Board of County Commissioners Business Meeting - workshop

Wonderful. Good good morning, everyone. So sorry. I am six minutes late getting on getting in here, but so let's get started because I'm, you know, holding up the process. Let's go around the room with some introductions starting with you, sir.

John Kristofferson, county attorney's office.

Michelle Halstead, commissioner's office. You did something weird at

the things by figuring it out.

Yeah. Leslie Summey, commissioner. Jessica Campbell, commissioner

of District

2. Mara Sheldon, federal lobbyist, Holland and Knight. Turn to my colleague, Allison. Yay.

Candace Rutledge. Allison. Okay. Allison Wright with Holland and Knight as well. Sorry. Yes.

And, Candace, say that

Carrie Maureen Gulley, commissioner.

Candace Rutledge, constituent and street care. Thank you. And commissioner Baker?

Judge Baker, cousin commissioner.

Wonderful. Thank you very much. And commissioner Fields is absent and excused. And I know that Acton County attorney John Christopherson just smiled politely. He was like, she did it. So we are here for our federal legislative update.

You want me to let's just open it

Would you prefer that I run the slideshow? I have it up and ready to do that if you wanna just drop it on your end.

Okay. Hold, please. Because clearly the technology scared me today. Okay. No problem. One second. I don't know what happened. Sorry.

Well, it happens.

There's a lot of zooming, but I liked it. I just didn't know

if you

I did not.

Thank you, Allison.

No problem.

I need to share the screen here. K. Proper screen.

Okay. You can see it now? Yes. I'm sorry. You

too. Thank you.

Is that all good? Yep. Okay. Great. Good. Good. So we start here with some recap of recent activity from May already of this year. We had commissioner Sami attend a tour of the VA hospital, which was very cool for her to do given it was a smaller group. The US Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins, as well as Governor Jared Polis and Dave Evans were there. And I heard that the visit went very well, but that she was able to do that. Commissioners Baker Fields and Warren Gully attended the Accelerate Colorado to Washington DC this past week and were able to see Holland's and Knight's new office space, which is also very cool, and everyone loved you guys, by the way.

Yay. Just a minute. Hey, Allison. Just a second. It's Leslie Summie, and congressman five. Jeff Crank? Heard. Heard. Heard. He was also Jeff Heard is

is the other one. Heard is three.

Yeah. So, yes, congressman Jeff Crank was also at the VA hospital.

That's good to know. And I will note that. Thank you for making that note. And I didn't know if you wanted a minute to talk about it or if you've already debriefed, I'm sure, but I just wanted to put it up there to kind of recap that I was very cool you were able to do that.

Did did we talk about it? No. Oh, okay. Let's hear. Okay. I'm here. Great. It was a so secretary Collins came through, had a meeting with the governor and with the congress folks and also with various people in in in the in in the VA service, you know, industry. And so he took a lot of questions. He asked a lot of questions.

The question that I asked was what does he need from us? And and he turned around and said, the question is what do you need from me? And so we toured the hospital, spoke to a couple of vets that were receiving care there, spoke to a couple of departments. I don't remember which department. There were two departments, I believe.

But spoke to a couple of departments and learned about what they're doing there. The hospital was beautiful, and it was wonderful as a veteran to be there among other veterans. Also, they had a an award ceremony that and I I wanna say that was for folks over the last the last period of time. I don't think they were volunteers. They were they were stellar workers for some particular reason that I am not remembering right now, but they all were celebrated and received a coin from the secretary and also received coins from whichever congress folks had them on them, I was able to say I don't have a coin.

The counties don't have any money. So so I did throw that in there so we could get some more. So so that was our and it was cold that day. It was the day that we had snow, but we were there. We were there, and it was a really good event. So thank you very, very much, and that's what I have.

Okay. Excellent. Good follow-up from the visit that you all had just had

in DC too. It was great. It was good follow-up. Good. So thank you very much. You're very welcome.

Great. Thank you. So Mara, okay to jump into the rest? Please. Thank you. So currently, this is our so kind of how we've framed these presentations the last couple times as we focus first on congress and what their current state of play is. Something big that has come out this past week was TNI Committee, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released reached a deal on a $580,000,000,000 service transportation reauthorization. We'll go into that in another slide in a little bit more detail there. There is a markup scheduled, as Mar will point out. She found that information out from Jeff Hearn's office as well as others here at H and K at that intel.

It is consistent with how congress is functioning right now, but today is Tuesday, and the markup has yet to have been actually officially announced on Thursday. So members are kind of scrambling and moving quickly to figure out their priorities and what they need to do, but at least there's rumors of this markup happening, but it's it's slated for Thursday. Do you speak on the floor?

Can we ask him? Very

yeah. Go

ahead. When you say markup, can you just kinda, like, what does that look like? I know we're gonna talk about it on a future slide, but just kind of Okay. Deep unpack that parlance real fast.

Sure. So a markup is when they go through, and they're going to be basically voting on each part of the of the package and the deal and agreeing to move that on to be to reach the floor. To actually go to rules committee and then to the floor. So they're able to kind of pick it apart, discuss each piece of it, and vote yay or nay on those pieces. And so that that's what's gonna happen. It's it's expected to move Mara, you you comment on that. How it's expected to move through that committee on markup?

So on Thursday, when they do the markup, they're also going to to be looking at amendments. So right now, they are accepting amendments, I believe, until tomorrow morning, is my understanding, from congressman Herzogman. He's the only member in our delegation that is on TNI. Mhmm. On the senate side, we do have senator who is on commerce and transportation committee as well.

But at this point, they haven't done anything yet Got it. On the senate side. So it's gonna go to markup, and then it will once it goes to markup and they decide to vote it out of the committee, then it will go to rules. And then if it once it gets out of rules, depending, there also will be opportunity for amendments at rules. Once that goes, then it can go to the floor, and they can decide about amendments on the floor too. So that's just part of the process. Yep. But first, they've gotta

have Commissioner, a lot times a lot of times that these markups, folks will try to attach things that they really want on to this bill or on to this deal to kind of slide through and get through. So it's like you're just having to be wary of like who's trying to attach what because this is a really big deal and it's obviously gonna be something that's gonna happen. It's just a matter of like what amendments are added, and that's just a longer process. But they're gonna try to move it quickly.

Cool. And that makes sense. I just markup is one of those things I've heard forever, and I just kinda, like, rolled with it. And I was like, you know,

what what yeah. Just type

in just a little deeper on that one.

Ask. There's no dumb questions.

Yeah. No. It's it's like the vibes. You know the vibes of what a markup is, but, you know

One one of the interesting things that it also is included in this in this version of the bill, and I say version because this is just the draft, and then Exactly. It's going through a bunch of phases, is bipartisan leaders of the committee have included a driving under the influence of marijuana and other drugs to do a study Uh-huh. Which is great because there aren't enough studies. There certainly aren't enough federal studies on that right now. I mean, we've got a lot of studies obviously in Colorado because, you know, we've had rec and medicinal, legal for

a very long time.

But they want to have evidence based impairment standards to look at. Cool. So Well that is something that's a little bit more unique that I I noticed that was in the bill text, so I thought I would flag that for you all. There's a lot of very interesting things in the bill, but it is bipartisan, you know, right now, and we'll see, you know, what gets added in or taken out as the process moves forward. Cool. Cool.

Are these would these be any it's surface transportation, so cool. I see transit with micro transit, micro mobility, any kind of non highway trip like, traditional stuff be able to get folded in? Because I know that's been a different It's

a great pivot. I can just go ahead and about this really quickly. So yes. So more in-depth, we have the Build America it's it's branded as the Build America two fifty act. Right? It's the America's 250 in Seattle. Do things big around here in Washington. Yeah. It's big things. So Build America two fifty act, it is a multi surface transportation reauthorization bill. So I've listed here and went through and kind of covered and had AI do this image, which I was I loved. I was like, create an image to talk about surface transportation. That's it. So but it will do a

lot of What's just like Centennial?

It looks just like Centennial. Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly.

So yeah. It's it's it's a lot for bridges. It's for federal lands targeting federal lands and national park infrastructure as well. It's focusing on the autonomous commercial motor vehicles. There's some permitting and project delivery reform in there. It's focusing on freight and supply chain infrastructure concerns. And then it has this way of funding it. It's this highway trust fund, and it's through it's it's through taxing and registration fees on electric and plug in hybrid vehicles. So we are now going to be focusing more on getting money for that aspect because obviously, it is such a popular form of transportation now. But this is also including it it is encompassing of safety programs as well, commissioner.

Okay. There's a lot going on here. It's it's kind of it's it's all encompassing. But

The EV stuff is gonna be very controversial. Yeah. So you can imagine that

if you yeah. That proposal is to start in 2029, which is pretty quick, given I mean, I know it's 2026, but typically, these things give out more of a of a long term view, but it's 2029 as we start. So the release that you know, this this language, the deal was released on May 17. Ignore that committee markup expected soon because we do know now 99% it'll be on Thursday. Mhmm. And the senate has yet to release a counterpart. I think they're waiting to see what kind of amendments and revisions come out of markup in t and I on Thursday. Yep. Any other Commissioner Warren Gully has a question.

Oh, okay. Good.

Yeah. Tiny hand. Yeah.

Tiny hand. Go ahead, commissioner Warren Gully.

Thank you, Allison. No worries. So targeting funding for federal lands and national park infrastructure,

can

you speak to that a little bit more?

Yes. That was something interestingly enough that I put in my notes that I wanna actually get some more information on for you because that was something that was encompassed last minute into this package in terms of talking about more ability for access to national park federal lands, but it's also a very controversial conversation given we don't want to encroach on these bases. Right? So if you wouldn't mind, I can do a little bit more research on that for you and get back to you. Okay. Great. I'm gonna put that in my hands right now. Yeah.

And, madam chair, is it okay for another question?

Please do. Please do.

Okay. So, Allison, the the so this is like H UTF gas tax, but it's going to be taxing electric vehicles.

Mara, do you know the answer to that question? Because I think that it's I don't wanna say it's a tax commissioner because they're they're they're labeling it as a registration fee. So they're increasing this registration fee. So they're getting around the tax aspect of it because that would require additional legislation and comprehensive, like, tracking of more additional taxes. And they're trying not to tax the wealthy or tax the middle class. So they're calling it a registration fee, is my understanding. I'll And let Mara have me That is correct.

No. Allison is a 100% right, and they they are calling it registration fees. It's still gonna be controversial. It's not something that clearly the Democrats are very excited about. Some of the of the on the national park end, you know, they're nobody's always happy with with with, you know, the first draft of the bill.

And it is bipartisan in the fact that, you know, each side had to give a little. So the giving a little was on the EV registrations, and it was on the national parks. So we'll see how, again, how this sort of shakes out with markup, with amendments, and how things unfold going forward, then it will go to rules as we mentioned and then, you know, potentially to the floor. But we're probably looking at a later date. They're they're working on the markup now, but things may wind up, you know, pausing for a while because of reconciliation and a few other

But no gas tax increase?

No. Not at this point right now, but there's more talk about a gas tax pause. Yeah. But that also is not going over well with both sides of the aisle.

And and that was a piece that was omitted intentionally. Right? They don't wanna touch gas right now because that is just no awesome. No pun intended. It's it's a flammable conversation. Yes. So

hey. Well Exactly.

I think anytime we invest in our national parks, that's a good thing as long as we're not, like, expanding, as you said, into, you know, backcountry or something. Correct. But I'm just looking at 580,000,000,000. There is there are a lot of more electric vehicles on the road, but 800 or 580,000,000,000 no way for Right. Of so okay. Right.

I mean, that's not gonna fund the entire thing. Right? So it's it'll it'll be funded in other parts of the of of what they're asking for, but the bulk of it is what they're expecting to come from this.

But do have for that, or do we know?

I can I can try I've actually written that down to get you a little bit more information on those too?

I mean, Colorado is wonderful at fees. We know that because it's ABER. So this this doesn't surprise me. It's just like, how in the world is that gonna raise that much money? But maybe there's more than I think. So thank you.

Right. The Teslas that say, I bought this before people have my papers. Right. Sorry. I shouldn't say that.

True. You're you're totally fine. Mhmm.

But I I do think the gas tax Sorry.

Not being a part of

that is

like, I mean, the gas tax hasn't been raised in the nominees. Mhmm. Sorry.

I'm gonna I

couldn't hear the question, but I think No.

That was fine. I was just contemplating the fact that I I know why the gas tax isn't in there, but the HETF is, like, fundamentally part of what funds roads and bridges. Yeah. And it hasn't been raised in, I think, twenty years at the federal level, if not longer.

Yeah. You're right. Okay. So going back to this this first slide that we had here. So we've covered, obviously, the TNI committee two fifty act and what they're working on there. But just in general, this week on the floor, they're covering a lot of suspensions. They're veteran related bills. Mhmm. There are financial services and banking bills and public lands and commemorative measures, meaning like namings of post offices and, you know, park monuments and stuff like that. So it's pretty slow moving across the house.

However, later in the week, we are expecting to have the consideration of the twenty first century Road to Housing Act in its form that had come back from the senate. So given what we're talking like, that we just did this for the other one, I'm gonna go ahead here and just skip to that slide.

Hold on. Allison, and again, I feel like I get the vibes, but what are suspensions?

Suspensions are commonly just known as the legislation that has been run through, but it's just kind of something that you can voice vote in through. It's typically like naming of post offices or Nonconferences. Naming of monuments or things like Prefunctory stuff. Yes. They're just kind of things that should be moved through quickly and, like I said, noncontroversial or major legislatively impacting bills or enactment.

Got it. Thank you.

Yep. So

that what they call it?

It's suspension or they suspend the rules to let these Kinda go to oh, okay.

Got it. Yeah. Suspend the okay.

Got it. Got Got it. It.

Got it. Thanks. You bet.

No problem. So we'll skip to this this twenty first century Road to Housing Act as it's come back. The key pressure point for this and the reason so it's past both chambers, but not in the same form. The senate changed it. It's now back to the house.

The house's key their key pressure point right now is this bill to rent for sale requirement, which is causing a divide. The senate believes that investors must sell certain single family rental homes within seven years, and the house wants to eliminate that requirement. There's a lot of pressure coming in right now from housing stakeholders and real estate investors and also private equity companies coming in to say, woah, woah, woah, you know, let's let's kind of lean in on this. Trump is extremely putting on he's putting on an extreme amount of pressure on the house Republicans to support this housing bill and just get it done. And that's one of the things that he wants to focus on this week because it'll be a huge win on the our side, I don't think it's necessarily in its current form, something that is not agreed on on the demo side.

It's just this one piece here, this build direct focus for sale requirement. So in terms of framing of this, it's focusing on the supply side for housing reform, and it's also talking about programming and permitting of reform as well as it's just generally about affordability. So obviously, I think we did put together a memo on twenty first century road to housing act before. I can go back to that, Michelle, and update it as it's been, you know, as it's moved through the house, and it's it's sitting right now. Or sorry. As it moved through the senate, and it's sitting in the house. So I can do that this week as well. That'd be great. Yeah.

I mean, the house legislation would significantly scale back the senate bill's restrictions on the larger investors buying up houses. And then there were some additional democratic and republican priorities, but mostly, you know, that has been the lynchpin of the difference with the bill, and that's really where the rub is. And so the senate bill didn't have it. I'm sorry. The house bill did not have it.

So they took what was in the senate bill, and they scaled it back. And that is that's really the different the big difference in the bill. So they do expect the bill to be able to pass, and they are gonna, you know, what they call fast track it and move it under suspension, and that's probably gonna happen tomorrow. At least that's that's what it's slated for.

There was some conversation that Trump would try to attach the say back to this, which obviously is something that is Woah. Not this is extremely controversial and not something they'd be able to do. So that rumor has dissipated. And so it where they're looking at just a very clean housing focused bill again.

There Michelle has a question. Hey, Allison. If

you win a crystal ball, do you really think the BTR stuff will stay in, stay out, or will that timeline be adjusted? The build to rent stuff?

Oh, no. I think it'll stay in.

You'll think it'll stay

in with the set of your timeline?

Crystal ball, think I it'll stay in, but I think they're gonna try and sunset some stuff and move the the the deadlines out in terms of how long

because seven years will still hurt the market. Right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. But I think it stays in. Yes. Okay. Yeah.

That's helpful. It will go back to the senate for a vote because they have to be matching bills.

So just for context for the commissioners, we have several projects that are BTR built to rent Oh. Coming online. Okay. I see commissioner Morgelli's hands going up.

So I think

that's really important. These are these are essentially kind of like townhome units. Mhmm. More affordable multifamily, but they're not apartments. Yeah. So this is kind of a new a newer product that we're seeing in Colorado from an attainable housing standpoint. So that's why I'm questioning that seven year time frame.

Okay. Great. Thank you. Commissioner Warangale?

So how

I guess I'm just curious as to how they're going to they're just saying they won't allow you to build this product. So this product, as you said, Michelle, would be these are kind of our we just saw one Yep. Come through that was, like, some apartments, some have townhomes Yep. Or duplexes, and but they're all for rent. Now, obviously, we'd like to see them for sale, but I think the the math of it isn't working particularly well right now. Are they just saying you can't build that?

No. No.

They're saying that you have to sell within seven years. You can build it. You just have to sell within seven years.

Oh, I see. Oh, I see.

Okay. So

the the question build that, rent it for seven years, but then it then okay. So I think a lot of people in Colorado are doing that too because of the construction defects stuff that's going on. So I wonder how that's gonna interact with our legislation. Anyway okay. Sorry.

Yeah. And I think the question I have, commissioner Rongeli, is is seven years like, because this will become a financing issue. So the question will ultimately become, is seven years the right time frame for someone to build these, rent them, and then transfer them? Mhmm. And then that also goes into long term permitting, zoning, inspections of these properties.

And you're saying is seven years enough? Or are you thinking seven years is too much? Or Oh, I think it's

too little, but that's just me.

Yeah. Yeah. No. If you think about it, Michelle, in terms of the supply chain terms of building and in terms of how long it takes even to put an addition on someone's house Yeah. A seven year yeah. I agree. Commissioner Summere, you could for me to

move on.

Yeah. I'm sorry. I was reading and and then thinking this is very quiet. Maybe I should say something. So yes. I am. Thank you very

much, Okay.

Don't mind me. Don't mind me.

Okay. Going back to the original slide, so just a little bit on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act is that it is The main thing that I think I had heard from our last couple conversations is talking about Pell Grant eligibility. I hope that's right. Yeah. And that's something that is technically outside of this, but it is they are the short term Pell Grant eligibility launches on July 1, and its intention is to create a parallel funding stream for workforce training. Interesting. So that's the one piece of policy that is kind of continuing to move forward and will be enacted in July. So that that is I good news for you all.

That's weird. But cool. Cool.

What is what what will qualify as workforce training?

So it is let me see. I've written it down here. One second. I think it was sorry. I'm looking really quickly at my notes.

Job training for dislocated workers, youth, and adults seeking new skills.

Interesting. Would that cover, like, somebody who didn't finish community college or like would it cover school? Any kind of school kind of thing or only external of school certification certification or or training? Training?

Nothing from school training came up in my in in the conversation that I was that I've had with a couple of people, as well as research I've done online. But let me add that to another thing to do to kinda give more of a read out there, deeper dive on the Pell Grants situation, because I'm also seeing career navigation and job placement stuff is something that somebody had told me. And that to me kind of leads more into potentially an education piece of this. So let me do the episode checking on that, and I can get back to you.

Yeah. And because part of it is what we're seeing from ASWA is the Yeah. You know, a it is the requirement that 50% of funds need to be used for training. But training does not like, getting your GED or finishing community college or anything that's, like, actually getting a degree is Mhmm. Not counted as training.

Got it. Yeah.

And so that's challenging when you're trying to help people, I don't know, move forward

in their careers. Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah. So Our

community college partners were probably a little more aware of this and what's going on than than because this is a funding stream that people can use through the workforce center to to get into community colleges, you know, for nursing training or something like that.

Yeah.

So

it I I Kathy think could probably provide good insight into this, commissioner.

Yeah. We were there with Bennett's team. I was with Bennett's team. I forgot this during sharing yesterday, but with Bennett's team at AD Works last week. And so we were just flagging this and talking about it. So just yeah. Was curious.

Yes. I'm checking on some stuff that I think that our that the firm just put out some stuff on the guidance on this. I'm just scanning through it really quickly to see. So Because there's been some form there's been there has been significant formula changes as it as it relates to FAFSA. Is that and and I hope I'm saying that correctly. Mhmm.

Let's see. So yesterday, secretary McMahon came out with a final rule on workforce Pell grant. So I will forward that over to you all. Okay.

Yeah. We will get you additional information on this so it's not scattered and kind of haphaz you know, just throwing it out there. But I am reading through this alert, so I can forward this to you guys so that you have that, and then I can do additional kind of deeper dive as it relates to Arapahoe for sure.

Cool. Thank you.

Yes. Okay. And so then moving on to

let's see.

So talking about the temporary assistance for needy families, it's a federal block grant provided to states. That right now remains pretty static, which is like, there's not much going on with it. There's no major increase or restructuring enacted. It's due for reauthorization by September 30. So as I mentioned with both of these arrows, what from what I've gathered, there is a it's it's in debate, but there's enactment is not very likely as of right now in the short term.

There's a lot.

Other than this other than this Pell Grant, which is technically not a part of OIOA.

But September 30, there's a lot of things that are get surface transportation authorization. You've got appropriations, the FY twenty seven appropriations. And then there's a lot of one offs that also are going to expire by September 30. Mhmm. So they got a lot of work cut out for them and a very little amount of time to get it

done. So do we have anybody in our delegation that would be relevant to the committees this would go through?

For RIOA and TANF? Yeah.

Or where would I mean, if policy debate is active, that seems like it's better to probably I mean, if there are things that don't help us, then having somebody be active in that conversation, wouldn't that be helpful? Oh, yeah. I mean

and I know that we have talked about it when when we went to go talk with the delegation.

Yeah. But any

of them to be on the committees of jurisdiction is probably more on the on the senate side than on the house side.

And would that be Hick and would it

go through finance with Hick or no?

Yes. And there may be some tense general parts of it for

health committee

and a couple of other areas. Yeah. Okay.

Commissioner Warangalee?

I will just say on the TANF, as long as it's not reducing, I think we should be happy. Yeah. Because this funding has stayed stagnant since like 1998. So, you know, I'd love to see more go here. What what I'm more concerned about with this is all the new regulations around TANF that go into effect. I wanna say, October of this year of eligibility for these programs. So that's, you know, more of what we're gonna be dealing with versus getting more money or not.

Isn't it also though that they are in the block grants in the formula? They are what used to cover three programs will now have to cover 11. So it is a reduction of funding.

For TANF? Uh-huh. I don't know, commissioner. I haven't heard that as much as I've heard that it's more around the eligibility requirements.

I know workforce in WIOA is is is trying to block grant it more, which is

Maybe that maybe it's the workforce in WIOA stuff, But if that's

But the block grant to the states, the battle is really more about how the state then blocks it out to us.

That's right.

Because the federal like, I don't know that if anything, the federal government's putting more money perceived into workforce and we know a type things because of the reductions in higher ed. Right? So the DOE money, Department of Education money is going into workforce. They're gonna chunk it out to states. So we have to figure out where our influence should be most effective. Right?

Yeah. Well, I've been I think it it might be WIOA that's going from three categories to 11. So pardon me for getting that wrong, but Okay.

That's check it.

Kathy flagged that in the meeting with Bennett's team. So great if there's more money, but they're also it's being forced to be spread across more. Thanks. Sure.

Okay. Oh, we're to move on if that's okay? Yep. Yeah. Okay. Great. And then in the senate, we're just looking at more nominations. So that's what's been happening there. And then obviously, they'll they will field back the housing the twenty first Century Road to Housing Act. And then they'll also be receiving the T and I stuff once that goes through the house. So those are the big things focusing there. Reconciliation two point o process. Mara, do you wanna talk more about this since you're more involved in this process?

Sure. So right now, they're having a big battle about the ballroom. Uh-huh. And the president this morning in

a Another BBB, big ballroom battle.

That's right. This morning, the president talked about how now the ballroom is going to contain a hospital and a research facility. So get ready to see about how they're going to try to get the funding. Because right now, it's not it's not meeting up to er with the birdbath, which is the bird rule where the parliamentarian there are very strict rules about what you can and what you can't fund through reconciliation. And it has not been able to pass the birdbath.

And so Republicans keep going back because the president is very adamant about getting his billion dollar funding for the ballroom, for security. And now this morning, he made that announcement. So I think we'll we're gonna see some interesting shifts in language that's going to be presented to the parliamentarian, and we'll see if that might be able to pass. But a billion dollars for the ballroom, you know, with increased pricing everywhere, gas pricing, grocery pricing, housing pricing, think people are it's not great messaging. Mhmm.

And I think, obviously, with the midterms coming up that the Republicans who have a very small majority are getting kind of worried about that messaging and what kind of message that does send to American people. So very interestingly, there's this internal battle going on right now, most of that for reconciliation to get which which is a very narrow reconciliation bill. And they do just need a majority to be able to pass the bill. So at this point, they are looking to try to get that done by this weekend. We'll see how that that's in the house.

We'll see how that goes. I don't know if it's gonna I mean, sorry. It's in the senate. And so I don't know how that's going to go and if they have the votes for for this to to pass, but we'll see. They're working on the language and trying to fix, in particular, the ballroom language. So you can see the timeline does have potential to fluctuate here. But today is the nineteenth, and they're working on assembling the package, but it's still going through the bird bath. Yes.

Any questions there? And you can

see what the process is. I mean, they've got a twenty hour of debate, which is, you know, that Votorama, which is, you know, when they go deep into the middle of the night and debate back and forth. And then if it can get, you know, out of the senate, it'll go to the house. And then there is also a lot of debate there because not sure that there are the votes on that ballroom should that language even get in.

Mhmm.

And the president gave a deadline of June 1, so they're still tracking that to try to meet it. It's an arbitrary deadline, but to try to meet it.

Well, his birthday is 14,

so it probably wants

to Commissioner Warren Gully has a question. That's right.

Oh, go ahead. Thank you. Thank you, madam chair. Okay.

I'm sorry. I'm just gonna add very clearly. That's why I It's okay. Interrupted.

No problem.

Am just gonna ask the really stupid question here. Like, what what is in the ballroom thing? I mean, a billion dollars for the Republicans other than, I guess, Trump's support? I mean, god. This is just, like, bonkers to me. Okay. There it is this like the Homeland Security and all that stuff too?

Yes. The president is the the number has gone up because they are now claiming that this is going to be a ballroom like no other that has intense major security. It will have drones on top of it, and it will be, according to the administration, the safest ballroom ever created.

Okay. Alright. Well, thanks.

So, Mara, I have a question, and Allison. So you all are on the ground on the hill. So we know what we're seeing written down Mhmm. And what the plan is for, you know, any anybody who has a basic understanding of civics and government. But and and we know that according to according to where we have been as a country for the past two hundred and fifty years, this is not the process that we're supposed to be going through.

That is correct. It is not. Absolutely.

So

No. It's unprecedented.

Yeah. Unprecedented. So my question to you all being on the ground is because we also know that there are so many times that what we see on paper and what we hear in front of cameras is not what's actually happening. Are there are you seeing a a shift on the ground from a core group of Republicans who have decided that actually upholding their oath to the constitution Mhmm. And to the norms procedures of the legislature, do you see that there is a group forming to to do that?

Since we know that nothing's gonna change, we know nothing's going to change unless the majority decides, unless there's a shift there and or unless we have an overwhelming election in November. So so where where are we that you you know, what what are you seeing on the ground?

I mean, I'm I'm happy to to share what I'm hearing. I I can tell you that certainly we always hear about, you know, Republicans that are pushing back quietly behind closed doors Okay. And claiming that they're not going to vote for the bill blah blah blah. And then they We've also seen them all fold. Yeah. You know? Except maybe for maybe one or two outliers. Mhmm. But the I will tell you that the speaker always seems to be able to, at the end, get the vote that he needs. And whatever kind of deals that get made behind closed doors with the administration and those offices Yeah.

You know, you're worthy too. Or with the caucus Mhmm. You know, they get made because we do ultimately see those who are very vocal, very Vocal. You know Mhmm. Or very quiet and you're hearing about it behind closed doors and you hear their names being said. Mhmm. Ultimately, they wind up folding. And that's really what we have continued to see probably over the last year.

Mhmm. Allison? Again, would also like obviously, we all know this is an election year. Right? So we have a lot of primaries happening. There's a lot of scare on the Republican side

Uh-huh.

To say anything that will make themselves a target as you've seen most recently or maybe not have seen. Trump targeted congressman Lauren Boebert saying that he's going to support anyone that will reelect or get her out in her primary. So there are a lot of scared members that are making decisions based on not wanting to get primaried or if they are in a contentious primary, have their supporter be back. It's a very I I the word unprecedented is unfortunate because I know it's overused, but it is true. This is a very this mentality of this is is an interesting situation.

I mean, it's even shaped the vote schedule. Right? So this was the the reason for moving the votes this past week was there were several Republican, obviously, and Democratic primaries on that Tuesday, and they they wanted to be in their districts for those. When typically, it happens often that members are not in their districts on primary day because their responsibility is to be in Washington voting. But this year, it was changed. So there's there's a lot of things, like Mara said, behind closed doors that folks are making agreements and making decisions based in this group mentality Mhmm. Of potential fearfulness of retribution.

Mhmm. Okay. Thank you.

Yes. Okay. So then going to our last slide here, just talking about what's going on in the Trump administration this week. And obviously, it changes minute by minute, but we are in a crisis point, obviously, their around decision making. We are calling off planned US military strikes that were supposed to be yesterday.

Then there's ongoing conversations asking for diplomacy and serious negotiations from our Middle Eastern partners. So it's it's all up in the air, but that's driving up your conversations and then bringing it down. He did just visit China and was booking to I would never say his name right, so I'm just gonna say he was speaking with China Xiangping last week and covering major issues on trade and tariff, which is obviously a hot topic and necessary conversation with border security and talking about, you know, the the bypass, etcetera. So we're talking him coming back, he's trying to make this more into a positive visit, which for some sakes it was. Kind of talking about this trade tariff negotiations and supply chain impacts.

But then at home, as we've discussed here, president Trump is actively pushing this twenty first century road to housing act that's been dominating the news most recently. And then I mentioned before, but attaching the save act to these must pass bipartisan bills is something he's looking to do as well. So we're just gonna kind of watch and focus on that. Also this week, the DOJ and IRS announced a $1,700,000,000 anti weaponization fund, which in all reports, both, you know, on the left and the right, is acknowledged as being a way to get to resolve president Trump's lawsuit against the IRS over the disclosure of his tax returns, as well as his as the as as he puts it, the targeting of individuals related to him as it relates to the situation and the taxation complaints as it goes on within his family. So that there's that.

And then there's an interesting softening on AI regulations. It's the yes. Something that Trump administration had come out pretty hard on at first, and is now kind of walking that back a bit. So I thought that was interesting to point out given, you know, where we are with, China and, where we are with The Middle East, kind of taking that step back a bit. So again, there's always kind of this negative with trying to then appease people with other things that are happening in terms of housing affordability, etcetera.

Commissioner Campbell has a question.

Oh, no. It was just a visceral reaction to Oh, okay. The use of tax taxpayer dollars to self aggrandize and enrich one's family. Mhmm. That's all. Yeah. Yeah. Just erupts from my body every time I hear it.

Just it's

an it's an automatic response. Understood. Yeah.

Understood for sure.

Go ahead, Allison.

Oh, no. That was all I had on this in terms of what's happening. Obviously, I didn't even put any of the ballroom stuff in here as Mara covered because it really to me, it seems very there's so many more things going on, but it is driving, to Mara's point, all of conversations as it results to funding and where this money goes. Right? So we're trying to we're trying to figure figure that out.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It'll be interesting to see if they can get this cleared through the birdbath and if they can actually get a vote on it by the end of weekend because they are supposed to recess for the Memorial Day holiday. Mhmm. So we'll see. There's still right now a lot of negotiations going on, a lot of language tweaking going on back and forth with the parliamentarian. So we'll see. I thought it was very interesting though this morning when the president announced that this is not only a ballroom, but now it's a research facility and a hospital, which just leads me to think that that's how they're going to work the language for the ballroom. Is that so he they

can figure out how to keep him alive Yeah. During his parties? No. They'll just go over to, like, a little side wing, get an IV, get some meds, do a little red light therapy, come back to the party.

They'll have some of those sleeping pods too. Exactly. Yeah.

Right.

Just temporary cryogenic freezing. You know?

Wow. That's

crazy. A lot going on.

Thanks, Allison. Thanks. A lot a lot going on.

Yes. As as you all.

As you all heard.

Any other questions for Mara and Allison?

I don't have any other questions. Anybody online have questions for Mara and Allison? Commissioner Campbell? Any questions?

Commissioner Warren Gully?

Yeah. Oh, there's no tiny hand?

Other than general frustration that commissioner Campbell expressed, so I I will let her facial expression express for me as well. Mhmm. There you go.

That is one thing my face can't do. Oh my goodness. Well, with that,

then we're done until 01:00. Great.

Thank you very,

very much.

Thank you. You all. Thank you.

We'll follow-up

with some of the questions that you had. Okay. Great. Thank you. I'm gonna take that from you. Yes, ma'am.

Let me just confirm.

Can you all hear us?

All you folks online, can you hear?

Okay. Jeremy can hear you. Okay.

Jeremy, can you say something just so we can confirm we can hear you?

Yeah. I am here. Here. I'm under the weather, like, some other folks as well, so I didn't wanna

Did you go to DC? Right. Did you go to yeah. We're gonna

And I I can hear you too.

Thank you, commissioners. All good.

Yeah. It's called the DC crud. Alright. Yeah.

This guy?

We're online.

Right now. Swamp? Now there's the crud.

That's right.

That is right. Captain Keaton, you are coming down first. So would you join us at the table? Yes. Please.

Yay. Yay. Yay.

You don't have to sit too close.

Yeah. Want it. Yeah. Oh. Oh. But it it that I'm over.

I'm not

I'm across. Yes.

Thank you, Michelle.

I just wanna to be hopeful, sir.

Thank you.

Like you. Do you know? Yeah.

That's I

didn't wanna make it look like it was You can make potentially not sitting next

to you. You can make all the choices.

I I advise that. Here. So, you

know, captain Pete, we're friends. You know? Yeah. He's my buddy.

That's right. Excited. Clean up the streets.

That's like cleaning them

up.

Clean them up. We need to

One car at a time.

One car at

a time or one person at

a time.

Like I said, give me my little bag. I'll be asking I'll be asking at least,

you wanna go to jail?

Right. Well, good afternoon, everybody. We are here for afternoon study sessions and would love to go around the room and get some introductions started with you, please.

Tell me who you are.

My name is Julie Jacobs. I'm the behavioral health response program manager with the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office. Wonderful.

Kevin Heaton, captain for Arapahoe County Sheriff's office.

Michelle Halstadt, commissioner's office.

Ally McCourt, person reporter.

Leslie Sunny, commissioner. Jessica Campbell, commissioner District 2. Candace Road, the district cap, and constituent.

Nancy Sonnen, health, community resources.

Kathy Smith, community resources. Lisa Stairs, finance.

Yay. Yay. Yay. We also have some folks online joining us. Commissioner Baker, would you go first, please?

Do you have Baker, commissioner?

And then commissioner Warren Gully? Harry Warren Gully, commissioner. Jeremy, it's your turn.

Yeah. Jeremy, you think, with community resources.

Wonderful. And what's your name? Tiffany Blue, county attorney's office. Wonderful. And commissioner Fields is absent and excused. So we are here for a drop in grant application, and our presenter is captain Heaton. So I will turn it over to you, sir.

Alright. Well, thank you very much. So, we're just I guess, we're back to ask permission to apply for a grant that we were awarded three years ago through the Department of Justice to help support our CIT and co responder programs. The the current grant expires in September. So it was just opened up

literally by the month.

So it was a

little bit late because of the shutdown and things. Mhmm. So we had a a very short window of time to get this turned around, so I apologize for

that. Okay.

But this year's grant, there's a new emphasis in addition to supporting the, you know, ongoing training and correspondent programs themselves. They're they're pushing virtual reality technology to this ground. So so that is part of it. Guess the emphasis on that is that we can provide some ongoing training besides just the basic forty hour classes that we currently offer to the officers. Provides a realistic, you know, setting for them.

So just that virtuality piece of it alone, Julie called around and found the cheapest vendor. It's a $145,000 for that virtual reality part of it. For three years, our our current CIT forty hour basic training courses that we offer, we offer four four per year. Those classes, we we pay for outside actors. We pay for overtime for coaches and such.

So roughly over the thirty six month period, it's a $121,000 for that. The grant also offers opportunities for going to conferences and and such. So there is a annual CIT international conference as well as a correspondent, you know, conference. So sending four people to each conference per year over the course of three years, that's another $58,000 that would cover. So total, what we've estimated here is that this grant would benefit us approximately $324,000 if we're allowed to reapply for it. Mhmm. Mhmm.

Was that it?

Pretty much it.

It's pretty

much I can give you more details, but I you you know mental health is a big big Absolutely. Issue in the you know, throughout the country. Mhmm. Our corresponders, just since their inception in 2020, we've responded over, you know, 13,880 calls for service mental health related.

So Did

you say since 2020?

Yes. It's when the correspondent program first was implemented.

Is that? I I I have to do that math. Many How many? Calls?

13,880. Wow. Well, commissioners,

do we have questions for captain Keaton or comments? Commissioners, do we have thumbs up? There's one,

two, three, Yes.

We have four thumbs up for this grant application. Let us know when we when we get the money.

Alright. Yeah.

Thank you for your time.

Oh, no. Thank you. I mean, it's such important work. I can't believe that. 13,000.

Yeah. We're we're going up every year. So it's about 25 to 2,700 each year. Oh my gosh.

You know, there's so many people that don't even realize that that this should be a thing. You know? How how wonderful that we care in Arapahoe County, you know, because, of course, we all know y'all are not equipped to be, you know, the the therapists and the the folks who can really help in a mental health crisis. You know, you all have a whole different lane that you should be doing. So I'm really glad that we have our co responders and that there are grant funds available and that, you know, we want everybody to be okay.

Everybody to be okay. I mean, there's I'm I'm just gonna I'm probably gonna fall apart with this one because that just seems like a huge number of people that need that kind of of help. And, again, there's so many people that don't that don't even think that's a thing that should be happening, you know, that that everything should be on you.

Right.

And everything absolutely should not. So thank you very much, and thank you for hearing me on my soapbox for a hot second. We appreciate you, and hopefully, that money coming on in, and life will be better for everybody because of you. So thank you.

Thank you very much. Oh

my goodness. I'm just I'm not I am not okay. I I am not okay. Alright. So Ready

for us?

Yes. Come on down. Come on down. Is this gonna ruin your

chi if this is here?

For being here. No. Okay.

I think we'll be fine. Are you doing the slides? Or

I was gonna give them to

you. Okay.

Right. I just

wanna make sure it clicks correctly.

There you go. Okay.

Thank you, ma'am. You want me to do it? Alright. Either way. So we're now gonna be talking about our 2026 annual action plan, our community development block grant and home investment partnerships program, home, CDBG and home. So we are here with director Smith and and her crew. So director Smith, would you like to get us started?

I would. Thank you for having us today. It is that time of year for us to come provide you our funding recommendations for our community development block grant funding as well as home investment partnership funds following an application process. And, of course, these are our housing and urban development funding sources. And this these recommendations, you know, provided by you as the board of county commissioners, will go through the formal approval process at a business meeting to be submitted as a part of our annual action plan to HUD, of course, for final approval from them.

So I'm gonna turn over to Nancy. I know Jeremy's listed on there, as the presenter, but he is not feeling well. And so we're gonna have Nancy run through the slides. Nancy and I will, answer those questions and do those things. So I'm gonna turn it over to Nancy to go through the details about our recommendations.

Thank you very much. But before you start, Jeremy, we just need to let you know that you're gonna have to pay Nancy for doing this. So just wanted to let you know that. We know you'll take care of it. Okay, Nancy. Go ahead.

Thank you. And credit to Jeremy for doing the heavy lift on going through all the CDBG project specific applications, queuing this all up, performing the public notice, all the steps that are required. And thank you all for hearing out the recommendations. I'm just the that's the easy part is to

talk He's still gonna pay

you. Yeah.

So pursuant to all of our plans and in line alignment with our public service activities and with the funding requirements for admin and projects. The 319, almost $320,000 that is allocated for Centennial Mhmm. Is divided in the figures that you can see. For admin, it's 18% that's allowable for our CDBG administration for the Centennial award. Public services, $47.09, and public facility and public infrastructure housing, 02/1691.

You'll see the specific projects as we go. The county award, we have an 8% increase from the year past. And these allocations are based on population with weighted for low income areas. So we do are allowed up to 20% to be allocated for admin, and then you can see the public services and infrastructure housing at one fifty five three and six seventy three three. Home has a different admin allocation.

They only allow up to 10%. And so you can see our and then we're required to have a 15% set aside for our community housing development organization or CHOTO. And we're proposing the balance we use for affordable housing development projects of this allocation. Okay. So to get into some more specifics, just the highlights here are place you know, these will be Centennial City Council approved projects.

Yeah. And I think that's important to know that we are bringing those here Mhmm. Of course, for your approval and recommend for our recommendation, but they do need final approval from the city of Centennial. Okay. We administer the city of Centennial CDBG funding for them.

Okay.

But they, of course, get the final say in how those are allocated. Right.

Okay. Great. Thank you. Okay. I think but I think we can move on. They'll they'll approve the specific funding recommendations.

We can go through at

a high level what we're looking to recommend. And this is in coordination with the city of Centennial. We work really closely with them on you know, we may have applicants for projects that we think they would be interested in funding. And so there are oftentimes where and you'll see in our recommendations where we may say we're not going to recommend funding them with ours because we've already worked out with the city of Centennial that they would like to recommend it through their funding. So it is a a joint process for us to do it.

And so, of course, we have those public infrastructure housing activity funds that we have set aside for the city of Centennial at 214,000. The recommendation in coordination with Centennial is for the Starlight project for South Metro Housing options, and that's not a new project to all of you. We've already come through previous funding for them through HUD as well as for our private activity bonds. For the public service activities, their recommendation is $47,009.75. That's the 15% for public service.

And the recommendation is the Nourish Meals on Wheels and IFCS for the food bank. And then, of course, the CDBG administration is us. That's our staff time to administer their their grants. Any questions on that one?

Any questions? None online.

We will move along. And our Whoops.

There's a tiny hand. Okay. There is.

Go

back. We'll go back. Go ahead, commissioner.

Sorry about that. I couldn't get my hand raised. I wanted to so the when Nancy was talking about the funding total Uh-huh. Is is is it my understanding then that the funding decreased by the 13.3% because there were certain areas that were no longer they didn't have income quality you know, income qualified Yeah. Folks in there?

Or Yep. It was all and and, you know, Jeremy chime chime in if I'm you know, if there's anything else that we're missing, but it's all just based on that formula. Population size and the, you know, those tracks that meet the low to moderate income. So it can vary here and there, but we we actually were you know, last couple years, you may remember that we've seen a decrease as well. And this is, you know, the first in a few years that we've seen an increase for us.

Okay. Okay. Thank you for the reminder.

Uh-huh. No problem. Thanks. Go ahead. Okay. So another piece of CDBG that's important to remember is our urban county consortium. So we operate community development block grant funds as a consortium with participating members. Each of those participating members do get a portion designated for their choice on how it is spent. So Inglewood, Sheridan, Centennial obviously has their own Inglewood, Sheridan, Deer Trail. Who am I missing?

And Littleton.

Littleton. They each get their own designation of a portion of our CDBG funding to be directed in the

way that they

choose. Because rather than being coming their own entitlement, we are coming together and administering those funds. So you'll see here that we have some specific recommendations from the city of Inglewood, and they are recommending the funding of 115,000 to go towards the energy efficiency Inglewood. And that is their e three project that does energy efficiency upgrades for Inglewood residents. That is typically where they have their spending directed, so that's not new.

And then also Family Tree House of Hope and Goals Staffing for a funding recommendation of $50,000. And to be clear, that is 20,000 of Inglewood Set Aside plus some of our county funds to make up the difference to recommend that funding applied for for the staff at both House of Hope and Goals. City of Littleton's recommendations. So the first of those is, again, that Starlight affordable housing development, and that would be a combination of the Littleton set aside of a 114,000 plus additional county funds to get us up to that $558.03 20 to help continue to meet the gap that is needed to make that Starlight project move forward and be successful. And then for the public service activity, it's for doctor's care, the health insurance initiative where we're helping to fund those health services for individuals who may not have coverage.

And the funding recommendation there is for $35,000, and that was 20,000 and some change from Littleton plus the remainder county funds. Those were our only two jurisdictions who actually directed their set aside spending. The others said that it was up to the county to make those determinations based on applications. So the remainder of our CDBG recommendations for the non set aside, we are recommending HAP force severe weather sheltering. So I'm sure you remember that this is where we do a lot of our severe weather sheltering through those inclement weather times.

We are recommending $40,000 for hotel vouchers. This is really focused on our unhoused population that has some special needs. They may have medical needs. They may have pets congregate sheltering. They may have children.

Those kinds of situations where hotels, motels are needed instead. The other funding recommendation we have of 30,000 and some change is for project Angel Heart for home delivered meals for our medically and critically ill clients residents. Okay. Those are our CDBG recommendations. And, Jeremy, do you wanna speak at all to any of those? Did I miss anything important?

No. I think that covered it. The only additional comments would be tied to, excuse me, the Starlight project. As you guys may recall, we did a 25 allocation with CDPG dollars. And so those, excuse me, those 25 allocations essentially to carry some of the predevelopment costs in terms of, you know, assembling the site.

Some of the things that are, you know, within the program are eligible for the predevelopment cost. The new 26 allocation would essentially go toward the water and sewer tap fees, which for development projects have become increasingly costly. And so the 26 allocation almost entirely covers the planned water and sewer tap ins. So just a little clarification on the two, you know, allocations across multiple meters.

Great. Thanks. Okay. If there aren't any questions, I'm gonna turn it back over to Nancy so that she can talk about the home investment partnership funding recommendations. Great.

Thank you. So

this is where there is a minimum 15% set aside of the home allocation to a a community housing development organization. And right now, the certified CHOTO in our jurisdiction is Grovewood Community Development. They would like to use the funds for their Stables phase two project. You may recall that we were able to support Stables phase one in prior years. They are in the initial planning stage stages for Stables phase two.

Yeah. Do you wanna talk at all about Stables phase two?

Just the initial one. Just high level? Yeah. Yeah. Sure. So the phase one was for multi multifamily, and phase two is for older adults. And it's all on a great property with access to trails and outdoor space. And Yes.

I think yeah.

Because I'm somebody's been there. Right?

Yes. Yes. You were

at the oh, yeah.

You spoke

at the Yes. I did. Opening.

Yeah. Anyway, this is one we're excited about because it is a really large piece of land and and really being able to kind of start to meet the needs of two of our more target populations. So k. Oh, commissioner.

Oh, is there a hand up? There you Oh, commissioner Warren Gully, go ahead. Thank

you, madam chair. Was this project on our bus

to our

housing tour?

Yeah. Oh. I don't

know that it was.

I don't one may have been.

Yeah. Or

it was in the booklet. So

I think at that point, commissioner, actually, it was just land, and we might have driven by it. But you may remember this is one that was a family owned property previously, and they had horses and all of the Grovewood trees. Grovewood actually changed their name after doing this development. Mhmm. And the family, like, didn't totally donate the land, but, I mean, pretty much. They sold it for practically nothing to have these developments and meet the community needs. So it's a really actually pretty touching story

of Mhmm. Community. That's cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Okay. Thanks.

Alright. Sorry about that.

No. No problem.

Okay. And as mentioned previously, the balance of our allocation for 2026, we would like to dedicate towards new construction and or rehab projects to build or preserve affordable housing units. We have a lot of projects interested, and so we haven't made any final decisions. But we did want to mention that the the possible potential projects that we've that we know of today include projects sponsored by Archway Communities, Columbia Ventures, Grovewood for that's for Stables phase two, Mercy, MGLs, South Metro for Starlight, and the Elysis development. So, you know, some of the projects and and I'm sure you are likely aware of all of the developers, and you've heard of some other projects.

So we'll be making decisions in the months to come and come back before you with specific recommendations for your approval review approval.

So for purposes of the annual action plan, we do need to designate what we wanna use these funds for. And so we do wanna get that submitted, of course, here in the coming months and get that through the process. So we wanna kind of blanket designate it for affordable housing development. And then as we sift through more of the specifics on the projects that are interested in utilizing our funding and which ones are the most viable, we'll bring those back to you for a decision on exactly how we wanna use those funds.

Okay. Do you have criteria now set up for how you pick the projects?

So we do. And that's one thing that we're actually kinda working on this year Mhmm. Is maybe shoring that up a bit. So we do have we have a process in place, and it's in importance, of course, with our our HUD manual. But we'd like to make that a little bit more concrete, a specific time frame.

Mhmm. Historically, it's been kind of a rolling application, and so we'd like to make it a little more structured, a lot more alignment with our CDBG process that is posted. Our partners know when it is, what we're looking for, you know, and doing the review criteria. So that's actually one of the reasons that we're kind of waiting is we've been working with our consultant to really nail down a better timeline and process that we can communicate each year. And that way, you know, you as the board know when that is and you can communicate that to our partners. We can communicate that to

our partners.

Mhmm. Okay. Cool. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. So this is basically a a summary of the overall allocations for in each category. So this is for program administration. For CDBG, the the centennial allocation for the county to administer as that fifty seven five. And then the the county's allocation that Jeremy primarily administers is 20% of the total at two zero seven.

And then the home represents the max 10% of that we're allowed to dedicate towards program administration for home funds at 59 Okay. Three. We also wanted to include applications that were received for CDBG projects this year that we are not moving forward for your review with For county funds specifically. Thank you. Yep. I'm not doing a good Jeremy. So we

talked a little bit about

at the beginning how we work really closely, of course, with Centennial and some of our other jurisdictions on their usage of their HUD funds to make sure that we're if we're able, that we're gonna be funding everyone that applies. And so you may remember seeing that we did, and Centennial is is recommending funding for some of these for IFCS as well as Nourish Meals on Wheels through their through their allocation. And then Habitat for Humanity, we really are not sure that they're ready for us to fund them this year Mhmm. Based on their timeline and the staffing capacity. So we are still working very closely with Habitat on the projects.

It just may be a future year that we are looking to fund them. And, Jeremy, feel free to chime in if there's something I'm missing on that one.

No. I mean, that that speaks to it. And, Nancy, I do think you are being a good Jeremy

for this.

Yeah. Yeah. Historically

has typically funded, I would say, the majority of their public service activities for nurse Meals on Wheels. It's although technically located in Littleton, it's literally, like, right on the border. It's Broadway and Arapahoe. Mhmm. So technically, Littleton address. But they they serve a a majority of their clients through Suntanville. So that's historically has been their allocation. A bit of the remainder of the public service allocation has gone to another public service activity. I would say in the past couple of years, it's mainly been project Angel Heart. But because the county has upped their recommendation for project Angel Heart on the county side Mhmm.

We anticipate doing something, again, food related, most likely IFCS. Every I think everyone's familiar with their food bank and that entity on its own. So that's kind of the the recommendations we're moving forward with or assumption in terms of how we presented our funding recommendations. K. On the habitat side, as Catherine mentioned, you know, habitat's had a lot of turnover over the past couple of years.

We did do a big project with them in the city of Sheridan years ago, which is a redevelopment of a former former middle school. So great project. We have a good experience there. But this being more of a single family rehab project has some concerns about, you know, the timeline and the staff turnover as well as some of the environmental requirements that are now on the books for HUD projects, specifically for single family rehab. And, basically, that a lot of those projects are going to end up being great on mitigation projects on the front end to make them eligible with the environmental review process that we have to do.

And so we have some concerns about the impact of that and their ability to do that prior to doing, you know, traditional, you know, rehab activities. And somewhat similar to energy efficient Inglewood, the e three program, there's some overlap there. So as Kathy mentioned, I think we'll we'll work with them for a future application. But the other the other ones not being recommended for funding with county funds is basically tied to the fact that Sevilla Centennial is likely to fund those those activities.

I also wanna point out that we do see some overlap, and I see commissioner Morangoli has her hand up. Sorry. That we do see some overlap there with the habitat recommendation program and weatherization as well. And so that's another connection we'll be making is between habitat and weatherization to see if there's ways in which we can meet some of the needs of that Cool. Kind of program there.

Great. Thank you. Commissioner

I put my hand down because that was exactly what I was gonna

ask. Oh, yay.

To do this crossover with weatherization at all.

Yep. It does. We would still have some radon concerns, but luckily, we've got some dollars there where we could alleviate some of that radon stuff. So Mhmm. We think there could be some overlap here.

Okay. Great. Thank you very, very much. Could Habitat for Humanity go into our new affordable bucket? Does

it qualify?

Well Is she talking about home affordable housing? Well, so like the project that Jeremy just mentioned, the Sheridan Square, we also supported it with home funds in addition to CDBG. Okay. So it could it depends on the project type. They also sometimes do homeowner down payment assistance. Like, that that where Habitat is a partner. Mhmm. And those, we are not choosing to fund right now with our home funds. Mhmm. Mhmm. But but some development of of larger scale projects like that, we have funded in the past and could Mhmm. Should some arise in our jurisdiction.

Okay. Yeah. They have not come to us for a homeowner program Mhmm. For this round at this point, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't or couldn't

Yeah.

Since we haven't made any final decisions. I do wanna mention that the same concerns that we would have with the radon mitigation would come into play with HOME for this specific project.

Okay.

So there's some of those regulations with HUD that would go across both of our, you know, CDBG and HOME that would make some of those challenging.

Is this program similar to the South Metro housing one that they're doing to repair single family homes to keep people in place?

I'm not familiar

with that. Like, the partnership is not

the energy

efficient people would?

This isn't energy this is only energy efficiency?

It's not only energy efficiency. There's other home repairs. Okay. I see Jeremy's got his

hand up.

He's up. He's I got a better answer than me.

Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Jeremy, we see your tiny hand too.

Try to I'll try to get my head lower here. I'm a little slow on the but, yeah, in terms of the South Metro housing options, they basically divested the single family properties that they could focus on the development side of the new units. Mhmm. So I I don't believe that program exists. No longer exists.

And they got rid of all was

a very valid point in that. I also just wanted to reiterate that in terms of CDBG dollars, when applicable and appropriate, we focused our our funding on creating new units

Mhmm.

And more on the development side, again, with, you know, Starlight having done the 25 allocation for predevelopment cost, and then 26 to help, you know, balance the books basically and do the water and sewer tap fees. Again, those are pushing $600,000 for this project, so we're not even fully covering it. We're coming close. Mhmm. But that was just another factor in the, you know, decision making process. I'm trying to focus on the, you know, creating meetings.

Okay. Thank you very, very much. Thank you. Okay. Oh, no. Thank you. Yay. Alright. What questions are there? Comments, commissioners? Anything?

Yes, commissioner Campbell? I just kinda wanna, like as we're going forward, I I like hearing the opportunity to partner with Habitat on home ownership going forward. And just sorta wanna plant a seed with my fellow commissioners of, you know, we've we've focused on creating new units, keeping people in their homes. Mhmm. And now we're starting to see a decrease in our in our population growth, basically.

And so think it would be very interesting for us to start entertaining a revolving loan program and start really focusing on home ownership and how we can kinda support people getting into that longer term housing Mhmm. So they can build that equity and and have that asset. And so excited to explore that and what opportunities we have on that going forward. Mhmm. Both from a funding standpoint, like kind of setting up a pool or a program within our county, but then having stuff like being more proactive in finding partners we focus with or or focus on.

Because as we're working through this pipeline of housing, increasing stock, keeping people in their homes, now let's increase ownership, think, is the next step. So this is all really great. I very aligned with our strategic plan and our focus groups of what we're doing. As we know, if our elders don't have somewhere that they can downsize to, that means it creates a ripple effect in preventing young families or kids family young families with kids in in early childhood from moving into those homes and into those neighborhoods, which creates a con a need to consolidate schools, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. And so I I think that's great to focus on, and and it's a thumbs up for me.

Yay.

Commissioners Warren Gully and Baker, do you have anything to add?

I I will just add my thanks as well. I I think all of these programs are so good, and I think of all the great stuff we do with really a pretty minimal amount of funding that comes our way. I'm always amazed at how creative you are and making sure that we're trying to address as many needs as possible. So That's right. Thank you. Thank you. It's it's so important for our community, and I I guess I just wish there was always more funding.

Yep. That's what we need. More that's you and me both. And I did see commissioner Baker gave his thumbs up in approval. So thank you all very, very much for everything. We appreciate it. Consent

then? Yes.

It will go to consent. Yeah.

K. Thank you. Thank you. Are we done?

You are done. We are we are done.