we're here to do so I'm I'm uncomfortable rewarding ourselves with a vacation preemptively um I'd like us to

[265:00] see us do that work I'm okay with adding one day this time perhaps but I'd like to clean this up going into winter recess so that we can actually earn that vacation by cleaning up our process okay I okay do you mind if Ryan was up ahead and then I'll let you go tan Ryan I think I we should we should take the 11th off but but this but that's it for now I I understand we have historically High uh docket of things we have to get through I know our last Council didn't get through all the things it's two-year um items and I I would like to make sure that we're we're on top of it that this that this council is on top of it I think uh it's a little bit abrupt to be talking about taking any more time than that off just in within a few weeks from now um I like thinking of this as yeah give us a performance bonus at the end of the year if we can tighten it up and and then give staff and others a chance to um plan to make use of maybe more than more than a week off so my vote would be just to take the 11th off okay and Taisha and

[266:01] then I'd love to do a vote okay I just want to remind everybody that this is one part-time job so I have a whole other full-time job so I'm not talking about more vacation I'm talking about time to work on my business so that I can dedicate more time to the $7 an hour I make to do this work so I just want to honor that some of us may be using that time for vacation but others of us might be using that time to actually do some of the other work that we would need in order to pay to be able to live in the city of Boulder quite frankly I couldn't live on the city of Boulder by what we make on Council pay I would not be able to live here and so I just want to lift up that these breaks are not just breaks to hang out and rejuvenate which are important and there's brain science around that um but I also want to lift up that we have other jobs and other responsibilities that are high stakes and Urgent and need to be attended to so that's where I was help I was excited about that additional

[267:01] week not because I want four weeks of vacation but because I have a significant backlog of work coming on to this and some of you are following me and receive my newsletter I just did um a midyear check and all of the hours I track all of my hours by what we're by activity and have rolled those up and those are significant hours spent on critical work now what I feel like is one this isn't a bonus one and this isn't a reward um this is an opportunity to write set um and to be able to Mark's earlier Point allow more people to be able to participate and serve on this Council as far as losing work opportunities I would argue that some of our study sessions and I'm excited for the opportunity to revisit our study sessions in general and how we do this as an educator the idea that we only do three months at a time of planning when we have strategic plans and City plans

[268:01] and Council priorities just seems like a missed opportunity to like do you know um pacing scope and sequence kind of stuff I'm looking at Tina C education stuff but anyway my larger point is is um I would be more interested in removing as I said um study sessions that are more informative and that are not spec and move those to a lunch and learn um and then use those um previous study sessions to have two additional business sessions I would even be willing to remove three of those so that I could have more business uh so that I could have that additional time to both rest and more importantly do the work that I need to do in order to live in the city of Boulder thank you thanks taasa and okay I really want to move to a vote here but if you have a very quick statement yes I I will be quick I just want to push back on this concept of of earned we have passed many act many ordinances we've looked at many issues

[269:01] uh we are doing the work that we were sent here to do um this is an extraordinarily difficult job um I don't you know we're getting 3400 page packets on a on a weekly basis I I just reject the idea that somehow we haven't earned the right to get a decent break in the summer um when we've more than earned it um and and so um I will reiterate my desire for the longer break but I am interested in having CAC start to look at the whole concept of the study session when it's appropriate and maybe we swap out a couple of those fors business meeting okay thanks all right I'd like to go to a straw poll and just to be clear this is not a value judgment about whether or not you were a good or a bad person or a good or a bad council member but rather just whether we should take three or four weeks off so uh Tara do you mind pulling your virtual hand

[270:00] down uh okay very good so all all those in favor of the 3-e a recess raise your hand a straw pull I got seven eight okay just to be clear this is 3 we means taking July 11th off uh adding the canceling the July 11th meeting only a four-week meeting would be canceling a four-month break would be canceling an additional meeting past that okay so just again let me just ask so there's clear a 3E break meeting cancelling one additional meeting on July 11th all in favor raise your hand question yeah just okay I got hold on I'm confused three weeks is the first week of the July the second week of July and the third week of July isn't it because we have something on the 27th so a three-week break means from June 27th to

[271:00] July 18th when we would have meetings on June 27th and on July 18th but would not have meetings on the 11th or the 4th oh so we're you're just saying one additional week go that's correct so the 3-we recess means canceling one additional meeting on the 11th but still having meetings on June 27th and July 18th I'm this doesn't Erin this doesn't rule out the possibility that CAC can come back and look at it and try to see if there's one more right yes we would still be able to do that I don't know what our chances would be but we could CAC could come back and say yeah there's there's room for another one so I'm going to S is everybody clear on what the 3-week break means now okay I'm going to one more time straw pole all in favor of the three-week recess and I got the same results again eight okay so we will be cancelling the July 11th meeting but still having the

[272:00] June 27th and July 18th meetings hold on AR we you did say that you're going to ask CAC if we could have one more right subject to cac's discretion to potentially look at canceling an additional meeting okay okay well thanks for the discussion everybody appreciate it um do we have any other final thoughts that's the end of our agenda uh before we re seconds I just want to acknowledge in the end of our packet there's a declaration for men's health month from that's written by our um assistant Megs it's it's super important working there take a look if you haven't read it um really important to think about the role of men as role models and looking at prevent Health practices and other good stuff so thank you mags please take a look great all right seeing no other further thoughts I'll go ahead and 27 p.m. all right thanks everybody hi everyone thank

[273:10] you e

[274:10] e e