Governance & Charter Review Committee - Regular Meeting

Welcome back to this monthly meeting of the Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee of Denver City Council. Thanks for joining us for the discussion. The Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee starts starts now.

May 19 Tuesday, May 19. You have reached the governance governance and intergovernmental relations committee of the Denver City Council. My name is Paul Cashman. I, represent South Denver District 6 and have the pleasure of serving as vice chair on this committee. We have a couple of items on the agenda.

We'll start, with a, action item for an ordinance, submitting to a vote of qualified and registered electors of the city and county of Denver at a special municipal election on November 3 will be presented by my colleagues, committee chair, Sawyer and councilman, Parady, and then that will be followed by a briefing by our, clerk and recorder. And before we get started on the agenda, let's go with, introductions of members of council, starting on my left with the esteemed councilwoman.

Good morning, everyone. Serrano Gonzalez Gutierrez, one of the council members at large.

Good morning, Amanda Sanwell, North West Denver District 1.

Good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

Good morning, Amanda Sarga District 5. Sarah Paradis, your other

council member at large. Jamie Torres, West Denver, District 3.

Thank you. And I believe, councilman Flynn, are you joining us online? There you go.

Yes. I am. Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver's district two. Thank you.

Good deal. Well, I will turn the floor over. Councilwoman Sora, are you going to, facilitate this, presentation?

I guess I will. Drive. Well, good morning, everyone. Thank you so much. Councilwoman Parity and I are here today, with the auditor's office in Denver Labor, to have a conversation about a charter change amendment that we would like to send to the ballot for the voters to vote on in November. Before we get started, do you want to introduce yourselves?

Sure. Tim O'Brien, Denver auditor.

Matt

Fitzmaur, executive director of Denver Labor in the auditor's office.

Fantastic. So we have a quick presentation. Just talk a little bit about the background, our proposed clarification, why we're sending this to the ballot, and then answer any questions that you have. So as background, the auditor's office has enforced prevailing wage since 1950 as we just had a recent conversation about. Denver voters in 2006 created the independent auditor's office. And so then since 2016, we've made significant updates to the auditor's ability to enforce all of our different wage areas, that is minimum wage, prevailing wage, and wage theft. And I will just say the auditor's office in Denver Labor do an amazing job of this. Uh-oh.

Where did our there we go. Perfect timing. That was amazing, you guys. We can't make that up. Perfect timing.

With the ladies and gentlemen.

So let's talk prevailing wage first. We have had a lot of conversation about this recently as we just recently updated to clarify our prevailing wage document and our prevailing wage ordinance. So the 2016 update to the prevailing wage ordinance from 1950 improved processes, removed some outdated things, and then clarified the scope of prevailing wage. And then in 2023 August 2023, you may recall we voted on just realigning the prevailing wage enforcement to streamline the processes. So we moved prevailing wage out of HR and into Denver Labor.

The way that worked is the city agreed to create a position, an independent position within Denver Labor that is our prevailing wage administrator position. That position's job is to focus on prevailing wage, review contracts for prevailing wage, update prevailing wages accordingly with market surveys that come from the federal government, all of those different kinds of things. So the auditor's office has the authority to issue interpretations and clarifications on prevailing wage and to update those, as I mentioned, wage rates, and we are very lucky we have a great prevailing wage administrator who does those things. Let's talk minimum wage now. So minimum wage was it was a a bill at the state that changed the law because previously, the entire state of Colorado was under the same minimum wage, and so the state legislature in 2019 changed the law to allow municipalities and local governments to set our own minimum wages.

Now as we know because we have there's been a lot of background conversation about the fact that when the state did this, they did not make that same change to the tip credit, and that has been a little bit of a challenge. So that is a whole thing I am not getting into here, but it you know, you all know what I'm talking about. Slideshow's down again. What is happening with the slideshow?

Producer, if you can get the slideshow

back up.

Slide back up, please.

Thank

you. Thank you. So on 01/01/2020, we, in the city, started enforcing our own Denver minimum wage, and this is done in Denver Labor in the auditor's office. In 2022, the auditor's office gained authority to conduct agency initiated investigations into certain high risk industries. And that is, for example, you know, bars and restaurants, construction, nail salons, service industry kind of jobs where we see our lowest wage workers are being taken advantage of most frequently.

Since 2020, the auditor's office has, you know, worked with tens of thousands of workers to enforce their rights. Tell me, do you guys have a count off the top of your hand of how many millions of dollars we have recovered?

So I can tell you that in the last decade, I think at least $10,000,000 and enforced the rights of more than 15,000 workers.

Amazing. And then finally, wage theft. So in January 2023, city council passed the civil wage theft ordinance. Oh, it's on the next slide. Alright. There we go. Good job, guys. Which expanded the auditor's enforcement powers. I was really honored to cosponsor this bill with council members Torres and Gilmore. It took us four years to write this law.

It was a lot of work. It was a lot of conversation, but it is a very strong law. It is it it has changed the lives of workers in Denver significantly, and that is through the work of Denver Labor because they are our enforcement arm. And then in 2024, granted the auditor's office subpoena power to help with this wage enforcement, wage theft enforcement. And as we just said, over the last decade, it's about $10,000,000 and more than 15,000 workers that have been impacted.

I will just say so this has been happening since 1950. Denver Labor has existed. This is nothing new. City council has repeatedly grown and expanded the auditor's office authority to conduct these wage related investigations because we know, and it's one of our priorities as a council to ensure that wage theft and wage violations are not being that are not happening in the city of Denver. And the reason for this is because the best way to get people out of poverty, as I always say, is to pay them.

Right? And that is not something that the city has a piece of except for the prevailing wage part, but it is something I think that is incredibly important because our values are to help support our community, and we do that through our partnership with Denver Labor. So the updates to this charter language are pretty straightforward. It just reflects that the auditor's office and their long history of wage enforcement are, you know, have happened, and we would like to it to continue to happen, that the office is enforcing wage theft, worker protections, workplace rights as required by ordinance. So I will say, just to be very clear, what the charter says is that the auditor's office is required to do what the auditor's office is required to do and also anything else as determined via ordinance by city council.

And so that is what the auditor's office does. They have done it since 1950, but they it it that authority is given to them council, via the ordinances that we vote on that clearly say this is something we are handing over to the auditor's office to enforce for us. And so what we'd like to do is we'd like to put it in the charter and just make that clear. Before we get started, I wanna see if my cosponsor has any thoughts, and then I wanna see if you guys have any thoughts as well.

I have just a quick thought, which is that we're essentially pulling this out of the, you know, counsel can give the auditor other duties clause, which is where it has always been. Just because it's become such a big part of the work, it feels like it sort of deserves the callout in the charter as a specific area. But it's, you know, it's sort of a it's more of a recognition of the work than something that we need to do for any reason other than that. And so I think it's good for the charter to to sort of, like, encompass the full scope of what agencies do. And and in a way, you could view that part of the auditor's authority clause that says that you know, counsel can assign other not inconsistent duties by ordinance as a place for us to stick kind of pilot programs, and this is well beyond a pilot at this point.

So Thank you. Yeah. Great.

Anything you guys wanna add?

No. I I agree with the way you've described it, and I think it it belongs in the charter.

Matt, anything from your side?

Just to say that as someone who only really has a couple of interests, one of them being wage enforcement, it's been really great to see how you all have grown this work over the years.

Awesome. Thank you. Alright. Questions?

Well,

it Oh, we've got public comment.

When someone says they only have a couple of interests and name names one,

what's the other one?

Oh, I know. The other one is his beautiful wife, Chelsea. Sorry. Am I right?

My beautiful wife, Chelsea.

Awesome. Fair. Totally fair.

Thank you for that. Appreciate that. And, yes, madam chair, we do have public comment. We have one person signed up today. Is Jesse Paris on online, sir? Yes. Jesse, go ahead. There you are.

Yes. There I am. Good morning, Cashman. You're council. Graham Rising, happy Malcolm X today to the council, city council, those watching at home. My name is Jessica Sean Paris, and I'm a representative for Black Star Action Movement for Self Defense, Positive Action Committee for Social Change,

as

well as the Unity Party of Colorado, the Northeast Denver Residence Council, Frontline Black News, Shabakas, Doctor. Smiths, and Hans. And I reside at the road to a bear bug infested legacy loss in councilman Darryl Watson's District of District 9, defined District 9, the historically black district known as 5 Points, the Harlem Of The West. And I am a candidate on the ballot for House District 8. The election is in November.

I wanted to ask the auditor a few questions in regards to their enforcement powers. Is this amendment going to add on to their enforcement powers already? Because that would be great. Is this gonna include the police? Is this gonna include the fraternal order of police?

Is this gonna include NGOs such as House Keys Action Network? Is this gonna include just variety of services that the city provides? Because I don't question where the money is going, especially with this current administration under Johnston. So if the auditor or the guy that's with him could answer those questions, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Thank you. Well, that concludes our public comment session.

We have

questions from members of council. I've got Councilwoman Torres.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just looking at the proposed language being added, the auditor shall enforce wage, worker protection, and workplace rights as the council by ordinance may require. Apart from the wage items that I'm familiar with, are there any other or are you predicting any other worker protection workplace rights kind of under your authority, or are there already things that you enforce other than wage protection?

Prevailing wage, minimum wage, and wage theft are really what we enforce. And Davis Bacon comes in there just because there's a lot of overlap.

Okay. So yes. And then part and parcel of a lot of that is anti retaliation work. K. Right. And so that language is intended to encompass the anti retaliation authority you've already given us as well as the unfair labor practice enforcement authority you gave us recently.

Got it. Thank you for that. Thanks, mister chair.

Thank you.

Council pro tem Romero Campbell.

Thank you, mister chair. This is just, again, if I get this right, clarifying what the scope is. So we don't anticipate any it's like what is already happening, just clarifying within language. So we don't anticipate that there would be any budget changes that would be related to this as well.

No. I mean, I think there's probably conversation going on right now, but, no, there's this is a this is budget neutral. Really, councilman Parity and I just feel really strongly that the auditor's office has been doing this since 1950. They have been very successful at it. They are an integral part of our city in supporting our lowest wage workers in particular, and it is important to us that we clarify that they can do this in the charter as opposed to just the charter saying, whatever city council makes you do, you do because this is such an integral piece to our city, to our values, and to what the auditor's office already does that we wanna put it in the charter.

Yeah.

It's a bit of a future generations memo, but it shouldn't change anything for the time being.

Okay. And then and and maybe it just maybe you covered it or or the things that we just don't see, but are there additional barriers that that you are facing to be able to enforce this? Goodbye.

No, except for the capacity.

I was just gonna say the volume of Yes. Wage slap and retaliation that occurs is a barrier to being after go a barrier to being able to go after all of it. Yes. The opposite of what

you just said. And so we've got some exciting revenue neutral actually, I think they will ultimately be revenue generating approaches we're taking to try to expand our authority without adding more staff. Staff.

Are you able to share

some of those now? Or

Can I talk to you offline?

Okay. Yeah. You can. That'd be great. No. I just I I just wonder, like, are there additional things that we are seeing from the state that are preventing you from being able to execute

on

this state from the in anything else that's just preventing us from moving forward?

I would mention that we had a study done by Rutgers University a few years ago that identified in the metropolitan area as probably $100,000,000 a year in wage theft From the information we showed you, we've collected $10,000,000 that includes prevailing wage and minimum wage. There's a lot more work that we could do with more resources. We have to address that at a later time.

Thank you. I don't have any other questions, but thank you to the sponsors for bringing this forward. Thank you, mister chairman.

Vice President Sandoval.

Thank you, mister chair. Thank you to the sponsors and thank you auditor and thank you, Matt. This is something I read a book and by Brene Brown and there's a quote called clear as kind and what does that look like in leadership. And when we add something to the charter, it's very clear to the Denver residents as, like, the spine of what we do. Right?

I always think of the charter as, like, the backbone because it can only be changed by the people, the voters of Denver. And so you're codifying it in a very different way than in ordinance where 13 people and a mayor who has to sign off on it can change things. And I think that this provides that type of clarity and that that quote keeps playing in my head, clear as kind, by us sending this to the voters in November and ultimately hoping that they approve it. I can say that because it hasn't been sent there yet, so I can I can not not campaigning for it because it's not there yet? But it does create clarity.

And so as what I've learned over the fourteen years of being here is we have different interpretations on our ordinances. And new lawyers come in and they have provide opinions on pieces of law or our ordinances. And it's challenging when you get different interpretations. I've been here for fourteen years and so I've gotten several different interpretations. One that comes to mind is DOTI and right of way and who's responsible and when you're responsible for building sidewalks and how that gets done and the amount it used to be amount of permits and then it changed and a different opinion came out from a different attorney.

So just appreciate pushing this forward to the vote of the in November. And I'll absolutely be sponsoring or not sponsoring it, but supporting it now. And then in my free time, when it makes it to the ballot, I also will be telling people, informing them, because that's also a separate port portion of getting something to the ballot is you then you have to provide clarity around it in its hearts. We can't have that at this table anymore once it goes past the legislative process. So just saying publicly, how can I help in the future? Because this is a big piece, provides that type

of clarity.

Thank you.

Thank you, mister chair. Thank you. Any further questions from members of council? Seeing none, can we get a motion to move this forward to moved by council council Torres, seconded by counsel Gonzalez Gutierrez. I assume we have a thumbs up all around, please. Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you Yeah. Clerk's office excuse me, the auditor's office. We will see you at counsel. At this committee. And we'll do a transition to the clerk's office.

Oh, I have

a And

I will meet you afternoon.

Chair, would you like to take your seat?

I mean, you like to?

The

And the rest of committee? You're welcome to.

I'll let you take them. Okay.

Rest for the week.

Before I get to sit across and clear at you.

No. Crazy about that.

Maybe. Don't know what I was, but

Thank you, guys.

We got gifts.

I can't

just pass

it down.

We usually

pass it That's alright.

Now we have briefing from the clerk's office. I asked them to join us today because we have an election coming up, our primary election. Ballots will be dropping soon. I'm sure that they will give us more specifics on of that, but I think we can all agree that our election system is under threat. And I will tell you, my kids said to me the other day, mom, you got married. Do worse now, but I did get married at one time. You changed your name. Are you going to be able to vote in the primary election? And my kids are in high school. They're juniors and seniors.

And so I thought that that was really startling, and I wanted to give our clerk's office an opportunity to come and talk to the public about this and really clarify what is going on with our elections. What should we expect? Am I gonna be able to vote because I changed my last name years ago when I got married, and all of those different kinds of things that we know that the public is concerned about. And there has been a lot of rumor and, a lack of clarity around this. So I really appreciate you all being here. Thank you, for coming, and, please introduce yourselves and take it away.

Thank you, madam chair. I'm Paul Lopez. I serve as the clerk and recorder for the city and county of Denver, and hold up my hand.

Todd Davidson, director of elections for the city and county of Denver.

Sabrina Alley. I'm the deputy clerk and recorder for city of Denver.

Good. Well, I could answer that question right away, councilwoman, and that is, yes, you are gonna be able to vote. And that's because the constitution's article one section 04:00 one, which basically dictates the time and manner of the election is determined by the states and not the federal government. The SAVE Act is not a thing. It died.

It was died upon arrival, and the Mesa Act is not moving forward, which would kinda put us back to nineteen fifties in terms of having to go back to our precincts to vote and to be able to do things like that. Would eliminate mail ballots. It would only allow absentee ballots in emergency cases. Those things are dead at the at the federal level. The only way that those would change is if they had a majority that sent that was voted on by congress and sent to the president for a for a signature.

The good thing is that's not happening. So you can let them know. Rest assured that that's how you're gonna be able to vote. We deal with there there's a lot of scenarios that we'll go through and that's me with a haircut. I'm sorry you can move that forward.

The we get we get a lot of these questions and we get a lot of what what if, what happens if. The good thing is that you can rest assured that we do a lot of tabletop exercises and forgive the the description, but they're war games. We put our team together with very many different individuals from across the city and we play scenarios. What happens if we go to all mail eliminate mail in ballots? What happens if, you know, ICE is at a at a vote center?

What happens if a squirrel hits a transistor and blows out of a VSPC, which has happened? All those scenarios be prepared for.

What's a VSPC?

I'm so sorry. A VSPC is nerd speak for vote center, voter service and polling center. Our vote centers are poll are full service centers. It's like coming downtown. You'd be able to request a ballot, change affiliation, do all kinds of stuff like you would downtown at a vote center. It's not just a place to vote. It's a place that you can actually get your business done as a as a voter if you need if need be. Let's start with this. So state primary twenty twenty six by the numbers. Our total registered active voters right now, 476,726. We keep seeing more and more and more registrations pop up. Know that these are active voters. These are not the total voter universe. Total voter universe is north of what? 524,000,000 million.

524,000. So and if you wanna briefly describe active voters, because I love the way you describe it, Todd.

Sure. An active voter simply is someone who's going to get a mail ballot. They have either updated their record since the last election or they voted in the last election. All of those people will get a mail ballot automatically. If we've had return mail from a voter, they become inactive, and if they would like a ballot, they have to visit a vote center.

And that's because of the rule that we do not forward any ballots to other addresses. They come right back to us. So there's no that the whole worry that, well, I have somebody else's ballot, I can vote it. You cannot. We signature verify that. You attempt to do so. It's a felony. We turn that over to the DA. Two, unless that happens, it's dead, but they send it back to us and then we we ping it. If it happens again multiple times, we check with ERIC, which is our national database and partners on on on the national and federal level to see if that voter has moved or anything like that.

If it's a question, they'd be come off of the rolls, but it takes a lot to do that. The prep for total turnout is about 40%. That's what we're preparing for. A 194,000 voters turning out for the primary. 17 vote service and polling centers is what we have for the for the primary election.

We are now at Box Number 48. We have twenty four seven 48, twenty four seven boxes all around the city. And also, we were gonna be we're gonna be hiring 600 election judges for this primary election. I wanna make it clear, our election judges are not volunteer, they're hired. Do you have a question, counsel?

Oh, I'll wait till the

We'll take questions at the

end. Okay. State primary citywide turnout map. I've sent you versions of this before and it is the same map that you always see, unfortunately. It is the inverted l and it is I I like to say that this is the cause of the inverted l. Low propensity turnout does nothing to help a precinct. As a former councilman, I I know that you can fight and scratch until your nails are gone, Unless you have a high voter propensity turnout precincts, they don't fear what you say. And I think that's really important. It it it demonstrates people power. It demonstrates people at the table and it strengthens you as representatives of those of those precincts in those districts.

I think, you know, when we look at high turnout, we look at voter propensity, you know, it also determines on what's on the ballot as well too. When, you know, when we talk turnout, it is are the voters excited? Are they motivated? Is there something that is pushing them to get out? Are they being engaged either on the door, by mail, by phone? Are they being engaged to get out? One of our conversations with with Sun Valley is one of our precincts that we always look at that, you know, we're always focused on, but it's always troubling because of the fact that it's very low print. We go to those neighborhoods. Other than their city councilwoman, they don't they don't see anybody else. Nobody contacts them.

Nobody goes door to door. And I have to give props to the city councilman because she's right here and I think part of that is, you know, keeping them engaged. But at the end of the day, our is money being spent in that precinct? Are they knocking on doors in that precinct? Are they engaging? So one of those the feedback was we're we never hear from anybody when it comes to these major elections and two, we don't see anybody. Right? So part of that is who are they voting for and why and all the other part of it is who's asking, who's pushing. Historic primary turnout percentage. So it ebbs and flows with the primary.

We've only had a primary since an elected primary like this since 2020 or 2019. Sorry. When you see the the primary turnout, it ebbs and flows, depends on what's on the ballot. 2020 was exceptional year for turnout in this city. A lot of it had to do with the pandemic. A lot of it had to do with folks like Jimmy Fallon and late night hosts and all all these other folks in mainstream media saying be an election judge, vote early, carrying that message and really pushing that out. Right? A lot of it had to do with our model as well too, the fact that it's a it was a pandemic proof way to vote. And I wanna talk about an ICE ICE proof way to vote. Right?

A harassment proof way to vote and it's those drop boxes. So we saw a surge in our drop boxes usage and also we also increased the number of drop boxes that people can use across the city. That's why you see that 2020 surge. So it is definitely an anomaly and when you look at it moving forward, you'll see this. State primary election versus general election in each each year.

Right? 86% was the second highest turnout in our history and that was compared to Denver when we only had like 15 people. We only had like maybe 300,000 at the time when we had 91%. Then you look at 2020, you see that tick up and then that 2024. 2024 was rather disappointing compared to 2020.

11% of people chose not to turn in their ballots locally, 37% of people around the country chose to sit it out. It is apathy that is our enemy And it's really really important that we make sure that people understand that. Oh, go back. Those yard signs are amazing and we had those printed for two reasons. One, we wanted to make sure that when we talk about voting, when we talk about democracy, it's not just what happens one day or two days out of the year.

We say forty four because you have actually forty four days to vote if you have two two elections a year. What what is the role of democracy for folks who not are aren't able to vote? Right? Because of status issues, because of they're not old enough yet, they still have an opportunity to participate. There's a lot of different ways people can participate in campaigns, going door knocking, urging other people to vote. Simply putting a sign in their window that urges their fellow neighbors to vote is important. It is action. It's part of democracy. So what we we have those signs available. We're gonna print them again for you all.

I appreciate some of you that have been using them. I I really, really appreciate that. Those those hang out in apartment windows for a long time and it sends a really strong message. And when folks approach us either in the community or we're we're out talking to folks, they say, what can we do? Alright. Here you go. Here's a sign. If it looks familiar, it's a it's a it's a hat tip to the nineteen sixties to the vote voting rights movement. That's where the design comes from, and it's a little bit of a recognition of the voting rights act, spirit of the voting rights act. So next one.

What's on the ballot? Congressional offices, US senate seat, congressional house seats, statewide offices. Everybody and their mother is on this ballot. Regional offices, let's not forget the state board of regents, the RTD board of directors. This is gonna be, what, a two page ballot we're probably thinking? Oh, no. This one is a This is a one ballot. November, we can't tell you yet. Long gone are the days I think that we saw a two page ballot in November. That's how long these ballots are getting. It is not the ballot length that turns people off. It is what's on the ballot, and I wanna make that clear. Okay? Overview for twenty twenty six elections. So Tuesday, June 30, we are e minus 42 primary election day.

Ballots must be in the possession of the clerk and recorder by 7PM. There's some confusion out there especially with the the stuff that's being talked talked about at the USPS level with the changing of time stamping with with with with the USPS on the federal. That does not apply to Colorado. Colorado says it must be your ballot must be in the possession of the click and recorder by 7PM. If it's in a mail ballot box, uh-uh, it's not gonna work. It has to be in our possession. In our possession means in a drop box, in a vote center, or in our custody downtown. So by 7PM. That's why those drop boxes are important. It's important for folks to know that no postage is necessary for that as well too.

Unaffiliated voters are 49.9% of Denver active voters. That is huge. It's a surge and it is telling that they will receive two primary ballots can and they can vote on one ballot to cast each primary election. We've been taking this show on the road. We've been working the whole year preparing for this election so that we don't repeat what 612 voters did in this last election, which was turn in both ballots.

If you are unaffiliated, and for this for folks that are that are home, and not independent, independent is an actual party, if you are unaffiliated, you're not affiliated with either any party whatsoever, you'll receive those two ballots. Democratic, which is blue, Republican, which is red. Fill out one or the other, do not fill out both and send them back. Okay? State law doesn't allow us to count those. Tuesday, November 3 is the Super Bowl, ladies and gentlemen. That's general election day. This is the big one. This is the one that we are preparing for one of the highest turnouts we've seen for a midterm general election. Right?

And we are pulling we are making sure that folks have absolute access and we'll talk about some of these access issues that we have again by 7PM. For the primary, it's important to understand that this time around, the Libertarian and uni party unity party are getting ballots. The two minor these two minor parties will be receiving ballots. Normally, it's only been unaffiliated Democrats and Republicans. Those are the two newbies on it.

Let's talk state primary election trends. Almost all votes are cast by mail ballot drop box during primary elections. Drop box ballots and mail ballots represent 100% of votes cast in the following primary elections. The 2024 primary, 99% were cast by a male and drop bys. 22 was 98.

2020 was 20. 9% of ballots are sent back by the mail. The majority of folks that are voting are using our Dropbox and that number keeps surging, except the fact that the last time around we only had we had 11% of people actually show up in person, which was double of what we had. In the last coordinated election, we had 6% show up in person. Normally, number is one or 2%. Right? So there is a surge of folks who are coming in person to vote. If you wanna go to the next one. We'll stick on this one. I have some numbers for you I I put together.

We've been really looking at this demographic and really looking and answering the question, who are the folks that are coming in late or not late? Who are the folks that are coming in on election day? Why are they coming election day? Where are they coming in? And why are they standing in line as opposed to just putting it in a drop box? Right? Think about what happened in Green Valley Ranch the last presidential election when folks were actually sitting creating a line outside of Green Valley Ranch and in the snow when it started to snow. So let's look at 2024. The increase was 31% of in of of in person voters. The let's see.

VSPC voters in the on election day was 51% over the previous presidential, a 31% increase over 2020. And in 2025, this was a 61% on election day in person. To the best of our ability, we've been really looking at this demographic, pulling numbers together, and coming up with a couple of conc conclusions. I can tell you that just based off of my visits on election day, the two days before election day and visiting vote centers, I I could tell you that for the most part, I've seen majority of folks who are younger, first time voters showing up in person. In Montbello, they have a a tradition of ringing a bell and clapping every time there's a new voter registering to vote or voting for the first time.

That bell doesn't stop all day long. It's a very prideful thing. I felt very good about it, but the other the other the last time I got a little bit concerned. This demographic is largely 24 through 35 years of age. They're mostly unaffiliated and they're mostly male. And they're coming from areas because we cannot collect demographic data. We don't ask if somebody's Latino or not when they're at the polls. I could tell you they're coming from the areas where you have a lot of underserved communities, where you have a lot of low propensity precincts. It's those vote centers that you're seeing that that surge. The the other exception is Union Station.

Union Station is because it's very popular. It's one of our most popular vote centers, but also one of the most expensive. Three elections in 2027 that we are preparing for as well too simultaneously. So we have the primary, we have the general, then we have the municipal general, municipal runoff, and the coordinated election. We have six elections that we're preparing for within two years. So that's that part. Key dates. Sixteenth. We have already transmitted our overseas military ballots that are sent out, and people can now come in our office and vote early if they want to. If you wanted to vote today, you could.

We have a box set up and booth set up. If wanted to come in person to vote early, take care of that. Monday, June 8 is gonna be critical. It's an important date if you wanna share this in your newsletters and get this out. The ballots are mailed out. They're coming in from from Washington State. Our printer out there is is the printer K and H, the vendor that we've we've used for a long time. They're probably one of the best ones in the country. We don't have the capability of doing that. We have a printer with the capability of doing that here. Though we will go out there when they're being printed, as always, watch them getting printed. We watch them load. We verify the seals on the trucks. Those trucks do not stop all the way down to Denver. They stay at the g GMF, the general mail facility.

We meet them here. We verify the seals, make sure everything's right with the the vendor, and we watch them unload and go right into the mail stream. Okay? There are no bamboo fibers in our in our dropout in our in our mail. Mid June, our vote centers will start opening up in phases. We have four phases all the way to the end. Know that we will be using the library instead of the web from here on out. We have a great partnership now. Instead of paying a $175,000 to use our own McNichols Building, we are using the DPL's new room that they have downstairs for free with a great partnership. So that's that.

Tuesday, last day to vote, June 30, election day. Gotta be you have those ballots received by 7PM. If you're voting, remember it's less than don't put it in the mail less than eight days out. Election trends. We think we've kinda gone through this a little bit. Yeah. General election, those are the dates. Put these on we'll send you the slides but please put these put these dates in your phone. This is gonna be, like I said, the sipper ball. Here are three key messages.

These are three asks of folks who can get the word out. Okay? Our three priorities. Promote the use of the twenty four hour drop boxes over any other voting method. P people can vote in person. People can vote by mail if they want to, but the key to this is the key to some of solving some of these other issues and drama if it arises. Why it's important? They're open twenty four seven for twenty two days. There's forty forty eight locations across Denver. They're constantly surveilled.

We surveilled. We we have eyes on them twenty four seven. We have three other sites that we're exploring. One of them on East Colfax, if you look at that map and look where the drop boxes are, there's a huge gaping hole on the East side around about in the six the pre the in HD six around '24, '25, twenty, twenty three, twenty six, where we do not have the infrastructure to just be able to put a Dropbox. Dropboxes have to be located areas where they're ADA accessible and compliant with state law.

The infrastructure, it's telling. You know some areas that have city infrastructure, we partner with that. They meet those they they meet the same compliance. We can't just put one down. So we've been working with partners, one of them being the Rose Building over affordable housing apartments. Rose on the facts. Only needs to be met with a stiff arm by their investor, Wells Fargo. We are we've been working on this for the last two years. We've almost, you know, dropped this cold. We've been working with council councilwoman Lewis to do it.

We're gonna need a little bit more pressure. If, you know, it's one thing to be able to solve the solve the problem of affordable housing. It's another to make sure that they actually have a voice in the political process. Right? And we're fine to make sure that that happens. The reason why we like this area is because it's it's, you know, perfect for a camera, perfect for the the ADA compliance, but also along a major major bus route. Okay? The other one was Aethmar Park Library. Thank you for that, councilman Alvarez. And then the other we're looking at is to move to add an additional box around Union Station.

Union Station is always a line, and we're always, you know, going back and forth with setting up that VSPC. We were able to get the price keep the price from not being doubled to to keep it there. It's a very popular vote center. The one that we have that's at Union Station is by the light rail station. So if you got to walk those few blocks, that's where that box is. No one's gonna walk all the way the heck over there until unless they are actually on the light rail bringing in their ballot. We wanna keep that because we believe that's that's important, but we'd like to see one in the front somewhere. I know it doesn't go with some of the decor, but it would be a heck of a statement, and it would solve the issue of these lines at Union Station. Okay? So drop boxes, key message.

You can't if someone's see if someone's seeking to try to intimidate somebody at a vote center or at a voting location, people usually target, and I don't wanna give out the playbook, but people who are in line at a vote center. If there were, you know, reports of people intimidating, agents intimidating, which is illegal, by the way, If any kind of ICE agent or anybody walks up to a to to a vote center or voting facility or any elections facility, it's illegal by by federal law. And we would do everything possible to prosecute them. And we've met with the city attorney chief of police and the mayor to make sure that the enforcement would be arrest. Anybody trying to intimidate a voter at any one of our both sides or boxes will be arrested and prosecuted.

And I wanna make sure that folks here know that and folks in the public know that. The best way to prevent drama is to just put it in a drop box. Okay? The voting early. If we get those things early, we're able to do the process early. The one thing that we don't like is when those ballots surge at the end because results come in. The results that you see 7PM on Monday are everything we've we've received before then. Everything else, we're we're they're going through the process. By the time 8PM, the second results come in, we don't even have all the boxes yet because they're coming in from Southeast Denver, Far Southwest, and Montbello Green Valley Ranch. Right?

So we don't we don't have a better update until about 10PM. So when people say, oh, what's taking so long? Well, it's everybody coming in and making sure we account for those ballots. Right? It's easier to do that when people vote early. It's done. Got it. We're able to post results and there's less, you know, conspiracy theories about what's happening. Reach out to Denver elections to address voting issues. I appreciate.

We have a lot of partners affiliated with us with our elections advisory committee. We work with a lot of folks. I know that there's a lot of gonna there's gonna be a lot of different lines to call for voter protection. Before you do that, call us. I wanna give you an example about what happened in a in a not so recent well, a pretty recent election.

Somebody complained and, called in and posted on social media that voters are being harassed at an elderly couple is being harassed at Hiawatha Davis Post Center. By the time it got to us, it was shared 300 and something times. It was blown up. By the time we verified it, which when we were on the camera, there was nothing of the sort, and we looked at various angles, wasn't happening, confirmed that it wasn't happening. Election judges there didn't see anything either.

It had it had created the opposite intent, and it drove people away from that vote center and that dropbox. We wanna make sure that even good intent, we know that some folks have good intent, call call Denver elections. We have eyes on it immediately. We can see all of our boxes. They're twenty four seven. We have eyes on them that are humanized. We have our our bipartisan teams of election judges that are, doing our ballot security, all that. We wanna know ahead of time and in real time. And if there's any questions about the election, their ballot, whatever, have them call us first. We are in communication with the other entities that call us as well, but it's gonna be absolutely critical this time around in November.

Next one. Political climate and threats. We talked about the post marketing rule doesn't apply here. Maintaining state authority in elections, we stand by that. We're ready to go to court for that if need be. We've been planning for it. Maintain polling site safety free from intimidation. I talked about, you know, what we do in practice for very different scenarios and the meeting that we've had and the agreement that we've had with the city attorney's office, the administration, and chief of police. The importance of voting early prior to election day so that we are able to get those ballots in house as quick as we can. Those ballots should be mailed at least a week before the receipt deadline for any election in Colorado.

The other thing that's really important and I hope that you all can spread the word on is that not everybody who votes in Denver lives in Denver. We have a lot of people who are from outside counties who leave their ballots in our boxes, and that's perfectly fine. We, the the following day, have a ballot swap where we have elections officials from across the state meet us in Denver, meet us at our headquarters, and we exchange. We basically give them their ballots, they give us ours. We give them thousands of ballots.

People rely on Denver's drop boxes. So when the common question and the common surprise that people think come up with is, can I I didn't know that I can drop my Jefferson County box in a Denver box or Jefferson County ballot in Denver box? You can use any drop box around the state. You can vote at any vote center around a state in a statewide ballot. So it's important for folks to know that. If there's any doubt whatsoever about can they vote, are they who they are, whatever, they can vote a provisional ballot and we will be able to do that. It's always the benefit of the doubt to the voter. Okay? Any other questions? Sorry.

I was trying to wrap all that up in a way that, you know, is concise. But

That was super helpful. Thank you. I've got a list of council members in the queue, and council members, let me know if you would like to join. First, we're gonna go online to council member Flynn, and then we'll go to council members in the room.

Thank you, madam chair, and thank you, clerk Lopez. One of the vulnerabilities that concern me about drop boxes is what we saw several cycles ago, at least a lot of fluency, not in Colorado, but elsewhere, where vandals go after those boxes and and drop the flammables into them and they destroy the ballots that are in the boxes. And I know that we watch them on video, but that doesn't have the capability of stopping something in the in the immediate moment. What's your thoughts on that? Because that really does concern me. Yeah.

Well, councilman, we do go through these scenarios. I don't want to give the playbook because I don't want to tell people what they can and cannot do and what, you know, what methods we use to actually stop that. But we could talk offline a little bit about that. I don't wanna give bad people good ideas, but know that the boxes that we have, it's very hard for fire to exist in those boxes. It's very hard for them to be destroyed, and we have multiple we have a lot of ways to be able to mitigate that situation. I know if there's anything for you to add.

No. I'm sorry. I understand that you know, I understand you don't wanna Yeah. I know. Talk about it right out in the open, but I really appreciate any efforts that are expended to address that one vulnerability. And Yes. It's our Dropbox system, I think is is remarkable. I've only voted through the Dropbox. I don't think I've ever mailed it. I just use a Dropbox in my neighborhood. You make it very convenient. Thank you. Todd,

And very it may be worth I think we can probably add that the boxes that we saw that happening to elsewhere in the country are not the same boxes that we have here. Right.

I and I don't wanna be so secretive about that. I just, in our meeting I think that's fair. In our meetings with our we've with the previous administration, we had a very close relationship with the Department of Homeland Security and Cyber Information Security Agency. They pulled out from those, And that's the kind of crap that keeps me up at night. That's why it makes this a very hard role, but I think it's the most important time to be in this role. So yes. Another other I'm sorry. How about

the questions? Nope. You're go you're all good. Council member Cashman.

Thank you, madam chair. Thanks for the good work you and your team, John Clerk Lopez. You have a good team. It's it's, I'm proud of our election system that that people can be assured that their vote's gonna be counted and that their vote counts. It's important. So I think you you said you're looking at maybe three more box locations. So I'm wondering, I think you said you have 48 now. Yeah. 48. Over the past couple of years, are we increasing the number of boxes in voting centers? Have we had to reduce those because of budget? Where are we at with all that?

There there's a minimum requirement per voter per county that we have to adapt we have to meet for state law. Minimum requirement of boxes, minimum require requirement of VSPCs. And representative Gonzales Gutierrez knows about all this stuff. Those are minimums for statewide. We go above and beyond and also because we know that Denver serves the metro area region. Right? I talked about all those people come folks coming in who work in Denver, they can't afford to live in Denver. They we take their ballots. Right? So part of it is also our goal. We've doubled the amount of boxes. We're set to see 50 perhaps by November. That's the most in the region for any jurisdiction in I don't know how

many states. So we're we're con even in tight budget times, we're continuing to make it easier for people to vote?

They're budget efficient. I actually have proposed to the secretary of state's office for counties that start moving the culture of participation towards boxes and away from vote centers, that we reduce the amount of cost that it takes to keep vote centers open. And instead, you get a box. It's only that you have two individuals, a republican and democrat, going to empty out a few times a day every day for twenty two days as opposed to a fully staffed vote center for weeks. Right? So it would balance out. We're trying to do our best with it. We actually had this in our budget for the for the for the last go round as those two. Great. Thank you.

That's all, madam chair.

Great. Thank you. Council pro tem Romero Campbell followed

by council president Sandvall. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you for the presentation. You had mentioned that belts were going out to libertarians and unity. Is that like a threshold, or can you just talk a little bit more about that?

You wanna talk about it?

Sure.

Both of the minor parties that are participating were unable to come to a majority at their caucuses for each office. So the libertarians have one contest on their ballot, and the unity party has one contest on their ballot. Anybody well, unity or unaffiliated voters can opt to vote a unity ballot. An unaffiliated voter would have to show up in person to get that ballot, but only libertarians are allowed to vote in their primary. So the libertarian primary is closed, and the it's just they opted to do it.

They have to give the secretary of state seventy five days, I believe, to notify them. So it's not a huge increase because we didn't have to add envelopes happily. They'll go into the same envelope as the affiliated voters.

But I would just add that that is one of those unexpected, can't anticipate election costs that we talk about having contingency for sometimes. We don't know when that's gonna happen. We can do our best to guess, but it does add paper and printing costs for us.

That's been our biggest our our biggest change is the price of paper, mailing, and printing.

Which thank you. That leads me to my next question about I know there was I I guess in the primary, there isn't a blue book that goes out or is there? No. But for the general election that will happen in November There's have a different process that you're gonna be looking at? I know there was, like, you know, people submitting everything getting printed, not printed. Yeah. How what's your plan

for So anything that's Tabor required is a blue book. Tabor's will send out send that out from the state. Anything that's on our ballot in the on on the for municipal or county level that would trigger taper. Mhmm. We have to mail that that portion out to you. Anything else is his decision of our office administratively. We have not sent it out to everybody in the past two election cycles. We did that to save printing costs and to keep costs down overall. It's online for folks that wanna do that. The other part of that is that, as you know, we talked about this in in in previous, you know, meetings on the council when we looked at the Blue Book.

I'm restricted to making sure that the language for public input is only 500 words and it doesn't say nasty things about somebody's mother. That's all I can do to edit. I can't edit for facts. So what it ends up becoming is Facebook on paper, and we get a lot of misinformation at some as somebody who's been protecting against misinformation and really guarding misinformation in the elections realm or guarding against misinformation in the actions realm, it it makes me very sick and queasy knowing that we're actually printing misinformation, throwing things out that are not factual. So that is also a decision of of this council as well too because it is a ordinance that was created by a previous council to to have a Blue Book, a Denver Blue Book.

So what that looks like and how it moves forward and how it's paid for and everything else, I would love to continue the conversation. I know we've had these conversations about this before. But at the end of the day, we're we're the only county that has a county Blue Book. Right? It's not exactly apples and oranges compared to what they do at the state level when they have an independent agency that's able to look at that, summarize everything, fact check, and move forward.

They also have a lot more time. So the state Blue has Legislature. And the legislature ends. The state has a much longer runway to actually do the analysis that they do for the state Blue Book. We don't have that because you guys are sometimes referring to us very close to when the ballots have to be at the printer, and so do those blue books. So Great.

Thank you. Thank you, chair.

Great. Thank you. Council president Sandoval. Thank you. So

when it comes to Union Station in this last election cycle, I gained Commons Park, and they all used the Union Station one. So although, yes, it's like photography, like like iconic, would it be there? Great. Yeah. He set it up there and take a photo and then move it to the other side because, actually, the whole I lost West Colfax, which was a much bigger geography

Yeah.

To one precinct, which is Platt Platt Street. Okay. The that tower right across from Confluence, all Balfour, which is a huge redevelopment of senior living, the Glass House, and then the Flower Mill Lofts. And then what's happened as people have moved into Lower Highland and it's totally, like, redeveloped, they all a lot of those younger kiddos work and they walk because I'm on Platt Street.

Mhmm.

So I see them walking through the neighborhood and then they walk up and over. So there someone who sits on the downtown development authority, you don't have a lot of residences right where you are. Those residences are usually going to the one right there. They they're voting early because it's usually a older much older population. You don't actually have the younger population that we're trying to engage.

That's a pretty good group of voters, and I've talked to them as I've worked on the DDDA. What I have heard when since in the last two and a half, almost three years, since getting that new precinct is the need that they don't feel, like, connected to Highland, they don't feel connected to Scheidler, and they don't feel connected to Regis, and they don't go over into the Blair Caldwell. I don't know why. I'm not gonna talk about that, but whatever. But everyone, all that from the living on ice cream all the way to the consolidated

cost to

go to Station. They all cost to go to Union Station, all of them. And so none of them go like, if you think of Tejon, La Casita

Mhmm.

West, hardly any of go there. They all go down to Union Station. And so they all So

we need one before we before the bridge. Yeah. And so the For the bridge or in Platte? On Platt?

Where the where is that bridge? The Millennial Bridge? Mhmm. Right there. They all gather right there.

So the Millennials are crossing the Millennials?

Yeah. The Millennials are crossing because then they all work in Bermuda. They all Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

And then on Platt Street, what's it called? An oil and gas company went down there from British oil and gas. Mhmm. And so tons of people walked down there. So Platt so I think Okay. Sort of while you're putting the drop box, like, take a photo of it in front of your musician who cares. And then but but they would really

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, they would if you look at that, when I got that precinct and I lost, like, I think I lost five precincts to councilwoman Torres for one precinct in mine because it had such and that's when I Density. Yeah. And that's when I gained everything and had not

So you're looking at 418, four twenty, four twenty two, or maybe 421 in terms of those precincts coming over 512. Okay. 5512. That's something that and and I appreciate that, counsel, because that that's that's anecdotal evidence that we need.

And they're high propensity voters. Trust me. Those people at about four, that whole huge that resident

Oh, yeah.

Like, that's major.

And and we have and we have folks that go to whether it's, you know, Kappa Tower or Balfour or senior residences, we have our our our folks

that They're all able body. I meet with them a lot. They like to walk. They're all over there by eating meat. They go eat some fat

Whole Foods.

Well, it makes a lot of sense. So I think part of it is just figuring out on what side of the bridge it is before it hits Union Station.

Yeah. Check where that little Okay. Angels, those angel wings are. They all they all And

know that if if if anybody, if there are any sites, if there are something if if there are if there is anecdotal, you know, evidence that we can, you know, get infrastructure there and be able to do it and be compliant with state law, I'm happy to do it. Yeah.

And then one last thing about contingency, the need for quote unquote contingency.

Yes,

actually. We changed the rules. So city council, since you know, like, we changed the rules. We can do reappropriation. And so if you're forecasting that Yeah. We reappropriate

We appreciate that.

All, like, all over the time and all and Okay. We changed the rules. I think it was councilwoman Kneetch It was. Who changed the rules where actually city council can we didn't used to be we used to have to tell the administration for re appropriation. And now we can actually initiate it. We've never done it. Have we?

I don't think so.

Yep. I don't know. I'm looking at our attorney. We've never tried it. We've created the rule, but we've never rule done it. And so, like, contingency the way that contingency funds, they don't work like how they used to when we back in the day. Right. They just don't, especially under this administration. So I'm just saying that for forecasting, think about re appropriation and doing those using the other tools that we've actually created into the toolbox because all everyone I know in the city, all their contingency funds are gone. No one has contingency funds.

Like, we're scraping dollars out of the couch cushions to help pay for all of the things, especially in such a flat budget. So just wanted to remind you and remind the public and remind all of us that we do have that tool. I've talked to it with John about it and just never used it.

That's good to know. We we really appreciate that and especially now.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you. Councilwoman Gonzalez Gutierrez. Thank you, madam chair.

Just a quick question. When you said, you know, to that people should call you all first Yeah. If they notice some kind of activity that is concerning at some of the polling places or even the drop off locations, I'm guessing, as well. Are you advertising that? Because Yes. I know in the past, I've been part of, you know, groups that you set up a network Yeah. And you're driving around checking on the places, making sure there's no concerning activities taking place. But at that point, like, yeah, they never I just wanna make sure, like, that's being put out there somewhere so that it's a it's well known so that people know to call you.

Yeah. We we're we have it on all our our materials. It's part of our our three core priorities for this time around leading up to November. And and part of that is just I mean, we're out in the communities every single week, every day as much as we possibly can, you know, doing these kind of presentations on social media. They're doing it to the best of our best of our ability right now. But yeah. We we we

also share that with all of our partners that are part of the Denver Elections Advisory Committee who are a lot of the other nonprofits that work in this area. And then we also work very closely with other city agencies. So, like, if 311 gets calls, if 911 gets calls, they know to refer those to us and to our call centers that we can handle those. And while I'm at it, I just wanna give props to the office of emergency management who helps us coordinate a lot of these tabletop scenarios and to coordinate the other agencies to make sure they know to be sending folks to us as well. So

And I'm thinking, like, the broader public. Right? And to your Yeah. Example, somebody, they posted on social media, and then it just blew up. Right? Then if the broader public has the information, like, it's great that the state agencies have it.

So I'm gonna ask you if

this that the city agencies have it, but I think having it out there to the broader public and making sure that, you know, similar to, like, some of the other hotlines that are utilized out there in community, you know, and then even us as, you know, on our pages, we can share that information. I think it's sharing it out to the broader public and making sure because I didn't know that.

It's it's on our website. We we try to really push it out there, and we're doing a lot of stuff on the ground as well too for the folks who are not necessarily on the web all the time. Right? So, I mean, we've been in every single nook and cranny that we can in the city. I think we had, like, over five, you know, 500 different contacts, like, throughout the year that we were able to to do with our team. So we're doing our best with that one. But yeah. Okay. Always always always a very good input received because that's something that we we really wanna be careful. Okay. And and that's not to that's not to diminish, councilman, our partners that are doing election protection and being on the ground in that because it is people's eyes and ears that we wanna that we want out there. If there's anything suspicious, please contact us, you know, before you go on social media.

So And

our call center that we have is man mostly by humans, and it's consistently ranked the best reviewed call center in the city.

All right.

That's it. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Thank you. Councilmember Torres, you in or

you out? I know. I'm scared. I did have a question. Martin Luther King Junior Library. Yeah. Do we fund that or does the Arapahoe County?

Three of us. So it's three it's it's three of our agencies. What we did is knowing knowing that we have a gap out there in three counties. It's Arapahoe County's actual facility, so it's their it's Arapahoe County. We partner with Adams, Arapahoe, to have a first of its kind three county vote center with all the It's two years old.

Okay.

But, yeah, we it has been a tremendous help, and it's something we won a national award for.

So That's great. One thing I'll just flag for you, it's in the bond to put a colocated housing and library site on East Colfax. So, hopefully, you can look to that as a facility.

Do you know about where? Is it No.

I think they still have to determine where.

That's about the RFP.

And and yeah.

And then

You know, the the I'm at my wit's end with with with Wells Fargo. And I think the intent has been always from the row people at the rows to see this happen. And to have it stalled for a bunch of BS is ridiculous to me. And it in at a time like this where we actually we want people to have access to the polls. We don't have anything else along that along that area where where we can really target and put down infrastructure.

If it's a camera, that's why you see all those orange little halo looking cameras in our lot because those are what we deploy if we don't have a camera. Right? So, yeah, I appreciate that. And then the other one, councilwoman, is it might be on your radar is that when the Westwood Rec Center opens up, we're gonna we're gonna move the box or add an additional box at Westwood Rec.

Yeah. I think it's either one is fine. On the blue book that you mentioned, I honestly like, it gives me heartburn every time it comes out. And if we can't figure out whether it's timing wise or accountability wise, who actually makes it a real honest blue book Yeah. We just need to eliminate it.

Amazing.

I think it does more harm than good. Mhmm. So I don't know where my colleagues stand on that. But I just every time I see it come out, people really do assign honesty to it because it's got our city seal on it. And I just think it contributes to misinformation. I couldn't agree more. Thank you.

Thank you.

Great. Thank you. A couple of last minute questions from me. First one is, have you talked to the Colfax Mayfair Business Improvement District?

Yes. And

we couldn't find anything in there?

So there's a couple there's a couple sites. I'm actually meeting with them tonight.

Oh, good. Okay.

I told you we're just taking this on the road. We're meeting with them tonight. Unfortunately, the the spot that they they have picked is not an ADA required. It it it doesn't meet the verifications. The other one was New Freedom Park. Yeah. But the other but the problem with the park is that we would have to have infrastructure on the light on that light pole, and it doesn't necessarily carry the wattage or the Wi Fi to be able to do that. Right. So it that that area is of great concern for us because it demonstrates a huge need. The other part of that is just north that that North Side Of Colfax is one of our highest propensity voting areas in the city by mail drop box.

So it's so it just north of it is one story. South is a completely other. And and for us, having a Dropbox there on Quebec's would be helpful for that area. Yeah.

I mean, you and I have talked about this for years. Yes. That used to be my district. Yeah. Although from Quebec West is still to Colorado is still my district. It is such a tough one, and I'm I feel your frustration for Wells Fargo. I I would it would be fantastic if there was a space within the Colfax Mayfair Business Improvement District area, Colfax to 14th, kind of Monaco East Elm, that would be really valuable. It's still not really far enough west. Yeah. I mean, east.

What about it's not my district, so I don't know it that well, but there's that little, like, pizza place and bakery that's up. Maybe it's, like, MLK. No. It's that's too far north. Maybe it's, like, Montview and Leiden.

I probably know any pizza place in the city, but I don't know what you're talking about there.

Okay. There's, like, a little I don't know it very well because

I don't spend a ton

of time up on that side, but there's, like, a little commercial area within the residential area in Park Hill.

Yeah. I mean, it could be. I mean, we can look at that.

We're happy to go anywhere you ever if you ever drive by a place and you wanna This would be great. Send me a text and say, you should look at this. Send our team out

to go. Well, I hope that it's I hope your conversation with Colfax Mayfair Business Improvement District goes well because at least that would be and that stop at Monaco and Colfax is yes. I see you. Is the number one it's intended to be the number one most used spot kind of along

Oh, okay.

The Colfax BRT line because that's where the grocery stores are.

The other

grocery stores there are King Soopers and a Safeway.

Councilwoman, the other thing that I'm betting on, if I may Yeah. Is the partnership that we have and we established with RTD and to have our infrastructure and RTD property, like Southmore Station. Southmore Station in your in your area, councilwoman, is the number one next to district three police station, and it's number two. They always go back and forth to the most used boxes. We have to send the our ballot security teams out multiple times a day to empty that box. So as that infrastructure builds on Colfax, you know, it's our intent to engage RTD to make sure that we can continue the agreement that we have. Yeah. We would maintain the box. The liability would stay with us and them continuously, and that they're monitored so that any one of those stations could potentially have a box.

Yeah. That would be great. Okay. In terms of the date for last mailing Mhmm. So I am one of those people who, like, mails in my ballot. I actually put a stamp on it and mail it in.

Choice? I

can't really I it's a choice. I don't know why. I I don't. But I like the ballot tracker thing that you guys have where it's

like tracks.

Yeah. I really like that. So I'm curious what the last day is. I think you said it was, like, eight days, but I am not.

I don't

know what that means.

Yeah.

Like, what is the last date to be on mute

by phone? Election day. Yeah. So for this election

now I have

to Twenty third.

Yeah. Thank you.

Twenty third.

Twenty third. Okay. Do you have or does your communications team have for us newsletter, social, all of that stuff? Can you please be like, send that to us as those days come out. I feel like our staff spends a lot of time tracking it down, your website is fantastic. But we live in the world of information coming from reels and not from, like, websites anymore. And so it would be super helpful for my aides. I'll just use I statements for my aides if we could get that information in real time, just a quick email. Hey, everyone. Here's something for you to post on your social or share from our social today.

We'd be glad to.

That would be fantastic. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. Council, pro tem Romer El Campbell, did you want

to get back in? Yeah. Just real quick. Thank you, madam chair. The Hampton Box for at the Hampton Bridge Library, you know it's under construction. I really appreciate that you were able to get a box out there. It is the location. I think the consistency of having it there is good.

Agreed.

I don't know what the construction it's a little chaotic right there right now, and you were able to get the camera. Much appreciated. Just I I don't know if it's going to be too chaotic there right now with the construction because they have all of those big Sure. Trucks. Maybe it's the communication with the construction

group. It's not in my favorite place right now. But like you, we think it's important that it stays there. And then after the renovation, it will go back where it was. We are concerned about it, but the library has been such a great partner with us.

We bought those camera trailers with a grant two years ago, and they've been really invaluable for us. And in fact, we've lent them to the library during non election period so that during their construction sites, they have a they have eyes on their construction site. Mhmm. We do watch those cameras. And so if we if we find issues, we'll certainly send someone out. We also partner, of course, with PPD very closely. And if we end up with a traffic issue like we do, for example, at Highland Rec Center, it's always a traffic jam. They will send someone

as well. And councilman, in that area, we're also looking at another partnership or the colocation with Arapahoe County that's close to to where you're at at as well too. So we wanna we wanna fill in these gaps, and and, you know, we've been doing this. The the I I cannot tell you enough just how poetic what poetic justice it was to be able to have the three counties working together for the first time at the MLK junior library considering what what he fought for. Right? And so it's that. It's Glendale. It's Southwest. It's it's in any one of these areas that we wanted to partner with you. So, you know, definitely, your input there is is very well taken and appreciated. We appreciate that.

Sure. And we we are colocated for the general election at Cook Park with Arapaho just because that whole area is so in and out. Denver Arapahoe, Denver Arapahoe. And we will be co locating at the Elwes May Library, which is not too far. It's Florida and Leedsdale.

The other location, if, like, it gets too chaotic at Hampton, would be maybe a partnership with Shoemaker Elementary just because it's right off of Hampton.

Yeah.

And it's in that kind of nexus right next to the Ness neighborhood also where we have low voter turnout just up.

We try to avoid elementary schools for safety. But I I agree that that is a prime Yeah. No. It is. It's a beautiful location.

There's there's one part of me that absolutely believes that, you know, and and this is true with our young voters and they will they'll they'll they have identified this in in a lot of our conversations is that they vote, which they they only vote at 17%. They vote only if somebody in the likelihood of a young person voting is because somebody in their household votes, and they've been engaged in a civic process since they were young. I would love to have our drop boxes at elementary schools because it teaches them. It shows them. It exposes them.

Do people know where their mailbox is? Do they know where their election box is? Right? However, DPS is really, really risk adverse to having people who do not belong on a school campus like that. It it's kind of a, you know Yeah. I yeah. Yeah.

We can talk. Alright. Thank you. Okay. Great. One other thing I will just say, I wanted to say thank you to your team. So council members, if you don't know, not only do we send a letter, a welcome letter to every new home purchaser in our or new property purchaser in District 5, once a month. We also send a letter to everyone who turns 18 in our district, and we do that once a month. And we get that information. We send them a pocket constitution, and we send them vote because have you met me?

And we we send them voter registration form. And we get that information in the voter registration form from the clerk's office after they turn 18, not before. But I just wanna say thank you because I can't tell you the number of texts left because my kids are juniors and seniors now. Right? So all their friends are turning 18. I can't tell you the number of parents who have texted me and said, like, this is absolutely fantastic. Thank you for sending this. Because it it it doesn't that kind of contact doesn't happen. And that is something from a city council office that is, like, yes, it takes staff time on the clerk's office, and it takes staff time for my staff to print them out and stuff them and all the things. Worth it.

Totally worth it. And so if you don't do it, I wanna talk my staff. I'm sure they're happy to give you the letter that we send.

I'll do it.

You do it too. Yeah. Yeah. And it's really, really meaningful, and we get that information from you all. So I want us to just say thank you too for your partnership in that. I think there's just it is one more way that we can reach our younger voters and get them involved. Julia turns 18 in October, and she's dying to vote in the November election. So, you know, I think it's really I just wanna say thank you and acknowledge the work that you guys put into providing that for us. It's a big deal.

Councilwoman, I have three decades of staff in my office that have that are tried and true and that have done everything possible to make the elections division in Denver one of the best in the country. Yes.

Well, you are, and I appreciate it. Alright. With that, we have two items on consent. No one has called off, and we're adjourned. Thanks for joining us.