City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Thank you.

Clerk Beck, could we please get a roll call?

Mayor Tapia Vega?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Barnes? Councillor Bollier?

Here.

Councillor Friedland? Here. Councillor Gallegos? Good evening. Councillor Giannola?

Here.

And Councillor Jensen? Here. Mayor, we have a quorum.

Thank you so much. Mayor Pro Tem Barnes did let me know he's a few minutes out. I did not hear from Councillor Friedland, however, so if there's any member of council that would wish to excuse him at this moment.

Mayor, I wish to move to excuse Councillor Friedland. Second.

We have a motion and a second to excuse Councillor Friedland from this meeting. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed, say no. None opposed. That passes unanimously. Usually at this point, we jump right into public input. But we're doing something a little special tonight. And for that, I'm going to turn it over to Councilor Giannola.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm happy to welcome the Coal Creek Little League baseball team to council tonight. We're thrilled to recognize them for an incredible, unforgettable season this year. They won the state Little League championship. They worked hard, had teamwork, spent hours on the field in practice, and it was an incredibly hot summer. I know you guys are all out there in the sun working really hard. Taking Coal Creek, our beloved Coal Creek, the name to the state championship and winning, what an honor for all of us cheering for you back here in Lafayette. And then going on to represent Lafayette and actually all of Colorado at the regional tournament against some of the best teams in the West was also an extraordinary achievement. You all played with your heart and showed sportsmanship along the way and did your best to represent Colorado. And for that, we thank you for your passion, your dedication, and for putting Lafayette on the map this year. We're so proud of every single one of you. Congratulations, champs.

And before we bring the team up for a picture, is there any other councillors that would like to? Councillor Jensen.

So I'm a former baseball mom of many years. And I can't tell you, I almost want to cry. I'm so excited for y'all. It's just so beautiful. And thank you for being here.

Councillor Boyle. I'm not going to top that, Councillor Jensen. I'm a former baseball player, and I'm just so overjoyed to see the success and glory that you guys have earned for yourselves. So proud of the coaches. To Counselor Jensen's point, know it's also a tremendous amount of work for families, for your siblings, for your parents, for your guardians, to do all the travel, to make all the practices. And know that coaches work your tails off to get the team forward. But just so proud of you, and so jealous that I didn't have your skills or acumen when I was your age. So well done.

Councillor Gallegos.

It makes me so happy to see so many young people in these chambers, in these chairs, and I'm so proud of all of you. Thank you so much for all of your hard work, and congratulations.

And I will echo the sentiments of my fellow counselors. I would say I was also a former baseball player, but I was so bad that that would be offensive to you all. Thank you so much. Thanks for what you do, and thank you for making Lafayette proud. That's such an incredible achievement. And we would love if the team were to come up and we could take a picture with them.

And the coaches. And the coaches, please.

Okay, count of three. One, two, three, Cold Creek. Ready? One, two, three. Cold Creek. Cute.

You should do your chant.

You should teach the council folks how to do your cheer. You should really do it.

Teach them how to do it.

Break it down.

All day long.

Congratulations. Congratulations.

Thank you. Congratulations. That's fine.

Thank you again. Congratulations.

OK, that was really fun. I heard a counselor say, we should start every meeting that way. And I second that. Now back to the regular agenda, which is public input. If you wish to speak tonight, fill out one of these speaker request forms. They're in the back through the glass door. Hand it over to our city clerk, and you will have five minutes to speak. When you come up to the podium, just please just state your name and address for the record. And again, you will have five minutes to speak. If you don't know what five minutes feels like or you don't know exactly when to stop speaking, I promise it's going to be easy. There's a little clock on that podium. If you look down and to your left, it'll tell you exactly how much time is left. And even if you go for the entire five minutes, I will make sure to remind you at the end of the five minutes that your time is up. At the five minutes, I will ask you to stop speaking just for the sake of equity and making sure everybody gets the exact same amount of time. Those that aren't here tonight but still wish to address counsel can do so through the phone. You can call in. That phone number is posted on our website. And with that, we'll begin tonight with Frank Archuleta.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members. First and foremost, I gave you all a letter from the Human Rights Commission basically supporting the Roosevelt Park. I'm asking you to read it after I do my presentation or take it home. We must not run from history and the power of education. It is very important, essential, that you name the small park after Roosevelt, as we, Latinos and Latinas, Strive to reach parity, equality, and equivalence. Council, the Latino struggle is real. You must put the power of inclusion, diversity, equity into action if you truly want to build a healthy community. Where human dignity is honored, you must stand for social justice, social change, and respect all human rights here. City policies, basically, are naming facilities. Names should reflect geographical, historical, and cultural significance. Names shall reflect diversity, equity, and inclusion. It advances the fostering of sense of community. It heightens the awareness of city history. It calls attention to the points of pride in our community, especially attributed to memorials here. We submit Roosevelt as a simply beautiful name and especially fitting for a park. We further believe the recommendations is within the scope of the Human Rights Advisory Board, as well as a new scope wording in the new language founded in your ordinance 14, series 2026, amending the name and scope of the board which passed first reading at your August 4, 2026 meeting. Human rights member and myself have spoke to the granddaughter and great-grandson of Rosabella, and they would advise they'd be very, very pleased if the park would be named after Rosabella. Council staff, can you imagine the psychological fear, trauma, and deep pain that Rosabella was going through at the time after the intimidation from the Ku Klux Klan and the death of her mother, Rose, and to have to testify at the age of 13 at the Boulder District Court. Rosabella was a very brave, strong 13-year-old girl. This is one reason why the park should be named after Rosabella. I have promoted the truth, and I ask council with my passionate plea to name the park Roosevelt and to have a plaque put up also. As you represent the citizens of Lafayette, council, it is essential that you truly want to build a healthy, inclusive community. Name the park after Roosevelt . This is history once again here, and take this deep, folks, what happened here. I know Tony last time here talked about Alma White, but if you don't know about Alma White, here it is. Beginning of racism. Alma White, 1862-1946. In the summer of 1894, in the spring also, revival services were held in Lafayette. by Mr. and Mrs. Alma White. Alma White, public alliance with the Women's Christian Campus Union, also the Ku Klux Klan. Alma believed in prohibition, white supremacy, segregation, racial discrimination, and opposed the Catholic Church. She was the first woman bishop in the United States. She founded the Pillow Fire Church, and that was where Rachel Hansel is, by the way. She also had home missions across the United States. Elmer White wrote several books praising the Ku Klux Klan, the Klansmen, the Guardian of our Liberty, Heroes of the Fury of the Cross, the Ku Klux Klan, and Prophecy. Mary Miller knew her quite well in them days. And basically what the city did, they continued the same theories. for many, many, many years, all the way past the swimming pool. That's why the racial discrimination against the Latinos and Catholics took place in this town. That's why the KKK came in and marched and burned the process throughout the entire city. That's why racism and discrimination continued and continued and continued. This is true history, folks, all facts. Everything I speak is factual. I just wanted to let you know that part right there. And maybe perhaps I can go four or five hours with you, Kate, on history in special meetings. But yet, the public should also be aware. It's all education, folks. Nothing more. Education. This part must be named after Rosabella for those simple reasons, basically. It's all fits the criteria of everything you all truly believe in, inclusiveness, diversity for the entire city of Lafayette. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next we'll hear from Angela McLean.

Good evening. It's Angela McLean, and I am with the Older Adults Advisory Board here for the city council. And I want to start tonight by saying buenas noches, . and all of our counselors. As a member of the City Council Older Adults Advisory Board, I am here this evening to express gratitude to everyone for the Proclamation on Fall Prevention for Fall Prevention Awareness Month, which is September of 2026. We know that older adults are a vital and growing segment of our society. They possess wisdom, experience, and energy that enrich our community. The city of Lafayette is committed to supporting strategies and promote healthy aging, maximize independence, and ensure a safe environment for all residents. Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries for older Americans. It significantly impacts their independence, their quality of life, and their health care costs. Falls are not inevitable. an inevitable part of aging, and evidence-based programs, home modifications, and regular medication reviews and vision checks can dramatically reduce fall risk. Raising awareness about fall prevention in Bowers older adults, caregivers, health care professionals to take proactive steps to reduce fall prevention and injuries. Advancements in technology, like our little watches, now allow for fall detection and prevention through smartphones, wearable devices, and home monitoring posts. The Lafayette Senior Center celebrates fall prevention activities. One is called Minding Your Balance class. It's September 10th. from 2 to 4 p.m., and a Think First Fall Prevention Workshop on September the 24th from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Iowa Center. And there is more. Every Tuesday, Silver Sneakers has a stability class right there at the center, and that's at 10 o'clock every Tuesday. So there's plenty available right here for people to practice so they don't fall down. Now, I have to leave you this evening with some advice on longevity. from a very well-known CU Buffs super fan. Her name is Miss Peggy Coppin. She's 101 and 3 quarters years old, and she's a woman of great healthy age. Here's what she says you must do if you want to have longevity. Number one, have a strong faith. Number two, enjoy life without excesses. Get good sleep, keep a positive attitude, and last of all, don't ever fall down. And so we will celebrate Miss Peggy's 102nd anniversary of years of age in November. And thank you all for supporting everything you do for the older adults here in Lafayette. Thanks again.

Thank you. Next, we'll hear from Charles Silva.

Yes, sir, ladies and gentlemen. I'm here to actually just sell the park. You don't have to sell the park. Everyone in this room has been to Wanaka Lake. Not more than me. I go a lot. I might go after this. I live out there. But so we don't have to defend the park at all. But it should be an honor for Rosabella to have her name on something after facing such tough circumstances, like the Ku Klux Klan burning a cross in front of their house. I think she was, I believe she was 13 years old. You know, I'm sure if you could imagine her asking her dad, dad, why is the men making a fire in our front yard? So there's a lot to be said about her and her bravery. And she'd be honored for her park to be named after her. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we'll hear from Tony Munoz.

Hello, council. My name's Toni Munoz, and I live at 214 North Michigan Avenue. Michigan has a lot of history with Lafayette Miller. My address was once known as 500 East Baseline. Again, the KKK used to march in front of my grandmother's home, and I could tell you so many stories I'm not supposed to share, but I do now as an adult. I strongly believe that our new pocket park should be named Rosabella Park. At the last city council meeting, I shared some history with the council and our community that we all represent. Today, I'd like to introduce you to some more history, which you may or may not already know. The original Columbine massacre that happened in Serene, Colorado. The massacre occurred because we as Americans voted that America would start providing and allowing sixth grade education to our American children. However, children worked the night shift at the coal mine, while the men, certain men, worked during the day. When the compulsory sixth grade education meant these children would no longer be available to work at night, the owner of the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company, John Roach, became angry. The Roach family and his posses and the local police then assaulted, shot the children and their families. This became known as the very first Columbine Massacre. It is documented right across the street from King Soopers in Erie, Colorado on Highway 7. My daddy always told me it's the 40th parallel. mine, and the town, Serene, Colorado, was shut down. Many of the families moved to Erie, Colorado, and Lafayette, Colorado. Not only did the families move to Lafayette, so did the owner of Rocky Mountain Fuel Company. The owner was, again, John Roach. At that time, my father was one of those children living in Serene, Colorado, with his family. Although he was too young to work at the coal mine, but thanks be to God, he did get a sixth grade education. And boy, did he love to read. Unlike Dolly Parton's family, father who never learned to read. Let's move forward to 2012, when Josephine Commons Retirement Community was built. And it was named Josephine Commons, named after Josephine Aswell Roach, John Roach's daughter. Let's name this park after a family that did something good for our community. Rosabella's family donated the most concrete to build the Lafayette Swimming Pool. This is a good, wholesome part of history. Please, let's never stop learning. If we don't encourage our younger generation to keep learning and gaining knowledge about our past, what good are we? We need to name this pocket park with pocket park, excuse me, Pocket Park with some intellect and heart. I highly recommend that we name it Rosabella Park of Lafayette. Thank you. I need to disclose that I am a real estate agent, and my company is named Serene, Colorado. I love history. My daddy loved to read. And the one thing I would also like to comment on is I just met the communication person. I didn't get her name. I didn't realize. I had thought that the survey to name the park was over. Apparently, it's not. So I need to get on the Lafayette website and help our elders. make their vote, too. They haven't been able to vote. We didn't know this. I'm not even that old yet, and I didn't know this. So again, I think there's some work to be done, but we're all encouraged to be positive and not ruin that Lafayette vibe. We're moving forward. Thank you. Oh, and I did bring supportive documentation in case if anybody needs to know about the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company and the Josephine Commons. It's under Mr. and Mrs. Google's site, just so that there's supportive documentation.

I didn't want to make copies for everyone. I didn't know how we handled that.

Thank you so much, counsel.

Thank you. Next, we'll hear from Rosario Rusi.

Thank you. Rosario Ruzzi, 721 Pascal Drive. And I'm going to speak about the rec center renovation project. Thank you to the council for its attention to this matter. I also appreciate the city of Lafayette and the Davis team for listening to community feedback, incorporating some of it into the revised plan, and scheduling additional meetings. These efforts are welcome, but more options are needed for residents who cannot attend on weekends. I spoke directly with one of David's architects and appreciate his willingness to listen and take notes. I stress the need for more community outreach online and printed in English and in Spanish so residents who are not comfortable online or proficient in English can also participate. And a news interpreter in the corner is not enough. Everyone's opinion and tax dollars count. When residents feel hurt, trust grows. When they feel dismissed, trust becomes fragile and hard to restore. From my experience working for government, rebuilding that trust can take significant time and effort. Although I'm signed up for city alerts, I have not received notice of a new survey. The link in the Lafayette Listens portal is hard to find and appears to be in English only. This doesn't seem like effective outreach. As a senior myself, I strongly support making sure our needs are met. I also recognize that populations are aging, not only here, but in many parts of the world. The ballot issue did not include senior center renovations or improvements, though. I voted against the proposition because of how it was presented, but I do understand the project must move forward as approved. The majority's intent should be respected. The proposition focused on the rec center, the service center, and city hall, not in a new or larger senior center. Presidents 65 and older make up about 16% of the population, while those 64 and younger make about 84%. Yet, the new plan appears to direct roughly one-third of the $34 million bond to the senior addition. That seems disproportionate and may discourage younger families. I say this both as a senior and as a grandparent. The senior central wing has quadrupled and now appears to take up about one-third of the project, while fitness areas remain too small. The community voted for more fitness space and an adequate lab swimming pool. The racquetball courts are not suitable for group exercise. Each one is only 800 square feet, far smaller than the original bond plans. Adding floors will leave low ceilings when structural steel and ducts are included, making the space cramped and the current plan appears to lack windows. The first floor group exercise room will shrink to create passage to new senior center. It is already too small and demand exceeds capacity. Users are often turned away from both group exercise and cycling classes. A dedicated cycling room in this space could fit more bikes and help end the frustrating sign-up system that limits access to 14 people that are able to plan their workouts three days ahead of time. The bond drawings show a larger pool area, but the current plan appears close to the existing size. After seeing them, one senior that loves lap swimming said that she will probably continue going to Louisville. That doesn't seem like a meaningful improvement for a $34 million project. Removing one party room was positive, but the remaining room interrupted fitness areas, and maybe better placed elsewhere. Even if it generates revenue, it shouldn't take priority over fitness space. The survey and bond drawings describe the locker rooms as remodeled. Moving them closer to the front entrance would certainly improve circulation, but rebuilding the locker rooms is expensive because they need special mechanical, plumbing, and architectural systems for moisture and heavy use. Also, I haven't seen any plans to resurface the track that is heavily used, especially in colder months, and the track serves the entire community. I would encourage everyone to continue building a community grounded in trust as we all work to preserve the spirit of our beloved small town of Lafayette. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Next, we'll hear from Roy Johnson.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Potem, Council. I'm Roy Johnson, 2547 Sweetwater Circle. I've learned to talk fast speaking here. I'm a member of the IDEA Advisory Board, but I'm here speaking solely as an individual. The selection of the new city pocket park name will soon come before you. I suggest the name Rosabelle Park or simply Rosabelle. The IDEA board has voted unanimously to recommend that name to the council. You've heard some of this before. I'm sorry. It can be duplicitous in some ways. I'm sure most of you are aware of the history, but briefly, in summation, in 1933, the city planned to build a sweep over where the rec center is now. and asked for donations of cement. Rose Luarez and family and others made donations. The pool was completed in 1934. Roosevelt and her mother tried entering the pool on the third day of the opening and were denied entry for use, as the pool was placed in the control of the city fire department, which restricted the pool to whites only. A civil suit was initiated with Rose Luarez and others, with Rose the lead plaintiff. Shortly thereafter, there was racial violence in the Ku Klux Klan. You're getting too much publicity tonight. Burned a cross on their lawn at 304 East Chester, which is just several blocks away from the park. The family moved to California in 1935. Rosabelle witnessed her mother, Rose, killed in an auto-pedestrian accident. Rosabelle, just 13 years old, just 23 days after the accident, testified in the civil trial. I found accounts of her testimony, heart-touching, And that's included in several handouts you have now, apparently. So please review that when you get a chance. I know your packet only included 200 pages tonight, so when you get a chance. I also included a copy of the city policy of naming facilities and information I provided. And I believe the suggestion is consistent with the policy as follows. Names should reflect geographic, historical, cultural significance to the city. The name shall reflect diversity, equity, and inclusion of the Lafayette community. It advances a fostering sense of community and hometown character. It heightens the awareness of city history. It calls attention to points of pride in our community, including people, events that have shaped the city, and is a special tribute and memorial. The terrible acts of racial discrimination against her and the courageous testimony of 13-year-old Rosabelle are deeply rooted in a part of Lafayette history. Some people may say that her mother is already recognized by the name of the recreation center pool, and that is enough. 13-year-old Rose Bell was subject to terrible treatment at the pool and then enacted courageously after the death of her mother and independent of that when she bravely testified. Perhaps some may think this is not a big deal, but imagine how Rose would have felt if she knew how her 13-year-old daughter bravely testified after being racially discriminated. And imagine how you would feel if it was your daughter. Recognizing the courage of a 13-year-old would also acknowledge the importance of young people in the community. And so that's a great example for them and for all of us to stand up to speak for the truth and try to make things better. The city just advised that you have selected four finalist name suggestions, Mariposa Park, Beechley Park, Aquino Park, and Roseville Park. I suggest to you that the name of Roseville Park is clearly the one that most meets the criteria in the city naming facilities policy. City Part 2 survey information notes that Rosabelle lived most of her life outside of Lafayette in Fort Lupton, Denver, and Brighton. I don't know why this was thought to be relevant, unless where she resided in after was thought to be a valid deciding factor. Rosabelle was a Lafayette resident when she was denied use of the city port at age 13. Rosabelle is a resident of Lafayette now. She's buried in a Lafayette cemetery. I spoke with Rosabelle's granddaughter and great grandson, who would be a great main favor to this naming, I suggest to you it would be an honor for Lafayette to honor Roosevelt. And thanks to those who did all this research years ago, including Frank, Melissa, and Doug, and others. And I brought proof of her residency of Lafayette. And 10 seconds left.

Thank you so much. Next, we'll hear from Casey Klein.

Hi, counsel. My name is Casey Klein. 387 Mountain View Drive. I'm with Embry. I came to you guys, well, first of all, I go to a lot of city councils. The baseball thing was really cool. That's more people. That's cool you have a good team here. That's amazing. But last we met, I was here in May talking about the purchase of a property on the northwest corner of E470 and Highway 287. And we were working through a development agreement. I'm here today for two reasons. One, I'd like to thank the staff. You've been wonderful. I know sometimes it's a thankless job. And the way Embree works, I told you this from the first time when we met you guys in May, we're grateful for the opportunity to partner. And so when we were here, I think one of you asked me about the capital markets in the world and like, how can you close? And it was like, I don't know. We're going to try. I can tell you. unbelievably tough. But my promise to you that night was I would come back and stand before you when we closed. And so we closed in the middle of August. And so we are the official owners of the property. If you drive by it now, you will see tractors out there. We are going just as promised. So I just wanted to thank you all. I wanted to thank the staff. I know there is a lot that goes into this and transferring and doing things. And again, I know it's thankless sometimes. And so that's it. I just wanted to say thank you. And we're excited to be a part of the city and go build. So we're going as fast as we can. Thank you.

Thank you. My apologies if I say this incorrectly. We will next hear from Liz Ploscher.

I am not speaking, though.

OK. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we'll hear from Peter Salas.

Mayor Vega, city council members, thank you for the opportunity. I appreciate all the good work you do and especially the time that you take to listen to the concerns of the community. I'm here really in support of Roy Johnson and Frank Archuleta and their effort to have the small park on Main Street, on Public Road, called Rosa Bella Park. You've heard all the history. I'm not going to go through any of that. I just wanted to say that I think it's important. And I mentioned that there are people who feel like the Lueras family has already been honored, and why should we do this? From my perspective, I'm a 40-year resident of Lafayette. I live on 1710 Seuss Drive. And from my perspective, I think it's extremely important that we continue to recognize and honor those people who have lived in Lafayette, whose past has helped make Lafayette what it is. People who aren't the big movers and shakers and builders, but people who lived their lives here and who, especially during Roosevelt's early life, who had to put up with a lot of stuff. And I think that doing this will honor her, who I consider to be an extremely brave young person in the face of really insurmountable difficulties during those times. And so I'm saying that it's a small thing to do, but it carries a lot of weight. We have to continue to honor our citizens. And the other thing that it does, I think, aside from informing current and future residents, I think it helps us all heal at some level. And that's important. When I moved here, I wasn't aware of any of this history. I'm aware of history, these types of activities that occurred elsewhere. And I know that a lot of communities have suffered. and are trying to heal from this. And I think this will go a long way to helping our community, whether people know it or not, heal from the pains of the past and the things that have happened. So I would encourage you, and I know it hasn't come before you yet, but I would encourage you, when it comes before you, to seriously consider this. It's a small thing, but it has a big impact. So I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we'll hear from Michael Watson.

Michael Watson, 708 South Coral Avenue. Yeah, I'm going to second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, whatever it is, whatever the count is at this point for Rosabella Park. I got a caveat to that. Not just name it after her, but make it a park that's worthy of her name. And not just the park, but the city. Make the city worthy of the sacrifice of Rose. I know it's kind of easy when you hear the story on paper She's courageous, she's brave, yada, yada, yada. But she didn't ask for any of that. That's not how history chooses its heroes. Nobody walked up to her and said, hey, would you like to be a hero for future generations of Lafayette residents? She watched her mother get run down in the streets, and then she came back and she testified against the people who abused her family. And then she did the hardest thing of all. I lost my mother when I was eight years old. She lived. She kept living and kept putting one foot in front of the other. She raised a family. She has grandkids. And she's laid to rest in our cemetery. That is an individual. Out of all of the things, out of all of the tragedies that has occurred in this city, in this state, in this country, in this world, that is something that we can celebrate. And that is something that I hope that we celebrate. And I'm going to follow that up with an ask for a park that deserves her name, a park that has her story told on it, that has bushes, rose bushes, whatever her favorite flower was planted there. Put bird feeders and bird baths. Attract wildlife. Let it be a shrine, not only the history of Lafayette, but the future of Lafayette, what we could be if we tried. And I know rule number three is you're supposed to be positive and not fall down and all that. But gosh, that is hard when the world just keeps kicking you in the face again and again and again. Life is unbearably tragic and hard. And there is all sorts of hate and discontent in the world. And if we could make one little tiny pocket of Lafayette beautiful, let's do it. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next we'll hear from Chelsea Pennington-Hong.

CHELSEA PENNINGTON- Good evening. My name is Chelsea Pennington Hahn. I am the director of the Lafayette History Museum. A little bit later in the meeting, there's going to be a proclamation made acknowledging our 50th anniversary of the museum. And so with that in mind, I just wanted to come share a little bit about how we are celebrating this milestone. So on Saturday, September 12, we are having a very special 50th birthday party that everyone is invited to. From 11 AM to 1 PM that day, hope you'll join us. We'll have birthday cake and face painting and all sorts of fun activities to celebrate. And that is also the official opening of our new permanent exhibits. So we have been working. This exhibit covers the front two rooms and also the kitchen of the historic Lewis House. And it has been in the making for over three years. It was researched and written and developed by a committee of community members And so we're very grateful for their generosity in donating their time and expertise, and are really excited to share what we've created. The exhibit will share a variety of stories and people from throughout Lafayette's history, including the Yoshihara family, who founded Lafayette Forest. The coal miners fight for better working conditions. And we're recreating the kitchen of Abelina Munoz, who immigrated here to this area from Mexico in the 1920s. And her granddaughter is here tonight, yes. So we're very grateful. And also relevant to a lot of the comments tonight, we tell the story of the darker times of our history, the presence of the KKK, Rose and Rosabella Luera's courage in their story as well. So the exhibit will be printed fully in English and Spanish for the first time in our history. We're very excited. And there are also interactive elements for kids of all ages. So bring the whole family both that day and any time. We'll have things for everyone to enjoy. The team behind the exhibit will be there on September 12, so you can hear directly from them. But again, if you can't make it on the 12th, I hope that you'll come visit the Lafayette History Museum soon, see everything we've been working on, and uncover some new stories from our city's history. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Next, we'll hear from Gail Elias.

Thank you. My name's Gail Elias. I live at 561 Marble Court. Since 2021, I've been part of a group of nonprofits that were called together by CDOT to develop a plan for the World War I memorial that sits at the intersection of 287 and Arapahoe Road. It was built to honor the service and the sacrifice of 1,523 men and women from Boulder County who served in the Great War. 80 of them called Lafayette home, and 25 of them are interred in the cemetery. When our grandfathers and great-grandfathers built the memorial in 1928, they envisioned a road of remembrance all the way from the gateway to the city of Boulder with trees and parks and more all along the way. That didn't happen. So only 98 years later, by working with our local state legislatures, we were able to get a joint resolution through the legislature designating Arapahoe Road as the road of remembrance. Now, I know that you've received email invitations, and I want to thank everyone who has responded to that. But I want to extend a personal invitation to each and every one of you to come and join with us at the official dedication of the Road of Remembrance on September 15th, 10 in the morning at the YMCA of Northern Colorado, 2800 Dagny Way in Lafayette. We are going to be able to celebrate this with descendants of our World War I veterans, our state legislatures, and representatives of all of the nonprofits who have been involved in this process. We hope, as we continue to work toward preservation of this memorial, that we can tap into the creativity that lives in local government and in strong communities. This is not an easy process. But we hope that by working together, we can find a way forward. so that we don't leave this to our grandchildren's generations 98 years down the road. Thank you for your time, your interest, and I hope to see you in September.

Thank you. Next we'll hear from Emanuel Robertson.

Do I hit anything, or is it? What's up? Do I hit a button on here? No, no, you're good. Oh. So I'm here to talk to everybody today. First quick introduction, my name's Emmanuel Robertson. I grew up here. Was born, well, there was an exemplar yet, so in Longmont. But I'm here since 99. And I want to just thank all of you for your time today, for being here. I mostly wanted to talk about a bigger issue going on across the country. That's starting to become something that people are concerned about in our community. The ALPR, Flock Contracted Cameras, with the police department largely can be an effective tool. And of course, our police officers work day in, day night to keep us safe, to have all my life, and keep this community what it is. However, we can see that as it's been done in other parts of the country, people taking advantage of this technology, it falling to misuse. It being used in ways that can marginalize people that are already marginalized communities, minority populations. It seems more indicative to a littler picture and a bigger picture of things, to seem that we're getting closer and closer to that. McCarthyism 2.0, if you will, in America, where one day we'll be able to persecute people based off of political beliefs, what they look like. And that technology could be used for such a thing. Not to knock, of course, that it's been used in a number of cases to go ahead and reduce how many carjackings have happened. We can see from 2020, of course, to 2022 that that was almost cut in half from a 64% increase. However, there's a lot of changes that were happening across the nation, and we can't quite directly say that it is all attributed to that technology alone, not necessarily a positive correlation. Some other things that were taking place locally across the nation in terms of legislation changing overall largely may have had more to do with that than the help or aid of the technology. Not to mention that our police officers are, it's a little insulting to even them, their skills, their prowess. You guys worked so hard to have kept us safe as it is. And we can keep building a community that builds public trust amongst each other, as thinly veiled as it is, amongst our public institutions. We don't have to go forward with what everything else is turning to in the country. That's all I wanted to say and bring up to attention. The only other thing that we could maybe do now as we consider our time with that contract, as it's known, I was hearing that, and correct me if I'm wrong, but the retention of said data is upwards of like 30 days. Even the company itself, Palantir has said to reduce it down to seven days for set instances of misuse and abuse across the country. So maybe considering, if nothing else, we could change something as small as that going forward. But yeah, thank you. Thank you for your time today, guys.

Thank you so much. That was my last speaker request form. I will just ask, is there anyone that hasn't had a chance to address counsel that would like to speak? Please come up.

And if you could, just state your name for the record. . All I wanted to say was, Roosevelt was around my age, and she had to see a lot and go through a lot of hardships. And that's just so incredibly brave of her. And I just wanted to say that it would be an honor to name that park after her. So thank you very much.

Thank you so much. Is there anyone else that hasn't had the chance to speak that would like to address council tonight? I'm not seeing anyone. I will turn to our city clerk to see if we have any calls. No calls. OK. With that, we will close public input for tonight. I believe we have four items under our concept agenda, including item A, which is the resolution number 2026-22, appointing Butler-Snow LLP as a special legal counsel to provide legal representation and advice to the city with respect to public finance matters and setting the rate of compensation, therefore, Item B, resolution number 2026-23, appointing director for Sola Metropolitan District Institutional and director for Sola Metropolitan District Commercial. Item C, contract with Dayforce Services US LLC for payroll and human resources system licensing renewal. And finally, item D, a motion approving an intergovernmental agreement between Colorado Department of Transportation and the City of Lafayette regarding the operation and maintenance of a portion of State Highway 7 corridor improvements on the 95th Street intersection project. Are there any items council would like to pull? Seeing none, I will take a motion.

I move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. Any discussion on this? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed say no. None opposed. That passes unanimously. Moving on tonight to our proclamations, of which we have three. We'll begin first with Councillor Gallegos.

So proclamation for the 50th anniversary of the Lafayette History Museum, September 1, Whereas the Lafayette History Museum was founded in 1976 with the mission of preserving, interpreting, and sharing the rich history of Lafayette and its surrounding communities. And whereas over the past 50 years, the museum has served as a vital cultural and educational resource, collecting artifacts, recording oral histories, and presenting exhibits that highlight the diverse stories, people, and events that have shaped Lafayette. And whereas the Lafayette History Museum has played a significant role in fostering community identity and civic pride. public events, exhibits exploring the city's history and other projects, and the museum continues to expand its impact and relevance for current and future generations. And whereas the dedication of staff, volunteers, community partners, and supporters has sustained the museum's mission and ensured the preservation of Lafayette's history for 50 years and beyond, now therefore the mayor and city council of the city of Lafayette, Colorado, do hereby declare September 1, 2026 as the 50th anniversary of the Lafayette History Museum Day, and encourage all residents to celebrate this milestone, visit the museum, participate in its programs, and support the ongoing preservation of Lafayette's unique history. So moved.

Second. We have some motion, and we have a second for the 50th anniversary of the Lafayette History Museum Proclamation. Any discussion on this? Councillor Butler.

Thank you, Mayor. Just very briefly, I think this proclamation is so fitting, particularly considering the living history that we've heard this evening from so many current community members reflecting on our challenging past. So very timely. Thank you. Thank you.

Any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed, say no. None opposed. That pass is unanimous. Moving on to our second proclamation tonight, Councillor Jensen.

Crystal, you have such a beautiful reading voice. I feel like I should give it to you. I have the honor of reading the proclamation for Fall Prevention Month, mostly, I think, because I'm an older adult. Whereas older adults are a vital and growing segment of our society, possessing wisdom, experience, and energy that enrich our community, and whereas the City of Lafayette is committed to supporting strategies that promote healthy aging, maximize independence, and ensure a safe environment for all residents, and whereas falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries for older Americans, significantly impacting their independence, quality of life, and healthcare costs, and whereas falls are not an inevitable part of aging, and evidence-based programs, home modifications, regular medication reviews, and vision checks can dramatically reduce fall risks. And whereas raising awareness about fall prevention empowers older adults, caregivers, and healthcare professionals to take proactive steps to reduce injuries and save lives, and whereas advancements in technology now allow for fall detection and prevention through smartphones, wearable devices, and home monitoring tools, And whereas the Lafayette Senior Center, located at 103 South Iowa Avenue, celebrates and hosts fall prevention activities such as Minding Your Balance class on September 10th from 2 to 4, and a Think First Fall Prevention Workshop September 24th from 2 to 4. Now, therefore, the Mayor and City Council of the City of Lafayette, Colorado do hereby declare the month of September 2026 as Fall Prevention Month and encourage all residents to support fall prevention efforts by participating in local workshops, helping older adults with basic home safety checks, and promoting fall prevention resources within the community. So moved.

Second.

We have a motion and a second for the Fall Prevention Awareness Month Proclamation. Any discussion on this proclamation? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed, say no. None opposed. That passes unanimously. On to our final proclamation tonight. I will turn it to Councillor Giannola.

Thank you, Mayor. I have a proclamation for National Preparedness Month, September 1st through September 30th, 2026. Whereas the City of Lafayette's Climate Action Plan identifies community resilience as a core strategy to protect residents, infrastructure, and ecosystems from increasing climate-related hazards, including extreme heat, wildfires, flooding, severe weather, and power disruptions. And whereas preparedness and resilience are essential to protecting public safety, maintaining critical services, and supporting the well-being of all residents, particularly those most vulnerable to the impacts of emergencies. And whereas emergency preparedness in Lafayette is a coordinated cross-departmental effort involving the fire, police, public works, sustainability, city manager's office, and open space teams in partnership with regional agencies including the Boulder County Office of Disaster Management to strengthen readiness, response, and recovery. And residents are encouraged to stay informed by registering for Boulder County emergency alerts and notifications. And whereas individuals, families, and neighborhoods who understand local hazards maintain emergency plans and supply kits and are prepared to be self-sufficient during the first 72 hours following an emergency play a vital role in reducing impacts and strengthening community resilience. And whereas the city of Lafayette is committed to empowering residents through education and engagement, including a community resilience workshop series led by the fire department in collaboration with the sustainability and open space teams, which provide practical tools and resources to prepare for climate related and other emergencies. Now, therefore, the Mayor and City Council of the City of Lafayette, Colorado, do hereby declare the month of September 2026 as National Preparedness Month and call upon all residents, businesses, schools, and community organizations to take action to prepare for emergencies, participate in resilience building efforts, stay informed through local alert systems, and support building a strong and more resilient Lafayette. So moved. Second.

Thank you. We have a motion and a second for National Preparedness Month Proclamation. Any discussion on this proclamation? Councillor Giannullo.

Thank you. Just want to remind the community that we have an emergency preparedness workshop coming up on Tuesday, September 8th at 5.30 p.m. over in the Starkey Building in Old Town Lafayette.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed say no. And opposed, that passes unanimously. That concludes our proclamations for tonight. And we will move on to our presentations. Only one tonight, the new online service portal.

I will turn it over to our CIO, Ernesto Chavez. Good evening, mayor and council members. Ernesto Chavez, your chief information officer. And I have the pleasure tonight of showcasing our new online service portal. A few things. We're just going to go over what our objectives are to modernize our integrated application. Our current systems are largely based on spreadsheets and email communications. And it was very clear, it's very clear that we need some better tools to support that. We'll talk about the background, some objectives, and some of the new features. And I do want to highlight that we've been taking extra care to make sure that we roll this out as best as possible, not only for our staff that are going to be learning a new system, but also for the community members that will be engaging with us. So looking back, 2023, we started really reevaluating primarily the development review process. We hired a consultant to help us map that out. And quite literally, the chart, the process chart was about 15 feet long. And through that, we were able to identify several areas to make some pretty good improvements. However, it was really clear that the technology that we had at that time was not sufficient. And so we shifted from that to then really focus on finding the technology We started with a pretty broad market research effort and we evaluated 11 solutions. As we got into 2024, we narrowed it down to just a couple of viable solutions and GovBuilt, the product GovBuilt made by MCCI was selected as that product. We brought that forward to council that year and the initial contract was about $150,000. We later brought an amendment to that contract and increased that by another $30,000. Our annual subscription for that product is about $45,000 a year, which is about the same above what we're paying for our current technology. So it felt like it's a really good product and the price point was working within our budgets. Early 2025, we kicked off this project. We brought on a project manager to help us do that, and we have a project team as well as the change management team that's been working pretty hard to bring the system together. The majority of the time that we've been spending is really, again, looking at our processes, trying to find ways of how we can do this better, and also identifying areas where we can streamline things and also collect information earlier on in the process instead of having an ongoing dialogue and piecemealing some of the information. The project really had three main objectives. Number one, make it better for our community through transparency and consistency, you know, making sure that the forms that we ask to be filled out are dynamic and they're pretty easy and straightforward and they're fairly intuitive. Making sure that the applicants have a central location to not only see the status of their applications, but also to communicate with staff across the entire, across the city. and also make sure it's accurate, that the status is what it is. And so I think we've been able to accomplish that so far. Internally, automating our processes, looking for ways that we can reduce that administrative burden of taking individual action, which not only saves us time, but also makes things much more consistent as we work through several different processes through this system. And the last piece there is really to integrate our work between city departments. As you may know, like we have like 16 different departments. A lot of the information has to be coordinated and shared amongst many of them many of the times. And so having a system that automates that also provides a consistent way for everybody to communicate internally and then in turn consolidate and communicate with the applicants is is very important. I do want to highlight on the graphic on the right, those are our project, I guess, priorities. And so as we were making decisions and reevaluating options, we really took these to heart. The first one is just being collaborative, making sure that, you know, if we have a way of doing things, that we're able to do this with with all the departments, like it was going to work for everybody. Transparent, clearly, making sure that having one system and having visibility of the cases and applications across that system is really going to bring to light a lot of opportunities for us to continue to improve. And I do want to highlight foundational. And this one is really important because we're really going from a largely disconnected and nearly paper processes into a modern system. And it's a very difficult transition from a staff, from everybody involved, from that type of environment into a modern system. And so we really wanted to make sure that this was something that we could continue to grow, continue to evaluate, continue to mature. And I think that we're right on track with that. Not only through the project, but as we go live and we continue to look forward, we really want that feedback and we have the ability to continue to make our applications and our processes behind it better. So what are some of the key functions? One is dynamic web forms. You know, I think that's the expectation with anything web these days. But, you know, there's still a lot of systems that don't necessarily provide that. Integrated payment processing so that we're able to actually transition from collecting payment through other systems directly as you apply. So you can submit your payments where it's appropriate. There is a mobile app. It's primarily for our inspectors, but what that does is it gives them the offline capability to be on site to pull up their inspections, to do everything that they need to do, take pictures, provide feedback, and on site provide those comments, sends, and it's automatically into the system for the contractors to be able to review and to keep up with what's going on. Automated workflows. Workflows are essentially automation, right? Like it goes from point A to point B to point C. That brings consistency. It also allows the city to really evaluate how do we want things to move through a process. And so there's been a lot of conversations around that. Centralized case management, every application turns into a case or license turns into a case and we're able to have a consistent view of how to engage with the applicants and also to share our own internal notes as well as all the coordinate permit issuance and keep track of everything that's happening within a single application. The system does have some fairly intuitive reporting. We're just starting to look at this as we're starting to evaluate the full capabilities of the system. However, so far it's pretty easy to be able to associate different elements within the system and produce reports. So I think that that's going to really lend itself so we can look internally, look at timing items, and see where we can continue to improve on the system. What I'm mostly excited about is it's a low-code configurable system. And the alternative to that is really something that you need a software engineer to program. And so moving from a programmable technology to configurable technology really means that I don't have to pay software engineers to make a change every time we find a change. And that is not the case for many of these types of systems on the market right now. And so we're really happy to find that GovBuild was able to bring that to us. And what that really means, it goes to that foundational goal, is that when, as we start to continue to review and evaluate the applications and the processes, we can make the changes on as we go. And we don't need to necessarily hire the consultant or MCCI to do a lot of those changes. On the right, a couple pictures. So that's the main landing page. I'm going to talk about that a little bit more. We're probably not going to direct applicants directly to that page because we already have a city web page and we can link directly to these applications. However, the top illustration is really just a light example of what the applicant will see. So they'll see what their permit is, what it's what it's related to, and what status it's in. So they'll see submitted under review active. In this case, those are the statuses that it could have. And so that if it's in a submitted status, they know that the next stage is going to be under review. And as that progresses through, they can always see where they are and what's next within the processes. And that changes for each application type. So this is a list of many of the applications that we have. There's a few more that are internal facing that will not be public facing most of the time. And I'm not going to go over all of these, but this is a fairly comprehensive list of what we're going live with. I do want to highlight report of concern. So right now we use... multiple CivicPlus forms to collect those and route those. What we're able to do with this new system is have a single form. So it's very consistent. It's the same. And then use dynamic routing. So depending on the type of request that's being reported on, we can dynamically route that directly to the department that's responsible. And what that's going to do for us is not only make it consistent, but also allow us to share that information with the right people immediately and hopefully improve our ability to be responsive to those types of concerns. I would say another one that I'd like to highlight is our liquor licenses. So those are interesting if you haven't had an opportunity to read the law around those. And so we're able to really stay and make sure that we're meeting all the state requirements. But as those liquor licenses get reviewed, they go through the process. A license is issued when it's appropriate. And that's available online. And then what's really nice is that when it comes down to being due again for a renewal, there's a 30-day and a 15-day notification that goes out. And it's a very similar process, but it's a separate, you know, it pulls in all the information from the last application and brings that forward. And so I think that that's really going to help us make sure that a lot of our licenses are current with or help our applicants stay current with their licenses. And lastly, I just want to highlight some of the integrations. I mentioned last week that we do have a really good integration with our GIS or our geospatial system. And so a lot of the applications, actually, that's the first thing that you do is you pick what parcel, which address, what location that you are submitting And so what that does is that not only does it make it consistent, but it actually pulls in additional details that we have as source of truth for that parcel or that address, like owner, and bring that forward into the application. So we're able to start to automate a lot of that information. Laser Features is our permanent document management solution. What happens with most of these is that at the end of its closure period, it'll be automatically archived into that system. And so that really helps us so that then we can have retention policies in our permanent archive record and if we ever have to change systems in the future, we don't have to move as much stuff around. And the last one that I want to highlight is our Bluebeam plan review. Bluebeam is is a separate software that allows you to do markups on site plans, so schematics of buildings or other plans out there. And the integration allows multiple people to edit or to provide comments at the same time on a single plan. And then as that is finalized, those consolidated comments can then be shared back with the applicant. Whereas right now, a lot of times we have to pass along one set and people make comments and then they attach them or we attach a separate document and it becomes very confusing. So we're really excited about those integrations. All right, so what does this look like as we transition to the system being live? We have a practice in the city of having this time that we call hypercare. And what we end up doing is it's kind of like taking a communications plan. but then like adding support and figuring out how do we position people and the processes and all the mechanics to make sure that individuals feel supported. We have a hypercare support plan for our internal staff. I'm not going to really highlight that here tonight, but I'm happy to answer questions about it. But really this is what we're trying to do to support our community members. And so there's a definition there, so it's temporary, meaning we can't do this forever. But it's kind of like putting extra resources for a period of time so that we can make sure that we're as responsive as possible. And the really important piece of this, in my opinion, from a technology standpoint, is anytime you're dealing with new technology, It's unknown. People are learning. And if you can't answer a phone or you can't answer a question, it's probably very simple. People get frustrated and they lose interest. So we're doing our best to be positioned to really get on top of that as much as we can. We already have about 2,000 accounts created. So we looked at all of the systems that we currently have that are in some state. And we created accounts for anything that was active or in process of being applied. And so we've already created 2,000 accounts. We moved in a lot of the active cases and a lot of archive cases that we wanted to have in the system. And that was about 40,000 records. And so we have a lot of information that we've been crunching through and bringing in from disparate systems and some spreadsheets. And we still have more work to do with that. So as we go live, there's going to be a few more groupings of applicants that we'll be working through and adding them a little bit more manually. However, we'll make sure that they get taken care of as well. As I mentioned, there is a landing page for this system. We're not really necessarily promoting it. It's there. It's functional. It's helpful. However, we really wanted to reduce the learning curve for our community members Right now, if you go to the planning site, there's a bunch of links to different applications. If you go to our application site, there's probably about 30 different types of applications you can apply for. But our goal is really just to update those links and point them directly to the application right off the bat. If they have not used the system, they will have to create an account in most cases. However, that's the only... like lift or just change. And once they have their account, they can apply very easily for the different services that we're providing. Directly on the page, so there's a how do I link directly on the login page. And right now there's two main things is how do I create an account, because that's really important, and then how do I schedule inspections, because that's probably like it's different than what we do right now. We are creating additional content, and I think as we start getting feedback, we'll make sure that we publish more and more information under the how do I And having it in one place is also very helpful because right now a lot of the how do I's are spread out across our city web pages. So we can have some consistency. We can make sure that they're de-conflicted and that it is easily findable in the future. Last piece is that we've been working to establish a dedicated support team. And so what that looks like is extending some of our interns that have been very helpful with us this summer and then bringing them in line with a few individuals who currently do a lot of customer facing support. and getting them organized. So we have a specific phone number and an email that we're creating that's brand new just to support this hypercare time. And we've already started a meeting on how we're going to coordinate calls and how we're going to coordinate messages that come in asking for support. Internally, we have a centralized FAQ. It probably has about 50 items so far, and I expect that to continue to grow as we get closer to Closer Go Live and afterwards. But that's really so that not everybody gets the opportunity to sit next to each other and doing support, so as we find new things that we can add them there, and that information is readily available to the other members of the hypercare support team. And lastly, these individuals, they get priority service from IT. So they call, chat, whatever, we drop what we're doing and we help them. And I think that's making sure that they have the back end support to have responses is really important because we're going to find things that we didn't anticipate and there's going to be questions that we have to discover through. And so making sure that they're fully supported is really important. So what's happening next? So September 15th, we're planning to soft launch the program. And what that really means is that it's there. And our goal is to really begin working with those 2,000 account holders. And we'll be sending out some direct communications to them, asking them and giving them some instruction to go and recover their account and to set up their new password. We've looked at a lot of options on how to do this. Sending a message to 2,000 people is not the easiest thing. And so we do anticipate that it'll get flagged as spam for many people. So we'll also be working with our communications team to get some more information out and hopefully work with that population as early as possible. A week later, we do plan to go full live. And really what that looks like for the most part is all the links in our city website will be published to the new applications. And any new application at that point for the areas that we have into the system will be you know, completely new into the system, and we'll be going through that. There's a lot of other, like, punch list items in between those, so even though I have, like, two bullets, there's a lot that we're planning for that. And I do want to highlight that we anticipate new enhancements. We've just finished our user acceptance testing period, and I already have probably about 15 requests to make some adjustments, most of them minor, but they do take time. And so we're going to continue to evolve and refine how we do things and how our community engages with us. So I think that that's fitting on our foundational goal for this project. And the last bullet there is really how to get support. So that's the first time this is being published publicly. And so the phone number and the email address is live right now. And they'll be ready for individuals who do have some questions to be able to reach out to us. What is also within this is a communications plan. So I'm working with the communications teams. There's some plans, social media posts. There is already some communications that has been going out. So on some of our web pages, we do have kind of like a, hey, things are changing. Be ready. It's coming soon. We've sent some information out, similar content on our utility billing website. And we have plans to provide some more additional details with the next economic development memo that goes out. And so we're trying to cover all our bases. We have a team that literally spends an hour every week just kind of brainstorming how can we make sure that this works, not only for our staff but for our community members. And so we've had a lot of good feedback and a comprehensive look at how we can move forward.

with that i'm happy to answer any questions uh any questions from council mayor proton thank you mayor i have three questions um let's start with a hard one so there's a continuity of operations we're working on the coup plan how where does this fall within that is it the backbone of our coup or is it something that supports the plan

You bet. Right now, I would say that there's no direct relationship to it. Although, I will say because this is a cloud-based system, if we did have a localized event here, it should still be available, which then we could, if we needed to collect information or to use the portal as an alternative to send information to community, we could leverage it that way.

Okay. Thank you. Number two. You're building profiles with what you have. I imagine there are some interactions that have happened, but with a minimal amount of information. And people may not think it's important to create their own profile. If you were to ask people to build out their profile, is there in the FAQ, like, why we need this information kind of thing? Is that going to be included?

Not necessarily from their profile. The profile lift is pretty light. We're asking for a username, an email address, and a phone number. And for the most part, that's what it is. Depending on the application, like some of our other more sensitive applications, we only ask for a date of birth so we can verify some age things that are part of state or local mandates. But the profile piece is pretty light. And that's just your entry into the system. What we do have is on many of our applications is an ask for a lot more information than we do right now. And that's really intended so that we don't have this back and forth that seems to happen today, where we ask for a little bit of information. It's like, oh, that's interesting. We need this information, too. And so there is, I think, the challenge is a greater lift of the initial application. We're asking for a lot of information. In many cases, we're putting references of where that's coming from or why. But a lot of it is really helpful, like, hey, to do this, this is what you need. Oh, and by the way, if you check this box, you're also going to need a fire code review. And here's what's going to happen after that. And so I wouldn't say necessarily that the profile is a significant lift, but more of the details of the ask is, and we can always take more feedback and add more helper tools and information if it's not clear.

But you're not really canvassing for information?

Not from a profile. From individual applications, absolutely. Like if you submit a special events request, there are several pages of information so that we can make sure we get all the right people involved up front.

I've seen them. 14, I think, is the number of pages. I don't know.

It's less than that, but there are several.

Last question. So I know we didn't talk about internal intranet. Like, you created an intranet and an external thing at the same time, which is... Correct.

Yes.

That's amazing. I came from, like, a smadre that did that. It took a while. So I don't need to know details, but is there anyone who is... What do you call it? First users? Within? Internally? Is there anyone fully on this yet?

There's been probably about 20 staff members that have been actively testing, engaging, learning, and providing a lot of feedback.

Okay.

And so I would say about 20 staff members have been using it so far. Okay. Not nearly enough for us to be fully, like, fully at our best. It's going to take probably a month before we find our stride, I would say, with the rest. But we do have resources internally and also kind of a support system similar for the public for internal to help hopefully capture those requests and support our team members.

Thank you. That's all I had there.

Any other questions from council? Council Bullard.

Hi, Councilor Kaye.

Thank you so much for the presentation. I know this has been a long time coming. I had a question regarding ease of use for business owners versus contractors. So let's say someone was submitting a building permit. Could the business owner go in and respond, or is this process solely for contractors?

So it's whoever the applicant is, the primary communication vehicle. And the way that largely with contractors, the contractors generally have to have a separate license with us. And so they'll have a, I guess, a viewpoint into this system that is for their contractor license. So if we have any questions or concerns, we can definitely communicate them that way. An applicant can be a contractor, it can be a homeowner, it can be a business owner. There's no restriction on who the applicant is. And they can, from there, on many of the applications, actually pick who their contractors that they're using to support their project with. And so there's a relationship dynamic that we're leveraging in not all of our applications, but many of them where it's appropriate. And so as far as ease of use, I would say it's pretty easy. It's a lot. And some things. Like a report of concern, I'm asking three questions, and it's a drop down is one of them, right? We're trying to make that super simple. But if you're asking for a building permit, like, There's a lot of details that go into that so we can make sure that we're getting off to a good start. So I think it's going to take a little bit of time for people to be able to understand. And that's also why we have, like, the support so that we can, like, you know, someone calls, I need help filling this out. Like, no problem. Let's walk through it together. is the goal, at least early on. And then once things temper down, I know that our staff currently do that with our current applications anyway, so it just becomes like it just shifts from how we do things today to then they understand how it works now or after we make the change, and it levels out.

Great, thank you. You're welcome.

Councilor Beaulieu. Thank you, Mayor. I love this. It's similar to Councilor Gallegos. I'm so excited about this. So I have three quick questions. One was, as folks transition to using the new workflow online system, are there ways to kind of track, oh, wow, this saved X amount of time both on our side as a city and then also on the applicant side?

You bet. I think not... Not in a number sense. I think in a general sense we'll be able to see and feel that. And the challenge is we really don't have an ability to measure things now. And I think like there's, unless we did like, you know, had like time studies or something, which take a lot of time. I don't know if the value would be there. However, as we start going through, what I really think and what I really want to start looking at is as we start, and then how things continue to get faster and faster once we get comfortable with the system. I think that will be indicative of, because we should be able to pull some metrics about the length of time of applications and how they're coming in. So I think as we look forward, we'll have some details around that relative to today or like last year. You know, probably not specific, but in general we should be able to see some benefits.

Outstanding. That's thrilling. So that leads into my second question, which is, again, as this comes online, if I heard you correctly, we're essentially turning off some services systems. So it's not like we're just adding another barnacle to the ship.

Correct.

How are we thinking about communicating that to both the folks we're daily in contact with and then also the folks who maybe show up once or twice a year who may not be tracking?

You bet. So the first push is that first week, so the 1,900 accounts, we're going to be sending out a notice and doing our best. It's a little challenging because, like we found, even having people's correct information is a little bit challenging. So we'll start there. We'll find other mediums to share that information to continue to refine that. I think that... For new applicants, I think if they've ever come to our website, they're going to search our website first and click on that link, and it's going to take them directly to the new application. For those that are expecting one of our other systems, they're probably like, oh, wait, what happened? And then we'll go from there, right? We'll work through that problem. If they're fairly new or infrequent, they'll see, oh, look, I have this application. It wants me to create an account. They're going to put in their email, and it's going to say, I don't have an account. OK, create an account. So it's fairly intuitive. If they already have an account, so say your account's already been used. And I do anticipate we're getting a lot of questions like that, because no matter how much communication we have. But it's real simple. It's an easy call to take and say, oh, no problem. Just click on forgot password, and let's work through fixing that. And then once they're in, there is potential that some of the cases we brought in, you know, like we have a contractor versus the owner and trying to make sure that we get all of those connections accurate could be that. But it's real simple to go in the system, update things, and these are all like less than 30-second type of activities I anticipate that we'll be facing initially.

Outstanding. Thank you. My final question is, obviously the priority is getting this right now, but as you sort of think ahead, And as AI tools continue to evolve and iterate and maybe destroy us all, how will this new system kind of be open to the potential for AI tools in the future? Or would we have to build a new system down the line?

So it does have an AI utility currently. It's internal facing only, and I think that's good because I don't know how accurate it is. But it's kind of like an internal helper, like how do I do X? And so far it's been pretty good. We'll test that out. I do believe that all systems will eventually continue to evolve within AI type of enhancements and tools. What I'd really like to see in the future, and some of my peers in the state are starting to look at this, is finding some AI tools that just fill out your applications for you. And I mean, most of our web forums are pretty open to add-on type of tools like that. So I think that's what I'm looking for, is something that will help you fill out applications. Thank you, Director. Thank you, Mayor.

Councillor Jensen?

The report a concern feature? Would you give an example of the kind of things you're seeing that people would use that for?

Absolutely. So it's something we currently have. And I want to say we have about 15 or 16 like separate labeled concerns. And they all open up a PDF or a web form on Civic Plus and those go through. So it's for the most part the same. We didn't get too creative on the types of concerns. But for example, it could be like a parked car that's not supposed to be there. Where does that go? It could be, you know, trash in the street. And we get those routed automatically. Another one is like a concern with someone's pet. So we're trying to provide and guide the conversation without being too restrictive. So even though there's a dropdown, there's an open text which you can type a good summary of what you're looking for. Even on the location, one of the midstream enhancements we had is like, hey, it's always good to have a location, right? You always want a location. And then as we started to really evaluating that, I was like, well, What if it's not a specific location and it's just in general? And so we're able to change the tools so that you can skip the location. And even if it is the location, like once we start engaging with whatever the concern is, we have the ability to go and add a specific location if we needed to.

Does a person have to create an account to report a concern?

So that's one of the exceptions to requiring accounts. So that does not. We do make it clear, though, as you say, I don't want to provide my information, that it makes it very difficult for us to follow up with you. And so we do have, so there's some conditional items on that form. It's like, I don't want to give my information or create an account. And it basically says, that's fine, or I don't remember the exact purpose. It was very nice because we have help from our communications team. But it essentially says, this is allowed. However, just keep note that we can't follow up with you.

And I guess I'm thinking about someone who might have a concern who has someone undocumented in their home who might be reluctant to give you information in order to get that concern addressed. And do you feel it adequately bypasses those things so that that person can get service?

I would say yes. I mean, like if they don't give an address and they don't give us a contact, you know, it depends on how much information they give us to be able to provide service. We'll do our best as we always do. However, you know, we at least need some way to either follow up and ask more questions or, you know, we just, you know, keep an eye out for additional information that's related.

And is there, for example, if my concern is that I'm driving down the road and there's a car that is not working in the middle of the street, normally you would call 911 for that, right? Or maybe that's a little extreme. But how does it interface with 911 and connect all the systems?

Sure. So there's no direct connection with 911. It is clear that if there's, like we start out with, if this is an emergency, please contact 911. The second really kind of like information on there is that we monitor this system during business hours. So if this is after business hours, just know that we won't get to it. But if it is an emergency again, you know, and here's the phone number to dispatch, right? So we give some information. Some other interesting, some nice things, features that we can leverage is we often get calls about the streetlights. And that really needs to go to Excel. The next question is, is this related to a street light? If they click yes, then a little pop-up comes up. A banner says that Excel handles all street lights, and here's a link so they can click directly there and get into Excel's concern reporting system. And we do that for Excel as well as, I think, the CDOT for street-related issues on the state highways.

And presumably also with

waste so they someone wants to say no one picked up my trash today that would go to Republic yeah, it could or it could I I would say that we could so one of the features that was not automated right now However, we can and it's a great idea. However, what we can do is any anything that we get in we can basically download the whole case. And once it's downloaded, we can email that to whoever needs it so they get all the information that they would normally get within the application. External entities can't engage within the system, but we can easily share that content with whoever's needed it.

This looks very exciting, and I can see how much work has gone into it, and I can almost feel the weight of it on your shoulders and how much work you've put into it. But it has the potential for really moving us forward, so thank you so much.

Councilor Ginella. Just a couple quick questions for me. You said there's about 2,000 accounts that you're sort of migrating over. Correct. If you could put an order of magnitude on the number of applications or processes that are being migrated to the new system that are sort of active.

So active, it's tough.

Order of magnitude.

Yeah, in total it's 43,000. The vast majority of those are archived, right, because it's looking back the last seven years, I believe. So I would say maybe 10% of that, so maybe 4,000 to 5,000 active applications.

Yeah, so even that's a substantial lift to get those into the new system and ready to go. Thanks.

You're welcome. Not seeing any more questions. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We will move on to regular business tonight. Two items. We'll begin with the first one, which is authorizing the issuance of city of Lafayette, Colorado general obligation bonds. And I'll give her a second and then turn it over to our deputy city manager.

Good evening, mayor and city council. Megan Davis, Deputy City Manager, and I'm joined by Heather Balzer, Chief Financial Officer, as well as Maddie Perdonovich, who is with Hilltop Securities, and she's our Municipal Financial Advisor, as well as Kim Crawford with Butler Snow. They'll be here speaking on this matter as well. We're going to be talking about the authorization of an issuance of the City of Lafayette general obligation bonds, and this will be Ordinance No. 16-2026. The objective of this is to consider approval of the ordinance that would authorize the issuance of one or more series of general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $74 million as authorized by voters at the November election in 2025. We'll do a little background and then an ordinance overview, a market update, have some next steps and question and discussions, and then we have proposed motion language for you. So a little bit of background for you this evening. You may recall that we've been talking about city facilities here at the City of Lafayette for several years, well beyond 2025, in looking at sort of the age of our facilities and condition of our facilities. And in the last couple of years, we've identified some of our most critical need facilities, starting with the service center, which was built in 1973. So this facility, being older than 55 years, is really our oldest facility in which our critical operations operate out of. The city hall was built in 1985. And then the recreation center was built in 1999. And even at 36 years old, it's a little young. But for an aquatics facility, that's quite old. And we've felt its age over the past couple of years with some pretty serious kind of impacts on our infrastructure there with the pool. We've also seen a lot of growth here in the city over the years, over those years, and increased services along with that in the types of services that we provide to the community.

And you can see some of those services that have expanded over the years.

So at the election in November 2025, a majority of city voters approved a ballot measure, Ballot Measure 2C, that authorized the city to issue up to $74 million of general obligation bonds to pay for these three projects as described in the ballot question. Voters authorized the bonds, but the city council still needs to authorize the issuance of the bonds and the related documents via the ordinance. Staff have been working diligently on the designs for the renovation of the Bob Berger Recreation Center and the service center. We're going to talk a little bit more about the status of those projects in a few minutes. At the time of the issuance of the tax-exempt bonds, we must certify that we have a reasonable expectation that we'll be able to spend 85% of the proceeds of these bonds within three years. So after consulting with our bond counsel and municipal advisor, we determined that although this was passed last November, that we would wait to issue the first series of bonds from the election until the plans were further along. So we've been working on the design, and now we're here to expect to issue the first series of bonds this fall, followed by a second series of bonds in late summer, early fall of 2027 for the Civic Center. So a little bit about the project status. I'm going to start with the Service Center. So I'm going to just kind of give you an overview of where we are. And just to be aware that at our September workshop, we will be doing the capital bond tour. And this is something that we've been doing for the past couple of years. And this will be a part of the budget process. And it'll give you a chance to see firsthand each of these facilities that we're working on and kind of the status and a little bit more kind of what's on the ground now and what we're looking at. So this to the left is a picture of the site of the service center. This is the current site and current conditions. Just to orient you, this is north. And the service center is located at South Boulder Road, which is right here, and then Avalon Avenue. And the access point is here to the north. And then there's a small access point, kind of a narrow access point here down on the south end too. This is the building that we're looking at renovating, and this is the city's whole property here that we're looking at. A lot of this space we're not able to do anything on due to the floodplain here with Coal Creek, and so we're just looking kind of at the buildable footprint here. Some of the existing conditions that you see here at the site, very old systems and infrastructure. You can see here a pipe broke. when we had um we have poor insulation on site and poor kind of hvac systems and heating and cooling there and so in winter conditions we have a lot of issues you can see a tractor that barely fits in the building our our current storage bays don't accommodate the size of a lot of the fleet that we have the especially our larger some of our larger machines and larger fleet vehicles. And then you can just see kind of a lot of the aging of these very old bays that we have and the condition of those. So we've been working on the conceptual design with our design build team. We're working with D2C is our architecture team that we're working with. And after having several meetings working towards the design, we have some conceptual design in place for this approach. This is the north side of the existing building. And we're looking at a major renovation here. on this section the north section and that would be about a 15 000 square foot full remodel of this section where we would do all of our office space to accommodate all the staff on site and as you know we'll be adding some additional staff there including our facilities division and our open space staff as well so this will have office space various types of seating and offices meeting space training space some storage space also workshops a lot of kind of conditioned space it'll also have all of the showers toilets lockers kind of a an area where people can decontaminate when they're coming in from working in an operational situation in the field so that'll be new something that we haven't had so this will be all of this area here This existing space here would be a minor renovation where we would keep it as base space, but it would be better conditioned. We would improve the concrete and drainage on the floors, and we would continue to have that as fleet storage as well as other storage space. We'd have improved electric and lighting, but otherwise it would be more accommodating fleet space. or facilities and storage space. This would be a new building, and this new building would be about just over 14,000 square feet, and this is predominantly going to be fleet space. So this will be much larger bays that can accommodate things like dump trucks, snow plows, large fire engines, some of our larger vehicles that don't currently fit into our fleet bays for mechanical work. And then we'll also have all of our fleet operations, parks, open space fleet operations consolidated with our fleet mechanics in this space. And it'll have office space for fleet as well as all the storage for tires and all the other fleet equipment there. So that is kind of what the new footprint will look like. And we're also looking at just the same access here on the north shifted a little bit potentially, and then just more fluid access coming through and potentially shifting that south access point a little bit as well. So we're kind of looking at improving that access. But otherwise, no significant changes to the site footprint. Currently, in next steps, we're working on geotech and title work, and the site survey is underway. Cost estimation and design refinement are currently underway as well. We will be starting outreach to the neighborhood. While this is really not an outward-facing building, we do want to make sure that the neighbors in the immediate area are kind of aware of what will be going on with the site modifications and any access point changes. and we'll be doing that through our lafayette listens hub we have a lafayette listens hub that has each project has its own site and so you can basically go to the lafayette listens page and click on each project and you can sign up to get updates at each of the project pages so we encourage people to do that and then we will be coming back with council for council approval of the final design build contract which will have refined costs for the full basically construction contract for this. Okay, moving to the Bob Berger Recreation Center. We also are still in the design phase for the BBRC and you are all probably familiar with the footprint of this location. What we're really looking at is the entire location and the parking lot as well because parking is currently an issue at BBRC and we want to make sure that we address the expansion at the rec center and what the necessary parking needs will be there. We don't anticipate looking at all at the skate park But we're looking up to where the inline skate rink is and what the kind of informal parking has been up there These are some of the current conditions Again with the leaks at the pool I think you're familiar with the conditions that we've been experiencing and the downtime that we've had and the real significant implications that are kind of infrastructure there and the way that the pool piping was originally built and installed has kind of resulted in a lot of mechanical conditions that are difficult for us to basically access. So we're looking to create something that's a little bit of a more modern system that we can maintain a little more easily. This is a kind of schematic design, something that shows what we're looking at right now. So I just want to point out some of the additions. The additional space that we're looking at is about a 21,000 square foot addition to the rec center in a couple different areas. This would be the entryway. There would be additional bike parking here. This is a new space that would be sort of a multipurpose meeting room conference space available. One of the biggest additions is over here. And this is an older adults and also kind of multipurpose space that would have a separate entrance where we'd be able to have any accessible entrance here for seniors and older adults to access for programming and also to access rec center and fitness activities and aquatics activities. Another large additional space would be back here, which is an expansion of the aquatics facility. So this is where the lap pool would be back here. And then there would also be some additional space here on the second story with more fitness space added. We have had lots of community feedback via survey as well as three community meetings that have occurred in July and August. And through these meetings, what we've heard is that people want us to create more places for people to engage and belong. This is what we've done through this additional space here, which is kind of an older adults space, which also has some significant areas that are multipurpose rooms. So this would have meeting space here as well as multi-purpose rooms. And then also some just upgrades to where we have our youth spaces. We also have heard that we want it to be easier to use, so more accessibility, parking, and circulation. So the circulation has been a big factor in really looking at how we can reconfigure the space we have. For example, coming in and having as you all know if you ever brought a child to the pool walking through the fitness space and then having to go to the locker rooms and then coming in through to the pool now people will be able to come in and can either go into the locker rooms change and go work out or go into the locker rooms and change and go to the pool so it's a much more accessible experience for people to come in and then get to where they want to go versus having to walk through fitness to get to where they want to go. Also much more accessible for the programming that uses those spaces too. that will be a nice change. Also, you know, 45% of our current users are seniors or older adults. And so this is really going to create a nice opportunity for people who are older adults or seniors who do swimming, aquatics, fitness classes already to be able to easily then move to either services or common areas, common spaces, programming, et cetera. So just, again, bringing together those fitness experiences along with those creating places to gather. And then making our aquatics work better, not only from a reliable systems perspective, but also for functional swimming and family access. And then we have just more fitness space here. And this is a second story fitness space added here. And then we have a party room here. So there's a lot of different opportunities. In terms of the expansion, it really is quite a kind of large, equitable expansion in several different areas. 42% increase in aquatic space, 34% increase in fitness space. The locker rooms grow by 31%, and that includes putting in more family locker rooms or cabanas, which also are accessible spaces, accessible locker rooms. And then the flexible program space increases by 40%. And we have wellness room, which we don't currently have. So that's a space that can be used for fitness or for older adults for several different purposes. So more fun to come. We will be refining the design based on the cost considerations. So we're kind of getting to that schematic design phase where we're going to start doing some costing, continuing to take the feedback from the public, and looking at feasibility of all of the areas that we've incorporated at this point, defining the interiors so we can capture that Lafayette feel. And then we will have additional public input in November. And we currently have interviews underway for the construction management and general contractor that we'll be using to build the facility. And then we'll continue to post updates on Lafayette Listens, as I described with the service center. And we do have that subscriber list place for people to sign up. And we also have a feedback link. So there's a link where you can send in thoughts and feedback that we'll continue to take for BBRC as well. So with that, I'm going to pass it off to Heather Balzer.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Heather Balser, CFO, here to talk about the money part. So I'm going to just go over quickly the authorizing ordinance for the sale of the bonds to fund all those beautiful improvements. So the authorizing ordinance approves the issuance of the general obligation bonds, certain documents for the financings, parameters for which the bonds need to comply with, and a legal structure necessary to issue the bonds. As long as the contemplated bonds or series of bonds to be issued by the city satisfy the parameters presented in section 4 of the ordinance, council delegates the ability to issue the bonds to the mayor, city manager, or the chief financial officer. So again, the ordinance parameters here, the parameters referenced in Section 4 of the ordinance are not to exceed the power amount of $74 million. This was authorized in the election. The final maturity for all series of December 1, 2046. That's the 20-year term. a purchase price of not less than 98% of the bonds, although we certainly expect that to at least be 100%, a combined maximum annual repayment of $6 million, again, from the election question, and a combined total repayment of $120 million, which was also in the election question. So again, the majority of these parameters are dictated by the 2025 election question. And then accompanying documents that are in your packet, we have the notice of sale, which communicates bidding requirements for competitive sale, the bond purchase agreement, which is the contract between the city and underwriter for negotiated sale, a paying agent agreement, agreement with the US bank for bond payment services, a continuing disclosure certificate, which outlines the city's ongoing disclosure obligations after issuance, and then a preliminary official statement, which is a primary disclosure document providing financial and legal information to potential investors. So a number of these are in your packet. Some of them are still in draft form, as there are terms in there that won't be finalized until the sale of the bonds. And I also just want to mention that Kim Crawford with Butler Snow Bond Council prepared this document in coordination with Mary Lynn, our city attorney. And they'll be available for questions this evening. And at this point, I'm going to turn it over to Maddie for the market update, who's with Hilltop, the city's municipal financial advisor.

Good evening. Thank you for having me again. reflecting on the drive up here that you all have seen a lot of me, I think, in the last year and a half. So this might be the last time for a while, which is good. That means we're finally making progress, right? So a little bit on the market. I'm assuming most of you have probably opened Google or The New York Times or Wall Street Journal or something in the last, well, three months, but really the last couple of days. Our municipal market right now, similar to the US Treasury's market, is really driven a lot by what's happening in the conflict in Iran. So oil prices go up, interest rates go up, oil prices go down. interest rates go down. So as you can imagine, the last two days particularly have not been particularly great for our bond market. That said, the market itself is still operating very efficiently. advising on a transaction for St. Brains School District tomorrow. They're planning to issue $375 million of bonds. That is still anticipated to move forward, even with the market volatility. But the market is still clearing. I would say it's fairly orderly. There are still investors, et cetera.

It's just our underlying benchmark of that yield curve is moving around a little bit.

That said, we are still below. We are above average from a historical 20-year perspective. But we are below from what we consider a market high. Rates are a little bit higher than when I talked to you last in June. I think then I was estimating an interest rate kind of maybe around 425, 4.25%. We're sitting about four and a half right now, just based on rates as of today. So not terrible. Still well below the average. We used a slightly higher than 5% coupon when we were doing the parameters for the valid question. So we still have a lot of wiggle room there. Those rates do not move one for one. So if the yield curve moves up one basis point, that doesn't mean your borrowing rate increases by 1%. From a math perspective, it actually is less than that. So we have more than 50%. or more than 50 basis points of cushion. We're probably more like 75 basis points of cushion within there. And we feel pretty comfortable with that with where the market is today. The big headline risk, so to speak, outside of Iran has really been what the Fed is, what's anticipated at the Fed. When I was here in January, I probably was talking about potential rate cuts, because that was what was being built into the market at the time. now particularly related to the conflict in Iran and rising oil and gas prices, which are a part of inflation. But just overall inflation really maintaining a higher rate than the Fed would like has caused the market now to actually price and rate hikes. We are not anticipating one necessarily at the next meeting, but that is definitely in the future. And that's a lot of what you've seen from the growth in those interest rates over the last month particularly or so. On the short end, it's mostly driven by potential Fed movements. On the long end is more just kind of the economic uncertainty and volatility that we are operating within. And some of that is, you know, what I think is going to be a little bit under the headline is, you know, the U.S. debt and what does that mean for, you know, ongoing operations, obviously, within the federal government. Treasury rates go higher. That's not good for the federal budget and deficit rate because that's what they are using to borrow money. So a lot of uncertainty. That said, deals are still getting done. We're still borrowing at relatively decent interest rates. Obviously not where we were back in 2020 or 2021, but, you know, not necessarily expecting to get back there anytime soon. I wanted to put in a couple of trends just because I thought some of these were helpful. I know I normally talk about, like, big picture market context, and these are a little bit more specific, I think, to sort of what's happened particularly over the last five years or so in the interest rate environment. You know, on the far left is just the MMDs, municipal market data. That is our tax exempt yield curve. You can see how that's changed over the last year, really. So the green line was a year ago. The light blue was most recently. And then the dark blue was about six months ago. Rates were definitely lower in February. And then they have started to create this constant trend upwards since then, over those last six months. But you'll see, compared to a year ago, we're a little bit higher on the short end, which is aligned with that Fed anticipated Fed movement, and then a little bit lower on the long end, which is beneficial here. From the credit spread perspective, you'll see we price to that municipal market data, that index, that taxes and field curve. That is assumed to be essentially the AAA, the lowest borrowing cost And that's actually created by a survey of underwriters of where they anticipate some high credit quality issuers would price that day. We then actually price bonds based on a spread to that index. And that spread is dictated by a couple of things. Some of it is the market. But a lot of it is really driven by the credit quality of the obligation that is being issued. So in this instance for the city, it's a AA rated general obligation credit. You'll see where there's a spike in that 22 to 24 time frame. That was when rates were climbing from their low points. And you saw those credit spreads widen. And a lot of that had more so to do with market volatility than it did with perceived credit benefit. That has since come back down. So while we are at somewhat elevated interest rates, our credit spreads are actually lower than where they were if we were borrowing, say, two or three years ago. which is beneficial obviously to the city because we try to get that credit spread as low as possible. And then just the yield curve steepness, I find this one just kind of interesting because for a period of time we were operating, particularly when we were in a high inflationary environment, our yield curve was actually inverted. But what that meant is that our overall yield curve steepness was pretty shallow. we're talking about like 100 basis points between your one- or two-year maturity and your 30-year maturity. That can make some bonds challenging to sell, because if I'm an investor, there's folks that are looking for specific areas of the yield curve to invest, but they're also looking at where they can get the most yield for their investments, right? And so it's a little challenging when we're in a pretty flat yield curve environment to sort of incentivize investors to move to different maturities. We are now looking at a more normal, more typical yield curve, where if you think back to like your finance or economics classes way back in the day, we want that nice little curve shape that we currently have, which is beneficial as we move into the anticipated pricing for the city's bonds. So anticipated financing timeline, this has not changed at all, I don't think, since I was here in June. So obviously we're here For first reading this evening, assuming that is approved, second reading would be two weeks from this evening. We have scheduled the rating call with S&P. I was actually working on that rating presentation earlier today. So we'll be talking to those analysts on the morning of the 15th, actually. And then we'll get that rating back a week later. Over that period of time, one of the documents I just want to highlight that Heather mentioned was the preliminary official statement. That is the primary disclosure document that is used to market the city's credit to potential purchasers. It is in draft form in your council packets this evening. There will be an updated version that gets circulated, I think, prior to second reading. But even then, at that point in time, it is not final. Those documents are approved as to form because we can't finalize that until basically right before we go in price. There will continue to be updates so that your finance team collectively is working on that. That will be financed, finished, finalized, and publicly posted. We're targeting for Friday, September 25th. That is the point at which where the sale now becomes public. So other purchasers can start doing their diligence to look at the city's credit and the bonds. We are targeting Tuesday, October 6th, sitting here today for the city's pricing. That said, we are not obligated to do anything on that date, nor does the ordinance actually obligate or require the city to issue bonds. It is providing the authorization to do so. We will continue to work with city staff as market trends change over the next month to determine an appropriate time for pricing. And if we need to potentially postpone, what we'll likely be evaluating is just where we anticipate interest rates going, which really wish I had a crystal ball for that right now. but also making sure that we're getting the city funds to reimburse itself for some of these costs that have come up over the last year as you've been working through the design processes. The election authorization also included a reimbursement resolution in there. whereby proceeds from these bonds can be used to reimburse the city. So we just want to make sure that, ideally, we're kind of tying that bow, I'd say, by the end of the fiscal year so that it doesn't look kind of wonky in terms of reserve levels or things like that in the city's financial statements for 2026. So long-term goal is to try and have this transaction closed by the end of the year. Assuming nothing changes sitting here today, I don't anticipate us moving that pricing date, but again, who knows what happens even overnight these days. So we'll be sure obviously to have city staff update if for some reason we materially change from that schedule. We are anticipating selling the bonds via competitive sale. I think I've talked about this at prior meetings. That is where essentially the sale is noticed on a public auction site that is used by our industry. And interested purchasers are then able to submit a bid to purchase the bonds. And then the lowest interest rate through that submittal wins. So they are awarded the bonds. They then purchase those and are able to sell those to other investors. That is what the notice of sale, which is a form document that is included in your packets as well, that will dictate the terms of that sale. And again, that won't be finalized also until the 25th as we'll work through different scenarios and things like that to make sure that we're providing flexibility to the city while also kind of meeting market trends at that time. The ordinance is flexible in that it allows the city to utilize a negotiated sale, which is slightly different in that an underwriter would be selected ahead of time, the purchaser essentially, and we negotiate with them on the sale. We don't think that is needed at this time, but we want to provide the flexibility primarily because this is authorizing one or more series of bonds. So when we come to do the second series next year, if for some reason we are in a market period where we think a negotiated sale would be beneficial at that time. We have the flexibility to do so. The document related to that is the bond purchase agreement. That essentially becomes a contract between the city and the underwriter in a negotiated sale. So if we're doing a competitive sale, that document isn't needed at all. But it's in your packets just in case we do pivot. So I just wanted to make that clarification. And then sitting here today from a rating standpoint, the city's general obligation bonds are rated AA+, those bonds that are maturing this year. We don't anticipate any material changes to that rating, particularly based on some of the analysis I was doing earlier today for that rating presentation. But we will have that call in two weeks and the results from that in three weeks. And we can work with staff to make sure that that gets obviously communicated to you all and if there needs to be press releases and things like that to make sure folks are aware of the great financial work the city is doing. And so with that, I think I'm passing it back to Heather.

Just to finalize, so our next steps here, we currently have over $212,000 spent to be reimbursed. And the city's 2026 budget for bond projects in the capital fund is a little over $4 million. Once the bond sale is complete, staff will bring forward a supplemental budget request in November to reimburse the capital fund. for the 2026 expenses and appropriate proceeds of the bond sale. And then we'll issue that second series of bonds for $34 million for the Civic Center in the fall of 2027, with design and public engagement to begin in 2027. And we're all available for any questions that you have.

Great. Thank you. Questions from council for staff or Hilltop? No questions. Mayor Protel.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. I just had a question of what does it look like? I guess this is probably for Maddie. Maddie, yes. So when our bonds go up for sale on the competitive site, What does it look like? What's the draw? What are people going to be looking at? Is it the first thing they see, City of Lafayette, or is it something else?

Yes, yes. So it's called Parity. It's a website that's called iPrio, which is where all municipal bond wires and all of our sales basically take place on that infrastructure. And when that sale shows up, it'll show up there, as well as in a couple of different market calendars. So there's one that's produced by The Bond Buyer, which is like our industry newspaper, basically. And then TM3, which is another market data point, basically. And yeah, so it'll have a date, and then it'll have the dollar amount. So $40 million in the state city of Lafayette, Colorado. General obligation bonds, series 2026. And then it'll have the rating next to it, basically. And so when a potential purchaser can click, normally, depending on which site you're on, it's a clickable link. You can see the information that's in the notice of sale, as an example, that has the bid requirements. It'll also usually have a link to that preliminary official statement, that disclosure document, so they can scroll through that and read through that and evaluate their view of the city's credit.

OK, thank you. And one other question. I appreciate the trends and love that. Are there any annual trends that you would expect to see that you didn't talk about? And is there an expectation after an election year like this kind? the next two years from now? Are there any expectations generally?

I mean, yes and no. To expect the unexpected, I guess, is how I would respond to that candidly. I think this fall, a lot of what that election dictates is what does that mean for the current presidential administration? Are they left with another two years to do what they will both from an operational, economical, et cetera? Or is there some perceived check that gets placed by changing within Congress? We have seen that have different reactions, candidly, depending on what the flip is and what the market's perceived change or no change means for interest rates and for overall market volatility.

So would it be fair to say no impact is unusual?

Yeah, I would say no impact is unusual. I would also say, candidly, I don't know how much either impact, though, would really have at this point in time, because a lot of what is influencing the market has been put in place without going through Congress. So there is a bit of a question of, even if Congress flips, what checks do they really have on some of the items that have that are taking place right now. And so from that standpoint, we don't totally know. But sitting here today, nobody candidly is really focused on the election from a market perspective. Whereas I think what the market doesn't like is unexpected things to happen. So if you go back to 2016, the market kind of went crazy after that November election because the markets had all anticipated that Hillary Clinton was going to win the election, and then she did not. And it's not necessarily that they didn't like Trump's policies. It was that they didn't know what his policies were because they hadn't really looked into it because they didn't think he was going to win. And so sitting here today, I don't anticipate much movement, but knock on wood, from this election cycle. 2028 is like a whole other ballgame because, we don't even know who's running for president at this point in time in that election. We don't know the state of the world that we will be in at that point in time. Presidential elections do tend to have a bigger movement midterm election cycle.

And the annual trend, there's no real annual trend. We're going into winter. Nothing really happens.

Totally, yes. I mean, sometimes we see, if you were talking to me probably six or seven years ago, I would say we see kind of this creep up in rates as you go towards the end of the year, and then a reduction in rates in January. That trend has not been consistent, though, for the last six years. Some years it's on trend, sometimes it's not. And rates actually spike in January. That happened two years ago. So it's just very- Unpredictable. Yes. And what we typically have historically followed for data points, as an example, that dictate usually market reactions have just been way less influential and consequential this year because of the other noise that's happening. inflation and PPI and all those things that come out on a regular schedule, those used to be much more influential in the market. If we missed CPI by 0.2%, that would mean like, oh, people were concerned. And nowadays, it doesn't really seem to be much of anything, candidly. Our market sitting here today, the biggest influence on it and the tracking of trends is oil prices.

OK.

Thank you so much.

Councillor Giannullo.

Thank you, Mayor. Just to follow up on this discussion, you know, you talked earlier about bond rating, that the city has a good bond rating.

Yes.

Don't expect that to change. Yeah. Can you just talk a little bit about the factors that would make that improve or decrease, go up or down?

Sure. So you are, AA plus rating is one notch below the best possible rating you can have, right, of AAA. There are a handful of cities within Colorado that are rated AAA by either S&P or Moody's, but not a ton. A lot of it, in your instance, likely would have to do with your size, so your diversification of your tax base, both on a sales tax and property tax base. Because of your size, you'll see that rating typically applied to a slightly larger city, because they can weather through changes in different industries a little bit better than potentially the city could. So from a going down perspective, yeah, the biggest driver that is within the city's control from a rating perspective is fund balance in your general fund. So the city's obviously been spending some fund balance over the last few years, but you're still in a really good place as it relates to their rating methodology, and particularly sort of the part budget target of 25%. of reserves is a great place to stay at because that essentially puts you at their top level of their scoring for fund balance metrics. Once you start to get down, certainly, I mean, that would be a big drop. But once you start getting closer to 10%, then we start to have more of a conversation about what's happening. Similarly, if you were getting down to that level and it was because of year over year of imbalanced operations, meaning you're drawing on reserves to pay ongoing expenses versus one-time expenses, that influences it. And then the other piece is leverage, like your debt statistics and other leverage factors. You don't really have much, if anything, of a pension liability, so that is not as relevant for you as it is for some other entities. And then debt, you are a very, I mean, this is really your, they don't count, I should say, like utilities in this evaluation. So the water reclamation bonds don't count. Those are self-supporting through service charges, user charges, et cetera. So really it's only going to be these bonds that are outstanding that would count towards that metric. So you're in a pretty low liability factor.

Thank you. Councilor Jensen.

I am interested in this election cycle and what it could mean. We are going to do this first round of bonds previous to that election. Yes. But the next one, if

Anarchy breaks out you know we will be impacted by that is that correct um Yes, and no I mean so you are we are planning basically the ordinance authorizes both series of bonds so to issue all 74 million that said if something were to happen and we are not in a place to issue bonds next year within that one year period or the city determines it's not ready to start on the Civic Center project or what have you, we can always come back. We are not obligated to stick with this one ordinance. We can always have a second ordinance that authorizes if the one-year clock runs out on this ordinance, we can always come back later. So in that regard, if interest rates are going crazy, or we're not comfortable selling, or the market isn't functioning at all, we are not obligated to move forward in that environment. The other thing I would say is from an overall historical market context, while we have entered periods of, I don't want to say inoperability, but the market has been more challenging to actually execute transactions than others. For the most part, that doesn't last all that long. And by what I mean, it's like two weeks maximum. So like COVID as an example, the market effectively shut down a couple of weeks. And a lot of that was because everybody was figuring out, how are we paying for anything? Because we have no idea if people are going to go out shopping ever again kind of thing. And then once the dust settled and everybody realized, well, Amazon still exists and people are still picking up groceries, we're OK. Similarly, like with the tariffs last year, there was pretty crazy market chaos for a week after that. Our underlying index is moving like 30 basis points in a day for several consecutive days up, so not in our favor. And a lot of that was just uncertainty of what does that even mean from a tariff standpoint? What does it mean from a retaliatory standpoint? What does our overall financial picture look like now? That took a week or so for the market and analysts and such to absorb. And then rates kind of steadied out. And then they actually ended up sort of, they went down after that after everybody kind of figured out what they thought. And some of it was that they didn't think that they would actually get implemented. I mean, that was a lot of the market reaction. So what I would say is even if there is some chaos happening after this election or another market event over the next year, we have the ability to navigate that somewhat unless we enter into a period that we candidly haven't seen. I mean, even in the financial crisis in 2008, it took some time, but the market eventually functioned again. You know, people sold bonds, people bought investments.

Well, and I guess my question is, has there been any consideration of doing the whole bond package now instead of splitting it into two to avoid whatever that uncertainty is next year?

Yes. The challenge there becomes the spend-down requirement by the IRS. So to issue tax-exempt bonds, Kim Butler-Snow, is going to make the city sign a document that says it has a reasonable expectation to spend 85% of proceeds within three years. The challenge is lumping in the Civic Center project with where the city is at right now in the process. The city can't reasonably make that expectation sitting here today.

Thank you.

Councillor Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mayor. Ms. Perdonovich, every time we see you, you give us worse and worse news. I know. I need to stop filming.

It's always a pleasure. I'll just come back, and then it'll be better.

It's not you. It's the White House. No, thank you so much. I really appreciate the questions that have surfaced. So I want to make sure I understand the 85%, and maybe this is a question for Kim Butler-Snow instead. But if we were to not be able to make that, what happens?

Yeah, and Kim can provide more detail. So it does happen that people don't meet that spend down requirement. COVID was a great example where most folks that issued bonds in 2019 did not meet that requirement because you couldn't buy supplies. Everything kind of came to a halt. It's really more of a reasonableness test. And so the example I always give is if you are certifying on a tax form for Kim that you can build a high school in six months, that's not reasonable. And the challenge really becomes when If the city's bonds get audited by the IRS, they can make a determination of taxability, which creates a tax status issue for your bonds, which is not going to be great for you or the investors that purchase them. And so it's not like on the third year anniversary, if you didn't spend 85%, now all of a sudden your bonds are taxable or they have a sticker next to them so people don't buy them or whatever. It's essentially so that you don't have over-issuance. The IRS doesn't want you issuing more than you need to to be able to earn investment earnings on those proceeds.

And then my one other question, I think, is more for staff related to the very, very beginning of the presentation, just with tremendous appreciation for the adaptation and pivoting that's gone in relation to all the community feedback. But I guess the question I had is how, when we receive feedback from different cohorts and aspects of the community, how we're balancing and prioritizing. And again, outstanding presentation. I know a lot of work has gone into pivot given the feedback we've heard from the public.

So community feedback is one aspect of everything we're balancing. So we're certainly looking at we have a budget that we're working within. We have timelines. We have a fixed spatial area that we're working within. We have the footprint. We have limitations to what we can you know, realistically modify at the rec center. So we're really having these conversations with the community and looking at balancing, you know, the needs of each of the different user groups and trying to address, you know, how can we ensure that everyone in the community gets some, you know, additional, has some of their additional needs met. So, you know, I think we have heard, we've heard from a lot of different user groups. And the first meeting that we had was really difficult. And part of it is that we've had some, you know, lack of clarity and communication with the older adults because they have the existing center and we don't know yet what we're going to do there. And I think a lot of that is going to be ongoing conversation with you all about the operations of that building and what happens at the new facility. And I also think the new older adult center is going to be quite nice, and it's going to have a lot to offer. And so I think we might have to see what happens when that opens and what that looks like. We don't have staffing budget at this time. So I think there's a lot of things we're going to have to look at as we move forward. So I think we've heard a lot around that. We've heard a lot from families. We've heard a lot around fitness. And so I think we're taking in all these pieces and we're trying to really look at how we can meet each of those different needs to the best of our abilities with our design team and within all of those other constraints. So it's just this ongoing conversation with the community.

Thank you. I really appreciate that. A concern I had early on in the summer was, would only the squeaky wheels get the grease? So I really appreciate that there's this very broad effort to make sure all the different user groups are considered. You teed up my final question, which is that there is this concern, particularly among the older adults, about the potential closure of the senior center on Iowa. I just want to make sure I heard you correctly. As of now, we have no plans to close that down.

We have not had any conversations with council about that. Director Heisel is working with her team. They're looking at all the programmatic pieces. We're looking at programming at the new facility, programming at the old facility, sort of what we have, what we need. We're looking at numbers. So we will need to have those conversations with you about what that all looks like.

And I look forward to those conversations, whatever appropriate to have. I guess maybe my request would be in our communications to just kind of continue to hit there is no plan currently. Because if I, as I was listening to you earlier, if I wasn't tracking this very closely, I could see, wait a minute, maybe they are thinking about doing that. So I just want to make sure that we have no plans currently. But as the new center comes online several years down the road, then maybe we'll revisit it. But as of now, no, I just want to make that ask. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah.

Councilor Giannullo?

If I could, we've had a lot of public engagement on the rec center. Makes sense. We've not talked about the public engagement on the service center, but you raised it in your presentation tonight. There is a residential neighborhood immediately to the west of that development project. And if this were a regular development project, what would that public engagement look like? Are we obligated to kind of follow that process where there's a neighborhood meeting and there's going to be a site plan that comes to council and those folks are going to have an ability to raise their concerns?

Yeah, so it's a good question. And we have talked about with some of the things we're looking at, I don't know that we foresee any major changes with the configuration. But if we do have that access point in the south, if we enlarge it so that we have vehicles coming in, we will be doing a traffic study. And so we'll have a traffic study that we have information to share with you and with the community and to inform if there are going to be any changes or impacts. And if those changes or impacts necessitate any operational changes there or anything like that. So that would definitely, we would want to have community conversation around that. I think our starting point for the conversation is to the community that we're that we're doing these improvements and renovations, that they know that the service center is there now. Again, from an operational perspective, there won't be major impacts to them. Adding facilities is for staff, and adding open space five or six staff so it's not it's not really a major change in terms of the huge operational impacts we're not adding giant field staff teams there um so it'll really be business as usual to what they're see they'll see but there will be construction happening and you know there will be a new building being built there that'll be fleet so just so that they know you know this is what's going to happen on site we have that fence there that is not in great condition and so we're talking about do we need to improve that fence and you know what can we do to kind of address that so i think our initial touch point is just to to inform those neighbors about you know this is what's happening and and you know here's what we're looking at and let them know kind of this is what's happening and then and then start to kind of engage with them so that they are aware thank you counselor johnson

I know we're supposed to be talking about issuing the bonds, but I did have a couple of points that I would like further information on for a future meeting about the BBRC, which is how does the group exercise space that we have, we have several different sort of new spaces, How does the largest space that we have compared to what we have now, like how many more people does it serve? So in the future, if you could answer that for me. And then when I went to the community meeting, one of the questions that was coming up is really a programming question, but perhaps some guidance to how to answer this. So there's this very large room in the senior wing that could hold a very large fitness class. But there's a presumption that seniors would have priority for those facilities because it's more the senior side and not the rec center side. So having some general guidance about who gets to decide, like I have a really popular fitness class and I want to use that facility, you know, and do I get to or do the seniors have first dibs on it? And that makes a difference because the way that those fitness rooms are currently configured There's not a real giant room. There's several smaller rooms. And if there is not access to that larger room for some of the more popular fitness classes, we may have a problem. And so I'm just, those are a couple things I would like further information on in the future. And I know we're not supposed to be talking about that now.

Yep, we can definitely talk about it. Melissa and her team are working on those programmatic issues and ideas.

Perfect. Any other questions from council? If not, there is motion language on the screen.

Thank you. I move to approve on first reading ordinance number 16, series 2026, authorizing the issuance of general obligation bonds.

Second.

We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion on this motion? Seeing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed, say no. None opposed. That passes unanimously. Thank you for that. We move on to our final agenda item tonight, which is a purchasing policy update. Turn it over to our CFO.

So yeah, good evening again. This is Purchasing Policy Update. We're going to talk about ordinance number 17, series 2026. Myself and Marilyn, the city attorney, and Aaron Poe, the deputy city attorney as well, helped prepare these documents. So the objective and agenda this evening is to consider approval of ordinance number 17, series 2026, to amend chapter 44 and chapter 5 of the municipal code regarding purchasing procedures and city manager authority to negotiate and execute certain contracts. So we'll give you a little background, an ordinance overview, and then offer any time for questions and discussion, and then propose motion language. So just some quick background here. Proposed ordinance will update purchasing limits within the city's code of ordinances to better support the implementation of upcoming bond-funded capital projects. It's also intended to align city purchasing authority with best practices and improve the efficiency of contract approvals. So an overview. So based on the June 23, 2026 city council workshop discussion, staff proposed revisions to chapter 5 and 44 of the municipal code, including the following. section 44-42, which requires competitive bidding for purchases above $100,000 versus the current $50,000 and $25,000 limits. It also amends section 5-2-5-3, which authorizes the city manager to negotiate and execute contracts for the following. So a purchase of tangible property, purchase services, or professional services up to $250,000. That current limit is $100,000. And a capital improvement project up to the amount of $1 million. That's currently set. Again, the $100,000 limit applies here. There's no distinction between capital and other services in our current program. And I'm happy to answer any questions. A couple examples of some projects that recently came to you for approval that would no longer come to city council under these new limits. So B2 excavating, it was 120th Street ditch repairs for $123,000. So that would no longer come to you. West Coast Systems, it was for basically an HVAC. It's called the mixed air unit at the golf course for $119,978. Yarrow Park with a contract with A to Z Recreation for $170,000. Diaz Construction Group, that's Cherrywood Drive Keel Water Line Replacement. So that was for $736,000. So those are largely capital. A good example of that $250,000 limit, we have an annual lawn mowing contract, which is $120,000, which

Would not come to council moving forward if these limits change So that's just some examples and happy to answer any questions as well as our city attorney staff Thank you for bringing those examples that really helps to Put some mindset around what we're changing and I guess with regard to the Yarrow Park Garo If somebody, for example, who lived near that park said, you know what, my child is disabled, and I don't think this is an adequate disability-friendly park, they can come to us as counsel and speak to that. But if we're doing this new contract process, is there an opportunity for somebody in the public who feels left out or doesn't like something, how would they engage under those circumstances? They wouldn't have any, there would be nothing in the public eye where they would have an opportunity to speak to what's happening?

Yeah, I mean, it would be, the project would be below the limit. So typically we would go through our internal process and follow our policy procedures for procurement. I don't know if you want to add anything, Mary Lynn?

So I guess I would add that putting contracts on the agenda does provide public notice of how the city is spending funds for certain projects. It might provide notice of that project, but there's internal city processes for how those contracts are sought and rewarded. And awarded, I should say. And in the form of the contracts, that doesn't usually involve public input. So I understand your point completely. If somebody had a concern about a project, they'd probably go to staff once that starts.

And Director Heisel can talk a little bit more, but we typically do engagement with park replacement anyway and ask community members what they are interested in seeing. That's how some of the Yarrow Park.

Well, but that's just an example of, so getting, taking it away from council in some way, I mean, not that I'm, arguing that we shouldn't do this, but taking it away from council takes away the public input opportunity where if somebody doesn't like something we're doing or does like it, they have an opportunity to engage with us, which if it's a staff level decision isn't open to the public and there's no engagement from them about, you know, we like this or we don't. Is that correct?

That would be correct unless staff makes a decision to go do engagement before they leave. award or finalize the contract.

But that's not a public hearing where anybody and their brother can come. There's no problem here with me feeling lack of trust in the staff. There is some concern on my part that we've taken away the opportunity for public engagement at these levels. And a million dollars at a capital improvement project is a pretty significant thing. And I just am wondering. Is there a middle road where it could be noticed on our agenda with opportunity, if anybody wanted to speak to it, where we didn't have to decide, but there were opportunities for public engagement? And I know we've talked about this before, and this is throwing a monkey wrench into it, but I feel like One of the things that's so good about Lafayette is that we do make a strong effort to include the public in things. And with this decision, we would be excluding the public from more of these decisions.

If I could, it's not necessarily the decision making. It's also the public notice function. Like that Cherrywood project that you mentioned, Director Balzer, that's my street. I live on that street. That project was thought to be a short project. It turned into a six month construction project in my neighborhood. And so the public notice function letting the neighborhood know that this project is taking place is significant. So I do appreciate your suggestion about informing the public when these kinds of projects go on, even if we don't necessarily as a council decide on that. But to have that information actually put out there into the public realm for purposes of transparency and notice, I think I would support something like that.

Council Rollier. Thank you, Mayor. I'm a little confused, because I agree with the point you're making, but I didn't interpret the presentation that way. So I'd love to hear more, because my understanding is there's the $250,000 for the tangible property. There's the $1 million for the capital project. And we discussed the numbers, Mayor. But then what you're talking about in terms of things underneath whatever threshold is established, the making notice, I would presume that the city continues to conduct regular public notice regardless of the threshold. That would be my assumption.

I would assume that, too. Yeah.

I would hope that. But it sounds like there's no requirement for that notice under this new guidance. The requirement under the current system is that the notice comes in that it's put on our consent agenda. It's listed in the council packet. And so, you know, someone who's paying attention and is interested could find that information. But under the proposed system, we don't currently see or talk about, you know, I don't know, you know, a 10K project. That's not really impacting. But when you're getting up to these, $250,000 project, maybe that's significant. It's going to impact your local park. A million dollar project, that's going to disrupt road service in your neighborhood for six months. These are things that I think warrant some kind of public notice function.

I greatly appreciate that point. I think a question that this raises for me is, when we establish the current $100,000 threshold, when did we establish the current $100,000 threshold?

2019. 2019.

So 100k then is not 100k today. And so considering how home values have doubled in a lot of the country, considering what things cost, I kind of look at the 250 as, I know it isn't exactly. They're gone. But 250 to me seems reasonable relative to 2019. I take that point. I'm certainly comfortable with adding some kind of a heads up function. But what I really don't want to do is slow down staff's ability to move out on projects, particularly considering, I think, for a project like what you're talking about, there should be notice of that neighborhood regardless of whether it's a 10-K project or a 10-mil project.

Yeah, and the notice that is currently is like seven days. They tell you when construction is happening. And it's nice to have- That seems like a reasonable thing, but that seems like a different issue. Yeah, it's nice to just have a little longer heads up for these big projects. Like a million dollars going from $100,000 to a million is not $100,000 to $250,000. And I don't know that it changes my view on- the ordinance and making these changes, I think they're all reasonable. It's just a separate ask that would be nice if the city would engage in developing. Maybe it's a portal or maybe it's just something to kind of list these big projects.

So I'm going to try to guide us here. I think it's interesting. And I appreciate everything that's being said. Just to be clear, we already have this. We just have it at different numbers. So we're talking about anything under $100,000 right now does not have that. So I think there's two conversations going on. The first is I see council being generally supportive of what's in front of us. However, it's more of a communications thing, more notice. And maybe now that if this passes tonight, the projects that would have fallen to our agenda and now don't because they're under these new numbers. Maybe just have staff look at the potential different way of communicating this to the communities that are impacted. Did I get that right, counsel? OK. Counsel Giannulli.

I did have one more question about the competitive bidding, just kind of to that previous point. When was the $50,000 and $25,000 limit previously established? Was it that kind of same time frame? So we have a current $50,000 and $25,000 competitive bidding requirement. Anything that's more than that requires that. When were those $50,000, $25,000 limits put into place that we're now asking to move to $100,000?

I know for certain those are from before 2019 and could have been much longer ago than that, but I will get that answer.

I kind of got the impression that that's what that number came from. So I have no concerns there.

I'm with you. I think just to wrap my mind around it, Mayor and CFO Balzer, our city's budget is north of $100 million. So $100,000 is $0.001. There's two or three zeros. So it's like an infinitesimal amount. So I just want us to be very clear that we're talking about an extremely small amount of money. And so that's why I'm comfortable and excited for the raising level. But I really appreciate the concerns that you and Councilor Jensen have raised in terms of notifying the public.

But $1 million is 1%, right, if we're a $100 million budget. And that's not insignificant in my mind.

But for a $74 million bond.

Yeah, I'm just sort of struggling a little with that one, because I think it is significant. And I do think at some point in that process, engaging the public in a conversation about whatever. I'm thinking capital improvement project in particular, not so much services or contracts, but something that changes the landscape in our community seems to gather a lot of attention when we try to do that in our community. So a million dollars there feels like something the public would be potentially not, but there would be potentially some people would be interested in talking to us about that. So I'm happy to leave that up to staff to come back to us with ideas about how to engage around that. We don't have to decide it tonight. But my particular concern is that $1 million capital, because that is the most significant.

Any other thoughts from any other members of council?

I just wanted to answer Councilor Giannullo's question about when the competitive bidding limits were put in place, and those date back to 2010, so about 16 years old.

Sounds like it's time.

Mayor Patel.

I'd like to make a motion. Please. I move to approve on first reading ordinance number 17, series 2026, amending article 3, purchasing procedures of chapter 44, finance, and article 2 of city administration's City Administrator of Chapter 5, administration of the code regarding city purchasing procedures, and City Manager authority to negotiate and execute certain contracts, and renumbering Chapter 5, administration of the code. Second.

We have a motion. We have a second for purchasing policies update. Any discussion on this motion?

Councillor Bulliard. Just to reiterate, Mayor, I think there's been some really interesting interventions from colleagues in terms of requesting, if not directing, staff to have a notice feature. I really appreciate that. But I'd love the $1 million to move this along.

Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed say no. None opposed. That passes unanimously. Thank you. That concludes our regular business for tonight. We will move on to staff reports, beginning, of course, with our city attorney's report.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a quick note for council. Last Friday, I did send you all, as well as all city employees and members of our boards and commissions, our annual memo from the city attorney's office regarding the Fair Campaign Practices Act, just regarding restrictions that apply to use of public resources. So I wanted to let you know that should be in your inboxes. And I would encourage you to review it and let me know if you have any questions.

I do have a question about that. So if I am going somewhere and I'm identified as a Lafayette City Council member in that meeting, which is maybe not city business, but a community meeting of some kind, Somebody asks me about bond or anything on the ballot. What are my obligations when I'm not getting paid, obviously, for that meeting? So it's not taxpayer dollars being used. And it may be a meeting, like I went to a town hall yesterday that discussed ballot measures, right? And I can't remember if I had my name tag on or not. It doesn't really matter, because people know I'm on the Lafayette City Council. So my question then is, if somebody is asking me something at a community meeting knowing I have a Lafayette City Council hat, what is the restriction on that?

So as long as you are not acting in the course and scope of your official duties as a counselor, you're attending a town hall in your personal capacity, So as long as it's in your personal capacity on your own personal time and you're there for your own personal information, not because you've been sent by the city council or you're doing so as a liaison for the city council or for the city, you're on your own personal time and you can speak about measures now. If it's a government-focused meeting, kind of like the town hall you're mentioning, just be clear that you're there in your personal capacity on your own time and you're speaking in that capacity as well and not as a member of the Lafayette City Council. So as long as you're clear about that and you're on your own time and not performing your duties as a city council member, you're free to speak about ballot measures and your personal opinions on those.

And I think that on your own time thing is a little unclear to me, because I go to a lot of meetings in the community. And I go because I am a Lafayette City Council member. And I want to know about things going on in the community. So I am struggling a little bit with Because I do think people there see me with a hat of Lafayette city council member. I do think they know, at least for right now, that the city of Lafayette has taken no positions on any ballot measures and that I am not representing any perspective of the city of Lafayette. So I think that's really clear at this point. um and so i just wanted to so right now it sounds like what i'm doing is okay so long as um i don't sort of seem to imply that anything i'm saying or doing is an official city of lafayette act or persuasion or anything like that and that you're not there wherever you are on city business right

even though you're going there to get information.

And that's the part that's a little touchy, because I feel like everything I do that's a community-oriented activity in some way is city business. Right.

Well, so just to answer, well, just to let you know, and the memo says this, that city attorney's office is here to assist. So continue to reach out to me and we can discuss any specific situations you're concerned about.

Great. Thank you. Moving on to our city manager's report.

Good evening, council, mayor. Thank you again for tonight. I just want to say passing those bonds is the largest bond. And it seems like just rudimentary. But thank you for doing that. I think it's going to be a huge community asset and project. So that's a big thing that council just did tonight that you move on with. But I just wanted to say thank you for council support on that and all the staff work. Going forward, some of you guys may have heard Sundance is coming to Boulder. And so I know that there's been a lot of talk about different communities and what we're doing. And we're going to be talking about a short-term festival license here shortly. But we wanted to say that we just stopped launch today because it's still in progress. Kind of a hub for Sundance resources at the LafayetteCO.gov backslash Sundance. So we are going to be having this one-stop shop pointing people to here. They'll have a variety of resources like how to rent your home, what are businesses doing. We're going to have the GDAs working on different kind of passport programs throughout it. So check that out. A lot of things are still kind of under construction, but we are excited to see how we can benefit from increased kind of regional participation while supporting our local businesses and kind of promoting Lafayette as the artsy little sister of Boulder. And so having folks come to that.

Katie, one thing a couple of people have asked me is how to volunteer. So if you could put a link to, I know there's information on how to volunteer on the Sundance website. If you could share that link with folks, I think it'd be helpful.

Yeah, if it's not on there already. I know it's got a whole lot on there already. So, okay, that's great. And then you heard tonight the Pocket Park survey is open. It opened yesterday, and so it's on Lafayette Listens. It closes on Thursday, September 17th. So we are not asking necessarily people to rank their choices, but really kind of what resonates with those four different options that are provided. We will then come back to council, likely your second meeting on October once we compile all those, and the choice will be up to council at that point in time. But we are really excited to get that going.

Is there a timeline for when the park is supposed to be completed?

I believe it's late fall for substantial completion.

So it's kind of in that same time frame.

Yeah, we'd like to have a name kind of wrapped up around then so we can do a fun opening ceremony. We also had a very successful board, commission, and committee open house. About 30 people attended last week already. Applications close Friday, September 18. Please check out online for those various openings. And then finally, please join us for an Art on the Street walking tour. So it's a tour guided by members of the Public Art Committee. It's about an hour and a half and covers about a mile and a half of Public Line, Baseline, and Emma They begin the tour outside the community arts collective. Check out online under events to register. That's highly encouraged. But the first one will be September 19. And then there will be one on October 5 that I'll remind the community about as well. And then if you notice in the packet, I have two pages of look ahead because we're starting to kind of get into a really busy season. So I wanted to give some awareness of what's coming up over the next two months versus just the next month. So September 9th, you will be having your joint workshop with the Planning Commission on the land use code. As a side note, the working group is meeting tomorrow. And so we will have some information provided from the working group to share with you next week. September 15th, again, we'll do a presentation first on the short-term rental festival license. So we'll provide kind of what our current short-term license is, what this festival license that other communities are looking at, and some differences. We'll also, based upon the land use code feedback, give a presentation on a potential moratorium on data centers and air mobility. And then, again, based upon that September 9th meeting, we are still tentatively planning on having that September 15th second reading for the land use code update. And then, as was noted, your September 22nd workshop is your capital improvements tour. And then looking into October 6, it'll be your first reading on the 2027 budget. And then again, depending on direction for the short-term festival license and air mobilities, we would plan on, if council's supportive of moving forward, putting your first readings onto those meetings as well. October 20th, it'll be a kind of larger budget meeting in that you adopt a variety of other things that you don't do on first reading. So you adopt the pay plan, you adopt the budgets for your general improvement districts, and then also your downtown development authority. And then October 27th, we did get a public comment this afternoon about our automatic license plate readers with Flock. And so as this council is aware, we have done sort of our cop talks with this. But given the recent interest and increased traffic of hearing from our community members, we wanted to make a public presentation because, as you know, that cop talk wasn't – And so I have an opportunity to kind of talk a little bit more about what was discussed in those meetings. And then not noted here because we are still trying to decide, or not decide, but hear if we have availability from our special counsel. But we would maybe try to slate a oil and gas update with our special counsel, Elizabeth Peranos. We know we have several outstanding items that council wants to get to. And so that's one of the options for this workshop as well. I think that's enough for me. Thank you.

Thank you. That concludes staff reports. Moving on to council reports. We'll start with Councillor Bullier.

Thank you, Mayor. Not many from me this week. Just huge kudos to all the cross-country runners who came out to Wanaka Lake on Saturday. It was a zoo in the best possible way. My wife and I went out to cheer on some friends' kids, and it was just a great time. I know that there were excellent signs there. Lafayette police was out managing traffic flow. There had been social media posts. I was struck that there were a few members of the community who disregarded the cross-country meet with hundreds of children running. So perhaps something, and I talked to one of the organizers while there, perhaps something to think about for the next go-around, since a gentleman who lives in the neighborhood biked into oncoming runners, and fortunately no one was hurt. It was bonkers. That aside, the cross-country event was a spectacular success and a really good thing for our community. And I just want to give kudos again for the outstanding workshop last week. I shared the link on YouTube with a few members of the community who were like, oh, I want to pay more attention, get more involved. And at least a handful of them told me they watched it. They said it was really interesting. But huge kudos for that. And that's all from me. Thank you, Mayor.

Great. Councilor Giannola.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple quick items for me. Just another reminder on that emergency preparedness workshop Tuesday, September 8th at 530 at the Starkey Building. That's next Tuesday, a week from today. And then just thanks, everyone, for your support of the Little League team, the Coal Creek Little League team who came today. It was really fun to have them. And I hope we can do things like that more often. And then I guess I'll end that. my update by saying we're continuing to work on the council norms discussion. I think that Mayor Pro Tem will have more to say about that. So it's continuing on.

Speaking of, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Mayor. Yes, we are continuing on working to address norms. And our council handbook does have a great deal guidance for us but we have reviewed that and look to see what is most appropriate what we'll eventually bring forward after we have our deputy city attorney look at what we've come up with but we have not limited ourselves selves to just council conduct because there's no way to exclude members of the council chambers from our activity without the realization that this is not just a business meeting, but it's also a time for the public to see the business meeting and for us to be compassionate with each other and open. So we were lucky enough to be able to start to transition into how do we also address the expectations of the public who are participating in the meeting with public comment. There's even a piece that we found from our sister city, well, I don't know if they're our sister city, our neighboring city, Louisville, with council norms of what we should keep in mind is our responsibility. And there's words to describe those bits and pieces. So I think what we'll bring forward is something that helps us better understand the context of what is happening in this space and some realistic expectations that we might consider for what we would expect from the public, what we expect amongst ourselves. And we've gotten in some real nuts and bolts of the efficiency of the meeting, potentially even offering a time when the meetings must end. Ooh, what does that mean? But we've left nothing unturned, and we will let our city attorney, deputy city attorney, and the city attorney, if she would also like to see it before we get to it, to make sure that what we're suggesting is just nothing, no challenges in what we legally need to do along the way. So I'm excited to get to that. It's just taking a minute to make sure that we're really thinking through these before we bring them. bits and pieces to you. I would also like to mention that I was lucky enough at the commuting solutions meeting to find out that there is a plan and a schedule for a bus taking residents from Lafayette to the airport. It's the AL line. And if I understand correctly, it starts on September 22. And it will come in at just 27th. 27th. There it goes, September 27th. And it will be stopping at the Lafayette Park and Ride, coming up Public Road off of 287, turning around, going back to 287, and down under the bridge and then hitting C470. So there's one other stop, only one, before it actually gets to Bay Area Court from Lafayette. And I did ask if the transport will be ADA compliant, and I was told yes. Yes. So... Fingers crossed that actually plays out. So I'm excited that we're finally going to have that. And I know the Older Adult Advisory Board, one of the former members, made that a critical point. And I believe he was one that we, Commuting Solutions had a guest speaker who was named, oh, it was the governor, that's right, who was called out on that bit and piece. So it's nice to see. And he called out RTD, and they made it happen. I'm just proud of the fact that that's something that's going to really benefit our community. And please share that. I think that's all I had, Mayor. Thank you.

Councilor Jensen.

I would like to piggyback Mayor Pro Tem. That came up in the Highway 7 corridor meeting. And I think we wrote a letter in support of it last spring. And so I say that because I think Those regional meetings, which sometimes can feel cumbersome and long, but they resulted in something positive for us. So I'm pretty sure that that's what happened. I'm getting old and my memory is fuzzy. I went to the open house for boards and committees and I just want to say thank you publicly because all of those booths were staffed by current people who sit on the boards and commission who were the external face of those boards and who did the work to encourage people to participate and you know we've got a huge group of community volunteers who really care about our city who were all there that night and it was pretty impressive and I met a lot of new people who you know like somebody just moved here and was like I'm thinking about, you know, how do I serve my community? And it was kind of fun talking to people like that. And so I think, I mean, it wasn't a huge, huge, you know, hundreds of people event, but the quality of participation of those who were there and the engagement was really good. And that's all I have to say.

Councilor Gallegos.

I was also going to share the news about the new RTD bus service, but Mayor Pro Tem beat me to it. So once it does get started on the 27th, please utilize it so it stays. And that bus route is going to go from Longmont to Denver, stopping at DIA. And two other quick pieces of info. Our library is closed September 7th for Labor Day. Drop boxes will close Sunday at 5 PM and reopen Tuesday at 9 AM. So plan ahead if you have materials that are due back. And I look forward. to working with the newly sworn in Youth Advisory Board tomorrow at their first work session.

Thank you, Counselor. OK, one thing for me. It was going to be two, but I'll add myself to the list of people that the mayor pretend beat me to for the bus. And something Counselor Gallego said is actually really important. RTD looks at ridership. So share with your friends, share with anyone you know. We should use that bus as much as we can, because it's great. One thing for me, however, there was something that was supposed to be on the agenda tonight. And I asked staff to pull it back for a few reasons. It was us taking a position on ballot measures. We were going to look at that tonight. But there are a few reasons for why I didn't think it was ready. First and foremost, the timing wasn't right. There was one ballot measure that actually got qualified today, like a couple hours ago. So there's no way staff would have turned that around in time. We weren't there in terms of timing. The other part is this is something we've never done before as a city. So trying to think back and then having staff kind of look back in the years, there's only one time that we've ever taken a position on a ballot measure that's been something outside of the city, something that we put on the ballot. It's only one time. But even in that case, it was something that we were very much involved in. And then finally, the last thing is there are currently 17, possibly 18 ballot measures going on. So I thought, let's pull it back and try to have a conversations council just to see if this is something that we want to move forward. It's a very, very heavy lift if we go with all of them and try to see each one. And then ultimately, if we want to pass a resolution on each one, whether we oppose or not. or whatever position we take. It's just a heavy lift. So what I wanted to see is very broad, not talking about anything in particular. Is this something that council would like to take on? And the second part of that question is more procedurally, what we would do is not necessarily look at each one. What we would want to look at is through maybe an email through our staff or some sort of Procedure is the word I'll use. We will find a way to gauge interest from counselors. We would give you, actually, maybe Katie can speak to it a little better than I can, but we would give you some information on each ballot measure. And then we would just kind of gauge what the interest is from counsel. Because, as I said, 17, possibly 18, is just far too much, especially because we don't have dedicated policy staff. There's some cities like Aurora, like Denver, who have dedicated policy. Even Boulder has that. We don't necessarily have that. land use code and everything going on. I just know it's a very busy time right now. So forcing that onto our staff is something that I don't necessarily think is the best function of our staff time. So very generally, is there any interest in trying to tackle this and trying to maybe look into taking positions on ballot measures? I'm seeing both yes and no. Councilor Volter.

I think you framed it perfectly, Mayor, that the weight of all these different ballot measures, to me, this speaks to a failure of our system and our state legislature. If you can do 18, you can do 40. And that just seems unreasonable. But I do think that, and I've heard from a number of members in the community to this effect, that there is confusion about, what does that mean for us? Since many of the ballot measures don't really affect Lafayette residents, many of the ballot measures do affect Lafayette residents. I guess in response to your question, I would love for us to be able to gently grapple with it. We're not going to solve this issue for Denver, but I do think it would be potentially helpful to our community for us to maybe help them understand it as I try to work through. I'm familiar with a handful of them, but the rest are still very Greek to me. I don't know if that's a helpful answer, Mayor.

That is helpful. And I'll clarify, this isn't necessarily us saying we are definitely going to take position on anything. This isn't us saying, do you want us to start the process of potentially going forward with taking a position on something? So what this would eventually turn into is some sort of communication to counsel. And we would individually, all of us, try to figure out which one is interesting to us. And we wouldn't have this discussion outside of a public setting. So this would just be individually, each councilor kind of letting staff know, I'm interested in this, I'm interested in this, I'm interested in this. And if we get enough interest in any particular ballot measure, we would then come back to a public meeting and take position on it. But we are not choosing tonight whether we are doing it or not. It's kind of... The decision before the decision before the decision, if you will. So that's just kind of where I want to understand if council's interested. Councillor Johnson.

One thing I'm aware of is that there's only one of these that's a referred measure by the legislature. All the rest are citizen initiated. There is at least some groups in the state who are intentionally flooding the ballot with a variety of different ballot measures so that the public will have only the opportunity, given that there are 18 or however many, to do a superficial glance at each one. And that is where I think we could come in, potentially, is Some of these look on the surface like one thing, but if you look deeper, might be something else. And to the extent that we have the ability to share with our residents the impact that this has on them. In addition, there are three that target specific members of our population who I think would love to hear from us that they support them. that this effort to punish them or be punitive to them in some way for their city to say, nope, we stand with you, one of which is the immigrant community. And for us to say to the immigrant community, we're with you. I think is a valuable thing in building our community and making the people in our community continue to know that we are not that kind of community where we persecute people for some characteristic. That being said, I also don't want to overstate that our position on something has this huge amount of weight to the community. Because I'm not sure anybody even reads our stuff or even looks at it. So what I think would be helpful is if we took a position, then the campaigns on those issues could take our resolution or whatever we did and share it with the broader world. Because our simply taking position on a resolution isn't going to have a ton of weight. And I don't even know who will read it. But it could be useful to whichever side of an issue that we side with and them taking our resolution and sharing it with other communities and other people. But I think in the case of the two targeted groups that I think are being persecuted, I think it has value to stand with them. And so that is my thinking.

I appreciate that. Just one person I haven't heard from is Councilor Gallegos. Where are you on this?

I feel that we have a lot of heavy agendas in the near future, so I don't want to give staff the additional work.

Great. Councillor Gianella.

Yeah, I very much appreciate that, Councillor Gallegos. And I'm with you. That said, Councillor Jensen, I'm persuaded, actually, that there are potentially some things that we maybe do want to take a position on. So I'm open to reviewing to review at this point, I guess.

That's what I wanted to hear, review to review.

OK.

So we'll move forward with that, and we'll find the best way to do that. Did you want to jump in?

Yeah, I'll say if possible, we can do a quick write up of each ballot item with the link to it. And then if council, since I'm out of town, I can send it tomorrow. And then if you could just get back to me by the end of the Labor Day weekend and just Just reply me. Just any of the ones you want to talk about. You could just list by name, and then I could get with the mayor and see where there might be kind of like a bigger lift of few. And then if the ballot end that you really want to talk about doesn't necessarily make a council conversation, you guys always have on this platform to speak about it, tell the community to get educated themselves and all of that, even if the full council doesn't necessarily want to move forward. with it, our majority of councils. So that would be the game plan if you guys are open to that.

When you say on this platform on the council dais, we could say go vote for this and such or don't vote for that and such?

You could say go get yourself educated. Go get yourself educated. All right. I got it. I got it. Thank you.

That was my one thing tonight. Thank you all. I will adjourn. Thank you.