Transcript

0:00:04We are recording. When OCs were here for a meeting of the board of county Commissioners in Boulder county today's. Thursday, October 9, 2025, and we're in a hybrid meeting. For? Let's see here. I'm going to go ahead and call our meeting to order and go to number two, which is our 930 a. M. Public meeting on department and office. Request for the 2026 budget. And that'll take us down to. We've got several different items here, and this. Is informational only. So there's no public comment. There may be some discussion questions between the presenters and the board of county commissioners. And we'll also hear from staff about other opportunities for folks to be involved in the budget process. So that is our plan right now. So. I'll. Go ahead and take us to item number two a, which is spending requests from the sheriff's. Office. And that's page three of the packet. Cool. Yeah. Jillian Dietrich, budget manager with the Office of Financial Management. As Commissioner Lomine mentioned, we're here to continue our discussions on department presentations for funding. Requests. Our next step in the process will be a hearing schedule for 01:00 p.m. on October 14, where we'll invite the community to provide input on the proposed budget. And then we'll return on November 6 at 01:00 p.m. to request decisions and seek direction for

0:01:29preparing the final budget. And I'll invite Sheriff Curtis Johnson up to discuss funding requests from the sheriff's. Office. Good morning, commissioners. Curtis Johnson, Boulder county sheriff. I apologize if I'm a little frazzled. But got a very early wake up call this morning from Netherlands. Sure. We've been running around a little today because our substation was. In that strip mall. So we have lost our place to work in Netherland for now. I will make this very brief on sheriff's office request. The first slide really just talks. About things we've been doing to address the shortfall in the general fund. You'll? Notice that the jail housing contract will be removed from our budget and more importantly, annually we come back and have to amend that through the year for roughly $400,000, we will no longer. Have to do that. Because of the opening of the Jopelli center, we've also reduced a couple of FDAs by combining positions in jail and dispatch. And at the very bottom, I just want to let you know that we are working on ways. To address the general fund by increasing revenue.

0:02:39As you know, we have a lot of contracts and do a lot of work with municipalities throughout the county, and we are consistently and constantly working to make sure that those contracts actually reflect. The funds that we are expending from the general fund to provide those services. So we'll continue working on that throughout the next year, as you may expect. The municipal budgets are in a similar position to our county budget, so it'll be a work in progress, but it is something we want to remain focused on. As far as the request for 2026. I first want to acknowledge and appreciate that your messaging has been very clear that you support staffing the expansion at the jail, and I appreciate that very much. I want to make your decision. Point very easy for you because these are the last eight positions that we need to complete. Staffing. For the new space of the jail and to be able to accommodate. In person visitation at the jail, but late last year, you authorized ten deputy positions for us and. We have not filled those yet. It's a work in progress. So I would like to ask of you is to not immediately fund this for 2026.

0:03:49Consider this a reminder that they are positions we are going to need. But I don't. Feel comfortable with you authorizing and funding these positions until we're in a position to staff them. So if it's all right with you, I would suggest that. In the second, 3rd or fourth quarter of next year, we can revisit this staffing depending on how we're doing on hiring. And consider funding them at that point instead of right now. Any questions? Yeah. Thank you. I was just going to ask if commissioners had questions on either that first slide. Or this second one on the final stepping. Thank you. Commissioner luci. Lucie fte that are in front of us right now, not any of the other. I think there's. Some. Maybe there weren't. No, I guess there weren't any other ft in your presentation. So just these eight that you're talking about.

0:04:48So a year and a half ago. When we began discussing the increased staffing, we have slowly but surely made progress in hiring and you have along the way authorized and funded those positions as we. Have been able to start filling them. So we are still catching up from what you gave us. Last year. And in lieu of funding these now. I think we can wait at least two quarters until we get our staffing in place and. Then we can talk about filling these positions when we're ready. And have enough applicants to support doing that. Understand the request. And I just say thank you. Thank you for. Working in this way and being mindful of the overall budget. And not constraining the budget before the positions are going to be hired. I really appreciate the managing of the funding and the budget and the proposal seems great to me. Thank you. Thank you, sheriff. I do have a couple of questions just in regards to. The first slide that you shared in regards to reduction. Reductions.

0:05:57Just thinking about all the presentations that we're having. They don't all line up, but I appreciate what you're sharing. Are you still looking at other reductions, I. E. Personnel or otherwise? I don't want the message here to be. This is all the sheriff's office is working on, or. So. Just wanted to ask that. Question. I think we're consistently evaluating what we can do with personnel. But over the last three years, We have been working really hard to right size the sheriff's office, and unfortunately, that meant additional staffing, not reductions. And if I were in a position to. Reduce human beings in the sheriff's office, I wouldn't have even presented the eight. People that we will need to open the jail. And yeah, we will continue and evaluate and look at opportunities where we can create efficiencies. And create savings for the general fund. But right now. Given where we're at with staffing. There aren't a lot of positions that would be easily given up, given most of them. Fulfill one of the statutory requirements of the office of sheriff, whether it's keeping the jail safe.

0:07:13Or dealing with search and rescue or responding to calls for service for law enforcement. Thank you. And I understand, and I'm thinking countywide and. We're looking at 70% personnel and 30% operations. I just wanted to ask because. Of the way that you set up that first slide. The second one was, I'm just receiving that as awareness that at some point there'll. Be another ask. And I do want to, just for the conversation. And your appreciation for the commissioner's. Collective statement about the ASF and continuing the gel services. And I just want to be clear. That. We are in a structural deficit. And so, unfortunately. That's going to affect our entire budget, so just appreciate. Kind of. The update is the way I'm receiving this piece on a plan. But no additional questions for me right now. So I was also asked to present on a fund 151. That's the emergency services tax. Fund request. And commissioner Loachman's very engaged in this as she's the lead on this tax. The request came from the Boulder County Firefighters association to increase the training budget that we have been providing them. Initially, the budget was set at $250,000, and they have asked for an increase. Their ask was to. Basically double it. $500,000. And through some negotiation and thought, Commissioner Loachman thought that $100,000 increase from fund 151

0:08:54would be appropriate at this time. The reality is. This training. And the fire training center provides training for all firefighters in Boulder county, whether they're paid professional from a municipality or volunteers from one of our fire protection districts in the west. The hope and goal of the firefighters association was to expand the training that they're offering. To include more emergency medical training for their staff so that if needed, they would have people who could provide. Immediate emergency medical assistance, which is an area they're lacking, especially in the rural parts of the county and given the state of the current ambulance situation in Boulder county, making sure that they had staff that were trained to deal with medical emergencies. So their ask was for $250,000. I believe Commissioner Loachman. And she can address this herself in a moment. Was asking for. An increase of $100,000 for now. The result of that. Will be given their rough budgeting, about $147,000 deficit that they may then apply for grant funding for. But that's only a one year grant.

0:10:05It would not be ongoing support for the EMS program that they're trying to establish. Thank you, commissioners. Any questions on this one? Time and paste question. None for me, thank you. Chair. Yeah. I think we'll look to Jillian for the same kind of spreadsheet. On what? The projections are and what the ongoing requests are out of the fund. Just to be able to put this in context, because I think we're going to hear about some other requests for funding out of fund 151 a little bit later this morning. Understood. I'll just add. For the board's sake. We'll have a separate conversation in regards to fund with 151, which I think is kind of what you were talking about. Questioner Levy and the ask from that particular group was, as described, an additional 250,000. And so I haven't. Just to clarify, I haven't gone through and made a recommendation yet to the board in regards to 100. Thousand, 200,000, 50,000 or any other number, but I appreciate you presenting this. Just in regards to the clarity that this too would be ask for the. Sheriff's office for this tax fund. Just as we start looking at everything in the funding. And before I go, I know there were questions on the fleet request. From Tuesday and we are working on. Finding that line where the $900,000

0:11:35that is already. In the approved budget. Would kind of lay out on that spreadsheet that you were presented. But I also want to point out that a number of those vehicles will exceed our 85,000 miles. Where we try to rotate out vehicles, especially the trucks that are being used in the mountains. Next year as we work through the year and it takes us roughly six months to purchase and equip a vehicle. So if it's ordered in January, it wouldn't even. Be fleet ready until midsummer. And the other piece that I would like to point out for you is on that spreadsheet. Which you will see revised. Number two was a fire truck for our fire management team. They have two type six brush trucks. One was purchased two years ago. This one is the old, aging piece of equipment that we would like to replace.

0:12:29It's a very expensive vehicle. At roughly $300,000. But it too would be eligible if there is one time money available from fund 151, it meets the intent and purpose of that tax. So I know that in the past, when we have had requests. That are tax eligible are eligible to be used out of 151, even if a portion of that vehicle can be paid for out of 151 that can help offset general fund request and or help us purchase. Additional vehicles to get the backlog moved forward. Any questions on fleet? Any questions for no questions. Thanks. Thank you. Just comment on that fleet piece. That's another conversation in that flood 51. I did get a chance to talk with Barb Halpin, who's really been working with the community volunteers for both of those grant programs that come through in two different grant cycles. From Boulder County. And so we will have some recommendations and just some thoughts for the board to consider in regards to the potential ask. For a vehicle connected to that fleet.

0:13:43List of the 900,000 asks, so thank you so. Much. Appreciate it, sheriff. Have a great day. Thank you, commissioners. Have a great day. Thanks, sheriff. With that, we'll move to item two B and. I'll invite treasurer Paul Weissman up to speak to his request. Thank you. Madam Chair and commissioners, I'm here to ask for the restoration of the vacant. Position that was eliminated earlier this year for 2026. Let me just throw a couple of numbers. At you. First one is 448. That's how many days I have left. And then. I'm out the door. This was sounding good, testicle. I don't mean it. That way, but. That's significant, especially on the foreclosure side. We took over being public trustee. Without filling this position, knowing that I could do that work. 448 days. Anybody who walks through the door. My job is not going to be able to do that. I was sort of in a unique position, having been the trustee before the treasurer became the trustee. As well, so it allows that to happen. The reason why that's also important is a couple more numbers.

0:14:48Foreclosures this year in Boulder county of 20%. That's a big number in itself. But the bigger significant number is the properties have actually gone all the way to sale last year. The total year. Six properties went to sale this year. So far, 19 have gone to sale. What that means. I don't want to say it's easy, but the work is. Much easier. If somehow the property doesn't go all the way to sale, if they cure it. Or if the mortgage company withdraws it, whatever happens to get it to go away. It's easier once it goes to sale. The work really happens. Example of that is junior leans. Last year there were zero. That's any lien recorded after the foreclosure this year. So far, there's been 16. I'm sorry. There's been nine of those. Those alone take hours and hours of specified work. We're going to need somebody to be able to do that in addition to the trustee work. Senior deferrals are coming back to us. So the person that we've had trained to back up trustees for the period of time of tax season and deferrals. Is going to be back doing senior deferrals.

0:16:02Boulder county is still the number one county in the state. As far as active senior deferrals as folks that have the state pay their taxes in exchange for a lien alone. Low interest loan to do that. The treasurer's deed process having wildly changed to make it almost more like the foreclosure. Process more labor intensive in her office. In addition to me leaving in 448 days. Alicia probably leaves in about 560 days or so. She does the work of three folks we've deliberately kept this position vacant knowing we didn't need that person now. But we're. Going to need them. We're going to need them to get up in training sometime. In 2026. We're not sure when that's going to be. If it helps. With the budget. We are happy to fund that. Out of the trustee side. That's a separate fund. That we're happy to make that work. Ultimately, it's all the same money because anything over the trustees flops back into the general fund. But if it helps with the budgeting, we're happy to fund it out of that side. Happy to answer any questions.

0:17:10Thank you treasure board. Any questions? I have one question. Thank you, chair. Just trying to understand, are you? Planning? Because I understand what you've said. Are you planning to hire this position while you're still here so that you can train? Them so that they'll be ready to go day one when the next individual is treasurer. Or are you planning to hire them in 2020? Seven. 2026. Sometime they'll be hired with enough time to go through. Some. The tricky part. And I learned this as treasure, and I'm not worried about having them at the beginning. Of the tax season for 2026. With the tax end, you really need to go at least through a full cycle of billing, collecting and investing and distributing. For the foreclosures. All you have to do is go through a handful of foreclosures. From beginning to end, and you hope you have those oddities in there, so. My gut guess is, although I'm not sure, is sometime around August next year, we'll. Pull somebody in, find them and train them so that we have. Enough time to get a foreclosure. Enough handful of foreclosures from start to finish. That's my gut feeling. It'll be 2026 sometime. It won't be after I'm gone. Okay, thanks. Thank you. Michelle, did you have a question? No, no questions. Thanks. Thank you. I just had

0:18:30one. Just from a number standpoint, since we're seeing numbers. In the other presentations, and I didn't hear, so I apologize if you said it. What? Is that position? Cost? And would that include benefits and other items? Yeah. I left that number downstairs. They probably have it next to me. It was that same number. That you just got rid of. And I think with benefits and stuff like that, it's somewhere, if my mind is right, about 68 grand or so. But I could be wrong on that. Okay? Julian is going to fix me. We can get back to you with that number. Yeah, that's great. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Paul. With that, we'll move to item two c and I'll invite Terese Gloakie. Director of parks and open space department to present on their requests. Good morning, commissioners. Therese Gloaki, director of parks and open space. And I am going to present to you parks and open space. One time request. From our fund 126 and then also to request from two other funds, 150 and 151. But we are going to start with our CTF, which is a conservation trust fund. It's lottery proceeds that are distributed throughout the state. On a per capita basis, and they are more flexible than our open space sales tax funds and we are proposing a $665,000.01 time

0:20:06operating to complete the purchase of Cliffside. Cliffside is the open space. It is a property that will be in open space. Adjacent to cmax up here and. This is the one that we have talked about as the possibility for land restoration or land back. So that's why we're proposing to use CTF funding for that. If you have not already seen your quarter three amendment, the first purchase, half of it is being asked for this year out of CTF funding, so this is the second half next. Also in ctf. So we have the fairground exhibit building, and it has a 40 year old roof that is leaking. And even though it's hard to see, that little line down the middle isn't. For dog training or anything else like that. They're buckets collecting water that is dripping through the roof. On a recent rain. So our request.

0:21:03We have asked for this since county facilities does. Take care of the buildings at the fairgrounds. We have had this roof replacement request for several years on the CEF and it never quite makes it to the top. And yet it is. An energy efficiency. Issue out there, and certainly. It is. Not good public process or governance to have. Events there where people bring in. Very prized possessions, including. Four h artwork and quilts and to have a leaky roof. So what we are proposing is to use CTF funding to pay for the whole roof. So it would be an energy efficiency upgrade and get rid of the leaks. And our next request? Is one of our sales tax. Again fund 126 cad one. This is for a one time operating increase of 63,000. For helping cover the cost of our increased expenses on our crop share and our water assessments. They have increased by 12% over the last several years, and this is to get us through. 2026. I will say this a couple of different times. We are working on an asset management system that is going to help us. Better project what it takes to manage our agricultural open space. And as we get those numbers, we will be better. Able to project our ongoing maintenance costs until we have those numbers. We are

0:22:46looking for a one. Time increase for this. Next is Prince Lake. This you have heard about before. This is a FEma project. It was. Funded by HMGP, which is a hazard mitigation grant program. It is under construction now. So if you have been out near Erie and seen a large agricultural. Reservoir being reconstructed. That's our work out there. It is nearing completion. But it will not get finished in 2025, so we need an additional $251,250. To complete this work. It was a safety issue for the town of Erie. Neighborhoods downstream from the reservoir were at risk. The dam safety inspector looked at it and said, We need to improve the dam. So we got the HMGP money and we have put our own funding into it. This is our final match. That approximately 250,000 for 2026. Next is the Howell ditch. You may have heard a talk about the Howell ditch. This is also a fema funded project. And it gets money from Colorado Water Conservation Board. We had a design for it. This is part of Lower Boulder Creek, adjacent to our other restoration projects, and this falls within the prairie run open space.

0:24:20The ditch has served agricultural users for over 120 years, and it is outdated and inefficient. So we are trying to find a solution that fits with natural channel design. Fish passage. And still meets the water needs of the users on the Howell ditch. And so. We are requesting a $300,000 match for this because, again, It's primarily funded by cwcb and fema. Our next. Is the Heron Lake outlet. As you can see, we're doing a lot of water infrastructure. Projects Heron Lakes. So in the 2013 flood, Pella flooded. It was one of the worst hit areas that we had. And as all the ponds at Pella washed out, the water came down towards the same brain. And flooded neighborhoods in the city of Longmont. So this is the city of Longwatts. So we worked with them immediately after the. Flood to get an outlet that could take any floodwaters down the hill into the St. Frame.

0:25:26What you see in the bottom here is. What that design looked like. It is a rather small culvert, which has a pipe that. Goes probably 400ft. Down the hill into the same frame. It is not large enough for the water. And what happens? Is what you see in the top photo there is. It backs up on our pelopon's. Trail and is causing problems. So city of Longmont has requested us. To keep. That. Escape route for the water at Pella, and we want to fix it so that it both serves as flood mitigation and still doesn't erode our trails. So that's. What this $350,000.01 time operating for here in lake is. Next. We have been working on upgrading our 29 houses and making them more energy efficient. Getting rid of asbestos and even putting. In electric.

0:26:26Electricity. Replacing hot water heaters with on demand, if that's possible. And we have even put solar powers on some of our solar panels, on some of our houses. We've been working on it. This will be the third year that we are requesting additional operating to get those houses. Energy efficient and upgraded and. As we do that when a house. Is improved, we can increase the rental rate, which was. One of the recommendations from Resource X on how to recoup more of our costs. So that is. One more year, and then we think we will have a steady state and we will be able to maintain our houses and bring in more revenue. So that is a one time half a million. Dollar operating for fund os 51. For rental properties. And next. Again. In fund OS 51. This is for agricultural maintenance backlog.

0:27:26We've been focusing for five years on our maintenance backlog. And what that means is replacing. Aging pivot irrigation systems. And cleaning up old debris like you see in the bottom. Right. And working. On overall. Soil health. And crop management. So this is a one time proposal. For removing hazard trees, improving safety and replacing one pivot on Ludlow, Swanson or Longmont United Hospital. Then our next. You saw this last year and we are still working on it. This is for the ag buffalo. Fencing. We are continuing our conversations. We're optimistic that we might even get a lease with the shine and Rapaho signed sometime soon. And. Once we have the lease and they have a dedicated staff to work with us from the Cheyenne. Anna Rapaho tribes then we'll be able to design the fencing we have the area picked out where buffalo will be. We have. The house set aside for a caretaker shine in Rapaho. Caretaker? So things are really moving forward, but we have not got the fence put in place yet, so.

0:28:45This is a 2025 request that we're asking to move into 2026. And then we have another one time request for operating for our resource management division. And this encompasses several different aspects. But I put a picture of a bob link on this because it is state bird and it is threatened. And I was just at a Colorado Open Space alliance conference and went out to a nature conservancy site and they explained this fabulous latest, greatest technology where they're using drones. That can do heat sensing, infrared that. Shows where there are living things out there that are so sensitive they can find bobble ink. Nests. What that does is they fly it when the bobblings are in the hay field. And then the tenant cannot hay the field until the bob links have fledged. And they even had one case where there were still one holding on, and they were able to map it and the tenant could. Buffer it and was able to still harvest and protect the bowel links. So that's the type of work that we are going to do with this additional operating. It's all in support of our environmental resources element of the Boulder County Comprehensive Plan. Our species of special concern then it will also help us with our racial equity work. And inclusive and inclusive community outreach that we

0:30:16are doing. And prairie dogs. We are still managing prairie dogs. We are asking for 35,001 time operating. We have done some contracting this year 2025. We will be splitting, doing some contracting and some in house. So this is additional operating for more. Prairie dog management to improve our agricultural production on a no prairie dog areas. And then this is a one time net zero transfer. We're really just asking to transfer. This between our gad one open space fund to our fund. Or. Sorry, it's. Our standing acquisitions. We typically have $17 million in our budget ongoing for acquisitions. And since our GAd one is running low on funding, we are moving it to a sales tax that has sufficient revenue. We have a couple of big purchases on the horizon for 2026. One is the CMax.

0:31:30Property. That it came up for us to purchase in 2025. We acted on our options and are working with CMX for them to finish the restoration before they turned it over, and then we have to pay the bill, basically. The second one is the golden Friedstrom property from the same boat. We've been paying an option on it for a very long time. We expect to finalize it. In early 2026. Next is more land acquisition. The 17 million we do not think is going to be enough next year because of the CmaX purchase and the golden fried strum and several. Other properties that we've had our eye on are coming up. And potentially available for purchase as open space. So we are asking for a one time increase of $3 million in fund. For additional land acquisitions. And then our cardinal mill water quality. Our staff have been working really hard this year. Trying to find a solution for this very complex legacy mining conundrum. The picture you see is Cardinal mill. There is a water drain that goes down the side of it, right? Would be in the very bottom of this picture. And. Cd drms no. Cdphe. Has changed regulations on water quality. So as that pipe comes down the hill, it's collecting. Water not only from the addict, it is also collecting it

0:33:14from a mine tailing, which is not on our property, which is right to the right of this. And. The water exiting the pipe no longer meets state water quality. So we are trying to find a solution for that. We've had monitoring going for years. We've worked with a great consultant this year. It's called ramball, and we are looking for ways. To. Meet the CDPHE water quality requirements and do the right thing by Coon Track Creek and the people who live in Netherland. And not have it cost too much money for Boulder county. So we're looking at creative solutions. We have test filtration system up there right now. And if that works, then we will be able to implement it on a larger scale, and that's why we are requesting this $4 million to fix that water quality issue. Commissioner Lorchman, could I ask a question?

0:34:11Yes. Thank you. Yeah, thanks. And it's. Not on this one. I've been trying to sort out. Just for information purposes for me. The Gad fund is distinguished from the red. Sun. What are those acronyms stand for? I'm going to ask. The Gat appropriation is and you might know the year. Off the top of your head. Thanks for watching. That's the appropriation for the sales tax that was approved in 1994. So each of our distinct sales tax are accounted for in a separate appropriation, and then the red acronym is the real estate division. So that accounts for real estate activity across multiple appropriations. Does that answer your question? So in the slide. Where it was a $0 transfer. From gad one. To fund zero one one. Teresa said that there isn't sufficient funding in Gad one.

0:35:26And so you're requesting an appropriation out of. Zero, one, one. Is a different sales tax for open space that we are collecting, which has sufficient funds in it. To absorb the 7.2 million. Okay. All right. But both of those. Well, the 1994 sales tax. It's probably been extended, and who knows what the date of it is now, but it is still generating revenue. You've just already spent all the funds out of that fund. That's correct. Okay. So then the transfer. From Gad if there's no money in it. So it was budgeted. It has been budgeted for the past. 20. Years. No, it's appropriation. Exactly. Okay, thanks. All right, that's all. I just was not sure what all the different acronyms for these funds were about. Yeah, well. Thank you for asking. And we're getting towards the end here after Cardinal Mill. Then the next one out of our OS 51 is. The prairie run proposal.

0:36:45We are asking for about a half a million dollars. For operating. Prairie run is underway. We had. We're about $2 million that we are using this year in 2025. To do the design and the construction. You approved the construction contract last week, and the construction contractor. Is mobilizing this week. That's for the southwest parking lot and mile of trail. And connections to city of Erie trails. Town of Erie trails. And then next year, it's a much lower dollar amount that we are asking for because it's really for design. And we'll be working like on the Howell ditch I mentioned earlier. So then we will be asking for more money in 2027 to start implementing the northeast part. Of the property, which has the shelters and the water access and the trails and the parking lot.

0:37:41Larger infrastructure, so a smaller request. In 2026, you will see more of this. Coming to your way in 2027. And the projection for opening the trail. On the southwest cluster is April of 2026. Thanks, Teresa. Board. I'm wondering if we should ask any questions on that fund 126, which. Was that I didn't realize it was such a big section, but I'm wondering. If that would make sense. And then Teresa talked about presentation on 150 and then 151. Thank you. Jerry, I had two questions that I've been holding. So not necessarily exactly as prompted, but just on previous slides. The first comment question I have is around. The use of conservation trust funding for the roof on the shelter. At the fairgrounds. Just as we continue to discuss these six, I think Commissioner Los brought up the project. It certainly has merit. And I just perhaps don't see conservation trust funding as an appropriate fund to fund that. Out of. So I think as we consider all of the requests, just looking at where that's. Funded from is important to me. It's not that I quarrel with the need of. The project, but I don't think using Conservation Trust fund is the way we ought to go on that particular project. I recognize that was not a question, but that's my comment. And then on the

0:39:01Heron Lake. Project. I just wondered if you considered moving the trail or doing an elevated trail rather than changing. The outlet structure. It is downstream and so on. Most of our reservoirs we need a low area for flood mitigation. So when and it's a hardened area there. It backs up. I'm not 100% sure that we have looked at elevating the trail, but. When I'm just considering Heron Lake in relation to all of our other reservoirs that flooded. And were rebuilt. We always have a low water crossing on the downhill side that's reinforced. Which is the exact area where. The heron outtake is. So we've looked at it a lot, and I would say the 300,000. Seems reasonable as far as a fix goes, but I can go back and ask them, I think. It might still cost 300,000 to raise it. I don't think there's any way you're going to build the outlet for $300,000.

0:40:07So that's. Part of where my question is coming from. I recognize that that's the number that was put into the budget presentation, but I see absolutely. No way for anyone to accomplish that. So that's part of why I was asking the question. Sure. Well, our staff working on it. Are pretty confident that. They can increase the size of the outlet for the 300,000. But I know prices are going up more than we would ever expect. I just see the bills when they come in, so I know how much things cost because we sign the checks. I understand that. That's the hope. And at the end of the day, There are other outlets we've paid for that cost. Different dollar amounts. Sure. It's hard for me to believe that that's what it will cost. That's awesome.

0:40:52And that's why. Just alternatives. Understanding if there's a different solution. But it sounds like we've not considered that. What I can do is have our staff give you a brief. Two page with perhaps the designs, if that could help. If it's already. Made. I don't want them to create a new document, but if they've already. Done that work. That would be very helpful. Great. I will do that. Thank you. If I might just. Add a question onto the Heron Lake item and then commission if you have some questions. And then I've got a couple of additional ones, if that's okay. On the hair and. I am curious only because I was out there running like two weeks ago and over the last couple of years. What I have seen. The picture. On that area where it goes down is accurate and. There's already basically not just a social trail because there's some work there. There's rocks in a path, so thank you for that. So the slide, the top photo there on the right side of that. Somebody's already put work into it. And maybe it was just people doing it, but maybe. It was parks and open space, so it just made me curious.

0:42:02That was one that I made. A note on as well. It seems as though. There's already. I don't even want to say temporary, fixed. Because it's been like that for. A couple of years. So I just wanted to offer that when you're looking at. Capacity for staff projects as well as the funding. Ask. That was one just from a commentary, if that's an immediate need. And then the other. One, Commissioner Leva, I'll go to you and then I'll go to my questions. Oh, no, I asked my question. Thanks for circling back. Okay. So then. I'm just trying to stay in that section of your presentation tree. Thank you. The fairgrounds exhibit. That one came up on Tuesday. With the. I think it was the building facilities team. I can't remember if it was. Dave McLeod that presented it or if it was in public works.

0:42:58But the question I had on that one was to get a breakdown. And if the 1.6 really. Is the full roof. That's great. I was just thinking that there was. Because they had. Presented it as a 300,000 to ask and then it had the 1.6 and kind of in the description. So just for some clarification, so we. Know that 1.6 is truly just roof, or if that includes windows and other items that were originally requested in regards to efficiency. For that structure. That is a very good question. I asked the exact same thing, because when we had our conversation, with David McLeod. We thought for sure that the roof was less than that 1.6. So the 300,000. Request that's in public works is a patch. It's not fixing the roof. It's not replacing it, and it's been patched in the past, so we are hoping to be able to replace it. And I was hoping as well, Commissioner Lo Jamine, that it was going to be somewhere in the million dollar or 1.2. But they resent us, the numbers, and it is 1.6. For the roof, not for all the other energy upgrades. Okay, that's an important clarification. And then the other piece, I believe Teresa in. A separate meeting. You had talked about potential alternative funding sources to get to that 1.6 I just

0:44:19think that would be helpful. And because I had shared that with the board as the lead commissioner. On the fairground says if that's not accurate and there aren't other funding, that'll be helpful. For us to know as we move along in the budget process. Yeah. The alternative funding that I was talking about is not open space funding. The CTF funding comes from the state and can be used for any recreational purposes. It has a broader mandate than our open space sales tax and that's why we're. Proposing to use CTF funds for fixing the roof at the fairgrounds because. It is definitely a recreation amenity for the community. But if there are alternatives, as commissioner stolesman mentioned, Certainly. I would be willing to look at that. We cannot use open space sales tax funds, and as I said, we've asked for this probably more than three years on the CEF and it just never makes it to the top of the list. So my reading of this CTF funding is that it is flexible and can be used for fairgrounds. Thank you. And then the last one I had just made a note on was the natural resources. Management side. It was a $35,000 figure, but I just wanted some clarification. If this is personnel or operations or both. It's just operations. No personnel in that

0:45:4935,000. Dollars, okay? Tools, equipment. Food for meetings. With the community for the community engagement component of it, and then the technology, like hiring CSU. To do the drone flight. Okay. Those are the questions I had on that first section of the presentation. Thank you. Thank you for those questions. So the fund 151, which is the wildfire mitigation tax. So the sort yards are again funded out of the general fund because they're not an open space. A specific open space. Youth. So we have been working. With the WiFi mitigation tax. The Wafar mitigation tax pays for one full time employee that works up there. When we expanded our staffing, What we are looking at now is. We have. A very old grinder. That is about ready to needs to be replacing. But that request, a new grinder, is over. $750,000. So our request for 2026 is to look at contracting the grinding out. And see how much it costs and how effective and efficient it is before we make a decision. To purchase a new grinder. So this is a test, a trial run, basically. For this $150,000 worth of operating expense. To. Contract out grinding for the soyards. Well, actually, did you have any questions on that? Because then we'll go to the next fund. Thanks for that, commissioners. Any questions? On the.

0:47:42Thing. And I just wanted to point out we started the store yards because of mountain pine beetle and they have definitely proven to be very effective for wildfire mitigation and mountain pine beetles. Back. So they also will be useful for the mountain pine beetle, which is really impacting front range. Of Colorado again. Please. I'll just share. We were up in Alan's park a couple of weeks. Ago the board together for a town hall and the sort yards was a topic of appreciation and just interest from residents up in that area. So just in general around our short yard. So thank you for that. Well, that's very good to hear. Our staff really do appreciate working with the community. So then our next request is coming from the emergency Services Tax fund 151. And we are asking for personnel and their supporting operating and this is really all well, it is. Three personnel that we are asking for. One is an fte. That full time fte and then the other two are terms. So the language in all these slides are the same. I just put it up here because I wanted to distinguish the personnel reoccurring for the first one. That's this new FTE ranger and to show commissioner Loachman out there with our rangers.

0:49:11Next. This is going to be fast. I'm really just showing these wonderful pictures of our rangers in action. With each FTE. We are asking for over $14,000 for operating. That includes all their uniforms, their vehicle equipment. All their computers, their mdcs, which. Are. Mobile units that they use in their cars. So that's the FTE, then? Just. We got four more slides you can just show. These wonderful pictures. Dottie, our most famous ranger dog, is passing all of her tests and out. There doing good work in her search and rescue. This is. The term. Again. Rangers in action in the winter, operating two more here. The smiling ranger faces. What we have done is we've analyzed our ranger. Numbers compared to our counterparts, and we are way understaffed, like half as many as the city of Boulder has. And the fund 151 specifically says that the taxes will go to wildfire. Improvement and trailhead safety, which is exactly what our rangers do, so we think these are appropriate. Requ? Requests for the emergency services tax. Thing, and that's it. Just, jillian, when we look at this, Going forward and make the final decisions. I think we need to see fund 151 and understand how we're going to prioritize the ongoing operating expenses out of it. Absolutely.

0:50:52Yeah. So. We plan to bring a full multi year analysis for this fund. I had just one question on this request from fund 151 if I could. Yeah, thanks. Just the question was simply, are you currently funding any ranger positions out of this fund? The commissioners approved one. Ranger this year. In the quarter. Two budget amendment process. And Teresa, I just had a question. On that. Looks like slide 30 on my screens, and it's one of the term slides. The recurring personnel for three years. I was just curious around two years versus three years, thinking about the fund 151. And the time of that tax as its full percentage and then the reduction after that. So I was just curious if two years would be an option. As was already discussed, the board will have a little more conversation in regards to fund 151 throughout the budget season. Yes, definitely. We would entertain two year terms for these positions. Okay. Thank you. And it looked like maybe that was the end of your presentation. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. Thank you so much.

0:52:13Thank you. Thanks, Teresa. We'll move to item two, D and. I'll invite Susannah Lopez Baker, our housing department director, up to discuss. Capital allocation requests for the affordable and attainable housing sales tax. Good morning, commissioner. Sudana Lopez Baker, Boulder county housing Department director. Thanks for having us today. We are going to talk about the affordable and attainable housing tax. We don't anticipate any changes. As the commissioners agreed to two year funding commitments. As you can see, the numbers haven't changed. And if there's any questions, I'm happy to review. But our next slide has the capital projects, and this is where. We have. The advisory committee has met, and this is their recommendation for funding for 2026 for Boulder counties affordable and attainable housing tax allocation of $3,673,136. As you can see, the city of Lafayette would be awarded funds for Willoughby Corner, in which they would give to BCHA of $1.5 million, the city of Louisville would receive $448,000 for the Hillside Square rehab project.

0:53:32That project would also be completed by BCHA. The town of Netherland is interesting in doing some site study work on rodeo court to perhaps densify. But that project would be $100,000, and that would also be completed by BCHA. The town of Superior is requesting funds for kite route crossing. This is a new development. In superior senior housing project. They had some gap funding. Need of a million dollars. And then the last project is an unincorporated Boulder County. It is Catamaran Court, a project owned by BCHA. It is in need of extensive rehab, and the advisory committee is recommending $625,000 for that project. Happy to answer any questions, commissioners. Thank you, Susana. Commissioner Levy. Yeah. Thank you. Just back up on your slide. On. How the affordable and attainable housing tax is being distributed. The fund balance. What you're showing is in 2026 that there would be an additional $835,316. Off the top for reserves. My understanding was that we funded that in 2025. Unless you've made. We. Not you. Unless we've made expenditures out of that fund. Balance. It seems like we wouldn't have to appropriate that again. It looks like Jillian is really anxious.

0:55:06We were just talking about the money. We are meeting, actually, to adjust that number so we do. Anticipate it being less than what was collected. But, Julian, you may have commented that that's. Correct. So, as we discussed those multi year analyses with you, we'll look at the revised sales and use tax figures and how that reduces the overall $800,000 contribution. To fund balance there. Excellent. So we might see those remaining available. And the allocation among the 35. 65. See that go up. Correct. We'll reevaluate that on an annual basis. Thank you. Madam chair, I just have a question. Comment, maybe leaning more toward the comment side, looking at the so we decided to allocate this in this way. This looks very professional and excellent. It looks like City of Boulder and Longmin are getting direct cash, close to 3 million each and if you go to the list of the county allocation on the next slide, it looks like a really great. Split regionally around the other jurisdictions, and fantastic projects that I'm seeing on this list. We got a lot of negative criticism from the city of Boulder, so I'd be really interested in seeing how they plan to spend their 3 million since the funding that the commissioners are responsible for seems to be going to very excellent projects. Thank you. Thank you.

0:56:19And we do intend to bring when they give us their list for 2026. We haven't received that yet. But when they do, yes, it will come in front of the commissioners for final approval. Before those funds are transferred to the cities. Great. Thank you. Thanks, Susana. I don't have additional questions. I think just. For the board to follow up on that comment and agree. The committee. Has done a really great job. And we have talked about doing an update. Susan and I are. Going to talk about doing an update in regards to the tax first quarter of 2026 and so that suggestion, Commissioner Salzman, is really helpful if that's something that. We were kind of figuring out how do we present that to all of the community members? Know how this tax is being used the same way that we've done in some of our other additional taxes. So appreciate that update, Susanna. Yes, thank you, commissioners. Thanks. With that, we'll move to our final presentation for the day. Item two e. Will invite Lexi Nolan up to present on the public health budget. GOod morning, commissioners. Lexi Nolan, executive director at Boulder County Public Health. Good to see you this morning. Public health, as you know, has been going through a significant priority based budgeting process over the past. Year. Thank you. And we've

0:57:48really dived deep into really assessing our programs in terms of community service. In terms of what is mandated and how many staff we need to fulfill our mandated work. Et cetera. And in terms of what our sustainable budget and staffing targets would be going forward over the longer term, we were able to reduce our budget from 24.4 million to $20.6 million for 2026. Including really trying to align the allocations with our highest priority work and highest impact services. We do still. Have a $1.5 million indirect deficit that we're going to be working on. Over the next year. Our reserves at the beginning of 2026 are projected to be 17%. And, of course, this. Is just a projection at this time, but the reserves at 2027 are projected at 14%. A lot can happen in a year. And we are. Being very conservative and cautious about not counting on money that we haven't received yet. So we are optimistic we'll be able to stay within our board mandated 15% to 20% reserve range. We are continuing also to advance lean processes to increase efficiency and explore new revenue generation. Okay, this is our 2026 source and use. List for both the 25 and 26 budgets. You will notice that. A significant amount of the reductions came out of our grants. Our sustainability tax. Request has gone

0:59:32down a little bit. Our county funding transfer from the general fund and. From the Health and Human Services Fund. B, one a. Is flat. We're not asking for an increase there. Of note, you'll see that the reserve, the planned reserve spending from 25 to 26. Decreased significantly, from 2.1 million to about 766,000 projected for 2026. And we have made cuts across all of our divisions. Really? Based on analyses. Of. Efficiency, lean processes and work capacity and priority work. Next slide. So overall, there's a budget reduction of 3.8 million for the public health budget. Which is up 16% this year. This includes. 31 position reductions, of which seven are attrition, including retirements and sunsetting positions. Seven are FTe positions. Eight are term positions that will be ending. As grant funds sunset. Six staff were reassigned or internally hired to vacant positions, and three staff were moved to hourly. So. We feel very fortunate that we were able to make these reductions. While minimizing the number of staff that we had to let go. Of note, we're still working on a 700,000 reduction to meet the budget target. We know that federal, state and local landscape for next year is pretty uncertain. Particularly for public health. And we are tracking the federal shutdown. As that has direct impact on our WIC program. Next slide. So we receive

1:01:30three sources of funds from the county, the general fund, the health and human services. B, one a and the sustainability tax. We are not requesting any change in funding for the general fund in b one, a, our sustainability tax. We are actually reducing the request and last slide. What we have done with the sustainability tax is. We've pulled back on some of the nutrition education activities and consolidated all of our food. Systems work that was split between our environmental health and family health divisions. Into one program in environmental health so that we could achieve some efficiencies, and this will allow us to both reduce some of our personnel costs and also to increase. The food contributions to the community. Thank you, Lexi, for the presentation. Can I share any questions or comments? I just have a comment. I just want to thank you. For Anne Armando, who's here just for really taking a very sharp pencil to your budget. And I know. These were not easy decisions to make, and it took a lot of leadership. To get public health in a position where. You're able to at least have flat requests out of the county general fund. I'm just noting that it looks like the bulk of the rejections are coming out. Of your strategic initiatives and your community health. Areas, both of which

1:03:10do really fantastic work. And. Hopefully, maybe sometime we'll be in a better budget situation. With state grants that I know and federal grants that I know are very important to public health. Hopefully this is just a temporary situation. Thank you. I know we all hope that the tightening of the budget is temporary for all of us. Thank you. Mr. Stolman, did you have any. I would just share the similar kudos that commissioner. Levy did. I think that professionalism and the detail that you've shown is very helpful. And useful in being able to make good, responsive, community driven decisions, and I'm really grateful. For the entire team at public health for working on this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I was going to say something similar. I don't need to repeat it. But just want to appreciate Lexi, your leadership, and Adam, who it sounds like is in the room. I can't see from where I'm sitting virtually, but just want to appreciate all of the work that you've been doing, and I know there's been several different meetings. And, of course, separately with your board of health, but it sounds like there's been some great communication, and I'm hopeful that with your staff as well, just so that. We can start again here.

1:04:29And also appreciate some of the notes in there in regards to the federal impacts on what that means for public health, so that we're all aware. Thank you so much. Thank you very. Much. Thank you, commissioners. That concludes our presentations for today. We'll be back on Tuesday to hear public comment on the proposed budget. Thank you. Thank you. And I just want to make sure commissioners there was no questions for Jillian or OFM staff. Didn't look like it, but I just wanted to make sure. I would just ask how. Are you so amazing? I have no questions. No questions. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And there's no other items on our agenda, so. I'm going to go ahead and adjourn our business meeting for today. Thanks, everyone. Thank you, chair.