Transcript

0:00:21All right, commissioners, are you ready? Yes, we are. And we are recording. Gwenazia. We're here for a meeting at the board of county Commissioners in Boulder. County. Today is Tuesday, September 23, 2025, and we are at the county courthouse, 1325 Pearl. Street in downtown Boulder. All three commissioners are present for our business meetings, so I'm going to go ahead and call our meeting to order, and we'll move to item two, which. Is the. Business meeting, public hearing on labor farm, and then item three, which is business meeting. Move to item four, which is housing authority consent, item. So we'll be sitting now as the Boulder County Housing Authority Board of directors. I move approval of item four a second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. And. Then we'll go back to. Item five, which is commissioner's. Consent items and. We'll.

0:01:40Be sitting as the board of county commissioners. Now, can I move approval of five a through five? H. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. And so then we'll move to item number six, which. Is commissioner's discussion items and. Item six a is our first one under that section, and it is the commissioner's office. Appointments to the boul. The commissioner's office. Community Housing Corporation board of directors. And that takes us to page 123 in our packet. Good morning. Madam Chair. Commissioners Robin Valdez with. And this item is for the appointments of the Boulder Community Housing Corporation, which. It was a new port. And that I was asked to recruit. And for you to consider. This board is focused on affordable housing development and home ownership. Initiatives as well as sufficiency. Programming, especially as it relates to youth engagement, economic mobility, and aging in place. This board has three vacancies for the board of directors, and we receive four applications from Eric Parton, Sean Gary Lewis, Kelly and Amy Weinstein. The staff at the department reviewed and conducted interviews and their recommendations. To you is to Gary and Louise Kelly for your consideration. Thank you, Robin. Any questions, commissors? I'm just reading what this board is because it's new to me, too. I don't have any questions.

0:03:22I was looking at. There's three vacancy. You had four people. What was the recommendation? I'm so sorry. No, that's okay. The recommendation is to point Eric Parton. Sean. Gary and Louise Kelly. Okay, thanks. Well, I'm sorry. Robin, the question that I had was just in regards. I didn't hear you talk about a staff liaison. But do you talk about staff? I was just curious. Compared to some of the other processes. So the board liaison is. Gwen mossman. With the housing services department. Doesn't look like there's any additional questions. Is there a motion on item six? A. I move that we appoint the recommended people. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you. And then we'll move to item six B, which is county administrator's office. And this is the 2025 annual policy updates.

0:04:10Good morning. My name is Athelana Ritana with the office of county administrator. I bring before you the annual policy changes. Every year. Policy changes and updates are presented to be approved and adopted, which become effective on January 1 of the following year. This year, there were 26 policy changes being presented for your approval. For the policy and personnel manual. A general overview of the policy changes that were received. We received a total of 75 policy changes, 16 of them were made by employees 59 of them were either made by the department itself or collaborating departments that recommended changes. From the 75 proposals, eight of them were duplicates, which just meant that two different departments may have made the same request. Administrative changes were nine, which is usually just administrative in regards to the language itself, but not changing. Any content of the policy, of the policy in itself. Procedures updates. There are 15 and there were 17 denied. The 17 denied. They were not all the way denied. And the reason? That is because there is a pending union negotiation which could bring forward these policy changes once again and open for negotiation. Each policy change was carefully reviewed by multiple parties. The office of Racial Equity identified policies to be presented in a racial equity panel and the county attorney's office collaborated with respective

0:05:43office of primary responsibilities. There has been more intention, intentional collaboration between departments to. Ensure policy changes and they are introduced thoughtfully with clear communication, preventing any surprises in fostering better execution and implementation. I am requesting the adoption and approval of the proposed policy changes that were reviewed in the elected office and department head meeting on August 20. The effective date for all policy changes will be January 1 of 2026. Thank you. Thanks for the presentation, Athelana. Any questions, commissioners? No questions, Commissioner Stolfman. Thank you so much for this information and really thorough process. I really think it's great. How you solicit the information and then put it all together and make the changes in a really transparent way. I think this is wonderful how you've presented it. I have no questions but a piece of feedback. Just with the change in the AI policy, it's our first AI policy at the county in our manual.

0:06:47And with this going into effect, in January. I just think the details of it need to be broadly shared with the employees. I mean, I know the whole manual is important, but this has a substantial change with new training and. New tools and. Requirements that people need to understand and be made aware of. And I look forward to taking the training as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I don't have any questions. I appreciate the update and the presentation. Thanks for all the work. It's a great presses on another way that you're tighting, how Boulder county employees are involved to be able to give recommendations, so thank you for that. Ditto. Thanks for the work. I know it's a tremendous amount of work to organize. Coordinate and get. All the language. Exactly. Right. I think we're ready for a motion. I'll move. Approval of six b. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. And that moves us to item seven, confirmation of executive session topics. Good morning, commissioners. Natalie Springert, commissioner's deputy. For the record, I'm here to confirm that the executive session topics that were noticed at the September 16, 2025, regular business meeting of the board were discussed as scheduled. And this is just a note for the record, so I'm happy to take us into item eight. Item eight will require

0:07:59three different vote. Votes, followed by an additional item, nine. Item eight a. I'm here to request authorization for the board of county Commissioners to go. Into executive session with county attorney Ben Perlman on Wednesday, September 24, 2025 at 01:00 p.m. pursuant to CRS 24 six. Four two, subsection four e. Instructions to negotiators regarding collective bargaining agreement with the Boulder County Employees Union. Move approval. Second palm ticker, aye. Item a b. I'd request authorization for the board of county commissioners to go into executive session with county attorney Ben Perlman on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, at 01:00 p.m. pursuant to CRS 24, 6402, subsection four, a real property issues regarding Boulder County's north Broadway complex at Broadway and. Iris. Move approval? Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioners for item eight c. I'd. Request authorization for the board of County Commissioners to go into executive session on Wednesday, September 24 2025 at 02:00 p.m.

0:09:12pursuant to CRS 24 6402, subsection four. F personnel matters to discuss the annual performance evaluation of your county attorney, Ben Perlman. Move approval? Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. And then commissioners for item nine. I'll request that you sit as the board of directors of the Boulder County Housing Authority. Thank you. And then I'll request authorization for the board of directors of BCHA to. Go into executive session with county attorney Ben Perlman on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, at 01:00 p.m. pursuant to CRS 24 6402, subsection four, a real property issues regarding potential limited. Partnership in an affordable housing project at 47 75 Spine Road and gun barrel move approval. I second I have a comment, if that's all right, madam chair? Yes. Just a comment slash question. So in this particular one, we would go into executive session. And have real property issue discussion, and then there would be a future public meeting, if any decisions were needed to be made something like that, or would it be at that same meeting and then.

0:10:21Come out into open session. Thank you so much for that question, commissioner. We would schedule for a later. BCHA public meeting. Thank you very much. You're welcome. So there's a motion? A second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. And with that, then we will move to item number ten, which is a public hearing on the labor farm. I'm going to excuse myself and ask vice chair. To. Beat this particular item. I'm hoping staff will let you know that as well, because I've got to go to another engagement, so thank you. And then we'll give Denise just a moment for her screen to set up and let staff do their presentation. Oh, you're ready? Yeah. Okay. Are you ready in the back? Great. Okay, well, then. We will come back to order. Commissioner Stolesman and Levy. Are present. Commissioner Lo Chime has excused herself. And we are here for docket HP 250. Zero. One labor farm. And this is a public hearing on a request for historic landmark designation. I ordinarily would explain the order of hearing and how this will go. But everybody has fled. Denise, I think you know how to do this. You have 20 minutes to make your presentation. I will go ahead. And it looks like maybe. Oh, we do have an applicant online. Okay, I

0:12:11should have looked up. The applicant. It's just the applicant. And they don't have a presentation. They're. Just here to answer questions. Okay. All right, well, we'll give them an opportunity to speak if there's anything they want to add. So, Denise, go ahead. Yes, this is Denise Grim with the community planning and permitting staff. And the request is for the historic landmark designation of the farm. The location is 8003 north 95th. Although. They recently relocated their driveway and were assigned a new address of 9200 Ogalala Road. It's an agricultural zoning district, and the applicant is the Pageant family trust. And. We're here to review the application. The new owners, Claire and Richard Paget, have recently purchased the labor farm. The proposal includes the contributing resources of the classic cottage house, the barn, the silo, the scale house, a large chicken house, a granary, a small storage shed. And the new machine shed. Two other buildings on the property are not included in the application, including an older machine shed and a small chicken house. The property was homesteaded by Daniel Tracy in 1874. It was owned and leased by a variety of other people. We think that the earlier structures were built by John Nicholas, whose family owned the property until 1928. And then the Labor Farm family purchased the property for the first time in

0:13:481945. Alexander labor was russian immigrant who came to the area. And joined his brother, who had been here for several years already at that time, and they both farmed in the long Mount area. Alex passed the farm to his son Henry, who then, in turn, passed it to his son and his wife, Mike and Teresa. And then after 80 years of being in the labor family, It passed in just this past April. To claire and richard paget. The farmhouse was built around 1920 and is what history Colorado defines as the classic cottage form. We found that the property is significant under criteria one, three and four. It's significant for its association with the development of agriculture in Boulder County. It's significant for its association with Alex Labor, a russian immigrant whose family worked the property for eight decades. And. It's also a. Good farm complex.

0:14:54That contains a complete set of farm buildings. It's one of our better documented farms, dating from the early 19 hundreds. And additionally, the house is a good example of the classic cottage form. And so HPAB reviewed this at their last meeting and voting unanimously to recommend approval. And so HPAB and staff are recommending that you approve the document under criteria one, three and four. Subject to our two standard conditions describing when a certificate of appropriateness is required. And I will run. Through some of. The photos here for you. This is the vicinity map showing the location of the property south of Longmont. And then this is the layout of the property, showing. Circled in red. The structures that are considered contributing to the site. Including the farmhouse. The silo and barn. The scale house and chicken house. Greenery and storage shed.

0:16:17And the newer machine shed. And then we have a couple of buildings that. Are not included. And. Those are an older machine shed which had a lot of condition issues, and then a smaller chicken. House, which again, they felt was sort of beyond repair and. Didn't add as much to the site. And then we do have some older photos of the farm from the 40s. And that's all I have. Thank you very much. Any questions? I have no questions, thank you. Denise, is there a conservation easement on this property, by any chance? There is. The conservation easement on the property. And that's partly why that driveway moved. And they got the new address assigned. That was something that parks wanted, okay? I feel like I know something about. This property. But I have no questions for you. So Mr. Patchett online. Did you want to say anything about this? I don't have anything to add to what. If you do want to speak, you'll have to just take your name for the record.

0:17:44Oh, I'm Richard Paget. Yeah, thanks. Go ahead. I have nothing to add to the committee. We've gone through this and we're. Excited to move ahead with this property. Okay, well, thank you. And we will take public testimony. Are you interested in speaking about the proposed landmarking of this property? No. Specifically this property. Okay, well. It looks like maybe the three of you have signed up. So, Aquila Slave. Yeah. Okay. You'll have three minutes. And this is a public hearing on docket HP 25 0001. Okay. First time here, so I'm just learning. So start by stating your name. Start by stating the name Achilles Lagr. And you'll have three minutes. And I have three minutes to talk about anything. On this topic. And so we do ask that people speak to the topic that is in front of us today. Got it. I thought it was kind of open community comments. Would you mind we do that on the first Thursday of the month. Okay? Yeah.

0:19:00So that's not okay. And I was pulled aside, so. I don't know the specific topic we're talking about. We are here to consider. Whether to landmark historic farm. Some historic farm str. Structures in Boulder county. Wow. Okay, great. I do have some comments about that. Then go right ahead. The only other thing I'll add just before the comments start is that we also have a town hall tonight where we'll take open comment. And it's in Allen's. Park. That's the only thing, is that you've come here and there is. An opportunity today. That's where I got my wires crossed. Well, go ahead and tell us what you'd like us to know. Thank you, Commissioner Levy. Chile Slugrav longtime. Resident. And I actually served as commissioner for historic preservation down in Lewisville. So I just want to express my support. For the preservation of any historic and cultural relevant structures such as this one. I know that you guys will be considering in the days and weeks to come. The outcome on the irish complex, which also contains some historic structures. And so I really do hope that you guys. Continue taking. A forward facing approach towards.

0:20:21Community driven development. And also. The preservation of structures that are important, and the revitalization of those structures is important, too. So that's all I'll share today. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And we do offer. Monthly an opportunity, either in person or online, to speak to any matter of county business that you're interested in other than things that have to be public hearings on the record. And as commissioner Stolman shared, will be in Allen's park this evening for an in person town hall and we hope town halls now on in every other month basis at different locations in the County. And people are always welcome to come and speak to us about whatever is on their mind that's great. I'll probably see you this evening then. I love islands. Great. Thank you. Park fire station. Okay, Thomas click. Madam commissioners. Good morning. I'm so sorry for the breach and protocol. It sounds like we all got our wires. Crossed. I'm obviously here to speak on behalf of North. Boulder Little league as well. Not on the.

0:21:36Get hand. And I can tell you right now, Alison Jaffe is here to speak about the same thing, so I'll keep it short since. We're not exactly doing what we're supposed to do here. Yeah. I represent North Boulder Little League and the safe Iris committee back in February. When the North Broadway complex was announced to be sold. We went through a lot to figure out exactly what was going on with the process, and we engaged. First of all, with the county, we've spoken quite a lot with Yvette Bowden. And asked her advice. We've spoken with. The community quite a bit. Several different community groups. There's more reaching out every day to endorse a proposal that we've crafted. With a tremendous amount of community input. It's one of the vids that was submitted from Gary Berg and Jheb. Academy, Boulder. I think you probably know by now that there's a lot of community support behind it.

0:22:32We'll be keeping you abreast of more community support as it continues to unfold and come online. But I'm just here today to ask you to really consider that. Proposal. We spend a lot of time asking the county what they want as a partner as well. Our partnership with the county predates all of us. Really? It's been a long tenured. Relationship, and I think this is a great opportunity to go out with a win for the county with a win for the community, with a win for that relationship. And just a win across the board for so many people. So really just came here today to voice that to you all? And to ask you if there's anything else that you want to see. There's a lot of strength behind that proposal, a lot of goodness.

0:23:23So if there's anything else you want to see, come back to us, let us know. Hey, you may maybe miss the mark right here. We're open to that. Great. Thank you very much for your time. No, thanks for being here. Allison joffey. Again. That's the same situation. My name is Alison Jaffe. I have a whole thing prepared, but I won't waste your time. Really? I just want to say that I support North Boulder litter league. My son plays and has for seven years, and I'm planning to become that president of North Bolo League tonight. And I am also a neighbor of the irish field, so. I have a particular passion for driving by and seeing the kids play every afternoon. I support this proposal from academy because I do feel that it's the best thing for us. My goal as president is to keep as many kids outside and on the fields as possible. And. I want to continue that, and I feel like this is the best proposal for that. So anyway, I will try to come back at the appointed time and continue this, but thank you. For all that you do, and I hope you'll consider our preferences. Great. Thank you. Thanks. For joining us. So we don't have any public testimony specific to this application. I

0:24:51see. Nobody has signed. Up to speak online. So I think we can close the public hearing. Commissioner Stolzman, would you like to discuss this application? I appreciate everyone coming forward. With the recommendation, and I think that it was evaluated correctly. In a detailed way, and I agree with the recommendation. Yeah, likewise. I always love these packets and I am so impressed with the background and the materials. That maybe you dig up, I don't know who does all this work and finds these. Photos in all the history. It's really impressive. Yeah. A lot of it's Jessica basic who is sort of my right hand person. She gets to go to the Carnegie library and dig up old things, and so she does a lot of that kind of the work. And sometimes the applicant finds family photos and things. A variety of people. Super cool. Super cool. And it's great that we can preserve these. Structures.

0:25:56So I think we're ready for a motion. Commissioner Stolzman move approval of the labor farm second. All in favor? Aye. And that passes. Thank you for your work on this, Denise. Well, thank you very much. And thank you, Mr. Pageant, for bringing this to us.