City Council - Regular Meeting

1:21•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Good morning and welcome to the City of Colorado Springs City Council meeting for Tuesday, October 13th, 2026. Will the clerk please call the roll?

1:53•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

We will now stand for the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. Today we are joined by Pastor Alan Patterson from Victory Life Church.

3:26 – 8:29•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We will now consider the consent calendar. These items will be acted on as a whole unless a specific item is called out for discussion by council member or citizen wishing to address the council. Councilman Gould. I'd like to pull item 4B-A off of the consent, please. 4B-A. Okay, that will be pulled off. Moving on to recognitions. Oh, do we still need to, I'm sorry? You need to vote. On all except for 4BA. I have a m

11:31 – 12:05•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Thank you so much. We really appreciate you being here this morning. This is a very important ballot initiative and we just urge the residents to support that continuation as we are incorporated county. We are sitting in the county as well as the city. Yes. And so I'll bring it back to the dais if there are any comments on the dais. Seeing none, we will join you down front for, is my, are we froze again?

Thank you, Madam President. Sheriff Roybal, it's very nice to see you here and I am very supportive of this ballot initiative and I do hope people listening will, But yes, if they haven't voted already, fill in that bubble for yes. And I appreciate that you talked about the partnership between Colorado Springs and El Paso County, certainly on the law enforcement side, but it also extends to fire as well. And would say that at some point here in the coming years, hopefully sooner than later, we need to have a conversation about our own public safety sales tax, which was instituted in 2001 and h

Yeah, thanks, Madam President. Good morning, Sheriff. Morning. Yeah, I want to also express my support for this. My brother was a police officer in another in another state and city, and it is support or lack of support by the elected officials, which finally, after twenty seven, twenty eight years, he finally retired. because he noticed that, and so I think it's good for city council to also express support on this. Public safety is the fundamental thing that government at the municipal level, at the county level, should provide to the citizens. If we don't do that, nothing else really matter

Councilman Gould. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you for being here. I did want to state fully for the record that while I am not unsupportive of this, I have not yet made my final decision on how I will be marking my personal ballot for this initiative. I still have some research to do. And because this is a proclamation, it does not require a vote of the council. So I wanted to make it clear for those listening who are a part of District 4 to understand that I am not quite supportive and not quite unsupportive.

16:50•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

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

Yeah, thank you, Madam President. And so I have the privilege of reading this resolution, this month, and Angela Seals is here from Copper to speak on it. And so I'll get started reading it. And before I even read it, I just want to reinforce that Colorado Springs was really a city founded, in a way, unlike other cities. Most were founded for economic reasons, a port on an ocean, a big river, the Mississippi River. crossings of railroad, main railroad lines. When General Palmer came here, what he really noticed was the beauty of the land and felt that this would be a perfect place for a city o

Thank you. I'll bring it back to the dais. Councilman Hingem. Thank you, Madam President. Angela, thank you for being here. I'm so grateful for Copper. I'm going to take this opportunity to, one, say to folks who are here who may not realize, you know, many cities and many governments actually fund the arts through their general fund and have positions and really uplift the arts. That's not Colorado Springs. That's not who we are or how we do it. However... Copper does receive some of our LART funds, which is the Lodging, Auto, and Rental Tax, to support their work. But the majority of their f

This year. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Gould.

Thank you, Madam President. Congratulations on 20 years. Thank you, Councilmember Donaldson, for bringing this proclamation or resolution forward. It's Arts Month, and I think right now when we're facing such challenges in mental health as a nation and as a city, We need arts more than ever because art expresses emotion when words fail us and can heal us in so many ways. And I love going to Peak Radar because no matter what your interest is, you can find it. In fact, earlier this month, I celebrated Arts Month by going to a 90s hip-hop on strings candlelight performance. And who knew that in C

Yeah, thanks again, Madam President. I think it might be interesting for the citizens here today and those who watch this online to know that one council person can't bring a resolution to be voted on. It takes at least five to say okay. One may have the idea, but then it goes out and there has to be the support. Sometimes things don't get the support. you know i i agree with what was just said about uh you know um it's it's very good that council continued this um 13-year tradition now of having this resolution and from again from the founding colorado springs and the our founding father want

30:16•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

I have a motion from Councilman Golden, a second from Councilman Hengem. Let's vote.

30:29•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

If you'll join us down front, Angela, for a picture.

Thank you, Angela. That's so nice of you. Hey, how are you? Good.

32:11•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

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

Councilman Williams. Thank you, President Crow-Iverson. And yes, thank you all for being here today. I'll be reading resolution recognizing October 2026 as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Whereas we recognize the vital role that technology has in our daily lives and in the future of our nation, whereby today many citizens, schools, libraries, businesses, and other organizations use the internet for a variety of tasks, including keeping in contact with family and friends, managing personal finances, performing research, enhancing education, and conducting business. And whereas critical

Thank you. I'd like to invite Dr. Sean P. Murray, President and Chief Security Officer at Murray Security Services, to expand upon how this impacts us locally, worldwide.

Thank you. I'll bring it back to the dice for any comments. Just a few closing comments. For those of us who are in the corporate world, we have our trainings that come monthly, weekly, as often as possible. And I know they're really annoying, but they've made them nice and short and sweet. And unfortunately, they're very necessary. The problem is, is it doesn't come across as, you know, hey, we're here to steal your information. It's, hey, you know, there's something wrong with your children. There's something wrong with your grandchildren. Like something is happening that unfortunately gets

Thank you, Madam President, and once again, thank you for this proclamation, and thank you all for what you do in the cybersecurity realm. I think quite often in today's society, it's kind of very passive in the world that we're living in, but in the digital footprint from the economy, financial banking, to the defense industry, to governance. It is all tied in the cybersecurity. That is the world that we live in. And I think sometimes we treat it as a very passive activity. Sadly enough, I mean, good, but sadly enough, in the world that I live in from a job perspective, I get to see the worst

43:19 – 44:55•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

If you just want to stay up there, we'll come down and take a picture. Moving on to item 5D, will the clerk please read item 5D into the record?

45:00 – 45:43•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

First up, we have the Downtown Review Board. Three vacancies occurred on the Downtown Review Board due to members completing their term. Two nominations for the Downtown Partnership and Planning Commission were reviewed by Council Liaison Brandi Williams on October 1st. Council Member Williams interviewed the applicant for downtown form-based zone property owner seat. Katie Carleo is recommended for appointment as a voting member for the Downtown Partnership Board member seat. Jennifer Cecil is recommended for the appointment as the voting member of the Planning Commission liaison seat. And Je

I'm very excited that they're all willing to volunteer and I highly recommend all three of them. Thank you.

45:57 – 46:21•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Moving on to the lodgers and automobile rental tax, the LART, Citizen Advisory Committee. A vacancy occurred on the LART committee due to a member completing their term. On September 14th and September 24th, Council Member Hingham and myself, the Deputy Council Administrator interviewed applicants. Jim Lovell is recommended for appointment as a Citizen at Large voting member. Councilman Hingham, do you have any comments?

Yes, thank you, Madam President. And Jim is here, and I really appreciate it. An outstanding candidate. We had a great, actually, pool of candidates to choose from, but Jim works for the city, works at the airport, and has a great story, and I think will bring really important things to the LARC committee. Thank you, Jim. I concur.

46:46 – 47:07•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Audit Committee. A vacancy occurred on the Audit Committee due to an alternate member being elevated to a voting member. And on September 28th and October 2nd, Council Member Dave Donaldson and myself, the City Auditor and Assistant City Auditor interviewed applicants. Lisa R. Wolf is recommended for the appointment as an alternate member. Councilman Donaldson, do you have any comments?

Well, sure, Madam President. I'll have a few comments. I don't see Lisa in here. Is she in here? All right, so she's not here. But Lisa's a former city councilwoman from more than 20 years ago. 90. What?

So yeah, from 1990. So she had quite a knowledge of ways to compare things that we do now to how it was done then. We feel like that could be useful on the audit committee. Just, you know, historical knowledge is usually valuable, somebody who's seen it for a while. So we look forward to having her on there. That was kind of a unanimous agreement. And we did have other good candidates also. So I'll just say this for everybody here and those listening. If you've applied but haven't been selected, it doesn't mean you're not a good applicant. It's just sometimes we get multiple really good applic

Councilman Hincham. Thank you, Madam President. I want to back click just one if I could and go back to Mr. Lovewell. Given that it's Arts Month and he's here and this is a little unusual, but would you be willing to stand up and speak very briefly about the arts exhibit at the airport as it relates to LART and tourism? Go ahead.

49:20 – 49:42•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Moving on to the Stetson Hills Special Improvement Maintenance District. A vacancy occurred on the Stetson Hills SIMD Advisory Board due to a member completing their term. On October 5th, Council Member Ken Casey interviewed the applicant. Matthew Simpson is recommended for appointment as a voting member. Council Member Casey, do you have any comments?

Thank you, Madam President. Yes, I did speak with Matthew Simpson. I think he'll be a great addition to the Stetson Hills Special Improvement Maintenance District Advisory Board. Thank you.

49:54•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

I have a motion from Councilman Gould and a second from Councilman Rainey. If there are no additional comments, let's vote.

50:10•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Moving on to item six, Mayor's Business. Chief of Staff, is there any Mayor's Business?

Councilman Hingem? Yes, thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Wayne, for those updates. I was wondering if you could say a little bit more, and if not you, even perhaps the Council President, about the North Nevada charrettes. I will be attending the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday myself. I'm not sure I'm going to make the final Saturday one. It is actually not open to the public yet at this point. And I think it deserves, for those who don't know, what that even a charrette is, just hearing a little bit more about that process and the development of that quarter. And I mentioned the president a

52:52 – 54:12•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Absolutely. We're just doing city building a little bit different than it's been done in the past. And since the city, through the funds of PPRTA, hired an engineer team to work on the entire corridor and other areas related to the corridor, we felt it an opportunity to add a design team of architects and design team to that, to piggyback on the engineer team. And so, as you saw with the ULI study a year ago, and a lot of community leaders, a hundred community leaders and partners and nonprofits, police, fire, all were invited to participate. to these interview sessions so they could understan

Oh, sorry. councilmember hengeman and thank you for the additional conversation and i i wanted to do that because in part i got the invitation And I am very keenly interested and focused on this area. It is in my district, and the Capeton-Cragmore neighborhoods will be dramatically impacted in, I think, a very positive way by this development, as will really the entire city. I made the mistake of forwarding that invitation to one of the neighborhood organizations and learned that actually it's not quite ready for that level of public input. And so I'm learning in the process. And I just though

55:55 – 56:13•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

I was going to add on to that that there will be a point for the neighbors to engage as well. Right now it's just more of the engineering, not what's gonna go there, but how we're going to improve the district so that when we go to market, it's shovel ready.

56:59•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Moving on to item seven, will the clerk please read item, which is items called off consent calendar. Will the clerk please read item 4BA into the record?

57:17 – 57:35•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Councilman Hengim. um go ahead you pulled it off you introduce it and then i do see the next i pulled it off oh you pulled it off i thought you mentioned it yesterday i'm sorry you said yesterday you're going to pull it off and that was my confusion so councilman gold

Okay, thank you, Madam President. So for clarity, this is the City Council Special Regular Meeting Minute, September 17th, 2026, which is the Project Taurus public hearing. If you are unable to attend this meeting or any meeting for that matter, our meeting minutes are a great way to get an accurate reflection of what happened during that meeting. I asked for this to be pulled off for a few reasons. One, On page 11, I do want to actually commend Councilmember Rainey for stating the obvious that we weren't quite ready and that we needed further review. And I want to publicly state to my peers t

And now I do have something to say. So I didn't know, actually, that Councilmember Gold was going to pull this off the agenda. But I did. And I want to highlight the opportunity here. I want to take this as an opportunity to highlight the work of the city clerk's office and the incredible work that goes into creating minutes and a record of all of our public processes. This was a very, very long meeting. Therefore, you can imagine taking minutes for such a long meeting is quite the task. Those minutes were published on Wednesday, and then a corrected version was published on Friday, and I read

Yeah, thanks, Madam President. I would recommend that since there's still some things being changed in the minutes that we just, I would make a motion to postpone this just until our next meeting. Then we've all had a chance to look at what we're really voting on, which sounds like gonna be a little different than what we have in our packets. And I don't think there's any issue with just being sure that we're voting on, that we've actually read what we're voting on. So I would make a motion to just postpone this until our next meeting.

1:04:19•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

I have a motion from Councilman Donaldson to postpone.

1:04:28•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

And a second from Councilman Hingem. Let's vote.

1:04:53•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Moving on to item 8A, Councilman Donaldson.

My question would fit in 8A, so I'm happy. I don't know if Sarah needs to read it into the record or whatever. Or item eight, which is utilities business.

1:05:16•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Yeah, I'm running the meeting. We are moving on to item 8A. Will the clerk please read item 8A and to the record.

And Madam President, my question actually pertains to the minutes, but it's a utilities question about these minutes. Could I ask that now? Yes. Okay, thanks. So part of the reason, or a big part of the reason, in my memory, that the Council voted to postpone a decision on Project Taurus was to allow utilities time to receive a, an application from Radin for a large load study. And that would determine, and then at that point, Radin would declare how many megawatts power they want. CSU can go out and start getting the pricing on that much power. And it also would help council, that's why we po

And Mr. Deal, can you just clarify why it is that important that CSU receives an application if the applicant wants to proceed?

Okay, thank you, and Madam President, I just wanna point out, it's been a month, and that's why that decision was postponed to allow this to happen, and apparently there's been no progress on it, so thank you.

Thanks, Madam President. I'm just curious if our city attorney would give us some guidance about this, because this is a quasi-judicial matter, and I think we're curtailing the conversation, but I'm concerned that we're treading on some thin ice here.

Councilman Gold. Thank you, Madam President. And thank you, Jessica, for being here and explaining this to us. Could you go back to slide four, please? Absolutely. So this strip within the southeast, within District 4, literally keeps me up at night. If you can see outside of the part that we're going to be acquiring, well, hopefully acquiring, you'll see debris. And I think this debris that's evident in this photo is just a fraction of what that road looks like. So my hope is that we can move forward with this purchase, and my hope is that the property owner can do some significant investment

1:13:47•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Thank you. Moving on to item 10, new business, 10A. Will the clerk please read item 10A and to the record.

Thanks, Madam President. Kim, you'll recall at our work session meeting, I asked the question, what happens if we get to April and the building isn't doing what we expect it to do or the business model still isn't playing out? Can you give me an answer to that question again, just on the record?

Is there a reason why that wasn't written into the agreement or into the resolution that we're going to be voting on? no at the time i i believed it was discussion i didn't know that that was something the requirement if that is something that you would desire and council uh proves that it could be something that we could add i don't know yeah i don't know how my colleagues are feeling about it but i asked the question and you gave an answer on the record and so it seems to me that whether we modify the resolution or not it's on the record that that's the intent of the city correct

And so I don't know if that's a question for the attorney or not, but again, I think it's a point of discussion.

And again, I haven't had a conversation with my colleagues. I don't know how anyone else is feeling on this topic, but I don't necessarily want to make things messier than they need to be. But again, I asked the question at work session, and Kim gave us the answer that she just gave us. Maybe I'll test the waters and I'll make a motion that we amend the resolution to indicate the rent abatement ends on April 1st, 2027 and will not be extended again going forward. Is anybody willing to second that?

1:16:51 – 1:17:04•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

So I have a motion from Councilman Risley and a second from Councilman Williams to amend as he just stated. I can repeat it. You have it, sir, for the record.

Well, can we have some discussion before we vote, Madam President?

Kim, can you remind me, without this amendment, what does it say now as far as rent abatement until when?

And just remind me, it already has a sunset clause in here. The renovatment is extended until when?

That is my colleague's request to add that in. What does it say currently or else I can just read it.

Okay, good. And this is the heart of what I'd like to have the discussion about right now. It may happen that in April, there are new circumstances and we think it's appropriate to extend it for two more months. I agree with the pro tem's view that hey, this is on record, this is our intent. I don't think we need to lock it in with an amendment. I don't know if we can even, can we even do that? Is that an attorney question? Can we limit the future council to never extend it?

Right, because the next, you know, in April, a council could come along and vote to override that and extend it. So, and I appreciate my colleague's concern about, hey, we just can't kick the can down the road indefinitely, but I think Many of us are still gonna be here after April of 27. And so we know what was said today. I just don't think we need to amend this and make it more difficult when that month comes if there's a desire on the part of council that, you know what, we need to do this for an additional two months because construction took longer than expected or unforeseen circumstanc

I appreciate that, Councilmember. My point is that I just don't want this to continue in perpetuity, right? We could get to April 1st and decide again that there's gonna be another extension and then another extension and another extension. And this is a rent rate abatement, meaning that taxpayers are helping to subsidize, which I understand the importance and the value of this facility and trying to breathe new life into it. I'm certainly not opposed to that or trying to get in the way of that. But when I look at the use of taxpayer dollars, is it appropriate to essentially set up a situation

Yeah, I wanted to hear from... if this is acceptable to him is is us locking in this april date something that you can work with uh good morning thanks for having me um again i i do think

Well, I just want to do whatever we can do to help you succeed. Thank you. And I certainly understand the viewpoint that we just can't extend this forever. Agreed. And you just stated yourself that you just can't go on forever either without it operating. So you're incurring a financial burden. loss every single month it's not open and so i think that's kind of obvious but um i'm i'm not really opposed to this idea i also heard our city attorney says that council can always change its mind so um although we put this in here i think there's still wiggle room. So anyway, thank you. For sure.

Yeah, thanks again, Madam President. I'll just point out that what we're voting on is basically not to charge Mr. Morelle rent until April 1 of 2027. And then if this amendment is approved, what we're saying is, and that cannot be extended. and i don't see a necessity to do that there's a limit to it right now it ends on april 1 20 27 and rent will begin uh on april 2nd or on april 1st of 2027 without adding this amendment And so just in a spirit of collaboration with Mr. Morelli, he's taken on something that's really important to the city. It's a very historical building. It's a Thomas McLare

Councilman Hengim. Thank you, Madam President. And this is a good and valuable conversation. And, you know, I think it's really important for us to acknowledge and recognize that for decades, we have deferred maintenance on a historic city property. And we defer maintenance on so many things because we don't have the dollars in the budget. And we have a homegrown Colorado Springs boy now man, who is devoting his expertise and energy into helping restore this really beloved property for the city of Colorado Springs. I concur and I don't think anybody expects or wants that this abatement would h

Councilman Williams. Thank you, President Carr-Iverson. Just so you know, more than once I have come to your aid on this particular issue in conversation, so... I feel like this is another way of getting your contractors moving, getting everybody on the same page again. We can't. have a crystal ball to see how we're going to get from here to there. But I think the intent is that's the deadline. I think your goal is the deadline. You need to be making money and putting things back into your coffers. And no, there's nothing that precludes that. But I think that really is the intent. And if it's

Thank you, Madam President. I think this conversation has underscored my concern and has gotten the issue out on the table, so I'll withdraw my amendment.

Yeah, Madam President. I just want to express my appreciation to the pro tem for that action. Thank you.

1:30:52•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Back to the original motion. I have a motion from Councilman Donaldson and a Councilman from Gold. Let's vote.

1:31:16•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Moving on to item 10B. Will the Clerk please read item 10B into the record?

addressed or available depending on how they wish to do it we discussed this at the work session i am happy to answer any questions that there may be councilman hengim thank you and yes we did receive a communication that went out to all employees yesterday on outlining based on whatever would happen here today there is just one clarification i don't recall reading in that communication wayne um And I asked it last time. By the way, I'm very supportive of this. I'm grateful that you're bringing it to our attention and that we have the revenue to give a day back to employees and payment. And I

I think I just wanna revisit the idea that we hired these employees with an agreement of what they should be paid. And they've set out a budget for the year, they've planned where they can live, they plan how much food they can buy, they plan what kind of car they can afford. And then the city turned to them and said, we're gonna take away five days of pay from you. They didn't really have an option. This was a financial withdraw from all of our employees. It was a thing that I guess happens in government. But in business, I just never have heard of something like this in business. I mean, it.

Well, then I would like to craft a motion that we take the date, what is the date? We take November 25th as a paid day off for all city employees. And how we do that can be worked out through HR and all that kind of stuff, right? I don't know all those things.

yeah for the so let's re i'm not very good at making these on the spot uh type deals and certainly would love some suggestions if other people are looking um i'd like to make a motion that for those employees that were impacted by the furlough particularly on november 20 that we make that a paid day off for them to no consequence to using any of their paid days or anything like that. I think that's all I need to say. Is that, you got the idea, Sarah?

How does that work? Okay, I'm looking for a second.

I'm considering, but I want to hear my other council members speak before I decide to second. If that's okay, I'd like to hear from other council members first.

1:40:23 – 1:40:44•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Can I get clarification from you? So right now it's a furlough day. where everybody's off, the city's closed, and it's not paid. Are you asking that it's, I'm gonna call it a furlough day, where everybody's off, the city's closed, however this budget amendment money will go to everybody getting paid that would be furloughed? Am I understanding that?

I was getting consultation from Michael. I'm gonna go ahead and second to allow the conversation to happen.

1:40:58 – 1:41:23•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Okay, so we have a motion from Councilman Lineweber and a second from Councilman Hingem. And I will get to the council comments. I just want to get this motion in that this budget appropriation will go to a paid day for all employees that were furloughed for November 25th. Is that correct? Okay, Councilman Donelson.

Yeah, thanks, Madam President. I think the original ordinance, is it an ordinance, Mayor Wayne? Yes. Strikes the right balance, and the balance is between being fiscally responsible to the taxpayers, right, so that we're not just saying, hey, everybody free day off. versus we we do allow that we do allow our valuable city employees to either continue on and take the day off without pay if they would like to do that to do that or they can take the day off and be paid if they use a leave day or they can come in and work and not and get paid and come into work so It's easy to be generous with som

Thank you, Madam President. I want to go back to the Chief of Staff. I would make, I'm making an assumption here that this was discussed, this exact type of motion was discussed amongst the administration. Can you give us some insight into what the feedback was based on that conversation?

Well, I do believe that the amendment that was brought forward for this particular ordinance today does strike the right balance. And maybe I'm speaking in a very biased manner, because I was that leader several times over in the government that had to do that and make those announcements and then bring people back and people who did have time off and have to work directly with them to make the right decision. So I understand the uniqueness of this. The heart of this question that I really wanna ask is, now you have to go back into the budget and you're gonna have to find the money that you we

1:45:05 – 1:45:20•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

additional does not change the current status does not change the funding status of it my question is answered chief of staff you still have up did you get your questions answered are you still i apologize you're fine councilman lineweber

Yes, I think it's important to strike the right balance and that is we took 5 days of work and pay away from our employees 7 days for several others. So we've already fiscally. took money that we had agreed in our employee contract with them for them to work for the city, we took out of their personal finances four days I'm asking of the five days that we return it, so now it's just four days. So we're still taking four days. So there's four days of pay that a minimum of our staff is gonna be losing. Six days for several others. The idea is this is a partial, I think this is more than fair and

Yes. Thanks again, Madam President. You know, there are a lot of citizens out there struggling with the price of gasoline, small business owners with a tax burden that is on them. So it will strike them as council is very generous with their dollars, with their taxes. The option that was brought before us today, before it was amended, the ordinance gave employees, hey, if you want to work that day and not have one less day of pay, you can do that. If you want to use a leave day, you can do that. If you want to just take the day off without pay, which is what you were probably originally planni

Councilman Gould. Thank you, Madam President. While I was initially supportive of the ordinance as it was written, now that Councilmember Lineweber has brought this change forward, I'm reconsidering. And I think that when it comes to furlough days, people are squeezing more work into less time. So I think we may call, we may say that there's a furlough day, but the work still needs to be done. And we have so many folks who've been asked to do more with less. And I think it's a rare opportunity that we get to give this kind of appreciation monetarily to our city employees. So while there are so

Thank you. Wow, what a conversation. I don't know how many city employees are listening right now. I bet quite a few.

is that we care about them and we appreciate them. And we know that this has been a very, very difficult year for our city employees, who I want to uplift. And I want to say they're regular citizens too, Council Member Donelson. They are. We all are. And while some may say, well, I don't get my employer to do this for me, they're not working for the city of Colorado Springs. It's tough, right? I mean, I get the points here and I get what the chief of staff has presented in trying to really weave a very fine line and deal with folks who can't take the day off because they have to protect the ci

Thank you. There's a lot of times that we're stuck in the middle and this one is truly in the middle because the money is coming from the citizens and then it's going to the employees and you're trying to strike that delicate balance. And I know lots of the city employees and I know they know me and as Nancy said, we love, respect and appreciate them all. And I think being able to give back at least one furlough day is absolutely fabulous and wonderful. And if this were a for-profit company and I was the CEO, I completely concur with Council Member Leinweber. But that's not the seat I'm in rig

Thank you, Madam President. Wayne, about how many city employees were not subject to furlough? And what kind of employees are those?

I'm just concerned there would be a perception that their service is less valuable. We're gonna give a day off to one group of city employees, but not to all city employees. And that's my concern with this. I agree with restoring the furlough as proposed initially today. I don't necessarily agree with making a paid day off for some employees and not all employees. Thank you.

Thank you. I hear your question, Councilmember Casey, and, you know, our sworn officers who are there to protect us take that job knowing that that is a part of the work. And I think one of the ways that we can show those members of our city staff is to look at the revenue we need to bring into the city to raise their salaries and to give them the pay that they deserve. We're not all equal in that sense. I mean, I think there's equity possible here. And there's different ways to get that. And so I think what we're finally, what I'm hearing we're finally coming to a little bit, at least as I'm

Yeah, I just wanted to reiterate again, we're not talking about a single day. I know that this initiative, this amendment that's before us is talking about a single day. My consideration is that we've already have taken four days away from our, four days of pay out of our employees' budget. So they've lost this year four days of pay. at least. We're talking about remedying it so it's not five, which is great. But they lost four days of pay. They still lost four days of pay. And so that's my concern. And then other employees have lost six days of pay. So I'm looking at, you have to look at the

Thanks, Madam President. My question, Trey, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I think it's a question for you. This goes back to a conversation I think that you and I had maybe last week. The appropriating amounts for each of the departments is relatively small. And I'll give you an example. City Auditor, $4,300. City Council, $3,700. There are some that are bigger, for sure. Police, $58,000. But in the police budget of $100 million, right, 58,000 is a very small amount. And I think the conversation that you and I had was, what if, regardless of this amendment, what if the budget approp

there would be had been statistically speaking there's the likelihood of more turnover in those departments so i think it would depend on the department and so just thinking of the two smallest departments that you mentioned the city auditor and legislative services both have had staff turnover in 2026 and both have had unfilled positions for a period of time so I would assume that there is room within those budgets. I haven't asked those directors, but I would assume there are dollars within those budgets that could absorb this. And I guess, regardless of whether we go with Council Member Lin

So what happens if a budget, if a department exceeds their allocated budget for a fiscal year?

So it's really not a major issue as long as the total amount of the general fund is not exceeded?

2:02:09 – 2:02:27•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

So I have a motion from Councilman Lineweber and a second from Councilman Hingem to amend the November 25th as a paid day off for employees that were planned to be furloughed on the same day. Let's vote.

2:02:45•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Moving on to item 11A. Will the clerk please read?

It was an amendment, so yeah, we still have to vote on the ordinance.

2:03:09•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

So I have a motion from... Council Member Gold.

2:03:20•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Can I ask a question first? Yes, Council Member Williams.

So I had a motion on the floor, and we amended the motion to a completely different motion, which we passed. So how do we pass that one and then vote on another one that's completely different?

Okay. So we've amended the main motion to now be

line members motion and we're on our way to voting the assumption the same way we did last time that's correct yep possibly the one question i do have on that madam president is because the initial motion uh was made by council member gold who just voted on the new motion do we need to withdraw that motion and re-vote again councilman gold no you're just i'm gonna defer to sarah

So a motion would still support that paid furlough day, correct? Okay, then I will stay with that motion, thank you.

Yes, I'm just kind of intrigued with Councilman Risley's questioning about do we really need to amend the budget? And so I'm willing to entertain a discussion that maybe we do a second amendment that says without amending the budget. Or what would you suggest, Councilman Risley?

Yeah, that's the crux of the situation for me, Councilmember, is that I think the administration could do what they wish on that day regardless of Council's actions because I think the dollars will exist within the budget to accomplish that as it stands now. The risk is... As Sharae pointed out, the risk is some of the departments will be able to absorb that without any problem. Some of them may struggle to absorb that, but as long as the general fund balance is not exceeded, it's all good. And so the, The intent, I believe, and I can't speak for the administration, but the intent here, I beli

Well, I mean, would you be willing to put that forth in some kind of amendment language? Because I would love to second that motion. I think that we should just find the dollars within what we currently have. I think we could. That's what you're suggesting.

That's what I'm suggesting. And the easy answer is just simply to vote no on this budget amendment.

But then we don't get to vote for the city employees getting a benefit of getting at least one of their days back. the piece that I'm looking for is to say thank you employees for giving us part of your salary so we can overcome our financial loss.

So I think the administration could choose to do that regardless of the action of council. I think that the mayor's office, the chief of staff could simply make the decision that we've heard the discussion that council has had. We think that it is appropriate to give a paid day off to the employees to thank them for their dedication and service. And we think we can do that within the current budget as it stands right now.

Can we make any kind of, well, you've made the statement, but can we make any kind of official statement? That's what I'm asking. Is there any, I mean, we have to do a proclamation to hold them to doing something, right?

So I would defer to the attorney, but this is a budget amendment ordinance. And so I think all we would legally be doing through this process is amending the budget. I don't believe that this is the appropriate platform to convey council's desire or intent relative to supporting the city staff. That would likely be a resolution or be some other action. And I see the attorney nodding her head, so I may not be an attorney, but apparently I have some grasp of this. You can read like facial expressions. I can see her nodding and smiling, so yes. So maybe that answers your question.

Well, I mean, I actually, I support that, but I would hope that our mayor would keep to his commitment and find a way to make this kind of happen. Right, and to what you've stated and what we've heard from Shanae, that that's very conceivable and very possible. I mean, again, I think that we've talked about striking the right balance, right? Do we really need to increase the budget to compensate for that? I guess I would ask Chief of Staff if he'd like to weigh in on this and,

And I could see this being a problem because two-thirds of our staff didn't get a furlough today.

Okay, I thank you for that answer. And I think I agree with it. I do agree with it. And I think that we probably should move forward on this. We just always need to provide, we are the control of the budget and spending. And I think we always should be aware of how we spend our dollars. In this motion, we're clearly stating that we had to take money from our employees in order to meet the budget this year. And I think we just need to give some back. So, all right, thank you.

Thank you, Madam President. The Chief of Staff answered the questions I had. Thank you.

Councilman Williams. So, now you've almost added another wrench in this, this is probably for the city attorney. So, given that the days off are official in the manual and as the chief of staff stated, the American arbitrarily change that. Are you comfortable with how this is being presented? So it doesn't necessarily have to bring the PPM manual into play and it checks all the boxes and has, again, these employees do get the day off, these employees do not, and that essentially passes all of your legal tests and whatever Sheree is about to tell me.

so that we are in compliance with the ppm okay and then just one question so to kind of close that loop that also means the mayor is not allowed to arbitrary arbitrarily declare award time as well as paid time off as well as holidays as well as all of those pieces is that correct Anybody who feels like answering?

2:17:17 – 2:17:38•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

That's correct. I don't believe Juneteenth is in the PMP. However, that is a paid holiday. Is that correct? And under Mayor Southers, who did get that. He did not need to come to council, and he did get that as a paid day off. But it's not in the list of holidays. That's kind of the same thing you were saying.

2:17:47 – 2:18:11•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

It's not. And Southers did that, the administration, without council. So I just wanted to make that very clear that that's already happened. And they do have that discretion, just for clarity. Okay. So I have a motion from Councilman Gold and Councilman Rainey to approve the supplemental appropriation to the general fund.

2:18:39•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

You just threw me on some of those. Cause that wasn't the first one up, but thank you for the clarification. Let's vote.

2:19:02 – 2:19:17•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Okay, before we start our hearing. We are back in session. Will the clerk please read item 11A into the record.

2:19:27 – 2:19:45•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Today's hearing will proceed as follows. City staff presentation, applicant presentation, public comment in support, public comment in opposition, applicant rebuttal, closing staff comments, and back to the diaspora council questions and deliberation and decision. And we will now hear from the city staff for 10 minutes. Good morning.

Thank you, Madam President. Can you point on this map then to where the, I know we discussed this during the annexation, where is the road gonna go in at? Is it on here?

And if I'm not mistaken, there's a PPRTA-funded road improvements for Old Ranch Road in this area, as well as improvements to the bridge. It's a combination of PPRTA and city funding? I don't know if Todd's not here, I guess. Yeah, I don't know much about that, but. Okay. And did this vacation, separate vacation, go through Planning Commission?

2:23:45•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Thank you. We will now hear from the applicant to provide an overview for 10 minutes theme. Good morning.

Yeah, just a quick question. If I remember correctly, the primary access road has a dedicated turn lane that's been installed?

2:27:19 – 2:27:42•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

I don't see any other questions for now. Thank you. Thank you. We will now open up for public comment. I have no one signed up in support, but I do have one signed up in opposition, Mr. Jay Stoner. Good morning, Mr. Stoner. You have three minutes.

2:31:11 – 2:31:25•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Thank you. That does conclude public comment for this hearing and the applicant can come back up for a rebuttal for five minutes.

2:34:41•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Moving on to closing staff comments, if there are any. Austin, you don't have any? Okay, back to the dias for questions, deliberation, and decisions. Councilman Casey.

No, I would definitely agree with Mr. Stoner that it is a dangerous intersection of Otero into Old Ranch Road there. But I do think that's a separate issue then from the vacation of the road that we're talking about today. But I will follow up with the traffic engineer to see if there's any kind of calming measures or if there's signage they could put in there to alert people coming but eastbound, that they are approaching kind of a hidden intersection there. I do know Otero, if I'm not mistaken, when you reach Old Ranch Road, you're sitting on a hill, basically, or it's an incline, and lookin

2:35:34 – 2:36:25•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

If I have no more questions from the dais, we have a motion from Councilman Hingem and a second from Councilman Gold. Let's vote. the motion passes nine to zero so next up we are going to have to recess from council meeting and go in to reconvene as the board of directors of the briargate general improvement district for the 2021 action plan on the following item so the regular city council meeting is in recess and we are now in session as the board for the Broward Gate General Improvement District. Good morning.

2:36:41•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Okay, we're gaveled in and we're gaveled out.

Thank you, Madam President. Will there be more information provided on what the, you know, I saw the budget that's attached to this as a slide. Is there additional information that will be provided for the November 10th meeting as far as what they're doing with it and any more details on that?

There was just the one, you're talking about the one that was attached here to the agenda? That was just a one pager that had a budget, but no details as far as, for example, it says salaries, but it doesn't talk about how many staff members, whereas one of the other improvement ones doesn't have that as a line item. So just trying to get in a feel for maybe if it's not November 10th, that could be a separate, I could do a separate meeting or something to talk about.

2:40:24•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

So if I don't have any more deliberation, I need a motion. I have a motion from Councilman Williams and a second from Councilman Risley to set to an over 10th date.

2:40:51 – 2:41:16•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

So we will adjourn from that Board of Directors and for the Briargate General Improvement District 2021. And Council will now reconvene as the Board of Directors for the Marketplace at Austin Bluffs General Improvement District for the action of the following. Will the Clerk please read? Item 15A and to the record.

2:43:09•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

I have a motion from Councilman Hengeman, a second from Councilman Donaldson. Let's vote to set the public hearing for November 10th.

2:43:24 – 2:43:59•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

We are now adjourned from the Board of Directors of the Marketplace of Austin-Bliss GID, and we are now back in the regular meeting, and the meeting is back in session. We now have citizens' discussion for items not on today's agenda. Citizens will have three minutes to share their comments. I have list of those who have signed up when I call. Please state your name, introduce yourself, Limit yourself to topics that are relevant and germane to city business. And first up, I have Steve Lightfoot.

I'm sorry. Madam President, I just waited too long to hit that. But if I could, please. Thank you. I just want to appreciate you and thank you for coming regarding Meadows Park. And I think it's important for you to know that we voted yesterday, that I do believe that the soon-to-be owner of the property will, in fact... support the community in those deed-restricted areas. Furthermore, there will be a meeting. He will be meeting with the community to talk. I just can't, I was waiting because I couldn't remember the date. Do you remember, Council Member Gould? Do you remember, Council Member W

thank you madam president i just want to make it clear i appreciate you coming and i appreciate your comments thank you very much but i want to make it clear for all of the citizens that are listening that the choice of closing this community center was not a decision made by city council and any rumors about other community centers being on the block for closure which i haven't heard that rumor but let's say it's true. That's not a city council decision either. Those are all administrative choices and things that are done by the mayor's office and by the city administration, not by city counc

Yeah, and if there are rumors of other centers being proposed for closure, we recently received the 2027 budget books, and I haven't seen anything in the budget book about that. But if you have more information, please feel free.

Yeah, I'd encourage you to get with the chief of staff and talk about your concerns.

2:52:48•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Next up, we have Kyle McGuffey.

2:59:14•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

Next up is Caleb Miller. Councilman Donaldson.

Thanks, Madam President. I just want to clarify with either Michael Montgomery or Sam, are the recordings of the different hearings and our council sessions, are they edited in any way? Do we clip pieces out or is it just a continuous recording of the hearings?

The Project Taurus hearing, is that if citizens notice, hey, it stops and then it starts again, what was cut out?

okay thank you and i hope that that helps if there's a specific question you have i think sam might be able to uh like review it with you and then bring it to our attention if he thinks there's something i think any human could see it was muted so i i just i don't know it's a long video do you mean the sound yeah like people would speak and then you know there was a lot of disruption after each speaker it was muted or how come you're not hearing any of the disruption throughout the entire thing i watched the whole thing there's like no disruption And I think at that hearing, like once someone'

Well, yeah, it's not misrepresented. That's what happened. They muted. If you went over three minutes, they stopped you at three minutes. We couldn't hear you either.

3:07:29•LCLynette Crow-Iverson

citizens discussion is now closed and we are adjourned