Board of County Commissioners Business Meeting - Regular Meeting

Let's do a commo check. Commissioner Layton, you ready to start?

Mr. Chair, I am.

Very good, sir. Commissioner, shall we? Let's go. All right. Welcome, everyone, to the Douglas County Board of County Commissioners Business Meeting. It is Tuesday, August 11th, just after 1.30. Let us all please come to order. And for the purposes of an invocation, we'd like to call forward Reverend Darren Kessler. Darren, if you could please.

Please join me. Father, we thank you that in a public environment like this, we can come to you and ask for help, for wisdom. Thank you for a country that enables this and for a county that desires to come and ask for you to be present here. Wisdom among public officials and decisions that are made and a sense of peace among everyone here that we may be able to honor you with how we conduct ourselves and that what is right is done today, that is done in love, that cares for the weak and the poor, and that does what is noble and what is proper. So I pray that for all that takes place here in your name, Jesus. Amen.

Amen. Darren, once again, thank you for those words of grace and wisdom to begin our meeting today. If everyone will please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, turning to the county attorney for the purposes of certification of the agenda.

Yes, sir. The county attorney's officer reviewed all items on the agenda. You have appropriate jurisdiction over these matters.

Thank you very much, counselor. Commissioners, do we have any disclosures for items on this agenda?

No. I have none, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, commissioners, nor do I. It's come to the attention of the board chair, myself, that a member of the Board of County Commissioners has requested an item be pulled from the consent agenda and discussed. is an open item. That item is item F, business personal property tax incentive agreement between Douglas County and the Flexential Corporation. That will be removed from the consent agenda and dealt with following agenda item, or two items on agenda item number two before consideration of the consent agenda. A sign-up sheet will be provided out in the hallway for members of the public who would wish to make public comment on that item. With that said, let's get into ceremonies and proclamations. Our first item is recognizing Deputy County Manager Dan Avery Which one are we doing first, Doug?

With your permission, Mr. Chair, we'd like to actually start with a remembrance of two very special people in the Treasurer's Office.

Absolutely, please. County Manager, proceed.

I think I was recently at a lake and I was watching some birds that dive into the... to the water, and one of them just didn't reemerge. And I wondered what happened to it and him, and I'm not sure. But I went on my day. A year ago yesterday, we lost Tonya Burnside to a murder. And we were just talking this morning, and I'd asked my friends in the treasurer's office to come up. We want to plant a flag that we're not going to forget her and Pat. And we'd just like to take a few moments to talk about them. Pat Neif was our deputy treasurer and joined the county in 1998. I remember first meeting with her and working on some investment. She's just a strong person of character. And she died three years ago from cancer. She, throughout her remaining months, insisted on working from the hospital bed. She is a happy wife, happy grandmother, happy friends. But she was so committed to the team and to her work that she worked up until she had a coma, and then she died three years ago at about a week or so. Part of that was this very special person next to her, Tanya, who also was gonna be the heir apparent when it became clear that Pat had terminal cancer. And Pat wanted to make sure Tanya was prepared, and so she spent that last six months with Tanya, who was very smart, and then Tanya was so ready to go, such a brilliant bright light, so smart, so much fun to work with, kind of the glue, and then a, A year ago yesterday, she was murdered by her boyfriend, who also took his own life. And it's hard to speak to the devastation that was for the treasurer's office. It's hard for people to talk about. I will say that when you're in public service, there's a pleasure to sacrifice. And I can't think of two people that sacrificed more. And it continued. Claire here was, when she got the news, and it's a small office. She had just driven a long way to Wisconsin with her son. and she immediately just said, I'm coming back. And, and, and the last, the last year has been really hard, but, um, I really wanted to today and thank you to the commissioners just to, um, plan our flag that we're not, we're not forgetting these two. We're not forgetting, uh, Tanya. And, uh, I know the treasure girl has a few words to say.

Thank you for the opportunity. These are two incredible ladies that we have had the, honor and privilege of working with. I promoted Pat to chief deputy. She earned it. She was terrific at it. And as the county manager was just saying, she spent the last six months of her life heavily with Tanya, bringing her up to speed and transferring a wealth of knowledge. Tanya was being fed from a fire hose and she absorbed it and learned everything. She took over, we didn't miss a beat after Pat's death, and was an exemplary county employee. She devoted herself heavily to this county. When we found out that she had been murdered, it was a phone call from the police a year ago yesterday. And then it was a question of, okay, we have zero time for a turnover. Claire has been our chief accountant and was in a position. She also is an incredible lady. She drove straight back. I called her on her cell phone and said, Tanya's been murdered. Her reply was, do you want me back there? And my reply was ASAP. She got a couple hours of sleep and drove straight through and came back and straight into the office. It was quite a few very hectic months. but the office itself is a joy. It's a team that works together, but it's almost a family and their support of each other. Everyone in that office dove in and did everything they could. And Claire was just absolutely incredible. We didn't miss a beat. One of the fun things we found out on August 10th was, uh, we've got a semi annual report. That's a major report and it's doing a couple of days. We actually got it done and up to you in time. But that was that was clear. Thank you very much for recognizing this office. We have lost two very important and very dear people. But this being Douglas County, the office, the entire office, everyone in the office pulled together and helped. The help also came from you, the county commissioners and from Doug, the board. who I believe is the most phenomenal county manager this county has had in the many years I've been a resident here. Thank you very much.

Well, thank you, Treasurer, very much giving us this opportunity to remember these two fantastic ladies. I'd like to open it up to the board for a few comments. Commissioner, actually, yeah, Tanya, you wanna talk? Excuse me. Nope, oh, she said it, thank goodness. She said it, shook her head no. Turning to the board for comment, Commissioner Van Winkle.

Well, Treasurer Gill, we are incredibly blessed as a county to have had you as our treasurer for the last several years. Your office, as you just went through a few examples, has been through some trying times, and the people of Douglas County that depend on your services every day, the average customer, so to speak, hasn't felt that. And that's a great example of how good a work you do, the leadership you provide, and your whole team. You have a fantastic team there. We're so blessed to have you and each and every one of the members of your office who really stepped up big under very difficult circumstances and shocking circumstances. And you have my gratitude as a commissioner, and I think all the people of Douglas County, if they knew everything that you and your office have been through and still get the amazing, essentially, customer service and the service for the people of Douglas County, they would also join in wholeheartedly saying thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Layton, any comments?

Yeah, Mr. Chair, thank you. And I would agree with those sentiments exactly. I think this is a huge hats off to the treasurer for his leadership and the entire department. You know, Dave, you and I started at the same time about eight years ago. And, you know, it's not always easy stepping into a new role. And I think the benefit that you have had from really such a tremendous staff has really blessed that department and blessed the entire county. Uh, and I'm not sure any other other department in the county has seen as much challenging transition as you have. So, I think it's, uh, you know, 1st, and foremost, a great honor for us to recognize and remember both Pat and Tanya. To say, thanks to Claire, um, and and really to say, thanks to you, treasurer Gil for your leadership in ensuring that there were no gaps in services that there was continuity. And that for what is now nearly a billion dollar organization, our citizens have experienced just phenomenal service. So thank you. And we will remember these two very important individuals.

All right, thank you, Commissioner. Dave, yeah, I remember you saying how much of a low was to lose Pat, and then, of course, how unexpected things were with Tanya. Equally, equally. One you saw coming, the other one, Yeah, you didn't see coming. So I know as your friend what a personal impact this made on you. Thank you so much for bringing this before us and giving us an opportunity to commemorate the lives of these great women who worked for the county for many years. Claire, thank you so much for rolling hard when the people of Douglas County needed you to do so. Dave, I'm going to give it to you. Any final words?

Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to share what these fine ladies had given to the county. And what an excellent county government we have built in this county, that we've been able to step into these tragic losses. The one with zero warning that it was coming, no ability to prepare, and yet this county government pulled together. What help we needed from you, the commissioners, from the county and Doug DeBoard and the various departments was phenomenal and memorable and does set Douglas County apart from others. Thank you.

Thank you, Treasurer. If everyone will please stand and join me, I'd like to give a round of applause in the memory of these fantastic women, but also for those that remain in our Treasurer's Department.

Thanks for allowing that. Those three, including Claire, represent that privilege to sacrifice more than anyone. It's kind of an awkward transition, but I'd like to ask Katie and Dan to come up who are celebrating with us today. Life goes on, but they started with Douglas County 20 years ago last month. They both started at the same time. They both have demonstrated to me not only the character as a foundation, but also the ability to get things done. And they've had a rivalry in that they both have their bachelor's and master's degrees from CU and University of Nebraska. And so they are bitter rivals. And unfortunately, those of us that follow college sports know that the last 20 years have been quite sad for both programs. But that hasn't dampened their ability. But I know we wanted just to mark today and celebrate two special folks. And I think they're going to have plenty of opportunity in the future to, like a teabag, be placed in boiling water and show off their strengths. And they already are. So it's our privilege. I know the board wants to say a few words. But two special folks marking their 20 years. I think they're young enough. They have another 20 years to go, I hope.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Doug. Appreciate it. Be happy to hear a few words from Katie and Dan. If you want. There is no if you want. No, these are employees. Tell them what to do.

I was lucky enough to apply for a job about 20 years ago thinking it would just be a job. And it turned into a career that I love. It's a privilege to serve elected officials. It's something I think that is profoundly important. But not only did I get a career, I got to work with people who have become really close friends and family. And like you've already heard us talk about today, how that really makes a difference in the place that you get to work. So all I can say is thank you for the continued investment in me and the privilege to work here and for elected officials. So thank you.

Thank you, Katie. Dan.

Thank you, commissioners. I think what I want to convey to you is the privilege that I have experienced in getting to work on a broad range of projects and opportunities here at the county, ranging from the formation of a new judicial district to a health department, providing American Rescue Plan Act funding for mental health supports, wildfire suppression, and wildfire mitigation programming. and some of the wastewater projects that you'll hear more about this afternoon. It's been truly a privilege, and I'm grateful every day. Thank you.

Well, thank you, Dan. Well, before we get on to Commissioner comments, if everyone will please join me in a round of applause for these great servants of the people of Douglas County. Before we get to Commissioner comments, just a reminder, Go Bears, and the N stands for knowledge. Commissioners, any further comments for these two fine managers for the county? Commissioner Layton, perhaps you'd kick us off.

I'd be pleased to, Mr. Chair. And what an incredible privilege to work with each of you again in the last eight years. I think both of you demonstrate the best of what it means to work for Douglas County. You're very good people that do very good work. And that's, I think, something that I'm really proud to be able to say about many county staff that I've had the opportunity to spend time with and learn from. But you two in particular, your years of service, that's nothing to sneeze at. That's a tremendous amount of time you've invested your life with Douglas County. You know, I enjoy our superlatives being the number one healthiest county in the state of Colorado, the most prosperous in the state of Colorado, having the number one school district in the Denver metro area for test scores. All of these things don't really happen without the great work of the people that serve Douglas County every day. And, you know, Katie, when I think about you, I think of so many projects, but one in particular was getting to actually drink fresh water out of the town of Levers after years of hoping and praying and wishing and working hard to ensure that they didn't have radium in their water. And it almost felt like the movie Erin Brockovich, you know, working to help solve a really significant issue in a small town. We did that. We did that together. We did that as a team. And we got to see that to completion, in addition to so many great things that you've been a part of in terms of land use for many years. I absolutely salute you. And Dan, your resolve, your expertise, your credibility, your desire to just do the right thing in the face of all obstacles has been tremendous. And I do think to COVID, the pandemic, those ARPA funds, ensuring that we judiciously, transparently, in an accountable fashion, allocated over $68 million of those funds to the appropriate entities that were requesting them. A lot of governments, most governments paid themselves back. They paid off debt. They paid off things that were internal to the county. We didn't, we didn't have any debt and didn't have to make that decision. We put the money right back out into the community. On projects that made a lot of sense, whether it was transportation or water, wastewater. so many other services that truly made a difference in our community. So both of your legacies are tremendous. They're significant. They're significant to me. And the good work of the county would not have been accomplished without your efforts. So thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner.

Well, I can't add or detract anything to what Commissioner Layton said. That was perfectly well put, and he's been here longer than I have, so he knows you better than I do. But in my short time here, I would say that I can't think of a major project that you two haven't had your fingerprints all over. And it's never about you. It's always about the public service. You deserve the greatest amount of credit in the world. I think, you know, whether it's a new growing community and making sure that it's paid for by the developer, for example, or pay its own way, or that the streets are safe to ride on, or fighting fires, which has been so incredibly important. Our helicopter's been up almost every single day putting out something that could be incredibly catastrophic. keeping our budget as a county tight as can be. I know the counties around us grew very much in the last year, where ours stayed basically flat. And of course, making sure everything, well, we have the red tape reduction task force that Katie and your team have been so instrumental in, that's going to bring a lot of jobs to Douglas County. in the next decade or so. Whereas a lot of the Denver metro area is struggling and being buried under red tape, we're gonna be doing the exact opposite. And none of it will be possible without you. Dan, no project I can think of in the past year would be possible without you either. So again, you never make it about yourself. I'm surprised they . You even came here to receive the award and say a few words. I wish you'd say more and your families could see this today because you both deserve a tremendous amount of credit for the public service and the public benefit that has come from your hearts and your minds and your dedication to the county. So thank you for your true public service.

Thank you, Commissioner. Not everybody knows this, but I actually met Katie before becoming a county commissioner. I met her while I was a member of the Castle Rock Town Council, and she yelled at me. I'm not bitter, I assure you. But And although, no, I did not take your advice after you yelled at me and I voted the way I thought saw fit, actually Katie became kind of my go-to person when I did come here on the board. And when I felt like there was something that I needed to get across, I needed to get into the staff brief. actually it was usually Katie who got the visit to her office and uh in a very small office it was at the time even though you're one of our deputy directors in planning and uh and uh Katie was great she'd listen and I couldn't always win the argument with my colleagues on my perspective, but it was good that I always saw that in the staff work, and I very much appreciate that. So I didn't argue back or yell at Doug when he said you were gonna take over the department after Terrance left. Dan may have given me, and not just me, but my two colleagues and I, truly one of the handful of memorable briefs of my 12 years in elected office. And it was about possible development along Highway 85. And Dan, I assure you, he took it from one extreme to the next and laid out all the risks that were inherent with each one. And for me, that was extremely important. And it wasn't just extremely important to get through that meeting. It was extremely important because it really charted the map. if maybe only in my head, for what I felt would be appropriate in the 85 corridor for future development, even to this day. That briefing came, and by the way, he was still a lowly minion down in community development at the time. And actually, he was probably a senior analyst, right, Doug? I mean, he was one of our senior members of the team. But it... Months after that, as Commissioner Lane talked about, the ARPA funds were released by Congress. And it was that brief that shaped my thoughts on what we would do with the ARPA funds here in the county. probably more than anything else. And so really, it's Dan's work that Monday afternoon, Monday morning, that really probably made a significant impact and difference maybe for the next 10 years, maybe the next 20 here in Douglas County. So with that said, there are many employees that are worthy of recognition, if only for the fact that you showed up for 20 years and you kept breathing. But for you two, actually this is very special to me because for me I think this is recognition both well earned but also very well given. If everyone will please join me in a round of applause to honor these two great managers. Now, I guess it's probably time for Drew to come walking forward and let's take this picture. We not only have a picture for you guys to take, but we have a few things for you in recognition of your service.

Okay. And come on up.

Let's get started here, guys. The only problem is, you, uh, there's not enough of us. No. Hey, Dan. Stop by. Come on up here. Come on up here. Yeah.

And then you have to go that way.

Yeah, you have to go that way.

Shall we speak first?

Yeah.

All right, our next item up for Ceremonies and Proclamations is the Douglas County Green Works Update. Dan Roberts, Assistant Director of Public Works Operations, and Jared Tanaka, Environmental Program Manager.

Robert, for staff, we have a brief presentation. We'll go ahead and kick that off. We'll try and keep this short and sweet, try and give you guys a quick update for things. Thanks. Thanks, Adriana. So a quick snapshot. Since we opened the GreenWorks site in April, we've had over 7,500 customers. And you see the breakdown by program. I'm going to go through each of those programs separately. So the Slash Mulch site officially opened April 3. Opened six days a week on that date. It's been in service 127 days. You can see almost 5,000 customers, 15,000 cubic yards of material, which is probably on a pace for three times the volume we've had historically to the Slash Malt site. So I think extremely successful site. We see a big volume of customers and material on a daily basis. So some photos of the site. You can see just the type of material that's coming in. The electronic waste program, we've historically had a program, but you had to take your waste up to Aurora to deposit it. On July 6th, we launched that site or that program at the GreenWorks site out by the landfill. Same hours of operations, we've had almost 1,000 customers. And you can see that the amount of miles voided travel by residents is significant, huge numbers. We've had 75,000 pounds of electronic waste. This is specifically electronic waste that is not allowed in the landfill. So it's not toaster ovens, stuff like that. It's a special waste that we don't want to dispose of in the normal fashion. You can imagine we get a lot of big TVs, but also old computers and stuff like that through the program. Highly popular with the residents. Most recent program to be launched just last week was our household hazardous waste program. We've had 125 customers. come through that program. This is an important program for us because it keeps waste out of our landfills. It's waste like paint, it's waste like automotive fluids, stuff that you buy that doesn't need to go in the land or shouldn't go in landfill. Residents are excited about using this. I want to just recognize we have several of the local agencies that are supporting the program. They're listed on the slide there. Without their support, we really couldn't make this program happen. Just some pictures and just volumes of paint and other stuff that we're seeing. Did want to do a quick update on the biochar construction. If we had not launched the biochar program, then the other programs in the green waste really wouldn't have come to fruition on a site like this. It really is biochar that's been the driver. So on track for commissioning in February. On that site, you can see sort of a big pad. That's our future coverage storage. This picture is from just last Friday. The equipment is scheduled to be delivered September 21. The building actually gets built around most of the equipment, so it gets set in place and the building gets constructed. Everything is on track for that program. One to keep it short and sweet, but do want to recognize there's a lot of people that have made this happen. All the way, staff in budget, staff in finance, but I want to recognize some folks here today. Jared Tanaka, he's our Program Manager, Environmental Program Manager. He's been called the heart and soul of Biochar, but he's involved in all those other programs as well. Some staff that are here, we do want to recognize Tanya Dawson. Tanya's been instrumental at a staff level working with Jared to make sure that all these programs are successful. I'm going to make all the guys and gals that operate the facility stand up. I know that they don't really want to have to do that, but this is the team that's out on the site. It's like 100 degrees and the wind's blowing hard and they're out there helping our residents unload and just want to recognize them for their hard work. They took time, made sure they had a chance to come down and be recognized today for their hard work. And, you know, they're part of a new program that we're launching as a county for our residents, and we get lots of recognition from the residents for the great service they provide. So with that, I'll open up if you have any questions, but that's a quick summary of the program as of today.

Very good. Thank you, Dan. You okay taking questions from the board?

Yeah, Jared is.

Excellent, excellent. All right, Jared, well, let's see if we get any questions for you. Board, any questions or comments on this matter?

No question, just a pure comment, which is thank you so much for the innovative idea. I've heard nothing but good things about Douglas County Greenworks and how incredible it is and moving from kind of where it was even a year ago to where it is today. That's an incredible leap for the people of Douglas County to have these services at their disposal and to be able to use every day for all the problems that come up in our house all the time. You know, if something happens, you don't know what to do with that can of paint or you don't know what to do with that old, old, old TV. And we're providing the solutions and turn it into good, good services for the people. So thank you so much. It's come a long way. We've received several briefings on a regular basis throughout the process. Moving from, I believe it was two days a week to what it is today. That's just incredible work. So to both of you who make it happen every day and to the whole team back there, thank you so much.

All right, thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Layton, I know a couple of these have been near and dear to your heart.

Well, they really have. And there's nothing more encouraging than seeing members of our Douglas County family get excited and passionate about things that wake them up every morning to make a difference. And more examples of just good people doing good work. I will never forget when we first were briefed about Biochar at the Wildfire Action Collaborative. and then getting to tour facilities and start talking about what this could look like and fast forwarding to today to be able to share and announce that we will have the countries the nation's first county operated biochar facility is just it's thrilling it's incredibly exciting because being able to remove woody biomass from from areas that are right for wildfires to get that to a facility that can convert all of that woody biomass to this magical carbon product with zero emissions that when you inject it in the soil, it can not only remove PFAS from the water, those forever chemicals, but it can reduce water consumption by 37%. I mean, that is a massive number. And I know we've seen golf courses already inject some of the biochar into their land, and they've seen the reduction in water use. So it's really a pretty magical, treasured opportunity for us. We're excited that we have a lot of interest statewide and from other municipalities. And we're just working to continue to lead the charge on great ways to deal with waste products in the county and be a model for the nation. But that doesn't happen without Jared Tanaka, the Wildfire Action Collaborative, Dan, the entire team that just stood up. It takes a village. It takes a group of dedicated individuals. And I'm really proud to stand alongside all of you and and get biochar and some of these other projects off the ground with green work. So good job.

All right. Thank you, Commissioner. Good news, Jared. I have no questions. We've been working on this for a couple of years now, and I was a little bit of a doubting Thomas at the start of the process, because we did actually start with biochar. And was it a good idea? Was it a good enough idea to begin going with? Yes. But I would be lying to say I was... convinced of the final product, the final solution that we would come to. As we've gone through the process, and by the way, I want to give a shout out to Holly Carroll, who did so much of the early staff work to get us ready for this point, and how we brought everything all together. Obviously, we found a great site out there on 85. We're bringing all these items to that location. We've already got some that are up and running. I think it's, I mean, I think staff has just done a fantastic, fantastic job taking this early concept that I was dubious of. Sorry, Abe, but I was. You know, we had those discussions. and really brought it all together to something that, as Abe said, will be a model for the nation. So well done, guys. Thank you so much for coming in and giving us the brief today. I think it looks fantastic. Because this is an informational item, I will now open it up for any public comment on any member of the public who would like to give public feedback. I do not have a sign-up sheet. Is there any member of the public who would like to provide public comment? and seeing none. Dan, Jared, thank you very much, fellas. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Moving on in the agenda, item on the consent agenda was removed at the request of a member of the Board of County Commissioners. It is business personal property tax incentive agreement between Douglas County and Flexential Corporation. Project file is ED2025-002. D.J. Beckwith, principal planner for staff.

Don't we need to pass the consent agenda?

Well, when we talked about it, I talked about we'll do the consent agenda after this.

Oh, okay.

Sorry.

No. That's what I thought we talked about. I thought it just moved to there. All good.

DJ, when you are ready, sir, please.

All right. Good afternoon, commissioners. I am DJ Beckwith representing the Department of Community Development. This is a request for approval of a business personal property tax incentive agreement between Douglas County and Flex Central Corporation. The proposed agreement provides Flex Central with 100% rebate of Douglas County's portion of the business personal property tax over 35 years. The board agreed to enter into an agreement with Flex Central at a work session in March of 2025. I am happy to answer any questions regarding the agreement. Jack Fonce is here representing Flex Central and is also available for questions.

All right, thank you, DJ. Board, any questions for staff?

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, DJ. This is not a Douglas County project. It's a Parker project. They're the ones that worked very diligently to make it happen, and they came to us and asked for help with the tax incentive portion of it to bring these jobs and this investment into our community. Could you go through the process that Parker played in this? Not the nitty gritty of they went and did economic development, things like that, but their planning commission, were they involved? Was the town council involved? Things like that.

Yes, so this went through the town of Parker and their application process as far as Flexential and the data center. That whole process is outside of the business personal property tax incentive that we are looking at today. It did go before their planning commission and it also went before the town council who voted

unanimously to approve this app that application this is separate from this okay so the parker town council voted unanimously uh to bring this business here and the planning commission voted as well in parker correct okay not our planning commission not our planning commission okay um i'm sure and i we're not the right venue to discuss the actual underlying data center. We're here to talk about the tax credits. But was it part of the discussion, Parker, were you able to find out, perhaps Core Electric, others, will they be paying their own way when it comes to the electrical load and questions like that? And what about water?

From our understanding and discussions with Core, they are in support of the data center. that they believe that it will pay its own way. Jack is also here to answer questions, so I would defer to him on the details of what CORE and the water usage of the center have.

Okay, Jack is from CORE?

Flex Central.

Oh, okay, Flex Central, okay. Well, I can save my other questions then for him, if necessary.

All right, thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Layton, any questions for DJ?

Yeah, maybe just a couple. You know, unfortunately, as you know, we see over the years, misinformation can create chaos. And we know that in this particular situation, there was some false reporting that had to be corrected by a local news agency. And just unfortunately, a lot of misinformation and incorrect details about what's actually happening. DJ, can you clarify for the listening public where we're at today? And if you need any support from our communications department, I'd be pleased to hear from them as well.

Thank you, Commissioner. I can clarify this morning in the Denver Gazette, there was a story previewing this item on the board's agenda. And the misinformation was that the property tax rebate was property tax as opposed to business personal property tax. As I'm sure DJ or others can explain, there's a significant difference between the two and what the board is considering today. I did reach out to the Denver Gazette reporter and they corrected it today online and there will be a correction in tomorrow morning's print edition.

Yeah, well, thank you for that. I think, again, it's really important to get the facts right. And I just want to extend my thanks to the members of the free press that are not only with us today, but are out there in the ether and paying attention when they report well. I mean, objective, credible journalism is of high value to a free democracy, to a constitutional republic. So that's that's important for our citizens and citizens. We certainly appreciate when our colleagues get those facts correct. So appreciation to the Denver Gazette for correcting the record. I also just wanted to clarify that in my time, I have never been a fan of the business personal property tax. It's a property tax on things that just don't make a whole lot of sense, and it's an impediment for business. And we have always had the practice of when a particular entity reaches out to us for a waiver of business personal property tax, that we do so. Barring some unforeseen other determinative factor, we do always try to waive business, personal property tax, regardless of who that applicant is. So that's our history in Douglas County. It's a terrible tax. It does cripple businesses and it makes it harder to do to do business in the state of Colorado. So just to provide a little bit of history there. I think that's that's helpful for the public as well.

All right, thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner, you wanted to hear from Flex Central on this one, on a couple of questions.

Yeah, and it's an interesting topic because Parker dealt with all those issues, the water and the power and stuff. So I think the public might want to hear about that today, but that's not what's before us today. Parker came to us, the Board of County Commissioners, because we have that record of forgiving the business personal property tax because it is incredibly regressive. It's perpetual double taxation. So what it is, it's not property like the traditional property tax. This company will still be paying 100%. of their property taxes. It's when a company buys a product, even buys a chair or anything, that they pay sales taxes on that. That sales tax goes into the local government, Parker, the county, et cetera. But then every year after forever, as long as that thing holds value, they are taxed again and again and again and again. And if we as a county are able to deduct just the county portion, not the school district or anything, of that business personal property tax, not the real property taxes, then we can get companies that move here that aren't gonna move elsewhere in the metro area or in the state of Colorado or even another state. It makes us competitive. And I know this investment alone is gonna be a multi-million dollar beneficiary for our school district. It's gonna hire a lot of new teachers and pay for a lot of new teachers. We, the county, won't get our portion of the business personal property tax. We'll get the property tax and the sales taxes and all those other normal taxes, just not this one. So I am glad to see someone is here today that can answer any questions that might come up. I specifically, although it's a little off topic, wanted to know about, I've heard some systems are closed loop systems for water. I've heard these companies, some of them pay their own way, some of them don't. So I wanna hear from you. And kind of what happened at Parker, probably the same thing you told them when they approved.

Sure, so thanks for welcoming me. Jack Fonce, Flex Central. So we build, own, and operate data centers across the United States. We've been based in Colorado since 1999. We're headquartered in the Denver Tech Center. The data center we are building in Parker, it will be a 22.5 IT megawatt capacity building. It's just under 250,000 square feet. It is a closed loop water system. We are based in Colorado. We build data centers in many places where water is scarce, like Phoenix or Nevada. In Colorado, for example, we do have three other data centers in the city. It is a closed loop system, so it's much like we described, like your car's radiator. you fill it once and you never fill it again. We bill it to a WUE, which is a water utility efficiency of a zero, which is standard. So it's expected that that data center will use less than 600,000 gallons of water a year, which the average Colorado family of four uses 125,000 gallons a year. So it's less than five to six families of four for Colorado. And most of that water is bathrooms, it's employees, there's our vendors, break rooms, and it's landscaping.

Okay, very good.

Any other questions I could ask about water?

I'm not sure if it would be directed at Core Electric or you, but are you paying your own way when it comes to the electricity needed to operate your data center?

Yes, sir, we are. So we are fully paying for both the connectivity. We are located next to the transmission station we're pulling from, so we have written them a check already. And we are paying for all the work to upgrade the system for what's needed and also to bring the lines to our location. And then we are going to pay the full rate for all the utility we use. We do expect to be the largest customer for CORE once we operate, once we fully open. And that will help drive down costs for all the users because we will become their best base load, which will allow CORE to go out and negotiate better contracts for all users.

Okay. Those were the questions I had.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Layton, any questions for the applicant from Flex Central?

No, I just want to say thank you for being here. And I think this really supports the reality that the net benefit revenue wise and economically to the county is there.

all right thank you commissioner uh i have no questions for uh the representative from flex central i think uh i think my colleagues questions really covered my questions board any further questions for either the applicant or staff

I would just ask the applicant, well I guess the applicant, just to stick around. I do wanna open it up to public testimony. I did ask that it be taken off the consent calendar so that we could hear from the public and then just stick around for anything that might come up.

Yeah, we'll go ahead and after we hear from the public, any concerns that are brought up, please take notes. And if you could recap and address any concerns to the public, that would be appreciated. We'll treat it like a land use hearing item in that manner.

If we could, Mr. Chair, well, I did ask questions, so I kind of opened the door for water, electricity, things like that, because I wanted to know myself as a citizen of Douglas County. But really before us today is the business personal property tax. It's been hotly debated in the legislature for longer than I've known. It's hotly debated in the state of Colorado. So I look forward to hearing about the business personal property tax and citizens' views on that.

Very good, Commissioner. Without further ado, because this item was taken off the consent agenda and would have been considered with all other items on the consent agenda under one vote, we'll go ahead and open a public comment for a period of 30 minutes. Each person will be afforded two minutes to address the board on this matter. My first person signed up to speak is Doug Chestnut. Mr. Chestnut, please come forward, come to the podium. Do give us your name, tell us where you're from, sir, and your time will begin once you begin speaking.

I'm from Douglas County, Doug Chestnut. I oppose this. I really do oppose the business personal tax also, but the problem is you're charging everybody else in this county the same thing. There's a lot of companies that have been here way before this company shows up, They've been paying it longer than you guys have been alive. And they're struggling to make ends meet, and they're paying that tax. And Flextron is part of the GI Partners, which is a huge $49 billion company and part of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners. And they've already raised a billion dollars in primary equity to fuel this company. They said 1999 and actually the research I showed was 2017 but I think that's irrelevant. But there's plenty of money that these people have and there's other people that don't get this benefit. So you're picking winners and losers and giving them a competitive edge. They should eliminate that for everybody, just not one entity. So I would highly recommend No, because they're only gonna have 16 employees for $19 million, you know, 500 and some thousand dollars a year for 35 years. I think that's grossly out of context. You know, these people are in business, they make plenty of money, and I'm not against that, but we shouldn't be subsidizing it. So please, I respectfully ask you to vote against this. Thank you for your time.

All right, thank you, sir. Appreciate your comments. Kevin Reeder. Kevin Reeder. Sir, please do correct my pronunciation, your last name, by giving us your name and telling us where you're from.

Kevin Reardon, Parker, Colorado. First, I'd like to thank the board for asking so many questions and bringing up the misinformation because that actually helped me. I would agree with the prior speaker on the, you know, what's the real business case for giving the company a tax break. But my bigger kind of question concern is whether or not there is any written legal documentation that would solidify the claims for now and in perpetuity that this company would not impact our water or our energy resources. The claim was made that that's zero water usage system, which is good. I just want assurance, would think that we would want insurance that that stays in perpetuity so that they can't transition later on. And the second thing with regards to energy, they claimed that they, are paying Core Electric to upgrade that substation. And I would wanna make sure that A, that's contractually obligated and also in perpetuity. So if they expand in the future, they have to do the same. So those are my two things.

All right, thank you, sir. Very much appreciate your comments. Bob Marshall.

Sorry, Representative, just real quick on that last topic. Those documents would be before the Parker Town Council and the Parker Planning Commission and would be contracts. That would have had to go through that whole process. If it was a Douglas County one, they'd come to the Douglas County Planning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners, but it was Parker, so. They do have those before say is a business personal property tax. But those hearings were held and they are public hearings and everything is public about those. So I encourage you to check them out.

All right. Thank you, Commissioner. Representative, please give us your, please do though, sir. Give us your name. Tell us where you're from. Bob Marshall. I live in Highlands Ranch.

I got here and I had to leave a meeting and they were telling me, well, it's on the consent agenda. They're not gonna allow any kind of comment. That's very concerning. I appreciate the fact you did open it up, but there are lots of very concerned citizens who knew about this and didn't know if they could come or not. I don't know how something like this got just thrown on the consent agenda. I am kind of concerned as the prior two speakers have put forward that it looks too much like crony capitalism for the large guys. $500,000 a year, I could easily find 100 small businesses, restaurants and the like in my district that would be thrilled to death to get a $5,000 rebate each and would be employing far, far more employees than 16 over those 100 businesses. but they just don't have the capacity to influence you as much as the big guys. And I'm just, that's just a fact of life, but I wish you could push back on that and look to the general good rather than the good of, you know, this company, it's great if we get big companies to come here, but we ought to do it because Douglas County is a great place to be. We shouldn't have to. It's just like I got in the fight over Sundance. Boulder didn't have to give them $38 million a state to get them to come here. We don't need to be shoving money at people to get them to come to Douglas County. We got the workforce, we got the education, we got the lifestyle, we got the crime lower. You constantly talk about how wonderful it is. Why do we have to bribe people to come and engage in this crony capitalism? And as a final aside, this only came really to light because of a citizen newspaper out there, the Doug Colantern, and what was kind of disturbing is your public affairs officer had to get on there to put some comments And I know he responded back and said, You all don't allow public comments on your social media. Why should I allow it online? But he still did. Maybe you could get more feedback if you'd listen to the people. Thank you. Thank you, Representative.

Appreciate your comments. Actually, Mr. Chair. Perhaps we should handle any responses to public comment with our commissioner comments. Commissioner, I mean, otherwise, you know, we did give a time limit of 30 minutes. There are people who do want to talk if that's okay.

No, it's okay. Just when my motives are impugned and I'm taking influence from anyone besides, we heard from the town of Parker.

You know, I have to resist the urge myself, Commissioner.

And we've offered it to all companies and given it to all companies.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Rick Smugel. Thank you, sir. Very much appreciated. Julie Ort.

Sorry, bro.

Ma'am, you're no stranger to the board, but if you could please give us your name and tell us where you're from.

Sure. Could I have a moment just to pull up my notes?

Please do.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. My name is Julie Ward. I live in Highlands Ranch. And I wanted to, first of all, thank you for pulling this off the consent agenda. I think it's a shame that this had to occur only after the public outcry on, it's hard to speak when you're not even looking at me. Again, okay, so again, I appreciate you pulling it off the consent agenda, but I would, you know, it was a shame that it came to this, that your communications person had to go online and claim that there was misinformation. Part of the reason this happens all the time is because you don't put things on general comment. We're not allowed to ask you questions when we have questions about how you proceed. The fact is, my husband and I, our business place,

Ma'am, I was gonna ask you to please get on point for this matter, but I do hear that you started doing that. Please continue.

Yeah, please don't cut my mic.

If you could please speak to the topic.

This harassment of the public.

If you could please speak to the topic, ma'am.

So again, your communications person said, I quote, that you believe this is an unfair tax that taxes businesses over and over again on the exact same piece of equipment after sales have already been paid. That is something we pay all the time. We would love this incentive. So my question to you is, what is the rubric you are using for applying this? I remember a year ago when you gave this incentive to Saffron Defense. And that was not on the consent agenda. They came up here. You then also called up Ellie Reynolds to congratulate her on this deal. And so I wonder why this is different and this was put on the consent agenda and now just suddenly moved so people didn't have time to respond. I would also like to know what the rubric is for the time commitment. So again, when you are talking about giving these incentives, I would like to know the terms of it. So what are the thresholds for investment for you to give these incentives? I would like to know how you come about the amounts that you're going to give. I would also like to know the exemption term. I believe Saffron was 30 years, this one's 35. And I also would like to know how you guys audit this to confirm that these conditions are met. So I think in this case, it was based on their business equipment. So if they come back and say that they have more business equipment that they're gonna be purchasing, are you gonna be extending additional incentives to this company? Again, the public doesn't know because you don't allow us to ask questions of you. You don't allow us to come up here and question that.

Ma'am, if I could ask you to wrap up your comments, please.

I am trying, but I keep getting interrupted. So I will just end with sunshine is the best disinfectant. You have lost the trust of your community and you need to restore it. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, ma'am. Gail McDonald, please. We should find out what business personal property tax she has to pay in hers and help her. You know, we usually don't do that kind of investigation for privacy reasons, but good.

We should just help her if she's paying it.

Ma'am, when you're ready, please give us your name. Tell us where you're from.

Gail McDonald, Castle Rock. Now, at the last Planning Commission meeting, we learned that Douglas County commissioners had sold the water rights to a lake off Rampart Road and Waterton Road on the western edge of Douglas County. This was sold to Aurora Water Department. and they were asking for a permit to build a large pipeline from that lake through Parker to Aurora Reservoir. It will cost approximately $150 million to $200 million, which will be passed on to Aurora water customers. We in Douglas County have also paid for the Hess Reuter, through taxes, through Castle Rock water, through Parker water, through Sedalia water. We've also paid for the improvements to the power grid for the last 20 years. We accepted these extra costs for the improved infrastructure for the county. Now Douglas County Commissioners want us to give away money to a large corporation, billion dollar corporation, for the next 35 years. Our electric bills and water bills will increase tremendously. You know that. The residents near the center will have to endure increased noise, the heat and lights from the center. You can call the police on barking dogs or loud parties, but you can't on the data center. Property values will decrease. Health issues will increase. I say no to the data center. It should pay their own taxes in cost to our water and to electricity. They have to assure that they're not going to use up all our water. The data center must pay the $19 million. a million dollars for the next 35 years. And the additional 16 jobs is not enough tax.

Ma'am, if you could wrap up your comments soon.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, ma'am, appreciate your comments. That concludes those who are signed up to speak on this matter. Bringing it back to the board for further discussion and any comments, and of course, bringing it back to the board if we'd like to turn it back over to Flex Central to answer any of the concerns that we heard expressed by the public.

If we could, Mr. Chair, that'd be a good idea because of course, like I said earlier, all the questions about noise and that stuff was approved by Parker and their town council and their planning commission. So maybe he could come up and speak to the issues of noise and water and electricity once I've lost him.

If we could hear from the applicant back again, please.

And also I did hear that they're not, it's implied they're not paying taxes. Sir, you and your company are going to be paying an awful lot of taxes to our school districts to help with our roads and other things, correct?

Colorado, and they're in Englewood, Aurora, and Centennial.

Okay, so.

Sorry, maybe you didn't hear that. Yeah, so the three data centers we operate currently in the state, we pay taxes on all three. at the City of Aurora, San Antonio, and Englewood.

And you'll be paying your full real property taxes, correct?

Yes, sir.

Okay, and of the business personal property tax, which is only that regressive taxes taxed over and over again every year, you're still paying the school district portion, the Town of Parker portion, et cetera, et cetera. Yes, Commissioner, that's correct. South Metro Fire, okay. It's just the county portion. So millions of dollars are gonna be going into higher teachers and things because you came here. Was the forgiveness of the county portion of the business personal property tax influential in your decision to choose Colorado to open a data center or Douglas County?

I'm not sure if I had the ability to answer that from my role for Flexential. I could circle back with you, be glad to circle back with you on that answer.

Oh, from the town of Parker. When the town of Parker approached us and said, hey, we have, and this goes back years.

Yeah, years ago.

We really want this company to come to our town. We really want the tax revenues. They're going to be quiet neighbors over there in Com Park, and we're going to get lots of tax revenue from them. Douglas County, would you help us make sure they pick Douglas County and not Texas and not somewhere else? Virginia has much bigger tax incentives.

I would say it's definitely part of the... evaluation when we look at sites for our future data centers. I don't know if I would say it was necessary where it would rank on the list. I'd have to follow back, come back, circle back with you. That's okay.

What about the questions raised as to someone said you're going to use up all the water and raise electricity rates. Could you just cover that?

Sure, so I guess I'll answer a couple questions. Mr. Chestnut from Douglas County. Flex Central is a combination of a company called Via West and Peak 10. Via West was founded in 1999 in Colorado, and that's why we referenced the headquartered here since 1999. You have to kind of track back some of the corporate mergers over the years. There was a question about would we give assurances that we are going to maintain the WUE of a zero. I could tell you for the the value of the equipment and the dollars and the life of the equipment that we expect to last for 30 years, it would be not prudent of us to rip out equipment and change it to a different type of technology for cooling. And so I would say that that's our expectation. We just released our ESG statement in the last two weeks. You're welcome to go to flexcentral.com. You can go read the ESG reports where we report on all of our data centers for water usage. There was a question about would we have an electric service agreement with CORE? Yes, we will. That will be a signed contract with CORE. We will be a customer just like others. And we, in the contract, will be required payments, payments minimums, and make sure that we pay our fair share of the rates of the power that we're gonna use at the site. Sorry, Commissioner VanWinkle, there was one more question.

Did I cover the one you asked? I think water. You mentioned in the opening, it's a closed loop system. So once you fill a tank once, it's full and most of the water is, you said, I think, coming from bathrooms and coffee machines.

So the cooling system here is a closed loop system. It's actually filled with glycol, which is a liquid much like your car radiator or a Freon. All the water is used is for bathrooms and landscaping and employees drinking water.

Hi, just checking my notes, if there's anything else the community raised.

Oh, there's a question about noise, I think. Oh, noise, yes. Yeah, so our studies show that we will be at 65 decibels when the generators are not running, which is less than city traffic, if you look at a decibel table. The generators, we use backup power to guarantee our customers power. So if there was an issue with core where the power was not available, we would run generators. Those generators went on would be at 80 decibel levels at 25 feet from property. Um, if I looked at my national average of all generators for all of 2025 across the country, they ran 32 hours and eight of those hours is for maintenance. The benefit of a data center is if core were to have an outage, we would be able to isolate and or run our generators to provide power to the city and to the neighborhood around us. And that's something we've told core. We actively believe in being a good neighbor and so the generators While they're there for our backup for the data center for our customers, if there was a very hot or super hot summer day, we have the ability to run the generators to isolate the data center. And so therefore, there is no rolling blackouts in the city.

Interesting. Well, I wasn't at the Parker Town Council meeting or the Planning Commission. Are you located in a neighborhood near a home or anything like that that would be impacted by noise if those generators were to kick on and power goes off?

We are an industrial park on the edge of Com, right on Com Park, just north of 470. There is a development to the east of us, to the west of us is warehouses, to the north of us is a gas station, to the south of us is a core substation, and then 470.

The core, okay. Over by American Furniture Warehouse?

Yeah, we are about a mile from them, yes sir.

Okay, I know, okay, thank you. Well, I do have serious thoughts on the business personal property tax that I've held for a long time, but I don't have any further questions for our applicant.

All right, thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Layton, any questions for the applicant before we get to discussion and board action?

I don't have any questions for the applicant, but do have some comments for discussion when you all are ready.

Okay, thank you, Commissioner. I'd like to go back to actually thank you, sir. Very much appreciated. I do have questions back for staff based on a couple of the comments from the public. Big question was asked, several questions were asked about what about this program giving tax credits to business personal property taxes? Mr. Chestnut said it right off the bat. First of all, my opinion is any business that comes in asking for a credit, 100% credit on business personal property tax, We will start the paperwork that day and I am going to vote for it eventually. It might take some time to go through the process. I don't care how big, I don't care how small. If they're a business in Douglas County, they will get that credit. To staff, don't we have a program for small businesses to get a credit automatically? Don't we have a threshold where the assessment does not get done?

Yes, Commissioner, we have $100,000 threshold that if your property tax assessment comes below or at that, there's no property tax. The county does not collect on those property taxes.

Okay, so if the assessment for business personal property tax is less than $100,000, it's an automatic 100% credit?

That's correct, yes.

Okay. Great question, Mr. Chestnut, thank you.

perhaps just Ms. Ortt, who testified, said she pays the business person prop tax. If we could maybe just get with her afterwards, find out what her business is, and we can help her out as well.

Yeah, I mean, I'll take that as a request to get 100% credit, absolutely, no problem.

It must be you.

Again, Commissioner, you called it a regressive tax earlier. I think it's a regressive tax. I think it's immoral. I think it's wrong. I've got a couple more comments I'm going to save after you gentlemen speak during the summary. Representative, you asked a really good question. The representative asked a really good question and he obviously was not able to stay. I will still answer his question. Okay, DJ, can you, we did get asked, and I believe it was by Mrs. Ortt, pertaining to what are the terms, she had a very long list, but I wonder if you could run us down, what are our conditions that we use to take these requests in? We already covered the automatic 100% credit for businesses with an assessment of less than $100,000 for their county portion. What is the process that we follow? Again, to address her question of Why 35 years here, why 30 years here? What is the threshold? Can you please equate us with the process?

Yes, Commissioner. So the process is outlined in statute where that allows us, the Colorado revised statute, the title, or section 30-11-123, lays out the whole ground works on how counties can use business personal property tax incentives for businesses. Um, the threshold for the maximum amount is 35 years for length. And then you, the county is able to give a hundred percent of their, um, their tax for the business, personal property tax towards that as an incentive to businesses. Um, the, those are the main outlines for what statute has for business, personal property tax. Our process is a business comes in or our partnering, uh, community such as Parker. comes to us and says we have a business that wants to come in here. They provide for us an early estimate of how their personal business property tax or their personal business property amounts will be. We take those and look at what would be assessed by the county assessor. They're the ones who will annually audit every business and let you know if they're above the $100,000 threshold. and then B, for those that we are rebating, just where those amounts are at, and then we write those checks out at the end of the year for those who have gone through the process and been approved by the board through a work session as well as in a public hearing as we are in today.

All right, well, thank you, DJ. I think that cleared it up, I hope, for the member of the public who asked those questions. Those conclude my questions for staff at this time. Board, any further questions for staff?

I think it's important just to piggyback on that. So it's the county port, not real property taxes like every homeowner in Douglas County pays and every business pays. Business personal property tax and only the county portion. What percentage of the county portion is it? I wanna ask you exactly how much is going to schools and stuff, but we're not acting on behalf of the schools or Town and Parker or anything else for giving their taxes, correct?

Correct, it's just the county's percentage of the business versus private tax. It wouldn't affect schools or any other taxing entity.

Okay, and the schools will be receiving a rather sizable check from, well, not directly, but from the increased tax revenues that this new company will bring, correct?

Yes, they will still be collecting personal property or business property tax on this. So they'll still be collecting the taxes on all their equipment and office furniture and so forth, which is what business personal property tax is taxing.

Okay, and from the calculations, it seems like that's gonna be just for the school district alone, like a million dollars a year.

I don't know that exactly how much that would be, but I know their percentage is quite larger than ours.

Okay, so if we're forgiving 19 million over the next several years and their percentage is much larger and they're collecting it by bringing the business here. And again, credit goes to the town of Parker, they're the ones that did all the work, they're the planning commission, they're the approvers. I think the point I'm trying to make is that there'll be an awful lot of new teachers or better paid teachers because the town of Parker took the incentive and allowed this company to come here. Okay, Mr. Chair, I think those are, I have no further questions.

All right, just giving Commissioner Lane an opportunity for any further questions.

No further questions, but a couple of comments, Mr. Chair. Please. Yeah, so I really appreciate, first and foremost, the opportunity to hear from the citizens and get some of that additional input. But I do, I guess eight years in, it does make me ponder a bit when I hear testimony about not having the opportunity to give public comment as a person is providing public comment. I want to commend my colleague, Commissioner Van Winkle, for pulling this off consent for the exact purpose of ensuring there was more public input and public comment today, which absolutely did occur. You know, I think what's interesting is a comment was made about sunshine, and I think it's really important to go ahead and do that. And again, this is probably directed to our amazing free press and for those that don't may not understand the machinations of what's actually going on here. But the real sunshine is that anybody can speak to any issue that's on our regularly scheduled agenda at any time. And we provide opportunities for public comment at every single hearing we have. And that's recorded and visible and downloaded on our website and you can see that public comment week after week. We also have 20 other platforms to get public comment and get input, which is deeply important to us in addition to town halls and surveys and emails and all the other opportunities to do that. What we don't do is political theater. And I think the important question from a Sunshine perspective is if a politician comes to our hearing room to make a comment to be on the news and then disappears, is that an authentic public comment? When political activists manufacture outrage to advance political agendas, as we see here, is that actual genuine public comment? And what I go to and what's important to me is we represent 400,000 people. I'm interested in the neighbor test, which is 10 doors down from me or Commissioner Van Winkle or Commissioner Thiel or anybody in this hearing room. Does the average regular citizen paying taxes in Douglas County care about an issue and what do they have to say? That's genuine and authentic public comment and comment that we take regularly and all the time. I'm going to go back to the original historical antecedent to all of this, which is we don't like taxes and we really don't like business personal property tax. And if you ask for the waiver, we provide it, including this or anybody else that's interested in getting a waiver of that business personal property tax. i invite you to do your homework make the application and then come before this board and watch how quickly we approve that waiver because we do it almost a hundred percent of the time every time thank you mr chair

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioners, we have heard presentation from staff. We have heard presentation from the applicant. We have taken public comment. We have asked further questions. Time to decide how the board would like to consider this matter. Is there a motion to approve the business personal property tax incentive agreement between Douglas County and Flexential Corporation under project filed ED2025-002?

So moved. And I would like to speak to... So moved. Oh, I will second it then.

Very well. We have a motion and a second. Commissioner Van Winkle to speak on the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And it's interesting hearing things. In my mind, it goes back to the legislature several years ago when this enabling legislation passed from the state of Colorado. And it passed 99 to 1. I was intimately involved in that discussion at the time. Our governor held a very big bill signing ceremony. And it was a very big Colorado is open for business moment, and we want businesses to come here. So to hear today, we had one state representative and others speak in favor of charging the business personal property tax is just a bit mind-boggling. If you go back through American history, there was a time when tax assessors would literally go door to door and knock on people's homes, go inside their homes and take inventory. They'd take inventory of the pots, the pans, the rugs, the kitchen tables, the furniture, and then they would assess, they'd tally it up and assess taxes to the homeowners in that way. Eventually lawmakers realized how absurd and terrible that was to have tax assessors come into homes. We had old ladies in America, they would go bury their pots and pans in the backyard. because they didn't want to be taxed over and over on what they already paid taxes on. So eventually lawmaker states stepped up and got rid of that form of taxation for all homes for private citizens, but it stuck for businesses. And we're doing the same thing. Today's business personal property tax forces employers to endure the exact same outdated system. When a company wants to buy a piece of equipment, buy a chair, buy a desk to put an employee at, they pay sales tax and all that stuff. That sales tax goes to Douglas County, goes to the town of Parker, goes to the municipalities, goes to the state of Colorado, and of course they're federal. Taxes are fully paid as well, but then, The business personal property tax comes back year after year. And for as long as there's value to that product that they paid their sales taxes on, it gets taxed over and over and over. It's double taxation to the nth degree. And it really is the biggest anti-business tax we have in the state of Colorado. And it's been acknowledged by both sides, the aisle as the biggest anti-business tax in the state of Colorado. It really... penalizes new investment in the community. So when a business, Saffron was mentioned today, a French company saying, we wanna open a place in America. We don't know where, there's 50 states, there's lots of municipalities, there's lots of things. One thing that can set us apart is saying, in Douglas County, we won't charge you the same tax over and over on every piece of equipment that you buy for your business. That sets us apart. It brings a lot of jobs here. This one company that Parker, Parker is the lead, they're the ones that approved it through their planning commission and the town council unanimously. When they did that hard work, they were doing so very thoroughly with the mindset that this is gonna be an industrial neighborhood and it will produce millions of dollars for the town of Parker, for the school district. We, the county, through this motion, won't be taking our portion of that, but everyone else is. And the long-term benefits that will come from even those, the 16, the jobs that will be brought here, those are the homeowners, those are families. And the long-term benefits, hundreds of teachers are going to benefit from that. And so my thanks goes out to the town of Parker. They're the ones that did the heavy lifting, the hard work. They're the ones that changed their zoning. They're the ones that changed That went through the hard process and all they did is come to us and say Douglas County help us out help us make sure these jobs come to Douglas County and not somewhere else and I'm proud to make the motion today to forget this business person property tax or any other business personal property tax The reason it was put on our consent agenda is because this is rather standard for us if a company comes forward and says we are looking to for forgiveness for our county portion of the business personal property property tax we're gonna bring jobs there we say yes we've never said no and to miss or who testified that she and her family pay the business personal property tax that she's above that threshold of the hundred thousand dollars in business property I want to help her I wanna help any business because we're gonna get the real estate taxes, we're gonna get the sales taxes, we're gonna get 15 other taxes from a business opening in Douglas County. This one we won't get and that's okay because it makes us competitive. in a territorial environment for the state of Colorado, where we used to be one of the most sought after states in the nation open to business. Now the state of Colorado has a, we have a bad light on us. We lost our greatest, our biggest company just recently, I believe to the state of Florida, where they don't, They have a very competitive tax environment there. This just gives us a little bit to try to stay in the fight for jobs. Our economy, which ultimately pays for our sheriff's deputies, pays for our roads, pays for our parks. Thank you, Mr. Chair, proud to make the motion.

All right, thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Layton, any discussion?

No, Mr. Chair, nothing further from me.

Very good. Thank you. My views. So the way I look at the business personal property tax and the credit program we have, about 20 years ago, I had a business trip for a client. It was a long trip. It was a two-week trip. and it was across the state of Iowa. And when I say it was across the state of Iowa, any one of you who are familiar with the state of Iowa know that their population distribution looks a little bit like a capital I put on its side. And I got to land in Chicago, in O'Hare, drive across Western Chicago, get into those first cities that are on the Mississippi River, go south, come back up, drive across the state on I-80, and then finally end at the western side along the Missouri River, and again, kind of went north to south to complete the I. I was very fortunate that the only thing available at the rental car station was Cadillac Escalade, but I got unfortunate, though, because it was a one-week snowstorm. And I got to drive across Iowa in a one-week snowstorm. So what does that have to do about business personal property tax? It gave me an opportunity to see Iowa from the windshield. And it gave me an opportunity to driving down what is essentially their major interstate highway that bisects the state, just like I-25 bisects Douglas County. to see that there's a lot of little towns in Iowa. There's a lot of small little towns that are less than 20,000 people just about every exit of the highway. And at every exit of the highway, there's a very prominent building not too far off that interchange. Nine out of 10 times, that is a factory. That is an assembly center. Maytag, snowmobiles, snowmobile maker. They have factories all across that state. I'd like any of you to drive from the Kansas state line along I-70 and show me the same thing. Business personal property tax is the worst thing this state has done for businesses in this state. I will give a 100% credit to any business that asks for it. I don't care who it is. Some of you may say, well, that's choosing winners or losers. I don't care who the winner is. The fact that I can give that, that's the winner. And the business isn't the winner. It's you and me who actually live here in this county. We're the winners because that's another neighbor who's able to contribute to our economy on a day-to-day basis. And I know there's been some, it's 16 people. I don't care. That is not a part of my planning rubric on this. It could be 1600, it could be 60. Any business that wants it in this county gets that credit. I'm very happy that we do it for our small businesses as we heard from our staff. I'm happy with our process on doing it. If some of you would like to criticize the process, please let me know. Anything we can do to make the process more efficient, I am all ears because I do want to give this credit out whenever we can because I think it's an immoral, and a regressive tax that, just like my colleague said, it's like you're walking in and you're counting everything all over again on something people have already paid taxes on. As far as the disparity between Flex Central and Safran, you know, Safran wanted to do a big dog-and-pony show. They wanted the big announcement that they were coming to Douglas County. It really wasn't so much that they were coming to Douglas County. They wanted the big announcement they were coming to Colorado. When we were in Dubai that next fall for that EDC trip, we heard from several European companies that... They only knew Colorado because Safran had just made that big move. They didn't even know about us here in Douglas County. The fact that we could say, yeah, that was us. We're the ones that brought them in. That actually made a big difference. And there's still about 500 jobs that are still kind of hanging out there that we're still probably going to be able to bring in from that trip. In England, just a few weeks ago, on another EDC trip, Actually, our business personal property tax was a game changer. We've got three companies that are on their way in, probably 1,000 jobs over the next calendar year. One of them, they're already here. They were not gonna put those jobs anywhere else but Douglas County, and they're across the country. One of the reasons they gave was we don't charge business personal property tax. A second one, they are already here in the state of Colorado. They intend to move to Douglas County because we give this property tax credit. That's about 250 jobs. And then the final one that was a success, didn't even know that any state of the union allowed you to do this kind of tax to begin with. And we got to say, listen, you're gonna pay this in the state of Colorado unless you come to Douglas County. They might be here in the next 90 days. So this makes a big difference. It makes a big difference for bringing business to Douglas County. I would love to be more involved in bringing business to other parts of Colorado, but that's not my job right now. My job is to bring business to Douglas County. I'm all in favor of us making use of this credit on business personal property tax, and I'm all in favor of this motion, and I speak in favor of the motion. Any further discussion? Hearing none, there is a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. and that is unanimous business personal property tax incentive agreement between Douglas County and Flex Central Corporation passes. Returning to our agenda today, let's turn our attention back to the consent agenda. and all remaining items, obviously item F has been just dealt with. What is the board's pleasure?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move to approve all requests on items A through E and G through Q with item F being pulled earlier of the consent agenda. I move to approve all items. Thank you.

All right, I'm gonna take that as a motion and a second. Counselor, you got any concerns about the legality of that motion? I don't either. The consent agenda is usually considered without any discussion. There is a motion and a second to adopt the consent agenda. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you, Commissioner. And the consent agenda passes.

And Mr. Chair, maybe just as a point of personal privilege to ensure it's on the record, I wanted to make sure that my second was registered. I'm not sure it actually was made.

I did capture it, Commissioner. I will double check with the clerk when we conclude to make sure.

I heard you. Okay.

All right, gentlemen, turning to our regular agenda. Our first item up is the Third Amendment to the amended and restated intergovernmental agreement between the town of Cass Rock and Douglas County for the Highway 85 wastewater collection and treatment system in an amount of $375,232. And once again, Deputy County Manager Dan Avery.

Good afternoon again, Commissioners. Dan Avery for Douglas County. As we've discussed previously in the meeting, Douglas County is making significant water and wastewater investments on the Highway 85 corridor. This agreement is the foundational document for one of those investments, which provides for the extension of wastewater collection and treatment services to Sedalia. here's an overall exhibit of that wastewater line. It's a force main that delivers wastewater, uh, that will deliver wastewater from the lift station in Sedalia up to the Plum Creek water reclamation facility in the town of Castle Rock. Um, the project is moving along at, uh, the pace that is expected. Here's a construction photos from the lift station itself, uh, and from the, laying the pipeline. This request before you today is for the design of the next phase of that project. The line that I just described is about a $19 million project funded primarily by American Rescue Plan Act funds. It establishes the force main enlistation in Sedalia. This next phase will extend the collection system into Sedalia to serve residents of Sedalia and ultimately the Greenworks facility that we heard a little bit about earlier in the business meeting. Because this will eventually provide wastewater service to the Greenworks facility, Douglas County is proposing to fund the design of this line at a cost of $375,232 to move that project forward. Construction funds are anticipated to come in part from congressionally directed spending from Representative Boebert's office, as well as contributions from CORE and Douglas County in the future. So that concludes my presentation. The request is for approval of this third amendment, which recognizes the county's additional contribution to the design of the water line that you see here.

All right, thank you, Dan. Board, questions for Dan?

I have none, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair, and this is, it's a big project, lots of teamwork, federal government, state, local, town of Castle Rock, and of course, Douglas County, but a lot of numbers, lots of nuts and bolts, big project. Could you put it in terms of why is this important for Douglas County?

This is important in part for the reasons that Commissioner Thiel referenced earlier. When we talk about the Highway 85 corridor, there are a lot of constraints to development, to redevelopment, in that corridor. It's a long, narrow corridor. There's no water and wastewater services, no central water and wastewater services across a large portion of the corridor, which is why when it came to investing our American Rescue Plan Act funds, the commissioners identified this corridor as something that they wanted to invest in because they knew that those services would not come about through market forces. Those services were going to have to require a nudge, if you will, from the government. So this proposal here extends, now that we've provided the big investment, the big investment of that lift station in Force, Maine, we can come in with smaller projects like extensions of collection lines to ensure, ultimately, wastewater service to the residents on this corridor.

That is important. Thank you, Mr. Avery. I was looking for it in the human terms, so I appreciate it. We always talk numbers, nuts, bolts, what's going where, streets being torn up and put back together, and I appreciate the human element.

Thank you, Commissioner. Well, here's the human element, is that we've got people that are paying water rates in that area. And the reality is they've already agreed to tax themselves in order to make improvements that are really... I think we've heard it accurately described as sort of a band-aid. I mean, yeah, it's a modernization, but it's sort of a band-aid. Thankfully, our partners in the town of Castle Rock, as well as the folks in Sedalia, have come forward with this plan, and it opens up the capability of, as Dan said, better centralized water service. And to just expand a little bit, when I was speaking about your 20 years of service, Dan, Your analysis made it clear to me, and by the way, everybody, please pay attention to my words because Dan didn't say what I'm about to say. This was me and my synthesis of what Dan presented, is that if we were to take all of the A1 property, all the agricultural property right now, turn it all into R1, residential, urban residential, we will choke every single resource, that infrastructure resource along Highway 85 right now. It's just a complete non-starter. However, if we could set up a land development, a land use system down 85 where businesses could come in, and who knows, maybe a data center just like what we just dealt with, but businesses could come in and set up That would be great. It wouldn't over choke the infrastructure in the area, but then it could be an incentive that could bring investment in to continue to improve the infrastructure for the people who already live there now. The only problem is, I think was, and the county manager was very, also played a critical role in defining my thinking. Somebody had to start first. That somebody, I think that was us. That was Douglas County in using our ARPA funds with the Highway 85 Water Waste Water Project. And obviously this is a big part of it. This is associated with it, as you said, Dan. And so from that perspective, Gee, Dan, this is supposed to be the time when the commissioners ask questions of staff. And I guess I have no questions just because this is something that we've been working on for a while. This is not something new. This is a long project that we've had going. So I guess I have no questions, Dan. So if my colleagues have any more questions before we turn to public comment, I invite them to ask them at this time. Hearing none, I'll turn to public comment. I do not have anyone signed up for public comment on this matter. Is there anyone who'd like to make public comment on this matter at this time? Hearing none, let's bring it back to the board for action. Board, how would we like to dispose of this Third Amendment to the Intergovernmental Agreement between Cass Rock and Douglas County?

Well, Mr. Chair, if it pleases the board, I will make a motion to approve the Third Amendment to the amended and restated intergovernmental agreement between the town of Castle Rock and Douglas County for the Highway 85 wastewater collection and treatment system in an amount up to $375,232. Second. All right, there's a motion and a second. Discussion?

Obviously everybody knows who I think. I think this is a great idea. I very much appreciate all the work we've gotten from Dan and other members of staff to bring that before the board so that we can continue doing the good work for the people of Douglas County along the 85 corridor. Board, we do have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. And it is unanimous, third amendment to the amended and restated intergovernmental agreement between Castle Rock and Douglas County is approved. Our next item up is an intergovernmental agreement between Highlands Ranch Water and Sanitation District and the Board of County Commissioners of the County of Douglas, State of Colorado, concerning the Shadow Mountain Water Line Replacement Project. Douglas County project number is CI2026-003. Amy, and Amy, I'm gonna, I think I can get it right this time. Strathopolis.

Yes, nailed it.

All right, Amy, please proceed when you are ready.

Good afternoon, Commissioners. Amy Strathopoulos presenting for staff. Today I'm pleased to present an IGA with the Highlands Ranch Water and Sanitation District for the Shadow Mountain Water Line Replacement Project. Public Works has been building partnerships with local agencies and districts to coordinate asphalt overlay work for a couple years. Two years ago, we worked with the Pinery Water and Wastewater District They did a water line replacement on Irish Pat Murphy, and the county followed the year after to complete the asphalt pavement, the permanent restoration. We worked with the town of Larkspur this year. They reached out looking for advice on paving their town roads, and we knew we were going to be on Spruce Mountain Road, so we put an agreement together. Town of Larkspur will reimburse us for the paving, We used our county contractor and we paved Spruce Mountain Road from Noe all the way up to I-25. This is great for the public. They only had to deal with one contractor. It's a really efficient way to get work done. We're working with Louvier's Water and Sanitation District. They're doing water work right now. We'll follow next year with paving and then we'll start working with Roxborough Water and Sanitation District soon for a similar project. The Shadow Mountain Water Line Replacement Project is about 1,300 feet long. The restoration requirement is to mill and overlay half the road, the half of the road that has the trench in it. This is a very typical requirement, but as you can see in that bottom right picture, it doesn't look great. This is not a Douglas County road, by the way. It also presents maintenance challenges. It's tough on our pavement management system. When do we go back and pave that other half of the road? The public doesn't want to see two paving contractors in there. And it's efficient for the district. They get to take advantage of our favorable paving prices. And so we have put an agreement together. As you can see on the top left, the water line, there's a break in it. There's two sections. But we're going to go ahead and pave the whole thing. We can take this off of our paving program, and then the residents end up with a nice, smooth road. Work is scheduled for late summer and paving should happen in the fall. On behalf of staff, I'd like to recommend the approval of the IGA with the Highlands Ranch Water and Sanitation District for the Shadow Mountain Water Line Replacement Project, Douglas County Project Number CI2026-003.

All right, thank you, ma'am. Board, any questions for staff?

None for me, Mr. Chair, thank you.

Very good.

Nor I. I do appreciate you putting the picture of a road that's not in Douglas County to show how we do things better here. Appreciate it.

All right, I have no questions, Amy. Thanks for that great presentation. I do not have anyone signed up to speak on this matter, but would anyone like to give public comment on this matter at this time? Seeing none, let's bring it back to the board for action. Board, how would we like to dispose of this intergovernmental agreement between Highlands Ranch Water and Sanitation and Douglas County?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move to approve an intergovernmental agreement between Highlands Ranch Water and Sanitation District and the Board of County Commissioners of the County of Douglas, State of Colorado concerning the Shadow Mountain Water Line Replacement Project. This is Douglas County Project number CI2026-003.

All right, the motion's recognized.

I'll second that motion.

Thank you, Commissioner. There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, there is a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All right. Intergovernmental agreement between Highlands Ranch Water and Sanitation District and Douglas County passes. Continuing through the agenda time now is Commissioner comments. Commissioners, any comments for the public?

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. Just keep especially our firefighters in our hearts and minds as they continue to do incredibly diligent work. Our hell attack team is up almost on a very regular basis, and Douglas County really is different because that hell attack team has saved millions of dollars in property and saved a lot of lives and homes this summer, and they continue to do so. So keep them in your hearts and minds.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Layton, any comments?

No, I had a great meeting today. I just, I'm thinking about an earlier quote from you, Mr. Chair, about biochar. And, you know, you said you were skeptical of it, and it just reminds me of the, I think the sort of interesting history we have of your very wise skepticism, but then really voting in support of these important concepts. So I think the headline is that you come around and you provide detail and logistics that are essential for making these projects go. So give yourself a pat on the back for getting them going.

Well, thank you, Commissioner. I appreciate that. If it's a success, I intend to take full credit. How about that?

Deal.

All right. I do not have any commissioner comments. Let's move forward to other business today. Board, do we have any other business to introduce? County manager, any other business to introduce? County manager's report. All right, thank you, Doug. All right, the next meeting, business meeting of the Board of Douglas County Commissioners will be held on Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 at 1.30 p.m. We look forward to seeing everyone then.