City Council - workshop

Absolutely.

portable radios. They have multi-key encryption capability, so that maintains a secure radio channel for all of our communication. Currently in the Toronto County, our law enforcement channels are encrypted. The challenge historically is when we respond to other major events throughout the state, some of those municipalities and some of those county agencies do not have the encryption capability, which means our transmissions become better transmissions, for lack of a better word. The state has since moved towards encryption for those interoperability channels such as the MAT and CAT channels, which is the Mutual Aid Talk Group and the County Agency Talk Group. So what we're hoping to pursue is a $250,000 grant. We recognize that the amount requested may not be the amount that we get. If that is the case, we'll pare down our purchase to be able to make sure that those reconcile.

Any questions for the chief of this grant application. Okay. Is everybody okay with please moving forward with that. Thank you.

Mayor, while Director Lopez comes to the podium, I'll let you know, Council, that staff learned about this grant opportunity on the 18th of August. Ten days later, we were able to turn around an application and meet the deadline by some good work in the Parks and Rec Department and some collaboration with the Fire Department. Director Lopez will talk to you about what was applied for, and I will up front acknowledge that we're coming to you for approval after submitting the grant, but given the short deadline for turnaround, and not meeting your council deadlines, we thought that was the best thing to do, to apply. Make sure that you concur with that this evening. Of course, we could rescind the application if you don't agree. Good evening, Mayor, Councillors. Great to be here with you tonight.

As the City Manager indicated, staff is seeking council support tonight regarding a grant application that was submitted last Friday, August 28th, to the Bureau of Land Management Fuels Management and Community Fire Assistance Program. Quite the title. As noted in your memo and mentioned by the city manager, we became aware of the opportunity on August 18th, leaving just 10 days before the deadline for grant submittal. So given that time frame, we proceeded thankfully with the support of the city manager with an application to preserve that opportunity and are now bringing it to Council at the earliest practical opportunity. The application can be withdrawn, as Janine mentioned, at any time if Council does not support pursuing the funding. which is the direction we would be seeking tonight, if that is Council's desire. Before discussing the application and proposed project, I do want to recognize significant team effort that made the application possible in just 10 short days. Early last week, I was able to meet with Lark Environmental to outline the project scope and objectives. Throughout the week, Chief Black and I, with assistance from several of our team members and our respective departments, provided information and guidance. to support the grant writing process as well as the finished application. I would also like to especially recognize the financial services team, including Krista Wiggs and Nicholas Gassman, for helping to ensure the application package was complete and submitted on time. They actually did the actual entrance into the portal, and so that was extremely helpful. So as you all know, Casper Mountain is one of our community's most important recreational, environmental, and economic assets. but it also presents complex wildfire management challenges due to the dense forest and fuels, residential development, recreation facilities, critical infrastructure, and mixed public and private ownership on Casper Mountain. The proposed project will help reduce wildfire risk, improve coordination among local, state, federal, and private partners, and protect residents' infrastructure and recreation assets, including, of course, Hoganot Basin ski area, which I care about immensely, as well as the Nordic Trails Center. The application requests just over $720,000 in federal funding over five years with no local match requirement and will contract for the development of a city-specific community wildfire protection plan for Casper Mountain and implement some priority hazardous fuels reduction projects. The proposed effort would evaluate that wildfire risk across approximately 600 acres that the city of Casper owns on Casper Mountains and then support fuel treatments on roughly 50 to 75 priority acres as identified through that planning process. The proposal also includes funding for a dedicated position currently envisioned within urban forestry to provide long-term technical expertise and project coordination related to vegetation management, forest health, wildfire resilience, and fuels reduction work. This is a capacity the city does not currently possess with existing staffing levels. Certainly that would be in collaboration with the Fire Department and Chief Black's Community Risk Reduction Group. But as we discussed throughout the application process, we felt like it would be a good fit in urban forestry that of course could be adjusted into the future. Given the increasing wildfire risk on Casper Mountain and the availability of a significant federal funding opportunity that requires no local match, staff believed this application represented a valuable opportunity to strengthen community resilience protect important public assets and advance long-term wildfire mitigation efforts while minimizing financial exposure to the city. So with that, I would welcome any questions that you might have about the application itself. I'm not sure if Chief Garvin is familiar very much with the application, but I would welcome any input from FIRE as well.

So was it a typo that Nationwide is only available 27.8 million.

Here counselor, I do not believe that was a typo. That is the amount that we understood from sustainable strategies was available for funding. However, given the short window for the application process, we feel like we could still have a pretty competitive application.

Thank you, Mayor Zulima. Does this? Does this? Project would it work either directly or indirectly in conjunction with the? Slash pile. Work is that pretty much limited to private landowners or how does that work?

Mayor counselor. This program was specifically intended to help us address that fuels problem, right? Like there's the slash pile presents. a fuels management problem that we really need to get control of. And hopefully this evaluation will help us identify a better way to manage that into the future so that it doesn't create such a hazardous condition for us.

Thank you. Other questions? Okay. Awesome. Is everybody okay with the board? City applying for it. Sorry, I'm a little off today. Thanks. Appreciate it.

And I think we can just have some of this data.

Going on to the next question.

Thank you.

OK, as our Casper Ice Arena project continues to progress towards construction, we wanted to provide an informational presentation regarding the proposed funding and completion assurance agreement that we are working on for this project. As outlined in your agenda materials, the purpose for tonight's discussion is to provide Council with an understanding of the proposed funding structure, before formal consideration of the agreement at your next business meeting, hopefully two weeks from tonight. The agreement has been developed through a lot of collaboration between the city, including our attorney's office, the Casper Amateur Hobby Club, and Jonah Bank, and is intended to provide assurance that sufficient financial resources will be available to complete the project while protecting the city's investment and limiting the risk of an unfunded construction obligation. Representatives from Jonah Bank and the Casper Amateur Hockey Club are here this evening to walk Council through the practical operation of the proposed agreement, including how private fundraising efforts, donor pledges, and an associated line of credit or loan that will be acquired by the Casper Amateur Hockey Club will work together to support the project's funding plan and completion. We will stand ready to answer questions Council may have regarding the flow of funds and the safeguards incorporated into the agreement. So at this time, I would like to invite Kim DeVore, President and CEO of Jonah Bank, and Glenda Thomas, fundraiser extraordinaire with the Casper Amateur Hockey Club, to come and address the council.

Good evening. Thank you. Well, come on. Okay. We're like Mutt and Jeff together for this. Thank you very much for allowing us to come and talk and ask for your support for this funding agreement. This project is very exciting. This has taken much work, years of work on everyone's part. And it's kind of rare that a banker would stand up here at the end and talk about it. But the good news is this funding agreement that you will go into more detail later on is it may be new for you. But this type of partnership on these kinds of projects, and in fact, this exact partnership on these kinds of projects is not new for us in the community. There is always a funding gap or a timing gap on the funding of projects of this size, especially when there are multiple members of the community pledging for future commitments over a period of time. There's always a funding gap. And the banks in the state of Wyoming, and specifically Notrona County, we've always prided ourselves on the fact that we fill that funding gap. And that's part of our role in this community as good stewards. So we very often provide bridge financing. And you probably wonder why we want to do it. There's a few reasons. We want to see these projects built. They're good economic development activities for all of us. We also know the challenge that goes into finding these types of projects, finding the funding for it, the years of fundraising. And we do not, much like you, we're glad you're going to own this building. As the banks in town, we do not want to own any of these buildings, but we want to make sure they get completed and they get funded and they don't drag out. Costs get so much larger if you wait until you've raised all the funds. So, hence, we have a funding with a bridge note. The idea behind a bridge note like this is simple. You take all the parties, and in this particular party, there's four, five, of us, if you consider the contractor. So we have this bucket of risk, and there's a lot of different elements inside that bucket of risk. There is the pledges themselves. There's the contractor risk. There's all these aspects. You put it in that bucket, and then you spread it amongst all the parties involved. So in this particular instance, we have the hockey club. They're one of the parties of risk. We have the city. of risk. The contractor has some risk. The banks have some risk in the funding, and then the donors have some risk. And a lot of the times we don't talk about the donors, but I think it's important to note this is an out of the ordinary structure for the donors also. Normally, donors don't come to the table with that amount of money and turn it to a municipality. That's a risk. that they aren't accustomed to. So you throw all that risk in this bucket and you spread it amongst all of us. Now, I have no doubt you're going to go talk with your attorneys. And just like my attorneys at the bank and the hockey club attorneys, the attorneys want you to end up with no risk. My attorneys want me to earn up with no risk.

That's not going to happen for any of us.

But In a partnership like this, when we all work together and we spread that risk, that risk becomes so minimal. And as a banker, I can tell you for 38 years, all I do 24-7 is manage risk. I can't ever manage it away, but I can mitigate it down. So that's what this funding agreement is really set up to do. The mechanics of it, I will oversimplify it. is Glenda's job is to go out and get pledges. They can be spread over. And we've done lots of projects like this. So we've done the Y twice. Boys and Girls Club, originally when it was built, there was a bridge agreement on that. The Child Development Center, there was a bridge loan set up for that original build and the recent expansion. And the YL Sports Ranch, all the banks came together in town So we cooperate as a group of banks in it. We each take a chunk, an equal chunk. But the way it works is Glenda will go out and she'll get pledges and some donors give all up front. Some give over a two-year period, three-year period, up to a five-year period. We take those pledges as our collateral. We don't take a lien on the building. We don't take we take those pledges as our collateral. So that commitment to give on paper and when you legally look at it may seem incredibly risky, but as bankers in this town and knowing the large parties that are involved in these commitments and these pledges, we don't worry about it. We have historically never had a challenge. In fact, in three of those six recent projects that we've done in the last 10 years, those bridge notes were never drawn on. So that is, it's super important. In fact, don't tell the donors this. And if any of you are donors... We make sure that we're very clear what the interest rate is on the note, what that's going to cost the hockey club over a period of time, all of that, because we're very transparent with the donors. And very often they say, oh my gosh, we don't want you to pay that interest. We'll just write our whole pledge right now. So that's why three of those six projects, we never even drew on the note. But the note is there. And it's there to make sure that the draws get paid timely, that the project moves forward and the project gets completed. I think it's really important to note that when you're mitigating your risk, the reason this becomes a risk for the banks is maybe more so than just that sheet of paper that's our collateral, is your construction project is 18 months. These grant commitments are two, three, and five years long. That's our risk. Everything past 18 months is on us. It's not on you. You already have an asset built. Your building's finished. You're in it. You're gold. We are still helping Glenda collect for the next year. three years sometimes on those. That risk lies on the banks in the project. So we just wanted to make sure I wanted to come and make sure that number one, you understand how much we appreciate. There's a lot of public private partnerships that happen, but there's not a lot of nonprofit public private partnerships that happen. So I think it's phenomenal that you are going to this extent to work with the hockey club and get this asset put in place. Obviously that is financially a great move for the city long-term because we've all seen it with the sports ranch, the activity it brings to town. We appreciate what you're doing to structure this. And we wanted to make sure we were here to answer any kinds of questions other than super detailed number ones, because that would be Linda.

Thank you, Kim. Great explanation. And thanks to Zulima for her team and getting us to this point.

Awesome. Any questions for Kim or Linda?

Yeah.

So first off, thank you and thank you peter for being here um and uh all of your hard work and so the city's um only at risk i mean we're not signing um any any of the documents um as far as um like construction at risk or any of the promissory notes or any of any of

No, but do you want to? I put you as a borrower. No, I'm just kidding. No, you are not a borrower as it relates to the bank's documents. That is an agreement with the hockey club secured by the pledges that the hockey club has received.

For the hockey's commitment. Now there is city commitment, but this is strictly helping explain the hockey agreement with the bank to kind of bridge these pledges.

No, and I I just believe it's such a great thing. To continue to move this forward and. Having a 13 year old in the not mine, but in the in the hockey program and in. Just. Practice times are crazy out of out of sight. You know, for. young ones but um and then uh the other thing i i'd like to ask him and great explanation is which federal reserve are you on uh is it kansas city or denver or so i was on the kansas city i just turned off in november but for five years i served on the kansas city cd act board and

the federal for the Board of Governors. For Chair Powell, I was the chair for the CDX well of that.

Thank you. Other questions, so she's no schlep.

I was questioning it for a little while. That's fair.

No, that's fair, Mary. You were you should question it probably.

Any other questions? OK, don't need direction on this. Just information. Great thank you. Appreciate you guys update. Thank you for for being continued work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright, gender review anything anybody have for the meeting clarifications.

Do it if I can figure out.

Um?

So when? It be clear the back and consent, but I'm purchase of. Uh, like the three three new 53 foot box trailers for 175,000. So I. It it looked to me there was no trade value. Um in so further. it said in the memo about taking it to Wyoming, the three of them to Wyoming recycling, which I've got to have a belief that wouldn't someone give us a thousand bucks? They've still got to be roadworthy. So just to take them to recycling for zero value. But I was curious about how that works and then Some of the other things we don't have really time and unfortunately I didn't have time this morning to call or yesterday. You know, some stuff didn't meet bid spec yet they still submitted a bid and I guess I need to better understand at some point how all of that can be interpreted by other vendors, some of the buildings and then Colorado. So, but anyway, that was the only question I guess I had, primarily on the trailers, the trailers.

Hello.

Good evening, Mayor, Councilor. DUE TO THE AGE OF THESE AND THEM BEING AT SOLID WASTE FOR SUCH A LONG PERIOD OF TIME, THE CONDITION IS THAT THEY WERE NOT TERRIBLY ROADWORTHY. IT WOULD TAKE A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF WORK FOR THEM TO BECOME SO. AND MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT THEY HAD MORE VALUE AS A RECYCLED MATERIAL THAN GOING TO AN AUCTION LIKE WE HAVE THROUGH GOV DEALS AND SOMEBODY BUYING THAT AND THEN HAVING TO STILL REFURBISH IT TO MAKE IT USEFUL.

Any other questions on that?

Thanks, Krista. Thank you. Alright, anything else on agenda before we head out?