Public Amenities Committee - Regular Meeting

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Good morning, everybody. Welcome to mayor council. Thank you so much for coming. We will start with introductions. Order is restored in the universe. The distinguished gentleman to my right is back in his right place. Would you like to start the introductions? And I wanna

say it's good to be here, ma'am. My name is Paul Cashman. Represent South Denver, District 6.

Boom. Record.

He was working.

He was out doing council member things.

Not doing council member stuff.

Part of the time. Congrats on your national championship.

Yes. Thank you so much.

I am sir Hardy,

one of

your council members at large. Amanda Sawyer, District 5.

Prescience, Denver's. Perfect 10.

Laura Vidres, Lucky, District 7.

Darryl Watson, fine, District 9. Good morning, Serana Gonzalez Gutierrez, one of your other councilmember at large.

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

Great. Welcome. Let's open if there are any announcements folks would like to share.

Councilman Hudd's. Thank you, mayor. I bet you know what I'm about

to talk about. I'm excited for you to talk about.

Well, so the Democratic National Convention site selection committee is on their way to the city center at this point. Right? They've Correct. They've arrived Coming in today. Looking at the a line here momentarily if they are not already on the a line. I I just wanna thank you for saving up our three hundred days of sun for August 2028. You know, we're just giving them a little bit of, you know, part of Denver that people don't normally see as in clouds. And so I'm I'm really excited to to have conversations with them, talk about how wonderful the city of Denver is and how ready we are to to host the DNC in August 2028.

Thank you so much for your leadership, and thank you for I I will go with the strategy of we are we are banking Sundays. Maybe showing you that it can still snow in May. Where else can you do that? You know? That's an exciting, unique experience in Denver. Other announcements? Yes. Councilor Obidres.

Thank you. I wanted to share that this Saturday, there will be we will be working with the Rocky Mountain High Institute for Career Development at Columbine Towers. That will be this Saturday at 1PM. If you'd like to join us there, I also wanna share that I will be joining the mayor's bicycle advocacy group in District 7 for a bike ride next Saturday at 08:45AM. We will gather. We'll leave rollout at 9AM. We'll meet at Rebel Bread Bakery at 675 South Broadway. So join us for that bike ride. And I also wanted to say happy Cinco de Mayo to everyone. Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Cinco de Mayo marks the eighteen sixty two of Puebla where Mexican farmers, forces led under president Benito Juarez, the first indigenous president of Mexico, and they defeated the French army. That helped The United States because the French army didn't then come and assist the South in the civil war. And so that is an important holiday here in The United States for those reasons. I wanna elevate that history because people get really confused on what's included in my legs. That's all I need to

do, mayor.

Thank you so much for educating us and celebrating. Great way to do both. Councilwoman Sawyer.

Thank you, mister mayor. Really excited for George Washington High School. We have another set of state champions at George. I did not know this this was a thing. Super Smash Brothers Ultimate is like a state level video game competition, and we won it this year again for the second year in a row. So

Speech and debate and video

games. Right?

You have everything.

Here's the thing.

Like, I am, as you

know, technology, not my friend, super old school, and they didn't have Super Smash Brothers Ultimate on the original Nintendo NES from 1984, which is the only one I know how to play. So respect to the kids who can use the controllers with all the things because I don't my brain does not work that way. But, yeah, really exciting. It's so great to see a group of kids finding something that they're passionate about, that they're good at, that is, you know, different and unique, and they won the state championship in it. So congratulations

to them.

Congrats. Super Smash Brothers

Yeah.

State champs. Well done. That is awesome. Councilman Watson, can you top that?

No. But it's gonna be fun. We have our monthly community office hours in District 9. Every month, we visit a small business. We make sure we encourage neighbors to come out and support that business and then come on and share their thoughts as to what we should be doing in District 9. And so it will be this Friday, May 8 from one to 02:30PM at Lou's Italian Specialties, 3357 now North Downing Street. So come out of 5 Points for some great food and some great talk and to support a small business during small business week, month, and year. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Other announcements? Councilman Cashman.

Yeah. Thank you, mayor. I want to give my thanks to our police chief, Ron Thomas. The chief and I, last week, early last week, were at a conference at the NYU School of Law in New York on right sizing traffic enforcement. And the chief talked about why he decided to put a policy into effect, urging his officers not to pull people over for minor infractions, referred to as pretextual stops because it's just a pretext.

You stop someone with a broken taillight in hopes of finding something insidious going on. And the data shows that they almost never do find any contraband, outstanding warrants, weapons, etcetera. But when the officers, spend their time, addressing, public safety traffic measures, speeding, reckless driving, etcetera, they end up the percentage of times where they do find something meaningful increases dramatically. So it was a great couple of days. I really appreciate the chief taking the time and appreciate his leadership, in that area.

We are very proud him and grateful for you being there because I think it is a strategy that they've discovered that really works. Council president.

Just wanna say thanks to Parks and Rec. We had an amazing ground Ripman cutting at Larasa Park on Friday. Yes. And then we had 7,000 bikers

show up at Larasa Park in

the Chicano pride ride. And I heard that through that group, they raised a $158,000 for scholarships. Yeah. That will go directly to Latino and Latinos Latinas in Denver. And then just wanna give an early happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there who make a difference in our lives. I couldn't be where I am. I know you I talk about my mom all the time. And one of the outside of working in this job, one of the best things I've ever done is have children. So happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

Thank you so much. Anyone else for announcements before we move forward? Okay. Great. Well, we do have two items on executive session today. We do not have a general session calendar. Wanted to just check-in for folks who wanted to share updates and announcements, but I will now entertain a motion to move us into an executive session pursuant to DRMC two thirty four a sections one, three, six, and seven for purpose of discussing the settlement of pending litigation and legal advice related thereto and federal response

great day.