Public Works Committee - Regular Meeting

I don't pick the food when I come to these restaurants. They pick for me. This is not what I was expecting. Guess what this is? House made Spam. Never seen house made Spam anywhere before. We got a crispy rice cake. Interesting combination. We got a little bit of peach over here. Of course, perfect for this time of the year. Holy cow. That's freaking delicious, it really is. I gotta be honest with you, I'm a huge fan of Chef Russ here. He is doing some really creative dishes. This is a chilled buckwheat chatara. Never heard of that, don't know what a chatara is, but I love cold noodles in the summer, just so refreshing. And then this mushroom brodo right here, and it's got poached bay scallops in it, cucumbers, got some radishes. Like it's 98 degrees outside. I don't want to eat a hot pasta. A nice chilled pasta. Delightfully refreshing. Absolutely need to put Apple Blossom on your restaurant list to visit. And there's lots of opportunities because they're open for breakfast, lunch, dinner. They have two happy hours, an early and a late night. Come check them out as soon as possible. Three States Revival opened in the Hotel Indigo a little less than a year ago. Absolutely stunning restaurant in the conversation for best looking restaurant in all of Colorado. And what they do here, small plates, tapas from around the area, not just Spain, but they do the whole Mediterranean. So it's a very beverage focused restaurant. Gorgeous, stunning drinks right here. This actually somehow is a gin and tonic. You ever seen anything like that? And then I like this little Prosecco here pouring into this right here. Nice touch. They brought me a little bit of everything, and that's what they do here. It's about tapas. It's about sharing. So you can try a lot of different things, which is the way I like to eat. We got patatas bravas. We got the salt cod right here. Corn and tomato salad. And then some bas crudo. Corn, tomato, onion, a little cilantro. Perfect little summer dish right here. I haven't had a good tomato in so long. It reminds me of the farm that my grandparents had in upstate New York. And I'd go pick the tomatoes right off the vine and just eat it right there. That's how good this is. All right, trying this crudo right here. So much attention to detail. On each little plate. Super fresh. If you've never had crudo before, it's sushi. Just like sashimi, without the rice. Don't be afraid of it. We can get good fish here in Colorado. I think we haven't had patatas bravas here since we were in Breckenridge at Mimo's. I think if you're doing a tapas place, you've got to do these. I don't think you're a tapas place without it. Outstanding, just bursting with flavor. Get into this sole cod right here. Another really traditional Spanish tapas dish right here. That's a 10. We got a 10. This is one of their signature dishes. I bet this never comes off the menu. This restaurant is absolutely a must visit. Put this on your list. Come here as soon as possible. Of course, the other four were pretty amazing too. We'll see you soon for another episode of Restaurants Near Me. Let's eat.

Hey Denver, it's time for this bi-weekly meeting of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of Denver City Council. Join us for the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee starting now.

All right, good afternoon, and welcome to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Today is Wednesday, June 17, 2026. My name is Chantel M. Lewis. I'm the Council President for District 8, and I'm excited to chair this committee. We will start with a round of introductions, and I'll start with my left. Good afternoon.

Flora Alvidrez with Lucky District 7.

Good afternoon. Darrell Watson from District 9. Good afternoon. Paul Cashman, South Denver, District 6.

Hello. Chris Hines, Denver's Perfect 10.

Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver's District 2.

Great, thank you. So we have one action item from Den. I'll allow you all the opportunity to introduce yourselves so you can get into your presentation, and then we have a quick briefing with Councilman Watson and Front Range Passenger Whale.

Phil Washington, CEO of Denver International Airport.

Chris Herndon, Chief Commercial Officer. Brandon Sowers, Senior Director of Concessions.

Hi, Pamela Deschamps, Senior Vice President of Concessions.

Thank you, Madam Chair and committee. I wanted to kick this off with three highlights that you will hear in this presentation. The first is we heard you from last week on these three items that I'll highlight. The first is there was discussion about the goal. we have mandated historically underutilized business participation as a best value in this particular solicitation. with more to come when we get to the design phase. So we are actually exceeding what was in the previous contract by mandating the first piece. And so we want you to know that and we have codified that in the contract and the vendor has agreed to that. The second big piece is you're going to hear about revenue that will come to DEN and the city as well. That $184 million that you will hear about will be received by DEN as rent over the next 10 years. Over and above that $184 million that will be received by Dan and the city. In addition to that, 16 million of that will go to the city in the form of taxes to the city that will be realized by the city. That $184 million is very, very important that will be received by us. that will create jobs for your constituents, our constituents, and increasing generational wealth in our communities through that ten-year period. And then the third piece, as we prepare for the presentation, is in terms of the procurement and all of that and the evaluation, We see this as a best value for DEN and the city as well as we go through that process. You will hear that in the presentation, but those three things is what I wanted to highlight. So I'm going to move this over to Ms. Pam Duchant to walk through and also highlight when you get to that slide the three things that I brought up.

Thank you. Thank you, committee chair. Thank you, members of council for having us back today to talk about the JC Decoe contract. As Phil mentioned, it's, go ahead, Brendan. over the 10 years, $184 million minimum to DEN. I want to draw attention to the next slide. The minimum annual guarantee that we've been talking about, that 184 is illustrated here in purple on this chart. The orange that you see is the percent rent above the minimum that we spoke about last time and again today, that 72.5% percent rent. So there have been questions about whether or not percent rent drastically drops off after the $30 million threshold, which is shown in the chart in the red line here. So that red line is the $30 million threshold. At no point over the 10 years will percent rent drop below 72.5%. What that different bracket, if you will, looks like is anything above $30 million will shift into the bracket of 62.5% rent. Now that doesn't mean we're not still getting the 72.5 below that threshold, but at that time, anything above $30 million will go to the new bracket. Go ahead. Services provided under this contract include the over $16 million investment that we spoke about, and this includes the installation of all new advertising assets, removal of existing legacy assets that no longer serve DEN through the new program, the advertising sales component of the Pena welcome sign, and managing and selling all advertising at DEN. This is part of Vision 100, which is woven into the DNA of everything that we do in the growing art infrastructure. JCDecaux will add new digital advertising assets, and again, remove all the assets which no longer serve us in our less is more vision moving forward into the future. Community outreach. So this contract went through not just the traditional outreach process that we do for all of our competitive process, all of our competitive procurements at DEN. We actually did even more. As you can see on the slide, we conducted in-person outreach for each of the major airport media companies, taking flight meeting. This is a monthly meeting that the airport hosts for upcoming opportunities. 411 attendees were there. We did make this pre-proposal meeting mandatory because of the caliber of the contract. We wanted to make sure that everyone that was going to bid was required to be present so that they could ask questions in real time along with any other bidders. And then three separate site visit events were held in April of last year. I'd like to hand it over to Christopher Herndon to talk about small business.

And so this was a sticking point where we had a pretty in-depth conversation a couple of weeks ago. So currently with the Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, ACDBE, we as DIN cannot have current ACDBE goals because of the federal government's requirement to recertify. And that's just the reality and truth of a place where we are currently right now. Which was the sticking point with many members of council, how do we verify that the awardee will have small business participation in this contract. So over the past two weeks, we went back to the awardee and said, we're going to have a contract obligation that you are committing to utilize a small disadvantaged business. And so they said yes, so it's now in writing, enforceable, that Jay Perez and Associates will be the exclusive provider to perform maintenance, cleaning, and repair work under this agreement. There's no misunderstanding of, will this happen? The answer is now yes, because it's codified in the contract that's coming forward to council. So that is, so we can now say, yes, there will be small, disadvantaged business participation in that. That's part one. So secondly, the contract goes through city council and is awarded. The awardee has to do design and construction scope to DISBO, Division of Small Business and Opportunity. They will submit their scope of work to DISBO DISBO comes back and provides mandated goals, MWBE goals, for design and construction. So there will be two avenues where this awardee will be utilizing small disadvantaged business. One contractually that we have now in writing. And then two, post-awarding, it will submit their scope of work to DSBO and then there will be a second set of MWBE goals for design and construction. So those two opportunities where we sit before you and say, yes, there will be MWBE small business participation throughout this contract. And so we go to the next slide. I spoke to this, but we didn't have this in writing because there was always talk about specific to one aspect. This evaluation criteria is multifaceted. And again, I spoke to this, but we didn't have it in writing. Wanted you to see these were the multiple evaluation criteria that we utilized when we were going through the process to choose an awardee for this contract. And yes, I added that up. It adds to 100. So as people talk about particular aspects of it, finance is one that we always stick to. But as you can see, debt, equity, technology, et cetera, these were the multiple criteria that we used when we were going through the process to award this contract. And I'll turn it back to Pam.

Thank you, Chris. And to wrap up, we wanted to go over our selection process again. It was indeed a competitive request for proposal with three qualified bidders. The selection panel made up of various city and county of Denver stakeholders. This includes someone from the concessions team, the advertising industry, the marketing team, business technology, excuse me, and a financial subject matter expert. These interviews, our traditional interviews, are anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. These particular interviews were three hours long based on the substance of what we have going on here. And the ordinal ranking is listed on the slide. Contract overview. JCDecaux was founded in 1964 and has become one of the largest out-of-home media companies in the world, operating in 153 airports across 38 countries. Important to point out to you today is that JCDecaux North America, these particular partners, are headquartered in New York City. JCDecaux has implemented first-class advertising programs in nine of the 20 largest international airports. And furthermore, they are partnering with J. Perez & Associates, an experienced small business firm who will be providing the maintenance and operations services for the program as we discussed earlier. And that concludes our presentation. We're here to seek the approval of the contract with J.C. Ditko and are happy to answer any questions you have.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time. We have a few members in the queue. Councilman Himes, first in the queue.

Thank you, Committee Chair. Thank you for bringing this back and for the additional information, including the MWBE selection. Thank you also for giving the evaluation criteria in slide eight. I noticed the second bottom line item is DEN Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Plan. Is this... Was this the original, oh, there we go. Was this the original list of values and weights for each value for the RFP for all the vendors? Yes. Yes. So how did that work, the equity, that 15%, when, as Mr. Herland rightly says, we've got... an administration that is very frustrating at the federal level for many people, including me, that you cannot wait certain criteria, but yet you are waiting certain criteria. So how did you do that?

What's Tegan on?

Hi. Come to the microphone and introduce yourself so that we know who you are.

Hi, good afternoon. Is this on? Yes. My name is Tegan Kassane. I'm the Senior Vice President of Business Operations for the airport. Thanks for inviting us here today. So to speak to that question, this is part of the weighting that's applied to every procurement that the airport solicits. That is one of the ways that we determine best value. Who do we want to do work with? And so this particular section includes approximately seven to 10 questions that ask how these proposers are embedding EDIA principles within the fabric of their organization. So it could be mentorship programs. It could be apprenticeship. It could be requiring that every employee complete race and social justice training. And so they're not based off of race and gender, which is, I believe, the components that are in question related to the interim final rule. Instead, it's more qualitative in nature and it asks, how are you as a business prioritizing this work in how you support the community? And then those responses are compared against one another as part of the scoring criteria.

So was the RFP issued and then midstream the federal government?

Yes.

How did that... So I want to preserve the sanctity of the RFP process, right? But yeah, you kind of had to switch horses anyway. And so I guess I'm direct to Washington. So I guess how does that, I didn't really ask the question, any question at all. So how about I ask a question? How does that work when you have to change horses in Smith Street?

The RFP had already closed by the time the interim final rule was launched on October 3rd. So we had already closed the process. Which means, correct me if I'm wrong, none of this changed.

That is true. The vendor had already been selected by that point. Well, the solicitation period had closed. And so then it was moving into vendor selection negotiation and the other phases of the contract procurement.

So the RFP had closed, but then because the edict came down from the federal level, when you were awarding the contract, you then could not say 2% will be guaranteed to medicine associates or any vendors. Am I getting that right?

Yes, because they weren't recertified. So in theory, we didn't have a pool for which they could say we can collaborate with this firm. And so it was this period of ambiguity that landed right smack dab in the middle of that negotiation.

I guess the nature of my question is I'm trying to, you know, we got a letter. You talked about the letter. We got a subsequent letter. The nature of the questions are, was the RFP process somehow tarnished by the edict from the federal level? It doesn't really sound to me like that is the case.

No. It was not tarnished. As I said in one of my highlights, we, as a best value provision, asked the, in this case, JC, to commit to, not a goal, but a firm, a historically underutilized business, coming in as a value for us to include a small business in this contract. So it was a best value kind of thing. We value Goal or no goal, we value a small business being a part of this, and so we, in effect, mandated that, and the contractor agreed to that, thus the codification in the contract right now.

Just going down that vein just a little bit more, making sure that the sanctity process is preserved, you would have asked that of any chosen vendor? Yes. Because we asked that of you.

Absolutely. This is a value here locally for the city and Denver International Airport. Okay.

Thank you for mentioning best value 18 times. We'll have more conversations about best value in the near future. Thank you. Thank you, committee chair.

Thank you. Councilwoman Alvarez. Thank you so much. I appreciate you all coming back and having a more firm commitment. What I didn't understand is that commitment from the ACDBE side or the MWBE side?

It's actually, it's MWBE, that's automatic. That goal will be established once the contract is executed. What we're talking about is a small business partnership, since we can't technically count ACDBE. And does that answer your question? Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, if I understand the question, this is a historically underutilized business, small business, being included in this solicitation, regardless of whether it's a goal or not. It is a value for this contractor and for us to include a business and we're saying yes, do that. And so goal or no goal, we're saying that we think that this is important and so we included it in the contract.

Up to what percentage it is solid percentage set aside for this underutilized business for this phase of it.

It is the same percentage that was in the previous contract. At a little over 2% or so, and the follow on will be what Mr. Herndon mentioned construction focusing on.

yes with the advertising when you were here previously it was up to two percent and i apologize i didn't wasn't able to take the briefing this week it's been very busy i mean but i um so i'm not sure if that language was changed it was up to two percent and in the slide i read the same thing up to two percent this is a solid um two percent or whatever it is uh in the contract i don't believe it's up to anything it's a solid figure and i think

that language, not to exceed, could be somewhat misleading because it can paint the picture of that's as high as the goal's ever gonna get. That just means the goal that the airport, and we should have the team answer these questions formally, the goal apply that we apply. for ACDBE when it comes back, if it comes back, won't exceed 2%. So we can be clear with our partner, the goal we apply won't be 2%. That doesn't mean JCDecaux is not going to far, far exceed that. It could be 50%. So that's not a cap. And may I bring our goals subject matter expert?

Hello, everybody. Sean Smith. I'm the Senior Vice President of Culture and Strategy. So, ACDB program falls under my purview. So, what we did here is essentially given ourselves a future opportunity to set a goal in addition to requiring that same firm that was initially proposed to be required throughout the duration of the contract to provide the goods and services component. So we're, in effect, creating two opportunities to have the small business and ensure that they are actually performing the work that was proposed. It was part of the negotiation. It was part of the proposal from JC to co. So by doing this, we're not just saying, you must do it because it's best value. We are also saying, in the future, we may come back and we can also set an additional goal beyond what we're already requiring of you. So we're giving ourselves a lot more room to sort of force JC Dakota to comply with our best value and what we believe is the right thing to do.

Okay, since you're the expert in the ACDBE, are you aware of anyone re-qualifying post the decision to be certified?

So we won't have that answer until the full pool of about 160 firms has been fully evaluated. And that's the point.

Who's evaluating this?

My team is.

you're evaluating 160 applications to become a certified firm right now?

That's correct. So of the original ACDBE pool of firms we had, they were provided the opportunity to request recertification. We had about 160 of them said, yes, I'd like to recertify. So we're working with them right now to deliver. They need to deliver to us the paperwork, basically, that's required to do that. And it takes some iterations to get that done. So we're working really closely with them to get that done. Once all 160 have been evaluated, we'll submit that to the FAA or to DOT and we'll say, hey, you know, this is done. This is who's being recertified under criteria that is no longer presumptively looking at gender or race as a disadvantage.

What is your estimated timeline on that?

So right now, to get the pool done, we're estimating Q3. And then there's some additional steps and FAA approvals that will be required. And unfortunately, it's on their timeline. So I am aiming, I'm hoping that we'll have this done certainly third or fourth quarter. We're going to try to get it done sooner if we can get FAA to help us out.

Okay, that's helpful, I appreciate that.

Sure, and can I add one thing too? This is happening all over the country, right?

You first told me about this and I know it's important to you, Mr. Washington. Absolutely. So I appreciate that.

Yes, and I would venture to say, just in my conversations with my colleagues and counterparts in the aviation space and in the transit space too, that we are, I believe, ahead of other agencies around the country in the reevaluation that leads to the reconstitution, the pool. But what we're saying in the meantime is, as a best value, we think, and it's important for us, that you do this other thing as a best value. So that is why we made this a requirement.

And where was that requirement in these eight criteria and percentages? So then it wasn't weighted when you're evaluating the proposals?

It wasn't, but we would do the same thing with any contractor. As again, to say this is important to us as an entity, that requirement or not, we think that you should do this for the good of the airport and the city.

One more question. Why not wait until this is complete and keep the current contract going so that we can have a goal and have it waited?

I think, and I'll ask my colleagues to chime in if they so choose, but we have gone through the solicitation. It was on the timeline. And I think if we delay that, it would be a disservice for the city and also the contractors that prepared their proposals for upwards of a year or so. in preparing those. So we feel strongly that we should stick to the timeline.

I find it hard to believe, and maybe it is possible, that this rule change didn't affect who ended up getting this contract.

Councilwoman, if I may, because we had gone through the entire process before the interim final rule dropped, as Tegan mentioned. So we had submitted the proposals, we got our responses back from the three, we went through the entire design criteria. So we had chosen an awardee then the rule dropped so that in any way did not impact the criteria everyone's the middle and then choosing who should be awarded before that's why we we do not believe that with the changes of the interim final rule it impacted who was chosen who received this award okay i appreciate that that's all i have thank you

Thank you, Madam Chair. Let me pile on the 2% thing. Because, Phil, I think the main contract does say up to a maximum of 2%. But I just want to make sure that's clarified. That means we cannot set a goal under the contract. We can't set a goal that's higher than 2%. That doesn't mean, as Pam said, that the concessionaire can't exceed that and probably would. In fact, I think the Clear Channel, the concessionaire right now, has significantly exceeded that. The 2%, have they not?

Correct, correct.

Any idea what they've achieved?

Yes.

You can go off the end.

I just may.

Under the current contract, they're at 2.02%. Under the current contract that's operating today, it's 2.02% is what they've obtained.

But what level have they achieved? What percentage have they achieved? They've achieved 2.02%. Really? I thought it was higher than that. Anyway, but there's nothing by setting the goal at 2%. that prohibits them from wildly exceeding that if that were to happen but it does say up to a maximum of two percent in the contract so we're not setting a goal of two percent there but i did read through it yesterday thank you for sending it and i read the exhibit or the attachment that was signed by the company and by perez that committed to two percent sort of as a codicil to that Right? That's a good term. So what I'm wondering is, If FAA were to look at this, or DOT were to look at this, they say, well, how can you set a goal? Because we haven't approved your ACDBEs yet. You haven't recertified everybody. You have a contract that says they're committing to 2%. How can that pass muster with the feds? What's your view on that?

Listen, I am not a lawyer, and I don't want to be a lawyer. Neither do I. Neither do half the lawyers. Yeah. But this is a good thing that the contractor is doing and committing to as a good citizen in our community. This is what this is in my view. This is the benevolent. contractors saying that this is important to us as well, whether we have a goal or not. We are going to do business this way, and we're going to bring in a small business.

Thank you. You may be the first person ever to use the words benevolent and contractor together. Thank you. Let me, second item, on the minimum annual guarantee, that chart that was on slide three. Thank you for that. Has the current contract ever yielded as much as $30 million of revenue in a year? No, it has not. So I'm wondering on what do we base our prognostication that... Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. A creature will appear? There you go. On what do we base our guess that that orange bar will exceed $30 million by 2032 if we haven't exceeded it yet? That's my first question. So on what do we base our guess that this chart is realistic?

Can we have our share?

I mean, you're cool.

May we have our partner speak?

That's right.

May we have our partner speak? Sure.

This is JC Decaux.

Is this Mr. Decaux? I'm sorry. Madam Chair, fellow council members, I'm afraid it's not me, Mr. Decaux. My name is Alan Sullivan. I am the co-CEO of JC Decaux North America. So the question was, how do we expect to be able to reach that 30 million threshold? So as the esteemed group before you have already said, we're going to introduce a significant redevelopment and upgrade of the advertising portfolio within the Denver airport. Almost all of the advertising is going to be digital of nature, which is really part of the business that has been transformative in the out-of-home space and has kept us as a sector relevant in light of the social media and the 70 cents that's spent on digital advertising on every dollar in North America at the moment. that digital infrastructure is going to provide us with a fantastic mechanism to fully exploit the advertising far better than the majority of the static installations that are currently in place in the existing program. So as part of our projections and as part of the business plan that we put forward in terms of our bid, we provided those statistics at the top that show that there is a gradual ramp up of our advertising revenues up well above 30 million by the year 2032. And as I say, that's driven largely by the expansion of the digital program.

on fewer locations thank you thank you i appreciate that so just to be clear and i know it's not up on the screen for people watching at home or here in the room but the only guarantee and it's not saying that they won't exceed the mag because i think clear channel has exceeded the mag as under the current contract as well so i expect that it'll be more it'll more than exceed the purple lines but that's the only guarantee that's 184 million cumulative over the 10 years And now the last thing I want to understand about this, and I think I heard you correctly, Pam, but I want to clarify. The 72.5% of the overage rent above the minimum guarantee each year is we get 72.5% of that orange bar up to the red line. When the overage exceeds $30 million, the 62.5% share that we get applies only to the amount above the $30 million. Did I hear that correct? Absolutely correct. Okay, so it's like a progressive income tax where you pay more tax relatively on your earnings above a certain amount. Exactly that. Okay, I want to make sure I understood that right. Last question. I don't know if we can answer this, but I want to clearly understand the issue with the light sticks. on the Peña Boulevard welcome sign. Subject near and dear to Councilman Cashman's heart. He loves them. He goes out there and parks and watches the colors change. Thank you very much. So what was in the RFP regarding the Peña light sticks and why are we at our expense taking them out? Are we not going to replace any art element out there at all and just have four advertising signs? That's not the plan. And is that a change from the RFP?

No. In the RFP, we published, and I might need your help with this, that the proposer may need to do whatever the airport decides needs to be done with the sticks. We'll call them the sticks, the light sticks. What did I miss for the RFP? I was super close to it. That's it.

Well, apparently what we decided to do was take them out at our own expense.

Yeah, but we didn't decide that. And I would love for my colleague, Kyle Lester, to chime in about our plan moving forward.

Thank you. Kyle Lester, Senior Vice President of Maintenance. So great question. We're all asking what are we going to do with the sticks and how are we going to make this sign work. We as a group decided there's a large investment in the structure, the concrete, the steel of those sticks. And we want to keep that. And we want to keep basically what you're alluding to is instead of having just four blanks or signs out there, we want to keep the art installation, the welcome sign, the intent intact. So the RFP went forth with replacing the digital signs. I'm working on it to fix the sticks. The technology is end of life. I don't think that's that old. It's 10 years old. That ain't old. Computer-wise, yes, that technology is at the end of life. And so we're working with Panasonic to, they redesigned it, came specifically working on the connections, working on vibration, working on wiring with rodent resistance. wiring, all these issues that have come up over the past 10 years, redesign it. We're going to run a pilot project or kind of run their prototype with 33 of the sticks starting probably in October is what the schedule says right now. So long story short, there will still be... There's going to be the sign. It's going to... It's going to be lit up just like in the past. We're going to, instead of jumping right in, we're going to prototype what they're proposing and then move slowly through an evaluation process over the course of probably the winter is what we're looking at right now.

All right. Thank you. That clarifies it a lot for me. Ty, that's all I have.

Thank you, Senator. Councilwoman, I'll be dressed. You have another question? Yes. I actually wanted to hear from JC DeCote. All right. Thank you. I would like to just hear from you and give you the opportunity to talk about how you plan on, you know, using this business opportunity to invest in our local economy and use our local small businesses. I think that's really important to us and I don't know if you have a history of doing that and where are you located?

So thank you for the opportunity. I very much appreciate it. It is clearly a very important subject and one that JCDCO takes very seriously and is committed to or was committed to before the IFR, the ACDB program within North America. So, as Pam said, we are based in New York, we're headquartered in New York, but we have a number of airports that we represent across the entire North America continent. So, coming back to your question, there's some of the challenges in terms of the interpretation of the 2%. I just want to be absolutely clear, in our submission, we consider the 2% a floor, not a ceiling. And in our proposal, we are anticipating the contribution to the small business element of goods and services well exceeding 50% of all money spent in goods and services in this contract, with a likelihood it's going to go beyond that too. So the partner that we are choosing is going to be based here in Denver. We will be using Denver employees that will be working within the airport space and they will be dedicated purely to this airport. So that is the most direct answer I can give you in terms of supporting the local economy outside of the revenues that we're going to be giving Denver through the revenue share, the minimum guarantee. And also the not insignificant amount of possessory interest tax, which I think Mr. Washington referred to, in the matter of around about $12 to $16 additional million that will be going to the city funds. So as I say, we are truly committed to this. value program, I've got to be very careful with my language, value program to support local businesses and we have a number of our partners that have come through the ACWU program that continue to be very strong partners with us at JCDECO and we're happy to provide testimonials from them should the committee feel that would be of benefit.

So you have these partners, but you're open and looking at partnering with more companies that may be here that you don't have partners with?

Yeah, and that will be part of the DISBO process for the construction and design process that is set to be defined within the contract process itself on signature. We as an organization have already done outreach to a number of those architectural and construction firms. So we are keen to get this conversation moving and start being able to deliver the value to the economy as soon as we possibly can by the commencement of the $16 million capital investment that we've got planned for Denver over the next 10 years.

I appreciate that, and I appreciate you being here. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to speak.

Madam Chair, can I add just one quick thing? My guess is that small businesses that were utilized on the previous or the current contract would be entertained by this proposed new contract if this is approved. And I'm talking about folks that have worked on the current contract. And so we would help facilitate that if J.C. LeCoe agrees with what I'm saying.

Absolutely.

Is he asking questions?

Just to be clear. Just to be clear. We absolutely will. We would absolutely entertain that and we would be positively in favour of it. Clearly, those kind of conversations we didn't feel would be appropriate in the RFP process, in the cone of silence, because we didn't think it would be particularly ethical to go and start speaking to existing providers that are working with Clear Channel. But once this is concluded, we will absolutely entertain that for sure.

I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you.

I don't know if I said this in the last committee, so I just want to make sure that on its face, providing incentives for companies to go above and beyond after achieving lofty goals makes a whole lot of sense to me. So, you know, as Councilmember Flynn asked this time and I asked two weeks ago, the current vendors never made $30 million. So I see this as a lofty goal. So we want them to try hard and succeed harder. So just as a... Council Member Flynn asked about the sign and the sticks. I don't know if this is a technical question. I think it's more, again, in the same vein of the sanctity of the RFP process. What did the RFP say about the sign and the sticks and landscaping? Are those all part of... Was there something in the RFP about, certainly I'm pretty sure there was something about the sign, but what about the sticks and the landscaping around the signs and the sticks?

The RFP, the intent of the RFP was to make sure that any of the proposers would remain flexible to whatever the airport decided would be the fate of the sticks. I think we have exact language from the RFP about that that we're happy to share. But our goal was to keep it open. What if we wanted to get rid of the sticks completely and do a different art sculpture? What if we wanted to just have bare advertising signs by themselves? What if we wanted to try to rehab the sticks as Kyle is so boldly trying to do? Our intent was to remain flexible and that never changed.

Yeah, I'd be interested to see the RFP language. Thank you.

We'll get it to you.

Happy to.

Thank you, Committee Chair. Thank you. I just have two quick questions. Do you all have incentives in place already to encourage the contractors to exceed the 2% that's written in the contract? Like, not for this one specifically, but previously that you've used?

Incentives? Councilwoman, when you say incentives, do you mean, say, monetary? I just want to make sure we understand how you define incentives.

It could be. I'm just curious as to what have you all utilized or put in place to encourage the contractor exceeding the 2%. It could be monetary. It could be something else. I'm just curious.

I can think of the excellence in service program that we run through the traditional concessions contracts in which when our concession partners align with the city and the airport's core values, in particular Vision 100, They are incentivized by maintaining a strong and fair and equitable joint venture partnership with their ACDBE partner. And the incentive at the end of the term could look like three years if they remain good partners and in good standing with their ACDBEs. That's one example I can think of.

That's an extension in the term councilwoman. So original 12 year term, they receive excellence in service. They could receive an additional 3 years if they meet those metrics that got it.

And then I just want to make sure I understood. I thought in my briefing for the dispo piece that. Once the contract was executed, then you would figure out what the goal is. in partnership or led by DISBO? Am I misunderstanding that?

No, that's correct. So for design and construction, once they submit their scope of work to DISBO, DISBO will assign goals that they have to achieve based off of their design and construction scope.

Do you know the methodology that DISBO uses to determine what those goals are?

Ms. Gibson is here. She just happens to be here.

I'm so sorry.

You look nice. Thank you. I was just here to listen. Good afternoon, everyone. Adrena Gibson, Executive Director of General Services. The business utilization and compliance sector of the Division of Small Business Opportunity resides in General Services, so that's why I'm sharing. As it relates to our mechanism for establishing MWBE goals on design and construction-related projects, we look at a multitude of things. So we're addressing scope. We're looking at estimated cost and then we're meeting with the project program managers to ensure that we understand the project as a whole. Once we have that information, we are looking at each of the scope elements of that program and then NAICS codes associated with that. Those NAICS codes are North American industry, CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. CLASSIFICATIONS. We run that into our tool, and that will essentially calculate what the MWBE goal should be. Once we have that calculation, we also look at further considerations related to what are the conditions of this project? What are the risks associated? When is the work being done? Because all of that can impact a business's capacity. the timeframe in which it needs to be completed, if that is a subcontractable opportunity or a large prime contracting opportunity or the certifications needed, et cetera. And then that will help us generate what that actual percentage should be for our partners.

What's the... highest percentage that you all have assigned? There's no such thing. No?

Okay. I mean, we've been, I will say that in the space of establishing MWBE goals, our goal is only going to be as aggressive as the pool that we have. So in my past life under actually Mr. Washington, we've established a 51% goal when we were at RTD. So it just depends on how plentiful the pool is and what type of project it is. But I aim for defensible and aggressive.

Okay, great. Thank you so much, Ms. Gibson. Appreciate it. Those are my only questions. It doesn't look like we have anyone else in the queue. This is an action item, and so we would need someone to make a motion in a second. So moved. Seconded. Councilman Cashman, followed by Councilman Hines. Do y'all need a roll call vote?

Great. Thank you.

Do you have announcements? No. All right. I remembered this time. It's only been two years. Well, thank you all so much for your time. Really appreciate it. Thank you. All right, we have a briefing. You all can come and get set up.

So we are transitioning to a briefing from the Front Range Passenger Rail. General update. Thank you so much, committee chair. So thank you so much to the committee for entertaining this proclamation. My name is Darrell Watson. I'm the city council member representing Define District 9. I'm honored to be joining the honorables, put it in plural, councilwoman albert wedgworth and sal pace who's done many things council um commissioner um and state representative and so i appreciate them both being here um i'll start first with the reading of the proclamation this is just simply a briefing provide a high level overview of the why this proclamation is important and i'll open it up to the honorable um albert wedgworth and um honorable sal pace to share any additional information and then we'll open up for questions from council members on this. So the proclamation reads as, let me brighten this up. Supporting the Front Range Passenger Rail District's proposed special events stations and the development of passenger rail service along the Front Range. Whereas the Front Range Passenger Rail District, FRPR District, was established as a corporate and political subdivision of the state of Colorado to research, develop, construct, operate, and maintain an interconnected passenger rail system along the Front Range, extended from Wyoming to New Mexico. And whereas the development of Colorado Connector, COCO, represents a significant regional investment in multimodal transportation infrastructure designed to serve current and future generations of Coloradans. And whereas COCO is intended to connect residents and visitors to employment centers, housing opportunities, colleges and universities, medical facilities, and entertainment destinations throughout the Front Range. And whereas Colorado's front range population is projected to approach 8 million residents in the coming decades, increasing demand on existing transportation systems and exacerbating congestion along Interstate 25, one of the state's most heavily traveled and consistently congested corridors. And whereas passenger rail offers a reliable, efficient, and sustainable transportation alternative and can, I should say, that can reduce vehicle miles traveled, alleviate roadway congestion, and contribute to improved air quality and environmental outcomes. And whereas the Department of Colorado Transportation, CDOT, the FRPR district and class, class I or class I freight railroads, I think I messed that up, spent the last four years extensively studying the operational feasibility of utilizing existing rail infrastructure, enabling near-term passenger service while maximizing the use of existing assets, And whereas pending voter approval, initial passenger rail service that is anticipated to begin as early as 2029 will expand frequencies and coverages providing a timely response to growing transportation needs. And whereas the FRPR district has conducted public outreach through town hall meetings, city council presentations, social media engagement, providing community with meaningful opportunities to ask questions, offer input, and engage with FRPR district board members and staff. And whereas Denver Union Station will serve as the hub of the future of COCO rail network and is expected to benefit from the highest volume of total boardings on the system, And whereas the inclusion of two special event COCO stations in Denver conditional on final approval from the class one host railroad partners has the potential to enhance transportation options, increase community vibrancy, support economic development, advance the creation of transit oriented development, and generate increased activity in the hospitality, retail, and service sectors. And final, whereas the FRPR district has committed committed to provide annual payments to the City and County of Denver after a ballot measure passes for a period of 25 years through the FRPR district local return program to support the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of passenger rail facilities, stations, and stations area improvements. including multimodal access, first and last mile connectivity, transit connections, transit-oriented development activities, and other investments that enhance access, connectivity, and functionality associated with the COCO station areas in Denver. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Denver City Council, Section 1, that the Denver City Council recognizes that the Front Range Passenger Rail District goes aligned with Denver's comprehensive 2040 plan, Blueprint Denver, and other local priorities, and that Section 2, that the clerk and recorder of the City and County of Denver shall affix the seal of the City and County of Denver to this proclamation, and that the seal be transmitted to the Front Range Passenger Rail District. I'm here, colleagues, presenting this proclamation in anticipation of this going to the floor and having a deeper dialogue for three real, I should say six specific reasons. And then I'll turn it over to our esteemed guests to provide a deeper dive before we open for questions. We believe that COCO provides an alternative to highway congestion. We believe that that alternative is a cleaner alternative to what we currently have. We believe that affordable transportation is a right and it is an opportunity as we look at COCO. The economic multiplier effect, someone else is going to describe the math, but it is going to multiply and provide the opportunity for more folks to use transportation and multimodal transportation throughout the corridor. Household values, we know that household values have increased along similar rail systems, and we believe the same will happen with COCO. And new jobs, the big thing that we always talk about, this should create 50,000 jobs per 1 billion. Once again, someone else is going to lay out the math on this. And transit creates 30% plus more jobs than roads. I think is an excellent opportunity. And I'll turn it over to our esteemed guests who have done this work over time. I'll start first with the honorable Councilwoman Elber Wedgworth.

Good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasure and an honor to be here. I am supporting Front Range Passenger Rail District. And I'm really excited about this because we've been talking about passenger rail since before a lot of these people in the room were born. So I think it's time to do that. And I think that we're totally committed. We have a lot of supporters that are already in the room wearing their stickers here. And so I'm just excited about it because this is a very comprehensive way to look at alternatives in terms of travel. And we have to really look in the future for Colorado and the Front Range. And so we urge your support of this proclamation. And we would like to present this on Monday, the 13th of July. And we hope to get your support. So thank you. And this is Sal Pace, the general manager of the Front Range Pass-the-Rail District.

Thank you, Madam Chair and Committee. Sal Pace, General Manager of the Front Range Passenger Rail District. Thanks for having us back. And I do want to quickly introduce, again, our Board Chair, John Putnam, the most qualified Transportation Board Chair in Colorado, who was the Chief Legal Counsel at USDOT under Pete Buttigieg, so we're in good hands. And Chris Nevitt, our Vice Chair. from the City and County of Denver and appointed by Dr. Cogg. So we've got good hands overseeing the project and also the contractors and staff and rail supporters who showed up today. So thank you all for coming. This is part of our road show and If everything moves forward then by August we'll have similar proclamations from each of the station communities up and down the Front Range. Yesterday we had final votes in Fort Collins and Littleton and we are going before Pueblo and Trinidad next week so we're making the trip up and down and visiting with all our station area communities. We're also We've also done 20 town hall meetings with over 2000 residents showing up in person and we plan on doing another 10 in August before we contemplate and vote on a ballot referral. I'm excited that I will be proposing to our board that with our local return program, contemplating sending the City and County of Denver over $200 million to support station area access, mobility, first mile, last mile connectivity and infrastructure improvements and over $100 million that we are contemplating for additional transit and rail and pedestrian access at a couple of proposed special event stations. Denver and that is part of our local return program making sure that not only is the district funding the transportation between the metropolitan areas in Colorado but that the cities themselves that are receiving the stations have the resources to make sure that everyone in their community can connect to the stations themselves. Happy to take any questions. I'm very grateful for Councilman Watson for proposing this resolution. And thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you, Mr. Payson. I was remiss of not introducing the Honorable Chris Nevitt. Thank you so much for returning. And with that, Committee Chair, I turn it back over to the Committee for any questions that folks may have.

Thank you. We have three folks in the queue. Councilman Hines, you're up first. Thank you, Committee Chair.

Just start by saying I'm a huge fan of multimodal transit. I became politically active in Colorado right after you left office. I started going to the General Assembly in 2013 and 2014. um to uh to to talk about access uh to transportation particularly for people with disabilities but um i believe we all deserve the freedom to get from a to b safely no matter how we choose to get there and um and i as i said in the coco briefing A couple of weeks ago, I think housing is a human right. Being able to get to places is also something where government has a responsibility to lean in. And frankly, any price, because mass transit is on its face cheaper than building highways for single occupant vehicles. So as we invest, And I say at any price because whatever price that is is cheaper than building a nation that's dependent on freeways and cars. So at any price is a bit qualified, I guess. I'm a victim of traffic violence on one of those streets. This is an acquired injury and I don't want anyone else to have that same reality that I'm part of. join the disability community that Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention. The disability community is the only protected class that anyone can join at any time, whether they like it or not. And so, you know, traffic violence far and away is more prevalent in single occupations.

These are literally the most accidental thing.

We needed a break. Yes. Thank you. Traffic violence far and away happens more in cars and single-occupant vehicles than it does in any form of mass transit. So we're solving for getting around, which is, I believe, a government obligation. We're solving for the planet. We're solving for community. If you're encased in thousands of pounds of metal glasses in a single-occupant vehicle, you can't talk to the person next to you at the light. If you're on a bike, on a bicycle or a pedestrian, you can say hi to your neighbor and you can say, oh yeah, we've lived next to each other for four years and I've never introduced myself because we're driving around in cars all the time. I also believe that Denver will substantially benefit from Front Range Passenger Rail. Union Station's in my district and in part, the reason why Denver will substantially benefit is because we've solved non-car transit around Union Station. We haven't solved it citywide, but people will come to Union Station and the two special event sites, but people will come to Union Station because they can get to places near Union Station, even a mile away, without a car at all. And so I believe not only will we benefit as a reputationally as a city, but economically as people come to spend their sales tax dollars. So I was going to ask about a tax. You mentioned the local component. You said $200 million, and then you said another $100 million. Is the $200 million part of the $100 million, or is it $300 million?

We'll be proposing, staff will be proposing to our board that over 300 million dollars is invested into Denver. This is over 25 years. And for infrastructure, for multimodal, for pedestrian access, et cetera. Of that, a little less than, A little less than $250 million will be for the City of Denver to utilize as the City determines in an IGA that we would negotiate together to improve access across the community. And then the additional $127 million roughly is identified for potential transit walkability improvements at the special event. uh special event stations um and we're we're talking with uh city staff about this and uh with the special event stops it has not been approved by the board yet but these are uh these are the numbers that the staff are planning to present to our board let's walk a roll yeah thank you um that that's so um

I think that my biggest thought was there's a little bit of a dissonance in that we get $200 million plus another $127 million over 25 years. We as in the city of Denver and the tax is, is there a tax component?

Yeah, so the tax is district-wide tax. What we are currently modeling out, and ultimately this would be a board decision by the board of the Front Range Passenger Rail District. We are a special district, just like other special districts across the state. What we're modeling out right now is a third of a penny, and that would be a third of a penny on a $1 purchase.

Okay. So there's a little bit of a dissonance in the city never gets the $300. and change million dollars. It's a lot of pennies, by the way, the change. And then there's a third of a percent tax on sales tax, right? Which is about a third of our sales tax is paid for by people who don't live in Denver. Not asking you to do the modeling. I'm taking that stab. I believe the numbers are still at least in that ballpark but I Wonder as we're considering this proclamation If it makes sense for us to have in the proclamation Councilmember Watson's a bit of a question to you Have that tax in there so that we're not skipping something that is a consideration for the voters in November. And so I noticed that it isn't in there. We didn't really have the opportunity to chat about this because of the proximity of the proclamation to the committee. I don't know if I'm necessarily set on that, but I want to be as transparent to the people of Denver and I don't want to get knocked for not being transparent when that is a good reservation that people might have.

Yes, counselor for what it's worth these resolutions that we've been proposing up and down the district. We have not been talking in the resolution specifically about a referred measure or a potential tax. We have been transparent about it. However. You know, lacking a new tax, we think that a statement of support of the project and of itself has value. For instance, we previously did receive a $90 million federal CRISI grant that was clawed back last year. You know, so down the road, you know, if we receive future federal grants or as we continue to advance the project, I think a general statement of support of the project From my perspective as helpful and as value is something that is specific to the actual ballot measure.

I guess that's fair for 2 reasons. 1, we have a few folks in the queue. Oh, let's give you your last question. And then I know the last time that you all were here, you offer briefings and so it might be helpful to get a briefing as well from these folks. Oh.

There's value in a general letter of support and the board hasn't voted on what that might be. So that might be an argument against including.

I'll take all of that into consideration. Definitely we'll get back to you in that briefing process. So thank you, Council Member Hines. Yeah, thank you.

Thank you so much. Councilman Cashman.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks for opening that door. I'm fully supportive of exactly what you're talking about, Mr. Pace, of Front Range Light Rail. As we discussed, I appreciated the briefing very much. I'm... still very much thinking about sales tax. And not that it might not be a worthy place to send some money this way, but there are so many competing needs right now. So I'm in thought about that. I would have difficulty citing, voting in favor of a proclamation that said, I support this sales tax today. But as you're talking about a general proclamation, in support of uh bringing uh a front range light uh front range rail that i'd be able to support that's good i'm going to have to leave for a conflicting appointment but thank you for opening that door councilman thank you sir madam chair thank you councilman

Councilwoman Alvidrez.

I appreciate. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for bringing this, Councilman Watson, and the honorables for being here with us today. I am so excited about this and the potential benefits to my district. um being that two of the event stations one would be very close to my district and one could be in my district um but i also would say i would want to have a few more answers before moving this forward and hopefully by july 13th we can have some of those i will share that my you know constituency has dealt with trains going through for my whole life way before i was alive probably as well. And I'm concerned on how this will impact my district and what those conversations look like. One thing that has come up time and time again with no investment is quiet zones. It affects the quality of life of the district, of the people in the district, particularly in the Baker neighborhood. And how these dollars can be used is also of interest to me because We have needed rail crossings, so we need rail crossings right now that really divide the community, that prevent access from things like grocery stores. We also are waiting on hearing on funding for much needed pedestrian bridges and other things that we need to access the rail. And the other question around the use of the funds is that the Baker neighborhood, which a lot of this would go through Platt Park, West Wash Park, all don't have updated neighborhood plans. And so could this funding be used for neighborhood plans? I know in the proclamation you mentioned Comprehensive Plan 2040, Blueprint Denver, and other local priorities, but those local neighborhood plans haven't been developed yet. And so that's a concern for me. One question that I haven't asked yet on all my briefings is will this be electric or what will the power source be?

Thank you, Councilor. We're currently looking at an Arrow train set from Siemens that is a hybrid. In the long term, theoretically, there could be electric trains. There's not a lot of really good equipment yet, but Long term with battery improvements and technological improvements happening pretty quickly. That's not out of the question long term. The Siemens Aero is hybrid electric and fuel.

Great, and then just two more follow-ups that we can follow up on later. One is, it was mentioned that it will be affordable, so what is the estimated ticket cost? And then household values was one of the criteria that you mentioned, Councilmember Watson, and although we all want to keep our home values, we also don't want to see displacement and skyrocketing home values. And so, as I mentioned, one part of the light rail system is a wall. The other part are very low income, highly industrial neighborhoods that I would be concerned about the impact of. And so how those dollars are spent and what that looks like are just going to be concerns. Yes.

And we'd like to say that we have scheduled another briefing with your office. I know we've had one briefing with you, but we've been talking to your council. So we'll be here as soon as possible.

Wonderful. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you, Councilman. Thank you, Chair. Thank you so much. Councilman Flynn.

Thank you Madam Chair. Just a quick question. I don't know the answer to. I suspect I do, but I could be wrong. But is this a resolution that under our rules of procedure would have to come to the governance committee to be approved before going to the floor because of Because we're taking a position. I'm mixed on that because it doesn't advocate that we support a tax measure. It basically says we find that it conforms with our comprehensive plan and whatnot.

We have amazing attorneys. So may I ask you, committee chair? Good job.

Thank you, John. Jonathan Griffin, Deputy Legislative Counsel. So it wouldn't require a vote. In our rules, proclamations don't require votes to move forward. So bringing it to this committee or really to any committee would cover that requirement. Yeah, there's no votes taken on proclamations. It's just required that. Yes, right, right. We discuss it.

I thought it would have to come to Governance Committee, not this one.

I don't believe, I mean, I think that would get a little bit... This is a transfer. It makes sense to come to this committee. As you know, as a committee chair, again, chairs can kind of work that out. It doesn't have to go through governance. I agree. I like that. I'm reading that the rules are on there.

Could you talk a little bit about the discussion? I brought this up with Dr. Hogg when this was at the board meeting about using sales tax versus property tax. A property tax improvement district, and I gave a history lesson, of course, that the Moffett Tunnel was built through a property tax, the Moffett Tunnel Improvement District. And from 1922 until 1983, property owners in Denver, as Denver was in 1992, but not outside of those boundaries, and Jefferson County and Boulder County, Grand, all the way up to Moffett County, property owners paid an annual property tax assessment on their bill. In fact, we elected the commissioners, much to the chagrin of the last commission. You might remember the mess that was. But it occurred to me at Dr. Cogg that sales tax is so volatile, subject to change, hard to predict, as we're learning in the last two years, while property tax is much more stable and predictable. So what was the discussion, and I know the decision's not been official yet, but you indicated that that's the direction we're leaning. What was the discussion about the overall stability and predictability and reliability of a property tax measure versus a sales tax that is so volatile?

Thank you, counselor. I think there's a couple considerations. One, we know that sales taxes, there's a heavy use by visitors and tourists, and they help cover that versus property tax, which are covered by residents. I think the other reason is the voters continue to tell us that they prefer to pay sales tax over property tax. It consistently performs better in measures as well as in polling. And I think the rationale is you only pay for it when you're spending money. We're following the direction of what we've seen consistently from the voters.

Now, the district boundaries do not include whole counties, for example. Does it include all of Denver County? Yes. Does it include all of Douglas County?

No.

Does it include any of Douglas County? Yes, it does. Okay. And enough said about that. Thank you. Adams County. Parts. Parts and parts of. So what determines the boundaries of How east and west of the corridor?

Yeah, so we currently have 2.5 million residents within the district. The district was determined based on permanent station locations, jurisdictions with at least 40% of the jurisdiction within five miles of a permanent station location.

Okay. And so if it were a sales tax and the voters were to approve it, only those retail businesses within the boundaries would be subject to collecting that from their customers. Okay, so was there any discussion about the implications of unequal treatment if there's a business on one side of just arbitrarily pick up Colorado Boulevard in Adams County versus being east of it and not paying it or being west of it and paying it. That's the boundary.

Yeah, you know, absolutely. And that is what happens when you're drawing a district boundary is, is it's always going to be a discussion of in and out. I'll share an anecdotal story, though. We passed our district boundaries and I got a call from the county commissioners south of Pueblo. It's where Walsenburg is. And the commissioner said, why aren't we in the district? And I said, well, you know, we weren't going to bring a station in the next 25 years to Walsenburg. And they said, you know we wanted to stay in the district though just to stay in line eventually for a station so i'd really like to bring you guys up to the denver metro area and talk to the mayors of some of the rural or the suburban communities because you guys approach things much differently los alamos and trinidad are not Trinidad is in the district. We are not bringing a north-south line to Trinidad. However, Trinidad is on the southwest chief line. CDOT tore down their station 25 years ago when they were expanding I-25, and we are providing local return to allow Trinidad to develop a station.

Thank you. So the sales tax, if passed, would be collected in Los Animas? Yes. Or whatever area of Los Animas, but not in Huerfano?

Correct, because we don't have a proposed station there. But they want to pay a tax, so God bless them. They can pay mine.

Make them happy. All right. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Great. Thank you so much. Thank you all so much for your time. This is not an action item. As you all know, this will come to the floor. We have four items on consent. No one has pulled those off. And with that, we're adjourned. Thank you.

You know why we're Fono County?

that are attracted to lights is they, part of it is, you know, sky signals that allow them to fly or to track where they're going. But there was some paper that suggested that this light attraction in flying