Video Description:
Longmont City Council – Open Forum – May 30, 2023
Read along below:
Speaker 1 5:00
Are you guys ready? Okay. Good evening, everyone. I would like to call the May 30 2023 open forum meeting to order. Welcome, everybody. It looks like it’s going to be a pretty interesting discussion. I see a lot of familiar faces out there. I would like to ask and remind everyone that we need to be respectful even if we don’t agree on the subject. Let’s be respectful of each other and, and remember that we’re all in this city together. So we’ll get we’ll just get started. The first one on the list is Ben sergeant. Oh, we do need to do the pledge and a roll call. So I’ll start it over. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the May 30 open forum meeting where we have a roll call, please. Yes. Mayor Peck present. Council member Hidalgo fairing. Councilmember Martin. Councilman, Councilmember McCoy, present.
Speaker 2 6:15
Councilmember Rodriguez Here. Councilmember waters, and Councilmember Yarborough. Mary, you have a quorum.
Unknown Speaker 6:22
Thank you. Let’s stand for the pledge.
Speaker 3 6:28
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Speaker 1 6:46
So now we’ll start with Ben Sargent, you have five minutes, please state your name and address. And you can sit at one of the chairs here. You don’t need to stand at the podium. It’s up to you. To turn the mics on. Yeah. Just turn the mic on.
Speaker 4 7:09
How’s that? Perfect. Awesome. Thank you, Mayor Council. My name is Ben sergeant. And I am a homeowner here in Longmont in Old Town, and 744 Atwood Street. And this year, I’m retiring. And getting into my preferred retirement job which is farming. And it turns out that the average age of the farmer in America is 60. So I’m just a little bit over that. And one of the things so last year, we started a food Co Op, a farm to Family Food Food club organize food between the farms and the families. Because we were driving around to four or five different farms and ranches to get the food that we wanted. And we thought okay, gotta be better way of doing this. So we organized, we’ve got a bunch of families and a bunch of farms and everybody’s happy. So this, but the issue is that there was not enough local food for the demand. It seems like there’s we’re at a moment in history when there’s a lot of increased demand for local organic, fresh food, healthy food. And the food that we’re getting at national grocers and Whole Foods is mostly coming from Mexico and California. And it’s not that healthy because it was picked four to seven days ago. And the nutritional value of fresh produce deteriorates rapidly. And also been bathed in diesel fuel all the way from California or wherever. So in fumes I mean, you know, writing, boxcars and trucks and whatever. And so we have definitely noticed that eating it all fresh local Boulder County produce now and what you buy, you know, even at Whole Foods, which is the best in terms of how it looks. It’s just not doesn’t have the same. I don’t know what it is. But we we noticed the difference. So anyway, we are this year helping so in order to increase access to food, we are increasing production of food. So we are helping we’ve helped three farms already start small farms, small production. I’m personally involved in one of them. And we are working with more farms this year than we did last year. But we so we want to expand the number of farms we’re working with, we want to also help new farms start and provide training. Farming is one of those things that everybody should know how to grow food. It’s a very basic skill. And so we’re wanting to train the next generation. So I grew up doing this, that I had a whole career in the tech industry. Now I’m getting back into it and helping younger people learn how to do this. But one of the things that’s distressing about the city of Longmont is how the most incredible farmland seems to be going into development. So that’s, I guess, what I’m here to ask is, how can I get involved in the future decisions about how land use is going in this city, so that we don’t lose any more of this incredible farmland? Just because it hasn’t been used in the last 10 years doesn’t mean that it’s not farmland, it doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t, it should never be farmland again. It is. The soil here is incredible. Right now I’m growing in Lafayette. It’s amazing soil. It’s been recovered over the last 10 years. And we’re doing further restoration on the soil. And the produce that comes out of it is really amazing. And so there’s no, there’s a lot of land, it just needs to be cared for. And soil restoration is something that a lot of people are studying now. When I was in college, everybody wanted to go into the high tech industry. Now I’ve been one of the farmers that we’ve helping get started this year just graduated from CU Boulder and sustainable food systems graduate degree. There’s a lot of people who are in the younger generation that want to get into farming. And we need to encourage them. Because, you know, if you talk about sustainability, I think there’s nothing more sustainable than food production and growing food locally and having those skills passed on to the next generation. Obviously, there’s a lot of interesting new skills and new knowledge that’s coming in about how to do farming in a better way. But anyway, we’d love to know who I can talk to.
Speaker 1 12:31
Well, you may be able to Is there anyone here on council that would like to engage Mr. Sargent on? Basically his ideas? Councillor Martin?
Unknown Speaker 12:47
Thank you, Mayor pack.
Unknown Speaker 12:49
This is counselor Martin down here.
Speaker 5 12:52
What I wanted to say is, is you can’t hear me.
Unknown Speaker 12:57
Yeah, I’m a little hard of hearing. Sorry.
Unknown Speaker 12:59
Sorry. Oh, try to get closer Is that better?
Unknown Speaker 13:04
Great, I can definitely hear that.
Speaker 5 13:08
I want us to suggest Longmont has a nearly complete circle of land that is owned by the city that is devoted to agriculture around the periphery. Most of it is leased back to either another farmer in the area or to the original farmer who just wanted to get his value out of his land. And it’s in Hey, you know that the agricultural leases are pretty simple. So I suspect that this is an operational matter and that you could talk to the Public Works people. If you if you came with a well formed proposal about how those leases could be assigned differently in the future, to produce a more active kind of farming. There’s there’s plenty of land out there. You know, I don’t think we need to get to the point where, you know, we need to be protecting vacant lots inside the city inward provide that kind of opportunity.
Unknown Speaker 14:27
Oh, great. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 14:30
Sorry, counselor, Yarbro.
Speaker 6 14:34
Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Sargent. I would love to embark on that endeavor with you. I apologize for not us having our coffee. But please reach out to me again and let me find out some more information. Thank you, Councillor Martin for that information as well. And I would love to continue our conversation about that and work with you on that.
Unknown Speaker 15:04
Okay, me too at the farmers market.
Unknown Speaker 15:06
That’s right, you know, every Saturday morning.
Unknown Speaker 15:10
Okay, thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker 15:12
Okay. Thank you all. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 15:15
So we do have three chairs up here. So I’m going to call them the next three people. And you can just come up and wait your turn and might go a little faster. The next one is Mary Lynn, Mark Springfield, and Chad honor.
Speaker 1 15:39
So, Hello, Mary, go ahead and turn on your microphone. And you have five minutes and your name and address please.
Speaker 7 15:47
Hi, I’m Mary Lynn. And I live in the on the historic east side. Also an avid street. That was my, my hearty and sunburned husband, Ben Sargent, I sit on the city’s sustainability advisory board. And in the just about a decade that I spent working in sustainability, with various entities, including the Prescott college where I was promoting the college and its goods works, I learned a great deal about approaches to sustainability and approaches to climate that include life that are not technologically focused, focused, excuse me. And I would like to encourage the city to move in a direction that I do not see at all, frankly, sitting on the Sustainability Committee, which is towards life based solutions to our sustainable issues. In particular, I would like to see regenerative agriculture, building soil health, tree planting, and the increasing of vegetation, and the bringing of food production closer to home. All of these things save an enormous amount of energy. There’s some of the most sustainable things that we can do, and reduce the need to rush to unproven technological methodologies that are popular, frankly, at the moment. But the more you dig into them, the more it’s obvious that they aren’t meeting their promise. So trees, local food, regenerative agriculture, building the soil, and I would like to encourage the city to develop a department specifically towards this end, there are many that are focused on, you know, electric, beneficial electrification and climate issues. But this is the primary fundamental human issue I, I feel before us at this time. So I don’t really have a question. I just wanted to add that support to what Ben had to say and see if there’s anyone here who has ever thought about creating a team that could address these issues within the city.
Speaker 1 18:08
So I will respond to this and then I’ll call on you Councillor McCoy. Actually, I think that our incredible sustainability parks person, David Bell, has already talked about soil regeneration. And he might be a really good one to start a conversation with, as to how we can do this in the city. And as an also Lisa, no block. Have you talked to Lisa?
Speaker 7 18:37
Well, yeah, I’m on the sustainability advisory team. The city does not have a focus on beneficial planting of trees for issues of soil health, sustainability, cooling of, of buildings, and so forth. It seems to be a bit ad hoc, I think one of the local sustainability experts in the area tallied up and the Parks and Rec had planted something like 250 trees in the last year, which, you know, we should be planting something on the order of, you know, a tree every few people and, and maintaining them. There’s lots of different varieties, especially if we had a focus on permaculture or at least exploring permaculture, we could be also growing a lot of our food here. We have fruit trees that bear every year right in downtown Longmont, we might not have the neatest yard in the planet, but there’s hundreds of pounds of food coming out of it. And just as it used to be. So coming back to more traditional ways of thinking about these things. I’m not going to take up much more time and maybe I can meet with the Shakira one then meets with her at the farmers market. Oh, that’s
Unknown Speaker 19:52
a great idea. Okay, thank you. Okay, Councillor McCoy.
Speaker 8 19:59
Thank you. Thank you, me Okay, so Mary, thank you for coming down tonight when I was on counseling the first time in 2007, to 2011 Sarah Levinson and I spoke quite often about the idea of having food sustainability with your husband before you came and talked about as well as you kind of hinted at here around the trees and growing and everything. And we had a group come before us called Grow Your Own meal, and they were there in Boulder. Yeah, and they were looking for a location here in Longmont to, to do their hydroponics with their fish farm sort of concept and everything at the time. But I don’t know how I’ve looked it up once or twice to see what it’s doing in Boulder and, and how it’s progressing. But I don’t know if something like that is also something that is of interest to you. And
Speaker 7 20:53
well, what I’d really like to see is the use of open spaces, including a public open spaces as demonstrations of permaculture food production and to simply be building the soil. Because that’s important for us so that we have a culture of being aware that when you have regenerative agriculture, which means that you’re incorporating animals in rotational grazing, and that’s the way to build soil and that way to capture carbon. As I know, that’s a big concern for many here. If, for example, there is now the I believe I saw that some goats are being used in in the city, great start in lieu of spraying with, you know, the I could list all of the horrible chemicals and what they do, I’ll save you that. I think that if we had more of a focus on bringing that into the city in an in an obvious way, making it a they’re giving incentives to developers to put in community gardens, water catchment is huge. That’s a whole subject I could get into. It’s not as people think it’s illegal or that water rights don’t allow it. Actually, if it’s captured and released slowly over time, we could capture each of us enough water in Longmont to meet our personal needs and to be growing our garden and using our gray water to keep up the landscaping. It’s a whole change of mentality that’s less top down. It’s more about incenting community activities and developing personal awareness that I prefer more than a let’s, you know, bring in 5g sensors to put on every plant and tree in that city. Well, so
Speaker 1 22:38
thank you so much. You’re welcome bringing that to us.
Speaker 7 22:42
And we’ll talk with Chiquita and see what we can get started with Mr. Bell. Thank you for your time.
Unknown Speaker 22:47
You’re welcome. Mark Springfield.
Speaker 9 22:52
Good evening, mayor and council. My name is Mark Springfield. I live at 2009 Calico court here in Longmont.
Unknown Speaker 22:59
Could you get closer to your microphone mark?
Speaker 9 23:02
How’s that? Oh, that’s great. It’s good. And in order to suppress my tendency to ramble, I’ll read some of
Speaker 1 23:10
these now you need to do is move that microphone in front of your mouth. Perfect.
Unknown Speaker 23:15
How’s this work?
Unknown Speaker 23:16
There you go. Okay.
Speaker 9 23:19
Tonight I’m here to speak about the proposed library funding initiative that hopefully will find a place on this year’s November ballot. As has been mentioned on a number of occasions, our library system has experienced a decade or more of persistent underfunding. It has left our library with a compendium of deficiencies. These were well documented by SEGGER consulting in their library feasibility study phase two from last year might take away from observing the previous discussions on the subject here by council is as follows. Yes, council thinks the library has been underfunded. Council has stated that it wants to rectify some of the noted shortcomings the November 2023 ballot initiative, whose language in part references such needs as a branch library and funding at the preferred level as defined by the feasibility study. City staff has been asked to draft appropriate language towards achieving these goals for consideration by council. I strongly support these recent undertakings. These are very good first step actions to which I proposed the following additional items for inclusion in any ballot language or future thinking on the subject. The purpose of the funding approval requested in November’s initiative must be directed specifically and solely on a go forward basis to the library The existing library funding via the general fund as provided elsewhere to the city for library purposes, must be protected prospectively in addition to any assistance received in November. Future Councils because of the extra currencies of the day may seek to reflects redirect support away from the stable and durable underpinnings being contemplated here, libraries represent a community’s future seed corn and ought to be protected. While need such as storefront libraries apart from the addition of a branch library were advanced by the feasibility study. capital costs for such efforts were not yet unknown technical advances have an industry wide nature. Another example. Council and city staff should be sensitive to the fact that recommended items from the feasibility study may need future attention beyond November, spell out approval as part of the normal budgetary support for the library. Our ultimate goal should be to provide the wherewithal for a critical community institution to not only survive, but thrive. Thanks for your attention. Thanks for your interest.
Speaker 1 26:26
Thank you. Any comments on council? Seeing none, we’ll go directly to Mr. Chad.
Speaker 10 26:37
Thank you, Madam Mayor. Everybody able to hear me okay. Yes. All right, and cut in right spot at 1117 left hand drive sorry. I have been a resident of Longmont since 1997. I have run the gamut of living rich and living poor in this county and have gotten to see a large breadth of life in this area. For the last three years, I have run a locally owned and operated Security Agency, which I’ve happened to have been at work when I found out about the open forum, so I apologize for the uniform. But one of the big things that I’ve observed in the last three years since I’ve been in Longmont has been the interactions between people like me and in the security field, and the the lack of oversight, the lack of utilization and misunderstanding of our place, if you will. Right now as it stands i by chance, I lost my father to COVID last year, and he ran a signal operation in St. Petersburg, Florida, which is now mine to operate as well. Florida is Jurassic Park, it is 50 years behind the rest of the country, most of them everywhere else except for my field here. It’s heavily regulated in Florida, we are licensed we have to have a certain number of training hours per year. Colorado has none. I can just spend 25 bucks form an LLC, I’ve got a security company and have at it. It scares the heck out of me. In the three years since I’ve been operating for Colorado, I’ve observed incidences during the Nine News incident which was a security officer that opened fire we had at the bank in Aurora, a security officer killed a 20 year old girl we had at the Grand Central Station security officers beat a man to brain damage. All of this has happened in the last 12 months. And all of it I purport to being completely unregulated. None of you really know me from Adam. And so I asked for you. And this just for everyone’s safety and not to scare anybody. This is only I use as an example. Since none of you know me. How much would any of you feel comfortable with me walking around in your yard tonight with a gun? Exactly. So why would we trust security agencies to do the same without any sort of oversight? Without any sort of regulation? There are only I think I’ve set my head I believe there are six or eight city ordinances I have to follow. And it’s literally if the police asked me to do something, please do it. Make sure security is at least two inches tall on your car. That’s pretty much it. And so we’ve created the spectrum of service or lack thereof, of beasts, security agents that we get called Paul Blart on a daily basis right you’re the useless frumpy, incompetent Mall Cop, right? But then you have the the inverse Have that whereas these paramilitary, I call them the academy dropouts the guys that really wanted to be cops and didn’t make it. So now they’re just doing security so someone can pay them to be a jerk to people. And neither of those are proper, we have a niche to fill. We have since BLM since defund since the loss of limited immunity for our police, we have not been able to retain and recruit officers to replenish those that we’ve lost in the last two years. So now I’ve gone from being the guy that’s asked to lock up pools at night to I now happen to serve some of our commercial centers here. And I’m dealing with transients and drugs and weapons every night. And let me be so bold to say that I don’t mind that at all. But I’m not the police. I don’t want to be the police. None of my staff want to be police. But that doesn’t mean we can’t work hand in hand and cooperate with police and be a facilitator of those services. We’re an extra set of eyes, an extra set of ears, and an extra patrol vehicle and extra manpower in the streets. Where we’re down. In some areas of where I serve us, we’re down 50% of our police power. That means there’s no there’s huge holes in what we’re able to cover. And because this has been unregulated, most properties don’t either don’t have any services, or are grossly underpaying. We have a property here in Longmont that had a security budget for their apartment complex that was below minimum wage was $200 a month for six buildings. And so you’ve got 1000 people living in one place. And you’ll see it all if any of you guys like I’m sorry, if any of you guys like to watch reality TV, you’ll hear this a lot. This is a civil matter, ma’am. Take it up with the court. We can’t do anything for law enforcement. I’m civil enforcement.
Unknown Speaker 32:00
So it looks like counselor Mike’s
Speaker 10 32:02
my time up. It is but I didn’t have my timer. I apologize. No, that’s alright. If I may just one last thing. If it’d be okay, I would really like to give each of you my card because I could talk about this at nauseam later reach out. I’ll give it to her. That’s fine. Councillor
Speaker 1 32:17
McCoy would like to respond to Okay. Well,
Unknown Speaker 32:22
thank you, Mayor Peck, Jad thank you I didn’t catch your last name
Tim Waters 32:25
honor AR
Unknown Speaker 32:26
N era. Thank
Speaker 8 32:27
you. And I haven’t been a banker before I was a teacher, I I know how important security is because we use that, you know, to open up our banks to close our banks at night and things like that throughout our community. But it’s interesting to me that that there isn’t as much regulation as what you’re talking about. And and what I think we should do is reach out to CML and see where as a group of different municipalities where we should stand on this, whether this is some because you bring up an excellent point, you know, we we don’t have our police officers meet our tellers and bankers at the door in the morning, at round our community, we meet security agents, and we don’t meet our police in the evenings when we’re leaving. We meet our security agents, and they escorted us out the building. And so we need to make sure that there’s regulation there. And so that seems to me that if you’re saying kind of what are the people are thinking to themselves out loud, I think that we should probably, you know, have some sort of regulation, if you’re saying that places that as you put it. We’re in Florida, we’re drastic park, you know, then then we don’t need to be further back than that.
Speaker 10 33:53
If I may answer that, actually. So this was brought forth to Colorado as a state for regulation of security, once in 2012, and once in 2021. And it was deemed that it was just not a necessary oversight. That being said, there are two municipalities actually two whole cities now that do require it one is Denver, you can get a Denver guard card, which is a I think it’s a 30 Something hour class you have to do. And Pueblo of all places is the other. But like like I said there’s a lot to there’s a lot more that unfortunately I can’t cover in five minutes. I have had the honor of meeting, Susie and was it you Marsha, I apologize. I think you and I met at the at the council. Yeah, coffee with council. Yeah. So I’ve had smatterings of interactions but I haven’t been able to nail down a good time to sit and talk because there’s obviously a lot of time.
Speaker 1 34:54
Yeah, we we have a pretty full count. I have to keep it
Speaker 10 34:58
up. But I’ll leave this for you, Michelle, if you give them just to reach out to me, maybe make it a little easier to get in contact with each other.
Unknown Speaker 35:06
So Chad, Councillor Martin does want to make a statement.
Speaker 5 35:10
Actually, I don’t want to make a statement, I want to ask a couple of questions, you sort of touched on both of them. I do think that a regulatory framework belongs at the state level. And I would really like to see that come around. Again, we are right at the very beginning of the season, when there is some ability to to influence what the general assembly does next session. And so I would really love to see a discussion in the month of June. And please just email me and get on my calendar. Okay. The other one is I like I think most of the regulation should not be local. But perhaps putting an operational protocol together with the police would be a fabulous idea. And I think we should i We should start by running those that your ideas passed the council and then maybe we can bring them to the public safety organization love to
Speaker 10 36:21
do that. And yes, absolutely. I do currently work with long white police. Great through Sarah, Ernie, the crime free housing program, as well. So we’re already partially integrated in that method as well.
Unknown Speaker 36:35
Thank you chat.
Unknown Speaker 36:36
Thank you guys. Thank you very much,
Speaker 1 36:37
Linda byndoor of Carl Behlendorf and Kim Zimmer, if the three of you could come up
Unknown Speaker 36:55
so Linda, is up first.
Speaker 11 37:10
Good evening council members, I would like to I am Linda Bender, and I’m at 619 Brookside drive in Longmont, I am here to talk in support of the November ballot funding initiative for the library. And I really appreciate what like Mark said earlier about the library. But I would like to talk about support from a different angle and ask everyone I hope I’m not preaching to the choir, I feel like I could be preaching to the choir. But sometimes it’s like wearing your favorite pendant every day. And then there are times when you don’t recognize the value or you overlook the importance of it, how you treasure it. And so think about deeply about the role of the libraries and what they give. And I guess I’m I’m gonna go out of order. And instead of ending with a personal story, I’m going to start with it. But I have libraries have always nurtured my love of words, the power of language. And as a child, I just had total freedom child of a single parent and the library was not a de facto babysitter for me. But I loved going to the library I would I lived in Evanston, Illinois could take the bus. Evanston is a lot like Longmont in many ways. I could take the bus whenever I wanted from an early age. And our library was not the friendly happening place like it is here. That was many, many years ago. It was large, quiet, no programs, no events, but I was drawn to it. There was something Somehow I knew that the books and held stories and magic and dreams and that there was something about being in that place and being nurtured by that place that would open doors. Our kids actually growing up in I was city had a full on library experience. It was so much like our library here, programs experiences events. As a result, our son is a librarian, and our daughter has a job that has everything to do with the power of words and the power of communication and strategic communication. In the 21st century, libraries are encouraged to be the center of community life going beyond traditional services to be community builders and places where people get involved are long long. library goes well beyond bricks and mortar. They are meeting the needs of a very unique community, our community as creative, educated, civic minded entrepreneurial. Patrons expect more. And we’re grateful when libraries like ours can deliver. I mean the programs we have the services, events, literacy, and so many forms chess tournaments, the library of things, where residents can check out tools and games and technology. There’s so much more. But there’s so much that it is an environment with the resources to spark a child’s lifelong passion, career vocation. It’s also uniquely a community center that cuts across all ages, towns and cities can have senior centers, deemed centers, schools, but their desert designed to provide services and programs for specific ages. Libraries are really one of the few common places that serve the population from cradle to grave. I think that intergenerational aspect is of supreme importance. There’s a book I found when I was looking for a lead here and the title was expect more demanding better libraries for today’s world by our David Lankes. And in this book is a noteworthy statement. Bad libraries build collections, good libraries, build services, great libraries, build collections, services and communities. Libraries aren’t just about the books, they’re about programs, service and connecting people. When you adequately fund the library, you are funding a child’s future and therefore ensuring a better future for Longmont. We have a great library that is stretched to its limits show Longmont you support literacy in all its forms. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 41:53
Thank you, Linda, Carl.
Speaker 12 42:02
Thank you, I’m Carl Ben Dorf. I also live at 619 Brookside drive. And I’m also here in support of any future public library projects. Linda and I moved here to Longmont eight years ago. And we really like it here. And I bet a lot of people in this room will agree this is a great town and a great place to live. But one of the things that really has stood out to us during our time here is how well managed Longmont is, we often say we really feel our city resources, we see them at work, whether it’s the obvious things like parks and open spaces, trails, we love going to excuse me, we love going to our great recycling center, and, and so on. And we’ve really enjoyed all that. But it’s interesting when we first came here, we didn’t have housing yet, so we stayed in a local hotel for six weeks. And even during that time, one of the first things we did when we came along one was go get our library card. Because we’ve always felt we’ve lived in a variety of places. But having a local library card is often something that really feels to us like it helps to route us to where we are. But we feel we’re now done moving and Longmont is where we’d like to stay. And apparently a lot of other folks feel that same way. As our population continues to grow. Something you’re I’m sure so well aware of this number is already out of date. But as of July 2021, we’ve crossed the 100,000 and population. Mark, and according to the US Census data along monster not is one of the fastest growing cities in Colorado and in the country. Our population has increased 15.2% Since the 2010 census. But what does that have to do with the library? Well, I’ve read recently that our current single site facility was designed to serve a population of 68,000. That means with our current population, our library should be 60% larger than it currently is in terms of capacity and programs and services. And with our rate of growth that shortfalls only going to grow and fast. I’ve also read that long long is the largest library system in Colorado which has only a single site. So if branches are under consideration, that might be a good thing to be looking at. We all know how vitally important public libraries are to the social and economic health of every city. And so I feel it’s critical. We support the library going forward. And I encourage you to keep that under consideration and make certain that our library grows along with the rest of everything else going on here. in Longmont. We don’t know what the exact plans are for enhancing the library. And I’m sure that’s in flux and we’ll change. But I can tell you that when the time comes Linden, I will be supporting those projects. Thank you.
Speaker 1 45:12
Thank you very much. Councillor Yarborough, we’d like to make a comment or a question.
Speaker 6 45:21
Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for speaking, Linda and Carl, Linda, when you were speaking about Evan Stan, and I’m from Chicago. And so thinking about, first of all, I want to ask Have you have you ever consider being on the library board?
Speaker 11 45:39
We are friends of the library. But there? No, I have not thought about that. So there are other ways I’m using my partial retirement time. Okay. Okay. I’m a memoir coach.
Speaker 6 45:53
Okay. Well, I have to ask, we’re always looking for board members. So second thing when you what made me think about and I won’t be long, the library? What you were saying it Evanston? How, how do we get that drive again, for young people, because there were no programs, if you made me remember that, that there were no programs when I was young, and will hop on the train that l we used to call it and go from library to library, because there was a desire to go to the library. And now look how wonderful our library is, where all of these programs and everything. So I would love to one day, sit down and talk with you and in kind of get your perspectives about where do we go to how do we get that drive from young people to want to go to the library and we are doing it? And of course we there’s so much more we need to do we know that. But just thinking how we would just show up and we had card catalogs. I mean, I don’t know how I mean, that does date myself. But we had card catalogs and you had the little pencils, and you had to write all that out.
Speaker 11 47:13
And today they have chess tournaments and Lego tournaments and and my understanding is it’s overflowing with kids and their families and show up for these things.
Speaker 6 47:25
Yes. So I would love to talk with you more about that. And hopefully we have several boys. It doesn’t have to be the library, but we’re just FYI. Anyway, thank you so much. Good point.
Unknown Speaker 47:41
Yeah, recruiting. Kim, Kim Zimmer.
Speaker 13 47:46
Hi, thank you. I just kind of want to talk a little bit about the electrification of Longmont. So I wanted to bring up a little bit about digital and I’m coming from Longmont. So once things go digital, there’s an on and off switch for citizens have no control.
Unknown Speaker 48:02
Can I just interrupt for a minute? Yes.
Speaker 13 48:04
Did you give your address didn’t Yes. I said yes. Kevin long run is kind of coming over. Yes. So but So once there is anything goes digital there’s there’s an audit, there’s an on off switch and their citizens have no control. So looking into electrification of Longmont, I know the city next council is now looking at intellectual electrifying the Longmont to have an electric airport. I guess that’s how you’d say it, maybe even to be an example for the country. So once everything’s electric, it becomes digital and who will have the power to switch everything on and off? And do we want everything in our lives to be digital? So why does Lamont need to have the capacity with smart meters and smart everything to turn the power off to individual homes. If there’s an emergency as far as I know, maybe this is doesn’t work anymore, but you can currently turn off the neighborhood power at the substation. So the Smart Meter contains a two way radio. And there’s no rational reason for there to be a radio receiver on the Smart Meter other than to shut down or ration one individual’s houses electricity. So we also need co2 carbon dioxide, the atmosphere is only point zero 4% carbon dioxide, that’s only point zero 4% which is less than a half a percent. So I have personally not seen any evidence that proves that this level is unsafe. The concern comes in if co2 is lowered too much at point zero 2% levels, the lack of co2 becomes detrimental to plant life and in turn humans and I think it’s something we really need to think about. In the body co2 increases oxygen uptake, and use by cells via what’s called the bore effect that spelled Bo HR if you want to look it up. So it does this by further enhancing the body’s metabolic rate. So we need to co2 for respiration and when we are pursuing health and healing in particular. So there’s a recent warning from the North American Electric Reliability corporation who provides reliability assessments of the electrical grid to all 50 states And the US Department of Energy. They warn that this summer 2023. Two thirds of the Northern American power grid is in an elevated risk of experiencing summer outages during peak energy use. Quote administration’s hasty transition from oil and gas to wind and solar sapping energy reserves and driving electricity prices up. The transition to renewables is taking place before the grid can adjust to expand its transmission capabilities. Fossil fuels generate power on demand, while renewable energy relies on the availability of sun and wind in any given moment of the day. And now this is from the National Association of regulatory utility commissioners Executive Director Greg White quote, the pace in which we’re closing the fossil fuel plants is exceeding the pace that we are bringing new plants online. If you’re paying attention to what’s going on in the industry, the industry has been saying that transition would be challenging and quote, The article goes on to say that the decarbonisation of the West is not only driving up electricity prices for millions of people, but it’s also putting the power grid at risk of temporary blackouts for millions more across North America. And now I want to just read a little thing here from Longmont for safe tech, which is a sister organization for Colorado’s Coloradans for safe tech. It’s from somebody in Carlsbad, California. Her name is Karen rich, she’s the founder of stop 5g, to whom it may concern I support the passing of a resolution by the city of Longmont to halt the smart meter rollout until it can be proven this technology is safe. There’s mounting scientific and medical evidence indicating that exposure to emissions from smart meters and other smart infrastructure is very unsafe to humans and wildlife. Please note the current FCC health and safety guidelines related to smart technologies and smart infrastructure are 27 years old. These guidelines are outdated and not even written relevant to the microwave radiation Wi Fi emissions which we are being exposed to now from smart technology and smart infrastructure. And if there was ever a time in history to execute the precautionary principle, that time is now and the precautionary principles is often used by policymakers in situations where there’s a possibility of harm from making certain decisions such as taking a particular course of action, and conclusive evidence is not yet available. The part that this principle has become an underlying rationale for large and increasing number of international treaties and declarations in the fields of sustainable development, environmental protection, health, trade and food safety. Sincerely, Karen rich researcher alchemy health USA founder stop 5g, Carlsbad, California. So as a resident of Longmont, I would ask this council to declare a moratorium on smart meters until Longmont can prove that their codes are up to date that they are safe for fires and do not cause illness in humans or contribute to species extinction. Thank you. And thank you for listening. Everybody
Speaker 1 53:00
carefully. Councillor Martin? We’d like to address this.
Speaker 5 53:04
Yes, ma’am. Yes, I’m not going to address the scientific distortions in this. But I would like to encourage everyone else to look it up for themselves. So see, co2 levels in the atmosphere, for example, are rising rapidly, they’re not dropping to the point where plant life is, or human respiration is going to be distressed. But I do want to add that the reason for the two way one of the reasons for the two way radios in the in the smart meters is to report status conditions at the edge of the grid, to specifically prevent power outage outages due to demand fluctuation during heat events. So I can’t imagine why anyone would say that they couldn’t figure out a reason why the radio shouldn’t be two way. That’s all I have to say. I’m not gonna you know, thank you.
Speaker 13 54:11
Thank you. And yes, I agree. Everybody should look it up. And I appreciate your time. Thank you.
Speaker 1 54:16
You’re welcome. The next three are Elsie Wilkins, DOE Kelly, and Greg Jensen.
Unknown Speaker 54:55
Thank you.
Speaker 1 54:57
Great. So we’ll start with LC ALC Would you mind turning on your microphone and pull it closer to your perfect
Speaker 14 55:12
MLC Wilkinson I reside in Middle Fork Road, Boulder Colorado
Speaker 1 55:19
we need to pull that closer I’m sorry I’ll see pull the microphone closer rather than scooting up people in the back can’t hear you.
Unknown Speaker 55:27
Can you hear me now?
Unknown Speaker 55:29
All right, I got thumbs up.
Speaker 14 55:32
So to the to the loan Minh City Council from Longmont for safe technology, Coloradans for safe technology from individual residents and citizens advocating for safety technology. With all due respect to the board members and Mayor Peck, we are aware that the City of Long, Long long has a plan called efficient long run many of our own crew but also visionaries, being artists, healers, writers, in metaphysician Simone many other life paths in looking toward a more beautiful future and in connection with these other visionaries who shared in our ideal. We find we have created a visionary statement of our dawn that we wish to share with you now. In advance of the proposal. I am here to introduce any course like that it’s our vision of a new earth. We are at peace in this magnificent world of plein air, blue skies, in white clouds, sparkling and healthy oceans and stunning natural environments filled with abundant life and animal life. We’re healthy people Salish communities, based in love and service to each other. Where being fully human is a desired state. where everyone is honest, the leaders are truthful, selfless, and motivated by service to the greater good. induce New Earth, Earth we are enriched by the care we take to maintain our soil, plants, wildlife wire in air, free or chemical pollutants, contaminants and toxic EMF. We have come and gone from an age of deterioration and disintegration into one of healthy living and thriving. In this new Earth technology is finally being put to an appropriate use in maintaining health and life for all beings. Now for the proposal we wish to introduce which several several of our group will also be reading to you. We the undersigned residents of Longman, Boulder County, Colorado and beyond committed to safe ethical and legal use of technology are submitting to you I propose quotes resolution for the Smart Meter moratorium in Longmont, Colorado. We believe this resolution makes among many other in case for code violations in the proposed and existing use of the electric meters that the city alone has chosen for its a Am I advanced metering infrastructure infrastructure program. We request that you carefully review this proposed resolution that we’ll be sending you also by that we will be sending you also by email. We feel that it is imperative that the long run city council adopt this course of action hold to is smart meter rollout as a necessary preventive measure against any legal action taken to hold the AMI program. Very sincerely yours, long known for safety Knology in Coloradans for safe technology and we also have a list of some several
Unknown Speaker 1:00:00
people
Speaker 14 1:00:03
that are gonna, that are supporting us, and then some of them are just speaking tonight. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 1:00:11
Thank you, Elsie. Councillor Martin, I see that you want to address this, but it sounds like this whole group is probably going to be saying the same thing. So can we listen to them first? Because the comments are all going to be the same, I think. But so that’s just an ask.
Speaker 5 1:00:32
I have one quick question. Is the lawsuit you mentioned coming from one of the organizations you listed in particular,
Speaker 14 1:00:39
I am under the impression that it might be more than one organization?
Speaker 5 1:00:45
And the answer to the question that I asked is
Speaker 14 1:00:51
it is what I just said. It might be coming from more than one organization
Speaker 5 1:00:56
more than one organization, including the two that you named in your speech. Probably in
Speaker 14 1:01:01
Thank you. Door Kelly will have a more clear response to that question. Thank you. Merci.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:12
Thank you Lt. Adele Kelly.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:15
Can Can I use the standing up? Of course, of course.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:24
Okay, so it’s on red. Just press the red?
Speaker 1 1:01:28
I think so. Try it and see. Yep. And don’t forget to bend that microphone down to you. Thank you. You betcha. Okay. Okay,
Speaker 2 1:01:41
so my name is Joe Kelly, as you probably all know, and I live on Barbary drive in Longmont. And I’m going to read the first part of a resolution for a smart meter moratorium in Longmont, Colorado, and it’s got a lot of warehouses and a few there for us, okay. So whereas the city of Longmont has responsibility to ensure the health and safety of its residents and to provide reliable and efficient utility services and whereas, there are no long term safety studies on the effects of exposure to smart meter radiation on human health, and whereas there are 1000s of peer reviewed studies linking electromagnetic radiation emitted by wireless devices, including smart meters with adverse biological health effects, including cognitive impairment, headaches, unexplained fatigue, sleep disturbances, including inability to wake up and or inability to go to sleep and stay asleep. cardiac arrhythmia, including but not limited to tachycardia and atrial fibrillation, vertigo, tinnitus, ADD and ADHD like symptoms, mood swings, including but not limited to anxiety, depression, and unexplained outbursts of anger and immunological abnormalities and whereas on August 13 2021, the second highest court in the land, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals rendered a decision in favor of the two nonprofits that sued the FCC for failing to update the radiofrequency radiation regulatory limits since 1996. In spite of five generations of advancements in wireless technology and millions of radiation emitting devices, the case Environmental Health Trust at all vs. The Federal Communications Commission challenged the FCC, thus calling into question whether any radiation emitting device is safe for human exposure. Whereas the court ruled that the FCC is failure to provide a reasoned explanation for its determination that it’s 9096 radiofrequency emission guidelines adequately protect the public against the harmful effects of exposure to radiation from 5g and wireless based technologies unrelated to cancer, renters the agency’s decision capricious, arbitrary and not evidence based in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act or APA. The court judgment remanded the decision to the commission. Whereas with respect to cancer, the Court acknowledged that the FCC had considered the National Toxicology Toxicology Program study. The court further acknowledged the two nonprofits and the FCC differed on their interpretation of the study results because the FCC need only have shown they had, quote, considered cancer. The court did not include cancer in the remand. The judge’s decision did not rule cancer out as a potential threat. Whereas the August 13 22 Only one decision in favor of the two nonprofits stated. Under this highly deferential standard of review, we find the Commission’s order arbitrary and capricious. In its failure to respond to recorded evidence that exposure to RF radiation at levels below the Commission’s current limits may cause negative health effects unrelated to cancer, and quote, whereas the court further stated quote, that fit that failure undermines the Commission’s conclusions regarding the adequacy of its testing procedures, particularly as they relate to children, and its conclusions regarding the implications of long term exposure to RF radiation, exposure to RF pulsation or modulation, and the implications of technological developments that have occurred since 1996. All of which depend on the premise that exposure to RF radiation at levels below its current limits causes no health negative health effects. Accordingly, we find those conclusions arbitrary and capricious, as well. Finally, we find the Commission’s order arbitrary and capricious in its complete failure to respond to comments concerning environmental harm caused by RF radiation and quote, whereas at the present time, FCC has not yet updated its standards in keeping with the court remand, and wireless devices such as smart meters are therefore operating under outdated conclusions with respect to RF standards described by the second highest court in the land as arbitrary and capricious. Now that okay, that’s the end here though. May I say one more thing, this is a someone who contributed to this document would have read it here tonight. But that person is electro sensitive and we had inquired could they turn the Wi Fi down but apparently, we can’t do that in the infrastructure in this building for people who are electro sensitive so I
Unknown Speaker 1:07:10
thank you. Yeah. All right. Let’s go to
Unknown Speaker 1:07:13
my to give this to
Unknown Speaker 1:07:17
to Greg Jensen.
Speaker 15 1:07:24
Mayor Peck city councilmembers Greg Jensen, Grace peak drive. Whereas smart meters may be susceptible to hacking and hybrid attacks, potentially compromising privacy and security of Longmont residents data of this of the private energy use data. Whereas the Landis and gear smart meters with ZigBee chips already partially deployed in Longmont in a test area are particularly vulnerable to hacking, which could allow highly personal data that these meters collect to be susceptible to theft by hackers, which could compromise the utility databases and additionally put customers personal information and behavior patterns at risk. And whereas there is credible evidence that smart meters may not accurately match measure energy uses this inaccurate fees thus inaccurate fees and over billing could lead to financial harm and hardships for residents of Longmont. Whereas the Smart Meter is a complex and vulnerable electrical appliance that is being installed directly to the service drop outside of the normal safety protections of a residential home or a commercial buildings main circuit breakers, which is a violation of the Longmont building codes. Whereas the city of Longmont sustainability Advisory Board has received complaints and additional information and public conference from citizens and experts regarding the installation and use of smart meters, including the testimony of a master electrician who documented information alleging that the installation and use of the land is smart gear smart meters in Longmont are in violation of certain established codes and standards, such as the National Electric Code, OSHA standards and the Longmont Municipal Code. Whereas section 14 dot 32.2 100 dot j of the Longmont Municipal Code, one applicable code clearly states, all services, equipment and installations must meet all applicable codes and safety standards, including but not limited to the National Electrical Code and a number of other agencies that regulate our electrical installations. Whereas under the NEC code, which is the National Electrical Safety, the National Electrical Code electrical devices including smart meters must be labeled with the Underwriter Laboratories we all know the underwrite the UL symbol on our devices. That label must indicate they have been tested and comply with safety standards. The absence of the UL label on a smart meter violates the label definition. Whereas section 14 dot 32 dot 90 dot A of the Longmont Municipal Code ensures that all electric electricity customers in the city receive uniform and electrical and equitable consideration. While subsection E on liabilities stipulates that the city can be held liable for injury to persons or damage to property, when such damage or injury results from or is occasioned by the negligence or wrongful acts of the city’s agents or employees. Whereas there is evidence that the Landis gear good grid stream RF 90 E seven C two F three model G five integrated focus, Sc, a x re dash S D smart meter, the one that’s been implemented, which is being installed citywide by the city does not have a UL label. Thus, it is in violation of Section 14 dot 32.2 100 dot j of the city of Longmont Municipal Code, which therefore poses health and safety risks to the Longmont public unnecessarily. Whereas the Landis G grid stream RF system has not been certified by underwriters laboratory and accordance with the National Electric Code standards as required by section 14 32.2 100 dot j of the city of Longmont Municipal Code. Whereas the UL standard 2735, which is a third certification standard for smart meters and other advanced metering infrastructure does not address all of the potential hazards associated with smart meters and relies heavily on self certification by the manufacturers. We know what trouble that’s gotten us into in the past. Therefore, I support the passing of resolution by the city of Longmont to halt smart meter rollout until it can be shown that this technology is safe for all of the citizens in Longmont. Thank you,
Speaker 1 1:12:34
thank you very much. No clapping please. Thank you. Roxy Olson, Kim Edmondson and Diane Crist are next.
Unknown Speaker 1:13:14
Roxy Hello, good evening. Good evening,
Speaker 16 1:13:18
Mayor pet councilmembers. I’m a taxpayer and citizen of Longmont living at 1678 Jetson drive in Longmont homeowner. I’m going to continue in reading the resolution and I support the resolution asking you guys to place a moratorium until it can be proven that there is no harm from smart meters. Whereas there have been reports of fires and explosions associated with smart meter installations across the country, including incidents involving meters manufactured by Landis and gear and census both of which are certified to UL standard 2735. And whereas smart meters are known to cause arcing, which is a n e c code violation. And whereas it is known that smart meters are ungrounded they cannot withstand certain voltage searches power surges and lightning strikes and can potentially cause fires endangering the safety of the property of residence. And whereas smart meters are often installed in close proximity to gas meters, which could create a dangerous situation in the event of a gas leak or explosion. And whereas smart meters require an uninterrupted power supply to function properly, and power outages could result not only in a loss of data, but potentially create safety hazards when the power returns. And whereas the December 30 2021 Marshal fire was the most destructive and catastrophic thick Inferno in Colorado history, demonstrating how climate changes have made our state profoundly vulnerable to the ravages of wildfires. And whereas the 2016 testimony of senior property claims examiner Norman Lamb, before the New Mexico public grid Regulation Commission, in response to the question, said he would UL certification ensure that a meter is safe was the question. It evoked the following expert response by Mr. Lam. Quote, most smart meters have not been certified by any independent certification body, such as underwriters laboratory, UL or Canadian Standards Association CSA. Instead, smart meters are routinely certified by industry groups, such as ANSI, which is the American National Standards Association or I II, which is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, all of the models of meters that have burned and many have have been certified by these industry groups. U L has a new certification standard that is said to have been developed to ensure the safety of smart meters UL standard 2735. But even this certification is not sufficient. The very meters that have received this certification census, and Landis and gear have caused fires. So, again, as a homeowner, taxpayer and citizen of Walmart, I urge you to consider a moratorium on the use of smart meters until it can be proven that they are safe. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:16:56
Thank you, Roxy. Kim Edmondson.
Speaker 17 1:17:05
Hello, I’m Kim Edmondson on bittersweet lane here in long line, I speak on behalf of Longmont for safe technology, and fully support a moratorium on smart meters and continuing on with what rocks you just read. Whereas a public records act request was submitted to the city of Longmont by Longmont resident, who requested an independent report stating Landis cure have resolved their me and my fire risk vulnerabilities. The city of Longmont responded that no such report existed. And whereas a public record act request was submitted to the city of Longmont by a Longmont resident, who asked for reports supporting the contention that the $14 million investment in Landis your smart meters would allow the city of Longmont to achieve its energy sustainability goals by 2030. The city of Longmont responded that no such report existed. The city did, however, provide several links, and one was to a website which offered a sustainability report from an experiment in Cardiff in the UK. The report failed to demonstrate the smart meters provided any energy savings. The report suggested a vague promise for the future. Smart Meters will be getting smarter. Whereas the city of Longmont must at all times stay in compliance with all established codes and standards such as the National Electrical Code NEC occupational safety, safety and health administration OSHA standards and Longmont Municipal Code, and a failure to do so places the city at risk of being held liable for injury to persons or damage to property. Now, therefore be it resolved that due to many considerable and unresolved problems of legality, liability, standards, compliance, health and fire risk to the public, demonstrating the risk far outweigh the perceived benefits as evidenced above Longmont for safe technology at all demand at the Landis gear AMI meter rollout. And any existing use of smart and digital AMI meters be halted forthwith, and an indefinite moratorium being implemented on the AMI rollout. Until such time as one, all potential RF radiation risks human health and the environment are conclusively proven to cause no harm to Longmont obtains and makes readily available to the public reports from independent experts certifying that this technology no longer poses fire risks. Three, the FCC complies with its court ordered mandate to redo its 20 SEER 27 year old RF guidelines by protecting against the adverse biological effects of non thermal radiation to human beings, wildlife and the environment for all AMI equipment in use by the city of Longmont is in full compliance with NEC and OSHA codes and standards. Respectfully submitted this 30th day of May 2023 by Longmont for safe technology Colorado wins for safe technology. and other organizations and individuals aware of the dangers and risk involved with these meters, some of whose words you’ll hear from other speakers taken from submitted emails in support of Longmont moratorium on smart meters.
Unknown Speaker 1:20:12
Thank you, Kim. Diane Crist.
Speaker 18 1:20:21
Thank you council members for hosting this open forum. And now for something completely different. I think all of you know me, my name is Diane Chris. I live on Mount Sneffels Street, and I’ve come to talk to you about a few concerns in my neighborhood. The first issue I want to bring to your attention is that my house and a few others have become unwilling posting areas for our neighborhood. Kathy, my assistant is going to show you all the signs I collected last summer that were affixed either by tape, driven into the ground by steak or live standing in my yard. And they’re colorful and there’s about 27 of them. Rarely does anyone come back to remove their signs. So the removal of signs is a burden to my family and other families like mine that live at junctures where it advantageous to leave a sign. If we don’t take them down they litter like confetti across the neighborhood. The signs create a blind spot that makes it difficult for motorists to see oncoming and turning traffic. My neighbor’s truck was hit so hard by a passing motorist it was pushed past the sidewalk into his yard. As Kathy is showing, you will see multiple signs with certain with the same addresses. Many homes in this neighborhood rely on extra money from garage sales to pay for their summer utility bills and to subsidize their moving expenses. So it would be wrong to deny them the opportunity to advertise. But I have two asks of the Council today and the first one is this, I asked for approval for construction of a sign pole holding to flat metal surfaces, maybe with a roller bar or some clips where people can post their signs and that these signs should be placed on public land, perhaps on the north side of 21st Avenue, near the utility substation. Or near the Reverend ready Park facing traffic which would serve as the whole neighborhood. I believe this would be an inexpensive solution that will contribute to Vision Zero safety and reduce litter in our neighborhood. Now the second thing I want to discuss concerning my neighborhood, which is in Ward one is the several blocks of homes that are zoned as duplexes. And by this I mean houses that are now currently being used as single family dwellings, not the actual duplexes that were built as duplexes from the beginning. For the most part, these have been single family homes for the past 30 years. But in the interest of providing affordable housing, many of my neighbors have rented half of their spaces to those in need of a home. This is an older neighborhood. It’s built in the 1980s. So creating demising walls and updates to make this duplexing comfortable has required extra investment on the part of homeowners. Despite only enjoying half of their property, become aware that some duplexing homeowners have received a property valuation gain of $100,000 for their home for the year. The tax associated with this type of gain will keep many of the home owners from making duplex improvements and continuing to share their property. Many are charging well below market rates for their arrangement. And the demographic data for the area shows 48% of the population is living in poverty. And I believe some of those are people that are renting shared housing. My second ask to the council is that you do everything possible to reduce property tax within the city, including but not limited to putting on hold any property valuation gains for the next two years, offering property tax credits to seniors above the 200,000 value limit. That’s current offering property tax rebates to those who are contributing affordable housing to others and any other ideas you might have. The council has invested in keeping in creating affordable housing, and I believe the Council must now act to curb and reduce property tax burden to keep these properties available for those who need more housing. Thank you so much for your time. And I just want to recognize Mayor Peck for the effort she’s made in our neighborhood to get via to people who need regular transportation their thing you.
Speaker 1 1:25:00
You’re welcome. I’m Diane, I would like to ask, Are you as far as the signposts go? Are you in a HOA?
Speaker 18 1:25:13
We are not. Okay. And there are trails and lots of city owned property near our our housing area.
Speaker 1 1:25:21
The reason I asked is that we have a neighbor neighborhood group leaders Association, that even if you’re not in an HOA, it would be easier. For some reason. It seems like more people go to that who are in an HOA, but they have grant dollars to give to neighborhoods. You have to you have to submit a proposal for what you want it for. And I don’t know how much the grant would be for different projects. But I suggest you get in touch with Carmen
Speaker 1 1:25:59
Oh, Carmen Ramirez, she the person who runs in JLA manages that is Wayne Tomek. But he but the division is under Carmen. So, see if they can help you out in getting some dollars for that looking for a place for you. I think it’s a great idea, actually. Okay, thanks. You’re welcome.
Speaker 1 1:26:27
Next on our list is Mike wall, walled off, JD guides, and Jeff Lindroth. Lin Roth.
Speaker 19 1:26:46
Thank you, counsel. Thank you, Mayor. My name is Michael Altaf. I live at 1236 Aspen street among that. I’m here to support a moratorium on installing smart meters and long lat until the following questions can be answered by truly independent researchers. One is this really in the interest of Longmont becoming more sustainable to how much radiated and conducted RF emission do they produce? Three, what is a safe if any amount of RF radiation for what are the alternatives to wireless based meters? Five, can Longmont leverage its fiber network to create even more cost savings and reduce the amount of electronic pollution? Six, for those who do not want to implement smart home strategies? Is there an option for one way home to utility communication only? Seven, what are the true cost savings if any, both in terms of direct to consumer and rate reduction in carbon footprint which would be part of the Sustainable issue? Eight what are the costs the true costs? Nine How safe are they from hacking and 10? How safe are they from malfunction? Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:28:12
Thank you JD
Speaker 20 1:28:18
Good evening JD bytes 1632 Sherman way I’m here to speak because trust at all levels of government is alarming and low. I’m hoping sorry. I’m here to speak because trust at all levels of government is alarmingly low. I’m hoping at least at our gut Longmont level, we can do our part to help address this and improve residents confidence. First, I support your vote to require physical address for contributions to candidates for city council election. We all know money influences politics, and that includes at our local level, the residents have a right to know where the contributions are coming from and should not have to do research to find out who has the contributors Pio box, that the real concern is making sure the unhoused can contribute to city council elections, then some language could be added to require the candidate to confirm the contribution came from an unhoused individual with no address. We absolutely need to know who’s contributing money in our elections. Second, I would like to voice my disappointment of the new rules about limiting public comments at planning and zoning and city council meetings where the decision is a quasi judicial matter. No doubt there has been a court case behind the legal counsel that has allowed or guided these changes. We all know that with development, the developer and their advocate groups spend many hours with city staff and members of council building their case. Using their own PowerPoint and staffs help. They usually guide the presentation at the quasi judicial hearing. It seems it is already a foregone conclusion by the by that time anyway. I’m not saying that the time spent with developers is not needed, but If we really wanted the public to have input, we would not limit it to a few minutes nearing the final decision. Sometimes the courts got is toward less transparency and trust. I failed to see how citizens expressing their concern somehow Disadvantages The developer. Thank you.
Speaker 1 1:30:16
Thank you JD. Does anyone want to counselor waters? Oops. Sorry, that took a minute.
Tim Waters 1:30:27
Sure. Thanks, me. We’re back. JD, Thanks for your comments. I do have a couple of questions.
Speaker 20 1:30:33
Sure. I will say, I didn’t realize this was the long version and the interactive mode. I just want to make some comments, but I’m willing to hook down man.
Tim Waters 1:30:43
Okay, when the wrong match? Yeah. It’s one of the good honestly, for, you know, the this evening, these evenings are the one time we get a chance to really
Speaker 20 1:30:52
hadn’t seen it. I do think. Yeah,
Tim Waters 1:30:56
I do. But here are my questions on the first part of your you know, I’m on record. I don’t share your view here in terms of the use of the PIO box. But I’m curious if if the concern is knowing who made a donation to a candidate. We can’t accept, or candidates can’t accept donations without a name of the person who’s the donor. And right now, it’s either an address or a Pio box. So if you have a name and a Pio box, what do you know about that donor with an address that you wouldn’t know with a Pio box, you know, you have the amount of money, you have the name of the donor? The address gives you what, in terms of comfort or assurance with a with an address versus a Pio box?
Speaker 20 1:31:41
Well, I’m no expert at this. But my own opinion is that we’re that’s that’s what this all is a bunch of opinions. Looking at some of the recent things I am a little familiar with, there’s been a long the Front Range end, I think in Longmont, but over some big issues, there’s been out of town out of state donations made to local community to influence. And so as a voter, if I see that these are coming from other locations other than online, it kind of makes me concerned. If I see a name, I guess I could look to see if I can figure out where this person is from if that made a difference to me. Which to me, it does make a difference. But that’s just in general, it would concern me to see contributions from other areas influencing our election.
Tim Waters 1:32:39
So if you bought Pio box has a name a Pio box and municipality, right. So even with a Pio box, you know, it’s coming from Chicago or New York or Des Moines or wherever.
Speaker 20 1:32:51
That’s possible. My assumption was that somebody could buy or have a Pio box anywhere. I didn’t know you had to have it live in the area that you had.
Tim Waters 1:32:59
I don’t know if you have to live in the area. But but a Pio box has a number in an in a municipality.
Speaker 20 1:33:05
Yes. And so I That’s why I said the research I could, I could probably figure it out if I wanted to spend time. I’m just talking about looking at the paper. And they see see me they list a Pio box? I’m probably not. I don’t know, I don’t I don’t see myself doing a whole lot of research I never had before
Tim Waters 1:33:21
is, is the concern that people from outside long left should not be able to donate to candidates running for city council?
Speaker 20 1:33:29
No, it’s, it’s of concern to me. It’s not that they shouldn’t be able to. But I’d like to know, to make my own. And since it concerns me, it probably influenced me.
Tim Waters 1:33:39
And so the last question tonight, about half the people have spoken tonight. The mayor asks for their name and address. But half the people here have not given their addresses. They’ve given the town they live in the street they live on but not their address. Right. Why do you suppose that’s the truth case?
Speaker 20 1:33:55
Well, I think that it’s a requirement for elections. It’s a it’s a kind of a fundamental Capstone or maybe using our word there, but a fundamental piece of our election. It’s required that you have an address, and we’re debating whether there should be a post office box here in the I think they’re they’re two different issues the public to be heard, is one thing and an election laws or another
Tim Waters 1:34:34
to vote. You have to have we have to be a registered voter. And unless you’ve been able to withdraw with to, I guess, shield your address because of security concerns. There are I know there are abused men and women that the courts have said they don’t have to have their address entered in the public record, right, and they can still vote. Other than that. No,
Unknown Speaker 1:34:56
I’m not talking about voting. I’m talking to my contributions
Tim Waters 1:34:59
like So I wanted to make certain we’re talking about the same thing, because it’s not about voting. But the but the donation is a form of political speech. Right? It’s if you go look it up, look, go look for examples of political speech, donations to candidates. And that’s why I want to know who’s doing what people are doing. What you’re doing right now, is a form of political speech. You objected in the last part of your comments to us limiting political speech, given the kinds of issues that we’re dealing with? I mean, you’re objecting to our limiting that you’re encouraging us to be more inviting of political speech.
Speaker 20 1:35:32
I would actually like to hear the which voters are contributing It is my personal opinion. I’m not saying you have to restrict it to that at all. But I’d like to know that the people I’d like to know if the people actually contributing are the voters, or are they just contributing because of an issue?
Tim Waters 1:35:52
You would know that whether it’s a peel box or an address? If if
Speaker 20 1:35:55
for sure that you have a post office box where you live and not actually buying one in Longmont? Well,
Tim Waters 1:36:02
it’s okay. I guess maybe people would do that. I just so they can make the $260 donation to a candidate I don’t know that’s the maximum amount of money we can accept from any donor. Correct. But the as a matter of principle, now, the form of political speech that we’re hearing tonight, people are allowed, and they’re guaranteed by the Constitution, they get to protect sunlight measure privacy. Just as the First Amendment protects your right to political speech, there are multiple of our bill of rights that protect Americans right to privacy. The folks who didn’t give their addresses tonight, chose to exercise their right to privacy and the right to political speech tonight. What we’re gonna we’re gonna vote on this in next week. And it’s clear where I’m gonna vote, I’m not certain how the rest of this council is gonna vote. But but but those who choose in my opinion, to vote to eliminate the PIO box, create a dual standard, a double standard, actual non dual sand double standard, one standard if you want to exercise one form of political speech, a different standard if you want to exercise a form of political speech called a donation, and I can’t other than people object to a donation coming from out of town. If that’s a problem, then then maybe we ought to just limit donations to folks living in Longmont, if that’s the problem, we’re trying to solve it. But I haven’t heard anybody up here yet. Identify a problem that solved by by excluding Pio boxes from along with the name from people who want to donate to candidates.
Speaker 20 1:37:36
You know, like I say, I’m no expert at this. And if your concern is to protecting people’s privacy, I have to respect that, in my view, just what little I look and read and have opinions about things like Citizens United, and things like that, that try to cut somewhat hide who’s actually contributing.
Tim Waters 1:37:58
And I can’t watch I can’t do that. Because you’ve got to have a name. Got to have
Speaker 20 1:38:03
a name? I don’t know. Yeah, um, I as I’ve said, I’m just my personal opinion, that it it. I would like to know where the people contributing are and who they are. And if I have a name, I probably don’t know everybody, and I don’t have any idea who they are. But if I have if somebody is contributing from Longmont and they’ve got a name I kind of know more about Yeah, something something different about thanks JD Yep, thank you,
Speaker 1 1:38:34
thank you JD um for the homeless that want to contribute to just for the public to know that they can use hope as an address the address that hope and the address at the our center, those are the addresses that we use when we get homeless people driver’s license, whatever they need credit cards, or whatever they need library cards in order to be a functioning person or society and so far we’ve only had three out of the 20 that did not get a street number. So having said that, the next three are Shams ramen I don’t know why I crossed you off the list, Jeff. I’m so sorry. Oh, okay. Let me back up a little bit. Have a seat. Jeff, we’ll get right to you JD counselor Hidalgo. faring would like to make a comment.
Speaker 5 1:39:38
You’re not off the hook yet? No, just kidding. Actually, you had made a comment in reference to the was it at the limiting public comment? That was approved by planning and zoning and then and then we had an a change to our rules and procedures. Well, and you know, I don’t know, if you had a chance to read the language or the paragraph,
Speaker 20 1:40:04
I’ll actually, again state the same thing. I didn’t know this was a long one.
Speaker 5 1:40:09
No, no, it’s alright. You know, I can’t so we, you know, essentially, you know, limits that council city council may prohibit public statements on upcoming matters where counsel may hold a quasi quasi judicial hearing, however, and then I’m just going to skip through. The other alternative for a resident to to share their their thoughts is alternate. Alternatively, prior to any public quasi judicial hearing, a speaker may submit written materials to the city staff assigned to the matter for inclusion in the administrative record, that council will consider in making decisions. So there is an opportunity for residents, I think, you know, and, you know, my belief is that we really need to do our due diligence to ensure that the public does understand that they do have this, this option to be able to have heard, rather than waiting for the hearing at the very at the very end. So there is that opportunity. That
Speaker 20 1:41:07
really was my point in trying to bring these apart just in reading the paper and just seemed that nerves were set off. Limiting people so was less transparent. And so that’s what I’m urging Longmont to do, to gather some trust and confidence in our government to make sure we’re not being trying to limit input. So thank you for doing whatever you can to help develop trust and confidence in her proceed or processing or government. Thank you.
Speaker 5 1:41:48
Thank you, I don’t I don’t I’m not going to ask JD a question. But I do want to also say what JD says thinks it’s also positive and if someone may may comment on the appropriateness of any sort of city planning or land use prior to a specific permit application at any time. So it’s only in this specific quasi judicial context, that Comments are limited to a certain time and place order written comment. A lot of people seem to have misunderstood that your general public invited to be heard is this free as it has ever been?
Unknown Speaker 1:42:35
Thank you for that. Jeff.
Speaker 22 1:42:47
My name is Jeff Lynn Roth. I live at 1227 Purdue drive here in Longmont. I’ve lived in Longmont for 57 years. One of the things I like to tell people who are recent arrivals, which is pretty much anybody who’s gotten here in the last 30 years is one of the things I love about Longmont is how well governed we are and that is the phrase I use we are well governed among many other beautiful things about Longmont. So because I so rarely appear in front of city council, I wanted to take a moment to recognize you and thank you for your contribution to that legacy of good governance. The reason why I’m here is something really special is going on in Longmont. In the last two months, less than two months, an individual who you’re going to hear from after me has stood up an entity known as wait pile on the Rockies this is in the Big Five sporting goods store parking lot. And in all my time in Longmont, I have seen few people with as much initiative and drive and constructive attitude and generosity as this person. The reason I wanted to bring it to your attention is my we’re a nation of specialists. And it’s fair to say that my expertise is narrow in the field of economics and finance and accounting. And so I’m trying to support this because I have seen in just five or six weeks extraordinary positivity in this and I’m going to touch on that a little bit. But what I’m asking in not just today but my ask in general is that if you come to appreciate it, as I do or even anywhere in the vicinity of how will I appreciate it that you will support it in its current location. And I have made the assessment a financial assessment that its ultimate destination to be sustainable is to be on city property where the rent which is substantial for it to be there now won’t be incurred and the insurance cost will be less and the talk the cost of a portable toilet will either disappear or or be less. This is a free is being stood up for free. And it is it’s it exists because not only this man has given so much of his time, but people have given money, businesses and individuals have given equipment. This is a full gym with over 20 pieces of quality equipment. And so what the second piece that I wanted to mention is, you know, if you support it in its existing location, I think what I’m asking, and whenever I talk to people who are far more expert than I say, This is what I think I’m asking. And then I invite them to tell me what I should be asking. What I think I’m asking you to do is to direct staff to review this situation because we contacted members of Kris Krohn and a couple of other members of the park district and they had a meeting about it, they got a hold of the understanding of it. But they directed us to talk to counsel which makes perfect sense to me, because there’s a limit to what staff should do before getting some guidance from Council, which is really why that is my ask. I want to tell you, the return on investment of this property, for whatever you may decide to do, is is extraordinary, because the hard work, and I like to say as a pawn that the heavy lifting has been done, the equipment has not only been donated, but it’s been positioned, and they’re our clientele. I put together a presentation and I thought I was done. There were 110 likes on the Facebook page for this entity, the weight pile, and I was making changes to it less than a week later, and they were 183. Facebook likes another added. Another thing to consider about this is that we’re not recycling this old equipment that people weren’t using, we are reusing it, which is my favorite ecological thing to do recycling is good. But anytime you can take something that was out of service, put it back into service, you really done something that’s friendly to the environment. As I mentioned, we have three major expenses that the city would either have less of or none at all down the road. The small expenses that we have are for signage to let people know how to use it or when the hours are. mean you just barriers to coordinate off. We don’t really have that right now. And minor minor repairs to the equipment now. And then the padding might need to be replaced. The cabling might need to be replaced now and then. So we did do a reconnaissance on one place. Roosevelt park because it’s centrally located public transit can reach it. And we found on that property just around the memorial building, we found four locations that we decided, with our limited expertise were suitable, they already had appropriate surfaces, one of them’s even already fenced in. And we have reviewed that specific thing. But any any incidents of city property is going to really let this thing live. And the last thing I want to say about it is it could even wind up on one of those 10 things to do in Longmont for visitors who are coming bypassing why because only four other cities in the United States have I found that have such a facility and I would hope and love if you have questions for me.
Speaker 1 1:48:03
So Thanks, Jeff. Um, Penny king sent out some documentation that she wanted me to print up so all the counselors have that. King Penny
Unknown Speaker 1:48:17
King Penny, he’ll be with you in a moment to clarify that.
Speaker 1 1:48:23
I’m sorry. Sorry. Oh, no, I’m real curious. Took
Unknown Speaker 1:48:27
me it. Took me a week to get it right.
Speaker 1 1:48:32
So thank you for that. And thank you, King, wherever you are.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:37
Okay, no question.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:40
Okay. Oh, yes. We have a question from Councillor McCoy.
Speaker 8 1:48:45
Thank you, Mr. Lindroth. And thank you, Mayor Peck. We talked earlier about this and, and you came to Coffee with council. And I’m happy to see you here tonight. And I’m interested in looking over this document that was sent out here and interested in hearing from King Penny. So thank you again. You’re
Speaker 22 1:49:07
welcome. And it should come as no surprise to you or anybody who knows me that I have spreadsheets and numbers to substantiate what would what would be entailed.
Unknown Speaker 1:49:16
Thank you. Great. Councillor Yarborough?
Speaker 6 1:49:18
Thank you, Mayor. So I guess my question is, this is you’re looking for a city location that is outdoors for this. For the weight Powell on the Rockies, is that correct?
Speaker 22 1:49:36
That’s the long term. That’s the long term goal that I am recommending because it’s financially viable to be able to be free or near free. Because the costs are so low, the variable costs are so low in that situation. The variable costs where we are now in private property is relatively high, not just because of the rent, but also because of the toileting necessity and the liability insurance that pay He has procured I just have an intuitive belief that the city has some form of umbrella insurance for its parks and recreation. So the piece of insurance that this would might need a rider but it wouldn’t be a very big one I wouldn’t think.
Speaker 6 1:50:13
And so the times of Operation say for instance, at Roosevelt park will be 7:30am to 11. And then am and then 3:30pm to 7pm.
Speaker 22 1:50:25
Yes, and it’d be my imagination that the city wants, if it were controlling this, it would monitor attendance and determine whether those hours needed to be modified in some way to optimize the utilization.
Speaker 6 1:50:36
Okay. And my last question. So what is the vision as far as how many people that you are hoping to participate in this great opportunity for the long run, say, what is your two year ago, three year ago, participation?
Speaker 22 1:50:56
So let me just state explicitly I’m speaking as Penny’s Assistant, I’m not in charge of the operation. But my my, my vision of it as a longtime resident and a financial thinker, is that there would probably be dozens of people a day using it because it doesn’t compete with gyms, it presents itself as an alternative to inside. So when the weather’s nice, you can come outside and workout outside. And just to give you an idea of the level of enthusiasm, just one more specific examples. We had our first contest this last week and weightlifting contest, someone came from as far away as Castle Rock to participate, we have no doubt that the gym members will participate because one of the CO winners was the proprietor of one of our local gyms. So we have good attendance from the gym. Staff and owners and members here so far.
Unknown Speaker 1:51:44
Thank you. Councillor Martin?
Speaker 5 1:51:49
Thank you, Mr. Pack. Can I ask a few questions about the business model? I apologize, I didn’t have a chance to read through the the full thing. But you must be doing something to sustain your installation here and you do have insurance costs. So what are your revenue sources?
Speaker 22 1:52:12
I don’t have that with great specificity. I’ve given some money. And I know that other small businesses, I’ve heard of four or five of them and Penny who comes after me will be able to name them. I can’t recall them. But it’s been small businesses. And individuals have just donated money donated or invested donated. And I want to that’s an important point is that these people made these donations before it achieved 501 C three nonprofit status which it is now achieved. But that is an important point. These people gave these equipment without without even having that they saw what was happening and they have given money even before that occurred. And that is now in place.
Speaker 5 1:52:57
Okay, thanks. I guess I’ll ask Penny my read the rest of my questions. He will have good answers
Speaker 22 1:53:01
better than Thank you. Thank you very much for your question. Thank you and for all your questions.
Speaker 1 1:53:07
So I don’t see a king Penny’s name on here. I see.
Unknown Speaker 1:53:11
Shawn. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 1:53:13
John’s Rama
Speaker 1 1:53:22
good I’m so glad you made that mistake. It’s puts us on an even keel now.
Speaker 23 1:53:27
My name is Sean Brockman. I live on 800 Emery street I am the lesson Jeff over here do the heavy lifting for me I come through and clean up I’m the curator of the weight pile the Rockies I just kind of tend to it and whatnot like that it’s community space. Miss Martin had asked who and revenues and things like that comes from different sources. A lot of people off the contact list people I’ve worked out with here in Longmont contributed 50 $100 here a lot of businesses got to RMA pumping company, district 303 Dartmouth hair Liberty auto sales, just to name a few. My old insurer shad Insurance Agency is out of Broomfield though. I mean, a lot of people they heard the idea. And you know what I mean? outdoor gym? Let’s Have at it, you know, so that’s pretty much it. I didn’t really come with anything prepared to say I sent you guys a, like the mission statement. And I’m sure a lot of you probably a couple of you have gotten emails from some random guy. You know what I mean, with some questions about funding be like whoa, you know, so that reached out to Kris Krohn and recreation because we have played basketball and worked out together before you know what I mean? So I’ve been trying to just reach out to people that I’ve known the network. I have a small network here in Longmont. Somebody had asked the Roseville Park question, and my envision has had this thing open all day. You know, but with the time limits in the things like that. I’m still trying to generate volunteers to spend time. Money is easy thing, I think, Oh, well, I wouldn’t say easy thing. But you know what I mean? People tend to get that but the time for people to sit out there is kind of a witch call it kind of hard to come by. I mean, people are busy nowadays. I mean, I can get an hour or so or, you know me to to run to the bank and do some things or appointments and stuff like that. But people sitting out there, like three or four hours. And so like I said, That’s what I think the nonprofit status will help with, you know, there’s different different resources and people more willing to help a nonprofit then, you know, I mean, me asking, a, can you help me with this or stuff like that? And like I say, but trying to get the city involved? See, he’s a way better marketer than I am. I’m more of a weightlifter. I apologize. You know what I mean? And you guys have more advertising more participation? You know, like, we just had a bench press competition, Saturday, and the turnout, like he said, was great, you know, I mean, other gyms, hung up fliers, you know, because my thing is, I’m not competing with them at all, I go to Anytime Fitness and Francis, proud representative, you know, I mean, every morning, you know, and then I go to my space after and I help people. And, you know, the main thing is for people to be active people to participate people with out access to memberships people with memberships people in, you know, what I mean, it in neighborhoods that aren’t the best, you know, I mean, you know, or things like, that is my vision, you know, I got discipline from weight training in my life that I’d never had before. I mean, some people who know me, they know, I had, you know, I mean, some minor problems in my life. And, you know, I mean, things like that, but the, the weightlifting, you know, it brought a discipline in my life and a way for you to process through things that, you know, I didn’t have. And so my vision is to give that back to the community. I mean, some people have meditation, some people have yoga or pilates, things like that, you know, some about lifting weights and working out with other said, creates a community feel, I think I gave one example, like, you know, how you guys do the block parties, you know, it’s just a different different atmosphere, people are reaching out, people are talking, people are connecting, you know, and everybody who comes down there, you know, they work out together, they, you know, they work, you know, people who don’t don’t even know each other, Hey, what are you doing over there? You know, what I mean? It’s just communication thing. You know, I even watch people, you know, like, even, you know, we cleaned up the parking lot, Big Five parking lot wasn’t the best, you know, and Tebow gave us a chance, you know, and we clean that up. And sometimes you’ll see homeless people, or, I’m sorry, people without homes. You know, I mean, pick up trash, you know, as they walk through, and I tell them, thank you, you know, appreciate just the humanity aspect of it all, you know, but like I said, in the long term, you know, I, and I’m not a fundraiser or, you know, I’m just a guy with an idea. You know, like this thing. I feel like it’s bigger than me. It’s always been bigger than me. It’s just something I would like I said, just to give back. And, you know, I mean, that’s where we’re at with that.
Unknown Speaker 1:57:55
Councillor Martin?
Speaker 5 1:57:57
Yeah. Are are you associated with the king Penney’s supplement company? Yes, ma’am. And it’s that a for profit or nonprofit?
Unknown Speaker 1:58:10
My supplement company is for profit.
Speaker 5 1:58:13
Okay. And is it part of your vision that the weight pile in of the Rockies installations would be branded with the king Penny brand?
Speaker 23 1:58:23
Not Not at all, ma’am. It started off it was like the Banner had said King Penny and Rma pumping or something like that, like just everybody who had, but there was not room on the fly. So it kind of just changed, you know, what I mean? And stuff like that. And then a lot of people, you know, know, like, you know, my body building stuff and things like that, and like an online presence. So it was kind of used as like also marketing like, oh, we know him. He works out. You know what I mean? Try to get people to come. But the way Powell in the Rockies is a free fitness. nonprofit entity.
Speaker 5 1:58:57
Yes. My question about branding was more. If if it were to move to city facilities, would it would there be an association? We’ll keep in the name? No, man. All right. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:59:10
Councillor Yarborough?
Speaker 6 1:59:12
All right. Thank you. I’m not gonna ask a whole bunch of questions. I just want to say I’m pretty sure I’ll see you at Juneteenth at Roseville Park telling people about your weightlifting
Unknown Speaker 1:59:22
Yes, ma’am. I will be celebrating Juneteenth
Speaker 6 1:59:25
June 17 At one o’clock near Roosevelt park and I want to see some of their weightlifting stuff you talking about? Yes. All right. All right out there. Yes, ma’am. Thank you for your your vision and your passion.
Unknown Speaker 1:59:42
I think you just met your marketer. Oh yeah. Thank you so much.
Speaker 23 1:59:49
And I also to invite you guys to come down, take a look or come down and participate and if you guys you know, I mean have any fitness needs or anything like that. We have personal trainers that are there and stuff like that people
Unknown Speaker 1:59:58
can help. Great Thank you.
Speaker 23 2:00:01
No ma’am set we get seven and a half and a barely found them, but we’re up there. Thank you guys for your time.
Unknown Speaker 2:00:10
Thank you we’re gonna take a five minute break it’s we have we’ve got about we’ve got about 13 So, third page
Unknown Speaker 2:12:59
Yeah, it’s right here. Nobody rushes I’ll have a shower somebody
Speaker 1 2:13:33
I think we overdid our two or five minutes. Thank you
Speaker 1 2:13:43
we have about 15 more people that are on the list so if we can come back
Speaker 1 2:13:56
the next three people on the list are Morgan Upton, Steve ALTSCHULER and Shaquille Dillo. I’ll say that one more time Morgan, Steve, and Shaquille you can take the three seats up here
Speaker 1 2:14:19
I was told that they can’t hear you when you speak so can you get closer? Okay
Unknown Speaker 2:14:30
so Morgan is up first. Hi.
Speaker 1 2:14:42
I think we all don’t. There you go.
Speaker 24 2:14:46
My name is Morgan Upton. I’m at 4719. Luka drive. My name is Morgan Upton. I’m at 4719 Luca drive. I’m going to be talking to you guys about the rec center one Need to be built off of clover baserunning, Grandview meadow drives our drive. So I believe we should be standing out in the crowd. I think you guys think that as well as cities in Colorado, and be striving for us to look up to because we are not the city we were back in 2008 Whenever this was proposed or voted upon back in 2008. So wherever the rec center gets built, I’m interested in knowing how you will incorporate the commitment of the council’s 100% renewable energy goal made in 2018. With the goal that to be reached into the 2030. Can we restructure the layout of the landscaping to incorporate native plants, grasses, trees, fruit trees, shrubs, and maybe Clover to replace long grass because it provides long grass provides really nothing. Besides it just gets sprayed lots of chemicals. And it’s extremely expensive to maintain. We can even make it educational. If the build gets done or not, we can still plant local and native local flora and fauna. Every spot can have a sign that educates the public on the different plants, what animals it helps and how much water a year, that square foot area saves. You can collaborate with resources that are not established in other cities, which will allow us to stand out and help these organizations expand one of them being people in pollinators actions plan. I think I said that right. There’s a chapter of those guys right here in Longmont. A fun fact that I learned from one of their seminars, is Did you know that there are about 1000 species of bees, and only 950 of them are actually found here in Colorado. On fact, this is the only kid friendly public nature space we have on that side of town. And it’s within walking distance of a lot of neighborhoods and schools. And I understand the enticement of that as well. Traffic is another thing that has to be addressed. We are a walk or bike community and crossing the street is already a hazardous task because of the growth. Kids driving and people driving through this area that are unfamiliar, we are going to see huge influx of people to the area because everyone loves new things. Because of the inevitable influx of people cars and incidences that will occur, we will start to drive our kids to school and even to that facility itself. A signal at the intersection of clover base and drive and Grandview Mehta drives would help in crossing the street over there. But unfortunately will not help us get in and out of our neighborhoods while driving or walking, in fact, it would most likely make it harder due to how it would slow down traffic and create a jam, especially in the mornings and afternoons whenever schools getting in and out. Bringing public facilities also brings in invitation to certain behavior and individuals that we’ve already been dealing with since the opening of the park and restrooms, we have encountered incapacitated individuals on our walking paths and an increase in safety concerns that we didn’t have before. So the proposal for this building brings into question the safety of our community, the environmental sustainability of the area and having adequate staff unfortunately, we will see that there’s a influx of of that going on. I believe with or without the build, we can make the space better. And remember, we are the ones that have to live with the unpress unprecedented repercussions of your choices. I appreciate you guys. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 2:18:42
Thank you, Morgan. Councillor Martin?
Speaker 5 2:18:45
Oh, thank you just a couple of things. It sounded like maybe we’re unclear from what you had to say that the construction of the building and the can and the development or landscaping. Further landscaping of Dry Creek Park are two separate development projects. And so far, we haven’t discussed putting both of those on the ballot, either either separately were or together. So of the council really only to only discussed the, the building. And, you know, that could change because the final ballot referral has not been made yet. So um, but I’m just throwing that out that they aren’t necessarily at this, you know, altogether. And there’s been no discussion of turning the Dry Creek area into a Roosevelt Park. You know, East Coast kind of park gets almost all parks development now is done with native growth and sustainable development.
Speaker 24 2:19:50
Yeah, I saw a few things on that on that sustainability of what is offered in that. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 2:19:55
Yeah, I just wanted to make that clear. Thanks. Okay. Great.
Unknown Speaker 2:19:59
Thank you. You fix, Steve actually
Speaker 25 2:20:07
Steve ALTSCHULER, and I’m glad to know I don’t have to give my address anymore.
Unknown Speaker 2:20:12
Yes, you do
Speaker 25 2:20:14
to drive. So this, I have a little extra time. So I’m just going to comment a little bit about that I live in that area. And when I first bought 16 years ago, they were saying there was going to be a rec center. Part of me would love to have a rec center because I could walk there and go for a swim and work out and walk home. But I also realized it is going to increase traffic tremendously in that area, and sadly, probably also increased crime in that area. So those are things that have to be thought about. As Morgan as she, as she was saying, she was speaking I was thinking about in Las Vegas, they have walkways over the streets. So maybe it’d be possible to consider putting in, like walking bridges around the clover and Grandview intersection area. So the kids could go back and forth to the Rec Center more safely without having been driven back and forth. So that’s just my thought on what she was saying. I wanted to talk about crime. Today in the paper in the Greeley Tribune, there was an article with a man named Roman Gutierrez, who had had his 1989 Subaru Outback stolen from his Westminster home and they also took his catalytic converter, which he found out when he got the car back. And the first article is Westminster. vehicle thefts in Westminster have gone from 859 in 2020 to 12 159 in 2022, up 50% In two years. Last week, Westminster passed on first reading for ordinances to address increasing driving crime and car parts theft, and brought prosecution for several auto related crimes in house to the Municipal Court. Mayor Pro Tem David DeMont said the goal is to hold people accountable, and the show Westminster is not the city to break the law in. In June of last year, June 27, Aurora there was an article where it said a whare may now be the first city to punish car theft in municipal court with mandatory jail time in in Aurora from 2020 to 2021. Aurora saw a 40% increase in car theft in one year. They now have a mandatory first time offender offenders get 60 days. Repeat offenders get a minimum of 120 days in jail. This weekend, this weekend after sharing my wife’s car for the past six months I bought a new car being afraid that it would be stolen or keyed by a jealous person. I drove my 22 year old truck tonight with crime going up and people just destroying other people’s property inside be safe and I would like to not have to think that about Longmont. It’s not just car theft. Criminals can walk in and steal up to $2,000 per day of merchandise from Walmart, Kohl’s Dick’s Sporting Goods anywhere and not even be arrested. In case you think well the law says 995 police actually wait until it’s 2000 so they could show a cost basis instead of a retail price. In San Francisco, San Francisco is losing Nordstroms Walgreens Neiman Marcus Whole Foods, Home Depot’s and more because they can’t afford the millions in theft. So what I wanted to ask you tonight is to please take steps to protect Longmont citizens and businesses before shutdowns and job loss occur in Longmont plus, crime will lower long months property values and we do not want to become another San Francisco. If you have comments on Welcome to hear them but mostly I wanted to make those statements
Speaker 5 2:24:30
um, yeah, I just would like to know what do you in order to enforce you know, attain the level of law enforcement that you’re advocating? What do you think the standing police force public safety force in Longmont should be
Unknown Speaker 2:24:46
whatever it takes
Speaker 5 2:24:48
and are you willing to pay the taxes it takes
Speaker 25 2:24:52
we’re being charged like crazy right now with property taxes i i assume that the excess in property taxes could go towards police more police protection. And my question would be, do we have more? I don’t know the answer. Okay. That would have been a good thing. I don’t know the answer what I’m about to ask. Okay. Since they started the defund police a couple of years ago. Do we have the same or more or less police? We did back then?
Speaker 5 2:25:20
Well, we have more racks. I’m not sure whether the officers I’m sorry, I meant we have we have this. We have at least as many positions budgeted for police officers as we did them. We did not defund the police. Okay. Okay. I am not aware of the current staffing level whether we are above or below staffing, but we certainly have not defunded our police force. No one ever considered that in Longmont, which is
Speaker 25 2:25:54
great for Longmont, but I do know in the state of Colorado car theft, we are like number one in the country for car theft. So people are not being prosecuted when they commit these crimes. And that’s the judicial system. Okay. But I’m saying if other municipalities of other cities can pass ordinances to punish car theft, why can’t long month
Speaker 1 2:26:16
it’s good thing to look at. And what I would like is the stats on crime in Longmont, you know versus what it is in Westminster, but it’s good thing for us to talk about and look at it.
Unknown Speaker 2:26:34
So Shaquille
Speaker 26 2:26:38
shieldwall 219 Francis Street. I want to say in response to something that you said that walkways over streets are not pedestrian infrastructure, they are car infrastructure, their infrastructure that exists to privilege cars so that pedestrians have to go out of their way. The real solution is to treat stop treating pedestrians as second class citizens and put street level infrastructure that allows pedestrians to get where they need to go safely. Anyway, sorry, that was a digression. The cost of housing is too damn high. This is the most important and urgent problem that the city of Longmont faces. I know that many of you are passionate about this issue as well. So I have a few thoughts that I want to share about this and then a few questions about it. As general principle, I believe that cities are for people that live here, long months, a wonderful place to live and so more people want to live here then we have the housing inventory to accommodate. We can’t build a 12 foot electric fence about around the city in order to keep new people out. And in my opinion, it is unseemly and neighborly and unAmerican, and ultimately, ultimately self self sabotaging, to try and keep people out by making it impossible to build new housing. Look at San Francisco, if you want to see where that path goes. We have to build more housing. Like most American cities, Longmont hasn’t built enough to keep up with the population growth for at least a decade. We need to build so much housing that the supply outstrips demand and the price of housing goes down. But we have to do that in a way that makes it possible to preserve the things that make Longmont Great. We have to do it in a way that allows for neighborhoods to change while keeping what makes them different. Rather than huge 100 unit developments that generate public opposition, we need to allow small property owners to convert their single family residences to duplexes at at use to their backyards and allow people who live in a neighborhood to make incremental changes based on what they believe their neighbors want and need. Here are the questions that I have for you. To achieve these goals. We need to make changes to the land development code in as much or as little detail as you would like to go into what would you want to see in a land development code that implements these goals that you would be willing to vote for? My second question. Part of what makes building housing so expensive is the number of approvals and the bureaucratic process that is required. The housing reform bill that got killed at the state level this year would have required streamlining that process, as does prop 123, which passed last year and that I assume Longmont would like funding for to create additional affordable housing. Are you open to allowing more housing construction to be by right, obviously, with the understanding that that construction would have to comply with the code? And then my third question is about the city examining hidden barriers to housing construction. I don’t know if this is the biggest barrier. This is just an example that I happen to know about. But it’s fire trucks. I recently learned that Longmont requires streets to be 26 feet wide in order to be able to accommodate fire trucks with ladders if the building is going to be over three storeys tall. For reference lots of streets in Old Town where the housing demand is highest and where most of this housing would presumably be built doesn’t meet that requirement. In communication with members of the public safety department. I learned that this is a requirement we’re inheriting from the International Fire Code, safety and access for other critical public services are important. But there are cities all over the world that don’t have streets 26 feet wide where they put out fires and collect trash. 26 feet is also a lot of asphalt and is not only bad for the environment, but it wastes our most precious public resource which is the land that the city occupies and what we choose to do with that land. And so my question is what is the city doing to discover and fix these kind of hidden requirements that make housing construction more expensive?
Speaker 1 2:30:11
By sea, anyone? Well, I’ll tackle a couple of them. First of all, the number of proof of approvals in the planning takes too long. Is that what you’re telling me?
Speaker 26 2:30:23
This is the thing that I’ve heard contributes to the cost of housing? Yes, you know, that’s
Speaker 1 2:30:27
hard to answer. Because it’s not a unit. It’s not like an overall problem with every single development, every development is different. It has to do with their financing, can they get their financing on time, it has to do with the goals, the timelines, and when they need to get their paperwork in. And then if it needs to be looked at and their mistakes that goes back to them. So the developers also have their own timelines and goals that they have to meet. So to say one thing would make a change just doesn’t work.
Speaker 26 2:31:07
So that’s why I mentioned by right, so my understanding, I’m not as a property developer developer myself, but I’m on the board of the Longmont Community Foundation, which recently considered creating some sort of financing option available for people who wanted to build short term of build affordable housing. And we were looking at funding the soft costs that are upfront in those projects. We had a couple of conversations with Harold Dominguez no good. And what we learned is that that’s actually not a useful thing that the for the Community Foundation to allocate its dollars to because that a lot of the risk in that process for developers, as we understood it is actually associated with the uncertainty of the process is exactly what you said, it’s that it depends. And it depends on different scales, but sometimes on the same scale, whether you’re building 100 units, or whether you’re building one unit. And so very often what drives developers to build these massive apartment complexes or big developments on potentially undeveloped land, rather than trying to redevelop existing occupied land, which is both better for the environment and increases the city’s tax base and a more efficient way, is that they are able to defray their risk by making the projects bigger and bigger and bigger. But that also generates the public opposition that I’m sure that all of you are very tired of hearing about. So so I feel like there’s got to be something in the code or something in the planning and zoning procedures, something that we can do to both eliminate that uncertainty. And I hate that word, because it is a buzz word for business things, but some way that we can shorten these timelines and provide a lot more clarity for people who want to build more housing, to say, if I decide that I want to do this, I will know in 90 days whether or not the project is happening or something like that, which I think is the prop 123 requirement anyway.
Unknown Speaker 2:32:53
Councillor mountain?
Speaker 5 2:32:56
Thank you, Mayor Peck. I actually was one of the few people who called the city support of prop 123 into question, because I wanted to be sure that Longmont could ensure that the buildings produced under Prop one, two threes timeline, we’re still safe and met code. And the city staff told me that after some discussion of the matter, that the city can the planning and zoning staff could ensure that the requirements were met and that Longmont should therefore write a letter of support to this General Assembly in support of prop 123. So I believe that the staff has a plan for doing that. And I think that we would really love to know when the public will see that plan and understand how the requirements of prop 123 will be met because we sure need the money. My understanding
Speaker 26 2:34:17
is that the city of Longmont is required to register a plan with the state by November 1, is that correct?
Speaker 5 2:34:23
Yes. Okay. And it would be good for the council to see it first.
Speaker 26 2:34:27
Yes, I would also like the opportunity to to see it as a member of the public.
Speaker 1 2:34:34
Good, we’ll take that into consideration as far as changing the land development code. We we did we’ve already made some changes. It seems like we were making changes to that code quite often. And I don’t know exactly what type of changes you would be referring to we do allow ad use. We do allow townhouses, condominiums to build four or five storeys depending upon what that development looks like. We have partnerships with the city partners with developers, we have quite a few developments in the queue is far as people are developers wanting to develop in long run. It isn’t a fast process. It just isn’t. And, again, there’s so many variables in it that it would, we’d have to take each development as it goes and explain what’s going on with it. And they change even halfway through sometimes they change. So it’s really difficult to actually answer some of those questions in a forum like this, because it’s such a huge question that you’re asking.
Speaker 26 2:35:54
Certainly. So for example, on the adu regulations for example, it’s true Longmont does allow adu so long as the HOA that that home is in doesn’t preempt the requirements so that you can not have an adu there. But there are other regulations again, that make it difficult to build an adu in Longmont or financially infeasible even in areas where it is technically allowed. So for example, you cannot build an adu that is more than 50% of the square footage of the primary home. You can’t build an adu closer to the curb than the primary home. So for example, there’s a house on a lot near my home where the house was literally built, abutting the alley and so there is like 70 feet of of open space between the curb and that house. That house is not allowed to be to have an adu. nor could they build an additional property on the front of that home and then designate the thing that used to be the primary home the adu and so the only option available to them would be to tear down the house, build a new house but not an adu and then later apply for an adu permit and then build an adu. That seems like it’s making the process harder to add inventory to the community that I think we need.
Speaker 1 2:36:58
So once again, we’d have to look at that is specific instance. And we just can’t do that tonight.
Speaker 26 2:37:10
Sure. But my point is that we need to stop looking at specific instances and make it just more possible to build housing without having to jump through as many hoops for stuff that everyone knows we’re probably going to approve anyway.
Unknown Speaker 2:37:21
Okay, Councillor waters,
Tim Waters 2:37:23
there’s your back just Sookie all good questions. In your question about process and in the time for permitting, reminds me that we and I’m going to this is for Harold or for Glenn. We did budget this year for an ombudsman did we not? Alright, in 2023. When I came, that’s the 2023 budget.
Unknown Speaker 2:37:51
We have one.
Tim Waters 2:37:53
So, five years when I came on this council, one of the early discussions we had about the permitting process was the employment of an ombudsman. And for a variety of reasons that didn’t happen. A year or so later. We did. Actually, we contracted with a consultant to work with nonprofits that were that lacked sophistication in the whole permitting process to help them get through the process in a more timely way. And that became kind of an interesting r&d opportunity because the city learned a lot about how to take advantage of that and what it means for the various departments. And I’m not certain what the what we’ve learned since we are employing our own ombudsman, but it does suggest that would be a good update to get at some point in time on what we’ve learned and how it has accelerated the process. Because I know that’s the intent to reduce time because every every week, right adds cost without necessarily adding value to the cost of a residence and that’s clearly not what the city wants to do. But that’s it. That is an answerable question not tonight. It is an answerable question. I think we ought to get an update at some point it would be useful for me if nobody else is interested in I’m guessing some are but good question. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 1 2:39:14
So the next people on our list are Lance Whitaker, Maryanne Niehaus and Suzanne Reed.
Speaker 27 2:39:48
All right, my name is Lance Whitaker 1750 Collier Street. I’ve lived in London for 40 years now as you all know Today is National hole in my bucket day is also national creativity day. And National Water flower day, am I meant to do a day? So there’s your days today I would like to talk about fruit trees in parks. A lot of concern was over, you know, planting trees and stuff like that. And while maintenance is a little more expensive on fruit trees, we hardly have any fruit trees in any of our parks. So planting fruit trees is a very good gardening technique that a lot of people know about for maintaining soil growth. For you know, food, obviously, and a lot of times community awareness, so I would encourage fruit trees in parks. Thank you, Mayor. And Council, of course.
Unknown Speaker 2:41:19
Thank you, Lance. Marianne,
Unknown Speaker 2:41:22
any questions?
Speaker 1 2:41:23
Oh, there any questions for lamps? He’s dying for a question. I can tell so. Okay, lands what kind of a fruit tree would you like us to plant?
Unknown Speaker 2:41:37
Cherry trees?
Unknown Speaker 2:41:38
All right, you got it.
Speaker 27 2:41:40
I’m making a beautiful cherry. Why I got five gallons of it in my house if you won’t come by
Speaker 1 2:41:51
No. Thank you. Alright. That on record, no, thank you.
Unknown Speaker 2:41:58
These to be bottled in July. Thank you, Mayor and Council.
Speaker 1 2:42:05
You’re welcome. Marianne Niehaus. Is she here? Okay, I’m sorry about that. Suzanne.
Speaker 28 2:42:18
Hello, hello. Thank you. I’m very appreciative and grateful to be a citizen of the United States of America where we do have inalienable rights to speech and privacy. And thank you, Mr. Waters. You’re very good at explaining to reminding us of our constitutional rights to speak. And I’m going to ask
Speaker 1 2:42:49
unincorporated Boulder County, but what city are you in?
Speaker 28 2:42:52
I’m in. In the interest of privacy. I would just like to give you my Pio box. And that is Pio 19083.
Unknown Speaker 2:43:02
We don’t accept peel boxes.
Speaker 28 2:43:05
Well, you have that record on the registration. There’s a registration that I put my Oh, really? Because I just thought Mr. Waters said that we do have a right to privacy.
Speaker 1 2:43:19
You know where you are. We’re going to take up that subject next week. He was speaking about our
Speaker 28 2:43:25
contract contribution Canada political campaign. Yeah. So at this, so I don’t have the
Speaker 1 2:43:32
right to speak. No, you have the right to speak. But we would like to know your address.
Speaker 28 2:43:36
I send my Pio boxes. 19083. I’m not trying to get a fight. I’m just trying to protect my privacy. Excuse me. Excuse me. I mean, I’m not. I’m just trying to protect my Suzanne.
Speaker 1 2:43:52
Suzanne. Yes. Would you mind when you are finished giving your address to Michelle, it is
Speaker 28 2:43:57
on the registration. And I will be happy to give that it is on a registration. My my residential address is on the registration. Registration. Well, that the paper I signed out. Yeah, right. On an order. It’s there. I just don’t want to have a record. No,
Speaker 1 2:44:18
I’m sorry. You have unincorporated Boulder County. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 2:44:21
But there’s the address to know. Oh, well, I’ll be happy to do that.
Unknown Speaker 2:44:28
Great. Thank you that that’s perfect.
Speaker 28 2:44:32
My reason for being here is smart meters. Okay. And my concern I have lived in Boulder County for 40 years. I’ve lived in an area. It’s unincorporated. And we have experienced a number of wildfires. And traditionally we think of wildfires as being in the woods but we know From December 21, that we had a huge fire in Lewisville. And I know everybody here, whether we live in Lewisville or not we felt the pain of people losing their homes. My issue with the smart meters is the the record of starting on fire and exploding. And this has occurred. So many times, the hundreds and 1000s of smart meters have been recalled and four states. And that’s Arizona, Florida, Oregon, and Pennsylvania, they’ve been recalled because they have caused fatalities and serious injuries. And that is my primary concern. I was horrified to learn that if a smart meter starts on fire explodes, most of us would grab, like if we were outside near it, we’d grab a garden hose would squirt it with water, but the unfortunate technology, when you use water, and a garden hose, you can be electrocuted. And that’s horrifying for anybody because it could happen to anybody just out of a reflex action. And the reason so that that is that is my my sole purpose of being here is just to bring to awareness. I don’t want to use more than my five minutes and I don’t know how far I’ve gotten. But But I and closing I’d like to say that I do support the passing of the resolution by the city of Longmont to halt the smart meter rollout, until it can be shown that this technology is safe to be attached to our residences. And I thank you very much for this opportunity.
Unknown Speaker 2:47:16
Thank you and I’m sorry about the
Speaker 28 2:47:20
That’s okay. I’ll be happy to provide it. That would be great. Yes. Thank
Unknown Speaker 2:47:24
you so much. Oh, counselor water, Martin. I missed it.
Unknown Speaker 2:47:35
Excuse me now, Suzanne.
Speaker 1 2:47:36
Counselor Martin would like to comment.
Speaker 5 2:47:42
Who who is your electricity provider?
Unknown Speaker 2:47:45
Excel?
Unknown Speaker 2:47:47
Ah, do they have smart meters now?
Speaker 28 2:47:50
They are they are installing them all over the county. Okay, they’re installing them in Lewisville. They’re installing them in Boulder. They’re solemn. And so they are widely installed. And I just don’t understand why it’s an issue to really do research on a meter that you’re that is going to be attached to our homes. I don’t understand that. Have you done your research? Yes. What have you found? What are you found out?
Speaker 5 2:48:22
I have found that they are safe, they are say that the current generation of smart meters, which has not been correctly described by the resolution does not have any of the problems that you’re talking about know associated fires with the with the model
Speaker 28 2:48:42
and how they how they’ve been tested who has tested them and and and and and the other question, have you been in contact with the states that recalled hundreds of 1000s of smart meters to find out how they corrected it.
Unknown Speaker 2:48:59
Now there has been no recall of this model.
Speaker 28 2:49:01
Oh there has well I don’t know what model you’re in you don’t but But
Speaker 5 2:49:07
what do you know what model? No, I don’t mind is is installing.
Unknown Speaker 2:49:11
I don’t Could you share that with us and give us Yes. It’s
Speaker 5 2:49:15
never had zoomy chip in it. It’s not manufacture Okay,
Speaker 28 2:49:19
well, then you should be fine. And everybody’s Yes, we should. But but but the question that you brought up is let’s that you said that it’s fine. It’s it’s not exploding. It’s not starting fires. And so we can rely on your answer to be in fact base is that correct?
Unknown Speaker 2:49:45
Is that Is that correct?
Unknown Speaker 2:49:49
Very fact based person. I didn’t make any of that up.
Speaker 28 2:49:52
Oh, but you did not say that was correct. You said you’re a fact based person. That’s not saying are you No are you?
Speaker 1 2:50:01
Let’s I know she is and that question that same thing. Thank you The next three people are Mike Sandoval, Strider and Kyndra Purcell.
Unknown Speaker 2:50:36
So Mike, you’re our first
Speaker 29 2:50:55
see my time. Mike Sandoval 242, East Mountain View. I’ve been a resident long with over 40 years and pay proper taxes over 30 years. My first comment was on the increase in property taxes by over 33%. Or to say like Jerome Powell, he, the Federal chair, chairman, he said that he does want doesn’t want inflation to go greater than 2%. And yet, property taxes is going up. 33%. So I’m like, why isn’t the kind of government communicating with each other and following the rules, when one reason is failing. I also went to a town hall meeting, and they mentioned that the Homestead Act was written in like 2001. And the right now I think it’s $250,000 that the seniors if you’re 65, and over and live in your property for over 10 years, that you get deductions on the first 250,000. But that was also built a number, calculate in 2001. But now that we’re looking along with a 2023, the laws haven’t been updated. And I see that, okay, well, what’s the value of a property here in Longmont? It’s whatever 505 50. So I think that rule should be changed from 250 to 550. And that will be an advantage to the seniors. Granted, I know those people who want to have money are gonna complain, but also the seniors have had their property a long time. You know, they’ve met those rules and light of Microsoft security. So when they’re not working, so it’s, you know, here’s their chance to have that advantage. So I just want to make that comment. Now, their subject I didn’t really want to talk about but I guess I have to, say Senate Bill 23 Dash 148. I know the pack by the legislator into Longmont. I did talk talk to her. And it’s about a bill concerning property used to illegally manufacturing drugs, especially methamphetamine in Colorado. It was introduced to the Senate on April 24 2023, and passed the House on May 26 2023. But it hasn’t been signed by the governor. The problem with that is there’s only one item that’s been approved. I mean, it says a law enforcement agency and a certified Industrial Hygienist must notify the Department upon discovering an illegal drug laboratory that manufactured methamphetamine was in residential property. Okay, so the current rules before was that a drug manufacturer and smoking had the same strict rules. But now it looks like the breaking out a drug lab. And that’s fine that is poisonous that that should have the strictest rules possible. But smoking math is another item it should be separated and it shouldn’t have as strict rules. So it looks like they might have separated that item out. But that was only one item. There’s a lot more to it than that. And because the problem is it’s all the costs are associated with the residential user. Longwood housing has to pay for it. Duplex property people have to pay for that or their own house. So quickly went to the AI Artificial engineering and asked that question artificial intelligence. And they said what they should you should do is educate the public about the dangers and signs of meth use and abuse. Provide support and resources for people who are struggling with meth addiction. So give them some therapy, implement prevention and intervention strategies to target high risk groups. So just I guess the youth are going to start using meth As unfortunately pregnant women and people with mental health, this is all AI information, I did not create it. They said, collaborate with local agencies, organizations and stakeholders to develop a comprehensive and coordinated response to the math problem, which is getting treatment, let the law enforcement know. And then there let there be computed T development. And it also said seek funding from state and federal sources to help with math detection, cleanup and rehabilitation of affected properties and areas. Because right now, residential insurance does not cover. I know there’s some new residential a company that is starting to block new houses to support them because of the fires in California and Oregon. So they’re just getting swamped with high costs. So they’re not accepting new amendments. So basically, the homeowners on their cells. And I just wanted to say that I, you know, I did write a letter, you gave me a card to the legislator, I wrote a letter, email, and that will be one item passed, but I’m hoping there needs to be more work on this a lot more work to help the resident. So Mike, what was that bill number that you Senate Bill? 23 Dash 148?
Speaker 1 2:56:19
Oh, you’ve got it. Okay. Thank you. And for the property tax there is going to be on the ballot this year, and I’m sorry, build up about addressing the property tax. I don’t know the number of it. It’s called the H H bill. And I haven’t read it completely. But I suggest you read that bill. It’s not perfect. But it is a help for everybody in the state on the property taxes. That’s that’s all I can say about it. Because I know that the that the legislators are working on that. It’s frustrating because it is our legislation that did away with our protection on property tax, and now we’re trying to correct it. So pay attention to November. And do you know Does anybody know what that bill number is? Yes. 148 he was referring? No, I’m talking about the new property tax bill that is called H H. O vedo. Okay, h h they don’t have a bill number for it. So hopefully that’ll that will work. I also think it never hurts to contact your county treasurer accessor and appeal it. At this point, I think that that’s that’s all the tools that we have to deal with it. But I agree it’s too much. It’s killing us. Councillor mountain.
Speaker 5 2:58:02
Thank you Mayor Peck. I should add that we have now nine days to appeal to the county assessor.
Speaker 1 2:58:09
Thank you for that Marsha. Okay, thank you very much Mike. Strider What do you have for us tonight?
Unknown Speaker 2:58:28
Strider Can you pull that microphone up to your mind?
Speaker 30 2:58:30
Yeah. Yeah, Strider Benson 951 17th Avenue. By the way, all the high school kids that have been here the last several bumps, they all gave the high school as their address. So I don’t think other people should be treated radically differently. That That doesn’t seem fair. Oh, the I think the Longmont Police Department has been amazingly good service and for the last 40 years. Before then I think it was more biased and the way they function but by the way, a month ago I biked in to Boulder on my eighth bike and it was stolen in Boulder. So there’s a lot of real professional thieves in Boulder. And I I actually had written something I wanted to say tonight, but I couldn’t get my notebook in my mountain bike case, and I forgot to bring it so I’m just rambling. Anyway, one major thing, this is a book called gunfight just came out a A week or two ago, Ryan Busey he was a major of salesmen in the gun industry. So Kimber guns, Kemper rifles lifts in Cal spare Kalispell, Montana. And he was writes about his own story about being a gun promoter and then seeing how the culture was falling apart and being destroyed by the gun industry and became a an advocate of saving our society from the gun industry. The mass killings is absolutely policy by one wing of our political system. They’re promoting vigilante violence, Texas and Florida especially. And it’s connected with the insurrection it’s connected with the assault on medical care and assault on Social Security, assault on voting rights, the overtaking of the Supreme Court, and worshiping up dictators around the world and the obstruction of Congress. And when Congress can’t function, what’s happened, the Supreme Court decided to start becoming the legislature and making laws. If you know, the dobs case in Mississippi, it said, Well rolled abortion rights from maybe 22 weeks back to 15. Well, it was bad, but it was saying, and then the Supreme Court decided, oh, we’ll make a new law. We’ll roll it back to six, six weeks. I mean, that’s the kind of game that is going on. And the the illegal appointment of the Supreme Court denying President Obama his hips, his appointment, and the debt crisis right now, the point of I mean, the Trump Congress, they passed three belly $3 trillion tax cuts for the billionaires, so that don’t have to pay any taxes to dump the dollar and people. And then they say, Oh, now we have a debt crisis. So we have to cut spending, and, you know, get rid of environmental protection, get rid of all that. It is policy of one wing of our society that is doing that. And the gun culture and and the mass killings is part of it, you create fear. And then you sell more guns to the people, oh, other people are shooting, therefore, I have to have more guns. Everywhere you have more guns, you have more killings. And in every home for the last 40 years, every home that has a gun has three times more deaths in the home than those who don’t have a gun. And that’s been steady for the last 40 years. And it goes along with the code and the insur insurrection and the vigilante violence. And if we don’t reawaken our society, part of that says killed woke. You know, they’re abolishing history and literature and poetry. Thank you straight and I’ve no one’s ever asked me hardly anything. Is there anyone that cares to address any of those points?
Unknown Speaker 3:03:57
Councillor Yarborough?
Speaker 6 3:04:00
Thank you, Mayor. I’ll be quick because we have the 10 o’clock and I know people want to go home. But straight I know you are historian and you have a lot of information. Throughout the years of living in the city of Long mine. What is your take on I would like to know what is your take on crime. And when you sit here throughout the night, and you hear about the smart meters, you’ve seen a lot within the city and in our world. So I know you didn’t ask about smart meters. But I would love to hear you. I’ve never heard you say anything about smart meters. But I also want to know your opinion about the crime in the city along mind.
Speaker 30 3:04:39
On the smart meters, I’m learning from both sides and see corrections about what people are stating. And I don’t I don’t want to make formal comments on things that don’t have a high level of understanding but on the crime, you know, to Mexican kid Just there were killed in about 1980. And since then, long my place has really, I think function well. But that was a pretty big crime wave of in the, in the early 2000s Up until they passed the marijuana legally legalization and then the the tagging went down, the crime went down. And you know if if you don’t have Appalachian game going on like the alcohol back in the 30s, Chicago, the gang wars and all that kind of stuff, it’s really gone down and noticeably, the tagging and the vandalism and stuff. There may be other crimes that are stapler gone up, a lot of that has really gone down. And I notice and appreciate that. And I think the fact that we have a viable and functional City Council as part of that people can address their grievances. And I was a member of the Longmont Election Commission back about 15 years ago. And there was a lot of illegal money that came in to the Longmont election, mostly from Western State Western tradition, partnership or something like that. And we had we had a quasi legal Election Commission, I was a member of it. And the first thing that city council that got elected did was to abolish the election commission, so we couldn’t complete our work. And that’s kind of how the political game often gets played. And Citizens United basically said, secret money has the right to steal our entire electoral electoral process. And we have to get rid of those kinds of things if we’re going to survive as a society and as a democracy. Yeah,
Speaker 1 3:07:12
yeah. Thank you so much. We need to I could listen to you all night, but unfortunately, it is all night. So we need to move on.
Speaker 30 3:07:21
Well, this is a bell at the conference we had about 15 years ago, we had really good public dialogue. We need that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 3:07:30
I agree. Thank you so much. Is Kinder Piersall here? No. Okay. Dwayne Lee’s stand tall and Audrey Lovato.
Speaker 31 3:07:52
My name is your name is Dwayne lease, and I live at 2686 Pearl Hill Road, Longmont, Colorado. I wanted to come down and address the city council about having actual addresses on contributions. I think it’s critical. It’s important. It’s a first step. And just what Strider was talking about, the amount of inequity in our financial system is causing an imbalance in the entire society. And what you have is you have money that is starting to affect and it is already it is affecting our political system. This creates a positive feedback loop. A positive feedback loop to describe it for this particular process. Money elects people and you say well, no, they don’t. It’s just it’s just speech. But if I can put my my advertisements on TV, and on radio and in print, and I can say it over and over, and over and over and over and over. That’s propaganda. And it works. It works. So now they get their people into office because they have enough money. It’s not a it’s not even an overhead for people who are making a billion dollars a year. Our political process the whole campaigns or maybe at this point two or $3 billion total They can spend enough money to influence the elections, then once they control the political system, they can then aggrandized their own monetary situation so that they can make more money. And so what you have is you have a positive feedback loop. Now one of the very first ICS that we’re in the the very first electronic miniaturization, or operational amplifiers, and one of the big problems that they had was they kept blowing up. And it was because it was a positive feedback loop, you put a signal in, and it would start to grow. And it would just continue to grow. So the way that they fixed these problems, and we probably have probably 50 operational amplifiers in this room right now, at least, maybe more. What they did is they, they put a negative feedback loop into it, which then kept it from running away racing off into infinity. What we have right now is we have a positive feedback loop that’s been demonstrated by money in our political system. Now, having actual physical addresses is a first step. And then I personally believe that you shouldn’t have LLCs, being able to contribute, it should be actual people. Because the actual the people are the government, at least that’s what the premise is in our country. People, not not artificial structures that have been put together legally. So we have to get back to basics. And it’s not going to be easy. And it’s going to be tough. And we’re going to have to talk hard language to people and have them understand what’s going on. We just have to hate to put it in such basic words. But we have to love one another a little more. And we have to think a little more. And we have to be a little bit more hard in our thinking. And so I would encourage the city council to not only not only demand that we have physical addresses, but get LLCs out of the out of the business.
Speaker 1 3:13:05
Thank you. Do we have any? Counselor what? I’m sorry, Martin.
Speaker 5 3:13:13
Thank you, Mayor pet, Dwayne, thank you, first of all, for your service over the years and your civic engagement. But I’m really puzzled. You know, you’ve given us a really good rhetorical description of how money works in national politics. But under long months, existing election rules campaign donation, I would like you to explain to step by step, how it would be that one individual could make more than one contribution to a specific candidate in excess of $260.
Speaker 31 3:13:51
Well, let’s say I have an LLC, which I do have, I have a couple of them. And I could actually have an LLC that sits on the board of another LLC. I can contribute as myself. And I can contribute from my LLC. Yes.
Speaker 5 3:14:12
Yes, very good. Now, how does disallowing post office boxes make that any safer?
Speaker 31 3:14:21
Well, the idea is this. If you heard what I had to say. I said it’s a good start.
Speaker 5 3:14:28
Ah, but that’s not what I’m asking because it isn’t a start. It’s
Speaker 31 3:14:33
no no, no, you are bringing you are bringing up the point that how does a Pio box fix it? Yes. It doesn’t necessarily fix the entire problem because it’s moving in the right direction. What does it fix? It fixes a thing that you can say without having as an example. I’m sure that you can go to a business and you can say I want a peel box. You You can get the PIO box, but you have the name of the business. The LLC. Yeah. The LLC can have another LLC on its board. And so you might not even know who’s actually bringing the money in.
Speaker 5 3:15:16
Yes, but there has to be an LLC for each contribution. What does that have to do with Pio boxes? Well, I’ll tell you, I got at least five contributions from LLC and at least two other council members also did in the last full election. But all of them gave street addresses, at least all of mine did. So what does the PIO box have to do with what
Speaker 31 3:15:40
you’re selling? Now, if they just gave you a Pio box? And they didn’t give you the street address? Why did you get street address? Doesn’t that street address did?
Speaker 5 3:15:50
That’s what I’m what I’m saying tween is that none of the LLCs who made contributions to me used a Pio box. No, bravo. Well, so I’m asking you, if so
Speaker 31 3:16:05
why not just say you can’t have your box?
Speaker 5 3:16:08
I will tell you why would you like my personal story? And let’s everybody let’s understand, Joan, no, yeah, no. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 3:16:19
Maybe we need to take this conversation off,
Speaker 5 3:16:22
I have a personal story to tell. My daughter is leaving an abusive marriage. She was trapped with a man who became her abuser during the pandemic and couldn’t move away. She is a very well educated person, and she makes $165,000 a year. But because she has a restraining order, her physical address is not in the voter registration database, that is a matter of public record. And therefore, without putting her address in the public record, you have deprived her of being able to contribute to her own mother’s campaign for reelection. Do you think that that is just
Unknown Speaker 3:17:14
I think that’s rather
Speaker 5 3:17:17
does the corner case have anything to do with whether it’s just or not say that again, I think you were getting ready to say it was a corner case, it was a rare, a rare thing, but the rarity of the case. And by the way, domestic abuse is not rare. If but if that’s what you were going to say, it doesn’t make anything any difference about the justice of the matter.
Speaker 31 3:17:41
But if if she makes if she gives her identity, that’s that’s the important thing. Exactly. But the point is, is that that you also can have LLCs that are contributing and those LLC can can hide who is actually making the contribution,
Speaker 5 3:18:04
but they can do that whether or not they have a post office box in their address.
Speaker 31 3:18:08
That’s what I said before, as I said, I think it’s a good start.
Unknown Speaker 3:18:12
But it doesn’t make any difference. Well, then
Unknown Speaker 3:18:15
why don’t we? Why don’t we just say you both if
Unknown Speaker 3:18:17
you have an LLC, you can’t contribute.
Speaker 1 3:18:19
You’ve made great comments. We and I agreed to take this off. Do not need to take this to 11 o’clock. So you’ve both been great.
Unknown Speaker 3:18:31
I heard you. I heard you. Okay,
Unknown Speaker 3:18:34
thank you doing.
Speaker 31 3:18:36
Thank you. Oh, and by the way, thank all of you for spending all the time that you spend doing what you’re doing here at City Council. I personally applaud and appreciate it.
Speaker 1 3:18:47
Thank you. Stand tall. Oh, no, I’ve already got Audrey. Hi. I don’t see. Oh, okay.
Speaker 32 3:19:03
My name is Audrey Lovato. I reside at 930 buttoned rock drive. I’m here on behalf of the rock pile on the Rockies. I own Iwai cone district 303 Art of hair, which is located here in Longmont, Colorado, and we were one of the first donors to the rock pile or to the weight pile sorry. So, when we were brought the, the idea, we thought it was an amazing idea, a lot of us in their workout. And so we thought hey, this is like a new way to gym. You know, and so we found that it was new and creative for the city. You know, downtown is known as the Creative District. So this supports and has to long one’s creativity. We are also known for our outdoor activities and living and so this is just another way you know, another way to work out. It would it’d be great to get the youth curious with it, and involved support positive activity outdoors. And we all know our youth could use more outdoors activities. There’s always some staff, there’s always someone on staff to overlook the workouts and help and support where is needed. It’s great to encourage those who are intimidated to go to the gym, who are beginners and for those who are advanced, so it could be great overall for the community.
Speaker 1 3:20:28
Thank you very much for that. Do we have anybody who would like to speak to Audrey about it? We’re all good Audrey, thank you stand to stand tall.
Speaker 33 3:20:50
Stand tall, I’m about 20 01. Terry Street here in Longmont. I tried to put together something here. But it’s all kind of confusing. And basically, what I’m concerned about is the housing situation and what’s not being done, done for it, particularly the people that are have wound up in the homeless situation. And then there’s people who have been fat who found housing and then the city has basically gone to war with them and remove these people from our community, even though they’re a lot of times their long term residents. I guess partially, what I’m complaining about is is the criminalization that the city has undergone, towards the people who are finding themselves without housing. And one of the things I put down as a note is we’ve had some recent court rulings, particularly in Boulder, and, and around Fort Collins that the city really needs to be in compliance with otherwise, the city is actually engaging in what the courts have deemed criminal behavior. People that are seeking shelter, and vehicles, people seeking shelter in tents, and people seeking shelter in and just finding a place where they can cover themselves and sleep. The courts have ruled that if you don’t have somewhere for these people to go legally, you can’t make them illegal. And there’s other things the city has gotten creative and declaring that if people don’t have a set address, that they are no longer residents of the community, even though they may be here 2030 years. That is also something that seems to violate parts of our Constitution.
Speaker 33 3:23:29
What is very, a lot of it is restrictions. And a lot of it is that people that let’s say have housing and are have a situation where they don’t want changes. I’ve been putting pressure on the city. And this has happened all across the country. It’s a crisis in our democracy, and that the people, one group of people have access to the democracy. And let’s say the person doesn’t have housing or not even in the community yet. They’re not getting any sort of vote. And so there’s so much restrictions. It’s like, I would like to buy a small piece of property and put a tiny house on it. That’s almost impossible to do. You know, you can if I own a house, I could put a little exhilarate place on it now and maybe, but only if I have special restrictions. So we you know, I when I was doing working for a candidate going door to door, I met a long long time resident And once she told me the story, how her family came to Longmont, they were very poor. And they actually went where the railroad had dug, put pile the dirt on. And they actually dug into that and their family moved into a dugout. And she explained to me how they would often get food by trapping raccoons and opossums and other stuff like that. So this community’s had very poor people become good citizens of this community. And there are a lot of drug problems that people have, but if they don’t have low cost housing, are places where they can get some sort of security. You know, I had a person that I worked for that passed away because of this.
Speaker 1 3:26:06
Thank you, Stan, you made some great comments, and we’re well aware of them. Councillor Martin? Stan? Just one minute, Councillor Martin, we’d like to,
Speaker 5 3:26:19
yes, I am for a lot of things, including more affordable housing. And for considering people who don’t have permanent address still residents of Longmont that, you know, from the time I spent as an Election Judge, I learned that those people are considered residents of the municipality that they identify with. And so I you know, they’re allowed to register to vote. And so what I didn’t understand about the points you were making, was that, in what way are those people with no address considered now considered not residents of Longmont
Speaker 33 3:27:01
or they’re being denied certain services at different places in the community such as the our center and our center says they’re being put under pressure from the city?
Speaker 1 3:27:15
Oh, really? Yes. No, that’s I have to say that is not true. The our center, you have to realize these are all nonprofits that the city does not own them that we’re not on their boards. We don’t give direction. There are nonprofit businesses that are completely separate from the city. We will donate to them and support their efforts. But they get to make their own rules. So it we don’t get involved with their rulemaking.
Unknown Speaker 3:27:47
I think I had the floor. You did.
Unknown Speaker 3:27:49
And I, I joined you.
Speaker 5 3:27:55
Do you know Mr. Toll, whether the reason that our center is not accepting people with no addresses is because they are only serving people that are enrolled in homeless services with enrolled with homeless services in Boulder County?
Speaker 33 3:28:09
Well, what happens if you sign up for that you’re declared a non resident of lonmark You’re declared a resident of the Boulder County shelter? No, you know, and then you’re basically you’re asked to leave the community.
Speaker 1 3:28:27
So I mean, I’m gonna interrupt here. We do have a staff. Yes, great. We do I have staff that actually works on this. And I think that you should talk one on one with them. And I do have your address here. So we can set you up with someone who can explain all of this because I think you have a lot of things in incorrect yell, I
Speaker 33 3:28:54
can give you a mailing address. It’s 1067 hoever. Sweet E, number 2036. And that’s in line my 80501. Suite E. Suite. 820 36.
Speaker 1 3:29:13
Thank you. You know what, I’ll email you and we’ll set up some time when that’s okay. I mean, I will
Speaker 33 3:29:21
the email is Stanley R told sta n le y r, t o LL. E. No spaces, because I didn’t know about dots when I got that email. At what yahoo.com
Speaker 1 3:29:39
All right. I will email you and set you up with someone who can explain all this.
Unknown Speaker 3:29:43
Okay. Well, thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker 3:29:45
Thank you, Mr. Toole. I think you have a point.
Speaker 1 3:29:51
Okay, moving right along. Warren Wang and Marley Lurssen Laroche. and Anna Soto.
Speaker 34 3:30:08
Okay, hi, everybody. Warren Wah maintained 10 Rannoch. So I’m here to ask for city council support for the new free community outdoor gym. So as Penny has spoken before about what his vision and what his what this place is about, I just like to reiterate that this is one of those places that sociologist has described as one of those much needed third places in this town, whereas the first place is the home. The second is the work. And the third is a gathering place in the community where people could go hang out. So like, you know, instead of seeing your friend at a coffee shop or at the library, you meet up at the weight pile and push out a few ribs and get caught up. So, but I also like to frame the free outdoor community gym as a social equity issue. Not everyone can afford a gym membership, and fitness is the last thing on your mind when you’re struggling to survive. However, if you have free access to fitness equipment nearby, this will remove one more barrier to wellness and hopefully inspire people to get more healthy. And on a personal note, I’ve visited and use this place several times this week last week. And it’s such a unique concept. I mean, people have different stress measurement methods. But for me, going to the weight pile has been a great constructive distraction. And as Penny mentioned before about the inclusive gym culture. It’s been great meeting people from the community from all sorts of different backgrounds. And I believe having a free community outdoor gym like this would be a great amenity for everyone in the city. Thank you for your time.
Unknown Speaker 3:31:52
Thank you. Seeing no comments. I will call on Marley.
Unknown Speaker 3:32:02
Molly’s right.
Unknown Speaker 3:32:04
Thank you. Yes, good
Speaker 35 3:32:05
evening. Thank you. Yes, I’m Miley’s lert. And if I’m 21 of hyperox Bay here, Norman. I’m here to speak also about the coming smart meter rollout on behalf of Longmont for safe technology. And I’m actually going to read the first part of a letter to this bit. Boss auto center this study last year by esteem Swedish EMF scientists, Allah your Hansen, formerly of the Kolinsky Institute, asking for a smart meter moratorium for long month was an Aug. 22 letter of concern. The steam mayor and Dr. City Council of long man, my name is Ali Johansson, and I’m a neuroscientist, retired from the world famous Kolinsky Institute and the equally famous Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, speeding up both past and close associations to the Nobel Prizes and Physiology or Medicine, chemistry and physics respectively. I write to you today from my home in Stockholm, Sweden at the request, my dear friend, Mr. Kelly, I’m hereby submitting some personal reflections because I understand that you at present have decided on the past deployment of wireless systems, especially the wireless smart meters for electricity and water metering without adequate cooperate sharing of information with the public, and that there are concerns from residents about the cumulative home, which is mounting on today’s rapidly increasing levels of radiofrequency radiation, I have to hurry to get it done. For many years, I’ve been studying the adverse health and biological effects of wireless gadgets, such as cell phones, Wi Fi, wireless baby alarm, smart meters, laptops and similar. During this book, I’ve been contacted by many residents around the world connection with different legal bills, appeals and public halls in connection with proposed base station installations, wireless systems near and in schools, smart meters and homes and workplaces from one G to A six g and much more. I’m aware of impending installation of wireless smart meters in your city. I’m also aware that as a city, you’re very much concerned about the steep decline in pollinators and our world are taking active steps towards designing and implementing strategy for your city. To help the pollinators for this. I applaud you. As a research scientists was actively pursuing answers as to why our pollinators are disappearing at such an alarming rate. More than 75% gone in Germany already five years ago. are especially the honeybees down by more than 90% in Canada, and bumblebees down by more than 90% in the USA. I cannot yet definitively say that there’s a causal relationship between the disappearance of bees and the introduction of wireless smart meters, only that the former and different scientific studies do not appreciate the radiation use for wireless telecommunication. However, as a scientist was highly interested in the continuation of not only pollinators, but odds of Homo sapiens as humans instead of adding more wireless infrastructure in the form of smart meters in a mesh network that may have unknown consequences as to how much the in actualities contribute to pollinator declines. I urgently advise you to consider instead staying with wired analog metering solutions that have served you well, I’m told for many decades in Europe because it’s precautionary principle. It is based on common sense, common sense. I counter you’re the most urgent of tones to halt your plant implementation of these meters. Your thoughts around becoming energy independent are admirable, but mine and others research shows the possibility of unintended consequences that these meters bring in the possibility possibility that they contribute to a species extinction. Extinction is very real. When we lose our bees It is then then we know that we are in real trouble. No bees, no food, no children catastrophe. That’s fun. Joe Kelly. And she I just want to finish with to also say again, that as a resident of long one was concerned about becoming smart meter, and increasing microwave radiation, like to have it on record that I’m not anti technology, but I’m in favor of safe technology, with supportive resolution by the city to hold the smart meter for will out until and unless they are clear, independent expert reports that told that this technology is safe for humans, wildlife pollinators in the environment, and do not cause pious. Oh, I made it.
Unknown Speaker 3:37:18
Good for you. Good for you.
Speaker 35 3:37:21
Thank you a lot. I’m very sensitive. So I know about it for decades.
Unknown Speaker 3:37:27
Thank you. No.
Speaker 36 3:37:31
Good evening, dear members of the City Council of London. Thank you for listening to me. My name is Anna Harrington. I live in 16 till two meter Avenue. I will now read for you the conclusion of Professor olio. In your Hanson’s August 22 letter. There is a growing concern that microwave exposure used for wireless telecommunication will be harmful to life and on the planet and that it will destroy the environment through awesome stainable energy consumption, radiation emissions harmful mining and pollution which all will endanger by us diversity and natural habitats. It will threaten our privacy which in turn will increase the risk of cyber crime that are league theft, resale and misuse of artificial intelligence. In short, it is becoming more and more evident that we must take action to protect to protect life environment, and our data via strict recommendations, effective cell protection requirements and consecutive measures for humans and wildlife and firm resolutions revelations of electromagnetic field EMF radiation sources and their exposures of the general public and they have the wildlife. wireless communication is now being implemented in our daily life is a very fast in a very fast way. At the same time, it is becoming more and more of us that exposure to electromagnetic fields may result in highly unwanted the health effects. This has been demonstrated in a very large number of studies and includes cellular DNA damage, which may lead to the initiation of cancer as well as mutation that carry down even in generations disruption and alterations of cellular functions like increases in the intercellular stimulatory pathways and calcium handling disruption of tissue structures like the blood brain barrier, which may allow toxins to enter to the brain impact on the basal and immune functions and loss of fertility. It should be noted that we are not the only species in jeopardy practically all animals, plants and bacteria may be at the stake for the ladder to Harry at Ale 2017 Have them asserted that they exposure to 900 megahertz GSM mobile phone the radiation and 2.4 gigahertz radiofrequency radiation emitted from common Wi Fi routers made listeria, monocytogenes, monocytogenes and ecoli resistant to different antibiotics. To say this finding is scaring is a classical English understatement, because the effects are reproductively observed and links to pathology cannot be excluded the prayer the precautionary principle should be enforced in the implementation of these new technology within the society. Therefore, believe policymakers immediately should strictly control exposure by defining biologically based maximal exposure guidelines also taking into account long term non thermal effects and including especially vulnerable groups such as the elderly, the eel, the genetically and or immunology galley, challenge children and fetuses, persons with a functional impairment, electro hypersensitivity, which in Sweden, by the way, is a fully recognized functional impairment and therefore receives an annual government disability subsidy. So, in essence, science is providing even more convincing evidence that the radio radiation emitted by our wireless telecommunication systems can affect biological systems, including humans, pets, livestock and wildlife. These biological effects are acting even at very low exposure levels. I suggest that you will now listen very carefully to scientific reason and fact based common sense, rather than only to commercial interests. The ladder have many times led mankind badly astray. And he can do it again. With my very best regards your sincerely Ollie, hold your hands and Professor retired but still active from the Karolinska Institute and the Royal Institute of Technology both in Stockholm, Sweden. Thanks, thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 1 3:42:27
Thank you very much. So our last but not least person is Jeff Jones. was Jeff Jones here. There he is.
Speaker 1 3:42:42
Do you have to put down as your address Lafayette? Correct. Would you give your home address to our city clerk as you leave? Absolutely. She’s at the end. Thank you. No, thank you.
Speaker 37 3:42:59
Okay. Yes, my name is Jeff Jones. I live in Lafayette. I am here because I have seen Longmont as a leader. For decades, quite frankly, I volunteered in Longmont with restorative justice back in the days of Beverly title who’s no longer alive. I don’t know if anybody knows that name. But so I saw Longmont as leading and doing things creatively that that wasn’t happening in Boulder and it happened here first before it happened in in Boulder. The other thing that I had quite a bit of respect for with Longmont is and I’m a therapist and addictions counselor, Chief of Police Mike Butler did some incredibly creative things here. And he was second only to glocester Massachusetts in some of the things that he did. So I have tremendous respect for Longmont and with the Smart Meter kind of rollout that respect has changed and I was very curious as to what was going on there. And I have tried to learn about this myself. I do know that there’s polarized information. You’ve heard a lot of that I don’t really want to get into that. But I do want to say so about myself a little bit more about three decades ago I was at Donald technician and created a 98 and a half percent four nines gold one and a half percent titanium flake for an environmental illness clients. So I really got to see what that there are people in the in the world who the their their their bodies don’t take the same amount of load as other people’s bodies for ants. Since the normal dental alloy, so what I just mentioned, there was something that people could tolerate when they couldn’t tolerate like a half a percent of a radium or copper or something like like that that would send them to the hospital. So with with this, you know, this, this five G and all of the electrification and stuff like like that, I know that, you know, there is a load on the body, you know, and the way I see it, like, decades ago, we used to think that secondhand cigarette smoke was no big deal. And, you know, but with electrification and 5g, that’s not something we can’t, we can’t even see it, you know, but it does have an impact. That is my opinion, there’s plenty of research. I don’t need to get into the research. But my, my, my curiosity, and it really seems like, No, this is just going to be pushed through. I know, this isn’t just a long month thing. There’s many states who kind of doing a similar thing. And my my question to all of you is, what’s going to happen to these these people who, you know, they they can’t handle the radio frequency, the EMFs that are happening right now. You know, and then there’s going to be more so my, my, my question is, what are they going to do? Who’s responsible? And, you know, I, I don’t know, if there’s an answer, you know, but I do support kind of slowing this process down. And, you know, if anyone has answers, I’m happy to listen, because I really don’t know. So, so I’m advocating for those people who there already their body is already out a load that they’re getting symptoms.
Unknown Speaker 3:47:15
Okay, Councillor Martin?
Speaker 5 3:47:19
Thank you, Mayor Peck, just a couple of questions. The first one is do you have you computed the EMF load that is that people are experiencing in Longmont now? And the amount that the smart meter rollout is going to add to that load? And what percentage of A is B?
Speaker 37 3:47:44
Yes. So like, I’m not a scientist, I can’t answer those questions. My question was more basic about people who are already experiencing symptoms right now. And I’m just wondering, who’s who’s responsible? You know, because I know, when I worked with environmental illness clients, like three decades ago, they were marginalized. They were minimized. People didn’t believe them. It’s all in in your head, go home. It’s all in your head. You know, and and so, I don’t know, is this same thing going to happen?
Unknown Speaker 3:48:24
The next question I have,
Unknown Speaker 3:48:26
I’m asking a question and you’re asking a question.
Speaker 5 3:48:29
I had two questions. But okay, is is the same, what’s going to happen?
Speaker 37 3:48:36
So, when I was a dental technician, and I saw environmental illness, clients get marginalized over and over again, because they, they they could not tolerate, you know, what was in a normal dental gold alloy. And they were told they were crazy. Is this same thing going to happen, that people are going to be told they’re crazy, because, you know, from what I’m hearing from the council is that there is no problem with the additional smart meter EMFs kind of having an additional load on someone’s body.
Speaker 5 3:49:17
I haven’t heard of any, any scientific evidence with that. And, and I have read all of the studies that that have been quoted this evening, and most of them contain egregious errors of science. So that’s why I keep asking questions over and over and over again, but, you know, the, the, the, the problem with with some people being intolerant of of different dental appliances or different substances used as, as dental fillings. You know, the causes of that in people’s body Chemistry wasn’t known then. But it is known now, isn’t it? There’s a causal relation.
Speaker 37 3:50:05
Well, it was known then, quite frankly, okay.
Speaker 5 3:50:09
But there is there there is a logical called causal relationship here.
Speaker 37 3:50:13
And that’s a metaphor for what I see happening here a metaphor. And my concern is for the people whose body is already loaded up, and any more EMFs are going to make their symptoms worse. So
Speaker 5 3:50:31
your assertion is that the Smart Meter system is going to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Speaker 37 3:50:36
It is a question. Like, I’m not making any claims. I’m not a scientist here. I see. I’m a concerned citizen. And I’m just curious, like, do like, is there any thought about what’s going to happen with these people? Who’s going to be responsible for them? Are they just going to be pushed to the side? Like what I experienced 30 years ago with my example? Well, would
Speaker 5 3:51:03
you say that the agencies that are deploying 5g, wireless cellular technology would be more responsible, or the municipality that’s that’s developed? That’s deploying smart meters?
Unknown Speaker 3:51:21
So I’m talking to this group of people I’m
Speaker 5 3:51:24
breaking here. And the reason the reason that I asked that question is because all of the agencies that I’m sorry, I forgotten your name. Jeff. Jeff, thank you, Jeff, have have has has mentioned or outside the jurisdiction of the city of Longmont, we don’t have a health department that’s county jurisdiction. We don’t have a certification agency. That’s federal. And and so I’m not sure why you’re speaking to us.
Speaker 1 3:51:56
I don’t think he’s bringing a concern to us. Just like I respect everyone who has come up here with this concern. That’s why we have this open forum is to listen to the people about their concern, not debate with him as to whether they’re right or wrong. Because, as far as I know, there’s absolutely nobody on this council, who is a scientist or has all the correct answers. They may tell you, they do. But we don’t. We are investigating. And I am listening to you. I appreciate all the work that you’ve done. And all the research that you’ve done and brought to us. We need to look at both sides. And and I thank you for bringing that what we decide, won’t be decided tonight. So thank you is very happy, very, very happy to listen to all of you about your concerns. And I think we’re in a very incredible city, that we have residents who are concerned and bring things to us. Not every city has that. So great. So I think that I just thank you all for everything that you’ve brought to us. And that’s what we’re supposed to be open to you listening to you. Taking in everything, both sides will look at the moratorium and hopefully have time to discuss it. Because you put in a lot of work. And your efforts deserve our attention. So thank you, everyone. So now we’re at Mary Marin Council comments. Jeff was the last person on the list. Chiquita counselor Yarborough real quick, I
Speaker 6 3:53:50
just want to say thank you, as well as the mayor, for all of you who stayed right. Wow. Usually by this time, it’s like just staff is here. So I just want to say thank you for all of you who have stayed and listen and so you kind of get to see what we hear throughout the rest of the night. And that means a lot for us because we I think most of us enjoy this time to hear what you all have to say and they help us to at least myself to go back and do some research of things that we hadn’t heard before. So I just want to say thank you and please keep showing up and and everything. So the last thing I just want to say is again, I’m gonna do this again until June 17. Coach prime thank you for purchasing a home here in the long night. You are now along monster we would love to welcome you here at city council meeting and hope to see you on June 17 at Roosevelt park at one o’clock. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 3:54:51
So Council your row. Do you have his address? Coach prime, we’ll go up Oh, counselor Hidalgo faring.
Unknown Speaker 3:55:05
So
Speaker 5 3:55:06
I just want to thank, you know, for those of you who are here and who spoke and those who have already left, thank you, I have pages and pages of notes from you all. And you know, I do want, you know, the comments that I hear and the responses, the emails, you know, I’m getting better at responding to them, I work full time. And it’s, it’s a challenge. But, but know that I’ve read every single one of those and I, for them to the people who can best answer them, I forward them to the you know, to people to give me my answers as well. But also all your input really informs how you know, the types of decisions I make and, and how I can best service this community. And so thank you, and thanks, thank you all for, for hanging out. I have a lot of reading to do. So thanks.
Unknown Speaker 3:56:00
Councillor waters. Thanks, Bear back.
Tim Waters 3:56:06
Tomorrow night at 6pm, there’s going to be a virtual zoom session that’s going to be hosted by the Early Childhood Alliance, okay. It’ll be both in Spanish and English. For anybody in the in this or any other community, it’ll, it’s accessible from wherever people might be. But it’s members of the of the alliance that are going to both kind of frame the problem and at least introduced not as an advocacy but as an education and public outreach effort. What that alliance is bringing forward as a proposal. So if anybody cares about what is or isn’t happening in the name or in the interest of our youngest residents, and childcare and early childhood learning opportunities, and in in at least an option that a group is bringing forward that they’ve been working on for a while. I’m happy to sit in the zoom.
Unknown Speaker 3:56:56
That’s what I was gonna ask you, where can they find that Zoom link?
Tim Waters 3:57:01
It’s my so if I’m happy to to Tim Tim dot waters, Longmont colorado.gov, is my email account. I’m happy to send that to whoever is curious. I’ll send them the link and people can log in if they want.
Unknown Speaker 3:57:16
Thank you for that. Councillor Martin.
Speaker 5 3:57:20
Thank you, Mayor Peck. And thank you everyone, despite the fact that I’ve taken a different tone than some of the other council members this evening from time to time. I’m also very grateful for this participation. It is news to me that the public forum is not for debate. That’s always been my understanding that it was for give and take between the public and the council. And we can be asked questions as well as ask them. And I would really hate to see that go away in favor of something less embarrassing, something less sharp, something less controversial. I think debate is the essence of democracy. And we should continue doing it. I also really am tired of Mayors. And it’s not just this one, asserting that I am not a scientist because my work history and resume says otherwise. So thanks all. I really appreciate all of this, give and take and I love democracy. And I’d like everyone to remember that I’m the council member who made the motion in 2017 that there’ll be more than one Open Forum every year. Thanks.
Speaker 1 3:58:47
Thank you city manager remarks. City Attorney. All right. We have a motion to adjourn. So moved. So good. Favor yell YEAH.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai