City Council - Regular Meeting

Now call to Order the study session meeting of February 2nd, 2026, Groundhog Day. Members of the public are invited to attend in-person city council meetings in council chambers on the lower level of city hall. Public access to tonight's meeting is also available on the local government access channel 8 for Comcast subscribers on the city's YouTube channel online and by telephone using the call-in numbers posted on the meeting agenda. We have two items tonight. The first one is Denver Peak Academy presentation. So the director of Denver Peak Academy, Megan Williams, will present to council. Welcome.

Thank you. Uh I think Heather's going to do a little intro. Yeah. Okay. Before I start,

you good evening, mayor and council, I wanted to formally introduce former Why can't I say that word today? Formerly formally introduce Megan Williams, the director of the Denver Peak Academy. Sorry, it's been a long day, long weekend. Um, we invited Megan to come up here this evening to present about the Denver Peak Academy when looking at standing up an innovation team here internally. Um, Denver is probably the best premier example based on the work that they've done. So, we are in the beginning stages of figuring out how to design what our innovation team will look like. So, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to provide a check-in with council, introduce you to the inner workings of the Denver Peak Academy. um allow you an opportunity to provide feedback what um what is of note based on what Megan will walk through um this evening, what is of most interest to you in terms of what you would like to relay to me to keep in mind as we're working internally to design this innovation team. So again, this is one format. the scale of their program is much larger than I would envision um our program to be. However, the possibilities are endless and um the timeline for the staff to bring back um more of a framework to you will be fourth quarter of this year unless we're able to do it sooner with the intention of being able to develop a budget program request and we'll include that through the 2027 budget process. So, one piece that I do want to draw particular attention to is

we had 23 staff members participate um under Megan's direction in green belt training. That's the entry training that the Denver Peak Academy hosts. This training was wellreceived by the staff that participated in the program. And so part of what we're also doing is using the feedback from those staff members who participated in that training to help inspire and figure out um how we're going to move forward and create our internal team. So excited to say that we have considerable engagement by staff here at the city at multiple levels as we're embarking on this journey to figure out what our internal innovation team will look like in the future. I'll turn it over to Megan.

All right. Well, mayor and council, I'm so excited to be here. I can talk about Peak for hours and hours. I think it's so great. I was a Peak super fan. Uh when I worked at the town of Frederick, I went through the training back in 2014. So, I was a super fan before I was the director. Um so, yeah, I'm just going to kind of take you through what is the program, what do we do, and happy to answer any questions. So, feel free to stop me. because again and I also talk kind of fast so I'm gonna do my best to slow it down. Um so who is peak? What do we do? So through training, coaching, uh project facilitation, we really try to inspire and empower the frontline folks and really frontline all the way to executives to continuously improve service delivery for the community. Um, and our hope by doing that is that we're going to create this community of innovators who leverage data to drive equitable outcomes where all people thrive inside the city and county of Denver. Uh, there on the side you'll see our values. These are really important to us. This is actually the way that we hire uh is with those core values and this is really what our work is like when it's at its best is we're exhibiting these things. So this is really a really key way way how we run our program. So this breaks down into essentially three different functions. We do training, project facilitation, and then as Heather said, we've become sort of a national model for process improvement inside of government. Um, as well as we we've trained some nonprofits and some states, um, but mostly cities. And at this point, we've probably trained over 400 other organizations across the United States and some in Canada. So, you can call us international if you want to.

Um, but so internally, folks can attend these trainings for free. Um, but since we are paid by Denver taxpayers, we do ask for other cities to pay for the ability to come to the training just so we're c recouping those tax dollars. and then what my team would be saving inside the city and county of Denver if we were working for them. So that's how our prices are based. And so the training we have three different operations. We have the green belt which is what we did here uh for the city of North Glenn which is so much fun. See a couple of folks that were in the class. Um and then we also have a black belt which is three and a half days with a half day summit one month later where folks come back and talk to us about the pro project that they're going to lead using the tools that we taught them. And then we have a leading like an innovator class that's really for leadership um because again it's really important that the leaders are bought into this so that they can make that time and help direct the right areas for folks to be focusing on when they come through class. So that one's for supervisors and then we do the team does about 30% training and about 70% of project facilitation inside the city and those are mostly process improvement, change management, strategic planning and roles and responsibilities. Um and so that takes about 70% of the team's time and then like I say we do um the national consultation as people ask us to. We don't I wouldn't say this is a big bucket for us, but it is a bucket. We have about five seats in our black belt class each month that are reserved for folks to come through. Um and then yeah, we come and do trainings like this wherever we're else we're asked to go. That picture is from um the state of North Carolina. I think their department of health and human services.

So why are we um the national model? It's really that we uh believe in character and competence. So we need to show our competence by our results. And so we're very serious about tracking the data involved with each innovation that comes through our doors. And so by doing that, we can confidently tell you that we have saved the city $80 million over the past 13 years. um in addition to 17.3 million in customer savings. So city savings is we we characterize that as soft savings and hard savings. So soft savings is the time of our employees because that's our biggest cost inside the city and county of Denver is the people who do the work. So we think of that as really valuable savings and then hard savings is dollars that go right back into the budget. And then the customer savings is when we're putting money right back into the pockets of the folks who need to deal with the city, whether that's with their own time or with like cutting a fee that we really didn't need to have. Um we've trained over 20 12,000 employees and um the result of this is not only all of the incredible innovation that happens, but it's also really an employee engagement tool. Um we see a lot um higher engagement scores for folks who come through Black Belt as well as lower turnover rates for those folks. So we can really tell that that is like a way they stay engaged. And then through all that, we've had over 5,000 innovations identified and actualized inside the city and county. Um, no one's required to take our training. It's all self- select. And um,

so yeah, we have to really people have to enjoy being around us. And so that's where that character piece comes in of like really treating people well, knowing that they're going to have a great experience with us. and then they refer other folks to us uh because it's really word of mouth at this point that people find us. So these are just a few examples of some projects but you can go onto our website and see so many things. We have like videos, we have uh slides about a lot of different projects but anyway these are just a few. Um, we reduced the time to hire a position from 90 days to 45 days. Um, we actually just finished some great work with our civil service commission. So, at the city and county of Denver, we have a commission that helps us hire our police officers and our firefighters. And the amazing results they've had is like 150% higher classes filled after working with us. Um, so we're hiring more police officers more quickly, which is awesome. And then we were able to decrease the excise and license lobby wait times from 8 hours to 15 minutes. We literally used to have a frozen yogurt machine in the lobby um to be like, "So sorry you're here for eight hours waiting for your security guard merchant license. Have some frozen yogurt." So, um it's exciting that now you do not actually have to wait eight hours. You can come in and get everything done in 15 minutes. Um so, we don't have the frozen yogurt machine anymore, but they don't have to pay for parking two days to come downtown for their license. Um we reduced our affordable housing development loan review time by 50% one full month. So, again, we're getting that affordable

housing going much more quickly. Um, and then we had an ADA lawsuit where they identified thousands of uh different things that we needed to uh fix inside the community in order to meet the lawsuit. And those were only passing inspection 50% of the time. And so we had to go back in like things like adding a a bar to help somebody get up from the bathroom or like where the you know paper towels are on the wall. And so we were having to redo those 50% of the time. Um but when they worked with us we were able to get them up to 70% in two months and now we're at like a 97% pass rate. All of these things happen just with us putting these tools in the hands of the folks who do the work. So when we think about what is continuous improvement for us at the city and at peak, it is um centering what customers value first and foremost. If your process is not built around what your customer wants, it's not a good process, right? like if we're building it around what makes it easier for us or um you know just the things that we put in the way over time like 17 signatures cuz one thing happened one time I don't know if you have that here but we have it at the city. Um so this is really thinking about like what is the customer value and then everything else around that can be changed. Um, sometimes people feel like some of these systems are just a big whole big mess, right? Like, and so that keeps people from wanting to even try to solve them. And so we really try to help people think about this into smaller bite-sized chunks, starting with the most pain or

the root cause and then moving on from there to continue to move things forward. We really want to focus on action and using the expertise of the people who do the work. That was something that was really unique about Peak when it first started was that the other the other programs that were around there was like City Stat in Baltimore and one other one, but they were really top down. It was like I think you should do this and I want to give you this like data point to hit and you're going to do it my way. And so Peak said, "What if we put these hands in the tools these tools in the hands of the folks who do the work every day?" Like what could we see come out of them because they're the best ones to know their process. So um yeah, this gets people to action. It's also like it's not meetings, it's action. I was actually like when I came here today, I was like, I'm not bringing anything like cuz we're not doing like I'm just going to talk to you. It's so weird cuz usually I'm like having people use sticky notes and like we're solving things and we leave with an action plan. Um so this was weird today to just show up. Um and then really all of this results in innovation and the way we mean when we say innovation is like a change for the better. I think sometimes when folks hear the word innovation, they think technology, like we got to be adding technology to something. And that's not what we mean by the word innovation. We mean how do we make something better? Okay. So, what do we think of as elements of innovation? Like what are we really teaching folks to look for when they're thinking about innovating? We want it to be staff driven. We want it to be customer focused. We want it to be equity focused. We want it to be

sustainable. So so often, right, we make a change and then that ball just rolls right back down the hill. And so really we want to teach people how to implement change in a way that it actually can keep long after they're, you know, promoted into a different position or hit the lottery or whatever. Um, so without new technology or people, a lot of folks like to come to us and say, "Oh, if only if only I had this fancy new tech system, I could do everything you ever dreamed of." And some people say, "Oh, I just need another person. Like, I'm just struggling. I have to have another person." And so, I'll give you two examples. Um, technology. If we're not fixing our processes before we add technology, we now have expensive crappy processes. So, we have to make sure we have an example inside the city is this contracting software that everyone hates to use and it is slowing down the process so terribly. But it's like we just when we got the new system, we just put the old processes right into it. Didn't do any process improvement. And so now we have this fancy new system that like we customized to death. And so now we can't even get like the bugs like the bug fixes that somebody would give you. So um we really stress uh process improvement for technology. And then um the people example I'll give you is I had one woman come to me and say my customers are getting this application wrong 70% of the time. like I have to have another person to help me with these applications because they're just wrong all the time. And I was like no friend. It's like we have to fix your application. If 70% of people are not

understanding your application, your application is a problem. So with relationships based on trust, again, lots of people feel very committed to the way they do things. And so how can we make sure that we're creating an environment of trust and understanding what's happened before we apply innovation and then you can see they're implemented and tracked with the score. We're very serious about tracking the data. That's again how I can tell you how much we've saved. And then starting small in scope and making sure that it's in their control or influence, especially when you're first starting out um to build that track record of success. We want to make sure it's something that they can actually control. Okay. So, this just kind of takes you through the way what we teach people. So, first we're going to teach them how to capture the voice of their customer. Then they're going to process map. Then they're going to identify the waste on that process map. Then they're going to select one to two process steps that have the most waste to focus on for their innovation. Then we're going to teach them some gap analysis tools to use on those identified steps. We're going to help them brainstorm ideas to address that waste and those gaps. And then um we teach them solution tools that then they can actually put into an action plan. Right? If meetings are ending without action plans, we didn't need to have that meeting. So we always want to make sure people have an action plan with things that are assigned to people and due dates. So this is the innovation form. This is what we use is basically the problem solving tool. So all of those steps that I just showed you, they all fit inside this form. And the form is how we track all the things. So why change is needed? Those metrics that are involved with the current state and how it looks in the

future state. Then again where we're going to put our gap analysis, our brainstorming. And so this is really where our savings comes from is these current state and future state metrics. And then you see there the action plan. Um we always like to have folks prove that they actually did the thing and then track their results. So again, really taking that current state and that future state and then tracking where we are for 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days to actually make sure the thing worked. Sometimes it won't. That's okay. Failure is absolutely a part of process improvement. Um, but if we're not tracking it, we don't know if it worked or if it didn't work. So we got to track it either way. So these are just examples from like real frontline employees. This is just them like innovating in the wild. So I wanted to show you like this is somebody who just came to class and then they were able to create this process map. Like I just think it's the coolest thing. Um, so what you're looking at is the process map and then all of those things that have like the pink um, sort of glow around them are the waste. And so you can very clearly see here which step did they start with based on how much waste it has? Anybody want to guess? That's right.

It's such an easy tool to use. You haven't even had the training and you can tell where the most waste is. Right. That's the whole beautiful benefit of it is like it makes it so visible. It's so easy to use. So there we go. And then this is um just a filled out form. We don't need to go through the whole thing, but I just kind of wanted to show you like this is again, this is somebody who just came through class and they can fill this form out start to finish and um did an incredible job on our family cold weather motel vouchering process. And so that's a communication circle. That's one of the gap analysis tools that we teach. Um and then I think her process map is over here too. Yeah, you can't see it that well, but again in the innovation form you can on the slides you probably can't as well but um her beautiful process map and then she showed a before of what their voucher looked like and then um how they created this checklist and then that even now has gone into um a online form. So, lots of stuff that they did to that process. And then you can see there uh the savings, but I feel like I've talked a lot. And maybe you did not want me to talk this long. Okay. Um, so what we think about as the leader role is really creating an environment where change can thrive. So, what does that mean? Setting the scope for the team, right? Like process maps are not going to be any good if we don't know what the first and last step is. That's that's got to be done by the leader. Uh protecting time. We have to go slow to go fast. But I'm telling you, like if you do two days of process improvement instead of three months of weekly meetings, you're going to see the change so much more quickly because people don't have time to go

back to their whirlwind. And so really protecting that time to get things right and the benefit is going to be immense. Um creating clear goals with measures is super important and then again that idea of failure have is has to be okay and um poor performance is not the same thing as that and that needs to be addressed right but like we it should be okay to fail in an idea. Okay, I think that's everything. Again I had a lot more I could talk about but um yeah this is it. I think it's so great. Um, we love it so much. I'll never get tired of it. And yeah, it's so exciting to see the way, um, it really invigorates the public servants that came here to do awesome stuff. You know, we just get the nonsense out of their way. So,

so we want to open it up for questions. If you have any questions of Megan, um, hear your thoughts, your reactions to, um, what she shared. Um, she shared a lot with you in a short amount of time. consider it a teaser. If there's additional information you'd like to have, we can also figure out a next part of a conversation as well. I think this is a really good summary. Thank you. Um, Heather, can you give us a little bit of like your vision?

So, I guess I'm going to be a little sneaky. I don't have it all figured out. Um I was the one that um advanced the idea through strategic planning. Um my vision for standing up an innovation team is really based on creating more of a foundation of a high performance organization and culture. So, having been exposed to Megan's work and the work of other organizations where they really lean into continuous improvement and innovation, again, going back to what Megan said, it's not just about the latest and greatest technology, but really looking at what we're doing, why we've done it that way, can it be better, and um furthering the results for the community because at the end of the day, it's what the work that we're doing and how it benefits the community. So, I don't have a specific vision for the structure of it yet. Um, but my reason for advancing the idea for standing up a team is because I believe in this work and I believe it's important for us to do it here. And while there's many instances of where we've done great things here at the city of North Glenn, I think if we were to empower all employees um to be engaged in this type of work, we can do a lot more to benefit residents.

Okay. Council member Condo.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um and Miss Williams, thank you for presenting. I see you. Uh so as as uh as you were presenting I kind of went through the peak website and several thoughts ran through my mind. Uh it says you're not purely just six sigma training. It looks like it's a hybrid or a derivative of six sigma process improvement. And I really appreciate your comment about creating that psychological safety to uh encourage those people who are maybe in a process to not necessarily personalize any fault of their own but rather take a critical look at the process.

Yes. Yeah. We so we really tried to pick and choose all of the different pieces of continuous improvement from like Toyota production system lane six sigma there's even like some agile thinking there right and so it's really been about like what makes sense for government employees and that's really the biggest feedback that we've had from folks who come through our training and have been through like of true lean six sigma is that ours feel so more accessible and you can apply it more easily. Whereas like lean six sigma can get a little bit jargony and like is super manufacturingheavy. Whereas like to see all of the different examples that we have from all over government really helps it drive home for folks that like anybody can use this stuff. So really you're either trying to improve I would assume the cycle time of getting through a process or uh and or also trying to realize some sort of cost savings.

Yes. And even errors, right? Like if you have a really high error rate in a process and we want to bring that down, of course there's going to be some cost savings most likely. But um yeah, it's really like each different innovation has its own storytelling metric is the way we like to say it, but almost always we can find some savings for the budget. Gotcha. So if the city were interested in engaging and participating your services, is it an IGA? Is it paying a fixed fee? H how does that work exactly?

Yeah. So right now we just have um folks pay the fee and yeah we've we haven't raised our prices since it began. So we really the prices aren't for us to make money. It's really for us to just like recoup the time for city and county Denver taxpayers. Um but yeah, the fact that you all are right here um and can benefit from the training is amazing because we do have folks come from all over the nation and then they have to pay you know travel expenses as well as um the cost of the training. So, okay. Thank you.

If I could add, council member Condo, one of the ways I'd respond to your question is to add that it's it's also just looking at a problem differently and having crossf functional teams throughout the city tackle a problem. Not just saying, okay, this is a problem in public works, so it's public works problem to solve. zooming out and bringing in talent from across the organization of people who it's often best to have people look at a problem who aren't so tied to it and directly involved um especially on an emotional level with a problem. So um I have found that in my years in government. So when you have that outside perspective, I mean you can glean a lot of what if how about this? And so that's also one of the benefits of um learning a continuous improvement framework.

Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. Council member Goff. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you both ladies, both of you. U my question is um and and Heather you said something you maybe sort of address it through these cross functional teams but I'm just wondering if like if a process uh in a certain department there's they're trying to improve the way things are done there but there's it has an impact on people in a different department or maybe some unintended consequences. Can you just say a little bit more about how you I don't know either identify that ahead of time or work through that or how that how that works?

Yeah. So, um, a good example is that, um, affordable housing process because that takes so many different departments inside the city and county of Denver. And I will say, I don't know, I think city and county of Denver is maybe even more siloed than here just because it's like each department has its own executive director that's an appointee from our strong mayor. And so, it's like the kingdoms and the like no one knows what's going on in the other departments. And so we were able to bring them all into the room together and they were able to see for the first time that oh that's your you need I get why now like you it would really help you if I could do this earlier. it doesn't matter in my process like but now I see the actual issue that that's causing right um and the process map went around the room because there were just so many of them and they all again had their own part to play but to get everybody in the room and see each others is almost sometimes like the most beneficial part about it if that makes sense.

Okay, thank you council member Roer. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, thank you for your presentation. Um, I'm going to play the devil's advocate a little bit because that's what I'm doing. Um, first off, can you tell me how much this would run approximately? What's the cost price tag?

So, right now, what we've invested is um related to the training that we've had staff complete. And so um under the budget and time implications um I shared that the 23 staff members who went through green belt training that's about $5700 and that was direct invoicing um with the city and county of Denver peak program. I have not developed a budget yet because again we're in the process of I want to hear your thoughts about what you envision this to look like beyond what I shared just a few minutes ago. So um my hope is we develop an annual program budget but that program budget is minimal compared to the cost savings that we would generate on an annual basis through cost um continuous improvement. So the the soft cost that um Megan talked about and then the hard costs.

Okay. And just from from what's happening at city and county of Denver, um my team we it's under a million for the staffing of my team and then we have like a very small budget comp um in addition to just staffing costs. Um so that's under a million and each person on the team saves about a million a year. Okay. And there's eight of us.

I guess I should say council member Roer if I may. Um, at this point in time, given budget constraints that are real to us, I'm not necessarily going into the development of this program with additional FTEES in mind. It's about utilizing existing staff and empowering them. But those are pieces I've got to figure out.

Okay, perfect. Um, yes, that I was going to mention that just with the budget crunch that we're under. Um, I guess I was thinking, do we really need to pay someone to be able to empower our employees? I think you do lovely work, but I also think we have a lot of talent here on staff. Um, and my I guess just from an educational lens, sometimes we can get caught up in the forms and charts and sticky notes and lose sight of what it is we're actually trying to do. So, I wouldn't want that to happen um since our budget is scarce this year, but it seems like a lovely program. Mayor Pro.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um I did have a question about the budget, so you asked that. Thanks for asking that. Um so, in in terms of how this was presented, I think this is really interesting, the approach of innovation without new technology. I'm glad you mentioned that because I immediately my brain goes towards technology innovation like how are we using things to make more efficient how to make everything more efficient. Um so I like that approach because that makes I think that makes a lot of sense in especially in government. What do we hear? Government is wasteful. Government is not efficient. Um so to Heather's vision of a high performance team or high performance government and our vision as in part of our strategic planning I think I think it's a good idea. I am concerned hopefully that you know the further training doesn't keep um maybe escalating the budget amount but um so far what I've seen and what you presented is definitely something I think that could really improve our processes and that's where we're going right if if the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing or the right hand's blaming the left hand because something isn't working you know um in that area I think that's important to figure it out and that sounds kind of what the focus like what the focus This is if I'm understanding this right. Um, and the example of waste reduction 8 hours to 15 minutes. Are you planning on revamping all the DMVs?

Because they could definitely use something like this.

You we actually have worked with the DMV um in the past. They we do go where we're wanted, so they haven't asked us in a while. Um, you know, fingers crossed they they call us in the new year. Um, but one thing you said made me think of um, so really the goal is not that we would keep training your folks, right? Like most most people who come from other cities are going to send one or two folks to our training and then they go back and create their own version of that. Um, so I can also give Heather some uh, context of some of the other cities who have done that. Bend Oregon is one example where like they sent a couple folks to our training and now they have their own program there. Um you know it does take the staff to run the program but um the whole goal of of all of this would be that we help you create something that is sustainable here.

Thank you for that clarification. I mean that makes sense. I get the gist of it. So it's more of like a train the trainer program which is great. So it can continue in perpetuity. And that actually brings me to the last question I have. The first group was 23 staff members. What what does what's your goal or your vision for the innovation team exactly in terms of like a number of people? Is it just leadership team or you still figuring that out?

Well, still figuring out but I'm happy to share the thoughts that I've had around it. Not just leadership team. So the 23 staff members that went through the green belt training were a combination of leadership team members um so department directors for the public public's benefit as well as um mid managers um as well. And so ideally I would love to have all staff go through the training because I think it's a program that really focuses on empowering out ofthe-box thinking. Not to use that to sound cliche, but really um we have so many processes in the city and um if I you know thinking about what I experienced on the front end of my career 26 years ago entering local government and if this training had existed then, how empowering and exciting that would be to get to engage and really be able to question a process and advance ideas. It really provides those tools to move ideas forward. And so, um, my perfect vision would be that all of our staff go through the training. Um, because I don't think we should look at it from a perspective of, um, if you work in city hall, um, this is the training for you. I think it's, you know, all of our employees have interface with the public at varying levels. they have interface with processes. They they're responsible for moving work forward. So, I don't know how we would accomplish that. I'd have to figure it out. But, um most of the the communities that I'm familiar with um pick a path either they they have a couple designated staff members like the city of Brighton and then staff bring

their problems to that staff to help them work through. Um, I think I'm envisioning maybe we go about it differently, but again, I don't have it figured out in terms of staff across the city is empowered, but what that looks like today, I don't have completely figured out if that makes sense. Mhm.

So, if you're you're on a parks crew within parks and recreation, um if you want to engage in this training, um you know, we'll make an investment in sending you to training, we'd have the ability to have Megan and and or her team members come on site like she did for the green belt training we held. Um, so there's the convenience of being here in the city um, with the training and then having those team members that want to do the more advanced training, we make that greater investment for them, the black belt training. And I think that's where they bring forward ideas and then they follow it through. Um, and and it's it's all applicable and we can put that to good use in my mind. Um and I think directors um support that as well. We've had really great conversation around this topic um at the director level and I think one of the things that was expressed to me early on was let's not limit the scope of who can participate.

Yeah, thank you for that answer. That makes a lot of sense and thank you Megan for the presentation. So I think I have a handle on this based on the presentation and all of the comments and questions uh the trainer of trainer model and and all that. I know um it sounds like a very successful program. Thank you for sharing uh and and there's definitely some success to celebrate. The the numbers are very different, right? So to say we, you know, $8 million a year for your team, that's huge in a system, that's huge, right? You're providing many, many, many more public services than the city of North Glenn. So I have no doubt that you're making an impact and I think that's awesome. Um, to try to scale that

to what sort of results we might see, it's going to be much smaller. And so when I see the value, I don't see it so much as a monetary value or a cost savings. I'm guessing you guys got passed over for the job cuts because of the work you do and and that's you should be thankful for that. Um because that's pretty tricky. The cost benefit to our city is going to be different. I don't see it as like, woo, we're going to save all this money. Um, I love innovative thinking. When you brought up the innovation team and then we worked a little bit with the Brighton staff, that is really good work. I think it's great. Um, so this is just the organization that you want to train the team. This is the one you're proposing because there's a lot out there, but you like this one. Is that what I'm hearing?

I do like this model. I think it's the best um model in the research that I've done. Um and and they're local, right? And it's probably one of the longest standing models to my knowledge. Um and Brighton based theirs off of ours as well. So um and uh Westminster has also sent folks. Adams County, I'm just trying to think locally. Um

who else has done it? Yeah. So anyways, but yeah, it's I would say it's the longest running and um again, we've just we've had a lot of success with people coming and seeing ours and then re reshaping it the way they need to for their own community.

Right. So speaking of Wheatidge, they're more our size. Is there did they go through the training at peak and then they're they stood up their own or what did that look like? Um so when I was at Wheatbridgeidge we had a couple staff members I did not go through the training but I had a couple staff members working for me go through the training and they applied um they went through black belt training and then they applied their knowledge base throughout the organization on different projects. So they haven't stood up a centralized program if you want to refer to it as such like Brighton has I want to say two staff members and um as I work to build what um our vision can look like I'm happy to bring back more specifics about different communities so you can use that as a reference point. Um but in terms of the example you shared, mayor, when we had Brighton come help us do that um exercise on fireworks,

um those two staff members, right? Um and I want to say they may have reduced their staff to one. Don't quote me on that for sure, but there were two staff members that were solely that that's what they did every day was to support the work in each of the different departments. And I was the last thing I was going to say is we just we do have like a list of all the other cities who have come through and like some contact info. Commerce City was another one I was just thinking of so we can make sure we get Heather that information so she can talk to those other um cities of like size.

Yeah, I think I'm more interested in contacting them to find out what is the sustainability of it. Right. because you can send two interested people and then they can come back and get different jobs and then it doesn't go anywhere and so that's wasted money spent for people who have moved on. Oh, you have something else?

I was just going to say um the the places that we've seen it be more sustainable is they do have at least one staff member like dedicated to it. Um but that doesn't mean it can't be. It's just those just as I'm thinking across like the folks who've done it, they do typically have to like put some, you know, research towards it.

That makes sense. Um, okay. So, I this is helping me better understand what it is because the the idea of a innovation team makes sense. It is in our strategic plan. We do support it. I just wasn't quite sure how it connected to this one. This is fine. This is I'm sure they're doing great work. I think my when I think of every staff member, I don't think that makes a ton of sense. That's over $75,000. And I don't know that you need it at every level. So, I would just be mindful in the roll out and maybe it maybe it rolls out in phases. It would not be all at once.

Well, I knew it wouldn't be all at once, but I just I mean, I think about staff turnover. you know, we don't want to be spending a lot of money and also role. Not everybody needs to to do this work. So, um I mean this I'm not trying to demean any lifeguards, but I don't think our lifeguards need to go through this training. Maybe they do. Uh maybe the the the managers might might need it more. Um, and then also I just think about the similar to council member Roer like this is facilitation. This is facilitation strategies and techniques and the way people think and so if you like this company I think that's great or it's not really a company but this organization. I think that's great. I think as we move forward as a city, we need to figure out how does it fit and where is it going to help us the most because there's a lot of fun challenges in the world. We will not ever be um lacking those. So, thank you. Thank you for explaining what you do and congratulations. All right. Next up is the proposed 2026 neighborhood nights plan. City manager Guyire will present this to council. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Rachel from our event staff is here this evening. She's going to walk you through an update of neighborhood nights. Um, previously we had shared some information. um she's done a lot of leg work on dates, times, and um we'll talk you through what the plan is for this evening. Our hope is that we can get any

feedback from you tonight that may shift us in a different direction so that way we have time to pivot and adjust. Otherwise, if you give us a thumbs up that the plan's great, we'll move forward and execute it. So, Rachel, turn it over to you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you for having me this evening. Um to those who observe, happy Groundhog Day. Yes. I am Rachel Henny. I'm one of your two event supervisors. Um Michael Ringling was uh not feeling well tonight, so he's at home. Um as Heather mentioned, the neighborhood nights, there have been a couple conversations in various stages at various times about dates, about locations. Tonight is really just pulling it all together. Um, it is very similar to what we've seen before, but it's always good to check back in and make sure that our team is on the right track for this one of your signature serieses. Um, so there are things that are still in the works, things like your bands, things like the movies, but um, between my team um, and North Glenn Arts, we have come to the event schedule very similar again to what we've seen before with uh, the band kicking off there at 5:30, then taking a break for council to check in with um, residents who have come and then the movie at 7:30. that is a little bit earlier. We're wanting to make sure that um people families with kiddos can see the whole movie and feel like they can stay without getting home too very late. Um the dates we have picked interweave with the concert schedule on the lawn. Um and I'm happy to talk through that more if needs be. Um, so that it appears there is a gap between June and July, but really from the public standpoint, we think it's just all part of one big fun series that will

go through June and July. Um, other highlight I wanted to point out, um, Anything Library has come on board. They want to have a presence at every neighborhood night. We're very happy to have that partnership. If there are other departments within the city, we've seen DICE. Um, in years past, we've seen um CP, forgive me, the acronym escapes me at the moment. CPCP,

CCPP, thank you. Um, or planning had a great presence last summer. Got a lot of really useful information. Um, so those partnerships are open. Um, and will be determined. Those are the broadstrokes. Um, but I'd love to get any feedback or questions. How come W three gets one more savory truck than the rest of them? Uh that was feedback from the last time we checked in on neighborhood nights. Given the number and volume we have um for ward three that is in combination with a um lawn concert. Um so there was a thought that we needed to have a little more support behind that.

That's fair. It made sense. The location is a little bigger. It uh council member Severs Hi, thanks for uh presenting. Uh I'm sure you've thought about it because that's what you guys staff does, but there's no concern about the movie being hard to see at 7:30. There is not. Um there's exploration at this point to have LED screens instead of a projection, which was part of the consideration of moving it forward. We want to make sure people can see it, but we also it's very important that the movie actually gets seen and that's just not happening right now with as late as it's starting. That makes sense. Council member Roer,

thank you for this and since I'm on it seems like I'm asking all the questions about money. Do the LED screens cost more than what we are currently using? Um, that is an excellent question. I know North Glenn Arts is looking at how to source that responsibly. Um, and is my understanding a another city may have one in their um, stock that they might be able to loan us. So, those are ongoing conversations. Um, and I'm happy to circle back on that particular price point if need.

Thank you. And I think um, I can speak for Mayor Prom, but we love our location. The having the music and the movie is really great. Our community really loves it. So, thank you for putting this together. It's a big hit in Ward 4. So, thank you, Council Member Condo.

Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you for presenting. Uh, one of the things that I remember, I don't know if it was last year or the year before. Uh, I just I seem to recall that C do DOT was doing like a community outreach and it happened at the same time. And I I just wanted to figure out when we have this sort of schedule, do we reach out to other government agencies to say, "Hey, uh we have a major community event going on and if you would like to, you know, have a booth, if you're trying to collect community input, here's an opportunity to partner with the city."

That's not something that we've done historically proactively, but anyone who asks, we do try to work in. Um, so I know Adams County, um, in the past has come to do like voter registration. Um, it's if there are specific groups that are you feel are missing, I'm happy to do that outreach. I know it a lot of it comes down to staffing. The fact that it's in the evening, sometimes that's a harder reach. Gotcha. Yeah. I I think that uh most recently at C DOT, RTD, those are the ones that I I just remember being pretty active in the summer. I'm happy to look into that further. Okay. Gotcha. Thank you, Council Member Goff.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, and thanks for the doing all the hard work of organizing and getting input and putting this all together. Um, my question, and maybe it's more of a suggestion. Um, I just wonder if this might be um a good opportunity, at least the W three one because we get more people because it's because of where it is, but to do some presentation by parks and wreck on like updates on the construction we're doing at the parks and the Odell Berry Park, you know, plan or whatever. I've had people ask me some questions about what that's going to look like now that we have the funding for it. So, I I don't know, but I know in the past we've had different departments like, you know, present things that are in the works or to get input from residents, and this might be a good good place and time to talk about what's going on with all our parks.

I'm happy to explore that further with parks. Yes. Thank you, Council Member Lighty. Thank you. And thank you so much for doing all of this. This is also a very welllaidout little plan here. I love it. Um, I'm very excited that mine is at Central Park. That's in my neighborhood, so I could walk there. I'm very excited about that. Um, I did just have a question because I noticed that Ward 4 is on June 18th, and maybe I'm jumping ahead. Is that going to interfere with a Junth event? Do we have a Junth event planned?

There is a pretty significant Juneenth event being planned. Um, again, that is more under North Glenn Arts, but as of the 19th, not the 18th, we were strategic about that. I love it. So, it's like back toback. Cool. Okay. Sounds partying all week long. Staff will be at least. Yay. Yeah, that's a really good question. And then, um, just it'd be interesting to see an overlay of all the other events for the summer. I know this is just very tight to the the four ward events. Yes. But knowing that there's so much going on including the 4th of July and I'm assuming pride.

Uh yes. And and I have done that on a small scale to answer questions about it. Nice. Um we again were very strategic in that survey that I sent out to you all um in plotting this out not just for staff um accommodation but also the public. We never want to be competing with ourselves if we're doing something. So, yeah, that's true. Um, and then are we still going to do a nice summer flyer with all of those for for families? Are Yes. Do you know when that'll go out? I am not sure.

Okay. I was thinking about Council Member Condo's question. So, um, young families typically will pull all of North Glenn's, all of Thornton's, all of Westminster, and they'll put all the fun events on their personal calendar. And so that said, um, because they're published, additional organizations can do the same. They can look and go, "Oo, we're going to go here, then we're going to go here, then we're going to go here." Um, and so it it's really can be on them. I wouldn't think that Rachel needs to ask, but she I'm sure she's willing to. I just think they can they can also seek it out on their own. Um because we publish all those fun dates. U it sounds like a lot of fun. I love that we are continuing to put the band and the movie together. I know when I talk to residents at these events, we have quite a few that are not residents because they also look to see which band is coming. We had people from Golden. We had people from Littleton. they drive up to see their favorite band. Um because live music for free is is pretty amazing. It's a wonderful thing.

And thank you for mentioning that master list. It does remind me we have the insert in the activity guide. Um at all events during the summer, we do have a one sheet where we have all of the events listed. Um so as many times as I can shout these days and times, we do make take that opportunity. Yeah. So, I think you mentioned it. Yeah, I think you mentioned it a second ago. You did balance it out for staff workload as well. Absolutely. Okay. Because that's a lot. I hope I hope there's some balance there. I know it gets pretty busy in the summer. July is going to be one big long party. It's going to be awesome. It certainly is. Okay, any other questions?

Thank you. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. And so, everybody's happy. Yes. Yes. I'm going to publish these far and wide. Yep. Thank you. Are there any other items for council? Nothing. Nothing. Okay. All right. Thank you. We are adjourned. No gabble, but there you go.