City Council - Regular Meeting

It is 616 and I'd like to call our work session for Tuesday, June 9th, 2026 to order. First thing on our agenda is item number A, boards and commission interviews. We'll start with Nico Esco, applicant for Parks, Recreation and Forestry Advisory Board. Nico, if you just come up to the mic and make sure it's green, you might even step up to that big one. I think it's close to your mouth so we can hear you.

Hello, how are you guys doing today? Yeah, you got it.

Okay, what we're going to do is we're going to ask you a series of questions. We'll go down the line and just kind of tell us all about yourself. So you want to go ahead and start down here?

Nico, thank you for coming and applying. Why are you interested in being a participant on the advisory board? Do you have any goals which you would like the advisory board to achieve?

Yeah, I've been a resident of Cortez, Colorado my whole life. I left for a little bit and came back. And I'm just a big believer in if you want change, be the change. And this place right over here, the Cortez Skate Park, is home to me. And it's been a big, you know, really big project and seems like it's needed a lot of love recently. So I feel like in order to make that happen, I need to be a little more active in the community. So just... would really hit home for me to not only be a part of that, but to also understand like the dynamics of how everything works with inside of the machine. So, yeah.

Great, thank you.

hi nico please share your background and involvement in projects or organizations related to parks recreation events or open spaces trails rock on um so i was a skateboarding mentor for scyc for four years um i recently stepped away from that to start a new project in the dolores skate park i'm mentoring there we're going to do skate lessons I volunteer over at the Hive in Durango. We do a skate camp there, so I do that twice a week. And, yeah, I just spend a lot of time volunteering around town and doing what I can to be an integral part of the community because, again, it's really important to me. Thank you.

Nico, tell us about a time you contributed to a long-term project or plan. How would you help support multi-year planning for parks, trails, or recreation initiatives?

I think it would be really interesting for me to step into this position because it's, again, a whole bunch of new things that I would be learning that I have never done before. but also being a part of the skate park community and helping the kids grow and learn and watching them go from, you know, eight year old kids all the way up until I know people that are, you know, in their mid twenties now that I mentored and to see them like stepping into their roles as, you know, creating their own business and role models of the community, like really cool to see. And I just, yeah, I think it's really, really important to be a part of that and watch the change happen and be involved. So.

Hi, Nico. Thank you for coming and spending your time with us. Can you tell us what you believe your biggest challenges are that are facing parks and recreation programs and forestry?

Yeah, I think one of the biggest problems or issues that we've challenged is a lot of conversations I've had with Creighton is that we are at capacity for a lot of the things with the parks and rec, and a lot of people are saying we need more parks, we need more this, we need more that, but how can we create a bigger infrastructure when we're already at capacity? So I think that's a great challenge to tackle, and it's something that's really interesting to me to look forward to working with.

Good evening Nico our parks record rec center golf course and trails all compete for limited resources How would you help prioritize improvement?

One big thing that I plan on doing that I actually talked with Creighton about recently is I would really love to see a new skate park built in Cortez. But again, like you said, we are always competing for resources. So one thing that I actually am planning on doing is I want to hike the Colorado Trail next year as a fundraiser to help raise funds for the Cortez skate park because I know money doesn't just appear out of thin air. With that being said, I've worked very diligently to get a committee together for people that help me find the direction of where I need to go for that. I've been speaking with people in the community about like how they've raised funds in the past and what they did to make certain things happen like my friend jake court i can't remember his last name but he he's the one who built the skate park in dolores and that really did inspire me to like take a head-on approach and say hey like i know we can't just like expect money to appear out of anywhere you know we have to raise the money if we want something to happen so thank you

The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meets on the third Thursday of each month at 3 p.m. Would you have a problem with attending the meetings?

No, I'd have no problem with that. Thursdays are a perfect day for me. I have plenty of time. I run my own business and I volunteer and I do a bunch of other things, but everywhere I work and anything I do, I'm very vocal about, hey, if I got something going on, like I have to be here at this time and pretty malleable.

Thank you very much, Nico. That's it. That was very simple. Appreciate you applying, and we'll probably have an answer for you at the end of... Oh, we have another question.

Hi, Nico. Thanks for answering the secondary question. You mentioned that you would be an advocate for a second skate park. Can you tell me what your thoughts are behind that, and why do we need

So I wouldn't advocate for a second skate park. In fact, I would actually advocate for taking down the one that we have and building a new one because the skate park that we have was built in the 90s. And if you've seen anything about what a skate park should look like, that is not it. That is not what we should have. It is, in fact, a very... half-baked attempt at what we need for a skate park. I mean, if you just go over to Dolores and, you know, go there for, just spend a day, go walk down the river trail and go check out that park and feel the difference of the concrete. I mean, the concrete that they built with that park was made specifically for skate parks versus the skate park that we have here was just regular old concrete that's like sandpaper to the skin. You know, you fall here in this park and you ruin your clothes and you're you get messed up, you know, you get road rash and it's not very fun. You know, it's really like unappealing and disheartening to young people because it's like, oh, this really hurts. I don't know if I want to do this versus, you know, I could go to the Dolores skate park and fall down all day and I just slide against the concrete and it's it doesn't hurt, you know, like my clothes don't get ruined and I'm just pretty much having a grand time. So, yeah. Yep, absolutely. Any other questions?

Thanks, Nico.

Awesome. Thank you, guys. Okay, now we're gonna move on to planning and zoning. We're gonna ask Bruce Burkett to come to the stand. Welcome, Bruce. If you'll come up there, make sure your mic is green, and we'll do the same type of questioning, and we'll go ahead and start.

Good to see you.

All right.

Thank you for applying. Please explain your interest in being a member of the.

Well, from the beginning, I just have desired to want to serve our community. And I had a gentleman actually from our church who's on this board who encouraged me to consider running for it. We've had some conversations about that and thought it would be a great way to be able to serve the community.

Thank you.

Good evening Bruce. What do you consider the chief functions of the Planning and Zoning Commission?

The chief functions? Well, they're a part of the approval process for people who are wanting to build things and making sure that they're following the city code and following all the regulations that are supposed to take place there. That's my understanding of their role. Thank you.

What do you think is the biggest planning issue currently facing the city?

I'm sorry, I don't hear well.

That's no problem. What do you think is the biggest planning issue currently facing the city?

Oh, that's a great question. IN THE PROCESS OF RUNNING FOR CITY COUNCIL AND THIS LOOKING AT SOME OF THE NEEDS OF THE CITY, THERE WERE A LOT OF CHALLENGES THAT CAME UP. I DON'T PRETEND JUST GETTING STARTED INTO SOMETHING LIKE THIS. I DON'T WANT TO PRETEND LIKE I HAVE GREAT INSIGHT INTO ALL THE DEEP NEEDS OF THE CITY. THERE WERE A LOT OF NEEDS THAT WE THOUGHT ABOUT AS I BEGAN TO ASK QUESTIONS OF PEOPLE AROUND THE CITY. Housing was one that kept coming up, and that was certainly something to keep in mind. That park south of town was another thing that kept coming up in a lot of the conversations we had. But just being completely honest, it'd have to be something I'd have to get in and learn more about to be able to give an educated answer on that.

Thank you for your energy and effort to apply for this position. Can you tell us what key contributions you could make as a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission?

Well, I have gotten used to the process of having to get things approved. We've been in the process of building a building for the past three years, our new church building. And through that process, I've gotten to work with guys like Sean Canada and others in the county to get things approved. And so I know something I've learned something I guess from the opposite side of what it is to have to try to get permission to Go through certain of these things we've on the county side sat in front of them and got approval for the planning and zoning there and just through that whole process I learned that I actually enjoy the process I enjoy making sure things are done right and so you know those experiences led me to believe that this would this would be the right fit

Good evening. And lastly, planning and zoning meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 6.30, and a second meeting could be called on the third Tuesday of each month if needed. Work sessions are held at 5 p.m. occasionally. Would you be available to attend the work sessions and meet? If yes, understand that some projects will be controversial and will require significant preparation time. Do you have the time to devote?

Yes, I do believe so. We've thought about it a lot, and I'm free on the Tuesdays when we need to meet and for the special meetings as well.

Thank you.

Thanks a lot. I think we're going to be hearing an answer at the end of tonight's City Council, and we'll get a hold of you if you don't stay, so I appreciate you putting in for it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're gonna move on to item number B, which is the official council photos. I think we're gonna meet outside in front of City Hall, so if all the council members wanna meet outside, we'll get a picture taken.

I know that's what I was thinking. This is going to look great with all of her.

How come everybody's hair is messed up? Yeah. Hi. Hi.

Hey. We're following you.

You guys look so good. Planning and zoning conditions are actually important Thank you. Yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

as opposed to where we don't have to change forms every year. So that one should get us very, very quickly.

You can't teach annoying about new traits, so why learn new stuff?

And we're.

I think I had to wait until the council comes in.

Yeah, I think there was two people waiting for the council. There was one who was waiting for us. Yeah, yeah, community garden. Oh, you think you're almost, you're almost like you're, let's put it in the parking lot, so they can come all the way.

Yeah.

Yeah. Especially these big companies that do a lot of business in Colorado.

But there's several.

So Casey knows what a little comment by heart is.

Okay, we're back from our picture taking. We're gonna go on to item number C, lodgers tax discussion. City Manager, did you have something that you wanted to tell us before we get into this discussion?

Yeah, I've got a presentation for you, just waiting for it.

Perfect.

There we go all right council yeah, I wanted to kind of put a primer before you so everybody's on the same page about lodgers tax and what it is and so on. So keep in mind that you know as we're trying to educate the Council, this is also an opportunity for us to try and educate and small part of the Community as well. So as you can see here in front of you, what a lodger's tax is, it's essentially just a tax on commercial lodgings. One of the questions that comes up to us sometimes is, well, do we tax short-term rentals? And the answer is yes, we do, and we do collect taxes on that. One thing that Cortez is maybe a little bit different on is that we do collect a tax for commercial campgrounds, and we have the two in the city that we collect from. So how much is our lodgers tax? Excuse me. Currently Cortez, we have a total of 2% gross taxable rent. And you can see below you, I spelled out the revenues for 23 through 25 and what that looked like. but then gave you a little bit of perspective on what it looks like around the West Slope. And some of that information is Durango, they're a lot higher than us, 5.25. Grand Junction, they are actually 6. Montrose, 6. Ricoh, 7. Ridgeway is 6. But to give you some other perspective around the state, the city of Denver is 10%. 10.75 but there's actually and I'm not sure why that didn't show up on my slide cuz I had it saved but there's actually a 1% Tourism district they have there as well. So it's actually eleven point seven five percent there. I So around the region, Albuquerque, theirs is a 5% plus a 1%. Santa Fe has seven. St. George, Utah, 4.75. Salt Lake City has 4.25, although there's other occupation fees and stuff that boost that way up. Boise, Idaho is 2%. Flagstaff, 10.43, Phoenix, 12.57, and Tucson's 12.05. So it just gives you a little perspective that it really ranges far. In the city of Cortez under our city code, we can use it for advertising the community, which we do through marketing and Mesa Verde country, improving services, financing new facilities, attracting conferences, conventions and so on to the city and beautification of the city. That's another one we do so historically. the council has really said that we need to put this towards tourism which is in our case has been towards Mesa Verde country and then beautification of the city and that's pretty much where is landed So how is the lodgers tax currently used? As I mentioned, we gave most of ours to Mesa Verde country this last year. We backed this off to match what the county gives them, which is $125,000 per year, so that we are equal with them. And then the city beautification grant, which is... Turned out to be a really good thing. Historically, that was kind of used for perishable items like flowers and stuff in the summer, which really isn't the best and highest use of taxpayer dollars. So now we've gone to a beautification grant to where facades and hard upgrades, you know, visible and lasting improvements can be made with that money. so with that uh just gives you a hard and fast uh information about what what we're using lodgers tax for where it's derived so we're at a point and based upon the conversation at the city council retreat we as staff are requesting council discussion regarding the future collection and use of city lodgers tax and then to add to that Is it, in your opinion, time for us to move forward with perhaps putting a ballot question out and seeking to raise that tax? Now, I will say that, and many of you have heard me say this many times, but in a community like ours, we are self-funded for everything from schools to roads to water, you name it. And we do have an awful lot of transient folks coming through, and I want to be careful of that term, but, you know, visitors, essentially. And we do have a sales tax, and that helps, but things like a lodger's tax could also help a little bit more, and the best tax is one that somebody else pays, not our community members. So just something for you to consider as you enter into your discussion. Any questions?

Is Mesa Verde Country a set amount now rather than a percentage?

correct that is a set amount under their contract the lodges that have been and i don't know how that works necessarily if they get rezoned or whatever but they have turned into more long-term rentals would those apply under this or no okay now i think you're talking about a couple of these motels that are

So the reality is those are operating illegally We are working in the background to to change that because they're not operating legally. They have to operate as Design, so we are still seeking to collect it and not allow them to do that That has to come before you guys and that has to be approved and it's a long process Through the tube the 2% was that I

Was established at the beginning or has that increased and if so when?

So I can't see anything within the last 40 years at least where that has been increased So is there a possibility that That money can be used for something outside of what we've already used for like we mentioned perhaps using setting some of that toward the rec center so is that is that a possibility or

So yes, everything's a possibility. We would have to change the city code, but we got to be really careful Keep in mind when it comes to our parks and Recreation Department. You have two funds there one of those is the Recreation Department that is Sales tax funded the rec center only everything to do with the recreation center itself the hard building there and Everything else is general fund funded. That's where it would go it we have to keep those separate and Putting it into the enterprise fund ie the rec center itself is going to be a little more difficult Especially on the accounting side. We'll get finance and our auditors a little wound up What we could do is put it on the general fund side and help with then that's where you're seeing most of the requests anyway, so

My opinion as a councilman, I don't want to put a Trojan horse out there. I don't want to tell people this is going to be used for something and then all of a sudden we're using it for something else. I just don't feel that's correct. I don't feel it's right.

Correct and honestly putting it in the city code of what you can use it for and then you do have an open budget process every year a public budget process To where that fund we can specifically go down and pair that out and with council essentially direction This is what we want this to go to you know and be very upfront about it But yes, we've got to be very careful not to give a bait-and-switch. That is not our values here. I

A could versus will kind of thing. I have two questions for you. The first, Clarissa already touched on, and I just kind of want to hear a little bit more about the collection process. Would improving that collection process increase revenue? For instance, increasing enforcement or investing in a software program?

We actually have software. We use MuniRevs for that and so collection itself is not really the issue for us. I mean you're dealing with some generally some very established organizations. We have a couple of spurious ones that we won't name names but we are dealing with those how we have to through the code enforcement process. But by and large where we get the most of our revenue. Anyway, they're very reputable and But then also keep in mind when you're dealing with Airbnb VRBO It's not up to the owners to even do it. They just collect I'm a former our VRBO owner and or I should say my wife was and You know that was just part of it They just collect as part of the fees they do and that's not up to them and they are very efficient at getting that to us and

Just to reframe, what I'm hearing is you're not missing out on opportunity. No. With the existing process. How common is it to see visitorship decrease due to an increase in lodgers tax?

Well, I don't have good data to point to on that other than I point to perhaps your personal experience and I will use my personal experience as I've traveled literally around the world But especially within the United States, I'm trying to think of one time that I've gone anywhere and gone, geez, do I want to go there because of the lodger's tax? And I would say that none of us ever look at that, especially when it comes to, you know, you get a hotel rate, this is what it is, and usually gonna get an out-the-door price on that, or, you know, a full stay price for that. And that, you usually don't break that out. I don't see that really happening, especially when you look at our other, especially West Slope communities, the visitorship is what it is.

sort of reframe what i'm hearing you say is this improves our visitorship without taxing the populace who lives here and anecdotally it's an unrecognized tax that would likely not have much of an impact on visitorship right it would depending on what you would set it at if that's where you go yeah it's going to be minimal impact anyway but it's really not something that visitors

Are gonna it's not going to harm them an awful lot, but most importantly it's something that will benefit the community Without community members paying it by and large

Mr. Sanders, we heard you speak about the money's going into a general fund per se. Is that traditionally how it's done or how can this be broken out? X percentage of this goes to this and X percentage of it goes to that. Can that happen and does that have to happen at the time it goes in front of the voters or could it be an issue of Not our code but our I'm sorry. I'm losing the word right now, but our charter Okay, so keep in mind.

This is not in the charter itself. This is a city code that is managed by ordinance by the City Council So there's many ways we could we could manage that and we could put it in percentages We could you know list out what it is. There's many ways we could go about it and I don't want to tell the council what to do on it, but I would recommend that you steer away from hard and fast percentages on things because sometimes they line up and they might today and even next year, but at some point they're gonna misalign with what's actually happening and what we need that money for. What I would rather suggest to you is give us a good list of what we want to put in the code, pass that code, And then every year, essentially, now keep in mind, water's tax is separate from the general fund. See what I'm saying? But we can use that for some general fund programs as the council allows through the budget process. But I am more in favor of allowing our elected officials to govern the usage of that, which you guys, the councils historically have been very, very responsible in doing that. That should meet the needs of the community the best.

Could you go back to the slide that had the revenues for the last three years?

Waiting for it to come up. I will start reading those off just so we can, in the interest of time here, but 2023, 257,000 and change, 2024, or 2024, 260,000, almost 261, and in 2025, 251, there we go.

And out of, let's take 2025, out of that 251,000, 125 went to Mesa Verde? Correct. The remainder were local marketing?

Yeah, so for the beautification grant, we're putting some this year. So 2025 is feeding fiscal year 26. So some of that we're putting towards a data process on actual visitorship. And so that's gonna be in the 25,000 range. And so you're looking at almost 200,000 probably is what's budget. I don't have the exact figure, but it's 175 to 200,000. So the rest of it just stays in the fund balance.

Okay, fund, all right.

Thank you.

It's just my opinion, but I would like to see the lodgers tax go into tourism. I think that's kind of what it was started for. And I think that we could, Enhance our budget by getting tourists in here. I don't want to live and die by tourism, but I think that we could Enhance Cortez more than we're doing right now. This is a beautiful place We want people to come and visit and we need to advertise that and I think this would be an excellent way to do it and And I think we should raise, my personal opinion is, I think we should raise our tax. And now it's an issue of how much. And I would love to stay just below everybody else, but yet be right there with them. So I'm suggesting 5% to 6%. And that's my personal opinion.

Mr. Mayor, when you say put more money into tourism, are you saying give more money to Mesa Verde country? No.

Tourism can be anything. We've got a Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo right now, and that used to be a big deal in Cortez.

I mean it.

In fact, when I was growing up, it was some of my fondest memories. We don't hear much about it anymore. We could do that on our own. We don't need Mesa Verde Country to do it. The reason I asked is if it was a percentage going to Mesa Verde Country, I don't want to give any more money to Mesa Verde Country. I want it to go to our own. And I think we have, there are several ways that we can influence or advertise tourism. And I'd just like us to see us do that.

Thank you, and I'm glad to hear you make that statement about not giving them more. I agree with that.

I have a question and a comment, I think. If we increased it to like 6%, which seems to be the norm for our size of community and in this geographic location, that seems to be a reasonable place to be. If we did that, that's a significant increase. I do believe that a certain percentage, and it may not be an exact percentage, but it could be like a minimal percentage of 20% or whatever, should go for the city infrastructure, meaning water and roads are our infrastructure. And then if the remainder went towards, or even a percentage towards tourism also included in there and then the remainder went into the general fund, that would give us the ability to be able to use it at the rec center or wherever it is that I think that the city could determine or the council could determine at that time. I just think our number one issue is infrastructure. And if we can use the people who use our infrastructure without tapping into our citizens and our residents, it's gonna benefit all of us. That'd be my opinion.

Thank you for mentioning that council member. Mayor, thank you for stating your beliefs as well. I really appreciate hearing you guys. I'm in agreement with both of you on different pieces. I agree, Council Member Randall, that the infrastructure is a basic component of the tourism. if we have the most beautiful advertisements, but our roads are full of potholes, it's not going to encourage revisiting, right? So I think it's important to lift, the tides rise all ships, or whatever that saying is. large portion should go to the tourism and benefit the folks who are actually paying for that piece and if we miss out on infrastructure that's detrimental to the visitors and our town members I think also to our city managers point it behooves us as council members to think of in perpetuity what this tactic And perhaps in the future, we'll have so many tourists coming. Our revenue will be incredibly vast. We won't need as much initial tourism structure. And then we can go back and say, oh, but we also said we can do water supports, roads, maybe childcare so we have additional workforce in our restaurants and our hotels, things like that. I think if we add more things that are allowable, it behooves us in the future given changing structures, changing atmospheres.

Well, I feel if we increase our tourism, we're going to increase our general budget, and that's why I'd like to see, and I understand exactly what you said, and you said further on down the road, maybe we could use it in a different way.

I just don't want to be that government that says we're going to do one thing and then turn around and do another.

That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. And if we say we're gonna use it for tourism, I feel we should use it for tourism. And that's going to help us increase our budget. And if we can increase tourism by 10%, that's really gonna help all the businesses in the city of Cortez, and it's gonna help the city of Cortez itself.

I guess what I would like to hear from council first is, are we in favor of an increase? And then if we all are in favor of an increase, let's establish that number. And then once we do that, I think then we start working on where the money should be allocated to.

I agree 100%, but we don't want to put the cart before the horse because we haven't got the people's approval yet. But I agree. So I think maybe just hopefully take a vote, but we can have a, everybody can make a motion whether or not they would like to see an increase. I see everybody shaking their head. I think everybody shook their head that yes, they would like to see an increase. Now I think we need to decide what increase.

Yeah, I think we need to be careful on that so I Feel like we're kind of getting into a quasi vote here I think what we're really looking for is council discussion which it seems like the council discussion has led us to yeah We want to seek that and so I'm hearing councils say stat or telling staff Okay, go out work on this and bring it back. That's something we can deal with in an actual state of meeting Next you know and I think at that point we could really hammer out the Percentage and so on but there's a whole other system to this we got to work out so if this is something we want to pursue which I'm hearing the council does And I'm also hearing instruction to go work on that. Let us go back, come in with using your comments and come in with a framework that we can use to start boiling this down a little bit. Keep in mind that there is a process we have to deal with on this. There's some timing we have to deal with. And in the background, I'll work with the city clerk to get that in motion But that means we've got to do some work in July to start boiling this down Have a very clear message and there that will feed a ballot question in November and I would say that that we hit we have to have a ballot title of

set by the end of august so we you know we have just and we don't meet again until july fourteenth so it gives you about three more meetings uh... so unless you schedule some work sessions in between uh... we we do have limited time now we can certainly bring and it will take an ordinance to set the ballot title and and then we have to adopt an mou with the county because that's who would run the election so what's for dinner at the work sessions pat yeah i i leave that I'm just kidding.

Do we have any firm data as far as what other ballot questions would be coming up at the same time with this? I know there's been a lot of rumbling, but do we have any firm data that we know of other issues that'll be on the ballot that we would be competing with, so to speak?

that's a great question and thanks for asking it because I would have volunteered it just keep in mind council that it is my understanding that our county partners are also planning to run a tax question I believe it's a sales tax based upon the limited information that I have from the county manager And I don't know where they're at. I do know that we do have a county commissioner here. I don't know if that's, you know, the mayor and council or if even he wants to address that. But I think it's something we do need to have in our minds. And it's a risk, to be quite honest, for both.

A cat is a cat, a dog is a dog, and tax is a dirty word. Can we use lodger's fee, or do we have to use the word tax?

It's a tax. Let's call it a fee. Well, we can. A tax fee.

Can we call it the tax that you don't pay?

Well, there are, you know, down the line, we do have to provide, you know, information, you know, arguments for and against sort of thing, and...

Until that ballot title is set, you can promote it and you can come up with a marketing campaign that's titled, A Tax You Don't Pay. So that's certainly an option to consider. Yeah.

I guess I kind of assumed that maybe it was too close of a time crunch to get it done. So what I'm hearing, though, is get it worded, get it titled, next three meetings, and they'll still be able to go on the ballot for this November.

Yes, there's plenty of time. There's just enough time. But yeah, if we're a month from now, we would probably waive you off.

Now remember, after the ballot title is set, basically after Labor Day, you won't be able to actively promote it. You can provide data and information and educate the voters but you can't use city resources to go out and run a campaign essentially so that that gets you know if you want to go to the service organizations to talk about it or something you have to decide do you want to just provide information or if you want to actively promote it

August is probably when you need to be doing that We also need to bring in a The city code and and that I think is going to be You know, we're already if council still wants does want to go for a ballot question, which I'm hearing you say yes Then I think we got to get that city code taken care of right away And we want to have a first reading or at least something in front of you to discuss July 14 We will get that done

Okay, I think you've got your direction, and councils, anybody else have anything else?

Okay. Do we need to schedule a work session, or do you take care of that, Mayor Sproul?

They'll take care of it, the staff will take care of it for us and let us know, and hopefully we can do the work session prior to a council meeting so we don't have to take an extra. Okay, we're gonna go on to item number D, which is a good time for council to say anything that they may have on their mind. It's council general discussion. Does anybody have any issues they wanna discuss?

I went to the CML Spring Forum for Region 10, our neighbors to the north, in Montrose last week. And it was really fun. The food was really good. And I learned some interesting things. I forget which county it was. The fellow I was speaking to was from Delta. But they increased their golf membership by, like, I think they increased it by a little bit, but they knew that there would be a lot of community pushback. So they actually asked for tripling the fees. They wanted to go from 9,000 to like 30,000. And there was such community backlash, such like, that is ridiculous. That's what are you doing? So they said, okay, sorry about that. We're just gonna increase it to 11. they wanted 11 the whole time. So going from the nine, putting that foot in the door advertising thing into effect, asking for way more than they ever needed or wanted, and then the voting settling on a minimal increase got them to where they wanted. So I just, I thought it was a really interesting example and just kind of talking with folks in similar positions in very different worlds, right? and that was their staff strategy recommendation. So I'm really excited to kind of hear different strategies and obviously our community is very different. I don't like that trickery, but I think it's interesting that there's strategy around this kind of stuff. And yeah, the Spring Forum was really interesting.

I think that was kind of interesting, but like I said, I think it's trickery. I wouldn't want to go up and say, I just killed your mother and they were all upset and I said, nah, just kidding, just broke her leg. So I would hope to think that we won't do that kind of trickery.

I just kind of have a question. I read that the CML newsletter had a section in there on drones and community rules. I know FAA says a lot of that, but is that even an issue here? Is that something that we've had issue with in our community?

Did I hear you say drones Yeah, we do we do have a problem with that here. And yes, we do have a licensing System they have to go through but it has to go through our airport system. So we have a licensing system in place. I We do we had I'm gonna say two maybe three years ago We had people flying them into other people's backyards and essentially violating privacy. I

I found one in my backyard when I was picking up dog poop. There was a tiny little drone in my backyard and we don't have any of those.

They have cameras and everything else.

Another thing that I have a question about is with the influx of electric bikes and licensing and that kind of thing for safety reasons, they're saying that in a lot of communities that the accident rate from scooters and electric bike, but that have become a problem and there's no control over that because it's just free.

Yeah, yeah, there's not I'm not aware that we have a big problem with it. I hope we don't generally and I have to mention I think was two or three years ago that we had a company that literally was handing them out to seniors here and Honestly, I almost broke out in a rash because I was Wondering what that was gonna look like on the roadways. So but they're pretty responsible overall.

Thank you

Anybody else have anything, a burning question? Okay, let's go on to E, says for your information, and I have absolutely no idea what that's all about. The minutes from the Montana County Board of Commissioners meetings on April 21st, May 11th, 12th, and 19-2026. Okay, seeing nothing else, let's adjourn our work session and meet back here at 7.30.