Matters Memo

City of Boulder City Council Agenda Item Meeting Date: September 24, 2026 Agenda Title Sister City Resolution Language and Process Update

Staff Contact • • •

Emily Richardson, Deputy City Clerk Elesha Johnson, City Clerk Alex Phipps, Assistant City Attorney

Executive Summary The purpose of this item is to present recommended updates to the Sister Cities Program Resolution and related processes to clearly define how the program is administered. At the January 12 and 13, 2026, Council Retreat, council identified 5 workplan priorities, including the Sister City Resolution and Language Process Update, and next steps were outlined in the February 5, 2026 Council Retreat follow-up agenda item. The scope of the project includes process enhancements to application submission, internal review, approval workflows, ongoing reporting expectations, and governance requirements. The update intends to create a consistent, transparent, and repeatable process for managing sister city relationships. Pending council support of the recommended updates, staff plan to bring back a future consent agenda item to codify the new processes as appropriate.

Questions for Council

1. Does Council have any questions regarding the current process and summary of proposed revisions? 2. Does council support the content of the draft resolution (Attachment A) with specific focus on: a) Section 6.2 - application intake and review process b) Section 6.3 - adoption of new sister cities by consent resolution c) Section 6.5 - waiting period following the denial of a Sister City application before a new application may be submitted d) Section 9.3 - process and criteria for revoking Sister City alliances e) Section 10 - to limit the total number of Sister City alliances, and if so, to what number?

Alignment with City Plans and City Council History Sustainability, Equity and Resilience (SER) Framework and Citywide Strategic Plan Alignment SER Framework Goal Area Responsibly Governed Citywide Strategic Plan Strategy 12. Implement organizational and financial best practices to continuously improve asset management, customer experience, and project and program performance.

Alignment with Additional City Plans Not applicable.

City Council History The Sister Cities Affiliation Policy was established by Resolution 631 in June 1992 and amended July 2001 (Attachment B). Council identified the review and update of the Sister City Program as a Council priority during the January 2026 Council Retreat, and staff have developed the proposed resolution amendments in response to that direction.

Analysis Current state process

The 2001 amendment to the Sister Cities Affiliation Policy reestablished the “Criteria for Establishing and Maintaining Sister City Relationships” in Section 2: A) In order to assure that sister city affiliations are genuinely reflective of the community and are managed by citizen organizations with resources adequate to the task, sister city affiliations shall: 1. Have and maintain Section 501 (c)(3) status. 2. Have and maintain a Boulder-based board of directors, with the board elected by the membership, and with no member of the board being a part of any commercial venture in the sister city. 3. Establish membership criteria, but membership may not be denied based upon race, religion, nationality, membership in a minority group, membership in a particular social group or because of the expression of unpopular political opinion. 4. Have and maintain an annual budget, a work plan, and a fund-raising report. 5. Annually submit a status report to the City Council by the 1st of March of each year which shall show compliance with items A(l), A(2), A(3), and A(4) and the policies set forth in Section 1. 6. Make the elements required in A(3), A(4) and A(S) available to the public. B) A prospective sister city should offer Boulder citizens significant exchange opportunities to enhance mutual understanding of the world's cultural diversity. In addition, the following procedures must be followed for official sister city recognition: 1. A citizen's organization advocating a new sister city affiliation must present to the City of Boulder City Manager's Office documents that demonstrate compliance with all relevant sections of this sister city policy resolution. 2. The City Manager's Office shall advise the City Council that the specified criteria and standards for affiliation have been met and shall present to the Council any further arguments for or against the proposed affiliation. 3. Sister city recognition must be approved by the Council.

There are currently 10 Sister Cities that have established agreements with the City of Boulder: • Dushanbe, Tajikistan – Liaison, Schuchard • Jalapa, Nicaragua – Liaison, Brockett • Kathmandu, Nepal – Liaison, Benjamin • Kisumu, Kenya – Liaison, Winer • Lhasa, Tibet – Liaison, Brockett • Mante, Mexico – Liaison, Speer • Nablus, Palestine – Liaison, Adams • Ramat HaNegev - Wallach • Yamagata, Japan – Liaison, Adams • Yateras, Cuba - Liaison, Marquis • Vinnytsia, Ukraine – Not assigned The City Clerk’s Office currently distributes annual reminders each February to all recognized Sister City organizations regarding the requirement to submit an annual report by the end of March. As part of this outreach, the City Clerk’s Office also requests confirmation and updated contact information for the current Sister City representative(s). The annual report process provides an opportunity to verify active contacts and monitor compliance with program requirements. To provide additional context regarding compliance with annual reporting requirements, the City Clerk’s Office has tracked annual report submissions from each of the 10 Sister City organizations since 2020 through the current year.

Project Approach The City Clerk’s Office contacted Sister Cities International and four municipalities that currently maintain Sister City programs. Staff met with Sister City International Division Representative, Gayle Stallings, and received email feedback from three of the four municipalities. In addition, staff held a Zoom meeting with representatives from Colorado Springs to gather further information and insights. The following are the questions asked of the 4 municipalities (Colorado Springs, Greeley, and Aurora, CO, and Los Angeles, CA): 1. Who administers the program? 2. Who has the authority to formally establish a sister city relationship? 3. What review or approval process is used before establishing a new relationship? 4. Do you ever disengage from sister city relationships? If so, what does that process look like? 5. Do you limit the number of sister cities your municipality maintains?

6. Is there any additional information or best practices you would recommend as we review and refine our process?

The responses received from the 3 municipalities (Colorado Springs, and Greeley, CO, & Los Angeles, CA), are included as Attachment C. Staff Recommendations Based on the past several years of program performance along with the information gathered from Sister Cities International and other municipalities, the chart below compares the current process with the proposed revisions and includes staff comments for Council's consideration. Steps Application

Current No formal application process is in place. Interested cites contact the CCO via email inquiring how to become a Sister City.

Proposed 1. Develop an online application form and include the ability to upload the required documents.

Comments o This will help ensure that applications for an alliance are properly received and not overlooked among the large volume of emails received by the CCO. o We would update the website to include application instructions, required forms and materials, and a clearly outlined process. o Currently, the website is limited to information about our existing Sister Cities, with the "Propose a New Sister City" section containing only a link to the Resolution.

Intake Review

•

•

•

Presentation to Council for action

•

•

•

Limit number of Sister Cites

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o Municipalities we contacted had no dedicated staff for processing applications. o Local community groups volunteers are used to administer the entire program. o None had funding in place for the program. o Proposed application form as included in the draft resolution as exhibit B.

All inquiries and applications are received by the CCO. There is currently no established review timeline when an inquiry/request is received, which has proven to be frustrating for the applicant. Review of the application is only to verify the 4 criteria outlined in Resolution 631 (as amended) are met.

1. Set definitive timelines and designate responsibility for conducting both the initial and final reviews. 2. Establish direct criteria for review and processing that includes any newly added requirements.

City Clerk’s Office prepares the application packet to present to Council for consideration and approval. This includes the draft agreement. Public hearings are not required for approval; however, they have been conducted for some applications. If approved, the “Sister City Agreement” is executed with the mayors of the perspective cities.

1. Establish clear o Should the deadlines for staff designation be more to present items to formalized though a council. resolution? 2. Continue including o In past years, not all the draft applications agreement with presented to Council any updates were approved. provided. o Establish a deadline and process for the 3. Establish a requirement that execution of the the item may be agreement by both cities (are both subject to a public hearing. mayor’s signatures 4. Update and required?) standardize the agreement and signature process.

Currently there is no limit on the number of Sister Cities alliances.

1. Council to discuss and determine whether a limit

o Municipalities we contacted have designated the number of alliances

Deactivation of Alliance

•

Currently there is no deactivation process.

should be established.

they will join. This is based on the program and the designated administrator for its oversight. o Consider the capacity of council members to serve as liaisons if the number of alliances continues to grow.

1. Council to discuss and determine whether a deactivation process is needed and, if so, establish criteria for deactivation.

o Only 1 municipality we contacted has a deactivation process in place. o Section 8.2 requires that an Information Packet (IP) item be provided to the City Council by June 1 of each year. The IP item will summarize the status and compliance of each Sister City alliance based on information received from each Sister City and the status report outlined in Exhibit A of the draft resolution. o Several current sister city organizations have not been responsive to requests for annual reports for several years and it is not clear whether they

are intending to be active again.

Staff incorporated the proposed changes outlined in the draft resolution and ensured the amendments are consistent with the City's administrative and legal requirements. (Attachment A).

Anticipated Fiscal and Workplan Impacts Not applicable.

Equity Analysis Not applicable.

Climate, Resilience, and Sustainability Considerations Not applicable.

Community Engagement No Community engagement was conducted as part of the development of the proposed amendments. The proposed changes are administrative and procedural in nature and are intended to provide additional clarity regarding the application, reporting, and oversight processes for Sister City alliances.

Next Steps for City Council Following Council’s discussion and direction during this study session, staff will incorporate Council’s feedback and schedule consideration of the updated resolution for approval at a future Council meeting under the Consent agenda.

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Attachments Attachment A – DRAFT Resolution With Exhibits Attachment B – Resolution 631 As Amended Attachment C – Sister City Research Responses