City Government - Regular Meeting

All righty.

Call to order, please. Call to order, please. Thank you very much. We appreciate your joining us tonight. If you would like to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Order, please. Order, thank you. City Clerk, if you please call the roll.

Bolling.

Here.

Freed. Here. Lockhart. Here. Newman. Absent. O'Doherty. Here. Shumway.

Here.

Behill. Here. Richardson.

Here.

And Cumbie.

Here.

That's eight present and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. So next we move to public comment on non-agenda items. I have some people who have signed up in advance. I would like to clarify a couple of things. A number of people may be here to comment related to data centers. Data centers is not on the agenda tonight. There is nothing on the agenda about data centers. So the comments would need to be made during public comment on non-agenda items, which is coming up. That, by council rules of conduct, is limited to 30 minutes. for public comment on non-agenda items. So, the maximum is three minutes per person. If you can keep your comments even shorter, it may allow others to speak, but at 30 minutes, we will have to cut it off. So, and just by the way, we are in the process of planning a work session to do a thorough exploration of data centers and analysis about the city, about our code that is in effect, to identify possible areas where we may need further protection. And that is coming up in the near future. We don't have a set date yet, but we are putting a rush on that. So this is an in process. So without further ado, I have a few people that signed up in advance. First, Mr. Rick Martin. Good evening, sir. And if you could state your name for the record. Yes.

Mayor and honorable members of the Laramie City Council, my name is Rick Martin and I reside here in Laramie, the 45th precinct on Fetterman Drive. My goal is to start a broader discussion surrounding our opposition to the potential future data center development in Laramie. I respectfully request that each of you consider supporting the proposed ordinance opposing a permanent moratorium on the establishment, construction, or conversion of any building or structures for the use of a data center in Laramie. First, let's briefly consider what artificial intelligence is. AI is a system designed to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. Promoters will tell you it makes our lives easier and more efficient. Doing everything from managing daily calendars to driving cars, convenience is the main selling point. There are no question that AI data centers can provide amazing benefits in our lives, particularly in such fields as healthcare, transportation, and the military. However, there are many reasons to be concerned about this technological explosion that is prompting a societal upheaval. AI data centers can be a foundational tool for building a government system that will control every facet of our lives. Therefore, each aspect of it must be examined, considered, questioned, and controlled. After all, this isn't a harmless tech upgrade. Artificial intelligence data centers enable surveillance, state control. Data centers consume massive resources that can threaten our food supply. AI data centers are linked to the globalist agenda that threaten private property rights. I want to thank each of you for taking a moment to review my ideas and appreciate other ideas and suggestions as together we strive to impose a permanent moratorium on the establishment of data centers in Laramie. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor and members of the Laramie City Council.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Next on the list is Timothy Bray. Good evening, sir. And if you can state your name for the record, please.

Yes, my name is Timothy Bray. And I have a short list and I will go briefly through it of the concerns that I have. One of them is the noise on 15th Street, as you well know. Between Grand and Spring Street, it's not so bad right now. But it does get very noisy. People deliberately trying to make noise with a variety of vehicles. And the neighbors are becoming a bit upset about all of that. I think a more aggressive approach to that is necessary. And to send a message to whomever is doing that and the group of people that are doing that, I don't know. There's... some suspicions one or the other and I don't care. But I think that people living there deserve peace and quiet as the other people within the community does.

That is one of the concerns that I have.

The next concern is that last year, as you know, I had my name placed on an innocuous noise complaint that I made. And it caused me a great deal of problems in a variety of ways. I'm 100% disabled with spinal cord injuries. That was my only vehicle. And now I'm relegated to walking or a bicycle. So I had my other vehicle stolen a few years ago, much more expensive. That's not my life. I wish that didn't happen. I don't know where it came from. But that needs to be discontinued. If you can have an anonymous complaint, I don't understand why my name was revealed. There was no citation. There was no arrest. There was nothing. But when you do that, that puts citizens in jeopardy of retaliation. And then it prevents citizens from making a legitimate complaint. So it's two-fold and it does not keep the community safe. And I hope that practice is discontinued because my research, that is hardly ever done within any department throughout the country for obvious reasons. That's one of the points that I'm trying to keep the community safe. I'm a single protester out there for months. And my whole perspective is to keep people safe. I have the scars that prove it as well. Also, I'm glad to see that there's some movement on affordable housing. A little bit behind the curve, in my opinion, but it sounds like you're addressing that and things are moving forward. Also, I have... I've been a volunteer with Laramie Connections last year for months. I jumped in. I don't belong to the church, but I jumped in when they needed people to drive, and I urged the council and different people that I will volunteer to drive if just provide a vehicle on an as-needed basis until your study is concluded and I'm giving myself to the community to do that. Just provide me a vehicle. And that is one of the concerns.

Thank you so much. I appreciate your comments. Thank you very much, sir. Next, Stephen Magnifico. Good evening, Stephen. If you could state your name for the record.

My name is Stephen Magnifico. Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm here personally. Some of you know me from my work with Powder River Basin Resource Council, but I will speak personally tonight because I'm about to step outside of those bounds. So first of all, I would like to throw my hat in the ring behind the permanent moratorium. I don't like the technology. I think a lot of folks here echo those concerns. But beyond that, I want to talk about what we can do to protect ourselves from the development of this technology anywhere. We can have a permanent moratorium in Laramie, and our energy rates may still go up in the future. Our water may still not be protected. And our AI data center that's developed in Wheatland or in Cheyenne can still impact us here. So I encourage the city to look at options for legalizing plug-in solar within the city of Laramie city limits. There's a bill that died in committee at the legislature earlier this year. I would like the council to explore options for supporting that explicitly on the local level. It's currently a legal gray area in Wyoming. Kind of unknown what you can do about it once your utility is friendly to it. I also encourage the city council to look at options for a property assessed clean energy or PACE program. I believe it was House Bill 179 that was signed into law in 2011 that enables municipalities and county governments to take a look at this program and see what we can do. This would make clean energy options available to a lot of people that it otherwise might not be available to and thus our community can hedge against price increases from these AI data center developments. I'll encourage the city to look at options for community solar. What can be done? I know that Rocky Mountain Power is not necessarily friendly to it.

Carbon Power and Light might be.

I know that Carbon Power and Light has a small stretch that's within the city of Laramie's limits. So starting conversations with Carbon Power and Light around community solar programs could be very beneficial. As a co-op, they are held accountable to their members and not shareholders. It's through some of these ways that we can help fight back against the corporate domination that we're seeing in our state and throughout the country. Thank you.

Thank you, Stephen. Further, City Clerk, does anyone else sign up?

Here we have Jim Richards. Jim Richards. Or Jen, I can't tell. Mr. All right. Peggy McCracken. Peggy McCracken.

Thank you, Peggy. If you could state your name for the record.

Peggy McCracken, and I'm from Laramie. And first of all, I want to thank you for letting us do this and speak our minds here. I'm also throwing in with the moratorium for data centers. For all the reasons, I think that we need to be proactive about this. A lot of communities are getting run over by these billion dollar corporations who come in and promise the moon and the sun and the stars. People think that's a great idea until they find out all the ramifications. So I'm hoping that this council can be proactive, can engage the citizens here to help us be proactive in the moratorium on data centers.

I especially, it's not selfless.

I live really close to Sierra Sky. I go up to Sierra Sky every day. I take my dog up there, and I know that that would be a prime location for a data center. It's shovel ready. It's zoned for technology. I know that it will impact my life very negatively if it's built up there. The sound that these data centers make alone will be an impact for anybody who lives close to it. So just throwing my support behind the moratorium.

Thank you, Peggy. Is there any further comment? Mr. Gless? And if you can state your name for the record, please.

Thank you, honorable mayor, members of the council. My name is Brett Glass.

And while we're on the subject of data centers, I have a few comments that I'd like to make.

Well, generative AI is a bubble that I'm convinced is going to burst by itself when people get absolutely disgusted with dealing machines instead of people. But while that bubble happens, before it bursts, we can take advantage of it to benefit our community.

I mean, data centers can have positive or negative externalities as a side effect.

For example, a data center that generated its own power, my guess is that they place it near one of the two major natural gas pipelines that run through the area. It would create noise and be heard for miles, and that would be bad. That would impact not only human quality of life, but also local wildlife.

What's more, it would eliminate an opportunity to improve our electric power infrastructure, the lack of which is inhibiting development.

A limitation on noise might stimulate the developer to pay for improvements to our power grid, rather than installing noisy polluting generators, and this would benefit the community. Likewise, the business personal property tax revenue generated by data center, if properly assessed and collected, could bring in millions of dollars in revenue just to support our schools, our roads, things like that, but would not benefit the city unless the site was annexed.

And this is what's behind Cheyenne's proposal to annex large tracts of land to the east of their city.

Now, as for cooling, people have talked a lot about water, and well, closed systems use less water, but due to our high altitude and our thinner air, which has a low heat capacity,

Any cooling system is going to be less efficient than it would be at sea level or even over in China. So to compensate, the cooling system would have to be bigger and louder and consume more water.

At least if they do that, it would be desirable for the city to sell them that water rather than having them draw it from the aquifer or the river themselves and pay us nothing as UW has tried to do. So there are ways to exploit this for our benefit, and what I'd like to request is that the City of Laramie and the Albany County Commission appoint a data center task force to recommend beneficial policies related to data centers.

Maybe a moratorium would be good in the meantime until we resolve this, but ultimately, I don't know if you want to prohibit them altogether.

As an electrical engineer, a physicist, a computer scientist, and a network engineer, I'd be willing to serve on that commission if it happens and help produce the best short and long-term outcomes for our community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Glass. Further public comment on non-agenda items. All right. Good evening, sir, and if you can state your name for the record. You bet.

I'm Scott Svoda.

Mayor and city council.

All I would say about this possible data center is that these things are... Very water intensive.

And like I did an engineering report on the data center over at Cheyenne where estimated it might take about 90,000 acre feet of water up to maybe 180,000 acre feet of water per year.

So I think that when we have a 66 page Casper aquifer protection plan, the potential risk of contamination from a data center, letting a data center come in,

and having a plan that basically you have to get an engineering proposal to put a septic tank in that area.

It just doesn't go together. I mean, it's just two things. The risk of contamination from a data center is way more than the things that we're already trying to limit. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Any further public comment on non-agenda items?

All right.

I want to thank you all for being here and thank you very much for your comments and the care. Mayor, I don't know if the city staff would like to address any of the public comments.

If the city manager would like to make a comment on it.

City manager?

Mayor and City Council thanks for this opportunity. I know there's a lot of talk about data centers. The first thing that I want to make it abundantly clear is the city has received no proposals, no design plans, no implications for any data centers at this point. Staff has recommended that we come to council with a work session to discuss changes to our code related to data centers, which are allowed by our code in certain zones. But we'll work on that, bring that back to council. and hopefully provide good recommendations so that the city is well protected as we move forward in this venture. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. And I'll just say that I also appreciated Mr. Glass's proposal that city and county come together because the higher likelihood would be that it would occur in the county and not the city because we're rather limited. And so the hyper data centers would not really fit here.

So I think it needs to be community collaboration to look at this.

Thank you all very much. It means a lot to us when you come and engage. Next. consideration of changes in agenda and setting the agenda. Is there any public request to move a consent agenda item and place it on the regular agenda? Seeing none, Councilor O'Doherty, can you please set the agenda?

I move that the agenda be set as submitted. Second.

I have a motion from Doherty and a second by Shumway. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes.

Next, we move on to our proclamations.

And I think maybe this might have something to do with the fullness of the room. Our first proclamation is toward Pride Month. And whereas Laramie Pride Fest was founded in 2017 to raise awareness about Wyoming's LGBTQ plus community and their contributions to Laramie's unique diverse tapestry in a positive and productive manner, Whereas the 10th annual Laramie Pride Fest is the most visible event in Laramie for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer community, their friends, their allies, and their families to express pride. in who they are and who they love, whereas Laramie Pride Fest is dedicated to ensuring that Wyoming's LGBTQ plus community has a safe and inclusive environment to celebrate and honor their sexual orientations and gender identities. Whereas Laramie Pride Fest joins annual Pride celebrations across the United States and the world in commemorating June 2026 as the 57th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the birthplace of the modern fight for LGBTQ plus justice and equity. Whereas LGBTQ plus citizens led by trans women of color, trans women of color, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera,

resisted police harassment that arose out of discriminatory criminal laws and have since been declared unconstitutional during the Stonewall riots.

And whereas in the five decades that civil rights for the LGBTQ plus community have expanded substantially and pride celebrations across the country and world have taken place every June, to commemorate the beginning of the Stonewall Riot. And whereas Laramie Pride Fest will raise awareness about Wyoming's LGBTQ plus community and their contributions to Laramie's unique diversity tapestry in a positive and productive manner, and whereas Wyoming's LGBTQ plus community will celebrate Pride during the month of June with events happening throughout the state in the municipalities including Alta, Casper, Cheyenne, Green River, Jackson, Lander, Laramie, Mills, Pinedale, Rock Springs, and Sheridan, and whereas Wyoming's LGBTQ plus community are living authentically more today than ever before and they deserve to know the city of Laramie and the state of Wyoming supports them and whereas the cities of Laramie, Casper and Jackson are the only municipalities in the state of Wyoming to have adopted a non-discrimination ordinance that prevents its residents from being discriminated against based upon their sexual orientation and gender identity and whereas LGBTQ plus community is a vital part of Laramie's economy and culture and contributions to a stronger city. Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Sharon Cumby, acting as Mayor and President of the Governing Body of the City of Laramie, Wyoming City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Pride Month. And do we have a representative who will be receiving this? Thank you.

If you can state your name for the record. My name is Eli Palmer. Good evening, mayor and city council members. This is the 10th reading of the Pride Proclamation in the city of Laramie. And I am grateful to be a co-chair of Laramie Pride Fest and receive this proclamation from you all. We are grateful for the city council's support and contributions to Laramie Pride Fest this year and previous years and hopefully years in the future. This year's theme is centered around digital spaces and community. However, Laramie Pride Fest and the City of Laramie work together to create in-person community and places of support for our LGBTQ community. And that is part of what makes Laramie so special. So thank you again, and we are grateful for our collaboration this year and years in the future.

Thank you, Eli. Would you like to come up? And also thank you for all your work. Thank you very much. And our next proclamation is about Men's Health Month. And I have the director of the downtown clinic, Pete Gosar here to accept this proclamation. Whereas Men's Health Month is part of an ongoing international effort to educate men, boys, and their families about receiving regular disease prevention screenings and living healthier lifestyles. and whereas nationwide life expectancy for men averages five years fewer than that of women, with men experiencing higher rates of health problems such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease, and premature mortality, and whereas Men's Health Network is recognized for their esteem in the creation of maintenance and champion over national efforts to officially distinguish Men's Health Month and Men's Health Week as established in 1994. And whereas the growing epidemic of suicide and substance abuse requires special effort to raise awareness of unrecognized and undiagnosed depression and mental stress in boys and men. And whereas the centerpiece of Men's Health Month is National Men's Health Week. a special awareness period passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on May 31, 1994. Now therefore, I, Sharon Cumby, Mayor and President of the City of Laramie, Wyoming City Council, do hereby proclaim June as Men's Health Month And I urge citizens of Laramie to participate in promoting the health and wellness of our men, boys, fathers, and their families. And as a nurse, I can tell you we need to be more supportive and we need to be more educative toward men's health. And so thank you, Pete Gosar, for your willingness to support this proclamation in the downtown clinic. If you can come up and receive this.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Comby and members of the council. Thank you for recognizing health. We will be a partner in anybody's health. And this time, it is men's health. As you've read, men live less, engage in their health care less, and it has real impact. to families, to the men themselves, and to the future. We would hope that by recognizing June, that maybe men here in the community and in the audience will think about that screening that has gotten away from them. Maybe that colonoscopy, that Shingrix vaccination that makes such a difference in their lives. And so thank you for bringing attention. It's Father's Day. It holds the month of June. It holds Father's Day. And maybe that is one thing. We could do one thing. catch up with the dermatologist, get a vaccination, get a cancer screening as a celebration of men's health month. So thank you to the city council for recognizing the importance of this month and the health of not only men, but all people in our community.

All right.

So moving right along.

City manager, any announcements for tonight? No announcements. Counselors, are there any disclosures and or conflicts of interest? And if my counselors over here can keep an eye on the vice mayor, if she raises her hand. With that, we will move on now to the regular agenda. Oh yeah.

I gotta keep your tears.

I had too much writing. Councillor O'Doherty, if you can move for the consent agenda.

I move that the consent agenda be approved and that each specific action on the consent agenda be approved as indicated.

Second. I have a motion from O'Doherty.

Second from Vigil.

City Clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Bolling.

Aye.

Freed. Yes. Lockhart.

Yes.

Newman. Absent. O'Doherty. Yes. Shumway. Yes. Vigil. Aye. Richardson. Yes. Cumbie. Aye.

Yes. Okay, that motion passes and the consent agenda is approved. Next, we'll move on to the regular agenda. Councilor Bolling. Item 11A.

Sorry, Mayor, no announcements or acknowledgments. Item 10.

Oh, I have no further announcements. Thank you.

Sorry, you caught me off guard. I move that the Laramie City Council approve the fiscal year 27 and fiscal year 28 fee-for-service contract with the Laramie Regional Airport Board and authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign.

Second.

I have a motion from Bowlingston from O'Doherty. Good evening, City Manager.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Tonight you have four fee-for-service agreements for you. I'll kind of cover them all quickly. We did have a work session just a week ago on these. You have the Larry Regional Airport, which is for, I believe, $250,000 each year. That's biennium.

That's the support services and economic development through the Larry Regional Airport.

You also have the Laramie Chamber Business Alliance fee for service agreement, which is $10,000 each year across the next two years for the biennium. And that supports the Laramie Chamber Business Alliance through their economic development activities for our community. The other one that you have is the Laramie Main Street Alliance, $65,000 per year, $130,000 across the biennium. And that supports the efforts of Laramie Main Street that they provide to our community. And then the final one is for the Winter Lights Festival with Tough Guys, which is a sponsorship and future service agreement. And I don't have the right off the top of my head. $10,500 per year, $21,000 across the biennium. And I'll be happy to answer any questions related to them as this one is on Laramie Regional Airport

Councilors, are there any questions for the city manager related to the airport?

Mayor, if I could, it's important to note that these amounts are included in the city manager's recommended budget at this point, too.

Yes, and before we go to public comment, I just want to say if anyone would like to hear a very thorough report from each of these agencies, if you tune in to last Tuesday's work session that is on YouTube, you can watch that full two-hour session. So is there any public comment on this agenda item? Seeing none, back council for comments. Councillor Freed.

Thank you Mayor and thank you City Manager. Also just to reiterate the work session that happened last Tuesday. So folks have a lot of questions and want to watch that report. It's on YouTube and also they can reach out to us or city staff and can definitely give them the information if they have other questions besides the budget and these packets.

Thank you, Councilor O'Doherty.

And I'd like to comment that we learned at work session that all of these fee-for-service agreements have a high return on investment. So it's a good way to help stimulate our economy. Thank you.

Thank you for the comments. City clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Boling.

Aye.

O'Doherty. Yes. Shumway.

Yes.

Lockhart. Yes. Newman. Absent. Freed.

Yes.

Vigil. Yes. Richardson. Aye. Cumby.

Yes.

That's eight yeses, zero nos, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Next, 11B, Councilor Lockhart.

I move that Laramie City Council approve the fiscal year 27 and fiscal year 28 fee-for-service contract with the Laramie Chamber Business Alliance and authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign.

Second. I have a motion from Lockhart, second from Vigil. Any further comments, City Manager? Okay. Counselors, do you have any questions for the City Manager regarding this agenda item? Councilor O'Doherty.

So it looks like we're just paying as a member of the Laramie Chamber Business Alliance.

The Honorable Mayor through you, there was a big push to try to decrease the fee-for-service. amounts of which the Laramie Chamber Business Alliance organization was able to do. This amount, it leaves us as a member, and it's the largest or highest level of membership that they have, which shows our participation beyond just receiving their services, but being a charter member, a participant in the services they provide.

Thank you for clarifying that. I was going to bring that up. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Yes. Mr. Glass. If you can state your name for the record.

Brett Glass, honorable mayor, members of council. The way of doing this as a fee-for-service agreement has always irked me a bit because the chamber is a 501 organization, which means it's a membership organization and it's supposed to benefit, what it does is only supposed to benefit its members. Here we want it to benefit the entire community. And we're paying, and obviously the whole community is paying money to do that. But another complication with this is that a 501c4 organization is not allowed to do things that are normally undertaken as a commercial business. Something that's normally done for hire, and you're asking it to do marketing. So there are some questions about whether this is really the right way to go about it and if it's consistent with the IRS rules. But one thing I would like to ask is in this contract, you may just approve it tonight without doing it this year, but in future contracts, Please put in the contract provision that the services that are performed under the contract, and there are specific deliverables there, be delivered to the entire community, whether or not they're members of the membership organization. Because otherwise, again, the organization exists to benefit the members. And things like its business directory still won't be open to businesses that haven't chosen to pay its dues to become a member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Glass. Any further public comment on this agenda item? Mr. Henderson. And if you can state your name for the record, please.

My name is Eric Henderson, resident of Laramie. On November 18th, 2025, it was an evening that involved a zoning application that was submitted by Laramie Chamber Business Alliance Executive Director on behalf of an organization.

On that very night, the city of Laramie residents were not given accurate notice, required 15 days prior to the decision that was made on that night.

I believe that undue influence is something that should be considered with great severity. and I would ask that you consider doing that. The second thing is, with respect to promoting the city of Laramie, I wondered if there's a request for proposals that's been on record for this money, $1.1 million, $50,000 in the last 50 years, including the proposed five years of 10,000 annually. I wondered if the request for proposal had been officially implemented, put out, forbid, and I think that if it hasn't been, I think that that could be to the benefit of the community as a whole to do so. And thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Henderson. Any further public comment? Back to council for comments. Councilor O'Doherty.

I want to ask the city manager if we still have an attorney that looks at our agreements. City attorney.

Honorable Mayor, Councilor O'Doherty, we do. Yes.

Thank you for that clarification. Any further comments? or questions? Oh, Councillor Shumway.

I find it curious that this of all the five proposals is the lowest request that we have from all of the fee for services, which I approve, but it seems strange with the vast amount of work that they do.

Thank you, Councillor. Any further comments? Councillor Lockhart.

Thank you, Councillor Shumway. If you watch the YouTube video from last week's meeting, Mr. Anzi speaks about why it was so low. Maybe Mr. Peaser, our city manager, can help us.

City manager?

Honorable Mayor and City Council, you know, I can clarify some of it. I also want to add to it that, you know, through partnership between the city and the Laramie Chamber Business Alliance with the Wyoming Business Council, we've developed projects. that provide revenue to develop economic development in the future, which is not a direct payment. It's derived from leases from those properties that come back to the Laramie Chamber of Business Alliance that provides for future economic investment throughout this. Over the years, our executive director, Enzi, has worked to diminish the amount the city pays to the organization for economic development activities by reducing it through those other funds that come available through joint projects to provide for their organization.

Thank you for that clarification. Further comments? City Clerk, could you please call the roll?

Lockhart?

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Cumbie.

Yes.

That's eight yeses, zero nos, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Next, item 11C, Councilor Freed.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Laramie City Council approve this fiscal year 27 and fiscal year 28 fee-for-service contract with the Laramie Main Street Alliance and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to sign.

Second. I have a motion from Freed. Second. From O'Doherty. Councilors, do you have any questions for the City Manager on this item? Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Yes, Mr. Glass.

This is another item which I think deserves a little bit of attention.

The Laramie Main Street Alliance is currently incorporated as a 501c3 nonprofit.

which is supposed to be a charitable organization. It's not supposed to be, again, engaged in doing things which are fee-for-service or, in fact, any commercial business.

And yet it's accepting this money in a contract which has, again, deliverable marketing services. And it also is a downtown landlord. And so, again, there's some questions here about whether this is proper.

Also, in your contract with OMSA,

There's a prohibition against lobbying, and yet LNSA comes before you and lobbies all the time. The most recent example was when they came before council and they lobbied for the abandonment of the lease on the Bolton parking lot, the second biggest parking lot in downtown Laramie. I think that we need to enforce that provision because, as you saw, when the room was packed, Most people did not agree with that. OMSA did not poll the downtown residents or businesses. Didn't ask, you know, I certainly wasn't asked and I own two downtown businesses. It did not do a very good job of representing the interests of downtown. So again, I think there is some concerns with the way that we're doing this. I think we really should tighten up our contracts and make sure that they conform again to the IRS guidelines. There's a particular ruling here that I have which is Ruling number, if you want to write this down, 77-111, and if you Google it, it talks about relationships with nonprofits and what they are allowed to do and not do. Again, as with the other one, you may just go ahead and pass this tonight, but I think we should reexamine how we do these community partner arrangements. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Glass. Any further public comment on this agenda item? City Council for comments. Vice Mayor Richardson.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of items of clarification. Our agreement says that no entity can use these dollars for lobbying, but they cannot use these dollars for lobbying. So they still have flexibility to embark on lobbying utilizing other dollars. So just want to point that out. And not all nonprofits are, many nonprofits, I should switch the way I say that, are able to do, embark in fee-for-service agreements. So that is also a piece of information I want to make sure to clarify.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Oh, and one more thing. May I add one more thing? Of course. Continue. We've been talking about this. I've heard some comments about RFPs, requests for proposals. And typically, if we were asking for some sort of project or something to be done, and it was our project that we were owning, then we would, of course, engage in an RFP process. But none of these are projects that we are... starting, this is more partnerships. And so I just want to make sure to be clear on that as well. And if I am misspeaking, maybe the city attorney or city manager can correct me on that last point.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Further, Councilor Bolling.

Thank you, Mayor. I just would like to add on to Councilor Richardson, the Vice Mayor's comments. 501 entities exist.

to primarily benefit the public rather than private interest.

They aren't defined as charitable organizations exclusively, though plenty of charitable organizations do. Additionally, that 501 statute is up for some clarification too. It's an organization that works primarily to promote social welfare. They are allowed to limit to engage in lobbying and legislative activities, though they are not tax exempt. And I think when we're talking about something like membership, that's a 501c7. I appreciate that clarification. Any further comment?

Councilor Freed. Thank you, Mayor. Almost got away. Yeah, well, I appreciate the public comment on this, and, you know, I know the city constantly reviews how we conduct business and enter into partnerships and agreements, and I think we can continue to monitor these and look for the best way to do partnerships and agreements, but appreciate the interest. Thanks.

Thank you. Further comment? Councillor O'Doherty.

I'm just happy to support this because I remember Laramie 35 years ago before we had the Laramie Main Street Alliance and it's just a lot livelier. It's a livelier town and people compliment us on it all the time. So I'm grateful for the work they do.

Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no further comment, city clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Freed.

Yes.

Bolling. Yes. Lockhart.

Yes.

Shumway.

Yes.

O'Doherty. Yes. Newman absent. Yes. Richardson. Yes. Come be.

Yes.

That's eight yeses, zero noes, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Item 11D, Councilor Vigil.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Laramie City Council approve the FY27 and FY28 Feed for Service and Sponsorship Agreement with Tough Guys Landscaping and Lighting for the annual Winter Lights Festival and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to sign.

Second.

Second. I have a motion from Vigil, second from O'Doherty. Councilors, do you have any questions for the City Manager regarding this agenda item? Is there any public comment on this agenda item, Mr. Glass?

Brett Glass, again, one more time, honorable mayor and members of council. This agreement, which I'm looking at here, agrees to pay Tough Guys $10,500 per annum for its performance during the term of this agreement, obviously performing the Winter Science Festival.

Now, all in favor of this. It's a wonderful event. But some of the terms of this contract, I'm surprised that they will accept.

It says payments will be made on a monthly basis beginning July 2026, which means that payment for this year will only be halfway done by the time they've done the whole thing. And it seems to me that by the time they do it, we ought to have paid them for the whole year of 2056. You may want to revise this contract so that they get paid for their work. The second thing is, since they're really doing this as a city contractor, you should think about whether this community partners... program is the right way to do this rather than just a simple contract for services like anything else that we contract for. It may be actually advantageous to do it that way in terms of taxes for them and also in terms of satisfying the state requirements that we put anything this big out for bid.

Anyway, those are my concerns with this.

Again, I don't know if you're willing to try to revise the contract at this moment, but I think it really would be fair to them Again, if you pay them for the year at the time when they're going to be performing the services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Glass. Counselors, any comments? Counselor Bolling?

Thank you, Mayor. I would let city staff speak to the monthly installments. I think it's important to point out that in last fiscal year cycle, tough guys applied for community partner funding, which is something that we've already done and voted on. This is not community partner funding. And during that process, We determined, especially because they are not a 501c3 entity, and they are still providing an incredibly valuable service that all Laramie loves, that we would move to fee-for-service contract, which is what this is. It is not community partner funding. Secondly, I think it's also important to point out that when we have a criticism of charitable or 501c3 nonprofit entities receiving public funds for public services, this is not, again, a nonprofit entity. And we have been assured, and I don't know that there's anyone on this dais that questions that, that tough guys, Probably goes into the hole on this because it's a public service. And any revenue or any profit that they might in any way gain from the Winter Lights Festival, especially through memberships or sponsorships and things like that, that gets... directly funneled back into the project for the following year, which is the way that nonprofit entities operate. So I want to commend them for that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor. Counselor Freed.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I think our city staff has worked on this contract, and so I imagine if there are any issues from tough guys or from the city's perspective, we can bring that to attention. But otherwise, I approve. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, just listening to the presentation from last week was really, really enlightening for me. You see folks working out there setting everything up, but you really don't know what everything costs. And so in my mind, this is not that much to chip in for all of the effort, especially when it's majority, you know, kind of volunteer-led. And so I was just really proud of that. I thought this event was cool before, and now just seeing how it all works, I'm even more proud of it. So thanks.

Thank you. Thank you.

And we learned last week that it put us on the map for some bingo thing, like places to see.

The bucket list. The bucket list for 50 states. And one was to see the lights at Washington Park. So that was kind of interesting. I've got the vice mayor next. I lowered my hand.

I lowered my hand. Thanks, Mayor. Oh, okay. Councilor Shumway.

I just want to comment that this is a three-month spectacular. We spent twice that much for 4th of July, Fire in the Sky, for a 15-minute spectacular, so... I appreciate the chance that we have to schedule the community to go see this. It's a great benefit to the community. And I do believe what's been said, that this is just a portion of the cost. The rest is covered through tough guys.

City Manager?

Honorable Mayor, through you to Councilor Shumlee, let's not undersell that. It's 18 minutes.

And I would also like to point out that this really is a community event. And that tough guys, the city, could not put this on without the community sponsors and the community engagement. And this has been something that really brings people together As we said at the work session, during the darkest days of the year. So, anyway. City Clerk, if you can call the roll.

Beechel. Aye. Shumway.

Yes.

O'Doherty. Yes. Newman. Yes. Freed. Yes. Bowling. Aye. Richardson. Yes. Yes. Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Item 11E, Councilor O'Doherty.

I move that the Laramie City Council approve Resolution 2026-37 designating A&B Bank, First Interstate Bank, F&BO, Pinnacle Bank, Wells Fargo,

First Wyoming Bank and Trust, Riverstone Bank, U.S. Bank and State Point Federal Credit Union as depositories of public funds for fiscal year 2027 and authorize the clerk and mayor to sign. Second.

I have a motion from Dordy Skunt from the Hill. Good evening, Director Wade.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor and City Council Members. So, Spencer Couture, Senior Accountant on my team, is actually going to present this item. But I just wanted to make a quick note for you all. For many, many years, the next two items on the agenda were actually on the consent. agenda, and we didn't talk about them much.

And for the past few years, I've been pulling them, putting them on the regular agenda because they only happen once a year, and that's not really enough time.

I mean, that's not enough exposure for councils, I think, to remember what's going on. They are routine items. There's not much unique about them, but I just wanted to give you that preface before Spencer comes up to the podium.

Uh, Councilor Doherty, you have a question? Uh, can I ask, um, Director Wade, that it seemed like at Wayne I heard that, um, credit unions weren't allowed to be depository, so that Shoshone, anyway, they brought it up, so has that changed, or is it different amounts?

Honorable Mayor, it's for you that actually changed last year in state statutes, so we're able to do that now.

Yeah. Thank you. Good evening, Spencer.

Good evening, our mayor and city council. This resolution designates city depositors of public funds for the next fiscal year. Every year, we receive applications from banks and now a credit union who would like to be allowed to hold city funds. This year we got nine financial institutions to apply to be state depositors and we recommend accepting all the applications. You'll notice that there's a credit union on there now and that was a recent change to state law. Aside from that, this resolution is very similar to ones passed in prior years. I do want to emphasize that this resolution simply gives us the option of doing business with these banks if there is a reason to. I was pleased that we got so many applications over my time here, about five years. We've never received this many applications, and this could potentially give us more options. It was a pleasure to work with a number of banks around town to get these assembled and I'm happy to stand for any questions on this resolution.

Thank you. Thank you. Counselors, any questions?

Councilor Freed. Yeah, thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Spencer, for the presentation. I guess in your perspective, you know, having nine banks and being able to put money in different places, can you just describe what some of the benefits would be? You just mentioned, you know, this gives us more flexibility or maybe more creative, lucrative kind of... Can you just describe what that looks like in practice?

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there are a lot of... impacts that that has, and I've probably only been exposed to a fraction of that, but one thing that comes to mind immediately is if we want to finance a vehicle or something, we have a lot more options and contacts when we have this list of nine different institutions to contact now.

Thank you. Further questions?

I just want to make sure that FDIC limits on this. Is it still $200,000 that we have on all these deposited banks and credit unions?

I believe it's $250,000. And part of the deal with being in deposit or public funds is you need to pledge collateral in excess of that amount if necessary. Absolutely. and then a private individual with a bank account.

Thank you. Further questions? Councilor Bolling?

Thank you, Mayor. Where do you guys keep all those numbers?

All right. Any further questions? Thank you, Spencer. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Back to council for comments. Any comments, councilors? The clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Sorry about that.

I'm just whipping through them.

I move that the Laramie City Council approve resolution 2026-38 authorizing the city of Laramie, Wyoming to enact a reimbursement resolution to pay for equipment expenditures and seek reimbursement from proceeds of one or more tax exempt leases for during fiscal year 2027 and authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign.

Second. I think Lockhart.

No, I didn't say it. Oh, you didn't say it? Oh, it was you. I think I heard. All right. I have a motion from Bowling and a second from Vigil. So this is our second one of our second annual resolutions before you this evening.

It is a resolution that authorizes us to seek reimbursement from finance purchases. So we tend to call them lease purchases, finance purchases.

What this resolution does is allow us to get reimbursement.

When we enter into those types of financing agreements, it does not authorize us to enter into those types of financing agreements.

That authorization would come from state statute.

It also would come from actions of this governing body. And so this resolution is all about efficiency. And so rather than have to time the issuance of these finance purchases with departments in a way that's a real hassle for them and my team, this equipment can come in, we can take a look at our cash flow, decide if it's important for us to issue this finance purchase, and if so, bring that to the council, ask you for permission to issue that, and then get reimbursement from those proceeds rather than having to have that timing line up in a way that can be pretty cumbersome. So that's really all it's about, efficiency and ability to reimburse ourselves when we engage in these types of transactions, which you all as a governing body would approve or disapprove.

Thank you, Director. Counselors, questions for Director Wade? Okay. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Back to council. Any comments? Council Freed. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Director Wade, for being proactive with this and putting this on the regular agenda so we can hear and talk about it. And something that I would never think of, but those timings, I'm sure they stack up for your department. So this makes a lot of sense being efficient. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

and other comments. I just wanted to say that lease agreements are used for large purchases that we make such as a new truck for sanitation. That truck runs hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it's leased So it's a common way to purchase, that cities use to purchase large equipment. Any further comment? City clerk, if you would call the roll, please.

Bullying.

Yes.

Lockhart. Yes. Newman. Absent. O'Doherty. Yes. Shumway.

Yes.

Beehill. Yes. Freed.

Aye.

Richardson. Yes. Cumbie.

Yes.

That's eight yeses, zero noes, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Item 11G, Councilor Lockhart.

I move that the Laramie City Council approve resolution 2026-39 amending the fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2026 by an annual budget of the City of Laramie, Wyoming and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to sign.

Second.

I have a motion from Lockhart and a second from Freed. Director Wade.

Good evening again, our honorable mayor. The joke about tonight is that when I first submitted my agenda items, I was actually the only person on the agenda, which would have been terrifying for everyone because you just would have had finance stuff all night. So I appreciate the city manager putting some agreements on there to break this up. You have not heard from the finance team with the budget amendments since the December-January timeframe. We've had an awful lot going on. Typically we try to get out in front of the council on a quarterly basis just to make these amendments digestible. Because remember the finance team is doing these amendments for items that don't require that immediate authorization, meaning it's not an emergency, directors don't need to bring that forward, you're not awarding a bid. And so the timing of our amendments is a little bit more relaxed than what our directors are dealing with when they come to you in the interim to ask for amendments. And so the amendment before you this evening, this first one is a little bit larger than normal. So much so that Spencer and I just pretty much wrote it twice because it also had the type of spread that was hard to capture. And so I'm going to do my best this evening to keep us organized and really tell you the highlights of what's in the amendments this evening. So in total, if you approve this amendment, you will be approving a $6,149,280 increase to the fiscal year 2026 budget. Most of this amount are amounts that you've already seen, but in some funds, and to an extent I don't normally see, What looks like a small amount has a lot of different numbers in it. And so we're going to spend some time there this evening in ways we might normally not. Across all governmental funds, we see a total reduction across all funds of $2,553, which is really, really small. But if we look at that by fund, we see the general fund budget will decrease by about $154,000. The E911 fund will increase by $31,000, about, I'm rounding, and then the recreation center fund would increase by about $120,000. We'll talk about the sources for these amendments a little bit later on. For our enterprise operations, There's a total increase recommended of $6,151,833. $6.1 million of this increase is for financing the Zone 1 tank project. You have approved that action twice now, I think. Once in August of 2025 and once again last month, which didn't make it into my memo.

And so you've seen that item a couple of times.

And so the bulk of this amendment from just a materiality standpoint is related to that Zone 1 tank. But there is a lot going on in governmental funds. All right, we're going to dive into the general fund. So that total recommended change is a reduction of $154,426. And if you look at your memo, what I did this time is I actually set it up as a table because with all the different things going on, it just didn't make sense to do what we would normally do and describe it by division. It was just too diverse for that. So I hope this table helps you all see not only the division that benefits from the amendment, but the amount of that amendment, the funding source for that amendment, and the reason for it. And so if we look at operating costs in the general fund, that's an increase of $310,574. And I'm just going to go over some of the highlights. So about $27,000 of that is related to grants. So we have this grant revenue coming in that we need to appropriate out for spending on those restricted items. The largest single item in this operating cost amendment is a $240,000 increase across multiple fire divisions for the issue we already know about. and talked about a lot, right? The extraordinary number of on and off the job injuries at LFD this year. And really this amendment, unlike other amendments you've seen, is to shore up that overtime as we're getting close to the end of the fiscal year and really bright size that budget in a one-time way so these are not ongoing operating costs to make sure that they're covered for the year. I think that's a story that you've heard a lot about and you're just seeing those numbers here as we're approaching fiscal year end. Other large items for operating adjustments, there's not really much. You're going to see a couple of amendments for things like payouts of accrued leave. I want to talk to you a little bit about why that happens. We just got through the budget process. We talked about that personnel budget forecast. We don't actually budget for... leave payouts and sometimes when an employee leaves service who's been here for 10 or 20 years, those leave payouts can be significant. In a big department, let's say maybe like the police department, there's always going to be enough budget left over most likely to fund those leave payouts and so you don't need to increase the budget for them. But in a small department like IT, for example, just a handful or more staff members, they typically are not going to have the budget to be able to pay for these leave accrual payouts and you will see us bring these forward. They just don't happen every year. So I wanted to point that out in case you haven't seen one of these budget amendments before.

With that, I think we've covered all of the large items and operating amendments, and I'd like to move to capital-related amendments and general fund.

That's a total reduction of $465,000, but there's an awful lot going on there. So because we've got multiple million-dollar or more entries, I'm just going to take a pause and go over these items. So we're recommending an amendment to the budget for a million dollars, and that is for funding the council authorized purchase of 509 9th Street, which is the site for the new fire station one, which is necessary for SPED. And so as you know, we've had resources committed for some time based on the council's direction to purchase that property, but we actually haven't done the budget amendment for it yet. And so this resolution contains not only the amendment for that project, but also the amendment for the purchase of the old slave school property, which we just learned recently will move forward. And that's $525,000. So those are our two land purchases. We have some smaller items here. We're going to talk about the eight lane pool a little bit later when we get to the rec center fund. But we are going to pay for that emergency repair out of the general fund because we've hit the rec center fund a lot this year with deferred maintenance that has popped up and with this purchase in particular and even for next year. I think the general fund will need to subsidize the recreation center fund just a little bit more for some of these capital repairs. That's normal and we expect it and we plan for it. The two other major items that are capital related in the general fund, one of them is an accounting entry. It's about $1.9 million for us to move the financing proceeds from that lease sublease that we talked so much about this spring, from the general fund where it was receded and where that lease back will be held, over to the SPT fund. And so this is cleaned up from an accounting entry standpoint only because we have not yet budgeted for that piece of the transaction. But there's no impact on the budget. because it's already been planned for. And you'll see a decrease of $4 million to actually reduce the amount of money appropriated for the no longer active enterprise operation of surface water drainage. And so you may all remember last year how you appropriated $5 million to fund that startup. We'll just say it like that. With the repeal of the ordinance, we're sweeping part of that funding back now into the general fund, and that's really important because with the budget that you all just reviewed, you'll see that the city manager, of course, you'll remember, he has that three-year recommendation to be able to fund that expanded level of service. And so this is the first budget amendment you'll see related to deconstructing that surface water drainage fund. You will see another budget amendment as we wrap up the fiscal year and make sure that all of that piece is taken care of. So we're basically sweeping that entire amount back into the general fund and the expenditures that we made during this year will be reclassified as general fund expenditures for fiscal year 26 because the ordinance is not on void.

There can't be a fund, right?

So it's a little bit different. We don't normally see that. I thought I could pause here and see if you have any questions before I move on to the rest of the amendment, which is so much easier.

Thank you, Director. Counselors, questions for Director Wade? Counselor Freed.

Thank you, Mary. Thank you, Director Wade. This is awesome, first of all. So I appreciate you taking the time to walk through this. And for those who might be following online or are going to listen to this later, there's a really awesome table in the agenda for tonight. So you can see exactly what Director Wade is referencing. My only question would be, $4 million is going back. Is that reflected anywhere in their open finance portal? Or like... We have a memo in there that talks about, you know, we tried to enact this fund, but now it's kind of going backwards. Is there anything in there?

Through your mayor, council member Freed, actually, no. And because it will be entirely zeroed out. It'll be like it never happened because it never really did. From an accounting standpoint now, because you all have taken the steps as a governing body that you've taken. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

on our mayor's review to council member O'Doherty. And so one of the things I'm working on this week is language that will be in your budget resolution. That will be your expression of will as a governing body to commit resources in the same way that you've done in the past to funding this enhanced level of service. So we will actually spend a fair amount of time the night you adopt the budget going over that language in the resolution and making sure that you're aware of kind of what you're doing there.

Further questions? Continue, Director Lee. Thank you, Honorable Mayor.

So the next section, there are a fair amount of transfers between divisions of the general funds. Those went out to zero, so we're not going to spend any time there. Feel free to ask questions of council members when I get done with my presentation if you see anything here that you want me to go into. In the E911 fund, the recommended change is an increase of $31,113. That's just addressing some maintenance fees for a new dispatch recording system that weren't budgeted for correctly. And so when Spencer was actually working with the department, To prepare the budget for the 9-1-1 fund this year, it looks like we were just a little bit off in our forecast and our information. And so this, based on the budget you just reviewed, I consider this to almost be a catch-up amendment to get us to the current state because this did not make it into the 2026 budget in the way that I believe it should have. For the recreation center fund, the total recommended change is an increase of $120,760. There are two components of this amendment. $75,760 addresses one-time personnel issues in this fund. So we're gonna increase one time to deal with the following issues. So almost $16,000 of vacation leave payouts for two long-term employees. So these were employees, one of them was probably here for at least 20 years. The other one was here for at least 10 years, maybe even a little bit longer. And so this fund has a really tight margin in terms of its budget. It always runs really close. And so this is a great example of a fund where it has a lot of employees, but because it's thin, it's more of that retail-oriented operation. If you think of it that way, it also is hardly ever going to have the capacity to be able to pay for these types of large payouts in their existing budget. $30,000 is a transfer from the general fund from the Parks and Recreation admin division. That division has a little bit of extra money and they're going to kick in to help the rec center with some of the staffing challenges they've had this year and some of the extra costs we've incurred because of those staffing challenges. And finally, $30,000 corrects an error in the 26 personnel forecast that we found when we were checking out some of the issues in the recreation center. And so what we found is that our software last year for some reason put a limit on the FICA attached to the non-benefited wages in the rec center fund, and we actually have not noticed that before.

And so this $30,000 amendment to correct the budget team's forecast is not an issue at the department level.

But we still need to get it cleaned up because it's causing constraint there where it shouldn't be.

That should have been in the forecast last year.

$45,000 is the next piece of the amendment in the Recreation Center Fund, and that's recommended for the eight-lane pool boiler replacement. So my guess is many of you have heard about the eight-lane pool. And it's closure. And we really need to replace the water heater boiler for that main pool. And that's what this amendment is all about. Looks like there was a crack in the heat exchanger and staff had to shut down the boiler and the loss of heat caused that drop in temperature.

And, you know, now it's no longer safe.

And so this amendment is addressing that issue and making sure that our patrons can get back to using the pool that they so love and enjoy. Our last amendment, sorry, my computer went to sleep, so pardon me while I get reoriented, is in the water fund. And that recommended change is an increase of $6,151,833. Almost all of that amount, everything but $1,000 is related to the one tank. And because you guys spent so much time there, I'm not going to spend any more time than just call out that most of that is in one tank. We've got $1,000 recommended to increase fuel cost in one division. So it's a little bit tight to begin with because we all know what's happening with gas out there. So at this time, thank you for your patience as I go over the details that are important for this amendment. And I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you, Director. Councillors, questions for Director Waite?

Thank you, Mayor. George Wayne, again, really appreciate the broken-down presentation. The Zone 1 tank replacement is huge, so I know it's a big chunk of funding, and I think we need to do that.

This question might be for City Manager, but one of the things we're hearing a lot about is that eight-lane pool boiler replacement.

Our Director Bork is here, so I don't know if this would be an appropriate time, maybe an update if we were to approve this, kind of what that looks like in the next steps.

Hey, Director Bork. Honorable Mayor, to you, to Councilor Free. It's one of those unfortunate timing things that this boiler for the A-lane pool, it's our largest body of water. The boiler basically runs continuously 24-7, 365, heating a very large volume. of water unfortunately it's not a quick replacement either so even after this is approved tonight and we can move forward with the purchase it's about a four week lead time at least four to five week lead time to get the boiler and they will not schedule installation until they actually physically have the boiler in hand which could be another couple of weeks beyond that So we had a potential option to just repair the heat exchanger just for full clarity, but the cost differential was about $30,000 for the repair versus a $44,000 or $45,000 replacement. And as hard as these boilers it makes a lot more sense to just replace the whole thing versus trying to repair something that we may then be chasing other things as it goes. So our best guesstimate, now that the boiler could come in earlier than that, We will do everything we possibly can to get that eight-lane pool up and running as soon as we can. Unfortunately, once the boiler is up and running, it will take probably about a week at least to bring the water temperature back up to a safe level. That's why a lot of frustration, people wanting to know why can't they do cold plunges and things like that. Anything below about 77, 78 degrees in the water, I believe this morning was about 71 degrees. That's really cold. It doesn't sound cold until you're actually in that water. Hyperthermia can set in actually fairly quickly at those temperatures when people are not used to that. We made the safety decision to just not have anybody in that water once it gets below 77 degrees. So we are going to do everything that we can to get it up and running as quickly as possible. I am happy to say, though, that on Saturday, the outdoor pool will look weather-dependent, air temperature-dependent. But the outdoor pool is ready to go with all the new spray features and the repair that we did on the leak last year is holding. So while we don't have the alien pool... We do have the outdoor pool and we are looking at potentially adding some lap swimming in even at the outdoor pool in the mornings and evenings again as we can based on our air temperatures and all of that. So if you have any other questions, I can stand for that.

Thank you. And I really appreciate your creativity and trying to figure out a combination because for some of our citizens that was a significant loss to have the lap pools for you to think of early morning, evening, lap swimming. That really helps people in the community and I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Okay, I think that's it. Any further questions for Director Wade? Is there any public comment on this agenda item? back council for comments. Any comments, councilor? Councilor Vigil.

That was quick. Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, I mean, while the timeline is unfortunate, what's not unfortunate is that city staff got right on it.

So I really appreciate that. Thanks.

Thank you. Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to share my appreciation with the finance team for the chart. It has broken everything down so well, both on this agenda item and the next. It makes it really easy to point people to what's happening in a really clear, concise way. So thanks for your work on this.

Thank you. Further comments? I have two. So by adding the additional monies to the RIC Center for staffing, I said, Councilor O'Doherty and I sit on the finance committee and I try to track overtime, which can be significant when a division is running short on personnel. So with that 30,000 in, what I noticed today was a significant reduction in overtime for the rec center. And so that investment in provisionals now has saved money in the end by having full staffing and avoiding overtime. So, and the other thing, I really appreciate the layout and the way that this has been presented. It's really dense material. And, Then I go through it and it makes it so much easier. And then when we come in here and you and Spencer spend time with the material, that even adds another layer of comprehension. And so I appreciate the work that you put into this and the sensitivity that you have that this is dense material. and that you have mercy on us and help walk us through. City Clerk, if you can call the roll.

Lockhart.

Yes.

Creed.

Yes.

Newman, absent. O'Doherty? Yes. Beehill? Yes. Shumway?

Yes.

Boling?

Yes.

Richardson?

Yes.

Cumby?

Yes.

That's eight yeses, zero noes, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. In our last agenda item, 11H, Councilor Vigil.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Laramie City Council approve Resolution 2026-40, amending the FY26 biennial budget of the City of Laramie, Wyoming, and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to sign.

Second.

I have a motion from Vigil, second from O'Doherty. Spencer, good evening.

Good evening. I am taking this one.

Good for you.

Thank you, honorable mayor and city council, and thank you for those kind words. I really appreciate it. So this particular resolution decreases the 2026 budget for many projects. As part of our capital planning process, in the winter, directors reassess all their projects and reevaluate their needs. It's really important that we reduce the budget when we don't need it. That stops us from tying up money unnecessarily. This year, our city manager asked directors to be very realistic about the timing of their projects and in particular the ones that haven't started yet and what their departments can actually take on. Directors identified quite a few here that they recommend deferring to future fiscal years. That's the bulk of the changes that you see on this amendment. And those changes were reflected in the budget book that you actually have been reviewing over the course of the last month. There's also some reductions for some other reasons, like projects that had big changes to their scope or are no longer being pursued. And then there are a few projects that are simply going to cost a lot less than expected. In total, this amendment is a decrease of about $21 million, and that... That breaks out by an increase of $417,000 in the general fund, $450,000 in the economic development fund, about $10 million in the capital construction fund, $215,000 in the SPED fund, about $5.4 million in the water fund, about $4.5 million in the wastewater fund, and then about $450,000 in the salt and waste fund. Exactly $450,000 in the salt and waste fund. Most of these projects that we are asking for a reduction for were funded by cash reserves, so mostly these will increase available cash, but all identify as significant. exception to that in a bit here. My intent is not to go over all these projects individually. I won't bore you with that. They are touched on in more detail in the memo. Attached to this agenda item, most of the smaller changes that you see for a few hundred thousand dollars or so are projects that are being deferred in future school years. But I am going to briefly run through what I feel are the most significant changes here based off the size of the fund that they impact. First item I wanted to highlight, there is a $450,000 decrease in the Economic Development Fund that removes 2026 appropriations for the force-free redevelopment. That project is still planned. It has just been pushed down a couple of years. In the capital construction fund, there are some pretty major changes. You'll see that there is a $4.3 million reduction for that big street rehabilitation project. One includes a bunch of roads all around town. It was a while ago now, but you might recall we got bids back for way under what had previously been authorized for that project, so we don't need all the budget there. Also in the capital construction fund, there's a $2.75 million decrease for the Bill 9 corridor design because we haven't at this time received the community project funding that we're hoping for. We are still applying for funding for this particular part of the Bill 9 project. There's also a $1.87 million decrease for Harmony Street reconstruction. This project is, again, still happening. Design is now scheduled for 2027 with construction planned for 2028. Also in the capital construction fund, I'd like to just briefly explain the reason for a change that is a little bit of a different character than the rest of them. The citywide speed study has a reduction recommended for $760,000. The scope of this project is not changing and we aren't pushing it out. The budget as it stands just included a lot of excess appropriations for things that will actually be covered directly by federal money. The new budget for that project will only be $200,000. That covers us for governmental funds. In the enterprise funds, there are a lot of medium-sized decreases for a wide variety of projects.

Again, this is mostly due to them being pushed back.

There is only one change of over a million dollars, and that's the North 3rd Street Sanitary Sewer Project. That's the one that was intended to connect the MOC north of town to the rest of the main city system. But engineering tells me that the existing solution is working better than expected, and there isn't quite as much. interest in developing that area as was originally anticipated. That's a $3.2 million reduction to the budget. Note that that particular project in the wastewater fund was expected to be funded by an SRF loan, so there's only a small increase that we get in available cash for that particular change. And anyway, those are the major highlights of that amendment, and I'm happy to stand for any questions on it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Spencer. I'm curious, and I know you're not an engineer. For those of us like myself who don't know, what is the existing solution for the sanitary sewer at the MOC that proves to be working just fine?

Through you, Mayor. It is a lagoon system is what I am told. I don't know the mechanics of how that operates, but yes. It apparently is working just great.

Further questions, Councilor Freed.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Spencer, for all the information that you provided today. So I'm looking at that speed study reduction.

So if we reduce that, which is fantastic, that we're identifying ways to accomplish what we need to do for a lower price. So that money just goes back to the general fund and would be reflected in there?

Yeah, so I want to clarify something. We are reducing that budget because We received information that we no longer need city appropriations. We no longer need to write a check for the book of that project like we thought. That is the reason for that reduction. So it does increase available... The impact on cash was pretty negligible because we were anticipating receiving a grant. Thank you.

Further questions? Thank you. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Back to council. Comments? Councilor Freed.

Thank you, Mayor. Well, I just want to thank Director Wade and her team for being so diligent. I mean, when you see, I mean, how much is this decrease? I mean, $20 million, and obviously something that's obligated for projects down the line, but I mean, the attention to detail, I think it's just something that's And the level of professionalism that we have within our city is reflected in presentations like these. So again, appreciate the work that you're taking this off the agenda for us and for members of the public to see and hear the explanation and ask questions. So great, great for it. Thanks.

Thank you. Councillor O'Doherty.

Yeah, and I'd also like to point out for members of the public that on our agenda, these are all detailed if you click on the PDFs that are under the item. So it's very handy to be able to read it all. Thanks.

Thank you. Further comments? I just want to thank the city manager and the director of finance for your work with the management team and the division directors in asking them what is realistic to do this year and what do we maybe need to think about in the future and take a hard look and get back to me. And now we saved $20 million and we have a little more flexibility and wiggle room to deal with some of the uncertainties that may be coming down. And so I just thank you for that careful. I said both of you, so I'm looking at them. No, thank you. But I just want to thank you for that. And I think it leaves us in a good position with some potential flexibility should we need it.

And that's the way I like to roll with it. Councilor Friedman.

Oh, I see you managed to get up there. I just want to say one quick thing. Also, shout out to Director Bork, who has been here for a couple hours to maybe answer those questions about the pool, which is a huge community issue. So shout out to Director Bork. Thanks for your insight.

Mayor, I appreciate the comments, but I couldn't tell you how honored it is to be so well aligned with Director Wade and Spencer with the discussions and the way we talk about budget and the way we view it. It's a great team that works well together and they understand when I say the stuff I say and I understand what they're saying and it's just working well together. We sure it's going great and really all of your appreciation should be to Director Wade and Spencer.

Well, the appreciation is directed toward all of you. It's a magnificent team that we have. Director Bork, the work you have done to do maintenance and get our rec center up to standard. It is 20 years old and these things were destined to happen about this time and you came in and you're just the person to take the challenge. So I feel very fortunate for the team we work with. Further comments? City Clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Bolling.

Aye.

Freed. Yes. Lockhart. Yes. Newman. Absent. O'Doherty. Yes. Shumway. Yes. Beehill. Aye. Richardson.

Yes.

Cumbie.

Yes.

That's eight yeses, zero noes, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. And with that, I'll move to public comments on non-agenda items. Mr. Henderson, if you can state your name for the record.

My name is Eric Henderson and my last comment is in reflection to the alleyway paved adjacent to property 1260 North Pine Street between Clark and Fremont. It's a very nice paved section alleyway. I think it's exemplary in the city of Laramie. However, I understood in 2021 that that paving was going to be done edge to edge which was going to facilitate proper drainage over from rooftops of the adjacent homes to the actual concrete so that it did exit the alley and went down into the two drains per block, versus what appears to be done, where it's been done to the line of the alley, I guess 14 or 15 feet, but I did understand the conversation was going to be edge to edge, and before an occupancy permit is permitted for 260 North Pine, given that the safety tape has been removed and the concrete work looks to be completed, I would hope that this group or any of the planning department that would check that out would take that into consideration and verify that that... work that gets done was not overlooked. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Any further public comment on non-agenda items? Seeing none, back to council for consideration of future council work sessions.

Councilor Sri.

Well, thank you, Mayor. I know it's been talked about, but just want to make sure we have it on the record for a work session on data centers.

But I think city manager and city staff has already been proactive about that, but just want to make sure that that's coming.

Thank you. And they are already working on that, and council did receive some initial information today, and that will be an ongoing process.

Merit. It would be appropriate. Still, we could go ahead and add it to the list just to make sure it's there. If we get a second.

I'll second.

Okay. Any others?

Did you have a suggestion? I was just looking at the June 23rd work session. I think it's too soon to have the data center topic come up because we want the staff to have time to prepare information. And if we don't have anything on the agenda, could we skip the June 23rd work session?

City Manager, would you like to speak to that?

honorable Mayor, City Council. I appreciate that recommendation. I don't know that we have anything queued up right now for work session or anything that's pressing at this time. And if Council so chooses not having a meeting that night, we'll be okay.

Do I have any strong objections?

Vice Mayor. I'm sorry. I am not objecting. I have another idea. Sorry.

So we have no objections to the 23rd.

Are they going to be appropriate for the city clerk to make that notice?

It'll be a nice break after double meetings for two months to get through budget. And WAM. On that topic, On what?

On the topic of canceling the 23rd. Yes. If we could just record a second on that request.

Second.

all right vice mayor thank you mayor one topic that I have been thinking about is a work session and perhaps a joint work session on the fiscal impacts if the people's initiative were to go through so that we could have a discussion and kind of an educational opportunity for those in the public to understand the impacts to the city and county if that were to pass.

I'd second that.

Okay so then you all will meet with the city manager to elaborate on what you're looking for. So city manager will set that up. Very good. Before we go to item 14, which is adjournment, we have some things to give counselors that are examples of the city bullying that we'll be giving out at the next meeting. Farmer's Market, Freedom Has a Birthday, Wham, et cetera. So if y'all could just stay for a minute. And I also have some thank you glasses that have been given for me to give to you in thanks from the soup kitchen for your generous donations.

So they're cute little glasses.

either any juice glass or little, they're cute. So thank you to the soup kitchen for that. And thank you, counselors, for your $1,000 donation, which was a match. funds, so that makes two, which Chief Brown, not to be outdone, came up with 1,000, which was matched, so that initiated $4,000 to the soup kitchen, so it really helped out, and thank you all for contributing. Counselor O'Doherty, bring us home.

I move we adjourn. Second. Second.

I have a motion by O'Doherty and a second by Viggo. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

We are adjourned.