Transcript

1 Call to Order

2 9:30 a.m. Morning Session

3 Business Meeting

4 Items to Note for the Record

4.a Commissioners' Office - Adult Protection Review Team Resignation

5 Housing Authority Consent Items (Sitting as the Boulder County Housing Authority Board of Directors)

5.a Housing - 2026-008 BCHA Resolution - Submission of 2027 Annual Plan & MTW Supplement

6 Commissioners' Consent Items

7 Commissioners' Discussion Items

7.a Housing - Letter of Intent to Residents of San Lazaro Mobile Home Community

0:01:55Good afternoon, Commissioner. Excuse me, Susanna. Por si acaso, si hay alguien que ha llegado y no ha recibido el equipaje para la interpretación, ¿hay alguien aquí atrás que nos está ayudando? Gracias. Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you for having us today. This agenda item relates to the direction you gave at the August 11th business meeting, where you indicated a willingness to financially support a resident purchase of the San Lacero mobile home park. If legally and financially possible. Per year direction, housing department staff to work with the Office of Financial Management and the County Attorney's Office to determine that a certain level of financial support is legal and financially viable. That work results in the letter of intent before you today for your consideration. The letter of intent contains the specific dollar amount of support and related terms and conditions recommended by staff. So please note that as you have your discussion. Happy to answer any questions.

0:03:01Thank you, Commissioner's questions. Good morning. Thanks Susana. I just had a question. The last time we had a public meeting here at the County in regards to this request, there was a list of potential partners. And I was just curious if there's been any updates to that, if there was anybody else that were, I had a couple of curiosities here at the dais. And so I just wondered if you might be able to provide an update. Sure, happy to provide an update. There have been several conversations with the city of Boulder who have indicated that they would like to support the resident purchase as well, but no formal announcement or dollar amount has yet been given. The group continues to work, and by group, I mean the residents and co - op group that they have formed a steering committee continue to have conversations with the state and are pursuing funding from the state in the last quarter of this year. They have also retained council, so that's a great new update. And the community foundation remains involved. I think what we're seeing is a lot of eager donors that are waiting for first dollars in.

0:04:19Thank you for that. Susanna, I just, I had a question about the terms and in paragraph number two. It just, it states that whether it's going to be a grant alone, a forgivable loan or something else is TBD. Can you say a little bit more about that at this time? And if not, that's fine too. Sure. Commissioner, so staff will continue to work with the county attorney's office. We will need some more time to kind of create all of those different conditions and we want to make sure we get that final IgA. It will go in the form of an IGA and our governmental agreement. And we'll work closely with councils to make sure that that language is correct. Um, happy to hear what your thoughts are on those different term options. Um, all of these forms, um, have been, uh, done in the past, sorry with previous types of agreement. So we've done forgivable loans. We've done grants. So it really is at the pleasure of the board. I guess, well, I ask the question because, um, what, what I think we do know about available financing, um, potentially includes a loan from Rock USA. And in our previous meeting, there was an analysis of, uh, what it would cost to repay that loan.

0:05:48And the current lot rents and, you know, just how to keep those lot, they were able to become resident owned, but the, but the, the debt burden was so high that it then became on affordable, which is what we're really trying to avoid. So I understand potentially the terms, um, which of these options or something else may depend on the source of money that we use. I guess I'll just express my preference that. It be in the form of a grant if, you know, if the funding source supports that just so that we can help this community retain that affordable lot rent. Thank you. Are we moving on to preferences? Um, well, she, I didn't know we were going to discuss it. And Susanna asked the question. So sure. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. No, I appreciate the board taking this up. And, um, really grateful to the community for supporting a dedicated tax for affordable housing, um, without community support for affordable and attainable housing.

0:06:54We wouldn't be able to entertain questions and requests like this. So I'm really proud of the broader community. And we've gotten a lot of letters of support from people that live in San Lazaro, but also people that don't, that don't even live near it one day to help make sure that people have stable housing and could stay in their house. So, um, really grateful for all the community members who have weighed in. Um, I agree with Commissioner Levy, um, that from the structures that we have available granting to Boulder County housing authority and having them issue a grant is my preference and using the affordable and attainable housing taxes, my preference. But I think the letter looks great. And I think we should move forward today. Great. Any additional comments? Yeah. I might, um, just talk about the, what you've got here from what I'm reading as a draft. And it looks like we're talking about anticipated structure, which is in paragraph two. I think, just thinking from a finance and stackable point of view that we may need to remove the loan item in there just because my concern is that my impact the ability to get other financing and be able to negotiate different terms, more favorable terms on, most likely because of the large number that was originally shared. There's going to

0:08:17be some type of loan. And so that terms could make it more complicated. What I'm hearing is there's definitely interest from the board of county commissioners to provide a portion of the funding. And so I think a grant or even if there's different terminology, then forgivable loan that would not create an impasse for another partner to be able to come in. I would suggest that. And then I think my question would just be where and when will we come back from with to what type of meeting will we come back with more information from our office of financial management and or your team about what the recommendation is going to be for the different financing as we are continue to work through our budget. Yes. Happy to check with OFM. I imagine it will be in very quickly and that we're in the middle of our budget season. And so we need to sort of nail that down for many reasons. Um, but what I'm hearing is, um, leaning towards a grant or some other terminology that gets us away from a loan language. And are we in agreement on the 11. 223 750 number.

0:09:30And the 11. 223 750 was from the original ask from the residence. Correct. Correct. Okay. I remembered 11. 2, but not all the, um, to the other dollars. I'm, I'm fine and supporting what the community is requesting from the county. Yeah. I mean, that's a remarkably precise number. And so, uh, that was the request. And so I support moving forward with that. And I agree with that. The hope that I have is that by contributing the county share that other partners are able to come forward and help the sun Lancero community at this point. We have the state and the city and others that are looking at this opportunity. And so, uh, my hope is by coming forward with the full amount that others are able to also step up their support. Noticed at the September 22nd, 2026 regular business meeting of the board were discussed as scheduled. And this is simply a note for the record. So I'm happy to move us to item 9a. Commissioners, I'm here to request authorization for the Board of County Commissioners to go into executive session on Wednesday, September 30th, 2026 at 1 p. m.

8 Confirmation of Executive Session Topics

9 Authorizations for Executive Sessions

9.a Authorization for Executive Session

0:13:45pursuing with a CRS 24 - 6 - 402 section 4B legal advice regarding the topic of Suncor Energy USA at Alvers County Commissioners of Boulder at Al US Supreme Court case number 25 - 170. Move approval. Second. All in favor. Aye. Thank you, Commissioners. And that moves us to item 9B. I'm here to request authorization for the Board of County Commissioners to go into executive session on Wednesday, September 30th, 2026 at 1pm, pursuant to CRS 24 - 6 - 402 subsection 4E. Instructions to negotiators to discuss negotiations on collective bargaining agreement with the Boulder County employees union. Move approval. Second. All in favor. Aye. And that brings us to the end of our business meeting. We do have a public hearing our monthly public hearing with the Boulder County Housing Authority. I believe there was a request that we take a recess. And celebrate a little bit with the people who joined us in the hearing room. So we'll be in recess for 10 minutes and we'll reconvene at 10 o'clock. Oh, wow. It was exactly 19.

9.b Authorization for Executive Session

10 Public Hearing of the Boulder County Housing Authority (Sitting as the Boulder County Housing Authority Board of Directors)

0:18:34Moved between three different hotels while repeatedly being told there were no updates. On Friday, September 4th, I spoke with Sam, he told me that he had got the results, that the results had come back and that I was good to sign my lease on Monday, on that Monday. I told him that the hotel had already been paid for the entire week. He said he would speak with his team and get back to me on Monday. Instead, on Tuesday, Sam called me and asked me to come in for a meeting. When I arrived, Sam and Michelle were both there. I was then told my unit how to supposedly tested positive for methamphetamine over the legal limit, and that my housing voucher and my lease were being terminated. I was also told that I had no way to appeal the decision because I was the leaseholder. I was given approximately three hours to remove all my belongings from my home, and I was told that if I ever wanted the issue to be removed from my record, I would have to pay 5, 000 dollars I went back to my home to try to collect our belongings with approximately one hour maintenance had came and told me I needed to leave. I had never had a methamphetamine or any other drug problem. So what we're currently asking

0:19:28for since I only have 27 seconds left is how can we help Brittany and her kids? What are, you know, where is the testing from before she moved in? Does it, like, was this unit even tested? Where are the results of that? I do feel like her housing was terminated. For no reason and no, there's no legal basis. There's no proof of any testing they did before. She moved into the unit, which that should have been done. But that's pretty much what we're going through. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that. When we start our meeting and hear from the director of Boulder County Housing Authority, you know, we can take that opportunity to just ask what the process is. Perfect. Thank you so much. Okay, yeah, thanks for joining us and bringing that to our attention. So I don't see anybody else signed up.

0:20:18To speak, is there anyone else with us today who would like to speak to, we are now, I should have clarified. We are now sitting as the board of directors of the Boulder County Housing Authority. So I see no one that wants to speak with us. So this, we do have an update from our executive director next on our agenda. Um, I guess speaking for myself, I would like to know, just in circumstances like this, what options are available. And you can save that to the end of your presentation if you want to. Through every step of the different stages that we go through with any type of eviction, move out, contamination, any of those things. So yes, let's get into the presentation. I just want to spend some time going through the director's update. I'll keep it very brief as I have provided a memo with quite a bit of the information.

0:23:34Staff will also kind of go into some of the details more specifically, particularly around HUD. Kelly will talk more about the shortfall, but that work does continue to move and we do have some positive updates that I'll allow Carrie to share with you. We are also anxiously awaiting whether or not temporary protection vouchers will replace the emergency housing vouchers. I think you heard we going to a half ago at our admin meeting about very concerned emergency housing voucher holders that we have here in Boulder County. So we are staying in touch with the HUD team and trying to find additional options for those families to remain in their housing. Let's see on the development side. Michelle will cover. Willoughby corner updates as well as some Kestrel Affordable Home Ownership updates. Water tap fees with the city of Lafayette will remain challenging as we are trying to solve for some of those higher costs, particularly around the home ownership. He's commissioners, as you know, we're really working hard to keep the Affordable Home Ownership prices low.

0:24:43And those tap fees are pretty extensive. So we're getting creative on that, but I just know that I'll be bringing more updates regarding our approach to that or exploring whether or not an AHD use for those funds is ideal for that project. Let's see, budget work continues. We did submit a restructuring memo to HR, which was approved late last week. And we have informed all staff who are impacted. We anticipate that to be a low impact, but thus far it is 1. 5 staff that will be laid off this year, Commissioners. Exciting news with the new audit firm. So we have retained Clifton Larson Allen. That is a big change for the housing authority. We had previously used I'd Bailey for a number of years, but they're five - year contract term ended. And so we have shifted. We had a great response. I believe we had eight respondents, correct? He has eight respondents on the audit RFP. So we're excited to make some changes there. Let's see. And then staffing. Well, the couple of celebrations. We did have two promotions on our team. So both Kristen, Elizabeth have been with Boulder County for a little over a year. And three years, I believe with Elizabeth, but they've been promoted to supervisors on the property management team. So really excited about that opportunity. We had

0:26:20one circle of honor, um, staff member, Ms. Karen DeLuna. So we're excited to celebrate her. And then our, we had an all staff retreat. And this year we attended the Rockies game together. And so that was just a lot of fun for our team. And the pictures. We did celebrate, um, all of the longevity awards prior to heading out to the Rockies game. Um, we had a caterer lunch. It was a lot of fun, but we had staff with five, 10, 15, and even 20 years of, um, celebration this time around, um, which is a true testament to just how, um, a much people really like working for Boulder County. So it was one of my favorite awards to celebrate. And, um, I think that's everything for me. So I'm going to turn it over to Kelly Schultz. Let me just make sure the commissioners don't have any questions for you before. Sure. We move on, commissioner. I don't have questions. All right. Thank you, Susana. Thank you. Good morning, commissioners Kelly Schultz, housing division manager. And I'm here to just give a couple of quick updates on the voucher program. Um, so as of this morning, we are still waiting to get final direction from HUD regarding the, uh, passing and the signing of the continuum resolution where it actually specifically directed them to

0:27:42issue the tenant protection vouchers, also known as TPV vouchers to all of the emergency housing voucher households that are currently under lease as of September 30th. We were anticipating hearing something by September 30th, just because they put that September 30th deadline in there. However, um, it sounds like even the HUD staff at the most recent, um, moved to work. Meeding didn't really have an updated guidance on that. And what that's going to look like. The direction though is that all of the housing authorities that are eligible to receive it will transition their folks as of December 31st. We are holding on making any announcements to our voucher holders just because we're unclear on what this process is going to look like. I did meet with, um, Boulder Housing Partners yesterday to talk through some strategy since we share some mutual voucher holders that rent in BCHA owned units. And then we have five of our voucher holders that rent in BHP owned units to talk through some potential solutions if the TPV program doesn't go through. And we have another meeting scheduled next week. Hopefully we'll have heard something from HUD by then, but to kind of come up with some additional solutions to not, um, transition all of these households out of the program.

0:29:11So that's kind of on a pending status. I mean, we are very hopeful just based on the language that was in there. The other language that went in that continuing resolution was in general, um, to allow HUD to take prior year unobligated balances, uh, from 2025 and use them for shortfall funds. And because we're most housing authorities are experiencing quite a bit of shortfall this year. That's an unprecedented amount. And the goal is to prevent termination from happening. Uh, in particular, HUD is prohibited from pulling these funds from the VASH programs and the family unification program. But we have yet to see some guidance on what that's going to look like. HUD has some applications outright now for some potential shortfall funding. Um, Boulder County housing authority has submitted an application for that. And we are working with our HUD financial analysts to go through the process. And we can go to the next slide.

0:37:23So the unknowns right now. All right, well, we'll stay tuned, I guess. Funding and Lewis feels in support of us using our funding to do that. So there's just a nuance there that's important to me in the math of it all. And so the couple different places it talks about the tap fees and it looks like Lewisville's committed to covering the cost of the tap fees, but then later it talks about using affordable and attainable housing tax funding to cover the cost of the tap fees. So can you clarify if Lewisville is going to pay for the tap fees with their funding? Or if they're suggesting we pay for the tap fees with our funding? Sure. So they are looking into the available funding for the city of Louisville for tap fees. They are contributing what they can remaining for them AHT will be for the water fees.

0:43:49So they are looking at covering the tap fees. So I just, for me, I think we need a lot of things like pinned down and like really specific in our government agreement, like Louisville currently owes Boulder County over a million dollars of like good faith. They're going to pay us back money. And where is it? Like it's not here. So I'm not like this good faith thing is not happening for me again. So like these need to be intergovernmental agreements with specific dates and specific contracts that demonstrate who's paying for what. It's not that I'm opposed to it. It's just if it's not pinned down and nailed down and signed, I don't believe walk fees and water costs. Like they can pay with their general fund. They can, there's a number of different options they have. But if that's what they're purporting, like we need that in writing and agreed to. And then like just each of these things needs to be a binding agreement.

0:44:39Cause I can see how this quickly becomes three million dollars for Boulder County and 500 to a million dollars from Boulder County housing authority. So I just, these details matter so that it comes out to the 400, 000 that you're telling us today that it comes down to. And we have been working on an MOU to pin down all of the details. I just wanted to present this to the board to make sure that any concerns were addressed before that was brought forward. Yeah. And so like the concept in general idea, I'm supportive of, but it's important in the agreement between Boulder County. I think it would, I think, so there's so many players in this, right? Boulder County is contributing tax dollars. Boulder County Housing Authority is contributing dollars, city of Lewisville is saying they're contributing dollars. Um, so I just, I just, I think it's each different entity that needs to have appropriate agreements. We just need to really nail those down so that the funding that we're all on the same page going in. That is important. And then the other thing is it feels, and I understand the entitlement process and I understand the development process that you can't nail things down, but the difference between 14 and 17 units is substantial. It is. And so I would rather it said

0:45:5017 units. Um, and so I think firming up some of the details is important. And then fully capturing the contributions of Boulder County Housing Authority, the land value is not documented in here as a contribution. And this was previously planned as market rate housing to offset the cost for Boulder County Housing Authority for the rest of the project. So that's another contribution. So I just, I think it's important that we clearly identify all the public contribution that goes into these units. We're, you know, close to three million dollars to offset the cost of the project to make 17 units, 450. So I just, I don't think that we should shy away from the full cost that the public is having to contribute to make these market rate affordable. Okay. So those are the details that I'm looking for, but generally speaking, supportive. Thank you. Commissioner Oedimine. Yeah. That sounds great. Thanks for bringing this forward what I heard was a general concept in getting that in front of this board. And I think it's exciting.

0:46:57I think it's important. It's great to have some of the prop 123 funding brought here. I also do support, uh, board director Stolzman's talking about in regards to, can we make sure that we've got, it sounds like the MOU as they approach to make sure that is all confirmed with some timelines and deadlines. I think that's going to be important so we don't put ourselves in a situation or then on a deadline and waiting for other folks. I think, but it sounds like if, if I heard you write, that's what it sounds like. You're going to be bringing back to us next. So, but I just wanted to make sure that it was on the record there that you've got support to do some more of that digging and finalizing before it comes back. Um, I guess what I would say about this is, um, it sounds like there are a number of parts maybe still in play. Um, I, of course, you know, it's very, very important. And I, you don't need us to tell you, you know, to have a document everything and have appropriate, whether they're IgAs or MOUs, um, IgAs are better than MOUs, but that it's very clear who is doing what and what's the expectations are. And I, I read your memo to say that, you know, whether the

0:48:16city will waive all their development fees and their water fees and their tap fees is still under review. So I think, you know, keeping us informed is really important. I think the way we talk about the AAHT money is kind of delicate. And, um. Because we, you know, the we structured this, that, uh, that the long mount and boulder cities that these were not going to housing authorities that the funds would go to cities based on population. And then all the other communities that are not boulder and long mod were together sort of under the counties. Aegis. And. For that cost. In another way. And we are in continuing conversations with them on the amount, what they can wave, and what they can contribute. Okay, well, this will come back to us with these details ironed out once we get farther along. Okay. All right. Again, sorry for the diversion and a little more time than you may have intended to spend on it. Okay, next. Willoughby corner updates. So we, as you all know, have been in front of the commission. They had a lot of great feedback that we incorporated into our plans. And currently we were at a hundred percent DED. Work through the PUD process. We have receive comments back.

0:57:55You were not particularly fond of the hot dog park and neither was anybody else. So it is now a green space. So we removed the connection so that we could have the open space. We increase the green space throughout the property. There is now a central space in between the two larger buildings also. So that's a big change on this one. That's gonna be awesome, I think. Yes, we agree. And then as far as there were concerns, this is going back to, I forget what month this was a meeting with. Was it the Lafayette planning commissioner? Or was it the council where they were concerns about the detached versus townhomes and the change in the unit count and concerns about the size of the buildings? I think that was it three stories that are right abutting that west side. So this is all in response to that. Yes. Okay. Well, and ideally that it flow is better and will provide a better community. So they had great feedback. They did. And we incorporated it. And so there's about, seven changes within here that incorporates all of their feedback in the community's feedback. And there were things we couldn't change. There was things that we could not change. Okay. Any other questions on changes to Willoughby.

0:59:23I don't see any things. Geneva, can you go to operations updates. Thank you. So as you can see, our vacancy numbers continue to decline. And we are working on a resolution to that. Currently we have five units in remediation. And we have other entities helping us post all of our vacancies, though the town of Need, Boulder, the Longmont downtown authority, um, flyers have been sent out to HUD fashola and sister Carmen. We are helping meals on wheels and Jason Commons. So they are actually using our vacancy list as meals are going out. So we are trying all approaches we can. We have advertised on Zillow, Craigslist, apartments. com, Facebook and rent cafe. We're actually getting more of a response on my cat phase. So that's exciting. It's part of the yardi software conversion. The property management and maintenance teams are working together to identify why vacancies are happening. So in particular, we have one that's been vacant at just being comments for an excessive amount of time. And the feedback that we get from that is that it's not private enough. So we're looking to see if we can do some sort of privacy screening to get that one back into leasing. How is that unit different from the others there? It's on the very bottom corner next to our garden. So it feels like

1:00:48everybody can just see right into your unit. Okay. So we don't know if tinting would help or if some sort of a visual barrier would help. To me, it would be a cell. We've told me I could live next to the garden. I would sign up. But I'm not everybody. And kind of like in the stratosphere and landed on my head and I included it. We've got MOU numbers on Friday, Sean. So it's just really new information. As you know, this was submitted prior to that date. So we'll have to refine those numbers. But I think I did, actually, I think it was yesterday at receive MOU. And we have Sean and I have not talked about that Christians. Well, we do have, I think we have the same MO and will be discussing it tomorrow. So it's just to say that maybe the right number, it may not be the right number. You know, I don't know that we have the final word yet. Yes. Yeah.

1:09:55And it's a great point. That's kind of why we know there's still some tweaking to do between now and December based on those types of outcomes. Yeah. OK. Ok. Commissioner Structman. Do you have any questions? No. Thank you. Really important number here. The excess deficit before capital before capital projects. So this is really everything that I've talked about above operating and these other cash things. Those do go on pretty much every year in some way, shape or form. Now the magic there would be to see zero there. That's our goal, the C0, all of our all the stuff that happens every year we should net out to zero. We don't for 27. It's 200, 000 dollar deficit. I mean, yeah, 206, 000 dollar deficit. And so, and then we start to talk about what are the capital projects that we don't have the money for that we would love to get subsidy from the county for. And so for 27, that subsidy adds up to, I mean, the capital project portion of that subsidy would be 1, 293 507. I do have a slide that goes into detail about the 1. 5, because you can see the next line is OK. Boulder County, one and a half million dollar brings us to net zero. You know, no cash access, no cash deficit. At the end

1:16:04of the year. So before I go on, any questions. I don't have questions right now, thank you. Well, I think it is actually important to do the math on that typo. You said it was 750, 000. No, more like 475. 475. More like 470. Okay. All right. Cause I, I, I was doing the math number. Okay. So it's not a, it's not a big change. Okay. Um, I put in the bottom, uh, this little table here. It doesn't capture it as well as I'd like to. But my point here is to see, we've got BCHA only. In other words, can you go back a slide. Backward slide? Oh yeah. Backwards if you could. Thanks. Okay. Um, that, that table at the bottom, the real point of this table is to show like BCHA only, if we didn't have aspen wall and JC as we own BCHA is always run into, you know, net, net deficits.

1:17:09Um, but it's the aspen wall and Josephine comments that have really contributed on an operating basis enough to overcome the BCHA deficit. And so, so that's a, that's, that's been a tremendous impact on our financial feasibility. And also kind of tells us, uh, from our perspective as staff, like, you know, the type of strategic investments that we may want to consider going forward as well. Information about like that property in the age. If there has been any major renovation, the built, the deer bill is helpful. And if one of these has gone through a major renovation, let's say in like 2000 or something like that, that's still a while away, but just comparing property to property would be great to know. And then this will be coming later is what I heard when you were looking for direction today. No, just wanted to get confirmation that this was what we should bring to the BOCC later this budget session. I think this is much more, this is much more helpful to me to understand. Thank you. Yeah, so I think, so Commissioner Stolzman, you mentioned tungsten specifically, was there another one.

1:23:30I actually don't think I said the word time. I was just listing like the next couple. I don't know. I don't have perfect recollection of what the next couple are on the list. If you have any questions about the status of the construction, hi guys. As you can see here, the building is further along than the prior photo. And it is scheduled to be completed by next summer, provided that whether in supply chain issues behave. So now we're going to pivot and switch gears to focus exclusively on the grant program part of the emergency services sales tax and that accounts for about one quarter of all money collected annually from the text. The county runs two rounds each year, one in the fall and one in the spring. The fall round is now open to more than 25 fire districts and departments assert Boulder County. The spring round is open to a broader group. It includes search and rescue organizations and groups that we're going to make recreational trails safer for everyone who uses them. Since the grant program launched in 2023, we've completed six rounds, three fall rounds for the fire districts and three spring rounds for the search and rescue and trail safety organizations. Together, these rounds have awarded 6. 5 million dollars, 5 million to the

11 1:00 p.m. Afternoon Session

11.a Work Session

1 Commissioners' Office - Emergency Services Sales and Use Tax and Grant Program

1:41:55fire districts and 1. 5 million to the search and rescue groups. This slide shows a few examples from each of those categories, things that have been purchased. Thank you. This slide shows how the emergency services sales grants have been used from three years ago to the present. The largest award categories were radios and communications at about 2 million dollars vehicles at 1. 26 million. The station upgrades and other capital improvements at 1. 24 million. Grants also funded 821, 000 in life - saving equipment training and outreach and 736, 000 in firefighter protective equipment and safety. And lastly, this slide breaks it down the 6. 5 million awarded by types of organizations as shown the fire districts received nearly 5 million dollars while search and rescue organizations received most of the remaining funding. Third, smaller share has been allotted to nonprofit, trail and trailhead safety groups.

1:42:59That final category of grants is smaller because they tend to ask for supplies and training. That's just a lot less expensive overall as a lower price tag. I also want to recognize the nine Boulder County residents who serve on the emergency services grant program advisory committee. They review and score proposals, then recommend awards to the board, the county commissioners twice a year. Each member spends about 15 hours on each grant round and the committee also meets throughout the year to improve the program. Some of those members, I believe, are joining us also virtually today. And I want to thank them for the care and time they put into making sure every proposal gets a fair review and that their recommendations to you, the board are carefully constructed in a way that ensures the limited funding is directed to where it can do the most good.

1:45:05Mountain rescue, James Stewart uses this gear a lot. Including last Sunday when three climbers got stuck hundreds of feet off the ground in Eldorado Canyon. I've done a fair amount of what we call pickoffs. It's not that common for us to do rescues with such a large vertical cliff below. That's where James Stewart says drones from Boulder Emergency Squad cut the rescue time in half, lighting up the rocks and putting an eye on the climbers. So when you're going over the edge, you can't actually see the climbers below. So you have to traverse a little bit and then just kind of blindly pick a spot to start going down. And they kind of give me some measurements on how far left or right I needed to go. And it worked out really well because the measurements they gave me landed me right on top of them. James brought the climber's jackets and helped them back up to the top where Cara Beaton was there to meet them. It's always better to get to you before you have a big injury or before you're really lost and then your cell phone battery dies. It's great to be able to walk out with a patient as opposed to having to carry them out. So we really appreciate that they called us for help before it got too

1:46:10hard. After six hours, everyone was back on the ground safely. Now with warmer weather, Rocky Mountain Rescue wants everyone to be ready for their next climb. Do what you love to do, boulders. Great for that. But make sure you're prepared, take extra layers, take some extra water, take your food, take a headlamp if you think you might be out past dark. Older climber. I especially like this clip because it shows the collaboration and cooperation amongst our two biggest searcher rescue groups here in Boulder County. Just wants to keep playing. I'm the subject of Boulder Emergency Squad. I'd like to showcase the many equipment and capital improvements, the agency has received from the grants. In total BES has received close to 900, 000 dollars and awards three years. One example I'm going to draw your attention to is in the middle image is a new drone platform that will be paid for with grant funds. Um, the equipment is currently in order and delayed by issues of tariffs and supplied chain complications. But the thing we're most excited about this is that as a fixed wing drone versus the typical drone that has the telecopter type propellers, it can fly farther and stay in the air longer, um, without a battery change. So, uh, if we're looking for, you know, a missing person or reporting on

1:47:35a backcountry type wildfire, it can really go the distance, um, and other cool feature about it is it can carry supplies to someone and deliver, um, cell phone, medication, water, that kind of thing. So, um, that, that is something that is being provided by the grant program along with other improvements on this slide. Um, and here just some more examples of the equipment supply is awarded to BES. I want to stop for a moment and thank our photographer, Eric Patzer, who's in the room. He went around with me and took some really great shots of all the cool, cool stuff that the money is paid for. And I think we'll just let Chief and Amalfatano. Say in his own words how much this money and equipment is appreciated. We're immensely thankful to the county commissioners and the voters, the citizens who put the 1B grant process in place. We've been the beneficiaries for a couple of years now of some very valuable funding, without which we could not operate. And so for example, we need a new roof. Um, infrastructure things, we had cracks and floors. Um, and we need extra garage space. We have some temporary garages. HVAC units, um, water heaters. And then a whole, a whole bunch of very necessary rescue gear.

1:48:58Uh, without, without grants, this is impossible. So we want to just say thank you so much for, um, supporting the volunteer teams, uh, that helped make search and rescue in the county happen. Thank you again, Eric. For pulling together that video for us. Okay. The sheriff's office has a mandate that responds agencies across the county obtain and used dual band radios by the end of this decade. Mountain responders generally use UHF while responders on the planes, Ute VHF. A dual band radio lets them switch between the two so that they can communicate with each other whenever they're called to help. Um, this flexibility was, was a priority in the ballot measure to make sure that, um, mountains and planes, fire departments and districts could speak to each other during any emergency. Um, the challenge is the cost, a reliable dual ban radio can cost anywhere from 2000 to 7, 000 dollars a piece. So even for a small volunteer agency buying enough radios can cause 50, 000 to 100, 000 dollars or more well beyond what many of them can afford on their own. Um, as part of our first grant cycle and the fall of 2023, the Boulder County firefighters association was able to purchase 1. 2 million dollars in radios and distributed them to every mountain and rural fire district in Boulder County.

1:50:21And we are fortunate to have the BCFFA president, chief Chris O'Brien with us today in the audience. Um, switching to one of the smaller fire districts, the hygiene fire recently broke brown on a new building for its offices and firefighter living quarters. The old building had reached the end of its useful life and firefighters have been living out of an RV parked on site for the past two years. How far larger long - term grants for large capital expenses, similar to what were the cause can do. Consider adding a cushion for inflation, maybe 10 to 20 percent of the cost of major capital equipment. When awarding grants because costs have been rising much faster due to tariff supply chain issues in general inflation, by the time they apply and they get funded four to six months later, those estimates and costs that they've received as quotes have gone up and there is no going back.

2:02:58Be a pause on grants to do only capital projects. There's a lot to do, I think, to study the way this could be done. But I do think this is an area that deserves consideration, because as all of these needs are being bad on this yearly basis, I think the one piece that's really limited here is bigger expenditures, that they don't have funding for it in a different way. Right, and it sounded like that was just one person's idea versus... And so this is helpful because I was trying to get an idea. This is something that was feedback accumulated over a certain amount of time from a certain group of people, from many type of survey, or just feedback loop, and it sounds like that one was specific just one person. So I think for me, if you were going to do, as you talked about later on, some type of a survey - ish feedback, that might be a way to get a better idea of some of these items are going to be So that was the first one. The second one on larger multi - year awards. I'd be interested in having, you bring back some potential funding. Proposals, also speaking with the attorneys, but also OFM, just finding what can we do. I'm sure there's some parameters just based on the

2:04:18fact that it's a voter - approved tax. For me, for the larger multi - year awards, I think the way to approach it would be if the fire districts and the sheriff came with a consensus recommendation, like, hey, we really need to buy this new thing that we never knew existed, and it's 10 million dollars, and we all, or close to all, recommend that we invest in this. I think we could make space for that. I get a little concern when I hear about replacing fire stations and things like that, because each fire district has responsibility for their capital. And the districts. And it's not our place to suggest how the districts could be laid out, but perhaps there's opportunity for the districts to consider how they serve the community and what the most cost - effective way to do that is. So, like you were discussing how little revenue, one of the larger districts gets, and that is a function of the assessed value of the properties in that district. There just are not that many structures. And so that's why it makes a lot of sense for the whole county to contribute to search and rescue in that space, because people from the planes go up there in hike, and all of those things. But as far as physical stations and things like

2:05:31that, I think the more complicated conversation that needs to have that has a lot of politics behind it, and a lot of safety issues and considerations to go into how we should invest in, like the physical buildings of fire districts. So I'm open to having that conversation, but I don't think just saying we'll do larger grants and then replace your fire station is necessarily a good idea this time because there's so much other layers behind that onion. And so I guess I would say if the group has some big capital projects, that there's a consensus on that they really want to see the commissioner's fund. They should just write a letter and bring that forward. You know, like if the great idea that everybody's like, we need to fund a helicopter, like Douglas County bought a helicopter, for example. Like, let's hear it, and let's talk about it, but I don't think we should just open the door wide open quite yet.