Video Description:
City Council Regular Session – November 9, 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: https://otter.ai/u/0UhXWKCP39BIoIw4_42U6cOdSPA
Unknown Speaker 7:14
So it’s it’s seven o’clock and I’d like to bring the the November 9 2021 Longmont City Council regular session to order. Can we have a roll call please.
Unknown Speaker 7:31
Mayor Peck. Here. Councilmember Dalgo Ferring. Martin Rodriguez, waters, Yarborough here. Mayor you have a quorum
Unknown Speaker 7:41
the Stanford Pledge of Allegiance.
Unknown Speaker 7:48
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America stands One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Unknown Speaker 8:05
So I have a reminder to the public that this meeting can be viewed at the livestream at WWW dot Longmont colorado.gov. Anyone wishing to speak at first call public invited to be heard, will need to add his or her name to the list outside the council chambers. Only those on the list will be invited to speak at the first public invited to be heard. speakers who do not place their names on the list will have the opportunity to speak during public hearing items this evening or at the final call public invited to be heard. Any item that you want to speak on at the end of the meeting. So can we have a motion to approve the minutes?
Unknown Speaker 8:46
There are no minutes mayor for approval this time.
Unknown Speaker 8:50
That makes it really easy. It Thank you. So, Don, do we have any agenda item revisions?
Unknown Speaker 9:02
There are no revisions, Mayor.
Unknown Speaker 9:04
Are there any agenda revisions and submission of documents and motions to direct the city manager manager to add agenda items to future agendas? Do any council members have anything they want to add? Seeing none, we’ll have the city manager’s report.
Unknown Speaker 9:25
America Council. I’m going to give you a brief update on COVID issues as I’m pulling this up. They did not have a administrator’s meeting tomorrow and I know hopefully next week in that meeting, we’ve asked some more for some more an in depth look at some of the numbers so hopefully we’ll get that next week. So when we look at the cases and in the seven day cumulative case rate that we’re seeing in the in the county you can obviously see that those numbers while we were dropping a week or so ago, they are spiking on us. I think to 69.3. What’s interesting is if you look at the peak in those numbers today, and you go to your left, I think we’re equal to or slightly higher than where we were in December of last year. And for the new member on the council, I get this information from the county. I am not an epidemiologist, but I play one today, and I’m giving the information. And so if counsel has more specific questions, we can take those to Boulder County and have them come forward. But we’re seeing a significant increase in in the cases. When you look at this, as we talked about before, this is really telling us what those case rates are doing. We’re still in high transmission. And you can see that there are some green in here it is moving back and forth. If you remember when we give these presentations. What’s really interesting on this is boulder County’s the second lowest grant counties at 160 5.2. And I think the closest one to is after that’s Broomfield. So all the numbers are still pretty high, which shows that we’re seeing the same conditions and throughout the state. This is the one that’s really interesting. Last week, most of these are spiking upwards. And you can see that the one that’s really high right now are the cases in zero to 11 year olds. But we are still seeing upward movements in different groups 18 to 22 Looks like it’s spiking as well, in this. When we look at it by race and ethnicity, I think one of the things if you remember early on, when we were heading into the COVID, the percentage of the Hispanic and Latin X population was not close to the their percentage of the population in Boulder County. And you know, what’s really good about this is we’re really seeing it stay within a range that’s more reminiscent of their percentage of the county population in Hispanic Latinx community. Longmont is still the majority of cases in Boulder County, we’re not at the 40% where we where we dropped to 39. But we’re still seeing Longway producing most of the cases in our county. When we look at what’s happening in the hospitals, once again, we’re now down to on the and this is the North Central Region on the staffed ICU at Bed Availability were down to 7%. It was 8%. Last week, if you’ve noticed we’ve continued to be on these trends. Staff med surge bed availability is down 7% is from move from 9% to 7%. Tight staffing is 37 that’s holding steady. And they combined hospital Transfer Center plan was activated to tier three as of November 3. And what that means is they’re moving into a different level in terms of how they transport patients and what they used to decide. We now have 92 people confirmed hospitalized in Boulder County. We’re not sure that all of those are from Boulder County. I know they were pulling in patients from our neighboring counties as well. And then 19 pediatric confirmed cases. I’m going to kind of hold this slide. Last week when we had the city wide presentation we brought in an emergency room physician to kind of talk to our staff about what’s going on. One of the things that you don’t see in this number is that when he was talking about the area that he worked in,
Unknown Speaker 13:51
it is not uncommon for them to see the hospital’s go on diversion at times. And so what that means is that their emergency rooms are overwhelmed. And so they can’t take any additional patients. He actually talked about for the first time in his career. And he’s in the south metro area where he was seen individuals who needed to be an ICU that were on a sandy was at a respirator and in the emergency room or people that were getting dialysis in the emergency room. And so we can definitely see the pressure on the hospitals as we continue to move forward. And so I wanted to give you some tangible examples to the data that we’re showing you in terms of what people are experiencing that work in the hospitals. When we look at this, obviously we’re exceeding the epidemiological capacity again, as we’re moving forward, and then this is the one that’s probably the most sobering as as we’re looking at this data. In terms of if you just look at the number of deaths that have occurred recently we haven’t seen obviously this in a while You’re seeing some associated with long term care facilities. But you know, the majority of them are not associated with it. When we look at testing, I know I had a question on this from council member, Hidalgo, fairing. And you can obviously see that the seven day positivity rate has moved up to 6.7%. As I stated before, this one’s a hard one to wrap our arms around, because, and we’ve asked them again, for some data in terms of the number of people that are actually getting tested, because we know the number of people testing is down. And so if you have more individual’s testing, because they don’t feel well, or something like that, it’s likely to push this percentage up. And so those are some of the questions that we pushed in last week during the administrators meeting. In terms of vaccination status, Eugene and I were looking at this, it’s kind of holding steady right now. You know, to let everyone know, they they are releasing vaccinations for children now. And, and so that’s open, if you’re, if you’re trying to get a booster like I am. It’s kind of hard because they’re really focusing on getting young children in to get vaccinated. But you can see, we’re still holding roughly at 80% of the eligible population 76.9% of the total population, and we have about 251,000 that are vaccinated in Boulder County. I wish it were better news today. But you know, we’re really kind of seeing this trend once again. And we’ll I was I wish we would have had the meeting this week. But I’m going to push in a lot of questions in terms of what we’re seeing. Because you know, this graph isn’t is not where we wanted to be at this time. Be happy to answer any questions or try to answer any questions. If not, we will grab those and push them into the county health department.
Unknown Speaker 17:06
I see that Councilwoman Hidalgo authoring has a question.
Unknown Speaker 17:13
Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, and I had sent these questions to you ahead of time. But really some of these questions. They’re coming to me and I don’t, you know, I don’t have answers. And if this is something we can push to Boulder County Public Health to get answers, that would be great. But really what is before we were looking at positivity rate to really determine whether or not to close schools or close facilities and businesses now, I mean, what are we really looking at? What’s the golden number? As far as okay, we all have to be reverting back to online, in schools, city council, library and museum operations and other events and so much so.
Unknown Speaker 18:02
And, Sandy, can you pull up the website, or so they were looking at this, this threshold? And so what I will tell you is there was a threshold that they were looking at in terms of hospitalization and those things. And basically, in terms of what the governor said that they were going to set from a state standard. We have not technically, the only time we really hit that standard was really during that high peak that we saw last year, for the rest of the time, we were below that. Generally, right now, when you look at the conversation that they’ve been having, see if we can find that Do you know what the one I’m talking about is where the hospital numbers, they may not have it up here anymore?
Unknown Speaker 18:59
Yeah, no, it’s not that one. So there’s there was another dial that the state was really using. But when you look at where we were and the number of cases, you know, probably you would have to be at that high peak that you saw in the graph to really hit that threshold. Most of the decisions are really being made right now in the hospital data, sorry, at the at the county level in terms of how different counties are looking at this. And so there have been additional counties bring on masking requirements. So I believe that Larimer has instituted masking requirement and other issues, but the terms of the decision making process, the school districts are making those decisions in conjunction with the public health officials in their respective counties. In terms of our meetings, that’s something that you all as a council will need to make similar to what we talked about before. As I kind of said earlier, it really is a risk tolerance question. In terms of what we’re seeing, and so I know that’s not a complete answer, but I can get specifics in terms of the conversations are having with school, we’re just not part of those.
Unknown Speaker 20:11
Yeah. And, and, you know, not just, I mean, what happens in the schools definitely impacts our community as a whole. So I think it is a good idea to be just receiving information, if not from the school district than from the county, unto what, what decisions or where they kind of leaning with that. The other thing is, you know, in the event that we, the transmission rate, I mean, it gets higher, where we might be in a position where we could still maintain some level of imperson. But as far as hybrid format, we had talked about that being an option for city council meetings, where are we at with, you know, making that a reality?
Unknown Speaker 20:54
Alternative? Okay, thank you, the person that’s been working on that.
Unknown Speaker 21:00
Hello, Mayor Peck, that council member had dug a fairing, Sandy cedar assistant city manager. So our preference generally is that council either meet in person or meet virtually, completely, it’s just easier to manage those meetings, it’s easier for the public to understand. But understanding that we’re in kind of a weird space, right now, we are doing some tests with hybrid meetings, we’ve been able to fix some of the technology, some of the speakers in here, so we can take a look at it. And actually, we have a test run next, I think when I set it for next Tuesday, the week of Thanksgiving on Tuesday to try to see if we can try to figure out other ways to look at potential hybrid meetings, because we recognize that that may be a direction that council would like to go so we’re still working on the technology for it our preferences one way or the other, because I think it’s easier for the public. But we could certainly look at any option that the council is interested in.
Unknown Speaker 21:45
Okay. And then, you know, I think, you know, and I’m coming in with the perspective as a teacher, where, you know, I’ve had to do, I’ve had kids in quarantine, you know, there might be an event where, you know, one of us does test positive, but because we’re vaccinated, and we’ve seen this with teachers as well, that they are well enough to conduct class, online, from home, but still, they have to be in quarantine because they’ve tested positive. So in the event that that happens to one or more of us, you know, it just seems like we either all go virtual or, you know, if there’s a possibility to to do hybrid, you know, I think that might be something that would warrant that that mix.
Unknown Speaker 22:29
Mayor pick one other council member and Doug fairing. One other thing, just to consider is that because we are out of our disaster or emergency disaster, we’d have to promulgate some special rules. I do believe that Eugene in his office already has those pretty much set up for us. But just as a reminder, you know, one other piece that Boulder County continues to talk about, I think that Harold maybe has mentioned around the idea that, you know, the reason that they’re requiring masks is because they don’t really want they’re not they’re not putting in gathering restrictions at this time, because they feel that there’s you know, the vaccination rates are high. And, and they have the masking order in place instead. But of course, the Council could decide to go any, any way you’d like. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 23:09
And then the other thing is, has there been data collected on breakthrough cases? What’s What’s that number looking like?
Unknown Speaker 23:15
The last number we saw, it’s still I think 19% is what they were talking about last week. Is that correct? Sandy? Breakthrough hospitalizations. Nice. 19%. I’m not sure what it is in the cases.
Unknown Speaker 23:30
And there were other ones that I send in the email, but it was more directed towards me. I did get an E an email. Oh, sorry. Okay. Okay. Sorry, squirrel. I did get an email. So what, you know, if there are complaints or concerns of businesses be non compliant with the masking where, you know, what can you know, what are we doing as far as the city as far as enforcing it and what can residents do?
Unknown Speaker 24:01
Enforcement through Boulder County because it’s a public health order. And so there’s the Boulder County hotline number that folks can call in. And so it goes into that group, that group then begins contacting the business in question. And then they move through a progression of steps up to and including going to court and getting injunctive relief on the business and there were a couple of businesses that they’re moving into that step with Eugene and I’ve been made aware of of one for sure. And so but they do it because it’s really their order and they have the the inspectors in there, they will reach out to us occasionally, if they need some assistance in monitoring it. But that’s in their world.
Unknown Speaker 24:48
Okay, thank you. That was all I had.
Unknown Speaker 24:52
Councillor Burton.
Unknown Speaker 24:56
You Joan, you okay.
Unknown Speaker 25:00
I don’t know what I did. Okay. I think I don’t know.
Unknown Speaker 25:05
Your turn mine on?
Unknown Speaker 25:08
Let’s try it again. I don’t see three up there. I don’t see you. So can you turn it off and go back in? It’s gonna take me a minute to figure this out. I still don’t see you. Seven. Are you seven or three? It’s not allowing me. Hold on. Got it? Okay, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 25:39
So I was also going to ask about breakthrough in vet in infections. We breakthrough hospitalizations is the number you have we don’t have any information about that breakthrough positives.
Unknown Speaker 25:54
Now we can try to get that. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 25:57
That would be that would be good. And this is also going to have to be something that we’re going to have to ask the epidemiologist, but I would like us to, it seems to me that with this continued spike, what we’re seeing is the vaccination rate plus masking is not slowing the transmission rate. Are they going to be reevaluating our protocols?
Unknown Speaker 26:23
I haven’t heard that yet, in any of the conversations. One of the things that I think folks are looking at and I can only kind of talk about to certain extent, what we’re seeing in our data is a lot of times, so we’re not necessarily seen, when we have positive individual vigils here at work. It’s not a work issue. It tends to be from outside activities. And so that’s the hard piece, because in a metro area, individuals obviously move in multiple counties. And And so literally, you can go a couple of miles east, and you’re not in an area where masking is required. And so that’s part of the struggle with this, because it’s not a uniform masking requirement, and you have different counties, taking different approaches. So I think that may be just hard to quantify. But we can see what we can find out. I know that there were some conversations with different cities. Friday in the metro departments of health, we couldn’t because we joined it, because we were in orientation sessions, but I know they’re starting to look at potential next steps.
Unknown Speaker 27:44
Is that your last question? Okay. Councillor waters, please.
Tim Waters 27:50
Thanks, Harold. You didn’t show us any data on our wastewater testing. So if I look at that spike, I realized this is county wide data as opposed to long that data. But it would be really useful to see what the if it’s a leading indicator, how useful is it? In what would what would those data look like 10 days prior to the spike? And what does it look like today that we can anticipate 10 days from now?
Unknown Speaker 28:14
We can try to pull it up? I know they’re having there were some test results that came back today. That were they had to rerun them? And so it matches it? I mean, we’re seeing it in the wastewater match what we’re seeing here, so let me see if they’ve they’ve adjusted that and we can bring
Tim Waters 28:32
the wastewater is a match to that, and 10 days from now. And if it’s a reliable indicator, 10 days from now, it’s gonna look a lot worse, same
Unknown Speaker 28:38
curve, same curve probably keeps us on the trajectory. Let me pull that up really quick.
Tim Waters 28:46
Well, it ought to inform this discussion, the questions that were just asked about options and then we should consider them that wastewater data seems to me to be informing the timing or the urgency we ought to feel about decision making in terms of
Unknown Speaker 29:03
Kenya. I got this presentation late so I couldn’t add my normal slides into it.
Unknown Speaker 29:32
Even the wastewater or even the wastewater for bringing ourselves first? Yeah. And then the regional. I think Aaron has a question if you want to.
Unknown Speaker 29:51
Okay. Mayor Pro Tim,
Unknown Speaker 29:56
thank you so much. Well looking for this data. My question, first off is that we noted specifically that the highest rate of incidence was in the zero to 11. Age Group. And as now that the five to 11 Emergency emergency authorization is going, you know, hopefully we’ll see an improvement there. But, you know, it’s hard. It’s hard to say at this time. My question, though, is at Overall incident rates going up? Is there a point where there isn’t, again, an emergency authorization of authority to you again, versus the council? Is there like a baseline? Is there somewhere we get where we do reauthorize that? Yeah, I think where you asked for that,
Unknown Speaker 30:44
I will ask for that authorization. And I think the answer is, if we get to a point where they start taking actions where, and again, they’re not talking about this. So let me be very clear, they’re not talking about this. But if we hit the point where they were limiting what facilities could be open and things like that, then that would be a point where we would definitely have to in the way it would work is that I would declare the emergency and then I would have to bring it back to council to ratify it. But it would really be at that point. Or if we were at a point where we were seeing our hospitals be on diversion on a regular basis, and we were having transport issues within our fire and EMS group. Those would be the trigger points for this. And I’m not hearing that at this point.
Unknown Speaker 31:33
Okay. Well, that’s that was gonna be the follow up question was, how close are we to that? Because it seems like we’re hearing a very mixed message here. You know, we’re seeing these increasing rates. But we’re not hearing necessarily outside of some some hospitalization issues that we started to hear from the state government, as far as cdphp, and possibly, Boulder public health. We have not heard too much about any other kinds of economic restrictions.
Unknown Speaker 32:05
Correct. And then there’s that conversation is just not there right now.
Unknown Speaker 32:10
Why? I can imagine the governor is not real keen to do that at this time. But
Unknown Speaker 32:16
and I think what I would say on this, when you when you look at this you know, the the challenge in this is, I think, you know, and you’ll hear I mean, you heard the governor talk about this is, you know, where are people at just generally with this. And and I think those are additional challenges that are that are coming into play. They did it, they did act, this is the right one. So when you look at this, this graph, you can see what’s happening in our wastewater loading. And the blue line. I don’t know why it’s got this gray piece on it. Yeah, so the blue lines are cases. And you can see the cases moving with with what’s in the wastewater system. So we’re definitely looking at another spike in cases, if it continues holding the way it does. There’s, again, there’s some nuances in the data. But you can definitely see when we hit this spike here, you can see those cases, running up after that. And so we’ll get you a cleaner version of this where you can actually see it. But yeah, it’s telling us we’re gonna see more.
Unknown Speaker 33:30
Well, I definitely look forward to seeing more data after we see more vaccinations for the five to 11 year olds that are now having emergency mergency authorization as well as more deployment of booster shots as well. So looking forward to seeing that data and making decisions based on that. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 33:53
Councilman waters. Did that answer your question? Okay. Thank you. So thank you, Harold for that update shows that COVID is going to be running our lives for a while here and decisions we make on every level. So now we have special reports and presentations. Do we have a presentation for the Boulder County racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice committee? Oh, it’s Christine.
Unknown Speaker 34:22
Yes. Okay. Good evening, Mayor Peck and members of Longmont City Council. I’m Christina Pacheco, Children, Youth and Families division manager in the Community Services Department. I’m here tonight with Shannon Bryan from Boulder County. Shannon is a strategic programs coordinator in the impact division in Boulder County’s housing and Human Services. Tonight you’re you’ll hear about the work started as part of a county committee that is Working on racial and ethnic disparities in juvenile justice, you’ll hear an overview of the work that is beginning and learn about future opportunities. I’m going to now turn it over to Shannon to take over the PowerPoint and there’ll be plenty of time to ask questions.
Unknown Speaker 35:19
Thanks, Christina. Good evening, Mayor Peck council members. So as Christina said, my name is Shannon Bryan, I work over at the Department of Housing and Human Services in Boulder County. And I’m serving as the chair right now for the racial and ethnic disparities committee focusing on juvenile justice. So thanks so much for having me here. The purpose of this group is really dedicated to looking at racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system across Boulder County at the county level. And really working with multiple partners on a cross sector initiative that looks at different data and decision points, and then really digs into the why and works on collaborative strategies to address racial and ethnic disparities. So you can see here on the slide, who the partners are right now, these are our core partners, we have Boulder County Community Justice Services, we have folks from the state as well. We have Longmont and we also have the District Attorney’s Office, both of our school districts, the public defender’s office is was a representative member. But right now they’ve had some turnover. So we’re waiting on getting some more folks. And we’re also currently recruiting for community and youth members. So that we really round out that participation. So just a couple of key terms you might have, might hear people say MLR, or minority over representation, which really refers to rates of contact, and is kind of focused on that data piece or their percentage piece. But what you’re seeing is that a lot of folks are now switching to using the term racial and ethnic disparities, because it’s a little bit more inclusive of a term, and talks a little bit more about an equal treatment, not necessarily just the numbers. So really, this group is focused on looking at the numbers of youth of color in the juvenile justice system, as well as the treatment of youth of color in the juvenile justice system compared to whites. So here’s our process. Basically, we’re really just dedicated to this collaborative approach where we bring together key system stakeholders, try to engage with our communities to better understand again, what’s happening, what’s the impact, and then look at robust data. So we currently are looking at data at the county and state levels, and then we dig, then we connect with our community partners to try and figure out what other pieces we might want to look further into, and then develop and implement strategies to reduce disparities that include measurable objectives. So the big question is like, why, right, like, why did this group come together? And there’s most simple answers because it exists. So we see at the county level, this is county level data. So it’s not Longmont specific, it’s not city, a boulder, that, if we go back over the years, we very clearly have racial and ethnic disparities at our juvenile in our juvenile justice system across key decision points. So the what’s used at the federal level, and what we use to kind of measure is called the relative rate index. So that’s, if you look across some of these you see the RRI. And what that is, is really saying that the proportion of the representation of a racial or ethnic group is higher compared to their white counterpart. And we have, you know, there’s a whole mathematical equation that we could go into, but it’s a pretty clear formula and the state gives us this information annually. So simple answer. That’s why. The other answer is because we legit we we are required to look at racial and ethnic disparities. So starting back in 1988, the federal government has said that, as a justice system, we really need to start looking at and addressing racial and ethnic disparities in this system. So there’s the federal mandates that come down, there’s also state mandates. So the General Assembly passed the clear act in 2015. Again, saying that we need to report, monitor and address racial and ethnic disparities. And sorry, I just held my breath for a really long time. Take a deep breath. The other thing is that Governor polis did also say most recently that his wigs or the wildly important goals, one of them is specifically to address racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system specifically. So why is the as it exists, and also because we are required to by law to look at this.
Unknown Speaker 40:05
So there’s also a model for addressing racial and ethnic disparities that we use as a group. This is a model that’s used across the, across the United States, and is really trained, that we’re trained to by our state counterparts. So you can see the model here. It’s an iterative process, you start by engaging stakeholders, you know, mapping key decision points moving all the way down. And I think the key here is, again, you are going to look at each decision point in the juvenile justice system, these are pretty clearly outlined, there’s a bunch of manual so as a group, and as a committee, this is what we’re doing, is we look at where the hotspots are across the this decision points, and then we drill deeper. And so by drilling deeper, I mean, okay, yeah, there’s those numbers, there’s that data, but then why does it exist, there’s direct causes, there’s indirect causes. So direct causes could be something like, very, like disparate treatment by members of our system. So arrest happening disproportionately for youth of color, but there’s also indirect causes. So some policies, some laws indirectly affect many communities of color. There’s been some research showing that some communities have like different curfew laws, and that disproportionately my that disproportionately impacts certain communities, different communities have access to services and resources for their families, they also have access to alternatives to arrest that maybe other communities don’t have. So our role as a, as a committee is to really keep digging into what are the direct and indirect causes. And the whole goal of this is to develop, identify, recommend and implement strategies to reduce the racial and ethnic disparities in Boulder County’s juvenile justice system by looking across all of these different layers. So what are things that the individual youth might need, that their family might need, that schools might need? And what are the strategies that need to be implemented across those levels, to really make an impact. And this is really where we work, where we’re going to be, in the future hoping to work with our local communities, again, at we’re at the county level right now, looking at our data, but we can’t implement change necessarily just at the county level, clearly, we have to work with our community members and our different cities. So where this is housed, if you’re just wondering where and where all of the racial and ethnic disparities work lives, it’s housed under impact, which is a little confusing, because impact is a division in housing and Human Services. But it’s also a 13 agency partnership, that’s a collaborative partnership, including the District Attorney’s Office, the public defender’s office, both school districts, a variety of folks. And in 1997, this group was identified by Colorado as being the managed care entity, which basically means that we’re accountable for improving the quality of outcomes, and the cost of care for youth with complex challenges and multi system involvement. And we do this through risk sharing and blending and braiding and funding, we have a lot of funds that we are actually responsible for that go into prevention and intervention services. So we manage the marijuana tax refunds, which goes towards funding prevention and intervention for court involved youth, we manage the core Child Welfare therapeutic dollars, so funds that are used really for child welfare and juvenile justice. So the reason it’s housed where it’s housed is because we want are responsible to the state board, to we manage the funds for it. And because of that, we also are required to look at all of these levels of racial and ethnic disparities. And yeah, so that’s why it’s housed under there and it’s part of our strategic plan as well. So that’s everything. If you guys have questions, I would love to answer them. And if you have questions going forward, you can always reach out to myself or Christina.
Unknown Speaker 44:34
Okay. I see Councilwoman one.
Unknown Speaker 44:40
Thank you, Mayor Peck. I do not see a restorative justice or any sort of diversion mentioned in this could I asked why not?
Unknown Speaker 44:51
So absolutely as a part of it. So when we dig into are you talking about? Well, these decision points
Unknown Speaker 45:00
Yes. So referral to diversion, I guess would be the decision point.
Unknown Speaker 45:06
So we would actually, so diversion, depending on if you’re talking about municipal or county level diversion would actually be at a couple different decision points. So we could look at it, arrest, there it is for referral to diversion in between detainment. And right now, as a committee, we actually have decided to focus on the arrest decision point. And so diversion is like an alternative to to to arrest, but it’s absolutely something that we’re looking into as well. And by looking into I mean, who are the youth who are being offered diversion? What’s that breakout look like? And what’s the success rate?
Unknown Speaker 45:45
Okay. And then just, we kind of went through that first table with all the numbers and quickly really quickly, can we go back to that? Definitely. The top line general population 10 to 17 years old, is this tennis, this? Is the whole county or or is this? Is this in the justice system in the justice system? Okay, why do we not show the white column for comparison, because it makes me not really sure what the,
Unknown Speaker 46:19
you know, that’s a really good point that this table doesn’t really show that super well. So we do have tables that do have the white as well. And also, you might notice that Native American, Asian, other different rego groups are not there. I’ve actually asked that question as well. And the response that I have had from our state counterpart is because our numbers for those specific populations are so low, that it’s not that they don’t, they don’t include it because the number of the population is so limited to one or two or five. That’s pretty scary. I know. And so that is actually one of our recommendations, is because it’s a little concerning not to report on it, or to give us that reporting information. So I Yeah, 2% agree.
Unknown Speaker 47:06
I mean, if it’s everybody else, you know, Asian, white, whatever. And it’s three, that’s really scary. We don’t need to break those groups out. But but we should show them for comparison. I 100%. agree with you, if you can, if you can get that information. I would like to see the counsel updated with it. Yeah, because I am not entirely sure how to go back to those, you know, the RRI numbers and and figure out what the disparity I understand there’s a formula, but I couldn’t write it down right now.
Unknown Speaker 47:43
And just if you are, oh, I don’t know how to show it. I had a hidden slide that had the equation.
Unknown Speaker 47:59
So this is the equation itself, I kind of helps to break it down. And so those numbers right there, by the way, are not our numbers. It’s just showing you how to break out the equation. But I do have a table that compares the the is still only the white, Hispanic and black populations. But I do have that table and I can provide that.
Unknown Speaker 48:26
That would be good. Thank you
Unknown Speaker 48:32
Councilwoman Hidalgo. Perry.
Unknown Speaker 48:34
Thank you, Mayor. So, you know, I have a question on we, you know, when we looked at the disparities, or the data that showed arrests, and I think yeah, so in referrals? Oh, so I guess it didn’t show the referrals to diversion. But, you know, I was wondering if you if this committee has looked back even further, so prior to the arrest, what were the trends happening in that youth as far as detention, suspension, you know, issues that were happening in school that kind of later than manifest? You know, you know, one of the key data? You know, one bit of statistics that I we were looking at in my work with our teachers union, was that, you know, the number of suspensions greatly impacts a student’s ability to even make it to graduation. So, you know, how has the committee looked into seeing what was happening prior to
Unknown Speaker 49:37
Yeah, so actually, because we are focusing on the arrest decision point right now, we are looking into all of the, again, direct and indirect causes and so we were able to get our we were able to partner with Omni which is a research organization and our and our state folks to look at some of our At Google level data for our districts, we’ve had some of those presentations. And we’re looking more into it and coming up with some other questions that we want to dig into. Again, because we’re looking at kind of this, the larger level of data, we then want to be able to go back to our partners, so to our individual school districts to get to get beyond the numbers as well, and to talk to them about that qualitative information. So what does this mean? How is this playing out in your schools? But yes, absolutely. We’re looking at what happened at the school level, what happened in mental behavioral health and access to those kinds of services. But even further back to that, so if there were, if there was involvement in child welfare, what kind of supportive services were available to the family? So we’re looking at kind of that holistic picture, when we look at the arrest decision point. But we’re really trying to figure out the why. And I think as we narrow down, then we start to talk more to our partners about strategies to to address.
Unknown Speaker 50:58
Thank you. That’s, that’s good to hear. Because really, you know, I feel like when we’re addressing it at the arrest level, it’s almost too late. You know, there’s so much thing, trauma, you know, poverty, there are many factors that happened earlier in the child, his history that impact where they’re at, by the time they make it to the criminal justice system. And the other thing, too, is looking at school systems. So I’m hoping that the school districts are cooperative and providing, you know, the ample data, as far as suspensions, detentions, you know, just even the minor infractions, I think, you know, as those build up that does impact how a student is socially, with their peers, with their with other adults and with figures of authority. So, so thank you for that.
Unknown Speaker 51:49
You’re welcome. Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez.
Unknown Speaker 51:55
Thank you very much, Mayor Peck. Just so it seems like there’s obviously a good amount of history, and then a good amount of data that’s already been kind of derived, and you’re probably still refining how you collect that data and things like that. So my question really is, is, I don’t know if I saw it in this presentation. But is there a specific timeline that you’re working on, as far as providing maybe recommendations policy wise, because as you said, that you’re working at a higher level than just here in Longmont and municipal level? So I’m just wondering, since I don’t think I saw that
Unknown Speaker 52:31
you did not see that. So our timeline got a little off course, because of you know, COVID. However, we are still meeting I think we’re hoping to have so we’ve had two data presentation, one on school systems, and then one on referring agency to our juvenile assessment center to the jack. And so we have a few more lingering questions that as a committee, we’re really trying to understand and non the data and say what’s the same, and then we want to reach out to our community partners and get their perspective on what this means. And so I think we’re hoping to have that full robust data, conversation completed by February, at which point we would start looking at the evidence behind different strategies and interventions that are effective and shown to be effective at whatever comes out of the data presentation. And so then we’re looking at hoping to have recommendations come out by beginning of summer, I would say, because we recognize that school is also something that’s going to impact a lot of folks who are one involved in our committee, but also involved in planning any intervention or strategy.
Unknown Speaker 53:42
Well, thank you very much. That gives you a better idea of what’s probably expect in the coming future here. As you know, we’re not too far away from in either of those dates. So thank you very much. I very much appreciate the work that the committee is doing in the data that was presented tonight. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 54:01
So no one else is in the queue. I do have a couple of questions. First of all, because this is on a higher level, and it sounds like you’re just getting it off the ground. What I would like to see for Longmont, if possible, is when we start this program to have the data on where we are at the moment. And then end of year and what are our goals? What do we what are we trying to do in Longmont? And how does that impact the county’s goals? So at this point, the only thing that I know that we’re doing, and this could be my Adrienne says restorative justice. And unless Christina, are we doing any other
Unknown Speaker 54:38
we’re doing the if you read the rewind program,
Unknown Speaker 54:40
exactly. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 54:45
And that was a question that I asked her. So I would like to dig in a little bit more and see what the differences in communities Yeah. Because when you look at so you take geographic hotspots for arrest and you look at what we’ve done What’s the name of the program the game program? Grip, grip, right? So you have grip that we have in place, then you have rewind that we have in place, then you have RJ, which we have in place, which what I said to Christina is I’d like to see the community differences in the numbers to see the impact of those programs, because those are diversion. If you look at the left, right, we have a lot of diversion points on the left of this graft.
Unknown Speaker 55:24
Mayor Peck and members of council, I would also add, if you look at, you know, kind of off to the right time of day of arrest, and you look at some of the the programs that we have that are meant to really target those key after school times where kids tend to get involved in risky behavior as well, I think that we can add to to the data in those areas. And some of as Harold talked about the geographic hotspots for arrest we’re looking at, through Children, Youth and Families, what it look might look like, as a community response model, working with our community and neighborhood resources to provide some of that mobile programming and mobile intervention, as we look at how we can do that in the in the new year and look at where we’re seeing some of those those hotspots and really being proactive and getting out there and making connections with you.
Unknown Speaker 56:22
Great, it sounds great. And just to to echo what everybody else on this council said, I think it’s really important to possibly work with school counselors, so that we get to the root cause that before it becomes a huge problem. And so thank you very much. It’s a great report. And I like the way we’re going forward. Thank you. Thank you. So we are now at the exciting part of the public invited to be heard. So I want to remind you that you have three minutes, which I’m going to Mayor Pro Tem is going to be the timer. So the first person up is Olga Bermudez. And I remind you that you have three minutes each. Doesn’t like you sitting there that time. All right. I feel
Unknown Speaker 57:39
that was working. Good evening, Vader Peck and city council members. My name is Olga Morris. And I work for the city of laguan Children, Youth and Families. I’m here tonight because I would like to introduce you to long one youth council. So they have been working really hard during the past year. So they’re going to share with you some of the challenges some of the progress that we have been able to make through this past year and a half. So I would like to invite them just to introduce themselves and share some information.
Unknown Speaker 58:08
Would you mind I know that you’re going to say your name but would you state what school you’re from to? That would be great. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 58:15
All right. Hello, city council. Thank you all for having us tonight. My name is Emma mill Chuck. I’m a junior at Silver Creek High School. I’ve been in the long run Youth Council for four years. And I’m currently secretary. Here with me tonight are some of the other leaders and members of our council to again talk to you about our council and the activities we embark on.
Unknown Speaker 58:36
Everyone again, thank you so much for having us. My name is Austin Baker and I’m the Vice President of youth council. I go to Silver Creek High School and I am a junior and I have been in the Council for three years now.
Unknown Speaker 58:48
Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming. My name is Allison Devi. I am a junior at LAWA and this is my first year.
Unknown Speaker 58:56
Hello everyone. I’m Catherine Bogdanova. I’m a junior at Silver Creek High School and this is my second year in youth council. And I’m very excited to be here.
Unknown Speaker 59:06
So as you’re all likely familiar Youth Council is our youth chapter in the government featuring members from grades eight through 12 in varying schools within our district. Through our liaison Olga Bermudez at the Children Youth and Family Center, we’ve been able to meet for years in order to address an advocate for issues facing our youth and our community. Though our meetings are virtual right now, due to the COVID 19 pandemic we’ve been able to meet over zoom nearly every other Tuesday to discuss issues solutions and problems. We currently have 15 members from Silver Creek High School nyuad High School among high school, and we are all members of Longmont community and surrounding communities. We’re very grateful to be able to contribute to our city through our own actions and through the actions of our supporters and funders like the city council. As always, we have a few annual projects. For example, our Halloween for the hungry event is a food drive occurring on around Halloween, where we collect nonsense perishables for people in need. Last year, we collected 1473 items, and we were able to donate these to a local food bank. This year, we were also able to complete a COVID safe pickup of these items, and we have yet to tally up the total. This is just one example of the many projects that the youth council leads and is a part of.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:23
This past year despite the unexpected events of COVID-19, we’ve been creating and working on new projects such as our year long environmental project, where we’re mainly focused on social activism and spreading awareness. The environmental committee within the council created posts for Facebook and other forms of activism. We also have been working on a new mental health project we named refined your mind. This project was a forum where youth and adults shared their experiences dealing with mental health issues, and were able to express how they were able to overcome their struggles. Youth Council members also worked with and tutored elementary school students through long month reading League, where volunteers would join a zoom and help bilingual students practice their reading, writing and other language skills in English. Many of these projects were highly successful, and we’ll be continuing them through the next coming season of youth council, along with following up on new ideas for better ways to better our Longmont community.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:18
Though, we were able to create an impact through many of our projects we worked on this year, we also evidently faced various challenges and setbacks. For example, during our environmental project, despite setting up creating infographs they were posted on Facebook, but had a challenge on our part. This blocked the actual public launch of our project. This was somewhat frustrating, we also were able to learn from it. What idea we had about it was improving. That would later be on our own social media accounts to post these infographics and be able to appeal our target audience, the youth within our community. Another challenge was having our meetings over zoom. And I’m sure we weren’t. And I’m sure we weren’t alone with these struggles, for example, and understandably, some of our members would not turn on their cameras. And there were some challenges with a vocal participation. We’ve done there were some trends of members who were actively voicing their opinions and sign up for duties within the council versus those who didn’t. Well, these challenges were a little harder. We encouraged all members to participate, turn on their cameras and contribute to the meetings. Thankfully and a little after a little bit of encouragement, most members were able to participate in various issues we discussed. We also found that our our new plan for Halloween for the hungry, which included social distancing, between members and other COVID ses met measures. Collecting was a little disorganized. This year, we made maps to collect food and has specific dates to pick up food and drop off flyers and other important steps. Through these struggles and others, we were able to form new ideas and apply these challenges to our projects.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:58
During this year of Longmont Youth Council, which recently started in August, we have already completed many successful projects that have positively impacted our local Longmont community. Recently, we concluded another year of Halloween for the hungry, which was earlier mentioned by Emma, this was a very fun and successful event that definitely left a positive impact on our community. Our Youth Council has already started to begin creating ideas for future projects. We recently spoke upon the idea of possibly possibly having Youth Council a public forum where what where will it work, where we’ll be able to hear from the youth as well as teachers and parents and people around in our community. So we’re able to understand the problems that they think are most important, and we can create projects to help those issues and to better our community. By hearing the significant issues that are affecting the long community, we’ll be able to better understand what we should work on and what we can do to address these issues. We’re also always open to recruiting new youth council members, we recently were able to recruit new members from online high school. And even though this year’s application deadline has passed, we’re always open to hearing the interests of youth around Longmont who would like to join, we want to continue gang members from all around Longmont and this will also help us better understand the issues we want to address. We recently were also able to give away grant monies to community projects, which we believe deserve the money and will use it for a good cause. This process includes our youth council members reviewing all the grant applicant applications and then interviewing the applicant applicants and understanding their purpose. We also want to make sure that we’re giving them money, like distributing it fairly and giving it to projects that we know will have a beneficial impact. This makes sure that the money is just distributed well. And we also hope to continue giving out grant money because it does have a real impact on our community. We’re very thankful for being here tonight in front of the city council and we thank everyone for your time and support of the Longmont Youth Council. We hope to continue growing our and positively impacting the community and the people around us. We are now open to any questions anyone may have. And also if you need any clarification, or want us to elaborate on any parts of our presentation, thank you
Unknown Speaker 1:05:17
what is to Councilwoman? Oh, that’s right. Well, I’m sorry, we usually don’t interact with Pope united to be heard. But if any councillors have questions, you can email local Burma Bermudas and she will pass that on to youth councils. Oh, and yes, and Councilwoman Hidalgo. Ferring is the youth council liaison. So she can she can get what she can get your questions as well and find the answers for them. So thank you very much, and good luck. Next step we have James Kenworthy.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:17
Do I need to punch a button here to get things? Okay. James Kenworthy 107 caribou place? Longmont is 150 years old. I’m not at all but I am over halfway there. I’ve been living here about 4647 years. And I just came here tonight to tell you how happy I was. I was here last night. And I can’t tell you. Yes, I can. I was so happy and proud to see this group. And if Tiny Tim were here, he would say congratulations to us, everyone. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:56
Thanks, Jim. Well, now we are at the consent agenda. Don, would you read the items on the Consent Agenda please?
Unknown Speaker 1:07:10
You bet there Item nine A is ordinance 2021 Dash 69. A bill for an ordinance making additional appropriations for expenses and liabilities of the city of Longmont for the fiscal year beginning January 1 2021. Public Hearing and second reading scheduled for November 30 2021. Nine B is ordinance 2021 Dash 70. A bill for an ordinance amending section 3.0 4.885 of the Longmont Municipal Code adopting an amendment to the city of Longmont, police, employees pension plan and trust agreement. Public Hearing and second reading scheduled for November 30 2021. Nine C is resolution 2021 Dash 116. A resolution approving a certificate of compliance in support of an application requesting coverage under the FPA defined benefit system administered by the fire and police pension association for new police officers in the city of Lamarque. 90 is resolution 2021 Dash 117 a resolution of the Longmont City Council approving the agreement between the city and the tipple Hoyne Buell foundation for grant funding for the Longmont Brady’s initiative. Nine Years resolution 2021 Dash 118 a resolution of the landmark City Council approving the intergovernmental agreement between the city and the United States of America for the Institute of Museum and Library Services grant funding through the American rescue plan grants program. Nine F is resolution 2021 Dash 119. A resolution of the Longmont City Council approving the intergovernmental agreement between the city and Boulder County concerning the use of a city of Long Matt van for the COVID-19 shelter for the homeless. Nine G is resolution 2021 Dash 120 a resolution of the lung Matt City Council approving the intergovernmental agreement between the city of Longmont and the United States Geological Survey to provide streamflow gauges on the boulder left hand and st being creeks and nine H is city of Longmont Youth Council appointments 2021 2022.
Unknown Speaker 1:09:06
Thank you, Mara Peck, I move the consent agenda. Happy to amend if any other council members would like to pull something.
Unknown Speaker 1:09:32
So it has been moved by Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez seconded by Tim letters. Can we have a vote please? All those in favor. Oh, good. We’re using the Go, go go. So that passes unanimously So we get to jump immediately to the ordinances on second reading and public hearings on any matter. We have a 10 a 2021 dash 67 a bill for an ordinance designating the Calkins Hawkins house at a 21 Collier Street as a local historic landmark. Do we have a staff report for this? No. Do any councillors want to have any comments? No. Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez.
Unknown Speaker 1:10:48
Thank you very much Mayor pack as the liaison to the historic preservation commission. I will say that they unanimously unanimously voted to approve this designation. As we heard there was there was no objection, the first reading of the ordinance and so I I strongly suggest that we approve this.
Unknown Speaker 1:11:09
Would you like to make a motion? Mayor when do we have public hearing? That’s right. Is there anybody in the public that would like to comment on this ordinance? Hearing none, Mayor Pro Tem.
Unknown Speaker 1:11:29
Thank you, Mayor pack I move approval of ordinance 2021 67.
Unknown Speaker 1:11:34
Okay, it has been moved by Mayor Pro Tem Rodriquez, seconded by Councilwoman Martin can we let’s have a vote
Unknown Speaker 1:11:46
and that passes unanimously. Alright, um, let’s see. We are really moving through this
Unknown Speaker 1:12:05
so we have another ordinance 2021 68. A bill for an ordinance authorizing the city of Longmont to amend the lease for Vance brand municipal airport hangar parcel known as hangar parcel sh six t. Do we have a staff report on this? No. Council meeting? I don’t see anybody in the queue. Does anybody from the public like to make a comment on this ordinance? Seeing none, I would like to ask for a motion. Does anybody want to move this ordinance?
Unknown Speaker 1:12:38
I’ll move ordinance 2021 Dash 68.
Unknown Speaker 1:12:44
It’s been moved by Councilwoman Hidalgo fairing seconded by the council member waters. Can we have it? Let’s have a vote for it. And that passes unanimously. Were no items removed from the consent agenda. So now we’re on to general business, which is the city council meeting calendar for 2022. Ready, okay,
Unknown Speaker 1:13:30
Mayor Peck members of council Sandy cedar assistant city manager, we are here to set your calendar for the year. So we have made some suggestions just based on how things have gone in past years. But essentially, what we’d like to do is provide a little certainty for folks around holidays and for staff around planning for items. And so just kind of going through the calendar traditionally go through this month by month and if that’s okay, with you all, we can do that again. Okay. In January, let me share with you in January, what we are proposing is to have regular sessions on the 11th and the 25th. Open Forum on the 18th. If that’s something that you would still like to do an a study session on the fourth, so for four meetings in January, if that is good with you. I’ll just keep going until someone stops me. How about
Unknown Speaker 1:14:23
can I just break in for a minute? Sure. Councilwoman Yarborough, you had mentioned that you would like to speak at this time. Are you still interested in? You had mentioned you wanted to propose a change. Councilwoman Jarrell Go ahead. You have the mic.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:41
Thank you, Mayor Peck. I just want to say you’re doing an awesome job. Oh, thanks. Because, yeah, don’t worry about it. You do an awesome job. Yes. So I was looking at our, the charter, and the charter stated that we have to meet at least twice a month. And I was wondering and proposing that moving forward if we can have our meetings twice a month, instead of every week. And I would like to know, see how counsel Phil about that.
Unknown Speaker 1:15:23
So normally, we would have a motion and then discuss that. But I am wondering, at this point, because this is absolutely a new idea, if council would like to just have an open discussion before we make a motion. So once again, I’ll repeat your per the charter, requesting that we have two meetings a month, rather than four. And Councilwoman Yarborough, do you have in mind a structure as to how that would look? For example, would one of them be a study session and one, we have to have two regulars? We have to have two regular sessions. So how would we work a study session into that idea?
Unknown Speaker 1:16:11
That is a really good question, Mayor pack. And I think for me, I wanted to bring it forth to council to see to get opinions and then also probably talk to city manager to make sure how that structure will work with the employees as well. So yeah, so I know, we have to have two regular meetings, no matter what, that’s less than a charter.
Unknown Speaker 1:16:37
So you mentioned this to me. And I do see someone in the queue. But if, if you don’t mind, I would like to just give a little pro and con from, from my perspective. Two meetings, I think would a month would probably take some pressure off of staff, because I’m sure after the Tuesday meeting, we set the the agenda for the next meeting on Wednesday. And then they’re working nonstop to make that next meeting work. So then just throwing that out there as a pro on perhaps staffs part. A con would be if there was something that absolutely needed to be brought to council, would it? Would it be outside of these meetings, these two scheduled meetings? And would the city have the ability staff to call ad hoc meetings, these are just things I’m throwing out for discussion. The other pro from my perspective is that I know that our last packet was 1100 pages. And getting that on Thursday is a little tight to kidding preparing for counsel on Tuesday, or even if it’s 600. So that would be another pro to give us more time to read the packet. So now I’m going to turn it over, I see that Councilwoman Martin is in the queue. And let her give her opinion.
Unknown Speaker 1:18:15
I am not opposed to this. But I think the pacing of it needs to be carefully considered. Because what you don’t want you know, the I think the standard model for this is that you have a study session first. So the meeting is longer, it would maybe start at five in the afternoon instead of seven. If you have a two to three hour study session, followed by the regular session. The study session should not be on what’s on the consent agenda. So there should there should be a you’d need to have a four week schedule, because you’d need to have a study session on the things that were going to appear on the Consent Agenda two weeks later. And that would be good, because you get plenty of time to do research on what kind of discussion you wanted to have on the consent agenda. So that would be great. So the question is whether the the staff is that far ahead. And you know, and can can make that kind of pace? And I can’t speak to that, because I don’t know what the operations are. But is it appropriate to ask the city manager to speak to it or one of the assistant city managers to speak to it? Absolutely. Then.
Unknown Speaker 1:19:43
So yeah, I think you can manage that. We do have to plan more. So that’s where if we have the question now and we have the decision, it’s easier for us to plan and get that going. So I think short answer’s yes, we can work. We can work through that. And it’s not like I mean, to be frank, kinda in, in previous cities I’ve worked in, we have the same model. And so we had to work through that kind of schedule, too. So if you all decided today that would give us time to figure that out.
Unknown Speaker 1:20:23
Any other discussion by? Yes. So Councillor waters,
Tim Waters 1:20:34
thanks, Mayor Peck. I can imagine why the staff would would favor going to two meetings a month. And I can understand why we would want to go to two meetings a month. My concern is the evenings when we’re here till after 11 o’clock, I mean, I don’t know how many times. But it’s been a number of times, we’ve moved to continue a meeting beyond 11 o’clock because of what’s on the agenda. Those are frequently the time in the evening. So we have a large number of people who are, you know, wanting to address the council during public invited to be heard, my concern is, I would rather meet multiple times than be here till the wee hours of the morning that that’s the concern. So I would be personally inclined to say if we wanted to do this, to say, well, let’s try something on for a quarter right to test it for a quarter, see how it works, and then make a separate decision about whether or not to continue rather than tonight or a week from now or a month from now, decide for the rest of the year, that we’re going to meet only twice, twice a month, just because of what potentially backs up, you know, we have some agendas that are pretty light. And then we have agendas that are monsters, 1100 pages or whatever. And I just I’m a little concerned about what happens in terms of the backlog in the work. So
Unknown Speaker 1:21:57
okay, I see their protein, Rodriguez,
Unknown Speaker 1:22:03
thank you very much, you know, including the concerns of council member waters, some of my concerns are one, when we are in need of executive sessions, for instance, and how that will work as far as we will need the flexibility to you absolutely call special meetings, if we go to two meeting per month schedule, especially if we’re already starting, basically study sessions at five. And having been in study sessions that have also gone well over two hours. That’s a concern. Also, a concern for me is that regardless of the fact that we’re going through, what would be can study sessions from five to say, 650 is transparency, we’re already accused enough of not enough transparency by the public. And so by shifting study sessions to five to 650, per se, makes it less accessible, in my opinion, then starting at seven for the generally, one, one by one off schedule that we currently have there that we’ve been running for, apparently, a number of years. So those are, those are two of my concerns. And so I would really like to say that if we do move to the to regular session meeting per month thing that we do provide enough flexibility for special meetings. And also address transparency issues, if possible, as well as the ability to also accommodate executive sessions, because those tend to come up really, without a lot of notice a lot of times and where were even said, you know, we need to call an executive session. And within within a week, we’ll be notified of that, because as long as you notify it a certain way it, you know, sticks to being in compliance. And so those are my concerns. I’m not against it. But I definitely would like a good strong consensus by city council. And I do agree that maybe testing it for a quarterly basis, at least is probably a prudent approach if we’re going to change what has been traditionally. Basically a four week schedule per month. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:24:32
What are you whenever you for your fork? This? Yeah, Councilwoman dog offering.
Unknown Speaker 1:24:38
Thank you, Mayor. So my concern is, you know, periodically, we’ve had to meet as the LA J commission. So how would that impact I mean, maybe is this something that we want to wait until we are no longer you know, in control of the li ha, and then you know, maybe revisit this after that point. You know, my concern is that we’re going to run out of time.
Unknown Speaker 1:25:08
You will be the Ellijay. board now, in perpetuity
Unknown Speaker 1:25:13
in perpetuity. So yeah. So I don’t I, you know, I’d guess my concern is, would we have enough time to address business that we need to be taking care of?
Unknown Speaker 1:25:25
If we cut back?
Unknown Speaker 1:25:30
Okay, that was it. You know, what are you? What are your thoughts
Unknown Speaker 1:25:35
on there, Martin? Thank you, Mayor Peck. A couple things. First of all, there’s the open forum staring us right in the face. That has to be a third session, right in the months where it occurs. Because I, you know, that’s it’s really important to the public, we should always do that. What I might suggest is that we have a designated third week, where maybe people would not make plans, but typically not come in for a meeting. And that would be where the lhsaa or executive sessions could go. And then we would have another week or two weeks, depending on the month, where people could count on not having to come in. So maybe the week between the two regular sessions could be as it is in this in January, the day when special stuff happens. And if we scheduled it that way, everyone would know what to expect. I don’t know how others feel about that. But I thought I’d put that out.
Unknown Speaker 1:26:50
So here’s what, let me see if I can sum this all up. A Councilwoman Waters said we should try it for a quarter. And I think we had pretty much consensus on that. The the concerns about li ha came up. The Open Forum came up which which is valid, we absolutely have to have those and executive sessions with transparency. So here’s another idea. I would like to throw out How about three meetings a month with one of them being? And I think this is in our charter, one of them being a study session. With the idea that staff has at any time, the right to schedule an ad hoc meeting, whenever they thought they needed to bring something to council, or they needed us to meet for Executive Session for lhsaa. If it’s something out of the ordinary that they really needed us to all meet. So
Unknown Speaker 1:28:07
mayor, can I clarify that just real quick. So what you’re saying is, for example, the second and fourth sessions would be regular session starting at seven, right. And the third session in the middle would it would be a special session, either an open forum or an LH, a board meeting or a study session or at 37. That what you’re saying,
Unknown Speaker 1:28:25
if that’s just an idea, and if somebody wants to make a motion, I’m just trying to gel all these ideas together. So that when you do make a motion, it’ll be an emotion that hopefully makes sense. I can you turn that off? And
Tim Waters 1:28:41
I just clarify. Okay, I wasn’t proposing that we pilot this for three months. I was saying if, if we’re going to do it, put a timeframe around it to test it. I wasn’t I wasn’t trying to advance the idea that we do it just that we got to we got to work our way into learning our way forward.
Unknown Speaker 1:28:58
Thank you for that clarification in and I did. I was just trying to get everybody’s comments down so that we understand what everyone’s thinking. So let’s see seat seven is come Councilman Martin.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:19
Thank you, Mayor Peck. The only concern with the format that Mayor proposed I have is that it doesn’t necessarily have enough time for study sessions. Because maybe one month in three, there wouldn’t be a study session because there was going to be an LH a meeting or an open forum or something. And, and, you know, if it was all the meetings still started at seven and there was only one study session, unless there was something else. That’s not enough. You know, maybe we could have a modified version of that where the meetings the study session, at least would start at six or maybe there could be a mini study session ahead of the regular session and start at six, I thought starting at five was pretty aggressive because a number of us have day jobs. And, you know, so that would make for a pretty long night, but I don’t think just one study session that sometimes gets preempted is enough time for study sessions.
Unknown Speaker 1:30:26
So I think that is a decision that staff probably should make deciding if there’s enough time to get through what their agenda is. In and I don’t know. So if somebody wants to make a motion or or not? I’m not sure. Well, let’s make the motion and see if it passes. I mean, just so Councilman Yarborough, do you want to make a motion? Since it was your idea?
Unknown Speaker 1:31:08
Yes, I would like to make a motion. I also want to state I appreciate all of you even making the you know, I’m not 100%, understanding all the meetings of how long they actually takes as far as the study sessions and everything. But I also think is so important for working people to have a little bit more equitable meetings. And not only just working people, but also people who come to council meetings to every week, that’s that are very long. So that was my purpose of bringing this to council was making sure how we can make sure that our meetings are more equitable, and that way for our community, and those of us who work full time jobs as well. And not to take away the responsibility of what counsel has to do, nor take away the responsibility of staff. So I appreciate first of all, I appreciate everybody considering it. So I am definitely open to the the three meetings, I propose or I’m making a motion that we have three meetings a month, which would be feel the requirement of the charter of two meetings, at least two meetings a month. And understanding that there will be times when city will have to call us in for an ad hoc meeting to decide to go over anything else or executive sessions or anything like that. So I’m making that motion and also that it will be a trial period. And we will try this out for a quarter if Council agree with that. Three weeks, three meetings a month, and also where staff will can call in an ad hoc meeting for counsel. Okay. Did I say that?
Unknown Speaker 1:32:59
Right? Yeah, it was pretty clear. I can. Eugene, let me reword it the way I think you said it. So you are making a motion to move. That Council changes the meeting format to three meetings a month, with a caveat that staff can call ad hoc meetings as needed. Two of the meetings would be regular session, one of the meetings would be a study session. Is that? Does that pretty much sum it up? Councilman Yarborough? Yes. Thank you. Is there a second for this? Okay. All right. It is a customer Yarbro made the motion. It was seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Rodriquez. Let’s vote. Oh, okay. Sorry. discussion.
Unknown Speaker 1:33:57
Thank you, Mayor. You know, I guess my mobile My question is involving starting time. So if we have the second and fourth as regular sessions, would we just come start our start time be at seven or would we be required to attend earlier? You know, as a person who does work full time, you know, when we have the five o’clock, I mean, I’m coming straight from school. And it’s like kind of pushing it. As far as, you know, me being ready to step away. So, you know, and for executive sessions or, you know, just emergency meetings, that’s where it’s sporadic. That’s okay. I can do that. But to have that be a habitual pattern, that is going to be difficult. So, you know, and the third, with the third being a study session that is embedded in the that is embedded in it’s not that’s not the ad hoc. Is that correct? My understanding that correct? So the three meetings. So I just my, my concern is looking at start time. So if somebody could answer,
Unknown Speaker 1:35:11
Harold, would you answer that, please?
Unknown Speaker 1:35:13
Yeah, I think based on at least what the motion that you have in play right now, with two regular sessions in one study session, I would see the start time still being at seven. And then if you had to have an executive session, the executive session would work like it normally does now. And then we would focus, we would be very focused on the study session. And on that third meeting, and I think that’s what we would manage. And then the study session, actually most of the Housing Authority stuff, because you because you all operated a different board, we can then be very focused on that to housing authority day to. And so that’s kind of the structure, it was hard for me to say, here’s how it would work. But I think now based on this, I could see how that would work. And seven would still be the start time unless we had an executive session. And that would work like it does now.
Unknown Speaker 1:36:04
Thank you that that clarifies a lot for me.
Unknown Speaker 1:36:09
Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez.
Unknown Speaker 1:36:10
Thank you, Mayor pack. So I asked councilmember Yarborough if she would accept an amendment to her motion to specifically state that the meetings would start at seven that the meeting that is not a regular session, be a study session and or a special meeting dependent on whether it’s an open forum, or LH a board meeting, as well as that also does leave us the five to 650 hour prior to for executive sessions, if they’re to be called, as well as the possibility that we could call those also for special meetings, similar to study sessions. Would you accept that amendment to your motion?
Unknown Speaker 1:36:59
I will accept that amendment to my motion.
Unknown Speaker 1:37:02
Okay. So do we vote on the amendment? There’s nobody else in the queue. So let’s vote on the amendment and then we’ll vote on the amended motion. So the amendment to the original motion, if I correct me if I got it wrong, is that we? We restate that for me, it was quite a long amendment.
Unknown Speaker 1:37:34
Thank you, it was to specify 7pm as the starting time for the meetings, as well as that the third meeting of the month, that’s not a regular session be flexible, in the sense that it’s either a study session or a special meeting for other purposes, such as, such as open forum or LH a board meeting, and that we allow that we can call executive sessions and other special meanings from the five to 650. Our
Unknown Speaker 1:38:02
Okay, thank you. I’m not going to try to repeat that. said we have a second for that amendment. All right. It’s been the amendment was made by Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez, seconded by Councilwoman Hidalgo firing. So let’s get about
Unknown Speaker 1:38:28
Wait a minute to get out of that screen. So that carried unanimously now we need to vote on the original motion as amended. So that was made by Councilwoman Yarborough called and seconded by? I think it was it was Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez. Oh, yes, I’m sorry. And that carries unanimously.
Unknown Speaker 1:39:17
So Mayor pack, can I go through just the first three months and then we’ll do a reassessment. Please. Okay. So if you’re looking at January, that would mean that we would cancel. The fourth is the study session, the 18th would stay as the open forum to regular sessions. Then in February, and February, we would cancel the first. Okay, have two regular sessions and one study sessions slash LH a 15th. Right? Yes. Then in March, we would cancel the first which is a study session. Now in March. There’s a couple things going on here. So you’ve got the study session on the 15th is also the NLC See Congress of Cities conference if that’s something that council members are planning to attend, and then the next week is spring break. So what we have done in the past is actually canceled the 22nd. Sometimes we’ve done that 15th as well. So we could certainly move that around any way that you’d like, if you would like you could do your study session on the first regular cancel the 15/22. And the 29th be regular. Yes, that sounds good. Okay, so the proposal is to keep the study session on the first keep your regular session on the eighth. Yes. Cancel your study session on the 15th and the 22nd. Regular Session on the 29th. Okay, and then at the end of March, we would do a reassessment of this to see how it’s going.
Unknown Speaker 1:40:43
Yes, I think that would be a great idea. This is going to be a good experiment. Okay. I do have a question. And this was a little bit out of we do you know, if NLC is going to be virtual or in person this year? I have not heard either way. Have you heard anything done? I
Unknown Speaker 1:41:00
haven’t heard? I haven’t heard either way.
Unknown Speaker 1:41:02
They’ve made that decision yet. Yeah. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 1:41:06
We should hear soon, though. And you could always change this if they decide to do it virtually?
Unknown Speaker 1:41:10
Well, and I think that would give us some, some leeway if it’s virtual. So that even if we needed to have like an ad hoc meeting, or there’ll be enough of us here to, to do that. So, okay, this could work in our favor.
Unknown Speaker 1:41:25
So a couple of things, one will have to bring a change the council rules of procedure for this test. Okay. The other thing, are there any holidays that we need to be aware of outside of this more long term that the council will need to potentially plan for?
Unknown Speaker 1:41:39
I mean, past march past March? Yeah. So yeah, there’s April. I mean, may we usually do cancel that fifth one anyway, in May? June, right. So June would be one that you might want to flip that the same way so that people could go to CML. So just a holiday. But So
Unknown Speaker 1:41:55
assuming that we stay on the regular schedule in May, we’d go do you all want to cancel the fifth and Monday, the fifth Tuesday and may just now so you can plan? Yes, you need to?
Unknown Speaker 1:42:06
That’s a good point. Why don’t we go ahead and finish the rest of the calendar? Because there may be ones that you want to cancel no matter what. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Okay, so this is March, April right now, we’ll just leave it as it is. There aren’t any holidays, or fifth study session. So May is a great point. Would you be interested in canceling the 31st?
Unknown Speaker 1:42:25
Or the third 31st? Or?
Unknown Speaker 1:42:29
Well, I think that I think you’ll reassess that and March. And so if you decide, yes, you’re going to cancel that second study session. The question on this one is just are there some holiday times that you’d like to go ahead and cancel through the whole rest of the year that you already know today? So the 31st. Yeah, cancel, cancel the 31st.
Unknown Speaker 1:42:52
Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:42:53
And then in June, if you’re interested, you could cancel the 21st for the CML conference.
Unknown Speaker 1:43:00
Yeah. Okay. I think that’s a good idea.
Unknown Speaker 1:43:03
And July 4 is actually on that Saturday beforehand. Sometimes we cancel the study session after July 4, but it’s not real close to shear. up sorry, July, I lied. I was on June. July. Would you be interested in canceling the fifth? Yes. And would you like to hold an open forum on the 19th? That’s your second one. If you’re Yes, it Okay. Great. Yeah, that’s a good point here on August, you have the fifth study, the fifth session would be on the 30th.
Unknown Speaker 1:43:39
Can we? How about canceling the 16th and the 30th? canceling the 16th? Well, no, we can’t do that.
Unknown Speaker 1:43:50
To me the 30th. Don’t need the 30th for budget. Yep. So it would be the sixth.
Unknown Speaker 1:43:54
Okay, got it.
Unknown Speaker 1:43:58
Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:44:01
Hey, there you go. Through all the calendars running through the Yeah. Okay. And then September, you have Labor Day on the fifth. So the introduction of the budget actually is the 30th in this case, right, Jim? Yeah. So you could take the fifth off if you wanted to. 666 Yes.
Unknown Speaker 1:44:24
That one we may need to have some flexibility on the six for budget so
Unknown Speaker 1:44:28
I keep it on for now.
Unknown Speaker 1:44:31
So I’m I can you just clarify something did you just say the 30th of August is when we intro to budget? Yep. That’s the plan. So you want both the 30th and the sixth for study sessions?
Unknown Speaker 1:44:52
Yeah, we skipped it this year actually. So we could probably cancel it because
Unknown Speaker 1:44:56
we it was similar. It was similar it was a similar
Unknown Speaker 1:45:00
The student did more work in August than Iowa. So cancel
Unknown Speaker 1:45:03
the six.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:04
Um, I personally would like to leave that up to staff if, if you need us to come on the 30th. Can you just for budget,
Unknown Speaker 1:45:13
we will need you on the third. We’ll need you on the third and the September 6, so we’ll leave it on for now and then exactly, we don’t need it. We’ll cancel it. Right. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:25
Oh, there you are.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:28
Um, I’m wondering if because, again, because it’s a budget, and also because, you know, we’re being equable Rosh Hashanah, which the you know, the war should be over by then. Let’s count let’s do two consecutive regular sessions on the 13th and the 20th. And then cancel the 27th. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:53
So we’ll leave on the sixth 13th 20th. Turn the 20th into a regular session and cancel the 27th. That sounds good. Okay. We missed that. If we need a precession or something to that effect. We could always do that too. Okay. Okay. October 4 session was pretty straightforward. And it’s pretty straightforward. November Oh, the fun November. So we do generally try to to cancel these. We certainly try to cancel Election Day we try to cancel Thanksgiving break. Sometimes NLC is that week, but it looks like it starts a little bit later than Tuesday. So hopefully people could get there. If you did want to do the second and I’ll see. Your your choice. I would. Generally we would have canceled Election Day, the eighth and the 22nd, which is Thanksgiving.
Unknown Speaker 1:46:45
So that only leaves us with one regular session so that I know. There it is. I did not scroll down for a while you isn’t Election Day, the first Tuesday after the first Monday.
Unknown Speaker 1:46:54
Oh. We will cancel whichever one is actual election day.
Unknown Speaker 1:47:03
I think you have it correct.
Unknown Speaker 1:47:06
I always thought it was the first Tuesday after our first Monday of November. Right? Yeah. Okay. And then yes, on Thanksgiving break. Okay. Okay, very good. And then December, we usually try to combine some regular sessions in this case. Just by the way it’s laid out. Maybe the only one you’d want to need to cancel the 27th. Yes. When you say oh, sorry, advance. Oops, wrong way. Okay, so definitely cancel the 27th. Yep. Okay. All right, well bring this back as a more set schedule for y’all to take a look at as well as the do they have to do the rules of procedure for three months just to get it started or once they finally make the decision? Yeah. We’ll bring back whatever we need to
Unknown Speaker 1:48:02
talk about that at least now. You all know what the schedule is if the test works then we can adjust accordingly. If it doesn’t work, then we know kind of what it looks like. So you all can plan for the remainder of the year.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:14
Actually, the calendar doesn’t look much different than than the proposed by the time we cancel everything.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:20
That’s what happened in March and November and December in most cases, we are right two and three. Exactly.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:27
Yeah. Thank you. Okay, that was good. So I think that is all we have fine. Final call public invited to be heard. Is there anybody in the public Strider come on down? Thank you. You got our six
Unknown Speaker 1:49:05
Strider bench done 951 17th Avenue. Let me congratulate the rookie council people and also the veterans who have up until last week who have returned and the the elections were you know, we watched every 12 hours they would change. And we haven’t had anybody come in with guns and say that it can’t be allowed. So that’s significant. I like to honor Senator Max Cleveland, who died today. He was a triple amputee from one of our previous wars. And then he went to did a public service the rest of his life, and he was elected senator and he was one of the original members of the 911. Commission. And I’m not quite sure of what happened. I don’t know if he resigned because he knew they weren’t going to look deeply enough into what happened. Or if they threw him off because he would ask too many questions. I don’t know if anybody knows for certain what happened, but honored to Senator Max Cleveland. You’ve seen this week that Big Bird has been assaulted for being a government propagandists? Because in 1972 He said, Don’t wait, vaccinate. And we got stuff going on. A mix up louie Gohmert and Paul Gulzar, because they’re almost twins, but Gulzar. All of his six siblings, voted against him and put out ads to not let him be in Congress. But there he is. And he put out a video of a drawing of himself, murdering Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Ocasio Cortes and suggested assassinating the President of the United States. If anyone else in the country except someone under the Trump bubble had done that, they’d be in jail right now and they would not be in Congress. That’s what we’re dealing with. And you got but that party is saying they want to expel or at least from committees that 13 Republicans who voted for bridges and harbors and railroads. But you’re gonna keep Paul Gulzar on and Nikhil anon lady Marjorie Taylor crane, who was assaulted other members of Congress, on the floor and in the hallways of Congress. So let’s keep aware of what’s going on. And remember, democracy counts. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:52:18
Thank you straighter. So mayor and council comments. Councilman Martin,
Unknown Speaker 1:52:29
thank you, Mayor Peck. I wasn’t going to have any comments tonight. But I need to say what Strider said democracy counts. And it absolutely is at risk. And I don’t want anyone to forget it.
Unknown Speaker 1:52:45
Thank you. Harold. City Manager,
Unknown Speaker 1:52:53
I’m actually going to move up here tonight. So earlier the the slide that I was looking at in the COVID. So someone said, where are they looking at in terms of when new restrictions would come into play. And you may have remembered this slide here, where you have the blue line, and that’s where the governor said is when this line crossed, is when they will and this is Denver metro hospital admission rates by county and this is a 14 day moving average. And so what I’m going to show you is is when you look at Boulder, and you see where we were when I mentioned there was only actually a short time, when we crossed that threshold that they put in place. It was really at this point in time in the end of November. Now what I want to show you is when you say how do we relate his motor county to other places. And again, these are the metro counties, this is what it really starts looking like. So you saw Adams in Douglas. And it looks like a rapaho. They got pretty close recently to that threshold. But again, putting it in perspective to see in the red line where Boulder County sits in terms of that hospital admission. Right. This is this is the piece that they really designed at that point in terms of what would trigger what we kind of saw early last year. And I don’t think they’ve changed this yet. But we’ll double check that but this was the map that I wanted to show you all. Oh, great map graph.
Unknown Speaker 1:54:23
Very, very helpful. Thank you for looking for that. So city attorney, any comments? No comments, Mayor. Thank you. So I guess that’s it. Can I have a motion to adjourn? Second. All right. It has been moved and seconded. We are adjourned. plus they all change and they’re just