Transcript

0:05:05Evening and welcome to tonight's study session of the Boulder City Council. I am council member Good evening and welcome to tonight's study session of the Boulder City Council. I am Council Member Adams and thank you for joining us. We have one item on tonight's agenda and it is the 2027 recommended budget. Before we go into our work item, I would like to outline how the meeting will be conducted. We will review this staff's presentation and then we will have time for questions. At the end of the presentation, we will conduct our council discussion with staff. If you have questions, please wait for staff to complete their presentation. And now we will turn to our city manager, Nuria Rivera Vandermark, to uh introduce our first item. Nuria, thank you so much, Council Member Adams, and good evening, council members. Uh we're here tonight to discuss the city manager's recommended budget for 2027. As was mentioned, a budget that's been worked on for the greater part of the year and includes input and recommendations from each and every department director and their teams. I again wish we were in a better budget position than we find ourselves in. But we play the hand we're dealt and as they say and in 2027 continues to be one of those years where hard choices and trade-offs were

0:06:28necessary. I won't go into the details of our number as our incredible budget team led by uh Charlotte Husky is ready to do so shortly, but I did want to share a few thoughts. First, great care and thought has been put into this process. As always, we've been evolving our budget over the last 5 years. We decided to put a budget online in ways that we had not done before. We've continued with your input to make improvements to that system every year. And with this year, we added budget at a glance page, which is intended to provide even clearer, easier to read bottom line explanations to what is understandably a complex budget. We've also continued to move towards better measurements as we've moved towards outcomebased budgeting so we have opportunities to truly see if the work we're doing and the money we're spending is having a positive impact in community. This has been a journey of both training and shifting how we think about our work that will continue to improve, but it was an important shift in how we approach programmatic budgeting. Late this summer, we added yet another tool to that toolbox by performing a service inventory and categorizing our services into tiers.

0:07:33And while we're almost done with that work, you'll see more of this as we tie this to the upcoming work plan efforts, which should then lean into um all our uh budgetary cycle work as well. Those five tiers as we're thinking about them are critically vital services, mandated services which is in two parts. One is federal and one is state uh or federal and state and one is city. Strategic uh priority services and then community enrichment services and we'll be sharing uh more of this with you uh in the future. We use this along with the feedback from community through community surveys, the fund our future surveys, our community connectors, your council priorities, and importantly all the policy decisions you make every other Thursday to inform our budget choices. And the choices this year were harder as we have been making reductions over the years and are now seeing impacts on valuable staff members and beloved services that are truly difficult to make.

0:08:30But we cannot be all things to all people and continue to provide the level of service that our community is asking for when our revenues aren't growing at the same pace as our appetite for services. I believe this budget reflects the priorities you and community have lifted up. Priorities that speak to safety in every sense of the word, wildfire, climate risk, drought, policing, advancing our vision zero goals. speaks to ensuring wellness at all ages and housing support and leans into how we can continue to support those most vulnerable in our community when other areas of our government systems are failing. It also reflects the very real and critical need to maintain our city assets in ways that best support community services and importantly continue to retain the very excellent staff that provide the services that best serve our city. So, I thank all the departments and staff who have helped create this proposal and most especially the budget team who will leave you through tonight's presentation. I'll send this over to Christa Morrison, our CFO, who provided real leadership throughout and will kick us off tonight. Christa, >> thank you, Nuria. Good evening, Mayor Brockett and members of city council.

0:09:36Christa Morrison, chief financial officer. Happy to be here this evening as we present the 2027 recommended budget. First, I want to acknowledge the tremendous work of budget officer Charlotte Husky and the entire budget team. Charlotte during her tenure in the role of budget officer has continued to refine and bring forward Boulder's budget process for a more data-driven approach through outcomesbased budgeting building upon Boulder's sustainability, equity, and resilience framework as well as transparency in the budget document and community engagement on the budget. Under Charlotte's leadership, this work will only continue to progress each year. Thanks to the many departments online tonight to support the budget discussion. The budget before you this evening started in March with department starting budget development. It is important to recognize that the 2027 budget represents three consecutive years of reductions requiring departments um to face reductions due to economic conditions and changes outside of our control like legislation impacting property growth in recent years. I would like to thank the thoughtful and collective approach of city leaders have taken to ensure choices brought forward in this submitted budget support advancing council and community priorities within the constraints of available resources and a highly restricted funding.

0:11:12The 2027 rep recommended budget is 552.6 million across all funds. The capital budget is 135.4 million. The capital budget supports city facilities and infrastructure improvements and maintenance. City infrastructure is broad by type, ranging from city facilities like recreation facilities, administrative buildings to parks, bridges, our utility network like storm water and flood management, sewer and water pipelines, traffic signals, street lights and pavement to name a few on that short on that list. Capital budgets will vary by year based on project readiness among other factors. Roughly 77% of the 2027 capital improvement program is supporting projects for utilities and transportation and mobility projects with the balance supporting projects for citywide facilities and fleet innovation and technology parks and recreation open space and mountain parks. A complete list of the capital projects and their sources of funding for those projects is available in the capital improvement section of the budget document.

0:12:34The operating budget is 412.2 million, representing a 2.3% increase over the 2026 approved budget, the second slowest growth rate since the pandemic. While the operating budget is increasing, it is important to note that this actually represents a decrease required by departments to balance the recommended budget. The cost of providing services is outpacing slowing revenue growth. We have presented extensively in recent years along with our partners at CU Boulder on the slowing revenue and reasons for that. I'd like to provide a little high-level background on the pressures we're facing with expenditures. The US inflation rate is forecasted for 2027 at 2.5% and the Denver region at 2.7%. Meaning the cost of providing services is increasing with inflation among other factors. Boulder is in the business of providing services. This means people or our employees provide those services.

0:13:42Personnel costs represent 41% of the operating budget and 61% of the general fund budget. Paying employees fairly and competitively is important to ensure retention and ability to recruit quality talent. The 2027 budget assumes increases in wages between four to 5% depending on employee classification and collective bargaining agreements. Benefit costs such as retirement, health care, and dental all increase above inflation. These budget assumptions along with all others are detailed in the budget and brief section of the budget document. While future forecasts show modest revenue recovery providing some relief starting in 2028, the underlying structural issues of Boulder's high dependence on sales and use tax, volatile economic conditions, high rate of restricted uses of revenue and underfunded and unfunded costs such as deferred maintenance remain, highlighting the need to continue the work on the long-term financial strategy to ensure financial sustainability.

0:14:53There simply aren't enough resources to maintain current service levels and properly maintain city facilities and infrastructure without change. These issues were highlighted forecasting Boulder's financial position dating back to the blue ribbon commission reports of 2008 and 2010. A long-term comprehensive financial plan is forthcoming in the winter of 2026. It will contain forecasts of major funds for Boulder and both expenditure and revenue strategies as we continue to address longstanding structural issues. This will include continued community conversation, educating on Boulder's financial position, and listening to understand which services are most important to the community and at what level of service. So with that, I'll turn this over to budget officer Charlotte Husky to present the 2027 recommended budget. >> Thank you, Christa. Good evening, Council Member Charlotte Husky, budget officer for the city. I'll share my screen.

0:16:13All right. Good evening, council members. Charlotte Husky, budget officer for the city. I'm joined tonight uh with uh Scott Carpenter, principal budget analyst. Uh and we will be walking through tonight's presentation on the 2027 recommended budget. Our agenda for this evening will focus on an overview of our major uh budget assumptions uh and key considerations associated with our budget assumptions. Our revenue forecast and major revenue changes incorporated into the 2027 budget. An overview of the 2027 recommended budget. Speaking to our uh key decision-making pillars, our fund our future community conversation summary that helped to inform the 2027 budget brought forward to you this evening, and an overview of the significant changes in the operating budget by our sustainability, equity, and resilience goal areas, which helped to inform our decision-making. We'll speak to then an overview of our six-year planning, capital planning horizon for 2027 to 2032.

0:17:14uh sharing an overview of some ma some of our major projects that are incorporated into the six-year CIP and round out with our long-term financial strategy the work that has been guiding the city's long-term fiscal health forward for the past couple of years and work uh that continues to come as Christa shared forward and finally round out with city council questions. So sharing forward an overview of our major uh budget assumptions. Our key considerations and budget assumptions for the 2027 recommended budget included balancing against our budgetary constraints due to a flattening of our city's major revenue sources in recent years, inflationary impacts on operating costs, impacts of recent state legislation, and heightened economic uncertainty. With our revised forecasts, city staff shared forward at the May financial forecast to city council a projected budget shortfall if left unressed with specific focus on balancing a 6.3 million uh dollar projected gap in the general fund. the general fund which comprises 34% of the city's budget.

0:18:27The bud budget balanced operating expenses against flattening revenues with ongoing reductions, realignments across city funds and prioritizations of investments you using our data driven framework including looking at operational performance measures, our historical trends and revenue forecasts, community budget engagement input that helped to inform the our decisions as well as the citywide strategic plan uh priority actions and city council top priorities. The 2027 recommended budget is 552.6 million across all funds, which includes an operating budget of 417.2 million, representing the second slowest operating budget growth at 2.35% since the pandemic period. And our capital budget of 135.4 4 million, which prioritizes ongoing maintenance of city facilities and taking care of the city's existing assets. The 2027 recommended budget brought forward to city council is balanced and uplifts recent input received from fund our future community priorities, advances the citywide strategic plan, our our top uh city council top priorities and continues to invest and prioritize criticality of services for community members.

0:19:54Shifting to focus on our revenue forecast for 2027. Our forecasted revenues for 2027 reflect a continued trend of slow growth that the city has seen since the end of 2023, particularly for sales and use tax and property tax, which accounts for 60% of city revenues when excluding utility revenues. Our total project projected revenues for 2027 are 527.1 million for sales and use tax which comprises 35% of the city revenues of city revenues. Our year year-over-year change is uh an increase of 3.3% compared to our revised forecast for 2026. And as mentioned in the May financial forecast, the city revised its original 2020 2026 forecast to lower the anticipated revenues for 2026 based on economic uncertainty. And this lowering of our base impacted our 2027 budget development. The forecast for property tax, which comprises 11% of city revenues, is a 6% increase year-over-year compared to revised revenues uh for 2026.

0:21:05Property tax uh property taxes have been impacted by flattening actual value growth as well as recent state legislation which has lowered assessed property values and therefore less revenue collection for city services supporting city services. Other notable changes that are reflected in the 2027 uh uh budget and our 2027 revenues, some are listed here, including the transportation maintenance fee with implementation of this fee anticipated in 2027 with council approving this uh fee in the 2026 adopted budget. We are conservative conservatively estimating $3 million uh dollars in uh anticipated revenues associated with this fee beginning with the implementation in 2027. Our additional recreational marijuana retail sales tax. So, there's increases incorporated into the budget, into our budgeting assumptions, uh, changing our tax rate from 3.5% to 5.5%. Helping to offset the state's recent legislation that reduced entirely our city share of state collected marijuana revenues. And this also brings uh Boulder more in line with neighboring municipalities. This leads to a forecasted 41.2% 2% increase in this revenue. Uh that amounts to about 512,000 incorporated into our revenue forecast for 2027.

0:22:36Affordable housing cash and L fees are estimated at an 11% increase compared to 2026. This is driven by anticipated revenues to be received from projects such as the redevelopment of Williams Village, the Boulder Dinner Theater, and at 30th and Bluff Street. And then finally, our utility revenues forecasted at an increase of 6.8% driven by proposed fee changes included with included in the 2027 budget that increase that increase fees by 5% for water utilities, 7% for wastewater utilities, and 7% for storm water flood flood management utilities to support the utilities enterprise. So shifting now to speak to our 2027 recommended budget overview, providing an overview of our budgeting assumptions, the summary of the fun future community conversations that we performed earlier this spring, and an overview of our operating budget by goal area. Key to the development of the 2027 recommended budget was bringing forward a balanced budget that supported core city services, community priorities, programs, and goals consistent with community values, leveraging our flexibility of resources across all of our funds, and and looking to position the city for improved long-term financial sustainability.

0:24:04The 2027 budget utilized the primary pillars for decision-making as listed here. Alignment with the sustainability, equity, and resilience framework, datadriven decisions using our programmatic budgeting for resilience and equity outcomes and performance measures, historical trends looking at revenue as well as our spending forecasts over time. utilizing community budget engagement, including the extensive feedback that we performed with fund our future community engagement efforts this spring. alignment with guiding principles of our uh long-term financial strategy, including uplifting revenue diversity, flexibility, and stability of city revenues. The city-wide strategic plan and advancing our objectives and priority act uh priority actions that are included in this uh three-year plan, an uplifting of the top council priorities that are set set each year during council work planning. To help inform the 2027 recommended budget and to further build upon the long-term financial strategy, the city performed fund our future community conversations this spring, engaging with over 500 community members on trade-offs of city services and service levels.

0:25:24These conversations, which were held both in person and online, helped to educate community members on the city's budget and perform a trade-off exercise and discussion across 25 community-f facing services falling within 12 broader broader categories as listed on this table. These discussions emphasize the need to perform trade-off of city services of city services and service levels. If interested in increasing services in one area, community members had to draw from another service area. This exercise helped community members to recognize the demand on city services and the difficulty in balancing against city service demands and the continued constraints on the city's budget and the pressures of our financial landscape. Community member priorities of city services are highlighted here in blue across the table on this slide and that these demonstrate community interest for bolstering programs for ongoing maintenance of city facilities.

0:26:28uh as well as our public safety services and wildfire uh resilience and response as well as the affordable housing service area which was prioritized in our community conversation population which comprised more renters, lower income and more racially and ethnically diverse respondents. This engagement, which built upon budget engagement over the past two budget cycles, served as a key pillar to decision-making in the 2027 recommended budget. And as we speaks to to our trade-offs of balancing the budget and investments in program areas over the next several slides, you'll see fund our future priorities incorporated and reflected in the 2027 budget. So speaking to our uh recommended budget comparison from 2019 to 2027, this graph shows our comparison of the city's adopted budgets from 2019 to 2026 and the recommended budget for 2027 capturing the citywide budget including our operating as well as our capital budget on this top line. the city's operating budget represented here in the middle line and finally our general fund budget represented here on the bottom line in yellow. In the post-pandemic period in 2021 and 2020 through 2023, the city saw strong revenue growth in sales and use tax as well as in property taxes and in turn utilize these revenues to invest in new and new ongoing programs and services that contributed to homelessness efforts, behavioral

0:28:03health response, wildfire resilience, public safety, and affordable housing efforts. uh to name a few services and programs provided across the city. Sales and use tax began to flatten in late 2023 and the city turned focus on strategic use of one-time fund balance for one-time investments in both the 2024 and the 2025 budgets. The city's sales and use tax and property tax revenues were further impacted by economic uncertainty in state legislation in 2025, which resulted in an identified shortfall midyear in 2025, and the city uh as a result performed a hiring freeze midyear and a need to identify departmental one-time savings. We also performed uh reductions to balance the budget in 2026 against the $7.5 million forecasted gap in the general fund. This resulted in the slowest operating budget growth for the city since the pandemic period uh for an operating budget growth of 2.09% year-over-year.

0:29:10The 2027 recommended budget brought forward to city council is balanced and represents uh and as mentioned previously for the citywide operating budget and uh uh the second slowest operating growth uh since the 2021 period at 2.35% and the general fund sitting uh just above 3% year-over-year increase. The 2027 recommended operating budget totals 417.24 million representing a 2.35% over the 2026 adop uh adopted budget marking our second slowest operating growth since the pandemic period. The 2027 but operating budget annual growth sits below uh the US and the Denver Aurora Lakewood forecasted inflation rates for 2027 at 2.5 and 2.6% respectively. Primary cost drivers for the operating budget include wa w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w and bs for personnel, internal service costs such as fleet replacements, uh fleet service charges and technology costs, and existing contractual increases relating to existing city operations programs and services.

0:30:31With our lowered revenue forecast and increase in base expenses, we identified a $6.3 million gap in the general fund and asked departments to identify 4% departmental savings to help support reduction strategies to help support uh balancing the budget. The budget performed ongoing reductions, realignments across city funds, and limited enhancements toward priority investments using lens of criticality and our key pillars for datadriven decision-making. Over the next few slides, I'll I'll pass this over to our principal budget an analyst, Scott Carpenter, who will who will cover highlights of our significant changes within the operating budget as outlined by by our sustainability, equity, and resilience goal area. >> Thank you, Charlotte. Uh, good evening, council. Scott Carpenter, principal budget analyst. And as mentioned by Charlotte, over the next few slides, I'm going to highlight changes within the 2027 budget by sustainability, equity, and resilience goal. Starting with responsibly governed, uh there is a $4.3 million increase for city facilities maintenance supporting building maintenance needs such as roof repairs, boiler replacements, and electrical system repairs.

0:31:53the implementation of a one ranger and shared resources approach between open space and mountain parks and parks and recreation for parks and open space maintenance and training and development for limited commission rangers across teams. Parks and open space will continue to work on possible consolidation and efficiency efforts throughout the year to bring forward opportunities in the 2028 budget. Under the safe goal, uh, investments in wildfire resilience include a one-time increase of 300,000 in the climate tax fund for wildfire ready priorities and a conversion of an existing fixedterm position to a fuels management program manager to manage the wildland urban interface field crew to accomplish priority wildland fire and climate projects funded through the open space fund. This is on top of an estimated $11 million in spending that goes towards wildfire efforts across the city.

0:32:56Additionally, an ongoing enhancement of $36,000 funded to the transportation fund for snow and ice response technology for the road weather information systems cameras and sensors for routing and navigation. Additional investments under the safe goal include $2.4 $4 million one time for the replacement of the firefighter self-contained breathing apparatus equipment and $190,000 one time for the continuation of firefighter health screening for occupational risks like heart disease, cancer, and behavioral health. There is $552,000 ongoing in funding for three new police lieutenant positions to act in a supervisory role over each watch, providing additional oversight and management, helping to further implement the reimagining policing plan. Under the livable goal, furthering the homelessness strategy, there is 300,000 in one-time funding for the building home program and 72,000 for the flexible resolution program to help newly housed individuals transition into stable living situations and avoid homelessness through peer support, housing retention, and reunification services. There are significant affordable housing investments, including 5.3 million for the Alpine Balsam site, supporting the city's largest affordable housing project with 144 affordable units. The $5.3 million represents one year of funding that will total 14.5 million over several years in addition to 14.4 million to support project infrastructure via transfer from the affordable housing fund to the governmental capital fund. There is $4.1 million for affordable h uh for an

0:34:48affordable housing development of 44 permanently affordable town homes on 34th Street. Um that is 2.2 2 million and 1.9 million to prepare the Valmont site in East Boulder to develop approximately 18 to 20 permanently affordable homes which will be you which will be built using the city's modular factory aligned with the healthy and socially thriving goal within the arts culture and heritage fund. There is $40,000 for Community Arts Stabilization Trust Colorado Partnership to analyze how to address the displacement of artists in cultural nonprofits from Boulder's creative ecosystem. There is a $250,000 realignment from the sugar sweetened beverage distribution tax fund to support health equity outcomes through parks and recreation's existing programs such as the expand program for people with disabilities or the youth services initiative. Also under the healthy and socially thriving goal, there is the ongoing funding reduction at Spruce Pool.

0:36:00Onetime dollars will fund Spruce Pool operations through the end of 2027. The cost of operating pools has increased significantly. The city has felt particular inflationary pressures post pandemic with cost increases to wages, chemicals, and utilities. for ongoing costs of chemicals and gas and electric. Ye recent years have seen an increase above 12% and 40% respectively. This proposed reduction minimizes community impact based upon usage data across the entire city pool system. Spruce pool serves fewer swimmers in the community than other city pools. There is also the elimination of child watch services at East Boulder Community Center. This is based on underutilization of the child watch program at EBCC. Community members will have child watch services available at North Boulder Recreation Center. Uh for the environmentally sustainable goal, the budget proposes a $150,000 realignment of climate tax funds for parks and recreation's urban forestry, tree planting, and tree trust programs.

0:37:17This realignment allows other city funding sources to be used for underfunded recreation operations. There is a $165,000 reduction at Scott Carpenter pool from the shoulder season that includes operations before Memorial Day or after Labor Day and leisure pool changes throughout the season during lower demand periods at the pool. In alignment with the economically vital goal, the budget proposes a $38,000 ongoing reduction to the microloan and flexible rebate programs to be considered holistically as part of the city's economic development strategy. There is $500,000 in one-time funding for the continuation of the downtown ambassador program providing hospitality, safety, and cleaning services within the business improvement districts, the civic area, and university hill. And last but not least, aligned to the accessible and connected goal is the establishment of a new office of customer experience to be incubated under the city manager's office with the opening of the Western City campus building in late 2027, which will provide centralized and convenient customer service through in-person direct support and enhanced digital processes. This new office will consolidate and realign as many as 17 existing positions that perform similar or related work citywide. The 2027 budget reflects two FTE to be realigned from the communications and engagement department to this new office with the remaining staff to be realigned late in 2027.

0:39:02There is $150,000 in one-time funding for a statistically valid community survey to provide detail on emerging community priorities and measure the impact of city services which will include a qualitative process for expanded sample sizes and inclusivity of sampling conducted by an inclusive inclusive engagement contractor. The city last performed the community survey in 2023. This updated and expanded survey will build upon prior year's data and help to provide a longitudinal comparison of community input of city services. And with that, I will now turn it back to Charlotte to provide an overview of the proposed 2027 through 2032 capital improvement program. >> Thank you, Scott, for the overview of the operating budget. So, shifting now to talk through our six-year capital planning uh horizon with the 2027 to 2032 capital improvement program as well as as well as outline some of the major capital projects incorporated into the uh uh six-year horizon. The 2027 uh capital budget as listed here on this slide is 135.4 4 million and 827.7 million uh in funding planned across the six-year capital planning horizon supporting capital improvement programs across seven departments funded by 19 funds. Uh the primary revenues of which uh come from utility user charges, sales and use tax as well as property tax. In 2027, major capital investments include maintenance and infrastructure of the

0:40:46city's utilities such as the the water pipeline repair and dam stability, transportation projects, and programs such as the pavement management program and bridge replacement projects, and city facilities such as funding community and recreation centers, parking garages, as well as fire stations. On an annual basis, over 75% of the capital budget supports utilities and transportation, infrastructure and maintenance on core projects such as water pipeline repair, flood plane mitigation, sanitary sewer rehabilitation, pavement management, and bridge repair. Additionally, over 50% of our capital budget invests in ongoing capital maintenance of city infrastructure and assets and total spending fluctuates annually based on phasing of planned capital projects with project scope, timing, and funding availability in our financing plans. Over the next few slides, I'll highlight some key capital projects that the city plans to perform in 2027 as well as across the six-year horizon.

0:41:56The utilities Barker gravity pipeline repair will invest 13.5 million uh in for repairs to an over a 100redyear-old pipeline that delivers water from the Barker Reservoir in Netherland to the Kasa reservoir up Flagstaff Road and this is critical for maintaining water supply for city of Boulder residents. The Colorado 119 bus priority traffic signal improvements is included in the 2027 to 2032 CIP and this will implement traffic signal and intersection infrastructure modifications for buses along the Colorado 1119 corridor at 28th Street and Canyon Boulevard as well as at Iris Avenue and Diagonal Highway to support regional transportation collaboration and reduce se and and help to reduce single occupancy vehicle trips. Incorporated into our six-year capital improvement program are a list of capital projects supporting wildfire prevention efforts across uh the CIP. Those listed here are specific wildfire prevention efforts on open space land.

0:43:08And I'll highlight these uh and walk through these uh on the slide. We have a total of 108 170K supporting the Flagstaff corridor safety and wildfire prevention improvements to increase visitor safety, reduce wildfire potential, and ensure long-term ecological viability of the area. There is the wildfire fuels mitigation along ditch corridors, 350,000 to mitigate fuels along irrigation ditches on open space land to support wildfire resilience. stockwater planning for drought resilience uh and supporting of diversified agriculture. There's a total of uh 680,000 in funds across the horizon uh supporting improvements to stockwater infrastructure to support sustainable grazing protect sensitive habit habitats and reduce wildfire risk. There's fuels, uh, a project supporting fuels mitigation, virtual fencing, so 250,000 in funds for a pilot for virtual fencing pilot to manage grazing for invasive species control, enhancing native ecosystems, supporting fuel mitigation, and reducing fire risk on open space land. the implementation of the tall oakgrass control strategy 300,000 uh supporting this containment and eradication um protecting native ecosystems biodiversity and fire safety for broader wildfire risk reduction and finally the implementation of the OSP climate and wild wildfire plan a total of 1.7 million to support actions that's that reduce emissions improve landscape resilience manage wildfire risk and integrate climate adaptation into ongoing land management.

0:45:06Two other key projects incorporated into the six-year capital planning horizon include the replacements of fire stations 2 and four. There's a total of 31.7 million incorporated into the CIP to replace fire station 2 at Broadway and baseline as well as fire station 4 in South Boulder. These uh fire stations combined respond to an over uh 3,000 calls uh a year. And both of these fire stations are past their operational lifespan. Um and these replacements will help to modern modernize emergency services for community response. The fire station 2 completion uh of the replacement is anticipated for 2027 and 2028 while fire station 4 completion is anticipated in uh 2031 and will be funded by the sale of city office buildings with the consolidation of city offices to the western city campus. With these revenues from building sales, the city will be able to advance the replacement of fire station 4 a year earlier than anticipated, which will save costs by advancing the replacement early, as well as supporting our investments in critical emergency operations for the community.

0:46:24Investments at East Boulder uh Community Center will include renovations to meet modern recreation needs and improve program elements like swimming, fitness, and older adult services. There are additional improvements uh in at Tom Watson Park as well as North Boulder Park. Uh and then these improvements planned for the ball fields at Tom Watson Park will help to replace aging irrigation systems as well as uh play areas and fitness area improvements in North Boulder Park to support community gatherings. An overview of our uh community culture resilience and safety tax program. Uh the total amount of investments across the six-year horizon total 121 126.1 million in 2027 to 2032 supporting 16 capital projects including 96.2 2 million in planned debt proceeds to advance fire station 2 replacement, the renovations occurring at East Boulder Community Center as well as at the uh civic area or Boulder Creek Park.

0:47:38uh included in uh importantly included in the CIP for this year and reflected uh in our community culture and resilience and safety tax investments beginning in 2027 and highlighted throughout the six-year horizon include an additional uh amount of investments in ongoing maintenance of city facilities. Uh and this was informed uh in part by the input heard from fund our future um community conversations earlier this spring. There's a total of 27.9 million in new facilities maintenance projects to help address a critical backlog of deferred maintenance. And you'll see this reflected in the CIP supported um by our CCRS revenues uh and re receiving voter approval from this last uh last fall. And finally turning to our efforts with a long-term financial strategy speaking to our financial planning as well as our city fiscal health named named a top city council priority in 2024. The long-term financial strategy builds upon the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission reports from 2028, excuse me, 2008 and 2010 and focuses on taking care of what we have, addressing our backlog of needs, prioritizing the flexibility of funding to meet community needs, recognizing the challenges of restricted funding, coordinating on our tax ballot measures within our broader city financial planning. So looking at alternative funding mechanisms as well as our outcomesbased budgeting approach which we have brought forward in recent

0:49:14years as well as distributing the tax burden more equitably. And these are listed uh key components and advancements of the long-term financial strategy including the work on the long-term financial comprehensive plan which will come forward to city council this December focuses focuses on updates to city financial policies as well as outlining future strategic action steps for the city to take to guide toward fiscal health. Another key component of the long-term financial strategy includes our alternative funding mechanisms to increase revenue diversity, sufficiency, and stability. incorporated into the 2027 recommended budget. As as mentioned previously, includes an increase to our recreational marijuana retail sales tax from 3.5% to 5.5% and an increase in certain fees, including our utility fees, our long-term term parking permits, and recreational marijuana marijuana uh medical marijuana licenses. And a comprehensive list of these fees are incorporated into our uh comprehensive fee inventory published on our budget uh in our budget book on our budget site.

0:50:27We performed an inventory of city services as Nuria spoke to uh earlier and this helped to inform our fund our future community conversations and this input of our community. Uh this input received from fund our future community conversations was critical in uh informing our decision making uh for the 2020 uh7 budget. And then finally, our ballot measure strategy for 2025 and 2026 led to the successful 2025 ballot measure and voter approval of the.3% permanent extension of the community culture resilience and safety tax as well as an increase in our debt capacity. And on uh the the 2026 November ballot is a focus on city facilities infrastructure with the recreation and safety bond. So looking forward uh to next steps for the 2027 recommended budget this evening uh with this uh council study session uh we'll answer uh questions from council members and then shift to budget readings and adoption uh with our first reading on October 1st uh and second uh reading and adoption of the 2027 budget on October 15th. Um, similar to prior years, we are asking of council members uh to share forward any potential and proposed council budget amendments to hotline uh by September 28th. This enables city staff to review uh and compile uh city council budget amendments across the board and bring these forward for the October 1st

0:52:06reading uh with city council that evening on October 1st. and to ensure a balanced budget amendment should include an identified offset. Um, city staff is here and available to help should council members have questions as we shift uh and move toward our October 1st first reading. Um, and any questions on budget amendments uh or questions on on offsets as well. And finally with our council questions for this evening, do council members have any questions on the 2027 recommended budget, including on the operating budget as well as our capital budget? And does council recommend any substantive changes in advance of its first reading of the 2027 budget on October 1st or questions on next steps? >> Thank you so much, Charlotte, um, and team for that. very thorough uh review and list of recommendations. Um I will start with the first question um about questions on the 2027 recommended budget including operating budget and capital budget.

0:53:22Um in order to facilitate this we have about two and a half hour and a half or two and a half hours two hours and 10 minutesish. So I'm going to ask our fellow our council members um to ask the your first two questions and we'll do a round and then we'll come back uh for another two question rounds. I see uh Ryan and then Tara. >> Thanks and um thanks Charlotte and team for such a such a a breadth of work. Um I have a just a pro a procedural question. So you have a question for us which is would do we do we um would we like to propose any major changes? My question to you is if what does that take? So I I does that take five council members to say yes, we'd like to see a change. Um can you just maybe comment on how you want to think about that as we get into you hearing feedback from council members on ideas? Yeah, I think um that that's a helpful uh question, Ryan, on the process and um might turn to our deputy city attorney here to confirm and chime in if I um misstep. Um it would be helpful to understand uh across the board from council members if there is uh majority support for substantive

0:54:46changes um this evening. Um there can be uh conversations between now and October 1st. Um if there are uh uh council members that are interested in proposing uh amendments across the board, the main item that we share forward is that there should be an identified offset um to ensure that we bring forward a balanced budget um and council approves a balanced budget. Um and so we are available to support uh if there are questions. Um but for this evening it would be helpful to understand if there are there is a majority of council that's interested um and then we will take that forward and and bring that um to our October 1st reading as well in addition to any um additional amendments that come forward between now and then. >> Okay. Thanks. wanted to make sure that Teresa didn't have any question or comments about that.

0:55:51>> Hi everyone, I am not Teresa. I am Roberto Ramirez, your deputy uh city attorney. >> Uh and uh Charlotte was completely right. Um if if there during this process in a study session, it really is uh to ask the questions and if there is uh uh a majority of or a not of five of city council members that wish for us to do some investigating as to certain areas that would be very helpful. Thanks >> and just point of reference but is not required at this stage. it would just be a nice to have for the n of five because that's outside the scope of the questions that we have today. So I want to be mindful of what we're going to be able to get accomplished and I can imagine >> um you know even if there were just three that that could be a very lengthy process that will take us past 9:00. So um just want to caution us on on on the pathway moving forward. Um, so was that your only question, Ryan, or did you want to te?

0:56:56>> Yeah, that was just a clarifying question. I That's all I have for my clarifying questions. Thanks. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, moving on. I see Rob. I thought I saw Matt's is Oh, no. Matt's later. My apologies. Rob. Robin is um I have to ask this question, but the the community has been asking this so much and it's it's trust me it's not an attack. I just want to clarify this, but there's a boxing expression that describes exactly where we are on Alpine Balsam. When you're constantly backing up, you can't generate power and you can't throw a combination. You're always responding to somebody else's rhythm. Um, and I feel like that's where we've been on the largest infrastructure project in the history of the city. And it's cost us credibility that frankly we can't afford to lose right now. Um, the questions that have driven this council and staff onto their heels, um, they weren't unpredictable.

0:57:54Um, like what does the project actually cost in total? How does it compare to the original figure? What do the coops actually obligate us to over time? the bond. Um, and I think the standard is simple. No one should learn something critical about any major infrastructure project from anyone other than us first. Not from, you know, somebody's white paper that they a community member wrote, not from a hotline response, not from Kora record requests, um, but from us. And it means trusting the public with the full picture before they have to, you know, perceivably pry it out of us. So my question is what does it actually change for us to change that posture? And I'm not talking about for this project specifically, but structurally so that our next major capital commitment the city makes doesn't put us in the same position.

0:58:54>> So let me start and take the question. And I um I appreciate the question, Rob. I I perhaps would not agree with the characterization of uh us not being uh direct and open and been thinking about it. Uh I think I know council has because we have had this conversation in many council meetings. We have had a project page recently. Certainly people have asked for a level of detail that we don't generally provide for every uh project that we have. Um and this one has spanned many many years. So it is an incredibly complex uh project. Um we have um spoken to community members. We have said we are uh looking to get all of that um categorized and we have I hope that many of you have been able to see um not just the additional project detail but we've also put a story map that really covers the 11-year history of uh of this project. But along the way, you will see that we have tied those touch points. Council has seen this. Community has had an opportunity to see a lot of this along the way. So, I just want to be um direct about I I do not believe that this is uh necessarily a case where we have not been providing um updates. We can quibble about

1:00:13certainly level of detail and what amount we should provide for every single project. There are details in our CIP projects. Once they stop being a CIP project and we're into implementation, that level of detail is not there. And frankly, I would not expect to find that in the budget document per se. Budget serves a particular purpose. So there are additional uh areas in which we can provide more. um as we continue to think about how um how do we continue to provide transparency having said all of that and I don't know if um there are others who want to follow me but I will say that we will always learn from this um we will continue to think through whether how our financial systems can best um tag certain projects as we move forward uh particularly if they are cross- departmental we hear this as well for things like homelessness or wildfire right those are not necessarily as we budget. We budget in departments. So thinking how do we continue to make that visible we will do that with other projects. We certainly have um a whole number of affordable housing developments of um flood mitigation projects of transportation projects. Um we are thoughtful and careful about what we do in those. If we ever have to if we

1:01:30ever have gone over I will say too or have gone under that is reflected in budget. All of this comes before you either for additional appropriation or for extension of CIP or it changes because every project starts with estimate as we think forward. So there are a variety of mechanisms as we um move on that showcase it. There is nothing that we are trying to not reveal or share with you or with community. >> And I just want to be clear I I don't believe that you're hiding anything or there's nothing. I'm just trying to look forward so as we learn from this like you know we've had so many core requests and things that I just want to get in front of the next project. It's it's not I'm not making any um implications there.

1:02:17>> Appreciate that. And and sorry I don't know if another staff person was was going to chime in. Um but we certainly are happy to think about what are those major projects that require additional level level of detail as you have seen as we have matured as an organization. We are constantly putting out things like story maps that are helping. We're trying to do that with projects like um uh sort of the civic area and um we will uh likely be thinking about those projects for um some of our facilities as we move forward. So, we know that our tools have gotten better over time in ways that they perhaps did not allow us to do 10 years ago. >> Can I colloqui on that when you're finished, Rob? >> Yeah. I mean, I'm gonna >> or I should be asking I as I'm supposed to ask the leader if I can call >> you can call on that um on the question about um alpine blossom.

1:03:14>> Yeah. So I guess my question is similar to Rob's like at what when does council hear if there's cost overruns or in other words there's just regular cost overruns and then there are really really big cost overruns. So when do we hear about it and what is our responsibility or or let's say we also want to make sure this doesn't happen again. So what do we have to do respon what is our responsibility in it exactly when I can't remember and I've been on council a long time when did you tell us that there were cost overruns and I guess when I first got on council I remember saying well this project is expensive that was in 2021 when you came and it was like people were saying well it's too late it's too late so I'm not quite sure how to make sure that this whole thing doesn't happen again um not just from a staff perspective but from council perspective.

1:04:10>> Yeah, thank you for the question, council member. Um, I'm happy to to start out and know other staff are here to support with responses as well. Um, we, as Nuria shared forward, bring forward our six-year capital planning horizon and our annual budget on an annual basis to city council. We also bring forward uh at least planned on uh uh two years uh throughout the excuse me two times throughout the year supplemental appropriations for city council consideration. Uh it is at the this time that we bring forward any changes to uh budget or appropriation levels uh to city council. And so it is during our budget process where uh city council has the opportunity to review and approve any changes uh to our annual uh planned upcoming fiscal year uh as well as during the adjustments to base that are brought forward at least two times a year.

1:05:16>> And maybe uh Charlotte if I can jump in. This is Chris Massch, deputy city manager. Um, just specific to the Alpine Balsom project, um, I think there is a narrative out in the community that the project is over budget and that's just not true. Uh, the project has been within every budget that's allocated uh been allocated uh by city council. Um, is it a big number? It's a it's a really big number overall when you add up that that 11-year history. um from the site acquisition which was a big piece of redevelopment in the community to then the decisions on the deconstruction that council made uh to now the construction of the western city campus. It's a big building and the budget is big. Um, but the project is within its budget uh that was approved by council. And so that's uh as Nuria was referencing, what we've tried to put together uh and compile going back those 11 years is to show um what each of those components were, what the expenses were, what the approved allocated budget was that was was approved by council to try and help tell that story because I I think that's part of the narrative that's out in the community is just that the project is out of control uh and that the the

1:06:33budget is greatly exceeded. Uh and and no, we're trying to be as as costefficient as possible. Uh and and we are managing that project within the budget that was allocated. >> Thank you, um >> question two, >> Rob. Yes, question two. >> Awesome. Thank you. Um I didn't see it. Um at least I I didn't see it in detail and I I might have missed it. It's a long document, but reserve funding for facilities. Um, I know we've got line items for it and I know for very various reasons we haven't been contributing to um what is necessary to replace a building in 30 years. Did I miss that? Is that coming in the long-term financial plan? >> So, thanks for the question, Council Member Kaplan. We have been uh investing uh in our 2% CRV. I think that uh just to clarify that is that the specific question associated with setting aside for uh building reserves as well as uh potentially our facilities maintenance investments in the CIP. Um so the uh 2% uh CRV is something that we have been setting aside uh since the approval council's approval of the facility strategic plan. Um and we have been setting these aside for uh specific criteria of buildings that meet that 2% uh CRV uh set aside. Um we have been

1:08:09adding to that uh over year over uh uh the past few budget cycles and that is reflected in the 2027 budget. What is additionally reflected in the 2027 budget is a total of 4.3 million in additional funding to support critical uh maintenance of uh city facilities. Um that was shared forward on a slide earlier in our presentation that was supported with the ability and flexibility of the funding that um the city now has with the permanent approval of the 3% CCRS tax. So, we were able to increase the amount of uh critical maintenance items such as roof replacements, boiler boiler replacement, system upgrades um in our 2027 budget with that um uh permanent extension approval. And that is reflected in our capital budget as well as our um 2% CRV going to buildings like uh fire station 8. um uh for example.

1:09:17>> So moving forward from this point on, if we built a building right now, 30 years from now, we wouldn't have to ask for money. We would have the uh replacement value. So the um and I know we have our uh deputy uh uh director of uh facilities in fleet but um are um our investments associated with uh uh the 2% CRV are set aside once a project is complete and Michelle I might toss to you to add some additional detail. Yeah, absolutely. Um, thank you for the question. Michelle Crane, uh, deputy director with facilities and fleet. Um, and I know it's it's it's sort of a complex um, idea about what this replacement funding is for. So, the industry standard of of setting aside 2% of a building's current replacement value really anticipates that in 10 15 years, another boiler is going to have to be replaced or another rooftop unit. So buildings may last 50 years, but all the parts and pieces inside, they need to be replaced on an ongoing cycle. That's something that we haven't historically been setting aside money for even those minor replacements or those those pieces of equipment, carpeting that needs to be replaced. Um the 2% does not wholesale replace a building. That's that's an entirely different thing. However, um if we take

1:10:42very good care of our buildings, our buildings should last much longer and we won't have the need to necessarily do wholesale replacements. And so that's really what this is for is to really extend the life of the equipment in the building um and to extend the overall life of the building. But that 2% is to plan for equipment replacement on cycle. Does that help answer that question? >> Yeah, it does. Thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you. Um Tina, >> hi. Um thank you. So my first question is with the um positions that are using a one-time funding or a fixedterm contract um and there are few throughout the budget. Are we still looking to find a funding source for the following year or are we anticipating that it will be a second fixedterm contract that we already have identified for 2028?

1:11:44>> Thank you for the question uh council member. It is uh an item that we look uh at and review on an annual basis associated with fixedterm or term limited positions. Um some of the positions identified uh in the 2027 budget we have identified uh multi-year funding for. Um and those that are uh not incorporated that we did not incorporate multi-year funding for that are supporting uh on a one-year um uh throughout uh funding for the the upcoming fiscal year. That is something that we would need to review with a lens of criticality um as to whether or not we uh will be incorporating those and looking at those as uh extending uh those fixedterm positions uh or potentially uh maintaining those at just one year. >> Okay. Um that helps. Thank you. And then the other piece is I remember that the legislation around the percentage of property tax that assess is the it stops being decreased in 2027 that will experience one more round and then will it stay at that number moving forward.

1:13:12I might uh invite our principal budget analyst, Scott Carpenter, to to respond and confirm to that question whether or not there are any additional assessment changes to our property tax revenue in the outy years. >> Um thank you for the question. Uh Scott Carpenter, principal budget analyst. Um in our outer years, um assumptions, we are assuming a 5% increase for each reassessment cycle. Um there are no more legislative changes anticipated um uh beyond this this year for 2027. Um there are no more um lowering of assessment rates uh beyond uh what is being experienced for this year. Um there will be a slight increase in actual value reductions that for residential properties that is on a continuous basis uh adjusted for inflation. Um but that should not be a a major impact in the future.

1:14:18>> So we won't see that decline when we're looking into the 2028 budget. We'll see a flattening from that particular impact. >> Correct. Um, we could see uh different impacts from property value assessments um but not legislative impact. >> All right, that's my two for now. >> Thank you, Matt. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Uh, let's lower that hand so we're not confusing anymore. Uh, all right. Uh first question is as and this question is for Nur because I think you briefly touched on it and I'm wondering if you could span expand upon it a bit but can you talk about this new framework where we kind of separate core services from the discretionary work. I know I think maybe we've talked about it as tier one, tier 2 or tier three levels in programs. I I know it's not fully fleshed out with specific programs or dollars assigned to each one. Uh but I think it's critical that community knows kind of how our budget is evolving past cuts and rep prioritization in a time of austerity to true outcomebased budgeting. So I was wondering if you could speak more about that and maybe timeline of when we expect that framework and lens to uh uh be uh affecting our budget and and be utilized.

1:15:33>> Sure. and I'll uh start, but I certainly um uh I'll certainly invite our budget team who's been integral to this uh conversation as we've been moving that forward. But um you know, as we talk in community, so many people talk about core services and what is core. And if you ask anybody what's core off the street, they're going to say it's all core, right? Like it's all super vital. It's all important. Um we know that that is um not the best way to look at it. And frankly, this city, as many others have experienced, when uh catastrophe like the pandemic comes up, you really need to get critical about what you need to spend money on and what is not. It is why uh for example, city went through an exercise similar to this. uh when the pandemic hit as as most cities do. When we looked at uh what that looked like, we wanted to talk through a variety of tiers is how we're calling it because we also want to make sure that we're not ascribing judgment to the tiers. There are some things that we would consider uh tier one critically vital services.

1:16:37Those are interruption would create an immediate risk to public health and safety. Those are few and far between. If you think about a bell curve, that is what that looks like. Clean air, clean water, um some public safety services, traffic control, things that are really a tied to um that could really help uh or hurt public health um or safety. We have tier 2, tier three are what we're calling mandated services. There are mandated services that are really we lack the discretion to stop, no authority. We are obligated to do that. We look at that from federal law, state law, what must be provided because we have no ability to change that. We have a set of mandated services that we are really focused on city and those are they could change but they could change they would might need to change with voter mandate or they have to change through code and and you have the ability to do that. Um I for example I think about um police oversight or some of our smart rags those are codec created. Those are not required um by state or federal law and they are mandated services that we um appreciate and we move forward. But those are the kinds of things when we're looking at mandated we're looking at what's in

1:17:50code. We have strategic priority services. These are the the last two categories are more discretional but we have categorized one that's more discretionary that is directly related to strategic plan um priorities or measures. there's certain criteria about what that looks like because anything can be tied to a strategy if you think about it. So, we're being very thoughtful and frankly with the strategic plan coming out that you all will provide us information on, we will also see that continue to weigh in there. And then there's community enrichment services which are also discretionary, but they really provide and enhance um the quality of life and services across our city. Some of those are revenue generating services, so we're thoughtful about that. None of that means that we can't do them, but when it comes down to budget time and we have to prioritize, it may be one of the things that we look at. It could be that there is a service in our rec center that's a community enrichment service, but actually brings in revenue and that would not be one that we cut. So, regardless of where the tier is, we want to be thoughtful of of how that works.

1:18:54So we just um amidst all the craziness uh that has been happening this year with work and budget uh staff really went through that um and categorized the entire services uh into that that happened as we were finalizing budget. So it's a data point in this year's budget. It will be more predominant as we continue to move forward. We will be tying work planning to that and you will start to see that more um ingrained in some of the things without a judgment on whether that moves forward but rather that is some of the things that we will be thinking about when it comes to prioritization to the budget team. What did I screw up for you? >> Nothing Naria. Um no you you you covered everything. I think I think to that point we are really looking to lean in lean into this in future and build upon the work that we've been doing with budgeting for resilience and equity and digging further into uh service levels and services uh in lie of uh simply um uh focusing on our program areas >> and for kids watching along apologize for my language. What did I mess up for you? I will be more thoughtful.

1:20:09>> All right. Appreciate that. Uh my next question, it kind of dovetales a little bit on on a line of inquiry that I think Rob was at. Um so in our in one of the slides, it was the fund our future priority slide. It clearly laid out that in those conversations, uh that there were, you know, prioritization from community. And let's just start with the top five for instance. and and I wanted to kind of get a sense of, you know, we there's no secret. It's the community telegraphed exactly what are the projects and priorities that they were going to be heavily scrutinizing and we as their elected officials in many ways on their behalf would also seek to get greater clarity on. So I I I'm wondering why we didn't use the information that was really delivered to us on a silver platter to focus because as you mentioned Nuria we can't do all the projects in great detail and services but community told us exactly which ones they wanted and so I'm wondering why in this budget we didn't do that because things like wildfire and municipal infrastructure, snow and ice removal, public safety, homelessness were the top five and yet all of of them were either somewhat incomplete or non-existent as a complete budget item and they were mixed

1:21:26and matched and it became really opaque as to how to extract what each of those was and since the community said hey these are our priorities why I'm just wondering why we didn't be clear on at least the ones we knew community was going to focus on. >> Yeah, thank you for the question council member uh Benjamin. So, um, we incorporated, uh, and utilized community feedback, received from over 500 community members that we heard from, uh, in person, online, um, through the online tool that we had, and utilized this input uh, as a key pillar to the budget decision-making. And you see that reflected in our 2027 recommended budget. Included in the slides that we walked through were some examples. But for wildfire, uh we shared forward our uh list of examples uh and investments in wildfire prevention um and wildfire resilience that is uh that will take place on open space land. Incorporated into the 2027 budget, we have a total estimated uh amount of 11 million in investments in wildfire resilience and response. And this goes toward uh uplifting the uh the framework that city council heard at the August 22nd um uh study session on wildfire resilience. So focusing on our fire adapted communities, resilient landscapes, our safe and effective uh wildfire response.

1:22:59um totaling 11 million that's reflected in that budget. That is a breakdown of uh operating and capital costs. Um we do have uh as uh reflected on our budget highlights page an overview of our investments um highlights associated with wildfire resilience um including our wildland uh uh wildland unit um within our fire rescue department. And so included in this budget is a a total represented an estimated amount of 11 million uh going to support wildfire resilience and response. That was the top community priority that we heard. Um we also um uh increased our uh total amount that is coming from climate tax funding uh by 300 uh 300,000 to help support wildfire uh investments. Our municipal infrastructure was our second um uh service uh category. That was the top uh priority that we heard from from community members. And we have a total of 28 million and additional funding that spread across the six-year CIP to invest in ongoing maintenance of city facilities. Uh our snow and ice response investments are incorporated into our 2026 or excuse me 2027 budget. Um we have an enhancement in our technology associated with uh snow and ice response that will help to uh support um the uh weather uh information systems uh and technology uh response associated with um snow and ice response. And for public

1:24:42safety uh we have uh performed tradeoffs associated with public safety. We um have uh uh uh identified um uh reductions of our um police photo program uh and uh other reductions associated uh and looking at trade-offs across our uh public safety department. But in the uh investments that we are making for the limited enhancements that are reflected in the 2027 budget, we have three new uh FTEEs uh police lieutenants that will help to support the reimagine plan that city council passed uh a few years back. And for affordable housing investments, uh we have uh as listed and shared forward, uh a total of 5.3 million to support the city's largest affordable housing, uh hub at the Alpine Balsam, 8.8 acre site. Um, and so these are investments that are spread across our 2027 recommended budget and really uplifting um our our uh community input that we heard um in fund our future community conversations earlier this year.

1:25:55>> I I appreciate that, Charlotte. I appreciate you recapping those pieces. Uh but you said it, it's spread across. It's not clear and it's really hard for even council members or or or community to find that information clearly. So, I I think that there's some work to be done here and I think that there's some great collaborative opportunities for us to do. So, I look forward to that. Um, so I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you. And Tara, >> um, can I let Aaron go in front of me so that I make sure I don't ask the same question he does? >> Yes. Erin, do you feel okay about going? >> Sure, I'll I'll go. >> All right. >> Thanks, Tisha. And I'll be surprised if these are your questions, but we'll see.

1:26:36Um, one is, uh, we actually we received an email, uh, just a few minutes before the meeting started from some folks in Gun Barrel and they had a number of questions suggest suggestions, but there was one I thought I'd um ask because it it raised a question in my mind as well, which was um, talking about the Tom Watson Park work, including the pickle ball buildouts. Their question was um, why we aren't seeing those reflect in the 2027 2032 CIP. I'm guessing it's because we've appropriated the funds already, but thought I'd carry that question forward. >> Yeah, thank you for the question, Mayor Brackett. And I know that we have our parks team um available to support uh with uh with uh responses as well. And I see Ally Rhodess, director of parks and recreation. I might toss to you, Ally.

1:27:25>> Yeah, sure. Uh I'll have to adjust my lighting. Hi, folks. Ally Rhodess, director of parks and recreation. Funding for the courts at Tom Watson was all appropriated with the 26 budget and maybe even parts in 25. So it would not be reallocated in 2027. >> Great. Thanks Ally. My buddy in bad lighting here behind us. Great. Um my other question is you one of the things I talk about this pretty much every year that I appreciate that the city has been doing in recent years is using fund balance as it uh acrews for one-time expenditures that help keep support the community with services and such. So, um I appreciated in the back of the budget having every single fund show the projected uh fund balances out through the next six years through 2032. And um also saw that that in in general that that the funds, you know, that the fund balances go up and then they go down depending on where the expenditures are needed, but are generally kept at relatively low levels. The the one that stuck out to me and don't don't anybody feel singled out here, but just the that did seem to stay at higher levels over the course of the entire time period was the planning and development services fund, which looks like it stays

1:28:40it gets it gets down to six and 5 million in 20 31 2032, but um generally is at higher levels. Starts at 14 million and then gradually goes down, but is still at 5 million um in 2032. This is a very specific question, so feel free to get back to me later, but just wondering um why that one has some larger numbers than some of the other fund balances that we're seeing. >> Yeah, thank you for the uh question. Uh council uh excuse me, Mayor Brockett, I see um uh director of uh planning and development services Brad Mueller uh coming to support the question. Uh Brad, if you're happy to take this one. And uh hi uh council and others. Brad Miller, director of planning and development services. I might let you lead with that. Um but I will just uh frame it by saying part of that uh really reflects the fact of a organizational shift of moving compliance functions to planning and development services. uh that previously were in the police department as well as um in the community vitality department.

1:29:56>> I wonder too I apologize mayor. I wonder too if there's um uh if there is uh additional information about there are some limitations in use in some of that fund and how we do that even though we are leaning into leveraging that more but there are some specific um uses to be had with that particular fund. >> Great. Well, maybe we can follow up offline and I'll just learn a little bit more. But uh thanks. That answers my my question for tonight and that's all I got. >> Okay. Right back to you. >> All right. No, you're right, Erin. Those were not my questions. Um, so I my first question is about the questions. Is this the time when I should be asking you about Spruce Pool and Fodar Raider and all the details that um people have questions about or is that a different time? Because I notice a lot of the questions are more high level than my very focused questions.

1:30:55We're happy to answer uh questions that you have, Council Member Winer, tonight uh at the October 1st uh uh reading as well. Um but happy to answer questions um that you might have on the on the 2027 budget. >> Okay. Because I have so too many community I have too many community questions for just tonight. I know we're only allowed four. So my first one is um about the spruce pool and about actually all the our pools. Um, is it possible to um change our like, you know, silver silver sneakers just doesn't give us enough revenue to run a pool? We certainly need revenue to run pools. Is it possible to change silver sneakers to income based or is it possible to get money to uh help these pools run by either the health equity fund or the sugar sweetened beverage um tax? And might I say that my new favorite word is realignment. Nuria, I appreciate that word so much. Can you realign so that we can have the spruce pool? And also, I just want to make sure that the Scott Carpenter fool doesn't fall into the same uh problem. That's my first question.

1:32:09>> Yeah, thank you for the question, Mayor Pro Tim. Uh so you're right in that uh as part of the 2027 budget and in recent budgets we have been looking at um flexibility of funding uh across the board uh recognizing that we have about 68% of our funding that is dedicated and so makes uh it difficult when we're looking at um priorities uh and and funding sources across the city budget. um specific to your question on uh the silver sneakers or the other uh um uh revenues that you identified. Um those have to be directly aligned with um voter approved intent associated with um the sugar sweetened beverage distribution tax. Um so the the revenues that um are approved uh for the sugar sweetened beverage uh tax must be utilized to help support and advance um healthy health equity outcomes. Um so that uh is associated with um uh part of the realignment that was performed and incorporated into the 2027 budget um supporting the equity programming uh for uh parks and recreation. Um and Ally, I see you've uh uh um uh come off uh as well if uh helpful to support uh in response to the question as well.

1:33:41Uh, thanks Charlotte. I think you answered the council member's question around sugary sweet and beverage tax revenues and the voter directed allocations that those need to align with. As it relates to silver sneakers, I just want to share with folks uh silver sneakers, renew active, there are a variety of what we call thirdparty programs. Members of our older adult community pay for these as part of a Medicare B supplement and it is proactive wellness for older adults, which is one of our um key community values. Every time we ask the community who is it most important we serve, they always answer by saying people with disabilities, people with low-income, seniors and youth. And so we do offer discounts for seniors. The challenge is across the facilities, and I appreciate council member Winer, you not being specific to Spruce Pool. We have flagged this in the last two of our department plans that the costs for operating facilities simply are not keeping up with the revenues we're able to at a time when the public sector is increasingly divesting from these facilities and the reliance on us to provide them. And so this is a real challenge for us on our 27 work plan is looking at what is the best way to serve older adults in our community. Um we're

1:34:52hoping to dovetail with the work of our colleagues in housing and human services on that. We know they have great expertise in the the aging community, but your question is a good one. Where do we want to discount for seniors and where should it be more means-based rather than age-based? So, that's not something we can answer with this budget, but it is on our work plan for 2027. >> Fantastic. Okay, second question. Gee, I don't know which of these to pick. Okay, I guess I'll go with the the auditor. So, a lot of people have been asking for an external performance auditor as we all know. And so, I'm wondering um what is the way to get this into our 2027 budget should we go that way? Like, how can we do this? Um, let me start and um, Roberto will tag me if I uh, am going too far, but a I believe you've received a confidential memo regarding um, this particular position, but I will also say that we do have an internal auditor position and I know Charlotte, you have written part of a hotline response in terms of what they do. Um if there is a desire to augment um the current auditing functions that the city has um certainly that is uh something you can share with us as we

1:36:16move that forward. There will need to find an associated um funding source for that in the city. Um but we I just want to be clear that we currently do have a financial auditor that uh council chooses and we have an internal auditor that is able to um perform um not just financial based audit but also performance-based audit. >> Okay. So, just uh throwing this out and like everybody said, take no offense. I'm just trying to help the community understand is if we looked at just take an example of alpine balsam although I realize that you um don't think that you thought you know there was we we were always clear about it along the way. If there was such a case where there was a project or like a CIP pro, you know, capital improvement project, is the auditor's place to go in and say this is too much, you're spending too much here, like that type of a thing like looking at a project from an independent standpoint and saying we're going too much over costs, etc., etc., you know what I mean? Like per project.

1:37:27Roberto Ramirez, deputy city attorney. Uh, council member, if you um go back to the confidential um attorney client privileged memo that was sent to you guys. Um, you will find exactly step by step how that process works. And I certainly do not want to get into the legal advice that was communicated to you in this form. Okay, >> Christa, just a quick question is I want I I wonder if um you have additional thoughts on because I think I understand your question as well, Council Member uh Winer about >> how does the process work with a with an auditor, whatever that looks like. Right. Right. >> Um and maybe Christa, that's a quick question um about what does that look like? In my experience, an auditor does not follow the immediiacy of the project on the ground. It is a it is a different kind of um work in terms of our have the controls been followed. are there findings that showcase that there was something and it's usually after the fact um but uh but sort of maybe Christa sharing a little bit more about just highlevel process and then um sort of the ability if somebody wanted to request an audit what does that look like because most auditors have a particular and a very specific audit

1:38:51work plan for the year um and not just stepping into something in particular though something could come up. Yeah, appreciate that uh Nuria and appreciate the question, Tara. So, we do have an >> Before you start, let me just say I did read the confidential memo just in case everybody's wondering. I'm just trying to explain to community. I'm trying to help us explain to community anything that we can explain right now. How's that? >> Okay. Um well just high level our internal auditor um works in accordance with uh standards for internal auditing. Uh their work focuses really on internal controls where our risks are highlighting areas for improvement. Um they can look at financial, they can look at operational and performance. Um, we do have an internal audit web page that the community can submit items uh for audit. So, if anyone goes to Boulder's website, if you select internal auditor, there is an an email address that anyone can submit internal audit ideas. Um there is then screening of those audit ideas of what is the highest risk for the city and um any particular city service could be audited uh but there is a screening process. We have one auditor they can only get to so many audits in a year. So we look at greatest risk.

1:40:33>> Can I call it quick? Yes. >> Thank you, TA. Um, do we get requests from the community and have we done one? >> Like is that a common request we receive? >> We have. >> Oh, go ahead. Yes, sir. >> Yeah. So, we have performed audits. We have um recently published the page to open up the audit request publicly. So um we right now have gone there's an internal audit committee comprised of many different departments. So we have various perspectives at the table and the auditor submits their recommended plan every year. So right now we don't have any external driven items coming in because that page was recently launched for feedback. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Do you mind could I do a quick call as well? >> Sure. Thanks. And uh Tara, thanks for asking the the question about the auditor. We have been getting a lot of community questions about this and so um really appreciate that we do not want to make anything confidential uh public. Um but would be good to maybe follow up um going forward about what information we can share with the public about that question because I know there's a lot of community interest. So just getting that out there and we can follow that from me. Thanks.

1:41:50>> Understood. Thank you, Mayor. And certainly we can um schedule a conversation at some future date about auditing in general. >> Appreciate it. >> Okay, going to go ahead and move us on to Nicole. >> Thank you very much. Um and thank you staff. This is truly an amazing body of work that you've put together here. Um could you remind me what the approximate annual cost is of the current repair work on our most critical buildings? um the basically the ones that we've incorporated into the bond measure and then um what happens in future budget cycles if the bond doesn't pass. >> Yeah, I'm happy to um to take the the the last question first and I know we've got uh support from our facilities and fleet team um that might help uh support the the first part of that question. Um uh we um the the bond that is uh up for voter uh consideration this November um considers our 15 uh priority buildings um such as uh South Boulder Rec uh Recreation Center replacement, North Boulder Recreation Center, our public safety building. Um and uh as shared forward with uh city council throughout the year, um we the city does not uh have uh the additional funding available to support the investment required across these 15 priority buildings at

1:43:27the level um that they are proposed to uh in the bond. Um if the bond does not pass, um the city will have to perform uh some uh serious trade-off uh discussions and conversations around um the prioritization of uh future uh funding availability and currently reflected in our six-year CIP. Um, we do have our CCRS uh programmed out throughout uh the six years. And so that funding is going to support 16 capital projects across the six-year horizon. um the majority of which uh will be leveraging um our uh CCRS funds to support um three primary projects within um that fund including the East Boulder uh um community center fire station 2 as well as our civic area Boulder Creek um phase 2 and uh Michelle I uh happy to have you chime in with any any additional information or context.

1:44:33Yeah, thank you um for the question um council member. Um and just so I'm clear too, I think you're asking if the bond does not pass um you know what happens with the city buildings and what's currently in our budget. Um so what we have presented and and what's currently um represented in this uh six-year CIP really reflects our most urgent needs to keep many of those priority buildings just operating. um it doesn't really reflect uh a total cost that's needed to be able um one to repair everything that actually needs repair. Um nor does it uh address what we call modernization, but a lot of what that means is is bringing buildings up to current codes. So they're um deficient in many ways, whether it's uh meeting um accessibility standards, uh modern service delivery standards in our public safety building.

1:45:27um we can't provide the kind of fitness and training spaces that are necessary for our police force. Um there's just not enough space to actually staff and and provide the the right amount of room for the number of staff that are required. And so those sorts of things are not addressed in the current um CIP. What is in those um the CIP is like keeping our electrical system operating in that building. Um, so if the bond does not pass and we're continuing in this environment, we will do absolutely everything we can to continue to keep these buildings operating, but they're in decline and as Charlotte mentioned, um, at some point we will have to consider some real trade-offs um, in what we can support and what we can keep operating and what we want to invest in.

1:46:13And I think we're we're happy to continue to bring those conversations forward um for consideration, but I think it will be um some trade-off conversations. Did that help answer I think your questions? >> It did. Yeah. And and if I could colloquate my own question, I would just um want to ask if my rephrasing of uh your tradeoff is is basically us saying sorry we can't have a sapolder rec center anymore or sorry we can't you know do those kinds of things like like those are kind of the the when you say tradeoff that is sort of the level um that we're talking about right um >> I hate to speculate it's very I we're going to we're going to do everything we can to keep buildings operating and to keep um systems functioning. Our ability to support the services will decline. Um for instance, in South Ber, we the pool was closed for more than half a year. So in some cases, I don't I don't want to go so far to say that we're going to close buildings. We're never going to try to do that. But the ability to make unfortunately just very expensive repairs becomes beyond our control. And so sometimes that looks like closing certain areas of a building, limiting programs. And I think we will do

1:47:31absolutely everything possible to not close a a whole building. But some of those trade-offs may be having to compromise parts of a building or a service that's in a building. So I think as those as those types of decisions come, we will want to have very hard conversations out loud and understand what those are. So I I I wouldn't want to speculate on on what that is, but I I would imagine that there might be some some tough conversations. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Wanted to call you on that one. Um I did notice, Michelle, that there were funds for fire station that were also included in the $400 million bond list. So, uh, for this budget. So, I just wanted to get some clarification because it sound it look it it would appear um that there were funds allocated for um some of the buildings that were included in the bond matter such as language.

1:48:28>> Uh, so I think you're referring to So, I know in the bond language we're talking about making a larger investment in our stations that we're not replacing. So, fire stations one, five, and seven in particular. um we also have those buildings listed um just for repairs. So I think that the difference that we see is just the degree of investment that we can put in those buildings. So that what we would be doing um in this current proposed CIP would be again making sure that we're making critical infrastructure repairs like replacing a boiler that that provides heat to the building versus being able to make a really much larger improvement to the quality of the facility that our firefighters work out of. So you know increasing you know doing better kitchens um that are necessary or having better um containment of the carcinogenic um equipment that they use.

1:49:20So that that would be kind of the difference you might see in those two. >> Okay. Because I think that's an important distinction, right? The that there are actually things that are going to be captured within. So thank you for that. Um Ryan, before I go, >> wait, can I call on your u Yes. >> Yes. Thank you so much. Um as far as fire stations, and again, you know, this is like the only time Tishan once mentioned this. This is the only time we really It's not the only time we can talk about it, but it's like the only time we can talk about it. Not under pressure, let's just say. So, I'm just going to ask you like for the fire station we just built, which was phenomenal and also gigantic and also like maybe too phenomenal.

1:50:04Let's just put it that way. So is there any not that I don't want all of us want our fire u fighters to have the best possible building but that is you know really just incredible maybe do you know what I'm saying what I'm saying is is do all buildings have to be the most incredible building so when you think about and this is just me saying how do we make sure that we aren't being aren't we want to have nice buildings but do they have to be the best since we're under constraint. How do I put this in a way? Somebody help. >> I think I follow and appreciate your question. Um, and I guess well, one, I think we're thrilled that it's a greatlook building and and that there's some acknowledgement of that, but I I do also want to maybe dispel the idea that it's gone way above and beyond because it absolutely has not. Um, the building, fire station 3 is our largest fire station because it is really the central building. It houses our fire administration. So it it provides more than just your standard fire station and it houses um most of our fire apparatus.

1:51:11And so it can accommodate more than we would be accommodating in other stations. And of course we work really close with fire to understand what trucks and what kind of companies we need where. And so given its location and um and the fact that it was going to help accommodate the actual administration, it really contributed to the size of the building. Um but I would say from a programmatic standpoint, the size, it would not be any smaller. I think that's where we look, we have to accommodate the needs of of our fire and as they look into the future. What we don't want to do is is maybe perhaps what we did um in South Boulder with fire station 4 where we converted a house and where in the you know in the immediate moment that seemed like a really reasonable and economic and a kind of a it way to do that. It hasn't served us. It's it's actually it's a house that's now trying to act as a fire station and it's really been deficient in being able to do that.

1:52:10So it's a little bit of looking forward. Um, so I I do understand that sometimes what we're looking at that it looks big and grand, but I would say there wasn't really additional expense spent um extravagantly or or just out of extra need. Um really if you go into the building, they're concrete floors, there's limited finishes. Uh it really is kind of bare bones when you get into the inside. And then I would also say, you know, some of that outward appearance is very much code-driven and it's driven by our community wanting a quality building um and those building standards. And so really at the end of the day, we do a lot of just complying with our own codes um to meet those buildings. So we do look to be um constrained with the way we approach both budgeting and then executing our buildings. And a lot of it is we are somewhat regulated or the infrastructure the complexity of the projects >> ends up resulting in in what you see.

1:53:13>> Thank you. >> Do you still have one more question? >> Um Ryan, is this your second? >> I know that was >> Sorry, you still have one more question to my apologies. Go ahead. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, sorry that it was a long line of call, please. Um and this is just more of a a process question again. If if council were to um want reallocations uh at this stage of of the budget, can you just explain a little bit how that interacts with things like um fund restrictions and um the SIR and BBCP and equity framework and departmental strategic plan alignments that you've really baked into this process? >> Yeah, thank you for the question, council members. So the 2027 recommended budget uh brought forward to city council builds upon key pillars for our decision- making um this incorporates top council priorities uh named during annual work planning processes. our citywide strategic plan um our input that we see re we received from fund our future not just this year but also the engagement efforts that we performed over the past two years with uh starting with community connectors and residents and then building upon that uh each year. Um the 2027 budget uh we have a highly restricted budget. We are uh the second uh highest. If we look at our

1:54:37peer cities across Colorado, we're the highest in the front range for our amount of dedicated um sales and use tax at 566% when we uh see our peers and an average sitting at 31% um restricted. And so when we look to uh uh perform any adjustments to the budget um those are considerations that must be taken into account. Um the restrictions that um we have associated with our revenues um are uh uh increase uh you know the our difficulty in performing budgeting on an annual basis. And so um in looking at performing any adjustments to the recommended budget, all of those considerations would we would uh hope to be uh taken into account, but legally restricted um revenues is absolutely something that um will need to be looked at when performing an offset. >> Can I call a queue on that?

1:55:43>> Yes. >> Thank you. Um, so then thinking about that, I'm wondering, so for we already have some identified gaps in the 2028 budget, and I'll I'll do spruce pool as an example, but we also have some fixedterm contracts that might be a priority. Um, and then we also know that we're going to be coming out in um late October with some thoughts about what the scope of new wildfire mitigation efforts might look like. Is now the time really to be saying for the 2028 budget that we're really looking at a focus? So, we're going to maybe come up with with an approach in October for wildfire and it might be a significant change. Is now the time to say this is what we're going to need to work on because we'll have 10 months if we're going to do something significant.

1:56:37um or you know or like I'm trying to understand when is that moment to insert if it if it's so disruptive now. Thank you for the question council member. uh the um it as it pertains specifically to wildfire um the city staff uh wildfire team cross departmental team will be coming forward back in October uh and certainly during any of the uh council study sessions uh and council meetings where there are topics for input um received by city council at That point in time is where the direction is helpful to understand priorities that then get included and incorporated into our city budget on an annual basis. Um, and I might uh uh toss to Nuria if I uh misspeak here. The additional area that uh is uh helpful for direction on our annual budget process is our uh city council work planning. um that occurs each year in Q1 of each year. And so that is another time to help to provide um uh input on priorities that then get incorporated into our key pillars for decision making within our annual budgeting process.

1:58:10I >> I think Charlotte, you you hit it spot on. In an ordinary um cycle, uh there are ways in which to do that. I want to acknowledge right as as we all know we've been a part of um there are times when something emerges and when there's something that emerges uh when is the time to do that as we hear some of the direction you may give us on any particular thing for example I recall a few years ago we were talking about whether or not the city should have a sanctioned encampment site um and we brought forward what it cost what does it look like and if that were something that the city wanted to move forward then we would find the source of funding we would tell you what the trade-off are and if that is still a yes then we would figure that out and we would have adjustments. Ideally, this happens as we hear it throughout the entire year because it is hard when you already have a budget in 2026 to change what that looks like. So, we're we're hearing it and also there is um we're continuing the work on an ongoing basis. So, we will hear some we heard in the last um August wildfire conversation. We will likely hear more in October and getting

1:59:18to know where council sits on some of those. There are opportunities to transition, but good governance would have that be throughout the budget cycle. Knowing that there's still levers to pull if something were to happen and we were to want to add or change, that add or change would come with a different add or change. We would have to figure out where does that come from? um so that we knew what lever to pull and then whether or not that is something that you wanted to move forward knowing the the impact of those decisions. >> Yeah. Because I'm I'm just trying to see how we we catch up because we we know that if our if our sales tax continues to go up at 2% and inflation's 2% but salaries are, you know, four and a half across the board. even with the new 3 million transportation maintenance fee and a sizable uptick in our water revenue, we're still barely, you know, making it happen and or balancing the budget. So, I'm just wondering, you know, these obviously these conversations are incredibly difficult and um and they shouldn't be done on the fly by any stretch, but how I'm just trying to really think ahead if we're going to try to tackle some of these problems, even if they're

2:00:31short-term problems, if we're able to scope it and come to agreement that um that's what we want to do. No, I appreciate that and would only add and uh I won't go on too much, Council Member Adams, is that frankly that's one of the reasons we really support if we were to change to a two-year, for example, budget process that would allow for a lot more conversation like this to happen versus just the forced um time compression that just an annual budget does. And I will say this is not unique to Boulder. This happens everywhere. So that is one of the reasons that we're thinking about there our ability to look to have more conversations um to have check-ins on how we're doing if we had more of an opportunity um to um have others uh come come into the the budgeting conversations and the prioritization because that's what it is. It's about prioritization of work.

2:01:21It has a price tag attached to it and that's where budget comes in. >> Okay, that was a long call. I'm sorry. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you. Um Ryan is this is a followup to your you have one more question. >> This is my first question. So my when I earlier I asked about how the discussion would work. So this is my first question. >> That's your second question. I'm sorry that you asking that question was was a question. So then this will be your second. So I just want to be mindful about that. Thank you. Because others have asked process questions as a part of their two question. >> Thanks. Uh my question is uh building on Nicole's question of um what happens if the bond the $400 million bond measure doesn't pass. My question is if it does pass um I think I've heard that the as of 2021 we now have a standard procedure of collecting the 2% per year CRV fund. um that would that would take care of uh future maintenance issues in advance and that's just built into the system at this point. So anybody who's thinking about that bond measure should understand that as of five years ago it's it's a normal operating procedure that we're we're taking care of our of

2:02:43our future uh maintenance needs and that started in 2021 didn't exist before does now has for the last 5 years. Do do I have that right? >> So, thanks for the question. Uh, Council Member Michelle, I saw you uh come off mute. I can toss you if >> Yeah, sure thing. Happy to answer that. Yes, you you do um council member um have that just right. Um, as the policy states, any any new or heavily invested in building, really bringing a bad building up to a good state, which a brand new building would do, or a heavily renovated building that has new infrastructure, um, would essentially then at that point forward, we would want to put away that 2% CRV to continue to keep that building in a good state. And so that that's what that's for. So any of these new buildings that would be um developed through the bond measure, the plan moving on forward from that would be to continue to put that 2% CRV away to invest in their future and to keep them operating well.

2:03:43>> Thanks. >> Um I just have some quick questions. The first is um we talked about the survey. I wasn't able to find any demographic information about the um 2536. So although I appreciate the use and the analysis, it was not clear to me if there was a uh representative sample in order for us to even be sure that this is a valid survey. >> So thank you for the question, council member. This the survey that was conducted is not a statistically valid survey. Um, we did uh incorporate on our uh uh city website a a breakdown of the of the summary and the um uh the uh the engagement input uh received. Um I believe uh we did uh incorporate the demographic uh breakdown uh within the responses uh in our uh public facing report. Um but the the uh uh questionnaire that we posted on our uh uh website as part of fun future and the community conversations that we had was not a statistically valid survey. We heard from uh over 500 community members uh in Boulder, >> right? Um so again although I appreciate um that I just wanted to clarify that that is not a statistically or and by that I mean representative sample of all the community members that um are affected by these kinds of

2:05:25conversations. Um the second is on the um for the um climate initiatives team. There's been some questions about um climate resilience uh sorry wildfire mitigation. Um and I just would love to hear a little bit more about the circular economy um work as well as the na naturebased solutions and just some you know some of the relationship between that work and um and its impact on wildfire mitigation. >> Oops. >> Thank you for the question council member and I see our climate initiative team popping up. >> Yes. Hi there. Um thank you council member Adams. Yeah, Ali Sean, I am um a principal project manager in the climate initiatives department. And just to clarify, you're looking specifically for the nature-based solutions work related to wildfire that and the circular economy. So, that's slightly different, but just wanted to get some clar. I've had some questions about the circular economy um efforts and also the um naturebased solutions work.

2:06:38>> Okay. Um, I'll start with the naturebased solutions. I might also um call in Carolyn Elim here if she has more on the circular economy or we might have to get back to you on that. I was more prepared on the energy systems and wildfire specifically funded through the climate tax. Um, and the work in the naturebased solutions focus area really manages some of our wildfire and resilient landscapes policy and programs. So they are leading some efforts to pilot and um profile wildfire resist uh resilient landscape installations in the wildland urban interface in some of the higher high fire risk zones. And that work also includes coordinating with the juniper removal on city lands, coordinating replacement vegetation design and replacement strategies both for wildfire risk reduction and preservation of critical water supply. Um, the team is also working to help the community transition from some of the thirsty, more thirsty irrigated landscapes to drought resistant landscapes that help protect our community as the urban warming continues. Um, and so that's primarily what's happening in the nature-based solutions area. Um, and I see Carolyn popped on, so I will >> Yeah, to her.

2:07:52>> Yeah. And good evening, council. Carolyn Elim, senior manager with our climate initiatives department. I think on the on the circular economy um side of the equation, I I would highlight a couple of things that I think are related um first to wildfire risk reduction, but also more broadly to our resilience strategy. Um so the team has been really instrumental in in trying to help community remove, you know, potentially flammable materials um and and clear properties. Um so certainly working within our manufactured housing communities with pick, you know, pickup days like that's actually removing um potentially combustible materials and and cleaning up and bringing them back into recycling and and avoiding our them in going into landfill. But I think it's really also hardening our system. But as we think about climate disruption, so wildfire, flood, um or global impacts, um really critical for our circular economy is keeping things closer to home. Um so supporting our our local agriculture, keeping materials in circulation um more um for longer use, I think is really critical as we think about global supply chain disruption. We certainly saw the impacts of the the COVID pandemic on supply chain disruption. And so I think that's a focus of our circular economy work that those were just a couple of things I would highlight.

2:09:12>> Okay. Thank you. All right team. And I think breath we've got another hourish for part two which is the council uh does council recommend any substantive changes in advance of its first reading of the 2027 budget on October 1st or questions on um next steps? And just point of clarification, it was my understanding we have until September 28th to make any additional recommendations or requests uh per the process that has already been identified. >> That's correct. >> Thank you. First up, I see Aaron. >> Thanks, Tisha. Um, so I don't have any specific requests for changes, but just one thing I guess it falls in the questions about next steps is that there are a couple of items that are funded by one-time funding um this year that I think very important uh to the community and just wanted to uh talk about how we might address those going into 2028. One of course is the spruce pool that we've been talking about. Tara brought up earlier and the other is the day services center that um has been a really important addition to our homeless services over the last couple of years and I know it's funded with onetime dollars. So can we just talk about how we might go through this budget season and into next year um

2:10:37thinking about how we can potentially find ways to carry those important programs forward in future years? >> Sure. Maybe I'll start and I know um we've got uh staff with us. So there's as we think about this process, there are certain things that we're um that we wanted to day alike. We knew that it would be concerning. Spruce pool is one of those for example. Um we will have ongoing conversations about what that looks like um in terms of the ability for us to provide whether it's um uh whether we can find different sources of funding, whether that remains um one time. I know that Ally is meeting with some of the folks in community about that next week. Um and as we continue to look at what our um outlook, financial outlook looks like in the future, uh we know that this is a priority that council and community have. So we will be looking um to that in the same vein um to see what options we have in the future and we will bring that um forward to council as that moves on. Um without getting um too into it, uh we have projects for example um listed in uh either for the bond measure or in CCRS. If there are projects that um are able to move forward in a different way,

2:12:02if something comes under budget, those are considerations we would have and we would be looking at year round. Um we have some uh Broncos funding that we are thinking about in certain levels that has been thought of for two particular areas uh in the parks and recreation system but we will be looking at prioritization as we continue to think about programming those dollars in the future. Day services center is um similar. We will continue to look at the variety of funds that we could use in that place and um certainly team if I'm getting it wrong let me know. Um but when that first came forward um as a council priority we did not have funding for that. We needed to find funding. That is another one of those um that came uh during a conversation with council. We will continue to think about how do we sustain that moving forward.

2:12:55We were also talking with our partners about is is are there opportunities there? But all of those conversations we are present about what that looks like and we will bring to council. I can't tell you right now what the strategy for ongoing funding is right now because we just don't have that. But we know that those are two main priorities that would likely come up forward as how do we continue this service going on and we would continue to have that conversation with you. Great, Mary. That's really helpful. I'm glad to hear that we're continuing to think about that and I look forward to future discussions about those important meeting priorities. Thanks so much. >> Thank you, Erin. Matt, >> thanks TA. Um, so I have I have one substantive budget recommendation. Um, and really this centers on wildfire.

2:13:49First, I want to say I just start off and appreciate that, you know, we've we've bumped our wildfire mitigation work up to about 11 million. Um, I will say that, you know, community placing this as as the top priority means that we still need to do much more to meet that need for community to feel safe um and to have the confidence that we can feel safe in our community with the threat of wildfire. So, so my ask really centers around a funding framework. I'd like uh you know staff to examine uh approximately maybe$2 million dollars of additional eligible climate initiatives funding. Uh that would bring the climate initiatives wildfire allocation from roughly $2.465 million to 4 uh4 million um or close to half the current department budget. And I know that's a hard trade-off. Um and I think we have to make some hard trade-offs. And I think maybe two of the most co- prior core priorities of facing climate right now are going to be um the resiliency of our climate grid and related firework and and and maintaining resiliency, but then also the wildfire risk and and it doesn't have to be indefinite, but it can be enough time till we get our community hardened. Uh secondly, I'd like us to identify about $4 to5 million of additional eligible

2:14:57OSMP investment. Um we f fuels management, crews, equipment, prescribed fire, grazing, mowing, thinning related landscape work. Um, and then I think the outstanding uh main uh uh amount to effectively double the wildfire budget um would be looking at other places to maybe find another two to three million dollars, especially from some grants that we have yet to really go after. I think those are opportunities as well to further leverage uh that great work that we're doing and expand upon it for some of our community safety. So, um I've identified some reasonable trade-offs in those areas. We can have that debate. Um, but I look forward to talking with staff on on how we can uh craft that more specifically and and seeing if council is indeed interested in looking at uh meeting the moment where we have the investments to match the risk to our community.

2:15:42>> Can I call it quick? >> Yeah. Sure. >> Yes. Yeah. Um, and could Matt are you going to be sending a an email about that as well? >> Yeah, absolutely. Um, I was going to lay it out in more detail. just here was a chance to uh debut it. So, I'm debuting that so it's not a surprise and I will be following it up with a hotline with some greater detail um hopefully after some conversations with staff. >> Right. Because I would just because one of the things about wildfires I haven't we haven't completed the process with staff that looks at the different things we can prioritize and fund and and what the actual costs would be. So I'm curious in that to have that discussion as well because and if you could just um describe how this money would be used in the framework of what's happening and um I guess you're previewing the discussion on October >> and I won't spend a lot but I think the way I would look at it is we're out of step right we're we're looking at creating a budget for next year but only after we do that are we talking about potentially a major enhancement to the very wildfire budget. So, so we're out of sync. And so I'm trying to get ahead

2:16:48of that by saying, "Hey, is there an appetite to have a greater investment which would lead into that enhancement conversation should we wish to have that and look at that?" Um, rather than have it and then react to have to then fix the budget in a subsequent ATB. There's no reason to do that unnecessarily if we don't have to. So, uh, appreciate that, Council Member Benjamin, and certainly, uh, we've had conversations about it. I think you, um, triggered something in my mind in terms of certainly, uh, staff can look at a variety of things as, as we've shared here. This one, uh, would be certainly a substantial conversation with our teams. You mentioned something about does council have an appetite, is there an appetite to do this kind of investment? and curious um before we sort of endeavor to find that uh to go down that path um if this is the moment that you want staff certainly and we can um if that is the the will of council to start looking at what that looks like.

2:17:51So perhaps I pose that to council. So basically I'm sorry Nuria is the question and not a five. I think one of the and I just wanted to clarify that without having that additional information that um Tina requested on just having that more specificity in I don't know if we I'm curious if if that if that's enough to to provide a five not a five at that time. It was my understanding that providing per the process information that we had discussed the information by September 28 that would give staff enough time to um gather the necessary information to then come back at the October 1st conversation. >> Certainly, and I um correct me if I'm wrong um uh council member Mark was too, the next conversation with the wildfire team is not happening until later in October. Um, and so perhaps for me is is just the question on whether or not this is an area that the majority of council or a significant amount of council wants us to pursue because I don't know if that trade-off is well explained um and certainly reasonable by council member Benjamin is one that you want to move in that direction given the impacts that that would have on climate or OSMP. So I guess I'm just curious to where um

2:19:18council member sentiment is. Do you mind if I address that, Taiisha? >> Uh, thank you, Mayor. Yes. >> Great. Well, so I I will say, you know, Matt, I appreciate you looking for additional resources for wildfire prevention, which is of course a critical need. I I I'll say that I personally find that to be too large of a reduction in climate funding, more a larger amount than I would support. Um, but I also since this is kind of um off the cuff or on the fly right now, Nuria, I wouldn't want to try to make a decision on whether council supports that right this moment. So, I'll just say Matt, I imagine there are some people are interested. I'll just say not everyone is because because I would rather not make that deep of a cut. So maybe we can come back when we've had more of a chance to think about it and um talk with uh community members and colleagues and then address whether we'd like to pursue that as we get into the budget season or into the budget consideration itself process.

2:20:18>> Can Thank you, mayor. By no way was I trying to say yay or nay as much as gather where sentiment was living in a particular proposal. >> Can I just colloquy on the colloquy taisha? >> Yes, you can. >> This will be very short. I I think for me I don't want to just spend money for the sake of that it's it is the highest priority but I just don't want to spend money for the sake of that reason. I mean I would need to know exactly what it is. >> So here here so I think we've gotten away from ourselves a little bit here. This was just a question of whether or not there was anybody who had any recommendations. Here's a recommendation. this wasn't a are we debating every recommendation and then giving a yay or nay.

2:21:04>> So I think we've gotten way ahead of ourselves unfortunately and you're right there's more detail. I'm happy to provide that detail but it wasn't appropriate in this setting to lay out a whole treatise and an argument for why or why not we shouldn't do this. So I just want to make sure people aren't having an emotional or knee-jerk reaction that there's time to vet this appropriately with the process that we've established. So, I just hope that every proposal, regardless of the amount of zeros, is just given the same due diligence uh of of the process that we've laid in front of us. >> Thank you, Matt. I appreciate that. And that's actually what I was getting at for the clarification question I had with Roberto earlier. I think it was a it's just a very we um I would strongly recommend that we take this time to hear from council members about the subst any substantive changes that they are considering and then have it in full in writing at the hotline by the September 28th date where we'll have more time. I also appreciate Matt your comments around wanting to do some more follow-up with staff given that um some of that information will not be available and per our counselor procedures um staff knows that if the request that we're

2:22:11making exceeds the three-hour time period or whatever that would require um a not a three or a not of five then um I am hopeful that um they would communicate with Nura so that we are making sure that um staff time is being used equitably. Thank you. Um I will go on. Tara, you are also up for uh is this your recommendation? >> Yep. >> All right, bring it in. >> Well, I mean I didn't have enough other qu I mean community gave me too many questions more than two. So, I'll my my one question is I want to go back to snow and ice removal that Matt was talking about earlier and that I've been thinking about because I remember in our last conversation, this was before Mark left. Uh we were talking with the transportation about adding I'm very concerned about some of the streets in the west with a lot of seniors who get stuck there and you know get stuck in their homes. And so I'm wondering is this the time I know we're getting that new equipment. I think that's great. I don't know if that'll help them. I don't know enough about it. So I'm wondering if we have change like how we're going to do next year next year's snow and ice. Are we

2:23:31remember we gave all those streets to the staff or to transportation? And so I hate to be like uh what do you call it when you're just honed in on smaller things, not the big picture, but specifically snow and ice. I just need to make sure that uh our community is being taken care of uh west of Broadway. And so where what happened with those streets that we brought and do we need more money for it or is this $38,000 or so that we have for new equipment going to take care of this? That's my question. Thank you for the question, Mayor Pro Tim. And I uh might toss to one of our transportation staff who is here to support. >> Thank you. The uh director Blle Bailey. >> Hi, council members. Ble Bailey, director of transportation and mobility.

2:24:21Um council member Winer, I appreciate your question. The extra money does provide additional weather um diagnostic I think four or five units. We do not have the funds to add streets and largely because last year was such a mild winter we felt like we needed another season in our new program to fully evaluate. So, right now we're not expecting to add streets, although we are working on an information packet that like last year we will plan to share with the council probably sometime here um in the next month or so. >> Just a quick um I think you're completely as always right Ble in your assessment. There were some recommendations on can we look at a particular uh subset of streets that are known to be troublesome and uh >> yes >> and um a nod to the discretion that you have as director that if we need to address some of those streets that we will do so but um still remaining within the revised uh framework that you all had brought forward to council a while ago. Am I correct in that?

2:25:32>> Certainly. We're always evaluating the program and look as we as we approach the next snow season, we haven't added those streets yet. We have added a significant amount of infrastructure um which will be reflected in the in the information packet that we'll share with council soon. >> You mean infrastructure for transportation or some other kind of infrastructure? >> Infrastructure. A lot of our a lot of our projects council member that have added say floating bus stops that require additional shoveling and some of those other things have been added into the program and again that'll be shared with our information packet. >> Okay. So if I am not convinced that we're going to have enough money for snow and ice removal for the seniors and the people living in their houses in the west. What do I do? What's my next step?

2:26:22you need me to find money from somewhere else. Is that it? Is is that >> I would say that seems to be an idea that you were putting forward that you would like to augment snow and ice and I would say we hear it and let's have a conversation about what that looks like. >> Okay. >> And we will see how your colleagues land. >> Okay. All right. And my second question is, and thank you for letting me think this through and not rushing me. I appreciate that, Taiisha, because like you said, we don't have these conversations that much. um is about it. This is a question from two different members of the community and this should be a really easy one. It is um why the uh the photo why the photo um wait hold on I can't see my notes because of the screen when it comes to the um photo helped me with the words photo radar which was a good was a re revenue generator and also helped stop speeding I would assume or it wasn't people two community members wanted to know why you were doing away with that.

2:27:27Thank you for the question, Council Member uh Mayor, excuse me, Mayor Prom uh Winer. The uh the budget decision really came with looking at a lens of criticality um in looking across the revenue and expenses uh across time. Um we recognized the uh expenses out um outpaced the revenue generation specific to um photo van enforcement. Um, we also recognize that we have traffic patrol uh available within the police department. Um and so looking at uh cost efficiencies and containment measures, looking at um our uh ongoing reduction strategies across the board that came forward as an option and looking at um reducing this and eliminating uh this program. Um and really utilizing our existing uh resources elsewhere within the department to respond to uh traffic um patrol needs as necessary. what >> let me let me try um as as we're thinking about it and certainly invite um Steve to join us but it's a trade-off conversation on what is the highest best use of our dollars that we do with everything that we do um and as we were looking at it one of the things brought forward from the department is um where we see major crashes and concerns that there are other ways to do traffic calming in neighborhoods that perhaps don't require a individual to be located

2:29:06inside a van for the entirety of time and also doing process service. It's one of the reasons the companion effort is also to contract out some of the process service that in Colorado needs to be done in person. Steve, have I gotten some of that wrong or incomplete? >> Uh, no ma'am. Good evening everyone. Steve Redford, police chief. Uh the only thing I'll add on that is the commitment that we will continue to make to the community is when there are issues in a neighborhood especially uh when we get complaints like we do uh we are not those are not going to be ignored. We will uh actually now because of the reduction in the vans you'll see a police officer on motorcycle or car. Uh as calls for service allow we're going to prioritize uh those neighborhoods so people don't think we're just picking up and and leaving them uh uninforced. And so um obviously we're going to continue to monitor that as well. And if we see the removal of the vans uh leads to some large uptick in issues then obviously we may have to pivot next year.

2:30:00>> Thank you Rob. >> Thank you Tisha. I guess I'm doing a late qual colloqui on um Matt and Tara around wildfire. I I would like to see more money towards that and whether the amount is um what has been proposed or is smaller from climate um also I think there could be some opportunities within OSMP as well and Nura you were going to answer this question um but we were running late in our last study session and it was specifically about trying to capture other revenue sources which is a grant writer um because we did miss a couple grants um that went to Laramie and Jefferson County and I I just want to make sure that >> we have all the capacity to capture that revenue. >> I would say though and I I don't know that I and to to be fair I don't know that I would say that we missed it because it went to other places. It's competitive and sometimes we get them and sometimes we don't. Right. We continue to we have a a great grants person um Annie Scott is amazing. she identifies and looks at grant opportunities. We continue to lean into that. She is not alone because in particular on this team, they're looking for additional opportunities. So, please know, and I appreciate the question, uh,

2:31:24council member, please know that we are continuing to lean in and submit as we see them. And so, that is not something that we will stop. We just always won't be the recipient of them all the time. Um, but we will certainly lean into that. >> Yeah, I do understand that. I appreciate that. And I I just, >> you know, with our revenue streams drying up, I didn't know how overt taxed they were. And I just know that we didn't even apply for these two. >> So I didn't know if it was >> I >> I think that is a conversation to have and certainly we can talk with our teams about it. There are a myriad of opportunities that when you look at and they look to see is this where we want to spend our time. We get a lot of requests to apply for a variety of grants or opportunities. We don't do them all because it may not be worth the squeeze. It may not be the right thing for us in that moment. It so it it depends and so we don't want to miss opportunities. Uh and I don't think it's a capacity issue for missing opportunities. I think sometimes it's where the work is at. But we will continue to lean in.

2:32:25>> And and I'll uh just add on this. We we have increased our um grants that we've received um specifically for wildfire in recent years. The total amount that we have um across five grants associated with wildfire is 2 2.1 million. And so that is an increase in additional um revenues coming in to the city um based on the work that the the grants team is is performing. >> No, I mean that's fantastic news and I totally appreciate that these grants >> were 9.6 and 9.8 million. So, I just want to make sure that we're not missing bigger opportunities. >> Thank you. I So, Rob, I just wanted to confirm that your substantive change is is related to identifying additional funds to increase wildfire mitigation. >> Yeah, I guess I was going to >> I just want to make sure you're you're you're co-signing uh on Matt and I look forward to that hotline with more details.

2:33:28Anything else from you on substantive changes or questions about next steps? >> No. Thank you. >> All right, moving to Nicole. >> Thank you very much. Um, so this is my fifth budget cycle now. Um, and while I was reviewing my notes this morning, um, a scene from the movie Office Space popped into my head. Uh and I finally understood it was an epiphany moment um why some of these last minute budget changes have just become increasingly challenging for me over the years. Uh if you haven't seen the movie um you should first of all uh but one of the characters um Joanna works at a restaurant called Chachkis uh where the policy requires servers to wear 15 pieces of flare on their aprons like little buttons, pins, things like that. Um and she wears 15 pieces but her boss Stan keeps implying that she should wear more. Uh eventually one day she snaps and says, "If you want people to wear 37 pieces of flare, then make the minimum 37." And then she flips them off and she walks out the door because this deviation from policy was just so frustrating and unfair. Um and I think this scene came to mind for me this morning because of how our policies direct our budget. Our budget is the

2:34:38implementation of policies that we and prior councils have adopted over decades. They're policies that are created through extensive research, engagement, and staff work. Staff did their job and translated those policies into a balanced budget using data, performance measures, the SA their framework, adopted departmental plans, legal constraints, and so much more. And these last minute reallocations like moving voter approved climate tax dollars or adding new programs can unintentionally bypass that prior policy work. They also reduce transparency for community members who are really looking for some predictability in how and why we make decisions especially in chaotic times. So if we want different wildfire strategies or climate strategies or new audit authorities or things like that, the way that we get there I feel is through policy changes. Um as Joanna from Office Space teaches us, if we want 37 pieces of policy, we need to set the policy to be 37 pieces of policy. Um, and after this year, really hard year, the third year of of consistent cuts, uh, balancing community input, our plans, our code, our charter obligations in such a constrained year, um, I just find it impossible to step outside our established policymaking process at the very end. This budget is balanced both financially and in its alignment with our policies and community priorities.

2:36:02None of the things that are being cut feel good to me personally. and I share our community's grief about places like Spruce Pool. Um, but what reassures me in the midst of all this is knowing that these hard decisions are grounded in our adopted frameworks. While they may not all be choices that I would make as an individual, they are accountable to decades of adopted policy within our community. Lastm minute reallocations can't provide that same stability. Um, I know times are really tight both for us as a city as well as for staff, for community. um staff has done really strong work here and I want to continue supporting policym that fosters trust in our governments especially right now when we um we are uh losing some trust uh in large part due to to what's going on at the federal government but um anyway the short version is that I'm on team Joanna uh this year and um I'm definitely open to policy discussions in the next couple of years that might lead us in different uh or two different outcomes um in future budgets but for this year. Um I'm not really interested in that because I think this budget really represents our um existing policies and frameworks and is exactly where where we need to be. So thank you

2:37:16staff. It's truly truly amazing and remarkable work. >> Thank you, Tina. >> Yeah, I'll follow that up. Go back a different direction. Um so I um and maybe I can root this in policy. I've been hearing from the um the Hill neighborhood a lot about nuisance complaints and we have made some changes to our ordinances around nuisance and I am just wondering if this budget is able to um uh carry out those policies that we did around the nuisance ordinance. Um maybe I'll I'll start because I I take that as a question and not perhaps an additional uh unless behind that was I'd like to think about additional resources for enforcement. I I'll say that >> we have been clear at some times when policy um uh when uh there were some policy choices that could impact for example um more residents on the hill.

2:38:20We were very clear that we did not have enforcement resources then particularly for traffic and code enforcement and whatnot. Um, as we look to see, we would look at data to see what calls we're getting, what does that look like, and if that is uh your request for for us to consider to see if there are additional resources to have in code compliance, um, then I hear you and um, certainly something to talk with staff about. >> Yeah. And it it's an open question because I I don't have the data and it you know it's not specifically addressed but we had made some of a somewhat of a commitment to to work on uh code compliance in that area. So I'm just wondering >> certainly take a look. I know we have added resources in the past uh recently um in the past few years and I think the cohesion and the consolidation of this team I think is going to be supportive of that but certainly we take that as a question and we'll go back and talk to the team about it.

2:39:17>> Okay. And then my second um question, and this would be really outside of our scope, but um I'm assuming we don't have an allocation this year or next year to do anything in support of the San Lazaro community because that hasn't been a anything that we have expressed um from a policy perspective. >> It has not been something expressed as a policy perspective. We have shared with you and community um that we are in conversations with them. We are in conversations with the county as well um uh to think through what does that look like. Currently um San Lasso lives outside of our jurisdiction. Um but there have been conversations about um if they were desiring of annexation, what would be the cost? What would be our um potential support? Um uh so those conversations are ongoing. they are ongoing uh not just with the San Lasso community um who I had the pleasure to speak with on Friday um but also with the county. And so if that were something um that we wanted to move forward on um as this process unfolds and they are in the midst of negotiating separately then we would certainly come to council for that.

2:40:30>> Okay. But but we would get we would try to wrap that funding into this budget cycle like we're we're not going to be able to find money outside of this. I we it doesn't look like there's any wiggle room for us to do anything to support that community. I'm trying to figure out where to where we would have that conversation from a budgetary perspective. >> So, a couple things is that there's a timing consideration here. Um there is a clock that's running and without getting into details on a response to an offer received, we will continue to have that conversation. I don't know if um if potential annexation and financial support from the city would actually be in 2027. So that's where we have the potential to come to you later uh to come to you and ATB and to think through what does that look like. So just because those are one of the examples that may sit outside of the budget the regular budget timeline because it happens we would still have the opportunity to talk about what a potential if needed um approach appropriation would look like. So it's not something I think needs to be solved here because we cannot solve it in for this budget because we don't know where this is going and what the community

2:41:45there wants. >> Okay. And then so similarly, is there a chance to to look at after we have the I think it's the October 22 session on wildfire. Can that be an ATB discussion? I I put it in the hotline and I understand that it usually responds to an emergency or to an unexpected grant or something like that. So I I guess I'm trying to figure out whether the wildfire conversation could look like the sonsaro sosado conversation. You say it much better. I I don't know that I say it right, but I can't get the Spanish out of it. So, I say >> um so certainly and and Charlotte uh for purposes of like what is uh best practice, right? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the ATB that comes at the end of the year really is about what's coming in uh what grants we are receiving, what is reconciliation look like. Um mostly we have another ATB uh opportunity uh at the beginning of the year and we do try to um align those um requests uh that are unexpected in that.

2:42:54Can we have an appropriation conversation outside of that? We sure could. We don't want to have every conversation because then we'd do nothing but be talking about appropriations throughout the year and that's just not good practice. But I think it'll depend on where we sit and what how council wants to move forward in a particular direction knowing that there is an adjustment that has to happen. Having said that, there is an obligation to submit a final budget uh by a certain date, Charlotte. Um and we will have to have a final budget of what it looks like for 2027. So decisions that come afterwards will will require a different um process. >> Okay. Lot of words there. Charlotte, >> may I call a tweet on that, Taisha? Just because that doesn't seem really clear like just to really level set. If October 22nd comes and a decisions made is to go with enhancement, which is beyond the current budget that we are that is in front of us. How would that occur? We'll have just passed this budget and we may or may not do it in an ATB. So, so I'm just I think community I think everybody's like what is that mechanism because that's a policy question that we're being posed quite quickly as to whether or not we will

2:44:08it's not a what if it's not a maybe it's a choice point that we have whether we want to do that or not. So, when would we make that ultimate decision budgetarily to fund that enhanced if that were chosen? Um, >> I'll ask Charlotte or Christa to clarify because it whether it's this one or whether it was something that happens in February, we would have to think through what a different appropriation looks like. Um, so, uh, Charlotte or Christa, if you can talk a little bit more about what that process is. >> Yeah, happy to, uh, talk about the process for ATB. Um, as Nuria mentioned, ATB2 is typically associated with our consiliation items. So, any of the grants that we've received midyear, donations that we've received, um, we bring those forward for council, uh, consideration for, uh, appropriation toward the end of the year. We also have items that are emergency items, uh, that come forward. Um, ATB2 is really intended to be, um, more of a reconciliation of appropriation. Um in terms of items that come forward that uh would need and council provides additional um uh recommendations for funding, that would be an area that we would look to because we would be past the uh 27 fiscal year adoption for ATB1 of 2027 and that would come forward in

2:45:32May uh and June of of next year. So to be clear, if we were to choose an enhanced in October 2022, we wouldn't be making a funding decision on how to fund said policy for another seven or eight months following. Is that correct? We council would not be performing an additional approval at that council meeting to increase appropriation um to to support enhanced uh without an offset in the 2027 budget. >> Okay. All right. And I understand that. Okay. That's that's problematic, but we'll talk about that later. And and I'll just add here, and this probably goes without stating, but I think it's important to say, right, we have a balanced budget right now. So, when we're talking about $2 million ads, this is going to be looking at the tradeoffs where the money is going to come from in that conversation.

2:46:41>> All right, Ryan. >> Okay. Hey, I just have one um one comment for tonight, I think. And I I'm going to try to integrate um what Matt and Rob and Nicole said, and you all can reject this this attempt to integrate if you want, but I just had a a thread I thought of. So, um I I really agree with with Matt and Rob that we we need to be embarking on a transformative plan for wildfire hardening that's got to cover thousands of parcels. um and not just to assess them but to actually do hardening on you know a very large scale. Um, and I agree with Nicole that the budget should follow our policym and we we do have in this this wildfire work plan priority literally it's scoped to to help address the question of how do you how do we scope how do we understand the cost benefit of different types of investments. We're really close. We're really close to the the conclusion of it. And um one of the things that I saw from the preview before um in the in the last meeting we had on it was there are some things that are really inexpensive.

2:47:55There are some things that are expensive. Um there are some things that homeowners, private sector will will be willing to pay for. Some things probably less so. Um there's a lot in there. There's a lot of um there's a lot of meat that we're uh starting to to to see and to talk about and um I'm really interested in us getting to an like a a rigorous understanding of how how we think investments in wildfire hardening to create a large scale and to move quickly. How will we do that? Like how how will that really play out? Um, I don't feel like I'm ready to say here's the amount of money we need. I I I'm really looking forward though to getting to this this like change model for how do we get it done? And I um you know, we we do do this in other realms, right? We have energy efficiency um projects in homes. We have solar panels that go on homes and there's marketplaces that make this happen really quickly. We don't have the marketplace for home hardening.

2:48:56And um I'm just hopeful that as we go forward, we'll we'll get to a point of understanding um as we talk about the public budget for this, the the kinds of public monies we'll spend in it. What also can we expect to get from the from the private sector, like literally homeowners, but but I guess could be others from from private capital, and what's the city's role in in actuating that and bringing that together? um because I just I hesitate to um get too far down the road into how much money does the does the city need to spend before we really understand how this marketplace will work um and the role that the city can can play to to try to multiply what what kind of public funds we can drive. So as we get into the next stage of the wildfire hardening plan, I'm going to be really looking for this um and then um we'll just go from there.

2:49:43So those are my thoughts. Okay, thank you. Um I don't see any additional hands raised, so I will just um add things that haven't have not already been discussed for the um although I've appreciated the conversation and agree we need to be very aggressive uh with the wildfire mitigation, I've also been explicit around the lack of funding to be able to accelerate at the pace and the need to identify additional revenue streams for that. Um, I also have um concerns on not having sufficient funding for evacuation recovery and possibly relocation. I didn't see anything uh related to evacuation uh and evacuation costs and preparation for evacuation um as as well as recovery. Um, we know Marshall fires at its 5-year mark and there were significant costs um associated with um evacuation, recovery, and relocation, and I'm not seeing that in our budget. So, we can pull out every Juniker Bur Bush. Um, every house could be hardened, and we are still at 1.5 uh Celsius um and uh all kinds of climate disasters heading our way. So um to me I would love to see a more comprehensive um investment strategy um and along with u wildfire mitigation and hard home hardening. Um the other piece is around just energy and energy rates. We know that the PUC estimates that energy costs

2:51:20could go up by 50% in uh three years. And so uh although Excel Energy indicates that that's not the case and I look forward to them providing evidence to the contrary. Uh but in the interim I have to go with what the PUC staff has estimated and I was just curious um how those and not to mention the escalating war in Iran and impacts on oil um and diesel knowing the transportation costs and um how that shows up in construction and um development. So just curious. Um so one is just a a recommendation on um how we are addressing um the entire uh climate uh uh disaster response negoti um emergency disasters uh in particular to evacuation um recovery and response and potentially relocation as well as um and then the question is around um energy rates um and how they were considered in these uh uh in the estimates.

2:52:37how energy was considered in and if the escalating costs were included in the projections that have been provided >> across our uh incorporated into our capital budget projects for the city budget. Um so our capital uh project managers uh across our departments uh in the city do perform and incorporate projections particularly in thinking about our utilities um capital projects. um considers uh uh energy uh uh costs associated with um their uh capital planning. And and truly across all of the uh capital uh project managers that support um capital project planning across the um across the uh uh the capital improvement program for the city. It would be helpful to see what that formula is and how that formula's changed from last year to this year considering the extenduating circumstances of what's been going on um globally and locally. Um and then the I noticed the community connector outreach program um wasn't funded. I know that's a a lower price point, but given the lack of racial ethnic diversity on staff and that's really where that outreach was happening. I'm just kind of curious how um staff beyond using a racial equity tool um would be able to get that additional level of feedback and rebuild the trust that we've invested in over the last few years.

2:54:18So, um to the first part of the question, council member, the um 2027 budget does include a realignment of funds um to help to support and bolster up the community um uh connectors program. Um we have over the past uh couple of years invested in the community connectors program. It is a uh priority uh action within our citywide strategic plan. And so the funding associated with community connectors has increased over time. Um the to the second part of the question in terms of community input in part of the uh sessions that we had with uh uh community conversations with fund our future we had um specific conversations two conversations with community connectors and residents um and were very intentional about um having very uh specific uh conversations um with community connectors Um and then some other uh more targeted conversations with uh specific populations that were both in person and online. And so that what that feedback and input was incorporated into our fund our future uh work that we did earlier this year.

2:55:40No, I'm talking about the outreach, not the residents. It was my understanding the outreach component got um was going to be not funded this year, not the residents part. There's like different tiers within the community connector program. We can go offline with this, but um I'll be asking questions about >> I think you're you're correct, uh council man member Adams, that piece of it was um >> was not funded. We did fund a conversion from a fixed term that had been fixed term into a permanent and I don't know if Sarah can be promoted if you want that specific uh response on um the outreach component. I believe that was originally funded with one-time dollars with maybe uh I don't know if it's ARPA funds, but uh certainly we can get back to you on what that looks like.

2:56:24>> Okay. and I can follow up on that with my hotline, but just wanted to tee up um some of the substantive changes that I I mean that I I I anticipate. Um and of course just water in general um is something that I continue to have concerns about um given the uh water supply scenarios that Joe and his team provided in 2025 and um the estimates per staff responses previously was only on one of the four probabilities. um current trends and didn't look at severe or stressed. Um and so again, if we have another water year or snowpack year like we had this year, that would put us, I would imagine, into stressed territory, which would then make all of our projections not uh aligned with the scenarios that he outlined. So just and I'll be lifting that up in the hotline as well. Um we have 10 minutes left, so I want to circle back. Ryan, you had other questions, so I wanted to hold space if there was another question that you would like to ask.

2:57:26>> Thank you. No, I'm good. Thanks for that, Tisha. I'm all good. >> No worries. All right. Um, any other uh questions about uh next steps or just questions in general? Um I will say um although I appreciate Nicole your comments about um the late stage of providing feedback, this is the process and if anything um we had talked about trying to mitigate the process so that it happens earlier where staff uh where council feedback comes earlier. Also the idea I was hopeful that the fiscal note would provide more opportunities with projections versus actuals as well as having um financial data in our plan developments. so that we have something to work against. There's just not a lot of opportunities where we're talking about budget in real time. Um and so again, just I appreciate having the binder. I appreciate all of the changes that were made um to to the budget um paperwork and protocols. Um again, I think the timeline continues to be a challenge challenge um to turn around substantive feedback in, you know, a week and a half. So, um I I will do my best and um yeah, I see some hands raised. So, Tara, >> um just real quick, I just want to I just if it's possible, I really did enjoy reading I know it's wild for me to

2:58:52be saying this, but I did enjoy reading um the packet and I was really impressed with the way you staff reduced the budget. It was quite incredible. Um, and so I wasn't kidding when I like I was impressed especially with the realignment. That's really hard to do and I just want you to know how much I appreciate it. I'm sure that I'm not the only one. So, thank you staff for for doing all that. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Nicole. >> Yeah, I just wanted to um clarify that my my comments are really more about where the budget fits in in terms of policy, right? Like the the the budget is where our policy gets implemented. It's where the rubber hits the road. And so my point was really just that if we want to change how future budgets are directed in terms of where we're doing realignments and how we're allocating funds and things like that, that really comes from changes to those policy documents and the guiding um principles and things that are that are overseeing that because that the budget is just sort of where where all of that implements, right? Um and I think we can have questions about whether that is being implemented um in alignment with our policy frameworks and things like that. Um but but but I think ultimately

3:00:06it does come from the policies that we set. And so that is where we as council and community and everybody can really weigh in when we're wanting more um more funding, more programs, more services in specific areas. It's really coming at setting changing that policy, right? Changing the BBCP, changing the the departmental strategic plans, those kinds of things. >> Thanks for giving me a moment to explain. I guess what I was saying was it's hard to deal when we do that policy piece that we're not getting the financial information at that time. So it's very difficult and this is the only time when that happens. So I guess um you know I hear you and I'm just saying this is the time and if we want to make that changes then we would need to be more explicit about making sure we have uh budget projections when we're doing creating plans that have policy implications. So, um I I could not agree more and and and again, I want to thank the staff for um the work that they've done um the community for and community organizations for the thorough review of the recommended plan um and putting additional uh recommendations and style guides and questions. Um we have read through. We really do appreciate. I also want to appreciate the quick turnaround

3:01:21on the staff response to um the community questions and the council questions that have been submitted. That was also very uh quick turnaround and really appreciative um of that. And without seeing any additional hands, I will go ahead and close the um uh I will close this meeting at 8:56 p.m. um for the record. And again, thank you team for um the substantive conversation. and I look forward to the next steps of having uh using the hotline by September 28th for any um substantive changes uh in advance of the first reading um on October 1st. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful evening everybody. >> Thank you everybody.