April 3, 2025 — City Council Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[4:57] Right, I'm going to get us

[5:00] going. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Thursday, April 3rd, 2025 regular meeting of the Boulder City Council. I'd like to start with a call to order, please. Elicia, I'm sorry that is the I already did that. The roll call. If we could get the roll call, please. I knew what you meant sir. Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us. We'll start tonight's roll call as usual with council member Adams present. Benjamin present. Mayor Brackett present. Mayor Pro Tim Folks present. Council member Marquis present. Shuhard here. Spear present. Wallik virtually present. And Winer present. Mayor, we have our quorum. Thanks so much. I'm going to start with a motion to amend the agenda and it goes on for a bit so have patience please uh to add item 8A which is a discussion and not a five request to ask staff to prepare a lunch and learn on human relations. Item 8B

[6:00] discussion and not a five request to add a future matters from the mayor and members of council agenda item on AI practices and policies. And item 8 C a discussion and not a five request to add a future study session item on agricultural practices. All in favor please raise your hands. All right, I got nine on that. So, the agenda has been duly amended. All right, now we're going to go into item 1A, which is a Boulder Arts Week declaration, which I'm going to read. But I did want to share with you that joining us this evening to accept our declaration is Bridget Ryan. Bridget not only serves as the director of education and community outreach at the Boulder Symphony and Music Academy, but also performs as a dancer with WildArt Dance. So in the spirit of Boulder Arts Week, we're excited to invite Bridget to the DAS to both receive the declaration and to perform an interpretive dance during the declaration reading. Welcome Bridget and I'll come out and join you.

[7:09] Right. I've read a lot of declarations from up here, but never have we had a dancer up here as well. So, Boulder Arts Week, April 4th to the 12th of 2025. Boulder Arts Week continues to be the city's premier largescale inclusive celebration of our community's artists and vibrant arts and cultural offerings. Now in its 11th year, Boulder Arts Week 2025 will feature performances, exhibitions, and creative experiences from musicians, dancers, actors, authors, and artists of all media with events in every neighborhood of Boulder. Boulder stands as one of the most culturally vibrant communities in the nation, ranking in the top 1% for its concentration of artists, cultural organizations, and creative businesses. According to Americans for the Arts, the nonprofit arts sector in Boulder, generates more than 115 million in

[8:00] annual economic activity, supports 2450 jobs, and contributes 21.9 million in local, state, and federal government revenues. Notably, the economic impact of arts and culture funding in Boulder is over four times greater than that of cities of similar size, highlighting the city's exceptional creative ecosystem. Beyond its economic contributions, Boulder's arts and culture experiences strengthen community identity, drive innovation, improve social cohesion, and enhance overall well-being. National research consistently links arts participation to lower stress levels, improved mental health, and increased civic engagement. Investments in social infrastructure such as arts venues, public art, and cultural programming help build safer, more resilient, and more connected neighborhoods. In recognition of its thriving creative sector, SMU Data Arts, the National Center for Arts Research, ranked Boulder among the top 10 most arts vibrant medium-sized cities in the US in

[9:00] 2024. Furthermore, the arts play a critical role in advancing the city's key community priorities, offering creative solutions to pressing challenges such as climate adaptation, equity, and diversity, and housing stability. By fostering dialogue, inspiring action, and engaging diverse perspectives, the arts help shape a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient future for Boulder. In 2025, Boulder Arts Week will introduce the inaugural Boulder Arts Week Awards, recognizing outstanding contributions to the city's creative sector. These awards will celebrate the dedication and impact of local artists, arts organizations, and supporting businesses, honoring their role in shaping Boulder's cultural identity and inspiring future generations. For over a decade, Boulder Arts Week has amplified the visibility of the arts, showcased the extraordinary depth of Boulder's cultural offerings and encouraged residents to support and engage with their local creative community. This year, we again invite all residents to participate, celebrate, and champion the arts in Boulder. Now,

[10:01] therefore, be it declared by the city council of the city of Boulder, Colorado that April 4th to April 12th, 2025 is Boulder Arts Week. [Applause] Bridget, that was amazing. Thank you so much for that. Would you like to say a few words? Okay, great. Thanks. Um, yeah. So, as I was mentioned, my name is Bridget Ryan. Um, and I'm a dancer here in Boulder along with a staff member of the Boulder Symphony and a yoga instructor. Um, thank you for having me and um, just on behalf of the Boulder Arts community, I want to say thank you um, for the continued support and awareness of the arts. Um, I really love contributing to different sectors of the arts and it's always amazing to witness how our community comes together to support that.

[11:00] And alongside so many phenomenal upcoming events this Boulder Arts Week, I'm honored to be hosting a movement class on April 12th at Yoga Pearl. Um so I can hope I hope you can come check out this event or one of the other many events by local artists. Um the arts are vital to healthy and diverse and resilient communities and living in a city that acknowledges this is really inspiring. And so again, on behalf of all the artists who call Boulder their home, we are sincerely grateful for Boulder Arts Week and the continued recognition of the arts in Boulder. Thanks. Thank you. That's for you. Thanks so much. Thanks. All right, we will now move to open comment. So, Elicia, if you can go over the public participation guidelines,

[12:01] please, ma'am. All right, thank you, mayor. Good evening again and again, thank you for joining us. I will now go over the public participation at city council guidelines. The city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for a productive, meaningful and inclusive civic conversations. This vision is supports I mean this vision supports physical and emotional safety for community members, staff and council as well as democracy for people of all ages, identities, lived experiences and political perspectives. For more information about this vision and the community engagement processes, we ask that you please visit our website at bouldercol.gov/services/productive-mospheres. Now, the following are examples of rules of decorum found in the Boulder Revised Code and other guidelines that support this vision. These will be upheld during

[13:01] this meeting. Participants are required to sign up to speak using the name they are commonly known by and individuals must display their whole name before 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 testimony shall be limited to matters related to city business. No standing in or otherwise blocking the aisles. No participant shall stand or hold items such as signs or flags in a manner that would block the view of another person. No participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person. We also ask that you not affix items to the podium or deis or walls or other surfaces of the chamber. Signs, flags, or other items used to communicate must be held by one person

[14:00] when displayed. Obscidity, other epithets based on race, gender, or religion, and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the meeting will not be tolerated. And lastly, in-person participants are asked to refrain from expressing support or disagreement verbally or with sounds such as applause or snapping. That is, 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 very much for that, Elicia. And I'll just um add to that an an little bit of additional information that it is important for the order of this meeting and the function of government that the presiding officer of the meeting, which is myself, the mayor in this case, maintains a meeting where all voices are heard, uh business is handled, no one is intimidated, and there is respect for all points of view. So the city has the city council has adopted rules of decorum that Elicia described so that business is conducted

[15:00] in an orderly manner and if attendees obstruct the business in the meeting uh the council will take a recess and may clear chambers. So hopefully none of that will be necessary but just wanted to get that out there and people have two minutes to speak. I'll call three names at a time. So if you can come on down towards the podium as your time is approaching I would appreciate it. Our first three speakers are Steven Schwarz, Christian Marshall, and Evan Rabbitz. Good evening. My name is Steven Schwarz and I moved my family to Boulder last summer to be closer to our relatives. Since moving here, I've been shocked by the apathy toward public safety and open drug use in public spaces. Upon my arrival last year, I read about 19-year-old Zarya Hardy being murdered and stuffed into a bike trailer. Just three weeks ago, a middle school student was assaulted and sent to the hospital for simply riding his bike on a creek path at noon on a Sunday. Two

[16:02] days ago in the Pearl Street Mall, police had to respond to an individual accosting young children. I recently took my 8-year-old son to try and enjoy the Boulder Creek to have a lady aggressively scream and throw rocks at us. There was not a single safety officer in sight. The list of stories is endless. Our most prized public spaces aren't safe. I have profound sympathy for the unhoused and feel you are failing to provide them as well as the children of our community with necessary protections from violent offenders. To quote council member Adams, "We are looking to go from good to great. If you feel the safety conditions here are good or great, I must question the council's resolve for providing a safe place for all who call Boulder home, unhoused or not. As a career risk management consultant and more importantly a parent, I'm pleading with you to adopt a resolution to immediately supply more safety officers throughout the city in order to discourage and prevent criminal activity, not respond to crimes after they've occurred. I know Chief Redern is

[17:00] eager to meet this challenge, but he needs your support to expand his team. The lack of focus on public safety is deeply damaging to our community on multiple levels. It's impacting those trying to use pathways for alternative transportation, small business owners, tourists, and boulderites who simply want to go to enjoy public spaces with our children. And yes, it is profoundly impacting Boulder's unhoused population. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Now we have Kristen Marshall, Evan Rabbitz, and Rob Smoke. My name is Kristen Marshall. You saw it, you heard it. March left the party like a drunken sailor. Hail damaged some roofs, including at the dairy. It did not, however, dampen the spirit of the Boulder Symphony. The symphony was able to relocate a performance on March 29th to Grace

[18:00] Commons Church. I felt that this performance was stellar. Thank you to the Grace Commons Church for opening its doors and hosting this event. We were reminded of the importance of community. I now want to talk about another ice storm. It is ICE. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE is threatening our constitutional rights, including the right to free speech. On March 25th, masked ICE agents of arrested a TUS University graduate student. An op ed that she had co-authored was cited as one reason for her detainment. She is studying childhood education. The article that she helped write reminded the reader that children in Gaza are starving.

[19:04] Why is telling the truth a crime? More ice storms are forecast. Or in the words of Dylan, there's a cold wind that's going to blow. We need to change this forecast and we can. Thank you. Thank you. Now we have Evan Rabbitz, Rob Smoke, and Michelle Rodriguez. Is the presentation up? It's not going to be shown and sir, we printed it out and provided it to council. All right. Okay. Tonight I document three city lies. When three minute comments are restored like all other big Colorado cities have, I'll say misrepresentations. The audience can't see our presentations

[20:01] anymore. So, email me e rabbitsgmail for proof. One, the lie that the homeless shelter never turns away anyone due to space told by the housing director many times here. This lie was abandoned after the ACLU lawsuit forced the truth, which is that there were over 1,200 turnaways last year. Two, the lie that the city is not allowed to act on foreign policy told by council members in spite of the law and previous boycots. Just Google Boulder Burma resolution. Next slide, please. the mayor's lie that we can't make our online petitioning for ballot initiatives work right without getting rid of the two factor security we use for online banking. This lie is in reply

[21:02] to our asking the city to fix the system. Anyone using two factor ID knows it takes seconds to get the code on your phone. Signing a city online petition can take days because the county sends voter data to the city in batches instead of real time. The city refuses to ask for real time data. They also refuse to try the free open-source software offered us. Brocket lies to manipulate us and kiss up to Polus who in turn kisses up to Trump in five ways. according to Colorado News Line. Thank you. Now we have Rob Smoke, Michelle Rodriguez, and Eric Gross. Good

[22:00] evening. Uh my name is Rob Smoke. I live in Boulder. Um I was here in 81 and ran the Flagstaff 5, which no longer exists. Most of the people who entered that race didn't finish, but I did that day. And um I'm happy to be here today, but I think the circumstances are beyond sad. I think the circumstances are just awful. Um recently it was reported that 15 aid workers in Gaza were murdered while hand while handcuffed and then buried with the vehicles the aid vehicles and that this was you know they tried to cover this up but it word got out and it's been verified and the UN has really taken exception But the US has had its military spokesperson

[23:01] stand in front of a mic and say that Hamas oh Israel found that Hamas was using aid workers as a human shield and these were people who were handcuffed and then murdered. And I think it's just a shame that anyone I mean it's shameful that anyone either on this council or just generally at this point in time doesn't know that it is true that a genocide is taking place in Gaza. And it's up to all of us to do whatever we can to try and save as many people as can be saved under really really unacceptable and horrific conditions right now. So I just ask uh for free Palestine. It's on my wrist tonight. Thank you. Thank you.

[24:03] Now we have Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Gross, and Neil McBurnernett. Hi, my name is Michelle Rodriguez, and I'm here today to speak about Zariah Hardy, a 19-year-old woman whose life was taken in our city. Zariah was more than a tragic headline. She was a daughter, a young woman with hopes and struggles, a person who deserves safety, dignity, and a future. Her death is not just a crime. It is a failure. fear a failure of our community to protect our most vulnerable. Zariah was part of the unhoused population, a group too often overlooked, left without resources, and treated as invisible until tragedy forces us to acknowledge them. The man charged in her death is facing firstdegree murder and trafficking for sexual servitude with four sentence enhancers as a habitual offender. This alone speaks to the horrific nature of what happened to Zariah. But what makes

[25:00] this even more disturbing is that two other individuals have confessed to leading Zariah to the place where she was killed and to selling her for drugs and yet they are not being charged. How can we claim justice has been served when those who played a role in her death walk free? How can we tell the the people of this city that we value human life when confessions go unanswered? We cannot undo what happened to Zariah, but we can honor her by demanding full accountability. We must push for a complete and transparent investigation into everyone involved in her murder. We must also strengthen support systems for unhoused youth, increase mental health and housing services, and create real safety nets so that no one else is abandoned to violence. Zariah deserve better. And it is our responsibility to make sure no one else suffers the same fate. I urge you to not let Zariah's name fade away. Demand justice, demand action. The preliminary hearing is June 10th. I mean, sorry, April 10th. So,

[26:00] 30, her mother will be in town to be able to face the accused for the first time. Um, they need our prayers and our support. Thank you. Thank you. Now, we have Eric Gross, Neil McBurnernett, and James Duncan. Um, good evening, council. Uh, last time I was here, I showed you something and said you're not going to like it. And you're not going to like these either, except these are fresh. This is today. This is yesterday. Um, I don't know what news you see. I only know that most of the people I know see these every day. So, at least once

[27:00] every two weeks, I want you to at least take a glance. Um, this is another one. And okay, I want to make sure it gets on the camera. Um the pictures and the posts that you're seeing in front of you are taken or shared by a uh journalist and poet who has taught at the University of Syracuse. And um I believe on that sheet is uh also a message from the organization Betar USA which is no other way to say this uh an American far-right Jewish almost terrorist group who is doxing people and handing names to the Trump administration to have people deported. Um, one of the pictures there, the one with a head was a friend of that

[28:01] poet and he wrote this today. Is this really it? Us waking up every morning telling you about a massacre that happened overnight? Is it our only job to report on our deaths, film our cut off bodies, and ask you for help? When do you wake up? Is it okay with you to wake up? To find your house on fire? To find your child charged? To find your wife in a hospital with no medicine? To find your neighborhood a heap of rubble? To not wake up. Wake up. Enough watching us while sitting on a chair or reclining on a couch? We are drowning in your silence. We are screaming, but you took off your ears. You put them in your earbud cases. You see the blood as it gushes from the cases. The blood. Please leave the podium. Your time is up. Okay. Quiet in the audience, please. Yeah. Okay. Quiet. Everyone, everyone in the audience should stay quiet so that people can be heard. All right. Can we be quiet, please?

[29:02] All right. I need Okay, please stop with the excess sound. We're going to have to stop the meeting if we can't get quiet in the room. Okay. Uh, thank you for the quiet. Uh, next we have Neil Mcburnett, James Duncan, and Scott Miller. Hi, I'm Neil Mcburnett, and I've lived and voted in Boulder for over 40 years. And can you get more into the mic, please? Uh, a key principle of a representative democracy is that voters choose their representatives. But in Boulder's last council election, many voters didn't vote for even one of the winning candidates. They aren't being represented in the way they want. Why? Because we use at large plurality voting. Numerous courts have concluded that at large plurality voting is inherently unfair and required changes to more equitable systems. Switching to a system with a single winner ward is

[30:01] often suggested. But in that case, even fewer voters would probably feel represented. Incumbent lockin would be worse, and voters would be at the mercy of gerrymandering. It is time to proactively adopt a fairer method following the lead of Portland, Oregon and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Both cities embedded proportional representation in their election systems, ensuring that nearly all voters help elect someone who represents their views. One approach would be to adopt the proportional ranked choice voting method. But there are other options like proportional approval voting, see my t-shirt, which use our familiar efficient ballot layout rather than requiring voters to rank each candidate. The League of Women Voters has been working on better voting methods for many years. At the last council meeting, they submitted nearly 600 signatures on a petition asking

[31:01] council to schedule a study session on proportional representation. Please do so soon so Boulder voters and the council can get up to speed and adopt a proportional voting method to reduce the number of unrepresented Boulder citizens. Thank you. Now we have James Duncan, Scott Miller, and Eve Partridge. Good evening, council. Thank you for your service. And um you know, there's a meme going around that this is the most documented genocide in history. You know, you can't say that you didn't know. You can only say that you didn't care. Um I find it ironic. Uh, by the way, thanks again. Uh, on the Martin Luther King Day, you held this wonderful event with this keynote speaker, Cheyenne Webb. Uh, she was the youngest,

[32:00] the smallest freedom fighter. And, uh, she brought up John Lewis about uh, good trouble. I don't know if you remember that. I I I saw some of you guys there. She talked about good trouble uh, and the importance of disrupting business as usual. So, I find it very uh uh ironic that you guys are shutting down the progress uh by by these signs uh by the your draconian measures. So, that's one thing. Um I do empathize with you guys. You're you're between a rock and a hard place, right? The the rock is is the uh the the culture. It's Apac. It's the money. It's the power. It's the it's that Zionist racist culture, right? Where where the the the hard place I is the the truth, the the the h humanity, the morality, right? Uh you have to choose between that. You guys chose the

[33:00] rock, right? You you it's much easier to try to move the uh the uh uh stick with that. Try to move the the earth, the the truth. You can't do that. Um it's that just not possible. A resolution would have cost like five minutes and really a resolution would be nothing politically. So so that uh there was no no expenditures to you guys chose this. So so why what you're experiencing now with the the this activism it's it's your choice. Thank you. All right. Now we have uh Scott Miller, Eve Partridge, and Rita Silva. Good evening, council members. My name is Scott Miller, and I appreciate the time for public comment. First, congratulations to Boulder for landing the uh the Sundance Film Festival and extending Coach Prime's contract. These

[34:00] are important milestones for the city's economy and vitality. Second in my focus, thanks to you and the city staff for holding the Excel partnership study session a few weeks ago. Your questions pressed on some important areas and issues. It's exciting to be a part of the community that has the confidence and competence to lead the nation with a goal of 100% zero emissions electricity by 2030. This goal is especially important as we transition away from fossil fuels. Electricity will become the foundational energy for most everything we do at home, at work, at school, and during fun. However, how we make the transition may be as important as how fast we make it. Please consider that Boulder does have a say in how we make the transition. Please consider that the Boulder community prioriti priorities for affordable, reliable, equitable, and resilient electricity are nearly as important as zero

[35:00] emissions. Please consider that the way we will produce and deliver electricity to hit emissions targets and to meet community priorities will not be the same as it was in the past 100 years. Please consider that the century old regulated for-profit monopoly utility may not be the exclusive way to produce and deliver electricity and meet our community priorities. Please consider adding additional types of electricity targets to the next climate action plan. For example, megawatts of local battery storage and local energy resilience centers. When Boulder demonstrates agency, it's inspirational to the region. Despite the chaos around us, please keep pushing to responsibly lead the way in this energy transition. Thank you. Thank you. Our last three in-person speakers are Eve Partridge, Rita Silva, and Sarah Napier.

[36:05] Hi, my name is Eve. I have a Marinite Christian background from Lebanon and Syria. The first Christians were just south in Palestine and Jesus was originally Aramean and from Canaanite tribes. Numerous holy sites have been massacred by the United States of Israel recently. I've also been thinking about the genocidal distortions that have manipulated the Christian faith in Europe and the Americas in the name of Jesus and Miam. Especially now as our evangelical voter base distorts everything in our current extremist political regime. As a spiritual and healing practitioner, I spend a lot of time studying Abrahamic Mesopotamic Buddhist Vadic indigenous faiths. While many of us claim one or incremental versions, who here is actually living up to the decency, kindness, and love these faiths actually require? If atheist, wouldn't you know

[37:00] how to be a good person without the oversight of a higher power? If pagan, then wouldn't you know the timeless saying of harm none? If indigenous, then the understanding that all life is sacred. If practicing yoga, we understand the importance of karma and service. Who is your god? property development, affluence, not the care for the indigenous civilizations or the influence of their greatness. What is your god? Militarization of local police that were near my home last week with the SWAT team for a minor situation or bombs that kill my relatives in Palestine and Lebanon and create the quickening of climate destruction and detriment here at home to us and our children. There is a boomer effect, boomerang effect on our society happening. and you choose to ignore and ban women of liberation while keeping white males with money that abuse us close in this room. Who and what is your god and why does it make me feel physically ill every time I enter this building? In my opinion, I feel there are genocidal entities from the past and

[38:00] the present combined with traumas, manipulation that clearly oh gosh that prevents the council from seeing the community clearly and the importance. But thank you for your testimony. You're Oh, and no no no applause, please. Please quiet in the audience. And it's time for us to move to the next speaker, please. All right. Our last two inerson speakers and then we'll go to our virtual ones are Rita Silva and Sarah Napier. Hello. Um, and it's Freda. F R I DA, not Rita. Um, my name is Freda. I am a sister, a daughter, a friend, a community member. I'm here today as a concerned citizen to express my concern on the growing attack and suppression of voices speaking out against the genocide of our human man, families, children, and Palestine. I'm here to demand three things. One is that the suspension of our community members speaking out against the genocide in Boulder City County to be lifted. Second, that the Boulder City count city council create,

[39:01] report, and adhere a ceasefire resolution that condemns the genocide in Palestine. And third, that the city divest from companies who are actively complicit in the genocide of Palestinians. Boulder City gives 1.6 million tax dollars to those companies uh namely Caterpillar, Cisco, Microsoft from the silencing of student voices at Columbia University, to my comrades here in this building right here in this meeting. Um we will not stay silent. We will come meeting after meeting. Our voices will not be suppressed and silenced. Ina, thank you. All right. No, no applause, please. Quiet in the audience, please, so that everybody's voice can be heard. Okay. Last inerson speaker, Sarah

[40:01] Napier. Hi, I'm Sarah Npier. I've spoken here multiple times and I think it's ridiculous that we have to keep coming back when people are being massacred with our own tax dollars. As tax day comes up, this is what you're doing and you're all complicit in it unless you are actively doing something to fight against this. Have you seen the beheaded baby? A two-month-old baby was massacred by Israel funded by our tax dollars. What has a twomonth year baby done? How can you ever justify this? How are you able to go on and pretend that this isn't happening? What if it was your own baby? Experts say that is pass a famine state in Gaza. that Israel is deliberately blocking aid to use starvation as a tactic of war, which is

[41:01] against international law. Innocent civilians are starving to death. People are scavenging for food. This week alone, Israel kidnapped 15 human humanitarian aid workers, cussed them, and shot them point blank. These are humanitarian aid workers. Okay. Just today, Israel bombed an UNRA school, killing around 30 innocent civilians. They have Israel claims over 200 times that they are attacking these schools because they believe that Hamas is there. 200 times, but no evidence has ever been proven that that is true. These are deliberate attacks on civilian refugee sites, schools, clinics, hospitals that they bomb and then they set on fire. When are you going to actually do

[42:02] something? Because this your time is up. Okay. And quiet in the audience, please. All right. Our first three virtual speakers are Lao Gonzalez, Lynn Seagull, and Lauren Feldman. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Well, let me start by acknowledging that I not prepared today nor I have been in the last six months, which is why a lot of my anger comes out because why waste my time trying to prepare a quote unquote orderly and diplomatic speech for white people who are not listening? It is disgusting. every single one of you to have allowed to for me to be suspended for speaking my political philosophies and my humanity to speak about saying no to a genocide where

[43:00] we're paying tax dollars where we're involved. There are members in this city council that have stocks in Microsoft like you Dr. Spear like your husband. You should be ashamed of that. Tara Winer, listen. Yes. Because literally every single thing that you're doing, you're acting like liberals and progressives. Literally, your behavior is what's leading to fascism as is today. You are just like the quiet in the Oh, we're living in Germany. Thank you, Tisha, for pointing out standing up. Please sit down. It's not. Please sit down in the audience. I have my 20 seconds back. By the way, can I have my 20 seconds back for the interruption? Because take your no 20 because you're terrible at honestly facilitating these conversations and once your fragility gets broken, then you go to extents to suspend me and then threaten me with the police. That is the most racist [ __ ] you

[44:01] can do to any person of color. How dare you threaten me with the police? How dare you suspend it for speaking my my religious beliefs that I must speak for humanity. Israel's committing a genocide. Israel's committing a holocaust in the name of Judaism, which is wrong. And that's not the same thing as anti-semitism. Anti-sionism is not anti-semitism. And every single SioNazi here is a Nazi. That's right. And that is correct because you are the same people. You are just like those Germans that live their lives like nothing. Hey, your time is me around. Our next three speakers are Lynn Seagull, Lauren Feldman, and Julie Schaefer. Why do I bother humming each time? Why do all these people bother? You need to make a resolution. It's two minutes for your frigin resolution. Make one for anti-semitism, too. That's great. Good for you.

[45:01] This is so revolting, so disgusting. You wait until you go up in a mushroom cloud over this issue. You know, Trump's threatening to bomb Iran. You think it's funny? You think that doesn't affect Boulder? It's a local issue. It's right here now. How dare you? How dare you cause us to put up such a fuss? Your whole public comment is composed of this every single week for months and months. What gets with you? Email us. What a joke. We can be here in person. We can be here in showing things on the screen. I can't see the tiny images of the baby

[46:01] beheaded. Sorry. How do you sleep with yourselves each night? You are public officials. You have a responsibility to represent your public and you are not doing it except Taiisha. Shame on you. Quiet please. Prime Prime is getting 50 million a year a new contract. Oh shucks, that's delightful. I like the things the other guy said. I mean the other things he said about the us having a public utility, but people are so inconsistent. Coach Bryan and Gaza, it's revoling. Do something. Defund Israel. Time is up. Okay, we have three more speakers left. They are Lauren Feldman, Julie Schaefer, and Patty Fraguilera.

[47:05] Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Uh, good evening. My name is Lauren Lambert Feldman and I live in Boulder. Recently, neighbors and I met with open space staff to discuss issues we are seeing on Flagstaff Mountain. We were very appreciative of their time and the incredible work they are doing to keep Boulder safe and prepared for the next wildfire. However, after reviewing the city and county wildfire prevention plans, I am disappointed that these plans did not offer proposals to increase infrastructure surveillance or penalties for human-caused fires. In the 464 pages, there is not a single mention of how to prevent humancaused fires. Yet, we know 87% of all wildfires are human-caused. We need to do all we can to stop wildfires from starting in the first place. This is not an if, but a when question for when we will face the next wildfire. In the last four years on

[48:00] Flagstaff Road, we've seen carjacking, murder, driveby shooting, domestic violence, a death, and human trafficking occur. In 2024 alone, we had a fire on April 16th, June 15th, June 24th, July 31st, and November 20th. Starting at 9:00 p.m., we also hear fireworks and gunshots nearly nightly. If we've learned anything from the LA fires, it's that once these fires start, we have very little control. We also need to acknowledge that OSMP does not have the resources to patrol and deter criminal behavior on Flagstaff Road. This is an enormous public safety issue beyond just fire prevention. Here's a quote from the October staff memo to the board. Quote, "Ashame to say it, but due to our minimum staffing levels as of late, deputies avoid proactive patrols on Flagstaff because they know they're going to find some sort of criminal activity that will require an arrest and take them off the streets. We need to either physically close off all the

[49:00] pulloffs or do what Golden did on Lookout Mountain." Facing the same kinds of challenges there, they decided they had no choice but to close the roads to traffic after dark. This is an emergency situation and calls for emergency action. Thank you. Thank you. Our last two speakers are Julie Schaefer and Patty Fster Aguilera. Good evening. I appreciate the rules laid out at the beginning of the meeting that prohibit calling out specific council members for their religion or peoplehood. That is intimidation and that was one of the things that you specifically said was forbidden. Listening to council this evening, I'm again hearing that use of intimidating language. I just want want to call out the fact that all citizens of the city are affected by that lack of

[50:01] response to those who use terms like I heard tonight such as Zion Nazis to describe specific Jewish council members. The majority of council has voted to defeat a proposed ceasefire resolution and a review of the investment policy. Yet council accepts speaker statements such as all of Tara Winers and Mark Wallak's grandchildren and descendants should know that Tara and Mark specifically are responsible for the holocaust that is happening today. Those words were forcefully spoken 50 minutes into the last council meeting. Does our city government really accept the targeting of Jewish citizens, not to mention fellow council members? This lack of response sends a chill through the city. The film festival relocating to Boulder identified our community as a place of tolerance. If that is so, council must

[51:02] act swiftly and decisively against this targeting of Jews. without council within council chambers and within the city. You are sanctioning this speech with your silence. Enforce your own declaration against anti-semitism. Thank you. Thank you. Our last speaker is Patty Fuster Aguilera. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Yeah. My name is Dr. Patty Ferua. Please like stop using Jewish with like we're referring to Zionist, not just Jewish. Zionism is quiet in the audience. Please, okay, please read a book. I want you to understand how complicit you are all in this genocide. Your silencing of propalinian voices and your fake claim on safety when propalinian voices show up in chamber is so insulting. I'm so

[52:01] ashamed of living and working in Boulder. Yesterday they announced five CU students had their visa revoked. There are abductions by ice happening all over the country. And you think you have nothing to do with this? You are very much wrong here. You suspend me for 30 year per 30 days on entering the city chambers just because my sign was too high. This is a ridiculous level of silencing. Eight out of nine city council members voted in favor of this suspension. By the way, Winer wanted a metal detector for God's sake. The six cups you bring and spend money on every meeting is what makes people not safe, not our words. Here's the connection, y'all. The way that you keep claiming that you don't feel safe with Palestinian voices showing up in the chambers, the way that you keep silencing is what helps this abduction and this persecution of people using their faith amendment, right? This is why the federal government is now abducting people. And they will come for you and your families at some point. Just wait for it. Okay, this does not

[53:02] stop here. People that are trying on all possible ways to stop you to make money from this genocide. It was shameful to see most of you only three votes to work in Boulder to revisit their investment. I'm so sorry, Council Member Adams. And you may bias that you're showing leading these meetings and me not giving me my time back, suspending me. Like, it's so crystal clear. It's so crystal clear. Shame on you. You are a shame for humanity. All of you. You should walk out of your position. That brings us to the end of open comment. So, I will turn to city staff to see if you have any responses. Thank you, mayor and council. And thank you, community members, for sharing with us your opinions. I I do want to make a clarification. We value the rules of conducts that have been established to ensure effective

[54:01] government operations in our city facilities. I want to be clear that the suspensions that were provided were not made because of speech. We have rules posted publicly in the building that are intended to help ensure that government operations can be performed without interruptions. At our last council meeting, two individuals violated these rules, causing council to call for several recesses, constituting an interruption of government operations. As a result, we issued two suspensions which prohibited these community members from temporarily entering the building. The suspensions indicated that these community members were still welcome to receive city services and speak virtually at future council meetings as well as advised of their right to appeals hearing should they desire. It is not content of speech that is prohibited. Thank you mayor. Thanks for that Teresa. Nothing to add mayor. Thank you. Okay.

[55:01] Any clarifying questions from council members Taiisha? Yes, I have clarifying questions. So, it was my understanding that the re the rationale for the signage not being held high is to ensure that anybody who happened to be behind them could be able to see. That was my understanding for why we would have a sign or have rules around the size of the sign or flags or anything else. And I guess what I didn't realize is that you can still have your arms up though and blocking. And so that is where I would like to um have a question around clarification around that. And then what is the process to update because obviously if I'm sorry I didn't realize that that was something that we didn't clarify and it was my understanding that the whole purpose of the sign conversation was um related to blocking um the view of anybody who could potentially be behind you. So that was my understanding. Teresa, do you want to address that? Uh yes, I'm happy to address that. So

[56:01] the rule is specific um about the size of signs. No sign or flag shall be permitted in council chambers except for one sign held by a person measuring no more than 11 by 17 in which is held no higher than the person's face. Um that is the extent of the rule. Um if if this council had the desire to uh make additional rules that pertain to blocking others views um we would look for a not of five to do that and could introduce that kind of change. Okay. I just wanted to clarify then people are allowed to raise their hands as high as they'd like then throughout the entire time. Yes ma'am. Thank you. Okay. Thanks for that Tesa. Uh, seeing no other hands raised, let's go to the consent agenda, please, Miss Alicia. Yes, sir. Thank you. Our consent agenda is our item number three on the agenda,

[57:00] and it consists of items 3A through 3D. Any uh questions or comments on the consent agenda? I I'll call on myself uh for a comment. Uh item 3A is a motion to accept the recommendation for the appointment of Denian Hill as the municipal court associate judge. And I'm excited to support that. And just wanted to extend a very warm welcome to uh Miss Hill for uh joining the organization after we pass this. And thanks to Judge Con for bringing that recommendation forward. Anything else? Perhaps a motion. I move the consent agenda. Second. Second. Okay, we have a motion to second. Can we do a roll call, please, Elicia? Yes, sir. We'll do the roll call for the consent agenda items 3A through 3D. We'll start with Council Member Wallik.

[58:03] I Winer, yes. Adams, yes. Benjamin, yes. Mayor Brackett, yes. Mayor Pro Tim Folks, yes. Council member Marquis, yes. Shuhard, yes. And Spear, yes. The consent agenda, mayor, is hereby approved unanimously. Thanks. And uh Teresa, can I just get a clarifying question? Would a a scarf or other garment being raised with that constitute a type of sign? Mayor, thank you for asking for a clarification. The rule is quite specific that it applies to signs and flags and Okay. So, I'll ask the gentleman to to lower that.

[59:00] Get a call. Mayor, it is not a sign or a flag. Okay, great. Thanks for clarifying. You're good. Allowed behavior. All right. So, let's go to our public hearing then, please. Thank you. Our public hearings are item number five on tonight's agenda. 5A is the second reading and consideration of a motion to adopt ordinance 8686 designating the property at 658 Pleasant Street, City of Boulder, Colorado to be known as the Tiara House as an individual landmark under Chapter 9-11 Historic Preservation BRC1981 and setting forth related details. Thank you so much, Mayor. And for this, we'll go straight to Marcy. Good evening, council. Marcy Gerwing, Planning and Development Services, uh,

[60:03] Department. Uh, I'll begin this evening's designation hearing by going through the quasi judicial hearing process. Council members will note any exparte contacts, any site visits or conversations you've had uh, with community members about this property at 658 Pleasant Street. And I will pause now for any exparte contacts. Not seeing any. Thank you. And seeing none, I'll um continue. Uh staff will give a presentation. Just quiet in the audience, please. No talking. And council may ask questions. Uh the applicant then has an opportunity to make a presentation followed by council questions. The public hearing is then opened for community member comments followed by uh any questions council may have. And after the last public comment, the applicant has the opportunity to respond to anything that was said. The public hearing is then closed and council can discuss the decision. A

[61:01] 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. As part of the quasi judicial process, the criteria for your decision this evening is found in section 9116 of the Boulder Reise Code and that is focused on whether the designation meets the purposes and standards in subsection 911A and section 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 historic preservation code, which is to preserve, protect, and enhance historically significant buildings in 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

[62:00] interest, and foster knowledge of the city's living history. The second provides the types of designations council may pass, including individual landmarks on a single site containing special character and historical, architectural, or aesthetic interest and value. And the third part of the criteria for your decision asks whether the designation is in balance with the goals and policies of the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan, which sets a vision for the future development and preservation of the city of Boulder and Boulder County. Uh these Boulder Valley comprehensive plan uh policies are relevant to this application which includes protecting sites with cultural or architectural value, encouraging new designations, and working to support historic amenities so they continue to contribute to the economic vitality of the community and foster meaningful connections to Boulder. The options in front of you this evening tonight are to approve the designation,

[63:00] modify and approve the designation, or deny the designation. This application for 658 Pleasant uh started back in December when the owner nominated her property as an individual landmark. Uh we reviewed the design of a restoration of the front porch and a gable roof rear edition in deck. The landmarks board reviewed the application at their February 5th meeting with a unanimous recommendation to designate the property as an individual landmark. This was heard on the first reading uh uh on the consent agenda on March 20th. And that brings us to this evening, April 3rd, for a public hearing. So, this property at 658 Pleasant is located on the southwest corner of Pleasant and 7th, and a portion of the Anderson Ditch runs across the northeast corner of the property. The house faces north onto Pleasant Street, but due to the location of the ditch, the main entrance of the front porch is from the

[64:00] Seventh Street uh via a bridge. The property is not located within a potential or designated historic district. This Dutch colonial revival house has an iconic gamrell roof with a modified L-shaped plan with gamrells at the east, north, and west elevations. The hipped roof porch sits at the elbow of the L and is proposed to be removed and replaced with a replica of the original tiara porch. The Gamrell ends are clad in vertical board and bbatton sighting, which are proposed to be uh removed and restored back to their original appearance of narrow horizontal wood sighting. The house has a painted painted brick lower level on top of a cut stone foundation and uh character defining features also include decorative leaded glass. Turning to the uh historic significance of the property. It meets uh our criteria including uh its historic significance. It has a number of owners over the last 115 years and it

[65:02] is likely that the house was constructed by stonemason Lyman Leland between 1906 and 1909. The Townsen family purchased the property in 1910 and lived here for 50 years. EA Townsen ran a barber and beauty shop in Boulder with his son and daughter-in-law. And other notable owners include Art and Babe Daldos who lived here for 13 years and Elaine and George Van Bouven uh who was a county commissioner in the 1970s. The house meets the architectural significance criteria and is as an example of the Dutch colonial revival style popular in the early 20th century. It was likely constructed by Leland uh Lyman who uh was a stonemason and worked as a contractor in Boulder in the surrounding area. And he also was responsible for constructing Citizens National Bank in Edmund, Oklahoma, uh which is a very fine stone and brick uh building. We'll continue. The property meets the

[66:01] following environmental significance criteria, including the uh Anderson ditch that crosses the front of the property, creating an unusual and unique site with a bridge across the main entrance. The ditch was constructed in the early 1860s and is privately owned. And even though the lot is heavily vegetated, the building is a familiar visual landmark within the neighborhood and on a corner. The restoration of the striking front porch will make it even more prominent. With that, staff in the landmarks board recommend that the uh property be designated as an individual landmark to be known as the Tiara House for its unique and notable uh porch that's proposed to be restored and have a boundary that follows the property lines. And uh we've worked with uh Quiet in the audience, please. We've worked with the Anderson Ditch Company to include language in the ordinance that clarifies that any work to the ditch uh does not require a landmark alteration

[67:02] certificate. Um that concludes the staff presentation and I am happy to answer any questions you may have. Thanks so much Marcy. Any questions for Marcy? I'm not seeing any questions, so we can open the public hearing. Oh, sorry. And I was going to mention that um the owner, Laura Rose, here is um virtually here available for questions, but isn't planning to make a presentation this evening. Okay, great. That's good to know. So, we can ask her questions if necessary. Thanks for being here. Uh we have two people signed up to speak. We've got one person in person and one virtual. Each person will have three minutes to speak. Our in-person speaker is Laura Schaefer. Come on down.

[68:06] Hi, my name is Laura Schaefer. Can you hear? Get on down into that mic, please. Okay. Hi. I'm Laura Schaefer. I'm the architect on the project and I just wanted to say thank you and to say that the owner is really excited to bring the special features of the house um back and continue the preservation of it. She loves the unique attributes of the house and the craftsmanship of the construction. I wanted to thank um Marcy and the rest of the historic program for everything that they've done. and they've been easy to work with and um they like to preserve. How they preserve really um enhances the special fabric of Boulder. So yeah, that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you. Uh we'll go online to Lynn Seagull. Absolutely. Yes, of course. Um, the problem with the demolition

[69:01] board, aka the landmarks board, is that they don't do this kind of thing consistently. 15 Juniper Street, a beautiful old bungalow that they took down because oh, it's on the flood confluence and the the poor owner would have, you know, wouldn't be able to expand the place into a $10 million house without it being demolished. So, they demoed it. You know, I can't understand the demos in Gaza, but I can't understand the demos in frigin Boulder. Another one, case in point, the cemetery. Columbia Cemetery on the s no on the north west corner across the street there's a beautiful house with just

[70:00] amazing stuff all over the yard. I've walked around in there. It's stunning. It's right near this tiara house actually demoed. It's an insult. It's an insult to to architects in Boulder. It's an insult to me and other people who can appreciate some of these houses of which I guess according to last night Marcy says we have 4% being preserved in Boulder. You know, that's a pretty I don't and also oh that's like the rest of the United States. I don't care. I really couldn't care less. I care that we're preserving things here. Um, you know, the other place that's being demoed is Broadway and Baseline. Um, commercial space. Oh, because it's on a grade and because they, uh, the reasoning was really bad that

[71:01] they were given extra. Oh, we need more housing in Boulder. You know, the more housing we have, the more with Sundance. Sundance is going to bring this town down. It's not up, it's down. See you South. It's a toxic cocktail. Flooding. Talk about flooding 15 Juniper. Boulder's liable. You're in for a big fat lawsuit, Teresa. Watch out. I don't want to pay for it and I don't want to pay Coach Prime 50 million bucks a year raise. This is revolting. This town is, you know, like I'm I'm not from here. Thank God. I'm from Pacific Northwest, but this is, you know, I know everyone loves Boulder. I don't love what's going on here.

[72:01] Your time is up, but thank you. Okay. Um, all right. Did we have any uh questions for the applicant? Anybody have any questions? We'll bring it back to council then for consideration. There's a proposed motion if anybody is interested in making that. I move to adopt ordinance 8686 designating the property at 658 Pleasant Street, City of Boulder, Colorado to be known as the Tiarara House as an individual landmark under chapter 911 Historic Preservation BRC 1981 as well as adopt the staff memorandum dated April 3rd, 2025 as the findings and conclusions of council and setting forth related details. Second. Great. We've got a motion and a second. Did you want to speak to that, Lauren? Um, I just wanted to thank the applicant for coming or being here with us virtually tonight um and for bringing

[73:01] this forward for us. It's a lovely house and I look forward to seeing the eventual um restoration work. Thanks, Tara. Do you have anything? No. Okay, great. Uh, roll call, please. Yes, sir. Thank you. We'll start to roll call for item 5A regarding to the adoption of 8 ordinance 8686 with council member Winer. Yes. Adams, yes. Benjamin, yes. Mayor Brackett, yes. Mayor Pro Tim Folks, yes. Council member Marquis, yes. Shuhard, yes. Spear, yes. And Wallik, yes. Ordinance 8686 is hereby adopted unanimously. Thanks so much and thank you and congratulations to the applicant and

[74:00] Marcy, thanks for your always amazing work on this project. All right, can we go to our next item, please, Elicia? Yes, sir. Next on tonight, tonight's agenda is our item number six, matters from the city manager. 6A is the process overview and update on the long-term financial strategy. Thank you so much, Mayor and Council. Tonight, we come before you with one of our council priorities. Uh, and I want to thank in addition to staff who is making their way down and onto uh our side of uh the podium over here or the dis. Um, I I want to thank our uh council colleagues or your council colleagues that are uh part of the financial strategies committee, council members Shuhar, Spear, and uh Wallak um who is with us virtually. We're hoping to provide all of council an overview of the work done to date and seeking initial input from you on the development of a multi-year ballot measure strategy and communication and

[75:00] engagement approach. I'll say too that I know there's a lot of interest in the topic. Um, and I'll and I'll just remind you that there will be more conversations to come. This is not the only time for a conversation. We are coming again with you uh in May, early May, I think, in just five weeks and again in late June to continue to receive council member policy guidance and share additional analysis forward with council for decision-making. And looking forward to this summer and fall, we're excited to embark upon a holistic community engagement strategy, fund our future to understand the community's desired level of service on the city's programs and services, and have important trade-off conversations uh about our priorities because I don't know if anyone's heard, but we are a bit financially constrained. With that, I'll turn it over to our fabulous budget officer, Charlotte Husky, who's here, and will likely introduce her team as she goes along. from Charlotte. Good evening, council members. I'm Charlotte Hesky, budget offer officer for the city. Good

[76:00] to be here with you all this evening. I'm joined by Scott Carpenter, principal budget analyst, who will be helping me and provide this 20-minute presentation to you all this evening on the long-term financial strategy process overview and update. Uh for this evening, we'll be providing an overview of the long-term financial strategy project itself, phases one and two, and an overview of each of the four work streams that we have within the project, which include the long-term financial plan, our alternative funding mechanisms, core service level workstream, as well as the multi-year ballot measure strategy. And then we'll round out with two uh specific questions that we have for council members this evening. Um and receiving uh receiving input from you all this evening. The long-term financial strategy focuses on the development of a comprehensive city-wide strategy to help guide fiscal decision-making and long-term uh financial health of the city. The long-term financial strategy builds upon prior policy recommendations from the blue ribbon commission reports of 2008 and 2010 as well as the 2019 budgeting

[77:03] for resilience report. These key findings and recommendations uh included calling for a comprehensive financial plan for the city of Boulder. Cautioned the city's over reliance on sales tax as well as the dedication of funding sources. Recommended the identification of core services of core city services and service level prioritization and encouraged the development of an outcomesbased system for budgeting. Within our project, we've developed four primary work streams with two phases of work with policy guidance that we receive on a monthly basis from the financial strategy committee members. We'll receive policy guidance from the full city council this evening and be sharing forward the following touch points that we have with council coming up. And then we also have an internal steering committee, internal executive steering committee that we meet with on a monthly basis as well. The long-term

[78:01] financial strategy work streams include four work streams as I uh mentioned including the long-term financial plan where we focused on developing guiding principles for the long-term financial strategy and we performed a current state inventory assessment against the report recommendations of the blue ribbon commission reports and the budgeting for community resilience reports. Phase two of this workstream focuses on the development of a five-year comprehensive plan. Alternative funding mechanisms focuses on identifying alternative revenue opportunities, including looking at taxes, fees, and other revenue opportunities within this workstream. The core service levels workstream focuses on identifying the levels of of service that the city should provide uh for programs and services through benchmarking analysis that will be performed as well as community conversations as Nuria mentioned holistic community conversations that are to come with uh our fund our future

[79:01] engagement strategy. And then finally, the multi-year ballot measure strategy focuses on the development of a multi-year ballot measure approach for 2025 and 2026 and performing comprehensive community engagement through fund our future community conversations that are to come this summer and fall. As we go throughout our presentation, I wanted to share forward the questions for city council that we'll be focusing on this evening. That includes uh the first of whether council members have any questions or feedback on the long-term financial strategy multi-year ballot measure strategy for 2025 and 2026 and specifically on the multi-year ballot measure framework that considers exploring two recommended tax ballot measures for the 2025 ballot and looking at our approach for 2026 potential tax ballot measures. Our second question focuses on whether council h council members have any

[80:01] questions or feedback on the approach of the long-term financial strategy community engagement strategy and specifically the role of council members in supporting this effort moving forward. So focus focusing first on the long-term financial plan. The long-term financial plan focuses on the city's financial governance framework and the development of a five-year comprehensive financial plan. Included within this workstream is the establishment of guiding principles, revisions to specific financial policies and procedures, and the development of prioritized recommendations for revenue for future revenue updates. The long-term uh financial plan phase one focused on a current state uh analysis of uh recommendations of the uh looking at recommendations and what recommendations have been achieved within the blue ribbon commission reports of uh 2008 and 2010 and the budgeting for uh for resilience report.

[81:10] you are interrupting the meeting. If you could please step back out into the audience area. I'm just concerned about the city's long-term financial planning. This is an interruption of the meeting. If I have to continue to ask you to return to the area, we will have to recess the meeting. This is the I'm sorry. I have an injury. Yeah, if you think it's funny to your city with genocide, that's fine. This is an interruption of the meeting. Please seat. Please take a seat or we will have to recess the meeting.

[82:00] Okay, we are recessing the meeting. And you come here and you just talk about the financial plan and restoration of a Okay.

[90:27] Everybody, I'm going to gave us out of recess. Uh, just to note that because of persistent disruptions that we're not ceasing, we have cleared the chambers, but we are back in session now. And thanks to Mayor Tim Prom Folkarts uh for taking over for a couple minutes while I took a short break. And I'll now hand it back over to staff. Thank you, council members. Uh so in looking at the long-term financial plan which is our first work stream within the long-term financial strategy, we performed a current state assessment uh inventory against the recommendations of the blue urban commission report of 2008

[91:01] and 2010 as well as the budgeting for community resilience report of 2019. There are several key findings associated with uh these including an over reliance on sales tax and our need to diversify our revenues. the high dedication, noting the high dedication of our revenues and really focusing on uh increasing flexibility of funding, funding challenges to meet core service needs and balancing community priorities, particularly given our constraints of dedicated funding and focuses focusing on prioritizing core services based on criticality of need and focusing on a city-wide budgeting approach that focuses on implementation of outcomes and measures aligned to citywide goals. to ensure efficiencies efficiency of services and city programs. The long-term financial guiding principles were built based upon these prior policy recommendations from

[92:00] the blue ribbon commission report and the community uh budgeting for community resilience report including three guiding principles that are leading this work forward. that includes the fiscal sustainability and sufficiency, equity and resiliency. Under fiscal sustainability and sufficiency, we're focused on uh the stability and predictability of our city core service levels. We're focused on ensuring the diversity of our revenues, the flexibility of our revenues, as well as the sufficiency of our revenues to be able to meet core service needs and community priorities. Within our uh principle of equity, we're focused on uh revenue structures and financial policies that aim to reduce tax and fee burdens on historically disadvantaged groups. Within resiliency, we're focused on our ability uh to adapt uh to anticipate, adapt, and recover quickly to adversity and change supported both by a diversification of our revenues as

[93:02] well as sufficient reserve levels. Phase two of the long-term financial plan work stream will focus on the development of a five-year comprehensive plan that will look to uplift our guiding principles in the city's financial practices and policies as well as implement key recommendations of the reports. This effort will be further informed by the comprehensive uh long-term financial strategy and other work streams within the long-term financial strategy phase two including additional research and analysis that we will be performing on revenues and service levels and community conversations to come this summer and fall through fund our future on priorities of services and programs. For the next two work streams, I'll hand it off to Scott Carpenter. Thank you, Charlotte. Good evening, council. I'm Scott Carpenter, principal budget analyst, and I will spend the next few slides talking about two of our work streams, core service levels and

[94:01] alternative funding mechanisms. The alternative funding mechanisms work stream focuses on identifying and analyzing additional revenue opportunities, including performing a comprehensive review of existing revenues and considering potential new revenues to support the city's programs and services. In phase one, we conducted a current state inventory of existing fees and reviewed our citywide fee policy. From the current state inventory, we found that cost recovery levels and the recency of fee updates varies widely, meaning that there are opportunities for capturing additional revenue and opportunities to develop a more coordinated approach to the timeline of fee updates and analysis. In phase two, we will be establishing a pathway for fee updates and identifying the potential for new fees. Within 2026 budget development, we are requesting departments submit two-year revenue plans and will develop recommendations based on those plans. These plans will prioritize updates based on specific criteria such as highest revenue potential, latest fee update, and nexus to funding

[95:01] flexibility. We will also perform additional benchmarking and analysis to prioritize potential revenue opportunities such as new taxes, fees, grants, and private partnerships. The core service levels work stream focuses on identifying the levels of service the city should provide for programs and services through benchmarking analysis and the fund our future community conversations that will take place this summer and fall. In phase one of the core service level work stream, staff established a core services hierarchy which built upon the framework and recommendations from the budgeting for resilience report of 2019. This hierarchy established a four- tiered framework to understand the critical criticality of services including definitions for essential, important, helpful and amenity. In phase two of the core service levels work stream, we will focus on benchmarking analysis against the city's

[96:01] services and service levels. This work will be supported by a Harvard Bloomberg fellow joining us for a 10-week fellowship from June through August of this year. Phase two will also result in a comprehensive update uh and refined list of the city's unfunded needs. As shared with city council during 2025 budget discussions, the city's unfunded needs are great, such as a backlog of capital infrastructure, renovation, replacement, and maintenance projects to support our existing assets. Finally, a key component to both the core service levels and the multi-year ballot measure strategy work streams is a holistic community conversation and engagement strategy called fund our future. This conversation will discuss the community's desired level of service and the prioritization of those services. These conversations will help to inform decisions about potential 2026 ballot measures and will involve city council, boards and commissions, community connectors and residents, and input sessions with additional community groups. I will now pass it back to

[97:00] Charlotte to discuss the multi-year ballot measure strategy. Thanks, Scott. So rounding us out with our uh fourth and final uh work stream, the multi-year ballot measure strategy, where we focused on uh developing a multi-year ballot measure framework. So, city council first confirmed this approach of the development of a multi-year ballot measure strategy last year in May of 2024 during 2024 ballot measure uh discussions where uh city council indicated uh staff working with the financial strategy committee as part of the long-term financial strategy in bringing forward potential options and considering the development of a multi-year ballot measure framework. And so the in uh the development of this multi-year ballot measure framework, we worked uh in developing this when and received policy guidance from the financial strategy committee members to develop a two-year approach, including uh looking at for 2025 a a focused and more narrow incremental approach to

[98:01] potential tax changes that focuses on uh taking care of what we have and our unmet needs and underfunded needs. uh and funding opportunities for core services. Within the 2026 tax ballot measure approach, we're looking at a more expanded, comprehensive, and creative approach to tax changes with key focus areas again looking at our unmet needs and taking care of what we have in addition to investments, additional investments in services and programs. staff pro uh performed an analysis of comparable cities uh both in looking at our dedication of sales and use taxes across comparable cities as well as a history of tax ballot measures passing. Uh and there are some uh key takeaways that are noted here on this slide. The first is for the sales and use tax analysis. Boulder leads Colorado comparable cities as one of the highest

[99:01] sales and use tax dedication uh cities at approximately 56%. This is well above the average of 31% across comparable cities and looking at this list. The second is associated with our ballot measure analysis and looking at uh the success of ballot measures passing across comparable cities. In looking at this analysis, we saw that 100% of the city of Boulder tax ballot measures passed in the last 10 years. Uh that's compared to an average of of 84% across comparable cities. 89% of total tax ballot measures for general purposes succeeded across comparable cities. And finally, 100% of total tax ballot measures for the for CIP in consideration uh passed across comparable cities. So, in looking at our multi-year ballot measure framework as well as the staff analysis performed on our dedication of

[100:02] sales taxes as well as looking at tax ballot measure history and combining this with the uh policy guidance received from the financial strategy committee as well as looking at aligning and uplifting our long-term financial strategy guiding principles. staff proposed and explored options uh in discussion with the financial strategy committee uh for potential tax ballot measures for 2025. These included looking at an incremental increase to sales and use tax uh for general purposes. We explored combining existing sales taxes to support capital infrastructure needs. We also looked at extending existing taxes such as the community culture resilience and safety tax and creating new taxes such as the public realm property tax, an occupation head tax, or a vacancy tax. Ultimately in uh discussing with the financial strategy committee uh the

[101:01] financial strategy committee recommends for full council consideration two ballot measures for 2025. And that includes looking at an extension of the existing.3% uh community culture resilience and safety sales and use tax from 2036 through 2050 or considering a permanent extension to continue to support city infrastructure and maintenance projects as well as nonprofit capacity building support and capital uh investments. The second includes the exploration of the creation of a public realm tax which would increase the existing permanent parks property tax from 0.9 mills to 2.252 mills and expand the use of this tax, allow debt issuance uh and support infrastructure and capital maintenance projects more broadly within the public realm. This would be inclusive of parks, open space, civic buildings and areas as well as well as investments in the

[102:00] public rideway such as streets, sidewalks, by uh bike lanes and multi-use paths. There are a couple of items to highlight with these two potential uh ballot measure options for 2025. Particularly within CCRS, we estimate an approximate 15 million of annual revenues, uh, annual sales and use tax revenues with 90% of those revenues that would be supporting city infrastructure projects and 10% of those revenues supporting nonprofit organizations. Our existing uh sales and use tax as we have shared forward uh with city council previously has been fully leveraged and we're excited to have advanced funding for over 20 uh 20 capital uh key capital projects and the extension. Uh some of these key capital projects include the renovation of the East Boulder uh community center, the completion of fire station 3, replacements of fire stations two and four, uh critical bridge

[103:00] replacements, for example. Um and this extension of the CCRS tax also aligns and support our long-term financial strategy guiding principles when thinking of revenue sufficiency and funding flexibility through the public realm tax. We are interested in exploring how we can increase revenue sufficiency for our existing assets including the needs that are already served uh by the permanent parks tax. So the intent here is not to take away from the permanent parks funding source but to look at exploring how we could grow and expand our revenue sources. There are some considerations here in looking at the city charter particularly in looking at whether we would be interested in amending or repealing or replacing. Um, and the last item to note on these is that we will be coming forward uh uh to city council with uh 2025 statistically valid polling results in late June um for council consideration. Just to walk through next

[104:00] steps in terms of consideration, full council consideration for uh 2025 potential tax ballot measures. We're here in the grounding of the staff analysis and sharing out the framework for the multi-year ballot measure strategy as well as our communication and engagement approaches um and responding to to any clarifying questions that city council members might have on the two 2025 recommended tax ballot measures. May 8th, we'll be bringing forward additional information and for city council consideration where city council will discuss uh ballot items to place on the 2025 ballot. June 26th is when we'll plan to share the results of the statistically valid polling survey with city council and council can ask any questions on these results and consider these results ahead of the ballot measure confirmation meetings that take place July 24th and then finally on August 7th with second reading of the 2025 ballot items uh where council will consider and approve

[105:02] the 2025 tax ballot items recommended within the long-term financial uh uh multi-year ballot measure strategy. In looking forward to our uh community conversations and the 2026 tax ballot measure approach, we're focused on a holistic engagement effort that's called fund our future in phase two of this work. This will look at receiving input from diverse stakeholders on tradeoff of uh and having conversations on on tradeoffs of service level priorities, helping to educate the public on the city's budget and and financial constraints. And there will be uh many council council member opportunities for support in these engagement sessions as well as activities this summer and fall. We'll also plan to perform a statistically valid polling survey for 2026 for consideration of any tax ballot measures in 2026. And finally, the the the focus of this effort is really to look

[106:01] holistically and comprehensively across the community and receive input from them uh as we move forward in this process. And finally, uh, in looking at the timeline associated with phase two of fund our future, um, we are kicking off preview sessions with board and commissions and community groups next week with, uh, with board and commissions in April and community groups in May. We'll have a grounding and framework uh, discussion with city council June 12th at a community and council forum. From July through October of this year, we'll have community conversations with information and input sessions as well as uh other platform uh online platform uh input opportunities such as through Be Hurt Boulder. January through March of 2026 is when we'll be performing and bringing forward or performing our polling survey for 2026 and uh having completed our revenue analysis for tax considerations, tax and

[107:01] revenue considerations. And then in May of next year is when we plan to come forward back to council with a long-term financial strategy update um and considerations on the 2026 tax ballot measures. So finally round rounding out these are the two uh uh questions that we have for council this evening focusing on the multi-year ballot measure strategy as well as our our community engagement strategy and the role of council members in supporting this effort. All right, thanks so much for that um action-packed presentation. It's great information. So, uh let's start with clarifying questions, just factual clarifying questions, and then we can move into answering the questions that staff has asked of us. Mark? Yeah. Um I have a couple of questions. The first is um how much uh can the city realize from the proposed CCS extension?

[108:02] If if we are looking at the CCRS extension, the total amount that we would be looking at is 15 million annually. Um and within our um proposed approach that would consider uh extending through 2050. That would be uh a total of uh one second. If we're looking at extending from 2036 to 2050, uh that would be approximately 195 to to uh 210 million for the full extension with 175 million to 189 million that would go towards city projects and 19.5 to 21 million that would go to support nonprofit uh organizations if we were to only extend

[109:00] it to 2050 and not permanently. Okay. Um uh well that that's a that's some progress. Um as part of the staff um memo uh you provided us a list of $376 million of unfunded projects. Uh but I note in that list there are a a substantial number of um what I would regard as operating projects as opposed to um uh infrastructure type projects. Um why is that and and how will that list be be winnowed down to something a little more workable? So thank you for the question council member. Uh so one of the things that uh we noted in the the attachment is that we will be bringing forward a refined list of unfunded needs um forward later uh uh in the the June July

[110:02] time period. Um so we are working currently as part of the 2026 budget process and updating that uh unfunded needs list. In looking at our 2025 tax ballot measure approach, we have we we discussed and focused truly on taking care of our unmet needs and backlog of infrastructure projects uh in in capital replacement and renovation and maintenance projects. And so that is the focus uh for consideration of of the two measures that that we're considering which would help to support the backlog of of capital uh costs that we have uh at the city. Um, regarding the operating projects, again, that is something that we are looking at uh more holistically as part of a refined unfunded needs list that will come forward um and be prepared in June and July of this year. Okay. And la my last question is um I I note there's a substantial

[111:01] concentration on the unfunded needs list of um uh projects relating to um first uh rec centers which is about 35% of of the uh uh entire list and obviously would be much more than that with respect to the entire uh funds that that we could generate. right from um the CCRS extension and also there are several different parks projects totaling almost $und00 million um uh and I'm wondering how we are going to get a greater um variety of projects in here um and and not simply uh utilize this tax uh on just one or two categories of project and And and let me just throw in the last part of that question is in the list of unfunded um

[112:02] uh projects. I I saw I did not see a whole lot of you know bridge repair and and that sort of common sense uh infrastructure repair and I'm wondering where where all of that is going to be uh located. Thank you for the question council member. So, as part of the work that we plan to do is to round out the list uh more comprehensively over the next uh several months. And so, this list uh will be refined and vetted and reviewed further uh not just on our costing estimates, but also on an update of the potential projects to to be considered within 2025. And so, that information is yet to come. Um this is a draft list that we're considering and we recognize that we are interested in funding a flexibility of uh projects and capital projects uh and uh being able to have that that diversity of uh of flexibility to support uh different capital projects

[113:01] across our unfunded needs list and and the city's portfolio. Okay, I will treat it as a draft and await the refined list. Thank you. Great. I've got Ryan, then Tina, then Matt. Thank you. Um I had meant to jump in at the beginning because I wanted to just um offer a perspective from the committee and um Charlotte, you didn't weren't expecting this, but um I thought what you provided was complete and it was excellent, but as one of the members of the committee on council, I thought I would just say a couple of things. One, uh there is a letter from the three of us from Mark, Nicole, and me endorsing this um wholeheartedly. And so just would draw your attention to that if you haven't seen it. Um we have met monthly or multiple times monthly for at least the last year. I have lost count. Um but it is to just to say that um there is an incredible amount of of of of assessment and work over time that's led to this. And I would remind folks or maybe just clarify for anybody who's looking at this that our goal with the initiative

[114:02] is not to um address everything financial related but to try to find a very small number of very focused things that have the greatest revenue opportunity. And so that that's what you see here with these two things. Um we started with a a visioning process. We had sheets with lots of lots of data and ideas. And I just wanted to um uh just point that out if that's not clear to folks that there is um there's there's been a lot of workshopping that's gone into this. And um that's pretty much it. But I also just wanted to thank Charlotte, Scott, and the team for um a very robust um and very long process to get us to this point. So thank you. Thanks for that, Ryan. Appreciate the service of you and Nicole and um Mark on that committee. Right, Tina? Yeah. Thank you, Ryan. Um so I had a couple questions. So you talked about the length of the tax for the CRS tax. So do we generally sunset taxes like that or do we have the option? Uh we have the option too, but we have historically uh

[115:02] generally generally had uh term term lengths um for all of our sales and use taxes. And in our appendix uh I think it is F uh G um we do have uh a list of our uh sales and use tax term links. um that shows the sun setting of each. Um and so uh that is typically something that is uh considered historically, but we don't we don't have to sunset them. But we do not have to. Okay. And then and do we have discussions about why we would sunset vers not? Is it more about appealing to voters or is it just because the needs of the city will change and therefore we'll reassess every decade or so? Uh I we uh had discussed potential in considering a tax term given the the history of uh typically considering a um uh a short shorter term. Um our last CCRS tax was

[116:03] extended for 15 years. Um and so uh that was something in in consideration but recognizing the needs that we have across our portfolio for capital projects um that is the consideration that we're thinking of for a permanent tax. Okay. And then um the CCS tax does it would it stay does it say in the ballot language which percentage goes to nonprofits? Is that 10%. And then do what is our process for distributing that? Is it um do we define a need and then send out an RFP? We have a very extensive uh and and robust uh grants program that have that has three uh specific grants uh programs within that that holistic program to help to uh uh look at criteria um for capacity building to support nonprofit organizations with capacity building um

[117:00] such as uh considering um future capital uh infrastructure projects and helping them build uh that out. Um we also look at uh capital investments and capital projects and it is a blend of uh across all uh nonprofit organizations and ensuring that there's a diverse range of nonprofit organizations that are serving the community members of Boulder. Um and so there is a wellestablished grant program that has been in place uh uh and revamped uh over the past uh three three and a half years. Okay. But it doesn't start with the city defining a service need. It starts more going out to the community. They come back and we decide if we think it might or might not be. There is an application process for nonprofit organizations. Um so it is it's not a city need. Yeah. Okay. Have we considered doing it where we would define a need and then put it out to different providers and then assess those or

[118:01] I'm I'm not sure if we have considered that. Uh are you I could jump in because I was around for the creation of that and I think the answer is no. I think it was always kind of envisioned as an application style process. Okay. Doesn't mean we couldn't reconsider in the future but it's always been they come to us with applications. I would be interested in maybe even doing a mix where we might be identifying some shortfalls in our community and looking to see who might want to step up and do that. Um, okay. And then, um, odd versus even year, all of our taxes have passed, but would we do that in the polling as well? Will that reflect that? So, yes. Yeah. Yes. And and we look forward to bringing those results uh to you all uh in late June. Okay. Thank you. Right. I've got Matt and then Tara. Thanks Aaron. Uh my question centers around just um I think on the schedule it showed maybe August 7th is when we

[119:01] would have the second reading of any such ballot measures and and the reason I only ask is just like when's the latest we could pull a ballot measure just given the economic uncert uncertainty right I think we just I think we just had the largest tax increase on Americans ever um yesterday. So, you know, this uncertainty and so I wor I just want to make sure that we don't get to a point where we can't maybe pull it or be sensitive to the more macro and the impacts of the economic conditions that are right in front of us. So, I'm just kind of wondering what the critical path is to when we could like last pull or switch the order up or if anything we needed to do like that. So the the intent of bringing forward the the poll uh at that time period uh is to be able to provide council ample room for discussion a month before uh the decision-making and any additional questions that you have of staff. Um so we are uh focused on that timeline in terms of the June the late June. What we could consider is uh looking at if there is any potential uh shifts that we can

[120:01] make in our timeline ahead of that with the consultant that we're working with um to shift from a early May to a late May um for example uh to and consider that. Can I call a queen on that though? Um because I think if I understood Matt's question, I think that probably the last point would be right at the um county clerk's deadline for taking ballot measures, right? could pull something up until that deadline, could we not? Uh, I think the last point that you could pull it would be final reading because once you have approved it, um, then it's an ordinance. It moves for it, the approval moves forward. Um, and so the certification is a step, but really it's the last reading of the of the um, tax measures. And I don't think we'll get here, but just I mean, you can't bind future councils. Could could

[121:00] we not pass an additional ordinance that repealed the previous ordinance? You certainly could. Yeah. So, I think you'd be able to do that up until that that date. Yes, that's true. Okay. Thanks. Back to you. and pre no I appreciate that call up that that that clarifies kind of what I was looking for was was how do we backtrack from that statutory requirement to hand stuff to our county clerk and figure out what that drop deadline is but thank you for clarifying appreciate it is that all you got okay uh over to you to Tara and then Taiisha Lauren so you might have uh said this already I got distracted by the first hour of this meeting um are you planning on running both the CCS tax and in the public realm ballot measures on the same at the same time on the same year and that's this year that is up for the full council consideration. So, one of the items uh that I I failed to mention during the presentation is that these two options are are considered for 2025. And that was looking um at uh uh and and we

[122:03] received input from the financial strategy committee if we were to consider uh bringing forward uh potential tax ballot measures to not consider more than two. And so that's why we narrowed in on the two options that were brought forward uh to to you all this evening. uh city council has the opportunity to consider placing both of these on the ballot, one of these on the ballot or none of these on the ballot. Um and so it is over the next uh several months uh up to the full city council to consider these options uh as part of this work. Okay. In regards to the letter that Eric Bud sent, did you consider or was this the first time you have you considered that 2026 would be a better and my goal is for it to pass. So, I'm worried it's not going to pass. So, have you considered what he said in your decision making for having them both run this year? I might need some

[123:00] additional clarification on the the letter that you Nicole has a thought for from the strategies committee. Yeah. Um so, and I think and please Charlotte correct me if I'm wrong here. Um what we're trying to understand at this phase is um kind of what questions council has about these ballot measure potential ballot measures. The May 8th discussion I think is the one that we've targeted for really having that you know solid debate and then as we progress through our ballot measure process as we always do um over the summer um we will have polling data and everything as well to help inform our discussions. So tonight it's and and again correct me if I'm wrong, but really we're just trying to understand like what questions do people have? We've had some discussions about this on financial strategy um committee, but but you know, we're only three of us, not uh all nine of us, so we understand there are more questions out there, but um but that decision- making about, you know, should we do two, what's it going to look like, what kind of polling data do we have, all of that will come in later discussions than tonight.

[124:00] Okay, I have a lot of qu I'm only going to ask one more of all my questions and because of time. So parks and recck department is underfunded underfunded and the permanent parks property tax has been one of the most important things in the funding. So what is to prevent the money in the new public realm tax to be diverted to non park projects so that we don't even have that money? I mean, I understand what you're saying about we don't want to have such specific uses for our taxes, but in this case, parks really does need more money than it has. Thank you for the question, council member. I I share it in the in the presentation within the consideration for the public realm tax. We're really considering um not taking away from the existing permanent parks tax funding, but looking to expand in addition to um and on top of that funding that that that currently exists. And so we would be able to have the flexibility to fund

[125:01] additional projects such as uh parks uh and and uh public rideway and look more holistically and be able to leverage uh that funding more efficiently. Um, with that flexibility, I thought there was some confusion in the wording of the public realm tax. You included open space, which I'm sure you didn't mean open space, but it sounded like open space, which already gets a lot of money, right? And so some of the wording even sounded like some parts of the CCRS tax. So I'm going to talk about that later. Right. Tisha, then Lauren, then Nicole. Yes. Hello. Um, I just had a couple of questions actually. One is on um I was curious if the city has a um almost like a community engagement matrix that lets us know um what

[126:02] projects are currently out seeking community engagement. And I just asked because I've already been getting feedback around how many different between the Boulder Valley comp plan the community and so again I'm just curious if there had been any consideration if that document exists is one question number one and question number two um just how your your thoughts on navigating the both from the historically uh disenfranchised that we try and do extra efforts for as well as just our general community that that also it's critical to have conversations ations with. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for the question, council member. Um, I believe our director of communications and engagement is uh online and join joining us. Um, and I I might uh invite any uh feedback and response from her. Thank you. Um, good evening, council. This is Sarah Huntley. I'm the director of communications and engagement. Thank

[127:00] you for your question, Council Member Adams. Um we uh publish uh the upcoming engagement events in our e newswsletter that goes out every other week to community. Um we also have all active engagement happening on our landing page for our be heard Boulder online website. Uh we do have we are starting to collect as a planning document upcoming engagement as well as ongoing engagement as an internal coordination document to make sure that we are um not asking community members to be that we're not competing with each other for communities members attention around engagement and trying to do a better job of coordinating the volume of engagement opportunities there are at any one time. Okay. And then um just point of clarification. So it sounds like you are coordinating. You do have we do have a list. Some of it is available. Um but to the specific question of are we

[128:00] coordinating across multiple projects that are talking to the same community members? That is the purpose of this internal uh document that was started in the last year as a a process improvement within our engagement coordination committee. It is the goal is to be looking at overlap in community members that we're talking to, particularly community members of color who have told us on a many occasion that they feel like the city comes at them from many different directions at one time, sometimes asking repeat questions. So, we're um definitely trying to improve that. um and also working with our community connectors to be aware of when we might be doing multiple projects that impact the same uh portions of our community. Okay. Thank you. I will concede that we have definitely improvement work to do in that space and we're continuing to um evolve and iterate and learn. Awesome. Thank you. Somebody who's as somebody who represents as racially and ethnically diverse, I don't refer to myself as a person of color. Um I very

[129:03] much appreciate the coordination around that. And then just in general, and I'm talking about family, you know, Irishamean families have asked me about, "Hey girl, what's going on with all these questionnaires I'm getting, all these surveys I'm getting?" So, it's really wonderful to hear. And then my last question is around um budget dashboard. Oh, that's more of a comment. I'll come back to it. Thank you. Thanks, Tisha. Lauren, thank you. Um, and thanks for putting this all together and for all of the time that has gone into this um with so it mentioned early in our um packet about an over reliance on sales tax and I was wondering what target do we have a target that we're aiming for and when we would consider ourselves not over reliant on sales tax anymore.

[130:00] It's a good uh thank you for the question council member Barry that's a good question. Um there there was a recommendation that was provided in the blue ribbon commission report. I believe it was 44%. It is something that we are going to be looking at further as part of our revenue analysis and tax analysis um and and and taking a look at what what potential targets uh we might be considering but there was a recommendation that was included um previously that needs to be uh taken taken a look at again. And where are we at in comparison to that? Right now, we're uh currently at uh about 50% if we exclude utilities. Thank you. Um with the vacancy tax numbers, what assumptions were made to come up with the revenue level that was projected? Like is that doubling the current property tax value or what what kind of level of increase were we thinking or

[131:03] looking at there? Do you want to take that one? And okay, if you don't have an answer today, that's something I'm happy to take offline too. Uh in the assumptions that we made of a1 to2 million estimate, uh we were looking at a population of a thousand vacant units and estimating that we would charge uh1 to $2,000. Uh but noting that uh there are there's a wide range of of different vacancy taxes that are currently in place and they range anywhere from $2.5,000 to 75,000 in in different communities. Um, so it was really just a a very high level estimate knowing that um there's a lot of different variations. I appreciate that. Thank you. Can I can I call a queue on that one? Sure. Sure. I just a a question just terms in terms of next levels of analysis. Could could that analysis include that full spectrum, right, of

[132:02] that of of maybe what was a very ultraconservative guesstimate in this analysis to if we match some of the higher end so that at least uh council and community we get a sense of what the uh what the range is of capacity for revenue and also costs of evaluating because I get you right if it if it costs a little bit but it's only 1 to 2 million then it doesn't seem worth it but if the high side is 7 to 12 million then maybe that becomes more worth the endeavor. So, I just wonder if we can have a more broad analysis of those cost basises for us to evaluate. Thank you for the question, council member. And yes, we would we we would be happy to and and uh can continue to plan to take a look uh at that further. Sure. Did you just say two and a half to $7,000 in the state? Is that where like here in Colorado or it's across uh the analysis was performed uh across the the the US? Uh and so in looking at uh the

[133:02] the options, I believe we looked at five different cities and the one uh that was the highest was in uh in Minneapolis. So So I'm just curious why you picked lower than the least. uh we picked on the lower end u just as a just to be more so on the conservative side knowing that there would be additional conversations to be had and and we would be looking at a higher a higher number after those conversations. Can I call please? We're going down a rabbit hole here. I'm sorry to call a que on this one. Um so yeah, if it would be I think helpful just if we did a ballot um if we did polling on an empty house or a vacant home tax to look at those different levels. Um and then just as we continue to explore this something I'm personally interested in um just understanding what are some of the legal

[134:01] challenges other communities have faced in the implementation um because some of those are being stalled at this point. Lauren, back to you. Thanks. Um, so and thanks for bringing up the polling question, Tina. Uh, one of the if we were to consider this for 2026, will we be doing a separate round of polling for 2026 ballot measures? We will. Okay. And would there be time to do like to bring forward what Tina was just talking about in terms of research on other cities and what they're facing before we make a decision on polling questions? Yes, thank you. Um my next I have have two more but they're kind of fatty ones. Um the core services hierarchy. Um I appreciated that and using and having that tool and I was wondering from whose perspective will we

[135:00] be evaluating whether our program is essential important or helpful? um specifically under the essential um it mentions kind of safety, health and well-being and I feel that those can be interpreted and could be quite farreaching. Um, you know, there are a number of things that support emotional safety and those kinds of things could be categorized as amenities by some like how are we defining that um under that item? Thank you for the question. Um as part of phase one of the core services level uh work stream we focused on uh defining that uh hierarchy. We are uh shifting to focus phase two of that workstream on really understanding the services that

[136:00] we're we're providing across the organization and digging further from our budgeted programs into services that the city provides and looking at service levels and service level increments that the city provides. And so phase two of this work is shifting a bit to focus on understanding that inventory of service levels and services that the city provides to then be able to have conversations with uh community members in the summer and fall. And so that inventory is taking place over the next several months across the organization. Um and that inventory will help to inform uh these trade-off conversations that we're having with uh community members as part of fund our future. Okay. I still don't think I understand how we are going to determine what category something falls into, but I appreciate that that could be a follow-up conversation. And I'm happy to to say I I think it will be and I I don't know that everyone will absolutely agree on what those categorization is.

[137:01] It's like prioritization, right? Yeah. Um, people will come on different sides of a scale on what essential is versus what an amenity is. And I will say that as we continue to be informed by our own assessments, by what we hear from um community, we will at some point ourselves as staff bring forward those um those our assessment of what critical services are as we move forward and we will present them to you. But there will be more conversation about it. Yeah, I will just suggest that I think having things that are that broad in the focus makes it a little bit challenging and that maybe we might take out things like well-being because most things that the city is doing are to enhance people's well-being. Um, and then with the outcomebased budgeting, I uh see that that is a really important step to achieving a

[138:00] number of our budget related goals. Um, but I was struck by that it's noted as complete over and over again. And I guess the last time I saw the budget and sort of what we were those metrics, it didn't feel like it was quite complete. And I understand that we're um making changes. So I was hoping you could provide more information on how the metrics for outcomebased budgeting have evolved since our last budget process. Um and how are we ensuring that the things that are being evaluated um aren't just metrics like interactions with the public, which might be terrible interactions, but actually measuring like meaningful outcomes. I mean, I'm sure they're mostly not, but thank you for the question, uh, Mayor Prom. Uh, one of the, uh, the the reason it was listed as completed is really recognizing the city's three-year

[139:01] implementation effort that took place to to uh finalize the framework of outcomebased budgeting for the organization. And so, that's why it was marked as completed. We recognize uh in the organization that we are continuing to iterate and improve year upon year on this effort recognizing uh where we are today. Um we are also continuing to partner with our IT enterprise data team and and then helping to inform the work that goes into the development of outcomes and measures. And so we are continuing to focus on that in the 2026 budget development process. and we just kicked off uh internally uh a few weeks ago um for this 2026 budget development and focused on iterating and improving upon those outcomes and measures that you currently see in the dashboard. Thank you. That's it for my questions. All right, Nicole, and then I'll wrap up our questions. Awesome. Um thank you. I didn't actually think I had any more questions after all of our FSC discussions, but I did. Um uh sparked by

[140:02] my colleagues. So, thank you. Uh, one of the questions that I had, um, was around the, uh, suns setting of taxes. And so, you know, we've historically had the option to sunset taxes. Um, but the blue ribbon commission report suggested this this wasn't such a great practice. Um, if I'm remembering correctly, but I think there was a caveat and I was just wondering if you could clarify um, what the general blue blue ribbon commission guidance was for sunsetting taxes. um if it was something that we were never supposed to do or maybe sometimes with a caveat. I just because I can't remember. Uh I believe the blue ribbon commission report distinguished between capital and operating for uh taxes. Um uh and happy to to look further and get clarity on that, but that's that's what I recall. Um it is something in thinking about the recommendations put forward from the blue ribbon commission. We want to be able to uh analyze them at current state and if there are updates of the recommendations or potential changes to

[141:02] the recommendations from that time period, it would be something that we would uh be looking into further uh as phase within phase two of the work. Okay. Thank you. Um and then my other question was kind of around a similar thing with um dedicated uh funds and is that that was another thing that I mean we we've talked about this um for the last four years as well. Um and the public realm tax will be slightly more flexible because it's moving away just a little bit from some um specifically dedicated funding. Um is this strategy for the public realm tax? I mean would you consider that consistent with the blue ribbon commission suggestions? we we would consider it consistent with their recommendations and thinking about funding flexibility um and the the expansion of the the funding source. Yes. Okay. And then um along those same lines um can you just remind me what percent of the park's budget is currently from um the tax that this potential ballot measure would expand?

[142:05] We uh we'll have to get back to you on that. Okay. Does it like 10% is that because I feel like I asked you all this question too in an FSC meeting and I apologize that my brain is not remembering tonight but we're happy to look into that. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. Um and then see my other question. Oh um was just a a kind of clarification question on that same track. Um this public realm tax would both open up more potential for funding infrastructure for parks. um because there there would potentially be more funding there. Um it also does leave open the possibility that the amount will go toward other infrastructure in a future scenario that this council can't really predict. Um which is the whole point of the the less dedicated funding strategy, right? That it it does give us more flexibility which can sometimes lead to more funding for things. And if something is going really wrong or

[143:00] there's some emergency or catastrophe, it also allows us to um repurpose funds as well. So, it just it gives us more flexibility. Yeah, correct. Um and then I just wanted to clarify um something that was mentioned um around the uh CCRS um grants and the uh the criteria for um sending those out. Um, this was something the last council spent years on because we talked about it a number of times of just figuring out that um, how how we were going to fund those grants. Um, if we wanted to address the criteria uh, of those grants, that would be a different project than what we're doing in this long-term financial strategy work. Okay, good. Because I heard that and I thought it's always interesting, right, to revisit things and see how they're going. Um, also I panicked a little bit as an FSC member. So, thank you. Just wanted to check. Thanks. All right. I've got um some questions around bonding, but I'll be quick. Um so the CCRS tax currently runs

[144:02] through 2036. Correct. It have we bonded that entire capacity of that tax out through that. We have not yet uh uh cons we have uh considered a planned debt issuance potentially in 2026. It is something that we're we're uh taking a look at further as part of the 2026 budget development process, but we have not issued any debt associated with CCRS yet. Okay. Zero so far. Zero so far. Okay. Okay. So, we haven't tapped that yet. Um Okay. So, let's assume that we extend the CCRS tax in perpetuity. What how many years of that could we bond against? Kind of from a practical perspective, like what would the municipal bond market accept? Uh typically we run between 20 and 30 years. Okay, makes sense. And then my last bonding question is uh if we with the public realm tax a question about the current parks tax, is that bondable?

[145:00] I might uh we might need to look further into that. That's totally fine. But the idea it says in there that um if we expand it that we would intend to we would intend to allow debt issuance debt issues with both of the considered t uh tax measures. Correct. Okay, great. Thanks. That's all I had. Oh, okay. And Coloquy, go ahead. Um what kind of rates do we get on those bonds for bonding against those types of taxes? just I know that those things change over time, but like uh I might need to uh defer or we can get back. Um I know we've had some um some recent uh issuances uh and but I I I would need to get back uh to you on that. That would be fine. Thank you. Okay. Okay. So, we've all had a chance to ask questions. So, we can now go to the um questions there for council. I'll just note I think the questions for us say do we have questions or feedback? I

[146:00] think we've gotten through the questions pretty well. So what I might just ask is for council members to just stick with feedback. Also keeping in mind that this is about more about the process. Um and so if you have particular thoughts on the details of the substance of these potential ballot measures, that's going to be for the later discussion. It's really more about the process tonight. The one uh quick uh item of note is just to respond to council member Spear's uh question. the 10% was correct. Yeah. Great. So, just the um about the next steps for consider considering these potential ballot measures and other ones. So, they're really asking whether we have feedback about how we're approaching it rather than saying what exact tax rate do you want and what should it be used for? So, do we have feedback on the multi-year ballot strategy measure strategy for 25 and 26? Yeah, Tara and then Mark and then Matt. Well, I'm sure I'm sure everybody has been reading

[147:01] the papers and the stock markets tanked and Trump is I'm concerned tanking the economy. So whether or not this is the year because of all this that's happening is a big question to me. I don't want it to seem like we're tonedeaf to the people and property tax has not really been a popular tax, right? I mean I don't I'm very concerned that I want this to pass. And so that's my biggest first worry. That's my first worry. Um my second thought is the public realm te um text comes from the BPRC right where it says the public realm provides key functions and strongly influences characters and aesthetics. I'm going to just read it quickly because it has to do with my other concern. It includes the city's streets, greenways, sidewalks, paths, parks, plazas, and other urban outdoor spaces that comprise a large portion of

[148:00] Boulders's land and pres represents a substantial public investment. The design of the public realm plays a major role in defining the character, identity, aesthetic, quality of the neighborhoods. And just to go down to like 2.40, 40 um buildings and landscaped areas, not parking lots. So, it discusses like outdoor spaces, the public realm in particular. And then it talks about urban canopy and street um streets, trees and streetscapes, which we don't also have enough money. I mean, parks doesn't have enough money to take care of their own urban tree canopy. So when I read the language that's currently there, it talks about it seems like it talks about buildings and it talks about open space and to me how we word and define public realm is crucial because I don't want the public to say, "Oh, they're just taxing us again the same thing that they've taxed us in the CCS." Or they'd say, "Why aren't you using your money in the right way? You waste

[149:01] so much money." I mean, for me to make this be successful, I think it's important for us to say, how are people going to think? How can we make sure that they understand we're not doing that? And so, I want I I feel like the language we use when we use public realm is really important and it should stick with the outdoor space, public realm, like some of the stuff that's falling apart in our community outside. So, I wanted to just take careful measure to make sure it doesn't say open space on that ballot measure because we have that already or just relook at it and say what are people going to say about this? Are they going to say what's wrong with you Boulder? Take care of your property better. I mean, it's a lot of it. I'm not saying marketing, but I don't want this to fail. And we just had a failed ballot measure with the um boards and commissions because and I remember there was one part and I said I'm worried about this. It's not going to be good

[150:01] optics. And sure enough that didn't pass because of the optics. So those are my two thoughts. Do you understand? Was I being clear or not clear? Am I clear? No, you're clear. And we'll noted right and then we'll have the chance to work through those details in the next phases. Great. Thank you. I got uh Mark and then Matt. But Terara, did something happen in the market today that I should be aware of? Don't don't check any portfolio balances. Um I I I understand what you're saying, Taran. I I agree with it. As a signatory to the letter uh that FSC sent to council, uh I am supportive of the concept of the public realm tax, but I I I think we probably have some more work to do. Um, I'm not sure we have told a convincing story yet in terms of how it's going to be differentiated from CCS and why we need two taxes. Um, and I think that that's, you know, that's

[151:02] something we're going to have to figure out to to tell a compelling story. Um, as everyone knows, we we received an email from the progressive raising some issues concerning the public realm tax, its prospects for approval and the hurdles it might face as a both as a second tax matter on the ballot and as a tax increase unlike the CCR's tax extension. And uh to my great surprise, I agree with a number of points raised in that letter um which is uh both interesting substantively and to me is a clear indication that the apocalypse is upon us. If I can be in uh that degree of agreement with them. Um but I I think we have a little more work to do um to get this tax in a position um where it might pass. And obviously the polling will tell us a lot about that, but I'm hoping that before we um put it on the ballot in its final

[152:02] form, um we can work a little bit to to tell a convincing story. I'm like you, Tara. I I would very much not like to go um forward with a tax that's going to fail. um that is that is really going to be harmful to our efforts to uh obtain the kinds of revenues we need to do the things we need to do in this city. Um so that's my hope is that um we can um apply some effort to making this a more comprehensible uh uh tax that people will understand as a is necessary and b um uh worthwhile um that they are prepared to to increase their tax burden in order to to make it happen. So that that's my hope. Um, and uh hopefully uh um we will be able to do that over the

[153:00] next couple of months. Thank you. Thanks, Mark. I got Matt and then Nicole. Thanks, Aaron. Um yes, so I think first off the CCRS tax for me is is an obvious we have to do that. We have critical needs and we got to start that process now. Uh I think it is an open question whether or not the macroeconomics are makes sense for us to have two taxes on the ballot this year and I think that's a conversation we need to continue to have. I have a more of my issues maybe with sequencing given that one of the options for us is to look at um asking the voters to expand our property tax cap from perhaps 13 mills to maybe 15. I I would like to actually know the answer to that before actually asking the voters to raise it from where it currently is to 13 because I think that the assumptive close is that if we're going to ask to raise the cap that we would then subsequently be wanting to take advantage of that. And so I worry that we would be sort of dipping twice into that rather than just no if we got the cap. And if the voters say no, we

[154:00] don't want to increase the cap then then that tells us a lot of what we need to do there. But if the if the if the voters are going to say yes or likely to say yes, then we have some wiggle room. And I think that might change the strategy of what an ultimate increase of property tax would look like. So so I might change that sequencing around just a little bit um so that we can only go to the voters once when we actually want to should we choose to raise the property tax. We do it once uh but not maybe twice in a short period of time. So that would be a sequencing question that I would have. Okay, Nicole. Lauren Brian. Um, yeah, I can tell just from listening to us, we're very eager for the conversation of what to put on our ballot this year. But, um, listening to everybody's questions, I just had some thoughts on feedback um on uh the question specifically about exploring um the two recommended ballot measures. And I'm I'm at least hearing a little bit of um I'm I'm not quite sure what the consensus is there. So, I don't know if we could just do like a straw poll on that. Like, do we support um moving forward with uh consider or do do we

[155:01] support considering the two recommended tax ballot measures for the 2025 ballot um as one of the questions that would asked, but um it would be uh it seems like it would be helpful for our future conversations if the polling could include um something about voters tolerance in various economic scenarios. And I am I'm not a pollster. I don't know how how this might work, but for example, um asking potential voters who indicate that they would support these um measures if there's a point where they'd get spooked and change their minds. Um is there can can we kind of build some of that in since things are unfolding at such a rapid pace uh in our broader um country? I I think something like that could be really helpful to inform our conversation coming up. Um, and then if the timing aligns, um, I'm also interested in the idea of the, um, whether or not the polling could be used to identify people's awareness, um, uh, prior to starting some of our education efforts. And I don't know if the timing is going to align or not, but sort of

[156:01] like a pretest so that we know where where folks are starting. Like for example, um do do potential voters know that um for 20 years we have or almost 20 years we've been working toward undeedicating some funds? Um do they know that you know for um for over a decade we have had this risk of um relying very heavily on sales tax. So, just some of that information because I think it's both relevant to our assessment of what the um likely success could be, but it may also be helpful to the second um point of um us knowing how we can um inform the community because if we're if uh before I started looking at running for council, I had no idea about any of this blue ribbon commission stuff and and um I think it just Anyway, so I I don't know if that is possible, but um just a a piece of feedback back related to the ballot measures. Thank you. Um I appreciate what's been

[157:02] brought forward. I personally am very interested in moving our funding more into alignment um with being property tax based rather than sales tax based for the reliability and sustainability um that that would provide for our budget. Um I am interested in learning more about the two taxes brought forward by staff, but also um am interested in learning more about a vacancy tax potentially. Um while I'm not likely to want to bring forward three taxes, I do think that continuing to provide information to for us to have trade-off conversations would be beneficial. Um and in addition to things like um not suns setting the taxes and things like that um I share a lot of the concerns that were brought forward by my colleagues

[158:00] but I think this is we're still in an information gathering stage and so I want to you know keep our options a little bit more broad and open for the moment going forward. Thank you. Great. Ryan, are you do you want to go? Go ahead. Thank you. Um, so a a couple of question a couple of comments um around this process. One, even just the definitions that we're using. Um, I notice we use the term equity, but then when I look at how we're defining that term, it really only ex explicitly talks about what is titled historically disadvantaged. And I would love us to revisit that term. Um, ideally to something that is accurate like disinvested communities or historic historically discriminated um because

[159:00] again advantage is the outcome. um and disinvestment in disinvestment was the action that was taken by previous councils that excluded those peoples from being able to accumulate intergenerational wealth. So, uh I just again wanted to just lift up an an invitation for um revisiting some of the definitions that we're using around a term. Um and again, I don't even know if that's a term we want to use. Fair. Love that one. Never goes out of style. Um the other is um and on that note um I would be remiss if I didn't do a back of the envelope um looking at the uh tribal restoration education commission report uh on the historic loss for tribes in the state of Colorado. The estimate is somewhere around 1.1.7 or 1.7 trillion with a t dollars back of the envelope if you do square mile mileage uh uh square miles um for the city of Boulder

[160:01] somewhere around 300 million that doesn't include water that doesn't include a that doesn't include right and mineral loss that we use um and so again I'm always and will continue to ask the uncomfortable question that is absolutely necessary around reconciliation with our tribes um and with all of this financial ial everything. Um, I'm not going to lose sight of a debt that is owed. Similarly, with our black and African-Americans, we know we have a justice for black American uh in Colorado study happening right now that gives us an opportunity to look at the economic loss due to the disinvestment and discrimination um related to housing and uh economics and business. So, I look forward to wherever it falls in here. Um and and then on that note for participation and engagement, I am very excited and interested in hearing um how tribal consultation conversations go around this. Again, although I appreciate our efforts with poor chamber farm and

[161:00] co-interpretation and um uh plant ID um is at 300 million and that's that's if Ray Colorado is at the same price point as the city of Boulder. No shade to Ray. I love you. Um the other piece on that is the um budget and budgeting for resilience. So it currently or rather the last time I looked it was primarily outcomes outputs based which is the number of versus outcomes which is changed behavior. And we know that um and we those who've worked in very um high rigorous research institutions know that you need at least three years of outcome data even to do a projection for what your bas you know what your target would be. And so um although I appreciate these efforts I'm also wondering why we're not using programmatic evaluation data for some of these programs uh as a stop gap until we have some of that additional data. I'm

[162:01] especially thinking of as we're going into our bud next budgetary um conversations that I know are starting that started last month. Um but also I think for some of this financial strategy and planning there are opportunities to um reconcile uh some of those tensions. Um and then lastly um the budget dashboard and transparency. Um, so again with all of this, our community members, I still am I am still hearing a pattern of concern from community members around their ability to understand the budget. If they can't understand the budget, they're not they're not they're it's going to make it very hard for us to pass any of these budget measures. And so again, I know that that the finance team has been working on this, made a huge herculean effort. You can't satisfy all the people all the time. Um, however, um, you know, I'm I'm I'm hopeful that in anticipation for these upcoming conversations, we can

[163:00] consider some of the grain size information that, um, community members would need to have in order to be able to make an informed decision around that. Let me just double check. Um, lastly, I've already talked about the the the need to coordinate our stakeholder engagement. Was really happy to hear from Sarah and her team that something that they're working on. Um, and as far as my feedback on these options, uh, my preference would actually be the vacancy tax. I am I am against any tax that moves around the chairs on the Titanic and would prefer to start with the people that can afford a second home. Thank you. Thanks, Ryan. As I've said, I'm broadly supportive. Uh, uh, so that's number one and two, big picture. Um, but two, uh, more detailed things. Uh, I would like to raise my hand as being interested in the vacancy tax um, which has some uncertainty about what we think it could achieve in terms of revenues and that's why it wasn't on the long-term financial

[164:01] strategies plan. Um, just and just to say that this is something that could potenti potentially depending on the assumptions we make have larger revenues than might have been proposed here. But also, if it's effective in driving behavior change, then its revenue would be very limited because by definition, every homeowner who says, "I'd rather put people in the home than pay the tax," that would be tax not paid. And so, there's just there's a lot going on with this this um potentially very important measure that I'm hope that we will look at. Um the second and final thing just on the subject of um understanding and communicating about the public realm tax and its virtues and what it can do. Um I would suggest we think about backing up a little bit and consider that one of our challenges in budgeting is that we have historically had a um a pattern in which we have plans. we make plans and then budgeting is sort of like a different process and then lobbying happens at that budget

[165:02] level and um that is one thing that has induced this approach to earmarks and people asking for um dedicated funding sources. So, it's a little bit of a of a dysfunction that we have an opportunity to explain to the public, I hope. And what I am especially excited about to lift up with that is the outcomebased strategic plan that um Nura and team have been developing um that came to us for visibility last spring, but it hasn't really been a council level item. I'm excited about us looking for ways to co-own that more and to elevate and to show the community that we have an outcomebased strategic plan. If you have ideas about the budget, let's talk about what we actually want to achieve and and try to um create stronger ties. So, so we do this um coherently and cogently in one place. That obviously will take some time, but I hope we can use the way we communicate about the the ballot

[166:01] measures as a chance to at least explore doing that. Thanks, Ryan. And go to Tina. Then I've got something. Then then Tara has a follow-up. Yeah, I appreciate all the comments and just um and thanks for all the information. I do look forward to hearing about um the two taxes presented and possibly continuing to explore the vacancy tax depending on what that looks like. Um, the piece that I would like to be able to communicate clearly to the community is what would happen if we don't pass the public realm tax and what does that look like? What are the things that we're starting to trade off and how would people experience that in their daily lives um living in the city of Boulder? The other piece is um understanding or considering um and I I just hate saying this after going through the boards and commissions so I might regret this but um in the school district we do have a bond a citizens bond oversight committee and it's a

[167:00] group of people who are deeply engaged with infrastructure projects throughout the school district and um it's I think it's just a quarterly meeting and they talk about how the funds are being used. I think that um infrastructure is difficult to track in the city and it might be of interest for some community members to get really engaged in this. Um in the case of the school district, those same people often are the people who talk about why you should pass bonds for the school district, which have all been successful since I've been around in Boulder. So, um it's a it's a good story to tell. Uh the final thing I'll just point out is that the public realm and the CCRS taxes are both infrastructure taxes. A vacancy tax would be a general use tax. Uh one of the problems when we pass infrastructure taxes is people just say well we pass the tax you said included transportation and you know the city and our experience but it actually doesn't pay for the people who maintain the street or the people who you know drive a bus like that. So um just first of all making it

[168:03] clear that an infrastructure tax won't continue um you know the minimum wage or the minimum income pilot program. It won't backfill or funding ARPA funding. Um so having a mix of both infrastructure and general use revenue could help us with some of the operating cost challenges that we might be experiencing. Now, if we feel good on those experiences or on that shortage or not, um it's something that I don't think we're quite talking about yet, how we're doing on the operating side versus the infrastructure and investment side. But, um I am interested in a mix and more not dedicated operating funds as well as noted dedicated infrastructure funds. Um and I and I'll just finally to go on too long. Uh, one of the biggest issues we had on the school district was when the marijuana marijuana tax passed. And what that did is it created a very small bucket for just a tiny amount of infrastructure projects throughout the state. And community members didn't want

[169:00] to pass future taxes because they said, "Well, we just funded the teachers." And I'm like, "No, we funded like three playgrounds." It was, you know, so just being careful with the narrative on what the limitations. These are not massive taxes. You know, $6 million is that's like a bike path. So, just being realistic about what we're going to be promising our community. It's a it's a pretty big list of of dedications and it's actually not going to do it's going to be great and we need it, but it won't be quite the the metamorphosis some people might be looking for. Thanks. All right, I'll go. Um, just that I'm broadly supportive of continuing down the path that you're on. So, thanks very much to the FSC and to city staff for all your great work in preparing this and putting this forward for us. I am also interested in at least uh continuing to look at the vacancy um tax as well. Um and including that in our polling um so I think it's really important that we get a sense of what the community might think about that tax including the um larger dollar amounts. I think it's important to go up to levels because at those higher levels

[170:01] where they're probably affordable um for people with an expensive vacant home um but then also produce an amount of revenue that's meaningful kind of to our needs as a community and Tina had some good things to say about how that would be general fund available as well. Um so with uh I think my colleagues have had really good points about how we do need as we continue down this path this year to be very cognizant of what the larger situation is in the country in the world and people's finances. So in no way am I saying that we should add all of the taxes regardless but um there's a lot of unknowns but we have a few months to assess before we think about putting something on the ballot. Let's move forward, but let's also be watching very, very carefully um at the exact financial situation of people in our community. That's what I got. Um I got a couple double dippers. Maybe we can be quick. J Tina said it better, so I'm not going to even say anything. Nicole, um yeah, and we just um and I'm just

[171:00] mostly speaking here as an FSE member. Um, I didn't feel like we got a whole lot of question or feedback on the second question um about uh uh community enga or council engagement in the community engagement. Um the first I haven't asked the question yet. Oh, okay. Sorry. Got it. All right, then I'm going to I'm going to save that. But um can I um just What's that? Oh, okay. Um but uh just but that that that we really are hoping that folks will have a role in that too. And you know to the point um of uh educating community before we start asking them questions about how to make priorities that that's the second question that I will now be quiet and let you get to. Great. Thank you. So I think that wraps up our first question. Our second question which maybe we can be quick about because we're over time. Do we have feedback on the approach for the community engagement strategy and specifically the role of council members in supporting the effort? Thoughts from council members? Did you have something Nicole? just that I very much support it and I hope you all will too. Um we do have uh different circles in community and I

[172:00] think the more of us that are out there encouraging our uh community members um that are in our circles to get involved in engagement um the better off we're going to be with all this financial work because we really do need a whole conversation um with as many people in the community as possible and then Matt and team as well. Um I just wanted to in addition to the comments I already made about that. Sorry. Um is the uh oh uh toolkit um I think it if in whatever ways the role the council members are going to participate. Um I think it would be very helpful to have some kind of um communications toolkit with our key talking points, you know, resources and references to share, possible social media posts, right? just the things that make it a lot easier because on issues like this it'll be really critical that we're sharing the same levels of information and again this is what I came up in in our boards and commissions process right that there

[173:01] needs to if we are having individual conversations that we need to have the same message thank you but I I do believe I I do have a little bit of concerns around the education component right it versus inform right we can inform you on the things that you know the key messages but as far as educate I I'm you know not everybody's ed educator and I I would prefer to have that be the experts whose job it is to do that. So I have some concerns around us trying to educate but I am all in for informing and also I think that there's an opportunity to be more coordinated around even the geographic touch points and just having some more coordination amongst ourselves just because I think we're assuming hey you know between the nine of us we got it but do we me so I mean it's not a shade thing it's just a capacity thing so I just don't want things to get left out because we're increasing the council role. Thank you. Thanks, Matt. Then Tina,

[174:02] thanks Aaron. Um, you know, given this is a long-term uh work that we're doing, not just for 2025, I think this is actually a reasonable thing for the council engagement committee to start to discuss. I know that we have maybe a little bit um I know Tara and I and this committee has had a little bit of that discussion but I think as this gains a little more traction things like town halls and or you know chats with council when it talks about what our long-term strategy is and why and the meaningfulness and it's to the point of like what's the what's the cost of not doing this. I think those are things that that are good for us to be able to discuss um in those forums with communities. So, so I I would recommend that perhaps you know kicking that over to the to the engagement committee to start tooling with that for you know the next 18 months to two years about what that runway looks like for different parts of engagement. Thanks Tina. Yep. Um and just first I appreciated all the information uh provided on the engagement process. Uh my only comment just after going to some of the Boulder Valley comp plan engagements is just to think about how we want to scope the

[175:01] conversations and you know how how how big are we going to go with these funding discussions or are there certain limitations um you know one example is actually the section that Taiisha referenced before about equity um and I'll pick up a different part of it which was um equity in this context might be uh looking at the structures and financial policies that aim to reduce tax and fee burdens on historically disadvantaged groups. And so just understanding is the is the equity discussion discussion um limited to that or are is it going to be more of a an open suggestion? You know, what what will that conversation look like and what are we all looking for? So I wasn't as clear on that uh part of it. So um that's it. Two thoughts, Taiisha. Uh, I totally agree with what she said about or at least what I'd heard, which is um providing us some help with um

[176:00] several one sentences, a few paragraphs, things that'll work on um Blue Sky, LinkedIn, the newsletter, whatever. Like thinking that um council members might interact in a lot of different ways. Some of them might be talking points. Um but yeah something to just you know like from a communication standpoint that would be very I think could be very valuable time spent. Um and then the other thought is um yeah there are a number of organizations in the community who have real experience doing elections and um if there's a way to uh engage invite them to be a part of this I think that would be really smart. Maybe one one idea would be you could just one-on-one talk to counselors, ask for feedback from counselors on who who to talk with. But I think there's some real wisdom on the specifics of once once we get to the um the ballots are out and how it happens. I think there's just like some really niche expertise that we probably could tap, but we're going to have to invite that. Um so I'll

[177:00] raise my hand to be try to be helpful, but um I know there's a lot um of others here who could help. Thanks. All right. I'm not seeing any other hands raised. Yeah, go ahead. Um, and I just want to clarify uh some a question around the um council engagement committee um considering some of these things and and I think that um it would be interesting just to know like what types of work might fall into that because I think these um these initial sessions I mean is they'll still be staffled. it it won't it won't be as much of an opportunity for sort of a back and forth conversation um to your point Taiisha about using inform um in in this case but uh I know that there's already talk about a town hall type um event and some of those that that are already on the schedule for when we get to the point of having these discussions around how do we prioritize um the other uh a point I just want to bring up for clarification this came up in our last FOC meeting because we were all asking about it too um those of us uh council

[178:01] members on FSE. Um the the sort of scope of the um potential revenue that is uh like what the scope is that we're looking at here. It's not like the entire city budget, right, for these kinds of conversations. And um I don't know if that's anything to elaborate on now or just later, but um that that for me was a really key um just sort of mental shift to think about that this isn't a conversation where you know we're we're overturning the entire budget or anything like that. Um so that anyway just a helpful helpful um context. Okay, I don't see any other hands raised so I'll turn back to staff there. We did have some diversity of opinion, but I felt like there was kind of a a permission to move forward while taking into account some of those specific comments, but I wanted to see if you wanted any more clarification from us. Well, first I'll ask the team if they needed any more clarification. I think they got what they needed. No, we've got

[179:00] what we need. Thank you, council. Thanks. Fantastic. Um and just a quick comment uh as I've been hearing um some of the additional comments separate from that and just want to thank you all for the feedback and um we'll be taking back particularly some of the interest and engagement as we continue to noodle on that because this is a different kind of engagement. So I want to appreciate that as we move forward. But I've also I just wanted to um reflect a moment about all the conversations we've had about the interest in budget. Um it wasn't until I think I got here in my first year that we put the budget online and we had no interest in the budget if you recall. Um so I'm actually glad even though it is uh hearing that people that people may find it some people may find it difficult that we have some improvements to do. I actually take that as a sign of the fact that people are paying attention and are wanting to engage in our budget process and it is a constant um evolution. Uh, and so I actually appreciate the work that staff has done to get us to this point. It is a big

[180:00] lift to put a document so publicly out there. If you are hearing from our community uh specific things about um improvements, please let me know because as we continue to evolve th that specificity would be really helpful. Um, and as we continue to evolve um our budgeting for resilience and equity, I'll say that people are right. We've gone on an arc, right? From measures to metrics to outputs to um what I would say are going to outcomes. We know that we have more to go. We have actually hired a consultant that is helping us get to our KPIs and to tie those KPIs to our strategic plan. So, we continue to be on a journey because the whole point of our budget is what difference are we making with the money that we have. That is the journey that we are on. And so just appreciate the fact that we're having the conversation know that we are aware of it. Uh and that is how we are planning to move forward um as we continue to make improvements. So just

[181:00] wanted to highlight that. Thank you. Very good. Thanks for that. We could add a key performance indicator about whether we're looking at our KPIs or not. Um so anyway, thanks so much again. I really appreciate uh all of your efforts and we look forward to the next steps. I haven't cracked a joke the entire meeting. You got to give me Give me one. Tough crowd. Tough crowd. All right. Well, uh let's let's go to our next item, please, as our finance staff are leaving. Uh item 8A, please. All right, sir. Thank you. Our next item on tonight's agenda is item eight, matters from the mayor and members of council. 8A is the discussion and not a fivey request to ask staff to prepare a lunch and learn on human relations. So Tisha, this request came from you. So would you like to speak to it? Sure. Sure. Um and I'm not even sure if

[182:02] I'm asking the right request. So let me just give some background of what's been going on from my perspective. So um from my perspective in the time that I've been had the honor of serving over the last year and some change I have noticed and received a I've noticed a pattern of under reportported or andor under reportported incidences of racial discrimination. Um and so um in addition um we have seen a escalation in you know public safety issues and concerns. Um, obviously immigration continues to um be a a um a something that falls within our human relations realm and again I'm aware of the sensitive nature of of those conversations and it's it's been wonderful to hear some of the efforts that we have been able to do. However, um if racial equity is important and some of you have heard me say one of my

[183:01] favorite lines which is training without accountability is violence and so um specifically in uh areas with projects as well as boards and commissions. So um you know I don't think the question for me is a lunch and learn it's more of what are the accountability mechanism. So the lunch and learn for me was more to find out how are we monitoring, how are we tracking, how are we reporting and how are policies and changes made based on the information that we receive. Um at this point though uh in addition to that I'm also curious what is our conflict resolution process? What is our process for mediation and disputes? Um and um what is the responsibility of staff related to board the supervision of boards and commissions on conduct? Um if there are incidents, if there are reports, who processes those reports? Um I've heard that boards and commissions police themselves,

[184:01] which that's not a thing. So, um I just have concerns around how we are addressing um issues of discrimination as it relates to um members in our community. And I don't know what the ask is. I just know that doing more of what we're doing is going to continue to create harm. And I just um I just don't know what to do. So I in lie of not knowing what to do I just pitched can we get a lunch and learn to even get the conversation started because as I've been on this council we haven't talked about human relations once. Thank you. Thanks for teeing that up and explaining that Taiisha in in listening to what you were saying just now. I heard some maybe some specific requests for information about about how we respond to episodes of discrimination in our community and also within the city organization. And so what I might do is turn to to Nuria and say Nuria that these sound this sounds

[185:00] like information that may be relatively readily avail or that you could put together potentially about information about those questions. Some of the information certainly is and I appreciate the the issue um about our mediation process for example is something that is also separate from HRC is something that um we actually have um community mediation uh which is also within HHS and they certainly have reports and they have some data we can certainly send that over um so that's a whole different um sort of group that that does some of that work and we can provide a purview of what falls under that um as we move forward. um boards and commissions is an interesting conversation because we may not hear of issues of discrimination um as that moves forward, right? We uh when we hear complaints, there is a process by which um we have to review those complaints. Um but we we to your point or to others points right we may not people may not

[186:01] come to us um with those complaints and um we we may not have a notion of how many are even out there because people are not coming to us. Um but I did hear a question about what the process would be if there were a problem with a board. We can certainly uh follow up with council and share what that looks like. Absolutely. Okay. Um, I'm speaking of a specific incident and I've already talked to the team that deals with that and I was informed that the process that is currently being used is concerning. So, I would love us and it sounds like it's a self-governing by the council by the commission members to decide what they're going to do next as it was here. This is my point, right? I can't have community members coming to me and saying, you know, we have issues that and I did speak on it and I spoke to staff and I'm happy to follow up in writing. Thank you. So, so that there's that incident, but then there is just this is a pattern, right? So, that's one, right?

[187:01] But this is a pattern outside um and and it goes back to the lack of a of a of an accountability protocol that I've seen. um both you know I saw performance-based you know and I know but are there metrics of success for um anyway my larger point is is where does this conversation happen right like I'm I'm I would I feel although I appreciate staff it's technically we are the elected officials that are in are responsible at the end of the day for um you know the fidelity of the policies that have been you know that we've approved and all and resource allocation And so if we don't talk about it at all, that's a problem. And I don't know, as I said, where it goes. And I don't want to spend a whole lot of time talking about it in this moment, but but I am lifting up to say if we care about people, and there's also been issues around discrimination on access as well um and accessibilities. And so um I if it's not

[188:01] a so I guess I'll say I will ask for a lunch and learn, but I I honestly feel like it's bigger than that. And I I yeah thoughts too. Can I just ask a question in our strategic plan development? Where do these issues pop up in that sense? Because our strategic plan is divided into with the SAR framework and it seemed like this would be a logical place where we could look at both activity and outcomes related to this. Sure. And I think we see some of that in um responsibly governed. uh access is a different issue. So perhaps that is it depends on again I don't know without knowing what the issue is. It could be something that is in livable. It could be something that's in access. When we get complaints about ADA accessibility for example we have somebody in risk management that assesses those claims. Those are frankly operational issues. We take care of those. We have reports. They come to me if it's a if council wants to have those issues about every

[189:00] operational issue we have. That's an ask and you have to let us know and and that is that takes time which I think council member Adams that's your ask is what issues come before council. Well, and what topics come before council that we have governing responsibility over and I just have concern around any topic that we have responsibility over that we don't talk about. Yeah. I I think that other than the the regular business of the city like say a landmarking like we saw tonight which come to us automatically it's generally to move our work plan forward that that we agreed to as a council for our two-year period. So I think things that um that's what I meant things that come forward operationally that just are part of the business of the city that would be an example like the budget. So there are things that will always come to us. Uh but policy questions that that we would discuss at a council meeting are generally the ones that are in in service to our work plan that we've agreed upon as a body. Okay. Um

[190:03] sure it wasn't always that we had a subcommittee for boards and commissions. That's pretty recent. And so prior to this the last not term, what do we call it? the the last council. Um we had a whole big thing happen um and we got involved in that and it was really stressful by the way. But then we had um on the ballot, let's just say that it's a long story that maybe Lauren and I should sit down with you and tell you about it. Maybe. What do you think, Lauren? I guess I was kind of having a different thought related to what Taiisha was bringing up which is that that our boards and commissions are evolving and changing and the scope of what they see changes and I don't know that we are necessarily like I personally don't

[191:02] feel aware of the history of each board and commission and what it sees now versus what it was designed to see. But I think that as we look as we go through the process of looking at our boards and commissions and thinking about sunsetting some of them that there is kind of a general process improvements piece and I don't know how HRC exactly fits into it but I believe that that is one of the boards that scope has changed. Yes. And so better understanding that is something that I'm interested in and wanting to take a look at that. But it's not um it's not exclusive to just HRC. It's sort of I see it as being part of the bigger boards and commissions um streamlining process. Um based on just what I'm hearing thus far, I'm I'm going to go ahead with the request of a lunch and learn with members and representatives of the HRC. um and perhaps representatives from the

[192:00] boards and commissions as well and maybe we can get an update on some of the process updates that the staff is doing related to that. Um again, it's not going to break my heart. I've got two more after this. So, I I actually wish we'd gone on order of most important, but here we are. Um Teresa, did you have a thought? Uh yeah, I I wanted to clarify that the scopes of all boards and commissions is codified and so their scope shouldn't be evolving without council action. Um to the extent they are, that's a problem. I'll also just add right that we're we are coming to you soon to talk about boards and commissions and we'll be having more conversation about this very issue of improvements of potential changes of what you'd like to see with boards and commissions hopefully in the future. I'll just offer an example of design advisory board which has a very specific in its code area that it oversees but then since its creation

[193:01] there was a rule that it doesn't look at anything that w is within landmarks perview which covers the entirety almost of the area that it was originally created to oversee. And so in my time on design advisory board, we saw basically one project that would have fallen under the original purview. Instead, we see most things on they saw most things on referral from other either council or planning or staff. Yeah. So their fundamental charter doesn't change, but there can be shifts in some of the specifics, right, Nicole? And then I have a thought. Yeah. Um yeah, one of the questions that I heard was just around sort of accountability within uh boards and commissions and I I just wonder if that's something when the boards and commissions discussion comes to us. we had talked about um changing some of the just very um with the last ballot measure that failed uh changing some of the criteria for removal and I just I wonder if

[194:01] that's a place within the boards and commissions discussion when you bring stuff to us if there's anything that would fit in there of like just giving us within the the memo for that just reminder council here's here's how the complaint process works and things like that within boards and commissions if it's general if there is one that applies to everybody, but we were trying to change some stuff around it in the ballot measure. And so I'm just wondering if there's anything um there that could kind of fit in as well with this component um of just behavior within the boards at least. Um um I I will have a talk with the folks that are looking at the board and commission work to see if that fits within it. And if it doesn't, I'll make sure that that gets to council in one way or another. Um, I'll just call on myself here. And so, uh, Taiisha, I appreciate you raising this issue and thinking about these. Um, and I would, uh, welcome getting answers to some of those specific questions that that Taiisha

[195:00] was, um, asking because I think those are important questions around, um, you know, discriminatory activity that's happening and how we have or might deal with it. So, I'd love to get the answers to that question. Tisha, I will say that when in staff's response um I saw them analyzing this and looking at it as a significant work amount of work that would take them from other things that they're working on and delay other work plan items. And so the way that I'm thinking about this is um we do have a full agenda and schedule as a council and as a staff already. And I think with the current administration, we're likely to have additional new things that we're going to have to deal with later this year. Um, and then we also with the exciting announcement of Sundance, I know we have a lot of operational staff work, but also I think we're going to have at least a couple policy things that we're going to have to deal with. So given the significant trade-offs that staff outlined, I'm not sure that this is the the right place to to spend that additional time. That's just my thinking on it. Okay. Um, and as I said, there are other

[196:01] things that I have here and I'll continue to lift up these issues because I'm not afraid of hearing no. Um, but as the only non-white person on this and our staff barely has any racial and ethnic diversity as well, I I love us, but we're still underrepresented proportionate to the population. Sorry, Leu. Um, I just continue to um lift up that there is harm caused by this city to racially and ethnically diverse people. I continue to be underwhelmed by how much time and energy our council spends on ensuring that regardless of if we everybody loves to talk to me about this racial equity tool and yet I'm telling you personally I have experienced this prior to serving on this. I have also heard from people across the socioeconomic spectrum. You can't even buy your way

[197:00] out of the racial discrimination that we face here. So, if this isn't the space and place, I'm praying that we can find an appropriate place and space for this conversation. And perhaps it's at the update of the Boulder Valley Comp plan, the community cultural plan. I'm open, but what I can't hear is we don't have time for this. Thank you. So on that note, because I don't, as I said, I I need us to focus on some of these other issues, um I will withdraw this request for now. Um I don't understand why it's complicated to have a a lunch with matter of fact, let me amend it. I would just like to schedule a lunch, not even learn a lunch with members of the human relations commission. um so that we can get a better idea of what it is that they do, what it is that they're talking about, and how they can support us. To your point, mayor, that

[198:01] we are about to continue into rocky times, and if our president is good at anything, it is divide and conquer. Thank you. So I guess my question is would we be open to just having a lunch with the arch human race or perhaps we can invite them to one of our dinners coming up like we did with some of the other boards and commissions. Thank you. Thanks for that Tisha. In terms of scope, if we wanted to sit down and eat in the same room as the HRC and chat with them, is is that an amount of work that would require a not of five if we didn't have any materials prepared? I'll even cook it. I can make some food. So, mayor, certainly we can do it. It would require not a five. It would be we would notice it as an open meeting. Um and uh similar to what we have done with perhaps like YOAB or another

[199:00] advisory group. So, we would be happy to do that. Okay. And sorry, did that or did that not require non-5? Yes, it would. It would. All right. So, revised request is to notice and have an open meeting to have a meal with the HRC similar to how we've done with YOB in the past. Um if nobody has any further comments on that possibility, I will just call for uh a raising of the hands to indicate a nod. All those will for that not of five questions. I got I got eight on that. Um so that that nod of five has been nodded. Nicole, did you want to add something? Well, yeah. It's just it um what I was going to ask for is if our boards and commissions committee um could kind of think about how we might do this in a um in a in a sort of spelled out way. Um I I certainly hear the issues and I think that some of the boards and commissions have um well all the boards and commissions have issues

[200:00] that are very relevant to the community. some of them are very relevant to things that are happening at different levels um that are exacerbating things that are existing in the city and I it just to me it it's a hard thing to think about um asking one committee to join us for dinner and not doing that for anybody else and so I just I I think what I would like there is not a not to say I don't want to sit down and have a meal with the human relations commission uh but rather can we have a uh um sort of some clarity in how we're getting to that point for for the future so that other boards and commissions know like hey we would like to have a dinner with council how do we do that how do we go about that so that that was all I got Mark and Matt and Taiisha Mark yeah unrelated topic I am being evicted from the room uh I obtained in order to uh participate in tonight's meeting so I'm going to be signing off

[201:00] uh Mark you can consult with our EPRASS program who can assist you with that eviction. Good night all. See you later, Mark. Take care. Matt, thanks Aaron. Um I reflecting on what Nicole just said, Nicole's 100% correct. I mean, I think we're I think we're creating a slippery slope here and we have to be prepared for parks and wreck and open space and environmental advisory board to all want the same access to us and we're going to have to make time for that and and so I just think that we need to be very mindful of of what that looks like. So, I I appreciate Taiisha's request, but I want to make sure that we do so on balance with all the other boards and commissions that um serve our community. And I'm I'm a little I'm a little concerned with with we're doing this and making a special accommodation here. And

[202:01] then what does that look like? And and do we actually have the capacity and the resources to do this for all boards and commissions upon request um or upon request from a council member to make it happen? So I I know that we gave a not a fivey, but I think we have to really sort of be thoughtful of that slippery slope that we may have just created. Okay, fair point. We did we did already have that not not a five. Um and it's getting late, but Taiisha um so I am making this request as a special request also uh because of the patterns of issues that are related to human relations. So that is why I'm asking to have a lunch with them and I actually asked for a lunch and learn but I was told that we have too much stuff. So I just went by what we can get done. The other thing is not all boards and commissions are the same. So we've had meetings with planning board, we've met in person, we've had dinners, we've had other meetings. And so uh we met had met with YOAB um which again is not a board

[203:00] and commission. But my larger point is is we have we do have a precedence of having uh meetings with um groups that especially when there are specific areas of concern. I am lifting up an area of concern which is why I'm making this request. Um, I do hear you on um the boards and commissions, but I have felt strongly since I got here that we needed to revisit our boards and commissions. And uh yes, I actually do believe our boards and commissions should have access to our council members. That is um they're not just informing staff, they're also informing our decisions. So, thank you. I'm you know, I'm happy to do the the vote. Oh, actually, we can't do the vote again because it already happened. And uh I look forward to Tara's comments. Okay, Tara and then Lauren, and maybe we can move on. I think the HRC is is kind of a tough one because they don't actually have a role. I mean the the question with HRC is what should they do? So do we sit at this lunchon and decide what they do? Is that even allowed? I mean no dised

[204:00] exactly. So are we just hanging out with them? I mean that's you know to ask them what they want to do is not really even what we should be doing until we decide what they should be doing. Am I right or wrong? I I don't know that you're right right or wrong. Um um Lauren, is that true? I I think I think the what was suggested was to have a conversation. So, we would not be giving them direction on their scope or their work plan, but would rather have a conversation. Okay. As long as we don't Yeah, I hear your concern. Yeah, I hear the concern and I've taken some notes um for the boards and commissions committee for thing items that we can discuss and then bring back recommendations around. Appreciate that. Okay. Um that that gets us to the end of 8A. 8B, please. Elicia,

[205:01] my apologies, sir. Our next item is item 8B and it is the discussion and not a five request to add a future matters from the mayor and members of council agenda item on AI practices and policies. Dish, shall turn to you again. Okay. Um although I appreciated staff's response, um I had an opportunity to look at the National League of Cities AI toolkit and notice some inconsistencies on the process protocol and endpoint. And so therefore I would love us as a council to have a better understanding of artificial intelligence. One, it is not the same. There's predictive, there's generative, there's perceptive. Um, obviously there are significant ethical issues that have yet to be addressed as well as the significant issue around data centers, water and energy use. Um, one issue and I almost was ready to let it go because I really appreciate Jennifer Douglas and her leadership at IT. Um and I know that she's doing

[206:01] everything that she can. However, similar to Joe Tucci, you know, I love me some Joe and right um we still have rigorous conversations about our water and water portfolio. It is we are the elected officials that are responsible. Similarly around this issue which has un unmeasurable impacts. Um we have a significant role to play as council representatives. Um I feel satisfied with the level of rigor for the um programs that staff are using around AI. I feel very strongly that those are aligned with all of the best practices. My concerns lie primarily with our contractors, consultants, and researchers. And the request is specifically to have a a future matter on AI practices and policies. Okay. And any other council thoughts before we go

[207:01] to a a check on on that not five? Ryan, thank you. Council member, can you just say a little more? So I'm hearing the the sort of specific research interest is with contra contractors, researchers, consultants outside of staff with respect to um are do practice is there a protocol of standards that meet what we consider to be good practice from like a user perspective? Um am I maybe I'm being redundant with what you just said? No, I'm I'm happy to make clarification here. So um as I said I feel very good about the current internal use. My concerns are when and I I guess maybe it's uh an IP request on the specific um not just guidance but requirements contractually we have with our vendors and our consultants, our contractors and our researchers on their use of gener generative AI in any of

[208:01] their writing, any of their analysis. Um, you know, I I I just have all kinds of of concerns around any of our researchers using generative AI, any of our marketing and communications team using generative AI. Um, I'm sorry, contractors and consultants using that. So, um, as I said, based on the feedback from staff, I felt confident around our internal use. I still have concerns around the external use. Great. Thanks. Uh not seeing any other hands raised then I would um I guess the request is an IP request for more information around contractors, consultants and researchers. I think I can answer that right now. We don't currently have any contractual practices with respect to AI for external parties. I'm all kinds of problem. Okay. So So the answer I guess there's no IP on what we do with contractors. The answer is we don't have a policy around it. So, did you still want to move forward with the not five request or did you want to make a I will um come back after further consideration too

[209:00] devastated to respond at the moment. Uh let's go ahead and move to our third. Okay. So, well that'll end item 8B. So, if we could go to item 8 C, please. Thank you, sir. 8C is the discussion and not of five requests to add a future study session item on agricultural practices. This is my favorite. This was my number one. So um we know that Boulder County has a has reduced its irrigated farmland. This is just Boulder County over the last 25 years 40%. Um as you can you know you can see right all of the increased density unfortunately means um decreased agricultural land loss. We know that our import and exports of for food are significantly um we are at a deficit for how much food we grow in our community and even in our state. We know that the um tariffs that are being proposed or not proposed will

[210:00] have significant impacts and have already have had impacts um on food. We know that um one in 10 um is it families in the city of Boulder are food insecure. I apologize uh EA for messing up that metric, but whatever it is, it's deplorable. Um and yet, uh when I look at the spending, uh the investments our city makes in food and our food portfolio. Um and thank you Charlotte and Joel for these numbers. Um so our full budget for open space is $41 million. Um the agricultural footprint of that is um 3.4 uh $3.6 million. To give you um uh an idea for garage renovations, we spend $5 million per garage renovation. We're estimated to spend $23 million on garage renovations. We have

[211:02] 3.6 million for 15,000 acres of working agriculture land. So, um I am I on this council I have talked about the tiara house more than I've talked about the capacity for our city to feed our hungry families. And so I am asking us to I know we are doing a lunch and learn. Um I know that I have asked for us to do a study session but quite frankly similar to this human relations component this is much bigger than that. Um according to the IPCC holl at your girl I can't find the little thing now but I found it before and they were to t toes deep into the emerging importance of urban agriculture as a critical component to our climate uh resilience. And so, um, one, I was disappointed. Uh, but I'm happy to hear that in our

[212:01] Boulder Valley Comp plan phase one, it closed, but there was no conversations with our farmers. How is this happening? Um, thankfully, our planning team is awesome and they are working to ensure that we are following up with our farmers, but this is the kind of thing that I'm saying, right? I feel like um I can't eat a parking space and yet we talk about parking more than we talk about our food footprint. And again with the 15,000 acres um I am very interested in seeing the ways that um our a footprint can show up in our Boulder Valley comp plan in our climate action plan in our housing conversations in transportation. Um there's opportunities. Oh, and let me and I would be remiss if I didn't give you this. you know serious if I printed out paper can hand it over and then maybe if you can wrap up here. I will. Thank you. Um so on page seven you will see 10 strategies and I

[213:00] just want to also thank our Colorado um Department of Agriculture and the incredible Robert um Sakata who had the opportunity I had the opportunity to meet with. is a it's a new role for the for the department and they're looking at agriculture and water. Um but in page seven it talks about the 10 strategies and there's a couple things that again I want to lift up here when I think about um the next nine months and how agriculture could fit into the conver the existing conversations. One is around agro tourism. Many mentioned Sundance. The other number four is around regener renewable energy um and the opportunities to generate. We already have Jack Solar Garden and wouldn't it be amazing if we expand that? Number five looks at food hubs. Um, East Denver has a is considering a 35 acre food hub. Um, that would include land and markets. Um, and again, um, what are we investing our money in? Parking garages. Um, number six talks about zoning and right now it's my

[214:00] understanding there are some challenges around green houses and some of those components. Um the number seven talks about agricultural education. Uh we know the benefits to mental health and addiction. So why aren't we using these lands? And then lastly number 10 with grants and loans. We have a grant program for business commercial business and yet we don't have anything. So um that evidence and there's much much more of that. Um, but the bottom line is, um, I would love to have a meaningful conversation with our council members about the ways that our agricultural footprint can address and support our affordability issues, our food security issues, our food quality issues. Um, and um, there's even an opportunity to help our restaurants as well. So, um, on that note, um, I mean, I'm I'm still going to ask for the, um, the study session because I do believe, uh, it would be really important for us to hear from people like McKenzie who leads our farmers markets or Laura and Rich at

[215:01] Masa Seed Foundation or Oliver at Friends Farms. Um, you know, obviously, you know, there are informal opportunities. Please don't rush me. There are informal opportun not you. I'm just saying in general I know that we are overtime and people take up a lot of space and I don't say nothing. So here we are. Um and the fact that we haven't talked about agriculture at all meaningfully I feel fine with taking up this space. Um and so I I ask us to have that agricultural conversation um in addition to what is already being planned. Um, and I'm hopeful that I get three four additional nods uh of consideration and know that if I get it or not, I will continue to lift this critical component up in every meaningful and related conversation. Thank you. Thanks. Um, didn't any council member have thoughts on this before we go to check on an five? Ryan and Nicole, briefly, I just want to thank the council member for raising this. I think it's important and you, as you point out, we have the climate

[216:00] action plan update underway. that we have the BBCP update underway. Those those two alone seem like good reasons for us to be thoughtful about agriculture. I'm saying that a little bit abstractly. I'm not sure how the resources work, but I I share your interest in this and I'll I'll be voting for it. Um yeah, I also uh think this is just a really interesting topic and I'm really grateful that you're bringing it forward u for us to uh consider it. Um just in case I I may or may not be around on the next council, but um just wanted to note uh the opportunity for work plan items and and I really do hope that we can have a work plan item on the next council whether or not I'm on it to look at something like um you know zoning changes that would promote urban agriculture or or whatever that might be um to look at it that way. But I just I mean I look at everything that staff has going on and see people who are already working 50 60 plus hours and and I just I don't um I don't know what to take out um to enable um more work on a different

[217:01] thing that we didn't put into our work plan for for this year. So um I'm I'm no on this one but not a lack of interest more just a I don't know how to do this because there are so many priorities um that we've got going on. Thanks uh Matt and then Lauren. Thanks Aaron. Um Tesa, I appreciate you bringing this up. You know, you know I've tal talked a lot of egg. I've spent a lot of time working with our egg folks for a number of years. I I this is a council priority and I I agree with Nicole. There is so much for us to look at unlocking with regards to how we support egg. And it's not just urban agriculture. It's do we think about partnering on a food aggregation hub so that we can bring greater markets to bear for our small producers. It's do we allow housing on our open space for so people can house their workers and not have large travel. I mean there is a litany of things for us to consider that would greatly enhance our a but I think that needs to be done holistically and I don't think a single study session is going to allow us to wet our appetite

[218:00] enough to really get where we need to go without actually jeopardizing stuff that's already on our work plan. So I would love to see this if I'm fortunate enough to be on the next council would love to see this be part of something we discuss and build capacity for. Um, and certainly as we think about our comp planning process. So, so I this is absolutely a great thing to consider for for council priority. I just don't see us being able to put squeeze this in uh by Q4 with all the stuff that's on our plate. Um, yeah, I really appreciate this being brought forward. [Music] Um, I personally feel like my understanding is kind of limited. Like right now where I'm at is broad learning and I'm not sure that the study session that I have the right questions or to frame what exactly I would want to know from that. And so for me, I am interested in learning opportunities and having conversations around this. Um,

[219:01] but I think I'm interested in more informal conversation first. Um, to make sure that as we look to make sure that the areas where we're focusing in make sense to me in terms of how, you know, we get nine people up here. We all have a whole variety of questions. There's a really wide range of places we could go with this and I just feel like it's a little too wide right now to make sure that the conversation is really fruitful. Thanks. I'll just call on myself and say I agree Ty this is a very important topic. um for the reasons I said before, I don't think we have the capacity to add items to our work plan, but I do um intend to be supporting an additional focus on agricultural and food and food justice in the comprehensive plan. I think there's some good opportunities

[220:00] over the next year or so to do that. Um seeing no other hands raised, I'll call for um a show of hands to express a nod of five and interest in adding the study session. All in favor, raise your hand. I got two. So that'll be a no on that. But thanks for the conversation, Taiisha. Oh, thank you. And I just want to give staff and council a heads up that I will continue to ask about agriculture and our not in not only the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan, but also our climate cultural plan where it is appropriate to have agricultural measures of success. Thank you. Thanks. All right, that brings us to the end of our agenda and so I'll check in to see if any council members want to say some final thoughts before we adjourn for the evening. And we got our we got our two minutes here, folks. Yep. I'm just going to talk about the March 20th meeting at open comment. Um, community members often ask me that

[221:01] there is so much hate speech against Jews at open comment right now and how do I handle it? Of course, my screen says you're not even going to talk about it because it just disappeared. Finding and um it as we all know hate speech is allowed. Just to confirm, Teresa, is hate speech allowed? Yes, hate speech is protected by the First Amendment. Okay. So to the person who continually needs to call me a Jewish supremacist, a Nazi, a Zionazi, just to name a few, that is allowed. Good for you. You can keep doing it. But ironically, the council voted 7 to2 against doing a ceasefire resolution and six or seven to do against d to two against divestment. But you choose to call me and Mark out, two Jewish members of council continually like we were the

[222:02] masterminds of whatever this is. Members of the community, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who heard you speak at open comment before know of your hate speech against Jews. You just call us names. You use Jewish tropes. And we also know that you're not the only one who speaks at open comment who hates Jews. Hate speech has become so common here at Open Comment that I barely even flinch. I think I've become so immune to it, I'm just like, "All right, whatever." Which is not good. So, I will say a few words about hate speech right now. You can couch hate You can couch hate speech against Jews any way you want, but most Jews know hate speech when we hear it. You know what aggravates me the most? When I hear hear people comment at these meetings on what is and isn't anti-semitic speech, people here who spoke tonight also even did that. And I'm 99% sure that no other minority is told what is and is not hate speech

[223:00] against them. Was that really two minutes? Okay, that's good. I said what I needed to say. Okay, you can follow up next time if you'd like. Thanks. Anybody else? Ta. So, I wanted to respond uh to the gentleman who spoke first on homelessness. And I just want to honor and echo, we hear you, we see you. However, we the city of Boulder has the least amount of money to deal and address with these issues around homelessness. And so, again, I want to honor the effort of we tend to fight the first guy remember um fight over punch over our weight. We are giving more. We are investing more than most of our fellow cities in our county. And so I just wanted to lift up like sir I need your I need this energy at the state level. I need this energy at the federal level. Um for all electric and who talked about that I just wanted to lift up again and remind everyone that I can hear the sound of my voice that all electric is not the same is not the same as all is not the same as carbon-f free. So let us always and I didn't I'm not

[224:00] suggesting that he meant that. My larger point is is we need to be very specific about the type of electric that we want. Um renewables. Yay. Hey, thank you for the person who talked about that. Um, I'm going to go with name calling and next and I'm just going to say if somebody called me the n-word, I can't hear anything else that you said afterwards, even if every single thing after that was true. So, I'm just going to ask those commenters if you can please focus on the task at hand, the children that are dying, our funds being used, and not on name calling, which takes them out of the capacity to be able to hear one word you're saying, that would be great. Flags and signs. if um if we can please be consistent also in our enforcement and also um you know, Senator Booker um was praised for using the rules that they had he had to make um his point. And um again, I just want to honor that we have the authority um on the questions and issues that are being brought up by comm by our community regardless of how I feel about the word choices, right? Um, and so it

[225:01] is 100% appropriate for them to continue to ask us. And yes, you are right, Tara. It failed 7 to2, but they can continue to come just like Cy Booker used his time, just like this woman laid down for two minutes for how got arrested an 80-year-old in Tennessee. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Oh, Brian. Just would like to share a thought. Um, I want to acknowledge that the sweeping erratic changes from our federal government are creating a lot of harm and fear and disruption in our community. Period. And that this is very understandably combining with some of the existing issues that we're hearing in public comment. Um, and I want to share that from my own point of view, I believe that this council and city leadership is paying co close attention to developments while working to uphold

[226:00] our community's values and principles and to be strategic with our time and our efforts. I also want to share or excuse me, I also want to ask that community members please consider that in times when we have macrolevel stress and crisis, we will be the strongest if we can cohhere and create more bonds within our community. And that's something I've learned in part from my council colleague, Dr. Nicole Spear. And earlier tonight at open comment, there there were some comments picking on individual council members. um and even their family members. And I would just ask the community to know that Nicole and Tara are working really tirelessly to try to build our community strength, the kind of strength that will protect all of us and to ask that there is that consideration as community members come to us with ideas and proposals as we go

[227:00] forward. Thanks. Thanks, Nicole. Um, yeah, I've just been having some uh conversations this week with folks just around how the current moment has made it um really hard for us to exercise a lot of the skills we lost in the pandemic around how to be in community and wanted to make a really short plug for um a truth out podcast u movement memos. It's free, so I don't I don't think I'm violating any rules here, but um with a labor organizer and um indigenous activist, uh Kelly Hayes, and um it's just been talking a lot about how we work together through stress and difference. And so I just wanted to put in a plug for that. It's been really powerful for me to hear that um in the space that we're existing in. So, if anybody happens to have time while you're um running around town or or um doing dishes or something, it is uh well worth listening to u movement memos.

[228:03] Thanks. Right. Not seeing any other hands. I'll go ahead and gave us closed. 9:43 p.m. Have a good night, everybody. Thanks, Ryan.