September 11, 2025 — City Council Study Session

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] Council. I am Council Member Nicole Spear. Thank you for joining us. We have only one item on tonight's agenda. We'll hear information and have discussions on the city of Boulder 2026 recommended budget. Before we go into our work item, I would like to outline how the meeting will be conducted. We'll review the staff's presentations and then we'll have a time for questions. At the end of the presentation, we'll conduct our council discussion with sta staff and address their questions. Uh if you have questions, please wait for staff to complete their presentation. Uh before I invite our city manager, Nuria Rivera Vandermide, to introduce our first item, I just want to say thank you to city staff, especially our police department and first responders for your quick response at Fairview High School this morning. I'm sure I speak for all of us in saying we appreciate your support for impacted students, parents, and community members, and we're glad it was a false alarm. Um, I know BBSD offers support for its students, teachers, and staff, and our city does the same for

[1:00] our staff. But if anyone else in community needs support, please be sure to visit the city's community mental health resources page at bouldercol.gov/services/ community-mental-health- resources. I will now turn to our city manager, Nuria Rivera Vandermide, to add anything else about the response this morning and introduce our first item. >> Thank you so much, Council Member Spear. And I just wanted to echo um the thanks to so many on our staff to do it, but really want to lift up our Boulder Police Department. Um they are not the only ones who responded. And I just want to point out our um fire department, OSMP, uh a special shout out to to our uh sheriff's department. Um and really lift up within our Boulder Police Department dispatch who are really unsung heroes as they take in those first calls. Um but they I I want to say that as they as we lift up today's activity and it is awful that we are living in a moment in which we are seeing more and more of these

[2:02] kind of calls come in across the nation and in our community. Um our first responders do this today, they do this tomorrow, they will do this the next day. and just want to thank them for the work that they do all the time to safeguard our staff, our community, and just want to um lift up the work that they do um to keep us safe. Um I want to do a special shout out um to Sergeant Brian Capoenko who served as incident commander on today's um call. So, just thank you so much for the work that you do today and always to keep us safe. Everyone shifting a moment uh we will go uh to today's first item um and say that tonight is budget night but as you know uh it feels like for staff uh every day is about budget. Um while we say we start in spring the reality is that budget is based on work planning. Uh and

[3:02] our work planning efforts have already kicked off for next year. So we're already thinking about um the work to come. As for this budget, some on staff and maybe some of you have heard me say that uh this budget, barring the pandemic, is truthfully the hardest budget I've ever worked on in my professional career. You always have to make hard choices in any budget cycle. But when you're faced with such hard trade-offs and you know that so many in community are facing difficult economic realities, it makes every budgetary decision that much tougher. I want to start by thanking the departments who dug deep with us and worked hard as we asked them to provide us with possible 5% reductions across the board so that we could consider all possible levers to achieve our goal of balancing the budget by reducing our $7.5 million gap in the general fund. It didn't mean we would shave 5% across every department, but rather that we needed to have every possible lever at

[4:01] our disposal to fully understand the possibilities and consequences when making budgeting decisions. As we knew we had to be thoughtful about reductions in this very tight budget year, they truly worked both independently and cross departments to see how they could find efficiencies throughout the organization and find ways to realign resources in ways that could yield some cost savings. There were two themes that were sort of critically important to me as the budget was being crafted. The first was making sure that we placed our people first from staff to the community we served. It was critically important to me that ensured that we focused on the impact to individuals and families. While we knew we could not meet everybody's needs in this budget, we tried very hard to minimize impacts as much as possible. That meant trying hard to look across our programs and see where we could provide the best services to the most amount of people or to those in the community that are most vulnerable to the shocks and stressors of life. It also meant trying to ensure we would

[5:01] remain as competitive as we could within our financial means across the entire organization to retune to retain and recruit our most valuable asset, our staff without whom we could not serve the community we worked so hard for. The second was a continuing theme of leveraging every financial resource at our disposal. As the city has continued to financially mature, we like so many other cities have continued to leverage every fund to its full and intended purpose in order to liberate the general fund as much as possible. It is not a novel idea as this was part of the recommendation provided from the blue ribbon commission as well. But we have been continuing down that path to fully leveraging all our funds equally for the past few years. As you look at next year's budget, we also hope that you see all your budgetary decisions reflected in it. Your policy choices throughout the year, your council priorities, every ordinance you pass, it all impacts where our dollars go. And we try hard to make sure

[6:01] we reflect that policy guidance in our budget as we balance the ongoing operational needs of the organization and the programs and services we provide to the community. It's always hard to create a budget that can please everyone and even harder in a year that continues to be constrained. But I think we have done our best to put forward a budget that is not only balanced but focuses on our most important priorities in the coming year and ensures we have the people resources to carry the work forward. So, with that and a huge note of thanks to our staff and in particular, and you'll hear this a lot, our budget team who have just done an extraordinary job this year, I'll pass it over to our CFO, Christa Morrison. >> Well, good evening members of city council. Christa Morrison, chief financial officer. As Nuria mentioned, this indeed has been a challenging budget year. Boulder, like most communities across our region and throughout the country, are facing slowing economic growth and flattening sources of revenue. This combined with

[7:01] increases in the cost of services place us in a position addressing an anticipated general fund shortfall of $10 million in the current fiscal year and $7.5 million shortfall in the 2026 budget development. The budget before you, as proposed, is balanced. To address the shortfall, this required a multiaceted approach with departments submitting proposed reductions, realignments of resources, and review of performance data and outcomes. Tough trade-off conversations occurred grounded in prioritizing community needs and alignment of services to support strategic plan goals. I'd like to take a moment to say thank you to citywide department leadership and department financial staff. The annual budget proposed is the combined work of each and every city department starting as Nuria mentioned as early as

[8:02] March um of every year. I'd also think like to thank our executive budget team. This consists of the city manager's office staff, department directors, some regular attendees, and some rotating. This team is formed to help support budget development and decision making. This requires countless hours learning about the details of the budget. Most departments, directors, if not all, are on this evening um on this call to help support questions and thank you for being here. I'd also like to extend gratitude and acknowledge the tremendous work of budget officer Charlotte Husky and the entire budget team. You'll recall hearing from Charlotte and our CU partners in May on the financial for forecasts first sharing the deepening concern of flattening revenues. Since then, Charlotte and the budget team have managed unanticipated mid-year budget

[9:00] reductions for our current year budget, as well as addressing a shortfall in the 2026 budget. This required quick coordination with departments, a strategic approach to support informed decisions grounded in the sustainability, equity, and resilience framework, and often long hours from this team to deliver analysis and information throughout the budget process. As challenging as it has been to balance the budget, Boulder is in a better position than many other cities throughout our region and the country. There are many cities facing personnel and service reductions. Boulder is in this pi position much in part due to the prioritization of this city council to include in its priorities long-term financial strategy. This is a multi-year focus in ensuring the city can provide services most important to this

[10:00] community and responding to the emerging needs of this community in the future. The importance of the long-term financial strategy work is highlighted in our current position. Boulder's largest revenue source, sales and use tax, a more volatile source of revenue with economic changes. This combined with 68% of the city's dedicated re city's revenue is dedicated reduces the flexibility to maintain services during periods of flattening or declining revenue, rising costs, and emerging community needs. We must continue ahead the work of the long-term financial strategy to diversify revenue and prioritize those services most critical to the community. I'd also like to extend a special thank you to our finance strategy committee members uh council members Spears Wallik and Shuhard for your leadership in the long-term financial strategy. With that,

[11:01] I'll pass this over to budget officer Charlotte Husky to talk about the 2026 proposed budget. >> Thank you, Christa. Good evening, council members. Uh I'm Charlotte Husky, budget officer for the city of Boulder, and I will begin with sharing the screen. All right. Good evening, council members. Charlotte Husky, budget officer for the city of Boulder. Good to be here with you this evening to share forward an overview of the 2026 recommended budget uh during this evening's council study session. During our presentation, we will focus on an overview, sharing an overview of our major budget assumptions that were considered as key considerations in our budgeting assumptions bringing forward a balanced budget for 2026. We'll share forward an overview of our forecasted

[12:01] revenues incorporated into the 2026 budget, its impacts on budget development for this year, and share forward some additional detail on major revenue changes, including some additional uh uh other revenue changes that are incorporated into the 2026 budget. We will then share forward an overview of the 2026 recommended budget. And I'll just pause for a second. Mary, I see your hand up. I do. I apologize. I just want to make a note um council members that we're experiencing some video issues with channel 8 in case we have community members that are calling in. We are um working on it right now um and we should be able to um get that up shortly. Thank you. >> Thanks, Charlotte. >> Thanks, Maria. So throughout this evening's presentation, uh picking up uh back uh where where I left off, we'll share an

[13:00] overview of the 2026 recommended budget, focusing specifically first on the operating budget, and we'll share forward an overview of significant changes and budget highlights of the reductions, realignments, and few enhancements that are incorporated into the 2026 recommended budget by the seven goal areas represented within the sustainability, equity, and resilience framework. We'll then pivot to discuss and share an overview of the six-year capital improvement program, sharing an overview of the CIP as a whole, and focusing in on major capital projects of capital investments across the six-year horizon. And finally, we'll round out with funding outlook, community conversations to come and future financial planning as part of the city's initiative, citywide initiative focusing on the long-term financial strategy. And we'll end this evening with council questions on the 2026 recommended budget.

[14:01] This first section will focus on the overview of uh the our major budget assumptions incorporated into the 2026 recommended budget. We brought forward, as uh Christa mentioned in her intro, last to council, the financial forecast in May of this year, where we shared forward with council an overview of what we were seeing in our major revenue sources with our revenue forecast updates mid year to help inform not only 2025 but 2026 uh budget development where we were seeing a flattening of our major revenue sources, impacts of recent state legislation passed last year in 2020 uh 2025 uh excuse me 2024 of September last year and the economic uncertainty associated uh and impacting our sales and use tax or major revenue source of

[15:01] sales and use tax as well as the impacts of flattening of ma our major revenue sources and impacts of recent state legislation on property tax. Our other city revenues that we'll point to in the next few slides have also uh seen declining or plateauing and that has impacted and contributed to a 7.5 million shortfall uh in the general fund that we identified midyear as part of 2026 budget development if left unressed. Our federal and economic uncertainty since January 2025, economic uncertainty has remained steady and this not only contributes impacts to our revenue forecasts which we revised down for sales and use tax uh but also focused uh on our federal funding for the city budget and staff continues to closely monitor potential impacts to federal funds and to date uh the city has not

[16:02] received notification for cancellation or termination of any federal funds. funds. As mentioned, uh the 2026 budget shortfall, we identified a 7.5 million shortfall in the general fund if left unressed. And this uh caused our uh budget direction for budget development to pivot and focus on shoring up this shortfall identified particularly within the general fund to bring forward a balanced budget to city council. This evening we pivoted with emphasis uh and sharing forward with departments across the organization all 18 departments on bringing forward ongoing reductions asking departments across the organization to identify 5% reduction strategies and programmatic align realignments of dollars toward highest and best use. uh so that the executive budget team would be able to consider reduction strategies across the board during decision-making. We also focused

[17:02] as part of budget direction for this year taking care continuing to take care of our existing assets and c and our capital infrastructure portfolio as well as our core city services on the operating side. And as Nuria mentioned, with particular focus in the 2026 recommended budget, looking at flexibility across all funds and focusing in alignment with looking at our resources across all of our 39 budgeted funds across the organization to be able to bring forward a balanced budget to council this evening. of heightened importance in the budget development and key considerations for this year included our work and effort across uh the last four years in budgeting for resilience and equity as well as the work and effort we have put into the long-term financial strategy where we have strengthened the organization's foundation for budgeting financial planning as well as organizational resiliency and as

[18:00] mentioned previously this has positioned the city well compared to other organizations particular particularly with the difficult challenge of bringing forward uh and shoring up the shortfall within uh the city's budget and bringing forward a balanced budget to city council this evening. This next section will focus on our forecasted revenues that are in the 2026 budget. Uh the impacts that we saw on budget development and an overview of our major revenue changes that are within the forecasted 2026 revenues. As mentioned, the forecasted revenues for 2026 reflects slow revenue growth and continued uncertainty of economic conditions. Our total projected revenues that are incorporated into the 2026 budget is a total of 57.2 million, a modest 3% year-over-year increase compared to last year. Um and with the si with this is uh representative of the city's major revenue sources reflecting

[19:01] flattening and slowing growth compared to our original forecast for sales and use tax which comprises 35% of all city revenues. The year-over-year change is a.3% decline and property tax which comprises 12% of all city revenues is is a 3.1% year-over-year increase. And while this is an increase in property taxes year-over-year, it's important to note that this increase in reassessment cycles is the lowest that we have seen since 2011 and impacted our original revenue forecast with revision downward. And I'll share forward more detail on the on the uh upcoming slides. Some other notable changes to point out within our forecasted 2026 revenues include changes within affordable housing cash and move revenues, intergovernmental revenues, utility franchise fee, and state shared marijuana revenues. For the affordable

[20:01] housing cash and we're seeing and projecting a 30% year-over-year increase driven by revenues anticipated to be received by residential projects in the pipeline for intergovernmental revenues. The 2026 budget captures a 32% decrease and this is primarily driven by the timeline of Colorado Department of Transportation grants received. Fewer grants are anticipated for 2026 that than were received in 2025. And we are planning uh and incorporated into the outy years larger grant revenues anticipated in the outy years primarily with funding received from Safe Streets for all uh federal funding. With the utility franchise fee, we're anticipating a decline of 6.7% year-over-year driven by updated trend data. Uh in the 2024 year-end revenues saw a drop in natural gas usage. And this uh updated information and on

[21:02] historical trends has been incorporated into our associated revenues for 2026. And then finally, with state shared marijuana revenues, we're projecting a 69% ongoing decrease, which represents a decrease of 45,000 uh dollars on an ongoing basis due to state legislation impacts on state shared marijuana revenues that was passed uh at in this year's uh state uh state session. Um and the city has been impacted with this legislation since July of 2025. On the next two slides, I'll share forward uh specific uh graphs on sales and use tax and property tax within the general fund. And as mentioned earlier, staff forecasted a $7.5 million shortfall in the general fund for 2026. And so these next two slides will focus specifically on the general fund forecasts

[22:03] are for sales and use tax. Uh the the uh slide here represents our updated uh revised forecast received in 2025 uh received in July of 2025 that continue to project slowing growth, flattening revenues due to economic uncertainty. Specific to the general fund, we saw the largest impacts. We're seeing the largest impacts in 2025 contributing to the shortfall that Kristen mentioned uh and in 2026. in 2025 within the general fund. This is a shortfall of 1.5 1.4 million against original forecasts and 1.9 million in 2026 with the uptick beginning in 2027. We are continuing to work with our partners at CU to look at updated forecasts throughout the year and we'll continue that into next year as well as we begin uh budget planning for next

[23:00] year as well for the general fund forecast for property tax. This graph represents our property tax original forecast compared to our our revised forecast. Again, contributing to the ongoing shortfall within the general fund for 2026. As we shared forward at the financial forecast with city council in May, we received updated reassessment uh uh values from Boulder County uh earlier this year, which showed flat actual value growth, which ended up lowering our base for our property tax projections moving forward and beginning with impacts in 2026 and moving forward from there. This was uh impacted primarily by state legislative impacts that were passed uh by the state legislature in September of last year, HB24B 101 impacting revenue growth as well as flat uh growth scene where we

[24:01] hadn't seen uh the that low of reassessment since the housing crisis in in 2011. Our outyear projections for property tax sit at 5% for reassessment periods. And finally, rounding out on our forecasted 2026 revenues. As part of the city's work with a long-term financial strategy, which is a key as a key part of this strategy focuses on reducing over reliance of sales and use tax, as well as increasing revenue diversity and stability of city revenues. The 2026 recommended budget incorporates enhanced revenue measures and alternative funding mechanisms. These include the transportation maintenance fee at 2.25 million which has been long studied as a sustainable funding source for transportation maintenance such as bridges, streets, and sidewalks. It incorporates a modest

[25:00] increase in on street and garage parking fees estimated at 800,000 with a 50 cent hourly increase uh in line with our performance-based pricing model for parking within the city. It also incorporates speed on greed photo enforcement consistent with the city's vision zero goals, traffic safety goals at a total of 2.6 million in the 2026 budget. And finally, it incorporates a single family housing expansion or impact fee for a total of $400,000. That is a $15 per square foot uh for significant expansions of single unit uh dwellings within Boulder. So focusing now on the 2026 recommended budget overview and sharing forward an overview of our budget comparison uh between 2019 and 2026 and then sharing forward our significant changes of

[26:00] reductions enhancements few enhancements as well as programmatic realignments by goal area. This slide and graph focuses >> Yes, >> I apologize. I'm gonna I just need to alert council. We are experiencing problems with our Zoom server that we have not been able to resolve for now. It means that we are recording this session, but it is not broadcasting on channel 8 nor on YouTube. The meeting is recording, so we will be able to put it up on um YouTube eventually. Um and we are working on it behind the scenes as furiously as we can. So, council, I don't know if you want us to continue or take a quick pause um to see if we can try to fix it um knowing that staff is working furiously and hard um to attend to the issue.

[27:00] >> Thank you. Um thanks, Naria. Um, do you want to do like a just quick straw poll council um on preference of continue on knowing it'll be available on YouTube um or uh take a pause so that we can get channel 8 fixed? Um so if you would like to um take a pause and try to get channel 8 fixed um please raise your hand. Okay. Um and uh everybody else I'm assuming you are good with continuing to go. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um let's continue on. Uh and my only uh thing would be unless there are any um there's anything in our code that says that we really need to have channel 8 going or anything like that. >> Council member Spear, there's no such requirement. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay.

[28:00] >> We we commit to putting this up as soon as possible and uploading it as soon with all expediency. >> Okay. Thank you. And and maybe uh check in again if it gets to a point where um it would be easier to fix channel 8 if the meeting weren't currently going. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Thank you and apologies. >> Sorry Charlotte for >> all good. Let me get situated again. >> Second. Okay. So, this next section will focus on an overview of the 2026 recommended budget, specifically focusing on a budget comparison between 2019 and 2026 and the changes seen throughout that time. And then focusing on our operating budget by goal area, focusing on significant changes of reductions, realignments, and

[29:00] the few enhancements incorporated into the 2026 budget uh as aligned to the sustainability, equity, and resilience goal area. This slide and graph focuses on the comparison of the adopted budget from 2019 through the 2026 recommended budget presented to council this evening. We can see that post pandemic in 2021 and through 2023 there was strong revenue growth and associated new ongoing funding investments were placed into homelessness initiatives, behavioral health programming, wildfire resilience efforts, public safety and affordable housing to name a few. The city began to see flattening of sales and use tax revenues in 2023 and focused on strategic use of one-time fund balance and investments in 2024 and in 2025. The city's revenues were further

[30:00] impacted by economic uncertainty and state legislation in 2025, resulting in an identified shortfall and needing to reduce and balance the budget for the 2026 recommended budget. particularly in the general fund. This table, this chart shows uh for the 2026 recommended budget, as seen in the graph, declines and slowing growth compared to prior fiscal years. For the citywide budget, which is the top line here, there's a 11.6% year-over-year decrease. And this is driven primarily by slowing operating growth as well as reduced year-over-year capital investments due to project timing and funding availability. Our citywide operating budget, which is shown in this middle yellow line here, is a 2.1% increase, and it represents the slowest operating growth in the budget since 2021.

[31:00] And finally, our general fund budget is a 7.8% 8% decrease year-over-year. And this decline is driven primarily, as mentioned, by flattening major re of our major revenue sources as well as reduced use of one-time investments uh to bring forward a balanced budget and a balanced general fund and ensuring fund sustainability and fiscal health across the across the city and across the organization. The 2026 recommended operating budget totals 47.7 million and supports investments across all seven goal areas within the city sustainability, equity, and resilience framework. This alignment is a reflection of the city's resources and dollars across all goal areas in alignment with the work that we have done as an organization over the past four years with budgeting for resilience and equity where we have aligned our uh resources across this greater framework

[32:01] and have continued to utilize program performance data, historical trends and outcomes data to drive budget decisionmaking. This work also continues to uplift and advance the citywide strategic plan priority actions and strategies and also the priorities of city council identified in early 2024. This budget also utilized existing community engagement input from 2024 and 2025 where we received valuable input from communities and community connectors and residents as well as in input from over a thousand community members received last year in our citywide budget questionnaire. And as mentioned previously, given the financial landscape developing the 2026 recommended budget, the 2026 budget comprises uh and includes reductions, realignments, and few enhancements to

[33:00] support community priorities and core city services. The next several slides will share forward uh the significant changes and budget highlights by SAR goal area that are incorporated into the 2026 recommended budget. And with that, I will pass it off to our principal budget analyst in the budget office, Scott Carpenter, to provide an overview of these changes. >> Thank you, Charlotte. Good evening, council. Scott Carpenter, principal budget analyst. Over the next few slides, I'm going to highlight changes within the 2026 budget by sustainability, equity, and resilience goal. Starting with responsibly governed, there are changes to facilities maintenance and risk management. In 2026, there is a proposed one-time reduction in funding of $59,000 towards custodial services to city offices, reducing building cleaning from 5 days a week to 3 days and an ongoing reduction of current building replacement funding of $101,000,

[34:02] which will mean fewer dollars towards sustainable replacement funding in the long term. The city is funding $85,000 for a new risk management system supporting supporting a heightened data transparency of city liability and workers compensation in alignment with the citywide strategic plan strategy 3 priority action A with the ultimate goal of preventing and mitigating potential losses. This is $50,000 ongoing with $35,000 for one-time implementation costs for the safe goal. The city is proposing a reorganization to behavioral health programming based on two years of programmatic and outcome data which provided valuable insights on program performance. The 2026 budget proposes reducing the community assistance response and engagement program uh and resources uh of three FTE and four roughly 40 $438,000 and reorganizing remaining staffing

[35:01] resources which is 4 FT and $483,000 into a crossf functional behavioral health response team. Data demonstrated that while the care program responded to an average of less than one call per day, the additional staffing enabled responses to 2,274 behavioral health crisis calls in 2024, an increase of 60 60% compared to 2023. The reorganized team of clinicians and case managers will continue to provide high quality, flexible, crossf functional staffing response to crisis calls. Clinicians will be accompanied by a police officer when conditions required when when conditions require, but have the option to respond with other behavioral health staff when an officer is not needed. Additionally, there is $56,000 in one-time funding which will support the extension of four fixedterm investigative specialists and one fixedterm victim service specialist

[36:00] to advance outcomes of efficient management of criminal investigations and improve community connections to non-policing. Under the livable goal, there is a proposed realignment of city services to advance the recently updated homelessness strategy that aims to streamline certain services toward more coordinate coordinated care across the full homelessness system. Included in the 2026 budget are several key changes. reducing the duplication of outreach services by removing the Boulder targeted homeless engagement and referral effort program funding, also known as Be There, which can be supported by other nonprofit partners. This will allow all roads to continue its focus on inshelter navigation services, leveraging remaining state doula grant funds to allow for a one-time reduction in direct city contributions for the day services center. Ending some municipal court case management services for people without

[37:01] active municipal cases. Eliminating the bridge house contract for ready to work graduate housing support. Instead, the agency can continue to submit applications for competitive grants through the human services fund. In addition, the city will support efforts to end unsheltered homelessness by allocating funding for the building home program, which ensures that new residents of permanent housing continue to be connected to peer support and a dedicated retention team, preventing a return to homelessness. The city will utilize $275,000 from a one-time balance in the eviction prevention and rental assistance services fund as remaining ARPA funds are substantially limited. continuing its support, continuing support for their urban park rangers and the safe and managed public spaces program, also known as stamps, but with a reduction in staffing for stamps achieved through reduction of two existing vacancies to reflect the current operational demand

[38:00] and signal a transition to more proactive solutions. $26.9 million to support several housing projects in 2026, including the 3,300 Penrose project with 113 affordable units. the completion of the Hawthorne Court project with 73 affordable units and continued developments at the Ponderosa neighborhood with homes built from Boulder Mod. The affordable housing uh the affordable housing modular factory aligned with the healthy and socially thriving goal within the arts culture and heritage fund. There is over $2.4 $4 million in arts funding for cultural events, operating arts grants, public art installations, and preparation for implementation of the arts blueprint in early 2026. $45,000 onetime funding for the arts blueprint. There is $250,000 in youth opportunities program and one-time funding to advance the

[39:00] child-friendly cities initiative for youth programming. Funding was received from the sale of the Denver Broncos in the amount of $2 million and pulled from management reserves within the general fund to support this work. for the environmentally sustainable goal. The budget proposes a realignment of a portion of the fire rescue wildland unit team uh in the amount of $52,000 to to be supported by open space revenues where this team spends 90% of staff time on wildfire response and mitigation efforts such as prescribed burns or wildfire training. There is a total of $1.6 6 million in climate tax funding that will advance wildfire resilience efforts and build upon citywide strategic plan goals. Um, strategy two, priority actions A and C, $340,000 for the continuation of the implementation of the community wildfire protection plan, $450,000 for the community wildfire resilience assistance program that provides grants

[40:01] to homeowners for wildfire mitigation, and $123,000 of support for the realignment of a fire rescue community risk reduction specialist with the goal of reduced risk of wildfire to vulnerable homes and increase community preparedness through wildfire education and resilience grants. This funding is a small portion of the total wildfire pres prevention and resilience funding across the city, including within department budgets of open space and mountain parks, fire rescue, and the planning and development services uh departments to name a few. In alignment with the economically vital goal, the budget proposes funding for Sundance Film Festival preparation and the ambassador program. One-time investments of $2 million are planned for the transportation or are planned for transportation security and venue support to prepare to host Sundance in January 2027. $500,000 in one-time funding for the

[41:01] continuation of the downtown ambassador program providing hospitality, safety, and cleaning services within the business improvement district, the civic area, and university hill. And last but not least, align to the accessible and connected goal is a realignment of 130 thou $31,000 to extend a fixedterm position in programmatic funding supporting continued equitable engagement efforts of the community connectors and residents in alignment with the citywide plan. The funding realignments to continue support for this program will discontinue the city's neighborhood grants program and produce one print city newsletter a year instead of two. Data related to the grant program show that some of the neighborhoods receiving funding could likely support some community building opportunities without assistance and those with economic limitations could potentially be supported differently in the future. In addition, the grants, relatively small

[42:01] sums, took significant staff time to administer. By freeing up this person's time, the department will be able to reduce uh consultant contracts associated with other priorities. There is a proposed $59,000 reduction to the parkto park shuttle operations based on usage data trends since the shiitakqua access management plan and park to park 15 of 20 sorry um inception in 2018. The 2026 budget includes an operational change to the park to park shuttle that transports community members from satellite locations and parking lots to Shitakqua Park. The proposed change includes updating the pickup frequency from every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes as well as removing two of the satellite parking lots that have the lowest number of parking spaces along the route. That is the CU Regent lot and the new Vista lot. I will now turn it back to Charlotte to provide an overview of the proposed 2026 through 2031

[43:02] capital improvement program. >> Thanks, Scott. All right. So, this next section will focus on an overview of the six-year CIP as well as share forward examples of major capital project investments across the six-year horizon from 2026 to 2031. So, sharing forward first and an overview across the entire capital improvement program for the six-year horizon uh is sharing forward this graph. The 2026 uh to 2031 CIP identifies all planned capital improvement projects and their estimated costs across the six-year horizon for 2026. This includes a total of 113.3 million in new appropriation incorporated and brought forward for council consideration uh this evening and in October. This will support in 2026 a total of 115 capital projects and

[44:00] across the six-year horizon will support uh 173 capital projects for a total plan spending of 789.5 million across the six-year horizon. This graph provides an overview of the full CIP broken down by department at the bottom seen at the bottom by year and uh by fund. uh with specific capital project highlights highlighted for each department capital improvement program across 19 funds that support capital uh investments across the six-year capital improvement program for community vitality. We can see the Kagged Fund or the Downtown General Improvement District fund will support garage renovations uh in 2026 and in 2027 primarily for the Spruce garage and the Walnut garage for the facilities and fleet department. The community culture

[45:01] resilience and safety tax fund will support the replacements of fire stations two and four across the six-year horizon as well as renovations at the East Boulder Community Center for Innovation and Technology incorporated into the six-year CIP are investments in the constituent relationship management uh uh project which will uh essentially serve as the city's uh service desk, central service desk, uh when the city shifts to in preparation for the shift to the western city campus. And this is supported primarily by the enterprise technology fund across the six-year horizon for the open space and mountain parks department. The open space fund will support agricultural field fields and prairie dog conflict projects as well as projects supporting restoration of riperian and wetlands within uh open space lands. For parks and recreation,

[46:01] the CCRS fund will support the civic area phase 2 project and the permanent park fund will support parks restrooms and asset management including parks, restrooms, picnic shelters, and parks regional facilities. for transportation and mobility. We can see at the top uh here the transportation fund will primarily support the safe streets for all projects moving forward and the pavement management program. And then finally for utilities within three funds that primarily support the uh capital improvement program. The wastewater utility fund will support the transmission system repair project. the the excuse me, the water utility fund will support the transmission uh system repair project. The wastewater utility fund will support the Rapjo trunk sewer replacement project. And then finally, the storm water fund will support across the six-year horizon upper Goose Creek

[47:00] improvements as reflected on this chart. And now I'll turn it back to Scott Carpenter to share forward an overview of uh some key capital projects that are incorporated into the six-year CIP. >> Thank you very much, Charlotte. So for the 2026 through 2031 capital improvement program, there is $1.7 million in 2026 and $3.5 million in total budget for an improved customer experience through a new constituent relationship management system, the city's central help desk for quicker and consistent service. In addition, the Western City campus will open in 2027. The remaining capital project funding was approved by city council last year and as a part of the special ATB in May, accepting the proceeds from the certificates of participation. The Western City campus will consolidate nine city offices into one central hub,

[48:01] providing improved in customer service for community members and greater collaboration and efficiency opportunities across departments and importantly operational savings by moving out of costly and aging city buildings. For the Civic area phase 2 project, there is $3.5 million in 2026 and $18 million in total project budget for park renovations and enhancements within the east end of the civic area park. Debt issuance is expected to come forward using CCRS sales and use tax revenues to support um the debt for this project. There is $25 million to replace fire station 2 at Broadway. >> We seem to have echoes in the background. >> Is it coming from me? >> I am not hearing anything on my end, but I'm not sure if others are hearing.

[49:01] >> Yeah, I haven't been hearing any echoes. >> Better now. still happening now. >> I think you're probably okay, Scott. >> Okay, thank you. Um, all right. So, I'll uh restart. Uh, $25 million to replace fire station 2 at Broadway and baseline, responding to approximately 2,300 calls a year. Land was purchased adjacent to current st to the current station. Construction will start in 2026 with an opening in 2027 for Primos Park development and the Violet Avenue bridge replacement. $4.5 million in 2026 and $8 million total project budget for the development of the park and its amenities. Storm water improvements, replacement of the Violet Avenue Bridge in North Boulder between Broadway and 19th Streets adjacent to

[50:00] the Boulder Meadows neighborhood. There is funding for improvements and renovations to the downtown parking garages, specifically the spruce and walnut garage garages for key maintenance and repairs, improving safety and longevity of the structures used by downtown visitors, residents, and businesses. These projects are being paid for by funds from the downtown commercial district, which is restricted for uses within the district. There is $3 million in 2026 and $3.2 million project budget for the Pearl Street Mall refresh to support capital maintenance upgrades and temporary installations along Pearl Street between 11th to 15th Street plan to complete ahead of the 50th anniversary celebration in 2027. There is $600,000 in annual capital investments for fuel mitigation efforts along ditch corridors in performing

[51:00] forest thinning and vegetation management within the wildland urban interface and on open spaced lands for wildfire resilience. There is $46.6 $6 million to improve the city the city's water transmission systems such as replacing undersized water pipelines and re rehabilitating the historic 1923 Shiakwa water storage tank and adding a new water storage tank in East Boulder to increase capacity of the city's drinking water infrastructure. And I will now turn it back over to Charlotte to provide an overview of projects within the community culture resilience and safety tax fund. >> All right, thanks Scott. So sharing an overview of the projects and the breakdown across the six-year horizon for the community culture resilience and safety tax fund. This provides this chart provides a breakdown of the spend by project across the six-year horizon. And you can see investments uh of n 97.6 6 million across the six-year CIP,

[52:02] supporting nine capital projects, including the replacement of Fire Station 2 beginning in 2026 and uh uh anticipated completion in 2027, East Boulder Community Center in 2027 and 2028, the Civic Area Phase 2 project, bridge replacement projects such as Central Avenue bridge, uh as well as Violet Avenue Bridge as part of the Freos Park project that uh Scott highlighted and uh to note as part of the community culture resilience and safety tax the tax is broken down by 90% city projects and 10% community nonprofit grants which is also incorporated across the CIP. These projects have been incorporated based on communityf facing uh projects, community uh investments as well as criticality such as the replacement uh the critical replacement of fire stations two and four. It's important to note that this

[53:01] represents the upcoming six-year horizon across the existing CCRS tax and that ex the existing tax has supported several key capital projects already, including the completion of fire station 3, the full acquisition of the city street lights, and multimmodal improvements along main transportation corridors of 28th and 30th streets. As we've mentioned previously, the 2026 we anticipate issuing uh utilizing existing CCRS uh tax revenues in 2026 and in 2027 debt issuances planned for civic area fire station 2 and East Boulder Community Center. And the next phase of planning for the CCRS uh revenues will be determined by the outcome of the 2020 2025 CCS ballot measure on the ballot this November. Rounding out the presentation with an

[54:00] overview of the long-term financial strategy of funding outlook community conversations to come and financial planning. The long-term financial strategy was named a city council top priority in 2024. And the long-term financial strategy builds upon prior policy recommendations received from the blue ribbon commission reports of 2008 and 2010 and focuses on taking care of what we have, addressing a backlog of needs, prioritizing the flexibility of funding as we have done within the 2026 recommended budget to meet community needs, recognizing the challenges of restrict restricted funding. It focuses on the coordination of tax ballot measures within broader city financial planning, including identifying and incorporating alternative funding mechanisms into the city budget and building upon our work of outcomesbased budgeting and distributing the tax burden more equit equitably.

[55:00] With policy guidance received from the financial strategy committee as well as city council, staff advanced the long-term financial strategy in 2025 by developing a multi-year ballot measure strategy framework for 2025 and 2026. This includes a 2025 ballot measure of.3% permanent extension of the community culture resilience and safety tax as well as an increase in associated debt capacity utilizing revenues from sales and use tax revenues from the CCRS tax. As part of the work for 2025 and mid-year development of the 2026 recommended budget, staff analyzed and incorporated alternative revenue sources within the 2026 budget brought forward to council this evening, including, as mentioned previously, the transportation maintenance fee for critically underfunded and unfunded transportation maintenance, a modest increase to parking fees for on street and parking garages,

[56:00] the implementation of speed on green cameras, supporting vision zero safety uh traffic safety goals and the single family housing impact fee that would help to offset affordable housing needs. The 2026 budget and work on the long-term financial strategy also enabled the city to conduct and publish the city's first comprehensive fee inventory representing uh work performed across the organization. And this is incorporated and published in the 2026 recommended budget and will moving forward containing a comprehensive inventory of all of the city fees across the organization. And finally, we developed engagement framework for fund our future community conversations on tradeoffs and service levels plan to come forward in 2026 for community conversations. So next steps on the 2026 recommended budget is highlighted here on October

[57:00] 9th and 23rd where we will focus on first reading and public hearing on October 9th and with any uh council budget amendments similar to prior years if any uh come forward to share via hotline by October 6 and ensuring a balanced budget recognizing the uh balancing that uh has been incorporated into the 2026 recommended budget brought forward to council. Any amendment should include an identified offset and the budget office is available to support. Our final uh second reading uh and public hearing and budget adoption is planned to take place October 23rd with staff bringing forward the 2026 budget ordinances and the special district resolutions across the seven special districts uh supporting uh supporting the city. And finally, council questions for this

[58:01] evening. We have two uh shared forward including what questions do council members have on the 2026 recommended budget and next steps and do council members have any recommended uh do council members recommend any substantive changes in advance of the first reading consideration of the 2026 recommended budget on October 9th. With that, I'll turn it back to you, Nicole. Thanks so much for the presentation Charlotte and just the immense amount of work everyone that has gone into this. It's it's quite incredible. Um so let's start with uh your first question which was basically just do we have questions about the recommended budget. Um so colleagues if you would like to raise your hand um and then we can save comments for later and just kind of stick to staff's questions for now. So what questions do council members have on the 2026 recommended budget and next steps?

[59:01] Okay. Um, I see you come up first, Ryan. Uh, then Tara and Tina. >> Thank you. I believe I have two questions. Uh, earlier on on in the presentation, there was a pie chart that showed the budgeting by outcomes. Um, it was a pie chart and I was just I don't know if you were able to show that. You don't have to. Actually, I'll just describe what I saw. So, um it it has the different outcomes um for the strategic plan and and most of the of those outcomes um the budgets for them were pretty similar in terms of size just just roughly but one was very small which I think was economic vitality and one was very large which I believe was responsibly governed and I was just wondering if there if um the team could share any design thinking around that like for example Are we ultimately just moving them to be roughly equal or are there reasons why

[60:01] we should be smaller or larger? >> Yeah, thank you for the question, council member. Uh, so as you know, the uh response was governed in the safe um comprise the majority of the breakdown of the city's budget and and resources and is similar to the breakdown uh from from last year with the 2025 budget. Um, one of the items that we have continued to work on uh, as part of the work um, and efforts of budgeting for resilience and equity is understanding the alignment of our dollars and our resources and how programs align to each of the seven goal areas. And so this is work that we continue to refine year after year. We will continue to refine this moving forward. Um, this includes looking at the definitions of our programs across all departments um and uh recognizing whether or not there might be shifts moving forward in the

[61:02] definitions of those programs. Um to your point in terms of the development of uh the city budget utilizing uh outcomes and goals, we have utilized as uh Scott shared forward in the presentation programmatic outcome data as a line to the sustainability, equity, and resilience framework um uh programmatic trend data, historical data to be able to utilize that information for decision making in the 2026 budget. Um some examples shared forward for that were the behavioral health response realignments and reductions that were performed as well as the uh the programmatic and operational data that we saw coming forward in the um uh the park-to-park um uh programmatic change. >> Um if I if I may, Charlotte, I'll I'll just add to I'm not surprised. It's a

[62:00] question I got from another council member. Um, Council Member Shuhard, uh, I'm not surprised that you're seeing, um, uh, economically vital, a smaller percentage. Historically, the city has not done a lot in the area of economic um development. I'm going to say now that we can say the word more broadly. And I think that number is going to change um as we explore things like DDA or possibly um I know metro district has been something on your mind, but as we explore more in that area, I think you're going to see that number change a little bit. Responsibly governed is an area where we think of it depends on what projects are coming in a particular year. Alpine Balsam um asset management uh as we think about the 1.7 in um a new CRM system um when those projects that have to do with um technology that have huge dollars amounts to them you see a shift in responsibly governed uh that have high price tags attached to them. In a year

[63:00] where that is not the case and we don't have those projects you may see um some of those dollars shift in a different way. Um, when we look at safe, which certainly has a big percentage, we're not a lot of people think of that as our first responders, police and fire. When we think of safe, we think too of our vision zero goals. We think a lot of wildfire resilience. So those numbers may shift as we move forward and it depends on the projects that are moving forward in a particular year. So you have to peel back the layers to to look and see what that looks like. >> Thank you. Uh, and I just have one more question. Uh so in the in the approach to making budget reductions, my impression is that uh the team has been purposeful about trimming in across the the whole organization in a balanced way in order to leave us with good chances of programs bouncing back when the economy appro improves

[64:02] rather than having concentrated deuctions in places that would make it hard for for programs to recover from, but I'm not sure if you said that exactly. So, I wanted to ask um it can you can you just talk about this and and I guess also specifically are there any programs that we should expect to they're really not likely to be coming back after this exercise? >> Thank you for the the question, council member. We incorporated um several reductions as part of the challenge of bringing forward the the balance budget to city council. This evening um we uh looked across the the 2026 um budget and balancing the budget and bringing forward realignments uh across the board and and programs across the board. There are a handful of uh uh programs um that come to mind uh in in

[65:05] thinking about the reorganization and realignment as we mentioned uh in the behavioral health space. We did perform uh and took a look utilizing uh outcomes data and trend data uh and reduced uh staffing associated with uh the care program and are have realigned um staffing uh toward uh shared behavioral health uh response team um that will be able to respond with or without police. We have shared forward the um support of one-time funding to be able to support previously ARPA funding uh ARPA funded uh programming in the building home uh program um that Scott shared board as part of a significant change that's incorporated into the 2026 budget. Um

[66:00] there are several uh programs that are incorporated uh uh in that fashion and in that nature. Uh another uh one to share forward is the um reduction of the uh safe and managed spaces program. The two FTE vacant FTE that were reduced and incorporated. Uh that reduction was incorporated into the 2026 recommended budget. Um and staff will continue to monitor uh if needing uh operations and support in that space in the future to be able to look um for potentially utilizing funding to support um those units uh for safe and managed spac managed spaces operations um moving forward. >> Okay, that's all I have. Thank you, Charlotte. in their head. >> Thanks, Ryan. Uh, Tara, you're up then. Tina and Matt. >> Okay. Um, one second.

[67:09] Uh, can you hear me? Oh, great. Did I never even shut off my mic? That's a problem today. Okay. First of all, while we're talking about safe and managed spaces, can someone tell us if losing two FTEEs is going to have an impact, a big impact on the way our spaces are managed now? >> Thank you for >> Thank you for the question, council member. One of the reasons why uh the executive budget team during decisionmaking for the 2026 recommended budget uh incorporated and and took a look at at at staffing and uh program data across the board. This decision was made based on uh recognizing that the reduction of the two vacant FTEEs will not have a significant impact on operations for safe and managed spaces.

[68:01] uh moving forward. Um it is something that the city will continue to monitor. um with the reduction of that staffing. But uh with the existing staffing and the units on hand, um the city uh performed that decision utilizing um utilizing uh the data and recognizing that there would not be a significant anticipated impact and change to operations um and cleanups uh in the uh in in those areas for safe and managed spaces. >> Okay. So the second question and my really only other question is has to do with the list of fees. The I'm looking at the fee paid by typical business/ individual and I'm wondering um you know I'm not a fan of crazy of lots of fees. I believe that they affect you know cities economically by disuading businesses from coming etc

[69:03] etc. So, I'm just going to ask why some of these fees really jumped. And I'm just going to name them. And I'm sure there are reasons. That's why I'm asking. Boulder Junction garage had a double. The um downtown garage short-term parking. Well, we heard about that. And the um we had a big jump in the events permits in the class one special event fee and in the class 2 special event fee specifically. And then we had big jumps because it went from nothing to something nothing to 500 in the large film production and medium film production. So most of our fees didn't really increase hardly at all. So, I'm curious why these had such big jumps. >> Thank you for the question, council

[70:00] member. And this is uh these are the fees that are incorporated into the comprehensive fee inventory page and associated with uh community vitality fees. um happy to defer and and bring someone on from uh community vitality if helpful to share forward details uh on the changes to the fees, but I know that as part of the annual uh fee development process for existing fees. Uh the city looks across our existing fees recognizing that there might be uh changes on an annual basis. Um, community vitality is one of those departments that performs that. And I see Chris uh popped up. >> Good evening, city council. Chris Jones, director of community vitality here. Sorry, my computer was having some challenges, so I'm on my phone. But, um, thank you for the question. Um, the fees that have been proposed associated with special events um, come as a result of a

[71:00] lot of work we've been doing, uh, compared to other communities. We have not traditionally charged fees for events um and the film permits. We've done a lot of work as a result of the social streets um analysis that went on um postco and so these uh were fees that are being proposed. Um we do not necessarily have to start implementing them but they are um are recommended uh changes just benchmarking to other communities. So, um, as associated with a lot of other fees that we, um, have been looking at as a way to help close budget gaps. >> So, like a tax because we have our budgets, we can't afford things. Check. >> Um, Council Member Winer, I want to be very clear. Fees are not taxes. >> Like a tax. Not a tax, but like a tax.

[72:04] Okay, that's it for me. >> Okay, thanks Tara. Uh, Tina, then Matt and Mark. >> Hi. Um, thanks. Uh I first wanted to ask just about the long-term financial strategies and um taxing because I was thinking about how in 2027 it's theoretic it's possible there won't be a ballot sent out if the schoolboard races are uncontested as we won't have a city council race and that's not an unusual event and I'm just curious if we have um a long-term plan to do polling and understanding what it looks like to run multiple tax measures on a much more crowded ballot alongside county and state taxes. Um kind of what is our strategy for understanding that we may be now down to two different cycles per four years to run taxes.

[73:00] Thank thank you for the question. Uh, council member Mark was uh part of the work that we performed in the long-term financial strategy and in work and with guidance from both both the financial strategy committee and city council and we developed the multi-year ballot measure strategy framework considering what other potential taxes might be on the ballot including uh county taxes or taxes from other jurisdictions. That was something that we considered uh incorporating as part of the polling for this year that we brought forward uh the polling results to city council mid year this year. Um it is something that we will certainly discuss as staff and consideration for uh thinking about planning of tax measures moving forward. Um, and so we have thought about that previously as part of the work with the long-term financial strategy and we'll continue to think about the coordination of taxes uh ensuring that we are

[74:01] balancing what we're bringing forward um and to be informed by uh polling survey results as we performed this year as well. That is our plan for next year as well and what we intend to consider and bring forward to city council for 2026. Um we have not developed a tax ballot measure strategy at this point past 2026. Um but know that it is something that we'll be considering and thinking about as we're thinking about broader financial planning efforts as part of the long-term financial strategy. >> Okay. And we're able to do polling that would also include statewide tax initiatives as well, so that we can try to get some information on what it's like if there's a county, a city, and a state tax all at the same time. >> It it is something that we could consider polling on and incorporating into a statistically valid poll. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, thank you. Uh then my other

[75:00] question is on the change in the um the way that we're thinking about spending the money from the proceeds of the sale of the Broncos. Um is that something where is what are the outcomes attached to this year's $250,000 investment in that? >> Yeah, thank you for the question. uh council member for the uh the um 250,000 that's incorporated into the 2026 budget. We um have uh incorporated a total amount to support I believe it's about 115 uh,000 that's incorporated to support a temp uh fixedterm uh limited position and then the remainder for programmatic um funding and know that the parks department is considering and thinking about the um programmatic outcomes associated with uh the program and see

[76:02] that uh director Ally Rhodess has has hopped on. So, I'll toss to toss to Ally. >> Thanks, Charlotte. Good evening, folks. I'm Ally Rhodess, director of parks and recreation. I actually think you hit it, Charlotte. So, Council Member Marquis, was there a part of your question we could share a little bit more or did that get there? >> Um, yes. I this I think that um it would just be good to I I do have concerns about some of the families that are struggling in the community, the youth in particular, and this funding. I know needs to be geared toward youth. Um, so, you know, I think that this budget has done such a good job of identifying high needs, high impact areas and I hope that this is consistent with that theme and just ensuring that we have needs that we may not understand right now. And um, I just want to make sure that we that that this funding is a

[77:00] little bit flexible. Uh so hopefully it can address a a high impact need and and I assume that's part of the process. >> Absolutely. And you know council saw a draft of the action plan in May and issues that young people identified as most important. Um, and that action plan will be completed through this fall and into the winter and it'll allow for current state assessment that I think will address some of what you're talking about about the current state and happy to follow up more offline if helpful. >> Okay, that's perfect. Thank you. Um, and then another question is u, we're moving the bridge house from a contract to the competitive grant process. Is that um something that we want to do more in general just from granting or do we generally prefer to get a contract that has a you know through a request for services or an RFP process? What is the longer term vision and how we

[78:00] distribute and meet the needs that our human services funds are intended to meet in our community? >> Yeah, thank you for the the question, council member. and uh it was part of the the difficult decision-making as part of the 2020 bringing forward the a balanced budget um and know that HHS was very intentional of having a closed round and thinking about uh the organizations um uh impacted and and where the funding uh is where the investments are going and see that uh deputy director of housing and human services has popped up to share some additional information as well. Yeah, thank you Elizabeth Crowe, Deputy Director of Housing and Human Services. Um, appreciate the question. Right now, uh, without changing anything, we do have the option even within our competitive funding programs to do kind of annual single-year grants, multi-year

[79:00] grants, which now are three years. And over since 2019 when we put that strategy in place, we've actually had quite a few uh agencies receive three years of funding which is easier for them, way better for us as well. Um we also have the opportunity to do non-competitive grants which is how we um provide funds to EA for the keep families house program off cycle. So, we have a lot of different um kind of methods in place that we can draw upon to make sure we're really staying on top of the needs in the community and working with our nonprofit agencies that are helping deliver those services to just make that process as efficient as possible. Um the grant uh some of these are contracts and I think the um the agreements and the contracts that the city has with all roads are just a good example where the the level of detail and and kind of the um the dollar amount associated with the contracts are such

[80:01] that we would not be putting those through a competitive process. Um, so I I think right now we do have such a wide range of options to draw upon um to meet those needs that we don't um necessarily see at a reason to change at this point. >> Is there a way to um see which grants are in competitive versus non-competitive processes? Is that broken out? >> Yes. Um so every year once we make those grant decisions, once they're approved by the city manager, we do post them online. um can certainly make that more clear um directly to council when that information is available. Um there are right now not very many non-competitive grants. There's two that I can think of off the top of my head. Um the contracts such as through homeless services is another question, but there too we can provide that information. >> Okay. Thanks. And then I have one last question which is um when we consolidate to Alpine is there

[81:02] any place that um describes the properties that we'll be disposing of and what any kind of anticipated revenue will be from that disposal of property. Uh we do have the the list of the nine uh offices that we'll be consolidating and I'll need to lean on uh deputy director uh of facilities and fleet to remind us of the the consolidation and we have incorporated uh total uh sale of buildings and revenue uh that's reflected and incorporated into the the outy years uh in the governmental capital fund at about 10 million um which would be reassessed and revalued um closer to the date of sale. So I'll I'll toss to Michelle. >> Yeah, good afternoon council or evening. Um Michelle Crane, deputy director of facilities and fleet and and again I think Charlotte you kind of hit on I think the question we have identified

[82:01] the nine buildings um that we're looking to consolidate. I think we have some additional opportunities beyond that um in our facilities plan and elsewhere. we've, you know, some of those properties, uh, like the Park Central and New Britain building will be deconstructed and go to Parks Land, but then as Charlotte mentioned, the other properties that, um, have value are being, uh, assessed right now, but until we vacate and until that timing is there, um, we don't know the actual kind of revenue that we'll receive, but it's it's being budgeted and we're working with the budget office um, to count that, >> but it's and it's mostly accounted for or roughly accounted for. So we should we won't we won't be expecting a big bump in one or two years. Is that correct? >> It's kind of baked in. >> No, but we do anticipate potentially a a help to reduce our debt service. So that would a reduction. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. >> Great. Um then we've got Matt, then

[83:01] Mark, then TA. >> Thanks, Nicole. Um great presentation. Um and just admiral job to get us to where we are. Uh so so I mean uh no easy task for sure. Um two a couple questions. One um pertains to kind of you know where we're maybe leaving money on the table. Um and this is a question about the airport given our lawsuit and now no longer accepting or pursuing uh FAA grants. How much is the general fund compensating uh for what otherwise would have been funded by grants? >> Thank you for the question, council member. At this point in time, the general fund is not uh contributing uh to support uh airport operations. Uh and so that is not incorporated or reflected uh currently into uh into um uh the the recommended budget brought forward to city council this evening.

[84:00] >> So So no maintenance, no anything that we would have otherwise relied on grants for. At this point in time, uh we have not incorporated anything with general fund support. >> Okay. Okay. Appreciate that. Um next question has to do with uh shifting sort of capital big pack capital projects. It was mentioned obviously the federal and state funding is evaporated u more or less. And so I'm thinking about like our transportation department since we depend so much on that big money. Is are we shifting that work to micro projects or over into more maintenance and stewardship again? sort of are we are we shifting those resources as we maybe pivot or wait for that infrastructure money to come back online again. >> We currently have uh incorporated into uh the 2026 budget as well as the outyear budgets continued planning uh with uh uh transportation projects supported by grants including federal grants. Um we have incorporated uh as as

[85:01] we shared forward into the six-year horizon support for bridge replacement uh including the central avenue bridge as well as the Violet Avenue bridge in CCRS. And we intend to and as incorporated into the ballot measure for CCRS uh for the the ballot measure going forward this November um have the opportunity to continue to support transportation maintenance as one of the uh areas uh of capital infrastructure across the city's portfolio. Um, so it has been a a um uh planning across the six-year horizon and at this point in time they're uh the the funding received from grants are incorporated into um outyear uh outyear um funds that we have across across the organization supporting transportation. >> Okay. Uh my last question has to do with the single family housing expansion fee.

[86:02] I I'm not sure I recall a policy decision on that. So, I'm kind of wondering how that came to be uh because it seems like it's a pretty big policy decision and so I'm wondering how we get it start how we're folding it into a budget prior to having that policy conversation. So, I'm just wondering order of operations more or less. Yeah, thank you for the the the question and we are actually uh staff is planning to to come forward with a separate item um for city council consideration that will share forward much more detail um and have uh uh robust discussion as a distinct item coming forward. I believe the dates are October 23rd uh and the beginning of November uh for city council meetings for council consideration. So, well, we have incorporated the revenue projections into the 2026 budget, a separate policy item and discussion will come forward in a uh just over a month

[87:00] to city council um as a separate standalone item for consideration. And >> so, that really begs the follow-up question. How is the city prepared to compensate for not having that $400,000 should that policy discussion not uh move forward with the uh expansion fee, >> it would be an item that we would need to consider uh uh if uh if not approved by uh city council and take a look across the board uh and seeing what uh what would need to uh potentially be uh adjusted on the expense side um within the affordable housing fund um for about 400,000. >> Okay. Appreciate that. Thank you. Look forward to that conversation in October. Thanks. >> All right. Uh Mark, you're up then. Taisha. >> Okay. I have a couple of questions that do not relate to each other. First, um I want to thank staff for um an

[88:00] extraordinary uh amount of work that they put into this um and the product that they have uh produced is is really quite excellent. And uh Charlotte, I want to thank you for your extremely detailed response to my hotline. Um everything was answered and and rather comprehensively. So, thank you. Uh my first question is uh we now have debt obligations um equal to about 80% of our annual budget. Uh in light of the um the vagaries of of uh of revenue streams at this point um is there any particular vulnerability to having this amount of debt? Thank you for the the question, Council Member Wallik. Uh, city staff has taken a look across our uh, debt portfolio um, and has been very intentional in working particularly

[89:00] across the finance department and with support from our financial advisors of understanding implications of entering into particular debt obligations. Um we work uh as we did in the uh development for uh Western City campus most recently um with our financial adviserss and bond council to understand potential risks and implications of accepting and bringing on more debt. Um we have uh carefully considered the amount of revenues that are going to support uh ongoing debt service. Um, and one of the items that we do in looking at bringing on more debt is looking at def debt rolling off uh of the city's books. And we do have some coming uh forward uh across uh the shortterm horizon in the next six to six to 10 years um and paying off some current obligations that we have.

[90:00] >> Okay. Thank you. Um separate subject. Um I've been receiving a number of comments relating to the allocations that are being imposed on various departments and the issue is not so much a dispute over the appropriateness of charging departments but the the basis on which the allocations are being um imposed. Do do we have a a specific formula for doing that? Yeah, and I believe that uh you might be referencing our support services cost allocation that's distributed across all funds in the organization. This is uh I believe as we shared forward in the hotline response the standard governmental practice uh that distributes support services costs across all operating funds in the organization. So that incorporates not only uh the general fund which absorbs about 50% of uh support services allocation um but also is distributed

[91:01] across uh across operating funds. And so um this is an item that is uh representative of the cost of doing administrative business for the municipality. And to you to specifically to your point in how we factor um there are multiple factors that go into the cost allocation calculation and model that is uh updated on an annual basis as part of our budget development process. Two examples that I can point to include FTE count and total budget across funds. Um and so uh just sharing forward again this is a standard governmental practice that's performed across all jurisdictions. Um and the city of Boulder distributes this across all operating funds with the general fund receiving about 50% of the total allocable cost. >> Don't misunderstand. I wasn't questioning the the validity of the

[92:02] allocations. The the question was do we have a good formula for making those allocations? One that is reasonably transparent and understandable. We do have a breakdown of the distribution factors that are incorporated into the model and that is updated on an annual basis and um is uh transparent and available and we're uh as as mentioned the two major factors that are incorporated into those distributions include the FTE count and the total budget by fund. And that is uh updated on an annual basis and we've performed with um advice uh received from our uh recent financial um consultant in updating uh the most recent uh cost allocation and is updated

[93:00] on an annual basis. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh my last question has a couple of components to it. It revolves around the proposed transportation maintenance fee. Um first um have we done any recent community outreach on this? Yeah, thank you for the the question, council member, and uh know that the transportation department has done um substantial amount of outreach as part of the work in the development uh of this fee and leading up to uh the the uh last uh council decision-making in 2020. And I'll uh hand it off to uh interim director uh Valerie Watson. And uh also uh just to share forward prior to tossing off the fee came forward uh with review with the financial strategy committee in June of this year and shared forward um uh with the financial strategy committee at that time um and

[94:01] know that the department has been working on an engagement plan and outreach plan um with the community and Valerie I'll I'll toss it toss it to you. Thank you, Charlotte, and thanks for the question, Council Member Wallik. Um, if I'm not frozen, I'll continue. Okay, so um to to answer your question, yes, we have been conducting outreach. Um, I will highlight that there has been over 10 years of intensive community process around the idea of a transportation maintenance fee. Um it has been repeatedly discussed um with the community with um various councils, transportation advisory boards over the years. Um as late as 2019, there was consensus around moving forward with the transportation maintenance fee. Um when um fast forwarding after the pandemic um as the city was starting to develop its long-term financial strategy and we were

[95:00] looking ahead to the 2026 budget um we picked that thread back up and initiated the um uh the fee study that establishes the legal and rational nexus for the fee and how the um fee structure would be its rates. Um and we have uh just completed um that earlier this year. And so in with in terms of the outreach around that timeline, um we've been doing early conversations and focused um discussions with major stakeholders along the way. Um we've briefed TAB um back in May and again this month. Um and currently we're really midstream now that we have the completed fee structure to share out with um major stakeholders. Um we are kind of mid-stream in uh conducting a lot of focus conversations. Um some are being um facilitated in partnership with our local Boulder

[96:00] Chamber and Boulder Chamber Transportation Connections. Um and we really appreciate that partnership. Um we've been reaching out to some of the um major um contributors to um trips on our transportation system um including CU Boulder, BDSD. Um so yes uh to answer your question, we have been conducting outreach. >> Okay. And it's still in process. >> Correct. Um we are really heading for that timeline for October um consideration of the ordinance by council and that adoption process. Um, in in looking at this, the proposed uses of these funds look very similar to transportation CIP expenses which have been drastically cut. Are we essentially using this fee to backfill those budget cuts or or is this something different? Um you know I think we mentioned in the hotline response today that uh

[97:00] maintenance for transportation has not received any drastic reductions from 2025 to 2026 or um year-over-year. um the fluctuation in variability you see in um the transportation CIP which is for capital infrastructure. Um that that variability is due to the types of projects that happen to be programmed in the different years. Um so depending on the nature of the program, you'll see um you know those kind of costs um fluctuating up and down. It does not reflect a reduction in our operating budget for maintenance. And so we do have a separate operating bud um budget for maintenance that um you know helps us with near-term needs like uh pothole patching things like that. In our transportation CIP which you asked about specifically we are maintaining our um levels of funding if not increasing them slightly to try to um address cost

[98:01] escalation and inflation. So things like our pavement management program, um things like our sidewalk programs, um those are not seeing any kind of reductions. >> Okay, thank you. That's what I got. >> Thank you. Um Taisha, you are up. >> Wonderful. Thank you very much. Um I just had a couple of questions. The first was around the revenue forecasts. I was curious what the anticipated cause was for the bump that was anticipated in like 2029. It was like a $10 million bump or something. I just I just it made me curious about what informed these sales revenue forecasts. >> Yeah, thank thank you for the the question. Uh in our presentation we incorporate the uh in the presentation on the breakdown of the sales and use tax uh we incorporated um general fund

[99:02] only as the snapshot. In 2029 there is a shift of a transportation dedicated tax to the general fund. Uh and so that is what is that large increase in 2029 is that uh that shift of realignment of uh dedicated tax to the general fund. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. I'm sorry I didn't put those together. Um I had a question about the restricted funds. I just in general would love to see more delineation. That's in the comment section because I just remember last year just being so reminded about the restricted funds. So, it was hard to delineate which ones were and which ones weren't. If I could just get like a quick refresher on just the the restricted maybe like what areas are the most in restricted funds or just kind of getting um some bearings in that will be really helpful. >> Yeah. And uh is it helpful to provide a

[100:00] high level at this point uh in response? >> Yeah. But just Yeah. and then later on maybe having something a little bit more detailed around around that specific question because I think that's an area for growth growth. >> Yeah. So, uh as a as a reminder in terms of the restricted revenues within the city of Boulder, the city of Boulder's revenues are uh high amount of restrictions at about 68%. um sales and use tax when we are specifically looking at sales and use tax uh the total amount of restrictions uh is uh is uh I believe it's uh uh 56% is restricted for sales and use tax for specific purposes that includes arts, culture and heritage. It includes uh specific sales tax supporting parks uh for uh open space uh as well uh as well

[101:00] as transportation and the CCRS fund. If we were just to look at the sales and use tax pie, there's a total amount of funds of six funds with that breakdown of 56% um of the sales and use tax pie being dedicated within the city of Boulder. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Um I had a question about FEMA. I had um just in general um just some of the changes that are happening f federally to that program so that it's um restricting some of the activity uses that would have previously been been re reimbursed. And so it's my understanding that um we have historically leaned on reserves to cover some of those upf fund costs and then were reimbursed later. And so I was just curious um as far as like scenarios um if um if some of that had been considered in or if the reserves are

[102:01] robust enough that that's not a concern at this point. >> Yeah. Think thank you for the uh the question council member. Um it is something that uh that this the city will need to to take into account and and um consider. It is something I I will share uh that we have been closely monitoring uh since January of this year. Um and understanding what potential impacts there might be to outstanding uh liabilities that we have that we have not yet received reimbursement for. And so it is something that we recognize we need to consider as part of our financial planning. Um and uh uh we continue to closely monitor it to understand what our risk exposure is related to outstanding grant liabilities that we have not yet been reimbursed for. And um Teresa or I'm not sure if others want to join in to share additional detail, but that that in some

[103:01] in summary shares forward. Yeah, >> that's good for me at this point unless there's something that you feel like the public should or my colleagues and myself should know at this point. But I do think going forward that that will be an area um that I would you know how much of our reserves like just you know what I mean just >> yeah based >> yeah you know based historically how much you know you know we do what we can um okay so that's that one that one um I actually didn't have a whole bunch oh uh elevate boulder I just you know I almost didn't want to mention it but because I was looking for it and I didn't find it but that's just cuz you know sometimes I get lost in there is this I I think we're in their final year, right? >> Yeah, we uh I'll I'll uh share forward a very brief overview and then and then toss it uh toss it over to Elizabeth. We uh did not the the part of the decision-m the challenges of of bringing

[104:00] forward the balance uh balance budget was taking a look across the board um at our programming particularly programming supported by ARPA funds one-time funds um and recognizing the the challenges of bringing forward the balanced budget. And so the 2026 recommended budget does not incorporate uh city funding uh for Elevate Boulder. Um but we do have the opportunity uh to support um if the private sector were to come forward to support Elevate Boulder. Um and I'll I'll toss uh toss to Elizabeth to share for just current status of of Elevate Boulder and and other details as well. >> Sure. Thank you, Charlotte. Um, I will start off by saying that the final uh data evaluation report for the project is going to be released publicly next week. Um, so you'll be able to look at that. Um, uh, the program the project's going very well and the final payments

[105:00] are going out to participants on December 31st. So, it is coming to a close. Um, as Charlotte said, we um are hoping to and has been our our plan for quite a while to um try to transition the program from a pilot project to more to at least having another cohort or two. Um, we've been working with nonprofit partners, um, folks who served on the initial community task force, other community members, and looking at input for participants to think about, um, how what we might change if it moves forward. But most critically, um, it needs to be a a public and private partnership. that's been the most successful formula for most pilot projects um or most guaranteed income projects in the country regardless of exactly who they serve or with how much funding. So that is our goal. Um and as Charlotte said, if we are successful um in getting a a decent, you know, portion

[106:01] half or more um of a next cohort budget from the private sector, that will hopefully be able to unlock some some city funds um in reserve um for us to use. >> All right. Thank you very much. Um I will reserve comment for later. And that's all the questions I have at this moment. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Um, and then, uh, we've got Lauren up next. She's having some internet issues, but I think she's here to ask questions. >> Thank you, Nicole. Can you everybody hear me? Okay. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um, so I really appreciated getting to hear all the answers to my colleagues questions and to the hotlines. Um, every everyone covered a lot already, but I was hoping um I just had a couple small ones. The

[107:00] um CRM system that gets talked about um when do we expect that to be implemented? I see that it's funded over I believe six years. Um and I was is that something that we will have in six years or is that something that we will be able to um transition to sooner than that? >> Yes, thank you for the the question council member. So the the constituent relationship management project is uh planned for 2026 and 2027. And so the project funding is associated with those two years in the CIP and it's directly in line with the development and the opening of the Western City campus plan for 2027. And so it's just for those two years. >> So the public won't have access to the new system until 2027 when the new building opens.

[108:00] >> That's correct. >> Okay. Thank you. um because that is something I hear a lot about from community um just the difficulty getting a hold of people and getting questions answered. So I look forward to that. Um and then my other question was about urban park rangers and I was hoping that maybe Ally you could remind me a little bit more of what they do. Mostly I see them um doing like off leash dog tickets and I was just a little surprised with the sort of budget constraints that we are in that um that wasn't that that was being maintained at the same level. So if you could maybe provide a little bit more about um some of the other services they provide that would be wonderful. >> Absolutely. Uh, I don't have at my fingertips their current patrol breakdowns, but I know that more than 50% of it is in our downtown parks and

[109:00] supporting downtown community events such as the farmers market, bands on the bricks. Um, they are very um integral part of our safe and managed public spaces program. They are a force multiplier in supporting the lawful um implementation of the city's campaign ban and other things. The other thing I'll note is that they also support programs across the city. So, for example, um this summer there was a cardiac event at the North Boulder Recreation Center and they were there and helping with crowd control while the emergency responders were um supporting response there. they so um I'd love to follow up with you offline and learn more about what you're seeing, but uh and then the other thing I'll just note is that off leash dogs is one of the number one complaints that we get from park visitors. >> Appreciate that. Thank you, Ally. >> That's it for my questions. >> All right, great. Thank you. Um I just

[110:01] have a couple questions. Um, and then we can kind of check in on time and hopefully head into our next uh question or our ne Yeah, next question from staff. Um, also thank you to the Channel 8 folks for getting Channel 8 back up and running. Really appreciate that. Um, okay. So, I just had a couple questions. Uh, one is with um some of the uh uh EPA funding, the eviction prevention and rental assistance going to the building home um program to help prevent evictions there. Does this mean that there's going to be less funding in 2026 for other eviction prevention? >> Uh for the 2026 budget, building home was um strategically decided to be funded um with you utilizing uh EPIS funding from uh the eviction prevention and rental assistance program um fund. Uh and the 2026 uh funding will not impact um uh

[111:04] and reduce other support um that would go toward uh rental assistance. Um we are utilizing uh available funds in the fund to be able to support building home on a one-time basis in 2026. >> Okay, cool. Thank you. Um, and then just a question around because some folks have asked about fees and things if some of the fees weren't included. Um, so for example, if we decided not to do um the impact fee on single family home expansion um after all, despite having moved it forward for a few years, um what happens? Or if we decide not to approve the transportation maintenance fee, what does that mean for the things that they would have supported? Do we send you all back to the drawing board or the Jenga Tower as it seems to be this year um to shuffle things around or does it just mean that we'll have less for for the things that um they're

[112:00] currently slotted to fund? uh if we reduced uh the fees, uh staff was very intentional of the alternative funding revenues brought forward and included in the um projections for 2026. And so if there are changes to uh the revenues uh in the 2026 budget, we will need to take a look at what that what that means for expenses on the expense side. >> Okay. And then specifically the expenses that were sort of tied to those in the first place. >> That's correct. >> All right. Okay. Great. Thank you. >> Nicole, can I colloqui off of that? >> Yep. >> So, I know you answered this, Charlotte, but I didn't understand what you were saying. So, I'm going to ask again in just simpler language. Tell me No, you use you, not me. I always use simple language. That's what I was saying. Um, tell me the $400,000 that is included in the 2026 budget on

[113:03] something we didn't yet agree. That $400,000, what exactly is it going to be used for? >> I will uh need to lean on uh our staff in housing and human services, but it will go to support affordable housing. Uh >> that I know. I just want to know what about it. and we are happy to follow up uh as well if needed. And I see uh principal budget analyst Ken Baird coming off. >> Thanks. Thank you, Charlotte. Ken Baird with HHS Finance. And the $400,000 was the initial amount for implementation of this fee next year for new permits. So we don't expect revenue if the fee is to be passed revenue to be coming in until towards the end of the year. And that 400,000 it was it's an estimate that's in the fund financial

[114:02] right now. It's slated that would actually go to fund balance to fund future years affordable housing. It's not appropriated in 2026 for for being used on specific projects. >> Okay. So, we're going to charge this fee for the future affordable housing. Check. >> Yeah, I would go into the fund balance for future projects. >> Fund balance. Okay. Thank you. >> Great. Well, that's all of my questions. Um, so I think we uh have hopefully exhausted the first first part about just our questions around the city budget. Um, our next question is, um, do council members recommend any substantive changes in advance of the budget's first reading, um, on October 9th? And what I would ask with this one, um, I think it would be good just for all of us to go around say either yes or no. If your answer to that question, which is also in the chat, is yes, um

[115:01] please say more about what your um your your change of recommendations are and then give your overall comments. Um if your answer is no, just say no and then please give your overall comments. So, we're kind of going to combine budget comments with answering this question. So, I will open it up for hands on who would like to go first. I see Ryan. That gives other people a chance to queue up. Wait, just point of clarification first. Sorry, Ryan. >> Just like how are we like quantifying substantive, I guess, is where I'm going with this. Like what's the substitive line? Thank you. >> That's a good question. Um staff, can we get some guidance there? Yeah, I think in in sharing forward what um we have shared in the presentation that the budget is balanced um and so if there is truly any any change to the budget we will we will we will need to identify an offset um and so

[116:01] >> it it would be any any change coming forward. >> So basically anything that's more than zero. >> Okay. Thank you and thanks thanks for the question. Good clarification. >> Go ahead. >> Ry. >> Okay. My answer is no. No changes. I think the um this body of work is uh um very comprehensive. I have a lot of confidence in it and seeing the connectivity with the outcomesbased approach. I I think this is I wouldn't know why or where to to try to change things. So, I my my mind is open and I'll be listening to colleagues, but no, I wouldn't suggest to change the thing. And I just have one comment um on the transportation maintenance fee. And um you know, this is a this is a this is something I heard about when I was on TAB that was like years years overdue when I was um on TAB. And I just think given the concerns and the needs about

[117:00] transportation that we hear from the community across all of the ways people use transportation, um this is one of the systems that that we are in the most the greatest need of more directly allocating the costs of the use of the system um to to uh to what we have to expend. And just for what it's worth, one thing I learned in this process is the, you know, part part of one's impact on the transportation system is of course their the way that they get around directly, but it's also when you, you know, you go to a restaurant, you you go to use a service, the the the the people that are working there have used the system to get there. And furthermore, if you know, you're using Amazon or any kind of delivery, that's that's all part of the system, too. So, um, I had learned that and I just wanted to share. So, I I'm I'm very supportive of it. Um I think it's quite sophisticated compared to the way other towns have done so far, which is which is great for Boulder. Um and I would just end by saying um in the future I I

[118:03] will be excited to to look for ways to even um uh to to refine the way that the impacts are allocated um and that we're able to differentiate um you know the way the different users uh weigh in on the system. But for now I think it's a it's a really wonderful framework to to get started with. Thanks, Ryan. Um, next up, Mark Thera. >> Uh, of course there are things I would do differently. Um, but I'm not going to go there. I I don't think uh I want to second guessess the vast amount of work that's gone into this. Um, and I'm going to rely upon um staff's decisions on this. Uh, as I said, I I could give you, you know, several things I would do if it were just my preference, but I'm not going to do that. I I just, you know, I don't uh think my judgment is going to be better than theirs, and I

[119:00] want to rely upon uh this prodigious body of work that's been done to um uh to get us on a firmer financial footing. So, I'm going to keep those changes to myself and rely upon this document move forward. >> Thank you, Mark. Uh, Tara, you're up then. Tina and Matt. >> No, I keep forgetting to shut off my put on my mute, so can you remind me if I do that again? >> Yeah, I haven't noticed it being off, though. >> Okay, so I think it's a good budget. I disagree with the fees and I'm just going to quickly say why not a whole long story which I think we'll save for some other time. Um but first of all uh the single family housing expansion fee that is not an emergency because it's for the future affordable housing. So, in my opinion, we're saying to many middle class people who bought a tiny

[120:00] home and want to, let's say, add a bunch of bedrooms for their kids or whatever, we're saying, can you family pay for affordable housing? And I just don't think it's right. So, if it I just feel like whatever we have now, I just don't agree with. I'm not saying I would never agree with it because I do believe that fees are important, but this I don't agree with. So that's first of all and then secondly the transportation maintenance fee it really is I get that it's been around for 10 years or so but we have had co co has strained businesses to the point where margins are really really tight on a for a lot of businesses and now we're asking them to pay yet more for this transportation maintenance fee. So what I'm asking is not to get rid of it, but to consider does it have to be this high? How are businesses affected? What are businesses saying about it? By businesses, I specifically mean local

[121:00] businesses, not Amazon. No offense to Amazon, but they have plenty of money. So that's where I stand with the transportation maintenance fee. Um, and it does some good, but I don't want it to affect our small businesses, our minority businesses. And I'm not sure I just want to go over with or maybe get information on exactly how much that means because every fee, it's like fees aren't free. It's not like free money. People have to pay the fee. And the people, especially businesses, have a lot of fees that they pay, not just this fee. and every fee adds up and it becomes more and less and le it it comes harder and harder for regular small businesses to have a business here in Boulder with all of our fees. I know I'm passionate about this, but I've heard community members complain about this who have small businesses for a really long time. So, I have a level of frustration. So, excuse my passion. And then lastly, I would like to say the parking fees. I've heard him say the

[122:01] word modest 50 cents I don't know how many times tonight, but considering that we just doubled the parking and doubled on the street and now we're raising it again 50 cents. What that says to me is only privileged people can park on Pearl Street because it's really too expensive for most people to now park on Pearl Street with the double plus 50 cents. And then where does it end? Are we going to do 50 cents a year? I come from Philadelphia where the parking was so expensive that people didn't even want to go downtown. I mean, it was like $15 an hour or some crazy thing like that. But what I loved about Boulder is it's not expensive to go downtown. And I just don't want I just want everyone to understand that there was a big increase in parking. And the question is is do we have to really do another 50 cents? That's how I feel. All right. So Cara, um, just to clarify for staff, are you

[123:00] >> Do I do that for no reason? >> No, no, no, no. I'm just what I what I'm wondering is because this this it Yeah, >> it sounds like what you're proposing is to not put um fee increases or new fees into the budget with what which would have a reduction of um things like fixing roads and stuff like that. >> Just to be clear, single family housing expansion fee has nothing to do with fixing roads. It has to do with future building. >> Correct. Yes. >> So that's first of all. >> Yes. Yeah. But the transportation one does though, right? So I just because to like >> So what I'm saying is is I want to see a realignment. I don't like that it's heavily so much on small businesses and I would like to see I believe that it's a good thing. I just would like to see more information on how it affects small businesses as to or can we do something with it to make it fairer for our small businesses. I'm not against that fee. I just don't I'm worried it's going to be one more

[124:00] fee against small businesses and I I just want to see if we can realign it >> and maybe put more onus on the bigger corporations. >> Okay. So then I think maybe this would be one of those followup with staff things um to figure that out. But the I think with the nexus studies there there may be some more to dive into there. So that's a followup and then um make sure to send out whatever you come up with on hotline by can you remind me of the date Charlotte? October. >> Yeah, we're hoping by October >> October. >> I need to write a hotline. Oh >> yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got to figure out where that money is coming from, then send out a hotline telling us before before the budget comes along. >> You bet. >> So, okay, cool. And did you have any other comments, Tara? >> Okay, cool. >> Great budget other than that. >> Okay. Uh, next up then we've got Tina, Matt, and then Taiisha.

[125:00] >> Yeah, I'll echo that. This is a really good budget and um I don't know. I really look forward to this study session and hearing all the different thoughts from council. So, I'm not going to say definitively yes or no. And I we I did read the email that we have until October 6th to put those ideas out on hotline. Um I also just really appreciated that the the reductions and the increases for each area were very clear and that they showed a direct connection to what the outcomes would be. So, I really appreciated that. Um, the one thing that I would that is is a little harder is that when I think about human services, we're part of a system with the county and they're providing a lot of similar services or duplicative services that um duplicate meaning augmenting, not redundant. Um, that's not my intention. And it might make sense at some point and whether this is

[126:01] a council priority or part of the budget to be able to craft a vision that shows how the investments by both entities are working together on what's effectively the same population, especially considering that the bulk of um a lot of the people needing services are in fact located in the city of Boulder. So being able to tell that narrative to the community in a better way for me would be extremely helpful. Right now, I have a hard time saying to the community, I know that the city provides this and the county provides this and that together these investments make a lot of sense and I'm really really clear on the outcomes. I'm not quite there yet and so that's something I could use help with as we think about how we're serving our community the best that we can. Um, so again, I don't know if it's a priority or if it's something that can happen during budget, but our budget certainly does not exist in isolation. And there are other investments happening, especially in the human services area, that aren't really reflected in this

[127:01] budget. Um, but otherwise, uh, I think it's great. Oh, and and the county has come up a couple times. Um, my my core belief is that we're facing a really hard time for the next three years and that we need to be working together honestly closer than ever. And we can do that in part by understanding our our individual and and ultimately our collaborative impacts on the community during this really challenging time. And I I think it's up to us to take on that challenge. Um so but other than that, this was this was really good good and I I really really appreciated all the work in it. And um and I and I think if it answers that question, you know, are we creating systems that show that you can have trust in government? this budget would be a good example of one where I feel like there's I have a lot of trust in my local government. Thank you. >> Thanks, Tina. Next up, Matt, then Taiisha, then Lauren. >> Oh, I'm super glad Tina has trust in our local government. That that is a self-fulfilling prophecy. So, I'm really

[128:01] happy about that. Um I you know, the I just it's a thoughtful budget and um it's difficult and I think that there were some really important trade-offs that were done. So, um, when it comes to anything that I would recommend different, I mean, the fact that we're going to have a conversation about the residential expansion fee, uh, in October, I'm good with that conversation. If I were to say one thing, and I have said it each and every year on council, is that our budget is not very accessible and transparent for our community. I know it is when we talk about it, but it isn't in terms of going online. It is still extraordinarily difficult for people to find the information they're looking for. And the simplest thing like a search function, I know I've mentioned it. This is in the day of tech and AI and every darn tool that that's out there. Putting a search function on the open.gov has got to be a top priority so people can just search the word they want and see all of the information. But the fact that you've got to find the random family tree to

[129:01] get the information you need makes that barrier of entry difficult for people to feel that it's transparent. So that's the only thing that I would really ask is that we really move in earnest to think about user experience with our budget and if that needs to be a future working group or a collab of people that is going to make our job easier because it won't seem like there's a curtain of oz um that our budget is done for. I know it's not because we do it but our community doesn't see that work day in day out. It's when they see it online that they go oh this is hard. So, so I think that's the biggest thing that I would just kind of keep us working towards is that transparency and accessibility for the budget because then it makes our jobs easier and evangelizing the great work that city staff are doing u and meeting our priorities and outcome based budgeting. So, great job and one day I will see that search function. I appreciate it. Thanks. Great job. >> All right. Uh next up, Taiisha then Lawrence then I've got some comments. >> Awesome. Thank you. Um I concur with uh a lot of my colleagues

[130:02] uh comments regarding the um uh the quality of the budget, the thoughtfulness and the alignments. Um I you know I also appreciate having time to better formulate um recommended changes. Understand that any change would require recommendations or um understanding that there there are definitely give and take. But um just some some spec some some areas uh some general areas you know when I was thinking about the community climate and resilience and whatever S stands for tax um and 10% go to nonprofit for example um I just you know we know our nonprofits are going to be slammed you know that I mean you know they have been disproportionately impacted by um by the the governmental shifts at at the federal level and So, um I just wanted to lift that up as a place where um you know, when I was looking at some of the

[131:02] um other items there. Again, going back to Tara's earlier comment, this is urgent and important. If it's not urgent and important, um if it's something that can wait a year or two, um I'm willing to do that and ensure that we have our community members who are already struggling um to not be able to live here, right? And I'm talking about essential workers here. This is nurses, teachers, the ones that we can that can still afford to live here. Um, you know, when they leave, they don't come back. Um, and they get replaced by people who are not essential workers, no shade. Um, and so as our community continues to talk about affordability, I'm not seeing it in this budget. I mean, I'm seeing lots of great effort, but when I see where million dollars are invested versus hundreds of thousands, um, it tends to be those things that are more humans human services focused and the elimination of Elevate Boulder, uh, a

[132:00] program income, earned income based programs. You know, we talk about evidence and the importance of evidence-based um, decision-making. Well, the evidence is absolutely clear on the impacts of those types of programs. And so to see that that was something that wasn't able to make it. When we talk about affordability, when we talk about uh racial equity, when we talk about um equity with large uh people with disabilities, these are the people um that rely on um that have been able to feed their families, been able to pay child care bills with those kinds of funds. So I'm hopeful that we can um really look to see what is urgent and important versus nice to have. And I'm not suggesting that you didn't do that work, but I am suggesting that I'm I'm willing and I hope some of my colleagues other four of my other colleagues are at least are willing um to to allow um some projects to to be delayed. Um you know, I I I I feel like this is still a business as usual only a couple of year bump. Um this is significant. This is um

[133:03] depression, recession. This is um documented, well documented. Um not to mention the silent recession um formerly known as white collar recession. Um I've heard from many human community community members who have lost their jobs um in our city who were making very good money. Um both family members have lost their jobs. And so um and I can I mean eventually um you know that is going to have a significant impact. And so, uh, when those benefits and things start to run down. So, I would just love us to really, um, meet the moment. Um, for another example would be this, um, constituent resource management $1.7 million. Um, again, right, I I love to make sure that I I love systems. I love cleaning up a system, but um but again, I look forward to providing more specific recommendations moving forward. But just wanted to tee up that some of

[134:01] the those are some of the areas and I'll be using the sustainability, equity, and reliability um outcomes and note here uh that most of those outcomes are actually outputs. Um and so I'm hopeful in the updates when I look at them that there will be more outcomes data um that talks about the actual impacts of the investments that are being made. But overall um exceptional work um it's just um unfortunately given the economic situation that we find ourselves in as well as the environmental remember my FEMA comment from before it just takes a couple and all of this and so I would rather make the hard tra the harder tradeoff um investing in our people um investing in our plan as much as we invest in our planet and in our infrastructure. Thank you. Thank you. Um, and Lauren, you're up. >> Thanks. I was back for a second with the

[135:01] internet, but then I lost it again. Um, so appreciate you all bearing with me. I thought this was a very thoughtful and balanced budget recommendation. Um, and I appreciate all of the tremendous amount of staff work that has gone on to get us here. Um, I did really appreciate Matt's comment about the user experience of the budget. I know I also hear that a lot from community members and struggle a bit myself with it. Um, I also appreciated Taiisha's comments about making sure our social safety net is funded to a degree that we can help um our community members with the economic hardships that they're facing right now. Um, and Tina's comments made me wonder about, you know, as we

[136:01] as part of this budget process, we talked a little bit about um, not duplicating services that the county already provides, but when we're we're relying on them so intensely for that, I wonder about maybe have trying to set up anou or some sort of agreement around um expectations and notifications around because I know they are also facing funding challenges and I wouldn't want to see us um really counting on them providing a service that ends up um being scaled back or cut. And so what kind of um strategy do we have there to make sure that we have knowledge ahead of time um to the extent we're able about any changes there. But overall um

[137:03] I didn't have any major changes that I would like to put forward. Uh I really again appreciate staff's work. Thank you. >> Great. Um I will just wrap it up. Um I uh kind of like Mark, sure there are things that you know I would change and also um this is a uh it really does feel like a Jenga tower. Um staff, you know, I kind of see the ways that you've pulled out pieces and stuck them in different places and um it just it feels like you've gotten it to work and that's amazing and incredible. Um and I am reluctant to be the one that tries tries to pull something out and knocks over the whole tower. Um, and I I just want to say, you know, there's so many cities that are facing layoffs right now. Um, significant cuts to all kinds of services, um, and structural deficits, and we are in a much stronger position because of all the work that you all have been doing to transform our

[138:01] budgeting process. Um I I just I can't express my gratitude enough um in saying that this is your leadership and in in getting us to this place where we are more stable um as we are in some chaos head into potentially more chaos. Um you've really protected a lot of our essential services while still advancing our um strategic goals and our council priorities. and you've kept our biggest asset uh which is our staff including all of you. Um I know this process is still evolving. Uh getting it into our budget into open gov took over a year. Um getting things into the sustainability, equity and resilience framework um also took a year and then uh generating initial outcomes for every program and service took another year. Um but we're at a point where our decisions are starting to align with our goals and it's really exciting to see that. Um, and I think the other thing that stands out for me

[139:00] with this budget is especially with almost 70% of our funds being restricted that we cannot move them around to different programs or services no matter how big the need is. Um, this is really impressive work and I tr I really just cannot thank you enough. Um, that feel like we we need to have a parade. if it didn't cost so much, we could have a parade for you downtown. Just thank you for um preserving so much of our city in this really challenging time. Um and I also just want to thank my colleagues um because we've all been very supportive of this process over the years as uh staff has worked to clean up. So um anyway, thank you to everybody. This is this is truly amazing and I I cannot imagine what a different place we would been be in if you hadn't made all these changes um in how we budget over the years. So, thank you. Um, does anybody have any final comments, thoughts? >> I I appreciate that and I just want to um piggyback on your last comment,

[140:01] Council Member Spear, that we could not do this without your support. The kind of decisions that we are making require the kind of support that only you all can give us. Um, because these are big changes and big shifts and hard decisions. And so, we appreciate it. we take your feedback um and we look forward to continued conversations. Um so thank you all. >> Thank you. Um so I would just ask staff if there's anything else you need from us and if not if you wouldn't mind just refreshing us on what what we need to do um as a next step before this comes back to us at a public hearing. >> Thanks for the the the question, council members. So, as a reminder, um, for any any questions that that you all have as we're heading, uh, to the first public hearing, budget hearing on, uh, October 9th, please feel free to reach out to to us in uh, in the budget office. We're

[141:00] happy to answer any questions or coordinate questions. Um, if there are any changes at all uh, that council members are interested in looking at, we can help to uh, discuss and take a look at that together. And just as a reminder, uh, an identified offset would be needed, um, for any changes and we are requesting council members to share those forward by October, uh, 6 via hotline. >> Right. And just to clarify, Charlotte, um, we are the ones who are responsible with figuring this out, right? >> Correct. >> Okay. >> We're available for questions. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, is there anything else that that you need from us staff? >> Not at this time. Thank you all so much. Thank you. >> Yeah. Well, thank you, Naria, Christa, Charlotte, Scott. Um, really appreciate this presentation and all of your time tonight. Um, with no other items on tonight's agenda, I will close this 22 p.m.

[142:02] Thanks everyone. Oh, Taiisha, you have your hand up. Okay. All right. Okay. Thanks everyone. Great job, Nicole. >> Good night, everybody.