City Council - Regular Meeting

Council, it's been three weeks with a lot of activity there, so I'll try and split it between opening remarks and liaison related items. I wanted to express my appreciation for the clean commute activities that happened on June 17th. I think staff did a great job and they even resurrected the Carver's Brewing baked goods. We hadn't seen those in a while, so it was nice to have those out and about. lots of fourth of july activities i'm sure we'll talk about that a little bit but very appreciative of the huge amount of staff time and energy that went into that celebration i had three separate bu

16:14 – 16:39•DWDave Woodruff

Proclamation recognized in the month of July as Parks and Recreation Month. Good God. Celebrate. Thanks everyone for being here as I fumble through this.

17:58•DWDave Woodruff

Mr. McLean, would you like to come say a few words?

21:15•DWDave Woodruff

Yeah, the cool kids are leaving. All right.

27:03•DWDave Woodruff

That's all I have, unless you have questions for me. Councilor Crosso.

Thanks, John. Would parks and recs decrease? Would that be reflected in the commercial? Because your graph, if you can bring the graph up for commercial and residential drops. Yeah, it doesn't seem to me like commercials.

OK, all right. Would parks and recs drop be reflected in commercial on this line?

Okay, great. The cost of animus pumping, I know that that costs us some money. There's X number of dollars in the budget. in X number of days that we might be doing this? Have you gotten to a point where you're figuring out if we're going to be exceeding the budget or not?

That's fine. I really appreciate these. Would love to see the June numbers whenever you get them and maybe not necessarily wait until the next Council meeting. Thanks.

28:52 – 29:13•SGShirley Gonzales

For the update, so you mentioned in your opening remarks that water restrictions and fire restrictions are not related? And so could you elaborate? So the city determines water restrictions, the fire district determines the fire stages? But it comes from the council. Didn't we make the announcement at one of our meetings that we were in stage two?

29:50 – 30:17•SGShirley Gonzales

But equally dangerous. for our community. I guess, you know, that we need to take both those seriously. I just, I think as a constituent, like they're both very urgent. You know, stage one doesn't seem like that urgent, but it actually is quite severe. And so I don't know if that, how many stages are there and when do we need to be alarmed?

30:41 – 31:02•SGShirley Gonzales

And I guess, you know, that's also as when one looks at the animus, it looks very low. Like the lowest I've ever seen it. So is that not a correlation of the water usage? The fact that there doesn't seem to be hardly any water flowing in certain parts?

31:43 – 32:26•SGShirley Gonzales

You know, that's sort of where my questions lie, because I've heard you say, and I think here before, that we are not at risk of not having sufficient water, that we actually have sufficient water through the sources that we have. But I don't know. It doesn't appear that way. So perhaps, I don't know if you could, is it really just based on usage, based on the restrictions, that we actually have sufficient? Because many people have approached me and said, why do we keep saying that we have sufficient water?

33:31 – 33:46•SGShirley Gonzales

it just feels different than I think I've sensed it before to have the high concern with the fire and then the water restriction as well. So is it common that we would have be both in stage one and stage two?

34:10 – 34:24•SGShirley Gonzales

Okay. All right. Well, thank you very much. And you mentioned here, and I think you answered my question regarding commercial use and residential. So you're saying everything that's not residential is commercial. So is multifamily residential or commercial?

34:28•SGShirley Gonzales

Okay, commercial. So because they're obviously going to have more water usage just based on the number of units in the building, but that's considered commercial, not residential.

35:13•SGShirley Gonzales

So, and is that, when you say always, like historically the last 10 years or always?

36:03 – 36:25•JLJessika Loyer

Yeah, I just have a couple questions. Sorry. So if conditions, you had mentioned that you don't foresee us going into a further stage for water restrictions, that things are trending. Not good, but we're maintaining. If conditions do worsen later this summer, What tools does the city have available before mandatory restrictions become necessary?

37:13•JLJessika Loyer

The biggest. The Wednesday, no water Wednesday clearly is working, according to the graph. Has there been much enforcement or has the community just sort of rallied around it?

37:40•JLJessika Loyer

You showed us the photo of the broken pipe on Gigline. Is there any other infrastructure concerns that we should know about heading into summer?

49:09•DWDave Woodruff

There were just a lot of questions last month. Sorry, we're going to cancel our lawyer.

49:18 – 49:40•JLJessika Loyer

I just have a couple real quick. The investment that we've made, can you go back to that slide? Okay, $153,000 since inception, so that's since April 2024. Are we anticipating that that's the same, an annual investment, or will it be less than that since our initial investment?

49:59•JLJessika Loyer

Okay. Excellent. I think that's all I had, actually. Thanks.

Chief, thanks so much for adapting the questions that we had the last time into the presentation today. So really appreciate that. Love to see that we're kind of taking that 77% reduction. I think it's a good idea until we kind of solidify how we want to approach these things from going forward. Can you talk just a little bit more about the one vehicle causing 66 searches? I guess I still don't quite follow.

Yeah. For sure. The other thing is the total program investment is $153,000, but that's not staff time. That's not inclusive of staff time, correct?

Appreciate it. Thank you. Councilor Gonzalez.

51:53 – 52:22•SGShirley Gonzales

Thank you, Chief. So that return of vehicles is a phenomenal record. I feel like having studied some of these things, it was like less than 1% of vehicles were recovered in my hometown. And so I think this is a phenomenal number. Do you have what you had before the flock cameras, how many vehicles were stolen and then returned?

53:18 – 53:52•SGShirley Gonzales

I mean, it's really phenomenal. And if I remember correctly, it was actually an insurance company that funded officers to address all the stolen vehicles. Maybe it was State Farm or Allstate or a big insurance company that funded that program. And I always remember being really shocked because they almost never recovered any vehicles. And I was like, well, I wonder why they keep funding it. if they never recover any vehicles. And, you know, it was a very large grant that the insurance company gave. Are you familiar with any of those programs?

54:48 – 55:25•SGShirley Gonzales

Well, if I remember correctly, this program from insurance companies funded officers. And so, you know, if that opportunity exists, I would hope that you would look into it, you know, because it wasn't funding technology. It was actually funding people on the street. And so anyway, this is phenomenal. I mean, I would be curious. perhaps you could do a comparison of similar size communities, how often vehicles are returned, because I've never heard of a number quite as impressive as what you're presenting today.

55:50 – 56:10•SGShirley Gonzales

Yeah. I, well, I'd be curious to know what was before too, just to see, I mean, maybe again, like it wasn't, I mean, the city had probably 400,000 vehicles stolen a year, but none were returned like 0.01 was returned. So, um, I think anyway, this is great. Um, I'm glad to hear that. That's a, that's happening in Durango. Thank you, Chief.

58:22•DWDave Woodruff

Awesome. Thank you so much to appreciate your time. All right. Moving on to item number six, committee board and liaison reports.

58:39 – 1:00:43•JLJessika Loyer

Yes. I'm going to start with Joseph at MANA asked me to mention the cleanup art community event that MANA is sponsoring. It's Saturday, this Saturday, July 11th. You meet at MANA at 830. They're going to provide coffee, pastries, donuts. They're going to provide gloves, trash bags, pickers for trash, safety vests, water, and more for everybody. And then we're going to go and divide up and clean up the River Trail until noon. And so it's a great event. And so anyone who is interested, Manna Saturday, July 11th at 8 30 AM. I had the alliance meeting board meeting this last week. We talked about

Thank you, Mayor. Airport Commission meeting on June 18th. There was a lot of robust discussion around parking. We're in our fourth year of building 150 to 250 spaces up there, an awful lot of asphalt, but the demand is there. So we're also talking talked about renewing hang releases, which we'll see later on in our meeting tonight. Engaged Durango Forum around ADUs on June 23rd. The feedback that the presentations really are emphasized, but only 15 minutes or so long and people don't understand the meeting of the department heads is kind of the main focus. So that's feedback I got from a coup

1:02:58 – 1:05:12•GYGilda Yazzie

Alrighty, so let me think. Oh, on June 22nd, 23rd and 24th, I went to the Colorado Municipal League Conference up in Westminster, California. So I had the opportunity to network with quite a few people. It was a real fulfilling conference because I also attended the board meeting where we elected Jose to be on the municipal board. So that was a real thrill. I got to vote for him. And then I didn't realize that Bryce and Luke were going to do a presentation at one of the workshops I was attending. And so the name of their workshop was Relationships Must Be Built Before the Crisis. So there was

1:13:55•JLJessika Loyer

Make a motion to approve the consent agenda minus 8.1.1.

Council on the meeting minutes for 8.1.1 I on page 24 there's a paragraph that just needs a clarification. I think it it states. When asked by Councilor Yazzie if he understood that he needs a public brew, a brew pub license to operate, Mr. Harvey responded that he understood the distinction, but he didn't serve alcohol and that the distinction on and on. He meant hard alcohol. He meant liquor. But the minister state that he was stating that he doesn't serve alcohol at all. So I'd like to just have a clarification parentheses added to that to state that it's hard liquor.

1:15:28 – 1:15:40•JLJessika Loyer

We can do that. I'll make a motion to approve 8.1.1 minutes of city council regular meeting June 16th, 2026 with the modification of hard alcohol being added.

1:16:08•DWDave Woodruff

Right, moving on to general item number 10 public hearings.

1:26:45•DWDave Woodruff

Or the permit would violate local zoning laws.

1:29:45 – 1:29:59•DWDave Woodruff

Go for it, you're done. So they've asked for sales records for both wholesale and retail beer.

1:30:15 – 1:30:31•DWDave Woodruff

So the state will enforce things, but they're not suspending my license during this process. So some of this information has been provided piecemeal, fingerprints,

1:35:48•DWDave Woodruff

Counselor, lawyer, would you like to continue?

1:35:50 – 1:36:06•JLJessika Loyer

Okay. I asked for, when you were here the last time, documentation, 2425 licenses, which you provide. Let me finish. And then I also asked for the date you and documentation of when you started to file this new round of applications for your licenses.

1:36:11•JLJessika Loyer

Do we have that date? Do we know that date?

1:36:43 – 1:37:04•JLJessika Loyer

I just wanted to know the date you started to actually do your... I don't want you to tell me it's before the date. I want to see something that says what the date was, and that's what I asked for. I have, at our previous hearing, you indicated that you obtained the appropriate state licensing. Can you clarify which licenses you currently hold today?

1:37:31 – 1:37:56•JLJessika Loyer

Yes. You haven't held a license since October 24th, 2025. September 24th, 2025. Okay. But also, again, emphasize the 180-day window to renew. So you said you have an application for local sales tax licensing. But you also said that you've held it for how many years?

1:38:01 – 1:38:12•JLJessika Loyer

20-something years. Have you ever let it lapse? No. Is it current? You currently have your sales tax license current right now. So why do you have an application if you currently have a sales tax?

1:38:14 – 1:38:47•JLJessika Loyer

Sales room license. But your current business license or state sales tax license is up to date with the city. Okay. At the last hearing, you stated that code enforcement officer held at gunpoint and served papers. Can you clarify? Are you saying an actual firearm was pointed at you when the papers received the papers?

1:38:56 – 1:39:28•JLJessika Loyer

I can't characterize anything other than is there someone from staff that can clarify? Do code enforcement officers have a firearm as part of their issue like as part of their day to day? uniform tools. They do not. So they don't have a gun. They don't walk around with a gun. They don't. So my point, does code enforcement walk around with a gun?

1:39:35 – 1:40:11•JLJessika Loyer

So you can see how this feels. Your statement that At gunpoint, someone was served papers. At first, you said you were served papers at gunpoint. And then later on, after your rant, you said that you weren't even there. And now it's a taser. And she's not sitting here right now. They do wear vests for protection. But the Little blonde officer that was sitting there in a vest maybe seemed intimidating to your staff member, I guess.

1:40:18 – 1:42:22•JLJessika Loyer

She wasn't at gunpoint is my point. She was never held at gunpoint, served at papers, and that's what you said. My concern, sir, is that you're coming in here right now about pie eating contests going on about. I don't even know what half of what you really said, and you're not taking accountability for you serving alcohol in the city limits and not holding to this day in active license. There's the. Not say it that way. The air of you could care less. is astounding to me as a business owner to stay. Sir, let me finish. The mischaracterization that we don't support local business. I am a busin

Mayor, it feels like we're walking over caltrop ground here.

1:48:22 – 1:49:32•SGShirley Gonzales

I think for, perhaps it's Faye. So again, like this is all new to me. I've always been concerned about why we don't have briefings beforehand. I've never been briefed by any licensing agency, and yet we are often the licensee for institutions like this, marijuana, other things. But we've never had a briefing by the state or even here in the city. about what's required. So I'm hearing it for the first time. But I did want to ask, you know, as we are talking about dual licensing or even the issue of having a license, does the city go, once a license is issued to a business, does the city go and

1:50:07•SGShirley Gonzales

To ensure that licenses, do you get them like a... Nothing in your system that triggers when a license is expired?

1:50:27•SGShirley Gonzales

Okay, so we do have a system to remind people of that. But this gentleman has never had – you didn't get reminded because you never had the license. Is that fair?

1:50:45•SGShirley Gonzales

Right. Well, I am sort of asking just generally speaking, do we normally remind people that they're, and are they renewed annually? All business licenses?

1:51:07 – 1:51:39•SGShirley Gonzales

He never got a reminder because we don't do that from our office. So, okay. And I'm just trying to understand, you know, functionally how it works, because, you know, there's been a delay. It seems like you're trying to rectify it, but you haven't rectified it yet. You haven't applied for the local license yet. You mentioned that the state has not, has taken no action, or you will eventually get a fine, but they have allowed you to, the state has allowed you to continue to operate under your current license that's expired. That's correct. Okay.

1:51:48•SGShirley Gonzales

No, I mean, I have to ask the question. I don't know. Right. I mean, I'm asking, did the state allow him to operate?

1:52:44 – 1:54:34•SGShirley Gonzales

I mean, having worked under a state license, they do often give you a grace period. So that's why I'm asking. I think you said 180, 180 days. Right. OK, so I mean, I'm just trying to understand from a licensing perspective, which is, again, like we have never been briefed by any organization, any state agency about what's legal and what's not legal. So I'm only hearing it for the first time since there's been two incidents since I've been on the council and about a year and a few months related to alcohol sales. And I often don't feel fully informed to make a decision. So I can only ask questi

1:55:05 – 1:55:18•GYGilda Yazzie

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to revoke the business license for Since he doesn't have a business license, do we just go to the penalty phase?

1:55:22•GYGilda Yazzie

Okay, then I call the question. Let's get on with the recommendation, then let's vote.

1:56:37 – 1:56:54•GYGilda Yazzie

OK, so the motion would be that we find I trust old beer brewing LLC has violated licensure in the city of Durango.

1:56:59•GYGilda Yazzie

We're selling alcohol without a license.

1:57:42•JLJessika Loyer

Oh, Counselor, will this be submitted to the state?

1:58:01 – 1:58:24•JLJessika Loyer

I don't know. Like, you know, we haven't had a case quite like this before. Can his testimony be included so they understand, like, what he's trying to say and what he's doing and the air of how he thinks his business should run. And if someone wants to issue a liquor license to someone like this.

1:58:27•JLJessika Loyer

Could we just send it with our ruling and stuff?

2:01:52 – 2:02:04•JLJessika Loyer

I'll make a motion to consider this a level two violation with a fine of $5378, 14 day suspension of the business.

2:02:16 – 2:04:34•JLJessika Loyer

Yeah, I just want to say I'd be much more apt to Over the past two hearings that we've had with you, Mr. Harvey, I would be. More apt as I did with the first violation of the last instance that we had brought up before us to give a much. Much less fine or must much less. Actually, probably suspension of days of your business. If you would come forward and said, you know, I understand I've been operating without a license. I apologize. putting my best foot forward and I'm taking the steps to rectify it and haven't been so defensive and argumentative and. I just don't know how to put that nicely

Council, I think going after the Max here is just a little bit punitive, and I agree that there's been disagreeable interactions going on here, but it doesn't. It seems to me that we've got a situation where the. The license. And the serving has happened for a distinct amount of time. I'm not sure that in my head, if I'm just looking at that, that it deserves the maximum of the level 2 so. I don't know. I mean, shouldn't count any of the hearing from some other counselors and then maybe coming back on.

Any discretion I would have would be to a level one. Level two. I have to pick a level and then the level's automatic.

2:06:48 – 2:08:01•SGShirley Gonzales

So, right. And it's not just the $5,000 that we're suggesting today. It's also the 14 days that he'll be closed. So every day he loses business. I suspect you still have to pay your employees for some time. Otherwise, they'll all go out and get other jobs and you won't have any more people. And also that we do have flexibility. I would suggest the minimum fine, as this is the first time in all of the years you've been operating that this incident has come up. And again, it's a licensure issue, which I feel differently from some of my colleagues about how punitive we need to be about particular

2:09:06 – 2:09:50•GYGilda Yazzie

All righty. I do think level two is the correct level of penalty. And when I read this aggravating factors, it says deliberate noncompliance. And this is what I see as a pattern is that for what, nine months he's been not able to come up with a license or fill out the applications. You know, to me, that is, you know, deliberate noncompliance. And 14 days, that would give him a good amount of time to try to see if he is able to fulfill any of the requirements of getting a license.

2:10:02 – 2:10:28•GYGilda Yazzie

You know, I am supportive of the business community. In my past, I have been a business owner, and I've always done my licensing, my insurance, all that stuff. It's just part of being a business owner. It's like nothing special. You just do it because you have to do it. You know, it's kind of a plug and chug. But, you know, with this deliberate noncompliance, level two penalty phase is the correct penalty phase.

2:10:34 – 2:10:46•DWDave Woodruff

Any other discussion? Can I get a roll call, please? The motion passes.

2:18:03•DWDave Woodruff

Yes, that's OK. I just need a motion to open the public hearing.

2:18:07•JLJessika Loyer

Make a motion to open the public hearing 2nd.

2:25:25•DWDave Woodruff

Do you want to go? Go ahead. Council Yazzie.

2:25:31 – 2:25:52•GYGilda Yazzie

All righty, these questions are for Scott. And thank you for doing the presentation. It was very nice. I just have two questions. Now, are we certain where the water line goes and we're not going to have any problem with an exterior boundary of the Ute reservation? Good question. Do you guarantee that?

2:25:57 – 2:26:18•GYGilda Yazzie

Okay, good. And also, okay, so with potential development being 195 single family residences. How will that impact our water? Are we going to go ahead, going forward, maybe charge these people more for water?

2:26:41 – 2:26:55•GYGilda Yazzie

Okay, and so the sewer, what, South Durango sewer, sewage, they have agreed to take the sewage from this housing development forever, right?

Councilor Cusso? Scott, the The wildfire resiliency code, I just want to talk about this a little bit because it feels like this is the first time that we've had a situation where it's only a portion of the land, and so it might be setting a precedent. So I've got some extra questions for you here. The class two intensity, why when two-thirds of the lot, if I have these numbers wrong, correct me, but two-thirds of the lot's outside of the designation and only one-third is in. So there just seems to me to be an automatic that we're assuming the developer's got to do the whole lot according to c

And probably we wouldn't know what a designation of a class two would do from a cost perspective for the developer, right? I mean, we know it's going to increase, but we wouldn't have any numbers that we've used.

But yeah, and I appreciate that. We want to be as safe as we can on this. But I am kind of interested as we start wading into territory we just haven't been in before to understand what those costs are. So, Wes, I don't know. Do you guys have an idea what the what what those cost additions might be?

2:30:00•DWDave Woodruff

Sorry, we're going to have to have you hit the microphone. Thank you.

Great, thank you. You're welcome. Appreciate that.

No, my last one's for Scott. Anybody else have a question they wanted to... Councilor Gonzalez had one, but... Yeah. Scott, later on, there's a... Requirement that if the applicant does not fulfill the requirements of the annexation agreement or begin development of approved developmental plans within three years of the execution of the agreement, the city may initiate formal public hearing proceedings to rezone this property to the least dense zone. Can you tell me why that's a?

Okay. So this is kind of a blanket application for most annexation agreements type thing. Okay. All right. Great. Thank you very much.

2:32:05•SGShirley Gonzales

Yeah, my questions were for the developer. If you could just come and introduce yourself and tell me a little bit about your company.

2:33:10 – 2:33:21•SGShirley Gonzales

Thank you. And what is the name of your company? Okay. And good. So you have experience doing all of these types of projects. So I'm glad to hear that.

2:33:24•SGShirley Gonzales

And how about, do you all do environmental studies on the parcels?

2:33:49•SGShirley Gonzales

Okay, that's good. And so that mitigation is done by yourselves or by the city?

2:34:07•SGShirley Gonzales

OK, great and so you have plans to break. I guess there's you got a three year window to complete the project or at least break ground.

2:35:22•SGShirley Gonzales

Alright, well, that sounds great. Hopefully everything moves according to plan. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. That's all the questions I have. OK, anybody else?

2:35:36•DWDave Woodruff

Any other discussion by Council? Go ahead and close the public hearing.

2:43:14•DWDave Woodruff

We get a roll call, please. The motion passes.

2:45:56•DWDave Woodruff

Anyway, thank you for your time and probably see you again sooner the better.

2:50:35•SGShirley Gonzales

And then let's see if I can do it better on this one.

2:57:05 – 2:57:16•SGShirley Gonzales

I move to approve the resolution affirming Durango's commitment to Vision Zero goals and directing future implementation thereof. I'll second.

2:57:28 – 2:59:38•SGShirley Gonzales

I mean, it's so good. I mean, it's like all I could have ever dreamed of. I mean, when I started working on Vision Zero so many years ago in 2013, it was because we had had so many fatalities. And I never really could get buy-in from the staff, especially in my previous role. And so to see that you work so hard on this and that you like really touched on so many of the things that were so important to get, you know, to include the community piece of it, to do the multi-phased approach where it's multi-departmental. And so much of the things that you included were all things like I like in my I

3:00:58 – 3:02:26•SGShirley Gonzales

Yes, well, I know. And I think that's really key is because you really do need the community buy-in as well. And having that advisory group helps to like for compliance or for people to agree with or to support the projects that then we, that the staff presents. And then also the cross-functional teams were so important, you know, that the police are involved, that the law enforcement piece is there, that the engineering piece is there. that you have Public Works also there. It really does work best when it's a cross-functional team. Really everything works best. But I think especially on an i

3:02:31 – 3:03:47•GYGilda Yazzie

Thank you. Thank you, Lily, for putting this all together. I know we had Vision Zero mention a few different times during study sessions. Okay, so you're talking about the roads and vehicles. There's no mention about bicycles. because we have had a death on the art trails. That's more of a danger than worrying about slowing down traffic. We don't have all control of all the roads in Durango. The city and the county, in conjunction with us, have control over that. Have you even thought about how they would impact this? And also, when you say in one of these statements that the financial impact,

3:08:34 – 3:08:53•DWDave Woodruff

It's way past my bedtime. Oh yeah, too busy mucking it up. The motion passes.

Yeah, sorry about that. Move to approve the Vero Ridge addition and assign initial zoning of residential medium, having found that the proposed annexation and initial zoning conform to the review criteria in the land use and development code.

3:09:38 – 3:09:50•DWDave Woodruff

Any discussion? Can I get a roll call, please? I think I messed up on my vote.

3:10:20 – 3:10:34•DWDave Woodruff

Alright. Boom. Cripes. Yeah. The motion passes.

3:11:03 – 3:11:16•JLJessika Loyer

I move to approve the Three Springs Boulevard and Highway 160 intersection annexation and assign initial zoning to Commercial General, having found that the proposed annexation and initial zoning conform to the review criteria in the Land Use and Development Code.

3:11:18•DWDave Woodruff

Any discussion? Can I get a roll call, please?

3:12:23•JLJessika Loyer

I'll make a motion to approve an ordinance amending in pertinent part the Durango Court of Ordinances, Chapter 4, Animals, Article 5, Impoundment. Section 4-97, Disposition of Impounded Animals.

3:12:35•DWDave Woodruff

Any discussion? Okay, roll call, please.

3:13:27•DWDave Woodruff

Great. We have their new business. All right. Moving on to adjournment. Thanks, everyone.