City Council - Special Meeting

Beth, can you hear us? I can.

Yes. Thanks.

My camera isn't working. Let's see.

Where'd I go?

Where's the music volume? Take control, pop out. Where is the volume? Can anybody hear me?

Gilda, we can hear you.

Loud and clear, Gilda.

Sorry, Beth, we're just going to give it a couple more minutes just to, we have quorum, but just want to make sure that there's other counselors in case they're running behind can show up.

No worries. Thank you.

Oops, I've got too much sun. Sorry.

All right. Out of respect for everybody's time, let's go ahead and call the meeting to order. Calling to order the City Council special meeting on June 29th, 2026. The time is now 4.02. Can I get a roll call, please?

Mayor Woodruff?

Here.

Mayor Pretend Lawyer?

Here.

Councilor Yazzie? Here. Councilor Cosa?

Here.

Councilor Gonzalez?

Thank you. Can I get a reading of the indigenous land acknowledgement, please?

This is a call to honor and respect indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. As residents and visitors of Durango, we're called upon to educate ourselves about the history and cultural heritage of the land that we inhabit. The city of Durango is situated on the ancestral homelands and territories of the Nitu, Ute, Hickory Apache, Pueblos of New Mexico, Hopi Sinom, Hopi, and Diné Navajo nations. The original stewards of this land were forcibly removed and exposed to countless atrocities by the United States government, including repeatedly broken treaties, forced assimilation, the tragic legacy of Indian boarding schools, and the loss of ancestral homelands. We recognize lasting generational trauma exists within Native communities today. We affirm the continuing importance of ancestral sites to descendant communities as integral to the living cultural landscape. This acknowledgement only becomes meaningful when combined with accountable relationships and informed actions. May this serve as a step towards inclusion and reconciliation.

Thank you. Moving on to agenda item 2.1. Would anybody like to make a motion?

Okay. Can I go ahead and make a motion, even if I'm asking to modify? Sure. Okay. Make a motion to appoint Beth Padilla as the Municipal Court Judge pursuant to City Charter Article 4, Administrative and Personnel Section 4, Municipal Judge OS. Second.

All right. Council discussion. since we've got folks online are we using raise hands or just i mean i think we can probably do both here and um online i'll see any online hands up so counselor kosa would you like to lead yep uh i appreciate everybody's patience with me um

Judge Padilla certainly deserves as much reassurance as possible that this city council hopes to build a professional relationship with her that lasts a long time. Contract negotiations can sometimes unintentionally feel like they're diminishing an employee's value, and that is not the intent at all here. The following points I'm going to provide are meant to apply to all potential employees at this level and not to the judge in a specific way. I also want to acknowledge that I'm sorry negotiations with five city councilors have to take place in a public setting. We are rightly constrained by the public meeting requirement, but I appreciate that this process is at times awkward and that it requires some patience with that process. I wish to respectfully push back on the idea that a substantial severance payment should begin on day one. For this contract, severance from the city starting from the very first day is not only three months of salary valued at $27,500. It also includes three months of healthcare, $3,200 value, and three months of retirement contributions at a $3,000 value. This is over $33,000 in cost to the city if the severance clause were to be invoked just days or weeks into employment for any reason. In addition, the PTO incentive increases the leave benefits too far, in my opinion, resulting in nearly eight weeks of accrued and holiday leave for a first-year employee. These combined benefits are substantially beyond anything I've ever seen for an initial contract. Both the employee and the city take on risk at the start of a new working relationship. The employee takes a risk by changing jobs and the city takes a risk by hiring a new employee with many unknowns. My hope is that we can balance risk and reward on both sides so Judge Padilla receives a strong total benefits package while keeping the early terms fair and not excessive starting July 1st and giving the city reasonable cost protection if the relationship does not work out. To align the contract with a fair start for both parties, I propose the following three modifications. Matching the severance duration to the duration of employment up to three months, at which point we would revert to the proposed contract language. So, one day, one week, or one month employment yields an equivalent match in severance, healthcare, and retirement benefits. Number two, set a clear budget for continuing education and required training, since these items are currently vague in the contract and should have a specific budget amount that is not to be exceeded. Lastly, add an incentive of one week of additional vacation, extra PTO, rather than three weeks. It is still supportive for Judge Padilla while keeping the first year employee terms appropriate for both parties. This still creates a very strong benefits package for a 30 to 35 hour per week position and a very qualified candidate. Judge Padilla is certainly valued, and the goal here is a contract that supports a strong start while remaining fair and cost protective for the city. I appreciate consideration and hope I can finalize terms that enable a long, successful relationship beginning July 1st. Thank you, Mayor.

I guess I'll respond back to that. Briefly, so it's a classic municipal balancing act where we manage local fiscal responsibility while attempting to recruit top tier talent. Since Mrs. Pitti is walking away from a successful 10 plus year law practice she built from the ground up, she's not just looking for a job, she's absorbing a pretty significant opportunity risk and a high career risk, opportunity cost, sorry. And so to me, This is, you know, you can't unscramble the egg. And we had this kind of conversation earlier. You know, the city can terminate the contract without cause, you know, at any point in time. But Mrs. Pedia cannot just rehire her new clients or magically rebuild a 10-year practice, I feel like. I wouldn't say it's going to be easy to find another municipal judge, but we have a lot more resources that we can put into finding a new person. Mrs. Padilla can't just call her old clients that she had already put off and say, hey, you want to come back and work with me? I think that's something that I feel we should take into consideration. To me, the generous severance isn't necessarily a perk. It's an insurance policy that protects her against total disruption of her livelihood that she spent the last 10 years building. And I feel like this is a stability argument where a municipal judge needs to make independent judicial decisions without worrying about a controversial ruling that could potentially put her on the outs. Or politically motivated firing that leaves her financially stranded. I mean, for me, a robust severance guarantees judicial independence to a degree because she's not worried about if she's going to make the wrong decision that all of a sudden she's going to be out. So I feel like a strong severance, even from day one, gives her the ability to rule in a more independent basis. And then. I will also say that finding, vetting, and hiring a judge costs a lot of significant time and money. And a solid severance package signifies a long-term commitment where she leaves, we have to find this all. To me, it's like this landscape of trust. We're going and saying, hey, we trust you she's in turn saying that i trust you all um and so to me like you know if there's if we're kind of creating and i'm not saying that this is what you're saying it just can be perceived that there's a lack of trust in this relationship and so what i would you know like to see is that even from day one if there's a any sort of instability for that you know we can't just pick out somebody else and replace Ms. Padilla. Ms. Padilla, again, has a strong background in this type of judges. She's already said this isn't going to be a stepping stone position for her. And I feel like starting this off on the right foot with Mrs. Padilla and getting the severance from day one, I think signifies our commitment and our ability to meet her where she's coming in and meeting us, in my opinion. Um, you know, the, the travel and professional meetings limits, um, you know, I, I feel like there's a little bit of a liability shield when it comes to having somebody that's going out and, and being able to take it upon themselves to go and receive the education and to receive, um, those sorts of, of conferences where we ultimately the community benefits from. Um, and so. you know if there's something that gets updated um legislatively and she isn't able to or anybody isn't able to go and receive that training then because she's already accrued the appropriate or the the limit in terms of what she could we put the community potentially at risk from because we didn't know we were afraid to send her because she was gonna it's gonna cost her two thousand dollars to go because she'd already hit that threshold so i feel like there's um we're potentially putting the city at risk um because we're not staying up to date potentially um and it feels like there's a there's a great networking benefit um where she can go meet other um municipal judges or other even magistrates or anybody within the um judicial system out in you know these these events and these um um I'm sorry. Yeah, these events. And so it allows her to bounce ideas off of them. They can bounce ideas off of her. And this synergy that could potentially come, again, I feel like we can reap the benefits of some of that synergy. And I'd hate for her not to be able to go or anybody not be able to go because we were afraid that they spent their budget already. So I'll stop there. I can... go on a little bit more but i'll i'll go from there um gilda or i'm sorry counselor yazzie or counselor uh lawyer do you have anything to add or anything that you'd like to say for the record counselor gonzalez joined the meeting at 405. okay thank you so much or counselor gonzalez anything that you all like to add or counselor lawyer oh you're on mute

Can you hear me now? Sorry, I'm struggling with my OK. Yeah, OK, thank you. Yeah, I just I mean, I'll kind of echo what Mayor Woodruff said. I think in this day and age with one with um hiring and hiring at a level like this it's important that we um share the same like goals and commitment that miss padilla is giving us um i don't think that this is like a let's see if it fits it seems like her you know resume is like exactly what we wanted and um you know i think that she you know worked with mark to get to this contract and this final she's giving up her practice she's changing her you know life and schedule because she sees this as a good fit for her future and i want to give her the same level of respect and um kind of you know moving in that same forward motion as like we are a team um we're gonna build this together um you know i think that The severance package makes sense to me. And if she decides to leave, it doesn't apply. It's only if we let her go for reasons listed. And I think that that's fair if she's going to leave her job. And so I share the same sentiments as Dave. And I'm excited to hopefully move forward and be Ms. Padilla as our new municipal judge.

Councillor Yazzie or Councillor Gonzales, anything that you'd like to add?

Yeah, this is Gilda. I feel the same as you and Jessica. So I don't have anything to add to that conversation.

Councillor Gonzales, anything that you would like to add?

I'm sorry. Yeah, well, forgive me. I had a child care failure. And so I I've been listening, but I haven't been able to. I guess I just also I think should just add that you know these are. These are political appointments, and so I think that's why the contract reads the way it does. I'm comfortable with what has been presented, so I'm sorry I'll mute myself. But I'm comfortable with what's presented. I didn't have anything to add.

Councilor Gondalas, could you just get some clarification real quick? Do you approve of the contract that is written with severance starting at day one, or you preferred the amended version?

I'm sorry about that. Let me see if I can step away here. No, the contract, the way that it was presented, without a difference.

Okay. Thank you. Uh, counselor Koso.

Yeah, I'll just take a moment. It's kind of clear where everybody stands, but it does feel like we've got an escalation of kind of relatively generous benefit packages that are getting escalated further and further. So again, this had nothing to do with Judge Padilla. This has a lot to do with where we stand in regards to our initial contracts with the folks that directly report to us. And I will reiterate, I mean, eight weeks vacation is something that most employees working for the city don't get until they're 20 plus years.

working for the city and so this does seem like an excessive amount but I understand where everybody's leading and we'll leave it at that all right any other discussion before we move forward with a roll call and then does normally we we wouldn't do this but um there was an opportunity for maybe for some public comment um during discussion would that be okay with uh all of Council Yes. Okay. And Councilor Yazzie and Councilor Gonzalez, are you okay with that? Yes. Excellent. Mr. Kuzma, would you like to go ahead and make public comment? Come on up.

Thank you, counsel, for the time just to say hello. But I am specifically talking to your honor, Judge Padilla. Hello. It's been three or four years since we last connected. And since then, I've got a haircut. So you might not recognize me, but maybe you do. I was personally very excited to hear that you were the new judge. Thank you for all you did for my wife and I. We have been blessed because of your caliber of work and heart to help so many. Right now, I am honored to be working with MANA, who's a strong advocate and partner with the Problem Solving Court. And we look forward to a continued and collaborative partnership with you in your new role. So thank you for being here and hopefully we get to connect again soon in person.

Thank you so much, Mr. Kuzma. All right, no other.

So prior to the vote, just so it's clear on the record, the motion is to appoint Beth with a contract. was a version of the contract that was even out this morning where uh miss padilla had made comments and incorporated some of the changes that you guys had suggested so there was the original contract that she and i worked on there were some comments that went out some of those were incorporated some of them were not she made some changes of what she found to be acceptable after the comments and that's what i was recommending to you so it's my assumption that this motion is for appoint her and for the contract that i recommended this morning the most recent contract with miss padilla's acceptable changes to it okay i just wanted the thing um sometimes we use the term pto and vacation interchangeably Legally, they're not the same thing. I don't want the newspaper to print that someone gets eight weeks vacation to get eight weeks PTO, which includes vacation, but also sick time, time for sick kids. So it's not just vacation time.

And I don't mean to correct you, but that's what PTO gets used for whatever the reason.

Correct. But we do not, in addition to PTO, get sick time or other time off. It's meant to be all-encompassing. It's a simpler process that has been used. It's all in the handbook.

Sure. It's a good distinction.

Okay. My secretary is using PTO today because she has a sick kid. Sure. And other entities, there are other things that they call that.

Certainly. Okay. Thanks for the clarification on that, Mark.

And also, for the record, we do have professional development money in my budget for the judge. The municipal court is in the clerk's budget, and we do have that money set aside for the municipal judge.

Okay, great. Thank you, Faye. All right. Can I get a roll call, please?

Councillor Gonzales? Yes. Councillor Acosta?

Right person, wrong contract, no.

Councillor Yazzie? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Lawyer? Yes. Mayor Woodruff?

Yes. And then just a little something on top of that appointment. Mrs. Padilla will be sworn in tomorrow, June 30th at 10 a.m. here in Council Chambers. So if any member of the public would like to come meet Ms. Padilla and watch her being sworn in, it will be held tomorrow at 10 a.m. And we move on to action item number 2.2 for an emergency ordinance. And I'll go ahead and make the motion since we're here. I move to approve an emergency ordinance 2026-0034, ratifying the city manager's declaration of stage two fire restrictions.

Second.

Any discussion?

all right sorry yeah of course i just i have questions in a request um i i read through stage three what happens when we move from stage two to three i think it'd be good to have some kind of city manager update on what we look at if we do move to stage three just so we have that kind of a heads up so no specific time consideration or anything but i did think it was worthwhile all of council understanding what a move to stage three would mean which is substantial fair enough

All right. Can I get a roll call, please?

Councilor Yazzie? Yes. Councilor Coso?

Yes.

Mayor Woodruff? Yes. Councilor Gonzalez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Lawyer?

Yes.

All right. Moves us on to adjournment. Thanks, everyone.

Thank you.