Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

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[5:09] it is six o'clock and I will go ahead and call this meeting to order um I have two quick updates before we get into our roll call U mayor Brocket is not feeling well and he is joining us remotely tonight so I'll be facilitating the meeting and second uh council member Wier is out tonight observing the Jewish holiday of Ros hashana um and that is all of the brief updates before roll call so miss Elicia would you please call out the rooll yes ma'am thank you and good evening everyone thank you for joining us we'll start tonight's roll call as usual with council member Adams present Benjamin present mayor Brockett pres remotely feel better sir council member PS presid present Marquis present shoard

[6:03] here mayor Pro Tim spear present council member wall here and council member Winer is absent mayor Pro Tim we have our quum thank you so much um and the first thing tonight is um there's a proposal to amend the agenda is there anybody who would like to make a motion so moved second all right all in favor raise your hand okay unanimous thank you um and we will have uh two declarations tonight one for the 80th anniversary of the Museum of Boulder and one for indigenous people's day um council member wallik will now present the Museum of Boulder declaration and I believe we have Chris Tyler from the Museum of Boulder um here to receive the Declaration um Chris what you please join oh no oh sorry it's Juliet bar

[7:03] thank you um would you please uh join council member while like in front of the dice thank you for being here no still no oh there we go all right Boulder History Month October 2024 the city of Boulder proudly celebrates the 80th anniversary of the boulder Historical Society INC now known as the Museum of Boulder since its establishment on October 10 1944 the museum has been instrumental in preserving and sharing the rich history of our community

[8:00] over the past eight decades the museum has diligently worked to safeguard the stories artifacts and Heritage that shape Boulder Valley its efforts have provided invaluable educational resources and fostered engagement for both residents and visitors to honor this significant Milestone the city of Boulder proclaims October 2024 as Boulder History Month this month-long celebration will recognize the boulder historical society's contributions to deepening our understanding and appreciation of local history the community is encouraged to participate in various events and programs designed to explore Boulder's past connect with our roots and enrich our shared identity we invite all Boulder Valley residents to join in the festivities including visiting three notable exhibitions at the Museum of Boulder the award-winning proclaiming Colorado's

[9:01] black history on the Move keeping history alive at the Museum of Boulder and the captivating Boulder experience Gallery the Museum's dedication to education preservation inclusion and Community engagement is commendable therefore we the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado declare October 2024 as Boulder history month and encourage all Boulder residents to join us in honoring the 80th anniversary of the Museum of Boulder thank you councilman wallik my name is Juliet Leon B and I am the director of marketing and development at the Museum of Boulder and I'm here this evening um on behalf of Christopher R Taylor who is our new executive executive director who is also um not feeling well this evening so it is my honor to to uh receive this Proclamation

[10:02] and we appreciate uh the city council and mayor Aaron Brockett and all of your support in recognizing the importance of our preserving Boulders history uh this is our 80th year of being uh the Museum of Boulder as the uh doing business as the Museum of Boulder but we are actually the boulder Historical Society um Chris had a long speech but instead I'm just going to highlight um how thrilled we are that October um is Boulder History Month in perpetuity and we will be celebrating so much uh over the next four weeks at the Museum if you haven't been by for a while we're Beginning free Friday starting tomorrow um hoping that there'll be a line down the street maybe not but um every Friday during the month of October is free admission uh we have the incredible proclaiming Colorado's black history exhibit that actually will have tour guides to um take you through the

[11:00] exhibit so you get a thorough understanding of its creation and its meaning um and we also have uh Native American speaker series which are thrilled that the next Proclamation tonight uh will be given to gerilyn um who is speaking on that that series um a few other things we have our 80th anniversary celebration this Saturday 30 p.m. and we will have uh historical figures Martha Maxwell Dr Kellogg of from uh Kellogg cornflakes and also the founder of Mount the sanitarium thus Mount CIS um and also let's see who's the third one uh AA Paddock who was the founder of the Daily Camera and also the boulder Historical Society so we're not exhuming them so don't worry but we will be having actors impersonating those historical figures so uh I just encourage all of you to come to the Museum of Boulder and see what's fresh

[12:00] and new we are very dedicated to preserving Boulder's history and not only all the past history but looking towards the future so thank you for this honor tonight thank you so [Applause] much thank you so much and uh thanks to everyone with the Museum of Boulder for being here tonight we really appreciate you bringing all these celebrations to the community uh council member folkart will now present the indigenous people's day declaration and I believe we have um jilyn deotto from the right relationship Boulder group here to receive the Declaration and you may join council member fartz in front of the dis hi JN thank you so much for joining us here tonight um jilyn is a member of the turtle Mountain band of Chipawa in North Dakota and a founding member of right relationship Boulder County right sorry right relationship

[13:09] Boulder in 2024 indigenous people's day will be commemorated on Monday October 14th and the S and Boulder City Council wants to recognize the importance of indigenous people's day resolution in our community in 2016 the human relations commission and community members drafted the indigenous people's day resolution which was presented at the August 2nd 2016 Boulder City council meeting and adopted by the city of Boulder their Collective and collaborative collaborative work in 2016 set a crucial foundation for the city of Boulder to reckon honestly with its past and for how we can honor serve and celebrate indigenous Nations indigenous communities and Indigenous organizations in

[14:00] Boulder the Boulder City Council believes it is critical to underscore key acknowledgements in the resolution along with additional information we have learned implementing the resolution which continues to guide the city's indigenous related work indigenous people in Boulder respect the interdependence of all humanity and living things and Cate celebrate a vast and Rich living tradition through ancestral recognition and diversity of knowledge and perspectives including sustainable practices indigenous people and Boulder have as in all parts of the Americas endured centuries of Cruelty exploitation and genocide Boulder has benefited and continues to benefit directly from Indian Removal practices that violated human rights broke government treaties and forced many people from their Homeland for example in

[15:00] 1858 Chief uh Chief arapo nawat leftand and other arapo peoples told a party of gold Seekers camped in what is now known as Boulder that they could not remain on indigenous land as defined by the 1851 Treaty of Fort laramy however those men stayed after gold was found west of Boulder in January 1859 many of those same gold Seekers help helped found Boulder Town company on February 10th 1859 in violation of the 1851 Treaty of Fort laramy in August of 1864 nearly a 100 Boulder County residents mobilized into company D of the third Colorado Cavalry of the United States volunteers at Fort Chambers this company of 100 men trained at the Fort before participating in the Sand Creek Massacre on November 29th

[16:02] 1864 from which the boulder troops enjoyed a hero's welcome among upon their return among those killed in the massacre were women children elders and Chiefs including leftand nyatt Cheyenne and white Antelope today Boulder is honored to be home of several prominent native organizations including the Native American rights fund founded in 1970 which is the largest nonprofit Law Firm dedicated to asserting and defending the rights of Indian tribes organizations and individuals Nationwide the resolution also States the city acknowledges that those now living on these ancestral lands recognize that harm was done and acknowledge that we have a shared responsibility to forge a path forward to address the path and continuing harm

[17:00] to indigenous people of this land as we mark this year's indigenous people's day we recognize that we must ensure ongoing work to acknowledge and address the past to help Inspire education and reflection and initiate meaningful action to support indigenous Nations communities and organizations this work is Guided by the indigenous people's day resolution the city's racial Equity plan guidance from American Indian Tribal Nations agreements the shity the city shares with tribal Nations the open space and Mountain Parks master plan and engagement with indigenous communities and Indigenous organizations in Boulder communities can learn more about the ongoing indigenous related projects through the city's website we the city council of the city of Boulder declare October 14th 2024 as indigenous people's day and urge all

[18:01] community members to begin our or continue the process of listening to indigenous peoples reflecting on the indigenous presence in the Boulder Valley that has existed since time IM Memorial and learning about the violent con colonization of indigenous lands while the city is collaborating with tribal Nations on several ongoing projects we know we have more work to fulfill the indigenous people's day resolution and help support indigenous Nations and Indigenous communities and organizations in Boulder we value their guidance and the opportunity to listen and learn from all of them as we reckon with and address our past with hope that it will make our Collective communities stronger and more resilient thank you for listening to that very long resolution and um I know you would like to say a few words I would and it was long but beautiful thank you council member furtz I

[19:00] appreciate that um and actually it was beautifully said but I want to emphasize a few things here I'm honored first of all to receive this Proclamation on behalf of right relationship Boulder um our Focus has always been implementing the indigenous people's day resolution and building relationships and I see the I see the handprint of so many members of our community in this resolution and this Proclamation um Zuckerman who was head of the human relations um committee commission way back when Ava Hamilton who was so instrumental with some of the language Carol Taylor who helped us with the history um Paula Palmer who's sitting here tonight um all on the ad hoc committee that helped build this the resolution so we have worked with and even pushed I think the city to connect with the Han the arapo and the tistas the Cheyenne these are the peoples who lost their

[20:00] Boulder Valley home to the people of Boulder Boulder has benefited for 1065 years from the theft of native land in the last eight years since the resolution the city has made efforts to involve displaced Indian tribes in their planning I know there were us that came before but the actual City Planning um open space in Mountain Parks has worked with the Arapaho and Cheyenne on a management plan for Fort Chambers Pro for the Fort Chambers property which you heard talked about in the proclamation and this is a start but there's much to do to understand the system that encouraged the theft of tribes lands and we can think broadly about this landback can be a real thing former city manager Jane Bram remarked in a workshop with open space and Mountain Parks Boulder has 46,000 Acres of open space surely some of it can be returned to the people

[21:01] we stole it from that represents the kind of shift in thinking that is needed we can do more Boulder's indigenous people's day resolution is about tribal Nations and their members in particular the arapo and Cheyenne whose land Boulder occupies come to our indigenous people's Day program at the Dairy Center on Sunday October 13th to learn about the work of local native individuals and organizations and to learn what Boulder Longmont and Broomfield are doing to build relationships with tribes and their citizens and again in particular the Arapaho and the Cheyenne thank you Boulder City Council for this Proclamation now it's time to figure out what the next steps are thank you very much thank you

[22:03] thank you so much jilyn and thank you to everyone at right relationship Boulder for helping our community commemorate indigenous people's day and raise awareness of our City's history and present um I was so eager to get to our declarations and guests that I jumped ahead of reading the full motion to amend and uh to the agenda into the record so before we go to our next item I will read the Amendments that we approve for tonight's agenda item 8A is a discussion on whether to to hold the November 14th special meeting and Joint meeting with the planning board in person which was converted from a study session and item 8B is a discussion on drafting a letter to Boulder County regarding their proposed 2025 budget cuts um our city clerk will now go over the public participation guidelines and slides prior to the opening of our open comment all right thank you mayor Pro Tim and again good evening everyone and we appreciate you being here I'll now go over the public participation at city council meeting guidelines the city has engaged with

[23:02] 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 servicesresume and other guidelines that support this Vision these will be upheld during this meeting participants are required to sign up to speak using the name they are commonly known by individ and individuals must display their whole name before being allowed to speak online currently only audio testimony is

[24:02] permitted online only one person at a time at the podium unless an accommodation like an interpreter is required our remarks and testimony 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 signs or Flags in a manner that would block the view of another person no participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person we ask that you not affix items to the podium or de 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

[25:00] 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 so much um and before we get started I just want to um say a couple words about um how this how will move forward um through this uh first of all I understand um and we hear it from people um periodically that two minutes is a really short time to speak on complex issues uh it is even harder to make use of your two two minutes when you're trying to talk over someone from the audience so please do refrain in the audience from making audible noises during the meeting unless it's your turn to speak um even speaking in a quiet voice can make it hard for others to tune in to the speaker especially for people who struggle to stay focused with distractions or who have hearing impairments to make sure that we're all

[26:01] on the same page I will issue one additional warning prior to taking a recess due to A disruption if we need to take a second recess I will ask the chambers be cleared I hope to avoid the need for a recess this week and using silent reactions rather than speaking out or clapping during open comment will help us avoid a recess however if the chamber is unable to follow the rules and disrupts the meetings we will recess and I will be stopping speakers at two minutes to ensure that everybody has equal time at the podium unless there's equipment malfunction if you have additional comments that don't fit into your two minutes you may always email us we do read them even if we don't have um time to respond all the time so thank you all for being here um our first speaker will be Robert smoke followed by Evan rabitz and um ly seagull my name is Rob smoke I live in Boulder and uh I've lived here uh um most of the time since um

[27:02] 1986 and actually I was here in 1981 as well and um I wanted first of all to just make a comment because two meetings ago um I believe it was two meetings ago um a person making a open comment at the um end of the speakers list who was doing it um um virtually um talked about BDS um um specifically divestment and pointing out in a chart that the city has some Investments that it could divest and one that was displayed in uh visually on the chart was caterpillar um bulldozers and so after that a few moments after that person was finished um one of our council members uh felt that Council had made the right decision

[28:01] when it decided not to vote on whether or not to have a ceasefire well those Caterpillar tractors those caterpillar caterpillar bulldozers um I have a video of them bulldozing um ambulances in Gaza it's quite sad and um I don't think this idea of compartmentalizing the world and saying that oh we're separate we have nothing to do with what's going on over there I think it works I don't think it works anymore for the people who live here and I think overall to stand on that or to say that that's um sufficient policy given current circumstances is just a very poor choice it's sort of a morally incoherent I I sometimes get upset and tell tell people they're being morally comos but I don't think that's the case here I think you're just um missing something that's vital so free fre so much for your time here free Palestine

[29:00] thank you our next speaker is um Evan ravitz and did I see that Lynn is online should we move her to the okay um so um after uh Evan rabbitz we'll have um Patty Fuster Aguilera and Aon mashki the city says Gaza and now the whole mid East isn't our business but it is from the one point .6 million of our taxes going to Israel to the Israeli attacks on our sister city nablas to the city's money invested in caterpillar which provides bulldozers to destroy thousands of Palestinian homes roads and olive trees and buried us protester Rachel Corey alive here's another I was part of the effort that got the much more responsible 2002 city council to pass a

[30:03] resolution for Burma demanding release of political prisoners democracy and the US to allow local governments to boycott Burma just Google Boulder Burma resolution now Israel's genocide provides cover for many other genocides genocide watch lists 12 current genocide emergencies including Burma is your pre kissing up to drill baby drill and kill Israel kill King polus worth killing our friends in Nabis Burma North Korea Ethiopia India ad nauseum after Russia invaded Ukraine the US constantly talked about the rule of law not in anymore because we and our

[31:00] pal Israel are in violation of almost every international law of war and many US laws including our law against arming those who starve people soon all international law that came from World War II our own laws hell the Ten Commandments including Thou shalt not kill will be dead letter all replaced with the one rule here kiss up sh time is up all right our next speaker is Patty fer agilera and Then followed by Erin meski and eaden alai hi my name is Dr P fer agilera I live and work in Boulder you know me you know us we come every time to educate you I'm a white Seas woman with a PhD in mathematics I'm a settler and an immigrant in this country at the same time and I say settler the same way I say seiz woman let's normalize this because there is no indigen without

[32:01] colonization as a person born and raised in a white supremacist world I do use those tools and work hard to unlearn them we just had Hispanic Heritage Month and I understand why this is insulting for many Latinas because the word Hispanic is a colonialist word I understand why line acknowledgements and Indigenous people's day declarations can be insulting if they are empty and don't speak about the Palestinian struggle as a mathema and educator I always tell my students the words about John voy nman a famous mathematicians that it says in mathematics you don't understand things you just get used to them I tell them not to give up to keep learning to keep getting used to them and there will be a moment in which it won't be so obscure like how we learn to hold a pencil and first scribble then draw and grite this is the work that we're doing here thinking about Palestine talking about Palestine disrupting this Council for Palestine and we're not going to stop because I understand that learning and

[33:00] unlearning takes time and I as a white seed woman and a settler I'm obligated to do that work that does not mean that I agree with your silence because I think that you should do better because your silence is complicit to the killings of all the people and all the children that are assassinated by the iof every day with the weapons that the US is sending paid with our taxes While most of the media is distracted by Israel's indiscriminate bombing of Lebanon another 100 people were killed in Gaza in the past day and another 18 air strikes on the West Bank do better speak up because you know speaking up is as bad as those who are defending Israel for your testimony um you your two minutes are up our next speaker is um Aon meski followed by azadine alai and James Duncan good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak my name is Aaron meski I live in Boulder and represent myself last week the EPA lost a landmark case against the use of fluoride in

[34:01] drinking water this case spanned seven years encountering a lot of government and agency meddling and roadblocks along the way but a verdict was finally issued by a federal court on September 25th the court deemed fluoridation a quot unreasonable risk to the health of children and the EPA will be forced to regulate it as such the court found that claims of safety made for over 75 years by the EPA the American Dental Association and the CDC were in fact not supported by evidence I provided a handout with some of the notable statements um but wanted to read a couple pertinent paragraphs from the 184 page decision the issue before this court is whether the plaintiffs have established by a preponderance of the evidence that the fluoridation of drinking water at levels typical in the United States poses an unreasonable risk of injury to the health of the public within the meaning of the amended toxic substances Control Act for the reason set forth below the court so finds specifically the court finds that fluoridation of water at a 0.7 Mig per liter the level

[35:00] presently considered optimal in the United States and Boulder County as well poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children the court finds there is an unreasonable risk of such injury a risk sufficient to require the EPA to engage with such with a regulatory response one thing the EPA cannot do however in the face of this Court's finding is to ignore that risk end quote as we await the epa's ruem proceeding policy makers like yourselves need to be asking if we should continue adding a neurotoxicant to our drinking water given the lengthy nature of this trial it will likely um it is likely that the EPA will also drag its feet and directing the removal of fluoride from drinking water so that's why I'm coming to to ask for local action now soon my family's drinking water will come from a well so I will completely bypass this fluoride issue for myself but I'm here because there are many in our community who do not know about the harmful nature of fluoride and cannot afford the extra steps to remove it as well as other endocrine disrupting chemicals found thank you so much for coming tonight our next speaker is aedine elai followed by

[36:01] James Duncan and Paul Coleman all right um then let's do it is ezine online by any chance do not see okay all right um then uh James Duncan you are up followed by po Coleman and Michelle Rodriguez I rolled to the podium because that's the way a three-year-old girl in Palestine who had her arms blown off her leg blown off that's the way she's going to be getting around my name is James thank you for your service Council I

[37:00] much appreciate your service very incredibly I also appreciate the situation that you're in you're in in a rock in between a rock and a hard place the rock is the uh APAC and the the Israeli Lobby and the power of money and the corruption of this Society the hard place is the ground that that's the truth that's life that's where we're at the APAC and the the the culture can be moved the rock the the the hard place is not moved so so uh realize what where you can uh your forces can go um this moment is fraught with irony you know we had the the king Sho King Su shooter uh coming out where Eric tally had no no hesitation at stopping Injustice right

[38:01] tonight the the indigenous people's day Silas Su was a captain who had no hesitation about stopping Injustice right they did the right thing so what I want to do for you guys is to give you an out you are allowed to say at any point I cannot support this even if you did even if you were unsure you can you can at any Point say this has gone too far and while the best time to say that that the past it was earlier the second best time to say that is now thank you thank you James next up we have Paul colan Michelle Rodriguez and Helen Boon uh good evening mayor popar and council

[39:01] members and mayor Brocket get well soon I Paul colan I live in the southern edge of Boulder in chanan Ridge and I've lived in Boulder for about 40 of my last 72 years hopefully there'll be many more um as uncomfortable as I am with public speaking um I'm compelled to be here because of my concern about the climate crisis punctuated this week by Hurricane Helen and the disaster in the southern Appalachian Mountain communities my hope is that every decision made by the city of Boulder is informed by our need to stop burning fossil fuels this is the physical reality of the world we live in all the solutions needed are available today um for instance I've driven an EV since 2015 I would never go back to a fossil

[40:03] fuel powered car um at this point with my experience I have to wonder why anyone would choose anything other than an electric vehicle U I spent Labor Day weekend at a family reunion in Grand Junction so I drove from Boulder to Grand Junction in my 2019 Leaf which has a range of 160 miles which Grand Junction is further away than that but it was fine it was uneventful I stopped in Frisco for 45 minutes I stopped in Glennwood Springs for 30 minutes and then I was in Grand Junction uh my car is plenty of range with our charging in infrastructure here in Colorado to get to anywhere I need to go in Colorado um the city should not hesitate to replace every internal combustion vehicle in the city fleets with an electric vehicle um this City budget should not be used towards the purchase of fossil

[41:01] fuels thank you Paul we appreciate that if you had anything more you're welcome to email us there um next up Michelle Rodriguez and Helen Boon and Paula Palmer hi guys first um I wanted to speak about the community uh Council Forum I was so honored to attend the other day um it was amazing and I felt included and I I I don't think I my lifetime I've ever been surrounded by a a bigger group of so many compassionate people um with integrity and stuff I wanted to say I was struck hard by a comment made by somebody else I aspire to be like a Community Connector Jamal um I didn't understand where he was going with it he directed it at our Latin speaker um that was representing our Latin Community it was something along the lines of don't get it twisted basically about by bipo and and I wanted to um read bipo ident identities include

[42:00] but are not limited to Asian South Asian or Asian-American black African or a part of Africa's Global dispora Brazilian or Cape vering Latina latinx Hispanic Hispanic or afro uh Latino multi-racial multiethnic biracial or mixed I I felt his comment was kind of exclusive of of the Latin Community I also want to say that when you guys um recess out and you go away um based on the behavior that's in the courtroom the the the activity has been really disruptive it's almost like STG um do you know what STG means STG security threat group and and it does disrupt things and it's disrupting everything it was ridiculous that Sterling had to chase around with this group of women that come in so passionate about Palestine and keep them off the gentleman that was riding by on the like that they were going at it it gets too crazy in this room and it

[43:02] should be enforced because we are not legally allowed to protest like that that's not that's not in in our things and if it's disruptive and it's intentionally disruptive then it's disruptive to everybody thank you guys thank you Michelle um next up we have Helen Boon and then Paula Palmer and then we'll go to our virtual speakers first one Emily Reynolds hi good evening everybody my name is Helen Boone um I've Liv here for two years and I've been closely following the city street light initiative passed um a couple years ago and being followed up with now um I also appreciate that y'all sought out um Community input on the color temperature of the lights however I have some concerns about the brightness of the street lights um as someone who prefers walking and public transportation um I believe that our city could do much more to make our streets um feel safe at night and

[44:01] welcoming as a young woman it is often too dark for me to walk home comfortably at night even though I live right off of Pearl Street I have to use my phone flashlight um to kind of walk from the bus stop to my house um just so that cars can see me um and I don't love that um I think a study from Florida recently found that well-lit streets have decreased fatal pedestrian accidents by 50 4% um this is a powerful reminder how effective proper lighting can be in creating safer environments when I'm driving in the dark I worry constantly about hitting cyclists and pedestrians who don't have lights on I also see drivers downtown using their brights um which is kind of blinding and can endanger other drivers um currently our city ordinance um it seems like based off my research uh limits the luminance of these lights to about 900 um and I think in most cities that that averag is about 1,000 to

[45:00] 10,000 um this limitation significantly impacts how safe um me and other pedestrians feel moving in the dark brighter street lights can really enhance the sense of security for those of us who prefer walking while studies show that more light doesn't always lead to a decrease in crime it can improve our feeling of safety when people feel secure they are more likely to venture out on foot and take the bus Which reduces emissions from cars and ultimately benefits the Community thanks thank you so much um next up we have Paula Palmer and then Emily Reynolds and Renee bashor is online good evening my name is Paula Palmer I'm a co-founder of right relationship Boulder we formed this all volunteer organization in 2017 to help the city implement the 2016 indigenous people's day resolution our first Focus was to learn the history of the Arapaho people who were forced

[46:02] out of the Boulder Valley when gold was discovered in 1858 we learned about Fort um about a fort that settlers built in 1863 where Boulder men drilled and mustered and joined Colonel John chivington's forces to carry out the Sand Creek massacre in 2018 the city's open space Department purchased the land where this fort for Chambers had stood right relationship Boulder is advocating for the Fort chamber site to be developed as a site of conscience if you Google sites of conscience you will find deeply moving stories of communities all around the world that have created sites of conscience in places where terrible violations of human rights have occurred many sites related to the civil rights movement in the South have been developed as sites of conscience at these sites the terrible the history of terrible events is told honestly but

[47:01] it's not just about history at these sites communities are asking themselves to be honest about the ongoing impacts of historical violence and Injustice and they are committing to take reparative actions for us in Boulder this would mean asking what happened here after the Sand Creek Massacre who owns the land of the Boulder Valley today and how do we continue to benefit from the removal of the the arapo people where are the Arapaho people today and how do they continue to suffer the consequences of what happened at Fort Chambers and Sand Creek how can we as a community face up to these disparities what actions might we take thank you so much for being here um we'll now move over to our virtual commenters first up we have Emily Reynolds then Renee bishes and then Lao Gonzalez

[48:04] Emily your mic is open you'll just want to press bar six to unmute Emily are you able to speak all right why don't why don't we give Emily just a moment I've pressed St six several times so it finally Works Emily Reynolds here good evening um I seriously question whether we should triple Council pay when open space

[49:02] height limitations Blue Line regulations all the moves that brought you here were put into place Steve pomerance reports that the situation was very different quote in 1985 council members served as volunteers with no pay at all looking back it's my observation that almost all of the many people I've served with in my 10 years on the council worked very hard took their jobs very seriously sacrificed their free time and worked to include the citizens in the decisions it was more of a calling than a job end of quote Steve continues it's my observation that paying people to perform this vital Community function has not improved performance quite the opposite it's led to an inefficient process less interest in what citizens have to say and more soundbite based decisions so in our city manager style

[50:01] of local government staff does the heavy lifting Council should not be micromanaging every project does council warrant three times more money than they get now I know the so-called progressives want to be able to have full-time jobs with Council positions but this is not good governance the recent example of council overreach is serving 65 10 thousands of 1% of the traffic on Iris to the tune of five six seven million in bike Lanes does CC does the city council represent you at all I ask the citizens of Boulder now that the city is hurting for funds foolishly spent on bad ideas like suing the FAA with no public input do we want to give them three times more money please you be the judge and vote in November thank you Emily our next

[51:01] speaker is uh Renee bashor followed by L Gonzales and then ly seagull hello can you hear me oh hello you can hear me yes we can oh thank you uh Renee bashour North Boulder resident I'm here tonight to ask each of you for your help coming up with real solutions to address the rising crime and threats to safety that residences r residents businesses and visitors in North Boulder are facing on a daily basis as many of you know the corner of laramine Broadway which is also the entrance to doota Ridge has become a hot spot for trespassing littering urinating in public open drug use and panhandling near moving traffic 30 p.m. the fire and police departments responded to a call to extinguish a fire started in a barbecue grill at this location individuals who are clearly under the influence of drugs and alcohol started this fire set up a banquet table and look like they were planning a party this was merely blocks from the new day

[52:00] Center and this has become a regular occurrence most weekends since the day Center opened additionally for the first time we are seeing panhandling on laramy at the entrance of Dakota Ridge this is especially concerning because of how dangerous that intersection is without already H without having distraction of people panhandling I'm not sure if laramy is in the city or the county but I'm wondering if any can be done to stop the panhandling at that entrance as it's very dangerous I pointed out to Nuria how dangerous that area is with all the traffic coming from two different sides of Broadway um another issue of great concern is people smoking meth at the bus stop on Lee Hill there's been several reports of that in the last three weeks and the members of North Boulder Alliance have put together a lot of time and effort to come up with some suggestions and I will list those now we ask that there will be a light and a c permanently at laram and Broadway we want the land up here clearly marked

[53:01] what is County and what is city um before any more money is been giving to all roads for being the day Center we want a thorough audit to see what the impact of having the day Center in North Boulder has um affected the neighborhood and we want a micro police station thank you so much for your time I look forward to than um our next speaker is La Gonzalez and Then followed by Lyn seagull can you hear me yes hello can you hear me yes we can can you hear us okay for yes first of all I am here to applaud the most courageous member of the city consult TAA Adams I am sure your ancestors are proud of you and I'm also asking you to continue to even push harder about not just calling for a cire but also ending the occupation and ending the $1.6 million

[54:00] of our taxes in addition to all of our relationships that we have that are violating international law I recall that you mentioned Justice over order so please uh continue keeping that in mind and having conversations with your colleagues about that because if there is no justice you will not have peace and you will continue having what you call disorderly contact again settlers and colonizers get to Define what violence and disrupting means instead of you using or sacred rage to act that that is very Justified so you can listen and do the actual reparations that you promis that you're committed to that you would people who were enslaved in addition to indigenous people whose land you're standing on as a settler because if you're not indigenous no matter the color of your skin you're a settler and that is not a racist term mayor you allowed a white settler to insult me as a and you didn't even do anything and then you put on your website that you are trained in equity and all these things but you couldn't do anything so we have seen your anti your racism at work all of you are complicit into this

[55:03] but here I don't want to spend more time educating you on something that you think you're an expert on I actually want to ask you to stop City uh Boulder Comm um relationships cultural economic and political with the state of Israel because the icj recently ruled that it is indeed occupying Palestine the West Bank specifically which no one's talking about but to G today was bombed um we are violating as members of the genocide and Geneva Convention we are violating international law the icj has ruled that we need to act accordingly and boycott culturally economically and politically so I don't know what you're waiting for again stop those $1.6 million but I'm also asking to stop welcome to email us the rest of um your comments uh we really do read every email that comes in um so that that is a way to get on our radar um so open comment oh I'm sorry we have one one more um speaker Lyn

[56:03] seagull y the last word um Stephen tibo is doing a a project at 11th and Spruce and Carrie Whitman is the person that's working on him for this now um on 425 of rapo there was a house that went up for potential Demolition and so the landmarks board went there and I went there to go through the site um to see what we thought of demoing it or not I think it's in great shape and there was a fabulous tree there in the front on the left that that I I remarked on and other people remarked on too because it's beautiful pine tree I want that was on Thursday last week on Sunday I went by oh and they said first of all they said when I mentioned the tree and others mentioned the tree they said we're

[57:01] keeping the tree on Sunday I drove by in my bike that tree is out gone not a trace of it left and two more trees I called Marcy Cameron Gering and she was shocked so what's going on here with Steven tbos Carrie Whitman and Chloe her assistant and telling us and going out of their way and Marcy admitt this that that tree was going to be kept this is ridiculous um something very deep incorruption is going on within the city and most of it has to do with subsidies to developers and they aren't paying the price and we don't have money for our jail you know and I I'm trying to park my bike in front of the library and there's chop shops there Pi a bed you know and we're talking about beds at marpa house they're making an extra bedroom out of a dining room come on

[58:01] they've done this tons at the East Campus already there is a perpetuation of these things going on and and an approval thank you Len you're welcome to email us the rest of your comments uh we we will read them um and with that our open comment is now closed um thank you to all the speakers I would first like to ask our city manager City attorney if there is anything that you would like to um say in response thank you so much mayor proam and thanks to everyone who uh takes the time to give us comments as always um I know that staff has um followed up or will'll be following up with um Emily to talk a little bit about Street lighting um and uh we'll be um continuing that conversation I wanted to thank Renee um for the visit I had the opportunity to go to North Boulder and talk to some in our community up there um I just wanted to say know that PD has been um increasing patrols we continue

[59:00] to be talking with our partners at all roads um we are talking with our partners in the county and just today I was talking to the County Administrator we will be looking at ways in which we can strengthen um the ways in which the county and the city can join forces to address some of the concerns we have in that area we're particularly concerned with um Fire and Fire Safety in that area as well um so we will be looking at that I have um been speaking with staff and we will be looking at the possibility of um moving a camera there we have limited cameras we move them depending on what our um needs are across the city but we certainly have been um taking a look at that and we will be adjusting as needed but know that we are paying attention and we are working with our partners um in that area um as we had heard um from our partners at right relationship Boulder there there is a lot of interest um with some of our um some of what is going on

[60:02] at um at uh Fort chamber sorry all of a sudden thank you Evan um all of a sudden it just fled my mind um I will say that the we have been in um concept plan and the theme uh that staff and our tribal Nation Partners have been working on is heal the land heal the people um during that um sort of concept phase and Community input phase they received over 500 responses um and so they are currently in the design phase upcoming that will also be something that you will hear about more Community will hear about more so just stay tuned for more information on that that is all I have nothing for me thank you thank you um colleagues yes council member marus can I a follow-up question to Fort chamber is is the Fort chamber effort is

[61:00] that County or is it city that is our effort with um with our tribal Nation Partners okay thank you all right council member Adams awesome thank you so much um so I feel like I did make a request to get an update on the North Boulder um um Services day Services expansion because it had been I think I did it at the three-month Mark um and so just want to lift that up again as although it is helpful and and your comments were really um helpful to know that there are movements related specifically to the camera um to signage um and I also again think that um the escalations in crime and some of the other issues that were brought up are worthy of us having a fuller conversation and you know it would be wonderful to have Chief Red Fern and the

[62:02] sheriff if that's a thing that we can do um just recognizing that there seems to be a need for more um collaboration and cooperation at the city and county level on this particular item so I just wanted to you make that request again sooner rather than later because you know it's been months that this situation is happening and it continues to escalate and I do think it's worth a 15-minute conversation to find out where we are and um to just get some more accountability around um and shared expectations around when these some of these changes will be made so I just want to lift that up again um as something that I'm hopeful that we can get on a microphone about um I also wanted to clarify a comment that was made around the um business session that we had last week um and the comment around um um that uh one of the participants had made exclusionary comment comments about what was said and actually that's not what my understanding of that

[63:01] particular situation was it was my understanding that Jamal was actually asking us not to ex not to exceptional lie any one group racial and ethnically across um bipac Continuum so um and it was actually directed um at uh in response to something that Carla had said uh Carla who is an incredible leader of our uh Latino business chamber for those who don't know and she'd said something to the effect of um you know Latino businesses are the fastest growing um businesses in our community and you know we we need to especially make sure that they are being served and so um it was my understanding that Jamal's comment was in response to well we don't want to exceptional eyesee any one group but rather each group black Latina Latina Hispanic Asian Asian Pacific island um are worthy of of equity and and making sure that we have the resources um to not only mitigate the um bias and discrimination of the

[64:03] past and present but also making sure moving forward and I actually appreciated what and I forgot the woman's name who leads our Small Business Development um Center here anybody anybody Rachel Rachel um I want to thank her for clarifying um in her response that you know um Latino businesses also you know need the linguistic and you know translation and interpretation components um to which I will also contend that there are African Business Leaders who also do not have or have English as a speak as another language so even there um the linguistic needs are not specific to one ethnic group um that it is something that we need to be very mindful of um regardless of the size of any one of those groups and just in general I think that we need to move away from any oppression Olympics is what I call it where this happened to me well this happened to me I mean you know hey we all have some story if you dig back deep enough uh and

[65:02] so I just wanted to clarify that because I know that that was not his intention um and then lastly um thank you for lifting up the question about the caterpillar bulldozer um regardless of how you feel about the moral issues that are happening there um it was my understanding that the city of Boulder does have an environmental clause for some of our contracts um and just curious uh again how from a legal perspective how far that that extends uh because you know there is an EOS side happening over there as well um and any company that is involved and engaged in that um should not be receiving our dollars so I would like uh I would request that we do look into that to make sure that no company that we are um engaged with is in violation of the environmental Clauses that we have in the books um and then lastly as the nois sister city representative I want to thank those at the noblis

[66:00] boulder um board and staff who were able to come to my home for dinner uh along with other community members that were interested in um continuing the conversation that I brought up last week um and uh there is the fundraiser for the health center and equipment so if you're interested in donating to that you can donate at Boulder no.org or venmo BN SCP um and for those of you who are interested in um other cultural events formal and informal please get in touch with us we are uh identifying a film series writing and poetry series and other cultural events that will help to raise awareness of our shared Humanity um and the need and opportunities for us to work uh more collaboratively together so again we hear you and um are finding ways that uh one making sure that anything that we are doing is in line with the policies that we have on the books and then lastly there are

[67:00] opportunities to directly impact those um of those who are living in the Oscar um refugee camp um where they're in desperate need of medical supplies as you can imagine thank you can I offer a clarifier thank you yeah just to T's point about the uh day service center and wanting an update um Alicia published us on Monday the 30th um the CAC uh summary and we have a homelessness program eval valuation and policy discussion on December 12th as a study session so I would imagine any and all questions pertaining to all of those Services would be addressed probably in there as well since that's coming up very shortly okay well that's um two months away so I I feel like the the issues are continuing to escalate and so my concern would just be you know waiting one how will this conversation will it have the depth and breadth that it needs if it's a part of a larger conversation and be just waiting that long um you know I don't want the issues to escalate before we have got on the

[68:00] the the microphone about about that so I appreciate that but just have concern about waiting two months they've already been waiting months certainly council members and and we defer to CAC for that we had talked about this at a previous CAC and had talked about it coming in December if it is the will of council to bring it earlier certainly that is something that we can talk about but that is the will of CAC and scheduling okay thank you I will make another request via CAC and look forward to talking about it on Monday all right anyone else okay um thank you so much to everybody who came out to speak with us tonight um and I just want to remember remind folks too that um even for things that we have decided not to weigh on as a group um many of us do have office hours and are open to individual meetings and things as well so if you ever want to um get in a little bit deeper with us on uh any of the topics um you are very welcome to take advantage of those and um most of the

[69:01] time you can find that on our um city websites or um just reach out to us via our phones that are posted on the city websites um Miss Elicia will you please take us into our next item yes ma'am thank you our next item on tonight's agenda is our consent agenda and it consist of items 3 a through 3F all right I know um the council Employee Engagement committee uh has a few words to say on item 3B but before we get to that does anyone um have any questions or comments on the consent agenda yes yep then I will go to council member Shard um to talk a little bit about um oh sorry item C thank you mayor proam uh I just have a few words to say about item C per performance evaluations I am a member of the city council employee committee along with mayor proam spear along with David Bell who's

[70:00] our chief Human Resources officer uh and just a quick backgrounder the way our city is structured we have three employees that report to city council Nia our city manager Teresa our City attorney and Jeff Khan our municipal court judge and you can read in the packet that all three have achieved a rating of exceeds our expectations and I just want to point out that that assessment comes from a comprehensive process um that includes a 360 degree review of counselors their peers staff and so that assessment is a reflection of many people working all around uh the city and it's an exercise that really highlights the talents dedication teamwork of that of the three of them I also want to recognize and thank David Bell our Chief Human Resources officer who um Works mostly behind the scenes and he's instrumental in the good work of the city and he brought incredible amount of rigor and perspective to this exercise um as committees and councils

[71:03] come and go David's there uh so to conclude and just my own words narissa uh Teresa and Jeff and also David thank you for your service and here's to another year uh another productive year and we're lucky to have you um anything else all right I would just Echo the things it's really um an honor to have you all working with us and judge Conan if you're listening online um you as well um okay I think then miss Elicia we are ready for our roll call vote on the consent agenda I didn't hear the motion or the first oh I'm so sorry thank you yeah that an important part to to get to so let me start by asking for a motion I move that we pass the consent agenda second all right we have our motion and our second then perfect thank you ma'am we'll start

[72:01] the roll call for the consent agenda items a through F tonight with council member Folts yes Marquis yes shuart yes mayor Pro Tim spear yes council member wallik yes Adams yes Benjamin yes and mayor Brockett yes the consent agenda items 3A through 3F are hereby approved unanimously wonderful thank you so much and I believe we are ready then to move on to our next item yes ma'am our next item on tonight's agenda is our public hearings we have one item which is item 5A and it is the consideration of the following items that are related to the 2025 budget first on that list we have the introduction first reading and consideration of a motion to order

[73:00] published by title only ordinance 8660 which is adopting a budget for the city of Boulder item number two is the introduction first reading and consideration of a motion to order published by title only ordinance 8661 which is establishing the 2024 city of Boulder property tax Mill levies item number three is the also the introduction first reading and consideration of a motion to order published by title only ordinance 8662 and it is appropriating money to defay expenses and liabilities of the city of Boulder for the 2025 fiscal year and last our item number four is the consideration of a motion to order published by title only and it is also introduced as ordinance 8656 which is amending sections 3-83 which is based on the tax imposed on non-residential and residential development and we have two other

[74:00] sections that are being amended and those sections are for changing certain fees and taxes and setting forth those related details thank you so much I'll pass it over to our city manager naria Rivera vandery thank you so much mayor proam and um before I pass it on to our amazing uh finance budget team who have done extraordinary work with the budget um I just wanted to make a comment about uh the budget as we move forward there's there's so much emphasis right that we put on this moment um it is the time that we get to make decisions and um and to really dig into it and as I've been reflecting about that I will say that I I hope that you see that what you do really during the year is that you actually influence and you shape and you um inform the budget throughout the ENT entire year the decisions that you make um the direction that you give us and I

[75:00] it's hard to say that because I have somebody one of my colleagues who has the police song in my head about every decision you make and every direction you take and so forth um uh but it is true right we are watching you it is true that every time that you um that you make a decision that informs the budget right it has budgetary impacts as we move forward we hope that as you see the budget you see yourselves reflected your Council priorities are in there the previous Council priorities as you look at can that has budgetary ramifications right the conversations that we have about choices to move things faster to move things in different directions to engage more uh with Community all of those have budgetary ramifications so throughout the entire year the conversations that we have about our projects about our priorities those are constantly impacting the budget so the moment we find ourselves now I hope is reflective of those

[76:02] conversations of those decisions um so we hope that you when you think about the budget you don't just think of this moment but rather that you really know that this is reflective of all those conversations and all that we hear from you throughout the year and with that I will pass it to Charlotte thanks naria good evening council members I'm Charlotte husky budget officer for the city of Boulder good to be here with you tonight I'm going to give a very brief presentation about 12 to 15 minutes and then we'll turn to council questions before public hearing um we're excited to bring forward our first reading of the 2025 recommended budget to city council this evening uh we will uh go through a brief uh presentation and agenda uh sharing our fin Financial Outlook and major Revenue sources provide a very high level overview of the 2025 recommended budget we provided a comprehensive overview to city council uh during our September 12th study session and then

[77:01] turn for Council questions public hearing Council discussion and finally end uh this item with our proposed motion language so looking first at our 2025 projected revenues we uh shared earlier in the year during our May Financial forecast as well as well as during our uh September 12th budget study session that we are continuing to project slow growth and uncertainty with our major Revenue sources sales and use tax and property tax um you can see that our 2025 forecast for revenues for uh the 2025 budget include a total of 4925 million sales and use taxes uh is our major one of our major Revenue sources that we've shared previously comprising 37% of our total revenue uh forecast for 2025 um we're continuing to see uh

[78:01] flattening sales and use tax growth through 2024 and we shared earlier at our study session that we are anticipating and estimating 2 to 2.5% growth in the out years through 2030 property taxes uh comprise 12% of our Revenue budget for 2025 and uh we shared additional information of the recent legislation that uh the state just passed and we're estimating and will continue to revise these estimates as part of the 2026 budget development process but are currently estimating uh less Revenue than forecasted of about uh 1 to three million um starting in 2026 turning to our recommended budget overview we uh shared previously during our study session that our operating budget makes up uh the total operating budget for 2025 is 39.3 million across all funds uh in the organization the budget direction for this year for the organization was to

[79:01] really focus on realignments realignments of existing uh dollars and existing appropriation toward prioritized program outcomes um we also shared earlier that uh we have limited ongoing additional revenues and so we performed limited ongoing operational increases operating increases within the operating budget um one of the things that we really looked to this year was utilizing one-time funds for strategic one-time Investments and so you'll see that reflected in the 2025 operating budget uh again the majority of the increase within the operating budget itself is due to internal service charges and planned Debt Service there are some examples here uh technology costs Fleet and Equipment Replacements and Facilities maintenance are a couple examples our total capital budget for the 2025 recommended budget is 19 .2 million and we're excited to be advancing some Key Community projects such as the East Boulder Community

[80:01] Center and Primos Park and uh Violet Bridge replacement um within our six-year CIP as some examples uh we uh have focused on um the 2025 budget development process we are excited to be rounding out year three of budgeting for resilience and Equity where we focused on developing our uh outcomes measures and targets inventory across the organization that are aligned to the sustainability equity and resilience framework um we focused on our 2025 budget engagement efforts for this year we expanded our engagement efforts with the community connectors and residents we're excited to continue that partnership for 2024 and 2025 we also expanded these efforts uh

[81:01] in 2025 with focusing on boards and commission engagement as well as a city-wide questionnaire that we performed um that that asked for feedback from uh all community members as aligned to the uh sustainability equity and resilience goal areas we also focused on key Council priorities that were identified earlier from Council members uh in the 2024 April Retreat and I'll share on the next slide some examples as well as the Citywide strategic plan and uplifting some of the priorities within the city-wide strategic plan some of the uh Council priorities that we are advancing within the 2025 recommended budget include 600,000 in one-time funding to support the uh Boulder Valley comprehensive Plan update we have 200,000 uh Within the uh 2025 budget to support the small business support for economic resilience that

[82:01] specifically aims to Bolter bolster the economic Vitality strategy in 2025 and 1.4 million for the University Hill streetscape renovation project to invest in capital upgrades around the University Hill area supporting the uh Council priority of quality of life improvements and Commercial area connections um within the council priorities our Citywide strategic plan alignment uh we have uplifted uh and invested in uh uh moving forward some of the strategies that are included in the city-wide strategic plan these are some examples listed here strategy five enabling diverse individuals and families to live in Boulder we have uh invested in additional um and budgeted additional rental assistance and Human Services funding for example additional investments in affordable housing strategy one focusing on safety efforts to reduce Community harm at critical

[83:01] locations we're increasing uh the office of the budget for the office of police monitor and uh increasing investments in urban Rangers and samps as well and strategy 10 advancement toward 80% reduction in emissions um we're excited to me moving forward with the Western City Campus uh consolidation and efficiencies that will come with the consolidation as well as uh efficiencies in building performance uh another example of Investments that are included within the 2025 budget include the Hop bus electrification that advances this strategy within the Citywide strategic plan looking at our Capital Improvement program uh across the six-year CIP um from 2025 to 20130 one of the things that we shared previously is uh the the uh appropriation for the six-year CIP can fluctuate from year to year you see this on uh on this graph and this is

[84:00] really due to timing funding and uh scope of projects that are planned on a six-year Horizon um we are performing uh the um the decision- making for the 2025 appropriation with the TW within the 2025 budget this evening um and that is advancing uh several projects across uh 19 funds and Department supporting uh over 200 projects within the capital Improvement program and you can see specifically uh some of the the uh major capital projects are associated with transportation and Mobility utilities and facilities and Fleet for 2025 in particular and finally rounding out uh the presentation we shared during our study session as well as the May Financial forecast that we have significant unfunded and under funded needs um the uh estimate that we Shar during study session was about 380

[85:00] million in in uh operating as well as capital uh uh capital projects um and so this really reemphasizes the need for the long-term Financial strategy effort and we're excited to move forward with this effort um these are four components that comprise the long-term Financial strategy including establishing a long-term financial plan EXP exploring alternative funding mechanisms defining core service levels as well as developing a ballot measure strategy for 2025 and 2026 and we look forward to involving the financial strategy committee as well as city council uh early next year in this effort accident the one

[86:00] second all right so next steps for the 2025 budget calendar we're now at the end of our uh 2025 budget development process um this evening October 3rd is first reading and October 17th is second reading for the 2025 recommended budget um prior to uh ending the presentation and opening for Council questions we do want to just share some of the staff recommended changes that we shared at hot in uh to hotline earlier this afternoon that includes a uh clerical error correcting a clerical error uh within the University Hill uh commercial uh District fund um this is correcting an error within the University Hill streetcape project and so we are correcting this error within the the 2025 budget um and reducing the total recommended budget fund level from 1.5 million to 1.3 million um and I just want to emphasize that this does not

[87:01] change the scope or the intended funding level for this Capital project this is uh uh purely a a correcting a clerical error that is within the 2025 recommended budget and then for Council process just as an overview again we requested during the study session that uh Council submit changes to the 2025 recommended budget by September 23rd to include in the council packet uh Financial strategy committee also requested specific tradeoffs or funding identification as part of this process and uh by the 2023 by the uh September 23rd deadline we did not receive uh Council budget proposals for Amendment changes that had any fiscal impact um and just as a reminder the goal is for this evening to have a final budget and appropriation number for adoption um to enable us to uh have

[88:01] second reading and approval of the the budget on October 17th so with that I'll turn it over thank you so much for the presentation I will open it up for any uh clarifying questions that folks have about the presentation I see council member marus hi thank you so much and um thank you so much for answering all the interim questions that many of us us have been sending you and looking for clarification especially as a newer council member um my first question is a process question when do we start looking at budget adjustments and how does that communication come back to councils when we know that we have more or less and start thinking about shifting thank you for the question so our uh um adjustment to base process occurs twice a year um the items come for typ Ally in the May June time frame to council for the adjustment to base one our adjustment to base two will come

[89:00] forward to council this year in November and December time period okay thank you and then um my understanding is we're going to be looking at the long-term Financial strategies I think it's in April I had asked when that was going to come up how um if we start seeing that things are not going as we had hoped how does that how do we get notified that we have a budgetary problem if suddenly our sales tax start flattening or going down in a way that we're going to have to make faster shifts what is that process um we meet uh I would say that our our team our office looks regularly and monitoring regularly with our major Revenue sources and and budget monitoring across the organization so we look at that on a regular basis and we also meet with the financial strategy committee uh on a monthly basis and so that is something that um we would consider and bring forward if there's a if there is any significant update that that we would need to share with

[90:01] Council okay and then my final um well probably not my final but my last question for right now um I think we built this Budget on the anticipation of a 15% minimum wage increase and if we don't choose that specific number at what point does the p the budget get um changed to reflect that would that be by the 17th or would it be thank you for the question so uh given the minimum wage discussion is next week we would um we would prefer to wait until uh Council policy direction is performed um and we could come forward and and uh potentially uh take a look given uh Council Direction um potentially an atb2 so that would be uh that would be the the potential process for that okay thank you right council member Adams thank you um just wanted to clarify for my colleagues that I had

[91:01] hoped to have had made a request of budget adjustments but based on the amount of time that we had to do it and just the lack of critical data in order for me to be able to propose anything um and this would be specific to businesses that would be disproportionately impacted U by any minimum wage increase as well as the um individuals and families that that would be impacted because we're not able to uh reach a living wage which isn't even on the table um and so going through everything I want to just thank our team for looking and helping but the you know 68% of our budget being restricted makes it very difficult um and although I appreciate the move to budget uh to budgeting with resilience and Equity many of the indicators are just one year many of those are in are outputs not outcomes and so even using that we won't even be able to use that with Fidelity for three more years and so in light of

[92:00] or in light of that lag of performance data I'm hopeful that we can come up with what is the stop Gap um around that so that we are getting not program by program by program by program by program evaluation data but something that is rolled up a little bit more and also again want to thank our colleagues at HHS for providing information at the programmatic level and how many individuals are impacted by the different Investments but again we know that there's duplications there because that data isn't coded by individual or family so there's duplication so you don't really you know you still it's not an accurate picture because you you you know can't make that so recognizing those limitations I just recognize that these are limitations that we're going to continue to have until the um budgeting with resilience and Equity uh outcome information is robust enough to be able to make a decision so I just want to up you know say that I wish that I was able to I haven't been able to I'm still curious what 2, $200,000 for

[93:02] raising awareness goes to for business but um just wanted to lift that up now specific to the questions that I have um just for the long-term budget um component just wanting to lift up again the request of having um conservation Finance expertise in that group um is going to be absolutely essential um and so somewh more of a question and comment um I did have a question around the airport and I noticed that there was a $1.5 million funding requested for that and just was curious I know that the city isn't taking any more grants for airports but I am just curious would there be a grant that would cover some some of those prices just again to uplift the choices and decisions that we're making especially when we're fiscally constrained so that's one question and the other um I'm eager to get a revised report on the racial Equity Investments because the list that was provided was inclusive of non-racial equity programs um and so again I I

[94:00] appreciate the word but if we can't quantify it it doesn't mean anything so I'm just eager to get an updated um list of those Investments that are specific to racial and ethnic groups um not just poor and lowincome which you know sometimes there's an intersection sometimes there is not um but I just would love to get some more um hard data around our specific racial um and Equity Investments thank you there was a specific question there about the airport yeah there was um I think there were two questions in there in terms of uh and and one I don't know council member and and certainly U happy to get back to you uh in terms of were are there any other grants for which uh monies could be used and certainly we can follow up with that but I wanted to clarify in terms of we are not taking um any additional grants there's a Nuance there and I wanted to clear it up because there's been some misinformation I think in community

[95:00] about that um certainly we are currently um and uh I'll ask my colleague here to kick me uh if I go out of school here as we are in litigation and want to make sure that I am careful with my words um but uh as we are in litigation and I want to clarify too that we are in litigation to clarify a particular thing that the FAA has told us um it is not about closure or not closure of the airport it is about a very narrow um stance that the FAA has told us about the length of our grant Assurance obligation it is a very particular thing um uh and so we are seeking Clarity on the issue of perpetuity that is the um nature of our action uh and during the course of that what we understand is that um taking now taking additional FAA

[96:01] grants um what we know now prospectively is that that would in fact uh it likely is The Stance of the FAA um create an obligation in which we would be um according to the FBA obligated to use the airport in perpetuity for that purpose we are not in that space however um not all grants are equal in that space there are other grants there are um other grants that do not impact that there could be cot grants there could be state grants there could be other um grants that come from other sources and we would evaluate those grants on a Case by case basis I would turn to my colleague my City attorney colleague we would turn to our esteemed uh external counsel and we would evaluate those grants individually to see if those were monies and sources

[97:01] that we could use without compromising our position so I just want to be clear about that did I get us into trouble Teresa not yet I am stopping there thank you all right uh council member wck just one question for the moment um we've obviously received uh a lot of uh emails from people in South Boulder who are very concerned with the ultimate uh status of the South bould D Center um do we have any plan uh for dealing with that yet or is it simply a work in progress thank you for the question uh I will uh uh I I know that staff has started future of recreation center conversation that is looking at the entire Recreation system one of the things that we are excited to do as part

[98:02] of the long-term Financial strategy is look holistically across the organization at all of the uh Community demands and Community needs um uh with all of the underfunded needs across the organization and so we're looking forward to bringing that forward as part of the long-term Financial strategy to to City Council in the spring terrific thank you and I will just uh cqu on that question and just ask a quick one um in terms of the long-term Financial strategy we will be having Community engagement around that as well right so that that that is an excellent time for people in the community to let us know what they would like us to spend City money on is that correct that's correct thank you uh Matt did I see question from you okay any other and uh council member forrs it's not necessarily a budget question but and one of the things that we're spending money on being the um streetscape design at the hill what is

[99:00] the process going to look like is that going to come forward to council for us to look at at some point or is that just going to magically happen it's a good a good question council member I will uh uh toss it over to the director of community Vitality to respond to that question good evening Council Chris Jones director of community Vitality thank you so much for the question council member folkerts so we've not um contemplated the timeline for the engagement process we know that there are a number of things that we just need to do that don't require big Community process on redesign it's more how do we just take care of what's already up there so there will be a package of things that like upgrading tree Wells it's not a it's not a comprehensive Community design process just to to do that work but there is obviously with a $1.4 million budget we do have capacity for envisioning new

[100:00] things so that will be part of the process um I don't Envision a a drawn out Council process but we can certainly keep you apprised of our engagement um and the the progress that we make there when we get to that point that sounds great thank you thanks okay any other questions all right I think we are ready then to move into our public hearing so I will open the public hearing can I just go straight in all right uh then I will invite our first and only um inperson speaker uh Julie vanan to come and speak to us and I believe that folks have three minutes given that we only have three speakers so I will pause you at three minutes good evening I'm Julie van dlin

[101:02] I'm the executive director at effa um in Boulder and I'm amazed I'm the only one here for a budget hearing it's my old mayor habits you always come and thank your partner uh Partners in human services the city is a really important partner of EA um both funding and just um in terms of collaboration so I just want to thank you for your continued support of effa I also want to share with you what we're seeing as one of the main safety net agencies in the community um and its relevance to the 2025 budget so we're still seeing high levels of need um unfortunately the fiscal year that we ended at the end of June we saw the highest number of people ever coming to F for services um close to 8,500 unduplicated individuals come through our doors The Lion Share our city of Boulder residents probably about 8,000 so about 8% of your population um comes in with critical needs for um

[102:01] stabilization to EA um unfortunately we've seen a contraction in safety net funding so um over the last year we um have reduced our financial assistance available from 3.2 million to 2.7 million so half a million dollars some of that's arpa money some of that's um some reduction in private fundraising and some of that is some other grants that have kind of dried up um that's led us to reduce our maximum monthly rental assistance amount from ,000 to $800 so the safety net is less protective in the face of high rents um we have had to increase the number of emergency appointments over the last two months from people coming in with 10day notices for eviction um from 60 to 80 slots uh it's it's still overwhelming out there and when we opened our schedule in October you schedule month-to month our our appointments um General appointments

[103:00] um we book out in two days so um we're and in the food bank in March we were forced to shift from um weekly visits to twice a month visits just to handle the numbers of people coming through our doors and the amount of food that we had we were running out by the end of the day so that's the context I come to talk about the budget so when I looked over the budget um it's pretty much flat Human Service fund funding um that affects not only us but other agencies and it erodes the level of services we can provide because our costs go up every year um keep fames housed has flat funding it's a really important part of the rental assistance picture at $450,000 and that rental picture is strained but it's a flat funding um unfortunately that's like good news compared to what the county um we uh received funding from the county um the County's Community investment pool we were told was going

[104:00] to be cut by more than 30% um we got yesterday morning our um figures f is being cut by 20% I'm sorry to I'm sorry to cut you off I hope that you will um I know you email us often all this information so that is the situation I have no suggestions except give us more money if you can yeah thank you appreciate you being here to speak to the budget thank you um and we can now move to our two virtual speakers uh we have Lyn seagull and then Renee bashore there's um a revolving door situation going on between the airport and the jail someone on next door asked where's the jail it's right by the airport the airport is going for more housing what we need in Boulder is not more housing what we need is the jobs housing imbalance balanced and that means a lot less jobs

[105:00] and a lot less housing because there's a disproportion too the more housing the more jobs the more jobs the more housing revolving door between the airport and the proposition for housing and the jail which is where the people go once the housing is so elevated in cost that they're evicted and they go on drug and then they go into the jail and the County's got a deficit in their budget for jail um this is um I mean I'm not saying anything that's not stating the obvious here but it doesn't seem that our priorities are correct that there's a lot of wasteful spending with the city we could have a lot of volunteer positions um and I don't want the Levy to go up at all I don't need any more taxes than I already have when I have to raise rent for people in my place or

[106:01] everybody does so your sales and use tax is going down because people are not paid enough because there isn't enough you know we're in Gaza we're in Lebanon now our tax dollars are spent that way and 1.6 million that we have in bold could be redirected very well um we've got 1.4 million going on the University Hill streetcape you know and yet we're paying 1.6 to fight Wars in Gaza and Lebanon and we're going to H get hit by Iran and it's not going to be pretty you know this has got to stop somewhere there's this crazed human being uh in Israel called Netanyahu you know we all know that it's got to stop somewhere and you need to make a resolution on that for

[107:02] our own fiscal responsibility with the city um the facilities and fleets are going way down over the coming years the utilities are going way up over the years the coming years um I want on the sewer tour that's a huge project that's the Interceptor loop it's amazing what we're doing it's very costly and let the developers pay not the citizens because we're already stressed out enough as it is thank you ly appreciate your testimony uh next up is Renee bashore uh thank you so much um I don't feel I need to say this as much because I really feel feel like some people on Council heard us and I really appreciate appreciate that Taisha asked for a meeting with other parties to help look

[108:02] at the issue that's happening in North Boulder but I I will say a piece of this because I felt like I didn't have time in my two-minute um talk so regarding the budget I do request that before the city renews its contract with all roads for all roads to continue to be the day Center for our unhoused population my neighbors and I the North Boulder Alliance request that the city do a thorough audit of how the surrounding neighborhoods have been impacted and that the city and all roads work with the North Boulder Alliance to put in place better practices to limit its impact on the neighborhood I think that they care a great deal about the people that they serve and I just need to also know and see that the community is also important we have to have a healthy Community surrounding all roads we are really starting to develop into a beautiful mixed use neighborhood in

[109:01] North Boulder there's more um housing coming in more businesses coming in finally the Armory is going to have um some businesses on that corner and I think it's really important that we have a vital North Boulder if we want more tax dollars coming into the community we need to make sure that that business area stays vibrant um I I really hope that we get a micro police station on Broadway I think that that would help keep crime down a lot and we will have crime data for Council in the next couple of months um we're still looking at that I'm hearing that all roads is being told that crime is down but the data that we have from the police department is not showing that um I think the police department is doing a fantastic job I don't think just the police alone can solve this problem and I appreciate Council um meeting with our group and taesa thank you so much for pressing that we meet sooner than later

[110:01] and thank you all for your service that's all I have to say thank you so much um with no more speakers the public hearing is now closed and um I would invite first any other clarifying questions from Council all good okay um then I will open for comments um and uh whoever would like to kick that off come on now all right I guess it's time to gush um first I commend Mark's got a party over here um first I just want to say thank you guys um mostly for working in a really hard economic environment um it's always great when the money is falling from trees and we can say yes to everybody's needs um certainly I love that opportunity as a council member to be able to meet everyone's needs so I

[111:00] understand it's hard and certainly to all the department heads U that are here tonight appreciate the hard work to make it work in a constrained environment um with that said it's still important to not there are still a lot of needs that are out there a lot of harm still being done because we cannot meet some of those needs of people um so we just we need to recognize that and hopefully that you know as our revenues improve and our finial position improves we can start to meet those needs at a greater capacity as those needs continue to grow so um I'm looking forward to those opportunities and I think there was some really creative budgeting one thing I'll call out is that 1.4 million over with Community Vitality from the hill that sort of property acquisition using that for beautification and Investments that creative environment usually comes out of semi- auster times so thanks uh for everyone for putting that all together so a lot of great work putting this together and looking forward to uh how we move forward with atbs going forward and hopefully our economic conditions improve and we can get back to some some bigger and stronger investments in our community so thank you all for the great work thank you

[112:05] others yes Mark I also want to uh jump in on the thank you bandwagon um I know how much time and effort has been has gone into this budget um through my participation on Financial strategies committee um it's clear that this has been a herculan task uh and making difficult choices up and down the line and um so I I I think there's been a lot of wisdom involved in the choices made and uh I really support what you've done and uh I um I look forward to those future conversations where we can hope hopefully try to cover the shortfalls that we've experienced to date um and deal with you some of the holes in our

[113:01] budget and and uh uh try to help some of the people we would like to help more but cannot this year uh and so thank you very much did I see your hand go up tasa all right go for it thank you I want to Echo just the comments around this circulan effort I mean it it it goes without saying but um I just am grateful as well um the only thing that I am still wondering about is just the um disparity study um just recognizing that that's a major opportunity to really think about who gets the opportunity to work with our city um and just wanted to it's actually in the questions I dismissed it in my checklist of things um but just the status of that and will we have that information you know sooner you know before we have to finalize this budget um we uh have received uh the

[114:02] disparity study as you as I don't know if everyone knows um we have joined um we have partnered with Boulder County um and have uh contracted with an external um partner to do a disparity study to really look at the way the city can use uh its power of purchasing um and how it is doing well or frankly not well uh in terms of its power um we have received uh an initial report we are digesting that right now and we are hoping that we uh will be able to share that out more publicly um I know that we are working on timing of that and working that in conjunction with the county um I don't know right now the timing of that but we're hoping uh that that um plan should come out soon and I'm happy to follow up with you uh council members on when that is but we can preview uh something that probably is not a surprise to anybody but we do

[115:00] have disparities uh in our purchasing and the benefit of being able to do a disparity study which is why we called for it is that this enables us to take affirmative actions to address that and so actually excited to have this tool at our disposal and so you will be hearing more about that in the very near future awesome thank you um and then just another area where I'm hopeful that to get more um budget information and and synergies is just around research and evaluation so since every department does it differently um I know it makes it that much more challenging to get our numbers together but going back to the data requests that I made earlier and just some of the challenges in getting that data and I don't know if there's a way to code it as we move forward I know we have the fiscal Note coming so there's a couple of different opportunities to address that um but I do have a concern around how much money we spend on Research evaluation um both from a qualitative and quantitative perspective especially since numerous um memos make reference to um our

[116:02] qualitative efforts um and so just knowing that you know how much we spend on that who are the people administering that um because we do know it matters who asks the questions who administers the surveys Etc and so I'm just really eager to get some more um information around that um and hopefully make the case to have a staff role around that right I mean but I can't make the case until we have those kind of numbers so that was just a another area that you know some of it's here and then some of it's there and then some of it's in consultant but not all of it and then and also who funds it right because some of our federal grants come with some money for research but then some doesn't and so similarly how much is restricted that we are required to do and are being compensated for versus what we need to to get forward because you know as Renee asked for a study okay well what are we we already studying what is our research agenda for the year I just didn't get an idea um from the budget information that was available um you know what are the

[117:02] research agendas for the year what are the big questions that we're trying to solve is there more inter departmental collaboration and cooperations to bring down some of the cost as well as just uh what I call historically marginalized fatigue um you know for those of us who haven't been engaged now we get like you know eight different opportunities during the Middle of the day to come to some meeting and that's not um in inclusion in the ways that we're trying to get there so um again commending our staff for trying to move around and create things in the evening but then that's worked for them right or on the weekends and so um just am eager to get some more information around the research and evaluation um as well as the upcoming fiscal note um and just want to make sure if there's anything else disparity study oh and then lastly which I think we're going to be talking about later um but you know what can we do in our processes to find more synergies and opportunities to collaborate with the county so that we're not in a position where we are now

[118:01] where we're finding about you know these larger shortcom you know on their side in the you know this is information I think all of us could have benefited from earlier in the process and so just trying to figure out are there ways that we can um be in tandem um with the with the county as they are also doing their budgeting process I don't know um but I just don't want to be in a position where we have to send you know the potential of a letter um you know how I feel about that so if we can um identify that um I would I would be very very very excited and and happy to be a part of that so thank you hey and I see Erin online and then we'll go to Ryan simple appreciate it I'll be quick because I can't speak very well but um just wanted to Echo the thanks and praise for the amazing work on the budget this year as I went through the details I was really impressed by how it's moving the city organization forward and and also taking into account uh Council priorities and advancing all

[119:00] of those so huge thanks for that I I spent some time delving into the the new Arts fund and so thanks to City staff who met with me and walked me through some of that I was glad to see that um with that new dedicated Arts tax that we're going to be devoting more than 50% extra to Grants for Community organizations which is exciting but also appreciate how we're positioning oursel for the adoption of the update to the cultural plan in 2025 and then we'll reorient and devote resources in future years based on that and then just the one other thing is that um Mar appreciate the constant um refrain of the constraint and I think we all did a great job of working within those constraints but we'll note that uh there were some real one-time opportunities with the fund balances and as I do every year really want to thank and congratulate you for making really good onetime use out of those additional fund balance availability because of unspent funds and things like that and appreciate how you were able to advance some really key priorities that some of which were previously unfunded by making

[120:02] uses of resources so thanks very much thank you and next up is Ryan I'm gonna join the chorus uh and just say a few things uh towards why I think this is a great budget and I support it um first I think one reason it's making sense to people is that um the Strategic plan for 2024 to 26 uh that nuu have developed and has been underdeveloped for quite some time um lays a groundwork for the the policy basis for this um and also the move towards greater outcome orientation which is still in process but we're making a lot of progress on I think those those plus just as as you had pointed out n that one of your one of the approaches here is just over time the budget is reflected in the feedback that we here I think the combination of those things explain why there's not a ton of questions right now uh and I um I think that's really great um I also have

[121:01] to call out uh you know there's there's some departments that are creating revenue from external sources that deserve I think a little bit of recognition transportation is not the only one but it's one of them um they they are creating leverage 500% of the funds they're often getting through projects they're getting from the feds we put in a Million we get we get $5 million from that I also understand correct me if this is wrong but I think the um the 22 million Federal grant we received um not a year ago is maybe the L for Safe Streets is the largest Grant the city's ever received as far as I've heard um you could fact check that but I think that's right and one of the thing it tells me is is that um sometimes it takes being really bold and doing really qualitative things that are a good idea to to attract money and that's that's exciting what we've already done and what's ahead of us in that field um and then I just would also acknowledge some

[122:00] things others have said on that we we do we are experiencing constraints that are causing pain and suffering some of those are existing we also have headwinds coming at us climate and other headwinds and so this um long-term Financial strategies committee and the work is going to be really important for us over the coming year or so to um to dig more into and think about ways to create greater Financial resilience productivity and I'm hopeful that um our colleagues can all get um engaged in that and this is hopefully a way to create um to the extent that folks would like to see things tracked or done in C in ways that we don't have categories for that that might be a good a good chance for that so um lots to do on that kind of bigger picture but for now I'm I'm very happy and thankful for all of your diligent work all right Lauren thank you um I appreciated the budget that was

[123:02] brought forward um I do hope to see Council getting involved earlier in the process and spreading the budget sort of review and involvement throughout the year a little bit more maybe like we do with the community connectors I don't know exactly what the format looks like but I I think this is such a big lift for staff but it's also a big lift for us to deeply understand this budget and I um I think that I personally would like to have more time to really get more involved and understanding it better throughout the year as it evolves um I this budget defitely and some of the income portions of it certainly frame our need for a long-term Financial strategy and I look

[124:01] forward to the work on that progressing and being involved with that um there are a number as Matt said of unfund funded needs in our community but um sort of tesa's point in order to help make decisions I would really to to help us make Council decisions moving forward I would really like to see um a Consolidated research and development position or something to make it so that there is a more unified way in which departments go about that and bring that information forward to us um I think a staff rle is a great idea but I'm open to other um ways that we do that are and then my main comment on the budget itself is just that I would like to see us continue to push forward to um

[125:00] continue to prioritize more proactive measures and not reactive measures as we all know the um you know an ounce of prevention and a pound of cure and however that saying goes but the more that we can make sure that we're budgeting um to try and make it so that the needs of Tomorrow are less than the needs of today thank you and Tina yeah thanks again for all this work and all the time um on the budget as well as just working with us um for understanding and some of the things I um continue to be interested in are first of all just looking at how the city of Boulder is staffed and managed compared to other similar size municipalities and just understanding what other structures there are and how other people are prioritizing their personnel um I think those kinds of comparisons are are interesting we're of

[126:00] course unique and have a unique set of needs especially with our open space but um I'd be curious nonetheless um I'm also interested in in trying to better map um our needs with what the county can provide and what they can't provide I know this is a recurrent theme uh it is difficult though because on the almost one year I've been in Council it's a little bit like playing pingpong on mental health and also on some of the homeless Services it's it's kind of like well that's okay the county will do that so then I don't you know well then we shouldn't do attacks for mental health but they're going to do oh no they're not going to do attacks you know so um at some point I think we're going to have to figure out how to commit to what we need to provide and what they're going to provide I know it's that is a really really tall order and uh certainly won't be happening next week um the other pieces uh looking into just our grants in general and whether we can think about taking the same um perspective of outcome based uh budgeting to outcome based granting and I I'm sure that's a shared value but um

[127:01] we do a tremendous amount in granting and it's a it's a little bit tricky to Wade through when you're going through the budget um and we are supporting a lot of wonderful organizations but when we get into a constrainted environment these outcome based exercises will make those difficult decisions that much easier um and I think that might be good over time so those those are the only things that I look forward to as we you know iterate this budget and continue to adjust it again I appreciate all of this work tremendously it's been really helpful thank you and I will finish off the effusive praise in this conversation and I just want to note um the structure that you all have set up in only a few years during a global pandemic is really remarkable um it will likely be beyond my time on Council to see this work come to its full fruition but I can see the vision that's guiding this work and it will be transformational you've built a foundation for an entirely new way of

[128:01] prioritizing our resources in only three years and I just look at at all the staff here I just want to thank you all so much this is amazing and there is absolutely no way we can fully convey how important the work you've done is to the future of this community so thank you to each and every one of you who are here tonight uh you're creating a clear and measurable focus on sustainability equity and resilience you're aligning City spending with the city-wide strategic plan and you're focusing on outcomes I appreciate the way that this process is already for the 2025 budget leading us to name just a few things to additional funding for broader engagement for continuing the community connectors program for increased rental assistance for increased funding to the police monitor's office and immigration legal assistance and that's just a few um I don't support support everything in here but I fully support the TR transformation toward using our values and our connections to people in the community to inform our spending and

[129:00] what we're doing and beginning to look at outcomes to make informed future decisions the broader strategy work I just want to lift that up a moment for the folks who are still listening and the community um this broader strategy work we're doing on this council is really crucial to propelling this budget work forward the long-term Financial strategy that we've referenced the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan and our internal city-wide strategic plan are all going to partner to make this budget work shine in the coming years and decades and I encourage everybody in the community to weigh in during these other engagement opportunities because they will drive future budgets um and just to to speak a little bit to the community about this partnership that we are in in trying to meet the needs of folks in our community if you've been following the budget you know how important sales tax is to our city budget and to our ability to fund all these programs so please consider buying local um sales tax props up our city services like Parks and Recreation um

[130:01] our recreation centers that folks have been asking us about and it also keeps our unique small businesses going and if you're financial and personal and professional situations allow it please consider giving your time and money to the outstanding local profits local nonprofits that fill the gaps in our arts and culture in our climate and our human services and all kinds of other programing the city um as you are seeing and following this budget cannot do everything with our current budget and um our Community Partners really do need more support as we heard tonight from Julie van dlin and effa um as our budget flattens and we have more gaps to fill so please consider partnering with us in some of this work too um we cannot do everything as much as we would like to um we really need some support and please please weigh in on this long-term Financial strategy and the um Boulder Valley comprehensive plan they they will be really important places to make your voices heard in terms of what the city should be spending its money on going forward so thank you for letting me give that little PSA as well I appreciate it

[131:00] just thank you for all this work if I may um a a just thank you for the for the Kudos um it it really is the staff here and the staff that you see before you the Departments have worked tremendously to do that but I'd be remiss if I didn't thank you um Council because it is your comments your inquiries your questions push us um in ways that we mostly like um uh and I mean that a little tongue and cheek right your your inquiries um drive us to really think deeply about our budget we know um that there are a lot of needs out there that we cannot meet we know that you get a lot of that in community that the push that Community drives generally comes to you directly and it is um frustrating to us all when we know that we cannot achieve all the expectations that Community is looking um to us to fill and so we appreciate

[132:02] that you are at the Forefront of a lot of that frustration with Community um and we are trying very hard to Lauren's point to think about proactive strategies and that is what frankly the long-term Financial strategies is aim to do we are so thankful that you lifted that up as a council priority so that in the future we do not find ourselves in as much of of a situation thinking about deferred maintenance needs and um programmatic needs that have not been met in the past and so I just want to thank you all for the support and for the bravery and the courage and the discipline to say this is the time to really think about our financial situation in ways that are deep and meaningful and SU stainable and so just appreciate that thank you would anyone like to make a

[133:01] motion um do we want to do this one at a time or all together one at a time oh better have a cup of coffee so somebody to get me some candy I love it we get to hear your wonderful voice okay consideration of the following items relating to the 2025 budget introduction first reading and consideration of a motion to order published by title only ordinance 8660 adopting a budget for the city of Boulder Colorado for the fiscal year commencing on the first day of January 2025 and ending on the last day of December 2025 and setting forth related details do want to vote on that first or yes sir okay all right anybody want a second second all right and all of these are

[134:01] roll call yes ma'am thank you we'll start the roll call for ordinance 8660 with council member Marquis yes shuart yes mayor Pro Tim spear yes council member w yes indeed Adams yes I'm sorry yes okay great thank you Benjamin yes mayor Brockett yes and council member vul yes ordinance 8660 is hereby approved on first reading moving right along introduction first first reading and consideration of a motion to order published by title only ordinance 8661 establishing the 2024 city of Boulder property tax Mill levies which

[135:02] are to be collected by the county of Boulder state of Boulder within the city of Boulder in 2025 for payment of expenditures by the city of Boulder County of Boulder state of Colorado and setting forth related details thank you sir and I think I think you had said um state of state or sorry the first one the state of Boulder just city of Boulder right okay that yeah well city of Boulder and then County of Boulder State anyway yes second thank you we'll start this vote for ordinance 8661 with council member shuar yes May Pro Tim spear yes council member wallik yes Adams

[136:01] yes Benjamin yes mayor Brockett yes council member folr yes and marz yes ordinance 8661 is hereby approved on first reading next introduction first reading and consideration of a motion to order published by title only ordinance 8662 appropriating money to defay expenses and liabilities of the city of Boulder Colorado for the 2025 fiscal year of the city of Boulder commencing on the first day of January 2025 and ending on the last day of December 2025 and setting forth related details second T start the roll call ma'am yes thank you we'll start the roll

[137:01] call for 8662 with mayor Pro Tim spear yes council member wallet yes Adams yes Benjamin yes mayor Brockett yes council member farts yes Maris yes and shuart yes ordinance 8662 is hereby approved as the previous three would vote to8 to zero and for those still listening at home introduction first reading and consideration of a motion to order published by title only ordinance 8656 amending section 3-83 um tax imposed on non-residential and residential development section 3-2-2 imposition and rate of tax and chapter 4-20 fees BRC 1981 changing

[138:04] certain fees and taxes and setting forth related details second we can go ahead with the roll call all right thank you ma'am we'll start the roll call for ordinance 8656 with council member wallet yes Adams yes Benjamin yes mayor bronet yes council member Folts yes Marquis yes and shueh hard yes and mayor Pro Tim spear yes ordinance 8656 is hereby approved on first reading with a vote of 8 to zero wonderful thank you so much everyone and uh kudos to mark for uh just reading what felt like a dissertation there so nice nice job and thank you staff for the presentation and

[139:02] discussion and thank you for everybody who joined us too thank you council member folkz um I think we are ready now to move on to our next item look at this Exodus it's like the third inning of a Rockies game what's going on here here all right where else at all right thank you next on tonight's agenda is item number eight Matters from the mayor and members of council 8A is the discussion on whether to hold the November 14 special meeting and Joint meeting with the planning board in person this meeting was convered it from a study session thank you so much um Aon I think you were the very first person to bring this up in CAC would you like to say a few words or would you like me to just

[140:00] wrap it up for people uh no I can kick it off if you if you don't mind thanks Nicole just that generally our study sessions that are converted to special meetings are remote um but this is our uh kickoff with the planning board of the bbcp process we'll be working on this together with them for almost two years and I thought it might be nice to do that in person so we can have a little face to-face contact maybe get to know planning board members you don't know yet and could help uh be a good beginning for the whole long bbcp process but subject to the will of Council of course thank you um and does anybody uh have any questions or comments about this or otherwise I'll just go straight to a show of hands yes Matt fin only question would be is how is this would be how would this be material or substantively different than the me meeting we just had with planning board I just want to know that we have like substantively different outcomes because that not much time has change been between those so I'm just curious what the plan is there yeah so the topic is

[141:00] um I think it's actually the needs assessment talking about the oh I'm sorry just a clarification this is about area three not the comp plan yes okay y but um the beginning of a series of discussions around comp plan related items since the area 3 is been considered as part of the updated comp plan does that yeah would does that clarify it or okay yeah I saw I saw Brad walk up but I I think you're good Brad thank you um okay can I get a show of hands um for um folks who are okay with making this a inperson meeting okay I think that's everybody so I I think we should be okay and just um thank you to staff for for being willing to do another extra inperson meeting we appreciate you definitely all right we can go to our next item then yes ma'am our next item

[142:01] is item 8B and it is the discussion on drafting a letter to Boulder County regarding the proposed 2025 budget cuts thank you um and I Matt and Mark you two kind of brought this forward so I will pass it over to you to summarize for us appreciate it I'll uh I'll start and uh let Mark fill in some color commentary um as he as he's good at um what really what this ask between the two of us just ask clarifying questions and you know Taisha kind of touched on this so to Tina there's a symbiosis between the work that we in the county do and these issues that we're facing are Regional yet our budgets are separate but the impacts of those budgets are not separate and so we're I think there's just been a we're struggling to find those Common Grounds on how we can jointly invest in the things that we want to achieve in and so we're just at a disconnect a little bit and plus we're just missing some information and so this is really just to understand what these budget proposed

[143:00] budget cuts are and how they're going to impact our city partners and most importantly how they're going to impact our community and then perhaps what harm is that going to do to our community for folks who are maybe expecting to have some level of services available to them and then may all of a sudden show up and not have them we just heard from our F our partners at EA that they're going to get a 20% cut to their uh Community grant program all roads looks like they're going to get a 30% cut um and this may impact the very things that we've established in Partnership like the day service center our night shelter and beds as we're going into the winter so I we we would just like to know what these cuts are and then to Mark's Point what are the areas that maybe we have partnership with them that maybe we would need to could or potentially look at using to offset some of that so that some of our most vulnerable in our community are not left high and dry um as some of these Cuts may lead to um so you know it's not budding into their budget if they want to go fix a bridge in unincorporated B Boulder County go

[144:00] have at it neither here nor there um but uh this sort of funding with our partners and service providers is one of those things where uh kind of Demands some more clear engagement between these elected bodies so that we can have some clear understandings about what our Partnerships are and our shared funding for those things so that's what the request is I know that council member wallik and Elizabeth Crow and HHS are starting to perhaps work on a little bit of just figuring out what those questions might be since HHS has probably a good core understanding of what those pieces are and so we really are ask of you guys is would you like to draft have staff draft a letter that would ask these sort of foundational questions to understand impact and harm and offsets and then that could come uh to them and hopefully they'd be able to respond to that and we'd have a better idea of what we're looking at here and what our partners are looking at going forward so that's our ask in terms of mostly a KN of five I presume would be what we're asking for so Mark do you have anything else to add not not really very much I I think you've covered the Waterfront um there's a lot of concern over the depth of some of these cuts to

[145:00] core social service providers um the impacts are going to be very very severe and uh we we need to have a better understanding of what the county is thinking about uh um we need to have a better understanding of whether there is anything we can do cooperatively to soften these blows um because when you start talking about 20% cuts at effa um that is going right to the bottom line of uh harming people uh who are most economically vulnerable uh who are most vulnerable to evictions uh who require food um this is this is um uh a very clear threat to a number of people in the Comm Community um and I don't think that there's been a lot of um discussion between the county and the city on along these lines and and on

[146:00] this topic and U we would like to have that conversation take place thanks so much for the summary um I saw a few hands for questions or comments Tina Taisha Lauren anybody else has things just raise your hand and I'll add you to my list yeah and this is this might be a question for the two of you and it might a question for staff if there's a way we can just get clarity around the alternative sentencing facility at the same time um or that could be just uh information item from staff I I don't know where we are with that particular piece either uh I don't have an issue it's a it would be it's a different completely different completely different pot of money so and a different it's a different thing okay so I think that's a fair question because that too is another question to ask um uh but may so I I don't I would defer to staff on how to differentiate that this was really focused on that particular grant program and that's fine if it's out of scope that was just a question a good question ask address having a new facility with

[147:01] no money to run it is also a concern I I I think yeah I I think it's a great question and deserves an answer um but it may be a little out of scope for what we're trying to do right now um which is not an Omnibus complaint against County simply a very focused set of concerns that we want to um uh discuss with the county question all right um thank you and Taisha thank you um so I I also just want to lift up that you know I want to honor that staff have met with you know County and C City staff have been meeting with each other four months and have been in communication and I just refer back to Kurt's response around some of the questions that he had that we had and he indicated that that those conversations were happening I think what we're saying here is that we

[148:01] are now recognizing and acknowledging that we need a conversation between city council members and County Commissioners around this so I just I mean I'm fine for where we stand right now in the request to get some additional information for us but I don't want it to seem as if you know the county has been trying to hide information because I do believe this information has been shared across staffto staff conversations um unfortunately when we got the report that specific grain size of information wasn't necessarily communicated back to us so I just want to honor that there are different expectations that we're asking um and and potentially different processes and protocols that we asking to get to create more synergies that are now required because of some of the cuts that are being anticipated so I just wanted to to clarify there and agree that um at this point you know it would be helpful to get that explicit information on the programs that the city supports or relies on um prior to us making final decisions about our

[149:00] budget and also again lifting up the minimum wage conversation takes on a different residents when we see those types of cuts as well coming from somewhere else and recognizing our safety net isn't going to cut it um no pun intended at all there uh so I just wanted to to lift that up um and and again just honor that we are you know not y'all are messing up but more so we need to do things differently based on the context that we're living in now thank you it's a point of clarifier this isn't an this isn't isolated and we experienced this a little bit last year when um there were big cuts to the public health department and that was sort of done at the 11th hour we had already done our budgeting and it and it really hurt services so we were in the process of talking about can we look at a behavioral health tax to support those critical needs needs not knowing that they were looking to cut their Public Health Department substantially so so it's it's a systemic thing about the timing when we're doing budgets and how we're actually being transparent about

[150:00] the long-term planning about those symbiotic Partnerships and they're just working in a vacuum even though the harm is shared um and so so it isn't a first time and so we're trying to maybe start to get ahead of that and say wave our hands hey well we we need to think about a different way of doing things right so this came up last year though and we didn't make any changes to the process of how we do budgeting as it relates to the city representative

[151:18] e e e

[152:20] team's working on it I hear okay so sound just came back on for me Aaron up here we'll start with this roing mic thank you okay um did you have anything more or is that you did did you make it through okay you know I also just want to reflect back on the homelessness joint meeting that we we had and how wonderful that was and I just again I'm like wait if there were going to be budg of things like that would have been a really great time so again I love that process of having that joint meeting and maybe even scheduling in advance knowing

[153:02] that we are going to need to have more sessions and conversations with each other and having a fiscal component to that would be really really helpful and not just a whole bunch of presentations but like we have those in advance and then we get there and we talk to each other so I'm really hopeful all right now that we have the mic back it goes to Lauren thank you um I'm hoping that this letter well so there's the implications that we have to deal with but I'm also getting a lot of questions from Community around why this is happening which is not something that I feel like I can sufficiently answer um and so it might be in I mean we can't force them to do anything but it would be in their best interest I think to try and also communicate with us in a little more detail why this these cuts are deemed necessary

[154:00] thanks anyone else all right um and I would just uh plus one um some tesa's comments especially around uh just noting that staff have been having these conversations with County staff and I think this just feeds into um you know exactly what you were saying and what we've been saying in some of the budget that it it would be nice for us to have a little bit of Engagement earlier in the budget process too um moving forward but um around I think I'm generally hearing support for um sending a letter to the county just uh asking for more information on what the uh Boulder County cuts are and um when they have it I think they're they're still working on on their budget too um and then understanding uh how the cuts will impact our partners uh in the city as well as our own City service um if that sounds good to you all um please just raise your hands if you are interested in that type of letter oh yes yeah I'm sorry n has got her nope I just

[155:00] wanted to say I but I think we have Clarity and um as I see the hands raised I just wanted to um point out we certainly do uh speak with our County Partners I I don't know uh they just sent notifications out to Providers this week or recently so I do not know that would have known what the extent of those cuts would have been prior to now um because their budget cycle is different and so while certainly we will continue to work with our partners um to see um how we can um synchronize is the WR is the wrong word but better um perhaps uh inform each other uh earlier of things that may impact each other um because I think it goes both ways to be fair um I think there are times in which they may not know what that's going to look like because they have not made their decisions yet um and I do not know to the comment of um whether or not we'll

[156:00] have that information prior to our next budget hearing I do not know when we will receive those answers as they have just sent those notifications out we are actually um uh looking for they generally post the 20125 awards for the community grants partnership online we're looking to see what that will look like and we will certainly um ask for um if we can get a list of those awardees so that we can see um which programs uh may have an impact um to us in the city but certainly we hear you um and we will follow up on that request great thank you and then you all have what you need from us on that okay oh okay Matt is asking about the uh timing of um when we think that letter may get out um uh I believe we can um get to work on that letter and send it out uh within a matter of days okay thank you so much um does anyone else have any

[157:02] additional comments or information tonight well I I think we're done with this item unless you have something more on it yeah y all right um so I wanted to thank the team for putting the um Community cultural grants on that in our list um I had an opportunity to go through those and realize one that we're going to be updating that Community cultural plan and so it would just be helpful like it was helpful to see who got the grants um but I realized in in advance of us updating that plan if there was going to be an opportunity for any kind of outcomes report or just on the many goals that had been identified in the initial plan so that was just a a question around that um but again just

[158:01] really grateful for um the allocations um to to those organizations and again there was a a mention of racial and ethnic um or or race and ethnic ethnicity and and racial Equity um in that plan but um it wasn't clear again how those Investments were made and so I did look through and saw you know the jaur lit uh Festival the Eco uh Arts connection the samba school um but again just wasn't clear on so it was wonderful to see it but it also was on the lower uh Grant tiers um and so again it was just one of those things of how are we making those Investments and just getting some more clarity around the monitoring and tracking and Reporting um as it relates to that it was also wonderful to see um you know I was looking in the websites and there were you know there's a dance group that includes people with disabilities and so again just recognizing that our Equity commitments are Beyond race and ethnicity and also at often often at the

[159:01] intersection of those so um again just wanted to lift up um the the opportunity to expand the role of artists in the work that we're doing not just in the design phase and the incredible work that's happening in the Civic area but the opportunity to engage at the uh implementation and even the evaluation like there's a whole arts-based evaluation where you're you know using poetry and just other ways Beyond surveys and focus groups and some of the more traditional ways that again useful but not always uh representative of of the full community's input and so again just wanted to lift that up as in an appreciation and eager to hear more before we do an update on just the impacts because there was quite a few meaningful uh measures and metrics uh identified in that plan um and it would be very helpful to get an update so thank you yes Erin uh just wanted to thank you Nicole

[160:01] for stepping up and running a great meeting that's poised to end very very early so thank you for that oh Ain every time you say something like that something happens so no I appreciate it though thank you um and I I hope join everyone else and hope hope that you feeling better soon um tin is this working yeah just two really quick things um I was able to join several colleagues to go to the renter uh meeting at the uh public library and I really wanted to commend staff and particularly um uh Megs who just did an outstanding job and I was so impressed I I did it's always neat when you see some another side to someone and their skill set and it was just terrific and the second thing is I was really excited to be at the um swearing in of uh our chief of police uh police Redfern I'm glad he's here and I'm glad that we now have some stability in the police department I think we can look forward to some uh wonderful things coming out of there as

[161:00] we pursue the reimagine policing plan thank you I I agree I was also at The runer Forum and I especially want to thank Megs she wasn't the only person there but I watched her facilitate she she was incredible so thank you Megs okay I have a a rose a thorn and a bud um my rose so this is a good thing um last week the police launched a new crash dashboard or at least updated it that now has new transparency into deaths and serious injuries which is which is a term of art or a method of art uh that's really important for Safe Streets really this is a great development there will be refinements on this crash dashboard as we continue to go forward but it's it's overall super um I there's also tons of enhancements happening around town right now in in the Safe Streets that are address in the stre streets that are moving us towards root cause solutions to make the city more efficient and accessible Bas on Baseline east of Foothills Aurora and Evans um Colorado and 33rd Iris and 15th the the

[162:01] team is is very hard at work and just more generally on my row um our transportation Mobility team is leading the pack in the US we have 10 times um better outcomes than than other us towns so that's my rose Thorn last week last Friday uh Jennifer Newman um was the fifth person to be killed in and around our our streets uh she was struck by a driver of a motor vehicle Broadway and R she's 38 years old um that's the 22nd is 22nd is uh about the 22nd death or Serious injury in our system um before closing the third quarter um and since that uh The Denver Post has reported that Statewide Trends are worsening record sending 136 people have been killed up 70 7% uh since 2018 and 160% since the last decade and that's people walking and in crosswalks my bud bud is what I'm looking forward to Boulder is a real

[163:01] leader and I am proud and grateful to be a part of a a team um that is and being part of being a leader is having a growth mindset including around issues that are chronic that are set by inertia that have systems issues and my butt is that I I do detect a real acceleration in what we are doing with what this what the team is doing and um I think some of that is part of the discussion we had about the budget and how we now have an outcomes based budget that's that includes focus on Safe Streets with integration across teams and um I'm just super excited about the work ahead and the acceleration that I've detected and um I'm really uh enthusiastic about what I know the team of the city can do when they have City council's support that's it thank you all right I'm going to gabble really fast but with no more items on our 39

[164:18] p.m. for