Remarks by Bo Hess
32 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 14:00
“Yes, thank you, Mayor. Thanks, colleagues, and Manager Wesley. I pulled items D and E because I think we have a responsibility to question spending, explain our decisions, and also protect the financial stability of the city. These two landscape maintenance contracts total $166,388 for the first year. If all four additional renewal options are exercised, that would be almost $1 million. I think that we have some just basic questions that need answering, especially for a department that is already fully funded and we added money to. So parks and recreation budget is around $13.8 million. And…”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 18:35
“So I would prefer if we can make a friendly amendment to the contract and approve it for one year for the 73,000.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 18:52
“Right. And without and take away the option of renewing for the up to a million.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 20:29
“So then without that option, because of the RFP, why don't we do Council Member Roney's”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 23:16
“Has the same vendor had the contract since 2011?”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 24:27
“Thank you, Manager Wesley. I was just caught off guard because there was no information in the staff report. That's a lot of money when we're coming up on another budget season. Again, we're cutting community hours and Weaver Park doesn't have what they need.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 53:10
“Yeah, very exciting. Well, I move to approve.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 1:50:05
“Well, it's what I talked about last time. So I talked to Brad about it earlier today. So basically, I moved to amend the original motion. to also direct the city manager to review and strengthen oversight of home ARP funds distributed to nonprofit partners. The report shall identify anonymized recipient information, the amounts awarded, the expenditures for direct assistance, what they paid for staffing, administration, how many households were served, and the outcomes.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 1:50:58
“So the difference is that I want us to get the report publicly. not you guys just get the report and we never see it or the public doesn't see where their tax dollars are going. So that's great, but I think the public wants to see that when we're spending a million dollars on homelessness or mental health or whatever it is, that that's going directly to those services and resources for the most vulnerable people on the street. That's the difference. Is that?”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 1:56:33
“Is it, does it end April 1st or May 1st? April 30th. April 30th. Okay. And then even if we have zoned that safe shelter area zoning for a shelter, does it still have the temporary use restrictions?”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 1:57:04
“Or did we just, oh, we probably authorized a specific number of beds with that.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 1:57:12
“If you could repeat your question so I can make sure I'm answering correctly. Well, Council Member Roney asked, you know, about the capacity or actually Council Member Smith about the capacity of safe shelter. And I guess there was a limit based on the temporary use restriction. But we had actually changed that zoning so that that could be a permanent shelter. So even with that, are they still under the requirements of the temporary use, or could they, in other words, expand from 20 to 40 beds?”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 1:59:54
“Are we giving money right now to Sunrise Community? I don't think they're one of our partners now. Okay, they're just maybe operational partner.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:00:11
“Right. But you're working with them just like collaboratively, you know, just as an operational partner?”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:02:43
“Sometimes folks will get into, like we'll be able to get them housing for example, but they may still be struggling with their bipolar or schizophrenia and so we'll put them in housing and because they're not fully stable on their medications, then all of a sudden they relapse on substances or they're letting people in and then all of a sudden now they're kicked out and people are squatting in that house and then it creates an issue for the landlord. I think the idea is if we can get folks stabilized, wrap around services, and then get people in housing, what we found is that it makes them…”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:04:58
“Well, the issue is that we don't have the mental health or substance use actually treatment infrastructure here.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:05:43
“Now, this is a horrible one, because again, Which, the marriage one or the... Well, I mean, because homelessness folks have been saying housing first. Social workers and mental health and psych folks have been saying, well, whoa, whoa, yes, let's do wraparound services. Let's get them stable because it makes them more successful. Now, if you're just homeless and you don't have any psych or substance use issues, then yes, housing first all the way. So it's not all bad. The issue is, and this is what I don't want, is that if someone doesn't, one treatment, for example, that it doesn't keep them…”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:17:37
“I think I remember actually at the presentation they were saying within 24 hours sometimes they could get assistance, you know, after applying.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:18:18
“Okay, and then Council Member Smith, I was thinking about what you were saying about kind of the switch up and like taking funds from some of our local, so maybe just kind of throwing an idea out there, maybe that's where we focus our funding and support. You know, if it's gonna be taken away at the federal level, maybe we can help support the city level. Just throwing that out there.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:21:42
“I'm so happy to see ABCCM as a partner. Yes, that's amazing. They are a huge asset. Disappointed to not see Eblen on here. They have been a great city partner as well. But I move to adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to accept funding from Destination Home for the Right at Home initiative in the amount of $6 million in approval of an associated budget amendment.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:31:40
“Mayor, I've actually asked to bring this to public safety.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:31:48
“Thank you. Actually, at Memorial Stadium, there's bears almost every single time I go there, and there is no signage, no... awareness about the bears at all. They recently just put a, you know, like a campaign type style sign, like staked it in the grass and said, let wildlife be wildlife. But I mean, for all the money that we're spending on parks and recreation, I think we could probably get some better bear signs.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 8:48
“Just one second. Oh, there they are. Thanks, Logan. There we go. Logan, we need you.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:10:23
“Yeah, Brad and I have gone round and round about the mold. We actually brought it to public safety when we were doing the abandoned building ordinance, and we had a whole discussion about that because that was interesting. Actually, not that I don't believe our legal and our staff, but I did some research, and I could not find one city or one state that had a mold ordinance. And there was different reasons why behind that. But I do have a question. about this process piece, because, you know, someone's living without hot water or in unsafe conditions. I don't want this to drag on and we have…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:13:12
“I guess before we get to that point, what's the time frame that the complaint's filed before we get someone on the ground there?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026