[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hey [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] maybe we should all just get along with each other it is is [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] we appreciate it okay very well thank you um and they won't do the announcement um the regular meeting of the royal city council for monday april 12 2021 is called to order the clerk please call the roll mayor kaufman mayor protembergen councilmember berzins heir councilmember coombs president councilmember gardner councilmember gruber here council member hilts here come swimmer lawson here councilmember johnston here councilmember mcconnell president councilmember mario president there is a quorum and i can unmute roger to do the public call in line please do good evening the city council welcomes feedback from residents at capitol meetings on both matters appearing on the agenda and during public invited to be heard for those watching on channel 8 please call 855-695-3475 and when connected and for those already connected press star three to get in the queue to speak don't forget the star we had about five people that looked appeared to have pressed just the three while we were in musical you will hear a prompt when you press star 3 confirming you are in line to speak to the operator and then be able to continue listening to the meeting until the operator comes on to take down your information residents who would like to speak for public invited to be heard or on a specific agenda item and have not already been screened please press star 3 to sign up before that item is called by the clerk callers who do not sign up for public invited to be heard prior to it beginning and being called by the clerk may still press start three to sign up and speak on non-agenda items at the end of the meeting depending on the volume it may take a couple minutes for the operator to connect so please be patient as long as you've heard the prompt you do not need to press star 3 again and can continue to listen to the meeting in progress until you are connected to the operator thank you i would like to take a moment of silence for all those that have been lost to covet and or who are struggling to recover uh please join me in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with i'm sorry we didn't have the spanish interpreter to do her uh her public call online speech okay please proceed [Music] um uh thank you um motion to approve uh the minutes from february 22 2021 mayor versus councilmember persians thank you move to approve the minutes of february 22nd 2021 dave gruber second um discussion over the clerk please call the roll on the adoption or the approval of the minutes from february 22 2021 mayor kaufman uh yes councilmember johnston yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember mario yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember burzin yes councilmember coombs councilmember gardner yes councilmember hilts yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember gruber yes the motion passes uh i'll now defer to the mayor pro tem bergen for an update executive session update uh yes executive session um there were some water issues discussed um three issues exactly and then we had discussion on a legal a lawsuit um proclamations um national youth violence prevention week uh i would like to defer to um council member angela lawson uh to read this um proclamation uh given that she's played a very strong leadership role in the city of aurora to promote youth violence prevention thank you thank you mayor for allowing me to read this proclamation whereas young people across aurora are falling victim to acts of violence at an increasing rate and whereas in 2020 17 homicide victims in aurora were 25 years old or younger and whereas aurora is committed to ending youth violence by merging the efforts and resources available across the city to strategically tackle this issue as a public health crisis and whereas building off a formal compact in 2020 between aurora and denver in jointly addressing youth violence as a public health crisis aurora will convene a youth violence prevention action table a conglomerate of youth and community and city leaders to identify immediate and actionable items needed to support youth violence prevention efforts and whereas in partnership with the yvpat the aurora city council approved funds for the housing and community service department to create a program to support the strategies developed by the yvpat and whereas the department hired a youth violence prevention program manager to implement the program to be used in combination with and across sectors to prevent youth violence before it starts and to support protective community environments that reduce exposure to community level risk and whereas a series of funding opportunities to expand youth zone pop-up events and programs targeting the risk and protective factors around youth violence will be available within weeks and whereas the national youth violence prevention week raises awareness and educates students teachers school administrators counselors school resource officers school staff parents and the public on effective ways to prevent or reduce youth violence now therefore on behalf of mike kaufman the mayor of the city of aurora do hereby proclaim the week of april 12th through april 16 2021 as national youth violence prevention week and encourage aurorans to support the youth of their communities by volunteering to be a trusted adult and contributing positively in the life of at least one individual the age of 25 in witness thereof i have here unto set my hand and caused the seal of the city of aurora colorado to be a fix this eighth day of april 2021 signed by mayor mike kaufman thank you um thank you councilman lawson second proclamation child abuse prevention month um aurora has dedicated individuals and organizations who work daily to counter the problem of child abuse and to help parents obtain the assistance they need and whereas our community is stronger when all citizens become aware of child abuse prevention and become involved in supporting parents to raise their children in a safe and nurturing environment and whereas effective child abuse prevention programs such as ralston house succeeded because of partnerships among families social service agencies schools religious and civic organizations law enforcement agencies and the business community and we're asked all citizens community agencies faith organizations and businesses will work to increase their efforts to support families now therefore i'm mike hoffman mayor of the city of rory do hereby proclaim the month of april 2021 as child abuse prevention month and encourage all aurora citizens to join in renewing our commitment to preventing child abuse and learning uh what we can do to promote the safety and well-being of children a witness aware of i have hearing to set my hand and caused the seal of the city of aurora colorado to be a fixed this 12th day of april 2021 uh my coffin there last proclamation aurora arbor week whereas friday april 16 2021 is designated as colorado arbor day and whereas the observance of arbor day creates an awareness among citizens of the roles that trees play in our day-to-day lives and whereas the city of aurora has been certified as a tree city usa by the arbor day foundation for a 37th year in honor of its commitment to effective urban forest management and whereas trees provide shade control increase property values beautify our neighborhoods and enhance the economic vitality of business areas and whereas to celebrate the significance of trees in our community and to celebrate arbor day the city of aurora will plant 33 trees in the city of aurora's municipal justice center to celebrate the expanse and vigor of aurora's urban forest now therefore i'm mike kaufman mayor of the city of aurora do hereby proclaim uh the days of april 16th through april 23rd 2021 is arbor aurora arbor week a witness where of i have here into i said my hand and cause the seal of the city of aurora colorado to be fixed on this 12th day of march 2021 my coffin mayor of colorado um public invited to be um public invited to be heard hi mayor it looks like you have one person that's invited to be heard you very well edgar is first do you have three minutes go ahead all right name is a representative the southwest regional council of carpenters here in colorado it's estimated that a construction tax rate is responsible for cheating our communities out of millions of dollars in tax revenues that are those that have money that i could be used uh for building or renovating schools repairing roads caring for veterans sheltering homeless and funding other essential public programs the prevalence of our construction industry product has reached increases levels and largely stopped the richford track where employers they take their tax responsibilities in their ways often um they intentionally misclassify workers as independent constructors or or pay their their workers in cash only arrangements as a result this business um uh they reduce their income tax and pay in payroll stuff uh the construct also the the contracts uh the contractors of our construction industry tax fraud uh british uh the third main uh main construction firms who cannot compete with the low road labor cost of this uh problem and business those bad actors employers are uh on their cutting their their competition by uh defrauding working workers and uh absorbing uh labor force uh this is this is a real real uh issue on honor on our city and uh but uh we wish to talk about more deeply um the carpenters and uh the united brotherhood and uh the city of aurora and the local 555 carpenters they uh gonna be part of the annual tax floor action this week um event uh and uh i wish uh i wish please uh uh been asking you begging you to to please uh resolve this kind of problems late let's make some work together so that way they can uh this uh these people can get uh punished thank you very much thank you uh adoption of the agenda uh staff has requested that we remove item number 10a discussion of new aurora fire rescue fees added to the 2021 budget and requested that we remove that number 11c be removed 2021 rtd iga resolution and i would also uh like um item number uh 20 i'm number 21 uh public invited to be heard to me be be moved in front of number 21 to be moved in front of item 20a report by the mayor uh motion or so moved councilmember moved by councilman coombe seconded bye second johnston seconded by councilmember johnston uh discussion yes mayor uh mayor pretend uh so you're asking item 21 public invited to be heard to proceed reports um i thought at the last meeting we changed it so that you could do your you could still talk after the public invited a council member could still talk after public invited to answer any concerns i can't remember what we did but that's my motion is to move it yeah um councilman mcconnell thank you sir uh i just wanted to state that previous mayors have allowed council members the privilege to respond to politically without him without shuffling the agenda um so that i think could potentially just be at your discretion just throwing that out there yeah i think i mean i i would prefer that that that they speak first and then we speak second i think it's out of deference to public invited be heard uh further uh comments questions uh seeing none with uh clerk please call the roll on the motion uh mayor kaufman yes councilmember gruber no councilmember lawson yes councilmember hilts yes councilmember gardner no councilmember combs yes councilmember burzins now mayor pro-tem bergen no council member mario yes councilmember mercado yes councilmember johnston yes there are seven yeses that the motion passes when clerk please read the title to audit to other number 9a item 9a is the reconsideration of resolution 2024 to suspend certain council rules motion mayor all right councilman mcconnell enough to approve 9a is removed by councilman mcconnell second bye approve item number 9a discussion uh seeing them with clerk please call the roll on the adoption of item number 9a mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember gardner yes councilwoman johnston yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember hilt yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember gruber yes council member mario yes councilmember lawson yes councilman berzins yes the motion passes i need a motion uh to approve the consent calendar item number 10 b through 10 j mayor councilmember comes um i'd like to pull off 10 b and 10 j from the consent calendar is there any objection but seeing none the question then before us is the adoption of the consent calendar iv number 10c through uh 10 h so moved uh second it's been moved by councilwoman second seconded by um councilman lawson um discussion mayor i think you need to include 10 i cannot modify the motion to include 10a oh okay i'm sorry um uh is that considered a friendly uh amendment uh councilmember combs yes who was a is who moved it who was the principal customer second sky lawson okay um okay so the motion is the adoption of the consent calendar number 10 b i'm sorry um you pulled off 10b item number 10c through 10i um discussion i've seen done with the click please call the roll on the adoption of the consent calendar councilmember johnston yes uh mayor kaufman yes councilmember gardner yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember lawson yes councilwoman verzins yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember marcano yes and council member mario sorry you didn't hear me yes emotion passes so clearly now please read the title of item number 10b item 10 b is the consideration to award a competitively bid contract to myers and sons construction llc sacramento california and the amount of 3 million three hundred twenty four thousand one hundred twelve dollars and sixty eight cents for the tollgate and sand creek interceptor diversion structures rehabilitation phase two project project number five eight zero nine a motion discussion first uh motion first then discussion councilmember comes moved to approve 10b removed by uh councilman coombs seconded by second second by councilmember mcconnell to approve item number 10b discussion mayor uh councilman can we just get a brief presentation from staff for the benefit of the public absolutely steph yeah thank you mayor councilman coombs so this project is going into to a couple of our major sewer interceptors so our large wastewater lines um along toll gate the toilgate alignment and rehabilitating deteriorated concrete diversion structures so areas in the pipe that hydrogen sulfide gas has eaten away at the concrete caused them to be in a state of disrepair and susceptible to failure so what this project will do is go into those areas line them with fiberglass that will prevent the deterioration of the concrete in the future and extend the life of these structures by about 50 years wastewater flows when they get into anaerobic conditions results in the generation of hydrogen sulfide gas that hydrogen sulfide gas eats away basically the calcium in the in the concrete um which causes the deterioration so it's not unheard of it's pretty common that that we have to go into concrete wastewater structures that see some of that deterioration with the gas and rehabilitate either diversion structures and or manholes things like that that are the concrete these are uh three fairly complex large diversion structures so it is a relatively expensive project but again we should extend the life of the line by about 50 years with the project further questions assuming none thank you mr brown marshall brown um further discussion as soon as the question before us uh is the adoption of item number 10 b with a clerk please call the roll mayor kaufman yes councilmember coombs yes council member hilts yes councilmember mercano yes councilmember mario yes councilmember johnston yes councilman gardner yes mayor pro tim bergen yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember gruber yes the motion passes well the clerk now please read the title vitamin number 10 j item tim j is the consideration to extend a competitively bid contract to brandon sand and gravel company denver colorado in the amount of 14 million one hundred thousand seventy seven dollars and eighty eight cents for the 2021 overlay program project number five eight one seven a original bid number five seven seven one a motion here move to approve item 10j boom by councilman raccoon seconded by bergen uh second right mayor pretend bergen to approve of number 10 j uh discussion mayor uh councilman comes um similarly can we just get a brief presentation from staff for the benefit of the public presentation by staff good evening council mayor um this is regarding the uh 2021 street overlay program um so the overlay program as you know is a is a huge part of our maintenance around the city it is uh it is to uh provide asphalt overlay and reconstructive patching on streets throughout the city um it's the most critical um piece of maintenance that the city can do and i've given multiple presentations on this at both taps and i've spoken to the council before regarding this um we know that there's quite a uh there's quite a shortfall in the funding on this program um but we do we do the best we can with what we've got i know cindy collup is on as well tonight i don't know if she has anything that she would like to add i think you did a great job there tom covering it but yeah we will get this started um and work from here shortly in april may through october to get all those improvements made thank you questions thank you questions mr staff i have a question mayor tim uh yes uh thank you tom for the presentation um and then just to clarify for the public these streets that we're doing the overlay program on um with the would be for the major arterials not for residential streets correct correct currently our program only covers us on the arterials and collectors in the city we do not have a uh overlay program in the residential areas thank you i had a inquiry as you know recently from one of my constituents in saddle rock and they have quite a lot of damage on their neighborhood roads extensive damage and we are not able to completely reconstruct those roads because of the deficit that we have on our road maintenance program um and so the r the answer to the constituent was that we would we would uh patch those those correct that's the southern rock north yes this is southern rock north we uh we dispatched uh crews in there this week to start to do the assessment there is going to be some extensive patching in that neighborhood okay well i want to just make sure that the public understands that we do not have the funds for i want to if i recall correctly something like 67 years to do residential roads is that correct yeah and then they just won't they're just not gonna last now okay thank you so much thank you uh further questions of staff mayor dave gruber councilwoman gruber tom thanks for giving that presentation and thanks for the ones you've given uh throughout the years i wanted to point out or you know that the fact and and if you could verify that we have been underfunding roads to the tune of 20 million dollars per year since about 2008 and as a result of that the funding backlog is so great right now that we simply can't uh pave neighborhood roads is that correct yes sir that's correct all right so the bottom line is is that every time council makes a decision to divert dollars to anything other than roads then it further exacerbates uh the problem that we've got with road so when we talk anytime we're fortunate fortunate enough to have additional money in our revenue um it's not free money that money should be going to uh deal with that 20 million dollar deficit so that we could take care of the roads within our neighborhoods thanks tom thanks sir other questions of staff are seeing none discussion uh seeing none uh with the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of 10 j mayor kaufman yes councilmember johnston yes councilmember yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember mcconnell yes councilmember persians yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember hilts yes councilmember kaufman i mean i'm sorry you're calling the the motion passed very well um the time is now 703 uh we will stand in recess for five minutes until 7 08 pm uh to give the ability for staff to do the announcement uh for the calling line we're now in recess if you would like to speak on a resolution or ordinance and have not already been screened please press star 3 before the item is called by the clerk for those watching on channel 8 please call 855-695-3475 to be connected to the phone line and then press r3 council is taking a short five-minute break to allow for additional speakers to sign up again please be patient and stay on the line until an operator is able to take down your information as long as you as you've heard the prompt after pressing star 3 and can hear music hold the meeting is in progress and you are in line to speak to an operator and if you've already queued up and pressed star 3 and spoken to an operator you do not need to press star 3 a second time thank you [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] at the regular meeting of the aurora city council on monday april 12 2021 is called back into session now with clerks now please read the title of item number 11a 11a is resolution 2021-2 a resolution of the city council of the city of aurora colorado adopting a debt policy motion mayor councilmember gardner motion to approve 11a by council response council member gardener second by councilmember gruber uh to approve item number 11a discussion uh i have a question of staff um the general obligation debt uh was mentioned do we have uh any significant general obligation debt no the city does not have any outstanding no outstanding okay uh further uh questions of staff mayor councilmember combs i was hoping we could just get a little more general brief presentation from staff on the policy good uh staff please summarize the policy sure um good evening mayor kaufman mayor pro-tem bergen and members of city council i'm theresa sedmak i'm your city treasurer and i am here to ask for your consideration of the resolution adopting the city debt policy the policy includes sections on debt issuance and management swaps disclosure and post issuance compliance this recommended policy has been updated from the policy which was last adopted in 2012 and it is current with existing laws rules and regulations of the u.s internal revenue service and securities and exchange commission so it outlines the types of debt the city may issue the roles and responsibilities of staff and its consultants and leadership in the management of debt talks about transaction transactions specific policies and structural elements of debt additionally a section of the policy outlines the use and management of alternative financing in the instruments such as interest rate swaps in managing the debt portfolio and importantly this policy enhances the previous policy by including a section on compliance particularly post issuance compliance which entails among other things the dissemination of reports and information and the reporting of material events that may happen in the city for the benefit of investors and underwriters of the city's debt um the policy dictates that it will be reviewed at least once every three years or as necessary and it was reviewed by internal counsel as well as our external bond council qtac rock it was introduced at the m f committee in february and presented at the city council study session on march 22nd so i appreciate your consideration of this item and i'm happy to entertain any questions or comments you may have about it questions and staff uh yes mayor uh mayor tim um you mentioned the interest rate swaps um do we is that based on a call date we we haven't used interest rate swaps much they can be used to hedge our exposure one we have i believe right now is it sets a cap on interest rates on some variable rate debt so that it can't exceed a certain amount um i wouldn't typically uh use that except or use those products except in very specific circumstances where it protects the city from risk associated with interest rates so we would not do us a swap to reduce our interest rate and pay off debt earlier no you might do a refinancing but i don't know that it would involve a swap okay okay further questions uh cnn thank you for the presentation uh discussion further discussion i see now and uh the question uh before us is in the adoption of 11a with a clerk please call the roll i'm sorry mary i didn't hear did we get a uh first and a second a motion in a second oh yeah who was the who gave the who who um let's give the primary motion gardener and grouper gardener thank you councilmember mario yes councilmember johnston yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember gardner yes mayor pro tim bergen yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember berzins yes the motion passes thank you uh with clerk now please read the title button number 11b item 11b is the aurora city council support that housing is a human right resolution 2021-22 a resolution of the city council of the city of aurora colorado expressing the aurora city council support that housing is a human right and mayor i i do believe there are certain people that did not hear the spanish interpretation request so i'm going to let her do that again if that's okay please proceed by interpretation we do have public invited to be heard for this item okay okay please proceed with public invited reheard all right first up is karen you have three minutes go ahead hi my name is karen i'm 26 years old from a very young age i learned it's not easy to live in aurora because of the highlands and continuous rent for that reason throughout my childhood we moved a total of 11 times this was very difficult because each time we moved i also it also meant i had to keep school seeing my parents struggling to pay their rent and having the constant fear of being evicted from my home is a fear that stays with you for that reason i decided to drop out of school on ninth grade to work and help my parents no kids should go through that i wish i could have been able to finish high school and graduate with my friends memories of those struggles caused a lot of sadness in me and this is something that i do not want my five-month-old daughters and my new family to ever experience i do not want her to live with fear of being evicted and not knowing what will happen currently we share a home with my in-law because my husband and i are not able to afford a place of our own i want to feel safe and have a home where i'm not constantly fearing the cost of mercy i ask you counsel men and women of aurora to support the resolution housing is a human right so no more young people like myself live in fear of not having a place to call home thank you thank you next is maureen you have three minutes thank you good evening council members and mr mayor my name is lorene banzi and i am a resident of aurora for the past eight years i used to live in denver for many years and my landlord kept on raising my rent and not maintaining the property i had reached a point where i had to make a decision and my decision was to move to aurora in 2013 because aurora offered more affordable housing than denver and the diversity of the city officers as an immigrant myself it just made me fit right in there there are small businesses in the city of aurora that accommodate my needs and makes me feel so much at home as years have passed aurora has started raising the rains to weight has become unaffordable to the residents of this diverse city forcing families to move to the outskirts of the city as it is more affordable this resolution this resolution is just not about housing or dignified housing and it's here to keep families house to prevent homelessness which has become a major issue now as an aurora it would make me very proud if you use the mayor and the council members to pass this resolution as housing is a human right thank you for your time thank you next is alicia alicia you have three minutes my name is i'm going to have our spanish interpreter do the translation really fast hello for the last 16 years my family and i have been moving around from place to place which has been very difficult for us just want to confirm that's all she has to say did she continue with her resolution bye can somebody translate that she's able to continue with the rest of her testimony it can and also can we just confirm that we're going to be translating chunk by chunk and we'll just go back and forth it sounds like that's what's happening and i i think part of the translation was missing i don't think that was a full translation of what she said yeah the entire second portion was off your correct mirror reluca can you can you please get with the alisa and see if what else she needs to say to the council members [Music] [Music] [Music] is in and i have been living in aurora for 16 years in the time that i've lived in aurora [Music] camp we have changed since we've been living in aurora for seven times so much insecurity has been very difficult for me and my family for 11 years we had managers they were very abusive and they did not respect the rights of the people that lived there at times when we would pay rent [Music] and then they would charge one to charge us again which would cause a lot of instability september of 2016. they diagnosed my son with cancer we could not have enough money to pay the rent foreign we went to do a study december of 2015 we finally and for the last five years but he will not work for the owner anymore and the recent manager has changed it has changed a lot of the benefits that we had for living that is why i've been working with the council chris crystal muriel in this resolution because all human beings deserve to have a place to live just like we need food and water the same way we need a place to live where we can rest and feel safe in the report for the aurora housing it proved that those who have money they have an option to rent but the larger percentage of people like me we don't have this option in aurora we have a lot of families like mine who have to live together because of the high costs of rent this resolution would help us to make to make a living more affordable like councils representing the representing the community um you have to fight for all human beings so that we can have we can have a well living situation in aurora this is why i'm asking you the counselors of aurora your time is so please vote in favor of this resolution and to recognize housing as a human right thank you very much before we continue with the interpreter like to ask espanella and melisa to call the spanish interpretation line and perhaps [Music] our next speaker is duane you have three minutes hi uh my name is duane peterson um i've been on house for three years now and one of the issues one of the many issues that i'm facing is that people who are homeless are being lumped into one category meaning we all have the same issues and that we are deficient and that's the reason we are unhoused america has had a homeless crisis for almost 400 years and we're still talking about it for me i've looked at every avenue imaginable to for rehousing without any success one of those reasons i'm told over and over again is that i'm able-bodied therefore if i lost pounding therefore i can do it on my own i don't have a drug addiction a mental health problem um i'm college educated and i feel personally that i'm being discriminated against however that being said overall i don't feel housing is a human right i feel housing is a fundamental tenant to humanity and the fact that we're still talking about it is to me very insulting and i can understand when i look at the resolution it's great on paper but what i and other fun house people need is action we really want to see the person or persons next to us in their tent moving into housing we're tired of being interviewed we're tired of of being asked the same questions over and over again we're tired of being moved from one side of the street to the other we need action and i understand that this is a resolution and it's to address and to investigate issues regarding housing but how much longer are we going to have to investigate a problem that's been around in america for almost 400 years i want to thank you for this time and for the resolution but for me personally i'm just tired of being on the street um and it's very painful and it's very depressing and in my opinion there's no such thing even before covet of affordable housing um that just does not exist um and i really feel that another problem your three minutes are off with okay thank you thank you next is chris you have three minutes go ahead all right thank you oh sorry hi thank you um my name is chris rhodes um shelter is a basic human need therefore it should be your right it used to be something that was provided to even slaves because slave owners understood that housing a slave is more beneficial than leaving slaves exposed to the elements today in aurora though we have to beg the majority of city council to even deem the working men and women of our city as worthy of the basic life necessities slaves have long been granted think about what that says about those of you that we are having to beg today to vote yes slavery is the most heinous thing imaginable in american society yet some politicians employers and property owners in aurora do not even think workers in aurora deserve the basic provisions slaves were provided as someone currently living in ward 3 and looking for an apartment to rent elsewhere in aurora i can assure you the options are bleak i make a few dollars more than minimum wage combined with my partner we make a medium household income for aurora what that means in terms of housing options is if you are single you we would be forced to pay around 75 of our income on just cheap rent one bedroom apartment or combined it's just under 50 percent of our income that is not including transportation food communication cost or saving for an emergency to try and achieve home ownership that is so vital to retirement or any sense of economic stability in such a scenario is impossible yet we are soon to be irresponsible or lazy if we can't own a home by the majority of council what is the response of politicians when we citizens bring this up to people that are supposed to represent us they often hide behind cowardly phrases like supply and demand as if we are too blind to see the role legalized bribery by developers plays and constantly creating supply which is not demanded the demand is for affordable housing all i see being built is luxury housing it is perfectly possible to provide housing that is within 25 to 33 percent of all incomes out of profit for developers the only reason we do not have it is cowardice and corruption by our politicians as for the non-working people of a war not only is the morally right thing to do to housing is also a cheaper option than leaving them homeless the majority of councils seem utterly disgusted by the side of homeless people in aurora and complaining about poor people being a burden to taxpayers why not solve that problem by providing them housing of the right it will free up our police and medical professionals from having to deal with the effects of keeping them in the streets it is the morally just thing to do and it saves taxpayers at a time we are facing budget shortfalls there is no reason to oppose housing other right other than a stupid belief that suffering from poor people creates character or feeding your egos that those with wealth are superior to the rest of us do the right thing and vote yes on the resolution that housing is human rights or pray there is no creator to answer to yourself thank you you next up is nicholas go ahead you have three minutes beneath university council my name is i'm speaking to you all today to third support in that household in life um 28 20 years ago my family and i became rich in aurora my parents were able to see me home thank you life was good we went to good school we made new friends and we enjoyed our news um that's 2018. as we all know council families and individuals my family was born my father's wages became stagnant my mom lost her job entirely and ultimately we lost her home as a young child my parents worked hard to get to where they were both my parents worked long strange hours in sydney again uh despite sacrifice met herself a lot of many many of us who live before the pandemic will only live we can survive and nowadays more being behind and read other month bills and responsibilities combined with the lack of existing outcomes we find ourselves in despair this is unacceptable if we learn anything and then it should be the necessity of a stable home and house opportunity for all people please align yourself and vote yes thousand is thank you thank you thank you next is dolan you have three minutes yeah hi yeah hi hello go ahead yeah okay yeah thanks for responding finally so uh yeah basically this this has turned into a big fossil uh basically you guys i'm pretty sure everyone on council owns their own property and you know what that me except for allison coons allison coons i believe is the only one that doesn't own her own property now the resolution yeah sure i agree with the resolution but it doesn't do anything resolutions don't do anything they just we're just tap dancing okay it's not a law it's not enforceable so uh crystal mario i want to know you were on the housing committee for many years and allison coombs was on that housing committee for many years of course we didn't have access the housing committee isn't posted on youtube channel right because you guys don't want to i don't know why but uh yeah and then the executive session okay so the executive session closed off the public because why because that's where the negotiations with developers happen and when i go to these meetings these committees no one wants to talk about what's going on with the developers because it's all classified top secret stuff well guess what we pay your salary therefore we need transparency accountability and accessibility okay so the state legislature is responsible for affordable housing fine why don't you reach out to them we have a majority in the house in the senate we've had the majority in the house and the senate for many years nothing's getting done you guys are tap dancing let's see some fire in the eyes there is no these stories are so sad especially from the hispanic women you guys should be ashamed of yourself reach out to the department of housing and urban development reach out to the federal government reach out to the state legislature this is an emergency where the hell okay crystal you say jim twembley has all the power no he doesn't you're the one that makes the law the council makes the laws not jim twombly by the way if since wembley has all the power where the hell is he he shows up once in a while to talk about infrastructure and bonds give me a break you guys are pathetic thank you next is zebid i apologize if i mispronounced that go ahead you have three minutes hi this is v and i'm a ward three and i uh second second caller so i've lived in aurora for many years and the last few years i've been living at fairways at lowry and it's been a horrible experience but they do not care about us whatsoever we live in this 400 square foot apartment paying almost a thousand dollars and we have rats mice and roaches occupying our unit and the office doesn't care to do anything about it even when we ask them to put us in a hotel per the ward of habitability law they refused to do that they told us to go to our insurance and have them take care of it and they're just so disrespectful a lot of us are people of course color immigrants and i'm pretty sure if we were well to do white people they would not be doing this to us like i just another caller like i second what they said i don't even know understand why you guys think that we have to beg you to look out for us and i don't even understand how you guys those of you who are who claim to be christians look at yourself in the face and continue to put prophets over people i'm pretty sure jesus would be appalled by your your decision i'm done all right thank you next is richard go ahead you have three minutes good evening council members uh i'm calling in support of the resolutions declare housing as a human right um i moved to aurora when i was 10 years old i attended smokey hill and graduated from the university of colorado i really love this city and it saddens me how unaffordable it's become to my neighbors my friends to my family you know all human beings are the right to sweet speech practice of religion due process these are things that are very intuitive for for americans like you and i um and we know this because our human dignity and livelihood require it but in the same way that we cannot achieve true happiness without these rights like the right to speak speech and practice religion so many of your neighbors cannot achieve the same because of the chronic stress of poverty and healthlessness we cannot fully enjoy spending time with our family if we are stressed about being addicted we cannot take good sleep if we were lying on a cold concrete day in and out worrying about our possessions being stolen the u.n recognized housing as a human right in 1948 so 73 years later it's about time auroras did the same um by voting dance you'll be cementing yourself on the moral and just side of history and i really hope that you do so thank you thank you so sydney is next go ahead you have three minutes hi my name is sydney hawkins i live in ward 3 and i am calling in support of the resolution to declare housing as a human right in aurora um i agree with the previous callers that have complimented on why housing is a human right and how it improves the quality of life and also i think that this resolution is a great step in informing strong housing policy moving forward and so i am really supportive of the capital people that have pushed this resolution forward and i hope that it passes thank you thank you next is alex you have three minutes go ahead hey can everybody hear me hi can everybody hear me perfect good evening members of the council it's a pleasure to be here in front of you my name is alex luna i'm the director of organizing with uh uni united for a new economy um and i'm here to speak in favor of of housing of the human rights you know growing up um and i think we're seeing a lot of the impacts of what's happening and the frustration and anger you know and experiencing that as a young person seeing you know my parents have to make a constant choice whether to pay the bills to pay for lice or food or having or having to pay the rent or mortgage it's a very challenging choices that our families are continuing to face even now um and being in ward 3 and and speaking to constantly organ uh people in the community we're seeing a direct fear of families being displaced at this time um and family speaking into this into this very calm and very moment is the fear of not having a place to stay and live and having that security and we're seeing that that frustration and anger coming out this evening and we're also seeing an opportunity for us to step forward into something bolder and something new together um and so when we talk about um housing as a human right it's an opportunity for us to step forward and collectively to making sure that local communities and city can cities and counties have the opportunity to create decisions and choices to make sure that family has this signified right because right now with this prohibition band that created opportunity of affordable housing is saying that community does not know best and right now what this this resolution allows us to be able to say that no we know what's best for aurora and we want to make sure that we pass the housing solution that best works for our family and so that's why we invite you this evening to make sure to walk with us as community to look for deeper uh solutions with this resolution and to make sure that we can take we can take bigger and bolder steps to make sure that aurora has dignified housing for everybody thank you and have a good evening thank you that is the last person in line mayor mayor let me double check with the call in line for the spanish interpreter and make sure she doesn't have anybody okay please um i've been living in aurora for the last 16 years my family and i we have been living a small apartment for 10 years because we want to have a bigger space in a better quality of life we move to a bigger place to a house but we have to share the housing with another two families and this became a big issue because we have other expenses to share as well that is why we only live there for one year and that is why we have to move to a different place now we're living here for the last four years but one of the biggest issues that we have is the high cost of the rent my husband is the only one working so this is too much just for him to pay for the planet in the last couple weeks the lender the owner of the house told us to leave the house because she plans to sell the house and that is becoming a big issue for us because now we have to find a new place for me and my family in our children i want you to consider our situation there are other families and other people like us in the same situation that is why we want to support this resolution for better housing [Music] in that way we can avoid to continue moving from one place to another ricardo they have three minutes thank you so much for listening to us and i hope you will consider this thank you good afternoon my name is right now i'm leaving the same location for the last six years when we start moving when we just move there we start paying one thousand fifty six thousand dollars for rent and every year i have to renew my lease they increase the rent in a hundred dollars and i'm really upset with the owner because the house requires maintenance and other things but they don't pay attention to those because the pandemic my husband lose his dad and because that reason we were behind paying with the payment on the rent and now we have a court rotation we have to leave the house the owner also has been helping us to apply for assistance with the city of rora and that is how we were able to pay the rent in the month of april can i talk to the owner and we are talking to the owner to see we can get further assistance he the owner told her that he will consider but she's not sure that he will later on um please support this proposal declarando because housing is a human right thank you so much for listening and thank you and god bless offers you because you are you know that we are having a difficult time with this pandemic three minutes my name is two and a half years ago with my husband and my children i love this state because they embrace us and have been so nice and very nice to us and the whole family because we are looking for a better future for us in my family during the last couple years i removed four times from one house to another unfortunately we are facing different situations right now in just a long the owner of my house want to ask to leave very soon well under these difficult times i still looking for a new housing but it's very difficult because they ask for different requirements so i'm not sure i will be able to find new houses so and because i'm living in very difficult times some people try to take advantage i just lost more than three hundred dollars because the owner of that house didn't want to spend any money fixing the house the house faced critical safety and healthy issues and now i'm facing legal issues i need to go to court to fight for my house and that is why asking you to join our fight but you can take action so we can make change in our community please be in favor of the resolution so you can be part of this big change because housing is a human right thank you so much my name is i'm working construction i have three children during the first few years i have to be with other family members in order to be able to pay for the friend [Music] and later when my husband got a better job and better income solos [Music] and i was able to rent a small basement because it's cheaper than rent a house of a bigger apartment the family was extremely difficult to share the same space with other family members there is nothing like to have your own space your during the last few years during all the time that we have been living in our order i would have to relocate and move more than 13 times because increasing costs of the rent and the housing why do people pay you have to understand that moving from one place to another without farming in my children that brought different implications in their education plans for example during these years my older son have to attend five different schools because we were moving from one place to another puerto much we have so many bad experiences for example we have to rent a basement for a year in order to continue with our lives because they didn't sign a lease the owner of the basement want to increase the rent every month we and because those situations and conditions we have to move again uh one of the and now we have more stability as a family leaving the same place for the last three years i have been working with other people in favor of this resolution because we strongly believe that housing is a human right because many families in aurora are struggling in dealing with housing issues right now everyone in the city have to ride for better housing i am asking all the members of the city council to support and vote in favor of this resolution thank you so much is there another no no no no more people thank you gracias um yeah i need a motion for the approval of item number 11b mayor uh councilmember mario thank you uh move to approve item 11b removed by uh um uh council member mario and second and by second uh councilman mcconnell to approve our number 11b discussion here councilman thank you um i just wanted to um you know give a little more context i know this is not the first time this group has heard about this and um you know working with a group of residents in the community to um reaffirm our values housing it's a resolution which again isn't a specific law per se but it is resolution service functions of serve to function as a statement of support and as we have heard in past conversations what i want to reiterate today is that this is an aspiration of the city to uh value and to move policies moving forward that center of people and housing and that housing should be a right for folks um to have access to that and um this comes after i think three-ish years of pushing for um and actively um commissioning studies um and needs assessment on on housing uh inventory stock um assessments as well i'll culminating to what passed last december which is our affordable housing study so this is moving right along in those conversations trying to center our conversations with equitable outcomes as we start and will be voting on actual policies in these next in this year and moving forward if you guys have had an opportunity and for the public as well that housing study is kind of like a road map and so um it comes up with housing it outlines housing policies and i believe this housing is a human right resolution is complementary to that and it's sort of uh again anchoring before we get into any of the policies and we have passed some um you know one-off policies but the strategic approach um centering us an equitable outcome before we start voting on those individually um and i do also just want to point out um and big kudos to our staff um i was informed that our original interpreter um called him ill um tonight and so that we had a backup interpreter who actually um decided not to work past 7 30 p.m and just interpreting so um big kudos to our staff and it was a little uncomfortable i think for all of us to kind of work through some of those issues but thank you for your the utmost professionalism and uh working through some of those technological issues and i hope we're able to follow up with offender because that was unacceptable to just leave a a live city council meeting when folks needed that interpretation and i hope we can address that in the future and um this is not you know i hope we can work through just the translation challenges moving forward so again um there were some comments in the beginning as well that were um you know people are angry and i totally understand um people this is not a new concept and i'm i'm really um i felt their frustration and i'm hoping that we can channel that into some really productive conversations moving forward so um yeah i would urge and ask my colleagues for you all to vote for this resolution and um hopefully the upcoming pieces of legislation around housing as well thank you uh seeing none uh the question before i didn't hear you you were not you were muted when you're asking for another discussion so can i speak please that's why it comes okay thank you so you know as we discussed in study session the concept of human rights is really about guaranteeing the preconditions for freedom and thriving for our people and i hope that listening to the testimony of people that called in tonight we can all acknowledge and recognize that the situations that they talked about were lacking in those preconditions for both freedom and thriving people cannot make free choices when they're in these types of circumstances and some of the other preconditions for freedom and thriving like education like health are also undermined by the lack of access to adequate housing as was also laid out so well by people in sharing you know the really sad and concerning stories that came forward and so i hope that it's very clear that when we look at human rights as those preconditions for people to be free in society to thrive in society that they cannot secure those when they're in the kinds of conditions that people have described living in within our city further discussion further discussion persons no councilman persons thank you um yes i could hear that in their voices it reminded me a lot of of the testimony of the mobile home parks that we had what two three years ago and you know those were desperate folks and it it breaks your heart to hear what some people are going through but honestly i don't i really don't know what went on tonight i felt like this resolution to them thinks that is a is a sign that maybe there's going to be public housing free housing i mean i from what they said i don't think a lot of them understood that this is a resolution and like you said in in policy committee resolutions really mean nothing you know it's just it's just a lot of words on a piece of paper um and and i get that i mean some fellow even even likened it to slavery i mean seriously that's that's that that says a lot in his mind that he he thinks you know that the lack of housing is like slavery but we have to remember that the housing study that we did came back that aurora has some of the most affordable housing in the metro area uh and that seems to have gotten lost along the way and another thing we have so many builders ready to build and it's they're not you know they're they're just like this ready to go and it's and a lot of them are just not getting approved or getting held up for one reason or another so you know i'm saying as council members we all know that so you know if we could help this process move along and get new ones built so you know it can be new ones are built so these folks can move over here and other folks can move in you know it's just it's a round robin um and i think that's going to help a lot to get more more inventory um there there's a lot more that we need to do to make housing affordable you know i've said many times it's insurance it's property taxes it's water it's electricity it i mean it's just on and on the cost of a house or an apartment and i don't see insurance rates going down i don't see taxes going down i just i don't see it and i don't see aurora having the money to build free homes free houses free apartments you know so we're you know we're going to have to work together and not point fingers at each other but you know according to this call to action that went out on social media i don't know maybe they uh misunderstood what some of the language in that because it talked about public housing and and and cheaper housing so you know i i'm i'm all for you know lower housing but um i can't support this because i as i said before i don't think it's it's in our constitution for us to say what's right and what's not a right i think we just need to work together to get it done instead of just having a lot of words on a piece of paper come here that's all i wanted to say mayor further discussion uh councilman memorial yeah um thank you marcia for your comments um i guess i'll just start off with i hope that we can be consistent with the way in which we treat resolutions i i hope that nobody who supported the um opposed hate crimes against our asian pacific islander community via resolution thinks that that's meaning meaningless verbiage um because that too was a resolution so i just like to call that up and and hopefully we can be consistent with the way in which we treat different avenues and different ways of making and affecting change again i think the housing resolution sorry the housing study is is compromised of many different specific outcomes and so um we'll be talking about those as the year progresses and so you know this is meant to be a resolution as a statement of support and of values um you're right uh human rights are not constitutional rights they are just rights because we are people and we are human and we deserve to live and exist um so that is the distinction between human rights and constitutional rights they live independently um i was also you know so i just want to make that distinction that is not um unclear to me and i also just also want to clarify that i think the the folks that i've been working with are clear on the the the potential of this resolution what this resolution does and does not do whether they have hopes and aspirations otherwise i can't mandate or dictate and they're entitled to their um first amendment opinion and and right to exercise and what they hope um so you know i won't speak to their individual um uh i guess additional comments but we've been very clear working you know very clearly on what this resolution is and isn't um and they still chose to support even though and work through all these technological challenges um to to give their comments today so again i want to thank everyone for for coming to speak i don't agree with everything that was said tonight um i'll be clear there but um just because they speak spanish doesn't mean that they're incapable of understanding what this resolution does so i do want to make that also that clarification on their behalf further discussion mayor david uh councilman gruber so i have a few questions about the specific wording um in the first whereas it says um let's see it it refers to the housing right act could someone explain the reference what's that it that is referencing or the human uh housing is a human right act they're all capital letters it's a formal um it looks like a formal name where did what what is the housing as a human rights act that's remember gerber this is tim joyce uh there is a housing is a human right act in the u.s legislature it's a it's proposal by someone in this u.s legislature that served as a foundation to write this resolution all right so so it doesn't exist yet it hasn't been voted on by con typically when you have a a capitalized name and you're formally naming something it's something that exists so this is a draft act written by someone in the senator the house that hadn't been voted on by either body and has not been signed by the president so but that is not so my problem is that that is not spelled out in our in our resolution we we reference something um that that frankly is is right now just a draft uh uh draft on a piece of paper is that is that what you're telling me that's correct all right i'm disappointed with that let me go down to the um the the their force it says the aurora city council resolves its support for the concepts and principles of housing is a human right where are the concepts and principles identified council member they uh what you've heard today is all the concepts and principles that i'm aware of so there's nothing in this resolution that refers to something we can point to to say these are the concepts and principles that we're voting on so it seems that the only thing we're really voting on is a title right so housing is a human right is that again there's no there's no meat under the bun there's there's no um explanation as to first off the reference like you said the reference doesn't exist yet it's a draft ordinary draft act in congress that hadn't been voted on and then the concepts and principles are specifically not stated you know here's typically in the section you would say and here's the principles and concepts so we're going to be voting on on first off for voting for an act that hadn't been approved by congress so we don't know what it's going to be by the time if it makes it to the president for a signature and then secondly the concepts and principles aren't defined i i i simply can't support that this this it's not there there's not enough here to vote on other than the title the final thing is is that i i also agree that many of the people who called in made it sound like council by doing this they were led to believe that by council voting on this that they will be somehow or another we will deal with rent issues that they have we will deal with uh affordable housing issues that they have this this will solve all of that and and by making the points that i did that that there are no concepts and principles there's nothing here for the city to enforce that leaves a big gap and i and i feel disappointed for the people that that have spoken to us with so such hope in their voice because we won't be able to do this this resolution doesn't doesn't do anything it doesn't it doesn't even identify what we're voting on the concepts and principles so i i i will not support this and i apologize that those people who called in believe that this resolution would do that for them councilmember mcconnell then council member muriel oh thank you mayor uh sorry one second here yeah so uh i guess first i want to start by saying that we have several other resolutions on our agenda tonight uh so i don't think that they're meaningless and i'm sure that the sponsors of the other resolutions might take some umbrage with that characterization uh to many resolutions are valuable statements uh they're value statements rather and they are meaningful they provide a vision they let the public know that we hear them and that we want to do something about the things that they're concerned about so this resolution recognizes the reality of the struggle for many of the families here in aurora to afford and maintain dignified housing as you all heard from some of our callers they're either unable to find a home or would be severely cost burdened based off the options that are currently available and i kind of want to touch on a few other things here we've actually have had this uh coming from a president actually as far back as 1944. i'm not going to read the whole second bill of rights to you but among them uh are the rights to a useful and remunerative job to earn enough to provide adequate food clothing and recreation um for every businessman large and small to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home and abroad and the right of every family to own a decent home and when we're talking about uh you know human uh i guess going back to the human rights conversation that we had the tenants actually of a right to adequate housing are laid out in the universal declaration of human rights you can actually find an entire document that walks you through what all of those are and in case you're curious as to like more local applications of the right to housing as a concept uh canada actually has a right to housing law in place south africa does as well and massachusetts in the united states says so i think we would be the first municipality or at least among the first municipalities to take this kind of a stance as to what policy looks like that will come later i definitely have some ideas i'm sure you all do as well and i look forward to discussing those but i think that setting this vision making this declaration to our residents that we hear them we understand we actually aim to act on this is important and i will be supporting this resolution as a result thank you uh councilman um council member mario thank you um you know getting messages from folks who are listening in and it's unfortunate that they're not able to respond and say very clearly they are clear on what this that this is a resolution and what this does and does not do so i apologize for somebody apologizing on your behalf that's early inappropriate um so i just wanted to make that clarification and then additionally housing as a human right um is referring to the name of this piece of legislation which um is a proper noun which is required you know is meant to be capitalized so um this is uh not based on a piece of legislation that hasn't passed um that might have been um part of our stakeholding process to look at other pieces of legislation that were um also similar to this um i think it adds more credibility to this process that not only has the un declared um human rights uh has a declaration on human rights with housing being part of that that that is like one of the high that is the highest level of intergovernmental cooperation are our government there is a bill active um being pursued to support housing as a human right so not only do we have you know other nations agreeing that this is important our congress talking about the fact that this is important but that here at the local level we also support that as well so i actually think that adds to the the credibility of this conversation and um want to encourage my um colleagues to not make inferences about what people do and do not understand just because they speak a different language um you know and aren't here to defend themselves otherwise i think that's wholly inappropriate um and i would like to reiterate that i have confirmed and it's insulting that we could spend months on end talking about this and just because there was you know poor translation and they don't speak english very well that you would um dare to you know say that they don't understand that and i think that's been very clear um and that's very that that rhetoric is just unacceptable so um i i take i take issue with that and you know you can try and walk that back and try to clarify x y or z but i think that that rhetoric has been made very clear and i'm disappointed to hear it so i hope we can get back to the substance of this uh resolution and uh again go back to the fact that this is a visionary statement i have no problem um saying that we believe housing is a human right uh that that should be visionary and that should be aspirational for the city of aurora that is something that has been affirmed time and time again by a city attorney in different um settings and specifically in our last study session where we discussed this as well further discussion mayor dave gruber councilmember grover then councilman coombs okay so so i don't even know what that that was let me go back again when i talked about the fact i'm talking about specifically what's written down i'm not making this up the first warehouse has capitalized housing is a human rights act the city council of aurora does not create acts congress creates acts and as we heard from the attorney this act has not been voted on by the house and the senate has not been signed by the by the president so when i say this is this is wrong that we should not have uh referenced a draft act in congress that was my point secondly again we do not have the concepts and principles defined finally the interpretation of not the not the spanish speakers but the english speakers as well as the translation of the spanish speakers made it sound as if this was going to solve the problems that they identified that is clearly that was the point that i was making i don't know an apology to anybody i don't owe you know i'm not walking anything back i'm reading exactly what this what this says and this is an incomplete piece of legislation that does not identify what we're going to do and it doesn't have anything in the results that was the point that i was making mayor just a point of clarification i'm sorry you're muted mayor oh uh councilmember comes in councilman mario okay so because we did talk about the u.n declaration on human rights in study session and if there were questions about that in study session we could have discussed that then but i do think i touched on a number of these in my defense of it at the time and in my summary here today but i'll reiterate them in any case about what does housing as a human right mean according to the un which is kind of the home of much human rights discourse um the right to adequate housing contains freedoms these freedoms include protection against forced evictions and the arbitrary destruction and demolition of one's home the right to be free from arbitrary interference within one's home privacy and family and the right to choose one's residence to determine where to live and to freedom of movement the right to adequate housing contains entitlements these entitlements include security of tenure housing land and property restitution equal and non-discriminatory access to adequate housing participation in housing related decision making at the national and community levels adequate housing must provide more than four walls and a roof a number of conditions must be met before particular forms of shelter can be considered to constitute adequate housing these elements are just as fundamental as the basic supply and availability of housing for housing to be adequate it must at minimum meet the following criteria security of tenure housing is not adequate if its occupants do not have a degree of tenure security which guarantees legal protection against forced evictions harassment and other threats availability of services materials facilities and infrastructure housing is not adequate if its occupants do not have safe drinking water adequate sanitation energy for cooking heating lighting food storage or refuse to disposal affordability housing is not adequate if its cost threatens or compromises the occupant occupants enjoyments of other human rights habitability housing is not adequate if it does not guarantee physical safety or provide adequate space as well as protection against the cold damp heat rain wind or other threats to health and structural hazards accessibility housing is not adequate if the specific needs of disadvantaged and marginalized groups are not taken into account location housing is not adequate if it is cut off from employment opportunities health care services schools child care centers and other social facilities or if located in polluted or dangerous areas cultural adequacy housing is not adequate if it does not respect and take into account the expression of cultural identity so there's some information about what this means from the institutions that this discourse is grounded in mayor council member mario then councilmember bergen from mayor pro tember thank you yeah um again this is this is a visionary statement a resolution of values um of our city that housing is a human right not sure why we have to have human rights defined i think that is a pretty generalized concept that's pretty universally accepted in different contexts so um you know i saying that this isn't clear otherwise i think is incorrect there are multiple bodies of legislation that identify that um if there were particular issues with the the phrasing i would have loved for this to be part of the stakeholding process and for this to have been taken seriously um before the conversation today so you know i am disappointed to hear that um if there were amendments that we didn't address them ahead of time through the normal process thank you mayor protambergen thank you mayor um i i also have an issue with the section one of the resolution where it resolves to support the concepts and principles of housing as a human right which i just heard um that the un declaration basically spells out what those conditions are there were a lot of conditions there and i i took an oath to the united states constitution not to the united nations i respect the united nations but we're we're now talking about supporting concepts that that the united nations have put forth that half the nations in the world don't even abide by um which is probably why we have so many people wanting to come to america um for opportunities so i also have an issue with section number two all resolutions or parts of resolution of the city in conflict with uh in here with are hereby rescinded what does that mean because i don't know what what resolutions maybe this is i guess a question for our attorney can you tell me what resolutions we have that are in conflict with this resolution may pretend burger that's standard language in almost every single resolution that if there is a resolution that conflicts with this it's rescinded it's just standard language and i'm not aware of any any resolution that interferes or conflicts with this okay but i guess i don't understand i understand that that's standard in all the resolutions but this is kind of problematic that we don't really know what possibly is in conflict because it basically says it rescinds them so i'll just say that i'm not comfortable with that part of it and i'm not comfortable with the section one i i i understand the you know the the intent behind it is a good intention and and certainly we have done a lot in our city to try to solve some of the housing issues not all of them um there it's very complex and and as everybody knows in terms of you know dealing with um what standards the city has the zoning laws that we have uh where you know where housing can be what kind of housing can be put in who's going to pay for the housing and there's a lot of a lot of questions to uh to contemplate and as a so i i and like i said i understand the intent behind it i and i i my heart does go out to the callers that called in but i just can't support the resolution the way it's written further discussion uh seeing none uh the question before us uh is the adoption of item number 11b with the clerk please call the roll councilmember combs yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember gardner no mayor protembergen no councilmember mercano yes councilmember gruber no councilmember burzins no council member mario yes councilmember johnson yes councilmember hiltz yes that is six yeses and four knows the motion passes um five number 11c has been removed from the agenda with the clerk now please read the title of item number 11d item 11d is resolution 2021-24 a resolution of the city council of the city of aurora colorado expressing the aurora city council's approval of the intergovernmental agreement between the united states air force buckley air force base in the city of aurora's aurora history museum and historic sites division motion mayor move to approve 11d should remove my um councilmember uh gruber seconded by councilmember coombs to improve on number 11 and d um discussion i see none um i'm sorry oh merits uh councilmember comes thomas so i just wanted to again in the more formal setting thank our staff for working with buckley on and with other entities on getting this brought forward and hopefully bringing these artifacts closer to their original home and helping folks repatriate those items if they so choose further discussion i see now i'm with the clerk um please call the roll on the adoption of item number 11d councilmember johnston yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember gruber yes mayor pro tim bergen yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember lawson yes council member mcconnell yes and council member mario yes the motion passes will the clerk now please read the title to item number 11 e item 11e is resolution 2021-25 a resolution of the city council of the city of aurora colorado expressing the aurora city council support of the colorado congressional redistricting commission and colorado legislative redistricting commission's efforts to promote municipal integrity clear motion mayor councilmember lawson mayor i moved to approve 11e been moved by council member lawson seconded by megan groover seconded by council member gruber to approve item number 11e uh discussion mayor um remember lawson i think councilmember maria was before me councilman no i'll defer to the sponsor councilmember lawson okay um council um mayor in council um this resolution basically is just urging the um the dish the redistricting commission to keep a rural hole in a single district and to not really divide our communities and neighborhoods this was a citizen initiative that was brought to pfizer and we had more discussion at study sessions so i hope that my colleagues will approve that's a memorial thank you um i yeah i i wanted to uh yield the initial time for for the sponsor to speak and um thank you councilmember lawson for for bringing this forward i just wanted to um share that i won't be supporting this i i i in concept i i think it's a good concept i just think that given all of the i guess um volatility in the census process that happened under the trump administration um there's there there was a lot of how we collected census data um and then the delay that that has caused in in some of these commissions and committees to move forward so they haven't even um i guess they've delayed the process to go through the redistricting because there's incomplete data so i just i feel uncomfortable voting for something that i feel like is an incomplete i guess it's just a little premature i feel like i don't have all of the information at this time but um you know i i don't know how i feel you know specifically about the concept at this time i just um i just personally feel like it's a little premature given that we um some of these processes have been delayed um and i'd like to see some of them play out before personally giving an opinion so i wanted to share my thoughts further discussion mayor dave gerber all right councilmember gruber so i wanted to point out why i am supporting this first off i understand the delays we had this thing called covid last year that affected much more than than simply the uh the census but most importantly what this ordinance does and and uh council member lost and correct me if i'm wrong but what the ordinance does is make sure that our representatives at the state level within the state legislature and in the senate are representing aurora so when we vote for our state representatives we're voting for people who have a vested interest in the city of aurora and that's why i think this is important and councilmember gruber um mayor i'm sorry further discussion uh councilmember lawson and councilmember gruber you are correct in that um what you just stated it is for that so i understand that there was delay in the data and i don't think it's premature at all i think that's why we had support from a lot of our aurora delegation to make this statement while they're in the redistricting process so um i still hope i get support for it mayor further discussion further discussion just uh i have a question on and i understand uh we want to have one voice for the city of aurora but if we don't feel that we have had adequate representation for all of aurora different sections of aurora by our state legislators are we are we not i guess by by making this resolution are we um precluding better representation i guess is what i'm saying maybe um council member lawson so i i mean council member uh mayor pro tim bergen essentially what this is is just to really to me and and my interpretation is um to make sure that we do have the right representation make sure that aurora stays whole because again we could be very districted out and i think it's important that we keep our communities whole that's my position on it for the representation we didn't have all of the aurora delegation it was forwarded to them i know senator fields and senator brockenfield look at looked at it as well um so we did have the sport but not by all of our award delegation but that's how i'm looking at this um this particular resolution and may or may i follow up america so this is not only for the state legislative uh representative districts but also for our congressional districts the u.s congress yes yes that is correct we need representation in southeast further discussion [Music] i think we all have to chuckle when francoise mentioned um i just wanted to clarify my comments uh councilmember lawson like i didn't mean to infer that this is premature review i just again i have to stick to to what i know about just the general process about how the census was collected how data was information data and information was collected i had so much heartburn like many folks over um things like the citizenship question and concerns with um how how that process went about and i am still looking to see how it kind of moves forward i know we're not in the middle in the thick of that um i just you know i wanted to just express just that knowledge of that makes me unclear on the benefit or or not benefit i don't have an opinion necessarily on on how it is i just feel for me that i'm not able to make that decision um i trust that you have done your due diligence with your stakeholders to be able to do that and um you know i've talked to kind of mixed opinions on this so um that has helped inform my decision as well so you know just wanted to clarify that i'm sure you did your process it was not a statement of your process by any means let me just say that this really doesn't have anything to do with the census at all uh other than the fact that it's required constitutionally do redo every 10 years and it changes boundaries what this says and there really is a message to the commission itself that will be drawing these lines is that that do all that you can to keep the integrity of the city of aurora in one congressional district and as much as possible to keep our to create state to redraw state legislative uh districts uh uh within the city of aurora in other words uh not have a bunch of fragmented uh districts that come into part of aurora and then cover a large swath of other areas and so it's really to maximize our representation both in the general assembly and and in congress further discussion let's see now question before uh councilmember i'm so sorry i this actually does have have to do with the census because we use census data to draw since this tracks to determine representation so i i just have a differing opinion but i think i think the connection is clear irrespective of what would happen to the senses this would be this is important uh whether you agree or disagree with how the census was done uh further discussion let's see now the question before us is the adoption of item number eleven e with clerk please call the rule council member hilts yes yes council member marcano yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember johnston yes councilmember mario no councilmember gardner yes mayor pro tim bergen just hoping for better representation member group did you say yes i'm sorry yes councilmember berzins yes the motion passes now please read the title of item number 11f 11f is resolution 2021-26 a resolution of the city council of the city of aurora colorado declaring the month of april each year as second chance month in the city of aurora motion mayor by councilman gardner uh motion to approve item 11f removed by councilmember gardner by uh councilmember uh to approve number 11f discussion mayor councilmember gardner thank you i just wanted to give a little background and reasoning for bringing this forward there's some information included in the backup but essentially those leaving prison after they've served their debt to society face over 44 000 documented legal restrictions um this includes difficulties getting housing getting jobs voting and on and on and on but and starting in 2017 the us senate declared second chance month in april uh colorado joined that effort that year and since 2017 several other states um have also joined in on the effort last monday president biden also declared april second chance month in 2021 and and you know i want to address one thing specifically because some of the feedback i got from the public is you know why are you supporting criminals but i think it's important to point out you can be both tough on crime but then also recognize that after folks have served their time they should be allowed to re-enter society there's a whole host of reasons why that's important not the least of which is the human element we're talking about brothers sisters sons daughters husbands wives parents specifically and so it's really important to to offer redemption to these individuals that want to re-enter society and we've made it very difficult for that to happen um again a resolution as we've talked about ad nauseam tonight is a as a statement of values and and you know this resolution of itself doesn't make significant changes but i think it's an important um statement by this city council that i hope other council members will join in voting that we recognize these legal restrictions that folks face after prison and we want to encourage society to remove those restrictions when possible further discussion councilmember combs um so yeah thank you councilmember gardner for bringing this forward i think it's important to highlight that particularly restrictions to housing and restrictions to employment have devastating effects on people's lives and when people have you know done their time they have done what was laid out for them to do as a result of committing a criminal act it's inhumane to recriminalize them and to undermine their ability to have access to those basic needs and basic rights um and in addition as i mentioned in study session i know this does not change the law it doesn't change any laws however access to voting rights are also restricted not in colorado but in other places related to um having prior convictions and in our very own city having been convicted of a felony at any time in your life makes it so that you don't have access to political participation through running for office and this resolution does not change that but i hope that it gives us as a council the opportunity to reflect on that fact and to decide if we have the will to act to ensure that full political participation is restored to people with past convictions discussion further discussion mayor uh councilman gruber so i'm going to support this as i as i mentioned in during study session i want to point out though that victims rights week is april 18th through 24th as i mentioned in study session last year we had over 3 300 victims of major crimes here in aurora so what my point is is that i agree that once someone has gone through the system and they're coming out they should be treated fairly i also want to point out that that's that's there's caveats in there we aren't going to you know we do not recommend of putting a child molester in a child care facility we don't recommend putting an embezzler in an organization that requires them to deal with money so there are some limitations to that but the general concept of you know if you've gone through the system if you've served your time in jail when you come out you should have a second chance to start i do support that there's questions further discussion mayor uh uh mayor project bargain yes and i just want to clarify that we are not this resolution does not uh talk about any other actions other than section one which says their worst city council um resolves that the month of april each year shall be known as second chance month is that correct uh staff for the sponsor yeah that's what's in the resolution right so no other actions are in this resolution it's what's in the resolution thank you further discussion persons council member persons thank you um i i'm going to support this too because i i do agree with councilmember gardner but like has been stated there's always a flip side to everything do we have a resolution in the works for victims rights coming up soon mayor i can answer uh remember tim um at our next council meeting we will have a victim rights proclamation all right a proclamation but not a resolution that's correct yeah okay i'm thinking maybe we should have a resolution for that too so we can we can show both sides that we appreciate them and and respect them further discussion mayor councilman ricardo again i think it's important to point out that this resolution has zero to do with victims this is purely a statement that once individuals have been punished in jail for their crime against a victim that they are allowed to re-enter society so you know reading into this that that it's disparaging to victims or or anything like that is is completely off base this this actually only applies to those who have been to prison because they victimized someone else so i i i'm really not understanding i guess this focus on on victims those are really two separate matters um so i you know i if we bring forward a resolution for victims rights or whatever um i you know i will gladly support that but um that that's not really relevant to this conversation further discussion mayor um that's remember with you that's right all right thank you um yeah so i sit on the state advisory board for juvenile justice and delinquency prevention and i i want to just thank councilmember gardner and and elevate the experience of our youth in in our in the system and though it's not jail per se there is a large nexus with folks who are involved in youth in detention facilities and um elevating the experience of our lgbtq plus youth and their experience in the system and and how that leads to so many struggles um moving forward and in particular with housing um you know i i do think that we we it makes a lot of sense for us to reaffirm this as a value because we know the experience of our our queer youth um and others i know that's not the specific focus i just wanted to elevate that um as my experience on that commission um having studied the the issue um and elevating that um as part of the conversation and their experience further discussion as seeing none the question before is the adoption of item number 11 f with the clerk please call the rule mayor pro tim bergen yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember johnston yes councilmember lawson councilmember coombs yes councilmember yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember marcano yes and councilmember hills yes the motion passes look now please read the title of item number 11g 11g is resolution 2021-27 a resolution of the city council of the city of aurora colorado in support of the first supplement to intergovernmental agreement between the board of county commissioners of the county of adams the city of aurora and the aerotropo metropolis area coordinating metropolitan district establishing the aerotropolis regional transportation authority motion mayor mayor listen to approval uh councilmember motion to approve 11g and moving by kelsey memorial gardener second by councilmember guru to approve number 11g discussion uh seeing none uh with the click please call the role on the adoption of item number 11g councilmember coombs yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember lawson yes mayor protembergen yes councilmember barrio yes councilmember johnston yes councilmember burzins yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember gardner yes and council member marcano yes the motion passes the time is now uh 902 pm uh council will stand at recess for five minutes until 907 pm uh to give the staff uh the opportunity to to do an announcement for the call in line we are now in recess residents who would like to speak on an ordinance and have not already been screened please press star 3 before the item is called by the clerk for those watching on channel 8 please call 855 nine five three four seven five to be connected and then press star three council is taking a short five minute break to allow for any additional speakers to sign up again be patient and stay on the line until the operator is able to take down your information as long as you hear a prompt after pressing star 3 and don't forget to star and can still hear music holds we are in recess and you will be in line to speak to an operator thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so the aurora city council is now in session with the clerk uh please read the title of item number 12 a 12a is 20 21-14 an ordinance of the city council of the city of aurora colorado resorting 14.39 acres more or less at the southeast corner of smokey hill road in east ottawa place from low density single family district to mixed use corridor district and amending the zoning map accordingly public hearing is now open would staff please introduce the item good evening mayor and council members my name is claire dalby with planning and development services on march 10 2021 the aurora planning commission recommended approval to city council of the smoky hill coffee shop zoning map amendment to rezone a parcel of land at the intersection of smoky hill road and east on a place from r1 low density single family zoning to muc mixed use corridor zoning the applicant's reason for the rezoning request was to have mixed-use zoning that is contiguous with mixed-use zoning to the south in order to construct a drive-through coffee shop establishment staff determined that the rezoning request was compatible with surrounding development and that it met all criteria for approval pertinent questions from the commissioners during the hearing included questions about parking detention and business ownership as well as a subsequent presentation to city council staff in the applicant resolved all questions from the commissioners and the commissioners voted unanimously to recommend approval of the zoning map amendment to city council that's all i have for you tonight but i'm happy to take any questions you may have uh questions of staff mayor uh councilmember verzins oh okay uh mayor pretend burger thank you that's okay mayor um yeah i just wanted to clarify that we are um re-zoning this land from from the residential to mixed use commercial right that is correct and that's the that's the parcel that the church eastern hills community church is also on correct okay thank you further questions of staff uh is the applicant present does the applicant wish to speak he's available for questions sorry good evening mayor council uh clint jamison i'm the applicant i'm here to answer any questions questions of the applicant mayor uh councilmember bergen mayor for denver um yes thank you for being here did you did you have any conversations with um eastern hills community church yeah uh they're selling us the property so yeah we had a lot of conversations okay i was wondering all right so they're selling they're they're selling the property but they're not vacating it yeah they're selling just uh about an acre of land to us and we had to rezone the entire property in order to do the coffee shop on the corner right thank you i understood that thank you very much yeah uh further questions of the applicant or of staff uh seeing none uh then uh the public hearing uh is now is is a renew uh my call for the public hearing uh is or does anyone wish to speak uh on this issue mayor there there's nobody in the public calling line to speak on this issue very well um uh further discussion uh seeing none uh with the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of item number 12a mayor do we have to close the public hearing oh public hearing is closed uh uh with clerk please um uh call the role on the adoption of item number 12a may i make a statement before we go to the phone please sorry i was just waiting for you to close it before i asked um and i'm very supportive of this um we we need a coffee shop there and uh so i just wanted to say i'm supportive of this very well for is there further discussion i've seen you now the question before is is the adoption of item number 12a with the clerk please call the roll mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember mario yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember johnston yes councilmember coombs yes councilman marcano yes councilman gardner yes and council member gruber yes the motion passes looks like now please read the title of vitamin 14a item 14a is ordinance 2021-13 an ordinance of the city council of the city aurora colorado amending section 126-70 of the city code pertaining to insurance motion mayor by councilmember gruber move to approve 14a moved by councilmember groomer seconded by a council member bergen mayor perdenbergen to prove out of a number uh 14a discussion uh seeing none would please call the roll on the adoption of item number 14a councilmember yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember hilt yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember burzins yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember johnston yes the motion passes and mayor i'm sorry did i didn't get this stuff motion in the second for item 12a for the smokey coffee shop oh i'm sorry i don't think i did i think i followed uh i opened up the public hearing close the public hearing but failed to do that um motion on item number 12a birkin uh mayor for dumb burgers uh it's been moved by uh mayor tim burgin second by um councilmember gruber uh to approve on number 12a thank you we don't have to do the vote again do we i wouldn't no okay very well okay um let's see we just completed 14a yes and the motion passed for that one okay uh now please read the title time number 15a 15a is 20 21-11 an ordinance authorizing the issuance and sale by the city of aurora colorado acting by and through its utility enterprise of first lane water revenue for refunding and improvement bonds in one or more series in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed 539 million dollars for the purpose of financing and refinancing in whole or in part the cost of additions and improvements to the water 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 details and connections there with motion mayor councilman motion to approve item 15a moved by councilman gardner seconded by river councilman gruber to approve item number 15 a uh discussion sitting down with the clerk please uh call the roll on the adoption of item number 14a i'm sorry 15a councilmember hiltz oh yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember mario yes councilmember johnston yes councilmember gruber yes mayor protembergen yes councilmember mercano yes councillor lawson yes and council member berzins yes the motion passes now please read the title to uh item number 15b hornets 2021-12 ordinance authorizing the issuance in sale by the city of aurora colorado acting by and through its utility enterprise a first lien sewer revenue bonds seen facility improvement project series 2021 and an aggregate principal amount not to exceed 65 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 details and connections there with motion mayor dave gruber councilmember move to approve 15 b this move i uh moved by councilmember gruber seconded by gardner councilmember gardner to approve item number 15 b discussion see now mclaren please um call the role on the adoption of item number 15 b councilwoman lawson yes councilmember mcconnell yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember johnston yes mayor potembergen yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember hiltz yes and councilmember mario yes the motion passes the clerk now please read the title to item number c 15cc ordinance 2021-10 in ordinance of the city council of the city of oregon colorado amending chapter 26 adding article 3 referred to as temporary caps and fees for food delivery and other related matters uh motion to approve item 15c been moved by councilmember gardner second by second all right councilman mcconnell to a provider number 15 city uh discussion uh seeing none with click please uh call the role of the adoption of item number 15 c council member maria yes council member hilt yes councilmember gardner yes mayor pro tim bergen yes councilmember johnston yes councilmember combs yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember marcano yes and councilmember lawson yes the motion passes right now please read the title title number 18 a item 18a is reconsideration of resolution 2020-22 review of the powers granted to the city manager by resolution 2020-22 motion uh presence councilmember burson thank you love to approve 18a removed by councilmembers in the second by second uh council council member mcconnell to approve item number uh uh with a discussion i was seeing now with please call the role on the adoption of item number 18a council member berzins yes councilmember gruber all right yes councilmember marcono yes councilmember coons yes councilmember lawson best councilmember johnston yes councilmember gardner yes mayor pertin bergen yes councilmember hiltz 19a is consideration to appoint one member to the planning and zoning commission uh the following candidates were interviewed at the april 5th 2021 study session jason schneider sandra sunny banker andrew roberts and sarah castle without objection what i would like to do is have the clerk read the names in alphabetical order of myself mayor and city council members and to state your first choice uh and then to see if we if any candidate gets six if not then we would drop off uh the lowest uh candidate in terms of the number of votes and then uh we would vote again uh is there objection i'm seeing none uh just have a question um yes and i have a question because this is um different than the normal process that we've done over at least since i've been on council since 2015 i know we use this process for the civil service commission um but i just want to make it clear to the public that we do have the option to always nominate someone and then they have to get a second and votes or we can actually appoint but let me let me just say let me just say i may pretend that i think at the end when we do have one uh one that has six votes then we then there will be a motion to nominate that individual um without objection then we will proceed um uh to clerk please uh begin calling the role in alphabetical order mayor kaufman uh i vote uh my vote is for uh sunny banker mayor protip bergen sunny banker councilmember berzin sonny banka councilmember coombs jason schneider councilmember gardner sonny banker councilmember gruber sonny bankum councilmember hilt jason schneider councilmember johnston jason schneider councilmember lawson sunny banker council member mercano jason schneider and councilmember mario jason schneider okay there are six votes for sunny banker and five votes for jason schneider mayor nomination nomination is in order uh councilmember i moved to appoint sunny banker to dominate if you could nominate at this point um uh let me defer to the clerk i thought we would nominate at this point when one member had when one applicant had six well that's okay yeah you he he can say he moves to a point in a vigi individual and if it gets the second and all yeah very well okay move to appoint sunny banker to the planning zoning commission moved by uh councilmember gruber seconded by uh mayor protest manpower tim bergen uh to appoint uh sonny banker to the planning and zoning commission um uh with this discussion i'm seeing none with coaches call the roll on the appointment of sonny banker to the planning and learning commission councilmember coombs no councilmember marcano no councilmember gruber yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember mario no councilmember help no mayor parton bergen yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember johnston yes councilmember lawson yeah yes is it is this for senibanka yes yes sorry uh mayor kaufman yes there are seven votes in the affirmative for sunny banker the motion passes to appoint sonny baker to the planning and zoning commission but now please read the title number 19b item 19b is consideration to appoint one member to the oil and gas advisory committee motions mayor uh council members thank you move to appoint david caro to the oil and gas committee uh it removed by uh councilmember bergens to appoint david i'm sorry his lesson caro c-a-r-r-o c-r-o-o to the oil and gas commission uh is there a second second grouper and second invite councilman gruber um discussion uh with uh please call the roll uh on uh mr carl to the oil and gas commission mayor kaufman yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember johnston yes councilmember gardner yes mayor pro tem bergen yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember hilt yes councilmember mario yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember coombs yes the motion passes to appoint david caro to the oil and gas advisory committee well uh with the pledge now please read the title time number 19 consideration to appoint one member to the rural fox arts center board i'm sorry uh that was 19c um motion bear uh councilmember combs move to appoint lissa hutchinson to the aurora fox arts center board second uh been moved by uh councilman mccomb second by second second the councilman mcconnell uh to uh appoint uh lisa i'm sorry lester center board discussion as seeing now with clerk please call the roll uh on the appointment of uh uh lisa hutchins to the um our war fox arts center board councilmember coombs yes mia kaufman yes councilmember mcconnell yes councilmember mario i'm sorry i i failed to raise my hand earlier are there two agenda items on appointing a member to the aurora fox center board there are two agenda items you're correct it's 19 c and 19d i believe that they accidentally got put on there twice we've been having some issues with our escribe system oh okay you know what my city clerk analyst just told me that there's two different people they'd like to appoint and uh that's why there's two different items for that we usually put it in one item but i'm not quite sure how that happened okay uh okay then yes okay council member hilts yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember burzins yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember gardner yes councilman johnston yes councilmember lawson motion passes for lisa hutchinson to be appointed to the royal fox arts center board i will go now please read the title item number 19 d consideration to appoint three members to the citizens advisory committee on housing and community development uh motion premier by councilmember comes a move to appoint jaime carolina lacunia baker and brittany noble to the community housing development committee is there a second removed by councilmember second by second uh councilman mcconnell um discussion uh sitting down with a clerk please call the roll on the adoption of item number 19d mayor kaufman yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember burzins yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember johnston yes councilmember mercano yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember mario yes councilmember coombs yes the motion passed to appoint jaime lacrina and brittany to the citizens advisory committee on housing and community development clerk now please read the title to address number 19e item 19e is consideration to appoint one member to the aurora fox arts center board notion mayor uh mayor jim bergen a motion to appoint jessica johnson okay it's been moved by uh memphis denver consecrated by um um councilman persons uh to um appoint i'm sorry what's the person jessica johnson jessica johnson uh to the aurora fox arts center board uh discussion uh seeing none with the clerk please call the role on the adoption of item number 19e mayor kaufman yes councilmember burzins yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember gardner councilmember johnston yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember lawson yes council member mario yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember hill yes the motion passes to appoint jessica johnson to the royal fox arts center board now please read the title to item number 19f consideration to appoint two members to the aurora library board uh yes motion to appoint domica alford and nora mcintyre fifa and uh what's the second individual second kim's okay uh but what's uh who's the second person laura mcintyre okay um discussion i say none uh with the code please uh call the roll on the induction of item number 19 council member lawson yes mayor kaufman yes council member maria councilmember combs yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember johnston yes mayor pro tim bergen yes councilmember burzins yes the motion passes well chloe now please read the title uh to item number 19g item 19g is consideration to reappoint two members to the open space board mayor mayor um a motion uh i think uh councilmember gruber mayor i moved to approve victoria samuel and wayne gallagher to the open space board the old space advisory board councilman comes is that a second okay i've been moved by councilmember river second of my council member coombs uh discussion i see him known when clerk please uh call the role on the adoption of item number 19g mayor kaufman yes councilmember johnston yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember coombs yes member marcano yes councilmember hilt yes councilmember lawson yes mayor parton bergen yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember mario council she's frozen councilmember yes oh sorry councilmember berzins yes the the motion passes uh public invited to be heard i believe there is one individual that's on let me make sure he's still on the line with us okay roger you've been unmuted all right carmen it's uh your turn you have three minutes go ahead okay thank you so uh good evening my name is and i'm the executive director of united for a new economy i want to thank the council support of the resolution that housing is a human right many of our members spoke today and a few of them were spanish monolingual speakers i wanted to make clear that our members understand the symbolic nature of a resolution we understand this is not statute or law we view this as a visionary statement a step in continuing to partner the city council members that are willing to ensure everyone in our community can live in dignified housing regardless of skin color whether you're a newcomer or what's in your wallet our members who spoke today while they are monolingual spanish speakers understand the difference between a resolution and an ordinance thank you reports uh mayor has no report um let's see uh council member lawson okay mayor our cml meeting monthly meeting is going to be on april 16th so i'll have an update at our next council meeting pfizer update the state update the state senate introduced and debated the roughly 35 billion dollar budget bill last week um passing it on friday the state house will debate the long bill this week the proposed budget will seek to restore cuts made in the current fiscal year due to the due to the quran virus pandemic the federal update congress was on recess last week through the white house and congress continues to debate president biden's infrastructure proposal the american jobs plan um for rtd reimagine um the rtd board at their april 6 board meeting adopted the guiding principles for reimagine rtd um those i'm just going to kind of just go through some of those things but i'll send a bigger report to everybody because i have a lot of notes on this um for my report um the six great guiding principles are going to be mobility equity financial partnerships and workforce and again i'll send out to the mayor and to the full council all of those different um guiding points that we're going to be looking at in the next year i also want to thank mayor kaufman city manager jim twombly rachel allen of the city attorney's office and katie rodriguez for participating in the first session of the citizens engagement civic engagement academy um i really appreciate your time and efforts on that i would like to ask council members um if you would be willing to if you have time in your schedules to maybe set up a time to come and speak for five minutes to the group because they heard from my experience as an at-large council member but they're in this particular group we do have some new residents um we have a lot of people who don't know who they're who they're um who their district representatives are so if you would be willing to maybe come and speak to the group as a ward council member and even at large and to give you experience i would greatly greatly appreciate it people really do want to hear from you these are our constituents that are taking time out of their their weekly weekly lives to participate and they really would like to hear from more than from me and hear from you all as well so i would really appreciate if all of you would just maybe come and stop by to one of the sessions thank you mayor that's my reports thank you councilmember gruber hey reporter councilmember hiltz no report councilmember gardner no report because remember mario thank you councilmember lawson you can count me in on participating i always have a good time there um and i wanted to thank my colleagues for supporting the housing as a human rights resolution i'm excited to engage our residents in this conversation moving forward i have um two updates one related to the rtd accountability committee we'll be wrapping up that committee uh by june so we have a couple of months left um to finalize recommendations and to share i've shared out drafts of that report and if you have any questions please let me know i'm happy to answer any questions um i i wanted to solicit some feedbacks and just to make the council aware uh the committee's i'm going to be writing a letter um related to governor polis's um transportation plan specifically requesting um that he increased funding for multimodal transit auctions um that is a not a big pool of money um in in the bit it's a ten-year plan um and given that we have environmental goals we have sustainability goals um and just needs in our transportation infrastructure we're requesting that there be more funding for multimodal transportation additionally wanted to make the council aware of our the funding proposal and kind of how it breaks down between city county and um state funding so cdot gets 60 percent of appropriated funding counties get 22 percent and cities get 18 and i'm gonna be making a request um it um to just make aware that we in aurora have a large transit deficit um i know we've mentioned many times our 20 million um deficit in transportation with this current funding structure we would only get about a million dollars a year which is a drop in the bucket compared to the 20 million that we've been talking about a year so um we're hoping not sure that we'll actually get much movement in terms of the legislative process but i think it's important to make known that we need more support when it comes to transportation funding um so i wanted to give you all an update that um i will be making that request um and i'll specifically be adding the portion about increased funding directly to the city um though we do live in three different counties we wouldn't see those monies um unless we had a specific project so we it's just kind of you know we we could directly use that money if we were given more of that share so um a little bit of ration out there um and then second i mentioned at our study session that i'd be making a request for funding um it's a small amount but i was able to get a breakdown of costs from claudine mcdonald who is the chief community relations officer with apd on some cost estimates for supporting self-defense classes within our aapi community this includes staffing costs training on um i guess historical context of the asian community for police officers if they were involved as well as support for the safety alarm kits that i mentioned we there's a small business the third culture bakery in the district that is an asian-owned business that is um fundraising for that we are hoping that we could support them as well as providing those safety alarm kits for folks who participate in the training so um i was advised to make the um the request at this time so i i'd be requesting seven thousand dollars so it's a really small price tag for i think a really big impact um on on things that folks have already specifically asked for and it kind of ties into the larger conversation that we started um at the last meeting so didn't want to wait on something that i i know the community has asked for um but i do hope that that's not the only thing and that those other conversations continue so i don't know um what process i need to follow follow mayor um to get um folks to say yay or nay on on the 7 000 request could you help advise me on that uh staff yes uh mayor and councilmember mario um i think you know we've got the spring uh spring workshop coming up and uh we'll have some uh we do have some money from 2020 that can be allocated so that might be a good time to make that request city manager can i is there any way to so i would just like to get get moving on these items is it possible to make that request ahead of that spring supplemental i understand that that is a process to utilize but this is something an outstanding request that i'd hate to hold off just as a formality for following that budget process yeah that would be this free workshop is the 24th of april i think the supplemental's not until uh first council meeting in may yeah so it's still a couple of weeks out so you're saying that that's the the only way to make the request well we could check and see if there's um some money in the council budget overall council budget okay that's something that staff can can look at i think that um what would be the process uh if if you were to affirm that there would be money in the council budget then would it be then up to council member mario to get six members on board to agree to a proposed such a proposal that's right mayor to fund that that's that's right okay at our next workshop yes that would be preferable right okay thank you um council member johnston thank you mayor um i just wanted to recognize military kids in our community april is the month of the military child for me personally my oldest lived in four different states had four deployments and the dandelion is the official flower of the military child which says the dandelions are resilient they put down roots anywhere and everywhere they bloom wherever the wind carries them and they survive in a broad range of climates um just like the children of those who serve in the armed forces so i know that schools have done things over the years you know edna and john w mosley is having some activities or requests k through eight um our our veterans commission was was interested in some things but this year with kovid put limitations but i just want to thank all of those those military kids in the city of aurora for all who they are and and what they do thanks mayor uh councilmember bersons thank you i like that about the dandelion and the military kids that's great we love our military um i would like to just announce that this coming wednesday wednesday is in two days from now we have our ward three meeting uh it will be virtual again on webex uh and in order for you to get the link um it's on my personal no my city facebook page or it's also on the city calendar on the city website and if you don't have webex you can obviously download it for free but you can also call in their phone numbers there and you can call in and listen if you don't want to uh set up in front of a computer screen which i totally understand like i said wednesday night at 6 30 and we are going to have a really exciting presentation our police chief vanessa wilson will be here and she'll be telling us of what the police are doing now the changes her new program so she'll be available to answer any questions that you have and as you know we also have our fire department there and they'll be there to answer questions and then of course our neighborhood services will talk to you about anything on your mind and so will i so we're looking forward to seeing you wednesday at 6 30. thank you councilmember mcconnell thank you mayor um our next ward 4 meeting is also on wednesday the 14th at 6 30. um so we're going to be joined by sir sergeant uh matthew novak to discuss vehicle thefts and break-ins and then we're going to be joined by gordon tucker and drake brownfield to discuss historic preservation in aurora and i want you all to be thinking of some places in ward 4 that you think might uh qualify or soon qualify for that you'll be able to join us by webex or facebook live and i also want to wish a ramadan mubarak to all who are celebrating and have a great night councilman combs uh councilmember combs yes sorry it just took me a minute to unmute um most of my committees are getting ready to meet so i don't have a lot to report as far as those go um i did want to acknowledge you know the death of dante wright the killing of dante wright i think whenever these types of events occur it there's still an open wound in our community that continues to hurt for members of our community when we hear about these things and about these repetitions of this type of violence so i'm gonna express solidarity with his community and remind us that we cannot let that commitment falter in making sure that nobody else in our community has to die needlessly at the hands of police uh mayor pretend bergen thank you mayor um just want to give an update on e-470 we had our roadway committee on march 25th and then we had our full board meeting on april 8th where we approved the resolution for the sable boulevard interchange we also approved the central maintenance facility contract we also approved a four-year contract for the road widening project which will be from i-70 204th avenue to make that also three lanes and then we did approve a contract in for it to salesforce we chose salesforce over microsoft had operations report a customer service briefing and then um they talked a little bit about the big snowstorm and they utilize 22 plows and they want they also mention um thank you to apd for helping rescue stranded motorists that's it thank you um just want to close with um i guess a request uh to our residents uh if you haven't been vaccinated and you're eligible and i think pretty soon everybody will be eligible uh because we'll have enough vaccines for everyone i really want to encourage you to get a vaccine i just got mine last my second one last tuesday and so nobody's going to be forced to get a vaccine but the more people they get a vaccine the greater percentage the quicker we put the pandemic behind us so with that meeting adjourned [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you