Transcript

1 Call to Order and Roll Call

0:05:28going to go ahead and call us to order and ask Elisha to do a roll call, please. >> Yes, sir. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. We'll start tonight's roll call as usual with Council Member Adams, >> present. >> Benjamin, >> present. >> Mayor Brackett, >> present. >> Council member Kaplan, >> present. >> Marquis, >> here. >> Shuhard >> here. >> Spear >> here. and mayor pro Tim Wer >> present. >> Mayor, we have our quorum. >> Thanks so much. I'd like to now request a motion to amend the agenda to add item 8A, which is the front range passenger rail sales tax measure discussion. >> So move. >> Second. Got a motion, a second. All in favor, please raise your hand. >> We got a vote to amend the agenda. Please, >> Ryan. All right, that passes. uh 80. The agenda has been amended. So, let's go to open comment and Elisha, please go over our public participation guidelines.

2 Open Comment

0:06:34Alrighty. Thank you again everyone for your participation at tonight's city council meeting. We ask that you abide by the rules of decorum found in the voter revised code. This includes participants are required to sign up to speak using the name they are commonly known by. Individuals must display their whole name before being allowed to speak online. Only audio testimony is permitted during open comment and no attendee shall disrupt disturb or otherwise impede the orderly conduct of any council meeting in a manner that obstructs the business of the meeting. This also includes failing to obey any un any lawful order of the presiding officer to leave the meeting room or refrain from addressing the council. Our remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to city business. No participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any other person. And lastly, obscinity, other epithets based on race, gender, or religion, and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the meeting will not be tolerated. Thank you again for joining us and thank you for listening.

0:07:45>> Thanks so much, Elisha. All right, we've got 19 people signed up to speak. Each person will have two minutes. I will be strict about that limit in the interest of fairness. I'll call three names at a time. Our first three folks are Todd Buchanan, HM Michelle Merino, both in person and then Lin Seagull online. So Todd, >> can you turn your mic on there, Todd? There's a button to turn the mic on. Right here. Okay. As we saw in 2020, Donald Trump was inexhaustible in his efforts to overturn that election. Six years later, he is even more emboldened and probably more unstable. We need to be clear about what is at stake. If a president can methodically and blatantly subvert an election, what is left of our experiment in self-government? I urge you, council members, to send something like the following to President Trump and our congressional delegation.

0:08:51The president is entrusted to defend the Constitution and to see that the laws are faithfully executed. He or she is not elected to subvert our democratic institutions or maintain power by any means necessary. Any attempt by the president to interfere with an election or to disenfranchise legitimate voters should be treated by Congress as an impeachable offense. Thank you. Thank you. Now we'll have H. Michelle Merino and then Lynn Seagull and Jess Hunt online. >> Hi, I'm Heather Michelle Merino and um I'm here to inform that I am I'm working towards establishing either a Boulder Housing Partners Tenants Union or a City of Boulder Tenants Union. Um I'm more leaning towards the Boulder Housing Partners one. um being a tenant and a voucher holder myself um with my education and stuff as well behind me, I'd like to um set up the union and do some research as far as success, safety and harms management, financials, maintenance, um differential treatment, providing protections of discrimination for tenants, um denials of medical reasonable accommodations that are being denied and access to security camera footage that is on the properties that show um slip and falls, packages being stolen, so forth that we can't even get access to the cameras for. So, um I'm just going to work at setting up a union and I could use

0:10:27whatever help or assistance or anybody can point me in a direction or know anything about setting up unions. I'm working on learning. Thank you. >> Thanks so much. Um, just before we go to the next person, uh, any signs in the room need to be held. So, the sign that's propped on the chair over here will need to be picked up and held, please. Thanks so much. All right. Uh, now we'll go to Lind Seagull and Jess Hunt online and then Katherine Greener in person. You know, I am so intimidated from coming down there for I'm suspended for the third time. One for yelling quiet. The second one for supposedly yelling to see Nura, which was not correct, but your surveillance camera was out. The third I forget. It's a blur after a while. But the third, no, was legitimately when I told Aaron that he was out of here, which he's going to be shortly. Boy, big time. This We need three minutes. We need to know who's at this meeting. I don't know who's at this meeting. I'm not. For one, I can't be down there. Katcha, I didn't tell you about this. Katcha Coo is down there.

0:11:37She's working on her thesis with CU Denver and um in on engagement and process. There is no engagement. There is no process with the city. This is just when they don't want to hear from you, they mute you just like you do, Erin. Every time every time I bring up the P word, god forbid. Shame on you. Shame on you. No, this is not okay. Okay, we need 3 minutes. You can't do anything in 2 minutes. This is, you know, I'm speechless. I'm speechless with the corruption in this town. It is so deep and so pervasive. And for so long, for 20 years, we have not had basically a city council and and now with Sundance, you know, and 13 bedrooms on 1084 Grant Street and the neighbors are outraged because they didn't get the historical designation in time for that street. Um, what are you doing? What are you people doing for the people of Boulder? Is that what you've done? Jared Polus pushing growth on us like like no end. This is outrage that we have to live this way. This is not taking care of your public. No way.

0:12:55Done. >> Thank you. Now we'll go to uh Jess Hunt online and then Katherine Greener and Mike Clark in person. >> Great. I hope you can hear me. >> Yes. >> Hi, I'm Jess Hunt. I'm a Boulder resident and thank you for the opportunity to address this body and I'm further grateful to all of you for your service to our community. Um Boulder is a city that celebrates running and outdoor recreation and community events and I certainly understand that a marathon belongs here, but I think that the Boulderthon in its current form imposes an unreasonable burden on the community that hosts it. And I recognize that this is probably one of the least important issues in front of all of you very busy people. But on on the other hand, I would say it's a problem that should be relatively easy to solve.

0:13:49I think each year the race closes or significantly disrupt major roads in Boulder for hours. Okay. The result isn't simply minor inconvenience that we should all expect frankly from living in a vibrant city with these kinds of events, but residents struggle to get to work and appointment and activities and church and neighborhood streets really become unended um detours. I personally experienced this this Sunday and I was shocked. I I I had the map which is really not a not a traffic map that was provided by the race. Um, and it was it was inadequate at best and inscrable at worst. I I tried to use it to get my folks around and myself around and I found it impossible. In the age of AI and real time navigation, there's no reason that residents shouldn't have access to a clear interactive map showing which roads are closed, which are open, and how to navigate around the race. So my humble suggestion is before approving the boulder boulderthon again, could the city simply require a plan that perhaps substantially reduces its impact on residents, including just better transparency about traffic um management. I I I think Boulder can be a great host to a marathon and many other wonderful events, but I also think that the marathon um should be a good

0:15:10neighbor to the rest of us in Boulder. Thank you. >> Thank you. Now we'll go to Katherine Greener and Mike Clark in person and then Malikica Hartley online. Good evening Boulder uh council. My name is Katherine Greener and my husband and I own a home in Senas Terrace in North Boulder. About two weeks ago, we noticed construction across from our street and from our subdivision next to Boulder Meadows. It appeared to be routine utility maintenance. We've all seen that around town, but it was not utilities. It was the construction of a small cellular tower. Excuse me. The partially constructed tower sits less than 90 ft from several of our neighbors front doors. as in the backyard of Boulder Meadows. I originally planned to come to question the council about our lack of notification and the codes this tower represents. Still, over the last few days, we've uncovered over a hundred planned 5G towers for Boulder.

0:16:23So, I have bigger, more strategic questions. Of course, I think that we should have equitable access to data. But why do we need three cell phone towers in a half mile of a road in North Boulder on Yarmmouth? Why should Boulder Meadows, a diverse neighborhood, have six plan towers adjacent to their properties? Why are the cellular companies slathering Boulder with small cell towers? Has the impact of all these towers been incorporated into our climate action plan? Has CU's Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering been involved to help the study? But even more importantly, where was the transparency? Neither our neighborhood nor Boulder Meadows were notified. The approved towers are on the EMAP, but where is in community input? Sure, studies were done on adults using these large towers and then extrapolated to similar smaller studies for the FCC guidelines, but the data on children migratory animals. Thank you.

0:17:30>> Your time is up, but thank you for your testimony. Uh, now we'll go to Mike Clark in person and then Malikica Hartley and Ronald Pod Pod Iceki online. >> Good evening. My name is Mike Clark. I'm a resident here in Boulder. First off, I'd like to >> Mike, can you get Can you get right into that mic there, please? >> If we can start over. Um, my name is Mike Clark. I'm with I live here in the city of Boulder. I've was at the city manager's office and the city attorney's office last Thursday. I called both of them and I've been working with the Boulder PD regarding the but Belmont but no one called me back. It's appalling to me that you cannot return a call. both the city attorney and the city manager. I have been there.

0:18:21I have come to your offices. I have called. I've even had the Boulder PD call to address the Boulder but or Valmont but it is a hazardous way site that you know of currently. I've been told by the sheriff that it's the city's property. The Boulder PD says it's in the jurisdiction of the county. I don't care who's responsible for it. You own it. The city owns that property. It is an attractive nuisance. We have the homeless living in a radioactive area. Do you know what the liability is to the city for that? You want radiation poisoning? Sorry, I I worked at Rocky Flats. I understand it. You aren't addressing it. The county and the city are not taking care of the problem. The homeless live there. They come down to the businesses and residents in that area and loot us all the time. We have almost $400,000 worth of theft this year that you don't care about.

0:19:26We file police reports and it doesn't do us any good. It's a waste of our time both with the sheriff and with you. But it's then the city's property. You own an attractive nuisance. Close it. Doze it. whatever you have to do, but I've had enough and now it's on public record. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, now we'll go to Malikica Hartley and Ronald Pachhatski online and then Ribert Keterhagen in person. >> Hi, my name is Malikica. I've been a resident of South Boulder since 2001 and I've lived right next door to the CU South open space since 2008. Um particularly during COVID 2020, my family and I have used that open space almost daily. Um me and all my neighbors and thousands of others for their mental and physical health. Um unfortunately my husband who is a second generation Boulder native had to find out about the site's closure a mere three weeks ago. He had to find out on a Reddit post.

0:20:34That is because this project since CU purchased it back in 1996 all the way up to the shady land annexation deal between the city and CU. This project has been shrouded in secrecy and corruption and lack of transparency. So it said that they're closing October 5th with no official information. They started construction and a hideous black fence around the perimeter two days ago. And guess what? I just walked outside my front door to walk my baby, my 14-month-old, and my dog, and they hit a gas line. That's the sign of things to come. My neighborhood reeks of gasoline right now. Because of this land annexation deal, Boulder, we the residents are going to pay $9 extra on our utility bills to pay for CU's treated water and their utilities to build on a flood plane that was never meant to be built on in the original charter so they could build a fourth campus and more student housing when college enrollment is on a decline.

0:21:41And regarding the dam project that's being built next to my house right now, the three-story concrete dam, the spillway along US 36, the $8 million worth of tunneling under the highway that apparently now is 375% over budget that has not shown the public a recent costbenefit analysis. Thank you for your testimony. >> Right, we'll go to Ronald Podsky, Robert Kerhagen, and Noah Hart. Ronald, do you m >> Thanks for your attention. My name is Ron Padiski, uh, a retired scientist and engineer. I've been a resident of Gunarrel since 2000, and I'm a volunteer and board member with Gun Barrel United, but I'm not being compensated for this meeting. Uh, Gunarrel United wishes to advocate for our community and generate a synergy between the residents and businesses of our community. We have identified a need for more park space, the development of park space within the boater city limits of Gun Barrel. We have been lacking in uh park space and do not have the density that other neighborhoods in Boulder have. And we we do have Tom Watson Park and there are uh there are paddle ball courts being installed there and we appreciate that. But we also identify Eaton Park as a park that's remains pretty much undeveloped and could be a space for uh having multi-generational entertainment.

0:23:37Also areas adjacent to the library and we do appreciate the library that last year was uh placed in Gun Barrow. It's a fantastic facility, but uh the park space needs attention. So, I I would ask you to consider some funding uh up in the upcoming funding uh debates. Also, um we do need some safety uh attention, but that is a matter for a later time. So, thank you for your attention. >> Thank you. Now we'll go to Robert Keterhagen, then Noah Hart, then Rob Smoke. Israel claims self-defense, but the Israel Defense Force is the leading cause of death for children in the world today. Bernie Sanders said that over 18,500 children have died in the last three years. Of those, 12,000 were under the age of 12. 12,000. Or how about when the teddy bear toading five-year-old enemy combatant Hindra job and six members of her family were wiped out by at least 345 tank rounds.

0:25:20These numbers scream of genocide. This council has bloodied the hands of its bolder citizens with its investment portfolio of Caterpillar and Microsoft amongst others. Shame on you. Invest instead in us, the citizens you serve. The Spruce Pool is a community gym, a gathering place, a cooling place. save it. On a related note, uh the Boulder police arrested indigenous pro Palestinian activist LA Gonzalez for sidewalk chalk graffiti, which I wasn't aware of was a crime. Three other Caucasian protesters doing the same thing weren't arrested. Why is that? Why was she singled out? Where is the justice? Drop this unjust trial against her. It's a waste of resources. >> Your time is up, but thank you for your testimony. >> Long live. >> Time is up. All right. Now we go to Noah Hart, then Rob Smoke, then Evan Rabbitz.

0:26:39Is Noah here? My name is Rob Smoke. I live in Boulder. I'm holding up a piece of paper. It's actually a few pages. It's from the First Amendment Coalition. Asked and answered, "Can the city council ban non-disruptive clapping by audience members?" The short answer that the First Amendment Coalition provides is no. You can find this stuff just by doing a quick AI search. That was the original thing that I did. Here's what came up. Is quiet applause something a city council can ban or is there case law saying they cannot ban quiet applause? A city council generally cannot ban quiet or non-disruptive applause as case law establishes that government bodies can only restrict expression in public meetings if it causes an actual material disruption. While city councils frequently enact no clapping rules to maintain order, constitutional case law draws a sharp line between disruptive noise and peaceful silent or quiet expressions of approval. Case law includes Henry K uh California Supreme Court.

0:27:55This is 1970 ruled that for political speech or gatherings, audience clapping and shouting do not automatically constitute an unlawful dis disruption unless they substantially substantially impede the conduct of the meeting. Steinberg vers Chesterfield County Planning Commission. This is 2008. The fourth circuit affirmed that while officials have the discretion to cut off speech or behavior that threatens the orderly and fair progress of the discussion, that discretion does not grant them a blank check to ban viewpoints or peaceful non-threatening expressions like quiet applause. And I've been at this meeting times where uh our current mayor has shouted out, "You might not applaud. Applauding is we don't accept that here. We're not allowed to do that here." Well, that's just wrong. It's unlawful to make that determination that people can't just quietly applaud and uh I find fault with that and I think uh the mayor could we need a mayor who's going to do a better job than that and I think there are there is at least one candidate on the ballot that would be Taiisha. Thank you.

0:28:57>> Thanks. Now we'll go to Evan Rabbits then Erin Stone then Linda Quigley. The city wants to stop funding Spruce Pool, though it only costs about 150,000 a year. That could be had by laying off just one of the city's 33 communications specialists. Here's my experience with one that many cyclists will remember. Two summers ago, the city made improvements at the Chapman Drive trail head in Boulder Canyon. The city said they were quote closing the trail head. I told them that they should have a sign at the top of Flagstaff to tell people so that they wouldn't go down Chapman Drive and be unable to exit onto Canyon Boulevard and have to go all the way back over Flagstaff. Then they said that the trail head would be closed, but that quote access to Chapman Drive would be open. that sounded like it would be both closed and open. And I asked him to be more precise. He would never change what he said. It turned out that just the parking lot was closed for improvements, but they couldn't say it. Not only couldn't this man communicate on a second grade level, but he couldn't be taught to do so. We don't need 33 of these people. Three would probably be better. I bet a big reason we didn't

0:30:41learn for years that the city's buildings and finances were in such poor shape was because of their propaganda covering it up. >> Thanks. Now we'll go to Aaron Stone, then Linda Quickley, and then Chelsea Blake. Hello. I'm extremely concerned about the development of CU South. I feel that this is a project that was poorly communicated to the people and I think that the mitigation that's happening there is not the proper mitigation that needs to be done in order to deal with a flood. The actual mitigation has to happen at the other end of the property to allow the water to flow through. All this is going to do is help to prevent a 100red-year flood and it's going to further densify uh our city where we don't really need more density. Right now St. Mary's glacier has completely disappeared and Arapjo glacier is also shrinking. We are getting drier out here in the west and we are not going to be able to support as many people. Creating highdensity housing is only benefiting developers. It is not benefiting us as a people. And in addition to that, I've looked at our SRRI and I feel that we are not properly staying with our values as a city. I see that we've passed a sugar tax, but yet we invest in Pepsi.

0:32:08We say we don't want weapons of war or develop or to invest in weapons of war, but yet we are investing in companies that are providing bulldozers to to foreign armies that are being used to attack civilians. Um, so I thank you for uh hearing me out and I'll seed the rest of my time. >> Thanks. Now we'll go to Linda Quigley, Chelsea Blake, and Paul Hebin. Is Linda here? Doesn't look like it. So, let's go to Chelsea Blake. So, I come here from just walking my dog out in the open space that's called CU South. And from my town home, I'm hearing the jackhammering of them digging this lovely black fence. And I hear from my neighbor that they've hit a gas line already. So that's what we're uh excited to be seeing so much more of.

0:33:12Um, and this is I represent thousands who love this wild space and who are absolutely horrified at the destruction of the precious wetlands where endangered species of birds and other animals find their home. And we blame the con the corruption of this council and the ones that preceded it for the place we find ourselves in here today that we're expecting the they're already tearing down the tennis courts so they can build a 6,000 person stadium and the construction of the insane threetory dam that is uh by any counts a ridiculous mess. Um, and meanwhile, and and they're going to fill everything in with countless tons of dirt, fill in our beautiful wetlands, and meanwhile, CU football coach Sanders has a $54 million contract, but we're going to be paying the bill for the $76 million this ridiculous dam, and which the cost has mushroomed over 300% in the last 10 years. Um, but we're not giving up without a fight, council. We're here and we many smart and concerned citizens have been here for at least the last 15 years to stop this irresponsible wreckage of one of the last open and wild spaces in our city. We blame Sam Weaver and Rachel Friend for their backdoor dealings to annex this land and we will not forget that. And but we take

0:34:38heart because these important activists in our community are create have created an appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court. And uh so we're not going down without a fight here. We deserve a right to vote on the 76 million tax. Your time is up, but thank you for your testimony. We're going to go to Paul Heibbon, Katherine Sunval, and then um Greg Chaplonsky. Good evening. Uh, I didn't know I was going to be speaking, so >> you speak into the mic, please. >> Uh, I will. I didn't know I was going to be speaking, so this will be a little bit rough. Um, my main point is what's happening to the city and I'm a resident since the early 80s. Uh, I live up on the hill. A lot of things are changing up by us. Uh, I just had a couple of points of most of what I've seen is almost written by a developer's playbook. Everything seems to be density driven.

0:35:55>> And one of my points was uh the commuter rail that was voted on in 2004. The rail didn't come, but the development certainly did. Uh we see it all over town in the name of affordability and walkability. And uh I don't know where affordability is happening for most of them. I'm aware of the Boulder Housing Partners pro uh uh product and approve of that. The cash in Lou is another kind of a funny spot. I know it funds some of that, but uh I like the way that's going, but uh mostly what I'm seeing is very expensive apartments uh that will not be affordable and from what I understand many of them are not occupied. Uh one other point I have is uh when I moved here, CU was somewhere a little under 20,000 people. I understand it's now at about 36,000 people. Uh, CU is a great entity, but maybe a little too much of a good thing. So, that's my thought.

0:37:16>> Thank you. >> Now, we'll go to Katherine Sunval, Greg Jablonsky, and Lara Gonzalez remotely. >> Good evening, city council. I'm the local coordinator for a botanic gardens project proposed for Hogan Pankost. We have been actually I talked to you uh Mayor Brockett in 2018. You probably remember that meeting in North Boulder. We've been working with um parks and wrecks since um May or March tweeting March 23rd, 2026 when Chief Philip Whiteitman of the Northern Cheyenne, who's a descendant of White Analopee, who you heard about in the comprehensive plan on page three, who was murdered in the San Creek massacre and received a medal of peace from Abraham Lincoln. Um, Chief White Analopee camped. There's um significant evidence both from the descendants of the San Creek Massacre soldiers and the indigenous that Chief White Analopee camped at Hogan Pankost.

0:38:44So, we have been um talking to the planning board about having a an a press study and a way to find the uh homemade cannonballs that were shot at the cottonwood trees to get Chief White analopee to go to the San Creek massacre on the site. So, we need a LAR study to verify both the accounts of the Cheyenne and the San Creek massacre soldiers that that did occur there. And all of this must be done before there's any more conversations about any kind of development. The the uh parks and reccks keep talking about tennis courts and we're not allowing that. >> Thank you. Our last two speakers are Greg Jablonsky and Lara Gonzalez. >> Good evening. I'm a resident also of the um gun barrel sub community. You heard from Ron earlier. Um I've got similar points to talk about and maybe I can further some of the items that uh Ron had mentioned. I've been a resident out there since um 2000 on and off. Most recently in the last seven years, we've been living in the Gunrel Green neighborhood, my wife and my 11-year-old son. Um and Gunreal is a great place to live. Um it's great to be able to cycle into Boulder for work. I've got an elderly parent in Longmont, so it's a

0:40:23nice central location surrounded by uh Boulder County Open Space, which is a great uh starting point to to go into those areas. Um, when it comes to parks, uh, raising a child in Gun Barrel, you start to realize, um, it seems to have a, uh, a lack of public parks to access. If you look at a map of the Gun Barrel sub community, you can tell that, uh, there's three parks within a very large area. Two of those parks are actually for the most part undeveloped. Those are the one that are on on the south side of gun um, the diagonal. And uh Tom Watson on the north north side is beautifully developed. It's just hard to access as a as a parent with small kids for a small um quick uh day at the park.

0:41:13So we'd like to advocate for more parks in the central of uh downtown uh Gunarrel, if you could call it downtown. We all know it's half city, half county land. um or else developing uh further the two parks that are relatively undeveloped at this point. And quickly, I guess going to the safety concerns, same idea. Uh with a young child, you start to realize these items. Lookout is the main access point to get down into central gun barrel. Lookout has two really nice sidewalks that are used by cyclists and pedestrians, but they cross a lot of driveways and it drives into parking lots and create a lot of really safety conflicts. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Our last speaker is Lara Gonzalez online. >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Hello, white and Jewish supremacist of Boulder City Council. I mean, I'm going to keep calling you this every time I address you because that is what you are and you're corrupt as everyone else has said here because you continue investing in the modern Holocaust of the Palestinian people with our tax dollars and $38 million year in investments.

0:42:27Probably it's more by this year, but I haven't confirmed it yet. And you will not have peace as long as there is no justice either for the indigenous people of Palestine under the indigenous people here whom none of you represent and benefit from as settlers in stolen land. Two weeks ago was Yum Kipur, the day of atonement for Jewish people. I would like to think that those of you who are Jewish at council atone for their sinful investments as you profit as more people are murdered and raped by dogs and rusty metal rods of the rectum with their money. And I believe that supremacists such as the Jewish and white supremacists in this council cannot atone because they do not see us indigenous people either in Palestine or here as full living human beings. You all dehumanize us and with oppression there will always be resistance as long as we exist. Thus you will never have peace as long as you keep putting that boot on our necks and God will not cleanse you from your sins. Next week mashallah will be the third year anniversary of the day of resistance of the Palestinian people thanks to their alkuts floats operation. They were free for less than a day and were able to see the land that was their ancestors as

0:43:29they had never been able to leave the most populated open air prison in the world before October 7th. We knew three years ago, but now it has been confirmed that the so-called Jewish state approved the Hannibal directive which killed their own Jewish people. I demand that you act like those in your position did to end apartite in South Africa because the Jewish supremacist settler colony of Israel is indeed practicing apartite in entire Palestinian from the river to the sea before October 7th. pass a resolution that you do not support apartheid. Divest more than $38 million a year that you invest in apart and genocide and invest in us. Also, do not have axon as a substitute or any surveillance tech for flock. Axon work. >> Your time's up. >> And um I'll just say that those last comments while legal under the first amendment were anti-semitic and I condemn them as unacceptable.

0:44:26responses to open comment, please. And thanks to our other people for coming and speaking. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh, and a couple of responses uh, as we're as um, some of the um, community members have brought up certain um, issues throughout the city. To Ms. Merino, I want to say that we do have a tenant advisory committee and our human relations commission. and I'll make sure that we follow up and give you those um context so that you can um uh follow up with them as well. Uh to Ms. uh Greener uh about the small cell issues, thank you so much for bringing them to our attention and we always want to shed light. I'm afraid the response is less than satisfactory. The federal and state law um has limited greatly what we can do. They are allowed by right. we cannot um require notification or public meetings uh as long as they are complying with a standards height of the cell towers and so forth. So it is something that we will continue to look at uh and continue to talk through with our um legislative delegation but right now there's very little the city can do. I am sorry that Mr. Clark has left. He actually did uh in fact reach out and I know that he has

0:45:36been reaching out. He spoke to Deputy Chief Hard Cop. Um I know Amy in my office is trying to um set up a meeting about Belmont but I will say uh council and to community members that are concerned. We are as well. We had a cross departmental staff meeting just recently. Um we uh have been in touch with the sheriff's office as well. Um we are creating a plan to address uh the site and when that is um finalized before that goes out we will likely make sure to let you know. But we are just as concerned um not just about the environmental state, but we understand there are kids that are going to the site and um huge concerns about what's happening at Belmont Bud. So we will let you know. Um to Ms. Hunt who brought up issues about the Boulderthon, I'll say that we have also received that from others in community. We hear you and we uh will be debriefing with our team to see uh what can we do, what can we require for uh next, whether it's the Boulderthon or other events. We always want to be thoughtful about what events uh special events do. To your point, um special events bring vibrancy to the town and how do we minimize impact is

0:46:44always great. Um to Mr. Stone, thank you so much. Uh I um I'm going to call uh Joe Taduchi in a minute to talk about CU South, but we certainly have received uh a variety of questions about our investment policies. Um we have been talking and discussing uh it internally. I know some council members have asked a similar questions. Uh you are about to receive um an email and some communication about it. So we will follow up and we will make sure that um we perhaps post that in hotline so that it is available to the public as well. And with that maybe I'll call uh Joe Taduchi down to talk a little bit about CU South. Good evening, council members. Uh Joe Teddyuchi. I'm the director of the utilities department and I do appreciate the people who came out and uh spoke and expressed concerns um about the site closure of CU South that we have um starting on Monday. The majority of that site is going to be closed.

0:48:02And in terms of the public notice, we did we we've had have or will have three separate news releases that have uh or will go out. Um the first one was in late August. We also did several social media posts that described what was going to be happening and the and the site closure. We also described some preliminary site preparation work that would be happening which is starting now. Um however the site is still fully open to the public uh through the weekend until Monday and we have a lot of information that we're updating on our FAQs and project website for the community about the closure. Um, we now have a map posted that shows the closure boundaries and where the fence will be. The majority of the site does have to be closed. Um, because there'll be construction on the south end and also on the north end and then construction traffic and staging in between. There is a portion of the western southwestern edge of the property that will be um outside the fenced closure area that I think people from the neighboring neighborhoods can still access while we're doing the work.

0:49:36>> Thanks for that, Joe. Appreciate it. >> Mayor, one last thing. I u forgot to address the concerns brought forward by our um neighbors and gun barrel as uh many know and I know council's well aware um much of uh gun barrel is actually not in city limits. It's a mixture of uh Boulder County and the city. Most of the residential areas are in fact outside of the city um limits. So it is difficult. We will look at those park places and see where they land, but we will also um be happy to forward your concerns to Boulder County. Um I'll say that there are some uh limitations. For example, Heatherwood Park uh sits entirely in area 2. Um and while it was dedicated as part of the school park requirements, unless it is annexed in the city, we cannot develop it. And so we'll be thoughtful to look at where those areas are and certainly we'll share with the Boulder County your concerns.

0:50:27>> Thanks for that. Any questions for city staff about open comment? Nicole? >> Yeah, I just had a question. Um, and this may be for Joe. We probably already sat down again. Um, we've had some delays at CU South due to uh litigation from community members which have thrown the schedule off a little bit. Do we have an estimate of how much these delays have cost the city? >> Thank you for that question. Um, for the past several years, we've been estimating the project cost to be in the mid60s million dollars kind of consistently through all the process discussion and and major decisions that council has made. Um, we put the project out for bid early in 2025 and got a project bid for about $61 million. And the under the assumption that we would bond and finance the project, which would allow us to complete it in three years. The um legal challenge that has happened required us to go back to the drawing board with the funding and see if we could cash fund it, which we can. And we can do that keeping the uh utility rates um as we proposed for 2027 last year when we were looking ahead several years. So I I know it was mentioned that utility bills will go up $9 a month, but that's that's actually

0:52:09not accurate. And so we had to go back and negotiate with our contractor to uh cash fund the project yeartoyear, which now puts it on a five-year track. And that adds $10 million to the to the cost. So it's now up to $76 million. And that's all in the construction contract that was signed. If the litigation goes away and we're able to bond again, um we also have a mechanism in the contract to accelerate the project, get it done quicker so that the impacts of the community can also be behind us quicker and do it for less cost. >> Um because I mean I I live right next door to it too. Uh and and you know it is about to be closed, right? So, am I understanding correctly that um part part of the community's reaction is extending potentially the length of time that this area would be closed?

0:53:14>> For sure. And we've been uh as a staff team, we've been reacting to the situation we found ourselves in with the legal challenge and we're planning to get this done in a shorter time frame, but that's not now that's where we are. >> Thanks, Joe. And I'll just add um since the last open comment, I appreciate you all come uh talking to the community about why and what needs to be closed and posting the map. So appreciate that. >> Thanks. >> Any other questions? >> Uh not seeing any other questions. So >> comment. >> Oh yeah. So we'll we have time for very brief council comments. >> Uh to Jess Hunt about the Boulderthon. Um yes, we've heard from about that and I I'm sure we're going to look into it for next year. And to Lara Gonzalez. Uh, yes, hate speech is allowed, but tonight's anti-Jewish hate rant was a new low as far as I was concerned. Am concerned.

0:54:09>> Thanks for that, T. Ryan. >> Just wanted to say a word of gratitude to the communications team. Uh, the their work is tireless and mostly thank thankless of uh making sure our community knows what they need to know and are engaged. And you're one of my favorite departments. Thanks. >> Thanks, Matt. Uh, real quick regarding CU South. Um, this has been one of the most long-term and publicly accessible and participated projects in the city's history going back well over a decade. Two community votes have been taken on it to further support the building of flood mitigation along South Boulder Creek. uh we couldn't have a more clear um mandate from community to move forward with this project and uh commend staff for working uh cleverly with the conditions that they've been given to meet that community mandate and do so with the minimal financial cost to our community. So uh good job staff, but also communities to recognize that uh two votes have been passed to say go forth and make this done. Um and that's that's our mandate. We're going to we're going to do that.

0:55:10>> Thanks. All right, seeing no other Oh, Nicole. >> Um, I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge our staff. Uh, they show up every day and serve this community with professionalism and respect even what they're when they're confronted with toxicity. Um, I think I can speak for all of us up here when I say that we great greatly appreciate their work and value the dignity and the safety of the people who keep our city running. Um, I'm really sorry that you're experiencing the negative impacts of some of this broader uh and growing anti-worker attitude in our city. Um, but I'm really glad you're here. Thank you. >> Well said, Nicole. Thank you. All right, seeing no others, I will go ahead and call a recess at 6:20 p.m. We'll come back at 6:30 to do the business portion of the meeting. Thanks, everybody.

1:05:25All right, everybody, if you can take your seats, please. All right, it's 6:30, so I'm going to go ahead and gave us back to order. And can we go to our consent agenda, please, Elicia? >> Yes, sir. Thank you. Our consent agenda is item three on tonight's agenda, and it consists of items 3A through 3H. >> Great. Any questions or comments on the consent agenda? >> We'll make a motion to pass the consent Consent consent agenda. >> Second. >> All right. Any We have a motion and a second. A roll call, please. Elicia. >> Yes, sir. We'll start the consent agenda for items 3A through 3H with Council Member Marquis. >> Yes. >> Shuhart. >> Yes. >> Spear. >> Yes. >> Mayor Pro Tim Winer. >> Yes. >> Council member Adams. >> Yes. >> Benjamin.

3A Consideration of a motion to accept the August 27, 2026 Study Session Summary regarding the 2026 Wildfire Resilience Council Priority Project

1:06:31>> Yes. Mayor Bronett, >> yes. >> And Council Member Kaplan, >> yes. >> The consent agenda items 3A through 3H are hereby approved unanimously. >> Thanks so much. Let's go to our callup check-in, please. >> Yes, sir. Our call-up check-ins are item five on tonight's agenda. I'm sorry, item four on tonight's agenda. 4A is the consideration of a site review application for a proposal to redevelop the Nuropa campus at 21106 and 21103 Arapjo Avenue with approximately 135 residential units in a variety of two to sixbedroom layouts located within two new buildings and the historic Lincoln Hall building. The site review proposal includes a request for a height modification to allow for the buildings to reach four stories and 55 ft in height. This is reviewed under application LUR2026-0000003. >> Thanks Alicia. Any questions or comments or desire to call this one? Tara, >> I was reading the letter from the one of the constituents and I am concerned about the um the the shadow impact to the houses that are on um that street to the west. And I was wondering, oh, I was thinking of calling it up, but I'm okay also to hear from the um developer as to how that is going to work and the massing and the setbacks in on that street, that particular street.

4A Consideration of a Site Review application for a proposal to redevelop the Naropa campus at 2106 and 2130 Arapahoe Ave. with approximately 135 residential units in a variety of two to six-bedroom layouts located within two new buildings and the historic Lincoln Hall building. The Site Review proposal includes a request for a Height Modification to allow for the buildings to reach four stories and 55 feet in height. Reviewed under application LUR2026-00003.

1:08:06>> So, if we can invite the applicant to come up and speak to council member Winer's uh question. >> What street that was? Marine Street, sorry. Adrien Sulfur, Sulfur Spar Architects. Uh the properties to the west are I'll need a moment to look at what the distances are, but we did a complete solar analysis per the city standards and we are at the narrowest about 40t away from that property line and then it gets as you go further north the property moves further west. So it increases from there. I I'm certain that if there were any concern relative to city standards for solar shadow, we would have heard about it from city staff, but I don't believe there's an issue there. >> And do you mind also talking about the the setbacks um why you could why you couldn't have more of a setback further from Marine Street? I did look at the um plans and it looked like it was pretty close, but what do I >> It's actually 40 ft is um it's it's significantly actually more than 40 ft. It's not dimension because I don't have that immediately available.

1:09:30If you give me a couple minutes, I'll look for the exact dimension. >> Well, while we're waiting for that, I'll just say I don't have an interest in calling this up. Um, I do appreciate the saving of the three Champion trees on the site. Those are community treasures, um, as well as the historic school building, which is another community treasure. And I'll just mention that Nuropa University itself is a community treasure, having been here in the city of Boulder for over 50 years. And while it's somewhat bittersweet to see it leaving this campus, we look forward to the institution's continued success um, after the sale and their continued presence in the Nandic campus on the east. I haven't found the exact sheet that shows the setbacks yet, but it's at least 50 ft. And in terms of um the shadows cast from the building to its west, I doubt very much that we are anywhere near the standards that the city has set for that.

1:10:42All right. >> Anything else? Okay. Anything from anybody else? All right. Not seeing anything else and we're not going to call that one up. And again, uh, good luck with the next phases for Nuropa. All right. We have one public hearing this evening. Let's go to that, please, Elicia. >> Yes, sir. Our public hearings are item number five on tonight agenda. Item 5A is the consideration of the following four items that are related to the 2027 budget. First will be the introduction and first reading of ordinance 8777 adopting a budget for the city of Boulder. The second ordinance to be considered is the introduction of ordinance 8778 establishing the city of Boulder property mill levies for 2026. The third item is the introduction of ordinance 8779 appropriating money to defay expenses and liabilities of the city of Boulder for the 2027 fiscal year. And lastly, we have the introduction of ordinance 8780, which is amending various titles in the Boulder Revised Code changing certain fees and taxes.

5A Consideration of the following items relating to the 2027 Budget: 1. Introduction, first reading, and consideration of a motion to order published by title only, Ordinance 8777 adopting a budget for the City of Boulder, Colorado, for fiscal year 2027; and setting forth related details; 2. Introduction, first reading, and consideration of a motion to order published by title only, Ordinance 8778 establishing the City of Boulder property tax mill levies for 2026; providing that said levy be certified to the Boulder County Assessor; and setting forth related details; 3. Introduction, first reading, and consideration of a motion to order published by title only, Ordinance 8779 appropriating money to defray expenses and liabilities of the City of Boulder, Colorado, for the 2027 fiscal year of the City of Boulder; and setting forth related details; and 4. Introduction, first reading, and consideration of a motion to order published by title only, Ordinance 8780 amending Title 2, ”Government Organization,” Title 3, ”Revenue and Taxation,” Title 4, ”Licenses and Permits,” Title 5, ”General Offenses,” Title 6, ”Health, Safety, and Sanitation,” Title 7, ”Vehicles, Pedestrians, and Parking,” and Title 8, ”Parks, Open Spaces, Streets, and Public Ways,” B.R.C. 1981, changing certain fees and taxes; and setting forth related details Staff Time: 20 Min Council Time: 100 Min

1:12:03>> Thank you, Elicia. Um, mayor and council members, we're back today to talk about the recommended budget for 2027. You'll hear a quick recap of our study session from last month, but I'll share a few remarks before I pass it on to the team. As I mentioned in September, I believe this budget reflects the priorities you and community have lifted up. Priorities that speak to safety in every sense of the word. wildfires, climate risk, policing, advancing our vision zero goals. Speaks to ensuring wellness at all ages and housing supports and leans into how we can continue to support those most vulnerable in community when other areas of our government systems are failing. It also reflects the very real and critical need to maintain our city assets in ways that best support community services and importantly continue to retain the very excellent staff that provide the services that the to provide the services that best serve our city. It also presents some real trade-offs and as we are not in a financial position to be all things to all people and the course we have been on for the past few years with our reduction strategies meant that this year was even harder as we felt the responsibility and the burden of having to reduce reduce both staff and services

1:13:10in new ways. I'm always excited when we see so much public attention being placed on the budget. And while I'm proud of the progress we've made over the past year, we remain committed to continuing on improving how we budget, how we measure, and importantly how we share that out with community. We provide a lot of services for community, but every year there are some topics that rise to the top of the public's collective interest. This year we have we have very much seen that with our efforts around wildfire resilience and your council priority and your hotlines are reflective of this fact as well. We of course saw that too in our fund our future conversations. You'll hear in tonight's presentation how we have incorporated this into our recommended budget and I hope you've had a chance to review the hotline responses as well and know that you have staff present tonight to respond to your specific inquiries. As we embark on this evening's discussion, we've also gotten some inquiries about what to expect later this month as you may not uh hear that in full tonight. The October 22nd study session will be the final presentation and discussion of your 2026 Wildfire Resilience Council priority.

1:14:16Put simply, staff will be responding to your direction to define what it means for Boulder to become a truly fire adapted community by undertaking an analysis of the comprehensive menu of mitigation measures the city is pursuing. Following your 2026 retreat, the scope of this project was defined as assessing city programs in interdep departmental coordination, emphasizing pragmatic, timely process within current resource restraints. Given the project's tight 10-month schedule and limited resources, existing plans and policies served as guardrails to focus and limit the analysis. So, for example, retroactive wildfire related code enforcement was not studied as it's not currently in our existing policy. On October 2 sec 22nd, we will be providing the complete detailed set of prioritized and measurable program areas and recommended adjustments to current strategy and investments for wildfire that staff have determined will make the greatest impact to risk reduction for our community. We will also lay out the current pace of progress to achieving identified metrics and targets for our highest priority programs areas within current funding and present a set of accelerated targets that could be met with enhanced capacity and/or funding.

1:15:27We will be seeking feedback from council on these prioritized program areas, metrics, targets, and the pace in which progress is achieved. I'll add for our part that the intention of the study session was not necessarily to recommend immediate funding enhancements. However, we recognize that city council's interest may have evolved over the course of the 2027 budget preparation. If council decides tonight to amend the 2027 recommended budget, the wildfire team will be able to respond to any funding increases based on the foundation of work that we that will be presented on the 22nd. That said, the team is also in progress in progress of actively pursuing grants through the first quarter of 2027 that total over $10 million. If council should choose not to amend the 2027 budget tonight, but there is interest in additional investment following the October 22nd study session, staff will be prepared to bring back options to meet the desired direction, including trade-offs and realignments to existing budgets before the end of the year. We would then seek direction from council on a path forward and any necessary budget adjustments would be presented through an adjustment to the base budget in the first half of 2027.

1:16:32The time in between your direction and a formal adjustment to base will be a val will be valuable so that we can learn the results of the grant applications the city is submitting and to allow for work plan changes and beginning our internal processes so we know how to use any additional funding in new ways. And while there is staff here to answer those questions let us first I believe take a step back and go to the budget presentation as a whole. So with that I pass it on to Charlotte. Good evening, council members. Charlotte Husky, budget officer with the city to provide a brief presentation on the 2027 recommended budget. Mo most of this will be uh um repeat from the study session from uh earlier uh last month. So, uh we're we will plan to uh cover an overview of the 2027 recommended uh budget, including the operating budget and the CIP, speaking to specific highlights incorporated into the 2027 budget.

1:17:27Starting first with an overview of our major budget assumptions for 2027. Key consideration and budget assumptions focused on balancing um the budget for the 2027 recommended budget. Uh flattening of our our city's major revenue sources, inflationary impacts on operating costs, impacts of recent state legislation, and heightened economic uncertainty. With our revised revenue forecast, city staff shared forward at the May financial forecast a projected budget shortfall if left unressed with specific focus on balancing against the $6.3 million projected gap in the general fund which comprises 34% of the city's budget. The budget balanced operating expenses against flattening revenues with ongoing reductions performed, realignments across funds and prioritization of investments using a datadriven framework including operational performance measures, historical trends and forecasts, community budget engagement, and citywide strategic plan and city council top priorities. The 2027 recommended budget totals 552.6 6 million across all funds, which includes an operating budget of 417.2 million, representing the second slowest operating budget growth the city has seen since the pandemic period at 2.35% year-over-year. And a capital budget of 135.4 million, which prioritizes ongoing maintenance of city facilities and taking care of the city's existing assets. The 2027 recommended budget brought forward to city council is balanced and uplifts recent input received from community uh from fund our future community priorities. It advances the citywide strategic plan, city

1:19:15council top priorities, and continues to invest and prioritize criticality of city services for community members. Our forecasted revenues for 2027 reflect the continued trend of slow growth that the city has seen since the end of 2023, particularly for our major revenue sources of sales and use tax and property tax, which accounts for 60% of all city revenues when we exclude utility revenues. Our total projected revenues for 2027 are 527.1 million. For sales and use tax, which comprise 35% of the city's revenues, year-over-year, the year-over-year change is forecasted at 3.3%. And as mentioned at in the May financial forecast, the city's revi the city revised its original 2026 forecast to lower the anticipated revenues for 2026 based on economic uncertainty and this lowered base for 2026 impacted the 2027 budget development. The forecast for property tax which comprises 11% of the city of city revenues is a 6% yearover-year increase.

1:20:26Property taxes have been impacted recently uh by state legislation uh as well as uh flattening actual value growth which has lowered assessed property values and therefore less revenue collection. Other notable changes in the 2027 budget include the transportation maintenance fee implementing this fee planned for 2027 with a conservative estimate at 3 million. an additional uh increase in our recreational marijuana sales uh tax, which is increasing our tax rate from 3.5% to 5.5%, helping to offset the state's recent legislation that reduced the the entire uh city shareback of state collected marijuana uh revenues. This also brings Boulder more in line with our neighboring municipalities. For our cash and loo revenues, our estimated increase is 11% driven by anticipated revenues to be received from housing projects such as or excuse me from uh development projects such as the redevelopment of Williams Village, Boulder Dinner Theater, and 30th and Bluff. And finally, for utilities revenues, our forecasted increase of 6.8% 8% uh are driven by proposed fee changes uh included included in the 2027 budget that increase fees by 5% for water utilities, 7% for wastewater utilities, and 7% for storm water flood management utilities to support the utilities enterprise.

1:22:03So our city's budget development focuses on key pillars for decision-making as listed here. These pillars drive budget decision-making and inform tradeoffs during budget balancing years, including for the upcoming 2027 fiscal year. We focus on the alignment with the city's sustainability, equity, and resilience framework using datadriven decisions using our uh programmatic outcomes and performance measures. our historical trends and revenue and spending forecasts. Community budget engagement helps to inform our uh budget process, including the extensive uh community engagement efforts that we performed with fund our future earlier this spring. alignment with the guidelines of the long-term financial strategy, including uplifting our principles of revenue diversity, flexibility, and stability. And finally, uplifting of city council top priorities. Fund our future conversations, as shared on the prior slide, informed our budget decisions that have been incorporated into the 2027 recommended budget. In the spring of this year, we engaged with over 500 community members on trade-offs of 25 community-f facing city services and service levels falling within 12 broader categories as listed on this slide. These discussions emphasized the need to perform trade-off of city service levels. So, if interested in increasing service levels in one area, community members had to draw from another service area. This exercise helped community members recognize the demand on city services and the difficulty in balancing against city

1:23:42service demands and the continued constraints on the city's budget and the pressures of our financial landscape. Community member priorities of city services are highlighted here uh in blue across the table on this slide which includes prioritizing wildfire ongoing investments in municipal infrastructure, public safety services in addition to affordable housing. As we share forward the highlights on the upcoming slides, you'll see these investments of wildfire, public safety, and municipal infrastructure incorporated and reflected in the 2027 recommended budget. As a reminder of the city's budgetary growth and changes in recent years, this slide shows a comparison of the city's adopted budgets from 2019 to 2026 and the recommended budget for 2027 with the citywide budget and including the operating and capital budget on the top line, the city's operating budget represented on the middle line here, and the general fund budget uh in this yellow bottom line. Post pandemic, we saw strong revenue growth in sales and use tax and in property taxes. And in turn, we invested this additional revenue in new ongoing programs and services that contributed to items such as homelessness efforts, behavioral health response, wildfire resilience, public safety, and affordable housing.

1:25:05We began to see sales and use tax flatten at the end of 2023. And with this reduction to our original forecasts, the city turned focus on strategic use of one-time fund balance for one-time investments in the 2024 and 2025 budgets. The city's sales and use tax and property taxes were further impacted by economic uncertainty and state legislation in 2025, which resulted in an identified uh shortfall midyear in 2025 with the city performing a hiring freeze and identifying departmental one-time savings and the need to reduce and balance the budget in 2026 against the 7.5 million uh forecasted gap in the general fund. This resulted in the slowest operating budget growth for the city since the pandemic period at 2.09%. Finally, the 2027 recommended budget balanced against the $6.3 million shortfall projected shortfall in the general fund if left unressed, leading to another year of reductions and slow growth in the city's operating budget.

1:26:09The 2027 recommended operating budget totals 417.24 24 million, a 2.35% increase over the 2026 approved budget, marking the second slowest operating budget growth since the pandemic period. The 2027 operating budget annual growth sits below the US as well as the Denver Aurora Lakewood forecasted inflation rates for 2027 at 2.5 and 2.6% respectively. Primary cost drivers for the operating budget include wages and benefits for personnel, internal service costs such as fleet replacement, fleet service charges and technology costs, and existing contractual increases related to city operations programs and services. The budget performed ongoing reductions and realignments using lens a lens of criticality as well as our key pillars for datadriven decision-making. And on the next several slides, I'll share the highlights of significant changes incorporated into our operating budget. First, starting with wildfire resilience and response. As shown on prior slides, fund our future community member input, prioritize wildfire investments as a top priority across our in-person and online community feedback forums. The city has uplifted these investments with over 10.9 million in funding in the 2027 budget with significant year-over-year changes, including a one-time increase of 300,000 to support uh the city's wildfire ready top priorities in addition to a conversion of an existing fixedterm position to a fuels management program manager who will help to lead a formal WOOI fuels mitigation crew in the

1:27:54open space and mountain parks department. Additionally, given general fund constraints as well as uplifting wildfire as a top priority, the 2027 budget realign a total of 180,000 in funding from the general fund to the open space fund to support the wildfire rescue uh wildland unit who spend approximately 90% of their time on open space land. Police lieutenants uh are incorporated uh into the 2027 budget uh with an increase of three uh new police lieutenants supporting another priority that we heard from community members and fund our in the fund our future uh feedback in investing more in public safety. A total of 552 uh,000 in ongoing funding will support these three new lieutenants to act in a supervisory role over each watch, providing additional oversight and management and helping to further implement the reimagined policing plan.

1:28:56Incorporated into the 2027 recommended budget are addition are additional enhancements for homelessness and affordable housing, including 300,000 in one-time funding for the building home program and 72,000 for the flexible resolution program to help newly housed individuals transition into stable living situations and avoid homelessness through pure support, housing retention, and reunification services. There are significant investments in affordable housing in the 2027 budget, including 5.3 million for the Alpine Balsam site, supporting the city's largest affordable housing projects with 144 units. There's a total of 4.1 million in an affordable housing for affordable housing developments of 44 permanently affordable town homes on 34th Street and preparing for the Valmont site in East Boulder to develop approximately 18 to 20 permanently affordable homes which will be built using the city's modular factory. We recognize there's been a lot of conversation around spruce cool spruce pool at this year's budget and this year's budget highlights uh shares one of the trade-offs that staff staff has had to make. One-time dollars will fund spruce pool operations through the end of 2027. The cost of operating pools has increased significantly and the city has felt particularly inflation particular inflationary pressures post pandemic with cost increases to wages, chemicals and utilities.

1:30:31For ongoing costs of chemicals and gas and electric, recent years have seen an increase of 12% and 40% respectively. This proposed reduction minimizes community impact based upon usage data across the entire pool system. Recognizing that for those that use the facility and the impact is harder felt as we look holistically across the system, something we do for all of our services. The reality is that Spruce Pool serves fewer swimmers in community than other city pools. We note that parks and recreation are having ongoing conversations with spruce pool users and we will come back to this council on the on this uh uh topic for spruce pool operations in 2028. Additionally, based on data showing underutilization of the child watch program at East Boulder Community Center, the 2027 recommended budget reduces the child watch program at the community center and instead community members will have child watch services available at the North Boulder Recreation Center. Moving forward, there is a total of 36 uh,000 for an ongoing enhancement supporting snow and ice technology. uh enhancements funded by the transportation fund to support road weather information system cameras uh for snow and ice uh response technology as well as sensors for routing and navigation. And finally, the 2027 operating budget continues to support the long-term financial strategy principles of flexibility of funding.

1:32:10And an example of this is a $250,000 ongoing realignment from the sugar sweetened beverage distribution tax fund to support health equity outcomes through parks and recreations for parks and recreation's existing uh recreation programs. This funding will continue to fall within the framework framework of the existing housing and human services health equity programming. And shifting to speak a couple of slides on the six-year CIP, the 2027 capital budget totals 135.4 million and 827.7 million across the six-year capital planning horizon, supporting capital improvement programs across seven departments and 19 funds. Funds with primary revenues from utility user charges, sales and use tax, and property tax. In 2027, major capital investments include maintenance and infrastructure of the city's utilities such as water pipeline repair and dam stability, as well as transportation such as pavement management and bridge replacement and city facilities such as the community and recreation centers, parking garages, and fire stations on an annual basis.

1:33:25It's important to note that over 75% of the capital budget supports utilities and transportation infrastructure and maintenance on core projects such as water pipeline repair and flood plane mitigation. Additionally, over 50% of the city's capital budget invests in ongoing capital maintenance of city infrastructure and assets and total spending fluctuates annually based on the phasing of planned capital projects and project scope, our timing and funding and availability. funding availability and our financing plans. One of the major capital funds supporting citywide capital infrastructure is the community culture resilience and safety tax fund. Across the six-year CIP, there's a total of 126.1 million to support 16 capital projects, including a planned debt issuance of 96.2 2 million to support the replacement of fire station 2, Boulder Creek Park phase 2, and the East Boulder Community Center re renovation.

1:34:25And importantly, voter approval from last year of the CCRS tax permanent extension enabled the city to consider funding and financing plans across our capital planning horizon and invest an additional 27.9 million across the six-year CIP for facilities maintenance, which uplifts the recommendations from the 2021 facilities plan and input from fund our future conversations where community members prioritized investments in ongoing ing maintenance of city facilities and rounding out with a long-term financial strategy. Our long-term financial strategy was indicated a top council priority in 2024 and city city staff have focused on uh this priority priority by focusing on reducing the over over reliance on sales and use tax, increasing our flexibility of funds, diversifying our revenues, and identifying core city services to support long-term fiscal health for the city. long uh the long-term financial strategy key components and advancements are listed on this slide and include the development of a long-term comprehensive financial plan which will come forward to city council this December.

1:35:43Exploring alternative revenue mechanisms to increase revenue diversity and stability. Performing an inventory of city service levels against criticality of city services and performing fund our future community conversations. And finally, a multi-year ballot measure strategy which supported the permanent extension of the CCRS tax in 2025 and in 2026 focuses on city facilities infrastructure with the recreation and safety bond. Finally, staff provided a summary of board and commission recommendations in last week's memo shared with city council, which is summarized here by board and commission with additional motions and not motions and notes summarized as well regarding the motions from board and commissions on passage uh and uh um those motions um listed here on the table. Next steps in the 2027 uh recommended budget staff uh uh will bring forward uh second reading after this evening's uh first hearing uh with a public hearing and budget adoption. And in addition to uh the second reading for the the city budget, we will also bring forward our special district resolutions for the city's uh special districts.

1:37:02And uh closing us out uh with council questions, public hearing, and motion language for the 2027 budget for our four motions uh listed here when ready. >> Thanks so much, Charlotte. Really appreciate the presentation and all the work that you and your team have done on this budget. Uh questions from council. What I'm going to ask is that we keep our questions to two per person for the first round and then we can circle back around if people have additional ones. Who'd like to start with a question? Well, maybe maybe there are no questions. No, Tina and then Matt. >> Um yeah, uh first thank you for all the information and for uh responding to the hotlines. One of the questions I have is we didn't um budget in any positive impact from revenues from the Sundance Film Festival, but I am um and I have two questions about that. One is did we budget in anticipated costs to support the festival? And then second, at what time in the process in the following year would we talk about how to allocate any revenues from Sundance that we haven't budgeted?

1:38:12>> Thank you for the question, council member. So uh we have uh not incorporated revenues or expenses into the 2027 budget. Um, one of the items that we anticipate performing after uh the the January festival is taking a look at our revenues and expenses and getting a sense of our um uh uh increase in revenues across our taxes uh in particular uh as well as our expenses that we have um particularly considering some of the public safety expenses um that we we will need to consider for the Sundance Film Festival. Um we will uh be uh looking at that um post January. Um any increase uh in uh uh potential revenues or expenses um that we might need to um consider looking at uh uh for a potential ATB adjustment would come forward uh in the first ATB in May and June. Um uh and our revenue forecast as we do on an annual basis would be incorporated into our annual budgeting process uh that starts in March of next year. Um but uh our May financial forecast can also bring forward some information related to that.

1:39:28>> And so and so we haven't budgeted any overtime yet for public safety. We just have the base. >> We have the base uh incorporated in for overtime for public safety. Correct. based on uh historical trends. >> Okay. And then my other question is really specific. Um we some many of us just went and toured a public safety room at the public safety building and learned a little bit about our drones. Um are the drones that can do the thermal detection, are those fully paid by the police department or is that a shared expense with the wildfire department? I wasn't sure who because they're also used for the wildfire piece along with um non- wildfire safety uh ones. Uh so the drones are incorporated as one-time uh costs uh that we have for uh the 2020 2026 budget incorporated currently.

1:40:28>> Okay. So they're done. They're okay. Great. Thank you. that then term. >> Thank you. Thanks for the reminder presentation. It's it's a lot of information to compress and just do a few minutes. So I appreciate that. Um my question has to do with um kind of front running our October 22nd meeting because we're a little out of phase and out of sequence and I know that that's just a scheduling thing that has occurred, but nonetheless it's consequential um that we're talking about the budget yet in 3 weeks we'll be debating whether we spend more or less money on wildfire. So my real question is knowing that's 3 weeks away, um I'd like to know we've got a we must have a ballpark estimate for what that enhanced mitigation uh we don't need the details because that'll come, but we we must have some estimate so that we would have some indication tonight whether or not there's a desire to uh set aside any money in ahead of that meeting.

1:41:15>> Thank you for the question, council member. I will defer to our director of open space and mountain parks to share some information related to that. >> Right. Good evening, council. Dan Burke, director of open space and mountain parks. Yeah, we're really looking forward to the October 22nd conversation. We have we've been work in fact we just got through workshopping today. We've got I think two or three more workshops ahead of time to get prepared to finalize everything for you. We are getting a sense of uh so just a reminder that out of the 10 highest priority program areas that we presented to you in August, we are developing measurements for each of those 10 high priority uh program areas. In addition to that, we are also costing out what that current capacity would be in order to meet those measurements and targets uh that we're setting based on current capacities. We're going a step further as well and developing an enhanced measurement that if we had enhanced capacity, here's how that measurement and target could change uh with enhanced or realigned or both uh in terms of our capacity. So that's a lot of what we'll be bringing to you in October. But you're right, we are starting to develop that costing estimate and we have a range for you that uh may change because

1:42:30this is uh kind of an early delivery of that with some workshopping to come. But, uh, if you total up, if we wanted to go full enhancement on all 10 of those program areas, which I think is a good conversation for us to have because we may be satisfied with our current pace on some of those program areas, but that would estimate a range anywhere from 6.5 to 10.5 million of enhanced dollars that would support a full acceleration. >> Uh, great. I appreciate that. So, six and six and a half to about 10 and a half would be the sort of full monty more or less of what that enhanced. Are you prepared for conversations of anything in between or is it kind of an all or nothing? I'm just sort of again setting up what tonight's conversation might be about where council might be comfortable somewhere in that stage or not if there was a desire to sort of commit some resources to that. The upcoming um sort of decision workshops that staff is having is going to be uh coming to coalescing that uh out of those 10 program areas staff have an opinion of which of these 10 program areas are right for enhancement that could have the biggest impact for mitigating our risk. So uh uh like I

1:43:39said there could be a few where we are staff is satisfied with our current pace and that measurement that we're going to hit in 2030 is sort of thumbs up in our opinion and then that was what we would like to discuss with you is there's these uh several others that uh may uh may benefit uh from hitting a a measurement and a target that's more aggressive and let's have that conversation. >> Great. So that's perfect Dan I appreciate that. So it seems that anywhere from status quo to anywhere between six and a half to 10 million is kind of the spectrum that we're looking at for where we would enhance and we'll have those metrics and performance and and sort of take our experts um uh uh you know perspective on how to sort of maximize cost benefit there. But it's really between th that those two bookends is what I Okay, great. Thank you for the update. Appreciate >> it. T >> um in regards to re realignment of 2.0 FTEES in the general fund from the communications department um to a new office of customer experience. So my question is is does that office of customer experience include people coming to the planning and development physically coming to the planning and development department to get their

1:44:59answers to their questions and other people like community members who are looking for questions answered that day. So can you describe that department? >> Sure. Uh super excited to talk about it. Right now it is starting as a office within the city manager's office. We're simply incubating um the office. I expect at some point it will flourish into something uh more permanent. But this is uh an effort and it is uh led right now by uh folks in our innovation team, our innovation arm of IT who are really thinking about what we have heard what you uh know what we know is that people are hungry for a kind of a one-stop shop if you will of how do I get the majority of my questions answered and to that we have been thinking about what are the ways in which we leverage our um new building in Alpine Balsam. It will have a customer service hub uh or center. Um it is a place where um whereas for most in community when they come to ask a question they don't necessarily care which department it is from. Can you help me with a pet license? Can you help me with my rental license? My water bill is too high. And by the way, I've got a permitting question. They want to figure

1:46:11that all all out in one stop instead of being shuttled. Right? This is a common city uh issue and our team has been doing a lot of sprints, a lot of process mapping and really thinking through what will that look like um as we move forward. So we have uh we will be moving into this direction um all throughout next year um those two staffers are initial but we believe it's around 17 staff that will come from across the city. Job descriptions are being um reviewed and looked at right now. We've actually uh there's uh council member Shuhard has asked for some additional information. I know just today I had a conversation with uh council member Benjamin as well. We are looking for an opportunity to come to you and to bring that forward in a matters item. But that is the intent of that new program.

1:47:04>> And my second question is you know the anticipated gap of 6.3 million. Are you saying that this budget takes care of that? It removes the gap. >> The budget brought forward is balanced and so there is not a gap associated with Yeah. >> Tyan then Rob and then Ryan. >> Thank you. Um this is actually another one for Dan. So um this is related to the agricultural plan. It was wonderful to see um that the staff is already doing an analysis um for that. But my specific question was actually updating the plan and I know that currently the um agricultural team which is doing a wonderful job uh from the feedback that we've gotten from um our lees but there it seems a bit insular. So I'm just curious if in that planning process there'll be opportunities for more community engagement and out you know out beyond the staff and also if open space would be involved in that. So sorry that was a little rambly. Let me cut to the chase scenes. Um, it sounds like you're doing the beginning of the update to the 10-year-old agricultural plan in 2027 via the analysis, data analysis. And I was curious if you were anticipating be able being able to complete that process in 2017 um for the development of a new

1:48:25plan or if that's something that you were looking for later on. >> Great. Thank you for your question, council member. Um, so regarding the 2017 plan, I'll say a couple of things up front and then I'll directly ask answer your question. The 2017 agricultural plan was our first agricultural plan. So it was a very robust uh process. We we heavily engaged our local farmer and rancher community. Uh uh we had a number of board touches. Council was involved. Uh so it was a very and I would also say because it was our ours our first and it was a time of sort of changing of a lot of things within our agricultural it was a very innovative and forwardthinking plan. So some of the aspects that the plan addressed were some things that we were either just dipping our fingers in or really not doing that much at all. And I'm talking about work workforce housing that our our agricultural plan addresses. Uh diversifying our uh uh the crops and and productions and focusing more on local foods. Um uh irrigation infrastructure uh uh uh bring it tying our community more into our agriculture. Um just a number of different things that were forward thinking. So, as we have begun and we're just in the beginning stages of that assessment, we actually uh uh

1:49:45feel like as of right now that if we did updates to the plan, it would be more of a scalpel update. We feel like the innovations that were called for in terms of diversifying uh bringing on uh new generation of farmers, supporting them through agricultural housing that all those major tenants are still really core tenants of where we're at today and we're making steady progress on it. So I I don't want to give you an end result of that internal assessment, but right now it would be pointing toward more a scalpel approach rather than a full-fledged update of the plan in 2027. >> Okay. Um so just a point of clarification, I think the areas I'm specifically talking about, I first of all just want to recognize that most cities don't even have agricultural plans. So this isn't a criticism. I've already done an analysis and I've really appreciated how forward thinking that is. It's more so a concern as our inter as our food costs continue to arise, our restaurants are challeng are going to be continue to challenge um on accessing and securing food as the sec chain is starting to to absolutely deconstruct.

1:50:53So, one of the couple of areas and gaps in the plan that I'm hopeful will get addressed is around um reporting and tracking on how much food is actually being rode by the leies where that food goes to and is it going to both restaurants and to our most vulnerable. Um in addition, the land back and opportunities for tribe that rubric really is thin and doesn't allow um you know enough percentage points. So, those are the kinds of things I wasn't expecting a rework, but more so addressing some of the gaps that would make that plan good to great. Thank you. >> Those are great comments. Thank you, >> Robin. Then Ryan, >> thank you. And thank you for the analysis and all staff members that have done work on this. Um, speaking to folks from OSMP, I mean, you guys are really doing a great job out there, and I was lucky enough to have a two-hour tour with uh Brian Anaker, Paul Ostro, and they just really um highlighted some of the things that you're doing. That that said, I mean, this is the most existential threat that we face as wildfire um coming through Boulder. You look at Maui and they've got a $4 billion dollar lawsuit against them for um evacuation and planning and I just

1:52:14want to get way ahead of that. Um I know we've got some big numbers out there for um an enhanced plan through 2030, but I think we also have some some current numbers. Speaking to staff, um it sounds like there's about there's over $300,000 uh for this year that could be used for fuels mitigation, hiring crews, equipment, and another $250ish for burn plans in the 12 zones of the WOOI. And if I'm off on any of this, please please correct me. Um so call that $600,000. I also understand there are some big grants um the CWDG grant that could be $10 million um it's not for sure obviously. So my question is with that current amount that $600,000 up to you know the total 5.85 that we would need total for um the enhanced. Can we take a portion of that and hold it whether it's the $600,000 and I would refer to staff like what is the what is the current need right now so that we don't get ourselves into a situation I mean it November's coming up we're going to have shinook winds and then people are going to see it and god forbid we have a fire I just want to stay ahead of this so could we hold a minimum of $600,000 until our October

1:53:51meeting when we get more information or does that need to be even more? Thank you for the question, Council Member Kaplan. And uh to confirm on the um the the the question on holding funding, can uh you help to clarify where we're um >> Yeah, I can. >> Thank you. >> Sorry. um through some of the uh the capital improvement projects. Can we hold off on some of those capital improvement projects for OSMP? >> So I believe and and let me just make sure that we're understanding correctly. I think when we talk about holding I believe it's like can we allocate some money dedicated for what we think will be this outcome because we don't generally put a hold in the budget right as as much as we allocate. And I think I understand where you're talking about.

1:54:47And if the amount is let's say 600,000, where could we reflect that? What is the funding source for that? There's a different question for that. And whether that can come from capital improvement projects or whether there are other um funding sources that would account for let's for now just using the 600,000. Um how could that be allocated? Does that get to your question? >> It it does. I'm I'm trying to like I'm trying to bridge the gap of what we actually need >> for 2030 and what we need today. >> So I I believe and I'll um let staff it's it's to me a question of whether or not we um shift and we allocate uh an amount and we're just using right now $600,000 and then what would be the impact of that shift because it has to come from somewhere. So where would we reflect that in the budget?

1:55:35Yeah, I'm happy to uh to to share broadly in terms of of process. One of the items that um we shared forward with city council is the uh proposed uh council budget amendments. Um given the balancing that uh we've incorporated into the 2027 budget, we would need to identify a funding source. And so that funding source could be um looking at as you uh mentioned uh uh reallocation of uh uh capital projects and prioritization of capital projects. It could be looking at um our our fund balance uh or items sitting uh within uh fund balance. That would be something that we would need to uh understand uh potential impacts uh to um uh the uh particular program areas that that we're um considering or capital projects that we are delaying. Um and I don't know if uh um uh uh director uh uh Dan Burke is interested in sharing any additional information.

1:56:43>> Yeah, thank you. Um yeah, in terms of I think what we're talking about is the open space fund. So first and foremost and with that we're we're talking about the three highest priority program areas that the open space leads and that would be the prescribed burn program area, the WOIS fuel mitigation and the fuel brakes program. So just to be clear that any reallocation within the open space funds would be sort of going to those three buckets and uh and not the other seven. So, but what I'm hearing you that that that's your that's your entry. >> That's exactly. >> So, within the open space fund, um you know, if there's a pref preference on the director's standpoint, uh the uh high level flexibility and how how we do that with that reallocation or that realignment would be preferred. Um it uh certainly some could come out of operating uh some can come out of fund balance perhaps reserve um uh if if needed we could touch and and eliminate or cut uh a capital improvement project or reduce a capital improvement project.

1:57:52Um once we're sort of talking about above 600,000 then we start getting into other other impacts. Um, and especially if we start getting over a million dollars, then we are talking staff reduction because that's just where we're at with the amount of reductions the open space fund and the open space department is already sort of in progress with. So, if there is uh support by council to look at a $600,000 reallocation realignment within the open space fund, I would love to use uh Charlotte's talent to to make that as high level and flexible as possible. Can I call a quu just um is that level of reallocation detail necessary for a decision we're making in three weeks? And so that that's really I think and I mean maybe I think that's part of where Rob's going is we're in the budget conversation now and therefore if we were to put a hold on the money determining exactly what bucket it comes from is that really relevant to a decision we're going to make in 3 weeks.

1:58:58What it is trying to say is rather than make that decision in May of next year, we could be putting a hold on some of that money now and if on the 22nd we decide some variety of that allocart of enhanced at that moment that council will would then trigger that conversation for where exactly we get the pot. So I'm wondering like why did it need to be decided now? It's just three weeks but it's allowing us to consider having that money now versus waiting till May to decide where that comes from. So I I can >> I was going to call aqu because it might be if I can add my question. Can we also go through the process of the October 22 meeting and then give direction through the ATB process in December rather than going to May so that we could still get the money allocated by the end of this year um but do it through the ATB process without um allocating it now.

1:59:49Um, I'm happy to to start on that. To the uh question from council member Benjamin. Um, the the identified funding source, we will want to understand where we are drawing the funds to be able to support. So, we uh in terms of level of detail are looking for funding source to be able to help understand where we would draw funds from. um that if we're looking at an enhancement, an increase in appropriation, we would need to uh understand if we're uh looking at drawing from fund balance or for reser or or uh potentially reserves, for example. Um whether or not we're looking at a realignment of delaying capital projects, for example. That would not adjust our appropriation. Um, but we would want to incorporate that into motion language that you all consider and pass uh uh tonight.

2:00:54>> So, Charlotte, I'm going to follow up here because Tina's question was could could we reallocate later in the year in the ATB process? >> Yes, we we could uh look to reallocate later in this year. Um I think the um I think the item to note related to potential reallocation is the level of reallocation that we're looking at um with our ATB process for uh the end uh of the year. We typically perform a reconciliation of items. We bring forward grants that we've received midy year. It's uh not uh large sweeping multi-million dollar um draws uh that we're looking at from fund balance at the end of the year. Um particularly given our 2027 recommended budget is developed using the 2026 estimates that we have. >> But but it seems like the answer is yes though, right? like subject to potentially maybe not too much money otherwise it could be disruptive. it is and we have I don't know if it is useful but we have a timeline slide if we wanted to use that in our >> I mean I think just the answer of yes is probably good enough >> then yes it is >> okay great thank you >> yeah um another coloquy okay >> it's a a similar thing um I I guess I'm

2:02:17just wondering uh do we have any kind of programmatic uh way or process of determining um whose special proposed project um would get more funding Um, like I see some of the Spruce pool advocates out in the audience. Um, I know they would like uh their their pool funded. Um, I know not many people use the the child watch program at East Boulder Community Center, but I expect those who do can't be here tonight. Um, and probably aren't excited about it going away. I mean, like on and on, right? So, so I guess my do we have anything to help ground a decision to uh reallocate funding from one program to another place? um that that is sort of standardized, rigorous, like anything that we could say this is um we're following some sort of decision-making process here.

2:03:12>> Uh I would say we're in the midst of some of that. Uh council member, I mean, we um provide you and and Charlie, you can kick me under the proverbial table. You're probably close enough to kick me physically. Um we come to you in study session. We ask you for what your requests are. Um, we certainly know that all of that it it took us a long time to figure out where to put forward the recommended budget and the trade-offs associated with that. If there are changes to be made, it is these conversations that we should have. Um, and at this stage, the trade-off conversation of and and certainly Charlotte and the team has been good about figuring out a form that really speaks to um impacts and sources of funds depending on what your requests are. Uh, it is this council conversation um that allows uh you all to really think about what are the other balancing um and competing priorities um that you would like us to really consider. If it is you're certainly um we go through this uh often about what those um asks from community are often um and it is this opportunity to lay before your colleagues uh well perhaps I understand that one priority is important but I also have this competing

2:04:28priority and how do we reconcile and that would be something that we defer to your all's conversation with our support. >> What did I get wrong in that Charlotte? Well, and sorry, I I didn't mean to imply that like staff would would do this up for us. I was just wondering if we have any um council. That That's all. >> That's fine. Okay. I think we're back to Ryan now. Over to Ryan. >> Okay. Also on the subject of the wildfire protection proposal that is not yet completed, but which we are discussing. Um so my understanding um is that the current budget proposal and thanks to you Charlotte for the hotline which went through some of this. The current proposal that we are considering passing tonight has what seems to me as a as an enhanced level of wildfire strategies.

2:05:19Um it seems to be that it's reflective of that we we've going we're going through this work plan priority this whole initiative. It seems to be anticipating um an increase in attention and and higher level of strategy. And my impression is it also seems to have attention to not just spending money on um operations or services but but to developing programmatic approaches that are part of the future. I realize we haven't gotten to the actual wild proposal because it's not till October 22nd, but can you just characterize as far as the range of things go? I heard status quo as referenced as as the baseline, but it seems like the baseline of accepting the proposal today is not status quo for wildfire. We actually have a there's like a pretty meaningful new plan for wildfire in the budget that we're considering proposing. So, could you or anybody speak to that?

2:06:10>> Yeah, I I'm happy to start and I know director uh uh Burke can can add uh any additional information here. Um the uh 2027 recommended budget includes a total of about 10.9 million in wildfire investments across the operating budget and the capital budget. That includes an increased amount year-over-year from 2026 to 2027 of about 1.6 million both on the operating side as shared forward in the presentation earlier as well as on the capital side. The capital side totaling uh 870 uh uh,000 in 2027 alone. Um there are additional um uh uh hundreds uh uh of thousands of um of dollars and I know my uh we can share for the the total number uh for the CIP across the six-year period. Um that also invests in wildfire uh investments across the six-year horizon. Um and so that is uplifting what we heard from Fender Future um community uh engagement. and it's building upon um the uh work that the cross departmental wildfire team does.

2:07:21There's also the additional 300,000 in one-time funds to support wildfire ready priorities that is uh going to uh help to uplift the work that the cross departmental wildfire team will be bringing forward to you all uh on October 22nd. And and in addition to this, Nuria mentioned this in the uh introduction, but there is a there are several grants that staff are seeking that are uh could be significantly impactful um in the range of uh you know 10 to 11 million uh dollars um that staff is uh actively pursuing and planning to apply for um to help uh wildfire um investments uh moving forward. If I could just add one more minute to that, uh, council member, I think the last program area that I would describe as status quo, it would be our wildfire program. Um, if I were to set a baseline on what status quo was, I probably would put it at 2020, 2021. Ever since Marshall, it's been anything but status quo. Every year has been an acceleration. Uh I think we explained in the hotline post that acceleration could be seen by increased dollars. I think uh which has happened obviously over the past I know from an open space department we were spending under $2 million on wildfire uh resilience in 2021 2022 period. We're closing the open

2:08:51space fund now 6 million. So that's a tripling of investments dollar-wise. But the realignments uh and the refocusing and this is what the October 22nd will really go into is with all that capacity of the 113 staff throughout the city that are working on wildfire resilience. How can we do it more effectively, efficiently, and more prioritized? And that's where the WOOI risk and desk comes into play. That's where prioritizing our program areas come into play. and how can we take all the existing uh capacities and realign them to have the biggest bang for the buck to address those highest uh priority mitigation strategies and that's happening daily uh I can attest to that and uh so in addition to the budget align uh enhancements that are displayed or that was just described uh the realignments uh uh in addition to the grants is how I would describe moving well off a status quo below.

2:09:50>> Good enough. We got Nicole and then I have one question. >> Um, thank you so much for the presentation and all the work. I know it isn't easy to propose this budget. Um, because you and the services you provide to community are directly impacted. Um, could you speak a little bit to how our departments have evolved over the past 5 years to incorporate equity into every financial decision um, including when we have to make cuts like this? How do we do this at a citywide scale? Yeah, thank you for the question, council member. So, our equity considerations are embedded throughout our annual budget process. It's a key part of our budgeting framework that we've performed for uh aligning our budget to the sustainability, equity, and resilience framework. Um, part of this effort comes forward with the work that the city has performed in recent years with shifting from a traditional increment-based budgeting approach to outcomesbased budgeting and now furthering that with looking at uh our city service levels and uh criticality across the city services. We've uh also performed community engagement efforts. So, uh, departments, uh, have traditionally performed community engagement as part of their, um, budgetary process, their work planning process. And the city began to, uh, look at citywide community budget engagement about three years ago

2:11:11and incorporating that, starting with community connectors and residents um, and being very intentional about utilizing their input to help to support the decisions that are incorporated as a key pillar into budget decision-making. And we've built upon that over the past three years um with the work that we did with our spring engagement with fund our future uh community conversations. In particular with the fund our future community conversations, we focused on uh in-person um and online uh conversations that included uh focused efforts on our uh uh community connectors and residents, our youth, older adult services. is we had a Spanish first uh session. Um and this engagement that we uh heard back with over 500 community members again served as a key pillar um for our our budget decision-making process. >> Thank you. Um and I just had one other question. Um you we discussed early on in some of the financial strategy work um merging some of our specific funds to a public realm tax where we could have more flexibility from year to year and what we're funding uh because we'd have slightly less dedicated revenue um that than what we have now that can only be used on specific things. Can you explain how undedicating some of these funds might lead to different um budget outcomes in future years?

2:12:33>> Yeah, thank you for the question, council member. So, one of the items that we've identified within the long-term financial strategy is the city of Boulders's revenues are highly restricted at 68%. Um, when we look at our sales and use tax, which is our major funding source for the city, uh, we sit at above 50% 56% that is dedicated for our sales and use tax. When we compare that to other pure communities across the Front Range, they average at 31% um, dedicated. And so one of the items that we built upon with the blue ribbon commission report is identifying as a key principle looking at flexibility of funds um enabling flexibility of funds would be able to uh have uh the support to look at um community priorities of the moment uh and be able to meet uh community priorities of the moment uh and utilize flexibility of funds uh across uh across the city um based on priorities that we're hearing on an annual ual or a bianual basis in the budget process.

2:13:39>> Thanks for that. Right. I have uh one question which was so we saw in your matrix of the different boards and commissions that there was one um commission uh that did not recommend the budget which was the parks and recreation board. And so I just wonder if we could get just a brief description of of that discussion that they had. Yeah, I'm happy to uh to start um and actually see our director of parks and recreation, Ali Rhodess, coming down to to help support in response to to uh this question. >> Ally Rhodess, come on down. >> You make it seem like a game show. you're you're unlikely to win any money, but >> I will play if that is the the opportunity. Folks, my name is Ally Rhodess and I serve as the director of parks and recreation. Um, at Monday evening's board meeting, I think the PRA had a couple of concerns, but primarily they just are recognizing and following through what is outlined in the parks and recreation department plan, many other city strategies that parks and recreation is generally underfunded to begin with and so they're just not happy with further reductions to the services.

2:14:52>> Fair enough. Thanks. Appreciate the description. Okay, that was all of us who had a crack at it. Um, we could do another question. I do want to be mindful of getting to the public hearing. I note we have children in the audience and I would wouldn't like to keep people longer than necessary. Was anybody have one last burning question? >> Okay, thank you very much. Um, this is just one more on the uh fire mitigation. We've done a lot on the mitigation side and I just wanted to I tried to look at the budget again to see what was allocated for the pre-evacuation and recovery. Um, and I would just love to just get an update on that. I had a hard time finding it. I apologize if it was there. Thank you. I actually can't speak to uh specific dollar amounts in uh where you'd find it in the budget, but I can speak to uh that one of our top 10 uh program areas, priority program areas is tactical evacuation. Um and uh preparedness is also uh a top 10 community emergency preparedness. Uh current annual estimates of spend in emergency preparedness is anywhere from $250 to $500,000 annually and tactical evacuations is uh uh right around uh around 200 uh up to $250,000. I think

2:16:13both of those are a little bit lower because they tend to be more people talking to people and uh and less uh capital type of projects where you need machinery or you're doing but tactical evacuations and preparedness are definitely two of our top 10. We're going to be back coming back to you with measurements uh on those costing on those and what an enhanced measurement and target looks like for both of those areas. >> Awesome. Thank you. I I'll just add as well, I had the opportunity to be at u our office of disaster management. So we had a board meeting yesterday and uh director Mike Chard presented his strategic plan for the coming year. Um a focus on um recovery efforts is uh coming and that will augment what we're already doing as well.

2:17:01>> Great. Tina's got a quick followup. >> Yes. One of part of one part of this process is the long-term financial strategy that we'll be looking later in the year. And I'm curious um we've talked a lot about, you know, trying to get revenue, but will we also be looking at scenarios where revenue doesn't come through when we start looking at other structural changes to the budget? >> Thank you for the question, uh council member. Yes, we will be looking at both the revenue and the expense side and scenarios for that. >> All right, thanks for all those excellent answers. Let's go ahead and open the public hearing. We've got 10 people signed up to speak. Everyone will get three minutes. I'll call three names at a time. Um, but our third person is pooling. So, let's just make sure that folks are here. Katherine Sunval is pooling with Mary Durham and Eric Durham. Can everybody raise their hands to show that they're in the room?

2:17:48Fantastic. All right. Um, so our first three speakers are Lynn Seagull, Margaret Lumpt, and Katherryn Sunval. And Lynn Seagull's online. >> First of all, prevention. And I didn't hear a whole lot of that in this budget. Um, wildlife mitigation is is something that definitely would benefit from prevention. And while we're building more and more and more, Boulder Junction, McKenzie Junction, Diagonal Plaza, Pelios, Glennwood, Geological Society of America, Boulder Housing Partners with a a a nice um islanding effect where those people will have to drive to everything because there's no 15 minutes uh neighborhoods like the Boulder Valley Comp plan directs Like all of these things are costing us big time because the more we're building, guess what? We're building fuel for the fire. Got that? Fuel. More buildings, more fuel. See you. Darkhorse, Nuropa, Millennium, Colorado on the other side of the street on 28th Street.

2:19:11All of this CU is costing us big time. They are in the same fire situation as we are. So, so what gives here? You know what we really need is all of that money that we're spending killing people. And you can use the P word, Aaron, and I'm not going to say it because you're going to cut me off. But we know what I'm talking about. And we need to get out of these wars. And we can do it locally. Locally. Because it's hitting us locally. Just like >> stick to the budget, >> I'm sticking to it, Aaron. I'm sticking it to it. I'm sticking it to you because you're out of here as of November 3rd. Now, what we need to do is get some realistic long-term funds. And the way we do that is we, you know, it's like turning on the tap in the in the bathtub and the water's overflowing and all you need to do is stop running the tap.

2:20:18And that's what we're doing. We've got the most impossible situation. This is Zoran Mandami knows this. Milot Curos knows this. Many people all over the world know this. This is we are not the top of of the the you know the big cat anymore in this situation. All of these things that we're that we're working on on our budget, all the tradeoffs between CIP and all the other things, we don't need those tradeoffs because we're spending to kill people and it's not okay. All right, I'm gonna time on topic >> now and stop muting me, Erin. >> Okay, our next speaker is Margaret Lacmpt. Then we have Katherine Sunval and then Lara Gonzalez virtually. >> Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm going to try to speak from the perspective of the people looking in at these budget decisions and I'd like to say there's some things that aren't being considered. First of all, we look for the the council to be making decision based on accurate information and data and for for making their decisions. And I'd like to call out Council Member Benjamin's inaccurate characterization of the damn proposal as having been passed by the people and approved for many many time at least twice. I would like to correct the record that is actually not true because what the voters voted on was the

2:22:03annexation of CU South which had absolutely nothing to do with the dam. The second issue that I think should be taken into consideration is taking responsibility for the decisions budget decisions that are made instead of blaming citizens who are actually as uh make pointing out over the years problems with the dam for the delays when in fact the delays were the city's own failure to get permits and accurate cost estimations. As to the issue of the lawsuit, we have actually asked the Supreme Court to grant Certari for the appeal of that which shall probably be decided within about four to six months. So, we're not really delaying anything that's going on. And on top of that, the city's actually the utilities department has now decided that you don't really need to follow all the rules and regulations and limitations which normally would be applied to these kinds of budget decisions.

2:23:12That is because they have decided they do not need to have the traditional costbenefit analysis that they're moving away from that that the the community has been asking for for years. And in that way, they're simply cutting out the guard rule rails and the limitations needed to pass adequate but make adequate budget decisions. Another issue that we would want to see is the lack of secrecy and an increase in transparency. We've been told that the permits were all in place, but why was there no reporting of this in a public place? And why was that not provided in a uh the state uh excuse me the state's uh guashboard for where those are announced. In addition to that, we have now found out that there's been a secret negotiation between the city and CU, which allows the CU a blank check to do anything it wants to in its development without any regard to what the city is going to do with regarding the dam.

2:24:25>> Your time is up, but thank you for your testimony. Our next three speakers are Katherine Sunball for five minutes pooling with two others, Laura Gonzalez virtually and Carol Joplin Jack virtually. Good evening, city council members. My name again is Katherine Sunval. I am the local coordinator for a broad and diverse group who have come together to propose an indigenous inspired botanic garden alternative to tennis courts at Hogan Pancost. I am also here tonight to speak about the East Boulder Rec Center. Many of us understood that the city needed $50 million to fix the East Boulder Rec Center, but several architects have now told us that a brand new rec center could be built for that same amount. This raises the simple question, why the discrepancy? We've consulted with Barker Rinker and CCA CCAT BRS, the original architects of the East Boulder Rec Center. They have a strong reputation for quality and they were surprised to hear about the design flaws that the park and Rex director Ally Rhodess reported in the rec center study sessions with the PRA board and city council. They are reviewing the YouTube hearing videos that I forwarded to them.

2:26:05I urge the members of the city council to reach out directly to BRS. If LA roads reports are accurate, ask them to address any potential warranty issues or design concerns. They say they overengineered the building, so the reports of expensive failures and structural problems are concerning. Their integrity is high, and it would be a disservice to their reputation and our community not to engage them. Given this discrepancy is troubling that the city wants to raise $400 million to repair and maintain unspecified problems in the city with their properties when 50 million raised to save the East Builder Rec Center doesn't add up. How can we trust that this $400 million price tag is real? What is it based on? show us the problems with each and every property with evidence and costs. But beyond buildings, I want to speak about the land itself. In your budget proposal, you'll see a line item from the parks and recck department for $1 million towards the construction of tennis courts that Ali Roads has already said was approved. Approved by who? approved by city council. Approved by her. Who approved this?

2:27:41Given city council's instructions to park and wreck to maintain what we have and not build anything new. If this money is to be spent as parks and reccks director Alli Rhodess claims, why is this li line all line item not allocated to implementing the sustainability, climate goals, inclusion and other objectives outlined in the comprehensive plan. This is much bigger than tennis courts and it isn't about politics. It is about preserving a sacred cultural space. It's about coherence. It's about building structures and community experiences that honor the land, the people, the living breath of our community who use the rec center and will be healed and inspired by the Botanic Gardens both now and in many generations to come. Instead of tennis courts, which can be built in many other places, allocate the $1 million in the capital budget you are reviewing today to help us create a worldclass botanic gardens at Hogen Pan Hogan Pankost unique in the world given our history or simply cancel the million dollar for tennis courts and allow the descendants of company D soldiers from California who work with the IND independent filmmakers who are coming in January and are already collaborating with the indigenous community based on the appropriate use of the word Sundance to raise all the money for the Botanic Gardens and perhaps even buy a

2:29:25better property for tennis courts to build somewhere else. If you choose this alternative, please please allocate the $1 million to save the jobs of 24 people who are targeted to be laid off by parks in Iraq. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Now, we're going to go to Lara Gonzalez and Carol Japan Jack online and then Randle Winer in person. >> Honor the land. That was a great speech. Yes. Honor the land. You guys talk about equity, about resilience, all your performative neoliberal policies that you're going to do all these things and instead of focusing on land back, what do you focus on? More developing. But if you don't honor the land in Philine, what would you if you don't honor it here? I mean, why would you honor it in Philistine where we're investing so much money to murder children and to rape them with roim rods?

2:30:38>> Keep to the >> We could be in I'm talking about this. I'm connecting it. Instead of investing $38 million in raping children with dogs, we should be investing time because you're not speaking to in front of us. >> All right, let's go to Carol Joplin Jack and then Randall Winer and John Ter. I'm CJ Joplin Jack and I support keeping the spruce pool open in 2027 and beyond. I will be 73 years old this month, have Medicare and impartially disabled. I fully support the decision by the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board not to approve the budget proposed by the parks and recreation staff. There was a lack of transparency and availability of supporting data in the way this budget was presented to the advisory board and the public, particularly with regard to short and long-term plans for the Spruce pool. The only data presented showed total revenue from the pool and referenced revenue and utilization in comparison to Scott Carpenter and other City of Boulder pools.

2:31:54This is misleading because the Spruce Pool better meets the unique needs of seniors, the disabled, and families with very young children than Scott Carpenter, which essentially is a water park. Closing Spruce would be discriminatory. In addition, the data did not show any detail about how revenue is generated at each of the pools. Most seniors and disabled people with Medicare have free access to the pools as a benefit under their health plans. Recreation facilities are compensated by individual visits visit counts of Medicare beneficiaries through third-party programs such as silver sneakers. However, the reimbursement rates paid to the facilities are much lower than the regular admission price. These programs work best for facilities such as recreation centers that are used by large and diverse populations, not just people with the benefit. This is not the case with Spruce.

2:33:02In addition, pools receive reimbursement from other programs such as Boulder Aquatic Masters and other swim teams. This primarily benefits the pools other than Spruce. The data did not show this detail either. To help solve this problem in the simplest way possible, I propose the creation of a senior pass for a season senior pass for the outdoor pools with a discounted price for seniors and younger disabled people with Medicare instead of offering free access to people with programs such as silver sneakers. Boulder is a very fitnessoriented community, including our seniors. Older people need to stay active in order to stay healthy. Demographic trends show that the average age of the population is increasing. So, the need for senior friendly facilities only is >> time is up, but thank you for your testimony. Right. Our last three speakers are Randall Winer, John Tara, and Mary Gorman.

2:34:15Is Randall here? >> Okay, we'll move to John Ter who I believe is here. >> Mayor and members of council and staff, just glad to be here on a beautiful fall day. I want to offer three things. One, a commitment. Uh two, a few specifics and three, partnership. So, first on the commitment, uh, we are I'm watching, I'm here listening. I think we all know this is a very tough budget year. Um, and our concerns about the budget are what led us to be in opposition to ballot issue 2K. Um, I want to be very clear though that we are appreciative of the efforts of staff and of council to bring forward the challenges that we have, the very clear identification of those challenges. Um, and we are committed as an organization, the Boulder Chamber, to working with the city, other community organizations and and residents to address those challenges and the tradeoffs that we have to make to bring our budget into balance. um in a way that addresses our greatest needs. Um on specifics relative to the two uh 2027 budget offer a couple things. One um appreciation for um the addition the continued and additional investment in law enforcement. Um that is still a concern is is the high crime rates. We see them going down, but we want to make

2:35:43sure that we're reinforcing our our efforts in that area. Um, we also appreciate the ongoing funding for the day services center, but um, we'll note that we want to make sure that that's not just one-time funding, but that that is ongoing on into the future. That's a very important element of our effort to address homelessness in our community. Um, third, um, it's more of a question. Um, are we putting enough investment into our planning department? Um, we have some major needs in in order to address permitting to uh try to uh reconstruct uh Title 9 and want to make sure that we have the staffing and the resources to undertake those projects without inhibiting efforts to drive other projects through planning uh during that period. So, that's a question. And then third, um we're going to make an appeal that we continue to invest and bring back funding for the um tax rebate program. Um we don't have many incentive programs for investment in this community. Um as our AVP of economic vitality said, we need every penny to make sure that we're drawing businesses into our community in a competitive environment. And then finally, partnership. um we can't cut our way to a uh resiliency for our community. We need to continue to drive forward economic vitality that brings

2:37:12the resources to our community. So, we want to recognize that we are a partner with our city um and our community in identifying the strategies to bring revenue into our community uh coffers. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Our final speaker is Mary Gorman. Hello, city council people and staff. My name is Mary Gorman, born in Boulder, lifelong swimmer and recreationist, representing many spruce pool advocates here this evening andor listening in. The parks and recck advisory board did not approve two sections of the proposed budget per last Monday night's meeting. Their reasoning was based upon some extreme and broad recreation service cuts. For instance, the proposed budget minimizes pool schedules for 2027 and notably gives no funding funding for spruce pool in 2028 or for forward years. Boulder and our nation are slipping into a recession. Budget revenues are not keeping up with expenditures.

2:38:32I am a retired federal employee from NIST and experienced pay rationings from 2011 to 2013. Obama was president then and the nation was recovering from large deficits from the Iraq war. We experienced a three-year civilianbased pay freeze, no raises for us, and minimal increases after that. Yes, cutting some expenditures at this time in Boulder may be necessary, and payroll is only one example of how to do this. As a passionate recreationist, along with other spruce advocates, we have reached out to Alli Rhodess, the director of parks and wreck to collaborate and find more revenue line items and diminish service cuts. Some examples are donations, fundraising, incomebased fees, solicit CU departments for creative ideas to enhance the city of Boulders's budget and the facilities dilemma. The park and recreck advisory board is aligned with our recreation values. Our larger Boulder community want the parks and recck department to maintain full operations and services. Tonight, I am asking city council to direct the budget managers to do the same. To request the parks and recck department to find more revenue options in 2027, to fully fund the recreation services to align the revenues and expenditures to meet the needs and desires of Boulder.

2:40:12These are essential amenities for a thriving Boulder community, plus for our visitors and tourists. Thank you for listening and for making good governing decisions for our broad resilient community. >> Thanks so much and thanks to everyone who came out to speak to us this evening. That brings us to the end of our public hearing. So I will bring it back to council for discussion. The way I would like to structure this is to see if there are specific proposals to change the proposed budget and work through those and then after we get through that we can people can offer up a few uh brief general remarks if they are so inclined. Does anyone want to propose specific alterations to this budget? >> I have a question that came out from >> if you'd like to do a clarifying question now go for it.

2:41:03>> Sorry. Um I just had a question about the Botanic Gardens. Is Ally still in the room? Alli Rhodess still in the room for >> Alli gets to come on down. >> See, I give you a tune. >> Um, you know, I have heard from our indigenous and tribal communities around um, you know, this particular issue. So, thank you so much for your public comment and reminding me um, about that and curious just how um, the uh, indigenous proposal and just in general. I know we do um travel consultation, but we haven't done any in 2026 and there hasn't been a particularly uh robust ro role for the council in that. Um so just really wanted to get a little bit more information about that. Thank you. >> Yeah, folks. Alli Rhodess, director of parks and recreation. I think there's a few important points. Uh, one is that I think it's important to recognize, as we say in our land acknowledgement, all of Boulder sits on the ancestral homelands of many tribes that traverse these lands. Um, that being said, we have looked carefully at this site and consulted with our formal tribal partners to see if there's anything specific about this property and there is no evidence of that. We've also consulted with the state archaeologist in the department of historic

2:42:20preservation to see if there is interest in doing any research on this property and there is not and they cited that often well that's um they are not interested in that project. Um we do believe that this site could be ideal for a botanic garden. So it is less than 25% of this property that is targeted for the tennis court development. And I'll highlight that as we surveyed parkland for where we could build additional courts to meet the level of service for our community, there are very few opportunities actually to build additional courts. The park system is pretty robust and developed and there are not a lot of opportunities for new tennis courts. Um I'll also note um this is tricky uh but I just I think there's a misunderstanding with conversations with our architects that are not accurate.

2:43:10>> Okay. Thank you. Um, just want to clarify though that that 1861 uh treaty is actually not valid. So that entire our entire Boulder Valley is in unseated land. But I do appreciate the that the um two consultations um the the work that you did to outreach to those entities and organizations and I'm hopeful um that previous councils will take a more leadership role in our indigenous and tribal um so that they're doing government government to government and it doesn't leave our staff in situations where they are trying to you know I I appreciate the you know the the work that that our staff does but going back to tribal consultation it really should be council to council leader to leader And uh I'm just hopeful that we can have more iterative conversations so that um we're in the loop throughout the process. But I do appreciate the due diligence that our staff does to make sure that those conversations are happening in lie of having council direction. Thank you.

2:44:06>> Thanks. I saw Matt had his hand up. >> I appreciate that. And um so I'm going to circle back to my proposal and and one maybe offer a few changes to it as presented based on some feedback I've received. Um so for context um given wildfire is a top priority the community has told us about in fund our future and we've done as as Dan's mentioned we've been accelerating our funding over the last few years. This year we hear from community that is the top priority and our additional investment is just 300k one time. It's not to say we're not doing great work. It's just that we have a long road to go and as has been pointed out there's an estimate of really 6.5 to 10.5 million to reach this enhanced wildfire uh protection plan that is going to be proposed by staff and I look forward to those details here coming up.

2:45:01Um what I proposed via hotline was to bring about roughly $9 million to the table to do exactly that work. Now granted that work is going to be spread over a few years so it doesn't mean nine all at once. So, I appreciate that that there's some runway there on that front, but here we are with that challenge. And I just want to point out that this is the first time at first reading that we're actually having a conversation about trade-offs. Think about that for a minute. Month 10 in 2026, and we're first time we're talking about trade-offs. So, we have some process to work through, but I'll but I'll digress a little bit. I want to come back to where this proposal resides and what I want to propose to council. Um what I've heard is that um from some of my colleagues and from community that the conversation about climate initiatives there's there's lack of interest there. Guess what I've also heard for one of the first times prioritization. We can pat ourselves on the back. We just did a little prioritization. That's pretty good. So climate initiatives is held a little bit at a different standard which is fine over perhaps where we could find some money in open space to fund wildfires.

2:46:08So, with that being said, my proposal is going to be a hold of roughly $4 million. And that hold will come out of OSMP. And you talk about, well, where that hold would come from. I think right off the bat, we do a hold on capital projects on CIP. There's roughly $5.85 million in next year's budget for CIP. $900,000 for redoing the Ranger Cottage at Shiakwa. Okay. Does it have to happen next year or the year after? Maybe it could wait a couple years while we do this. So, these are conversations and trade-offs that I think are appropriate for us to have. So, again, my proposal is going to be hold $4 million. And where we get that hold from would be from CIP. Now, we just have to make that decision on whether we want some of that enhancement on um October 22nd. And as Dan pointed out, there's going to be an array of things. How much is front run? How much do we need in year 1 versus year two versus year three? Is it all the six to 10? We're going to have that conversation. But the key here is holding that $4 million. And if we decide not to do anymore, then it gets re-released in three weeks. If we decide, hey, we're going to do some of

2:47:08this now, we've already made that hold and we've already then we can start that work immediately. The other big thing that I think is important with that is if these grants do come in, as we hope, no guarantee, especially in the federal landscape we have now, that we could perhaps re-release some of that CIP money for those capital projects as that funding rolls in and and and then therefore balances things out. As I was always taught by my dad, one in the hand is better than two in the bush. And this is money we have in hand that we can make those investments with and hold and guarantee for ourselves that we can do these things. And if more grant money and other money comes in, we can then have the luxury of adjusting and then reallocating. And as and as we've heard from staff, I think we run into a bit of a conundrum. If we wait for ATBs, which are meant for large for relatively small changes in fund balance, when the enhanced wildfire proposal is going to be in the 6 to10 million range, that is nowhere in the ballpark of where we've ever traditionally done ATBs.

2:48:10So unless we're going to really kind of rewrite the book on how we do ATBs, it's at the budget moment that we think of numbers of this size to meet the moment and meet what staff could be delivering for us for an enhanced wildfire package. So, that's my proposal. Hold $4 million for 3 weeks. If we say go, we go and we work on um spending that money in earnest and we pull it from we hold CIP. It's not a cancel. We delay them from one to two years and if we get grant money, we can work at recalibrating some of those CIP projects back into the fold. >> Okay. Thanks for that, Matt. Before we um get into the specifics of your proposal, I want to see if anyone else has any other proposals because I'd like to see the scope of what we'll be discussing before we get into the details. Does anybody else want to propose another specific change to the budget? Ta.

2:48:53>> Well, more so I just wanted to withdraw the proposal on the food systems. I feel uh confident based on the information that was provided by Dan and open space that the agricultural plan is being recon is being analyzed and that any changes that come out from that uh we'll we'll be able to make those adjustments. Um, I do want to just have a brief I see I thought I saw the chief, not that one, but the other one. Where did he go? Oh, there you are. Hey. Um, I I I I appreciated the uh feedback um and the budget information. I understand um the changes that have been made to and I'm still concerned that the previous pilot one didn't run long enough, two didn't have the buyin from uh full buyin from the department and three um was not pro you know uh I don't think there was sufficient oversight by council at that time either. So, I do, you know, feel I do have some concerns around the increase in uh overtime expenses and not um allowing some of those funds to be um reallocated for um an evidence-based practice that we know works. Again, I honor the pilot findings. At the same time, I challenge them because it wasn't a very long implementation and we know

2:50:18uh that cultural change takes longer than a year. So, um I I am still interested in in having a discussion about that that proposal. Thank you. >> Sorry, Tisha. Did was that a proposal to change the budget at the end there? Okay. >> Reallocate some of the funds from the police over time um to um uh additional uh mental health um partners uh that can support the non-emergency 911 calls. >> Okay. Thanks for that. We'll come come back and discuss that. Any other specific proposals for changes? Rob, >> this is a little tricky for me because what Matt is proposing is probably the safest thing for our city. Um, a hold for three weeks. That being said, at a minimum, like I would love to hold that 600k that we spoke to before. I'm not sure procedurally how this works. If it's another I mean I would like to >> I would like to vote on Matt's if that's possible and then mine is >> it it sounds like it's a maybe a modification to Matt. So why don't we lump it in together with the discussion of Matt's proposal?

2:51:35>> Okay. >> All right. Any other specific proposal for changes? All right. Seeing none, then let's dive in. So, Matt put something on the table of holding $4 million um and for the moment while we uh figure out what's happening in October 22nd. And then Rob, you wanted to I'll I'll invite you then to offer a counter if you want to. Um did did you want to Yeah, my counter would be to hold $600,000 for um the identified mitigation and crews and equipment. >> Very good. Does anybody want to ask clarifying questions about these ideas before we get into opinions yet? I saw Nicole had a question. >> Yeah, I just had a question for staff. Um I was just trying to remember on the funer future engagement, was that looking um when when we did that exercise with people, was that across all of our funds or were we really just uh looking at sort of our our undeedicated um funds with fund our future? Does that make sense? Like was it >> uh Thank you for the question, council member. the uh the fund our future uh input that we heard was focused on communityf facing services. Um and so it was looking across both dedicated as well as undedicated funds.

2:52:56>> Right. Tina, did you have a clarifying question? >> Oh, sorry, Mary. Go ahead. >> Yeah, Mayor, we had a qu a clarifying question if we could. Um, Council Member Benjamin, is your um proposed 4 million across uh 2027 or across several years? >> Um, well, it'd be improper for me to commit beyond one year. So, this is just the start. Um, so this would be just for next year. Obviously, we've got a big number ahead of us in ongoing work and it'll take subsequent councils andor funding mechanisms to look at ongoing work, but this is for next year to get that work going in earnest. >> Thank you. Good to know where you're thinking. >> Y Tina, do you have a clarifying question and then I'll go >> Yeah. And I I don't know how the hold process works. Um but do we need to identify a source for the hold? And if so, council member Kaplan, could you tell me where you are holding your money from?

2:53:59>> We have uh Chicago Ranger Station. That's 900,000 right there. So, I would I would pick I would defer to staff um to where that would be held from. I I don't want to dictate that whole >> uh Charlotte can correct me if I wrong, but perhaps the better terminology would be a realignment from our CIP. >> That's what I meant to say. Yeah. Clarifying question. >> Yeah. Um it's just a question around you. So often when we're doing um these infrastructure type projects or construction projects, there are contracts. There are things we've already signed, you know, work underway. Is there any of that that would be involved in the Ranger cottage or um anything else that's being proposed here? Because I expect these projects are a little more than just in our heads. Yeah, thank you for that question, council member. Um, in regarding uh the CIP in general, um, I I could comment on the $4 million RCP is 5.8. Nearly 1 million is related to wildfire. Another million is related to uh related to agriculture and water.

2:55:04about 400,000 is related to a trails project that's using be being used as matched to a $1.1 million grant that is helping to construct that project. Um and 650,000 is related to tribal engagement projects for chambers and implementation of our people's crossing work. So we've already out of that we already have $3 million that I think are hitting very high priority areas. Uh so then we're down to a couple of uh projects that has been mentioned here. I would relate now specifically in regards to uh the improvement project at shiakqua. Yes, we are into year three. We're sort of in the design phase. Uh the next would be funding uh uh final finalizing uh funding uh for design, permitting and construction. Uh so yeah, this we're in about year two or three of that project. Um, and I would just relate that I'm not really here to talk about the Shiitakaco improvement project, but uh, uh, some fundamental reasons of why we're doing it. Uh, is is is one is that we had to install five portallettes out on this uh, on the system around the Shiitaka greens with the understanding and talking to the Shiitakua association that these are going to be very temporary. They are now four years in the running of having portalats. We have uh very inadequate uh

2:56:32restroom facilities around the shiitaka green and shiakwa. Our uh utilities or transportation departments going to be a repaving project at shiakqua. This is the opportunity to redesign the very uh inadequate design of the actual parking area for the trail head area. Uh and then there's the ranger cottage itself which is not serving a whole bunch of needs that we have. So, I'm not here to convince you that the Ranger Cottage project is a priority compared to wildfire, but there's several really good reasons of why we are in that process of improving that project. So, uh I'm happy to shed some more light on specific CIP as well, but uh that would be my initial feedback. >> Thanks for that, Dan. Um I think Ryan, you had a clarifying question. Um, >> yeah, I'm now I'm kind of thinking of a colloquy on this. I'm just like I I don't even I don't even know what this is. Now I'm learning about So I'm just thinking um so council is proposing new budget priorities. Um we are also now proposing places to take funding from. I I don't know how to eval how to evaluate that one. Um I feel like one of the lessons from this year is we should be pretty thoughtful about capital how we're treating capital capital expenses.

2:57:52Um so I I guess I do my colleague question is does staff have a an alternative place to take this from or like would you I'm sorry I haven't done I don't know that I've done this before. So how do you how do we think about or is that do you maybe it's not on you. I know you're putting you on the spot and you don't have the analysis for this probably, but um if you could offer any guidance for a process for now or planning for things to potentially cut. >> Yeah, I think it's a it's an interesting question. I mean, I I um believe whatever it is that we pull funding from will have impacts, right? So, if it's CIP, then these are the CIP impacts. uh if we're thinking about um other areas and they'll have a variety of other every time we pull a lever there's there's a consequence on the other side.

2:58:37Um I don't know uh team if there is something else that we want to be directed to think about but no matter what it is that we do it will have uh a competing um consequence. That's that's all. >> Okay. Thanks. Um did you go ahead? It's fine. >> Yeah. That's okay with the >> mayor. All right. >> So, >> Dan, do you mind repeating where you're going to get that $600,000 from again that Rob is referring to? >> Well, I think the oper uh I think the al uh I think there's uh options. Uh uh we could look at our reserves. Um we could look at uh or operating in CIP. uh for the 600,000. I think that's uh those would be the three or combination of those two options or one or the other.

2:59:36>> Okay, thanks for that. I got several people lined up here. Are you done, Ryan? >> No, that was I um my original question it was really to ask the similar question for Matts where his money was coming from. Um, but I'm now I'm just thinking, can you just clarify, Aner, our staff, when will if if we did not do this reallocation now and then we have the October 22nd discussion and we say, okay, we do need a few million dollars. This that would happen in December is when we would be able to do that again. So, this would be a matter of waiting a couple of months to do it in not on the fly at at the dis sort of thing. Okay, >> I'll leave it at that. >> Good enough, right, Tyan? And then I got Matt with a clarifying one after that and then hopefully we can get to opinions here soon.

3:00:19>> Um so one this is the process and we talked about changing the process last year and here we are with the same one. So I just want to honor that although I appreciate um people's concerns around this process. We needed to change the process but we need to live with what we have. Um, having said that, you gave information about the probability of what we would lose um, if we didn't do those renovations to the shiitakqua, but I just wanted to ask about um, there is still a possibility of a wildfire that would take that whole thing out if we don't accelerate on the mitigation that needs to be done. Correct. >> I mean, there is a pro probability given >> the shiakequa campus is in the wildland urban interface. So I just >> And so yes, >> give it to me. Thank you.

3:01:06>> Yes. >> I just wanted to honor the tradeoffs that we are seriously talking about here. And although I care that they waited four years and they may have to wait another, I just want to be real that there is a possibility that if we do not accelerate on the wildfire mitigation across the board that the things that we want to do in that CIP will not even be a possibility. That is an option. >> Yes. And >> thank you. Uh if I if I could address related that to back to Matt's uh question, I would also say that if you look at the total enhancements of all 10 program areas, if we wanted to enhance all of them, uh the amount of enhancements that would be called for for what we would use the open space fund for, so the three open space related ones totals between 1.5 and 2.2 million over four years. So the biggest enhancement areas in terms of costs are not going to be uh the program areas that you would utilize the open space fund for. So if we were dropped $4 million of open space funds and say go use that in 2027 uh even fully enhance four years worth of work into 12 months.

3:02:17It's it it it's beyond it's beyond what's needed. So this is so Dan, this is exactly why we're out of phase on on this is our budget and yet in three weeks we're talking about the wildfire stuff because that's exactly the context that that informs this conversation right here. So I appreciate you bringing that up. I'm just glad that we were able to extricate those details. So what I'm hearing is of that 6 and a half to 10 million of enhancements that is forecasted at the 20 October 22nd meeting, you're saying about one to maybe two million >> one and a half to 2.2. >> One and a half to 2.2 draft numbers. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. Again, but we're trying to set a ballpark here is would be more directly coming from open space. The difference would come from other departments and other programs. Is that correct? Or grants or other things. Is that what I'm hearing?

3:03:09>> Yes. And that total enhancement actually equals the amount of grant funding we're seeking too over the four-year period. So, but yes. >> So, so, so we're narrowing it in here, which is great. >> That first reading should have done that maybe six months ago. >> We don't need that commentary on what staff could have been, >> but here we are. And that's why this is going to take a while tonight because we're trying to zero in on these core pieces. Um, if we This is what tonight's going to have to be. So again, now that we're getting more details live, we're going to adjust the recommendation live. If that is an open space contribution, then the 4 million is not a necessary number for next year. It looks like it is in more the one to two and a half million rough range. So again, I'll come back to that number and I'll say let's place a hold on that number until we know what the October 22nd meeting beholds. So, you see how this information is now giving us clarity and I appreciate that, Dan. I appreciate that a lot. That that's really helpful. So, I'll amend what I said to a hold of about $2.5 million to support that having money in the hand in order for us to meet those wildfire

3:04:22obligations. And I see I see Ryan, I I I see that, you know, we're trying to do this live and all those stuff. And so, I appreciate the questions and the comments and trying to sort through the process. So, I'm open to any questions and how we can refine So yeah, let I'll go ahead and step uh say something next. So I here, thanks for modifying the proposal, Matt, and then we have Rob is suggesting a $600,000 hold. And then what I'd say is maybe the the the third alternative as I understand it would be to have the to adopt the budget as proposed, have the October 22nd study session, look at what the critical needs are and what council feels like we should prioritize financially and then potentially we could give direction on October 22nd to start to craft an ATB that met those needs while um you know making the tradeoffs that would be necessary. So I say that might be the third course um that we could take here.

3:05:18And did I nur or did I is that third course the likely one that we would do otherwise? >> I I think that is accurate. It's um it is easier uh for us to know uh post the October 22nd meeting what exactly what exact enhancements uh we think we're going to move forward and then um figure out funding. And so that would likely be staff's recommendation. >> Okay. And so I would and I would I think that's what we've got out on the table. I would love to start getting opinions so we can get to the will of council here, but I I see we got a we got a hand couple of hands here. Taishan. Um so in the third case scenario um and and obviously you everyone is hearing this conversation and understands the urgency around the wildfire mitigation piece but um would staff begin to start thinking from your perspective what would be the best places to look because I'm I don't really want to pick projects on the fly tonight and I don't think that would be a great form of governance um but could we get some idea as around the end of October sort of you'll you'll be understanding what the numbers are and and what we could move forward with and and I'm not even sure it's out of open

3:06:33space. So I don't um I don't know you know general funding is flexible. We also I also appreciate how constrained our budget is but um you know I I would want to be able to do that December adjustment but I also want to have it informed by staff not just sort of tonight picking out projects. I appreciate that. Uh, council member, if we get direction, we would come back to you with funding options. Um, and it would vary uh what that would look like if to your up until now we have t been talking about open space funds um particularly if the desire is to go beyond and look at other funds including general funds then um we'll come back with broader impacts as well. >> Okay. and Nicole and then Taiisha for clarifying and then we'll get to opinions. No um I got Taiisha and then we'll come back to Rob.

3:07:26>> Just point of clarification on the incumbent incumbing sorry future councils on budget stuff. So my concern is if we don't make the decision today you do it in October but then will a new council be seated in December to then make that question and would that compromise the integrity of the work that we need to do? Thank you. question, >> Rob. >> That's a question >> that was. Oh, well, I guess >> I'm just ask question. >> I Well, as I understand it, the on October 2nd, 22nd, council could give direction but could not bind the council that is seated in December to adopt that direction. >> Yeah. the uh in terms of the process for ATB2, the first reading for uh city council is in November and would be coming forward for second reading and final approval in early December >> after the new council is seated.

3:08:22>> Yeah. So, >> thanks on that. >> Um with a significant change in council though, couldn't they overturn almost anything at that point? >> They could. Yes. I mean, I I wouldn't worry personally about that because if there's a I mean, there are six people up for election at this point, so I they can undo anything we do. >> Okay. Rob, did you have a clarifying question? And then maybe we then I'd love to get to opinions. >> I did. I'll try to be quick. um whether it's 2.5 million or 600,000, will the result be the same for ATB2 versus a realignment versus well, I guess that I'm going to use the word realignment instead of holding. Uh if uh council is interested in performing a realignment of existing funds in the 2027 budget, um that would be indicated this evening. Um, we uh would take that motion and um consider that and um incorporate that into the motion language for city council to uh consider for this evening. The adjustments to base perform adjustments to our 2026 budget. And so that would be looking to draw from fund balance, for example, looking at additional revenues to support additional appropriation. Um, and that would impact the current fiscal year.

3:09:53>> Got it. So realignment would be 27 and not affect 26. >> That that is correct. And I uh might add that um city council might consider uh motion language um at the uh 20 at the ATB that would be more in the form of a budget writer policy directive um that could consider a realignment of funds within our ATB process for this fiscal year. >> Okay. >> So the ability to perform both just depending on the fiscal year that we're looking at. Thank you. >> All right. So, if people can now weigh in on what approach they would prefer to take so we can get to will counsel here. And I think Nicole, you've been waiting to speak to that. >> Yeah. Um I uh if we have to say options, I I would just be interested in moving um forward as we are. Um I think that the the right time to have this is um after our October 22nd meeting um and in any future uh ATBs um with with these two particular um proposals that are out there. Um, I just want to remind us that one thing community has repeatedly told us this past year and a half or so is that they do not want us to use open space funds for anything other than open

3:11:09space. Whether we agree with it or not, the idea that we would raid the open space budget as times got tight has been a long-standing major fear of our community. My concern is that this is exactly the narrative that's going to come out of a decision to take funds from open space to fund anything else, even more wildfire mitigation. Every time we've discussed undedicating even a portion of open space funds or expanding their uses, even a small amount, we've been inundated with hundreds, if not thousands of emails saying not just no, but hell no. Including last year when we decided to pay for some of the fire mitigation work from the open space budget. Our community has not been interested in us touching open space funds for anything other than open space. For now, they they are sacred in our community and I can't support taking from them without broad community backing. Otherwise, we risk shredding any remaining trust that we have as a body right now.

3:12:02>> Okay. Other thoughts? >> Um, well, I I can call on myself here and say that uh I really appreciate uh Matt, you did a real deep dive on the potential needs and we all know the extremely high prioritization for wildfire mitigation. And Rob, thanks for bringing this forward as well. it as from my understanding of it. Um the sequencing is tricky here given that we haven't had the October 22nd study session. I'm really looking forward to that and to seeing the analysis from the different departments that are working on this to see where the areas of greatest need and greatest opportunity are. So, I I want to have that conversation next. And then, as I understand it, we could move just as quickly on um addressing those priorities if we wait until after October 22nd and then deal with um potential realignments through the adjustment to base process. But it would also allow us to benefit from giving direction to city staff on the direction we want to go in the rough amounts involved, which would then allow them the time to come back and give us fully formed proposals for those trade-offs.

3:13:02So, um I'm going to go with uh adopting the budget as is tonight and then looking forward to the sharp analysis from city staff on October 22nd in conjunction with council to get that wildfire prioritization done at just the same speed I think as as if we changed it tonight. Anybody else? Ryan and I can straw poll once people have given words. >> Thanks. Yeah, I have a similar thought Aaron as you and um you know we need we need a a transformative 5 10 plus year project. Um but we need to also balance the urgency to get started with the care to do this right. Uh I'm uncomfortable with doing this on the fly to to try to um name certain amounts of money where it might come from. Um and I think the right way to do this is we we we direct policy. Staff works on policy. They bring work forward. That's exactly what they're doing. Um the budget that's coming to us now has enhanced strategies for wildfire. We have a we have a proposal coming up.

3:13:58Looks like this might take a couple more months to get through it. Um so yeah, I'd be a fan of uh uh waiting till October 22nd. And if possible, my preference would be that um when we staff comes back with whatever the proposal kind of types look like, if if staff might take a first cut at um here's some things we recommend you think about taking it from if you have to take it, I'd rather hear that from staff first than than council, at least certainly from the dis. Um so I don't know if that's possible, but I'd love to see that on October 22nd. Here, you know, here's what you're giving up for this level of investment and then then we have a real informed discussion about trade-offs. Okay. Other thoughts before we go to straw poll?

3:14:38>> Tina? >> Yeah. Um, just following up. I don't know. My mic is so loud. Um, driving me crazy. So, another option would be to um when we're looking at where we can realign funding, it might make sense um through the CAC process to find more time. Uh because I don't want us to be throwing out projects and finding out that oh, it was grant funding or oh, it's halfway done. And so, um, if there's any way that we can build some time so that we can make sure we're, um, wisely doing that funding reallocation from other projects, whether it's and outside of open space, that would be great if that is where we end up after October 22nd. >> Mayor, just a note that we were just thinking about talking to CAC about expanding our time. We may just go ahead and do that, not knowing what October 22nd is going to look like.

3:15:28>> Very good. Okay. So, I'll go ahead and straw pull the options in the order in which they were presented. So, uh, looking at Matt's revised for two to two and a half million. Um, so raise your hand if that's the direction you'd like to go in. Right, we got three. Um, and now Robs of the You only get one vote, Rob. So Rob's first 600. >> Well, well, in the first round, you only get one vote, but then if we'll drop off the lowest vote getter if there's not a majority. >> Got it. So, um, for your for your first vote, um, the Rob's proposal for 600,000, >> I can't. >> Yeah, >> doesn't make any sense. >> That doesn't make any sense. >> Okay. All right. I want to make >> You just We just straw pulled my proposal and that just got rejected.

3:16:14It's off the table. You straw pull the 600K. It's a new It's a separate proposal. If it lives or dies, it goes what? >> Sure, that's that's fine. Okay. So, then we'll we'll treat it as multiple straw polls. So, the straw poll number one is would we like to go with uh Matt's proposal? So, who would like to go with Matt's proposal? Okay, we got three votes and then Okay, so that that does not have a majority. So, we'll then take that one off the table and then we'll straw poll um who would like to go with Rob's approach of the but I got another question. >> And where is your money coming from? >> You said it twice. >> I don't want to direct staff. I want them >> to to tell us. I mean, OSMP knows where the money >> is available, >> but I believe I heard you say it would be a realignment from the open space CIP budget.

3:17:01>> Yeah. I mean, based on conversations I've had, but they're the experts. >> Um, well, I think we need something. >> I mean, this is this is the problem. Like I I hear, you know, you need to say where the money is coming from in one breath and then in the other breath you can't tell staff what to do. So I'm com I'm confused. >> All right. And if I can reduce the talk cross talk here, folks, if you don't mind, let's let's have one person talking at a time. >> Um so I think you it would need to be from a general direction. So you could say anywhere from the OSMP budget. You could say from the OSMP CIP budget. >> Okay. Um, but yeah, you don't have to necessarily pick out a line item, but you need some general direction.

3:17:44>> All right. The general direction would be the CIP or reserves. >> Okay. So, you're suggesting real and if we can not have the cross talk, please full >> clarity. OSMP, CIP, and reserves. And and just want to say you um are not able to direct staff, but you are able to direct me. >> Yeah. Got it. Okay. >> Okay. Okay. So, Rob Rob's proposal is realigning $600,000 from the OSMP CIP or andor reserves. Okay. So, that's what's on the table. Straw poll. All in favor of doing that? Raise your hand. So, we got four. So, that's a deadlock. >> Mark. >> Yeah, that's right. >> Go Mark. Um so our straw poll um shows not a majority for that one but not a majority for the other approach either. >> Um yeah nur did you have the third option >> and then well and then the the third option is to to wait until after October 22nd. So kind of all in favor of taking that approach raise your hand. the status quo.

3:18:59>> What's that? >> Just a clarifying question. Um, we're not it's not a do we agree to changes that we don't know about yet. It's sort of we'll have a discussion and if anything emerges from that, we would talk about it then. Is that right? Okay. >> Correct. Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, I think we know the answer, but all in favor of taking that approach of waiting till after October 22nd, raise your hand. >> It's what we're doing. >> That's what we're doing. >> Okay. Let me let me rephrase here, okay? For when we were dealing with Robs, we have at this point two alternatives. The taking the 600,000 doing the realignment or waiting until after October 22nd. Okay. So, I'm going to straw those two alternatives is you can vote for one or the other. Okay. So, >> can I amend Robs just from any CIP budget, >> not necessarily open space?

3:19:57Take it. >> Take it. >> Okay. So, we have a revised proposal from >> I'm just keeping it as open as possible. I I can't direct staff's CIP budget right now. I have no idea. >> It's not that it's too vague. It's just that it has a different kind of consequence that we have not discussed here. >> I'm I'm withdrawing it. This is >> okay. So last straw poll which is there going to be two alternatives. One is taking Rob's proposal OSMP CIP or reserves. The alternative is to wait until after October 22nd >> CIP or Oh, you said or >> so all in favor of Rob's proposal, raise your hand. We got four. and all in favor of waiting till after October 22nd. Okay. So, there's not a majority on either um which implies the status quo. Um and so, but we do do have to vote separately on the actual budget ordinances, but um okay, so that doesn't move forward at this time. Thanks for working through that with us, Nicole.

3:21:08>> I was just wondering if I can make a motion. >> Not quite because we still have to deal with Taiishas. So, Taiisha, your suggestion was to repurpose, I think was it $1.2 million from the police fund towards the care program? >> Uh, I'm not suggesting the whole amount, but I am suggesting a partial amount towards partnering with organizations. The um alternative policing component of the reimagining policing plan talks about um the police working with partners. But when you look at their plan, most of if not all of it is internal and there's not actually partnerships with other um other partners particularly to address the non-emergency 911 calls. And so I am suggesting a portion of that 1.2 2 million to be repurposed to a partner organization that can offer mental health and behavioral. Um, that is what I'm recommending.

3:22:07>> Do you have a specific number in mind? >> Uh, I would defer that to staff because I don't know what the partnership totals would be. Um, and I would leave it to their discretion on what that would be. >> So, some amount of money to >> correct as opposed to the none that is there now. Thank you. >> Thanks. Who would like to speak to the substance of that before we do a straw poll? Yeah, qu clarifying question from Nicole. >> Um, yeah, I was just wondering if you could remind me, so I'm sorry, it's been it's been a year. Uh, and I don't remember from last year. Um, there there were some reasons for why we uh chose to move away from the care program um based on our outcomebased budget. I was just wondering if you could speak to that.

3:22:51>> I see uh Wendy Schwarz coming on down to respond to that. Um, and then I might uh sort of prep and ask Charlotte to be ready for um uh the the question perhaps or the how do we talk about the 1.2 the overtime because overtime will will happen and we'll need to find that funding somewhere. Also just clarification like I did council member share the outcomes from that and the concerns that there were low numbers and I was suggesting that the pilot did not run for a suffic sufficient amount of time in order to actually um determine the efficacy of its of the thing. So I actually was challenging the pilot in my initial comments. Thank you. >> Okay. Is this on? Maybe everyone's mic is really loud tonight. Good evening, council. Wendy Schwarz with Housing and Human Services. So, uh, Council Member Spear, to answer your question about why we decided to change our approach with the care program, um, there were very low numbers of calls and so the program averaged less than one response per day.

3:24:09And when we looked at the allocation of staff, we realized that we had some dedicated staff that because they could only work on that program were really being underutilized. And then meanwhile, we saw opportunities with our existing HHS staff to be crossfunctional. And so the approach we have taken is that we're we're retooling because I think we we agree with our police partners that there is a subset of calls that could be more appropriate for our clinicians and case managers than for police. And so as we've um as we've rearranged that program, we just need to do some more due diligence on structuring it in a way that it can succeed in the way that the first pilot didn't. And one of those ways we're we're structuring it is to use our HHS clinicians and case managers in a cross functional way. But we've had to retool it and that's taken some time for a variety of reasons. We have some draft dispatch protocols for the relaunch of non-p police response that are currently undergoing internal review and we would look toward uh relaunching that probably soft launch before the end of the year and getting into more ro robust refined dispatch of that program by mid 2027.

3:25:48>> Given that I will withdraw my amendment. Thank you. Thanks, Tasha. And and I I'll just speak just additionally to this that um thanks Wendy for the explanation. The care program was something that I championed a few years ago and was really glad that we stood it up, but I also understand the reasons for the reorganization, but very much look forward to the reformation of that response team. >> Absolutely. >> Under the new structure. Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. Um, so I just just want to make I'm sure I'm crystal clear on this because I know it's been an area of interest for our community too. Um, so you're saying that we are uh moving toward a model where we will have some behavioral health responders who will be going out in certain circumstances without uh police.

3:26:33>> That's correct. >> Thank you. >> And um Nicole, before I just get back to you for a motion, I just N I just want to follow up on one thing from the the public testimony which was about the flexible rebate program. Could you just speak real quickly to how that's structured and what's looking like in 2027? >> Yep. We uh right now it's um it's a reduction of the program and um if you'll think about it, we're not necessarily eliminating it. We will be using some rollover dollars as we move forward. And frankly, as we continue to support and expand um our office and cultural development and economic development efforts, we will be coming back with more tools to think about um investment in the future. So, this right now is a one-time reduction. We'll continue to come back and think about how do we continue to support in new and innovative ways.

3:27:22>> Thanks. Appreciate that. You were offering a motion before, Nicole. that. Um, so I would uh like to move um Oh, wait. Can I get the motion language? >> Sorry. I thought I had it in front of me and it's Yeah. >> Yeah. Bible. And just one at a time, right? It's the way we're going through it. Um, I motion to introduce an order published by title only, ordinance 8777, adopting a budget for the city of Boulder, Colorado for fiscal year 2027 and setting forth related details. >> Second. >> And what I might say is at this moment if people wanted to offer a few brief general thoughts on the budget, let's say now is the time. So Nicole, do you want to speak to your motion? >> Just very briefly, I already said it, but um, thank you staff. I know this is really hard. um it is your people and your programs and your services to community that are impacted. And um I I just I want to thank you. I know this is really hard work and um despite uh all the the sort of sadness and grief that you're holding for each other and for our whole community. Um you've still brought us a balanced budget and you've done it in a way that minimizes um the

3:28:33the the cuts and I know that they will still hurt uh a lot of folks in our community. Um but I just want to thank you. This work is hard and you've done it well. >> Thanks. Ryan, you speak to it. >> Similar. I um I'm really excited about this budget and you know with so many headwinds, it reflects a um some really important strategic um improvements. I I really see a lot or I sort of foreseeing a lot in the in the wildfire um work and the the change in in prioritization that already the customer experience hub and that area of work. I'm I'm really excited about and so yeah, I'm really proud to support this budget and looking forward to 27. >> I got Matt Terretation. >> I want to commend staff for the hard work, the tremendous complexity that our budget has. Um, as Ryan mentioned, the headwinds we face.

3:29:32And what I also want to say and it is not a reflection on staff in any way is our budget process is fully busted. the fact that it is October 1st and we are by ask by request of councel in an amendments to first reading finally having a conversation of tradeoffs is is beyond frustrating and impossible for us as a body of eight to confidently say we own this budget. These conversations have to happen months ago. If we want to move things around or tweak the budget that we get from staff is the foundation and what we do is beyond that and we should be compelled to go beyond that, but not when it's here. When we're being given a contradiction where it's well give us roughly where you want to pull it from, what line item the it is beyond busted. Um, and and this is the my fifth budget and it has has has barely gotten any better and in some ways has gotten worse because over time I would expect this process to be way clearer for us, way more transparent for community and we'd have a clear process where staff and us aren't riffing live at first reading that this was done deliberately over time where community gets to weigh in on these items. our boards and commissions

3:31:03get to weigh in on these items. So, I commend staff for their very hard work. This is a process breakdown that is busted. And I really hope that we can and the next council can look at foundational change to our budget process. I implore us to look at a two-year budget. I implore us to look at a process that gives us the space and time to have these conversations, not at 11:59 in the budget cycle. So this is by no means a criticism of staff. I look for staff's partnership and guidance to figure out how do we make this process work for you as staff, us as council, and for community who wants more transparency and who wants to have a better clarity as to what we're investing our money in and how we're investing in their lives and their livelihoods with the services and infrastructure we provide for everybody.

3:31:50So I'm looking forward to that, but I hope we take that moment seriously and we actually look for that transformative change. Okay. Ter Tisha Tina. >> Okay. First of all, I'm was very impressed with the budget cuts. I know that sounds weird, but it's not easy to make budget cuts and you guys did a really great job. And um the second thing I want to say is when we do have more money, I want us to consider um the parks and wreck budget has been hasn't has it even increased in a really long time. I don't think that it has. and I would like us to consider increasing it compared to the other um departments. >> Aisha Tina. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. Um setting the strategic direction, oversight and resource allocation is the most important responsibility that the council has. In the three years that I have been able to serve, there are many things that I have been proud of and proud on working with staff and colleagues around. However, I continue to be disappointed around the strategic the ways that are that we set strategic priorities. We're in the midst of a strategic plan update that would essentially fund then you know we would tend to fund but um the process that we have doesn't allow that to happen. Our

3:33:13oversight is uneven. There's areas where there is significant oversight and then there's areas where there is zero. And then when I look at the annual budgeting and the budgeting process in general, there's very limited budgeted budget versus actuals. There's also very limited consisted valid and reliable um evaluations. For example, the um fund our future that was 509 respondents. That's 0.008% of the 61,000 voters in our city. And it also does not sufficiently address our in increasing water crisis. The current CIP relies on current trends. That's 1/4th of a probability. It does not include stressed and it does not include the severe water scenarios. I will be rejecting this plan not because I don't think the staff is exceptional because I think that they are and I also believe they use the best available um evidence and things that they had. But they did lack council direction throughout this process. Uh I believe that um I have failed in being able to move this. We had I thought there was clear direction um that there needed to be a rework of our process and yet it is now October 1st when we have the trade-off conversations again. Um I also believe there isn't sufficient community engagement. I would love to see in addition to a two-year plan two-year planning process, which I

3:34:46commend our city manager for that recommendation and others, I also would love to see more participatory budgeting opportunities throughout the process. Um, and so again, as I did last year, because I was um I did not believe that our process is valid and reliable for the scale of decisions that we're making, uh, I will be rejecting this plan. Thank you, >> Tina. Yeah. Um so thank you for all the work in the budget and um this budget, you know, one of the trends we're seeing is that our total revenues sources did grow by $20 million, but our expenses grew faster. And that's a common theme that we're seeing that we um I believe we just need to take a longer term structural look at how this is going to work over time um without any major new sources of revenue. I do hope we get those new sources of revenue and I hope we see them in coming years, but we also need to be um I'm concerned that we're making very small cuts every year that are not as long don't have as long as a a long enough term vision tied to them.

3:35:52And I also support a longer term budgeting cycle. Um, obviously this year with the wildfire mitigation, one of our highest priorities, um, the timing with the meeting in October 22nd, as I brought up in the CAC meeting, uh, about a month ago, was misaligned and that's not anyone's fault. It just is the way it is. And, um, I don't feel comfortable holding money where we just don't have an idea of what we need um, when we have a good mechanism to make that adjustment for this very same budget in December. So, I think that's a reasonable approach to be able to get whatever the amount is, whether it's 600 or 3 million. It doesn't, you know, we'll find out what the right number is on October, if there's any at all. Um, and, uh, that's it. That's all I've got to say. Thanks.

3:36:37>> Um, I'll call on myself and, um, thank staff for their exemplary work on preparing this extremely complicated budget that does incorporate many, many trade-offs in it. Um there are significant budget reductions in numerous areas and I appreciate the thoughtfulness with which those were done um uh while also allocating additional monies to priorities like um wildfire prevention and making sure that our staff is paid fairly. So I appreciate the approach that you've taken there. Um the timing with the detailed uh wildfire meeting has made this a tough discussion. I appreciate the conversation tonight about how to manage that. I do think that we all on council have the same attent intention which is that when we have that meeting we will look carefully at exactly what the trade-offs are and the high areas of highest priority. So I look forward to that discussion. Um and the fact that we're not realigning anything tonight in that area isn't uh because of a lack of intention to to devote additional resources to wildfire prevention but because the time for that discussion is not quite ripe. I I will note to council members, we did have a study session on this and um at that study session, we were told um that we were welcomed to propose specific changes, just that any

3:37:50increase in funding for any individual line item would need to be accompanied by a specific reduction in another area, which is very tough because um every item in the city budget is serving our residents in one way or another. So those are they're not easy trade-offs to make. Um but I know we'll have more of that discussion um after October 22nd. Uh one thing I do want to speak to specifically is about Spruce Pool. Um recognizing that we have one-time funding for the operation 2027. Um and I do understand that that amount is enough to repair some of the maintenance issues that it's having keep it open. Um and I will just say that the fact that it's one-time funding does not mean that there's an intention to close it in 2028. And if I'm sitting at this dis again next year, I know I'll be collaborating with the my colleagues next year to make sure that we find additional funding for that um in future years to make sure that it stays open.

3:38:42And I will leave it there and I'm looking forward to voting in favor. Um all right, so I think everybody's had a chance to say their piece if they would like. So uh we have a motion and a second on the table. Uh Emily, can we have a roll call, please? >> Yes, absolutely. We'll start the roll call vote for ordinance 8777 with council member Shuhart. >> Yes. >> Spear. >> Yes. >> Mayor Promer. >> Yes. >> Adams, >> no. >> Benjamin, >> yes. >> Mayor Brockett, >> yes. >> Kaplan, >> yes. >> And council member Marquis, >> yes. Ordinance 8777 is hereby approved with a vote of 7 to one. >> Thanks so much. Keep going. >> Sure. Uh motion to I move to introduce an order published by title only ordinance 8778 establishing the city of Boulder property tax mill levies for 2026 providing that said levy be certified to the Boulder County assessor and setting forth related details.

3:39:46>> Second motion a second. Roll call, please. Emily. >> All right, we'll start the roll call vote for ordinance 8778 with council member Spear. >> Yes. Mayor Pro Winer, >> yes. >> Council member Adams, >> yes. >> Benjamin, >> yes. >> Brockett, >> yes. >> Council member Kaplan, >> yes. >> Marquis, >> yes. And Shuhard, >> yes. >> Ordinance 8778 is hereby approved unanimously. I make a motion to introduce an order published by title only ordinance 8779 appropriating money to defay expenses and liabilities of the city of Boulder, Colorado for the 2027 fiscal year of the city of Boulder and setting forth related details. >> Okay, we'll start the roll call vote. >> We need a second. >> Oh, sorry. >> Second >> motion to second. Roll call, please. >> All right, we'll start the roll call vote with an ordinance 8779 with Mayor Prom Winer. Yes, >> Adams.

8A Front Range Passenger Rail sales tax measure discussion

3:40:47>> Yes, >> Benjamin. >> Yes, >> Brockett. >> Yes, >> Council Member Kaplan. >> Yes, >> Marquis. >> Yes. >> Shuhar, >> yes. >> And Spear, >> yes. >> Ordinance 8779 is hereby approved unanimously. I make a motion to introduce an order published by title only ordinance 8780 amending title two government organization title three revenue and taxation title four licenses and permits title five general offenses title six health safety and sanitation title 7 vehicles pedestrians and parking and title 8 parks open spaces streets and public ways 1981 changing certain fees and taxes and setting forth related details Second roll call, please. Emily. >> All right, we'll start the roll call vote on ordinance 8780 with council member Adams. >> No. >> Benjamin, >> yes. >> Mayor Brockett, >> yes. >> Kaplan, >> yes. >> Marquis, >> yes.

3:41:55>> Shuhart, >> yes. >> Council member Spear, >> yes. >> And Mayor Prom, >> yes. Ordinance 8780 is hereby approved with a vote of 7 to1. >> Thanks so much. Well, that brings us to the end of our agenda item and thanks again to staff for all your incredibly hard work on this very complicated budget. We got one last thing. Item 8A. >> Yes, mayor. We will move on to item 8A under matters from the mayor and members of council and that is for the front range passenger rail sales tax measure discussion. >> Um I'll speak to this. This is something that I asked um that we schedule which is a question about whether the council wants to take a position of support on the front range passenger rail sales tax measure uh which would fund the Cocoa train which would provide train service um from Fort Collins through Boulder to Denver and all the way to PBLO. I won't go into any more details than that, but >> um unless there anybody wants to have some discussion, I can just call for >> um all right, let's show of hands for a straw poll about whether we'd like to take um position of support on this.

3:43:04Raise your hand if you're in favor. It's unanimous 800. So that's direction to city staff to prepare resolution of support for our next business meeting. And with that, that brings us to the end of our meeting. So I will close us out at 9:08 p.m. Thanks everybody.