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And now we're going right into study session. or did do you need to set something up for study session? Uh, no. The council members are joining right now and then I'm going to grab the interviewee. We need to make sure they've got it going in the uh in the council. They're good. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We'll wait till you come back. A Excuse me everybody. We had a little mix up. Your food is in the hallway tonight. Okay. So, what is uh It's Mike Kelly, right? Said this. We're a little behind. We're behind. We're about half hour behind. This is easy robot. How you doing again? I think we long day. I'm sure it's a long day for you, too. All right. Um, Kitty, are we ready to go? Okay. Very well. Okay. Um, thank you for your interest in this. Uh, um, I'm going to give you one minute for opening remarks. Study. We don't have to. Do we have to call roll? You don't have to roll. Just call. Okay. Uh, the study session for Monday, June 9th, 2025 is called to order. Um, so please tell us a little bit about identify yourself, tell us a little about yourself for one minute, and then we'll have two minutes a piece for Q&A from all the council members, and then you'll have two minutes to close. Thank you, Mayor, mayor, council members. Uh, my name is Mike Riley. I am a, uh, fairly new resident here in Aurora. Bought a house here two years ago. Uh, coming from Northern Virginia where I've seen a lot of development, a lot of planning, a lot of zoning. Um, I've spent most of my life in public service. 31 years in the Marine Corps. I've been a town manager. I've worked on Capitol Hill. And public service is what I enjoy. I like helping. I like contributing. I like being engaged. Um, I've been to several of the mayor's town halls. I've been to several of Councilman Sunberg's town halls. I've met many of you at those town halls. Um, and and I want to be a part of the community. Uh, I think there is a lot of potential here. There are a lot of things that um can be considered. I've been strongly looking at the Fitz Simmons innovation uh program, looking at the KFax corridor. I live off of 48th of Piccadilly uh in the reserve, a community that is under metro district. So, I've become very familiar with metro districts. So, I have a lot of experience that I would like to bring to the table if in fact you find me qualified to fill this position. Thank you. Great. Uh now for um Q&A. U Council Member Hancock tell me what is your government? Well, proper rule of government uh should be servant leaders. Uh they should be available to assist. Uh they should know what their programs are. Um, and again at the town hall I met you at, we were talking about your ability to get on board for this license plate issue. That's engagement. People want that and that the government should be as engaged as that. They should be in the community. They should want to help and to make life better. Quality of life is a big thing for any community. Um, Aurora is growing. I I I see it every day when I drive around. Um, and there's a lot of things that could be implemented to to improve it. Uh, I've been very involved with engage Aurora, looking at the interotal, the districts, the transit systems, uh, the housing areas, things like that to get people engaged more and to be more of a community. So, that's what I think uh, government should be involved in. Thank you. You're welcome. Council member Kums, you are now recognized for two minutes. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today. Um, my question is about water. it's an important part of uh development here in the west. So what is your kind of understanding of um or I guess your view on how development should account for the water needs um of the development that so that's my first awakening coming here is the water conservation issues and the fact that there are a lot of restrictions on water there are many fights over water here and I have not paid as much attention to it as I could. I know that there is the water development plan that was brought out of the the council here to take a look at how resources can be conserved and how you're going to share that water. How would developers take care of this? I would think that there in any development area there needs to be consideration on how water can be conserved, how water can be accumulated. I mean, I fish in the reservoirs around here, so I know that there are some reservoirs. Is it feasible to build more reservoirs for containment? I I couldn't tell you that because I don't know how that master plan would work for developing that. But water conservation is a big thing here. I I miss my five acres in Virginia, which I used to mow. Uh I don't do that now. I have my my desert prairie yard and maybe that gives me more time on the weekends, but I I'm aware that water needs to be conserved. Um, and I think that's important. I mean, it's it's a worldwide issue, let's put it that way. Thank you. Council member Medina, you're now recognized for two minutes. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Yeah. My question is around uh the economics and what your ideas are on bringing a venue to a venue. So that's a very good point because I I had some notes about that. Um I was involved with the development of the Hilton Performing Arts Center in Prince William County, Virginia. Uh it was an idea u when I was a youth up in upstate New York. We had the Sator Performing Arts Center. And so I got on board with why don't we have our own performing arts center? We need one in Prince William County. It's large enough. We have the same population that you do here. It's a offshoot of the George Mason University u fine arts program and it's been exceptional. Um, I think that would be a marvelous idea because I have been very involved with cultural arts. I I've sat on the development committee for the performing arts center and on the ballet theater as well. And I think that Aurora needs a gathering place. It doesn't have it. It needs a small town ball field, uh, a minor league ball field. It needs a place for people to go to be a community. Um, I I know for a fact what the performing arts center has done to Prince William County, bringing in business because people want their families to have a cultural aspect. And so this performing arts center has a host of things. It has ballet, it has a big band, it has symphonies, it has we actually started a veterans in the arts initiative where they are free programs for veterans to teach their kids how to play guitars or them to play guitars to do art, painting, photography. Yes, I think you should have a venue. I think it would be well received. Thank you, Council Member Bergen. You're now recognized for two minutes. Thank you. Thank you for um being here and and wanting to serve the city. Um my question is about um do you understand what criteria is used in the decision-making process for planning and zoning? is we've heard some questions about how you would like the city to look, but do you understand what the actual criteria is when you So I I can look at uh is it 146 4.5 or 16 that the zoning and regulations? I do not know that to to the the degree that I need to know it. Um uh you you talk about when a developer brings something before and it goes for the review and has to go through two or three layers. I'm I'm kind of involved in that because of what's happening in my community out at the reserve. Oh, go ahead. That sorry, that's not really my question. My question is if if you're a commissioner on the planning and zoning and you are looking at an application that has come forward, what is the criteria used for decision- making because um it is very it's very strict that criteria. So, I was just wondering if you knew what some of that criteria. I do not know what that criteria is. Okay. So, I would just suggest that you um maybe sit in on well, you'll be you'll be on one, but maybe look at the minutes from um from a past one because it's very strict in terms of you must follow zoning, you must follow code. Um there's not a lot of room for subjectivity. It's it's very objective. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Lawson. You're now recognized for two minutes. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mike, for applying. Um my question is this to you um because this happens a lot on some projects. Um how would you approach a development proposal that aligns with the city's long-term plans? You know, we have the comprehensive plan, the zoning, UDO that faces strong opposition from a um residents in a neighborhood. Good point. Um I think collaboration is key. Um, a lot has to do with how the the development is teed up. Um, and in my experience, I used to see developments all the time go before the board of supervisors and people come in and they complain. How come this is happening? What they don't realize is two months, two years ago, those notices are out and and people need to become more educated. the citizens need to become more educated about the process because for them to come in and and start complaining that oh my gosh there's putting this apartment complex here or this uh data center here they need to be educated about it and I think that as you were mentioning what does the government do it needs to educate people on the process because that way they're more engaged their issues are identified earlier and then you don't have those huge confrontations where crowds line up outside and people have placards and you have to have the police here and things of that nature. I I think anytime you educate the public and get them engaged and and that's a that's a pretty demanding process because not everybody wants to do that. I mean, I'm I'm in a community that's growing to 600 homes. I'm trying to get them involved with our metro district decisions and they don't show up for meetings and then they say, "Well, how come you changed the pool hours?" Well, you had an opportunity to talk about it, but it's the idea of educating them, making them familiar and and again, that's that's shoe leather. That's getting out, going to the HOA meetings, going to the community meetings. Um, some of these town hall meetings I've gone to, I' I've heard these things discussed. The planning people come out, they talk about it. It's educational, but I'm starting to see the same 40 people every time now. And somehow that's got to change. You've got to educate the public. Thank you. You're welcome. Council member Cassar, you are now recognized for two minutes. All right. Well, thank you so much for applying and also thank you for your service. And uh my question to you is what do you see as your main challenge if you appointed to the planning and how did you uh you know how would you approach that challenge? So again one of the things I I looked at um I know you want to try to revitalize Kofax corridor because that's the old city. When I was a town manager in Dumpers Virginia it was an old town. It was the first port in Virginia and I tried to recreate the fabric of the town and it it just didn't it didn't work. So Alexandria, you know, got that name is the the big port city. Um it's the idea of generating the enthusiasm. Um and again, you look at the KFax corridor and and the business development opportunities, the community development opportunities. How do you intend to do that? I know there's a lot of dialogue on that. Um and how do you get the community engaged? How do you get businesses to decide that they're willing to come in and and get in some of those vacant buildings and and bring business back? And and one of the things that um we're starting to see uh in Northern Virginia, and I know it was part of the inter intermotal transit plan was to have these city centers where people can originate by walking or bicycling or or rapid transit a lot easier to get them to be a part of a community. So, so the challenge is trying to take some of these older areas. Um I also find it's unusual how Aurora is not all contiguous. Um I I think that provides a challenge because people who are right here don't live here and the services might be different. So I think that's a challenge and I don't know what Aurora's intent for growing or annexing more property but those type of things are are important. And then I've gotten very involved with the Fitz Simmons part because um one of my masters is in bioscience and I'm thinking and I talked to the mayor about this you know what growth opportunities there I mean it's very dynamic right now I I see it happening when I was back in DC the growth of bioscience and now some things that are occurring within the current administration on on some of those uh technology fronts. So that would be interesting to see how that could grow for housing there and commuting there and the growth of that area. Thank you. Yep. Um former Dumprey's town manager. Yes, sir. Dumpries, Virginia, and and uh retired United retired Colonel United States Marine Corps Mike Riley are now recognized for two minutes for concluding remarks. Mayor. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I left. I was going to take a shortcut here. Uh, Council Member Jerinsky, you are now recognized for two minutes. Thank you. It's Yeah, both of us I don't think were were recognized to ask a question, but um, Council Mario, all I wanted to say is Mike, uh, thank you so much for replying. I don't have a question. Council member Murio, you can go ahead. Council member Mario, you are now recognized for two minutes. Thanks, Council Member Jinsky. My my comment was more uh geared towards the mayor as the um leader of this meeting. Um my question uh for you and thank you by the way for your application. I know it's not always easy. Um my question is what can you give an example of where you were able to apply um some of the skills and visions uh vision that you mentioned um throughout your interview um to be successful in in another situation? Certainly. Uh well, one of them was uh my involvement with the Hill Performing Arts Center uh with all the planning meetings uh and getting that built uh and then staying on as far as the development committee went to continue to raise funds uh to promote the program. Another big project that I led was the opening and dedication of the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Um it was a year-long planning effort which was uh my program portfolio. Um and I managed to use all my program management skills um collaboration with local, state, and federal authorities uh and bringing uh that magnificent masterpiece uh to I95. So uh I' I've used those skills there. And then um I've been appointed to several commissions uh when I was in Prince William County on a transportation commission, a school board commission, um and a couple other finance commissions. So, uh, taking some of my background either from Capitol Hill or from being a former town manager or in the Marine Corps, utilizing leadership skills, uh, attention to detail, integrity, and things of those natures. Um, that that's what I would apply here, uh, for whatever projects are coming forward. And, and again, not just to get the projects implemented, but there should be followth through afterwards just to make sure they meet what the constituency was asking for. Um, thank you, Mayor Pam Sunberg. You are now recognized for two minutes. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Riley. I think that the fact that you've only lived here two years, you might be bringing a fresher perspective on the city. Uh, you've mentioned a few things, bioscience, a performing arts center, even a minor league team. I've heard that with Northeast Aurora, we're only as a city developed about 55%. So, we have this tremendous opportunity for growth, development, smart planning. You've mentioned those other three things. Anything else come to mind that you think our city might be missing? There's is there too much of one thing? Are there other possibilities? Um, well, a youth venue of some sort. Well, Mr. Riley, go ahead and just address your front. The camera will pick you up. Uh, a youth venue u to give kids opportunities um whether it's playing ball. I don't know if you have a skate park here, but that would be uh something worthwhile. And then family venues uh where you can you bring families together. Uh again, I look at the the performing arts center. Uh there could be offshoots of that because uh what we did there was outdoor concerts in in a big amphitheater um when the weather's nice. So, you have those um type of requirements that I would consider as well. Very well. Uh, Council Member Gardner, you're now recognized for two minutes. Thanks, Mayor, and thanks, Mike, for your application. Um, in your opening comments, you mentioned um that there's a lot of opportunities in Aurora. Can you talk a little bit about those opportunities and how you think your experience and and serving on the planning and zoning commission will help kind of bring those to fruition? So, so the opportunities I would look at is uh how you want to um get new growth in here and then revitalize some of the areas that again that I talked about again I look at the KFax quarter because that seems to be a topic of discussion whether it's in the newspapers whether it's at your your board meetings and things like that. Um, just looking at Smart Growth, um, I don't know if you have a a place that you can call, I mean, is this the biggest building around? Is this your skyline here? Do you have something that people could say represents this? Um, would you like to have, you know, the ballpark up near the airport in War 2? That that'd be nice because then people could fly in for games or the per performing arts center. People can fly in for for shows there. Um, you've got some hotels. Uh, actually there's a lot of hotels on Tower Road. So, there there's those opportunities to look at creative ideas. I'm sure if I sat here and and poured over some of the things that I had looked at in the past or that I had been involved in, um, there could be ideas and and again, I know that the council and the mayor have gone to different cities. U, I know there was the discussion, I think it was in Boston about what you can do with Fitz Simmons. uh again looking at sister cities and I'm I'm still a member of the MA. So that publication gives me a lot of information about opportunities that people can look at as well. Um it also talks about planning and zoning issues or all sorts of stuff. U I've just maintained that membership even though I'm not u a current administrative officer anymore. So, uh, it's a question of of looking out there and again, as I first mentioned, listening to what the constituency wants and and there those learning sessions or the listening sessions for Engage Aurora, I thought were very instrumental. People putting stuff up on the boards and and picking up those ideas that they needed. Thank you. You are now recognized for two minutes for concluding remarks. Well, you've seen my application. uh you've heard what I think I can bring to the table. Uh it's only a question of am I qualified in your eyes to do that. Um when I became a second lieutenant, I had to learn how to be a leader. So um if the question about what the process is needs to be learned, I think that can be learned. Um working I mean I've come to your meetings. Uh I've listened to you guys on the day. Um I've been your town halls. I I know what you're seeking. I I know you're engaged in the community. Um and you desire to do what's best for your constituents. And I think uh I enjoy being out in the public. I enjoy engaging. I think that that would be one of my better attributes is the fact that I'm very comfortable in a crowd. Um I don't like leaving a room without knowing everybody. Thank you very much. I appreciate your interest in the city and for applying for being on the planning and zoning commission. Thank you. Thank you all for your time as well. Yep. Uh there's no mayor's update. Uh are there any issue updates? We're seeing none. Uh um is there any objection to moving the consent calendar forward? Item number three. Mr. Mayor, if you could, I'm going to pull item 3E off. Uh the developer uh in question on that one has um some changes that they'd like to to potentially explore, so it's not ready yet. So we'll bring uh 3E to forward to a future study session. Okay. Very well. Uh uh question before us is uh uh moving the consent calendar forward item number 3A through um 3D and 3F. Is there any objection to moving the consent calendar forward? Council member Bergen. Very well. Please proceed. Okay. Turn this on. Um so my question is on the Aurora Commerce Center Metropolitan District Service Plan amendment. Um just wondering um is there any obligation um for Gun Club Road in that amendment? Look, Michael Carrian, uh development services. Please speak up. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yeah, that's not that's not uh it's not a microphone. It's not an amplifier. just speak up. Oh. Uh, Michael Carrian, Development Services. Um, there is uh no um there's no specific uh requirements for Gun Club Road in the ACC Metro District service plan amendment. So they are they not part of any of the um ARRI? Uh so the um ACC is part of the uh Aurora Regional Transportation Authority. Okay, that perfect. Thank you. That's what I wanted to know. Very well. Um, item number 4 A, lease purchase, uh, COP's certificates of participation financing for an animal shelter. Uh, Terresa Sedmeck. Jessica. Oh, Jessica Proer. That's fine. I'm going to just start out uh with a brief overview. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um Jessica Proer, uh director of housing and community services. I'll start out um just a brief overview of where we are with the animal shelter in terms of design um and getting to that point and then I'll turn it over to Teresa um to talk a little bit more specifically on the financing and the coop side of things. Um so just a brief uh project description. Um obviously looking to build a new facility that's more effective than what we have currently. Um and the mission statement for the animal shelter current state in need uh currently operating out of an old evidence facility that was established uh in the 1980s. Uh very limited capacity. We are out of compliance with PACFA which is the group that um monitors our compliance related to uh safety and things like that. So really looking at um this facility is at end of life. We've done some needs assessment and come back to you all a while ago related to building a new facility. Uh project location, just as a reminder, is just to the southeast of the current facility on a 15 acre parcel the city currently owns. The blue box there is where we would put about a 5 acre site for the new facility. This is a very uh preliminary site plan of how it would lay out on the 5 acre piece. Uh to the northwest there is where you would come in as a customer of the facility and the public would enter. The south side would be a you know city only area um with quite a big yard um on the south and east part. Um right now we have very limited outdoor ability and we also have to cross a parking lot with animals which is not helpful um for staff. Um so just a few other things about the new facility that um are really going to enhance it is we can separate things like court hold animals from adoptable animals. Have two separate entrances in the lobby. So, when someone's coming in to an adopt an animal, they're having a very different experience than someone that's coming in um to maybe uh pick up an animal that was a stray um or we have animals um that are on a court hole that we can't have the public interacting with. Also, isolation areas um a new veterary area um separation of dogs and cats, which can be really stressful to the animals how we have them set up now. So, just a basic site plan. We're still working through the design process uh with a group called Animal Arts um and getting through that design piece. So, I just talked a little bit overall about the facility. Um looking at about a 38,000 square foot new facility and housing for about 250 animals. Um and then that indooroutdoor space that I talked about, this is the capital stack. Um just to kind of briefly review that. Uh this is uh we haven't like I said gotten a new facility since the 80s. We'd have quite a bit of population growth. Therefore, this would qualify for impact fees. Um we have some capital fund. We have previously put some ARPA dollars towards this. Um we have some estate gifts from a couple of people that have passed away in the community and left money for the animal shelter specifically. So felt like that was a good use for this. And then what we're here to talk about tonight specifically is the COP uh debt insurance. This is just a breakdown of the soft costs um versus the hard cost there. We're looking at a $51 million total cost of the facility um with about 39 million um going to those hard costs. You can see the other things related there. and then some information on the uh market conditions and Teresa will get a little bit more specifically um into that. But we have several um escalators built in and contingencies built in um as we move through this process. Um, and this describes the project financing and the the COP financing um for about $27 million um over a 30-year term and then the the uh ARPA dollars and other pieces as well that break down there. So, um we have to spend our ARPA dollars by the end of 2026. So, we've committed those funds already with this project. Um basic timeline. Uh we're looking at design uh through the end of this year and a little bit into next year and then uh permitting and construction um and hopefully construction beginning in 2026 with about an 18 to 24month build out. Um so we want to be able to uh leverage the funding so we can start to move forward. that really helps us get to hiring um the CMGC and getting contractors on board to really finish the design process with the contractor to create some economies of scale and hopefully be able to create some uh reductions in pricing once we get them into the fold as well. So, um I'm going to turn it over to Teresa to just talk a little bit about the coops and then we're happy to take any questions. So, good afternoon. Teresa said, Max City Treasurer. Um, so as Jessica alluded to, uh, we are planning to issue certificates of participation, which is lease purchase financing for a portion of the capital stack. And so, um, we have an ordinance before you hopefully that will go to the regular meeting um, to allow us to go to the market with COP. The ordinance calls for a maximum of 27 million to be issued, maximum interest rate of 6% um for a 30-year financing and we are planning to go to market um with council's approval at the end of August. So, I'm happy to answer any questions. That's that's about it for me. Uh Council Member Bergen, thank you for the presentation. Um, and I know staff did some work in terms of talking to the counties and some jurisdictions um because I had asked if they would participate in in helping us fund the um animal shelter. So, just if you could just give a quick recap on I know you guys did work on that. Yes, we did. And there's a um memo in your backup as well as kind of a addendum and um council member Bergen asked us about um what it looks like for other jurisdictions to participate in this facility. So we did uh kind of survey all the other shelters in the area um and all of the surrounding communities in the metro area are attached to one of those facilities already with a current um IGA or other agreement. Um, Arapjo County currently has an IGA with us. Um, it's old and outdated. It's from 2015. Um, and they are paying us um, $36,000 a year for care of animals they drop off at the facility. Um, and so with the new facility that we're building, we would like to renegotiate that IGA um, and look at options for that. Um, I think those options are not only recouping the cost of caring for the animals they drop off now, but likely a new facility fee that they could pay us since we're providing a new facility and having that. So, um, we actually have a meeting set up uh with them tomorrow. They had some things are changing around and shifting where that operation is. So, we will start those negotiations. That will obviously take us a while. So, we didn't want to hold up this process with that. Uh but we did um do some due diligence there and have kind of a path forward um for creating a new IGA. You mentioned Arapo County. How about Adams County? So Adams County has a Riverdale facility which is what less than 10 years old and there's several jurisdictions that um have agreements with that facility um as well. Uh questions. you're going to please proceed. I'm we're finished. So unless there's other questions. Okay. Um so what what is the So this are we okay to move this forward? You guys would see typically when we do coops we take it forward for formal council action. So we just want to make sure if there's any questions before we move that forward for full council action. Okay. Very well. Uh questions. Mayor Gardner. Council member Gardner. Um I don't have any questions more just comments. Um, and I, you know, I appreciate staff's work up until now, Jessica and her team and, um, Teresa and all that. I I think I I'm I don't agree that this is the highest and best use of debt that we could issue. Um, you know, we talk in this presentation or we heard about um, PAFKA standards, but we have residents in the city who live outside of NFPA standards for fire response, for example. Um, and I just, you know, I have a lot of concerns with us issuing nearly $30 million in debt, uh, to build a new animal shelter when, um, we need more fire stations. We need another police district. Uh, we have a lot of needs in this city and I'm just not sure that this is the highest and best use. Um, and so I'm not going to support it. Thank you. Uh, council member Burger. Yeah. And I understand where uh council member Gardner is coming from on the other needs in the city. Certainly fire stations that that in my ward and and also in ward two um that are needed. Um however I would say from this perspective we are we would be um passing up an opportunity because we do have other funding um sources for this animal shelter um with um you know with the ARPA dollars with the impact fees and so forth. So um I think um based on the fact that we have other funding sources, it makes sense um to you know to invest in an animal shelter as mentioned before um the study showed that just trying to renovate the current shelter was really going to cost probably more money and then would not actually um achieve the goals for a growing population. Um you know growing 415,000 residents, a lot of pets. Um, so, um, I am in support. Councelor Aros, mayor, thank you. Um, yeah, I mean, we have a lot of needs that are not being taken care of, but we also know that this facility is significantly out of compliance and people are going to continue to have pets and also we're going to continue to encounter wildlife. Um, our staff are going to continue to encounter wildlife and we need to address those needs. Um it may not be convenient that that's what we need to do instead of building more fire stations and addressing other needs, but the need is there. So we need to fulfill it and so I'm in support. Further questions or comments? I see none qu Jessica. Um what are the um what is there a regulatory standard that we have to comply with and where are we at with that compliance? Yeah. So, it's the pack requirements. We're out of compliance on a few areas. One being the current kennels that dogs are in. Um, just the material, the deterioration of it and things like that. So, we are kind of on a continuing waiver with them right now where they've they have acknowledged that we're working towards building a new shelter. Um and that is written up in in our um essentially our assessments right now um because they know it's such a significant cost to replace what we currently have. So we're kind of on a you know a waiver at this point knowing that we're moving towards compliance by building a new shelter. Just quick question. Uh can you give me the status of Fred the pig 400 lb pig that was running rampant across our city that wound up in the shelter? steal your backyard. Not going there. I'm not going there. Okay. Very well. Is there any further objection? Uh seeing none, uh then that will move for that will move forward. Um then we'll find out about Fred the Pig later on. Let's see. Um item number 4B, public safety facilities master plan overview. Oh, wait. What did I miss something? Northwest grants. 4B. Oh gosh, I must have a Okay, I don't have my updated version. Okay, 4B uh 2025 uh Northwest Aurora Arts Grant. Uh good afternoon everyone. My name is Ginger White Bernetti. I'm director of library cultural services and um I'm presenting this um grant request um to you all in part on behalf of the cultural affairs commission which administers this grant in partnership with Library and Cultural Services. So, these grants have been around for a while now, and I'll get into the history in just a moment, but the purpose of these grants is to really stimulate and foster economic activity and vibrancy within the cultural arts district along the Kfax corridor. Um, the grants were initially um named as part of the um Fletcher Plaza uh URA back in um 2002. It wasn't until 2017 that library and cultural services um took on the administration of that grant program and it was part of what helped the city achieve um designation as a creative district through the um Colorado creative industries office or division of the um office of economic development and international trade. And you can see um since 2020 um through 2025 here's some information about number of organizations that have applied for these grants and those that were awarded. Um and so we are um back to achieving um preandemic numbers as far as interest in these grants goes. Um the eligibility criteria has changed a little bit year-over-year. This is um something that the cultural affairs commission um determines as part of their um as they as they put forward a new application process every year. Um and this particular year they decided to reserve some funds for operational grants. Those are for organizations that are residing in the arts districts and then some for projects or program grants for organizations that are not within the district but want to bring programming into the district um and activate the venues that um are there. Um so this has been a a lengthy process. We announced the grants on October 14th of last year. Um the deadline was right before the holidays. In December of 2024, we had um the full commission and community member from AAD as part of the selection panel. Um they both reviewed written materials and conducted interviews at Central Library right after the holiday in January. Um in February, the commission voted to approve and recommend 13 organizations for your review. um those organizations did receive um award letters in March but contingent on council um approval. So that's what we're here to request from you all this evening. Um and you can see these are the organizations that the commission recommended for funding. Um it's 13 organizations for a total of $75,000. And so we are seeking your approval to fund these 13 organizations at a total of $75,000. And with that, um, happy to take any questions you might have. Questions to staff. Council member Jinsky, um, can you just remind me where this money is coming out of what? So, it is now housed in library and cultural services. It was part of the spring supplemental. Um, and so it's part of the general fund. It's part of our cultural services general fund allocation. Further questions? Counc what is this a increase decrease of the normal budget that you've done? So in previous years it's been um $150,000 that's been granted. This is now 75. Thank you. Further questions please proceed then. Great. So um I was seeking your approval to uh fulfill these grant obligations. Uh is there any objection uh to moving item number 4B forward? Uh then item number 4B, we'll move forward. Thank you very much for the presentation. Thank you. Item number 4 C, uh public safety facilities master plan overview. Laura Perry. All right. Good afternoon, mayor uh and city council members. Laura Perry, deputy city manager. And today I have the esteemed honor of presenting the draft public safety master plan in collaboration uh with Chief Autton, um Chief Chamberlain, and Director Banetta. So, a little bit about master planning. So, several years ago, council had the foresight to set aside dollars to support capital master plans across the city. Those dollars supported several efforts to invol to inform our capital planning needs. One of which was the public safety capital master plan, the first of its kind in the city. Capital master plans are really important in helping the city shape its capital needs and really provides that needs assessment and prioritization to inform how these needs are funded moving forward. for public safety that involved over 30 facilities and that results in a document that will serve as a 25-year strategic plan and framework to guide a roadmap for capital planning and financial support. So the focus areas of the public safety master plan was taking a look at our our uh current facility use and space and deficiencies around that to support operations for our public safety departments. Examinations how operational changes in city population and growth would impact those facilities and the timelines that uh those improvements would be needed. and then looking at it in a short-term, midterm and long-term horizon. So 10, 15, and 25 years. And then also looking at conditions of our existing facilities as well from a primarily a deferred maintenance perspective. The project kicked off in February of 2024 and you see here there was several workshops with stakeholders. Uh the project was conducted with a consultant that was hired uh Roth Sheepard who hired subconultants that specialized in public safety and uh was led by Ellie Watts and our project manager in public works. The project involves several visioning sessions, data collection, so on-site tours, in-depth facility assessments done by engineers, interviews with stakeholders internally in the various departments, as well as a look at historical documentation that has guided the capital planning around these facilities um previous to now. And then most importantly looking at growth. So the study involved forecasting future staffing and space needs because there is a strong tie to the operations and infrastructure for our public safety departments. I mentioned that engineers took a review of all the facilities. This is a highle overview. Each of the facilities were rated based on their condition. You see from red uh down to green. Green being good, red being in critical uh shape. And they looked at each of those four areas. So architecturally, how are these uh facilities looking? The site around them, structural elements like roof and windows, and then any electrical components within the buildings themselves. Overarching, you'll hear this from each of the chiefs and director Benetta, but key challenges identified where our facilities exceed 30 to 35 years old, requiring major updates. We have a lot of space and o operational constraints which limit training, specialized functions and a demand for new technology. Uh systematic impacts. So the infrastructure as I mentioned ties very deeply to the public safety operations in the city. So obviously these limit uh service delivery and then shared facility issues. So uh also the tie to operations uh in our multi-purpose facility design need for optimization there as well. Overarchingly the plan totals $1.5 billion. Uh this is a uh unconstrained financial plan. Uh and again 25 years and you'll hear about each of these various areas from each of the chiefs and director Benetta themselves. Council member Jerinsky. I I'm just curious. This is a public safety facilities master plan and I don't see courts or detention included in this at all. How are they left out of We are working with courts and detention separately to do a facility condition assessment for other facilities. Okay. So, but but their needs are not going to be a part of this buildup Aurora initiative that we're potentially bringing forward or they will they are not just in this particular master plan. It was only focused on the three departments. They are part of it. Okay. Okay. They're a part of the safety, but but they're just going to be labeled something else. I got it. Go ahead. Yes. Overtunctually, this is the highlevel look at all of the project needs broken up by short-term, midterm, and long-term. Hard to read on the screen, uh, but in your backup and also in the public safety report itself. And Chief Atten will walk through Aurora Fire Rescue. Thank you. Well, good evening and thank you for the opportunity to present on this. Um, I'm Alec Ut. I'm the fire chief for the city of Aurora. Uh, and we'll cover uh briefly the multiple projects that are on there and some examples of the types of projects that we're going to be looking at working on hopefully in this presentation. And I think first it's just good to frame up for for uh council and the mayor and and uh the public that's watching a little bit about Aurora Fire Rescue uh specifically sharing our vision and then how we're accomplishing that vision right now which is to lead the nation in fire rescue and emergency services through our culture of excellence investment in our members and connection with our community. And we won't settle for mediocrity. We really are striving for perfection every day to try and serve this community, save lives and protect property. Um, we do have a snapshot for you of uh the calls for service as well as our 90th percentile performance metrics. So, you can see what we shoot for um slightly outside of um what we try to do with a 4-minute travel time is specifically where we're losing some ground. You will notice, I think notably if you've been here for a little bit, that our calls in 2022, uh the final numbers for 2022, when I got here in 2023, that total incident number was 57,000 calls for service. And as you're well aware, we implemented the right response process to try and more efficiently use the resources that were given to us and uh impact those times uh which it has positively impacted them. But we're still seeing some gaps in service delivery, particularly east and southeast where we're exceeding those times. You'll also see on this slide a map of where our current uh locations are. We have 17 fire stations serving the population. And uh so we'll address that as we move forward. Really, this is a process of both keeping up and catching up. And so uh we're looking at travel times as I think Council Member Bergen pointed out. um in the east or what I call the frontier of the city um where we are looking at two to three times the the uh industry standard benchmarks and I think council member Gardner mentioned NFPA standards. That's really what we strive for and so we're seeing those those uh gaps that exist in the east and in the southeast. Uh 50 years is the typical I'm glad that's not for a person. 50 years is the typical uh lifespan of a fire station. uh if you'll you understand that they're being used 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They're constantly occupied uh by multiple people and so um if they're wellmaintained and which we would like to thank our partners um in facilities for helping us do this, they will uh last that long. the uh AFR fire stations. Right now, we have stations that span everywhere from 4 to 50 years old with the average age of 26, which is that ripe middle age for a fire station where they're due for some major renovations. And we do have five fire stations that are either very close to or over over 50 years old. And so, a lot of those are needing updates now at the at their middle of life. We have uh emerging research that tells us how we can take better care of our firefighters. And unfortunately, we just had one diagnosed today with cancer. Um, but these are things that we can work into the system to try and take better care of them. So, there are changes in building codes and standards. There's new technology that can be integrated for things like gear cleaning, uh, separating the hot, warm, and cold zones and protecting them from the products of combustion as well as wellness initiatives. Um, and also we're looking at population growth and operational needs. This is a a pretty we had a consultant come in from uh the center for public safety excellence as we worked through the last stages of our accreditation process and he indicated that the only city he's seen with a more diverse set of risks than the city of Aurora was Oakland and that was because they had both an airport and a seapport. uh over the project timeline. We have um we have multiple projects as you can see within the 10-year window, the 15-year window, and the 25-year window. And uh they're a combination of both uh new builds and remodels. This map is is also in your back uh backup. It's a little bit difficult to see, but it shows you uh the red stations are the ones that are intended to stay at least in the short uh uh short-term window. The ones that are where the station numbers outlined in a white box are the ones that we would look to be replacing on site. And then there are future growth stations. Uh there are temporary sites and permanent sites. Doesn't mean that we will use every temporary site or every permanent site, but this just gives you an idea of where they are. Also outlined on this map are our neighboring jurisdiction fire stations which we will call on for uh either automatic aid or mutual aid when when the demand exists. And then I believe there's one potential relocation and that's station three that when we do get to the point where we replace that station, we'll likely move that a little bit east to try and fill in a gap that exists there. But this gives you a snapshot of of uh what what's going to happen or what we hope happens. So, within the 10-year window, obviously, we have facilities distributed. I know that was a pretty long list that that Laura showed you um with AFR projects, but we're a very capital infrastructure heavy system because we need to be both distributed and then have the ability to concentrate our resources throughout the city. So, within that 10-year window, you will see both uh you'll see remodels, you will see replacement stations, uh some on the existing site, some potentially on new sites, as well as new additions to the fire rescue uh footprint within the city of Aurora, which we've touched on as a need throughout. And then we just broke this down into kind of the long intermediate and long-term window. And you'll see several other projects that include all three categories of work that we need to do for uh the major remodels, replacements, or new construction sites. And while we have some sites identified, potentially areas where we would put some of these fire stations, a lot of it depends as we get closer to that window on the development trends that exist in that region. And what I'd like to do now, these are not in any kind of priority order. Um, but these all these projects are within the shortterm window. So, within that 10-year window and I wanted to give you some examples of the different types of projects that are on this list. So, uh, you can see pictures of the facilities and understand what the gaps are. In this particular case, we'll start with the two new builds that I've talked about a couple times uh, with council. Uh, first is station 18, which is located in W 2. This is the one that would cover Aurora Highlands and the Windler development block uh and could also heal the rest of the system because of its proximity to E470 so it could get north and south. Uh we're planning here 15,000 foot new fire station. Uh we're we're designing it so that it can house a double company because we're anticipating that future growth. uh would have three bays at the station, community room, and really the need is is the the growth that's occurring out there. And we're we're about 7% to 8% developed out there, and we're already having a demand for service. Um I've heard numbers as high as 60,000 population expected just in that community. So, we will have an emerging demand. So, we really need to start talking about that now. Um right now, their response times are anywhere from 12 to 18 minutes. Um, and so that's a little bit of a challenge for us to get out there and take care of that. And you can see the project anticipated project cost. And I do think it's important to note that right now these are in today's dollars. It's really difficult to project on a 25-year plan what those projected costs would be down the road. So, uh, the second one is is what we're referring to as station 19. This is the Southshore Blackstone. It's near Smoky Hill and Powatan. Um, we're anticipating that this one be a little little larger footprint. Uh, still be uh for a double company and we're anticipating four bays on this one as we right now have about 7 to10 million worth of capital assets sitting outside. Um, with all the hail warnings it can be a little bit of a challenge. So, we're trying to make sure that as we build this infrastructure, we also take into consideration ready reserve fleet and making sure that they're housed and distributed throughout the city so that we can take care of uh quick swaps if we have a breakdown and and limit out of service time. When we look at the replacement uh types that are in there, you can see a couple of examples here. Station six, which is at Hampton and Chambers, uh we are looking at a replacement on the existing site. We're looking at a a building a little over 17,000 square feet. And this one, if you've ever been there, um it has what I affectionately refer to as the Livnasium. I don't know if you ever visited, but it's a combination of sort of the living space for and attached to the gym and equipment. So, there's there are some space limitations for uh for the number of people that we have there. Um these things do impact turnout times and efficiency as well as uh security, health, and safety. And then uh some of the mechanical systems that are in that current building are are um beyond their useful life. Station 8, which hopefully you're familiar with, is across the streets across chambers. Uh this this building uh was uh built in 1987. Um and if you've had the pleasure of of being in there, you can appreciate the tight quarters. I think the infrastructure task force actually took a tour of this specific building just to kind of get an idea. um pretty substantially undized. Um we just did a a uh our public information office did a YouTube video station tour on this building and so if you want some of the details, it was it was um pretty well done. Um but there's a lot of condition situation there that that needs to be addressed as well as space um fitness and health and wellness programming. So those are two types. You'll note that these one of these is in W five and one of these is in W three. And I think it's important to share with you that these projects are distributed throughout the city. And then finally, when we look at the remodels, these are major. So these are your midlife, and I'll call 25 years midlife, sorry. Um, but for these buildings, that really is a time when you need to consider a major renovation. Um, and so in this particular case, we have fire stations three and fire stations 11 and ward one and w four. And uh these are where you start talking about roof replacements, mechanical system, substantial upgrades. Probably the living spaces get a major overhaul. And uh these projects are anywhere between 7 and 11 million. They're pretty significant investments to get that through the next 25 years of life. And with that, yeah, we're going to keep moving. So we're going to take all the questions at the end as a group. So we're going to go straight to Tina. Okay, we're going to keep it moving. Keep it moving. We're running out of time. Just FYI. Sorry to rush. My shopping list is shorter. Sorry to rush. Uh, good evening everyone. Tina Banetta, director of Aurora 911, and I appreciate the time uh to explain to you the future of not only 911 and 311 services, but how we can um create and centralize how we provide service to our entire community. So just a quick uh here's a snapshot of our mission and our vision. You're going to see a theme emerge um with our mission. Um and it's really in the line with right sizing responses and right sizing how we engage our community and then how we provide service to our community. A quick overview of who we are. So we've been budgeted at uh 91 FTE since 2016 without growth. Um we've been working really hard to improve our culture and to rightsize our positions. Um and so where while we're we are at full staffing in our budget, we realize that we also have some space now for operationalizing or growing our capacity to operationalize. Um we are uh handling over 300,000 911 calls. By the way, uh just over 2% of those come from landlines now. 98% are mobile devices. um and um nearly as many non-emergency calls. And that's a pain point for us because we prioritize 911 calls. Um our current system sort of forces non-emergency calls to wait in queue for longer because it's the same group of people that answer both of those lines. Um our texts to 911 are growing. Um we sort of went from about 500 in 2020 to now we're at 6,700 for 2024. that number is increasing and it's going to continue to increase. Um, very interesting things are happening um, in the 911 ecosystem. Um, landlines are nearly obsolete. Our voice call volume is plateauing um, and it's going to begin to decrease and in its place data alerts through a number of mechanisms and pathways are now beginning to create an uptick and they're delivered to us differently than a voice call. Um we're also um engaging in thirdparty translation and and AI assistive technology that is all opening some doors to automating a lot of low acuity services and provide people service um faster, more immediate and on their time frame. Um, additionally, we are we're implementing um, call technology this year that's going to open the door to multimedia live streaming um, real life uh, in time translation transcription services that allow us to serve our non-English-speaking community at the same level as our English-speaking community. And that's a huge deal for us. Um, and alternative response models, those are growing that began in 2020. Um, and so our responses are no longer limited to police, fire, and EMS. We now have a lot to choose from, and that's going to continue to grow. So, in the next five years, we're going to look at data to surpass voice calls. Um, how we provide services is going to fundamentally turn on its head. And so, we have to begin to pivot with that. Um, in addition, this is just a snapshot. I wanted to give it to you to look at when you have time. But just for context, the four little um areas in the top of that graph, the legacy devices, the uh the PAP, the radio system, and the responders, that's what was 911 for years and years and years and years. And now everything that has grown around it is how our ecosystem is growing and changing. And so we have to now focus on data sharing pathways. We're looking at cloudnative technology that allows us to virtualize how we provide services not only for individuals and employees in the future, but then how we partner with our partners at Denver 911 or Jeffcom 911 so that if we needed a fallback location, we're not necessarily tethered to brick and mortar for backup, a backup location for a dispatch center. We could actually share our spaces with one another and provide continuity of service. So, we really want to simplify how we provide service to our community. Um, our goal is to stand up a 311 program, and we have a very strong partnership with 988. So, what we want is is a situation where the members of our community know 911 for emergencies, 311 for everything else, and we partner with 988 for mental health services that are not safety threatening. So how do we do that? We understand that this how we provide service boils down to the simple equation that we have the ability to assess and categorize a need, prioritize and deploy the appropriate resource and then respond and fulfill the need. And what the difference is is the exigency of the request and the complexity of it. And we also understand that we have a lot of city services. So we may have circumstances where we need police and fire together or maybe we need the fire department and housing and community service. Depending on the situation, the ability to scale how we respond is really really important to us. And so we're looking at how can we centralize better um resource requests. So, not only public safety, but then how do all of our other um field entities and public facing services fit into our ecosystem so that we can not only um empower that cross collaboration in real time, but also to standardize and centralize the data for how the needs of our community are are communicated, how they're processed and deployed, and then what the outcome is. And we know that we have the ecosystem that can accommodate that. So, what's standing in our way right now? It's it's space. We've outgrown the space we're in. Um, and even our core needs of having a training lab that is allows someone to have hands-on training experience is limited. Um, we we we need to grow, but we don't have anywhere to put people. So, we're really doing the best we can with what we have, but we understand that if we want to continue elevating the level of service we provide, we have to make some changes systemically in order to be able to meet the needs of our community. Um, we also have some technological limitations that are lacking like operational continuity, agility, and scalability. And so we understand that we need to work toward a solution that allows us to adapt to every need and prescribe a resource. So, we're moving toward a model of what is we're calling it real-time operations. And that is really where um we want to be able to in theory bring a number of different functions of the city together perhaps in a shared facility where although everyone's mission is different, the technological platforms that we use could be shared. Um the ability for us to c cross cross collaborate is en enhanced and it also allows us to really um be able to leverage information in a way that helps to keep our community informed, served um a and is keeping us all accountable to each other. So, our short-term recommendations are to construct a real-time operation center. Um, and that is going to house a number of functions. Aurora 911 and Access Aurora, which will become three a formal 311 program, the real-time crime center for the police department, traffic operations, and a unified command facility that in phase two would be an emergency operations center um with the capacity to stand up a joint information system in the event of large-scale events. And then our second phase is to implement um an IT infrastructure resiliency plan which would just enhance the security, stability and continuity of all those technological platforms, how they're provided and how they're secured so that our operations are never interrupted due to a power glitch or a UPS failure and we've experienced those. So we want to avoid them. For the real-time operations center, this is still in the planning phase. So, we're at 119.7 million plus land acquisition. Um, and that was just the phase one. So, we're looking at 120,000 square feet. Um, and for each entity would have its space along with shared spaces and proper training facilities. And then the IT infrastructure resiliency plan um is still also being scoped out, but it's really about um being able to move things to the cloud, ensure that we have operational stability and continuity as I mentioned and making sure that all of our systems are always on and able to provide service to our field responders in the road and then um access to our community members. Go to Todd. Good evening everybody. My name is Todd Chamberlain. I'm the chief of police here with the city of Aurora. Uh I'm really looking forward to this opportunity to kind of educate and enlighten you on where we are as far as our logistics and our staffing and our facilities and what we hope to see in the future. I'm going to go back real quick again. Everybody knows what the mission is, what we do. Out of the 305,000 calls for service uh that Tina just mentioned. The Aurora Police Department handles approximately 255,000 of those calls for service. So again, a huge yoke of responsibility of making sure that we are supporting this community and making sure that this community is safe. Again, the way we are broken down is patrol divisions which actually are out on the road in the black and whites investigations which handle all aspects of investigations. Uh our detective personnel are our individuals that are loan to different uh task forces throughout the area. All of them focus under that. Our special operations focus on homelessness. They hope focus on homeland security. They focus on traffic enforcement, traffic response and strategic planning as well as our gangs. Our professional standards focuses on our recruitment, training, policy, and procedure. And then our business division, again, which has been completely uh civilianized, handles all records, property, vehicle impounds, fleet, and staffing. And then off of the chief's office is internal affairs, wellness, and public affairs. The map that you are looking at right now is a geographic map of how the city is broken up and how the city is supported by our departments and our facilities. Again, you can see D1 and D2 are incredibly close. If you look up to the north in Aurora Highlands, it's almost a vacant land where there is no actually law enforcement. Uh there's present, but there is no uh stations or any housing for any law enforcement up and around that area. And then D3, as you can all know and see, is at the very base of where we are at. As we look at this transforming of an organization and we look at the infrastructure to go with that, we are also going to look at how this map is set up. This map, the way the divisions are set up now is going to be completely erased. We are going to set the divisions up in an area where again they can respond to the activity, to the events, to the community in that area where there's an effective and a more dependent response time. And again, it's not going to be based so much on vertical, but it's going to be looking at the geographic areas and understanding how we can best serve those as we respond. Our crime right now, to give you an idea, again, our crime is down across the board. Our productivity is up in almost every single field. Our use of forces are down drastically. Um our uh contacts with our community are up. Our crime both in our property and our person's crime is down. Actually on our shooting calls right now on our fatalss and non-fatalss, we are at a 5-year low. Uh which is an absolute amazing thing. We have cut it in in half almost since last year. And we have cut it more from the prior year. So, we are at an all-time low as far as fatalss and non-fatals in the city of Aurora, which speaks volumes about where this department is and where they are going. What we are hoping for again where our staff is at again 748 to 122 civilian. I think you all know that. What we hope to do is increase that. Obviously, as time goes, we've talked about that in the past. Our construction and our facilities, again, what our constraints are, we have 14 different facilities. All of them are without question aging and old. Um, and again with the impact of the growth and the expectation of that growth in the city of Aurora, there definitely needs to be a modification. Right now, I will tell you again, and you guys all know this, it's nothing new to you, but when you look at public safety, it is the backbone of community stability. When you think of neighborhoods, are they perceived safe? The impact that can have. When you think of business, uh, again, does a business want to come to a city that's not considered safe or a city that is struggling? Absolutely not. Will house values be increased or decreased based upon the crime trends and based upon the issues faced in those communities? Reputation, it matters. Again, when we had TDA and they impacted an entire aspect of a community, that had a national impact on us and it also focused on what we were looked at as far as an organization. Community trust again is tied with our facilities and how we manage those facilities. Right now, um we are in an a aging stations. Uh almost all of our stations have been modified. Again, uh District 1 was actually built in 1950. It was refurbished in 2002. Um it was never meant to be a police station. It was modified to be a police station. District 2 was never meant to be a police station. It was modified to be a police station. It was once a bank. Uh it is not set up in any way to sustain it. District three um is not a standalone police station. It is a combination of multiple assets which include fire, um 911, and a library. It is not sustainable to keep that up in the way it is. Our headquarters again was once a jail. It was modified to become the police headquarters. All of these buildings and all these structures need to be reviewed and looked at. And again, whether we're doing it now or whether we're doing it in 25 years, that aspect is still an important component. When I talked about the mapping and what we hope to do, again, here's what I hope and what we look at. We're looking at recommendations for property and evidence, a new geographic division up in four, a consolidation of special operations, and then using that special operations space, which is going to be moved from one location to another to allow our resources to fill in those spots. We're also looking at modernization, a complete renovation of headquarters, and then different improvements will includes enhancements to lobby site improvement, security sites, and then changing rooms and innovations. what's going to be make a facility more conducive and more approachable by the community that we serve. The first things that we're looking at, again, this is kind of in an order that we would like to see it in, is a patrol district 4. That would be up in the northern area of Aurora. Uh, I'd like to bring things down to kind of a human level of how it would be impactful and important. Uh, about two weeks ago, we had an officer involved shooting that occurred up at the very north end of the division. It happened uh at the parking spot right next to the airport. Our officer put out a help call during that incident. He had to wrestle with a suspect for almost four minutes by himself. Um he was struggling for his weapon. He was struggling for his gun. He was struggling for his life. The first officers to arrive to that help call came seven minutes later and that was actually Denver police officers. And so again, the need to have a facility that's more focused on that community that's focused and supports the officers. It's not just a request. Uh it's actually a necessity whether it's now or 10 years. It is something that definitely has to be looked at and modified and embraced. So that's what we are hoping to do with this on district 4. That in turn would allow us to modify and change district 1, two, and three and have a better span of control and better response to where we are going. Another aspect that we want to focus on is our special operations. Again, that includes our canines, our SWAT, our detective personnel, some of our detective personnel, our gang units. And again, right now they are spread in multiple locations. Some of them are in district one up on the third floor. We have a facility that holds all their equipment and logistics, which is offsite up at the Gnome venue. So again, being able to consolidate, centralize all these specialized units in one location would have a huge impact on what we want to achieve and how we want to do it. I'm going to go back here because I want to see if I if I missed one real quickly. So, apologies. I think it might be coming up here soon. Headquarter. Let's see if it's property and evidence. Uh, one thing, it's not on this slide presentation, but it's property and evidence. That is one that we really definitely want to modify and change. Right now, we have five different facilities that hold all of our property over the years. Again, that evidence has to be held for the duration of court processes, and it also has to be held for case until destruction is is timely. Right now, those facilities, many of them are unsecured. They're unguarded. Uh we have cases and incidences of information that are in those locations that are imperative to not only past prosecutions, but also future prosecutions. Uh again, the opportunity, it's it's not fun. It's not something that's real dynamic. But if you have poor evidence management, that is the Achilles heel of many many law enforcement agencies. If you misplace DNA, if you misplace uh logistics, NY information related to other shootings and other incidents, it can be absolutely painful and incredibly costly to an organization that's involved in litigation. The modernization again for the headquarters, this is another process that we're looking at uh to change the actual the headquarters itself, which would be a complete tear down and change. The 15 and 25 year recommendations, it's focused again on all the facilities across the board. It's looking at um what we can do as far as modernization and changing of the capstick or our academy facility. Right now the academy is a joint training venture which you all know uh we are bursting at the seams. We have two academy classes that are there. The fire just started another academy class. U it is packed in there. Uh the academy the way we would like to see it in the future is to see a separation between fire and between PD to allow each entity to have their own academy. Uh, as far as cost effectiveness, our range is right now up at the Spring Hill Golf Course. We would like to consolidate our range on one facility, have it all internal so that our recruits, our cadetses, our in services can get everything they need without transporting back and forth at different locations and different changes. We would also like to see a modernization of our stations that are present, whether it's two and three, a complete uh modernization and one as well, being able to have a parking garage. And I think what would be really amazing is as we increase our staffing is being able to have an open lobby where community members can actually come in, have contact, they can get services done as opposed to possibly having to go over Aurora 911. So that's what we are looking at for the future. Um the 10-year recommendations, again, it's all pretty much the same thing. Uh real-time operations, construction of a multiple facility that would come together in collaboration with fire or be separate from fire. And these are the things that we hope to see. uh recommendations that we hope to put into place. With that, I think there's one more. I think that is it. I I kind of want to really spend just one more second. I know we're stressed on time, but that academy uh that that really is something to consider uh the value of it, the importance of it. Again, we are lucky to have this academy. We're lucky to have everything. We're lucky to be able to be in these positions where we can serve people, but how well we institute what we need as far as our training and our knowledge is really important. And right now thosemies they're they're not working out the best way they could. We really are stretched with space. The space as far as travel to and from uh the integration. I know it sounds good to have this harmonious relationship with fire and all these joint things, but there's two very different businesses. You have fire business and you have police business. And it is a very different occupation. It falls under the realm of public safety, but they are two different worlds. and the fire station, what they need, what we need for police are two different things. And so again, that goal of having those split up and that infrastructure changed is incredibly important. All of these things that I talked about, again, when you look at uh the platforms, again, they relate to the economy, development, housing, education, and really the public trust. And so, thank you very much for your time. And with that, I don't know, Laura, if you want to take it back or how do you want to work this? We'll kind of do questions from here and see what questions Joel has. questions. The one thing we will talk about overall is uh the question came up earlier. Uh this is information as we've told you before, we've really positioned ourselves with these master plan to now have meaningful conversations as part of the infrastructure task force. So as the infrastructure task force goes forward, we have uh defined needs, defined projects we can talk to the public about. Uh you all have at the ready. So as we look at putting questions on the ballot for our public to consider, you now have that list. And um as Laura said at the beginning, this is not resource constrained. We're not going to get this done with one bite at the apple. This is going to take um you know some years. And the other thing is uh if we were to go to the voters and get bonds, it's not going to be that's the sole source. We have impact fees as you heard on um you know um the animal shelter. So we're going to nest different funding sources whether it's impact fees, whether it's grants, whether it's uh you know the capital projects fund. We're going to bring different uh things into play to make sure we can fund those, but going to voters and getting some kind of uh bonds and to fund uh or start funding these projects is going to be critical. So, uh we're going to be doing this over the coming uh months um with not only the infrastructure task force, but with you all. We'll be presenting the needs of our first um multimodal transportation master plan. So, we can talk about roads, sidewalks, all those different pieces that go into our transportation system. So, we have a similar uh needs. We'll be taking that to the public, helping them understand what our needs are and then getting feedback from them as to what's important to them and then um what they're willing to vote for and and uh put put on a bond. So, that's where this is going to go forward in the coming months. Um and so, we'll keep you all apprised as we go through that infrastructure task force process and we'll do that. Uh the next one up we've got for infrastructure task force is the transportation master plan and pros and then we'll be coming later this fall with uh courts and then with all the other city facilities as well. So we'll be taking all those through but yeah we will be coming in with courts as well for that process. Question obviously a lot of as you mentioned if we were to go to the voters this is we're talking what was that 1.5 billion or something? So it it wouldn't be for everything. Um so in terms of how that's prioritized, you already have tier one, tier 2, tier three. Um so is that what if if voters um are open to something with would the tiers be presented? So we probably would focus on that 10-year tier for this one. So you notice we did that 10, 15, and 25 year. So if something's a 25 year, that's either from a criticality standpoint, it's we're not there yet, or from a priority standpoint. So, we'd probably be focusing on that 10-year window. So, those projects in that kind of immediate window, that's what we be focused on with voters for our our bond campaign. And then secondly, on on new growth because every time we do, you know, annex land in and have new development, the impact fees for um are there it's public safety, right? Is one is it? No, we have we have separate impact fees for we have separate impact fees for police and fire. Okay. So on those impact fees, are those enough to build a fire station? See, part of the problem with that is that it it is after you get full buildout of all 10,000 15,000 houses. So what you that's where we'd say we would nest these. So if we were to go to voters um we were part of a fire station along with the impact fees so that we can advance construction of that a little bit faster so we don't have to necessarily wait to collect all 20 plus million dollars to do it because when you're collecting it you know a$,064 at a time we have to build a lot of homes. Thank you, ma'am. I just have council member Lawson. So, Jason, you know, my comment to you about you guys came to all my town halls. I think this is how you should have did it. You should have just been straightforward about this is what the needs are and what they supported, but all that other stuff you guys did, I just we didn't want to get I told you by promise and what so we will eventually be getting to projects and project areas with this is what it should have been. Okay. Like straight up this is what we need. this is this and then hey voters would you vote for something like this because of these but you guys did all that fluff okay and I'm saying that to me it was and that's my opinion um it just didn't make sense okay further questions comments okay seeing none uh um thank you so that's public that's information only correct okay um number 5A amendments to the city charter concerning nonsubstantive updates to create gender neutrality. Who's going to take that one? Okay. Yep. Mayor, council, city attorney, and Jason, manager. So, the next six items on the study system agenda, Jason and I had heard from a lot of you of ideas that you may have wanted uh to put forward to the voters this coming November. So, we decided to do is this is the time to do it. Let's just get them out there and see what you guys thoughts are on them. You could go forward on all six of them. Half of them, none of them is what we want to do. So, quickly, I'm going to go through because we only got 18 minutes. Uh, the first one is to redo what we did back in 2023 to but to take a different approach. I'm cleaning up the charter to take away the use of the male pronouns. And so, what we did, as you'll see in your backup, uh, my staff took the 20 pages to actually go through the charter and identify each section where we would actually change the language to make it general neutral. Um and the question would be at the end so people if they had questions about it they could go pull up what what the ordinance is and see exactly what would be changed. So the question is so those articles or several of them uh be hereby be amended to replace gender specific language with general neutral terms and promote clarity equality and consistency without changing the meeting or intent of any charter provision. Uh is there any objection? Seeing none then that's the direction. But didn't we try that before? We did but it was we're doing a different approach this time. We're actually instead of having the codifier do it themselves, we did it in advance with a with a with a uh an ordinance section that said as city attorney if we see something that we can do that through ordinance. I can Yeah, we can do that to fix it if that happens. Okay. Yeah, the language was okay. Yeah, a little item number 5B. Item number 5B, amendments to the city charter concerning filling city council vacancies based on the timing of the vacancy. Um so I guess this is one where I think um under the current charter um Pete can kind of walk you through that. This would be looking at that um when we have those vacancies. So Pete, you want to kind of walk us through what the currently says? What what it would do would amend section article 3.7 of the charter um would say in the case of the vacancy which occurs one calendar year or less but more than 90 days before the next regular election for that seat. The remaining council members shall appoint by majority vote no no later than 45 days after such vacancy occurs a duly qualified person to fill such vacancy. All right. So kind of how we do it now if it's uh again if it's less than a year but more than 90 days you guys appoint as you normally would do. In the case of a vacancy which occurs 90 days or less for the next regular municipal election for that seat the vacancy will remain until filled by the election. So in other words, you it'll be open for 90 days or less until the election takes place. Um in the case of a vacancy which occurs more than one year before the next regular election for the seat, the vacuum will be filled by a special municipal election or at the next regular municipal election, whichever comes first if applicable timing requirements can be met. Of course, people signing up to run and so forth. um any person electing a special municipal election or regular mal election uh for that seat will serve only until the next regular election of uh of council and um and if no candidates on the ballot fill the vacancy council may appoint a duly qualified person for up to two years. So what it does is again it it puts in a uh depending on the timing of the vacancy which again probably would go into political decisions on when council members would step down whether or not council would have the right to appoint. Okay. Uh questions. Council Kums, did you have a question? Just more of a general I know that there were a lot of questions from members of the public last time about the items and so I guess regardless of what we do on these, if we can just make sure that there's really clear information um for the voters because they I heard a lot of complaints that there was not clear information. So we wanted to do is we made sure that the ordinances were really clear right on what exactly these would do but again as you know once they get referred to the ballot we can't spend we can put the information on the website do everything we can but we can't use city funds to advertise as you know one of the reasons I think Pete wanted to bring these in because they're charter changes there's some timing limits in ter since I think you have to put them on the ballot uh there needs the ordinance needs to be effective putting them on the ballot to go to voters so uh part of that is I think if we get through this tonight or we don't um in the backup that puts the the this question before you, we can also maybe do some of those examples. So, if you all have some examples about how this would help, we can do that in the backup to make maybe provide that clarity. But, as Pete said, once it goes on the ballot, we're somewhat limited. But, as part of that public discussion, if there's examples you all have, we're happy to kind of do that to maybe have a little more um wholesome, you know, kind of backup in terms of that just so that it's not just the ordinance. We can do some examples maybe in the commentary or things like that if that if you think that would be helpful. All right. Is there any objection to moving 5B forward? Seeing none, item 5B will move forward. Item number 5C amendment to the city charter concerning residency requirement for the city manager. As you guys all know that the only uh the only uh council appointee that has to live on the city in the city currently under the charter uh is a city manager. Um the thought has been from several council members is that that may be an archaic provision because now we have the internet, we have email, we have other things where the city manager could live close by. But that would be a decision for council to make upon making the uh the appointment versus having it a requirement in the charter. Uh so that's what it does. Just ask the voters shall article 71 of the city charter uh be amended to eliminate the requirement that city manager arrive in the city limits. And I will state there are is a Supreme Court case out of Denver that talks about residency requirements. Um I you know I don't know what would happen if if it was challenged but there is precedence out there because I think Denver required at the time all of their employees live in the city. All police and fire or all it was all police I think it was most I think it was was all of them right. Yeah. And that got struck down as unconstitutional. So um yes ma'am. You still got to live in the state of Colorado. Okay. You have to be a newly elected voter. Are there any questions? Uh seeing none, is there any objection to move 5C forward? 5C will move forward. Our number 5D, amendment to the city charter concerning elective public office. So uh what this does is it amends article 3.3 of the city charter to remove the prohibition on city- elected officials simultaneously holding another elected public office, thereby allowing voters to determine whether a candidate or office holder may serve in more than one elected position. Now, let me be clear. This is going to be two part-time positions, right? A full-time position would potentially if you you're a council member, let's say you're the mayor and you want to run for county commissioner, you couldn't do that because of the constitution. Article 7 section 2 calls personal attention required. No person shall hold any office or employment of trust or profit under the laws of the state or any ordinance of any municipality therein without devoting his personal attention to the duties of the same. So, there would be an argument that this would only apply to a a council member who's part-time can apply for or can run for another part-time office, not a full-time office because it could run there's no case law that I found on it, but it could run a foul of the Chrono Constitution, but that's what allowed to do. Question. I don't I don't love the people being serving in the legislature and council or legislature and school board of that. That would be the main that would be the main position. Are there are there any question further questions? They can't uh further discussion if we change this rule. Um is there any objection to move? They allow it. There's people that were on So charter allows for it. Um ours has not and there's it's m I mean not many cities allow it but it's uh you know that that's kind of where the idea came from to see if you all wanted to change put it to the voters uh for the charters because of what Cassrock does. So again it it you know you guys are just putting it on the ballot, right? You can obviously make your opinions known by this discussion when we go especially when it goes to the regular council meeting, but you know this is whether or not the voters have an appetite for it. Yeah, I think Boulder also allows it and then multiple school boards. Is there any objection to moving 5D forward? Seeing none, 5D will move forward. 5e amendment to the city charter establishing the salaries of the mayor and the city council. So, this is one that I I have always in my history of working with municipalities, it's hard to put a hard fast number in the charter because it's such a it's such a hard thing to change, right? And so, I know the salary for the mayor and for uh the council members has not been updated in a while. It it's been we we've gone back a couple times to voters and Pete's exactly right. You then hardkey a number. It's every year you get the lesser of inflation or what employees get. So I will tell you that that kind of operates as a ratchet down. So then over time we find that we're not keeping up. And so then you know my 17 years I think we've gone to voters once or twice to adjust that. And as Pete's right we're always finding ourselves trying to pick a number that that that does it and it it just puts you all in an odd spot. And so our idea was is let's take it out of your hands. Let's put what the state legislature does on a county commissioner salary for the main county would be Arapjo County right where we live and make that the benchmark. So whatever an Arapjo County commissioner makes that would be the mayor's salary and as council members as part-time officers it would be half that. You guys would never vote on a salary increase. It would never be waiting until the end of the next term. It would always be uh whether or not uh the the state legislature raises the county commissioner salary. And so don't you uh I don't know this is maybe this is federal but I think that they you can't increase your pay. Well I don't know this is going to the that's a lawm you guys would not because you would not be increasing your own salary. This would be in the charter. So if the salary of the Arapo County commissioner went up we would then in the next as the charter would read or the provision would say that we would raise the salary accordingly for the mayor and for the city council. Again, you would never be voting if this passed. If you put this on the ballot, you would never be voting on your own pay raises. It would be benchmarked based on the state legislature and based on the county commissioners. Okay. And it would be the people voting to make the change. Correct. To begin with. Okay. Is there are there are there any questions? Council member budget considerations and deficit had nothing to do with it. We would just it would automatically happen. I I just feel like Yeah, I hear that. Further questions? This is kind of dicey, Jason. It is. I mean, so obviously there this would be an increase of where you're at now. I think we could we could if you want to delay the implementation past, you know, for a year or whatever if you wanted to like if I Yes, that's not the last charter change. Just I'm out. Okay, let's let's stay on. It's up to you all, but yeah, it's a question of it would be voters approving that. And again, you guys would have again this would you would have no input except if you wanted to lobby your residents without using city funds later. Yeah. My my question is does this have any impact? We voted on a resolution specifically for council members on it. Would a council member still have the ability to uh defer a portion of their salary? Yes. A portion of their salary. Sure. Okay. Absolutely. If you guys said that you didn't want it would stay in the general fun. I just want to make sure that that Okay. Yeah, for sure. That wouldn't change that. It was again it would just be it would just be a again it would be an automatic increase where you all as council members wouldn't be voting on your own increases because you can do a question that that a council member can we could again put that in the information on like you can put it in the commentary look at that legally because I I think that um well again federal side but but you uh you can't simply say on the federal side you can't simply say I'm not going to take my salary you have to take it and then you can contribute wherever you want to contribute it, but you're going to pay taxes. Can we double check that, Ben? I really would like to know this information. We amend our city. Our city code says we can. Okay. So, I just wanted I just wanted to make sure. Yeah. Whole rule. I just wanted to make sure. Okay. Is there is there any objection to moving u uh item um 5e forward? Mayor objects. Is there any other objection? Okay. very well. Han 5 will move forward. He would get he would get a handsome increase in salary if that passed. You and your husband can live in my basement. All right, we're moving quickly. Five, right, mayor? Five. A proposed amendment to article 3-5 of the city charter clarifying that the ward and at large positions are separate offices like the mayor regarding term limits. So there are cities like for example Arvvada that considers their ATL large and their ward district uh council members as separate offices that don't apply to term limits. So somebody who served I'll use the ward example somebody's been in a ward seat for 12 years and they want to run for an at large or mayor they could without taking four years off. Um and that just would and again if if the citizens said yes then we would know that they are okay with that. If the citizens said no, then they would say nope. At large and ward council members are are the same and that would help us understand moving forward that that's what the voters think. Currently the I'm sorry the currently the charter does make a distinction between council and the mayor. So for term limits that distinction does exist. There is no the charter is silent to ward versus at large. And so it doesn't doesn't at the state level. I mean, for the legislature, uh, your clock starts, if you're in the state house and you move to the state senate, your clock starts ticking all over again for the 8year term limit. So, I was really surpris I was kind of really surprised when I learned here that it's that that the ward and the at large is considered one. Uh, which I thought was pretty and the ballot and the ballot question makes sense. So, should article 3.5 of the city charter be amended to consider at large council members and ward specific council members, separate offices like the office of the mayor because that's how it is in in in the charter. Now, for purposes of the term limits established by this section of the charter, council member, I guess the only question I have about that is that means you can serve for 36 years theoretically as a council member and mayor. So, if we're going to do that, do we want to reduce the terms to two? It's 12 1212. No, you can serve for 12 years in that. I would say if the voters if the voters did that for you, I guess that again that would be leaving it up to the voters if they wanted to do it. You're an ATL large member and then you're a board member and then you become the mayor. She's saying technically you can run. Well, but let me tell you that everywhere in the everywhere else in the state of Colorado that I'm aware of that it that that each office is considered separately when it comes to you have a term limit for that specific office. It is in my view it is a different office at large is a different office from representing a ward but also everywhere else it's eight years instead of 12. So can we also add in there reducing the total term limit for each seat to eight years. I don't know that would be my proposal. I mean you could it's will the body if you guys want to do that we can or we could do it as we can just this is not messing with the the term limits the terms this is just making the distinction so it's clear that you know if the voters decide that the atlarge and more council seats are separate offices because currently you can do that you just have to take a four-year break correct so you it's just eliminating the break correct okay so again you you run for the state house you run for the state senate which I did that you know that clock starts taking over. It's eight years for each. You have to run. Yeah, that's further questions or comments. Is there any objection to moving item number 5 F forward? Item number five will move forward. Hearing none, I guess. Yeah. Cool. Oh, I'm sorry, Council Member. Okay, object. Okay. You think 36 years is is appropriate? Knocking doors. Yeah. Okay. Uh study session is adjourned. We will reconvene on the floor at 6:45. [Music] [Music] I don't know.