Transcript

0:04:49Evening everybody and welcome to tonight's study session of the Boulder City Council. Council member Matt Benjamin and thank you all for joining us. Uh fall is here and hopefully you're all enjoying the darkness uh that is ensuing in the mornings. Maybe that allows you to sleep more or be frustrated that you don't get woken up by the sun. Uh we have two items on tonight's agenda. First, we will be uh receiving a public safety update and our second item will be a sister city's process and language update. Um but first, um just given that it has been a big topic in community and I think it's important for us city council just to say a little something and I want to talk send it over to Nuria here. But our Boulder Valley School District did pass a resilient school plan. I know that there's some grief and some anger in the community and we're all excited, some are excited for some new beginnings. Um it's clear that the city had no role in this decision, but we do have a role in what maybe becomes of these properties in the near future. And so a question I have for Nuria is can you maybe update us on any discussions or planned conversations about working with BBS BBSD to imagine perhaps what these

1 Public Safety Update Staff Time: 45 Min Council Time: 45 Min

0:05:52properties could look like and how community could be involved. Uh thanks so much Council Member Benjamin and uh you're right the properties remain the property of BBSD and we certainly know that there's been a lot of conversation in community about them. We do have a great relationship uh with uh BBSD and while we may not necessarily have a say in um the future of the buildings as decision maker, we have been discussing with the district um ways in which um some of the buildings could be used for city purposes. And so um without getting into details whether um some of that could be a substation uh for police or training center or other uses we are um thinking through with them. I also just want to lift up they have been a terrific partner as we continue to think about aquatics in our city. Um and so just want to lift up that that those conversations will continue and if there is anything um that comes from those uh properties, we will certainly come to council. I understand too that they will likely continue to be engaging in community in some way, shape or form.

0:07:02And so um we'll keep you posted. >> Wonderful. Appreciate that. Nura, um so before we get into our work items, um I'd like to first outline how this meeting will be conducted. Uh for the public safety update, um we have three areas that we are looking at this evening. Policing, police oversight, and our legal judicial system. Um we will review each of those staff presentations which run roughly about 15 minutes each. And then following each segment um we'll ask really for just maybe one following up or if there's just a burning question um on that subject. Um, and once we on each of those subjects and once we get through the bulk of the meeting or bulk of that whole uh 45 minute chunk of public safety, then if there's time allowed, we'll still be able to ask some more follow-up questions, but uh didn't want to do it all 45 and then someone being like uh that stale information from 40 minutes ago. Uh what was that that I wanted to ask? So that's what we'll be able to do. And then uh we'll roll into sister city and have that uh conversation when we go forth. Um so now I'll turn it over to our city manager, Nuria Rivera Vandermide, to get us started. Thanks so much, Council Member

0:08:05Benjamin. And I will try to keep uh my intros uh tight since I know that we are tight on time tonight. Um at your last retreat, council, you'll remember that you asked for a public safety update that included not just PD and the municipal court, but our oversight uh monitor uh and our panel representatives as well. You certainly did ask for two of these updates in a year, and I will say that we tried hard to bring something forward before your summer break, and we're just unable to accommodate the agenda. Please know that we will continue to try to bring these forward in a timely manner as requested. There's a lot to cover in tonight's study session, so I'm going to keep it short, but wanted to thank in particular our panel co-chairs. This is nothing to do with you staff, but you're always uh coming to a meeting, but our panel co-chairs aren't used to coming to our meetings. Um, and it's not usually on their list of things to do on a Thursday evening. So, appreciate their ability to join us. So with that, I'll turn it over to our police chief, Steve Redford.

0:09:06>> Awesome. Thank you, Noria. Good evening, Mayor Mayor Prom and Council. Um Steve Redford, police chief. Um I've got some slides to go with this. I believe um our city staff are going to drive for me. Um once I see those, great. Awesome. Um so it's really good to be here. I was just thinking uh this evening uh on Monday was my 2-year anniversary as police chief and it seems like time really flies. Uh and I'm just so proud of the work that our team has accomplished uh this year and and and beyond and just really excited to provide you uh some updates tonight. So, if we can go to the next slide, I'll go through an agenda. I'm going to pack a lot into and I will do my absolute best to stay around 15 minutes. I'm going to talk fast so we have question time. I'm going to give you some updates. I'm going to talk about our current uh issues with uh you know current staffing issues. I'm going to talk about our public safety information center uh and then give you some crime data. And before I forget, because I knew I was going to do this, I want to uh also introduce the two folks that are here with me tonight. Um just in case they come up for questions,

0:10:08it'll be Deputy Chief Barry Hartcop, our operations chief, and our chief data analyst, Dr. Daniel Reinhardt is here as well. So if there's questions that they can answer better than I, I will punt to them uh as well. So, especially on the crime data, we'll we'll have Daniel here uh to talk in more specifics if there's issues there. I'm going to give you some uh highlights on a few major events that have happened in 2026 just to kind of give you uh a taste of some of the things we've been dealing with that kind of highlight a lot of our efforts and then I'm going to talk a little bit about our uh community engagement efforts too as well to to show some of the things we're doing out in community. Next slide, please. So, I'm going to start with staffing.

0:10:46Um, obviously we get asked all the time, how many officers do you have? And I'll I'll start with our sworn police officers. Uh, we are authorized 190 sworn police officers. Right now we're uh down 12 of those. We've had I'm going to talk numbers in a minute. Um, so we are down 12 staffed officers. Uh, on top of that, unfortunately though, we have nearly 30 of those 178 filled positions that are not uh deployable as solo police officers. Some of those are our recruits in training, some are in the academy and then I have officers on injury leave. I have officers out for different reasons and so we're operating a a little bit short. Um our in progress emergency call response time still remains very very well within standards. Um but some nights we are a little bit short and and we're working very hard to fill all those positions. We're actively recruiting. Uh for our dispatchers, incredibly important position. Obviously our 911 center 247 operation. Um, we have authorized 30. We currently have about 24 uh spots, but we just uh finished a recruiting program and I know we're filling some of those. So, uh, I'm glad to see that we're making progress there. And then our records section has been recently hiring quite a bit and so

0:11:58right now we only are down one records position. We were down quite a few that was leading to some backlog. So, happy to to see that we're making progress there. Um, one thing just to point out that's just an interesting thing of note, uh, is that now 50% of our patrol officers at Boulder Police have less than five years on the job. Um, I look at that as an opportunity, but also it comes sometimes as a little bit of a challenge um, when we're just a young workforce. And so working through some of those dynamics is always uh a top of mind. We have uh, since 2021 lost 118 police officers uh, which is a staggering number. uh we lost 35 in 2021 and thankfully that has diminished um quite a bit. Uh so uh that is part of that that leads to that younger department. Um so far in 2026 we've lost 17 officers with an average of nine years experience each and so um always trying to recruit, always trying to hire and always trying to uh retain as well.

0:12:56And so uh those are always at top of mind. Uh next slide please. Uh so council, you should have been invited and if you didn't get it, let me know. But uh we've invited you to a tour of our new public safety information center um that we're still putting some of the fin uh finishing touches on here in the police department. But I'm incredibly excited about this. Uh we are um a little later to the game than some departments. A lot of departments have had something similar now for for a year or two, but I'm really glad we're here. Uh this center allows us to bring in a lot of things in one place, a lot of pieces of technology, a lot of of of uh of our important roles that uh day-to-day just monitoring and responding to emergencies, but also when we have events. Uh this center is going to be integral uh for things like the Boulder Boulder or this weekend the Boulder Thawn and then obviously the Sundance Film Festival. Uh the cool thing with our center and in in line with our philosophy here in Boulder is this is not just a public safety center.

0:13:55the center is going to be uh used and we've already been using it for response for our drones to fires and missing people and I've been conversation with a lot of the other directors of how we can use this for things like utilities emergencies and things and so really excited to be able to have a lot more in-person collaboration. I could go on and on with the the PSIC, but I will save uh some of that for your tour. Uh and if you're not able to make the dates uh that we've provided, we'll uh we'll figure out another time. Next slide, please. So, let's uh talk crime for a minute. Um, so I am as the police chief pleased with where we are right now with our crime picture. Um, obviously one crime is too many, but realistically we know that we're never going to not have crime. Uh, but we're really seeing good trends uh for our department. And if you look at at the the graph on the screen, that is dictating our or or depicting our crime from January to August for the last 5 years. Currently, uh, we are seeing really nice, uh, decreases in property crime, and that includes burglaries, car theft, theft from motor vehicle, and bicycle theft, which I'll just hit on briefly in a second. Uh, our

0:15:04person's crimes are also down. Uh, you can see in 2021, they were way low, and they've significantly moved up. Um, that's directly due to COVID and things like that. Um and we're seeing a decrease in a lot of the person's crimes as well except for assaults and that's a problem uh that we're continuing to see assaults on the rise and we're uh figuring out some ways to uh address that uh as well. Um we've currently also this year charged more individuals with drug crimes than in previous years and that's part of our push push especially in our downtown corridor uh to be more proactive. Uh, one thing I just will mention on bike theft, we will have a special study session, I think, in October on that. And so, I'm not going to get in depth on bike theft tonight.

0:15:43Uh, but what I will say is we're seeing really positive trends. We continue to do bait bike operations and as early as this as this past Tuesday, uh, we had some community tips and we're able to recover several high-end stolen bikes, ebikes, and scooters in an apartment uh, with other illegal items and made two arrests. There's more more on that case I can't get into, but those are the sorts of things I love seeing when we know bike theft has been a priority of council. Next slide, please. So, when I look at crime trends, I look at two other things. I look at what are calls for service, how many people are calling the police, and then what is our proactive activity? And so, when I see a decrease in crime and I see an increase in proactive policing, to me that is uh correlary. And I really love seeing the fact that our officers are doing what we've asked. even sometimes uh in short staffing situations. Um if you look at that chart, we have a lot more proactive uh contacts uh this year um compared to the three-year average. Um I'll talk a little bit more about it in a minute, but we've had 17% more directed patrols this year, 32% more proactive pedestrian contacts, 27% more traffic stops in line

0:16:53with traffic safety vision zero um compared to the three-year average. And so the officers have done what I've been asking, which is to get out of the car, get on foot, get on bikes, get on ebikes, and just be out in the community. So, I'm really I'm pleased to see that. One thing of note, if you look at our calls for service being down a little bit, um that's good. It means our officers hopefully have more time to engage in proactive work. Uh the one nuance there is that we when we really look at our calls, even though the numbers are down, a lot of the complexity is up. And so calls that might have been able to be handled by one or two officers in the past now might need more officers. And we're seeing that because uh we have uh people experiencing mental health crisis, people that are uh you know in a drug uh induced or alcohol induced uh psychosis and they're fighting with officers.

0:17:40We've seen attacks on officers rise. So we're having to sometimes commit more resources even though our calls uh might be dropping a little bit. Um uh let's see. I'll talk about the rest of that in a minute. Uh let's go to the next slide. So, there's a lot on this slide and all I'm going to say on this is that proactive proactivity for us looks like a lot of different things. Um, one thing that I really am happy with is we have a new alcohol enforcement officer, relatively new, and she is really taking it seriously, and we're seeing a lot of enforcement on problematic businesses, uh, that are leading to underage drinking, a lot of focus on ID issues that we're seeing with with students. And so, I'm really happy with some of the work there. Um, and then our community liaison, which I'll talk about in a little bit, um, play a direct role in our proactive work as well. And our proactive work also is things like uh ensuring that we have proper uh uh deployment at events, bomb sweeps with canines before events, and just being ready for any sort of emergency that comes our way. Uh next slide, please.

0:18:44So, as I mentioned, I'm going to just cover a few significant incidents. And this was hard to narrow this down, but I wanted to pick some that gave council kind of an idea and community of some of the issues that we've dealt with so far in 2026. Um so if we go to the next slide um a couple things of note on significant incidents. Um we uh are seeing more we're seeing more uh financial crimes. We are seeing and this is just a a quick snapshot. Um but we've had some really good successes with some of our partners on some pretty significant financial investigations like you see on the screen and I'm not going to uh read all of these to you. Uh but as technology advances, as people get uh better with technology, we're also seeing people find new ways to victimize our community, especially some of our most vulnerable uh members of our community. And so we're really focusing especially working with uh some folks that may not be our most likely partners at times including like the US Postal Inspector's Office on some fraud cases and things that we're uh you know bringing in outside resources to help because as we see on most of these the majority of the people that are committing these crimes are not in

0:19:50Boulder or if they are their crimes are going way beyond Boulder and so um a lot of resources being devoted to some of our financial crimes. Next slide please. So, I talked about assaults and I talked about assaults being up and and we're seeing two things. One, we're seeing assaults between people that know one another and that's the most common type of assault that we see. It is rare for us to have random victimization, just a random crime on the street where someone doesn't know one another. But this is one of those cases. Um, and this was a very scary case. This man in June specifically came to Boulder with the desire to stab people on Pearl Street on a rainy morning. Um, our officers responded quickly. Thankfully, people called 911. Um, that picture is actually from one of our drones that was able to get on scene very quickly and get eyes on the suspect as well, and we were able to detain this guy before he uh victimized more people. Um, as you see, however, he was charged with three counts of attempted murder. Uh, this could have been so much worse. Um, and this is uh an example just to show the things that kind of keep me up at night is is this guy didn't live in Boulder.

0:20:52He came here specifically to harm our community and our officers responded incredibly well. Um thankfully very few and far between on these types of assaults. Next slide please. This slide is indicative of more of what we see with uh assaults and this was a scary case that easily could have been much worse. Um this was an acquaintance, two acquaintances that were sleeping outside and one woke up and and believed that the the female he was with stole some of his items and he committed one of the most heinous assaults we've seen in a long time. It's all on video. Thankfully, we had community members that called or it could have been much worse. Sadly, we This is more indicative of some of the assaults we see. It's typically people uh that know one another. And there's really not a a clear delineation between people who are housed and unhoused. I'm just showing one example of one that um happened to be out in the public space and allowed people to call us so we could intervene on that one. Next slide, please.

0:21:49So, uh another thing that we work a lot of is pattern crimes. Uh, one of the great things we have with Dr. Reinhardt uh and others and our other analysts monitoring crime trends is we see trends. Um, we constantly every Monday I get updates on patterns and trends and this is just one example. We started to see commercial burglaries in the downtown uh Pearl Street area. We had not seen patterns of burglaries thankfully in a long time. And we quickly learned that there were juveniles that were out breaking into businesses at night, taking cash drawers, taking food, alcohol, electronics, and jewelry. And our detectives, with the help of our analysts, were able to piece this together, uh, figure out they were not isolated burglaries, and make a series of arrests on these juveniles. And you can see some of the charges there. We have several of these sorts of examples this year of pattern cases. Next slide.

0:22:37So, I mentioned earlier that assaults on our cops are up and what we're seeing is concerning and this is just one example. An officer was dispatched to a call of a man on a balcony pointing a gun potentially at someone in the parking lot. Our officer arrived and immediately that man had come down from his balcony and in the parking lot uh attacked our officer, choking him to unconsciousness. Uh this officer is still out uh today on injury leave and this happened in February. Um, we've had a couple of instances this year, um, involving people, uh, where where officers were seriously injured. The one thing I will say that I truly appreciate in these cases is our partnership with the district attorney's office. You can see that this person was charged with multiple counts, including attempt to commit murder in the first degree of a police officer based upon the seriousness of this case. Um, this takes me into potentially many other issues I could talk about, including employee wellness, uh, that we're focused on, but I just wanted to share with you, and I know I do update council when these things occur, and I appreciate the support, uh, that we get from council when our people are, uh, subject to these sorts of assaults. Next slide.

0:23:41I wanted to really just briefly talk about overdoses because we get a lot of them. Um, this is one example of unfortunately very sad fatal overdose that happened in March in North Boulder. Uh and we are seeing still 20 to 30 fatal overdoses in Boulder a year. Um that is obviously way too high and we're seeing availability of uh seriously harmful drugs out on the street. Um we've heard based on some work we've done with our drug task force and others that uh there are less drugs available on the street in Boulder. That can change like that. And our goal is for anyone who may want to bring drugs here or manufacture drugs and bring them here that we're going to to deal with them swiftly. And in this point, this case, I point out a really kind of unique thing that we've been able to do here in Boulder with our drug task force, with our DA's office, is it's fairly rare to do this, but we have actually in multiple cases, including this one, charged the drug dealer. Um, we're able to take the case and work backwards and figure out who provided that fatal dose of drugs to the person. And in this case, very uh great outcome to a terrible situation. This guy's still in

0:24:42custody now from March for distributing that those drugs that killed this person. So, we're going to continue to focus on those cases as well. Next slide. So, uh talking very quickly here, we're on the home stretch. Uh I will just say, and I' I think I've shared this with council before, since day one, even as interim chief, community engagement was a top priority for me. Uh and I was met with no resistance from our department when I shared that that was a priority. Um, in 2021, we lost in 2020, we lost a lot of that face-to-face engagement that we used to to enjoy with the community, and we've really worked hard to get that back. We now have liaison groups to nearly every segment of our population, and we're seeing just incredible ideas come from our liaison officers about better ways to engage with community.

0:25:27Two weekends ago, Sweet Cow ice cream came to San Juan with an ice cream truck and we not only did we I think they sold out of ice cream. They had to go get more because we had such positive engagement between and it's ice cream of course. So, it wasn't a hard sell, but we had our officers out there, our Spanish speaking officers out there. That's just one example. And I'll see if you go to the next slide, a lot more that you can look at. But there is not uh a place we have not been in the community engaging from day-to-day events, National Night Out. Um, we've done a lot this year with Rocky Mountain Equality. Uh, Boulder Expand playing pickle ball, bowling, uh, with our athletes has been incredible. Uh, just a lot there, uh, to talk about. And I'll just highlight real quickly, one priority continues to be the outreach with our Latino Latino community. Uh, with everything going on at the federal level, we continue to meet. We have Spanish speaking liaison where, um, we're just trying to ensure that everyone feels safe calling us if they need us uh, despite anything else going on uh, out there. So, uh, this will continue to be a priority council. We'll continue to invite, uh, you to these

0:26:29events and we love when you're able to come out and and take part in them with us. Go to the next slide. Uh, so mentioned this uh, I think last time I was in front of council that this was a newer program. This is our community feedback. Uh, just like you get when you fly an airline, a lot of airlines, you land, you get a text, tell us how we did. That's what we've been continuing to do. And if you look at this, between now uh or between October 2024 and now, we've sent out over 6,500 surveys to the community. Um we've also added uh things like demographic features if they so choose to fill that out to give us a better idea of who's filling these out. But what we're seeing is 85% of the people of those 6,500 people that responded to those surveys said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with our police service. Uh that includes our 911 service. and they have the opportunity to write provide feedback. Um, we actually put that feedback up on TVs here in the police department. So, employees get to see that feedback and if there's times where the feedback is not good or that people that are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied provide actionable information that we can address, we we

0:27:31do that in a timely manner. So, we're going to continue on that endeavor for community feedback. Uh, next slide. So, uh, one thing, uh, that I started this year, uh, as well, uh, from due to community demand was police chief town halls. And I've seen several council members at some of my town halls. I really appreciate that. Uh, we've done them now in South Boulder, uh, East Boulder, and downtown. And we have one, as you can see, scheduled next month in a couple weeks in North Boulder. We've been trying to go out to the neighborhoods, answered specific community related questions, and it's been a great opportunity for us to get out and engage. If you see that picture, that was our downtown hall. Downtown town hall was very well attended. A lot of great participation. Um, happy to continue to do these and we plan to continue them into next year. Uh, it's been a really great experience. Uh, suggestion came up, the last one to do one up on the hill. Uh, and we're going to look at scheduling that for next year as well. Next slide.

0:28:29That's it. Uh, that, uh, I hope, uh, that wasn't too fast. Uh, there's two QR codes here that we always include. One is our Boulder Police Department newsletter. I send out a monthly newsletter. If you haven't seen it, please sign up. Uh as well as our crime dashboards. You know, very gave you a very brief snapshot of crime, but we have 14 or 15 different dashboards giving the community insight to things we do. Everything from stop data, use of force data, drone deployment data. Um please check those out. Uh it really allows you to dive in and see what we're doing uh on a much more granular level. So, uh, I'm going to take a breath and a drink of water, and I I think I'll turn it back over whether it's Nurio or Council Member Benjamin, but that is it for our PD presentation.

0:29:12>> Thank you so much, Chief. I appreciate you going through that. Um, I think it's some sobering information, but also some really good stuff that that you and your department are doing. So, really appreciate that. >> Um, what we're going to do since this is our first segment is I want to see does anyone have any burning questions? Uh, we can kind of just ask one at this stage. um so we don't take up too much time uh before we move into our next segment. So if anybody's got a burning question for the chief or his team. All right, Nicole, go for it. >> Thank you. Thanks so much for the presentation and I apologize. My camera um stopped working and it's telling me I need to restart my computer for it to work again. So sorry about that. Um but thank you for the presentation um and and just for for all the work that you've been doing. Um I just had a question. I think this relates to a couple of the cases um that you talked about. It it's about the recently implemented um Boulder Community Connect program. Um it's a really interesting use of technology and just thinking about how we can partner um with residents and businesses. And I was wondering if you could just talk a

0:30:13little bit about what changes for you operationally when a private camera gets integrated with that Axon system. Like what what becomes possible in in an incident that wasn't possible before? >> Yeah, I I appreciate the question. Um and and I I'll give just a moment of context because people may not know what um what what council member Spear's talking about. So, uh we now have the ability with opening this public safety information center uh completely voluntary. Uh the community can share their um video feed with us. So, for example, uh you let's say you own a business and you already have pre-existing uh surveillance cameras inside or outside your business. With this new program, you can share those with us. Um, and uh, those will be used. Let's say we get a call for service, for example, a gas station. We get a hold up robbery alarm. Uh, sometimes are real, sometimes are false. It helps us to know which one of those is for a response. We can instantly pull that up on the screen from our public safety information center and see, oh man, this is a legitimate robbery. There's a guy in there with a gun. Or we pull it up and there's nothing uh, and we don't see a problem. That allows us to to scale that

0:31:18response differently. Um, what the system also has to is the ability for an individual homeowner or business person to get a camera on their own and then that integrates into our center as well. And so, uh, just to be clear, it's very it's completely voluntary. There are cities like Atlanta that have 22,000 private cameras that people have been willing to share with the Atlanta Police Department that they integrate into their uh, information center. And that really gives us so much better response. It's not a we don't watch them proactively. it's only when there's a need for us to do so. Uh and that just if you think about it, you know, we we may only have 10 or 11 officers on uh during a shift. Uh that just is a force multiplier for us to be able to have more eyes around. And quite frankly, the community seems super excited about it.

0:32:05Um to have maybe their own camera that then they can feed into us when we have something. Um obviously there's privacy concerns. there's there's uh you know people are skeptical of it and fully understanding there's a lot of people like no way you can't have access to my camera and that's totally fine. That's why the program is incredibly voluntary uh as well. So um we'll see uh how it works out. I think it's just going to help us um with missing people. It's going to help us with in progress crime. But also as we have staffing issues just like our our our UAS program, it can also help us to quickly dial up a camera and say there is nothing going on. you don't need to be going lights and siren officer and potentially uh engaging in a you know a high-speed crash or something like that. So, a lot more on that as well, but I appreciate the question.

0:32:50>> Thank you. >> All right, Rob, go for it. >> Thanks, Matt. Um, thank you for that presentation, Chief. And I'm really um glad to see that the police are starting to embrace the fire route of ice cream over donuts. Um, proud of you guys. Oh, >> um, seriously, what is the recipe that you need from us, from staff, from the community to prevent this 118 loss since 2021 to help with retention and um to get those 12 positions back? Yeah, I I appreciate the question, council member, and it's something we talk about almost consistently in here. And I will say the deputy chief hard cop's been here 35 plus years. So Barry, if there's anything you want to add when I'm done, feel free to jump in. But I will say 2021 was an anomaly with 35 people leaving in a year. There was a lot going on there. Uh, every department saw police officers leaving in 2020 and 2021. It wasn't just Boulder, but if you think back, it was also COVID and King Supers. We lost one of our own. And that is very common when that happens to see an exodus of officers, family members saying, "You know what? I don't want that to be you." Um, we we saw, you know, a different um different reasons

0:34:11for leaving. I'll tell you, I sit down with every officer that exits and I hear different things. I hear um, you know, I I want to go work in another state uh because there are states that are perceived as more police friendly or have different laws um that that allow different things. Um, I rarely ever hear that it's it's the culture in the police department or things like that. Um, I I will be very open about it because it's no secret this building is part of it. This building when our cops pay attention and they see Broomfield PD getting a brand new police department when their other one's only 15 years old or is uh Erie PD has a brand new building. They're doing a huge add-on to make it nicer, newer. So, that's one thing. Um, I will say uh some officers have decided just to get out of it. Um to to to more of the question about what can be done, I will say uh even though I'm I'm not a party in it, um you know, this year I'm I believe the contract negotiations with the union went much better. Um I hear positive things from our union membership on that. Uh uh you know, just ensuring that our police officers that are doing the right things

0:35:15for the right reasons. If they weren't, they wouldn't be here know that they're supported. And sometimes that's as simple as just a thank you in public. Um, I it is I will say for council it is important when you attend events and show your support. I know you guys have just as busy schedules as anybody else, but that's also helpful. Um, and I know that I constantly talk to our city manager as well about, you know, compensation issues and other things. Um, we get it that it's there's no magic pill for this, but uh um I will not stop sharing the things that I think will help and and I will say that Nuria has never told me not to stop bringing her those issues. Um, but also, you know, as things come up, if there's lower hanging fruit that I think we can accomplish quicker in a budget issue or when we're having budget issues, I'll share those with you through through Nura. But, uh, um, yeah, I I think there's I'm going to continue to do exit interviews and ask the questions, especially when it's an officer going to another police department. But I the last few officers that have left have just left to go do other things and uh trying to figure out how to how to to keep them engaged in

0:36:16policing is is um kind of the the focus right now. We put a lot of time and effort into training them and we want to keep them. >> Thanks. That was actually very helpful. >> I appreciate it. >> All right, Terry, you're up. So, Chief, um I get some calls sometimes from people that they watch people taking drugs and their kids are on the back of their bikes and what do we do? Why do we have to like see, you know, people smoking crack and etc., etc. What from your perspective can be done? I know that one time I experienced that and called dispatch and they said well you have to catch them in the act and also the police officers are very busy with you know bigger crimes which I understand. So how do what would you want to say to the community members who have asked me this?

0:37:10>> Yeah I get the same questions council member and I appreciate it. Um what I will say and I don't have the number off the top of my head Dr. Reinhardt feel free to chime in. our enforcement on on drugrelated issues, especially downtown and public spaces, is way up. Our tickets are up. Um I will be clear, we have limitations. Uh in 2017, uh state law was changed where if we see someone using meth, fentanyl, heroin, crack cocaine in public. Um that used to be an arrest. That's a summon. Um we have limitations still on the jail and I talked to I just met with the sheriff Monday. Um and he assures me that in the near future when their plumbing project's done, they're going to revisit the jail standards. Um, I want people to continue to call. Uh, our officers have been u really focused on our public spaces based upon very clear community feedback that we've been seeing recently. Um, but to some of that is true, council member. Uh, you know, if we roll up on somebody that just finished using drugs, there's no drugs that we're not seeing it. There's not a whole lot we can do in that situation.

0:38:08And even when we write him a ticket, uh, it takes some time uh, for uh, those tickets to work their way through the system. And so what we're continuing to do is work with our partners, work with our municipal court when we have people that continue to be problematic on lower level offenses to say, "Let's let's escalate this. Let's not give them community court in this case. Let's work to get them, you know, if they've had 10 tickets, they're not getting it." And and something needs to change. And so we don't just continue to do the same thing and expect the same result. We work with all of our partners. The DA is a great partner. Uh constant communication. our high utilizers program that we've talked about continues. And that question is, yes, sometimes jail is a way to disrupt someone's behavior, but if it's an underlying addiction or mental health issue, who else can we bring in the system? A lot of times when our officers are dealing with them in a situation where they're in a public place and they're causing a disturbance, a lot of other pieces of the system have likely not been helpful to that person. And so, how do we engage other services as well?

0:39:07So, uh, great question. One thing I'll just share is, you know, every year we as the police chief's association, the sheriff's do the same. We monitor state law. Um we we look for uh laws that will help us with public safety by, for example, one last last year that earlier this year that would have increased the the penalties for fentanyl. There's things like that that while we acknowledge there's deeper issues that need to be solved, uh, sometimes I'm looking for more tools in our tool belt to be able to address someone in that moment so people are not expressing that same frustration that you're hearing. Council member, >> thanks, Chief. Uh, Tina, you're up. >> Yeah. Um, just a quick question. We received some um comments just wondering about the care team approach and um how that's evolved and it's not being used anymore. Is that right?

0:40:01>> Yes, that's correct. So, we we we still have mental health clinicians through our C team that is part of HHS. Um the the care program that is no longer um utilized uh and I'll I may phone a friend here in the city manager was not part of the police department. In fact, it involved no police intervention. Uh you are correct that that is no longer a resource that we utilize. Um but it really wasn't in our perview. So I don't have much I can add other than the one point on I will add is that what we did see in that program is that um the police were removed but there were still numerous instances where that team went out and still had to call a police officer based upon people's behaviors. And so we still ended up being involved a decent amount in that. And I'll I'll toss the that over to Nuria to clean up what I either just missed or >> No, you you were right. And I see Kurt popping up as well because uh that team really uh resided. It was a joint effort between HHS and fire. Uh and I'll let Kurt speak to that. But the desire to really transform and we kept um some of those individuals as part of a now

0:41:02crisis team was made in last year's budget and we spoke about that. But Kurt something to add? >> Kurt Fernhau I support housing and human services. Um so the the care program which as was said earlier is a response without PD um was changed uh in this budget year. Um we used to have um an individual that would uh from fire um that would provide um uh uh care from a uh physical um standpoint. and um that position was um eliminated in this budget year. So now we're we have we still have the group of clinicians. So we do go on some calls um without PD. The numbers are are down this year and partly because of uh uh staffing shortages that we've also had in that team. But our intent is when we're fully staffed, which we're close to right now, that we'll be able to uh uh increase the opportunities to go on some of those calls without uh PD um as they've uh aligned with the protocols that direct that.

0:42:23>> Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you, Tina. Uh Taiisha, you're up. >> Yes. Thank you everyone again. and I'm the one who asked and thank you councilmates for getting this uh approving this one of two. Hopefully the the next one happens before the end of the year to accommodate the two that were authorized. Um I have just I have one question but two um data requests for later because again to your point I don't want to take up a lot of time on things that can just be written in before but they weren't included in the report. The first was on just the care report. So there was a mention of you know many and I know we have those numbers. So it would be really helpful to get some of that outcome data as we go into budget season again. Um and the other info request is around just disagregated data by race. So again I think there's such strong reporting. I love uh the five-year change over time.

0:43:19Um but we know that racial disagregated data particularly as it relates there's a um a contention that um for example um 10% of of black people are pulled over um but we're 1% of our Boulder population. I know we have a lot of folks coming in town but again just having that disagregated data will be really critical. Um so the question I have is actually around um and thank you Tina for asking about the care program because that was one of my questions. Um, one thing we haven't mentioned in in all of the things thus far is just the emoto. So, I've been seeing an uptick of young people without helmets on the emotos all around town on about on bike paths and on the road. Um, I watched three young people try and get on one of them um and immediately injured themselves and thankfully an adult got involved um and no police were present.

0:44:09So, we just would love to hear more about um specifically the emotos um and again in addition to the data requests and I'm happy to do a follow-up uh IP request to get that disagregated data as well as the outcomes for the care report. >> Thank you, council member. And I see Dr. Reinhardt writing uh things down. So, uh we'll we have the data disagregated data. I believe that will satisfy that request and we're happy to share it. Um we can share it with all of council if that's the direction. um reference Emotos, ebikes, it is a mess. Um we are uh continuing to deal with this almost every day. Um thankfully we have not had more serious crashes. Um what we're there's there's many fronts and in the interest of brevity, I'm not going to go through all of them, but one one big thing that we're trying to really do is educate parents on the difference. Um, we have parents buying what they think is an ebike, but it's actually by law a motorcycle that can't be ridden on the street without plates and a driver's license. And we're seeing multiple instances where people are doing things like the behavior you described, council member, and an officer goes to pull them over and they take off. They commit, you

0:45:19know, an eluding crime and we're having to go arrest, you know, or ticket 15-year-olds from running from the police on these things. It's it's it's problematic. The biggest concerning thing obviously is the injuries and we're seeing a lot of kids driving just crazy doing wheelies down the street. Um what we've been doing a few fronts is is really the education front. We now have a new tag that especially like at the bike rack at the high school we'll put on the on the bike uh saying this is not an emoto. This is a motorcycle. Here's the rules. Um we've been working with the bike shop owners. Problematically a lot of the emot shipped. So parents are, you know, the kids convince the parents, hey, you know, my friend up the block just got one, I need one, too, and they go online and buy it and not knowing it's actually a motorcycle versus an ebike. Um, uh, you know, problematic driving behaviors on the past. We've been getting our officers out on our own ebikes to try to, uh, curb some of that behavior, but, uh, um, it is incredibly, uh, incredibly difficult. Uh, the last town hall we did in East Boulder, I had my traffic sergeant, who's much more, uh, versed in this, come and give a presentation. I

0:46:24would be happy to uh either have him put something together or find a time to to give more information on this, but uh uh it is on our radar. It's top of of mine when we're talking traffic safety and enforcement. And we're we're trying to tackle it on many fronts, including public education. Uh and and again, I think a big part of it is is parents not knowing uh what these things are. But I know, for example, we just arrested a adult male the other day riding down the middle of of Broadway, 30 some years old. His license was suspended. uh he he'd had prior DUIs and he was riding one up to up the the street uh uh on on the public roadway. So, it's not just kids. Um it is a new uh a new tool and we're having a lot of problems. Uh the one thing I'll just say to Chief Hark, is there anything glaring I missed on that? I know it's a big topic.

0:47:19>> Sorry, hitting the mute button. No, you hit right on it. the two big issues where are two different prongs in which we're really trying to focus on is through that education which is extremely tough and then through the enforcement with our traffic unit. >> Thanks. >> And so just point of clarification, all they're getting is a citation. What's that? It seems like that's a bigger is that something the state is responsible for? I just feel like there's other things that people are getting overpoliced on and then there's this like underpolicing and I'm just curious like who's responsible for the consequences when they break the law. >> Barry, I'll let you take that one. I think you know a little more than I do. >> Yeah. So, when when when there's when we contact somebody that's on an emoto that is obviously illegal or it is illegal, then our officers will usually issue a ticket. Um there's other avenues as well. Sometimes our officers aren't going to issue a ticket, but rather they are going to do some education. It's it's going to be very very case specific depending upon the circumstances of that contact and and why that that person has that that uh illegal um vehicle and and they'll follow up and if if they determine that it's important to issue

0:48:29the ticket, they'll issue the ticket. Then it falls into uh the courts to make a decision on how to hold that person accountable. Um, and it really, but many times I'm finding that our officers are spending some time doing education, not only with that that child that they contact, but then getting with the family members and the parents and having an educational moment with them as well. And we've had quite a bit of success that way. >> But then are we tracking the the student, the people to see if it's a repeat offender or is there any documentation that goes with this education? Uh typically there is some uh documentation that goes with it either through a written warning or a contact that's made and then that contact is is uh logged with our system. So we do have that ability to go back and look and see if there's been other contacts with them previously.

0:49:16>> Okay. Thank you and thank you Matt for the uh additional time. Just want to uh point do I need to submit an IP request for the disagregated data by race and the care report update or is this request sufficient >> or do I need a nod of anything? No, we do not. We um both uh departments, both HHS and PD have uh let me know they have that data and they can uh send that forward. So, we're happy to accommodate that. Thank you. >> That can be sent via a hotline. That would be much appreciated. Thank you. >> All right. Uh Ryan, it looks like you're last up. >> Thanks, Chief Redern and team. Um it's really great to see some positive trends and um some of the work of uh reimagine policing looks like starting to pay off.

0:50:00Um so that's uh great to see. Um if I have time I'll ask a second question, but my first one just for now is um just following up on the matter of retention. I'd like to just ask you to say a little more about a bit about it. And um one thought is I didn't hear you say housing and cost of living and that is something I I do feel like we kind of hear across the board. Um but there's that and the other one is on the building. Um you mentioned that the building itself is a a challenge. Can you just dig into that a little bit more and say like what are the I don't know what are the what are the what do we need to have a a building or facilities that that meet at least a an acceptable standard from your standpoint um for retention.

0:50:46>> Yeah, I I appreciate that to your first question. It's absolutely a valid point that I I forgot to hit and just trying to to be quick. Uh I hear consistently from our exit interviews that folks uh are want to go work where they live. Um, so for example, I had a young officer who started a family and he told me, "Hey, I want to be able to work where I live. I can't I have a condo in Boulder, so he's actually one that lived here, but he said, "I want a single family home. I want to be able to while I'm on duty potentially stop by my kids' game since I might miss it." And he went to Grand Junction. He said, "I have family out there. Grand Junction PD hired me. They pay comparable and I can afford a really nice house with a yard and property, and I want to raise a family."

0:51:25And so that is something I I don't have any answer for. Um, and that's tough. Um, so yes, that is absolutely a factor. And on the building, I'm happy to provide more information. So, uh, this building was built, I think, in the 50s. Uh, it was not meant to be a police station. And, you know, for our patrol officers, they come in and they grab their gear and they spend most of their time out in the community. Um, we recently redid our report writing room with the help of Home Depot because that's the one place they spend a lot of time. Uh but for like our detectives and other people that work inside all of the time for the most part, it's a windowless concrete room uh with uh air conditioning that may not uh that may blow hard in December and heat that may blow hard in July. Um I won't talk about any space heater issues or things that are probably not, you know, good to talk about, but um it is definitely a an environment uh depending on where someone works in the building that um is not pleasant. It's not fun. We have had bats in the building. We have had bees.

0:52:24We have had mice. Uh uh you know, we we've had to send employees home based on issues like that. And so, uh and then also, you've all been here. Parking is tough. Uh parking is is super tough. Um, you know, there there definitely, you know, there definitely officers that I never hear complain about it, but um, you know, when we have scalding hot water, as we did three weeks ago, coming out of the showers where officers couldn't take a shower after a workout or before work without being burned, hot water coming out of urinals. It there's just so many examples I could give you where um, they know that we're finding sol trying to find solutions. We tell them all the time. Um it's not like, you know, they feel like they're being ignored, but they're like they come to work and they're like, "Okay, when is this going to get fixed?" Uh my buddy works at Broomfield and in their and this is just an example. Uh in their new police department, they have a whole wellness room with equipment and a and a a PT clinic to help officers that are injured get back quicker. So they talk and they hear those things. Uh and it it is a hard when somebody is potentially looking to go elsewhere and they look at

0:53:24some brand new police station. friend of mine out of state is a police chief and they just build a new station with pickle ball courts and you know some of it is a is you know the sky's is the limit depending on where you are but uh all of those things lead to people going you know what um they pay comparable they have a nicer facility I think I'm going to go there >> may I ever offer a couple thoughts with regards to the cost of living >> please >> um so council as the chief mentioned I've been here for about 36 years prior to that I don't know if you're aware of it but my dad was a police officer here for 30 years so I've been around uh the city of Boulder the Boulder police department since the late 60s. Uh in when my dad was first here, he most of the officers lived in the city of Boulder. Uh in the 70s and the 80s, it be started becoming cost prohibitive. So most of them live moved to Lewisville, Lafayette, uh some of Broomfield, and by the 90s, uh a lot of them couldn't afford to live that close. So they moved to Longmont and uh Erie and Frederick.

0:54:23it's continued to expand out. My son who's a police officer now for the city of Boulder as well. He's been here for about seven or eight years now. Uh is is at a point where he's not able to afford to live close to Boulder and it lives about 45 minutes away. We have officers that live in in Jamestown or I'm sorry, Johnstown and really and that does make it very challenging for us in terms of retention and recruitment. Uh when we have officers that can afford to live within 30 to 45 minutes of of the place where they work. >> Thanks, Curry. >> All right. Um Chief, really appreciate it. Thanks for thanks for taking >> I just wanted to collqu we got to move on because we got two more presentations. if we've got some time on the back end. Uh like I'm saving my question for that as well just because we got to get through Sher we got to get through Sherry and then we got to get through Judge Con. Um so let's get those and then if we got time we'll follow follow up. But I appreciate that. Uh Chief, thank you for for uh answering those questions. Do do stick around. Um if there's time remaining there might be some follow-up questions that that pepper your direction. Um

0:55:29>> awesome. Thank you so much. Um so we're going to move on. Um Sher Don, our independent police monitor, is going to take it away from here. Thank you. And good evening, council members. I'm going to share my screen in just a moment. Um, but I appreciate the opportunity to be in front of you again. And, um, as you know, my name is Sheri D and I'm the independent police monitor and with me tonight are police oversight panel co-chairs uh, Lizzy Friend and Bill Dea Cruz. Um we're looking to provide uh updates on both case data from 2025 and some um year-to- date 2026 data, the status of our recruitment and training for new panel members to share current activities of the panel and the status of the five-year review. A really important step in the complaint process is the the classification of cases. And the biggest distinction is between misconduct and other classifications. So misconduct and serious misconduct investigations involve allegations that an officer violated a BPD rule. Um, other categories were developed to address some other concerns that route through the complaint process. Um, one of those categories is unspecified incidents. And these are often anonymous messages that do not include enough information to identify a specific incident, an officer, or even if the if it involves

0:57:06the Boulder Police Department at all. So in those instances if the people do later respond with details we can absolutely reopen and reclassify those cases. Um we also have another category called community inquiry. Um these are complaints made uh about BPD policy instead of an individual complaint against an individual officer. So, some of the recent uh cases that fall under that classification are complaints that um officers closed uh lanes of Arapjo while processing a traffic crash or BPD's use of the the photo van enforcement or the photo enforcement vans. Um the number of officers who may respond to a traffic uh stop or complaints in general. um a community member reaches out and then either BPD resolves their concern. Um this could involve instances where a community member uh read the the incident report and believes that there is information that was missing. So an officer can create a supplement to that report and satisfy the community members concerns.

0:58:15or sometimes people are are calling as a complaint and then really they're asking questions and they're satisfied with the answers that they receive. Um, in other instances, the community member specifies that they do not want a formal complaint against the officer and they only want a supervisor to speak with that officer. In the in all of these instances, I review these the evidence to ensure that there is not conduct that would require a a formal misconduct investigation. Um we also have referred to other agencies. BPD uh receives complaints u that involve other law enforcement entities and then forwards them to the appropriate internal affairs department. And then we have performance and conduct. And this is a new category that BPD developed in 2025 to attempt to create efficiencies and allow frontline supervisors to address concerns whether generated internally or identified by community members. Um and these are concerns that are assessed to not rise to the level of misconduct.

0:59:26Um, so each case can involve anywhere from a single allegation against a single officer to multiple allegations against multiple officers. And every allegation must include an alleged violation of one of the Boulder Police Department rules. In 2025, there were a total of 149 allegations. Um, and the most serious allegations we uh work with generally involve allegations uh for lack of truthfulness, um, use of force, um, and conformance with laws. While the most frequent rule violation is compliance with values, rules or general orders. In 2025, there were 18 allegations that were sustained, which is sustained as the administrative finding that the officer's actions violated a BPD rule and was therefore outside of policy. And then we have unfounded findings that are generally based on uh video footage, normally body warn camera, that demonstrates that the alleged misconduct did not happen. Um while exonerated findings often expose gaps between what members of the community believe police officers are allowed to do and the actual authority granted to law enforcement.

1:00:44Uh there are also cases that are administratively closed. Um this can happen when the person did not cooperate to provide details of their complaint. Um frequently u this involves a blanket complaint that officers violated my rights. But then when we re review the evidence, um the incident does not capture a a violation of rights. Um cases can also be administratively closed when the accused officer is no longer a member of the department, which touches on some of the retention issues that uh Chief Redford was just speaking about. Um and also if corrective action already occurred for that incident. And then we have a not sustained findings. That's when there's not enough evidence to determine questions of fact or questions of policy. The types of diff discipline um that officers can receive for each case ranges from counseling as the lowest level to termination as the most serious level of discipline. The final discipline uh decisions are made by the chief of police and they adhere to both the discipline matrix and the concepts of due process and progressive discipline.

1:02:02agreement between um oversight recommendations either coming from myself or by the police oversight panel and then BPD's final outcomes remains high. In 2025, there were eight allegations uh when the chief and oversight had a disagreement. In response to council's interest, the the following slides capture the demographic breakdown of our complaintants. Um, unsurprisingly, each year the majority of complainants are white, followed by Latino and then black complainants. Um, somewhat unexpected given the dedicated neighborhood impact team on the hill, the age group with the lowest percentage of complaints consistently is Boulder Boulders's college-aged cohort. Um, complaints by gender are more variable throughout the years. And this data can also get skewed by um just the phenomena that there are complaints made by women whether they're mothers, wives or girlfriends on behalf of men while the reverse rarely happens.

1:03:22Um the police oversight panel is compo composed of 11 volunteer community members including two dedicated student student panel spots. Um, since the last time we were before city council in 2024, we have experienced a lot of panel turnover because panel members have been completing their terms. Um, and only three panel members from 2024 remain on the panel today. And we continue to have turnover as other panel members terms expire. Um, all panel members receive training by myself, uh, the Boulder Police Department, and the city attorney's office as is mandated in the ordinance. um during the upcoming recruitment season which we expect to begin December mid December this year and then have applications close sometime in the end of January 2027. We will continue to recruit qualified, thoughtful and diverse candidates who are committed to serving the panel and the Boulder community.

1:04:22And now I would like to turn this over to our co-chairs, um, Bill and Lizzie, who can speak to current panel activities. >> Thank you, Sher. Um, just want to start off by saying thank you all so much for having us here. We really appreciate the chance to to speak with you all. Um, we have a lot going on with the panel right now, as tends to be the case. Um, since we just have a few minutes today, I'm just going to go over a really brief update. Um, and you'll hear from Bill as well. Uh, but we just want to extend an open invitation to you all to meet and discuss any of this in more detail with us anytime. We'd love to chat more with you. So, please reach out if that's something that would be of interest. Um, so one of the most important things we've been working on has been the five-year review. So, we're going to spend uh our time on that primarily today. Um, this has come at a really crucial time for the panel as we've faced some challenges over the past year. um mostly involving changes to our role, uh changes to how community complaints flow through the independent oversight system, um and just some gaps in communication associated with those

1:05:29changes. Um and this has led to some concerns from some of our panel members that we're really hoping can be addressed through the review. Um so we're really hopeful that we have some plans in place to to get those get those issues addressed. Um just to kind of summarize for you all, the the main issue has been that prior to this year, the panel had a larger role in the process um and broader access to complaints from the community for potential review. Um now there have been through you know a couple evolutions to the process a few gateways added gateways um that uh complaints essentially need to pass through before they can reach the oversight panel the community panel. Um and this has meant unfortunately that very few cases actually make it through to the panel.

1:06:17Um, so just to give you an idea, uh, I think in the last six months or so, and and Sherry, please correct me if this if this is incorrect, but we've only completed one panel review in the last six months. Um, so we want to absolutely recognize that these changes have been made with the goal of streamlining the process, which is really important and something we absolutely support. Um, but unfortunately it's just it's made it difficult for the panel to fulfill its mandate to add transparency to the complaint process and build community trust. Um, and I'll pass it over to Bill for for the good news, our our ideas for solutions. >> Lizzie, real quick, just for the record, can you introduce yourself just so for people maybe just listening can know who you are?

1:06:58>> Of course. Yeah. Sorry, I thought Sherry covered it, but I might have imagined that. Um, I'm Lizzie Friend. I'm one of our panel co-chairs. I've been on the panel for just over three years and I also have my co-chair uh with me here today, Bill Dale Cruz. >> All right, Bill, when you take it away, just introduce yourself so they can attach a voice to a name. >> Sorry, Bill, you Oh, there you go. >> I know. Okay. Bill de la Cruz. I'm the other co-chair on the panel and I've been on for three years as well. So, um, to the end of what what Lizzy had talked about in terms of some of the changes, we've made some suggestions as part of the five-year review that we're really hopeful can help us find a better balance. I think one of the biggest issues is there's been uh different interpretations of the ordinance. And so what we're one of the things we're hoping through the five-year review is we can create some consistency about how it's written and the implementation of of parts of it in terms of our role and some um changes to the new flow of cases that would ensure that the independent monitor is involved um in each decision point and also new requirements that

1:08:14would add transparency for community members who have sub submitted complaints. complaints because some of the complaints are going through a performance and conduct review and it's not always clear to the public who's filed a complaint what's actually happened and and some of that was done to streamline the process which is Lizzie said we agree to that it's just that uh it's shifted our role in some ways and some requirements for some new routine data sharing with the panel on all complaints received by BPD whether they go through the performance performance and conduct route or if they actually result in a formal complaint that the panel sees which as Lizzie said have really dropped over this early part of the year. And so regardless of how they're routed through the system and then um also I would add panel involvement in prop proposed changes to the complaint process as as problem solvers versus reacting to a solution that was created for us and may negatively impact our role in oversight and and we've had these conversations with the chief and the city manager and I believe they're open to um approaching it a little bit differently where there's more input from at least the co-chairs.

1:09:31in changes that would impact the um complaint process because our our real outcome in this is to make sure that we're representing the community in the way that the panel was designed, which is to actually be that kind of conduit between the police department and the community throughout the complaint process. So, we're really hopeful that through the five-year process and and um whatever role you play in as a council in terms of the ordinance that we can create a really robust and um highly functioning um process to police oversight that is more collaborative and allows us to really um dig in in the way that our role was impacted. So, so we're really optimistic and we're looking forward to a report that's going to be coming up uh here I think in October that we've all been a part of in terms of the five-year review uh which we'll look at moving forward and then I think I'm passing this to Naria for our final slide. You are and you couldn't have set me up uh any better. Uh if we get to the next slide um or I'll just start because it's really about the five-year review.

1:10:46Uh Sherry, I don't know if you've got the ability to There you go. >> Um so as council knows, and I just I we are in the midst of that five-year review, which I think uh many of us, all of us are pretty optimistic about. That five-year reviews allows us to see if there are ways to strengthen our oversight mechanisms. That review started late last year and was kind of divided in two phases. The first really focused on the dynamics between PD, the monitor, and the panel. and we added so the attorney's office as well given the support they provide to all three entities that phase really helped identify some of the critical issues facing the department the monitor and the panel and got us ready I believe for the more technical uh phase two one thing was clear from that initial work and I just really appreciated um this is as um an outcome that to a fault everyone believed in the importance of oversight and and thought that there were greater areas where clarity would be helpful. This second phase has been more in depth. We hired a consultant who is currently serving as the independent police auditor for the city of Akran and was also past president of NAKL or the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. So really

1:11:58well-versed in his field. Initial reports I've received has stress have stressed the need and you've heard some of that from uh Lizzie and Bill, the need for greater role clarity, the need to establish a common vocabulary for the for the oversight. um system um and just better um a better process for uh ensuring um accountability of roles. The report is expected to provide recommendations um for responsibility and decision-making authority and really should address some operational and professional standards to be expected by everyone in the oversight system including some recommendations for performance standards, timelines and continuous improvement. In speaking with our consultant, he also stressed the importance of continued and perhaps additional training for all aspects um of oversight as we move forward. So, I'm excited to get that report soon. I believe that is coming um towards mid to end uh to late October. Uh and that will be shared with um PD, the monitor and the panel. We'll also share that with city attorney's office. We'll look to see what uh likely code changes will come and that will come to you. And as I've committed, that final report uh will also come to you all for um review, but we will likely be coming to you with some specific code changes in particular. So really excited about what

1:13:22that will bring. >> Thank you, Nuria, and thank you, Sher, for the presentation. And just a special thank you to Lizzie and Bill for taking your time on a Thursday evening to be with us. uh sometimes you don't get those hours back in your life. So, thank you for being with us um and sharing uh your expertise and and your perspective on the panel with us. Uh I'm going to turn it over for some questions now. Just remembering that you get one question. Just also want to be mindful of time. Uh we, you know, allotted about 90 minutes for all three of these in questions. Um this is meaty good stuff. So, so you know, please ask your questions, but also just be mindful of of the time and that we have still a lot more to discuss. We still have Judge Khan um and some and his presentation and Q&A after that. So, I'll open up for questions.

1:14:11>> Rob, I see your first hand. Go for it. >> Thanks, Matt. And thanks, Sher, Lizzy, and and Bill for the presentation. Appreciate it. Um, I don't know if you'll have this number or not, but I'm just curious of the officers that have to go through a personal improvement plan, what percentage go through it just once versus multiple times or it has to get escalated into something beyond a PIP. >> Um, personal improvement plan is not really part of the oversight system. we would recommend um you know training or counseling. Um but I can that's information I would have to I would have to look for you to find out how many officers are repeat offenders. Um, one thing that is really great about this system, and I appreciate uh the Boulder Police Department uh working with us on this, is we have had um one instance relatively recently where an officer um he he had had he had had a serious misconduct investigation that was sustained when I was very very new here.

1:15:22Um I came in just at the tail end of it and he was told if you if if you're here again for the same type of allegation um we're going to be looking at termination and then recently we we terminated that officer and I've been in another meeting um where an officer was given the same same instruction. I haven't seen him pass um through my through my office at the time, but um it's it's something that the progressive discipline is is has teeth in it. Um but I can get I can look for information about our uh repeat offender officers. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thanks, Sherry. Tina, >> yeah. Uh thanks also and my question is more toward um Lizzy and Bill. Thank you for being here. And I just um I I I feel like you we have positive motion and we're moving forward. Would you feel that that's shared among the whole uh oversight panel or um is that if that's okay to ask?

1:16:25>> Yeah, I mean I would say that it it's very it varies. There are times when we've had some pretty high levels of frustration through the process and through some of the communication that has happened and and also some of the ways that the ordinance is interpreted. And so so just being really honest, there's um there's all of that. Like we've had some meetings where we just focused on the ordinance and general order 120 and the revisions that that's going through and and there was frustration from other members around um the lack of communication or the lack of involvement from the co-chairs and so we've been expressing and talking about that. So, I'm really optimistic that we can work this through and be um more proactive um throughout this process with the five-year review. And to be to be really honest, I would say that there have been times when there's been quite a bit of frustration and and Lizzie and I have done our best to direct questions to Naria and she's answered those for us and to Chief Redford and he's he's answered those for us and then we get back to the panel and and we are um being supportive in figuring out how we move forward and still remain collaborative and communicative and build the system in the way that it was

1:17:50designed to represent the community. >> Yeah. Well, I look forward to the review report and really appreciate all the work of you and the rest of the panel. Thanks. >> Thanks. >> I don't know if Lizzie wants to add anything. So, sorry. >> Oh, I I agree with everything you said, Bill. I just wanted to mention I we have a path forward. I think a lot of folks are optimistic about that. So, we're really grateful for that process. Um, but just to be transparent, I I do want to recognize that we have some folks on the panel right now who are deeply frustrated um and feeling like perhaps they don't have a role that justifies, you know, their time and being there. So, I think there are some stakes on this process who have um expressed uh and concerns to ensure that the fidelity of this continues on. on the Boulder Reporting Lab and Boulder Progressives for um continuing to um make sure that we are implementing this critical ordinance with fidelity. And so Boulders, according to um the Boulder Reporting Lab, the that Boulder City Code identifies the police manager as the intake center for those complaints and really states the monitor shall quote receive and process complaints.

1:19:04And you know, again, I I'm I'm hearing that the five-year um process will be the place in space for uh that will that to be resolved, but I am concerned that the city man that the attorney hasn't been brought in and there hasn't been more public uh comment or or review of that process. So, um, again, just wanting to get some some clarificate or rather looking forward to that 5-year report, uh, and hopeful that we can schedule another public, uh, update since the the council did approve too. Um, but to the specific question is about staffing. So, I noticed a discrepancy between the reports. So um in the voted police oversight panel um uh presentation it says that 20 left and quote many cited um over police the police panel as a concern but when I looked at the report that uh the chief gave it said 19 and so just wanted to get a little bit more me uh quantitative information on the many that cited the panel and of those 20 um or 19 how many of them had complaints against them and the status of those complaints.

1:20:20>> Uh, council member, I I believe that question is about, and just correct me if I'm wrong, is about the folks that have left PD, the officers that have left PD >> in 2025. So, >> one side said 20 19 officers, another said 20. But really, the question is about the chief's comment on many cited the panel. And I was c curious of the 20 or 19 that left, how many of them had complaints against them and what were the status of those complaints? >> I I would say that perhaps is not because I don't believe the uh police oversight panel would have that or Sherry would have that information about who may have cited that because those are exit interviews. That may be a question that the chief could answer. Um >> Okay. It just was in this report. So that's why I waited to ask the question here.

1:21:02>> Uh it it was in No, I appreciate it. I don't believe that it was in the the presentation deck. >> Yeah, I don't believe Sherry mentioned that it was how many folks who had left in the exit interview that caught that detailed oversight as the reason for their leaving. I believe that was the chief. >> Oh, my apologies. I must have gotten >> No, it's all right. But certainly the chief is on and later on wants to answer that. Oh, there he is. Wants to answer that question. I don't know if he has those numbers in terms of cases. And I'm fine with getting that via a follow-up email or hotline. >> Chief, is that amendable to you that the you know to go grab that data and that information and uh send that back to everybody?

1:21:46>> It is. I will just expectation set now though that most of those are conversations between myself and the officers. They're not recorded. There's no data per se. I can absolutely provide you a synopsis, council members, of what was shared with me. Um, and I believe >> but just the 20 officers or were there any complaints against them? That should be data that's available that's not specific to uh an exit interview. >> I was just going there. Uh, if I believe that's information we can access. Um, I think that's an easy lift for us uh to do. Uh, we haven't done that to my knowledge, but we can do that for you. >> Awesome. Thank you very much. >> I think we'd like to see that information, too. >> Fantastic. Uh, awesome. Well, well, uh, Sherry, thank you again for the presentation and joining us. And then Lizzie and Bill, obviously, thanks.

1:22:35Thanks again. Do stick around if there's time, which don't know if there will be because Jeff Con Judge Khan's got his presentation and some questions there, but but hang on if there's some burning ones on the back end. Again, thank you both all three of you for being here. Um, we're going to move on and Judge Khan, you're up. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Hey, and if if Lisa can or I believe it's Lisa going to share the slides, so if you can do that. And good evening, uh, Mayor Brockett, Councelor Benjamin, and uh, the city council. I'm Jeff Khan. I'm the presiding judge for the Boulder Municipal Court. I'm joined here by Devon Kiss Kelly, our court administrator. Tonight, we will go over data and trends related to cases involving our unhoused population as well as our young adult community. Uh, last week, we did submit a memo that went into more detail. So, if you're interested in diving into one of these topics, take a look at the memo that was submitted. It's much more uh in-depth and robust, and we will also make this PowerPoint available to to city council.

1:23:31Uh, next slide, please. Looking at this slide, you can see the types of criminal charges handled in our court compared to the more serious charges handled in the states, county, and district courts. On the left, you have the table of charges that are typically filed in our court. On the right are the charges filed in the state court. Uh, and I will point out to you that we don't handle felonies. We don't handle drug offenses. We don't handle uh significant charges involving assault, battery, harassment, domestic violence. Those are all handled in the state court. And that includes things like shoplifting. It includes burglary. It includes bike theft. Uh we have conversations here uh that people are engaging with and hearing from the police department. But keep in mind, a lot of what you've heard from the police department tonight is about charges that aren't filed in our court. So I want to make sure to make that distinction because I think as we move through uh it it will make sure that the process is clear for you. But next slide please.

1:24:27This chart does show the number of cases filed for various case types where the defendant was not housed at the time of the offense. These five categories capture most but not all of the charges for which an unhoused person was the named defendant. And as you can see there, the there's different numbers in each one, but as a general rule, for 2025, we had slightly more citations issued to our homeless population than we've had in 2026. And in the one-year period, basically from September through August of both of those years, so that we had good consistent data for you. But just slightly less this last year than uh the previous year, but very comparable numbers going forward. And then if we'll go to the next slide, please. This table shows the type of charges that are filed in our court and then the typical process that is engaged with when people do get cited to our court.

1:25:18And if you'll see, there's three different columns. Those first two on the left describe the types of charges that are not eligible for the community court program that you might have heard about. These are all cases that have to go through through the traditional court process. And typically that means when a a defendant comes to court, if they're if they do come to court, they have the opportunity to plead not guilty and set the case for trial or they could plead guilty to the charge or they could uh speak with a prosecutor or apply for the public defender. A lot of people who do come to court will speak with a prosecutor to see if they can resolve their case that way. But these these more serious charges in those left two columns go through that traditional process. uh the table on the far right where it says community court with prosecutor approval. Those are the types of charges, the lower level criminal offenses uh that people are eligible to participate in the community court program. And through this program, if the prosecution team makes a case eligible for community court, the defendant may elect to pursue dismissal of their charges by completing tasks or sanctions that improve the defendant's stability. And this is a voluntary program for defendants. So if they don't

1:26:25want to go through the community court program, they can certainly opt out and then they go through the traditional court process. And if we can go to the next slide, please. I I put this slide up for people because camping is one of those charges where uh people are eligible to participate in the community court program. And generally people do participate in the community court program if they come to court to address their case or they come to our community court outreach on Thursdays. And so if you look about halfway down that uh table, you see dismissed alternative sentencing option completed. 271 cases were dismissed in the last 2-year period uh as a result of someone completing either one or more tasks that were identified by the prosecution as something that would be make them eligible for dismissal of their charge. And that's the primary way that these cases get resolved with people who are participating in the program. If you look up a little bit higher in that table, you'll see guilty plea or finding. There's a number 95 that is not typically people who come to court and plead guilty to the charge.

1:27:26These are generally people who didn't come to court and they aren't engaged in the community court program. A warrant was issued for their arrest and then they were at the jail and when they're at the jail then they enter into a plea bargain uh with the prosecutor's office and that plea bargain usually entails them pleading guilty to a charge. So uh we really don't see a lot of people who show up to court and say gee I want to plead guilty because most of them show up to court or to community court and are are looking to resolve their case through the community court program which is a good sign for us. It means people understand it. And then the other part here if you look at the very bottom of this you say case you see cases not yet been resolved 1616 cases. Those are people who are not yet through the process, the court process, or who have failed to appear and we've issued warrants, but they haven't yet been arrested and brought into custody. So, another large number of cases that sit out there until someone does get arrested uh and then brought into custody, and that's when we address their case. Next slide, please. I mentioned just a moment ago alternative sentencing options that people can

1:28:27complete in order to earn dismissals. This is just a sample of those types of sentencing options that have been identified through our navigators working with our prosecutors, but you can see a few of them that are on there. Uh, I'm very excited about the on-site counseling sessions that people are able to complete. Literally, they can come to our community court operation on a Thursday and meet with a counselor and have a 20 or 30 minute interaction with a counselor to to and they can earn a dismissal of their case to do that. And back when I was a a judge in my early days, we would try to order people to counseling and they would never make it. Uh but to actually have them there and a available at the moment for people to participate is really a great benefit.

1:29:07And we do see people getting engaged with counseling who will come back more than once for that or they'll sign up with Clinica to have ongoing mental health counseling. So that's one that I really like. Uh there's a list of others here. Um you'll see one at the bottom of this list is one that I also very much like. the opportunity to meet with city city staff to learn about fire safety. Uh this is a new one that was added in the last six months. Sebastian Adams, our court navigator, worked with uh the community connections divisions of open space and mountain parks to make it so that if someone is willing to meet with uh someone from that division and learn a little bit about their behaviors, whether it's having a a campfire or using a propane tank or whatever it might be, if they're willing to learn about how that impacts community safety from a fire perspective, they can earn a dismissal. And so that's a another great community effort to kind of get people engaged with feeling like they're part of the community and they're accountable for the behaviors that affect others in the community. Next slide, please.

1:30:03Uh this is just a a table that shows you the number of counseling sessions that have been completed at our community court uh sessions over the last three years. We're on track this year to probably have about a 100 sessions completed uh which is close to the number that we had in 2025. a little bit more in 2024. Uh we trans we we kind of moved away from having Nuropa because they had some changes in their operation including selling their building obviously uh in 2024 and 25. So we now have a private counselor who was a a Nuropa counselor who's now contracts with us. So not as many people in 2020 uh 26 as we saw in 24. But I that's a still a pretty robust number and something that I'm very pleased about. Next slide please.

1:30:47I put up here a table for of obstructing government operations outcomes. Uh you saw a few moments ago the camping outcomes. Uh obstructing government operations is a slightly different type of charge. This is a charge that can be issued against a defendant and usually an unhoused defendant who has a campsite that does is uh been been ordered to move that campsite. If they're given 72 hours notice by the SAMPs team and they don't move their campsite within the 72 hours for a cleanup, then they can be cited with obstructing government operations. It's a more serious charge than just having a tent or having a campsite. It's treated more seriously by the prosecutors. And as you can see, there isn't a large number of cases that get resolved through dismissal. Uh the ones that you do see dismissed there are usually ones that ultimately were dismissed as a result of a plea agreement where they had more than one case that got resolved. And again, that might happen at the jail. But typically you see much more in the way of guilty pleas. 75 people plead guilty. Another 29 entered into deferred judgments. And then 33 so far in the last two years have actually had successful deferrals.

1:31:57So a deferred judgment requires that they plead guilty to the charge, that they satisfy a number of conditions, usually multiple tasks that they have to comply with, and they have to go through the period, which is usually between 6 and 12 months without any obstructing government operations charges in order to ultimately dis earn a dismissal of the charge. So a little bit more aggressive approach from the prosecution team because it's a more impactful uh charge that people are facing. Uh and then as you can see at the bottom there still a number of those cases have not yet been resolved. 68 of those are outstanding. And I will point out that most of those guilty pleas are again happening at the jail when people have failed to appear for court and we have to issue warrants. Next slide please. So I this is a good time to talk a little bit about the warrants that we issue. I do not enjoy issuing warrants. It's not a good use of uh jail bed space to have people in custody if we can help it. Uh but there are some people who will not engage with coming to court and they won't engage with the community court operation. And for those people, we have no choice really but to issue warrants.

1:32:58Uh as you can see in 2025, we issued over 800 warrants. We're on track to probably issue about 650 or 700 warrants this year. Uh and that's just the decrease in numbers is really just a decrease in the number of cases that we've had filed against a population that fails to appear, but there's still a large number of warrants that get issued. Next slide, please. This is in custody hearings that we've had for the last two uh three years. And as you can see, again, much like the warrants, there were slightly less in custody hearings year to date so far in 2026. I don't expect that we'll exceed that 700 number that we had last year in 2025, but we will get upwards of 650 in custody hearings. Uh and so that's how we kind of take care of those people who who don't come to court. I will point out that even at those in custody hearings, our prosecutors are willing to engage with people to see if they're willing to take a step towards stability while they're in custody. And sometimes that's the best place for them to take those steps towards stability. So, uh although there are a lot of guilty pleas that occur, there are still occasional times when someone completes tasks with our navigator while they're at the jail

1:34:07to get them stable so when they come out. So, a lot of different ways that we go about handling these folks that are in custody. uh and and also in our community court program. But I am going to turn to our next slide which uh switch gears on you a little bit and talk a little bit about our young adult population. So what I have here is a chart uh basically five different charts from 2021 through 2025. These are minor possession of alcohol charges in blue in the copper. You've got the nuisance party charges and then we have fireworks offenses. I I just know that uh councelor Winer would love to hear about fireworks. So, I always put something on the fireworks floor, but trying to show you that there just not a lot of fireworks charges that get filed uh for us in our court each year.

1:34:50But you can see that we had a drop off in 2021 and to 22 in the number of cases that were filed in our court. We're trending back upwards. I really do think this was a a result of COVID and maybe maybe a slight hangover so so to speak from CO where young people weren't out outside and and drinking in public the way they have been in the last year or two. But we're back up to those numbers. And I did hear from Devon earlier this week that the 2026 year-to- date information just for the first month of the school year that we are on track closely to to where we were in 2025 maybe slightly lower in the total number of citations that were issued uh in this first month of of this academic year compared to last year's academic season, but uh that's still early days. We'll have more information probably at the end of the year to compare across 2025 to 2026. Next slide, please.

1:35:45For those uh young people that do uh receive a citation in a quality of life case, uh we increase our dockets fairly significantly in the early part of the fall. Uh we double our dockets and we actually uh increase or decrease the amount of time that we put for the arraignment date. So, if a if a defendant gets a ticket uh in the August or September, they're going to come see us within a week to two weeks about that ticket. And the reason that we do that is we we find that if we can get people into court, there's a really good chance that they won't reaffend before the their court date. And unfortunately, in the past before we had this fasttrack program, we would see people by in October or the middle part of October, 6 weeks out, and they would have had two or three tickets. So, we instituted this program. That doesn't happen anymore.

1:36:33They see us so quickly that they really can't get that second ticket. Well, they shouldn't get that second ticket. uh and they when they come to court they get the opportunity to meet with a prosecutor or hear about a plea bargain offer from a prosecutor. Most of our cases are resolved through disposition. I don't recall having one trial even a trial to to a judge in the last year, year and a half on these quality of life cases. The dispositions are usually accepted and we have successful completion of those dispositions uh from the young people who do come to court and very low recidivism rate. Uh so if we could go to the next slide. And so I want to talk to you a little bit about some of the young adult case outcomes uh for these cases. And it does depend on the type of charge. Uh but the typical sanctions that people can uh face in in connection with the resolution of their case is perhaps participating in restorative justice either through the University of Colorado's restorative justice program or the community mediation services restorative justice program that's offered through the city. uh community living class also offered through CU substance use education or therapy and then community service. Not all of those conditions are off are put on every

1:37:39defendant for every case. It will depend on the type of case. And if we can go to the next slide, I'll talk to you a little bit about MIP outcomes. So MIP alcohol and MIP marijuana charges uh are treated differently than some other charges in our court because most of the time that we see a young person on one of these charges, it's their first offense. And so our prosecutors offer what's called a deferred prosecution. I mentioned a deferred judgment earlier where someone has to plead guilty and then complete conditions. A deferred prosecution does not require that a defendant plead guilty to a charge. they are agreeing with the prosecution to keep the case open. Uh, and usually it's a six-month period. They can actually earn the dismissal sooner if they get the class completed. But it's a a light touch that the prosecutors and the court both agree to uh with respect to these deferred prosecutions. And as you can see, 654 of the people who went through the deferred prosecution process successfully completed that. And most of our cases involve successful completion of deferred prosecutions. They come to court, they get their class ordered, they pay their fees, and then they do that class and they get that class completion certificate back to us in a timely way to earn dismissal of their

1:38:52case. So, it's very, very rare that we see people a second time. But when we do, the consequences are obviously different than they would be if it was a first-time offender. Next slide, please. So, I I contrast what we just talked about with MIP marijuana and MIP alcohol with a nuisance party violation. And the nuisance party citations are much different in that they impact the community much in a much greater fashion depending on the size of the party that they've been engaged with. So, the the offers from the prosecutors uh there is no deferred prosecution typically offered. You'll see that here that on this table there weren't any deferred prosecutions in the last two years that resulted in uh dismissal. They were deferred judgments which means that people had to plead guilty. They had to satisfy a number of conditions. And with it's a when it's a nuisance party, we're talking about all of those conditions or most of those conditions I described earlier. A substance use class, uh the community living class, the CU restorative justice program, and then community service hours. because of the impact outsized impact on the community, the prosecutors are more aggressive in requiring more conditions. And of course, the court uh although we have the authority to reject plea offers, we generally accept those offers if they're

1:40:04negotiated between the defendant and the prosecutor. Then we will honor those agreements that have been reached. Next slide, please. Unreasonable noise is a very similar charge to nuisance party. And as you can see, the outcomes are very similar to what I just described for nuisance party. Uh these are types of cases where someone has maybe didn't actually have a party, but they may had their stereo going very loud or maybe it was a small party that was so loud that it impacted the neighbors. But again, the response from the prosecutor's office is for a deferred judgment for these types of charges, not a deferred prosecution. And we do still see successful completion among this cohort of these deferred judgment agreements. Next slide, please. I wanted to put up on this slide fraudulent ID uh cases because first of all, we didn't see the same number of fraudulent ID uh citations issued to our court in 2025 as we've seen in in this last academic year that runs through the the end of August of 2026. And we saw quite a number and we're seeing a lot more again this fall of these fraudulent IT tickets. And again, as you can see, the prosecutor's approach is for a deferred judgment, not a deferred prosecution. A few people got deferred prosecutions with a fake ID charge, but

1:41:16most people were expected to complete the deferred judgment conditions and there are more consequences associated with a fraudulent ID case than there would be with just an MIP charge. Most of the time they're having to go through CU restorative justice or or a CU program that's called the the fake ID program and then complete community service or a substant use substance use screen and education and program. So, a little more involved for someone who has a fraudulent ID. the uptick in the cases. I can't tell you why. It just could be increased enforcement. I just know that we're seeing a lot more and we've added two dockets per month uh into August and September so that we can address these uh types of cases separately from other dockets. It makes them work more efficiently. So, we did that this fall. And then I do want to talk to you before I leave this slide. I just want to make a couple comments about uh what we're seeing from a party perspective on the Hill because I imagine that's that council members and some of the community members that are watching tonight are concerned about that and we judges are also equally concerned about what we're seeing. It's not necessarily that we have more citations being issued. It's the size of

1:42:23these parties and the type of parties that we're we're seeing. Uh and some of them are still working through the court process. So I'm not at liberty to talk about where they are in that process. Uh but in in the past when I first started this job 24 years ago, uh we would see somebody who has a party of maybe 10 or 20 people that they got a citation for nuisance party or unreasonable noise. We're not seeing that same size anymore. They're big parties. They're amplified music parties with DJs, with stages, with rock bands. And I I know I'm going to offend the chief because he he apparently likes Goose. I didn't know who Goose was. Um, but when you have that kind of cir circumstance where there's a thousand people perhaps at a party, it's a big deal. It's a big deal for the police department. It's a big deal for our prosecutors and certainly for us judges. And so those two issues, not just the size, but the amplification that's going on uh are concerns to me as to how we approach that from a judicial perspective. And so I've had some conversations with Judge Hill, our associate judge, about how we respond if someone pleads guilty to directly to a charge. And I'm quite sure that the

1:43:29prosecutor's office is looking at this and trying to figure out how they approach these cases with people who where the there's been more uh that's gone on with these particular parties than in the past. So those are the concerns I wanted to just voice there. It can't be enjoyable for a community member who lives in one of those neighborhoods near CU to have to have these types of loud and extremely disruptive parties in their neighborhood. So we're aware of that and we'll be talking to our CU partners about it as well. So, in addition to the types of things we might do from a sentence perspective, we'll engage CU about it. They're great partners and they they do the best they can with some of these issues and when they're off campus, they don't have nearly the control they might want to have.

1:44:10And that's uh if I can go to the last slide then please. I'm happy to take questions tonight and just want to encourage all of you if you ever need to speak with uh me individually as a council appointee, I'm more than happy to talk to you individually uh either by teams or in person. And I know councelor Winer has taken me up on that a number of times and others as well. So I'm happy to to have conversations with you outside of this particular meeting. >> Awesome. Well, Judge Khan, thank you so much for the presentation and just just going through the numbers and and going through just your your lengthy experience and how things have changed and migrated and evolved over time. That certainly helps a lot of us understand what's going on. So really appreciate that. I see we've got a few questions.

1:44:51Just want to be clear on a time check. Uh, all this public safety pre uh uh subject was supposed to be in 90 minutes. We're already a little over, but I don't want to short change Judge Khan being last. Just because he gets last doesn't mean he gets less questions. Um, but but I just want to make sure that we're all mindful of sort of asking short and concise uh questions so we can move on to sister cities uh when we get there. But certainly don't want to short change Judge Khan and his team uh for responding to these questions and getting some information out to community. So Tara, I see you're up. Go for it. So my question has to do with consequences and first with the students I am glad you're concerned but and I am too but just being concerned isn't really in my opinion probably good enough. I mean we have you're here judge Khan and the police chief is here and so my first question it it's a dual question is what can we do to actually make an impact to reduce what is happening on the hill because you know good for them with their parties but little kids babies are trying to go to sleep next door to them and so it's

1:45:56super frustrating that nothing is well if anything's being done. I don't know about it. But likewise, when it comes to consequences of let's say campers, um I'm glad about dental care. I really am. But if somebody is puts a tent up and then the police tell them to move and then they move like 10 feet and then they move another 10 feet, they're obviously being, you know, doubling down on camping. T do you have a question? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> What I'm I'm making a scenario. What can you what is being done for consequences so that these types of people don't do the same things over and over again? And I guess that goes with the students as well. So I get that we're trying to have restorative justice as well, but how do we actually make big impact so the community doesn't feel it as much?

1:46:59It's a it's a really good question, councelor Wer. Both of them and I I you combine them both to get two questions which I totally respect. >> Um so let me try to address both of them for you. With the student population, it's really important that that we distinguish between the types of charges. So when you're talking about an MIP alcohol or MIP marijuana charge, you're talking about one individual perhaps having a red cup of of beer. and they're they're going they're like I said they're predominantly firsttime offenders. So the the overwhelming evidence for dealing with firsttime offenders is to minimize the amount of contact they have with the judicial system. That's what the best evidence tells us is if they've never had a court interaction before, don't tag them with four or five obligations because they had a red cup. And so that's why the prosecutors because they're they're reading this evidence.

1:47:52>> Yeah, I'm not talking about them though. I'm talking about the other people. You're talking about nuisance parties then. And so remember that's a small percentage of a very very small percentage of the cases that come to our court. You saw a graph there of maybe 15 or 20 per year that we that come through our court. So and they are there are greater consequences when you think about the CU restorative justice program. They have to actually go to the to a CU restorative justice intake reach an agreement with the panel and then fulfill all of the conditions of that agreement. Then they have to do community service and they also have to do a substance use screen and follow through with education. So there's a lot that they're having to do in connection with that. And because they're firsttime offenders, that doesn't alleviate the problem that the people have on the hill or that they have in Goss Grove. But there's new firsttime offenders every year. And so from a justice perspective, you cannot overpenalize that person for their first offense. It's simply not fair to say, I'm going to hammer you because I need to have the rest of the world understand that you that there's people who are upset by this. So, there's a balance that has to be struck.

1:48:59And that's why we partner so closely with the university because they do have these young people in their dorms during their freshman year and they do have the ability to impose consequences through the office of judicial conduct or excuse me, office of student conduct. they always make that slip and so they have the ability to do things as well and I think they're doing them and I may have mentioned to you previously that they in adopted a new program last fall which was an education program for freshmen so that when they leave campus in the dorms they go out and they have a little more information. So that's one of the steps that the university has taken. Uh it doesn't get rid of the problem. It's an ongoing problem. I live here. I don't live in any one of these neighborhoods, but I certainly have friends who do, and I hear from them, too. Uh because it's it's problematic for our community. But it we have to come at this from a justice perspective, which is you don't put somebody in jail who's a 19-year-old for their first uh citation when they've had a party. Now, if they've had 500 people at a party, a thousand people at a party, and they've staged it, that's a totally different question. And that's

1:50:07what I was saying is that my concern is elevated to, hey, we need to make sure that uh whatever offers we're accepting from a prosecutor as a judge, we're if we're going to accept a plea offer, we know exactly what we're going to do as far as sentence goes because those types of parties we absolutely need to sanction. That person knew what they were doing and they need to have consequences that are connected with that. Those cases are still in our system. I don't want to talk specifically about them, but I I would agree with you wholeheartedly that we need to address those more aggressively. Let me let me turn to you a little bit and and Chris Reynolds is here so he may want to jump in and speak to the prosecutor side. So Chris feel free if you've got a comments when I'm done here. I want to talk to you a little bit about your question about uh uh the unhoused population and and moving their tent from one area to another. And this does come up. It's a it's a concern that there are a certain segment of our unhoused population who do not engage with us and who do not engage with the SAMPS team when they're act to asked to move and they get multiple citations for

1:51:10camping or they get multiple citations for obstructing government operations. We've talked a lot about bond reform and criminal justice reform and you heard the chief talk about that a little bit. there are limits to what we can and cannot do and the Supreme Court in the camp case just uh in December of last year put even greater limits on what kind of penalties we can impose. So we have some limits and those uh to some extent make it almost impossible for these lowest level charges like a camping charge to impose great consequence because if someone fails to appear in court on a camping charge uh I can issue a warrant. the jail will will not accept them until there are three warrants outstanding. And then when they accept them is I have to see them in 48 hours. If I when I do see them, they are automatically eligible for a PR bond, a personal recgnissance bond, means they don't have to pay any cash. They don't have to have a bonds person. They sign their name and they're released. And that's by state law. And it doesn't matter whether they're on their first failure to appear or their 51st failure to appear. So that's what's problematic because people know that and so that's why there's a segment of the population

1:52:20who don't participate in coming to court and resolving their cases. And if that defendant pled guilty on that day for camping, the maximum penalty that I can impose now is 10 days by Supreme Court rule. They've they've cut my my authority from 90 to 10 days on these things that are considered petty offense under state law. So there's very limited ability to change behavior the traditional way. We are having great success limiting the behaviors and changing behaviors and getting people off the streets or more stable through the community court program for so for those who think the program is not succeeding, they're absolutely wrong. The program is is succeeding significantly and there are a number of people who are no longer on our streets. Now, they come in and we still see people. They come from all over uh but the number of people that were that are recidivating goes to zero. if we can get them housed or in a sober living program or something of that nature or if we can get them moved back to home. And we've had a few people that actually we've helped get moved back to their home in their home state where family is with them. I had a a woman who I had probably 40 cases in over a course of three

1:53:29months. Many of them set for jury trial and we got her moved to a home in Michigan. That woman hasn't had a ticket since she left and she called our court navigator today to tell him how well she is doing at home. And so it's twofold. We're trying to limit the impact these folks have on our community, but we're also trying to be humane in the way we go about it. And there are lives there that are at stake for people. A lot of those lives are being changed for the better. So I I just want to share with you, and I know you're very thoughtful about all this. I want to share with you and those folks who who are paying attention to this that that this is a really successful approach. >> The reason why I wanted to bring it up, sorry Matt, >> we're going to move on. Um >> I just have to say one thing. I must >> we got we we got to move on. That was a a great an great you doubled up. You got two out of one two questions in one.

1:54:16We've got three people lined up. So So uh but Judge Khan, thank you so much for that response. >> I have to say one thing. I must >> It has to be like five seconds. Let's go. The only reason why I asked this question was because this is community that is asking me these questions and I believe in the community. Um I believe in um their program, Judge Khan. I just I'm asking for the sake of people who have keep asking me these questions that they would understand where you're coming from. You just so you understand. I know that I I because we've had conversations before and that's why I gave you a detailed answer because I know there are people who are deeply interested in this and rightfully so. So, I wanted to make sure people understood.

1:54:58>> Okay. >> All right. Well, I appreciate that. All right. Uh Erin, you're up. >> Yeah. Thanks, Matt, and thanks so much, Church, for being here with us tonight. Um I have a a question about the the large parties with the amplified music. um because I'm on the one hand I'm hearing from folks who are um impacted by this as neighbors and I've also heard CU students claim that we're cracking down on these in ways that we never have before and I just want to make be clear just and maybe this is a question for you or a question for the chief that we take noise violations seriously and we always have I think is a true statement. So, can you just uh confirm that we have never allowed uh large amplified music parties um or live music in people's backyards that violate noise or >> I can only speak for the court, mayor, but thanks for the question. I I in my history, we've not seen the size and the amplification that we're experiencing over the last two years. We saw parties that would get to be as big when I saw it as like oh 100 people were at this party and I thought that was a big party. So for us to have the possibility of of much larger parties, uh that's a

1:56:04that's new in the last year, year and a half. Uh so but I I don't see any difference from the way the prosecution has has approached the typical party or the and so I'm not seeing a crackdown from the perspective of our prosecutors. Maybe the chief can comment about uh what the police department's response is to to both the medium-sized parties and and the larger parties, but I I don't have anything to say about, you know, the idea of cracking down would really come from the prosecutors or from my sentencing practices, and we just haven't had those go through the process yet. >> Thanks, Judge. Chief Redford, do you mind just speaking to our I I think we have an even-handed approach to this, but maybe you can speak to it. >> Yeah, you know, uh some of it will be anecdotal and I'll try to be quick, but we are we have not changed our stance.

1:56:47uh we are not uh you know there's not nothing really new other than one thing anecdotally that I've seen and I was out there during back to school ops till late at night is at some points the bars aren't as busy as they used to be. People seem to be doing more partying at at houses um and there are some specific groups that are taking the loud party issue more seriously on the hill. Um we've had some people walking around reporting different things that aren't even on their block. Um, but we are absolutely seeing more to the judge's point of those larger parties. Uh, not just Goose was an anomaly, huge band that came in, huge name band playing at Red Rocks. We're just seeing more parties at homes. Um, and we're working hard with CU with the party registry and other things to get a handle on it. Um, but we're hearing the exact thing that that that you mentioned, sir, is uh we're not doing enough enforcement and then, you know, you guys are mean and and not allowing us to have fun. So, we're trying to, you know, navigate uh, you know, we're never going to make everybody happy, but we're trying to navigate through that. But, there's been no significant change on our end in

1:57:48philosophy or enforcement stance. >> I appreciate that and I appreciate you taking those seriously because they certainly can have a negative impact on on neighbors. That's all I got. Thank you. >> Thanks, Aaron. Tina, you're up. >> Yeah. Um, just well, just one really quick comment. I think that the um increase in taking away licenses might explain why people aren't at bars as much and that's probably a good thing. Um but I would imagine there's a connection there. Um but with the um the the nuisance complaints, one of the things is that we hear on the hill is that people make a lot of calls complaining about a loud party, but it doesn't seem like it's always translating into a um an official ticketing process. So, can someone speak to that? Because if those numbers actually seem sort of low compared to what you hear on the hill about the incidents of of loud parties.

1:58:44>> I'll let the chief respond to that. I think that's probably an enforcement related issue. >> Thanks. Sorry, trying trying to key up. Uh if I understand your question, council council uh member Marquis, is you're seeing a more calls to parties and less summones? Uh is that was that was that the question? >> So I'm not I'm hearing from anecdotally. Yeah. So >> there just seems like there's a little bit of a disconnect of when people make repeated complaints about >> a large party. Does that actually become something that they have to um respond to in municipal quarter through the CU or whatever? >> Got it. You know what I'm saying? >> Yeah. Yeah. Uh makes sense. And I believe uh DC Hard Cup knows that he's more knowledgeable on this and that's why he popped on. And so I'm going to take advantage of of his expertise in that area to answer your question.

1:59:37Absolutely. Very hard cop Boulder PD. Uh, council member, that's a great question and when I saw the the uh the data from Judge Khan, I was eager to kind of look into that a little bit more as well. One of the really important things to keep in mind that we have found is extremely successful in gaining compliance from uh a lot of these uh people that host parties on the hill is the uh the party registration. Back in 2021, we had a very archaic party registration that wasn't really working out too well. It was it was really nothing more than a spreadsheet that we would keep up in our our dispatch center and most of the the kids wouldn't take take advantage of it. Uh in 2022, we started utilizing a different party registration bringing CU on board and and found that really took off. And what that has done is it's led to this um this this program that we have now that is has been very very successful with many of the the students that live up on the hill that decide that they want to host a party. They'll sign up for the party registration. We get a phone call from in our dispatch center about a loud party. And what will usually happen, what will happen is our dispatchers or

2:00:46our officers, depending upon where the location is at, we'll make a phone call to that party to the host for that party that's registered and let them know that we've had a complaint and they need to shut the party down. Um, and we found that there's been really, really good compliance through the years addressing that. I will tell you right now, um, as Judge Khan noted, we have seen an increase in tickets this year because we have seen an increase in a lack of compliance this year from a lot of these kids where the previous years between 2022 and 2025, uh, we did have really good compliance. >> Okay. And and is it do we have a plan for increasing compliance? Yeah, that plan in for increasing in increasing compliance, tongue twister there, is is increased enforcement. Uh if they don't comply with us, if we call them, they do the party registration, which is what we're encouraging. If they do that part that uh that party registration and then we call them up and they turn up turn down the the music, shut down the party, we've accomplished our task. If they don't do that, next step is enforcement. They are going to get a ticket. If it becomes a bigger problem, we realize there's a lot of litter, there's that amplified music,

2:02:00there's a bigger uh impact upon the community directly around where the parties are at, that's where we're going to see the nuisance party tickets getting issued. >> Okay. Thanks so much. >> And I can just add on to that just when uh Deputy Harkov's talking about issuing the tickets, generally they're given, if I remember correctly from my conversations with the folks at CU, they're given about 20 minutes. Uh, and then if they if it's not shut down within that 20-m minute period, that's when the officer goes out and issues a citation. So, it's not something like you got to get more than one ticket. It's literally that night they either get the party shut down or an officer goes out and issues the citation. So, some of the loud parties that get um phone calls are getting shut down. So, they're not getting tickets and and we're not seeing those. And I've been around long enough to know when we didn't have the party registration program that it wasn't a successful situation because you were issuing more tickets, but you weren't getting parties shut down the way they get shut down now. So, I do think it's a worthwhile approach from the uh prosecutors and police department perspective. And CUPD is also involved with that as well, I believe.

2:03:14All right, Rob, I see you. Go for it. Awesome. Thanks, Matt. And thank you, Judge Khan, for the presentation. I'm always impressed with your empathy and your work. It's off the charts. Um, but I have to ask this question. I'm sure you've seen some email threads going around from the business community and some folks. Um the downtown business and residents have raised these ongoing concerns about open drug use, harassment of employees and customers, people blocking business entrances and appeenders not facing well facing few visible consequences. Um so to understand whether these people that are charged with these lower level offenses are held accountable at a rate comparable to people who receive traffic tickets. What were the dispositions, the guilty versus dismissal? Um, and you may not have these numbers at hand now, but um, uh, in municipal court for the traffic cases compared with non-tra cases such as camping, trespass, open drug use, harassment, blocking entrances um, over the past couple years.

2:04:26>> Okay. Okay. So, you're wanting to comp and I do not have that data, but I'm taking some notes here, councelor Kaplan, about a comparison of dismissals or outcomes for traffic versus what might be a trespass on private property type of charge or something of that nature. >> Yeah. Or open drug use or harassment. It's basically what people are complaining about in the threat. And and I appreciate the the question because it allows me to to articulate the difference of, you know, if we had a state court judge sitting next to me and perhaps a district attorney sitting next to Chris Reynolds, everybody could talk holistically about what happens with these cases because when you talk about what impacts a downtown business partnership in that community on the mall and others, uh, a lot of those are harassment charges or there are theft charges, shoplifting charges, uh, physical violence charges. Those are all state court charges. So, it's really important for council members and for our community to understand what we can control here at the court, the municipal court. Now, if you want to talk about camping or or for example, trespass on private property, because that's a good example where you might have somebody who is standing in a doorway, asked to leave, doesn't leave or goes inside of

2:05:39one of these businesses or is at someone's residence and refuses to leave. But mostly, it's the businesses. Those cases number one are not eligible for the community court program. Uh the prosecutors have they'll allow a trespass on public property. So if someone's sleeping at the band shell, they treat that like camping, but they do not treat a trespass on a private property like a business the same way they would treat that type of charge. So they have a different outcome. They have to come to court. They have to meet with a prosecutor if they want to talk about a resolution. And then there are generally greater consequences as a result of any resolution for that type of charge. but a harassment and those types of things are going to the state court. So, we don't really have the ability to influence that behavior uh with our with comes what comes to our court. They may be the same person with one charge with us for camping or trespass on private property, but I can't I can't hold someone accountable for harassment or for theft or shoplifting if that's not the offense that they're in front of me for. Having said that, I do want to point out a couple things. Because the trespass on private private property is not eligible

2:06:42for the community court program, there is more likelihood that they're going to have uh a guilty plea. And in the memo that I sent, there are outcomes for trespass on private property. So, if you want to dive into that, you'll be able to see that the outcomes are different. Um I don't have something to compare the outcomes for for traffic versus the outcomes for that type of charge. Uh but also want you to keep in mind that the circumstances are significantly different and the offenders that we're dealing with. So when you start to compare traffic dispositions to a trespass on private property disposition, it's it can create a a misperception of what's happening in the court system. It's not a fair way to to evaluate even the prosecutor's office on on how they're making plea offers for cases because they're reducing points from four points to two points or six points to four points on a traffic case.

2:07:30So most of those are resolved with guilty p to lesser offenses. So there isn't going to be a lot of dismissals of traffic cases because that's not what they do. Uh they're dealing with them a lot differently and they're they're dealing with a lot more challenging circumstance because of the bond reform and criminal justice reform. I've talked about that when they're talking about somebody who has a trespass on private property charge. And again, the maximum penalty if that person is found guilty at trial or pleads guilty is up to 10 days of jail. So be aware of that as you're thinking about that and that's because of the camp case that happened in 2025. But I'm certainly I'm willing to get you that data. I just think it could be problematic. >> I see Devon's hand up. I didn't know if >> Devon, sorry. I I didn't know if you had something to contribute to that. So I just didn't know if you had seen that, Judge Khan. Um >> yes, I saw her and I was going to pause and ask her to jump in.

2:08:20>> Okay. Sometimes phone a friend helps to in that sense. You know what I mean? >> Absolutely. >> Awesome. >> Good evening, council. Devon Cassig Kelly. I am the court administrator and I completely agree with with Judge Khan that comparing um the trespass cases to the outcomes in traffic cases um it's kind of apples and oranges. But I can't miss an opportunity to tell everyone to if you're interested in the outcomes of the municipal court to go to our uh data dashboard that's on the city's web page because it's all right there for you that's easily accessible to council and community. >> Thank you, Devon. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Um that sort of end our questions. Wonderful. Well, um, Judge Khan, thank you so much for the presentation, um, and going through that and and really laying out some detailed context. I know that there's a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation about what we do and don't have authority over and and what your office is working hard to navigate those uh those guard rails. So, thank you so much for clarifying that. Um, we're going to move on. Um, we don't have time for general questions to circle back. Um, we're we're 35 minutes past our aotted time for this subject and we still got sister cities to to get

2:09:34to. Um, so we're going to move on to sister cities and I'm going to turn it back to uh Nuria to introduce the ne next subject and uh we'll get moving. >> Thank you uh so much. This next item is um a council priority also came out of your retreat and in the interest of time I'm going to send it over to our assistant city manager Pam Davis. >> Good evening council. I'm Pam Davis, assistant city manager. Tonight's presentation by our city and deputy city clerk is to support policy and process clarification and improvements regarding our sister cities program which is as Nuria mentioned one of your 2026 council priorities that were identified at your retreat this year. Our staff were asked to update the sister cities program resolution and related process to clearly define how the program is administered. This includes application submission, review and approval processes, ongoing reporting expectations, governance requirements, and how to address alliances that appear inactive or are no longer complying with requirements. The goal of this update is to create a consistent, transparent, and repeatable process for managing our sister city relationships.

2 Sister City Resolution Language and Process Update Staff Time: 15 Min Council Time: 45 Min

2:10:42Tonight's study session is one of a few next steps in that project. We're intending to receive your feedback on a preliminary framework for an updated resolution and the supporting process enhancements. Our goal is to then bring you a formal resolution in a future meeting that codifies your desired changes. In the time since the packet was submitted to you all last week, we have heard from some of you and some community members that there is desire to further strengthen the process recommendations before you tonight. We very much welcome that feedback and policy direction so that the staff team can further refine policy and procedures to meet your needs for the long run and in particular your input regarding the criteria for sister city agreements and the process by which council would conduct annual reviews. Those are particularly helpful tonight. Thanks again. And I'm grateful now to introduce Alicia Johnson and Emily Richardson who will share their research on how other jurisdictions are managing sister city relationships as well as some initial recommendations for strengthening the policy and procedures of the program. I will turn the presentation now to Alicia and Emily and I'm here to support the discussion as needed.

2:11:53>> Thank you so much Pam. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen. So, good evening, Mayor, Mayor Prom, and council members. As you know, I am Elicia Johnson, and I serve you and the Boulder community as your city clerk and records manager. Thank you for this opportunity for us to bring this item to you tonight. try to get my screen squared away and too many things going on. Thank you for this opportunity for us to bring this item to you tonight for your consideration and discussion. I am pleased to be supported here tonight by my deputy city clerk Emily Richardson, our assistant city attorney, Alex Fipps, and our sister city international representative Gail Stalling who has graciously agreed to join us this evening and answer any questions that you may have. I would like to take this opportunity to remind council that the sister city program was developed to foster peopleto-people relationships and encourage the exchange of cultural, educational, artistic, scientific, and professional ideas and programs between the residents of Boulder and the residents of the cities and other nations.

2:13:22So, at the January 12th and 13, 2026 council retreat, council identified the sister cities resolution and language process update as a work plan priority. Then, at the February 5th council retreat followup, council outlined some of the next steps for moving this work forward. As we begin as we began looking more closely at the current sister city process, we identified a few areas where there could be more clarity. Right now, the process doesn't clearly outline how an application is submitted or how the program should be administered throughout the life of a sister city alliance. The current resolution 631 also leaves some gaps. It doesn't provide a clearly defined application process, establish clear expectations for maintaining an affiliation, or provide consistent guidance on how the sister city program should be administered. Now, a big part of this work is really about creating greater clarity and transparency while establishing a consistent and ins consistent process and ensuring that there are clear expectations and accountability throughout our alliances.

2:14:37Now, these are the questions we'll have for council at the end of the presentation, and we have included them in your packet. They're focusing on the recommendations and proposed changes outlined in the noted sections of the updated resolution. So again, our overall purpose was to clear create a clear and transparent framework for administering the sister cities program from the initial application and internal review through approval and ongoing oversight and to clearly define processes for addressing inactive or discontinued alliances. Now, we are recommending city council to update the resolution to outline a clear and defined application process, define how annual reports are reviewed or audited, describe how a sister city is deemed inactive or formally revoked by city council and also to provide ongoing maintenance, reporting, and audit procedures. With that, I will now turn it over to our amazing deputy city clerk, Emily Richardson, who is leading this project.

2:15:44She will go over with you the details surrounding the project development and the research conducted. >> Thank you so much, Alicia, and good evening, council. I'm Emily Richardson, your deputy city clerk. So to develop these proposed updates, we took a research and collaborationbased approach, we started by developing a project charter to help guide the process and then work closely with the city attorney's office to review and update the resolution language and criteria based on our research and findings. We also conduct conducted stakeholder outreach and looked at how other communities manage their sister city programs. As part of that outreach, we met with Gail Stallings from Colorado Sister Cities International to learn more about best practices. We also connected with four municipalities with active sister city alliances and those were Colorado Springs, Gley, Aurora, and Los Angeles.

2:16:48We received feedback from each of the municipalities we contacted. And we also had a Zoom conversation with Colorado Springs to take a more indepth look at their program and processes. As part of our research, we developed six key questions to help us understand how other municipalities structure and manage their sister city programs. As you can see on this slide here, the responses to these questions are included in your packet as attachment C. So, our research identified several common themes across the municipal municipalities we contacted. First, Colorado Springs was the only municipality we spoke with that had a formal deactivation process in place. Their process involves an administrative regulation signed by their mayor and memorialized through a resolution. We also found that none of the municipalities had dedicated staff specifically assigned to process sister city applications or monitor the program. Instead, many had local community groups and volunteers that played a significant role in administering the programs with city staff available to provide support as needed.

2:18:09Another finding was that some municipalities limit the number of sister city alliances they maintain. Those limits are generally tied to staff capacity and available resources and depend on how the program is structured and who is responsible for overseeing it. We also found that none of the municipalities we contacted had dedicated funding specifically allocated to their sister city programs. Finally, Los Angeles also raised a broader question about the purpose of the sister city programs today. They noted quote people-to-people program may no longer be needed when we have instant communication. This provides an interesting perspective as we consider the role and the purpose of the program going forward. So based on the draft resolution, staff has identified five key recommendations for council consideration. First, develop an online application that allows applicants to submit the required information and upload supporting documents directly.

2:19:16This will help ensure that applications for an alliance are properly received and not over and not overlooked in an already full inbox. Second, establish clear timelines and criteria for assigning responsibility for both the initial and final review of applications. There's currently no established review timeline when an inquiry request is received, which has been proven to be frustrating for the applicant. Third, establish clear deadlines for bringing completed applications to city council for consideration, including the sister city agreement. Under the current process, the city clerk's office prepares the application packet, including the draft agreement for council consideration. If approved, the agreement is then executed with the mayor of the respective city. However, there are currently no clear deadlines or timelines for moving an application through these steps, which can make the process more time consuming and difficult to navigate.

2:20:19Establishing clear deadlines will help create a more transparent, predictable, and efficient process for everyone involved. Fourth, update and standardize the sister city agreement and clarify the signature and approval process. Currently, the resolution does not include language addressing this part of the process, which can make it difficult for staff and council to know how to proceed, especially in situations where there is a delay in signing post city council approval. Adding clear language and standardizing the agreement will help provide consistent consistency and clarity around the approval and signature process. And finally, determine whether the program would benefit from establishing a limit on the number of sister city alliances and/or creating a formal deactivation process. Currently, there is no limit on the number of sister city alliances. As the number of alliances grows, it will be important to consider the capacity of council members to serve as liaison and provide meaningful support to each sister city.

2:21:27Additionally, the resolution does not outline a process for deactivating an existing sister city alliance. Establishing clear criteria and a defined process would provide greater clarity and consistency in situations where an alliance is no longer active or is no longer meeting the program's expectations. Together, these recommendations are intended to create a clear, more consistent, and transparent process for administering the sister cities programs. And with that, I will hand it back over to Alicia to go over next steps. >> Thank you so much, Emily. So, for next steps, following council's discussion and direction during tonight's study session, staff will incorporate the feedback received and make any necessary revisions to the proposed resolution. The updated resolution will then be brought back to council for consideration and approval at a future council meeting anticipated to be placed on the consent agenda unless otherwise noted by council.

2:22:38So with that, here are the questions we want to propose for council's discussion and I'll turn it back over to Matt for his facilitation with these dis questions and the discussion. >> Fantastic. Uh, thank you, Alicia. Thank you, Emily. Appreciate you guys going through that so succinctly. Yeah, you guys are good at your job. There's no doubt about that. Um, love it. So, let's open it up for questions. Although, I do recall that there was sort of an initial question. Does council have any questions regarding the current process and summary? So, I wanted to is that still the initial question that we had? >> Yeah, I would suggest we can put those questions in chat. So, we have those up. Yeah, I see the second question got put in there, but I thought that there was an original one at least in the memo.

2:23:21So, didn't know if that was still relevant or if we're moving on from that. >> I'm not sure. I know we updated the questions we thought to that match the questions in the memo. So, let me take a check on that. But these were the questions that we were proposing tonight. >> Okay. All right. Um well, let's let's go with that. But but maybe since people were reading the memo, maybe had some clarifying questions. Let's just start there in case people were prepared for that. Does anyone have any just clarifying questions um that they want to ask uh staff on this before we move to maybe the more details of what the resolution is proposing? Uh Tina, go for it. >> Yes. Um do we have a budget line item that is for sister cities for things like if you buy a gift for a sister city delegation or something like that or is that not um separately accounted for at this point in time?

2:24:13We currently do have a small sister city budget. It has been reduced of course over the years and it was basically allocated for the sister city annual dinner. That was our contribution to um our relationship with the alliances but it is a very rather small budget. Yes, we do have a line item for that. >> Okay. And so if if people buy a gift that that's just are people using their personal funds to do that if they do that? Erin, you might Council Marquis, I'm happy to jump in as well. Or well, Erin, maybe you have partial answer, too. >> Yeah, I mean, I I I've generally one meeting with sister city delegations. I've spent my own money for small gifts and occasionally I've charged the city for a few dollars for for welcoming gifts, but it we're talking very small amounts of money here.

2:25:03>> Okay. Thanks. >> Yeah. Yeah. And council member Marquis, we have a general sort of administrative supply budget within the city manager's office that both for sister city visits and other types of delegations or ceremonial uh gatherings, we take care of those things as well. >> Okay. And how much is that line item about? Do we know? >> It's not broken out specifically for gifts. So, we'd have to do some digging to get you a specific number. >> And do we pay for any meals or anything like that in this program outside of the dinner? I do not believe so. >> It may depend. If there is somebody who is visiting on a delegation and uh we decide to uh have a meeting over lunch or do something of that nature um then we usually uh take responsibility for that. We try to um make sure that we're thoughtful about uh those kind of expenses. But it just it will depend on how the delegation is coming to visit and what the activities or agenda is for that.

2:26:04>> I'll just say in the vast majority of cases that it's privately funded to have meals for delegations. >> All right. Thanks, Tina. Well, it's certainly less than a Qatari 747, so we can be grateful for that. Um, all right, Tara, you're up. >> Uh, just a quick question. when in this discussion would you like me to talk about the political aspects of a sister city and the ramifications of that? So for instance in 2016 uh we the city had an agreement with the knobless um to not be political and that I thought was great for all sister cities not just them but I don't know when in this discussion I'm supposed to bring that up. Oh, well that's a good question. I mean, I think that's really part of qu that second question which was put into the chat which is some of these um some some of the parts of the res of what staff is proposing. I think that question gets posed in there and we're not quite there yet. So, I would that question for just a quick second. Um because in what is in that new package that staff's working on, I think answering that question is quite fundamental to whatever new resolution we pass.

2:27:22Awesome. Thank you. Uh Tesa, go for it. >> Just a quick question on um I know we don't have a necessarily a process for uh revoking an active, but um is there any consequences for not submitting an annual report? >> Currently no. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh, let's see any questions on clarifying ones. Um, so I think we're going to go to Oh, uh, before we go to number two, I see Nicole slipping in there. Go for it, Nicole. >> Yeah, sorry. Um, my my question is another one I just am not sure where this fits in. And apologies. I still have not been able to get my video camera to um activate, so I'm just just a voice tonight. Um it it's it's sort of um yesterday I had an kind of an overarching idea about this and how we could potentially do it. Um I did not have time to put it into a hotline um with classes today. So I I wanted to mention it before we get too far into the details and and I guess my question is sort of would this be the time to do that because I think it might save us some time in this discussion. Um to kind of continue my movie quotes theme with Sundance coming um sort of like from the

2:28:33big Labowski. I think this could be the rug that ties the room together. Um, so just wondering what is the right point to uh to to mention this. >> Uh, I'm getting over a chuckle. Uh, that that was good. I like that movie quote. Um, I I mean I think I mean I think if if this propo I think what you're what you might be proposing might be answering perhaps some of what is in that next question. So I I might say lay it out there now because if it addresses what's in those next pieces, then we don't have to answer those questions to then come back and do it again, more or less. So I I would say this is probably a good time to just sort of uh make that pitch and tell us what you got and then we'll see how that plays into the remaining questions of question two and what staff has in the resolution.

2:29:20>> Okay, cool. Thank you. Yeah, I think it does capture a lot of that. So um and this uh once once I kind of get this out there, um it's really the only big question that I had for tonight. So it may just save save some additional time uh later. Um and the the general idea is really aligned with the goal of like how do we standardize expectations across uh all of our sister city organizations and put them in the agreements that everybody signs to formalize that that relationship and then how do we kind of document the process for ensuring that city council and the sister city organizations are fulfilling their commitments under those agreements. And and so the main component um and I I can't take credit for this first part. I'm pretty sure that council member Marquist was the first one to uh mention it uh at one of our earlier discussions, but it it's really to to move toward a model where especially seeing how few sister cities are active right now um where we've got a council committee of two members that are overseeing this program as a whole rather than individual city liaison because as it is right now we don't have enough active sister cities for everybody to have one of those relationships. Um I I see this

2:30:28as something, you know, we could still all be invited to the events and visits and things. Our presence and and partnership doesn't change. Um but the committee would sort of oversee the relationships um uh of of the sister cities. So there's kind of one central point of contact in that committee. Um the this committee because I think this idea of like annual reports and are we getting them and how is that working and and are you know is every active sister or sister city doing them? It's is a it's good to have consistency across and so the committee could sort of oversee those agreements and ensure that both council and the sister city organization are doing what they agreed to do in in the these um agreements that we have. So this could be like are they submitting an annual report? Are they still running the program? Um stuff like that.

2:31:15Basically just a a rubric that is you know public everybody knows about it. It's part of the agreement. um there's no question about what the what that relationship is and and the commitments are. And then the committee could track whether the sister city organizations um are submitting an annual report since right now we don't have any staff time to kind of track that and and then check that the report is is still aligned with um what was in the agreement. And so if a sister city submits the report, everything's in order, then the committee makes a recommendation to council that the relationship's good, keeps going. um if they aren't meeting expectations like not submitting a report um we could give them a period of time like 30 days to kind of cure that issue and if they don't cure it um like they don't submit a report within 30 days of receiving notice and the committee would make a recommendation to council to end that um that that relationship. Um if they do cure it, then maybe we just have a process where if they don't meet expectations multiple years in a row or because some of those um uh the the chart showing, you know, who is submitting a report when was a little all over the place, uh we could

2:32:20just have a process where um if if they, you know, don't do it for a certain number of years in a given period, then the recommendation would be to end the relationship. Um and then I think you know we'd we'd obviously have to update the agreements with the sister city organization speaking to what's what's required um like the annual report uh and the consequences for not meeting those agreements. But I think that type of approach would pro provide a lot of just transparency and consistency across the organizations um for everybody involved and and really um this is a a council uh sister city relationship and and I think it does put the burden back on us to make sure that these relationships are um are are still there. Like I I keep mentioning my sister city um that I'm assigned to have they're like no word in five years, right? Um and I think that they're just how do we uh decrease some of the administrative burden there of of having these um the these things out there. So um that is the general just sort of framework is that we've got a committee.

2:33:24They're doing annual reports. Um there you know is uh clarity in terms of what's expected and um everybody knows what the timeline and and um process is if if those um if those commitments are not being upheld. A awesome. Uh thank you for for uh bringing that proposal out there. Um I see Tina's hand up, but I just wanted to ask you, Nicole, clarifying piece just process-wise. Um there's a number of uh outstanding questions about, you know, intake and review adoptions of new cities by consent resolution. How did you envision folding in staff's recommendation into your proposal? >> Yep. Um, and can can you which specific one or >> I'm just sort of wondering are there any are you like do you like all of them wrapped in or did you want because I want to make sure that we're complete with what staff's proposing and yours and we kind of tie a bow around obviously all the specifics still need to be worked out. So we're not looking to get hyper prescript prescriptive but I just want to make sure that if this is something we want to start riffing on your your general ideas as a part of this that we're also not missing or not answering some of those staff questions in that process. Yeah. No, thank you.

2:34:37Thank you for that. And and I think it's kind of just folding like blending in, right? This is again the the rug. It's not the individual pieces of furniture. Um but but more the rug um and just just a way of kind of holding a lot of this um conversation that we're talking about um would be this this sort of switch to how do we how do we make it more consistent? how do we decrease the burden from staff um and and just make sure that we are uh consistent with with the sister cities um but I don't like I I don't I don't know that it's in conflict with things unless you know there's something where once um if if any you know if anybody thinks this is uh is a decent idea worth pursuing um unless there's something that you know we would find out as staff is operationalizing this like oh wait this isn't going to work with this other piece of it or something. Um, I I really see this as a a blending, not a completely taking over.

2:35:36>> All right. Um, I I still see you, Tina, for a question. Again, I'm just trying to get process set here. Um, well, m I mean, so this is this this is this is kind of cool. I'm interested in this, but I don't want to put my thumb on the scale. So, maybe the best thing for us to do right now is to take what you've uh put up there and just kind of get a non-binding straw poll if people are interested in what you've proposed as folding this in. And then once if that's a yes, um then then we can then go through and and talk a little bit more um and ask do we have support? Do we have clarifications or more details uh with regards to A through E with what staff has put in the resolution? Um does that sound reasonable, Nicole?

2:36:22>> Um yes. And I just because you know I mentioned that this was uh Tina's thought that she had mentioned a while back. So I I just want to make sure that um her hand was not uh >> to be like, "Wait a minute, Nicole." >> She lowered her hand, but I'm still going to go to her because I know that she probably had something burning and and and important to say. So, I just wanted to get that process set up. But before we go to a a >> I'm happy to answer more questions, too. Sorry, but >> great, Gina. Go for it. >> Yeah. No, that was great, Nicole. And I I I feel like this was somehow co-created at some point, but um I think another piece that I like about it is we sometimes wonder about what the other sister cities are doing. And there's no way to find out without each of us individually, you know, going to someone or the liaison. And the idea that these reports could annually provide any information we want if we're curious. If not, we don't need to read them. Um, and also community members, I think, sometimes wonder what they do. And this way we have those documents available um that can just be accessed. So I I I

2:37:24personally am in favor of this committee type approach to the sister cities. >> Thanks. >> Fantastic. Um, Terara, if do you have a question on this? Otherwise, I was going to move to a straw poll on this piece, but if you got a question, go for it. >> Yeah. question before the straw poll. So, were you saying that instead of staff taking care of it that there's going to be a subcommittee of two people that are now going to be in charge kind of like we have different subcommittees on other subjects? >> Yeah. Yeah. The analogy that came to mind for me was um like the council employee evaluation committee, but not like re, you know, we're not like doing evaluation like that sort of thing. It's just like are are the um is is the agreement being um upheld, right? And and so that the sister cities too have somebody to go to and be like, hey, you know, we expected council to show up for this event or something and nobody was there, right? Like like just so that so that there's sort of a single point of contact. So, it would be a another committee is sort of what what I'm proposing, but um I think that it would save some time. Um and and I don't think

2:38:27it would be too big of a lift for the folks on that committee. Um just to to make sure that those reports are coming in every year again, especially because of how few seem to be active right now anyway. Um I I don't know that we would have more than four or five, right? Um looking at that chart that we had to. So, but yeah. Yeah, it would it would require two council people to be um on that and overseeing the process, but it would also belong to council, not staff, which which I I feel is appropriate for this, you know, partnership. It's the way it's supposed to be, I think. >> All right. Um Tesa, I see your hand up. Go for it. >> Yes. So would this um council committee be responsible for um organizing delegation visits?

2:39:17>> Yeah. So what I was thinking about was that they would sort of be the um like the conduit point, right? So it's not like they're responsible for delegation visits, but um like I think there one of the sister cities sends us an email every time they do a trip, right? And and is like, "Hey, you know, who wants to come on the the trip?" And I think having that single point of contact then would make sure that we all get notice of that that opportunity too. So yes sort like so I I don't I don't know honestly I don't know how it works right now because I've never had an active sister cities but I may just need somebody else to tell like is it that um for people with active sister cities do you organize those visits when they come and because if so then yeah I think that probably would be good for that committee to take on too. um so that it's just kind of done consistently for for each one. Um and hopefully, you know, gets to be a little bit easier uh the burden on us as council members if if we currently have active sister cities because there would be just one one group tasked with doing that for every everyone that's coming and

2:40:20hopefully, you know, passing that information on. Well, not hopefully, the expectation would be that committee should alert everybody else that, you know, hey, this opportunity is here. Um but you can you know go on a trip you can do um like they're coming uh here's an opportunity to come and meet with people from the delegation that sort of thing. >> Okay. And and you know I'm new to the Yamagata but there's a delegation coming next week. The sponsor organization you know did the heavy lift of creating a draft agenda etc. But there was you know a little bit of coordination to um connect around a a couple of different things. Um, this isn't the time for this is just the time for questions, right, Matt? Well, specifically, this is just a time if you had any further follow-up questions with regards to Nicole's proposal um to get clarifying and then once we clarify that, I was just going to do a straw poll to see are we is it does a majority of us support you know non-binding of course giving direction to staff to fold this sort of committee approach to our sister city uh resolution that's going to sort of modify and then after that we would then march through uh sort of each person can go through A through E on those focused

2:41:32issues that are in the chat to sort of say, "Hey, I like this." Or, "Hey, I'd like to see this modified." And then staff can get feedback from what they've asked. So, is that is that clear? >> Yeah. No, that's clear. I guess my question is just just more on the relational front. So, for example, Yamagata, Sister City has informal gatherings and um you know, as the new liazison, I know that Erin, you know, also went to gatherings prior to to me joining as well. um and just found that relationship that peopleto people relationship to be good you know when the delegation came to visit the mod uh the modular facility with BVSD partnership in Habitat for Humanity that was another example so again just trying to figure out um you know if it's the going to be the responsibility of those two people to maintain those relationships you know throughout the year or if if they're more the point person and and asking if if there's a representative that would like to be more actively engaged.

2:42:32>> I think Nicole has a response to that based on our proposal. Go for it, Nicole. >> Yeah. No, and thank you. Thanks for clarifying that too. It really like it helps to know how how this works for people who have sister cities um that are active. But um you know, I I think this really just speaks to like uh like Tisha, I know this this was one, you know, you really wanted to like be a part of that one because of your connections um already. And and I think that, you know, with the committee, it's not like they would be the only, you know, people connecting in with with it, at least as I see it, right? They would just be like the main point of contact. Um, but I I think any of us could certainly be more involved with any of the sister cities that that we are taken with. I mean, if somebody comes on to council is like, "Oh my gosh, you know, I love all four or five of these that are active and really want to be a part of it all." Then I, you know, I I don't I don't know if there's anything that we as council would be like, "No, you can't do that." So, I I think it just um it

2:43:27could just depend on the the the person would be my sense, right? It's just that the the committee is the point the official point of contact versus any one person, but certainly as as individuals, we could still foster individual relationships as we have them. >> Awesome. Thank you, >> Aaron. Go for it. >> Well, yeah, just agree with Nicole on that because I think it would provide the opportunity for any council member to get involved with any sister city if that was a particular interest of theirs. I mean, I I've been involved with like six of our sister city organizations just um because of my interest in in sister cities in general. So I think this would be a good mechanism where the subcommittee could put out information about any delegations to all of council and then people could engage as they were interested. So it seems promising in that way.

2:44:14>> Great. Thanks Aaron. Um, so what I'm gonna do right now is, uh, just gonna go ahead and just do a non-binding straw poll and just sort of show your hands of who's interested in in, uh, building on this, uh, you know, council committee type of sort of management and, uh, leadership aspect of our sister city program as Nicole has defined. Obviously, there'll be more specifics that come from that, but I just want to see uh, who are supportive of sort of looking to continue to move in that direction. two, six, seven, eight. Uh, looks like that's uh everybody. All right, Elicia. So, that's that's eight folks um looking to sort of um fold that in um to what you've sort of already crafted on the on the resolution front. And so now want to address staff's uh questions as they put in the chat, does council support the content of the draft resolution? And what I'll ask is if if you raise your hand, try to address A through E. Those are the focus areas. And you know, if you like it, just say you like it. If there's some added context or or or things you want to add to it, um then do so for each of those A through E. And then just sort of do it all in one fail

2:45:30swoop rather than everybody doing A then B, then C, then D. Um because I think some of these will be pretty straightforward for a lot of folks. Um, so if anybody wants to start us off on giving feedback on A through E to staff's resolution recommendation. All right, Tina, go for it. >> I'm uh I'm supportive of all of them. I don't know which number I would cap it, but I am interested in capping it. Um, and the other thing is it might make sense to check in with the Ukraine people who just did an application to see if they have any feedback on their experience. Might be helpful. >> Uh, great points. Thanks, Tina. Ear. Yeah, I I definitely support the staff recommendations and and then I think they work well with Nicole's proposal and um I look forward to having a committee that has oversight over the process because I think in many instances our sister cities have been incredibly um functional and um a really wonderful asset for the city and then in other times uh they're they've been become dormant and so having a more formal process around evaluating them on an annual basis I think would be helpful um to keep some of them more active and to sort of make sure that we have the

2:46:44right number of active ones. One thing we're going to have to think about if we deactivate some and then create others, um we do have like permanent things written into that plaza. Um so it's a little harder to to erase major infrastructure like that, but if we do have a refreshing process, I wouldn't necessarily have a cap per se, but um but I do support the direction that we're moving. Thanks. >> Thanks, Aaron. Nicole, >> thank you. And and just really quickly for a couple of specifics, um you know, I I think maybe, you know, we we just say something like if we get to the current number that we have, which is what 12 13 something like that. I'm forgetting the exact number. Um then maybe we revisit that that limit number to to the point of how many do do we have. Um but I expect that some of these will be taken off um given the inactivity. Um and then I think the the revoking the um inactive sister cities for me at least this sort of just fits into that annual report process. Right?

2:47:46This would be an expectation that's not being met. Um they would have time to cure it. If not then the recommendation is to um to revoke that that uh relationship. >> Thanks Nicole. Uh Tara, you're up. Well, as a somebody that's on the board of the Israeli Sister City, I have a lot of feelings about this. Most one of them is is that in the world of sister cities, if you start one and then five years later you're tired of it, there's no way out. I'm not saying that's me, by the way, but I'm saying that that's other if other people feel that way. instead of the strong language of provoking. I think it would be almost like a blessing for some people to be able to get out of it. You know what I'm saying? So, I don't want it to be like a shame thing because somebody had this idea, they did their thing and now they're done doing their thing and then that could give opport the two people in charge are not going to have to be over 20 sister cities. So I think personally we should cap it. But then if we have an opportunity for people to get out of their sister cities, we can then have other people take the new spot.

2:49:03So that is my thought about that. And um everything else I agree with. And I do want to add um since I had a lot of experience in sister cities um I don't know how many people read the 2016 knobless agreement with the city that um if you didn't then I'll just say that there was a lot of uh community interest in it and the novelists agreed to not be political. Um, and I feel like that is a good thing for sister cities because then the whole point of sister cities is like not demonizing people and you know everything sister city stand for can lose itself in politics. So, I would like to take that agreement and have either all of us read it or just the new people who are in charge read it and then possibly have every sister city agree to that agreement because it had good stuff in it. Um, so that is my opinion about that and then everything else and if you didn't read it I advise you to and let me know if you don't have an a copy of that. And so those are my everything else I'm good with.

2:50:22>> Awesome. Thanks, Sarah. Tasa. >> Um, yeah, I would like to see that clause. I don't I would love to know what they mean by political because um the 2001 primarily talks about humanitarian concerns and it addresses human needs, environmental concerns, human rights and the enrichment of people in respective cities. So, um, and I believe there has not been a violation of that. >> Well, I'll show it to you either way. I'll send it to you. >> Terra, Tara, don't interrupt Taisha's answering questions. >> Um, but I did have, and I agree with all of these things. There's one piece uh, a question I should ask at the question part, which was the 501c3 certification. So, there are some sister cities that have active organizations, but they may not have that certification. So just wondering if there was kind of a time frame that I know that application can go anywhere from six to seven months to get that certification. So just wanted to make sure that there was kind of a not grandfather but just a grace period to ensure that everybody has time to get that. As far as the limits, I do think, you know, it should be limited to nine because there are nine council members and I just feel like there shouldn't be more than we have council members um

2:51:42capacity to to be more actively participating even with a committee structure. So, thank you for this uh work. And I also am just wondering about to Terara's comment if there's like a forfeiture option or something. So it doesn't rever revoke per se but you know the organization asked you know we've completed our work or whoever started this has moved on or what have you and we would like to request to to you know withdraw so that you know that revoke language does feel very penalizing uh and I wonder if there's a withdrawal option as well. Thank you. >> Thanks Asia Ryan go for it. Yeah, I love um I love Nicole slash Tina slash whoever else may have contributed to this idea on the um the council level committee uh and the way that it creates a centralized management with quality standards um and I can you know it's a nice fit with uh where some council members might have a special interest in a region and being being part of a delegation or supporting it but they don't necessarily have to be part of administering the whole program. So anyway, that seems like a nice um a nice fit. I support this the staff proposal.

2:52:56Um with one just one thought though on the um in terms of limiting the number of sister cities. I would I would prefer to just frame this as to to ask the um the committee leads to kind of get oriented and perhaps come back with an evaluation or some recommendations generally that may include this or perhaps we asked them specifically to look at this. I I don't know what it looks like when we now have this whole new program. You know what or sorry whole new you know structured committee what the max is maybe it's nine maybe it's more maybe it's less um but I I think it I'd like to hear re that and other recommendations from the leads. Um and then I also just want to comment I think in the this is implied in in the staff recommendation but by default if a sister city doesn't provide reporting then the relationship was would essentially sunset. So I I think that's that's actually a good a good mechanism.

2:53:57Um, and then finally, just to tie it up, like I I really I really like this idea and I think this is the right this is a good approach for council to think about more broadly t taking the reigns on some of these things where we have big ideas and staff's working in a constrained environment. Um, so I applaud Nicole Tina for um for coming up with this and I look forward to going forward. >> Thanks Ryan Rob. >> Yeah, I just echo a lot of what Ryan just said. Um I mean because we have no resol there's no resolution or clear process for auditing the reports or um retire an inactive city. This is kind of our title n reform of the sister cities so to speak. So um thank you Nicole, thank you Tina and thank you staff.

2:54:46Yeah, I support it. >> All right, thanks Rob. Uh well I'll I'll I'll chime in. Um uh first um yeah, thank you Nicole and Tina uh for for thinking about some different ways to to evolve and and modernize our sister city program. Um so so I like where that's headed on the council committee side. Um maybe one suggestion would be maybe one of those two is either the mayor or mayor prom. Uh a lot of the sister cities are usually creating an a conduit to the leader of their group, their mayor or whoever leads their town. And so I think that synergy makes a lot of sense. At least one of those members being the mayor, mayor prom, there tends to be leadertoleer conversation in that aspect. So that that that might be something I might suggest. Um I do think that on inactivity, um either if you're already existed, I mean we can work on the semantics. Revoke seems harsh, maybe sunset is nice, but I think we got we I think we all are agreeing that that's a direction to go. Um we we'll let staff find the right words to to convey that that soft landing. Um but not just for inactivity. I think we've really got to think about how do we create maybe escalating I don't know about

2:55:53consequences but triggers of actions for perhaps non-compliance of maybe our rules or agreements or or or in some way I think that like the sister city relationships should by definition be defined in a way that does not produce any kind of consternation in our community for one side or the and and if they are then we have to think about what the core nature of that is and whether it's structured the right way. Um and so I think that that's something that I think we need to be thinking about because some of our sister cities never produce that. So clearly there's a structure and there's an expectation there that stays consistent and then we have others that maybe that is a byproduct of whatever's going on there and I think we need to make sure that that doesn't taint the well for everything else that's going on in in the great work of sister cities.

2:56:45So, I'd like to see sort of an escalating set of actions that, you know, work towards making sure that we're staying true to the values and the commitments of the sister city uh program. And if that's not happening, then what's that escalation? Is it, hey, you made a mistake, you had some issues, you got 30 days to cure this, and if you don't or you do it again, then then we move to sort of then revoking because that's where people are not f being true to to that. So, I think that that's helpful teeth to have in there as well. Um, and I think with Venitzia, they did a five-year program. I think that's kind of how they started. I think also again giving people an exit ramp I think as Terara was pointing out. Having every one just do a 5-year with the option to renew is also a helpful sunset mechanism built in. Not just if you fail to report, but even if you're doing your thing after 5 years, you might just be like, "All right, I think we're done."

2:57:33So, there's a few things that I would add to that um as as we go forward. Otherwise, I think this is great work and I'm glad that we're taking it on to evolve and go forth. Um, I don't think there's any last things or thoughts. I don't see any. Um, I'll ask uh Elicia and Emily. Have you gotten what you wanted from us on on this? And and Pam as well. Have you guys gotten what you needed on this conversation? >> We think so. I don't I'll go ahead and let Emily and Pam weigh in, but I think council's discussion has really given us a clear path for next steps. And so we'll start putting some things together and if we have any questions we can always reach out or bring it to council for an additional discussion.

2:58:12>> Wonderful. >> Yeah, chime in. In the interest of my crystal clarity, while several of you mentioned liking the concept of a cap, I think I heard no unanimous decision on a number and therefore um considering that as part of the committee's responsibility. Just want to confirm that you're comfortable with that as we develop language around it. Okay, great. >> I think that's fair. and the committee could make a recommendation and it could go forth from that perspective. Right. >> That sounds great. >> All right. Uh anything else? Any parting statements? All right. Well, um Pam, Elicia, Emily, thank you so much uh for bringing this to us and thanks for your great work in the presentation. Uh it's 8:54. Um, without any further business at this study session, uh, we're going to, uh, call it a night and we will see you all next week on October 1st, uh, for a regular business meeting. So, take care, be well, and, uh, stay safe out there.

2:59:09>> Thanks.