City Council - Regular Meeting

Hey, hey, hey.

Come on. Yep. Okay.

No worries. I do that. Yeah, too. Thanks, Good evening and welcome to the March 9th, 2026 premeating. Are there any questions for this evening's agenda?

Okay, seeing none, we'll go to council reports. Um, sorry, I had a few things, but um, I mainly wanted to mention uh that I went to the chamber uh, the Westminster Chamber Government Affairs Committee meeting and they did have a question around and I know that uh, deputy city man city manager Larry Door was there as well and he kind of took it up but I just kind of wanted to reiterate for the body. They had a question around um House Bills 1221, 1222, and 1223 and the tax implications for Westminster, like Westminster sales tax implications. And um Larry did say he would get back to them with that. I just wanted to throw that as well, like to let this council and this body know that people are asking questions about that and we will get them more information. Hopefully if we could get all copied maybe on that response that'd be helpful just so we know um if it needs to be something that we take up as well. Um, also went to the Upland's uh, there was a tour that our uh, community services department put on uh, for those who could attend and it was really helpful kind of getting some insight onto some of the building implications of both city state or city state and national kind of ordinances and um, policies around building. And I know that councelor Ireland asked some questions that we're excited for follow-ups on as well. And so if if I would also like to be included on on those responses as well if if and when we get those.

Thanks. Thank you, Council Ar.

Okay. So I went to AC Rep this morning. They actually opposed 1221, 1222, and 1223. There is a new bill coming up from Senator Scott Bright. um about by he says he has bipartisan support is child care funding that he has found to pay more of the co-pays for parents. um it'll be 10 to 17% of their co-pay and he's getting the money from the interest of the family leave act 43 million and most of it's going to be funded to the counties to distribute and I guess it's going to be income based but I don't know what the income is yet. Um, we also as opposed was 11:30 mandatory diaper changing stations in every public private business building which is amounts to about $5,000 and they were afraid that some businesses may just close their bathrooms because they can't afford it. So, it was like an unfunded unfunded mandate the businesses were against. Um, those were the main bills that they talked about today, but there's other ones coming up like the one I just talked about, child care. Um, I I went to the Uplands um, affordable housing apartment units. The thing I'm most concerned about is they're not getting filled. And the reason being is market rate apartments are getting almost as cheap as they are. They're like $200 a month difference, the developer said. And so he's having a hard time filling them

even though they're nice, but the the cost is not much different. Um, I talked to him about what regulations we're doing to building and he said there's regulations from the federal government, the state, and the city that affected how much it cost to build um, affordable housing. So, he's supposed to get back to me with those regulations and how much they're costing per unit. Um, I did go to the downtown, took a tour, and we discussed the free parking and how that could work. Um there's a couple ideas. Maybe just during the day it's free, maybe at night, not two-hour parking. We discussed many of things like that. um how to vitalize it by having different like they have balloons down there in a couple spots, but to have them all around that people have to find and walk through the whole downtown to find that kind of thing to um vitalize it and and seating for restaurants outside. Those three things I know help with downtowns. and I'm going to take another class I saw for retail and see what other things they have for us. So, um I also went to Adams County State of the County. We had a whole discussion about power which was very educational. Um let's just say that green energy is expensive. It's more expensive than traditional energy. They're trying to go toward ger geothermal and solar and not solar um nuclear but the problem is a transformer takes

like 5 years to to get once you order it. We don't have enough linemen to lay the lines and most our underground infrastructure needs to be replaced. So utility bills are not going down based on what we heard. So, it was educational, but it was also not good to hear. But anyway, we heard it and that it was good to know what it takes to get the energy that we have. Anyway, that's what I learned. Go ahead.

Thank you, Johnson. Um, I I did, you know, a bunch of stuff, but the highlights for me were uh the PD promotional ceremony and I really appreciated, you know, that all the staff that attended, including including having, you know, some of the firefighters support their other public safety uh workers. And you know, something that I learned while being there is the promotional ceremony includes the dispatch workers, which I think is great because I think they're a critical part of that system and they, you know, they work the overnights and the the the type of shifts that that that all the officers work as well. And so it was welld deserved their promotions were and the fact that they got to be recognized along with the PD promotions. Um I along with um some of the other counselors went to do the uh downtown Westminster um tour to talk about um our our development down there and what the city is investing and and it was a great educational tour and I appreciated the conversation around bringing the train stop uh on over across 88 because I think that's a great idea and the vision that they have for it um and the investment that's done there has been terrific. Um, and finally, I went to the Ralston house dinner with the mayor uh yesterday night and we saw um, you know, several of our Adams County commissioners, some um, the the mayor promp from North Glenn um, and and a bunch of folks. It was a great event and I appreciated the city they appreciated the city's support.

Thank you, Mayor Pro. Um, let's see. I attended Dr. cog last week, but it was mostly just an update on the charge ahead in Senate. So, I would imagine our um our staff are aware of um what the opportunities are with that. Um I did also attend one of my favorite conferences in the area. It's the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute and um one of the uh sessions that I went to was about um the value capture from transit in an area through other types of um you know the increase in sales tax revenue for example, property tax revenue and the like. being able to calculate what that is and to um apply it back into the community as um opportunity for increasing social equity. And so um the uh one of the examples that they went over was the Tucson street car and they have a free fair um that's provided and their their ridership is really just um double what it even used to be precoid and I remember from our time in um there was a when the free fair was um when we had the free fair available ailable to um everybody in the um along RTD that um I had spoken with the manager at um Olive Garden and they said, "Oh yeah, a lot of our employees used the transit and they didn't normally, but they sort of stopped once the free fair was gone." And so got me thinking about, well, we have

some transit areas and um how might we be able to get to the point of at least free ridership in our transit areas um for employees and residents. And so I did call in bug Dave um just to start thinking about um at least in the downtown area there is a GD that we have and is there some way that that GD could be utilized for neighborhood pass or some the RTD neighborhood I'm forgetting what eco pass. um we weren't sure whether or not it could be something that the um taxexempt affordable housing projects and therefore residents would be able to take advantage of, but more research to be done on on that because I know Boulder Junction has affordable housing and they have one of their mills within the GI there. Um I think they have three mills associated with their GD that allows them to every resident to get a free pass, transit pass. So, I'm just trying to think of um both in the West Westminster station area um although that G is just for parking, but at least, you know, starting with the downtown, is that something that we could look at? Um so, that was a bit of a long- winded ask, but um I'd love to be able to get free ridership for employees and residents around the the downtown site to start ideally utilizing G as revenue source and looking into it at least and hopefully getting um our affordable residents the same benefit. So this is what happens when I sorry um and then um

I guess I'll stop there. I I know I'm trying to get more information about a um a fresh food opportunity. Um so that's just something that hopefully um we can get invited um councelor to meet with me on that. So anyway, that's we'll look into it and see if there's anything that we could bring back. Um yeah, I'll stop there.

All right. Thank you. It was a very busy week. I also attended the Rosson House uh annual dinner that they had as councelor Johnson mentioned that was fantastic. And um for those who don't know, they are an excellent organization to support in our community. They um serve our abused children. And uh while they are all the way in liquid, they do serve our res uh constituents here in Westminster. Yesterday I had the honor of attending um the Nepali women thrive um international women's day celebration. It was really incredible. Um it was goodness I think four hours long but there was dancing and there was uh a overwhelmingly uh impressive panel of women. Um there was attorneys and doctors and lawyers and um a woman who climbed uh Mount Everest and it just we got to hear from some really remarkable people. So, um, with that, I just want to wish everyone a very happy International Women's Day, uh, and month. Um, and so, a big thank you to them. Also, their center is over on 76th in Bradburn. If you haven't taken a look, it's, uh, very impressive, and they're still building it out. They're still working through some permits, and they let me know, but they're going to sit down with me soon. So, just be ready for some notes on that. Um, and then I also attended that downtown uh development opportunities tour which was very interesting getting to learn about as Christie uh councelor Ireland mentioned. We talked about um the parking. We also talked about how to activate some of the spaces that are not built out yet, you know, while we wait for things to come. How can we use the land? How can we um get people in there in the meantime? and um maybe through art, maybe through um you know the there's a space right beside the Alamo we might use soon. So that was very exciting. Um also attended the AC Rep State of the Region uh for Adams County

and that was um very interesting. Lots of discussion on energy for sure this year. Um attended the JECO quarterly breakfast with city manager Andrews and uh that was very interesting. We had a presentation on our unhoused uh initiative, the IGA that we formed with Jefferson County and uh they promised that they would be coming back to us in about April to um get us together again and kind of rem visit what we've accomplished and then see where we want to go from there. Uh attended the PD promotion ceremony. That was a lot of fun. So congratulations to those officers. uh lots of good cake and uh also attended the Porch Light five-year ceremony. So, a big congratulations to Porch Light. They've made it to uh five years this year and um they also do incredible work serving uh constituents in our community for um women often survivors of domestic violence and their children. And I'd like to just do a quick shout out to some of the organizations serving our um residents. if you're looking for someone to support um these are organizations that can use your time and your money and it's highly valued. Um because of that conflict I had to miss the Jeffco sip and support gala but I promised to attend next year trade off. And then I had the honor of being invited to Read Across America um the event. I think it was Tuesday and uh was invited to Mesa Elementary, read to a whole couple classes actually, not just a class of uh second grade students, and that was so much fun. It was really exciting. And um they're, you know, climbing all over you while you're trying to read a book. But it was a lot of fun. It was really great. So um it's been a really fun week. All right, with that, uh, we have a couple of presentations this evening. So, let's move on to presentation one, city manager.

Thank you. I'll turn it over to Chris Lindsay. And Chris, jump right in.

Thank you, uh, mayor. Mayor Perman, Council, Chris Lindseay, assistant city manager. We're going to try to briefly cover two items before the meeting starts this evening. The first one is around a request uh that the clerk has received from uh both county clerks and recorder to hold a joint voter service and polling center at city hall this November. Um, a voter service and polling center or a VSPC to save me a few words, uh, is a physical in-person location where someone can register to vote, update your voter registration, request a newer replacement ballot, drop off your voted mailin ballot, or vote on an uh, ADA accessible ballot marking device. Um both of the counties identified a need for a joint VSPC in the area of 92nd in Sheridan which is right outside. Um this would allow for uh especially some coordination so when an Adams County voter shows up at a Jeffco VSPC or a Jeffco voter shows up at an Adams County VSPC, they could have both of uh those staffs and voting machines and more importantly ballot styles right here. Um, this will create a couple of operational issues that uh the city manager uh will address uh around parking cues and security and additional security needs. Um, I'm here tonight because uh I've got a recommendation um that if we seek to have the VSPC at city hall this November that we cancel the study session that's going to take place or scheduled to take place on November 2nd to allow voting until 7:00 p.m. that Monday evening here at city hall. and additionally give our security folks um a little bit of a breather that evening since we're going to have extended uh hours and more security here in the building. Uh so my two questions on this item. Uh do you desire to have a VSPC at city hall this November coordination with both counties? Uh and then if uh yes, are we comfortable if we cancel the study

session on November 2nd? Okay. Councelor Z. Uh the county is paying for any extra stuff, right? Yes. I'm I'm good. Good question. Yes and yes, bro.

Um, yeah. If since the counties are chipping in, uh, absolutely yes on the first one. Uh, I can say yes to the second, though I'd like a potential caveat that if we need to reschedu, if there's something urgent that we need a study session for, we could potentially schedule if council allows kind of maybe just asking the question uh, if we could have a study session on a different potentially a different day that week uh, just farther away from that election. I don't know. just I guess maybe is my my answer to the the second one. Yes, but with the caveat. Yeah, thank you. I'm fine with it unless we need a study session like he says because there's some really pressing. Okay, councelor Johnson. Good on both. Excellent.

Yes and yes. Excellent. Okay, you have a majority by far for yes and yes. And of course, we'll make accommodations if something comes up. Thank you.

Yes. The second item uh I would like to cover tonight um is around uh our travel next week to the uh NLC uh congressional cities uh conference. As part of that, I would like to introduce Mandy Lem. She's our uh a policy and budget coordinator in our policy and budget uh division. She's the leader of our federal advocacy program and she's a tracker of all those community request uh criteria that especially we've been seeing in recent weeks from our federal offices. Um, for the four that are traveling, um, you have a folder in front of you with, uh, the travel information that's been, uh, compiled by our city clerk's office, um, and by, uh, Mandy. We have uh scheduled uh meetings this year that are confirmed with Representative Evans, Representative Patterson, and also with uh

the chief counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration. Um on Monday, we're working to confirm appointments with both uh senators as well. We'll see if that happens. um this week, this year is a little uh is a a little bit different than what we experienced last year in DC. Um Monday, next Monday turned into a travel day for those members of Congress. So many of them are coming back into DC. Uh and then Tuesday is St. Patrick's Day. Um which uh sounds like it's quite an event in DC. Uh so uh there's a lot less time for appointments to take place this year than there were uh there were last year. Um within those packets uh we have uh a little bit of what we'd like to share with the delegation members that we meet. Certainly we want to thank them for their support of previous uh earmark requests that we've made and earmark requests that we've seen. Um, we have been working within the criteria that we've received recently to uh come up with projects that are unfunded that meet uh new criteria. So, you'll see those in those packets as well. Um, and uh a couple of notes in there to help guide our conversations with the FAA as well. Um, we are working to have a dinner with uh the group. However, it's uh a little harder to schedule this year. Uh we just learned that uh Congressman Person's office is looking to uh potentially host a happy hour uh with those folks from her uh area on uh Tuesday night. Um so if that gets confirmed, that'll probably take the place of the dinner we had

scheduled. Uh we could do a dinner on Monday night. However, uh CML's uh welcome reception is also that evening. So we're open we're open to any feedback that you have uh there as well. And lastly, I would note that we've scheduled a tour uh at the Library of Congress. Mandy has scheduled a tour at the Library of Congress on uh Tuesday at 3 p.m. We have timestamp tickets there. Um we'll meet together and commute there. We also Mandy also scheduled tickets at the National Archives. Uh and the Supreme Court is open. If anyone would like to do it, those are all day tickets. Um if you have time in your schedule, we can coordinate those for you. Thank you.

Absolutely. uh thoughts, questions? I'll just add I think that the dinner is nice to have. Um I also think that schedules are short and so traveling if we're comfortable using Congresswoman Patterson's happy hour as our get together. Unless there's any objections. I don't see any. I think we're good. Let's not overdo it. Thank you. Sounds good.

All right. Well then with that uh it is 6:55 and that concludes our premeating and we will see you all at the dis at Oh, oh. Ooh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

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Good evening and welcome to the Westminster City Council meeting of March 9th, 2026. Please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you for joining us this evening. Please remember that our meetings are governed by the rules of decorum posted inside the chamber doors. We ask all attendees to maintain a respectful environment. No disruptions, threats, or audible expressions of support or opposition are permitted. Signs and placards are prohibited and all attendees must remain seated in designated areas. If you wish to speak during public comment, please sign up in the lobby. Signup closes at 7:15 p.m. City clerk, roll call, please.

Councelor Barahas, present. Mayor Carmelia, present. Councelor Isadi, here. Councelor Hot, present. Councelor Ireland, here. Councelor Johnson here. And Mayor Promla here. Thank you. That brings us to our minutes. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? Mayor Pertam Namela, I move to approve the minutes of the February 23rd, 2026 city council meeting as presented. Thank you. Councelor Barahas, second. Thank you. Any uh all those in favor? I I

Any opposed? Okay, that moves us on to our presentations and we have two proclamations this evening and the first will be led by councelor Hop. If I could have members of the inclusivity board, see all right so this is um um the for no ru day. All right. Whereas residents of Westminster, Colorado recognize the celebration of no ruse making the Persian New Year. And whereas the cultural celebration of no ruse promotes inclusivity, social and environmental justice and reminds all people who celebrate to speak, act, and do positive deeds for their community, contributing to the world regardless of ethnicity, ideology, or lifestyle. And whereas on March 20th, 2026, the city of Westminster recognizes the Persian-American community in celebration of no noos, making new beginnings for people as nature renews itself. And whereas the community sets intentions for love, health, abundance, beauty, reflection, growth, and enlightenment. And whereas no ruse day connects the Persian community and the community at large. Now therefore, I, Claire Carmelia, mayor of the city of Westminster, on behalf of the entire city, council, and staff, do hi do hereby proclaim March 20th, 2026 Norse Day, and call upon the people of Westminster to join me in recognizing this momentous occasion and the Persian community.

And then, um, would you like to introduce yourself? I'm Rich Chamberlain on the inclusivity board. Also a member of the Bahigh faith who also observed Narus. Alan Farb also a member of the inclusivity board. All right. Thank you so much. We got a picture real quick. So all together here. Do you want to Okay. One on each side.

Thank you. Thanks. Thank you so much. Councelor Johnson will read the next proclamation. It's on. Gotta stay up here. Yeah. You have to call us. Yeah. Welcome back. And may I say a word? Yeah.

Of course. So, thank you everyone. Um, tonight I'll be presenting the proclamation for Aid Alfar. Whereas Ramadan is recognized worldwide by Muslims of multiple cultural, ethnic her cultural, and ethnic heritage as a holy month of fasting and spiritual renewal. And whereas Ramadan lasts 29 to 30 days based on the timing of the crescent moon having started February 17th 2026 and ending after sunset March 20th. And whereas the conclusion of Ramadan is commemorated as aid al which translates to festival of breaking the fast a joyous occasion marked by sharing sweets gifts and good good tidings with family and friends and neighbors. And whereas Westminster has a thriving Muslim community whose members contribute to our our city as doctors, nurses, teachers, small business owners, volunteers, students, and more. And whereas the American Muslim community reflects a broad range of ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds, including m many Muslims, Americans tracing their roots back in to the African slave trade and African diaspora. And whereas recognizing Ramadan provides an opportunity to acknowledge the long-standing presence of many contributions of Muslim Americans, residents to our community, and our nation. Now, therefore, I, Clare Carmelia, do hereby proclaim March 20th, 2026 as the end of Ramadan, and affirm our city's commitment to ensuring that our city remains welcome and compassionate and that we pursue policies that respect dignity and rights of all people regardless of race, religion, immigration status, or country of origin. this signed the 9th of March 2026. Thank you.

Thank Thank you. Just uh one one word if I may. I contacted the uh Metro North Islamic uh center uh to ask if they would like to come receive this proclamation. And it just so happens that they are breaking their fast as we speak. Uh so they really didn't want to uh really didn't want to come uh at this particular time. Uh but I did promise to deliver this uh to them and and we'll do so. Thank you for your attention.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. That moves us to public comment. Public comment is an opportunity for the public to address council on any issues or items pertaining to city business. During public comment, each speaker will have up to three minutes for their comments. Staff will follow up with questions and outstanding issues. There are no public hearings on tonight's agenda. City Clerk, would you please report the number of email and voicemail comments received, the number of individuals signed up to speak this evening, and then call the first speaker?

We received no voicemails, one email, and we have six people signed up to speak. The first person signed up to speak is Ted Bolinger.

Welcome.

Hello. Hi, my name is Ted Bowlinger and I am here to gauge interest as well as initial reactions and gather comments, questions and concerns about idea for policy they have may have for the west city city of Westminster. Currently with our current political climate, people may be disheartened by the idea of politics. However, I would like to introduce a policy that would help bring the people of Westminster to more light-hearted news regarding politics. My idea for that would be to introduce a bill or policy that would force the mayor of Westminster to wear a funny hat while in office. Now, this is a very silly idea and premise. However, I do believe there are actual positive benefits to this besides making the mayor wear a funny hat when they don't want to. But one one positive benefit that I that I saw would be that it would help bring comm local community more invested within local politics as well as it would bring much needed positive media attention to West Spencer. Just imagine Channel 7 News as well as other local media gathering on sighlight-hearted story in these hard times. Now, I mentioned how we might bring local local people into pol local politics. The way I imagined that be how we would select the funny hat for the mayor to wear. My idea to select a hat, we have a contest every election cycle with a local elementary school students where they would all design their own hats and then we'd hold a local contest to decide which hat was most popular and then that with the winner we designed to an actual hat and that would be the funny hat for the mayor to wear. That is currently my idea and I believe that it would also be a great addition to our um students social studies curriculum as it would help them learn about more about local governments, how laws and policies are actually made as well as be a fun activity for I believe they would enjoy. Now I open the I floor to questions, comments and concerns.

Thank you. Do I sit back down or stay up here or you may be seated? We'll have the next speaker. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is William McCann.

Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is William McCann and I'm a long-term resident of Westminster. Public comment and city council comments give residents an opportunity to understand what their elected officials truly believe. So tonight, I invite every member of the city council to reaffirm a fundamental principle. It is the first duty of every level of American government from federal to local to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. And an affirmative response will make that commitment clear. Silence, equivocation, or disagreement will make your position clear as well. As an American citizen, I believe that Westminster deserves leadership that puts our public safety first. I hope that we will hear your commitment of this idea tonight. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Christine Wears. I am Christine Wears. I own Cocappelli Beer Company. I'm here on behalf of our center. Um, and thank you for letting me speak today. We, um, have had a problem in our center for the last month, mainly our parking. Um, and I wanted to, um, address a few things. Uh we have tried to to fix some things over there, but when um two of us, the rodeo and ourselves by the cities govern as far as parking for our particular businesses. The event center is 550 and I am in the 90s and we have less than 400 spots. And it has been a problem and it continues to be a problem. They put signage up. However, the signage is illegal because it is not in English and Spanish. So, they cannot lawfully be towed for parking in the wrong place. The signage also says event parking. Well, Cocoapelli does events. We have our Valentine dinner events, so it's confusing um our customers as well. We have had troubles with um getting in and out of the center because they're blocking access. Uh we have reported that but we are told it's it's private property. Um so then there is the issue of food vendors. We have reported it for four weeks now. Um cart a uh trailer that was not licensed period in the state does not have health um c certification. I just had my health certification. We passed.

We pay for it. We are not allowed to continue serving food if we do not. Um this particular um trailer was asked to move. It moved around to the back and continued to sell food that night. We are noticing people coming in and drinking on the way in and discarding their cans and bottles in the parking lot on our on our patio. Um we do know that it's 18 and over. There are a lot of u young ones coming in. We have a picture of one of the younger ones getting sick into a trash can about six feet away from the little food carts that are now starting to come in. There was also a 10 by10 put up across the street with vendors selling jewelry and stuffed animals. So, I mean, this is all I didn't think was legal, but it's happening. And um we're seeing drinking in vehicles. We have had a fight with the Acubara group. And um we just like to see something done. It's been a month and I can't continue to run my business this way. And several of the others in the center in the same boat. So signage doesn't work. They park there anyway. As soon as I put security out, they filled up to spots. So thank you very much for your time. Hopefully we can get it solved.

Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Donna Workheiser.

Please speak into the microphone there. There you are.

I was up here a couple months ago when they first put these dilators up saying that they were dangerous. I'm sending pictures of cars that about one in five cars can make that turn right. I have several car pictures of cars that are going over the yellow line or riding the yellow line. The dilators are bringing the traffic in from the other side. So, you have to wait to make your right hand turn until that lane is clear. Otherwise, you don't know if you're going to hit the other car. The um reflectors already messed up on the other side. And it's actually um they're having a hard time making the right turn the other way too. Um I was up here like three years ago complaining about the come and go wall behind my house. I know Obie recognizes me. Um so all the neighbors come to me say hey do something with this. So this is my second time up. I'm showing proof that this is not working. I know come and go was a problem because the planning commission planning, you know, made a mistake and rubber stamped or didn't know what they were looking at when they put the wall up because now we have a new wall that was done right. Um but yeah, I mean this doesn't seem like a big problem. Just move some of those dilators. So hopefully we'll get it done. I mean, it's the city, you know. It's not like you're dealing with the corporation that's telling you, "No, you can't have this done, you know, and making excuses why you have to have it done because somebody screwed up." Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

The the next speaker is Jamie Chavez. Good evening, mayor, city council, and city staff. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Jamie Chavez. I'm the president and CEO of the Westminster Chamber of Commerce. Over the past 11 months, through our partnership with the city, uh we have worked intentionally to bring life, energy, and connection to downtown Westminster. With just one month of planning, we launched activation over a single weekend, hosting six events in three days. Since then, we've produced 51 events in downtown Westminster, attracting more than 5,000 unique visitors. But what those numbers really represent is something bigger. They represent families dancing at Summer Sounds, children running through kids zones, neighborhood or sorry, neighbors meeting for the first time at Harvest and Handmade, and residents who asked uh when will something be happening down here now are saying, I'm so glad there's finally activity. We intentionally built a balanced calendar. 16 signature community events, 15 retail and business activation initiatives, and 20 interactive and public space programs. These aren't just gatherings. They were designed to draw people into businesses. And we are seeing that impact. Tapenburgger reported up to a 25% increase in revenue during concert nights and a 270% sorry 27% increase during New Year's Eve. Vatos Tacos has reported noticeable increases during major activation events. Our bite into downtown program generated an estimated 3,500 to 4,400 in total economic impact in a single event. The Elf scavenger hunt created over 600 business interaction touch points and generated direct sales for every participating business. Beyond direct revenue, they've we've created something that is harder to quantify, momentum. Downtown Westminster businesses have expressed that for years ideas were discussed but struggled to move forward.

Today we have a cons we have consistent programming, consistent engagement, and consistent visibility. From a fiscal stewardship standpoint, the $300,000 agreement has funded 51 events in counting. Just three years ago, a single small holiday market would cost $50,000. Additionally, the city has not had to dedicate staff resources beyond collaboration and approval processes, allowing this work to be managed efficiently while maintaining alignment with city priorities. We've also achieved 120,000 plus social media views, 9,000 plus accounts reached, nearly 4,000 page visits, and 465 new followers focused specifically on downtown Westminster. But most importantly, we have created space. Space for community, space for small businesses to thrive, space for families, and space for Westminster to feel like Westminster. Activation is not just about events. It's about identity. It's about creating a place people choose to gather. We are proud of what we built in these 11 months and we believe this is truly only the beginning. Thank you for your partnership, your collaboration, and your continued investment in creating a vibrant downtown Westminster.

Thank you. The next speaker is Tom Lampo. Welcome. Got it. Good enough. All right. All right. Hello, Westminster. I'm Tom Lampo. We're living through some incredible times. I've stated it before and I'll state it again. We're living through a spiritual battle that is manifesting itself in the natural. God has already won the battle, but our en enemy is determined to cause as much harm as possible. In the end, we'll see that God is correcting what has gone wrong and bringing us to a better life. I'm here to lift up Westminster to the Lord in prayer. So, please join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, in Jesus name, we ask that you be the God of Westminster. You're always welcome here. You're the Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. Nothing happens without you knowing of it first. We submit all things to you. Ephesians 1:22-22 states, "Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else, not only in this world, but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. You answer to no one. Your authority is above all. We are dependent on you. Father, we lift up to you all members of our military military and their families. We are living through times we don't fully understand, and our military has been called upon. Our leaders have determined this to be the best course of action. Let our leaders be mindful of the lives they are commanding. Ecclesiastes 9:18 states, "Wisdom is

better than weapons of war, but one bungler destroys much good." And in James 1:5, it states, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." Let those making decisions be dependent on you. Let them seek wisdom from you in every decision they make. Keep our military personnel safe and grant them wisdom as they perform their duties. Father, we lift up to you the children of Westminster. Your word states in Psalm 127:3, "Children are a gift from the Lord. They are a reward from him. Protect them as they go about their days. Let them be aware of their surroundings and avoid compromising situations. Guide them in their thoughts and actions and make your presence known to them. Above all, let them know your word contains truths that will assist them in navigating this world. You are our God and we are your people. In Jesus precious name we pray. Amen. Thank you guys. Have a nice night.

Thank you. That was the last speaker. Thank you, speakers. City Manager Andrews, do you have a report this evening?

Thank you, Mayor. I do have a report this evening. I could have the next slide, please. Um, this is a big one for the community. Um, by way of city update, uh, we are hosting uh, an open house for the future of the Upland's public parks. U,, so our very own Westminster Parks, Recreation, and Libraries Department is seeking the community's feedback. this week, this Wednesday, March 11th, from 5:30 to 7:30m at the MAC, which is at 3295 West 72nd Avenue. So, please drop in. That is a drop in format. So, there are no uh presentations. There's no start or end time. Um that's a bracketed time to drop in and share your ideas and help guide the planning and design of seven parcels totaling 40 acres dedicated for future public park sites in the Uplands neighborhood. More information is available at the link below which is westminster co sorry westminsterco.gov175 uplands park open space master plan you can go straight to our uh main page and uh uh connect to this. So again uh this Wednesday 5:30 to 7:30 at the MAC if you want to have a say and uh make some suggestions as to how those seven parcels uh totaling 40 acres of park space will be programmed please drop in and give us your input. Next slide, please. I have three slides on tonight's agenda. Um, of course, the premeating items have been covered uh just be prior to the start of this meeting. That was a discussion of a voter service and polling center at city hall. And we did receive direction from city council to proceed uh with an Adams County and uh Jefferson County joint voter polling station here at city hall for this upcoming election in November. at 20 uh we also had uh and covered the 2026 National League of Cities Congressional Cities conference brief briefing um for tonight. We also had two proclamations this evening. Persian New Year uh no ruse and Aid alfitter um both uh

proclamations received by our representatives of our inclusivity board. Next slide please. For city manager manager report I have three information only items in the public packet tonight. The first is on waste diversion initiatives in Westminster. The second is on open space ecosystem management. It's an overview as well as a review of pollinator practices. And then thirdly, uh an update for our community and city council on water supply and uh drought update. There's really rich information in all three of those. And if folks haven't read those, please uh please have a look. Some great material in there and some important updates for our community. On the consent agenda tonight, we have nine items, including two second readings. Excuse me. And under new business, we have first reading of councelor's bill 7 that amends the Westminster Municipal Code following the Colorado Supreme Court decision in people versus camp. Next slide, please. We also have this evening uh Westminster Economic Development Authority meeting or a WEDA meeting. And the new business item uh up is agreement with Westminster Chamber of Commerce for activation services in downtown Westminster. And that ties into uh comments from Jamie Chavez, the president and CEO tonight of that chamber. Also, we have postmeating presentations. There are two uh these are part of the ongoing preparation for our budget process um and are entitled 2026 department budget roadmap presentations. The first of those will be our police chief presenting on the police department and then uh next will be our HR director uh reporting on human resources department. We have one executive session item later. There were two agenda. one uh if needed that is not needed this evening and that's regarding uh legal advice regarding collective

bargaining matters. We will pick that up at a an agenda item soon but not tonight. And then uh there is an executive session which is a discussion of a personnel matter and that's the quarterly check-in for the city manager. Next slide please. This week is a busy week. On Tuesday, tomorrow, March 10th, there's a planning commission uh workshop on the unified development code. That's right here at city hall beginning at 6:30 p.m. On Wednesday, March 11th, as I noted, uh is the Upland Public Land uh or parks uh open house uh at the MAC that starts at 5:30 and runs through till 7:30. And we also have on Wednesday night uh youth advisory panel meeting here at city hall that starts at 6 pm. On Thursday, March 12th, parks, recreation, libraries is having its open space advisory board meeting. That's at the Walnut Creek Golf Preserve and that begins at 6 p.m. And then on Saturday, March 14th, and this is a big one. This is the uh event we've all been waiting for, One Book Westminster. Um the book this year is Burn, and that is with uh author Peter Heler. So, author Peter Heler will be uh hosting for us an author's talk that's at the City Park Recreation Center running from 2:00 p.m. to 4 p.m. again on Saturday, March 14th. Next slide, please. Our next meeting of city council will not happen next Monday the 16th because uh we do have a delegation of city council members heading to the national league of cities congressional city conference in uh Washington DC to meet and engage with our federal legislators and uh come up to speed on all things uh federal. Um the annual conference uh runs from Sunday March 15th all the way through Wednesday March 18th. So, uh, many of your city council representatives will be in DC, uh, representing the city's interests. And then our next meeting of city council will be Monday, March 23rd. So, that'll be the next regular meeting

of city council. Next slide, please. As always, you can contact your city at access westminster through the app or directly westminster.govaccess. Give us a ring during office hours 303658-2400. Uh, we have a great website, westminsterco.gov. And on that website is our transparency portal. Westminster co.gov903transparency. Next slide, please. That was it. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much. Are there any questions for city manager? Councelor Johnson.

Yeah, thank you. Very briefly um for the city manager. I saw that we're going to be moving to drought watch. I wanted to know the notice protocols for when we get close to stage one because of how low our water pack is and you know I I I'm just not familiar with and and didn't read in the packet. How much in advance as we start to move closer to that stage one water level. Are we going to provide notice because I think it's likely that we're going to have to get there.

Thank you, Councelor Johnson. We give as much notice as possible in reviewing the data and past uh practices u as well as tracking to uh prior data. Uh we're probably if we are heading into a drought uh declaration or drought watch it would be likely in early to midappril. So we'll have ample time uh to give warning to our uh community and what that means. The good news for Westminster is um our conservation uh efforts and education uh work is ongoing and uh and quite sustained uh relative to some of our peer communities in the front range. And so our community is generally pretty activated around conservation and drought awareness. And so um we will have uh enough time to give advanced notice should the city of Westminster be looking at drought uh notice invocation. We are aware that some of our neighbors are already doing that. Um and the the difference with Westminster is we do have a very different water rights and water supply portfolio. So we compare that to um the the water pack or the snow pack I should say in and the projections. It's just too early for us to call it now, but we will be in that position within a few weeks.

Okay. And then I had a a well that was my first question. So thank you for answering that. And then our recommendations. Thank you to our um sustainability team for conducting the research that they did on our waste uh hauling systems and the recommendations on virtual data tracking uh software. I wonder did we conduct any study on how much that must might cost us or are these recommendations going to be coming forward with a little bit more background in the future?

Mayor, thank you for the question. That's a that's a great question. Um, both of those are great questions. We are planning to come back to city council um in a study session format to go through these recommendations. The recommendations in the memo um I wanted to get to you early so you could start to uh go through those and see what the um um the students uh that we partnered with at uh CU uh uh um found out about Westminster when they looked at our practices. And uh so that's an information briefing and then we'll come when we come back with study session we'll have an idea of the cost implications or resourcing requirements uh for these initiatives should council wish to pursue any or all of them.

That is very helpful. And then I'll just give a shout out to the students that did the work. I very big thank you to them and congratulations to them. I ran into them, I think, at least three times over last summer at different events throughout the city and you could tell they were energetic, enthusiastic, they knew what they were talking about and um the fact that they were so engaged when they were just doing a project for us was just amazing. So, great job to them. Uh with that, let's move on to council comments. Uh, councelor Johnson.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I have a couple of quick things to say and then two polls that I would request of council at this time and I could be brief with them. Um, but the first thing I wanted to say is um, you know, I understanding driving down the road today, you know, looking at the gas station, I was laughing because I was actually watching the price go up. changed twice as I was driving down the road of gas because of I think a lot of global uncertainty. And to me that is a a very tangible and physical reflection here in Westminster of a lot of um turmoil and uncertainty that's happening around the world. Um, and I want to acknowledge that here on council, while we can't control all of the uncertainty, um, you know, I have felt very um, very energized by the fact that we have such a engaged council that is so responsive to whatever changes we can um, see coming and and react to them in a way that's appropriate in order to make sure that there the we minimize the disruption to people's lives here. So, I wanted to say appreciation to the council members and also an acknowledgement of the turmoil that's happening in the world today. Um, the two polls that I would request of council um are the first one is on the topic of directing our city manager to bring forward um a change in um the structure of what he is authorized to um what he's authorized to contract in the amount of up to $500,000. Um, as you see on council's agenda tonight, it's heavy and that's a ton of staff work and obviously I read the packets. Um, but you know, I think in terms of workload, um, it would be better to create an ordinance or or or pass a policy that we could bring forward to council that would allow the city manager to have more authority to contract. Um, and at the same time provide notice to council that doesn't require the staff workup when when when he is contracting of the amount between 250 and 500,000, but not needing to work

up the the the entire staff memos for anything under $500,000. So, um I can pause there for the poll or I can say the second one. We can pull both right away. I will pause there for the poll so we can keep things clear and separate. Uh this is something that has been thrown around uh in the past and has been up for discussion. And at this point, we would not be voting on a motion to do this. I don't think it sounds like we would be taking a poll to have the city manager bring us more information about what this would look like. Uh if that sounds appropriate. Okay. So, with that, I will go ahead and take a poll. Councelor Ireland,

I'm a no. I think that's the responsibility of the council to look at contracts, making sure there's three bids, all of that stuff. And I I'm convincent of all the taxpayer money, and I want to see it before it's approved. So, I'm a No. Yes.

Yes. I think that we um through the budgeting process have um a good idea of what our CI especially these are projects that are kind of falling into um big um uh like it um you know purchases and things like that that we see coming in through our budget process. Um, I think those bigger ones that come in like major street improvements and things like that, we still end up seeing those because those are typically higher like a million dollars um, plus. So, I think it's a it strikes a balance. So, we should take a look and at least take a look at it and see kind of maybe it would be helpful to know what the project types are so that everybody can kind of feel comfortable with um, kind of when do we see them and what are what are they typically covering. Go ahead,

Mayor. Thank you. And councelor Johnson, thank you for uh raising that. Um if it pleases council, I could uh bring back um um into a into a meeting an exploration of uh of the data behind um the the the contracts, how much time it takes to prepare those uh for council, and then an analysis of different levels of approval that council might consider uh changing to. 500 would be one of those. Um there may be another option we could come up with that that you could review and that way um you could explore um the the data behind this uh you know um this and then um we could set you up with a recommendation that would be serving your um your direction.

Thank you. Uh I am in agreement with that. Um at least you're looking into it for similar reasons. I'd love to see you know what type of projects hit that limit. Um but similarly uh I've looked into cities that don't have a limit and then cities that have a lower limit and um just getting the information from yourself would be helpful. So I'll let the rest of the council speak though since half of us had a chance. I'm a yes to the city manager's recommendation for the workup.

Uh thank you mayor and thank you councelor Johnson. Um I'm a yes. I'm particularly interested in the cost savings for staff time around these and uh ways that we can still potentially pull back important ones that we think if we're notified but not maybe worked up uh that we can still maybe either bring for council approval or at least bring for for council attention, you know, some sort of work up. uh if that's all included in this uh exploratory process, I'd like to know more about it and then see if that's something that can save uh staff time so we can uh continue kind of deeply engaging the work of staff around this. Yes,

thank you. Okay, I think city manager has what he needs. Councelor,

thank you, Madam Mayor. My my second poll is related to an agenda item later um that we are going to vote on which is councilor's bill number seven. Um in the premeating in the uh study session that we had before bringing counselor's bill number seven we discussed a lot of processes and protocols related to how we're going to move forward with the implementation of the camp decision. And in conversation with the city attorney, um, one of the conversations that I think is important to have is, um, in parallel to the camp decision, but not directly informed by that decision. And that is, um, a handful of municipal only offenses, which uh, you know, post camp decision have uh, drastically different uh, sentencing guidelines now from the rest of our code because the way of our way our current sentencing guidelines work. um as as well as criminal implications for offenses that we typically don't even as a city and our neighboring cities don't have. And so what I would like to pull on is to bring forward in a study session uh the city attorney's office and any anyone else that the city attorney thinks is appropriate um but put on a study session agenda for April a conversation around updates to that municipal code related to the criminalization of municipal only offenses and give direction at that meeting to the city attorney for a potential draft ordinance on that update. I'm going to speak for councel and the public here uh when I ask for can I get two more minutes of clarification in layman's terms.

Yes. Yes, of course, madam mayor, and thank you for that. I try I try to keep it short. Um but the the camp decision requires that all of our criminal offenses in our municipal code that have state corollaries for example you know theft is an easy one um which is the one in the camp decision have to meet the sentencing guidelines of the state. So for example petty theft is a maximum of 10 days in jail. The way our municipal code was written we have a blanket sentence of 364 days. So for any offense in our code, you you could be you could be um sentenced to up to 364 days in jail. Um what the camp decision did is it ratcheted down all of our sentencing requirements for all of our state corollaries, but it did not touch our municipal only offenses. So the one we like to talk about which is uh like a code abatement for your grass being too tall. That is an offense right now that theoretically you could be put in jail for 364 days whereas, you know, theft is now only 10 days. And so in light of the camp decision, I want the I I think it would be important for this council to look at the way we are adding criminal sentences to our municipal offenses and provide guidance to our city attorney on those municipal only offenses which are outside of the work that his office is doing for the camp decision. Thank you. I will go down the line to take a poll as to whether we would like to look into having a this on the agenda for April. Is that what the ask is? Okay. Would we like to look into this topic for April?

I have a question. So, would we be determining what the offense what the time frame is for each offense? Can I go redact? I believe I'd like our city attorney to answer that.

Sure. Um, as councelor Johnson points out, so the camp decision applies to specific offenses that are identical in terms of um, our code and state law. So, there's a another set of offenses that are set forth through the municipal code. And my understanding is the the desire is to have a conversation about those offenses and uh how they should be treated, what types of penalty provisions should there be. And you know, I can say, you know, it's going to take some research to pull all of those together. Um because I think as we discussed last week, they don't all live in the police regulations title of the municipal code. Uh, one example as councelor Johnson points out is uh abatement of nuisances and code enforcement type u charges. So if council is open to having a discussion on April 20th and if that works with the city's agenda, we haven't cleared that date. So I defer to the the city manager's office and the clerk as to whether April 20th is the day. But um yeah, it would be the the question of wanting to have a conversation um and talking about these other municipal offenses.

So, is that something we can determine or does that have to be on a ballot or how does that work? Oh, yeah. The offenses are set forth in the municipal code and so they are adopted by city council by ordinance. So yes, it's within council's discretion to modify the penalty provisions for the offenses that are in the municipal code. Thank you, councelor Hop. Yes, Mayor Prom. I'm in favor of doing the thing, but I'll leave the timing of that to staff.

Agreed. I'm in favor of putting this on the agenda. And of course uh when we can accommodate it. Councelor Johnson. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. Other council comments. Councelor Brahas.

Thank Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um so I mentioned a few things that uh we did this week uh during the council updates. I wanted to make a special note about the ACRE rep state of the region that myself and a few counselors uh were able to attend uh with you as well um madame mayor and we got a lot of demographic in you know there was a lot of topics but one of the ones that I was most grateful for was the demographic uh information about the growth of Adams County. I was kind of floored by uh the professionalism of that presentation along with how those demographics potentially could feed into our educational and uh job needs and how those education and job needs flow back to the residents who require kind of the business that uh will flow from that. So I just wanted to to note that there's this kind of ongoing conversation regionally about those things and we I I was kind of humbled to to in conversation continue it's a continual realization for me but how Westminster is uniquely situated to be not only a participant but a leader in multiple regions of growth planning uh and development. you know, we it's ob obviously common knowledge that we sit uh you know, in two different counties, but we also partner with very closely with Broomfield County and obviously Denver as well. And as you know, there's kind of development and growth kind of happens around us. We are quickly, you know, by necessity becoming partners in all of these relationships. And so I'm grateful for Adams County, for AC Rep uh and the commissioners that were there in continuing that conversation. And I just want to say uh you know for the residents and for this council that it's something that I personally take seriously and I know that is this council also takes those partnerships seriously. Uh so just kind of wanted to echo that uh kind of on both sides. Also just from that demographic presentation

it was put together by the community college uh Front Range sorry Front Range Community College and I you know I was grateful for that presentation. I I hope I I wish I could have recorded it. I do have the slides from it if anyone is interested on this council to to to learn more and I'd love to share that. But I I'm very interested in in you know if if anyone from Front Range Community College is listening, I'm very interested in in city partnerships uh particularly around educational uh pertinent educational opportunities for this council to to dig into especially when it comes to kind of future proofing our city and planning on demographic changes but any also any other kind of expertise that sits there. I uh just kind of wanted to state it publicly. Obviously, I'm a fan of education. I'm a I'm a big fan of higher education and uh I am just an active and willing participant. And so, if this body or uh anyone kind of represented there is looking for further collaboration, uh you have a willing partner in me. Thank you.

Thank you, councelor Ireland.

Hello. Thank you all that came out tonight to speak. I appreciate participation in the city. Um I I'm concerned about Copa Pelly's and the parking lot over there and hopefully we can find some answers for that because thanks for bringing that to my attention. I didn't know we were having such e issues with parking and businesses that weren't licensed doing food preparation over there. Um, so hopefully the staff will get back to you. Also, Donna Wilzer about the violation having these pylons or what what I know she talked about it before about some safety issues and uh hopefully we can be updated to what's transpired there and why we haven't been able to do anything for that. Um um Mr. Um, William McCann, thank you for coming. I know you're concerned about American citizens rights and so am I. I believe that security is important, but I also believe that upholding our bill of rights is important as a in my duty as a city councelor and a public official. So, those are all important to me and thank you for Tom Lambo and his continued prayers. We need them in this world and I appreciate all of you that came out. Thank you.

Thank you, councelor Hot.

Yes. I would like to thank the young gentleman who came to talk about his silly hat idea. Um I really love to see people um getting involved in uh local politics and um I think that it's wonderful that you had uh such a fun idea and came to share that with us. So uh hopefully we can do uh something about that. Um and then I also want to thank the resident who came to uh speak on traffic issues. Um I also want to thank the chamber for everything that they have done um with our downtown activation. Um that's uh so important and hearing the numbers of how it's helped some of our local businesses um in the downtown that uh was really exciting. Um and then I also want to thank the owner of Cocoapelli's for um letting us know what's uh going on. Um and then um I have said this uh before and I will say it again. I am here for all residents of Westminster and that includes our undocumented immigrants. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, everyone, for who came out tonight. Uh that is a great idea. Thanks for bringing that forward, the crazy hats. I'll be curious to see uh um how that develops. So, looking forward to it. Um, I wanted to make an announcement related to the food drive. So, every year I host an annual food drive for Westminster. Uh, last time we sought to feed 1,000 families in Westminster and we ended up feeding 6,300. So, almost 9,000 lbs of food. This year, I'd like to make this a much much bigger drive. So I'm planning on partnering with a lot of businesses, organizations, and planning follow that will begin in April. So just mentioning this again, if anyone's listening, any residents are listening, if you'd like to participate, please reach out to me. It's a big deal for the people who need it. And I think there are a lot of people in need right now. So if you're able, please help. And if you want to volunteer, we could use all the help that we can get. So Jamie Chamber, I'm looking at you. We have a lot of partnership opportunities across the city and we can make this a much bigger drive. Um and related to the uh constitution, I agree with councelor hot uh the con the constitution provides key protections for due process and equal protection for all people. So, as a citizen, as an American citizen and a city councelor, my duty is to protect all residents, whether you're housed or unhoused, whether you're um a citizen or undocumented. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh councelor, you had one more point. I'm sorry. Oh, no. I thought the hat idea was up to our mayor if she wants to look funny or not. I'm glad it was her. No,

thank you. Okay. Well, thank you as uh always to all of our speakers. We had uh lots of folks out and I believe that our city staff has been looking into the issue at Coco Pell and so hopefully we'll get some sort of update on that soon. Um if not regular patrol then, you know, what else we can do on that and um I think that we're also looking forward you know to make sure that we prevent this in the future. We've already had a discussion last week as to how we can try to make sure that we mitigate and be responsible with our event centers. So, we're doing the best we can and hopefully we can get some quick answers over to Christine. Um, I know that you'll follow up as well on the dilators. Um, and I don't have much to add there, but hopefully we can do that in a timely way. And, um, let's see. I can't read my own notes here. Um well and then I would say um as to the the funny hat, I actually love that. So my number one priority since becoming mayor has been and uh you know our city manager well knows this, but it has been to engage the community in new and creative ways in meaningful ways. What will get people outside? What will get them to communicate with the city and engage with the city? The more that you engage with the city, the more educated we all are on uh how our local government works. And uh that's that is the case for all of our residents. That's what I'm really hoping to do, but especially so for our kids. So, thank you for the creative ideas there. And then uh when it comes to uh my duty as someone who is representing this city and uh my duty in protecting to the best of my ability everyone in this city. Um I will reaffirm that it is my job. It is my sworn duty. I upheld when I took office to uh protect every resident of the city to the best of my ability and I

take uh public safety very seriously and I will continue to do so. So um with that we will move on to our next item. We'll move on to consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Mayor Promla, I move to approve consent agenda items 8A to 8 I. Thank you, Councelor Johnson. Second. Thank you. We have moved and seconded. Do we have any further discussion? City clerk, roll call. Councelor Braas, yes. Mayor Carmelia,

yes. Councelor Isadi, yes. Councelor H, yes. Councelor Ireland, yes. Councelor Johnson, yes. And Mayor Promla, yes. The motion passes on a 70 vote. Thank you so much. There are no appointments or resignations this evening. And there are no public hearings scheduled for this evening. We will now move on to new business uh with beginning with the first reading of councelor Bill number seven. Do I have a motion for item 11 A? Councelor Johnson.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I move to pass counselor's bill 7A on first reading with the following amendment. reordering the subsections to place the final paragraph D second in the ordinance to position B with an amendment to what becomes C referring to both subsections A and B amending Westminster's municipal code section 181 of the Westminster municipal code following the Supreme Court decision in people vamp to comply with the state law. Do I have a second? Councelor Hot. Second. Any further discussion? Councelor Brahas,

I just want to reiterate how uh important it is uh for the council to be taking on these sorts of things. uh this is the kind of uh you know the the whole process is a step-by-step look through uh our municipal code and it's uh the intent is not only to to follow the law but I also think there's um a prudent measure uh fiscally so that we can avoid kind of frivol you know lawsuits that by from not following the uh the decision and ensuring that you know everyone is also treated justly under the law as well. So, I think this kind of dual purpose is is really important work and I'm grateful that uh for the city attorney's office and for this council for taking this work seriously.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Okay. Well, I will also add that this is something um I'm really excited to be passing here tonight. It's something I brought up early last year um when this was in the Colorado Supreme Court. And I'm uh very grateful that councelor Johnson has done the work to bring this forward and that we now have the support to get this through so that we have more equity throughout our city in how we uh prosecute local crime. Uh with that, can we get a roll call, please? Mayor Carmelia, yes. Councelor Rosati, yes. Councelor Hot, yes. Councelor Ireland, yes. Councelor Johnson, yes. Mayor Promla, yes. And councelor Brahas,

yes. The motion passes on a 70 vote. Thank you. That brings us to old business and there is no old business this evening. Uh which concludes the business of our city council meeting. We will now convene as the Westminster Economic Development Authority and the time is now don't have my 7:58.

Thank you. 7:58 and our uh open meeting is concluded and we will now reconvene as the Westminster Economic Development Authority. Uh pulling in the roll call from our original meeting. Okay. Uh roll call will now carry over from our regular city council meeting. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes for WEDA? Council councel mayor promillaa I move to approve the minutes of the November 10th 2025 weda meeting as presented. Thank you councelor Barahas. Second.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Board member Barahas. Yes. Chairperson Gelia. Yes. Board member Azadi. Yes. Board member hot. Yes. Board member Ireland. Yes. Board member Johnson. Yes. And Vice Chair Nurmela, yes. The motion passes on a 70 vote. Thank you. And there is no public hearings for this evening. And so we will now move on to new business. Do I have a motion for item C? Uh, Mayor Protemla,

I move to authorize the Westminster Economic Development Authority Executive Director to award and execute an agreement to furnish activation services with the Westminster Chamber of Commerce for activation in downtown Westminster for a 12-month term from May 1st, 2026 to April 30th, 2027 with the option to renew three 12-month terms following the initial 12-month term and not and a not to exceed amount of $300,000 per term. Thank you. Do I have a second? Uh, councelor Brahas second. Thank you. Any further discussion? Councelor Ireland,

I have questions about it. Um, so I would like to know how much more sales tax we generated last year than the year before with what we did with this 300,000. Did we have those numbers? Welcome services director. Thank you for the question. Um, to answer your question, um, I would need to ask my staff to look at the year-over-year, uh, sales tax differences, um, to find a correlation there. Also, um we do have uh Miss Jamie Chavez, who's the president of the chamber, and she did, um speak with many of the retailers in downtown to gather some um anecdotal evidence of the impact of those events on um their businesses and how that's improved traffic, foot traffic, and so forth. So, to get um the detailed numbers, unless Miss Croninberg has it, you do.

I just have a few more. Absolutely. So, I'll turn it over to Miss Cronerberg.

Heather Cronerberg, real estate development manager here at the city. Um, councelor Ireland, that is something that we're talking about how to better track this this coming year if council were were to approve this. Um, we do have some information that um, Mrs. Chavez um, shared earlier. U, but I had a little bit more information to add to that as well. Um what we did is they reached out to each individual business owner to to understand if they were tracking and what information they could provide. So um at at this level it's a little bit of a case by case basis and that's what we're trying to figure out is how to better track across all of downtown for this coming year. So we will be working on that again if council approves us. Um but they did it u we we heard very specific information around certain activities and that's what they've been able to track. So for instance um as um uh Jamie mentioned some of the specific ones the holiday lighting ceremony um two of the um businesses um represented that they had about a 25% increase. Um there were invited to downtown Westminster I think was mentioned is about a 15% increase. So again though they they were specific to the individual businesses and we're trying to figure out how to sort of roll that up into overall metrics for this coming year. Yeah, I would like to know if it's working, like if it's generating sales tax more than the year before that it's working. But we don't have those numbers, so it's hard for me to approve this. Um, I think my suggestion to have free parking. Also, I would like to know if it's going to generate more sales tax because really that is what our optimate, you know, what we need to do for this city to make that area succeed. It's not going to succeed just event and then no one comes back after the event. They have to keep coming. We want them to keep coming. And so the three

suggestions I had outdoor seating um and to offset the cost of that free parking and the and the revenue that we generate some of this money should be going towards that in my opinion not all to the chamber until they can prove to me that they are generating more sales tax. I can't approve something that I don't know the real numbers and just keep throwing at it money at it and approve it for three more years. I need I need numbers. So I will not be approving it till I know the facts. But thank you.

Thank you Mayor Promlo.

So um I'm excited about this contract. I think um I do agree that it would be great to have better tracking and so hopefully we can see that year-over-year um increase especially as I think the um the number of events is planned to increase with this contract from last year. So, I'm hoping that we'll see even more impact. And um I think this is a vital any uh any community that has a downtown, you know, they're putting some dollars into it. Um I think that, you know, to help vitalize it and to keep it um you know, with activities. We we talked originally about having 200 activities in the downtown over time. someday, right? But this is a great seeding to that and I appreciate that. Um, we have partners in the business community that are willing to help get this off the ground and hopefully it'll it'll take form where we're not putting as much money into it, but that we can just watch it grow. But I always think that we're going to be putting something into the the downtown. you know, we uh made the baby and now we're made to feed it. So, um I think this is u a good start. So, thank you. I'll be voting in uh support.

Thank you, uh Councelor Johnson. Yeah, thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you for bringing this forward. I, you know, at the strategic planning, we spoke a lot about a connected city, and I really think that this is a a financial commitment to connecting our downtown. So I appreciate the work and I will be a very enthusiastic. Yes. Thank you councelor Brahos.

Uh thank you madam or thank you chair mayor not speaking up. I'm not entirely sure what like since we're meeting as wea what kind of direction I can give as a counselor but I you know I I agree with the the voices that we've heard around data. I wasn't on council to approve this and didn't kind of qualify the data that I would that I personally would like around it. So, I feel kind of conflicted on uh using prior council's direction uh for something that I kind of would would and would not approve. But uh two things that have kind of been mentioned, but uh certainly data around the activation events uh in terms of regular days versus activation event days and also just year-over-year on that continual piece. um on my other role as a city councelor um not on this WEDA board. I think that we, you know, if if we do approve this, we also should uh we have a responsibility to to make decisions that improve whether it's around free parking or the outdoor seating that we have a responsibility to kind of pursue both. And I'm I'm very much a fan of kind of a a parallel pursuit. I also am really interested in leveraging free events sort of thing or free uh kind of lowcost activations and so I think this is great seed money to potentially kind of grow those roots, grow those fruits, but also if there's ways that we can continue that connectivity at a low cost. I would be very interested in kind of the chambers perspective and our economic development department's perspective on that. Uh just in ways we can do that lowcost connectivity. Maybe recurring book clubs, things like that that can meet there. uh um you know, little lowcost things that work in in concert as well. Finally, just I I think there's maybe potential for check-ins around this activation throughout the year, whether that's from staff or from the chamber where we can kind of continue to give direction, maybe we're seeing something or hearing something. So, I think that

would be uh helpful. maybe those future touch points where we can also request data that we might not foresee we need right now that can continue being collected for the renewals uh and approvals. Those are kind of my thoughts and with that in mind uh I would be a yes as well on this council zadi.

Thank you mayor and thank you for bringing this forward again. So, I I strongly supported uh the original partnership with the chamber. Um, and I'm proud to support this again tonight, this extension, because activating downtown is critical for lots of reasons. Uh, you know, when we invest, and this leads to a really important point, you know, when we invest um in this manner where we're investing in local businesses, we're investing in the downtown, we call it economic development. uh because it's critical, right, to increasing foot traffic, increasing business, strategically activating the neighborhood. Um my hope is for the listening public uh as you as we continue to explore new ways as a council to invest in the community. You know, we're looking at bold investments to not just help businesses, which were is what we're doing here, but to help the workforce, right? To help residents, to help the customers. Because when you have a healthier customer base or a a healthier, more sustainable resident base, they become customers and they help the local economy. So everything works together and everything is intersectional. And I want everyone to keep an open mind. Uh this is a creative way. This specific item is one creative way that we're looking to activate the local downtown. But there are other ways to activate other parts of residents lives that we're also looking at. You know, whether it's child care, whether it's housing, utilities, groceries, right? So we're looking at creative ways of helping both sides of the equation. And I think both together will work really well to helping the local economy. But I do have one question. Sorry for my long rant. Uh

parking. I'd love the concept of free parking and have so specifically how much parking revenue did we receive in downtown last year? Thank you for the questions. Um, we received n approximately $95,000 in revenue from parking in the prior year. Ha. Have we looked into this concept of free parking yet?

Yes, counselor. Um, the staff has has definitely heard and we've already begun working with our parking team, our parking management team, which is also conveniently within community services. So, we're all on the same family um tree there. and uh we've been working together and talking with our parking supervisor, operation supervisor already. Um I'm very impressed. Came up with a very impressive plan for how to um quickly resign um move forward with uh allowing for that free parking. Uh right now we're just doing some final modeling on the differences between um two hours free versus four hours free and then also understanding the time limits for that and how that might impact um the revenue coming into the parking fund uh parking enterprise fund that we collect from there. But uh we just you know it we're all on the the team to make downtown successful. So um everyone's rowing in the same direction. And I just want to be really clear about that that we're all trying to find a solution and um you know it's it's more important to us that we keep the businesses viable and uh keep the economic vitality and that engine moving downtown uh versus you know of course we're going to try and have the least amount of impact to our parking enterprise fund. Um, I just wanted to to let um you all know that we are underway with that and hopefully we'll be able to come back with an info only memo or if you'd like a the body would like a broader discussion about it, we're happy to do that as well.

Yeah. You know, and it doesn't even have to be all the time free parking, right? But you could target it to all these events that we that were that were talked about. You can have free parking downtown during that event, right? So, you can kind of market it really well. Uh, but thanks for the work that you're doing on this. Thank you. Uh, councelor Ireland, one more comment. So, what does it cost to run this parking down there? I heard the cost is higher than the what we're bringing in.

Yes, councelor. Um, sorry, board member Ireland. Um, yes, that is correct. Um, the enterprise fund is not uh revenue positive. It's not uh making a profit in any way. Um but I I do want to share um we have a very small team. We're covering the entire city. Um the city owns two uh parking garages in Westminster Station and downtown that we fully maintain and operate. Also all on street parking, all calls. We get about 50 to 70 calls a day for the parking enforcement team um throughout the entire city, all of all of Westminster. So, um, you know, we have direct expenses that we can tie to the operation of the garages and parsing off certain portions of time of the officers that are spending time in downtown just on downtown patrolling. Um, but we do have a majority of that is washing across the entire city. Now with who's and the nice weather, uh we've seen just an enormous amount of um need for those um parking enforcement officers to be out in other parts of the city as well. Um we could come back to you with a with an estimate, but in broadstroke terms um you're absolutely correct. The the parking is not a um a money maker for us in downtown, but we are covering some of our costs. So, have we looked at having free parking all day and at night? No. No. Free parking just when the businesses are going. Seems like that'd be the least expensive way to traffic it.

Yes, that that is correct. We we are definitely looking at at that model.

I'm just know from living at the Orchard area, it used to have parking meters and the activation has gone up tremendously since we got rid of those. So, I've already seen it in person, so I imagine it would it would work down there, too. And also, I've given ideas about we have the balloon theme, having balloons throughout, so people have to find them. So, they have to walk throughout the area and see everything down there. And that's another thing that costs money to do. So that's why I have a problem with sending it all to the chamber if we're not really getting that activation every day. I mean, it can't just be at events. We got to have it all the time. People coming back, keep, you know, not just coming to events. So, I would like big concerts. I think they work well at the orchard.

Um, and I don't know what the cost is per concert, but that would be something to look at and bring back. Anyway, just ideas throwing out there that I seen work. Anyway, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Uh I do like the idea of if if it's possible to track the sales tax revenue. I know that might be a difficult ask, but that's a great KPI for sure. So, thank you for some of the numbers. I really do appreciate hearing um the fact that the businesses were able to provide an actual um percentage of uptick uh due to events. and 25% is nothing to sneeze at. That is really significant and I think that that that right there is proof, right? I mean that's that's a huge number. So, um I just want to add that I have been in blown away at the ability of our chamber to respond so quickly like was mentioned within a month um at getting together ideas. It was that weekend they um set you know things up for us to enjoy. Um and at the creativity and commitment that they have shown in uh seeing this through and ensuring that the community is activated um somehow through I'll use different words. I was through thick and thin shall we say um and in all sorts of weather they have made sure that residents are out there and um they've done things from yoga. I that was not something I'd ever thought of. I love the live music. I've been trying to figure out for ever since I got on council. How do we get more live music in this city? I see folks nodding. I mean, that is just something I am committed to and I cannot wait to see more. So, thank you. Thank you for all the work. And it was already mentioned, connectedness is exactly what we're trying to do. We're trying to engage with people and we're trying to, you know, it it is hard. Times are hard. We're trying to improve morale and we're trying to invest in our businesses all at once and this does all of that. So, um, I'm really excited to approve this contract and to see it go over on a rolling basis. City clerk, can we get a roll call, please?

Have a comment. Chairperson Carmelia, I'm sorry, we have a little further. Mayor Promilla, sorry. Um, sorry, once you mentioned parking, it goes on forever. I just wanted to make sure we still have the free parking in downtown because I park there all the time. So, um, we have free parking in all of our lots for four the first four hours. So, those lots are on the very southwest corner next south of the hotel. They are on the west side of JC Penney. They're on the north side of the Alamo Draft House and the whole garage.

So, if you're like me, you know where all the free stuff is. And um please let the community know that we do have a ton of free parking um already in downtown. Thanks. Thank you, city clerk. Chairperson Carmelia, yes. Board member Zadi, yes. Board member hot, yes. Board member Ireland, no. Board member Johnson, yes. Vice Chair Nurmela, yes. And board member Barahas, yes.

The motion passes on a 61 vote. Thank you so much. Uh with that, we will now move uh the time is now one second here. The time is now 8:19 and that concludes our WEDA meeting. Before we move into our post meeting, uh city attorney, would you please read the title of uh into the record for the post meeting executive session? And we now will have uh one session instead of two as the uh second that was agendaized is not needed. It was scheduled just in case, but that second is not needed. So we will read the one into the record.

Thank you, mayor. The proposed executive session is a discussion of a personnel matter. A quarterly check-in for the city manager could be convened pursuant to Westminster Municipal Code 113C1 and Colorado Revised Statute 246424F1. Thank you so much. We will now move into the post meeting uh presentations in the council boardroom. Before you do that, if I could ask uh council to vote on whether or not to convene the exact session after the post meeting items conclude. Thank you. Let's go ahead and vote. Council Rosati. Obi is a yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh that now concludes our open meeting and we will now uh go into the post meeting presentations in the city council boardroom. Thank you. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Hey.

26 priorities are and how they um serve the city's strategic plan.

Mayor, mayor prom counselors, those in the audience, and those online. My name is Norm Hbert. I'm the police chief. It's a pleasure to be here with you tonight and give this presentation. With me tonight is our business operations coordinator, Cassandra Addis. Uh Deputy Chief Dave Lester, who's in charge of operations, and Deputy Chief Dean Milano is with us in spirit tonight. He had a family emergency late and had to run out. So, uh, wish him our our thoughts and prayers there. Um, but moving forward here with this tonight, um, as we look at the city or chart, I'm over on the right side there, and I answer directly to, uh, city manager Jody Andrews. So, um, I'm the only department director that answers directly to him. The other department directors, uh, answer directly to, uh, the two deputy city managers. That can be good and bad. So, um it's it's usually a good thing, but uh it's it's one less uh one less line of bureaucracy. So, answer right to Jod. So, if there's uh concerns or issues, those are addressed obviously immediately from me to him and vice versa. Um so, it's it's a good direct line of communication as it relates to the overall PD budget and staffing. Uh the police department's basically broken into three divisions. Uh first, you have the administration division. uh which technically I'm the department department manager of that division if you will on paper. It's a very small division. It's it's a division of six. Uh we're uh we basically focus on policy, budget, and communications. Uh as it relates to the other divisions within the police department, the operations division is by far the largest division. It's 167.5 FTEES. And really, if you think of the operations division, you're talking about anybody in uniform, uh, all uniform personnel. So, patrol, traffic, uh, animal management, co-responders. Anybody

that's usually in a at a uniform is going to be in the operations division. Specialized services division is 124.3 FTEES. Um, that is more or less all nonuniform personnel, if you will, within the police department. So you talk about police records, emergency communications or the 911 center, uh investigations or detectives and technology and technology includes uh application specialists and body warn cameras. So that's kind of where that where that is housed. Um one of the things that we did last year at obviously at at the behest of council but through the direction of Jody Andrews is looking at uh positions within the organization that we could repurpose or reuse. Uh and we reclassified two positions last year uh in preparation for the 2026 budget. One of those was an a professional staff or a civilian accident investigator. Uh we had five authorized but we had difficulty in in filling the last position. So, when we came to council and and through the budget process reallocated that or repurposed that position to a uh police officer FTE um which was reclassified several years back when we're having issues hiring police officers uh but we're still having traffic issues which we still continue to uh when that officer is is hired and in the mix that officer will be assigned to traffic. So the traffic unit in of itself will remain at the at the same staffing just replacing an accident investigator with a um with a uniform personnel. Uh the other position that we we reclassified is we had a vacant public information officer. Uh we still have the the public affairs coordinator who is our professional staff. Uh we reclassified that to a crime lab supervisor. Uh it's been in the news obviously that that Colorado Bureau of Investigations has had some um issues with their crime lab and a lot of

that in my opinion came down to supervisor oversight and what was or wasn't done. Not that that's everything but it's realizing that where we are headed with technology um and DNA and all those other scientific things that maybe aren't the best suited for police oversight. Uh we absolutely need a supervisor. So, we reclassified our public information one of those positions to a crime lab supervisor. So, we're in the process of hiring uh actually in the process of uh that process as we speak. So, uh we continue to to look for opportunities to repurpose um and reevaluate and make sure that when we're asking for something new that we've looked um under every little nook and cranny to make sure that we're uh using our tax dollars appropriately. As we continue on to the next slide here, some of the priorities for for the police department in 2026, um obviously maintaining our core service delivery um that the community has has come to expect from the police department while still evol responding to evolving operational demands. You know, one of the things that I'd like to highlight is we continue to be able trained. Able training is active bystandardship for law enforcement. It's a program out of Georgetown University uh that gives officers another tool in the tool bag uh to be able to deescalate situations so that they're not involved in a use of force and primarily they're not involved with another officer where it becomes an excessive use of force. Uh so to be able to use a tool in a tool bag to talk themselves out or to talk the other officer giving them some cues uh to get out of some of those uh potential jams. Obviously, we have our post required training. Um, and and then um one of the other things that we're looking to do in 2026 is replace our 911 phone system with a new it's called the Carbine Apex. I'm sure it's fantastic. Um, as it

relates to that, I don't know all the all the details on that. Uh, but that funding actually came through the JCA, which is the Jefferson County Emergency Communications Authority. So, that is something that that we have access to part of those funds because we are are in Jefferson County. That is a 911 search charge or tax, if you will, on all cell phone uh cell phones within Jefferson County residents. Uh but that is something that the city does have access to. It's got to touch physically 911. So, it's not something that we can just use as free money um as it relates to that. But, if it's directly related to 911, that is something that we can use. So, we asked them uh went went forward with this with this request and and so that is a um it's it's more than a million dollars, but that will all be funded by the JCECA. So, that's not coming out of uh city tax funds. It's one of the things that we pride ourselves on. It's not always ob obviously an option, but we pride ourselves on in looking for other revenue opportunities. Uh that way we're not always coming to the general fund to to fund all of our projects. Uh we continue to implement our functional fitness program this year uh to enhance mobility, reduce injuries, and support long-term tactical readiness and wellness. Uh we kick this off uh with the patrol folks this year on January 1st. Uh we will continue to evaluate that here through the first quarter, but ultimately our goal uh would be to have that program for all personnel within the police department. The idea of that is to reduce injuries. Uh it it focuses on stretching and major muscle movement uh so that we're not uh getting into especially as we age uh not getting into replacing shoulders and replacing quads and pecs and that that all that stuff is is healthy when the officers um or the professional staff uh continue to move uh towards retirement. Um, one of the things that we will also continue to do, and I know uh, council has asked about this, uh, to research the feasibility analysis for

implementing the AIS camera system to improve traffic safety. Uh, we, um, contacted three of the companies. They provided us the speed studies. And so really, uh, we have a we have an update meeting uh, with with us internally this week. Uh really I think the next steps here would be to bring back to work with city attorney's office to bring back ordinance language that would allow those changes and then from there uh look at the um uh speak with our partners in procurement to see what that is actually going to entail. Um I think if we were to continue to move forward with that we would probably have uh those up and running within the next uh 6 to9 months. So um assuming that that's still the direction for council we will still continue moving forward with that. Uh some of the some of the other items that we continue to move forward with here um more on the technology side um is is we will probably be back with council here later this year um for an amendment to our Axon contract. One of the things that we did in 2026 is we added draft one licensing which is artificial intelligence uh which helps the officers uh write their reports. It takes all the bodywn camera footage and the narrative that that is captured within the bodywn camera and it's taken about a 30 minute video and it transcribes it and puts it in a report and it's taken about 3 to 5 seconds which obviously cuts down on what the officers uh are spending time and writing the reports. they're still responsible for going through and making sure that it's accurate and then they kind of have a sliding scale that they can use the artificial intelligence to I want 90% of my report done and it's pages and pages long video or it's very short and succinct. So, it kind of depends on on the situation and the call that they're in. Uh but it's an opportunity for us to use artificial intelligence to uh make us more efficient. And then the idea of that is so we're back out in out in the community uh patrolling and and and

running radar and preventing crimes. Uh we will also continue Oh, sorry. The other thing that we did with the with the axon is we uh went to the taser 10. Um it's a new and improved uh taser. Instead of one or two shots if if the officer needs to use it, it's a less lethal tool. uh but it gives them up to 10 shots that they can keep using or if the the dart misses it's able to they're able to use a a new dart if you will. So the opportunity there uh the idea behind that is that there are hopefully less opportunities where uh lethal force is not used um and we can we can employ this tool uh multiple times back back when I was working the uh working the road which has obviously been a couple years um you know you got one shot and if you if you didn't get it um you had to go to another tool that type of thing but this will give you multiple shots uh within the same within the same time frame to hopefully uh reduce that opportunity. We will continue. We've implemented our cadet program which which serves uh the youth in our community uh between for the ages 14 and 20 uh years old. Um we have uh 12 cadetses currently and we're looking to um expand that program. It's been uh very popular both with the officers and and the young ones that were uh starting to serve there. So it's been it's been a neat thing to see. U new programs that we're working on. Uh we we in 2026 we got some funding for our cold case investigations uh which has allowed us to send off uh additional stuff for DNA and for um genealogy testing to see if if there's other opportunities for us to explore in some of our cold cases. Um and continue to work with the um Adams County Justice I'm sorry the Adams County District Attorney's Office working towards our family justice center. Um I'm chairing a a working committee with the Thornton police chief uh to understand how operations are going to work um as we

continue moving moving forward with that. Some of the factors that influence uh progress um both positive and negative. Uh some of the positive ones we've been very successful and awarded grant funding when available to help fund our projects and initiatives. Uh in 2025, we had about $750,000 worth of grants and other outside uh funding sources to help fund some of those things. We continue to use datadriven solutions. Instead of the I think or I feel, um it's what does the data show as it relates to calls for service, hours of operation, and when to uh uh when to work on our shift deployments. Uh we continue to leverage um our our partnerships with other outside agencies and um other community members uh both with the school districts with Westy, Jefferson County, and Adams 12 with both DA's offices um as well as the Chamber of Commerce. And we've also continued to have success recruiting officers at attracting lateral both lateral and recruit officers. Uh proud to say that we actually hired an additional five today. So, we had two lateral officers and then three new recruits that will go to the academy here starting in April. So, uh we continue to work hard on that. Uh bringing today with those hires today, we're at 190 192 uh sworn personnel. We're authorized 197. Uh so we're very very close there. That's the good news. The not so good news there or so or one of the challenges there um is is is we currently have eight that are on medical leave. We have six that are in field training and we have um eight that are in the police academy or getting ready to go to the academy. So on paper we're very very close. But in reality as it relates to a full-time FTE um we we still have some we still have some room to grow. Part of that is just the uh the

attrition when you hire somebody and the length it takes to get somebody fully operational. The three individuals that we hire today that will be going to the academy in April. If all is successful, they will be a full-fledged officer on their own able to respond to 911 calls in about 11 months. So, it it does take some time, but obviously, you know, hiring hiring good quality individuals is is is where we're at there. Um some of the some of the constraints and competing priorities there as it relates to uh some of the other factors sustained overtime um requires trade-offs between service delivery demands um employee sustainability and obviously available budget funding uh that came into play last year when we look at our overtime budgeting overtime budgeting for the PD. We were way over as it relates to our overtime budget. We were able to supplement most of that through through other surpluses in other areas of the department um in our budgets, but a lot of that had to do with uh those staffing numbers that I just described. when you have um we'll just say an easy number. When you have 10 that are not full-fledged officers, but yet the call load dictates we probably should have those 10 in service, uh you're back filling those with with overtime with uh calling in additional officers, additional additional dispatchers and those types of things which offset some of your overtime budget as it relates to those things. So, um it is a give and take as far as that goes, but that's one of the things obviously that we we continue to struggle with. So, um the the other thing that I would that I would highlight is the federal grant. Um one of the other challenges for us are federal grant and language changes. Um as it relates to the the newest the new administration as it relates to the federal grants, some of that language has changed. So, some of the language is becoming more restrictive as it relates

to do you have a DEI program and or you have are you in fully compliance with um the ICE executive orders. So, some of those we have not been able to apply for grants, others that we have applied for, language has changed, others the language has been fine, we've been able to apply for those. So, that's really getting into the weeds as it relates to any of the federal grants relating to law enforcement. Those are things that we're we're leading we are reading line by line with the city attorney's office to make sure that we are in full compliance um and that we're not going to put ourselves or officers or obviously the city in jeopardy of of not being able to to function with those as it relates to u the strategic plan and what the PD is doing to contribute to this. um looking at access to opportunity, community empowerment and engagement, and obviously community health and safety. Uh the police department continues to to to reach out and to engage the community through national night out, uh the chief's community advisory panel, the citizen review panel, which reviews our uses of force um through internal affairs, our cadet program, um our community engagement team. Uh we have an officer there that is that is bilingual and he's able to engage with the Hispanic community that's Spanish speaking um obviously um is is an important piece for us making sure that we are reaching out and that we are trying to be as as inclusive as possible to to all of our community members that we serve. U like I spoke about earlier we have the family justice center that we continue to move forward. the Youth Resource Assessment Center, which has been um a a hole in the Adams County system. Uh used to be the link, which is when we have a a juvenile that we take into custody or that we uh the parents, we can't find can't find the parents immediately and we don't want to keep them at the police department. Um Jefferson County has had a juvenile assessment center for years.

The Adams County had the link and that's been vacant. Uh but here I think in mid-Marchch here the youth resource assessment center should be stood up in Adams County. That's going to be a step-by-step piece. Hopefully within the next year there'll be a 24/7 facility, but right now uh that's been a huge void that is that is that is coming. So uh continue to work with our co-responders, one of those being funded through the opioid settlements uh that we've received. So that's continues to be a huge success for us. Um and then obviously our victim advocates. So, uh, we will continue to work on traffic enforcement, and I'm happy to report that last year we bought a speed trailer, which was very popular with the public. Um, also gave us valuable data, but also was that public education piece. We ordered our second one, and I'm happy to report the second one arrived today. So, we will have that out and about very, very soon. So, um, other than that, that's that is the presentation that I have tonight, and I would open up to council for any questions.

Thank you so much. That was very thorough. Uh, council comments or questions. Okay, everybody at once. Uh, councelor Johnson. Uh, thank you. I appreciate it, Chief. My my only question is around the family justice center because I know in conversations with Adams County, it sounded like they were considering contributing less to that project and asking the cities to contribute more to fill the the resources necessary. Is your expected budget request reflecting what Adams County is expecting RC to increase their contribution to?

So, appreciate the question and it's one of those questions that I that I as well have. We have not received anything specifically informal saying, "Hey, here's the contribution." Our funding model that we asked for was the funding model that we use in other models within both Jefferson and Adams County based off of population. So that was originally where we went. We have not seen any final numbers. Um I I I'm not comfortable bringing something to you or to to my boss um if it's not similarly reflective either based off of call load or population. So I I don't know that I'd be able to to come back to you with that. Um, when I have those specific numbers, I absolutely will bring those to you. Uh, but don't have anything specifically as of yet.

Yeah, I appreciate that. And if you know, the reason I bring it up is because we obviously all have conversations with the commissioners. And if if that funding model isn't appropriate, I think we we would like to hear about it so we can have that conversation with them directly.

It's it's going to be I will just say, as everybody knows, it's a challenge with with both counties and obviously budgets and and the constraints there. Um Adams County is is asking for uh money for the family justice center. They'll be asking money which we already have some set aside within our current budget for the Adams County detox um at crisis center. Um our understanding is that is going to increase as well. Um I think we have I think we have planned for some of those increases but then you have also the youth uh resource assessment center which we already have in our budget and have been planning for that. So I think the big ask will be for the family justice center. Um the other piece of that that we're still working out that I'm I'm part of this is what I'm chairing with the Thornton chief is understanding what that resource means non-monetarily. Um what does that mean for staffing? Are we putting a detective or an officer there at the family justice center? Um is that something where we rotate? Is that something we have a model of porch light in Jefferson County which is another family justice center. Um but but we have to make it work for Adams County just because the things we do over in the Jefferson County side and they're having issues with with staffing at Porch Light as well and maintaining. Um when that was first opened the idea was that the larger agencies would have a f a full-time FTE there and then some of the smaller agencies will rotate people through there. Um we're still working through that on what that looks like on the Adams County side. But it's as as I already talked about with staffing that is that is a concern for all of us. How do how do we how do we how do we meet them where they're where they are at and give them good service without sacrificing other pieces of this?

It's a long answer, but yes. Well, thank you. Let us know what you need. Thank you. We'll do. Councelor Island, thank you for your presentation. Um, so I know the police in a couple situations just recently have gotten to fires before the firemen. Do the police get special training? Have to deal with fires when there's no firemen there yet?

Can make so many comments. Can but no, the the the officers, you know, some of that some of that is some of that is luck of the draw. You know, if if it's in their beat and they're not assigned to a call, um you know, sometimes if they're assigned to a call, the way the fire stations are are separated through the city, they're going to beat us to the call. Uh but on those calls the they don't have specialized they don't have specialized training. They they it is it is a deal where um they get some basic first aid and some basic um I would call it fire prevention training if you will in the academy um what to do what not to do but really at that point in time it becomes what's the right thing to do and in in the one sense I don't know that the city can afford um to equip every officer with SCBAs and and fire gear and all that type of stuff. Um, and and really there it's it's what is what are you comfortable morally? We talked about this in another session, but morally what what's the right thing to do?

Um, thank you. Yes, Council Brahos.

Uh, thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh, and thank you, Chief, for the presentation. I have well, one follow-up kind of question or just kind of, um, maybe potential, uh, curiosity. So maybe I'll start with that around the fire. Um you know just obviously the protective you know the kind of ROI on protective gear but I do think that there might be some benefit in exploring some sort of SOP or protocol around exposure to smoke elements uh that might linger on an officer's gear and whether they have the opportunity to maybe go back to the station and change into spare gear if they're exposed to kind of chemicals. Um I don't know if there already is one. Great. I I don't you know but

so we we do know what it's it's a great question. It's one of the things we we actually installed a washer dryer um in in the police department loading dock several years ago because of that. Um fire obviously is is way more versed in what what those carcinogens are and and how those how those stick to you and that type of stuff. And so we learned several years ago that hey, if you're involved in this, that's one of the that's one of the procedures in place um is when you're involved in that, you go back to the police department, take off your uniforms, put them in the the the city washer and dryer, if you will, in the loading dock and and get your clothes washed. Um whether it's, you know, cycles with other other clothes or not, you know, other other department clothes, that type of thing. But um doing what we can to to minimize those pieces. um as it relates to um you know the officers do some of the officers do have uh safety masks and those that's one thing that we are we are exploring is there other opportunities there to to outfit everybody. Um and then with that in the fire the the the trunks of the cars they should all have fire extinguishers. Doesn't usually help much in the the big house fires but for some of the smaller ones they they do have those.

Great. Um, I have uh just I'll maybe start with a the just a positive note or thank you for the kind of focus on community outreach. I I think you know I think it's great every single member of of the city who can kind of do that community outreach I think kind of be meets the certainly the goal of this council but also I think of city staff's goal of of really engaging with that. I uh you know as you're exploring other options some things that could potential potentially work uh to reach kind of newer community or not the people that kind of show up typically to to the police events are um mutual aid options particular you know I think of councelor Zadi mentioned the food drive earlier um but kind of mutual aid uh programs like that that you know I don't want to say the city or the police budget should necessarily go into that but just maybe it's opportunities for kind of on the on their civilian life to participate in, you know, Westy police officers kind of dip into those things. Um, just one question. If you have data on it, I'd be interested, but even just your general take on the overtime challenge, the, you know, I I'm curious the amount of officers that are kind of forced or and forced is a strong word, but you know, kind of, you know, hey, departmentwide, we need these uptakes versus, you know, are they all, you know, fighting for the open spots because they want that overtime pay. I know that that tenor can kind of die down the more and more they take on. So I just didn't know if you could kind of dive into, you know, maybe 20% of the overtime opportunities are are very easy and but the 80% or you know are really difficult and we have to kind of encourage

I would say it probably depends on the time of the year and probably depends on the unit. So when I look at uh u emergency communications or dispatch, there was a time there was a time not long ago where it was forced. you knew signing up that on one of your days off you were going to be working overtime. Um because we didn't have a we didn't have a backup system. I mean and and I hate saying that. Uh but but it was it was a you call 911, the expectation is somebody's going to answer the phone and we had to have that. And to get somebody trained properly in there to do that um takes several months and and so that was they worked through that. And right like I said right now, knock on wood, there's there's one vacancy in there that we're in a hiring process for. uh they're six in training. They're all doing very well. So, it's it's reassuring. We're getting there. Uh but now they're back to hey, we have overtime shifts and those are being filled voluntarily for the most of them. There's there's a little bit of mandatory overtime, but it's it's not what we experienced a few years ago. As it relates to the officers, a similar situation, I would say probably 80% of it, maybe a little bit higher, is voluntary. There's there's the occasional, hey, we need you to stay over um until we can get somebody to back fill. That type of thing. What I will tell you is is consistently historically January through March, we don't have a problem filling overtime. Nobody's taking vacations. Everybody's paying off their Christmas debt and we haven't we haven't gotten into the vacation season yet. When you start hitting summertime is when we really have difficulties.

Uh everybody's on vacation. Obviously, you have kids out of school, that type of stuff. Um and you have, you know, life to live outdoors, that that type of thing. So there, uh we we run closer to minimum staffing. And then from there, um, having people come in, it's it's it's more of a mandatory piece as opposed to a voluntary piece. Then in the fall, you get it's kind of a mix actually. Uh, but you get back into the, hey, the holidays are coming up and we got some bills to pay, so if there is an overtime shift, I can jump on that.

Yeah, it sounds Thanks, Chief, for that. Um, it sounds like there's opportunity to reduce cost with kind of um keeping staff continuously on board. the fact that we don't have to backfill for just kind of allocated FTE. Yes, there's potential cost savings. So, I'd be certainly interested, you know, as we go through the budget process, ways that we can, you know, even if it's a budget expenditure to kind of get to budget savings on having continual kind of employment so we don't have to to kind of hit at all. You know, I would love for all all overtime to be voluntary in that way. So, I know you would too and and I'm sure this council would as well. So, thank you. Yeah. Anyone else? Mayor Pro.

Um, thank you, Chief, for this. Um, just had a couple of questions about, um, one the SRO's that we have. Is there, um, I can't remember if there was a request or not from the So, there there, as far as I'm aware, there have been two requests so far. Um, and and we're we're expecting

I've been told to expect more uh from from the school administration. Um I I think some of that depends on their budget and what what they can do. Currently with the school resource officers uh for all three school districts we and for the um the academy we have a uh intergovernmental agreement in place where 50% of the salary is paid for by the district. The other 50% as well as benefits are paid for by the city. Uh we wouldn't look to adjust that quite honestly. Um but with that um I'm aware that Westminster Public Schools and Adams 12 have both reached out saying we would like an additional SRO. Um what what my goal is uh to to my boss is to make sure that um one that we have if if there's four we have all four that they're all on the table. Uh but also to look at where we are experiencing challenges in relation to call load um and where it would be most beneficial to us. Um, so if if if I'm coming to you asking you for one, two, whatever that number is, um, and obviously, you know, getting council's input in in that, we're looking at it as more of a community request at that point in time. Hey, here's what the community is asking for. um that piece of it, but also to come back to you and give you here from from an internal perspective as it relates to call load and and our resources um where we feel that we would be uh the biggest return on investment would be as it relates to that.

Okay. Yeah. So potentially might ask for that. Okay. Yeah. Cuz I remember Westminster High School I think was one of them, right? That Yeah. West Westminster public schools is asking for one at Hidden Lake High School, which is at 72nd LOL. And then Adams Adams 12 is asking for an additional uh school resource officer at uh Mountain Range High School. You already have one. They're asking for a second. Uh to give you an example, Westminster Public Schools at Westy High School has two uh FTEEs, the SRO's at Westminster High School. Okay. So,

all right. Thank you. Yes. Wondering about that. Um and then the other question I have was just our joint city efforts with respect to speeding and racing on the um on the highway and other drags that we have. Is that does that um is there a cost to that or is it just more kind of joint effort?

It's um I would say I would see I guess I would say both. I mean, some of it we depending on exactly what you're asking, Mayor Pro Tim, some of that is handled through uh where we're we're flexing schedules, like if instead of having traffic work, you know, day shift, they're going to work a swing shift or they're going to work a night shift. So, some of that is handled through that, but some of that is also handled through overtime. Um, again, just the, you know, it's not like we don't have speeding vehicles during the day. So, when we get into the cruising or the the the street racing and those types of things, we'll do both. Uh we still do um we still do one of the uh task forces which is more of a state and it's run by state patrol. Uh we're still a part of that. We still do the Adams County task force and then and then we do our own when we know that we're having issues or we're going to have um you know we have intel sometimes that comes through. Hey, there's going to be a big car club meeting at such and such business tonight and we know that's in the city. we're foolish not to make sure that we're uh taking those taking those uh actions appropriately. What I will tell you is is doing some of the stuff with the other agencies becomes a force multiplier. Um when you have state patrol, they're able to bring an aircraft to this. Uh so then you don't get into pursuits and if you have um egregious violators, they have the plane that's up there circling, follow them home um and then getting that agency there. So it becomes obviously resource intensive, but at the but at the same time it becomes much more of a a safety issue. Um and and so you you do those things, but then it also becomes if we if we have a car club that I'm just going to say shows up at at Lowe's here at 88 and Sheridan and they packed the lot at, you know, at 10 at night, we know Lowe's is closed and and uh they have a trespass agreement. That's one of the things that we have worked hard with our businesses and those private lots is making sure that those large lots that we have the ability to trespass somebody

and that's that's our relationship with the business owner or the property management to make sure that um that we've already spoken with them ahead of time. Do you want people hanging out here? Do you want that? Nine times out of 10 they say no, we don't want this. And so we we've made those relationships prior um so that we can we can curtail those efforts. But then when you have two or three traffic officers that show up to 500 or a thousand cars, it doesn't resonate real well for us or for them. But when you show up, when you have that group that shows up of other agencies that are working in enforcement that night and you show up with 30, says something different. It says something they go, "Okay." and and so depending on where that is and and the resources that you can bring to that um has has paid dividends for the city where we don't have not going to say never but where we don't have groups congregating in those parking lots now as everybody knows we still have issues with them going from one location to another on I25 on Highway 36 those types of things um we're looking for different ways that we can do that but we're also limited by um uh by case law you know we can't just go in and as much as we would like to close down a lane or close down two lanes and and divert them to a different city. Uh some of those things we've we've looked at um as as innovative ways, but at the same time we we know legally we can't do some of those things.

Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Well, I have I'm sorry I keep you comments of my own. Sorry. I'm almost here to keep you. I just want to say big kudos for the presentation overall. You covered it was very well-rounded and I I saw that you added a lot from last year. Um I'm excited to hear about the AEL training. Thank you. Uh I was a little apprehensive when I heard about the 911 overhaul because that can be intensive and expensive. It sounds like that we have dollars. Is that entirely covering it or partially covering it?

It it is it is 100% covering the the installation of the new product and and all of that. The only thing that we will have to pick up over time um and that is a it's a highly reduced cost because of the JCEC funding would be uh if there's a maintenance issue in in three or four years but most of that is all covered through the JCA. Okay. So, you know, if if there's an issue, obviously we would have to call out some of our personnel or some of it, but that's also the contractors that they have on call for that. So, it's it's a I don't want to say anything's free, but it's a highly reduced cost to what if if we didn't have that funding ability that we would that we would pay for.

Mhm. Okay. Well, that's fantastic news because that can be a long project. Yes. And then, um, thank you for bringing up the deescalation that we're continuing to work through and, um, the ongoing training for that. Uh, I just want to follow up. I never, you know, from our last year and I hope to join again for another deescalation training this year whenever my schedule finally allows. Um, but I do want to follow up on those videos. Did we ever get more context on them around the bias? Uh, you know,

we we did. Uh, some of that was was um some of that was with the off the instructors. Some of that was was content that we were getting from from other departments. Um, and and what we were trying to do when I asked the instructors, some of that they were they were trying to find the video that fit that fit the um I'll say the case study or where they were trying to give an example. and and so a lot of that they were they were picking and choosing. They didn't have 20 videos to pick from. They had well this one fits what I want to teach. So we're still continue to look at at other opportunities for that. Um and I think really with the with body cameras and where they are at I think there will be a lot more opportunities to be um however you want to look at it more selective or less selective as it relates to some of those things. Yes,

that's true. That's a good point. I think hopefully in the last 5 years we've really broadened the range of training videos available. Yes.

So um and then it's really good news that we're still looking into the uh traffic cams with AIS. Um so I'm excited to hear about that hopefully coming on board soon. Um I just want to say that it is absolutely my and hopefully I can get support from council but goal to really try to tackle speeding. I mean, I think every counselor has come on in the last however many years and said they're going to do something about speeding. And um I live on a corridor where I know a motorcycle went over a 100 past me last night, you know, and so um I just want to figure out how we can really concisely tackle that this year, you know, come back like come back with a plan of is that, you know, two nights every month that we're looking at these streets between 12 and 2 a.m., you know, or how does what does that look like? because that is the one consistent thing I have heard every single time I've knocked doors all over the city from Church Ranch to 92nd. I'm glad we're still um working with Adams County on these things. I just think that we can make a real concerted effort to hopefully make a dent and make a difference so that folks finally understand that maybe our community is not immunable. You know, they can't get away with it here at least. Um I think that would just be a it's a huge opportunity for us. Um, and then thank you. As Council Brah has mentioned, I know you're really working on those concerted efforts around engagement. I'm really excited about that. Thank you. I think now of all times, you know, our community needs to know who you are, um, what you're doing for them, bringing that morale. It's a two-way street. You know, hopefully it helps officers getting to know the community, um, getting the community to know you. And so, I'm really excited to see a little bit more of what that looks like. And I know you're working hard on it. So, thank you. It's it's very important to me, mayor, in that aspect of of one of the things that I ask as as a police officer is when you call me, trust me. But you can't trust me unless you know me. And and in order for us to to to

have that op to have that opportunity to to know each other, we have to be we have to engage. And and we haven't as a business, we as a as an organization, and you know, we we haven't always that that hasn't been our strong point. And and so we are I can tell you 300 individuals that work across the street are working hard on that. Um, some of them are more introverts than extroverts and and it's not always the easiest thing, but they they understand they understand that that's that's a piece of of the job that we're in. Thank you. That I cannot tell you how far that goes with our community.

Thank you. Um, really excited to hear about the new speed trailer and um as well as the less less lethal force with the tasers. That's a huge one. We've seen that come up a few times. Um just want to follow up on our discussion a few weeks ago um about Flock and just see where we're at with that.

So the having having some numbers there. So currently we we have 14 license plate reader cameras. Seven of those are Flock. The other seven are different companies. Those seven that are Flock, we are under contract with them until June of 2027. So, in order for us to break the contract, we would need to pay in full. Um, that is a um that is about $21,000 to replace those. If if we were to go camera for camera, we have a couple of different quotes and it really depends on it really depends on the company and then also the the length of service that the the how how long we want to lease these. Uh we can go like with a company like Axon. Axon is the same company that makes our body warn cameras and the tasers. Axon has has LPR cameras. Um that that cost depending on which company you go with and and the the leasing of it um you're talking between 60 and $80,000 over a 3 to 5 year period depending on what that lease is. So there is an opportunity there. Um you know the one and and take flock aside the one thing that I that I would make sure that I want to make sure council is aware of is all of the license plate reader technology. That's what's contained in the red light cameras. That is what's contained in all the speed cameras. That is what's contained in all the license plate reader cameras that we use in the state of Colorado. License plate readers have been in effect and useful for the last 15 years in the state. Flock is a name brand. So Flock is is right or wrong, what whatever it is, um we can absolutely do that. But I just want you to also understand the technology is the same in all these cameras. really what the the piece of it is is what is done with that data, who owns the data, and where does that data live. We have asked the license plate reader companies as it relates to the speed cameras and red light cameras that

the data is ours and that we control who we share that with. And so we will continue to research that if we if we end up leaving Flock if that is the direction that we receive when we we leave Flock uh early you know that type of thing we would work we would work with the other manufacturers to understand how that data is shared. Uh but I just again wanting to be transparent. I also want everybody to know it's the same technology. That technology does not does not change.

Right. Thank you. Thank you for the followup and yes understanding that it's really the data we're concerned. Thank you. Um and then uh on on our SRO's, this is something that I' I'm hoping that we have available data for and if not that we can figure out. Um, but I'd love to know, you know, how many interactions they have each year, whether it's year or daily or monthly, whatever that looks like, and who it is, who is it that they're interacting with, you know, and what do those interactions look like, and just try to feed us some of that um, you know, what is their daily uh, what is their daily job look like with the students.

We track most of that information, and there'd be information that I'd be more than happy to share with council. What I what I don't know um where I think you're going I what I don't know is is if we collect demographic information of those that we interact with. Um I will ask on that and if we have it I will absolutely provide that. But I can absolutely provide um each of the schools and the breakdown and and the number of contacts that we make, the number of of counseling sessions, the number of tickets, the number of mentoring opportunities, the number of all those other pieces that are um essential quite honestly in my opinion to the school resource officer program. Thank you. That was exactly it. I have demographics right here. So, thank you.

I will look on that. I don't know if we do or not, but I will absolutely. some of that is is it's shared with the school district and some of that we work in conjunction with them of what is important for them to track as well. Um and so we're cognizant of what our partners want. So I I will look at that and research it and be more than happy to share that.

Thank you. And then last note is just something that's come up time and time again to me and I think it came up last year for several of us is the cost of obtaining footage. And so um I don't remember right now what our cost is. I think it was like $50 to which doesn't seem like a hurdle to me, but maybe we can look at what does that look like depending on the income, you know, demographic of the person applying for it. And then, um, I've also folks need several applications because you only get a small little bit. I know that we redact a lot of it. Um, I just want to make sure that folks are able to access what to able to answer the question that they're trying to answer and that we're not purposely or or we're removing as many barriers as possible to getting them what it is that they're asking for. And that came up again recently for me. And so, um, I promise to ask and look into it. Mhm.

One of the things I I actually met with a community member within the last couple weeks and and one of those kind of stemmed we we went down that that avenue um as it relates to the cost of body worn cameras and and I I'll say kind of both sides of the both sides of where this is at. the cost we are we surveyed it caused me um we had a complaint uh didn't exactly stem from body warn camera piece of it but there were there were multiple layers in in this request and it caused us to look to see where we at with our neighboring jurisdictions how are they doing things are we different are we an outlier uh that type of thing as it relates to the cost of the body warn camera footage uh we are actually average to a little bit below average we're at $35 an as it relates to that that redaction process and that whole piece of it. Uh that right now most of our most of our partners are between 35 and 40. Uh Jefferson County for an example, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is $40. Um as it as it relates to that. So um we're we're in the ballpark. It's whether that's good or bad as it relates to that. What I will tell you is is if you are if you are charged with a crime and part of the discovery process for the criminal um the criminal piece of this is you will ultimately get a full unredacted copy as part of your defense. That is that is law. that is as and and city attorney Franco can probably comment on that maybe a little bit more if if if I'm not quite as eloquent, but that is that is part of the discovery process for for your court case. Where we charge is is a public somebody wants a ultimately a redacted copy. We are mandated by law to to redact certain pieces of information in a video. One of the things that we won't do, um, some people will come in and they go, I only

want two minutes of the video, we can't get into the which two minutes? Well, I wanted the minute before that. I wanted the minute after that. Well, I wanted this incident. And you get into the um you you start getting into the hypotheticals, but you get into the the the lack of transparency. Um, we didn't release the whole video. So when we do a video, uh, we may we may work with you to see this officer's view captures more of this. This officer's view captures more of this. I mean, think if we all had cameras on around the table, the different the different viewpoints of of what that looks like. So, we will try and look through those to give you the best opportunity to say, hey, if we were to provide you this, this is kind of the view of this. this is kind of what you're what you're looking at dollar-wise um as it relates to what we think it's going to cost us to go in and redact. Now, if if we try and give them an estimation, we we um we try and hit that estimation. If we are way off, we will eat the cost. But it's also one of those things if we're way over, we're not just going to charge you the high price. We we come in and and we're um we're we're transparent and honest about about that piece of it. But really where the big cost comes in in making sure that each of those video frames, there's 10 frames per second when you're talking about video. And we have to make sure a lot of it is done using artificial intelligence that aids us in what we do. Say you have to say during a traffic stop, we'll just as as a short version, you come up and you have your driver's license registration insurance information out. We have to redact the driver's license piece for a publicly released video. think of it and and once because once we give it away, we have no more control. So, you can say, "Well, I'm not going to share this. I'm not going to show this." You can make all the promises in the world, but obviously this could end up on the 10:00 news. Now, we have somebody's driver's license with your your name, your date of birth,

your address, all that type of stuff there. We got a we have a we have a duty and an obligation to make sure that that video that all 10 frames because if you have one frame in there that's not redacted and it's a sex assault victim, it is a domestic violence victim, it it is a think of the absolute worst case scenario now all the engagement in the world isn't going to save us from the trust that we've just lost not only from that victim but from the community. So it is it is and it's labor intensive. I mean it absolutely is. It has to be done once and then the whole thing is reviewed again by a second person because again we can't I can't I can't come to you in two months in two days in two years and go hey we were close. This this is one for for our sake for the council's sake for our community's sake we have to nail 100% of the time and and I we absolutely continue to look at are there other opportunities to do this? Uh but really when we get into the crux of this and we're talking to the community members and we let them know that if if you were a defendant in a case, you will get an unredacted version. Obviously, that's got to go through the court process, but you will get that as part of your discovery for your defense. That takes a lot of the wind out of the sales as it relates to, oh, okay, I'm going to get you're you're absolutely going to get that if you continue on in the court process, that piece of it at those certain steps. Um but like I said the the we're mandated by law to make sure that we have redacted certain articles and certain pieces and that and that is where the that is where the labor intensive pieces come in. Um, it's one of the things that in that realm, uh, councelor, one of the things that we talked about during last year, I think it was last year's budget cycle was, um, adding dash cams to the cars because currently, right now, we have the body warn cameras on our, uh, but if we were

to add dash cams, um, we are going to have to add, if we add that piece into our budget in 2027, we are going to have to add an FTE just to handle that volume. It's not my favorite coming to you saying that, but but in full transparency, if we go down that road, uh because of the the amount of video that we're going to have and and categorizing it, but also redacting that uh because it would be video on multiple sides of the car as well as the the back area where the prisoner sits.

So, that is extremely helpful. It's a long answer, but um we continue to look at that u because it is um when you look at getting a copy of the report and a report can be 100 pages long and it's $15$20. We got to redact some stuff out of there. It it's not a huge expense. When you start talking about the video, it's absolutely labor intensive and it's it's not something that we as a police department, as your police department can make a mistake on. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for all of your information. much appreciate you and your presentation. Thank you. Thank you for the time. Appreciate it.

Thank you. That moves us to our second presentation on department priorities for HR.

Hey, good evening the mayor, mayor prom counselors. My name is Dave Goffrey. the newly designated chief human resources officer to match our CIO and CFO titles. And tonight I'm going to review the 2026 HR priorities, the factors that are going to affect that progress and how HR supports the fluid strategic plan. I'm still you'll see a lot of mention from me and on the slides of organizational vitality that came up during our strategic planning session. So, uh, I know that's still going to be in there in some form or fashion from from our discussions there. And so, that's where I really, uh, lean in on. Uh, HR is part of the city's organizational backbone. And the things I'm going to be talking about tonight fall into three focal areas. Modernization, fiscal responsibility, and maintaining workforce strength. And there's our organizational chart uh as chief showed and you'll see where we're circled there. And uh as chief mentioned, we're one of the departments who report to a deputy city manager, Larry Door. Um and our impact does reach every department on this chart. HRS does and organizational vitality is citywide. for our budget and staffing. You'll see that about 80% of my budget is uh personnel of our 5.3 million there. About again about 80% is uh personnel because we're personal serviceoriented in my department staffing of 28 and a half uh FTE. We support over,00 full-time equivalent employees up to 1,800 or so when you count our non-benefited and even more when you count the volunteers that um also help support us and and their fiscal impact. And one some of the things that we support workforce systems, compensation

structures, leadership capacity, benefits and retirement. Um, and the key message I I have on this one is we're a small team in HR and we support the entire workforce and that's why prioritization of what we do matters. And speaking of priorities, so here's our 2026 priorities. I've put these into six major initiatives for uh for the year. And the first one being collective bargaining agreements. This is a team effort. It's not just HR. It's it's something that we're really uh passionate about, but it takes a team effort from the city manager's office with uh some of our policy guidance, city attorney's office, the policy and budget office, our respective negotiation teams, uh our outside attorneys that we hire. This is this is truly a team effort for collective bargaining agreements and those are going to be starting ideally the dates are for April for fire. Um and uh we're still looking forward to that. I know that the ordinance is still uh in flux, but we're still looking at an April 20th start date for inspace bargaining for the fire department. Uh the second priority is the compensation and classification study implementation for the benefit of the new members of uh council. So we budgeted for this study in 2024 and completed it last year. It was the first study of this magnitude in more than 20 years. Um, and we're all always about um competitive and equitable pay structure. Um, and we finished phase one uh that we've had those um changes go into effect the first of this year back in January. And during this year, we're going to be um still working with our consultant on some afterwork, if you will, to help get us there for phase two. Those changes would be in effect in January of 27. And that's going to be more of some of the the functional areas of our pay plan,

job families and that sort of thing. Uh just modernizing our pay plan and and again you'll see those ideally with the next budget submission when we submit our pay plan uh effective January 2027. Uh performance management system implementation, we we're almost finished with that. We uh started that last year with cornerstone and ideally that's our goal is to be done with that the end of this quarter. So, end of this month, uh, but it's probably going to take a couple more months. We've got some, uh, it's really comprehensive. We're we're having to pull in a lot of old information, a lot of good information on folks that have been here, uh, so we can have, uh, good goal alignment there. All that all that information is still in the system so we can maintain accountability and leadership development. Um, sustainable benefits package review. This speaks to the fiscal responsibility um, focal point that I talked about. Health care costs are rising. We're always doing things to try to keep those down. Uh we're going to be doing a full RFP and taking a look if there's, you know, right now we use Etna as our main plan carrier and we we're going to be looking to see if there's anybody that's more competitive that um has equal or better customer service out there. Uh one of the things that we do to try to keep our cost down is through our employee health clinic, aka the center for healthy living. If you haven't been to it, um you can go check that out over at the it's over at the City Park fitness center outside of it there on the bottom. You can go check that out. It's right next to our uh the physical physical therapy has an office there as well. We do a lot of uh initiatives through the clinic um with our with our blood draws, our wellness initiatives to try to keep our health costs down because that health co health claim avoidance is one of the biggest things uh that municipal governments are working to uh working toward and they're using the we're using the clinics to get there and then that's a big uh big benefit that we offer our our employees

that are on the Etna plan. Uh the next one there is speaks to retirement security, our defined benefit pension plan project. Again, we're almost finished with that. You'll be seeing some more information about that. I think I think I briefed Councelor Hut and and back when you were counselor Carmelia when you first did the your orientation, I talked to you about this is something we're looking at where we're finally getting to the finish line um for that. As you know, the city doesn't contribute to social security. So, this is one way that we can we can help our employees u with retirement security because uh if if you've seen things do cost a lot and we want to make sure that our employees leave here and and have a lot of uh security in that regard. And the last one there is our and you've heard this again from a couple of other directors uh the enterprise resource planning replacement project and and my role in that is looking out for a good HR information system. And so this year we're going to be focused on working with the consultant that hasn't been selected yet, but uh that's that uh committee is or that selection team is looking at that and we're going to help design an RFP uh that's going to ideally go out in January of 27 so we can field a new system that speaks to the modernization focal point that I was talking about and we really need to do that. The system we have now that we use, JD Edwards, we've customized it to the point to where the team that we've talked to from Oracle JD Edwards has told us we've customized it to the point to where we really have to change to another system even if we stay with them uh for them to be able to adequately support us. So we're we're at that point. We're kind of at the at the do or die point when it comes to ERP. Um so next slide there on my priorities. Now the factors that influence the progress or affect the progress on these things. Um the the first one there is u is actually a good one which is u long-term efficiencies, technology improvements and operational savings. Folks like to be part of of an

initiative that's moving forward. Kind of like when Clint Eastwood directs the film, they don't do a lot of takes, they keep moving forward. That's kind of that's kind of how we look at this is uh whenever folks are involved in in things like that when it comes to change they get motivated they get excited they want to do these things but that does lead into my second point there is uh these large simultaneous projects can be demanding of time and so that's one of the things I have to look at especially on my team is you have end up with folks that are juggling multiple glass balls and uh while we're talented at doing that you want to really watch out for burnout and to make sure that folks are not just doing um you know as much as they can on the side of their desk. We want to do things 100% and uh correctly and uh it's just going to take again some strategic planning prioritization. We're going to be looking at that throughout the rest of this year. And the last but not least, which always affects every every project we sink our teeth into, is budget stability and revenue projections. We're going to work closely with policy and budget office as we have all of those priorities that I was talking about for 26. There might be a time where we have to call an audible and switch priorities mid-stream. I mean, we're prepared for that. We have to be agile and flexible in the HR department and uh and again, that's one of those things that budget realities just always stare us in the face uh whenever we have initiatives that we want to uh move forward with. Now, so I did mention this about uh um how how do we align with the strategic plan? So, organizational vitality, that's one of the things that that used to be one of our well, I guess it still is until it's changed. A strategic uh priority there. Um but how do we strengthen that organizational backbone of the city? We've maintained low vacancy and turnover rates, some of the lowest in the Denver metro area. turnover less than 10% for the last couple years and vacancy rates uh less than 5%. Now, with the, you know, the 3H

uh additions, there's a caveat there, but so when you take those out, uh we're still less than 5% going back over over the last two years. And so, we're very proud of that. That speaks to a good stable organization with stable leadership. And then competitive compensation, again, like I mentioned with our study, we're always trying to to get there. Um I just had did did orientation today. Again, I don't know if Chief's still here, but had two police officers that came to us from other agencies close to us, really close to us. Uh, and, uh, I love those kinds of poaching gigs because we don't even have to, we don't have to actively do that. They come to us. Uh, they self poach. Uh, so, uh, and, and again, it's our competitive compensation. It's our stable leadership. It's our good management. And I scream that from the rooftops. I always tell them, they're our biggest ambassador. Tell your friends, come to work for Westminster. If you like it, they're you can tell them they'll like it. And it's just a good news story all around. So, I was I was glad to see those out of our five officers that started today, I was glad to see that two were from agencies that we compete with. And that just speaks to how well of an organization that Chief's running and just the city at large. And then sustainable benefits and retirement. have already talked about what we do to try to offer the best benefits we can um at um as cost-effective as we can and we're always looking at improving in that regard and that's why we're looking at the the defined benefit retirement. Uh that would be kind of our our last little gold nugget there that we want to that we want to add. And then regarding leadership development and workforce pipelines, that's how that's one of the things that I'm doing. I'm actually meeting with the uh Westminster public schools superintendent next month on what we can do to try to get in those schools and I'm going to start branching out. You didn't see that on the 2026 priority. Again, I think that's going to be more of a 2027 priority. Our numbers are pretty good right now and we have a lot of other things staring us in the face, but but that's one of the things that those things we have to do to get

ready for that future generation of workers. We have a lot of schools in the area that are majority minority and we want to reach out to them with bilingual products because we know when they take things home from the city of Westminster, we want their families to be able to read those uh meet them where they are. Um, and I'm very excited about that. And so I'm going to start laying the groundwork this year and you'll see that on one of my priorities for 27. The important point of of again how we support the strategic plan overall uh is a stable workforce is what we try to do. Everything speaks to that every every priority that I have as the chief human resources officer. Everything we do in HR is to uh try to create a stable workforce because what does that do? That allows departments to focus on serving residents and like we mentioned at the or like you all mentioned at the strategic planning session is excellent services, right? that we're always trying to provide excellent services and that's one thing I can promise you as your CHRO is everything that I do is focused and my team does is focused on trying to maintain that stable organization for for that um serving residents. That's that's what we're all about. And in closing, this is a pivotal year for for HR. It's going to be uh going on my into my fourth year here. Uh we got everything from again collective bargaining agreements, compensation improvements, performance management system, benefit sustainability, pension stability, uh the ERP system changes, everything that I've talked about strengthens that organizational vitality. Um I do want to mention that organizational vitality as I've always viewed it. It's not kind of a oneandone. It's an always. You know, I'm always looking at that. Uh, that's one of the things that I have to look at and even if it's not on the strategic plan as a priority, trust me, that's going to be something that's always in the back of my mind that's going to when I go to sleep at night, I'm going to be thinking about the organization itself. What can we do to help all of our employees

thrive and to provide the best services we can for the great residents of the city of Westminster. And again, our goal is simple. maintain that strong organizational backbone so the city can continue delivering excellent service to the community. And with that, I will open it up for any questions you might have. Well said. Thank you so much. Questions and comments. Mayor Proberilla.

Thank you, Mr. Godfrey. And um I will just say I strongly believe in maintaining the organizational vitality. I think it's more of a how we live it kind of thing like you just said. It's something that you do every day and that's the drive behind the decisions and I think that's kind of where we discussed putting it into the strategic plan. Um so it's forever as a guiding principle if you will. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

So I didn't really have any questions. It just sounds like um in reality we're just going to be looking at increased pay potentially and it's some adjustments with that big study that we just did. Um is that kind of the the biggest impact that we should be expecting for? Well, the u it's really more of just structural changes to the pay plan. We did discover that we were very competitive and met our 50th percentile goal. Okay,

we had to make some adjustments that were effective in January for it was a handful of folks that we had to uh had to bring up, but we're we're really competitive and so we're we're maintaining middle of the pack 50th percentile and so you won't council you might see some again we look at the market but you know when we you know do market comparisons um and and like inflationary type of type adjustments but regarding u any overwhelming type pay adjustments related to the plan or I'm sorry, the study. You won't see that this time. Great. Okay. Thank you. Other comments. Just Thank you. Thank you. My door's open if you ever have any questions and thank you.

I just want to highlight your point on looking out for the well-being of all our our employees. Thank you for that. Thank you. I know that a lot of folks are doing several jobs at once and so thank you for really looking at, like you said, I know they're doing a lot on the side, but trying to do one thing at a time. And I understand that often means that projects take longer, but thank you for looking out for their well-being. And uh an ERP is no joke. So I wish you all a lot of luck and I hope you have a really strong PM on that and uh I I recommend uh not going with the lowest bit on this one. Sure. It's it can become a tangled mess. I'm on one myself right now. It's a lot of fun. But uh anyway, I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you.

You don't want to ask him about body warn cameras? I All right. So, uh we are now uh going to be closing the public session of our meeting. I don't know if we should all smile and pose with paparazzi back here or not, but um we can get one photo with him perhaps. Um but that concludes the public portion of our post post meeting and it is now 9:36. And so with that, we will close it and begin our executive session. Uh city attorney, do we need to go around? We already we've already approved the motion. Correct, mayor. And um so I would just await the clerk stopping the webcast on the live portion or public portion of the meeting tonight uh so that a separate recording can be initiated for the exact session.

Excellent. And I need like a threem minute break. Excellent. We will take a short break. That concludes and we'll meet back at 9:40.