City Council Open Forum – July 20, 2021

Video Description:
City Council Open Forum – July 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.

Read along below, or follow along here: (pt 1: https://otter.ai/u/17ZeQvrmh2rOd11g1MzWDnnXO1Q      pt 2: https://otter.ai/u/mslC6NVYnE5SjTGw9kphKfz6sZQ)

4:12
All right, I’m going to go ahead and call tonight’s open forum city council meeting to order and let’s go ahead and start with the roll call please. And even though our clock say five till I’m showing on our cell phones it’s directly seven o’clock. So, alright, let’s go and start the roll call please.

4:26
Mayor Bagley here, Councilmember Christiansen Councilmember Hidalgo appearing here. Councilmember Martin, here. Councilmember pack. Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez. Councilmember waters, Mayor, you have a quorum. Alright, great. Let’s say the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

5:00
All right. Tonight we have open forum, don’t see a city manager or city attorney in order to talk about anything. I see you back there, but not to talk about things. So let’s go ahead and set the rules. So there are people calling in, Do we have anybody on the phone line by any chance? Okay, so those of you who are listening at home and who want to call in that’s, that’s great. You’re more than welcome. But we’re going to take the the time with folks who are here in person first. There’s currently at least 20 person on the first list. Can we get the second list? I’m guessing there’s, there’s there’s plenty of people on that one, too, given that everybody on the list has five minutes, and then counsel will discuss with them the issue depending on the interest and and what we have to say, if you’re calling in. It might be a late night, but we will get to you when we are done with the folks here at the in chambers. So we’ll just go on until we take a break, then we’ll put up that phone number. So let’s go ahead and get started. And let’s counselors. Any comments before we get going on? Well, that’s not part of the agenda. But Alright, so let’s go ahead. Becky Burke, Lowe. And are you here with other folks? Then why don’t you come up? You want to come up all together? There’s an arrow. So I see former council member Levison and Edwina Salazar, the head of the former executive director of the the our center. And there’s 10 on sheet two.

6:39
Well, good evening. How are you all tonight? anxious to talk to everybody, right? Yes, yeah. My name is Becky Bercow. And I’m president of the board of alchemy day down the street at 455 kimbark. And I’m here to talk to you guys about how much we’ve been doing because we know you have no idea. All during the pandemic, we were taking appointments and helping people with rent. We worked on the census, we helped with appointments for driver’s licenses, we did a lot of stuff. In 2020, we saw 2414 clients and of those 1593 were unduplicated. So we’ve seen a lot of people in the first two months, six months of 2021. We’ve seen 848 clients of these clients 77% are from Longmont. 6% are from other areas of Boulder, county, and 17% are outside our area. And they’re referred to by other organizations and other counties and other cities. And we really don’t turn folks away. We want you to know we have fill out the census for 357 households last year. If you figure the average number of people per household was five because some folks had three and some had eight, and one family had 13 members living in a whole house, that woman’s probably really tired. We receive roughly about the city of Longmont and community receives roughly 15 $100 for every citizen, we register. So if if you figure that we registered 1785 residents times 15 $100, that’s $2,677,500. By 10 years, it’s $26,775,000. So we bring a lot of cash into this community by helping out with the census and the other things we do. And I’m betting you’re gonna ask, you’re wondering what I want from you. Here’s what I want from you. I need to see you at our events. I need to see you at our fundraising dinners. I need to see those executive directors that those fundraising dinners and those events. And that’s what I would like from you. You get a pretty good bang for your buck. We figured it out. And it’s about $434 per year, per client, that you guys donate it to us last year for $10,500 $4 $4. Yeah, sorry, $4.34 per year, per client for us. And so we need your support. We need your help. We need your help with fundraising. We need your help at events. Did you all know that? We just did a vaccination clinic last week in the parking lot at El Camino de please come and support us. We need your support. Thank you. Okay, nope, nobody’s set but we hear you. Sure. Hey, Donna,

9:43
how are you? Hi. Thanks. I’m Donald lavado. And I’m the executive director and commit there. And the mayor Pro Tem and I are gonna figure this out. Yeah, I think you’re right though. And I want to talk about a couple of things that are coming That does kind of adding to what Becky said? The like, No, okay. I lost my train of thought there. Yeah, when the pandemic happened and the economic the office closed on March 15, and we weren’t closed until June 1, then we opened our doors. It was by appointment only, because what we found is during that time that we were off, we were calling people. And we needed to get them just, you know, business, everyday business. And a lot of them, even if they have their telephones, they don’t know the technology on how to use it. They don’t know how to do computers. So we were registering people for the census for voting for despite everything you can imagine. And so it’s important to know that we’ve been there and other agencies were not there. And so we had to do a lot of things by zoom. So even if they had to go to court, they’d have to go through zoom, but they’d have to go through the committee office, through our stuff, because they didn’t know how. The other thing that we do that’s really important is we do the citizenship. So people who have been permanent residents can apply for their citizenship, and there’s certain rules, but basically, in 2020, we helped 35 clients do the N 441 renewed their green cards. And what we’re finding this year, we’ve only done 10 of the end for hundreds and 32 of the 90s. So it cost $725 to submit the application for the citizenship, it only costs 500 to do the one for the I 91 people didn’t have money to do it, too. If they sit put that money towards citizenship, and they don’t pass the test, they don’t get that money back. But then they can’t go backwards either. So given everything that’s been going on, they opted to do that. And the other thing that I was going to tell you, we we were part of, you know, the, the COVID was, it was a curse, but it was also a blessing, we were able to get grant funds to help people with rent. And so we got a grant. And we helped with and we worked in conjunction with the our center, and gave $15,000 in rent assistance to people and one family. He used to work, landscaping, and when he lost his job, he bought a lawn mower and he just went up and down to his neighbors and asked them and they helped him. And our center helped him with rent and we were able to help him with rent. And then his wife sold tamales. And that’s how they got through the pandemic. And he’s back at work. And so I think it’s important for people to know that the pandemic has hit the Latino community, mostly the immigrant community really hard. Last year, we did the no worker left behind. And so they were giving $500 to people who are undocumented, we gave 67 individuals $500, which is $33,000 that stayed in our community. And now in 2021, the state did another program, and it was $1,000 if you were undocumented, and so we gave 80 individuals. So that was like $80,000. So part of it is, you know, I think it’ll come up as a really important organization. And I know we don’t come in front of you guys all very much. And I know I know a lot of you and but I think it’s important that you know all the work that we’re doing, and we continue to do. And you know, even with the pandemic, two of my staff got sick. And one of them got super sick, the other one lost her sense of taste and smell. And so we did close during those two weeks. Most of us I didn’t get it, thank goodness. But we also have people coming in and they’ll say, Oh, my son has the COVID. But I don’t I’m asymptomatic. So then we have to close it down again. And, you know, Clorox everything. And so, you know, it’s important that we’re there. But we’re doing all the precautions. We got grant monies for face masks, and for the sanitizers. And we take their temperature and we lost a lot of people. This is my last story. We had one guy who took the class the because we do the classes for citizenship. He went, took the test, pass the test, and they gave him his date to do the swearing in and then he died. And so that was really sad. So that’s the kind of stuff that we do. But then we have all the good stuff of people who are coming through the So anyway, but thank you and anytime you guys want to come for 55 kimbark. Stop by and thank you.

14:27
Thanks. Sarah Levison for 55 kimbark. Speaking on behalf of alchemy day. Thank you, counsel for doing the open forum. Again. I really appreciate having the opportunity to address you. I’m going to talk about economics. Donna talked a little bit about citizenship and green cards. People can’t legally work in this country unless there is a way that they can easily get that information and become citizens or keep their green card. fundamental economic issue for them to stay here and alchemy tape. provides a critical service for that. The other thing is, we have connections through our membership with the Latino Chamber of Commerce to the business community. And we built a very strong partnership base with many organizations. We’ve got safe shelter, coming to meet clients where they’re comfortable with alchemy, a Boulder County aids project, the cultivate mental health partners and the Center for people with disabilities. I know the council funds many of those organizations, but their work with alchemy, Tay actually built a lot of efficiencies with our partnership, it gets that connection with the Latino community that they can’t have otherwise, in many cases. Another part of the economic issue is that our community assists people getting driver’s licenses. You can’t go to work legally and drive a car and get insurance unless you have a driver’s license and alchemy. Tei has facilitated a lot of people navigating a system, which is incomprehensible to many of them. We also do adult English classes. And unlike other organizations, our teachers are professionally trained and certified to teach English as a second language. Again, economically if you can speak English better at your job, you have a better chance of advancement. And finally, I do want to thank and acknowledge council support over many decades. I also want to thank both Susie Hill dogboe fairing and Polly Christiansen who have been our council member liaisons. And in the past we’ve had other council member leads on so I want to appreciate all their work. And again, the doors are always open. Don is always available by phone now that you’ve seen several board members, you can always pick up the phone and call us with any questions. And we really would appreciate seeing you at our events. We were able to have a 40th anniversary party last year. So we will be doing an event for 41 years and and we hope to see everyone there. Good evening. It’s

17:06
great to see you all again. Members of city council and Mayor Bagley you know, these are the challenging times for COVID vaccinations. But I’m happy to say our community had a successful vaccine clinic this last Saturday for the first dose of Madonna, Donna and Pfizer. And we vaccinated 30 people between the ages of 12 and up. And we some of the immigrants that came are already vaccinated with their AstraZeneca However, they will be eligible for a j&j dose. So we’re expecting about 20 more of those folks on the 14th. And it, it seems like people are coming in groups. So I would suggest if we do community outreach, that getting people who are in employee groups and family groups to come seems to be a successful strategy. The staff assisted another 300 people to make a vaccine appointments. And they also taught people how to use the technology to make their appointments. And we’d like to announce we are seeking to move. And I know we’ve been very grateful for the kimbark location to the city of Longmont. But we’re putting maximum effort into finding funds to move to our own location and have a office building that will meet the needs, the growing needs of the community and the organization. So we will be applying for the worthy cause tax and are really working hard this next month to get all the all the little blocks in place to have to actually be able to purchase a building. So you’ll be hearing more about that. And I’m sure that we’ll be contacting you all and with the feasibility questions about that in the next two weeks. So stay tuned. And I’ve been on the board for the last six months and I’m really excited about this stage if they call me Tay, alchemy j actually received in organizational leadership grant, and it will it’s it’s starting, and it’s for three years. And it’s with the Latino philanthropic organization. So you’ll be hearing more about that. And I’m really, again, very honored to be part of our community at this time of organizational growth. Thank you.

19:48
Thank you, Edwina. All right. I think that Christina edstrom and the blue shirts are next. So Christina, if you want to come up Sorry, hold on one second one second. It looks like Polly Christiansen has something to say first.

20:07
Thank you, Mayor Bagley. I want to thank all the folks from Elko mai tais, for coming up. I, they have done incredible work for this community for decades. And it’s really important that this community understands all the different things that you guys do do. And so I want to thank you for everything you do. And every one of you is somebody I value a great deal. So thank you very much. All right. council members, toggle fairing.

20:43
I actually have a question for the folks from for Donna, or Becky or any, any of you all. So, you know, the organization really thrives and needs volunteers for to keep the work that you’re doing to expand capacity. If there are community members who want to be involved, what can they do? They

21:05
can call the office 336516125. If you speak Spanish, that’s really cool. If you don’t, that’s okay. Because when we do the ESL classes, and even the citizenship classes, those are done in English, unless they’re over. Like, I think it’s 55. They can take the test in Spanish, but we have people to cover that. So

21:25
what can I do to help I volunteered with the citizenship classes? And there were volunteers there who did not speak Spanish and you know, there are clients who, who speak English fine. So they so so there is room for, for any community member who wants to get involved in I would highly encourage it.

21:46
But wait, yeah. Oh, sure. Thanks. Casper Peck. Thank you, Donna. I also have a question really fast. It looks like you’re on a Stairmaster there. And my question is, earlier, when you came up, you said that when you had the ESL classes, that you actually use trained and educated people to first speak English as a second language.

22:21
So how is it if you asked for volunteers? Is it specifically that you want teachers to volunteer for these ESL classes? That would be the best we use a program. It’s called ventures. And it’s through the state. It’s, it’s approved by them? And so, yes, and so they really become kind of, because especially with the citizenship, they have to learn to speak English. And so they really need to practice and what we find is, they know the test, they can take the test and pass it. But when it’s time for them to talk, they get we don’t understand you, your accents too thick or whatever. So they need that one on one practice.

23:00
So So you are you telling me that anyone can apply to do this, but you would prefer they be teachers? Not necessarily No? Okay.

23:08
I just wanted to make that. Not necessarily. And in fact, now we we stopped the classes because of pandemic and then we had him in the park during the summer. And now central pres gave us some space there. So we’re doing our classes, so we can actually have more students. So it’s always nice when the teacher can hook different people up with the students. Okay, thank

23:28
you for all your work. Thanks. All right. Now, Christina, you may come up with all your hoard.

23:43
Hi, good evening, Mayor Bagley in Longmont, city council. Really appreciate your continued interest in our proposed healthy drinks for kids. ordinance, or for so fortunate to here tonight to have like a huge group of people who stand up if you’re with us. Thank you for being here.

24:04
Are there gonna be others that speak with you or no? Yes, yeah, there’s want to come down though, you’re going to be speaking with her if you want to come down. Now getting the lineup, that’d be great.

24:12
Don’t worry, there’s almost 40 of us, but only only five will be speaking. So we were here. All right. Well, now brevity will be the the theme of this. So we’re, we’re fortunate to have a large group, including the group El Paso, which is working to improve the health of San Fran Valley students. So we’re grateful for their presence for our youth social media team who is here and so many others. So thank you for being here. You can sit in the chairs up here, you don’t stand. But it’s not just the people in this group. It’s not just the 40 members, people here tonight. It’s also we have received over 100 community support cards from Longmont residents. So we have a strong community support. And you know, we’re basically just here today to tell you exactly why we think this ordinance is so important to pass for the health of our youngest residents. To ask that you move forward with that and ultimately pass our ordinance. So, I’m going to introduce the people who will be speaking today we have Gracie Zheng who is a senior at silvergate High School. Michael beer who is the medical director for the solute clinic. Rosa Stillwell who is a Longmont mom and also a Boulder County restaurant specter. Maddy, Philly of the American Heart Association and finally Dr. Landry Fagan, who is a local family physician as well as a Boulder County Board of Health members. So without further ado, let me introduce Gracie. Hi,

25:44
good evening, Mayor Bagley and city council members. My name is Gracie sang and I’m a senior at Silver Creek High School on behalf of the Boulder County healthy drinks social media team. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all this evening. With me representing our team is an audience sitting there ready. Fabiola Oliver’s gretta, Weddell and never we never did that Prabhu. And may our team shared with you the research we’ve done into negative health effects of sugary drinks, and how sugary beverage industries target community of colors, and the uphill battle that members of our generation face and growing up to be healthy adults. It is critical we do what we can to ensure that me and my peers and our younger community that supports our health so that we can pursue our hopes, dreams and professional goals. We urge you to pass this healthy drinks and children’s meals ordinance because it is a straightforward solution that prioritizes the health for long months children for years to come. The time is now to make every effort to stop the quickly growing trends of obesity and chronic illness and disease that my generation faces and to ensure that young people in Longmont have the opportunity to grow up and be healthy. Thank you.

27:09
Thank you, Michael beer is a doctor beer. No, I’m a physician assistant. I will pa beer. They work me like one they don’t pay me like one.

27:23
So first of all, bear with me. I just got progressive. So there’s this, you know, working vision thing that I’m having issues with right now. But Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Bagley and council members. As I said, I’m Michael beer. I’m a medical director at a federally qualified health center here in Longmont known as solute family health centers. Working as a physician assistant and family practice at Salut has all kinds of challenges, not the least of which is trying to turn the tide of chronic disease among vulnerable populations. And one of course recent coronavirus pandemic. But standing here now there’s a different challenge particularly knowing as I do the impact of sugar. Sugar lights up the prefrontal cortex on brain MRI, which is magnetic resonance imaging, the same areas lit up by nicotine and alcohol and even heroin, causing dopamine release amplifying crazing cravings. The excess consumption of sugar will affect major organ systems leading to weight gain heart disease, hypertension, non alcoholic steatohepatitis, also known as fatty liver disease, and of course diabetes. on a regular basis, I encounter overweight and obese children whose parents talk to me about trying to provide healthy food options for their families. In the midst of busy schedules, they end up eating on the run. As a parent of two I empathize with them and can understand why parents frequently swing into the drive thru in between shutdown and their kids from home to daycare, to school to sports practice. One of the culprits standing between children’s and families access to healthy meals is sugary drinks. No parent would ever dream of letting their kid dump sugar and a drink that comes with their dinner. And yet in one kid’s size. 12 ounce cup of soda lies a hidden 10 teaspoons of sugar. That’s the same amount of sugar found in three glazed doughnuts. A bag a bag of candy coated chocolates are nine chocolate chip cookies. Now when you arrive home tonight, I would ask that you take a look at your own cupboards. Find those juice boxes, the sports drinks the soda and look for the nutrition label. four grams of sugar equals one teaspoon. He goes one cube equals one packet. I’m not saying we should ban sugary drinks out right. Certainly parents can make those decisions. But let’s make sugary drinks. The exception not the rule the option, not the default. Fast Food casual dining and sit down restaurants should offer healthier drinks like water and low fat or fat free milk as the automatic option served in their kids meals, sugary drinks, we’re talking soda fruit flavored sports drinks, granted no health benefits. Instead, this candy in the cop leads our kids on the path to high blood pressure, fatty liver disease and type two diabetes, all of which are on the rise and children nationwide. Even here in active Colorado. As part of my weekly patient visits, I routinely need to recommend cholesterol and fasting glucose screening for our kids. Just last week had to order these tests on an eight year old. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We need to focus on reducing consumption of the kids cups of liquefied sugar restaurants right here in Longmont can offer healthier alternatives as the automatic drink and kids meals. In fact, two places that kids love Disney World and McDonald’s you guys like Disney World McDonald’s. Of course you do. But they’re already doing it with great success. When disney world began offering healthier drinks default with our kids meals, guests opted for healthier beverages two thirds of the time, even though as states in the Oregon ordinance, sugary drinks will still be available. And us McDonald’s restaurants removing sodas from the Happy Meal menu resulted in 21 million more low fat and fat free milk jugs and 100% apple juice boxes sold over an 11 month period. So imagine that with the good we could do for our kids. If these are the standard drinks for all kids eating out. This is why I urge you to ensure that restaurants make milk and water the standard drinks in their kids meals. Let’s make nourishing options the automatic choice and normalize healthy behaviors for children in Longmont. Thank you. Thank you, Rosa Stilwell.

32:00
Good evening, Mayor backway and council member. My name is Rosa Stowell and I am here as a mom, and also as a Boulder County Public Health restaurant inspector. And I would like to share my perspective on the healthy drinks and children’s meals policy from both perspectives. As mom. I’m working hard to raise my kids healthy. And I can tell you that it’s really challenging to raise Healthy Kids in our current environment. My kids are bombarded by advertisements for sugary drinks, making it an uphill battle for me to encourage them to make healthy choices. When we go out to eat, it makes it so easy. When my children’s choices are milk or water. We don’t have to argue about soda or chocolate milk. When I have to get into the battle about what my kids choices are. Whether chocolate milk or soda. It ruins the experience of going out to eat for all of us. I truly do appreciate the restaurants that offer healthy options. As a public health inspector. We checked the restaurants menu as a routine as a routine inspection. And in Lafayette, where there’s an ordinance already in place, we also look at Children’s menu to see what they are offering for beverages in the kids meals. In my experience, restaurants have not had had a hard time shifting to offering healthy drink kids on their menu. Because the restaurants still have that option of offering the sugary drinks outside of the kid’s meal. So I explained to them they can still when I explained to them, they can still do it outside of the meal, then they go ahead and support this change. Our goal at Boulder County Public Health is to work in partnership with our restaurants and with the community. We want restaurants to be successful and we want our kids to be healthy. This ordinance makes it possible for both of those things. I respectfully ask that you support the healthy drinks and children’s meals policy. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Maddie, Philly. Hi,

34:14
good evening. My name is Maddy, Philly and I am the community impact director at the American Heart Association here in Colorado. It is my honor to speak in favor of the healthy drinks and children’s meal ordinance to support restaurants and promoting the health of our children. The American Heart Association recommends that children over the age of two have no more than one eight ounce sugary drink a week just one yet today. Children are consuming as much as 10 times that much each throughout the week. Just one kid size 12 ounce soda contains 10 teaspoons of sugar, which is more than the ajs daily guidelines for kids. I’m sure you guys are all aware that sugary drinks are in A major contributor to the increasing rates of chronic diseases like type two diabetes and heart disease. Even here in active Colorado. You know, so many people think of Colorado as a healthy place. But when you look at the rates growing and our children, we need to make a difference and we need to make a difference now, today, children are being diagnosed with these diseases, which were previously only seen in adults. eating out has changed from a treat to a daily necessity, given our busy schedules and the growing affordability of restaurant meals. And in fact, now Americans spend more than more of their food budgets on foods prepared outside of the home than they do at foods prepared inside of the home. That means that children consume about a quarter of their meals from eating out and if a kid has a sugary drink at four meals a week, that equates to nearly nine pounds of excess weight a year. Parents simply want more healthy choices for kids and to cut down on those familiar requests for junk food and sugary drinks. To help we think that parents or that restaurants can make sure kids meals are healthier. And one way is to get to get this started is just to offer water as the standard or unflavored milk as the standard on bundled kids smells. We hope that kids will start to see this as the norm not as the exception. Every kid deserves to grow up at a healthy weight which means promoting healthy beverage options. I asked you guys all to please support the healthy drinks in children’s male ordinance making the healthy choice the easy choice. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Dr. Fagan. Hi,

36:40
I’m Dr. Landry Fagan. I’m a family physician and member of the Board of Health since 2019. I’ve worked at fluid with Michael beer and now I’m at clinica, another Fq hc in Boulder County. And just like Michael beer, I see the negative effects of sugar and our patients on a daily basis in primary care. As you’ve heard tonight, we’re facing an epidemic not just in the United States, but right here in Boulder County. While Boulder County has a reputation for being one of the nation’s healthiest counties in the healthiest state. Our childhood obesity rates have almost doubled 43% since 2003. And about one in four children ages two to 14 in this country or in the county are overweight or obese. In 2018 Boulder County children two to four years old who are enrolled in WIC experienced a higher prevalence of overweight status or obesity than 13 other counties in Colorado. This trend is so alarming the Boulder County Public Health Department of Public Health passed a resolution in 2019 declaring childhood obesity a health epidemic in Boulder County. Evidence Based science shows us that sugary drinks are a major culprit contributing to obesity and chronic disease. In fact, we know that reducing sugary drink consumption is one definitive approach to reducing childhood obesity. sugary drinks are the number one source of added sugars in the American diet. And children who drink at least one sugary beverage a day are 55% more likely to be overweight or obese. In fact, 2019 guidelines developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy for Nutrition and Dietetics, the American Heart Association, and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry all recommended that children five years old and or younger should only be drinking water and flavored milk. Sugar starts the lifetime trend towards insulin resistance, obesity and ultimately type two diabetes which is plaguing our country and straining our healthcare system. In addition to this, the beverage industry is focused marketing on children, especially children of color causes our Latino children to be even more impacted by sugary drinks. In Colorado, 19% of children drink one or more sugary drinks per day compared to 30% of our Latino children. The negative health effects of that parallel the difference in consumption. In 2017 28.2% of Boulder County’s Latin x high school students were experiencing overweight or obesity compared to only 9.7% of their white High School peers. children’s health is important to all of us, we want to make the healthy choice the easy choice for kids and their parents. extensive research demonstrates that if a sugary drink becomes the norm for a child at age four, six, it will likely be their go to beverage and adult life subsequently increasing likelihood that they’ll experience this entire host of health issues. promoting healthy drinks and children’s menus sends a signal that they are the appropriate everyday beverages for children. Ultimately, we want to support parents who are striving to promote the health of their children. For all of these reasons, Boulder County Public Health supports the healthy drinks and kids meals initiative as an effective policy to reduce children’s sugary beverage consumption and as a strategy to address children experiencing too much weight for their health, your support and adopting the healthy drinks and kids meals positions Longmont as a national leader in health, this policy will have a positive impact on the whole For the children of life long line, and we hope the community as a whole. Thank you. All right, great. Thank you. Councillor waters.

40:11
Thank you very badly. Christine, I don’t know if this is for you or for the, for the doctor or for the clinic director. But we know for a decade, the forecast that childhood obesity and diabetes would be the next huge challenge, both economically in terms of the cost of health care that was before a pandemic. And, and just generally, in terms of the long term costs for a generation. Now came the pandemic. And in the pandemic, I’m just curious, you mentioned that doubling since 2003, what’s happened in the last 18 months? Or do you have data during the pandemic, and, and in the translation of behaviors during the pandemic, with all of this going on, and what we see now is trends.

41:10
I don’t have the numbers in front of me. And I imagine those will continue to emerge over the years to see what’s happened to our children on many dimensions over the last 18 months. But anecdotally, I would say children are, in addition to being home more and eating more at home, not always healthfully at home, they’re out of all of their routine sports. So I’ve personally seen just like Michael beer was talking about children very young, needing to have cholesterol screening having high blood pressure, even because they’re not out exercising, they’re not playing soccer, they’re not in organized sports. And that that trend, I think, will only compound with fast food and lack of physical activity. So anecdotally,

41:55
things didn’t get better in terms of the health of kids during the pandemic, fair to say,

42:01
aside from aside from mental health, I also think their physical health suffered.

42:06
Yeah, I would have to agree with that across the board. And it’s all anecdotal. I haven’t seen any relevant or recent data. But every telehealth visit, I have, you know, as far as preventive medicine, in adults or kids, wait comes up because we’ve all been sedentary, eating poorly. He’s drinking too much alcohol. And obviously that’s not kids, but in general, in the United States needs to turn the corner, I’m sure no, no adults in here the back and get back to where we were pretty pandemic. And let’s face it, there’s going to be a lot of work to do and all in all that we are.

42:43
So just in terms of you have done a good job of establishing what this ordinance explaining what the ordinance does and does not do doesn’t constrain parents from ordering whatever they want to order. It just changes the default. Right? So there’s been a fair amount of comment in some of the local newspapers about this, you know, becoming the nanny state or somehow constraining what restaurants can order or limiting what parents can or limiting what restaurants can offer and what parents can order. None of that is accurate. Is that correct? In terms of this ordinance?

43:16
Yeah, that’s absolutely correct. Parents can continue to order whatever they’d like for their, for their children. It just makes it the default. And we know from other sort of behavioral changes that default work, whether it’s automatically taking money out for your retirement, or just any site, having people just automatically as a default be organ donors, it just works. And so this is just a nice little behavioral nudge just to make the healthy choice, the default so that that’s becomes normalized for our kids, because we don’t want to normalize soda, because it really is uniquely detrimental to children’s health.

43:52
So we started this conversation, you brought this to us, just in the weeks prior to everything shutting down, right. And at that time, I would have expected that by June of 2019 or June 2020, we would have we would have seen the ordinance and then we decided for, for obvious reasons to delay to give us a chance to see what how the pandemic affected our restaurant tours. And, and then we also committed to a public engagement process through engage long run and I haven’t seen the results. I know there’s a survey. I don’t know how many respondents there been. I don’t know what the responses are. I think the staff did a nice job of listing the specifics of the ordinance, but I also know that people might respond to a survey without necessarily reading all those specifics. And I know this is not a time during this is not a meeting where we we give direction to the to this city Man City Manager staff. But But when I think about what we do with codes right ordinances, building codes, and inspections, what we invest in recreation facilities, in beyond make a go on the things we do in the interest of health and safety for our residents. It seems to me that it is time from my perspective, to get a draft of an ordinance on our agenda for our consideration, and give it an up or down vote. It deserves clarity on where we stand. And I think I think we’ve spent enough time waiting to collect the data. I haven’t seen it. I’ll be interested to see what the data are. But I also know what the science is. And I value opinions, but I’m not going to have a vote, overwhelm. I’d like to see it but I’d like Well, for me, it won’t overwhelm the science on what we know is in the interest of our kids. So I’d like to see that. And I know the city manager and others are listening, I’d like to see it sooner rather than later. Thank you, Dr. Waters. Councillor Martin?

45:54
Thank you, Mayor Begley. This is a quick question. And I want you to understand that it’s not a hostile one, but rather a behavioral one. We have some concerns elsewhere in the legislature and such about the use of of single use plastics, and and yet, you say milk or bottled water? Does it have to be bottled water? Is there a reason first explicitly saying bottled water?

46:25
If that’s in the proposed ordinance language? I don’t think it is I would certainly prefer a glass of water for the same reason that you point out so good. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you very much.

46:39
All right, great. I’m gonna I want to ask I mean, so first of all, Christina, I know, Christina, I love the edstrom family. So the quite literally, I was also the one who put this on the agenda. So I’m gonna ask you some questions. Because when it comes back, this is gonna be a hot topic for the community. And I’m going to want you and the doctors who know far more about health and nutrition than I right. So. So let’s, for example, so I guess why this? Right, why the sugary drinks push? Because right, so we’re going in and it’s a kiddie menu, right? We’ve got one cup of spaghetti noodles. And one drink, one sugary drink. One has 41 grams of grams of carbs. The 10 teaspoons of sugar has 42 grams of carbs, nutritionally the exact same thing, right? Or maybe you’re going like this. But I understand you’re correct, because you have one gram of fat, seven grams of protein. But my point is, as far as the sugar and the carbs go, and the impact on the body is not essentially the same thing.

47:47
I’m probably not the right person to ask because my daughter has epilepsy and is on a keto diet at age four for epilepsy, but so she’s not having the spaghetti either. But you make an interesting point. But when you drink your calories, you don’t feel like you’ve gotten nutrition. And so you’re missing out on the fiber, you’re missing out on that feeling of fullness. And you don’t get the signals to your brain that say I just consumed 45 grams of carbohydrate. And so it leaves you still feeling thirsty. And often kids don’t even drink just one. They’ll have to at a sitting it gets refilled automatically. So I think it’s not there’s no vitamins or minerals or fiber or healthy fats or protein in that drink either.

48:32
So the spaghetti and drink something even more. Yeah. Okay, exactly. So and then the next question is, so if you eat 22 grams of fat, that’s, that’s the same caloric intake is 10 teaspoons of sugar and the spaghetti noodles. So why are we not focusing on caloric intake rather than just the sugary drinks? Again, I’m not arguing with you. I want these questions out there. So that when it comes back for an ordinance, people aren’t. Yeah, I’ve got one more question after this. Sure.

49:00
So in relation to the the type of sugar and the manner in which its sugar is absorbed, obviously, if it’s a solid food, your body has to process that and break it down. So as it goes through the gastrointestinal tract, that absorption is going to be slower. If I’m going to take a coke, I’m going to guzzle it right down, liquid is quickly absorbed, it spikes insulin and sugar levels. And then once you and this is key, there’s a dopamine release in the brain, same exact spot in the prefrontal cortex, and it wants you or creates an environment where you want more. So as soon as you’re done with that sugary beverage, you’re going to still do the pasta. And then you’re going to refill your soda. And then you’re going to get this amplification of the caloric intake and also the types of sugars

49:52
they are awesome, awesome answers. And then last but not least, why are you guys making us a nanny state Why are you legislating this? Why aren’t we now legislating spaghetti versus keto diet or legislating spaghetti versus vegetables? Or legislating protein versus carbs? What is your response to those citizens who surely are, are going to say that kind of thing? Yeah,

50:16
you know, I’m on Facebook used to read the Longmont Times called opinion pages and comments. And I read I refrain professionally and personally from commenting. And I see all of those comments. And to me, it’s it’s as if the respondents have not read the ordinance, right there assuming that we want to shut down parent choices. I don’t want to shut down parents choice. My kid is having a birthday. I’m going to get him a Shirley Temple. Sorry. Right, because that’s my choice as a parent, and that’s something that I feel like he deserves. And what, as far as the other issues, you know, I guess Landry can speak

50:57
to this? Well,

50:59
I think it’s that it is a complex issue. I mean, we could talk about diet all day, you can’t legislate people’s diet, I think getting back to the nudge theory, which there’s a lot of data to support, just just making health the default. I mean, would I appreciate like a really healthy child choice that didn’t include spaghetti? Yes, I would, I would love a chicken and broccoli option with no spaghetti. But that’s not going to be the default for everyone. But you don’t have to consume a huge amount of sugar as a regular beverage.

51:32
So the ordinance is about choice. It’s about it’s not necessarily saying you can’t drink your your pop or your sugary drinks. It’s just whatever you give, give them a choice and make sure that they’re aware that the healthier option is available before you make them available before you make them aware of the other option, which is less healthy. Okay, I just wanted to have the opportunity, john fryers listen at home. And if he decides to write all this information down, I figured that’d be great. Thank you, Christina. Thank you. So thank you guys. Thank you very much. All right. Are we doing okay, it’s quarter tells we’ve only 145 minutes. We all right. Okay. All right, john flower.

52:15
Hello, Mayor, Bagley and city council. I’m sure Marcia knows why I’m here. Because we traded some emails. I’m going to talk about fireworks

52:34
and timeout timeout. So I don’t care what I have no idea if he’s gonna talk about good ones, or bad ones. Or if you’re pro or con. Unfortunately, there might be people here that are going to stand up and talk about the exact opposite of what this good gentleman is going to talk about with a different view. And so in council chambers, we don’t allow outbursts positive or negative, just to encourage everyone to have a opportunity to speak and speak freely. So go ahead, sir.

53:00
Okay. Thank you. I, I live over on Pendleton Avenue, just southwest of ninth and pace. I happen to be the president of our homeowners association. And I happen to be a veteran for what it’s worth. The ordinance we have about fireworks is a joke. It is absolutely a joke on the Fourth of July, and for a week leading up to it and four days afterwards. The largest fireworks going up into the air and exploding were not coming from the public show they were coming from private properties around us. You could look in every direction. And these are big things going way up in the air and exploding. And I got the impression as I’m sure most of the people putting on their own shows that the police just gave up. And it’s easy to say that the police were overwhelmed. My message to you is quite simple. Don’t pass laws, that you don’t have the intention or the resources to even remotely enforce. Because what you do is you make a mockery of all of our laws, street racing and burglaries whatever, hey, if I can get away with it, the police don’t, don’t do anything. That’s how you build this kind of opinion, is by having a law that nobody pays any attention to. I mean, even local neighborhoods get little things that shoot up in the air, which according to the law is illegal. If it leaves the ground or makes a bang, it’s illegal as I understood the law. Now maybe the law is too strict. But I have a couple of suggestions for you which would be amazed. If you took, why don’t you make them illegal? Because you’re not going to enforce it anyway. Or, and you know, speaking as a veteran, one of those huge bangs goes off in my heart skips a beat. You know, this is an I, I kind of hide in the house, like my dog does is not something that I think is wonderful. And there’s a lot of people think it’s patriotic, you know, it’d be blowing up explosives all over the place. The other thing you could do is, was there any enforcement at all of all of that activity going on? One of the things you can do, and I’ve seen police are able to do this and other instances, it’d be really easy to when, when all this is happening to zero in and one of these big launch sites that shooting great big rockets off and make some arrests. Oh, gee, I can’t do that they all run away. When we drive up, well, JD, you know how to be a policeman. You need to make some arrests. And then you got to make him kind of public and high profile and actually put some people in prison. And that would cause a lot of the people who ignore the law to think maybe I had to be more careful, I might get busted. That’s what I have to say. You know, either make them illegal. or do something about it. And it’s not, I’m not saying you should never have any fireworks because it’s gonna happen. But that was a joke. That was really a joke. And everybody believed that the police has just given up and I believe that they just gave up. Councillor pack, once I get the new system going in. Okay, customer back.

57:08
Thank you very badly. I appreciate what you’re saying. And I’m thinking a thank you for coming forward. I understand what you’re saying about being a veteran. In 2018, on the Fourth of July, as my husband is a veteran, it was the worst, worst day of our lives. In the whole neighborhood. There were just bombs going off. And he passed away the next day, but it was, it was horrible. The worst thing ever. So I imagine every veteran in this city feels the same. Or you went through a lot. Yeah, it was really, really tough. So I do understand what you’re saying. And I agree with you. It’s devastating. So all of these conversations that we’ve been seeing in the newspaper from the police, etc, are conversations that we have to have. And Councilwoman Christensen made made a motion to have a community conversation as to how do we address this? Because it is your input that we need. We’ve heard from the police. And there were other devastating things that they needed to be pulled out on burglaries and the size of the police force that we would have to have to manage that in a city this size. I don’t know how many of you are willing to raise your taxes to that extent. So

58:40
now, you have to wait till you have to wait till you’re young you signed up yet. I just want to say I thought the way I use what I’m saying is, yeah, it’s his turn. But if you want to get on the list, I’ll put you on the list. All right.

58:57
So I to continue, I support the community conversation on how do we resolve this? What are our resources? How many policemen do we have? come to us with your ideas?

59:10
I’ve heard all that. But then we got this law that you don’t have any way to enforce.

59:15
And that is what we need to discuss. And that’s and

59:19
that makes a mockery of laws. That’s what it does. You make a very good point, it makes a mockery of laws. So don’t make a law that you either you’re not going to double triple the police force. No, we’re not. Not for that. No. Bring in the National Guard for it. I mean, you know, it didn’t gonna happen.

59:38
Thank you for your comments. Thank you for your comments. That’s a great opinion. And and we’ll be getting more from the public. Okay.

59:48
All right, Councilmember. Oh, good to go with Councilmember Martin. And then Councilmember Christiansen so hold on one second. Oops.

59:58
Second, hold on a second.

1:00:02
Actually, we’re gonna go with Councillor Christiansen cuz it’s not allowing me to go down and then we’re gonna go with council member.

1:00:09
That’s no, that’s all right. They just won’t even allow me to. We won’t let me scroll down. So I’m sorry. Go ahead, follow.

1:00:16
Okay. Thank you. I thank you for coming, because it’s exactly this kind of conversation, public conversation with people from neighborhoods, people who are veterans, just the citizens of Longmont coming forth and saying this is not okay. This is not what we want. But for the police to be able to make an arrest, they also have to prove something, they have to have witnesses who are willing to testify, and no one is willing to go to court for this. So people have to be willing to actually step forward as you have done and say this is not okay. This is not the kind of town we want. It’s all right, in my view to have fireworks on the Fourth of July. I love fireworks on the fourth of the New Year’s and a maybe a birthday or something. But that day, or maybe a day before something, not this went on for months. Yeah, that’s completely unacceptable. That is, that’s obnoxious. That’s not the kind of town we want, we want a town where people have some respect for their neighbors. And that’s actually abusing your neighbors, you know. And we all know that. And we need to say that publicly in as you are doing. And as I hope we’ll have a community conversation, and then maybe have a little bit of a gentle but firm education around those those times of the year and say, don’t do this again. And again, we have a problem with people speeding, running stop signs with all kinds of things that are really socially sociopathic behavior, people thinking, well, I can do what I want. Well, that’s what three year olds do. I mean, as a society, we need to face up to the fact that as you say, this is not this is not acceptable behavior. But I agree with you about not making laws that we can’t enforce that does make people very cynical. However, you know, we’re never going to be able to, we can pass a law against murder that won’t prevent murders from happening. But we can’t just say we’re not going to have a law against our laws reflect our values, and they’re based on moral principles. And we have to have them, but we have to have the whole community stand up for them as you’re doing. So thank you for coming. And I hope we can have some more conversations over the next year. So that we address the kind of ways we treat each other.

1:02:56
I’m going to challenge one thing you said the police can’t make an arrest if nobody’s going to testify. If the police walk up to you know, one of these places that’s launching these big rockets. And I’m not talking about a little neighborhood party. I mean, these things were going up is higher than the ones going on. I know. If they if the police will see it happening. Yes. See the person launching it? Yes. They don’t need any more witnesses. They got a couple policemen that watched it happen.

1:03:28
If they did, but if the guys stop blowing it off. When that because they hear the police are on the way.

1:03:36
Well, yeah. Yeah. The police have to know how to sneak up on it. Of course. I know. That’s part of being a good policeman. Yeah, let’s let’s leave sneaky. Yeah, I mean, really, let’s turn our sirens on. So they all know we’re coming.

1:03:50
Well, years ago, we used to have police bicycling down the alleys and watching out for things and yeah, you know, that’s a possibility, too.

1:04:01
I remember seeing some of those.

1:04:03
Yeah, I don’t know if we still do that. But a long time. Yeah, me too. Anyway, thank you for coming, though, because it is important for everybody to speak out about the kind of town we want. Thanks. Councilman Merton.

1:04:23
Thank you, Mayor Bagley. We’ve already had our conversation and I hope you found it both respectful and informative. And I know we didn’t come to any conclusion. We just traded facts. Yeah. It but what I do want to say is because I hear a lot of Well, why don’t we just repeal the ordinance. And I want it to be you know, I want the public to know that the reason we don’t just repeal the ordinance, not to mention that it’s disrespectful to people like you, sir, who are veterans or who have some other reason why It’s an unpleasant experience instead of a joyful one. But this is Colorado law. And the the language in our ordinance was taken directly from Colorado law. And we don’t have the ability to override it. And we would still be as responsible for enforcing it, as we are now, and probably just as unable to enforce it as we are now. So not arguing with you. Not you made really good points. I just wanted out there that this is Colorado law. Okay.

1:05:36
I guess I, I guess I guess, since we’re here, and first of all, thank you for your service. First and foremost, no matter what else I say tonight, thank you for your service, and I love fireworks. Love them. But at the same time, I didn’t launch them this year. You know why? Because I knew my neighbors would really not like it. So I disagree with you on a few points. I don’t think we should repeal the fireworks ordinance. Because I think that not only what Councilman Martin said. But I also think that there are a lot of things that people do that are immoral, that they don’t get caught for. So most domestic violence, is it caught? Most drunk driving is it caught? That is that’s not a reason why we don’t. That’s not a good enough reason. We, as Councillor Christiansen said, the laws on the books because in our community, it’s loud, it’s annoying. And we don’t want that. We don’t have it. We don’t have a community where we’re annoying each other. Right. And I also think that, but at the same time, I also i’m not i’m not a fan of putting people in prison for fireworks. This is a part time gig. I’m an attorney had been an attorney for two decades. Part of my practice is managing attorneys who do criminal defense work. People who got a prisoner murderers and rapists and vitual offenders, even jail I think would be a little much. But I think that and i don’t i don’t think you need a witness. But I think that if you’re annoyed by fireworks, you got to pick up the phone and say, Look, they are setting them off. They’re leaving the ground. And then when the when the police show up. And you know, because we are the police don’t just drive around. I tried that. And did they come or no. They hung up on me. Interesting. that’s inappropriate. that’s a that’s a bigger issue. They

1:07:31
hung up on me because they were getting constantly too many calls. They just couldn’t deal with it. Got it. Okay, so I guess the realize the reason that I call them it was just click.

1:07:41
Right. Right. So and I’m sure that there’s a reason for that. And I know we can talk later. Yeah, well, yeah, I don’t know. So that will get talked about we’ll chitchat about that. But it’s problem. And sounds like there’s other people here that support your point of view. So I don’t know. We appreciate you coming out on my own. Now, but still, we appreciate you coming out tonight is it’s not an issue that we need to ignore. It’s something that we need to talk about. So thank you. Okay. Okay, Elliot Moore also here to talk about fireworks or no. Oh, no, no, no, no, let me guess. Come on down. fireworks.

1:08:21
Hello, everyone on City Council. Thank you so much for this opportunity to speak. It’s nice to see you all in person again. My name is Elliot Moore. I am the conductor of the Longmont Symphony, and I want to talk about the proposed cultural and performing arts center. Culture matters in Longmont because the people of Longmont matter. Culture is the story of us. arts events, create a shared experience that strengthens community bonds, fosters new connections, and reinforces our collective identity. As the conductor of the symphony, let me express how grateful we are to have Stuart auditorium advanced brand Civic Auditorium as possible concert venues. I cannot imagine where the orchestra or where culture in general would be in Longmont without these two venues. At the same time. Stewart auditorium is too small for us, both in audience capacity and stage size. Regarding advanced brand Civic Auditorium at Skyline High School, the joint operation between the city of Longmont and our school district expired on july first 2010. Shortly after the 30 year joint operating agreement came to an end. The school district has full control of the space, which is wonderful for students. Indeed, it is fostered an even greater demand for the arts. That said because the school district’s activities take precedence. challenges have increased for performing artists and organizations to access and schedule the space. What I along with my colleagues at the Longmont Performing Arts Initiative. envision is the creative of a beautiful arts and Events Center that fosters shared experiences for people of all ages and all backgrounds reflects our collective experience celebrates our greatness, and elevates our community and experience from Beethoven to Willie Nelson. And TED talks to Hamilton. cultural icons who reflect and can enhance our community will perform in this center because our stories deserve to be shared and brought to life and in a way that expresses the greatness of who we are. Where are we now? Well, we were thrilled that Johnson consulting issued its findings to city council expressing that it was indeed feasible here in Longmont to have such a facility. We were thrilled that city council not only unanimously accepted the report, but directed city staff to investigate this further. And let me take a moment to thank all of you on City Council. We have 1000s of supporters here for the arts in Longmont, you have listened to their messages, you’ve listened to their ideas, and you have helped support your constituents by helping to finance the feasibility study. Thank you. Also, let me express my optimism about how this project can help with education. If you like me, want to see an expansion of diversity on the stages, the doors that can be open for young students to see, learn from and have access to artists who look like them and reflect their experience is endless. Simply put the possibilities to dovetail local education, with a line with a lineup of World Class performers to inspire our next generation is thrilling. But let’s talk about how the arts contribute financially to a city. A study was recently released and it found that the typical attendee of a cultural center spends $35 per person per event beyond the cost of admission, but more importantly for Longmont. The study also shows that 34% of attendees were not from the county in which the arts event took place. The quote out of towners event related spending was more than twice that of their local counterparts, out of towners spent nearly $50 versus $25 for the local population. a vibrant arts community not only keeps residents and their discretionary spending invested in the local economy. It also attracts visitors who spend money, which helps local businesses and the local economy to thrive. But as someone who is also concerned for the well being of all law monitors, I was thrilled that because of how long one has pinned its financial support of social services to the economy, the performing arts can make an even more meaningful contribution to all sectors of Vermont’s population. Again, culture matters because the people of Longmont matter, culture is the story of us, all of us. I want to see the entire gamut of culture represented at the center. Let’s build something that reflects our entire population. elevant elevates our shared community experience and impacts the lives of every single person in our community. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member level fairing. Sorry, customer waters. Thank you, Mayor Bagley. And thank you, Elliot for your comments.

1:13:33
I think it would be a missed opportunity to not to just to build on what you have already shared, to not just clarify some things for the public record, because there’s already not unlike the sugary drinks ordinance. Everybody has a strong opinion. And everybody has a right to their strong opinion. Not everybody has all the information or shares the same information to inform those opinions. So just for the sake of clarifying the record, we received a feasibility study that the city paid for part of in law pie paid for part of I don’t know how many folks understand I think la pie was was formed, was it not? to coalesce around the idea of venues to showcase our talented artists? Is that

1:14:25
fair? It’s actually not entirely correct. The llama Performing Arts Initiative was formed to elevate the arts in Longmont. And at the same time, what we very quickly realized was that there is a dire need for spaces that work for all of these groups.

1:14:40
So it gives it gives places like the city or any other service group or philanthropic organization, a focal point of place to work with the arts community as opposed to trying to approach every every arts group, based on what the arts based on what the artists are doing. And what their specialties are as a as a coalition or as a as a body and of some kind, right. So lapply covered part of the cost. I don’t remember the percentages of the feasibility study, as you indicated, we were asked to help at that city was that we listened well, to our arts community. We received that study, you know, and others and I know the city staff is going deep on what those recommendations are and thinking through what the next steps are. We heard we heard in this room not long ago, about about that the feasibility study or the cultural center as a project. Is there a project yet, to your to your knowledge that has has emerged from that feasibility study?

1:15:54
No, I think that there, in fact, in some ways, even more questions that need to be answered. But one of the things I do want to say is that there is also this component that goes along in the feasibility study, which is the convention space. And it’s the question is, how do these dovetail with each other? And I think that there was a lot of compelling information that was given about how it’s possible for these two to work in a very symbiotic kind of relationship,

1:16:23
which was part of what we read in the feasibility. So that’s part of my point is that there’s not yet there is no project much less a pet project, because that’s the way it was framed. that would that would be considered a pet project of members of this council. Yeah.

1:16:40
I mean, no, that does not exist. There is no pet project from anyone on this council. What I can say is that we have 1000s of supporters of the arts, who are speaking to you all. And I thank you all for listening. Because in some eight, well, it’s your job. I’m just grateful that you actually are doing your job. So thank you. And

1:16:58
I want to come back to the point you made about pinning. What we do in in terms of returning to the community, what what they have? Well, we have taken from from from members of the committee as taxes, what we do in return, right there number of all kinds of things that the city does. But in particular, I think what you were referring to in terms of pinning, is what we do with our community with the housing and Human Services grants, right? That we’re working our way towards 3% tagging or budgeting 3% of general fund revenues for in community services for housing and human services that

1:17:38
the reference, that’s exactly the reference. And if I may, the ability for arts groups, in particular, in a performing arts organization that has a center a central location where people go, the, you know, the ability to raise money from all of these people coming and spending their discretionary money here in Longmont can go a long way to helping other people as well. So it’s it’s a boost for the local economy, but because of how long it has pinned the social services to the economy, it’s a win win.

1:18:15
Yeah, I just want to reinforce that point. That the more the more successful, our arts community is in bringing patrons interest folks from out of town to to long line to spend their discretionary dollars, what that ends up doing is creating more not less capacity in the city to do for the underserved what we’re already doing to amplify that. Absolutely. So the point, part of the point that I’d like to make is, as we move forward with whatever the next steps are, as people begin to frame listening well in responding, is doing more for the arts, because and then as a result, we’re gonna do less for underserved populations is factually simply not true. That is absolutely correct. This year we gave we awarded 107. My

1:19:04
dad Sorry, I’m not gonna get you have to get your button one more time.

1:19:11
Hold on. Sorry, about Sorry,

1:19:13
sorry, we approved 877,000. We approved $877,000 in grants last year. Housing and Human Services. We’re out we have more money in the affordable housing fund, I think 1.3 million headed I think, in 2023, to maybe four over $4 million as a result of what we did with our inclusionary housing ordinance. And we’re able to do all kinds of things with those resources to help with down payments on for sale homes and rental assistance, etc, etc. rehabilitation. So is this moves forward, I just want to get started now, understanding the narrative that goes along with this. It’s not a zero sum game that that we shouldn’t characterize this with a scarcity approach. Do what this community deserves, regardless of where you are in the continuum, economically, and regardless of what your interests are or what you bring to the community in terms of talent, we need to be responsive to all but that includes our arts community. Absolutely. Thank you. Let’s go with Councilmember Martin. And Councilmember Christian say things like Councillor Peck. Thank you for your vaguely. Sorry.

1:20:26
I’d like to take it from another point of view. Elliot, I think you had a privileged upbringing, a child of of music musician, and I’m not sure what else who else chemical engineer, chemical engineer, so privileged, you studied abroad, you became a conductor. Not too many people get to do that. Even when they have the talent to do it, which is a fairly rare gift. We like to talk about Longmont as a town that is committed to social equity. And I’d like to contrast the life that you led growing up where I imagine you saw symphony orchestra is performed from the time you are quite young, and operas and Broadway plays, I’m pretty sure you grew up without missing any of those experiences. So that’s probably true. I would say so probably too. And so I grew up in a town about the size of Longmont not poor, but not privileged either. Other than you know, the way all middle class white people are privileged, but I didn’t see any of those things until I went away to college. But I did go away to college. Now let’s think about kids growing up in Longmont. And they’re getting free and reduced lunches, and their parents are working a job and half. And you have to see to see a Broadway play or a symphony performance. As far as those parents know. You go to Denver, you go to Mackey auditorium. And it’s hard. And those kids can grow up without seeing any of those things, except that we have a very fine Symphony Orchestra performing here in Longmont, we have a ballet for young people that they can join and you don’t have to be wealthy to do it. And your parents don’t have to drive you into the next county to allow you to participate. And so do you think that that the importance of the arts for that equity is is is a good reason for housing these organizations here in Longmont? But,

1:23:02
yes, but even so much more? What can a child who by and by the way, we have wonderful music programs in our, you know, public schools, and I’m friends with a lot of the teachers and thank goodness, they’re there. Somebody recently said to me, in fact, it was their music teacher that saved their son’s life. So I think that these teachers do exceptional work. But what if we could work in tandem, where we have world class musicians that represent that look like the people in our community. And we can get students not only to the Performing Arts Center, but we can facilitate mentorships we can facilitate learning from these incredibly gifted professionals that then can inspire next generations to Okay, maybe they don’t have to do this as a profession. But maybe they’ll find this as a love as a passion as something that is a thread throughout their entire life that keeps them on a path to do great things that gives them discipline that gives them the opportunity to stick with it, you know, stick with something in their life, that if it can be a constant throughout their entire life, I think we will have an incredible society. And I think that it’s something that we can do here. And it’s something that helps to work in tandem with the work that these incredible school music educators are doing on a daily basis. Thank you. Councilmember back.

1:24:46
Thank you, Elliot. Thank you. I loved your introductory speech. And I agree with everything you said. But the performing arts center idea is not new to Longmont. I think it was actually formerly on a sticker that brought this up. years ago, and she was advocating for a performing arts center at the fairgrounds. And that didn’t go anywhere. And, and just for fun, actually, when I was first on Council, we had a developer come to us. And for me, it was an inappropriate development. I asked him why he didn’t perform performing arts center there. And so I am really grateful that we have a council that all agree that a performing arts center would elevate Longmont in many ways. You’ve already made your points about the the art portion of what it would do for our city. But I always think that the residents forget that running along mind is a business. It’s a huge business that takes a lot of money. We can’t go to our residents and ask for the amount of money that we need to do what they want. The fireworks and police are a good example. So you’re right about outside of the county, we would be bringing an economic value and for what the residents want, as far as recreation centers, which I want with, you know, branch libraries on them or different things. This is a good way, not only enhancing the cultural value of Longmont and and but bringing in resources that help us run the city as a business and give the residents what they vote for us to do for them. So I think it’s a great idea. I’m totally behind it. And thank you for coming before us.

1:26:47
Councillor Christiansen thank you for turning me back on. Oh, you thank you so much for coming before us and and reminding people that it that it’s important for our kids, it’s important and all the good work that our our current music teachers do. Not every kid, not everybody has to monetize or become a professional at something they love. But if they have a venue, they have the ability to actually express themselves musically or artistically. That gives them confidence. And it gives them something that they can delight in for their whole life. And then they can come see other people who are professionals. And it also gives our kids, if we had more of this, it gives them more opportunities to stay here. For instance, my when my son was little he took up the trumpet. And the little girl across the street took up the piano. So for years, we watched we heard them grow from the bleeding of injured whales and throbbing head pounding of piano lessons to two people who actually created beauty. And my son did not go into becoming a professional music musician, but the little girl across the street did. And it’s it’s because of music teachers and is because they had opportunities here. And if we they had more opportunities, it would be even better to give our kids a lot more variety in whether the if they want to stay here, they could stay here and use these additional opportunities that we have. So I do thank you for sticking with this and continuing to bring it forth and continuing to advocate for the arts in so many ways because a lot of kids are good at chemical engineering or good at lots of things that are practical and pay well. And there are others of us who are good at things that don’t pay well. But we have to do it anyway. Because that’s what we have to do. So thank you for speaking up for those kids.

1:29:09
Thank you. All right, great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate your comments tonight. All right. I’m going to go out a little bit. I’m going to go out of order tonight. And I see somebody that should be in school tomorrow morning, right?

1:29:22
Yeah. Oh, yeah. No school tomorrow.

1:29:24
You sure?

1:29:26
Did you have anything in the morning? All right, you’re gonna have to wait with the rest of my try to get you out of here. All right, Kathleen. cattanach. Cat mock? You’ll have to correct me on that one. I know Kathleen that I’m slaughtering it. I guess it is school, isn’t it? Summer.

1:29:48
It’s summer. Good evening. My name is Kathleen cattanach. I live in the Spring Valley neighborhood. A bit 17th and Alpine Thank you. I’m here representing my family whose lives have been completely disrupted by the use of illegal fireworks for the last month. We all know the pain and suffering that illegal fireworks cause to our pets, the elderly, veterans and children. I’ve seen hundreds of complaints about this issue on our next door app. And ongoing and primary concern is that the fireworks keep exploding for days, if not a month before and after the Fourth of July. Obviously, people are fed up. So curious, and because I’m a former city employee many years ago, and I love doing this stuff. I gathered information from Longmont resources and other cities on how they’re addressing the enforcement of illegal fireworks. So, the city of Longmont. According to the times call Jeff Seder from police services, said there were 362 complaints this year between July 1 and July 6, which is down from 533 last year. On the fourth this year, Longmont police had 307 calls for service between 5pm and midnight. Of those calls 204 were for illegal fireworks complaints. However, no citations were issued. I have no information for statistics for the month, or the days before or after the fourth. in Longmont. After complaining through the non emergency number. The resident must sign off stating they witnessed the fireworks and they know who set them off or the officer has to witness it. The resident must be willing to pursue enforcement action, meaning testifying in court. And then an officer will be assigned to the call, finds or just like the state law up to $500.90 days in jail. Our ordinance also states that it is illegal to bring fireworks across state lines. I couldn’t find any information on how that’s enforced. city of Fort Collins all fireworks are banned within the city limits including sparklers and snakes. There’s a focus on public education through the newspapers and social media. There are 18 full color 18 by 24 signs that are placed in public places and I brought samples of what they do. And letter inserts go into nuisance violation letters. neighborhood services helps with the communication. The streets department coordinates variable message boards throughout the city. Residents can access FC gov.com fireworks and report violations anonymously. The reports are then sent to the police department for enforcement. According to a report by CBS for police services has activated the coolest thing is a live map which allows residents to report so called hot zones. This allows officers to monitor live reports of illegal fireworks usage with a mapped out platform. The map which is accessible by the general public is color coded. The first report in a neighborhood of illegal fireworks turns the community blue. As more reports come in the colors switch to yellow and red. for cars. Police chose to go with the online map as a way to encourage proactive policing by the officers. While dispatch will still answer 911 calls. Reporting concerns to the hot zone map encourages the officers to actively patrol those zones. Their ordinance also states that each resident of such property who is in present in the immediate vicinity when another person attempts to fire or explode fireworks and fails to intercept or intervene or cooperate with law enforcement is also liable.

1:34:09
The city of Boulder also focuses on public education. There are increased patrols looking for violations through the July 4 week. Citations were issued and fireworks were confiscated. There were 109 complaints and 14 citations issued. In wheat Ridge there are volunteers and extra people coming in to take fireworks calls on a dedicated line. Denver, Adams County, Boulder County, Broomfield, Fort Collins, Lakewood, northglenn, Jefferson County and weld county all have dedicated phone lines simply for fireworks calls. I believe that a major hurdle in enforcement is the fact that complainants must be willing to sign a complaint and testify in court against their neighbor. This is divisive and somewhat scary. When you consider that anyone who is willing to so blatantly defy the already existing laws may be very angry and act out toward that neighbor,

1:35:09
I’m gonna have to cut you off in five minutes. Okay, but you might be able to sneak some more in as we interact with you. Okay. So, Councillor Martin?

1:35:20
Yes, I, I agree with many of your points. And I would like to say that discussions are already underway about how some of these techniques can be employed by llama going forward. How, however, and I’d like to ask you whether you are aware, if a police officer does not catch a resident in the act of light of lighting, fireworks, or a person doesn’t square out a complaint, saying, I witnessed this, and this is who I am, can the person be fined?

1:36:04
I do not know the answer to that. What I do know is that I feel so strongly I’m going to sneak this in. I feel so strongly about this issue that I am willing to volunteer and offer all the resources that I have, in my personal life to work on a task force on this issue.

1:36:24
Thank you, you’re Well, I appreciate your dedication. And I think that’s an excellent idea. Thank you. So I hope to see you working on this going for you. Well, anybody else?

1:36:36
Nobody else has on there. I guess the I guess the I certainly I certainly I certainly feel for you. You know, it’s definitely something that that you are quite passionate about. And it’s something that you know it Yeah, you’re you’re not alone.

1:36:54
You’re not alone. Thank you. So, thank you. Thank you to those of you who did respond to my emails, I greatly appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. I’m just gonna leave these right here.

1:37:03
Perfect. We appreciate that. Actually, could you give that to the could you walk around and give it to the clerk? All right, and then I know you’re all right. But except that they’ll put signed up together on the list and there’s people so if you’d like to sit well, we’ll listen to you, but we just got to make sure that we call the people as they came. That’s okay. Right. Todd Sharkey. Oh, did you have something? Okay. Dr. Waters. Sorry.

1:37:34
Thank you, Mary. beggar Kathleen, thanks for your comments. I just want to say that among the the the options moving forward, I we had communicated anticipated. Kathleen would be here tonight. And my comments last week week where I’d like to listen before setting direction in terms of how we would follow up. So I’m not certain what the what the intent would be from our Public Safety Department or the city manager. But I do hope that that the what you’ve identified as approaches that other cities in the Front Range are taking in enabling, reporting in responding, that we take a serious look at what those options are, and consider what those might look like. As we move forward. with with with enforcement, I hope of some kind going in the future in terms of what happens here around the Fourth of July. So thanks for your work, and I hope we take advantage of it. All right now Miss Sharkey.

1:38:36
Hello, city council. This is my first time here. My name is Todd chalky. I’m a local business owner, father, husband, here with my family. We moved here about five years ago and started a business called our native from Fort Collins. I’ve had my own experiences with those towns in those cities, and my wife’s family’s been here for about four generations. So what I’d like to do is, I’d like to just take this opportunity to not only introduce myself, but I I’m witnessing this for the first time, this is the first time I’ve ever as a citizen been here to come, you know, to participate in this, you know, local government or even this open forum. This is something that I would really appreciate. So the very first thing I’d like to say is thank you for this opportunity to be able to talk to you guys. That being said, I think that there are many other issues that we will be able that we should be focusing on with regards to the resources of this town in this community. What it is that we’re going to be doing with the moolah that what we can be doing with the manpower that we have available, with our police force with our social programs with the things that we are directing our children and our youth to I support fully the sugary drink program ordinance that they that they were talking about. The health of our of our children is abhorrent at this point. And it is being nothing but Encouraged by the profit, you know, the profits that are gained by that. So, that being said, you know, there’s, I have a, excuse me, I have a list of things that I was specifically wanting to talk about here. But I’m listening to everybody’s statements, I felt the need to either support or, or make a comment on it. So it’s really easy to get sidetracked there. If I were to say, one of the things that we should be focusing on as a community with regards to where we’re spending money, or what ordinances we’re trying to put into play, I would say that we need to focus first on the future of our community, on the children that we have in this community. I personally have six children, I know that’s probably a shock to people, but it is what it is, I love my family and my entire world is surrounded around their futures and their opportunity to succeed and gain gained the chances at life that they deserve. Not that somebody decides that they need that they should be able to possibly have because of their social status or some other crap. The fact is, is that they need to be focused on their health cities, you know, the city sports program. So what happened there? Where are they? You know, the the, the the, the pushes towards arts and communities? I mean, how does the town like this not have a performing arts center? What I mean come on, is there’s there’s there’s graffiti up and down every single alley that we can find here. I mean, I personally would, would would give the back of my business to anybody, as long as there’s a purpose and there’s a program to it. You know, things like traditional traditions that I’ve seen grow here. And you know, being fostered I see this stuff being stifled right now. Things like cruise night, let’s use that for an example. Longmont cruise night. Okay, I don’t know if you guys understand everyone’s complain about all those as possible person that might have been speeding on the side road or something like that, yes, that’s out of line. That’s breaking the law, this people should be driving like idiots, and they should not be doing that. But if you’ve ever witnessed a cruise night on Main Street, where it’s where it is, it is a positive, great, beautiful thing for businesses, for our community, we come together. And me personally, as a business owner, I get the opportunity to be able to give back to the people who put food in my kid’s mouth. The last four years running, we have been out there barbecuing and we give away food. And we give away we do raffles we do competition, you know, our little events and competitions and things like that, where we’re able to positively return the favor to some of our clients in our client base. And so when I when I sit here, and I’m watching, I’m listening here to what what things are being brought up and when things are being said, I have I mean, I didn’t have a plan on exactly what it is that I wanted to talk about. But I do want to make my point that I believe that the focus of this council, this town, the people here should not be on weather how we’re going to effectively tell on our neighbor who laid off a firework, and I’m sorry if that offended you and yes, those people should not be doing it for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks in a row. Absolutely. But you notice how you could stifle that. Have a frigging fireworks display that’s not privatized? have put the money into a giant fireworks display. encourage people to to be there for free.

1:43:37
You know what I mean? Do you get I mean, you guys understand that an outlet for a passion is needed. People are going to drive people are going to cruise people are going to race, people are going to shoot fireworks. People are going to graffiti, make art, do all that stuff. Have an outlet, do something about it, please, instead of just sitting here and complaining.

1:44:02
So thank you, nobody else is above it. I’d actually like to to address the couple of things. So first of all, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming. So I think what me personally what I think happened with the fireworks this year in particular, is that he had COVID we cancelled it. Yet people get really upset those who love fireworks, went up to Wyoming and bought a lot. They realized, oh my gosh, we have a lot leftover who wants to waste them. And then you had a lot of people still lighting them off this year trying to get rid of the fireworks that they had laying around. As far as the private, we didn’t pay for the fireworks this year. The Kiwanis Club club usually usually they’ve generously donated that money. This year, we couldn’t tell them when it was time to plan for it. We didn’t know what was gonna happen with Kelvin. And so they went ahead and made arrangements out of the foxhole Country Club. And so that’s what happened there. Couldn’t agree more with Yon on even if we formed a task force even if we change The law, you’re gonna have fireworks. I’m not a big favor of rat, not your neighbor, and encouraging that I’m a big fan of calling if it’s bothering you, and then and then if there’s not more important calls to respond, because if you’re responding to fireworks, you’re not responding to heart attacks or crime.

1:45:18
Allow me to retort on web object. Yeah. You hit it right on the head. Focusing on these, what have seemingly turned into the biggest issues of our time, have completely shifted the focus of the things that are actually happening. The child’s children being abducted you know, the the the rapes and the murders and all of this other terrible things that happen. Have you guys walked downtown and looked in the store windows of what’s there? Do you see the satanic stuff? That’s that’s for sale on our street on our main street? Have you guys looked? Go walk? Go look, our downtown districts and go window shop. I grew up in Fort Collins. Okay. Walt Disney used for cons and downtown old town to show they are to Tokyo create his little Main Street or whatever it is that he has in his in his in his theme park. Okay, it’s a beautiful little district of interaction on 287 where they have these, you know, storefronts left and right. And there’s a nice little community area and Old Town Square. I feel like Longmont has the opportunity to be able to emulate something that’s nice like that. I agree. But what kind of businesses are we allowing to sell? What kind of merchandise on our main street? What kind of message is that sending to our youth? What kind of message is that sending to the people who are who are driving down the street deciding whether or not they think that they should participate in this community? I would never stop at a store that says it’s got a chicken in the front in the front window with a with a Hail Satan shirt. Are you kidding me? It’s an embarrassment. If you guys want to focus some resources where you should focus on the image of llama on the actual image of what you guys are portraying,

1:47:12
although I would also argue that we shouldn’t be limited in free speech. And if you want to, you know, say it. I agree. I don’t agree with 100%. Right customer Christiansen

1:47:26
Okay, well, I haven’t seen any satanic chickens. But I’m gonna take a little walk Don’t mock me. No, I’m not mocking you. I am telling you that if the things are going on like that, that we should be aware of it. So think I’m making you aware right now? Yeah, I know you are. So thank you. So I do agree with Mayor Bagley about the fact that this has been a very, a very long and difficult year. We as as he said, we were not able to decide six months ahead of time when or longer when the Kiwanis Club who always has has mainly been responsible for this, to agree on a venue and degree to help fund it. And so it did become privatized, which I did wind up out of the country club, which I found enormously sad. I live in West Side Old Town and for the 33 years I’ve lived here, we walk over to the well, and everybody else walks over to the sunset golf course. And we get out our blankets and we lie there and go, wow. And it’s free. And everybody around town has seen the fireworks for free. And it’s wonderful. And we gather in Thompson Park and listen to music and it’s from the symphony and it’s free. And we listen to the corals sing. And that’s what the Fourth of July has always been to me is everybody gathering as a community. We weren’t able to do that this year, because of COVID. And I fervently hope that we can return to that because it’s a wonderful, you know, family holiday that all the kids are out playing around and we all enjoy it. But you know, I but I once again, I reiterate one day of fireworks or two days of fireworks. Okay. Two months of fireworks not okay. And I’m with you on that point. Yeah. So I do thank you for coming and speaking at this. I agree with what you’re saying. And I think cruise night is terrific. I mean,

1:49:36
it’s a cultural sample of this community. It was about culture. That’s something that’s been here for generations. Yeah. ever written a hot rod or tried to build one? It’s not like you go buy it at the matchbox store. No, like you go, you know, get online and Google your Tesla Hot Rod, right? It doesn’t matter what you put years and years and years of effort, and they’re beautiful cars want to show it off. At five miles an hour. Yeah. I mean, like, it’s well, nobody’s trying to stop that, have they? No, no, but but but there, but there are things that we are focusing on, that are required that people are trying to require, you know, police force attention for all of these others these other things. Well, you know, and but when it comes and nothing, no, there’s no issue with with any of that stuff being averted there. But when it comes to doing something culturally, it all depends on whether or not we’re going to come to doing something like cruise it, it all depends on whether or not we’re capable of affording to put enough police on the task to also do what I think is that we should put them put the responsibility back into the community. If you want to talk about your neighbor looking out for your neighbor, I own a business right on Main Street, I would love to take accountability for my section of my area. I would love to do that. And you know why? Because it gives me an opportunity to be able to responsibly give back to my neighbor, as opposed to try to irresponsibly or whatever. responsively put my neighbor in prison. So yeah,

1:51:01
but you know, it does, whenever we have an event on Main Street, it doesn’t matter what event it is. We have to have the police supervise that to make sure it’s safe, and it costs us money. But that’s okay, that’s part of running the city is for everybody have the free speech to be able to have a parade or whatever they want on Main Street as long as it’s you know, it doesn’t hurt anybody and crews night doesn’t our cruise doesn’t hurt anybody. It’s actually a wonderful event for this whole city

1:51:36
100 that I think the those of us who are interested in participating that we’ve there’s a route for us to be able to communicate to the city manager that we’ve established. So we’re very, very happy for that. But thank you for you guys. Time. If there’s nobody else, I just appreciate the opportunity to be able to talk to you guys. Councilmember double firing.

1:51:59
Dr. Waters. Yeah, just to clarify, and this is not for directed to you, sir. I think just maybe for other council members. It’s my understanding. And maybe Harold, you could correct this or clarify. The way the fireworks ended up at the at Fox Hill is the stats were the city in that city. The county issued the fireworks permit for foxhill because the golf courses in the county. They chose not. And I think it was based on the timing of the request. But it was the county not our decision. The county chose not to issue a permit for fireworks at the fairground. They did then issue a permit for fireworks on County Land at Fox Hill. Is that is that accurate?

1:52:43
Almost. So the way I understand it is at the time when they were considering the location, the county, Boulder County wasn’t leasing, I’m gonna look to Sandy wasn’t leasing the fairgrounds. And so there was uncertainty as to whether or not the Kiwanis could have use of the fairgrounds. They then made the decision based on the timing of when everything was going to start opening up to then engage with Fox Hill Country Club, because they knew that was in Boulder County, and they didn’t have the same rigid restrictions in terms of was it going to be open? Or was it not going to be open? Yeah. They then applied for the for the permit from Boulder County of which Boulder County then approved the permit, and it went there. So I think the nuance in this was really as to whether or not Boulder County Fairgrounds was leasing it. And then what happened? Right when all this started hitting, they opened up the rental, but not in enough time. So that they could have planned

1:53:47
just for the sake of accuracy. So yeah, I’ve got the floor right now, sir. The county It was a county decision county chose not to issue a permit one place, they then for whatever reasons timing, and I’m not trying to blame anybody just there’s a perception that somehow we made a deal or, you know, that somehow this was a became a private affair to try to just to slub members of the community. It was all it was about the county issuing a permit to do a fireworks on County Land, not on city land. And the in our role in that was to try to be supportive as we have when it’s been at the Fair Work fairgrounds with with traffic control and, and the kinds of, you know, events around fireworks that we could help with. But that was between the coladas and the county and then the management of foxhill Yeah. Thanks.

1:54:44
Councilmember waters. Just one quick thing. I don’t believe that they were asked about the fairgrounds, the fairgrounds was just closed when it was time to

1:54:52
try to get that permit. So it’s not that they didn’t grant the permit at the fairgrounds just was not available at the time.

1:54:57
All right. I just think I just think there’s a A lot of misinformation in the community about how that happened. And the images and I agree with the image that it’s like become some private event at the expense of a whole bunch of folks who would like to have been closer to the event. I hope it doesn’t unfold that way again. And I can tell you that I have a whole bunch of neighbors who live in the fox Hill neighborhood who hope it doesn’t happen that way again, as well. So,

1:55:23
so not to put words in your mouth, sir. But what I’m hearing is, is this council is talking about all these things, and we’re arguing about what how best to keep Longmont Longmont, maybe we should start focusing on remember some of the things we should be doing to make Longmont feel like Longmont.

1:55:40
I mean, that’s that’s a pretty fair assumption assertion there. I mean, I guess my main point here is that, in these last couple of years, I know they’ve been obviously been very stressful for everybody, every thing that we have all known across the planet has all been turned upside down. And we’ve all had to deal with a multitude of things that we’ve never dealt with before in our lives in so many different levels. And so, but because of that, I don’t know if you guys have ever sat by yourself in an expired extended period of time and had to deal with your own mind there and think about things without interacting with other people or any of that stuff. But sometimes you begin to get to the point where you start to overthink things, you start to over up get overly critical on on things, you start to move, creating multiple issues out of something that can be simply solved by looking at the core positive values that need to be had to grow up into a healthy human being. Health activity. You know, these these things are all all by our will all will solve all sorts of problems that we’re seeing, you know, all this, this talk that I’ve heard tonight about how it’s so offensive with fireworks and all this all look at all this time that we spent talking about these fireworks. And really the realistic Fact is, is that there has been circumstances that were outside of our control that stopped that from happening, which then perpetrated in the image that gave us that for like for what I said that this is some privatized event now, when in reality, this is an explanation. It’s very simple. And I can totally understand it and reframe it’s my understanding as a citizen, that this is most likely not going to be the norm moving forward. Are we going to try to attempt to return to what we’ve done previously, in the past, the histories and traditions that this town was established on? Are we going to spend the time trying to enrich our artistic community and support the children who are growing learning music, not because they’re privileged, but because that’s a part of our culture? You know, I’m saying that you know, that those are the things that I would like to see happen. And that’s all I’m trying to say here is that instead, before we start going off, trying to create some new neighborhood, watched crazy, like program, big brother type program here, we don’t need that. What we need is just a simple outlet. And there’s an issue, I just am trying to advocate for a simple solution. The simplest solution usually is the answer. Alright. Thank you guys so much for your time and appreciate the response. Alright, just

1:58:08
heads up. We’re about halfway through. Okay, so as far as, as far as the number of people on the list, there’s 515 sorry, 14 people left. And I know there’s two on here that have chosen not to speak. So. Let’s take a five minute break and we’ll come back and keep going. Okay. So right now, it’s five mayor’s seat 11, which I think is held

11:36
All right, it looks like Patti Meaghan Are you Patty, I am sorry, you wait till we take our seats and then you’re up. Okay. Did you know you’re not taking my place? Sorry? No, no you Ramona, I am your neck.

11:59
I beat her to it. My name is Patty Mian and I live on that would between 11 and Mountain View. And I want to say, this is the first time I’ve ever addressed a city council meeting, when I’ve come to lodge a complaint. And I love Longmont. I think it’s a great city. I’ve only been here two weeks, I’m here two years, sorry. And in those two years, I have to say that every darn holiday, and I don’t care what holiday is if the Easter, they’ll be Thanksgiving could be the fourth of July, it could be all the holidays. They start in our neighborhood month, maybe two months before the holiday. And they go all the way past the holiday. But this was really over the top this fourth of July. I have never lived anywhere that has ever had this kind of fireworks and I like fireworks. But this is this was really dangerous. I really thought that somebody was bombing our neighborhood At first I thought okay, the fireworks, okay, it’s Fourth of July. But after a little while, I thought oh my god is somebody bombing our neighborhood. I went out to see what was going on. And I like went to the street and I looked down the black and there was some fireworks going on at the end of our black. And then all of a sudden, there were fireworks from our neighbors across the street come I love dearly. They’re great neighbors. This night, they were not great neighbors. They had $700 worth of fireworks. They were not going high in the sky. They were going about roof top high. And all of the I was standing right there. And I did not expect this. It went boom. And all the fireworks were coming down towards me. Not that far from me. And I thought wow, what the heck is this. But it was so bad. My roommate could not go in his room. Because he It was so bad. And it didn’t stop at 11 it went on. So I just wanted to say I don’t want to see my neighbor’s go to jail for fireworks. I want to see the I want to see the the community do their job. I don’t know find them, cite them, do something that makes them aware that this is unacceptable behavior. And they can go to someplace where it is and not do it in our city neighborhoods. And that’s all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you Ramona is it juro hero geroux Thank you.

15:05
Yes, I’m around the G room. I live in the neighborhood near garden acres park at 1803 18th Avenue. And before I begin to speak, I want to throw the city of bone here. You did send out a letter that told anyone who read it, that the fireworks would be visible from sandstone Park, or Stephen de park at any citizen could have chosen that go and see the fireworks that the colon is provided at no cost. Why they didn’t. I don’t know. When I say that I respect the rights of others to enjoy themselves. However, I feel that my right to live in a safe neighborhood is not being respected and indeed is being violated. Our neighborhood was a warzone on the Fourth of July. There were illegal fireworks going off all around us very large, comparable to have sticks of dynamite all around us going on all night and garden acres Park everywhere. I’d like to point out that we’re not living in the countryside. We can’t do this when houses are close together. You can’t go to sleep when somebody is setting off those things. Not only because they’re loud, but to going out and saying is my roof on fire. Large scale illegal fireworks are a fire danger to our homes. They are a source of stress for veterans and pets. They are a health hazard for those shooting them off. And the smoke they create is a health hazard for the public. We cannot afford to ignore these problems anymore. There were times when we couldn’t tell the difference between the fireworks and gunshots. Fireworks went on well past the agreed upon quiet hours until the early morning of July 5. At one point in the evening, there was so much smoke in the air. It was coming into my house via the swamp cooler. I have asthma can’t go outside to get away from it can’t be in my house. And in my mind. That is a ridiculous position to be in. Police warnings we’re not stopping those eager to deplete their supply of fireworks. But in another state. storing large amounts of fireworks in homes puts everyone in danger. firing them in the close quarters of our neighborhoods, again could cause us cause fires to start. Give our police something better than warnings to work with beef up patrols. I like the idea of the bicycle patrol. And I’m telling you next year, if I have to, I’m going to strap a GoPro to my head and drive around the neighborhood and film these people. So you’ll have evidence. If I can get a fine for not turning my head or having dandelions on my lawn than those who set off illegal fireworks and break the law should face stiff fines for non compliance. We can’t afford to allow disrespect for the law, our safety, our property and each other at such a large scale. If this continues year after year, and people get the idea, I can do that. I can do what I want a free person. While at the same time they don’t consider they’re impinging on my freedoms. It’s going to get worse and worse and worse. Our law says that anything that leaves the ground is illegal. This must be enforced. I will be happy to volunteer to be on any committee that you put together to address this problem. I want to say thank you for the opportunity to speak on this important issue. And also I want to say thank you for not correcting us when we applauded for the ordinance for healthier beverages. Because I believe in that too. I didn’t know it wasn’t okay to applaud you that’s all I have to say

19:01
is that I just turned the meeting. The only reason I didn’t allow that. I didn’t expect it. There are kids anytime you guys want to plot.

19:10
I’m going to let it be consistent. And that is Karen, how about you? And that is it. It’s important. I

19:15
completely I completely hear you. But I didn’t. That’s why the first time it stopped before I corrected. And then that would have happened again, I said

19:24
and that’s why I did it because it hadn’t been corrected. Understand the time and I tend anytime kids are here, I tend to encourage them. Any questions for me? know, how long have you lived in Longmont?

19:37
I’ve lived in Longmont for 23 years, 23 years. I also dislike the fact that you know I go It’s New Year’s again. It’s going to start I’m not going to get any sleep. It’s the Fourth of July, you know, but I don’t oppose legal fireworks. When I was a parent when my kids were young. Sure I did those things with them. I did that little pop pop cap. Send the sparklers and the you know the things that kids enjoy. But these are illegal for a reason. Well, they’re illegal because they’re dangerous. And we can’t afford to make excuses. It simply has to be done. What if somebody gets somebody’s house catches on fire and suddenly you’re a lawyer. Somebody says, I’m going to sue the city for that. I’d say good luck. You can’t, you’ll never know what’ll happen. I call the police. They didn’t come.

20:28
That’s a matter. You can’t sue somebody. If somebody you couldn’t say this. There’s no I don’t want to my lawyer, then. You might not want to did that. Did you go to a lawyer and they tell you that you have a right to sue the city? Because your neighbor sets it on fire head? Have you got a terrible lawyer? It would have been, he

20:46
is telling you whatever he needs to, you know, it’s my professional opinion on

20:52
the police and they don’t come or they taught, you know, and I haven’t picked on the police tonight because I did not witness the things that I saw people saying that they did. You know, I can’t say that they did or did not do those things. It was reported that they said, Get over it. The Fourth of July. very unprofessional.

21:13
Well, if you would like me, if you want to come pay my hourly rate to sue someone, or the city or what? I don’t want to add my lawyer. All I’m saying Oh, and that’s fine fight. Well, that’s fine.

21:24
Well, we’re gonna happen and then Okay, so I’m done. Anybody got any questions for me? No, you’re done. You can go ahead and clap. Alright, so I’ll start Facebook here.

21:42
I’ll start my Google ads on fireworks law tomorrow. All right, Sharon O’Leary.

22:08
Good evening Mayor Bagley and council members Sharon alarie 534 Emory Street, also co chair of the Starkey side neighborhood. Being a registered neighborhood, Hannah has to participate in neighborhood group leaders Association, an organization that’s run by the city even though we attend monthly meetings. But during the past several years, it has become a regular occurrence that ngvla will offer multiple opportunities to support homeowners association neighborhoods with various issues by offering assistance or workshops. But who supports non Hoa neighborhoods? who protects my neighborhood? Oh, that would be you, long month City Council. So I’m here tonight to ask you to protect our neighborhood by directing city staff to take immediate steps to complete the design standards and give Hannah the protections that were compromised during Longmont zoning update. Our neighborhood was promised that after the zoning update was completed planning would meet with us to reinstate those loss protections. Two years have passed and nothing has happened. And presently, emails aren’t being answered. It’s imperative that immediate action is taken with the high demand for housing. investors will be more than willing to come into our neighborhood and exploited now that the guardrails are off. The reason that historic neighborhood is the largest intact neighborhood is because of our old zoning r l e. hemma is more than willing to share information from our zoning. We will work with staff we have a list of design elements with criteria and we’d be more than willing to volunteer our time to make this happen and get a rough draft done. A secondary problem that will impact our neighborhood without immediate action is ad use. Without protections ad use will also be built without guardrails. A concept that was designed to create affordable housing will only backfire a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Finally, the demolition ordinance is in dire need of having teeth inserted. Presently, the consequences for an accidental demolition is less than the cost to rent a bulldozer. Think about a parent sending a punishment for their child who has committed a serious offense and they say Go to your room for 10 minutes. Do you think it’s going to change behavior? I think not. This can be verified by Historic Preservation council liaison, Aaron Rodriguez. So please, in honor of long odds 100 and 50th birthday and for future generations immediately direct staff to place design standards back into henna zoning. If this cannot happen quickly then we ask that you place a temporary moratorium on new applications until staff is able to complete the work. I do honestly and sincerely create. Appreciate your time and dedication to serving the citizens of Longmont and tonight is a marathon. And thank you. I’m sure it’s hard sitting on that side. It was hard sitting on this side and you do it on a weekly basis. I appreciate that you care so much about Longmont and its citizens. Is I’m confused. Okay, do you like fireworks or not? I’m kidding. I’m kidding. I’m in a historic neighborhood knows that timbers mighty old? No, I’m

26:03
just kidding. So thank you very much. council member, Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez.

26:09
Thank you very much. Mayor Bagley as Sharon O’Leary just shared, I am the liaison to historic preservation. And as such, I would like to inform everybody on council at least if Sharon may already know this. Historic Preservation has been actually working on a set of recommendations that they are going to be bringing forward to council based along these exact things of the design standards, as well as the potential of in an overlay district to lay on top of the current zoning. And so those are those are still they they went through them at their their retreat. And then they’ve been fine tuning them also as they’ve gone along in the last couple of months here. So we should be expecting those very soon. And that I’d also like to say to Mr. O’Leary that I think that the Council also needs to review design standards for many reasons, not just this one. And that’s one that’s very important. And I I hope that you like some of our new regulations concerning ad use that we’ve just passed recently. And maybe they didn’t go far enough for you. But I think they’re definitely a good step going forward and trying to help protect folks from overbill ad use and things along those lines. And let’s see, what else did I want to say? Oh, and as far as the demolition ordinance is, you’re absolutely correct. Only if somebody decides to notify the the city before demolition, does the ordinance really have any teeth at all, if they just demolish and ask for forgiveness, basically afterwards, it’s kind of more of a slap on the wrist, as you mentioned. And so I do agree with you on that statement as well.

27:42
So I appreciate what historic preservation is trying to do right now. And that will cover all historic areas within the city. But I’m being an MB right now. And in my own backyard. We had those protections and we had a promise. And and because we are the oldest neighborhood we have those big lots. And then in the front part of the lots on the majority of our lots are just small, two bedroom, one bath cottage type homes with a big lot in the back. So the opportunity to exploit is there. It’s not so much on the west side, because those lots were designed different as Longmont grew and developed. So the urgency is here right now. And we’ve just been noticing that it’s not our average neighbor looking at houses and we’ve had three new one adu and two homes come in under the new zoning and you know, their their mcmansions or their remodels. But they’re definitely out of step now. We can be like everybody else, every other city who didn’t care about historic preservation. I think it’s important that we walk the walk we say 150 years. We love Longmont. Let’s walk the walk again. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right, Bob MacLaughlin.

29:32
Good evening Mayor Bagley and members of council. My name is Bob McLaughlin and I live at 620 Emmer street in Longmont. I’m here tonight as a representative of the historic Eastside Neighborhood Association. Thank you for the opportunity to talk with you about historic preservation in the historic Eastside neighborhood. This year, Longmont celebrated its founding 150 years ago. homes on the east side neighborhood are the tangible record of the efforts of those early settlers. At this time, the side has the largest collection vintec homes from that early development period. city planners recognize the importance of this neighborhood in the 1980s. When they created the residential low density established, or RL rezone specifically, to protect the historic character of the side. It created very generous general guidelines for new development, and it served to preserve both significant structures and the neighborhood wide development pattern that had created our sense of community. These guidelines provided minimal protections in the east side for more than 30 years. The zoning in the east side changed in 2018. The historic east side is now zoned residential single family or our SF. We saw some benefits from this change. But we also lost all references to historic preservation, we became a single family neighborhood just like every new subdivision in town. The difference is we have no homeowners association to protect us from inappropriate development. The design guidelines disappeared. Gone were the traditional setbacks for the front and side yards gone was a requirement that the scale of new development be compatible with the existing houses on the block. Gone were the requirements that roof slope siding windows, door orientations echo the existing patterns in the neighborhood. Today, there’s very little to prevent a developer from buying a house, demolishing it and building something modern and much larger on a lot in the east side. And once a house has lost, its contribution to the fabric of the community is gone forever. This threat is real. In the last year, there was a proposal to demolish a house and leave only two walls standing in addition to another house is now much larger than the basic house itself and its consumes the entire backyard. There have been at least three proposals for ad use, which are which are new standalone structures. The challenge is to preserve the architectural architectural continuity that now exists in the east side, while allowing owners to alter their homes and adapt to changing family needs. A set of design guidelines can encourage development that is compatible with surrounding surrounding properties. One possibility would be to reinstate the general design guidelines from the RL zone. This should be non controversial, because that language is part of city code for more than 30 years. On several occasions, the historical the historic Eastside Neighborhood Association provided city staff with a ready to insert subset of the RL e text remove sections to no longer applied and we changed the format. So the section could be directly added to today’s land development code is section 15.0 5.1 10 J. But the RL Li language really does not provide sufficient guidance, a new more thorough, thorough set of guidelines is needed. And we have to deliver. And we have developed a list of 13 elements that define the visual character of the side, we’re ready to work with staff on specific criteria so that homeowners and developers alike can have a clear picture of how to create compatible development. as a group we have worked actively preserve the side neighborhood since before 1980. And we have and to build a sense of community around our shared stewardship of these homes. We have done all we can out alone to move the use preservation forward, city council must make it a staff priority to create a set of design guidelines for the historic east side, we stand ready to work with staff on that project. And I would just add one other thing. While I haven’t seen the work that the Historic Preservation Commission has done, I really appreciate that effort and and though the effort of that commission. Okay to finish up that set

34:41
on the needs of historic properties, landmark designated properties are somewhat different than for the whole neighborhood. a landmark designated property is preserving the outward appearance of that building. What we’re trying to do Is to pervert preserve the the fabric that knits the entire naval neighborhood together, while allowing more flexibility for adapting those houses my future. Thank you very much. Right. Councilmember Peck?

35:17
Thank you very badly. And thank you, Bob, for this. For your comments. We have asked as a council for a certain amount of amendments to our land development code, one of them being designed standards. And we were waiting for that to come back to us. Okay. So perhaps, along with what Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez has said that the historic association is doing. If we bring back those land development amendments, and what historic, the historic development is doing. We can address what you’re talking about. But again, I don’t know when those amendments are going to come back to us, I hope sooner than later. And I am anxious to see what their work is brought to us from the historic would it be appropriate for us to provide city staff with a list of those 13 features

36:19
that we think are defined the character the neighborhood with criteria?

36:25
I would like personally to see those. I think that all council may like a list of those. However, what I would really like is what did the code say before 2018? Before we did envision online? I don’t know what that was. Right. So that would be important as well. Okay. I can’t prize anything, but we need to address it.

36:48
Right. I have a packet of my comments tonight. And what is essentially the code before under the RL leave zone, and our suggestions for the 13 critical features. And I’d be happy to leave those with you tonight.

37:07
That would be great. Okay, and we should address it. No promises. So right. Well,

37:13
it’s it’s an ongoing issue. And we want to work with the city on it. It’s not that we expect of course, instant result. I sat on the Planning Commission for 10 years. I know how it works. Okay, thank you. Oh,

37:29
boy, I think you should expect a result. I mean, counsel, I think our purpose in the adu ordinance was to increase our housing supply. But what I mean, what it’s really turned into is if everybody else has an HOA, essentially, we’re only sticking it all in downtown. Right? And the question becomes, do we want to alter the very fabric of our downtown neighborhoods? Right. And so there’s easier ways to build buildings ply. And so I not only hear you I agree wholeheartedly. So I would recommend we maybe revisit the whole thing, but that’s a discussion for another night. All right. Councilmember Christianson? don’t you go ahead.

38:11
Thank you, Bob. And thank you to both you and Sharon for bringing this forth. You know, you’ve been waiting for two and a half years, I think, really, we ought to be able to get something together by now. Because in that two and a half years, a lot of things have been built and things that shouldn’t have been built probably. And we all know what’s going on with. I’ve seen what happens to a beautiful historic neighborhood like where my friend lives in in Highlands in Denver, where it has got, it’s got allegedly historic preservation, and protection. And yet places are being demolished all over. And Haiti is buildings being put up that are kind of tacky and poorly built, but they’re very lucrative. And they increase the traffic and they destroy the neighborhood because those people don’t really interact with the neighborhood. They kind of hang out in that condo. So anyway, I applaud you for what you’re doing. I’m I wouldn’t. I’m puzzled about why this historic preservation advisory board or not advisory board, the Historic Preservation Commission, and Hanna are not working together because it would seem to be much more useful if you were all working together. Anyway, um, and also don’t forget the west side where I live because we also have some really beautiful buildings especially on Third Avenue that are that are classic that are left over The the history of when bricks were a big thing in Longmont and a lot of those the captains of brickmaking lived on Third Avenue and use their houses as their advertisement, which is good thing because they built some really tremendous, like beautiful buildings. Anyway, so you know that those two areas of town arm are unique in having different design standards that have actually been written up in books like the geography of nowhere and things like that. And so Longmont really needs to preserve the things that are unique to Longmont. And so I applaud what you what you’re standing up for both you and Sharon, thank you. All right, thank you. Okay. All right. Let’s go with john Chavez. Are you here? JOHN Chavez alright. Looks like what about Jaime and Alina a loyal? Okay, what about Eric Wallace?

41:20
Good evening. I’m Eric Wallace 339 Pratt Street and one of those beautiful brick houses co founder and president of left hand Brewing Company. And I also chair the Longmont Economic Development Partnership board of directors. Almost 29 years ago, I moved along with my wife, who was seven months pregnant at the time after leaving the Air Force. We traveled throughout the western United States looking for a town to call home and we chose to be here in Longmont. And those of you that know me and my company, know that I’m a huge supporter of Longmont and focused on how we can positively impact our city. This is my adopted hometown after moving all around the world. for 30 years. My children were born, raised and schooled here. My eldest daughter works at lefthand. But she lives in weld county because she can’t afford to live in Longmont. So I’m here to discuss, first a major challenge that I as a business owner, and many others with whom I have spoken, are dealing with currently, workforce housing, attainable housing, it’s become a crisis for many of us providing jobs to workers in Longmont. I was really I’m really getting upset about it. So I did a study to evaluate the relationship between the distance one of our people has to commute and the length of their employment. And I ran that from 2016 through mid year 21 for people who have ended employment at law lefthand. And I’ve discovered that the farther Someone has to drive to work, the shorter their 10 year tends to be, it’s a very, very strong correlation.

43:03
From a business perspective, this increases recruiting and training costs for us and reduces the amount of experience on our team. It contributes to costly errors from a quality of life perspective causes people to spend more time driving in a car to go back and forth. From a city perspective, those workers are spending our money in a store in a different tax jurisdiction. I believe that the current policies and decisions that are impacting affordable, and workforce housing exacerbate the housing crisis. They don’t seem to be improving it. There’s a lot of talk about it. But by focusing primarily on very low income housing, we have effectively it seems gutted the housing supply for workers and entry level purchasers. The trend to concentrate approval authority for a variety of things at City Council level, actually, for example, conflicts with strategy 1.2 of envision long run plan, which foresaw allowing for increased administrative approval of desired development projects that provide for increased height, density, mixed use and affordable housing. The no growth policies espoused by a vocal minority in our town, advocate for policies that actually, in my opinion, increased traffic congestion, more driving to get to work, more driving to get home, they impact urban sprawl, and communities near us just look east and do nothing to truly address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, which I hear a lot of talk about. It seems to me that the choice is not grow or grow not. It’s to decide how to wisely manage the growth that is happening. We can’t stop it. It’s gonna happen and nothing indicates to me that we will successfully stop our state from growing anytime soon. I lived in Colorado Springs in the 1970s when the population first broke 2 million people In the state and folks were upset then it will continue to happen and housing costs will continue to skyrocket as supply and demand roll inexorably forward, unless we address the supply. If our young people can’t afford to buy homes in Longmont, and began to begin and begin to build equity in their homes, the nature of our community will be heavily impacted over time. Without increased housing density, transportation via transit is less feasible and more open space will disappear under tract homes, more and more road miles away. More road miles bring more air pollution, more road rage. We can’t say we are inclusive. While we act to be exclusive, which is what I see happening. It’s within city council’s power and job description to assist that policies and decisions that impact development within our community. Be made guided by the vision and intend to creatively address all of the challenges before us in accordance with our already Council approved strategic plans. And I propose that the city set a 10 year goal for itself to plan for it improve and facilitate the building of 5000 work force purgeable purchasable dwelling units or whatever the number really is because no one can tell me within the current city limits to have a real impact on the housing shortage. You can’t hit a target if you’re not aiming at it. Both envision Longmont and advanced Longmont 2.0 service complimentary strategic plans and visions for economic vitality, sustainability and a pathway for the provision of important amenities in Longmont ranging from safety to connectivity, housing to the environment, job training, and growth and economic viability to livability. They’re balanced and well thought out, it’s obvious that a lot of thoughtful effort and outreach contributed to them. long line EDP that that organization chosen to grow our employer base and to lead the coordination and implementation of advanced long line 2.0 2.0 works across numerous partners and stakeholders to realize these visions. And I’m going to run out of time from my last paragraph. But effectively, as the board chair, we want to work with counsel, but we need

47:11
indeed, but you might be able to sneak it in a little bit later. Somebody has a comment. I had nobody else has a comment. That’s the Get in. Oh, Counselor Christiansen.

47:23
Okay, so you can finish it? What do you think we can eat? Go ahead.

47:29
I think that we we really need to all get on the same page, you know, we’re trying to work on a collective impact model to really have an impact on our town, and, and deal with the growth and deal with a change that really is inevitable and do it do it wisely. But in in envision, Longmont actually speaks within the plan about the interrelationships among city departments. And being aware that systems thinking and need for benefits and trade offs between benefits, and across all of their guiding principles, and that that needs to start happening. And really my experience is that not all the city departments are collaborating with Project owners, or between themselves to work together to actually identify and resolve the existing conflicts within all of our various codes and regs to further the aims of the two strategic plans that you all have approved, you’ve approved these plans, I chair, an organization tasked to implement it, but there’s a lot of mixed messaging going on, I think with within the city. So I would ask that you as Council and the city manager’s team work, whether independently and jointly as appropriate, to bring all of our city resources to muster and keep the teams focused and hold them accountable for the actual realization of these two plans. We we at the EDP can’t be successful and coordinating the implementation of events on ma 2.0. Without participation and accountability within the city. And I think that it’s I want to hammer on the word accountability. And we need to because we need help on the housing front now.

49:17
I would like to point oh, my Sorry, I was getting ready to put the next person on and he could go ahead. Go the one second. He didn’t get back in. There it is. Alright, my apologies. Thank you for the extra time, by the way. Hold on. It’s still not on.

49:34
Hold on one. Yeah, hold on. Oh, I do not like the new system because I can’t see anybody. Thank you. All right.

49:42
Go ahead. Okay. Well, I appreciate all you do and you were one of the most innovative and successful business people in town and I’m glad you live in one of those brick offices. But with all due respect The people who implement our our policy decisions is the city staff. Not really lldp, which is our economic development wing, but but they are important. However, you know, I think there needs to be more coordination between the two, when and a greater understanding of what I think that’s what maybe we have loggerheads with. Anyway, I agree with all of your points. For the most part, I do think there has, for some reason been a, a meme going around about people being some people being no growth, I don’t know, a single person on this, on the city council, who was promoting the idea of no growth. And so I don’t know where that’s coming from. But anyway, I think all of us understand that every living creature and every living system grows, and then sometimes it dies, when sometimes it grows, but you know, that’s natural, we’re not going to be able to put a awful sign on the outside of Longmont and say, You can’t come here, or that, or the state of Colorado or the United States or anything. Although we did have a president who wanted to do that. But um, so anyway, I do. Thank you for your comments. And I think that, and I appreciate all the work you do with lldp. I think they’re very valuable organization. So thank you.

51:37
And Councilman I did I did mention, not just Council, but city staff absolutely has to get on the same page. There, there’s a lot of differing opinions and a lot of cross guidance in our code. And regs actually allow for that we’ve experienced it directly on our new beer garden project, what we’re trying to get open next next month, where one city agency told us to do it one way and the other one said, You can’t build that we’re going to disapprove your project. So they’re very, very many, many instances of that happening. So what I’m asking is that where those things happen, that we’ve start to bring a collaborative perspective, here’s how we should resolve these conflicts rather than Nope, here’s a comment that buys me three months, because I’m really busy. Councilmember pack,

52:31
thank you, Mayor Bagley. Thank you, Eric, for bringing this to our attention. I would also like to know from our planning department, how many permits we have in the queue for development, and what type of what type of development is coming toward to us. As far as only focusing on the lower end of development, I don’t see that as what we are trying to do. I know Lh a does, because that is their job. But a developer has the opportunity to develop what he wants, in any price range that they want. But they have to adhere to the inclusionary housing ordinance. And that ordinance also addresses the workforce, which I think you’re talking about the 80% to 100 and 100% ami. So we are not saying that a developer only has to develop this or this or this, they get to choose what they want to develop. But it must be within our inclusion, how inclusionary housing ordinance if that is what you’re saying we need to do away with? I think that that’s what you should say, I’m not quite sure what what you’re saying that the city council is only addressing the lower end of the spectrum at 50% ami, or that we are not building workforce housing.

54:17
Oh, there’s there’s a lot of the the media and I don’t work within the city, and I’m not an expert on any of the any of the the ordinances or codes or anything, but what we hear about always is is affordable housing. And, and, and basically, with all of the people I talked to that, that build homes, it’s it’s almost impossible to build anything in the city and get through the process in any kind of predictable or timely fashion just because of the huge, huge friction going through. And there seems to be that and this is anecdotal what I hear, it seems to be really the city would prefer, just get payment in lieu and let people build whatever they want. And that way the city controls, you know, they control the fund for the lower end housing. But that leaves my people that make 70 to 120% of ami. There’s nothing being built in that zone, because the market has shifted so fast and so, so quickly, and it’s impossible to build homes, almost impossible to get projects approved to build this, and I’m aware of projects that have tried to get approved and have walked away, there’s there hundreds of millions of dollars in, in investment in in Longmont that is is disappearing and going east, and you can see the result of the money that would have been spent here that’s going east. So long on EDP is basically we’re starting a study to identify, quantify and determine how many of these projects have really left town and why. And what’s the total the loss of investment within our community that would have been directed towards housing supply? We think we think it’s real.

56:06
And Eric, when Jessica came to us with that when businesses have closed and walked away, and we asked, Do you know why tell us why they have there is no specific answer. There is a spectrum of reasons. It isn’t all about housing. And I agree with you that developers have reasons as to why they can’t get their projects through. But I want to hear from staff as well, because as to why a project isn’t getting through. But each project has specific or individual reasons as to why that project is accepted and moves forward, or is rejected or has to come back several times to just say, as a universal umbrella that all developers cannot develop here, unless we break it down and say why didn’t this development go through? Why was it rejected by staff? Why did they move? I don’t see how we can address the problem, unless we hear it from staff side as well. I

57:12
i that is accurate, what you were saying it’s it’s a variety of reasons. But there are there are myriad ways to slow down or to render a project. Financially, you know, not doable, it unfeasible. So we’re working. And it’s going to be a variety of reasons of why it occurs. But there’s specific reasons I’ve heard plenty of them. challenges that if anyone who’s trying to develop in this town comes forward and gives examples that puts them fully exposed and at risk of future retribution through the through the planning and entitlement process. It really exposes them. And that’s happened to other people with whom I’ve spoken, which is why they won’t come forward. And I’m a brewer, I don’t build a home. So yeah, I actually I can’t have a development shutdown.

58:05
Exactly. But again, how can we how can we address a code, when we don’t hear from the staff side as to why a development does not go through or get approved for and, again, collecting the data? If there is enough developments that have the exact same problem, then we have something to go on. But just to have a developer come to us and make a blanket statement about staff? Or that anecdotally, they’ve heard of a lot of developers to me, that isn’t enough to go on. So I think we need to address the codes, constantly be looking at them. But we need to know both sides of the story.

58:57
Well, I don’t think I think I misheard you call me a developer. Oh, I’m sure that’s what I heard. But I can most banal example, when we brought the beer garden project to pNz. We followed the guidance of planning staff and the sound ordinance is in conflict. The sound ordinance does not does not foresee the type of beer garden that we’re that we’re putting up. And the guidance that we followed to put the project before pNz pNz basically said, you read the code wrong, they reference a completely different part of the code and said, we’re gonna we’re gonna basically deny your project.

59:43
And until an appeal of that comes to us. There’s really not a whole lot we can do about that.

59:49
So but you asked for examples. That’s not a bill. That’s not a house example. That’s just a project example. The kinds of things that happen,

59:57
but we were talking about housing and being able to afford In a house, it’s so easy to different issues. It’s analogous. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Councillor Martin? Well get back in, it’s okay. You have to stay out of the queue. Hold on back on.

1:00:25
Yes. Just so everybody knows the reason why it takes so long as there’s literally, there’s a list and it only shows the top three. And it shows my microphone and it shows that microphone and one other. And so it’s it’s

1:00:39
okay, well, things are things are things are as they are right right now. And I feel like I disagree with Councilwoman pack. I don’t think we should be looking at this as an adversarial relationship. I do not believe that there is an app, there isn’t an adversarial relationship between the city leadership, the City Council and the developers at all. You know, what I have seen is serious work at the policy level to try to work out the issues with the code. I have seen the development community come forward with proposals that match envision Longmont and the inclusionary zoning ordinance. I’ve seen them try to go above and beyond that. And, you know, we realize that we had a problem in the code where we didn’t really reward people for going above and beyond in terms of building affordable and workforce housing. And I would like you, Eric, to talk a little more than you did, about what the Le dp is doing in terms of, of finding loans. You know, helping people who want to work in long, who work in Longmont or have jobs in Longmont live in Longmont, because I think that that is a collaboration with the city that was really beautifully designed to talking

1:02:40
about the more the mortgages, yes, programs. Yeah, the LDP definitely runs that trying to bring people that are moving in from out of town or first time homebuyers here through the mortgage process and give them several $1,000 towards towards a mortgage on a new house. The challenge, I mean, those are great programs. But there aren’t a whole lot of houses that these people can afford. So you’ve got to build them. And that’s why I propose that we actually set a numerical target. And there’s experts that I’m sure could tell us, your housing supplies x 1000, short of what it really needs to be in order to bend this sharply rising cost curve. There’s got to be a number out there. And I’ve heard the question asked how many affordable units do we do we do? And I’ve seen Kathy fetlar give that presentation to council? What about attainable? What about for my people that that have jobs and that are driving in from Milliken and Pearson Loveland and Thornton and bursted and brush. I mean, they’re scattered all over kingdom come.

1:03:46
Yeah, and I have as someone who did the commute for brush for other reasons, I will tell you, that is not something you want to do on a daily basis, people are doing um, and and I am sorry for that. I agree 100% with the idea of having a target, I will say that the Lh a target, which I believe is on the order of 2000 deeply affordable units over a five year period. It proves that we can do a count. It also acknowledges i think that that units at that level of affordability are unbuildable for the from the private sector. So you really need to have those taken care of by the lhsaa. And I think that that means that we do need to acknowledge that we’re relying on the private sector to provide the higher end affordable and attainable housing that employers like you need and I don’t think anybody who thinks it through is going to want us I want to get my stuff, my beer, my dinner served to me. You know, my, the nurses in my, in the emergency room when my kid gets sick. I don’t think anybody wants those people that they need that are essential to this community to have community and from

1:05:22
brush over half the people in the city can’t afford to live in the city. I mean, Harold told me that Yeah, so I mean, that’s just, that’s a symptom of actually what’s going on the affordable band and tranche of housing. The advantage to that is it’s not deed restricted. And the people that get their foot in actually can benefit from the increased equity in the house. When you limit something to CPI growth, you get the same out of it, as before, but you have the responsibility for repairs, for maintenance for all, everything else that goes on that if you’re renting from someone, they’re theoretically taking care of it. So that equity piece is really, I think of fundamental importance long term for the next generation that’s going to be in Longmont. Otherwise, it’s gonna be a bunch of us old folk living here, because we’re the only ones that can afford it.

1:06:12
That’s exactly right. And, and, and, actually, you know, that is that is what I was thinking about when I approved, I proposed that middle tier that is not subject to fees in lieu in our inclusionary zoning ordinance. And we haven’t set a target for that. But um, I see profile proposals to build it coming through because I track every single one of them. And unfortunately, the problem seems to be that it takes too long to get them coming out of the ground. Because a lot of these were were proposed and applied for in 2018, as soon as we understood what the ordinance was going to be. And they’re not out of the ground yet. And so I just want to say I agree with you, if we had those, if we had those units now we would be so much better off than we are today.

1:07:09
We’re set up we’re at an EDP, we’re well aware of the frustration levels and and some projects that are greatly imperiled right now, because of the length of time and the challenges of building some of these projects.

1:07:20
All right. So thank you for bringing this up. Back to another comment.

1:07:28
I do. And my comments, were not meant to be adversarial at all. And I’m sorry that they were taken that way, if you took them that way, or my comments were that if we need to tweak our code, we need to hear from both sides, because we are the ones that set that code. And we need to hear, we need to hear from the staff, as well as from the developers as to what is going wrong, staff wise as to why these are not being these permits these. These developers are not getting their projects done. Not just from the developer side, it’s so that we can make definite tweaks to the code.

1:08:16
I’m aware of numerous conversations that have occurred that I’m not that directly party to and I know they’re ongoing. And I know that the frustration is

1:08:24
and we need to understand what the frustration is from both sides. And

1:08:28
it really it’s it’s it’s it’s a cultural shift within the city attitude, I believe, to where instead of we make the rules and you follow the rules, too. We are the smartest people in the room. We understand the code. We’re we’re looking at these projects. And we’re going to suggest ways where you’re bumping against things, we’re going to suggest workarounds, we’re going to deconflict between one department and another when they give you conflicting comments, which happens all the time, we’re going to deconflict those kind of things within the review process before it gets handed back to somebody who’s trying to build something, and it costs them months, and they have to go out and hire consultants and then there’s conversations that have to happen. It could be a far more transparent, efficient and predictable process, which would lower the cost and it would attract investment into Longmont, rather than us having the reputation. We’re building a project down in Denver right now. And when we talk to our our general contractor, they said oh, we said is this really going to be hard? We hear Denver’s really hard to go Where are you guys from? It’s like long lines like oh, it’s gonna be cake here for a long, long, long line has a terrible reputation within the building and development community in terms of the difficulty of getting projects approved. That’s that’s from that’s from a builder that that we were interviewing.

1:09:53
I’m not disputing that. What I’m saying is well, I already said what I said. I want to hear from both sides. So thank you. All right, I’m

1:10:02
just I guess, just it’s open. It’s an open forum night, but I still here too. I know so I once I once had a boss who told me look if you’re not going to be right at least be consistent. Right? my two cents on this isn’t I I’m not casting or dispersing stones at any my fellow council members. I’m also a member of this council. There’s seven of us. But I do think that we’ve had this this council, you know, meaning not necessarily a seven, but this council recently is had some in consistencies meaning when we say words that are anti development. Regardless, if you’re a developer, you’re gonna hear that I wouldn’t spend money to try to annex into Longmont, if I was a developer, based on what I’ve seen from this council, meaning that it’s always a crapshoot, even if it’s a long, long, comprehensive plan. So I can I can hear you on that one. I was here on council when we had a, we talked about an emergency, we didn’t have enough apartments. You know, this was I mean, this is only like four or five years ago, you know, Oh, my gosh, we got to build apartments, because, you know, we don’t have homes, we need apartments. And then now it’s Oh, my gosh, why did we build so many apartments? Or, you know, Oh, my gosh, we don’t have enough housing supply, let’s build ad use. Oh, my gosh, let’s don’t build more. And so it’s it’s a we’re all over the place. You know, we pass an administrative review process, and then we, you know, talk at staff about how Oh, my gosh, council needs to be included, or, I mean, it’s, it’s from me, as the mayor sitting here for six years as a council member and four years as mayor. I wouldn’t develop a mama. Just being completely honest, I would invest in the real estate sector. Because it’s a total and complete crapshoot. So I hear what you’re saying.

1:12:00
I’ve had conversations with with people who, who have built in companies, and have invested in projects in Longmont and said they will never do it again. Yeah. So they’re the frustration level is quite high. And so we I mean, so

1:12:13
yeah. Now, I’m not saying that is complaining, I just think it’s a fact. So we have to decide whether or not we’re going to facilitate it. And this is part of the ongoing question. I don’t think anyone hears opposed like zero growth, we’ve keep hearing that word, zero growth. The question is, are we going to have highly restricted growth? Or are we going to have highly unrestricted growth? Or is it going to be somewhere in between? Right. And I think that right now, we’re a little bit schizophrenic, and counsel, you know, whether it’s our city manager, city attorney, or city staff, you know, they’re trying to please us, you know, and a lot of times, it’s not as simple as having four people go, we vote this way. When a couple months later, you know, the same Council says, we vote now this way, or I mean, we, we don’t make their job easy.

1:13:03
We have the filters of these plans. But we all have to be on the same page, which I think is where I tried to start start this conversation is we’ve got to get on the same page. And we’ve got to get everyone who touches these projects that impact our community on the same page. It’s it and not everyone is that’s that’s my observation, both from direct experience and from numerous conversations, we are as a as a, as an organization as a city bureaucracy. We are not, you know, and all these various forums were not on the same page in the collective impact model cannot be brought to bear on implementing advanced llama 2.0 in any way. If we’re not on the same page, that’s a starting condition to make it happen. You have to bring in stakeholders from across the entire community. But the city’s process has to deconflict itself, you know, and that’s, that’s not something that we as citizens can do that’s got to come from a culture shift that that’s led from the top down, where everybody’s held accountable to that plan. And you all can filter your decisions through the tenants of envision Longmont and advanced online 2.0 you can force How does this meet with our approved strategic plan? How does it meet? Let’s give Dr. Dr. Waters wants to take the last word.

1:14:25
Thanks. I don’t know if I’ll have the last word. But I appreciate getting into the conversation. And Thanks, Eric, for for bringing the issue. Given what we’ve read, in the last, I don’t know, month or six weeks in our local newspaper and the call from members of the community for a robust public discussion. I was anticipating tonight that this room would be filled with residents who want to talk about growth, what our growth rate is how we manage our growth. So I’m glad you brought the topic so we can talk about it. I’m disappointed that there aren’t more perspectives in the room. So we could really drill down on some of the issues. So you’ve, you’ve identified a number of them, I just want to reinforce a couple of things you’ve said. I’m trying to remember I do I’ve just drawn a blank on the name of the Communist and caught the Denver Post columnist. A week ago, Sunday’s the his fence, Carol. Then Yeah, the evidence, Carol, thank you. His call, right. He did a he did such an he was spot on, in his analysis, not just of Colorado, right. He talked about what’s gone on in the country, and then brought it back to Colorado, on the relationship between households and housing units. In over the last 20 years one has outpaced the other right. Housing households has dramatically outpaced housing units. And then he then he brought it to Colorado with a particular study very recently published that forecast in Colorado, we need over the next five years, 55,000 attainable units a year for the next five years, 275,000 units, some percentage of that surely applies the long line, right. So if you look at our own history, for the last 20 years, we get this every month from our planning department, you can see a drop in housing permits starting in 2001, every year through 2010. Right. The Great Recession explains part of that, it doesn’t explain all of it, I don’t I don’t have any explanation for the precipitous drop your over year, until 2011. It started to tick back up in 2000. And actually two through says 2011, it started to tick back up in 2012. We saw a little bit of growth from 2012 to two through 2018. And then it dropped off again because of the pandemic, right. But if you look at our population during that 20 year period of time, there were big fluctuations, it was a pretty consistent increase in our population, except for the folks you want to employ, right, who need or who worked for the city of Longmont, or who worked for the school district in a young family that would like to establish itself and raise their kids and grow old and Longmont has had not many chances to purchase market rate homes that they can afford. So personally, the fact that we haven’t set a target for attainable housing is on us. And I think we ought to be ashamed of it. Frankly, number one, I’m proud of what we did with the 12% for affordable housing, but we have I think, ignored a whole segment of our population that we have an obligation to do better to serve. I think I don’t want to I don’t want to point fingers or, or shame or blame anybody. But I know I could the Duggal in which trail bank project did we want example, it’s been in review for three years. Here’s a developer came to town and said as a council, you all want workforce housing, I can build it. I built it in Denver, I can build it in Longmont. He submitted a plan. Three years later, it’s not approved. The market has changed so much from the time he submitted his application, that he can no longer deliver that product as a for sale product, it’s going to be rentals, not because that’s what he wanted. That’s not because what we wanted. That’s because he’s had to work through 20 to 22 workarounds or 22 variances from our code that we create. And we put him in that position, right? He’s just truck he, we said we have a question. He said, I have an answer. And we said, Nope, we’re not going to accept yes for an answer. I mean, that’s hard for me to get my head wrapped around. We have a project right now that we approved

1:18:52
in Longmont, where the entitlement process, the developer penciled in $1,000 per unit. Right? Right now it’s going to cost them $5,000 per unit if they finished it today. $4,000 of additional cost for every home with zero value added. Where did that cost come from? From us from our process? It wasn’t the developer. We slowed the process down. I’m not saying there may be a lot of good reasons. But we ought to, we ought to at least learn from what those reasons are. So our development community and this council and others can get better going forward. Right? And I’m certain there’s a lot to learn to accelerate the process within our own within our own processes. But that’s where accountability comes in. And for my money, I think I think the community ought to say to us, if we don’t see, we don’t see an objective to create more efficiency in the in the in the process, whatever the the outcome is, the kick the bad projects out here. We don’t want poor product delivered in long line. But we got to be held accountable by the community and we got to hold ourselves accountable. They’re making certain that if we are serious about workforce housing, and I think we should be that we work in ways to deliver workforce housing, and we haven’t, in my opinion, we haven’t set the goal. And in you refer to Kathy Federer’s presentations, that we got this presentation in February of 2019. Just before 2020, just before everything shut down, right. I think our last presentation in the library was from Kathy, she was delivering her five year I think needs assessment. And as I recall, the housing stock that was in that was least available, right? The what, how do you what’s How do you frame the shortage? Right, the most of the most frustrating shortage, right was or obvious shortage was in workforce housing. So we have a, we do have a challenge. And in my view, we have taken some of the very tools we need to help with this out of our toolbox. We’ve done that to ourselves. And we have we have failed to have to be as responsive, I think, as we need to be to the community. And I know, we’ll all hear from folks in town about managed growth. I think we ought to have a clear conversation about how we manage growth in Longmont. developers don’t get a pass they they’re they’re paying all kinds of fees. Right to build a house in long line. Just I just just out of curiosity. I asked Glenn and Joanie to just share with me in the interest of learning more about how does, how did how does new housing pay its own way? And how does somebody who’s lived here for generations benefit from a new home being built someplace else? over the last, you can take take these numbers, just just on the new park development fee. Anybody want to guess, over the last 10 years, how much we’ve collected in new park development fees to pay for new parks, not just in the home in the developments being constructed, but across the city? over $23 million. Right? That that that is that’s fees, those are fees, revenues from fees, to build parks for the whole community to use, right. And you can do the same thing with water and sewer fees that help mitigate the costs across across the community to residents. So I think we need the robust discussion. I’m glad you you know you’ve teed it up tonight. But I do think we have an obligation for our employers. And whether you’re part of lldp or not, we have an obligation to employers to do more and better to produce housing stock for families that make too much to qualify for subsidies and would like to live and work. They’d like to live in the same town in which they work. And all the other benefits that come with reduced traffic congestion, reduced noise, reduce pollution, all the things you’ve talked about along along with the stresses of commuting back and forth. So I

1:23:04
agree we’re going to need to approach it differently. We’re going to have to use different building techniques, we’re going to have to go denser sprawl doesn’t pay for itself, the infolding of the community and creating density is what makes a lot of these other things work and mitigates a lot of the other

1:23:18
impasse. Well, and we have, we have I know through lldp and some of our business communities pay real close attention to the whole concept of new localism. And its core. It is it is folks like us, with folks like the staff, and the best and brightest entrepreneurs in this community have come together around problem identification and working together to solve them quickly. Right? Do it smartly, right. That’ll differentiate that was that is what will differentiate some communities from others in the post pandemic era? getting it right more quickly, in the interest of whatever our objectives are as a community.

1:23:55
So we’re gonna end up looking like towns out east if we don’t if we don’t change what we’re doing. Yeah.

1:24:00
So I’m looking forward to, you know, as a council, I’m looking forward with the community to to frame and whatever the issues are and, and how we get to the place where we are. We no longer have to, to wring our hands about working families being unable with no options to purchase homes in long run. Alright, thanks for suas Sorry, I didn’t talk about fireworks. That’s alright. we’ll forgive you for forgiving john, March. March, march or March, April. I’ve got it.

1:24:41
Well, they say talk’s cheap, but whiskey costs money. Some. I’m here because I have an issue with this wonderful city, about noise and I’m not talking About firecrackers it’s motor vehicle noise. I know we can’t do anything about airplane noise. Nobody wants to go there. And firecracker noise is a national phenomena. Anyway, it seems to me there’s no control over loud exhaust noise in this town where at least nothing seems to be enforced. Is this correct? You can now add,

1:25:39
actually, Harold, is there somebody here and we’re gonna address this from staff? I’ll keep going no, I cannot keep going. I mean, I want I want during your time, but let’s get the people up here who can answer this?

1:25:50
Yeah, it seems to me there’s no control, right? We all know that what comes out of a combustion engine? Mr. martyrdoms?

1:26:00
What can you pull that mic down the paper at home is saying that they’re listening to you and they want to be able to hear so is this better? That’s way better

1:26:08
okay. We all know what comes out of a combustion engine, toxic gases and particles, this is fact hydrocarbons are toxic to humans in the ecology. Therefore, we have emission standards national emission standards in this country. To control program if you can pass you can drive if not, you fix your car. We’re all familiar with this and it works. Something else comes out of the gas engine I will call it noise it is easily identifiable vehicles also come equipped with noise suppression devices such as mufflers etc. Devices designed to quiet combustion noise to make life more comfortable for everybody. Anyway, noise is not it is not environmentally friendly. is very disturbing, invasive, and hazardous to our ears and mind or peace of mind. We need that anyway. As only anyone ever tried to have a pleasant evening out on Main Street or only to be blasted by loud roaring motors. Not if you know this. It’s quite it’s quite disturbing. I could ask for a show of hands but not many people are here. No drives me crazy. Can you hear airplanes? I hear the automobiles on Main Street. You have one of the few stereos Yeah, it’s a horrible place to go. To have a pleasant evening. They roar along the road. It’s all mufflers. mufflers. Okay? Do you want noise with your dinner? You want to have a conversation or you want to hear mufflers anyway. It even comes into your home at weird hours in the morning. Anyway. I doubt there’s any enforcement to keep motor noise to a reasonable level in this town. If there is then what proof is there this work could I get some proof that you guys are doing anything about noise? Car noise.

1:29:28
I offer two solutions to the council. ticketing would be welcome and it can pay its way. Boy we love money. You could have a muffler enforcement. Take just grab these guys. Give them a ticket, send them home. The only people that would suffer are muffler shops. Leave me the only people would suffer are muffler shops. Also, I grew up in another state. They had noise enforcement for automobiles, my done. Go ahead and finish your your point and noise enforcement for automobiles, you paid a ticket. ticketing is one thing another is the best solution. Go to your emission station, get your emissions, what comes out of your tailpipe is good or bad. If it’s noise, it’s bad. You can do that. Right at the emissions Colorado emission station, people would earn a living checking these things. And this could be really easily done. We all go to college admissions. And who wants a lousy noisy town? Alright, thank you, sir.

1:31:03
I know but nobody’s in the queue. But thank you very much for our for your comments. My last. No, you’re not last. But thank you. Alright, so do they do any ticketing. Harold. I know we have assuming we know how to do it. I’ve never seen it. Harold, do you want it?

1:31:20
Do you have anything to say? Yeah, so I think when we look at these issues, there are a number of things involved in so I’m aware of a few instances where they’ve done that I’m aware of it where they’ve worked with property owners, I’m also aware of so I can tell you 17th Street between hoever and airport, we got a continuous call about a car. And and it was a different times. One of the challenges that really gets related to all of these. So whether it’s fireworks, whether it’s mufflers, whether it’s these types of issues, is that when when you look at the capacity that we actually have on the streets at any given point in time, and you look at the call volumes that are coming in, and we prioritize those, we’re priority one and to call, those are the ones that we send folks to immediately. Those are typically two officer response calls and each priority one and two. And then you combine it with speeding, you know, people not stopping at red lights and those types of issues. It’s managing it. And so what we started working on is with a local entrepreneur on some sound monitoring devices, so we can get a sense as to what’s really happening in different locations, the technology on that they’re still working through and I know that are when I’m talking to the individual in public safety, that’s doing it that’s working in it. But what we’re trying to figure out a way is to automate it, because speeding and neighborhoods sound continual running red lights in these issues, and then the priority calls that we’re dealing with on any given day. That’s what we’re trying to manage in a time. We’re staffing down. And so it really is a triage of these calls and what we’re doing, there’s also regulations in terms of what how the state law applies to this and what we can and can’t do. And so there’s a number of factors that we’re trying to manage at any point in time in the street, and it really is balancing any number of issues at what’s happening during that. I don’t know if that answers your question or not. It probably doesn’t satisfy this gentleman, but it’s an answer.

1:33:31
So it’s enforceable. You put up a sign you said this is that noise? We’ll have a bus something’s city. Okay. Don’t bring your noise tip long mine. What about more, get a muffler squad. You can hire cops and pay him well, and they can make how much an hour 100 bucks an hour. Give me tickets still. It’s doesn’t take rocket science. This is not it’s really easy. Other places do it. Alright. Well,

1:34:01
thank you. So we appreciate you coming in. All right. Okay. I’m sorry. I know. It’s great. I get emotional because it bothers I know you’re you’re perfect tonight either. Anybody

1:34:12
could put me know. You heard plenty of noise complainer’s tonight, so it’s okay. It’s okay. All right. Brian Johnston.

1:34:37
I have a lot to cover. So I thought a quick and efficient way to do this would be report card style. So here’s who gets ace. Dr. Detlef Hill Megan is air quality monitoring systems, long power communications especially next light nice. Lisa Knobloch and her climate Emergency Committee, especially given the time constraints It was put on her to put that committee and report together. Public Works natural resources. And I want to thank Jim Gordon and Teresa Malloy. They are exceptional. And especially, besides being competent in explaining finance, the budgeting side is the part I can’t stand. And actually I’m going to name them saluted taureans but valedictorian does it even need to be said, goes a Strider Benson, for being right about everything he said over the past four years and a threat to our democracy that that was made clear on January 6. We’re gonna go down to B’s public safety. Why a B? Well, it’s been mentioned a couple times before but your encrypted communications policy, it leaves the public vulnerable during certain emergencies. Because only a small percent of Longmont residents are signed up for reverse 911. I’ve seen this happen twice now, where they’ve issued shelter in place, text messages went out. And then nothing else. A total blackout, no more information coming I brought some samples, I can give you a lot more. One was removing the guy was on the ATV at over by target pointing a gun at people. This other one was another shelter in place that happened at Walmart a few a few weeks back where people are can i is it over yet and they found a guy can I come out of my house? There, we got to figure out a way to reach citizens during emergencies. You know, just we just had mass shooting in Boulder. You know, people from out of town are not registered for reverse 911 here people that that are you know, and I kind of seem to recall the number was last mentioned a couple years ago was 10,000 people signed up for reverse 911 that’s like a 10th of our population, we have to be able to to communicate with the public during certain emergencies. And so we’re gonna have to figure out some solutions in I’d mentioned earlier about what’s called geo fencing or selective use of encryption, but we got to figure something out. And also, this is a great follow up to Mr. March. In regards to public safety. Yeah, this this sounds the worst I’ve ever experienced. For the enforcement of car stereo noise, especially along Main Street. It’s crazy how these extreme offenders I will call them 100 plus decibels rattling the windows, all Friday night, all day, Saturday, all day Sunday, it never ends on certain on weekends, holidays. It’s it makes downtown dining, miserable. And it’s funny, I have a presentation for this. I just couldn’t fit it in tonight. So I’ll come back next week, we’ll go over the solutions I’ve put together to help us address this car stereo and, and the muffler issues. Now we’re going to the seas. While planning and development, you’re lucky that this wasn’t six, eight weeks, six, eight months ago, because I would have come in here, given you an F minus and placed you on double secret probation. But I’ve made great leeway with the business that moved in next door mounted speakers to the outside of our building, and we’re bumping music in my neighborhood. Thank you for your help, life’s gotten a lot better. However, I still have a lot of problems playing development. First and foremost, the way you present your pride, your public private partnerships. This was when this first came to me and I didn’t say anything at this point. But this is the actual slide from the smuckers presentation in which job numbers are represented as a potential of 500 jobs potential of 250 and phase one and a potential of 250 and phase two.

1:38:43
Yes,

1:38:44
I stopped it a minute left to be consistent. I’m just letting you know you got a minute left. And that had been less than four minutes. Yeah, but right. But you got a minute left. And then I’ve been allowing people to say their final their final thought. So I just figured I’d let you know. You know that that were there. Okay, because I really want you to, I’m interested. Yeah.

1:39:06
So, okay. Then I want to bring up the Costco when when presented with the economic impact and it was mentioned, but I got up to 300 about 335 total jobs. Well, I want to tell you, that is not the correct way to present job numbers. And, and I don’t agree with those job numbers. This was the slide from when Jim Gordon presented when he included you’ve returned his terminology, the cannibalism rate that he included to show how much tax revenue we’re going to get. We’re also going to lose this much tax revenue. The same goes for Costco. The same goes. So my my point is, is that all these employees won’t be Longmont residents, that other jobs will be cannibalized and that you need to control for these variables in your analyses and in your presentation. That giving us best case scenario up to 500 jobs is not the way you should present ppps and I Just say that because because I lived in a lot of places where I’ve seen these ppps not trickled down the jobs and money didn’t trickle down as was presented. So I’m gonna actually get you guys scrutinize these you can finish up your your last point and I just asked that city council very strongly scrutinize these ppps. In the future I’ve seen too many incidents in person where they things didn’t trickle down. I’ve read too many case studies in college where things didn’t trickle down. And I also asked that from this point on long that that Planning and Development give concise numbers not an up to well, it could produce 500 jobs. No, we need to know a minimum of 250 jobs with potential up to 500 give us a range, but at least we need to know bare minimum, what are taxpayers going to get for their money? Worst case scenario. And I appreciate everyone’s public service. And thank you for this time.

1:40:56
Thank you for for I was just waiting for our names to be on the final slide. Thank you, Brian. Appreciate your your participation tonight. All right, shareen, batterson. Are you still here? What about jack best all?

1:41:29
mayor, members of the council. I’m jack best all my company’s best all collaborative. It’s a development and planning consulting firm that I founded I guess over 20 years ago. Now I was thinking about that tonight. It was basically founded around what my experiences have been in both working in the public sector. I was in a former lifetime, I was principal planner for the city of Scottsdale, and then working privately in consulting firms and then eventually working on the developer side. So you know, you hang around long enough, you’re bound to learn something right? This is kind of the this is kind of where I start. I’m here really to say I appreciate your leadership. And yes, I work with, with Eric and others in in the long run Economic Development Partnership. But what really got our partnership, and my private sector group going in Longmont was your leadership in the fact that you created the vision Longmont plan. And I every one of my one of my tasks at Scottsdale was to be i was i was coordinator for the comprehensive plan there in the early days. And also to the downtown plan, I’ve had a lot of opportunities that are very thankful for. And that kind of led us here. And we found that our investment in our efforts really could align very well with the values and policies we saw, both in the Envision and the 2.0. And so I wanted to just kind of bring you that message. We’re involved with a number of properties in the community. We have, I don’t know, six, seven properties probably we’re working on. They’re in the planning stages. Of those we have I guess, approximately 220 attainable units. 55 would be middle tier, the remainder would be affordable right now. That’s how it kind of splits. So and we’re really eager to bring those to development and to bring them to the marketplace. We share Eric’s sentiments, and I think yours that I heard just tonight, that, you know is really important. I think housing is the key here in terms of not only the retention of workforce, but the retention of families and and the generational side of that. And that’s what really cements the heritage of a great place like Longmont the other parts of the plan to sustainability energy, you know, reducing carbon footprint, the reliance on transit, all of those things we’ve looked at carefully. And that’s why we targeted the properties we did in the downtown redevelopment area, in the planning areas where the annexation will occur. And I think also well, even the calls on farm we have that as a part of our product project. We’ve been working with the historic preservation committee, commission. So we’ve had really kind of a wide range of opportunities. And, you know, we continue to to ask you, frankly to lead to lead more and and to really capture what what that leadership is all about in terms of like what what you’ve been discussing accountability, dialogue, communication. I like to think I have a decent relationship with staff. We didn’t come here because we thought it was going to be easy. You know, we didn’t think this was like low hanging fruit. And we came here because I think a lot of us on our team have really, really, I guess, grown from the community experiences we’ve had whether we work on the public side or the private. And we really believe that you can’t have one without the other, there’s a formula, there’s a fusion that needs to occur. And that’s what in fact, we saw the chance with the Ico to to really bring forward a fundamental on all of our projects was the attainable housing component. So that’s, that’s really my message. And I appreciate the community you have. And I appreciate, you know, our work effort. We’re not always going to get along. But I think that that there’s a lot of a lot of what we have is really in common. And so I hope that you’re supportive of that. And, you know, we’ve got some things to work out with staff, but I’m not here to pick on staff tonight or talk about specific projects. So thank you, Mr. bestel.

1:45:58
Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. I’m going to I’m going to go ahead and, you know, chairs prerogative to call the final two out of order. strategy, you’ll go last if you don’t mind. And then keep James, do you want to come up and take your time, sir?

1:46:20
Mayor city council Keith James, I live over in Juniper street I come and see you guys before. I’m going to tell you guys a little bit about myself. I’m a veteran. I served in Iraq, and I served in Afghanistan. I lost my family. My serve both wars and had to learn how to walk talk. The fireworks do affect me and going off in the day. But that’s not really the biggest thing. As community we need to come together. And I’ve heard everything. I would like to hit on a few points. If you guys are going to speak make sure that what you guys say verbatim, like the mayor said that you guys know your facts. Because facts are key. Because I did speak to a police officer. After a large explosion went off. Multiple neighbors came outside. Once a police officer a ride. I explained where the explosion went off. They told me that a little kid saw the explosion where the firework went off. I said yes, I saw the firework explode as well. I could not ensure that it was a firework. It was a large explosion. It could have been a pipe bomb. And I asked a police officer who was a sergeant who a sergeant in a police force must be there for a long time and explained where the house was at. And she looked at me and said, okay, she went off and did not even go to that house. To me, she is not trained in explosives. At this point, it should have been cordoned off and investigated. Nothing else was investigated. I saw the vehicle. We had it on video camera. I know that you guys wear body cameras in the police department. This is unexcusable for a police department. Furthermore, I did a clay hunt Fellowship Program, which is in doctrine through the White House. A few of the people that I’ve served with in this fellowship program, have served with the FBI on the bombs and served and responded to every single bombing in the last 20 years. Currently, they had fireworks go off. They had them being delivered through drones in upstate New York. I called them after this, and they said that I need to start calling the FBI. I am not going to call the FBI do the fact that I’m giving you guys a second opportunity. This is ridiculous to see. I understand that the police do not have the time because they are afraid to do their job. I totally understand that. We need to come together as a community and start making Longmont look good. This 2.0 that everybody keeps talking about. We’re going backwards. This community is not a community that we should be proud of If we’re proud of this community, then we should we should be doing something together, I have served as a wildland firefighter. And these fireworks are something larger than something that just goes on the ground. These are something that will go underneath the car and cause explosion, or they can go up on a roof. And while your family is innocently sleeping at night, while these kids or adults are doing this, they can cause your family to innocently innocently fall asleep and die. We need to educate our community and make them compassionate about the neighbors. Again, I am offering more to help. I also am asking about Mr. Starkey, about the programs for kids, you guys never fully address that. I think if we give activities for the youth and families, we might be able to stop all the illegal activities and increase fun for all this.

1:51:16
Long right is a community of wonderful people who may disagree on some things, but generally want to come together. So I asked the council what they suggest we do and what they plan to do to make the citizens along. Not feel heard. This is all I have. And thank you for your time. All right,

1:51:32
thank you very much. That’s a good question. That’s something that we’ll continue talking about. Because just stay tuned every Tuesday. It’s what we do. But thank you very much for sticking around and saying that. Thank you. All right, let’s try our best and is there actually, you know what we can we take, we can take a five minute break, we do need to put the phone screen up for potential Collins. So let’s go ahead and take a five minute break. Put the phone line up and then straighter. We’ll have you be our last person because I’m guessing nobody’s gonna call in but if they are I we need to make sure that they get the opportunity.

1:52:13
That Okay, all right. Oil. Oh, God is. It’s good. Because it gives you a different perspective is just color.

1:54:03
The idea that you can look down on

1:54:08
this is all over the world. She talks about. There’s another book that I really liked the slavery thing I read it.

1:54:21
I don’t think that would teach you anything. I have no idea on public

1:54:30
streets. Thank you.

1:54:56
I was like I think that what Isaac was saying today. I’m like We have a way of doing that that is day Jeff Alright, let’s get going. Last in person we got people on one second. Councilmember Christianson. Did you want the floor? Yeah, I move that we extend the meeting past 11 All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Okay, thank you. Alright Strider all yours.

1:59:51
Oh my gosh. Yeah, well so much has gone on tonight. A I first got here and they’re talking about sugar. I’ll give you a sugar thing. I was always hungry as a kid, and running track, and competitive and stuff. I learned well, energy and sugar. Well, I knew sugar was bad. But I did drink Connie during track meats, and therefore I was running on insulin, which made everything more severe, and probably led to my having a serious heart attacks, and ran the best quarter mile of my life in the state mate, awake after a heart attack during the district mate. And one of the problems like you bike to another town down south, it might be 98 degrees 98% humidity, and you aim for a gas station where you can get a coke instead of having buckets to where we could carry water. Because we didn’t know anything. I mean, I had a serious heart attacks. My senior year in high school. You’re dealing with that. Anyway. Does you might know it, not know it. sculpts trial is going on in Tennessee right now. And Dolly Parton know her pictures and the editorial section of your York Times today. She says vaccine vaccine vaccine vaccine. Please don’t hesitate. Because when you’re dead, it’ll be too late. And they fired the leading vaccine health person in the state of Tennessee, because she spoke truth about Do you know what’s going on? And now they’re killing lots and lots for people. But hey, that’s that’s the way the game works. The By the way, I got my john lewis shout out, you know, john and CT Vivian. Both h both died a year ago today. And I did give a eulogy for both of them. They were both mentors of mine. And it’s on long mouth public media. Does. City Council may or might be on YouTube Bognor, my name Arkansas Strider. Anyway, that is kind of what we’re dealing with right now. The you know about the insurrection on January 6. Well, the the former guy calls himself president on January the fifth is when he still had a Twitter account, he tweeted it out one word on what he meant was overthrow. But some one of his advisors probably said, you know that’s that’s treason, you can’t actually say that. And so he said overturn one word, Twitter out to his millions of foe worshippers overturn, and the insurrection is still going on. And you find Dalian with that the real major Nazi I mean, a real Nazi. I don’t mean someone who just worships power for its own sake. Jim Jordan, you haven’t heard much him the last six months because he got called supporting the sexual abuse of his college of wrestling team.

2:04:01
And so he kind of been quiet for last six months, but now he’s coming back to lead the insurrection caucus to try to corrupt or destroyed the investigation about the interaction that took place on January the sixth. And by the way, when they were having that interaction, he is he comes around and he touches Lynne Cheney and grabs her arm and says we got to get the women out of here. And she turned around she said, Get your hands off of me. You and attach say the next word. You did this. She knew at that moment that Jim Jordan was part of the people who were trying to violently overthrow the United States government at that time. Just straight up Got a time. If you want to finish up your comment, that’d be fine. Yeah, the the thing is, I told you last time about the politics of cultural despair. Now, the former guy has never read any history, but he has studied Adolf Hitler. And that’s where the background 70 years leading up to Hitler, Hitler studied that and he took over. And a lady as Benjamin Franklin during the Constitutional Convention said, what kind of government are we having now? And he said to the lady, he said, a republic, if we can keep it. That’s what we’re dealing with now. And thank you for the town hall. I didn’t know it was tonight. I thought it was in January. And this, if we’re going to be able to have this kind of thing, it will not happen anymore in this country. If that insurrectionary crowd is able to take over and suppress the vote to where they can can absolutely consolidate power. That is the danger. We’re facing every row where right now. And I appreciate. We have these kinds of council meetings. I learn a lot. And sometimes I speak longer than I was supposed to. Thank you.

2:06:31
Thank you straighter. Yeah. All right. How many of you have on the phone one? Or great? Let’s turn it on. I’m sorry. We have a question Strider. Councillor Martin.

2:06:42
Thank you straighter. And it’s not really a question. But I did want to tell you we didn’t for the pandemic. But we have two town halls a year now. So there will be one next January. And there’s one now.

2:07:00
Thank you. I was late because my bike. gears keep stripping out on me and I’m really afraid of riding, especially at night. Yeah. I tried. Thank you.

2:07:13
Well, you get home safely. Yeah, I’ll try. Thanks straighter. Yeah. All right. Let’s go to the phone. All right. For the caller that we have on the zoom call tonight. Your phone number ends in 691691. I’m going to ask you to unmute. Go ahead and hit star six.

2:08:12
There you are. Alright. Mayor Bagley and city council. This is Mike Palmer 3/65 Avenue calling.

2:08:20
Okay, give us just a moment, sir. Let’s see if we can raise the volume here. Give us just a moment. Go ahead and try again.

2:08:31
Okay, Mayor Bagley and city council. Good evening. Thank you for this opportunity to address you tonight about an important issue. I wanted to call in support of the creation of reinstituting the former RL r r l e zone guidelines for the historic East Side neighborhood as described earlier in tonight’s meeting by Bob McLaughlin. I would hope that you would please read over his informative map and the information that he provided at tonight’s meeting. And I certainly believe that an overlay zone could work. And again, thank you for this opportunity to address the council. Thank you, sir, for calling in.

2:09:27
All right, can we turn down the volume on the mics? Alright, with that. We’re going to go ahead and conclude tonight’s open forum. Does anybody else on Council have anything else that they’re wanting to add given that we’ve had plenty of time to talk? All right place that way it looks like we’ve got Oh, Councillor Christiansen

2:09:49
just a thank you to everybody who came up euro home except for now all the ones who adjust the Queen’s just the mic levels. Oh, they’re pretty hot. I’m loud. Okay. Anyway, just thank you for everybody who came tonight and we’ll see you. Well, I won’t, but we’ll see you in January. Thanks again. Bye.

2:10:10
Do I make a motion? Polly, please? Well, you have the mic. But go ahead. I move that we adjourn. I’ll second that. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. We’re adjourned.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai