October 8, 2024 Brighton City Council Study Session: Benefits, Homeless Policy, Sister Cities, Utilities
October 8, 2024 Brighton City Council Study Session: Benefits, Homeless Policy, Sister Cities, Utilities
The Brighton City Council held a study session on October 8, 2024, receiving informational presentations on employee benefits renewal, homeless encampment enforcement and case law updates, a proposed sister city policy, and a comprehensive utilities department update covering service line inventory, water treatment plant progress, staffing challenges, and capital projects. No formal votes were taken, but council provided direction for future action.
Discussion Items
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2025 Employee Benefits Presentation: Human Resources Director Kevin Young and Hub International account executive Kelsey Heller presented the 2024 claims performance and 2025 renewal proposals. Key points: medical claims rose 16% in 2023 and remain elevated in 2024 due to catastrophic claims. Market trend is projected at 8% for 2025. The recommended city cost increase is 9.4% for medical, with an 8% increase in employee contributions—the first employee contribution increase in many years. Dental costs are projected to decrease, with a 2.3% city cost reduction and no employee contribution change. All other benefits (vision, life, disability, telehealth, etc.) remain unchanged. Council expressed understanding of the need to share costs but noted the benefit package remains competitive.
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Homeless Encampment Policy & Case Law Update: City Attorney Calderon provided legal background on the Ninth Circuit’s Martin v. Boise and the Supreme Court’s June 2024 Grants Pass decision, which upheld ordinances criminalizing camping on public property as constitutional when targeting actions rather than status. She also noted the U.S. v. Denver case regarding property takings during cleanups. Police Commander Mont Sportillo and Ryan Smith presented local data: Colorado saw a 150% increase in homelessness over 10 years; Adams County has nearly 1,000 homeless individuals (34% unsheltered); the only family shelter at Almost Home can house seven families. Brighton police saw a 45% increase in calls for service related to homelessness. Since the Supreme Court ruling, the city has resumed enforcement: posting 24-hour (often 72-hour) notices, followed by cleanup and referral to co-responder clinicians. Discussion included the need for portable restrooms in parks, funding for cleanup (e.g., Mile High Flood District along the Platte), and the burden on private property owners. Councilmember Taddeo raised budget concerns for cleanup costs. Councilmember Green inquired about overnight parking ordinances; Commander confirmed it constitutes camping on public property. Councilmembers expressed appreciation for the outreach-focused approach.
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Sister Cities Policy Discussion: City Attorney Calderon presented a draft policy for establishing new sister city affiliations, since Brighton has no formal process. The draft requires a nonprofit organization to submit an application through the city manager, with criteria including similarity in size, demographics, and economic or cultural goals. Brighton’s current sister city is Sebice, Poland (since 1996). An inquiry has been received from an unnamed group. Councilmembers generally supported the policy, noting potential for a sister city in Mexico or Central America. City Manager Martinez noted there is no formal proposal yet, but the policy is needed to provide guidance. Council asked to return with a resolution for future consideration.
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Service Line Inventory for Lead and Copper Regulations: New Water Quality Compliance Coordinator Sherry Skajari presented the requirements under the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI), which were finalized on October 8, 2024. A lead inventory report is due October 16, 2024. Brighton has identified approximately 1,730 addresses with unknown service line materials (built before 1960). An interactive map will go live next week. To confirm no lead, the city must conduct random potholing on at least 317 addresses. If any lead is found, all 1,730 must be inspected. Federal funding is available for replacement if lead is found; the city would seek grants to avoid cost to residents. Council expressed concern about potential costs to homeowners and asked about galvanized pipe; Skajari clarified only lead requires replacement. The city is working to move remaining interior meters outside.
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Utilities Department Update Q3 2024: Director Scott Olson and his team presented a wide-ranging update. Highlights:
- Maintenance (Cody Henry): In 2024, 7 main breaks, 6 service line leaks, 356 old meters replaced, 413 new meters set, 400+ fire hydrants maintained, 283 water valves exercised, 107,000+ feet of sewer cleaned, 9,000+ feet CCTV inspected, acoustic soundwave scoring shows 91% of pipes clean. 1,800 active backflow assemblies. 14,000 locate tickets processed.
- Engineering (Anna Sparks): Managing capital projects including Lutz Reservoir non-potable system, Core City waterline replacement Phase 4, and South Alpha culverts.
- Stormwater (Rachel Martins): 64 active erosion/sediment control permits, 980 inspections, 82 enforcement actions, 13 illicit discharges. Outreach at Children’s Water Festival, career fairs, and TikTok videos. Working on Jacobs Run drainage channel improvements.
- Water Treatment Plant (Jordan): Staffing is the biggest challenge—lost four operators and two mechanics in 2024; most senior operator has 9 months experience. Implementing retention incentives, expanded training, SCADA upgrades, and safety improvements. Water treatment plant expansion is on time and on budget; disinfection basin and GAC filter work underway. Future projects include painting 5-million-gallon tank and adding high-zone pumps in 2025.
- Water Resources (Austin Crasswell): Managing water rights, assisting developers, operating reservoirs and ditches. New measurement flume completed. Feasibility study for a new reservoir near Fort Lupton to open new ditch systems.
- Department Initiatives: New utilities branding (logo, Spanish translation), strategic planning process launched, annual water quality report mailed to customers resulting in 100+ requests for free water pitchers. Co-responder team supports homeless encampment outreach.
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Policy Items: Mayor Pro Tem Padilla requested staff gather information on Adams County ballot issue 1A (sales tax for affordable housing), specifically how much funding would be available for Brighton Housing Authority, and prepare a resolution for the next regular meeting for council to consider taking a position. Council agreed.
Key Outcomes
- Council directed staff to research funding allocation for Adams County ballot issue 1A and prepare a resolution for the October 15 regular meeting.
- Council expressed support for the draft sister city policy and asked staff to return with a resolution for formal adoption at a future meeting.
- No formal votes were taken; all items were informational. The homeless enforcement protocol using 24-hour notices and co-responder referrals is now in practice. The utilities department will proceed with the lead inventory and random sampling as required by the new LCRI.
- Council noted appreciation for staff presentations and the careful approach to homelessness and utility investments.
Meeting Transcript
Greetings everyone. Welcome to our city council's study session for Tuesday, October 8th, 2024. And I'm gonna ask Councilmember or Mayor Potem Padilla to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. All right, thank you. Um there are no administrative items, so we'll go into the meat of the agenda. First off, the twenty twenty-five employee benefits presentation. City Manager Martinez. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim and Council. Our human resources director, Kevin Young will be presenting this item along with our friends from Hub, and I will turn it over to Kevin. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Term, Councilmembers. Good evening. Um tonight we're gonna be going over our benefits, employee benefits from this year, showing you exactly how they performed and also show you what our renewal proposal is for twenty twenty-five. Tonight I'm joined by Kelsey Heller, who is our account executive with Hub International, who will go over most of the presentation with you. So I'll pass it off to Kelsey. Hello, thank you for having me. Excited to be here. Nice to see you all again. All right. All right. So I just wanted to start this evening with uh 2024 review. So these were the final decisions that were made as of January first, 2024, and then truly go through the end of the year this year. Um and then we'll present the 2025 findings uh next. Last year, so earlier this year when I presented last year, uh you did renew with your medical and pharmacy program with UMR and RX benefits. And uh because of claims you were uh you did increase your budget by six point seven percent over overall. And that indeed did include no change to employee contributions. So always good news uh when that happens. Um and just uh for perspective, you actually haven't changed your employee contributions uh for many years. So you you made that decision in 2024 as well. You do have a regenics program for um orthopedic sur surgery alternatives in place and you decided to renew with that for 2024 as well as the zero program. Uh that is a part of your medical program as well. As far as dental goes, you're with Delta Delta Dental, and then you did increase your budget by three point seven percent last year and did not change employee contributions as well. You did add some voluntary benefits last year that employees would take on the full cost of the product. Uh you added an AFLAC hospital indemnity program, uh, which really just pays some some benefits p back for hospital inpatient stays. And then you did add pet insurance through petit partners as well, um, which was a hit with employees last year. And then of course, uh you did can continue the rest of your programs really without changes. So that includes your vision, your telehealth program, FSA, life disability, and then all the other good benefits that you provide employees. All right. So looking at your financial update for 2025, we do track your program really throughout the year via claims reports that we do provide the HR team. Just a reminder: your medical program is self-funded. So you truly are paying for your claims as they do come in as employees use your benefits for medical. So of course, we're tracking those claims and really projecting what your costs are going to be for the following year based off of those claims. So this is a historical projection and historical claims analysis, really showing the claims per employee per month based really on the past seven years. So as you can see here, we're showing two different costs here. There's gross claims costs and then net claims costs. So gross claims costs are the full cost of the employee claims that are coming in under your medical program without stop loss reimbursements. However, you actually are only paying for the net claims. So if you're looking for the city cost of those claims, you should be looking at the net claims cost. And that's truly because the stop loss reimbursements are taken into account from your stop loss carrier. And that's really the protection that you have in place for your self-funded program.
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