Note: The following is the output of transcribing from a video recording. Although the transcription, which was done with software, is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or [software] transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the meeting, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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Unknown Speaker 0:04
Housing Authority as part of the city. So they, as part of the housing authority retreat, I think set the goal of six affordable housing units in the next four years. projects, not units, I call it units is multiplied by six, six affordable housing projects within the next was three years, three years. And so obviously, that you’re going to need a significant capital investment in that to accomplish it. The other thing that we talked to the council about is looking at the Safe Harbor areas and the qualified census tracts and utilizing the money to really work with the neighborhoods in the qualified census tracts to really create more sustainable and resilient neighborhoods, tying into some of the plans that we’ve worked. Another component of that was early childhood education is being part of this. We were looking at arper funds versus CVE funds that we have from CDBG. In general funding. So one of the recommendations we made to Council on this budget process was to put a half a million dollars into early childhood education. And so that’s for that council said, to move forward with that. So that’ll be in the budget. And what was the other one? Karen, I know, I’m missing one category. The whole neighborhoods, household assistance and individual assistance in what we talked to the council about, is we really think that’s one of the areas that is probably ripe for partnership, because you all are already doing that. And obviously, you got more money than we did. And so how we use that to help individuals and households that are still reeling from the pandemic, and how we can work together, because you already have many of those projects, many of those programs and administered you haven’t set up where you’re administering. And I think that’s a really good area for more discussions and partnerships. And so that’s from a staff perspective. Oh, business assistance is the other piece, sorry. But that’s from a staff perspective, we still have to bring that back to the council for defining and I think when we look at business assistance, where it’s it’s sort of hanging for us, is the the whole duplication of benefit component in this. And the fact that if they got a PPP loan, or they used any other federal funds, and they may not qualify for this, and that’s for Peter, who is our federal fund expert to kind of work through all of those issues. And so that’s from a staff perspective, I don’t know if the council has anything they want to add to that.
Unknown Speaker 2:58
When you mentioned early assistance to early childhood education, and right now I think it’s getting daycare back on his feet is is probably the first order of business. What I would like to ask is when making that the decision that you did, or the recommendation that you you did, about how much to allocate to that in specific. Do you have data about how many families that could be sending a member to the workforce that are not that that would pull back into the workforce, roughly.
Unknown Speaker 3:42
So part of what we’ve talked about, and we’ve talked to the counting group on this is I think about 150,000 is actually for data collection, so that we can start getting that information because I think generally we have some high level data. But we don’t have what we need to determine really what is the need, what different categories of folks sit in and so county may not know this, we partner with what works cities, which was funded by the Bloomberg Institute, they came in and it was about data informed decision making. And so they’re part of this conversation, so that we can really refine the data and bring more detailed information to Council which will then feed other conversations and what we really need to put into it because it was hard to say, at least from an administrative point of view, what’s the number because there was just so much uncertainty in the data the best ways to estimate
Unknown Speaker 5:17
On this point in time serving, it’s really those children who have a title homelessness. So
Unknown Speaker 6:10
explain that they are babies
Unknown Speaker 6:13
college the only possibility to do something and it’s very difficult to offer the biggest pressure is about housing versus something else. Think about that. So are the purchase or sales, revenue, cash flow has failed to create greatness at every stage to make sure that opportunities we think we need. That’s
Unknown Speaker 7:58
so I really appreciate you Polly raising that issue of children and child well being. And, you know, the housing poverty, you know, the connection there. And in the long term effects of poverty on the whole trajectory of a kid. And there’s a lot of data about the benefit of early intervention and quality early childhood education, but also the effect of toxic stress on kids when their parents are dealing with economic insecurity and how kids absorb that. And it affects their executive function. So that’s something that has always been very important to me. And I think embedded in this issue is his mental health. We saw statistics, I can’t cite them to you, but the spike in emergency room visits for suicide, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts for children was just heartbreaking. So your way through this process that that martez leading, are collecting feedback. And, you know, we just know from the comments that have been coming into the commissioners, that mental health services are going to be real high up there. I think the trick here and then I’ll put this handed over to Marta is to go from identifying the problem, two, identifying the solution. And we don’t need to tell you this, you’re under the same limitations as we are. We have to get this money Not just, you know, allocated or identified or earmarked, we have to get it spent. And so you know, we want to do that wisely. You want to do that wisely. And it’s I’ve just always found it’s far more easy to identify the problem than to really identify those evidence based programs that will address that problem.
Unknown Speaker 10:26
Do we want to do we want to drill down on the early childhood issue right now it kind of where that’s where we were. I don’t want to go further with that. If if you if we want to go somewhere else?
Unknown Speaker 10:37
I just had one more question, if that’s okay. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 10:43
hold that for
Unknown Speaker 10:44
early childhood until the fifth agenda item, trying to do about 15 minutes for each of these. And then it will, we’ll get it all done. All right. Thank you for the
Unknown Speaker 10:57
I was just as a curiosity, because we’re talking about this right now is the timeline. And I didn’t hear you speak to that. And it sounded like those staff recommendations is what you were sharing. So there’s a whole process, I’m sure. And we’re going through that too. But I didn’t know if you started thinking about a timeline yet. And I’m in the hopes that our report that will be done at the end of October can inform from a community perspective, we would love to at least offer that as a resource, as as I’ve shared in our mayor’s meetings with a lot of you and in the consortium as well. So just want to make sure that you all are aware of that part of the timeline. And maybe that could be helpful. Yeah, yeah, we
Unknown Speaker 11:36
are because Peter was talking to us, and I think the outside date is 2026. Is that correct, Sandy. And so when you saw the, the six projects in three years, was predicated on really having the last one out the door and construction with enough time to spend down and actually meet that timeline. And one of the things that I failed to mention is I failed to mention broadband because broadband is in there, especially digital divide. It’s a little bit different for us, because we already have it in place. And so we’re looking at how we fill gaps. And then what we did talk to counsel about is that these are one time dollars. So trying not to bring in ongoing expenses, because of the one time dollars and then creating a different issue down the road. And that was another thing we talked about with him.
Unknown Speaker 12:26
I had something I wanted to add, and I’m glad that cleric Commissioner levy mentioned this around mental health. And that’s, you know, that’s one of a huge factor that we are experiencing with our students with our families. And especially during this COVID crisis. It’s been ongoing. But I think through the pandemic, it has exacerbated, and it really brought to light a an issue that has been a problem for quite some time. And so one of the things and I was grateful for Karen, that her name tags turned around. I think she knows who she is. There. Yeah. So yeah, I’m sitting in on one of the quarterly meetings for mental health partners. And one of the things that we discussed was the the turnover, the high turnover and being able the inability to hire and retain therapists. So that inconsistency within the program, it’s really, it’s it within the organization, it’s really difficult for patients to have that sense of consistency and connection with with therapists. I know that it isn’t ongoing funds. But if as we’re, as we’re looking to put money into certain areas, you know, I would really, I would like to see money put in towards mental health, getting us through this pandemic. I mean, I think we’re all in crisis, and we’re in crisis mode. I was just telling Councilmember pack that I think last year was difficult teaching this year is is worse. And I in the 20 years that I’ve been in the profession, this is the single most difficult challenging year that I’ve ever had. And, and that’s me, I’m thinking I’m able to juggle many things I you know, I have a son with autism, I’m I have a lot of resilience. I’m thinking of people who, early career teachers, people who are experiencing other traumas going on at home as well and dealing with loss. It’s unmanageable. And so, you know, I can tie in what we’re experiencing in the education field and tie it into, you know, what are our health care workers and our mental health, psychiatrists and therapists are dealing with and if there is something that we can be thinking about, as we’re looking to allocate funds To help address some of those issues as well. So that that’s my two cents. I’ll give it to you. I just wanted to ask I think about the both the Commission and the city manager. Whether on the front on the spending front, whether there’s been any thought given to some form of bootstrap spending, because it’s one thing to answer the at to ask the question, you know, how much should you allocate to this or that program, and say, we need to study it and get more data. But the need for doing things like getting daycare back up and running is immediate, we aren’t going to be on the road to recovery until those problems are solved. So it’s just a question. And I’m handing the microphone to Joan, because she and I were waving at the same time, but I hope we can answer the question.
Unknown Speaker 16:06
Thank you. So um, I think all of the issues have been addressed, and they kind of all roll into the same thing. But it is a mental health and anybody who knows me will know that I’ve been on this subject for six years. Mental health affects everything. And and we do have an option next week in our budget process to decide where we want to use a half of our marijuana tax on mental health. But what we need from my perspective, and I know that the previous commissioners have heard this is, from my perspective is a facility. So when we’re talking about hardcore dollars spent for sustainability, not bandaid type issues, but things that we can carry on after the funds are gone. I think that what we need is a one stop shop facility where our mental health partners are outcome sheet, what’s it called? recovery cafe for addiction, where we can have hope. And the our center in people who are experiencing homelessness have a place to go instead of roaming around the city looking for different in different social things to help them. We have all of these things in our city, but a person who’s experiencing homelessness or depression or mental health, they have to find these places. There’s one are Kaufmann. There’s one on over on martin Street, there’s what I really would like to see our hardcore dollars into a facility where we can actually help people. And this is a larger discussion. But I think that would be something that is sustainable that we can use in the future. And it isn’t just a band aid. It is moving forward.
Unknown Speaker 18:52
Just going to answer her question when you so yes, because not all of it is for the data analysis. And so I think there is room within the half a million we also have, we can look at our CDBG funds. And then as we look at the funds in general and on the ARPA, we have capacity and then on the mental health side. Again, I haven’t been briefed yet. Karen just told me there is mental health work in some of the projects that they’re submitting. answer that, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 19:32
Originally written this little white dress for people thank you very
Unknown Speaker 19:49
much Okay, regional transportation. As you all know, we have the 119 BRT that is in progress, and we are doing our first and main transit station. But I also want you to be aware of the opportunity for rail. And I don’t know what funding that ARPA, or the county needs to put into that, if anything, but I would like, I would like that to be at the top of your list of transportation we need. We need facilities, we need stations, whatever, I just want that to be at the top that we are, we do have two regional transportation options coming with BRT, one 119. And the Northwest corridor as an alignment to the I 25 rail through Amtrak. A Rails
Unknown Speaker 21:41
app first.
Unknown Speaker 21:44
So we’ve got the project slot,
Unknown Speaker 21:56
specifically designated for a corridor that did not get commuter rail. Sounds like. And then there are some other spots that are earmarked for appointments, and one of which is organization. I can sit up on the board and
Unknown Speaker 22:29
objective to
Unknown Speaker 22:32
apply to be one of the doctor.
Unknown Speaker 22:38
Representatives.
Unknown Speaker 22:40
That’s an opportunity to really bring somebody to this issue, which I think is the big thing, I feel this 30% designs.
Unknown Speaker 22:55
Initially people thought was going to be three to $5 million RTD, staff started looking at a wonderful team.
Unknown Speaker 23:08
So
Unknown Speaker 23:12
opportunity, but we know, markers are
Unknown Speaker 23:16
representative on the corridor.
Unknown Speaker 23:21
We’ve been really successful getting money for that. The the bypass route, corridor, I think is going to be really, really popular. We’re making that a priority for our regional transportation.
Unknown Speaker 23:39
We sent a letter which we probably do on Saturday to be
Unknown Speaker 23:45
really, you know, strenuously objected to the lack of money coming to local county for recreational service. It was really nice to see governor polos support. So
Unknown Speaker 24:08
I think I’m sitting down with our board members or
Unknown Speaker 24:13
not sitting down just to sort of see what
Unknown Speaker 24:20
you know, I always want to make sure that we’re for counties at the table that we’re speaking on behalf of everybody.
Unknown Speaker 24:34
I just want to thank you, Claire for that. And I also am going to apply to be one of the Dr. cog appointees for that board. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 24:51
When we went down to Burlington, Northern, right, Bagley and others, we’ve got Burlington Northern two years ago, now. 30 person said it would be better if he didn’t put it on paper for specific, he never emailed me back, he always called me back, or TVs got away from those things. But if you talk to your representative with either representative of Boulder County, please ask him to keep pushing on this issue. We know our constituents want to be here. And that’s just important that they’re there. But the reinforcing that and then the bus routes I mean, people who have lesser means really got hurt. This is just bad. Remember this point six tax in the past drags the trees on for them. So the two year thing. But we just need to keep their lobbying going to make that a reality. And I’ll just write some of these things go faster than others.
Unknown Speaker 26:22
But I think this topic was one that was suggested by Lacan. Ever phrasing? So you have something else in mind here is
Unknown Speaker 26:33
regional transportation planning, a little bit of what we’re going to talk
Unknown Speaker 26:40
about now? Well, I thought that was a long time.
Unknown Speaker 26:48
Claire, I think it was when we first were going to have this meeting, when it was scheduled at first and the discussion about the Front Range passenger rail and Amtrak, was it really a reality of that time?
Unknown Speaker 27:06
Just before you pass the patient, Claire, could you. Claire, could you talk? Do you have any more information to share about what the timelines might be for fleshing out the board or filling out the board for the front rail passenger district review for us the counties that are involved? And what are the steps that you anticipate, as we talked about options that you would anticipate that we all should be aware of? Right, what are the thresholds we have to pass to go from a piece of legislation to an option? Right, that’s actionable.
Unknown Speaker 27:43
So the so the deadline for those appointments, and I believe the government has to nominate is six slots, minimum March 2022, I believe those he’s doing that through the Utah boards Commission’s nomination process, and so go to the website when they have
Unknown Speaker 28:16
to put your name in
Unknown Speaker 28:19
there. So I know that the park is going to do it through their nominations process.
Unknown Speaker 28:28
And I believe all of them have to be confirmed by the Senate. I’m not certain whether it’s
Unknown Speaker 28:36
john Jones, but so so that order will be seated. And then it will become a special district and governed by the provisions of Section 38 and the rest of the special district act. So all the regular provisions in title 32 unless are superseded by acronyms are going to cover and it does have authority to impose a sales tax and for a party for both fo RM and sales tax. And it would be up to the district the board to decide what to put on the ballot. If there are some requirements in the bill to produce a detailed financial analysis before going to the voters for TAs. There are some provisions in there that was similar to the other
Unknown Speaker 29:46
part of this to make sure well the triangle weighted towards the Northwest rail route because there are three routes that have been under study and To try to ensure that your performance members are required to submit, because every rail group performs the best survivorship costs.
Unknown Speaker 30:14
I’m trying to think of some of the other conditions that were in the bill.
Unknown Speaker 30:22
Refer and before that, before the district would go to the voters.
Unknown Speaker 30:27
There were a number of them in there.
Unknown Speaker 30:30
And then our additional provisions that allow us specific stations sometimes to do the station area. station that would be worn, and that will be formed through the tip. I think what you’re really trying to be careful of as we were analyzing was to try and get better representation that was proportionate to the population. So the bill was originally introduced all of that, which is close to 2 million people, three, four seats, and it gave Pikes Peak Park, which has I think about a quarter million that that has to this South Central, basically the Pueblo area had one. So that was nice, not terrible in terms of population distribution. And I think they did a pretty decent job that we distributed. But another thing we’re really kind of working hard on is to make sure that you know that we actually know what kind of civil commitment there’s going to be before going to the voters because you know, there’s a concern, given what looks like disproportionate representation for the southern part of the state that’s really interested in having a connection with the self. That the resources would, would that the taxing authority appear on the money up here, it goes down south. And so
Unknown Speaker 32:30
we put language in the bill that
Unknown Speaker 32:34
the area for the first facing provements have to reflect the ridership and the highest potential for
Unknown Speaker 32:46
delegating,
Unknown Speaker 32:49
or something like that. So we can
Unknown Speaker 32:52
make sure that the record from my area, where are we happy with the gesture, and we generate the most greenhouse gas emissions,
Unknown Speaker 33:02
we need the most intimate
Unknown Speaker 33:05
photos. So the subjects are the legislators running this app to solve those challenges. point of view, this is probably this is the biggest special district ever created by the legislature in terms of people. And so the concerns that Claire was talking about are very real. And as far as timing texts, the big milestone in the federal government and they talk about an X Factor, but the concern of we get our fair share, and we have federal money so that we don’t actually want to get much we tried to rescue
Unknown Speaker 33:55
Mike concern is that we’ve been talking about public transportation, and connecting collar all of Colorado, from Kansas to Utah from New Mexico to Wyoming since the 70s, and we haven’t done it and it’s only gotten more and more expensive, and now it’s prohibitively expensive in every single way. So now what we’re doing is breaking it up into special districts and we’re already part of a special district as we know and Longmont has gotten less and less every year. So it’s going to be very hard to get people in Longmont to vote for yet another special tax district when we have seen our service cut and cut and cut and now people talk about bus rapid transit. I was one of the first group of women to drive a bus in Boulder in 1974 or something like that. And I can tell you there is no such thing as bus rapid transit, a system that is not discrete from the roads is never going to be any faster than any car. So although it may have less stops, it is still subject to all the same problems with car accidents with weather conditions with everything. So unless you have light rail or rail of some kind, or something that is just that is separate from the road system. It’s not going to be very good public transit, we could have that. And I was very excited about governor polis, who does seem to have a vision for what we can do, we can’t keep paying for more and more and more roads, even if there are electric vehicles, there’s still going to be on the roads. And we can’t keep we have no way to finance it. Unless we change something about the gas tax with electric vehicles going to be more and more prevalent, which is a good thing. And so we really need to it seems to me advocate for transit systems, how whatever means that is that are their own discrete path. And every other country does this, and many places in this country do it. Colorado has problems. And because we don’t have the mass of people to support this, but we really did have better transportation in the 70s. And we do now you could get on a bus and go to to Meeker Colorado, to do the same thing. Now you would have to either go to Grand Junction, and rent a car or go to Steamboat Springs in your car. This is ridiculous that we’re going backwards. So I would like to see us band together with addressing this on a statewide basis, because, frankly, what we saw what we’ve seen in the the RTD district is that only Denver has got this despite the fact that we voted on something which was supposed to be evenly built out. It hasn’t been. And the meltdown of 2007 was used as an excuse for that, but they’ve never gone back. So I support I think we need to support any efforts to make it better. But I really do think we need to be thinking more on a statewide basis and more in terms of light rail or something that is separate from the road system as our basic Connect connector, and then buses off of that.
Unknown Speaker 37:51
Thank you. I just like to get the central issue about the new proposed special district out on the table. Be because it is very large, and there’s a lot of people in it. It could be that Boulder County will never vote for it. What happens if if the district passes, but not in Boulder, County?
Unknown Speaker 38:22
by district so.
Unknown Speaker 38:26
Right? So the we could be voted into this district, even if the public of Boulder County does not. Does that not go along with it. I just wanted that to be on the record.
Unknown Speaker 38:46
And also to keep a record or be critical. But I’m going to shift to the next topic so we can try to get regional solid waste through planning and composting. little summary we have a compost facility composed, we went through that pushback. person to help us figure out composting solid waste solutions necessarily facility the ways to improve that issue with organic, highly supportive.
Unknown Speaker 39:31
People would just like to say I don’t like the characterization. It may have begun that way but don’t like the characterization of this was something about people not wanting it to be near them. I think it’s something about markets. You know With a composting facility, you have material that goes into the composting facility, and you have the material that comes out of the composting facility. And on both sides, the point of the whole thing is a to reduce methane emissions from what would otherwise be compost or what, what would otherwise be landfill waste, excuse me. But then you have the carbon footprint associated with getting the input to the composting facility to the facility, and you have the carbon footprint of getting the resulting products of the composting facility, but compost, the tea, all of that stuff on to where it’s going to be used. And I think the fundamental local objection to the first proposal was that there was no market for the product here in Boulder County. So I don’t really like the idea of of saying it was because people didn’t want it nearby. It was because there was no market for it nearby.
Unknown Speaker 41:21
Is there? I’m not certain I’m not certain what the take is from the we heard a lot from the neighbors. And I’m certain that the mark, is there an issue? What would be helpful to me, we we’ve kind of I was I was kind of surprised by the whole proposal. And I don’t know what the disconnect was between our staff and in your staff. So it would be helpful for me to know if if there, what’s the level of discussion? Is there? Is there momentum going forward? It’s good to know you’ve hired somebody? Is that Is there going to be a conversation into which were invited or you’re going to flesh out options and then kind of ask reactions from municipalities, but how well was unfold, because we can’t solve it ourselves. It’s only going to happen when we do it as a partnership. And, and, and we need to do it. I mean, that’s there. We just can’t get to the commercial aspects of this on our own. And yet, we need to get we need to get there. So you know, what are your thoughts about? What’s the timeframe? Are there steps? What do you need from us to move it in some direction.
Unknown Speaker 42:35
I want to make sure that we touch on. Number three, this is about zero waste. This is about the fact that we all live in a country and accounting. And that really I want to pull it back to that because it really isn’t about specifically accomplices. It’s really about how the voters who decided, and residents who read several results, and then we need to look at options about how we’re going to be more efficient, more effective, saving in one little area that we could talk about. But this is one of those possibilities. I just want to make sure that we get that conversation. And it’s your question about what’s up next what’s going to happen Yes, we hired somebody to do engagements to go through a public process and to set this conversation, whether the partnerships, whether it’s smaller projects. There’s a lot of just want to make sure that one other piece of it really is the focus and ensure review all as well as those that are watching. Online, that they’re really important.
Unknown Speaker 44:01
The waste industry is great. Dan is here with us. Tell me I can’t the key thing is that we are asking staff to do is really look at whether it is a facility that
Unknown Speaker 44:34
facilities at worksite.
Unknown Speaker 44:35
And in your
Unknown Speaker 44:44
previous project
Unknown Speaker 44:49
was driven by the thoughts that a facility
Unknown Speaker 44:52
is that there’s something virtuous about That takes care of our own. And that sounds very virtuous. But I don’t know what there’s the composting toilet is apparently incredibly complex and anywhere else other than the greenhouse gas emissions, you know. So there’s that. But we need to really open this conversation, maybe it’s a series of saw, maybe it’s spending more time with, with the ag community, finding ways to actually do it directly on the site. So let me just open the conversation, I really want to hear your thoughts on this. Because if you were, you’re really stuck. Now. I just want to add two things. First of all, can you name it is the person that we hired, that’s older, and so as mobile experience is really a strategist, there are ways in general, he will be the staff person to work with the resource conservation advisory board, so long life as a member of that board, and a lot of the conversations about where we go, zero waste, infrastructure, whether all of that go through our parent as an advisory capacity, but just wanted to make sure that I was all for
Unknown Speaker 46:49
this facility. I am
Unknown Speaker 46:54
very sorry that I think it’s really unfortunate that a small group of very wealthy people with a very savvy public relations person and a whole slew of lawyers were able to derail this. But I do think that there was a problem in that the previous city, the previous commissioners did not really alert some of the places I know Erie was very upset, all kinds of things. But as for a market, I mean, every every municipality, around here needs mulch, and very this stuff for their work and gardeners need mulch, we have the the footprint of driving it to somewhere in our stuff to somewhere in Boulder County, as opposed to where we drive it now, which is far far away. It is much smaller, it is makes perfect sense. And we do need a regional composting facility. And I I hope we can arrange that because it is so much better and less expensive for everyone to do it this way. And I certainly think there’s just as much of a market here as there is currently, which is the facility we use is far far away. But he manages to have a market for that. So I don’t see that that’s actually an issue. I really do support us having one in Boulder County, it just makes sense for the future.
Unknown Speaker 48:32
If I could clarify, I have a whole folder full of letters from organic farmers, who said I can’t use that compost. I have a whole folder full of letters from organic backyard farmers who said I can’t produce I can’t use what that facility would produce. They gave their reasons. And so I’m not saying we shouldn’t have a regional facility, maybe we should and maybe we shouldn’t. But we should have a regional facility where the produced compost will be an acceptable product to our local people. And I don’t think we can overlook that. All compost is not the same. All green activity is not the same. And just because people have good lawyers doesn’t mean they’re wrong. Apparently it was the last day that valuable
Unknown Speaker 50:58
You’re also costless we are somebody who has a lot of knowledge we should have a shirt here
Unknown Speaker 51:50
I bet this entire topic and I was invited to look at this knowing customer last year anticipated when I’m inviting cameras are we get to that we have we have an ability to create options by national state regulations circulation through will to make changes. That looks like calibration for a brief amount of time, month to month COVID direction and COVID we were able to allow for or those are properties that have the riches names. That as what is typically the entry level that we’ll talk about. That coupled with what we can do the same thing coupled with new housing and an ordinance that looks like like five or 30 purchasers live in a home versus an investor has the only opportunity for the first 10 or 14 days offer. illuminate investors from the market. his priorities say that we want our workforce, our teachers to live in a union be given
Unknown Speaker 54:21
some type of 1031 exchange that is a tool that allows property require them to sell. I’ll give an example somebody investment property they want to buy another. This could be a partner with a check. Some type of investment that is also event is committed to Senior Health. So there’s silver investment, but it doesn’t require So I will make purchasing habits versus trying to talk about how to have fun.
Unknown Speaker 55:30
So thank you for that, I really believe that we need to be looking at it, it’s not going to be one solution, there’s going to be many and just concentrating on one, one piece is not going to solve the problem. And I really appreciate that you brought in these these other creative approaches. So that is definitely something I want to take a deeper look into, on top of, you know, continuing what we’re doing to increase our stock to increase higher density, and a myriad of options for for folks to be able to, to buy it, buy a home, whether it be a condo, whether it be a single family home. But you know, definitely continuing that what we’re doing, but also looking at other options as well. So I am interested in knowing more about that.
Unknown Speaker 56:54
So yeah, I broke the mic, whether to whether to revisit the idea of a countywide revenue source for housing, and we are going to be going out with a poll I’ve been hearing soon. I’ve been hearing that for about six months, but I think it’s gonna be soon to just try to test the waters on what how people are feeling here, post COVID, or we’re not post COVID we thought we would be but our you know, our people feeling still uncertain enough about the economy, that they wouldn’t be supportive of new revenue sources for any number of things. And housing and transportation is going to be part of that. But, you know, when we talk about solving the housing problem, or at least addressing it, we really do want to have housing in every community affordable housing in every community. But barring that, and because sometimes, you know, we do have just a mismatch of jobs in housing. And you know, with two income families, maybe one person gets to live close to their job, but the other person doesn’t. There, we have a problem here with the cost of transportation and housing and the drive till you qualify might mean that you have an affordable mortgage, but your transportation costs coupled with your mortgage are now unaffordable, and you are dependent forevermore on a, you know, a working car. And so all the more reason to try to locate housing in the community in which people work, but I think we also it comes back to that transportation issue and having better, multimodal transportation options so that if people don’t live in the community in which they work for whatever reason, choice, maybe it’s not affordability, that they have affordable transportation options as well. So I we know, we do have to think about those two issues as being linked.
Unknown Speaker 59:13
Claire, I’m glad you mentioned transportation because Councilwoman pack and I former mayor toured the transportation oriented housing agenda, which is really interesting because I think we all know that costs nine to 12 or more $1,000 a year to have a car. And if then you’re you’re only making $20,000 a year. There’s no way you can live and so if you can have something that is on a on a transportation line, you have much more of a chance of doing something but I really I think one thing that we need to prioritize in the country, and certainly in Boulder County is home ownership, because that is the only way we can to get out of a cycle of poverty, you know, we lost at least, approximately 10%, I think I’m sure Martin knows about this, and Aaron knows about this better than I do. But during the last giant meltdown of 2007, and eight, we lost close to 10% of home ownership. And it hasn’t really come back. In fact, it’s getting worse and worse. So we have to find ways to increase homeownership for the stability of, of every community. If a child, for instance, going back to kids has to move every three years, or every year, when the landlord Jacks up the rent, then that’s no life for a child, it’s it’s very disorienting. And that family’s going to be living in poverty or constantly stressed out financially. So not everybody will, will always have plenty of renters. But we used to be a nation where everybody or most people aspired to having on owning a home. And people seem to be giving up on that in despair. And that’s a that’s a very bad sign for communities. So I think if we can explore things like land banks, Land Trust, cooperatives, which are difficult, but better than not owning anything, because intergenerational wealth, particularly for people who have been traditionally marginalized by everything is critical to actually having a stake in your life.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:08
Anybody else? I get really Stokes, the spoke on coffin street going up at night. That’s so great. Every time I come, drive up the long run, I look around, and it’s just like, wow, it’s happening. So thanks for you’re working with us on doing that one. Bit by bit, that helps, right? And so but let’s get to early childhood education. And then I’ll do a call for public input. I don’t see many folks, but I’ll do it anyway. So if anybody wants to kick us off, please do.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:42
I’ll just start. We. This has been a priority for this council for several years. And Marta and Claire were both with us, what 10 days ago or so, when the governor came and spoke, both promote what he’s done with his initiative in early childhood office. But also reinforced where we are as a community. Working in partnership with the early childhood Council, the Boulder County. We have an action plan the data the investment that Harold talked about earlier. Hopefully a year from now, we can answer the question of how many parents and how many kids are unserved? What the needs of our employers are right in terms of their employees, cuz this problem is not just a Longmont problem, you know, this better than we do. It’s a regional problem. It’s at least a county problem. Long miners who work in you know, other parts of the county or, you know, those folks who work here and every all of them with with children, especially if they’re preschool aged kids. So for us, it’s it’s not just at your early childhood education, it’s childcare, right through that continuum, to the time kids are in school, and then the needs of kids, school aged kids, you know, when they’re when mom and dad are around in and kids need supervision. We asked folks in the event that we hosted 10 days ago to reimagine whole industry. And as we started this conversation, talking about the best and highest use of ARPA funds, certainly, this is going to be part of it. But but it would be a mistake to think that’s going to solve a problem. The the needs are so that the system, we lack a system, we need a system not unlike the K 12 system, right, where it’s funded on a stable, ongoing basis, where they were, where the where the work is, the employees are professionalized. How much of that can be at a county or local level in our plan, we’ve got some options that we think would would help satisfy me State state standards for the preparation and the credentialing of employees without getting caught up in some of the regulatory disincentives that occur at the state level. But at the end of the day, this conversation that’s unfolding here, I know it well, I don’t know, I believe at some point is going to end up on your agenda. Because we’re going to talk about solving this on our countywide basis. Maybe it’s on the maybe it’s on the desk to the school boards at Boulder Valley and sabering Valley School District. But I suspect more likely it’s going to be something where there’s a group going to come to you to say we this only gets solved. I know this was something that was presented to Larimer County, Larimer County Commissioners in the fallen in the past on putting something on the ballot. But I can just say that’s an act of conversation. And it’s going to be really helpful sooner than rather than later to get some idea where, where you are, how you think about both the the nature of the scale of the problem, and the options for solving it from your perspectives on a countywide basis.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:07
Tim, thanks for that. I wondered if you had any updates? Originally, when I was working on that committee with y’all it? The invitation was about a special district and potentially county wide and just curious if that’s still in the conversations is a solution to get to the early childhood funding because it’s changed some it’s gotten more significant and the needs gotten more dramatic.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:29
Yeah, we had Marta early on was one of our troops showing up every week, in one of our working groups was really organized, organized around a question special district Yes or no? I mean, there was we never answered that question. There is no conclusion to that on a range of options or continuous continuum, right, that somewhere along a continuum with other possibilities. We know, we know counties, counties of Crete have, have successfully proposed dedicated sales tax or property tax, and that’s certainly in in Sonoma County or, you know, Gilpin counties. What those counties that have done it, I know it was proposed in what was going to be proposed in Larimer County, was I think it was actually I think it was a county initiative as opposed to a special district. I’m not surprised that commissioners passed on it just based on how I understood it to be organized and how money was going to be distributed. But But there’s something to learn from that experience, what they proposed. And you know, how that was analyzed by those commissioners. And I don’t know mark that what what ultimately a proposal is going to look like, you know, it’s going to be everybody understands you got all kinds of things potentially, that you’ve got to consider putting on ballots or not. But I do know this, we won’t solve this problem. With one time funding, no matter how much money it is, and we and it won’t, we won’t recover fully from this pandemic, unless we can stabilize the workforce. And we want to stabilize a workforce by dragon dragging the pre pandemic childcare system into the future, it’s just not tenable.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:12
So I was I guess, I was just gonna say the obvious really what you you sort of said already, Tim is just the, the problem can’t be addressed without an infusion of public money. You know, people complain, rightfully so about the cost of, of childcare, particularly infant and toddler. But yet, our early childhood workforce is making poverty, wages, sub poverty wages. And people wonder why is childcare so expensive when childcare workers are so poorly paid? It’s because it’s very labor intensive. You need a facility you need constantly, you know, to renew your equipment. You know, it’s expensive, and the, you can’t, the only way you can solve that is public money. And, you know, Denver has the I think it’s a mill Levy, I don’t think it’s a sales tax for the Denver preschool program. So I think we’re going to have to go that direction, I just don’t think there’s any way not only for the workforce and the workforce is really important. But for the well being of kids, they need quality childcare, they need to be taken care of by people who are committed to that profession and and, and not be able to form bonds and relationships and not have that high turnover. So you know, we’ve, there are so many needs, and every time we talk about the kinds of things that need to go on the ballot, childcare is one of them, and I guess it really is something to think about whether you know, with a special district, that would be You know, a sub set of the county, and whether that’s the way to do it, whether to do it county wide, I don’t think we know, we would really love to continue this conversation and get your thoughts the need is certainly there throughout the county. I don’t think anybody would say we’re good, we don’t need any more help. So we’ll see where that goes.
Unknown Speaker 1:10:24
So, I’m really proud that a long one has this is one of the visions for in our work plan is as what we want for our city and calvia. But when we discussed this, I don’t want us to forget that childcare is not just in centers, it is also in homes for infant through 18 months old, 18 month old and I do know that this is part of Governor polis his vision as well. So when we talk about the expense of childcare, it has to be equitable. A lot of people do childcare in homes, because of the cost. And because of the consistency of the childcare provider, from birth through kindergarten, some people stay with the same childcare home for five years. Whereas in a childcare center, the teacher whatever you want to call them, that they caregiver changes, depending upon who the shift when they’re employed, etc. And it is a choice of a parent as to how they want their child cared for. So when we discussed this, I don’t want us to forget that part of it, that if there is a tax in some way, either through an initiative through a special district, etc, it’s going to have to really take the cost of childcare to the lowest possible amount. Because that is where the stickler is at the end of the day for parents. So
Unknown Speaker 1:12:17
real quick here, and then we’ll go back and finish here. So is there anybody here for public comments? I see no one. So we’ll close that part of the meeting, and continue on.
Unknown Speaker 1:12:34
Okay, well, I just want to make a comment on childcare. Um, I think once again, we are this is a very, very strange time. But we were also extremely lucky to have a governor who not only his future thinking in terms of transportation, but also has been involved with daycare. Since he was born, literally, I worked for his parents, who had a baby and then realized they didn’t know what they were going to do with that baby. And so they started asking their employees and their employees said, Yeah, we’ve got the same problem. We don’t, you know, and so they started a daycare in their building. And I have been trying for years to try to get businesses to understand that they could pull resources, I mean, their employees would be less stressed, would have more time would be happier. And in every way, things would be better if they would pull resources and create sort of little regional childcare centers or if they have enough room, they could turn their, you know, part of their office into childcare, a lot of things have been done on a statewide basis, as Councilman Peck said, it isn’t just a matter of incentives and money. It is a matter of the fact that it is it is a very difficult job. And people are the daycare centers often make a lot of money on a lot of money. But the people working there who almost exclusively women are paid extremely poorly. And they also have to keep up. They have a lot of education, they have to go through a lot of hoops they have to go through. A lot of that has been changed by our terrific state legislators and the governor by helping people who are going through daycare education to get their tickets in a more timely way and helping them with financial incentives. You can’t have a daycare center without daycare workers and so it is many different approaches like everything. It’s not just a matter of taxing people and Giving them you know, having money available. It is also that you have to have daycare workers who will stay with them. Nobody wants to just wait, the warehouse, their child, they want good care. That’s you. I mean, the person taking care of your child is you in absentia. So you want them to care about your child and also educate your child. And that takes a very special person. So Money can’t buy that. But, you know, if you help people, good people actually get their certification, and you help small family of people who are educating people in their homes, to do a little better and make it easier for them there. If you help out, for instance, we helped provide masks and various things for daycare centers. If everybody helps this daycare centers a little bit, we can have a better situation for everybody. So that’s what I would like to see is an appreciation for what can be done on a statewide basis. We have already passed a whole lot of things in the last three years that make it much easier for daycare workers to actually be daycare workers. And that’s a very important part of this.
Unknown Speaker 1:16:25
Just one more one last comment. The data on the number of licensed providers is pretty clear that that number has been declining year over year. Polly’s right we’re not going to solve this or junk. We’re not going to solve this through licensed providers only. But one interesting data points we heard from Larimer County, they bought Larimer County Council had offered 48 had made to 48 job offers last year, they made they hired 48 people 45 of them had already left in the first year. So you think just about the cost. I mean, you know, you understand this in terms of the cost of turnover. But that’s a result of our failure to professionalize, compensate support a whole industry and and those people who we we have tried to recruit to be part of it. So I mean, that, that that’s just not sustainable. And obviously, that’s going to take money. And that’s going to take public money. I suspect, if we’re gonna if we’re going to reimagine and then respond to what we imagined in terms of a new era of childcare.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:43
From now, anybody want to talk about childcare, or any of these other topics are on the bottom of the agenda. The hockey puck drop, get your stick ready, take a swing at it. Everybody wants to go home?
Unknown Speaker 1:18:10
Well, there are about three topics on the interested in. I just want to bring to your attention that we have a Boulder County has an opportunity to possibly look at having an equestrian center at the Boulder County Fairgrounds. And I would like that to be at some point in the future in 2022, to be a discussion that we open up with the commissioners to see if there’s a possibility or any interest in furthering that discussion. I brought that up six years ago. So I just want to revisit it. The other thing is safe slots for sleeper vehicles. We have a lot of people, we have three safe slots for cars. And there are 33 people who are living in their cars right now that are waiting to be vetted. To get into those safe slots. We have so many people who have been unhoused for various reasons, I would love it all to be COVID so we can throw a lot of money at it. But I don’t know if that’s true. That is something that we need to look into further. But we also have people living in their sleeper vehicles be their vans, campers, another type of sleeper vehicle because they have been on house again for various reasons. A lot of it because of COVID because their rent has gone up and some landlords or managers what back pay their back rent from the rent they lost over the time that the that they were not paying rent. So we had asked at one point To use the camp lot at the fairgrounds, because it does have a dumping station for people who live in their sleeper vehicles, but they are residents of our city, they are not transients. And there are some people living in those vehicles, who have children who are going to school in the same frame Valley School District. So I’d like to re address that issue. As we look for housing for those people, we would like our I personally, would like to open up that conversation once again, to see if we can temporarily use that camp lot at fairgrounds, or perhaps another lock in and charge a dumping fees so that they wouldn’t actually camp there, but perhaps could use the facilities. So and then air quality, air quality is bad. As we all know, that’s a bigger conversation. I would just like to push that out through that I think that the county and cities need to have a joint conversation about how we can I know we’re discussing it with greenhouse gases, and Evie V’s and buses and trains and getting vehicles off. But how can we? How can we address it in other ways to bring our county into the focus as being a solution as looking for solutions? So that’s it. Those are my three issues.
Unknown Speaker 1:21:44
I don’t think Thank you. I don’t think we’re going to be able to do justice to any of these topics at the bottom. We just don’t have the time. But I think it’s a great start. Yeah, thank you. And I want to just respond to especially for public for the I’m on the masterplan executive advisory board for the fairgrounds. And that public process has started with two weeks ago, that group put together meetings with all the current users of the fairgrounds. So just so that folks know that the public, then the open groups for community members who have new ideas, who maybe aren’t users, currently of the fairgrounds, the groups of our community around the entire county because it is Boulder County Fairgrounds, folks in the mount in some of our other sectors of communities who aren’t currently using that facility for events, we are inviting those folks as well. And so there’ll be a whole public process, in addition to what’s already started. So I just want to make sure that folks know that and certainly for the public. And if that’s the ideas that they want to bring in, and others, we would be really, really interested in hearing all of this as that plan develops.
Unknown Speaker 1:22:51
Again, just to cue up some preferences for the for the next meeting, I’m was very happy to see barrier free homeless shelters or lower barrier homeless shelters. On this agenda, I’m sorry, we didn’t get to talk about it. But I think it’s an important thing. Because they’re just there. What it’s doing is it’s it’s increasing the service, defiant segment of our unhoused persons because they’re asked, they’re being asked to give up too much to get into navigation. And I you know, regardless of whether it’s constitutional, it’s inhumane. But I would like to ask the commission as a group, and maybe this can be the Commission’s closing remarks, how you feel about the ACL us summer statement about boulder County’s coordinated entry program?
Unknown Speaker 1:24:06
Okay, I should have thought of sending to you beforehand. I’ll send it to you afterwards, and we’ll talk about it at a later date. Sorry to blindside you
Unknown Speaker 1:24:20
about 730. It’s about 730. So I think we’ll call it a night. So thank you, everybody for doing this. It was a year off. And now we’re back. And it’s great to see everybody again. Thank you for being public servants. I think it’s the highest calling, being raised by a couple of parents by a couple teachers. So thanks for being part of this. Thanks for delivering service and look forward to working with you on these issues including ARPA
Transcribed by https://otter.ai