City Council - Regular Meeting

for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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.

Roll call, please. Mayor Clark? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Pletka? Here. Council Member Johnson? Council Member Neill?

Present.

Council Member Crabtree?

Here.

Council Member Delaney?

Here.

Thank you. And we have a proclamation for parks and recreation. Whereas parks and recreation is an integral part of communities throughout this country, including Evans, and whereas parks and recreation promotes health and wellness, improving the physical and mental health of people who live near parks, and whereas parks and recreation promotes time to spend time spent in nature, which positively impacts mental health by increasing cognitive performance and well-being and alleviating illness such as depression, attention deficit disorders, and Alzheimer's. And whereas parks and recreation encourages physical activities by providing space for popular sports, hiking trails, swimming pools, and many other activities designed to promote active lifestyles, And whereas parks and recreation is a leading provider of healthy meals, nutrition services and education. And whereas park and recreation programming and education activities such as out of school time programming, youth sports and environmental education are critical to childhood development. And whereas parks and recreation increases a community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of the local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses and crime reduction. And whereas parks and recreation is essential and adaptable infrastructure that makes our communities resilient in the face of natural disasters and climate change. And whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for children and adults to connect with nature and recreate outdoors. And whereas the US House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month and whereas Evans recognizes the benefits derived from Parks and Recreation resources. Now therefore I, Tammy Plucka, Mayor Pro Tem of the City of Evans do hereby declare that July is recognized as Parks and Recreation Month in the City of Evans and witness hereof I have here unto set my hand cause to be affixed the official seal of the City of Evans this seventh day of July, 2026. And do we have someone here to accept the proclamation?

Yay. All right.

Thank you. Next is audience participation. The City Council welcomes you here and thanks you for your time and concerns. If you wish to address the City Council, this is the time set on the agenda for you to do so. When you're recognized, please step to the podium, state your name and address, then address city council. Depending on the number of speakers on any given topic, your comments may be limited to two minutes. The city council may not respond to your comments this evening. Rather, they may take your comments and suggestions under advisement, and your questions may be directed to the appropriate staff person for follow-up. Do we have anyone in the audience that wishes to address council on any matter that's not On the agenda or public hearing? Okay. Moving on, approval of the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda?

No, Mayor Pro Tem.

I would entertain a motion. I have a motion and a second. And motion carries. Moving on through the consent agenda. Motion and second. And motion carries. Item eight, old business. This is a public hearing consideration of ordinance number 866-26, adoption of Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code, second reading.

You have to open the public hearing.

Oh yes, I will open the public hearing.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Michael Hall, City Planner for the City of Evans. Before you tonight is a cooperative, excuse me, this is going to be the ordinance first. Apologies for that. Before you tonight is ordinance number 866-26 for the second reading and public hearing consideration. This ordinance adopts by reference the 2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code, which establishes statewide minimum standards intended to reduce wildfire risk in designated wildland urban interface or WUI areas. Council previously approved this ordinance on first reading at the last City Council meeting on June 16th and directed staff to bring this item back for a public hearing and final adoption. This code was created pursuant to state legislation requiring municipalities within this designated WUI area to adopt enforced wildfire resiliency standards that meet or exceed the state's minimum requirements. Because the City of Evans does contain limited WUI areas, The city is subject to these requirements, and this is preliminary down by the South Platte River. The proposed ordinance includes limited local amendments. The amendments designate the city's chief building official as the code official responsible for administration enforcement of this code and authorizes coordination with the Evans Fire Protection District through an intergovernmental agreement, which you'll see later this evening, to adopt the state of Colorado wildfire hazard map rather than requiring the city to develop its own map. As discussed during prior meetings, utilizing the state map allows the city to comply with the state requirements while avoiding the significant costs and staff resources associated with developing our own map specific to the WUI areas, which again is just a limited part of Evans. The ordinance was published following first reading in accordance with legal requirements and staff has not received any formal comments regarding this proposed adoption of this code. If approved tonight, staff will return to city council with the cooperative agreement as I mentioned, with the fire district to establish the implementation and coordination procedures for this code. Staff recommends council conduct the public hearing and approve ordinance number 866-26 on second and final reading. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions of staff?

I should also note we have Chief DeSalvo here from Evans Fire Protection District. Should there be any questions on the technical aspects of the code?

Thank you. Any questions?

We're in the line of comments.

Okay, we'll do that next after public. Any members of the audience wish to speak for or against this item? Please step forward. Okay. I'm going to close the public hearing. And comments?

This is more in line with some of the fire Works complaints that I received One of the people was wondering since all these communities were canceling fireworks due to the fire danger They're wanting to know why we would be wanting to Implement this ordinance and They also talked about all the social media exploding with comments on the websites about all the fireworks violations and the lack of enforcement. And they were commenting on the- Point of order.

Mayor Pro Tem, this ordinance is not about fireworks. This is about wildfire regulation. This is an inappropriate time to bring that up, and I would suggest we move forward and if Councilman Neil if Councilmember Neil would like to talk about fireworks we can do that.

it's relevant to the fire danger that's what they're concerned about. That if we're like fireworks. that there's a possibility that they will start fires in the same limits.

But this is the inappropriate time to do that. Agreed. Later this evening. And then you can say everything you want.

Okay.

So, no, you need to, do you accept the point?

Yes, I agree. I accept the point of order.

Okay.

So do we have any comments specifically for this. I do not the wildfire resiliency code.

I just want to say a big thank you to both city staff and the evidence fire protection district, I know you guys have put a lot of work into this it's going to make our city safer and I just am glad that we have that collaboration, thank you, thank you.

If there's no other comments, I would entertain a motion.

I've got another comment. This ordinance is also, I believe, a requirement to assist in the state fire district to help them prevent or take care of the wildfires. And I am in favor of it. I just was trying to make some comments because I have these constituents to represent.

Thank you. If we have no other comments, I would entertain a motion. I have a motion and a second. Motion carries. Number nine, new business, consideration of resolution number 13-2026, approving a cooperative agreement with Evans Fire Protection District for wildfire resiliency code enforcement. And we'll hear from staff.

Thank you, Council Michael, Hall City Planner. And for each night is the cooperative agreement as previously referenced in that ordinance 866 dash 26 for the enforcement of the wildfire resiliency code between the city of Evans and Evans fire protection district so. The previous item was the ordinance which created the charging language adopting that Colorado wildfire resiliency code as part of the Evans municipal code, so it will be. codified as a code section there as the state code changes our code references that change so it's a it's a living kind of insertion in our code this item is for the actual kind of implementation and enforcement of that so there's two arms of that so we have the coordination between the local building official it's the chief building official there's some transition time in there right now with our current CBO. But in any case, it would be the CBO and then the Evans Fire Protection District. And there's very distinct different kind of lenses or perspectives that each of the two, the agency and the district are both working on. So under the agreement, the city will be responsible for administration of the building code, provisions of the wildfire resiliency code, including permitting plan review inspections and issuances of CO. This really deals with new residences, major remodels in the area, and it's specific only to that WUI area as adopted on the wildfire map that you just heard. And then the Evans Fire Protection District, they're more responsible for the administration of the fire code provisions, a wildfire hazard identification, defensible space requirements. So things not necessarily related to the structure, but the area around the structure and just other, best practices for fire management. The agreement also establishes procedures for referrals between both agency and district and coordination on inspections, mutual inspections when necessary in those areas, as well as how the notice process would work, should there be any updates to the code, updates to the map, and other compliance with state law. Overall, this agreement provides that clear framework for cooperation between the city and the fire district eliminates any potential overlaps and responsibility, and just ensures consistent implementation of the code in the city of Evans. And just to point out on record, the city of Evans, as well as the Evans Fire Protection District, they overlap with the exact same area. So they serve one another as far as the land, actual affected land area. So staff recommends approval of the cooperative agreement, and I do have Chief DeSalvo here to answer any questions. Thank you.

Any questions or comments, you can hit your request to speak. Seeing none, I'd entertain a motion. I have a motion and a second. And motion carries. Thank you. From 9B, consideration of ordinance number 867-26, an amendment to Title VI, Chapter 6.04, Animal Control Ordinance First Reading. And we'll hear from staff.

Good evening, Council. Randy Darling, Chief of Police, to speak on this item. This ordinance is an amendment to chapter six based on our discussion just a few weeks ago. There was unanimous consensus by council that we would want to remove the animal variance portion of the ordinance as well as make some other amendments to the ordinance. The additional amendments to the ordinance are going to take a little bit of time. I need to work with our planning department to make sure all of the zoning pieces coincide correctly with the ordinance, identify the language changes. It's gonna be more of a substantial update to the ordinance. This was unanimous across the board with removal of the variance. So we decided, our staff decided at the beginning City Manager's direction to bring this forward to make a quick ordinance change to remove that portion of the ordinance and then later, maybe during the fall, bring back a more comprehensive amendment to the ordinance that directly addresses the number of cats, dogs, and other pets and animals allowed within one single dwelling property within the city. So with that in mind, this ordinance is a very pointed change. It essentially removes the variance language as well as the variance process out of the ordinance. And that's the only change to the ordinance recommended in this amendment. And with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you, Mayor Clark.

Hey, Chief, I have a question for you, and actually it's probably for our city attorney. With this variance that is no longer going to exist anymore, currently we have a case that's going through district court, the Rule 106, from a variance appeal that we denied a few months back. What impact, if any, would this have on that current case?

So that... That was going to be a bit of my city manager update, but we did receive a ruling from Weld County District Court this afternoon. I'll go ahead and read you the conclusion of that ruling that was issued by the judge. It said, the record shows city council appropriately considered the evidence and made adequate findings to support the granted variance and its expiration after 120 days. City council's decision was not arbitrary, nor did it abuse its discretion when passing the resolution. For the aforementioned reasons, City Council's decision in Resolution Number 19-2025 is affirmed. A final judgment shall be issued dated 7 July 2026. So with the information, the case would be completed.

Great. Thank you for the update. I appreciate it. That's all I have.

Thank you. Do we have anyone else that wishes to speak or have any questions? okay if not i'd entertain a motion i have a motion and a second submit your votes and motion carries five nothing thank you chief all right number 10 reports city manager

Yes, Mayor Pro Tem and Council. Just a couple things for you. Number one, last year during the budget discussions, the City Council had a couple work sessions in regards to marijuana referendum for the November 2026 ballot. I did want to share with the City Council that the local share back of 3.5% originally was a 15% local share back. reduced by the legislature to 3.5%. That was completely eliminated in the 2026 legislative session, so there is no more share back for local governments as it pertains to marijuana sales. As we are preparing for this fall and for the November ballot, I'd like to throw this out to the city council to see if there is still an interest to present that referendum to the voters in November, knowing now that there is zero share back from the state for local governments.

So it's share back, but we still get tax revenue.

It would be local sales tax is what we would get.

We just don't get excise tax kickback.

That's correct. From the state.

Just like liquor store sales and cigarettes.

That's correct. It would be that 3.5% that was coming back to local governments from the state.

As part of that state law, are we allowed to put a extra tax on marijuana?

That is a really good question. I believe, yes, you are. City Clerk has some additional information.

You are allowed to if it is approved by the voters of the city. So not only would you be asking the question of the voters to allow marijuana sales, you would also be asking them to approve additional sales tax for that for the city. And there's the possibility that one could pass and one and the other could not.

But that would the sales tax would only be specific to marijuana sales. Correct. And that would be two different votes.

Correct. Correct. I'm still for it. Excise taxes.

I'm for it. Yeah, I'm for it as well.

I'm for it, but my question is still, does it have to go to the voters? And the reason I ask is that we've been able to vote for business licenses, for alcohol sales, things like that. Is this one different in that we have to go to the voters and how is that different?

State statute actually allows the city as a home rule to be able to pass an ordinance to allow it without taking the question to the voters. But it was my understanding that the majority of council would prefer to have the voters answer that question.

Yes, and I don't mind leaving it to the voters. I just wanted that clarification. Thank you.

Through previous public meetings, at the time this was first presented to the council or by someone on city staff, I'll say, the feedback from the people that attended these meetings was that they were against having marijuana sales in Evans. So that's why I'm still against this. but I guess I've been outvoted.

I'm just going to say that's why I wanted to go to the voters, let the voters vote on it, because then we have a literal yes or no from every person who's eligible to vote in the City of Evans.

That's why I'm opposed to us just pushing that through. Correct. I would like the voters to vote upon it. Yes.

Sam. Okay, so it looks like we're,

for an agreement to take it to the to the voters yes okay and both i wouldn't mind asking for an additional sales tax i would like to agree i would like to have a council discussion about that or a work session yes i don't want to outprice us right but everyone around us is selling we're i would hate to exclude potential revenue on the table

How much of a problem has the sale of marijuana in Garden City contributed to Evans Police Department loads? As well as Milliken.

That's very difficult to answer. What I can say is that Most of the marijuana charges have been decriminalized. Um, we do not spend a lot of time, uh, uh, with our officers enforcing marijuana. Uh, and if we do, it's juvenile offenders. Um, very difficult to say specifically Garden City. I can tell you Garden City. And I, I think when I, when I did the last presentation, Milliken and, uh, Brighton and other communities in and around Weld County were the primaries, right? So we're kind of surrounded by communities that have marijuana sales. The latest state provisions have removed all of the tax revenue from the ordinance, so the only tax revenue that would be applicable to marijuana sales in Evans is whatever our city tax So all of the remaining taxes that are prevalent in the transfer of marijuana, the sale of marijuana at the retail level is being collected now by the state. There's no pennies or dollars and cents left to drag back and be whatever council decided that tax would be. And we would be competing with those other jurisdictions for whatever that sales revenue is. So obviously in order to sell, you'd have to, set something that was relatively competitive with those jurisdictions. I do believe we're on a time period here too, right? I don't remember, but we only have a few more weeks maybe to get the language on the ballot. So that decision for percentage or whatever the tax would be from the council would need to be done very quickly.

So given that, I would say, I'm just doing this, since we were talking about it when we had 3.5%, Let's ask for 3.5%. It's not a huge amount.

I'm just after the tax revenue. So I don't think that, I don't even know what the tax is on marijuana right now in Garden City. And I can look into that. How quickly can we make that decision? Because if there's something on that table, We can look at that, but I hate to miss a ballot opportunity. I would much rather just send it to and pass up the three and a half and just do the sales tax. But if we have an opportunity...

This is something that I'd have to bring back to you as a work session item on the July 21st agenda. So it would be the next work session.

In the meantime, I'll just do some homework and find out. Chief... I know that the calls for service have decreased at the four motels, but we previously had quite a bit of a problem with people bringing in other drugs to sell out of their motel rooms. And I believe we've had several murders at these motels, possibly due to drug sales or failed drug sales. Is that correct?

That's a fair assessment, yes.

Thank you.

Cody, do you have anything else for us?

I was just gonna give you guys a quick update. If you recall, a couple meetings back, we had a discussion about why utility bills go from here to Dallas and back to here because of the Wells Fargo utility lockbox. We are actually terminating, the finance team is working to terminate that lockbox on September 30th, 2026. So at that time, there will be no more Wells Fargo lockbox that sends those payments down to Dallas. Basically what that means is anybody who has an online bill pay will need to go in and adjust the address for that check to be delivered to 1137, so right here to City Hall, and that will send that bank online bill pay straight to City Hall rather than to Dallas. And that's all I have tonight.

I have a question about that, if I may. ACH payments, finance, do we charge for ACH payments? or is that a free online tool for our citizens? Can they pay online with a check? Yes. And it's a dollar, right? Right.

$1.99. $0.95.

OK. Is there any way we can get that down to a buck? Honestly, I want to make it super easy. And I was paying my Weld County. registration today and I paid a dollar to register five different vehicles. Didn't they just say $0.95? $1.95. I don't know. We're not here to make money, but we're also passing that processing fee along. A lot of challenges of getting the money and where money's going has been a challenge. I know we're terminating that, but it sure would be nice if we made it super easy for our residents. If they wanted to pay online with a check and it costs a dollar, we're just passing that fee along.

I understand the credit card side.

excuse me, 3% credit card companies are being malicious on both sides, but an ACH payment, if someone wants to log into our portal and pay us directly, I'd like to see us at least minimize that cost as much as possible, if possible.

Okay, I do have one more thing, I'm sorry. I'm gonna kick it over to Chief for this. He's looking at the possibility of a COPS grant. So I've asked Chief to bring that possibility to the City Council for discussion.

Good evening, Mayor Pro Tem and Council. Randy Darling, Chief of Police. The COPS grant opened up, it is due the 23rd of July. It is a hiring grant. So what they will do if we were, well, we are eligible. What it would do if we were awarded the grant would give us an opportunity to expand our department size. There is no specific limit on the number of officers, but I would be trying to seek one additional officer The grant covers the cost of that officer at 75% of salary and fringe benefits for a period of up to three years. But it caps out that grant at $125,000, which really in actuality would cover our officer for about a year and a half up to maybe two, depending on the benefits that they had, whether or not they were hired. and had a full family at the time of hire, and the benefits go up in cost versus a single officer. So what it would do, it would expand our sworn capacity from 38 to 39. We would have to keep that officer for a total of four years. The grant goes for three. And then it would cover our officer probably for about a year and a half's worth of time, and then it would be two and a half years at the city's expense, and we would be mandated to keep that officer on the staffing for that period of time before we were eligible to remove the position from our budgeted strength. It's an opportunity for us to have a reduction in costs for an expansion of a service. We certainly have the calls for service to substantiate additional resources. There are a myriad of ways that we may be able to help offset the cost of that. Hopefully some of the Avis funding can help for that as well. But the grants come out once every year, every other year for the hiring process. So this grant is reduced compared to years prior. Usually they were covering an officer's cost for about three years of the four, but they've capped this award. So I do think that the department has the need for the position. We certainly have, I think I could certainly put together a competitive grant application for the process, but I would need council's permission to apply for the grant. There are still many steps by which we can decide. What you're deciding right now tonight is just whether or not you authorize me actually asking for the grant and putting in an application. There's still an opportunity. One, less than 50% chance we are accepted for the grant, and then even if we were accepted for the grant and issued the grant, I would have to bring that back to council for you to accept the grant, and then we would be committed to that process. So what my ask is tonight is just, Billy, authority to put together a grant application and seek the grant and see where it goes. And if we were to actually receive the grant, I would come back to you with a full plan.

of clarifying questions. Sure. One officer only?

I think that's our strongest ask. One, because Two officers is probably where our department size is the sweet spot. But again, we have to fund that officer for that timeframe. So what's fiscally manageable within our framework and our budget? So I left it at one. And if there were future application processes, I could continue to apply year over year. for that process. But the reason I went with one was I thought it was the most responsible contractual piece to this grant piece where we could potentially afford it without really strapping the general fund on.

The second question I have is what if there's separation of employment with that officer that received that grant? What financial burden falls upon the city?

So I would have to continue to try to hire that position for that term of the grant. So for the four years, I would need to, like if they, and it happens all the time where we hire an officer and they resign or maybe they do get terminated or they just don't make it through the academy. There could be any number of reasons. And then we are under the grant, we would be responsible to continue to try to hire that position, actively try to hire it. And then if we did, the award would still be capped at $125,000. So let's say the first officer that came in was, it took us $100,000 to move them through the process, and then that officer, for some reason, was separated from the department. We would have $25,000 left in the pool to pay for the next officer we hired into that position. This position cannot supplant, so it cannot take the place of an officer that's already budgeted. The officer is clearly identified once we accept the grant. I have to First, I have to be fully staffed in order to hire the position because it can't supplant the position that is already budgeted. So this would be our 39th sworn officer. And then the clock starts ticking from that point forward. It could take me a year and a half to hire the officer. And if that were the case, it would actually be three years of the grant timeframe before I ran out of the $125,000. And then we'd have to carry the position for one year. So the financial... analysis exactly where it falls into that timeline is a little bit flexible, but the maximum output is roughly, we would maybe have to pay for that officer for three years, three and a half years during the term of the grant, and it's a four-year period. And usually, I have a window to get that hiring done. Yes? Yes.

Chief, the ask was if you have permission to apply for the grant. Yes, I say apply for the grant. Let's not do hypotheticals until we know we get accepted from the grant. You can give us more information if and when we get that grant. So for me, it's a yes.

And for me, thank you for the clarifications, because I do need those clarifications before I make decisions.

So I do have one final clarification. How much time are you going to invest in writing this grant?

It's due the 23rd and the 27th, so I'll get it done. It's gonna take me some time, it's work, but that's what you pay me for. I'll get it done.

Yeah, so I guess my thing is I'm not totally sold on the grant itself. So I don't want it to be a large amount of time because I'm not sure even if we get it that I support doing it necessarily.

I'm sorry, I missed the last part of what you said.

I'm not sure I'd be in support of taking the grant if we got it, if we were issued it. So I just, I don't want a lot of time spent because you have other important things to do.

From my perspective, it's worth the time I'll put in to be considered for it. And if we decide that, you know, look, it's going to be a financial strain to the city and we don't want to accept it, and we happen to actually be awarded the grant because there's a lot of percentages there to even get to that point, and that's okay. There's a cost for everything we do, and this is going to take some staff time, and I'll find the time to get it done. I do think there's a benefit to us being part of the process, and again, if in the end you decide as a council that no, we don't want to accept that financial responsibility that comes along with it, that's perfectly okay. I don't have any concern with that.

With that answer, I'm yes, I also second. Yes. Thank you, Chief. Transparency.

I'm a yes.

Chief, is this grant if we do not fund this officer for the time period? Is it is it required to be paid back?

There would be a penalty of some sort, and I'm sorry, I don't know the very specific question your aunt's asking me. There would be some type of a penalty, but if we were to hire the position, we would be required to fund it for the term of the grant.

And I'm assuming that it's similar to the grant, that $50,000 grant that the city council accepted in 2004, and fired the fire chief for requesting grant in the first place uh without the mayor notifying the mayor at that time and uh when one of the city council people ask him well uh what are we going to you know how are we going to pay for this this is when they're transitioning from an all-volunteer fire department to a paid position and the mayor at that time said let somebody else worry about it and it landed in Mayor out Ziegler's lap and his solution was to because he didn't want to raise taxes was to take and create the fire district and I don't want this council making that same mistake. So I want to make sure that if we do get the grant we Take and set aside the funds to pay this officer for that time period And I hope that the council and the mayor, the current mayor would be in acceptance of that stipulation. I do not want to be pushing it, not being able to pay for this officer and having some future city council get stuck with it.

So yeah, that would be a discussion if we get the grant. Like I said, council member Neal, I'm not sure I'm even sold on the grant. but I'm willing to have the, I'm willing to say, yeah, go ahead and request it and then come back to us once we have all the details and then we can make a decision at that point.

Thank you. Thanks, Chief. And I'm always in favor of grants, Chief.

Thank you.

I have nothing further.

Next city attorney, welcome. Your first meeting with us.

Good evening. As you already know, I'm Ed Bull, your new city attorney. I'm very excited to be here. I just would like to thank the council as well as all the staff. You have a very dedicated staff. It's been good to get to know them all week. They're very involved in doing their jobs and doing very busy as well.

Thank you. Okay, next is council discussion. Does anyone have anything? If you'll hit the request to speak button, please. Okay, Councilmember Neal.

Okay, I'm going to start with some of the things I wrote on a sticky note from all the calls I got on the fireworks. The most concerning one was from a lady that said she couldn't get through to the dispatch. I called dispatch, got through in three rings, and explained the problem to the lady, and she transferred me to the supervisor we talked through. Didn't seem to be a problem at all. Just a high call volume. But I never did find out from the, she never did call back to find out why she couldn't get through. I also got some calls, a call about cars racing on 17th Avenue. And some of the people that called me said they never saw a PD car in their neighborhood. I know the police can't be everywhere at once. Now I have, here I'm gonna read this verbatim. This was a text message to another lady. And I asked the lady that was talking to me about this if this lady that sent her the text message come to city council tonight and present. And she is dealing with her father having Alzheimer's and he must be in the very light stages. Stages of excuse me of it because he is becoming violent and they're going to have to Put him in a nursing home or some lockdown facility Anyway This is what the lady the other lady wrote down from her text message to her word-for-word Tax dollar to pay to enforce law. Do we get a pick? get to pick and choose what laws we obey? Windows rattling, what about the seniors, war vets with shell shock, babies, pets? Do we get to pick up our lost pets with no tickets? Oh my God. Why bother calling non-emergency when you're told they don't have the staff to respond to calls? So that was a text message. Then I also got some call, some of the calls said, don't we have a noise ordinance that we enforce? Several other people mentioned after, kind of after fact about social media exploding on Nextdoor and other websites. Several people mentioned that on the city's website and the fire district's website, all they talked about was the safety, which is also important, of how to light fireworks, but there was nothing said about the fines for using illegal fireworks, and people were pretty disgusted. They didn't, the general impression I got was they felt that we were not enforcing fireworks provisions at all this year. And I know that officers were out and about and trying to do their best, but it's a very difficult time for them. But hopefully we can get some kind of a handle on this issue too, but it's very difficult to enforce And I personally had fireworks still going off at 4 o'clock in my neighborhood in the morning. That's life. Thank you.

Council Member Neal, would you like any additional conversation compared to what we had already?

No. No, no, chief. I just had been asked to present this and that's what I'm doing.

Sure.

And I, uh, I don't fault the necessary fault of police department because I know how difficult it is to get out there. Uh, especially when you can't, most of the calls do not specifically identify a source and they're unwilling to come and testify against him. Uh, Most of the people do not want to be retaliated against. And most of the people that are calling in are within, I'll say, a couple block in the neighborhood. So it's difficult to get it done, to enforce it. But I try to present all the concerns that people bring to me at council. So that's what I'm doing.

Council Member Neill. I just wanted to say I understood it was very difficult, especially at the 250th celebration. It was bad all over, but I personally did see quite a few police officers out. I know you guys were doing the best you could when you only have, let's say, for example, 35 people on a police force and over 20,000 residents, you're not gonna catch everybody. And the thing is, people have to want to follow the laws, the rules, things like that. I personally send email to all my residents and a text message, because some people don't check their email. And I still had people that night on my property shooting off fireworks and I had to go personally talk to them. So I understand, it is very frustrating. The thing is, for me, yes, the citizens need to be following the rules voluntarily because they set those in place for a reason. But I wanted to thank you, too, for the time tonight with the AVIS and with answering our questions. Thank you for doing that for us. And then, in general, I wanted to thank the Evans Fire Protection District for being here and working with us on the wildfire things. We appreciate all the hard work you all do. So thank you.

And that's all I have.

All right. Seeing nothing else, we are ready to go into executive session. I will entertain a motion. Oh, that's right, that's right. One second, no motion yet, please. The executive session pursuant to CRS section 24-6-402 subsection 4B and E to receive legal advice and provide direction to negotiators regarding an economic incentive package and executive session pursuant to CRS section 24-6-402 4B and E to receive legal advice and provide direction to negotiators regarding Central Weld County Water District potentially providing water service south of the South Platte River. I have a motion and a second. All right, motion carries.

Council to the city and that the new city attorney was also present throughout the discussions that the discussions were within the scope of the statute and since we were present They're also subject to the attorney-client privilege.

Thank you Having completed the executive session the next agenda agenda item is