City Council - Regular Meeting

1:08 – 1:21•CLChris Leh

Good evening, everyone. Tonight is Tuesday, October 20th, and we are the Louisville City Council. We have a regular meeting tonight. Can we get a roll call, please?

1:30 – 2:10•CLChris Leh

Here. Councilmember Kern present mayor pro Tim Hamilton here mayor late here If you would please join with me in the present pledge of allegiance All right May I have a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye.

2:11 – 2:42•CLChris Leh

All right. Next part of the meeting, let's say, do we have any public comment tonight? No. All right. Next part is public comment. It appears we have none, and we're going to move on. Consent. Do we have a motion on consent agenda? So moved. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. Six is council informational comment.

2:44 – 4:09•CLChris Leh

Please. Right, welcome Councilmember Dickinson back to the dais. Do Councilmembers have any informational items or committee reports they would like to give? I went to Metro Mayor's caucus meeting last week sponsored by both the MMC and The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce is about three hours on the subject of data centers. It's really interesting. I'll be circulating materials from that. Lots to think about for our meeting on the 2nd. We're going to discuss a little bit about that in the discussion of our work plan. Any other comments? All right, city manager's report.

4:39 – 5:14•CLChris Leh

Thank you. Move on to regular business. The first item of regular business is public hearing, city manager's final 2027-2028 budget presentation. And this was advertised in Boulder Daily Camera on October 11, 2026. And I'm going to open the public hearing and ask if any of the council members has any disclosures to make. All right. I'll leave it to the director to take us through this, I think.

19:15 – 19:35•CLChris Leh

Thank you very much. First, any questions? We have seen versions of this presentation throughout the last several months, and so much of this is not surprising, but if we have questions, Council Member Kern.

19:35 – 19:56•JKJudi Kern

Great, thanks. Thanks for all the work. Director Bailey, so I have a question. Can you remind us, this is about the REC fund. You were saying that there's 1.6 million being transferred in from the general fund and the capital fund. Can you separate those out for me and tell me how much is actually coming from the capital fund? Or the general fund, rather. I'm sorry. I can see the capital list.

20:04 – 20:41•JKJudi Kern

I guess part of the things I was curious about, too, is some of the items that are in the list for capital funding, some capital project or items for purchase, they would, I mean, we could be using some of the general fund money to pay for those items. So some of the funds that are being transferred in to pay for like new equipment or new, not gym equipment, but other items for the rec center, they could be coming from the general fund versus the capital and paying for those items just as easily?

20:51 – 21:04•JKJudi Kern

No, I know that they do. Okay. I know it does. No, it's some of the general fund money. Is it going towards some of these capital purchases like equipment purchase or items? Strictly for like staffing and maintenance of the building?

21:19 – 21:31•CLChris Leh

Why don't we take public comment and then we can, if there are any other comments from council members, we can address those. Do we have any public comment?

21:33 – 22:50•CLChris Leh

No public comment. I just want to say, again, thank you very much to city manager, to you, director, to all of the directors, to the host of people that had to do with this budget and the draft and presentations over time. I also really want to take a moment to really thank the Finance Committee, all of whom are sitting to my left, Chair Hefner, Mayor Pro Tem, and Councilmember Cooperman, because they did, every step of the way, an awful lot of work on looking at the figures and the trends and providing terrific discussion points as we went along and discussion points within the meetings that

22:52 – 23:46•DHDietrich Hoefner

Yeah, I don't have a whole lot to say other than to add in my thanks for all the work. You know, I think we started with the notion of this being transitional. I think it is. I think it buys us some time. And the way we have bought time is by cutting pavement in half, moving general fund expenses into capital, moving CTF funds into parks. We've done a lot of Moving things about to make everything balanced Which isn't to say that there aren't real sort of service level adjustments and there aren't real savings in here I think there are but there's still a lot of work in front of us, and I'm gla

23:48 – 23:59•CLChris Leh

Other members of the committee? All right. I'm going to close the public hearing. Do we have a motion? Do we need a motion?

23:59 – 24:14•DHDietrich Hoefner

Yeah, I'll make a motion here. Well, I'm going to just ask questions and discussions, but I'll move we advance this to the final adoption hearing in November.

24:17•CLChris Leh

And just for good measure, actually, the city attorney. Right.

24:25•CLChris Leh

I've made one. Second. Seconded. Seconded. Any other comments? All in favor? Aye.

24:37 – 25:02•CLChris Leh

Thank you. Thanks for the legal opinion on the fly. All right. Next is Resolution No. 101, Series 2026, Resolution No. approving a focused preservation and restoration grant for the Mudrock House located at 613 Grant Avenue. And I think this one has got a staff presentation and I believe

26:58 – 27:31•CLChris Leh

Thank you, Director. Are there council questions on this one? Okay. Is there any public comment? No. All righty. Any discussion related to this matter? Seeing none, do we have a motion for the resolution?

27:40 – 28:09•CLChris Leh

Any discussion? All in favor? Our next item is the discussion direction on the board and commission handbook. I think there is a staff presentation by our city manager.

44:47•CLChris Leh

All right, why don't we take some council questions. If we have any right now. Yes, Council Member Cooperman.

44:58 – 45:12•JCJosh Cooperman

One question with regard to subcommittees, task forces, so on. You mentioned engagement with outside entities. Could you elaborate on what you mean there?

45:36 – 45:52•JCJosh Cooperman

Okay. And I mean, so on the one hand, you know, OSAP has talked about having a full meeting with another board. And then they also talked about, you know, having casual conversations with board members from other.

46:20 – 46:49•JCJosh Cooperman

Okay, thank you. Sorry, I guess I have another question. As we're developing or as the boards are developing their work plan, if council wants the board to engage on something, say it's related to something from our work plan, do we have, I don't know, do we have a process or some idea of a process for how we would say, oh yes, we want this board to work on this during the year?

47:13 – 47:31•JCJosh Cooperman

Okay. And a couple more questions. Since the boards won't adopt their work plan until March, April, is the idea that the work plan would sort of run through the beginning of the next year?

48:15 – 48:29•JCJosh Cooperman

Okay. And then one more. I'm just wondering, you know, the process that's outlined for updating a work plan mid-year seems like it could be excessively slow.

49:09•CLChris Leh

Other questions? All right. Is there any public comment? Take public comment right now.

56:16 – 57:08•CLChris Leh

All right. Why don't we bring it back to council? Now, we have quite a number of decisions that... we've been asked to comment on here. And I think it would be good if we could put up the slide, city manager, that perhaps is the best to help us do that. And I think what I would propose is that we just go through each of them and hear from one another about concerns, thoughts, and maybe we can kind of take stock of a consensus if we can reach one on each one of them. Yeah, go ahead.

57:09 – 59:06•DHDietrich Hoefner

Yeah, thanks. First of all, I really appreciate all the work that the deputy city manager did on this, and I wish she was here to hear that because it's just really outstanding work. She considered, obviously, lots and lots of things in putting this together. I support the direction recommended by staff pretty much on all counts. I have three brief items. One is on the Youth Advisory Board. To me, it makes sense to include them in the work plan process that's laid out. And I would like to try and make a point of including them on a few big substantive items each year as part of our work plan,

59:10 – 59:23•CLChris Leh

Thanks. Others? Let's see if we have consensus on that general approach or whether we've got some other thoughts. Go ahead.

1:00:05•CLChris Leh

Thank you. Others? Yes, Council Member Dickinson.

1:00:12 – 1:02:12•CDCaleb Dickinson

I'll just offer a counter to that. I agree with everything else, but I think we have an amazing planning commission right now, and it took six years to get there. It took forever to rotate people through to get to a planning commission that actually represents the public and the elected officials. So I think those not any one individual person, but I think five year and six year terms make it. difficult for that body to then be advising this body in a way in which we're actually looking for. So I think it was problematic previously and I think terms longer than even six year term for someone w

1:02:17 – 1:05:23•JKJudi Kern

Yeah, thanks. Yeah, I agree. I think the Deputy City Manager listened to a lot of the concerns and comments and really did, I mean, this had to have been a lot of work. The results are incredible. I really appreciate the suggestion for OSEP, though, to put a very specific note. We did it for the library advisory, that they do have charter obligations, and so that as new members do come in, and maybe it's just a reminder annually that staff and the board remember that the charter has specific asks of them. Hopefully that will, I agree, kind of quench some of the concerns. I'm actually, and the

1:05:26•CLChris Leh

I just want to offer a brief... Before we do that, are there other... Can I come back to you, or is it literally on that?

1:05:33 – 1:05:48•DHDietrich Hoefner

It's a clarification just as to my earlier comment, which I wasn't suggesting we do all six-year terms. I was suggesting we keep the current structure, which I think is two two-year terms, two four-year terms, and three six-year terms, just to be clear.

1:06:01 – 1:09:51•JCJosh Cooperman

I don't have an opinion at the moment on terms for the Planning Commission. I'll have to think about that a little bit more. On the potential merger of PPLAB and RAB, I think I would probably also be interested in maybe waiting a year. I think my main concern there is that if we combine them as they currently are, they would have a whole lot under their purview. Yeah, I'm just not sure how one board is going to cover the golf course, senior services, recreation and parks. And so I'd like to think through a little bit more what that would look like. But then, you know, depending on what applica

1:13:46 – 1:19:00•CLChris Leh

Wonderful comments so far. I have both some comments of my own and then we can talk a little bit about at least what I'm hearing in terms of a potential consensus on some of these and some clarifications that I'm going to ask, some clarifying questions of counsel. Because I've heard some things that different council members have said and I haven't necessarily heard responses to those and I think that's a good thing for us to do I Like I think just about everybody on the council like the idea of having the Youth Advisory Board be much more active, maybe less active in terms of projects, more a

1:19:02 – 1:20:04•CLChris Leh

So let me ask, I mean, what I've heard so far is that the Youth Advisory Board, everybody's pretty much in agreement that the direction, I mean, let's put it this way. I think I've heard a lot of consensus around accepting staff's recommendations generally. with a few exceptions or things that we maybe need to talk about. The Youth Advisory Board, I think you've heard specific direction that that was a particularly good thing involving them, much more of a positive thing. We've heard mixed comments about terms for the Planning Commission, I think. And I think we've got a general agreement on n

1:20:04 – 1:21:23•DHDietrich Hoefner

I personally would do the merger for a couple of reasons. One, I think I think we have a lot of the analysis we need to make the decision in front of us and Two, at least as I conceive of this exercise, part of the purpose is to reduce the overall number of meetings we're having, in part to free up space, in part because it demands a lot in terms of staff time. and creates other inefficiencies. If the main thing we're doing in that department is merging the Board of Adjustment into Planning Commission, we're not accomplishing a tremendous volume in that category. Board of Adjustment only meets

1:21:24 – 1:21:43•CLChris Leh

Let me ask you one clarification, and then I think others may have thoughts about that too, because I think generally that people didn't want to merge them, but would you keep the same number of members? How would you deal with the number of members and the concern about...

1:21:45 – 1:22:04•DHDietrich Hoefner

lot more yes I would keep it the same number of members I liked the staff recommendation of continuing to use an application process rather than assuming which members would fall off right others about the merger of peep lab and RAB

1:22:08 – 1:23:52•JKJudi Kern

No, my comments are the same as they were before. I don't think we should be doing that right now. I think the licensing authority will achieve a lot of, you know, making that administrative will help a lot. And it's kind of like saying there were those same justifications for merging the Museum Advisory Board and Historic Preservation. I don't think it's time for that either. And staff... looking at it realized they do have very specific and distinct roles and is willing to continue to take on that and that's actually the same staff members that are at least the same department head that is o

1:23:54•CLChris Leh

Others about the merger? Any other thoughts? Go ahead, Council Member Fahey.

1:24:12•JKJudi Kern

Yes, the same director but different managers.

1:25:05•CLChris Leh

So are you in favor or against some of those?

1:25:15•CLChris Leh

It's all right. That's why we're here. It's good to be convinced or not convinced.

1:27:28•CLChris Leh

Others? Thumbs up? Thumbs down? Council Member Kern, you comfortable with that approach?

1:27:38 – 1:28:22•JKJudi Kern

I mean, it's fine. If we want to look at it, I mean, I agree with doing all of the work and figuring it out. I still don't think that this year is the right year. I think we should engage both groups. I think we should be engaging with Director Blackmore. I think we should be engaging with the two managers that oversee the departments. and making sure, because I mean, I'm thinking of the, they have a subcommittee or a tiger team for the golf course, and it is actually two members, I think, that meet, and they do meet with the golf course superintendent. And so I think that's like, that's almos

1:28:26 – 1:29:24•CLChris Leh

It sounds like there's general consensus in favor of having, not making a decision tonight, but getting a little bit more information and perhaps bring it back and then maybe we can have a more fulsome discussion, particularly after the input from some of the boards and commissions themselves. So that's a good suggestion. I think that's a good approach. The terms of the Planning Commission, any more? It looked like some folks wanted shorter terms, comfortable with shorter terms, some wanted longer terms, at least with respect to the Planning Commission, a couple of the six-year terms, but yes.

1:29:54 – 1:30:21•CLChris Leh

Just a couple of other things that came up that I wanted to just clarify. Council Member Cooperman, you talked a little bit about maybe limiting the flexibility, maybe some of the descriptions limit the flexibility or maybe creativity of some of the boards. And I guess I wanted to ask you to elaborate a little bit on that. What do you mean generally? And is it something that can be addressed generally or is it just a...

1:30:23 – 1:32:26•JCJosh Cooperman

commission or board by Commissioner board decision yeah I guess one way to think about it is if you look at in the packet the example work plan for a board or Commission it's it's fairly structured you know, just with engagements like trainings and discussion of, you know, discussion of the work plan itself, discussion of possible recommendations to council on budget, legislative agenda, those kinds of things. And those all seem like fine things for the work plan. It just feels like it could leave very little room for a board to engage on other topics that the board thinks are important to eng

1:34:45•CLChris Leh

Does that give a little bit more comfort to you or less?

1:34:50 – 1:35:13•JCJosh Cooperman

Yeah, that gives more comfort. And I agree that, you know, that additional structure is definitely beneficial. I mean, I can think back to when I was on the sustainability board that, you know, well, I think the board benefited because I was mostly paying attention to what was going on. But, yeah, I mean, other people had no idea when we would have to weigh in on the budget or anything like that. And so having that advance notice is really important.

1:35:15•CLChris Leh

Okay. I think some of this too is the it's the implementation and that you're

1:35:22 – 1:36:14•JKJudi Kern

talking about so yes councilman recurrent thanks um there's also another item that was brought up earlier that i kind of like us to go back to under the proposed description and it is these they are advisory to council the boards and commissions are but they're also working with the staff and staff does um as susan was saying regularly engage the board for whether that's trail advice um and i do agree if if open space is going to be doing all the trails it might say and then they're specifically on the calls out open space trails But if they are going to be helping with staff and working with

1:36:55 – 1:37:10•JKJudi Kern

Yeah, I was thinking more it's at staff's discretion that they are requesting input from the advisory boards. I think that happened with the PROS plan, that staff went to the boards and asked them for their comments and input, if I remember.

1:38:04 – 1:38:20•CLChris Leh

I think we have kind of got direction to you from council standpoint unless there's anything more. But I wanted to find out from your perspective, City Manager, do you have what you need to take this to the next step?

1:38:23•CLChris Leh

Which is just to be clear for the public and the council, the next step is...

1:38:46 – 1:39:00•CLChris Leh

And I'll add my part to the chorus that please let Sam know that everybody just really appreciates it. I mean, it just is... a Herculean effort.

1:39:05•CLChris Leh

Well, that, too. That, too. But you're in the room, and you understand the electricity. Yes. All right. Thank you.

1:39:31 – 1:39:44•CLChris Leh

Thank you very much. That's an important point, too. All right. So I think we're through all items. Do we have a city attorney report?

1:39:48 – 1:40:03•CLChris Leh

Council members have any identification of future agenda items or want to touch on any upcoming agenda items? Seeing none, do we have a motion to adjourn?