Board of County Commissioners Business Meeting - workshop

Much. Good morning, everybody. Let's go ahead and get started with some introductions around the room, please.

Jeff Baker, commissioner. Nico Johnson, commissioner's office.

Kendra Davis, commissioner's office.

Ryan Fields, commissioner. Donald Thorpe, commissioner.

Leslie Summie, commissioner. Kerry Warring Dolly, commissioner.

Jessica Campbell, commissioner of District 2. Thank

you very, very much. We're we're here this morning for the youth engagement proposal. Wonderful. We have talked about for quite some time. I'm going to say starting in 2022. So '20 actually before then. Well, oh, it's before then.

Yes. It

was. Okay.

Nice. Yeah. So look. We have Government just moved so fast.

It does. So fast.

So fast. So how wonderful that we are here talking about something that has been on Arapahoe County's mind for several years. And so we can go back to 2020 then, you know, say, maybe even longer. Commissioner Jackson might have been What?

On the recording.

So looky there. Alright. So let's go. Let let us go. Kendra, are we starting with you, or should we start with Nico?

Nico is actually gonna kick us off.

So I was doing it. You go, boy.

Thank you.

Thank you. Great poo

paw? What's that?

Your did you bring your great paw? That's okay. Look it up.

I I only know that phrase from the Kendrick Lamar song.

So Yeah. Okay. You know what? You want a reference.

Okay.

Yeah. There you go.

We got eggs and drink.

That's right.

There's a see it in the car. Yeah. Look at you. Yeah.

Well well, I'm I I they don't leave a study session with with a reference to all the above,

then it's not a successful study keep

this going. But you stole my introduction a little bit, but we are here to propose a youth engagement program in the commissioner's office. That's right. So for our agenda today, we'll provide examples of some of the most common youth engagement programs. Programs.

We'll touch on a few existing programs both within the county and throughout Colorado. We'll provide the board with some staff recommendations for what a youth engagement program in the commissioner's office would look like before we outline what those next steps are. So youth engagement programs broadly are designed to bring young people and government organizations together to provide a perspective on community challenges, create professional development opportunities, and introduce the next generation of leaders to the work to be done, of which there is plenty. Also known as YEP, I'll say that throughout this presentation, Or yep. They vary across they vary across and within models.

So each one offers a different way for youth and and governments to engage in a sustainable manner, in an effective manner over time, all those wonderful things. The cornerstones of any of these models are organizational infrastructure, staff expertise, and dedicated and continuous funding. And the degree to which these cornerstones are required varies based on the model and the variation of those models. So the first one, youth advisory boards or or councils, these are often the most resource intensive or the ones that require a majority of those cornerstones at a higher degree. They're youth centric entities that they work alongside elected officials to find solutions to community problems.

Some focus on single youth centric issues or issues impacting youth populations, and others have a broader focus that mirror the governing body's responsibilities. Adding youth to existing boards and commissions demands additional time investments from staff and adult members, not just in physical time, but time to bring the the youth up to speed. But but generally speaking, youth gain a deeper understanding of the intricacies of government through having a direct say in these decisions that impact communities that are made on these boards and committees. Youth forums can happen in a number of different ways, but at a high level, they gather diverse groups of young people primarily on an annual or biannual basis to collaborate with governments or among themselves. It just depends on issues that are relevant to the community.

Youth forms generally require larger budgets and and time commitments just because they take planning over over the course of of a year and then planning within planning and execution within the actual forum. Yes, ma'am.

When you say it takes over a year for youth forum, can you give me an example of that where where it has? Because because I'm thinking, oh, we could do that, like, tomorrow. Yeah. So what what Sure.

So one example, the city of Chicago runs a youth forum for their budget process.

Oh, interesting. Oh, I love that.

I had a feeling you would. They they run their youth forum for a budget process, and it just takes the majority of the year to coordinate with existing organizations whether it'll be school districts or Yeah. Organizations focused on youth Mhmm. To gather the obviously, Chicago is huge. Mhmm. So Mhmm. The the the the sample size that they have to gather just to make it an effective

Yeah.

Attempt

Mhmm.

Is is is is quite large. Yeah. And then it takes renting space providing food. Exactly. Gotta gotta feed those growing those growing children.

Yes. Well, that's right.

I think to Nico's point also, a lot of these things really rely on existing relationships and building those connections. Right. Something that I don't know that we necessarily have in that depth.

Okay.

So it would take some build up, I

think. Built in real time.

The behind the scenes work is is definitely what I mean by time spent over the course of the year.

Okay. Alright. That's cool. Because I just had to get this out. Chicago has got 750 county commissioners or something like that. They're right. I was like, you have what? They are a small

state legislature.

Yeah. Right. I'm sorry, commissioner. No. That's okay.

Madam chair. I was thinking too, like, we used to, for the school district, have a youth summit kind of, you know, where we would have them come and that type of thing. And it definitely took a year to kind of plan that and have thoughtful Yeah. Activities for them. Yeah. Yeah. Kinda get them through the different things. And we did that through the student councils of the different high schools. And so,

yeah, it's

just lot of

And it it

I'm sorry.

No. But but can you

ask me? I was gonna just so in high school, I was part of a group that started the Olathe Youth Council. Mhmm. There are you you can have kind of like an executive committee, but, like, you also have to get them together beforehand and plan and, like, the application. I mean, yeah. So a year but, like, it's also that startup year is a lot. But then Foundation. Once you start going, it kind of I mean, it's still gonna be a lot. You're still gonna have to have the space. You're still gonna have to, like, multiple meetings. But, yeah, like, anything when you're starting a program, it's gonna be a lot. And then yeah. But they yeah. About a year. Like, doing one about a year is pretty good. Okay.

Yeah. Well, thank you. I just wanted to make sure that I had in my head what what everybody else had

in their head because

there was some space.

Absolutely. Well, and I would also say it depends on how structured you want it to be. Because your vibe of, like, we could do one tomorrow. Mhmm. Right? I think besides the sort of relationship building that Kendra was talking about Mhmm. Yeah. We could throw one up Mhmm. For, you know, okay. It's the beginning of the school year. It's the end the school or something, whatever, middle, whatever. Yeah. And say, whoever wants to come, come. Right. Or it can be kinda more structured and you know? But yeah. Okay. So I kinda yeah.

Just on the note being structured, generally suggests that also then the follow-up is very important

Yeah.

To be able to show the young people that you're actually working on the ideas that you work together on and and things like that. And so yes, ma'am.

And just sorry. One other thing. Sure. Go ahead. There's what I find interesting in working on youth issues is it's they're they're they're constantly changing. Right. You have new kids participating every time. So it's not like you have a consistent

group that's kind of going through. You know? You Can't build on previous years' work. Yeah.

Well, kinda you can.

I mean, if, like, let's say we pick, like, from the high schools, two people from every class or something. Right? Those freshmen, as they're going through, they stay. You know?

But but even that is like, you know, what if one of those kids moves away? Mean, it's it's a moving target more so I think sometimes than dealing with adult populations that may have commitments, but it it's it's just different for each group.

Yeah. Well, and I think to that point, commissioner Orinbilly, it really relies heavily on the continuity provided by staff or the organ organizational structure to help provide that continuity Yes. And that structure moving forward. So you can remind kids why they're there to engage, what has been done in the past, what is possible, what's not possible, and having that ongoing orientation and and ground setting is really important.

Yeah. Great.

Thank you. Yes, Thank you for letting us, like, pause right there.

Course. Absolutely. So the the final one on the list are are youth internships. And and just in comparison to the models that we've outlined for you already, youth internships are a little bit more of a a cost effective option that don't require you to lose any of those ideal outcomes that you're after while standing up a youth engagement program, you know, like seeking fresh and young perspectives on lasting challenges, offering young people opportunities to gain experience in the public sector, and, you know, hopefully realizing some of those spillover effects in the broader community. So with that, there are a handful of both in county and then regional youth engagement programs that exist today.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but we just wanted to highlight a few for you that we found interesting and informative. So from a county engagement perspective, our public health department has an advisory an advisory board that is funded by a state grant, and the participants here are actual staff members of public health, and and they focus on public health issues affecting youth throughout the county. The coroner's office has an internship program that is an unpaid opportunity for higher ed students who are pursuing a career specifically in the coroner's office and that is specific to higher ed students. I I think it can be either undergrad or graduate. And then from a regional perspective, Jefferson County stands up a robust internship program.

It's it's more of a year long paid fellowship.

Oh, that's great.

And their focus is on public sector innovation. This has been a program it's a very deep program that has, to Kendra's point, very established partnerships in the community and and things like that. And then lastly, the city and county of Denver's mayor's youth council is an adult youth combination board, and they focus on local local issues that impact youth in the city and county of Denver where their adult members are really responsible for helping make connections and provide guidance and, you know, some of that political or policy nuance that you don't necessarily know until you're on the inside or have some form of formal education. So while there are plenty of options both within and outside the county, there are limited options that offer a high level overview of county government and operations, how we do things, how policy happens, how the county helps move things forward. And so to fill this void, we recommend a standing up a youth internship program in the county commissioner's office along with providing a high school aged a high school aged youth guide.

Sorry. Providing high school aged youth with a guide for how to engage in county government, and we'll dig into that. So the youth internship program would start fall of twenty twenty six. The position title would be a fall student intern in the commissioner's office. They would sit in the commissioner's office here in this building.

They'd be part time in a temporary intern. Staff recommends a salary of $19 an hour. This is commensurate with similar programs, and it aligns with Colorado statute regarding internship compliance. The intern would report to the management analyst three, and the time commitment would be about ten to twelve weeks. And, you know, it could be adjusted based on need, and it's just a high level overview.

Commissioners, I just wanna interject. Nico's done a great job of kind of laying out what the research showed us as we were kind of looking at the environmental scan of other areas and what we had even here in the county opportunities. And it became pretty clear pretty quickly that in our current state of resources and capacity in the commissioner's office Mhmm. We didn't necessarily have what we needed to stand up, you know, a youth forum, a full youth council Mhmm. In a way that was impactful and meaningful to participants.

Mhmm. We certainly could put together something that didn't have those resources with it, but our concern was that it would not be beneficial to those participating nor to the county and and would be lacking that sustainability element. Certainly, there is opportunity if the board feels strongly about putting resource towards something like that for us to dig a little bit more about what that structure looks like. But an internship program in the county, in the commissioner's office, offers us the opportunity to have a a win win scenario with a student. Mhmm.

And have build into those public service values, folks who are going into that already. Mhmm. And then give people an introduction to the county, which I feel is something that's kind of missing. When you look at internships, there are a lot of city internships that talk about local government coming from public administration perspective. There aren't as many county. And really advocating for the work that we do here Mhmm. Will help us build some of those relationships with higher education institutions. Mhmm. And maybe grow grow towards a more broad or deeper opportunity afterwards. We felt like this was a really good middle ground of what we currently have resources for.

Oh, okay. And we did go ahead and put a salary recommendation to it. Certainly an unpaid internship is an option as well. Higher education interns can do that for credit. Mhmm. So there is an opportunity. But we felt like they'll be doing work. They'll be putting time in, offering payment. Yeah. It seems like a

reasonable Mhmm. Okay. Commissioner Baker?

Yeah. Reports to management analyst three, commissioner's office. Is that one person or is that could be Sarah, be Nico, could be Kendra. Who is that if there is one?

That is me.

Okay. So that's you.

It is me.

Correct. Gotcha.

Probably easier just to have one source of contact Mhmm. Continuity. Mhmm. But certainly back up. Yeah. But certainly, the idea is to allow this person to engage across the department

and give

them the opportunity to attend meetings, interact with other analysts, communications, different departments if that's relevant to the

project. Great.

Commissioner Campbell? So what kind of work would they be doing? That's a great question.

We'll talk a little bit more about kind

of what the goals are and

what the duties might look like, if that's okay Yeah. Before we get down into specific topics. So like we said, it would be an undergraduate or graduate student. We would hope to have a better understanding of how county operations. It would be time bound project based work. Mhmm. Which just means that we would want something that has kind of a clear beginning and end. Mhmm. So not something that, even if it is a part of a longer term project, maybe they're helping with the community engagement piece. Maybe they're helping with the research and analysis and providing a recommendation.

So something that they could easily contain within a semester's work. This is generally a timeline. Mhmm. Then this is kind of a high level overview of some of the duties that we would imagine depending on what's happening in the semester. And then commissioner Campbell, to your point, it could be anything from research into aid to agencies investments and maybe identifying gaps.

You all just approved the public housing, the public health building in Inglewood, a really cool beginning of a project to do some research and analysis and community engagement. Cool. This could be a really great opportunity if there was depending on where they are in the process for them to engage with that. I think there's opportunity, you know, to look into boards and committees and those application processes. There's a wide range of things that we could do and certainly would be open to recommendations from the board if there were things that you were interested in digging deeper into that we may not have had staff capacity or time to do that.

But I think there's a lot of opportunity. Okay. And then this is just generally what Oh, I'm sorry.

You sure she just raised her hand. You can

go ahead and finish with the qualifications because it might sync with my questions.

Okay. Yeah. So generally, this would be our our qualification list, and the process would be supported through relationships with existing schools, whether that be Arapahoe County Community College or Community College, CU, University of Denver, etcetera. All of those have MPA programs or strong undergraduate programs. And so we can work with any of them to identify folks that are interested, and then work with our HR department to go through a formal application process.

So I don't know if your specific your question is specific to the internship program.

Yeah. Because the slide that you just reviewed Yeah. When qualifications is taught, you must be currently enrolled. So if you're a youth and you're in high school, then you're probably not enrolled in a college or a university. And then your next slide talked about the youth program. So is there two different paths?

You can

be a Correct.

High school student or you could be a college student?

Yeah. We had looked at doing an internship program for both for college or high school. And what we heard from folks who do have high school internships programs or who have looked into that path was that creating a structured internship program for high school students was very challenging. Just because they have significant amount of work that they're doing through the classes and it doesn't always align with the internship hours or responsibilities through this office. What we thought might be a good kind of middle ground for that was to create an informational engagement pamphlet for high school students.

Make sure that school districts, schools have that available. We can have it on our website. And then offer specific opportunities for high school youth to come engage with the board. So either watch board meetings, ask questions, just have a little bit more structure to it so that there was the ability for those questions to be asked and see how that went. Go ahead.

Just a follow-up. Yeah. Because I think for high school students, is a challenge because I'm thinking about, you know, my little granddaughter. Yeah. This this is her last year.

And so to do something in fall, you know, when that's your last stress, when you're trying to get all your credits and things ready, it's hard. At the beginning of this school year, which is fall after you've been out all summer to maybe get someone to tap into this kind of experience. Yeah. But I like the idea of having the structure where people can kinda kinda create their own path in the area of interest as it relates to high school youth engagement. And that could then plug them in to the next level of opportunities once we see there's a high interest

for it. Certainly.

So you're right on point. So I just was holding on to that question, and I see that you guys have already, thought that through. So I appreciate that.

Yeah. And I I do wanna say again, this is new to us and new to the organization. So we are trying to build a process that is flexible based on what we hear from, students, from schools. If there's a higher need for some of these things or a lower need, we can certainly adjust or make changes based on that. And then this is generally just the timeline of next steps of how we would go about engaging, recruiting, launching, and trying to work with the schools, both high school to make sure that they have the resource there should the board feel supportive of this proposal.

Yes. Commissioner Wargo.

Thank you, madam chair. This was great. I love the two different levels. And you're right. I think high schoolers are Different.

Typically very active young folks and and have a lot on their plate. I know that when we were kind of brainstorming some ideas around this, one of the ideas was is if there are existing youth councils that we may be able to sit in on one of their meetings or chat with them about county government or, you know, kind of connecting into organizations that already have that. Like, I'm it seems like I remember that the city of Centennial used to have a youth council. They may not anymore. But that's just another avenue that we could offer up to our colleagues, I think, to say Yeah.

You know, we'd be interested in attending one time and just talking about county government versus city and hearing whatever issue you may be chatting about at the time just to take advantage of the work that they're already doing around organizing this.

Absolutely.

And I think Nico, through some of his research, did get contacts with a lot of those existing councils and regional folks. So certainly something we could offer if the board felt like that would be

Do you wanna let you know? Commissioner Fields?

Yeah. I had, I would guess, interns from both universities and also from high school. And my high school student came from CCA. Mhmm. And she was a part of you know, for some reason, she was in concurrent enrollment courses.

So because of that, she was able to use I don't know how she did it, but she was able to solicit the internships that we have at the state capital, and they approved it. CCA approved that experience. And but it wasn't it's not it wasn't paid. And I really appreciate that we're paying kids because we should you know, it's the right thing to do when they need a little change in their pocket. And it keep creates that discipline in reference to being on time, your attire, and all those kinds of things.

But they do have something at Community College of Aurora. Don't know how it works, but I did have one student. She went on to go to CU, and she graduated from CU f with two years because she had two years that she had in her pocket when she left Smoky Hill.

Amazing.

So

it works if you're disciplined enough to do the work. Sure.

Yeah. Commissioner Campbell? Thanks. So when you guys

are doing research on the youth forums, what is the typical budget and how many FTE do they use and like how many hours goes into it? Because while it takes a year across the process, it's not like one person working on it forty hours a week.

Sure. The the one example that I gave from the city of Chicago was from my time at the city of Chicago. I wouldn't be able to tell you what the budget was or how many specific FTE worked on it. Mhmm. However, multiple of the deputy budget directors, three specifically when I say multiple, were responsible for setting up the the the youth budget forum, whatever they decided to call it, and working on that throughout the year.

But I'm not sure what exactly the the the budget was. I can do some further research for you on general budget expectations.

Yeah. I I I

yeah. I'm sure I I do wanna say we don't have we may not have specific this youth forum to this youth forum, examples, but I think within our office, the mayor's youth awards might be a good lateral example. In that, you negotiate and navigate relationships with existing youth organizations.

Uh-huh.

There's an application process for that, but I assume with a youth forum there still has to be a process of selecting a topic. Sure. Coordinating with groups, coordinating with schools. Sarah does that in our office. It probably takes, like she starts that process in December, getting the applications and things ready.

The event happens in May, and it's a pretty substantive lift for her Uh-huh. Over the course of those six months. Okay. I don't know how I don't know how to put a a timing on it, but I think that's a a probably a similar example. So if we, were doing that up, doing, standing that up, think we have a good sense of what that looks like and what the capacity level would be. And I could tell you that it it we might not have the current capacity, but I don't know what that means for we do two new folks on board in the commissioner's office, receptionist and an administrative person. So Mhmm. There is potential capacity.

Mhmm. Okay.

Thank you.

Can we share more about it?

I guess I I I like the start starting point here of, you know, let's let's get an intern intern on board and potentially start building out some of these opportunities for high schoolers to engage. And I will just put in a plug that scouts do have to attend different public meetings and do great. Yeah. Flag ceremonies and all of that stuff. So I don't know if that would ever be something we'd wanna branch out into, but it's part of their badge requirements for civics and stuff, which is kind of fun when you have the older ones.

But I I like the starting point here. That's not to say that that would be the only thing. I guess it kinda feels good to me to kind of see, like, oh, this is a good starting point. And then if we wanna go down the path of a forum or, you know, expand that to more opportunities or, you know, we have a lot more you think, interested than we thought we would, and that gives us the sign to to start being more to expand a little bit more than we have that conversation at that time. But I kinda like this as a starting point.

I do too. I think it's great. Do we have other yes. Commissioner Fields?

Thank you. I just wanna thank you for putting some meat behind the initial ideas that I think all of us thought about when we wanted to kinda see the commission and and the office engage young people. This is critical for a time like this because there's so many young people who don't have a lot of faith and confidence in government. That's because we don't give them an opportunity to see behind the curtain. And this gives them an opportunity to take a quick shot, college student, even if we just go into one of the schools like you had outlined.

But I think it's a great start. It's narrow. I like that it's project based because I don't like to see us bring in people and they're just answering the phones. That's right. We have that technology, so we don't answer the phone anymore. I'm just using that as an example that they're just doing busy work that we're going to I'm thinking these are your words that they can see the end of their work. It will be a project. People can start it, and you will see the end of it. At least the portion they were assigned to do. I think that's a smart approach to it.

When I think about work with youth, what's important is that it's not, like, one touch point. This is a a frustration. You know? It's a great idea, and someone shuts it off and says, okay. We did something for you. But they need more than a one shot in the arm. It it should be strategic. It should be something that fills fulfills, if it's possible, a foundation foundation for their own development, which could be a series of opportunities with them. Maybe it's quarterly, whatever. I don't know what the design is, but just to do something just to say we fed them.

We heard your issues, I'm just speculating what a one time thing would be. Say, you teach them how to, I don't know, get job as a, you know, as a form.

Example. Great. Yeah.

Or how to fill out that college college education application, but you still have to follow through how did that work. What are some of the you know, it's it can't just be a one point thing. So if we're gonna involve you, it needs to be thoughtful that we're engaging them. Maybe at middle school, maybe when they're freshmen, maybe it's sophomore or junior. So I think it has to have a same kind of path forward that you've outlined for what you presented today. So I just wanna thank you for your input. I think it's it's good.

Thank you. Very much. Commissioners commissioner Baker?

Yeah. I I I agree. I think this is a good way to get it kicked off and and start talking about it. I do know that high schools, students, internships, shadowing, job shadowing kind of thing is we've kind of done that individually before. I know that we've had kids that contact us as a constituent of our district that want to participate in in things and we'll invite them to meetings or things.

So I think this is a good idea to move it beyond just kind of happenstance and catch as catch can kind of thing to be an organized program. Mhmm. I do think that we need to maybe touch base with some of the either high schools and or colleges, universities to find out how they run their program because they have requirements Yeah. That that you have to someone will have to fill out their their time sheet, so to speak, or their verification that they they did this. Mhmm.

And even though I I know this was intended as an internship and and enrollment in an educate in a in you know, higher learning school is good, but there could be kids out there. I'm thinking about our mayors and commissioners Yeah. Folks that may not right now be planning to go to college. Mhmm. But if there's something for those either I mean, that seems to fit in with our high school stuff, but maybe something a little bit more of for kids that are really trying to decide.

Do I go to a trade school? Do I just get a job

Mhmm.

Or something? And I don't know how what that would look like, but I just throw it out there as a way to say, don't forget those kids that could be lost if we don't have something for them as well. As these two groups of of folks, high achieving I I I'm speculating that these these are high achievers. But what if there's maybe not I was college just wasn't in my future. I mean, I took two classes at Arapahoe Community College Mhmm.

After I graduated from high school. But the army was my Yeah. Next step. Mhmm. And there could be folks that have maybe caught a government bug at some point, and I'm I'm thinking mainly high school or leaving high school that we could kind of fill maybe that gap too. Just throwing it out there is something I don't wanna not address those folks' needs.

Right. Right. Commissioner Kim?

Yeah. So I think I might I 'm trying to figure out the right way to say what I'm thinking. I I respect and appreciate that you guys were working within the con like, trying to create something that is within the confines of our current budget and staffing and capacity. I acknowledge that. You know, when I think about youth and youth engagement, it is something proactive.

It this is a very limited reach, and this person is already an adult, like even a graduate student. Right? And so that doesn't really fit the brief in my mind. But I appreciate what you guys came up with and are working with, And it's not like I would say no to this. Right? But when I think about engagement and even like the high school thing, like our meetings are during the day. We're not city council. We don't have meetings at night. We don't. And for somebody to come and like, here, come give public comments.

I'm gonna leave class, come over here, sit through whatever, be here for three minutes, speak for three minutes, and like, maybe I sit through the day. What like Waiting out. What are they get Yeah. What are they getting really from that? And so it it again, I fully acknowledge that you guys were like, okay, what can we do with what we already have? Mhmm. Right? I'm a I would appreciate more information about what those budgets and time commitments for places that have a forum. I think a budget forum is an incredible idea. Participatory budgeting is so interesting.

And for our youth to be able to actually, like Learn about money. Learn about it. And we're educating. And I mean, like, if you have people from across the schools and, you know, there's a little bit of like a maybe it's like a two day summit or something and they you know, there's like the academy, budget academy, which we know is takes some time to explain but make it kinda make it more simple. But seeing what their priorities are and perspectives on policy and being able to like weigh in and be heard.

I mean, I know the idea has been out there for a very long time. One of the most more recent impetus is was an outreach that we got from a student at High School who wants, like, hey, how can we help pull things together? How can we engage? And if other I think it's like there's Aurora, Youth Academy, like all these different things, you know, just we don't necessarily have to start from scratch. I'm even thinking like, what if we pulled in interns, the interns, the explorers, the 80 words youth program, pull from the people we already have and just have a convening of those folks who have already started to engage with county government and just get their opinions and see what their priorities are and what their perspectives are on different things.

And then we could scale up from there or something like that. But I think getting an idea of a budget because for me, this I I genuinely am trying not to be overly critical. But, like, to me, this is not youth engagement. Like, this is an adult in an undergrad or graduate school who is getting, like, $19 an hour, which you can get paid at least $15 an hour working at McDonald's. You know?

And those are adults who have to pay rent, who have to, like, pay bills and often school bills. And so if there is budget, like, if there's a budget package and budget request for us to be able to pay them more, like, that's at least conversation we can have. Like, let's let's, like, really I guess what I'm saying is I am I am open to more investment and finding room in our budget be to to be more robust about this. Right? And so in the least with this proposed internship program, if we could look at what it would look like to pay somebody more, I would really love to see that and so that we can have that conversation with the budget, like, with the in the budget process because that's I mean, if we're gonna be creating kind of a part time employee position and paying somebody, let's have a conversation about, like, really how much we can pay them and make room for it.

You know? That's I think I want I wanna be able to, like, genuinely invest in these students. I mean, they're adults. Right? Adult students. And I appreciate the perspective that they will bring and all of that. But and a pamphlet is a great start. And maybe it's also sort of as we're building that relationship as you said, having that conversation with our high schools and Mhmm. We're all good to you. We could all be good teachers too. Yeah. And so if they want us to come in and like Mhmm. Talk to students like go us go in to them. Like go We go in. Meet people where they're at instead of trying to get them out of class to come do, like, speak here.

I think it would be awesome, like, to go and say When you guys are doing, talking about the different levels of government. Like, let us know ahead of time. Like, a commissioner can come in and, like, pop in and say, like, this is county government. And and, like, then we can, like, kinda ask them questions and see what their priorities are and educate them and have, a little presentation. And that, at least, is a little more us reaching out and being kind of proactive.

I don't know about what their interest in that would be. Right? But I know in my American government class, you know, when, you know, like, oh, our state legislator's gonna come talk or the mayor's gonna come talk. Some and my family, that was the same person. But it was, you know, like, we went to like, electeds came to us and we kind of could sit and educate.

And so, I really very much appreciate what you guys have put together for the perspective that you have in terms of our current capacity and current budget. I really do. I do not mean to be insulting in any way. I also am still, I think, very interested in building out and seeing what's next after this because there are ways, like, we could what else do we have? Our youth award winners.

Right? We have pools of kids that are already connected to the county that we can pull together. And just sort of thinking, like, kind of creatively that way of even though it's not, you know, two kids from every class, from every high school, you know, like, across the county. But then also, like, if with the Aurora youth program or Centennial, like, just there's they're already there. Let's bring them together. It's just sort of spitballing. And it's not that that wouldn't take time, but also coordinating with our other city partners. And if it was like, hey, yeah, how cool would that be if we got all the youth that are already engaged in city and county government together and just started there, you know? So just some ideas. But I think this is a a solid place to start.

And I would be very excited about kind of, yeah, that next step in sort of pulling and hearing from a larger group of, like, high school students, even junior high. And I know that high school student like, an internship is is a little different.

I think high school students could do that.

There is concurrent recall like, kinda trying to figure that out might be a little tricky. But especially because of their schedules, and I think it makes sense more for undergraduate and graduate because they're like, okay. I've got this schedule, and they can, like, build their class schedule around it better, easier than a high school student. But we had high school I mean, we had work we had schoolwork programs where, like, students would go work for the first half of the day and then come to school the second half of the day. And so I think things are possible. And just as somebody who went through, like, a chamber leadership program in high school, like, I could hang with the adults. And there were two juniors from every high school in the well, we only had, like, four high schools at the time. But, like, you

know, it wasn't a whole county.

Was just Olathe. But, like, it it like, I really believe in our youth and their ability to engage. And I think I would it's something that as a commissioner and when we look at our budget, it's something that I would be willing to invest in. And so I'd be very interested in what some different budgets would look like for that. And the sort of understanding, okay. There were three budget people, but it was also Chicago. You know? And so, like, if we're pulling it together, they're, like, scales, you know? Sort of like, what's the bronze, what's the silver, what's the gold? And then also, like, the bronze, silver, gold of, like, hours, employee hours, and all of that.

I think that, for me, would be, like, the next area of information so that then we, as a board can talk about, like, what our investment would wanna be and how much we would wanna like, what money we would wanna be able to allocate to that. That's sort of where my next sort of aspect of thinking, but I think this is a great start. And I just asked to kind of think about in a in a budget proposal because we'll have to like, I would assume that the intern would we would see it in the budget through EBC. Give us some more numbers to work with And so we can see how much money we have to support that intern.

Yep. Commissioner Warga. Thank you, madam chair.

So could I ask a question, Yeah. I

I I guess I'm feeling like, what I'm hearing from staff is they they have capacity to do this first step. Exactly. What I what I'm wondering is would you be okay if that's, like, our next step next year?

Yeah. That's what I'm saying.

I'm saying I said budget season this year.

For the hourly pay for this intern.

Okay. Okay. I just I'm just trying to be clear here because I wanna make sure that they have clear direction of kind of timeline of what we're asking. And, I mean, I I'm I I wanna hear what they're saying about their time and their capacity, and I would really love to stand up the internship program, specifically in particular because that's what several of us have really specifically asked for was an internship program. 100%. So I'd like to see that they have the time and the energy and the effort to really stand that up correctly and do that. And then this this next step could be for next year and the conversation

I feel like that's exactly what I was saying.

Okay. I just wanted to clarify that in my mind. Totally.

And if I wasn't clear if it wasn't clear, I'm glad you clarified.

Yeah. It was clear.

Oh, no. Let me be very clear. Internship program this year, yay. $19. Let's see if we can pay them more. Let's do this this year. On board. I feel like there's yays for all of that. Something more proactive and, like, kind of what that would look like is the next step of information to then and take time to figure it out because you guys already have stuff on your plate. But it is something that having numbers for when we have that conversation and what that lift would look like is and some of these, like, different options.

Like, what if we just pull together our everybody who's already here? Mhmm. You know? Or everybody's already in the Aurora thing or everybody, you know, and, like, did something that was sort of a broad outreach and just sort of, like, threw it out there and then see what kind of engagement, what kind of relationship and then if it becomes more structured, we do, like, an application. We do something like a council whatever. I just want I to me, the forum aspect of we don't necessarily need totally application, but like if we're pulling people in that already exist, like, there's just there are different ways to do it. But, yes, after this internship program. And I Go ahead

and then commissioner Fields has question.

I'm sorry. No. Go ahead, commissioner Fields.

Go ahead.

I just wanna say I I think there is a lot of opportunity in leveraging some of the existing things that are here in the county. And I think that is a very easy thing to start exploring as we move through. Cool. Not necessarily that can culminate at the end of the year in this thing, but I think that through Miko's research, he unearthed a lot of things that we didn't even know existed. Right? Right. And are there ways that we can bring, you know, public health youth council or ADWorks has a really robust engagement with interns and apprenticeships and things like that. So I think that's an excellent, well made point, and that we can certainly work through that immediately and try to see what resources are out there for

a loved

because I didn't even know that these, like, that ADWorks had a youth program. So did you like, do you guys do you have little blurbs about each of these?

Yes. In Sort of what

they are they in the

In in the memo, there is we we try to keep the memo as brief as possible so we took a lot of out. But there are some blurbs about what each of these organizations that we put on the slides to and who they

Yeah.

Who they reach out to

and all those things.

Sorry. And I didn't mean to I just wanted to follow-up on that.

Thank you, madam chair. And I'm glad we've decided that as a a board, it sounds like we're gonna be on track to at least implement what you guys have designed and circle back on a little bit more a program that the commissioner is explaining. As it relates to pay the $19, I'm not quite sure how you guys arrived at that. So if it's equitable in reference to what you've seen across the county, then I think that's an appropriate wage to to give someone. And I just don't have the background to know if that's a HR wage criteria that you guys came up with because I'm quite sure you knew, say, $19.

I'm quite sure it was something.

It it the HR range generally for interns in this county is 19 to 21. So there's some flexibility Okay. With the payment.

So then I think as long as it's in line, this is a part of our standard, then that that's what it should be. I can tell you that it's competitive. The workplace environment right now is very, competitive because there's a lot of layoffs and those kinds of things. So if you can prepare a young person who's in college, who's getting ready to take their place, and they would have this experience, that's kinda invaluable in reference to how do you put a dollar amount on top of that. Now we've already said 1921, but the value comes from the networking, the relationships, the end product.

Because to me, that's just as important as the hourly wage. It's like having a a relationship with commissioner Baker or any one of us and then you and seeing the talent that we have here. We have some great people with great credentials. And having them focus on a project gives them insights that's really hard to measure because I think the structure in Arapahoe County is strong. It is really it's tight compared to other organizations.

And I'm just pleased that we're gonna be able to share that with someone that's interested in learning more about the work that we do here. So I'd like to see us move forward proposal with any other fine points that need to be added to it, but I think it's

I'm a go. I have not spoken on it, and I am really grateful for the work that you did.

Mhmm.

This is a an amazing start. Yeah. We gotta have some place to start before we can move forward. Mhmm. And the entire time you were talking, Nico, I was thinking, well, how what's been happening in my life over the past Yeah.

Several years of having college children and high school children and Because all five of mine have either interned for something in high school just because I can brag. One of them on Capitol Hill in DC as a junior in high school in the congressman's office. It was congressman Al Al Green every Wednesday. Okay. And and and for the record, that is the one that has the 6 figure retirement account right now at 29.

I'm like, oh, that's what that happens when you give children an opportunity That's right. To see something bigger. So I am thrilled. And then moving on into the college internship. So because we absolutely have those too. So I was paying attention to everything you were saying applying to students of today because I I still have those people in my life. So so I think this is just the best place to start. And I agree that moving forward, we can do bigger and better things. You know, we you know me. I'm always like, what can we do?

Not what, you know, but just what's available. What can we do? But this is I believe this is where we where we start. So and it seems like we have agreement, but can we get thumbs up on agreement agreeing to start right here?

We agree.

Alright. We're start right here. We have five thumbs up, Cali, for right here.

Alright. We

will move this forward and then prepare for additional information for additional budget decisions.

Yeah. Yeah. That's that's all we need. I mean, we're starting we're starting here. We're facing the right direction. Let's go. So thank you very, very much. I appreciate that. And with that, we have a an admin meeting starting at noon, and lunch is here. And look. We have we have a person coming in who wants to talk to us. So thank you very, very much.

Thank you, guys. Thank you. We

Okay. We are unmuted. Judy, can you hear us?

Yes. Can hear

Thank you very, very much. Good afternoon, everyone. We are here for our legislative update. Let's go ahead and go around the room with some introductions, please.

Jeff Baker, commissioner.

Kathy Smith, community resources.

Nico Johnson, commissioner's office.

Michelle Halstadt, commissioner's office.

Linda Fields, commissioner.

Who is on the congressional board?

Leslie Sami, commissioner. Carrie Warren, Gully, commissioner.

Dan McKelke, human services.

John Kristofferson, county attorney's office.

Candace Rutledge, constituent and speaker. Thank you very much. Commissioner Campbell is on her way in the room. And then we have mister Bowditch, would you introduce yourself, please? You're on mute.

Oh, you're

you're They sit across the

floor over the table.

He can't hear anything first.

Oh, okay. There we go.

Okay. Go ahead. There we go. Introduce yourself.

There you And?

Jen Castle, lobbyist. Okay. It's so

ready. Hey, guys. We're to that point of session where Jen is like,

let me tell you what we're doing.

Right. We're we're done. We're done. Okay. Thank you very, very much. Nico, would you get the ball rolling?

Yes, ma'am. Happy to. So starting off today, bills with position recommendations, h b twenty six fourteen twenty nine, county administration public assistance program. This bill is the introduced version of the human services restructure bill that we have talked about before. We've provided in your handouts a document that summarizes the six major things this bill will do.

At a high level, the bill requires that the state and county requires the state and counties to design a cohort model that groups counties into no more than 12 cohorts that will administer human services benefits. Timeline, the transition to cohorts, technology improvements, and other provisions related to state and county responsibilities in the cohort model are outlined in the bill. It centralizes fraud investigation and services for all public assistance programs within a single statewide unit. Creates a policy alignment team made up of senior staff from the Department of Human Services, HCPPA from the Department of Early Childhood to align policies across major public assistance programs to improve coordination and service delivery, establishes a statewide continuous quality improvement process to monitor performance data, error rates, and eligibility determinations, and provide an annual report to the JBC. Requires counties to provide performance data to the state that the state then must publish monthly at the county level and statewide level.

Creates lastly, it creates a statewide performance and accountability framework for public assistance programs that establishes expectations for state agencies and counties through performance based contracts. The bill was introduced last Friday. Over the weekend, many amendments to the bill were

made. Surprising.

The legislative team recommends the board take a support position and allow Dan Dan, the county stakeholder group, and our lobbyists to pursue amendments on our behalf. Dan, please add additional context and finer details about the bill and the process as it currently stands.

Yes.

Very, very quickly, I have not seen the amend I saw amendments on Saturday. I have not seen introduced amendments since. The bill is up for appropriate in appropriations tomorrow morning, 08:15. From what I heard so far, there's only three people testifying. Kelly from CCI, Jamie Ulrich, president of the Directors Association, and Manna Castilla from the state are the three that I know for sure.

I would likely imagine there'll be another state department or two. So it's hard for me to speak on the amendments, but the amendments that I did see were exactly what we asked for, including growing the amount of county seats on the transition committee, having a at least a minority report if we don't agree on recommendations made by that would be published, which I thought was was very important. Like that. Those were the two the two big ones. I would say, overall, this bill is we were very successful.

If you look at what the bill looked like in the beginning compared to what the bill looks like now, there wasn't much that the state really, really pushed us on. I think we have to watch out for things that are being added at the last seconds, and there's gonna be a lot of pressure put on this third party, person. And then the last thing I would just say is that the financial pressures that are building in human services, notwithstanding this, are something that we need to really keep our eye on. Because there's going to be three different waves that start in July, October, and then January, and that is really gonna set and January is HR one. Everything back behind it is not necessarily HR one.

So the state is in a in a is in a quandary without this bill. I do think the finances will drive maybe some tweaking of this bill.

Any other commissioners? Commissioners? Commissioner Baker. And then commissioner Wardell. Thank you.

CCI voted to support.

Yes. 86%.

CCAT, 86%. That that's significant. Yes. And CCAT voted to support as well. Correct.

So I I'm I think this is important to support as well. My question is, rulemaking. That's where the the rubber meets the road. That's where a lot of these things such as the third party consultant I'm assuming. I don't know how will that be done, the rule making. The rule making will

come after the third party facilitator makes the changes.

And I would tell you that there's a

a vast majority in this bill that is already codified in rule. Putting accounting on performance plan is already in rule. The ability to sanction a county is already in rule. There's two not advertise, but publicize our our data is already in rule. And as part of what we're supposed to do, there's not much in this statute that actually is not already

in rule.

Good. Thank you.

That was my question.

Great. Commissioner Fields? I just want to just thank you for all your hard work, you and commissioner. I was on a call that we had last Friday and listening to, you know, Pope at the end Mhmm. Make a passionate plea that this is not the time to be playing around. Mhmm. That we needed to give signing authority or editing authority to whoever the representation is on CCI was very important. She made that very clear, and I think that's why we got to 86%. My question is the amendment regarding expanding the the group. Who's that include? Oh, not who, but the categories?

The category. Absolutely.

May Oh, go on. I'm sorry. I just left the room for a second. Go ahead, director McKelke.

Originally, it was only 12, and there was a equal amount of county seats with including commissioners and directors, state seats, including the appointees from the executive directors and advocates. And, like, CCLP, Carl Alam Policy is part of this. Yeah. So you have advocates and and constituent voice. We pushed harder, and I I do believe that there will be part of the amendment will be, I think, it's three more seats.

And where the counties, I think, will start arguing is over what that representation looks like. We are on the camp of the side of the caseload needs to have a bigger representation, meaning the larger counties need to have a bigger representation on the transition committee. The balance of state and small counties would like for them to have a larger one. I don't see how that makes sense. Mhmm. So I when when we when we were growing the number of people on there, we weren't necessarily designating who was gonna be on there. My understanding is now there's gonna be a finer point in an amendment of who is gonna be representative. And I would imagine that the largest counties, the largest caseloads, which is yours, will have a seat on the transition

commission. Thank

you. Thank

you, director McCutcheon. Is that it commissioners? What Commissioner Baker's got

something else.

I'm supporting Mina testifying as opposed to Michelle Barnes. Is she out of town? Is the governor's term ending? Is that I mean, we've seen some changes in his directors. I just wanted to know if is there a did they give an explanation as to why Mina would be doing that? Okay.

We have not seen director Barnes through this whole entire process.

I think she's on

medical leave, isn't

She's she's here for some things. It's intermittent, but we have not seen her. So Mena has been the the Mena Castillo, who's the deputy director, has been the the person, Rachel Ryder from health care policy and financing. But there there has never been an explanation. The executive directors are not part.

Got it. And and it's probably minor in all things being considered. If Mene has been the person at the table, then I'd rather have her. But I do want to just

It's a

great point.

Something I've wondered

as well. So

commissioners, we have thumbs up. Support. We're supporting. Thank you very much.

And get five thumbs up to support. And ditto on the things.

And ditto on the things. What are

things on the of things?

Oh, the thanks. Yes.

I was I was like, we have things to do? All the things. Yes. Ditto on all the things.

Mhmm. Okay. Thank you very much. Just amazing work. Nico?

Yes, ma'am. Continuing with the things on my list. There you go. SB twenty six one eighty one works program reserves and cost of living adjustments. This bill would permit counties to offer households that demonstrate good cause and extension of Colorado works program assistance beyond the sixty month lifetime maximum.

Suspend the cost of living adjustment for the works program basic cash assistance grant for the 20 the '26, '27, and '27, twenty eight fiscal years, and remove the reserve minimums for the 10 f and Colorado long term works reserves. By suspending the cost of living adjustment for the next two fiscal years, the county would be better able to manage the cost of the TANF program and the extensions of benefits based on individual case needs. As a result, the legislative team recommends the board take a support position. Dan, please add any additional context.

No more additional context except for and I'll defer to commissioner Warren Goli if she'd like to speak as a voting member of of the WAC first, which you guys about this, then I Mhmm. Will fill in after you if you'd like the same.

Yes. Go ahead. Thank you, madam chair. I I will say that this bill is exactly what the WAC asked them to do last year. Mhmm.

Except that this bill does remove any type of backfill to counties for their reserves. If it drops below a certain point, if if we ever got to the place when this pause is gone and the costs keep going up, they are not back filling it at all to there's no back fill available at this point. All of the back fill requirements have been removed permanently from this program. So as Kevin Neiman said in human services at CCI, we will be seeing this situation in a year and a half or not. It'd be great if we dealt with it next legislative session, but the legislative session after that, when the pause is done, we're gonna have to have a harder conversation about whether our state can afford that in the long run.

Director of Kentucky?

Said very well. I have nothing else to add.

Alright. Alright.

Here you go.

Does the board support?

I was like, okay. I just wanted you to know what

Yes, Did

you have anything else to add? No, ma'am. Just want some thumbs up for support?

Let's see.

How many thumbs up do we have to support this? We have five thumbs up to support. Thank you very much. I didn't wanna go on, sir, until you were ready.

Thank you. I'm I'm I'm ready. Moving forward to concepts for discussion. I'll pass to Ed and Jen for any JBC or Longville updates.

Okay.

And Good afternoon, everybody. Hello. And and the the Longville is sitting on the governor's desk.

Uh-oh.

So we we will wait to see what the governor does with the Longville. As you remember, the governor can sign it and veto the whole thing, or he can veto individual lines, but he cannot adjust up or down any particular line. So we hopefully, we'll hear back together sometime later this week.

Thank you very much. That that was quick. Wow. Okay. Nico?

Yes, ma'am. So the last one in bills, I'll say, slash topics for awareness is the conversation that's happening around initiative one seventy five and HB twenty six fourteen thirty, transportation funding adjustments. So initiative one seventy five is a ballot measure that would require all revenue from state sales, use, and excise taxes or fees on motor vehicles and fuel, and two thirds of the revenue from state sales and use tax collected on vehicle parts, equipment, materials, and accessories installed on vehicles to be diverted from the general fund and be distributed according to the highway users tax fund formula for roads only. Early estimates suggest that I 75, initiative one seventy five, would reduce general fund revenue by 700,000,000 in FY 2728 and require cutting funding for programs like early childhood, k 12, higher ed, and health care. In the event that one seven that I 75 I one seventy five is passed by the voters the ballot in November, h b twenty six fourteen thirty, if passed, would reduce certain vehicle related fees and general fund expenditures to offset the impact of I one seventy five.

There's a worry among local governments that the consequence of 1430 if there's a consequence that if both things happen, fourteen thirty would result in a reduction in local government transportation funds. Yesterday, it seems like CCAT members because of the negative impact of initiative one seventy five, seemed like CCAT members were leaning towards supporting fourteen thirty. CCI is officially in an opposed position after this afternoon. They voted 76% in favor to oppose To oppose. Fourteen thirty.

The body also voiced support for Kelly staff and anyone with contacts on either side of this negotiation to attempt to insert themselves into the negotiation between the governor's office and I one seventy five contractors. Because I think there's a growing sentiment that neither side wants to negotiate negotiate anymore, and local governments would be the worst for where if that were the case. But I'll pass it to Ed and Jen to provide additional context.

Nico, can I just make a clarification?

Yes, ma'am. Commission.

I is is CCAD in an official support? No. Okay. No. Because right now, my my understanding is they're monitored.

So I was I'm glad you said that. Okay. This this was based on our conversations yesterday before there had been an actual position taken.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

But you said they were leaning

It seemed like that in the in the conversation. I I think people are really nervous about if voters approve initiative one seventy five, which as it's written doesn't really give voters the full scope of what could happen. So I think that's that's why I I phrase it that way.

Yeah. And I think in some of the subsequent conversations, there is growing concern on either side. Right? Of Yep. I don't think we're I don't think CCAT would come out in an oppose, but I could see them being in a monitor just to kind of be.

But, anyway

Ed, Jen?

Alright. Thank you, Nico and commissioners. So, yes, Nico described this game of chicken that's going on. Hospital fourteen thirty is introduced trying to get a conversation between the two parties. I think it is fair to say that the proponents of fourteen thirty would love nothing better than to have a negotiated solution.

Where one seventy five is removed from the ballot, fourteen thirty does not pass, and floor heads can prevail. At that point, however, you know, what do you negotiate? State has no additional funding. Yeah. The state can't say, if you remove that, we'll give you $400,000,000 in general fund.

I don't think the state's gonna do that. I don't know if the advocates for one seventy five are going to accept anything too low to drop $1.75. One of the things that I have to say and not to editorialize too much here, but I get very frustrated when anybody says the state is taking the money that's earmarked for transportation. This is general fund money. General fund is not earmarked for anything.

We don't say the general fund collected on liquor should go back to support the liquor industry in the state. It goes into to support general state governments. And the state legislature then decides how much goes to human services, corrections, and so on. I think the bill is up today in terms of the lobbying. As Nico said, CCI is opposed.

CML is opposed, but CML also calls for one seventy five to be withdrawn, which is a is a bit of a nuanced position, but I understand where they're coming from. As you can imagine, the motor carriers association, Stanley Gravel Association, and a few are opposed to fourteen thirty. On the supporting side, Children's Hospital, etcetera, law policy, the Association of School Boards, the Hospital Association, Conservation Colorado, Denver Health are supporting fourteen thirty. Couple of things that you just need to be aware of. If both of these packs follow on those tapered refund will be reduced, at the same time, the gas tax will be reduced by 8¢ a gallon.

This also adjusts some other transportation fees. Do people and again, not to editorialize too much, but do people believe that the price of gas will go down 8¢ a gallon and taxes go down by 8¢ a gallon? I think that's a reasonable question. The voters are giving up their part of their tainted refunds. From the voters who would not be getting part of their tainted refunds at fourteen thirty x.

How do you project the annual revenues for the for tabor refunds? That bounces around a couple $100,000,000 each way, and we have to have a minimum $200,000,000 each year to fund the senior home show exemption. So if this is counting on fourteen thirty is counting on a certain level of taper refund, that's a dangerous thing to count on, in my opinion. As Nico said, the initiative does not specify what programs will be reduced if initiative one seventy five passes. But if you say paid off, Medicaid, human services, corrections, that's 76% of budget.

That's three quarters of the budget. So something would have to give among those current priorities. The fiscal note came out. It's 11 pages. It is very complex. The CCI comments today were there are errors in the fiscal note, so we're gonna wait for a new fiscal note. I don't know if that's true or not, but we'll see. The intent is that the HUTF will stay roughly the same if both of these measures pass. That's the intent by the proponents of fourteen thirty. Sorry. I kind of rambled there.

No. Perfect. All good stuff.

Perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you. Bless you again.

I just and to I mean, maybe that last statement was the clarification, but it kept getting thrown around in CCI that that local governments would lose funding. Is that is that the last comment that you made?

That you're right, Nico. That comment was made by a number of people. I'm not seeing that in the fiscal note. There is one box in the end of the fiscal note summarizing the changes to local government, and it looks pretty flat to me. You know, what I don't know is if the mix of transportation priorities will change if both of these measures pass. So will there be less transit and more road even if we keep the overall budget the same? I haven't figured that out yet. Okay.

Commissioner Wongali? Thank you, madam chair. So clarification also on just, I I think some of the biggest concern that I'm hearing is what if we see a decline in our economy and we don't have taper refunds? That I mean, there's so many moving parts to this bill that even yesterday on our conversation that Nico and I were on was suggestion of there would have to be a special session to tweak the bill considering what happens with our budget and everything. I mean, I don't know. This is just a it's just such a hard choice here.

Well, madam commissioner Yeah. Mhmm. You have a different JBC bill that is trying to implement a credit to the tater refunds from the overcorrection from a few years ago. So you've gotta factor that in whether that passes or not. Then you have the measure that would put a a question to the voters this fall from senate one thirty five to raise the taper path to put more money into education and other priorities. So how do you shocking. Yes. What will happen with all of these moving parts? They all affect the tapered refund. And if the tapered refund isn't there for 1430, the state will have less revenue.

Thank you. Go ahead.

Do we need to take a position on this? I mean, I guess the only thing that I would say is is that CCAT is going to be having a conversation tomorrow on its governing board. I would like to hear from the commissioner's guidance on what that might look like for us, of what we might feel about whether to be in support or whether I think it's either CTCATs in support or it's in monitor.

Do we need to discuss this today? Do we need to get to a position today? I thought we were just for awareness on these.

Yeah. I don't I just would like to to see

if Our leaning My

gut would be my gut would be to monitor, but I don't know if that would feel comfortable to you all. I guess that should be my question.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And, Michelle, you had your hand up, so did commissioner Baker.

I was just gonna say I don't think you need to take a official county position. We did not have to take a position at CCI because of the 75%, So we did not take a position Mhmm. As Arapahoe County in the call at noon.

But I I do think the game of chicken is a

is a challenge. Mhmm. Right? And there is this is reminds me of, like, the environmental oil and gas stuff Yeah. Totally. A couple years ago. And I I don't know, given how hastily this was written, like, there are probably unintended consequences we just haven't thought about. Mhmm. So I think that's important to think about as we work through this negotiation. And my understanding, Ed and Jen, is one seventy five came about because they had had a lot of conversations, and they didn't feel like there was a appropriate level of investment. So there has been a lot of entrenchment from what I understand, but it's a result of a lot of conversations prior to getting to one seventy five. Is that fair?

I I don't I can't say I don't

Okay.

I mean, I'm I that's probably fair, but not to not to reduce your con your your comment here, but every organization comes in and says, we want more money. Sure. Yep. So I don't know why the the the road advocates feel like they should be treated differently.

Because they have money to do initiatives.

They haven't had their turn. Hasn't it also hasn't I mean,

it was the k 12, but

was everybody else. Yeah. I mean, historically, right There's a low person on the totem pole. Right?

Commissioner Baker.

Yeah. I I do see January as kind of a evolution of the fix our damn roads kind of perceptions. So doctor Cog has not had a chance to look at this yet. The 59 jurisdictions that make up doctor Cog, it's interesting to have that discussion specifically, and this is in our wheelhouse. This is transportation.

Commissioner Fields and I are leaving tomorrow with up to 30 other members of doctor Cog to go to Seattle on a peer exchange. I know this will be a topic of conversation. Maybe not with the Puget Sound Regional Council, but among ourselves. And so I will try to get as much as I can about who if if so we know where they're sitting or standing before so I would recommend that we not not take. And I'd be okay with Lotta Zing, but I can understand. We can just let him know that we're we've got our eyes on you. We're watching you

Mhmm. And

then see where it goes from there.

Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Campbell. So, Nico, in the com you were you were online for the CC, I

think I was.

Today. And can you specify do you remember did anybody specify what they thought was wrong with the fiscal note?

No. I and Ed, correct me if I'm wrong. I sounds like he was gonna correct me.

No. No. Not correct, Unica. But the one thing I heard was that there is a mistake in showing a reduction to the h u t f.

Yeah. Yes.

And I don't know if that's in the amount or what. They didn't specify. So I'll watch for a new fiscal note to see if and when it comes out.

Okay. And then the current fiscal note, you said doesn't really have a lot about local government as we know, which has been a conversation for several years. That is, like, what the little note it does have at the end shows that it would be flat for us.

For local government. For $14.30. Yeah.

Table. Oh, go ahead.

Yeah.

Yes. Parapiscal note has a table at the end that shows black revenues to local government if fourteen thirty passes. So you have one seventy five passes, and then fourteen thirty will kick in. If one seventy five passes, then the impact on local governments is basically neutral.

K. So I guess, to me, I feel like, yeah, I'm on board with monitoring with the sort of perspective of, you know, keeping our eye on what changes come through the fiscal note, any amendments come on. And if something does show or or begins to show that more clearly how if and how local governments will be impacted, then we giddy up.

But isn't Sinai Day this month?

Not soon enough. Fourteenth. No.

The fourteenth.

Fourteenth. Fourteenth.

Fourteenth. Okay.

Is that Tuesday? Fourteenth.

'3 How do you pronounce it?

Fourteenth.

Fourteenth. Sinidae. Sinidae.

I've seen it.

Wednesday. But I've never said

Close to the thirteenth.

Sinidae. Some people get fancy with it. Sinidae. I think Potable.

I'm just

that's all we have for you

today. What? We

we started half an hour late, and you still got us out on time. Right. Well, don't mean

I got a I got a question.

Oh, there's a question. Commissioner Kim.

Has the why the p word. Per prisons? Not perkle. Purple. Purple.

Per pinnacle?

Pinnacle. Pinnacle. Pinnacle.

My brain wanted to say para, but I was like, it's not paras, but yeah. What is it? Oh, Billy Grego. Interesting. Yeah. That has that bill been introduced? The pinnacle bill?

We can have Ed and Jen kinda give you a a rundown. There's been like there's like a lot like 200 some odd bills left with nine days.

Yeah. So

Ed and Jen. Right? There's, 200 bills still sitting out there.

Yes. There are. There are quite a bit that are out there. And the house is over debating everything as you can probably imagine. It's been a little bit more efficient. In regards to the Pinnacle bill, it actually the draft changed. The way that the the speaker wants to move forward now is to have Pinnacle obey the insurer of last resort, but allow some some sub subsidiaries, excuse me, to be spun off so that Pinnacle has more flexibility in providing insurance in their states, writing other insurance, those kind of things. There are still dollars attached to the political draft. I don't think those are necessarily changed. However,

I don't we don't think

the bill is going to be introduced. There's a lot of opposition to it from those major, you know, democratic fact groups. But also, there's no evidence correct now really to the with the budget already on its way to the government. That's where I was kinda like the budget like it was supposed to at the beginning of the legislative session. So I think the further we go and we don't see a pinnacle bill, I think it's more likely that nothing is going to be reduced.

Madam chair? Yes. Commissioner Baker.

And and I don't wanna interrupt the discussion if there's more about that, but also there was a bill governing state lobbying. And when I just saw a very brief one sentence about that, I thought I should ask Ed and Jen about that. Thank

you for this Mr. Baker. That bill actually regulates the governor's office lobbyists and the department's lobbyists.

Okay.

As of right now,

they don't

I was thinking of Mara.

Thinking of. Bills that they take positions off. So that's kind of been a loophole for a while. So now those lobbyists are gonna have to start reporting.

Okay. And they can't lobby, right, for external parties post a certain time. Don't they have

a ruling out period too

that was in the bill?

I like that.

Oh, that I don't know. I don't know that specific end might

I think there is something Yeah. In there about that. We'll see if the governor signs

the bill.

Yeah. They're happen.

Second name. Commissioner Warren Gulley.

K. Thank you, madam chair. I just wanna congratulate Miko for making it through your first

Whoo. Done yet. You're too close. That's all I have.

This is our well,

I guess we could meet not next Tuesday, couldn't we?

We we Today. There is not

a meeting on the calendar note, but, yes, this is our final meeting. Should start

with that. Look, you did it.

Yeah. Look at you. So Well done.

Well, thank you. You've done

a lot of very

Couldn't have

done it without in here. So thank you so much for the support, Ed and Jen.

Wonderful. Thank you very, much. Do we have anything else from anybody else? Well, Ed's getting ready to say something. Go ahead, Ed. I'm sorry. What were you saying?

Yeah. Getting ready to say thank you, and good to see everybody.

Alright. Can I ask one more?

I'm sorry. Nope. We got you're not going anywhere. Sorry. Commissioner Moragalli, before you hop off,

is there anything on the human services bill that we should be doing to help that? Or is is it just gonna move and there's no worry about that?

On 1429, I think the process is going to work just fine.

Okay.

I think Dan Dan's group and CCI have worked very well with the governor's office, and kudos to everybody involved.

Yes.

So there will still need to be amendments probably on in the houses in the house and the senate. I mean, this thing is so complex. But I think it's in good shape. The process is.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Alright. I think we're gonna be done here. So, Ed, Jin, you gotta go before somebody asks a question. Thank you all very, very much for all of the

work this week.

Yeah. Good work. We appreciate all of this. This is good. Excellent. Thank Excellent. Thank you. Bye bye.

Yes. I'd be interested in Yay. What you hear from other

I'm gonna unmute. You were unmuted.

We are unmuted.

Alright. Don't don't talk about what we were just talking No. I'm Good afternoon, everyone. We are here for our afternoon study session. Can we get started with some introductions around the room, please?

Jeff Baker, commissioner.

Jim Kotzer, Politburs and Development.

Michelle Holsteck, commissioner's office.

Rhonda Fields, commissioner.

Your name? Have seen the federal court.

Leslie Summey, commissioner. Carrie Warren Gully, commissioner.

Matt Heder, county attorney's office. Ryan Seacrest, public works and development.

Sheila Redhanle, public works and development.

Candace Rutledge, constituent in street kid.

Carity Tacmo, interim public works rep. Cool. This is finance. This is finance. Leanna Quinn, finance. Finance. That's a

lot of finance.

That's a lot of finance. And would you introduce yourself, sir?

Yes, ma'am. It's Eric McKinnon, Ravel County Road Bridge business manager.

Glad you're not finance. So

I mean, because you're just overpowering today. Thank you. Yeah. We'll take you. Commissioner Campbell, would you introduce yourself, please?

Yes. I would love to, madam chair. This is commissioner Jessica Campbell from the Great District Number 2. Whoo.

Thank you very much. So, mister Seacrest, would who are we who are we starting with? Mister Kotzler? Miss Brett Hamill? Who are we starting with? I

think we're starting with mister Kotzler. Okay. Was just invited to this

right now.

Oh, okay. There you go.

I'm gonna quickly turn over to Ryan, but thanks for having us, and we're gonna turn it right over with Matt Hayder's help. We have some good direction here, so go ahead, Ryan.

Yeah. So this first one is at the intersection of Cornell and Monaco. Okay. Right now, the Western edge of Monaco is the border between city and county of Denver and Arapahoe County. And at the intersection, the city and county of Denver is proposing to do a project to put a new signal in, some new ADA ramps and crossings. As part of that project with the two western ramps located in Arapahoe County, they wanted to get the property from us through a quick claim in order to do the project, and then, therefore, they'll have all the maintenance and responsibilities of that intersection. They already operate the signal and everything else.

Mhmm.

But they wanted to get the ramps included in on that project.

Okay. Great. Commissioners?

No cost. No transfer of funds?

No. No transfer of funds.

It sounds pretty simple. Yeah. I madam chair? Yes. Commissioner Warren Gully. I think this is around the Holly Hills area. Right?

Yes.

Yes. So I will say that I do get a lot of complaints about Monaco. Mhmm. And I'm constantly asking us, like, why don't you guys fix Monaco? And I always reply, because that's not our road. You know? So anything that they are doing to improve this area is a good improvement for this community.

So

And now you can tell we did a quick claim. That's right. Go. Okay.

Out of Denver. Okay. Do we have thumbs up for this? Thank you very, very much. We have five thumbs up.

Thank you much.

Okay. I'm just checking. Did you wanna Next steps.

I was gonna say next steps will be going to consent next week Great. For signatures.

Alright. Cool.

Thank you all.

Matt Hayter didn't even say anything.

I know. That's a good thing. Do you need anything?

Why you wanna say

He's not talking because then you'll Right.

You wanna take Dean, I'm your man. That's right. So funny. Quick claim deed. So funny. Yes. That's right. You need a quick claim deed.

Okay. So what else do we have happening today?

So now we do have the five year transportation and road and bridge plan. I would ask Carrie and Eric to come to the table, please. Great. So Carrie and I flipped a coin, and he was gonna start this one. So she's gonna she'll kick us off here as our interim director and greet.

So that means she lost or she won?

Well,

thank you. You're welcome.

You're welcome. Thank you for being here. And what do you have for us?

Well, I know last week,

we mentioned we were kinda working on our five year plans and what we're going to be delivering with the one a funds. And my understanding is kinda from past leadership, there was a little change in how they looked at their projects and projected their projects

in

the upcoming years. And so we've been transitioning to what I think is more typical

for a five year plan. Oh,

good. Okay.

And really working between the two groups of Broaden Bridge and CIP to kind of blend that work together under the one a projects. So my understanding is it was a little bit more siloed. So looking at the assets and deciding when the project really needs to be reconstructed or when it can be a simple overlay and stuff. And I think there's still more work that needs to be done in defining kind of the policies as to that stuff when that is an improvement on a reconstruct. So we have been working on that.

And I think most important thing here today is we really want to present our plans to you, see what questions you have, but really appreciate the money funds. It does help to chip away at every little bit that we can to make those improvements. So I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over to Jim to start

on the CIP side.

Before you get started, Jim, the thing that I'd like to to say is we need to thank our residents, our voters for those one a funds. And so it is through my lens, it is wonderful thing that we're able to address these things now, and that's all due to the voters. So thank you very, very much. Mister Kotzer.

Alright. Thank you, commissioner, and thank you, Carrie. So our agenda today, we have two presentations that we're gonna go through, hopefully, level, at least for May.

Can you talk a little louder, please?

So we're projecting.

I think. Thank you.

Thank Thank you.

So we'll talk about prop one a, our reconstruct project, and then do a typical CIP project timeline, and then give you a a high level update of our other CIP projects. So our our road reconstruct project. So as as Carrie mentioned, we worked in close coordination with with Road and Bridge to to come up with this project list. But our proposition one a money is focused on our reconstruct project. So this program isn't new to the county, but it is new, to the transportation division.

So we we work to implement this project. So the reason why we need reconstructs is roads and assets eventually end their their service life. And there's no other valuable treatment that's gonna be useful or or gonna take a a a big benefit on that asset. So reconstruction are important. So this project will will look to upgrade all the ADA facilities along the road.

We won't do any repairs as pictured in these two pictures. And then we'll replace the bases, all the asphalt, and we'll put in some sub drains. So I'll capture this on the next slide here. So here's a typical pavement section. So we have asphalt as the wearing surface, and then we have subgrade on the left that's supporting this asphalt. Well, on these roads that were built in the early two thousands, this subgrade is very weak. It holds water due to the soil conditions. They're ace they're a clay silty Yeah. Subgrade. So we're moving over to this section on the right.

So our standards allowed for this picture on the left to be constructed, and it didn't result in good performance. So we've since updated our construction standards, and and now we're building this section on the right. What's different here is the base. So it's it's a gravel type of system. It allows for drainage to occur, and it supports the asphalt road over time.

You might consider this a perpetual pavement. So we would look to do your typical asphalt treatments, but the asphalt should last much longer because it has a better, stronger support below it. And if we ever do get to a spot where the asphalt gets tired, we can hopefully just remove the asphalt and keep the base in place. Right now, because of the reconstructs on the left, we're removing 10 inches to 12 inches of subgrade. So you have to haul it out, you have to bring new material back in. So that that's pretty extensive. If you're interested, there's a reconstruct happening on Union just north of us off of Santa Fe. If you ever wanna drive through a reconstruction.

Going on the same thing.

Field trip.

Yeah. Field trip. So an update to this part of the project is we've completed the geotech investigation. We started that in late twenty twenty five. When we did when we found out the board was interested in funding the reconstruct, we pulled some 2025 money and started that design process. So we've done that. We've completed all the repairs needed for the concrete work. And now we have the payments design has been completed, so we know what we're gonna put in place of of the subgrade that's failing. So right now, we're just finally finalizing the bid documents. We're hoping to go out to bid this week or next week, and then we hope to start construction late June or right after July 4.

As we get an an idea of what the costs are gonna be, we'll have a we'll be able to tighten up the 2027 road list. Because right now, it's a it's an estimate. But once we get bids in place, we'll be able to

to come up

with a better list. So this is a preliminary road list that we're going to look to construct in 2026. I mentioned preliminary because we do not have the actual cost. We just determined the design a couple weeks ago. Mhmm. So we don't have the actual cost yet. Most of our re road reconstructs occur in the Tallgrass area in the Copperleaf because of the soil. I wanted to point out on this list that if we were able to construct all these roads, we're constructing or reconstructing almost seven lane miles. So that's a mile of road that's 10 feet wide. So the benefit is a 140 lane mile years added to the road network.