Town Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, everybody. We'll go ahead and call, reconvene the Parker Town Council meeting for June 1st, 2026. Yes, it is June. First item of business, please, if you rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands,

All right, thank you all. Appreciate you being here. First item of business is public comments. No action will be taken on these items. Public comment is an opportunity for town residents and other interested individuals to speak about items not on the agenda. The comment period is limited to 30 minutes of total time, with each individual allowed a maximum of three minutes to speak. You must sign up ahead of time to comment, and that sign up begins 30 minutes before the start of the meeting. The council will accommodate as many speakers as possible. Sorry the council will accommodate as many speakers as possible during this time with preference to town residents But if public comment extends beyond a lot of 30 minutes town council will continue the comment period at the end of the meeting Prior to adjourning for those signed up before the meeting as any matters raised by individuals during public comment are not on the agenda And other potentially interested parties would not therefore be aware of discussion of these matters town council will not engage in dialogue Regarding any items raised during public comment with that is there any member of the public wishing to address council tonight on general items I? Seeing none, we'll open and close public comment at 7.02 p.m. and move on to reports, items, and comments from mayor and council. Ms. Hefti, do you want to start us off?

Yes. Good evening. I was out of town a couple of weeks, but I did manage to make it to the big picture, the internal event put on by the town manager's office for the state of the town, which went very well. And I also had a wonderful bike ride on the Cherry Creek Trail, which I impromptu met with Parker Water and learned about their connections from Stroh all the way up to Salisbury North. And I also had a couple of other local residents reach out to me and I'm setting up some meetings with them. Thank you.

Thank you, Laura. Eric? Nothing to report. Thank you, Eric. John? John? I think it's limited number of people.

Oh, there you go. Thanks. A couple weeks ago, we took part in Arapahoe County, I guess, opening of the High Plains Trail Bridge. It was, as Chris Hudson calls it, the United Nations of Trails Bridge. um and um it finally got to a point i see some positive feedback online i received some individual feedback saying thank you for that so again a testament to are many years ago, Dennis Trapp, Jim Cleveland, Mary Colton, everybody at Parks and Rec who was involved, Chris Hudson, as well as the, I think we have a total of eight municipalities or entities that work to fund this, to get this open. Kudos to Aurora for finally getting the developer to build that last segment so we can have our people truly go from the Cherry Creek Trail all the way up E470. Last week, I had a couple of E-470 meetings. One was a board meeting. We had that largely for an executive session, was to discuss our agreement, express toll agreement with another vendor. And then Thursday, I believe, I had a finance, E-470 finance committee meeting, and we just talked about our bond refunding. That's something procedural. that that's done every couple years due to how the how the bonds were issued and and we have a swap on that it gets into some financial technicalities but um a good discussion and that is all mayor thank you brandy

Got to go to the Frontier Valley Elementary School.

Their principal, Kirsten Hall, retired after 30 years, and it was just wonderful to see how much the community and the staff showed up to say what an impact she had had on them, along with Jeannie Johnson, who was the receptionist at the time. She also retired, so got to say goodbye to her, too. We had a pop-up event at O'Brien Park along with our first one walk through the Chamber of Commerce. I had my Public Safety and Crime Prevention Federal Advocacy It was highly around big discussions around the fire safety, heavy in the region. We worked on some prevention legislation, but also trying to figure out how the municipalities can come together as the disaster recovery grant program went away about a year ago. Now when you've got municipalities or anywhere in our country that has a disaster, there is no longer grant funding to help recover and help restore the cities after that. So it's a big deal that we're trying to work on some legislation with. I also was invited to be on a panel for the Toastmasters of Parker with some other community leaders and staff. That was a wonderful time where we got to talk about what it means to be collaborative with our town and with our non-profits and with other organizations and what it actually looks like and what makes Parker, Parker. So I just had a lot of fun with that and thank you to you guys.

So since our Last meeting, is that better? I had the opportunity to attend the Indianapolis 500. I know you're wondering what that has to do with Parker, but I was thinking if we have a two and a half mile area of open space that is not being used, maybe we want to bring an IndyCar race. Kidding. But a couple of fun facts, the Indy 500, the cars reach nearly 240 miles per hour, which means they're covering about the length of a football field every second. And the stadium itself, the event, it hosts over 400,000 fans. So anyway, back home here at Parker. I participated in a community pop-up council, community pop-up outreach event at O'Brien Park. We handed out some stickers. and to the kids and we shared some information with parents about upcoming town events and opportunities to get involved in the community and it just gives the community a chance to ask us some questions. And then also spent time at the Parker Chamber Wine Walk. It's always a great opportunity to connect with residents, local businesses, visitors enjoying downtown. And then I guess spent Saturday and Sunday cleaning out my garage. We're human.

Thank you, Todd. For myself, we started off the last two weeks with, on Monday the 18th, we had the Chamber Golf Tournament. And a few of us played. We managed to get in four holes before we were rained out. So a very quick round of golf, but great camaraderie and camaraderie. A good time. Then, let's see, last Wednesday I had the partnership with Douglas County Government over at the Highlands Ranch Mansion. Great event. I had D.A. George Brockler speaking to the group about crime statistics in Douglas County and where we're trending, which is all good news. So, again, a great report by D.A. Brockler. And just a great event. And thanks to Highlands Ranch for hosting and Larkspur for organizing this year. Thursday, I had Cherry Creek Basin Water Quality Authority, and then on the 22nd, I went down to Ponderosa. They had a wildfire resiliency program, so the kids had to make presentations, you know, the three full boards about wildfire resiliency, everything from WUI to go bags to, you know, stop, drop, and roll, whatever that's called nowadays, but just a great, great job by the Pondo kids, and always good to get bulk in those hallways, so I appreciate it going down to that, and then this week, Wednesday, started the day with a big picture meeting, and then the afternoon went over to Lone Tree for what we, acronym, I don't even know what it stands for, but it's called a NICE visit on behalf of the CML board. We go around to different communities and visit and visit with different communities, trying to visit all 273 communities in the state of Colorado within five years. And then District 4 within CML, the Pikes Peak region, Monument hosted a district gathering, so I went down for that in Monument that evening and talked to all of our neighbors down in the south in El Paso and Teller counties. So great event, very appreciative to be a part of that. Thank you, Council. Next in front of us is consent agenda. Before I entertain a motion, I will just point out I am very appreciative of our Chief Building Officer, Mr. Randy Sale, for being in the building and here if needed. But thank you for taking the time to come down. Next week you're going to be very busy, and I'm probably not going to be as friendly since I have 14 ordinances I'll have to read in the record. But two weeks, sorry, excuse me, I can do that. But two weeks from now. Anyway, Council, with that, I would entertain a motion to accept, I'm sorry, for consent agenda items A through G, please.

I move to approve the second item, agendas A through G. I'll second. Thank you.

A motion from Hefta and a second from Barrington. Hendricks? Yes. Barrington?

Yes.

Wilkes?

Yes.

Dyack? Yes. Franzen? Yes. Hefta? Yes. And consent agenda passes unanimously. Council, next in front of you, item six, ordinances. Item 6A, ordinance number 5.64.1, on second reading, a bill for an ordinance to repeal and readopt section 7.01.020 of the Parker Municipal Code concerning the 2024 model traffic code with certain amendments. Presenting Ms. Gramer. Okay.

I'm already loud though, so I'm gonna step back, as you guys know.

So what is before you, Mayor and Council, today is to repeal and adopt the Model Traffic Code. We have been using the 2010 Model Traffic Code. The most recent version is the 2024. What this does is allows us to use the most recent Model Traffic Code, but there are still some amendments to make sure we're making the needs of Parker still compliant with what we want for our needs. So that includes deleting a section on ski signs, because we don't have ski areas like that, as well as doing things with our fines and our surcharges being set by town council versus the state statute, which is allowed. There's also some other important things I wanted to bring to your attention as far as the specific highlights for amendments. This allows limiting the speeds of electronic personal assistive mobility devices, so segways. We allow them on some trails if it's posted, and you can go 50 miles an hour. The model traffic code says you can't have them on a trail, and you can't go more than 12 miles per hour. So that is something that we do allow. How we deal with pedestrians and crosswalks, we are a little bit different. We allow, as long as it's not an imminent danger, you can go through your crosswalk as long as they're not on your side of the road. Unless it's a safety-sensitive area, then you can't at all, no matter where they are on the crosswalk. So again, it helps our traffic and protect our pedestrians. So that's another change that's specific for Parker. We also have specifically in there about abandoned motor vehicles. We make sure it's our town code that is specific to the towing of motor vehicles to match what we needed for our needs, especially for special event permits and things like that. And then also the application, we make it very clear that it applies to every street, alley, sidewalk, area, driveway, and park. and every public parking area as well, which helps, again, when we're doing ordinance violations in parking lots or on the sidewalk for careless driving, including e-devices and things of that nature. It makes us able to enforce what the town needs. There are other things obviously in there, but I think those were the main ones to talk about how we are adopting this code to get up to speed. I would also point out that recently we adopted the registration of vehicles and being able to write those in. The model traffic code in 2024 still says we can't do that because it did not get changed before the 2025 law, and so we did put in here to remove the except for registration, because that is actually the law now. I don't know if they're going to come out with a 2025. So this could, but hopefully because we are so up to date now, it would be not a repeal and it would just be little amendments for you guys to consider. But with that, I don't have anything else to present on.

Thank you. Let's go to questions. Laura?

These changes get us up to date. Is that correct, Lisa?

Yes.

Thank you. Kurt? No questions. John? No, I think the presentation addressed everything. Thank you. Randy?

Anne?

No questions, thanks.

Todd?

No questions.

I'm not laughing at that.

I'm laughing at the microphone battle we're playing up here.

All right, with no further questions, we'll go ahead and open public comment at 7.15 p.m. Any member of the public wishing to address this council on this specific item, please make yourself known. Seeing none, we'll close public comment at 7.15 and go back for deliberation. Todd, anything to add?

Thank you, Todd. Traffic's one of the topics that I hear, all of us hear about. most from residents so this might not be the most exciting thing we vote on ever but um you know it matters and it's important that we keep our traffic regulations current and that we keep our roads safe for our community and it's just thank you for your presentation thank you and brandy yeah i i

obviously support any time that we can clean up anything that makes it easier and more transparent for our citizens and for our officers, so thank you.

John?

Thank you for your work.

Thank you for your work. I appreciate it.

Eric? I think it's interesting that you pointed out that we were operating under the 2010 model traffic code, which we were a different community back in 2010, and so appreciate the update. and the Parker specific amendments to that to make it appropriate for us. So, nice job. Thank you.

Thank you, Eric. Laura? Thank you. Yeah, very appreciative. Thanks for the presentation and a great example of our ability to have home rule. With that, I would entertain a motion.

I move to .

I have a motion to approve from Hendricks, a second from Barrington. Hendricks? Yes. Barrington?

Yes.

Wilkes?

Aye.

Dyak? Yep. Franzen?

Yes.

And Hafta? Yes. With that, that motion passes unanimously. Thank you. So second to last here, correct? Second to last here? Meeting? Yeah. Okay. Okay. no um okay yeah we're battling with these high-tech microphones um next in front of you item 6b to delegate authorities of the town manager um in that item or two items excuse me um ordinance number 1.391.4 on second reading a bill for an ordinance amending sections 2.03.020 11.13.020 and 11.13.030 of the parking municipal code concerning delegated authorities to the town manager. Also included in this is resolution number 26-043, a resolution establishing the town manager's contract signing authority pursuant to sections 2.03, and 11.13.020 of the Parker Municipal Code, presenting Deputy Town Attorney Lindsay Jordan.

I'm scared of this microphone. Good evening, Mayor and Council. We are here tonight to discuss the ordinance and the resolution regarding the signing authority from the manager. There's also a couple other things in the ordinance. They're more administrative. Years ago, you changed the title from town administrator to town manager, although that that's been changed in some of the sections, not all of them got changed. There is a section that says a minister means manager, manager means, you know, vice versa. And so because we're in this section of the town manager's duties, the first change that will come with the ordinance is to change all of the administrators from the managers. So that's just purely in an administrative function. No substance has been changed. Also within those functions and duties of the town manager, one of the things that the town council used to do was to approve the personnel handbook. I think you called it an operational manual. We had both apparently, yes. And so now we have one and it is part of the operations and it is approved by the town manager. And so before the code said that the operations manager as approved by town council. Well now town council does not approve that. And so just to make it clean, sections that are in the personnel handbook that say that the town manager has the authority to appoint directors and deputy town managers to at-will contracts uh we just added that function to be in her in the in the code so that it's in both places so that no one can ever say she doesn't have that authority because town council doesn't now approve the personnel handbook and then our third and probably the most exciting thing that you guys are going to approve or not approve that you'll decide tonight is increasing the town manager's signing authority when this code section went into effect the town manager could sign contracts up to a hundred thousand dollars now that was I'll say decades ago, and $100,000 doesn't cover today what it covered back then when this code went into enforcement. And so the proposal is, and other jurisdictions do it as well, is to allow the town manager to sign up to $500,000. Now this is not, CHANGING ANY OF THE APPROPRIATION OF THE FUNDS. THESE FUNDS HAVE ALREADY BEEN PUT INTO THE DEPARTMENTS IN WHICH SHE WOULD BE SIGNING FOR. SO MONEY'S ALREADY BEEN ALLOCATED, APPROPRIATED, TOWN COUNCIL KNOWS WHERE IT'S GOING, WHAT PROJECTS THEY'RE ON. WHAT THIS IS IS JUST MORE OF AN OPERATIONAL FUNCTION. IT WILL CLEAN UP, IT WILL ACTUALLY MAKE THINGS FASTER. WE'LL GET BUSINESS DONE QUICKER AND STAFF TIME IS GOING TO BE CLEARED UP BECAUSE, FOR EXAMPLE, You saw on your consent agenda today, there were two contracts that were in that $100,000. They were over $100,000, but they weren't to the $200,000. So those would be things that the town manager would be signing without having them to go to council, which means staff doesn't have to draft a CAF. Staff doesn't have to come and present. So those kind of things. And that is freeing up resources for them to work on other functions for the town. And so it's not, like I said, money is not being used differently than it would have been if it would have come to council you know if there is a project that they we think that we would like to bring to you even though she would have signing authority we could still do that this is just allowing the town manager to sign higher thresholds of money on contracts because nowadays things don't cost what they did 30 years ago And so that is what the ordinance is changing, and then the resolution is part of that as well. And so if you have any questions, that's my presentation. If you have any questions, let me know.

Let's start with Laura.

I'm sorry. I could start with Eric and come back. Sorry. So is there any ability to review that amount, that signing amount every year on the $500,000 authority in case council wants to change that, or can you discuss that?

Yes, it's not forever. You could decide next year that it wasn't working for you. You could even decide probably in six months it's not working. Like there's no time limit on it. So at any point, if council felt that they weren't comfortable with that number anymore, we could bring it back and we could lower it. You could increase it. It's not set in stone. It doesn't mean it can't go back down just because it's been increased at this point.

Did we create a policy on that or? around that number or is that only in this ordinance right here?

It's just in the ordinance, but there could be an internal policy that is written on it.

That would be a separate action from tonight. Tonight's question is about this ordinance only. Correct.

Okay, thank you.

I'd like to follow up though on that as part of the previous discussion with council at study session on these changes it was discussed to have as part of the budget retreat a review of the contracts that have been approved and those dollar amounts so if you recall when the discussion occurred we did research for the past two years on contract amounts and how many would be able to be signed under that $500,000, which then allows, as Lindsay said, to be able to process things quicker. And so we had committed at that time as part of the budget retreat to bring that report annually to you all. So you'll have that.

Yes, I think that's what I was getting at. We would have that annual information on that and could change that amount if we felt this was not, or discuss this issue as a body, if we felt that this matter needed to be decreased. Thank you for that transparency, town manager.

Eric. Can you provide some examples both of contracts that the town manager would be approving versus not maybe just start with the first one sort of this new policy right like currently she can approve our town manager can approve anything above anything below a hundred thousand we are now pushing that threshold up to 500 can you give an example of something that falls within that sure we have a lot of the service agreements that have to do with um

the field house, even the widening projects, you know, all sorts of capital, like all sorts of, even like I said, the ones, the two that are on consent agenda today, those would now be things that she would just sign instead of bringing them to you. So anything that would go up, I'm trying to, like just various projects that we have, maybe, Michael has it. So for example, do you want me to talk to it? Sure.

OK. So what's pretty frequent are the vehicles. And so because of the way contracting works, we would have to have, so for example, replacement and capital equipment of five units of vehicles equals 277. Because it's a contract, individually, those vehicles make up over the 100,000 so then that becomes 277 and it's things that you've already approved in the budget and that's kind of the key point is we've gone through the budget annually and have said okay we're going to add five patrol vehicles and then when it comes back it's It reaches that threshold. So another one is Motzenbacher shop materials storage construction cost. That's $400,000. So it's a lot of routine items and things that have already been identified. And the way our agendas work, you're talking every two weeks before you guys even meet. So then things that are already approved take that much longer to go through. It's amendments to other contracts. It's minor sidewalk repairs. It all adds up. Uplift of plow spreader controls to tandem axle dump truck is 240. So it's those types of things that are really impacted the most, which obviously for public works, fleet, and facilities, they're the ones who are having to put together all of the different council memos for those. Does that help? Do you want more examples?

Yes, that's perfect. And so by increasing the approval authority, we may be able to, one, I think Lindsay outlined that it's going to free up staff time because you're not having to prepare these packets for council, but the other piece is you maybe get a contract and it's not gonna take you two months to turn a contract. Now this could accelerate those, create efficiencies within the government.

Absolutely.

Thank you. Thank you, Eric. John? No questions, but I have comments at the end. Thank you. Brandy, questions?

No questions, thank you.

Will these changes make Parker easier to do business with? I believe so. All right.

Thank you. Thank you. And, Todd, questions? All right. With that, we'll open up public comment at 7.28 p.m. Any member of the public wishing to address council, please make yourself known. Seeing none, we'll close public comment at 7.28 and go back for deliberation. Laura, would you like to start us?

I feel like all the comments up here from my fellow town council members reflect the in-depth discussion we've had previously in a study session on this matter. And I do feel comfortable moving forward on this matter. And we do have checks and balances in place if we would like to change it in the future. But again, this is reflected upon the trust of our town manager. She's doing an excellent job. She's earned this with this trust of her staff and directors. And this was not given lightly. So the town manager is running this town very effectively, and she's trying to make it more effective. And it is something that can be decreased as needed. Or if a new town manager comes in, we might, that this body may consider that in the future. So thank you.

Thank you, Laura.

Eric? So to, I guess, build on a little bit of what Laura was outlining, what we're changing is items that we've already, as a group, we've already appropriated, we've reviewed, we've approved. This is creating an efficiency within our town, and I think ultimately this is gonna save us some taxpayer money, which is not fully quantifiable yet, but hopefully we can quantify this at some point. So I'm in support.

Thank you, Eric. John? I don't think I can put quantifying quantifiable in my narrative, but I will give that to you. Yeah. No, this is... This is something that the boards that I sit on kind of review every three or four years. Different boards, different levels of budgets. You try to figure out a happy medium. Again, you know, with inflation continuing to go up, There's always a challenge, a fine line as to what should we give in terms of authority to our appointee and what should be considered here with the elected body. To me, as we've gone through this, as I've gone through this, what you want to get away from is having to look at operational items. You want things that are of citizen awareness importance, topical things that would be of importance to the elected body. You know, as we've talked here that, you know, we are going to get a report here at our budget retreat just kind of outlining what types of things and you know we can continue to do so or we could feel comfortable with that but it's always one of those things where our appointee is accountable to this to this body to this board we're just trying to figure out how do we optimize and make things more efficient these are the things that we talk about in our budget retreat we're very aware of it's just we do not want to be approving here, I think, operational items, software licenses and stuff like that, which we know we need, but those aren't the things that this body needs to, this policy-making body needs to be addressing at this point in time. But again, we have the ability and authority to change that. Thank you. Thank you, John. Brandi?

I have nothing further to add, thank you.

um just to reiterate as a council we had a pretty exhaustive conversation about this we didn't take this lightly and you know if we can maintain appropriate oversight just while eliminating unnecessary delays i think it's a win for for the town as an organization but also the people we serve thank you thank you ann todd

Council with that, there's two actions in front of you, first being the ordinance and then the resolution. I would entertain motions. I have a motion from Hendrix and a second from Wilkes. Hendrix?

Yes.

Arrington? Yes. Wilkes?

Aye.

Dyack? Yes. Franzen?

Yes.

Hefta?

Yes.

And that passes unanimously. Next, the resolution.

I move to approve resolution number 26-043 .

Second. I have a motion from Hendricks and a second from Hefta. Hendricks? Yes. Barrington? Yes. Wilkes?

Aye.

Diak? Yes. Franzen? Yes. Hefta?

Yes.

And that passes unanimously. With no other business in front of this council this evening, we are adjourned.