City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you, Madam President. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the city council chambers today. It's an honor and a pleasure for me to introduce this item in recognition of Ms. Joyce Salazar, who has been a long time member of the community and a leader for the southeast part of Colorado Springs. uh councilmember rainey i believe introduced this um this recognition uh several months ago and so uh it's it's definitely an honor for me to uh i guess follow in his footsteps with with making this uh this recognition um this is a proclamation so we won't be reading the proclamation but i did wan

And if you don't mind keeping your remarks a little bit short, only because Madam President will be mad at me if we don't.

Is there anyone else who would like to make a comment?

Is there anyone else that would like to say a few words? Okay. Well, if not, yes, Joyce, please.

Well, Joyce, thank you again for your tireless dedication to this community and for that servant leader mindset that you obviously exhibit. You are an incredible inspiration to me and to many others in the community. So thank you again. And with that, I think we'll go down and have a celebratory photo.

Thank you, Madam President. I always like to give credit where credit is due, so I still need to begin my statements with a thank you to Councilmember Rainey. Thank you for bringing this recognition program to City Council. It's just such a beautiful way for us to honor residents. And I'd also like to mention that when we did our first recognition, it was awarded to Allen from Council Member David Lineweber, and Allen is an honorary resident of the Southeast. So now Council Member Risley has recognized Joyce, and no pressure, Madam President, but we are kind of on a Southeast streak here, so.

But in all seriousness, really, we are so fortunate to have someone like Joyce in our community. I did attend this summer in Southeast and Joyce dragged me out on the basketball court and she said, Kimberly, you have to participate in this Zumba exercise activity. Y'all, I cannot dance. Joyce was recording and I was embarrassing myself, but... But that's the spirit of who Joyce is. She can make you comfortable in uncomfortable moments. She brings her heart. She has a bleeding heart for the Southeast and for our city. And we are so fortunate to have someone like that serve. And if I'm really, r

moving on to item 5b will the clerk please read item 5b into the record a resolution recognizing september 26 through october 4th is creek week 2026. councilman hingem thank you madam president and uh i i am presenting the uh resolution recognizing september 26 through october 4th as creek week um and i would love it if emily if you could put the image that I asked you to put up on the screen for me. For those of you who don't know, take a look. This is an illustration of the Fountain Creek Watershed. And a watershed basically covers all the land where any water source comes into a major water

Thank you, Mary. I'm going to hand it back to the president for the rest of this process, but I do want to say she brought all of us, and I'm on the board, so I have all this swag, but I've got a poop bag for dogs and some other good things that I'm going to leave back here in the back by Sam. If anybody needs a poop bag or other swag, you're welcome to pick it up. Madam President, I'll take it back to you.

Yeah, thanks, Madam President. I do have a question. Is it Allie or Mary?

Very good. I feel conquered. Mary, so it's excellent that we go out and clean all this garbage up. Where is it coming from?

Okay, and I appreciate that. However, I do see numerous homeless camps in Colorado Springs with tremendous amounts of garbage scattered all through them. And I think that's something we may forget that in our desire to be kind, we allow people to live along the waterway and they're destroying it. We have high levels of E. coli in the creek also. So thank you for being here today.

Yeah, thanks Madam President. I have the opportunity to do the next resolution. And what is one of the things we use water for? to put out fires and that's what we're going to talk about next fires we're joined by our fire marshal chris cooper and these other strapping young men in their black uniforms up here in the front row This resolution is really gonna focus on lithium batteries. It's fire prevention month and it takes a focus this year. Their job is extremely hard as firemen. It's risky, it's dangerous from the fire itself and then all the smoke. And smoke from lithium batteries burning

And Fire Marshal Cooper, is there any further presentation?

Yes, I was just, well, just curiosity, really. I was under the impression that you could use water to try to, like smaller devices and stuff like that, if they're overheating, to try to cool them. But I don't, I'm no expert, but I'm just, that's what I'm thinking, there's a cooling process. So, I mean, there's probably different stages for what you may or may not do to prevent something that you think is, if something's smoking or something along those lines, what is recommended, like for an iPhone versus a scooter or whatever? And even a scooter, it might be that you drag it out away from you

The other thing I think I remember from our talk is where you actually charge and considering the surrounding materials and stuff in that area. I mean, obviously not close to gasoline, but I mean, just thinking about, do you have a wood structure above your chargers right now? Or do you have, I mean, how are you charging? I mean, that was probably some thought that our residents should think about because these you know, like particularly power tools, those batteries that get a lot of abuse. And I actually know of a commercial building that burned down from a power tool battery. And so that wo

Thank you, Madam President. I just simply want to say thank you, Chris, and CSFT. What I really appreciate about this particular resolution is, for me, it is the public doing our part. You put your lives on the line every day. We celebrated that just this last weekend. But this is about our responsibility as residents of the community both for you and reducing the amount of risk that you all face, but also for each other. So I love that aspect of it, and it has changed some of my behaviors in terms of how I charge. So thank you. Thank you very much.

Yeah, thanks, Madam President. And Chris, I think you pointed out, it's not just the community members, it's even the cows. Because if that cow kicks over the lantern, we're all burning. But I wanna thank you for what I think is a really practical presentation of material here today. And I was watching our guests' faces here in the room. People are interested in this because every one of us has a certain degree of risk in our own homes. and that idea of letting things charge overnight, I think a lot of us make that mistake. So if you can unplug it before you, unhook it before you go to sleep,

Thank you, Madam President, and good morning to everyone in chamber and everyone who's looking in online. Today's proclamation that I have the honor of sponsoring, and once again, this is a joint proclamation with the mayor's office, is titled Reclaiming Civility. And before getting into this proclamation and reading it, I would like to take the opportunity to invite up our mayor of Colorado Springs, Mayor Yemi Mobilotti, to provide a few words before reading the proclamation.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And with that being said, I'll go ahead and read today's proclamation on reclaiming civility. Whereas for 250 years, the American experiment has depended on people with profound differences finding a way to share a country. govern together, and continue unfinished work of building a more perfect union. And whereas civility is a mindset that recognizes the dignity of others and a set of skills that anyone can learn, practice, and grow in. And whereas strong families, healthy workplaces, thriving communities, and a healthy democracy depend upon the ability to communicate ac

Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to thank you both for the work that you're doing in our community. You've hosted several workshops. I think that's the word I'm going to use for them. And I found several of them to be very beneficial. I do send my regrets for not being able to attend on September 30th. I have a conference that I'll be attending out of the city. I'm kind of reluctant to share this, but I'm going to just kind of sit in my truth. A few days ago, my car was vandalized. And, you know, the easy thing to do is to respond with anger. But when I step back and kind of take myself ou

Always thinking. So I want to thank you two ladies for being here today. And it was, you know, the Project Taurus, or the data center hearing has been brought up. earlier and I would say council's actions can sometimes create an environment where incivility occurs and at that hearing we postponed the vote to the week right after the April elections and that is kind of a lame duck period where we will have members of council still sitting here and able to vote on it who may have not run for reelection or have lost that election. I proposed moving that vote to before the election so citizens wou

Yeah, I just, you know, it's just interesting that this topic comes up during this conversation because that wasn't a civility conversation. That was a politically driven conversation. And to accuse counsel of making actions is just inappropriate. And it's the fact that he has done it multiple times that it becomes very politically driven. And as we enter into this political season, my challenge is that we find the best in people. I might not like certain things about a candidate, but I'm going to seek out and try to find the things that I do like and really try to elevate that conversation ab

Thank you, Madam President. You know, this is such an interesting conversation, and I'm going back to the proclamation, and one of the things that's part of the five practices that I think is so important that we focus on, all five of them are important, but as I reflect on this moment right now, it's hear people well, listen to understand before seeking to be understood, asking questions, leading with curiosity. So again, this work is just so vital. Keep pushing, my friends. because it's tough from elected public servants to community members. This work is tough. It is needed. Please, please,

Thank you, Madam President. We will be voting here on the rate case for net metering. I believe they're the actual votes. And this process started over a year ago when we heard a rate case regarding solar rooftop customers in Colorado Springs. And there was a tremendous amount of opposition to that rate case. I appreciate and want to thank utilities, utilities leadership for hearing this council at that time and who actually denied the rate case at that time. And spent this last year reaching out to net metering customers, to customers who are not net metering, to hear their thoughts and opini

Thank you, Madam President. I do want to take the opportunity also to thank our leadership at utilities and to actually thank my colleagues. This is not an easy topic and it is definitely one where our residents are seriously concerned about the current rate that they will be paying and some feel that being a solar resident penalizes them for wanting to do something good for the environment and to their community but also for providing energy to the grid also But also, I've had tremendous amount of conversations with our CFO, and the one thing I will say about this vote today and how I will be

Okay, Madam President, if I could. I just want to point out that when Mr. Schroll or Scott says, energy's wise rates, he's talking to that five to nine p.m. time when people have noticed, hey, electricity costs more then. And what he's about to explain is we have three different programs during that time, and we all got moved to one. But for some, most of us, that's the best one. But for some,

And Scott, just to say that with different words, that means your rate is the same 24 hours a day. The five to nine higher rate disappears, but you pay a little bit more all through the day than you would have for those 20 hours that aren't five to nine. If you stay with this, the rates we have now, it's less expensive all the other 20 hours. If you go to the fixed rate, it's gonna be more 24 hours a day, but you won't have that five to nine when it really goes up. So thank you, Scott.

You have a question? I have a comment, a question, and potentially a motion. Thank you for all of this. I know that our goal was one year, but in this case, I feel like there's a bank error in our favor. So we should definitely take advantage of that. So thank you for watching this diligently. Thank you for bringing it forward. And I think we're all very excited about this. So I'll make a motion to approve.

Madam President. And I'd like to second that motion. And I would like to point out for those in the room and those watching this online, that this is a small amount. On a typical bill, it's gonna be like your electric will go down about a dollar and a half. That's a small amount, we know that. But it's something we can do. Because we understand gasoline is expensive, everything's expensive, utility bills are higher right now than they were last summer. But multiple things are about to happen. So this is just one small piece of why you're gonna notice your utility bill goes down starting Octobe

Councilman Hengem? Mr. Murphy, I'm sorry. I do have a question for you.

So you didn't receive, do you, is there any building on your properties?

Councilman Williams. In the spirit of civility, I think this has been a wonderful almost three hours that we've got going here, so thank you very much for that. I'll try to address as much as I can as I get through the list. Thank you for all coming and sharing your thoughts and opinions, obviously all the way around. dave pointed it out because he could tell by my look i wasn't here two years ago so i think that's one of those um hard things uh with with turnover and the fact that we have term limits and people come and people go so i wasn't here in 2024 but as i have been here and have state

On Colorado Avenue, could you explain in terms of different zonings of residential versus commercial, this is kind of a mixed use area. Someone could buy a residential, a property that's always been residential and turn it into a law office. Is that correct, or what is, what's the difference about Colorado Avenue, or is it similar to, you know, some development in Briargate?

Well, that's the question that came to mind, is I think this area is a place where it's not particularly difficult to do that, because I've seen it a number of times. A residential building turns into a dentist office, or it turns into a retail, or a boutique, or whatever, or several different uses. And sometimes it's co, sometimes the back half is residential and the front half is, they have a small business or something. I guess I'm just not trying to think through the zoning stuff. I think this is a little bit different in that it's like a mixed use area.

But I think some of that already exists because there's boutique stores that are not in old Colorado City that are on the block that a gentleman just told us about where he lives as a resident. There's a couple of boutique stores actually there. So I guess what I'm pointing out is that this is a little bit different than just a neighborhood. It's got a lot of mixed use throughout it. And there's actually even been some adjustments to the street in public works and really reducing the lanes to one lane each way for just traffic control because there's so much of a mixed type environment that's

Councilman Hinchin. I think Kevin, you can sit down. I don't need you. Are you done, Dave? Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, okay, well, no.

Yeah, thank you. I just wanted, there's been a lot of talk around the election, and I just wanted to kind of clarify, like for the record, what elections mean and how do we lean into those. And so I want to ask the city attorney a couple of questions, if possible, if that's okay. First of all, Does the city attorney office identify any legal defect in the 2024 election that would justify or require a dissolution?

My next question, thank you for that. Ordinance 26-31 recites that the DDA was approved by the qualified electors. Does that finding still stand?

And then is there any remaining avenue to contest the 2024 results? Or has that contest window just closed?

So elections matter, and you don't need to answer this question, but politicians have questioned elections before, correct? Just had to say it. Okay, two more questions. We've heard from the DDA and their commitment to dissolve if they can't get a levy passed. So can the DDA's commitment to dissolve after a failed 2026 levy be made binding? or is it only voluntary?

So really, if it was to fail and then they chose to reverse and not live up to their commitment, we're gonna be right back here talking again. But we'll be talking again after a second election. So I think that's kind of important to kind of state. Lastly, can the Council approve a plan of development while deferring the TIF start date?

Okay. I think those are important elements. Thank you very much. That's all my questions. I just wanted to get that on the record. I do have a question for a representative from the DBA Board. Beyond, you mentioned the Goodyear building, but beyond the Goodyear building, for example, what sites do you expect to be possibly future development and on what timeline? What are some other ideas? I need to kind of understand, like is it just, I mean, the Goodyear building is kind of an easy target.

I mean, that's just one example, but it's... Well, it does, but I just wanted to expand that there are... This isn't, I mean, I think there's a feeling that this is a historical neighborhood that needs to be preserved. And so we can't have redevelopment because we're going to disrupt the historical nature. But I wanted you to be able to expand that that's actually not entirely true.

You talked last time about trimming the boundaries and particularly to kind of remove some of the residential components. Have you looked at and done that trimming yet and identified how many mixed use there is or how many actually support commercial use?

All right, well, I didn't know if you had gotten to a map place yet, so I just wanted to ask that question because I'm, that's still a little bit like up in the air type.

All right, that's all my questions. Thank you, President. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President. I want to focus some questions specifically on who received ballots and who didn't. And we heard Chuck Murphy come here and mention that he didn't receive ballots. And my understanding is that a lot depends on who owns the property, who lives there. There's a variety of different definitions of who can vote for a particular parcel. And I don't know if this is acceptable or not. Maybe it needs to be, Trevor, but I do see an attorney here from Spencer Fain, who I believe is the firm that actually ran the election, and I don't know if that attorney can speak to that el

Okay, that's fine. Then, Trevor, if you wouldn't mind.

Oh, he's not here for Spencer Fain. Okay, that's fine. I made an assumption. Let's see what happens when you make assumptions. It's fine. So, Trevor, please help elucidate because we received a memo from Jariah Walker and we received a rebuttal from an organization affiliated with the West Side on each of these points, which I thought was actually pretty compelling in its point-by-point rebuttal of Mr. Walker's comments. But what I'm really trying to understand is, and we heard actually some people say, hey, I didn't know about this, but we don't know exactly because we've looked at the map an

Would it be fair to say, and this is sort of my working assumption, that someone could live in a property that looks as though it's on a map but not meet the actual criteria of the statute and not have received a ballot themselves and been able to vote? Is that accurate?

So by nature, the map, and it's an election that impacts very, very few people overall in the population, and you read something in the news. I mean, there's a lot of reasons that it could be confusing that I didn't get to vote in this election. And without going through each of the whatever it was, 600 whatever it was, parcels, it's hard to know, correct? Correct. Okay. Well, I think, I'm assuming we probably want to get to a vote this sooner than later, but I guess my thoughts are on this particular matter that I really don't understand where it originated and why it's so urgent that we diss

Yeah, thank you, Madam President. There was a lot of, I would pretty much characterize them as accusations about the ballots earlier. I would like to call up Mr. Gardner, who represents the DDA, the OCCDDA, and just see if he or Mr. Steppen would like to address some of that, and then other thoughts that they have.

I do, because that struck me when I received the memo initially, and then we received a rebuttal, which I would suspect some of my colleagues haven't had a chance to read, but it would have been improper not to send the ballots to that address, correct? It would have been illegal. We would have been breaking a law if they hadn't sent the ballots there.

And in the information we received yesterday, only six ballots were returned. So it didn't make a difference anyway, it's six. And it was approved by 30-some or whatever it was.

And if I could, Madam President, Mr. Gardner, is it accurate that the memo which came to council, I don't remember, Friday, I think, was not sent by the same party that sent it to us, which I believe was Jeriah Walker. It wasn't sent to the DDA. It wasn't sent to you as a representative. So you could look at the accusations in it and make a good faith response to try to explain it.

Thank you. And Madam President, I'll just finish up with my comments here. I was surprised that that memo wasn't sent to the DDA so they could respond. If we think there was something wrong with the election, then as Mr. Gardner has pointed out, too late. We could have objected when it was within that 10 day period or whatever it was, but I think it's underhanded to send that to one side and not the other and have it influence us or attempt to. I'll go back just to, this was an election. And it's an election which was validated, it stands. And the citizens and business owners that voted, voted

Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to give a few acknowledgements. I want to first acknowledge the folks who came here in support of dissolving the DDA because I think it's really hard to speak up when you know that many of your peers want the opposite of what you want. So I just really applaud your courage. I'd also like to acknowledge those business owners who came here yet again, shutting down your business yet again to advocate for this. And it's quite remarkable to me that not only this is a consistent pattern for you that did that, but you're willing to sacrifice monetary support. inco

Madam President, I would ask for a five minute recess. Let's just push.