City Government - Regular Meeting

GOOD EVENING.

Water users that they've been notified, especially around springtime when irrigation systems start to come on. After that first month, you can see kind of what a baseline is, but you can also look at what last year's was. And so that's how they utilize that and they just reach out directly to them and contact them based on their utility billing.

Okay. Any further comments? City Clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Freed.

Yes.

Lockhart, absent. Shumway.

Yes.

O'Doherty. Yes. Newman, absent. Bolling.

Aye.

Vigil? Yes. Richardson? Yes. Cumbee?

Yes.

That's seven yeses, zero noes, and two absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Vice Mayor Richardson, item 11B.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Laramie City Council approve the award of bid and contract with A1 Chip Seal Company for the Chip Seal Fiscal Year 27 project. in the amount of $590,302.20 with a contingency of $9,000 for a total amount not to exceed $599,302.20 and authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign. Second. I have a motion from Richardson, second from Freed. Director Smith.

Honorable Mayor, City Council, what you have in front of you is the request to approve this contract. We went out to bid. We had six responsible bidders, and the lowest one was A1 Chip Seal. And they were about 120-some thousand. Let me look here. They were 443,414 for their base bid. Our budget was 600,000, so working with them, excuse me, and staff, we were able to come up with approximately 40,000 more square yards within our budget, which essentially is a large portion of Sherman Hills. So... What is ChipSeal? What are we doing here? It's a pavement prevention tool and it allows us to extend the life about six to 10 years of our roads. And so the reason their bid was lower than the others is because they do their own traffic control and also their mobilization costs were much lower. I don't know. I appreciate the excuse. Thank you. No. So what this project really does is it extends the life of our roads and protects our investment, right? That's what this does. With staff and with this bid, we have, I mean, total, we're looking at like 1.4 million square feet of chip seal. That's huge. And with that, I would stand for any questions.

Thank you, Director. Councillor O'Doherty.

You said Sherman Hill, but isn't that like Imperial Heights? Or is that area generally called Sherman Hill?

Mayor, through you, apologies. Yes, Imperial. That's my fault.

Questions? Councilor Freed. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Director Smith. I feel like you're going to hear this question a lot from us on bid awards, because I feel like the city comes under flack if we choose the lowest bid, and is there assurances that they can get the job done? And if we take the highest bid, are we responsibly spending taxpayer dollars? And so that seems to be what you guys are evaluating all the time. And just, you know... you might not be able to provide assurances, but you know, in that process, I know you guys look at a lot of things, but could you just describe that and why going with the lowest bid, there aren't fears or there aren't concerns that we're going to get this project done and do it right. Mayor, through you.

Mayor, through you once again, apologies. So there is a process that is laid out by state statute that we follow. But as far as assurances go, that's what our contract is for. And I should also add one other thing that I forgot to mention while I was hacking up. This particular contractor has about $60 million worth of surface work that they have. About 80% of that is chip seal. Excuse me. They are a large company. Thank you. They are a large company that they have pretty much guaranteed us. For the first time that any of the staff that is currently here, we're gonna be able to finish the chip seal project before school starts. So it is planned to be completed by August 22nd. And they think they can do it all in a week because they're such a large company. So for this particular bid, and every time that that question is posed to me for a different project, I will have a different answer just depending on what that project is and who the contractor is. But for this one, the value that we are able to get out of this one is huge. I cannot overstate the value here of getting these extra roads chip sealed and protected for the future and extending their life.

Vice Mayor. I hate to even ask you one more question, Director Coffin, sorry. Can you explain to me, sorry, I am naive to what it means when you say and on transportation, they're saving. What does that mean, the transportation part?

Mayor, through you. So when I say transportation, I mean mobilization, getting here, because they're a large company, so they do their own traffic control, and then their mobilization costs are less because they're coming in and they're doing it in a week. So that's where those savings come from.

Further questions? Thank you. And I think we'd gone to public comment back, added a few questions. We didn't? Is there any public comment on this agenda item?

Madam Mayor? All right. Mayor? Yes. If I may, the city manager just kind of nudged me and reminded me. We also have once a bid is put in, so we have a process to where we go through, we contact the contractor, and we kind of vet them, look through them, we do research on them. That's how we know. these numbers and what this company is able to do. And in instances to where we have questions, we will even check references of prior projects.

Thank you.

Mayor, we do have a hand raised online from Brett Glass for public comment.

Okay.

Good evening, Mr. Glass.

Good evening, honorable mayor and members of the council. My name is Brett Glass. I guess it would not concern members of council and also the public so much if this company's bid were not a full 30% lower than any of the other bids. So I think we need to establish a process where we actually go and look at the company's work not just rely on anything else in order to see how it's done. Last year, we took a low ball bid for a chip ceiling and as can be evidenced by some streets like the result on Sheridan Street, the work was not performed adequately. So I'd like to suggest that Council make sure that indeed we have actually gone and physically observed what the company does. The second thing I'm concerned about is that after the low bid came in, the staff went ahead and increased the scope of work. by almost 25% and did not re-bid the project. I'm not sure this is even legal because the amount of that increase is far more than the amount that the state requires you to go and seek a new bid on. So council may also wanna look into that and see whether it's an appropriate procedure to just go ahead and expand the project without re-bidding it. It seems to me that this may not be legal and it may not be giving the other bidders a fair shake. Thank you.

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

We had a similar concern from the same gentleman last year and the group did a wonderful job. And when we have money in the budget and have more opportunity to pave more roads, we take advantage of it. And I believe we also have a lawyer. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor. Further comments? City Clerk, if you can call the roll, please. Bolling.

Yes.

Freed.

Yes.

Vigil. Yes. Shumway.

Yes.

O'Doherty. Yes. Newman. Absent. Lockhart. Absent. Richardson. Yes. Cumbee. Yes. That's seven yeses, zero noes, and two absent, Your Honor.

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

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Laramie City Council approve the renewal of Wyoming Association of Municipalities membership for the City of Laramie in the amount of $35,404. Second.

I have a motion from Vigil, second from Richardson. Good evening, City Manager.

Honorable Mayor, City Council. Before I turn this over to Mayor Matt Murdock, who's the current president of the Wyoming Association of Municipalities, I just wanted to let you know about WAM's mission and their goals. WAM's mission is to empower member communities by delivering education, training, resources that foster professional growth and municipal excellence. Through learning opportunities, they strengthen local leadership and build capacity for effective governance. They serve as a unified voice for Wyoming's 99 cities and towns, advocating shared interests at the state and federal levels. We've had a good relationship with WAM. This last year was apparent with the assistance as we navigated some of the legislative issues that we've dealt with. And with that, I'll turn it over to Matt Murdock for a presentation on the WAM.

Good evening, Mayor Murdoch. So good to see you tonight.

Good evening, Mayor Cumbia. It's pleasant to see you and all your council. Thank you for allowing me to join electronically. As you know, my name is Matt Murdoch. I am the mayor of Pinedale, Wyoming, as well as the president of the Wyoming Association of Municipalities. Todd, are we having the presentation or would you like me to share my screen for that?

Mayor Murdoch, we're bringing it up right now. In this new day and age, you get to say next slide too when you're ready to change. Fantastic, all right. There's a delay here, anyhow.

So yeah, so WAM is the Wyoming Association of Municipalities. We now, as Todd mentioned, We represent all 99 communities within the state. We also have the benefit of being able to represent the Wyoming Economic Development Association. We are dedicated to education as well as advocacy, as well as enabling our members to be more efficient in all matters of just getting work done as a municipality. I think we all know that with 99 municipalities and cities and towns, We're all a bit different, and so we work very hard to represent the different needs of cities versus towns, the Opals versus the Cheyennes, and it's nice in the fact that we all have that. So we can go to the next slide. I don't see it, Todd, but I'm assuming it's on your screen.

We're having some... Mayor Murdock, would you mind sharing your screen? I've enabled you to be co-host here.

Excellent. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. I'll make this big. Is everybody able to see that?

Yes, we see it fine. Thank you.

No problem. Thank you. So I will go through this. This is a presentation that we gave to our membership at our summer convention, which was generously hosted by the city of Laramie this last summer. So thank you again for that. Love seeing you guys. We are very engaged. As I have here, we represent all 99. We have a much stronger staff. As you know, we have Ashley Harpstreeth. and four other staff members that are working within WAM. We have a very clear legislative process and a lot more deep relationships across the state and partnerships like WIDA. We have new tools that are coming online, which I'll talk about, but I'm actually very excited We are very well positioned for what's come next. We are far more, and I think it's important that we all recognize that, that WAM is much more than going to Cheyenne and representing issues and matters on legislation. We actually work very closely with other towns. Recently, we've been sharing e-bike ordinances, for example, or how to do an HR job description for a municipal officer. The number of things that we talk about within WAM are as broad as the many government issues that we deal with. We are members of the National League of Cities. Mr. Shumway, Councilman Shumway and I, I think he's in one of these pictures down here. We are a member state and through our membership in National League of Cities, every town under a population of 5,000 is also automatically a member. We've had conferences in Salt Lake, Washington, DC. So we have a pretty good representation on a, not only a state level, but a national level, which makes a big difference. An example I often use just so people can recognize that there is value here. You'll see on the screen, I'm actually speaking at one of these, this is Ashley that created this slide. So thank you Ashley for putting me in here. And Mayor Paxton, who's the vice president from Douglas. Looking silly there. But we were at a conference about a year and a half ago, two years ago. And I had been in attendance, and one of the staff members who I had met at a previous conference came up to me and asked me if I had heard about a certain grant that was available. I had not. They got me the information. And through that information, the town of Pinedale qualified for a $20,000 grant from the NLC. That has turned into what we are calling our digitalization. The town of Pinedale has fully digitalized its code, our permit process, our business licensing, all our licensing, all our interactions. It's going to save probably anywhere between 60% to 70% of our staff time. And it's also a program that we are now rolling out statewide, which you will have heard of and I'll talk about in a minute that we're calling WARP. So, this inadvertent meeting at a national conference has resulted in something that's actually going to help all 99 towns in the state of Wyoming. It's super exciting. And as you know, there are a lot of national as well as state issues that concern us. So we have also in this last year created what we're calling the Municipal Finance Program. There are many towns that don't have the ability to pay for a full-time treasurer. And there's audit reports and many things that are required. And getting a clerk to do the work is hard enough, but to have somebody who can do audits and budgeting. And so the WAM has stood up what we call the Municipal Finance. finance program where we are actually offering part-time treasurer help. And so we currently have a number of cities that have lined up. Former treasurer Shari Laura is running that for us. And we'll be hiring probably a few more people within William to be providing those services to multiple towns. This gives the towns and cities the ability to, you know, maybe have a part-time person and not have to have a full budget in their budget line. As I said, we've also created the Wyoming Automated Regulatory Platform, or WARP, which is a digital permitting and compliance board. It's partially in response to the fast track permitting requirements that have passed in legislation the previous session. We have a lot of requirements and speed that's required of us, rightfully so. Developers and others are applying. They want to be able to get their permits and everything done quickly. It's a fantastic system that gives every applicant the ability to know how far along they are in the process with a progress bar alerting them that there's things left over or please pay your funds or it alerts staff to say this is on you and please get it done. It also plays into public records. As you know, there's been a lot of state work on open records and public transparency. The digital platform also gives the ability not only for minutes and agendas, but every action and action that we're taking and permitting It's fully recorded so that anybody at any time can make a request and we can fulfill public records requests, which is a big deal. As you may imagine, I know in Laramie, you have a fairly large staff. Some of the rest of the towns and cities in Wyoming don't. And so having the ability to access that quickly and access that transparently is a big boom to many. So one of my priorities for the past year and the upcoming year is to defend local decision-making. As you know, the Wyoming State Statute has created it so that cities and towns have home rule authority and the ability to make certain decisions at a local level. And so we are working hard to preserve that, obviously, within respect to state legislature and the governor's office where they are applicable. We're also working to strengthen municipal operations, as I've already described, working to build local economic development capacity. That's part of our work project and some other objects and goals and grants that we're moving forward on that are made available to cities and towns. And additionally, improving the municipal story and strengthening partnerships and increasing our membership engagement. So the more we can get local leaders, city council members, mayors, trained as city clerks, city treasurers. Eventually, we're going to be started working with public work directors. The more we can get people trained, the better service we can provide. Quite frankly, we can all learn from each other. We can steal certain housing ideas from Laramie that we could turn around and apply at Pinedale. There's a lot of ways where we can help one another. Local control is under attack and has been under attack. And I've written extensively about it publicly, and I've argued extensively about it publicly, but I think the ability for cities and towns to have that home rule and that government is oftentimes overlooked and, quite frankly, under attack and is something that should be thought about and worked on. I'm going to skip this one. We don't need that. So we are building stronger partnerships. WAM and the Wyoming Economic Development Association emerged. This gives us the ability to not only, as I said earlier, provide the advocacy, but also the education, as well as economic help to cities and towns. And this includes funding, accountability, different structures. WEED is a longstanding organization, and the partnership between us and them is only going to make everybody stronger. We are currently made up. I think it's always important that people recognize the state of Wyoming is broken into six regions. It's kind of crazy with the miles that we have to drive to visit one another and why some cities are next to others in certain zones. But we do meet four times a year, twice digitally and twice in person or three times. Three times in person and once digitally. And from those meetings, we elect our board members, whether and each representative, there must be a city representative, a town representative, and then also an out large. And among those, they become the board members and then the board elects the president and vice president, myself and Mayor Paxton. And then we have, as I say, our partner organizations like WAMCAT as well as YOCMA with the city administrators. So we are working very hard to create an umbrella where we can work together, help one another, and hopefully lighten the load. There's quite a mix, as you can see, and as everybody can tell, Mayor Comey is actually your city representative from Region 1 on the Board of Directors, so we're grateful for her service and the work that she does. I think it's important just to say quickly, and I think your council members are aware of this because many of them attended the conference, but we are creating, the Department of Audit has created a new dashboard talking about public funds. It actually has a scorecard there. We've been working very hard with them that that scorecard would actually represent existing conditions within the cities. Audits can be very complicated, and there's a lot of cities that have to file audits that are either late or don't have the staffing for it. And that sometimes will turn into areas where they could be out of compliance and that pops up on the dashboard. So one of the reasons. It's also for the public, a place where people can go and they can find out what the standing of their local government is in regard to public funds. Very transparent, gives everybody the ability to know how we're managing your money and how we're scored in managing your money. Every town has to file an audit. So we are also working to be doing electronic payments. So we're no longer getting checks from the Department of Revenue. And then finally, we have a lot of educational resources, the recently approved mayor council handbook. If you haven't read it, I encourage you. Every town should have one or city should have one. We've just recently revised that for 2026, reflecting recent legislation. We have a budget preparation handbook, municipal election handbook, annual reports, and a member portal. So all of these are available to our council members as well as the public and the city and town members so that people can know how local governments govern. I'm going very quickly, so if you need to stop me, feel free to shout because I can't see anybody. We also are working with our Leadership Training Services Committee. We're now doing a four-tiered system with LCCC so that as local leaders or local electives begin going through this training, which is both the fundamentals of how to budget as well as other public government matters, they will actually be able to earn certificates and eventually degrees through that. We encourage every local official to attend our boot camp so that we know how to make resolutions, we know how to run open meetings, we know how to treat our emails and any other public communication device that we have so that people can be, again, once again, transparent and be able to solve and answer any questions that citizens might ask us. We also have the Wyoming Certified Public Manager Program, which will be a part of that as well. And then finally, lots of surveys, emails, newsletters. If you're not getting them, if you as elected folks are not getting them, please contact staff. We do have a monthly newsletter that goes out, except for this month. The month of August is not going out. And then we also have a video format that's coming out during the legislative session, as well as webinars on multiple different topics that we use to train and educate. And we'll be looking at some things in the future for legal counsel, as well as public works directors as well. So We are branching out into new areas. This is your WAM staff. We have five amazing members. Ashley is the executive director. Earl has been there for quite a long time. As I said, Shari Laura is now doing our municipal finance work. And then you have Dawson, who's running WIDA, as well as Bailey, who's taking care of member services. I can't say enough. I know Mayor Cumbie probably agrees with me. The best thing an IBS can do is hire really good and smart staff and then just give them the runway to get their jobs done. So we have an amazing staff. I'll pause here for any questions. I have one or two more slides, which we can go through quickly. But if there are any questions from you, Mayor, or the Council, I am happy to answer them.

Thank you, Matt. Does anyone, Councilors, any questions for Mayor Murdoch? I have none at this time.

Fantastic. So very quickly, just so we do have the Legislative Leadership Committee. This is, I think, one thing that people often ask about. This is, if you will, our advocacy branch. All our advocacy work is actually funded separately. not from members dues of the cities. All the funds and revenue that comes from city membership of what you're voting on this evening goes into education or the programs. All our advocacy is actually funded through the folks who come to our conferences and pay different fees to be sponsors and do displays. So we have a representative from every one of the regions, as well as the city administrators, as well as WAMCAT, WIDA, And our press at past president, all our policy is starts within the regions. Every region discusses about what are their key points for them that goes upwards to the board and where we decide that. So this is a very much ground floor. We start here at the bottom and work our way up. This is not Mayor Murdoch. president of WAM saying this is what we need to fight and die on. This is concerns that come from locals. So I think for an example, Laramie, Cheyenne, Cody, and Rollins have all been dealing with stormwater and surface water. We have spent quite a few hours wrestling through that. I can tell you now that we have very good progress. There is draft legislation that will go to the Select Water Commission on Thursday that we have all stacked hands on. I think Jen and Todd and others have been involved in that and I think we're all very satisfied. The University of Wyoming is satisfied, Cheyenne is satisfied, and I think it's a very good solution that will work for everybody. It's been a long time coming and it's been a process. We upset a few apple carts when we oppose certain legislation during the session, but I can tell you today that we have a far better bill and a far better solution than we did a year ago. Then, as I said, so each town votes, and that goes to our regions. The regions then bring that to our LLC, and then that goes to our board. So it's very important. I know Laramie participates very well, but it is very important that every one of our towns and cities participate in those regional levels because that's where the policy is actually made. And as I said, we have to balance the needs of a CASPER versus an OPAL or a Shoshone. So very quickly, this is our legislative process. In the spring, we have our spring region meeting. We discuss our interim priorities. Those interim priorities are hashed out and they're determined at our spring board meeting. Those are the topics that we are working on immediately through the summer going into January. At all regional meetings, which are coming up, we vote on the session priorities, and then that goes to our board meeting, and that becomes our priorities for the session. And then our winter conference, we begin the process over again, and we begin working on our interim requests. When it comes to winter, it's January, frankly, December through February and March. We are deep in the weeds on legislation that we had already decided about nine months previously. Obviously, there are things that pop up and so we're very flexible to add things when they need to be added. But this is a process that is thought through and approached, I would say, very sagely and with great stewardship. Finally, these are our main priorities, supporting home rule and defending local decision-making so that our citizens within our towns can speak to our local councils, our local councils can make their laws, and those are the laws by which every city can live by. I said Jacksonville, Wyoming is different than Laramie, Wyoming. We all have different cities and different cultures, and that gives us the ability within the law to be different and not have one model for everybody. We obviously want to protect our local government revenues. I was very impressed with your chip seal price. The town of Pinedale actually had a pass on chip sealing this year because we did not have enough revenue, and our bid was at $400,000, and $250,000 of that was the MOAB fee. So I was actually very jealous, and I'm going to tell my public works director again. You're a contractor. We support the right to associate freely and collaborate. We want to be able to write, to be able to talk, to be able to advocate, be able to discuss what's going on between us, and finally have sustainable funding for all our critical infrastructure and services and provide economic development. Madam Mayor, with that, I will end. If there are any further questions, I'm happy to answer them. But I am very grateful both for Laramie's involvement in WAM, obviously for Mayor Cumbie, your involvement on the board. And it's been a pleasure to work with your staff as we've been going through surface and stormwater. I must say you have a very professional staff and very intelligent staff. So they've been super helpful in this process. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Mayor Murdoch. Questions or comments, Councillors? I'm taking comments now before we go to public. Great.

Thank you, Mayor Murdoch. Micah, speaking. Thanks so much for presenting. I know that we are all pretty familiar with this, but it's always so nice to see it laid out, to see just the amount that is being done. And I very much appreciate you highlighting, again, the fact that there are separate revenues used for, or separate funding streams used for the policy work versus the other work that is happening. So thanks for that.

Any further questions or comments? Councillor Freed.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Mayor Murdoch, Jim Freed over here. Just, yeah, I guess I think this is money well spent for my limited time on council, understanding what WAM is able to do for our community and for our city staff. I mean, it's impressive. And so having a voice to bring us together to find solutions to 99 municipalities across the state, I mean, that is a benefit. So I think this is... a really good thing and another way that we can advocate for our individual communities at a state level and beyond. So thanks.

Councilor Vigil. Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, Mayor Murdoch. This is Melanie Vigil. We went to D.C. together this spring and just wanted to touch on that a little bit. So, yeah, so the conference that I was able to go to alongside some of our WAM staff and mayors from across the state was really transformational to me as a new councilor. I didn't realize how many connections and the state of Wyoming as WAM had outside of Wyoming. And so I think it was really valuable to see that. It was really good to connect with other municipal leaders. And Mayor Murdock is absolutely correct in saying we have really, really awesome staff members at WAM. I learned a lot from them and I think this membership is well worth it. Thanks.

Thank you. Councilor Shumway.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to make a few comments. First of all, thank you, Mayor, for your position on the board. I know that's a very important thing for our region. Also, I want to mention that Councillor Freed also has a position with WAM, I think Legislative Services. The leadership. Leadership, okay. Anyway, we're well represented there. My comment is this. Since Director Ashley Hopstreet and also Matt Murdock have taken the reins of WAM, our relationship has improved in several areas. One which is very significant is our strong working relationship we now have with the counties which we did not have before. Also the legislature have really been able to work much closer with WAM than they ever have before and I think we have a better working relationship with them because of the work that Mayor Murdock and also Director executive director Hop Street does. WAM has never been stronger. We went many, many years without having all 99 communities involved. Now we do, and I think we're working very, very well together, and I think WAM is in a position now where everyone can see the value. As we move forward, we're getting a lot done.

Councilor Bolling.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor Murdoch. Will Bowling here, Ward 1. Ditto to everything, and thank you so much for joining us. WAM is a tremendous opportunity for the city and for us professionally, and we'll see you in October.

And I just want to say that during my tenure on council, which I'm in my year now, WAM has been part of my mentoring process. WAM has brought me into advancing my leadership skills through the courses that we have, through the statewide affiliation that I can be familiar with the mayors all over our state, with counselors all over our state, that we can call and contact one another, offer support. And I love that we meet twice a year because it keeps those relationships growing and flourishing. And I just wanted to say that I think, Wim, I agree with you, Councillor Shumway, it's more exciting, it's more out there providing services, education, consolidation, et cetera, than I've ever seen. And I'm excited to be a part, and I'm excited to serve on the Board of Directors. And thank you very much, Mayor Murdoch, for coming tonight. So the next thing I'll do is turn it over. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Seeing none, back to council. All right. City Clerk, if you can please call the roll.

Vigil. Yes. Shumley.

Yes.

O'Doherty. Yes. Newman. Absent. Lockhart. Absent. Freed. Aye. Bolling. Aye. Richardson. Yes. Cumbee.

Yes.

That's seven yeses, zero noes, and two absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Thank you, Mayor Murdoch.

Thank you again. I wish you the best. Have a great evening. Okay. And we'll see you in October.

Yes. Look forward to seeing you soon. Bye-bye. And our last item, Councilor O'Doherty.

I move that the Laramie City Council support the letter of recommendations regarding Pacific Corps Integrated Resource Plan, the IRP, to be submitted to the Wyoming Public Service Commission, the PSC, and authorize the mayor to sign. Second.

I have a motion by O'Doherty, second by Vigil.

Honorable Mayor, this is the City of Laramie's response to Rocky Mountain Powers Industrial Resource Program, I believe is what it's called, and to encourage them to use more renewable energy in their portfolio as we move forward. I think Councilor Doherty will fill us all in on investment in Blue Sky and what we are encouraging the Public Service Commission to do as they review Rocky Mountain Powers Program.

thank you councillor o'doherty so we we passed our emissions uh goals a few years ago and and we had broad support from the public we had a lot of people uh sending us postcards we got emails we had a full um chambers uh what i thought was really interesting so we got this advice from our environmental advisory commission that committee that wanted us to uh chime in with the Public Service Commission regarding the increase in emissions that will be part of this new plan and and kind of the abandonment of a lot of renewables and so that was really really tough to hear so I asked the the blue sky coordinator for for Rocky Mountain Power and she said there are about 10 over 10,000 customers Rocky Mountain Power customers with Laramie addresses so it could be some a little out of the city over 10,000 customers that pay extra to get blue sky to contribute to the blue sky program and she said there were over 400 customers that are business customers So to me, that's a better survey of support of renewable energy. So I'm asking our council to support this letter. And what I did was draw from the Environmental Advisory Commission their information and from our carbon emissions plan. Thank you.

Councilors, do you have any questions? Councilor Boling.

Just thank you for your attention to this, Erin. It's really helpful and for making sure that we're hearing it out loud, not just on consent.

Councilor Freed.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Councilor O'Doherty, for pulling this on the regular agenda. I guess my question would be, I don't know if City Manager, if you're able to answer it, but do they typically send a response to something like this, and will we have any sort of You know, I'm sure there's an acknowledgement that they've received something, but in your experience, do you know what that might look like?

The Honorable Mayor Thuda, Councilor Freed, this is my first time in this process, so I'm not sure what this will be received as or if it will indicate any response from Rocky Mountain Power as we move through the process.

Councillor O'Doherty.

Councillor Freed, when I brought up to the city manager, like we spend over a million dollars a year We pay Rocky Mountain Power over a million dollars a year. We really want to have renewables, and can you throw us a bone? I thought we were really big customers because a million dollars a year, but the city manager is like, yeah, we're not that big. It feels big to me because we see those. We're on the finance committee. Thank you.

I'm going to turn it over to public comment right now. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Welcome.

I knocked it over the last time I came.

And if you can state your name for the record.

Thank you, Council. My name is Emma Jones, and I'm an organizer with the Wyoming chapter of the Sierra Club. I work on energy issues across the state, including the utility planning process. And I want to thank you for considering comments on Rocky Mountain Power's 2025 Integrated Resource Plan and Integrated Resource Plan update. The integrated resource plan has pretty significant downstream impacts, not just on energy development in Wyoming, but also on electricity costs for customers, including the city. Essentially, the plans that Rocky Mountain Power makes now in their integrated resource plan for meeting customers' needs is translated into the rates that we're going to then pay to Rocky Mountain Power. I believe it's in the best interest of the city and its residents for Rocky Mountain Power to maintain a diverse portfolio, which prioritizes energy that's least cost, least risk for customers, which is why I think it's so important for the city to give input on the IRP to the Wyoming Public Service Commission And just to answer that question about like, well, what happens when we submit a comment? It goes into the public record that Rocky Mountain Power can see. And that is a part of the Public Service Commission's consideration of whether or not to acknowledge the plan. The IRP update that was filed this year, it includes no new wind or solar for Wyoming for the next 20 years, which is not only less affordable, but it also introduces a lot of risk into the plan for customers. If you remember the last major rate case we had in 2023, we had another in 2024 that was smaller, but that one was driven primarily by high fuel costs from natural gas. So I think diversifying has the potential to shield customers like the city from risk like this. The IRP also doesn't adequately model what a high distributed energy resource scenario would look like in Wyoming, which I think is a really great opportunity for the city in its comments to highlight how small scale renewable energy and efficiency programs have helped the city meet its energy needs while reducing emissions. As noted in its letter, the city has significant climate goals and Rocky Mountain Power plays a big role in the city meeting those emissions reduction goals, not just via where electricity comes from, but also through programs that would allow the city more choice and energy freedom. So programs like net metering, Blue Sky, other community programs are all things the city has benefited from and has an opportunity to continue advocating for in its comments. The Public Service Commission also recently changed its rules to require that they issue an acknowledgement or a non-acknowledgement of the IRP versus just in the past they would just accept it for filing and didn't really do anything with it. Now public input matters a lot more and has a bigger impact on what the public service commission does. So I know the IRP is lengthy and it's got a lot of moving parts so I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thanks.

Thank you Emma. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is there any other public comment? Ed?

I might have somebody on line.

Hi, Mom.

Good evening. Honorable Mayor Comby and members of the City Council. My name is Ed Consul and I'm a Laramie resident. And first of all, I really want to compliment you on preparing this letter for the Public Service Commission. I got a copy of it, read it through, and I think it's a well-written letter. I think Rocky Mountain Power's attempt to reduce the reliance on renewable energy should be questioned, especially with the attendant increase in carbon emissions. If you've looked at that, it's quite a bit. that I wanted to mention is this is part of a trend. Other stockholder held companies are dumping their renewable energy commitments. A lot of it because of data centers. There's a rush to get data centers power and it's through gas with backups of diesel. Cheyenne is experiencing this because Microsoft has reneged on their renewable energy policy and commitments over there. And they've signed gas contracts to support their expansion of their data center over there. And it's expanding by a factor, I believe, of about three. We all hear the news, the record temperatures, the droughts, rivers running dry. There is a nuclear facility over in Europe right now that's dynamiting riverbanks to keep enough water to cool their nuclear power plant. They can't just shut it off because you have to cool it even after you shut it off. So these are the kind of side effects that can come from some of this stuff. We now have these added threats from the data centers, so we need all the renewable energy we can get. And I just want to say that I am one of the Laramie citizens mentioned in the letter that has expressed the desire to reduce the emissions, increase renewable energy, and be a good steward for our environment. One thing I do want to say, I echo the closing sentiment of this letter. recommending that Rocky Mountain Power include more renewable energy sources in its portfolio. But I wish that that last paragraph were a little bit stronger and made a stronger statement for renewable energy and battery storage by clearly stating and asking the Public Service Commission to at least hold Rocky Mountain Power to their original 2025 IRP levels of renewable energy and battery storage and go one step further and ask for even more renewable energy resources to cover the projected demands of these data centers. They are tremendous energy and water consumers regardless of what model they propose. That's what they do. I want to thank you again for the letter and thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Thank you, Ed. Is there any other public comment? Sylvia, good evening.

Honorable Mayor and City Council, I'm Sylvia Bagdonis, and I just wanted to support and endorse the two previous statements concerning the letter. I think it's excellent. I was here in 2020 when the City Council voted on the resolution to reduce carbon emissions by 2050, and you've been working very hard to do that, but when you have something like this come up, where renewables are not even considered. I think that's a real problem. So thank you. Great letter.

Thank you, Sylvia. Any further public comment on this agenda item? Okay.

Good evening, Mr. Glass. Proceed.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of Council, Brett Glass. I appreciate your letter, which mildly critiques the proposed resource plan for Pacific Power. However, as the previous speakers have said, I don't think it's emphatic enough. Not only does this potentially torpedo the city's plans for reduced carbon emissions or carbon neutrality, it's a real danger to the state. Today, I went to work in an attic that was something like 120 degrees, and we've never had such heat in the summer. Clearly, this is causing injurious anthropogenic climate change. So what I would like to ask Council, if it's possible to do it, is that rather than passing this right away, you table this item and go back and rewrite the letter to make it more emphatic. Because I really think that we need to use a little bit of stronger language as we recommend that Pacific Power actually do something to preserve the climate and not make matters worse. Thank you very much.

Thank you Mr. Glass. Any further public comment? All right, back to Council. Councillor O'Doherty.

Believe me, when I was writing this letter, I wanted to be more emphatic, but I was using the language that we had already passed in both of our resolutions. We didn't address so much cost. We addressed more climate emissions. And while I personally feel like that, you know, that I would like to address more of the renewables, I didn't think it was in my purview because it's not things that the Environmental Advisory Commission and the City Council had passed previously, but I would encourage the public, if that's how you feel, to make it known to the Public Service Commission. And if you want to know how to do that, there's all kinds of footnotes in this letter. Thank you.

Thank you. Further comments? Councillor Freed?

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Councilor O'Doherty, for your information, your work on this, for the EAC, and also for the public comments that we've received on this. I think, as the City Manager said earlier, this is kind of the first time that we're going through this process, and I think... you know, trying to start a dialogue to maybe advocate. I think this letter does that. I think you could argue that it doesn't go far enough, but I think this is the first kind of response that we're having here. And I think this is the way that we can reflect the values of our community and the asks that we have. And so, you know, I think it's a reasonable letter and I hope that this is the start of a conversation to continue to advocate for other policies.

Thanks.

Councilor Bolling.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Councilor Doherty. Thank you to the public comment too. Just a nod of agreement. I'm all for the fire. I would love to send a strongly worded letter to a multinational that In any instance, but I think in this case, I will follow the wisdom and the guidance of Councillor Doherty and the EAC. Thank you.

Yeah, there is also a deadline. May I speak?

Yes, you may.

The Public Service Commission meets on August 25th. about this issue. So there's not a lot of time to go back and write the perfect letter. So that's why I pulled this together. So public comment needs to be there by August 25th.

Thank you for that update. So, um, And as Councilor Doherty said, if you'll refer to the letter, it will give you the address that the public may need to follow up with other letters that help support that and maybe even go beyond with some stronger language, so. All right, is there any public comment on non-agenda items? What? Oh yeah, we forgot to vote. Got so caught up in the discussion. City Clerk, please call the roll.

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

Yes.

Lockhart, absent. Freed?

Yes.

Bolling?

Yes.

Feehill? Yes. Richardson? Yes. Cumbee?

Yes.

That's seven yeses, zero nos, and two absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. And now, is there any public comment on non-agenda items? Seeing none, Councilors, is there any consideration for future Council work session topics? All right. Seeing none, Councillor O'Doherty.

I move we adjourn.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed?

We are adjourned.