City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening, everyone. I'm going to go ahead and call to order the 1,636th regular meeting of the Thornton City Council. And before we begin, just like to remind everyone in the audience to please turn off or silence all electronic devices. The audience seating area is provided for observing council meetings from a seated position only, and audience members wishing to stand must stand in the aisle along the rear wall opposite of the council dais. Also, if there's anyone in the audience who needs assistance in listening to or participating in the meeting and has not indicated so on the sign-up sheet, you can raise your hand and a staff member will provide assistance. Item two is the Pledge of Allegiance. Would you please rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance? Thank you. Item three is a moment of silence. Please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you. Item four is the land acknowledgement. Mayor Pro Temayala, would you please read the land acknowledgement this evening?

Yes, thank you. The City of Thornton respectfully acknowledges the land on which we stand is the traditional territory of the Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, Lakota, Navajo, Pueblo, Shoshone, and Southern Ute tribes and nations who were the original stewards of this land. We honor the history, culture, and contributions both past and present of these Indigenous nations and tribes. We pay respect to their ancestors, elders, and present-day community members, and extend our gratitude to the Indigenous peoples for their ongoing care and stewardship of the land, water, and resources. We also recognize the lasting impact of colonialism, forced removals, and continued injustices that have affected Indigenous communities throughout the history and into the present. We also acknowledge the labor of enslaved Africans and their descendants who worked the stolen land for the colonists and who continue to disproportionately face economic oppression, racism, violence, and exploitation. May this acknowledgment serve as a reminder of our responsibility to be mindful and respectful of the land, its history, and the indigenous communities who call Colorado home and use it to guide our policies and decision-making for the people of Thornton. Thank you.

Item five is a roll call of the council. Clerk, would you please call the roll of council?

Mayor Coleman?

Here. Council Member Cunto?

Here.

Council Member Algi?

Here.

Mayor Potemayela? Here. Council Member Byrd?

Here.

Council Member Martinez? Here. Council Member Morris?

Here.

Council Member Russell?

Here.

Council Member Salazar? Here. Core Mr. President, Your Honor.

Thank you. Item six is approval of the agenda. Are there any staff changes to the agenda this evening?

There are no proposed changes to the agenda. Thank you.

Council, any changes to the agenda? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented?

So moved. Second.

Thank you. Approval of the agenda as presented has been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Clerk, please call the council.

Council, please cast your votes. Motion passed unanimously, Your Honor.

Thank you. Item 7 is Presentations. Item 7A is a resolution commending Stacey Flint for her service on the Thornton Arts, Sciences, and Humanities Council Board of Directors. And I would like Councilmember Algee, would you please introduce this item and read it in its entirety?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I will be honored to do so this evening. I would like to propose a resolution commending Stacey Flint for her service on the Thornton Arts, Sciences, and Humanities Council Incorporated Board of Directors. Whereas, Stacey Flint served as a member of the Thornton Arts, Sciences, and Humanities Council Incorporated, TASHCO, Board of Directors from May 28, 2024 to July 16, 2026. And whereas, Ms. Flint helped update TASHCO's bylaws, policies, and rules to support the presentation of arts and culture programs and events in the city. And whereas, Ms. Flint participated in interviewing and recommending applicants to fill vacancies and supported the nomination of new officers, and whereas Ms. Flint contributed to board fundraising campaigns and raised the highest amount of financial support at this year's Spring Basket Fundraiser, and whereas Ms. Flint helped plan and provide onsite support for Tashko's make-and-take craft activities at the annual Dia de los Muertos celebration event, and whereas Ms. Ms. Flint's service on the Tashko Board of Directors has been a valuable contribution to the City of Thornton. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Thornton, Colorado, as follows, that City Council wishes to express to Stacey Flint its gratitude and appreciation for her time, involvement, knowledge of, and distinguished service to the Thornton Arts, Sciences, and Humanities Council Incorporated Board of Directors and to the citizens of Thornton, and I move for its approval.

Second. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded to approve the resolution. I'll open it for discussion. Council Member Alger, you have the option to go first as you made the motion.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Once again, Stacey, what can I say about you? You've been an absolute rock star for not only Tashko, but for our city in general. You were my replacement on Tashko, actually, when I had to step away for family reasons. And that's what community is about, is uplifting neighbors to step up and serve our community and to grow our community and make it a better place. And stay still. I'm bummed you had to leave for the time being. You're always welcome to come back. I know things are going to work out for you. And we're all rooting for you, and we love you. So it is truly an honor to do this for you this evening. Thank you.

Council Member Martinez.

Oh, yeah, Stacy, thank you for your service. You know, we're all in Thornton better off having you having had you live in Thornton. I know you don't live in Thornton anymore, but your contributions to the community were impressive in such a short amount of time. And I'm just grateful that we have people like you willing to put in time and work to help out the community, even when life is hard and the adversity that you've overcome. recently has led to a better situation, but we're all grateful for the service that you've provided for the city. I also want to call out that you took a leadership role when it came to helping us get a community garden set up. We wouldn't have been able to do it without you, and that was going on. while chaos was happening around you so it just shows us all that we're we had a really good person helping out our city and um we can't wait for you to come back and continue your service i know you really want to and um it's gonna i'm pretty sure it's gonna happen at some point and we'll be happy to welcome you back mayor proton mayala

Yeah, thank you, Stacy, for all the work you've done for the city. It's a pretty impressive list of different things that you've been able to accomplish. Fundraising's always been one of the most difficult parts of being on Tashko. And I remember when we barely started doing it and selling little things, and you guys have, all of you have really grown it, and your contributions are greatly appreciated. It's really one of the most important things that we had to do with Tashko in order to make it... in order to get those grants that we need we had to show varying revenue streams and you guys have really taken some of those building blocks that we started years ago and we're able to grow them into really great um programs the dinosaur boxes this weekend were awesome and i'm just super proud of all of you guys and especially you stacy with leaving and and uh all the contributions you made so thank you so much any additional discussion i'm going to save my comments here for just a moment would you please pull the council counts please catch your votes

Motion passed your name, Mr. Governor.

Thank you. And at this time, I'm going to ask Stacey to join me in front of the dais at the microphone. So Stacey, the work that you've done with Tashko is not something that happens by accident. It's because of how much you cared about the community and about the work you were doing. And I saw the work that you did with those baskets, and it was nothing short of amazing. She made sure that all of us participated on the city council, that we had multiple people bidding against each other to make sure that we got those dollars up. And it just shows your passion for the community. So I just want to say on behalf of the residents and the city council, thank you so much for everything that you've done for us. Would you like to say a few words? Well, let's give her a round of applause, and then I'm going to ask the council to join me. All right, item eight is audience participation. This is a time for members of the community to speak on any item that is not on the agenda as a public hearing or going to be in a public hearing in the future. Pursuant to the City Council's rules of order and procedures, speaking time is limited to three minutes per person with a one-hour limit on this segment of the agenda. In-person speakers will be heard first, followed by remote speakers registered before the end of the in-person comment segment. Residents of the City, as indicated on the sign-up sheet, will be given preference in the order heard in each segment. The podium located on the dais of the Council Chambers must be used to offer public comment during audience participation or public hearing sections of the meeting agenda. In the event of physical inability or preference, the public may offer comment by microphone while seated in the audience seating area. But at no time shall public comment be made while moving throughout the chambers. Ms. Long, is there anyone who has signed up to speak under audience participation?

Yes, Your Honor. We have four individuals in person. No one has signed up online.

Thank you. So in just a moment, again, each speaker will be given up to three minutes to speak, and the segment of the agenda is limited to one hour. Please make sure that you watch the light on the podium. When it turns yellow and you hear a single beep, you'll need to wrap up your comments. And when it turns red and you hear multiple beeps, your time is up, and I'll have to interrupt you as your three minutes are over. And when you are called, those in person, please come to the podium. Make sure you state your name and address, and then you can welcome to your comments. Would you please call the first person?

Greg Gill, 9300 Yucca Way. Oh, thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. First, I want to thank you for your service to our city. I have a family member who serves on the city council, and so I understand that this work requires considerable time and effort beyond these meetings. I truly appreciate your dedication. I also want to recognize some positive things in our community. the illuminated iron bar structures at the eppinger recreation center still look excellent years later they are beautiful artistic additions to our city and they still catch my eye every time i drive by And also the stoplight control boxes that are all painted really nicely. And I just think that that's awesome that the city has done that. I do have a few concerns and suggestions. First, I would like the city to consider whether our recreation center could eventually offer 24-hour access for residents who work non-traditional hours or need greater flexibility i also hope the city can look at areas where lawn maintenance appears to be inconsistent most importantly i want to address some traffic safety i first brought the speed bump concern to the city more than five years ago The city responded promptly and installed the speed bumps, and I appreciate that response. However, the installation was only partially effective because vehicles can still maneuver around them. I recognize that I should have brought this concern back to the city sooner. Fortunately, no one has been hurt, but children live and play in this neighborhood, and I believe it is important to address the remaining safety concern before someone does get hurt. I respectfully ask the City to complete the traffic calming measures so vehicles cannot bypass them. I would also like to suggest a simple way to improve communication between residents and the City. Rather than creating a formal organization, I would like to see resident city communication a voluntary way for residents to share concerns with city staff, identify priorities, and work together on solutions. The purpose would not be to replace city government or interfere with the council's responsibilities.

And I'm going to have to interrupt you. Unfortunately, three minutes are over. Can we get a staff member to connect with Mr. Gill to make sure some of his concerns specifically related to safety are addressed? Thank you.

Would you please call the next person? Tom Lampo, no address provided.

All right. Hello to Thornton. It's good to be here. It's always good to disagree with hate. Please remove your white hate statement. You claim it's an acknowledgement of the land of the United States. Your thinly veiled statement has fooled no one. You've only exposed yourself and your deepest resentments. I'm Tom Lampo, and the times we are living in are difficult, but truth is being brought to light. So hang in there. We got this. Look for truth. The future for all peoples of all nations is going to be incredible. I've been speaking about Ms. Grundy and her narrow views of slavery, even though she's a very educated individual. Ms. Grundy states, and I'm just going to quote her directly, in other words, deal with your white shit, white people. Slavery is y'all thing. We know that in the United States, hundreds if not thousands of years before contact and becoming the United States of America, this land was a land full of nations raiding other nations, stealing humans, transporting humans, assimilating humans to make them slaves of the raiding nations, all formed by Indians without white or black influence, just Indian nations doing Indian nation life. And we know that hundreds if not thousands of years prior to the Atlantic slave trade, the continent of Africa was involved in tribal raiding, tribes raiding other tribes, stealing humans, transporting humans to enslave them for life. There was no influence of whites or any Indian nation. It was just African tribes doing African tribal life. And what about freed black slaves from here in the United States? The United States not believing that anything would change, feeling hopeless here in America, sailing back to West Africa to start a new life in a place on a continent they felt more comfortable with. And what did they do back on the African continent? They captured and enslaved blacks. There were no white influence. There was no Indian nations. They made that decision. After being a slave and knowing how horrific that life was, they decided to enslave others. So knowing this, when the highly educated Ms. Grundy states she wants white people to deal with their white shit, she purposely ignores history so she can make a racist and biased statement, not founded in fact but maliciously stated to form a wedge between people. And you, her disciples, eat this up to form your statement, sticking to the hateful agenda and dividing people rather than being leaders to unite people to make a better place. Slavery is a human problem. It has no color. It has no race. Enjoy the rest of your night.

Thank you. Would you please call the next person? Luz Panato, 4210 East 100th Avenue, number 642. And she will be assisted by a language interpreter as she's coming down to the podium. I will call out to our language interpreter.

Welcome to Language Line Solutions. Please enter your six-digit client ID. For Spanish, press 1. For other, please hold for an interpreter.

Thank you for calling Language Line Solutions. This is Samantha, ID 457. 342. All we are is Spanish and tabular today. This call may be monitored for training and quality assurance purposes. How can I help you?

Hi, this is Kristen long. I'm the city clerk for the city of Thornton. We're currently in a city council meeting, and we have an individual who would like to provide public comment to the council at the conclusion of their comments. There may be a response or instructions provided to the individual from council. Please pause the speaker as needed to provide interpretation. And when you're ready, please introduce yourself to the individual and you can proceed.

All right. Okay, thank you. I will. Should I start now?

Yes, please.

Okay. Hola, muy buenas noches. Voy a ser su intérprete el día de hoy. La llamada puede ser monitoreada con fines de calidad y capacitación. Todo lo que le diga permanecerá confidencial. El día de hoy está con la señorita Kristen Locke, la secretaria municipal de la ciudad de Spokane. All right, go ahead.

Buenas tardes. Ya los señores aquí me conocen. Hace vine dos semanas. Creo que ocupe ya en este circunstancias, yo creo que yo ocupe el lugar de la persona que antes venía y bailaba. Porque creo que se me está tomando como una persona irracionable. Porque no les interesa. Yo he venido a denunciar que se está violando la ley estatal de lotes de casas, de casas móviles y lotes de Colorado y no les ha importado.

Okay. Thank you. What I've been trying to say, first of all, good evening. I think you already know me. I came here two weeks ago. So I think under these circumstances, I've already taken the place of the person who used to come here and dance. because I think I'm being treated like an irrational person because you don't care. And I've already come here to report that the Colorado state law regarding mobile homes and mobile home lots, it's being violated and you don't care.

Tengo una carta por usted, señora John Coleman, firmada ya va a ser el 20 de agosto del año pasado, que usted me mandó decir que se iba a solucionar los problemas o este tipo de situación y no hemos tenido resultados. De la semana pasada, de hace dos semanas a esta, tengo las fotos de todos los días, con fecha y hora y localización, donde se están violando los códigos, And once that I, after saying this, I would like to let you know, ma'am, that I have a letter signed from

to Ms. Coleman's sign in August the 20th of last year that you assured, you told me that the problems or this type of situation were going to be resolved and we haven't gotten any results. From two weeks until now, I have photos from every day with date, time, and location. showing where the codes are being violated, and I inform you about everything in an email, and I don't think you're checking it that I'm being serious.

They come here and swear in front of the patriotic symbols that they are going to enforce the law. When I was here, I don't have a year. Since 2024, I made the first complaint. In 2025, they gave me a letter where they said they were going to enforce the law. To date, I see the opposite, for benefiting a business.

Oh, I'm sorry, I was muted. Then they come here and swear before the patriotic symbols that they are going to enforce the law. When I haven't even here in a year, and since 2025, I was given a letter saying that the law was going to be enforced to this day. I'm seeing the opposite in order to benefit only a business.

Gracias a estos problemas. Ese negocio en que no lo crean es una forma de que ha robado a la gente más humilde usando los códigos de la ciudad, robándoles sus casas, haciéndolos irse de ahí porque utilizan los códigos en contra de nosotros. Because of this problem, that business, whether you believe it or not, has found a way to steal from the most vulnerable people.

They are making him leaving their homes, and they are using the law against us. But it seems that for them, you don't enforce the law for them. Even so, the state law says that they also have to comply with it because it only favors some people and not others.

And I'm going to stay here in every trial so we can make sure that I always came here to say that the law is being violated. Thank you.

Thank you. Would you please call the next person? Stacy Flint, 9755 Elizabeth.

Good evening, Mayor Kuhlman, members of council, and friends. I'm going to be uncomfortable tonight. I'm speaking to you as someone who loved her community enough to serve it and was harmed within circumstances that unfolded in this community, and I'm still here choosing to invest to make this community stronger. Domestic violence displaced me, my children, and me from Thornton and forced me to relinquish my role that I love. But while trying to survive this, I discovered things about our systems I could never have seen from the outside. I ask you to use what happened to me to understand what is happening all around us. Here's what's invisible. I'm educated, spent years serving my community. I've worked alongside law enforcement, elected officials, behavioral health professionals, victim advocates, and community leaders. I understand systems and I know how to ask for help. I had knowledge of the systems. I had relationships and people I could call. 22 of our friends and loved ones work within law enforcement with some of those relationships spanning nearly 30 years. And I still experienced ridicule, shame, blame, and dismissal when I tried to report. Criminal conduct instantly became a civil matter. Domestic violence became family conduct. Coercive control, a difficult relationship. Post-separation abuse, contentious divorce. Economic abuse is not financial disagreement, and stalking is not unwanted contact. A law enforcement supervisor actually dismissed me with a complaint of, you women. Intimate details of what my abuser did to me became gossip and rumors about me shared unofficially within the institution I had turned to for help. This isn't something proclamations fix. This does not represent every officer. I know it doesn't. I know and love people who serve this community extraordinarily well. That's precisely why we have to talk about culture. Because an institution can contain excellent people, policies, and sincere leadership and still have informal culture that prevents those policies reaching the actual people needing help. Awareness is what we tell the community we understand. Culture is what a victim experiences when she asks for help. Every October, purple ribbons appear on police vehicles for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. After my experience trying to report domestic violence, those ribbons became a slap in the face. The danger of getting the public-facing message right while getting the lived response wrong is that everyone believes the system is working, except the victims who discover it isn't. I don't want us to take the purple ribbons off the police cars. I want us to earn them. Don't only ask what our policies say. Ask survivors what happened when they tried to use them. I didn't choose this expertise. I paid an obscene price for it, and anybody in this room who knows me probably knows I'm not particularly good at knowing something is broken and keeping my mouth shut. I intend to do everything in my power to make what happens for the next person who walks through the door to report better than my experience. I found something in my community that needs work, so I'm going to work on it because that's public service, just with considerably sharper teeth now. Thank you.

Thank you. I believe that was the last person signed up. Is there anyone in the audience that wanted to speak but didn't know you needed to sign up? If so, you can come to the podium now. All right. We will move on to Item 9, which is Council Comments and Communications. We'll start with Ward 1 tonight. Council Member Martinez.

Thank you. So I want to start off by really thanking and calling out all the great work that Thornton Police Department did with the end of summer celebration over at the Thornton Community Center. If you didn't get a chance to see it, it was an incredible event. And I think it went a long way in building the relationship that the community has with the police department. There were so many fantastic elements of it. The police department's role, although critical in being the host, they were not the only people out there helping our community. I want to thank in particular Lisa Hollingsworth from Mapleton Schools. I just want to give her a shout out for volunteering at this end of the summer event. She was helping the kids get ready for school. The event provided haircuts for kids, eye exams, vaccinations. There was a medical clinic there. They provided free backpacks for kids who need it. And trust me, there's a lot of kids out there who need it. Last year, we didn't have enough backpacks, but I also want to thank the folks at Generational Opportunities for going around the community asking businesses asking donors to donate backpacks and school supplies for kids her excited to go back to school may not have the means to get their own new stuff and i can tell you how much it means to kids who are really excited to go but might be embarrassed about having old shoes old backpacks old equipment and these backpacks made it possible for them to have really happy beginning of the new school year it would be made possible without the people and generational opportunities I know there's the staff members at A Cake Occasion at Thornton Business over there on 112th and Colorado. They all chipped in, and there are many more I'm not mentioning. I don't have time to name them all. But thank you all for making it a great experience for the kids. And it was very impactful. I heard nothing but positive reviews from not just the volunteers, but also the kids. And I heard great feedback from the volunteers. police department people who were there. It was not just sworn officers, but we had victim advocates. We had all different elements of our police department there. And I think it really goes, like I said, a long way in building that relationship with the community, which is very much valued, especially down in Ward 1. So thank you all for participating in that. The next thing is I want to give a special thank you to Chief Kelly of the Fire Department for being responsive to resident concerns about the recent fires in the open space in Niver Creek. There were a couple wildfires recently that were quickly put out by joint coordination with our fire department, the North Metro Fire Department, and the Westminster Fire Department. And they all came down quickly and really saved that open space from burning down very quickly. And on top of that, there were tons of concerns from the residents about how these fires were getting started, what to do in case of an emergency. And I want to thank Chief Kelly for getting ahead of that and committing to having some meetings with the HOAs in the neighborhoods and trying to build that relationship and also make sure that everybody's on the same page in terms of what to do in an emergency and to make sure we do the right thing when the time comes, if the time comes. The next person I want to thank, you know, and most of you may not have heard of him, but Master Daniel S. Fitch. He's the Taekwondo Master at Thornton Taekwondo, which does their Taekwondo practice at the Thornton Community Center every Tuesdays and Thursdays. Not only does he run an amazing program that is really thriving at the Thornton Community Center, the biggest that I've ever seen it, but he also volunteered his time to educate children at Dino Fest. So speaking of Dino Fest, what a great event, second year. I wasn't able to go for the inaugural Dino Fest, but I was so glad I was able to catch this one. There was so many opportunities for kids to learn about science. All the partners that we brought in were very helpful. And of course, we brought in some great volunteers like Master Fitch from the Thornton Taekwondo, among others. And so thank you to the Tashko for organizing that. It was such a well-done event, and I saw the Tashko team out there working out there, working in the hot sun, committed to helping our Thornton residents have a great educational time, and it was, I think, profoundly successful. So I can't wait for year three of DinoFest, and thank you to everybody who put their time and effort into making that happen. The last thing I want, two more things. I do want to say the Anythink Nature Library grand opening was very, truly exceptional. I think that it's probably one of the best libraries in the entire country. I'm honored and proud that we have it here in Thornton, and I encourage anybody and everybody to go out there and check it out. It has a ton of features that you won't see at any traditional library. And just the anything system. We're really blessed to have that in Thornton and throughout our city. And so I want to thank our staff. We had staff members there who committed there a lot of time in this project and getting that off the ground. The anything nature library would not have been possible without a collaboration between the anything library district. and the City of Thornton staff. So, phenomenal job. There's so many reasons to be proud of being a resident and being a part of the community of Thornton, and that is just one of them. So, thank you all to everything that you've done for the community, and I just can't wait to see what's going to happen next. So, that's it for tonight. Council Member Salazar?

So this evening, I would like to thank Greg, who I really appreciate him bringing up all these issues and bringing them to our attention and sharing his thoughts and ideas on how we can address it together. And I have no further comments. Mayor Pro Temayala.

Thank you. I think Councilmember Martinez mentioned a lot of the events that we had over the last few weeks, but I will say the Nature Library, anything Nature Library, was an amazing event to go to as far as like just a grand opening for a library. But one of the cool things I've noticed in just after the after the grand opening happened on Saturday is that so many people are just kind of like, you guys have this really cool library in Thornton. And I just want to thank all the folks that were involved in that. I remember back years ago on Tashko, we talked about some of the ideas to get that implemented. And so it's really, really cool to see that, well, government runs really slowly. But, you know, shoot, I think that was like eight years ago or something. Yeah, Mary. It's, yeah, it's really cool to see, like, you know, you invest the time in government and you get to see the results. And that's just one of the beautiful things about having the privilege of serving the city of Thornton is being able to see these awesome things come together. come to being finished. And so we're just so lucky to have a really cool library that people all over the state of Colorado and all over the country are kind of envious of. So very cool, very cool event. The other thing I just wanted to remind folks of is that Councilmember Morris and I will be having a meet and greet at the Grumpy Egg this, well, actually on August 22nd, so in a few weeks from 8.30 to 10 a.m. And it's been amazing to see the Grumpy Egg expand from the small little cafe it was to now having a really cool coffee shop. And If you've lived in Ward 2 for a while, or as somebody who represents it, we don't have a lot of businesses in Ward 2. So I had a friend move to Ward 2 not too long ago, and they were like, where's your coffee shop? And we didn't have one. So as soon as that extension happened, I was sure to text him and say, hey, we have a coffee shop now in Ward 2. So we'll be there from 8.30 to 10 a.m. on the 22nd. So you... You can check out the Grumpy Eggs coffee drinks, which are pretty good. And the cool thing is they have really good breakfast, too. So if you like breakfast foods like eggs and all that cool stuff, they have it as well. And it's not just kind of the prepackaged stuff you get at the chains. It's actual kind of home-cooked food with cool coffee drinks. And I also just want to say... I feel really grateful to be on this council and work with folks across the aisle. It's been amazing to be able to have conversations with folks that I don't necessarily always align with politically, but be able to work together for the betterment of our city because I really, truly believe that's what it's about. When I was running for office, i you know there's always some sort of political animosity and there's conversations and i really did want to commit to working with everybody here on council and so i was really grateful when council member morris invited me to do this because i think it's good that they folks in our community see us working together and i also think it's good that we work together and folks can come and talk to us and hear maybe different sides of a perspective on an issue that um You know, it's not something you get to do every day. I know our national politics don't allow it. So I think in Thornton, we can be an example for the rest of the country of folks working together for the betterment of our city. So that's all I have for tonight. Thank you. Council Member Alge.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Good evening. It's been a busy two weeks in community. So I'll start off with Mayor Pro Tem Ayala and myself attended our rescheduled War II Rhythms and Reels. along with Councilmember Morris over at Woodland-Brookshire Park. Thank you, Kingpin Posse for the jams, and special thanks to Vince Aragon and the Thornton Parks team for your hard work. I had the honor of meeting former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords for a gun violence awareness town hall at Living Water Christian Church in Aurora. She was joined by Senator John Hickenlooper and Secretary of State and Democratic nominee for Attorney General Jenna Griswold. I had a very constructive, fulfilling, and emotional conversation with the Congresswoman after the event. I spent two days at the Adams County Fair, and I had conversations with several of my fellow Thornton neighbors, including Tom Lampo. And I had the honor of meeting his family as well. Tom, your family is very lucky to have you as their father and grandfather. And it was an honor to meet your family once again. It made my whole weekend, to be honest with you. So thank you again. So last Tuesday was my first national night out as your council member. In Ward 2, I visited Crossing Point along with Mayor Pro Temayala, along with Burgundy in Ward 2, and then Heritage Todd Creek in Ward 3, where I hung out with Councilmember Byrd and former Councilmember Unrein. I thank everyone who hosted the National Night Out events. Special thanks to Lieutenant Wilson of Thornton Police Department for driving me around. Speaking of Thornton PD, last Friday I did the doubleheader with them. First at the Donut House in Ward 4, hanging out with Donut, our new canine therapy dog. Then at Thornton Community Center for the end of summer bash. Both events were very well attended. An amazing week again for Thornton Police Department. This past Saturday was a historic day for our city, as my colleagues have already mentioned, as Anythink opened their Aylor Nature Library in Ward 3. Our fellow neighbors came in droves to be a part of history, and I hear they're still coming in droves. Congrats to Anythink. Also, I want to personally thank Anythink for reposting my posts from both my Instagram and my official Facebook pages. During my childhood years, my school and municipal libraries in Ohio helped me overcome my obstacles. I am firmly committed as your council member in ensuring anything's success in their ongoing mission to serving our communities. I thank all of my colleagues here on the dais who were able to attend, along with members of the Adams County Board of Commissioners and members of our staff. Before National Night Out last Tuesday, though, I was able to sneak up to Dick's House of Sport and Ward 4. They did their sneak opening last Tuesday evening. I met with many of Dick's regional leadership team and congratulated them on their grand opening. So this Friday at 9.45 a.m. will be the formal ribbon cutting and grand opening. And I am hearing there will be a gold jacket at the ribbon cutting. One of the greatest Denver Broncos of all time, Terrell Davis. And sadly, I will have to miss. as I was invited and accepted to join the third cohort of the Metro Mayor's Caucus Civic Results 2026-27 Municipal Leadership Academy. We started two weeks ago on Zoom, and we will be meeting one day a month through March with overnight stays for this month at the end of this week in Alamosa. That's why I will not be at the ribbon cutting. And next month, we will be traveling to Winter Park and Grand Junction. The remainder of the monthly meetings will take place in the Denver metro area, and the graduation will be in March. I will report to council on next Tuesday's planning session how Alamosa went. The topic this month is good governance, and tomorrow morning is the quarterly airport coordinating committee meeting, and I will also report to council next week what was discussed. I also want to thank Council Member Martinez, Democratic nominee for House District 31, and Tashko Board Member Gabriel Cervantes, along with city staff for their work in resolving the air conditioning issue at the Hamburger Stand in Ward 1. I did play a small role in this situation, but I want to give proper credit. The employees now are working in a much safer environment, so I thank the landlords for doing the right thing for their employees. In closing, I thank everyone who spoke to us this evening. Public Speaks is the very foundation of our democracy and republic, and I will always protect it. Thank you, and have a great evening.

Council Member Byrd.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'll be short and sweet. The National Night Out was a great time. We had a lot of community support through the different areas. Got to speak to a lot of residents about how they were supporting different officers around. I had the privilege of riding with Deputy Chief Hawkins. Some great conversations came out of that. If anybody hasn't ever been a part of that, I greatly encourage you to go to some of the events. It's an amazing time. The Anything Library was also an amazing event to see that open up. I'm excited to have that in our ward in Ward 3. My daughter has not went over there yet, but she will not stop bugging me about it because she's really wanting to get over there. So I'll be excited to take her over again and let her see everything. Outside of that, I'm looking forward to the upcoming events, and that's it for me.

Council Member Acunto?

much like everything else everybody else uh just like to touch on the anything library um it's nice to see that finally come into fruition i remember being on council years back when that original concept and idea was proposed and i was immediately in favor for it so it's really awesome to kind of see it physically there and that's all i got council member russell

Good evening, uh, mayor members of council and residents. Uh, I'm speaking tonight to urge council to. Reconsider placing a standalone ballot question before the Thornton voters this November. Because 2026 is an off year for local municipal contests, holding a standalone election requires the city to bear significant unnecessary costs to the tune of 65 to 70,000 dollars. Costs that are ultimately passed down to our local taxpayers. Placing a measure on the ballot this year forces us to pay for the administration logistics and printing expenses of a dedicated election. Next November in 2027, Jordan will already be holding its regularly scheduled municipal election for mayor and council seats. In addition, the statewide coordinated election will take place at the same time. deferring the ballot question until november of 2027 the city can fold the issue into an election that is already fully scheduled and funded waiting one year achieves the exact same democratic outcome without imposing an extra avoidable financial burden on the city's budget or the residents of thornton i strongly encourage council to exercise fiscal responsibility Delayed that this question and save taxpayers money by placing it on the November, 2027 ballot instead. I will fully support the decision this evening. I have no qualms with the actual ballot question. But that ultimately has the exact same outcome by pushing the question to next year's ballot. But without the unnecessary expense to our tax paying residents. Now, I'd like to. touch base on a few highlights within the community and recognize some outstanding individuals. I had an opportunity to attend the annual Stout Street Foundation fundraiser alongside some Adams 12 staff and Commerce City Council member, Rocky Teeter. It's inspiring to see so many community leaders come together in support of an organization that continues to make meaningful difference in the lives of individuals overcoming addiction and rebuilding their futures. Last Tuesday, I was proud to celebrate National Night Out by hosting our neighborhood gathering. I want to give a shout out to my wife and thank her for putting the event together and her outreach to our residents within our neighborhood and ensure that it was well attended. It was a great evening of connecting with our neighbors, strengthening relationships, and reinforcing partnerships that make our community safer and more connected. Thank you to everyone that came out and helped make the event a success. I also had the pleasure of hosting the Colorado highway 7 coalition meeting here at trail winds rec center. Bringing together our regional partners to discuss transportation, economic development and shared priorities to strengthen collaboration along the highway 7 corridor and. Help ensure that we're working together on the issues that impact all of our communities across North Denver. Thank you to Brett. Patty, Patty with infrastructure. We have two Patties. So I met and learned a new Patty this past week. And Kent, who's retired but still putting the work in, showed up to the meeting and was helpful speaking when needed. And everyone else that helped organize the meeting to ensure that it was a success. Another fun stop this week was attending Donuts with Donut. Where residents had the opportunity to meet Donut, one of the Thornton Police Department's beloved canines, while enjoying coffee, donuts, and conversation with our officers. Events like these help build trust and strengthen the relationship between our police department and the community in which they serve. I also toured the new Dick's House of Sport. Thanks, John, for tipping me off on the early access there. And I encourage everyone to check out the official ribbon cutting, which is coming up this Friday at 845. The celebration will feature Hall of Fame running back Terrell Davis, and it's exciting to welcome another major business investment into the city of Thornton. One of the highlights this week was attending the grand opening of the anything nature library much discussed as already. Um, it was absolutely phenomenal. Um. We were told that they were expecting up to 5000 visitors. Uh. That's pretty crazy when you think about a library. But it just shows the magnitude and the impact in which it's had in our community. It was very well publicized. I did a Facebook post about it from my council page, and it's one of the most liked posts I've done in three years. It got hundreds of likes. and a lot of other people tagging friends and family to go check it out. So it was very meaningful to our community. It's impactful to the whole metro area, and we're very pleased to see that project come to fruition. Finally, I'd like to recognize two city employees who recently received heartfelt praise from a Thornton resident named Joan Campbell for their exceptional service in which they provided. First, Development Inspection Supervisor Craig Schroeder was recognized for his professionalism, responsiveness, and commitment to helping residents navigate the development process. His dedication reflects a high level of customer service that we all strive to provide. I'd also like to thank Detective Brian Bennett with the Thornton Police Department for his outstanding work in fraud prevention. Detective Bennett's willingness to educate, assist, and protect residents from scans and scams and financial crimes demonstrates a proactive approach that our officers take in keeping the community safe. So Craig and Detective Bennett exemplify the professionalism and commitment to public service that make Thornton such a great community. And thank you both for representing our city well. I will say it is a pleasure to have conversations with residents in which they acknowledge the good things that we're doing. A lot of times, most conversations are around what we could do to improve. But Joan, she actually lives in my neighborhood and I had never met her before. but she was a municipal worker in Arizona. So I think she's taken note to our city in comparing her experiences professionally and personally in other states and has a lot of appreciation and great things to say about our staff. So aside from the two that I mentioned today, keep up the good work, staff. It's being noticed and it will continue to be recognized anytime that I hear about it. Thank you.

Council Member Morris.

Good evening, everyone. I just wanted to start with saying thank you for everyone that came out for a public comment tonight. Stacey, congrats on your service with Tashco. Thanks for all you did there, but thank you even more for showing courage to come down to this mic and share your experience. It's definitely good to hear that, and looking forward to seeing how we can improve that. Tom? You are here every week. Thanks for showing up. I appreciate you showing the courage to come down to this mic and share some things that maybe come across as unpopular in some places, but it sounds like what you're ultimately trying to push us toward is some unity. So I appreciate the well-researched and objective information you share with us each week. Some recent events. I think we've all mentioned all of them already. But I will agree, the Nature Library is awesome. Check it out if you haven't been. Even if you're working from home or remotely, great spot to be. I look forward to being there often. So congrats to the staff and Anything Library. And of course, thank you for the collaboration there. National Night Out was awesome. We had 30 events across the city. It looked like I was able to attend several across the city from down at Pinnacle Charter up to Sky Lake Park and up into Hunter's Glen. I just want to shout out to Lieutenant Husk and Officer Twynum and their teams for the work they put in to organize and execute. Thank you to all the officers who participated and were out there building relationships and building trust with the community. Thank you to Commander Connor, who who allowed me to ride around with him, ask him tons of questions the entire time. And he was very gracious with the time. So thank you for that. And of course, thank you all the neighbors who hosted events across the city. For many of the folks that I came across, it was their fourth or fifth time that they've done it. So keep it up. Thank you for bringing neighbors together and just putting some really fun and engaging events together. Also, thank you to Congressman Gabe Evans. I saw him out there at least at one event at Pinnacle Charter. Appreciate you spending the time in our community. I did have the chance to attend the North I-25 Coalition Last week, a coalition of electives and staff members from various cities across the, or along the north I-25 corridor. And so one thing that was of note that maybe our staff's already tracking, they mentioned the Highway 7 mobility hubs, about 95% completion. And they are expecting a ribbon cutting sometime at the end of September. I didn't mention the exact date, but love to see that on our calendar when that comes. Thanks to the Thornton Chamber for hosting a lunch. Last week, we had Bijal Shah, the CEO of Denver-based Guild Education as guest speaker. She shared insight and experience around workforce development, business policy, and our education priorities. Took lots of great notes. And it's definitely a worthwhile event. Thank you to Chamber and Bijal for continuing that conversation around workforce development in our community. And thank you to the CTE staff from Adams 12, 27J, and Mapleton, who also attended and shared their experience. A couple upcoming events I wanted to mention. We have the Station Area Master Plans open house happening next Monday, the 17th, at Anythink Library and Wright Farms. They'll be discussing and showing some information around 144th and York Station, of course, the Colorado and Highway 7 Station. As mentioned by Mayor Pro Tem Ayala, Saturday, 22 August, We are going to host a coffee meetup at the Grumpy A Cafe at 8.30 a.m. It's been great to have these events across various places, really mostly in Ward 4, but we're venturing into Ward 2 on this one. I have had several council members join me, of course, Council Member Russell, Byrd, Algee, and Mayor Kuhlman, and looking forward to continuing to do those each month. And we do have the Ward 4 meeting coming up on Thursday, 3 September. And that's at Thorn Creek Golf Course at 6 p.m. And that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. So just a few updates from me this evening. The city is currently advertising for the Thornton Art Sciences and Humanities Council Board of Directors for Ward 2, and the deadline is August 20th. Parks and Open Space Advisory Commission for Wards 1 and 3. The deadline is August 21st. Building Code Advisory Board for Ward 1 with a deadline of August 25th. The Election Commission for Ward 2 with a deadline of August 25th. Planning Commission and Board of Adjustments for Ward 2 and the deadline is August 30th. And the Thornton Active Adult Board for Ward 2 with a deadline of September 8th. And all of these are 5 p.m. when those applications are due. So for those of you listening, watching, or sitting in the audience that want to get engaged and saw the amazing work that Stacy got to do in Tashko, this is your opportunity to put an application in and become part of something really big in the City of Thornton. Just a couple of things. Everybody else has already talked about the Anythink Library. I do want to say, you know, it was about 10 years ago, right after our city manager, Jack Etheridge, had retired, and none of city staff will be surprised about this, where he called me one day and said, I want to talk to you about this concept. He had gone on vacation, which I don't think he'd been on vacation in years as he was working in the city. And he had gone to Denmark and seen a nature library. And he said, I think this is something really cool that we could do in the city. So he called the library district board. He called the mayor at the time, Heidi Williams. He called me and he said, let's sit down and talk about what's possible. And he says, I think the ALOR space is probably the best place to put this. And I said, Jack, you know that there's lots of things in that space, and there's lots of things we can and can't do in that space. And he goes, I know better than most people what we can and can't do in that space. So he started that conversation and brought it forward. And then Tashko got to take on a look at it. And city staff got to take a look at it. And the library board took a look at it. And everyone thought, well, this is something cool and different. We've never done before. Is it even possible? And here we are almost 10 years later, and we have the most incredible library in the country. And I'd even put it up against that Denmark library that Jack showed me. So really proud of the work that everybody's done. I also want to say thank you to Tashko for putting together Dino Fest. This was a concept, I think, Roberta, you were part of that a couple years ago, talking about how Tashko could bring some more of the science into the Thornton Humanities, Arts, and Sciences Council. It was the one area that we probably lacked a little bit, and we're really good at arts, and we're really good at humanities, but science sometimes is missing. And what I don't think a lot of people understand is science is art. You're putting that together makes the creativity flow. And I walked through that event on Saturday afternoon and watched those kids put together dinosaur hats and tunnel through sand trying to excavate. or putting casts together of bones and being able to identify all the different cool things they saw with dinosaurs. And it was really fun and amazing. And just the excitement on those kids' face made everything worthwhile. And I was super impressed by the turnout. I was shocked. I got there with 30 minutes left to the event, and they were having to start turning people away because the event was getting ready to end. And it was about 100 degrees out there. so everybody did a fantastic job so proud of the work you've done and then uh coming up this coming weekend this saturday is the barrel and beer fest and we still have tickets available for the regular admission at 3 p.m over at trail winds would love to see you all out there and one quick reminder school has started back up so there's a lot of kids out there walking to school every day a lot of new drivers out on the roads so just make sure that we're super careful as we're getting used to the change in the traffic flow again And I know we get really frustrated with the school starts and stops and all the parents picking their kids up. But remember, those kids need a safe way to get to school and home again. So I'm going to go ahead and move on. Item 10 is Quadrant Additional Public Hearings, and there are no hearings this evening. Item 11 is Legislative Public Hearings, and there are no legislative public hearings this evening. Item 12 is Staff Reports, and there are no staff reports this evening. Item 13 is the Consent Calendar. Is there any member of Council who would like to remove an item from the Consent Calendar? Okay. Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the consent calendar as presented? So moved. Second. Thank you. Approval of the consent calendar as presented has been moved and seconded. Clerk, please read the appropriate titles into the record and pull the counsel.

In ordinance amending sections 1-8, 38-175, 38-176, and 38-177 of the Thornton City Code to align with state law pursuant to a ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court. In ordinance authorizing the issuance of the sale The issuance and sale of water enterprise revenue bond series 2026 payable solely out of the net revenues of the to be derived from the operation of the city's water enterprise and providing other details concerning the bonds, including without limitation, covenants and agreements in connection there with council. Please cast your votes. Motion passed unanimously runner.

Thank you. Item 14 is action items. Item 14A is a resolution repealing and reenacting Council Policy 4.2 on Council Policy Direction. And I'll turn this over to Rob Kolstad, Deputy City Manager, to present this item.

Good evening. Before you is a resolution to repeal and replace Council Policy 4.2 on Council Policy Direction. Here's what we're gonna cover tonight. We'll go through this in pretty short order. You've had a couple of planning session discussions on this item, but I'd be happy to answer any questions at the end of the presentation. So again to review the council request Back in May there was council direction to review and update this policy hadn't been updated in quite a number of years as a reminder council policy 4.2 Really provides guidance and direction primarily for your planning session and your updates and is is formed in the with reference to some of the provisions in the charter around the council's role and the city staff's role. We did do some best practice research. We weren't able to find an exact parallel to this policy, but we were able to identify some best practice and common themes that we were able to make sure were weaved into your recommended policy. So again, quickly, the draft policy, before you deny it, it endeavors to establish clear and actionable and ultimately supported council policy direction so that that direction can be implemented. It does identify the strategic plan as the cornerstone or foundation for the policy work that you all do. The process, while outlined in some level of detail in the policy, is fairly simple. It contemplates introducing a policy matter, some opportunity for discussion amongst the Council, opportunities to clarify specific points, Um, and ultimately, so that, um, that policy direction can be executed. Um, we did include in the policy, um, some notations, uh, about requests for information and services. Uh, you have an adopted process right now, and we, we use this as an opportunity to kind of memorialize aspects of that. Um, since it is parallel to console policy direction. So again, I went through that pretty quickly. You did have a couple of planning session discussions. Happy to answer any questions, but we would recommend your adoption of this policy.

Are there any questions from council? All right, Mayor Pro Temayala, would you please introduce item 14A?

Yeah, thank you. I'd like to introduce a resolution repealing and reenacting council policy 4.2 on council policy discretion. I move for its approval.

Second.

Thank you. Approval of the resolution has been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Mayor Pro Tem, you have the option to go first as you made the motion.

Yeah, thank you. This was important to me because A lot of times you hear in politics people say, you know, people over process. But having been a photographer for many years, I really do get into process. It's important that you follow an order of operations in order to get a good picture. And that was something I learned in the darkroom, which we don't use anymore, but that's just showing my age. But really, this is really important to me because we had some language in our council policies that really did not fully give us a picture of how things operate now. And one of those being, it's stating a work plan and we have a strategic plan that we've put a lot of effort into, even before some of the current council members were on council. So that's important to make sure that we memorialize the fact that we're using a strategic plan to carry out the work of the city and to make sure that we're giving proper direction to our city staff to operate correctly and make sure that they have the time and the resources they need to do the work. Secondly, as I look through the purpose and the policy we have here, It says that in order to provide clear policy direction by the collective council and ensure council consensus, city council will follow the process for providing council policy and direction. And it goes in a few different steps that we do, which is basically we have made the commitment with this policy that we're going to bring our ideas to our planning sessions, our update sessions, that way that we can have clear and concrete conversation as a council, and then be able to act on that policy and make sure we have the correct time and we're doing things the correct way, which is working through our city manager and then giving direction to our city staff in that way. And that's important to me because we have to make sure that we're operating in a way that really does put forth the intention of having an order of operations to how we do things. I said this in our last meeting that when we prioritize everything, we prioritize nothing. And so for me, this was important to make sure that we're operating in a way that's going to give our city staff the best time, resources, and just possibilities to do the right work for our city and that we're not overburdening them and then creating other cascading effects that can harm our city's budget and our city's ability to get the work done. So I'm excited for this to be finished. Thank you, Rob, for working on this for us. And that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Any additional discussion? I'll just say thank you to staff for cleaning it up. It's not easy, and we change our mind a lot. So very much appreciate you putting it in writing. Would you please call the council?

Council, please cast your votes. Motion passed by a majority, eight to one, Your Honor.

Thank you. Item 14B is an ordinance amending Chapter 6, Animals of the City Code. I'll turn this over to Robert Peterson, Police Lieutenant, to present this item.

All right. Good evening, Mayor Coleman, Pro Temiola, Council Members. Good to see everybody tonight. We will go through this we're gonna talk about proposed changes to Chapter six which is our animal all our animal ordinances tonight? We'll just go through the proposed changes, and then we'll take some Q&A behind me is animal control supervisor Janice O'brien She's here in case you guys have tough questions. She'll be able to answer them for you, so All right, reason for the change is essentially animal control and municipal courts have found some shortcomings and some things that have made litigation and the actual enforcement of a lot of the ordinances. They identified those, and we're just trying to make some additions and some clarification to make litigation and the actual enforcement piece a little bit easier, stronger, and a little more streamlined. It hasn't been visited since 2017 was the last time we actually went through Chapter 6, and we hope that these additions is going to clean some of this stuff up and make it a little more efficient for the folks that are out there doing the work on the road and for the courts once they actually, it gets to that point. Uh, this was presented on July 7th at the, uh, planning meeting. So we answered some of the questions then we'll see if we have any more tonight. 1st, change was just the addition of some definitions breeder, kennel, livestock owner, pet store, a bunch of other terms that are used throughout the ordinances. It didn't actually have definitions, which made some of the little litigation a little bit harder when it got to that point. So it's just defining what each 1 of those terms means. Um, we added to the vaccination requirement. This is just a subsection that makes it, it requires animal owners to actually produce vaccination records for rabies when we ask for them. Right now, when we go out and we have a dog bite or we have something like that, we can ask for them, but we don't actually have an ordinance that requires them to do it. So it puts little teeth to that to make it easier for them to retain the rabies vaccinations when they go out. The next piece is commercial licenses required. This is simply getting in line with some of the stuff that's coming down on the state level. Pet stores in the city are not gonna be able to sell cats or dogs anymore. Moving forward, we're gonna work with the city clerk's office and legal to figure out a process for getting a breeder's license individually since there's not gonna be anything in the pet stores. Animal at large this already exists. This is just adding microchipping to a piece to it We see a lot of the same animals a lot of the times we Throw out a lot if somebody's animal is caught at large. This is just going to require them to then microchip said animal once we Get control of it the hope is is that once they're microchipped they get out again then we can save some time and Not put the burden on the shelter and return them directly back to home as opposed to filling up the shelter and giving the owners the cost and everything else like that. We're hoping that'll speed it up. Other cities have done this and they've seen pretty good results on getting animals back to their owners without having to impound them and actually take them to the shelter. Fact findings. Fact findings for people keeping their dogs or any other animal. Right now it's kind of backwards. compared to how everything else in courts goes at this point. The burden of proof right now is actually on the owner of the animal. So they almost have to go in and prove why they should be able to keep it. Which is not the way we do everything else, and it could slow it down if people aren't ready or they don't show up the court, keep the dogs and pounded longer incur more cost. This is just changing the burden of proof back to the city like it would in any other criminal criminal case or any other ordinance. So the burden of proof will now fall on animal control and they show up the court. So it'll stop those unnecessary delays. It'll also establish that the judge's decision during the disposition is the final order, which really just speeds it up. If there is going to be an appeal, it'll cause a quicker disposition. It'll get the animals moving along whichever direction they're going to go much faster than it goes now. Neglect of animals. We have two things. We have tethering and unlawful transport that have been added. The unlawful transport is simply animals can't be They can't be transported in the back of pickup trucks or anywhere. They'd be able to jump out and get into traffic or out in extreme elements or anything like that. And then the tethering one is not saying that you cannot tether an animal. It's just giving guidelines on how you can do it. It has to be an appropriate tether for the size of the animal. You can't put a 50-pound chain on a chihuahua so it can't move. They have to have access to food and water. They can't be tethered in a way that they could be strangled or entangled or hurt. And then there's some time periods. It can't be more than 10 hours in a 24-hour period. If you do it at night between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., it can be only 15 minutes at a time, and they have to be attended. So there's just some guidelines on how you'll have to be able to do that now. Impound of a neglected animal. Right now, when animal control goes out and they want to impound an animal, they can go out and legally they should be able to impound the animal. We don't actually have an ordinance if somebody doesn't want to give up the animal. So this simply is just the ordinance saying that if we're there legally to impound your vehicle, your animal, you have to give it to us. The nuisance is not a new one, the noise, but this one is one of the biggest pains for animal control and for our courts. The things that we actually put in here are things that they're already doing. It just lays out the guidelines on what is needed for this to be charged. These scenarios, a lot of the times, are he said, she said kind of scenarios. So it lays it out. Animal control has to investigate it or physically see it. Then they can go ahead and charge it You have to have two separate reporting parties that are not from the same household. We can charge it then, or we need some kind of video evidence, and that's laid out as 15 minutes of continuous noise, whatever that is from the animal squawking, barking, meowing, whatever it is. And one of those things will have to exist for us to be able to give a citation. Animals prohibited in the city. We just added you know we added venomous or poisonous spiders to it and also giving animal control or police the ability to impound since any prohibited animals and Limitations on animals, there's already limitations out there, how many dogs, how many cats, how many other animals you can have. This is just in addition to that saying that when you're in that scenario and somebody has more than they're allowed, that we can go ahead and impound them. This is going to be important for animal control during the hoarding cases when people have an exorbitant amount of animals that we need to deal with. Removal of animal excrement. This is an ordinance just putting out guidelines Proper removal people have to pick up after their animals when they're out walking them Or they can't let it become obscene in their own yards affecting people on either side of them Next one we're talking about is prairie dogs. This is not a conversation about whether you can or can't that already exists This is simply guidelines that if there is going to be a prairie dog extermination on what people have to do throughout the process. It mostly deals with signage. Seven days prior to any kind of extermination that you put signs out, they have to be so big, they have to be so high off the ground. They have to include emergency numbers, what kind of poison or bait they're going to use, contact numbers in case there's a problem. And then they have to be posted throughout the extermination and two days post the final application of whatever they're using. Public sales of animals. This is something that's just going along with state statute. This is just an ordinance municipally that people can't. sell animals in public spaces. This is to address folks that we've all seen when you go to King Soopers or you go to Safeway or Walmart and there's just people selling animals out of the back of their vehicles. So there's an ordinance prohibiting that. Protective impoundment. This is something animal control deals with pretty frequently. And there's just nothing on the books to kind of give guidelines for it. And that's when we have to take people's animals In other instances when there's not necessarily something wrong with the animal or an animal attack or they're at large, it's when people are arrested or someone's having a mental health crisis or somebody's being evicted and the people aren't there during the eviction, there's animals there. This is just guidelines on getting us through how animal control is going to continue to do that. After impoundment, we have feeding of wild animals. I can't feed wild animals except for songbirds and perching birds. And this'll cut down on, we have instances in the city where people feed animals that we probably shouldn't be feeding, then they wanna stay around in the neighborhood, and they start bothering the neighbors, so that'll address that. Cost of impoundment, this is just a procedure for our fact-finding hearings when they go. We can do the fines on the front end, and this is going to speed up the process and get the animals out quicker and really hold the owners accountable to get to the end result where they need to be. Contempt right now in our municipal courts. We have a problem with They can order a pet owner to do something and if they don't there's really no recourse. So this is adding contempt For not doing what the courts have asked you to do in these animal cases So it'll put a little teeth to that when the judge asked somebody to do something. There's actually gonna be a recourse for it now Harassment of wildlife is gonna be an ordinance that we're gonna put in there. That is You can't harassing wildlife means we're talking dens eggs other wildlife You can't go and disturb them and disrupt them and break things and cause damage to it And you can't have your animals do it either really can't send your dog out to go tear something up or anything like that and Then I think finally we have livestock We don't have a ton of livestock in the city of Thornton, but there are a few places and this is simply some basic necessity stuff making it so people have to have humane living conditions for livestock if they're gonna keep it in the city. Food, water, shelter if needed, things like that. Recommendations, we recommend that we approve the ordinance changes. That's it, do we have any questions?

Any questions from council? I know we had lots of conversation in the planning sessions about this. Mayor Pro Tem, would you please introduce item 14B?

Yes, thank you. I'd like to introduce an ordinance amending Chapter 6, Animals of the City Code. And I move for its approval.

Second.

Thank you. Approval of the ordinance on first reading has been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Mayor Pro Tem, you have the option to go first as you made the motion.

Yeah, thank you. Well, there's a few things here that are getting fixed. One of them, thank you for the prairie dog thing. I think I brought that up over a year ago when the church had exterminated a bunch of prairie dogs and the community was kind of like, we had no idea that was even happening. And what happened to them, it was kind of like they disappeared into thin air. So I think it's just great that we have some notice of, you know, if there is an extermination that people know that's happening in their neighborhood, if notification of the Different chemicals that are used of that and stuff like that. So thank you so much for that secondly for my friend of about 15 years mark Gormley one of his big issues and one of the reasons he wanted to run for council was dog poop and So thank you for that too. I spoke with animal control at the event the other night and just talked a little bit about what that's gonna look like as far as enforcement. So I'm sure we'll be asking more questions about that because I'm sure we'll have residents that would like to report Things that happen I see little signs all over the neighborhoods of like, please don't let your dog poop on my grass So I know it's a big issue and so thank you for that as well And then anything that involves the humane treatment of animals is important to me I know it's important to the rest of the city. So thank you for the cleanup of the language Any additional discussion I'll just thank you and there's the staff for all the work putting this together.

Would you please pull the council council?

Please cast your votes Motion passed unanimously, Your Honor.

Thank you. Item 14C is an ordinance adopting the Fourth Amendment to the 2026 budget, amending Section 1 of Ordinance 3751, making appropriations for the City of Thornton, Colorado for the fiscal year 2026 for all funds except that appropriations for certain individual projects shall not lapse at year-end but continue until the project is completed or canceled. And I'll turn this over to Erica Senate budget and operations director to present this item.

Good evening. Mayor mayor pro tem and council. So, tonight I am presenting the 4th amendment to the 2026 budget. The only item on this budget amendment appropriates. Seven hundred and sixty six thousand eight hundred and forty seven dollars in the governmental capital fund to fund the community development block grant, or 2026 annual action plan, which includes funding for the homeless outreach team code compliance assistance program also called code cap. The senior paint is on program. future eligible projects or programs as identified by the housing strategy, and city administrative costs associated with this program. Funding for the 2026 annual action plan will be fully covered by HUD. And with that, staff recommends approval of this ordinance on first reading, and we're happy to take questions.

Any questions from council? All right, Council Member Morris, would you please introduce item 14C?

like to introduce an ordinance adopting the fourth amendment to the 2026 budget amending section one of ordinance 3751 making appropriations for the city of thornton colorado for the fiscal year 2026 for all funds except that appropriations for certain individual projects shall not lapse at year end but continue until the project is completed or cancelled and i move for its approval second

Thank you. Approval of the ordinance on first reading has been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Council Member Morris, you have the option to go first as you made the motion.

Thanks for the presentation. Great to see this money coming back into our community and happy to support it.

Any additional discussion? I'll just say thank you as well. Please call the council.

Council, please cast your votes. Motion passed unanimously, Your Honor.

Thank you. Items 14D and E are an ordinance submitting to the registered electors of the City of Thornton, Colorado, proposed amendments to Section 4.5 of the Thornton City Charter regarding vacancies to require that any member of the Thornton City Council, including the Mayor, shall be deemed to have resigned and vacated the member's office upon formally declaring candidacy for any elected office other than Thornton City Council Member or Mayor and a resolution approving an intergovernmental agreement between Adams County Clerk and Recorder and the City, providing for the November 3rd, 2026 Thornton Special Municipal Election to be held as part of the coordinated mail ballot election to be conducted by the Adams County Clerk and Recorder. And I'll turn the server to Sean McCullough, Senior Assistant City Attorney, to present this item.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, members of Council. I'm here to give a brief presentation on this ordinance. I would ask Voters whether to approve a so-called resigned to run provision in the charter And just by way of some quick background Council reviewed draft language That would implement this resigned to run requirement in the Charter and direct the staff at the July 21st planning session to draft this ordinance And Council requested one minor change, which was to remove a sentence providing that Council Members and the Mayor are elected to serve the residents of Thornton and remain focused on those duties. And Council also was provided estimated costs that Council Member Russell mentioned earlier. And so if this ordinance is approved and the amendment is referred at the upcoming November election, it would require a special election, um, coordinated with the county, which we estimate to cost about 65,000 to 70,000. Um, and then there's the related that if council does approve this ordinance, um, we need to be signed with the county to coordinate the special election on the, on this ballot question. Um, if. This question is instead referred at the twenty twenty seven regular municipal election. There'd be no additional cost. The city would be coordinating the regular municipal election with the county anyway, so we could just tack on the ballot question then. And regardless of whether it's referred at the upcoming election or in twenty, twenty seven, the amendment could result in additional costs to fill vacancies. as a result of the resigned to run requirement and the special election that the city conducted to fill Ward 1 vacancy in 2025 was $78,000 or so to fill. A similar vacancy would probably cost around then. and just so what what is a resign to run amendment look like well at least under this ordinance it would make it so if a council member or the mayor formally declares their candidacy for another elected office that's not on city council they're deemed to have resigned and vacated their office upon doing so so it's automatic and no action is required by council the purpose of the amendment would be to encourage and ensure that City council members in the mayor remain focused on their duties to the council, the city, and their residents, and aren't diverted away to running a campaign for a non city elected office. And. What does it mean to formally declare a candidacy? The ordinance describes it as filing paperwork, like a candidate affidavit, a nominating petition, those sorts of paperwork and. Lastly, the ordinance, just so the city knows that council member or the mayor is running for a non city office. The city clerk has to be notified within 10 days upon. A member of council formally declaring the candidacy for another elected office. And so here's just the actual text of the amendment. It would be put in Charter Section 4.5, which addresses vacancies, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Are there any questions from Council? All right, Councilmember Byrd, oh, Councilmember Russell.

Yeah, just for clarity, and again, I'm going to reemphasize what I was emphasizing earlier. By paying for this now versus next year with the coordination of elections, the effect of this ballot question does not change anything if we were to move it to 2027 because of the current election cycles not taking place at 2028. Is that statement correct?

Well, if it were adopted at this election, then if a member of council decides to run for another office in 2027.

But there are no elections in 2027, not for the state or for the county. There might be some school. Or the federal position.

Yeah, I'm not aware of the election. I reviewed the 2025 election. I saw some school district elections, and that was about it. So, yeah, in effect, there wouldn't be an impact, I guess.

All right. I just want to make that very clear.

Any other questions? Council Member Byrd, would you please introduce Item 14D?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'd like to introduce an ordinance submitting to register electors of the City of Thornton, Colorado, proposed amendments to Section 4.5 of the Thornton City Charter regarding vacancies to require that any member of the Thornton City Council, including the mayor, shall be deemed to have resigned and vacated the member's office upon formally declaring candidacy for an elected office other than Thornton City Council member or mayor and ask for its approval. Second.

Thank you. Approval of the ordinance on first reading has been moved and seconded. I'll open it for discussion. Council Member Byrd, you have the option to go first as you made the motion.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I think this is a very important thing to bring to the voters now. In 2024, we had council members argue that residents deserve to choose their representatives the right way rather than to wait through an appointed decision. That's why we hold special elections now within 120 days rather than waiting until the next election cycle and having council appoint that. Many of the members on this council were in support of that. In fact, one actually benefited from this. So the office holders shouldn't be able to use council seats as a springboard to other offices without first letting voters weigh in on that. either the principle kind of holds or it doesn't. For cost effectiveness in this situation, the 2025 special election costs us more than what we're estimating would cost us to add this to the ballot anyway. So I think this is a very easy decision to move forward with it now so that we don't end up with multiple vacancies potentially in the future and cost the city even more money down the road. Thank you.

I will not be supporting this ballot issue because it's just penalizing experienced leaders, and it's also a burden on the city taxpayers and depriving residents of the representatives that they chose to elect.

Thank you.

Council Member Russell.

Yes, I'd echo and I completely agree with Council Member Byrd's statements. I don't have objection to the ballot question, but I'd like to ask for a point of information from our City Attorney. I would like to propose a motion to amend the resolution date from November 3rd, 2026 to November 2nd, 2027.

the thornton regular scheduled municipal election is that appropriate to do now or on item 14e there's a motion and a second on the floor is that correct there is that's correct you could make an alternative motion that changed the date in section two of the ordinance to uh november whatever the exact date would be 2027. okay then i would like to make that motion if if i can add there's there's some statutes that require when a charter amendment

There's a window when you can introduce a charter amendment. I think it's 120 days before the election, so this would be well outside that window.

So we would then need to, in order to change the date, then we would need to bring this back next summer?

Right, yeah, to satisfy the applicable statutes, the charter amendments.

Okay.

So the motion is withdrawn.

Motion has to be withdrawn. We can't do it for the state.

Just for clarity, for record, the motion is withdrawn. Yes. All right. So the current motion on the floor is for the existing policy. Any other discussion, Council Member Russell?

Nope. That's my best effort to try and save a few dollars.

Council Member Martinez.

Yeah, I would first just like to say thank you to Council Member Russell for speaking to this during his comments to the public. And I agree with him 100% on the timing of the issue. Now, I don't, I'm not completely convinced that this is something that will actually achieve the goals that it sets out to do. I don't necessarily, I'm not convinced that this question is going to deter anybody from doing what they want and running for whatever office they want at the cost of the city. Now, if we could come up with a policy that did that, I'd be more amenable to it. But the fact is, is that this policy does not need to be voted on in this upcoming election at the cost to the taxpayers of $65,000 to $70,000. We could just as easily do that without incurring those additional costs in the 2027 election. So if we're going to have this question to the voters, Why should we impose an additional cost to them, especially at a time when we are anticipating a budget recommendation from our staff that includes sacrifices from all of the departments throughout the city because of the struggling economy, because of the lower than expected sales tax receipts, which our city relies on to function. we are asking our teams to take a step back, to not grow as quickly as they can, or to even potentially keep some of the vacancies out there and eliminate them. So this is not a time of abundance right now, this is a time of caution. And so this is when these types of times require the utmost commitment to fiscal responsibility. And so moving forward with a motion like this, put a ballot question out there that doesn't need to be asked at the cost of seventy thousand dollars sixty five to seventy thousand dollars we could easily do the same thing with minimal repercussions the next year without incurring those costs i believe that would be irresponsible and so i'd ask our our this council to really think about our commitment to fiscal responsibility because we can say that we're gonna be fiscally responsible, but if we take actions to the contrary, well, we're introducing that risk for no reason. And so I don't think it's fair to the staff. I don't think it's fair to the taxpayers. And so I would support that question from Council Member Russell. And I would also like to ask for a further point of information to our city attorney regarding a potential motion to amend this is if the if the motion was specifically to give direction to staff to introduce this ballot measure as is within the window that is acceptable with the law 120 days or whatever it is if the motion was to give that direction to do that in the future would that address some of the legal concerns that was brought up that Sean there would still need to be an ordinance adopted by council within that 120 to 60 day window referring the ballot question to the voters sure but if the motion was to give staff direction to bring forward that ordinance within the window in 2027 we just come back next yes summer it would be the potential motion would be to give staff direction to do that

within the time window so we would have the proper ordinance within the right time but we're just giving you direct clear direction to do that in a point in the future well under your new policy 4.2 direction comes through a planning session for these types of legislative matters i suppose you could give us direction to do that tonight if there was support for that and but Again, any council at any time could change that direction. So it's not an official action, obviously, on the ordinance.

Okay. Well, in that case, I'm just going to let us decide tonight on what we're going to do. I made my point pretty clear that I think we need to be committed to fiscal responsibility. If we want to go forward with this, I'd like to hear some arguments of why we didn't need to spend the extra money this year when we could do the same thing in 2027 without any additional costs. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Council Member Alge?

Thank you for the presentation. And I have been wrestling with this from the start when Madam Mayor presented it. I have talked to colleagues up here on both sides of this issue, and at the end of the day, You know, I do agree with Council Member Russell and Council Member Martinez in this specific issue. You know, we have the option that we can do it next year with no cost to the city because it will be with the municipal election. Now, granted, on the flip side, the turnout's going to be bigger this year with the midterm election, granted. But with the mayoral election next year, and it's an open seat, I think the turnout will be higher, maybe not as high as the midterm. But still, I am concerned about the optics of, you know, spending $70,000 when we're facing a pretty significant budget deficit for next year. And that's been keeping me awake at night literally on my own, just reviewing the packet. But as I said, I have talked to my colleagues on both sides of this issue and weighed their input. But with that being said, I have made the decision to not support this as is written tonight. I will, however, I do think it will pass. With that being said, I will vote for the IGA. So if this does pass, I will vote for the IGA. Thank you.

Any additional discussion? I'll add my comments as well because I know a lot of the concern has been two years ago we had a similar ballot initiative come up that I was very concerned about the cost. A lot of my concern was that we were not transparent about the cost to the public as we brought that forward. What happened is that that came forward and it overwhelmingly passed two years ago. And then last year, we did another ballot initiative for the same question, but related to the mayor, instead of just city council, and it also overwhelmingly passed. What that has told me, among other things, is that the community wants a voice in their elected officials and what they do. I did run for another office in 2022, and I got the question, fairly, on whether or not I thought I could do the job of both. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if I think I can do the job of both. What matters is whether my constituents think I can do the job of both. I want them to have the opportunity to answer that question, and it was feedback I got while I was running for another office. It was criticism I got while running for another office. And the request that I got was to bring this forward so that the community could vote on it. So I will be supporting this tonight. Would you please call the council?

Council, please cast your votes. Motion passed five to four, Your Honor.

Thank you. Council Member Byrd, would you please introduce item 14E?

thank you madam mayor i'd like to bring forward a resolution approving an intergovernmental agreement between the adams county clerk and recorder and the city providing for the november 3rd 2026 thornton special municipal election to be held as part of the coordinated mail ballot election to be conducted by the adams county clerk and recorder and i ask for its approval second

Thank you. Approval of the resolution has been moved and seconded. Is there any additional discussion?

No, I said my piece in the last minute.

Clerk, would you please call the Council?

Council, please cast your votes. Motion passed by Majority 63, Your Honour.

Thank you. Item 15 is adjournment, and having no further business, the meeting is now adjourned at 8.41 p.m. However, we are not finished. I will go ahead and call to order the special meeting of the Thornton Development Authority at 8.41 p.m. Can I please get a roll call of the authority?

Chairperson Coleman?

Here.

Commissioner Acunto?

Here.

Commissioner Algi?

Here.

Vice Chairperson Ayala? Here. Commissioner Byrd?

Here.

Commissioner Martinez? Here. Commissioner Morris?

Here.

Commissioner Russell? Here. Commissioner Salazar. Here. Core, Mr. President, Your Honor.

Thank you. Item three is approval of the agenda. Are there any staff changes to the agenda this evening?

I'm sorry. There are no proposed changes. Thank you.

Thank you. Authority, any changes to the agenda? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the agenda?

So moved. Second.

Thank you. Approval of the agenda has been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Clerk, please poll the commissioners.

Authority, please cast your votes. Motion passed. Your name, Ms. Lerner.

Thank you. Item four is approval of the minutes. Is there a motion to approve the May 12, 2026 minutes? So moved.

Second.

Thank you. Approval of the minutes has been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, clerk, please pull the authority.

Authority, please cast your votes. Motion passed unanimously, Your Honor.

Thank you. Item 5 is business. Item 5A is a resolution authorizing conveyance of property from the Thornton Development Authority to the City of Thornton for the construction of the Thornton Parkway multimodal path from I-25 to Grant Street. I'll turn this over to Jason Pierce, Infrastructure Engineering Director, to present this item.

Good evening, members of the Board. Clicker. Okay, purpose for my being here tonight is to acquire right of way, temporary construction easements and slope easements from 2 TDA South properties to construct our multimodal path along Thornton Parkway. This map depicts the location of the project. It's basically at the interchange of I, 25 and Thornton Parkway on the South side of Thornton Parkway going East towards the grand street. A little bit of information on the project. This is an eight-foot-wide concrete multi-use pathway. It's 1,700 feet long. Again, located on the south side of Thornton Parkway. The approximate cost of the project is $1.9 million. Funding is going to come from federal funding of $796,000, $996,000 in state funding, and then Thornton's contribution is $200,000. It's led by City of Thornton with CDOT oversight. The strategic focus alignment on here is connected communities. Our schedule is for right-of-way acquisition. We're currently going through that now. CDOT clearance is expected for October of 2026, which gives us permission to move forward in the construction phase. We'll be advertising for bids in January 27, plan to begin construction in March, and then completing the project in August of 2027. So some details on the right-of-way. This is the corner of Grand Street and Thornton Parkway. This is an extension to complete the right-of-way along the south side of Thornton Parkway. Our slope easements, it's a very steep slope coming down from the parkway to the south, and so we need to acquire slope easements for construction and future maintenance. And this is basically extended from Civic Center Parkway across Thornton Parkway. Six, sorry, Civic Center Drive. You can see here in the depiction the in gray is the proposed Multi-use pathway and then south of that is the slope that will be constructed for the project therefore the slope easements are necessary and then temporary construction easements these are basically needed to give the contractor a little bit more room to complete the work and At the completion of the project these will essentially go away. They won't encumber the property any longer and So staff's recommendation is dedication of right-of-way temporary construction easements and permanent slope easements necessary to construct our multi-use pathway along Thornton Parkway. Any questions?

Are there any questions from the Commission? All right, hearing none, Commissioner Russell, would you please introduce Item 5A?

Yes, I'd like to introduce a resolution authorizing conveyance of property from the Thornton Development Authority to the City of Thornton for the construction of the Thornton Parkway multimodal path from I-25 to Grant Street and ask for its approval. Second.

Thank you. Approval of the resolution has been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? And Commissioner Russell, you have the option to go first.

Thank you for the presentation, and it's excellent to get a multimodal pathway over that part of our city. There's a lot of commuters all the time, so happy to support this.

Commissioner Martinez. Yeah, I just also want to thank the staff for their work into this, and also just show my appreciation for all the, you know, it's a combination of federal, state, and local efforts on this, and I think those are some of the most interesting and compelling projects. I'm really glad that it's happening on this particular part right here in front of Civic Center Complex, and yeah, it's much needed. Thank you very much.

All right. If there's no additional discussion, would you please pull the authority?

Authority, please cast your votes. Motion passed unanimously, Your Honor.

Thank you. Item 6 is adjournment, and having no further business, we are now adjourned at 8.47 p.m.