Longmont City Council Study Session – April 20, 2021

Video Description:
Longmont City Council  Study  Session – April 20, 2021

Note: The following is the output of transcribing from a video recording. Although the transcription, which was done with software, is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or [software] transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the meeting, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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Unknown Speaker 4:26
Here’s Chris

Unknown Speaker 5:37
The masking orders and in some of those the public health borders so they were

Unknown Speaker 8:29
all right. I’m showing us as live on YouTube, you may begin whenever you’re ready. All right, great. Thank you guys for being here again.

Unknown Speaker 8:37
Just always good to see you guys. Alright, let’s go ahead and call the meeting to order. This is April 20 2021. And this is a study session, can we please start with the roll call?

Unknown Speaker 8:52
And then we’re all here for I don’t know why we do the roll call them we can see each other.

Unknown Speaker 8:59
But can we just take note yujing that we’re all here?

Unknown Speaker 9:04
Do we have to do a roll call every week?

Unknown Speaker 9:10
Guys, we’re all on screen. I write you some prior meetings and you know, it’s Hollywood Squares. Right? Right. I’m just saying that at some point in the past there was roll call right but then I was like,

Unknown Speaker 9:23
Alright, so let the let the chair state that everyone is here on City Council. Can we start the pledge now?

Unknown Speaker 9:31
JOHN, do you want to do the pledge for us? Sure. Great. I pledge allegiance, allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation, nation under God, indivisible,

Unknown Speaker 9:49
with liberty and justice for all.

Unknown Speaker 9:52
All right.

Unknown Speaker 9:54
Thank you, Counselor pack. Anyone wishing to provide public comment during public invited be heard. Please watch the livestream.

Unknown Speaker 10:00
And then call in once we open the meeting for comments. That’s the number watch for the instructions. It’ll be displayed again. And then we’ll open it for public comment. And we’ll call based on the last three numbers or your phone call, you’ll have three minutes. And then at the end of three minutes, no matter how much we love or hate what you’re saying, we’ll cut you off. Okay, do we have any motions to direct the city manager to add agenda items to future agendas?

Unknown Speaker 10:28
Alright, cool. See none. Let’s go ahead and take a mayor. Yep.

Unknown Speaker 10:36
Staff, can you check the

Unknown Speaker 10:39
broadcast?

Unknown Speaker 10:41
download an email that it’s not showing up. We can take a quick break and make sure that it’s broadcasting.

Unknown Speaker 10:48
Okay, it’s appears to be showing up on YouTube on my end. Are you seeing it as well?

Unknown Speaker 10:58
I see it as well.

Unknown Speaker 11:00
On the portal, so I think we’re fine. All right. Good. I just got an email. It just came back. We’re good. Thank you. I’m sorry.

Unknown Speaker 11:08
Yeah, go ahead, Counselor. Beck. Um, I’m sorry, I you talk faster than I can think so. Yes, I do have something to say about. It’s more of a question to staff.

Unknown Speaker 11:19
I was reading in our utility council communication about our water usage. And it made me think that I would like to know if staff has a presentation about our drought plans. And

Unknown Speaker 11:33
when I was reading the taskforce, the report on the Climate Action Task Force, I didn’t see anything in there about a drought plan. I don’t know why they didn’t seem to address it. So if you’re bringing that back, I won’t make a motion.

Unknown Speaker 11:49
You’re going to update us on air. Yeah. Mayor. Councilmember pack, we are bringing that back in May. And we’ll have a full discussion and share with you the drought response plan. Thank you. Great customer. Martin, did you have anything else that?

Unknown Speaker 12:05
No, I was just gonna say that the waterboard just just made their decision. And it would be back shortly. So same thing. Alright. Great. So I guess the next question is we’ve got special we got public invited be heard next. I’m wondering if we can’t go ahead and open up public invited to be heard. Now. Let’s put up the screen and then handle the special reports and presentations while people call in? Would that be okay? You can’t. The screen won’t be up with the number.

Unknown Speaker 12:38
Why can’t we done it? We did it last week we doubled up. Can we put up the number one IV flow they got slides. Okay, well, let’s go ahead then. Why don’t we go ahead and do special reports and presentations now. And then we’ll do public invited to be heard only because we don’t need a break yet. So let’s do that. So COVID-19 update your mayor and council. As we move into these next stages. We’re in level blue now with Boulder County. I’ve asked them so we have Lexie Nolan, who is the interim public health director, Chris Urbina, who’s the medical title Chris Campbell.

Unknown Speaker 13:16
He’s our medical director, medical director and then Chris Campbell. And I’ve asked Chris to do a brief presentation on where we are in terms of vaccine status. And then Carmen will jump in with a couple of slides to talk about some information that we want to use to get out in the community. So Chris, and Mike’s here here to answer any questions if Chris Dr. Chris Urbina is here to answer, in Lexie, specific questions, Chris Campbell is going to give a brief overview of where we are on the vaccination piece. And then carbonyl jumpin Chris Campbell.

Unknown Speaker 13:49
Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 13:52
Stay away from my presentation that come up. Good evening, everyone. My name is Chris Campbell for County Public Health. I’m the vaccine mercy manager and leading our vaccination campaign and I want to share some updates since we met with you last month I appreciate the opportunity, we’re really going to focus on health equity, and vaccine equity and provide some updates there. I did want to provide some overall data on where we’re at with the vaccination campaign in the community. So we’ll we’ll start there. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 14:25
Great, great, great progress. We made those four and good things to celebrate. So we vaccinated with at least one dose in our community over 160,000 community members, this is 60% of the adult population is eligible for vaccine. So very good progress, relative to the rest the state of Colorado with that first dose, we’ve made really good progress. So that’s close to around 41%.

Unknown Speaker 14:51
Next slide please. I just wanted to share some of the data by age group and one reason why this is important is this is really

Unknown Speaker 15:00
impacted the really the big impacts is Z’s on committee members, hospitalizations, illness and death. And so we really make good progress with older community members. And you’ll see some of the some of the data here. 70 plus committee members are over 90%, you know, 6069, those community members were upwards of 80%. So really good progress. And we wanted to frame that and share that with you tonight. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 15:32
One other one important component, we wanted to ensure that we have the capacity in the county to to deliver a good amount of vaccine. And you might have heard us in the past talk about a goal of 2025 30,000 vaccines per week that we’d be able to administer in the county and we are meeting those goals. So as of as of last week, we were around 26, almost 27,000 vaccines administered in the county, and that’s been consistent. So good progress there.

Unknown Speaker 16:04
Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 16:07
Another important

Unknown Speaker 16:09
component to share with Council and community members we are projecting towards one will have that first dose of vaccine

Unknown Speaker 16:18
and 70% or more of the community. And that’s it’s going to be right around mid May that we’re projecting which is great progress even closer 80%. Again, this is really important as we’re moving towards, you know, different different stages of masking and in the dial. We feel like we’ve made good progress and are staying on target with her vaccination campaign. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 16:46
Now, just a quick slide to show how we’re doing relative to the rest of the state. Really good progress. Both Broomfield county and Boulder County really remain leaders in the state in terms of uptake. And it really does speak to committee making the good important decision to get vaccinated. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 17:05
We know we have work to do this slides a little dated. And this is what we really want to dig in with you all just briefly is working with our bipod community members. And we have some work to do. This is we’ve made progress since this slide. But we know that there’s areas where we can improve and really work on barriers to access for community members. Next slide with

Unknown Speaker 17:29
this, this slide just shows again, where we do have areas that we’re focusing on with our equity strategies. We do want to give this slide we don’t have it in here showing where some of our equity sites are located. They’re definitely located we share this in the past with you all. near some layers, we have lower uptake for vaccines. So that does continue to inform our strategies from an equity perspective. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 17:57
This will be familiar I shared this last month just reminder of the types of bugs we have that that traditional provider. And those traditional clinics and hospitals and in other areas in the community, continue to do incredible work. We are really now pivoting and really focusing on equity with longer standing clinics, which we’ll discuss just briefly and also some of the progress with smaller mobile clinics. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 18:24
We’ve also seen this slide I really want to take mine to dig into this just briefly.

Unknown Speaker 18:30
So education and having that good important decision to get vaccinated is that the real area we need to continue to focus on we’re making good progress. We’ve worked with our communications teams to provide one pagers to in toolkits and in several languages on that’s we’re now disseminating that out throughout the community. We’ve had and I’ve talked about this in the past a vaccine equity coordinating committee that’s really given us a grassroots community information we needed to make our vaccines, vaccine clinics, culturally appropriate and welcoming. They’ve also helped us identify sites where we’ve located equity clinics.

Unknown Speaker 19:12
The next big step and we’re making good progress on this. And now Carmine, I’ll speak to this a bit is working with community cultural brokers or community influencers. That group is helping us both provide information about getting vaccinated, answering questions, going door to door, helping folks sign up for appointments. So that is really what we’re digging into and making good progress with that broad coalition of community members. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 19:42
Just briefly on the education side, I want to share this with with Council and community members cdphp did a did a survey just prior to the vaccines, getting that emergency use authorization and getting approved. They did a follow up survey and asking coloradoans committee members

Unknown Speaker 20:00
If they’re willing to get vaccinated, and we’ve seen significant increases in that, which is great to see, we still have some work to do here. And we know that consumers are making that good decision to get vaccinated. We’re going to keep providing information so they can work through that. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 20:20
We talked about this, we’ve held several town halls and I would would just a couple points here.

Unknown Speaker 20:26
We, if if there are committee members, organizations that would like a town or like to hold a town hall with us, we do have information on our website to request those. But we’re making good progress here and Dr. Sheila Davis, our health equity coordinator continues to support that along with Lizbeth Mendoza and provides these cultural broker with us provides these

Unknown Speaker 20:52
these opportunities in Spanish exci, please.

Unknown Speaker 20:58
Just some updates on locations in our longer standing community clinics. So last issue station is incredible partnership with with city, the city of Longmont in Boulder County Public Health and solute Family Health is a federally qualified health center, very focused on equity. These folks are running two times a week and really we’re we’re working with both committee ambassadors and cultural brokers in the community ensure that folks have access to these clinics, a couple other clinics, most importantly a border County Fairgrounds, these are larger clinics that we’re holding that we’ve worked really hard to make welcoming and in really

Unknown Speaker 21:39
appropriate for community members. These are now completely equity focused, we’ve worked really hard to with that. Community Ambassador group cultural brokers to two for committee members access vaccine here. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 21:56
Update via viewers your last month I will touch on we continue that partnership with hope like clinic Area Agency on Aging Meals on Wheels to canadia, vaccinated homebound individuals, very important. And, you know, there are consumers listening that like to that if they find themselves in this scenario, we would ask them to give our call center call and we’ll work on getting them vaccine through through hope my clinic

Unknown Speaker 22:24
also mentioned on House committee members. So we clinics are being held in the shelters alone, not in the next two weeks. So we’re excited about that that wasn’t been impacted by the the NC Johnson Johnson vaccine being being being paused. But we are shifting and using the derna vaccine. And we’re excited to continue that work with partners in the community. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 22:51
And we continue to just continue to explore those known gap areas. We know that weekend and after hours can be challenging. And so we’re we’re looking at our clinic hours and also looking at mobile clinics to to support that. You might have heard also that cdph in the governor’s office, they’re holding clinics, definitely a great equity ever we support. So those might be some other clinics that are available to the committee and that’s something has been coordinated directly through the governor’s office.

Unknown Speaker 23:24
Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 23:27
And this is our clinic we did Timberline school, um, Harold was there as well and is incredibly supportive. Yeah, this is really what an equity clinical looks like. It’s welcoming. It’s not in your kind of traditional setting. And we had incredible we’re doing our second dose clinics last weekend this weekend for this clinic. And it was really successful.

Unknown Speaker 23:51
And I think I’ll turn it over to Carmen, if she has some slides to share.

Unknown Speaker 23:59
Good evening, mayor and council coming to our meetings, community and neighborhood resources. And I think that step, there’s a couple of slides that I have. Just to talk about the call to action, you can go to the next slide.

Unknown Speaker 24:18
So what we’ve done is we’ve issued a call to action for cultural brokers and allies, we’re inviting community partners, cultural brokers to really help us get the word out, share information on the vaccine, how to access it and registration assistance. So we’re working on that and I will tell you that based on emails and phone calls today we have ignited the influencers network. So they’re calling and we’re simply asking that when folks are interacting within their work, say the art center or even our own call center for the city of Longmont that they should inquire if the individual needs information on how to access the vaccine and or

Unknown Speaker 25:00
assistance to register for the vaccine. Still an emphasis on priority populations and accessibility. We’re giving folks talking points, toolkits and flyers. Tomorrow evening, we have a tuxedo for cultural brokers, we’re again, we’ll be recruiting and doing orientation. We’ll have on the 28th of follow up. We very last week we did with our community partners, and I think we had probably about 350 folks attend from different organizations,

Unknown Speaker 25:31
you can go to the next slide.

Unknown Speaker 25:34
So this is the flyers and toolkits that we have. We have a toolkit in Spanish, we have flyers in Spanish and English. And we also have toolkits for LGBTQ. We’ll be working on a toolkit for you, when we get to that phase. You can go to the next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 25:53
So we’re working with the trusted cultural brokers that are within nonprofits or community leaders key points of connections to help people in our priority populations Connect. Our community ambassadors are since we started, the long run, upholders center for people with disabilities peak to peak in passive movement, and then through Boulder County. So my a community and agency partners, those are the influencers, the ones that are helping, and we’re asking tonight, that you also help us in getting the word out. I can send some fliers over. But it might be as simple as asking those that you know, within your family, your neighborhoods, different associations that you’re with. I’ll tell you, for instance, I know a production manager at a plastic injection company here in town has about 60 employees. I said, Can I give you flyers? Do your employees need help? Quite a few of them are Spanish speaking. Do they need help with assistance? Here’s who can assist them. So that’s really what we’re asking from counsel. And we’ve already asked city staff to help us with that. And city staff is helping get the word out every time they have contact with individuals. And I think that’s my last slide. Thank you, Mayor Council. So we have obviously the team we introduced earlier on here. If y’all have any questions for us, I did want to let you know that when we said there’s going to be the request and the call to action. This was information that Carmen shared, that we will send to you off. Some of you all have asked us this questions, and how do we connect people to the vaccine spots, and so we will send it out. But we wanted her to briefly go over that. Just so you know, as an organization, what we’re doing as a city is anytime we engage someone from the community, and we’re in a situation, we’re just asking a simple question, do you want to get vaccinated, and if they say yes, then we’re using those tools that Carmen will provide us where you can scan it. And then depending on someone’s access to internet technology, if we have the time, we will assist them in getting registered. And if we don’t have the time, we will have them call the number into the county so they can get registered, it’s up. I will tell you it’s a it’s a heavy lift that everybody’s been working on. And we know that we’re going to be in this through me. As we continue to narrow the margins get, the more work we have to do to ensure that we can get everyone vaccinated. So I wanted to just give you that update. We’re here to answer any questions.

Unknown Speaker 28:29
I would just suggest Harold, if you can please post it on the city Facebook page, and then put our names in haggis. That’ll get us that’ll

Unknown Speaker 28:39
that’ll just just do that. I think that’ll be a big help. But thank you very much. Great, great presentation. And I am happy to see that we continue to get nearer to the end of the tunnel known as COVID. So I got my vaccine yesterday, my first shot. And today I feel worse than when I actually had COVID. And, but I’m just doing my part, do my part. So thank you everybody for doing that. Let’s go ahead and take a break. While we wait for public invite to be heard. We have anybody who’s called a callback. So let’s just take a break. We’ll be back in in three and then we will leave it open for a couple of callers to make sure everybody gets on has the chat. So we’ll be right back.

Unknown Speaker 29:28
Mostly Chris, Chris, thanks for joining. I think you’re good.

Unknown Speaker 29:35
You’re good. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 29:46
For folks watching the live stream at home. This is your opportunity to call in right now for the public invited to be heard. Please go ahead and just follow the instructions that you see on your screen dialing the toll free number of 1888

Unknown Speaker 30:00
78800991 prompted enter the meeting id 89972597009. And when prompted for a participant ID press pound, please remember that you should mute the livestream when you call in so that you’re not getting a delay in the background.

Unknown Speaker 30:22
And once you call into the meeting, we will let you into the meeting and you will hear our instructions and we will call on you by the last three digits of your phone number, ask you to unmute yourself, state your name and address for the record and at that time, you will have three minutes.

Unknown Speaker 33:15
All right, how many people do we have in the queue so far?

Unknown Speaker 33:20
We have five people so far. They’re cool. So let’s keep it open. You get everybody back and then

Unknown Speaker 33:28
go ahead with first call public invited be heard.

Unknown Speaker 33:50
All right, Mayor, it looks like everyone’s back. Is that correct? All right. Let’s open it up then. Okay. Do you want me to go ahead and keep this slide up? Or no, let’s let’s take the stuff actually. Let’s keep the slide up for the first caller. And then we’ll Okay, close it. Okay. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 34:08
All right caller with a number ending in 470. I’m going to ask you to unmute yourself. So please state your name and your address for the record and you will have three minutes.

Unknown Speaker 34:21
Okay, are we go? Yes, we can hear you go ahead. Excellent Michael Belmont here at 841 tenacity drive. First, I want to express my gratitude for your for your council members stalwart support for sustainability in recent years from strongly influencing trpa to adopt the goal of becoming 100%. fossil fuel free by 2030. unanimously passing the climate crisis revolute resolution and investing in air monitoring to name just a few. Next, I’d like to address the four points that staff has given you to discourage support for sb 200 staff

Unknown Speaker 35:00
There’s a lack of clarity regarding the treatment of non carbon hydro resources if they relate to renewable energy credits in the state’s definition of renewable energy. Me, this is precisely the kind of thing that gets hammered out as the bill moves through the process. The social justice piece of the bill will protect any communities with a significant underserved population that relies more heavily on hydro power, and we will not be significantly impacted since only 10% of our energy is currently derived from hydro staff the potential for penalties if results did not meet clean energy plan targets, especially when those targets already exceed minimum requirements. This approach has the potential to penalize communities that are already taking aggressive action on climate change, an imposition of carbon fees would make take money out of communities without clear explanation of where that money will go and who will determine how it gets spent. Me communities like ours whose targets exceed the greenhouse gas reductions required in this bill will certainly not be penalized for meeting those targets unless they grossly renege on their own commitments. As for the proposed apron fees, I personally investigated this and learn from a Car Club attorney whose team thoroughly studied it that because of caps built into the bill, any rate increase will be something on the order of seven one hundredths of 1% truly negligible. Staff, the immediate application of carbon emission fees would drive an approximate 50% rate increase for our communities. Me, this appears to be significantly off given the information I just provided. Not to suggest that staff is trying to be misleading, but it’s quite possible they relied on numbers from a third party that is either grossly misstating the impact or misinterpreted the bill arriving at an erroneous number. Staff. This bill hinders the ability of Home Rule cities and municipal electric utilities to best determine how to meet climate action goals within the needs and context of their own communities. Me, we are and would continue to lead the way in cutting edge climate goals with our plan for 100% renewables by 2030. Thus, this bill would virtually have no impact on our plans moving forward. Much like if we were a car manufacturer making cars that were already 25% more efficient than a new EPA emissions regulation required. So please remain faithful to your stellar, admirable tradition of supporting environmentally sustainable efforts by endorsing sb 200. Thanks so much for listening.

Unknown Speaker 37:32
Thank you next caller.

Unknown Speaker 37:48
Right.

Unknown Speaker 37:50
Go ahead. I’m sorry.

Unknown Speaker 37:52
Caller with the number ending in seven to two, I’m going to ask you to unmute yourself, you could please state your name and your address for the record. You have three minutes and you may begin.

Unknown Speaker 38:21
Caller with the number ending in seven to two, I’m gonna try to ask you to unmute yourself. Again, if you could please follow the instructions on your phone and state your name and address for the record.

Unknown Speaker 38:45
Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you go ahead. Okay. I am asking you to support Senate Bill 21 200.

Unknown Speaker 38:55
I’m just good. I gotta turn off my TV here.

Unknown Speaker 39:00
In a

Unknown Speaker 39:02
second. Anyway, I just went to the I went to the tests. I went to testify at the sit state Senate Transportation and Energy Committee hearing today to hear testimony and I’m even more convinced that this bill is very essential

Unknown Speaker 39:19
is going to give us more tools to regulate emissions and it’s specific by sectors and it’s equitable and it’s inclusive. Longmont is are the home to the worst emissions from oil and gas production in the nation. The leakage of methane, ethane, benzene and other toxic chemicals from these oil wells are known carcinogens that put our health and the health of our most vulnerable population at risk. It’s clear that the local oil and gas companies are not following the existing regulations that are not being adequately monitored for leaks and infractions. Longmont has made some good climate goals, but we’re not on track to meet these goals. Senate Bill 21 200

Unknown Speaker 40:00
We’ll make sure that we meet our commitments to Colorado once and to Longmont residents. Our local power cooperative, the Platte power River Authority. The RPA opposes this bill and is claiming that the air pollutant emissions notice or a pen fees will increase by 50%. This is wildly wrong, and it’s a complete misrepresentation of the facts. The truth is that these fees will increase by about point 06 9%. Also, opponents argued that the carbon fee will cause utility bill to increase substantially. Again, this is not true. The carbon fee is very modest fee that’s already assessed unconventional pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitric oxide and particulate matter. There’s no reason to think that expanding current fees to cover the GHD gas of their guests.

Unknown Speaker 40:48
gas pollution would cause any budgetary problems to carbon emitting facilities.

Unknown Speaker 40:53
trpa is planning to build a costly reciprocating internal combustion engine or rice plant, which will operate using natural gas this will not reduce emissions and is not in line with the city or the state’s climate goals. So PR pa could more wisely finance the increased production of renewable energy. But it’s unlikely that it will unless they’re monitored and regulated. The time to act is now and we cannot wait for a better time. So thank you for supporting this bill.

Unknown Speaker 41:23
Right they do

Unknown Speaker 41:25
the scholar

Unknown Speaker 41:30
color with the number ending in 065. We’re going to ask you to unmute yourself if you would please state your name and your address for the record and you have three minutes.

Unknown Speaker 41:48
Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you go ahead. Okay, yeah. Hi, good evening, council members. Mr. Mayor, it’s Abby Driscoll. I live at 1304 lupine Cortes here in Longmont. And I’m calling tonight, Chair of the Board of sustainable resilient Longmont. And I’m speaking today to urge Longmont city council to vote against the staffs recommendation to oppose Senate Bill 21 200. This is an important piece of legislation that will help further Colorado’s transition to clean energy and support the need to rapidly decarbonize electric generation to avoid the most disastrous effects of climate change. And I think you all know, I have a seven year old son, I know many of you have met him. And you know, this really hits home for me, because I think that we’ve seen right here in Longmont, how we’ve had to stand doors literally for days on end due to toxic levels of air pollution here in our local community just as recently as last summer, because of wildfires. And so, you know, these rising temperatures are causing catastrophic damage to our planet. And we must do something to act boldly.

Unknown Speaker 43:03
This is a sensible piece of legislation that will help enforce regulations at the state level, it’s going to set clear deadlines for the Air Quality Control Commission to adopt regulations to meet sector specific goals, it’s going to ensure that electric providers, including our own utility, filed timely and meaningful emission reductions plans, and it’s going to support more opportunities for community engagement and empowerment in terms of climate equity, which is a huge issue and so important to me. And I guess Lastly, I would just say that opponents of this bill may have tried to argue that financial based incentives aren’t needed. But

Unknown Speaker 43:49
can we count on America’s largest polluting industries including oil, gas and coal to self regulate? I am here to tell you after 25 years of environmental activism that the answer is a plain and simple now, this bill is attempting to codify and strengthen the goals the state set forward to the greenhouse gas roadmap, and at a basic level, this bill supports and furthers those goals and also supports the goals that Longmont itself has set forward as we move towards our goal of 100% renewable by 2030. So that’s why I urge Longmont city council members to vote no on the staffs recommendations and support this show to help strengthen our ability to make Colorado’s and long month climate goals and to act boldly to avert a climate crisis. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 44:40
Thanks, Abby. All right. last caller right. We actually have two more Mayor Okay, that’s great color with the number ending in 119. I’m going to go ahead and ask you to unmute yourself if you could please state your name and address for the record. You will have three minutes

Unknown Speaker 45:04
Hi, this is Karen died. I’m at 708 Hayden court, mr. mayor and council members. Tonight you will vote on whether to support Senate Bill 200. This bill calls for power providers such as PRP to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 80%. By 2030. The requirements for municipalities such as Longmont is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 95% between 2035 and 2040 and 100% by 2040. Compared to 2005. This is lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions than this council has already committed to achieving. I’m saddened that the staff city staff recommends not endorsing this bill. This bill is bold, not bold enough for some too bold for others. That to me is usually a sign of a bill that can make it through the legislature and get the governor’s signature. This bill is meant to achieve several things. First is put the state on a better track to meet climate goals. This is imperative before we want to impact worsening climate crisis that we are now witnessing with droughts, fires and extreme weather. Second, the dirty air we breathe will be cleaner, and estimated quarter million of people have quarter million people die each year due to air pollution. Third, and investment in clean energy economy will add jobs. As the bill is enacted, aq cc will set improve targets for meeting the climate roadmap. Our city and other cities will be required to report on their pollution and to take steps to reduce that pollution. Of course, there may be fines for Failure to do so. But long lunch should already be on a path to accomplish this and can be a leader in this effort to stave off the worst impacts of climate change. By doing our part, climate justice and equity are also addressed. A last important component of this bill has to do with the practice of aq FCC. At aq FCC of paying to pollute, adding additional types of pollutants will more fully cover the harmful pollutants spread spewed into our air by the fossil fuel industry and others. In 2017, this council made a bold statement. This was a commitment to 100% renewable energy. Many of you also committed to meeting this goal when you ran for Council. Are you ready to stand up and say let’s do this? Our will us say it is too expensive and too hard. We’re waiting for your answer. Thank you very much.

Unknown Speaker 47:51
Thanks, Karen. All right. last caller. All right, our last caller phone number ending in 332. I’m going to ask you to unmute. Please state your name and address for the record and you will have three minutes.

Unknown Speaker 48:10
Good evening mayor and council members. My name is Mitzi Nicoletti. I lead live at 1261 button walk drive Longmont 80504, and I support SB 200. This is a hallmark bill and is designed to address the many shortcomings in environmental and community groups have been experiencing and expressing

Unknown Speaker 48:33
and the lack of progress on Hb 1261. We do not have the luxury not to pass this bill. By supporting this bill. We will be adopting measures that will reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and at the same time, adopt protection for the disproportionality impacted communities. Currently, we’re not on track to meet our climate goals. Sb 200 complements the state’s current roadmap to ensure we meet our commitment made to Colorado and to future generations to come. setting clear deadlines for our Air Quality Commission to adopt regulations to meet each sector specific goal is critical. And we don’t have that right now. This will help ensure sources of greenhouse gas pollution, do their parts reduce pollution and meet the roadmap targets in upcoming aq cc rulemakings. Addressing the electricity, oil and gas, transportation and building sectors. I know we’re all familiar with the consequences of climate change and dirty air both for recent wildfires and of course everyday pollution. Locally, we continue to experience the deterioration of the air we breathe daily, we must shift to reducing our overall

Unknown Speaker 50:00
greenhouse gases to provide powering our houses, businesses, cars, trucks and more to clean energy from renewable sources such as solar and wind. Also, by doing so, we will continue to grow our already near 60,000 Coloradans that work in the clean energy sector. Right now, I don’t feel there’s a sense of urgency. Our house is on fire. What are you going to do in support to make the changes we need now to move forward? I urge you tonight to support SB 200. Thank you for your time.

Unknown Speaker 50:40
All right, thank you very much. That’ll go ahead and conclude first call public invited to be heard. So let’s go ahead and move on to the study session items. Harold, why don’t we start with overview utility bills, rates and assistance programs pretty place?

Unknown Speaker 50:57
Hey, good evening, mayor and council staff, can you bring up that presentation.

Unknown Speaker 51:03
I’m Becky Doyle, Assistant Director of Business Services. And we’re here tonight to talk to you a little bit about our utility bills, the rates that we charge for utilities and assistance that sent been provided during this time of pandemic. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 51:21
So as we know, 2020 was a challenging year for many, you know, both the through the pandemic and the economic impacts thereof. And throughout this time, long months been able to continue to provide high quality, reliable utility services. And while doing so also provide assistance to those in need within our community. This was some context that we wanted to provide to you all as we begin a review of utility rates within 2021. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 51:51
In general, this is a typical residential utility bill, which shows all the services that we provide locally here, including our municipally owned electric utility, as well as some other atypical services, not all cities are able to also provide, you know, trash removal services. And our parking Greenway fee is an unusual appearance on on the utility bill. In general, though, a resident who uses approximately the average amount of electricity, water and wastewater per month, we see a bill of just under $200. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 52:33
Compared to our northern Front Range neighbors, that’s, you know, high quality service for good value here, we’re about in the middle of this group. A lot of that is driven by that municipally owned electric utility, which boasts the second lowest

Unknown Speaker 52:50
electric rates in the state according to a recent kemu survey.

Unknown Speaker 52:56
And many other you know, municipalities as I mentioned, have that you know, Xcel Energy and receive trash service through private haulers. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 53:08
So we did see some changes in use during COVID-19. Particularly in the electric area, we saw an increase in residential electricity consumption. Overall, there was a 7% increase in residential usage and electric, some of which had to do with an increase in the number of accounts, but we did also see about 5% per account increase, as well as about a 1% decrease on the commercial side. And water. On the other hand, as counsel Overpeck alluded to earlier, because of weather conditions, we did not observe that same shift from you know, commercial uses to residential, because there was, in general greater water use for outdoor watering because of the lower amount of precipitation. And we’ll be coming back with some additional information about our drought plan next month. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 54:03
So, we have several opportunities for assistance in all yours, not just in 2020. But the flagship sort of local assistance program that we offer is our Longmont cares program or city assistance rebate system. And this is a rebate of many fees, charges that are paid to the city, including a rebate of sales tax for groceries that was established in early 2019. As well as property tax, there’s a component for for water for electric the parking Greenway fees rebated and so that’s provided as as a credit on the utility bill and certainly can help with with utility burdens. In addition, federal programs for heating are available to those in our community. And crisis. Utility assistance is provided through the arc

Unknown Speaker 55:00
Senator, and residents have the ability to join a voluntary contribution program called cope to check out on your utility bill and contribute to that crisis Assistance Program. In addition, we fund electric and water efficiency programs, because it’s important both for from the perspective of helping folks to control their bills as well as meeting environmental sustainability goals. So we had some great results in terms of getting folks who needed assistance into the Longmont cares program this year.

Unknown Speaker 55:35
You can see there we grew a lot from 184 participants in 2019, to 711 in 2020. And shout out certainly to, to our folks in new Treasury who

Unknown Speaker 55:50
were able to process all of those applications as well as people that with Carmen and her team who helped people navigate the system to get the assistance that they needed here.

Unknown Speaker 56:00
Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 56:03
So another tool that we were able to bring to bear to make sure that people were accessing the assistance programs that that they required was that as part of our participation in the What Works Cities program to improve the use of data and evidence within the city, we partnered with the Behavioural Insights Team, and designed an intervention to increase applications to the program, and then ran a randomized control trial to test whether that intervention was successful. And what you see here is just a result of that trial. That was very successful, we plan to continue to use that intervention in the future, which is essentially a utility bill insert. What was interesting about doing that in this environment, is that absent this particular trial, you might say, Well, you know, there, there’s an increase from the 2019 participation to 2020, because of the macroeconomic conditions. And while that’s true, we can also see here because of the of the rigor in this test, that that that particular form of outreach did have an impact. And that’s an important learning. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 57:14
So in addition to our the programs that we just talked about, that are ongoing assistance programs, that were also one time opportunities for assistance associated with the pandemic. Those included funding through the Coronavirus Relief Fund, which was provided as one time assistance and was $247,000 provided to repairs. In addition $100,000 from energy outreach Colorado was distributed by the our center as part of their

Unknown Speaker 57:46
crisis assistance. And there’s an additional $55,000 allocation from energy outreach Colorado that will also be distributed through that mechanism. And finally, Platte River powers already provided a payment of $265,000 that will also be used toward these needs. Next slide.

Unknown Speaker 58:09
So finally, I actually have the wrong game here, very focused on recovery. But the name of this legislation is the American rescue plan act. There are two components of that plan that are focused on utility assistance, including a utility repair assistance program that as a utility we can apply to participate in, as well as the homeowner Assistance Fund that is also eligible for use on utility payments, recognizing that important relationship between utilities and housing stability. So those are some things where the guidance from Treasury on how to access those funds is has recently come out for for the homeowner Assistance Fund, but we’ll be continuing to monitor how best we access those funds and help folks reach them. So then I’ll turn it over to Jim on the next slide here.

Unknown Speaker 59:06
Oh, just kidding. Not this not Jimmy not yet. Told me. So in addition to the assistance provided to residents, there’s also been no no direct utility assistance for for local businesses. But utility payments are eligible expenses for both federal programs such as PPP loans, as well as the local boost long business grants that were provided to local businesses. And that program provided $1.3 million across 97 local businesses it’s next slide.

Unknown Speaker 59:45
And then finally, we talked a little bit about our you know, our residential rates compared to others in the region. And this is just also bringing in you know, specifically for electric rates, what what our rates look like, compared to

Unknown Speaker 1:00:00
Others within our region. So, again, proud to provide high quality, reliable service at a good read. Now toss it to Jim. Thank you. Thank you, Becky. Next slide. Thank you. So I’m Jim Golding Chief Financial Officer, talk to you briefly about our past due accounts. So COVID certainly has had an impact on our past due balances. You may recall that when Cohen hit, we stopped doing utility disconnects, which is really the hammer in our collection process. Under the governor’s orders, we were instill are unable to charge late fees or disconnect charge, we are able to disconnect utilities. Now, but since we typically do not do so when the weather reaches a certain low temperature, we have not yet recommended a return to the disconnects. So this graph that you’re looking at here shows you the amount of utility receivables that are greater than 37 days past due 37 is an account that could be subject to disconnect under the code. Since COVID, began, that amount has grown from about $770,000, to now about 2.0 7 million. So we’re billing about $125 million per year, or at least last year, we were applied doing more a greater amount this year for all of our services that appear on our utility bill. So the data in the council comm that you have for tonight indicates there’s over 1600 residential, and another over 100 commercial accounts with balances that that are more than 180 days past due.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:48
So many other utilities have started to reserve resume service disconnects for bad debt and and their staff is recommending that Longmont do the same. It’ll take about a month to notify customers of this change in our practice, and to get our contractor ramped up to begin to perform disconnects. And further This is going to result in a large increase in contacts between our customers and our utility billing staff. So it’s going to take quite some time to address all of these delinquent accounts. Our intent would be to work with customers with past due balances to avoid disconnection by providing payment options, including payment plans, and referrals for assistance. And if a customer is willing to work with us and make efforts to reduce their balances, amount due or past due, then they may be able to avoid having their service disconnected, that would be our goal. So we wanted to let the council know that we would be moving forward in that direction unless you direct otherwise.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:58
That’s well, and actually I skipped, you can go to the next slide.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:03
But I just covered all that. So I’ll hand it back to Becky.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:10
Great, just a few words about engagement opportunities that we’ve had with the community over the past year, we had a few very successful webinars through our sustainable business program, as well as our sole program, which is our residential sustainability program. Each of those programs put together an opportunity, a webinar detailing how customers can read and interpret their utility bills, which were great. We had excellent participation in getting got really good questions from participants in that. So I would urge folks who may have questions about that to to view those recordings that are available on our website or YouTube channel.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:53
And certainly, you know, we’ll have a lot of communication upcoming surrounding the 2021 review of utility rates and can be available to join meetings as requested that we had a great time joining in public meetings as part of our

Unknown Speaker 1:04:11
run up to the bond election in in November. So last slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:19
So as I mentioned, this is sort of providing some context for the review of utility rates in 2021. rates that we’ll be reviewing this year include the electric rates, which were set on a two year schedule in 2019. And now require an update as well as our storm drainage rate and potentially wastewater as well. So this is a general schedule where we’ll be looking to bring preliminary information in may talk about capital plans in June, look at some, you know, proposed rate changes in August, and hopefully adopt ordinances along with budget ordinances in October. So next

Unknown Speaker 1:05:00
Fine, that’s all we have for you this evening.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:05
All right, clear the screen back. I’m just gonna go ahead and say on behalf of council, thank you very much for that information. And I’m actually going to move that we accept the report as presented.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:14
Second, it’s been moved and seconded. not seeing any further discussion or debate on the matter. All in favor? Aye. Councilmember Christiansen?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:24
I

Unknown Speaker 1:05:34
think this is a great report. But I would like to point out some things this is actually exactly what is extremely painful about being on city council, because this affects every single person who lives here, I am really proud of the fact that Longmont produce it has its own municipal services, we do a wonderful job we have it is more much more efficient, much less expensive. We give people help. Nevertheless, the reality is that everything that we do in in our society depends upon constant growth. And which mean this actually has something to do with the greenhouse gas thing that many people were conflict.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:23
The reality is that we may have cheaper rates than many people. We have efficiency, we have all kinds of things. But the reality is for people who can’t afford this, they can’t afford it, you know, and

Unknown Speaker 1:06:38
it’s getting more alarming. I think, for people on fixed incomes every single year. I’ll give you an example.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:50
I pay about $200 a month, which is about what the average

Unknown Speaker 1:06:56
bill is.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:58
That is 20% of my $720 take home pay for city council 20%. I have an 850 square foot house, I also pays another $75. For Excel.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:16
Once you are from the time you’re 50 years old, in this society, you’re told you need to retire,

Unknown Speaker 1:07:23
which means you’re harassed for the next dozen years or so until you finally do retire, then after you retire, you have no salary. So you’re on a fixed income. And every year that these rates go up, people are more and more panicked. Because they don’t know how they’re going to make it the next year, our property rate our property taxes go up, everything goes up instead of figuring out a way that and of course, we have to do this, we have to charge more because we have to replace things, we have to maintain things. Right now we’re trying to transition to a more

Unknown Speaker 1:08:06
sustainable way of getting the energy to heat our homes and to provide refrigeration and to use all our little electronic devices. But I’m just saying

Unknown Speaker 1:08:21
the amount of help we give people is about $32 a month on a $200 bill.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:29
That doesn’t equate that doesn’t help people to feel any better. The people that are really being impacted by this are people on fixed incomes, and people who are younger, who don’t have any income much at all students and younger people. And

Unknown Speaker 1:08:47
we just have to keep them in mind when we start cutting things off. I don’t think we should be cutting anything off for at least another month. Because look at the SAT and look at what happened last night. It’s really cold.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:03
I understand that we are millions of dollars in a hole now.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:09
We have to figure out a way that is more equitable for people so that people are not panicking about how they can at least pay their utility bills, how they can pay their property taxes, how they can just stay in their homes. And so I think this is an excellent report. I hope people have studied this, who are at home and understand why we have to raise things and why we have to do things the way we’re doing. But I would implore you not to start cutting people off for at least another month until the weather warms up. That’s all I have to say.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:49
Thank you very much. All right. Okay. Dr. Waters. If we have questions about the report, is this the time to ask them or no? Sure. Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:00
We’re on the

Unknown Speaker 1:10:04
back end, is it the Sol, s? o l? l?

Unknown Speaker 1:10:09
m?

Unknown Speaker 1:10:11
service? I’m looking at my notes here.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:17
Yeah. The customer said, on the soul program.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:24
What can you tell us about level of use, about customer satisfaction about response rates on on that as one of the one of the programs that’s providing assistance. But so the sole program is residential sustainability program. And it’s a new program, it was at a pilot phase in 2020. So also impacted by the pandemic, because it’s a program where community volunteers go to homes and you know, I provide fixture swaps or recommendations on on how to further environmental sustainability, such as you know, tips on composting and things like that. So that’s a relatively new program, we have limited data about participation and uptake from that.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:19
So I’m assuming it’s not a pilot program, because it was a pilot program to collect the data. You’re right.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:27
into a larger implementation within 2021.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:32
So we have no data, we don’t know.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:34
He may have a problem we would have to come back with with that separately, I guess the related question, and maybe it’s related to

Unknown Speaker 1:11:42
this, because this is where we’re headed. We’re headed to seeing a set of recommendations, we ought to start asking the question now, and probably answer a several times between now and time we make a decision in August. And what are the consequences? We are the consequences of raising rates. They’re all the things we just heard from Councilmember Christiansen, what are the consequences of not raising rates? I know we’ll get into more detail on this as we go forward. But we ought to start the narrative now.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:08
You know, what’s at stake?

Unknown Speaker 1:12:11
And what are the options as we move forward to rate increases?

Unknown Speaker 1:12:17
I can,

Unknown Speaker 1:12:18
Mayor Bagley and Councilmember waters.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:24
First of all, I want to I want to say I absolutely agree with Councilmember Christiansen, we should do everything we can minimize rate increases. And I and I think we have done that over the years. I

Unknown Speaker 1:12:38
I know we have always attempted to do that. But to answer your question, Councilmember waters, for instance, in the stormwater utility, we have been talking with the council over say the past year about the economic and financial situation in that particular utility. It has really at this point reached the stage where we are unable to maintain the system, even in its current state of operation.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:13
It is really reached the stage where if we do not increase the rates, or adjust the rates,

Unknown Speaker 1:13:22
we will see a deterioration of the viability and the safety of the storm water utility and the systems that it is charged to maintain. And it like the water utility and like the wastewater utility are incredibly capital intensive, meaning that they they wear out quickly because of the harsh environment that they’re operating in.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:50
And so to answer the question, it’s primarily going to be driven towards maintaining the assets of the city, in this case of the stormwater utility. Now, it’ll be similar the wastewater utility and I think we’re still trying to analyze whether we do or don’t need to

Unknown Speaker 1:14:11
adjust those rates and 21, which is why Becky was a little vague on whether the wastewater utility will come forward.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:20
And then lastly, on electric, again, Council, you approved only a two year rate adjustment in 2019. That deliberately, I believe, because we knew we’re in a time of change, and that we were in a time that it would it wouldn’t be prudent to necessarily do a five year adjustment, which is what you typically do in the utilities. And so I think in electric, we’re going to be talking with you about the changes that are happening primarily with the deployment of the AMI project.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:57
That is going to be

Unknown Speaker 1:15:00
Providing electric utility and the staff with that additional data and information to set the rates

Unknown Speaker 1:15:10
more closely to the demands that individual customers are placing on the system. And so I’m looking forward to that discussion with you over the next several months. And you’re right, Councilman waters, we will be talking about this a lot. Between now and the time that we are even presenting to you any potential adjustments of the rates? If we cannot answer all of your questions, then

Unknown Speaker 1:15:40
we need to keep working on it until we do. I knew the answers. And for now, though, we just let me just follow up if I mean, man, Begley,

Unknown Speaker 1:15:49
what could you be more specific, Dale in in what’s the worst case scenario? You’ve described? Our wastewater system is as marginal right now or as fragile or I don’t want to I won’t put words in your mouth.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:05
But but a great need of maintenance above granted is that what’s the worst case scenario? If we fail our obligation on that part of our infrastructure? And that system? What should long motors anticipate? What’s the worst case you would anticipate? Thank you, thank you for that, um,

Unknown Speaker 1:16:28
what I would say to that is that we know we have many pipe systems around the city that were built over the last 50 years, many of them by the way,

Unknown Speaker 1:16:42
not built with the best of materials, it’s corrugated metal pipe, it’s different materials that are failing. And then most importantly, are equally important is that the city is also wonder, the regulatory compliance with regards to our stormwater quality. And that too, is a very expensive proposition. And what I mean by that is that we are charged and responsible to maintain the quality of the water that is running off of the city streets and parking lots and into the streams than actual streams. And so I think you I think you run the risk of environment, I think you run the risk of failure of systems, which then result in the flooding of private property when those systems fail. And,

Unknown Speaker 1:17:42
and it would be a shame, because we know, we can identify what the problems are, we now need to just be able to identify the best way to go about financing that and as you know, with RSVP with the Resilience Project, we have brought 10s of millions of dollars into the community.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:06
We’re going to continue to do that. It’s not as easy though, to bring federal dollars to maintain basic assets. However, we do have the potential with the infrastructure bill.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:20
And I can assure you, we will be going aggressively after those dollars as well. Thanks, Dale. If I can add a couple of things, mayor and council I think. So you know, I always go simple answer integrity of the system.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:36
But as as we look at this, the the other things that come into play.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:42
And you’ve heard us talk about this before, we’re actually just now entering into what I call the replacement cycle. And so Dale and I’ve talked about this a lot. As we have grown as a community, we were a small community and we grew and in sections, well, we’re now at that 50 year cycle of the 70s and 80s. We’re hitting that replacement cycle.

Unknown Speaker 1:19:09
And that’s a different piece for our community. Because other communities that are larger and older have been in the replacement cycle and their infrastructure, you know, really in the 80s and the 90s, starting their replacement cycle. And so that is something as we talked about our wastewater system or stormwater system. It’s not only improving, it’s, it’s really looking at what we need to replace, that is aged out. And so that’s another thing that’s starting to come into our conversations as well. And then like everyone else, we’re also cognizant of the cost impacts on this.

Unknown Speaker 1:19:47
But we’re also pressured by many of those same things. And so when we talk about cost of materials to come in and do this, and we see the cost of wood, the cost of metal, the cost of concrete, and all of those

Unknown Speaker 1:20:00
Things that are accelerating for everyone else your costs, we’re having to absorb those same cost as well as we’re moving into this process. And it was interesting to give you a sense, I was on a call today

Unknown Speaker 1:20:15
about affordable housing project. But it’s not unlike what we’re talking here. Just the increase in materials are causing some of those product progress projects to bust their estimates because the cost of goods have gone up so high. And so we still have to absorb that.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:33
And and then you have the other pressures on our staffing costs. So it is multiple factors coming in, even in capital intensive areas.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:42
back if I could just make one more observation, then I promise I’m finished. All right. Last last week, when we were talking about annexations, and in and the concept plans that went with him, I asked about 30 year

Unknown Speaker 1:20:58
economic or financial impact analyses, you just made the case for 50 year financial impact analyses, because of because of what we’re experiencing right now. Right. And 50 years from now, somebody is going to be in the same conversation based on decisions we make now about annexations and project approvals. So I want to say again, when when we get into looking at actual approval of those annexations

Unknown Speaker 1:21:26
that’s going to be a big priority for me to see what the 50 year cost of extending our infrastructure and the maintenance of it, you know, especially that to the edges of the community, so I’ll be quiet.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:40
Alright, we’re gonna go with Casper. We’re back and then Casper double fairing. Did you have a comment to

Unknown Speaker 1:21:47
know my questions already answered? All right, perfect customer back. Thank you. Part of my question was answered by Dale, but I have something easy in the council communication when you show the graph or Yeah, of where our what constitutes our utility bill, you have trash in there with a 96 gallon receptacle. Why don’t we have compost in there? And why don’t we have the difference in the two trash receptacles?

Unknown Speaker 1:22:22
That’s just curious. That’s a mess. Mayor Bagley cancel the room with Peck that that’s a great question. And the reason is that we were trying to come at, you know, sort of the the median bill, right. And the fact is that while we believe that many members of our community could downsize their trash to the less expensive 48 gallon service that 70 or 70 to 75% of folks are still using the 96 Gallon Trash cart. So that that’s what we reflected in that typical bill.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:59
Clearly, we think that you know, it would be to the advantage to to change sizes and subscribe to composting, were also not quite at a 25% subscription rate on

Unknown Speaker 1:23:13
Becky’s comments. I, I agree with your council member pack.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:18
I have the very same question. Oh, you did. So you’re brilliant. So thank you for that. Okay. My other comment is Thank you, Dale, for bringing up a federal funding for some of these projects. I’m wondering because when the when our the public voted to increase taxes, a lot of it was for the infrastructure, which I totally agree with. So if and when we do get some infrastructure money from the feds, I would like to know how much how much infrastructure that paid for that was included in our vote. For example, if we do get money to offset what we thought the tax money would have to do, then we will never reduce rates, that that’s just not historically done. But perhaps we won’t have to increase them again. So I would like to when we do that, I would like to have that information, that data of what we paid for that we thought taxes would have to pay for. We should be able to account for that. Great, thank you. That’s what Krishna said. Do you have another comment?

Unknown Speaker 1:24:31
Yeah, but Councilwoman Martin had one first.

Unknown Speaker 1:24:36
Go ahead, customer Martin. I didn’t see I’m sorry. That’s okay. Thank you, Mayor Bagley and thank you, Councilmember Christiansen I just have a quick agenda to Councilmember Pat’s

Unknown Speaker 1:24:49
comments, which is we did have someone on engaged long month for sustainability in the Climate Action Task Force.

Unknown Speaker 1:24:58
Comment that we should be charging

Unknown Speaker 1:25:00
More for trash. And we did update that site with an explanation that by reducing their landfill container size and frequency of collection, that they could actually get composting and still pay a lower rate than they did before. So we are we are already promoting that change and encouraging people to

Unknown Speaker 1:25:27
spend less on landfills.

Unknown Speaker 1:25:33
Councilmember Christiansen

Unknown Speaker 1:25:37
Thank you, counsel. And Mark. That’s exactly right. We’ve been trying to encourage them for since since I brought the cup listing thing forward, because that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t think I could go to a 45 gallon container. But we hardly ever have that filled now that I have the compost, and it’s the same or less than I was paying before. But that’s it depends on people’s families. I wanted to thank Councilman waters for what he said about

Unknown Speaker 1:26:07
the 50 year timeline. The reason we do have such a well run town with unified Municipal Utilities is because our forefathers, and they were almost all forefathers

Unknown Speaker 1:26:21
did think about

Unknown Speaker 1:26:26
all your muted. Just you just thought you went on mute two seconds ago. Okay, well, two seconds doesn’t matter.

Unknown Speaker 1:26:35
Anyway, the

Unknown Speaker 1:26:38
it was because our the, you know, the our predecessors did think in terms of 50 and 100 years. And when it comes to infrastructure, we absolutely have to do that we cannot fail on that. We have known for a while that we have needed, we need new

Unknown Speaker 1:26:59
wastewater

Unknown Speaker 1:27:01
and water treatment plants. And that’s something you can’t put off. Previous councils have put it off to make themselves look good. Like they’re not raising the rates. But of course, now we have to raise rates because it, you can’t put it off, we cannot fail on this. And this is actually an opportune time. Because of the infrastructure bill that we hope will pass, we have the opportunity to actually fix some of these things. Because we’ve been around since 1880, we actually have some pipes going around town that are really leftover from 1900. I know that when it was a smaller town, people wouldn’t. Everybody would link up on one line, which is maybe Okay, around 1900. But it isn’t really anymore, because if one person gets a block up, then everybody’s house has a problem. So there are so many things that we really do have to replace, and we we just we must fix them. But it is very painful. I mean, you know,

Unknown Speaker 1:28:14
but we can’t fail on that. That’s one of the basic things that this that government provides this city his services and we can’t fail on that.

Unknown Speaker 1:28:26
Alright, there’s a motion on the floor to accept the report. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Motion carries unanimously, the report is approved. Thank you. Let’s move on to the electric vehicle. public charging station review, please.

Unknown Speaker 1:28:46
Good evening. Can everybody hear me? Just my little?

Unknown Speaker 1:28:50
Okay. Good evening, everyone. aromatically council members. Thanks for having me present to you today.

Unknown Speaker 1:28:56
My name is Tim Ellis. I’m the renewable energy strategy manager in the energy strategies and solutions group at LPC.

Unknown Speaker 1:29:04
As you know, electric vehicles and charging stations are going to play an increasingly important role in the city’s overall transportation plans. They’re part of the sustainability plan strategy to reduce harmful emissions. They’re included in the Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gases. And they’re also embedded in several points along the transportation roadmap timeline. So tonight, I’m going to present a summary of the 2020 metrics for our five city owned public TV stations. We look back at 2024 at our own currently own stations in order to take a data driven approach for Eb infrastructure planning into the future. The first first part of this planning effort was to calculate a fee to resume charging for the service at our stations that will allow us to implement a self sustaining Eb charging station program going forward.

Unknown Speaker 1:29:55
Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 1:29:57
Cam I don’t think your slides

Unknown Speaker 1:30:02
Okay, now we’re on the second one, so we didn’t miss that much with the first one. So there are several TV station mapping apps and websites available to the public to locate stations and give some information about them. This map is from Evie local stations calm and it just you know shows us the geographical distribution of TV stations in our area and it shows that within 10 miles of the center of Longmont, there are about 70 public charging stations. Next slide please.

Unknown Speaker 1:30:34
This next map is from Atlas policies evaluate Colorado evaluates you, which was funded by the Colorado Energy Office and it shows Evie station locations throughout the city as well as our own stations. Our stations are located in proximity to ours to some city facilities such as the memorial building North the DSC parking lot, the library garage, the museum and the LPC service center. These locations allow the public to charge their TVs while accessing city facilities. Our stations are all level two chargers which accounts for over 90% of the stations installed in our area and also like many of the other local stations installed in and around Longmont. These stations are made by chargepoint, which is one of the leading Evie station manufacturers in the nation. Four of our stations were replaced in 2019. And the fifth station was installed at the library last year. We replaced the stations to provide a more reliable service to our customers that had a very easy setup process and more comprehensive services such as station location, app and availability of charging boy ports, setting appointments at the at the points if they’re taking, things like that that could benefit our customers and their charging needs. chargepoint also has a pretty sophisticated Data Cloud system that helps us track many different metrics for analysis. And I’m going to go through some of those metrics later in the presentation.

Unknown Speaker 1:32:03
Prior to station replacement long might had a $1 per hour fee in place, which was temporarily put on hold following the replacements so customers can get familiar with the new enhanced technology of charge point chargers and to reinvigorate reinvigorate the station use in charging activity. And also talk about this and that the analysis that we did later in the presentation.

Unknown Speaker 1:32:26
So we own five of 70 stations in and around Long live. But the number of private market installations is continuously growing. One question this raises is what role should the city play in the future of public TV stations. Currently, only one to 2% of cars are TVs and Colorado is at a really early stage in the rollout of vehicles, as well as the infrastructure to support them. This private market appears to be ramping up not only in the manufacturing of DVDs, but also the installation of stations. And as a city. We’re also moving to replace our fleet vehicles with TVs as the technology progresses to meet our needs. And I’ll talk a little bit about more about the city’s strategic planning efforts toward the end of the presentation. Next slide please.

Unknown Speaker 1:33:12
So quickly going back to the analysis of our stations. This chart shows the total kilowatt hours for all five stations in 2020. There were over 43,000 kilowatt hours used to charge electric vehicles last year, you can see that there was a distinct drop off in April obviously due to COVID onset, but station usage has mostly recovered from that point.

Unknown Speaker 1:33:35
Next slide please.

Unknown Speaker 1:33:38
So as measured by charge point, there were a total of 17.7 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent saved by having electric charge electrics vehicles charging stations. This is calculated using they calculate it using a general country wide emissions per average car and average electric electric generation fuel mix. Next slide please.

Unknown Speaker 1:34:04
So these graphics show how 2020 to 2020 the average car powered, gas powered car compares to an electric car naevi customer can expect to get over 90 extra miles when comparing costs and mileage per gallon per one gallon of gas. Also, for the same comparison, same car comparison,

Unknown Speaker 1:34:24
the consumer can expect to save over $1,000 a year if they drive over 12,000 miles.

Unknown Speaker 1:34:31
So I mean the bottom line is that it’s much cheaper to operate a driver on electric vehicle versus a gas powered car. Next slide please.

Unknown Speaker 1:34:41
The chart on the left. This slide shows how many individual sessions there were in 2020 other stations. A session is defined as each time a car plugs in for a charge. The total sessions for all five stations in 2020 was about 3800. We also found that the average length of charging time is about three to four

Unknown Speaker 1:35:00
ours. The pie chart on the right pie chart on the right shows the breakdown of how many Nic drivers access each station. It’s important to note here that the library station came online in late September. So it has a much lower Nic driver now and it’s likely to increase this year. We calculated unique users for all five stations throughout the year, and it was 342. So 342 different people charged at our stations in 2020. When we compare this to the number of sessions, to see that the users charge multiple times, and some at multiple locations, and quickly touching on the strategic planning here, one of the things we’re looking at is the opportunity to encourage staff to switch to electric vehicles along the lines of an eco pass type of program, for example. This is one approach that employers and businesses are using to shift employees over the years as part of their larger sustainability efforts. So another strategy we’re exploring Is there a way to integrate efforts to move city fleet and staff forward along with the public transition to EBS. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 1:36:08
Here’s a table the metrics for each station in 2020 that we took a hard look at available hours are the total available hours for each station throughout the year. For example, the service center was operational for the entire year, which is 1760 hours, but it also has two ports available, so we double the 877 60, which equals 17,005 20 hours available. The museum was offline for a short time for repair, so I had a little less available time. And the library has a lot much lower available time last year because it came operational late September.

Unknown Speaker 1:36:44
charging time is the number of hours that vehicles are actually charging at the stations while the time at station is the total amount, the total amount of hours that cars are plugged into the station. The time and station is the number of hours but this is the number we’re going to use to charge customers. So there will be a motivation for customers to move their vehicles once they’re done charging. Now once the cars or the charging is complete. The next column is the percent of time that the vehicles were charging versus the available hours. You can see that the DSC parking lot station and the memorial building station had a pretty high percentage rate and it’s actually very high. Considering that there, the available time is 24 hours a day. So 16% 20% is a pretty high usage rate. The next column shows how long cars would were charging versus plugged in at the station. And this never number gives us an indication if customers keep plugged into the station past a time when they’re actively charging. And you can see the number of the percentages are pretty high here so customers are tending to move their cars when they’re done charging.

Unknown Speaker 1:37:51
Next slide please.

Unknown Speaker 1:37:55
And here are the results of our service fee analysis. This list of metrics includes the cost electricity purchase installation of the station maintenance, contracts, and station administration. And we also consider the substantial grant we received from the state through the rec program regional air quality council grants that are given out that we applied to this rate as well as fee. The calculation show that in order to create a sustainable program that covers the purchase installation and operating costs, we will need to charge about $1 an hour. So it aligns with our previous cost of charging and long run, as well as the prices charged by surrounding cities such as boulder in Loveland and Fort Collins. And if we can quickly go back to the previous slide,

Unknown Speaker 1:38:42
you can see that if the fleet with a fee is in place, we look down at the time at station number and we’ll we would we’d get a revenue coming back for a year of about $12,000.

Unknown Speaker 1:38:54
So as you can see at the bottom, that kind of 11,008 54 is what we get in the dollar per hour fee. And come back to the other slide please.

Unknown Speaker 1:39:04
This is enough

Unknown Speaker 1:39:06
money back to purchase two or three stations if we take the reap the grant money in into account or we can potentially use these funds on this revenue coming in to build additional infrastructure to support future stations. One example of what other stations charge in the long run. Remember not one of those several Evie Connect as a few stations at a private business. They have free charging overnight but they charge $5 an hour during normal business hours and and this is likely due because it’s a business they want to discourage public charging during the day so that their customers and employees can charge. There’s also a station at Walgreens on Main Street that charges $2 per hour. There are several stations at car dealerships, that for their own electric vehicles and station and some stations at large retail parking lots to encourage shopping and there

Unknown Speaker 1:40:00
Also private businesses that don’t allow public charging at all. So So there are a variety of fee operating options available depending on the owner and their reason to install the station. And the numbers of publicly available stations though are increasing steadily.

Unknown Speaker 1:40:15
Next slide please.

Unknown Speaker 1:40:18
This slide shows a big picture of Colorado’s 2020 Evie plan goal for electric vehicles over the next 10 years that the zeros he does outlines zero emission vehicles land which is over 750,000. To put that into context, there are currently 1.8 million cars registered in Colorado plus about 3 million trucks. So they’re close to 6 million vehicles altogether in Colorado, so, so this is a pretty significant number of trying to reach almost a million if they reach their upper high goal.

Unknown Speaker 1:40:53
There are also a couple interesting statements on the slide the US Department of Energy states that over 80% of Evie charging is done at home. Also Rmi formerly known as Rocky Mountain institute says that a fall light duty vehicles are replaced with the V’s will increase the electric load by 25%. So, so moving towards the V’s is substantial not only to reduce emissions, but on the impacts to the grid itself. I think this slide shows how important it is for the city not only to focus available resources to support the future of EBS and maintaining reliability and build and building resilience in our electric grid but but we really need to keep in mind how and where people will be charging their vehicles. How the private market forces will impact this the the transition towards me V’s are with ease and the need to create equitable AV solutions. Next slide please.

Unknown Speaker 1:41:44
This final slide shows our project our proposed next steps. for existing stations we’re going to continue to monitor and analyze operation and usage in order to provide the best services to our customers and also determine if there are any future needs for additional stations. We also performed community outreach and education about resuming base station service via May through July and August 1, we plan on resuming the charge charging fee of $1 per hour at all city owned public stations. In regard to the broader city Evie strategy. We’re looking to focus our resources to monitor monitor and engage the private Evie marketplace in order to gauge how infrastructure is being rolled out in the city and to support future increases in EDS in our territory, and for our for our residents and businesses. We’ve also continued communication with other Northern Colorado cities about how how we’re preparing for increased Eevee penetration and we’re dedicating resources to meet current AV support support efforts such as the electrification study, which may call for a home Evie charging program or strategy, the distributed energy resource study where we can use the tool to measure applicability and cost effectiveness of Eevee stations and other infrastructure projects in the future. And we’ll evaluate city policy options to assist the transition, such as building or development ready infrastructure requirements during the design and build phase of projects, especially for potentially underserved sectors like multifamily developments. And as always, we will endeavor to build an equitable path to the future Evie marketplace. And finally will report back to Council in 2022 on our station activity and other strategic efforts. Next slide.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:28
And that’s it. Any questions?

Unknown Speaker 1:43:32
Right, let’s go with Councillor Mark any customer questions?

Unknown Speaker 1:43:41
Sorry, my spacebar is malfunctioning again.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:46
I’ve just a quick question, which is you mentioned 300 some distinct users of the city charging station. This may have been in the transportation report last

Unknown Speaker 1:44:00
meeting and I missed it. But do you have an estimate of the total number of TVs that live in Longmont right now?

Unknown Speaker 1:44:09
I did see a number of let’s see, I thought it was close to two between two and 300 up or two hundreds low three hundreds through that. What is that website the Colorado the Colorado Energy Office website. It has some numbers in there page that talk about long by specific although they blended kind of with Boulder County so it’s kind of hard to get an exact number. Yeah, I was actually I saw that report myself and didn’t believe it so I was hoping you had a better number because it does. It doesn’t seem that likely that a lot of people charged in Longmont who didn’t live in Longmont you know our chargers are not that widely advertised or anything. So I was thinking that the actual number of local e V’s must be greater than the actual number of Evie local

Unknown Speaker 1:45:00
chargers that we had on our Publix charging, but you don’t have any better data than that I don’t have that data, although you have to keep in mind also that each individual has their own number or identifier. So two people can view using the same car. And they’ll show up as two different users, right. So that’s where the details get a little fuzzy. But we’re going to continue to track that information and know that the websites are getting advice all the time. There’s more and more data out there every few months about the penetration of V’s and expectations and stations. So there’s just a lot of changing and dynamic information. But we’re going to try to keep track. All right. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 1:45:44
Councilmember Christiansen

Unknown Speaker 1:45:49
Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 1:45:51
Um, I have a question and some comments.

Unknown Speaker 1:45:56
There are apps for people to locate our city and and in fact, all charging stations in that town, Arthur. Yes. Okay. That’s, that’s good. I thought. So I don’t have one. But, you know, I think most people would love to have an electric vehicle. And the only thing stopping them is the cost. And I’m hoping that this miraculous infrastructure,

Unknown Speaker 1:46:22
piano, so much hopes on will be providing some,

Unknown Speaker 1:46:26
some help to

Unknown Speaker 1:46:31
get more people into electric vehicles, because that’s the only a subsidy is the only way that most more people will be able to do this. And but this is rapidly it within 10 years, that will there will be a huge market. I don’t see any problem in restoring this fee, because frankly,

Unknown Speaker 1:46:51
you know, most of the people who currently have electric vehicles can certainly afford $1 an hour. So it’s not a matter of equity.

Unknown Speaker 1:47:01
And I they, I wouldn’t mind charging $5 an hour because it would help us further this program. And it would help us further some of the other goals having to do with electric vehicles, but certainly restoring it as a good idea and publicizing that we’re going to be doing that and why is is a good idea. So I thank you for their support. It helps us all understand where they’re located, and how much it costs. And how many people are using this and stuff. I do find the I’ve heard that statistic from the Rocky Mountain institute that if we electrify everything, it’s going to up the rates, I mean up the amount of electricity we’re going to have to provide by 25%. That’s stunning. And that really has a lot to do with

Unknown Speaker 1:47:50
the subject we talked about earlier of

Unknown Speaker 1:47:55
greenhouse gas emissions. You know, that all goes together. But um, so I thank you for giving us this report. I think it was very good. Thank you. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 1:48:05
I know, keep in mind that the number that that RMA stated was for light duty only. That’s even doesn’t even recognize the uptake of trucks. So it’s going to be much more than that. In the long term. I move I move that we accept the report on electric vehicle public charging station review. Again. Alright, it’s been moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. All right. The report is accepted unanimously. All right, Sandy, you hear?

Unknown Speaker 1:48:36
Absolutely. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:48:39
How many? How many members of council? Okay, how many we got on the agenda tonight?

Unknown Speaker 1:48:45
three bills tonight. All right. Let’s talk.

Unknown Speaker 1:48:49
All right. Sounds good. Thanks. Mayor Bagley members of council Sandy’s either assistant city manager. We have three bills for your consideration tonight. The first one is House Bill 1266 concerning efforts to redress the effects of environmental injustice on disproportionately impacted communities. This bill creates the environmental justice task force within CBP he responsible for creating justice recommendations, environmental justice recommendations to the General Assembly. So this is a bill that really does further our climate action goals and our equity goals. And so, staff recommends that city council supports House Bill 2112 766.

Unknown Speaker 1:49:32
Okay, that’s perfect. I moved support of House Bill 1266.

Unknown Speaker 1:49:40
It’s been moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. All right, that support passes unanimously. Next bill

Unknown Speaker 1:49:50
expera Bagley the next one, which you’ve heard a little bit about from our public invited be heard. So Senate Bill 21 200 concerning measures to further environmental

Unknown Speaker 1:50:00
protections and then connection there with adopting measures to reduce emissions for greenhouse gases and adopting protections. This bill is interesting because even though obviously the thought process around reducing greenhouse gas emissions is really important to the city council, it’s really important to the staff and to the community and you know, to our health in the future. The way that this bill goes about it is very interesting. First of all, it requires the P UC, to actually be the responsible party for municipal utilities. This is this is kind of the juxtaposition of not how it works in current legislation. The PVC currently does not regulate Municipal Utilities because a Platte River Power Authority has a board and B Lima power and communication has a board which is you guys City Council. So the PSC generally does not regulate municipal utilities. And so for that reasons count Colorado Municipal League is opposing this bill, on, in addition to just the fact that it’s not the right way to go about it. legislatively. There are also some issues with the bill around some in consistencies. Number one, you heard the cost changes, right. Our staff says that this is going to cost a whole lot of money based on some of the basic cost propositions that were in the bill. And others are saying no, it really should be small, because there’s a cap in yet another piece of legislation that requires us to have those those those costs cap. What’s tough is that then you’re relying on one piece of legislation to be kept by another piece of legislation. It really should be much more explicit in the bill, if that’s the way that it’s going to go. But in the meantime, it’s really not guaranteed. It’s very ambiguous, ambiguous at this point. So that’s part of it. Councilmember Martin sorry, Mayor, Councilmember Martin has a question.

Unknown Speaker 1:51:46
I thought you were done. I was just waiting, raising my hand to make a motion. Sandy. Thank you, Martin make a motion.

Unknown Speaker 1:51:55
Yes.

Unknown Speaker 1:51:56
For the reasons that assistant city manager Seder outlined, and for many others, since I spent most of the day trying to resolve the different agencies recommendations on this bill. And I agree that the ambiguities are very dangerous, I move something different than the staff recommendation, I move that we oppose this bill until amended. That gives us our loudest voice in terms of lobbying to have it fixed. And it gives us an opportunity to turn on a dime and begin to support it once the problems with it are resolved.

Unknown Speaker 1:52:42
All right, consumer Christian Christiansen.

Unknown Speaker 1:52:49
Martin, about this, but I would rather we never get the option to approve if amended. That’s not one of our options. And I would rather do that because I mostly do approve of this. But I do find, as staff has said, You know, I think all of us on this council agree that we want to see greenhouse gas reduced. We want to see pollution. We want all of this stuff in here. However, it is really difficult if the

Unknown Speaker 1:53:26
if we’re going to have an immediate fine of carbon emissions, that will be

Unknown Speaker 1:53:36
truly

Unknown Speaker 1:53:38
costly. And we’re still in the process of working through our

Unknown Speaker 1:53:45
our own

Unknown Speaker 1:53:50
dealings with Platte River Power Authority, which I think

Unknown Speaker 1:53:55
are pretty positive.

Unknown Speaker 1:53:57
But the other thing is that I do have a problem with the P you see

Unknown Speaker 1:54:05
micromanaging us. That said, we do need to address this on a statewide basis. This is this is the problem of statewide versus county wide versus city municipal. We are really doing a lot of good work in this city to address these issues. I don’t want Pac to interfere with that, by us having to

Unknown Speaker 1:54:30
I have no objection to us filing reports. I think every city in this state should file a report and tell the PC what their plan is, but to have the PSC then

Unknown Speaker 1:54:45
say start ordering us around. That creates a problem with our ability as a as a council and as a municipality to form our own.

Unknown Speaker 1:55:00
plans that we’ve already done with Platte River Power Authority.

Unknown Speaker 1:55:06
So I would, I would much rather

Unknown Speaker 1:55:10
have us approve it. But Councilman Martin is right, that isn’t really an option. I am also having trouble trying to understand

Unknown Speaker 1:55:20
why we’re doing this because Colorado Municipal League already discussed this on Friday and voted on this. And they voted to oppose unless amended. So what is it that we as a council are doing here? Are we going to send a letter to

Unknown Speaker 1:55:40
the state legislators about this? Or what are we going to do about this? Because it’s already been voted on by the Colorado Municipal League. So I’m having trouble understanding why we’re discussing it right now. Alright, so right now, I mean, that’s, that’s fine. We can keep talking. I mean, I want to right now there’s a motion on the table. And the motion is simply to oppose until amended. That’s it. And so whatever the process is, we usually follow.

Unknown Speaker 1:56:14
We the way we usually just take a take a stance. So

Unknown Speaker 1:56:20
Councillor pack, thank you, I am going to take a stance,

Unknown Speaker 1:56:25
I want to address the cost of this because I found it.

Unknown Speaker 1:56:34
Assistant Manager cedar, you sent out an email later today explaining some of the the fees. And that is what I wanted to address. You mentioned that there was another piece of legislation out there, and that is the January 2019, revised statute 20 571 14.7 Section C, two, these fees are already capped. So I was a little disappointed with with the information in today’s emails, that PR pa is actually having regulated pollution of 3 million tons a year. That’s a lot of pollution. But this statute, revised says and I quote, in no event shall an owner or operator of a major source pay more than a fee based upon total amount, total annual emissions of 4000 tons of each regulated pollutant per source. So that means I think 3 million tonnes a year of our regulated pollute pollutants by PRP a is completely unacceptable. But it means of that 3 million tonnes, only 4000 tonnes of that would require a fee. And the fee has been set at $36 a tonne for 2122. So for me this piece of legislation 200 is an oversight bill, which I’m very happy to have.

Unknown Speaker 1:58:15
What PRP would actually be charged, if my calculations are correct, is that they would be paying 144,000 for raw hide

Unknown Speaker 1:58:30
co2, and about 56,000 for Craig’s one and two, which comes to approximately $200,000 annually, not 96 million. So those I am surprised, actually that we looked at $96 million as a fee, and accepted that from trpa. No one’s gonna charge them $96 million.

Unknown Speaker 1:58:55
I’m sorry. I’m very passionate about this. So I don’t mean to scold anyone, but

Unknown Speaker 1:59:04
but we need this oversight, because even though Council is the board, and they are producing 3 million tonnes of pollutants, how are we going to know that? How are we going to regulate it? How are we going to stop them?

Unknown Speaker 1:59:22
We need oversight, and that’s what this bill does, as far as I’m concerned. And in the bill it never it never what it is stating is exactly what this statute states it’s the same costs, etc. And they will raise the fees to whatever this statute would raise it to. That is the one that they have to follow. So I would I will not vote for the amended for the motion because I think we should pass this. So thank you. All right. Councillor Martin? Yeah, I’d

Unknown Speaker 2:00:00
Just want to point out that well, while that statute so far applies to NOx and Sox and other things like that,

Unknown Speaker 2:00:09
that we do not necessarily know that

Unknown Speaker 2:00:16
it’s ambiguous whether that would apply to carbon emissions, because there there were overlapping regulations of carbon emissions already. So I think that it’s an assumption what you’re going to get either way, I don’t think that trpa is going to have a 50% increase in rates. But I also don’t think we can make assumptions about how it is going to work. And I would rather bring our efforts to bear to make sure that some of some of the frankly, some of the sloppiness in this bill gets cleaned up before we we support it. I think there is also a problem with some of our friends in the mountains because of similar ambiguities about hydro power, that could really end up socking them in the budget. Just as as an exaggerated carbon fee of any sort, could disrupt our plans with PRP a because we have them following a mandate. They are spending money they wouldn’t spend if they weren’t trying not as effectively as I like but trying to follow that mandate. And so again, I think that what we need to do is give ourselves the individual council members who have a voice and the staff who are experienced lobbyists, the opportunity to support CML, and also use our own voice and get this bill fixed up. I hope it passes too, but I don’t hope it puts us under the PVC that I was gonna have Councilmember I was gonna have Mayor Pro Tem talk, but but you have a brief comment, or is it go ahead then just to finish the finish the conversation? So the revised statute does include carbon emissions. Okay. Council, Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez. Thank you, Mayor Bagley, I think as has been

Unknown Speaker 2:02:16
expressed tonight, both in public invited to be heard as well as comments amongst the council.

Unknown Speaker 2:02:22
The spirit of this piece of legislation is good, the letter is flawed, if you will. And I would prefer not to make some sort of nuance and I’ll vote against either approval with nuance or opposition with nuance. Instead, the only thing I would be inclined to vote for tonight is monitoring.

Unknown Speaker 2:02:43
And generally speaking, usually, in these cases, counsel either approves, opposes or monitors. I don’t think putting some sort of nuance on it is necessarily worthwhile is in my opinion on either side of the question. So I just would like to explain that when it comes time to vote, people will understand why I voted the way I did. So thank you. I’m with Mayor Pro Tem, I like I like your intent council member Martin, but I’m gonna vote against it. Because basically what you’re saying is let’s monitor it, because we’re gonna we will approve it, if later if they amended. But the let’s go ahead and vote. Oh, sorry, customers. I will fairing.

Unknown Speaker 2:03:26
Thank you, Mayor. So I do have a question. Why? Because while the city supports the spirit of the bill, but there were still concerns with the actual language. Why did you choose not to or why did you not recommend to monitor?

Unknown Speaker 2:03:46
That’s my mind. So I had a question. Thank you. The reason is monitor.

Unknown Speaker 2:03:54
I asked. I asked, um,

Unknown Speaker 2:03:57
managers, I thought you were I thought you were asking council member Martin. Why should

Unknown Speaker 2:04:03
I apologize. That’s why that’s why that’s why that’s why he jumped in. So cast. Remember, Martin, hold on.

Unknown Speaker 2:04:10
Sandy, do you want to go ahead and answer that? Absolutely. Thanks, Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember Hidalgo, fairing. Generally, we just bring these kinds of bills with a staff recommendation one way or another. We don’t often get into those nuances that you are talking about, because it is a policy decision. From your perspective. Certainly, I would say that there’s a couple ways you can do it. You can oppose it unless amended or you could support it if amended to take out municipal utilities, for example. I think the crux of it is that we want to make sure that you retain the right to run your electric utility the way you see fit and meeting your goals. And that’s really the point and why we oppose it. Alright, so we’ve most of us have had a squid counselor Jago ferry. So, you know, I just because I served as legislative liaison for our union or teachers union, and oftentimes when we came across a bill, that you know that we had some concerns around the language

Unknown Speaker 2:05:00
Rather than just flat out opposing it, we still wanted to keep the language going. So oftentimes, we would give, you know, support pending. And then we would provide our recommendations to keep because really I don’t want to just set as a flat out, yes, I support this, or no, I oppose this, because then it closes the door to further discussion. Because they think we’re we were satisfied or we’re not satisfied with however, the language is. So I really do want to keep that I do intend to, to reach out to our legislators about legislators about this bill and looking and considering it’s just introduced there. I imagined that there will be amendments, there will be revising. But, you know, I’m inclined to either lean towards monitor or support with these recommendations. So thank you that that’s all I had to say. Thank you. Alright, so let’s go ahead and take a vote. The motion is to oppose until amended. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Nay, nay. All right. The motion fails. five to two with Councillor Martin and Councilmember waters for Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez, do you have motion? Yeah, I’ll try this one real quick. I, and I guess I’ll give it a little nuance considering I was speaking against nuance, in a sense that I moved to monitor the bill with recommendations. I will Second.

Unknown Speaker 2:06:37
All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, opposed say nay? Well, I would have asked a question. No,

Unknown Speaker 2:06:46
no, no, no, no. Let’s go back. So let’s go back. I didn’t see any hands. So go ahead. Dr. Waters, could just an explanation of monitoring the bill with recommendations I helped me understand. I’m not smart enough to understand what that means, I guess, man, pretend you want to go ahead and clarify your motion.

Unknown Speaker 2:07:06
So my assumption is that

Unknown Speaker 2:07:09
we were talking about either approving it.

Unknown Speaker 2:07:14
Yes, a mandate or opposing it until amended. I assume the amendments would probably be consistent with most of the concerns that staff brought up outside of maybe a few. And

Unknown Speaker 2:07:28
I don’t think I could, through just a general consensus, specify set amendments at this time. But it’s more palatable to folks to monitor and then suss out what recommendations whether the we completely agree with city staffs concerns with the piece of legislation, or we have our own concerns

Unknown Speaker 2:07:54
that we were able to specify that, but the first motion is just generally monitor with recommendations.

Unknown Speaker 2:08:04
Outside of that, I think we would have to have further conversation to specify recommendations.

Unknown Speaker 2:08:11
Sorry, Dr. Water, squid.

Unknown Speaker 2:08:14
I think I think the motion to monitor make sense.

Unknown Speaker 2:08:18
I, the width recommendations still leaves me wondering what the recommendations were talking about? And if there’s not an answer to that, so I’m not certain what to do.

Unknown Speaker 2:08:29
Just for Martin.

Unknown Speaker 2:08:31
Yes, thank you very badly, I still believe that it would have been stronger to oppose pending amendments, which is what the Colorado Municipal League did. And that was why I phrased my motion the way we did. But because this council seems to be reluctant to take such a strong view. I’ll support the mayor pro tems recommendations and assume that

Unknown Speaker 2:09:00
this and we can talk about it later if we have to. But I would say that a vote would mean that we trust the staff to put forward the recommendations of the staff and the Colorado Municipal League. So you know if that takes a friendly amendment to make that part of it, will you accept it? Mayor Pro Tem.

Unknown Speaker 2:09:20
I’ll accept a second customer back.

Unknown Speaker 2:09:25
Thank you. And I expect the staff staff will come back with those amendments are at least asked for input from counsel on what they want those amendments to be through emails.

Unknown Speaker 2:09:38
Before you bring those back that draft,

Unknown Speaker 2:09:42
Sandy mirror would it be Councilmember Peck would it be amenable if we leave the cost issues out of any conversation back with our legislature because what happens to answer Polly’s question Councilmember Christensen’s question is that after you take these positions, I share all of these with our local legislators. I’ll share this

Unknown Speaker 2:10:00
One as well. And if you if you all vote that you’d like to monitor it, I’m happy to put that position in and say, here are the concerns that we have. And I’m happy to remove the cost concerns as there’s disagreement on what that looks like. If that would be helpful to kind of help put some borders around it. That would be helpful. And I think also, well, I can I can tell you in an email, yes, because those costs are not correct. By any means. So happy to admit it, and and just really stick with the Home Rule. municipality issues. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 2:10:33
All right. So the motion on the floor.

Unknown Speaker 2:10:37
Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez, I just wanted to thank assistant city manager cedar because I think both giving us an idea of what the process is on how after these votes, what you do with that information was very helpful, as well, as

Unknown Speaker 2:10:51
you know,

Unknown Speaker 2:10:54
I guess confirming that while there’s not consensus on city council about exactly what information, I think I think you’re you’re spot on with what you would intend to share with our local legislators in that case. And so thank you very much for that explanation. I appreciate that. That, so the motion is to monitor with recommendations. And those recommendations, of course, will come the staff comes back and talks to talks to us to check on what those recommendations should be. All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. All right, the motion passes unanimously. Right, let’s go on to mayor and council comments. All right, Mayor, I have one more I apologize.

Unknown Speaker 2:11:35
38. And this is the passenger rail district. And so this is this is the bill that would create the district for the purpose of planning, designing, developing, financing, constructing, operating and maintaining the passenger rail system along the front range. So this is one that we had the staff supports and suggest the city council support, mostly because of the theory around it. Right that, that it’s that what we’re trying to do is is create the district in the first place, understanding the taxation and representation and all those things would have to follow.

Unknown Speaker 2:12:08
Okay, Counselor pack.

Unknown Speaker 2:12:12
Thank you very badly, I would like to make a motion. But if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to explain my motion first. So that that’s fine. That’s a second. Okay. I’m with somebody.

Unknown Speaker 2:12:26
Can we remove the legislative the voting thing off of the I’m trying to look at prime draft. And all I see is the voting screen, and I can’t see my notes.

Unknown Speaker 2:12:40
Can you take that down?

Unknown Speaker 2:12:43
Who’s Who would do that?

Unknown Speaker 2:12:48
Thank you. So my my point of this deal is that it’s premature. We have to wait to see if Amtrak even gets enough federal funding before deciding on a rail district. Without funding, there’s not going to be any rail period. Right now there are three RTD fast tracks corridors vying to be the alignment for Front Range passenger rail. And if they do not pick the Northwest corridor to be that alignment. I don’t think we should be part of the district we’re already part of the Southwest Chief, the Southwest chief has a district and RTD has a district per Clair levy. Any municipality in this brand new district district, once it is,

Unknown Speaker 2:13:32
once it’s created, can go to court to get what they want out of it for the rail. For example, if a city within the district wants something special, they can go to court and ask for that. I’m totally against this, because it’s exactly what we did with our fast tracks with RTD. The southern part of the district got more and more of what they wanted, because they wanted special things. They used up all the money, and we don’t have our Northwest corridor. So I think that’s very subtle in this bill and I think it’s wrong. Um, so the policy

Unknown Speaker 2:14:09
point 8.08% tax. I don’t even think we should mention that because we don’t have a district. We don’t have the funding yet from the federal government or any enterprise. So that is why I’m going to make this motion.

Unknown Speaker 2:14:25
I’m going to move to ask the authors of the sb 238 to suspend the bill until we know the funding and sources for the rail. Second,

Unknown Speaker 2:14:36
I just I the only thing worse than paying for a train that we never got was paying for two trains that we never get. So until until until we see what the plan is that it’s gonna include Northwest rail and see what portion of the tax that we’re gonna pay. We already pay 111 Senator 1% of every dollar spent in Longmont goes to our

Unknown Speaker 2:15:00
RTD in,

Unknown Speaker 2:15:02
in the rail and fast track, and I just increasing that almost 2% just seems silly. So I’d like to see it. So you can refer back, I’m gonna actually support you on this. So all in favor of the motion say Aye. I’m sorry, Dr. Waters.

Unknown Speaker 2:15:20
I’m most familiar with the text of this legislation is obviously Councilmember Peck is

Unknown Speaker 2:15:27
would help me to get a little more information about

Unknown Speaker 2:15:31
the geography of the district.

Unknown Speaker 2:15:34
Is it already defined?

Unknown Speaker 2:15:36
Can I answer that very badly?

Unknown Speaker 2:15:39
Okay. Yes, it is prematurely defined, Councilman waters. However, until we get the funding until Amtrak gets any federal funding for this, we don’t know what that funding is going to cover. We also don’t know if we create a district in order to cover the operations, what would that tax be dependent upon the funding from the federal government?

Unknown Speaker 2:16:05
So it’s all up in the air at this point? So go ahead. So it becomes a little bit of a chicken and an egg. How do we get some of those questions answered?

Unknown Speaker 2:16:16
Without the legislation? I mean, I hear the concerns, both yours and the mayor’s. I share those concerns. I was asked earlier today about this bill. And I said, Well, there’s a there’s a bunch of questions I have about the geography the district to set the table to make decisions, how decisions are going to get made, when they’re gonna get made, what do we know about funding? You know, all those things, but I don’t know how you answer those it without legislation. So what do we what if this, let’s assume this bill dies?

Unknown Speaker 2:16:48
is there is there some other way to get those questions answered about the geography of a district decision makers?

Unknown Speaker 2:16:56
What what equity looks like for municipalities like Longmont?

Unknown Speaker 2:17:01
it all in all the other issues you’re talking about? How do we get to those? So Councilman waters, there is the map of the district and I can get that to you. FRP are FRP are Yeah, especially in their, in their presentation to us if a few months ago did show a district? I mean, I’m sorry, the geography, the plan for the rail,

Unknown Speaker 2:17:26
per Front Range passenger rail, who would who would partner with Amtrak? So that geography of where the rail is going to go is already out there. the geography of the district is also out there. And I can get that to you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So the plan for the rail.

Unknown Speaker 2:17:50
If it doesn’t have the Northwest corridor in it, it does not help Longmont at all. Um, but they’re, like I said, there are three other Fast Track corridors that are vying for that alignment. I question whether whoever does not get that alignment will vote for the district, because we’re all trying to get our local fast tracks corridors, and it’s dependent upon federal funding at this point. So um, why I made the motion.

Unknown Speaker 2:18:25
All right. All right. So is there anybody opposed to the motion?

Unknown Speaker 2:18:28
All right. So let’s, if you don’t mind with that, let’s go ahead and vote All in favor of opposing?

Unknown Speaker 2:18:36
You want to repeat exactly what the motion is, Counselor?

Unknown Speaker 2:18:40
I would like them to suspend this. It’s premature. Just take it off the table. don’t oppose it. Don’t just take it off the table. And I don’t know if that’s an option. But I don’t want to agree with it. I don’t want to oppose it.

Unknown Speaker 2:18:56
Right. It’s just it’s premature. All right. So all in favor say aye. Aye.

Unknown Speaker 2:19:02
Opposed say nay. All right, the Motion carries unanimously. All right. Let’s move on to Council, Councillor Christiansen.

Unknown Speaker 2:19:11
Councilwoman Peck, would you please send that information to all of us? So we all know the districts and things like that?

Unknown Speaker 2:19:19
Of course. Thank you for for that.

Unknown Speaker 2:19:25
All right. Let’s go on to mayor and council comments. Does anyone have anything they’d like to say tonight?

Unknown Speaker 2:19:31
All right, great. Harold anything.

Unknown Speaker 2:19:37
province Mayor Council. Eugene, who works in silence.

Unknown Speaker 2:19:43
No comments, Mayor. Great. All right. Do we have a motion to adjourn?

Unknown Speaker 2:19:48
So moved.

Unknown Speaker 2:19:51
Alright, it’s been Moved by Councillor Martin seconded by Dr. Waters. Councillor Christiansen? You were in there somewhere I saw so my All in favor say aye. Aye.

Unknown Speaker 2:20:01
propose a name. Alright, we’re where we are. We are adjourned. And I just want to tell everybody thank you for quick meeting I, but I’m not feeling well after the vaccination. So that was that was a great night. Thank you guys. Alright, see you later. Bye