City Council - Regular Meeting

here.

Okay, gang. 10 seconds.

Hey, we got everybody. All right. Good evening and welcome to the city of Steamboat Springs regular meeting number 2026-07, Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. It is now 5:00 pm and I just want to make a couple of announcements here around comments from the public are welcome at two different times during the course of our meeting. Number one, comments no longer than 3 minutes on items not scheduled on the agenda and comments on information only items such as staff report, city council report, city manager report will be heard under public comment. Comments no longer than three minutes um on other items will be heard following the presentation by the staff or the petitioner. And with the exception of subjects brought up during public comment, the city council may take action on and may take it uh make a decision regarding any item referred to in this agenda, including without limitation any item referenced from review, update, report, or discussion. It is our goal to adjourn all meetings by 10:00. You also should find up there some rainbow items. Uh they're the colored pieces of paper. You're welcome to help yourself to those. And our agenda is as always on the city website. So with that in mind, our first public comment will be taken at either 6:00 pm or after staff reports, whichever comes first. So with that, Julie, can you give us roll call? Steve Montine

here. Gail Garry here. John Aosta here. Dave Barnes here. Michael Bacino here. Amy Dixon here. And Brian Swintech here. Okay. Can we rise for the pledge of allegiance? Flag in the back of the room and one up front. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. With that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn from our regular meeting and reconvene as the liquor license authority. So moved. Second.

Okay. We have a motion by councelor Gary, a second by councelor Pacino. All those in favor say I. I.

Opposed. Okay. We will now move into our role as the liquor license authority. This is a public hearing before the liquor licensing authority of the city of Steamboat Springs to determine whether or not the application of SRA Central Park Steamboat Owner LLC to be located at 1750 Central Park Drive, Steamboat Springs, Colorado for a hotel and restaurant liquor license should be granted or denied. This hearing is conducted in pursuant to the laws of the state of Colorado and to the rules of the liquor licensing authority of the city of Steamboat Springs. The purpose of this hearing is to receive information, data, and testimony by interested parties in order to enable the city council to make findings and reach conclusions required to required to be made by state law as to whether or not the liquor license applied for should be issued. A record is being made of these proceedings so that those who desire to be heard must identify themselves by name and address. Interested parties are residents of the neighborhood under consideration or owners or managers of any business located in the neighborhood. The neighborhood has been preliminarily established as follows. The relevant neighborhood is Highway 40 corridor. Any challenges to members of council conducting this hearing must be stated at the onset of the hearing. The burden is upon the applicant to satisfy the council that the reasonable requirements of the relevant neighborhood for the kind of license applied for are not presently being adequately satisfied. The burden is also upon the applicant to show the council that he or she is a person of good moral character entitled to hold the liquor license. So is the applicant ready to proceed? Please come down and identify yourself for the record by giving your name and address.

Ryan Schuy, address uh 27406 Brandon Circle, Stebo Springs, Colorado. Okay. Raise your right hand, please. Do you swear that the testimony you are about to give before the council is the truth? Yes, I do. Okay. Do you wish to make a statement regarding your liquor license application? Not at this time. Okay. Thank you, Julie. Does the city have any exhibits to introduce? Yes, we have exhibits A through G. Documents required by the Colorado Liquor Enforcement Division. If there's no objection, the city exhibits A through DG will be admitted. Okay. Julie, does the applicant have any exhibits to introduce?

Yes, they provided a petition containing 75 signatures in support of the application, which is exhibit D. Are there any objections to the admission of applicants exhibit D? If none, exhibit D shall be admitted. Are there any other interested parties who wish to be recognized? Any online? Nope. Okay. Um, yes.

Okay. So, whoever is online, please state your name and address for the record. And KMC, did you mean to raise your hand?

Looks like maybe or Eva just unmute, you need to unmute yourself, please. How about there? Can you folks hear me? Oh, yes. Yes, now we can. Oh, okay. Thank you so much. There for a while was clicking all I could click and it wouldn't let me do it. So, gotta love technology. Um, thank you very much for that. Could you get uh start with your name and address, please?

Yes, sir. For the record, my name is Eva Garrettson. last name is G A R R E T S O N. I'm one of the owners of Liquor Licensing Professionals doing business as liquor pros and we were hired by the applicant to conduct the needs and desire surveys. And if I may uh sorry, Miss Garrison to to I I logged in in two different applications to try to get in. It wouldn't let me unmute. My name's Kevin Coats. I'm the Okay. Well, hold on a minute. Are are you both calling in under the same No. No. I will. Okay. Well, let's I think we I think we need to finish with the first public comment. Ava, Eva,

did you have a comment you wanted to make? Well, I I was going to say I can go through the process and procedure of what we did with the um petitioning if you would like unless you would you have a certain protocol where that comes later. Um it is up to you. I think we're I think we're okay. Is everyone okay? Yeah, I think we're fine. Okay. But we appreciate that. Yes, sir. Um Okay.

So, good evening everyone. Thank you for having me once again. Uh for the record, my name is Eva Garrison. I'm with Liquor Pros. Uh one of the owners. Um we are a professional survey company that uh provides needs and desire surveys for liquor, marijuana, and cabaret licenses throughout the entire state of Colorado. We have now con uh conducted over 4,380 surveys throughout the entire state and we've worked in over 120 different jurisdictions. Um we were hired by the applicant to conduct the needs and desire survey regarding the new hotel and restaurant liquor license for Spring Hill Suites Steamboat Springs uh Town Place Suite Steamboat Springs located at your 1750 Central Park Drive. We are a third party petitioning company which means we do not guarantee results. We simply provide the survey and the results are asis. Um, we worked with Miss Heather who was amazing. I do want to give her a shout out in working in over 120 different jurisdictions. Sometimes we work with uh some people that have no clue what they're doing. So, she was amazing. She did amazing. Um, so I do want to give you folks credit on that one. She did provide us with the boundary map and um the petition forms. We we were allowed to use your uh petition forms. Um we went out on the date of or the day of Saturday, February 7th. Once again, following the protocol of who can we can contact. We identified ourselves um with a name tag. We let them know what we were doing there. Also, what type of liquor license that was being implied for, which is a new hotel and restaurant liquor license, which we do explain to folks that this is a full liquor license, meaning uh beer, wine, and spirits. um made attempted contacts with 109 business owners, managers, residents, and people that worked in the area or shopped in the area according to

the petition packets. And we obtained a total of 75 signatures. All 75 signed in favor at 100%. Once again, we are a third party petitioning company. So, we take a no just as much as we take a yes. But looking at the 100% and there are several other licenses of similar type inside your area. But looking at the 100% it clearly shows a positive need and desire for this uh liquor license and that the existing outlets have not yet met that need. And I'd be more than happy to answer any questions from the authority. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Let's go let's go on to um I think it's Kevin. Kevin is it?

Yes. Uh I I'm sorry I had the same problems Miss Garrison did. I couldn't uh get it off of mute here and in fact I was logging in under two different uh matters, my iPad and the computer. So my apologies, but I guess we're we're on now. So thank you. I'm the attorney here on behalf of um Can you just start with your with your name and address, please, for the record?

You bet. My name is Kevin Coats. It's COA TES. My registration number is 25995. I'm the attorney here on behalf of of uh Sarak the applicant. And um you've already heard from Miss Garrettson. I very much appreciate that. But I think that that outlined uh essentially the petition and survey process which shows that there's a need and desire for issuance of the license. We do have present here Ryan um Schwedy who came up to the lectern earlier and saw you. Um he'll be the general manager here at the location. They're hoping to open sometime in mid uh April. and uh he is well aware of the training requirements and the two ordinances that you have the local ordinances regarding training uh and requirements for that uh in terms of the 60 days and in terms of the the uh agencies that qualify. Um it it will be a a full hotel restaurant license if approved. Um it's a fourstory hotel uh there in town and it does have a pool and a patio area. Um but uh Mr. Schwedy has been in the business for about six years managing hotels in the Steamboat area and has never had an issue or problem associated with alcohol sales, including a violation. Um, so I'm saying all these things quickly because I know you probably want to move on to matters. We're happy to call Mr. Schwedy up and have him testify if you need him to or he can confirm essentially my comments to you. But I believe that um uh this offer of proof that essentially I'm giving to you meets the statutory elements associated with issuance of the license particularly with a a survey in place that shows about 100% in favor of it. Um and I'm here to answer any questions that you may have. Uh Roger Gregory is the principal officer of SRAK. He is present as well. Um not expecting to call him as a witness here tonight, but he is present. And um we ask that the authority uh approve the license. As I said, we're hoping about midappril to to be able to to get open

at that time. And um certainly here to answer any questions you might have. Okay. Well, thank you, Kevin. And uh I would just ask the council uh do we have do you have any questions for either witness? Nope. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. At the at this time, the council may immediately make a decision, provide for public discussion of consideration of documents or testimony, or table this matter. Any motion to approve or deny must contain findings and conclusions. The city attorney has prepared an outline of findings to assist in a motion to approve or deny, which is in your agenda packet. At this time, what would council like to do? And I would say that the choice is here is to make a motion either to approve or deny the application of Sarak Central Park Steamboat Owner LLC to be located at 1750 Central Park Drive, Steamboat Springs, Colorado for a hotel and restaurant liquor license should be um liquor license. So I so move to approve.

Okay. Second. Okay. We have a motion by councelor Augusta to approve, seconded by councelor Barnes. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes 70. Congratulations, Mr. Quy. Thank you very much. Good luck. Y. Thank you. Okay. The sec second thing we have here is just to approve the minutes, if you will, from our um February 17th meeting. Does anybody have any questions or revisions on the minutes? And if not, I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Second.

Okay. We have a motion from councelor Gary, second by councelor Swintech. All those in favor of approving the February 17 minutes say I. Opposed. Okay. Motion passes 70. Now I'll ask for a motion to adjurnn. Second and reconvene at our regular meeting. Okay. We have a motion from councelor Pacino, second by councelor Barnes. All those in favor? I opposed. Okay, we are back at our regular meeting and we'll move on to our next agenda item which is city council reports. Who would like to go first? I can start.

Okay. Um, we had a housing subcommittee meeting just you do have in your rainbow all the detailed updates. I think two things to note. One, the last update I gave I slightly misspoke. So now the housing authorities request for STR funds for White Haven mobile park is going through the process. So is going to the subcommittee and it's going to go through our process for approval for STR funds. Um the second thing we discussed was there's some uh dialogue with the Milner Mobile Park that's up there. Um it was purchased by the tenants. They're trying to sort out their financials um to make it sustainable and they're talking to the city about ways to use STR funds. We directed staff to just continue just talking to them. They know our goals with um um maintaining and increasing the stock of affordable housing and so those conversations are continuing. Um I also attended an RCDP meeting um updates in Hayden. It was a state of the of the municipalities at that meeting. So, I gave a brief about what's going on, what our winds were, what we're working on. Um, I did want to give a couple updates that I thought were interesting. Uh, especially in Hayden. Um, Amazon officially owns their lot out by the airport and construction will be starting soon. Um, the they are looking at purchasing their mobile um, home park at Pinion Pines. Um and so they are working in in partnership with the community foundation to make that happen as well. Um and then there is near the airport and near the um power plant, there's a battery storage project that's happening out there. This is separate from the solar plant, the solar project that I had talked about before. Um it's another project that it'll be largely construction jobs and then one or two to maintain it, but still pretty interesting the fact that that's going in over there. And those are all my updates. Oh, I did attend the

destination the DD whatever it is with the chamber. The destination management takeaway is just it lodging is sad. It's down a lot. It's going to continue to be down a lot. So, we should definitely be prepared for the impacts of that on sales tax and Kim will probably touch on that a little later tonight.

Okay. Thank you. Who else? I guess I can give a um quick update. Um in terms of RTA, um we put out an RFQ for um banking services. Uh we received three um RF RFPs back by the deadline. And of of the three, we chose a Bank of Colorado. Um and so that that is our bank. Um we felt that that was the best fit for our needs at this point in time. the um uh also part of RTA, the um the Colorado Clean Transit Enterprise gave us a presentation about some you know upcoming um grant um um opportunities and so we will be evaluating that. Um so there is some grant money that we need to start chasing but our next thing in terms of our priority is actually getting an executive director. So our next uh now that we have a bank, we can you know get funds from a ski corp that uh their their donation of you know million dollars and then that allows us to open the door for looking for an executive director to start chasing things like grant money. And so that's our our next thing. the um and then just just a general thing that keeps on popping up with the RTA as a new agency that we're we're we're trying to bring on board is uh we don't have a website up. We don't have repositories set up. So we don't have good ways of sharing like uh videos of meetings of of um um of of any you know documentation in the files. And so we recognize that right now. We're saying we just you have to email the secretary and they'll they'll we are handling those situations on a onesie basis. So we recogni we we have an issue there. We recognize it. We're trying to um resolve it as quickly as possible. That's that's my update.

Okay. Thank you.

Um I'll go because everyone's looking at me. So, um I received um an outreach from a resident up on them who lives up on the mountain um about people parking on Mount Warner Circle. Um and yes, we had the winter wonder this past weekend and so I think we can expect to probably see more traffic and cars. Um, so I reached back out to this person and said, "Is this just over this one weekend that you're seeing this?" And they said, "No, this is a consistent problem." Um, they said, "It's definitely gotten worse with the Amble construction." Um, her impression is that construction workers are actually them parking on Mount Warner Circle, um, which then opens the floodgates for everyone else to park there. Um, and so I don't know if anyone drove up there this weekend, but Friday, Saturday, Sunday, cars all along. Again, I get, you know, it was a busy weekend. We had the concert or the um winter wondergrass. Um, but I think the real issue is that we need to continue talking about parking um on the mountain and with um ski. And I am reluctant to ask Tom um to have our police officers monitoring that and ticketing people when truly this is an issue um created by Ski Core. And so when we're looking at a partnership, this is the type of stuff we need to be talking about. Um this will continue to get worse. We've had um a bad snow year, so it hasn't been as busy on the mountain as we all know. Um but this problem persists and it will continue. So I just wanted just

nothing to do just raising it now um for everyone that we need to um be thinking about this and um figure out how we can work with ski. Okay. Thank you, Councelor Gary.

Yep. All right. I'll go next. Um so we had coffee with council a couple of weeks ago and councelor Bacino, councelor Swintech, myself and Kelly all attended. We had the most people we've had ever. Um so attendance continues to increase with the coffee with council. So it's about 17 people, but the room the room was full. Exactly. So um just wanted to highlight some of the things that came up again and we do have regular attendees, but I would say we're beginning to see a lot of new faces as well. So there was um comments by the the there were a couple of housing authority board um folks who were in attendance. So they again wanted to just highlight the opportunity that's unfolding at Cottonwoods in terms of the forale units. Um there were also some questions about the Campbell property. So we talked about that. There were questions about the C dot maintenance facility that's under discussion to be potentially moved to River Road from Rabbit Ears. Uh and then there were also um a person that stated some concerns about traffic uh and kind of what's the plan and is there discussions about a bypass. Um so we kind of we talked about the the history of that discussion. And then we also had a couple of um two different parties that attended who shared their experiences with short-term rentals um and specifically um you know I think one was involved in the initial um issues with enforcement um and wanted to share kind of their experience and then there's a current one going on apparently being considered by the municipal court who and he they were sharing their experience as Well, it seems like that one's a little bit more complicated and quite frankly beyond STRs, but we won't that's that's because it's pending. That's all we really kind of talked about. So, the next um council copy with council is I think Friday the 20th. So, hopefully

everybody has that marked on their calendar. I also wanted to just bring up one piece of legislation, House Bill 26101, which is the Home Act. And this is legislation that's really focused on affordable and attainable housing and making it easier for entities like nonprofits, public education institution, housing authorities, local and regional trans transit. It's kind of the um what is it? The Yiggby bill uh 2.0 from a couple of years ago. Uh I think the concern is that it preempts local zoning and land use planning on all sorts of different fronts. A Colorado Municipal League is opposed to the bill. CAST has proposed a handful of amendments and apologies, I sent it out kind of midafter afternoon. Um, but basically there's kind of three different areas that there is a is focused on. One is a height allowance and I think CAST is basically requesting kind of a deviation as opposed to a flat um uh 45 ft but basically saying look community should be able to kind of allow for that but take into consideration what their in what their community has already in place so that it doesn't stand out. There's also really no guarant there's a question about how strong the language is in the legislation that actually encourages and promotes affordability. Um so again trying to make sure that if you're going to allow for these exemptions and basically usurp local zoning rules that in fact you actually get affordable housing standards. And then um the third piece is really trying to narrow the definition of nonprofits because right now it's pretty broad and pretty open. So I think CAST has a suggestion to narrow the language so that the organization actually has to be involved or have some sort of history or track record with delivering services and financial viability. So I you know I

kind of wanted to flag that um CAST would like us to engage um as it because it has passed the House and is moving into the Senate. Um, so being able to kind of engage with Senator Roberts would, I think, be beneficial in terms of trying to, you know, address these concerns to make sure that municipalities still have some um, say or input and we just don't get blanket developments up to like five acres um, that don't have to adhere to any sort of zoning rule. So, I don't know if that's enough for everybody to feel comfortable with um commenting on that or if you want to take a look at I, as I say, just this afternoon sent out the bill and the amendments. So, we can also table that if if everybody wants to have an an opportunity to look at it more in depth. And I think Tom, right, maybe I know I think Rebecca, you guys have looked at it too. So, do you want to add anything from a staff perspective? Um, the only thing I'd add is that we are reviewing it and we'll have some comments that we can pass along to you and then we can pass those along to CAST as well just to make sure that they have our comments and our concerns. Our our our comments and concerns um parallel theirs and mimic theirs um which is really a desire to reduce the scope um um of that bill because it really does usurp local control which is a concern. So,

it's a House Bill number what? 26101. So, and hopefully it was attached to the email. Yeah. So, maybe it didn't go out. I'll double check. I double check because I don't have a copy of it in my box. No, I don't either. Nobody got it? No. That's bizarre. Quarantined. Yeah. Okay. All right. So you will wait and you can share that with the rest of council. Yep. We'll we'll send that out. That'll give people time to review.

Okay, perfect. Um and then I did also participate in a discussion yesterday with the first impressions. I think it was spearheaded by first impressions, but it was a broader group of community members to talk about establishing a sustainable funding mechanism for early childhood development and education. And um they I think they've received funding from the Bule Foundation to explore the various different types of funding mechanisms as well as to conduct a poll and to do some community whatever community engagement is necessary to move forward. You know at this point no decision has been made on the funding mechanism. Um but I think there is you know significant interest in terms of moving forward. So, I'll keep you up to date on what we learn from what what comes out of the next meeting. And then I know we want to talk about Brown Ranch governance, but in terms of providing an update on that, I don't know if anybody else has council reports before we start jump into that.

Why don't we see anything from this side of the room? Okay. I have a couple things I just wanted to mention. The first was I think you all know that um we're going to do Tom and I are going to do a state of the city this Thursday at 4:00

5:00 excuse me and uh then with a reception afterward and we have invited quite a few people who and the RSVPs are coming in um pretty strong um with acceptance for that. So, it would be great if we could have everybody's participation here at 5:00. Um, for that, uh, the format is really Tom and I are going to kind of go back and forth and talk a little bit about last year's results, this year's plans, um, and and do some, um, awards as well, and some other things. Um, we won't be taking a Q&A at that point in time, but what we'd like to do is afterward, if we're all here, then we're all accessible to people to ask questions. They can ask questions of any of us. So it would be great if if um if you can make that time and then if you are here I would suggest maybe we just um spread out in the audience and maybe not all sit together like the Supreme Court and just spread out a little bit. So does that work for most of you?

I will be there.

Okay, good. That should be great. Second thing I want to talk just for a minute about the local marketing district, the LMD. Um, we have, I believe, moved that up into a May work session or are trying to work that into a May work session. And, um, it's all about trying to look at ways of of expanding the LMD to more of the city um, than where it is today and as well as looking at some other avenues uh, around funding and whatnot. So, we want to take you through uh what's been worked on, what's been proposed, and get council's um feedback on it because if we do want to proceed and do something different, we may have to um take something to the voters. So, we want to take you all through that. So, that'll be in May. And uh I also wanted just to say that um the announcement of Ski Core and uh the resort group getting together um is very interesting. And I I think it could be uh a positive for for um our community in many ways. It's the first time Alterara's ever done this. So we're like out there um at the forefront of this. So just wanted to offer congratulations to them and hopefully they'll it'll be a uh a marriage that will benefit the community in many different ways. So we'll see. So with that, would you like to chat about Brown Ranch governance?

Sure. Um, you know, and again, this is really just to augment the staff memo that was the Brown Ranch Governance Group that was part of the packet. Um, in terms of kind of providing background from the Civic Canopy perspective and I think it's, you know, it's pretty thorough. Um but we wanted to um basically provide some more information and allow for opportunity for comment from you know anyone um you for council in terms of moving forward and really really to just set the context um you know councelor Barnes and I participated in the first you know Brown Ranch governance committee. Um Tom was there as well. And really this is kind of as a reminder more for everybody in the public that this is phase two of the Brown Ranch annexation kind of community deliberation and shared learning process. And you know again as a reminder this is the work that's being funded by the Denver Foundation kind of belonging Colorado grant. And so again we met last week with representatives from the housing authority as well as um Jay Harrington from the county was there. And as I mentioned, the discussion was facilitated by Civic Canopy as well as the community builders. And really the purpose was to explore what the future planning process for Brown Ranch could look like. And I think it became clear during the first meeting kind of the first couple of hours that really we needed clarity and agreement on the goal of the group. I think everybody came into that conversation with different thoughts about what does governance mean? What is it? Is this specific to the annexation process? Is this something that is going to be more um relevant to the actual development process? Or is this everything right from soup to nuts? And you know, as part of the first um couple of hours, we also they had provided some case studies on how other communities approached this. And again, those case studies really were more specific to

development and how what the governance of that development was after kind of the annexation process had already gone through. So based upon that, the second um meeting kind of the next morning when we met, we basically took the opportunity to kind of regroup and um talk about the concerns that I think were raised during the first day, which really were specific to the objective of the group as well as the purpose and really just trying to level set what the expectations were. And so you know again kind of from my perspective we talked about the fact that look housing authority owns the land city is invol you know is part of the annexation process. So we all need to be at the table and um need to identify what kind of structure is basically going to create the collaboration that we need to have in place in order um to succeed. And um I think that the group also felt really strongly that we need that community engagement needs to be first and foremost and really important in terms of this part of the process to make sure that we are transparent and continue to be kind of accountable. And I think kind of one of my other big takeaways from the meeting too was that really there was a commitment to being collaborative, right? and kind of you know as they describe it from the perspective of the stretch collaboration that really no one party is going to say look we can't move forward this or in terms of I well I don't want to say that more in terms of how we move forward everybody needs to be on board and we need to stop if we can't reach collaboration you know if we can't reach some sort of consensus then you know we need to work through that before we move forward but it's not going to be one party kind of um determining the outcome over the other party. So I think that's going to be really important in terms of, you know, how we move forward that I think there at le um commitment to being, you know, collaborative in

nature. And as I say, we also really talked about how to engage the community. That's something that's going to be discussed kind of more in detail. Our next meeting is March 26. So, um, we'll want, um, you know, council's thoughts on that and hopefully the, um, we'll get into a cadence where we actually have the agendas before count before and that council can have input on before we actually need to go into those meetings and represent what the city and the council's positions is on that. So I think the other decision that was made um we you know as I say in kind of the vein of community engagement we talked a little bit about okay does that mean we need to expand the steering committee to also include specific community members people with lived experience um but it was you know I think that's in practicality is something that's difficult to achieve right how do you make sure that you get the engagement and I think the um where we landed was really in terms of the steering committee should be li the voting members should be limited to those that have some sort of financial um commitment or some sort of financial responsibility as well as the actual implementation of the project and again talking about with a represent uh recognition that we absolutely need community engagement and let's figure out how we can get that best. So with that councelor Barnes do you have anything or Tom anything to add?

I think that one of the worries was that this was going to end up being um Brack 2.0 know and noting the the fact that the city is in on the ground floor negotiations rather than reacting to what was presented to them as in the first brown ranch go around so that we'll have input from the ground floor um come to this process and you know I think we the stakeholders is kind of the bigger takeaway while the community input is invaluable that it really does come down to the people that are going to be writing the checks and putting this together um to make the project happen. Okay. Any questions?

Yeah, I have a question. So, it seemed like it was a I just want to clarify that a decision was made that the me membership is going to be two me two um board members from YVHA, one staff member from YVHA, two city council members, one city staff member and one route county staff member is so that that is confirmed that that is that is going to be the the the layout. I don't know that there is I I think there's a question about the county's involvement. There could be a commissioner on that on the committee, but I think it was agreed it's certainly been agreed to from the city and from the housing authority perspective.

Okay. And then is it been agreed that so so let me go back to the city council. There there's two city council seats. It has been agreed that the city council will have two seats in the governance board. Okay. Have have we have we what's that? and a staff member. Um, and a staff member. Yes. And have we officially as a city council identified our repres? I know that you and um and uh you know, councelor Barnes is, you know, represented in this meeting, but do we need to go through a formal process of Yes, this is our representative or have we already done that? Because I know we did some because that we didn't have a governance board before. So, is there anything we need to do for Well, I guess I mean that

I would kick that back to council. I mean, we had that conversation at our retreat. So, um, well, we didn't have we didn't have the official. We were talking about having a governance board. We never No, we we did. We officially I don't know that we officially had one. Okay. So, that

it was as official as everything else was. How's that? So, but that doesn't mean if c if it's council I mean if I mean I'll kick it over to President Montine, but if council feels a desire to re um discuss that. I think that that what we did there was at our retreat I think all those positions that we filled is how it has worked out as we've gone into 2026. So I would assume this would be very similar or would be the same approach. Okay. I wanted to get some clarity on that. Didn't we set this at the meeting? You agreed at the at the retreat along with all the other boards and commissions.

Yeah. understanding that it wasn't a executive decision or decision made by the council because we didn't know what the board or the governance board was going to be. Even that I am still fine with the two appointments that we've made to step forward and represent us. So, if there's other things you're suggesting, speak now.

No, I was not suggesting anything. I was just I was asking clarity of the of the process. And since we didn't have an a governor's board, we you know was it was only in discussion at that point in time. I wanted to clarify um that our two representatives to this governance board are um councelor um Gary and and councelor Barnes

for me during this belonging Colorado project that we're working with. They're on this governance board kind of representing us in a discussion. As far as them having final say in anything for the city that is not on the table at all. This is just as we're guiding through the belonging Colorado grant working through governance discussion about how we move forward ranch. But final decisions about you know you said Brack 2.0. We don't know what this will look like on the back end. These may be the two and it may work better to have a governance board of two people making those decisions that would help the annexation move forward. But right now they don't have that authority to do that. This is just a project from belonging Colorado.

Right. And a precursor to any sort of annexation agreement. Right. Right. Right. Are we okay then with Yeah. Yeah. Moving forward.

I was just trying to get clarity and so and I got that clarity. Yeah. No. Good. All right. With that, we will close off council reports and we'll move on into the agenda to the next thing which is our review of regular and uh work session meetings coming up. So, if we start with the first one next week um is the meeting on March 10th. And if you'll look in your folder there, you'll see that we have a work session and we have three topics there. Uh the first one which is really kind of long and ambiguous, Colorado Mountain community ballot measure observations and trends. I'll talk about that for a second here. Um and also business improvement district update and fiscal sustainability, the current state. Um those are pretty self-explanatory. The first one I just wanted to say that um some of us did see a presentation um recently and we really want all of council to see this presentation and to understand really I would call it the appetite if you will um that the council has um to re or the voters have for certain programs, certain projects, certain taxes and all of that. And this really does a a pretty good job of of going over that. It also gives a lot of information on Steamboat specific voter trends and demographics, which I think is important. And really the purpose is to see if we have interest in utilizing some of this stuff uh in moving forward to make better and more informed decisions into the future. So um it'sformational for you and uh I think I think it will be a good use of time. Any questions on that particular work session topics next Tuesday?

So I have um so we have 60 minutes scheduled for the business improvement district update. Yes. Seems like a lot. Uh well to to be honest with you um I had a meeting this morning with uh Main Street Steamboat and we talked about this and I do not think it will take 60 minutes um to go through that. We put it in there at that but I would say that that is um probably more time than we're going to need for that discussion.

Okay. I just encourage all council members to there's lots of information about the bid the prior um attempts for funding and election. So I just encourage everyone to come prepared with the background information because a lot of it's out there. So I look forward to hopefully kind of like moving forward what they're asking for the purpose I guess.

Yes. Yes. and we talked about that this morning and I I don't think it'll be 60 minutes to be honest with you. Um, Tuesday, March 17th, which is our next one. Um, importantly at that meeting, we will have our report on inclusionary zoning and linkage, our preliminary recommendations. And we also have a couple of we have a resolution on the urban growth boundary and um an ordinance there around supplemental. And we also have um the readings on the Colorado wildfire resiliency code, the SEAB property stuff, and an appeal. And most importantly, we have the city manager's employee evaluation for that day. And I believe we've moved this meeting up to 4:00. Did that work for everybody? Was that a thumbs up for everybody? Um, I think it's really important that we don't do the city manager's employee evaluation as the last thing in the evening because I don't think it's it's very fair for Tom. So, we're going to do that up front at 4:00.

Agreed. Good with everyone. Okay. And sorry, I just have all sorts of comments on these agendas tonight. So, the resolution um for the urban growth boundary, I'm assuming we will have an update from why the county commissioners um recommended um yeah, for treehouse. Um and I don't need an answer, but I guess that's my expectation that we will have because that was the the rub at the last. Well, that was the difference between the two. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Okay. We'll keep that in mind because you will ask it as a question if we

will. We will. And just um we if you recall they had their position, we decided since we're going to be redoing the urban growth boundary as part of the uh strategic growth element coming up. That that would be a opportunity to have a broader discussion of the urban growth boundary. You have a joint meeting with the county on the um in May. your joint meeting will be primarily dedicated to that topic. So, this particular time really is is um we're adopting the new urban growth boundary, but our discussion in May still keeps it open. That's correct.

I guess this just is more of a interpersonal issue I have with this. Like I want to know why they're pushing back on this. If it's just a approve it now and then come talk to us in May, I'm not going to be supporting this. Like this is kind of a personal issue I have. Yeah. I we'll be able to give you the reason why they voted the way they voted and then it'll be count. So we will get that. Yeah, we can provide that information. Okay. Thanks. Yeah.

The other thing is that we have if you'll see there was an SSR meeting scheduled for that night. We have moved that to April 7th um because this is a packed agenda and so we have some flexibility on some things that have moved around in April. So the SSR will be April 7th and President Montine I did want to add that on the March 10th meeting you also have a regular meeting. Will you be voting on the first reading of the C dot purchase? Yes. So sorry on that date as well.

That is correct. Okay. April 7th is the next meeting and we will do the SSR in that particular meeting and we'll also do the waste volume based uh pricing in that meeting and we have um a number of uh couple variances and um an STR discussion in that meeting and also we get to spend time with the city attorney performance evaluation that night as well but we don't believe that is a heavy load that night. But if it turns into being heavy, we will make adjustments to make sure we don't do that late into the evening. Okay. And then on April 14th, we also will be having um in addition to our regular meeting, we have the um marijuana situation or excuse me, the work session on marijuana. I was two pages ahead of myself. Um on fiscal sustainability and city of Steamboat Springs emergency operations plan. And Tom, maybe you might want to spend a minute on what that really means. That second one,

the emergency operations plan is um the

just what it says. It is basically um a operations plan for city personnel in terms of what we do, our roles we play, um how we communicate in terms of of um when emergencies happen that are confined primarily to the city limits. Uh anything that goes beyond that, we would then we would then start following the county operations emergency operations plan. But we felt it important to have one for the city because there are circumstances where it would be sort of specifically a city emergency. Um council has a role in that and so we wanted to make you aware of it and understand kind of what your role is. Um so there's a common understanding of of how to proceed in those circumstances. So that's the purpose of that.

Okay. Thank you. And then also, as I said, on April 14th, we will have the marijuana license authority to talk about a waiver of the vertical integration requirement. Moving on from there, you'll see that um we do have the report of the various work session topics which is in the um your packet there. Um, and that is starting to populate. And as I said, we will be adding um the LMD1 on May 12th. And the joint meeting with the commissioners is May 19th. And we'll be working with Tim Redmond, Commissioner Redmond on some other agenda items of topics if we want for that.

If we want the you the urban growth boundary discussion will primarily take up most of that, I suspect. So we can talk about other agenda items and that is um we are hosting that meeting that night. Yes, we are. Okay. Any any other questions about upcoming agendas? Okay. It's uh it's 10 of six. Um Tom, you think in 10 minutes we can do the city manager report? I can do it in 10. Okay, you're on.

Thank you, President Montine. Um and just a reminder that the city manager report uh is available on our website steamboatsprings.net. Um just scroll down and you can find tonight's report as well as all the previous reports. Um so starting off with deputy city manager department and communications. Um lots of good information on all the communication efforts um to keep the community informed including the social media and media releases. Um I did want to state that during this this last period the city um launched I've mentioned this before the uh civic connections um this was a new community conversation series designed to bring residents, businesses and industry professionals together um for clear and accessible discussions about topics shaping steamboat. So we had two sessions uh both um hosted by the planning department understanding short-term rentals and city planning and zoning. Um those are available on the city's YouTube channel. So if you want to see those um they are available online um that is the beginning of what we think will be a very successful um program to help sort of communicate what the city's doing and how we um and how we go about our business. So thanks for putting that together and you can find that on the YouTube. Um I did want to say just speaking of communications just a reminder that this city manager report I mentioned this last week um will be changing the format will be changing um starting on the 317 meeting the organization of the of the new um city manager report will be organized by the strategic plan outcome areas so we can better sort of demonstrate how what we do on a daily basis aligns to our goals and outcomes. Um, so I think that'll be an a good improvement for the for the report and uh be a little bit more pertinent to what we are trying to achieve from the information in the report. We will also be creating a new

community digital newsletter um so residents can easily stay up to speed on city activities. Um this will be an optin subscriptionbased so if anybody that wants to receive essentially the city manager report can um opt in to have that sent directly to their inbox. So, um, look forward to that and we'll continue to remind the community that that is available. So, thanks for the communications team for putting that together. Um, facilities department. Uh, welcome to Eric Glombasque uh, to facilities team. Eric joins us as a senior maintenance worker bringing extensive experience in facilities maintenance including electrical, plumbing, HVAC, low voltage systems, and building automation. We're proud to continue to hire top talent um, and attracting high quality candidate candidates to strengthen our team. So, welcome Eric to the city team. It's nice to get that um position filled. That's an important one as we continue to move forward on our um various um deferred maintenance and um all of our other facilities projects. So, uh an important position. Um the remodel, just noticed the parks and wreck remodel project. that um space above the garage bays at the parks and wreck which was also an important project for um staff wellness um and sufficient space is progressing smoothly. Phase one is complete and the project remains on schedule to finish phase two and three by this this spring. So kudos to facilities team for moving that important project forward. Programs and grants um a lot of information on all the grants we've applied for as well as received in there. Um I did want to highlight in the um waste aversion recycling the community outreach efforts that we are participating in the route county tobacco coalition develop to to develop proper handling of electronic vape devices and to support community cleanups of litter generated from tobacco products. Um the group is just starting up with representatives from various agencies and organizations in the community. Some key ideas include

potentially using a project-based workg groupoup format to implement goals, a potential citation structure, and increasing educational opportunities for students in grades 5 through eight and their parents. Um, and exploring sustainability efforts such as cleanup days with incentives in addition to the vape disposal project. So, we see those, as you know, throughout the community. Um, and so I, um, kudos to staff for participating in that coalition and and thanks for trying to find solutions to that. um the volume based pricing ordinance. We have the final ordinance drafted um that's been vetted um with the hauling companies and is out for review by stakeholders and we are presenting the first reading of that to you um on April 7th. Um and then there's some um good information here on some of the efforts that staff is doing to reduce wood waste from the landfill. A lot of opportunities there. Um I won't go into details, but if you have questions, feel free to ask. That's a that's an important step diverting the wood waste from the landfill. Um in special projects just a reminder that we are moving forward with our ride shark. Um that's our unified mobility platform working with um SkiCore Western Resilience Center to kind of discuss timeline for platform launch designation of responsibilities branding. Um we are hoping to launch that um in April as part of uh an Earth Day effort. And I did want to mention that Mad Rabbit Trails Project, the contract between the city and the National Forest Foundation has been signed and the project was officially launched on February 4th um during a meeting with the city, National Forest Foundation and the US Forest Service. So the NFS is currently drafting an implementation plan with proposed 2026 project timeline and prioritization. Um and there will continue to be monthly m meetings and updates as we um and as they move forward um and closer to breaking ground and we'll continue to keep um the community updated on that project.

Uh moving on to finance, um there's a lot of information on the open bids and RFPs, um as well as an update on the continued efforts um of workday implementation that continues and will continue um as we um work through some continued steps for to make sure that that is working um at our expectations. Um, human resources. The HR and risk team recently conducted training on smart goals in workday navigation for the 2026 goal setting and development plans as well as testing and issuing 1095C's for the first time via workday, which is an an exciting efficiency gain. And I just want to state um that that 1095 C process sounds trivial. Um, but it was a lot of work particularly for Jennifer Velora. um that was a heavy lift um and it worked seamlessly and a big thank you and kudos to her and the entire HR staff for for that accomplishment. So well done and that's a that's a significant efficiency gain um for the city of Steamboat Spring. So thank you. Um in the fire department um I think it's important to note this. The department met in January to discuss the concept of a missiondriven culture and how that underlying mentality manifests itself in everything they do. They reviewed their mission, vision, values um of the department to help sort of level set their department priorities as they move into 2026. You can see their mission, their vision, their values. Um and then they met in January um to kind of rework their strategic plan based on that uh to better align with the city of Steamboat Spring strategic planning process. uh the focus is to identify the department's challenges as they continue to move forward over the next three to five years, identify the problems and gaps and create an operational plan to help their decisions. This I think you know we talk a lot about strategic planning, mission, vision, values. This is really important work. I think um this is the higher level work and

thinking and strategic thinking that I think is great to see. And so kudos to that team for taking that step to sort of to to really sort of think forward and and understand kind of the trends and um so I appreciate that. Um a lot of information on calls for service and their training. Um and then I did want to state that you know as we see this low snow year and we're talking about a dry summer um they are actively preparing for a 2026 wildland um fire season. Current efforts include reviewing staffing and qualification pathways, refining deployment plans, evaluating equipment needs, and aligning training requirements to ensure they are operationally ready. Um, so their focus remains on building a resilient, well-trained wildland program. Um, and they are thinking um, a lot about this coming summer and making sure they have the necessary resources in place. So, I just wanted to state that that um here we are in beginning of March and we're already starting to think about that. So, that is my report and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Tom. Any questions from council? What is Ride Shark a platform we'd use for uh commuting together?

Uh yes. So, Ry Sharkark is sort of the unified mobility platform where we can um sort of offer and track um uh car pooling efforts, alternative transportation um efforts. You can combine it with other organizations, but you can customize it for your own organization. So, the city of Steamboat Springs can have incentives um that might be separate from another organization, but it's all part of the same unified platform. So, it's a it's a really slick um platform and we're we're looking forward to launching that. Thanks. Anyone else? Good job, Tom. Nine minutes. Yeah, impressive.

That was impressive. Okay, we're going to move on and it's time for our general public comment section where we'll take public comment on topics that are not on the agenda. City Council will make no decision nor take action except to direct the city manager and those addressing city council are requested to identify themselves by name and address. If you are online, please raise your hand. And all comments should not exceed three minutes. So, is there anybody in the audience who would like to make a public comment? Come on down, sir. My name is Dean Vogelar and we live up on Buffalo Pass. So that's County Road 38. Um I've had the distinct pleasure for 29 consecutive years to be involved with the uh winter carnival street events and I've actually helped organize the riders and start them. We feel that it's important every few years to come down and make sure that city council and the members of our community and the staff of the city understand how important it is to them and how much they enjoy doing it. We had riders on horses this year that were in their uh 50 plus years on horseback. We had five generations with one of the youngsters that was uh as a junior at uh or a sophomore over at Hayden High School pulling kids down. So there is that kind of uh kinship and this has gone on for years and years and years. We understand how difficult it's getting with the the highway. I'll call it the highway because that's what we have to deal with coming through downtown and the hard work that everybody does to make sure that we continue this tradition because with it the rodeo, the cowboy downhill and the street events from the a side or the ranching side of

it, those are certainly the the pieces that define our community for what it has been. So, we enjoy that. Now, we especially, and this this comes from the Wheeler family and those people on horseback, this was an extremely difficult year to lay down snow, Tom, as you know, on that road on on Main Street. And we would like on our behalf for you to thank those people because I think it may have been the best consistency and the best service uh surface that we've had. Not that it isn't good every year, but you take all of the heat and having to make that snow bring it in and lay it down and and the riders were I mean it was it was one of the safest years. We didn't have any horses go down. We it really worked out well for us. So, uh, just simply, uh, and I I'm sure that the Winter Sports Club would want to be included, but from our point of doing the events on the street, we want to make sure to thank you and let you know how much it's appreciated, not only by our group, but in the community.

Well, thank you. And we appreciate you and your group as well. You're welcome. Yeah. And that's what and I I just wanted to add exactly really appreciate Dean all that you have done and being so instrumental and just point out to council that Dean was the one that connected us with um Shane Joerger and the Bar Lazy L Ranch and is responsible for making sure that we have our ability to participate in the parade and um you know be behind a horsedrawn sleigh. So we really appreciate that and again all your efforts and everybody we know that in you know in addition to the city staff but also the ranching community and the riders who make this happen. Thank you very much and we look forward to next year. Thank you. I'd like to thank you for giving the winning horse to my wife and daughter.

So there's two generations. It gets a little competitive down there from time to time, you know. Thank you so much. Okay. Well, we look we look forward to next year and we'll we'll hope for more snow even though they did such a great job this year. Okay. Dean, is there anybody else uh in the audience here who would like to make a public comment? Is there anybody online? And if so, uh, raise your hand. Okay. Not seeing anybody. Not seeing anyone. We will close public comment. And we will move on to our next agenda item, which is Kim Weber with a financial update.

Good news. Good evening, council. Kim Weber, finance director. News couldn't be could be worse. It's all right. So, um, tonight I'm going to give you an overview of the 2025 sales tax collections along with a general fund reserve snapshot. uh what the 2026 sales tax budget is along with uh some projections and then where staff recommendations are some next steps and get any input that you might have. So 2025 our general fund sales tax came in about $593,000 below budget about 1.4%. I just want to put point out we publish a um sales and use tax report monthly actually uh we do a preliminary on right around the first of the month and a final around the 15th of the month. These numbers are different than what comes out in that report and I want to point that out because those numbers include sales tax that goes to the SSR. So, if someone's comparing and says that's not what the report says, that's the reason. Tonight is really focused on uh what the general fund budget was. So, about $593,000 uh below what we budgeted. Wanted to talk a little bit about how um our sales tax is broken up. I'm going to first talk about it by area and then by category. So this is just for December. Um and although we our our sales tax is volatile volatile, it is good because we have sales tax from different areas, we

have sales tax from different categories and this gives you a snapshot of what that was for December. So regional regional are um things that cross uh multiple areas. So you have your YVA, you have your Atmas, you have your um some of our um larger property management companies. They have properties in multiple areas. They're in regional. And then you have Mountain. So those two areas were both down in um for December. We were down right around $100,000. So, um, but then it was offset by the Highway 40 corridor, downtown, out of town, and West Steamboat. When we look at it by category, you can see um our largest category that was down was lodging by 85,000, but then on the other end, it was offset um by groceries. So, again, we were down about $100,000. Um, and it's it's good to have a balance between the high tourism categories and um ones that are a little more supported by our locals. The interesting thing is our um January sales tax numbers came out yesterday and it it isn't the same makeup. So, I have a little investigating to do on that, but this is this is exactly what I would expect to see um in December. But um so I just wanted to show you some of the different categories. So looking at 2025, it's early right now for us to be saying exactly where we're going to end the year because we're still we just stopped processing 2025 invoices. But in general, I think we're going to put about $4 million back into the general fund reserves. And that's made

up of about $1.9 million of personnel savings, which is about 5%. Uh about $2 million of operating savings, which is about 8%. And then we have our sales tax shortfall. Uh we also, as we were implementing workday, we moved all investment income out of the capital projects fund and put it in the general fund for consistency purposes. Um and then we have some other revenue shortfalls. um about $400,000. So, good news. We'll probably be putting about $4 million back in reserves. Um we did, as sales tax started um dwindling towards the end of the year, we asked people, we're not telling you not to spend, but keep in mind things might be a little rough this year. So, they listened. So looking at what our reserves uh including that $4 million we have uh five different types of reserves. We have non-spendable which is inventory. We don't have a lot like fuel is our biggest inventory. We have restricted where there's an external restriction which is tabor. Uh we have committed and these things are committed by council through ordinance such as the bag fee or the tube fee. um municipal searchcharge. Those are committed by ordinance. And then we have assigned which is restricted for a specific purpose like if someone gives us a donation but there's no legal contract with it. Um and then we have unassigned which is the residual spendable amount and then it also includes our budgetary reserves. So we're specifically talking about unassigned. These can be uh appropriated by city council. We have our unassigned stabilization reserves of 15 million and

truly unassigned residual of an additional 12 million. So, uh $27 million of unassigned in the general fund. So, what do we have a few things working against us as we move into 2026. Uh, but we have a few things working for us. We of course have the lack of snow. That's a that's not working in our favor right now. Um, as was discussed earlier, we have the potential of a wildfire risk which could impact our summer uh economy. And then with both of those, you have the compounding um economy and job loss. So with um the lack of snow plowing, some of our construction companies are struggling. Um you have anything that's touristbased. Um they're could be struggling. Some people laid off or uh minimized hours. Then that uh compounds into the rest of the uh city. So but the things that are working for us um local spending is still um coming in. We have tax on groceries. We have tax on utilities. um that helps the city's general fund. Uh consumption, we see that um we get tax on things that are delivered into the city. We're seeing that still maintain at high levels. Um and then the Steamboat brand, people are people are still coming. Um one thing we don't talk about often, and I will try not to do a deep dive into the URA, but something that's important when we're talking about what our sales tax projections are. So, we have uh a a tax increment financing on a plan area for the URRA up um that small orange box is all around the base area and then down Highway 40. That is the um

URRA plan area. And back in 2004, uh, city council approved this, uh, tax increment financing and set the base. The base of the sales tax is about $3.1 million. So in 2004, the city of Steamboat Springs on their 4% sales tax collected $3.1 million. Every penny above that for every year for 25 years goes to the URRA and not to the general fund. So, the general fund for 25 years only collects the $3.1 million in that fund. And that's important because when we're budgeting for sales tax, we're only anticipating $3.1 million in that area. But in 2025, that area actually produced about $5.7 million. So $2.7 million went to the URRA. The general fund got $3.1 million. When we budgeted for 2026, we budgeted um we bud originally budgeted the general fund to be down by about 1% but since we came in a little low, it's we're um the budget is about 0.5% above last year's actuals. we anticipated uh the SSR being down by about 9%. So when we look at that plan area and as those revenues go down it doesn't affect the general fund. Um so in that base area that red box is the URRA that will shrink quicker than our general fund. So it in in a sense from our budget perspective it kind of insulates the

general fund a little bit. So in this example um I'm estimating that the sales tax in the area around the Bay Area is going to be down about 15%. Citywide down about 10% and then taking a super conservative um approach and saying this the summer will also be down by 3%. What that does is it takes the URRA revenue down by about 25%. And the general fund down by about 4 a.5%. So it's just important to know that all those um lodging, all the restaurants that are around the base area as they go down, the general funds a little bit insulated from a budget perspective for that. So I put together two different scenarios. Um, and the first one is if the citywide is down by about 10%. But summer rebounds and we're flat with LA uh last year. And it's not only summer, it's actually May through December. So flat with last year, we will come in about $1.3 million short of our sales tax budget. If we say, okay, we think sales tax is going to be down by 10%, but then also summer might be down as well all the way into October, November, December of 2026, then it could be around $2 million that we're down. So, that's where I'm coming up with the range. 1.3 million to $2 million down. Um, our 2026 January was actually better than this. Um, we just got those numbers yesterday. It was 5% down. So, we're already doing a little bit better than these projections, which is a good good news. But I know February, March are also large months

and um could be down by more. So, when we look at um some important things to consider, we want to limit the impacts to current full-time residents. It takes a long time to rebound from any cuts that you make there. Uh we want to avoid compounding the deferred maintenance. In prior um recessions, we've said we want a balanced budget. We're cutting deferred maintenance. Again, takes a long time to recover from that. uh we want to focus on the strategic plan and then avoid cutting um things that create a long-term impact when hopefully this is a short-term issue. So staff recommendation is that we utilize the reserves that we have for this purpose if needed um rather than cutting services at this time that we we've already communicated to the departments to tighten your belt and we've been talking about what that means for each department. Um we will take we've been taking um additional evaluation of any vacant positions. So can it be downgraded? Can it wait to be filled? Um, can we fill it with a different position? And then, uh, we want to limit additional general fund supplemental budget appropriations that use reserves. So, as people say, oh goodness, like we want to do this, let's just do a supplemental. We're we're saying no to those. Um, and then be ready to pivot. And what does pivot mean? Um, I would say greater than our previous scenarios. So if we see sales tax greater than 10% down then we pivot. And what pivot looks like is we we reduce service levels um first by where we uh provide services with seasonal employees, employees that

we don't have hired yet. We aren't impacting any of our current employees. Uh stronger hiring freeze, delay infrastructure improvements that are in the general fund. We uh budgeted for positions in 2026, but we only budgeted for them in third and fourth quarter. So, we're already we were already delaying hiring those. So, we could potentially delay hiring those another quarter. Uh look at service level cuts or look at a higher usage of our budgetary reserves. Um so, that's what I had for you tonight. Happy to answer any questions um and get your feedback.

Okay. Thank you, Kim, and thank you for being so proactive in this analysis this early on in the year. Welcome. What questions do we have for Kim? Councelor Aosta. Yeah. Um, so it looks like, where am I at? Looks like lodging was down, but groceries are up. Can you help me understand? I would have expected that those would correlate a little bit better closer.

Yeah. Um so I think uh restaurants were also down. So sometimes when people will utilize the groceries more but I really think that price correlation is the biggest reason is because we haven't seen prices drop on groceries. Um and I'm guessing we've seen some drop in um the cost of lodging. So that but so I say that but now January's sales tax um lodging is flat and groceries are down. So I had my presentation already and looking at the report I'm like well that flip-flopped. Um I don't know if it was a timing thing. Um but but typically um groceries stay pretty steady and and above the line just because costs are always going up and people still have to eat.

Okay. Then it looks like we we had a budget shortfall of close to 600k for 2025. Correct. Okay. But that was that was the off of plan. But we also increased our reserve by four million. Correct. So does that mean we came in you know four is it like 4 million under budget and so you correlate those two together where we came in you know 3.4 million in the positive in that.

Yeah. So in this slide, so we we were short on sales tax by 600,000, but we came in under our personnel budget across all departments, across all of the general fund by 1.9 million, which is about 5%. So in general, each department, which it wasn't each department, but we came in 5% under um in personnel costs, we came in 8% under in operating costs. Um and so and then we had additional revenue investment revenue and then we were short on some revenue. So net is a $4 million increase. Um and I'll say that it it seems like it is a big amount. Uh but we are bound each department is bound to come within their budget. And so if it were the other way when it's 5% that's 1.9 is a lot but um 5% when you think of 5% personnel savings it's somewhat reasonable.

Okay. But yes then I was trying to look back through budget for 2026 versus what your new estimate is for sales tax revenue. What is that gap? Um, between 1.3 and $2 million. Okay. And then last question I have is how many understand difference between the stable reserve and the other reserve and but together we have a reserve of 20 around 27 million

uh just unassigned. Yes. And so we have a fiscal policy that says we will set aside 25% of the prior year's expenditures in a budget stabilization reserve. It's a fiscal policy that city council has approved. So we set that aside and then everything else is above that. Technically, you can appropriate either one of those. They're both unassigned. Um, you could use budgetary reserves for something else as well, but that's what city council has agreed to. We're going to we're going to set aside this rainy day fund of $15 million and then we have $12 million on top of that.

Okay. Right. Thank you. You're welcome. Can you help um first of all, I appreciate the personnel savings. I know how that happens and we know that comes up every year, so we see that. Um, and the operational savings, that one's a little bit more elusive for me because those are how how what would you give me just a couple of examples of operational savings that equated up to $2 million?

It kind of is a wide range, but it could be uh consulting that we didn't use. It could be I think a lot of it was training, travel, meetings that didn't get used. Um it's just it's a little bit of a lot of lines. There's not some of that. It's actually closer to about 2.6 million, but we are carrying over 6 probably around 600,000 to 2026 for projects that didn't get completed. Um but it's a lot of a lot of little lines. I wouldn't say I've looked through to see if there's big chunks. There's not big chunks. It's just a little bit of savings on 2,000 line items.

Would you attribute I mean, thank you for that because that I mean that really is helpful because really the department heads and our city staff is in essence watching. They're not spending money unnecessarily when they're bringing back $2 million into the general fund of budgeted things they could have spent money on with no one asking questions. Correct.

Right. Yeah. And they are really good about not saying, "Okay, we're not going to use this $10,000, so we're going to use it over here." Like they say, "We were going to we were going to do XYZ training. We ended up not going. That money will go back into reserves." So instead of saying, "Okay, let's use that money to do XYZ." Set something else. Interesting. Well, that's new that it's such a high point in my previous budget years. So I want to, you know, just tell staff and that's noticed by at least me. Thank you. That's snow removal as well.

Um it would have been in December. So um it so any skoria or fuel that would have been purchased that would be part of it. I think we'll see the majority of that in 2026 savings. Um but yes, it would be the materials used in snow removal. Then the personnel, you'll see savings in all the overtime for snow removal in 2026, which is another reason I'm not, some people have said, I'm not sure why you're not panicking. Um, I'm I'm not because we do have those areas of savings. We do have sufficient reserves. We prepare for these times. Um, so I'm not panicking yet.

Thank you. Right. Who else has questions? Yes, I do a quick one. Well, thank you. Thanks for keeping us grounded and again for all that you do to make sure that we don't have to panic. So, appreciate that. Can you although when we talk about potential pivoting, would you give us some examples of kind of the reducing service levels that are provided by seasonal hires?

I would say the majority of our seasonals are in parks and wreck and transit. Um, and we since we haven't talked about it as a leadership team, I hesitate to actually throw ideas out there, but those are the two areas that have the um majority of seasonal staff uh in um the general fund. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yep. I was just thinking about it from the perspective of potential impact to um you know, our residents and visitors. Mhm. I would say the majority of our seasonal staff where there are services that um could be reduced would be parks and wreck. Thank you. Okay.

I have one question. Kim, will you remind me? We talked about this during budget time and I I just can't remember. Do you budget the vacancy rate for staffing? We did for 2026. Okay. So we we have been for the last seven or eight years in primarily in the police department, but and so this $1.9 million savings is on top of that vacancy savings.

But we did take a little more aggressive approach in 2026 and budgeted vacancy savings in every single department. um which will cause issues in some hopefully will cause issues in some departments because hopefully departments will stay fully staffed but in the couple of departments that I was most worried about finance and planning we already are seeing vacancies so we're um we might be closer to budget than we thought but yes we did for 2026 yeah do you remember what percentage um

it's okay it's it's not important It was between 5 and 10%. Yeah, it's it was a pretty big number, which is probably the turnover rate you see. I mean, and so yeah, putting it on paper then it's like Yeah, it Well, that was that is exactly it. We talked about it and I was fully on board until I started cutting that money out of the budgets and I was like,

"Oh, this is rough." Um, but it I think we're going to actually see it. So, I know. Um, and it was something that I did caveat, you know, during the budget retreat. We put this in. We may have to come back with a supplemental, but but I think we need to be we need to be utilizing the money that we have available. Um, and not we cut so much out of the budget during the budget process to then have that level of savings at the end. When I think about all the things we could have funded during the budget process, it it's a hard balance for me.

I know doing that can budgeting a vacancy rate actually can produce a more realistic budget. Exactly. And that that's and we and I think a lot of cities don't do that because of the um you know the budget is a legal document and we can't go over it and so you know you want to be conservative but we have moved a little too conservative. So thanks. Other questions? Great job Kim. Thank you so much.

I know and one I just have a comment. So, one, we're really lucky to have Kim as our finance director. Kim is not panicking panicking because Kim fully understands the financials of our city. So, thank you, Kim. Um, and I sleep well at night knowing we have you and Tom overseeing the financials. Um, my one caveat, if we do get to a place where we have to talk about service level cuts, um, I really want us to really try our hardest not to look at transportation. That's a necessity for lots of folks where um I love parks and wreck but um not but and having our grass mode versus having a good transportation route for people. Those are hard decisions. Um but I want to put that out there.

Appreciate that. And and you know the other comment I would make and and kudos to Kim. She does do an outstanding job. Um, but I think one of the reasons we feel pretty comfortable with where we are is because of the strong reserves we have.

Um, and that is intentional, right? I mean, that that that's not by accident that we have those strong reserves. That's strong fiscal policies and being conservative with our spending and being able to put money back in at the end of every year. So, um, I I you know, this is a low snow year. There's no indication that we're going into a prolonged recession. If we were going into a prolonged recession, I would say maybe we're not going to be um just using reserves. But um you know, next year we could have a great snow year and be right back on track. So I think um we'll continue to monitor it and give you information as as we get more information. Um but I think we both feel pretty comfortable with where we are right now.

It's definitely a good exercise to kind of see where our our how much our locals support our economy. I think Scott Ford we thought we were such a sales tax based economy but truly there's like 60s something percent of our sales tax is locals right. Yeah. And so when we have a slow snow year it can drop 10% but we still have 65 70% of people buying food and groceries and going out and doing stuff that's keeping us sustainable. So this is one of those kind of years for us to look at as we move forward with that fiscal sustainability work sessions. So thank you.

Yeah. and uh and I only am the mouthpiece. All the departments and all the employees are the ones collecting the money and spending the money. So kudos to them. Thanks. Okay. Thank you, Kim. Let's also um open it up to anybody in the audience who would like to make a public comment or anybody online if you raise your hand. Okay, seeing none, we will close public comment and we will move on to our city council 2026 2020 27 goals. Tom, yes. Thank you. I put these um

before sorry before um finance we there was a staff recommendation um but we never voted on a thumbs up or thumbs down on that. Are we not doing that? I'm just understanding again a process thing because because you know because Kim gave it you know gave a presentation saying this is where we're at and then and then this is staff recommendation but we never talked about it status quo. You kind of gave us you kind of gave us two recommendations. One given the first scenario and then one um a pivot scenario right Kim

sorry. Yeah, but essentially my recommendation is that we are comfortable utilizing reserves. Um, if we get there, as long as it stays within the reasonable 1.2 to 2 million at this point and then if it starts dipping more that we would come back to city council with the pivot. Okay. So, we're all okay on Kim's recommendation of using reserves unless it goes over that $1.2 to$2 million.

Yes. Yeah, I'd like to add add a comment there and I you know I know you want to move move ahead but you know my comment is basically I'm I'm you know conscious of of losing domain and institutional knowledge I want to make sure that you know we we have that that we support our staff um because when we lose even someone who's cutting the grass um there's there's no there's knowledge of how that is you know done optimally you know at everyone's level so I'm you know I feel very comfortable the fact that we put $4 million, you know, back in the reserve. Um that if we're going over um as as Tom was saying, we don't know whether, you know, this is a prolonged um recession or not. Right now, you know, the winds um are towards uh you know, we have hopefully we'll have snow next year or you know, we're we're at balance. And so I also want to say I know that we're short in staff and key areas. So, I want to make sure that we, you know, I still want to support re, you know, bringing in and and interviewing and and if we find good candidates that we still bring in those good candidates. Um, and so I'm I'm comfortable, you know, moving beyond that 1.3 1.5 million if we're bringing if we're bringing in the right people. Um, because I want to make sure that these initiatives are moving forward. So, that I just want to make that comment. Okay. Anybody else want to make a comment?

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Good point, John.

Okay. Are we moving on? Yes. All right. 26 27 city council goals. Um I I included this just because you had had a conversation a couple weeks ago about the goals. We've made the changes to those based on your feedback. Um hopefully this reflects um that conversation. The next step would be to bring these back as a as a res as a resolution for you to adopt. But I just wanted sounded like you wanted one more opportunity to just kind of look at the language and make sure it was consistent with your conversation. So um that's really all I have and I'm happy to make any changes if you see any um any necessary changes to this document.

Okay. Has everybody reviewed those? And do you agree with them or do you see any needed revisions? Yes, I had um I guess question and a comment. Um one I know I keep pushing on this one, but when we talk about infill and when we talk about C dot and the Stockbridge campus, I thought we talked about end of year versus first quarter.

Yeah, we we that's a good catch. Um it's highly unlikely that we would have to have this master plan by the end of the year. So, we wanted to give you realistic expectation. You know, it's likely that we're not going to it. First and foremost, we need to purchase the property. We're not there yet. Um we're hoping to be there. Um second of all, we need control of the property. That's not likely to happen until maybe June. Um maybe July 1st, but we're hoping it's June. then to be able to turn around a master plan process that will require significant community input and feedback um and have that completed within six or five or six months I think is would be overly aggressive and I don't want to create false expectations. We are going to work as quickly as possible. This is a really really important project for the city. We are not going to rush it. We're going to get it right and we want to make sure we have enough time to accomplish that. Thanks.

So, the realistic expectation is by the end of Q127. All right. If it goes faster than that, we'll certainly go faster than that, but I didn't want to create false expectations.

Okay. Thank you for that clarification. And then kind of when we added the downtown plan under fiscal sustainability and financial stewardship, and I feel like this probably needs a broader discussion. um in the sense of what the goal really is here. I know we talked about codifying I mean you know what it says but when you look at the downtown plan there's a lot more to it right I mean in the sense of it talks about transportation right I mean it talks about um paid parking right plowing um the bike lanes uh

this specifically talks about dimensional and development standard recommendations so there are a lot of recommendations in the downtown plan but this is specific to some of the sort dimensional as it relates to new development. Um we have talked about it internally. Um, the planning staff has talked about this relative to all their other work and they feel like they could bring kind of a a a pretty succinct package of de dimensional development standards forward that would further the recommendations in the downtown plan, not overwhelm them, but also achieve some certain goals to allow some some um sort of continued economic vibrancy, if you will, um, in the downtown. So, that that's kind of what um we heard. And if we need more clarification on that, we're happy to to see if we can accomplish that.

Yeah. I mean, I think I would want more clarification because when I look at it, too, right? I mean, it has in there what we talked about, right, from the perspective of use by right for hotels. Um, and so I guess I'm again, right, this was kind of a lastm minute addition, right? So I I and I know maybe council ment you push for this um in terms of I mean does that mean we have we high we're um going to allow hotels to be bigger or um exceed height? I don't know.

There are some recommendations in there for um for some height changes to the height standards based on some other criteria not just a blanket increase. But um what we could do is if you want we could have a work session too on this. I think we've got some opportunities for work sessions where we could bring back sort of a list of things that we were thinking about that would codify the downtown plan before we actually start to draft language to make sure it's consistent with your expectations. This be something in the when you're talking dimensional and development sense. Excuse me Gail. I don't know if you're

No, you're good. Um, but like we we continually get variances for uh glazing uh openness on sides of buildings and the windows and stuff like that. I know that's in the CDC, but as we're starting to talk about, you know, making some updates and changes, that is one of the most consistent ask of a variance that I've had in six years on council. So, when do we actually start looking at that and changing some of those constant variance requests and just change the design standards? Is that part of this discussion or is that a whole another one? That's a whole another one.

We are moving forward on on um on new design standards uh for the for the overall city. This is specifically downtown standards. Um glazing is a development standard, but I'm not sure there's a downtown recommendation to make changes to that. Yeah. And the downtown plan has not been um codified in it was originally what year was that? 201 19 18 19 one or the other. So I think it's appropriate that we have the discussion uh it and make determinations of why or why not that we wouldn't want to proceed with the recommendations that were put in place.

And I guess I'm just curious. I mean I I would say we need to look at it in its totality. So I would be more comfortable with a work session on this um just from the sense of why are we going to just pull out the dimensional and development standards in terms of why don't we if we're really going to look at this let's look at the ma the master plan and say okay of this master plan what fits into our other goals right so there are other I mean that it would impact our transportation and mobility

so then we're getting into a much bigger project here and I know that I would ask Tom as to how realistic that is to Yeah, I mean I think that what we heard was the desire for some dimensional development standards. Staff felt comfortable with a limited number of those from a workload and capacity standpoint. There are a lot of recommendations in the downtown plan that we would like to move forward with, but given all the other time constraints we have and all the other projects that particularly planning is working on, not sure that we could bring that. But we could certainly have a conversation to see um at least at a work session kind of what's in there and and present that um and prioritize those.

Yeah. I mean I just think again I don't know how many people on council are really familiar if you know in terms of what it what the downtown plan says. So I mean I would think that I mean from my perspective I would like us to make an informed decision as opposed to just focusing in on one thing. and maybe we end up after we've had this discussion that we do believe that we should focus on just the dimensional and development standards, but I think there are other things in that downtown plan that are worthy of consideration, particularly as they support our goals.

And we were just told is there's not enough capacity for that. The whole point of this is that if it's under this goal of fiscal sustainability and financial stewardship and the whole point is what drives our economy is tourism and how do we encourage additional use of what is already a high use area? like how do we continue that in the place that it should be? This is getting much larger than No, that I think that this is just was a kind of a last minute I mean again if I mean if I'm the minority I just think I'm fine with it how it is.

Yeah. I mean I I just think that I mean I we should look at other things as well and I and not to create a lot more work because I mean I absolutely understand we're putting a lot on staff. I mean even adding this right we do the other way to look at this is to proceed the way it is and as we make progress on that and make plans on that then we can pick off another piece of it and look at that and and move on that rather than just looking at my concern is if we look at the whole thing that we're not going to get anywhere on on any piece of it and uh I think this is a big piece around as uh councelor Swinte says around fiscal sustainability and um

and and giving developers and and people clear um goals as to what they can build.

Wow. Okay. So, I'm feeling completely steamrolled by this whole conversation. I feel like this is a pet project that was thrown on us at the last meeting. Um because but I feel like this was thrown on us um because it's a pet project. It benefits developers and that we're only focusing on code. Why don't we I'm very passionate about our transportation, but yet I have heard no one say why don't we codify the components of our transportation plan or our sidewalk plan. But yet we're picking out one plan to plop in here for fiscal sustainability. It feels not good to me personally that we just throw it in here outside of our whole process of developing goals. So I'm a thumbs down. I like this is getting like worse and worse the more we talk about it.

How do what was your intention on adding this to our goals? This was requested by council. It's not requested by me. No. not requested by you, but a majority of everybody else. I brought it up. I I brought it up with no, you know, um Well, you brought it up, but we asked count we asked Rebecca to send us the plan. Yeah. And that was why I spec that was one of the reasons we wanted to bring this back to council, right, in terms of our goals, because I also feel like this kind of came in at the last minute. It did. And um you know and I'm again not sure when we talk about staff resources that this should be a priority. I mean

guess I'm lost. It seems like the issue is more around process than it is about the actual outcome. I'd say both. I mean it's both. It's process but it's also why are we just going to focus in on one piece of this component. I mean the things that you're speaking about like we have sidewalk our complete streets plan like we have these things codified and and in there. These are this is an easy thing to achieve. I guess I'm lost on why we're hung up on process. I it's a what is the big deal?

Well, no, I mean again, right, when you look at the downtown plan and as I said, I just kind of really scanned it to get kind of a better sense of okay, what's in the downtown plan and right and it does talk about parking, right? It talks about mobility, art and culture, character of the built environment, right? So again, you know, why are we just picking out one piece of this just to get started on it? I don't I'm I feel like you guys are thinking there's some nefarious like big brother here. I'm lost. I think it was just to provide clarity for for folks that want to build under design standards, right? You have different conflicting codes between what plan do they follow?

Codes. We have conflicting code or don't have conflict code everywhere. I mean we that's not an excuse to keep it that way. I mean we have you know it's you know for parking for for lighting for dimensionals for you know so I think I would I would look to you know um you know Rebecca and basically hey you you've been hearing all these different things. let her prioritize what needs, you know, what what is the most important and let's go get those things done. I feel putting this on staff. This is not staff's thing. This is a this side of the daset thing. So, keep it on this side. This is an us problem, not a staff problem.

Well, again, it's about looking at the plan and determining of those pieces of the plan which support our goals, right? So, not just picking out one piece that supports one goal. Looking at the plan and saying, "Okay, what does it do?" you know, just and and maybe bringing up, you know, and again, I agree. I I don't want to have staff have to do a bunch more work, but I think we need to be informed and not just choose one piece of this that if we're going to look at the downtown plan, what pieces of it support each one of our various different goals, because there's also pieces in it that talk about housing, right, and trying to increase residential housing downtown. May I just to flip this on its head? If you look at all these other goals, the bullets under them are very detailed and they're very big goals and they're things that we want to accomplish. Honestly, of all of them, the weakest is fiscal sustainability. We're talking about that we're just trying to look at potential funding sources and to be transparent. There's really nothing needy in this goal here. So, like I I don't You're saying we need more in housing. We already are. If you read these bullets under housing, takes up half a page. Like transportation similar. I don't It just seems like an issue with process. I'm lost on like the

Well, let's then let's put it out there. There are two things we could possibly do is what I'm hearing here. Continue on with the goal as stated. That's one way. And another way is to have a potential work session to look at the downtown plan in more detail to see if there's other things we might want to also prioritize to do. But I with the caveat that we may not be able to the caveat is though that we those others may have to be prioritized in 2027 or maybe there's some other very lowhanging fruit. One of the reasons why we decided to move forward with this, I believe, is we thought it was not going to be a tremendous drain on staff time and commitment.

Yeah. And staff has been wanting to bring forward um you know some code changes to implement the downtown plan. That's the purpose. That was the whole purpose of the use by right with hotels, right? That was an implementation step. Um, and we try to bring code amendments on a regular basis, at least a couple times a year if we can. There hasn't really been the capacity to do that the last few years. So, when this came up, we talked to uh the planning department and they said, "Well, we've got a list of things that we think we should bring forward anyway um that implements the plan that was adopted by council." If if you don't want to do that, then we can take it off the list. But perhaps hearing what's in the downtown plan, what some of the priorities are from staff perspective, what some of the rubs are with sort of uh why those recommendations were made, that might be a first step.

So, it's really comes down to when the the downtown plan was adopted by a city council in the future, but it never has really been codified. Yeah. No, that's well a lot like most a lot of the plans, right? A lot of them. Well, right. So, I mean, what you're finding out is that there's some challenges the fact that there's some recommendations in the plan that would help development on the current development side. And if that was the case, then we need to look at why there's a conflict.

Yeah. And I I mean I would be comfortable with I would be comfortable with your that but I would remove the word codify and just review or and I mean and again just from simplicity perspective I mean if somehow if we say look at the downtown plan and what in components of it can be implemented in a way that you know takes fewer resources and supports our other goals. That would be what I'd be most comfortable with. this is with it how it is. So you're you're comfortable with I mean yeah because I this seems like a hill that's odd to die on and it seems more it's about like process I don't understand

I mean we just had the whole conversation about use by right with hotels right which also went against staff's recommendations so well no yeah and that's in but that's the I mean again that's in

we have we have two choices here we can either proceed as is right or we can look at a process a work with a work session um and see where that leads. Although I would say even if we did a work session, I would like to leave this goal in there while we do the work session and not just take that word out because that that word is the only thing that I mean without that we're just throwing it out there with everything else. But I'm willing to uh do a thumbs up or down of keeping this in the way it is or having a process to we can take them one at a time. Are you okay with that? a question before you do a thumbs up and thumbs down because I'm just trying to understand that this particular one and I'm trying to what I'm trying to understand is how do you how do we how does codifi you know codifying the dimensions help with economic vibrancy. I I I cannot connect those dots. I mean I I see that if you have the you know that you can have development plans that you know encourage people to to build but we don't know that you know I don't I don't there is not a direct you know direct link there. It's slightly line.

Would it be helpful to hear from Rebecca about what the dimensional development standards are that she thinks she could bring forward and why she would bring those forward as opposed to other ones? Can we just do a thumbs up, thumbs down instead and move forward? Great. Okay. Hey, thumbs up, thumbs down. Thumbs up on some thumbs up. Uh, who's thumbs up on leaving it the way it is. Okay, you're you're voting. I heard two thumbs up. So, all right. Thumbs up.

Thumbs up passes four to three. And and given that you're split as much as you are on this, I may talk to Rebecca about having a work session anyway and bringing this forward um just to make sure we're all clear on what it is because we don't want to bring uh code standards that are implementing a plan and then have the split vote in this argument because we want to be aligned um in adoption of our plans. if our plans are are wrong and incorrect um then we need to address that. So um I think a work session would probably be helpful um before we just move forward with uh you know first reading of an ordinance.

Okay. I just have to say it feels icky professional word icky because it's coming after a not contentious but a robust conversation about use for right downtown split vote I think if I can remember correctly went against staff's recommendation and then this shows up that's where it's rubbing me the wrong way so I just want to put it out there

I think having the work session would help us work through that cuz I think you're right. There's a couple of split things. Tom's saying let's keep I mean we we don't it's just a goal. It's not like we're making any decisions right now. Okay. But Tom hit the nail on the head with his decision as city manager with a split vote. Let's have a work session and kind of really delve into this a little bit different. There's clearly some concern wanting to make some changes and accommodations for development downtown. clearly some ones that don't want to, but we should look at that together and kind of hear the positives and minuses in more of an open form. So, I think that's a better pro process to get through, but um you know, one of keeping it as a goal, I think that's where we're kind of hung up. Do we really need it as a goal, you know, or is it just a work session? And so, right now, I'm fine with keeping it the way it is, but I think we just really

we all need to sit in a room and kind of hash this out. And I I also want to state that it's been stated a couple times that these dimensional development standards are being codified in order to help development and that's not accurate. It's in order to implement the vision of the plan which has a lot of goals which might mean to be increase um residential units in the downtown area. It might mean to increase the character or change some. So it has nothing to do with trying to make development easier. um there was a vision in the downtown plan and these are the steps to implement that vision. So um we just need to keep that in mind as we go into that work.

I think the other thing we need to keep in mind is that this was created by I I don't know who the group was who created the downtown plan but there was a lot of energy and effort if you go through it and read it and it's just been sitting there for seven eight years just sitting there and I I don't find that acceptable. So but you made my point Tom right is exactly that that when we talk about dimensional and development standards I mean it talks about making housing right so why is it the point is right why is it under the fiscal sustainability and fiscal stewardship so that's my point is it's broader than that all right so we have we'll put it on a work session topic yes

okay shall we take a 10-minute break before we move on um I'm can we I have further comment Okay.

Um, you know, when we first put these these goals together, yeah, I was brand I was brand new, but I have to say since I've been on this job at a week does a week does not go by that someone does not talk about parking. And I understand we don't have time, you know, in this round to um, you know, add another goal. But, you know, Me's lot is is uh going going paid parking. Maybe not next year, but it's it's going paid parking. It's going to impact our you know, we have you know downtown parking. We keep on talking about we talked about um you know cars parking on roads and blocking emergency vehicles. Um there's all kinds of you know residential parking you know conflicts and we were all talking about well we want to add paid parking to force a change of behavior but force a change behavior to what? I mean, I don't I think, you know, if we if if we're changing that behavior, we have to add more buses or we have to do something to um you know, to to force that behavior to something else. So, I am concerned that we that you don't we don't have anything on parking list, but at the same time, I understand that we don't have time for that. But I'm I'm I am concerned about kicking that can down the road because it's a pretty big can that we constantly talk about yet we're doing nothing about. So I So that's I that's my thing if you want to now go for a break but I or I don't know if Tom Tom has a comment. I guess I'm actually I'm gonna turn to Tom. Do you have a comment? Well, I I mean, I'll I'll say that we we we know it's an issue. Um it's going to be um it's going to continue to be an issue, but it's not clearly defined what the issue is yet. And so, I do think that there's a process of trying to define what the problem is. Um I can guarantee you if I asked 10 people about the parking situation in downtown, I

would get 10 different answers. For some people, it's a parking problem. for some people it's a walking problem. Um and so I I you know I think yes it's a it's a conversation we need to have. The the landscape is changing and will continue to change with parking. Um it's been on our horizon for a little bit and I I you're right. We do not have the capacity to address it this year unless we drop some stuff off the list. Um but it's not that we're not uh it's not that we're completely ignoring the issue. Um, and we are starting to have conversations and I think it's a it's probably a broader conversation with a lot of our partners that we need to have as well. So, councelor Gusta's pro paid parking. You heard it here first. Uh-huh.

Pro what? You want paid parking in town? No. Why do you That's what I heard. Okay. Is there any other questions about any of the goals that Tom has put forth here? Our goals. We will bring it forward as a resolution for adoption. Yes, we'll have another opportunity to talk about it. Robust. All right. 7 o'clock. See you all in 10 minutes. 710. Thank you.

Okay, everyone, let's get back together. Check. Check. Okay, who are we missing here? Got everybody. All right, we're going to move on to uh the consent agenda um calendar. And there's two um items on there. Item five and six. So items on the consent calendar may be reviewed and commented upon in the same manner as other agenda items. Any member of the council or the public may request withdrawal of any item from the consent calendar for further discussion at any time prior to approval. If items are not removed, they may be approved with a single motion. I will read number five and six and then ask if anybody would like to pull it from council and then also ask if anybody from the audience or online would like to. So item number five is a resolution by the city council of the city of Steamboat Springs of the county of route, state of Colorado, authorizing particip participation in the rural jumpstart program on March 3rd, 2026. And item number six is the first reading of an ordinance adopting the 2025 Colorado wildfire resiliency code and appendix A, the route county wildfire map and providing an adoption date and an effective date. So, would anybody on council like to pull either one of those two items?

I'll pull five. Okay. Councelor Gary wants to pull item number five. Anyone else? Okay. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to pull item number six since item number five has already been pulled? Is there anybody online who would like to pull item number six? Please raise your hand. Seeing none, we believe item number six on the consent agenda and ask for a motion to approve item number six on the consent calendar. So moved. Second. We have a motion by councelor Swinte, second by councelor Gary. All those in favor say I.

I. Opposed. Okay. Item number six remains on the consent calendar with a vote of 70. So we'll go back to item number five. Todd and a resolution of around the uh rural jump start program and so who would go and talk about that

and I'll say I just pulled it really for um education and community in in in um enga community education in terms of the jump start program and I don't know if um you know I was thinking with John here it might be appropriate for him just to take two or three minutes to talk about the companies in our community that have benefited or how our community has benefited from the jump start program if that's okay with council and with staff. Absolutely. John Bristol is here from the county economic de part development partnership. This request really is coming through them. So it' be appropriate for John to come on down. It's a good idea. Okay.

Thank you. Good evening council. John Bristol, uh, executive director of RCP. Uh, the rural jump start program, we initially back in 2018, uh, did not qualify for it. So, we had to go to the state economic development commission to, uh, ask for an exception and had to do that a couple times since then. And, um, have been utilizing. We've had a total of nine uh, businesses here in Route County utilize it. uh we don't have any sort of business incentives or or other uh programs at the county or municipal level here across Route County. And so this is really the only program that we have that fits our size and it's from the state. So it's it's really valuable for us to talk with new businesses that are getting started about it. Uh quick overview on some of the businesses. We've had an outdoor recreation company. actually have another one in the pipeline that's uh will go before the state economic development commission. Um uh as well as uh four uh companies in the food and beverage manufacturing space. Um one of them for example uh which is is well publicized is Baru Eats. Uh they're based in in Hayden. Um and then a financial services company that is based here in Steambo as well as a technology company um and a medical device company. And we've had three uh companies at this point that have rolled out of the program uh either for years or or other reasons, but we have uh six that are active right now. So um that's kind of the big picture overview. I always want to talk with any new businesses that are interested in get getting started uh and see if this might be a good fit for them uh or not. So

that's all can you summarize the benefits of the program for I'm not

Yeah, absolutely. Sorry I skipped right over that. key benefits for the program is it's uh um at the at this really is a collaboration for state uh county and municipal level. So at the state level there's 100% relief of state income tax for the new business and that comes in form of tax credit uh as well as 100% refund and state sales and use tax for the new business at for state level. At the county level it's relief from personal property tax for the new new business. Um and then at the municipal le level it's uh um 100% relief of municipal property tax. City of Stebo Springs does not have um uh personal property tax. It don't um all the we do have the county has approved the resolution and Yampa and Oak Creek have approved the resolution. Uh Hayden it's still up for approval. And then lastly, um 100% relief of state income tax for the new hires for that business. And so those are the the benefits.

Other questions for John or comments? Um I was one of the three who actually rolled off. I will say this, although my business I launched it and I've closed it, I actually see this as an investment in me. like it helped give me additional runway to be able to launch it, run it, learn from it, and move on and continue to have a business and run it. So to anybody listening, even if it's not you don't know these details, like John and his team was invaluable for me. I would encourage anyone to reach out to them. They're a great resource and thanks for everything. You're part of my success. Uh thanks for thanks for saying that. And I I would just note that was prior to you being on city council.

Oh, great. Yeah. Saying that. Good. Well, thank you, John. Okay, let's open it up uh to public comment. Is there anybody in the room or anybody online? Raise your hand if you'd like to make a public comment. Seeing none, we will close public comment. Bring it back to council for either further discussion or a motion. Uh move to approve agenda item nine or five. A second. Okay, we have a motion by councelor Swinteek, second by councelor Gary. All those in favor of approving item five say I. I

opposed. Okay, motion passes 70. Okay, we're moving on to public hearings, motions, resolutions, and item number seven is the second reading of an ordinance, the second supplemental budget appropriation ordinance of 2026. Kim is here. Thank you. Want to give us a quick overview?

Sure. Kim Weber, finance director. So, this is a supplemental budget appropriation to appropriate uh $631,000 across uh general fund, capital projects fund, golf fund, and fleet services fund. Many of the requests have corresponding revenue um and won't come out of reserves. the largest uh request will come out of reserves is proposed to come out of reserves out of the capital projects fund and it's to fund the House and Hill snowmaking pump um that went down in on January 1st and um and then there is uh that'll come out of the capital projects fund and then there's a request for additional expenditures for greater replacements of 52,000 that would come out of the fleet services reserves for replacement and happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for Kim? No. Okay. Thank you, Kim. Is there anyone in the room who would like to make a public comment or anyone online, please raise your hand? Seeing none, we'll close public comment. Bring it back to council for further discussion or a motion. Move to approve. Second. Okay, we have a motion by councelor Barnes, second by councelor Swintech. All in favor say I. I.

Opposed. Okay, motion passes. 70. Next is the commission report, January Parks and Recreation Report. Has everybody checked that over? And do we have any comments or questions for Angela? Yes, Councelor Dixon. Is your mic on? Okay, this question is for Angela.

Angela, come on down. Like the head. Yeah, I don't know. I just waiting to be summoned. Yes, Angela Cosby, your parks and rec director. How can I help you? Thanks, Angela. Can you talk about um EM Emerald Park? Um yeah, talk about what you're planning. I I just I met with someone and I wasn't sure if they had all the information. So, I would love to hear it from you. Sure. um part of I'm curious when your conversation was because the plans have definitely changed from fall to recently weeks ago. So

recent couple months ago actually a couple months ago um if they're not involved with our user group discussions I'd welcome them to be involved. So we are hosting regularly scheduled user group conversations modeled after the Hamilton Hill user groups. So between soccer, Botanic Park, baseball, Triple Crown, um all of the users of that area to talk about our infrastructure projects coming up and sharing the space as best as possible. We believe we've come up with solutions that meets all of those participants needs, but if that's not the case, we're happy to relook at plans. Does that answer your question? I'm happy to talk more in detail.

I was not I'm not concerned. Um, I was just I thought I'd ask um how are you adding the 29 parking spaces? Really good question. The parking spaces are currently a little bit oversized compared to like a really good example is the new construction at city hall. The size of those parking spots, they're are the city's standard. Um the ones at Emerald Park are larger. So where the burm is right now with the trees grow going straight up that separates the soccer fields from the parking lot. Yep. That burm would get removed. The parking lot we'd be shaving. And Matt, if you're listening, because I know he's in the room next. Oh, sorry, Matt. He'll answer it best for you.

Okay. Thanks, Matt.

Good evening, Matt Barer, your development manager. Um, regarding the parking spaces, yeah, 9 by 18 is a standard city-size parking lot space. The same thing that we have here between the fire station and city hall. what we have at Emerald Park are 10 by 20s and also the drive lanes between those striped parking spaces are larger. So when we looked at the ask that the Botanic Park had on how can we change things on that site, the parking lot was really is. So, what we're going to do is we're going to cut off 12 ft of the asphalt on the soccer field, like the Bananic Park side of things, and then restripe the entire parking lot, change those drive lanes down to like what we just have right here on site. Um, and that's how we're going to net out that space to make that alteration.

Okay. So, we're not losing much green space. Um, we're losing a burm.

We're losing the burm. Um the Botanic Parks fence is going to move about 50 ft into the soccer fields and then we're just taking all that other space. There's about 57 ft between the edge of the play of the soccer fields and the edge of the existing asphalt right now. So as we shrink up that median space between the parking lot and the edge of the soccer fields, we're going to make a more thoughtful corridor through there. We're going to retain the shade by putting in some mature trees. We're going to spade those in. We're going to formalize a walking corridor with an 8-ft sidewalk. We're going with an 8-oot sidewalk because there will be a parking stall that butts up to the sidewalk and a lot of times people will run all the way till they get their tires on it. So, we'll still have a 5-ft, you know, wheelchair accessible sidewalk even if somebody pulls up with a really big truck. Um, so yeah, just formalizing a walking path there, making some really intentional shaded areas where people can watch soccer from that side of things. you know, it's just it's very spread out right now with the burm and we're just going to make it smaller but more intentional.

Perfect. Thank you. That was really helpful. I have a question uh for either one of you. Um it's around you say on here uh staff reports a strong year in youth and athletics though demand continues to exceed capacity. The team expresses hope to expand programs and enrollment in 2026. So what needs to happen to can we meet the demand out there and if not what do we need to do at Emerald Park or for all of our all basically I think this was for all was

we need more facility space whether it's acquiring Parkland and developing it or working with our like the school district different partner agencies to have more gym and field space. How I mean if you can a ballpark around what percentage are we short? I mean are we do we have 10% too much demand? Is there any way to quantify how much demand we aren't able to satisfy?

It depends on the program. I believe the one you were listed probably came from our adult sports staff and referencing volleyball. If we fast forward and completed a lot of the projects that are currently in the works and some partially funded like Bay River Park, that will install three volleyball courts that doubles the city's inventory of volleyball courts. Um well, it doesn't double the indoor for winter use. Um that plus when we talk about the development of Slate Creek, so then look maybe 10 years down the road, we're going to be solving a lot of our problems, but in the meantime, we're challenged by it. Is that an acceptable response?

Thank you. Mhm. And I'll just follow up on that then. I mean, I know we've had discussions with the school district in terms of trying to be able to work to use their facilities during the summer months or when we need excess capacity, but have those continued to stall out? Um, we have great conversations with them and we do use school district facilities right now. Our afterchool program is in them. We also have an adult sports league playing on Sundays in them. The school district is also heavily demanded for space. Um, while they probably do have some availability, it's not the only answer. Okay, thanks. Yep. Anyone else? Thank you, Angela. Thank you, Matt. Thank you. Thanks, Matt.

Okay, we will move on in our agenda to city attorney report. I don't have a report tonight.

Okay, thank you. Then we will move on uh to our next item which is an executive session and we have several topics to talk about. So what I'm going to do here um is read um I'm going to move to go into executive session and then I'm going to read the first one and then we'll need a motion on that to approve that and then I will again read the second one and we'll need a motion to approve that. Okay. So I move to go into exe uh executive session to discuss the topic set forth below the specific citations to the provision or provisions of CRS 24-6-402 subsection 4 that authorizes the city council to meet in an executive session are set out below. The description of the topics are intended to identify the particular matter to be discussed in as much detail as possible without compromising the purpose for which the executive session is authorized. CRS24-6-424B conferences with an attorney for the local public body for the purposes of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions. Mere presence or participation of an attorney in an executive session of the local public body is not sufficient to satisfy the requirements of this subsection 4. CRS24-6-424E1 determining positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations developing strategy for negotiations and instructing negotiators. Th it these items pertain to the potential parkland acquisition of the Slate Creek parcel and Emerald Morton property. So can I have a motion to go into executive session pertaining to those items?

So moved. Second. Second. Okay. We have a motion by councelor Pino, a second by councelor Gary. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed.

Okay, that passes 70. Second subject, I move to go into executive session um CRS 24-6-424B conferences with an attorney for the local public body for the purposes of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions. Mere presence or participation of an attorney at an executive session of the local public body is not sufficient to satisfy the requirements of this subsection 4. This item pertains to the Yampa Valley Housing Authority. Uh, do I have a motion to go in executive session?

May I uh make a comment? Yes. And given that this matter has been reported on the newspaper today, I think it would be appropriate and prudent um to specify that it um this is going to relate to the uh housing authority and the uh executive director issue. Okay. So, we'll add that to the motion. Do I have a motion? Thank you. So moved. Second. Motion by council. Second by councelor Barnes. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Okay. So we will adjourn and move into executive session in the Carver. Let's do it.

Kelly's dead. I have to do this again. Do we have everybody?

Where's Okay, I'm going to read this again because we're supposed to here. Um the time is now um 8:40 and the executive session is concluded. Um for the record, if any person who participate in executive session believes that any substantial discussion of any matters not included in the motion to go into executive session occurred during the executive session or if there are any improper action occurred during the executive session in violation of the open meetings law, I would ask that you state your concerns for the record. Okay. Seeing none, um I want to summarize coming out of the executive session that there were two executive sessions. The first one focused on giving direction to negotiators around the Slate Creek parcel and the executive session number two was for legal advice.

We do have to give participants and yes each one of them and the participants in the first session were Brian Swindek, right? Michael Bino, Dave Barnes, Dan Foot, Yarry, Amy Dixon, Augusta, Tom Leon, Kelly Romero, Heene, Kim Weber, and Sarah Riones, and Matt Bernard and Angela Cosmic, Matt Darnard, and Angela and Steve Montene. And the participants in the executive second executive session were Steve Montine, Swintech, Michael Bino, Dave Barnes, Dan Foot, Gail Garry, Amy Dixon, Augusta, Tom Leon, Cali Romero, Heini.

Okay. Is there any other discussion needed tonight on any other topic? If not, I will ask for a motion to adjurnn. Move to adjurnn. Second. Okay. Motion by Michael Pac.