Good morning.

Welcome to our City of Colorado Springs work session meeting for Monday, September 8th, 2025.

Will the clerk please read the roll?

Call the roll.

Councilmember Bailey.

Here.

Councilmember Crow Iverson.

Here.

Councilmember Donaldson.

Here.

Councilmember Gold.

Here.

Councilmember Henjam.

Present.

Councilmember Williams.

Here.

Councilmember Lionweaver.

Here.

Councilmember Rainey.

In route.

Councilmember Risley.

Here.

Ain't President one in route.

Changes to the agenda.

Are there any changes to today's agenda?

Oh, Councilman Hingem.

Uh no, Madam President, not to today's agenda, but I would like for tomorrow to call off a consent item for BJ.

And I also just have a question as to how it landed on the consent calendar since it was not voted unanimously at utilities.

Thank you.

Councilman Donaldson.

Um I'll also just mention a couple things I'd like to pull off of consent tomorrow.

One is uh 4BG, which has to do with a property on Nevada.

And the other is 4BI, which is a property on ranch drive or land use item online on ranch drive.

Councilman Hingum, I don't know how to answer your question.

Okay, thank you.

Um the only thing that I might add is rate case hearings traditionally, regardless, because I don't know what happens at utilities, obviously.

But traditionally, rate case hearings have been on consent just to set a hearing date, if that helps.

Sure.

I I do understand that, but it was not approved unanimously, so I just kind of assume since something isn't approved unanimously, even it's if it's setting a date hearing, that it would not be on consent.

But that's fine.

I'm just pulling it off.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Regular meeting comments.

Are there any changes to the regular meeting for tomorrow other than these that were just mentioned?

Seeing none, review of previous minutes.

Will the clerk please read item 4A into the record?

And if there are any changes to the minutes, please add them at that time.

City Council Work Session meeting minutes, August 25th, 2025.

Seeing none, we'll move into 5A.

Will the clerk please read item 5A into the record?

Crime Stoppers presentation.

Good morning, Mr.

Addy.

Good morning.

Thank you so much for allowing us to be here this morning.

We're here to make help make you aware of what we do.

We're not here to ask for money or or for anything else other than uh your uh attention for a few minutes.

I'm here joined today by a couple of my board members.

I want to introduce uh Pete Carey, former CSPD chief.

Um I think you know the next fellow, Randy, who's been in this room before, and then Dan May, with the former district attorney for the fourth Colorado Judicial District.

We're very proud of having them on our board, others around A will be here.

Let me give you a brief look at Pike Speak Community Crime Stoppers.

See if it'll work here.

Too far.

What we do is we promote the active engagement of citizens in our community.

We offer operate a platform that allows people who have information about a crime or the location of wanted person to call us and give us information that we can share with law enforcement agencies.

We operate on the principle that someone other than the criminal has some information that can help law enforcement solve the crime.

So what we do is we give them a chance to share that information with us as an incentive.

We offer a reward should there be an arrest coming from that information.

That's our platform that we operate with volunteers.

We are a Colorado 501c3 nonprofit corporation.

We have no employees, no offices.

We operate very low cost uh operation, and we serve both El Paso and Teller counties, about 16 law enforcement agencies all total.

We we uh uh fight a couple of problems in our community.

One uh there's also a fear of reprisal.

Sometimes when people know something, they don't want to share it.

They're fear afraid of reprisal or retribution.

People are then apathetic occasionally reluctant to get involved.

We don't want to encourage people to give us information and identify themselves.

In fact, we go overboard to maintain the confidentiality.

It's the backbone of our system.

When they call us with an information, a tip or go online.

We don't ask for their identity, we don't take caller ID, we have no way of identifying those people.

We are also protected by a statute in the state of Colorado.

A defense attorney cannot subpoena our records to look for information about who the tipster was.

But even if they did, we don't have it.

We don't have information about it.

We don't know who these people are.

Here's how our system works.

They call us with an anonymous tip and we give them a tip number, the call taker or the website.

The volunteer then takes that information, puts it into an email to the respective law enforcement agency where it is jurisdiction.

That's what begins the investigation process.

If the arrest occurs from that information, then we're notified that arrest has happened, and that we then confirm that with a reward offer to our tipster.

The uh volunteer then gives that reward information to the Gazette and puts it on our web page, and the TIPSER then is encouraged to continue to check feedback from us for their qualification of their reward.

And then once we approve that reward, then we ask our bank to put that tip number and a code name that we've given them in an envelope with cash, put it in their vault, and they charge us for that.

When the tipster comes by, they are instructed to give that tipster number and anonymous uh trade code name to the drive-through teller.

Teller goes to the vault, takes out the envelope with the cash, passes it through, and the the reward has been collected.

It's very anonymous, nobody ever knows.

The banks don't keep records.

We don't know who these people are because that's our backbone.

In the eight-month period just ended uh August 31st uh so far this year.

1,377 tips have been received and sent along.

We've had 12 arrests from those arrests.

We've had uh payments of about $6,100 in rewards and recovered some $34,000 in stolen property.

That's just for this year.

Over the inception period of crime stoppers, we've had hundreds of thousands of dollars recovered and thousands of arrests that have occurred.

Here's who we are partnering with to help in our awareness building challenge.

Uh the Humane Society of Pike Beak Region is one of our most significant partners, and believe it or not, we get about two or three animal cruelty tips every week.

It's sad to think that we do, but that's true.

So we refer that to the Humane Society and they will investigate.

They have subpoena power, so if they find a violation of law, they can issue us a uh misdemeanor.

Um Gazette is also a partner of ours.

They're very helpful to us.

They publish our most wanted every Monday, and then on Sunday mornings, they publish the Crime Stopper tips that we're providing.

Hope that people will read those tips and take heed of the ideas that we give them to help prevent crime to begin with.

The downtown partnership is a new partnership with us.

We've begun with them providing uh uh emblems for them to place on their windows in downtown.

The partnerships have been very helpful to us in making the people aware of our program.

That's been a big program for us.

We've also teamed with the Home Builders Association a couple of years ago when the price of building materials skyrocketed, there were a lot of thefts from building sites.

Well, we posted a big thousand dollar reward sign on those properties and it dropped that uh uh property uh robberies considerably.

Better Business Bureau is another partner of ours.

They certify us as a legitimate authoritative uh uh nonprofit charity.

They just recently completed uh a thorough investigation of our books, our tax returns, our financial statements, uh, and the people that we have served, and they've recertified us.

We possibly partner together also with the Fort Carson MPs and with the Peterson Shrever garrison.

If a tip comes to us that has to do with an event on one of the military posts, we will refer that tip to them.

If it's off post, it goes to the appropriate jurisdiction, whether it's the police department or the sheriff.

So here's how you you could help us.

Share the message of Crime Stoppers with your neighbors, your employees, your friends.

Um use the tips that are appearing on our uh Sunday morning uh gazette page.

If you have a business susceptible to crimes, uh put our stickers on the windows.

We've seen where it can be a deterrent.

We have no way of knowing that, of course.

We never know when somebody decided not to do something.

But we think it does have an aterrent effect.

So keep your eyes and ears open for that.

We also support Neighborhood Watch, which was a program sponsored and operated by the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Been very effective.

They have uh neighborhood captains, they're all aware of crime stoppers and have posted our information in their neighborhood.

So here's what we're looking for and why we're here today.

Awareness.

We know that the more tips that we get, the more likely we'll have an arrest, and that's what we want.

We want tips that result in information that the law enforcement agencies can do, can work with to make arrests.

That's the whole goal behind Crime Stoppers.

So to do that, we need to raise awareness.

We want more tips.

We're getting about 1,200, 1,300 a month, maybe uh a year.

We need more than that.

We need 4,000 if we could get them.

And if we had some additional funding support that will allow us to expand our reach, we would take that as well.

We're not asking for that here today.

I do want to let you know that we are starting tomorrow.

We're launching a campaign.

We're replacing ads on every on 20, I should say 20 bench stop bus uh bus stop benches uh with the crime stopper logo and then offering rewards.

And we're placing those around the community where the police department advises we're most likely to get information about crimes.

That'll start run uh tomorrow.

We'll have 20 benches.

We run that through the end of this year.

Hopefully that will expand our awareness.

So thank you again for this opportunity.

Are there questions that I might answer or any of my colleagues can answer for you?

Be happy to.

Councilman Gold.

Hi, good morning.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Um I'm just really curious.

It says 12 arrests resulting from tips and 6100 offered in qualifying rewards.

What's the average reward amount?

It's about 400.

We do have some that are higher.

The rewards based on the nature of the crime.

So felonies would pay a higher reward than to say a traffic problem.

As you can appreciate that.

Yeah, it's about 400 is the average.

And then my next question is can you give me an example of the stolen property recovered?

Hmm.

I don't have that kind of information available.

That's uh the system we operate uh allows the uh resting agency to put that number in on that tip.

So it comes from them, and I'm not sure exactly how they how can they just determine that?

Pardon?

Okay.

Yeah.

A car stolen cars recovered that has a value that could be identified, that sort of thing.

I don't know about what about narcotics and that sort of thing.

No.

And my last question is are um folks able to uh also provide like video uh of a crime, like considering that you know folks have so many porch pirates and you we most of us have ring doorbells or blink doorbells or some type of surveillance system.

Are they able to submit things when they believe a crime is being committed?

Yes, we do get videos from time to time.

They're very helpful to our law enforcement agencies when they start their investigation.

Yes, we have the ability to take a video.

We do.

Thank you.

All of our all of our tips are handled by an independent third party that we retain uh on an annual basis.

And if they're all independent economists, autonomous, uh anonymous call takers that take this information.

They've been trained to give the the right questions and provide the right information to our law enforcement, excuse me.

Thank you.

Councilman Lineweber?

Yeah, I was just curious if you've worked with um some of the neighborhood groups, um, such as Cono, which is now um their new name is Hey Neighbor.

Um, and then also the city has their own neighborhood watch program.

Um how what involvement have you had with those type of groups?

Well, neighborhood watch is a very important program for us.

They have neighborhood watch captains, and every year the chief will offer a briefing and an annual report, which we attend.

Um the neighborhood captains then distribute information about what we give them to their neighborhood associates.

So it's been a very good program, and we encourage people to join neighborhood watch.

So that's been very active for us.

Uh the other one is new to us, and that we're just learning more about it.

Well, hey neighbor is really um taken off.

I mean, it's um with the whole um uh try to bring the community together uh type of uh effort to uh just deal with isolation and loneliness and mental health and all that kind of component they're really working on bringing together, like the block parties and things like that.

And I think it would just be a natural thing to kind of find a way to work all that in.

No question.

We'd be glad to get connected with them.

Yeah, I'd I'd I'd contact them.

Their director is really active, so she'll she'll be eager to talk to you guys.

Good.

Thank you for that.

Yes, we will.

Any any organization that will help us build awareness, we're we're with them.

That's what we need, more awareness of what we do.

And we think this bus stop bench program may really be helpful to us.

And we're tracking that.

We've established our baseline, we know what we were starting with.

Excuse me.

I think those could be very helpful.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thanks, Madam President.

It's not really a question, um, Don, but uh really uh a thank you to you and the and the others on the board for what you're doing with crime stoppers.

I saw some polling just last week, and so it's very current.

And uh number one concern of citizens is crime.

So and I thought it could have been potholes, but it turned out to be crime.

So uh this really is what what our constituents or citizens are worried about, and you're doing something where they can remain uh and they'll feel safe uh reporting what they know.

So thank you for what you're doing.

No, I'm glad to, Dave.

Thank you.

Interesting little side effect, uh side fact.

About 40% of our rewards don't get claimed.

We have no way of knowing why, because we don't know who these people are.

So we can only conjecture that as well.

They they do it because they want to help the neighborhood be safe, they don't want to be involved, fear of retribution.

There could be a lot of reasons.

I think one of them may even be that they forget.

They forget that they submitted a tip, or they don't check on the on the uh up uh Gazette updates.

So there's a lot of reasons why that doesn't happen, but we wish we'd all all of our rewards with DP.

We have kind of an interesting structure here.

The more successful we are, the more it costs us.

But that's okay.

We want to pay rewards.

That's that's when we know we're being effective for the community.

Councilman Hingem.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

I would actually like to ask Mr.

Helms a question if I might.

I couldn't pass it up.

I I thought I was going to uh manage not to do this.

It's a softball though.

Ren Randy Helms.

Yes, thank you, Randy.

Um it's a softball.

So uh no doubt since you've left, you've been asked to join numerous boards.

And I'm curious, as really seriously curious as to why you selected this board to become a part of.

That's an excellent question because of exactly what we talked about today, and it's something uh Dave mentioned.

Um crime is so important to our community here.

Uh safety is important to our community and helping stop crime.

And this is one of those things that I feel I can give back to uh being on the board of directors for crime stoppers, because it's something we can help make our community safer, and we can elevate this uh and make it even better than the things that the Don mentioned.

Um the concerns we have that why people don't uh collect uh the rewards.

Um I think it has a lot to do with communication, and we will try to figure out even though through the Gazette and other means of communication, maybe getting that information out there in different ways.

So hopefully I'll be able to give something back with my experience uh with our uh city council and police department and budget and things like that that I I can give back uh to the community in this way.

So that's that's why I I said yes to Don.

Plus, he they twisted my arm at uh at the luncheon we were at.

So thank you, Randy.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

I don't see any other questions.

Okay, very good.

But thank you so much for your presentation.

This is very important, especially in this every morning you wake up and read the paper and it's on the front page.

Yes, well, thank you so much.

Important uh for us to be here.

We appreciate the opportunity and wish you all the best.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to 5B, will the clerk please read item 5B into the record?

Walkability presentation.

Do we have the walkability?

We do.

Good morning.

Good morning.

You can pull that down and make sure the green light is on and state your name for the record.

The green light, do you see down?

Do you see a green light button you can push?

On the microphone itself.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Lelia Gibson Green, and I'm here to introduce myself and the why of walkability.

And it started with me.

I am a citizen, of course, here, and I've been here in Calor Springs for about 48 years.

And doing so 35 plus years in the Southeast region.

And so I am a cancer survivor and a stage four follicular leuphoma, which is a blood cancer.

And that's how this all started with my health and wellness.

And so in doing so, I needed to get out for my health.

I needed to start walking.

I have been at the Cancer Center, Rocky Mountain Cancer Center for 10 years now, even though I am a cancer survivor.

It uh compromised my immune system to where I'm not able to produce antibodies in my immune system.

So my body cannot heal without infusions every four weeks for the rest of my life, but I'm cancer free.

And so I do go through some health challenges, right?

And in doing so, um it also from the trauma of all of that caused some mental health issues, PTSD, and uh depression and anxiety.

But I I took all of that in and I continue to move because I want to be an example for others that you don't have to sit alone and be isolated because of the different things that you go through.

And so this is a resident led uh uh grassroots organization to where I my motto in life is don't just talk the talk, walk the walk.

So I'm here walking the walk.

And so the name of my organization is called Cora Springs Walk the Walk.

And so, and that's how it all started with my health.

I needed to get outside and walk, according to my onecologist, my primary doctor, and my primary doctor.

But I needed some accountability, right?

And so I start creating different walking groups in the southeast.

Oh, I have no idea how to do this.

So I go to the next one.

I'm sorry.

All right, go back.

Okay, and so uh pretty much told you about my cancer uh and my health challenges, and so uh I'm a passionate about your health because I'm walking through this.

How can I help my neighbors?

Um, and to be that example, and so I start organizing events, I start organizing walking groups.

The first walking group uh was at Wildflower Park, Memorial Park, and Pamarama Park.

And then alongside me, uh Rye Southeast came along, Trails and Open Space, and we start creating these different walking groups, and so from there that vision came to become a community-driven uh change in uh my community.

So it started in the Southeast.

Okay, sorry.

And so making changes by walking, and that's exactly what we did.

We started, I started different theme walks because the engagement itself, um, this was a two and a half years of walking groups.

So it was very successful the first year.

And in doing so, we had different people with different challenges.

The goal was to walk at your own pace.

If you walk faster, then you walk in the front.

You walk like myself in the back with my oxygen tank or my cane, you walk in the back.

The goal is just to get outside.

When you go outside, you know, outside prolongs our lives.

You know, I didn't know any of this until I started walking this health journey.

And I'm like, wow, let me educate others that they can do the same thing.

It doesn't cost anything to walk.

And in the Southeast, there are barriers.

There are disparities, transportation, economic, health disparities.

And I fits up on all of those.

But what I did do is start walking.

And so that just opened up so many different doors for me and for others.

And then others wanted to join in.

But then at some point, there was an engagement decrease in the walking groups.

How could I thought?

How can I make a difference and get this walking groups to engage again?

And then I heard about American walks.

American Walk is a national organization that concentrated on walkability.

So I signed up for a walking program.

And that walking program was a six month, very intensive program to where I learned about walkability.

I thought I was going to learn how I can engage the walking groups, but I learned so much.

And in doing so, at the end of the six months, we needed to, by the way, there was 25 of us representing the state of Colorado.

I was the only one representing Colorado Springs.

But the second group was out of Alabama, and they had 25.

And so this was in 2022.

And so after the six months, we were told we need to write an action plan to bring back that information to our cities and come up with a project and where we can make some improvements and help with our city.

And so for me, I learned so much about walkability that I wanted to bring back and create the first of its kind, Carol Springs Walkability Summit.

So I created an action plan for a summit.

For all the information that I learned, I wanted to share that with the community.

And that includes each and bringing awareness.

So I created that.

We were given a five $500 mini grant to start our project.

Since mine was so big, about a month later, October 2022, there was a larger grant that for those who had a larger project could do.

And so that's what I did.

It was a 10,000 grant.

And I was able to do that.

I received 7500 of that, plus the 500.

And so a total of $800, $8,000.

Now I can start this walking summit.

But why walkability?

It all starts with walkability is there for us, our community to make us healthy, safer, greener space, and connected, right?

And it also encourages exercise.

And that's something that we all could do, right?

And also reduces stress.

And then also help with car pollution.

If you're walking, biking, any of those multimobile things that you can do versus just jumping in a car.

So that helped our built environment as well.

And then it boosts the economy.

If we're walking, biking, and moving for our help, less opportunities to get sick, you know, it helps us become healthier, right?

It improve our lifestyles.

And so it also improved the sensibilities in our community and it strengthened the community.

And so why walkability?

Because that's what I learned, and I wanted to share that.

Health benefits, economic benefits, transportation benefits, economy, reduce traffic, transportation, promotes active lifestyle changes, and I needed to make some, and that's why the walking came in hand for me.

Okay.

So in September 22nd 2003, I did the first walkability summit.

And that's what you see up there.

The picture up there in the middle, I did two walking audits prior to that in August 2022.

One of the walk-in audits was at the Southeast Sand Creek Trail.

The second one was off of Fountain and Aero Plaza going toward the Pamorama Park.

And so I already had the data.

So when I implemented this summit, it was already in place to add some walking breakout groups.

I needed for people to walk in the Southeast shoes, walk in my shoes, and understand where the needs are to improve the streets, the trails.

And so that's what we did with the walking groups.

And then also I want to let you know I am grateful and I'm thankful for the walking proclamation resolution.

This is the third year the city council have approved the walkability proclamation resolution.

So this September, the 22nd, 2025 would be the third year for walkability day, and I'm grateful for that.

Thank you.

So here are some of the results.

There was 51 attendees at the walking summit.

But what came out of that when we broke out into groups, we were able to walk in my area, which is Fountain to Astrazon to Fenton to Pamorama Park.

You walk, and there's a sidewalk, and then that sidewalk, there's no more sidewalk.

So I had to walk in the streets to get to that amazing $8.5 million park.

And so the attendees was able to walk that see by going in the streets.

That was the only way to get there.

And so inviting the right people to the summit, made a different decision makers, community leaders, community advocates, and residents came together.

And so that was September 22nd, 2023.

On November of that year, 2023, public health, public work, I'm sorry.

They did construction on that site, and they put in a sidewalk in less than a month and a half.

That's unheard of.

So that is one of the results that came after the summit that a sidewalk that was desperately needed was installed.

And so I'm grateful for that.

And then we also started, I started a walkability advisory committee.

Here's some more of the results.

And then 69.6 elected to become part of the Carter Springs walkability advisory committee.

Thought that the structure went well, and 56.5 learned something about walkability.

And so I'm I'm happy with the results.

And I know that Carra Springs is doing just that.

They are making especially the downtown more walkable.

In doing so, they have extended the sidewalks to 10 feet.

You know, on the average sidewalk should be at least five feet, so two people can walk down the sidewalk.

But now City Car Spring saw where there was a need to extend that.

And also they have made the downtown the traffic more calming.

And so you don't have as many lanes down there now.

But I love the idea that the city is taking that initiative and this narrative on walkability and making the downtown more livable, which walkability falls upon the livability.

And so the two together makes a difference for our city.

And so I just want to be a part of that and continue that narrative.

And so this year I am doing a another walkability summit, but this time I'm taking six of the topics that stem from the first one.

As I said, the first one's more educational and awareness, right?

And so at this point, okay, what can we do to solve some of the problems or brainstorm?

And so we chose six of the topics that came from the first, the input from those attendees, and it was multi-mobile access, and then it was uh mixed use of land, and then sustainability constitution and safe, desirable streets, and then lifestyle changes and of course social interaction, which is very important.

Um, so we will be breaking down those six topics.

I chose six different presenters coming from the city, uh Mile High Youth Corps.

Um six of them, and so I'm happy that we have this opportunity.

Okay.

Councilman Hinchum.

Thank you, Madam President.

Good morning.

It's nice to see you.

Um thank you so much for what you're doing.

I I think your effort and your starting this nonprofit is a perfect example of how opportunity can arise out of challenge and or you know, things that just aren't good.

So um thank you for that.

And there's many examples, but I'm um I'm really I'm really happy that you've done this and that you are now entering the third walkability summit, which I said yes to.

I do have to ask you if I can have a cell phone number to find out where you guys will be at midday, because in the morning I have a board meeting and I can't attend in the morning.

Yes, I plan to, for those who sign up, 75 people this year.

I will be sending out the program at the end of the week.

So I know that you'll know when by the way, there's at least three of you all who sign up to come to the summit, and one from uh city uh council person from Manitou.

And so there are uh quite a bit uh quite a bit of experts and community leaders that will be there, and I'm grateful.

Well, thank you.

Yeah, and and I was also just gonna say, I think um, you know, it probably I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that hardly a week goes by that I don't receive at least one email, if not many more, about the condition of our sidewalks in Colorado Springs.

Yes, ma'am, I've done four different walking audits since March.

And Council Woman um goal did a walk in audit with me on Verde and Circle.

And so most of the walking audits I've done this far is a complaint about the sidewalks and the condition of the sidewalks.

And so that's so we have years of backlog, and it's it's a it's a very important topic.

Um, you know, as uh cities infrastructure, the sidewalks are part of that skeleton, if you will, of what makes a really healthy vibrant city.

And I just I just there's a lot of work to be done, but I appreciate you supporting us as a city and helping us uh move this along.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

I'm a partner here.

So whatever I can do to help and promote what you're doing, that's what I'm gonna do.

Any other questions?

Councilman Gold.

Thank you, Madam President, and uh not a question but a comment.

I did want to um share with my fellow council members that yes, I did do a walking audit while I was campaigning with uh Miss Lelia and uh because I had some concerns about Circle and Verde, and um it was uh took less than an hour to do the walking audit.

It was a really enjoyable experience.

Um Lelia pointed out things that I would never would have paid attention to that um that make perfect sense.

So my eyes have been opened in many ways.

Um, and at that audit, we learned that two of four crosswalks were actually not visibly painted.

Um, and I'm pleased to report that now we have four or four crosswalks in that very busy intersection where there's an a school close by and there's a you know large residential neighborhood.

So thank you, Lelia, for your advocacy and education and empowering us to do better for our community.

No problem.

Anyone else?

I don't see any other questions at this time, but we're very happy that you um have conquered that cancer and that your passion are driving you to new great opportunities for our city.

So thank you for that.

You're welcome.

On to our next item 5C.

Will the clerk please read item 5C into the record?

Colorado Springs Chamber in EDC 2025 mid-year LART contract update to City Council.

Good morning, Danny.

Thank you.

Do you want me to start over?

Okay.

And marketing programs to raise awareness for the Pikes Peak region as a place to live and do business.

And by attracting visitors, promoting business tourism, and supporting economic development activities, this will fulfill the purposes of the LART.

And just a quick about Chamber and EDC at a glance.

Our mission is to achieve economic prosperity for our region and act as a catalyst for business innovation and growth.

What drives us is our four pillars.

What this is what makes us unique, our work in economic development, defense development, government affairs, and our membership in small business services.

We're also proud to host the Pikespeak Housing Network and the uh Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center.

So I know we were asked to present at a more strategic high-level presentation going forward instead of our individual KPIs.

So I'm excited to share a new program called Source Colorado Springs that we're working on to really have the focus on the national awareness and to work on all those initiatives that we are tasked with for LART.

So again, the purpose to elevate the national profile of the Pikes Peak region, promoting our region as a top-tier destination for business talent and business conferences, which I'll touch on a little bit later because that's a new focus our board has given us, and I think something that's gonna be very fruitful for our LART work.

Rebranding Colorado Springs, um, again, I'll touch on this in a bit, but we've got some outdated stereotypes, and we have kind of a um some brand confusion out there outside of the region on who Colorado Springs is and why they should do business with us.

And um that branding also ties into our talent attraction efforts, which we've been working on, but we'll continue that focus.

The strategy is working with national journalists, national media to tell that story.

We're proactively pitching what makes us unique and leveraging the hook of big events and things that are going on here in the region, and um really highlighting the storytelling efforts so that when um businesses and talent are researching us, those third-party uh articles are rising to the top showing how authentic um that story is.

Rather than us saying, hey, come here, we're great.

It's Forbes and Livability and Business Um magazines telling us telling folks why.

So on regional branding, this is an effort that has um come out of some research.

The new mark study I've referenced before.

Um, Olympic City USA does not resonate with the businesses and the business um community outside of the region.

So what we want to do here is work with an agency and work with stakeholders like government and business and higher ed and community stakeholders to define what that is.

And this is more than just a tagline.

This is about how we're how we're messaging um when we talk about ourselves, how different verticals can go and speak, whether it's in tourism or business or business sectors or um outdoors or or whatever the the case may be.

But we we need to hone this in and have um some messaging.

We're all speaking in a unified voice.

And um we know that um Olympic City USA is is great for um kind of the sports industry and some of the the NGB world, but um it's not resonating with businesses, so we need to work on that.

Um we have a we'll have a media hub.

This is really for those national journalists to access assets, whether that's um just video high-resolution photos and things, but just so we can tell our story and showcase why we need to attract those business that business tourism here.

Um the uh key sectors that we have to offer and um the you know, the next space symposium and things like that.

Um, we this is just a hub for those stories to rise to the top.

We'll also be able to amplify our local um journalists here and have a hub for all of the national or media that we have received so far.

Uh some recent wins I'd like to shout out are some national media features, and I generally share these with you all as well.

Um, but an example of Source Colorado Springs in action was having the U.S.

Senior open here in town.

We know that we've got a lot of eyes on Colorado Springs, so we want to make sure we're leveraging that, and what are some stories we can get out of that?

So Jane Mahano Dicki, who's the executive director of Source Color Springs, she worked hard on this, was able to get a sports writer here from Sports Travel magazine, and you can see one of the articles he produced was talking about the economic impact of sports events in the industry.

We were also able to tag on to that working with Sports Corp on um talking about the warrior games too.

So having those relationships and continuing to beat that drum, but we've got all this attention on us, so why not get some national media out of it?

We're also highlighting, of course, our key industries and um when highlighting when we have a company that announces that they've chosen to relocate or expand here and create jobs.

Uh but a recent example of this is obviously Space Command, which is hot on everybody's mind right now because of the big news of last week.

And I know I um spoke with a few of you last week in our quarterly update last week, but um Jane jumped on this right away too, worked with our agency.

We've got a big announcement coming from the White House on Space Command, and we know that from a PR standpoint, you know, we always say never let a good crisis go to waste.

So this is an opportunity where all eyes are on Colorado Springs.

This is in time to have an advertisement about who we are, what makes us strong.

So we were able to get um a placement in Politico Space Um weekly newsletter last Friday, actually already, with the mayor quoted alongside Senator Hick and Looper, Senator Hick and Looper.

And so this is just a great example of why um having that focus on the national storytelling is important, that we're taking the lead and we're beating that drum.

We want to make sure that it's known that the aerospace and defense economy is strong here.

We have the door open for future missions.

We want to be part of those Golden Dome conversations, and um getting our leadership and our um business leaders quoted and in those articles is really important.

So we're happy to have that result.

And um, just a side note, um, we have DC Fly in next week, which I know I think a few of you are able to join us, but that um that alongside of our PR work is going to help continue beating that drum.

Um, of course, we have digital marketing campaigns.

This is all on our talent attraction.

So we're targeting um the various metros.

I've shared those in the past that we've highlighted as those that are the most qualified to join our workforce based off their degrees and key industries, cost of living, and so forth.

Um, we continue telling that story through national PR and of course lifestyle content as well because people want to uh find a job generally where they want to live too.

So though those campaigns continue to be to be running and performing successfully as well.

Um just some examples of of those digital ads in the market.

And then uh just to talk a little bit on business conferences.

We're really excited about this.

Um we feel that there's a very very huge opportunity in business conferences.

This is the business tourism side of things.

Uh we know from um various studies that the goal is to increase hotel room nights and to increase those additional stays.

So a couple examples I threw up there, aerospace and defense.

What's the next space symposium?

What are some of those spinoffs that are out there?

And in cyber security.

We are um we've held some focus groups um earlier in the year to um in advance of our Colorado Aerospace and Defense Economic Council.

And we have tons of business leaders in our community saying, I go to Huntsville every year for this conference that's 250 people, or I go to this city, or I go to that.

Why can't we be hosting those here in Colorado Springs?

So we are leaning in and taking advantage of those relationships that we have within the business community and being aggressive in attracting those to Colorado Springs.

And we know that you know the 250 to 500 people is kind of the sweet spot with the hotel uh conference space we have to offer.

And so we've we've built a database to help um see where we can match bake a little bit on that.

Um we also have some conversations going now with broadband and an annual conference that they host every year.

Why not host that in Colorado Springs, as well as economic development and chamber associations who hold conferences all around the nation.

We just want to um we want to be proactive and attracting those here and and contributing to the room nights and those overnight stays.

Um the Colorado Aerospace and Defense Economic Council.

We're just getting that off the ground under the leadership of Dale Anderson who joined us last Tuesday.

And um, but we we just know there's so much mining for information we can gather off those industry leaders.

And with that, that is the end of my presentation, but happy to take any questions.

Yeah, um, Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thanks, Madam President.

Good morning, Danny.

Good morning.

Um, reading through this yesterday and then even listening to you this morning, it I'm a I'm just not clear.

The rebranding as it you've you know the message you want to share.

And we're we're we're doing that now.

Or is it we are going out and uh and we're gonna develop that brand strategy uh at this point.

Yes, great question, Councilman Donaldson.

So we know our what makes us unique and we know the strategies behind our key industries and the data and so forth, but we need to develop that brand in for the future.

So the example I shared was the new mark study that our economic development team conducted showed that Olympic City USA does not resonate with the businesses, the business audience.

They don't really get it.

And we, with all due respect to our sports leaders, that we're we're more much more than that when it comes to economic development and business.

So again, it's not just a tagline, but it's bringing together um leaders to help define what our values are, how we're talking about ourselves.

One of our big goals is we take a group of constituents to New York City or major hubs of media and take leaders of various uh verticals, and we can all tell our story, but we're all speaking in a unified voice.

So we're currently trying to decide what our values are.

That is fair.

And that's why we want to we need we need a professional agency to help us, and we will be convening groups of stakeholders.

I can see this being a kind of a I don't know, a three to five month process, making sure everybody's voice is heard, and then having a professional tell us, okay, here's what we've heard, here's what we know from outside decision makers, here's how you need to be talking about yourself externally to be attracting those businesses and those conferences and all of that here.

Okay.

There's others who uh have uh that want to ask questions uh also.

Okay.

Um I don't think about this a lot all the time.

I I think Colorado Springs has uh a great history.

Uh I was at the Adaman opening uh over the weekend.

We we have uh a strong tradition and history here in Colorado Springs.

So some of the wording in here it concerns me a little bit because it talks about read to find it, kind of reframing who we are, something like that.

So I hope we don't get too far away from from uh the history and tradition of Colorado Springs.

We have great people here.

Um great military tradition.

I hope we don't try to become something uh catchy or something that we think is will be shiny and attract people all of a sudden and we stick to who we are.

100% agree.

And I'll just address that comment.

We can move on to the other questions.

But part of our rich history and military legacy and and all of what makes us unique is so important to have.

So we 100% do not want to lose that, as that really defines what makes Colorado Springs special.

Councilman Lineweber?

Yeah, I just wanted to pick up on the branding effort.

I'm really um kind of excited that we're looking at this piece.

Not really to um come up with like what Dave is saying is what's the new catchy phrase, but really just kind of what have we always been.

I you know, the um public land trust um did a survey on our citizens, and um they couldn't classify us as superusers for the outdoors because we were beyond that.

We were so they came up with a new title, actually called us Uber users.

And it it goes to show, I think, and I can't I can't leave this alone, is that I I think you're gonna find clearly that people come here for the outdoors.

And in survey after survey, it really highlights that.

Now, a lot of times that involves sports, a lot of times uh involves recreation, a lot of times that involves just touring and enjoying just breathing fresh air in the trees.

Um, but we have such great resources that no other community really quite has what we have.

And I think um I think we'll find that um that is our identity.

And um I'm I'm anxious to kind of go through the process.

So thanks.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Hinchem.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

Uh Danny, thanks for being here.

And um, you know, it's one of the liaisons to LART.

I I wanted to make some comments, but also really I I appreciate what I've heard from my other council members as well.

Um, you know, I absolutely resonate with and think it's super important that we go back to our roots and who we are and how we started and General Palmer and the parks and the trails and the outdoors, which we've heard.

Um, Adam and you know, I it is Olympic City USA has absolutely uh a part of our city.

Um that branding though did not come from the source of who we are.

It just didn't.

Um, it has a place, it it clearly supports our sports industry.

There are a lot of different segments of who we are.

We've heard military, there's certainly health.

I mean, tuberculosis is what brought a lot of people here.

There are many aspects to our identity and our history.

Um and I understand, and you're here presenting to us today as one of the um contracts that LARD dollars support.

And so specifically focusing on business tourism.

And I certainly understand and appreciate that your goal with those dollars is how do we ensure that businesses see Colorado Springs as a place to both come and do you know things when they're they might be headquartered elsewhere, but also how do we draw businesses to Colorado Springs?

And now we've got cybersecurity and the military.

You know, so there's a lot of different parts to our identity.

And so I just would concur with what I've heard from Councilmember Donaldson and Lime Weber and trust that you will really look very holistically at all of the elements of our identity, but not losing touch with where we really come from.

I think that is what it needs to resonate with the people of Colorado Springs as well.

Yes.

Yeah.

Thank you for that.

And we understand and recognize the huge importance of the community and the civic pride as well, because we've uh a lot of times in a lot of the research we found is our um externally, we might be perceived one way, but even internally and locally, it's a whole nother sentiment.

Um I also wanted to just tack on to um one of the pitches that Jane's working on is as next year's America's 250, and we're doing like a 250-150 pitch.

And so we're doing a ton of research right now on those the tuberculosis, Nicola Tesla, the um the medical tourism that was once here because of the the great weather and all of that.

And so um it's very interesting, and um there's so many things from the innovation side, I think that show how those historical roots um we started here with something and then we've just grown and grown and grown, and here we are with um the home of GPS here.

So many people don't know you can't use Google Maps outside of here without Colorado Springs.

So there's some really cool things that um we owe it to our history to tell that story.

Right.

And and in the context of current day, which there are some challenges, right?

And we know growth is one of our greatest opportunities, as well as one of our biggest challenges.

And um, and so kind of in that space, connecting with that history, how do we stay vibrant and continue to be generative and growing in a way, but growing in a way that um also really respects the sort of identity and and where we've come from.

And you know, one thought, and I would just throw this out there.

Um, maybe it'll a seed that will um uh catch some roots.

But for that 150, 250, I think there's opportunity with this council um and some of those historical moments to to over the course of that year, um, maybe a handful, six or so uh council meetings where we actually um do some highlighting of some of our history and work with with the chamber, with others um, and uh and with our pioneer museum, we might be able to do you know, historical moments um at City Council.

I love that.

We would be happy to help with that.

Thank you so much.

Danny, I don't see any other questions at this time, but I for one um appreciate the um presentation and the and the fact that you're taking these LART dollars that are separate from your chamber branding dollars and using them on what we asked you to do, which is tourism into what regard of what you're you do, business tourism, economic tourism within that realm.

So I, for one, really appreciate that you're doing that.

Um, bringing the conferences here, the heads and beds, rental cars, but at the same time, they get to do enjoy our incline if they're up to it.

The peak, our zoo, many things that we have.

So I I really appreciate you doing that and presenting it in that way and um your presentation.

So thank you.

Great, thank you, President Crow Everton.

So moving on to 5D, will the clerk please read item 5D into the record?

Colorado Springs Sports Corps 2025 mid-year LART contract update to City Council.

Good morning, Megan and Davis.

Good morning.

Let's see.

Thank you for pulling that up.

Um while they're pulling that up.

Well, let me first off do introductions.

My name is Megan Latham.

I'm president and CEO of the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation, and we are gonna tag team this today.

This is Davis Tut.

He is our senior director of sports tourism and Olympic engagement.

And before we get started, I just wanted to hit on two things that came up from the last presentation.

First off, I think what's great in what Danny pointed out and all you point out is just how eclectic our city is.

It is really amazing to see all these different pillars of Colorado Springs.

It makes us great.

Um, also, in regards to uh the um celebration that we have coming up, the one fifth the 250-150, the other really exciting thing is it's Labor Day's liftoffs 50th.

So we're gonna tie that in in part of the historical, just really hitting on that.

And we actually have a meeting upcoming with the Colorado Tourism Board in regards to how to integrate all of that down here in the springs with Labor Day liftoff.

So with that, I will kind of get going on the formal presentation again.

Thank you so much for having us today.

I think here's the clicker.

There we go.

All right.

Um we are just gonna hit on some really quick topics today.

We are gonna do a little bit different than what we normally do.

Typically, we go through all of the KPIs, and uh we did that pretty thoroughly in April.

So today we're gonna kind of talk about what we are doing to help land events in Colorado Springs that boost sports tourism for our community.

Um we will also just kind of talk about a brief um review of who we are as an organization, the summer of sports, how we land events, our uh event management piece, and then sports corp in the community.

And I have now presented to this council a couple times, so I am gonna be pretty quick with the overall review.

Um our mission to inspire and advance Colorado Springs, Olympic City USA in the Pikes Peak region through sport and community events.

We do this really in four different ways.

The first is supporting the Olympic and Paralympic movement.

Um with that, what we're doing right now is we're doing quarterly NGB meetings.

So that's with the 25 national governing bodies that are here.

Um we also work heavily in regards to the US OPC movement.

Um we also have an Olympic games coming up in February.

So we're looking to activate Colorado Springs during those games, and then obviously we are already very much planning ahead to LA 28.

But what can we do here in Olympic City USA to help support everything going on in our nation during that time and bring in tourist dollars, bring in tourism, bring in tourists to Colorado Springs during the 2028 games.

Our event management arm, I think you guys are all pretty familiar with.

That is the eight to ten major events that we put on every year annually in Colorado Springs.

One thing just to note on that, um, a lot of what we're discussing is how we bid on events, how we bring events to Colorado Springs, but there is real value in putting on major events in Colorado Springs and doing the heavy lifting and doing doing the grunt work behind the scenes to help bring events to help build events in our community that also bring in out outside tourism.

Um community sports programming.

I I will kind of skip over that today just because it's not uh super relevant.

And then sports tourism is what we're gonna really hit on, but I will uh let Davis hit on most of that.

Our key performance indicators, as I mentioned, we did a thorough analysis of this in April for our 2024 KPIs.

And I can just tell you for 2025, we're happy to report.

We're just starting Q4, and we have already hit, if not exceeded, all of our 2025 KPIs.

So we'll report on that after the after the turn of the year.

And with that, I will turn it over to Davis to kind of talk through what's next.

Thanks, Megan.

Thank you, Council, for the opportunity to chat with you all this morning.

Uh, really just want to give you a review of um what we have coined as the uh the summer of sport.

Um I feel like every summer could be a summer of sports, so we're gonna have to keep coming up with cool new names.

But 2025 really was a uh summer of sport here in Colorado Springs.

Um we pretty much from from June through August, almost every week or weekend, uh, whether it was on the north side of the town, the south side of town, downtown.

You really couldn't go uh anywhere without some sort of large national um sporting event happening here in Colorado Springs.

So just uh looking at uh in June, um uh it actually started with the underrated golf tour, which is at the very bottom.

The underrated golf tour is uh a golf tour put on by Steph Curry.

Um Steph Curry was notably called underrated.

He was a three-star recruit coming out of college, and he wants to help find the next generation of underrated golfers.

And so this is a um just a really cool, it's almost more of a nonprofit focus where um Steph finds um about 300 youth golfers and he pays for them and their families to go to some of the top golf courses in the country.

And they always start their tour at a college golf facility.

And so they started at the Air Force Academy this year.

Uh it was the first time they've ever uh hosted at a military installation.

And so Steph Curry actually was here in town.

Um and it they competed it uh up at uh Eisenhower Golf Course.

Uh right then we moved into uh the uh USA weightlifting national championships.

This was uh a very large event that took place at Robson Arena that took over Robeson for 10 days of competition.

Um if anybody was up there around there, they branded the entire Robeson area um really, really well with USA weightlifting in Color Springs all over uh the Colorado College campus.

This was about 1,500 athletes over those 10 days and over 3,000 out of state individuals for those 10 days as well.

And then last uh uh rolling into June was the senior open.

Um this was uh obviously a very large event.

Um the Broadmoor um in the USG are working on all their economic development and economic impact studies, so we look forward to sharing those uh with you once they are published.

Moving into to July, um, starting off uh was the Olympic and Paralympic festival uh that coincided with the Olympic and Paralympic um Hall of Fame induction ceremony that rolled into uh the USA Pickleball Golden Ticket event.

Uh we're super excited to welcome this to Collar Springs this year.

It was one of three national qualifiers that USA Pickleball put on.

And uh there was they were so happy about it that they are gonna be coming back in 2026.

Um they're looking to grow it even more.

Um they had about a thousand athletes that came in, uh, pretty much all from out of state.

The Collar Springs location is really the only in all of our neighboring states.

There are a couple in Arizona, but there's uh really the Mountain West area.

This is the only national qualifier for USA pickleball.

Yes.

I have a question from Councilman Hinch.

Yes, ma'am.

Good morning, Davis.

What pickleball courts are used?

So, yeah, they actually were at Peak Pickleball.

Um, so this is the new indoor facility up at Chapel Hills Mall.

Um, they were interested in doing that because it's the first time that one of their national qualifiers has ever been in an indoor facility.

So they kind of trialed it out just to see if the if it works.

Um pickleball, if you play it in a really busy indoor facility, gets pretty loud.

So that was one of their worries.

But uh Peak up there has done a great job at insulating the facility, and they have 24 indoor courts, so that's actually on the smaller end of their national championship qualifiers, but it worked really well that they want to come back next year.

Great, thank you.

And Councilman Hentum, for your notes as well.

There is another indoor springs pickleball, opened another indoor facility off of Powers.

And so the in the pickleballers love the indoor because it just eliminates a lot of the outdoor, obviously, rain, that kind of thing.

So we have some both of those are state of the art that actually allow us to start bidding on some more pickleball things.

Yep.

Perfect.

Uh USA Pickleball also did um a day of outreach uh with the YMCA.

Um they brought down uh Jake Plummer for those of you who are uh Broncos fans.

Uh he is an avid pickleballer, is kind of one of the spokespeople for USA Pickleball.

So he came down from Denver, uh, did some uh camps with a bunch of uh kids at the Briar Gate YMCA, which is right near Peak Pickleball.

So it was a fun day for them.

And then uh probably the largest event uh, I think citywide that took place in July, not kind of, it was, uh, was the 2025 Department of Defense Warrior Games.

This is the first time the event was uh back in Collar Springs since 2018.

Um I'll talk a little bit more about the warrior games um on the next slide in relation to uh how we get things to come to Collar Springs.

So I'll cover that in a minute.

And then uh just this past month in August, um we had two uh USA cycling track national championships.

Um the masters and paracycling track, and then followed up by the elite track national championships.

Um Labor Day liftoff was full swing the last weekend uh in Memorial Park, so the Vell drone was inaccessible.

But uh we're we were excited to uh get both of these events because the the conversation around them actually took place because um Sports Corp, we convened a meeting with Parks and Rec, US OPC uh, and USA Cycling because we realized that all three entities, there wasn't a lot of conversation and communication around what is the purpose of the Vellodrome, who actually can kind of own it and run it.

And so it we realized it just they're like no one was having those conversations.

So about a year ago uh we got all these groups together, and uh there's now a very clear path forward of uh USA cycling programming the Velodrome, um, the US OPC uh sort of uh as the uh long-term manager of the facility.

They are creating uh a plan of what is the physical infrastructure, so whether the dome is gonna stay on or it's gonna come down, and then obviously Parks and Rec as the actual owner of the um the land um giving that that seal of approval at the end.

So I think with that clarity, USA Cycling was willing to put in these two large track events, um, and they are going to be coming back next year as well because they once again were excited to uh to see the success of it.

And then there are just a couple more to come.

Um so two large events um that are in uh uh Collar Springs in December.

Um, one of them is outdoors, so bring your jacket.

But uh first will be USA Wrestling King and Queen of the Mountain, December 5th through 6th at the World Arena.

This is one of USA Wrestling's largest uh wrestling tournaments that they put on themselves.

And then that will be followed up uh the following weekend with the Division II men's and women's soccer national championships.

Those will be at Widener Field.

Uh exciting to have this back.

We had these in town uh in 2021, right after Widener opened, and so look for looking forward to uh utilizing that facility heavily now that it's uh in its uh fifth year.

So, really, uh as Megan mentioned, we wanted to talk a little bit about how we get these things to come to Color Springs, these types of events.

Um, there are a couple different ways, um, and also I'll go into each one of these.

Uh the first one is conferences, it's really conferences and then um sort of professional organization resources.

Uh, then there's research and bids, and then there's branding and assets.

So on the conference side and the professional resources, as the official sports commission for the city of Color Springs, we are a member of Sports ETA, which is Sports Events and Tourism Association.

It's essentially our trade association for sports commissions.

They host uh one large conference every year that brings together cities as well as events rights holders, but also has a number of different educational resources.

Um, and they have probably the one of the largest online databases of uh bids, um, educational resources, various templates, anything you could might need for uh sports commissions.

And so they they are one of the best resources for us as a conference because it puts us in front of a number of different uh sports organizations that have traveling events, whether it's uh youth baseball, soccer, uh NGBs as well.

Um Teams conference is is the even larger one.

Um, and we go to both of them.

There are a number of other sports tourism conferences and other conferences that we could go to.

These are by far the most um um useful.

But why they're useful is because uh they are arguably the most tiring conferences.

Both of them are about 50 10 minute meetings with between cities and sports organizations.

So uh it's called speed dating, and during those uh three days, I will meet 50 potential organizations that we could bring to Collar Springs.

And so it's I come home with very, very tangible responses.

It's not you know just oh, maybe this is gonna work.

It's like beforehand we meet with only the ones that we know could work in Collar Springs, so that we are uh really uh you know making the use of our time.

And then the last uh one is uh one that we call uh the Great Eight.

It's with uh a group that we contract with called the Huddle Up Group, Huddle Up, um that we have been working with them for about three years now.

They are the host of our sports facility database.

So as part of our KPIs for uh city council, we manage a database of all sports facilities throughout Color Springs.

That's a searchable database for prospective events.

And so Huddle Up runs this, and they've created a group of eight uh sports commissions that they believe are uh doing the right things in the in the United States.

So they're geographically uh disparate, so that we're not competing with uh some of these other sports commissions.

So um it gives us a great opportunity to have really, really small uh focused groups.

But you know, the reason that we go to these conferences is because we have seen the benefits.

Um, just to cover a couple of events last year, the Development Players League, which is a very large soccer tournament, 210 teams, uh girls' soccer tournament up at the Air Force Academy.

Um, that came from the Teams conference the year before.

That was 15,000 room nights uh that it generated from there.

Um the World Wake Association, which uh has been one of the larger users now for the last two years of Prospect Lake.

Um, that event came from uh a conversation at uh sports ETA.

Um, and they've even parlayed it into helping um the Parks and Rec department with the arification system, making sure it's the boating lanes are still good.

Um so it's you know, a lot has come out of it.

Um, as well as uh even those NGBs that are based here in Color Springs, because their event staff are traveling constantly throughout the United States.

These events actually are where we end up meeting with a lot of them.

So uh USA volleyball staff is one of those.

Um USA volleyball is gonna finally take over the vertical of grass.

Uh grass volleyball is kind of in the area that they haven't um uh owned um from a national championship perspective, and so uh they actually want to place their first national championships next year in Color Springs, and that conversation took place at Sports ETA.

So jumping into research and bids, I'll uh I'll get going a little quicker here.

Um we I mentioned USA Pickleball, that was through uh some partnerships with uh sports ETA teams, but also with Warrior Games.

Um, Warrior Games was an event that was a staple of our community from 09 to 14.

Um and then when it changed hands from the US OPC to the DOD, it started to travel around.

Um and so we wanted to get this event back in Color Springs because it's obviously um an event that has taken place here numerous times, has a great heritage here, and um it would bring in um over 3,000 people for about 16 days um here in Color Springs.

And all the events were broadcast on ESPN Plus um and really highlighted our community um in a great light.

So the Warrior Games will be doing, or they are doing their own economic impact study.

So we look forward to um sharing that with you all once they have that data.

And then the last is branding and assets.

Uh one of the things that um is present throughout uh conference and bid is the community assets that make people actually want to come to Color Springs.

Um Color Springs is not difficult to sell, um, but we do have to convince people to come here because uh our city doesn't have the really, really large financial resources to convince people through Bunny uh that they're you want to come to their city.

Um so but people want to come to Color Springs, um, and we have done um we convinced them to come through a various negotiations um with things like discounted tickets to the Olympic and Paralympic Museum, um various discounted resources, whether it's hotels, it's event equipment providers, um, you know, really just things that would make somebody want to come to Color Springs.

And then uh jumping a little bit, uh Danny mentioned this um with just media engagements.

We just wanted to highlight a couple of the major publications that um some of our sports events have been featured in this year.

We work a lot with local news organizations, whether it's KOAA or KKTV, but then we also um uh through our own individual partnerships and the partnerships with that Source CO Source COS that Danny mentioned, uh, have been bringing in some uh national organizations to Color Springs to highlight things.

Sports Travel magazine is the definitive uh uh publication for sports travel.

And so they were uh uh highlighting um things like the uh US Senior Open as well as the Warrior Games.

And then we also um I said this to City Council um a couple months ago when it was published, but Cimarron Global Solutions, which is a very large uh data gathering and analysis firm, um, and particularly in sports tourism.

They publish a quarterly um publication, and they uh in their publication creating community through sport wanted to highlight uh how Olympic City USA became Olympic City USA.

Um next year is the 10-year anniversary of the uh the uh name Olympic City USA.

And so they wanted to start to highlight uh and put some focus around that.

So I'd be happy to send this to council again, but uh just uh exciting uh to have this large publication for us.

And so I'm gonna turn it back to Megan now just to highlight uh just our internal events.

Sure, we won't hit on these um all that much, but as a reminder, not only do we work to bring outside events into Colorado Springs, but we activate eight to ten major events every single year here in our community.

So obviously we just finished off Labor Day liftoff, and yes, we are still tired, but it was just incredible to see just not only you know what I a lot about with Labor Day lift off, it's just a sense of pride that our community has that this is our event.

You know, I heard people in the grocery store talking about how they have family members flying in because we have Labor Day lift-off in Colorado Springs.

So it's really exciting.

And then the last thing I wanted to touch on is um just the um act just Davis and I believe so much of the success we've been able to have in regards to sports tourism and bringing outside events in our sports tourism related board boards.

As you can see, um, between the two of us, we sit on a lot of different boards.

I'm excited to announce that I will be representing um Colorado Springs with the Colorado Tourism Office Board of Directors.

Recently appointed to that board, and I my first meeting will be in October.

Um as you can see, I'm not gonna list all of these, but we honestly believe so much of this comes from us staying really involved, knowing what's out there, and then following up, you know, you can go sit in all these meetings and not do anything, but we believe that the our organization is the doers.

So we're really proud of it.

And um, and I say this just about every meeting, but uh we're just getting started.

So with that, we'll take any questions.

Councilman Hincham.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh, really just want to thank you both very much.

Um, and you do an exceptional job.

And Megan, congratulations on your recent um award as well, acknowledging all that you do.

Um, granted, this is all about tourism, but I really am curious.

Do you have any idea how many or what percentage of local people who live here go to these uh sporting events and take advantage of all of these events here in Colorado Springs?

Are you referring to the community events that we have?

No, no, actually more the national type of events that that we bring here where people are flying in to do the sporting events, but but hey, you know, I'm local and I could go see this national.

Do you have any idea?

Sure.

I mean, honestly, we have our hands in another 40 events every year that aren't ours.

So it is really hard.

The the scale of that.

Um we are excited that in December of this year, we are um putting on, we're calling it the what's the exact title?

The sports economy report.

Pike speaks sports economy report.

But basically, we're working with the UCCS School of Business to get those answers.

So we are going to be putting together and aggregating all that number from the events that we put on, the events that we bring in, but more importantly, what is the sports landscape of Colorado Springs?

So if it's the if there's a specific event, we can reach out.

But I no, I mean it's fine.

I I was just curious.

And and one of the reasons I'm asking is is simply because I think um local knowledge and pride in whether people care about wrestling or not.

I mean, I like cycling.

I'm like, oh my gosh, I didn't even realize that was going on.

And like I'd love to go to some of those events.

So I think just having greater pride and awareness as a long-term goal will can only help attract more.

Absolutely.

It's definitely an area we need to improve on as an organization.

We didn't even have a database of outreach until three years ago.

So we're trying to build it up, but I agree, like the the world needs to know about everything spinning in our community, and it's trying to figure out how to get the word out best.

Awesome.

Fair point.

I don't see any other questions at this time, but I, for one, it's not lost on me how hard you guys work behind the scenes early, early in the morning until late at night to get it done and with a small crew.

So um thank you for that.

And I love um just seeing again, these are LARP dollars and the investment of these dollars that are going in.

It's gonna be very fascinating to see what that report looks like because I can't imagine where we'd be without them right now, um, in our current budget season.

So we really appreciate the work that you do put in and that what does come and also highlighting these things that some of us would never know about.

So that's very much appreciated.

Thank you, President Crow Iverson, and thank you, all the members of council for having us today.

Moving on to item sixa.

Um, will the clerk please read item six eight into the record?

Agenda planner.

Do I have any council members with questions on the future agenda planner?

Seeing none for the record, there were no questions on the agenda planner.

Moving on to item 7a, will the clerk please read item 7A into the record?

An ordinance amending chapter 7 UDC of the code of the city of Colorado Swings 2001 is amended pertaining to kennels.

Good morning.

Good morning, everybody.

My name is Austin Cooper, senior planner with the city planning department.

And today we're going to talk about kennels.

So as we adopted the new unified development code in 2023, uh, we've since noticed some errors.

Uh we're going to be bringing those forward uh ongoing.

Um, one of which was that we restricted uh incorrectly kennels to only be allowed conditionally within the um industrial zone districts where they were previously conditionally within some uh commercial zone districts and allowed permitted by right in uh the industrial zone districts.

Uh next slide.

All right.

Uh so as I mentioned, uh kennels were permitted by right in those industrial zone districts, and we are proposing that we uh revert um the use chart to what was previously established under the previous uh chapter seven of or planning code.

Um we are replacing the definitions for animal care facility and small animal clinic, which housed most of our animal-related uses uh to uh revert back to our previous definitions um and altered our use specific standards to remove requirements that allowed all activities uh shall that required all activities be conducted within a totally and permanently enclosed soundproof building.

Obviously with kennels you have outdoor play areas, and we would like to uh repermit them.

Um we also altered a separation distance requirement for any associated animal run enclosure, other outdoor animal use from 55 feet to any property line to 25 feet to any property line, uh matching our largest um setback in the code.

Uh here's that updated use chart um showing the new uh or or old, I should say, uh use uh use standards or or use classifications and removing our um current use classifications.

I have a question on the last slide.

Yeah.

Um which might be explained in that slide, but you're changing the definition from animal care facility to small animal clinic.

So we're removing both of those definitions, uh, which are currently houses all of our um and small animal clinic.

Thank you.

And then I do have a question from Councilman Donaldson.

On this slide or the next one.

This one, this one.

Yeah.

And good morning.

Um how did we make the decision to decrease the distance from the property boundary from 55 feet to 25?

What science is there to that?

Uh I I wouldn't really say it's a science.

I just say that um we've seen a lot of conditional uses come through where um we've we proposed decreasing that uh uh because 55 feet is is pretty significant with with the lot sizes that we experience here in Colorado Springs.

So we chose 25 feet to match our largest setback within the UDC.

Um and so regardless of what zone district it would be in, it would be the largest setback that we have established within our um within our code.

Uh also with the uh with the use being conditionally permitted within the MXM and MXL zone districts, we have that opportunity if there is a concern about setbacks to increase that with that conditional use process.

These are for kennels with barking dogs, right?

It could be, yeah.

Yeah.

And so how close they are to the uh the next property seems to be pretty uh pretty important, and we've cut it in half, you know, even less than half.

Have we compared this to uh I I just don't know how we're doing that, other than to say that well, everything else is 25 feet, but nothing else barks.

I understand that.

Um we we do feel comfortable with our sound ordinance or sound code uh to if there's ever an issue, we could enforce uh a situation that um uh we have another issue that has to do with decibels here on city council, and it's uh it's a big one.

Yeah, how loud is a barking dog 25 feet and then 55 feet away?

I couldn't tell you, sorry.

I would I would be interested in that.

I think that's something we can either find online or do uh study it ourselves.

But uh if you're 55 feet away, uh you know, in your home, and and you'd be further than that because there'd be a setback on the other side of the line.

How much does that decrease the noise to have it that additional 30 feet?

Maybe kennel people could tell us that, but just to drop it because uh our other uses, uh the setback is 25 feet.

To me, that just isn't doesn't make any logical sense.

Like we didn't arrive at that by studying something, we just cut it in half.

I understand.

And and we'll get that information for you.

And if you feel uncomfortable, it we can absolutely remove it from the code.

Okay, yeah, thank you.

Remove the change, I should say, not the separation distance.

Uh so yeah, here's our uh use updated use chart, and we can talk about that if you'd like.

Um, if not, I'll I'll move on to the the next slide.

Um, as you can see, the kennel indoor and outdoor would be conditional within the mixed-use zone districts permitted by rate within the industrial zone districts.

Um so project timeline.

Uh we went to plenty commission on October August 13th.

Uh that was that state-only consent calendar.

Um City Council, we will be doing this month and next month uh for two additional hearings after this.

Uh, here are the criteria for approval for uh amendment to the unified development code.

Um and we believe that the uh UDC text amendment application for the kennel ordinance meets the approval criteria set forth in the code section.

Um and here are your optional motions when we get to that stage in the um and uh any questions I don't see any further questions.

Um councilman Donaldson, is your name still up or do you have another question?

Yeah, it's just still up.

Okay, good.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

Moving on to 9A.

Will the clerk please read item 9A into the record?

Authorization of out of state travel for council members.

So this item was put on the agenda last week, and since then, council leadership with the legislative staff have um requested for city council members to um freeze travel out of state at this time.

Um so we are not going to ask if there's any council members to a travel requests based on that email that went out this morning, but it is open for discussion if any council members have any questions about that.

Councilman Rainey.

Thank you, Madam President.

So I'm uh tracking the request that you just mentioned.

Uh the question I have is really boiling down to of course this is a budgetary uh item because of the restrictions that have been placed on city council.

Um, there are opportunities that we are missing out on to articulate what Colorado Springs is, what we are doing, and how we are planning on moving forward.

So I guess my question overall is is this gonna be a temporary freeze?

Is it gonna be for the rest of the year?

Um, how is this going to be impacted with the current budget cycle that we're going through right now?

Because I I currently within the budget, I I see other offices that uh definitely are uh fairly bloated, and yet as an elected officials, we are being restricted from performing our duties.

Uh so we'll like to know is this gonna be pretty much for the rest of the year or is this gonna be open to further conversation in the next month or so?

Yeah, happy to answer that question.

This freeze for out of state travel for council members is until the end of the year.

I can't speak for other um organ or other departments on what they choose to spend their money on.

We can go through that in the budget process that we're starting right now.

We'll get the book on October 6th.

Um, but in light of the budget reduction from last year and just what we've been asked to do this year.

Um it was the decision of council leadership um to freeze so that we have enough money in our budget, our whole legislative budget to finish on to the end of the year.

And is that uh when you say from a legislative services standpoint, uh, we're not talking specifically uh city council activity itself.

We're talking about the support mechanism to city council, correct?

So we're only freezing travel out of town.

Anything local um discretionary funding is still open for local um events, um dinners, um whoever is invited to something with a cost to it, that is still um spendable.

We're just freezing the travel to the end of the year, only to the end of this year, so that we can comply with the budget reductions that we've been asked to by the administration.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Councilman Lineweber.

Yeah, I just wanted to to highlight the fact that not only do we serve as city council, but we also serve as the board of directors for the utilities.

And utilities does cover uh much of our expenses, and so I think we whenever we're looking at cutting back here, we should also consider that half of our job or more or less is being paid for by the Coral Springs Utilities.

So it's just good information to kind of keep putting out there that we have two roles here, and we represent two organizations.

Thank you for that.

And we did take all of that into consideration.

Seeing no more questions, we will move on to um item 10A.

Will the clerk please read item 10A into the record?

Or the attorney.

Is this the attorney?

I'm sorry, this is the attorney's good morning.

Ben Bollinger City Attorney's Office.

Uh, before I read this, I will point out that um one half of the closed session has been uh withdrawn.

So the piece on legal advice has been withdrawn.

I will still read this in for personnel matter.

Um, but I will excuse myself and therefore there will be no legal advice in this session.

In accord with City Charter Article 3, Section 3-60 D and its incorporated Colorado Open Meetings Act CRS section 24-6-4024 F, the City Council in open session is to determine whether we'll hold a closed executive session.

The issue to be discussed involves a personnel matter for an annual performance review of the city council administrator.

The president of council shall poll the city council members and upon consent of two-thirds of the members present may conduct a closed executive session.

In the event any city council member is participating electronically or telephonically in the closed executive session, each city council member participating in the closed executive session shall affirmatively state for the record that no other member of the public not authorized to participate in the closed executive session is present or able to hear the matters discussed as part of the closed executive session.

If consent to the closed executive session is not given, the item may be withdrawn uh may be discussed in open session or withdrawn from consideration.

So we require uh two-thirds votes, and uh I believe we have two council members joining us online, so if they could confirm that they are alone.

Thank you.

So the clerk please um poll the council to go into executive session.

Councilmember Bailey.

Uh I and I am here alone.

No one else can hear the conversation.

Councilmember Crow Iverson.

Hi.

Councilmember Donaldson.

I council member Gold.

Aye.

Councilmember Henjin.

Aye.

Councilmember Lion Weber.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainey.

Aye.

Councilmember Risley.

Aye.

Councilmember Williams.

Yes, and yes, I'm alone.

Okay, we'll clear the room.

I don't know if anybody needs to take a five-minute break or not, but while we're closing the room, if you need to do that, please do it now.

And also just a reminder.

Okay, we are now out of executive session and um on to item 11, which is adjournment.

And so we will adjourn this meeting for today.

Thank you.