Board of County Commissioners Business Meeting - Regular Meeting

We have the board present. Let's go ahead and come to order, please. Welcome, everyone, to the Board of County Commissioners Business Meeting. It is Tuesday, August 25th, 2026. And beginning our events today, for the purposes of invocation, Reverend Jason Vanderveer, please.

Heavenly Father, we just come before you this afternoon and we thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for the gift of your son, Lord. We pray that you would work in these days your blessing upon our nation, drawing many to you, Lord. Protection upon those that serve, especially at this time. Overseas Lord protecting this nation. We pray that you would continue to work through our Congress our president our Supreme Court our mayor's our County Commissioners Lord that you would work in this place Especially today that you would pour out your grace Lord in in ways Maybe that we may not always necessarily recognize but that we benefit from but we pray that you would work in people in Lord, we know that government exists. It's your delegated authority for the benefit of all people. And Lord, we pray that you'd work and that you'd create an environment where many in these days in which we live would come to the knowledge of your son and salvation. We love you, Lord. We give you this time. We pray for guidance and wisdom. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen. Amen. Once again, Reverend, thank you very much, Jason, for your words of wisdom and grace to begin our meeting today. It is very much appreciated. All right, 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 purposes of certification of the agenda.

Yes, sir. The county attorney's office reviewed the items on the agenda and you have appropriate jurisdiction over these matters.

Thank you very much, Councillor. Commissioners, any disclosures for items on the agenda today? I have none, Mr. Chair, thank you. No. Nor I, thank you, gentlemen. Let's move along to our Ceremonies and Proclamations section of the agenda today. First, we're going to hear from Strive to Thrive program update from the Department of Community Services.

Pulled up here. Great, thank you for your patience and thank you for having me here today. My name is Matt Dufresne. Most recently worked with the HEART team directly on street outreach and now I'm coming into a new role and have the opportunity to present on Strive to Thrive. So Strive to Thrive is a biannual resource fair that's been serving our most vulnerable residents here in Douglas County for over 15 years. This year's latest event was held on July 28th at the Southeast Christian Church in Parker. Um, the resource fair is hosted by the community of care network, uh, typically in the months of January and July. Uh, and our community of care network is a collaborative group of organizations, agencies, and individuals seeking to provide an opportunity for everyone in Douglas County to thrive. Community of Care Network began in 2006 as the Homeless Prevention Coalition with 12 organizations and today our average attendee list is over 50. Strive to Thrive includes over 25 agencies and organizations that come together to provide on-site services and immediate access to many resources including employment services, legal assistance, resource application assistance, tax program assistance, housing navigation, and assistance with mental and behavioral health resources, food resources, and many more. The Summer Strive to Thrive events in July alternates locations every year between Cherry Hills Christian Church in Highlands Ranch and the Southeast Christian Church in Parker. This summer at the Southeast Christian Church in Parker, there were 584 attendees. The Summer Strive is held in partnership with the Foundation for Douglas County Public Schools, Linda Hand School Supply Drive. At this year's event, 484 backpacks were distributed to Douglas County students. And at this time, I'd like to introduce the Executive Director of the Foundation for Douglas County Schools, Ashley Summers, to share more about the impact they're making throughout Douglas County. Ms. Summers?

Thank you County Commissioners for having me here today. We have been apart, we were just discussing this event, we believe since the inception. The Lend a Hand School Supply Drive annually supports students traditionally in the amount of between 1,400 to 1,600 students. I'm going to advance to my slides. There we go. It tells you a little bit about our program. We have been running the supply drive for 16 years this year. That needs to be a little updated. It's a community event that brings together all different outside resources, but also supports our local food banks, and so they don't have to turn their attention during the summer to look for school supplies for their clients that we can come around them and support them. A couple of notes is that we distributed over 1,400 backpacks benefiting over almost 700 families. We are a great partner of the Strive to Thrive event. We also do an event that hosts our educators coming back to school. This year, we saw 75 educators supported, supporting additional 2,000 students. Those are who we collaborate with, Secor Cares, Help and Hope, Catholic Charities, and we assist their clients.

We do fundraise for this program.

We do receive donations with the support of our boxes being out at the Douglas County Libraries and some support from Catholic Charities, but we do pay for additional supplies and backpacks. We could not succeed without our volunteers. We engaged this summer 120 volunteers logging over 400 hours to help us pack and sort these different backpacks. Our main partners in our collection is definitely our Douglas County Libraries and Catholic Charities. That's it. That is everything I have to share with you today.

Very good, thank you very much. Are you guys, could you take some questions from the board? Board, any questions for our representatives from Strive to Thrive?

Well, no questions for me. I do have a couple comments in that just very happy that we can spend time today to bring community awareness to the Strive to Thrive community. Really what makes it so special is that connection of those 25 groups, each with their own specialty, each pursuing help for the people of Douglas County in their own special way. It goes from, you know, senior care, help centers, jobs, charities, even law enforcement and even very involved in the school districts and our Douglas County libraries and on and on the list goes and it just speaks to really a network, a safety net of immense proportion that really goes out to the people and says, how can we help you? How can we serve you? It reminds me in small part of the heart team that you mentioned earlier, how it's not there to put people in jail or to punish anyone or to look down on anyone, but to be a hand up to help people and incredibly proud of the work being done there and very glad that we could raise a little community awareness today for Strive to Thrive. Thank you for everything you do.

thank you mr chair and thank you for the great presentation uh certainly appreciate your service to our amazing heart team you know whether it's human needs human services strive to thrive our homeless initiative there are so many ways in which douglas county reaches those that are vulnerable and in need you know we're the most prosperous county in the state of colorado the healthiest according to US News and World Report. And so it's easy for folks to forget that there are those that still need a little helping hand once in a while. So just want to recognize you and say thank you for making sure that those needs get met.

I do not have any questions for you guys, but again, I'd like to join my colleagues, and no, thanks for the great work. I mean, it's the soft infrastructure, the soft services that we see here in Strive to Thrive that I think it becomes, it may not be one of these big monolithic programs that we run here in the county sometimes under the behest of state or federal government and in partnership with them, but at the same token, sometimes it's these little connective tissues that link these little forms of support that actually can make a huge difference. I look at the kids in the photos and kind of wonder, hey, that might be a cool bag that they're gonna remember having and they won't even remember what the heck it is and they'll find it someday it's all faded and yet they'll remember that day. And again, it's these little things that we do in our community that helped make our community the great one that it actually is. So thanks so much, guys. Thank you for that update. Hey, folks, if everybody will please join the board in a round of applause for our Strive to Thrive program and, of course, partnership of the school board. Thank you. Thank you very much, guys. Let's hear from Corporal Brian McKnight on the National Night Out 2026 update. For a second there, I really thought it was 2014, and we were actually joined by Sheriff, your predecessor, Sheriff Weaver for a second there, but alas.

Yes, I have been told I look a lot like Sheriff Weaver. My name is Brian McKnight. I'm the corporal of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office Committee Resource Unit. Our team is a small group of individuals that Our job is public education. We do everything from puppet shows for preschool kids all the way up to active threat training for businesses and everything in between. Part of what we do is community relations and the concept of getting out to our community. Just today we were at Target for two hours doing a local coffee with a cop. just getting to meet people and see their concerns and talk to them about our community. Today we were asked to come talk about our National Night Out campaign, which is one of our biggest campaigns when it comes to community policing. Community policing is all about the Sheriff's Office working with our community to solve problems. Sometimes the Sheriff's Office, it's not just about fighting crimes, but it's about making a safer community. National Night Out is a national campaign that law enforcement agencies throughout the country participate in. It's normally the first Tuesday of August every year. And the concept there is going out into the community and just giving people a chance to see who we are and what we do. So this year we had a great National Night Out campaign. We had four major events. Because the county is so big, we want to provide the opportunities for as many people as possible. So we actually did our National Night Out on Tuesday and Wednesday of this year. You can see on August 4th, we did the Canyons neighborhood and Palomino Park, two great communities, a lot of interaction you can see by the pictures here of just great communication and talking to people about who we are and what we do and problem solving sometimes. During these events, they come up and tell us what's going on in their community and it's great contact to be able to find out what's going on and then we might share information with One of our traffic officers because that might be a problem there. The next night we had Civic Green Park with Ice Cream Social. We all like ice cream, right? It's a great event. That's probably our biggest one with about 2,500 people. We saw a ton of kids at these events. We bring mounted patrol. We bring the motorbikes. The marshal's office joined us. So we bring other law enforcement agencies with us to give people a chance to see who we are and what we do. It's great when you get the kids to be able to sit on the motorcycles, see that horse, they get to see the SWAT team, the bomb squad, our sort guys from detentions. It's really that time to say, here we are and this is what we do. So we had a great turnout. We had a great letter here that was put out there, but we also have a sound bite. We actually had a community member call in and leave this message.

night out event that we had here at the Canyons and I was working with Deputy Catherine Nicola and let me tell you something last night's event was a huge success and it was overwhelmingly positive for everybody in our community the we had about 12 deputies here last night and search and rescue, the therapy dogs, the undersheriff, the sheriff, about 10 deputies. They made this event so freaking special that I don't even know how to top it. They were willing to play games with the kids and the parents, not just stand around and talk and answer questions, but they got down and dirty and played the best games. It was a fantastic night.

So that was from one of our community members. And I do want to introduce Catherine. She is our neighborhood community liaison. She does our neighborhood watch, our community events. She was the one that was the major one playing with the kids down in the corner there, doing the musical chairs, doing some other fun activities. That's a fun part of our job is we get to go out there and let the people know We're officers, but we're also people and we got to play games and have a great time. Catherine has taken our neighborhood watch community relations to a whole nother level. She is working almost three to four nights a week going out into the community and doing individual engagement with our communities. And that's why we had such a great turnout for our National Night Out and all the people involved. So really a great night to get to know who we are and meet our community and listen to all the great things going on. Just a couple more pictures. You can see all the different things. Love the little kid down in the corner with the thin blue line shirt. She was just loving the day. Uh, so that's what national night out was about. We not only do national line out, but we had four other community events just this weekend. We were up in castle pines for a program with a ton of people that night. So those are the things we're doing in our community and I'm available if you got questions.

All right, thank you, Corporal. Board, any questions for the Corporal and Deputy?

You know, I don't have any questions, but tremendous thanks to you both and the entire Sheriff's Office for your work on National Night Out. You know, certainly this is a community where we lift up and support law enforcement. We've certainly seen a trend over many years where certain groups have decided and certain communities have decided that law enforcement isn't welcome, that we don't like law enforcement, we don't want them to be around. And the reality is that our community is safe because of law enforcement. 99.99% of you all are doing a A-plus job and really making sure that our community is what it is. I always go back to the question we often get, which is, why is Douglas County doing so well? Why are we so prosperous? Well, it comes back to safety. We invest in public safety. The perception and reality is that we're safe, so people wanna come here and buy homes and build a life. That is really what happens when you see an appreciation in home values. You know places with similar demographics and maybe similar portfolios in terms of housing stock don't have the same prices people want to live here Well, we get paid based on property taxes and we always try to return those back. We don't need more of your money We don't need more of the citizens money But at the end of the day that is how we're paying for things we invest in law enforcement and a lot of other things that I think keep our County healthy and safe and It's a place where quality of life comes first, but that begins with a place that people can raise their families and feel at peace about that. So this is really a wonderful event that highlights that significant relationship that we have with you all. Thank you.

Thank you. Let me just echo those sentiments and piggyback 100% upon them, which is a big thank you. It'd be so easy in the temptation, I'm sure, is for our sheriff's deputies to do their very stressful, difficult work and then go home at the end of the day. But so often I see our sheriff's deputies doing stuff like this, National Night Out. or volunteering extra time to work at a church, or Highlands Ranch concert in the park, or at the fair and rodeo. Our sheriff's deputies are such an integral part of the community, and there are so many opportunities for our community to come out and meet them at events like this, at the ice cream socials, and just going to where the people are, but doing it in a very sociable, friendly way. A coffee with a cop. I'm sorry I missed that this morning. Sorry. I wish I had that on my calendar because I would have gone. I've been before just as a regular citizen, of course, and it's just fantastic. It's great to see the interaction and the conversations. that can be had when it's just a very low stress just very casual environment so big thanks to you big thanks to your whole team also big shout out to our school resource officers i know they just started school this week but i know the the one at my kids school where i interact with all week long or all the time it's not just the security aspect it's shaking hands with the parents and talking to the kids and seeing how Little Timmy's doing that day because he looks a little stressed coming into school. And there's always such an extra mile that our sheriff's deputies here in Douglas County do that it truly makes us incredibly proud. Really, the gem of what makes Douglas County great, the center of it, is our sheriff's department. So thank you so much to each and every one of you. And pass the big thanks on to everyone who always goes above and beyond.

Will do. Thank you. So, Corporal, remind us a little bit of the history. I guess National Night Out started like decades ago at the national level, if you could remind us when that was. But then when did we start doing National Night Out here in the county? Do you happen to have that information?

The Sheriff's Office has been involved in National Night Out probably way back into the early 90s. when the concept first started coming out and it has grown since. I think our hardest part is we're such a big county to provide a party for everybody and that's why we have events not only on those two nights but on weekends and other times where we can reach them and provide the same service to different locations. So it is definitely something the Sheriff's Office has been involved with for decades. And we know it is an important part of our committee relations and we'll continue to do more in the future.

Very good. Well, great job, you guys. Keep it up. We are counting on you, just as we count on every one of your colleagues. But it's stuff like this, again, this soft infrastructure that we build out that connects people and connects us all. Very much appreciated. Will everybody please join me in honoring our law enforcement officials here today and their accomplishments with National Night Out? Thank you very much, Corporal. Really appreciate it. Board, at this time, let's turn to the consent agenda on our agenda board. We do have a consent agenda. All items on the consent agenda will be taken under one vote without discussion. Any item on the consent agenda can be removed by any member of the board for any reason. Board, how would we like to dispose of the consent agenda?

Mr. Chair, I move that we actually do pull an item from the consent agenda and that's item Z. Understood.

and I'll second them, or I guess that's something that you're gonna approve as chair.

Again, at any time, a board member can approve removing an item from the consent agenda. Let's go ahead and turn our attention then to resolution 3Z, a resolution approving the draw in the amount of $512,601 on a revocable letter of credit Issued by Citizens Community Bank in connection with the Sterling Ranch filing 6A John Adams Academy Performance Security. Douglas County project number is DV2025-191. And Janet Peterson, Engineering Agreements Technician, Department of Public Works and Engineering presenting. And County Manager turning to you.

Yeah, that...

With those draws on letter of credit, as is often the case, that one, the check did come in before the meeting, and so that is why that has been requested to be removed.

Okay, very good. Any questions from the board for the county manager? None for me.

No?

Nor I. Thanks for letting us know that, Doug. And Kevin, good catch to pull off the consent agenda so everybody can know. At this time, we do have a resolution to approve on the revocable letter of credit. How would the board like to dispose of this resolution?

Yeah.

Yeah, so. Oh, does it need to be heard?

Yeah.

Okay.

Just pull it for.

Well, very good then. Let us move along. Considering the rest of the consent agenda, board, how would we like to dispose of the consent agenda today?

Mr. Chair, if it pleases the board, I'll make a motion to approve the request on items A through Y of the consent agenda.

And I second that motion with Z pulled.

All right, any further discussion? Excuse me, it is the consent agenda. All in favor say aye. Aye. And the consent agenda is approved. Moving along. Let's turn to our regular agenda. And first item is a request to apply for a Great Indoors, Great Outdoors Colorado and Colorado Parks and Wildlife for Community Impact Grant for Highlands Ranch Community Association Wildcat Regional Park. Dan Dirts, Director Open Space, presenting for staff.

Well, good afternoon, Commissioner Standards for Open Space. Today I'm here before you to request to apply for a couple grants for the future Wildcat Regional Park. I have Mark Ebel from Highlands Ranch Community Association today who is the Highlands Ranch Backcountry Wilderness Area Director to answer questions at the end of this. This is part of an ongoing partnership that we do have with the Highlands Ranch Community Association to develop a public trail network just south of Highlands Ranch. Today our request is to apply for a Great Outdoors Colorado grant in the amount of $500,000 and another grant in conjunction with the GOCO grant with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife for $50,000. These grants were recommended to be submitted together by staff at GOCO. A little background on this project is in 1980 Douglas County was granted the conservation easement on what has been referred to as the open space conservation area or OSCA. The property was originally deeded to Douglas County as part of the parks dedication standards when Highlands Ranch was being planned and plotted. The 202-acre parcel referred to as Wildcat was required to include public access and developed for either active or passive park uses. After years of attempting to develop Wildcat as an active regional park, the Highlands Ranch Community Association along with the Board of County Commissioners listened to the community and partnered to agree upon a passive trail system that would still serve the purpose of providing public access to the property. The board agreed to deed the property to Highlands Ranch Community Association along with providing 3.5 million from the open space account of the parks, trails, historic resources and sales tax. The agreement that was made in October 2025 requires that the property be fully constructed for full public access within three years and requires HRCA to maintain the project in perpetuity. Staff at HRCA refined the project and have recognized the need for these additional funds to complete the project with the refinements they made. HRCA does not qualify under GOCO's funding restrictions. However, as the easement holder and because this project has full public access, Douglas County may apply for the grant as a local government partnership and oversee the funding. This slide shows the location of the proposed project within the boundaries of Douglas County. The future Wildcat Regional Park trail system is within the northern portion of the county, directly south of existing neighborhoods within the Hamlin's Ranch planned development between Griggs Road and Monarch Boulevard and just north of the city of Castle Pines. This map shows the location of the proposed trail network, the area in light blue, and how it connects to Douglas County's east-west regional trail, which is the dark blue. This slide shows the conceptual trails map that will be submitted for grant consideration. Please note that this design has evolved since the board last saw the proposal in October. In terms of the grant process, the grant application is due on September 10th. It will be awarded in December if we end up winning that grant. The funds must be completed for the project in one to three years. For the CPW non-motorized trail grant, it is, like I said, an associated grant. That is due October 2nd and typically awarded in March of 2027. and these funds must be used to complete the project within two and two half years. COSAC heard this request on August 5th, 2026 and voted unanimously to recommend approval to submit the grant request. A few key points that were discussed was that adding an additional funding partner for the project was appreciated and if the grant is awarded, having GOCO as a partner further adds to the importance of this trail system as a regional amenity. This concludes my presentation. I'm available to answer any questions.

All right, thanks, Dan. Board, any questions for Director Dertz?

Hey, Director, great job with that presentation. And it's just thrilling to see that this commitment to the citizens of Douglas County around open space is being fulfilled. 200 plus acres is really a significant dedication. I'm hoping you can go back in your slide deck to the changes to the trail network. You said that some modifications have been made since our conversation in October. Can you walk us through those? Absolutely, sir. One moment.

If it pleases the board, I have Mr. Mark Giebel here, who he and his team developed this. And I think Mr. Giebel would be the most appropriate person to discuss what changes they made and why these additional funds are necessary at this time.

MARK GIEBELMANN. Great. Thank you. Yeah, first I want to state that the county's $3.5 million initial investment would build a great trail system. But as we moved from the conceptual plan into the detailed design, we identified opportunities to refine and improve the overall system and do more and accomplish more with that additional funding. So I'll point out a few key things on the map here. The green and yellow trails would be bike-only trails. The light blue trails would be multi use, uh, natural surface trails. And then the purple trail is the surface trail. And as in the conceptual plan, we, we plan for that to be about 6 feet wide. The additional funding would allow us to make that service trail 8 feet wide. If not all of it, most of it. And then that. dotted line marked South Path B, if we're successful in this grant, rather than phase that part of that surface trail in or phase it out of the project, we'd be able to complete that with this additional funding. And then on the bike trails, we'd be able to add additional features, improving the overall system for the bike-only trails as well.

Further questions?

Well, thank you for that, Mark. You've done such a great job as Highlands Ranch on this planning. You know, we often say here greatest good for the greatest number. And so I think what I see reflected here is a desire to reach as many potential users as possible. Can you walk through some of the different user groups? And I'm also wondering about horses. Is there any aspect of that for what we're looking at here? Or is it purely pedestrian and then bike trails?

Dan and I have discussed that. And right now, we're leaning towards not allowing horses on this trail system, mostly due to the anticipated density of use. And the Douglas County Trail, the regional trail around that trail system does allow horses. So right now, that's the way we're leaning. We haven't fully decided on that particular rule yet. And then, as far as user groups, the purple trail, the surface trail is going to be great for families and pedestrians and geared towards that, including seniors, including strollers, including wheelchairs on an aggregate surface trail. The bike-only trails, obviously, for bikes, but there's also a skills area that'll serve from toddlers on the little Strider bikes all the way up to advanced riders on some bigger elements. So it's really serving a wide variety and the widest variety we can. We've also been working with the school district to hopefully build the surface trail and the natural surface trails to host cross-country meets in the future. We connect right to Rock Canyon High School and Rocky Heights Middle School. Those cross-country coaches are excited about that possibility as well. Initially with the six foot wide trail that was going to be difficult if we can make that trail wider with this additional funding It serves that purpose much better along with community events and hosting races and 5ks and community fundraisers on the system, too Yeah, that sounds great.

So just to clarify for the listening public not an application to us for additional funding It's to great outdoors, Colorado and then Colorado Parks and Wildlife, right? I How likely is it that once we, if we approve this request to apply, how likely is it that you'll get approved?

I'd say at this time, Commissioner, and the feedback we received from GOCO for a concept plan was very positive. We've got to go through the process, of course. I think some of the things that make this a really good project is the fact that it is opening a lot of trail access at the very southern portion of this region of South Denver, basically. I do think it has a great opportunity of being accepted.

Yeah, well, I will say the white dotted lines excite me the most because it seems like those are expanding connections for citizens. It's going right into neighborhoods and really creating greater opportunities for people to access this. It seems like without those dotted lines, the access point, would you have to drive to the access points?

No, there there will be direct connection from the the path along Griggs Road, which is currently an eight-foot sidewalk Okay to connect directly to those neighborhoods and and I would like to clarify those dots connecting to the neighborhoods are conceptual still at this point and weren't part of our Conceptual plan that we got approved those are those are thoughts that they might be phased in in the future if there's neighborhood demand for them and and we're gonna kind of see how the trail system evolves and if the neighborhoods demand that we would phase those in.

Well, with all due respect, I think that's a great conversation to have early rather than later. I'd be curious to hear from those citizens. We represent all 400,000, but this is certainly Kevin's district. I think, I don't know, Commissioner, have we heard anything from your district about access points?

Well, I do know HRCA, and I don't wanna speak for HRCA, but they have their regular meetings and they're constantly in communication, especially with the homes right there that you kinda see there on the north side of this. So I kinda trust HRCA to do their due diligence and yeah, I think encouraging them to connect it to as many neighborhoods as possible is a positive for all those folks that live there. Yeah, okay, thanks.

Thank you, Commissioner. Further questions? No comments after public site. Very good, okay. Dan, I don't think I have any questions about this. I mean, I can remember an idea proposed to the board many years ago when I first got on the board that looks a lot like this. So seeing more refinement of the plan, I don't think I have any questions at all. At this time, if there are no further questions, Let's turn to public comment. I do not have anyone signed up for public comment on this item, but is there anyone who would like to give public comment at this time? And seeing none, let's bring it back to the board. Board, we do have the request to apply for grants with Parks and Wildlife and Great Outdoors Colorado. How would we like to dispose of this item?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And this project has been an absolute joy to work on. From the county perspective, working with our partners at HRCA, the HRCA backcountry team that just does such fantastic work in the community of Highlands Ranch. and fantastic work preserving that backland. When I was running for County Commissioner, this very piece of property was very heavily, there were a lot of rumors and a lot of, well, I guess more than rumors, but a lot of planning and competing planning for what the future of this property should be. Should it be massive development, the proposals, or should it be something more like this, more like protected open space. And we were able to donate a good amount of money, thanks to the hardworking taxpayers in Douglas County, along with 202 acres that were matched by HRCA. And HRCA is also putting some funding in to make this dream a reality. And really, it's just amazing to see us come to this point. I think bringing in more partners, that's exactly how we do everything you think of. almost any project we do, roads, bridges, anything, we usually get partners. Our Link on Demand vehicles, there's so many partners, those are starting to look like a little, kind of like a NASCAR. They have the stickers, so many stickers of partners that have joined to help make that possible for the people of Douglas County. So I think going out, getting these, pursuing GoCo funds makes total sense. And yeah, bring one more partner on board to make it even bigger and better for the people of Douglas County. And like I said before, trust completely HRCA, who has a good pulse on the heartbeat of the people of Highlands Ranch and these homes around here to be able to do it. In a way, that makes a lot of sense. I also see there's a roundabout there that we are also participating in as a county to make sure that dream becomes reality. It's kind of on the northwest side of the map. in that whole parking area and everything that there is also going to be a nice big upgrade for that road in that community. So a lot of partnership going on, very proud of it. And therefore, Mr. Chair, I will simply move to apply for Great Outdoors Colorado and Colorado Parks and Wildlife for community impact grants for the HRCA Highlands Ranch Community Association Wildcat Regional Park. And I'll enthusiastically second that motion.

All right, well, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? I will say, just as a matter of discussion, this is like a no-brainer. I mean, this is what we do all the time. We're connecting our local communities with state priorities, state funding. So applying, absolutely. It's like a no-brainer for me. Again, neat design. I keep hearkening back to that very first meeting we had. Commissioner, golly, it would have had to have been like, seriously almost six years ago if not just a little more that we were talking about something like this and you know we need to see a little bit more and now that HSCA kind of came to us with this is the idea it's like a no-brainer so I speak to the motion any further discussion All right, we do have a motion to apply for Great Outdoors Colorado and Colorado Parks and Wildlife. There is a motion and a second to do that application. All in favor say aye. Aye. And it is approved unanimously. All right, thanks, Dan. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you bringing this one in. Thank you. Thanks, HRCA. Thanks in advance to the state of Colorado. Our next item is Amendment Two to the Public Contract for Services with HDR Engineering Incorporated for the Hilltop Road Improvements Project, Segment Two, in the amount of $150,000. Douglas County project number is CI202029, Benjamin Pierce, P.E., Capital Improvements Project Supervisor for the Department of Public Works, for staff.

Good afternoon, commissioners. Thank you for having me today. Um, as you said, I'm here today to talk a little bit about the hilltop road improvement projects, specifically segment two, which we're looking to wrap up final design for. Um, and before I get into it a little bit, I do want to explain this picture that I have on the front here. So this is, um, so we're currently under construction with segment one of our hilltop road project. And one of the things we've been doing to monitor progress is taking drone photos about once a month or so. And so this is a photo actually on the eastern end of Segment 1 looking further east. And you can see kind of that brownish area there is where we've actually built a significant portion of the embankment for Segment 2. So we've got a lot of great project momentum with this project. We already have some infrastructure in place in order to continue this corridor project. So a little bit more about the hilltop corridor and kind of how we've broken it up into phases. The blue spot on the north side there, that's phase one, which is currently under construction. We're looking to finish up that project here by the end of the year. And there's a roundabout major intersection planned at that intersection of Crestview and Village Road. And then the topic of today's presentation is really to complete final design for segment two. So that's that orange segment in the middle. It's about a mile long. And it continues right where we're leaving off with our current construction project and then taking it all the way down to Alpine Drive, And then so the last segment, which is segment three that we've are currently in preliminary designs, we've got about 60% construction plans that were completed about two years ago for the remainder of Hilltop Road to Singing Hills and from Singing Hills Road to just east of Flintwood. And then also for some additional context, the fields development, which is currently being constructed, is really kind of in that segment three portion. So segment two project will get us basically to the western part border of that fields development, which is currently in progress. And then a little more specifically about Hilltop Road Segment 2. So this PCS amendment is for $150,000, which is the cost to complete full shelf construction documents. So that'll be plans, specifications, and an engineer's estimate. acquired all of the right-of-way needed to build segment two. And we've also moved the major utilities that were in the way of constructing segment two as part of the segment one effort. So really, by the end of the year, with the approval of this PCS amendment, we'll be ready to go to add any time with that project. But currently, it's on our CIP plan to begin construction of segment two in 2028. Um, and then segment two will be an estimated construction cost of about $13 million. Um, that would be like in today's dollars. Obviously there could be some other unforeseen circumstances that happened between now and 2028 that could affect that cost. Um, but that's about what it would be in today's dollars. And then here's another picture from our, from our drone looking, uh, this is looking to the north of segment one, which is currently under construction, kind of showing the progress that has been made. Um, and, and like I said, we're, we're in good shape to wrap up that project here by the end of the year. So with that, staff recommendation is approval of a contract amendment with HDR for the Hilltop Road Improvement Project, segment two. I'm happy to answer any questions about the project, whether segment two or the larger Hilltop Road corridor.

All right, cool, thanks, Ben. Gentlemen, any questions for Supervisor Pierce?

No, familiar project, good presentation. I have no questions.

I actually do have a question. I'm incredibly proud of our road and bridge and our public works teams for completing really an incredible amount of projects over the summertime as to not disrupt the schools and some of them I know got done like on Friday and Saturday was school starting well that next Wednesday in most cases. But got it done. I'm very incredibly proud of our teams in Douglas County for making that a key priority. Now this project in phase one is right by the big high school. So could you speak to that and what's going on with phase one? Maybe just, you touched on it, but maybe just a key update for the community on phase one.

Sure. And I'm going back to the map here. So basically at the very western edge of segment one, which is really the town of Parker, is where town of Parker and Douglas County border starts. So that's where Legends High School is right there. You can kind of see the field just below the the note there. So the original completion date was planned to be August 16. So we were planning on getting the project done before school started. But with some of the earthwork that was required and just some other phasing elements that delayed the project a little bit, we are later than anticipated. But we're making really good progress and still plan to be done by the end of the year. And it has been a little bit of a disruption to school operations just with some of the traffic control. One of the things that helps is the vast majority of the traffic going to and from Legends High School is going to the west to and from Parker. So this isn't as impactful, but certainly it was planned to try to have the project wrapped up before school started.

Okay, thank you.

All right, further questions for Ben? All right. Ben, I'm kind of like Commissioner Layden. This seems to be an ongoing plan ever since I got on the board. So it looks like we're executing well. I have no questions. Any further questions from the board? Without any, let's turn to public comment. I did not have anyone signed up for public comment on this item. Is there anyone who'd like to make public comment? Seeing none, let's bring it back to the board for action. Board, how do we want to dispose of this public contract for services?

Mr. Chair, if it pleases the board, I'll make a motion to approve the public contract for services with HDR Engineering Incorporated for the Hilltop Road Improvement Project Segment Two in the amount of $150,000, Douglas County Project Number CI 2020-029. And I'll second the motion.

Very good. There is a motion and a second. Any discussion?

I know the final project is gonna be very good for the people of especially that part of Douglas County and Parker and going to school and everything. So I'm very proud of what it will eventually look like. Just really hope we make haste with it.

Any further discussion? Again, I'm speaking in favor of the motion. This has been in planning for a long time. Good to see progress moving along. I speak in favor of the motion. If there is no further discussion, all in favor of approving, say aye.

Aye.

Aye. And the public contract services is approved. Moving on to Section 147F, Public Approval Resolution for the issuance of up to $50 million in multifamily housing revenue bonds for Ponderosa Pines. Melody DeHallacourt? No, that looks like Jen Eby, Community Programs Manager, Director, presenting.

Yes, it is me. Good afternoon, Commissioners. Jennifer Eby representing Community Services. The request before you today is the approval of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 otherwise known as TEFRA public resolution approving the issuance of up to 50 million in private activity bonds or PAB by the Douglas County Housing Partnership to finance Ponderosa Pines solely for the purpose of satisfying section 147F of the internal revenue code of 1986 as amended. DCHP's board has authorized the issuance of the private activity bonds for Ponderosa Pines. The DCHP board lacks the authority to approve the TEFRA public approval resolution because the DCHP board is appointed by its members rather than elected. And as the highest local elected body, the Board of County Commissioners has approval or has authority over the TEFRA public approval resolution authorization and is being asked to provide the public approval required under section 147F of the Internal Revenue Code. The county's approval is solely for federal tax purposes and does not constitute the state law authorization for DCHP to issue the private activity bonds. Just to give a little bit of background, the officials of DCHP have represented to the board that TEFRA public hearing was held on Friday, August 14th, 2026 at 2 p.m. after a reasonable notice of public hearing was published on August 7th, 2026 on DCHP's website. One public comment was stated in favor of the developer, Ulysses Development. No other public comments were received. For reference, listed here are prior PAB TEFRA resolution projects that have been approved by the Board of County Commissioners starting in 2015 and going through 2024. So those projects include Copper Step, Apex Meridian II, the Audrey, Bridgewater Castle Rock, Apex Meridian 3, Meadowmark and the Sophia. Just to give some reference, the Ponderosa Pines project property is located at the northwest intersection of Scott Avenue and Parker Road at 6793 Scott Avenue in the town of Parker. It is staff's recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners approve the TEFRA public approval resolution and the associated public approval certificate. At this point, I would like to invite Ahmed Abdul Hamid, Vice President of Ulysses Development Group to share some of the Ponderosa Pines project details.

All right, thanks, Jen. Sir, please do give us your name. Do give us your role in the project.

My name's Ahmed Abdelhamid. I'm a vice president with Ulysses Development Group, the developer and owner of Ponderosa Pines. So thank you for the opportunity to be here today. It's great to see you all again. After five years, we are excited to be in front of you one last time for our project, Ponderosa Pines. So as a refresher, Ponderosa Pines is a 204 unit workforce housing community serving residents earning an average of 60% AMI or less. and along with providing several amenities for its residents and as part of the rezoning, Ponderosa Pines will also implement a policy that provides preferences for people who work in Douglas County, consistent with federal and state fair housing laws. We anticipate construction will begin in September and we'll be opening our doors late summer, 2028. So the project will deliver meaningful benefits to the broader community. So in addition to the housing itself, the project will help fund and deliver important infrastructure and public improvements, including the extension of Pinery Center Boulevard and applicable traffic signals, a new three-acre public park, stabilization of the Cherry Creek Riverbank, additional core utility capacity, and financial contributions to the Douglas County Parks and Trails. So I want to say thank you for all your support over the years, including relief on permit and impact fees, supporting our successful application for state funding, and lastly for your participation on the Douglas County Housing Partnerships Board. We're grateful for your leadership and support and look forward to breaking ground in September. Thank you.

All right, thank you, sir. Sir, would you mind staying for any questions from the board? Yes, absolutely. Okay, very well. Board, any questions for staff or for the applicant?

Pretty familiar with this project, no questions for me.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, I do have a question for Ms. Evey, and I do know the answer to it ahead of time. I scrutinize the, this is a project that really started well before I became a county commissioner, and so coming on board and learning about it and things, wanted to get caught up to speed, so I asked lots of questions. I think one that is important to be asked for the listening audience today is, and like I said, I know the answer to it, but I think it's important. What is the county's financial liability for these bonds?

Absolutely. Commissioner, there is no county liability for these bonds. There is no state, no liability on the housing partnership either.

So this is essentially a federal procedural role only that the county commissioners play in this process to ensure that the bonds are issued properly. That is correct. Okay, thank you.

Okay, any further questions for staff or the applicant? and probably not appropriate to say the applicant, but you guys have been here before, and I think we went through a great level of detail, and so yeah, this is the last step to get you guys moving. I have no questions. At this time, I'd like to, if there are no further questions from the board, let's go ahead and move to public comment. I do have one person signed up for public comment, and Jackson Givens, please. Mr. Givens, if you could please approach. Please give us your name again, and tell us where you're from.

My name is Jackson Gibbons, G-I-V as in Victor, E-N-S, and I'm at 7200 South Alton Way in Centennial. I'm up here to speak in favor of the Ponderosa Pines Project. I am with the Pinery Meadows Development just to the north. I've had the pleasure of working with the Ulysses team over a number of years as both of our projects work through the entitlement process and ultimately into development. Our two projects have been coordinating on a number of significant infrastructure items listed by Ahmed, including the construction of Pioneer Center Boulevard that will lead another access directly to the new King Soopers that is under construction. and is also associated within IGA with Douglas County in order to utilize grant funds that were issued to the Ponderosa Pines project. We're also working with Ulysses on the extension of a core electric feeder line to serve both of our developments, but also have additional capacity for future users, potentially some additional retail in that King Soopers development. And we're also working with Mile High Flood District and the Ulysses team on Cherry Creek. It's advantageous to both our projects and Mile High Flood District to do those Cherry Creek improvements simultaneously to save time and cost for everybody. So a number of these improvements are being planned and constructed in a way that will benefit not only the two of our projects, but also future development in the surrounding area. Again, we are supportive of the Ulysses project. It helps with the infrastructure in the surrounding area, and it also helps meet one of the county's master plan goals of bringing a variety of housing and density, which we also try to do with our development. The bond issuance is important because it not only facilitates the Ponderosa Pines project, but also allows Ulysses to fund its share of the critical infrastructure improvements in the area. Appreciate your time.

Thank you, Mr. Givens, appreciate your comments. That's the only person I had signed up for public comment. Would anyone else like to give public comment on this matter? Seeing none, let's bring it back to the board for action. Board, how do we wish to handle this section 143F public approval resolution?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And this has been a long vetted process at the Housing Partnership and at several layers, actually. So therefore, I think it was very thoroughly examined once again today. I move to approve Section 147F, public approval resolution for the issuance of up to $50 million in multifamily housing revenue bonds for the Ponderosa Pines Project.

And I'll second that motion.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? I will speak in favor of the motion. Again, good to see this last final step. Commissioner, thank you very much for your questions on the public liability here in the county being none. One of our friends and colleagues, gentlemen, is a member of the Cassarock Town Council. He also happens to be the principal of Ponderosa High School. And he has a problem. And his problem is is that to ask a new teacher, new to the system, maybe fresh graduated from my alma mater at UNC, to come down there is asking them to go to the very end of the metropolitan area of Denver and live in an area of very high cost of living, relatively speaking, through the state on a beginning teacher's salary. He describes that as almost an impossible task. I'm confident that this development will provide the housing needed for those new young teachers, but not only that, I happen to know, due to a family member who is a post-certified member of the Parks and Wildlife Department here in the state, that Castlewood Canyon has the exact same problem with their new young rangers. Franktown Fire recruiting new firefighters has this problem. And indeed, we have heard, I have heard, and I'm sure you guys have heard from our sheriff and from our undersheriff, the challenge that our deputies have when they're new and they're being assigned to the area to find housing they can afford. Often, they're still unmarried, and so they have to do it on a single deputy salary. I am confident that this will be that binding element. Sorry, this is something that I keep thinking of all today, but no, this is needed. This is needed in our community, and I speak in favor of the motion to approve these issuance of these bonds. Any further discussion? There is a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye, and I am pleased to say that is approved unanimously. Congratulations, gentlemen. Go out, give us a good project. I don't know, I think that's pretty good for applause. If anybody wants to applaud that one, that's a pretty good one. Before we move along to our final item on the regular agenda board, I need a break for a second. Any objection to the board taking a five minute recess?

That's a good idea.

All right, let's recess for five minutes and be right back. is a resolution adopting procedures for the execution, resolution, and enhancement of voter-initiated ballot measures. Jeff Garcia, County Attorney, presenting.

Thank you, Commissioner. What I'm going to talk about today are the procedures to address a ballot measure or any ballot measure brought by voters in the county. The clerk has recently received a ballot initiative that was verified to have sufficient signatures to be on the general election ballot. That is to increase the size of the Board of County Commissioners It's been about 30 years. I believe the last time, and I'm not the perfect Douglas County historian, there's far better than me, that we've had one of these. I believe the last time that we had an initiated, voter-initiated ballot measure was when the open space tax went into place. So it's been a little over 30 years. The direction from statute is for counties to use as best as practical municipal initiatives, incentives, I'm sorry, municipal procedures for these kind of initiatives. though those municipal, um, procedures, um, aren't on perfectly on topic when it comes to, um, counties. They talk about things like mayors and mayor vetoes and city council. So that doesn't exactly apply. So we need to have a little bit of cleanup on that. But in addition, they give some points of discretion to the board and those points of discretion was revolve around, um, guidance on dispute resolution. And 60 days before the election, there's some publication requirements. There's a requirement for the, um, and the printer to go out for the ballots, things like that. So we want to make sure that any disputes on the handling of this by any party, by opponents of this, um, uh, measure by proponents of this measure are handed in a timely way so we can get this done and on that general election ballot. Again, these relate to dispute resolution. If there is a dispute regarding the petition itself after verification, the board would set a hearing officer. There are some points about what laws would apply and how that would take effect. It says we're going to narrowly apply state law. We want things to be as clear as possible for people to anticipate the process where possible. It says that with regard to title setting, there's obviously a duty for the county to title set, and if there is a dispute about how the ballot title is set, that it's conducted under a local resolution. This resolution makes sure that The process is somewhat quick and that we can get that done before the 4th so that if there is a dispute by opponents, proponents of anything, they're able to bring that forward and get a swift resolution so this whole process can continue to go forward so we do have a good clean general election on this. The other element of it is if there is an initiative brought forward by citizens rather than the government, sometimes it may not be completely operationalized. Whether it's this board or a future board that they're empowered not only to do but shall do those things necessary to make that enacted resolution. I'm sorry, that enacted Initiative actually put in place with its contracting policy changes at the resolutions ordinances Future boards have to honor that and are required to make those additional steps again This is truly just procedural and if there are people who don't like the way that any part of this is being managed It gives them a way to dispute that and to get a swift answer from the county And that's it for me All right.

Thank you Jeff questions from the board. I

Microphone was not working. None for me, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner, any questions for the county attorney?

Yeah, a couple just for clarity purposes. I was, for one, very surprised that this resolution hasn't just been on the books for Douglas County for, well, 30 years. But it's just because there hasn't been a citizen initiative in that amount of time. So these procedures, which are, it sounds like in-state law, just haven't been adopted by resolution here.

I did look for a resolution to see if, in fact, there was one from 32 years ago with the same kind of procedures in place. If there was some kind of dispute, how it would be resolved, and I was not able to find it. I can't say why it hasn't been taking place, but I don't think there'd been a need in that period of time either.

Okay, and then does this in any way, is anything in here, I saw everything had a CRS antidote to it. Is anything in here straight outside of state law? Does anything in here go beyond state law? Or, well, does it stray outside of state law or is it contrary to state law? Are we just essentially copy and pasting what state law tells us we need to do when there's a citizen initiative?

Well, the municipal section does say if the county has a regulation about this, or a charter about this or an ordinance about this, then that's what has to be used. Well, we didn't have one, so we couldn't. So it kind of requested that we have one in case a dispute does arise. It also said, it also gave some guidance about citing to who would pick hearing officers, things like that. So everything's in state law. It's just putting that state law into practice.

Okay. So pretty procedural.

It's kind of dull, to be honest.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right. I mean, I don't have any questions, really. I mean, I remember Castle Rock went through a citizen initiative that I was involved in, and this was all either in the charter or prescribed in state law. So our problem is that we don't really fit into what's in state law, and we're not home rule. We don't have a charter like the town of Castle Rock.

That'd be correct.

All right. All right. Well, if there are no further questions from the board, let's go to public comment. I do have people sign up for public comment. First one is Katie Barrett. Now, Katie, you're no stranger to the board, but please come on up. Do give us your name. Tell us where you're from, please.

Hi, my name's Katie Barrett, and I reside in Castle Rock. Barrett is B-A-R-R-E-T-T. I wanna always compliment the Douglas County Commissioners on their PR campaign. I hope my tax dollars are really being well spent to put out papers like this.

Ma'am, if you could please speak to the topic at hand.

It goes to the topic. Different from the other things on your agenda today. I'm here as a Douglas County voter and as one of the citizens who worked hard on this petition. I want to make one thing clear. You don't have to agree with our petition. You can campaign against it, but you should not insert yourselves into the process by which citizens get their petition before voters. Colorado law establishes a process for citizen initiatives and assigns specific responsibility to election officials. The county clerk and recorder is the chief election official in the county, and that's a statutory responsibility. So my question to this board is simple. What is your statutory authority to insert yourselves between the clerk certification and the voters before you assign title to this ballot measure? This question matters because the petition concerns the very offices you currently hold. It asks voters whether Douglas County should have five commissioners. You are the subject of the petition. The clerk is the election official. The voters are the decision makers. If the petition is legally deficient, let the process established by law determine that. The people should not have to obtain permission from officials whose offices are affected before initiating their right of initiative. You need to respect the process and respect the statutory role of the clerk. I respectfully ask you to withdraw this resolution, allow the clerk to perform her duties, and allow people of Douglas County to make their decisions.

All right. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate your comments. Next person signed up to speak is Laura Thomas. Laura Thomas. We do recognize her often, but I do not see her in the audience moving along. Len Whitten, please. And Mr. Whitten, if you could please give us your name and where you're from.

Len Witten from Highlands Ranch. My first question was, and I know you don't have to answer questions, but you've had 30 years to address this problem but only chose to do so now. So my question is why was it proposed right after the three to five commissioner petition was accepted? Also, similar to Katie's, why would the commissioners be part of a process that could potentially dilute their power Why would the commissioners be involved in writing the title of an initiative that they had nothing to do with? And why would the commissioners involve themselves in rewriting a voter initiative? Thank you.

All right, thank you, Mr. Whitten. Appreciate your comments. Next one, Bob Marshall, please. And Representative, please do give us your name and tell us where you're from.

Yeah, thank you. I'm Bob Marshall from Highland Ranch and I had to throw away all my comments because after hearing the presentation, I was absolutely convinced we weren't operating in good faith, but I think there's a glimmer that maybe that is, but I still have some concerns. We were told we don't have a resolution ever before on this. I know the Boulder County has the exact same initiative going forward. They're not doing any of this. This is all laid out in statute. I don't know if the county attorney has found any county that has done a resolution like this. So of course that prompted my concerns. We have nine days to have the ballot title on. your battle title protest gives three days for people to protest against it and four days for you to resolve it and that's seven days. So I'm concerned that we didn't have the ballot title here before you as the agenda to go ahead and put it forward. You've got three tracks here on what you're saying needs to be done I don't see any of them conflicting. You can do all three at the same time. The second part you don't need to do. So I'm really concerned that we're in a time crunch and this is not helping the time crunch whether it's intentional or unintentional. It seems to be interfering with the citizens initiative. Your role really needs to be ministerial in this process and not taking sides, so to speak. So again, the fact that we haven't had a resolution and we only have nine days and seven of them would be consumed by potential protests and resolutions and yet we don't have a ballot title on the agenda today is quite concerning. But I'm hoping you're all acting in good faith and we can get a good title and a good ballot and you can have a good fight over with the citizens on whether we should do this or not. But thank you.

All right, thank you, Representative. We appreciate your comments. That's all I had signed up for public comment today. Is there anyone else who would like to give public comment at this time? Seeing none, let's bring it back to the board for any comments. And then, of course, board, we did hear some questions for the board. And then, of course, some of those I would like to address to the county attorney. But please, by all means, board comments and any further questions.

I would just jot it down, some of the comments raised, so if we could just ask the county attorney to clarify. I know one of them was the exact same question I asked right before, so he could clarify why now was my question, and then it was asked again during public testimony.

Well, let's go ahead. Let's just get straight into it. Is that okay, Commissioner? It is. Yeah, let's get straight into getting some of these questions addressed from the public. Commissioner, go ahead and, I guess, readdress your question to the county attorney if you'd like or give your own explanation.

Well, I probably could at this point, but why now, Mr. Attorney?

Well, I'm going to go back to a slide. So I've heard on the radio and I've seen in print that there are people who are for this and there are people who are against it. For someone who brings a dispute about this, and we have to go to court and we're representing the clerk or we're representing the county in any way, the direction will be protest concerning a ballot title, at least one of the possible ways to challenge this, um, should be conducted under a local charter ordinance or resolution. So we would go into court without any governance or any law or rules saying this is what we're supposed to do. And uh, that would really slow everything down. We don't want to go to a court situation and have to have the court figure out what, what would apply on, on something like this. because we're not going to get on the general election ballot. We're not going to get on that November election if we do that. Do I think that we should be thoughtful of the timing of this and need to hurry? Yes. Was there questions about the period of time? I tried to find the smallest periods of time in election law that are allowed so that we are using those smallest periods of time because we are getting close to the election. I believe that's how I started my presentation, that those 60 days are very quickly approaching.

Okay, so in a sense this largely will benefit or could benefit both proponents and opponents of the measure expected in November. Whether it's a title challenge, title changes, whether it's signature challenges that we've heard about, anything like that could quickly be resolved and this helps that process.

Yeah, it's really not meant to benefit any group. It's meant to make sure that the process continues to flow as quickly and efficiently as possible so we can head towards that November election.

And again, it's largely just copied and pasted from the suggested language and state statute.

Yeah, we had to come up with some standards, some deadlines, some things like that, and when we did look at those, we looked at the shortest periods of time to do things so that we could be as efficient as possible. Puts a little bit of a strain on the county, but I think it's necessary because of an important issue.

Okay. What other questions of the citizens? Statutory authority. I see a CRS up there, but statutory authority was questioned as to what role the county might have statutorily.

Now, by no means am I an expert at the title setting board for the state, but there is a title setting requirement, and it's one that has been in the municipal section, been put down to the local municipal, or in this case, county legislature to do that title setting. So it is a practice in the state, and it's a practice at both the local and county level.

That would be CRS 3111, 111. That's correct. And I think there's more surrounding. Yes, sir. That's one of the interesting things about this job. I think I spend as much or more time in the statutes than I did as a state legislator because we have to implement all those big books. So thank you, Mr. Attorney. I think that's what the county, I think that's what was asked during testimony. Maybe I missed something.

The only other question that I grabbed for the county attorney is has any county done a resolution like this?

You know what, I'm not familiar with it. I don't know that Boulder has. I have not looked at every county to see if this has been taken into effect. I will say that the statutory requirement does exist at the state level.

So they're required, okay. There's a statutory requirement, so they probably did.

Okay, Commissioner.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As a fellow attorney, very straightforward. This is a legal process that is laid out in Title 31 CRS. I think the charge that we have that is really significant is clearly to avoid confusion and make sure that for those who will be voting on this measure that are our citizens, that we are correct, we are fair, and we are true. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

All right, thank you, Commissioner. Any further comments? How would the board like to proceed?

Mr. Chair, if it does please the board, I'll make a motion to approve a resolution adopting procedures for the execution, resolution, and enactment of voter-initiated ballot measures.

Second. All right, there's a motion and a second. Any further comments? I guess I would say, you know, and Representative, I know you had asked, you know, our role should be ministerial. I see this as a ministerial role. I mean, all we're doing is setting procedures that, again, this makes a lot of sense for me because I was a part of a process here in the town. We're still a local government. I mean, we're not, we are not state appointees. We're not state employees. We're not federal employees from some other part of the country. We live here, we raised our families here, we're raising families here. This is ministerial. I don't see this touching the subject matter of the petition. Again, I was a petitioner in the town of Castle Rock 10 years ago, and it allowed us to be able to elect our mayor here in the town of Cass Rock. I had to deal with the same thing as a member of the town council, but it was written into our charter. So I see this as ministerial. I appreciate everyone's concerns. I assure you we will be moving forward on some of the items, setting title, et cetera, that everybody expressed concerns with. So I speak in favor of the motion. Any further discussion? All in favor of passing this resolution, please say aye. Aye. Aye. And the resolution is adopted. Moving along. Commissioner comments. Commissioners, any comments at this time? None for me.

I would just, Mr. Chair, a brief reminder that school is back in full swing. I think all of us have probably recognized that as we leave for our morning commutes, our afternoon commutes, if you were to go by a Highlands Ranch High School at about three o'clock in the afternoon. It gets quite crowded for that short period of time. But just a shout out to our Sheriff's Office specifically for the SROs that are in all of our schools. We have the largest SRO team in the entire state of Colorado. We have a lot of mental health support for our kids. I know a lot got back into school and immediately went into some state mandated standardized testing, which I wish I didn't do right at the first part of school, but it's how the state rolls. So a lot of our kids are doing that. There's a lot of stress for everyone going back. So a lot of mental health support, a lot of public safety thought going into each and every school and keeping our kids safe. And just a kudos to you two and the board, even the board that came before me, in enabling those SRO program that today is in full swing and working incredible hours and incredible hard work at the beginning of school year. So keep them in your thoughts and prayers and a big thanks to our Sheriff's Office for that SRO program that is so important to our community.

All right, thank you, Commissioner. I have no comments. The only comments I would make is thank God August is almost over and September is almost here. If there are no further comments, gentlemen, any other business to bring before the board for action today?

Is that, Mr. Chairman, because you're a really big pumpkin spice latte fan or?

You have me confused for the gentleman from Lone Tree to my right.

I will admit my love for pumpkin spice.

Um, no, thank you. I just like September. You know, Oktoberfest happens in September, and without pumpkin spice beer, I'm a-okay to get to September. Okay. Gentlemen, one more time, a call for other business before the board at 10? Seeing none, moving on to the county attorney. Excuse me, county manager. County manager's report. All right, thank you, Doug. Very much appreciated. At this time, we'll go ahead, and this concludes our business today, so we'll go ahead and adjourn. Our next business meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 8th, 2026, at 1.30 p.m. Thank you all. So we do have an item for our land use and public hearing. Let's go ahead and flip the room and we will get to that as quick as we can. Thank you all for your patience.