[Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] me back foreign foreign [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] of the many of the Aurora city council for Monday December 19th um 2022 is called the order where the clerk please call the roll here Pro Tim Gardner here council member drinsky here councilmember Lawson here councilmember Marcano councilmember Medina here council member Mario present councilmember Sundberg here and council member savonik here there's a quorum announcement for the public call in line the council welcomed feedback from the public on both matters appearing on the agenda and during public invited to be heard if you would like to speak and have not already spoken to an operator please press star 3 for those watching on Channel 8 call 855-695-3475 and press star 3 when connected you will hear a prompt confirming you're online to speak to an operator and then be able to continue listening to the meeting when the operator comes on the line please be ready to give them your name and the agenda item you wish to speak on keep in mind you must press star 3 before the city clerk reads the title of the item you wish to speak on finally as a reminder Council does not allow comments about any items on the agenda during public invited to be heard each speaker is allowed three minutes and public invited to be heard is limited to one hour in total gracias please join me in an invocation O Lord Our God and our father we come to you and we ask that you would look upon this particular gathering tonight to keep us safe and guide us in our decisions unite our community together even though we come from different backgrounds we pray that there will be Justice and peace in our city give the city council and citizens the wisdom Direction and sensitivity to the business and proceedings before us tonight hear us therefore as we commit this meeting to the help of the community amen please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible between justice for all executive session update uh in executive session we discuss two mineral lease negotiations I just kind of like to read the land acknowledgment the Aurora city the city of Aurora acknowledges That We Gather on the territories and ancestral homelands of the Cheyenne uterapo and Lakota people's past and present we also recognize the 48 contemporary tribal Nations that are historically tied to the lands that made up the state of Colorado indigenous peoples have remained committed to the stewardship of this land over many centuries as these words of acknowledgment are spoken and heard the ties that these nations have to their traditional homelands and to their vital place in the ecosystem are renewed and reaffirmed and we are called upon to better be better stewards of the land we inhabit as we continue to work to meet the needs of our entire community approval of the minutes November 28 2022 motion to approve the minutes it's moved by councilmember Sunburn seconded by Birkin second my council member Bergen to approve the minutes of November 28 2022 discussion I've seen none I call for the question mayor Kaufman yes yes yes the motion passes to adopt the November 28 2022 meeting minutes the motion is in order for the approval of the minister December 5th 2022. council member Morgan uh moved to approve the minutes from December 5th moved by councilmember bargain seconded by councilmember Coons to approve the minutes of December 5th 2022 discussion I see none call for the question mayor Kaufman yes councilmember sunberg the motion passes to adopt the December 5th 2022 meeting minutes I'm Number 7A Animal Services animal showcase okay we have a special treat tonight hi everyone you may have seen this is Bubbles he is a dog at the care of the Aurora animal shelter this little guy came into us because of a tip to our animal protection officers so we got a tip that there was a dog who was maybe not in the best care and asked for us to come out and take a peek so when we showed up we found that he was a bit skinny and he was limping on one of his legs after talking to the family they admitted that they weren't going to be able to provide him the right care or veterinary care and let us shelter to do so and find him a home that could give to him the care he needed throughout his lifetime this sweet boy got that little leg amputated so he could live a pain-free lifestyle we saw after some x-rays that it was already something that he wasn't using Mobility wise so we wanted to make sure that it was gone and he didn't have to worry about it anymore we are working on putting on his weight hello he has lived in a home with dogs cats and young kids as you can see he's very friendly and sociable so we're just looking for a home that is willing to continue his care give him a happy tripod lifestyle and live out the rest of his days do you accept trade-ins goodbye goodbye mookie you're done oh no okay oh thank you very much I hope this talk is adopted very soon uh public invited to be here take her in the audience Robbie DeYoung greetings good evening hello howdy um my name is Robbie DeYoung I am the organizer for stolen and vandalized vehicles in Colorado on next door we now have over 1340 members and that's increasing unfortunately every day I have multiple things to bring up I'm going to try and be as quick as I can I need the council to at some point address what is going to happen with the impound lot fees that there are people that have had their car stolen having to deal with there's one woman that I just talked to the other day her car was stolen it is at the Aurora impound lot but the Glenwood Police Department is investigating it and until they get through investigating it she has to continue paying impound lot fees that's not fair that's not fair at all uh I need to find out what is going on with the speeding detection devices that we were going to have on the streets the license plate right readers on the streets um what the new police chief is going interim police chief is going to be doing about the Kia boys hit and run and push and grab um Tick Tock challenges unbelievable I'd also like to know what uh the city if the city is planning on working with uh c-a-p-t-a to get cat catalytic converter engravers free to the public but here's the big one this box this little box can save somebody's life it is very very important that this become available to everyone in the city of Aurora free right now in order to get this you either have to have your insurance pay for it or you have to pay upwards of eighty dollars this is called Narcan if somebody is on the street and you see them and they are having an overdose this will take care of it States like Ohio Delaware and Iowa all have this free to their citizens cities like Philadelphia and Chicago have this free to their citizens this is a life-based life-saving device one of the reasons why I'm bringing it up because of what I do with stolen and vandalized Vehicles often these vehicles are returned to their owners with narcotics in the car if they come in contact with that and they end up having an overdose because the paraphernalia that's found in stolen vehicles is not removed they will need this so this is not just for when you see somebody on the street but this is for everyone I thank you for your time and Merry Christmas everyone and then we do have an individual on the public call-in line almonds go ahead you have three minutes bye everybody before I get started let me just say happy holidays whether that be merry Christmas happy Hanukkah or just a Festivus for the rest of us now uh I'm kind of busy that's why I'm not there today yesterday I saved some old lady's life walking around on the street and a couple days from now I got a mission to help Santa with these last minute Christmas gifts so I'm kind of occupied but don't worry I left Aurora's gift last week there's at least one member of your Council that already knows what I'm talking about and there's a couple more that are going to find out but uh aside from that the people that didn't find out the wake up Christmas morning with that lump of coal in your stocking I need to remind you of something whether you're in the schoolyard or on the council when you're a bully you're on the naughty list so just remember that when you're making decisions later tonight because I know you got an important one we'll talk about that later until then take care that was the last person um councilman McConnell thank you sir um could we have to have the city manager provide an update in response to Miss Young's comments about how folks can get reimbursed if they've been victimized by motor vehicle thieves in the city of Roar certainly so uh Council provided uh funding of a million dollars to offset those storage costs and so we are in process of implementing that program that funding is in 2023 so we will be implementing a program to help victims of Motor Vehicle with both the Towing and storage costs and details of that program will be coming forward shortly and we'll make them available to council thank you motion is an order for the adoption of the agenda so moved uh been moved by councilmember McConnell seconded by Coombs councilmember combs for the adoption of the agenda discussion uh seeing no uh discussion call for the question on the adoption of the agenda mayor Kaufman um councilmember Marcano I thought I voted yes okay council member Stenberg the motion passes to adopt the agenda adoption I mean a motion is in order for the adoption of the consent calendar item number 10A through 10j uh councilman Bergen um motion to approve 10A through 10j should move by councilmember bargain second by e mayor second second by council member Lawson to approve the consent calendar item number 10A through 10j discussion seeing no discussion called for the question on the adoption of the consent Council remember Jess councilmember sendberg the motion passes to adopt the consent calendar now please read the title to item number 11a item 11a is resolution 2022-236 a resolution of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado setting forth its desire to pursue a result that would move the hiring process of Aurora fire rescue and Aurora Police basic entry-level employees to the human resources department in coordination with Aurora fire rescue and Aurora Police by directing the city manager to work cooperatively with the Aurora Civil Service Commission to amend the commission's rules and regulations council member savonik thank you mayor I'll just do a quick introduction and I'll hand it over to staff so the this resolution directs the city manager to work collaboratively with the Civil Service Commission to intentionally work toward sufficient compliance within the consent decree specifically the requirements that Aurora HR along with both Aurora fire and rescue and the police department have a more active role in the hiring of Basics and that the Departments have a final say on who was hired as a part of the the basic process and so this resolution again doesn't prescribe an outcome but does direct the city manager to work collaboratively with the commission to come up with that outcome because if we don't when we get to a point to where I believe it's in may we have we come to a deadline there's an opera chance that we could be compelled by a district court judge to do just that so my hope is to get ahead of it and come up with a process that works for our departments and with that hand it over to staff uh thank you council member zavonik um as council members of Onyx stated that ladies and gentlemen Pete Schulte sorry Public Safety client manager city attorney's office uh the consent decree gave us a period of what's 455 days from the date that the contract was signed with the consent decree monitoring team which was February 15th of this year so that's a year and three months so council members of honest correct that gives us a deadline until May 15th of 2023 to complete the changes that are dictated in the consent decree the two requirements in the consent decree require that first that both of Aurora Police or fire rescue both have a much more active role in the hiring and the other item or element of the cassette degree was that they have the final say in hiring of which candidates are actually hired by those departments this resolution just as council members of Monica said it doesn't prescribe the manner and means to get to those two results it just says that that is where it's headed and how we get there is is the updates that will be provided by us to you all uh in every 60 days to Council in full and every month to Public Safety and the only thing that we added I know that we talked about at the last study session was as far as the fiscal impact is concerned as decisions are made by the Civil Service Commission because as we told them in their meetings they're the only ones that can change their rules so when that happens and there are updates on the fiscal note we'll bring it to the public safety and bring it to council members of Onyx so we can update the entire Council on our progress but again this is just to kick start it make sure we're all this is one of the major elements of the consent decree and if we fail and the Attorney General's office doesn't think that we're going to accomplish it they could there's a dispute resolution procedure in the consent decree where we could end up in a district court as Scottish numbers stated in a district court could prescribe to us what the Civil Service Commission rules could be so as with everything it'd be better for us to get it done our way well questions to staff uh councilmember bargain yes and I from our study session last week I believe the Civil Service the chair of the Civil Service Commission was on and and stated that some of these things were already in place so it sounded as though they also understood the importance of of meeting that deadline yes ma'am and I think one of the things to talk about with the rule changes what what they did with the rule change which is a great start I'm not saying that I mean for us to be able we finally had a hiring Port report that was put out by the consent degree monitoring team which kind of gave us another Avenue to change our rules to get to the final result but what they did is they ended up taking away a lot of the mandatory disqualifiers for fire candidates and police candidates which in essence still gives a Civil Service Commission a lot more files to review really didn't make the Departments have a more active role or give the Departments the final say but it's great it was very collaborative we thought that was great and so this will continue that process okay thank you further questions the staff mayor uh councilmember Gardner thank you so I'm confused because all I've heard all along is that this resolution doesn't really prescribe anything all that it does is direct the city manager to work with the Civil Service Commission in the HR department to come into compliance with the consent decree so how can we say that on one hand but then on the other hand say that the changes that the Civil Service Commission has started making don't match with this resolution that there seems to be a disconnect there councilman Savannah because the resolution is focused on the two requirements in the consent decree the two requirements and consent decree are that HR and the Departments will have a greater involvement in the determination of who is hired and the final say the the changes that Civil Service Commission has made as a result of the hiring report that was put out by the consent decree monitor were needed changes but not geared towards those so again I'm not suggesting that they're not going into this with uh with good faith toward this outcome I'm happy that they're doing it it seems like the conversation that we had now maybe a month ago at study session has has kick-started it but the changes that they made as a result of the the presentation from the consent decree monitor are not geared towards the two requirements of the consent decree which is what this resolution is ultimately directing them to get to further discussion mayor councilmember McCombs um so I guess for me the question is really just isn't this what we were already going to do anyway and isn't it kind of a foregone conclusion um but because of that because it doesn't change what we were already going to do anyway I certainly don't oppose it further questions mayor just a question yeah so the the answer to that wasn't this is again for if you listen to the um the presentation from the consent decree monitor it wasn't happening um and that's why I decided to bring forward the resolution was that while May seems like it's far down the road we have the the consent decree is not a um we should consider this it's a we have to do this and this is something for when we're looking at how do we lift our departments from underneath the consent decree we should look at every opportunity to reach sufficient compliance and this seemed like very low hanging fruit but it wasn't happening now again I'm happy to hear that the Civil Service Commission has come around and started making these changes but to be very clear they weren't and they were very resistant prior to this I'm happy that things have gotten better and improved and I expect that will continue to go forward it seems as though they've had their tune has changed which is which is good news but that's why I brought the resolution forward is to make sure this happens and to make sure that they're reporting back to us on a regular basis to ensure that we don't get to May and say oh no why haven't we done this and so we'll have those regular updates over the next uh 30 and 60 days further questions or comments mayor uh councilman McConnell thank you sir I just feel the need to clarify something that was just said um the things that we're discussing here and they're in this resolution were happening because the Civil Service Commission has been working in good faith with the consent decree Monitor and our Representatives uh on staff that have been working with them as well so I I support the direction that this is all moving in but it wasn't because of this resolution because ultimately they don't have to do what council tells them to do we don't have any authority over the Soil Service Commission in that in this direct sense we can pass a resolution saying that we want you know we would like to see you do this and that's great but ultimately what's actually making this happen is the Commissioners doing their job working with the consent decree monitor to ensure that we don't all end up being penalized with the city it doesn't end up being finalized for coming out of compliance so I have full confidence that the consent decree Monitor and the commission owners understand the responsibility before them and then we'll reach substantial compliance on this issue I support the direction of this resolution but I don't think the resolution had anything to do with that I think that has to do with the folks who are appointed on this body understanding the test before them and moving in that direction further uh discussion and our questions reports is the adoption of item number 11b I'm sorry a number 11 a call for the question I don't believe we got a motion in a second oh I'm sorry um uh any further discussion I see none call for the question on the adoption of 11a motion passes click now please read the title number 11b item 11b is resolution 2022 237 a resolution of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado to modify the Rules of Order and procedure for the Aurora Colorado city council regarding the start time for regular City Council meetings and mayor we do have a few individuals from the public that would like to speak very well proceed please okay Linda cervey okay thank you Merit Council for allowing us to speak on this issue today I think that one of the things we should consider about this time change is how sprawling the city of Aurora is and how many people work within the metro area as opposed to just within the confines of a certain area of the city to move this earlier is really putting participation out of the hands of many people who might like to come here and speak to you in person I personally am retired I am a resident and I've been here for 28 years one of the problems that I had just getting here tonight had to do with the traffic and I live near Utah Park it's not that far for me to come but I sat through four different traffic lights two times just because of the traffic and this is getting to be even more serious problems so having our City Council meetings earlier is causing a lot of people who do a traditional nine to five eight to five job to have a hardship in order to be able to be here and since we're also considering some other things like the phone in participation that's even more difficult so I would urge you to vote no on this thank you and then we do have a few individuals on the public call online at go ahead you have three minutes hi this is Pat um I'm calling tonight to talk about changing the start time at the council meetings to 6 p.m instead of 6 30. I was uh Curious I was wondering if any of the council members have had an opportunity to ask their constituents if they would approve of an earlier start time since uh citizens are no longer permitted to testify before council at the end of the meeting it makes it almost impossible for many people to sign up to speak at 6 pm you would think council members would try to make it easier to testify before the council not harder thank you for your time Arnie go ahead you have three minutes Mayors council members I think this is a fascist move on your part trying to cut off participation by residents of the city who you don't like to listen to to begin with I've been involved in City Council meetings for over 40 years every year the meetings have started at 6 30. never have they started earlier never have they started later and you said that you made reference in the uh back up to the minutes of the study session of November 21st 2022 however there aren't any study sessions minutes of how the hell can we know what's going on unless we were watching the study session and I'm Kerry having wife who's dying and I didn't have time to watch a study session this is taking away our freedom to address the city council the Gettysburg Address states that the government of the People by the people for the people said no perish from the earth and if you are overturning our democracy shame on you that was all and I don't think sorry Arnie I didn't mean to cut you off I was speaking um council member Gardner mayor Pro tem Gardner no mayor for Tim Garner thank you um so yeah this is a simple change to the meeting time from 6 30 to 6 and um you know I want to address several of the comments first of all um you know I think it's actually um rather disappointing that we have people in the public that assume um eight to five job is the only job times that exist what about the thousands and thousands of our residents that work nighttime jobs work service jobs they can't come here at all they work at night so maybe we should move the council meetings to 9 A.M in the morning I say that somewhat rhetorically but um you know we cannot focus our meeting times on when only one subset of our City Works that being said we have a staff a professional staff that works all day in most cases seven eight nine o'clock this building's filled by then um and and they're here all day they're here sometimes till 11 12 1 o'clock in the morning and then as we heard in our study session last week many times they have to be back at work at eight o'clock the next morning and you know I think this is a way to respect their time we're talking a change of 30 minutes and to call that fascism is is frankly absurd when uh you know Aurora has a longer public comment period than most any other city in Colorado we allow unlimited public comment on any item on our agenda not to mention the fact that this diocese in front of council at a public invited be heard is not the only way to address this Council we all meet regularly with constituents we all can take emails we and have a variety of we all have phone numbers I assume all my colleagues have have cell phones we all have a variety of other ways that we can be communicated with so to say that this is fascism and to quote the Declaration of Independence is is just is is absurd when we're talking about a 30-minute change in the meeting time but again I think this is respectful of our staff and the amount of time that they put into this job especially on nights are on weeks where there is a a nighttime council meeting so with that I'd ask for my colleague support uh questions of the sponsor or questions to staff mayor uh councilman McConnell thank you sir uh and thank you councilman pretend Gardner for your explanation there um and I'm 100 with you in terms of respecting our staff time um and I'm wondering on that same vein have you considered working with management to craft a comp time policy as opposed to moving our meetings even earlier in the day because I do have constituents who for whom this will be a burden not to mention this is a part-time job some of us have the privilege of putting full time into it but this may interfere with some of our current colleagues schedules and future um folks who want to run and serve their Community as well so I'm just wondering if you had taken some of that into consideration so several a lot of our staff members don't necessarily have the opportunity to come in later they have public facing jobs and their job is to serve the public and so they can't necessarily come in just come in later because we were late on a council meeting um and you know to your point about um the impact that this has on uh people it also has impact the next day on the back end when we're here till 11 12 1 o'clock at night for our colleagues that work but also for the the members of the public that wish to comment there's been several times where we are dealing with a multi-million dollar water transaction a highly controversial development issue at 11 30 or 12 o'clock at night and we are saying to our residents if you want to address us on this topic here's your opportunity to do it and I don't think that's respectful of our residents as well and so I think this is a reasonable way to um this along with item 11c a reasonable way to respect our staff provide a more convenient time for the public to comment on high profile issues and the issues that they want to comment on for other questions those staff for the apple or the I'm sorry yes sponsor of Staff councilmember yeah I just want to know if there's possibly any way to find middle ground on this is there any way on the agenda to maybe put public invited to be heard after the consent calendar and and maybe maybe find middle ground for for everybody here is that I don't know City attorney or if anybody can answers there's just any is there any possible way that we can maybe meet in the middle here further discussion well can I have an answer you know what you're you're asking staff to decide a policy that we have to decide I'm not clear on what you're trying she's asking for legal advice legal advisor of course that can be done uh City attorney go ahead and apply on something this simple obviously that can be done and your next agenda item will be addressing that very issue mayor councilman comes uh point of order regarding decorum um you know I think it's not Fair appropriate to insult someone for asking a question and I think it's a good question and I would support that proposal if that's on the table further discussion mayor councilmember bargain uh yeah I I actually like the idea because the idea is to still start at six o'clock but yet move public invited a little bit later in the agenda which would then maybe time it to be more like 6 30 6 45 for the public to be able to get here if they're working so I think it's a really good proposal I I know we can make those changes in our rules so I don't know if this could be delayed and then we can do that or if we can do it tonight well question City attorney can't this amend um The Proposal can't just be done as an amendment so again the amendment that you're talking about is the next agenda item rather than the time so you're looking at changing the consent agenda calendar and reorganizing the items in the very next agenda item that you're going to talk about that's a more appropriate place to do it than this agenda very well before the discussion mayor councilmember Gardner yeah I god um I mean remember Jim Gardner I'm I'm supportive of of what councilmember madrinsky mentioned um and and would consider that a friendly Amendment but I agree with the city attorney I think that's more appropriate item 11c um you know changing the time of the public invited to be heard to make it later on in the meeting to accommodate some of the concerns so I I would be okay with that as a friendly Amendment on item 11c further discussion mayor councilman McCombs um so I do see the value in that and in council member jerinsky trying to find Middle Ground I guess my only concern is then when we're condensing so much into the consent agenda if someone does want to pull something off of that consent agenda to comment then that makes it hard for them to do that if we move it to after the consent agenda so I still have some heartburn about starting at six you know some days like today I can get here without difficulty at all and then sometimes I'm coming from North Glenn in a lot of traffic and it is and I've had to run down these stairs to announce that I'm present during roll call so for me it still it's concerning to me with respect to my work schedule and if I'm having that experience I know that we have constituents that are having that experience and some of my constituents did reach out and say that they do not support moving this earlier so I think because their reasons were about people having the opportunity to comment and this would mean that they then just wouldn't have the opportunity to comment on the consent agenda potentially which is going to be the majority of the agenda under 11c which I support um I I think I still can't support this further discussion on item number 11b mayor councilmember Gardner um conversely I conversely I've had constituents reach out and say they don't appreciate the fact that they're having to comment on development issues that impact them at 11 30 or 12 o'clock at night and so you know we all have constituents and it's a city of 400 000 people and I don't think we should make decisions based upon three public comments I'm standing corrector mayor for Chandler Gardner further discussion mayor uh councilmember councilmember Lawson no problem so um no problem what the issue you should have is that I know that more of a agenda a comment period than other cities but even then I still think that we're really taking away people's voices we we've eliminated the public invited to be heard on any issue we've condensed that now we're trying to get rid of the you know the 630 which is going to hinder people to get here and then we may be getting rid of the call in line so I'm talk where when when are people I understand you're talking about your constituents I we all have constituents but when are people actually going to be able to talk maybe some people don't want to talk by email or by call us maybe they want to get in front of the public not only to address us as a council but to also let the public know what's going on in the community so I you know again I work as well you know it's hard you're to me you're kind of tying future councils hands as well who may want to run for office because they have a 6 30 time frame people yeah I understand there's more people that work from night jobs but there's a lot of people who work from eight to five five thirty sometimes they can't even get here so I I won't be supporting this six o'clock time frame I think that we should keep it at 6 30. we've already done enough in in kind of removing public invited to be heard and so I won't be supporting it further discussion on 11b uh um I'm sorry sorry councilwoman Burger um I guess to council member or to Mayor Pro Tim Gardner um is there any way to table this just to get a little bit more input from constituents I mean I I'm in favor of The Mending it but I guess to the other earlier Point um if it if it causes people to have to wait longer after someone pulls something from the consent calendar um it's almost like I'd rather have 11 CB before 11b to make my decision uh member Jim Gardner that's fine we can continue it this is an absurd conversation at this point we're talking about 30 minutes that's fine further discussion so are we tabling it sounds like a motion to continue you have to you have to make a motion to do that if you want to do that mayor mayor um councilman Bergen motion to table this to the next meeting to move by councilmember Bergen to table to the next regular meeting of the Aurora city council uh is there a second second so and been talking about councilmember McCombs discussion uh on the on the Bergen Amendment to the Gardner proposal I see none I call for the question on the the burger Amendment Bergen amendment to table to the next regular meeting table item 11b to the next regular meeting mayor mayor votes yes the motion passes with nine yes votes and two no votes the no votes from council members ivanic and council member Gardner to table this to the next regular council meeting great now pleased to talk to item number 11c item 11c is a resolution of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado to amend the Rules of Order and procedure for the Aurora Colorado city council regarding the parliamentary procedures ordinances resolutions and amendments resolution 2022-238 and we do have individuals who want to speak on this remember Jim Gardner um amend our meeting schedule mayor Tim Carter your microphone is off apologies I can't hear you mayor we do we have public also to speak sorry oh I'm just staying correction so I will proceed with public environment Linda serving thank you again mayor and Council for allowing me to speak again I am a resident and I've utilized this Podium a few times over the years I'm not here all the time most of the time when I'm speaking about something it's because I'm trying to defend the rights of just ordinary people and I think that the proposed changes to um public invited to be heard and cutting down our meeting time and you know we've already seen some narrowing of opportunities we're living in very difficult times right now and I think that one of the things that we need to do is listen to one another I think that we need to hear different points of view we talk about people being in silos where we only hear what we want to hear and we don't hear the opposition and I think it's very important to have informed public comment and for our members to hear different sides different points of view I appreciate what council member drinsky said about trying to find a middle ground I think we need to always keep in mind that we can find new and creative ways to do things opposition is often necessary to help us round out our thinking we need to hear other people we need to hear ideas expressed sometimes with anger and impatience sometimes with a lot of Sorrow and sometimes with a lot of anger because other people aren't listening in other places I have tried emails and calling and I have found some council members to be very good about replying to me in any format that I choose to try to address them I've gone to town hall meetings I've gone to chapter and um I'm sorry what what do you call your constituent meetings that you have maybe once a month some of you only have them once every six months or so and uh usually I'm able to get you know a pretty positive response in terms of courtesy okay however many members on this council do not answer emails do not answer telephone calls when the message is left and many times there are derogatory comments made about people who might be presenting my position even if not directed at me so I find that to be off-putting oftentimes too we get boilerplate type replies to something it's not good enough to just say XYZ period when it's not responsive to what I'm trying to get across so democracy democracy does require that voices be heard and listened to and I always appreciate it when people show that thank you very much and then we have two or one individual on public or on the call in line honey go ahead you have three minutes thank you and I agree with the Missouri I have sent numerous emails to the entire Council other than the Democrats and on most occasions councilman gerinsky and once or twice from councilman somberg I have had no response from anybody else positive negative nothing zero zip and then if you read the agenda unless you read it carefully it says that you have to turn in your speaker slip to the city clerk prior to the item being discussed or prior to public invited to be heard which has we as we know has been cut back drastically there is no mention of the phone lines being disconnected discontinued there are council members for health reasons councilmember McConnell now is calling in from home most of you have called in from home at one time or another there's no reason that citizens should not be offered that same privilege to address city council there are people who have illnesses there are people moms who are breastfeeding their babies and don't want to come out to meetings there are all sorts of reasons why people call in on the phone and taking that away again is fascist and I don't care what council member Gardner thinks of that remark so again the Gettysburg Address dates the government of the People by the people for the people shall not perish from this Earth and this is exactly what you're trying to do by cutting off telephone uh comments thank you that was the last person that was the last person last one um did you read the title yes okay um questions of uh the sponsor our staff on 11b mayor I'm sorry 11c mayor uh council member uh yes um just want to clarify that people um even though that this is um reducing the the or putting things on the consent calendar that there's still opportunity for the public to comment on them and there's still opportunity for our council member to pull an item off to have discussion correct or somebody yeah this it it does not change anything about our consent calendar uh as today our consent calendar any council member at any time before it's voted on can pull an item off consent in addition any member of the public can make a comment on any item on the consent calendar so this does not change that in any way it does not take away any ability for someone from the public to comment on an agenda item in fact despite what some of the comments tonight said we have unlimited public comment on an agenda item so if there was an item on consent agenda that 500 people wanted to show out and talk for they could do that under our rules there would be no restriction on that this does not change that all this simply does is put resolutions and appointments to boards and commissions it moves them from their own spot on the agenda to underneath the consent calendar but it does not change fundamentally or functionally how the consent calendar works for other questions of the mayor Pro tem Gardner or staff mayor um councilmember yeah so I when this was first originally uh brought up I was um I guess what you would call a junior member of council and um I had not um you know I hadn't been through enough meetings yet to really understand you know what what all what it meant everything being on a consent calendar and and since then I would like to point out to the public I mean there has been times where there's things that we we go through that we've heard before we've already passed it once like say it's on a second reading or something like that and we have we sit through it again we sit through the all of the staff presentations again um and as of right now anything that passes unanimously on this Council can can be passed on a consent on a consent calendar as is so so fast forwarding to now I do support this and and honestly anybody who wants something pulled off I mean every council member will have the right to pull off anything they want but if a member of the public wants something specifically pulled off something they want to speak about or Reach Out reach out to any of us you know before the meeting um and and ask you know for for it to be pulled I there I just I have now seen nights where we have sat here until midnight after midnight certainly on things that could that could have been passed on a consent calendar further discussion I'm sorry uh further questions of uh the sponsor staff councilman Cruz so I just wanted to clarify that if someone submits a speaker slip for something on the consent agenda that gets pulled off the consent agenda correct correct just like it does now yep yep um okay yeah and I just beyond that want to say you know that I actually appreciate that mayor Pro tem Gardner took the feedback of his colleagues to improve this the initial version um had kind of just everything being put onto consent unless it was pulled off and this actually has introduction of ordinances um not being on consent so that at least that first reading it has to be on the ordinances section of the agenda and also removed a deadline for folks to pull the consent items that was before the meeting so this way if someone you know gets a call from a constituent at 5 30 PM about an issue they can pull that off the agenda they don't have to do it by 1 pm on the day of the meeting and the items that are asking to be put onto to the consent agenda are things that typically already are passed unanimously we seldom have issues with appointments to boards and commissions when we do we can pull those off and have a discussion and then it's ordinances that were already passed unanimously so that we're not going to have any likelihood unless there's public comment which folks can bring to change those votes and then resolutions which to councilmember jorinsky's point we did have a night where people were here to testify and to present an appeal to a zoning decision that or a planning decision that impacted their community and they ended up having to wait till and actually it's happened more than once they had to wait till extremely late in the one case we had 31 resolutions and and most of them were identical they were like business improvement district plan approvals that were being run through really quickly voted on unanimously and no discussion and so I think this actually enables better participation because it lets people have the time to talk about the things that they want to talk about without setting arbitrary deadlines or making major things like introduction of ordinances go on to the consent calendar so thank you mayor Pro tem Gardner for um you know for taking that feedback and for making those changes and I'm gonna support this further questions of America Tim or of staff we're seeing none emotion is in order mayor uh remember motion to approve item 11. second to buy turkey uh councilmember to prove problem number 11c uh further discussion mayor uh councilman McConnell thank you sir um and I just want to start by uh echoing council member Coombs comments uh mayor pretend Gardner I do appreciate you taking our feedback into consideration and making some substantive changes to this proposal but I also want to address a lot of the folks who have called in and written us who are concerned about the phone line I'm not exactly sure how this item got associated with the phone line um but I do want to say that several of us have expressed our dissatisfaction to the city manager about ending our phone service just so you all know I've been told it's I think a two thousand dollar a month contract currently to maintain the public comment line um with the contractor I feel like that's a little steep and that that's probably something that we could do in-house but above all uh I don't think that we should be getting rid of a call-in service for our residents as one of my constituents Mr Schultz mentioned earlier I'm joining you all tonight remotely several of not all of actually all of us due to the pandemic have been able to participate remotely and I think that that's an important amenity that we continue to offer to our residents I know that there are ways that we can move this service in-house and it is my strong urging to City management and I would hope that all of my colleagues agree that we find a way to preserve that service because hearing from our constituents is one of the most important things that we do in our positions here and as has been mentioned some of us are a lot easier to get a hold of than others so sometimes Council meetings are the only way people get a chance to talk to all of us at once but I just want you all to understand that this specific item that we're talking about has no direct connection to the cessation of a public comment line and it is my hope that that is something that we'll be able to preserve as an amenity to our residents in perpetuity discussion seeing none of the question before us is adoption of item number 11c call for the question the motion passes to adopt resolution 2022-38 Tom is now 7 26 Council will stand in recess until uh 7 35. members of the public who would like to speak on an ordinance and have not already spoken to an operator press star 3 before the item is called by the clerk for those watching on Channel 8 call 855-695-3475 to be connected and then press star three Council has taken a short break to allow any additional speakers to sign up please be patient and stay on the line until the operator is able to take down your information thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign foreign foreign foreign [Music] during the meeting the Aurora city council is now back in session will the court please read the title to item number 12a item 12a is ordinance 2022-74 public hearing for consideration of an ordinance of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado rezoning a parcel of land measuring 22 Acres more or less at the northeast corner of 6th Avenue and Airport Boulevard from mixed use Corridor Zone District to business Tech Zone district and amending the zoning map accordingly public hearing is now open a presentation of my staff very briefly Janine rustad the director of planning and development services as noted this is a second reading of 22-acre rezone at the northeast corner of Airport Boulevard and 6th Avenue it's from muc mixed use Corridor to the i-1 business Tech as was mentioned previously at the previous hearing the Buckley space force this has been referred to Buckley space force station and they have expressed no concerns The i-1 Zone typically has lower intensity uses which is compatible with the abutting apz and i-1 zoning uh the Planning Commission recommended approval and supported the comp plan designation Innovation campus campus which supports light industrial use and finally covenants on the property placed by Buckley before the it the property sold limit the intensity of the use so this makes it more compatible available for any questions uh presentation by the applicant I mean I'm yeah presentation by the applicant the city is presenting putting forth this proposal understood uh is there anybody wishes to be heard no public hearing is now closed uh questions of of staff seeing none motion is in order mayor motion to approve 12a uh it's been moved by the mayor Pro tem second goodbye second by councilmember Coons to approve item number 12a further discussion I've seen none uh call for the question on the adoption of 12a council members oh thank you the motion passes to adopt ordinance 2022-74. with court now please read the title to it around 12b item 12b is ordinance 20 2275 public hearing for consideration of an ordinance of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado amending chapter 146 of the city code to create a definition for data centers and to allow data centers as a conditional impairment of use in individual industrial zoning districts public hearing is now open uh presentation by the applicant I mean by Zone by staff Janine rastad director of planning and development services this is the second reading of a Udo Amendment the amendment is to add the use of data centers to the apz Zone District in addition to other districts the use is currently permitted in accompanied with this amendment is reducing the parking from for four per 1000 to 1 per peak time employee consistent with the uh this use available for any questions I do have a question is um on some of these data centers I mean they're a large footprint with few employees but is there um something afoot to do a second level that could have greater density in terms of employees refer to legal counsel I believe that they would have to meet the parking for both of those uses oh Mr money and I I think that would be reasonable and from what I've heard these data centers are one level very well um is there anybody who wishes to be heard no uh councilmember um yes um so this is at the end of Buckley at the runway right is this one or is am I on it this is a Udo change right it's a Udo change but isn't it located next to Buckley not one particular okay thank you public hearing is now closed uh I'm sorry first I'm sorry okay question are there any questions to staff uh seeing on public hearings on closed uh motion is in order mayor uh councilmember McConnell thank you sir move to approve 12th meet the move by councilmember McConnell seconded by Gardner uh man from Gardner to prove item number 12 B uh discussion I was seeing no further discussion and the question before us is the adoption of item number 12b call for the question the motion passes to adopt ordinance 2022-75 Accord now please read the title to item number 12a item 14a is introduction of ordinance 2022-76 in ordinance authorizing an issuance and sell by the city of Aurora Colorado acting buying through its utility Enterprise of first lean sewer revenue bonds series 2023 in an aggregate principle amount not to exceed 46 million dollars for the purpose of financing in whole or in part the cost of additions and improvements to the sewer system operated by the utility Enterprise pledging certain funds and revenues of the Enterprise to the payment of such bonds prescribing the form of such bonds and providing other detail and connection there with a brief presentation by staff collector and pipeline improvements to the city's sewer system the ordinance allows for the issuance of a maximum of 46 million a maximum term of 30 years and the maximum hopefully you're hearing me at a maximum net effective interest cost of five and a half percent since the submission of the original ordinance three modern minor modifications have been made to the document these changes are we inserted the effective date of February 10 2023 to allow for the 30-day period after the second reading in section 204 we modified the bond details such that the minimum denomination of bonds if privately placed was changed from a hundred thousand to five hundred thousand which is industry standard and the inclusion of the fact that if the bonds are privately placed q-sup numbers will not be applied for or used acip stands qsip stands for committee on uniform Securities identification procedures an accusep number is a unique identification number assigned to publicly issued Securities if they are not publicly issued they typically do not have a q-sip these changes are non-substantive in nature and do not Material a change the content of the ordinance the bonds will be repaid through net revenues of the sewer system it is expected that the bonds will be issued through competitive sale on February 14th closed on the 23rd in addition to the ordinance Council has been provided with a draft preliminary official statement or POS related to the bonds that is very much a working document and would be finalized before the bonds are offered to investors I am happy to answer any questions you may have in this regard questions of staff let's see none thank you very much motion is an order mayor motion to approve 14a moved by uh remember 10 second by Sunbury councilmember Sunbury to approve item number 14a discussion I've seen no discussion the question before this is the adoption of item number 14a call for the question the motion passes to adopt ordinance 2022-76. thank you well the court now please number 14b item 14b is ordinance 2022-77 an ordinance of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado re-pilling Article 5 employer occupational privilege privilege tax in article 6 Employee Occupational privilege tax and chapter 130 of the city code of the city of Aurora and other related matters mayor there's one person on the call in line to speak please proceed am I on yes hi it's me again so anyway um check this out right I don't care who sponsored this bill we're going to talk about uh you guys sit on a council you should have went to college you know basic economics right so based on this um tell me exactly what you're gonna do with all these growing programs and investments in the roads and everything you're doing when you're just gonna decide to take six million dollars a year and throw it out the window because you know as well as I do if you get rid of this tax the city is never going to approve you to get that money back so don't play it like this is something that can't be done because last Monday in the study session councilwoman Lawson tried to propose a compromise instead and you could very easily find an amenable compromise to change what it is that councilwoman jorinsky finds offensive about the way that these places tend to contact and harass people while also simultaneously not wasting the city's tax dollars because you have a multitude of programs in your city and that six million dollars can be put anywhere you need it to but not if you throw it all away thank you that was the only person um uh councilmembergerinski tax which is literally a head tax in this city um and I would just like to point out very quickly um that this tax was never it was never created by the voters so the voters never got this was originally created um by City staff from what I found out and what the gentleman on the call-in line literally just stated verbatim is this is money that the city will never get back if that's the case then he feels very confident that If This Were a ballot measure and if this were put on a ballot and the people were able to vote on it and have a voice on this it wouldn't pass so that alone right there tells me that my colleagues should absolutely support this with that mayor you are the co-sponsor I don't know if you want to say anything this uh um I think it's a inappropriate from the standpoint of Economic Development policy to be taxing uh jobs that you're trying to create and so I support this measure it it will not take effect until January 1 2005. 2025 stand corrected and that anytime prior to that should revenues not come in as anticipated or simply that there'd be an economic downturn or the demands on governments be such that the tax needs that the majority on the council wants to either delay or repeal the tax cut then they have the ability to do so and so there is flexibility in terms of the ability in terms of the current law in the ability for Council to amend any provision in this particular ordinance prior to it the effective date and so obviously once the once the effective date happens and and the tax cut does occur uh then uh it would have to go back to the voters to be reenacted mayor council member Bergen yeah thank you mayor um you know I had some concerns about this I certainly do not want to have Services cut and and I will make sure that we don't cut critical Services I'm supporting this because it is not effective as the mayor just stated um until January of 2025 we have time to reevaluate the budget we have time to incorporate New Growth that that is inevitably will come to the city with with new opportunities and I think um you know just this is a tax on businesses and employees as well and I I think there's a better way of doing this so I am in support of of this ordinance uh further discussion mayor councilmember crumps um so this money I out of our budget a budget that we continuously have to say no we're not going to do this we're not going to do this we're not going to do this when we sit down to have our workshops we choose not to provide certain services or pay for certain things for our constituents or take out 36 million dollars in debt to address services that we did not take care of for years and years so from that standpoint it's really unclear how we say we can afford to take what's now today six million dollars out of our budget in 2025 it actually will be more because we'll have more employees in the city um that are paying that tax and their employers are paying that tax so this is going to be a growing chunk that we take out of our budget while we still have billions of dollars in unfunded needs around infrastructure in our city um so I absolutely cannot support doing that and there there's no way to do it without cutting some services or some infrastructure um it's not it's not fair to say to our constituents that we're going to cut taxes and no no we're not going to cut any Services it'll be okay we'll figure it out I think that we need to be honest and say yeah that's six million dollars that we're not spending on you our residents in a coordinated way that could benefit you and that we think four dollars uh or sorry no twenty four dollars for you is more valuable and twenty four dollars for your boss is more valuable to you than millions of dollars that the city can spend in a coordinated beneficial way the budget is over a billion dollars we don't know if there's going to be any Cuts or not I mean if Revenue revenues Revenue increases will offset uh the requirement to do any cuts at all if in fact that doesn't materialize again uh we have the ability to either delay uh this particular tax cut on Jobs Tax on jobs or in fact we can repeal it all together so the notion that this will automatically lead to any Cuts in government is inappropriate well I mean not I don't want to use that term but I just I disagree with it mayor council members yeah we're continuing to have the conversation about what this is going to take away from government but what this is also doing is putting back or keeping in the pockets of taxpayers their money which they'll be able to then put into um can some consumable goods and sales tax that will come back to the city and to the mayor's point so if we grow out of this and I know we can speculate as to what it's going to look like but if we grow out of this there's a chance that this won't require any cuts it might be a reduction of our increase but it doesn't necessarily mean we're going to have to make any cuts and I think that the responsible approach is being taken with this and that it gives us some time to start building a plan towards eliminating what is a bad tax and a tax that very few cities in the state of Colorado actually have it gives us a Glide path to do it to identify how we're going to do it and as the mayor pointed out an option at any point in time by a majority of this Council to change course to change direction but the the just like in so many of our conversations we we talk about what the impact is to government but not what it is to taxpayers who support the government and I think we have to remember that further discussion mayor mayor um councilman McConnell thank you sir um so I want to start by saying that the conservative majority on this Council has repeatedly accused staff of making policy decisions for us some of you have personally attacked staff repeatedly along those lines and I just want to point out that as written this ordinance is directing staff to make policy decisions for us um it should be those interested in reducing Revenue who are responsible for determining what programs and services they want to cut not City management not the heads of our departments but those of you who sign off on this nonsense knowing full well what you're doing and I just got to say I've never heard my constituents reach out to me and say hey it would be really cool if you blew a 600 million dollar hole in our general fund we would really appreciate that what I have heard from them is we want a Rec Center we want our streets to be safer we want you to do something about child care and I can go on and what doing this does is make it more difficult for us to hit all of those things and even more our residents are asking us to do more not less this city has historically been run lean and mean with responsible councils even though I disagree with some of their policy decisions in the past what y'all are doing here is just lighting the fuse on a bomb that does not need to be lit you are choosing to do this for no good reason and I just make it make sense we already know that in the future we're looking at shortfalls our budget manager who has done an extremely good job even though he says he caused some recessions has pointed out to us repeatedly that with with inflation um with the increased Demand on services from our residents with the continued sprawl um that we keep getting our costs are going to increase and we are going to be running into the red ink within a few years and this has been the story every year I have lived in Aurora and I have seen councils go into austerity mode and make cuts to Public Services I've seen libraries get shut down I've seen our infrastructure backlog continue to grow and not just roads but all of our capital projects Parks rec centers libraries you name it because we never have the funding to do that while our residents are asking us to do more so what we're doing here what we're discussing tonight is an irresponsible Ploy frankly I think it's an election year stunt for next year so that you all can campaign on cutting taxes even though it is absolutely unnecessary and it's going to harm our residents not the government it's going to harm our residents because our residents depend on us to provide services and amenities for them so that they can live the best life that they can and all of you so far have just talked about well maybe we'll get this maybe we'll get that nonsense you already know that a two dollar tax for every employee and and pull your uh does not keep people from coming to our city well keep support from coming to our city is high quality education it's affordable housing it's a lack of child care and so on and so forth not a two dollar head tax so shame on you'll and vote this down this is irresponsible decision further discussion mayor uh councilman Jones yeah a couple things that I would like to say back to that when we talk about constituents reaching out and saying I want a Rec Center or I want a swimming pool well again I would like to talk about Colorado Springs which is the second largest city in this state 506 000 residents to our nearing 400 000 in comparison in comparison they have two golf courses two city-owned Golf Course courses in Colorado Springs we have five they have four rec centers four rec centers for a population of five hundred and six thousand in Colorado Springs when the southeast Rec Center opens we will have five if you include the center for active adults which is very much a rec center in this city so when we talk about having services for our constituents this city goes above and beyond and we go above and beyond with a vacancy savings every year um and and what we are looking at here we're not everybody my colleagues who want to say shame on you um I say shame on you I say shame on you for speaking to the public and trying to fear the public that they're going to lose any services this city goes above and beyond comparatively for the size of our population we offer multiple Services multiple services on top of that we talk about uh oh oh it's just two dollars a month per employee well I have here a stack of um pay stubs because I did a little research on this and and what happens in this city and I'm going to tell you who's affected most by this it's the service industry and it's single mothers uh that that are working to single fathers also working two and three jobs and let me tell you something council member Coombs I encourage you to pull up both of your pay stubs your Council pay stub and your pay stub from the city of Aurora you're being taxed twice you're paying it twice I just worked with Ryan Lance this week thank you Ryan sent an email to stop that double taxing of council member sunberg and I I pulled up pay stubs from eight of my employees six of them are paying it twice a month two of them are paying it three times a month so if this were in fact being taxed correctly this wouldn't even be a 5.9 million dollar budget cut so so I would like to point that out um and and maybe no one cares maybe no one cares they'll pay it 10 times a month you know maybe that's how they feel but I'm just telling you I'm sick and tired of my colleague council member Marcano ruling this by fear we literally go above and beyond in this city to offer services to our constituents and council members of onik just found a way to to have a road maintenance plan without creating another tax and again I would just like to point out that if this was not this tax was not created by the people in the first place it was never voted on in the first place and if it were to be a ballot measure and if it were to go to a ballot today to be voted on it would not pass further discussion mayor customer Cruz um so yes I actually have looked at my pay stubs and I'm aware that for each job I have I pay two dollars a month toward this tax and yeah actually I am okay with that um but um more importantly we sorry I just lost the thread um you talked about vacancy savings um and what vacancy savings means is that we have employees doing the jobs of two or three employees vacancy savings doesn't mean we're just fine with the budget that we have or with cutting our budget it means that we are continuing to burn out our employees as we continue to ask them to do the jobs of two and three employees at a time we don't have just a glut of positions it's that we don't have enough people to fill them and if we continue to cut our budget we can and we continue to rely on vacancy savings we continue to lose more people and we're creating a vicious cycle where we have employees that don't feel valued um we have employees that are burnt out or on the verge of burnout because of the excessive workload that they have so I think that it would be really irresponsible of us to rely at all times on vacancy savings instead of trying to find a way to stop having those vacancies and making sure that our employees aren't doing multiple people's jobs um so so yeah and as far as this tax passing the voters I think we could spend all day talking about the ways in which Tabor is problematic and does not help people to actually make good decisions in their best interest but we don't we don't have a say over whether or not Tabor exists what we do have to say over is whether or not we are going to make sure that we continue to generate Revenue to fund our employees so they're not burnt out and to fund those excellent services that we've been able to provide to our residents without excess in spending mayor right there council member just to respond to that we the way we continue to generate revenue and find ways to generate revenue is to grow business in this city it's with business growth economic growth and attracting more businesses and more jobs that's how we generate more revenue for this city it's not it's not a head tax on the backs of businesses and on the backs of Aurora workers further discussions mayor councilman Lawson I think councilman Maria was first council member Lawson yes thank you thanks um I I mean I have a couple of thoughts one we consistently get awarded for being a you know well want run financially managed City and part of that is around the diversification of our revenue streams to me um if this passes we are consolidating our Reliance on for our revenues as a city on sales tax and that's already the the largest source of revenue for the city so to me that's a departure of kind of that principle so I am just not in support in in that regard um furthermore I mean I think just even the development of this conversation around the occupation privilege tax um has been a departure from a good process from from my time on Council this was brought forth um kind of late in the budget conversation it was um typically in that case council members are required to identify the sources of revenue or you know how are we going to make up for this um and we still have yet to identify where that missing six million dollars is going to come from so for me that that doesn't make any sense and what we instead did which I wholeheartedly disagree with is we went through um positions at our budget conversation that we we felt it was okay to start eliminating including the office of the independent Monitor and the Dei position so if this is this this is in lieu of that I I think that's totally the wrong move um and I didn't support it then if we're going to try to justify this cut which is what it is in our budget and justify it with the removal of critical positions that we need in the city um I mean to me that's a another reason to not support it in addition to the fact that we are moving away from the diversification of our Revenue as a city frankly so for me I I'm not going to support this thank you and let me bless you as the mayor that um this is not effective until one January 2000 2025. that in fact if the revenues are not there that if the there is not an offset through efficiency and to increase Revenue then I will put forward the amendment that will delay the the start the implementation of this for a future date until there is the revenue available to be able to do this further discussion mayor um remember Tim Garner thank you mayor um so first yeah I agree actually with uh council member Marcano um I do think it's a little disingenuous that um you know we've passed we passed a rule change earlier this year uh basically saying that staff shouldn't have policy making Direction and now we're giving them back to that in this however I don't I so I agree with the premise of his comment but I still feel like you know at the end of the day Council approves the budget and so if the city manager brings forward a budget that we don't like um we certainly can make those changes we're the ones that approve it traditionally this body um at least in my three plus years on Council has essentially rubber stamped the budget that's brought forward by the city manager for the most part and so you know that may not happen but I think that's a way to um you know make sure the policy making Direction stays with city council though I agree with the spirit of of what council member Marcano said I do have a really big concern though with the double taxation piece um but I I want to ask a question before I lose my mind I'm assuming that that is not allowed currently in the double taxation uh should be corrected regardless of whether or not this ordinance passes and further to that is what amount of the revenue that's brought in is coming from double taxation um you know I have two jobs so I'm probably paying it twice um and and so I'm just curious and unlike council member Coombs I'm not okay paying it twice I don't want to pay more taxes than I have to um so I'm curious a should that need to be corrected regardless of whether or not this passes and B how much revenue are we currently receiving from that mayor can I ask my answer um council member yeah so um it's it's not supposed to be the way that it is and if you go on to our website and you funnel through however many links you have to click to under tax and Licensing to get to the occupational privilege tax page on the city of Aurora's website it says at the very bottom when you scroll to the very bottom of the page it says that if you are employed more than once in the city of Aurora hear me out you are supposed to print this form and take it to your secondary employer and have them fill it out and then your secondary employer is then supposed to communicate with your primary employer in the city of Aurora to notify them that they no longer have to take this tax out of your paycheck there you go mayor um just quickly let me um hold there was a second part I'm sorry I'm sorry how much revenue okay let me um is that true I'm not in a minute is there anybody that can answer that no so councilmember Gardner again going back to the way the taxes are omitted we don't track it by employee we track it by gross number so again you're we're not tracking it on in a unique employee identifier so we we in order to keep the tax administratively simple it's only two lines how many employees how much do you owe that's what we do so we're not tracking it on employee employee per employee basis if Council wanted to do that that form is going to be a lot longer than two lines further discussion mayor mayor uh council member Bergen uh thank you oh my god um I've been here on Council for almost eight years and every single year that I have been on Council we have excess revenues when we do our budget Workshop that Council then decides how to spend it not only do we have it in in on that side of the general fund but we also have it in marijuana tax revenues and yes we usually use those for one-time funds but we can use them how we would like to use them um so when we talk about oh you know we're going to be cutting services I don't see that either um and if that were the case of a recession as the mayor and council member zarinsky have stated we have the right to repeal that um that ordinance at that time and I would definitely be in favor of repealing it if we ended up in a in a negative situation but every year our revenues have gone up and I would say as our population growth has gone up we add more housing as we add more housing I don't know if you guys know but it's not just sales tax from retail products that you purchase where we get Revenue but you get we get money from use taxes from building materials so every time a roof was put on a house or anything is built on a house or a commercial building millions and millions of dollars come into the city for use taxes so there is revenue as population grows and and we do do have the authority when we do our budget Workshop to go you know go through the budget to make sure that we are using our taxpayer monies in a responsible way and I do think that we are you know with growth we're not going to have to consider Cuts has been as has been stated also just want to say Tabor is the taxpayer Bill of Rights so what that means is that as residents of the state of Colorado you have a right to just to give your input as to whether you want your taxes raised and I think that's a good thing mayor can I yeah can I speak please okay thank you um because I've been waiting um so I a week ago at the study session I presented an alternative proposal because I do not agree with the 6.1 million being cut out of the budget I knew that councilmember dorinsky had the votes but I wouldn't be a lawmaker if I didn't do some type of compromise and let the public know that there is another alternative and in this particular case what I presented last week was not so much it was it's still a budget but it's 1.2 million I know mayor Pro tem not councilmember Bergen stated that as the population grows we're going to get Revenue but as the population grows and as we're meeting the need we're going to have more needs of citizens in our community that's going to grow as an addition so as we grow and as population grows that the needs of the citizens is going to continue to grow and I just think that even though we can we can repeal this we can do everything we still have to prepare for this because in 2025 it's it may go and it may not but we still have to prepare for it I still think that we are tying the hands of future councils I I'm glad we have economists on this diocese and they can predict the future so that's great that we have economists and and everybody knows what the what the economy is going to be like in the city of Aurora we've gotten a lot of excess money because of the covid and so you know we may not have those revenues and everybody's saying oh we're going to have rooftops we're going to have this but you've still got to equate that there's going to be needs and services and there's a potential if not that we're going to have to cut some of these services for people 6.1 million is a lot of money and we have to think about that and I just don't think it's fiscally responsible I think we're tying the hands of future councils we're not going to be on Council forever all of us but other counselors are going to have to make hard decisions and so I will not support councilmember durensky's proposal I appreciate what she's trying to do because I understand what she's talking about especially as it connects to small businesses and I even proposed in my proposal that maybe with the 1.2 million we could put it towards maybe medians maybe something that actually goes towards businesses instead of just say taking 6.1 million out of the budget so I will not be supporting it I knew that this my proposal wasn't going to go through I asked staff if they could actually provide me an alternative or something that could be compromising and I just think that we're making a fiscally irresponsible move I don't care if we can cut it we can do it we're still going to have to figure out a way to supplement this 6.1 million dollars and we have so much stuff going on in this city and it's only going to continue let me correct the record Again by saying that this is conditional by virtue of the fact that Council has the ability to revisit this for any time prior to one January 2025 and secondly it does provide direction to staff it takes off the table Public Safety and it takes off the table any transportation related spending in the budget and leaves everything else to a four percent cut with with the ability for staff to to vary that from Department to department but aggregate a four percent cut and I call for the question it's a motion come here second uh councilman joinski I just second we we never got a motion in a second for yeah it was never motion and second to begin with I would like to motion oh I'm sorry okay councilmember yeah mayor motion to approve item 14b is removed by councilman Jones um and I renew my motion to call for the question second yeah it's moved by the mayor second by council members call for the question on the call for the motion to go over the question so the mayor Kaufman Jess yes yes the motion passes with seven yes votes for no votes two in the debate and vote on the main motion would the clerk please read the title time number 17A no mayor that was we have to vote on it now I'm sorry oh God okay um okay uh to uh to the uh adoption of item number um 14b call for the question council member Mario there is a tie vote five to five mayor how would you like to vote may vote Yes the motion passes with six yes votes five no votes the no votes from council member Medina Marcano Coombs Lawson and Maria clear now pleased to talk to item number 17A I annexation agreement between the city of Aurora Colorado and Sun Empire one LLC and Sun Empire Venture LLC great presentation by staff members of council and Jacob Cox manager of development assistance the item before he's an amended and restated annexation agreement between the city of Aurora at Sun Empire 1 LLC and Sun Empire Venture LLC the property in question was originally annexed in 1990 and is governed by an underlying annexation agreement that's nearing its expiration the developer of this property approached the city about amending the original agreement to address the expiration for the portion of land they own per City policy on adopting current annexation model language for such instances and in collaboration with this developer or therefore therefore proposing to amend and restate the annexation agreement to comply with the current model and making certain non-material changes to allow for the context of the property that's already within the city's jurisdiction this amended agreement being proposed tonight follows current model language with some minor revisions to account for that context the minor changes are as follows to identify the properties a sub area of a parcel already within City Limits subject to an existing agreement eliminating references to Provisions that would only apply to new annexation updating and clarifying certain concepts related to the water utility acknowledging that the groundwater rights have already been delivered to the city acknowledgment that the property is in an existing Metropolitan District that the existing agreement between the property owner and Aurora Public Schools is in place identify specific sections of city code that will govern the terms of this agreement and acknowledge that those terms will apply to any successors and interest for context the underlying property has a recently approved master plan it is a commercial master plan with the underlying zoning of airport district with that I'm happy to answer any questions I do not have an outside presentation the questions to staff mayor uh councilor Combs um so why in all the time that this annexation agreement has been in place has there not been anything done other than zoning adding a Metro District so essentially setting someone up to keep being able to make their profit but not doing anything for the residents of our city with this land this land was a little bit I think I think when this land was annexed in the 90s it was a little bit further away from the infrastructure now that infrastructure being near the airport kind of on the east side of 470 with the context of the industrial facilities that are going in on that side of 470. now it's it's more conducive for development so that's why it hasn't happened in in 30 years or so and a lot of the agreements from this era had a 30 to 35 year expiration so that's why we haven't seen this up to this point why do we allow someone to have lend annexed into the city Zone to put a Metro District on it and then sit on it for 30 years um when it would otherwise be agricultural land that seems like we're essentially subsidizing land speculation as a city and are we continuing to do that with our annexation agreements I would say I would say no I think the recent annexations were very specific in terms of what the city's done for recent annexations this one I think the context is a little is a little unique but I can't speak to what the choices were in 1990 um I would say it's not necessarily putting the city in a bad position to have this this land in the city's jurisdiction for commercial master plan further discussion or further questions to staff I'm seeing none motion is an order no mayor councilman Ricardo thank you sir apologies for the delay um so thank you for the presentation um on kind of the same notes as council member Coombs I'm just curious does it actually benefit the city to allow for land to be annexed into the city zoned the values increase as a result of that activity which obviously benefits the landowner but then subsequently increases the costs of development on that land especially if the land owner is not the interested party for development I don't think that that's a practice that we should be supporting or encouraging quite frankly I think that we should be supporting folks who bring us applications with a plan and are ready to actually get something underway as opposed to looking for a Payday so would it um what is the benefit exactly of allowing these kinds of things to happen because I am very disappointed this is 30 years in the making and nothing has changed I think it's context of this project there there actually is a project now and we're trying to do this amendment of this agreement that's nearing its expiration so that we can have this as an underlying agreement to guide that development um in in terms of following the city's model but there is a current master plan and a current site plan actually in process for this so so now this land actually is moving forward with development to answer your your question I think to your point there let me just say that um when when uh um in an annexation area area looking to be annexed by the city uh a developer can go forward with plans but until the water infrastructure comes out there there's really nothing they can do and they don't know how long it's going to take for that for that infrastructure to get out there for particularly for uh the Water further discussions mayor council Rock Rose so we actually have agreements around water infrastructure and reimbursing entities for water infrastructure when they want to build ahead of what the city was otherwise going to build so for me that's not really an excuse I'm glad they're doing something now but I think when we look back at our annexation agreements from the 90s there were a lot of really really bad ones and I think you can agree on at least some of those that that's true that basically constituted just our Council subsidizing land speculators and allowing land speculators to enrich themselves without any immediate benefit to the city so again I I'm glad that our staff are being a little more circumspect at this point but um but yeah this is literally just annexation for the sake of land speculators and that's disappointing but since it currently has a plan um you know I think there's value in that whereas uh the land specifically relative to to the Front Range or Spaceport this piece of land is it's much further to the West it's actually adjacent to porteous Industrial District right right along 56th just west of 470. so there's a vicinity map in your backup interior so now it's relatively close to being able to link up correct but but there's surrounding infrastructure for this parcel so I think I think the um the circumstances of it not being adjacent infrastructure do not um are not in place for this property it makes sense for development and it requires a certain critical mass of development doesn't it to make a water system that's effective efficiently does it not so so you can't just be way out there and and decide to extend out and then have the city reimburse you because the system is not going to work this one is well set up in terms of infrastructure very well site further discussion uh motion is in order motion to approve 17A move by uh remember time second to buy Bergen second by uh councilmember Bergen to prove item number 17A discussion let's see no further discussion question before it says adoption of item number 17A call for the question uh maybe a chance the motion passes to adopt item 17A uh with clear now please read the top item number 17A I mean 19a item 19a is consideration to appoint two members to the Aurora immigrant and Refugee commission um motion is in order okay mayor cancer comes motion to appoint ashvina Pata Christina lizardi hashibito to the Aurora immigrant and Refugee Commission uh further discussions uh it's been moved by councilman second by councilman remember Medina uh discussion seeing no discussion call for the question I don't remember 17A uh 19a mayor Kaufman remember Jess the motion passes to adopt item 19a now please be the top down number 19B item 19B is the 2023 city council meeting calendar um representation yes this is the council meeting calendar for 2023 so that's the council meeting study sessions and workshops it can be approved by council with a two-thirds vote and during the year if it needs to be amended it will be amended with a two-thirds vote motion is an or it's been moved by councilmember Lawson secondary um councilmember Bergen uh discussion mayor uh mayor Tim thank you um for the January Workshop um I'd like to propose changing the date of that to either the 21st of January or the 4th of February I'm unavailable on that day so I wanted to see if my colleagues would be willing to change that here's your objection is it the 21st of January or the 4th of February uh just for clarification we're looking at version three revised correct correct okay thank you uh February I'm sorry is your objection to February or February we have to choose February 4th is your objection I was seeing none then without objection it'd be February 4th further discussions I was seeing none um the question before us is the adoption of environment did I did I get a first and a second oh uh motion is in order mayor mayor I will um I did 19B okay you did okay I'm sorry with more protons amendments at it right okay yes okay um did it has it been moved and seconded yes it done okay very well um further discussion see another question before it says the adoption of nine item number 19 B call for the questions mayor Kaufman uh mayor votes councilmembergerinsky the motion passes to adopt the 2023 council meeting calendar with the winter Workshop moved to February 4th reports mayor we have one more oh I'm sorry I remember 19c look now please tell to item number 19c 19c is consideration to approve an agreement to article 17 between the city of Aurora Colorado and the Fraternal Order of Police for the years 2023-2024. uh motion is in order mayor uh councilmember Coombs Johnson councilmember Bergen boy I'm having trouble tonight thank you um motion to approve 19 C moved by councilman Bergen second by Sunbury uh second Mike councilmember Sunbury to approve item number 19c discussion mayor um you guys remember McConnell thank you sir I just have a question for staff um what is pyramiding of overtime someone could clarify that for us please or so this was uh essentially that um if you are um essentially taking leave and taking overtime that you're you're not you know double and triple dipping to sort of you know sort of take advantages of all the leaf policies so essentially it's you only get paid once for the time worked for other discussions mayor uh councilman um council member bargain um I just I forgot to say waiver of reconsideration please very well further discussion I was seeing nine question before this is option number 19c uh call for the questions mayor Kaufman uh mayor votes their mission passes to that item 19c um no report for the mayor councilmember Lawson thank you mayor this week this legislations committee report this week the Senate will release us 1.7 trillion fiscal year 2023 spending package capping off months of bipartisan negotiations lawmakers have until this Friday to pass the Appropriations bill or another continue resolution the city's earmarks requests are included in the bill staff has sent via email to council the outcomes of the Colorado Municipal League policy and executive committee meetings held earlier this month the memo outlines policy positions taken by CML on variety of legislative issues anticipated during the 2023 legislative session which starts on January 9th I also want to say I attended along with some of my colleagues to shop with the cop event it was a very successful event and I want to thank the APA and also the officers that attended you really put a lot of smiles on those kids faces so it was nice to see that and also I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and look forward to next year and what's going on so thank you everybody councilor Gardner I just wanted to Echo what councilmember Lawson said attended Shop with a cop there were several council members there the mayor was there as well so I just appreciate the Aurora Police Association charitable Foundation putting that on there was a lot of kids there a lot of officers it was really awesome um and then I also wanted to mention later that day myself councilmember madrinsky and council member zavonik we're at uh Story Time with the Grinch at the townsreach library so for those of you who weren't there it was awesome there were some bashful kids but a really really long line to see the Grinch so that was a lot of fun and then lastly just Merry Christmas and and happy New Year see everyone in 2023 I just want to say I was also at the event with the Gretchen regret that I was mistaken okay answer you um okay councilman jorinsky um I mean I Echo everything with the shop with a cop and I am just so appreciative of the Aurora Police Association for putting this on it seems like it's gotten bigger and better also with the reading with the Grinch I think Midori Clark and the library Department realizes that next year it's got to be somewhere bigger there was so many kids and so many people everywhere she I mean poor Midori looked like a deer in the headlights she said when she pulled up to the library she thought that someone was having a neighborhood block party because of the cars that were all up and down the street I want to wish everybody celebrating a happy second night of Hanukkah this weekend want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and next week it's 2023 happy and healthy New Year to everybody and I believe that there will be a lighting of the menorah and that is on on Wednesday between 5 30 and 7 30 on the grounds of my correct on that date or encourage everybody to come out uh for that council member I'll be brief and just tell everybody merry Christmas happy New Year happy holidays and to City staff thank you all at the end of the year we won't see you until next year but I just want to thank you for everything you do to help us and to my colleagues thank you all and hope you have a Happy New Year uh councilman Memorial thanks mayor um one just announcement real quick uh the um there is a fundraiser December 30th from 3 to 7 p.m at the Vintage Theater it's going to be it's hosted by the um black parents uh the the black parents United Foundation they are hoping to continue to serve the community so just wanted to share that out so they can continue to keep doing the great work that we do and other than that happy holidays and a Happy New Year to everyone councilman Steinberg and in auroraville they say the mayor's heart grew and he had the strength of 10 mares plus two anyway went to shop with a copy was a huge turnout I've never seen so many participants involved my business has contributed to that in the past in this time I think their need to adjust it for inflation though uh step Denver we went and did a two-hour visit of Step Denver and what a an encouraging program that is when men are ready to seek sobriety they rely on sobriety work accountability and community and they become tax paying citizens and satisfied with their lives again and re rebuilding with their families beautiful program attended the Police Graduation Ceremony I wish there were more but I was there to support them and what tremendous young group of five Cadets now police officers attended a Navy graduation ceremony at Buckley space floor space recently a 38 year old gentleman retired from the Navy after a 28 year old career 20-year career excuse me he earned his MBA in the process a few Financial investing certifications this guy is ready to hit the road and uh what a quality young man I enjoyed seeing the flag ceremony the watch ceremony what just a great thing to attend councilmember Medina thank you mayor just a couple things uh thanks to uh chief chief Acevedo and bar officers for coming out and talking to one of the businesses there called compare restaurant and grocery so he talked about a lot of the things that they're going to help there one of the things that we talked about is uh they are willing to have a table at their business outside their business to recruit police officers from the community so we're going to be working on that in January to pick a day at a time to host that in the community and again have a great holiday everyone thank you councilman McConnell thank you mayor um so I just want to start with our next Ward 4 meeting which is going to be on Thursday January 12th at 6 30 p.m at Colorado early colleges we're going to have presentations followed by q a from Aurora Public Schools director and Kiki uh District 4 Arapahoe County Commissioner elect Leslie summey and an introduction with interim APD Chief art Acevedo so it should be a very informative meeting and I hope to see you all there in the new year and I just want to wish everyone a Happy Hanukkah a Merry Christmas a joyous Kwanzaa a happy Festivus and a very very happy holiday season and a joyous New Year and I will see you all in 2023 have a great night council Mark Holmes thank you mayor um so at our last meeting I forgot to mention that council member Marcano and I were able to attend the ribbon cutting and open grand opening for the first of its kind in the city of Aurora medication assisted treatment facility and they are really trying to operate on a Model that will make sure that folks who need to get medication to become clean off of opiates have the ability to go and get that treatment at a wider range of hours than is often the case a lot of facilities are only open during a narrow window in the morning and that results in folks once they start having jobs being successful building their lives back up falling off and not having access to treatment anymore and ending up becoming addicted again so I think that it's really excellent that we have a facility in our city that's really creating that opportunity for folks to turn their lives around and continue to turn their lives around and be successful in that process so I thank them for coming to our city and offering that opportunity to our residents and then of course as everyone else has said merry Christmas happy Hanukkah I did not think of Festivus even though someone else said it earlier as well as joyous Kwanzaa but yes wonderful holidays enjoy the new year and very much look forward to seeing you all in the new year thank you mayor and I also attended the shop with a cop on thank you Shop with a cop on Saturday the 10th and it was really wonderful um try to go every year and just to see the the children with the smiles on their faces as they get to spend I think it's like 200 each and they get to go with an officer throughout the Walmart store and and uh and that was really fun I also then um went back in and decided to volunteer to help wrap presents because there was a long line to have the presence uh wrapped for them so I did that we also attended the holiday tree lighting and then I also went to the step Denver with my two colleagues council members of onik and council member Sundberg and um that was really just really enlightening to see the the program and how they have helped so many men with their addiction and be able to um you know to get their lives back and it's just very touching these addiction is really um something that is very challenging to overcome and you know they they were talking about the the rules that they have in place and the work requirements so forth obviously they do um work with them to be able to get to the point where they can go seek work and it's really truly amazing how many men have come out of that and and moved on in their lives and been able to be responsible to um to their own families so that was really great um and then E-470 just wanted to our last meeting we were able to make a decision to hold our toll rates for 2023 to keep them the same as in 2022 which in 2022 we did reduce our rates so those will be held steady um in light of the economy and inflation so lastly just want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah and happy holidays and also just want to say please reach out to those that might be struggling because sometimes this is a really difficult time during the holidays for people so you know reach out to your neighbors and your friends and your family and lastly spend money in Aurora for your holiday spending don't go to Denver don't go to Park Meadows see no further business before the Aurora city council meeting is adjourned foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign foreign [Music]