City Council Annual Legislative Dinner – March 2023

Video Description:
City Council Annual Legislative Dinner – March 2023

Read along below:

Unknown Speaker 0:00
In the

Unknown Speaker 0:05
world of Labor’s right, we’re waiting for a couple of legislators. But I think that we’ll start without them and they’ll come. I would like everybody around the table to introduce themselves in case there’s somebody in the

Unknown Speaker 0:18
I guess I’d call you the audience.

Unknown Speaker 0:21
In case we don’t know each other, so I’ll start and jump in there long mode, everybody. Yes, city council, security Yarbro. City council Marcia Martin City Council Sean McCoy City Council.

Unknown Speaker 0:32
Next slide. CHIEKO Director of Human Services, thank you, girl, Director of Strategic integration representing utilities today. Jamie rock Deputy City Attorney, Jonny Marsh, assistant city manager for external services, and Sandy cedar assistant city manager for internal services. Susie’s all despairing city council, and Representative Karen McCormick has district 11, which is the bulk of long run representative Jennifer currenty, House District 19, which is the rest of long run pace.

Unknown Speaker 1:07
So we’re waiting for Senator

Unknown Speaker 1:11
Lewis, and hydrocarbon

Unknown Speaker 1:20
which we don’t get to say about Senator.

Unknown Speaker 1:31
So we’re going to start with a fertile thank you everybody who came to witness this. And if you have comments, there will be hopefully at the end time for our comments from you.

Unknown Speaker 1:43
So let’s start with our agenda says we’re going to have the 2023 legislative initiatives from our representatives.

Unknown Speaker 1:54
So unfortunately, you’re eating

Unknown Speaker 2:00
which you’d like to start doing?

Unknown Speaker 2:03
What exactly do we want to hear? I’m working on? Yes, absolutely. Because it’s easier for me to talk about what I’m working on versus what everybody else is working on. And I happen to be chair of the House agriculture, water and Natural Resources Committee, which as you can imagine the scope of the things that come to us, we are focused on water to future water in our state, how we deal with a hotter, drier climate, we’re engaged with the agricultural industry in our state, which is a big part in Boulder County, that that some of us are not aware of, and how we work with our other upper basin states, in partnership with our lower basin states on

Unknown Speaker 2:57
the crisis of the Colorado River. So there’s a lot of discussion happening in that space. I’m also working on some areas of potential innovation in the use of biochar, which is a carbon solid that is produced under high pressure and high temperature, biomass, particularly,

Unknown Speaker 3:23
pine beetle kill but it can be many other sorts of bio biomass and it is its structure is closer to a diamond than it is to charcoal, but it looks like charcoal. So many of you may be familiar with biochar and many of you may not but the the excitement is to look at the possibility of the use of biochar and building that up as a new economic driver for our state, a new

Unknown Speaker 3:54
area of industry development. We have a few biochar

Unknown Speaker 3:59
producers in our state one is just north of us here in Weld County, I recommend everybody go visit. It’s called biochar now, but what we’re looking at is the possibility of using biochar as a permanent carbon sinks permanently taking carbon out of the carbon cycle which over the last century and a half, we’ve put a lot more carbon in the carbon cycle that that natural cycle has been able to continue to remove. And so finding a way to permanently seeing carbon in the plugging of abandoned oil and gas wells which are happening throughout our state and you’re as they are exhausted, they need to be plugged in currently, they’re using different products that are concrete type products, but then there’s there’s a concrete flood at the top of the bottom and then there’s a spacer in between that typically is you is filled with a type of slurry that will have bentonite clay and other things in it. It just has to reach a certain pressure

Unknown Speaker 5:00
And within that, well to meet federal standards. So we are

Unknown Speaker 5:08
conducting or starting a study directing a study to be done to find out if biochar has the capacity to be used in this in this area doesn’t have the bio mechanical properties and geochemical properties, the longevity, all the things that people way smarter than they need to figure out. And so we’re partnering with with CSU to do that first part of the study, pretty exciting. It did get a lot of national attention in the last couple of weeks, because we would be the first state in the nation to look at that possibility. And if, if it turns out that that’s a real thing that has scientific backing, then the next step would be to take it out in the field to do a field pilot study, because you know, you don’t want to just do it without incremental steps. And then that field study would be under the Colorado oil and gas commission to house that study, again, with guardrails there to find out is this going to work in the field and those those abandoned wells will will be chosen not at all one area, because our geological makeup of Colorado is different, so many other places we would want to. So that’s, that’s one of the exciting things, it just got through the Energy and Environment Committee. And it’s waiting for a price tag to be put on it.

Unknown Speaker 6:38
And then after that, of course, appropriations, and then we decided, if there’s

Unknown Speaker 6:44
if we have any discretionary money to spend this year in the budget, because we all know we have to balance budget every year. And some things get through some things. So

Unknown Speaker 6:55
I am on the water space, we are looking with the Department of Natural Resources and all the people in the water arena that’s all water users, water rights, ag municipal, recreational users conservation people, to as we all know, in Colorado, our snowbank is our water reservoir, we cannot go to a large reservoir like Lake Mead or Lake Powell say, hey, we need some more water turn off the spigot, like the lower basin states can do we depend on Mother Nature gives us snow. And then we live within our means. Lower basis, states have a checking account and a savings account. And they have been overdrawn their checking account and overdrawn in their savings account, and potentially looking.

Unknown Speaker 7:49
And we have been lifting our games. And so we want to look at ways where we can actually potentially shore up a second snow bank in a way where we can restore rivers and streams is called stream restoration to back to their natural historic footprint, help these riparian areas that have been able to like be a sponge for that melt off and have it slower, delivered slower into the system. So that we have our backup and our storage in a you know, because most of our storage is natural storage. That’s that’s an exciting thing that’s still being in the works, and coming forward. And there’s a lot more but I think I’ll stop there because the people that need to talk and then we can, we can circle back. So thank you very much. So

Unknown Speaker 8:48
thank you. So good evening, everybody. My name is Jennifer Parenti. I’m representing 19 which is we said it covers the eastern portion of long runs everything east of pace, but then I have everything to the east and the south of you so Erie, Frederick Firestone to kono unincorporated Boulder County to 95th Avenue. There’s my first year in the legislation legislature. I’m also on the agriculture water and Natural Resources Committee with the best committee

Unknown Speaker 9:20
with Representative McCormick I’m also on the Transportation Housing and Local Government Committee, which I’m really excited about because housing is such an important issue for our district animals on the joint technology committee. So I’ve got oversight over the major IT programs of the state. I’m a software engineer by trade, so I was excited to get that appointment. Things that we’ve been working on. A lot of my early part of the legislation was actually tied up in joint Technology Committee, looking at those information technology projects, making sure that we are really working hard to get broadband better deployed in our state to open up the possibility for municipalities

Unknown Speaker 10:00
For as long as it has done to tap into local broadband as, as a as a utility, there are lots of federal dollars coming down in that space that municipalities can tap into. And so I really encourage you to look into that. And where you have eligibility. That’s going to be exciting to see over the next couple of years, but particularly for our rural areas where we really need it, and particularly in the data on the reservations.

Unknown Speaker 10:33
Other things that I’ve been working on, like the rest of the legislature, very focused on housing, affordable housing, there are a number of bills going through the legislature in this space, I partnered on two bills that are sort of ancillary related to this area with other members of the legislature i

Unknown Speaker 10:54
I’m working on it and HOA and Metro District Task Force with a representative to tollen. This if it passes through both chambers and the governor’s office will establish a task force to meet later this year to look really deeply into HOAs, how they’re working in our state Metro districts, how they’re working in our state, and look for opportunities to ensure that we are, of course creating a safe and friendly business climate, but also focusing on consumer protections. So some of those things, we’re looking at our disclosure, notifications, conflicts of interest, you know, board members, and and making sure that ultimately, when someone enters into a home contract, which is you know, what we do when we buy our homes, that they really understand exactly what all of those mechanisms are before they sign the dotted line.

Unknown Speaker 11:54
I’m also very interested and ethical and accountable transparent government. So I’ve got a couple of bills I’m working on in that space. I am working on a bill with Representative story from Jefferson County on getting our school districts and our special districts accountable under our ethical

Unknown Speaker 12:18
behavior laws in the state by law right now they are they are

Unknown Speaker 12:26
they they are supposed to follow the law, but there exists no enforcement body for them, and kind of a loophole and how long the law was written. So we’re going to try to bring special districts and school districts under the oversight of Colorado’s independent ethics commission. So we’re happy to do that. Just to give members of the public another opportunity, if they feel like there’s conflicts of interest or other inappropriate behavior happening.

Unknown Speaker 12:54
I’m also really interested in public safety. We’re going to be working on some bills in that space. And we’ll let Senator Hawkins Lewis, talk about her flagship bill in that area, but I’m very happy to be co sponsoring that with her. So I’m going to stop there and just leave it mostly to q&a. But again, I’m very happy to be here and thank you for being concerned and engaged to this.

Unknown Speaker 13:16
syndrome. Yes, hi, everyone. I will stand also I think so everybody can hear me.

Unknown Speaker 13:26
Is this recording or it’s it’s recording. Okay. Do I need to come up with this

Unknown Speaker 13:36
dual vision

Unknown Speaker 13:38
Hi, everyone. Sonya Hawkins Lewis, I live just south of Longmont and I am your state senator. I represent Longmont, Erie, and Lafayette encompasses Eastern Boulder County, Western wells County and a little sliver of Broomfield, we’re not too many people live.

Unknown Speaker 14:03
I took the list that Sandy sent out of all the issues that you were interested in us talking about and what we were doing. And so I came up with a list of the bills that match that area. And it just so happens that I have many on the on that list. I think that may mean that I’m representing the city council in a way that you would like, but let me try to go over some of those.

Unknown Speaker 14:32
So, your city council’s sent me a list of issues law enforcement reforms are is was one of the areas

Unknown Speaker 14:45
we have several bills going on. They’re probably the biggest one is motor vehicle theft. It’s Senate Bill 97. That is a bill to increase the penalties. You

Unknown Speaker 15:00
If you steal a car, it’s I think it’s very important. Colorado leads the country in Carfax right now. So that we use put that as a very important bill. There is DNA testing bill, there’s

Unknown Speaker 15:16
bills around indecent exposure. So there are definitely some law enforcement reforms. I don’t have anything in that area. I’m a pharmacist by training, not a lawyer. So I listed some of those up to the lawyers in the Senate and in the house. The other area that you were interested in is housing. That is huge this year. I am the Senate Chair of housing and local government.

Unknown Speaker 15:45
We have over 30 bills that we are going to be working on, you heard a little bit about that. Affordable housing is probably in the top three issues for our session. I am working with the Majority Leader of the Senate on a land land zoning bill, it that has several sections to it, it’s a very large fill in the entire section on ad use, is actually lifted from long one, because Walmart leads the state then assessable dwelling units, your your policy is better than some of the policies that we’ve looked at from around the country. So we hope that we can take the best practices from Walmart and spread them and for the rest of the state. There will be tenant rights issues. I am doing a a bill that will allow someone before they’re evicted when they have the hearing, they’ll be able to do it remotely. We know a lot of people can’t just get up and leave their jobs during the day. So we are going to be making remote testimony accessible.

Unknown Speaker 16:59
There is a first right of refusal bill, that I think that the city council would be very interested in its House Bill 11 90,000 of support.

Unknown Speaker 17:12
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 17:14
For those that don’t already know what that is, it allows a local municipality or a local governmental agency to have the first right on a property to purchase it for affordable housing.

Unknown Speaker 17:30
There are bills there are bills around.

Unknown Speaker 17:38
There are bills around looking at Rent Stabilization, there are bills around Lewisville, there are 72 areas in the Marshall fire fires up 73 units where the families have decided not to come back. They don’t want to come back. And those locks are sitting vacant in the middle of that of those subdivisions. So we are looking at are there creative ways to do more multifamily, more affordable housing in those areas.

Unknown Speaker 18:16
I will keep going on preschool. That was one of the areas that you had listed. Because free preschool started now in January. There’s probably not too many bills coming around preschool. That this will be the first time in the history of Colorado that you have a free basically free preschool for kids to sign up. So the signup was starting in January, and I believe some of that has been extended.

Unknown Speaker 18:47
Climate change was one of the areas that you sent to me. Senate Bill 16

Unknown Speaker 18:54
is a huge bill by Senator

Unknown Speaker 18:58
Senator Chris Hanson. He already spoke on it so I won’t I did not Oh, okay. It’s a it’s a rare in my mind. It’s one of the most important bills that we’re going to be looking at.

Unknown Speaker 19:10
It is stuck right now. Right. And preps for said I have Yes. Yeah. Yes, that’s right. Senate Finance and then approach. Maybe I should let you talk about I’ll keep

Unknown Speaker 19:23
doing great.

Unknown Speaker 19:25
The reason why I think it’s one of the most important bills is that Senator Hanson and reforming have divided climate change areas into into various sections that we can tackle. And I think that that was a smart approach to doing it and I think I will let you do the guts of it. But do you want to do it now? I’ll add a little bit more. You know, of course any bill just freezing so wrapped in my blanket. Any bill that starts in one house, one side chamber or the

Unknown Speaker 20:00
Other can change quite significantly before it actually gets over to my, our side or your side.

Unknown Speaker 20:08
And so that this bill was constructed last year and did not get through on the last day of session for a variety of reasons, not because of the bill. And so it’s basically the same bill as last year. And it does put interim targets that the Colorado Energy Office had said in their last greenhouse gas reduction roadmap, but in order to hit those larger, like, tenure targets, and puts interim targets in there, so we have a better, better stepping stones, I guess, to get to where we’re going and addresses the area of incentivizing small, gas powered engines, like lawn mowers, for retailers to be able to have a tax credit applied to their back to them, if they sell a product to an individual, that individual will get the discount, the the,

Unknown Speaker 21:11
the owner of the shop will get the tax credit. And so and they’ve projected that will say quite those, those small engines actually produce quite a bit of

Unknown Speaker 21:23
some of the gases that we don’t want in the air. And the electric forms are coming out more and more and often are the prices a lot less. So we’re trying to just drive that in a market based approach to get people to transition to those.

Unknown Speaker 21:40
It also has some guidelines for our public employees retirement fund to be doing what many funds across the nation are doing, looking at, forget the neck, the name of the National Insurance

Unknown Speaker 22:01
kind of actuarial study people are but to look at the risk value of where you’re putting your money. For instance, if you’re buying a lot of sea, you know, beach side property, what is the long term value of that beach side property? And what will it do to your portfolio. So that’s that’s kind of an extreme example, but to look at those sorts of things, so that people’s money that’s getting invested really has the homework behind it to make sure their long term investment is solid, with the things that are changing those investments.

Unknown Speaker 22:42
And you’re forgetting some things there. So there’s, there’s a part in there that will help

Unknown Speaker 22:51
facilitate the

Unknown Speaker 22:54
the energy, the electric lines, that we have the transmission lines, to be able to utilize what we have,

Unknown Speaker 23:03
in a way, so when they get upgraded, they’re upgraded in a way that will able to

Unknown Speaker 23:10
be more resilient and for our grid. So there’s there’s language in there for that.

Unknown Speaker 23:17
I think it has like 13 sections. So it’s a good one to follow or to go read up on it. Senate Bill 16. And I look forward to it coming over and see what see what’s still in there when when it gets gets over to the house. And that that project brings up a really good point, the fiscal note on that bill.

Unknown Speaker 23:42
We don’t have the revenue that we’ve had in the past last year, we had really hundreds of millions of dollars that we were able to put into homelessness, mental health, education, community safety, so many different areas health care, we don’t have that money anymore. That was coming from federal dollars. So now many bills are excellent ideas, but we don’t know how we’re going to fund them. And so they’re sitting waiting until we can figure that out. And Senate Bill 16 is one of those.

Unknown Speaker 24:18
Here’s other ones on climate crisis. I have one, it’s an expansion to the C PACE program. That is for Colorado, commercial and industrial efficiencies, programs. So if you have a commercial building that is not very energy efficient. We can do a private public partnership to help get those efficiencies so when they expand, we can help improve so that we’re using less energy

Unknown Speaker 24:54
more sustainable. It’s a very successful program. It’s in over 40 states 40

Unknown Speaker 25:00
counties in this state. The most recent was El Paso County, where they did an improvement to the US Olympic training area. So we were able to do an expansion on that.

Unknown Speaker 25:15
And we have,

Unknown Speaker 25:18
oh gosh, forest fire detection, ozone. Looking at ozone flexibility, local governments can identify their high peak ozone area. And they can we can do things around a clear increase in public transportation. I have oil and gas bill, we have two oil and gas bills. One is limit you’ve heard. McCormick talked about this biochar. Very important. The one I have is a property rights for mineral resources. Bill. Right now, if you if Boulder County has the mineral rights on the large open space, this will give them the flexibility to have more say. So right now, they can be lumped in with a few other owners and they will have no control over the mineral rights. So that’s something that is going to be interviewed soon.

Unknown Speaker 26:20
You and asked about workers comp, it’s not a big issue. This session.

Unknown Speaker 26:26
We have we do have a workers comp, expansion from 12 weeks to 36 weeks, if you have a skid your categorized in a certain mental impairment because of whatever the accident was. So that’s the only one I can find on workers Co Op. We have a huge bill around forest fire destruction and property insurance.

Unknown Speaker 26:51
Yes, and that is Senator Finberg. And a lovely

Unknown Speaker 26:57
recycling, we have a couple of really interesting bills coming out. We have Senate Bill 50, which is around things that are or should be more labeled better so that they’re not thrown in the right place. And I’m working on a composting bill. We just learned this week that the largest composting company in Colorado is now going to refuse many of the items in composting and Senator cutter and myself have put in a Lakeville request to try to address that to stop that from happening. Try to give them some of the resources just things we can do. We don’t know if we’re going to get that request. But it sends shockwaves across the Senate in the house, because so many people are composting now. And we need to encourage

Unknown Speaker 27:52
it your ways. One of our favorite topic topics at the Capitol you asked about HOAs I happen to have an HOA bill that directly Tormach is helping you with we think it’s a very smart nature way bill because it’s around saving water. If you live in a nature way, and you want to pull up your threat yard and change that toward zero scape clamps. This will give you the flexibility to do that there. We’ve had bills in the past that allow for some of that. But what’s happening is

Unknown Speaker 28:25
designs and HOA requirements are are a little bit complex and getting in the way. And we think we have found an excellent way to streamline we’ve got HR we’ve met a lot of state holding the HOA

Unknown Speaker 28:39
association is happy with where we have the bill, we believe we’re gonna save a lot of water with this because a lot of the grasses that people have planted, use up a lot of water.

Unknown Speaker 28:51
So we’re we’re doing great on that if you didn’t ask about health care. And as a pharmacist, I think it’s you know, pretty high up there. So we have some very impressive bills. The first one is Senate Bill 93. It’s about medical debt. So if you are getting ready to have a procedure, an elective surgery, or you’re in an emergency or a car accident, or you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, those are the just absolutely. It’s the large largest bankruptcy reason in the state of Colorado is medical debt.

Unknown Speaker 29:30
What this bill does is if you you will get instantly or if it’s an emergency situation, your family member will get an estimated cost of what your treatment is going to be. And that helps you plan for it. It lets you know what your costs are going to be. And if you’re a self pay

Unknown Speaker 29:52
person meaning you don’t have insurance through either to Colorado exchange or through your employer, they have to give even more

Unknown Speaker 30:00
More details because you’re going to be on the hook for those money. And in Colorado, it can be 1000s and 1000s. of dollars. If you have if you know anyone as a pharmacist, I know, unfortunately, way too many people that have been diagnosed with cancer. And they are, many people have had to sell their homes to afford the treatment to survive

Unknown Speaker 30:24
that kind of diagnosis. Well, now, what we’ve designed is if you go in to medical debt, and you’re getting debt collectors coming to you, there’s a new standard of conduct, so that you are not harassed, so much with the phone calls, there is a new procedure on what you will be given the information that you will be given because it’s very confusing, you can have a doctor, you can have a radiologist, you cannot surgeon, you can have so many different bills coming out. And we’re capping the medical debt interest rate at 3%. So that you can actually make a plan to pay back the money for the services that you are going to receive. We feel like this is huge for allowing people to hang on to their homes. So it’s a very, very big bill. We’ve had the only people that are really opposed to it are the debt collectors. And we’ll see we’ll see if we can overcome those hurdles. Prescription drugs still are out of control prescription drug prices, the America pays the most of any country in the world for prescription drugs. So we are expanding Colorado did a very historic thing two years ago. And I’m proud to say I was the lead legislator on that, we now have an affordability review board that will look at the affordability of the price of that drug, and see if we can afford it. And if we can’t afford it, then we issue an upper payment limit. Now, you can imagine, the pharmaceutical manufacturers were not happy with that bill, we are again first in the country to do this. So they got some amendments on it to limit us to 12 drugs. So this year, we are going to lift that.

Unknown Speaker 32:20
And we are going to try to get control of some of the cost of these drugs by putting affordability couple of payment limits.

Unknown Speaker 32:30
The last one I’ll talk about is very big. It’s a mental health bill. I’m lucky to be working on it with Senator Marchman, who is the newly elected senator for Boulder County and one one. And this bill doesn’t cost us a dime.

Unknown Speaker 32:48
She has identified as a teacher, that there are mental health therapists that are licensed in Colorado, like Dora. But they’re not allowed to practice in the schools because they don’t have a piece of paper from the Department of Education.

Unknown Speaker 33:04
And this allows them to register very quickly, to be able to be qualified to go into the schools. And we anticipate that we will be able to get more mental health therapists for kids in crisis as quick as we can. And it’s not going to cost the state a dime. So I think Senator workman for coming up with this idea and glad to be on it. And I could probably go on and on about health care. So I’m gonna stop. But I’m happy to I don’t know what the format is about happy to take questions. I think that’s the last time

Unknown Speaker 33:38
I was like, Oh, I can do pesticide. Oh, yes.

Unknown Speaker 33:45
And also, just to follow up on health care. I’m also on the health and Insurance Committee in the House. And there was a really interesting bill that went through this week week, which I learned something about, and it’s about

Unknown Speaker 34:01
pharmacy, dispensing machines and you think what, that sounds really not good.

Unknown Speaker 34:09
But there there are nationwide, other states are utilizing these in conjunction and I know Senator Augustine, this is a pharmacist with a live pharmacists for people to be able to get their prescriptions when the actual pharmacy is closed for grabs. That

Unknown Speaker 34:29
store is still open where they’re incredibly secure. Like they’re more secure than ATMs apparently these things and that you have to

Unknown Speaker 34:41
have there’s a 24 hour pharmacist available online a there’s a whole company that does that.

Unknown Speaker 34:48
What was so fascinating was learning about the bill and and its ability to for people to get their medications on a Saturday or at 615 when the pharmaceutical

Unknown Speaker 35:00
closes at three o’clock in the morning when you just look at

Unknown Speaker 35:03
things like that. And so we’re sitting there as a committee. The first step is you get the bill presented. Well, of course you haven’t had time to read and to ask questions. But there were no people testifying for or against this bill. I thought this is really fascinating than

Unknown Speaker 35:22
that. It’s apparently that bland.

Unknown Speaker 35:27
Nobody showed up. There was discussion on the on the House floor, but that got unanimous support in our bipartisan bipartisan committee. It’ll be heading over to the Senate. fascinating idea, very innovative and exciting, and again, increases access to care, which is what we’re all trying to do. Pesticides is on this list, which is fascinating. I spent, I spent an hour and a half on a zoom call this afternoon. And Allison spent a whole entire day last summer, called pesticide tour. It was on pesticide tour. Because this year, the pesticide applicators act is up for renewal, which, under the Department of regulatory agencies, they reviewed professions every 10 or 11 years, the veterinary practice act was just done last year, which was very near and dear to my heart, because I’m a veterinarian.

Unknown Speaker 36:24
And so this year, the pesticide applicators Act, which has to do with the licensing of

Unknown Speaker 36:32
being able to achieve your applicators act, so it really doesn’t have to do with the pesticides themselves. But it’s about

Unknown Speaker 36:43
the procedures that folks have to go through the continuing education, they have to do the record keeping that they have to do to be an applicator. It’s getting a lot of attention, though, because it has the word pesticides in it. But it’s really a regulatory thing that has to be done otherwise, we will not have legal pesticide applicators up we want them to be trained for Public Safety’s and the utilization of these products in open space and parks and a lot of great things about long run by the way when I was on that tour

Unknown Speaker 37:23
for our nurseries like if you go to the tree farm, we went there on the tour.

Unknown Speaker 37:29
As well as just your lawn, your lawn people there, there was way more education and training that they have to go through than I even realized. So that is getting some discussion right now it’s in the Senate.

Unknown Speaker 37:42
And they’re looking at some potential changes to that, that have to do with people that might be on the sensitivity list. So that if you have a medical doctor’s diagnosis of having a pesticide sensitivity, and there’s apparently only 90 people registered in our state that fall into that category, but if you’re one of the 90, that’s pretty important.

Unknown Speaker 38:09
So they’re looking at ways for those people to potentially not only register where they live, but where they go to school and where they work, because it’s that critical to their health. And so that’s that’s being discussed, as well as the proximity to where that person may be, is also up for review. So I don’t know if that’s what you want to know about pesticides, but it’s kind of big in the discussion and the capital about the applicators act coming up for renewal. So

Unknown Speaker 38:44
great. You got that covered.

Unknown Speaker 38:49
So thank you to our representatives, the senators. That was great. I just want to bring attention to the people at this table. I did. Are they out in the everybody got these everybody? All elected officials, especially on the city website as well. Right. But what this is, is the City Council statement on legislation affecting public safety.

Unknown Speaker 39:13
It’s pretty lengthy. So I don’t know that I’m going to read it right now. But it is on our website.

Unknown Speaker 39:22
Under colorado.gov, go to departments go to the city council and city council members, and you will find the statement. So I’m going to open it up right now to the officials and staff sitting around this table. So our officials

Unknown Speaker 39:38
can answer all these questions.

Unknown Speaker 39:43
And I should note for the City Council that aisle 16 is reviewed by CC for CA right now and that’s why I’m waiting

Unknown Speaker 39:51
to see the X, Y

Unknown Speaker 39:54
or Z as we’re doing here right now.

Unknown Speaker 39:57
Sorry.

Unknown Speaker 39:59
Thank you

Unknown Speaker 40:00
Climate, greenhouse gas reduction. They’re taking that right now.

Unknown Speaker 40:06
Back from the net and the collaborative that we are part of around.

Unknown Speaker 40:14
So I’ll open it up to counselors. Do you have questions or comments for our rep?

Unknown Speaker 40:35
No, but I will Yes, but next week we’ve been planning for do we have to say bills?

Unknown Speaker 40:44
Early tonight, Thursday night. Next, we’re going to be hearing that

Unknown Speaker 40:50
I have a question. Okay, great.

Unknown Speaker 40:55
Represent representative McCormack talked about water. So within our community, we are a growing community of most voted county is what would you say, will be the number one issue with making sure that we have enough water for the amount of people coming in and moving into accounting especially in so long? Well, from what I know about long runs fantastic planning from the past is that Longmont had the foresight to project out growth to what 2050 or beyond and got all of the

Unknown Speaker 41:37
storage rights in place for quite a bit more growth.

Unknown Speaker 41:43
So good for Longmont, but we’re we’re the whole state. And you know, we represent Longmont. But with us, we have the name on our nametag a state representative so, so very proud of what long line has done for planning for future growth. But even the reservoirs that we depend upon, if the western slope water that comes our way over here to the eastern slope that helps us all out is diminished, we still need to have the ability to plan for that future that does not fit the past projections. And we just came out statewide water plan updated water plan just came out about three weeks ago, which has a tremendous amount, I would encourage everyone to get a copy of maybe I’ll bring you a copy of that is not very big.

Unknown Speaker 42:40
That has many of the different innovative ideas not just for storage, but for

Unknown Speaker 42:48
conservation for efficiency projects. And that plan, of course needs a tremendous amount of resources statewide to fund and to distribute to the counties and municipalities that kind of get on the list of needs of projects that needs to be done. So if Lon Lon has a list of water projects that have some kind of prioritization, it’s important to kind of look at it already came out this year, but to look forward on Yeah, we have a water project that we want some funding for. Because the other important thing is to know that

Unknown Speaker 43:30
inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure and jobs act from the federal government has set aside quite a bit just for drought, resiliency, contingency planning and storage, specifically for the western states because they see if you look at a map of from the National Weather folks, we are smack dab in the middle of the hottest like right here we are in the western slope is like bread or the entire nation. Like we are getting the hottest, driest fastest. And so

Unknown Speaker 44:13
so the water plan is a good place to look to see how can Longmont specifically look at some of those ideas and then move to get some of those matching dollars. And this could be you know, five year five to 10 year plan but

Unknown Speaker 44:31
that the first water plan came out with Governor Hickenlooper in 2015 and has not been updated since until just now and they spent over a year going statewide to communities and counties to get input from everybody on the updated water fan. So hopefully I answered your question but I am proud of lawn mod because Longmont somehow years ago

Unknown Speaker 45:00
had the foresight to plan ahead. And that was

Unknown Speaker 45:04
incredibly smart. So for those of you who want to look at that plan, you can go to see WC b.colorado.gov. Forward slash Colorado dash water Dash.

Unknown Speaker 45:18
And I plan on a follow up question that I have.

Unknown Speaker 45:24
I read recently the New York Times that

Unknown Speaker 45:28
there was a plan to control or take over the Colorado River water rights and what is done with those? Isn’t the water rights does your plan.

Unknown Speaker 45:47
Colorado River, the rights no. So the fight right now is ahead of the CW CD, which is the Colorado Water Conservation Board, which is under the Department of Natural Resources. Becky Mitchell is our commissioner. And she is the watchdog, the Bulldog the fighter in the ring for our state with this whole discussion with the Bureau of Land Management, and what the upper basin states which are Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming.

Unknown Speaker 46:26
The lower basin states are Nevada, Arizona and California. And 100 years ago, there was an arrangement, a compact made, that the upper basin states will get 7.5 million acre feet a year to share and sell to the lower basin states. Because California was growing faster than anybody else out there years ago. Surprise, surprise.

Unknown Speaker 46:52
So what’s happened is, as I said at the beginning, the lower basin states had that checking account, and they had that savings account. And they have continually year upon year upon year, use more than their 7.5 million acre feet. Colorado in the upper basin states have never use our allocated 75 million acre feet. So to further so this little bit of a fight between the lower basin basin states saying, you know, you got to help us now. And we’re saying we have lived within our means all of this time, we can show you how to do it. But you will have to get your house in order. And you all have to

Unknown Speaker 47:38
figure this out. And it’s not going to be easy. It’s not gonna be easy. And so just the other day, I went to another big water discussion, and Becky Mitchell was there and so was somebody from the federal government. And she was saying that

Unknown Speaker 47:53
we should maybe even be encouraging the federal government to send a lot of that read some of those resources to the lower basin states so they can fix the problem because we we don’t have any more to get. We were tapped out and we do need to

Unknown Speaker 48:12
protect our our cities or municipalities and our agricultural industry is

Unknown Speaker 48:20
pushing $45 billion a year. It’s like one of the biggest economic drivers of our state and agriculture needs 80 to 85% of the water of our state. So we have got to

Unknown Speaker 48:34
be compassionate

Unknown Speaker 48:37
on to our water, because we didn’t have given more than we, because we weren’t using it so we let it go downstream.

Unknown Speaker 48:46
I don’t know. That’s totally up to but there is there deep in the middle of understand and just two weeks ago.

Unknown Speaker 48:56
So what did I say there were set there seven states, six of the seven states came to an agreement. Yes, it was not.

Unknown Speaker 49:06
California, the biggest.

Unknown Speaker 49:09
six of the seven states came to some kind of collaborative agreement to appease the Bureau of Land Management in California did not. So that’s where we stand right now. And

Unknown Speaker 49:22
yeah, okay. Great. Thanks, Todd. Great explanations, because that was actually the question that I was going to ask. So I’ll ask a related one, which is representative.

Unknown Speaker 49:36
I don’t know.

Unknown Speaker 49:41
That question. But

Unknown Speaker 49:44
as part of all of these apportionment discussions, it’s my understanding that on the west shore, we have some reservations for Native Americans that have never had a voice in the water allocations and so on.

Unknown Speaker 50:00
So how are we doing in terms of the water we keep? Are we being are we making progress on allocating that we’re fairly I got it. So if you had listened to opening day at the state legislature, you would have heard, for the very first time ever, the ute Mountain View and the southern view, tribes, leaders were invited to opening day the General Assembly, and

Unknown Speaker 50:31
that they shouldn’t need to be thankful. But they were very grateful because they are, and recently have been always included, and will continue to be included in our state government, in this huge water discussion. So it is incredibly collaborative. And I’m not sure you know, when it stopped, but it it is very much ongoing and involved. And anything that we do, they’re always a part of not just listening and being in the room, but being part of the decision making process. Because the water of our state does not belong to us, the use of the water belongs to us. And it’s a very critical differences. The water in our state by law has to be put to beneficial use. And there are certain definitions for that. And so we don’t often the water,

Unknown Speaker 51:28
people do own the right to use the water for certain uses and the tribal nations. Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 51:37
The voice is just as equal as the rest of us in that discussion. And there’s a large reservoir down in the southwest. It’s networks reservoir, and that’s almost exclusively for their use. I think it does get used by Durango and a couple other municipalities. But that’s the whole point that they’re part of that conversation.

Unknown Speaker 52:01
So any other questions or comments? anybody at this table?

Unknown Speaker 52:07
Well, I didn’t teach it Monica High School. So

Unknown Speaker 52:11
I have a lot of colleagues and students that and former students that lost their homes in the fire. And then I heard at NPR story, and that’s why I brought this up about forest fire insurance coverage. And they’re really concerns me because,

Unknown Speaker 52:28
you know, there’s also many people out here that have

Unknown Speaker 52:32
property and things like that, and they’ve done all they can to mitigate my family 200 trees on my property, just to make sure that we were doing the right thing, and would go around, just make sure that that you know, we had that instead of right there. But when you start here that some of the insurance companies are thinking about pulling out,

Unknown Speaker 52:59
you know, that just that and we hear about it from the point of view of Florida. And now we’re also a student of the states was to be the backstop now.

Unknown Speaker 53:11
And I look at places like San Francisco where they have these huge

Unknown Speaker 53:16
skyscrapers, that is really restored the money and, you know, into gravity, because and so. So in here.

Unknown Speaker 53:28
Why is it that they get to continue to do normal course of business with, with doing cars and life insurance and everything else like that, but they get to choose what they want? And I think that’s really good stuff.

Unknown Speaker 53:45
Do you mind? Oh, I was just gonna tell I was just gonna talk a little about to Phil. Oh, well, I want to first answer, you know, Shawn’s question about how wire companies get to do that. So the exact same situation is going on with health insurance companies. That’s why we had to do our basically reinsurance plan that we did a couple of years ago, health insurance companies were picking the counties that they wanted to ensure Coloradans and they would pick the ones where they could make the most money and they were leaving these rural counties out of being covered. That’s what the insurance home the homeowners insurance companies are doing. And I don’t know what it’s gonna take other than and Jennifer can go over part of Senator Pan birds and rebel modeles idea about helping homeowners I will tell you that we put because of Marshal fire. We’ve put a lot of thought into more money and programs intimate mitigation help property owners. I’m running Senate Bill five, which I think is coming over to you. We have a desperate shortage of firefighters

Unknown Speaker 55:00
ers we have one of the weakest workforce numbers for firefighters. And so Senator cutter and myself running Senator five so that we can get folks trained identify young people that are interested in going into this. Give them the training quickly established programs in the Southland state in a fear of Front Range. Community College right here, in Longmont has one of the best programs around firefighting. And so how do we take that, again, my best practice and spread it to other areas of the state. And then we of course, have detection, we’re putting money into detecting fires faster. And that I think it’s going to help a lot too. So we’re kind of looking at this bigger. And then of course, what I talked about with houses,

Unknown Speaker 55:52
obviously didn’t produce a lot for the folks that lost their homes.

Unknown Speaker 55:56
So just to let you know, to the Boulder County dose of delegation, I know about Senator, but for sure representative modeles running a bill related to under insurance of bones and refusal to renew or cancel insurance, particularly kind of focused on those areas in the in the movie. That’s them saying,

Unknown Speaker 56:21
I just learned that

Unknown Speaker 56:24
or wildland urban

Unknown Speaker 56:27
interface. Yeah. So these are these homes that are that are on the edge of where we see a lot of wildfires.

Unknown Speaker 56:36
Yeah, that is House Bill 23 Dash 1174 is currently scheduled to be heard this week in business affairs and labor. So I would encourage you to read it, and

Unknown Speaker 56:48
comment on it by if

Unknown Speaker 56:52
you

Unknown Speaker 56:53
support or one of us.

Unknown Speaker 56:57
Thinking

Unknown Speaker 57:00
Yeah, this is has a little bit to do with with the water negotiations, and a little bit to do with the climate crisis. And that is that our reservoirs are well, not just meeting our own, but some of the ones higher up in the runoff, which was put our ability to generate hydroelectric power at risk, is there.

Unknown Speaker 57:26
Anything going on, it’s gonna help with regulated discharge flow so that we can not affect not the lender, that’s, that’s the whole issue, because it’s a holistic system. So even the power generated at like,

Unknown Speaker 57:43
hottest to try stay.

Unknown Speaker 57:46
And it’s at its, what is the number 3525 Like it is at 3530. Like it is so critical right now, that

Unknown Speaker 58:02
and even the fact that the water pressure that typically is above that is causing a 25% reduction in the ability for hydropower is not pushing hard enough.

Unknown Speaker 58:17
And

Unknown Speaker 58:19
and so the things that are happening upstream, there are releases being made that kind of emergency releases from, you know, talking about the checking account as a part of the checking savings or where the credit card appear.

Unknown Speaker 58:37
And so we’re having to release

Unknown Speaker 58:40
certain amounts of water from our reservoirs to go downstream to protect like power. Because if that fails, we’re all in a world of hurt. So, and we’re very thankful and hopeful that the snowpack this year is giving us a little bump, but this is a long term problem. You know, they’re not calling this a 20 year drought anymore. They’re calling us in a period of drying and a written ratification. Like we’re just getting hotter and drier. And so we cannot plan for drought in wet years drought, you know, we have to plan for

Unknown Speaker 59:25
what the reality of what we’re in. And so that that is happening there. And the federal government, people are looking at this minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, and turning process on where they can. And then one of the things I was going to add to Karen’s fantastic description

Unknown Speaker 59:49
about what’s happening with water is it was the crisis of generating the energy that triggered the federal government to jump in and say, okay,

Unknown Speaker 1:00:00
That’s it, we’re not waiting for you witness, get these get together and come up with a plan anymore. And they actually said, if it gets to that there’s like a, there’s color zoning, yeah. Where the energy is, and if it gets to a certain level, they’re just gonna, they’re not, they’re not going to write from California, they’re not going to wait for hours, they’re just going to step in and say, This is what is going to happen. Because we have to rely on this for our energy. And so we’re trying to say we want to make, we do want local control decision. And we want to be in charge of our decisions. We don’t want federal government and BLM to come in and say, here’s the plan, take it or leave it, but you have to take it. So that’s why we were trying to get together with the other states and say, we’ve got to come up with a plan, or we’re not going to like what we’re told to do, and there won’t be any negotiating. So we’re still in that phase. Well, I’m glad that you’re so well informed on it at least I’ve learned a lot. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:04
expert on

Unknown Speaker 1:01:09
first grade water roll, you know, was in kindergarten last year in first grade, running in CD four where there is no water, whatever. You started on water, love and I remember that. So

Unknown Speaker 1:01:25
you really it’s been I know if I can say one more thing about knowledge and expertise are Boulder County delegation is superb. You’ve got people that are stepping up and looking at water. You know, I do a lot for housing and health care Jennifer’s doing for all kinds of airline insurance ethics and

Unknown Speaker 1:01:48
keeping kids safe at school. Just just to animate, you get the president of the Senate. We’ve got Judy modeling working on mental health. I mean, it’s just it’s an amazing, diverse delegation. And I feel really lucky that I’m part of a team that is representing our county because we’re

Unknown Speaker 1:02:09
so

Unknown Speaker 1:02:10
thank you, all of you.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:14
I feel more secure.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:18
So we are at the public United be heard or the public comment section. So let’s get started with that. And the first person you have three minutes just like normal.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:31
Normal counsel,

Unknown Speaker 1:02:33
the first one on our list,

Unknown Speaker 1:02:37
and we don’t have a microphone GEORGE So

Unknown Speaker 1:02:41
speak louder.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:44
can do that. I know you can.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:48
Or should I? Wherever you want. The other side then we can.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:53
Everybody can you hear to see you.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:58
Sounds good.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:03
My name is Tristan under that 1703 White House.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:11
America was built on the backs of people who aspire to do great things. This nation after all, is known the world over as the land of opportunity for anyone who steps forward to work hard, invest in their future, make difficult sacrifices and dream big to one day realize the heralded American Dream.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:31
Before COVID There was hope in our country, unemployment was at record lows for nearly every working age demographic. Wages were rising dramatically after decades of stagnation. Personal retirement investment class we’re seeing dramatic gains in the key economic indicators referred to as the gross domestic product was steadily indicating that the sound fiscal policies of the free market were paying off and handsome dividends. today sadly, many people are experiencing real economic hardship. The current levels of credit card debt can be compared to the catastrophic 2008 housing collapse. Families are spending on average $8,500 more on everyday living experiences than prior to COVID. To understand the root cause we can merely apply economics 101 The bike administration has mismanaged the bank account, writing checks that future generations will be burdened to reconcile the generation of mass amounts of debt simply has had the natural effect of lowering the value of the dollar undermining our purchasing power. The trillions of dollars that are being spent by this administration were propagandize to the pump to the American public, as infrastructure projects are under the guise of inflation reduction. However, the truth is that we have been sold a bill of goods, most of the money allocated these bills have gone towards the funding of political ideologies that are transforming life in America. The most experience of these dogmas is social justice, which is instant

Unknown Speaker 1:05:00
Through the judicial reforms that have resulted in increased crime in our communities. equity based legislation has purposely elevated segments of our population perceived as underrepresented, or disadvantage. Legislators like legislators like representative McCormick has sponsored or supported bills underpinned by this woke ideology we call equity. supporters believe that Americans who have achieved who have achieved generational economic prosperity have done so due to privilege that those who have achieved the American dream should feel shame for having achieved success. Essentially, meritocracy is being replaced with equity, meaning that reward is no longer earned through hard work and sacrifice. Rather, it is given to those who possess immutable characteristics rooted in their racial or gender identity.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:47
Is this the landscape we want to leave our children and grandchildren? Will we no longer pass on to sage advice of getting good education, made sacrifices, work hard, have respect for the law, and you will achieve success. I suggest that victimization and identity politics are lowering the standard of living for the true dreamers who sadly, someday may never dream again. Thank you, Georgia you.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:36
I talked about law enforcement and children. Okay, great. Because that’s one of the things that I stand up for,

Unknown Speaker 1:06:46
in our communities, and our nation.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:50
And there’s something in our flight

Unknown Speaker 1:06:53
that has a statement, liberty and justice for all.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:58
And our children is Danny, under

Unknown Speaker 1:07:03
transgender, transgender,

Unknown Speaker 1:07:06
in the school systems,

Unknown Speaker 1:07:09
not to judge

Unknown Speaker 1:07:13
transgender people, because I can’t think that because of where I worked for,

Unknown Speaker 1:07:21
but I can’t fight

Unknown Speaker 1:07:24
for what they’re doing in the school systems

Unknown Speaker 1:07:29
by brainwashing the children.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:33
You know,

Unknown Speaker 1:07:36
I have heard a story.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:40
Just last week, in another state,

Unknown Speaker 1:07:44
where a six year old was raped by the transgender

Unknown Speaker 1:07:49
on a school bus

Unknown Speaker 1:07:52
where we asked

Unknown Speaker 1:07:54
what word are the children heard?

Unknown Speaker 1:07:58
Children need to be heard they have rights to

Unknown Speaker 1:08:03
and we adults are fighting each other and not listening to children.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:10
For the utmost nature.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:15
Very topic is about our police officers are out there fighting for their lives.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:21
Because you have dumped people out there,

Unknown Speaker 1:08:25
not just breaking into cars. They got fentanyl, and now we got the zombie drug out there.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:33
What are we going to do about that in our communities?

Unknown Speaker 1:08:38
You know, our kids, the young the youth are being destroyed by all this, because of the borders are open.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:49
What are we going to do about Colorado?

Unknown Speaker 1:08:52
You know, these things are eating up our youth.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:57
And I’m standing up for that. Nobody is listening to the young people at all.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:04
The adults are fighting each other pointing fingers at each other and not listening to the youth.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:11
Not listening to the young people at all.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:14
And all these crimes out there. Police officers can go out there and make an arrest

Unknown Speaker 1:09:21
and have to let that person go.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:24
Because why? Because that police officer wouldn’t touch the person trying to make an arrest and that person make us compliant and they get released

Unknown Speaker 1:09:36
so what how are we going to fight these laws?

Unknown Speaker 1:09:40
That’s the question that I have

Unknown Speaker 1:09:44
in this community

Unknown Speaker 1:09:48
so we don’t usually answer or interact with public comment but we do have an eye and I don’t think that our public safety cheat Zach artists. There is one statement that

Unknown Speaker 1:10:00
that you made about people being arrested being released. It isn’t necessarily because they touched someone it is. It is it is not

Unknown Speaker 1:10:12
out there.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:13
That person called out an officer racism when it’s not racism

Unknown Speaker 1:10:21
the person is calling out.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:24
Oh, I can’t breathe. And in some cases it is that.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:29
But other cases not. Thank you so much for your comments.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:37
What’s your name? Because you did very good, very good. Okay, thank you.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:45
Yes.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:49
But our laws need to change and South is definitely the one to talk they need to be enforced change again Tuesday night.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:58
After that, can

Unknown Speaker 1:11:06
you

Unknown Speaker 1:11:11
give me some time voice. I mean, I’m from the camper. Observing the legislation being proposed and passed by our state government. It’s clear the trend is to regulate regulate more and more aspects of our daily life while stripping authority from our local governments. Take for example, House Bill 23 Dash 1027 amenities for all genders in public buildings, which establishes requirements for non gendered restrooms in public buildings. As you know,

Unknown Speaker 1:11:42
the bill cites international plumbing code or IPC requirements that prohibit single stall restrooms from being from being designated for use by any specific gender and direct multi stall restrooms be provided for the produced by any gender if certain IPC facility features are met. While there’s a small percentage of the population who legitimately legitimately need single stall non gendered restrooms, the numbers do not justify prohibiting gender specific single stall restrooms. And I don’t know anyone who would be comfortable using non gendered multi stall restrooms.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:23
But more importantly, I questioned why plumbing code would address how bathrooms are gendered.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:30
In the case of non gendered restrooms, the IPC isn’t studying a plumbing standard but a social standard. House Bill 23 Dash 1037 uses the terminology the IBC requires that the IBC is a model crib, intended to be adopted and amended to reflect reflect local practices and laws. These standards are a guide, not a requirement. Colorado is one of 37 states and adopted the IPC the IPC is under the International Code Council or ICC. The ICC is not a regulatory agency, and it has no regulatory authority. It’s a nonprofit organization with corporate sponsors. The question is, why are we surrendering our authority to this unelected entity?

Unknown Speaker 1:13:19
Our city staff is perfectly capable of planning construction projects to meet the needs of long run.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:26
And as we all know, every Construction Code has a price tag attached to it, which is paid by people.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:34
According to the ICC website, the International Code and ICC standards are developed through a World Trade Organization compliant,

Unknown Speaker 1:13:42
consensus based process that is supported and embraced by the US government. The ICC, so called family of solutions, of which the IPC is part of support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as laid out in agenda 2030. So, our state and federal governments have aligned themselves with the globalists to the detriment of the people we serve. We do not consent. Thank you. Thank you internet.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:19
Hi, I’m Mark Melman, I’m going to be speaking extemporaneously. Tonight, I was going to talk about our misguided and failed energy policy. Now it’s hurting the people of this community driving investment away, I actually made an investment decision based upon some new legislation being proposed to move it out of state, because it’ll be an affordable to do here, or to talk about why

Unknown Speaker 1:14:43
municipalities in the state should not be getting into the broadband business that based on my 30 some odd years experience. So instead, I’m going to be talking about the mental health crisis as you people have created for children. I speak from the heart on this one, because I’ve personally experienced it

Unknown Speaker 1:15:00
And

Unknown Speaker 1:15:01
our parental rights that have been eroded continuously over the last sessions and the new HB 23 1000, free I believe, on mental school mental health assistance. Assessments. If that bill was in place a couple years ago, I would not have got here today

Unknown Speaker 1:15:23
because I would have been not, excuse me,

Unknown Speaker 1:15:27
slipping hard.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:29
Because I’m exposing something in public. I’ve been keeping fairly private for quite a while. But I feel it must be said, because our mental health system in this county and in places we’ve broken, and I know all the resources, I’ve been deeply involved in this for the last three, four years of my life. Okay, I was denied access to my daughter’s health records, and even access denied, denied access to her for a while. She was assaulted sexually and physically in mental health facilities in this county, Centennial beach. Okay, Dora does nothing about there’s other facilities she had been assaulted by males that she was housed with.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:12
And they were covered up. And we could not prosecute in another jurisdiction. Because of these bills. As a parent, I took complete 100% control my daughter’s mental health, because I found out that not only are these places that we supposedly trust are dangerous, they’re incompetent as well. About a third of mental health professionals are harmful to children. Those third are incompetent. We have maybe a third that are decent data.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:42
And if our rights are continuously eroded through 1003, and other things

Unknown Speaker 1:16:50
that are coming up that we just been told about tonight by Senator that could not grace us with her presence tonight. I know Rob would have been here, but that sounds right.

Unknown Speaker 1:17:04
What senator for SD 15.

Unknown Speaker 1:17:09
I don’t think she was invited. Oh, she was oh, I’m sorry. My apologies. Okay, sorry.

Unknown Speaker 1:17:15
Like I said, you know, we as parents need have

Unknown Speaker 1:17:20
the right snacks as our children’s medical records, we need to know what’s happening at schools, I would have lost my daughter out of public school. Okay, and wasn’t for at that point in time, I had to fight through the courts. She was under the control of other people, as well as somebody who was potentially trafficking her. And who was DoorDash for drugs in Boulder County. He only sold to children. And he was allowed out on low bail and through the system. Unfortunately, through the great work of our poorly underfunded, long run Police Department did an awesome job. And with the DEA, who stacked up up to 59 charges against this individual and has a $2 million cash bail on his head as well as the other co conspirators. Hopefully he will never see the light of day again. But we all know he’s already been replaced.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:18
So I know my time is probably about. So what I want to say is that you guys continue to take our rights away and make it more difficult for us to raise our children. These are our children, not yours. And not the school’s not to stay stars.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:37
Steve

Unknown Speaker 1:18:41
Steve,

Unknown Speaker 1:18:44
leaving. My name is Steve otter I live at 1555 daily drive.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:50
I want to quote from the best seller book, fair bestseller for years and years. This might spring a bell.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:57
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he eats for a lifetime. Giving to the needy only enables them to doing nothing. making them work helps their self esteem and it helps the whole community. A lot of the bills I hear you talk about tonight are just helping people that you think need help. You’re not You’re enabling them, kick them in the butt and tell them to start working for themselves. I spent 35 years working 60 hours a week. I live on Social Security and a little bit of income from a couple of rentals. And last couple years during the COVID the state was saying oh you don’t have to pay your rent. Because if COVID Well, I got lucky my renters did pay me if they hadn’t I could have lost my house. So where’s all your care for the people that are working for a lifetime rather than people that are just trying to get by on freebies.

Unknown Speaker 1:19:58
So I want to talk about landlords rights

Unknown Speaker 1:20:01
I have a I had a rental in Westminster. And about three years ago, there was a lady that was not paying your rent. I told her she had to leave. So the day they left, she didn’t fight me on leaving. But the day they left they left the shower on. They put a towel in this strainer. So the shower overflowed. I have about $4,500 of damage in my unit. The lady down this downstairs had over $100,000 an 85 year old lady have lived in a hotel for six or eight weeks, while the insurance company redid her entire unit. Stop thinking that renters are this poor, mishandled abused people that landlords are mean. There’s a lot of renters that are disgusting. Okay, I just have one person leave, he’s done over 14 years, he was fantastic. It’s not always that way. In the same year, and I’m talking about a moment ago with the other lady. After I clean my unit all up, I had someone else move in there.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:08
This lady convinced me to let her son stay there who was a little bit mentally handicapped, that she convinced me that he was stable, and responsible and working. And she would be there every day to make sure things went well. The first thing he did was that six illegal Mexicans living there with him from his work.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:28
And why went through kick them out. The police came said you can’t do that. She said it says on the lease, he’s not allowed to have anybody else in here. And they said that’s a civil matter. Legally, you can’t kick them out. So I had to take him to court, it took three or four months to get them out. They had written with ink on every wall, they had burned wax into the carpet Linkbait towards me some doors off the cabinetry. And that cost me $5,500 In repair. So my point is quit thinking that the needy people have to be supplemented. Let them work and support people that are working and providing for our community. And by the way, when I saw that minute, I moved up the Weld County instead of Walmart, because I didn’t want to be in socialist Boulder County with a rental property.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:15
Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:28
Mike Sandoval

Unknown Speaker 1:22:31
has

Unknown Speaker 1:22:32
been a resident for six years on property for 30 years.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:37
For two years. I had a rental property, I rented it to a gay woman. She moved in, she was

Unknown Speaker 1:22:47
a manager at some of the restaurant, carry out restaurants.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:51
And then I think during COVID, she broke up with her girlfriend, and then she relapsed. And then there was some I have a vendor on top, she was living in the basement. The Raider on top at five kids to artistic. One of them had feeding too. Anyway, their kids were complaining that they were having headaches and feeling nauseous. So the calm cops, the cops went downstairs, they knocked on the door, the tenant didn’t open the door, when the cops came back up and said there’s nothing we can do to do that 30 times. Okay, so eventually the mom, she we got a warrant. The person got arrested, she had possession of three grams and math. And basically she was the judge basically put her in jail for like three weeks and $300 bond, she was relieved to COVID I cannot evict her, she moved back into the property. And she had some other homeless people there. But when I did affect her, I tested the property. It was positive from that. And it was the tents in the basement. It was a first in the basement that was really air up to the upstairs to both the basement and the upstairs are positive in that tenant upstairs a single dad which IKEA teams had code to get rid of get rid of him. So I did. And he was kind of homeless. The city did find a place for him to live. But he was homeless. Basically, I went through the testing part of it.

Unknown Speaker 1:24:13
And then I did the mitigation had followed the rules exactly. And it cost me like $53,000 that in my pocket. The tenant who was smoking, she basically just had her hand slapped. She’s probably in jail right now. But she pays nothing. I went to the insurance company and say, Hey, can you help me with rent? Can you help me mitigate this property? They canceled me. Okay, so basically, it was all on me. So I’m gonna go through. There’s a former mayor of San Jose. He said jail should not punish people for just for using drugs. Lengthy incarceration won’t help. Rather we must use the criminal justice system strategically to promote behavioral change for people who use drug use and threaten public safety. Okay, these people do have metal

Unknown Speaker 1:25:00
Have a tenant. Her dad was an alcoholic who died when she was young. Her mom was like 30 years old can take care of her kid gave up on her kids. So she the tenant, I don’t know. She went to homeless people. And she got hooked on drugs. So yes, she had mental health problems, and I was trying to help her.

Unknown Speaker 1:25:16
So basically what I’m saying right now, the legal action is to help people using drugs. People who have residences thrown here, need a plan to protect a residential property of users. I’ll say I’m a background a pharmacy to methamphetamine, amphetamine and explosive datamine. It’s Adderall helps to narcolepsy, ADHD and obesity, math. I think you just add carbon and three hydrogens to it. But it’s more of a different chemical now. Okay. And pet Amphetamine is prescribed to two to five year old kids. And it goes to point five milligrams to 40 milligrams today. My math people who have personally tested my properties in Walmart isn’t that bad as a hotbed for math. Okay, so people are coming here.

Unknown Speaker 1:26:05
Please wrap it up, wrap it up. The laws I would like to see right here. Math, is the laws are saying that the labs, the labs are contaminated. They do. They will kill people. But if someone’s smoking meth, is just amphetamine. Okay, so I’m saying that’s not as toxic as it should be. So let’s separate labs from people who smoke. So let’s separate that. Okay. And I’m also saying, Can insurance companies help residential users? Okay. And

Unknown Speaker 1:26:40
I’m also looking at the following the rules, so testing and mitigating, I paid property taxes for 30 years, and my practice are being used for other purposes. Why can I use my property taxes to me to help test and mitigate my property? And it ain’t only me, anybody who owns property and want to watch it say they had a party, Christmas party, birthday party, and their friends fans or husband or wife or someone’s friend come in and smoke meth, where they want to sell their property. They just ruined the property. And I know a person who was a senior citizen, it cost She was a former president of a bank might I see a senator lock his loose, they’re making 10s of notes. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna give you have a bill that is getting ready to be passed that will help you with the math situation. So I’ll give you my card.

Unknown Speaker 1:27:32
Thank you very much.

Unknown Speaker 1:27:34
Marianne NEOs.

Unknown Speaker 1:27:39
My name is Maria Niehaus, and I live at 763 Stonebridge I’d like to read a little something. Dear globalists,

Unknown Speaker 1:27:49
we the people reviewed your proposal for the great reset. And we regret to inform you that we will have to decline at this time. Although we did not we did find the free trial of the NWO very interesting, we have decided instead to go with the great American waking sincerely, the human race. I don’t know about you guys. But

Unknown Speaker 1:28:19
there’s a lot going on here. And we have people we have the power

Unknown Speaker 1:28:26
to ask a quick question, you know, you can ask but we’re not going to respond. Okay. Does anyone have an opinion here?

Unknown Speaker 1:28:39
Okay, I mean, we all didn’t have a pinion. So that’s what we’re here. We’re sharing our opinions. And

Unknown Speaker 1:28:47
does anybody have a choice? Do we have a choice here? Okay. So my question is, how many of you are familiar with the Constitution?

Unknown Speaker 1:29:00
Okay, so we know that we, the people, of the United States of America have rights. And what’s happening is we

Unknown Speaker 1:29:13
choose you. We choose the politicians, right? We’re supposed to have liberal voting. First supposed to have machines that don’t cheat. And that is our right. That’s what we are here for is the Constitution. And so what I want to say is, I don’t want no gender bathrooms. I don’t. How many of you have sat in a stall with a man next to you doing his business? I don’t care how many fancy clothes you’re wearing. You’re still a man. Transgender, gender restaurants is ridiculous. We have family restaurants. Why don’t we have a family restroom, then you can be transgender, and go in there and do your business privately. But I don’t want my four year old standing in the bathroom.

Unknown Speaker 1:30:00
Next to a little boy with his penis hanging out going to the bathroom. I’m sorry, I just won’t stand for that. And you know what? I don’t have to, because I’m a citizen of the I am we the people in the United States of America, and we have a constitution and these laws that are being shoved down our throats, these gun laws and gender laws. I’m here to tell you right now, my opinion, this stupid crisis stuff is a bunch of BS. If you guys flipped open the page, you would see that these globalists are creating all these prices with water and our air and our soils and our farmers. They’re creating the crisis. And then they’re trying to convince you that you have to support their prices through the W E, F. So my opinion is that we’re all citizens of the United States of America, I have a constitution, I have a passport. And that’s what gives me the right to stand up here and tell you that we’re putting everybody on notice here, these poor people that are here that are talking about these crisis and health, health and just like this job,

Unknown Speaker 1:31:12
you know, the health crisis of our children is being created by this globalist atmosphere that you have to decide at three years old. If you’re a boy or a girl. What the heck, I heard I saw a guy go in there and

Unknown Speaker 1:31:28
Oh, am we really pushed?

Unknown Speaker 1:31:33
Wanted to say, we did hear you.

Unknown Speaker 1:31:37
Perhaps you could get cards or email them what exactly what you would like our legislators and senators to do okay. I think that would be a good. All right. And I’m sure they heard you. Thank you

Unknown Speaker 1:31:55
for allowing these losses

Unknown Speaker 1:32:05
20 to 35 Harkey drive everyday in Longmont. People are affected by crime, they get their car catalytic converters and bike stolen. They’re too afraid to go out of their house after dark because it’s the revolving door criminals and rampant crime in their neighborhood. Walmart Public Safety’s hands are tied by all the social justice legislative reforms that have been passed these last couple of years. Walmart is suffering and our elected representatives who claim to listen to us and represent us are too busy pushing an extreme liberal agenda instead of helping keep Walmart safe. The most basic aspect of good governance is safety. Yet in 2021, Representative McCormack you co sponsored the misdemeanor Reform Bill, a bill that has caught up criminals allowed deadly drugs such as fentanyl to float your community and select victims vulnerable as you heard. This bill ties the hands of the judicial branch by changing sentencing guidelines and lowering penalties for crying allowing up to one gram of fentanyl and four grams of other hard drugs to be just a misdemeanor. This soft on crime liberal agenda is hurting Longmont, Colorado, Representative McCormick through your own website. You want to focus on addressing climate change, lowering health care, education costs, it will make systemic racism, inequities, LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, housing, and then you mentioned safety. These priorities are rooted in an agenda that results in putting people’s lives in your own community at risk versus increasing much needed public safety. As one of your constituents. I find it appalling that you’re busy sponsoring legislation that takes away legal gun owners right to shoot a gun on their own property in unincorporated Boulder County and sponsoring legislation that will cap the rent and logline which will effectively reduce their rental property inventory and sponsoring legislation that will ensure boys and girls together can use a multi cell bathroom in any public bill. Instead of helping to reduce crime right here in Baldwin. We need an ultra tough on crime. We need Ultra tough on crime built to slow the progression of crime related events in our community and state. I am offended that you choose to focus on sexuality and gender instead of protecting our children and families who cry violence and drugs. In December of 2022 very dangerous person who ties to the Sinaloa Cartel without a deal on bond and detained in Longmont and charged with unlawful possession and distribution of fentanyl. That criminals bond was set at a mere $500,000. The amount of fentanyl and cocaine whose peddling were nearly 45 pounds and enough to kill over a million people. This is a direct result of your bill. Additionally, one of the unintended consequences of your misdemeanor reform bill was that it decriminalized gun ownership for 10s of 1000s of felons including those convicted of drug dealing, organized crime burglary, arson cart that I couldn’t go on as a team leader for the League of Women Voters gun safety team. I think this was a great mistake. I hear you now sponsoring bills to fix the bad bills you created with Democrats in full control of the governor’s mansion in the state capitol for the last 10

Unknown Speaker 1:35:00
Here’s what impact that they had in improving our quality of life. Well, Colorado ranks highest in the nation in many distinguishable categories, such as on effect, federal overdoses and teen suicide. I respectfully submit this is the result of years of failed policies coming out of the Capitol that have irreparably harmed Coloradans across our state. When it’s enough for an

Unknown Speaker 1:35:22
elected representative at the table, you can stop the insanity, I implore you to repeal the misdemeanor record bill as a first step to bring safety back to our communities and start sponsoring more tough on crime bills that will protect wildlife, thank you.

Unknown Speaker 1:35:41
I know

Unknown Speaker 1:35:44
Marley’s literature, I

Unknown Speaker 1:35:53
cannot speak that now. I’m going to talk about something completely different. Okay, I’m talking about I’m getting goosebumps even started talking about. I’m talking about some causes, and how we can change all what everything that has been going on.

Unknown Speaker 1:36:10
And it’s because we took God and didn’t give the nine out of our schools out of our education, out of all of the decision making. If we all learned, I’ve been practicing with a global healing group all around this morning, that doesn’t matter. What skin color, what ethnic group, what belief system, they are Muslims, they’re Christians, they’re from all over. And they love each other. And we are praying, and actually asking, and asking God for all of us, because we know it’s the same creative for everyone, because we are children of God. And we are not just bodies, we are spared. And spirit is spirit in each of us. So what do we do? We can just learn in.

Unknown Speaker 1:37:03
And I want to commend you, because I would never be able, or would want to take the job that you do. Because I applaud you for that, really. And I admire that. And I know you have good intentions, but we have to look at the cause. And if we come together but our founding fathers have done, that’s what I loved about it one nation under God. I mean, if these things

Unknown Speaker 1:37:27
what do we have you no longer and we have not had a nation? Not for a long, long time? How can we call it a nation and all they do is Bates more all over the road and be obtained for as citizens, right? Or just just working here. So I really I would employ you and ask you learn to also practice at home. And also coming together in meetings, where you pray, but sincerely, not just words, but feel it and ask God since you can ask the Divine or allow whatever you want to call our Creator, it’s the same. And when we start the way within instead of looking on all the problems, that we have all these problems, these children don’t even know that they are scared that this is not just a body that is a that is only part of it. God has given us this body SAP. So we want to take good care of it, and the ultimate stewards of our Earth. So what have we done? We’ve created just

Unknown Speaker 1:38:36
toxins and poisons every year. Why do we have to override in this water? That’s another way to save money instead of killing people with the water. Why can we all have to you know make all the this doesn’t look very nice, but that’s health check. Again against all the radiation and very, very sensitive, all the radiation, the EMF, and now you even want to roll out our you know, the 5g and the Smart Meter programs that’s killing more people. Because I know how to protect myself 90% of the people who don’t. So I’ve been passionate about holistic health. That’s what we do. Why don’t you support that? I’m turning 80 This year, right? I’m happy I didn’t lose one track.

Unknown Speaker 1:39:29
It helps me

Unknown Speaker 1:39:32
ungrateful that it is

Unknown Speaker 1:39:36
because I can do accent mining. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much for this advice.

Unknown Speaker 1:39:52
Rob Brandenburg

Unknown Speaker 1:39:55
for

Unknown Speaker 1:39:58
three years

Unknown Speaker 1:40:00
or blackjack pizza.

Unknown Speaker 1:40:03
Grandpa was 4.4 years. Next month will be around 29 years I bought from a cop.

Unknown Speaker 1:40:11
So

Unknown Speaker 1:40:13
Public Safety’s pretty damn good.

Unknown Speaker 1:40:17
I think it’s been swept up by the

Unknown Speaker 1:40:21
sheriff who scores. Marlena King during COVID on film shouldn’t break in our front door so he decided to bust out a bunch of windows causing me $2,000 But because we couldn’t get flex the last hidden gift to us. I failed to submit these receipts on time so that was two grand on

Unknown Speaker 1:40:45
my way to King Boulder Colorado assaulted

Unknown Speaker 1:40:49
two people in their home when the cops showed up, punched out both cops real sweepers revolving door.

Unknown Speaker 1:40:58
Another individual I can’t remember his name right now.

Unknown Speaker 1:41:03
We had a $700 mountain bikes on commercial work we’re all

Unknown Speaker 1:41:08
used bolt cutters to cut the cable broad daylight $700 bike 20 minutes after you stole that one stolen from us upon $5.

Unknown Speaker 1:41:19
This sob is four years old. It has been behind bars for years.

Unknown Speaker 1:41:26
I call him trying to steal a bike

Unknown Speaker 1:41:28
to swim in a pair of old fenders got five felony assault charges.

Unknown Speaker 1:41:34
They were all drunk.

Unknown Speaker 1:41:39
He had stolen 60 cars in long was given year and a half.

Unknown Speaker 1:41:46
So this tells you don’t get tough on crime. Crime we’re getting tough on

Unknown Speaker 1:41:52
and I feel sorry for these cops.

Unknown Speaker 1:41:55
They need to be supportive in our prosecutors. Damn mandatory prosecutions.

Unknown Speaker 1:42:03
Last one we share with you Roxanna edit get on August 5 2014. Saw an $80,000 pickup in Western Hemisphere came up here to try to break in the right bison arms at 430 in the morning, couldn’t get in. came to our place at 530 couldn’t get in for an hour and a half. Ropes and windows as they left stole a bunch of tools that they’ve been reaching around.

Unknown Speaker 1:42:29
She then traveled through the post the chicken restaurant here in common use an axe to break into the building.

Unknown Speaker 1:42:36
Use an axe to break into the office and his big goon that was referred carried out with three or 400 pounds of safe

Unknown Speaker 1:42:45
throw in the back this stolen pickup. They came back over our place.

Unknown Speaker 1:42:50
They ran through my west wall. So I’ve you know, it’s a cinderblock building reinforced with rebar and concrete Saudis to get into and it’s stolen $1,000 pickup, broken or replace old welcomes.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:06
She was charged with over 40 felonies that our police

Unknown Speaker 1:43:11
she also broke into Murdoch’s four days before

Unknown Speaker 1:43:15
she broke into four businesses.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:18
She broke into seven gun stores in

Unknown Speaker 1:43:23
August 20. Applying approximately December one pence our time is up but I think that we get it

Unknown Speaker 1:43:34
Roxanne only sold 50 cars and Walmart over 200 on the Front Range.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:39
I’ll tell you what a $200 misdemeanor ticket is the US

Unknown Speaker 1:43:44
I grew up most of you guys.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:48
Grand Theft Auto was a ticket to the penitentiary

Unknown Speaker 1:43:53
even a misdemeanor is a $200

Unknown Speaker 1:43:57
have a couple of

Unknown Speaker 1:44:04
days a week I welcome you to stop by I didn’t get to talk about the rape victims

Unknown Speaker 1:44:11
you’re good as me

Unknown Speaker 1:44:13
signing in Oh

Unknown Speaker 1:44:27
no,

Unknown Speaker 1:44:29
no no patch for three minutes and three minutes more counselor button. Thank you

Unknown Speaker 1:44:41
they’re clapping it us

Unknown Speaker 1:44:46
shake your back your fire department people

Unknown Speaker 1:44:51
you know the ones that were let go out through the vaccines. So thank you everybody for coming. And your remarks were

Unknown Speaker 1:45:00
heard your comments were heard our police department Our representatives are working on the laws that you mentioned. And we’re very aware and have been with our staff and the police department talking about these laws and you know, we can get we’re aware. I’m sorry that our city is

Unknown Speaker 1:45:22
is going through a lot of things that are there are a lot I get it, but thank you very much. It is gonna get out of time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai