City Council - Regular Meeting

Hey everybody. Hey, hey,

Oh, oh wo. Uh Counselor, can you hear me?

Yeah. Can Sorry. Can you speak again? All right. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Good evening and welcome to the May the 4th pause. May the fourth be with you all. [laughter] 2026 Westminster City Council study session. Thank you for joining us this evening. Please remember our meetings are governed by the rules of decorum posted inside 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. Uh, can I get a motion to allow Mayor Pertam Nurla to participate remotely in the study session and the two uh council executive sessions? Well, the one council exec session and the Lita Exec session. Before we proceed, councelor Johnson,

I move to allow Mayor Protemper Melon to participate remotely in the study session in the two executive sessions on our agenda. Thank you so much. Councelor Hop, I second. Thank you. Uh any discussion? Okay. Um shall we can we get a a yay or nay or should we go around the room for a poll? I think all in favor Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Fantastic. All right. Thank you for covering that before we get a [clears throat] get started. Uh, city council reports, councelor Hawk.

Um, yes. So, I am on the board for the butterfly pavilion and on Friday, May 1st, um, 2026, so just this Friday, I joined, uh, deputy city manager door and director Kimell in a meeting with the lead leadership of the butterfly pavilion. and that included uh Ryan Welch which is the president and CEO, Mark Corbett, which is um board chair, and Aaron Maguire, CFO. And the purpose of the meeting was to review the butterfly pavilion's vision for their future operations in Westminster. and um they described the proposed pollinator corridor which would be a connected system of habitat, trails, and civic spaces anchored by the butterfly pavilion that would link city park, Big Dry Creek, and the proposed Ericson senior living. They also described their conceptual expansion and remodeling plans for the existing building and campus. This would expand um exhibit, classroom, office, retail, and restroom space. It would also add a cafe, improve the lobby experience, and add a new entrance for school groups. And guiding the design is the desire to create a more immersive experience for visitors where invertebrates are in open multi-ensory environments and not behind glass. Where there are opportunities to touch, hold, and encounter live animals, observe active uh conservation in the exhibit spaces, be immersed in media and interactive experiences. And while there's still much work um to be done, we're analyzing the source and uses projected impacts and phasing. We asked to reconvene with them once they have a more uh feasibility analysis completed by their consultants Clifton Larson Allen. We know that they're going to be um there's going to be some ask made of the city as we enter the budget forming process and we want to be sure we consider this carefully in this constraint budget time. So, they um are

going to be asking for some support from the city. Um I I'm not entirely sure. Um I'm sure they will provide different options for us to choose from. So, they will be visiting with council soon. Um and so I do think that I I personally think that it's important that we do support them. Um, I do know we have a constrained budget, but whatever, um, we [snorts] can do to support them, um, I think would be, um, important because I do think that they are, um, important to our city, um, not just I mean, it's important to our residents, um, everybody who visits there, but it it's also important, um, you know, when it comes to, um, even the economics of, you know, our our city and and um so I think um when they come to us with an ask um I hope that we are able to to support them.

Thank you, Councelor Brahost.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. It was a busy week for all of us here. Um the this past Wednesday was the uh employee appreciation breakfast. Uh, and we uh, just a special shout out to the executive leadership team for uh, slinging the the waffles and pancakes and all the great work you did. It seemed like everyone uh, all the employees of the city who got a chance to show up and and have that uh, breakfast were were very grateful for it. And the food was really great. I had a chance um, along with various members of this council to kind of say hi and offer some raffle prizes. And it was a great moment to highlight uh, the city's commitment to its employees. And so I'm grateful that that is something that, you know, we have a a really high level of expertise within our city staff. And so I'm grateful that we can show not only the appreciation on moments like this, but also just in the way that we structure our employee contracts and and they're just kind of um the way that they're able to to have uh stable employment here with the city. Uh later that day, we went and had uh the Little Dry Creek flood plane um map update town hall of sorts. There weren't there were a few people in in attendance there at the MAC, but the weather kind of left kept some people away. So, if anyone's listening uh and lives, you know, anywhere near Little Dry Creek, uh please um you know, you can reach out to the city for more information, reach out to to me and I can certainly connect you uh with those in the city who have more information. Um but it is a lot of people in our city are impacted by this flood flood plane map redrawing, including myself. And so, um, you know, I I would hate for people to to be surprised by this information. So, you know, maybe we can debrief with staff after, you know, after that meeting to see, you know, what kind of continual education and outreach is available uh for that information. After that was the Front Range Passenger Rail um town hall here. It was a packed house and so I was grateful that people showed up to share their uh you know excitement, concerns, their thoughts and

um I just want to take a special moment to to give a shout out to uh and note how grateful I am to this this entire body but particularly the mayor and mayor prom for really stepping up and ensuring that Westminster has a spot in this conversation and at the table for all sort of uh transit priorities of the state. And I think uh our residents are also grateful that we uh aren't forgotten or left on the sidelines in these conversations. After that was the environmental advisory board. And so that was a great time. We had a chance to hear uh from our water usage experts and I think everyone on the board was um grateful for the presentation. So um really thankful to director Kipple and his team, you know, all all of his staff that make made that available. And I think it speaks, you know, to the greater desire of this community. We had the town uh the community update where we talked about drought plans um and water usage, but I think you know there will always be continuing questions. And so the more that we're able to share that information, the more information we can gather, I think, um you know, it responds well to the to I think a pretty high need of the city right now. Uh Thursday, we had [clears throat] a pretty packed day as well. We all ga, you know, we gathered together with many other municipalities and organizations in Jefferson County for the spring forum on homelessness. And then later that afternoon, I was uh at the NCLU or I attended virtually the NCLU class um for local solutions on homelessness. I think the theme throughout the day for me was that there is uh a major need you know every city and municipality is is attending to uh the you know kind of federal issue global issue of of homelessness and I think there's a lot of desire and need for not only uh kind of regional leadership but certainly regional funding as well as we you know I think Westminster has done a really good job

of kind of responding to the needs of of individuals who kind of note the impact that that it has on their lives, but and also doing it within our continuum of compassion. But I think there's a real strong desire for regional leadership and whether what and I think whatever we can do as a council to continue to advocate for something like that would be ideal. So I'm certainly willing to continue participating in our conversation. Um later that afternoon, uh Councelor Ireland and myself had a chance to go to the business walks. Um we were out um kind of by 108th in Wadssworth and uh it was a really fun time. Uh I'm really grateful for the business owners who let us kind of interrupt their day. We you know we kind of just showed up and said, "Hi, we're from the city." And and I looked like a salesman as I was kind of carting around a bunch of bags. Uh so I I promised them I wasn't soliciting and I just, you know, we wanted to to just give them some info on small business week um which uh is this week. and a lot of them were just so kind of grateful that to chat with us and I think that was a really positive experience for me. So, um later that afternoon, this Strive program at Copperwood Apartments, we uh the mayor and I had a chance to to go to Copperwood Apartments and see uh this cool grilled cheese toy giveaway, which was they offered grilled cheeses sandwiches and they gave away toys to residents there. Um, and they also had a raffle for grocery gift cards. But really, it was a it was a great time for uh Amy Sanders, who gave us a presentation a while back from Greyar uh to be able to connect with residents around their needs. And I'm grateful that Greyar continues these community um programs and um is willing to continue the conversation. The rental housing ad hoc committee meeting was after that and um while I got there late uh I was able to kind of see that there was some consensus around uh from both uh property management teams and renters around enforcement. I

think you know everyone is is is you know whatever the code kind of outlines there is uh some support for um you know good enforcement measures to support that code. Friday, the there was a rib ribbon cutting at Puzzler's Escape, which um I'm mentioning it there. One, I love Escape Rooms, but two, the the owners there just could not stop talking about how amazing how much they loved Westminster and how glad they were to be a small business here. They're not too far from Fire Station 5, and it was just a really nice way to lean into small business week. Uh and I'm grateful that they, you know, trusted the city enough to to kind of put their uh desire for small business there. And uh I also am hoping to connect they want to do an escape room that's themed around Westminster history. So I'm going to connect them to Westminster Historical Society as well. Saturday I had a chance to go to the dog park uh and meet with the dog park guardians and over 150 people showed up to help clean up um there around the dog park and we had a chance to talk about some logistics um and concerns, community concerns around um you know the dog park and and all the logistics which I won't go into at this moment. But I was really grateful for the guardians to give me some of their time and and and energy while also kind of coordinating with the greater community. After that, I got a chance to go to Makeshift Crafts, which is on close to 120th and Federal um right by those the Highland Hills um rec center there. And it was their one-y year anniversary. And they had I could barely get in the door. They had a packed house celebrating. And you know, I asked Britney, the owner, one of the owners there, what her secret was, and she mentioned how being a third space business, people can just come in and don't necessarily need to shop, but they're able just to come in uh and enjoy community. And it has flourished into a really city w uh sorry, a regional community. A lot of people from outside the city came in that day to celebrate with them. And it was, you know, just a real positive experience

for me just to be surrounded by it. And then finally later that day, I went to the Adams County Community Resilience uh walking group. So this is part of that walking group organization that the council has that I pulled the council on and we're kind of pushing towards. This is separate. Uh this is kind of an Adams County initiative, but I just went there and got to speak with the leader. And there were 15 people from around Adams County showed up, some from Westminster, some from other places. And while they all had a variety of reasons for coming to enjoy a walking group, they all really left with a desire for more community, which I thought was right on the money. And that's my update. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Ireland. Thank you. I'm glad to hear about makeshift crafts because I went to the ribbon cutting a year ago

and I'm glad she's doing well. So, that's great to hear.

Um, so I also went to the annual employee breakfast. Great turnout, great report. Um, always enjoy it. Um, I attended the water task force with councelor. He's already given us a summary of that. Um, good group. They seem to be all up to speed on a lot of things about water. So, that's good to see. Um, I did attend the last half hour of the the passenger rail since I was at the water task force and luckily it was in the same building. Appreciate that. Um, see, I went to the Jefferson County homeless uh meaning I think that what I took from it is the least expensive way to treat homeless is to prevent it and that seemed to be the theme. Um I don't know what exactly we're going to do with Jefferson County. I know our city's already taken a good initiative towards that. Um also attended the business walks. I learned that lots of the business in that Walnut Creek shopping I mean area business park is um medical device companies which I can relate to because my husband's a medical device. Um there was a business I was really impressed with. They're called Bre. They make um exercise equipment. They sell it to Boston and so forth.

They when they moved in four years ago only had 60 employees. Now they have 144 employees. So they're booming and all the businesses in there seem to be doing well. So that was good to see. Um so I hope we can keep that business because they're really growing. Um sorry what what was the name?

It's called rep. Um, also today I attended councelor Rosati was on the call about the proposal from Adams County for child care pilot program. We're supposed to bring that back to us the end of June. What exactly the pilot program will be. So we'll look forward to hearing from them then. And I probably have missed something. I did have my piano recital on Saturday. So I'm good to go for six more months before I have another [laughter] one. Anyway, that was good. Um, that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor. And I don't think I had quite as busy of a week as as Council Roas or Ireland, but I was able to attend the employee appreciation breakfast um in between my two minutes of fame talking about Paho Palooa, which is over, and I anxiously await the number of potholes that we filled because I not sure I have that number, but looking forward to hearing that this evening. Um and um you know it was really great to see all of the senior executive leadership supporting staff not only by hosting the breakfast but by actually cooking the breakfast. I think it's a really unique and great thing that the city does. And then that evening it was touched on but the front range passenger rail and joint rail service town hall was a a great success and not only people from our community but neighboring communities came to hear about the plans and give their input. Um, and I know after speaking with the front range passenger rail folks after the fact, they found it, you know, our town hall incredibly valuable for them and and their research and community outreach efforts as they begin um to to do that work in our region. Um Thursday we had the uh regional uh spring forum on homelessness in Jefferson County um where we talked, you know, where we had a great conversation um and hopefully we'll bring some ideas and money um from the county uh to our city to help us solve this problem um for the portion of our city that's in North Jefferson County, but for all of the city as this is a regional issue. And I thought there were some really groundbreaking ideas that were discussed and also um some pretty clear barriers that we have uh uh discussed and need to address with our partners in this effort. Um but but that was that was really valuable. Um and finally uh my fiance ran a 5K this weekend and she did it by practicing running on our big dry creek trail. It was a reminder of, you know, how valuable our city's open space and

infrastructure are for people's lives. And, you know, all that hard work paid off and it was really great to see and it makes me want to take a walk on the trail. I don't know about a run, but I'll do a walk. [laughter] Great job, Kiana. Thank you, counselor. Uh, Mayor Prom,

I'll keep I'll keep it short. I've been sick, so it's a shorter lineup of things that I was able to accomplish. But I'll just highlight with the Front Range Rail um meeting that one of the things that was exciting from last week is that RTD approved over 5.5 million dollars to start conceptual design for the joint service line. And while the Front Range Passenger Rail has more work to do as a broader connection, um joint service is a reality and that's a reality for Westminster. So, um, having state and RTD involvement and moving that forward is a great first step. So, yeah,

all I have. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. Um, well, I will mention happy small business week as councelor Brah has called out and so to everyone making our city run, we thank you. Um, I also just want to give a a big shout out to our comm's department. They have been working overtime. Um, you know, at the beginning of my tenure, I said, "Be creative." And they absolutely have. Those commercials for Pothole Palooa were fantastic. I'm really grateful. And I saw the recent commercial for, you know, 3H for our roads and our fire and I thought that came out really beautiful. So, just really thank you uh to our team. I think we have one of the best teams in the area. Um, and it was it was already mentioned a few times, but we had a real big uh week for town houses. has been multiple town houses. Um, Little Dry Creek, we talked about the changing map with the flood district. Um, if you do have questions, please reach out. We will, uh, send your questions over to the M high flood district because they were in our town to talk about that. And it was just really interesting to hear how the maps from 78 when they were originally created. You know, they predicted our city when it was fully built out to be about 33% uh, paved over, which affects the way that our drainage works. and that our water works and how much water is retained in the city. And of course, now that we are fully built out, we're more like 50% paved. And that has really dramatically moved. Not only has the um water uh amount that we're getting this year changed, but also um the way that we design the city has uh affected the way that the water moves in the city. So, that's interesting to think about. And then, of course, as we heard, we had a very successful town hall. while Front Range Passenger Rail was in town and we talked about joint service and um I will just give my sincere gratitude to Mayor Prom for all of her work on this for years now to make sure that Westminster is represented in this discussion and

now here we are with the state sitting in our city hall chambers telling the public that this is happening and I can't um overstate how huge that is. So that's a real big milestone to achieve. So, it's really exciting. Um, and then as was already mentioned multiple times, we have the uh we had the regional homelessness forum with Jefferson County and that is really a discussion to expand on the IGA which was uh it began last year. It was a monumental change. It was the first time that really the front range has even not just properly but even addressed at all our homelessness issue on the front range. And now we're taking a look at it and saying, "Okay, what now? How do we continue this work? Um, can we expand it?" And of course, we are just in our beginning conversations with our collaborative just talks on the Adams County side. And so hopefully we can bring some of our lessons learned over to the Adams County once we uh get back to that uh community forum with them. And then also, as was mentioned, um just thank you to all of our employees for being as amazing as you are and keeping the city working around the clock as you do. And um thank you to everyone who cooked for the employee appreciation breakfast. It was so much fun. I had a real great time. It's so much fun to, you know, announce winners of all those draws. I know it's a lot of work, too, to put that together, to collect all the raffle tickets, to collect all the prizes. So, um it's e even in appreciating, it's a lot of work just to put it together. So, thank you to those who do all that. And uh with that, I think we're good. And thank you for reminding me about makeshift crafts, by the way, uh because I've been meaning to head over there. And so, that's a good reminder to do that. City manager, I'll hand it to you. Do you have a report this evening?

Mayor, thank you. I do have a brief report this evening. If I could have the next slide, please. First up, by way of update, this is on the top of everybody's mind uh here at the city and in our community. Um this is an update on our drought watch. Uh first and foremost, we want to thank um our residents for their significant increase in accessing our water conservation programs. So, the participation in our programs like our sprinkler audits, our garden in a box, and our lawn replacements is up and um and under high demand. So, uh, kudos to, uh, residents for responding to that. I do want to, uh, let everybody know we're not quite at our reduction goal to avoid, uh, potential watering restrictions in the future. So, this is, uh, um, you know, a heads up for our community that, um, we really want to remind you to limit outdoor irrigation to no more than 3 days a week and to run your sprinklers um, between the hours of 6:00 and 10:00 a.m. to reduce evaporative loss uh, or evaporation loss. um when it's hot. Um this is really important and for those of you who um are able to, we're asking for you to uh now reduce your watering to two days a week um if you can. Of course, some light rain today uh is helpful and a little bit more and uh last week and some more precipitation coming tomorrow, but please do keep that in mind. I'm not saying that we're ready to go into that next stage yet. I we do believe in our community that they're going to rally and voluntarily reduce. So um we'll track that very closely also beginning in May. So right right now the city will be sending out direct mailers and emails uh which will provide uh stronger encouragement to residents to uh voluntarily reduce their outdoor water use. And we're tracking these numbers um hourly uh pretty much. So we're very we're very on top of this. We won't let too much time go by. If we need to invoke the uh uh the next stage uh we

will we will do that. Um but we're hoping not to. Um and we do believe our community can rally and um avoid us doing that. Next slide, please. Uh councelor Johnson asked the question. Here's the number. Councelor, uh the city filled 21 potholes uh in this year's third annual pothole palooa and I think uh councelor Johnson, you had a big hand in some of those 2100 if I'm not mistaken. Um as a number of our members of city council did. So that was greatly appreciated. Um we got coverage this year. Um, Denver 7, Colorado 9, Fox 31, uh, featured our Po Palooa uh, event. Um, we produced, uh, as mentioned actually tonight, uh, new videos and digital content for our website. So, if you haven't seen those, they're definitely worth checking out. Uh, our social media, our communications team was very busy. Um, and we did produce that material in uh, Spanish as well as English. So, uh, we got a great response this year. There's our there's [snorts] our crew right there on in the picture. Uh so I want to thank city council for really uh really shouldering into this year's pothole palooa and helping make it a great success. Um we our streets are in much better shape uh this morning um than they were last week. So thank you. Next slide, please. All right, for tonight's agenda, this is a study session. Um first up tonight will be Adilante Community Development uh project presenting. So our guests are here and we'll start any uh in just a few moments. Um we also have an overview of uh the city's procurement process and proposed updates to the city manager's approval authority. So that'll be a discussion let uh initially by staff and then we'll seek council's direction. Also tonight is an executive session where we will uh review with city council draft collective bargaining agreement between the city and our professional firefighter uh local 2889. And uh also up tonight uh is a Westminster Economic Development Authority meeting executive session only

tonight for that VETA meeting and that's a proposed development agreement and possible sale of block B5 in downtown Westminster. Next slide please. All right, this week uh not quite as busy as last week, so we don't have a lot of double ups on the evenings. Uh I think Wednesday night uh last week may have been our record. We had four uh uh public meetings uh three of which were right here at city hall at the same time. So, thank you to our community members and particularly city council for providing the leadership to cover all of those uh four important meetings. Uh this Wednesday, uh a little lighter, uh we do have our second water task force meeting. Uh so this is uh the second one. Last, uh Wednesday's uh was commented on this evening by council members. That happened uh that was our first one. Uh went very well. We're very um um happy at the level of engagement with our appointed representatives and uh we're really looking forward to meeting number two and uh we're going to keep uh moving through that uh that work with that task force. On Saturday this week, May 9th, um I want to announce another tree limb recycling uh event. This is free to our community. You can drop off your limbs. You can see some residents right there in that photo doing that um at 10001 Alkyre Street from 8:00 a.m. to noon. So that's a no charge drop off of your uh of your tree limbs um for uh chipping and then we provide that free mulch at our mulch site on Westminster Boulevard just across from our new drinking water facility. Uh, also this Saturday is a budget workshop uh with city council and the city's leadership team. That's right here at city hall and that will run from 8:30 in the morning on Saturday right through to 3:30 p.m. We also at the same time have a uh car seat clinic provided by our professional uh fire staff at fire station 2. That's at 9150 L and that will be running from 8:30 to noon. So, if you have uh a car seat and you want to have it and learn how to professionally install it uh for the

safety of your children, uh please go ahead and schedule an appointment by calling 303658-4500. We do have a limited number of fire staff at the station and so we do ask you to make an appointment ahead of time. They they will be very happy to get that installed professionally for you. Next slide, please. At our next meeting of city council, that's on Monday uh night, next May 11th. This is the first night where city council's new uh rules and protocols go into effect. So this meeting uh among some of the other changes uh will begin at 6:30 p.m. So for uh city council and members of our community uh tracking this there's no more premeings of city council. So we will begin the evening right at 6:30 right in city council chambers with city council at the dis. So tonight we'll start out then at 6:30 and we'll start with four proclamations. The first of which will be recognizing pollinators B City USA and Bird City USA. Uh next up will be a proclamation for our graduating seniors who are members of our youth advisory panel. Uh next will be a provider appreciation day proclamation and then finally a proclamation recognizing the national day of prayer. On consent agenda there's one item. It kind of makes it funny being consent with one item but that's the way it's set up. And then public hearing. uh we do have one and that's a public meeting and certification in support of the Edward Burn Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. So all of this we'll post uh this Wednesday evening in packet so you can track that and um see what these are all about. Next slide please. As always uh contact us uh through Access Westminster. That's an app that you can get for free or Westminster co.gov/acess westminster. our phone number at city hall 303658-2400 our uh continually refreshing website westminsterco.gov gov. And of course, we have our transparency portal which is up

and accessible from that main page of our website. That's all I have. Mayor, thank you. Any questions on the report? Okay, that brings us to this evening's presentations. Uh, city manager, would you introduce the first presenter?

Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to ask uh community services director Lindseay Kimble to uh come up with our guests and begin the evening. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Prom, and counselors. Lindsay Kimell, community services director. We have with us tonight an amazing group of people that I have been so excited to learn more about, to work with over the past year or so, and um just so impressed with the amazing work that they do, and really happy. It's been a long time coming to um to get them to a present presentation point. Um and we're so excited to tell you more about what they have in store for the city of Westminster. I will say I'm so happy because they purchased a building. We have many renderings here. We didn't want to crowd the space too much, but we'll leave those up um for you to explore. wrote some really great renderings of what they plan to do at 88 and LOL in the heart of our community uh with their project to help entrepreneurs as well as establish a food truck park which helps as a graduation and launchpad for the entrepreneurs that they help and as well they're they're specialists in helping train child care providers particularly um at home child care providers and we know we need to increase the supply of that in our community so that's another check we're very excited about that and um I will turn it over to um Maria and Maria Gonzalez who's the president and CEO of Alante and um let her tell you more about this exciting project. Thank you, Maria.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Lisa. Well, good evening everyone. With me today, we have uh Sandra Cafuentes. She is our board chair and she also uh represents Vetro Bank here in Westminster on 72nd and Federal Boulevard. And uh Jess Vasquez, he is our uh uh board vice chair and uh he has a lot of experience working with uh development and community and just really building our organization as they are both uh supporting us. Uh thank you very much for the opportunity for us to present. We're super excited and um may the fourth be with Adelanka tonight. [laughter] Um throughout the presentation feel free to you know if you have questions for us but uh what we are building is really the Latino family ecosystem across Colorado and um talking about where community where Latino community belongs you know uh Adams County is minority majority Westminster about 25% of Latino population so there's a lot of opportunities for us to build collaboration but where did started. Um, I am the founder. I started about 11 years ago really building an ecosystem to support Spanish speak entrepreneurs that continue to build businesses in Colorado but lack the infrastructure, the business acumen, the technical assistance, the support. And in the past, we relied on small business development centers or minority business office or the small business administration. However, they don't have the capacity or the cultural uh acumen to really support Latino or Spanish speaking entrepreneurs. Since we started in 2015, we've supported over 8,400 uh Latino businesses lounge in Colorado. Um even though it has been in Spanish, it doesn't mean that they're not bilingual, but our offerings are always, you know, 100% in Spanish. We are a 501c3

uh in Adams County. Currently, our office is in Commerce City. And the main reason that I started Adilante is because myself as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, I lacked all of those technical assistance and learning. And it was really hard uh that nobody was really able to help me. So I brought in the solution to other businesses that were faced with the same economic mobility uh lack of support. Um so um what what is going on right now with the market? Uh so one in three business owners have a language gap. They need to be learning in their own native language. They know the trade. They know how to do the work. But to learn the business acumen, they don't go to college. They don't go to universities. They [clears throat] rely on their own experience making mistakes, losing money. And so what Adelante brings is that solutions for them to be prepared in Colorado and their own language and really build, you know, those needs that they have. Um, one of the areas [clears throat] that we'll be talking about is the child care. uh we understand the situation with Mi with Mister but across the state there's a significant amount of support needed for young families in my household I have three grandchildren a seven a five and a three-year-old and they both my son and my daughter have been in a wait lease for years to get the support that they need and for child care so similar like them many families continue to struggle and Adelante is bringing a solution to this problem um why Latinos and why right now and why we we should not ignore. Latinos are a four trillion market and if we were to be together as a one country, we would be the fourth largest country of the world. So, Latino business GDP is very huge. It's very important as we continue to build uh programs, systems, and services to make sure that they belong to a community. We are as Latino families already here.

We're buying BU businesses, uh, opening businesses, and creating families in legacy. So, it's important as Westminster continues your, uh, impact priorities to include, you know, Latinos in the planning. And Adilante will be one of those organizations that you can partner to meet us where we are at. Um, annually, we support about 1,300 businesses, and we support them in different ways. uh technical assistance, capacity building, training, education, support, access to capital in a number of different areas. Uh if you were to look at Adelante, it's almost like the small business and workforce development for Spanish speakers across Colorado. Um um for all of these businesses that we have supported, they brought in 110 millions in economic mobility for themselves. uh we have deployed over $5 million back to community through grants and resources that we've uh experienced. And then overall the last 10 years, Atlanta has supported over 400,000 people. During COVID, we pivoted and we were very successful at doing vaccinations at the flea market. You probably heard or saw us in the news. We uh uh successfully did about 16,000 vaccinations for community at the flea market in addition to all other uh basic human resources which we no longer do. That was a pivoted moment where everybody needed and we were able to rescue these services for community. Um three areas that we focus a lot to bring in clients to our organization is through adelante konganas which is a monthly breakfast. We cater different uh topics that are business trending that is needed that is extremely important for people to get to know. The other one is aselerosio sala and [clears throat] these are three business accelerators that we have. The first one asio it's a three-month program that we are

currently doing here in Westminster partnering with one of the school districts and we teach any type of business how to run and operate that business including a pitch competition at the end of the program. The next one, Salip Pimea, we focus only on food entrepreneurs. Uh, from cottage food all the way to food trucks or restaurants literally, you know, how to operate it, how to build your business around food truck industry or food and beverage industry. We've graduated over 280 students in this program. And uh we are we were successfully passed the law last year that limits um or that uh reciprocates the license by the uh county's health department and fire department so that these business owners only need one of those licenses either fire or a health uh throughout the counties across the state. It saves individuals time, money and it's the same inspection all over. So and then our last one which is this one that we started this year as a program as a pilot is kuna. Kuna translates to crib. We are working with the ecosystem of FFNS individuals that are taking care of ch children at home. Our goal is to graduate 50 students this year that are able to be deployed back to community and support families that are really needing child care services. Um last one here, capital contracts. We support a lot of our community to get contracts either to get employment opportunities to work force or get their businesses ready to move forward and make some uh capital gains in their businesses. So there's a lot of programs that we have um of course and um I wanted to make sure that um you understand a little bit about why Salena is so important for us as well as Kuna. Salip Pimea [clears throat] talks about our new building which is Luminaria. This is the very first official conversation, public conversation that we shared at Adelantes

moving our headquarters to Westminster. It has been a secret. People know that we bought a building and our funders did, but nobody really knows until today that Adelante is moving our headquarters to Westminster. and um salip pimea which is salt and pepper. We want to build this building that has the possibilities to do training and lab testing and so many of the benefits that food entrepreneurs look for. And so if you look at this Illuminati food truck park, we want to build that uh north side of the facility that we purchased, which is a separate lot where we can park um food trucks and build a community around food and culture and celebration and economic mobility for our families. So we're hoping that that is one of the plans that, you know, we uh collaborate with Westminster and really bring community together there. uh we've impacted so many business owners that started with the idea then went into a food a hot dog cart then into a food truck and then moving to a brick and mortar. So it's a beautiful trajectory that we help uh but most important right now the problem with the capacity of individuals that are not getting licensed to be childcare providers. We want to make sure that our kuna and presial really gives these individuals the technical assistance, the funding, the access to training to be the best childc carees individuals at their home. We have already identified 176 individuals in Adams County that have been operating without the formality, the license, the permits, the inspections and working out of their mobile home park and their home. And so we want to bring these individuals into building that training and give them the that access that they need for for them to be successful but also support the community. So we're we're not just going to help them be licensed. We want to make sure that they access the different funding and

really provide a solution to Westminster and across the state and across the region. So this is a pilot. We uh we our class is going to be June 6, seven, and five, six, and seven. And our goal is to register uh 50 individuals to graduate 50 individuals. We already have about 11 people that registered for the class. And so we're really excited about this opportunity because our model that I wrote, it's really a three-day curriculum complete full day, three days, and then we go into six months of mentorship, training, and capacity to build the business plan. And then we do another six months of checking in to make sure that we do the implementation plan which is very different from any other business model that I have seen. Um we also have community engagement significantly um working with Latinas. 80% of our clients are women between the ages of 34 and 44. They are the fastest growing individuals in businesses. And so we every year we do a Latina convention which you were sponsored this year. I want to say thank you for the sponsorship. You really support us. Uh we have over 350 women that come in. Uh when we have done it in Adams County we have over 500 women but this year we decided to partner with Metro State University and we had it at the Tiboli. So the capacity was smaller. But uh traditionally you know these women are listening from national and international speakers about entrepreneurship about mental health well-being and really being successful women. Uh in these uh times we also do empa expo which is a business expo we bring we do the pitch competition for graduates and then we also bring experts in different topics to bring uh formality to those businesses and we help we [clears throat] have over 50 exhibitors. Hopefully this year you guys all can come and just witness this amazing pitch competition. Mika Pes is another event that we do in the summer.

We talk about mental health and the fact you know the women need so many other resources. We bring partners and uh really bring that network and engagement for women to be to belong to be part of something bigger and important in their lives. Um, in the past we have helped Adams County to put in the first uh, Latino um, festival Latino together. We worked with Commerce City, Hispanic Heritage, Takono City uh, as well to do the Hispanic heritage and we have done a lot of community events and really bringing together a community which is absolutely necessary as I heard all of your events. It's just exciting to you know be hopefully one of those uh, events in the future. Now, um, Atlanta is moving to Westminster as our headquarters. And if you can see the renderings in the back, uh, why Westminster? Um, we are partnering with the Westminster Chamber of Commerce and Food for Hope to bring a center that really resonates with the south part of uh, uh, Westminster. We are um, we started a fundraising. Our goal is to raise $5 million to renovate this building. We have already raised one mill over a million dollars which then help us to buy the facility and now um the future of the opportunity is really um submitting grants and partners and hopefully this is something that you as you're thinking about how do we move Adelante completely to uh Westminster, you can help us figure out who can we partner with. But this is going to have commercial kitchens. We're going to have classroom space. We're going to have a tech lab, a recording studio because right now it's so important to tell the stories digitally. So, we're going to be able to teach our entrepreneurs, our community to tell their stories digitally. And then we'll have a community pantry as we work with food for hope and of course, you know, Westminster Chamber doing all of these great things that they already do. So those uh individuals will be our tenants

and we'll be able to collaborate and do a lot of community celebrations and as you can see our murals. Hopefully, you know, I haven't seen the code for Westminster, but I hope you know we can build some amazing murals and really build community in this um uh place. It is 8845 L Boulevard. It's about 43 4600 square feet uh space and um we just can't wait to to come and enjoy. Um that's me. Um I'm very proud of the work that I have been doing in the community with our our board of directors, our staff. We're really proud of making sure that Latinos are at the table that you as a stakeholders really think about the future of your population and partner with organizations like Adilante that care so much to move uh individuals forward. So uh our goal is uh our business model is to have a presence in communities where 30% of Latino population is already in existence uh so that we can build those systems and programs for them. And um this is a little bit about the capital. We're looking for government, municipal support. Of course, we're looking for foundations, banks, corporations, community um and Latino networks as well as education organizations. So, as you're thinking about your network, um we're also thinking for board of directors and we'll be hiring additional staff members. So, please consider working with us as we move this uh project forward. And um definitely, you know, some of the ideas that we can look into uh for our program funding, we're looking, you know, starting at $25,000 when we start a program, especially like the new child care program, which is significantly important. And then how do you become a community partner? You know, like I mentioned a little bit earlier, becoming part of the board of directors. Uh we also have opportunities to have you be

mentors for our entrepreneurs or to help us with recruitment pathways and access to get speakers for our different topics that we're always talking with our entrepreneurs. Um and then also you know the Luminaria campaign in front of you here we have the Luminaria uh design here with our logo this little white um uh right in front of you. uh Ada who is one of our community volunteers ambassadors made this for us so that we can present every time we we talk about Luminaria really shining the light on the opportunity that we have in front of you. Ada is an incredible human being that is supporting our organization with fundraising and uh she's developing this for us and she's just as neighbor and friend and she's been just nothing but wonderful. Luminaria, we named it Luminaria Community Collective because we wanted to shine a light in that neighborhood. We know how much Shot Heights means to Westminster and we did not wanted to build another liqu store or a bar. We wanted to build a community hub and so we're hoping that that comes to fruition sooner. So today, you know, I'm asking you to invest in people potential and prosperity as you work with Adelante as we move forward. Uh even though right now we don't have a timeline to do all of the fundraising, we were hoping a lot with the capital the congressional spending. We just got notified our second time already applying for it. Yesterday we got notified [clears throat] that they are not choosing our project as they have received over $900 million request for funding. You know the current economic uh situation. So we're hoping that we get connected, that we collaborate, and that we build something amazing together. Thank you. That's all I have. Any questions that you might have for me or or board of directors as well?

Thank you. That was a beautiful presentation. Thank you. Thank you. Uh counselors, any questions or thoughts, council the building right here? Yes. Yes. So, if you want to if you have any questions, I'll be more than happy to you want to see it. So, that is the back. Uh we're hoping to build, you know, sort of like community gardening. Um, in our older building that we had, we had a community garden [snorts] and um, here I can show. Thank you, councelor Ireland.

Thank you. Um, this is this is sort of what we want to do in that area, you know, closing the street here and then if we have So, this is going to be our building of course, uh, rehabilitation. And then here we want to do all of those food truck parks and close here the street so that people can sit down and eat and enjoy build communities. So we have one entry here. This is a rightaway. This is of course your your street which we have and we hopefully we can partner and you know use some of that. And then we also own the south part which is a a drainage investment situation. [laughter] We got to figure out what we can do with that. But this is very beautiful and really um we are inspired by the uh Portland Mercado which is a significant investment that they did in the community and so you know we want to see people together. This is your house over here. [laughter]

We will have to leave a door here so that you can hear. [laughter] Yes. But this is a community. This is we want to build this for everybody. And if you can see on the other on the back here or I'll show this here. Um the front, you know, we'll have

sorry this is the the front. We want to have our own entrance for individuals that are only going to get the food. You know, they're calling it food insecurity. I'm calling it hungry. People are hungry. We are I mean there's so much work that needs to happen. So we want to make sure that we have you know that access immediate access people can just go in and get their food and you know go on with their lives and then all of these would be like in the chamber uh making sure that we have access to all of those trainings commercial kitchens and then the back you know a place for bikes a place for community and then we would have like a serving uh from the people that are cooking from our students will have food that they can sell outside and eventually hopefully we can build you know these um ecosystem of community stakeholders, celebrations and activities that we can do all together. Um so yeah, it's really exciting for us. And then here of course the back all of these um designs and Applans Community Collective, I'm sure you all know Jeff uh with Appliance, he has been a great supporter. we were able to really negotiate the building and um he hasn't been well lately but he's been very supportive of our work from the beginning and we just can't say you know nothing but wonderful things about our partners and um some of them are kind of you know waiting too long for us to move forward but I think you know as we uh continue to build and develop they'll be more excited to come forward and just bring their services to the community.

Thank you councelor Brahos. Uh thank you madame mayor and thank you Maria for this uh presentation. As mentioned this is a close to home both uh culturally and physically. I uh I so first I I want to mention that um you know as I kind of excitedly shared the secret with uh the community surrounding her. I think there's interest in if you wanted to like maybe a formal invitation uh that I you know I could set up some sort of meeting if you wanted to meet some of the community members around there. um you know just maybe once we're at at a more um concrete time when we have a more concrete timeline or even just initially uh but we can be in contact I think the community in that area would really love to to be able to kind of share some of the excitement and and concerns. Um I would say the main thing I hear about you know I think they're excited for the food truck park. They're wondering about parking particularly because the roads around the area are thinner and so only allow for parking on one side of of the street. So any sort of as you kind of develop the plan if you can kind of keep in mind uh the impact around parking I think people can park on LOL on both sides but it is a little bit you know hard to cross uh either way. Um there's also I'm really excited that there's the recording studios. Southwest has an incredible history with recording studios. There's I don't know just off the top of my head four different recording studios just in the area. And so if there's ever an opportunity, I'm sure our community services department would love to connect you with some of the the expertise uh that exists within Southwest. It's something that I'm recently discovering, but I think it's it's great with in sort of media uh recording. I just want to highlight how um you know honored I am as a resident of Westminster and and on this body that your approach to entrepreneurship and business is is kind of exactly what I think any city and community needs. Right? You're focused on the needs of the community, right? Particularly highlighted the need for childcare providers, something that we've talked a

lot about as this body. So, not only is this something that you know you're good at, but you're attending to a need of the community and you're looking at a business as a way to build community as well. And so, a lot of the times we're asking our community partners, every person around this table has asked our businesses to be a partner with our community and be a partner with our city. And it sounds like this model that you have is all about, you know, meeting a need, successful businesses, and partnering in community. And I think that's a remarkable way to go about it and I'm and I'm honored that you chose not only Westminster but but this part of Westminster uh for for your service and I think people you know who are moving into the uplands as Uplands kind of continues to develop will be excited to to engage in this partnership as well. Uh the only the last uh note that I had I kind of curious about uh your connection with Adams County. So this is you mentioned Shaw Heights. It's an enclave so the vast majority of this area is unincorporated Adams County. Do you have any plans to kind of connect with a county for a similar presentation? Um or I I don't know if we can kind of facilitate some of that partnership as well, but I think it would be good to be a good county partner with our our county partnership.

Yes, we have a great relationship with Adams County. In fact, uh the Lante received the most out of all of the nonprofit organizations in in Adams County, the most funding in ARPA funding. Uh we have a tremendous relationship and that they reach out to us about their uh child care as well because we suggested to do a $5,000 uh baby shower, business shower to those individuals that graduate and then have another matching agency by the city or because this $5,000 that they give to these entrepreneurs when they graduate from our program, it helps them build, you know, the infrastructure in the room, you know, buy the furniture, the toys, uh the programming and the creat create the digital platforms that they need for them to keep track of their clients, you know, the nutritions. We don't teach individuals how to do their the trade. We teach them the business part. We have a lot of experience. All of us are uh business coaches and are uh trained and you know certified as business coaches. So that's what we teach you know that part of. But yes, if you could do an introduction for us to do a similar presentation now that it's going to be public, we appreciate that because um it's important for them to know, you know, what we're bringing to the table. We are a solution to many of the opportunities.

Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Hawk.

Um Yes. So, I'm very excited that you chose Westminster and I'm also very excited that you chose the area that you chose. Um I think it's very needed. Um and um everything you're doing is amazing. Um I like that um you are um coming at several different angles um to to help the community. Um, and then it's not a huge amount of money, but I would suggest um, so I am the liaison for the human services board, and so they give out grants, um, to, uh, 501c3s, uh, particularly that, um, work with families in Westminster. So, you don't necessarily have to be hubbed in Westminster as long as you're helping Westminster families, but you are um, hubbed in Westminster now. And so, I think that would be great. Um, and they're not huge, of course, grants, but I think anything helps. Um, so I would suggest that you, um, definitely, uh, fill out the form for the, um, human services grant through, uh, Westminster. Um, that would help with a little bit of funding, not not a ton, but some. Um, so yeah, that was the first idea I had at the top of my my head that um, might be helpful.

Thank you. Well, you can help us faster to move into Westminster if [clears throat] there's an empty building we could use or if there's a commercial kitchen we could use or any space capacity. I mean, we don't have to wait until this is built, but we can move immediately to either, you know, to help more of the community. But our office right now in Commerce City, it's kind of small. We we're in a single family home uh storage, two stories, and then we use Commerce City Resource Center for our training and education. And we work with the Vas Family uh center. where we do most of our trainings here. But thank you so much. We'll be we'll be looking into applying. Okay. For sure. Yes, councelor Zotti.

Um [clears throat] I agree with everything that's been said so far. I I've told you already many times how how so I'm I'm super excited. I'm super fired up. Uh it's no secret that food, justice, child care, um business, economic mobility, these are things that I have prioritized. I I care about very deeply and I'm I'm just so excited that you're coming here. It's I've I've I've looked up to you for years and watched what you've done in the state um in these areas. And I think when we talk about this being a a a new Sorry about my voice, by the way. [clears throat] So what when we talk about this being a new era for Westminster, this is one of those shining lights that the opportunities is is boundless and I'm super excited to see how we can support you this year, especially during the budget process.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Other thoughts, Council Ireland? Um, great ideas. Um, so he mentioned parking. Is that a concern in that area? How many parking places are you going to be able to have? Because I'm thinking be a lot of people that want to go through food truck.

Yes. So, the current building is um it's fenced all the way around because of safety. We've had some graffiti issues and we had to, you know, get some uh support with code enforcement. So there is even though there is fence around we can open the gate here and people can park. There's plenty of parking inside the facility already. So we can utilize that or we can move the opening here. But this we would really like to have you know seating area here. That way it allows for a lot more community [clears throat] members so no cars could go through here. So many parking places you have here. All of these is parking.

Okay. I don't know how many right now, but all of these inside of the where the current building is, there's parking all the way or space to park here, and there's already parking here. It probably would need to be uh marked, but there's plenty of parking. In fact, that was one of the big problems that we had since we bought it. So many people left their cars for nights and you know, so we had to just fence the area. But yes, I'm sure we can work, you know, things out. Good.

Yeah, safety is important. I'm that's great that you're going to get people licensed for daycare because Adams County, you know, they they they demand you be licensed for whatever they're going to propose and I would talk to them about their proposal that they're bringing back in June. So, absolutely. Thank you, Council Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor. And um as the neighbor on the other side walking distance here, we're I think I'm very excited um to have you in our community. Um, I think it's a valuable part of South Westminster. And the only thing I would add to the conversation is, you know, as you're going through this process, especially with all the work that's going to be involved, please don't hesitate to reach out to us as a council, both in our individual capacity, but also city council capacity, just as especially councelor Baras and I as neighbors here in South. Wonderful. Thank you so much.

All right. Well, I'll just add on uh I'm so excited. I've been, you know, wondering when this will all be happening. You know, we've been hearing whispers since last year. So, I'm so excited that you're here. We have this presentation. I'm really excited about the food truck. I've been talking about a food truck rally. You know, where can the city can we make that happen? And you're bringing it here. That's fantastic. Very exciting. And I love that you're planning to, you know, block the streets and fill that with uh, you know, food and community and engagement. That is what we are focusing on this year more than anything is how do we bring people out of their houses? How do we get them to meet each other, meet each other's neighbors, you know, know each other so that then we can um better support each other, you know, and you're making all of that happen. And then of course supplying um you know, our workforce, you know, with eligible folks to do the jobs that we need them to do. So, thank you for everything. I think we're all extremely excited and I'm so glad you're here. Thank you for joining us. Thank you so much.

Can I can I just add one second? Oh, Mayor Pertim,

I just I don't want to take up a lot of time, but I I do want to thank you so much for locating here in Westminster. We are a community of small business owners. Um it's most of our um it's most of our businesses in Westminster and most of our economy what drives it. And this is very much needed. I love that you are working towards filling gaps that we need, you know, that we have in our overall need with child care and food. And um I am just wondering if you know as you develop your presence in Westminster, I mean there could be some good partnerships in connecting these new especially the new food businesses into um events that we have like Top Taco for example. I remember just reading an email today that we need um or want to bring more Westminster businesses to be represented in that event. So, you know, how can we start to um build a greater presence uh with these new businesses and get people and have more exposure? So, I'm looking forward to building out opportunities like that in addition to what you've already identified.

Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Very good. Well, thank you all for becoming and have an fantastic rest of your evening. Thank you so much. Appreciate your presentation. We'll see you soon. Just a five minute break to let them tear down and get some water and

Sure. I was going to do it after the next. Let's do it now. All right. Five minutes now. We will reconvene at 8:45. Ooh. Uh oh. Oh, heat.

around. All right. Yeah, I want to. Yeah, but I like What do you mean? LOL's blocked off here. That's how I get to work. What do you mean? I can't turn the laptop on LOL. I'm trying to get to work. 7:45 and we're back from break. Welcome. Right. I'll turn it right over to Ezekiel and Aaron Raz who are going to present very short presentation tonight and then open it up for your uh discussion and uh direction.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor. Mayor PM, members of council, I'm Ezekiel Vasquez, chief financial officer, and I'm joined by Aaron Raz, our procurement manager, and tonight we're bringing forward proposed changes to the city manager's procurement approval. Uh, this was something that you requested us to bring forward and uh we've done some analysis and we are going to uh dive into some data here. So procurement in Westminster, we centralized the procurement process in 2022 by creating a procurement division. The procurement division manages all purchasing of goods and services. They performed contract administration. They manage all competitive solicitations. And we are now seeking to increase the city manager's procurement approval authority from $250,000 to $750,000. Why do we use a competitive procurement process? The reason for that is that taxpayer funds are held to a higher standard. A private business can buy goods and services from pretty much anyone they want. But because we use public funds, we need to be fair and equitable with who we do business with, who we purchase goods and services from. And as you can see on this slide, there are five different steps that we go through uh when we are procuring goods and services. We start with uh issuing a request for proposal, request for bids. Then we evaluate the bids that we get. We conduct interviews of the vendors, reference checks and then we select the vendor that we uh want to work with. Um as you can see in this chart here, there are many levels of internal oversight. Uh these are uh levels that are led by the procurement division in accordance with best practices in accordance with the code and uh the city charter.

A little bit of information about the contracts that we brought to you, the city council, over the last three years. Over the last three years, council has reviewed and approved 126 total contracts. That's almost two contracts per meeting. All of these contracts were over $250,000 and they were all uh brought about through a competitive solicitation process. Council also reviews contracts that are over $50,000 that uh did not go through a competitive solicitation process. And we've estimated that approximately 10 hours of staff time are required to bring forward these contracts and materials for your approval per contract. So here are uh proposed options and uh sorry the slide wasn't like that earlier. [snorts] Um but uh so as you can see on the table here uh the current city manager's approval authority is set at 250,000 [clears throat] and that is what led to 126 contracts coming to city council over the last 3 years. We are recommending an increase to 750,000. That would reduce the total number of contracts that come to council for approval by 48% and it would yield an estimated 600 or so hours in uh reduced staff time over the next 3 years. Here's a comparison with our neighbor municipalities. As you can see, North Glenn has a city manager's approval authority of 75,000, but North Glenn doesn't do uh centralized procurement. Brookfield is at 200,000. We're at 250. Arvvada is at 500,000. And four of the seven cities uh that we

surveyed have no limit uh to the city manager's procurement approval authority. Some benefits of moving forward with this change would be uh we would align closer with our peer neighbors. We would uh position the city more competitively. This would allow us to uh more quickly procure goods and services uh without incurring any risk of inflation or supply chain issues. Uh we would save approximately 600 hours in additional staff time over the next three years. City Council might feel less connected with the day-to-day routine contracts, but we are planning on putting contracts on the transparency portal on the website so that uh those are clearly visible [clears throat] and uh we would require a minor change to the ordinance. Now, option two is our recommended option and again this would reduce the number of contracts brought forth for your approval by 48%. It's all the information we have. Uh, what questions do you have for us? Oh, uh, yes. Thank you, uh, city manager. So, I do I almost forgot and I apologize. Councelor Island, thank you for sending this information, uh, via email earlier today. Um Erin and I did take a deep dive into this and uh we were able to identify [snorts] that uh some of the information here is um it's not related to the items that we're bringing forward here. So we added an additional column here at the far left and those are the thresholds that are apples to apples comparison to what uh we're proposing tonight. Those are the the manager approval thresholds. Thank you. Fantastic. And thank you for all your work putting this together. Councelor Zadi,

option two. All right. Councelor Johnson.

Yeah. I'm also option two. And I just want to say having been the person to bring this forward. I really appreciate the work and the diligence that was done to give us options. Um, and uh, you know, as being new to this process, but seeing the process, I think there's a ton of value in giving staff time back to make a more efficient government, but also I know we've been putting a lot of work on staff with this new council and the new direction of the city. And so that's, you know, 600 hours of really valuable staff time that I think we can put to good work and I look forward to putting it to to good work. Um, so I'm I'm, you know, I'm okay with option two. I'm also okay with three or four depending on how other counselors vote.

Understood. Uh any other counselors? Councelor Ireland.

Well, since I'm the one in dive deep into this, um I was wondering who brought it forward. Now I know it's Jack. You we're only talking about 200 200 hours per year. The typical employee works 2,000 hours per year. It's only onetenth of one employee to bring forth um these contracts and letting city council approve them, which is what city council is elected to do. I don't think this is transparent and you're going to put on some website. People have a hard time finding those things on the website. They're more likely to hit listen to s city council and watch the agenda. And also, are we really saving money? Because when you look at it, um onetenth of 1% is all it takes for city council to find to um be cheaper than $100 an hour for employees. That's 20,000 a year that we're saving for these 200 hours. onetenth of 1% if a city councelor finds that is a is like $33,000 because we're save it's like 32 million 126 contracts times um what was it 126 contracts typical times 250,000 but they're over that so it's over 32 million of these contracts that were We were approving, we will not be approving. So, we're not really saving money because onetenth of 1% is all we have to find to be more than $20,000 that we're saving for these 200 hours. And our numbers aren't very good. And

and I'm looking at all these cities that we're comparing to. We we cherrypicked. There's tons of cities that are only up to 100. And the typical resident in our city makes a h 100,000 a year. And so we can spend up to 750 when they only make a hundred without our approval. I'm an absolute no on this. In fact, to 250 I think was too high. It used to be 50 not that long ago. And now we're going up to 750. It was not even that many years ago. It was right before I got on city council. It's not okay with me. And it's I can't believe it's okay with all of you. It's not transparent and it's not accountable. So I am a absolute no. I don't even think 250,000 should be it. It should be what people's median income is, which is 100,000. No.

Thank you, Councelor Brahas. Uh thank you, Madam Mayor. Um I, you know, I'm I'm a fan of government uh efficiencies. I I I'm cur I guess I'm curious uh Ezekiel or sorry director do we have have we ever voted on on all of these contracts how many have been rejected by council um

over the past 3 years or do we have data on how many you know like so this so the you know the the process is there's a certain threshold for these um contracts they're brought to city council they're they're agendaized there's the memos written and then we vote on them how many Have we do we know how many we've rejected in in this time? So like council has voted no on the oversight that they've had. Good question counselor. And I believe council has not rejected any of them. Um Aaron Raz did a deep dive. He went through every single uh agenda item for the last three years. And did you happen to see uh Mr. Raz any that were rejected?

Uh I did not.

That's helpful. You know, I think um part of the sentiment, right, is is if if it becomes more procedural um then is this kind of a waste of staff time? Um though, I I do agree. I think attending to the idea of transparency, how we're spending money, I think there's a lot uh particularly with the way that the federal government recently had been treating kind of contracts writ large, you know, just throwing them in and out and doing stuff. I think there's a growing concern around accountability and transparency and oftentimes that falls on local uh governments to kind of take on that role and responsibility. And so I really am torn. Um, I I certainly wouldn't suggest lower, but in terms of, you know, inflation also impacting these contracts, I can only imagine that a lot of the contracts that we're going to be seeing, if we keep this threshold the same, um, you know, inflation would would ensure that we're just going to see more and more throughout um, the next couple of years. And so, I want to kind of attend to at least that natural growth. So my my preference would be for option one um and not for any of the other higher options. I know it doesn't have as much of that impact in terms of of efficiency, but um the big jump. I also would say that my um if there's a possibility to kind of revisit if there's ever a different city management um I think it's important. I think maybe this there's a if there's like a probation period with, you know, if there ever was a new city manager where council would want more oversight throughout that kind of first year. Something like that I think would be appropriate and maybe that's something that we can just we can redo the ordinance, you know, at that time and maybe that's just for this council and future councils to to consider, I guess. Yeah. So, I'm I'm kind of torn

on this idea of wanting oversight, but is this the best way for oversight is kind of the question. You know, is is the council agenda and the council memos the way to do it. Hearing that we've never rejected one of these contracts outright also makes me think that, you know, if this is a formality, then ways that we can attend to it without maybe a council vote as well.

Counselor, if I may go back um to one slide here. So uh these are the different levels of oversight. Um so it all starts at the council level. Council appropriates the budget. Then the procurement team leads that competitive process that we went through the five steps. City attorney's office then reviews the contracts with the vendors. Department head reviews them. City manager's office reviews them and then it comes to council for review. So so there is still that very strict level of oversight. Um, I apologize. I kind of glossed over this this slide. Maybe I didn't communicate that clearly.

No, I mean that's helpful and and I think that speaks to why they've been approved is because there is like, you know, we're not talking about, you know, $700,000 to put a jacuzzi in the chamber, you know, council chambers or something where we're there's a very strict process for this. Um but you know in terms of kind of publicizing our expenditures and the way that we go about it um I think is there there's a tension there you know but we do have a massive budget and so these contracts are kind of one-offs in that budget as well. Uh so I I guess these are just kind of some of the concerns that I've had. But uh councelor hot.

Yeah, I'm for option two. Um I think that uh it's a lot more responsible than what we're doing right now. Um especially when you uh talk about possible inflation and um things costing more and just it being a um seems like it would be uh more streamlined. um we would be able to um Yeah. And and I trust our and I trust our staff. I mean, anytime they come to us and they talk about the contracts and and the ways that they think um uh how they can safeguard the city, I'm always really really impressed um particularly um like with uh Director Kimell's team. Um they they do an amazing job with contracts. And so um I think that um staff does a great job. I think giving us back because we have so many priorities and you know we just passed our new strategic plan. Um I think that there are a lot more um impactful places that those 600 hours could go than um using them on this. And so I think that um and I would be fine with option three or or four as well, but I I'm definitely for option two. I just think that is the the more responsible way to go and makes us more efficient as a government and we're able to do more things. Uh, I'm gonna I'm gonna hit Mayor Prom and go right back. Mayor Prom.

Yeah. Um, thank you, Mr. Vasquez. I was hoping you could would walk back through the um, you know, how we appropriate the dollars and are involved with that. And um I'm wondering for transparency and just maybe you could comment on if something new were to come uh or need to be spent of a nature that was um you know $500,000 or what have you. What's the threshold for the city manager needing to come back to council and ask for those funds if they were not budgeted? So, you know, what's the threshold for a supplemental um ask?

Okay. Uh thank you mayor for time for the question. Um the uh appropriation piece that happens during the budget approval. Um so when when the budget is brought forth to the council um there are um buckets set aside for um everything that we want to accomplish. Uh so that's the appropriation piece of it. Um and as far as the change orders, I believe uh it's still the $250,000 threshold, but I'll have uh Mr. Raz, he can speak more clearly to that. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Prom Council. Sorry if I didn't say that the first time.

Uh I don't believe we uh looked into the amount that would be addressed if we didn't appropriate. We only looked at the amounts that would be impacted from a formal solicitation. So example, anything that doesn't go through a competitive bit process, we wouldn't change at all any of the oversight. So, we would have to look at or look for guidance from council as far as what that figure could be, but uh I I wouldn't feel comfortable just throwing a number out without guidance on that.

Yeah, I was just wondering, so let's say we go with, you know, I feel like option one is probably a little bit I understand, you know, the numbers are a lot better for option two. I could supposedly, you know, I could get behind that as well, but I think um perhaps it's just prudent to stick with, you know, 500,000. However, um that's just more that for me is just a lower amount so that the community doesn't feel like there's so much that they're not seeing. Um the question would be one is if you did have a change order and you needed to exceed, you know, a maybe a um contract was $475,000, right? And you needed $50,000 more. If the total contract now exceeds that $500,000 limit, it would have to come to council. Um and then the second one is if we did not anticipate in the budget a need for a certain expenditure, but suddenly we have to spend I don't know $600,000 on city park rec center, there's a fire or whatever, right? Um would that maybe we need to spend $400,000 or whatever. Like what would that ask come back in a supplemental budget request or if it's under the $500,000 limit or whatever the limit is, would would the city manager not need to come in to ask for that?

Thank you, Mayor PM. Um to your question about uh uh emergency expenditures um or something that was unanticipated, yes, that would have to come back for appropriation, if it was above the total budgeted amount for that, uh department, for that line of business, um then that would have to come to council. As far as the change order piece, uh Mr. Raz is is more

Thank you for that question. I I'm pretty strict that if any amount cumulative goes to the threshold, it will absolutely have to go to whoever that authority is. And uh city manager Andrews is just as strict on that. So,

so in other words, to answer your question, airport, if it goes it if a current contract is under the the city council uh approval limit, but a change order would uh put it over that limit, that that would come to council to decide on. Um, so in the case of option two, if if there was a contract awarded for $740,000, um, and then it was presented with an overage that would take it past 750, that would go to city council to approve, uh, or or not. Um, if that's helpful to clarify. And then I also want to um clarify um, councelor Ireland mentioned $50,000. um the contracts in the past that have been of most interest to city council or of concern have been those contracts that have not followed this process. So the so could you go back Ezekiel to that slide with the process? Um so when we don't follow this process sole source is typically the way that they're described. Those contracts all come to city council and we're not recommending a change to that limit which is $50,000. Uh and so those are the ones that city council would continue to see which did not follow this internal process. And the other comment part of the review that's not reflected in the slides uh we you know we look we look at our um uh continual u results from our audit process and the city continues to receive exemplary audit uh results on all of its uh internal controls and checks and balances. And so, um, although councilor Ireland would be after the fact, the the auditors would catch anything unusual that would happen that falls outside of the processes that we're describing tonight, they've not found those in the past. Um, and if they did find them in the future, those are reported directly to city council, any audit irregularities. Um, and so there is that. I just wanted to point uh that was not included in the presentation but in terms of best practices does lead best practices in terms of our our

financial controls and those are reflected in our our audit results.

Any other questions? Mayor Prom. Um I just think it will be important to be really clear about um what those procurement processes are and when what to you know so the community understands where we are if in case it ever you know those overages or if something new is coming is coming down the pike. Um you know how supplemental budget requests work. Um, so yeah, and and to make it clearer because part of the transparency is having people understand what the process should look like and that we're following it.

All right, Councelor Johnson. Uh, yeah, thank you, Mayor. I just um wanted a little bit more explanation on um the proposal related to posting these um so that we don't lose the transparency primarily for community members who I think get the most value out of seeing the contracts that the city enters and I think we went over that a little quickly. So maybe just explaining how we would be able to continue to provide the community about the transparency of the business of the city similar to the way they currently access it through reviewing the packets that we review.

Thank you counselor. Um good question and yes we would utilize the transparency portal on the city's website. So we would list all of the contracts there, all of the documents associated with that contract and uh it would be readily available uh there along with our budgets and our monthly financial reports. I'm just going to follow up. How would that be listed? What would it look like? [clears throat]

Okay. Um it would uh mayor um to your question that would be a uh a PDF u [snorts] I would imagine um right now and uh I'm I'm not a sorry I'm not a web person but I'm thinking it would be in a format uh that would be easily accessible so someone can open it, read it and examine that. Okay. Any further thoughts on that? No. Thank you. Okay. We're going to go right back around. Uh, councelor

on the record. Oh, my voice may be gone by now, but I think city manager said what I was going to say. Nothing's changing for Soul Source. Soul Source is what we actually care about. We have a lot of Soul Source contracts and it's at 50K. That doesn't change. This is simply for these comp competitive contracts that have always been approved and we have staff for a reason. They are experts. We need to trust them and they they shouldn't be spending 10 hours making a memo. 10 hours. Is it 10 hours per like it takes a staff member 10 hours to make one memo for something that we don't um for something that we will say yes to. the the [laughter] the these are not the important contracts that we're talking about. The important contracts are the sole source ones and that's why option two makes the most sense and three or four maybe even better because we shouldn't be wasting staff's time on on this.

Thank you. you know, just uh when Director Vosquez was talking about uh the transparency piece, I I wonder if there's maybe an opportunity for at least, you know, whatever this council decides on [clears throat] whatever the change is in what's not brought before us. you know, if there's maybe a a quarterly kind of spreadsheet check-in for a study session, um, or some way that we can maybe even with majority council approval request, uh, a memo, you know, if that's if there's a desire to like actually agendaize it, you know, I think to to councelor's point, right? like if there you know if these tend to be more process based but there is a desire to like publicize something specifically having a mechanism to to do that that's not just the transparency portal I think would be would be helpful. I'm not I'm just spitballing so it doesn't have to be anything that I just said but um you know I I would I would appreciate either this body's uh you know attention to it or staff's kind of thoughts around ways to do it while not you know I don't want to just redirect that time save into something else. So that's why if it's just kind of a track a tracker, you know, if it's just within the city manager's process to just track some of these and then if there is a council oversight requested, just having the ability to kind of engage in the process without losing the power or authority, I think would be helpful. Yeah, that's that's just where I'm at. I'm still thinking option one just but um I I would probably vote yes on whatever this body decides.

Thank you.

Yeah, council Ireland. I just want to remind everyone, we're the ones that are elected. And if someone what if one of our whoever got us elected does not like what the city decided to spend $750,000 on just because we're transparent. There's not anything we can do when we agreed to let them spend that much. We're elected to represent. And that's why I am not for this much money. Even though everyone had said agreed with everything didn't mean I did. I bet you can go back and I didn't agree with everything that was over 750 or 500 or 250. I didn't I didn't agree with 300,000 for the the chamber with no accountability. That would just been thrown under the bus. Wouldn't even come to us. So absolutely not. This is why I was elected to represent the people and their money and to manage it. I know you are the city manager and the rest of the people in this city that are managing their money are not elected. I'm the one that represents the people and their money. So, one I mean current is too much for me, but that's what it is.

Can can somebody clarify for me? Are we with the amounts that we're spending those amount like let's say we need to repave Federal Parkway as we are and we put aside um you know another like $500,000 towards that in our budget for 2027 [snorts] and I know I know it's costing a lot more than that but um then that we are approving that amount to be spent on that particular project. And just like all of the projects that are listed out in the budget, the we're what we're doing with the approval of the contracts is that we are approving the expenditure of those funds of that certain for those contracts. like it's kind of the second time that we're looking at that amount being spent, right? We approve it in the budget and then ultimately those contracts come back just kind of reinforcing that amount that we approved. And if that amount changes, can you talk about how that how we how we would know and how that would be addressed? Mayor PM, um to answer your question, uh yes, that is precisely um the way that it works. So the 500,000 in your example would be uh appropriated in the budget and that would go to repair um Federal Road, I think was your example. And um the contracts that you approve are are basically assigning that work to um ABC Paving instead of XYZ paving company. And I think the second part of your question was

what if the the amount of of the charges changes? If there's a change order to that work, if it goes above um the initial amount, um then depending on what the threshold is, that would have to come to council for approval.

Okay. Thank you. Well, I'm going to go ahead and voice my thoughts on this, which is that um I also was looking for a way to councelor Braha's point uh to hear back from procurement. And what I'm thinking is whatever it is that we approved tonight, it might be nice to hear at least maybe annually um a study session from procurement um especially on any wins through the RFI or RFP process that we have. That would be really nice. any significant changes. Um if it's in the the other way, you know, what happened and why, that might be nice to just have an annual instead of um perhaps these hours every week. Um and then we could have the opportunity to to dig in and um follow up if we chose that route. And um personally, I am for option two just because with inflation numbers are a lot higher than they've ever been. I have a feeling that these other councils are going to be um upping their numbers some point as well. And um as far as mayor proms um and well before I move on um also because my confidence has really greatly increased now that we do have a procurement system and I really do believe in having a procurement system. I'm grateful that we've got it in place. I understand that it's still in motion. Um, but this is all part of the efficiencies that having that procurement system adds to our city. And I have been trying to look for ways that we can become more efficient because that's part of my promise in adding value to the city um is figuring out ways that we can streamline some things. And you guys are part of that. So, thank you. And um I think that this is a way that we can undo some of the lift that we put on staff and uh hopefully see the benefit of those results by adding efficiencies, right? This is the value we're getting. And

then as far as Mayor Prom your question around, you know, what does that change process look like? You know, of course I'm willing to hear what you bring back to us. Um but most projects have a 15% buffer, you know, and so somewhere between 10 to 20% of a buffer within a budget. Uh in my mind, it makes sense that if for some reason a project um let's say that we go with um option two has $750,000 budget, if for some reason it goes over 15% um in my mind, then it should come back to council and that would be my suggestion. um if it's within that and things happen, you know, if it's a 10% change, it's not really my business because things are happening, right? So, um that's what I would suggest. I mean, project management is what I do [laughter] and I see this a lot and these numbers are pretty average. Um so, those are my thoughts. Um and with that, if I go back around, that is a majority. However, I don't want to close um discussion because there are some really important points being made here. So, I'm willing to hear maybe just one more round if we have further thoughts on the topic. Um,

okay. Councelor Hop.

Yeah, the the only thought I have is um you know, the way our we're set up in Westminster, we're we're not supposed to be over oversight everything. Our staff takes care of the day-to-day city operations. Our city manager is the CEO of the city. That is the way our city is set up. And what I have seen is past councils have been micromanaging what is staff's job. And I think that what we're doing is we're undoing some of that micromanaging. I should not be micromanaging experts. We have experts on staff for this reason. And it is not my job and I was not elected to micromanage the experts. And this is the way that our council is set up in Westminster. this is we are not we're not like Denver. We we we don't we're not in charge of everything. Um and if we were in charge of everything, I think that we would get a whole lot less um done. So I think that like I agree with Councelor Aadi, we need to trust our staff. We need to trust the experts. And again, we still have a lot of say. We still have a lot of say and a lot of contracts are still going to come to us. And so, um, I don't think it's my job at all to be micromanaging the experts when this is not what I'm an expert in.

Thank you. Any other thoughts, Council Ireland? I just have to say that Denver is 4.2 billion in the whole and they have no fixed cap on their budget based um, procurement. So, the experts make mistakes. We know they don't have a city manager. differently.

We have a mayor that's supposed to be an expert. Um, and we have we have nonprofits that are supposed to manage money wisely. And we know that one did not. This is what I'm trying to keep from happening to our city. And we've had city managers that are not as good as our current city manager about managing money. So, that's what all I have to say and I'm still with the current

and uh I just want to remind folks that council has the option. This is uh to revisit this. As far as I understand it, this would be an ordinance change. However, this is council's decision and so future councils can make that change. Um, okay. With that, I think that Mayor Prom, any last thoughts? No, but thank you. Okay. Thank you. I think that we are somewhat clear. Let me know if we need any further guidance. Mayor, could we just check and see there? There were two different limits talked about.

Yes. So, right now, I've got uh two folks that uh voted for option one, um which was council brahos and mayor prom. I've got four folks that option uh voted for option two and I have um one vote uh to not make any change. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.

Okay. With that, this concludes the public portion of our meeting and we have one executive session scheduled and one WEDA executive session scheduled. City Attorney, would you please read those titles into the record?

Thank you, Mayor. The first executive session this evening is to discuss successor collective bargaining agreement between the city of Westminster and Westminster professional firefighters local 2889 to determine positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations, developing strategy for negotiations and instructing negotiators pursuant to Colorado Revised Statute 246424E and Westminster Municipal Code 113C7. We need to do one at a time here if we could. Yes, please. Understood. Council Arati. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Mayor Protest. Thank you.

Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. And then um in your capacity as the board for WEDA, there is an executive SK session scheduled uh and that is to obtain direction from WEDA regarding a proposed development agreement and to discuss the possible sale of WEDA owned property located on block B5 in downtown Westminster and to instruct your negotiators as authorized by Westminster Municipal Code section 1113 C24 and 7 and Colorado Revised Statute 246 402 4A and E1. Thank you, councelor Zi. Yes,

councelor Hop. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um with that the time is 8:24 and we will close the public portion of tonight's meeting. Councelor Nur, Mayor Prom Nurmelo, will you please switch to the executive se session link? Yeah. Okay.