foreign foreign foreign foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign city council for Monday October 24 2022 it's called to order with the clerk please read the rule mayor Hoffman mayor Pro Tim Bergen here council member Coombs president councilmember Gardner here councilmembergerinsky here councilmember Lawson councilmember Lawson councilmember Marcano president councilmember Medina here council member Mario present councilmember Sundberg here and council member zavonic here there's a quorum announcement for the call-in line on the agenda and during public invited to be heard if you would like to speak and have not already spoken to an operator please press star 3 for those watching on Channel 8 call 855-695-3475 and press star 3 when connected you will hear a prompt confirming you you are in line to speak to an operator and then be able to continue listening to the meeting when the operator comes on the line please be ready to give them your name and the agenda item you wish to speak on keep in mind you must press star 3 before the city clerk reads the title of the item you wish to speak on finally as a reminder Council does not allow comments about any items on the agenda during public invited to be heard each speaker is allowed three minutes and public invited to be heard is limited to one hour in total English foreign foreign please join me in the invocation O Lord Our God and our father we come to you and we ask that you would look upon this particular gathering tonight to keep us safe and guide us in our decisions bless our city with honorable citizens industry sound education and good government unite our community together even though we come from different backgrounds we pray that there be Justice and peace in our city give the city council and citizens the wisdom Direction and sensitivity to the business and proceedings before us tonight hear us therefore as we commit this meeting to the help of the community amen um land acknowledgment the city of Aurora acknowledges That We Gather on the territories and ancestral homelands of the Cheyenne Ute Arapahoe and Lakota peoples past and present we also recognize the 48 contemporary tribal Nations that are historically tied to the lands that made up the state of Colorado indigenous peoples have remained committed to the stewardship of this land over many centuries as these words of acknowledgment are spoken and heard the ties that these nations have to their traditional homelands and to their vital place in the ecosystem are renewed and reaffirmed and we are called to be better stewards of the land we inhabit as we continue to work to meet the needs of our entire community please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible in liberty and justice for all um executive session update uh we discussed the search for a chief of the Oracle police department and Personnel evaluations for two executive positions approval of the minutes for October 10 2022 remember Tim motion to approve the minutes from October 10th Paco Nation um uh there are oh I'm sorry it's been moved by man for 10 second by second second by council member Rio to approve the minutes for October 10 2022 discussion I've seen no discussion call for the question on the approval of the minutes from October 10 2022. mayor Kaufman yes council member Coombs yes council member Sundberg the motion passes to adopt the October 10th 2022 meeting minutes Veterans Day community of Silence a recipient Veterans Affairs Commission whereas on June 4th 1926 Congress by joint resolution approved that the president issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe November 11th as a day of remembrance honoring those who served the nation during World War One and whereas on May 13 1938 Congress by a joint act designated November 11th as Armistice Day a day dedicated to world peace and whereas on May 26 1954 the president at the behest of Congress changed the name of the day to Veterans Day to honor all those who have served in uniform protecting our nation preserving our freedoms and upholding our democracy and whereas every year on this day at 11 A.M across our nation we observe a minute of Silence to remember all the sacrifices of our veterans and their families and whereas the city of Aurora and keeping with tradition for the observance of Veterans Day call upon all its residents to observe a minute of Silence remembrance on Friday November 11 2022 at 11 A.M to appreciate Aurora's current and former Uniform service and Uniform service and their families whose Devotion to duty has sustained our country and kept safe Our Heritage as a free people in a free Society now therefore I Mike Hoffman mayor of the city of Aurora Colorado duplicate proclaimed November 11 2022 is Veterans Day minute of silence and courage the residents of Aurora to pause for a minute of Silence to honor reflect and remember the millions of Americans who have served our nation in a uniformed service in in a uniform service of the United States a witness whereof I have hearing too set my hand it's caused the Seal of the city of Aurora Colorado to be fixed this 20th day of October 2022 Mike Hoffman mayor Aurora Colorado so who do we have here today thank you thank you sir oh my name is Ralph Charlotte I'm the chairperson of the Aurora Veterans Affairs commission the commission is one of a kind in the state of Colorado it's the only commission that serves a city mayor city council and I want to thank the council for doing the um the proclamation for us on the 3rd of November the city is going to have a salute to Veterans at the Hyatt Regency across from Fitzsimmons sorry those of you who are veterans and family members please come because a simple thank you is not enough for the sacrifice that you have made in service of their country and your family and we'd like to do that on on behalf of the city the event is sponsored by the parks and Open Spaces department and so we'd love to have you there between nine and one thank you sir thank you thank you very much [Applause] foreign commitment to combating anti-Semitism unfortunately our recipient is not here tonight um I'm not sure if anybody is here to receive the proclamation um whereas October 27 2022 marks four years since the massacre of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania we're in 11 worshipers we're tragically killed and seven more injured in the deadliest anti-semitic attack in American history and whereas though Jews account for less than two percent of the population according to FBI statistics they are the victims of more than 50 percent of religious based hate crimes in the United States and whereas hate crimes are on the rise throughout the United States and in Colorado and whereas in response to a survey conducted by the American Jewish committee 80 of American Jews stated they believe anti-Semitism is increased in the United States over the past five years and nearly 40 percent of American Jews have avoided certain places or have avoided identifying themselves as Jewish had a fear of anti-Semitism and whereas recognizing the anti-Semitism uh that anti-Semitism represents a unique and uh uh Millennia old enduring hatred of the Jewish people we are committed to confronting hate and biased crimes so that all people can live with dignity and Thrive safely in our communities now therefore I my coffin mayor of the city of Aurora Colorado do hereby Proclaim October 27 2022 as a day to reaffirm Aurora's commitment to combating anti-Semitism a witness whereof I have hearing to set my hand and cause a seal of the city of Aurora Colorado to be affixed this 19th day of October 2022 Michael Mayer Aurora Colorado I wonder if a council member jorinsky could come down and accept this and say a few words without any warning whatsoever okay while this is totally putting me on the spot but I am proudly the only Jewish member of this city council and it is my honor to accept this I mean we are seeing uh breakouts of anti-Semitism nationally a lot going on on college campuses right now and I I absolutely committed to fighting back against the anti-Semitism and equality for all in this city thank you foreign public invited to be heard yes mayor we have Zach Heaton followed by Gladys Lewis foreign good evening city council my name is zakian from Ward 4. I've been coming to these meetings recently and thought tonight might be a good time to explain why I keep coming about two years ago I was watching the joke that was made of our presidential election by both parties I want to make sure I'm being impartial and it was the first time in my life as an American that I really question whether my vote matters I struggled with it for a while and after a fair amount of reflection I came to an epiphany that voting lasts one day a year and I had my voice for the other 364. the challenge is that my voice won't be heard in Washington 2000 miles away but it can be heard here two miles from my house I won't pretend that I didn't come to the first meeting without some preconceived notions I like many in the community held and maybe still hold extreme apathy towards the government after this the last four City Council meetings though I have been surprised and my position has slightly changed during the recess and after the last meeting I was approached by a few on this Council and I learned exactly how hard some of you are fighting for Aurora at the last meeting I learned about access Aurora which is able to fill a two-year-old pothole in my neighborhood I saw a great presentation about plans to improve traffic patterns and I read that tonight we're at least addressing homelessness in some reasonable fashion there is so much good going on here in our backyard but it goes unnoticed because the media will only cover whatever Washington is failing to accomplish today it is in huge part Washington creating the apathy that is becoming your added hardship we can fight that apathy here in Aurora and it starts with how we operate a prime example of this is the land annexation process at the last meeting it was awesome to hear manager of development assistants Jacob Cox explained that for the city to Annex a parcel of land that they need only to follow a set process created by the state government this process as he read it can be boiled down to the city needs to announce it three times and give it a chance chance for the public to speak in the spirit of Halloween you could compare that process to a deal made with Beetlejuice where you just say his name three times and well hopefully that Parable explains itself um I'll run out of time tonight so I'll get to the point of what I'm asking I'm asking for us to analyze the purpose of being here every other Monday are we here to spew a bunch of legal language that few can understand or are we here to inspire the public to take positive action and build an amazing City it all starts at the top with how accessible we make these meetings as always I'm happy to exchange ideas outside of my three minutes I want to thank you for your time I don't think we have a next meeting on Halloween so I'll see you on the 14th hey Curtis next we have Gladys followed by Carmen Ernesto and then Don I'm Gladys Luis here today to follow up about my neighborhood safety concerns hopefully you all have seen the news reports cars flying into our neighborhood two weeks ago I spoke with my broken English and the mayor asked for my information for follow-up when I was done I was very happy but no one no one from the city council or city managers office has contact us for any follow-up so I will try to express myself in more clearly by continuing in Spanish Nosotros here few of us is results in Havana cuatro is yes that's fine if she wants to translate me it's perfect but I understand you guys I just want to make sure that you guys understand me also right because I understand again I came in and then if this is going to take more of my three minutes I need more minutes I don't know you can do it however this is me my my stuff but I just need you to password any traffic okay okay that will be fine um um she will have oh you'll have six minutes total because of the transfer okay so let's uh go ahead and recount please thank you okay I appreciate it results so we we are here in the streets and we are in la la land we are so worried with all the um worries about um safety issues things that are not resolved is these things are happening in Havana between 4th and 6th Avenue [Music] their car destroying properties they are Thief who are robbing businesses and then they are coming to our backyards La Havana is Havana Street is extremely dangerous Street with cars that are going very fast try to passing each other into past the red lights people have died there basura trash needles beer cans and beer bottles even pieces of clothes [Music] that's an example of what is covering the streets of of Havana the only thing that that grows there is weeds foreign [Music] is just throw our money away yes talk to us and see the altars the altars for for dead people in the streets is I need to know what is my position as a resident and also as somebody that paid taxes we're tired of being ignored neces we need your help so we can protect our family we can protect our property we are poor [Music] nobody is is being responsible the city is not responsible see that is not responsible they're playing like cat in in the mouse nosotrosidentes [Music] we residents are here to express our Agony we are we're just very worried we're living with Jesus in our mouth we have a saying in Spanish that I Jesus when we're scared that's what I mean please help us before one of us is dead in Havana is going to end being known as the death the highway of death who's district is it whose word is that okay um okay uh Reuben um situation I'm sorry for your situation uh um [Music] [Music] um and I need the contact information so what I said was I'm going to have a public meeting uh in your neighborhood and I'm going to invite members of our city council Reuben Medina the ward city council person at this public meeting so um I'll need the contact information and avoid avoid Voya Marley I do appreciate that and appreciate each of you that are paying attention and I want I want to believe that you are all on our side you know and that you are actually understanding what's happening my neighborhood I have from Ukrainian Russian Mexicans salvadorians Guatemalans Chicanos and also Gringos you know in my so so it's it's it's it's a different Community you know we love each other and we need help so I mean I'd like to attend as well okay um councilmember McConnell will also be attending so hello my name is in the corner my get my house always getting hit every winter and we need a solution right now um not later like now because every time it gets hit I need to fix the fence with my Dad we're racing our ass there before I come to come we always need to watch that make sure no one gets hit but this time I passed the fence and it actually hit my sorry nobody hits my fans but this time I actually pass the expense and it has my hit my house and it hit my sister's room thank God nothing happened because she was in there and she didn't know nothing happened to her yes I was [ __ ] pissed off because the [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] left cowards so imagine that was your family in there how would you feel imagine the city and see that you fix something but they're going back to it with each other saying oh no I see those problem oh no it's a city no I see that my what the f well who is going to take response for this [ __ ] so how about they start playing around and have like adults and behave you know what we're gonna find the solution for the for the for this crap all I'm asking is for to put barriers not of course not in the street because that's impossible but close to the house not only my house but the whole down Havana because it's not only my house can't hit my neighbor's house got hit another house are getting hit of course see uh until then something happened someone maybe dies in the house or someone dies in the freaking road because not only my house but besides the house there's bus um bus benches behind my house one day someone took those benches out thank God there was no one there either because the watch until they say death a real death or a bunch of multiple deaths then the city and then see that will do something and then they'll say oh we didn't know we got [ __ ] [ __ ] because we're telling you guys now to do this because it's been going on for years I didn't know I can come here and talk to you guys until now and thanks to Gladys um but we're asking for choosing quick please because until this is there's also animals there one day my dog was back there and if you guys want videos I'll bring you videos for the next time or I'll send to your email to give me your emails with pleasure I'll send them to you uh but my dog almost getting hit how the car went to my house and that's why we put cameras because there's multiple hand runs near my place and then we sleep and I tell the cops and the cops like well of course I know the cops can do anything they like to talk to the city I've been talking to the city now we're trying to find a solution until something else happens thank you so much foreign [Music] good evening my name is Carmen Rodriguez I would like to ask for a favor I would like you to listen to us I would like for you not to ignore us this is a very serious matter Ninos this is not a game is again this is not a game we need solution we need uh for you to look for a way to protect the houses in Havana Street because there is a lot of accidents in that area families hija there's a lot of families a lot of pets living in that area the last um there was it was a card that just crashed into my daughter's bedroom foreign so please don't wait for something worse like the death of somebody muerte and even a run over pet so we want solution we don't want death thank you thank you I'm the Gringo that lives in the neighborhood so I'll be okay speaking English I appreciate y'all letting us come up and and have our uh time to uh speak to you about our concern there's a couple of things from the city Mission and the city goals that I'd like to remind you all of the city of Aurora is a leader in Creative outcomes we provide a full range of quality Municipal Services we invite active citizen participation in our government and this one is most important we will implement the city's vision with our city goals we assure a safe Community for people we serve as leaders and partner with other governments and jurisdictions we ensure excellent infrastructures that are well maintained and operated and we want to create a superior quality of life for residents making the city a desirable place to live and visit in 2003 the city council initiated a study of Havana Street and in 2004 published The Havana Street design this design has safety improvements for Havana Street in 2004 the fanfare property was rezoned for high density mixed-use development that property is immediately across Savannah from our properties that development is currently underway the developer has paid into City escrow money for safety improvements signal light Fourth Way uh in 2009 the city comprehensive plan states there are no Street medians and attached sidewalks combined with a posted speed limit of 40 miles an hour Place pedestrians dangerously close to traffic crossing the highway is difficult and walking along it is often unpleasant this is especially true for the elderly who wish to patronize the supermarkets and other service businesses in 2010 The Havana urban renewal Authority plan has the same concerns about safety in the area in 2020 the city council spent 250 thousand dollars on the Havana Street study that study has been completed but no recommendations have been brought forth the information from the current conditions portion of that study could have been copied out of the 2004 Havana Street study what we are asking is for the city to not spend hundreds of thousands of dollars studying and planning and start spending on implementation of those plans thank you okay next we have Tanya tabachek followed by Alejandra Carrera um so um my name is Tanya tabachek I'm in Ward 3. I have two different issues one issue is I do live near Iola and Fourth Street I live on Kenton Street and we have Peter people that speed through our street all the time we have Lansing Elementary School right behind us and they don't exceed to the speed limit at all I did submit a traffic calming report to get some bumps hopefully that'll happen soon my other concern or thought process is with the legislative agenda and thoughts are brought from Washington and presented to the city council um I know that in Washington DC they have a lot to do they have a lot of things to do and reports and so forth and the sooner that the City reviews and goes over it and acknowledges what needs to be done or amendments need to be done that gives the the people in Washington DC the amount of time that they need to and it's just as important because we can't say what we want to say we relate our information to you guys and then that goes up so forth so that's the only thing I'd say thank you foreign Carrera followed by Clemente Flores well then um good evening my name is Alejandra Carrera and I'm here because I um I would like to talk to you the representative to see if we can do anything to stop the increase in rent [Music] personally I needed to sacrifice to buy I had to stop buying my medication for diabetes foreign [Music] because I need to decide between paying my rent or paying for my medication so I cannot be evicted is [Music] [Music] I would like also if you can increase your inspection program because sometimes landlords do not do enough to um to improve what they need to improve in the in the places in the apartment I had to move four times from my um my house because the rent keeps going up [Music] so that's what I'm here for asking you to stop the raising prices and also to improve the multi-family inspection program that's it that's it thank you Clemente Flores followed by Alvin sazo come here come here can I get Alejandra's contact information please okay thank you my name is [Music] good evening my name is Clemente Flores I live in the zip code 8080016 in Aurora foreign [Music] so I am with um unidos United for a better economy my representative is Allison okay okay I have problems it affect us because every year the rent goes up and then when we move to a new apartment they they ask for two months of a deposit and in the positive format in an extra deposit for pets I have very low income and I have enough money to buy my daily medicines as necessario to expanding a program at inspection systematic Community familiar need to increase the systematic inspection program gracias thank you thank you Elvin followed by oh sorry Katie that's okay um the information oh very well yes please yes clerk will forward it to you elviso that's the key here my name is [Music] an organizations Infinity so uh good evening my name is suaso and I live in Aurora district one I am in um I belong to this organization a non-for-profit organization and my representative is I'm sorry um and I'm I am part of United for a better economy my representative is Crystal Murillo [Music] um Clinton Place is my complaints is that I live in Clinton a place I've been living there for 10 months I am renting a one bedroom apartment foreign [Music] [Music] is very high and then the maintenance is horrible and if you would like to uh if you ask for any kind of service they don't even come to to um to get any solution to it is foreign there is a lot of bad things going into those apartments the presence of cockroach and um and I hope that we can get some solution through the um some of these organizations and we would like also for you to expand the multi-family systematic inspection program yes thank you cardi maricio followed by Rosemary Santos IO good evening my name is Clinton I live in Aurora um a0010 Clinton organizations I belong to the to the organization United for a better economy me representantes Cristal Murillo my representative is tambien so I am an only daughter so I have to be I have to take care of my mother so I can help her because this situation in my country is not it's not it's not good places [Music] being I am here because I would like to complain about the high price high prices behind rent prices and also because the situation in the apartments is not good who is I don't like the inspection because there is a lot of animals foreign thank you my name is hi good evening my name is Rosemary Santos I live in district one of Aurora I am with the organization United for a better economy representative Seattle so my representative is Kristen Murillo I am a mother of three kids and I feel that the rent prices are very high school [Music] is [Music] this is our priority is to pay our rent because if we we don't pay our rent we will be evicted and we want you know we have we want to have a nice house for our kids and we also want to get a good education for our kids stem [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] so we worked very hard so our kids can get a good education and but again our priority is to pay the rent sometimes we cannot even take our kids to medical appointments because they don't have any insurance because they were not born here porque Este es muy Malo a last conditions we are asking you to please improve to extend the multi-family systematic inspection program because the condition of the homes are pretty bad is [Music] and if we are working hard to pay for the rent is to have a better living conditions we ask you to please help us thank you you know okay next we have Aaron fruitrel uh good evening mayor and honorable Council uh members um I'm here today because um the Aurora human relations commission which I'm a commissioner on is hosting a donation Drive called your Never Walk Alone um you've you've probably seen the boxes in parks and recreation centers thank you to the staff to Parks and Recreation we have boxes in back Moorhead Central and Center for active adult and hopefully soon here and Aurora Municipal Center the event we're collecting donations starting today through November 6th it's a unique event because we're looking for donations that aren't normally given to the unhoused so we're looking for shoes boots socks unused underwear flashlights Derma thermal bottles things that are tangible that will help them get through the winter and then the event will be held until November so we're collecting donations the 24th through the 6th and then the event will be November 12th at Aurora city park where we will where the items will be distributed from 12 P.M to 2 p.m so I just wanted to make you guys aware of the event and thank you for this time mayor that's all of the in-person public invited to be heard there's some on the phone very well go ahead go ahead you have three minutes thank you good evening mayor and city council members I'm a resident of Ward four and I'm calling about drivers traveling at excessive rates of speed on roadways throughout the city residential neighborhoods and I believe that it's as much diligence was focused on alleviating the risk created by these drivers as is focused on the maintenance of Lawns By code enforcement we would probably fail somewhat safer when driving in the city on streets and walking across intersections in the city I have personally spoken with the mayor and a phone call with one of my colleagues about this issue and I have addressed this concern with my city council representative I believe that there are viable Solutions and I just provided to protect the citizens of the city and make them feel safe when they're traveling on the streets within their neighborhoods and within throughout the city On Any Given weekend you considered any intersection on a Major Street and you can see those who are drag racing on city streets and posing hazards to other drivers as well as themselves and any pedestrians who happen to get in their way so I would like to know what is being done to address this issue thank you less individual [Music] are there any council members who wish to respond to any of the points raised council member may I think just like the previous callers contact information it was difficult to hear everything that she said due to the sound system from the Deus so I just want to make sure I follow up with her she's mentioned that she's talked to me I just want to make sure that we haven't connected very well mayor uh councilmember summer I was wondering if I could direct a question to uh DCM Bachelor uh very well the status of the speed radar vans that we have ordered sir uh we've been in contact with the pilot vendor and we are working through that process I'll get Council and update we expect sometime next year I don't know the exact date but we'll get you all an update in terms of the roll out of that further responses um I have mayor an audience I wanted to let you all Council I'd let you let you know our projectors are having a hard time with the heat in the room so we're going to have to turn some of the lights off in the chamber it should not affect the recording or the viewing audience at home but I didn't want anybody be startled when we turn those down thank you how will I tell if any of the members are asleep very well um adoption of the agenda motion is in order I can't see now adoption of the agenda I can't see my paper yeah it's been moved by councilmember McConnell second by the councilmember jorinsky uh on the adoption agenda discussion seeing uh no discussion uh call for the question on the adoption of the agenda mayor Kaufman councilmember Lawson yes the emotion passes to adopt the agenda adoption of the consent calendar item number 10A through 10d motion uh mayor Jim motion to approve 10A through 10 D it's been moved by the mayor Pro tem second by Sunbury councilmember sunberg to approve the consent calendar item number 10A through 10 D discussion we're seeing no discussion uh call for the question on the adoption of the consent calendar item 10A through 10d mayor Kaufman remember just in councilmember Lawson yes the motion passes to adopt the consent calendar clerk now please read the title to item number 11a item 11a is resolution 2022 191 a resolution of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado approving the 2023 employee pay table and classifications a brief presentation by staff okay good evening mayor mayor Pro tem council members Ryan Lance Director of Human Resources so annually in collaboration with the annual budget process Human Resources prepares an updated employee pay table and submits the table with a resolution for council's approval approval as part of the 2023 budgetary process and to sustain the compensation classification structure for the city of Aurora included in your packet is the proposed classification this does include career service civil service department directors appointees part-time variable hour and seasonal positions the resolution will approve the 2023 pay table and classifications for the employees of the city of Aurora I'm available if you have any questions questions of staff mayor council member sunburg I was just curious who gathers that data for the table of standard pay or average pay is it a service that we subscribe to or do you guys do the research we do have a Compensation Division within human resources and that's the team that does the research for that and we do use a variety of different sources to gather that data in collaboration with the Department directors for other questions of staff mayor uh councilman Coombs thank you uh Ryan I'm just I'm just wondering I know that the folks that are in lower wage positions um I know we couldn't just turn around and raise all of those people up immediately um but can you talk a little bit more about the efforts that are underway from different departments to as well as HR to look at some of the pay rates for some of those lower wage employees a lot of whom are the seasonal and variable our employees in parks and recreation yes councilman raccoons there's actually two items that I think are really addressing those issues um one of them is the recent pay increases to employees that was applied to not only full-time employees but all statuses of our employees and that did raise some of those employees up above the 15 an hour on the other initiative is the compensation team is in the process of finalizing a new pay table an up a pay table that looks at Market data specific to those seasonal and part-time positions and that's going to be completed shortly and that should resolve a lot of our our issues especially in this employment market right now thank you further questions to staff seeing none of thank you motion is in order mayor council member sunburn I move to approve uh a lemonade it's been moved by councilmember sunberg second of our tombs councilman Coons to approve item number 11 a discussion the city no discussion the question before us is the adoption of 11a call for the question councilmember Lawson yes the motion passes to approve resolution 2022 191. now please read the title title number 11b m11b is resolution 2022 192 a resolution of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado expressing the Aurora city council support for additional funding for the business Safety and Security upgrade grant program using Opera funds councilman Gardner mayor I don't have anything this is a item that I previously introduced Safety and Security grant program for businesses in Aurora and I know staff has a presentation on some additional funding for that program a representation by staff good evening mayor and Council my name is Kendall cocha I am the manager of the office of Special Projects Council unanimously supported putting a Safety and Security program together using the arpa funds to assist Aurora businesses as council is aware there was a strong response in the program by Aurora businesses which required additional funding at the October 3rd study session Council approved increasing the amount of funding for the Safety and Security Grant by seven hundred thousand dollars Council previously approved an increase of 1.5 million at the May 23rd council meeting so now the resolution is being updated to reflect both the 1.5 million dollar and the seven hundred thousand dollar approved increases questions to staff or the sponsor I see none emotion is in order on the for the adoption of item number 11b mayor councilmember Gardner motion to approve item 11b moved by councilmember Gardner seconded by Hurricane uh Mayor John Bergen to approve our number 11b discussion I see no discussion the question before this is the adoption of item number 11b call for the question councilmember Lawson yes the motion passes to adopt resolution 2022 192. okay now please read the title title number 11c item 11c is resolution 2022 193 a resolution of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado expressing the Aurora city council support of the amendment to the IGA between the city of Aurora Colorado acting by and through its utility Enterprise in the urban drain engine Flood Control District Mile High flood District regarding final design and construction of drainage and flood control improvements for 22nd Avenue Outfield to Westerly Creek councilmember Sundberg I defer to staff for the presentation uh brief presentation by staff good evening mayor and city council I'm Sarah Young planning a urora water deputy director planning and Engineering oh my gosh I apologize um so this is an uh Amendment for Mile High flood District at an IGA for Westerly Creek this is actually a very exciting project this is the last segment of Westerly Creek to be improved everything South and north of there already has Corridor improvements it's just west of the Stanley Marketplace this amendment is to add additional funds to that project previously there have been contributions between Mile High flood District pros and future contributions with Aurora Water Mile High flood district and hopefully some grants this is an addition of 375 thousand dollars from Mile High flood district and one million dollars from Aurora Water the intent of the project is to provide water quality this Basin the tributary Basin is rather old so there isn't a lot of water quality in that area it also reroutes the stream to take some properties out of the flood plain in addition to some of the aesthetic and Trail improvements that are planned this includes in addition to the mile high contribution an additional one million dollars from Aurora Water that will get us to about five million dollars the project overall that was anticipated to be about 10 million dollars so we'll to some additional savings and Grant applications to get to that project amount questions to staff seeing none the question before us is the adoption of item number 11 C uh discussion I see no discussion the question before us is the adoption of our number 11 so you call for the question mayor oh move to council member I'm sorry uh motion motion is in order ouch uh it's been moved by councilmember sunberg second by e councilmember mccoons to approve on number 11c uh discussion and see no discussion the question before us is the adoption environment number 11 so you call for the question councilmember Lawson yes councilmember Medina council member Medina oh the motion passes to adopt resolution in 2022 193. Clark now please read the title time number 11d item 11d is resolution 2022 194 a resolution of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado adopting a policy on the use of moral obligation pledges by the city uh brief presentation by staff I'm Theresa sedmack City Treasurer I'm here to present the resolution related to proposed modifications to the city's moral obligations policy the city adopted this policy in 2011 and it has not been modified since that time a moral obligation is a non-binding commitment to provide financial support to a project the projects with the city which the City Grants Mo support are intended and expected to be self-supporting according to the policy projects which are unable to evidence that they are viable will not be supported by an Mo ammos are typically used for projects that are considered important to achieving City goals and which would otherwise not occur or which would be much more expensive to finance the policy states that there should be a shared balance of risk and reward to any of the projects covered by nmo last year we were asked to review the policy to strengthen some of the con some of the constraints notable changes a lot of the changes we made were non-substantive but more stylistic in nature but some of the changes that we did make were that we included the change in the wording from moral obligation pledge to moral obligation support because pledge assumes or it it implies a pledge of collateral or a binding financial obligation neither of which is a true in in Mo support the definition and summary of a moral obligation is now included in the policy and not as an attachment the policy explicitly prohibits substantive changes in financing after the point that it's gone to the mnf committee and the evaluation criteria for MOS was strengthened to include the timing and frequency related to an Mo in other words would it be a one-time event or is it intended to be available over multiple time periods and the likelihood of repayment of the mo over time I'm happy to answer any questions you may have in this regard questions to staff I've seen none motion is in order mayor mayor Tim motion to approve 11d been moved by mayor Jim Bergen seconded by insurance council member Cruz to approve item number 11d discussion she know seeing no discussion called the question on the adoption of item number 11d solution 2022 194. thank you well clear now please read the title title number 11e 11e is resolution 20 22 195 a resolution from the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado expressing the worst city council's desire to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness through employment-based programming and conditioned space transitional housing that leads to self-sufficiency the city council directs the city manager and his staff to support this effort by developing and executing a comprehensive approach that aligns with the necessary support to meet the needs of the diverse homeless population in Aurora um mayor this is your resolution do you want to do a presentation uh that's yes mayor Pro Tem uh send some becoming mayor I visited many programs that serve the needs of those experiencing homelessness who are either staying in a shelter or living in a campus I believe that the best course of action going forward is to follow the work first approach that has been successfully implemented by the Colorado Springs rescue mission that focuses on providing a navigation plan for those who want to change their circumstances address their physical and mental challenges and to become self-sufficient through job training and eventually through employment however I fully understand that a single approach singular approach will not meet the needs of everyone such as those suffering from acute mental illness and that other plasma is also be recognized as viable but the dominant direction for the city of Aurora will be to focus on getting those experiencing homelessness the care that they need that will enable them to become employed so that they can obtain stable housing while recognizing the need to make more Workforce attainable housing available this approach is compassionate to those experiencing homelessness and fair to the taxpayers of our city what is a navigation Center navigation Center is a outcome-based shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness different from a traditional one-night stay shelter a navigation Center is a limited stay program designed to alleviate the pressures of living on the street to support an intense focus of looking for work and or housing in addition to dormitories navigation centers that come complete with on-site Administration intake offices and meeting rooms for operators and residents dining and community space bathroom showers and storage unlike a shelter a navigation Center does not require individuals to exit the facility each morning only to return that evening to have a bed navigation centers allow clients to stay at the facility 24 hours a day seven days a week as long as they are showing progress toward their housing goals and working with the case manager additionally a navigation Center also lessens the barriers to admits allowing clients to bring their Partners pets and most of their possessions with them and so if we think about the Colorado Springs Rescue Mission which is really evolved from The Haven for Hope in San Antonio it is has essentially three primary elements to it the first is the intake part with people who may or may may or may not take part in Services Beyond simply a shelter and food and sanitation and showers then there's uh the second tier where people are participating in services and involved in case management uh they're in addiction recovery or they're in job training or they're receiving mental health or physical health treatments and then the third phase which is the transitional that are people that are working but not yet ready to be out on their own and so for families the the difference between Colorado Springs and its predecessor or San Antonio Haven for Hope is that families are dealt with in a part by a partner non-profit in another facility and not on on this particular campus the governor has spoken about the need for two campuses one on the west side of the Denver metropolitan area and one on the east side of the Denver paulton area so the catchment area would be beyond that of the city of Aurora the arpa funds American Recovery plan act funds will be used for the construction of this facility by the city of Aurora we have also solicited successfully I believe Arapahoe County we are currently soliciting Adams County and I believe they will be forthcoming and the state will be a big participant in the construction of this in terms of the operational cost we certainly could you there there are Grant monies and Community Development block grant monies that can be used but explicitly there will I believe that mayor pretend will be offering an amendment that will say no general fund dollars will be used for the operation of this program when we are looking at in the same uh vein that um the rescue Colorado Springs Rescue Mission raises essentially has a mix of funding but probably the bulk of it is raised from individuals and Foundations in addition to government grants and so with that I know that I've I put the offer out to work with any member of the council who who wishes to work on language and the mayor Pro tem has contacted me as well as council member McConnell um and with that I'd certainly be happy to answer any questions uh on um item number 11e mayor so mayor I do have um I would like to move a friendly amendment to your resolution mayor protein I'm sorry before that we do have one individual who would like to speak basically Tanya tabachek members I just wanted to applaud you on bringing this to the floor and the concern homelessness in the city is very important and this is one step going somewhere to become better enthused with the homelessness and how we care about them and so forth so I just want to say thank you for this all right thank you any other public comments no and mayor I would like to move a friendly amendment to your resolution I'll go ahead and read it be it resolved the campus will be operated by non-profit organizations in which no general fund revenues will be used for the construction maintenance or operations of the campus and that would go after the end of section one thank you I would second that as a friendly Amendment okay so we have a motion and a second discussion and and we'll just if I could just finish and let me just say that the the theory behind this as well that as in operation in Colorado Springs and is in operation in San Antonio in heaven for Hope is that as many of the partners uh are on the campus as possible whether it's mental health whether it's addiction recovery whether it's job training that those in health care itself as many are on the campus as possible and I'll just add real quick CD cdbg and ESG funds would would be able to be used right so it's just general fund just a quick question didn't we have to move in second the actual item before we amend it yes I seconded it I thought that you just gave me oh the moon yeah that's correct yeah oh okay do we have a motion um number eleven okay we have council members of Onyx seconding that and now we are back to the amendment which we have Motion in a second discussion so council member Marcano thank you so mayor for tem I fully understand the reason you're bringing that Amendment my concern is that this campus is not just going to necessarily be an initiative of the city of Aurora in and of itself and that we're looking at getting State and other jurisdiction support is this something that we've discussed in terms of funding you know requirements with other jurisdictions or will we or are they expecting us to also contribute from our homelessness fund for example um mayor Kaufman thank you madam chairman uh councilmember McConnell I I would expect that we will negotiate uh with the surrounding jurisdictions that would be the catchment area for this facility uh and this so right now into in terms of the Capital Construction part um I think we're close to um well not close but I think we're we're no nobody's cut the check but I think the Adams County Arapaho County Commissioners have signed off and I don't know um if Jessica is here Jessica Prosper is here to speak to where we are with Adams County right now and I might add that of course the land it would be the City Overland good evening Mary Council Jessica Prosser director of Housing and Community Services so the grant monies that are being referenced um that will be coming out from the state do require a 50 match at this point um the final version of that notice of funding is not out yet but those are some of the preliminary things we're seeing so in reference to Adams County the ask has been made it went to study session with the Border County Commissioners last Tuesday there was discussion on a whole host of arpa-funded projects I think they wanted to have more discussion and they delayed that item to the next study session so I am in constant communication with staff there and so um I expect it to move forward in the next few weeks okay further discussion yes councilman thank you so my concern is that we are would then be precluding us from making some kind of contribution um well if there's going to be a required match so while I am with you in the intent um I just I'm concerned about making that into the language of this resolution because it might send the wrong signal um yeah and I think we could have good communication with our our partners um to clarify that we're talking about general fund dollars because again we can use cdbg we can use ESG but we can also use marijuana monies Madam chairman marijuana I think is is um is not marijuana considered general fund marijuana tax revenues it goes into the general front right so I assume that would be general fund Revenue oh really mayor no that those are marijuana funds are in the general fund they're not they are not uh they would be considered General funds dollars they are considered I'm sorry there are considered General fundowns yes marijuana funds but I think there are a number of uh you begin I think uh mayor Pro tem mentioned uh um cdbg uh dollars ESG dollars um obviously arpa dollars in the Capital Construction side um but I think um you know we're but we're clearly going to have to go forward with some negotiation uh with uh all of our partners on this but there is an expectation that at the end of the day that the that the burden uh the the burden at the end of the day is going to be on the operator as it is in Colorado Springs uh to raise the money um government can certainly help and it ought to be that's why I was really initially I think member Tim had it written to where uh I think there was no more than 10 percent of it was a general fund revenues could go to that and I thought well we don't know what our other partner is going to be due yet so why it was why put anything out there until um I mean we could always come back to the council and saying you know there's an equitable situation where everybody's willing to pitch in in the catchment area but we're not there so I think the better thing to do is just to say at this point in time no general fund dollars and I I would think that our land has obviously has value in that um you know in that situation that would be considered Jessica would that be considered part of the match I'm sorry madam chairman yep an appraisal will be done be done to determine the value and that would be part of our sort of in-kind but it would be part of that that match amount um and just to clarify on the the marijuana funds are currently being used to fund operations of homeless services so if we were going to continue the operation of homeless Services um you know I think what we're looking at from an operations perspective is the the marijuana funds currently going to those Services would be transferred to the new facility because we would be replacing what we currently have so that dedicated marijuana fund is for homeless Services right um and so but we're actually trying to reduce the Reliance on City general fund money so even though that is the current situation we're doing it right now all alone um just as the city and this is a completely different proposal where we're trying to to have partners partners and a non-profit organization that actually is going to be responsible for fundraising as well as pursuing grants and so forth so it's a different completely different model than what we currently have you madam chairman uh and let me also say that um in in Haven for Hope they'd have families on the campus um in the um again the the Colorado Springs model that that is derives from the heaven for hope they chose to have families outside the campus run by a partner non-profit I prefer that model and so we may and so right now we through Kamina smile High Behavioral Health as a contractor we address family what family issues and so we may need that that those those dedicated dollars to go to you know to help us with programs outside of this particular facility and so I think it's it's better to leave them out of the equation and then again I think we need to see what are um Partners from other jurisdictions are going to do in terms of their what are their contributions going to be and what is the state ongoing contribution is going to be but I I think that um it would be wrong to stick the taxpayers of Aurora with an ongoing burden of operating a facility whose catchment area will be beyond the city limits uh further discussion council member Mark so thank you for that and as I said I agree with the intent here so as long as we're open to revisiting this if we need to I'm fine with it okay and I'm open to revisiting it further discussion on the amendment okay uh with no further discussion call for the question on the amendment that motion passes with seven yes votes one no vote from council member Coombs okay um and now discuss further discussion on the original resolution oh um thank you yes I do have uh 17 amendments here that I'd like to propose so they are in e-scribe itemized for you all already and I believe staff has a Word document that they can put up as well um so and I'll just Begin by saying that I think that and I'm happy to say this I think that we are more in alignment than not with this proposal while my preference is still ultimately not to do a campus I understand that staff has you know good reason to want to do this I understand that I believe a majority of council is leaning in this direction so my goal with these amendments is to yes and to ensure that we're doing everything we can to serve as many people as possible through this investment because I know that this is something that's very very pressing to our residents um and you know we have picked up a lot of really great information from all the places that we've visited as a body so my hope is that we can incorporate those best practices into this resolution so that we can move forward United and deliver the best outcome that we can for folks experiencing homelessness in Aurora and in the region did you say it is in the backup it should yes it is in escribe if you scroll down on the question you'll see them broken out and you want to do them one by one that mayor and I discussed these amendments earlier um and that was his preference so I just went through and itemized everything very good so all right uh so the first one um is in the opening paragraph I'd like to revise um the section that says people experiencing homelessness through employment-based programming and conditions based transitional housing that leads to self-sufficiency to evidence-based policy that prioritizes housing Supportive Services and Workforce Development opportunities that lead to self-reliance this is one we didn't discussed we discussed all the others but um prioritizes yeah tell me again why we shouldn't have employment-based programming conditions based transitional housing that leads to self-sufficiency so the conditions based portion we were told by Haven Houston and even to some extent at the Springs rescue mission that that is a barrier to serving as many people as they can and I understand that you support the bridge house project mayor I did as well when that was under discussion before my time on Council and one of the hurdles that we have seen is that they don't serve as many folks as they could because in order to participate in work first programming you have to be sound of body sound of Mind able and willing to work while we know a lot of the unhoused population in the city does not necessarily fall into that category so it's a best practice that you can provide that for the folks who are able and willing which we should but that we also don't exclude other folks and the language as it stands is sending I think the wrong signal especially if we're trying to get Regional buy-in so let me ask you wait a minute I'm not the mayor right now okay I get it mayor um boy I'd like to come back to this one I understand what you're saying so uh in the language that I have there is a gap and I believe that the Gap is that it it that it's that first tier yeah and the first here is that we provide emergency services for every anyone in need irrespective of whether they want to if why they participate in any program or even whether they participate in case management that it is an Open Door for those who need help and so um but I do like the other language for those that that are moving to phase two and phase three so somehow there's uh there's a if we could come up with language qualifying language that without taking the employment-based programming and conditions based transitional housing out out of it um but that um further discussion council members yeah um thanks mayor Pro tem so I know that um it was stated in San Antonio they talked about the barrier to entry that having um requirements for participation in Services um but when I went back and I went back and looked at HUD numbers and one of the things that stood out to me because I think it's important as we're having this discussion to look at data look at evidence is that with housing first it's a policy that's been around for over a decade now um and you know when HUD is counting the the who's experiencing homeless or not um they count people who are in Rapid rehousing and permanent Supportive Housing is housed and those who are in transitional housing where there's requirements is not but just looking at the numbers the the total number of people experiencing homelessness in all five categories is over well over a million dollars and approaching 1.5 million and it was we saw a 20 increase between the time when housing first became effective policy and pre-coveted and that was a dramatic shift from the 31 drop between 2007 and 2014 before housing first was officially adopted by the federal government and so in other words that when wraparound Services um for for participants were required homelessness was actually decreasing and then after home housing first became the official policy and we dropped those we saw an increase in homelessness so I don't think that there that there is I think that what's happening is a lot of these programs are chasing federal dollars and compromising their program and not actually doing what's best for the unhealth population and I don't want to follow that same example that's being set by other cities because the truth is what we've seen with housing first is that in the early stages it can offer false hope but late stage housing first looks a lot like late stage socialism which is poverty failure uh it's it's this is not the direction I think the city of Aurora wants to go in okay I'm here for the council member Marcano thank you not going to take the bait but I will say mayor Pro 10 I'm sorry we don't have a second for the amendment yet yeah oh did we have a first oh you've made it motion no on his Amendment so we have we have a motion from council member marcona do we have a second on the amendment comes okay Coombs thank you thank you all right thank you so um the part of that statement that I will address is that you can take a non-charitable and skewed look at the evidence to your heart's content there's organizations that are happy to do that for you as well to support that false narrative but that is not the case and that is why these programs are exceptionally successful until you stop funding them and then you end up like Salt Lake City so that said I'm not actually advocating for a full-on permanent Supportive Housing program here as much as I would like to I'm trying to ensure that in any uh you know project that we invest public resources in our time and you know our residents you know trust in that we're doing everything we can to serve the maximum population possible because as much as I appreciate Bridge House's model they do exclude folks and that that program is in my ward so I know it has helped folks I've toured the facility it's great but they don't reach everybody that they could and as again as we're looking for partnership here with our surrounding jurisdictions we need to ensure we're not leaving folks out and I would hate for us to lose this opportunity because we're shutting the door on certain segments of the population okay and I'm I want to say something right here um I am not comfortable with the language in in your Amendment council member Mercado just the part about well first of all I don't like taking out the condition based transitional housing I think you know there's the Haven for Hope um he he actually said that don't believe stats anybody can make up stats and then he gave us stats so I didn't really give much credibility to that at all um I I think you know the goal here is to get as many people out of homelessness as possible and we we know that addiction is a huge part of it it is a huge part of it because our staff currently can help a lot of people um that that don't have the drug addiction problem that are have other issues we tend to help them and get them into some kind of housing um the the problem is if you don't have conditions um you're you're not helping people to really sell be self-actualized to get to their very best and if we can move them through conditions you know to have incentives to move into counseling to move into drug addiction Detox Services I think that that is much much more compassionate than just if you're prioritizing housing first it does no good to put people in housing that are going to continue to have problems mental health problems continue to have drug addiction problems and and and never never really fully realize their life so for for that reason I'm not comfortable with this mayor yeah I think we're going to find a number of amendments that we agree on here but let me let me just say this is really the thesis of the program because it doesn't it um I think when we get into the language of the resolution it talks about um you know low barrier uh entry in terms of uh that first tier that we discuss in terms of uh anybody experiencing homelessness in in the emergency services they need but if you look at the kind of the controlling sentence here it is expressing um the Roy cities Council desire to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness through employment-based programming and conditions based transitional housing that leads to self-sufficiency I mean I think that's the thesis of the program and so I would want to retain this language and it doesn't does not exclude it's about reducing homelessness but it is not about excluding people who are homeless from services okay further discussion [Music] for me it doesn't the changes aren't saying we're not prioritizing employment and Supportive Services they're both specifically in there um it's that we're instead of saying employment based we're saying evidence-based so we want to look at those programs that are grounded in data which everybody has already said so far that that's what you want to do anyway so to me that doesn't seem to change the thesis prioritizing housing that's partially because that's what is shown from the evidence to be the most successful is to make sure people are in housing if you just keep people in shelters and in programs they're less likely overall and long term actually late stage they are less successful their numbers are lower in terms of the likelihood to become homeless again but there are Supportive Services that includes case management and addiction which addiction treatment which people have said they want and Workforce Development opportunities is employment um that's the purpose is to get people into employment and that leads to self-reliance I think um you know I I think that it's less loaded to talk about self-reliance than self-sufficiency self-sufficiency is often part of a lot of different political rhetoric where self-reliance is you know I'm going to work and do what I need to do to have a good life so that's my two cents on that whole thing and how it relates to the previous version that it is intended to modify I guess my issue is taking why take out the language that the mayor has um you know I can see maybe trying to blend some of this but to take out his language when that's the Crux of his proposal mayor thank you um and let me just say I think um councilman in terms of evidence-based council member O'Connor will have some uh soon have some amendments that that we did agree on uh that um require uh reporting uh by the contractor today will really give us a feel that that have a level I think of um visibility or transparency that will really tell us whether or not the program is successful or not and where the people are in the program who's who's you know participating in addiction recovery who's participating in mental health who's participating uh in um of job training who's working and so I think that um the these some of the Amendments that councilmember McConnell has that are going to be upcoming I think will accomplish a lot in terms of uh what is evidence-based just to remind everyone we have 16 more amendments to go through so um if if there's not further discussion we can call for the question on Amendment one um yeah I just wanted to uplift the point that I think focusing on an Evidence the language specifically saying evidence-based policy is more accurate right and I think we've all talked about how we want to be data driven how we want to use taxpayer dollars resources more effectively and efficiently and I think that is the right signal if the data Bears out you know obviously the the intent is stated um throughout the resolution um regarding you know the specific use of the dollars but I just feel like it's more appropriate and more encompassing and I will say that I question evidence based as as always being the word used because what evidence so we can say evidence-based but we don't know what evidence at this particular Point um I I see where you're going with this but I I think it's it's already in in there um and maybe the other amendments will you know satisfy some of the other concerns um further discussion okay without that uh call for the question please on the amendment the motion does not pass with four yes votes in six no votes the no votes being from Council Members evonik Lawson Bergen Gardner drinsky and sunberg okay um Amendment two okay council member Mercado thank you so this one is an ad um and it is whereas homelessness in Aurora has been increasing for years and has dramatically increased since the onset of the covid-19 global pandemic okay and do we have a second yeah a second okay mayor's seconds that um discussion um I you know I had a substantial discussions with the individual that developed um the Colorado Springs the rest the Colorado Springs Rescue Mission uh campus again after the um Haven for Hope in San Antonio and he felt that this language was fine and would actually be helpful particularly for the um whoever is a non-profit that operates this facility in terms of making their case for the increase in homelessness okay very good further discussion okay um call for the question please the emotion passes with nine yes votes and one no vote from council member zabonic okay and Amendment Three council member Marcano all right thank you mayor prozam um so Amendment Three is to revise one of the whereas Clauses by removing um part of what we just discussed so I suspect this one isn't going to pass but it's the they Define contributions and incentives section um and replacing it with it is Humane and far more expensive inhumane and far more expensive to allow people experiencing homelessness to language on the streets and just provide housing with Supportive Services to this population and help put them on a path towards self-reliance is what that should say not sufficiency so with that I'll move that motion is there a second Medina was that councilmember Combs I believe that was comes first okay mayor um you go ahead and take somebody else first myself first um again I I think the conditions that we see that were set and the incentives that were set at the Colorado Springs Rescue Mission actually were good and it actually did work and helped people to um to little by little transition um and and so I thought it was actually a really good program so I would like to keep some of those conditions um in the language um yeah other further discussion of council member Marcano and then mayor we can I'm sorry we can let the mayor go first yeah no I again um I discussed this um a man with uh Mr Yonkers who um wrote the program for Colorado Springs and and felt that uh the language is fine in this amendment further discussions yes thank you and I understand that the you know programmer for the Colorado Springs Rescue Mission believes that this is the right thing to do and I don't doubt that it does work for some people but again my goal with these amendments is to yes and I want to make sure that we are serving as many people as possible and there's overwhelming evidence that shows that the more hurdles and conditions you add to any kind of recovery program the more difficult it is going to be for people to succeed and the more people are just going to turn you away from the jump and I'm I don't know about y'all but I'm sick of seeing people living out on the streets as I was driving home um yesterday's cold front was blowing through I saw a group of campers over on the off ramp on Iliff 225 uh over by Euros grab holding on to their tents because that wind was about to blow them off into the highway and if these folks have some underlying conditions that would not make them want to participate in the program we're just going to still be stuck with the status quo so again I understand that y'all want some conditions and I'm not saying no conditions period I'm saying that we can't have conditions as a default requirement we can have different buckets if you will of services and programming for different people who might be open to that kind of discipline and rigor and they'll still be able to be served okay well my question would be so with no condition someone with a very serious drug addiction problem doing heroin doing fentanyl meth Whatever Gets to have housing with absolutely zero accountability that that's my issue that's I think you know we can offer certain types of shelter but to say that there's no conditions to actually getting housing is ridiculous in my mind council members of Honor yeah mayor Pro tem so this this goes back to what are we trying to accomplish are we trying to change people's conditions are we trying to take people who are currently unhoused and move them towards self-sufficiency which I think should be our ultimate goal I know that for some reason self-sufficiency is an offensive word I I don't I don't know that I understand that or phrase but the goal should be how do we help these people who have the ability to become self-sufficient with the right Services whether it's mental health support addiction and Recovery support how do we ensure that happens in what we've seen again going back to evidence and this is Hud's numbers not some think tank or anybody who's made up this is Hud's numbers that show that there was a drop of over 30 percent between 2007 and 14 before housing first was adopted and what housing first essentially has done is say we we're going to drop the requirements so we've seen an increase in the number of people who are experiencing homelessness as a result of this failed housing first policy we need to get back to a situation where housing should be a part of the solution for the small segment of the unhoused population who through as a result of whether it's mental or physical disabilities can't become self-sufficient but for the majority of the population who can we should require services and help them to change their condition I understand that this is why I refer to it as the hide the homeless policy because I know you don't like to see them but just putting them in housing doesn't mean that they're better doesn't mean we've changed their condition we should have a policy that seeks to make p that helps people achieve self-sufficiency and not requiring them I think is a terrible mistake that other cities have already made and I hope that we don't go that same direction so mayor pretend council member Mercado thank you ma'am so I'll first respond by saying I think it's exceptionally disingenuous and dishonest to attribute the rising home homelessness to housing first when a number of other things happen during the period that you're describing including the Great Recession a huge eviction crisis that came about as of that and then we've had ballooning housing prices since then and when you actually look at the evidence whether it's the Tri-Cities you know study room air Englewood Sheridan and Littleton that was done about a year and a half ago or even National Data the leading cause of homelessness is the inability to afford shelter so it is first and foremost I mean you can shake your head all you want I mean I understand that it this goes against your preconceived notions but then the second issue is addiction mental health disability things of that nature so by putting people into shelter you set them up for greater success in the future and I'll say right here you won't be able to help everybody unfortunately the situation that you described though is addressed through good housing first policy and permanent Supportive Housing you don't leave just put folks into a box and leave them alone you continuously check in on them Reach Out build that Rapport and that's how these programs are successful but I want to remind you guys you seem to be arguing against something that I'm not actually advocating for in totality here I'm okay with the direction that the mayor is trying to go um again it's not my preference but I want to make sure that we're as effective as possible so let's not close the door on these folks okay well I think you're not going in the direction that the mayor proposed because your your Amendment basically contradicts that the conditions if you're gonna if someone who has a serious drug problem just gets housing and they refuse because you don't have a condition that they have to go get help and they refuse to get help so now they get free housing on taxpayer dollars and they're not going to get help and how does that help that individual it's horrible for that individual what we want to do is entice them to um to have you know to have hope and to to move towards recovery and we can help them with resources for recovery but by setting zero expectations at zero conditions on them and zero accountability and just giving them housing is is your argument that they'd be better off on the street just dying on the street no no and we do actually help those with drug addictions now if we offer them pallet homes if they refuse them they refuse them um so we do have other Alternatives currently we're talking about transitional housing though council member jorinsky yeah uh am I allowed to call for the question on an amendment I think so I would like to call for the question is there a second second okay we have a motion and a second to call for the question so the uh the vote is to close debate foreign who was the second on that um and again you're you're voting yes to close debate no to not close debate mayor Kaufman remember what's yes oh my did you get mine because I think I voted on on a previous amendment I did not receive yours yet okay and I'm uh I'm yes to close debate okay the motion passes with nine yes votes two no votes from council member Coombs and council member Mario okay and now we are on amendment five I believe council member we still have to vote on the actual oh sorry um thank you um call for the question by council member jorinsky is there a second yeah wait a second this is just an up or down vote now mayor Pro tem Regis voted on call for the question and so now we need now we're voting on the amendment Amendment Three I don't have a vote for four I'm sorry I think it's three I have Amendment one Amendment two and I have a motion in a second for Amendment Three I don't have a full vote for that one we started to take a vote but then we call for the question so we haven't had everybody's vote on Amendment Three it was Amendment Three which one was it Amendment Three Amendment Three is it is a Humane and far more expensive to allow people experiencing I thought we voted yes no no we voted yes on the one previous so this we just voted to End discussion on Amendment Three and now we're voting on Amendment Three okay so we need to go back do you want to go back to Amendment Three first yes what you're voting on right now is amendment did we have a motion and a second on that one yes yes on Amendment Three please and that was the one yeah with the conditions being taken out and mayor Pro Tim um yes and mayor Pro Tim votes no mayor I'm gonna put you as abstain for this one we didn't need you to break the tie I was asking mayor Pro Tim I'm sorry the motion does not pass with four yes votes six no votes from council member savonik Lawson Bergen Gardner drinsky and Sundberg okay thank you and now we're back yes counselor yes council member Coombs um just a point of order does the mayor vote on amendments regardless of whether there's a tie sorry I sometimes get confused about what he is and isn't allowed to vote on so so these are motions so the the until we get to the final resolution the mayor is allowed to vote on the amendments there's votes because he has not been voting on the Amendments for this resolution I thought you did he did I thought he did too he was a no-on-one a yes on Two and a no on three if I'm not mistaken okay mayor can you verify which amendments when you want to vote Yes for see um can we bring them back up bring them back up Adrian can you please scroll up to Amendment one two and three can you bring up the Amendments one two three oh no one won and yes on two and three I thought you were yeah no one won yes one two and three you were a yes on three yes okay so we have you no on Amendment one and yes on Amendment two and three yes okay thank you okay are we good all right we'll move to a Min are we on four now yes ma'am okay council member Mark we already had a motion in a second I believe for number four no we have not yet so I typically introduce it and then I'll move I'll move it and then someone can second if that is that an okay order of operations okay great so uh the Fourth Amendment here um is whereas uh the council wants to expand offerings and we will be striking to include employment-based programming and conditions-based transitional housing to increase the number of people who exit homelessness on an annual basis we'll be replacing that section with that Empower individuals experiencing homelessness to choose for themselves their path to self-reliance to include mental health and mental and physical health care job training educational assistance and low barrier housing okay and do we have a second second we have a second from council member Maria and uh discussion again I'm going to be against this because we're taking out conditions and we're letting people just choose if they want to get any help at all and so they could have housing and choose not to get help further discussion the um and then again in talking Mr Yonkers he's he was okay with the amendment simply because the fact that it's just understood that the lowberry housing is available to everybody but then it's phased up as you remember seeing the Colorado Springs when you when you toured the facility uh in in face in the second tier where there was more I would say better transitional housing than in the first tier the low barrier tier where people were participating in programs and then the third tier where people were working in um transitional housing so I don't think it you know mystery Yonkers didn't feel that it conflicted with uh the pro the program as they envisioned is Mr Yonkers on City Council because I'm I'm just kind of like he's making the decisions for us and and this is your this is your you know no resolution it's taking out conditions on transitional housing and letting people make their choice if they want to get help well I think we can't force people uh in particularly in the low barrier part you can't force people well mayor Tim if you want to change this to low barrier housing but and and are we are I guess you have to differentiate the transitional housing and the low barrier because we already offer low barrier housing quite frankly I don't remember The Briefing uh Michigan the low barrier housing council member oh sorry council member Gardner and then council member Marcato sorry why are why are we doing this tonight if if there's so many friendly amendments between councilmember Marcano and the mayor why don't we pull this item and vote on it another night when it's actually ready to be voted on by Council this is absurd I second I agree mayor council member thank you so I will just say from a procedure standpoint this should have probably come to Horns first so that we could have had this discussion um you know as like I said I really do think that we're more in alignment than not here so then we would have had a finished resolution um coming before Council so if the majority of council wants to just punt it to horns and then bring it back I'm fine with doing that I guess I would defer to the chair of horns if that's something that we could arrange well I mean at this point we need to make a decision if we're yeah what direction we're going to take are we going to I mean council member Gardner are you making a proposal a motion I am I I just don't see why we're going to debate through these when the proposer and the sponsor it seems like they're going to agree on all these then why don't you all work out your issues and bring it back when it's ready and then we can vote yes or no on the whole thing yeah one whole resolution yes mayor because this is given well I think we should get this they've been voted up and down and somebody could always come in this is a major policy it needs to move forward there will always be tweaks to it uh these are not very substantive changes um that and but let's let's just move forward with and get it done okay these are very substance changes and I'm I'm going to end up voting no on the entire thing oh yeah and and so I think you're self-sabotaging yourself I mean that's not proper grammar Pro tem some members sunburn just on this one I noticed mayor this goes from uh employment-based programming conditions so it's going from being conditional to allowing them to be the CEO of their own pathway in life as their perhaps severely addicted to something so you know how is that working out for you uh you know the person at I live in 225 that's been there for four years um so I think that you're taking the the bite out of your your proposal sir a proton council member I think Mark Connor was first and then council member Coombs all right thank you and this is something that we heard a lot at the Springs Rescue Mission at San Antonio and even in Houston you can the mayor just said it you can't force people to change what you can do is you can give them the opportunity but you can give them conditions it well no we're not we're not anybody's daddy we're not going to tell them what to do and they're going to listen to us most of these people are going to give us the finger and go do what they've been doing what we have been tasked with solving in our city to the maximum extent possible so the language here is in keeping with best practices whether you support housing first whether you support conditions or not you have to have buy-in from the person you're trying to help any any good recovery program will tell you that I actually met with a constitution of mine earlier today who struggle with alcoholism and that's one of the things she told me it took several tries for her to actually get out of it but she she's still in recovery 30 years later and that is something that we'll you'll find to be true with these the folks that we're trying to help out on the street whatever their issues are but you have to have them buy into the idea you can't come to somebody and say you're going to do this I mean with respect councilmember Marcano I think you were against the resolution to begin with and now you've introduced 17 amendments to basically sabotage the resolution that's how I that's how I see it council member Coombs then then Council and then mayor and then I don't know who else council member Gardner after so council member Coombs so I think first of all you know I think if we expect people to be either self-sufficient or self-reliant we be expecting them to be quote the CEO of their own life and if we expect someone to have a path that's going to work for them to remain out of homelessness um and out of addiction and out of all of these negative situations we have to give them we have to empower them um so they need to have control over what they're deciding to do and how they decide to do it and I really hope that we can respect adult human beings enough to um to support them in pursuing a path that's going to be actually successful for them instead of punishing them into doing what we want them to do and only then giving them the tools and the opportunities to move forward um and I think this is like frankly the way that this conversation is going is exactly the kind of political football sort of approach to the issue that is going to get in the way of moving forward um so I hope that we can look at what the mayor and council member Marcano have done in a positive way they've each compromised on things that they would rather have done to come to a sense of agreement together on a way to move forward and have consulted experts and people with lived experience on what that could look like and how it could be helpful and so rather than seeing this as the mayor you know sabotaging his proposal we could look at him as him Rising above just playing politics and trying to find something that's really going to work just second Mayor Katie did we have a motion from council member Gardner to in I guess to delay this I had a motion from council member Garner to table this item I don't know believe or know that we got a second from did we have a second so so we have a second can we clarify what that motion actually is is it to table it is it to continue it to send it to committee or continue it to bring it back to Kel my recommendation would be to continue it to send it to committee needs to go through the process we have committees for a reason um is that is the second amenable to that that it goes to committee I feel like that's a wasted step in this point but I I'm whatever councilmember Gardner would like to do I just think that at this point um if the mayor is willing to risk accepting all of these friendly amendments he's willing to risk uh several votes on this Council I think this needs if he he can decide which amendments he considers friendly this needs to come back as one resolution we're not going to sit here and put the public through 16 amendments and this back and forth ping pong okay okay um so we have a we have a motion and we have a second so Stu motion uh substitute motion to delay for two weeks um Jessica if I could ask a question of staff when when is the does this process start in terms of applying for the state Grant the state so at that point we will have guidance around what to apply for from the state for multiple different pieces of legislation that were from last session and then we will know when the deadline is to apply I'm anticipating early January this has already been a study session and so what what I would ask and I and I do fault myself uh for uh allowing so many amendments to be considered that many of which don't appear to be very substantive and um that's why I allowed them to get on but I I think out of clarity uh I need to go forward with a with a pretty a solid proposal without dozens of amendments so if I could as a substitute Amendment delay for two weeks to the next regular meeting and I I've been told that since councilmember Carter did a amendment to continue it's supposed to be non-debatable is yours a friendly Amendment and I guess that way we could go back to council member Gardner accepting that and and we're not debating I'll accept that as a friendly Amendment okay is the second okay okay so um we have it we have an amendment or a motion to table this until the next meeting correct okay so we have a regular meeting all right so call for the question on tabling it to the next meeting mayor Kaufman um the merchant passes to table this item to the next regular council meeting okay I'm giving you back the gavel and I always get the very complicated ones okay um item number uh with the clerk now please read the talk to item number 11f item 11f is resolution 2022 199 a resolution from the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado expressing the Roars City council's desire to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness through evidence-based policy that prioritizes housing Supportive Services and Workforce Development opportunities the city council directs the city manager and his staff to support this effort by developing and executing a comprehensive approach that aligns with the necessary support to meet the needs of the diverse homeless population in Aurora come here most uh council member O'Connell thank you I'd like to pull this since we're going to be revising your resolution and I think we can incorporate this into that um without objection uh the item I I've never love enough just pulled uh with could now please read the title top number 11e I'm sorry we just uh when the clock now please retired item number 11 G item 11g is resolution 2022 196 consideration to approve the First Amendment to the IGA between the city of Aurora and Colorado Department of Transportation regarding the pass-through funding of the usdot build grant for the I-70 and Piccadilly interchange project foreign presentation by staff uh good evening Marin members of city council my name is Matt kazakowski I'm the transportation project delivery manager with the public works department the First Amendment to the I-70 Piccadilly Project funding IGA with CDOT is proposed to city council for the purpose of adding 3 million and five hundred thousand dollars of State funding for construction scope that was added to the project at the request of CDOT uh as the scope was refined through the procurement process the estimate increased and CDOT has agreed to the scope an increased estimate to and provided the IGA Amendment for council's consideration uh staff is available for any questions that you might have questions to staff I've seen none no motion is in order mayor mayor Tim motion to approve 11 age it's it's removed by mayor pretend seconded by sunbear I'm sorry Sue councilmember sunberg to approve item number uh 11-h this is G I'm sorry I'm sorry 11g uh discussion I've seen another question before us is adoption of item number 11 G uh call for the question this is to adopt resolution 2022 196. um with Canal clerk now please read your child time number 11 h item 11h is resolution 2022 197 consideration to approve a resolution for the First Amendment of the IGA between Aurora and Colorado Department of Transportation for funding of the Highline Canal Trail project um a motion is in order I'm sorry a brief presentation by staff good evening mayor and members of city council my name is Matt kozikowski I'm the project delivery manager for Public Works uh the First Amendment to the Highline Canal tip Project funding IGA with CDOT is proposed to city council for the purpose of adding two hundred and forty three thousand dollars of federal funding this additional funding was added to the project by Dr cogg through coveted relief funds that were made available to the agency for distribution for projects in the 2023 or I'm sorry 2020 to 2023 Transportation Improvement program cycle no other terms of the previously approved IGA have changed with this amendment staff is available for any questions that you might have questions to staff seeing nine motion is an order mayor motion to approve 11h move my councilmember Gardner second by jorinsky council member joinsky to prove item number 11h discussion let's see no discussion the question before is the adoption of item number 11 age call for the question council member Coombs yes the motion passes to adopt resolution 2022 197. well the good clerg now please read the toddler on number 11 I item 11i is resolution 2022 198 a resolution of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado officially supporting City staff's efforts to apply to the Department of local Affairs for a local match program supporting infrastructure investment and jobs act grants and authorizing City staff to complete and execute all unnecessary forms and documents to complete this application process representation by staff good evening mayor city council Laura Perry Deputy city manager tonight bringing forward an opportunity for you all for staff to pursue funds through the department of local Affairs for matching funds to support infrastructure and jobs act funding this year the Colorado general assembly allocated 80 million dollars in state general funds for local match support for state agencies and local governments for a non-federal match requirements supporting the infrastructure build programs in fiscal year 2022 so the current fiscal year there's six million dollars available for this program funds already first come first serve basis and will be allocated until they've been exhausted the program applications are evaluated based on alignment with the governor's policy priorities justification of need Equitable impact impacts on our Workforce and job creation long-term Community impact death depth among others staff is proposing to submit an application for the Colfax bus Rapid Transit project in the amount of one million dollars for this opportunity this is a regional project involving RTD CDOT the city and the City and County of Denver and the agencies are all jointly pursuing the Federal Transit administration's small starts program so we have an active Grant in process this request shows alignment with the criteria that has been put forward for the evaluation of the funds and certainly the city's goal is to pursue additional funding in future fiscal years subject to State Legislature approval if those funds are available and as we pursue additional Federal funding opportunities for our Capital project priorities in addition to the request to council tonight there is a request for a waiver of reconsideration as I mentioned this is a very competitive opportunity I understand no other local governments have applied for this and Council action is required to submit an application for the program questions to staff seeing known motion is in order [Music] um moved to approve 11i with the waiver reconsideration moved by council member Maria second by McConnell Samurai councilmember McConnell uh discussion I see another question before us is the adoption of item number 11 I call for the question council member Coombs yes the motion passes to adopt a resolution 2022-198. uh well coach now please read the top item number 12a mayor can we have the announcement and five minute break at this owner very well the the time is now 843 we will stand in recess until 8 50. Council stands in recess remember the public who would like to speak on an ordinance and have not already spoken to an operator press star 3 before the item is called by the clerk for those watching on Channel 8 call 855-695 -3475 to be connected and then press star three council is taking a short break to allow any additional speakers to sign up please be patient and stay on the line until the operator is able to take down your information outside [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign foreign foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] council is now in session with the clerk please read the title to item number 12a item 12a is ordinance 20 2256 a public hearing and introduction of an ordinance at the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado zoning approximately 308.6 acres of land more or less generally located north and south of Smith Road and West of powaton Road County of Adams state of Colorado to business Tech Zone district and amending the zoning mouth accordingly public hearing is now an order presentation by staff Council planning and development services department before you is the Harvest mile initial zoning application city of Council of Aurora Public hearing the subject site consists of multiple Parcels totaling 308 Acres Council recently approved an annexation for this area as two separate sites due to the Union Pacific Railroad that bisects the property the northern peace is located again north of the Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way and that extends up to 26th Avenue and is located generally east of the Harvest Road alignment both properties to the East and the west of the northern parcel are currently vacant the southern piece extends down to the I-70 right-of-way and is between an existing water treatment facility located to the west and the spruce Energy Center to the east the Aurora places comprehensive plan designates the subject site as industrial Hub with the exception of about 40 acres located south of 26th Avenue this larger area was intended to be a commercial hub that was fed by traffic from Harvest Road however the recently adopted master plan for the Aurora Highlands does not plan for commercial in this area and the Harvest Road alignment has changed due to the proposed aerotropolis Parkway interchange that also bisects the site the subject site is surrounded by a variety of zoning districts i1ad and mua are all acceptable within the industrial Hub Place type the applicant has selected the i-1 business Tech Zone District as their requested Zoning for all 308 Acres the Planning Commission made unanimous recommendation of approval after the public hearing held on September 14th notice a public hearing was posted on site and mailed to abutting property owners and neighborhood groups on October 12th and published the newspaper on October 13th staff and the applicant request council's consideration to initially Zone both Parcels to i1 business Tech Zone District the applicant Kevin Kelly is in attendance with their staff and present to or able to present on the application as well that's it thank you thank you presentation by the applicant good evening mayor City Council Members Kevin Kelly with United properties we've been active here in Colorado since 2005. we've developed over 4 million square feet of commercial space through the metro area most likely most locally in Aurora we developed the Tower Road Business Center which is at 38th and Tower a 400 000 square foot development and we are looking forward to your support on our project here in Aurora and uh I'm here to answer any questions and uh with that I'll turn it over to Susan Wade good evening Susan Wade with Redland we're going to kind of shorten our presentation tonight and support Asia's tonight our initial zoning request we think really meets three main goals for the city of Aurora we're going to meet and exceed the city of Aurora's Udo and comp plan Vision we will also be providing the industrial use to bolster the local economy for jobs with a variety of skill packages and we're going to support the aerotropolis area plan with the industrial uses near the transportation corridors again we're here to answer any questions thanks thank you thank you is there anyone who wishes to be heard on item number over here 12a no mayor um public hearing is now closed questions to the to staff the applicant from members of council I've seen none that emotion is in order mayor motion to council member sunberg to approve item number 12 a discussion assuming no discussion the question before us is the adoption of item number 12a call for the question council member savonik the motion passes to adopt ordinance 2022-56. um thank you with the clerk now please read the title title number 12b item 12b is ordinance 2022 Tuesday public hearing and internet down ordinance of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado zoning approximately five acres of land more or less generally located 400 feet east of the northeast corner of Piccadilly Road and East 26th Avenue County of Adams state of Colorado to business Tech Zone district and amending the zoning map accordingly public hearings now open uh presentation by staff yep great thank you council members and Mr Mayor my name is Eric Gates I'm a planner with planning and development services um so before you is a request for the initial zoning of a property located at 21861 East 26th Avenue near the junction of North Piccadilly Road and East 26th Ave to the i-1 business Tech Zone District it's parcel received approval from city council for annexation on October 10th in the anticipated uses for a self-storage facility so as you can see currently the site is bordered by The i-1 Zone District on the North and South and by two unincorporated Adams County Parcels directly to the east and west there also is a little bit of I2 industrial zoning nearby as well and here's the site should the zoning change be approved so the entire region is surrounding and including the site is part of the industry Hub Place type this place type is intended primarily for industrial uses and Commercial uses making a zoning to i1 well supported by the comprehensive plan and this place type uh this item was heard and unanimously unanimously recommended approval from the Planning Commission at their September 28th hearing based on the review criteria of section 146-541c13 thank you um and I believe the applicant and their representative uh are here to answer any questions they do not have a presentation however a presentation by the applicant I'm sorry is the African president the applicant yes is present for questions they do not have a presentation okay okay um is there anyone who wishes to be heard no on item number 12 B no uh seeing none um public hearing is now close uh questions from members of city council to staff of the applicant a sitting non-emotion is in order mayor I remembered him a motion to prove 12 8. moved by man 410 Second on by sorry Toby it's been moved by a man for 10 second to buy Medina uh second by councilman Medina uh to prove item number 12b um discussion uh seeing no discussion the question before us is the adoption of number item number 12 B uh call for the question that motion passes to adopt ordinance 2022-57. uh with court now please read the title to item number 14a item 14a is Introduction of ordinance 202258 in ordinance of the city of Aurora Colorado adopting and operating in Capital Improvements project budget for the fiscal year beginning January 1st 2023 and ending January 31st 2023. and mayor we do have one individual from the public that would like to speak very well Omar Montgomery good good evening everyone good evening mayor city council I want to thank you for the work that you do and it was brought to my attention that on this current budget there are some recommendations that were made to cut office of diversity around by the city and the um in the one for the monitor monetary the police monitor now as we know that the city had already seen a lot of lawsuits because of police abuse and one our law enforcement do an amazing job but at the same time there are some officers that abuse their power and there has been best practices shown Across the Nation not stats just Across the Nation having the independent monitor will save the city money A diversity office we talk about the diversity in the city of a world we brag about it it's the first thing we talk about every single day but do we have the infrastructure and support for the diversity that we have of the 130 to 150 different languages that we talk about we talk about Havana Street we talk about Colfax but do we have the infrastructure to support the residents in the city of Aurora I think a diversity office has shown over time that they have done amazing work in the city of Aurora it is time to support those two offices and to make sure we have an independent monitor that also came at the recommendation of the consent decree organization that's working with us now that we have an independent Monitor and it was their understanding that that person would be in place as part of the work that they and when they have the initial meetings with you so why are we backing out now let's support the two and make sure we have both in place and do what we can to support our residents and have the best Public Safety in the state of Colorado thank you uh brief presentation Mike is there anyone else who wishes to speak no no uh representation by staff uh Greg Hayes budget officer in the finance department uh what you're seeing tonight which is 14 uh a through D are all the different parts of the building of the budget it's a culmination of a lot of work that has gone into the creation of the 2023 proposed budget including public hearings in March 28th and August 22nd uh budget Town meetings throughout uh throughout all of your different Awards um the council one-on-one meetings in July and then the subsequent uh giving of the same information over to the citizens advisory budget committee uh the September 20th presentation and we just uh can't think can't go by without thinking about the uh the fun Saturday Workshop that we had on October 8th all together and so by the way the adjustments that came out of the October 8th Workshop are on page 483 and 484 of the packet and with that what you've got is is four items here uh the adopting ordinance the appropriating ordinance uh the tax levy ordinance which allows us to uh to create the property taxes but then there's a special one just for 2023 because we built the we have the creation of the transportation maintenance fund and so those are the four pieces of the budget with that all opened up for questions mayor of course the staff uh customer service yeah so can I also make a comment because I wanted to respond to what Mr Montgomery said is that appropriate now uh police received yeah so um and part of this budget I I the the comment about the independent monitor I think it's an important um topic and conversation we had so prior to the patterns of practice report put out by the Attorney General the city had created the Office of the independent monitor in the gym I'm looking at you to correct me if I'm wrong for for fde were created those positions were never filled and in part because once we get went into the consent decree we hired an independent monitor that the city pays in excess of 700 000 a year on contract to have the independent Monitor and their entire team to do exactly what that office that was going to be created before the consent decree did so we eliminated those ftes in that office because frankly there was a vacant office that wasn't going to be filled and isn't needed to be filled because we have this independent Monitor and the ongoing contract that will be in place as long as the consent degree is in place so it was a budget saving opportunity recognizing that it would be redundant and we frankly wouldn't try to fill them anyway so I think that's that's something I just wanted to point out as we have this conversation because I know it's important to our community and point important to you and I appreciate you coming here and doing that so thanks councilmember Lawson I just want to kind of kind of respond we have the consent decree and I understand also that where you feel like this is redundant but when you look at the police monitor that's more of a public-facing um and then the auditor is more internal which looks at the programs through you know a policy lens So when you say it's it's dual functionality it is different I mean the independent monitor is going to look at incidents and complaints specifically that are brought in by the community as well so I I definitely disagree with you on there are some separations there and I don't know mayor we're going to go with some proposals I know that I'm going to propose one to reinstate the independent monitor position mayor uh councilman zavana yeah that's um actually the the independent the monitor that we've hired as a result the consent decree does look at our policies they're making recommendations um on a regular basis in fact they brought some forward they monitored the policies they monitor their practice they do all of the things that that office was initially set up to do and we are required to have them and so the city is paying like I said nearly a million dollars a year to have this independent Monitor and their team monitor the policies and practice of our department throughout the consent decree process so to say it's not duplicative with all due respect councilmember Lawson is it's not true it this is a duplicative office it's why not only did we not fill it but there was no effort to fill those vacant roles going forward because after the consent decree was put into place and we hired this independent monitor they were performing the function that office would have done had we not been in under a consent decree mayor mayor Kaufman can I respond um uh please respond and then I'll go to Mayor Pro tem and okay thank you because with all due respect to councilmember Savannah the police monitor the independent monitor is more public facing you you've specified the policies yes they do look at that but it's not more public facing with the community so I get I do have to disagree with you on that um and that's what makes that a lot different let's see um me uh may I pretend thank you um yeah I my understanding at the budget Workshop when we talked about this on the police monitor that the discussion was and I believe we asked our city manager Jim tromley about it as well in terms of um do we you know are we actually um needing those four positions and and as council member zavonic said they had been unfilled because we had to go uh have the the the police monitor through the independent contract I guess through the consent decree so to the city manager can you speak to to maybe council member Lawson's question what is the role of of the the monitor yes thank you there there would be some overlap on the other hand as councilmember Lawson says one of the functions of an independent police monitor is to intake citizen initiated complaints and do those investigations to be a as she said a public-facing independent review of police actions so she's got that right the other thing is is that there there is and a way I think we experience this as we talked to the AG's office during the patterns in practice and consent decree uh discussions that there could also be I think confusion among the public about the roles of a consent decree Monitor and an independent Police monitor um in we didn't fill those its three positions actually the office of the indep independent police monitor we didn't fill those because of the some concerns about confusion between the two and also not really knowing until we had a consent decree and had what implementation of that consent decree would look like uh that we weren't going to fill those positions and and actually uh initiate that that office as it is the consent decree monitor is is looking at some of our practices and policies as to how we handle use of force how we handle uh internal investigations and so on um and so with that going on and the fact that we hadn't filled them I mean I was okay at that budget workshop and saying at this point we can go ahead with I mean I felt it was okay to go ahead and um not film eliminate those positions at this point in time however I do think it will be important in the future to to that for that to be considered so if I might um we're saving about almost a little bit over 500 000 by not filling those positions I believe and we're paying over seven hundred thousand to the consent decree monitor that has a whole team that is I mean and you said they they're kind of looking at the practices isn't that their job is to look at our practices and policies as it relates to use of force and other things well as it relates specifically to the patterns and practice investigation and the findings in that investigation which was pretty lengthy the findings right so they have a lot to look at so if if we're paying them and let's I you know we have to we have to fulfill all the needs of the consent decree which could be another three years maybe four years before that ends so would it wouldn't it make sense to not fill these positions until until that contract ends and then add back end the independent police monitor we are possibly heading into a recession and we're looking at over five hundred thousand dollars duplicating what we already have with 700 000. yeah and and I I believe that's a policy decision I mean I'm as I said at this point in time you know I wouldn't strongly advocate for filling the independent Police monitor position it is partially uh economic decision and I think there I still believe that there would be some confusion among the public between the two roles and obviously we need to get the consent decree implemented right that's a priority but we could always add it later the others the independent police monitor and I would advise that we should okay uh for um councilman Memorial uh thank you um yeah when we when we had this discussion um I was really uncomfortable with the the decision to move away to eliminate those positions I I hear um what we're saying but I think if we haven't just having that as a best practice that came um on the the heels of what happened with Elijah McLean if we're not um actively working towards best practices to repair that harm that we've done in community I think that's really problematic um I understand that temporarily those that investigative body is uh temporarily being pursued by the consent decree monitor but as I said that's a temporary um Monitor and I think we know long term that that's a best practice and that's something that we should have in the city um and and budgets are moral documents right if we're not willing to um always know that that's a department and position that will have filled regardless of a recession or not I think that we start to run into a slippery slope so I have concerns there I've you know I hear what my colleagues are saying but we know long term that this is a position sure we could go revisit this in a few years and and work to implement it um but that sounds like that's not a guarantee we could guarantee that that continues today if we decide to incorporate it into this year's budget so um yeah and I also recall that this was on the heels of conversations that other council members were having in order to cut the budget for their own proposals specifically the occupational tax so we were trying to find ongoing dollars to be able to afford a six million dollar tax cut that hadn't thoroughly been vetted at the time so it's also important to understand the context of why the there was a hunt to eliminate positions um that was 100 part of the conversation so I would support um and they didn't realize that councilmember Lawson was going to make that proposal because I I too would have as well so I would support council member Lawson's proposal to keep that in the budget as well as our Dei position um well it's a it's a relatively new office and if we're not properly resourcing that office there's no way that it's going to be able to grow and Thrive into a meaningful Department it just takes times and time and resources and and budgets are moral documents right where are our policy budget priorities and I feel like those are four positions that we shouldn't be willing to compromise I again I can tell me all day uh every day about the the short term this or that but like I said long term we know that those are best practices and I want to see us succeed and I don't want to see us make mistakes now that we are going to have a hard time reversing down the line we don't know what things will look like in five years when the consent decree monitor isn't around to temporarily fulfill these positions and similarly with the Dei it's when things start to um you know when when the fiscal position doesn't look as favorable it's these types of positions that get cut first and that's the opposite of what needs to happen that's when we dig deep that's when you invest in equity and access and diversity um and yeah so so I similarly with the three independent monitor positions I don't support that as well as the Dei manager position as well yeah so um again the this office was created before we were in a consent decree before we had the independent monitor if we were not under the consent agree and didn't have that monitor I'd say that having these three positions would be appropriate but the fact of the matter is we're spending nearly 700 000 a year currently and as temporarily as you say it is it could be it's going to be no less than four years probably longer and then at that point when we get to the point we've worked ourselves out of the consent decree and we don't need that independent monitor anymore we could we'll have money that we are spending on this independent monitor that could go back to funding these this position and I think that would be appropriate then what we're talking about now is something that's fiscally responsible where we have an independent monitor that is reviewing use of force they're reviewing our policies they're reviewing the things that the Attorney General pointed out and that challenges that were that were brought forward by community and now so this monitor has the responsibility to do that now and into the future once they're no longer over here we will have that money freed up and could reallocate it towards the this the these ftes but just holding them in the budget that's all we would literally be doing we wouldn't have had this conversation at the budget Workshop it would have been held in the budget as three ftes and not spent on other priorities but again we have seven hundred thousand dollars dedicated this year towards an independent police monitor to do the things that this office was created to do mayor mayor council member mercano then councilman mayor Pro tem then councilman McCombs all right thank you uh first quick question to Greg I've heard the 700 000 figure thrown around a couple times now I'm looking at our backup it says 419 000. is that the correct figure 419 000 was the elimination of the three uh in the program and there's some funds I would ask uh Deputy manager uh Bachelor about the cost that's that's in police for the for that monitor yeah so we uh when Council awarded the consent decree monitor contract it is I think think a little over four million dollars over five years and so I think it is again it's it's between seven and eight hundred thousand dollars per year for the consent decree monitor team okay so I just want to clarify then for the sake of this conversation because I think that you have gotten a little conflated the vacancies for the police monitor in the backup are 419 000 but what we're currently spending every year is seven hundred thousand through the for the consent decree monitor okay great so my qualm at this is that we do need to be future focused um and my concern is if we strike these positions today then the council in the future is going to have to add them back in right um I would prefer to keep the positions in the budget and we're not going to have a consent decree monitor forever that's going to eventually lapse so what I would really recommend is that we make strides to actually hire a manager for the monitor so that once that program lapses the consent decree monitor elapses we have institutional knowledge and someone who's trained up on how to actually do the job they can then train up the other two people we don't necessarily fill all three positions today but I would like to have one person that's going to be with us after we're out of the consent decree monitor so they understand how this is so we can make that clean transition I understand what you're saying but we have probably four years left of the consent decree monitor so we're spending you know seven hundred thousand dollars a year right now we're looking at possibly heading into a recession and we're talking about 419 000 to be spent on vacant positions we're not firing anybody they're vacant we haven't filled them we that need is being met through the consent decree monitor I would say let's let's get through you know the next budget year and then re revisit it and and then start you know maybe add one in at that point and then maybe two three years down the road we had two positions but I I just think it's irresponsible to add positions that we do not need because we have it covered under the consent decree monitor let me ask you council member coach and then councilmember Lawson and let me ask this question and that is uh was there a remote did councilman Lawson put this forward as a motion nobody's put this forward as a motion okay um councilmember McCombs so what I'm wondering is wouldn't it be prudent and fiscally responsible to be not spending this money that we already had budgeted to be set aside we had a balanced budget with this money in it put it into General management um to be held over for as we need to be building this office back up including I actually like council member marcona's idea of hiring one person that's going to kind of be the transition person for the consent decree into whatever we have into the future um but then holding it aside in general management because then if we do find ourselves in dire fiscal streets in a recession or another situation we're not now looking for what else we're gonna cut in order to be able to have these positions when we do need them so it seems to me that saying we want to get rid of this because it's fiscally responsible get it getting rid of this it seems to me is for folks to be able to say we can spend this money on something else versus if we hold the money aside in general management as a guarantee for the future of having this program that seems more fiscally responsible to me then a motion is an order if there's going to be an amendment to the adopting the budget councilmember Lawson proposal just to at least have one position for the transition and agree with um Council councilmember quotes about putting it in the general management fund what I want to say it's very interesting to me with this Council sometimes we hold money all the time and then at the budget Workshop that wasn't even it was held on a Saturday not televised so the community didn't even know that this was happening um which is a problem and just in general so I mean we do need to hold something because this was something that and I find it also interesting that you know Mr twombly when I was on Public Safety he brought us to the attention of Public Safety really supporting it now he's like okay let's cut it I I just don't it's just that it's such back and forth and it's just so disingenuous in so many ways so to support council member mayor excuse me I don't interrupt other council members I I mean I would support council member McConnell's proposal but at least have one so we can have that transition well councilman McConnell did you make a motion um we can consider that emotional well if it's you know we go on all night uh somebody needs to bring this to a close mayor for Tim well I have a question for staff um so we're already paying for this to be done we have unfilled positions if you hold the money I mean aren't we voting on the budget that was basically from the budget Workshop from the ads and the deletions we are tonight supposed to be voting on a budget that you have you had to balance correct correct okay so by holding 500 000 that's extra money isn't it you all at the Saturday Workshop made some budget cuts at the end of the day you lowered the 2023 budget by 775 thousand dollars right so if you wanted to add them back in we would still be balanced because you cut enough yep okay so we're not cutting other positions in the budget um I there is no way I would support adding something that we already have I mean if we didn't have this position it would make sense but I mean we already do this through the consent decree I think the better option would be to put it in you know in one year or two years from now as we get closer to seeing how how we how we're doing how the concentricle um if we're meeting all the all the requirements I mean I mean councilmember Lawson you voted to to get rid of it and Jim our city manager was fine with it now everything's different and you know what councilmember Marco Tim uh you're not recognized right now oh sorry councilman Combs oh um I'll defer to council member Lawson in the main thing is the budget Workshop mayor Pro tem and then with additional information you can change and make different decisions so I was not bound by anything we had two weeks at the budget Workshop so I was able to get additional information definitely to understand what the difference is with an auditor and what the independent monitor which I did get that information I also talked to community members I also looked at my vote on this two years ago when this was brought forward and I was a yes on it so you can you can change and make decisions based on new information and you have done it as well okay further comments mayor councilor Combs [Music] Council between a consent decree Monitor and the independent Police monitor people are conflating these um and that was also a concern already expressed by city manager twombly so I want to be clear what is being proposed which is not to duplicate the consent decree monitor it's to have an internal position to the city that provides the necessary structure and institutional knowledge to support the transition from the consent decree monitor to having an independent police monitor subsequently first of all um and second of all um to maybe perform some of those functions that the consent decree monitor does not perform and that the city auditor does not perform like I think we need to look at what this position would do um but I think just expecting to have a seamless transition without having anyone with that institutional knowledge is a problem um so I think we need to stop inflating the two look at what this role can actually do and I would like if council member Marcano would take it as a friendly amendment to this proposal that we fill the one position that he proposed filling and hold the remaining funds for the remaining ftes in general management and use the saving essentially vacancy savings on that that we will um generate by holding those ftes there as a guarantee for the future of the program okay well first we need to move the budget the item number 14a itself all right mayor uh councilmember McConnell thank you sir move to approve 14a second move by councilmember McConnell second by zavonic councilmanik uh discussion all right mayor councilman thank you sir I would like to propose an amendment um as council member Coombs stated uh to fill a manager for the independent Police monitor um with this budget cycle and hold the remainder for the other two positions in general management to be applied in the future Amendment uh has been moved by councilman McConnell seconded by the second by councilmember McCombs discussion mayor uh mayor Tim um why were why did we come up with three positions in the first place I guess city manager they yeah the three positions one would be the monitor itself also an investigator and then an admin person to support them because we always add so many positions when we add managers it's like like we're flush with money I mean an investigator for what mayor to actually investigate police actions that are called into question and we don't do that through other memes is that maybe Jason Bachelor what is our process for that so the police department has their own investigations that they'll do for discipline and and then obviously if there's any criminal action there's an outside agency that would review those I think the intent of having the office of police monitor having their own investigator is that it it it underlines that independent they're doing their own independent investigation of as the city manager said any actions that are called into question so the contract that we have that is five million dollar or four million dollars over five years that I heard has a there's a team it's not just one person do they not have investigators and would they not be involved so they they have a team of folks that are looking at a number of different areas that have been identified by the consent decree including use of force uh documentation of stops racially by his policing and some other matters that are in in the consent decrees so they have a team of experts that do research into those areas and any any issues that come to their attention Okay thank you now further discussion uh councilman Gardner thank you mayor um amendments yeah so I'm interested in the concept of what council member Marcano approved or proposed I I guess to me it really would need to be a lot more fleshed out I think there's a lot of similarities between the independent monitor as and the consent decree monitor though I am curious about what it might look like to have somebody in a transition position I'm not ready to support that tonight because I think it needs to be a lot more fleshed out in terms of what it's going to cost and what that person is going to do um but you know I would be interested possibly at maybe like a spring supplemental time funding a position like that because I do think there's some value in having that transition that being said one of the things we've heard consistently from the police chief finalists we've interviewed to lots of other folks is we are probably going to be under this consent decree for seven to ten years saying four years is not going to happen I'm just going to tell you all now most everybody on this diet is probably will not be here and you know it was said earlier that a budget is a statement of values and I agree with that and one of the things that I value is not wasting taxpayer money on duplicative positions and so you know I I like I said I'm interested in what council member Marcano is proposing but I really would like to flush that out a little bit more what does that mean how do they manage that transition and what's the timeline for that because if we are going to be under this consent decree for seven to ten years do we need that person now um you know I will point out because it hasn't been brought up tonight that I can recall we cut several other vacant positions in other departments not just in the Dei office and the the independent monitor there was other cuts at other vacant Cuts as well and so um I think to me this the value statement there was we're not going to waste taxpayer money on positions that have been vacant in some cases for years um and and put them our priorities where they should go so I I'm going to be a no on what council member Marcano proposed though I I would like to flush it out a little bit more because I would be interested depending on what the final product looked like councilman George key I'll let council members on it go first so uh I agree with what councilmember Gardner just said I think that having somebody at some transitional Point makes sense um but to his point about we don't know when that's going to be so funding somebody in this year's budget to manage a transition that could be I don't care if it's four years away the idea that somebody's going to be with the city for four years we don't know uh or five years or six years or whatever that might be and then in terms of the budget the way that the the monitor's contract is set up is that it's more expensive early and it kind of tapers off towards the end so there will be money available to hire this person with funds that are already allocated to that contract and then if and when we get to the point to where we are in fact out of the consent decree and we don't need that independent monitor we are going to have seven hundred thousand dollars a year which is more than double of what's being proposed to fund the ftes necessary to have our own independent office again what we're doing right now by you know I know councilmember coomb said let's put this into General management by not having these ftes allotted that's essentially what we're doing as Greg said there's 775 000 dollars that are now freed up and available that we could build up our reserves as the mayor had suggested going into a potential recessionary period we have that those ongoing revenues available basically in general management right now so all we would be doing is saying we're going to add them back in and it come out of that money but it would it would just be a shell game we wouldn't actually be saving any additional dollars because we're not going to fill them and filling a role for somebody to transition out of the consent decrement or from away from the consent decree monitor when we have no idea when that's going to happen it seems irresponsible so I'll also be a no on it mayor uh councilman I'd like to call for the question um it's it's a call for the question has has been moved is there a second uh it's been taken by uh mayor Tim uh this is a non-debatable motion uh call for the question uh uh on the motion mayor Kaufman Hoffman uh man bro chess no councilmember Lawson councilmember Lawson you were muted did you see emotion passes to call for the question with seven yes votes four no votes from councilmember markana Marcano Coombs Lawson and Mario question before us now is the adoption of the Marcano motion uh and I believe that that was to create one FTE to fill one FTE now and put the remain a manager for an independent Monitor and put the remainder into General management to ensure that those positions have funding to be filled in the future very well um call for the question on the McConnell motion and mayor if I can do a an explanation procedurally not not as to this vote at all but as to your particular vote on an amendment so we've been having a debate amongst my office in the clerk's office tonight on language from the charter which says the mayor may not vote uh on ordinances or resolutions unless it's to break a tie the council rules actually add uh you're not entitled to vote on any resolution or ordinance or amendments there too so it adds amendments there too the next line actually says you get to vote on all motions so it's confusing those two are in conflict with each other what the clerk has explained is they have not been recording your votes on amendments they're going with the first sentence of the council rule so they will not be for consistency until we can get a council rules committee to actually go through and discuss this they will not be recording your vote on the amendment unless there's a tie up what isn't the charter speak to the issue no what what the charter says is you're not allowed to vote on ordinances or resolutions it stops the the the council rule further interprets it but the rule itself is I think the question is is an amendment effectively voting on an ordinance and so yes that's the exact issue but but for consistency sake we'll just disenfranchise me Story of My Life question before this is the adoption of the Mercado Amendment uh with uh clerk please call the roll or call for the question I'm sorry actually it's a time here there's a tie so you can vote on this amendment okay so many of us know the emotion does not pass with five yes votes six no votes the no votes council members of onik Mayor Kaufman mayor Pro tem Bergen councilmember Garner durinsky and sunberg a further Amendment mayor uh councilmember Gardner thank you mayor um so at the budget Workshop um for the police department there was originally a proposal to add 12 sworn officers and that was changed to seven civilians um however I would like to propose or put forward a motion to add four sworn officers to our authorized Staffing from 774 to 778 which would comply uh with the consent decree would bring us in line with the required Staffing mandate uh it's been moved by customer Gardner seconded by again for Tim Bergen um should you restate the amendment please yeah mayor um so the the amendment or the motion is to add four sworn officers um into the budget uh bringing our authorized force from 774 to 778. um I recognize I get and I'll just say this now because now we've had a second um I recognize that more than likely we may not be able to hire these folks and if we are it's not going to be till the end of uh 2023 I think you know we we need to um comply with that that's an agreement that we have in place and so that's why I think it's important to do these I don't disagree with the decisions that were made at the budget Workshop in terms of making these some of these positions civilians but I do think it's important to comply with the consent decree if we have it in place whether we have it in place or not is a whole separate conversation but as far as the discussion for this budget I think it's important to make sure we're complying with that to bring our authorized Force to 778. Mr bachelor what what do these positions do uh Mr Mayor could you repeat the question what are these positions the four sworn officers the the four sworn officers uh for a full year would cost a hundred and thirteen thousand dollars ongoing and forty five thousand dollars one time for each position um we're currently uh about 40 uh to 45 officers down uh in terms of our uh authorized Staffing so we're right a little below um right around 700 I should say okay so as the council member noted under our most optimistic Staffing stereos that will be probably uh the last quarter of 2023 before we could fill any additional authorized positions but these aren't dedicated to any specific that could be Patrol they could be anything no sir yeah and we realistically wouldn't even put them into the shift but at this point because we couldn't fill them until the end of the year but they would certainly go into The Big Field and put on the street as soon as we kick at them mayor uh councilman I'd like to offer maybe a friendly amendment to councilmember Gardner and that is given that we're 40 plus officers short currently and it's um under the most generous Staffing Solution we're probably not going to get to the point of filling these until the fourth quarter of next year so could we have them make or take effect the fourth quarter of this year it would give some budget savings for this year but still give us that authorized 778 by the end of this year which frankly there would be a blessing if we got to that point yeah that's a friendly Amendment very well uh further discussion on the Garter Amendment mayor mayor councilmember McConnell then council member Coombs thank you sir uh so this is part of what we discussed um during the budget meeting council member Gardner and we are able to meet that requirement without sworn officers necessarily that's the reason why we actually changed the 12 ftes which was originally done 12 or I think it might have been actually as high as 16 based off of the salary differences civilians that then got amended down to seven because we would still be in compliance because the mandate to us was to basically dedicate resources to Public Safety and have a certain number of folks who are filling that role and one of the comments that Chief Oates made during the budget Workshop is if we for example boost the number of Civilian traffic officers that is a one-to-one differential at a cost savings two of the taxpayers but they're able to take fairly menial tasks off the hands of our officers and allow them to you know go after criminals handle violent crime Etc so I would amend your suggestion to instead of adding four FTE sworn which we will likely not be able to fill until sometime into the future provide relief today by switching those over to civilian positions so that we can provide immediate relief now for the folks who are out on the street I believe that councilmember McConnell referred the question to you oh sorry councilman Mario I think had a question on the proposal yeah did you get the same clarification I think clarification on the con on the uh consent decree two per thousand that was my question my okay mine's different okay okay so my question is for Jason Batchelor um the two per thousand in my understanding is two officers not two civilians per 1000 population is what we are mandated to have under the amended stipulated consent decree with the Aurora Police Association yes it speaks to two sworn post-certified officers per 1000 population and then we are currently in a period of transition that specifies the number as 748 has been has has been noted uh and so um 748 is the Staffing Target that we are supposed to be at December 15th of 2023. thank you councilman Maria yeah just also clarify clarification on my end um the when we transition a sworn officer position to a civilian position what's the return um it's not a one-to-one right because it's less expensive to hire a civilian position what was the conversion do you guys recall and I guess as you're looking at I just wanted to clarify and make that point that that was part of the appeals like there there was stated need from our police chief that there needed to be administrative relief in some areas and that they would benefit from I mean frankly I think any position that they can get but specifically the the kind of fiscal return on your money um if we were able to employ more civilian positions we could actually afford more of those civilian positions which would help the entire department now so I just wanted to be clear and get a definitive well as definitive as we can of that conversion okay sure and I'll I'll do my best with that at the October in the October Workshop we added civilian police positions uh seven of them to the tune of 500 000 which is around seventy two thousand dollars a a civilian a police officers around 113 000 ongoing and has some one-time costs as well and that's full time for the full year if we're talking the uh four police officers for a quarter of the year that's a hundred and thirteen thousand dollars ongoing for those four positions because it's only for three months yeah I mean just whenever we decide to make that the the start date but the point I'm making is if we were to put civilian positions instead of the for um sworn officer positions we could afford more providing much needed administrative relief to the the larger Department mayor uh councilman rizzobonic yeah so a couple points one councilmember Gardner pointed out that and and I didn't realize this when we talked about it in the workshop but that 778 number is something that we have to be in we have to have that authorized by December 15th of next year in order to be in compliance with our agreement so what we're talking about is pushing back those four sworn until the fourth quarter of next year recognizing that the likelihood if we get there is fairly low but it will keep us in compliance second point is that in that conversation with Chief Oates who was there we asked him about filling these civilian roles and he did say it would be um a significant help in fact there was a 2017 Staffing study that talked about how some of these civilian positions could benefit the police department allowing the officers to do the things that they can do and take some of the administrative burdens and even things like CSI investigators but what we've seen across the city and frankly across all Industries is that hiring people right now is a challenge and so we made it very clear to Chief votes in that conversation that if he fills these roles to come back to us in the spring supplemental and we'd be happy to look at more of these civilian type roles but let's let him fill these first let's authorize the four for the fourth quarter of next year to keep in compliance with um with our consent decree which we need to be in compliance with and I think again this is just another fiscally responsible decision that we're making as a council to not just hold money back into positions that aren't going to be filled let's wait and see if we can in fact build the civilian rules first and if the chief comes back if it's whether she votes or our future Chief and says we need more we can we can address that at that time further discussion councilman comes um yeah so I thought that we were told at the budget Workshop that the civilian positions could count these like civilian community service officers and these types of positions could count toward that uh modified stipulated consent to create with the APA or how rare to state that which the original ballet language that went forward in 1993 spoke to a number of things including providing two officers per thousand as well as civilian Staffing as well as its Staffing at the Detention Facility so I believe the point made by councilman Marcano and I don't want to put words in your mouth sir but that the original question uh provided for more than two per thousand um and that is actually the the basis of uh the claim from the Police Association as it relates to Staffing was that they took a very narrow view the council at the time entered into the consent decree and limited uh the scope of the consent decree to providing two officers per 1000. so mayor uh mayor Tim so just clarification so that we can go above two per thousand with the civilians but we still need to have two police officers yes and I would say that the um modified stipulated consent decree actually goes further and actually defines a police officer as post-certified meaning that they've completed the academy and that they're they're pro-certified so that's that's what we utilize okay and that is why I think I'm I would like to support uh council member Gardner's um edition of for sworn officers again kind of with council members of savonics comment about will look likely look to fill that in the fourth quarter further questions I mean discussion uh council member McConnell and then uh there's going to be a call for the question if we can't wrap this up all right thank you mayor um so first I just want to put out there and I believe Chief host has confirmed this in the past I know he's not with us tonight that strict formulas for Staffing are not a best practice the International Association of chiefs of police also holds that same position you staff based off of need and sometimes that's sworn sometimes that's civilian um and the second point I want to ask and Jason I'm going to put you on the spot is the modified stipulated consent decree actually enforceable especially given the fact that the Royal Police Association is no longer the bargaining unit for the Aurora Police Department I'm going to defer to the City attorney on whether or not a legal agreement is uh modified but uh I'll I'll touch that one over to you Council City attorney and have I stalled long enough for you to formulate an opinion just putting you on the spot down the answer is that there that is a weird brief counsel previously on that and there is a hole with the you with the bargaining current marketing unit that is a problem with where they stand there there was a an original standing issue on this issue as well that hasn't been addressed but councils previously had directed The City attorney to enter the consent decree and they have and so you have authorized us prior to this to move forward with that language and further discussion on the Gardner Amendment mayor councilman Maria um sorry I don't know if it's like yeah anyways what I was going to say is related to the consent decree Arrangement um whether or not it's enforceable it's a separate conversation I'm not going to open that door any further but I'm rather focusing on just the nature of that relationship it is a an agreement if you will that we must have Staffing at a certain level regardless of whether or not we're able to fill the positions so I just want to remind everyone the conversation we just had around the consent decree Monitor and just the parallels that we're willing to be okay with I just there's there's some kind of logical fallacies there um in that we are okay in one area um with that same type of arrangement but not in another so just call for the question second it's a motion oh is there a second yeah sorry second move by the mayor a second by uh councilmember zovanic um non-debatable motion yes mayor Kaufman remember Jess council member Medina the emotion passes with nine yes votes two no votes two call for the question the no votes council member Coombs and council member Barrio called the question on honor 14a I'm sorry I call for the question on the Gardner Amendment well no mayor I think it's calling for the question on my Amendment to the garden Amendment and then it's called for the question on the Garter Amendment do we get to just ignore Miami then we'll see order of operations did you do a second was there a second on you to your amendment I made a motion right and then we got into it that was decision uh councilman Gardner never answered you as to whether or not it was a friendly Amendment so we it's not but I guess it would be a substitute motion yeah okay so it's we're to the Garter Amendment we do the substitute motion first order one orders are we just ignoring the substitute motion then we're just gonna skip right on over there was never a second to the substitute motion and it was never offered as a substitute motion if I'm pretty sure if we look back at the recording I would say then I would propose that we do this I think you just have to say Subs after then we began having a whole lot of discussion that's correct the motion was not recognized so it was not uh call with the question on uh the Garter Amendment can you just not recognize motions go over the question on the guard or Amendment there was no the motion was never formally made I'm not sure how much more formally I could make it but all right council member Coombs no the motion passes for the Gardner remember with six yes votes for no votes from council member Medina Marcano Coombs and Murio further amendments yeah so come here all right council member Connor I'll defer to council member Combs councilman Combs um I just wanted to make Dei position that we eliminated the argument in favor of that was that the position had been vacant um it had not been vacant for years which was insinuated and there are many other positions that were vacant from many other departments that they were given the courtesy of oh well we're doing this or we're doing that so please don't cut them because we still need these positions um and that same courtesy was not given to the Dei office I don't believe that they were even asked to speak on the subject um so I think if we're going to give other departments that have had positions vacant for a few months the courtesy to try to fill those positions instead of cutting them we should also do the same for this office which is relatively newly created um you know it's not an office that's been in place for a long time and so they do need the opportunity to build up the work that they're doing for our community which I think is essential and as council member Modio said budgets are moral documents and I think that if we're committed to diversity equity and inclusion as a city we should fund it as such let's move by uh councilman mccrum second by second Moody young saying right councilman Maria mayor uh discussion uh mayor for Tim um and we yeah we have two positions filled for the Dei office and this was a third position that had been vacant for a long time it's a hundred and I think 50 six thousand one fifty seven thousand nine hundred okay a lot of money for a position that is vacant that we have two people in office fairly new honestly we don't have reports on what they do at this point um I think you know it's a valuable it's valuable that we have um the two positions I just don't see the need again in this budget to add that one we could do so you know next year um I think you know we just need to really be careful with the budget and and in light of the recession I don't see a need to fill this at this time further discussion mayor I'm sorry councilman somberg that day during the budget we were just examining vacancies across the city and I acknowledge that vacancies can create stress on departments with increased workload but it can also create efficiencies uh doing the same amount of work with fewer people when it came to the Dei Department I asked a few questions I said what's the structure of the department is has there been an analysis of the productivity and what how do you measure its success and I really felt that those answers just fell short and it seemed like a great time to save 158 thousand dollars uh and it just seems it reminds me of Parkinson's law which states that work expands as to fill the time available for its completion and uh two people were getting the work done and it was just not defended to refill the position mayor uh councilmembergerinski yeah I also just want to bring up that um my understanding of the diversity equity and inclusion office was that it was necessarily supposed to be an entire office or Department in the first place it was agreed upon that one person one person would be hired as like a diversity equity and inclusion officer and and somehow the department grew legs on its own or at the direction of the city manager I'm not sure which may be combination of both um but this was originally approved to only be one position and since then this this department if you will is no longer even a department it has been re-organized restructured into the HR department where there's a massive department so I I the the the thought that um you know we don't care about diversity Equity or inclusion um I mean like I said this this department was never supposed to be a department in the first place it was supposed to be one position for further discussion me Catherine Memorial yeah I was wondering if anybody can comment on why um the one position grew into several city manager okay it started off as uh an assistant city manager that was moved into the Dei officer um during that first year I'm not sure what the budget was for the office but it included Consulting Consultants who came in and worked on training with employees and the there was a second position added in order to rely Less on Consultants which are more expensive than the than an added position and the third position was added because they had no admin support and so they were being provided admin support through admins in the city manager's office and it was taxing the admin supporting the city manager's office to also support the Dei office and so that's why that admin position was created okay and just follow up mayor please continue yeah so it sounds like the positions the position started off as one as you created apartment create an office and by virtue of the need of of the volume you know all the things that the city manager outlined that it grew based on the the need so I think I mean it just makes intuitive sense when you think of starting up a new office or Department that it would likely need to grow in order for it to be successful in terms of it being resourced so I feel like that's a pretty reasonable I mean a department or an office of three people is not that much right so to start talking about making cuts when when it's such a fairly young position or group of positions I feel like we would be um doing more you know it's like two steps forward with the creation and one step back like we're not really truly willing to fund um the Dei office um at the required Staffing levels for it to be successful and to not capitalize or take resources away from other departments that are under resourced as well mayor uh councilman so with the office of d now moving into HR will there will there be some additional admin support for these two positions that we've that are still intact not not really I mean HR is stretched pretty thin as it is and really won't I don't think be able to provide that admin support the admin person is still part of the Dei office it was the manager position that mid-level position is the one that was uh was uh deleted from the budget mayor well I just want to say first I think there's a bias in this Administration towards employees versus contract and I would like to know what um you probably can't get it to me now Mr Hayes but I want to know what was spent uh uh on contract support for the Dei functions because I happen to think that um that we you know all of a sudden we say it's cheaper to bring it in-house but then we're adding another person and we're adding another person and so I would like to know what we spend in my view I think you you know you get specific projects done at a highly professional level when needed and so I'd like to take a look at those numbers well uh we will research that thank you mayor mayor mayor well councilor Lawson who is it it was me it was me hope councilman comes in my opportunity okay so I just want to clarify with the movement of the Dei office into HR one of the functions that was contemplated and that was a big part of the decision to have this office was also looking at contracts and procurement how does HR relate to and have expertise associated with that component of the Dei office and how is that work of the Dei office going to get done moving it into HR and removing an entire position no there's staff like to respond Terry Velasquez I have a partnership with the Dei director and she and I work on initiatives to together regarding procurement in particular we're working on the disparity this uh study together mayor uh Council uh command for Jim sorry um thank you um I was going to also ask about temporary staffing because if we really need admins there's there's people that want to work flexible hours that want to work part-time that don't want a full-time job and I think sometimes we do automatically go to adding ftes with you know High salaries and benefits and rather than maybe looking at temporary staffing I think it's it could be more efficient from that perspective but um I I just I think I would rather see an audit of the office or something of reporting of what actually gets done before we add another position so I I would not support this until we have additional information about what the needs are rather than just adding a position mayor mayor I'm sorry um councilorowski I'd like to call for the question um the mayor I'd like to speak if I could well I'm sorry that it's a call is there a second second I'm sorry all right council members removed by councilmember drewinsky seconded by councilmember Divine non-debatable motion um uh call for the question on the on the motion sorry mayor my computer froze for one second oh my God okay it came up now um mayor Kaufman is it a tie this is to call for the question or maybe just um that question before us is the adoption of item number we I haven't gotten all the votes yet I'm sorry I'm sorry what's that I haven't gotten all the votes yet hold on one second so the motion passes to end debate with seven yes for votes for no votes from council member Medina Marcano Coombs and Mario okay who is the who's uh who put the motion forward for the amendment comes all right customer comes question for voice is the adoption of the Coombs Amendment uh call for the question council member Sundberg Mary there's a tie well um when is the spring supplemental uh be around the in the April time frame okay okay well my um I want to look at the position in terms of first of all I want the functions accomplished that the office is set out to do I want to look at what the contracts were and see if whether or not we need an FTE or though are those functions or if it's more efficient to provide those functions on a contract basis but they will get done I remember it's um yes no I'm sorry there was no the motion does not pass with five no votes six yeah I'm sorry six no votes five yes votes the no votes from councilmanik Kaufman Bergen Gardner drinsky and sunberg Is there further discussion on I'm Number 14a further amendments uh seeing non-questionary forces Is there further discussion councilman comes ability as a council to prioritize um meaningful things to our community things that our community has told us that yes they actually do want um and that expresses value to all members of our community not just some and so I'm not going to vote Yes on this budget further discussion on the adoption of item number 14a mayor poor Tim um yeah I um have an office of diversity in equity and inclusion we do have police monitoring so we're not cutting any we're not saying that we don't have any of those things we are supporting those we are supporting them we are just being fiscally responsible with the budget further discussion mayor mayor councilmember McConnell thank you the balance sheet that I'm looking at over here definitely tells a different story that we are in fact cutting services that our residents have asked us for and I just also want to point out that I think since this new Council was sworn in I have never seen so many people call for the question in the what six seven years that I've been following this Council I think that's really despicable further discussion here uh council member Lawson thank you mayor um so I know that we have to have to um you know I think that that a lot of the community didn't know about this at the workshop and um you know again I'm going to vote Yes on this budget but because of all the other services that we have to provide but I'm very disappointed um in this budget it's kind of upside down on a lot of things so um I just want to make a statement about that further discussion mayor uh councilor Jones King I'd like to call for the question the call for the question is there a second moved by council member George seconded by Bergen um bargain to call for the question uh non-debatable motion uh um call for the question on the motion I'm sorry mayor who second that were we voting on the budget we're voting on the most I I did I just did a second to vote on the budget closing the debate oh okay fine I wasn't clear if councilmember Lawson was done with her comments councilmember Maria I was done with my comments thank you though I appreciate it I seem to get cut off quite a bit further uh okay um we got the vote no man we don't um we're having some technical difficulties okay mayor Kaufman how would you like to vote on calling the question um council member Medina and jorinsky we need your vote thank you the motion passes with seven yes votes and four no votes from council member Medina Marconi Coombs and morayota call for the question okay um of further further amendments uh seeing oh now it's called for the question to the bill itself I mean to the uh item number 14a now let me just say um well there is no discussion that's right I don't remember uh call for the question on item number 14. no the motion passes with seven yes votes three no votes from council member mercano Coombs and Mario please read the title of item number 14b item 14b is ordinance 20 2259 an ordinance of the city of Aurora Colorado appropriating sums of money to defray expenses and liabilities for the fiscal year beginning January 1st 2023 and ending December 31st 2023. uh representation by staff uh the the previous presentation that I gave kind of fits for all of these budget related items any questions to staff uh clarification for the public uh questions to staff uh motion is in order which would have been a question for staff motion isn't you have a question for staff please proceed thanks mayor um just uh can you share the difference between the first ordinance and the second one well that's a really good question um I do believe that that we have two of we have one that adopts the big number the big budget and then and then the second one we'll we'll Dole it out into the Departments and into the funds that that uh because we do do fund Accounting in the city so it's just a little bit a little bit different detail okay so a matter of aligning with our accounting processes okay further questions staff mayor councilor McConnell thank you wouldn't this now need to be amended to reflect the changes that we just made correct yes the the adjustments you made we will adjust all of these the same way so this is a good question for this evening though excuse me this is a moot question for this evening or will you it it it you still have to approve it but yeah we'll we'll already take all this into account all right great thank you for other questions um seeing non-emotion is an order mayor motion to approve 14b move my councilmember Gardner second by McConnell uh second bye councilmember McConnell to approve item number 14 B discussion seeing those questions before us is the adoption of item number 14 default call for the question the motion passes with nine yes votes and one no vote from council member Coombs um but the clerk now please be the title of Honor number 14c item 14c is ordinance 20 2260. an ordinance of the city of Aurora Colorado creating the transportation maintenance fund a brief presentation by staff um this is the creation of the transportation maintenance fund the 2023 budgets the first year for it and with that I'll open it up for any questions um there are questions for staff I see none motion is in order mayor um I'm sorry councilmember sunberg I moved to approve 14c moved by councilmember somberg seconded by zabonic second by councilman Savannah to approve item number 14c um representation by staff oh I'm sorry we did that um discussion I've seen another question before since the adoption of item number 14c call for the question okay the motion passes to adopt ordinance 20 2260. okay now please read the title thought of number 14d item 14d is ornate's 2022-61. ordinance establishing the tax levy on all taxable property within the corporate limits of the city of Aurora Colorado for the tax collection year beginning January 1st 2023 and ending December 31st 2023. um representation by staff it's just the last of the Council of the budget ordinances this just allows us to set the tax uh the property tax levy for the city uh questions to staff I've seen in motion is an order mayor motion to approve 14d let's remove my council member Medina seconded by I'm sorry council member Marcano all right who's getting confused does this change my name uh um discussion I was saying no discuss the question before us is the adoption of item number 14 D call for the question the motion passes to adopt ordinance 2022-61. with the coach now appreciate the title I'm number 14e e is ordinance 20 22 62 consideration of the city council of the city of Aurora to approve an ordinance amending certain sections of chapter 138 of the city code of the city of Aurora relating to services for the provision of water brief presentation by staff thank you mayor members of council Marshall Brown general manager of Aurora Water um consistent with our practice and policy to implement rate increases and fee increases incrementally over multiple years and keeping those increases as small as possible in any given year and consistent with our need to generate additional revenue for increased costs and inflation that we've seen over the last few years staff has proposed and I'll clarify a little bit staff earlier this year proposed a an average of a five percent rate increase for water of five percent rate increase for sewer um and a three and a half percent rate increase for storm water in addition to um a fee increase for water connection fees um the water connection fee fee increases a little bit complicated because we're proposing the addition of some additional fee components associated with non-recoverable water what the effect of that will have is that indoor volumes of water that we can recover and reuse over and over again the volumetric fee will go down slightly but the volumetric fee associated with non-recoverable primarily outdoor water will go up fairly significantly so the fee increase is a little bit interesting um staff is right now not sure it's going to produce significant additional Revenue but it will strongly encourage water conservation and provide people the opportunity to have a little more control over their fees as they come into the system and connect if they Implement water conserving practices so that was proposed at Water policy earlier this year we did have some concerns expressed we got some feedback associated with the five percent proposed rate increase for water and subsequently came back lowered that rate increase to a proposed four percent increase with the caveat that we would like to eliminate the credit card subsidies that are embedded in our budget Midway through 2023 and with that we could lower the needed rate increase to four percent one quick note the ordinance in in the packet tonight represents that four percent increase the commentary incorrectly somehow got transferred from water policy and still references the five percent increase so we would have to fix that um in the second reading and correct the commentary but the ordinance is correct uh questions so staff mayor uh mayor Purdue I caught that thank you mayor um I'm sorry what exactly is this um so you're going to add the processing fee for credit cards to the to the cost to the consumer correct we're going to first Implement a public campaign to educate the customers on all the different options to pay their water bills we will still cover the cost of ACH or Bank transfers those are very low credit card fees have been significantly higher for us and would like to encourage people to not use credit cards some customers will still have to in order the proposal is that they would pay those fees themselves similar to other Enterprises and other businesses that have transferred those fees to the customer and you don't think there's a efficiency offset in the because you don't have to process checks versus credit cards yeah electronic checks are actually easier for us to process we pay um we have contracts with Wells Fargo to process the electronic Bank transactions we have to pay a credit card processing company for the credit card transactions and we've run into many challenges we at the suggestion of councilman Gardner have been negotiating hard with the credit card vendor they have agreed to lower the fees but then the next bill they sent us had higher costs with those fees we've actually as of uh today sent a breach of contract letter to our credit card vendor because those negotiations have not been going well but uh but the checks that are mailed in or dropped off in the Box out there that what is the cost associated with processing numbers we administer those initially ourselves for a fairly low cost again just Administration from staff and then use Wells Fargo to help process through the through the process and again it's much lower than the cost to process before the question is the staff mayor sunberg councilman should the city Marshall approve of a rate increase where does this put Aurora in relation to other municipalities in the greater Denver metro area yeah thank you councilman Sundberg for the question we currently are in the lower third of overall costs for utility water Wastewater sewer or and storm water combined this will not increase our relative Position will remain in the same position in the lower third and that's before we're sure what some of our neighboring communities will do there's a possibility we'll actually slide down a little bit okay further questions of staff I've seen none a motion is in order mayor mayor.com moved to approve 14e it's removed by councilman [ __ ] seconded by saying by councilmember Maria to approve uh I remember 14 e discussion mayor council member summer Gardner oh councilor Gardner um my beard is much better um so I am not going to support this for several different reasons one of which is the credit card processing fee issue as I've stated several times I do not think it's right in the year 2022 to say we are going to charge credit card processing fees the three entities that I can think of do that are Excel Energy the DMV and now apparently Aurora Water which are three entities that do not have competition and I I think that's wrong all other businesses that I do business with maybe something else exists that I'm not thinking of do not charge credit card fees because they have competition and I just I think it's wrong to do that it's a cost of doing business and I'm sorry that it's expensive but that's that's life as far as the water rates go I understand um you know doing small increases year after year is preferable over doing one large increase at a time but I do think we're in a time of extraordinary extraordinary inflation we are headed into a recession our residents need every penny that they can get and I'm not inclined to support a water increase a water rate increase while we're in that environment you know hopefully the the economic recession isn't as bad as people might expect I think we're already there certainly we are with inflation and so you know next year hopefully we can we can correct that but at this time I don't feel comfortable approving this for both the reasons I stated further discussion mayor mayor for Tim question to Marshall Brown um I know we started at the five percent got down to the four percent for the water rate um without the increase how would that affect our water department yeah thank you for the question uh mayor Pro tem our costs in our operating budget are actually up 12 and we're proposing a four percent increase to cover those costs and hope that we can get some of the inflationary impacts we've seen this year more under control but if we don't approve a four percent increase it will compromise our ability to provide some of the services we're providing most of the services in the utility are not discretionary so we'll have a hard time covering our costs we would likely end up having to tap into some reserves and then if we have a drought or or one of the situations for which we have reserves I'm not sure what we do okay and just follow up please um so some of the costs I think he had mentioned in the past are the the cost of chemicals yeah chemical costs in fact I saw another one today hydrogen peroxide costs have gone up 20 so some of the other chemical costs have gone up 50 35 electricity is extremely difficult for us right now our budget is about 35 Personnel costs and then if you combine chemicals and utilities primary electricity that's about 30 a little more than 35 percent of our budget so when we see 20 50 even 15 increases in those line items it has a significant impact on us and we don't really have um you know we talk about options to go for service we don't have really options to go get electricity other places yeah and I will support this but you know my water bills are always extremely high because I end up in tier three and four so even against my own preferences I'm going to support it further further questions to staff mayor uh councilman just a quick just a quick point I was at the view house the other day and was presented my tab it was for 39 and something cents I presented my credit card got the tab back and it was they increased it to 40 something dollars so I examined the tab and they had included a credit card processing fee they don't do it for debit cards or cash but that's kind of a new thing and you hate to see rate increases in inflation but people are not surprised by it these days especially in small business you know I'm not as expensive as Danielle's but no but it's it's it's it's happening right people are understanding typically of price increases further uh questions to staff or um did we do a motion on this there's a motion done we have a motion in a second what's that we have a motion in second emotions uh further discussion I've seen another question before it says the adoption of item number 11e um call for the question okay council member zavonic their motion passes with six yes votes four no votes from council member zavonik Lawson Gardner and drinsky with the code now please read the top to item number 14f three consideration of an ordinance for introduction of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado of General Improvement District 3-2008 Meadow Hills Country Club adopting an operating budget establishing the tax levy and appropriating sums of money to free expenses and liabilities for the fiscal year beginning January 1st 2023 and ending December 31st 2023. a brief presentation by staff yes good evening this is Andrew Jameson with the debt Administration [Music] um items 14f through 14k are ordinances to approve the general improvement district budgets to affirm the mill Levy to pay mostly debt-funded improvements that voters in these respective districts approved uh questions to staff Mr Mary the only thing I'd act and I'll look at the City attorney on these councils acting ex-officio and all these for the for the general improvement district is that correct that's right uh questions to staff they're saying no further questions uh motion is in order for Jim oh motion to approve 14 F well can you buy me up for 10 seconds but mayor can I he just gave the staff presentation for all of these can these all be approved together 14e through 14 I mean 14 after 14. okay okay and I can merely say that it's been covered um the problem becomes you're acting as the board for each of those so each one separate each one's different sorry okay um uh it's removed by a man pretend seconded by McConnell uh second by councilmember O'Connell uh to approve our number 14f um a question questions of staff they're seeing none um well motion okay we did that discussion I say no question before is adoption of item number 14f um call for the question the motion passes to adopt ordinance 2022 63. uh with the clothing now please be talking about number 14g item 14g is ordinance 2022-16 4 consideration of an ordinance for introduction of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado have General improvement district 2-2011 or our conference center adopting an operating budget establishing the tax levy and appropriating some of the money to defray expenses and liabilities for the fiscal year beginning January 1st 2023 and ending December 31st 2023. great presentation by staff Andrew Jameson once again it's it's the same authorizing Levy for uh this G80 questions to staff motion is in order Mary moved to approve 14g move my councilmember Sunbury second by Mercado councilman McConnell to approve our number 14g discussion I've seen no discussed the question before says adoption by number 14g call for the question foreign passes to adopt ordinance 2022-64. Chloe now please read the title title number 14 h item 14h is ordinance 20 2263 consideration of an ordinance for introduction of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado of General improvement district 3-2008 Meadow Hills Country Club adopting an operating budget establishing the tax levy and appropriating Sims of money to different expenses and liabilities for the fiscal year beginning January 1st 2023 and ending December 31st 2023. representation by staff same as the previous two uh Mill Levy to pay for improvements questions to staff motion is in order mayor councilman somber moved to approve 14 h there's been moved by councilmember sunberg second by Bergen uh Mary denbergen to approve on number 14h discussion the city non-couragement forces the adoption of item number 14h call for the question do you need to go here mayor Pro Tim ings down the motion passes to approve ordinance 2022-65. Chloe now please read time with item number 149. item 14i is ordinance 20 2266 consideration of an ordinance for introduction of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado of cobblewood General improvement district 1-2016 adopting an operating budget establishing the tax levy and appropriating sums of money to free expenses and liabilities for the fiscal year beginning January 1st 2023 and ending December 31st 2023. a brief presentation by staff once again approval of Mill Levy to repay improvements uh questions and staff I see none a motion is an order mayor motion to approve they moved by councilmember Gardner second by sunbear councilmember summary to approve item number 49 call of the questions the motion passes to approve ordinance 2022-66. Lord now please read your time remember 14 Jay item 14j is ornate's 20 2267 consideration of an ordinance for introduction of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado of General improvement district 1-2008 Peoria Park adopting an operating budget establishing the tax levy and appropriating Sons of money to defray expenses and liabilities for the fiscal year beginning January 1st 2023 and ending December 31st 2023. um thank you uh presentation my staff another approval of a mill Levy for debt-funded improvements uh questions staff motion is an or mayor motion to approve item 14-j uh it's been moved by uh councilman Gardner seconded by sunbeck uh councilmember summer to approve item number 14 J um discussion I've seen none um with copies call up the question on item number 14j councilmember Sandberg the motion passes to adopt ordinance 2022 67. record now please read the entire time number 14k item 14k is ordinance 2022-68 consideration of an ordinance for introduction of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado of Pier 0.7 General improvement district 2-2009 adopting an operating budget establishing the tax levy and appropriating sums of money to defer expenses and liabilities for the fiscal year beginning January 1st 2023 and ending December 31st 2023. a representation by staff this last one for these UHD ordinances to approve debt funded Improvement let questions and staff seeing none emotion is an order I moved to approve 14k if you moved by councilmember sunberg second of our enthusiastically I might add council member Gardner oh councilman enthusiastically moved by councilmember Gartner and seconded by partner where are we at here okay Sunbury Gardner done okay um uh discussion I've seen none uh come up with a question on the adoption of item number 14k it's 2022-68. Clark now please retirement I don't know 14 now item 14. L is when it's 20 20 [Music] this is an updated map of Ward boundaries pursuant to the Mandate of section 54 5B of the city code a brief presentation by staff yes so mayor and council members Katie Rodriguez city clerk this is for the 2023 award redistricting questions to staff um we were just going to do a brief presentation since it's the first reading at a council meeting but we can go very fast unless Council doesn't want us to do a presentation okay so we already know that the redistricting problem I think I speak for the whole Council we like a long presentation excruciating detail please and years ending with three and nine and we just alter award boundaries to make sure that they're contiguous Compact and contain approximately the same number of residents okay um we've reviewed the city code and Charter to ensure that the criteria that we're using complies with the regulations set out in each okay um and then for the criteria just there's six words that are divided into approximately the same number of people again we use we want to maintain whole County precincts and use man-made boundaries right now we're on the first reading and council meeting for this ordinance the second reading will come forth on November 14th we went out to the public with engage Aurora we also had different meetings in each Ward for public input and we reached out to various organizations in the community and now I'm going to hand it over to Daniel um for again very brief math um the process started off with staff developing some population estimates these are shared with the public as well as the election commission based on these estimates the public provided feedback and the election commission went through several permutations several scenarios of maps scenario five being the one introduced tonight certainly speak to how he achieved the population estimates if there's questions questions to staff I see none motion is in order we're not done are we I was hoping there would be more [Music] this is a table this is another table here's a ticket multiple scenarios were developed according to the criteria and the feedback from the admission of the public and resulting in scenario five which is in your packet mayor councilor Gardner motion to approve item 14 L room by councilmember Gardner second box foreign discussion lots of discussion uh seeing none uh Christopher forces the adoption of vitamin number 14l call for the question good job councilmember Sandberg yes the motion passes to adopt ordinance 2022-69. all right now please do the top to item number 14m item 14 m is ordinance 20 2270 an ordinance of the city council of the city of Aurora Colorado amending section 54 5 of the city code of the city of Aurora Colorado by adopting additional clarifying language to subsections B and C to direct their Royal Election Commission to complete its review and award boundaries and subsequent recommendations for realignment of Ward boundaries if any and to transmit the same to city council no later than the 15th day of October in the year preceding the year in which the realignment shall take effect currently in calendar years ending three and nine uh brief presentation by staff yes thank you mayor Dave ladders for the city attorney's office this was brought to us by council member Mercado who noted that though our city code mandates that we do a redistricting or at least evaluate a redistricting in years three and nine or four elections occurring in years 309. it didn't have any further direction for the city clerk's office or the election commission on what time that should be done and the council member pointed out that the last time we had done this we read District in Earth's realignment of wards that it was done so late um in the process that Ward candidates did not even necessarily know what Ward they would be in to run for until about four or five months before the election the council member felt that this would give board candidates a full year essentially before an election to accomplish this and uh felt that from his experience that was a necessary time frame so we drafted it to accomplish that councilman Ricardo uh thank you mayor I think Mr lathers put it very well so in short this just creates a date certain for redistricting to be proposed to council and then adopted so future Council candidates will know exactly what district they're going to be running for or what they're going to be running for and our residents will know also what word that they will be in um of course as a staff or the sponsor um not a question I just also want to appreciate or say thank you to the management finance committee um for setting the dates um that we just completed tonight yep okay um uh further discussion mayor I'm sorry I didn't do a motion I just simply wanted to say thank you to the staff I know they worked really hard on the redistricting over a long period of time and they did a great job thank you Steph here's to that um motion is an order mayor uh councilman McConnell thank you sir move to approve 14m moved by council member McConnell second and bye uh councilmember Medina uh to approve I remember um 14 M uh discussion I've seen none uh call for the question on odd number 14mm the motion passes to approve ordinance 2022-70. um uh Mayors no report council member Lawson for reports this council member Lawson available I think she left uh council member uh Gardner no report council member jorinsky I would just like to wish everybody a happy and safe Halloween and that's it council members Veronica uh councilman Memorial Airport uh councilmember sunberg uh just very briefly sir I've been seeing you all over the city state of the city uh you provided hope for our future rededication of the Coal Creek schoolhouse felt like a Little House on the Prairie out there task force I had a great discussion with forestry Pros water water conservation on reference going forward for a broader conservation effort for the city and a campaign to communicate that uh the cadet graduation I saw you there sir leadership Aurora Community Day I think you were a graduate of that program a long time ago and the Aurora Interfaith Community Network saw you there sir with great fundraising event from a mighty little non-profit that feeds a lot of people councilmember Medina uh thank you mayor I just have one report uh I went to the open space community meeting I mean committee meeting last week over at Morrison they're going to have some plans that they'll bring to council about doing uh on the east side of the building they're going to put a series of structures and things for kids to be able to interact with the nature pieces councilmember McConnell thank you mayor so ballots are out midterms typically feature a significant dip in voter participation from presidential years and when we do not participate in elections we get what we don't vote for so you should have already gotten your ballots in the mail if you haven't received yours yet you can go over to govotecolorado.com to check your ballot status and if you find that it has not shown up yet you can go and contact your county clerk's office to request a replacement make sure you mail in your ballots by November 4th or drop them off in a Dropbox by 7 pm on Election Day and democracy is not expect Tater sport so do your parts and have a great Halloween she left mayor man for Jim hang on for a long report I got aspirin hang on there's a two aspirin meetings two aspirin thank you I just want to say that um I got to be a judge with the mayor and police chief Dan Oates and then I forget her name but she's from ATT and we had 20 dogs that participated in the Halloween dog costume contest and our canines were there and it was really fun that's it okay me neither [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]