https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDml3wLrjYw
Video Description:
Longmont City Council – Study Session – October 29, 2024
13:37
Good evening, everyone and welcome. I would now like to call the October 29 2024 City Council study session to order. You can view this you can view this meeting on the city’s YouTube channel, also at Longmont public media.org, forward slash watch or channels eight and 880
13:58
Can we have a roll call? Please? Don Absolutely. Mayor Peck here, Council Member Crist. Mayor Pro Tem Hidalgo faring, Council Member Martin here, Council Member McCoy, Council Member Rodriguez, Council Member Yarbro. Mayor, you have a quorum. Thank you. Let’s stand for the pledge.
14:19
Congratulations 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.
14:40
So to the public. Anyone wishing to call, I’m sorry, Anyone wishing to speak at first call, public, invited to be heard, will need to add his or her name to the list outside the council chambers. Only on the list, only those on the list will be invited to speak at the first call. Public, invited to be heard. We are now at motions to direct the city manager.
15:00
To add agenda items to future agendas.
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Counselor Chiquita.
15:13
Councilor Yarborough,
15:16
Thank you, Mayor.
15:18
I want to let’s see, I did not put it in the motion. So you got to help me with this. Somebody help me with this motion. But for the parade of light,
15:32
I would love for
15:36
our the Youth Center,
15:39
to have the youth council, to have like a
15:46
voting method with Saint Vrain School District for the each school, I think, is high school, to
15:56
have this competition of Having the lights for the parade and the youth council with your the liaison with the youth council to be the judge of the competition,
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get our so I would like to make that motion that we collaborate with Saint Marine School District to have the highest eight high schools I believe we have in St verrain to participate in the competition for the Parade of Lights and have the Longmont City Council youth Youth Council to judge the competition.
16:34
Do you mind if I R state? Yeah,
16:37
thank you. So
16:40
councilor Yarbro wants to move that we that the city council in this year the Parade of Lights, we ride on a float and have a competition with the high schools in st Vern Valley School District decorate that float, and then
17:02
we cannot judge a high school. That wouldn’t really be a good idea if the city council did it. So we would like the youth council to be the judge to see which High School wins, being able to have a design to decorate our float. Does that sum it up that? Yeah, I forgot all about the float. Yeah, that needed some context. Yeah,
17:27
thank you
17:29
for the council float for the council, yes, yeah, okay, I’ll second that.
17:36
So let’s have discussion. I just want to say that we usually during the parade of light City Council climbs on a fire truck, and it’s great fun. But you know what? It’s really hard climbing on those fire trucks. Those stairs are really narrow and little so
17:56
Chiquita and I talked about it after the parade last year, as well as councilor
18:02
Hidalgo ferry, and said, What can we do that’s different? So this is how this came up. So any other questions from or comments from councils?
18:14
Councilor Hidalgo ferry, Thank you, Mayor. So my question is, you. I don’t know how much we figure, but I would assume you know this will cost money for material, for the float or materials, or even the prize.
18:33
So would we be using our council contingency funds for any kind of funding? It seems like that would make the most sense. It would make them the most sense. And you we can do this two ways. You can amend the motion to add that, or we can have two separate motions.
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Which would you rather do? Amend it? Okay.
18:55
So,
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so, okay, so I would like to make a friendly amendment to our hopefully it’s considered friendly to add the use of council contingency funds
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for the winner of the competition.
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Yeah, and any supplies needed for
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the creation of our float, the finalized float. So I do have a question. So are you saying that the winner of the competition, competition would get a monetary award? So whatever, whether it’s a monetary award or an item
19:38
that it would be funded by our council, council contingency funds. Okay, so anything that that the price would cost, would come out of our council contingency funds, rather than, you know, the fund, yeah.
19:54
So before we vote, maybe I could help, just for a moment, city managers and.
20:00
Cedar, I will certainly, if this motion passes, I’ll be working with folks from the youth council and from children, youth and families to work through this process as well st brain Valley school districts. My suggestion is that you just give, like $1 amount to that so maybe between 500 and $1,000 from your contingency that way that’s marked and voted on. And then we asked the youth council, what would be a cool price?
20:22
You’re so good. Just a suggestion. So I so then I would like to to amend that the dollar amount do not not to exceed $1,000 so up to $1,000 but not to exceed from the council, from the council contingency fund for everything.
20:41
So let me see if I can restate that. So councilor Yaro made a motion to direct staff to
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have a
20:55
have a competition between the same rain Valley School District High Schools to design a float, design and decorate a float for the city council members to ride in the Parade of Lights. That has been amended by councilor Hidalgo faring that the cost of the float, as well as the prize come out of the council contingency fund to not exceed $1,000
21:27
that was good counselor McCoy. Thank you, Mayor Peck just a recommendation or suggestion that maybe can be given to the youth council is maybe it. This sounds like the sort of thing that gets carried on year after year after year. Maybe it’s more of a like a cup or some sort of thing like that, that that they get to say, you know, they were the the Parade of Lights
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winners for that year. It seems like better than trying to give a monetary fund a monetary prize of some type. It seems like more of a sort of thing where year after year after year, we give one school or the prize we recognize them as the
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as the one. It seems much more logical than trying to come up with $1 amount that could potentially keep going up. I
22:25
Okay. Counselor, Martin
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councilor Martin,
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I originally,
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I originally had my hand up to put a cap on the amount from the
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council COVID agency fund, but
22:49
the city manager cedar beat me to the punch. But I would second the suggestion that we have a
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a cup as the prize, and that that the cup could travel from school to school, from year to year.
23:07
Okay, is that what the
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council member McCoy intended it to the youth
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council. Oh,
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to the youth council. So that’s a different, yeah, that would be a different Okay, I’ll share that suggestion with them if this motion passes. Okay, so let’s vote on this.
23:42
Who are we waiting for? Council member,
23:45
Martin councilor. Martin.
23:55
Councilor, Martin, do you want to give a verbal vote? I
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This is
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something great that passes unanimously. Thank you, everybody. Thanks for that suggestion or that motion. I always think it’s great when you can include our youth in anything we do.
24:18
Yes. Counselor Crist,
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I’ve been thinking about the mayor’s suggestion about a master plan for the airport, and in looking at Envision Longmont, I realized that it was written in 2015 and that it’s approaching 10 years and is maybe something we should look at in terms of, are there other items that we need to refresh? And I realized we did not plan for it in this year’s budget, but I thought this was maybe something staff could bring back to the next study session at December 10. It doesn’t have to be a full plan, but just an idea of what would be needed so that we could discuss it further at the retreat. I.
25:00
Yeah, so, oh, thank you. Well, it’s not exactly a motion. No, that’s not a motion. So
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would you, are you saying, Councilor Chris, that you would like to put discussion of the airport master plan on the retreat agenda?
25:19
Actually, I’m saying that the next study session is December 10. It’s the newest or the most contemporary one before our retreat. And so I’m asking the staff to bring back information on what is required.
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How much would it cost? How much time who gets involved in creating a master plan or revising sections of Envision. Longmont,
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so that’s my motion, is that staff would bring it back at the earliest possible study session before the retreat.
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Is there a second councilor? Yarbrough,
26:02
thank you Mayor Thank you Councilwoman, Chris. I think that
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our agenda is probably for the for the year, even for the study session is pretty full. I myself would like to talk about it at the retreat. I know that staff. I know that
26:22
they have to hire a consultant for it. They are looking into the master plan for the airport,
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and as you had mentioned, it’s not in the budget,
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but I would like to talk about it more in depth and give them more time for at our retreat to actually to bring that information to us, because I know they have to look at consulting. How long would that take to get that information about the master plan? Because I inquired about it too, and so they told me it’s minimum $500,000
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and so
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I would like for us to talk about that at the I suggest that we ask to have that item at our retreat, and that gives them time to bring information about how much it will actually cost by 2020,
27:12
in 2025,
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to get started on that and how long would that take?
27:19
I guess I need more of a framework before then, is what I was thinking. I just want, you know, like you’re saying, consultants, you know, give me a checklist of what, what all is involved in this, and then we have topics for discussion for the retreat.
27:42
Can we just
27:44
to the city manager? Can you kind of explain what that process of when we are looking for getting ready to do a master plan? I don’t or is Levi here or,
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or you, or, I don’t know if joni’s back here. Joni was part of when we did envision Longmont, and she can talk through this. So obviously it’s two different components, one with the airport master plan. Two is the city’s comprehensive plan. Which there’s different components in that?
28:19
So which one are we talking about the airport master plan or the city’s comprehensive plan.
28:26
I think there’s some sections of the city’s comprehensive plan that could be revised or refreshed, but don’t know that it needs a complete revision.
28:37
So I guess the discussion at the retreat could be what areas need to be refreshed, and we know that we’ve identified the airport isn’t envision long run up for review in 2016
28:50
2026 I think we were looking at trying to do a comprehensive plan update. In 20 I want to say 2026 we had it budgeted. I mean, 2026 we had it budgeted to try to do but with staff capacity and other issues, we weren’t able to deal with it. So I think we were thinking about 2026
29:10
right?
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And I don’t know the cost off the top of my head. What I will tell you is, when you go in and you’re
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updating your comprehensive plan. One of the things that we’re really focused on with Envision is large scale community involvement and and so there’s, there’s a path that we go down when we do that on the airport master plan, it’s slightly different, because some of that is dictated by FAA regulations. And on that we can talk about it as we’re providing you with the airport update on November 19, which is a different discussion.
29:51
But did you
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Joey’s in the back? Joni, do you remember how much it costs to do, envision and do?
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Time Frame and staff capacity.
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Mayor Peck members of council, Vision Longmont, which was adopted in 2016 I believe, cost about $350,000
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we typically have either updated our comp plan every 10 to 15 years. Sometimes we’ve done a targeted update, which we did in 2003
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as an example, Council Member McCoy probably remembers that process.
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And then for the airport master plan, we have actually looked at a CIP schedule, which will be talking about on November 19. And that is a 2028, project, as it’s scheduled, for our
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funding from the FAA, the cost of that is estimated to be $650,000
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so not something the airport fund could actually pay for on its own at this juncture. And we have about $2 million worth of taxiway repair that we think most likely needs to be done ahead of that master plan. But we’ll talk a little bit about that on the 19th Okay, thank you
31:08
so councilor Christ, what do you want to do with this motion at this point?
31:16
Marcia. Councilor Martin, thank you. I feel a little unseen. The last two points of discussion, I’ve had my hand up to ask the very clarifying question that the staff has had to jump in and ask anyway. So I just want to be seen. In both cases, what I wanted to ask was taken care of by the staff, but I’m over here.
31:52
I’m going to remove my motion because I’d like to hear what we talk about on the 19th of November, and we can go from there. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, seeing no one else in the queue to add agenda items, we are now at public invited to be heard. I would like to remind you that we would like your name and address and you have three minutes. The first person on our list is Anna Rivas the
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mic on there’s a button
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there. Okay,
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good evening, council members and Mayor Peck
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you already know how much I treasure Dry Creek Park and all its wildlife. The last time I spoke at city council, the city’s prairie dog trapping was about to commence. I delivered a farewell eulogy to the prairie dogs and for the beautiful life filled natural sanctuary that was about to be silenced after the city’s contractor had finished their trapping and we were ready to begin, and were ready to begin exterminating the remaining prairie dogs. A group of us asked the city to let us continue trapping so that more prairie dogs would be relocated and fewer killed. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to continue trapping for a few more weeks with the help of many wonderful volunteers, we just finished that effort. However, trapping and removing the prairie dogs was a double edged sword. For me, it felt like I was rushing to save as many lives as I could from a sinking ship. But with each life I pulled out, it created another hole in the ship, causing it to sink further. Each prairie dog we removed was another essential cog pulled from a beautiful ecosystem. I could literally see and hear this life slipping out of Dry Creek Park, just as I anticipated. It now feels like a desolate, soulless, joyless, empty space. The prairie dogs that remain are either scattered about thinly or in areas that were not easily accessible or that we simply didn’t have enough time and resources to trap in. Over the course of all this and while we were trapping, I met many people who visited Dry Creek Park on a regular basis, like me. They too valued the serenity and opportunity to be among the prairie dogs and the birds and other animals. They attracted
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these people that I met were shocked, angered, deeply saddened, heart broken, to learn about what was happening and what was planned for the future.
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So if anybody is here to talk about dry creek, can you raise your hands
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thank you
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first, even if you’re not speaking, thank you so much for some of the constituents who are here tonight. Speaking in public like this is very nerve wracking, and yet they felt strongly enough that they showed up and signed up to speak. I hope you will listen to each of their stories and really take some time to absorb what they have to say individually. You will hear some very heartfelt and compelling stories Taken as a whole. You will get the bigger picture, a real sense of how much Dry Creek Park and natural spaces filled with.
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Are treasured and beloved by many. In addition, you should have received a petition signed by about 716 people the last time I checked, asking that Dry Creek Park be kept as a natural area, rather than being covered in artificial turf and ball fields. And finally, I hope that the remaining prairie dogs can get a stay of execution while some thought is given to the heartfelt please of your constituents, thank you. Thank you. Anna. The next one is Susan summers,
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hi, Mayor Peck and council. Susan summers, 1418, Galilee lane,
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I find it interesting that Councilman member Chris brought up revisiting some of these master plans, because that’s exactly what we’re talking about here tonight with Dry Creek Park. That master plan was created in 2008
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that was 16 years ago. It was a completely different world 16 years ago. And I think we would all admit that that’s true. We are currently in the midst of the sixth mass extinction. We are in the midst of a biodiversity crisis, and all of this is human caused. In light of these frightening and drastic changes over the 16 years, I think it would be wholly irresponsible for the city to move forward with the plans as they were made in 2008
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and remove what currently exists at Dry Creek Park, which is a beautiful, as Anna pointed out, natural area rich in biodiversity. This biodiversity comes in large part to the prairie dogs. It’s because they’re there that it’s such a beautiful area, and it’s so rich in birds, ground birds and toads. If you’ve ever spent any time out there salamanders, just countless animals. I know that this council has said that they were going to seek feedback on this when they finally get funding to move forward with this development, but I want to point out that it would be it’s pretty disingenuous to say that you’re going to ask for feedback when you’re already removing one element that a lot of people want to stay there. You know, if you’re taking that away as a choice, then that’s really not very fair feedback that you’re asking from these people. So I’m asking that you not exterminate the remaining prairie dogs that are there until you actually have a chance to hear what these people have to say and what they really want now in 2024
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and not what we thought they wanted in 2008
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and as far as the HOA is concerned, in that neighbor, I know the HOAs are concerned about the prairie dogs, I was under the impression, was told by a staff member that there was a budget of $100,000
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for barrier fencing. So I think that those things can be addressed. And I do think that there is a place for Prairie dogs in Dry Creek.
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And the other concern I just want to point out on a slightly side note, but not really. The prairie dog website has not been functioning for months, and that’s a big tool for me as a relocator. I look at that all the time. I want to know who’s, you know, getting ready to develop and their prairie dogs in danger. And I want to know who was issued a permit so that we can make sure that the rules are being followed. So we’ve asked about that countless times, and last time I looked yesterday, it’s still malfunctioning. So All right. Thanks very much. Thank you for that. I’m
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sorry. I asked for help on this name. Oh, Monica.
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Monica Bundy,
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Monica bunting, I’m sorry. Oh, no, that’s okay. Hi, Mary Peck and everyone I’ve spoken here as well in the past, and I’m here to talk about dry creek. I want to start out with a quote by a gentleman named Richard Louv who wrote a book called The Last Child in the Woods. Nature Deficit Disorder describes the human cost of alienation from nature, among them, diminished use of the senses, attention, difficulties and higher rates of physical and emotional illness. This disorder can be detected in individuals, families and communities. Last time I spoke here, I mentioned to all of you that I have been a middle school educator in the public school system for over 21 years, and I’ve seen a lot of changes in students. Mental health for kids is at an absolute crisis point, and more and more we see kids having less opportunities to interact with their environment. Years ago, Anna and Susan and myself met with Mayor Peck during the pandemic and post pandemic, and we talked some city council members who are no longer on the council, and I actually did a survey with several teachers, many teachers from Altona, Blue Mountain and Silver Creek, and it’s such a unique area, right? Very rarely do we see three amazing K 12 schools, kind of all funneled into this one area. So I also want to share with.
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You some quotes that they shared about how they use this area in their classrooms. So one teacher said, I feel, as a teacher, I see so much potential as an extension of our classroom environment at Dry Creek, especially with the pandemic, our life science curriculum is mostly focused on animal habitats, how they need water, food, shelter and space. In the past, we have traveled to sandstone Ranch, which I love, but see a similar program over here at Dry Creek. Another teacher said the sixth grade, sixth grade classes at Altona Middle School have done yearly lessons at the pond and along Dry Creek, which includes site drawings, water testing and observations. They also use the same area for observing
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science, for sightings of red winged black birds in the spring, Eagle sightings, data on monarchs and milkweed. They do lessons on watershed flood mitigation and basic geography of our watershed. So if we develop these areas, we are in danger of not allowing the kids in these three schools to utilize this space. I also want to mention, lastly, that there has been some concern about artificial turf in this area. Not really sure what the master plan calls for. There’s already some there, but artificial turf has plastic petrochemical base. It causes micro plastic pollution. It has disposal, disposal issues. So artificial turf only has a lifespan of eight to 10 years, and then it goes into a landfill. It has toxic runoff. It has heat generation issues, loss of habitat, water runoff, allergic reaction to kids and causing respiratory issues,
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and that’s all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you. Monica. Jamie freina,
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hi mayor and city council. I’m Jamie frena. I live at 766 South Martin, and I’ve been volunteering at the drive Creek Park for the past couple of months now, I’ve been volunteering because I love seeing the prairie dogs on my walks. The thought of humans killing our local ecosystem, destroying it, and replacing it with artificial turf, just sickens me. I’ve talked to dozens of locals at the park over the past few weeks, or while handing out flyers in the neighborhood, we had 70 volunteers or So sign up. I helped organize them all. Pretty much every one of the residents, all the volunteers, were devastated to find out what’s planned for their beloved Park. First off, they’re shocked. These plans have not been well communicated. They feel left out. Not one person I talked to in the area knew this was happening, not one. It’s not surprising, with the plans being so outdated, coming from 16 years ago, the people around the park now don’t want this potentially cancerous astroturf it calls for. They don’t want stadium lighting blocking their beautiful night sky. They don’t want rolled out rubber mats with plastic grass covering what used to be a serene escape from their overly condensed neighborhoods, they the planned sports fields are only beneficial for some people. People value this peacefulness of the park, being able to bird watch seeing dozens of species enjoying the space there right on with them. Several groups of kids approached our tent while we were helping out and asked what was happening when they found out, they also were devastated to know what was happening to their park that they bike every weekend. Love exploring, seeing, discovering new things. They told me that they don’t want it to become artificial,
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the while the local wildlife is already needing to adapt because of our relocation efforts. A couple stopped by and told me how they saw a fox approaching nearby the neighborhood, and Meg and I, my partner, saw, I think, a coyote as well, which they never really saw close by before. And I expect it’s just because, you know, there’s less and less prairie dogs, this is going to have a ripple effect, and how long until they’re killed too.
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City council needs to prioritize finding better ways to develop without harming our local ecosystems, without introducing hazardous materials into our community. You have the chance now to stop this and make things right. Please give us more time to relocate. Stop the death, protect what we all love the most about living in Longmont, the accessible, open spaces in nature so close by, keep dry creek wild for future generations. Thank you. Thank you. Jamie. Paige Lewis,
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good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Paige Lewis, and I live at 805, Nelson Park Lane. I’m here tonight to lend support to the community’s request that you retain the natural qualities of the Dry Creek Park area, which is unique among parks in the city. I’m about to finish my second term as a member of the Parks and Recreation advisory board for this.
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City of Longmont. I joined this board because I care deeply about the importance of quality recreation facilities as well as accessible parks and open spaces. For long months, quality of life. I’ve lived in Longmont Since 2011 during that time, I’ve seen continued build out of housing and commercial development without equivalent attention to natural infrastructure that must go along with this development in order to ensure that both current and future long monitors have the quality of life they want and deserve. We should not be looking at this as a binary choice, either housing or open space. But the reality is, we need both. Dry Creek Park is an existing Park facility that has retained more natural elements than most of the city’s parks, and as a result, has become a valued refuge within the city for both people and wildlife. While the original Park master plan calls for developing the entire property into programmable sports facilities, the city can choose to revisit this master plan, given the age of the plan, the significant changes in both the population growth and development in order to determine whether the plan is still relevant to community needs, rather than being stuck in the past.
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In fact, the Parks and Recreation advisory board dedicated time to our at our August meeting to this topic, and as a result, passed this resolution, which I’m sharing as an individual member, not on behalf of the board. The Parks and Recreation advisory board recommends that city council ask staff to seek public input prior to any further development regarding the future phases of build out at Dry Creek community park to determine whether the development plan still meets community needs. Given changes that have occurred since the approval of the master plan, I ask that city council honor this recommendation and take time to seek meaningful public input regarding the future of Dry Creek Park before taking any further steps to pursue development. Although the prairie dogs will sadly be gone, there was still opportunity to ensure that more of the natural character of Dry Creek Park is retained into the future, and in fact, envision Longmont, which was pointed out, is quite outdated itself, does include a pillar around responsible stewardship of our natural resources, and states that the city’s actions should ensure, quote, the need to accommodate future growth in balance with the protection of the city’s natural environment, wildlife and sensitive lands. We’re no longer a moderately sized city with ample agriculture and other spaces. We’re a city of nearly 100,000 people, projected to grow by at least 25,000 more people in the next 10 years. Our access to natural areas within the city is quickly diminishing. Now is the time to take steps to retain remaining natural areas within the city for the benefit of residents and wildlife. Thank you very much. Page. Michelle Christensen,
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good evening, Mayor Peck and Councilman. My name is Michelle Christiansen. I’m at 22 09 Spinnaker, circle Longmont.
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I’m a volunteer for removal of Perry dogs my grand. I brought my granddaughter who loves paradox with me and
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gotten to know prairie dogs a lot more since, you know, handling them and and I’ve really
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have to kind of what, I’m sorry I don’t have anything prepared. But walked around and asked people about
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what they think about what’s happening with the park, and 99.9%
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of the people said that they wanted it to remain the same. Why are they changing it? This is my, my go to when I when I feel depressed or and even the kids that were riding around with their fishing poles to go to that little pond, and some other kids that were
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riding their bikes and saying, What can we do to stop this? Can we protest? And my message to them was, get your parents involved and go talk to the council members and the mayor and tell them what how you feel.
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But, yeah, I was really amazed at that everybody. I didn’t talk to anybody that said, Oh, I like this idea. And there’s actually, unless Anna said online, there’s, you know, over 700 people, and that was only within two weeks that we put that out, just to get a toll of what people feel around around the community about this, but I do feel like we need these types of places to go to and just unwind and get away. Nobody wants to go to a walk into a place with all soccer fields and big lights and, you know, and feel relaxed. It’s not what we moved here for we moved here to get away from that, and I feel like we’re the prairie dogs. Are vital there. Why can’t we just co exist with them? Why do we have to keep
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you know, just because we can, should we really do what we’re doing? My granddaughter was a.
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Tears about the whole prospect of what the ones that we don’t get, they’re going to be exterminated. And I had to explain that to a six year old. So I mean, it was I just appreciate your time, and I hope that we can solve this in a good way. Thank you.
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Thank you. Michelle Travis, alt, i
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Hi. My name is Travis, and I live at 651, Robert Street. This is my first time talking to y’all, and I would like the council’s eyes.
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I want you guys to hear me.
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I’m one of the people that all of them were talking about, one of the people that walks in that area, in Dry Creek Park all the time, with my two dogs, my fiance, she’s right over there. My dogs love the prairie dogs. They absolutely love squeaker alley. That’s what we call it. It’s absolutely wonderful, and it’s one of the reasons I moved here to Colorado from North Carolina. It’s one of the best parts about Colorado. After moving here, I can tell you, it’s the value that you are all overlooking.
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The plan that you have for Dry Creek Park does not witness the value that is there currently. And it brings up that that song, every time I see all those stadium lights, you put up that whole paved paradise and put up a parking lot. That’s what y’all doing.
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So I’m standing here as testament that everything they’ve said, all their well researched arguments are all true.
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And from that quotidian motion that you put up earlier about having a float and putting up lights on it, it’s very clear that y’all have the power to make the right choice. This is on you, each and every one of you. That’s why I want your eyes.
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That’s why I want your eyes. Who are you talking to? Dawn? No, Don’s. This is a city clerk.
51:57
Well, Martin or Marcia. I haven’t forgotten that you’re there too. I’m just telling y’all this is in your hands. You guys ought to do the right thing. Those prairie dogs are just like me talking up here, anxious. They’re within our control. They are our responsibility, and y’all are killing them.
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You’re killing prairie dogs for no reason, little anxious creatures. So if you stood 30 feet from them and looked at them and actually had an ounce of humanity, you would see that they have no voice. They’re defenseless. It’s why I’m here talking today. Is because they can’t you’re making the wrong choice.
52:37
Goodbye.
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No clapping, please. Thank you. Anna
52:45
Andrea Merrill,
52:52
Hi, I’m Andrea Merrill, 1846 mount, sniffles Street.
52:56
I don’t have anything real prepared either, but I do want to say that I was volunteering with the prairie dogs too, and I talked to all the people as they were walking by. What I heard from the people is that they love to walk their dogs, go for runs, just stroll. I saw a little old man and his wife must have been married 50 years strolling along, and they just love it there. I’d really encourage each and every one of you to take a walk through dry creek and see what we’re all talking about, because it’s lovely. This is what makes Longmont so special.
53:32
I also wanted to say that we’re losing our ecosystem as we kill these prairie dogs who are a food source for hawks, foxes, coyotes, other other president, predators. Sorry.
53:44
The birds aren’t flying anymore. The predators aren’t looking for them anymore. They’ve flown around it, and then they just leave because there’s no food. So that’s the ecosystem. We’re at the top of the food chain, but as long as we’re killing the bottom of the food chain, I don’t know how we can survive.
54:02
Thank you.
54:04
Thank you. Andrea Scott Stewart, good
54:19
evening, Mayor Peck members of council, Scott store 229 Grant Street, Longmont,
54:25
like to speak about the airport a little bit and some of the the narrative around the airport, it’s been said by
54:33
It’s been said that the airport does not take tax dollars.
54:38
Okay,
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I’ll go into a couple of things that are within the city’s website. These funds are established and financed and account for the acquisition, operation and maintenance of governmental facilities and services that are entirely or predetermined or predeterminedly self supporting.
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Funding for from user charges. In other words, supposed to sustain itself.
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Non major enterprise funds consist of sanitation, golf and airport funds. Take a look at those three funds and see which one’s actually paying all their bills, administrative transfer fee. The administrative transfer fee is a payment for all enterprise funds and other major operating funds to the general fund for the cost of personnel, equipment, materials, construction, facilities or services usage provided by the General Fund department. Consequently, the amount of each year’s transfer fee will be based on an estimated general fund expenditures that represents the direct or indirect services provided to other operating funds, less those that are directly billed to those funds. The city uses a computer model to determine the amount of administrative transfer fees charged to each operating fund. The charges set in this model are included in the budget under the line item labeled administrative management services, 100% of the fee are waived for the Downtown Development Fund, as directed annually by the city council in an intergovernmental agreement, and the public safety fund, as specified in the ballot language when the tax was approved by voters.
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Last line, 50% of the fees are waived for the airport fund.
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These are services that are provided by taxpayers
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because we’re paying for the we’re paying for these services out of our taxes. They’re supposed to be recouped,
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and the airport receives a discount on that in order to balance their books. If you really look at their books, airport fees, the city of Longmont is establishing fees and charges at the Municipal Airport in accordance with regulations, guidelines and grant assurances from the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, and with consider consideration given to the area’s prevailing rates. You know, we’re lower than everybody else as far as what we’re charging. Actually, we’re probably second lowest fees and charges are reviewed annually and determine whether all operating expenditures are recovered.
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We spell it out right in our literature. We’re supposed to be self funding this airport.
57:22
Thank you, Scott.
57:25
Dana Stricker,
57:32
hello, council
57:35
regarding dry Pete, Dry Creek Park payment address, please. Oh, I’m sorry. Dana Stricker, 640 gooseberry, thank you. It’s my first time. I know Okay, so just want to share with you a little personal story regarding Dry Creek Park,
57:50
and ditto to what our friends have said before me,
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when I moved here from Michigan in 2019 I discovered this park, and immediately it gave me a sense of comfort. I fell in love with the prairie dogs, watching them, listening to their yips and squeaks, and seeing the new pups out exploring on the early morning,
58:09
early summer,
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since that first day when I was having a bad day, missing my friends and family or just needed a boost of positive energy, I would go for a walk to where I had begun to call the happy place.
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This past July, I went home for three months to care for and eventually say goodbye to my dad. I was looking forward to getting back to that little spot,
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seeking solace and peace, for reflection in nature and to see those adorable prairie dogs.
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I arrived back in town about a week ago, Saturday, I found time to go to the park,
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my happy place, only to find silence in cages. My heart sunk into my chest. The magic was gone.
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It doesn’t feel the same. I’m here today to ask your consideration to let nature thrive in Dry Creek Park, for we are all one with nature, and once that’s gone, a little piece of us is gone as well. Thank you for your time.
59:11
Thank you. Dana, Brittany Roberts,
59:20
good evening, Mayor Peck and council. My name is Brittany Roberts, 1120 Mountain View Avenue. I’m here this evening to voice concern over the installation of artificial turf at Dry Creek community park. Natural spaces are a rapidly declining resource. One of my favorite parts about living in Longmont is living in a city that feels connected to the natural world
59:40
as much as some may dislike them, I love watching the geese on their seasonal migrations, seeing the prairie dogs pop out of their holes, watching the dragonflies fly around the waterways.
59:52
Being able to sit in nature in the middle of my city is not a luxury I wish to take for granted, and is not a luxury that I think many people even realize that.
1:00:00
They have. The city of Longmont has a water quality that consistently surpasses state and federal standards for city that cares about water conservation and quality of our drinking water. I’m shocked. We’re okay with installing nine acres of plastic in an area established in part to control storm water runoff. Artificial turf leaches toxins and micro plastics into the ground and in our waterways. Scientists are only just beginning to understand the full effects of micro plastics on the body, but we know they can be linked to cognitive and learning dysfunction, especially in children, gut microbiome disruption and lower sperm quality. It is my belief that micro plastics will be looked back at as the lead paints of my generation, in addition to leaching toxins into our soil and groundwater, artificial turf remains and emits more heat than natural grass and ground covers. If Longmont wishes to create pleasurable recreational fields, this seems like a poor choice, especially as summers each year are getting hotter and staying hot for longer, rather than installing a quick fix that will take years to decades of work to reverse the damage. The city of Longmont should own up to their mistakes and use our taxpayer money on natural ground cover and maintaining that part of the reason that the current recreational fields at Dry Creek Park have struggled since their conception is that they were excavated three to four feet lower than the initial acidity testing was done on the soil. This led to when the turf was initially placed. It did not take well because it did not it was not compatible with the pH of the soil. Mistakes happen. What I ask of you is not to make a bigger mistake by covering our ground and plastic. It may be pretty and appealing at first, especially for the developers that are coming into that area, anxious to turn our town into yet another sterilized suburb. But the cost, both financially and environmentally, is not worth it. We have natural resources that so many places have destroyed and wish they could get back. I want my future children to see insects, birds of prey and little prairie dogs in the ground, not fields of plastic. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Brittany.
1:02:08
I mean Dana Brittany, Roberts,
1:02:14
that was Brittany. Okay, I’m one behind
1:02:19
Regina Jos wick.
1:02:29
Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Regina josquick of 1200 frontier drive. And I moved here over the summer from Austin, a very new transplant. I know
1:02:41
there were a few reasons for the move. One of the most compelling being to live in closer proximity with the natural world. My husband and I picked Longmont specifically for its smaller town feel with nature and are woven throughout. Learning about the development plans for dry creek was disappointing. As a social worker and therapist who understands the importance of our connectedness to nature, as well as being a human who enjoys and relies on access to nature, especially when life gets hard, I ask you to please reconsider further development for dry creek. Not only is our ability to connect with the natural world vital to our own health, but to the health of the animals we share this land with, including keystone species such as the prairie dogs. That being said, I also find these developmental plans disturbing considering we are living through a mass extinction created by the hands of us humans, I see the situation as a chance to make a choice that is pro Earth. Let’s set an example for other communities to take a stand for what’s right and allow the land of dry creek to remain a sanctuary for us, humans and other animals alike. Thank you for your time.
1:03:51
Thank you. Regina Lance Whitaker, applause,
1:04:07
mayor and council. My name is Lance whitker, 1750 Collier Street, as you all know,
1:04:16
coming to council meetings for almost two years now.
1:04:21
Happy to see you guys taking a baby step today.
1:04:25
I would like to also remind you today is National birthday events Day, National oatmeal Day, National hermit Day, which I’m really good at,
1:04:40
national cat day and national early voters day. So everybody get out and vote today.
1:04:49
I’ve been living in long months since 1980 and we’re supposed to be an agricultural community, so putting as.
1:05:00
To a turf over the place where, well, I used to walk that creek and catch rattlesnakes. Doesn’t sound like very good idea. I think Mayor and council are over developing this city far too fast and far too quick. I’ve heard over and over and over again. How people are just
1:05:23
they’re tired of this development everywhere. We got to get back to being an agricultural community.
1:05:32
You hear it over and over again, so
1:05:37
I don’t know if you guys are hearing it, but it’s there, it’s out there. And everybody wants their fields, everybody wants their open space. Everybody likes to look at the mountains. And they don’t like looking at these big box apartment buildings. They don’t like looking at these astroturf parks they don’t like they don’t like it. It’s not what long months about. We’re an agricultural community. We need to pay attention to it. Thank you. Have a good day. Thank you. Lance Jordan person
1:06:31
Good evening, members of the council and mayor Peck My name is Jordan. Person 640, Buchanan lane, I’m here tonight, unlike everyone else, for a different topic. In regards to zero reading round two amendments to chapter 6.70
1:06:46
Mari to marijuana, to add hospitality licenses, I will begin by saying thank you. Thank you to the city clerk. Thank you to the city attorney’s office for all of the research that you have all done up to this point for this potential amendment. As I’ve told you all, every time you’ve met me, I’ve been a nurse for 23 years. I’ve been a massage therapist for 18 years.
1:07:10
I have been a small business owner in the state of Colorado. For the last decade, I have been providing cannabis massage to clients as a mobile service, going to patients, homes, hotels, businesses and event spaces. For the last 10 years,
1:07:25
my focus has always been high cannabinoid products, with a highlight on THC tetra, hydro cannabinol, the euphoric cannabinoid and the cannabis plant.
1:07:34
Over the last 120 months, I have anecdotally proven the therapeutic effects of the topical application
1:07:41
and countless diseases and disorders, including being able to work with athletes, providing them relief with no associated high
1:07:50
countless post op patients, educating them and reducing opiate intake, neuropathy, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, chronic pain sufferers and the list truly goes on and on.
1:08:03
In addition to my personal, anecdotal research, in many recent months, there is more and more science based research that is continuing to come out and be released, often discussing the use of topicals and their potential to eliminate the psychotropic impacts of the psych the cannabis plant, this mechanism of metabolism is the reason that the topical Method of Consumption is focused on health and not being high.
1:08:30
I have wanted a brick and mortar since the day I started, but it has not been possible until now, not until this calendar year, and until these conversations began on January 9, I have never even been able to consider the possibility. So thank you again for your research, thank you for the conversations that will potentially move this policy forward. I look forward to being a steward to this community, to creating a space that all of you want to go. Thank you for your time and thank you for your work on this ordinance.
1:09:02
Thank you. Jordan. Ben Owens,
1:09:12
Mayor, Peck members of the council. My name is Ben Owens Longmont, resident, 640 Bucha lane, Buchanan lane. Excuse me, I’m here tonight to express my support of the council’s consideration and enactment of ordinances permitting marijuana hospitality licenses, specifically those surrounding spa hospitality businesses. I moved to Colorado in December of 2016 as a medical cannabis refugee, becoming a Reddit becoming a registered medical patient within my first week, and maintaining my patient status ever since, including as a cannabis massage patient who found relief from chronic pain through topicals, I am grateful to live in a place where our city council and mayor respect residents wishes and are open minded to progress, even when exploring new territory. As a society, we put our trust into our elected officials, such as yourselves and licensed.
1:10:00
Practitioners such as lawyers, doctors, nurses and therapists, moving
1:10:05
forward with an ordinance that permits therapeutic cannabis, hospitality businesses like spas to exist benefits the citizens of Longmont by providing access to these services, as well as the overall positive impact that new businesses bring to our community, allowing our town to be a model that other municipalities can look to for best practices. I stand here today imploring you to stand firm in your decision and move forward with ordinances allowing the therapeutic and topical application of cannabis in a spa setting.
1:10:34
Thank you. Ben Stu Lindo, you
1:10:49
is Stu here. What’s
1:10:52
the last
1:10:54
name? Well, I’m not sure. I think it’s Lindell or Lynn.
1:10:58
Okay,
1:11:00
prudent Am I on that list? Yes, ma’am. Hello. Council member, Mayor stuartin, 27 Burlington, way
1:11:11
Longmont, sophomore Park. I’m here in support of all these people in the front row and others here in protesting what’s going on in Dry Creek, and
1:11:23
I would like to ask the council to consider
1:11:28
really highest and best use.
1:11:31
It’s an economic litmus test, I know, but it’s also can be used for feasibility, quality of life. And what is the end result of this plan is it to just continue to develop
1:11:45
and put infrastructure in, to fill in this entire parcel and not leave any space at all, or natural buffer or habitat. I also asked, I’m also concerned about
1:12:00
the feasibility is economic as well infrastructure costs. Is this in the floodplain? Are you have you done any risk assessment? Has there been any measurable polling done as far as who’s going to be using this and who is against it?
1:12:19
Have you done Have you reached out and to the to the public at large, to say, how many of us are going to use artificial fields in 95 degree weather, plus for four months?
1:12:31
You know, is this? Is this something feasible? Is this an end game? I don’t see it. I see the starting the killing of prairie dogs as a start. Is not a good way to get off on this, to get a public dialog going, and please consider highest and best use, risk, feasibility and what the public really needs and wants, which is a connection to nature. Thank you. Thank you. Stu
1:12:56
Megan Drennan, applause.
1:13:03
Hi. My name is Meg Drennen. I live at 766, South Martin Street in Longmont. I am on behalf of the dry creek operation that a lot of us have expressed her opposition to.
1:13:17
I didn’t have anything prepared. I wasn’t planning on talking, but first time for everything. So I just want to express a couple of my concerns. I come from a background. I’m a clinical herbalist, I’m a nutritionist, and I’m a flower essence practitioner.
1:13:34
One of the things I’m really cognizant about is the comments that others have made about the astroturf. I think that we need to be mindful about those micro plastics and the endocrine disruptors that are going to come out from this operation. It’s really disturbing what the concept is like, okay, the broader community, the whole town, is going to be influenced and impacted by this. It’s not just going to impact Dry Creek. The watershed is going to be impacted, and the entire surroundings are going to have this toxin introduced. I’m also thinking about the communities that are directly surrounding this area. We have kids, there’s multiple schools. They’re going to have all sorts of respiratory problems. They’re going to develop asthma. There might be dermatological issues. We’re talking about long term impact on their health. What about the people that are using this space to come out of their their day to day and and have that opportunity to engage with nature? I know one of the things that I really loved when I first moved here is the prioritization of interfacing with nature as a whole. That’s unique in Boulder County, and I think that we’re all feeling this encroachment of our native spaces because of this development. One of the things that I’ve noticed very directly in Colorado is this new development of houses that have virtually no space of their own. There’s no yards, there’s no.
1:15:00
Land for them to interface with, so they go to these wild areas so that they can have that opportunity. And we’re removing that. So not only is it impacting our health and also our mental health and the community overall, we’re also impacting the native ecology. Prairie dogs are a keystone species, and I don’t think that a lot of people understand exactly what that means. It’s a snowball effect. You take out the little things, and everything else up above will get eliminated too. So I think it’s really important for us to just be mindful of not only its direct impact on our selves, our systems, our bodies, it’s also impacting people’s mental health and our children, and it’s also going to impact our entire community with what we’re drinking, as far as water supply, and we’re taking out our native environment. So I think as a whole, it’s just a really disturbing trend, and one of those unique aspects of our town that I think a lot of people are going to be devastated by the elimination of so I really, truly hope that you can integrate all the information and thank you for your time. Thank you. Megan, seeing no one else on the list, I’m going to close
1:16:12
public invited to be heard. So the next thing that we are going to do, we have special reports and presentations. This is a presentation for wastewater surveillance. It’s a Champion Award. No,
1:16:32
you’re good. The red lights on.
1:16:40
No, you’re good.
1:16:51
All right. Do you need another minute? Mayor Peck,
1:16:56
we’re just comparing notes. I’m sorry. Go ahead.
1:17:00
All right, Mayor Peck, members of council, John Gage, engineering and operations, administrator and the water and waste department. So I have the privilege of presenting a couple of different items tonight. And this first one, you know, I really take a lot of joy in doing the introduction. I started my career in environmental services, working pretty extensively with the water quality laboratory. And while I have the mic, I think it’s probably worth mentioning for those of you who have not interacted with our water quality laboratory, this award is focused on wastewater, but the laboratory does drinking water monitoring and analysis, wastewater compliance and watershed health monitoring, so they do a lot in house. They provide a ton of value for the city. And I’ve worked on a number of different studies in terms of how to run laboratories efficiently, talking with other Front Range utilities, most of them, and I’m going to say most, Robert could probably confirm that almost all of them are separate laboratories, waste water, water and watershed. And we do that all in house. It provides a lot of value lessons learned, and we get to collaborate on some pretty unique projects. So with that, I want to introduce Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to present this 2024 wastewater surveillance Champion Award.
1:18:18
Hello, Mayor and City Council. I’m Allison Wheeler, and I oversee our wastewater surveillance program at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and tonight, I am joined by Abby Wharton, who is our wastewater surveillance coordinator. So I had the pleasure of meeting Roberto Luna with the city of Longmont four years ago, when we started this program back in August of 2020. The city of Longmont wastewater treatment plant was one of was part of our initial cohort of 17 wastewater utilities participating in our program. Just to give you a little bit of kind of sum up what’s happened in those four years Roberto and his team have collected. Are you ready for this? 434
1:19:04
wastewater samples for wastewater surveillance. It’s a lot, and so that’s what they’ve done over the last four years, and that has allowed us to classify trends of COVID, flu and RSV, and we share that data with Boulder County Public Health and the public so that they can assess disease levels in their area. The cool part, excuse me, the cool part about this system is we’re looking at a pooled community wastewater sample. And so this provides anonymity. It does not rely on people seeking care or clinical testing, and so with the trends that we calculate from wastewater, surveillance data, public health can remind people to get vaccinated and deploy vaccines to certain areas identify new strains of viruses circulating. This can inform treatment options. It can aid in.
1:20:00
Development of diagnostic tests and vaccines, and it can inform healthcare providers about increasing trends of diseases to allocate resources. And so a lot of times we see emerging trends in wastewater before we see it in clinical cases. So Roberto has helped us learn about the wastewater treatment process. So we’re from the communicable disease branch, not the regulatory side of the health department, and so we have not historically worked with wastewater utilities. So we have a lot to learn. We’re still learning, but Roberto regularly gives us feedback and advice about proposed changes to our program. He shares his knowledge of wastewater surveillance with other utility personnel in the state and with our other wastewater surveillance people in our wastewater surveillance network. He advocates for continuing wastewater surveillance and of its benefits, and now he serves on our wastewater Center of Excellence advisory board providing valuable input in order for us to be able to advance the field. And so that is why we consider Roberto Luna and his team wastewater surveillance champions. So when the water environment Federation asked for nominations for this wastewater surveillance Champion Award. We immediately thought of the city of Longmont and Roberto.
1:21:28
So Abby here wrote the nomination for the wastewater surveillance Champion Award. This award highlights the astounding, outstanding efforts of utilities that have played a key role in advancing wastewater surveillance in the US since 2020 recipients were selected based on their contributions through active involvement with the National wastewater surveillance system and other key programs, effective communication with the public and media on wastewater surveillance data, strong partnerships with state and local health departments, knowledge and resource sharing through mentorship and collaboration, and finally, offering innovative solutions for sample collection and data management. And so we are so pleased that WEF chose the city of Longmont for this prestigious award. They were recognized at a very large national conference called weft tech in New Orleans. So thank you, Roberto and your team, for your continued support of our program and your partnership. Thank
1:22:42
you,
1:22:49
Roberto, can you hold up that award so we can see it?
1:22:55
Do you want to picture Roberto with us? Yeah, okay.
1:23:02
I
1:23:07
The mayor Council while they’re gathering for the picture, what I wanted to do is remind you all that it was this work that actually, when we were moving through COVID, allowed them to apply some analytical analysis to look at a case predictor for Our Community, and it became a leading indicator. Miss.
1:23:42
Chris, 1212 thank
1:23:50
You guys.
1:24:02
I
1:24:22
we now have a proclamation. It’s a proclamation designating November 4 through the eighth, 2024
1:24:30
as law enforcement records, personnel week in Longmont, Colorado, whereas the Colorado Governor Jared Polis has designated the week of November 4, 2024 as law enforcement records personnel week. And whereas dedicated law enforcement records personnel of the Longmont Public Safety Department serve the community members of Longmont to provide them with vital services. And whereas law enforcement records personnel are crucial to assisting law enforcement.
1:25:00
As agencies identify, pursue capture and process suspected suspects. And whereas these professionals continually use their expertise and experience to maintain criminal justice statistics and improve appreciation app, I’m sorry, improve apprehension strategies. And whereas the efficiency of the qualified and dedicated personnel who staff law enforcement records for the Longmont Police Department is materially influenced by the people’s attitude and understanding the importance of the work they perform. Now therefore I Joan Peck mayor, by virtue of the authority vested in me and the City Council of the City of Longmont, do hereby proclaim the week of November 4 through the eighth 2024
1:25:48
as law enforcement records personnel week in Longmont, and call upon all community members of Longmont and upon all patriotic civil and educational organizations to commemorate police records personnel with appropriate ceremonies. And I would like to invite Scott Opie, Assistant Chief of collaborative services, and Ashley Gillespie, public safety records manager, to accept the proclamation and say a few words. And of course, our public safety
1:26:21
chief. Artist, yes, ma’am, mayor, Mayor, City Council members. Thank you very much. Zach artists, public safety chief,
1:26:28
Assistant Chief Scott Opie was unable to be here tonight due to a personal matter. But again, on behalf of Department of Public Safety, I want to thank you and the city council members for recognizing the work that our record staff and really all that our professional staff do within public safety, they are a critical part of what we do, and we couldn’t do the job without them. It takes a team effort to keep this community safe and to continue to provide for the needs of this community. I just wanted to give you a couple of facts of what job that Ashley and her staff of just nine folks. I know that sounds like a lot, but when I give you some of these numbers, they’re not going to be but they process 30,000 requests for documents this past year. That doesn’t include the video requests. We have one individual that’s dedicated for video requests for body cameras, various other things in car cameras. So that doesn’t even include the requests that we have come in, not only through the district attorney’s office, but also through the public for those requests. They also entered in 1200 municipal warrants. They worked very closely with our court staff on that, and they also manage and handle the sex offender registry that we have here for the city of Longmont. And so again, I can’t reiterate the job that Ashley and her staff do on a consistent basis of professionalism that they bring, and they are truly a huge part of what we do as an organization, and I’m appreciate the opportunity to recognize them publicly for the work that they do. Oftentimes, they’re behind a glass and you don’t get to see them, but they’re amazing group of individuals and what they do for this community. So thank you again this evening for that mayor and city council. Thank you. Do you want? Do you want to picture with this proclamation, okay, yes, she does. Do
1:28:03
you want to be in the picture? Chief?
1:28:06
I’m good mayor. This is her moment. Thank you very much.
1:28:20
You.
1:28:35
Very good.
1:28:42
Yes, it is your.
1:28:59
Council and staff. Do we need a break before we head into the meat of the meeting?
1:29:07
Yes, no.
1:29:12
Well, I’m not seeing any takers, so I guess we’re going to move on.
1:29:18
The next thing on our list is the study session items. And the first one is the update on the seeds lady lead protection program. And it’s John Gage again, lead, oh, I’m sorry, yeah, let me say that again, John, the city’s lead protection program. Great. Yes. Second time tonight. Thanks, Council, Mayor Peck so John Gage, Engineering and Operations administrator in the water and waste department. So tonight, I also get to present on this lead protection program. And so some of you have seen maybe the emails that either I’ve sent to council and some of the news reports that have been released about.
1:30:00
The findings from our service line inventory. So I just wanted to note that it was these were findings from both the city as well as Colorado, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and st Vern Valley School District. Kind of this cumulative effort to evaluate risk of lead and drinking water and in Longmont, and so the culmination of that work is a determination of non lead water service lines in the city, again, just bringing that awareness of that we have great quality water, and that residents in Longmont can be assured of that safety and reliability of our water. So there’s three questions that might be brought about by reading the council comm or any of the news articles. Really are there lead materials in Longmont? And I think that’s what we kind of covered in that conclusion, do we sample lead in our drinking water and our children safe in our schools? I think those are really three questions people kind of highlight around the topic of lead in water. So I want to lean into that first kind of topic about lead materials. So lead’s really not present in drinking water. When we talk about raw water sources, we have great protected watersheds with Rocky Mountain water we don’t find any lead there. Where lead can come into systems is through the corrosion of plumbing materials, and generally, where EPA has found that Environmental Protection Agency has found lead has been water service lines. So that’s the pipe that connects a home or business to the city’s water main. And so they set on this mission to have water utilities find out the materials of that specific plumbing component, the water service lines. Whenever you see that in a news article, know that that’s the that’s the infrastructure that we’re talking about, these service lines and and so I want to highlight that we had a lot of collaboration in the city
1:31:46
finding out what these materials are, R GIS staff, our utility operations and maintenance staff who are doing maintenance on the system. We have our communications team, engineering team, so so many divisions participating in this. We reviewed 1000s of records. We collected data through exploratory digging. We actually engaged residents to identify the materials in their own homes. So just a ton of work that went into this, all leading to the determination that we do not have lead service lines in the city of Longmont. The methods that we’ve went through on all this are on the website, as well as kind of in the council com. So so residents that may ask questions about lead, you can point them to to the city’s website. So that’s that first question about, do we have materials? The second one is, do we sample? Think you heard about our water quality lab earlier, and they’ve been sampling water for 30 plus years when it comes to lead, and we’ve never had a regular regulatory excursion of lead. I think that’s an important note to make. And then the final question that may be of interest to you, especially those who work in schools, are children safe? And that was a house bill that came out and a couple, a couple years ago, dictating that school should be sampling as well to make sure that the water that’s coming out of the water fountains and the sinks are safe to drink. And think a point of pride within Longmont. And I’ve seen some nodding heads. So maybe you already know St Vern Valley School District was the only largest, one of the only largest school districts to have no drinking fountains or sinks with lead above five parts per billion, the limit is 15, so we were the only one that had all samples come in below five, just a great assurance that our children are safe when they drink their water. So we’d expect, maybe in the coming months, that there might be some more questions raised from other communities, but just know Longmont has safe, reliable drinking water our children are safe, and that our staff will continue to be diligent in the maintenance of our system and the sampling of our water. I’m here for questions and our staff, any other water quality questions can be directed to myself. Roberto, Luna is also a great resource as well.
1:33:58
Councilor Yarborough, Thank you, Mayor.
1:34:02
When I was looking, you know, at the pack in the packet, I was looking at all those homes, they were homes, right? They have copper. Yes, are we not getting rid of the copper, or we still keeping copper? I mean, that was, it was quite a few that still had copper lines. Yeah, interestingly enough, the original EPA rule was lead and copper rule. And so what they found is that copper doesn’t corrode in the same way that lead does, and so copper isn’t great for the body either, but we don’t find the same corrosion and leaching of copper into drinking water that we do with lead. So that’s why copper continues to be a material that we we specify, and there’s other materials that folks are using, PEX as a common, you know, plumbing material now, but copper is still still okay. Okay, yeah, just wanted to make sure good question,
1:34:57
seeing no one else. Thank you very much for this. Do.
1:35:01
On Mayor Council? Well, John’s here, one of the when they wanted to put this item on the agenda, we also thought it was important. Because if you’re watching the local news, yes, right now, on a number of all the local television stations and newspapers, you’re seeing stories of cities that have identified lead service lines and are replacing lead service lines at the moment, and so we thought it was important that we get the message out about what we have in long run. I agree, as he’s talking about that does raise another thought about rates, right? So you all just passed water rates, yes, as part of that rule, those communities that do have lead water lines are supposed to remove them within 10 years. And there’s not a lot of,
1:35:43
well, there’s funding that’s becoming available, but also communities are having to step in and pay for the replacement of service lines. Those are actually owned majority by the homeowner, but utilities are paying for them, so that’s a huge financial risk to utilities that do have lead service lines. And a good point, yeah, it is a good point, and it is good. It is a good reason as to why we are raising some rates to
1:36:07
to update our infrastructure and to make sure it’s all safe. Yes. So thank you very much.
1:36:17
So we are on to our next,
1:36:21
our next item, which is zero reading round two amendments to chapter 6.70, marijuana To add hospitality licenses. Applause,
1:37:15
good evening, mayor and council, Don Quintana, city clerk, and with me is Assistant City Attorney, Tim hole here to present to you again on marijuana, hospitality, zero reading. We were here July 9, and you
1:37:30
gave us some work, some some homework to do, so we are back with some of those answers. The Council come covers, the details. So my presentation is fairly brief, but feel free to chime in if you have questions. So again, a marijuana hospitality license provides a location for people to legally consume marijuana. We’ve been working on this. We’ve been here a few times since January, as you know,
1:37:58
on July 9, you basically, we talked about nine different things. We talked about removing the requirement to register managers for retail stores, and you all agreed with that. Conceptually,
1:38:13
you said that you wanted to disallow Co Location with a retail food business for a hospitality license. You wanted to, pardon me, disallow an outdoor consumption patio, and you wanted to retain the provision that limits one Marijuana License per owner and city limits. So those provisions are straightforward. Those are written into the draft ordinance that is in your packet. The the items on the right were, was our homework. So we’ll go through our homework, research, limiting the overall size of the establishment, research, limiting licenses to residents, more information on a cap and the impacts of a possible cap, pros and cons of public health impacts and then public engagement.
1:39:00
But I don’t push the wrong button once, it’ll be a miracle.
1:39:04
All right, so I will dig into those five. So number five regarding the size of the establishment, last time council member Martin, I believe, raised this concern or idea, we’ve sat down with planning staff, and the idea is that
1:39:21
in the land development code, we would recommend limiting the size to a maximum of 5000 square feet, which is about the size of a pub. If you think of any of the pubs downtown, like cafes or whatever, those are about 5000 square feet.
1:39:38
And planning staff thought that that would be the approximate a good size to limit to, and that would could be just added into the matrix of uses with some clarification about other standards, ours and those kinds of things. So that was our response, or our homework on established size of establishment.
1:40:00
Yeah, and I’m just going to keep going, unless you flag me
1:40:04
on limiting licenses to residents. And that’s tricky from a legal perspective, and I believe Tim Ho can explain further if you want to do that in the public realm. But tricky, let’s just say tricky.
1:40:19
And so the thought would be to add a preference in the selection process. In the code in six dot 7120 c2 is where how licensees are selected is laid out. And we could just add a provision to perhaps preference a local resident. So I wouldn’t mind in the public realm, Tim, if you did explain the tricky part from the legal perspective of limiting those licenses,
1:40:49
or Eugene,
1:40:55
mayor and council, Eugene may city attorney, so that is generally confidential legal advice. Oh, it is, if you do want to discuss that I would recommend explicit waiver of that privilege. And then Tim could explain,
1:41:08
Well,
1:41:11
I actually would like to know if the if the council would like to, well, I’m going to make a motion that we remove the wave.
1:41:19
Well, looks like there’s more consultation here.
1:41:28
Just a moment,
1:41:32
Mayor, Members of Council, another option would be to adjourn into an executive session. I can give you that advice in an executive session, and then we can come back into a regular meeting. No, for me, that wouldn’t be necessary, because, as the city clerk put it, it would be for the public domain, and that is not something we need to do legally. So thank you for that from our attorneys.
1:42:00
We can keep going, okay.
1:42:05
Oh, great, counselor, Mark, you, I can’t see her.
1:42:13
I’m sorry. I can’t always hear the resolution. I was going to say that we did receive the explanation via email, so
1:42:24
it was tricky to read, but we do have it, and I don’t think we need to go on. And if I apologize if that was what was said in the recent exchange, because it was hard for me to pick it up.
1:42:39
Thank you, Councilor Martin, we’re ready to move on. Thank you, Mayor. The seventh item was regarding a cap on licenses. So as you all know, for retail stores, we currently have a cap of four. So we have four licensed establishments within city limits, and the thought was to impose a cap of four on hospitality licenses,
1:43:05
but not not mess with the existing cap. So that would, if you enacted, may create a potential for eight total licensees and city limits for hospitality and for our four existing dispensaries.
1:43:22
The eighth point was public health impacts, and that’s a deep subject.
1:43:27
I tried to give you enough detail without going off the deep end, if you will, in in the council communication.
1:43:36
The Colorado Clean Indoor act comes into play there,
1:43:43
and there is an exemption specifically for marijuana hospitality.
1:43:47
Additionally, it’s important to note that an odor management plan is required under our existing code,
1:43:54
so you can’t a reasonable person should not be able to smell
1:44:00
outside of the premises. So that’s also a steep requirement, which would seemingly and in my
1:44:10
novice opinion, help with clean air. If you’re helping cleanse the air of the smell, it would help cleanse the air for breathing. But in the in your packet, there was information,
1:44:22
almost like an election brochure, some pros and cons
1:44:26
that staff thought might be valid for you to consider.
1:44:34
I knew I’d hit the wrong button, and then the ninth one is about public engagement and so
1:44:41
on your desks, I solicited feedback from our four dispensaries and from the other four that are in Longmont but not technically in city limits and in County enclaves or on our fringe. I received two comments back. I gave you those printouts at your dias. Both were.
1:45:00
Are generally in favor of marijuana hospitality, neither are interested in a license, interestingly, and the comments from native roots, I believe, gave some more specifications about other recommendations they might provide. They asked that you did not would not limit outdoor consumption, would not limit Co Location, and they talk about the cost to implement this type type of business, to meet Clean Indoor Air Act and and odor management control.
1:45:29
So that’s why they were supportive of outdoor consumption areas.
1:45:35
The other, the other piece that we have looked into, or would recommend, is, if presented on first reading, we could
1:45:46
publish a public notice, solicit comments for 30 days in between, much like we do with a rate change ordinance, published notice in the paper. I think the residents are your important stakeholders here, and to solicit their comments might be one of the most important things we could do here. So we could certainly easily replicate that like we do for an electric rate, and notify everybody of the public hearing date, so you all could hear public comments.
1:46:15
So that is my quick
1:46:18
presentation, and really what we’re looking for his direction. Are you interested in us moving forward and bringing back something for first reading with these changes or or not, or do you have other questions?
1:46:34
Councilor McCoy, thank you. Mayor Peck Don, thank you. Tim, thank you.
1:46:40
I think that this seems like a reasonable we’ve talked about it before, and I think this is something that we need to the public
1:46:52
that came to our last meeting. There was, of course, some that were definitely against it, but I think
1:47:00
it’s best have it in reality where, where once we start moving down this path, like Don said, giving that 30 day
1:47:10
time for public comment would be very valuable, and I’d be in support of that and any of the other recommendations that you presented here.
1:47:24
Councilor ya,
1:47:26
Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I want to say thank you for all of the work that you put into this
1:47:33
very tedious and I appreciate the case studies. I appreciate all that you put into this.
1:47:41
Yeah, I I want to ask a question that I know, moving forward, if we could make sure that the establishments
1:47:51
have, like, video cameras, I know we didn’t talk about, did we talk about that before a little bit,
1:47:58
I don’t is term, has it? Is it illegal to do that, but they’re absolutely required under current status. Oh, okay, awesome. So okay, there’s, there’s a little bit of a nuance with the spa businesses. But other than that, they still have to have video cameras around their premises, awesome, accessible to public safety, okay? Right? And then making sure that public safe safety can have access to that footage and everything. Okay? I want to make sure that. But other than that, I think you did well. You did an awesome job, and I think you translated everything that we talked about those few sessions. And I will be interested in learning about more about what the public wants to say. I know usually when it’s on, usually people come out on second reading instead of first reading. But, um, but yeah. So thank you,
1:48:50
council Rodriguez,
1:48:52
uh, Thank you, Mayor Peck I just wanted to address the two suggestions, basically that native roots made considering allowing patio consumption, or outdoor consumption, I think that would end up being problematic, probably from the public’s point of view. And while I understand probably the the cost
1:49:12
inherent with the HVAC systems that would be required, the problems that I would feel would arise from outdoor consumption without would outweigh that. As far as I know that there’s certain council members that did not agree with Co Location and a retail food establishment, I disagree. I think it’d be okay, considering that they would not be allowed to serve alcohol. So it’s basically giving them choice of one
1:49:38
intoxicant versus a different intoxicant and concept. So I wouldn’t be against it, but I’m not going to hold up anything as far as pushing this forward based on that one item.
1:49:50
Seeing no one else in the queue. You do need direction on the Can we go back to the go through the slides again, and you can get direction on the items that.
1:50:03
The mayor, I think if the council wanted us to move forward, it could be just one direction to bring an ordinance back
1:50:15
so you don’t need any direction
1:50:19
on any of this, is it just because, just to move forward, is the direction as we presented? Okay? Yeah, if you agree with those recommendations, as the recommendation about the 5000 square foot limitation, as well as the preference for local those, if you agree with that, then I think it could be, unless you wanted to provide different direction on one item or the other, then we could go one by one. I move. Excuse me,
1:50:51
okay, I know that we proceed according to the staff recommendations to a first reading
1:50:59
second
1:51:01
they moved by councilor Martin, seconded by councilor Rodriguez, that we move forward to a
1:51:08
move forward with what the count the staff has recommended,
1:51:12
Councilor Christ,
1:51:16
I actually had another question. We’re still moving forward with the social equity portion of licensing, and then I just wasn’t clear about the licenses to
1:51:28
for retail sales. Then they would also be able to have a hospitality license or apply for one. It’s a no.
1:51:38
So there’s, there’s two different kind of flavors of hospitality is retail sales and hospitality in which they sell the marijuana to their customers, or just marijuana hospitality in which their customers can bring their own marijuana to their establishment. But the current licenses and the hospitality licenses would be separated,
1:52:01
and the social equity we in our last conversations that would be done through a fee reduction in the Council resolution, right? We didn’t have any, we didn’t have any checkpoints for that. Okay,
1:52:14
all right, this
1:52:16
is interesting from a business perspective. I’ve got to say, I was curious to see $500,000
1:52:23
to upgrade your H back. So that might be a problem for businesses going forward, but I’m still in the position that I have to vote no on this because of federal requirements, federal law requirements for myself.
1:52:38
So but it is interesting from a business perspective,
1:52:43
and I have issues with having eight marijuana establishments in our city.
1:52:50
And also, can you go back over and clarify the equity portion of it, that there’s going to be a free reduction for who
1:53:02
I’m confused about that? Yeah, mayor and council, I apologize I didn’t reiterate that that direction from last time I where we understood that we landed last was that yes, the council wanted a social equity program mirrored after the states,
1:53:18
and that you were interested in waiving
1:53:21
application fees, not setting aside a certain license type for social equity applicants. Do you recall that conversation where you all landed was just to reduce fees for social equity applicants? So who? How do you define a social equity applicant? They would have to meet the criteria that we shared. I didn’t bring it this time. I apologize that’s laid out by the state. So they have to have been affected by
1:53:50
the war on drugs, essentially, or live in a certain industrial zone. Are you pulling this up for me? Tim, thank you. There is defined criteria in the state’s program. Living in a I
1:54:06
can’t remember, I can’t quote it exactly, let’s see,
1:54:10
reside 15 years in a census tract designated by oedit as an opportunity zone or as a disproportionate impacted area. They must meet one of these criteria, or have a parent, legal guardian, sibling, spouse, child or a minor in their guardianship. Was arrested for a marijuana offense, convicted of a marijuana offense, or subject to civil asset for forfeiture related to marijuana investigation or the household income did not exceed 50% of the state median income as measured by the number of people in the applicant’s household. So there’s various criteria there in the social equity program. Okay, that’s one, one aspect of it, but the primary I don’t totally agree with the state on that, because.
1:55:00
So this is a business that somebody wants to operate. It’s not a to me, social equity is about a service that the city, the county, the state, provides, and it has to be equitable across all areas, all populations, etc. But if somebody is, we’re not taking comments from the from the
1:55:24
public, so I’m just stating my own opinion.
1:55:30
It’s a business that someone is operating in equitably. For me is that everybody, if you want to open a business, this is the cost of doing that business.
1:55:43
So those are the two things that I
1:55:47
I just think of it differently.
1:55:55
Is it just for the application fee, or is it a permit? What did you
1:56:01
excuse me, Lance, we’re not. I’m talking to staff.
1:56:05
What we discussed was a reduction in the application fee. The fee, okay, I’m sorry, what they pay when I was equating that to a permit, yeah, it was just in the application fee was, was where you all landed, or the direction that we heard okay on July 9,
1:56:23
okay. Certainly revisit that if you felt the need. I think I’m probably the only one up here that has a problem with it, so we probably don’t need to re
1:56:33
address that. So I don’t see any more comments or questions in the queue. So,
1:56:39
oh, there you are. Councilor Martin,
1:56:47
I would just like to say that the reason there’s a social equity aspect to it is because the people with relatives who who were
1:56:59
impacted by this we’re disproportionately members of marginalized communities, in particular communities of color, and that’s why the state did this, and I
1:57:14
believe that the city ought to follow that personally. Again, it’s my personal opinion, but that’s what I think I
1:57:24
Okay, seeing no one else in the queue, let’s vote,
1:57:28
and if we could just have a hand vote, Mayor. Oh, since I’m here, I’m sorry. Okay,
1:57:35
all those in favor of moving this forward,
1:57:42
and I cannot seek, oh, I can’t see council member Martin, okay, all those opposed.
1:57:54
So Mayor that’s a five two vote five in favor account, Mayor Peck and council member Christ, right. That passes five to two.
1:58:02
So mayor, Council, I’m going to jump in now that you all gave direction on this. One of the things that we’ve been talking about, and this has really come up recently, related to other issues.
1:58:15
One of the challenges that public safety chief, artists and I have talked about is, how do you operationalize this, not from the enablement side. You know this is saying, This is what people who get the licenses have to do.
1:58:29
Our question shifted to, what do we do if we get complaints from people who are utilizing these products that don’t have licenses? And how do we go about that?
1:58:40
Unfortunately, recently, we’ve had some conversations and some feedback from the public about
1:58:48
nefarious activities that are occurs occurring at certain establishments. And so we think we’re going to need to bring a parallel ordinance with this that actually lets us deal with situations where, if Don has an establishment that’s permitted, and I have an establishment that’s not permitted, and they say, Well, I’m utilizing these products in my establishment, how do we deal with that? And how do we manage it? And so we just started talking about this today, but I do think staff is probably, from an operational perspective, going to bring a parallel ordinance that lets us deal with those who don’t have licenses, but then we get into issues. Because the one thing I don’t want to have happen is utilizing public safety staff to
1:59:38
do a full operation
1:59:41
on situations where state law actually gives us the ability to go in and inspect some of these establishments. So it’s something we literally started talking about today, but we will be
1:59:55
exploring it further, and likely going to bring it with another ordinance that we’re looking.
2:00:00
At related to how we’re going to approach hotels based on what we’ve seen recently at some of our local establishments. So we may have a broader conversation, but it’s really closing a back end gap that we’re potentially seeing. Okay, thank you for that.
2:00:16
Thank you, Dawn. Do you need anything else from us?
2:00:20
Unless you have a specific we will go back and draft to bring this back as quickly as possible for first reading, okay? And plan on a 30 day period between introduction and second reading and additional public notice so you can get public comment. Thank you so much. You’re very welcome. Thank you.
2:00:39
We are now on to the 2025 city council meeting schedule. And I think this is going to be our city clerk as well.
2:00:49
It is. I’m going to let Dallas pull this up. This is to set your 2025 meeting schedule. So we have a current schedule through January of 2025 to get us through that first part of the year.
2:01:06
As we go through there’s a couple things we are looking for direction on a retreat date,
2:01:13
so please be thinking about that as we go. Additionally, you will note that staff has recommended a shift of coffee with council from the fourth Saturday of the month to the third Saturday of the month. And that really is to avoid having to move it from the fourth to the third because of holiday weeks and those kind of things easier communication is what we were thinking, okay, very consistently the third Saturday of the month. So please think about those as we
2:01:41
move through here. And thank you, Dallas for pulling up council member Martin so I can
2:01:46
see her. So in January 2025
2:01:51
the first Tuesday of the month is a pre session and a Housing Authority Board of Commissioners meeting. The 14th is a regular session. You have your first open forum on the January 21 and the 28th is a regular session, so that schedule is set
2:02:07
February,
2:02:09
if, if all looks well, study session on the fourth regular session on the 11th pre session, which is the your council pre session, where you discuss boards, board updates and such, and a
2:02:22
Board of Commissioners meeting and then a regular session.
2:02:26
There might be February, might be a retreat, pardon me, month. Sometimes we do retreats in February.
2:02:34
I can pause if you want to talk about retreat while we’re here, or we can come back.
2:02:39
Yes, we do want to talk about that? Councilor McCoy, yes, thank you. Mayor peck the only I think February is the right month to do that, but unfortunately,
2:02:52
I would hope that we would not do it the first of February. I have a conference I’m putting on for students in st Vrain and Boulder Valley, and I would prefer to ask council that if we do do a treat retreat, we do it over the weekend of the seventh and the eighth or the 21st through the 22nd Okay, thank you.
2:03:18
No objections to that the 21st and 22nd or the or the seventh, the eighth or the 21st and 22nd I wonder if time wise, I think 21st and 22nd would be better. It gives us a little bit more time to prepare. I think that’s the best. And again, just for clarity, the council is thinking a two day retreat
2:03:41
we can Sandy will walk you through discussion and how much time is actually maybe needed later, but it depends on what we put on the agenda. Okay, how long is that agenda going to be? Yes,
2:03:53
yeah,
2:03:56
we will hold the 21st and second and then come back with more information.
2:04:02
So March is a little funny because of the Congress, congressional Cities conference, if we cancel the 11th, then the fourth would need to be a regular session.
2:04:14
If we don’t cancel the 11th for congressional Cities conference, then you could
2:04:21
change that around. So I guess for me, the place to start is on the 11th. Should we do we plan on attending the congressional city conference, and I think there’s usually pretty good attendance at that conference. There is
2:04:34
Mayor, if I can inject in this one,
2:04:39
I know sometimes when we go into an NLC meetings, some folks say, Well, I’m going to, or I’m not going to, and then as we get closer, we end up finding more attend. It would be easier for us planning operationally, if when we have the NLC conferences, we just can go ahead and cancel that meeting that way.
2:05:00
A we’re not adjusting real time once we find out that there’s changes to who’s attending. So I do wonder, because I don’t like canceling
2:05:13
a session, either study or regular, because we get such huge agendas when we do that, is there any way we could, like, cancel the pre session and have L, H, A and A small study session together?
2:05:30
I mean, we could do that as a thought process. Of course, we don’t know what’s going to happen that month and how much we need on an agenda, so that might,
2:05:40
that might switch, if we know it ahead of time
2:05:43
and we’re taking some actions and agenda, if you’ve noticed recently, they’re not as heavy. We can plan for that. Okay. Well, what does Council think a councilor Yarbrough,
2:05:58
Councilor Yarborough,
2:06:01
that’s okay. We’re all turned on.
2:06:06
I mean, I’m on, but
2:06:08
I can’t see your light. That’s the problem. There you go. All right, just leave. Oh, you turned them off. Okay. I just wanted to to confirm when we’re going to Japan for the 34th
2:06:24
in March, is that the last week or that fourth week for the anniversary of the sister city? I haven’t heard. I think it’s, do you remember? I think it’s the I think it’s the oh, here comes Sandy to say that is on spring break, flying down
2:06:44
mayor. It’s the same week as Saint brain spring break.
2:06:48
So it’s the week of the 17th, I believe, but yeah, or at least that’s when, that’s when I’m being asked for some time off to go. Okay, yeah, okay, so I believe that’s what I heard this week. You’re right. It is the same week, because the band is going,
2:07:04
for those of you who don’t know, our band for st brains, will be playing in Japan.
2:07:12
So yeah, they’ll be there for the 34th anniversary of Sister City. So you’re right. It is the same week of spring break. So just wanted to make sure, so if we do that, that preset,
2:07:23
we can, we can eliminate the pre session and make it a study, lha, studies slash lha. However, both of us will be gone, so we need five of you here, or four at least.
2:07:38
Oh, it’s spring break. Though.
2:07:40
Okay.
2:07:43
You know, I teach in Boulder Valley, but, you know, obviously we live in St Vrain, so I would recommend, if we’ve got people going, we’ve concentrated on st Vin Valley spring break, and if we’re going to take a week off, that’s the week we take if, if I choose to be out of town, will be on me
2:08:07
regarding the 25th so I think, to make simplify things, it might be just as well if two of you might be out for Japan, and maybe some others might be out for spring break that we just cancel that meeting or or move it maybe to another
2:08:29
day, like maybe, Maybe the sixth
2:08:35
of
2:08:37
of March as a special lha
2:08:43
meeting if we need to meet to make decisions. The thing is, we were going to combine the study session and the lha meeting. So the study session has to be a public meeting. So if it was just lha, that also has to be a public meeting, but it isn’t as well attended as a study session. So for me, I don’t think we can cancel two meetings that month,
2:09:09
the 11th and the 18th. Is there any more councilor Crist?
2:09:15
We could move it around. We could put L, H, A on the fourth, and then have and cancel.
2:09:22
We need two regular meetings. Well, then we would have regular on the 18th and 25th
2:09:29
I guess it doesn’t much matter, as long as we move the study to the pre session. I do have another question about coffee with council. Are we choosing when we would be doing coffee with council? Or can I at least say I would prefer not to do it on the 15th of March, because that’s a big tax deadline.
2:09:47
We could make sure that you are not assigned that session. Is that your request? Please? I’d be willing to do February. Sounds good. I can pass that along.
2:09:57
So are we landing that the fourth is?
2:10:00
Regular Session. The 11th is canceled. That’s why I understand, yes, hold
2:10:08
regular on the 25th
2:10:13
do we have consensus here? Yep, it looks like we all agree to that.
2:10:20
Thanks for guiding us through this
2:10:23
wait till we get to November. Oh, I
2:10:27
don’t want to spoil the secret the surprise, April works out fairly simply, a study session on the first regular session, on the eighth pre session, and then lha on the 15th regular on the 22nd and then the 29th you could cancel if you wanted, since that’s a fifth Tuesday or hold for another study session, I say cancel.
2:10:52
What
2:10:56
about Aaron cancel? Councilor McCoy, I was just thinking that some we might get fewer people coming
2:11:09
the Tuesday after Easter,
2:11:13
and that maybe if we canceled that one and then had the study session or the regular session on the 29th that would do the same.
2:11:22
It meet our same requirement, but it would
2:11:26
a lot for folks that might want to be part of our
2:11:32
The only, the only thought I have, and it’s not a deal breaker for us. But if we look ahead at May, that first meeting might be a regular session. We we’ve tried to keep two weeks between them. Just to keep ordinances flowing,
2:11:45
we do have to back them up sometimes. So it’s not like I said, not a deal breaker. We could certainly cancel the 22nd and and move the regular to the 29th that that if that’s your preference, or leave it as presented and cancel the 29th so how many people raise your hand if you want to cancel the 22nd because of the Easter holiday
2:12:06
uno,
2:12:09
I think we want to keep it the 22nd
2:12:18
and the other thought Harold is whispering in my ear is to cancel the April 1 study session and hold it on the 29th instead. Is another way to look at that, if you want it that way. Well, I think councilor McCoy was thinking that that would be a vacation week because of Easter for some people.
2:12:37
Yeah. So I don’t know the canceling the study session on the first would
2:12:44
okay? So cancel the 29th the fifth Tuesday. Yes, and let’s get everybody to change Easter to the 27th
2:12:53
I’ll work on that may,
2:12:58
if we cancel, sort of working backwards in May, if we if your desires to cancel Tuesday the 27th after Memorial Day,
2:13:07
then we would have regular pre session, lha, and then regular, if you wanted to not cancel the day after Memorial Day, that could be your second regular session, and that would make space for a study session on the sixth So the question really is, did you want to cancel the 27th and that will guide us on the others comments.
2:13:34
Who wants to cancel? Raise your hand. R say yes.
2:13:39
It’s a holiday weekend, Memorial Day. Yes, I apologize. Yeah, good.
2:13:45
Memorial Day. Graduation, those kind of things. Graduation.
2:13:51
Okay, so that will make this I can’t see Marcia. Is she? What do you think, Marcia? Bless you, Council Member Martin,
2:13:59
but with everyone else. I’m sorry I was sneezing.
2:14:04
So regular session on the sixth, pre session regular and then cancel for the Memorial Council. Yeah, and if we needed a study session, we could put lha early and then do a study session if we had to. Okay,
2:14:19
so put study session under
2:14:24
the 13th.
2:14:27
Yeah,
2:14:29
June. June has the CML conference.
2:14:34
It’ll be back in Breckenridge in June, not in Aurora. So my guess is, might have good attendance from council. So the thought is, cancel that guy, which would make the third. We would have our two regular sessions, the third and the 17th. Same layout, pre session lha. We could always put a study in, if needed,
2:14:55
in Juneteenth.
2:14:57
And Juneteenth falls on a Thursday.
2:15:01
So we, we do it on Saturday the following Saturday. Just don’t put me on coffee with council on the 21st
2:15:10
you guys, I’ll be on stage. You, you will. You’ll be working hard. Oh, we are it on stage? I mean, aren’t we? Are we always on stage with coffee with crown? That’s true.
2:15:23
All right, July has five Tuesdays, so some flexibility here to add an open forum. If you wanted to hold your second open forum could be on the first that is a holiday week. So that’s why we thought maybe the 29th might work better. But we propose study regular, pre session, lha, regular on the 22nd then the 29th
2:15:47
possibly an open forum or a council. If you want to do a second open forum, this is a good spot for it in terms of having the extra Tuesday. It looks good to me. Any comments?
2:15:59
I think that works open forum on the 29th Yeah, July, I think so.
2:16:08
August will bring the Boulder County Fair parade,
2:16:12
first day of school back to schools, but in terms of the Tuesdays, fairly easy study, regular pre session, all ha and then a regular session. Our standard layout looks good.
2:16:29
Say that again. I apologize, Council Member, it’s the first day of school for Boulder Valley as well. Right, right. Oops.
2:16:39
It is not on here. I apologize, but is it? Does it line up this year with st brain usually close 13, yeah.
2:16:50
So it looks like we’re into the budget session. We’re into September.
2:16:56
Um, so we in in budget season. We did not recommend to cancel that first Tuesday, even though it follows Labor Day weekend, because it is budget season. Yes. So keeping all of these study regular,
2:17:10
an early lhk And a study session on the 16th, a regular session 23rd and a study on the 30th. Yep, in the past, what we’ve done, if, in the first four weeks we move through budget fast enough, then we do give you all some flexibility on the 30th to cancel if we don’t need it for budget. It’s a good idea to put it in there, though, on the 30th.
2:17:36
On the 30th, does that have to be a regular session to approve the budget by the first. That’s in October. Yeah, but it has to be done by the first, doesn’t it? No, so in August, if you back up to August,
2:17:56
on August 26 I have to present you all with the balanced budget. That’s the regular
2:18:05
Would you mind putting that in notations for us, if, because we’re going to get this, and I won’t remember the introduction of the budget, yes, 26 just write that in there.
2:18:22
Very good. So we are in October, edging into November. October is normal, yep. Study, regular pre session, lha
2:18:34
and regular session. If that looks good to you
2:18:40
in November. Let’s just go to November.
2:18:45
November is a case for cancelation, but we can’t do that. We’re required to have two regular sessions. The first Tuesday is election day. It is a council election, so that would normally, we would cancel that.
2:18:56
The second Tuesday is Veterans Day. So that’s a city holiday. Also, there’s a veterans parade that day.
2:19:04
Um, the 18th is Harold earlier spoke about that. That’s the NLC there’s a lot of council leaving traveling to NLC city Summit. So Staff recommends we don’t hold a meeting that day. And then Thanksgiving week is the last Tuesday of the month. So our recommendation is to hold meetings on Monday the third, Monday the 10th and Monday the 17th,
2:19:29
to get in our two required regular sessions. And then lha needs a meeting that month for their budget as well. So they they have to have a meeting in November as well. So if you all were comfortable with Monday nights for a little variety in your life, that’s what we recommend,
2:19:49
variety so so we would miss advisory boards on that, but I think we can all live with not going to the advisory boards. They’d probably.
2:20:00
Glad we’re not there. Yeah,
2:20:03
some they would miss us. Very good. Then we will plan, and then we have plenty of time to get communication out about that change in
2:20:12
in November,
2:20:15
December,
2:20:20
if you wanted to cancel, as we have been doing the past few years, the two holiday weeks for Christmas and New Year’s, in order to get our two regular sessions in regular session on the second board of commissioners, in a study session on the ninth and a regular session on the 16th.
2:20:40
That would be the first Tuesday in December, so the second, so that would be an organizational and regular meeting.
2:20:50
Have a good time. Where are you going to be? Not here, you have to sit in your seat at least for this long two minutes, two minutes, two seconds,
2:20:58
so that
2:21:02
we can clap you
2:21:04
out, we can clap him out. And that looks, December looks you do want to cancel those two holiday weeks? Yes,
2:21:14
very good, and I will bring that back. What we’ll do is clean these, these up, make the notation a budget, and bring this back on consent agenda at the next meeting, just so you can see it one more time and bless it or make any other changes you wanted to to see. Thank you. That was easy because of all the work you’ve done on it. Thank you. You are getting very skilled. Thank you, Mayor Council. Thank you very much. And that ends our study session items, so we have mayor and council comments.
2:21:46
Anybody want to make a comment? I can’t see Marsha, yeah, we do
2:21:50
have something,
2:21:53
yes, but I don’t see my Executive Session. Yeah, yes, I would have some Miss Mayor, but I can hardly talk, so I will be afraid. Okay. Councilor McQuire, Thank you, Mayor pick. Recently, we’ve been struggling to find people to fill our boards and commissions, and I’m encouraging community members to watch the Netflix documentary, Join or Die. This is around the Harvard professor Robert Putnam’s book, Bowling Alone, and the Civic importance of being belonging to clubs and civic groups within our cities. This may demonstrate the importance of joining clubs and serving on our boards and commissions, and it’s currently showing on Netflix, and if you have Netflix, it gives a really good argument for why it’s so important for us to be
2:22:46
belong to this fabric of our community kind of
2:22:51
makes us who we are.
2:22:54
Thank you.
2:22:56
Anyone else seeing no one will move on to city manager remarks I sent a question. Oh, go for it, then. So what is the deadline to apply for a board and commission?
2:23:08
Did you extend it at all? Don, Mayor, Council, we have not extended in and it has closed. Okay,
2:23:16
Okay,
2:23:17
seeing none. It’s city manager’s report. No comments. Mayor, Council, City Attorney, no comments. Mayor, can I have a motion to adjourn Second?
2:23:28
It’s been moved by councilor McCoy, saying by councilor Chris that we adjourn all those in favor, aye, All those opposed. We are adjourned.
2:23:37
We are now going into, let’s take a break before we move into our Yeah. Okay, you
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