City Council - workshop

0:21•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Good morning. Welcome to the City Council of Carter Springs work session for Monday, October 12th, 2026. Will the clerk please call the roll?

0:59 – 1:18•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Moving on to item two, are there any changes to today's agenda? Seeing none, moving on to three, are there any changes to the regular meeting? Seeing none, moving on to item 4A. Will the clerk please read item 4A into the record?

Yeah, Madam President, I just want to let you know I did have a couple of corrections which I gave to the city clerk and she'll take care of those.

1:39•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Moving on to item 5A, will the clerk please read item 5A into the record?

7:14•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Renee, we have a question from Councilman Hincham.

Thank you, Madam President. Renee, it's a little bit more of an additional cheer than it is a question, although I think there's a question in here. This is so impressive. I mean, I am like really blown away. I knew that some of this was happening, but I had no idea. Like you are, you're getting close to being in every county here.

Well, I just wanted to say, just given that, see, I'm in my sixth year on council, and I remember a presentation the very first year and going out and touring, and it's astonishing what you've done in six years, and I can't remember, it didn't seem like, When was it started? It didn't seem like it had been around that long.

So it hadn't been around terribly long. Anyway, it's very impressive, and I'm looking forward to a little more.

I have a question from Councilman Williams. This seems like the perfect time to ask this question again. Thanks for all that you're doing. Well, you're from the industry. We know it's needed. unbelievably needed and for a lot of different reasons we need it and building but i think as you said in the beginning we need it because if you didn't grow up on a farm or a ranch or doing something every weekend when it comes to this you have such a learning curve so you're you're bridging that gap so that they can get from here to where they need to be So you're tracking them six months in a year, and

Thank you, Madam President. Yeah, I think this is a great program too. What are the hindrances though to expansion and particularly in Colorado Springs?

And second question is, do you limit, are we looking for one program per school district or can the school district have more than one if they have the people to do it? Absolutely.

Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Renee. I just really wanted to say thank you. You know, so much of what we see and hear is not necessarily things that bring great tears to your eyes. And I appreciate that you share that story. You know, it's meaningful. It's very meaningful. So thank you for sharing it and for all that you do and Careers in Construction does. And I'm sure you know this, but Careers in Construction got a shout-out from A.G. Weiser in a gubernatorial debate in which he highlighted the really great work that you are doing. So well done.

22:58•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Of course. You get both. Councilman Donaldson. You don't have to choose.

Yeah, thank you, Madam President. Good morning, Renee. Good morning. Hope you had a nice weekend. I just want to add my voice to the support for your program, for this program, such as your program. I think there was a period not very long ago when we sent the wrong messages to young men, high school kids and women that, hey, if you don't go to college, you didn't do as good as you could have. There was something where you did better if you went to college. And we kind of shot ourselves in the foot with that kind of messaging. I think it was counterproductive for the nation and just for the in

In my, you know, I'll add something to what you said. I think in America we used to value, and we would express it, the worthiness of just work, good work, high-level craftsmanship and tradesmanship. And again, we got away from that for a while. but I think it is returning, and you see it even on financial programs like on CNBC where they talk about AI and how secure these jobs and the trades are, and these are places where you don't have to worry about being replaced by AI.

That's for sure. So I love hearing about this. Thanks again.

27:24 – 28:53•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Thank you so much for this presentation. It's really fun for me, because if you remember, I was there in the very 1st grant that was written and so to see it come as far as 1st graduation, which is no dry eye in the room. That's true, but the underlining. story and data that isn't told here but it's true is for this uh... individual uh... that was you know living avoiding the foster system and what not it takes that that adult mentor to get them through and that's what this these construction men workers managers safety managers owners come alongside these kids male and female and give them th

You can bring those up if you want me to pass them around.

29:31•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Thank you. Moving on to item 5B, will the clerk please read item 5B into the record?

Thank you, Madam President. Not necessarily questions, but just wanted to highlight the good work that you all have been doing, and it's starting to show clearly amongst a lot of the great things that are coming to Colorado Springs. You mentioned lacrosse, and I think sometimes it gets lost because of all the other things that we have going on in the state, that lacrosse is pretty big here in the state of Colorado. DU, Denver University has a phenomenal program, Colorado College right here locally to include CU. Matter of fact, they have a women's team that they do pretty doggone well. So I th

Yeah, thanks, Madam President. Good morning, Davis. Morning. Hope you had a nice weekend. Same to you. Yeah, it was good. What I'd like to point out is that I think this is like a perfect match of sports with Colorado Springs. Our city was really our early years, it was tuberculosis and health. This was a health capital, a center in America and really almost through Europe also. why my family came here originally that's right i recognize your your surname um so the more we can do in this area i think it's just it is it's a perfect match like we went down to huntsville last week and kind of loo

Do you think the LART assistance, the assistance through LART makes a difference?

Okay, thanks a lot. Keep up the good work.

Yeah, I want to kind of follow up. I think Dave's question is actually pretty good, but I just wanted to highlight or get your comments on one particular area, and that's really around infrastructure. Because a lot of these things, when we compete, they're looking at, well, can you actually host this volleyball tournament? Or can you do this trail run? Or is it gonna be exciting enough to pull people in? I know like the Apex, which you did have listed, you actually have dropped away from, you're just going, you're not gonna run it, but you're gonna support it, I guess is what you're saying. Be

Well, thanks for that. We're actually going to go over the Parks Master Plan a little bit later today. And I think it really speaks to that a little bit, that we really don't have the infrastructure. We haven't really kept up like what other communities have done. And it really kind of sets us back a little bit. Yes, we have a beautiful landscape that we can look at. That's all amazing. But we don't have the access to the trail systems that we need to make iconic, you know, events that people really gravitate to. So I think I wanted to really highlight that. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President. Morning, Davis. Morning. So talk to me a little bit, if you could, about Springs Rugby. Vic Tice is... I've talked with him quite a bit, and I know they're very... interested in growing rugby in Colorado Springs and they have a lot of activity happening and they're very excited about the fact that Flanagan Park field is being improved and that park is being improved. What can you just talk a little bit about the opportunities for rugby?

Excellent. And just one more question for you. What's your personal favorite sport to participate in?

51:03•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Very good. Thanks. Yeah. Councilman Donaldson?

Yeah, thanks, Madam President. And just to come back to one thing that came up earlier, tops, properties, and just trails. What are your thoughts on that? Would it be useful if we could have events like, I can envision things kind of like Pikes Peak Marathon, a distance trail run locally, which could attract a lot of people who love the outdoors, they love um kind of undeveloped it's not wilderness per by definition but it's close and they're going to be low impact on it they're going to be good uh visitors to our our tops properties what are your thoughts on that and once again i always give

Yeah, I think the piece here is that all races are considered commercial use. And so sometimes when we think of commercial use, we think of a business, but we're not really understanding that often it's just allowing visitors to have greater access in a kind of group environment so thank you and the other thing that's interesting that just to kind of since you're proud enough is all those people that are part of that are insured and the public would not have been insured no

53:23 – 54:20•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Thank you so much for your presentation. Of course, as a liaison from LART, I've always said from the day one that we need to use these dollars for highest impact to economic development. And I think out of all the contracts, Sports Corp does that more than any of them. I mean, I think for the little dollars you get, you more than double it. I'm really glad Abigail came today. It's so exciting to have a LART administrator. It's been excellent having her run through this too and made the... process seem more seamless we don't notice very useful it may not be for her but we don't notice so that'

54:22 – 54:36•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Does anybody have any questions on the upcoming agenda re-planner review? Seeing none for the record, there are no questions on the agenda planner review. Item 7A, will the clerk please read item 7A into the record?

And I can wait till the end of the slide, Madam President, I'm fine to do that. Okay, can you, the 2,500,000,000 total construction valuation increase of 20% and you said you've never seen something like that, I think it was this, what do you attribute that to? Why the big, such a large jump from 25 till now?

Okay. is the 2.5 billion is for what calendar period?

Okay, all right, thanks. Council Member Risley.

Thanks, Madam President. Just to chime in, Roger, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think part of the other driver with valuation is just simply the cost of construction today, significantly more than last year and the year before that and the year before that, right? So as we see increases in escalation in materials and labor, those impact the numbers that contractors are reporting to you, is that right?

Sure, and I'll point out too that the two prior presenters gave us stickers, so I'm expecting.

Okay, thanks, and a follow-up, but first on the sticker issue, you know, you run a tight budget over there, you know, so maybe that's why you don't have stickers, so we appreciate that.

This might be reassuring to some taxpayers. Was 25 a down year? So are we comparing this first period of 26 to what was really a lower than average year, or is this truly,

And if I could, Madam President, Roger, just on the previous slide, you mentioned employees and pay raise to remain competitive and not lose employees, which I think is smart. And has that happened in the last couple of years where you feel like you've had some people, good people slip away due to salary competitiveness?

Are you competitive with the other public sector entities in the state?

Okay, but in order to maintain that, we need to, your recommendation is about a 5%.

1:17:20•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

I don't see any, thank you so much. Thank you.

1:17:29•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Thank you. Next up, we have item 7B. Will the clerk please read item 7B into the record?

Why are we not going to 100% recovery? I don't understand why the city would subsidize these services.

And why such a long time for ramping up? I can appreciate the intention of not going from zero to 100 overnight, but can you say a little bit more about the length of time?

You know, I understand that we are a city and historically have a culture that's very low regulation and, you know, licenses are some sort of oversight and regulation. I think they're important. They're necessary. Your office is very busy. You're short staffed. You don't have the revenue that you need to tend to the business that you have. So I'm not personally comfortable with going to 90%. I would argue that we should go to 100%. And I would like to see it happen over two years, not three. And I may actually vote against it for that very reason if we can't collectively as a body kind of take

sure that makes sense we don't want to collect more than we need so i really appreciate that um i would just ask my fellow council members to consider um you know my comments and uh and i don't know i haven't talked about this with anybody prior to this very moment but um again i think we have a real revenue challenge in our city we have a lot of expenses to cover and this is a fair to be able to have the expense meet the actual cost, or the cost, the recovery meet the actual cost, seems very, very fair to me, and supports our taxpayers, albeit maybe not significantly, but in spirit. Thank you

Thank you, Madam President. What are we talking about total, like say dollar value, if we go between where we are now to say 90%, what's that recoup, how much in terms of dollar value?

So between where we are now and 90%, the decrement is $81,000? Correct, I believe.

Right, my question was up to 90%. So between where we are now and 81,000 year one, what's year two and three then, so the total?

1:28:24•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

So if there's no other questions, I'm guessing you don't want this on consent? You do want this, do not want this on consent?

1:28:48•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

So at this time we are gonna take a 10 minute break before we start 7C and 7S as they are very long presentations.

Yeah, Drew, when this comes back for a vote, that previous slide, can you, can you just add a column where it shows the difference, right? If it's going from 45 to 50 plus five, would that be okay? Can you do that? Sure. Okay, I appreciate it. For each of those, for each of the two categories of mill levy.

Yeah, thanks, Madam President. Drew, can we go back to that one slide? Yeah. Can you remind us, what is the maximum PIF?

Is there one? No. Okay. And I know there's some unique things about this, because I've gotten emails about it, and like, do they have to have a sign up when they collect the PIF? Who does this fall under? Can you just give us a little refresher on PIFs?

It shows up on the receipt, right, as an additional tax or fee, although there's a difference. and it stays inside the district, this amount of money?

It can be increased, like next year they could come back and request an increase on the PIF or?

Do we know if any of these have changed from last year or?

Sometimes council members do get questions about these PIFs, like a tax that someone will see on their bill at a store. So it would be useful for us to have a little bit of a of a refresher on it. Maybe in conjunction with the next time this comes back to us.

And again, you said it was, they're established with the, what was the magic words? The service plan? Yeah, the service plan. Established during the service plan, and they can or cannot be raised or lowered? Yes, they can be. They can be. We don't know that there's any max. It's just sort of what the market would be.

And you kind of covered what it can be used for, the funds that are generated this way.

Do these usually apply to all retail within the district or could it be restaurants, yes, retail, no?

Okay, thanks for pointing out my lack of attention to detail. No, that's all right. It's behind you, so you can. That's good, I'm testing you. I already knew that, but I wanted to see if you would point that. Okay, that's good for now, thank you.

Thank you, Madam President. The petition to dissolution, is that initiated by the board or can other parties request that or can the city start a dissolution process?

Does that usually happen when they've paid back all their debt for the improvements and stuff? Is there like a trigger for it that they usually look at?

Yeah, thanks again, Madam President. Could we go back to the slide with the one more before that? So, Drew, this five and a quarter percent, what I understood you to say is some of the boards will vote to exceed it. Is that correct?

Okay, so they could, I get that. I get the distinction there. And some are doing that. Yes, some are proposing to do that. No district electors have done that yet. The first vote on that is still in the future.

Do you know, was it successful? Well, do you know how many attempted it? Was it successful in all or was there some that was approved, some that wasn't approved?

Yeah, thank you, Allison. It's helpful to know kind of these details. And then this may be the final question. What is it, like when Planning Department reviews these, and you bring them to us and you say, hey, go ahead, we've reviewed them all, put it on consent, what would you see in one of these plans where you would say, give us advice other than that? Is there anything you would see where you would say, you know, council, we have some concerns with this BID's plan?

And our planning department has looked through all of these for those kind of concerning changes and sees none?

Drew and you? Yep. Okay. And I've expressed this concern in the past that council is asked to vote yes on this, but we don't have an outside body that, or an outside expert that could come in and review them and say, well, this is odd. You don't typically see this. Should I understand it that you're performing that function?

1:48:38•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Thank you. Moving on to item 7T, will the clerk please read item 7T into the record?

Is there another slide related to lease terms on?

Okay, so I guess my question, Kim, and I know you and I have exchanged, I don't know that we've really had a conversation, but we've exchanged emails about this. And, you know, I've heard from I'd say a handful of people who have expressed concerns about the, and this has to do more with pools and use of pools. the affordability of the use of the pools through the Y. So if you could just speak a little bit more to their program. Obviously, if you're a member, you don't pay to use their pools, which is also a city pool. But if you're not a member of the Y and you're using on a per day use, How

I would leave it up to the president, but I would like to hear. Okay.

That's really helpful, and you raised a question for me that I've not thought about before. The city, and I'm not going to get all the exact number of pools because we have pools that aren't functioning right now, but I hear concerns and frustration that we don't have enough city pools in our city, which raises the question for me, are there pools at your Y's in the region that are not associated with the city, but that you offer the same accessibility to anyone? And how many pools is that? Yeah. that aren't co-joined with the city?

Of course. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I really appreciate you adding in on this session, Kim. Thank you. And we are going to be looking at the Parks Master Plan. I think I've learned some things here in this conversation and would like to talk more offline later with the Parks Department about how we maybe expand our communication on the city's website, both about the partnership that we have with the Y and the various ways and the money that you helped save for the city, but also what is available to people that isn't through the city, but is available to the Y in terms of these memberships that

Well, thank you very much, and I hear loud and clear the investment that you are putting into these facilities and grateful for it. Thank you.

Yes, I just want to have a better understanding about what offerings are different between the Y and Deerfield Community Center, which is a little over two miles, about seven minutes apart. When you're looking, are we apples and oranges, or are there similarities, are there things that kind of happen, or how do they, I'm trying to understand different types of facilities, because I think some things are overlapping, but I just wanted to understand that a little bit more.

Yeah, and Deerfield is free to the community, correct?

Okay, so I'm trying to get the two, because the other thing that I kind of looked at, I've really been looking at with the Parks Master Plan coming up, the Trust for Public Land report, and one of the things that they came out with was how poorly we've really done with aquatics, you know, like spray pads and pools and stuff like that. Do you think they're considering our relationship with the YMCA in their report? Or, I mean, why do they downgrade us so much in that particular area?

Yeah, because I, you know, the... For my fellow councilmen, we were ranked 52nd, and they dropped us to 66 out of 100 cities. So our ranking dropped considerably last year. And one of the areas that they highlighted was around aquatics. And so I'm just trying to... I think that makes this very, very important in that we really try to... uplift those particular areas for sure, and even look to how do we address that issue across the city. So anyway, thank you.

Thanks, Kim. I just have a quick question. I may have missed it in the back and forth, but is the daily use fee going to stay the same? Is it going to change?

Okay, okay. So that's the plan. I'm going to say it's not necessarily as codified as it has been for the last 25 years, but their plan is to maintain it in a way that it's reflected the past 25 years.

Thank you, Madam President. Thank you for the summary of the Parks Board action. Was there anything in their conversation prior to the vote that you think would be helpful to highlight for us as council members, either recommendations, suggestions, concerns, things that would be helpful for us to know?

2:12:24•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

I don't see any at this time. Okay, thank you. Oh, Councilman Risley.

Sorry, thanks Madam President. I didn't, I saw Brandy's name up there and I thought she was gonna go, but I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank the YMCA and thank our partners here. the work that you do is tremendous for the community and it really underscores the importance of these types of partnerships without the ymca running alongside the city we wouldn't be able to provide a lot of the programs and services that the parks department just simply can't do, can't get to, right? Limited budgets, limited sort of government oversight. And this truly is where the, I'll call it the priv

2:13:24•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Moving on to item 7U. Will the clerk please read item 7U into the record?

Thanks, Madam President. Kim, I think it was over the weekend or possibly just this morning, at least some of us received an email from Dr. Wendy Burtzall at Harrison School District, concerned with the community process and concerned that the district had not been engaged in discussions around childcare or other necessary services that may be tangential to or related to what the school district can provide and what they do. Can you comment on any of those concerns or on the involvement that Harrison School District had in the process?

Do you know, have there been conversations with Harrison School District?

So if there were members of the solutions team that were from the district, I'm kind of surprised that the superintendent of schools wouldn't be aware of that. That is surprising. Yeah, okay. Would you be open to following up with Dr. Wendy? Yes, sir. Because I feel like she's obviously been a major driver in the southeast part of the community and somebody who understands the needs and the sort of makeup of the community in general, so. If she hasn't been engaged, I would recommend that. 100%. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President. The reason cited for closing the facility was budget cuts in 2025. With the increase in sales and use tax in 2026 and the projected increases in 2027, are we not looking at keeping the facility open as an option as opposed to selling it?

And second question, proceeds from the sale. When we originally briefed on this, it said the proceeds from the sale were going to go into the general fund. But yet the parks advisory board is now recommending that it goes back to parks. Is that correct?

Yeah, I wanted to just follow up on that question because, you know, one of the things that I always get concerned about is when we take something away from a part of our community, it usually gets redistributed in other things or whatever. And it... I would like to see us not only say that it goes to parks, but that it goes back to this particular community. Like it goes into some kind of development of some park that still exists there, or some kind of feature. So that community doesn't have a net loss. That can be reinvested in that community. neighborhood um and and so my my ask and i don'

Okay. So, I mean, my plan is to ask my fellow board members to consider that this community had a loss, and we shouldn't redistribute these funds to other portions of the city. We need to kind of heal it, and to do that, say, we're going to keep the asset in that neighborhood, but it just will look different. And find some way to improve that neighborhood. And I would rely on, I'm sure there's plenty of projects that you could figure out or whatever, what could we do to enhance that neighborhood? So I just making known that that's kind of what my push is gonna be. Not only that the money would

Okay. Councilman Hengim. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilmember Limeweber. That was really a very interesting suggestion that you just made. Having served on that solutions team and having been a part of those conversations with that community and actually hosting the community meeting shortly after the announcement was made, and you're absolutely correct that that community felt really quite frankly very betrayed by the city and that community center built in a former strip mall and retrofitted to serve that community is super important and a lot has happened and many of those f

Councilman Gould. Thank you, Madam President. I just really want to say thank you to Councilmember Risley and Lineweber for your thoughtfulness in the comments that you've made regarding this discussion. I also wanted to second that motion with Councilmember Lineweber on how we are able to reallocate that funding to the direct neighborhood. And my ask would be, I know we do have some folks on the solutions team who are related to Harrison School District too, but if we could have somebody directly from the executive team, whether it's Dr. Burr-Hansel or Ms. Covedo or one of the school board me

Thank you for coming today, Mr. Rogers. I've heard great things about you. I was just at one of your, what's the right word, developments yesterday, Ivy Wild. Oh. That's yours, correct? I'm Lincoln Center. You're Lincoln Center. Okay, I thought you were Ivy Wild.

Okay. Well, I was at Idlewild yesterday, but I go to Lincoln Center all the time and am very appreciative of the use of that old school. My question is, and it was interesting to hear that and be reminded from Kim that some of our regular partners who visited this property didn't even submit a proposal. And I kind of wonder if that's because it was originally built for commercial purposes and that kind of makes sense for it to be used again in that way, but based on your experience with Lincoln Center and how you've engaged with the community, my question is would you be willing or have you me

there are a lot of people in that neighborhood who are excited about what's possible for their own, obviously for their use of that and what they need, but also some entrepreneurs and some folks who might enjoy starting a business there or you know, I think they are interested in wealth creation and really uplifting that neighborhood to be more vibrant. So I just share that with you, having spent some time with a lot of them and hope that you will do the same.

Thank you, Madam President. Just one quick question. You may have provided an answer. I just want maybe some clarity to it. The solutions team, I'm quite sure they've met on a variation of different times. And in one of the slides, there was a very specific bullet that mentioned recommendations for future use. Those future uses, have that been shared to the community by that solutions team?

thank you for clarifying that uh because i think that's so important to not just emphasize it but really highlight that because oftentimes when an entity of this magnitude is you know removed from a community and the thought of it being reintroduced back to the community there always could be that thought process that is going to go back as it was in the past So the fact that you're highlighting that those recommendations did come from the community, it wasn't like this panel or some other third party panel made those recommendations, that it was that of the community and not of some other ent

Thank you, Madam President. I wanted to start by taking the opportunity, Steve Harris, you were kind enough to join us. So would you please share kind of the conversation that happened at Parks Board and how you arrived at your recommendation?

And then Madam President, I just have a couple more comments, questions, changes. I don't know about my fellow council members, but last fall, It felt like it came out of the blue. It felt like we were having budget conversations, and I'm not saying this is the way it has to go, but generally if there's something that's going to transpire like this, it would happen in that calendar year. so the fact that this was closed in 2025 i think came as a bit of a shock to most of us at that time i was unfortunately still recovering from a hospital stay so i would just like to publicly thank council mem

2:50:11 – 2:50:31•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

That's what I'm hearing from the majority of the council, that they do want this to go back to the Parks Department and however they use it is up to them. So when you bring this back to council, can we have that in the agreement already? We don't want to do this in budget season. We want to do it at the actual vote.

Yeah, yes, I'm a thumbs up. I would like to hear from the Parks Department what might be possible. I mean, it's not ours to direct how the money gets spent, and what percentage, or if all. I mean, I would love to see all of it go back to that neighborhood. But I do want to support Parks' expertise on this.

2:52:16 – 2:53:16•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

is that good okay all right thank you so much for that we appreciate it very much so again kim can i just get a confirmation since you saw um the majority of council if not all um in the agreement when you come for the vote that that is already in there and of course you'll send it to us because we'll see it before that those funds go back to the parks department so as part of the resolution yes yes ma'am we can definitely do that okay thank you thank you So that will conclude our morning session. We will now break for. Okay, welcome back to the City Council Work Session for October 12th, 2026

Councilman Hingem. Thank you, Madam President. I wanted to thank you for being here. It's Steve, right? Steve. I have said quite a number of times, I think the work that the Parks Advisory Board does is really critical. And we haven't heard much from the board over the six years that I've been on council. So you being here today, for previous agenda items, speaking to this obviously very significant and important thing that we'll be voting on is very important and I appreciate the time that you took to, well that you take to serve on the board, to lead the board and to come to us today. So I just really wanted to thank you.

Go ahead. You're still up? Are you still up? Yeah. Okay, Council. Unless anybody else wants to go before me. No, go ahead. Okay. So thank you, Lana. There clearly is a tremendous amount of work that has gone into this, and I too am really excited. I want to highlight, you know, it really stands out to me that 65.8 people basically said they're willing to pay for what they see that we need, and I think that's fantastic. The $52.2 million figure of annualized funding gap, that's not a one-time funding gap, that is annual, is really significant, and we need to pay attention to that as a council.

Okay, great. I'm glad to hear that's your interpretation. I wasn't quite sure, but I completely concur. I don't think we've been transparent enough as a city across the board about some of our needs in our various departments and certainly in parks. So here's an opportunity for us to correct that and to start educating the public. On page 27, very specifically, and maybe I'm getting a little bit into the weeds, so my apologies, but I loved the PRCS system at a glance. And there's a list of, you know, from one to four million, which is kind of fun. And I realize you can't put everything in ther

Okay, just if you would check that, and maybe if the numbers have it in there, you could call it out, because I think we need more senior centers, but we have an incredible one. And I think it's worth calling out for that population. I just would like to see you do that. And then the other kind of amenity, if you will, that I think is really unique to our city. And, you know, we heard earlier from Sports Corps and it speaks to cycling, but we have a velodrome in our city. And I think it's worth highlighting that we have a velodrome. So this might be kind of an easy place to pop that in there p

Okay, well, that leads nicely then into my really my, at least at this point, until other council members weigh in and maybe it spurs more thinking. My final thought, and it really is in the, you know, how we move forward around funding. And clearly, and in the, by the way, thank you, Steve, for the letter from Parks. The last sentence in the letter to City Council from the Parks Board is, We respectfully ask City Council to approve the 2026 Parks System Master Plan, and just as importantly, to support the work that follows, making sustainable PRCS funding a priority, working collaboratively t

I think you've done a really good job of really pulling together a lot of essential elements, and it tells a really positive story, but also a very kind of dark story, I think. When the first priority is trying to establish sustainable funding, That is clearly where we're at. We've got to identify sustainable funding. I think we really need to kind of look at how do we take our parks seriously? And I know our residents do. I mean, 80%, right? That's kind of what it is. And so, Emily's got a slide for me. And when I take what you've written here and then actually look at the budget that we're r

I would agree, but they didn't include them in 2025 also.

Right, so. Oh, sure, I see. So they're out of both, right? So the change wouldn't have changed because they didn't include them in 2025 or 2026.

Yeah, and I think you're right, the 92%, there's probably an element of that also. So in the city, so our spending in 2025 was $118 per resident, and it's gonna go down in our current budget to $112. So we're gonna go down $6 per resident. But yet in the average, just the average of these 100 cities, they were at $133 and they're actually gonna go up to $154. That's plus $21 in how we compare. I'm curious to see how our 2027 numbers with Trust for Pumble Vans look, because I'm not very hopeful. And I do believe and make a note that metro districts are excluded in both of these years. So, We've

So funding, that is front and center. But not far behind funding is this really disturbing statistic that 51% of your survey weren't feeling safe in their parks. That's most of our residents, barely, but that is most of our residents. And that's, a national average is 12%. So we're three times less safe than the national average. That's not good either. So I'm going to propose that we develop a strategic plan and I'm looking to actually kind of call it Safe and Welcoming Parks Strategic Plan. And we look at how do we address this issue head on. I feel like we just keep kicking it down the road

I'd love to, because I brought this up. I've given you a heads up that I was going to bring this.

Well, thank you for that because I mean, you basically support. my comments of what I'm gonna launch into because we've got a lot of these issues and we have been addressing them, but I don't think we've really looked at it in a strategic plan that measures outcomes and really put together something that can really fit. When we look at last year, we removed 1,600 camps. We now have 11 rangers covering over 13,000 acres. My question is public safety should always be first. And so when we look at, you know, page 11, your first steps, I'm, this is my next ask, my ask is that you place public safe

And what do you think the economic impact to our sales tax is for all the tourists that come because of Garden of the Gods? Have you ever looked at that? Have you ever separated that out?

contribute to the stormwater in that location fuels mitigation that we put in but i can go on but it's very very i think impactful and i think that's a big part of what defines our city is really tourism and how we really grow and develop that piece um because we can we put more people into garden of the gods what's our numbers now

So we probably should develop like a tourism strategic plan, kind of look at the larger scale of how do we provide, point number three, how do we create exceptional experiences for the people that come and visit our community? That's what we really kind of need to look at because we've got Garden of the Gods, which is great, but the reality is I'm not sure we can squeeze in 5 million people. So the growth of, you know, it's not going to be there. And the quality of the experience is going to be diminished as we, if we add another million people to Garden of the Gods, it's not going to be the s

So who actually helped bring that group together, just as a selfish plug?

So Pikes Peak Outdoors developed the Outdoor Pikes Peak Initiative. And that's kind of set a framework for the three county system. So Pikes Peak Outdoor is the regional partner that represents this region for the state. and a lot of funding is gonna be coming through that plan, and they set a series of goals, and one of those goals was how do we take on management, how do we work better together in partnerships and stuff like that, and so that's what they've been kind of driving for. I do think we have a better relationship, and I think it's improved, but I think we still need to keep pushing

And how much of that trail were we able to develop? None, right? So now it's just a free for all to get to the top of the mountain. There's no design trail. It's something that we need to be working on to kind of do better, I think, for our entire community. So I want to just close by just saying that I really want to see a safety strategic plan in the first steps. Safety should be prioritized. I also want to see a five-year capital list with funding and dates. I'd like to see a strategic plan around working with our number one partner, the Forest Service. Like what can we actually start worki

3:52:48•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Councilman Hingem, I know you had a really quick question. You might as well ask it.

Well, okay. So super quick, and it just has to do with the plan of how we're going to start working on funding. And at what point does it make sense to start, whether it's a president's commission or something, for this body to work collaboratively with Parks, with the mayor's office, to look at starting to address how we're going to be funding. I know you have your Wheel of Fortune, and I know that's in the works, but part of this is going to be at some point going to the voters. So my question simply is, You know, if you have a quick answer, we can talk about it more later. But I just want t

Great. We do have April 27, our elections, and it's an election year for municipalities. It's a good time to also interject this into that conversation. Thanks.

councilman williams thank you i don't know if it's a second or a third at this point but i think safety is paramount that's what i was was going through my head when you started you know over 100 years ago with the the plan and how we were going to get here i think that's that's the foundation we've done the great work to amass the system and everything that goes with it but Really having it so people feel safe to interact in the nature that we have and the nature that we've acquired is number one. And along the lines of what Councilman Landmobber said, I don't know what that looks like, but I

3:55:51 – 3:56:39•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Thank you. is that okay um all right thank you so much um due to a scheduling conflict we thought we'd be done earlier but there is a um call that pro tim risley and i have to be on it will just take about 20 minutes so we're going to actually recess until 2 35 or we're not going to get through the rest of the items until we get off of that um scheduled call that we actually Good afternoon, we are back in session. Moving on to item 8.8, will the clerk please read item 8.8 into the record.

3:57:03•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Good afternoon, Allison. It's been a long day for you.

Councilman Hinchum. Thank you, Madam President. Allison, the first line here says description of services that maintenance of the private roads, perimeter fencing, entrance gates, and so forth are covered, but not an IGA isn't required. But the standard language is that the parks and trails are open to the public. So how is that managed, given that this is a gated community? How does the public access the parks in this area? Gotcha.

So in the plan, it has, just for the applicant's awareness, it has standard language that parks and trails are open to public free of charge. But if it's a gated community, I don't know how the public accesses that. If you could explain that, that'd be helpful.

whenever before i vote on it it doesn't have to happen right now absolutely i think i'm toward the end of my presentation councilman donelson yeah thank you and allison when i ask this if you'd like to hold and answer at the end that's fine but You know, on page one of our packet, just under the background, it points out this is an age-restricted, these are age-restricted units, 55 and older, and it says that the district's board felt that creation of a standalone service plan would allow them to better utilize the mill levies taken in by this district and provide amenities and services more a

Thank you, Madam President. Some of these questions were made before the applicant as well, but... And I think you answered quite a few of them already. So the mill levy, is the mill levy changing at all from what it currently is under this combined service plan to what it is under the proposed Metro District 5 plan?

Well, that's a question then from our applicant. Do you wanna, someone wants to speak to that? Please come up to the podium and introduce yourself.

Well, is that also then, normally mill levies are subject to voter approval, or do the electors in Metro District 5 then have to approve this? Is this going on a ballot for Metro District 5?

Well, the change of the service plan, and you're gonna be separating the service plan from underneath Benny Lewis Ranch Metro District 1 and do your own. Is that subject to voter approval? And do you have, someone mentioned a separation agreement. Do you have a new IGA then with Metro District 1?

So you won't have any further, there's no further money transfer or shared services?

okay i'm just still um maybe it's more of a question for city but you know we said we don't have a process for this but i'm normally changes of this magnitude to a metro district normally go to the voters of the electors of the metro district so i'm just curious why this would not go to the you know how do we know the the you know the homeowners residents there want to do this

Because those services are coming from Metro District 1.

You mentioned paying into District 1 to cover a park that's maybe more of a neighborhood park, but you also mentioned it sounded like there's parkland in your gated community. Is that...

So, and this might be a question more for Allison or Kevin, I'm not sure, but technically then, there are no assets inside your gated community that fall under the standard language that would cover what's accessible to the public.

Is that accurate from the city's side as well?

So going back then to the mill levy, the cover letter frames that there are really no changes, but the new plan does look like the operating cap. You said you're going down, but it looks to me like it's going up from 10 mills in the 2008 limit to 20.

Your 2008 was 20 mills and you're going down to 10?

I have, and I'm not going to ask them now, I'll send them to the planning department and they can share with you. I have a number of other more detailed questions that I'm sure we can get answered before the vote. As long as you're here, though, what I really want to emphasize, what I think I've heard from you, and this is a citizen-run board, you all have control of the board, that you voted as a board and your residents are fully aware of the changes that you're requesting and you have majority support.

I think that's the main thing that matters the most. I'll ask my other questions. I'll put those in writing to the planning department and they can share those with you. And again, I would suspect this probably shouldn't go on consent because I would like to, unless, at least for me, unless those questions are answered by email before they may or may not need to happen in public session. Thanks.

Thank you, Madam President. Kevin, just in my neighborhood, Flying Horse, we had the separation between the master and the two child metrodiscs. Same thing, Charles Wolfelsberger, same person doing it. Once they negotiated an agreement, you're calling a separation agreement, but it was an IGA. It was put before the voters to approve that. And so that's why I was asking that question, because I've seen this before. Same person advising it, same kind of setup. same kind of thing separate you know completely separate all the administrative services now handled by the homeowner run metro districts

Thank you, Madam President. And Kevin, to your comment, just for clarity for the record, when you mentioned the service level plan adopted in 2022 and based on the structure that was agreed upon, the city should not be taking on any liability with this. Is that an accurate statement?

4:21:37 – 4:21:52•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Thank you. Is that all you got? Okay, this will not be on consent and we'll hold it on that meeting unless we hear different. Moving on to item nine.

Madam President, if I could, is there any additional information about the unique characteristics of the unique population, like the... amenities, this district will provide amenities and services more appropriate to their unique population. So is it not that it's a 55 and up community, it's really that it's a gated community and therefore there's some different services that they would need, is that accurate?

So that makes sense to me, the direction towards 55 and over doesn't seem like it matters at all. It's just the gated side. Okay, okay. I'm over 55 too, so it's fine.

Sure, yes. If I could, Madam President, I would like the lady from the back to, she had something to say about the over 55. Either one, whoever.

Okay, I might see you for any openings that you have later on.

Thank you, Madam President. Yeah, just one last question or just one last clarification. So you're a community that is a combined, basically don't have an HOA, your metro district functions in the HOA metro district kind of thing. And so you don't have the option of doing a special assessment and those sorts of things. So that's why you're creating your mill levy at a certain level to build a fund reserves. I think someone referenced there. So that is a difference too in this sort of model. when you do when you you just can't do a special assessment and tax everybody essentially like an hoa co

4:26:13•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Next up, we have council member reports in open discussion. Are there any council members with reports? Councilman Williams.

Good afternoon. Just a couple community meetings upcoming. There will be a Penrose Water Tank community meeting on Wednesday, October 14th. There will be a Star Ranch Pump Station open house on Thursday, October 15th. I'm sure this may be touched more than once and probably tomorrow, but the State of the City is gonna be on Friday, October 16th. And again, thank you all for the thumbs up for Meadows Park. There will be a public meeting to bring that forward, kind of where we've made it to, October 20th, 5.30 p.m. at the former Meadows Park Community Center. And that's it.

Councilman Gould. Thank you, Madam President. I will try to keep my remarks pretty short, but I have a few things that I want to share. Earlier, at the end of September, beginning of this month, I attended the Hey Neighbor Community Luncheon I'm at Portal Park with Councilmember Hendrum, and that was just really amazing to see the work that's being done in that neighborhood and just how Hey Neighbor stitches together community residents. One of the things that I've been really surprised by my time on council is how much I fall in love with outdoors, whether it's I'm going camping or being on t

Thank you. Just a couple updates. On September 29th, I joined several of my fellow council members on a tour of Pikes Peak State College Medical Simulation Center in Council District 2, where we saw the state-of-the-art simulation rooms being used to equip and prepare the next generation of health science professionals. And it's really impressive. If you haven't been up there, I would encourage you to do so. on october 6 i participated in the day-long fire ops event hosted by local five members in colorado springs fire department and i had the opportunity to learn firsthand about a wide range

Councilman Rainey. Thank you, Madam President. Just wanted to highlight on the 25th of September, myself and several council members attended the Medal of Valor dinner, which is always a great event because we get to see and recognize those brave individuals that keep our city safe. So that was great, a great event there. Also, I want to take the opportunity to thank those individuals in Metro District 5, or hopefully soon to be 5, that invited me for coffee with veterans. And now that is a recurring thing, and what a great opportunity for me to engage with other veterans, to include an indivi

Thank you. My comment is really directed to each of my fellow council members, and I don't know when I'm going to get this out tonight, but I obtained the transcript of the special hearing that we had, the very long meeting that you all will remember, and have done some comparisons of that against the minutes. I've shared some gaps, I think, with our city clerk who is reviewing those, and I want to make sure that what I think needs to be changed in the minutes, she's okay with. And it's a lot, well not a lot, it's not a lot, but the work is significant. And I will get that out before my head h

So I just wanted to update everyone on an interesting situation. I received a, about a month ago, received a ticket in the mail of me speeding, and I was told that I would need to pay $80 for that amount, which is more than what's allowed. And so I did go online and I went to make the payment, but when I made the payment, it said I only needed to pay $40. So FYI, it didn't actually adjust it. And then I did receive a follow-up letter to confirm that I do not need to pay the $80. And if I did, that I would get a refund and that they made a problem, that there was a problem with it and that they

What Councilman Landweber said is very true about public health. So the title of this agenda item is Council Member Reports and Open Discussion. And so under the open discussion part, I will just once again state that I believe we should move the date of our reconsideration of Project Taurus to either a month later than what it is currently scheduled to or before the ballots get mailed out. And that would reassure citizens that that date hasn't been chosen. Right now it's one week after the election in a lame duck period when council members who either don't run for reelection or actually are

4:42:46•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

So that does wrap up our Councilmember Reports and Open Discussion. And we are now adjourned.