City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening and welcome to the Laramie City Council regular meeting for Wednesday, August 19, 2026. And if you'd like, please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance. City Clerk, if you can please call the roll.

Thank you, City Clerk. Next, we go to public comment. Is there any public comment on non-agenda items? Yes, ma'am.

No, if you'll come up to the podium. Thank you so much. And then if you can state your name for the record.

Thank you very much for your comments and we do have the chief of police is here and we'll make note of that and maybe can do some kind of

It's a real thank you very much. Anyway, thank you very much. Good day to you. Thanks. All right. Is there any public request to remove a consent agenda item and place it on the regular agenda? Seeing none, Vice Mayor, if you would make a motion.

Thank you, I move that the agenda be set as submitted. Second.

I have a motion from Richardson, second from Vigil. All in favor? All opposed? That motion passes. Next we'll move on to public hearings and we do have three. So the city clerk will read out each public hearing and then after each I'll ask if there's any public comment on that and then we'll go on to the next and then to the next. Okay, city clerk, public hearing number one.

Thank you, City Clerk. Is there any public comment on this public hearing? Seeing none, city clerk, public hearing number two, please.

Thank you, City Clerk. Is there any public comment on this public hearing? Seeing none, we will move on to public hearing number three. City Clerk.

Thank you, City Clerk. Is there any public comment on this public hearing? Seeing none, thank you for reading those. And now we'll move on to announcements. And city manager, we have a monthly staff recognition.

Thank you, Director Bork. And now, City Manager.

Caitlin, can we get you to come up and take a picture with council?

Thank you so much. You just pick a spot.

All right, moving right along. Counselors, are there any disclosures and or conflicts of interest? Seeing none, Vice Mayor, if you'd like to motion for the approval of the consent agenda.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the consent agenda be approved and that each specific action on the consent agenda be approved as indicated.

I have a motion from Richardson, second from Newman, City Clerk. If you can call the roll, please.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Next, mayor announcements or acknowledgments. And tonight, I would like to acknowledge Chris Stratton and Barbara Hill, who have 24-7, which is our service for video and broadcast. And in a conversation with Councilor O'Doherty, we wanted to acknowledge the equipment and the extra support that was given to us for the work session that we had last week, where there was very large attendance, probably over 100 people, and a number of people that I know wanted to watch it online. And the quality of the sound, thanks to their conscientiousness, was excell

I move that the Laramie City Council approve the transfer of retail liquor license number 26 from Maverick Inc., doing business as Maverick number 668 to Maverick Group LLC, doing business as Maverick 668, locating at 1301 South 3rd Street, effective August 20th, 2026 to May 7th, 2027, and authorize the mayor and city court to sign.

I have a motion from Newman, second from Lockhart. City Clerk.

Councillor O'Doherty. Would you remind us what kind of liquor license, like this is the one that's more restricted or whatever?

Further questions? Thank you, City Clerk. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Back to Council. Council, any comments? City Clerk, if you can please call the roll.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Item 11B, Councilor Lockhart.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Laramie City Council approve the new application for a special malt beverage permit number special 9 for Roxy's Catering LLC located at the UW Arena Auditorium for a licensed term of August 20th, 2026 to May 7th, 2027 and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to sign.

Second. I have a motion from Lockhart, second from Richardson. City Clerk.

Thank you for clarifying that. You're welcome.

Counselors, questions? Councilor O'Doherty? Once again, is there a limit on these? How many malt beverage permits?

Follow up. Thank you. And is this the kind of thing that if an organization wants to have beer in an event that they would get a special malt beverage permit or that's a different thing?

I think I know the answer, but I just want clarification. On the application on page 5, it looks like maybe it was just signed in Arkansas, which is why it says, like, state of Arkansas instead of Wyoming.

Further questions? Thank you, City Clerk. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Seeing none, back to Council for comments. City Clerk, if you can please call the roll.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Next, Item 11C, Vice Mayor Richardson.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Laramie City Council approve the new application for a special malt beverage permit, number special.

That was a mistaken interruption. No problem. It's good because sometimes I'm lost too, so it's good you tried to catch me. Special number 10 for Roxy's Catering LLC located at the UW War Memorial Stadium for a licensed term of August 20th, 2026 to May 7th, 2027 and authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign. Second.

I have a motion from Richardson, second from Vigil. City Clerk, one more time.

Thank you, City Clerk. Questions, Councilors? I see none. Thank you. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Seeing none, back to Council for comments. City Clerk, if you can please call the roll.

Thank You city clerk that motion passes and item 11 D councillor V Hill Thank You mayor take us home I move that the Laramie City Council approved resolution 2026 dash 52 authorizing a two-year temporary full-time position in the parks recreation and public services department and authorized the mayor and city clerk to sign second I have a motion from V. Hill, second from Newman.

Thank you, Director. Counselors, questions?

Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Director. Just kind of going back to that metric piece, have you been able to track any metrics so far with the time that this person has been here, and can you report back on that?

Thank you. Councilor O'Doherty. Is that an opportunity to maybe have sponsorship along the Greenbelt or the Sierra Sky Park to have as a fundraiser, but also like I will keep the thistles down in that area, like that kind of sponsorship.

Thank you. Further questions? Thank you, Director. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Seeing none, back to Council for comments. Thank you. Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor.

Just want to say thank you for bringing that forward, for having that data available to us. One of our big goals was more communication, better communication, you know, about the roads and those sorts of things, but also through parks. And so I think this is a great opportunity to kind of share the amazing amenities that we have in the parks department and to get some of those additional sponsorships in the future too. So I appreciate this.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, just to echo the Vice Mayor, I like this. I don't know if it's just my algorithm, but I see the Parks and Rec social media probably more than any other presence that the city has online. And I've noticed that the information is not only timely, but also whoever is running that account responds to constituents. in a timely manner and that means like hundreds if not thousands of people are getting the same information at the same time while they're scrolling. So I've just found it really helpful. Thanks.

Councilor O'Doherty. To me it seems like that bike park is going to be our regional recreation opportunity. So I'd be really curious to know if we're having people from out of town like if this could be our big attraction because I i saw a couple a young couple young compared to me i guess that's everybody young couple leaving and i said what do you think of the new bike park and they said world class so i think as word gets out about that that could be a big regional attraction you have a comment director

Thank you. Thank you. Further comments? City Clerk, if you can please call the roll.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Next, is there any public comment on non-agenda item? Seeing none, councilors, consideration of future council work session topics. Councillor O'Doherty.

Am I talkative tonight? Thank you, Mayor. I've been anxious about park maintenance because we have all these new wonderful parks. And I feel like our staff is overtaxed with trying to maintain them all. So I just wonder if that's something that we could discuss. I don't know if it's worth a work session, but how can we help? Like I said, adopting a part of the trail, things like that. How can we help our maintenance staff? And are they stretched as thin as I suspect they are? Thanks.

Okay, so then that topic was presented by Councillor O'Doherty and seconded by Councillor Newman. Councillor Newman, you have a suggestion?

Yeah, after reading through our rules and procedures, I think- No. I don't think so.

I don't think Jim... Well, I guess my idea was already shot down. Jim, you're on speaker.

Okay, I'll start over. After reading some of the rules and procedures, we have terms mixed up and we have, we use like fifth Tuesday when we should be using something else and then talking to the mayor, we have some ideas on how to make the meeting a little bit more fluent. So I would like a work session on our rules and procedures.

Councillor, is that a work session on rules and procedures related to work sessions? Or do you want a full review of rules and procedures?

If we just make it a full review, I think, you know, looking at maybe public comment on Zoom again in the beginning, like I think we can wrap all that into one.

Okay. I would second that. I think... It's always good to revisit our rules of procedure and to identify areas where it's not consistent. And we think we've got it and then sure enough something turns up. So thank you for your attention to that detail. I appreciate that. So I would assume that you and I then would meet with city clerk about that? Okay. Very good. So, Councillor O'Doherty, item 14.

I move we adjourn to executive session regarding personnel, Wyoming Statute 16-4-405, lowercase a, romanette 10, and litigation, Wyoming Statute 16-4-405, lowercase a, romanette 3.

All right. Do I have a second on that? Second. Okay. I have a motion by O'Doherty, second from Newman. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? All right. We are adjourned to executive session.