Transcript

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[5:16] good evening everyone and welcome to the Thursday October 10th 2024 special meeting of the Boulder City Council just an announcement before we get started uh this meeting will be conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish to access interpretation equipment please see City staff who are currently raising their hand see raising their hand we have speakers signed up to speak in Spanish and their remarks will be interpreted consecutively into English so thanks so much to our interpreter or interpretes this evening um and a note for all speakers and presenters for the benefit of those listening to the interpretation please speak slowly clearly pronounce your words take a break breath between sentences and

[6:00] allow space between speakers thank you and I will now go ahead and call us to order and ask for a roll call please Elicia yes sir thank you and good evening everyone and thank you for being here we'll start tonight's roll call as usual with council member Adams yes present Benjamin present mayor bronet present council member vuler present Marquis present shuart here mayor Pro Tim spear present council member wallik here and Wier pres mayor we have our Quorum excellent thanks so much if we can do our consent agenda please yes tonight's consent agenda is item two on the agenda and it consists of items 2 a and 2 B any questions or comments on the consent agenda or perhaps a motion

[7:01] I motion to approve the consent agenda second we' got a motion and second can we do a roll call please Elicia yes sir thank you the roll call for consent consent agenda items 2A and 2B will begin with council member Maris yes shuart yes mayor Pro Tim spear yes council member wall yes Wier yes Adams yes Benjamin yes mayor bronet yes and council member fulkers yes consent agenda items 2 a and 2B are hereby approved unanimously thank you very much and if now we can go to our first public hearing please and we do have two of them tonight yes sir our public hearings are item number three on tonight's agenda 3A is the second reading and consideration of a motion to adopt ordinance 8 652 designating the property at 3300

[8:03] pinrose place city of Boulder Colorado to be known as the Geological Society of America as an individual Landmark under chapter 9-11 historic preservation Boulder Revised Code 1981 and setting forth related details thank you so much Alicia and you'll hear me say this throughout the night but a reminder for everyone to slow down uh and have uh give us a little Grace uh for our community members as we have the meeting uh in two languages for the benefit of all our community members so with that I will send this over to Marcy all right good evening council members I am Marcy Gering principal planner in planning and development services um and I affirm to tell the truth in this presentation this evening this hearing will begin with a overview of the procedure for quas judicial hearings uh I'll pause here for council members to know any exp parte

[9:01] contacts you might have about the property at 3300 Penrose place any site visits or conversations you've had outside of public hearings see none uh we'll next move to the staff presentation followed by the applicants presentation Council may ask questions after either one of those the public hearing is then open for Community member comments and uh Council may ask questions after the last person speaks uh the applicant will have a chance to respond to anything that was said the public hearing is then closed and Council will discuss the decision the motion requires an affirmative vote of at least five members to pass motions must State findings conclusions and a recommendation and finally a record of the hearing is kept by staff uh as part of the Quasi judicial process the criteria for your decision is found in 9116 of the boulder Revised Code and that is focused on whether the

[10:02] designation meets the purposes and standards in 9111 and 9112 of the boulder revised code in balance with the goals and policies of the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan looking at those two code sections the first defines the purpose of the preservation code which is to preserve protect and enhance historically significant buildings and areas of the city reminiscent of past eras events or people and to develop and maintain appropriate settings to enhance property values stabilize neighborhoods promote tourist trade and interests and Foster knowledge of the city's living Heritage the second provides the type of designations Council may pass and this application in front of you tonight is for an individual landmark in the third part of the criteria asks whether the designation is in balance with the goals and policies of the comprehensive plan which sets the future uh for development and preservation of the city of Boulder and

[11:01] Boulder County the options in front of you tonight are to approve the designation modify and approve or deny the designation if designated this property will become Boulder's 218th individual Landmark uh any exterior changes will be reviewed through a landmark alteration certificate and the owners will receive a bronze plaque and be eligible for historic preservation tax credits this application started back in May of 2024 when the owner applied to designate uh the building and a portion of the property as an individual Landmark this was a recommendation uh from staff to the planning board as a condition of their site review approval on August 7th the landmarks board unanimously recommended the designation to the city council and that brings us to this evening's uh public hearing having uh been on the first reading consent agenda on on September

[12:01] 19th the property is located in Northeast Boulder just uh south of the diagonal along Iris uh Avenue between um 30th and 34th on penr place the building uh was constructed for the Geological Society of America and is a um office building that will be adaptively reused into affordable housing and integrated into its landscape setting the use of the waffle like concrete setting and exposed aggregate continues from the outside to the inside and demonstrates one of the ways that the architect bought that brought the outdoors in and the indoors out there are geological installations on the grounds including a su dial carved in a polished slab of serpentine a garnic rock monolith and a memorial to Charles Lee mcginness and a rock uh anthros site Door poles in granin eyes hornfels on the

[13:01] right the building uh going now to the significance criteria which looks at the historic architectural and environmental significance the building is historically significant for its association with the Geological Society of America for the past 52 years it was purpose designed for their national headquarters the Geological Society of America was formed in 1888 and moved to New from New York to Boulder in 1967 the reloc location to Boulder was part of the trend of federal and private institutions coming to Boulder after World War II this trend included the construction of the National Bureau of Standards Central radio propagation laboratory now known as nist in 1954 and the establishment of ukar in 1959 the national Center for atmospheric research um was designed by modernist architect I Imp in 1961 and constructed in 1967 in similar brutalist

[14:01] style the building is also architecturally significant and was designed by Art Everett from The Firm Everett and zagel he was a co-founding member of Everett zagel architects in 1964 along with his business partner Alan zagel he is considered one of Boulder's leaders of local modernism and other works in Boulder along with seagull include the Pearl Street Mall which has won national Design Awards the building is designed in the brutalist style which you can see in the horizontal broadly Canal Cal levered concrete planes each one larger than the one below supported by projecting vertical Arch slabs which are visually connected only by moons in glass in 1978 The Daily Camera wrote that this is one of Boulder's most attractive and interesting buildings and offer offers visitors The Uncommon experience of enjoying natural history as an art form the scale and mass of the building are compatible with the park-like setting with the integrated geological

[15:01] exhibits the site was chosen for its view and to add to the beauty of the approach to Boulder along the Longmont diagonal the property has retained that setting which adds to the building's environmental significance these uh Boulder Valley comprehensive plan policies are relevant to this application uh which include protecting sites with cultural or architectural value encouraging new designations and working to support historic ities so they continue to contribute to the economic Vitality of the community and Foster meaningful connections to Boulder the proposed boundary uh includes just a portion of the site going around the existing building in um encapsulating the uh landscape area along pen row but excluding the Contemporary development on the site a landmark alteration certificate was approved earlier this year for the removal of the 1993 Edition to restore

[16:00] the building back to its original form as well as the installation of solar panels and the replacement of the windows with that the landmarks board and staff recommend that Council adopt ordinance 8652 designating the building and a portion of a property at 3,300 Penrose to be known as the Geological Society of America and with that I'm happy to answer any questions you may have thanks so much for that Marcy really appreciate the presentation any questions from Council seeing none um is the applicant going to make a presentation or a statement yes I would like to welcome Ian swallow with Boulder housing Partners all right Ian come on up pull up your slides good evening Council Ian swallow with Boulder housing Partners pleased to be here for this um Landmark application I'll try to keep comments brief I think Marcy did a great job covering it but

[17:01] just wanted to give you a little uh context for the community and the project so if you can get a little further into the microphone please yes I can do that so I know everyone is familiar with Boulder housing Partners but I do like to just begin um a little bit with about who we are so we are the affordable housing provider for the city of Boulder we have about 1600 uh units in the city and this uh landmarking is going to allow us to to not only preserve this building but also uh develop an additional 113 permanently affordable units on the site in conjunction with the units that will be in the uh adaptively reused uh historic structure next slide

[18:07] super quick overview of the site so it's right at basically what would be 33rd in the diagonal highway just south of the diagonal what what I really enjoy about the property is you're right on the highway but you really don't hear the traffic noise there's a ton of mature vegetation that will be included within that um Landmark boundary that we intend to keep as it as it really adds a lot to the site next slide just a little bit on the process the site has been through so we received unanimous approval from planning board on uh our site review application which included this building as well as the uh new housing that will be built at the site and then as Mar Marcy mentioned um our alteration certificate was approved in June and we had unanimous approval from the lrdc in August this site plan just highlights a little bit of how the existing building

[19:00] fits into the overall development of the site so really when you arrive at the site the historic building will be sort of the focal point um it'll have community space leasing office as well as residential units and then you'll see four additional residential units on the site that will not be included within that boundary we can skip this slide I think you covered this Marcy um and then you can just kind of flip through these these are just photos of the building Marcy had some but but really is a remarkable setting and and a a really unique and beautiful building so um to finish this is just a rendering of the the what we envision the final community community to be with the historic building on the right and the new housing um in the background there so um it's a project we're really excited about adaptive reuse of a commercial site into housing I think it's a really good um example and and a project we're really proud of so um with that happy to answer any questions thanks thanks for that Ian any questions for the

[20:02] applicant not seeing any thanks for being here all right I will go ahead and open the public hearing we've got three speakers signed up and we'll start by going through our public participation guidelines if you could please Elicia thank you sir and again good evening everyone and thank you for being here I will now share with you our public participation at City Council meetings guidelines as they're being pulled up I'll go ahead and start the city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive meaningful and inclusive Civic conversations this Vision supports physical and emotional safety for community members staff and Council as well as democracy for people of all ages identities lived experience experiences and political

[21:01] perspectives for more information about this vision and the community engagement processes we ask that you please visit our website at bouldercolorado.gov Services productive D atmospheres the following are examples of rules of decorum found in the boulder Revised Code and other guidelines that support this video Vision these will be upheld during this meeting participants are asked to sign up to speak using the name they are commonly known by and individuals must display their whole name before being allowed to speak online currently only audio testimony is permitted online only one person at a time at the podium unless an accommodation like an interpreter is required all remarks and testimonies shall be

[22:01] 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 chambers signs Flags or other items used to communicate must be held by one person when displayed obscenity other epithets based on race gender or religion and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the meeting will not be tolerated in-person participants are asked to

[23:01] 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 thank you for listening and again thank you for joining us thanks for that Alicia we have two inperson speakers Leonard seagull and Andrew Jones and then Lyn seagull virtually so Leonard you can get us started you have three minutes to speak can you turn the mic on please there's a button down there somewhere how's that there we go all right thanks hi uh Leonard seagull speaking on behalf of the preservationist of historic Boulder the boulder you love didn't just happen historic places are important part of expressing the spirit of Boulder speaking of spirit almost a thousand

[24:00] people attended the meet the spirits event this past weekend in the historic Columbia Cemetery historic Boulder was delighted to partner with the city parks and recreation department on this successful event and look forward to participating on other projects including the Civic Center Boulder is growing and changing in most ways it's improving but in some ways it's losing its sense of itself when long-standing businesses close and important buildings are demolished historic preservation has been successful in Saving Legacy properties from the many different eras of Boulder the Geological soet Society of America is an excellent example of the era when the culture of scientific innovation arrived in Boulders starting with the First Federal lab in the 1950s remarkably the Geological Society built an Innovative work of modern architecture instead of something old-fashioned the architecture is bold using concrete for the exterior skin the interior Atrium spaces and expressing

[25:01] the complex waffle slab roof uh structure modern versions of monumental Roman style arches are strategically placed at the main entrances broad expanses of Windows bring abundant daylight inside the architecture as Marcy said by Boulder's own Everett zagel company carries on the modern design approach you see in the nist federal building and car and the the CU engineering quad kudos to Boulder housing partners for recognizing the value of repurposing the original building as an anchor to their new residential Community it's an example of an ecological approach by utilizing an existing building instead of sending it to a landfill like we all have seen over the past few months with the wasteful demolition of the Harvest House this project is an examplary model of how preservation can add value to new de elements it preserves the superb design

[26:02] of the original Geological Society architecture as an inspiration for future generations of Boulder citizens thank you to the preservation planners and landmarks board staff for recommending this property as a city Landmark historic Boulder encourages the city council to vote to make this official thank you thank you now we have Andrew Jones is Andrew in the room all right not seeing Andrew so if we can go online to LY seagull please I would love to uh recommend approval of the GSA um but it's conditional conditional on if you don't approve the Housing Development this is

[27:01] Boulder does not need more to housing it's it's a tradeoff I'm a a an Ardent supporter of landmarking things but not at the cost of the loss of Dei diversity equity and inclusion which is what happens when you make these little isolated island developments just like Wonder viw this is also wonder viw out on a rapo you know it's an island there's no Services anywhere around it same with this this is not appropriate development and what this particular landmarking situation brings up is the need for an integration a multidisciplinary approach for the city council the land marks board and planning board to

[28:03] operate interactively and with bring together their issues um and this is exactly what was argued against by Kirk Norwood uh or Nord nordback last night um at the landmarks board um that that there is no need anymore and for with other people reported this too that there is no need anymore for um an ex officio on the landmarks board on the contrary it's needed now more than ever and this is the perfect example of it because I want to support the GSA but I won't with that nightmare Housing Development with it so it's contingent my approval my support is contingent because it's a tradeoff the the Lesser

[29:01] evil the worse evil is that this increases wealth disparity um it this kind of growth without bounds and it draws more jobs to Boulder and less a balance of the jobs housing imbalance there's no requirements of jobs to be balanced with housing and yet we dig ourselves constantly into a deeper and deeper hole of more housing that demands more services that demands more jobs low paying jobs to provide those services that de demands more housing for those low paay jobs and as you know we're in a housing crisis so I'm sorry to say no thank you for your testimon but your time is up all right that brings us to the end of the public hearing so I'll close the public hearing I'll offer the applicant the chance to rebut the public hearing if they would

[30:00] like to no um then in that case we can come to council for deliberation does anybody have any comments or a motion ni um I agree uh with our first um speaker this is just a really wonderful reuse of this building and so just thank you to um folks for bringing it forward to us but also thank you to staff for um helping uh everyone work together to make this happen it's um it's it's pretty exciting no okay well not seeing any other hands raised I will go ahead and call on myself uh and I will move that we adopt ordinance 8652 designating the property at 3300 Penrose place city of Boulder Colorado to be known as the geological Society of America as an individual Landmark under chapter 911 historic

[31:02] preservation BRC 1981 and setting forth related details second all right we've got a motion a second before I do a roll call vote I'll just Echo Nicole's comments thank uh the applicant very much for this um excellent preservation of a really extraordinary building um so appreciate you moving this forward while also getting us some desperately needed affordable housing for our community so really appreciate all of that may we do a roll call please yes sir thank you we'll start tonight's roll call for item 3A ordinance 8652 with council member shuart yes mayor mayor protim spear yes council member wallik yes Wier yes Adams yes Benjamin yes mayor bronet yes council member Furs yes and Maris yes

[32:01] ordinance 8652 is hereby adopted unanimously right and Marcy thanks so much to you and your team for all your work on this all right if we can go to our second public hearing item please yes sir thank you our second hearing on tonight's agenda is item 3B and it is the introduction first reading and consideration of a motion to order published by title only ordinance 8664 adding a new chapter 12-6 minimum wage voer Revised Code 1981 setting a local city of Boulder minimum wage to be competitive competitive and responsive to current and future needs of its community and setting forth related details thank you so much Elicia uh we have before you uh a topic that is of

[33:01] great interest to our community is evidenced by the many speakers that have signed up for public comment tonight um and before I pass it over to assistant city manager Pam Davis uh and former city manager Office uh Stafford Taylor Ryman uh tayor Ryman we uh we want to say that um there are a lot of uh City departments that have worked on this from research to modeling um to the presentation to the draft ordinance a lot uh throughout the organization so a big thank you um to all the Departments and a reminder again um we are doing a little something different as we do simultaneous translation and as I remind myself to speak a little slower um so that we have the opportunity for our translators to um catch up and uh be able to um provide both Spanish and English

[34:00] translation um we hope that you all can remember as well uh and staff as they do their presentation to take a breath and slow ourselves down so with that I pass it to Pam thank you very much Ana and good evening Council and Community my name is Pam Davis I serve as assistant city manager and I use she her pronouns as n mentioned I'm joined here tonight by Taylor Ryman Taylor now serves as our senior sustainability program manager at of the climate initiatives Department um but has a has graciously seen this project from start uh to today and continues to support along with several other colleagues who are here in many locations in the building and outside of the building ready to help us phone a friend as needed with any questions you may have for our agenda tonight we are going to begin with with Taylor providing you a brief project background on the

[35:01] minimum wage ordinance before you I will then provide a brief summary of the drafted ordinance 8664 within that ordinance discussion we will present recommendations to resolve the approach to unemancipated minors as discussed in the draft ordinance as well as provide some updated information related to the imps to the city's financials if you choose a certain policy outcome tonight we will then provide opportunity for questions from Council to City staff and then open our public hearing following the closing of the public hearing tonight we will then have Council discussion and decision next slide good evening Council uh my name is Taylor Ryman my pronouns are she her um

[36:02] really cool fancy technology we have here really impressed okay um so I'm going to cover the project background at a really high level because I know that we've heard some of this before um and save some more time for Council discussion and of course hearing from the public the enabling legislation which was passed in 2019 hb1 191210 is the item that came from the state allowing local communities to raise um minimum wages above the state

[37:00] limit a few communities across the state have become exploring that new opportunity uh but there are limitations on how those policies can be enacted including guardrails around tipped wages and how tipped employees are treated those wages deeding to apply to all employees um with options for unemancipated minors and or emancipated Miners and contractor s when it can take effect which is January 1st and the annual increases not being able to exceed 15% or $1.75 in any given year whether that be escalation to a Target or indexing annually thereafter and please feel free to like tap me if I'm going too fast this next graphic shows the project geography and the giant rectangle which takes up the entire slide essentially represents the state of

[38:01] Colorado there in the middle is Boulder County in that light yellow and then down in the bottom right is Denver and Edgewater in Orange not quite to scale but it gets the point across um Denver and was the first to enact a policy in 2020 and their wage sits at 1829 Edgewater recently enacted a policy and their wage is at 152 with an escalation that will reach Denver's in a few years Boulder County was the next to adopt a policy this year it took effect right now their wage sits at 1569 and they are planning to escalate to $25 by 2030 this next slide is the same as the last slide just in Spanish so for those audience members to take it in I will continue explaining it um the the blue communities there there are five with the green magnifying glass represent the

[39:02] five communities that have been working together over the last year to study jointly public sentiment on this topic as well as hiring a third-party consultant to perform an economic analysis so those are the communities that have acted on this new Authority as well as the ones that are considering it and then the rest of Colorado is at the state minimum um so all of that gray there um including those considering at 1442 the last time we talked about this um with Council was August 22nd and then another check-in at a September 5th regular meeting Council was presented the findings from that Community engagement effort as well as that thirdparty economic analysis study Council kicked off a series of five

[40:00] presentations that have now gone on across the county in those communities I mention Lafayette Lewisville Erie Longmont and us at August 22nd and and following that meeting Council has given us uh direction for most of the elements needed to draft an ordinance that being those being an increase um being desired in 2025 that that SCH schedule would increase 8% annually over 3 years in 2025 2026 and 2027 after escalation indexing annually with the Consumer Price Index for all Urban consumers or CPI an exemption for independent contractors and deferring the enforcement needs of said policy to existing systems with the Colorado department of labor and employment so tonight Council considers that

[41:00] proposed ordinance and also has an opportunity to discuss the remaining item which is the option for unemancipated miners when we spoke with Council um we did not yet have um we did not yet hear from the other four Regional Partners on how their councils had reacted to um the similar presentations of findings we have then since received that feedback from those councils and in general there are no other councils that will be moving forward with this ordinance uh in general several councils have stated a desire for more Community engagement and more study into the issue and possibly other avenues for approaching a policy and other avenues in general for addressing Community affordability so I'll roll through that Longmont was the first to consider this there is no action planned for 2025 and no future discussions scheduled yet there is a

[42:00] desire for more Community engagement and especially understanding business pressures um there has been a couple of um considerations from those council members on referring the issue to the ballot in Lafayette there is no action and no future discussions scheduled there's a desire for more Community engagement and Analysis and in particular to assess the breaking point for businesses while also providing benefits to low-wage workers in Lewisville there was no action for 2025 and no future discussions scheduled they are interested in a regional approach and in eie no action for a 2025 ordinance no future discussions scheduled but there is interest in exploring other avenues for establishing economic equity okay I got the pretty easy part next I'm going to hand it off to Pam to walk us through this ordinance thank you Taylor so this evening you'll be considering

[43:00] draft ordinance 8664 and I will walk through a couple of illustrations of the main components of that ordinance this will be the potential motion language that we just like to show a couple times throughout the presentation essentially at a high level this ordinance 8664 will establish a new chapter of the boulder Revised Code that would establish a minimum wage for the city this first graph that we have presented to you represents a comparison between what is contained within ordinance 8664 in terms of a wage schedule alongside other lines in the region so beginning from the bottom of the chart you will see a very dark green line that dark green Green Line represents the escalation of the current

[44:00] state of Colorado's minimum wage directly above that we have Illustrated the trajectory of the proposed city of Boulder ordinance in purple or at least it looked purple when we made this slide um so you can see there um that the next increased uh wage in the region would be that proposed ordinance then moving above that line in a yellowish you can see the path of the current Boulder County minimum wage and where it is headed over the next six years above that you can see a light green line that represents um the community of Edgewater and then finally in red you can see the city of Denver's current minimum wage ordinance and where it rests in terms of hourly rage wage next slide hourly rage that's G to anyway okay this next slide presents the table

[45:02] of wages in raw numbers in terms of the hourly rates of those same wages so at the very top of this chart again you can see that state Baseline which in 2025 the minimum wage for the state of Colorado that no community may go below is $14.8 then beneath that you can see the numbers of the draft ordinance 8664 this would entail an 8% increase to the minimum wage from our current Baseline over the next three years followed by an index to inflation thereafter so you can see in 2025 this ordinance would establish a minimum wage of $15.57 beneath that you can see the projected minimum wages for 2025 for Boulder County at $16.57 city of Denver at

[46:03] $18.84 and the city of Edgewater at $16.52 next slide so the previous two images really were that view of the wages themselves as outlined in our draft ordinance as Taylor mentioned there is an outstanding policy issue that did did not reach Council consensus when we had our study session and subsequent discussions and so as a result due to the state legislation's silence on the matter of unemancipated minors we have drafted an ordinance that does exempt them as allowed under the state ordinance essentially this means that for unemancipated miners so miners still serve as dependents in their families they would not have the minimum wage applied to their work the second option that we can make

[47:01] based on your direction is not to exempt on emancipated Miners and apply the minimum wage as established to all persons and then finally there is a third path that would allow Council to apply the minimum wage to all persons but identify specific exceptions for certain types of Youth Employment and so we anticipate this being a component of 's discussion following the public hearing tonight okay so what I have just presented to you are the main components of the ordinance 8664 itself now I'm going to switch gears just a little bit to share with you some updated numbers related to the fiscal impact to the city as an employer itself these numbers have been updated based on the specifications of the draft ordinance and are different from what was presented to you as a model during our study

[48:01] session so based on the terms of our current draft ordinance the three-year 8% increase along with an exemption for unemancipated miners the budgetary impact is reduced from the model that you saw in late August from us because for the purposes of the 2025 budget and our initial conversations we did model as conservatively as possible in essence we have budgeted for the most expensive of minimum wage options already and now your policy decisions will um rest somewhere below that so as you can see um in the short term in 2025 if the draft ordinance were to pass as written the direct impact to City finances which would account for specific wage increases as well as for accommodating the concept of compression which is ensuring that those to supervise minimum wage positions are at a reasonable

[49:00] distance in salary away from those that they supervise that impact in the Parks and Recreation Fund in 2025 would be an increase of about $76,000 over time as you can see as wages would rise additional funds would feel an impact to a minimum wage increase including our open space fund as well as our utilities fund and so you can see here over time that um those those impacts grow and are ongoing expenses and here again for your consideration is that motion language um so that it's at the ready whenever you may need it at this point my presentation of the draft ordinance is complete and we would take questions of coun from Council of staff and then transition into our public hearing all right thanks so much Pam and Taylor

[50:00] really appreciate all of that information it's very helpful any clarifying questions for City staff Nicole than so much for the presentation the recap and the additional information for us tonight I just have a couple questions um so uh council member foler Lauren um proposed an amendment through hotline and if we were to follow her proposed rates just looking at the graph you showed a few minutes ago is am I correct that we would match the city of Edgewater the county of Boulder and the City and County of Denver in about two years on January 1st 2027 we anticipated this question and so we have a slightly modified graph here to show you to confirm those details um and so where you can see the um now light blue line um that sort of ends up third from the top on the far right of that graph that is a rep representation of that um model that was submitted over

[51:01] hotline and so you do see the convergence then of um the 15 8.5 and match Denver proposal you see that by 2027 those would align So within a few pennies we'd kind of be with others in the region correct okay thank you um and then my other question uh the ordinance in our agenda is different from anything that was explored in our economic analysis and the extensive Eng Eng agement we did um do we have any information on how this modified ordinance will impact the outcomes of either the economic analysis or the engagement conclusions the way I would answer that is that we did not have time to do a full study of the new um Arrangement however if you think back to some of the scenarios that were modeled essentially the takeaway is the smaller the magnitude of wage increase the smaller the magnitude of impact to those affected by it and so um what you would

[52:00] see um in relation to some of those charts that were presented is that by only increasing by 8% over the next three years you would see um a lower number of folks um being lifted out of poverty but you would also see a lower number of businesses being adverse um experiencing Financial challenges based on the wage increase great can I call on that question sorry it was back on there it is um I just wanted to follow up on on Nicole's question um regarding the study wasn't the study also based on it being a regional minimum wage increase and so even though we may have had unique scenarios you know having a different one here really is not really directly comparative because we're the only ones acting and it's not the study was based on a region acting and since that's not happening we're a little you know we're a little challenged in being able to make those direct assertions is that

[53:01] correct I believe that sounds correct yep two quick sorry two quick questions um I was confused in the uh staff memo um for the states that are listed as quote no law regarding wages for unemancipated minors unquote does that mean they they may uh be paid less than the minimum wage or may not it wasn't clear to me you're referring to the attachment on states with different laws on unemancipated minors um so if they have no laws on them then I would imagine that they would just follow whatever the minimum wage is or there might be local policies or or County policies that govern how minors are treated specifically on emancipated miners look to Teresa to see if she feels like that right right that's right cuz it just looks at the state

[54:01] level so it doesn't look there's a lot of like local policym around that I'm I'm just suggesting it would be useful to understand what those states are doing uh and whether they're permitting un unemancipated minors to be paid less or not and and just from the the language I was unclear as to what the answer was my recommendation Mark is um why don't we take a moment to pull that back up and refresh our own memories and bring you that answer back following the public hearing that's fine and my my other question is um what's the particular relevance of comparing Boulder to the city of Edgewater versus Longmont Lafayette Erie and other cities like that yes thank you for that question so Edgewater and Denver are the and now Boulder County as of this year are the only communities that have chosen to adopt local minimum wages thus far so every other one of those communities you mentioned would simply fall under the state of Colorado wages got it thank

[55:00] you all right I'm not seeing any other raised hands so I think we're ready to go to the public hearing all right thanks everybody for coming out tonight we've got 51 people signed up to speak either in person or online uh because we have more than 15 people that will mean two minutes to speak for each speaker I'll call three names at a time and so if you're in person if you can start coming down towards the front when you hear your name first called that would be much appreciated and our first three speakers are Ashley Rumble Aaron Shannon and Marjorie Macintosh I just go yeah you're number one get started do I have to press anything like a timer okay good evening uh my name is Ashley Rumble and before I begin I just want to clarify that I'm here today testifying in my personal capacity and not on behalf of my employer the emergency family assistance association tonight I urge city council to increase minimum wage by 15% in

[56:01] 2025 and to create a path to catch up with Denver the current proposal of 8% is inadequate given the current need in the community growing up I witnessed my father's small ski rental business Thrive as a result of providing wages above the minimum and benefits to his seasonal employees he didn't have to do this but it was his commitment to fairness and respect that resulted in decades long employee loyalty and a strong business like my father you have a similar choice you have the opportunity to uplift local or uplift workers and in doing so strengthen our Boulder Community for the past decade I've served as development director for EA Boulders local safety net organization and in that time I've watched more and more that we're helping families who are facing chronic poverty as a result of low wages in this high cost

[57:00] Community while 3,700 caring individuals support our work individual charity alone cannot fix the structural inadequacies of our labor market the safety net frankly is struggling to keep up with the demand effa and our donors alone cannot substitute for fair wages we need you to take action I believe it's a matter of principle no one should have to work full-time and still live in abject poverty so again I appeal to your sense of fairness and your compassion and your sense of human dignity I seek that you increase minimum wage by 15% and help lift thousands of local workers and their families out of poverty thank you thank you and I uh forgot to mention I am going to be strict about the two-minute time limit just in the issue of uh fairness for all of our speakers so now we have Aon Shannon marjerie McIntosh Julie van dumin good evening Council uh my name is

[58:00] Aaron Shannon pronoun she hers I'm the director of education at Safe House Progressive Alliance for nonviolence um I've worked with survivors of DV in Boulder for the last 11 years um and it's widely recognized that 99% of uh victims of DV experience some form of financial abuse which can look like of course an abuser controlling finances but it's also um purposefully ruining someone's credit or dragging someone through civil court again and again draining resources um survivors tell us all the time that concerns about being able to provide for themselves and for their families um is a top reason why they'll stay with an abuser or return to an abuser um the city of Boulder is seen a 25% increase in DV um and just in 2024 we've supported 1,094 adults and children impacted by violence um requests for counseling legal Housing Shelter services are all

[59:02] up in the city of Boulder um and this in part is due to the lingering economic impacts of the pandemic and just the inability to access affordable housing um I urge you to bring back the higher proposal of an initial 15% increase now in order to directly support the self-sufficiency of those in our community most vulnerable to violence I also want to add that as an employer um span has made the choice to provide living wages for our staff of about 40 people and we've only seen a positive impact um despite you know the fears often expressed over raising wages and the needing to terminate um employees we see a greater staff retention and that allows us to just provide a better and better service to um victims of violence in our community so again hope the city can do the same by considering a 15 % increase now um followed by the 8 and a half% over the

[60:00] next coming year so thank you so much for your time I appreciate it than thank you now we have Marjorie McIntosh Julie van dlin and commissioner CLA Levy good evening my husband and I have lived in Boulder since 1970 I encourage you to support an increase in the minimum wage of 15% in 2025 and 88.5% in each of the following two years Boulder Prides itself for valuing the well-being of all its residents raising the minimum wage is an effective way to implement that ideal especially at a time when County and City support for nonprofits is dropping sharply as you well know our lowest paid workers cannot afford to support their families even if they have two full-time jobs if you raise the minimum wage 15% the first year and 88.5% thereafter Boulder will catch up

[61:02] with the county and with Denver as in 2027 as you have heard the alternative plan an 8% increase for three years is better than nothing but after inflation it will bring only a slight Improvement to the paychecks of minimum wage workers the 8% plan means that our Boulder workers will still own still earn nearly $2 less per hour than in Denver by 2027 do not accept the borderer chamber's argument that not increasing the minimum wage at all would do no harm the harm is already happening every year you refrain from significantly raising the wage means that workers at the bottom of our economy fall farther behind further ample research shows that nearly all small businesses adapt to paying a higher wage and profit from improved worker

[62:00] retention many of you campaigned on increasing the minimum wage please do so now and with a sufficiently large raise that will actually improve the lives of those workers who provide services on which all of us rely thank you thank you now we have Julie van dlin CLA Leia and Maria mestas I have a present a I think yeah um hi I'm Julie van dlin I'm the executive director at effa here in Boulder and I do speak for the organization um as you know effa supports a higher local minimum wage for the city of Boulder we continue to see record levels of need coming into our food bank record numbers of families losing their housing um unfortunately is it a time when the safety net is Contracting uh the end of covid funding we've seen SE a we've been announced a significant cut of County Human Service funding last week that

[63:01] will affect residents of the city across all of those agencies that get County funding and last week's budget hearing here showed that it will be flat funding for the Human Services um so uh not good um it's a pretty favorable economic period overall inflation has come down unemployment is low we're not in a recession keep hearing the wonderful things that the CU Buffs are bringing to to town in terms of people um but I want to ask two things in your deliberations tonight first that you seriously consider next slide a more robust First Step it's been mentioned that um lower wage jobs have not kept up with inflation over the last two to three years that you've been deliberating and studying this issue so we're behind second um this is the most consequential and targeted action you can take towards equity and racial equity in particular that will reach thousands of people and we'll better meet the moment that we're seeing as many of our nonprofits are

[64:00] saying and you've got a letter from a bunch of us um the last I didn't know staff was going to have your great graphs so I um did one myself the last slide please and if while you're looking at this this is what you are seeing there's a convergence at 2027 that lets you have a decision point if you raise 15% I think I did eight and eight where you could actually decide in three years what that Future Path looks like if you are um timid now you it will be harder to make those decisions later about catching up with Denver about the county so please consider that first step thanks thank you now we have Claire Levy Maria mess and Doug Hamilton okay good evening uh the bould Boulder County Commissioners are asking Boulder City Council to support the lowest paid workers in our County by aligning the city's local minimum wage with the counties beginning with a 14.9% increase over 202 uh in 2025 over the

[65:01] state's 2024 minimum wage and an 8.55% increase in 2025 and 20 I'm sorry 2026 and 2027 for hourly rates of 1657 1799 and 1953 respectively Regional alignment or one wage for all of Boulder County benefits the most workers in the long run and we are hopeful that other towns and cities will join an aligned City and County local minimum wage next year the county and our nonprofit Partners continue to see a high demand for social services like food assistance eviction prevention and housing just to name a few as the uneven recovery from covid-19 becomes even more evident it is our lowest paid workers that are being hit the hardest by Rising costs and the reduction in covid-19 relief funds and it is our lowest paid workers that will benefit the most from a local minimum wage conversations between the county towns and cities began after the state made a local minimum wage possible in

[66:02] 2019 but this potentially significant structural change was delayed by the pandemic you have the opportunity to significantly approve improve outcomes for so many of your residents your consultant's report showed that aligning the city with the county would result in less than a 1% decline in current employment while providing increased earnings to 8% of currenty employees and lifting 481 people out of poverty we urge you to join us in responding to the very real need to increase wages for our lowest paid workers and thank you for your time this evening thank you commissioner now we have Maria mes Doug Hamilton and Brad Heap good evening uh my name is Maria mestas I work at EA however I do not represent EA I'm just asking uh speaking for myself um I'm here asking you to vote to raise the minimum wage 15% in 2025 and create a path to catch up with

[67:01] Denver in the next few years uh the current proposal of an 8% increase is not enough um I I'm the food bank coordinator at effa where uh my responsibility is to enroll new people in our program this work has given me firsthand exposure to those in our community who are most affected by um our current minimum wage daily I hear stories from our neighbors who are working so hard to provide for themselves and their children and show incredible resilience to keep a roof over their head and food on the table Unfortunately today a full-time job is no longer a guarantee that a family's needs will be met this increase would not fix that but it would be a step in the right direction some of the people that I meet with every day are working full-time they are in subsidized housing they have food stamps they have Medicaid um they somehow find a time in their week to come to F food bank and even then that's still not enough to meet their basic needs um um I don't know how they can be expected to make the time to advocate for an increase when they are

[68:00] doing all that stuff every day I'm here today representing those who do not have the privilege to be able to speak directly to you as you see me standing here please imagine the 400 Plus members of our community that I meet with every week conveying the same message which is to please not delay this further and act now to increase the minimum wage 15% in 2025 thank you thank you now we have Doug Hamilton br Heap and ctin metf okay I'm going to try to keep my uh comments less than a minute so um I want you to support the foler Amendments um the County Commissioners are brave and I hope you also support the the County Commissioners uh minimum wage um the one thing I want to speak about is un uh emancipated minors we should not exempt they should be included in the minimum wage that everybody else gets um we don't know why uh miners are working but Mo the one reason we do know is because um they

[69:03] need the money and uh miners you know the one thing money gives miners is independence and um they can do things like school programs my neighbors and my kids play for their own school programs with their own money they can do things like um field trips all these things all they can do they can do it all without having to ask their parents for it um there's lots of kids working in this community um and they're working for the money and they need it um and it takes the burden off their parents so U do not exempt them from the minimum wage thank you thank you now we have Brad Heap cinee meta and Andrew Jones good evening um I'm speaking on behalf of my restaurant Salt um everyone that works at Salt is a part of my family and I make sure that everybody gets well taken care of uh currently everybody on my staff makes $23 an hour all the tips are pulled and distributed

[70:01] distributed throughout the entire restaurant including excluding salaried managers and myself um I know that pulling the minimum wage lever is the easiest way to put more money in people's hands for the low-wage workers however there are other uh Alternatives such as subsidies for rents ways to work on affordable housing I think you can only ask um The Golden Goose to give so much and uh I'm very concerned about the future of my restaurant if this is to go up um the future of my livelihood that I've I'm not going to read off the script anymore I just you know I'm very concerned about the future of my ability to keep my restaurant running right now um I have friends that have restaurants in Denver and their labor has gone up 10% effectively eliminating the profit margin and if we go too aggressive with a minimum wage increase um you know I'm very fearful for what's going to happen I know that there's um a lot of unintended consequences I looked at taking over a restaurant in

[71:01] nwat that was put up for lease for sale and I did all the Performing numbers on it um and with the County's numbers uh for the first two years uh we were making profit uh the second two years 28 and 29 we were down to about a 2% margin and then 2030 we were break even at best and that's with everything going well and I I changed the service model I did everything I could possibly do right now nwat is uh without a restaurant and you know maybe that's a rich person problem but I think we all deserve to have our uh our voices heard I think that's a very real commentary I really wanted to bring my restaurant back to nwat I wasn't able to do it and I work the numbers I'm not an economist but I'm a businessman I understand that you can only pay so much and you know I I think it's unfortunate that people aren't not making enough money in our community your time's up but thank you for your testimony I think we have a a question for for you yeah I do have a question I was really intrigued you said um you're currently paying $23 an hour for your employees

[72:02] plus tips and I'm just curious I didn't say plus tips oh okay I'm sorry including tips oh including tips and that's for the lowest paid lowest PA employees that's what they're making okay got it thank you yeah great our next three speakers are cartine metf Andrew Jones and Lindsay lber good evening um gosh I'm so touch with all these impassioned speakers because I have been on on both ends and I think Boulder has changed in incredibly in the last 10 years um and I have to tell you as a first responder for 26 years I don't know what makes anybody think that they could not fall into this place this is a reality you all could be up here saying oh please could I have like $2 more just to pay my bills it happens it happens nobody is above that I've been a

[73:00] homeowner in Boulder I've owned three homes which were you couldn't give them away and now you can't you can't buy them um my first job in Boulder back in the day paid about $2 an hour plus tips at the Harvest House uh and the increase over 50 years has been about two cents a year hello do you want us to serve Boulder as the people who care people who go home to their states and say wow the people in Boulder really care the employers care the people who work their care sorry I got really impassion statistically Boulder County ranks six of the highest median income in Colorado twice as high as Denver ranked 12 yet Denver's minimum wage is up there what's the difference is it like I have money and you

[74:00] don't throughout my decades in Boulder 95% of my jobs have been with locally owned businesses and these businesses have made a point to take care of their employees which as some of these business owners have stated creates loyalty so all I can say is we're the plebian Workforce look the word up if you don't know thank you thank you now we have Andrew Jones Lindsay lerg and Sandra mono Palma is Andrew here now uh still I don't think Andrew is here so I think we're going to go to Lindsay lerg next um mayor before before my time starts can I ask a question about the interpretation clarification on interpretation it's it's going now for the public comment too okay um I just want to note that it's like 1 minute 15

[75:00] seconds to two minutes for um thoughtful intentional English to Spanish interpretation um so it would be nice like on the sign up page to have a note about that just so we can plan on less time to speak slowly enough okay point taken thank you hi um I'm Lindsay lerg I'm here to encourage you to approve a minimum wage increase that keeps Pace with Denver and has no age restrictions I'm one of the directors of Boulder food rescue we're a local food access nonprofit that employs 11 people and our lowest paid staff member is paid more than $25 per hour right now and we've accomplished this by prioritizing wage equity and placing limits on pay disparities between our highest paid staff and our lowest paid staff and if our small nonprofit can do it we think that other businesses can do it

[76:00] too um that's not to say it's been easy in fact it's been really challenging and one reason it's been really challenging is because the demands on the Human Service nonprofits are massive um they're unrealistic they're unsustainable in the ways that you know people who represented other nonprofits were talking about and those burdens are ultimately felt um by our sector's workers um and by the participants of these programs so um there are two main reasons that's the case employers pay wages that are below what it costs to live um and what workers deserve and two because social safety nets in the US are insufficient um so let's put number one in perspective if we're talking about what one adult with one child needs to live in Boulder we need to be talking about wages that are more in like the $33 an hour range um and those numbers are from 2022 they're not from this year

[77:01] um so um social safety nets are insufficient and this is why concerns about benefit Cliffs benefits Cliffs are best addressed by more aggressive increases um there aren't enough of the benefits available for the need affordable housing um the qualification amounts are too low um far too low for the number of people who need them Medicaid um your time's up but I'll email you the rest thank you thank you now we have Sandra manop Palma Aiden Reed and Katie Faron I will speak in Spanish I mean Spanish will be a translation for me yes go okay uh we'll go to Aiden read we'll

[78:00] come back to you right good evening Council my name is Aiden my pronouncer he him and I'm here to urge you to raise Boulders minimum wage to be in line with Denver's by 2027 starting with a 15% increase in 2025 uh followed by an 88.5% increase in 20 excuse me 15% increase 2025 followed by an 8.5 increase in nope that's wrong 50% increase 2024 prob % increase in 2025 and 2026 to be on track with Demers by 2027 and increasing with inflation after 2027 further I urge you to not exclude unemancipated minors from the increases the people who will benefit most from this increase are not just ice cream scooping teenagers they're working moms and dads they are senior citizens and they make our lives possible providing the services that we don't want to in a few short weeks we will vote to raise council's minimum council's pay to be 40% of area median income for counselors and 50% for the mayor Boulder's current minimum wage

[79:01] imagine if those numbers were based on Boulder's current minimum wage rather than its area median income I cannot imagine you would be enthusiastic about that I urge you to listen to your constituents raise Boulder's minimum wage to be in line with denur by 2027 thank you thank you Sandra we want start hello good afternoon to everyone first of all before anything else I would like to thank God for the blessings of my life I would like to start by um the of my testimony by saying I am Sandra Mano and I'm a mother and I have a

[80:01] two-year-old almost three-year-old child I would like to give thanks to God and to my family for the Independence that I was able to achieve on August 2nd 2023 because of my mental health condition and my benefits and I began I got strength and willp and I was able to get a job and I got minimum wage at the beginning and I was working minimum hours and then I worked up to 40 hours

[81:04] and now my question is I'm not able to achieve my goal because I earn minimum wage and I'm not able to support my family and I've had come to you all and also to the municipal court to be able to work to support myself on a minimum wage and we all um need to be able to be happy and we're prepared to have all that we need to be able to live in peace and to be able to support ourselves in which thank you very much to everyone

[82:02] much okay now we have Katie farnon Kristen Eller and Alejandra batty thank you uh my name is Katie Faron I'm here to ask you to vote for the 15% minimum wage increase in 2025 I read Lauren fart's piece in the Daily Camera and it inspired me to come today I haven't been here in in a while first of all the title the fact that we have people in Boulder working 9 to5 and they still can't make ends meet here um and there's no way for them to live on their wages here and then this part quote Denver's cost of living is 15% lower than Boulders and it's 2024 minimum wage is 27% higher than ours we need to do the 15% for 2025 to account for inflation and then 88.5% to get to where Denver is by 2027 and there shouldn't be exemptions for unemancipated miners young people who are employed here should be a part of the pool including

[83:00] them helps families overall I I spend all my time in Boulder I do all my shopping in Boulder my kids go to school here when my son needed care this summer he got that care from the hospital here in Boulder and all of these places that make Boulder livable for us employ in in part or in hold hourly workers now a lot of those places pay competitive wages but the Baseline pay the minimum wage being $14.42 an hour means that a lot of the jobs that we all in this room rely on the jobs that are being done right now are are being done by people who are not making ends meet that's not okay and we have to do something so a middling increase that is swallowed up by inflation won't move the needle and I really want you all because I know you care about workers to really do a meaningful make a meaningful vote and

[84:02] that's why I support the 15% minimum wage our economy doesn't work unless it works for everyone so please vote on the stronger minimum wage increase thanks thank you now we have Kristen Eller Alejandra bat and Caleb Robertson hi Council first I wanted to say that I don't need to repeat the exact words of what everyone else has said in terms of where we should be I believe in the three things are proposed in fit's Amendment and I think specifically we need to make sure that we meet Denver's minimum wage by 2027 we can't go slower we need to be able to meet it where they are because I know we can do it how we treat our minimum wage workers and the people that make the lowest wage within our city directly reflects how we view our city and how we view Our People by supporting the minimum wage workers we want to ensure that people can live and work in our city of Boulder can raise families on this wage something I

[85:00] specifically wanted to call out is that I think we all recognize how much work you all do and that's why we understand that you aren't currently compensated adequately that's why there will be a question in that ballot to give City Council Members a living wage and now con your constituents are flipping that and asking the same of you are saying that they currently are not making an adequate amount to live in in Boulder and to be able to raise children and not live within poverty we're not even trying to ask to raise to an adequate living wage we're specifically just asking to raise the minimum wage above what it is now so with the roles RSE will you support the needs of the people that you represent thank you thank you now Alejandra batty Caleb Robertson and Anna kasaar all right hi everybody thank you Council Alejandra B she her pronouns I am president for the Boulder area labor council rep representing a couple

[86:00] thousand families in your area uh as well as a member of the Coalition for self-sufficiency wage I know a letter was dropped off uh earlier today I'm sure you've had plenty of time to read all of your emails um reiterating our position we're excited to participate with you all in this historic moment uh it's really great and heartwarming to see Boulder making the step to support your workers uh we urge you though to consider the folkart amendment because of all of the challenges that are happening at at this economic levels we need to help workers and I'm excited to continue to help workers in this area help them build unions help them get better wages but this is we need to start with this basic this is the one key that you all have I will also very excited to hear that the Boulder County Dems last night voted unanimously to support exactly telling everybody all electeds to urge follow the lead of the

[87:02] Boulder County Commissioners and get with everybody together so that we are supporting the entire County I'm paraphrasing just a little bit there um so really excited about what's going to happen here and really looking forward to working with all of you I will say that yes for minors everybody deserves a living wage when we start to see wages get actually towards a living wage let's figure out some programs I love apprenticeship programs that's a good way to do that but let's not underpay people just because of their age let's figure out other programs that help folks instead appreciate your time thank you everyone thank you now we have Caleb Robertson Anna Casa Siara and Len Harris hello all my name is Caleb Robertson I'm a cu buff and I'm currently have a job in Boulder where I make minimum wage I've been working since I was 15 I've worked in Tennessee

[88:01] and I've worked in Colorado Springs in Tennessee I made 725 an hour in Colorado Springs I made 11 12 and $13 an hour so it's safe to say I've made paychecks and I've attempted to pay bills on those paychecks I would like to present you guys with the choice the choice that I make I can choose to allocate all of my money towards my tuition or I can choose to allocate my money to housing costs but it's a important to express I cannot do both I'm not asking you for a handout I'm asking you to deliver me the tools for me to work through my school and additionally I think it's important to highlight that everybody here today that's arguing for the affirmative is not asking for a handout we're simply asking for tools and I would like to uh thank uh the city officials for their presentation the business owner from before and everybody else speaking today um I would also support the incorporation of

[89:00] unanticipated M emancipated minors um that is why you should consider this proposition thank you thank you now we have Anna kasaar Len Harris and Canal mccab hello um thank you um first I want to say thank you for providing interpretation uh my name is Anna Karina kasaar I have lived in the city of Boulder for over 24 years my husband and I work in the city of Boulder and my children go to school here here in Boulder not in Lafayette not in Lon not here today I'm here to ask you to raise the minimum wage in the city of Bolter my family came to the US in 1999 my mother came here escaping an abusive marriage throughout the years she has been she has had many jobs and at times held multiple jobs to be able to make against

[90:00] meet in the early 2000s she worked for a small business in Boulder she was the only employee at first at this job she was getting paid minimum wage sometimes she worked 12 hours a day over time that she was not getting paid for her wages were being stolen and she was also sexually abused by the by this by this guy I'm telling you this story natu you can feel sorry for her or to victimize her she is the strongest woman that I know I am telling you this story because this happens every day to people in my community in our community and sadly those businesses that pay minimum wage for their personal gain also tend to abuse their employees it is unjust that a a segment of our community has to make less than 15 an hour hold multiple jobs leave poverty and go to food banks so others can live well I am telling you this not to victimize my community but

[91:01] to remind you that no matter the conditions we are there doing the work we contribute immensely to our local economy um so you need to act now not 8% for three years it's not enough so you need to propose and pass an ordinance that increases the minimum wage 15% the first year and 8.5 the next two years thank you thank you now we have Lynn Harris Connell McCabe and David Schwarz good evening thank you so much for letting me speak today um my name is len Harris I'm the young worker and Community organizer for the Colorado AFL CIO it represents 180 unions and over 130,000 workers across the state of Colorado about 2,500 of those workers are in Boulder I'm here tonight to ask you to support the proposal to raise the boulder minimum wage according to the furtz amendment um 15% in 20 for 2025

[92:02] and then 8.5 for the remaining three years or two years apologies I've seen the impact the increased cost of living in Boulder has had on the ability of our members to cover their basic needs and still live and work here but I also have a personal connection to this issue I used to live in Boulder oh my gosh I'm trying to edit my document at the same time this is the worst okay um I I used to live in Boulder but I was Cur I was priced out because of rising cost and stagnant wages if someone like me struggled to make ends meet and at the time I was not on minimum wage how could someone possibly do that at 1442 an hour now I was happy when the state finally allowed cities to set their own minimum wage in 2019 which is the law that was tailor made for Boulder since our cost of living is so much higher than the rest of the state as we heard earlier today our City's minimum wage should be increased to reflect that reality the longer wages stay low the faster communities erode if workers cannot

[93:01] afford to stay and or commute they leave businesses leave waterfall effect as a union organizer working with businesses is our priority if we don't have a place of business we don't have a job we are actively working on helping bolster businesses while not allowing the life of that business the workers be primary victims of the consequences we know that people in our city more lik ly to make low wages are disproportionately women and people of color if the council votes to increase the minimum wage starting next year until it reaches 1952 and hour by 2027 it would be a much-needed step that will meaningfully increase the opportunity for these communities starting January 1st 2025 please raise the wage thank you so much thank you oh um can I approach the clerk to sure go ahead and leave something up here now I have Connell McCabe David Schwarz and Peter Krauss do I press a button or is it going good evening I'm a physicist at CU and a proud Irish immigrant in Boulder I

[94:03] give half my wages to a local business my landlord H still I make two and a half times the minimum wage so I'm lucky by comparison I've heard concerns about what might happen when cities raise their minimum wage take Denver for example when they increase their minimum wage there are fears that employment rates would drop compared to neighboring cities many of our local businesses in town work on razor thin margins and they might argue that they cannot afford an increase given Boulder relies mostly on sales tax for most of its budget this would be quite concerning when Denver Rose its minimum wage employment declined more than the state average you might wonder if the business has suffered after all if wages are raised those minimum wage workers are off on holidays luxury and Aspen Ski and the like you know Denver sales tax revenue actually grew more than its neighboring cities and the Colorado Department of L labor and educa and employment say that the service industry sales tax revenue

[95:01] increased 85% even accounting for Co bounceback compared to neighboring cities those minimum wage workers in Boulder if they see an increase will spend it here on Essentials contributing to our local economy now if we're debting exempting miners due to inexperience shouldn't we do the same for senior workers they've cognition the decline slower reflexes the like of course these are complete stereotypes so why do we do the same for minors do not use someone's age who will use their wage to pay for their tuition at CU or help their family out as a justification to lower their wage support including minors in this minimum wage increase I applaud the city council and the staff and they've done you've done a great job in considering all the angles but raising the minimum wage in line with the folur amendment for all work workers regardless of age is the rational decision thanks million thank you conell next up we have

[96:00] David Schwarz followed by Peter Krauss and Dave query good evening council members I'm the Reverend David Schwarz minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder the current minimum wage doesn't come close to providing the resources a person needs to live and because of that my church steps up just like all the religious communities in the city and I have a letter from other Faith leaders to share after my remarks we step up we run food drives and clothing drives and toy drives we help with rent and grocery cards and Health Care bills and gas money and when we do this your Social Service organizations you've heard from them your religious communities are filling in the gap between the wage that's being paid and what a person actually needs to live that is to say we are subsidizing employers who pay their workers too little to live on that shouldn't be our

[97:00] problem to solve for you the church I serve like all of the religious communities in town works for the full flourishing of our members and as an employer we've chosen to provide a living wage to all our employees above what's contemplated here I don't want my team to scrape by I don't want my community my neighbors to scrape by you don't either the inact action of our neighboring cities gives you great cover to do nothing you could easily do like Longmont did and gather more data and get more input and delay for now and I get the impulse to dodge the question it's a difficult thing to balance the hopes and anxieties of your constituents but my job is less complex my job is to say simply and directly that it is unjust to allow employ employers to pay a wage that keeps people in poverty and unfair to expect religious communities and Social

[98:00] Service organizations to subsidize unjust pay I urge you to move as quickly as possible thank you thanks so much now we have Peter kuss Dave query and Evan rabbits your eyes don't glaze over just comes out of the fire hose dear mayor council and staff thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight my name is pizza Pete Krauss my Katie pie and I founded a restaurant in November of 2010 called ipai This is a story about the American dream someone wants to make America great again to make us great again we would have to be less than great now America is the land of opportunity The Shining Light On the Hill People flee criminality and structural oppression of their homelands hiking through jungles foring Rivers brazing rer Razer wire for a chance to be in America American exceptionalism is only an idea that if a person makes it to America works hard living below or within their means they can achieve Heights unimaginable in their homelands gratefully American exceptionalism and

[99:00] the American dream are alive and well as evidenced by the people attempting to cross our borders I met a first generation American this week his parents fled La after the Vietnam War around 1980 their Mong Vietnam War refugees when the Communists ascended to power they sought American collaborators to punish so they fled some of these political refugees ended up in Colorado the Man's parents came to the United states with their clothes on their backs penless upon arrival they worked tirelessly persevered thrived and are now enjoying gardening and cooking in their retirement their son works in a Colorado business running a computer that manufactures machine parts he is an educated industrious hardworking American and we are blessed to call him and his family our fellow citizens he stressed to me that the American dream is stronger than ever and achieving it is the result of hard work we are humanists that love people we started P to use our business to make the world a better place starting with the communities in which we live and operate we own a small business that enriches

[100:01] the lives of our staff we treat our staff with respect we pay them above average wages and we reward exceptional effort while the goal of minimum wages to ensure that people have a living wage it does have real life consequences of fueling inflation encouraging Automation and discouraging potential entrepreneurs from bearing the risk of founding businesses another path forward is imagining how we can your thank you for your toate and in your time is up Sir your time is up thank you all right we got uh now we got Dave query Evan ravitz and John T hello thank you all for your uh your work on this it's not an easy topic um very precarious I'm maybe the third person to speak um maybe in a different tone than what the previous speakers although I appreciate everything everyone has said and I've learned a lot tonight um no one wants restaurant workers to make more than restaurant

[101:01] owners we have a lot of longevity with our staff we take very very good care of our our people tip pooling is something that I'm not sure everybody understands so when we made the choice coming out of covid to go to tip pooling we decided that we were going to pay $3 more per hour because the minimum wage is $32 less than the tipped wage so by doing that our 800 employees the lowest is 24 an hour our Cooks who are usually our group of of people of color and in our kitchens are making 28 to $32 an hour and the tip pooling comes at a great expense to us to do the right thing so Boulder has always been an innovator and I have said this to many of you I hope that you can try and figure out a way to identify companies that are paying I give Lindsay and the work that she's doing at Food rescue huge props for paying her staff $25 an hour in a food rescue situation in a nonprofit it's

[102:02] really really tough but don't be fooled by just because Denver is doing this that it's working you were sent 16 articles that had hard facts of how it's not working in Denver how restaurants are failing how people are leaving and when that happens the very people you're trying to help will lose jobs sales tax revenues will fall and the entire social economic situation of Legacy restaurants will change and it'll be a longlasting very very formidable change the restaurant margins are tiny just because a restaurant's busy doesn't mean it's profitable and so it's a really really big thing for restaurants and again I applaud everything and every view everyone has in here thank you thank you now we have Evan rabbitz John te and Robert Lindgren s in the room all right John ter looks like you're up hello mayor council members I have I

[103:02] am John T president CEO of the boulder chamber I have two minutes to say five things um so first I'm going to start by applauding the process of analysis for the minimum wage um Taylor um Lauren great excellent job including um the business community and the analysis that was performed want to thank you for that that process um and I also want to make sure that it's clear clear that the concerns that have been addressed around the needs of our lower wage Workforce absolutely something that we share we look to always be supportive of those programs that lift our all of our residents um and that's why we as the boulder chamber proud to say that we were the only chamber across the state that supported the Statewide minimum wage increase in 2017 however I stand here today to asking you not to support the this minimum wage increase just for the city of Boulder it is the wrong tool it lacks the flexibility and we have examples of that first of all the example that had

[104:01] been demonstrated or spoken to by our restaurant Community uh the tip wage considerations that they have to uh work with every day means that they are paying more for the the uh restaurant for their waiters than they um than well above the minimum wage and it has a huge cost to their restaurants and if we we've seen in Denver they have lost significant restaurants about 184 restaurants net in one year since raising the minimum wage that's real impact we also see the impact to nonprofits that have a mission hiring individuals who have disabilities um they hire those individuals as part of their mission they will be forced to lay off these individuals because of the higher minimum minimum wage that they will not be able to afford um and the ultimate irony is the there this minimum wage increase will lift fewer people out of poverty than will be that will lose their jobs as a result of the minimum

[105:00] wage increase according to the the analysis um well okay time's up feel free to email us the rest of your test I will thank you all right now we've got um Robert lingren Amry Jensen and Laura Maguire right uh hello and uh thank you for the opportunity to speak my name is Robert lingren I'm a volunteer at the great kgnu radio here in Boulder and I'm with the Colorado AFL CIO um we're an organization of union members throughout the state and in the city of Boulder our members clean the Halls um of Cu help keep our keep our environment clean at the EPA and and clear the highways I'm here to speak and support of uh raising the minimum wage we heard from our phone bank community at the start of this and I think it's telling that they were the first to sign up to speak I grew up at the phone bank um I only realized later that my grandma Gloria had to spend so much time there because we got two uh boxes of food instead of one uh uh through our our volunteer it was much needed at the time and uh raising the minimum wage would have had a material

[106:01] benefit to to my my family with my mom's job at the tire shop at Montgomery Wards um also unanticipated minors uh working could be helping themselves or their families and contributing to the household at a necessity um I applaud you for taking action and I ask you to support an increase uh to 1952 by 2027 without a carve out for un un uh emancipated miners um and just to speak a little bit uh to the the restaurant um argument that we've heard um restaurants have been able to adapt uh to a a small increase uh measured increase to the minimum wage and the biggest challenge they have is that first year establishing a customer base and being able to uh really innovate and have something for their customers uh increasing the minimum wage uh could could make so that they're able to actually keep their workers longer and create a better experience for folks those those restaurants that innovate um

[107:00] those restaurants that have longevity are the ones that are able to to Really thrive in this sort of environment um like Boulder again thank you so much for your time and allowing me to speak please listen to kgnu radio thank you now we have an Marie Jensen Laura McGuire and Ley Garcia hi my name is anarie Jensen I am a regional affordable housing Advocate and a member of together Colorado to together Colorado is a faith-based organization where our leaders work and organize to create a society where everyone can Thrive without exception but right now one of the exceptions to thriving are the low wage workers in our community I've crossed out a whole bunch of what I've already written but um our Our Workers are effectively being paid less than workers in Sterling Yuma Alamosa you can start naming it because the cost of living is lower there and

[108:00] the wage is the same um I I know you heard from a lot of businesses but less visible than businesses are families and these families who are working two and three jobs the people who are suffering are the children the mental health of the people in those families we urge you to support the Boulder County proposal the amendment that is coming from uh council member folkerts and not to have an exception for young people you know those young people may be saving for school they may be supporting their family they may be as was mentioned taking the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities that'll give them an opportunity to get a better education so we encourage you to support the Boulder County proposal and make a difference a real difference for our families thank you thank you now we have Laura Maguire letti Garcia and Wana parka it's Laura Maguire

[109:03] here not seeing her so we'll go to letti Garcia good evening my name is latisa Garcia I have lived in I have lived in Boulder for 25 years and although I currently live outside the city limits my husband daughter and I work and do most of our shopping in the city of Boulder and the decisions that are made here affect us every day

[110:08] were a family of I'm sorry madam translator if you could get into the microphone more please we are a family of four my two daughters are in college one is already working on her master's degree with the goal of getting her PhD with the purpose of someday earning enough to be able to live an independent life she has been working at the same time and although they are professional jobs she does not earn enough to be able to live on her own because it is not enough

[111:02] when my husband and I came to this com country we both earned minimum wage my husband wor worked two jobs and I even worked up to three jobs to make ends meet today I no longer make minimum wage but I still work multiple jobs including my Mall cleaning business and I've hired hired a person to help me and I pay that person more than Dem minimum wage because I value people's work and I know how hard it is to live on minimum wage we who do who do not make minimum wage have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet imagine how the people who are making minimum wage are doing

[112:12] this is my testimony but I know the stories of many people in my community and since my work as a promo promotora with Centra mad allows me to reach the homes of many families and believe me the me and believe me that those businesses that tend to pay minimum wage also tend to abuse their employees they take advantage of the situation of the need in which our families our migrant Community find themselves listen to our voices and please please go back to the high proposal of raising the minimum wage 15% the first year and then 8.5% for at least the next two years or until we

[113:02] catch up to Denver Thank you very much and thank you for the interpretation gracias muchas gracias Sora now we have hanana parka Lorena safala and Peter Waters okay W parka is not here so we have Lorena safala schol [Music]

[114:00] Boulder good evening my name is Lorena Savala I'm a resident with Boulder I've lived here for 22 years my husband two of my daughters and I all work in Boulder and my youngest daughter goes to Centennial Middle School this is my first time testifying in front of city council and I am here to ask them to raise Boulder's minimum wage when my husband and I first came to this C country we earned minimum wage and he worked multiple jobs when we work worked multiple jobs in order to make against meat my husband would leave for work at 6:00 in the morning and returned after 11: at night he missed a lot of my daughter's childhood he did not see them

[115:01] grow up and even though today we no longer longer earn minimum wage we still have to work multiple jobs because the situation in the city has become more difficult everything costs more and keeps going up we have medical expenses and we have to help my oldest daughter pay for college both of my daughters are in college but one of them has has Daka and cannot

[116:02] access financial aid even though they both work they still live with us because they have minimum wages and even though they receive tips they could never live on their own in Boulder as a health promotora I know the story sacrifices and daily struggles of our immigrant Community we work hard physically and mentally exhausting jobs and receive the lowest wages it is clear that our community deserves much more recognition and

[117:11] support please return to the higher proposal you have of raising the minimum wage to 15% the first year and at least 8.5% the following two years in order to catch up to Denver thanks for the interpretation much graas all right our final two in-person speakers are Peter Waters and Kathy Partridge good good afternoon and thank you for hearing us out tonight um my name is Peter Waters I am the current owner of tiako and the the former owner of the former ruthies that we had to close last month um I'm here tonight to clarify the

[118:00] impact that this minimum wage is having on restaurants at the moment but I first want to thank you guys for hearing us out and uh for those of you that responded to my emails and met in person which is about half the council I'm really appreciated of your time um minimum wage is not livable wage it is just that it is the bare minimum and anybody who takes advantage of people for that should be ashamed of themselves here um I think that's the one thing we all have in common today that and we want what's best for our employees um which are citizens of this um beautiful amazing city um restaurants are doing their best right now it's coming off a very tumultuous time um tiako is an average siiz restaurant at about 50,000 labor hours per year the proposed increases would have a first year cost on the 8% increase of 59 ,500 to our for us to make up year two would be $129,000 for us to make up and year

[119:01] three would be $22,000 per year going forward and I imagine that number is only going to go up that we would somehow have to come up with um the most recent proposal of 15% increase would cause a increased in labor of $116,000 um Year One and9 $93,000 in year two um there's no doubt that we have an issue in this town with housing and other expenses um but minimum wage since it's been established sorry since the inflationary index has been established in Colorado has outpaced inflation um sadly Boulders rents and cost of living has even outpaced that by about 3x um there's levers and we're pulling the wrong one thank you very much thank you for your testimony all right last inperson speaker is Kathy Partridge good evening members of

[120:00] Boulder City Council my name is Kathy Partridge and I'm a leader of together Colorado Boulder County and I ask you to vote Yes to increasing the wage with no age restrictions the sudden passing of my dad left my mom suffering with dementia without her caregiver when we moved mom here to be near me I became acutely aware of how my family is dependent on minimum wage workers I experienced how Even in our quality Memory Care residences the high there is high turnover of service workers due to their minimum wage status this was debilitating to my mom because of a constant flow of unfamiliar faces for me it was hard to track what was going on with Mom from day to day the workers I interacted with who meant so much in my mother's life are earning the Statewide minimum this income fails to match the high cost of living in our area and doesn't recognize the high

[121:01] demands of these important jobs and I worry that if an unemancipated minim sub minimum wage is set that will tempt these corporations to turn these important jobs into a revolving door of short-term part-time jobs that will cause further distress to our most vulnerable Elders please vote Yes on The Spar folks Amendment and increase the city's minimum wage to 1558 an hour in 2025 and uh with and ending at 1952 in 2027 with no discrimination because of age thank you thank you all right we're going to go to our first three virtual speakers now who are Lisa Sweeney Moran Mary faltinsky and Lynn seikel hi I'm Lisa Sweeney Maran CEO of Haven Ridge homeless shelters I want you to understand how intense the need really

[122:01] is we have people living in our shelters who are working at minimum wage and who literally can't afford to move out of a homeless shelter especially the single parents community members across our city are having to choose between food and diapers between housing and child care they don't just want a better increase they're desperate for it for example the average cost of an hour of daycare in the city is $188 to $22 an hour which is about 30% higher than our minimum wage before tax so what do we want do we want young families living here do we want a Vibrant Community with thriving schools and busy Parks or do we want a retirement village of wealthy homeowners who rely on a community Class A commuter class of workers it starts here with doing more for people making the least we cannot rely on nonprofits to do it all I know we're concerned about small businesses is Haven Ridge is a small business we employ about 15 people we pay more than what is proposed here to an all lived experienced staff and it

[123:00] hasn't been easy but it's been the right thing to do it can be hard to increase wages but we cannot balance our budgets on the backs of our staff so tonight I hope you'll do what's right and plan our increases so that we match the county or failing that so that we at least match Denver by 2027 additionally I hope you will not exclude miners from these increases so many of these young people are doing everything they can to support themselves or their families and they deserve our support in return thank you again for your commitment to our city and for making sure we don't go another year without doing what's right your work and your time are appreciated thank you now we have Mary faltinsky Lyn seagull and Eric Bud hello my name is Mary faltinsky and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight I wanted to talk about how this minimum wage vote that you're having isn't just Economic Policy it's social

[124:00] policy the National Bureau of economic research which is a 100-year-old nonpartisan research institution has reported that a $1 increase in the minimum wage is associated with a 10% increase in excellent health for household children that same dollar also decreases the risk that those household children will be in poor health um we know that 60% of minimum wage workers are women 44% of minimum wage workers are under 25 this means that a lot of children between the ages of zero and five are living in households where people make minimum wage th that this increase will make make a huge difference for their health and for their emotional health when we enroll people in our teen parenting program I ask them what do you want to do that's the same as your parents did

[125:00] and what do you want to do different and one of the most common things I hear that people say they want to do different is be able to spend more time with their children they say my parents were good parents but they had to work all the time they had to work two jobs and they weren't able to be home for us um so please increase the minimum wage and please do not exclude miners from any increases in the minimum wage the history of this lower wage for minors has its roots in the exploitation of child labor we don't want to be supporting exploitative policies in a progressive Community like Boulder thank you thank you now we have Lyn seagull Eric bud and Sophie Miriam [Music] let's go to the core let the developer pay we need

[126:03] decent impact fees in Boulder then none of these people will be testifying the way they are that it's so difficult and it's so expensive you know I saw that slide for 75,000 a year for parks and rec creation going up to 550,000 a year in a few years like the expenses of the city on the budget you know it's affecting us all of these things the health care is all these things are compounded in these costs and the developer needs to pay up impact fees I mean I see you people giving subsidies for Heights subsidies for parking reductions they're doing just fine they just need a little bit

[127:00] of returning back and making wealth equity which makes it better for everybody rental back Securities um they can wait and and um evict people so that they can raise the rent um Blackstone Vanguard all these huge corporations are buying up properties and throwing people out and making the rents Higher and Higher and the Parks and Recreation and the homeless and all of the city def functions are and all the indebtedness of the city up but thank you for your testimony now we have Eric Bud Sophie

[128:00] Miriam and Carl lapam uh thank you Council Eric bud I live in Boulder um I've spoken in support of raising the minimum wage several times in the past year so I'll keep this short um I really wanted to recognize everyone that showed up tonight um especially Boulders nonprofit and Faith communities I'm just so impressed at the work you all are doing and advocating for better wages for people it's just absolutely terrific and um I want to highlight um a couple endorsements of of a higher wage both um the Boulder County Democratic party and Boulder progressives have endorsed um supporting a rage a wage of $25 by 2030 and I know that's higher than being proposed here but I think it's it's really important to acknowledge that those organizations are fully behind um raising the wage um closer to what would be liveable in Boulder

[129:01] County and um the last thing I have to mention tonight is just something that's it's really been um unsettling to me during this public hearing and that's um the the only folks I've heard opposing um this measure tonight of the 40 speakers so far is has and white men and I'd like you all to sit with that alternatively um I have to say the supporters of increasing the wage tonight have been one of the most diverse set of people I have ever heard speak at city council and that's also notable so I would really like you all to support a higher ways than what's being proposed um support the excellent proposal from Lauren folkerts and um do not exempt un um unemancipated miners so thank you very much thank you now we have Sophie Mariam Carl lapam and low uh a

[130:06] Garcia good evening city council good evening city council my name is Sophie Mariam and I am a labor policy Analyst at the Colorado fiscal Institute Council should raise the wage with the folkart amendment a significant wage increase would benefit both business businesses and workers creating a win-win situation not only do multiple economic data sources show that businesses aren't harmed and workers see major benefits When the wage is increased but wage boosts have been shown to increase overall consumer spending and encourage more Equitable broad-based growth while helping close wage gaps facing historically marginalized groups like workers of color and women a new UC Berkeley study found that small businesses are able to adjust to minimum wage increases without seeing harmful side effects effects like having to cut jobs or rece profit losses in fact a higher wage makes it easier for them to recruit and retain workers

[131:00] which reduces return turnover rates and can increase productivity after raising its minimum wage Denver saw higher job growth earnings and sales tax revenues compared to the rest of Colorado as reported in 2023 by the Colorado department of labor and employment while restaurants and bars might worry about increased labor costs in leading to price hikes data shows that higher wages actually boost consumer spending particularly on food and drink outside of the home uh and Denver actually had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state after increasing the minimum wage the other Berkeley research suggests that higher minimum wages promote Fair competition and benefit the economy raising wages for the lowest earners and even boosting employment rates in some cases however unemploy un unemancipated minors should not be excluded already cfi's research has shown that child labor violations have increased in number and severity in recent years in Colorado by 58% since 2018 in fact creating a new layer of exemptions for young people sets a

[132:00] dangerous precedent and encourages to raise to the bottom in wages and working conditions for all low-wage workers a higher minimum wage will provide more financial resources to Working Families and Boulder should raise it your time is up but thank you for your testimony now we have Carl lapam lry Garcia and Michael Moss hi Council uh actually pardon us Carl we have a clarifying question for the previous speaker go ahead wonderful thank you um just wanted to clarify on the study that you're referencing just wanted to see if it was the 2024 Center on wage and employment Dynamics if so just wanted to clarify that that was specific to fast food workers not all workers correct or are you referencing a different study um one of the studies that I was referencing was that 2024 study however uh the Berkeley study was was a little

[133:00] bit broader okay you can feel free to email us the yeah I can email there's there's multiple studies that I refer that one thank you great thanks for Ching back in Sophie and Carl you're up now hi there uh my name is Carl lpam I'm the Boulder organizer for New Era Colorado um you've heard from community members organizers business people and Coalition folks tonight about the necessity of a higher wage increase at this point I am unsure that I could raise any novel point that hasn't already been addressed by the people that you represent so I'm going to keep this quick and to the point I understand the concerns around ra W raising the wage including the concern that this will negatively impact Boulder's many micro businesses and the concern that this will negatively impact bipo owned businesses at a disproportionate rate I ask you to consider more seriously the disproportional effect on bipo workers

[134:00] the reality is that the ridiculously low minimum wage and ridiculously high cost of living in Boulder is disproportionately affecting bipo workers now and it is doing so on a shameful scale raising the wage to match Denver's will stimulate our economy as shown in the recent economic analysis and more importantly it'll give mobility and freedom to groups facing dis proportionate economic struggle right now for a dessert I ask you not to abandon the next generation of community members stripping unemancipated minors of the right to make a fair wage speaks volume about the lack of respect value and Humanity held for our youngest community members and is not a message I would like to pass along ask yourselves if robbing young folks in your city for of the right to be justly compensated for the work that they do is one that you would like written on your time as civil servants thank you thank you thank you now we have lri Garcia Michael moss and Sophia

[135:01] Solano hi I'm Lori a Garcia and I'm a small business owner of 21st century do all LLC I contribute to the greater city of Boulder by means of a subcontractor I want to say thank you in collaboration uh collaborate effort with others within my community for allowing us to voice our opinion together that being said a major key factor in that an increase in minimum wage by no means should be mistaken as a handout to the blue collar workers with an increase in minimum wage there is also inflation and tax increases so with all three in combination there becomes a balance this balance creates a functioning economy since the 1960s minimum wage has not been kept up with has not kept up with cost of living paying people a livable wage is an economic development people with money spend money this fuels

[136:00] our economy this creates a good economical development once again we believe that this increase would keep families intact and create opportun opportunities the true cost of doing business this would be a positive cause with within we the people for the people are the people United We Stand thank you thank you now we have Michael Moss Sophia Solano and Isabelle Watson good evening thank you so much for giving us time this evening my name is m moss and I live in and around Boulder since 1993 and I currently own and operate Kilt Farm we Supply many local restaurants markets and the residents of the city of Boulder with organic produce at my farm I care about our employees and want them to be treated well and paid fairly our farm business exists with extraordinarily tight Financial

[137:01] margins the city of Boulder residents undeniably value local food and will pay a premium for it but there's a definite ceiling on what we can charge to help offset increase costs I currently pay all of my staff including those with little to no experience above the current minimum wage I do this so that I can attract enough highquality employees to operate the farm the marketplace for labor is driving the real world minimum wage higher due to limitations in the labor pool for positions such as mine Boulder County's decision to have an accelerated minimum wage moving to $25 an hour by 2030 is going to have a devastating impact on small businesses and Farms throughout the county I applaud the approach you're taking in the draft legislation it's a meaningful increase for our lowest wage workers over the next 5 years but may be reasonable and manageable for small

[138:01] businesses such as mine I ask you not to make the mistake of moving too far too fast like the Boulder County Commissioners which will severely impact the businesses that make the city of Boulder such a special place thank you for your time tonight thank you now of Sophia Solano Isabelle Watson and Hosea Rosenberg I do not see Sophia tonight all right let's go to Isabel Watson then good evening mayor Brockett and members of city council thank you for having us today and my name is Isabelle Watson and I'm here with the Colorado Working Families party to express our support and ask you to vote Yes on the spear and folkart Amendment an increase the minimum wage to 1658 an hour in 2025 and ending at 1952 an hour in 2027 with no discrimination because of

[139:00] Age We believe that every hardworking person in Boulder should be able to earn enough money to support themselves and their family but right now low wage workers in Boulder are being left behind many of these workers struggle from paycheck to paycheck to make ends meat often having to make impossible choices like putting food on the table or purchasing needed medication this growing income divide hits people of color and low-income communities particularly hard as rent housing and basic cost of living in our city continues to Skyrocket and workingclass wages stagnate we need to build an economy that respects working people the gentrification has many residents even struggling to M remain in this prospering city that they helped build we have to do more to make sure working families and small businesses and Boulder have the opportunities and tools they need to build a good life so please vote Yes and raise Boulder's minimum wage starting next year until it reaches 1952 an hour in 2027 with no exemptions by age thank you thank you now we have josea Rosenberg Jorge de Santiago and

[140:02] Colin Larsson um hello this is Hosea Rosenberg um thank you very much for the time and for allowing me to speak today um I am one of the few restaurant owners testifying today and um as you may guess I am opposed to to this uh the reason that I stand um I I waited so long to speak tonight was because um a lot of people do not understand the tipped minimum wage laws that we have to deal with as restaurant operators um we are forced to pay the minimum minus $3 if we choose to take the tip credit for all of our tipped employees um in my restaurants in Boulder everyone on my staff makes sign significantly more than the current minimum wage and more than the proposed minimum wage uh but that is because of tips and that is because of um a service fee that we apply to our kitchen employees by raising the minimum wage I

[141:02] have to raise the tipped minimum and some of my highest earners hourly employees who actually make more than many of my managers uh some top 40 50 and even $60 an hour on good solid rocking weekend nights are going to get a raise because of this and and the restaurants as my restaurants as many others do struggle uh just to find a profit margin and now I have to give a raise to people who are making significant money as hourly workers uh in Denver there are a lot of articles about this in how this has affected restaurants and without changing the tip credit laws and the overtime laws for restaurants it's really hard to stomach paying more for people who are making all of their wages and tips and don't actually need a raise um we bring vibrancy to our community we bring a lot to our community and we employ a lot of people in this community um I I am 100%

[142:02] for a living wage I am not for a minimum wage that only affects the top earners in the restaurant business so thank you for your time thank you now we have Jorge to Santiago Colin Larson and Charlie Brenan thank you good evening my name is my name is H Santiago and I am the executive director of Cent mad a local nonprofit organization that provides opportunities and programs that promote equity in health education and quality of life for the Latin community in Boulder County I have been living in Boulder since 1988 and I have experienced low wages leaving and working in Boulder since 1988 and that's why I want I want to ask Boulder City Council to support the increase of the minimum wage proposal to 15% in 2025 and then after that 88.5% the following two years and catch up with Denver by 2027 we aad witness or immigrant and

[143:00] bipar communities struggle to provide the basic needs to their families due to lower wages and this to me is a wage Equity issue living in Boulder a very wealthy community is unjust that a great percentage of community members are living in poverty and not able to get out of the hall these workers are the ones that keep Boulder alive financially speaking and they deserve the right to a decent living wage this is why I urge you to support the increase the minimum wage to 50% in 205 and then 88.5% the two years to catch up to them we are amistat pay our staff way more than minimum wage so please please do not use the nonprofits as excuse to not not raise the minimum wage bowler needs to walk the talk and bring Justice to the workers in the city of bowler thank you thank you now we have Colin Larson

[144:01] Charlie Brennan and peky leech yes hello thank you uh my name is Colin Larsson I am the government Affairs director for the car Restaurant Association uh here on behalf of the 152 member restaurants within the city of Boulder and the over 7,000 restaurants Statewide uh first off I do want to thank you for very thorough stakeholder process it truly is the gold standard um when you're looking at an issue as complicated and with as much Nuance as this and I applaud you for taking the year to look at that uh I would be remiss if I didn't point out um that the timing of the proposed fulker spear amendment has left it so that many people in the restaurant Community have been unable to make it to testify tonight I've spoken to several restaurant tours who were cut off and not allowed to testify because they did 00 yesterday which was 23 hours after the amendment was

[145:00] made public also spoken to a number of restaurant tours who cannot make it because they working at their restaurants so I would like that to sit in um and people think if they think that the people who showed up in person today is an accurate reflection of the community I would urge caution drawing conclusions from that um I'm here to speak in mild opposition to the proposed ordinance um of an 8% increase per year as originally introduced uh I think this is a recognition that this is a compromised measure to take an a measured approach to not set Boulder on a path that um would not be able to adapt to the economic conditions that we're seeing in Denver right now um and while I do not think that I think there will definitely be negative consequences for the industry and for uh Boulders retail businesses I do think that the more measured 8% per three-year growth pattern is something that is livable um

[146:00] I do want to take what limited time I have left to point out that the city of Denver has had dramatic negative consequences over the last year they've lost over 9,000 jobs at a time when the state gained 6,000 jobs and net lost 183 restaurants your time is up but thank you for your testimony now we we have Charlie Brennan Peggy leech and Chelsea Castellano good evening members of the Boulder City Council my name is Charles Brennan I'm the director of income and housing policy for the Colorado Center on law policy a nonprofit organization that has the vision that every Coloradoan should have what they need to succeed one of the most important ways in which we can achieve this vision is to ensure workers are paid a minimum wage that guarantees a minimum standard of living necessary for their health efficiency and general well-being which was the stated purposes of this policy when Congress passed the 1938 fa labor standards act establishing our country's first minimum wage by definition the only time a minimum wage increase will affect employers is if they are paying

[147:00] workers below the new minimum wage an employer whose lowest paid wage U lowest paid worker earns $20 per hour or more will not see any negative impact from this proposed increase they will still be paying their workers above the new wage floor even into 2027 and when we're talking about the impact on employers it's important to keep in mind that employers should already be preparing for minimum wage increase as the state's minimum wage will increase in January 2025 regardless of your decision here tonight in that case the impact or bite of this policy will only affect employers who have workers that are between the State's new minimum wage and the proposed minimum minimum wage for Boulder next year I want to caution the council as well on basing their decision on this matter on the experience of restaurants in Denver anecdotal experiences I'll note as a Denver resident I want to stress that there are big differences between deor and Boulder including the nature of the challenges facing our restaurants here and noted in many of the news articles that have been mentioned tonight looking at this issue road construction perceptions of safety and crime in downtown Denver were both factors noted as causes for reduced revenues in addition to higher food

[148:01] costs and long pering processes these are not just issues related to higher labor costs there are also other strategies the council could consider to assist restaurants in managing the increased labor costs that may result from increasing the minimum wage I also want to note that the the numbers noted by the previous speaker were for the entire entire metro area of Denver of which Denver employe employees account for about 33% I want to thank you for your time tonight and urge you to uh increase the minimum wage by 15% next year thank you thank you now we have Peggy leech Chelsea castalano and Andrew Barton good evening mayor and council members my name is Peggy leech and I'm the co-president of the League of Women Voters of Boulder County the league of is a nonpartisan political organization who has supported living wage for several years now we really appreciate the council's willingness to raise Boulders minimum

[149:01] wage effective effective this January and ideally to match Boulder County's rate of increase over the next three years workers businesses and residents of Boulder County including the city of Boulder can all benefit from a regional approach it is time to take the first step to close the $8 gap between the current minimum wage of 1442 and the self-sustainable wage which is currently over $22 an hour in Boulder County this Gap widens each year so the longer we don't act the larger the Gap becomes we urge Council to find a workable solution that supports our workers as well as our small businesses and thinking about the uh tipped wage credit perhaps we can work on revising that at the legislature next year thank you thank you our final three speakers are Chelsea castalano Andrew Barton and Nina Del

[150:03] Salvo hi everybody I'm Chelsea castalano I live in Boulder um there is a prevailing wisdom among some that when the minimum wage Rises smaller low wage employers suffer more from higher labor costs and are more likely to cut jobs but a groundbreaking study co-authored by Berkeley Economist Michael Reich found that small businesses can pass the cost on to Consumers with little negative impact the UC berley study and other studies since have found that higher minimum wages across many states and cities gave employees more Financial Security without causing their employers to cut jobs the findings are clear higher wages reduce poverty and financial insecurity without sacrificing the house the health of businesses and looking more locally at Denver while economists say that it can be challenging to parse the precise impacts of minimum wage increases from other

[151:00] policies in Denver the 2023 local minimum wage report published by the Colorado department of labor and employment shows that increases to the minimum wage in Denver lowered unemployment raised earnings and benefited the Denver's um economy I urge you to follow the science and not make policies based on fear I urge you to listen to those who are most vulnerable in our community as that is not only the right thing to do but is what you all C campaigned on to earn your seat on city council and here is your chance to put those promises into action please support and vote for the folk Gritz amendment to ensure that all people including young people have an opportunity to Simply make ends meet thank you thank you now we have Andrew Barton and Nina delvo I do not see Andrew online all right our final speaker tonight is Nina delvo Nina you're

[152:06] up hi can you hear me yes great good evening Boulder City Council and thank you so much for your time tonight my name is Nina Dal Salvo and I'm an attorney and the policy director with towards Justice a nonprofit Law Firm that represents workers in litigation and other advocacy in an effort to advance economic Justice I'm here in support of Boulder's adoption of the proposed local minimum wage ordinance with Council M member folker's proposed amendment economic data including data from the Colorado department of labor and employment or cdle shows that increasing minimum wages in Denver did not increase unemployment but did cause wages in the city to go up overall Boulder can achieve similar results while boosting consumer spending Denver's minimum wage law took effect in January 2020 the cdle analyzed the economic effects of that law in its 2023 local minimum wage report while

[153:01] attempting to control for the economic impacts of the covid-19 pandemic that analysis included comparisons of unemployment rates and wages in Denver and comparative jurisdictions the cdle found that in both 20121 and 2022 as Denver's minimum wage Rose significantly its unemployment rate dropped more than any comparative jurisdictions the impacts on unemployment were more difficult to analyze in 2020 when covid-19 hit our country just two months into Denver's implementation of its local wage nevertheless the cdle found that during the first two months of the year Denver's unemployment rate remained lower than compared our jurisdictions the cdle also analyzed the impact of Denver's local minimum wage on wages and found that Denver's Denver wages Rose and Rose more than those of all comparative jurisdictions and more than the state both in early 2020 and again later in 2020 after the main impact of covid-19 in 2021 and 22 Denver maintained strong wage growth and

[154:00] stronger wage growth than the state as a whole and compared their jurisdictions overall these positive effects on the unemployment rate and wages in Denver are consistent with national evidence indicating that minimum wage increases give the economy a boost because they drive consumer spending and create your time is up but thank you for your testimony all right that's all of our speakers for tonight I want to give a very hearty thank you to everyone who took time this evening to come out to speak to us on this important matter really appreciate all of your time and attention and want to give a particular thank you to the translators for your able work in translating in both directions in English and Spanish that is much appreciated and I know your work is not quite done okay so it's uh time for Council discussion before we get started I would just like to say you know sometimes in our uh discussions we can be on the informal side um we had some issues with Clarity on some of the straw polles in our study session on this so I'm going to suggest tonight that we go with a motion based approach um where we can

[155:01] make motions and entertain amendments um and you know have our discussion oriented around those and have votes around those um so if council is willing uh to take that approach um I would recommend it but we can still have a full discussion I know in particular we need to talk through the issue of unemancipated minors and of course the final question of what numbers um we would be using so I might invite somebody perhaps get a motion on the table as a basis for our discussion but recognizing we can have Menin as well oh I got both of you here do you want a thumb wrestle for it flip a coin I was just going to start with what's yeah but we have Lauren is it all right if absolutely okay so Matt you want to get us started um since it's uh what we have on the table it's it's fair to sort

[156:01] of start with that um this is what staff had prepared for so um I'm going to make an a motion to introduce an order published by title only ordinance 8664 adding a new chapter uh 12-6 minimum wage BRC 1981 setting a local city Boulder minimum wage to be competive and responsive to current and future needs of its community and setting forth related details second okay we've got a motion and a second on that one and then Lauren if you want to jump right in and offer an amendment uh to frame our discussion as well I would I would like to make um an amendment to that motion um and propose that be for the uh wage rates that beginning as in my hotline beginning January 1st 2025 that the wage rate would be 1658 per hour beginning 2026 it would be 1799 per hour and beginning in

[157:04] 20 January 1st 2027 matching the city of Denver's 2027 M minimum wage rate assuming that that increase is an increase over Bowers 2026 wage rate and does not exceed a 15% increase additionally I would like to propose an amendment to strike from the employee or worker definition um the words adult or emancipated minor and insert the word individual so that this would apply to all unemancipated miners second great well thanks everybody for offering those so we like I say we do need to figure out what to do about unemancipated minors and to determine our final numbers so what I might do is invite our motion and second of the original motion to speak to the motion and then invite our motion and seconder of the amendment to speak and then we

[158:00] can invite General discussion after that soan if you want to get us started um yes so um the purpose of this motion was largely to set a balance um we clearly have a need to meet some of those basic needs of workers who are making the very least a minimum w in our community there's no question about that there's no question the needs are going up but what we also have to balance in that is that there are impacts that raising a wage at a steep and at a rate that is too steep will have immediate impacts on some of our small business owners who hardly have the margins to make up for that and in some instances you've got restaurant owners in particular who save just enough money for when their freezer goes down well this would eliminate all of that saved money for those um catastrophic types of events that occur and so it's incumbent upon us and in city council I feel that we have to strike a balance where it's

[159:01] not one one group gets all that they want at the cost of another and so finding a balance on this is important it's prudent for us to try to strike that balance and so I think um that is why this sort of 88 888 proposal is trying to strike that balance early on it's to says nothing that in three years that a future council could look at this and say we neither need to go up we need to go down or we need to stay the course um but I think it's important for us to set it now and get us going in a good direction where we can support our workers while also giving a a a tenuous Lifeline to some of our small businesses to try to make it through um I worry that as some of our smaller businesses particularly restaurants are barely got their lips above the water um that if we push it too high we sort of metaphorically take our foot and push them under um so so I think we have to take a balanced approach and that's why um this motion has been made the way it is appreciate it thanks for that and Mark is the second uh past conversations have

[160:01] clearly shown that the entirety of this Council supports some increase in the current minimum wage the issue is the proper increment of increase it's our job to balance the needs of those on the lowest wrong of the economic ladder with the needs of the businesses who actually employ them I know there are businesses who are unhappy with the 888 formulation I hope we will pass today as there are Advocates who are unhappy that were not more aggressive in raising the minimum wage this tells me this is a compromise worth considering we cannot restrict our Focus only to the betterment of workers without considering the health of the small businesses who make up a substantial portion of our business Community economic Vitality must be more than a slogan or a buzz word it must be supported by actions that actually promote it I'm not sure that any member of this Council uh owns and operates a business whose viability depends upon the

[161:01] employment of minimum wage workers we should therefore be very careful in considering such substantial raises that they can compel these businesses to close their doors when few if any of us have the lived experience to make that judgment and it is notable that what began as a project to work cooperatively with our sister cities to jointly increase the minimum wage has completely broken down none of Longmont Lafayette Lewisville or Erie is moving forward on this issue if we're going to go to Alan and clearly we are we should at least be cautious about the manner in which we do it all of these factors point to the adoption of a new minimum wage that provides a substantial increase to workers without setting a standard that is likely to require a significant number of employers to cease operations I believe that ordinance 8664 does just that and I urge its adoption by this

[162:01] Council thank you thanks Mark and Lauren I'll turn to you now as the maker of the amendment motion thank you three years ago I received strong support when I first asked this Council to consider raising the minimum wage there were two requ that Council made on one that we would make it a regional effort and the other was to engage extensively with our community over the past three years we have formed a coalition with five neighboring cities done a comprehensive economic study and engaged extensively with our community while none of the other cities we partnered with in reachmen in with in research or engagement look like they will be increasing minimum wage this year we can join the two other existing Regional minimum wages we can match Denver and Boulder County and stand together to support Min millions of Front Range workers we can trust our initial Vision to create a regional

[163:00] minimum wage that uplifts our community today you've heard A Chorus of voices from our community workers residents and businesses owners over the past year our Outreach on this topic has reached over a thousand community members more than 400 Boulder residents and 66 6% of our community members have supported an increase in the minimum wage the language and the words might change but the message is the same we hear it over and over again wages have not kept pace with the cost of living to Mark's point I don't believe a single council member up here relies on minimum wage to make ends meet our local nonprofits who help fill the gaps between wages and cost of living witnessed the impacts of our policy decisions on our economically vulnerable community members every day EA sister Carman Safe House Pro Progressive Alliance for non-violence

[164:01] all roads Boulder food rescue Centro Amistad philanthropies Haven Ridge cpwd Colorado Statewide parent Coalition inner combio and our religious institutions have all called for at least a 15% increase for 2025 these organizations are overwhelmed by the growing demand for their services they've told us how precarious the economic situation has become for so many of our neighbors we've also we also hear the concerns of our business owners and acknowledge the economic pressures they face but we cannot save all businesses even if we do nothing businesses closed last year and they will close next year regardless of what we do with minimum wage bsiness business ownership is itself a privilege and cannot take precedence over the low-wage workers who are the backbone of this

[165:02] community we've all seen the city's constrained budget and heard about the county funding cuts that are coming we cannot continue providing life support for businesses that make their workers reliant on government subsidy I believe in the entrepreneur ship and resilience of our business leaders and for those who are concerned about the increases in unemployment rate that can result from wage increases as our economic study pointed out these increases are typically offset by increased labor force precip par parp you know what I mean participation um and lead to overall higher employment I will also point out that people making minimum wage are strongly in support of higher wage creases higher than we are even currently contemplating and in relation to the tip credit you will see the IGA committee

[166:00] bringing forward um recommendations in terms of policy that we would like to see change at the state level but let's be clear about what happens tonight if our actions fall short without a significant increase to minimum wage workers will be pushed farther from Boulder increasing ing traffic pollution and inequality parents will continue working 80-hour weeks to keep a roof over their heads Children's Health and education will suffer and families will make heartbreaking choices we started this process with enthusiasm for a regional effort for making decisions based on research and data and Community engagement and now rather than joining Denver or the county some of us would like to create a third Regional minimum wage rather than using the research we are considering an unstudied policy for which we lack projections rather than listening to the majority of the community that wanted a

[167:00] faster increase and Regional alignment the ordinance in the packet will slowly rais the minimum wage over the next three years reaching 1817 in 2027 that is less than Denver's minimum wage is today 80% or 8% increases every year for 3 years is not a compromise it's an insult it's designed to muddy the water so that you can claim to support a minimum wage increase without taking the meaningful action the community is clearly asking for if we claim to stand for Equity sustainability and supporting those who need it most we need to act our minimum wage workers are rightfully owed a 15% increase for the contribution tions to our community and the ripple effect will be felt across Boulder because when we unli when we uplift the most vulnerable amongst us we uplift our entire

[168:00] Community please join me in voting to raise the minimum wage to match Denver's by 2027 with no exemption for unemancipated miners please join me in creating a city where workers and businesses can Thrive thank you thanks and Nicole Turn to You the seconder thank you um I would be remiss if I didn't first say thank you to everyone who shared your stories here tonight um and those of you who are joining us online um Boulder County leader pastor and Justice Advocate Pedro Silva says relationally speaking money is a symbol of value it is not a symbol of worth this body may put a number on the value of your labor tonight we cannot put a number on your work your worth is inherent tonight is a first step none of us should have to demand access to basic human rights such as healthy food safe housing culturally

[169:01] competent Health Care skilled child care and more but the history and present of our country show that we do thank you for your dedication to changing the future to my colleagues if I get my computer to work um as you know well I usually try to use data to convince you to get on my side I'm going to try something a little bit new tonight we'll see how this goes I know we're really concerned about some of our businesses going under as we're hearing tonight our families and workers are at risk of going under two in government only some decisions we make have an immediate impact on people's lives most of our votes as a council impact people over decades rather than months or years the number of people who showed up tonight makes it clear that this decision will have an immediate impact especially the speakers who've lived here for decades and have never come to talk to us before because

[170:00] there's never been an issue this important to their everyday lives for our low wage workers time isn't just money it's food a warm home and water and we've received a banquet tonight I feel it significance too because the everyday stories I hear from our City's low-wage workers break my heart on a daily basis and I want to share a few that I've been carrying on my own this past year while we've been working on this issue the story about the single working mother who had split from her abusive partner and was living in her car with her 10 and 12-year-old children because our strained nonprofits only had enough emergency assistance for four nights at a hotel the story about the older women who also live in their cars because their paychecks aren't enough to cover their bills who seek safety in numbers as they Park together at night the story about the teen whose low agage parents couldn't afford a

[171:01] lawyer to help them fight their child's wealthy rapist these are not just statistics they are our neighbors horror stories and they're unfolding just outside our doors as council members we all hold economic privilege we are all business owners retirees or workers who earn well beyond the minimum wage we are the people who eat at the restaurants where others with less economic privilege can only work we are more often the friends of the restaurant owners than the friends of the workers the voices of minimum wage workers and young people are absent from this body following other cities and counties in the region for a few years still leaves us with a wage lower than these groups asked us for as highlighted in the survey that F sent us the testimony tonight and our community engagements however meeting other communities in the region in 2027 shows we are mindful of those who do not get a

[172:01] vote in this decision compromise is necessary in politics and it shouldn't feel coercive the stories we've heard tonight remind us that saying no isn't an option voting for an option far less than our community asks for feels more like coercion than and compromise which both the original motion and the amendment are while matching Denver and the county and Edgewater in 2027 won't solve centuries of Labor exploitation keeping us farther behind while we assess the impacts will increase while we assess the impacts of an increase will exacerbate our affordability crisis in the coming years I hope we'll also consider an inclusive approach that includes unemancipated minors rather than exempting them High School students too are part of this narrative they work not just for pocket money but to support their families contributing to Necessities like food and electricity they're investing in their Futures when they use their wages

[173:00] to pay for college applications and vocational training all while shouldering significant responsibilities in their jobs and at school by excluding unemancipated minors from a minimum wage increase we inadvertently marginalize a group that already faces systemic challenges and that can't even vote for us yet moreover this exclusion disproportionately affects Youth Of Youth of color as our state's demographics change and more of our young people identify as people of color contradicting our commitment to equity and our status as a child friendly City tonight we have a chance to do something significant that Services nonprofits have been begging us for years an immediate 15% increase it won't fix everything but a vote to match the City and County of Denver Boulder County and the city of Edgewater and to include unemancipated minors in this increase let us move forward knowing that we are helping low wage people and the nonprofits who support them with all the tools we can thank you thanks okay so then what I'll do is

[174:02] I'll open the floor if other council members want to address this question before we then go to votes on the amendment and um the original motion so if anyone else would like to speak I got Tara and then Tina I only want to add just a few things first of all we're asking the small and the micro businesses to make up for the failure for the state and the county to do what it had to do as far as funds for e effa and other organizations so are we now asking restaurants and small businesses and Child Care Centers to make up for what they couldn't do I just don't think it's fair I mean that's the first problem I have is like okay businesses small businesses family businesses it's up to you again to pull us out because everything that is said tonight is correct but don't forget who is reducing the funds to effa by over 30% it is the county and we also have the same problem with the state did

[175:00] everybody all of a sudden forget that we were going to run out of arpa funds and they didn't think ahead of time that we were going to have a problem so why do the businesses the small businesses and again family businesses who basically put their entire life savings into these businesses they should have to make up for that I think it's not fair so that's my first problem with the whole thing and I didn't write a speech about it but I'm feeling somewhat impassionate myself and the other thing I want to say is the 15% 8.5 8.5 didn't go over with our regional Partners the small um the smaller towns they said no so I feel like bringing up 888 there is way more of a chance that we're going to get Regional buyin because they basically said said no thanks to 15 8.5 and 8.5 so I say we have a better chance of getting Regional buyin by compromising and asking and still hoping that the other

[176:02] towns will come forth with the increase in minimum wages that is so desperately needed and those are the two things I want to add thanks thanks Tina yeah I just wanted to speak a little bit about the unemancipated minors and um I sent a hotline yesterday that talked about whether we can do something to address specifically jobs that are like pre-training jobs and so these are jobs that are offered usually by the city and it tends to be things like the Junior Rangers um and there might be some internships for people under the age of 18 they're very different than other jobs and have a training element um but I did speak with Nia just before the meeting and she feels that the cost to maintain those um is reasonable um the other piece about about unemancipated miners just something that and I appreciated what uh Alejandra B said about let's keep an eye on what happens there because the report did show a pretty large loss of jobs in

[177:00] the um minor category and while we of course want miners to be paid they also need to have jobs and so that was the one area that saw the most dramatic decline um I think it was for the county 900 but as it's been pointed out it's very difficult to know what City situation is um so I'm I'm actually fine without any kind of um change for the unemancipated minors but whatever we do I hope that we're monitoring that on a yearly basis to make sure that our miners are able to have employment opportunities and also if you're not aware some of the jobs offered by the city are already very selective and my hope is to expand those pre-professional opportunities for miners so that kids who may not feel comfortable yet in a more competitive work environment can have that kind of interaction and get that kind of um develop the language and the skills and learn how to use employment systems which which the Junior Rangers sort of get these amazing

[178:00] opportunities to get those skills and it's very different than other jobs so that's what I wanted to add for now thanks Mark did you have a clarifying comment on that I I just wanted to address the UN unemancipated minor issue sure and then we'll go to another Council okay um I don't have very strong feelings about it but I I I look upon that as opportunity not discrimination we want employers to give 17 and 18 year olds a chance and I don't know that they will give them a chance if they have to pay them the same money that they pay a 25y old um if you're running an ice cream shop um it's traditionally been an environment in which um kids are employed for that purpose I want them to have that opportunity to work um if everybody's being paid the same um the proprietor is likely to Simply say I

[179:02] want three adults instead of five kids so I I think of it as loss of opportunity not an active discrimination against uh young people I want them to have those opportunities I want them to work and they're not going to be hired thank you thanks for that and I wanted to clarify T did you want to include or exclude unemancipated minors from the minimum wage um I I keep getting confused with unemancipated and emancipated I'll be totally honest I don't want people to I don't want people under 18 to get a different wage okay so you would like them to be included in the minimum wage not excluded yes got it but I want to monitor it because they're the most at risk category for employment and I think that was very clear in the report we received got it thanks any other council members went away and did you Ty sh all right so I'll go with the easier one for me first which is I don't want

[180:01] to exclude anybody from whatever we're proposing um again although I appreciate the comment that you know somebody's using it to pay for field trips there are too many unfortunately that are using it to pay bills so I and you know an hour wages of work is and hour wages of work and we know that we are still not being paid um on a scale racially for the same amount of work so although I appreciate the commenters comment about um you know more racial and ethnic diversity on the lower wealth scale I promise you it's not because of minimum wage um it's a variety of of accumulating efforts um by politicians and business leaders and others um to build wealth for the few on the backs of the many um and that includes our plan Planet so I just want to honor um and to um Tina's point I really appreciate um keeping an eye on that um and I do want to honor you know what Mark shared around you know if I was an employer you

[181:00] know paying that wage and I had a 25y old and a 17y old right um and so I do want to keep our eye on that um and to create those Pathways to ensure that um you know those who are um younger have meaningful Pathways um for work all right so that's that one this other one so I will start with um as the granddaughter of a business owner um I witnessed firsthand the role that he played um not only in our family and extended family um but also in our community um and not just locally but State and federally um often times Business Leaders have a significant play a significant role in crafting the policies at our local um state and government entities and um to not have to know that this increase will disproportionately impact by Le businesses um is very concerning um

[182:00] especially concerning is that we don't even know how many um there's just some significant data points that are missing from the the study that has been provided making policy uh making policy decisions challenging without some of that basic data but um I'm also reminded of how the business Community black business community in particular um helped to pay for John Brown uh also helped to pay for the civil rights movement that wasn't a grant by the bill and Gates and Melinda Foundation that was disproportionately impacted communities that had moments of wealth that's why they B they burned down Tulsa that's why they burned down um all of those different um black business in towns that were thriving because they want us in minimum wage jobs and so again I'm just very concerned around the disproportionate impact there um and as one of the few black business owners in the uh most recent Boulder economic Summit and I also had the pleasure and honor of going to the Denver Business

[183:00] economic Summit as well and was underwhelmed by the representation of um black latino Latina Hispanic Asian and Asian Pacific island peoples um and so again um we know that there's going to be disproportionate impacts um and that is certainly um on top of mind for me and the main issue with this plan is that it doesn't offer any support for those disproportionately impacted it was my understanding that Boulder County did have some mechanisms for those businesses that were going to be disproportionately impacted and I'm hopeful that by having a um a more steady on-ramp that will have opportunities to grow out first of all build the revenue necessary and then uh make sure that we aren't um that we are in a position to support um not just restaurants and feel like there was an over representation of restaurants again there's more uh restaurants that'll be impacted because we have more restaurants um but I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the child care centers as well and I'm especially concerned that none of the other cities in our

[184:01] County um are interested in any kind of increase and I just say that from a child care perspective because it just is easier to move and if anything it might be even closer to where people are commuting in from um and so I have some significant concerns around businesses just moving to other cities in our County um and then the study itself um another reason why I'm especially concerned about businesses is in this in this instant and not over anyone else but it's because the the report did not include climate change and so we know that there's going to be increased climate change we know that there's going to be an increase in water and energy specifically and though that was not considered and I want to commend Taylor and the team thank you so much for trying to include that dimension in the original dynamics of the study um but honestly we cannot have any more studies that do not include some kind of climate analysis um and I just say that because I have concerns about the

[185:01] businesses being able to stay open without any increase next year based on just what we are seeing and what we are projecting here in the state and around the world and the country um and so you know we and I'm so glad that we are moving this conversation in into a three-year window and not that 2030 um knowing what we know about where we're at for 2030 we can anticipate more heat waves famine and infectious diseases the conversation that we're having right now doesn't meet the moment and it doesn't meet our future needs either it actually is going to make it more difficult for us to gather the resources and support that we needed because we will have such of a such a loss um this is not the time to play small this is not the time to fight for crumbs this is the time um I had something in here about um other things but yeah it is what it is I prefer the 888 because it allows us time uh well it provides us some movement um

[186:02] as none has been done over the last three years um but it also allows us time to better assess who exactly will be impacted um out of the 400 and so restaurants 20 or so um Child Care businesses and we don't even know um some of the other number numbers and metrics around um micro businesses like we don't even know how many we have um I support the three years because it allows us um to have you know time to look back on the analysis but I especially appreciate the annual updates um and a data analysis that allows us to may be able to potentially make bigger moves um as we have more information I'm also very eager um to work across the local fa St state and federal Continuum um going back to we cannot work alone I'm excited to hear that the um intergovernmental Affairs or prior policy priority team is already considering um supporting legislation um

[187:03] and ballot measures uh at the state level to address this inconsistency with tip workers I'm also hopeful that we can um do some more work in that area federally um did we forget about universal healthcare when when did that conversation go away cuz when I look at books of our businesses and I've looked at books of businesses um and I see the cost of B of healthcare and benefits that is a significant cost so going back to we cannot do this alone alone we are going to see increased billion dooll disasters that's another piece that wasn't included in this analysis and some would say well that's a case to increase in minimum wage no that's the case for a living wage that's what that case is for that that's a case for basic income that's what that's a case for and so again my ancestors did not have to buy back their children so that we can just create more crumbs along the line please I'm asking us to work more

[188:03] collaboratively not just regionally this is literally a federal state and local issue and again you know you can feel however you can feel about the coch brothers but one thing that they were excellent at was under understanding the Continuum between federal state and local and I'm just hopeful that very quickly we can make the moves that we can make so moving forward I'm excited to um support the 888 I'm excited to um work with the economic Vitality team to identify the programs and determine the changes that are needed um I'm excited to deepen Partnerships with the Latino chamber the um you know other entities our nonprofits our Small Business Development Center and many many others um and again I'm not opposed to revisiting the regional approach but I need the region to step up and we can't just be the only ones uh with the most to lose and I just say that because I've already lost 60% of my friend groups to

[189:02] all of those because they have been priced out and this increase would not have have um would not have saved them from having to move um and would not allow them to buy houses would not allow them to do the things that we want them to do and so I ran on a just and joyous and honestly I don't think that this is the justice that we deserve the justice that we need um and I'm hopeful that in the efforts moving forward um as I said the gold standard is not Denver either they're not moving to a living wage so why am I tagging myself to a losing strategy I'm just asking us to have the audacity to believe that we are worthy of something greater than crumbs I'm asking us to do that and yes I know people would be disproportionately impacted I'm not done with our budget and I hope that you aren't either thank you thank you Ryan did you want to

[190:03] and then I'll call on myself last then we'll move to a vote we have the best chance of having a strong and resilient economy when we have a predictable and orderly environment for businesses to make investments um and to make commitments to hiring employees and also when households have the resources that they need to take care of their families and they have the financial buffers for when shocks hit shocks that could be unique to them but also to a wider community that that include fires other climate disasters and otherwise it's not fair for small business owners to have to pay to try and solve society's problems uh when they operate with deliberate formulas and in and in a delicate balance that they set out for but it's also not fair that our community has been left in a place where the basic daily costs are out stripping full-time and even Beyond full-time workers to make ends meet and

[191:02] um where those near the edge are lacking basic health care and crucial services and it's costly for small businesses to have to pay for this I grew up in a small family retail business that my has started um in which they have paid minimum wage workers they've done so for the last 50 plus years now and I remember literal kitchen table discussions when the possibility of minimum wage increases was something that my parents worried about and I knew it would impact our family and so I know that about $2 an hour raise for a full-time employer employee over the year is about $44,000 per per employee per year before taxes and I know this will impact small businesses it will probably impact some considering their ability to exist and it will impact nonprofits being able to do some kind of

[192:02] work but it's also costly that we say you can work here but you don't have an expectation of being able to live here and it's costly that we don't accommodate people from all generations and in all backgrounds to be able to afford to live in Boulder and it's costly for our residents to reap the effects of poverty including homelessness insecurity and other dysfunction that comes around it so this is not straightforward um this is a policy decision that is disruptive to important parts of the community no matter what we do here so I will look to our best analysis that we've been given from the experts uh analysis that I have read says the right thing for the community to do on net systemwide is is is to do the increase to do just I guess the Fitz amendment is the is our term tonight is the best that

[193:01] we have um I think we should also pay special attention to the social workers and the nonprofits uh who are working with our most vulnerable community members um and they are telling us to move move towards what Denver the Denver level and to align with Boulder County so I think that's what we should do and I the unemancipated miners I would agree with forgot the logic of it but they should have the same wage um and not the logic but the definition of it um and just just a couple things before I I close um I know many of the voices here who are asking us not to go forward with an increase are providing a variety of crucial services for Community some that are directly about supporting people who need the most help and I hope when we go forward we'll develop we'll be able to develop policies and strategies to help them to help them here locally to help

[194:00] them with the state and Beyond and also the poverty inequality and and despair that is facing a lot of this issue is rising and it's not just Rising here but in other cities as urbanization continues to build and housing continues to be insufficient and it's not something we're going to stop tonight so I hope that uh I'd like to join Council my council member Adams in a um a bigger push for more systemic solutions that are much more long-term oriented after we proceed from tonight um that include giving more people the right to be able to live near where they work to move around at a reasonable expense that we look for more options for Co Cooperative ownership that creates more wealth for people uh and more so that's it but I I want to say uh I I admire and thank council member fartz for her leadership over the last couple of years with this and also um Taylor and other staff

[195:01] who've um put in such incredible work into this all right I'll call on myself um go go last here I'll be quick I know it's getting late um the this question before us of the raising the minimum wage and by how much is a question of trade-offs um there are benefits and there are some potential negative impacts um I do support the larger 15% increase in the first year and I'll just highlight a couple of reasons uh primary the primary of which is that uh this would get more money into the pockets of the people who are struggling most in our community so the people who are really struggling to get by and I found some of the testimony this evening uh about people who've had to work multiple jobs um just to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table to be comp in so I would like to lean on the side of getting um more money to those who are working hard and struggling to get by and then I'll just also note that it's taken us quite a while to get to this point we were first granted the ability to raise the minimum

[196:00] wage in in um 2019 uh backed off during covid there was a possibility we would do it last year but we decided to wait until until we got the full economic analysis add my very big Kudos and thanks to Taylor for the incredibly hard work over the last year had did a really thorough Outreach um to all members of our community which I really appreciated a thorough study um but I feel like it's taken long enough that starting off more quickly given how long it's taken us to get here is reasonable so I will be supporting that 15% increase in the first year and then just to the question of the unemancipated minors I would not exclude them I would pay them the same rate and just a couple things there that definitely there are some young people whose wages uh contribute to their families being able to get by and so want to make sure that they get um the help uh for their that they get the a fair wage for the work that they're doing to support their family and I also want to call out we got an email earlier today um from Lindsay lerg who pointed out something that I appreciated uh

[197:01] which is that it's actually not a simple process to emancipate yourself as a minor so there may well be young folks who are estranged from their family working to get by just by themselves but who are technically still unemancipated so there are those folks that I think are struggling deserve to get that full that full wage and I will leave it there do we have maybe quick final follow-ups before we go to a vote real quick Nicole um yeah I just wanted to um get for the record a couple of things that folks said um and and offer uh some data can't be without that um and Tara I just wanted to say I absolutely love that you support um government funded Healthcare Child Care and housing that was awesome to hear um so thank you thank you um first of all this comment about um having people choosing to hire older uh youth rather than younger youth I just want to remind everybody about this demographic shift that is coming that um

[198:02] I talk about a lot we will have fewer workers in the coming years and our businesses will not really get to choose if they're hiring 25 25y olds or 17y olds so I think that this point is really relevant for setting us up um for the future um also the region is bigger than the county um already there are a lot of young people moving to Denver because of higher wages um and one of the business owners who talked about closing a business here um actually reopened a business in Denver because that's where he could find workers um and our Revenue depends on sales tax low-income workers spend more of their money on goods and services than high-income people so some of the businesses um should see that they have more customers um as we consider this wage increase okay thanks for that all right so like to go to to votes if we could just so I want to be very clear about what we have on the table we have an initial motion put forward by Matt that moves the ordinance uh as written in our packet

[199:00] which to be clear is three years of 8% increases and which also excludes unemancipated minors and then we had an amendment motion by Lauren that edited that to change it to a 15% in the first year 8.5% in years two and three and also to include unemancipated minors um in the wage now from the comments it sounds like there may be maybe a majority who want an 8% but who also want to include emancipated minors I'll note that if this amendment fails someone could offer a second amendment that just focused on the unemancipated minor question confused how so yes so Lauren Lauren's Amendment includes uh includes adding unemancipated minors who that they will get the wage and it also includes a 15% 8.5 88.5% so it's both of them tied together but if that if that vote fails somebody could make a motion just about

[200:00] un unemancipated minors can I can I cover it's basically a new ordinance excuse me mayor yes uh wna W to clarify on the fart's Amendment um the third year would be a direct match to Denver which would constitute an 11.1 rather than an 88.5% laen so that int depends entirely on what inflation looks like if you look at the 10-year um inflation average between 2010 and 2020 20 that is 2.5% if you look at the most recent inflation rate for the past 10 years excluding our exceptional years of 8% and 5% we are

[201:01] looking at 2.7 so it well they were coming out of covid was fairly unusual in terms of our inflation rate all I'm saying is that we don't really know what that percentage will be which is why I put the ex not to exceed the state uh cap but it is likely between yeah eight and I don't know 11% sure so so council member would it be accurate to say that it's variable and um that it would be inaccurate to assign a particular number to it tonight yes thank you thanks for that clarification okay so we are going our first vote is going to be on the so-called ferts Amendment you're famous Lauren um and so of order do you need to change your Amendment no okay but just as I know if it is voted

[202:02] down another amendment motion could be offered so um would we do a roll call for this Elicia for we don't do that many amendments you can do a show of hands for the amendment and then the final disposition of the ordinance then we can do the roll call sounds good all right so we have a motion by Lauren seconded by Nicole all in favor of that Amendment uh raise your hand all right so that's a four votes in favor of that so that Amendment motion is unsuccessful does anyone want to consider a different Amendment yeah I'd like to amend the original motion to um include unemancipated V in the minimum wage so you move to amend the original Mo the original motion to include unan miners okay do we have a second for that Lauren did you have a is that a

[203:01] second or a question second second okay we got a motion second I don't know that we need to do more debate on this so all in favor of um uh Tina's amendment to uh include unemancipated minors in the minimum wage raise your hand and we actually got eight for that one so that passes okay so that brings us back to uh Matt's original motion um seconded by Mark uh of the original ordinance with the 888 increases but as amended to include unemancipated Miners and for this I'll turn to Alicia for a roll call all right thank you sir we'll start the roll call on ordinance 8664 as a amended with mayor Pro Tim spear yes with a lot of heartbreak council member wall I

[204:00] Winer yes Adams yes Benjamin yes mayor Brockett yes council member fuls yes yes Marquis yes and shuart yes ordinance 8664 is hereby introduced amended and approved unanimously all right well Council thanks so much for that discussion and for getting through that process it's been a long time getting here thanks to all of our community members for coming out and weighing in on this question uh really appreciate all of your input and again a huge thank you to our staff team Pam Taylor and all the rest uh for all this work that you've very hard work you've done to get us to this point really appreciate it we are not

[205:01] done Northern Lights are happening right and we're do go outside and see the Northern Lights they're they're rocking right now okay so time for a time check we got one last agenda item which is Lauren's update on the regional homelessness effort um are folks good with tackling that before we go home that is that right okay but I'll maybe encourage us to try to be focused because I know I'm exhausted after all that I imagine we're all a little tired uh but do you want to read that into the record um Elicia yes sir thank you next on tonight's agenda is item number four Matters from the mayor and members of council 4 a is the regional working group on homelessness goals update and discussion and we'll turn to Lauren who's soing this as you all know the county Boulder County has stood up a regional homelessness working group for which I represent us

[206:00] um thus far we have been try determining what direction this group is going to take going forward um and we have defined our why statement for the group as our work on homelessness is about helping real people through compassion support systems and social justice and then we have three proposed areas of focus um that begin to lay out how we will approach this work and those areas are advocacy at the local state and federal level support the creation of affordable housing to address homelessness and provide Supportive Services to improve housing stability and decrease returns to homelessness this is also all in a hotline I sent out if you would like to read along um so there are four questions that I

[207:00] have for our council tonight um hopefully we can be quick with some of these my first question is with these goals in mind do you support the direction of the work the working group is going and should we continue participating in this Regional group sort of a threshold question which I'm hoping is an easy one for us to answer does anyone want to advocate for pulling out yeah I mean and could you just uh recommend whether we should pull out perhaps you sure I will recommend that we continue okay down this I think we should continue right my so seeing no objections um I'll take that as a yes are there any modifications you would like to see made to either the how or the Y statements that are being proposed by the working

[208:00] group and I I don't have any particular ones I will say that um Kurt really would like Kurt um our director of Housing and Human Services would really like to see psh Incorporated in what we're doing in this group but I think that perhaps that is an action item and it seems like these areas of focus leave room for us to advocate for that with our more more specificity I appreciate you doing this um and doing this work and leading the way here um representing us um in terms of modifications I think one thing that that seems to be missing to me here is is uh Clarity around this group helping Define how we actually raise the revenue to achieve any of this work um you know we had a behavioral health study and

[209:01] plan that laid out nearly a hundred million doar worth of programs and services but no mechanism from which to fund any of it and and I'm worried that we'll sit here and have a plan that sits on a shelf collects dust if it doesn't have a have a real means to actually achieve any of it um so I'd really like this group because it has County and all these cities get behind what are the revenue sources to do this and and not just look to the state or feds we're gonna have to do do some of this on our own and everyone's gonna have to get skin in the game so I'd love for that to be a major charge uh for this group can I suggest something real quick um it's our next step is to add action steps to each of these Focus areas so perhaps under the advocacy at local state and federal level creating a funding source for us to do our work would be one of the action um areas we would like to propose that sounds great and I just have to ask who who's going to keep track of what action items we're

[210:01] interested in I can try and make take notes but I wouldn't mind if there was someone uh supporting me and that Megs all right Meg is Meg has got it as well thank you Megs thank you I have a question okay I momentarily stopped listening at a very important part what I should have been listening so do you mind explaining are they going to do psh are they going to discuss it or do you need us to say yes please so this is getting a little ahead in our questions but my final question has to do with action steps for each Focus area and so I think figuring out how we could maybe fit pH psh as one of those action steps might be something that I could see this Council supporting definitely sorry I'm feeling weird because I see people raising their hands are we on number

[211:01] three we jump are we on two or three we're kind of skipping to four well I was just going to say on three when we talk about adding definitions and because one of the third goal is supportive services that is some sometimes similar to psh so I would perhaps suggest that we Define Supportive Services as inclusive of psh or if cousin or something I think that is a great recommendation thank you Nicole the CH one I did um I was curious if you could tell me why the why statement um says real people versus just people um writing why statements is not one of my personal strengths and I cannot say that I contributed heavily to this

[212:00] portion of the working groups work um that was what was recommended or agreed to by the group okay thank you I I might just ask for that U modification to take out the qualifier of real thank you so you're saying you want to help fake people Nicole that's a great point or maybe pick a different adjective but at least but get rid of real goodness um so just point of clarification more so around the provide Supportive Services so one of the conversations that we had at The Joint meeting was just the need for um more mental health um you know uh addiction and recovery and um and physical so is that

[213:00] what's what's underneath the Supportive Services that term is not clearly defined here would you like to recommend that we include that in the definition of that yes will you say that again so that I can well just um calling out specifically the need for mental and physical health uh Rec and uh recovery and addiction and Transitional Living are three areas sorry while I have a hot mic I'm also going to just lift up Workforce some folks I mean in the suppor of services Workforce support training identification you

[214:01] know thank you um any other definitions or things that we want to make include in the definition please um yeah this is around the uh just thinking about how we're defining affordable housing um when I think about our housing need it's um a range of prices that we would probably consider affordable um and just having some clarity around that and then also um that affordable housing that meets people's housing type needs so if people need ex accessible housing we have affordable accessible housing and so I don't know if there's a way of um defining that with a few more words like uh support the creation of affordable housing at a range of prices that meets people's diverse housing type needs something like that could

[215:00] work I just want to make sure that we're lifting up the accessibility and that you know a single person um doesn't necessarily need a 4,000 foot five-bedroom home point of clarification or quala um for that does that include like the permanently Supportive Housing or the bluebird one Bluebird would be a psh facility um yeah which is sort of but I think yeah including permanent affordability in that definition of affordable would be good did you have another one Nicole that was it okay so Lauren where are we in your questions so now we get to fourth one the really fun one um action items for each Focus

[216:00] area we have been asked um as representatives of the municipalities to share the two or three specific actions our Council would support in these Focus areas these actions are actions the working group would take and since the working group has currently no direct funding and is not empowered with decision-making Authority these are likely somewhat Limited in scope they're likely what somewhat Limited in scope and we already have pursuit or can you read what we already have for our so for advocacy at the state and a local state and federal level um Matt recommended funding me me ISM uh to come together and determine a funding mechanism as an action item to support this work wasn't there something about psh as

[217:01] well I think so um Tina recommended rolling that into our definitions and I think that that is a better place for that to live great so do if there are any other recommendations for advocacy at the state at the local state or federal level in terms of action items other communities will also have some so we don't need to have three but um I don't know if it's possible to and there are probably people who already understand this landscape pretty well but to create some kind of inventory or map with the services and housing options that are in development are being provided currently and to try to specify the gaps in a funding perspective so that when we do that advocacy we can be clear rather than just approaching with a general amount but instead just being a little bit more

[218:00] um specific about what it is where are we falling short and where we think the likely people are who can provide that kind of funding or if that's not possible how we're going to generate that kind of Revenue I just want to bring forth um council member Adams suggestion again for mental health and drug addiction and um also transitional housing do you think that needs to be separate could it be something specific under provide Supportive Services specific because I was thinking that that was another one that was part of the definition of the kinds of physical Supportive Services we're looking to provide but it could also be an action item I'm concerned that the county that it's not going to happen and I think it's one of the most important things that needs to happen of all

[219:00] things because we can't fix some of our problems without it so I don't know how we put exclamation points after it but that's what I would like to do can I call it que on that um I on Mental Health and Behavior Health in particular I would again like us to understand what is being offered and where is it that we do know that those services are being offered in our community but we also hear that it's not enough if we could try to understand what that Delta is I think it would be helpful because if we choose to do something as a city ultimately we'll have a good idea of what we need to do financially and maybe if I can piggyback on that because I think that's a great point but because I don't know of a County inventory of funding and services that are offered like I have a decent sense of what we have in the city but yeah so I'm thinking that maybe that's an action item under both the creation of

[220:01] affordable housing and the Supportive Services that that kind of roadmap piece is something that we would want to see as a first step for both of those items yeah an inventory yeah sorry an inventory yes thanks y thank you um I thought that that we were getting that already from the homeless study homelessness study I thought am I making that okay you're all give me the face so probably am I confusing a study is a different study coming no there's a HSBC based H studies com and it was my understanding that it was supposed to tell us like here are the services that are being provided and supposed to and will two different on like what you said there but I mean yes I mean and so to update what already exists but I just wanted I was like wait is there not that's what we were waiting for in December so um okay I'm fine with that um as far as the advocacy I just am hopeful that we can also include um

[221:01] health care and not just looking at things that are specific to housing but recognizing that health and healthare and Universal Health Care specifically um would have a sub substantial incre uh um impact on decreasing um the likelihood of people falling out uh but then also being able to um stay housed thank you y Ryan did you um Lauren your suggestion that we should be um just don't expect too much uh in number four on the detail for just resource reasons makes me think um I guess maybe a couple things one my interest in this initiative over overall is I guess what I think the opportunity is for us is it's to have a a shared approach with other entities in the county that it's focused on outcomes and is based on a shared change model or a shared idea about what it will take to achieve outcomes and so if we won't

[222:02] adjudicate this in the detail of number four I guess it does I'm sorry but it sort of takes me back to the maybe the couple of the other higher level points like the why so for example the why statement I am now looking at this and thinking this I would rather this be have an outcome Express an outcome in it it says our it says our work is about helping people it feels a little meta to me I would like to know ideally what it will do so like we will resolve homelessness or let's define what resolving homelessness to us means or to some some level um so that we can empower the the folks that are closer to this to do it but let's be clear that we have an we have an OB Ive which is to I think it's described in probably a verb with a with with nouns or a noun around it um and then I guess secondly on the the next three bullets um and I'm sorry if I'm retiga what we just talked about

[223:01] but uh it seems to presuppose A Change Model um and so I guess I'm just thinking like to me the the power of the the opportunity of this group is to come together and to establish what do we collectively think needs to be done to achieve the outcome come so um I don't know that that I don't know what I guess what the answer is then to the the definitions but I'll just end by saying I would like to if I could and I'm sorry to do this I would like to say on that the why statement that that we use the words our work our work on homelessness is to resolve homelessness or or some synonyms or I guess um ways to explain that that's about the outcome yep um this is under the advocacy section um one is to think about advocating for subsidies and emergency assistance funds to help now um we can't

[224:01] build affordable housing quickly enough to help everybody who's currently experiencing homelessness or all those who are on the verge of falling into homelessness while we're having these conversations so um I I would just advocate for that more immediate assistance um and then also um funding uh for this is with me with my Dr Cog cat too but Dr Cog is going to be doing a study on strategies of how we actually get to meeting our affordable housing needs um and funding for those strategies to be implemented um specifically in Boulder County would be great obviously that would be for the 2026 legislative session because those strategies won't be available to next summer um and then the other question that I have is around you know we've got this um Regional built for Zer program um what do we need what is getting in the way at the state level um and and how can we think about advocating for um more of that program or more reducing some of the barriers that are in the way of our

[225:01] actually arriving at zero um functional homelessness um yeah so since I I mean I I threw out the funding one but that was an earlier piece so that moved to actions I appreciate the feedback um in terms of bullet two and supporting the creation of affordable housing um this is intrinsically connected to the 1B funding the county passed I think so I'd like to see us be really clear that we would like to see the 1B funding be allocated as the municipalities have asked um which is directing the funds directly to the cities um so that so we know how to how to operate that and then we can work with BHP to execute that appropriately um so I want to make sure that's done clearly and then with regards to providing supported Services um I I I think it we did we were not fortunate enough to see our Congressional spending requests get met and so we are still holding on to a high utilizer program that we desperately need to fund and I think it would be great to see this group lean into a high

[226:01] utilizer program because we have it defined it's it's got tons of stakeholder engagement and and it's one of the more well-cooked and well deliberately thought out things that we've got in this whole Suite of possible um uh programs and services so it would be really nice to see that as a as a clear action for support services for housing stability and decrease returns to homelessness just whatever thoughts you have I would say at this point we're I think we're in action items on whatever you like okay I've been trying to follow um a little bit of structure but uh on the providing um Supportive Services I'm just wondering if we could also think about um Financial literacy as being something there um career uh development and training those kinds of things because there are so many people um in homelessness who um really with with some of those skills that would help increase their or decrease their returns to

[227:01] homelessness yeah laoren um and just to again as it was explained to me the things that we can do in terms of action items um are more like what is this working group actually going to do like do you want us to show up at to write to all write a letter collectively or you know I think that um there is an interest in trying to really narrow down because we can't work on a lot of things um and and again we don't have a funding mechanism to actually create any programs um so it's more about how do we work within this space to get alignment or

[228:00] agreement between the different municipalities on something I see Nua topic um if I may and I I know um I'm jumping in here as you all are talking but one of the things that strikes me in this conversation um if if I can be so bold as to intrude is as you're having the conversation about Regional efforts and this comes from the conversation you had originally um my humble suggestion to you all is to think about how do you really push the envelope on regionalists right because if not we're thinking really about our city and and that invites more in our city the perhaps suggestion um that I take from and I haven't talked to Kurt about it but the suggestion and it came out in our first original conversation about um how do we invite our sister cities to have more psh in their communities would frankly alleviate the burden of psh in our community um and

[229:01] every Community should have permanent Supportive Housing in their Community every Community should have a shelter space every Community should have um a sister Carmen in their space how do we continue to provide provide those services in every single community so it is not just in in our case Longmont and Boulder has a shelter um where can we support our other communities and having those needs as well so my um perhaps my suggestion is as you're thinking about Regional needs to think about those kind of conversations as well yeah thanks very much for that n is extremely well said because I I do feel like we're we're flailing a little bit like about how do we solve homelessness with this body um and I don't yeah it's not empowered to to kind of do that so but the the push for regionalism because I was going to make a comment about how this this group could make specific recommendations for Action items that

[230:00] could then be brought back to councils the the various councils to request action on them um it' be an example of but and also just how we make sure that there are Services everywhere and then I'm going to call on taiu but I I wonder if we might try to come to a close here because I I think too many specifics aren't probably going to solve our problem here tonight no I understand and and what I'm sharing it hasn't been shared yet um as an activity I really appreciated the housing Summit that we had and I'm just as an activity would appreciate some type of although I mean we could make updates on that but but just the idea of us all coming together is just really powerful um and to have some conversations to do some visioning obviously we have the Boulder Valley comp plan update so obviously there's some synergies already happening at the city and county level and in lie of having another meeting it would be wonderful when that topic comes up if we can identify some synergies across the planning that's already happening for the valley comp plan update but

[231:01] recognizing that some of the other cities aren't a part of that but it's it's the same region so um just wanted to lift that up as specific opportunity and an alignment thank you Laur do you think you can work with what you've gotten so far yeah I think so thank you so much is there anything you think we should clarify Megs before we yeah great sorry I feel I would just like to clarify that ultimately staff will be prioritizing some of these from our staff so you know I think it's important to make sure our staff is a strong voice in this process as well so and I appreciate that you're working as a advocacy group and for understanding but for implementation you know I would hope it's our staff yeah I wonder if um everyone would agree with sort of me and

[232:00] Megs drafting up what we think these responses are and also getting feedback from HHS um on their recommendations or what we might focus on for best umph it's great I saw Megs nodding enthusiastically which is impressive given the hour that we're at right now so thanks for volunte to do that so that sounds like a good next step on that um excellent well so Lauren thank you so much for your work on this um and moving this forward and then I was remiss because I didn't call you out on the minimum wage thanks as well because you of course on the Consortium have worked as our representative on the regional efforts for going on two plus years now and so we're all in your debt for working on that Regional Regional approach thank you all right anything else right just just kind of to build on that I just wanted to do appreciation for Lauren uh you've spent years on the on the excuse me the minimum wage item

[233:00] you're now carrying just rolled straight into the homelessness um Regional discussion these are two of the mega issues that we're all just just struggling with and um you do this with such leadership and poison I'm very grateful thank you it's like fulkert night over here all right uh seeing nothing else I'll go ahead and gavis closed here at 9:48 p.m. thanks everybody for protective meeting and have a great night and I hear the lights are visible so go out look to the northern sky

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