Transcript

0:00:00All right. Good morning. Today is January 6, 2026. This is our first meeting of the board of County Commissioners of 2026. I hope everybody had a nice and restful end of the year. Commissioner Lo Chumin is excused. Commissioner Stoleman is joining us remotely. Thank you very much. And I will be serving as chair this morning. We are here for. A regular business meeting. And we will start by sitting as the gun barrel Public Improvement District board of directors. And Olivia Lucas is here. Good morning, commissioners. I'm Olivia Lucas, senior Assistant county attorney. And I am here before you all as you're in your roles, as the gun barrel. Public improvement district board. I'll reference the gun barrel public improvement district as the gpid or gpid for ease of my presentation. In your materials, you have proposed resolution 20260, zero one, which accomplishes several purposes that we've been working on for a while. The first is for the GPID to consent to other paving pids within the GPiD. Boundaries. Second to establish the GPID advisory committee, and then third, to appoint an interim advisory committee while the permanent advisory committee. Applications and nominations are carried out.

0:01:39So, to give some background, the resolution forming the GPID is Boulder county resolution 93 175 and it states two purposes for the GPID, and those purposes are to provide. This is a quote. To provide for the acquisition, construction and installation of open space areas and public parks, including impro. Improvements determined to be appropriate for the accommodation of public recreational uses, and then. The second. Purpose. Continuing the quotation is grading, paving, curbing, guttering, drainage, or otherwise improving the whole or part of any street or alley within the district. So the GPID finalized its grading, paving and other transportation improvements in 1996 and has not taxed its residents for either of the stated purposes since 2007. And the reason this comes before you now is that in 2024, the Homestead Public Improvement District was formed within the gped boundaries. That Homestead public improvement district was created by a vote of the residents and its purposes were to perform paving improvements in that Homestead PID. And so, in January 2025, the board of directors of the gun barrel pid. Not to consider dissolution of the GPID based on, in part, the desire to allow Homestead. And any other future pids within the jeep head boundaries to pursue paving efforts. At the January 2025 public hearing. On GPED dissolution.

0:03:10GPID residents express strong objection to dissolution based on continued desire for the open space services recited in resolution 93 175. The GPID residence didn't object to other paving public improvement districts within the GPID area, and the question of whether to dissolve the GPe. Gped was tabled indefinitely. And since that time. Members of the GPIG community have met with staff to discuss reviding the GPID. And its advisory committee to pursue the open space services. And we've talked about how. We can allow and consent to other Pids within the gun barrel pid boundary to pursue. Paving purposes. And the community members that we've engaged with over the last year have supported GPID's. Consent to the formation of other public paving improvement districts. Under the statutory references, CRS 30 25, three, subsection three, and so. The analysis was that we could restate the GPEd purposes to remove the paving services. And. That would then event evidence consent by the GPID of other paving and then the community members also expressed to staff the strong desire to have the jeepid board. You all appoint an interim advisory committee at the same time as it restates the jeepid purposes to reinforce the fact that the board action to consent to other paving public. Improvement districts was made with community involvement, and so staff is recommending appointing an interim advisory committee.

0:04:47With the clear deadline of opening the advisory committee to the normal application and nomination process here in January 2026. So this brings us to the resolution before you. This one is the first of two resolutions to effectuate the goals I just described. Resolution gpid resolution 2026. One first consents to other public improvement districts pursuing paving activities within the GPID boundaries by asking the Boulder County Board of county commissioners to restate the purposes of the GPID to exclude paving services, which action by the BOCC would be done by amending that original. Resolution 93 175. The second action in the resolution 2026 one before you is to appoint an interim advisory committee. And then the third is to set the schedule for permanent advisory committee applications and nominations. Just for the record, all this is in the resolution, but I'll also read out the names the interim advisory committee that is being proposed today in the resolution 2026 one. And those folks are Bridget Gordon Dean and McKay. Robo Day, Gina Hyatt and Donna George. And so with that, we ask that you approve. Gpid board resolution 2026 one. Thank you, Olivia. Any questions? I have just a comment. Commissioner Levy, if that's all right. You're welcome to make a comment. Just. Want to really thank Bridget, Dinah, Rob, Gina, Donna. Your historical knowledge, your dedication to

0:06:31the community. Your care for the space and detail. Is really wonderful and so appreciated. So thank you for your leadership and guidance for the last year. And really working hard to get us to a good point where we can start working going forward. And then, of course, I want to thank Olivia Lucas just for your work and effort. Just your brain power. Your detail is amazing, so just my thanks. Thank you for those comments. I casting my mind back to when we sat in this room thinking we were here for a very simple resolution to dissolve the gun barrel pid. And at the end of that hearing, I thought, oh, my goodness, how are we ever going to resolve this. And we have. Thanks to your work. Thanks to Commissioner Stolzman's work. Thanks to the community. I don't have any questions, and so I believe we need a motion. On. The resolution 2026. One. Move approval of resolution 260. Zero one for the GPID second.

0:07:37All in favor? Aye. So that resolution passes. Thank you, Olivia. We have now moved on to sitting as the board of county commissioners of Boulder county, and we have a consent agenda. May I have a motion? Move approval. Second. All in favor? Aye. So we have approved the consent agenda in whole. We now have one item on our discussion. Agenda. That is resolution 2026. Good morning again. Board of county commissioners. I'm Olivia Lucas with the senior assistant county attorney. At this time, I'm requesting the board's approval and signature of resolution 2026. Nine. There is an accompanying memo in your packet that explains much of what I explained on the record. For the Gpid in terms of. The actions of this resolution. But this is sort of part two of the two step to consent. For the gpid to consent to other paving pids within gpid boundaries. And so, given the Jeepid board's approval of GPID resolution 20260 Zero one, which requests this action by the board of county commissioners. We are now asking. For approval of resolution BOCC resolution 2026. Nine. In particular, the GPID board requested that the jeepid purposes. From resolution 93 175 related to grading, paving, curbing, guttering, drainage or otherwise improving the whole or part of any street or alley within the district. That previous gpid resolution. Requested that those terms

0:09:25be deleted from resolution 93 175 to show the DPID's consent. To other pids within the Jeepid boundaries. And so that's what this resolution 2026 nine does. It makes those changes and formalizes GPID's consent. So our request is that you approve. Okay. Thank you for that explanation. Any questions? I have no questions. Thank you. Any comments? You have my same thanks from before. And I'm really sorry I can't be. There. I woke up with a terrible stomach bug that none of you want, so thank you for. Allowing me to be virtual today. And sorry, I can't see all your faces. So we're ready for a motion on resolution 2026. Move approval of resolution 26. Nine second. All in favor? We are now moving on to confirmation of executive session. Good morning, commissioners. Natalie Springt, Commissioner's deputy.

0:10:26For the record, I'm here to confirm that the executive session topics that were noticed at the December 16, 2025 regular business meeting of the board were discussed as scheduled, and this is simply a note for the record. So I'm happy to take us to item five. I'm here to request authorization for executive session for the board of County Commissioners to go. Into executive session with county attorney Ben Perlman. On Monday, January 12, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. pursuant to crs. 24 6402, subsection four e instructions to negotiators regarding the collective bargaining agreement. With the Boulder county employees union, and I'd request a vote on this matter. Move approval. Second. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Thank you for that. We have now come. To the time we set aside for public comment and. We are doing this on a Tuesday, not a Thursday, because of some scheduling issues. And many of you know, the way we conduct our public comment is. People can speak virtually. They can speak in person for up to three minutes each. And.

0:11:48We will take as many people as we can. Within 50 minutes. And reserving time for the commissioners to respond. If they wish to. And so. We will go first. To those who are in the room who have signed up and let me get my screen out. Of the way. So that I can call on folks, I would ask that you come forward. State your name. For the record, even though I will have just said your name, Just to confirm that you are who you are, and then you'll have three minutes to. Speak. So we have Lynn Siegel first. Lynn Siegel, I'm going to ask. You. To not fund the one point. Two $1,214,000 to. Oscar. The sustainability group. This is for the upcoming. Period of time. To. 2030, and this is due to the fact that they can't do the job. The county can't do their job. I hope the city sues you. Because Jonathan Cohen was put in a position that no one should ever be put in when he sat down and Carolyn Elam with me and my brother on a retrofit and denied me the ability to have anything to do with my retrofit, which I now have installed.

0:13:27$55,000 worth of gear that. I am not using except for my hot water heater. And everything in it is a botch, complete botch. And I won't be using it. And I've waited. 25 years. 25 years to get geothermal, and I'm cold. I'm at 54 degrees and. I'm angry. Really angry that I waited a year to see if I was eligible for this program for free. This time. And yet the county gaslighted me from ten years ago. On a retrofit. How many other people were bushed on a retrofit in that ten years. How many? Because. Why? Because. The solar contractor that I was advised to. One of the options. Had. A solar install and the county. Refused to let them continue on the project because it was under adverse conditions that would have violated their warranty and put them subject to penalty and damages. I've been an advocate of the renewable community for 35 years. Here 35 years, and look at this. The county is botching things. Don't give them this $1.2 million. They don't deserve it. I know, Susie. Strife, it's great. I talked to Alison, Burchell. The other day about her, and she loves her. It's no ill intent, but. Something happened here with David Hashimanji, and he can't pay now because he's. Gone.

0:15:12Probably left because of me. Because I came here every month and complained about this, this retrofit. And I'm freezing cold and I'm angry. 25 years. Waiting for geothermal. And now who knows what's going to happen? I'm living on Social Security. I was just about ready to justify it and be a little bit warm before. Your time is up. Thank you for coming this morning. Next we have tess McDonald. McDonald Lions, Colorado hello. As you know, pos your pos team, blanketed by neighbors with rejuvena on November 1, 2022. I have neighbors who haven't been able to grow seeds or sprout seeds on their property. Since the spray, one neighbor's baby broke out in a rash. From head to toe. His health could be affected for the rest of his life. Another. Neighbor lost her baby due to impossibly non genetic neurological disorder. I know the difference between causation and correlation. One is hard to prove, the other is almost impossible. But Bobby Kennedy was able to prove roundup cause non Hodgkin's lymphoma. And now you see whole towns with epidemic rates of this once rare cancer. Please recommend that Pos abstain from aerial sprain of pesticides forever by signing this. Ordinance here. We face a whole host of problems today. Why make another problem by poisoning our ecosystem? The excuse that spray is away

0:16:49from people is unacceptable. We eat the deer and elk. We need the bees to pollinate our food. These petrochemicals don't magically go away, they end up in our water pos's. Weed management team's actions show a pattern of practice that is out of compliance. We are currently in a lawsuit that proves this. Joe Thompson should never have aerial sprayed in the first place because aerial spray wasn't in. The 2004 Integrated Weed Management Plan also in Daziflam is not who approved then my practical side thinks when spraying gasoline be cheaper anyway. We'd probably have the same outcome, but that sounds ludicrous. But spraying pesticides? Should tell. Ludicrous too. But if spraying petrochemical spine them could be causing the fires. Let's test drones on experimenting with spraying compost, tea or water instead. Instead. Instead. Instead instead, instead, instead, instead, instead, instead instead of dallasing wildlife with a neurotoxin ask Ashley the difference between these. Petroleum products. So the question is. Do you continue to allow Joe Swanson to test petrochemicals on our conservation cultural lands and regenerative farms.

0:17:52Does he have the proper permits this time? Has he conducted environmental impact studies? We should be listening to Commissioner Stolson, Peter Cowdrie. Corvin and another chemical engineer who sent you his white paper on endazoplam. Rich Andrews and other chemical engineer Robert Rackenridge, a Fulbright researcher from Cu. Dr. Tim Cstad, who all argue that pesticides are more harmful than cheap graphs, these experts. And many others have been presenting to you for years. I don't claim to be an expert, but I'm smart enough to listen to the science. Please sign this ban on aerial. Spray today. Oh, and I also wanted to say, on a state level, one third of our state representatives. Are unethical, corporatist Democrats and Republicans. On a national level, it's a lot more, as we all know. Don't let them sell their poisons here. Colorado is immune to corruption, so please protect. Your constituents by signing this ban on aerial spray of petroleum products. Thank you. For coming to us. Yeah, you can give that to Natalie. Thank you. Amanda. Dominico domenico.

0:19:03Good morning, commissioner. My name is Amanda Domenego. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'll be brief. On April 29, 2022. Joe Swanson. The lead noxious weed manager for parks and open space Pos. Stated publicly that Boulder county was ground zero for the research and testing of Indosaflam. Baer's latest product. Cora records then confirmed after our two year. Review of the integrated weed management plan. Where the testing and research took place. This included. Or includes b one conservation areas on Rabbit Mountain, which includes Hail Ranch hall ranch and south down indian mountain, among others. It includes the Ron Stewart preserve. Where these tests were conducted. And that Joe Swanson gave the notice to proceed. On Bocc letterhead. I feel like that's the pink elephant in the room there's. So many different components. To review, but we do know we have public admission of the testing, and we have verified that. To be true, and we verified where it took place. As I think you've all been informed, there's an active open. So far, five. Month review by the Colorado Department of Agriculture. But I think.

0:20:45It's beyond necessary that you intervene in terms of who continues to make decisions of what. Who and when. Chemicals are sprayed, particularly. As tusks. We were making a lot of exemptions and concessions. In fact, the testing that took place in Boulder county was used for the approval of Rajuvra. I think it is your responsibility to also look into it and get ahead of the ball. As to how this was allowed to happen and what can be done to ensure it doesn't. Happen again. Thank you for your time. And finally. We do have these books by a local author. We've attended her lecture and she's amazing, but we got these for the commissioners. To read, and we can hand them to Natalie. Thank you. Sure. Yeah. Appreciate that. Thank you very. Much. Were you finished, Amanda?

0:21:44Okay, great. Thank you, Donna. George. Hello. My name is Donna George. I live in gun barrel. Yeah, I wasn't planning on. Talking today. I was just here for the GPId thing, and I just want to thank the commissioners. And Boulder county for working with us to. Get. The GPA advisory committee reconvened and up and running and working out the paving. Issues. Thank you for that. I don't know if I can comment on that because it's on the agenda. So I'm just briefly going to say that thank you for all your work on that. So then when they asked me, I said, okay, I guess I'll talk about the boulder. Valley comp plan that's coming up. And I want to talk about the survey, which I just briefly looked at, and I did fill the survey online. I didn't get one. In the mail, but I guess 5000. Surveys were sent out, but only 600 and some were returned. And then there was more that. Was on online. I don't know, maybe about 900. When I was filling out the survey, here's one of the things I noticed. They asked where you were from, so. I'm from gun barrel, so gun barrel. And then one of the questions was. Where would you like to see more housing and more density? And I think the question should.

0:23:09Have been. Where do you live and where you live? Do you want more housing and more density? Where you live. Because what happened, which is pretty much what I could have predicted, is they said, that they want. More housing and more density in gun barrel and East Boulder, so. I want to have that survey breaking down to see how many people in gun barrel and east Boulder said that they want to have more housing and more density. In gun barrel in east Boulder or were people from other areas who said that they want the housing over there. I remember one. This was a while ago. It was somebody who was on the city council made this comment, which sounded so way out there, but something about, oh, we should build. The higher buildings out on the outskirts of town because that's where they use, er, but. No. Usually the high rise buildings are in the center of most cities. So I think when you're going through it, because this is coming up in January, is to really look at that survey. And whether it's even.

0:24:17I mean, if only 600 people did the main one, if it really is statistically valid. And how this survey was written and how the answers were brought up anyways. And thank you. Again for working with us on the GPiD. Thank you. Bye. Okay. Thank you, Donna, for coming. Is there anyone else here with us that would like to speak during our public comment time? Okay. I'm seeing no one in the hearing room who is interested in speaking. So we will go to our virtual participants. And first we have Edward Yagi. We can see you. We cannot hear you. No. Cannot hear you. Still cannot hear you. How about now? Can you hear me? Yes. Are my audio and video all right now? Yes. They are. You can proceed. Thank you. My name is Edward Yagi, and I'm co owner of six generation family.

0:25:30Property in Nalanz park. It's okay, Lynn. Lots of us are angry. I'm joining you today from the Philippines, a country the US resembles more every day in terms of official corruption failed rule of law and infrastructure coll. Collapse. In a way, it's ironic how Boulder County's self serving and arrogant social activism over the years has brought our larger society, or what's left of it, closer to anarchy than at any other time in our history. You still devote lots of time and millions of dollars to performative stunts and bad policies while allowing 911 service to go dead during emergencies, nearly costing the life of a gold hill resident. A few weeks ago. You poison us. You use tens of millions of dollars of our money to buy up land that you. Then don't properly mitigate for fire risk resulting in fires like superior four years. Ago and near 287 yesterday. Property taxes are now for many people more than their mortgages. When will you please just do what government is supposed to do. Protect rights, provide public services, enforce fair rules, resolve disputes, and serve the common good. Instead of restricting our rights, neglecting our basic services. Setting the example of unfairness, creating and exacerbating disputes and to ego driven performative careerist posturing and image management masquerading as leadership. This is not a rhetorical question. In

0:26:57the two years since you voted in the existing short term rental regulations. I have repeatedly reminded you that the neighbor notification, homeowners insurance and wildfire partners requirements are foolish, unreasonable, excessive and counterproductive. Giving many specific examples of your poor reasoning and lack of responsiveness. This nonsense has been going on for more than six years now. Six years is a long time. For you to be proven wrong, unprofessional, unethical, and at times, illegal. For you to just shrug it off. Or if I'm talking to Marta, wherever she is. Unplug my audio and video. No, I have not forgotten. You don't respect or maybe don't even understand the First Amendment. I demand that you update the public today. Right. Now. On when exactly you plan to remove these absurd requirements for STR. My family's license is up for renewal this year, and there is no guarantee that any affordable private or public insurance will exist. There is no justification for any kind of a requirement for private insurance of Str. Something proved on the record at public hearings three years ago when this issue came up. You heard? Your own staff, humiliate themselves with their incompetence, and then you just ignored it. If you force taxpayers to take you to court, you are just going to waste everyone's. Time and money, and you will lose decisively. Are

0:28:18you going to do the right thing? Or not. For once, give a straight answer to a straight question. Thank you for joining us this morning. We did have Laura Gonzalez sign up, although it appears that she's not actually with us. Virtually to speak. So we'll move to Celeste Landry. Hello, commissioners. Nice to see at least two of you here today. My name is Celeste Landry, and I've spoken to you in the past. About elections in particular. And I know that. You are facing or the Boulder county residents. Are being. Approached by petitioners to change Boulder County Commission Board of Commissioners to five members. And the way the statute works, there are at least two options that are offered. Boulder county is a big county. There was a bill. In the legislature last year to force all of the. Big population counties to go to five commissioners. I like the idea of having five commissioners that bill. Also offered as an option. A new option to elect the commissioners using proportional representation, which. Did not pass.

0:29:57The bill did not pass at all, so no change. And I think the bill will be introduced again this session. And I hope that. The board of county commissioners looks at it and thinks about whether. Proportional voting method would be good. The two methods that are on the petition. Are one, electing five county commissioners. Solely by members of the district, so each person in Boulder county would only get to weigh in. On one commissioner, there would be three elected in one year, and then two years later, the other. Two would be elected. And. I would like to weigh in on all of my commissioners personally, not just one from my particular area where I live. The second option on the ballot is to elect two at large. And have three of them resident in a district and be elected by district. And that's the option I would prefer. But a better solution would be to.

0:31:12Elect. The commissioners in a proportional voting contest, in a multi winner proportional voting contest, and then you would get the diversity instead of having. Five winner take all contests, which is. the way which are the only options that are available right now I just want to let everybody out there know about what's coming through. And how you can think about these elections. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much for joining us. We have no one else on our list. Pardon? She's on. I just called her. She's on. Okay, let me check with our staff. Is Laura Gonzalez with us to speak this morning? Yes, I am, and it's not available. Okay, and it looks like. You have been promoted, and if you would like to unmute yourself, you have three minutes to speak. Good morning.

0:32:17One of the name is Lara Gonzalez and. I am demanding the county commissioners to not only pass assist higher resolution. To public health, and Boulder county doesn't fire. Their employees for wearing a cafia or for talking about the public health issue. But what's? Happening in Gasa with $38 million that only the city of Boulder invest. The amount of money that the entire Boulder county invests in companies that profit not just from the genocide in Gasa, but from the ethnic cleansing, land theft, ecosyte. And. Appetite is an international illegal crime. I also want you guys to release that amount. How much is Boulder county investing in these companies? And the list has been released by the UN and by other organizations as well. One of the companies that border invests on is Caterpillar and Microsoft. We need to make sure that all of our bowler county cities divest on that so we can actually invest in Boulder. County to keep us safe. Also the fact that we have allowed that. Check for so long and act like we're not complicit when we actually pay for 70%.

0:33:3870% of the United States pays for that genocide to happen. So other county. It is complicit as well. So, because we have left that on tech. Look at what's happening in Venezuela. Look at what's happening in Venezuela. We've been coming here for two years telling you that an injustice anywhere. Is adjusted everywhere. You guys talk about Martin Luther King, but you just like about his whitewash. Way. You don't talk about how everything is connected. Stop saying that. It's not. The fire attack that happened in June was not an antisemitic attack. It was not anti semitic attack. I repeat, it was not an antisemitic attack. I repeat, it was not an anti semitic attack. Okay. Did you get that? Let me tell you what. Have you read the police report? Muhammad Soleiman, who is a human.

0:34:31That probably lost it because he felt unheard by the people he was asking for to stop. Killing his people. He made it very clear in the police report multiple times that he did his research for a year to make sure she could find the mosaianist group in Colorado. Also, I know that there are no jewish people in march for their lives in that Sunday march that no one marches again. Because guess what? The 22 hostages were released. But no one cares about the 400 people. That have been killed after this, quote unquote. So called ceasefire. You guys should be ashamed. And you can still change. Course, Claire. You can still change course. You want to be known in history books for someone who. Stays silent during. The most atrocious and terrible genocide in your life tenses. It's causing any psychological impact in all of us.

0:35:22That you want to be known in history like that. Laurie, your time is up. We will turn off your microphone. Thank you for joining us this morning. Do we have anyone else who has joined us remotely? Who has raised our hand to indicate they'd like to speak. And I'm not getting. A response. So I think we will go ahead then and close the testimony this morning from the public. And Commissioner Stolman, is there anything you'd like to say in response? Thank you. For your comments today. Well said. No, thank you. And I don't have any particular response. I was going to mention that the League of women Voters is doing some sort of a presentation. In Longmont and I don't have the date on proportional representation of people are interested. In learning more about that.

0:36:24And I also want to thank Commissioner Stolzman for appearing remotely even though you're not feeling well, I think. It's really helpful to the public that we not have to reschedule. So I do appreciate that effort. And so that brings us to the end. Of our agenda this morning. We will be in recess until 01:00 when we will reconvene to sit. As the board of directors of the Boulder County Housing Authority. Yes, we are, Jared. Thank you. All right, we're recording. Okay. Good afternoon. This is a meeting of the board of directors of the boulder county housing authority. Today is january. 6, 2026. We have Commissioner Stoleman joining us remotely, Commissioner Levy present in the hearing room, and Commissioner Lo Chimin is excused. And so we will start our meeting with matters from the public. If there are any members of the public who have joined us, who wanted to address us. Now is your time to do that. And we have nobody who has indicated that they would like to speak with us. So we'll move on. We have our director, Susannah Lopez Baker, here to provide an update from the executive director. Thank you, Commissioner Levy. And thank you, Commissioner stolen thanks for being here today. So this is our rescheduled December meeting. So you'll be hearing from us again later this month about

0:38:00January. And we just have a pretty brief update. The majority of the meeting will be about our budget. So the budget will need to be ratified today during this meeting. But let's get started. So I wanted to give a quick update on the BCHa. Reorg. As you know, we've been undergoing an extensive review of our staffing. We realized we were overstaffed and with HR's help, did a complete restructure. Of BCHA. The restructure did result in a loss of 16 total position. Positions. Eight of those were direct layoffs. So our staff went from a size of 83 down. To 67. The Reorg does, however, create a couple of new changes, which you'll hear over the next several months, but I did want to cover some big ones, one of them being is a creation of a new division and. That is, we used to have all of our compliance work just housed under operations, and as our operations have grown over the years, and also our HUd grants have grown. To a little over $20 million.

0:39:06$22 million now. So we have decided to move that workout and have it be its own division. So compliance and all HUD grant staff and HUD team will be working under Kelly Schultz, who will give an update later today and introduce the new division and talk a little bit about her new and growing team. A couple of other things. We have expanded. Or kind of pulled out some of the work. We had never had our own admin team. Any administrative functions. So we have created a new division. It's not a new division. I'm sorry. It's a new unit under our operations division, which. Will house admin staff contracting. Some of our cleaning staff. That just never really had a place to live before. And so we've growing that team. A little bit. We're adding some true admin staff to help us open to the public later this year. And many other administrative functions that will allow some of our property management teams to take on a little bit more higher level work if we're going to relieve them of some admin. Duties or excited about that change as well. And then every team essentially lost some member of staff. So again, we have reduced our overall staffing to 67 fte. Any questions about the riorg?

0:40:30Yeah, I was just going to ask if you could pause there. And see if we have questions. Commissioner Stoleman. I don't have any questions, thank you. Okay, no questions from Commissioner Soldman. I was interested in what you said about. Your cleaning staff. Being an admin. To me, this would sound like resident services. Or am I misunderstanding what that is? No. And typically. They are actually under maintenance, and so they still are a part of that team, but the leadership in that team just reports. To the administrative sort of contracting team, mostly because it's around scheduling. And so they have a really robust schedule where they're spending time at a lot of different properties throughout the week, so it really kind of just feels right to keep them there. Okay. All right, well, we'll I guess, look forward to. Maybe further updates on how this is working. If you feel like you need to make any adjustments. To this as we go along great things. So we will present the new chart to you later. This month during our January meeting. There are still some final things moving around in December with some visa staff, and so we weren't able to get a finalized.org chart into this. Budget pack. Packet, but we will into our next one. Great. Okay. Thank you. Yes. And then, as you

0:41:48know, today, we will be asking for ratification of our 2026 budget. So Sean will take that on. During his update. And then I will just talk briefly about some capital improvements. And. I just came from the Costa de las Vedanta property in Longmont, as you know. This property opened in 1993, I believe so. It's just celebrated its 30 year anniversary. A couple of years ago. Beautiful. Huge property, and we just did a $3.4 million rehab on the site, and so. It's really gorgeous. We do plan to have a ribbon cutting ceremony in March. Well, we'll open doors to the community. We just know how pivotal this is to the long want community and rural Boulder county community, so we're excited to celebrate that. But $3.4 million, 32 units all receive some type of upgrade. The community room is now finished, a new playground is open.

0:42:47New sports equipment is available to the kiddos on the site. It's just overall a really beautiful project. It has over eleven vendors involved, and the environmental upgrades were just great. And so you'll see in your packet a pretty detailed description of all of the changes that happened. I'm sorry. You could go to the next slide. This slide also has some really nice changes. A picture. Even so, if you have any questions, happy to answer, but just wanted to provide that. Update. Questions. I can't remember if you were the ED or whether this was under previous leadership where there was a lot of concern about the programming that was at Casadilla Esperanza. And whether it was going to continue, et ceter. Cetera. How is that going now? Yes, thank you for that reminder. Actually, we were able to include a letter to you from the program coordinator that is still leading all of that work. On the property. So it's a robotics program? A very robust robotics program. The community building. That just opened actually has widened. Their ability to do programming on site. So we're really excited about those changes. We worked really closely with the community to understand what they wanted out of a community space, and we were able to meet every request.

0:44:06So program has gotten bigger and better. Couldn't be more proud. Of that. I think that's why we really want to do a ribbon cutting, so we can really show that. In fact, we've expanded. Programming at gasa, so I think. The concern? Well, first of all, I think we didn't have enough funding, and I believe this may have been before the ah. T. We were really stretched to continue to provide the programming that we were providing. Correct. In addition, if I'm remembering correctly, It was not necessarily. Being tailored to the residents. It was being used by the wider community, correct? We were trying to make sure that these were services that were serving our residents, correct? So, yes, all of that is true. And not only did we shore up the staffing concerns, around funding for staff with aht. You may remember, too, at the same time, the waiver had just been approved and we were finally opening our doors to a larger amount of community members. In fact, we filled twelve units. The site is 100% full and occupied now with a lot of new kids. And so now we're serving the residents that we've always wanted to serve. Okay, well, that's great. I was curious about where that stood. Just a comment. I have not been to this property in years and years and

0:45:29years and years. And. The photo looks like. The front of it is an 100% hardscape, and it may just be the perspective and this may be distorted. But. Is there a green space around there for the kids? Yeah. Yes. So lots of green space on. This property. This is actually a really large parcel in the actual housing is very small in terms of how many acres that it sits on. So yes, it is zero escaped in front of the entryway of those units. The backs, however, all have green space. All surrounding has green space is probably our largest green space on any other property in long lot. So I can't wait till you come out and see it. We actually just installed. A huge soccer field because there's so much open space there. Okay, well, like I said, it's probably just the perspective of the photo. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions? Doesn't look like it. Great. Then I'm going to hand it over to Michelle. Alexander, deputy director. Good afternoon, commissioners. Michelle Alexander, deputy director of housing and I will provide the development updates. It was a great end to 2025. We had a huge accomplishments and milestones met in the end. Of December, phase one of Willoughby had received. Its certificate of occupancy and all the solar panels are now activated, and

0:46:54we're excited to see the offset that these will help with the utilities on the property for the phase two. Our letter of intent was submitted for the 9% state housing tax credit, and we are currently working on our market study. We issued the RFP for our general contractor for phase two, and we have identified that vendor. Is Icoda. They will be completing the construction on phase two. We hosted an IDD meeting at the Willoughby Community center, and it was widely received and we had over 40. Attendees, and we gained a lot of insight and knowledge into the design of that building. We have our first conceptual plan for that, and it's really exciting, and we look forward to being able to share that in the near future. We also. Held our City of Lafayette pre application meeting and it was well received and we had some feedback. From that staff. Very exciting for Willoughby Corner.

0:47:46We are awarded 11.4 million in the Chaffa drive at. Home funding, which is a low construction construction load program that will help offset the cost of building at that property. And last but not least, BCHA is now the proud owner of Josie MC Commons, which will greatly affect the operational efficiency of our portfolio in the upcoming year. Any questions on any of the development updates. Okay. No questions from either of us. Thank you. Thank you. Moving right along. Good afternoon, commissioners. I'm Kelly Schultz. I'm the division program manager for the HUD. Grants and compliance division. Now. And. I will give you a little update on what's been going on with the voucher. Program and some of our staffing. So we finalized because I brought that back to you all. I think it was back in September. We had finalized the new payment standards. We have a new utility allowance calculation that went into effect.

0:48:55For January. Under the mtw programming. And then we have. Our three new housing specialist staff that. They have been in training since about the middle of December. I'm sorry. Middle of November. And then at the end of December, we started turning caseloads. Over to them. What we were showing for end of year projections, and that's what you see on the right hand side up there. Is that the voucher program as a whole, the main voucher program, was ending with a surplus, which is what we wanted. We did not wanted to, we did not want to be in shortfall for that program, given all of the administration changes, and that we also knew that we were going to have to absorb our emergency housing vouchers this year, so we wanted to make. Sure we had space and funding for those. I will be working with our finance department to kind of do some final projections on when we will actually be able to absorb those vouchers we did get approved by HUD for. A waiver so that we do not have to have those folks. Reapply.

0:50:03Or essentially what we were going to have to do was have to open our waitlist for the housing choice voucher program, have them all reapply and then rescreen them. So we were approved for a waiver that we can just transfer them directly over so they won't. Have any disruption in their housing assistance when we do that. And then our mainstream program was running a shortfall, and that one's not even fully utilized. As you can see, we used 426 unit months out of 480 or as a total. Of 37 out of 40 vouchers. And you can tell the average per unit cost for that program is actually lower than the total voucher program, but it was running into a shortfall at the time of this board packet. When this was prepared, we had submitted an application to HUD, but we had not heard back. Yet on the shortfall funding and a day after when the board meet. Meeting was supposed to happen in December. We got approved for it. So that screen up there was. Showing we were going to be in the whole 21,000. They actually approved us for 35,000. So we do have those funds to bring the program whole and not have any disruption. To the landlords or the tenants on that one.

0:51:16Some other updates is we had some feedback. From the city of Boulder and the landlords that they work with in the area that our landlord assurance program was a little bit cumbersome for them. So that program is a combination. Of funding from the city of Boulder, from Boulder County. From the city of Longmont and then also from Boulder housing partners and what it allows for is landlords to be able to submit claims for clients that receive any sort of housing assistance. Whether that is a voucher or whether that's temporary rental assistance within the first three years of their tenancy. If the tenant moves out and they still. Owe damages that exceed the security deposit. They can reach out to this program, and depending on what our funding looks like can get one year. We had up to $5,000 this last year, we had up to $2,500, but we had received some feedback. Just that it was just hard to find the claim form. It was difficult to manage and do the submission. So I rolled out a new one in December. Based on everybody's feedback.

0:52:27That is a lot more simplified for them to use. And then the other form that I wanted to demonstrate to you all because we've heard it a couple of times from you that you would like more participation from the public, specifically our residents and tenants. About these meetings. And so before we roll this out, I just wanted to get your feedback. Tried to create a really simple form that we could be sending out using Reachwell, which is our communication app. To our voucher holders and tenants. And we can also put it on our website, too. When we have our board packets up and ready to go, we could send out a link to the board packet and then allow them this form too, to submit any feedback they wish to bring. To the board and I wanted to see again. I was trying to make it super simple, so. There's really only a couple of fields they have to fill out. But I wanted to.

0:53:21Get your feedback on that if you wanted to see. Anything additionally added to this form. Commissioner stolesman. I'm looking to see if you had any comments here before I do. I think this is really great. For the most part, the comments that come through, sometimes a community member doesn't understand the response they've gotten already, and so I was just brainstorming. Sort of real. Time. If there's some way. To, I don't know, provide them the information that they need on the spot, but I. Can't think of anything. This is the information I think that would be helpful for providing. Feedback generally. I'm just thinking back to the types of feedback we get. So if someone has a broken refrigerator, And it's going to be repaired tomorrow, and they just want to escalate it. Before tomorrow comes if there's some way to get them that information. But that might be. Impossible. Well. And as these come in too. I can still compile them all and bring them to the board just because that's. What we're receiving, but as they come in, In the real time. If they're related to things like that, I can have it forwarded to the departments. Or the staff that needs to address it so that they'll get an answer quicker than waiting for an actual board meeting to happen, if that makes

0:54:44sense. Yeah, that's great. Thank you okay? Yeah. I guess my thoughts are that. In terms of public comments. This is what I've been trying addressing is like we never hear from the public, and we also don't have a way for residents to directly speak. To us as the board of the border County Housing Authority. I think this could be helpful. I do wonder. How it's going to be monitored. Is there a plan for that? And it sounds like you sort of addressed that a little bit with Commissioner Stoleman. Yes. So right now. When they're related to the voucher program. And this is where I built it off. Of the same form stack where we have the voucher ones. They come directly to me as it is now and then I filter them out. What I may also look at doing too, is setting this up so that it's also going to. What we call our front desk email box, which is where all of our general inquiries come into. So that it's monitored. On a daily basis that way, too. Okay. Yeah. And I was thinking that this wouldn't. Be a resident complaint. My refrigerator isn't working. It would be more. Board of directors of the Bohra County Housing Authority. Can you do something about.

0:56:13The fence that's down. Around the property. Or I got an email. This is just one example about putting bear proof trash containers. Stuff like that where they're wanting to speak to the governing body. I think this is a great start. The other just thought is you ask if they want to join a resident advisory board. Is this a plan to create one? We're required to have one for the voucher program, so we're always trying to recruit people that are specifically interested. Every year. That varies. And so in lieu of trying. So I'm always asking on every form, like, if people are interested. What I end up doing every year is just inviting. All of the tenants and all of the voucher holders. To the resident advisory board meetings because so far we have not. Set up. We have not been able to set up. A recurring ongoing structure because they've changed every year. One year.

0:57:24It was about three or four years ago. We had three or four tenants that were really invested in this. And then they did it for a year, maybe into the second year, and. Then they were no longer interested. So the goal would be yes, we would like to have. An ongoing advisory board that would meet more regularly and provide us feedback on our plans and our changes. It's just not something that's ever taken off with any of them. Yeah. Well, this is something I was really hoping to see. Get off the ground. It's kind of interesting to me that there hasn't been more support for that. People are always wanting input, and then when you offer them the opportunity to. Yes, they don't. Take advantage of it. Okay, well, keep us posted. Okay. Thank you.

0:58:18And these are some staffing updates. So our new position for compliance. So when we combine compliance and put it under this division, we did. Two layoffs as a reduction of management, and then we are replacing it. With a housing specialist, a compliance coordinator. It's an ho two position. So that was posted. In December. And it actually closed December, either 29th or 30th. We received 29 applicants for that position. Two of them from former employees. We will be working on setting up the interviews. And going through the hiring process within the next week or two. And then we had welcomed three new staff under the voucher program. This was just from regular staff turnover that occurred. And so we've got one bilingual staff member and two others. They all were previously employed in some sort of direct service. None of them had worked in housing. Specifically, but had all worked in community based agencies that worked with housing. So they're all trained and up and running and taking clients. Great. And then I can't remember if I have a third slide up here. No. Okay. Thank you or any other questions for me before I step down. Doesn't look like it. Thanks. Thank you.

0:59:48Good afternoon, commissioners. Sean Darty, the finance director for the housing Authority. In presenting, kind of gave a sneak peek into this in September. The numbers haven't changed all that dramatically, but we've been able to put a finer point on the numbers as they've evolved in real time. Through our restructuring. And so in 2026, our assumptions, just our most basic assumptions, are. An occupancy rate of 93%. In reality, those occupancy rates are higher for litech properties, so those are built in, just theoretically into the model. Very modest rent increases in the places where we could, and I know we've talked in more detail with this in prior meetings. In those units where BCHA has that sole discretion we did do per bedroom. Increases overall on the portfolio, the rent increases on the existing portfolio. Was about 2%. Some were zero, some were a little bit higher.

1:00:55But overall, in the portfolio, even outside of the ones that BCHA has pure discretion on about 2%. And maintaining the housing choice vouchers. Spending at current levels. I think in terms of half. That's a very fair assumption. We can talk a little. Bit about the admin component of that as we move further along here, but that is a base assumption. Probably the biggest variable in terms of. Operating sustainability. Is the budget and the reality. At least in terms of Josephine commons. As of right now, Of acquiring that through an early exit. From the investor. That did take place at the end of November. The great strategic advantage for BCHA. There is 99% of those operations which. Were very strong. Belonged to the investor, and they weren't included on BCHA's books, and so. Now that is no longer the case. So these are 100% owned by BCHa still under a Liedtech structure. For at least, I think, three more years, so we still have that compliance in those rate parameters. Et cetera, everything that goes along with. Litech compliance still exists. However, BCHA is 100% owner of the property. And. As Susanna talked about in more detail, the budget incorporates the staffing restructures that we've talked about, which have been pretty material. And if we want to go to the summary budget slide. The detailed 2026

1:02:37budget, and it's a very fat package, is included in the exhibits. In the past and much more detailed, but I pulled out the high level summary line items here. And if we just want to look at. The. 26 potential rent gross rents. It's a material increase over 25. And again, that goes to both the reality of Josephine. Commons now being included on the BCHA books. And projected for Aspen Wall. And so that's a conversation that's still live and it's being put out to the investors. It's a little bit more of a different investor dynamic there with Josephine Commons, it was a single, friendly investor. If you want to call it. That Aspen Wall is more of an arm's length investor group kind of more along the capital markets. We've never even talked directly with them.

1:03:33And so our kind of middleman, Redstone, is making that outreach. To kind of negotiate an appropriate price. Were they willing to. Enter this early exit. Those numbers are built into the 26 budget, so there's a little risk here. I mean, all the signals that I've gotten so far. Are green that could turn to yellow and red and at any point. But I had enough confidence. To conservatively build in half a year's worth of owning that property. Those two properties make all the difference in the world in terms of BCHA's operating sustainability in conjunction with the staffing restructure. And so I want to point out. Under operating income. We budgeted a flat million dollars in admin fees. For administering HUD vouchers. That's roughly what we've done in the past. It's probably, hopefully a slightly conservative number.

1:04:38However. That to me, is the biggest risk in this budget right now, because I think that. The bills that I've seen before that. Are getting, especially in the House. I think the Senate is wanting to leave it relatively flat. The admin component. The house is not. And the administration is even more draconian. But. The house has proposed a 35% cut in admin fee, and it's as naked as that same amount of hap. The house has not proposed any reduction to hap if it is. It's pennies at the margin. Senate is recommended an increase to hat funding, and so hap. I think we feel relatively confident about. It's that admin piece that basically is paying salaries and keeping lights on and operating costs. That to me is the biggest risk, as I see. It right now in this budget. But no one's got a crystal ball.

1:05:38We just left the assumption. That? Roughly a million dollars for the year. Other big line items here that are differential. You can look at other revenue. And say, like, wow, why budgeting for half a million dollars less? In other revenue, from 1.4 down to 9.6. And I would say that that is a conservative perspective of. What we project our excess balances, cash balances on which we earn interest, revenue. We did have a lot of cash in the bank that we've been deploying through. The year for different capital. Projects, et cetera. And so that's to me as a conservative number. It's a conservative interest rate associated that, but I believe that in 2025, I'm not expecting to have the exact figure. We've made a sizable amount because. We've got a very active cash management. Kind of treasury activities that are going on. On. Hopefully the goal is on a real time basis to make the most use of our excess. Funds to earn interest. 25 that has proved to be. To the tune of probably five to $600,000 in interest income. And so, looking conservatively, at 26, we were deploying cash. We've paid down debt. We bought Josephine. So things like that that we project out for 26. I'm projecting. We're projecting a conservative balance with a modest interest rate. Hopefully we'll exceed that. But it

1:07:19is conservatism. Is kind of the name of the game here. And so on the expense side. You can see, like I've talked about all this person, all restructuring and downsizing your personnel costs are going up. Well, the personnel costs are really going down on an apples to apples. Basis to the tune of about $1.4 million. The reason. The optics of this look like it's more because now the salary and expenses that we were allocating to JC Commons and Aspen wall in the past. Are now. If we own them, they're on our book, so. It's still, still a great deal for the rental income that. We're getting. The management fees that we're giving up. And the allocation? Of salaries onto PCH owned properties now. It's still very much so. A net positive. And so you can see, year to year, we're projecting just a pure PNL operating. Business deficit of $1.4 million. And that's coming down year over year, and that's where the county subsidy. Is.

1:08:34Bcha is always very grateful for that. We've reduced that subity. You can see now we're talking about cash flow. At the bottom. And you can see. That we've got roughly half a million dollars in debt repayments must pay. Debt repayments. For the first time. Our litech properties require, through legal documentation that we set up replacement reserves, maintenance reserves on our properties. That we have no choice. We fund them. Either out of the litech operations or if there's deficits there. BCHA has to fund them. It's a legal contract. We've never had that dynamic go on with our own properties that we own, and so. When. Material capital needs came up for improvements and repairs, et cetera, et cetera. I think it was always some brain damage. How do we get that money? Do we come to the county commissioners. What grants can we get and. We're always about getting grants. But we did very intentionally focus on if it's prudent for our litex it's prudent for the BCH owned properties. We need to make that work.

1:09:45And so we are establishing reserves. And we're going to fund those at $450 a year for every BCh. A owned property. And so that's where you see this cash outflow, so to speak. For replacement reserves. The operating subsidy of $2 million. That's through the budget process. BCHA joining with all of the agencies in the company in the county, looking for ways that we could relieve the general fund. Because that was, I think, base budgeted at something like 2.35 million. And we've, brought that down to 2 million. For 26. And then we've got a little bit of inflow. From a pass through from the city of Lafayette on the coast of the county, and then comes to BCHA. And so overall, you can see the 2026 budget, I think for the first time, as far back as I can see. That we are showing net positive cash flow at the end of the year. And that's what we're committed to, and that's what we have a constant die of focused on. Any questions on the budget?

1:10:57Let's see. Questions. I don't have any questions. Just great job with the renewal. Replacement. That's something. We've been working on for capital asset management, so that's important here as well. Yeah, I'm really glad to see that as well. And it's nice to see, even though it's just a slim little line there. At the 69,719. It's nice to see a positive there for change. You did refer to the management fees. So we're not getting a management fee. Not receiving a management fee for Joseph Collins any longer. I'm really seeing very little change in that number. Does that reflect that? Is that what the management fee was? Yes. So the management fee you're. Seeing a slight reduction. In that is attributable to not getting one for Josephine commons and partial year. For asinois. Would you just say Kelly? Also the additional will be corner receive a management. Yes, now that we've got that's. A great point, Kelly. Now that we've got a full year like Willoughby has leased. Up beyond our wildest dreams. We'll see. So the offset, there's increased fees. On Willowby, offset by the reduction of fees on Josephine commons and eventually aspen wall.

1:12:27Okay. Yeah, I would have expected to see a bigger reduction if it was just reflecting Josephine Commons in Aspenwall. That makes sense. I didn't have any other questions. Thanks. Okay. Thank you. And going back to Susana's. Point. We do need ratification of the resolution that was signed for the budget for 2026. Thank you. Yes. Okay. I was just going to ask about a resolution. And was that in our resolution was signed in December, I think. Here it is. Okay. Commissioner Soldman, do you have that resolution 2025? 16. I have it. And if you don't have any questions or objections, I'm happy. To move approval, but I'm also happy to wait till we get any amendments that are needed. I don't think we need anything, because this is a ratification. I move approval. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you. And commissioners, I just want to quickly note that I did hear from commissioner Loachman, and she didn't have concerns about the budget, except she did. Want to raise one point, so I just want to state that. And I have sent her this. Information separately, she was questioning some of our banking fees being incredibly high, in her opinion, and so. I just wanted to note that Sean is actually working closely with our bank providers and working on reducing those fees

1:14:03for 2026. And so it's one of those things that has kind of been lingering for us for a long time, and we do finally have space and capacity to start addressing that. And like I said, I have directly addressed this with Commissioner Lichman. Well, thanks for letting us know about that concern. Is this a fee that the housing authority is paying two banks? It's not a tenant fee. No. Her biggest concern was how many fees we are paying as an agency. And as you can imagine, I don't even know how many accounts we have, honestly. Between some of our. We have multiple banks, multiple accounts, and so 20, I was going to guess. So there's just some of those fees are high. And so Sean does believe he can negotiate some of those fees to be lower. Okay. Yes. And I would say thank you, Susan. I actually brought up the questions from Commissioner Locomon.

1:14:53I just forgot to address them. So we do. Have meetings in January. Just talk specifically about these issues. And I think. There's a good degree of optimism there, especially with PNC buying First Bank. First bank is one of our other major banks, and I think everyone understands they need to sharpen their pencils to keep great clients business. And I think we're a great client. Commissioner Stoltzman also. Brought up just to get some insight on tenant insufficient funds fees that you saw in the budget. And so talking with staff about that, BCHA charges $15 when someone's check bounces or their AcH bounces. The banks are not charging us. But that $15 does not cover the staff labor that's involved. When you've already done accounting. You've done a whole lot of work. And when you're reversing those types of things. It's a very manual effort. To unwind.

1:15:53Something that you've already given yourself income for. So we charge the 15s. Really? It really is an incentive to clients. And late fees. So late fees. There's a good deal of discretion. The policy that. It's pretty consistent across the board. Folks have up until the 8th, unless it falls on the weekend, then they have the next business day. If payments are not received by that time, they are charged $25. And again, there is discretion. New tenants, we give them some cushion just to get used to the flow and the schedule. You can imagine there's a merit. Of reasons that really are beyond a client's control. And property management does work closely, and they contact finance, say, can we raise that fee? Get it? Off their record completely. So that does happen. I was interested to hear. From a staff member that I don't know what chapter it was in BCHA life. But they said we're going to wave all late fees for everybody. They saw.

1:17:01Whatever. Late payments go way up. And they just realized that really was just from a human nature point of view, not the right approach that by having the fee with some flexibility. We do see and reinforce that behavior. We're paying on time. Okay, Commissioner stolens. It seems like maybe this concern came from you. Did you have any follow? Up. I don't have any follow up. It wasn't a concern for me. It was Commissioner Logaman. Yes. Okay. I'm sorry. I probably said the wrong name. Okay, commissioners, we are going to. Save our. Normal financial report for our January meeting. We'll just do a double report, which will take us September through the end of 2025. Okay, sounds good. So that's all for our presentation. So any matters from the board. Any matters from the board. I have none, thank you. No, thank you. Happy New year.

1:18:01Nice to see you all. And good work, and we'll see you later this month for our regular meeting. Yes. Good. Okay, so that takes us to the end of both our agenda as commissioners and.