Good morning.

Welcome to Colorado Springs work session meeting agenda for Monday, April 27th, 2026.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Casey.

Here.

Councilmember Crow Iverson.

Here.

Councilmember Donaldson.

In route.

Councilmember Gold.

Here I am.

Councilmember Henjam present.

Councilmember Lineweber.

Excused.

Councilmember Raining.

Here.

Councilmember Risley.

Here.

Councilmember Williams.

Excused.

Here.

Oh.

She's online.

Emily, I don't see that online.

Our understanding is that she is just joining us until um her travel arrangements, but here's here she is.

Okay, so Sarah, can you change that to online?

I have her present.

Correct.

Thank you.

Moving on to item two.

Are there any changes to the agenda today?

This is today's agenda.

Then I don't have any changes.

Just stay there though, because we're getting there.

Are there are there I'm making up for the last time?

Are there any changes to the regular meeting tomorrow?

Uh Madam President Kevin Walker, City Planning Director.

I'd like to postpone uh for two weeks item 10C.

Thank you.

Moving on to item 4A.

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

City Council Work Session Meeting Minutes, April 13, 2026.

Are there any changes to the meeting minutes?

Seeing none, moving on to item 5A.

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

Just serve presentation.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I am Tammy Ferris.

I'm the Pike Speak Regional Specialist for JustServe.org.

Um thank you.

We um a few weeks ago presented a plaque to the city.

And I think all of you are here for that.

You uh the city qualified for the Just Service City Award, and you asked us to come back and talk a little bit more about Just Serve.

And um, so that's what we're doing today.

I'm gonna talk a little bit about just serve, about how it works and exactly what it is.

Um this is our mission.

Just serve is a website.

Uh it's a free website.

Uh and we're um we're involved with connecting people with meaningful volunteer opportunities with uh while giving our community organizations a place to post projects and to reach potential volunteers.

This is our mission.

The mission of Just Serve is to spread hope, goodness, and unity through volunteerism.

I want to point out this is a free website.

Um most of the websites that are similar to this one uh are not free.

There is a subscription that you have to pay for, so this is completely free.

Um this is where we begin.

Um we launched in February of 2020 uh 2012 in Silicon Valley, and um it was designed to help individuals um make volunteering a way of life.

Um it began as just a localized effort, a small uh local website um in Silicone Valley, and it's grown since that time into a global movement um available to community organizations and individuals of all backgrounds.

Um this is our impact, and it's we've we're really all of us are they're involved with us, are pretty amazed at all that we've been able to do.

The platform is currently available in 17 countries and territories and in six different languages.

Um we get about 70,000 new volunteers to sign up each and every year.

In 2025, we reached a milestone.

Um million registered users.

Now on the website, we will have organizations that need volunteers.

So when you search on the website, you can go to organizations and search through the organizations listed alphabetically.

And if you're wanting to serve with a particular organization, you can go through there and choose that organization.

Or you can go to projects, what we call our volunteer opportunities projects, and you can search through the projects that are within your area.

When you register, you you put your zip code in there, and it will let you search up to 75 miles away from your zip code for opportunities.

Projects at any given time, there are about 15,000 active volunteer opportunities that exist on the platform, which includes virtual projects.

So if you're not able to physically uh go to a project, there are plenty of uh virtual projects that you can choose from to be able to volunteer from home.

I have a question from Councilman Henjam.

Sure.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

Good morning.

Thank you for being here and giving us more information.

We uh saw you, I guess, just a few weeks ago.

We're glad you're back.

Thank you.

Um does your organization operate in the reverse direction?

Can organizations find volunteers through you?

That's exactly what it's for.

Okay.

Um the organization um they they can't go to us and ask for or for volunteers.

They can post their projects on there, and then people can sign up.

Um, we also have a method for for putting out um the projects that are available through a social media, what we call a social media blitz, so that we can get more exposure to that particular project or that particular organization, but they can't come in and find volunteers that in a list of volunteers.

That that's I think that was my question.

I certainly understand the other way that it works, but I was just wondering if it worked.

No, it does not.

Um we've helped facilitate more than 185,000 volunteer projects worldwide since its exception inception in 2012.

Um that's my portion of this presentation.

I've got, I'm gonna let her introduce herself and let you know a little bit more about how it works.

Thank you.

Good morning, uh Madam President and members of the council.

For the record, my name is Denise Sellick, and I am the Just Serve Area Representative for West Colorado Springs and for Teller County.

Uh my assignment is to talk about the ease of using the website and the apps.

Uh but first I'd like to start out with just some comments that I found from the Mayo Clinic.

Volunteerism makes an immeasurable difference in people's lives, both those serving and those being served.

In an online article that they published in August of 2023, it states that research has shown volunteer office pardon me, volunteer volunteering offers significant health benefits, particularly for those older adults.

It does so in three ways.

It improves physical and emotional mental health and lowers rates of depression and anxiety.

It reduces stress and increases productive, relaxed feelings.

You can imagine the benefit that is for any city who has a population doing those things.

It provides a sense of purpose and re and reuses valuable skills and talents.

It nurtures and new and existing relationships, which can connect community members and residents to the community itself.

They have found that this benefit also works particularly well in young adults and older teens, and this has actually been proven to reduce suicide rates, which is also beneficial to any residents.

It develops a sense of community and a connection to the community, which is very vital.

To get started on our uh website, I would love to tell you, as every developer would love to tell you, that there are no glitches.

There are a few, and we have worked through those.

We have a very dedicated professional staff that works on that.

But to just to register for just service free, it's extraordinarily easy, and it's really fast.

You could do it right now sitting there at your desk.

It takes just a couple of minutes.

You go to just serve.org.

You can download it either in Apple or through Google for Android phones and carry it with you wherever you go.

It's I'm not used to using PowerPoint, I'm sorry.

Um you complete a personal profile, and that is optional.

You can do that or not as you wish.

But it allows you to pick the days and times that you're interested in serving, the types of organizations that you're interested in doing, your skills and talents so that they can make the most of you.

And that way those things come up when you sign in.

It populates with those things first, and that's very beneficial.

When we talked about the number of projects that are on there, I don't want you to think that you go on there and you're gonna see 200,000 projects, and you're gonna have to sift through those.

You don't have to do that.

You're going to put in your city, state, your radius that you're willing to travel, or your zip code, and it's going to pull up things.

If you have registered and put in your interest, it's going to populate those things first that you can go through.

Um that's an optional thing you can do.

You can also search for the projects by name or a type.

That is not the most successful manner to do it, but it can be done.

Um, it can be a little frustrating to go through it that way.

But you I sit and scroll through what we have available in Colorado Springs and find the things that are my interests and passions, and we hope that that's what you'll do as well.

We have a great full-time professional staff that work on updating our website and fixing things on a regular basis.

They also hear from us regularly.

We deal very closely with the organizations, and when they have issues or don't know how to put things in themselves.

Um, every developer tells you that their system is completely intuitive.

I've never found one that was completely intuitive.

Um, but this particular one works very well.

We are also their contacts.

If they have issues, they can come to us and we help them through them.

Um we connect volunteers to projects and we connect projects to volunteers.

The ummunity organizations have a home where they can direct people.

They can even set it up so that it goes directly to their website if they want to list their volunteers and nudge them and remember that remind them to be there and to do the things that they need to do.

So, or some organizations even have vetting systems that they have to go through, particularly those who work with young children.

And so they those can be done through their websites.

So you go to just serve, it takes you to the organization, and the organization takes you to the website that and collects the information that they need to have.

It's very simple.

Uh, I represent a congregation of primarily 70 and 80-year-old people, and they manage this really well, and they're really fast, and these are not people that consider themselves techno-savvy in any way, shape, or form, and they don't necessarily have their children and grandchildren there to show them how to do it, but they can do it.

So it's very easy.

Uh there are virtual projects and there are remote projects.

So people don't necessarily have to leave their home if that's not something they can do to go do projects, but they can still participate, and there are still things that they can do.

Um, anybody over the age of 13 can register in Just Serve.

It doesn't cost anything to use the website or the app.

It doesn't cost anything to an organization to list a project.

So it's free both ways.

There if your information is only used within just serve.

So your information is not sold, it's not given away, and it's not used in any other form.

We have nonprofit organizations, faith-based organizations, educational institutions, local governments, parks and rec, for instance, uh, community coalitions, and service organizations.

We do not do political or advocacy programs.

We do not work for people who are working for profit.

So these are the only stipulations when an organizer comes and says, I want to put up post projects.

That is sent to one of the representatives and we review it, and then it can't be it can't be posted until it's been reviewed.

Um they post for free, they get their information for free, and they are reviewed.

Do you have any questions on those things?

Great.

Thanks very much.

Good morning, Council members.

I'm Erica Carter.

I am a just serve specialist along with my husband for the Southeast area of Colorado Springs.

So I'm gonna talk to you if I can get that going about the programs and initiatives that we have.

So one of the initiatives that we'll begin with is the high school clubs.

And I think that that was a topic recently about with just serve.

So just serve high school clubs are encouraged here in the in the city.

Here, sorry.

So the impact on youth it can be immense.

They're established by charter, they're student run.

And then a teacher advisor sponsors those so that there's someone overseeing that.

There can be an immense impact on the youth.

There's improved self-esteem, depression prevention.

And then, as we know, the um the Surgeon General a while back had proclaimed an epidemic of loneliness, which increases suicidality.

This can help with this as students are involved.

It improves their leadership skills, their self-confidence, and teaches some self-discipline as well.

They can establish friendships and become more involved in the community.

So currently we have some high school clubs at Pine Creek, Liberty, and Doherty.

So those are the three of the schools.

And we'd love to start them in other schools as well, too.

So we're working on that.

Sorry, these are okay.

We have volunteer initiatives and days of service.

So most recently we just had a day of service.

I'm gonna go ahead and click for on that.

Um, the global youth day of service, and that was actually this last Saturday.

Um, and there were a few initiatives that happen here in the city, and um we're still gathering data from all of those and everything.

Um, so that generally, um, although it's the global youth day of service, um it'll last into May.

And um, another one would be the MLK Day of Service.

Um the 9-11 National Day of Service, um, which also kind of flows over for about a week's worth of of events.

Um we've had uh one that has been ongoing um around 9-11 um that has happened down in the city of Fountain over the last several years, and then there's the United Nations International Volunteer Day as well.

So we like to promote those and get people involved during those those times.

There's also the Just Serve City program, which you all um heard about from Tammy a little bit earlier, and that um excuse me, recognizes the cities um that meet certain criteria um that are encouraging volunteerism.

Um so it provides um the local governments with support for boosting volunteerism in their communities, recognizes cities and volunteers for their efforts and participating in the Just Serve City program.

Oh, is that time?

I'm sorry.

Okay, thank you.

Um yeah, so recognizes the cities for their efforts as the proclamation that you you just received.

So there's these different levels.

Um, there's the just serve city award, there's a just serve um hero award that the just serve cities can present to um nominate when they nominate someone to uh if they've formally committed to promoting and supporting volunteerism.

Um we have some ideas for people that we might be able to nominate for this city.

Um it's for um people that have showed exceptional dedication to promoting and supporting volunteerism and created a culture of service that uplifts individuals and strengthens the neighborhoods.

Um we also have the global just serve city award that is given to a select group of just serve cities from around the world.

They're awarded this honor to celebrate exceptional commitment to volunteerism, and it's given to cities with distinguished um that they've distinguished themselves through their um innovative, consistent, and impactful outreach.

So I think I'll just stop right there since we're about at time, and I'll turn the time back over to Tammy for um America 250.

I have a question from Councilman Casey.

Sure.

Yeah, just a quick question.

Can you explain how the Just Serve Club works in a high school?

That's a good question.

So usually there will be a teacher that sponsors it.

But then it's all student run, so then they'll they'll um get started on their own.

They can begin with a project that they've decided that they want everybody to work on, or something that is ongoing throughout the year.

So it's really student-led.

Um I hope that answers.

I guess the question is more like with the uh with the app and signing up on the website and all that.

Is there a like a clubs on there that they could uh respond to other things, or they're just specifically specifically focused on one particular project, uh school or more.

Um they can be.

They can utilize the the website to sign up for those projects.

Um probably Tammy can answer a little bit more of that um for you.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Okay, I'll turn that over.

Um the just serve clubs, uh, high school clubs are are set up by charter.

There's a charter that they have to read through, and their sponsor and the student leaders that have decided to take on this responsibility have to sign the charter.

It has to be submitted to our home office and accepted.

And then the students um have the ability to use the just serve website.

They're not listed, the clubs are not listed on the website, but they have the ability to register all of the kids if they're 13 or older, um, to go to the website or use the app.

The kids usually use the app and find projects that they can uh participate in.

They don't have to use the Just SER website, they can pick a project that they find within their student body or within their community there if the whatever whatever area they're in to uh participate in, but they can um most of them do use the website, so it's not mandatory that's how set up.

Does that answer your question?

Yes, thank you very much.

Okay.

Um, just very quickly, I know we're past our time a little bit.

Um of the additional uh initiatives that we have for this year.

We usually have four uh service initiatives every year that we support and sponsor, but we have an additional one this year.

It's America 250, and in Colorado, it's also Colorado 150.

And um our question for you is what is the city, our city, the city of Colorado Springs, planning to do for America 250 Colorado 150, and how can we help support that effort?

Um if you go to the America 250 website, there are uh a list or uh a list of um different uh states who each have a commission uh designated for their state that helps them uh decide what they're going to do community from community to community.

Um if you look on the Colorado 150, the America 250 website, they have lists of different projects or opportunities for service that are already going to be happening in the state of Colorado.

And there was a couple of them on there that uh were for Colorado Springs that we figured we could help with.

But our question, of course, to you is is there something planned for the city of Colorado Springs that we could help support that you're aware of?

I'm gonna refer to the chief of staff.

I had a feeling you were gonna do that.

Um there's not that I'm aware of yet, but I'm sure there will be something planned.

And Tammy, it's good to see you.

It's been a while.

Um, so I'm happy to reach out to you.

I think I still have your email address.

So I can find out what is planned.

Something will be planned.

I just don't know what it is off the top of my head.

Okay.

If we can help the city um provide volunteers um for that, uh, and we will of course work with with them as well as do our social media blitz uh to help uh give more exposure to whatever we're doing.

Thank you.

Um Doug Price from Visit COS might be able to um follow up.

We have a whole list of things, and Colorado Day is August 1st, and so we can help you with that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for allowing us to be here and present the information about just serve.

Thank you.

We appreciate it.

Moving on to item 5B.

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

Visit COS 2025 year in LART contract update.

Speaking of Mr.

Dick Price.

Good morning, council.

Uh President Crow Iverson and President Pro Tim Risley and Councilman Casey.

But I also am prepared to talk a little bit about where we are as a as a city and from a tourism standpoint now and looking forward.

So first let me go to the uh the LART report.

And so in December of 2025, we were down 1.29% uh actual from 2024.

Uh it's it's been a while since we've been down, and uh there's uh and we it's not a surprise because we had been down a number of months last year, but the 44 day government shutdown in October through November uh really does affect a city like Colorado Springs that affect that depends on government and military travel.

So um that was that was something that uh we were disappointed in, but it was not a uh a big big surprise.

I can tell you that um through February we are down uh 6.18 percent.

Uh we're waiting probably this week to get the March results.

But uh yeah, the first two months that trend has continued.

And I want to just read a little something that I pulled um from last Thursday's Longwoods International tracking study of American travelers.

A third, 33 percent report that higher gas prices are impacting their travel plans, which is up from 21 percent just a month ago.

Of those who intended to travel in the next six months, 41% are now planning to travel to destinations closer to home.

And they uh are now 30 percent are reducing the number of trips they're taking, and 8% are canceling their their trips altogether.

As of June of last year, 94% of American travelers were planning trips over the next six months.

That percentage has fallen to 89%, which is the lowest level in a year.

So the good news is it's still 89% of people that are starting that are saying they're gonna travel in the next six months, but it is down in just the last 30 days.

And from an international standpoint, 27% of travelers say that the war in Iran makes them less likely to travel internationally.

Among those who reported the war's influence in international travel, 40% will postpone their international trips.

31% will replace an international trip with a domestic one, and 19% will cancel their international travel altogether.

So the silver lining may be for us in Colorado Springs and in the United States in general, that people could be staying closer to home and that we could benefit from that from a from a leisure vacation standpoint.

And uh we'll we'll be happy to answer questions and talk about that.

But I thought it was important to let you know that we're we're looking at trend lines and trying to make sure that we're that we're on top of that.

Uh before I go on, this is this one's kind of important.

Is there anybody who has any questions about where we finished and where we're what we're looking at for this year?

Councilman Hingham.

Uh thank you, Madam President Doug.

Thank you.

Um, I guess I actually do have a very specific question about the international travel you just spoke spoke about.

I'm assuming that that um questionnaire went to just U.S.

citizens or or just people.

Yes, that's American travelers.

So we're not looking at international travel to the United States or potentially to Colorado Springs.

No, that that one is just of American travel.

Okay, thanks.

Councilman Rainey.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um go back to the previous comment that was made and uh to the chief of staff again.

Uh I'll kind of tie all this together with the upcoming celebration, uh, and I know there's other states, even uh nearby states, neighboring states, I know South Dakota, Mount Rushmore are doing and planning major events.

Is there anything that we're doing or that you foresee that's gonna help elevate and bring more tourists in during that time frame, anywhere between that June and August time frame?

I I do, and and I think that uh one of the things that's significant for us as the the people in front of us said, by the way, that was a great presentation.

And I think that uh one of the things that's significant for us as the people in front of us said, by the way, that was a great presentation.

I I was not familiar with them.

I just think that whole idea of volunteerism is a is a fabulous thing.

But because it's our 150, the state of Colorado is making a very concentrated effort to do a number of events.

And uh Amy Long from our staff is representing the tourism sector on the Colorado 150, working with the Colorado Tourism Office on a number of different events that can take take place.

I do know that for the Pikes Peaker Bus Rodeo, I think it's the 16th of July.

Um there's going to be a special 150 drone show put on, and that is going to take place around the state.

So one of the things that that we're uh we're really looking to do is put itineraries together for people who are either coming to Colorado or or are residents and want to look for multiple days of things to do.

And so, yes, we feel like it's it there really is something for us to capture.

And August 1st is Colorado Day.

It's our birthday as a as a state.

Yes, thank you.

Any other questions about uh the summer or or or little the LART tax?

Okay, just a few more, and then I'm gonna turn it over to Melissa Williams from our staff who's gonna talk about a few things.

But our revenue per available room in 2025 was actually down eight dollars and eighteen cents compared to 2024, and the entire front range, we were down $2.78.

So that tells us that uh not only was occupancy down a little bit, but so was the average daily room rate for hotel guest rooms.

We attended two more trade shows in 2025 than we did in 2024, and we are on track to exceed that number again for 2026.

This is an important slide, and I want to talk a little bit about a change that's taking place with room nights that are being booked in the group travel segment.

Um the entire difference between 2025 and 2024 is that we were down about 5800 rooms um overall.

But there is something that we've changed for 2026 on the way that we're tracking this, and I want to uh tell you a little bit about what is going on in the industry here.

Uh and Councilman Casey, as much as anything, I want to make sure that you know what it is that we do because in addition to having a visit COS website to attract visitors to come, we have a sales staff that goes to trade shows and they represent us, as you saw earlier at about 25 shows in in in uh in last year.

They get leads from these trade shows, and we hope in many cases that they'll convert into groups that that want to come.

But there is a company that's that's been in the in the business for a little while and has now really positioned themselves as the go-to source for all meeting and event planners, and it's called C Vent.

And they are the dominant sourcing platform used by meeting planners to distribute leads to not only convention and visitors bureaus, but also to hotels and convention centers, making it the primary channel.

Visit COS, we see we invest a lot of money each year into C Vent to be very prominent on their site.

And um we we know as as a result of that, leads that historically would have been sent directly to us are now all coming through C Vent.

So the importance of our visibility on that platform uh is paramount.

Because of this industry shift, the traditional bureau assists and definite bookings no longer really accurately reflect our our efforts in this space because total bookings now, and what we're gonna be reporting on later this year, total bookings is more of a meaningful measure uh that that we're working on to attract leads.

So I just wanted you all to know that it's this is a shift in the industry that we've watched for a while, we continue to invest in, and now our KPIs in 2026 will be a little different than they were in 2025.

We work with Share on that.

Okay.

Councilman Hincham.

Thank you, Madam President.

Doug, I'm sorry, don't I still don't fully understand the difference between the Bureau assist and the definites and um and it sounded like this other format that you and others are starting to use is in addition to these two categories.

Is that correctly?

It is so a bureau assist is is when we have received the lead uh through a third party source, like C Vent.

There are others, but that is the primary one.

Where a definite is where the lead came directly to visit Colorado Spectrum.

I understand.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay.

And we just go here the economic impact overall through the for just the second half of 2025, uh, all combined was nearly 109 million dollars when you combine conventions, sports, and domestic tours.

And with that, I would like to introduce you to Melissa Williams, who was our director of marketing.

And Melissa's gonna walk through a couple more slides on our website and some marketing efforts, and then we'll be available to answer any questions for you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right, I think we're at like seven minutes.

So I'm gonna breeze through these, but please stop me if you have any questions.

So with Google's AI overviews and zero click searches that came on to the field uh in late 2023, early 2024 that completely changed how users interact with content and get information, meaning that they receive answers directly in search results rather than having to click through into websites, and that is directly affecting organizations across the globe, not just Colorado Springs.

But keeping that in mind, looking through how we finished in 2025, our numbers, um, our KPIs ended down year over year consistent with that broader industry pattern.

Um, and so that was not a shock, but it's never fun to see.

However, looking into 2026, since we are through our first quarter, we are seeing some measurable improvements to both users and uh sessions, which is really encouraging.

And we don't yet really know if this is kind of the new benchmark that we can start measuring against because it's so unstable, but it is moving in the right direction.

We're continuing to monitor this environment really closely and adjusting our content and distribution for visibility to make sure that we are in the AI ecosystem and being discovered throughout with our website.

All right, so for social media activity for 2025, we saw some really good numbers.

Um I do want to point out and flag one thing for Facebook engagements.

That is actually an incorrect bar graph.

We accidentally pulled um followers for this, and now we are measuring engagements and engagements actually were up 68% year over year.

And we think a lot of that is due to a shift that we have done into more storytelling, um, more focus on our history and heritage, which people are really engaging with well and showing a lot of uh really good performance in that.

Um Instagram was down a little bit, but that is due to them kind of constantly changing what they constitute as an engagement, facing it on time, basing it on scroll, and then the algorithm as well.

So we're not overly concerned about that, but we are keeping an eye on that as well.

Everything else was performing really, really well.

All right, so we did do a short educational campaign on the value of tourism this year.

Um, we ran this from February 2nd to March 13th, and this was based on data that we received from that resident sentiment survey that we got focusing on tourism, the economic impact, and how it's funded.

Um, we use that survey data to uh guide the language that we use and the visuals as well, and we incorporated a twist to kind of a familiar phrase.

We called this is why we have nice things, um, and we paired that with a really simple illustrative style that was approachable and easy to understand.

Ads were placed programmatically through native ads, um, meta ads, which is Facebook and Instagram, and on LinkedIn, it targeted Colorado Springs residents and on some platforms we were able to target likely voters, and we got really, really good performance on that with 1.3 million impressions, um, a 1.07% benchmark or excuse me, per click-through rate, which is far exceeding our benchmark of 0.41%.

And then we also got a lot of uh traffic to that landing page, which was this locals corner that we uh created to uh have a collection of the data points that people can dive into more.

Um, a lot of trends and things that we could answer more deeply and broadly.

We had locals deals and a place that people can actually submit feedback or ask questions to open that direct line of communication.

Now we will be working with our friends at the Pikes Peak Community Foundation to collaborate and build off of their success of our spacious skies to conduct a second survey this summer.

And we learned last year that council would have liked a lot more involvement, and we absolutely agree.

So I would love to open up for um, it doesn't have to be right now if it would be more convenient to do it at a later time, but love to get input on any questions that you think would be valuable, um, any timing that you would find more advantageous.

We are more than willing and eager to get that feedback from everyone.

So all right.

So a little bit of context.

We are doing a short-term meetings uh promo with our sales team, but this is based off of us noting that um booking and lead volume is pacing a little behind in 2026.

This is due, this means that people are booking with shorter windows within that same year.

And it's due to several different um driving factors, such as federal government shutdowns, TSA disruptions, uh global instability that we've heard about already today, rising costs and food, beverage and wages, um, and it's causing planners to really delay decisions that they're making.

The industry forecast that 2026 could actually be pretty flat over 2025.

Now, this isn't something to sound any alarm bells.

Um that's because analysts actually characterize both years as stabilization years after record-breaking post-pandemic recovery.

So it's it's not a decline as much as kind of steadying after this really immense growth that we saw.

But sustaining group bookings through this stabilization period really protects the lodging tax collections and any of that downstream visitor impact to our local businesses.

We have a question from Councilman Rainey.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um the previous slide, and I do see there's a bullet on this slide also.

Uh I guess I'm gonna tie all the last three slides together.

I see that you're wanting to put dollars between uh behind ad placements for LinkedIn ad.

However, your 2024 and your 2025 numbers on that particular platform are well underperforming.

So is there like are you trying?

Because LinkedIn is more of a professional engagement platform, not necessarily you know, day-to-day ads.

So I wonder, did you look at that to maybe think, hey, should we take those funds and put it into other platforms that are working versus the ones that are not?

Yeah, and you bring up a good point.

It's it's very audience dependent.

So for this, for instance, the tourism, uh, the value of tourism campaign.

This was very that was kind of a business sector that we were trying to target.

It's not um, it's not something that we typically invest in for our leisure market, which is one of our obviously our biggest market, but for group business, it can be very, very successful.

And we can do very targeted um inbox messaging and advertising in that way, but it's not something that we hold as kind of the gold standard for how it performs.

It really just is dependent on who we're trying to connect with.

So in that particular case, you're actually trying to target a very specific group, i.e.

being a business community.

Yes, and we can get really, really granular in that from the type of groups that we're trying to uh reach to third-party planners who work with those groups, so it can get very, very specific, which is nice with LinkedIn.

Okay, thank you.

Of course.

All right.

Um so this is obviously to design uh design to offset a portion of those rising costs and get planners to actually book within 2026.

So in conjunction with that, we also are running a winter promo that we launched with our group sales.

Um, and this is going to keep running for the foreseeable future to try to get people to book in that November through March window when that is when business is really valuable for our community.

Um, and it's you have to meet certain requirements.

It has to be a minimum of a hundred rooms and at least two nights.

And it's up to the discretion of our director of sales and her team as well to make sure that we're getting the most value and bringing in the most economic impact with those groups.

There's a buzzer.

Okay.

Um we also ran our first ever winter leisure campaign in Q4 and Q1, which was really exciting for us.

We uh it came out of the gate performing really, really well, 6.7 million impressions with a click-through rate of 0.56%.

6.7 million impressions with a click-through rate of 0.56%.

And with that, we actually did, we have invested in attribution data where we can tag this media so we can see a sample.

So the sample of 2.8 million measurable impressions.

We saw that we saw um nearly 15,000 observed visits come directly from those advertising uh initiatives.

So this is something that we can take as kind of our first flush out of the gate and build upon for future years that feels very, very exciting to finally be year-round marketing to help lift those shoulder seasons, which directly supports our overall goal of driving more visitation during those shoulder seasons.

All right.

Uh you brought up 250-150, and we actually do have a lot of really exciting activations and uh initiatives that we are bringing forward this year.

Doug mentioned our local organizing committee that meets regularly.

There's lots of state activations from the Colorado Tourism Office.

Um we have a Colorado Springs culture pass that we're doing with the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum that really celebrates the history and heritage and commemorates that with different quiz-like things that people can do on their phones.

And the VCOS team is working really hard on media outreach, blog posts, social content that we're generating.

And in case you missed it, um, one thing that came to fruition from that was uh Colorado Springs being featured from the top of Pikes Peak America's Mountain from Good Morning America, and that was from efforts from the Colorado State Tourism Office, Pikes Peak, of course, worked really hard to make that happen in our team as well.

So that was something that was really exciting for our whole community.

Now, lastly, this was some data that kind of came in and came together last minute.

So apologies for sending it last week.

But we have a new and exciting data set that we're starting to dissect in our partnership and collaboration with Pikes Peak.

We uh partnered with them to analyze their visitor data for the entire year of 2025, and that was in order to build a measurable understanding of who exactly visits one of our most iconic attractions and landmarks and compare that against other uh independent data that we collect and incorporate that into our strategies.

There were no major surprises, obviously, visitation concentrated really into the summer and on the weekends.

Um 37% actually were on the weekends with the third busiest day being on Friday, so those weekend travelers, and then Texas leads that out of state market.

Now, one thing you might notice is Pikes Peak gets a lot more traffic than 190,000 people a year.

And that's because there was a lot of gaps in the data.

And one area from for improvement for this is to actually require state and zip collection for every visitor because that was missing.

So this was the only set that we could actually gather from that data.

We're going to see meet with Pikes Peak and see if we can require those fields as well as maybe incorporate a timestamp to get some intraday analysis to really help with understanding the high times when people are coming, maybe help with capacity planning.

And then the final steps is really work on this to lift that visitation in those shoulder seasons, get them there more in the fall for the leaf peeping and kayaking as well as winter to do snowshoeing and new offerings that they're coming with, things like the tubing hill, and make sure that we're really aligning that goal of pushing the visitation to those shoulder seasons to help with the sustainability of it and our local businesses who get the benefit from that as well.

I'm guessing your shoulder seizure season is the mud season up in the mountains, right?

And maybe you you already said that, but I must have missed it.

Can you give me the dates of what your 2025 shoulder seizure?

Oh, shoulder seasons, yes.

So that would be the fall winter.

So that would be, I would say early October through early March is really where we're focusing those efforts.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

So next we'll be comparing the um this data with our other data sources to make sure that we have the most accuracy and incorporate those findings into our ad strategy and into different collaborations and activations with Pikes Peak itself to help do that lift.

I believe that concludes.

Any questions on any of the stuff I kind of breeze through?

No, C and we thank you.

Right, thank you so much for your time.

Moving on to item 5C.

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

Colorado Springs Chamber in the EDC 2025 LART contract update.

Good morning.

I'm Dani Bowling, Chief Operating Officer at the Colorado Springs Chamber in EEC.

Thank you for having us today.

Thank you to President Core Iverson and all of counsel, and welcome to Councilmember Casey.

We look forward to working with you.

I like to start with this slide just to level set on our LART contract.

Whereas the chamber has programs for business attraction, business retention, and expansion to increase local jobs, programs for business tourism and site selectors to visit the Pikes Peak region, and marketing programs to raise national awareness for the Pikes Peak region as a desirable location to work and live.

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

Quick look at the chamber in EDC.

Our mission is to grow business, fuel innovation, and drive prosperity.

We are the go to bit voice for business leadership and collaboration, and we drive growth through development, defense, and advocacy, and we deliver results that move our region forward.

We're proud to host the Pikes Peak Housing Network and the Pikes Peak SBDC.

So I'm gonna start off with Space Symposium.

We just we just finished that.

This is the largest economic development lead generator for our team.

And throughout the week, our team was able to gather seven economic development project leads, 20 business retention and expansion meetings, and nine leads for our Colorado Aerospace and Defense Economic Council.

We also announced a company that chose to uh expand into El Paso County Select Tech, creating 150 jobs at an average annual wage of 85,927.

For the fourth year in a row, we led the community campaign.

While we have those 12 to 14,000 visitors in Colorado Springs, we want to tell the why Colorado Springs story.

So we do this through multiple activations throughout the community.

You can see some examples here on the screen, but we uh partner with hotels thanks to the Broadmoor, they allow us to place a piece of in room collateral in every single hotel room that highlights um stats and data on the key industry.

Uh we have a welcome video that plays on every in hotel TV when you turn it on, that is a kind of a sizzle reel of uh all that there is to do in Colorado Springs, and we had some participating hotels in their lobbies as well.

Uh Mayor Yemi and our CEO John Arita Claymeyer provide a welcome message at the airport.

We have downtown Tejon Banners, you can see some signage throughout the airport and baggage baggage claim.

And we work with a chamber and EDC member for billboards on I-25 to capture that DIA traffic.

So our goal is from this the moment you arrive into our community throughout your entire experience, you're being fed some of this messaging throughout.

We also like to thank our city of Colorado Springs and El Paso County partners for the street cleanup provided.

We always like to say we like to clean up our house before we have some guests visit us.

For the first time, our source Colorado Springs program, which is our national PR lead, uh, we held a national and international media briefing.

And this was a moment so that we could again leverage the attention with the eyes on Colorado Springs to tell that story of what makes us unique.

So we had an all-star lineup of a panel moderated by Andy Merritt with One Funds and leadership from industry experts in Blue Stack, Infinity Systems Engineering, L3 Harris, Sierra Space, and we were also joined by General Hayton.

You can see some examples of the outlets in the room on the side, and we've already earned 19 national media placements from the likes of Washington Times and Bloomberg and so forth.

The one anecdote I'd like to share too is that the Space Foundation commented that this is the first time this has been done as well.

So we're excited to lean in on and just leverage these opportunities as we have them in our community.

Earlier in the year, we announced our intent to file an amicus brief.

Now, this from a PR standpoint, our goal here was to separate our region from state-level political disputes and position our region as a future forward-ready partner for missions like Golden Dome.

Thank you to President Crow Iverson for your participation in this strategy.

We executed a coordinated advocacy advocacy campaign, an op-ed, we had the press conference, we had direct outreach to the White House, federal delegations, and so forth.

And this elevated the region again on that national stage to be a collaborative partner and to be thought of when it comes to basing decisions and projects like Golden Dome.

A look at some of the earned media on this strategy as well.

Political pro, air and space forces featured an interview with Congressman Crank and Payload.

We also had uh quite a bit of local coverage as well, and multiple outlets that picked up the story throughout that week.

Another unique asset that we pitched earlier this year was our Broadmoor winner polo, and a reporter from Sports Illustrated found this interesting and wrote an article about this.

So we are excited to get that top tier news coverage and keep highlighting what's unique about Colorado Springs.

Here's a look at our economic development team.

Part of their work is to go hunt and gather, building those relationships with site selectors and industry key leaders at various conferences.

Now the next uh part of my presentation I'd like to spend on our branding initiative.

And I kind of teed this up a little bit at my last presentation.

And our goal here is to, from a business standpoint, we have to be telling our story in a unified way.

A couple years ago, I presented our perception study to you all, where we pulled future uh prospective talent and businesses and site selectors to see what they thought about Colorado Springs.

And the main takeaway were uh if they knew us at all, it was primarily for vacation and tourism.

But there was no awareness from the business side.

No one knew they could launch a career here.

They did not know our strong key industries and so forth.

So, what we want to do with our unified brand is to establish Colorado Springs in the Pikes Peak region as a premier national destination for business investment, talented workforce, and we want to compliment the work of Visit Colorado Springs and help bring in business conferences in our key industries.

The work done at the end of last year, in the interest of time, I won't go into all of that, but at a high level, want to just let you know the science that went into the art.

We worked with Vladimir Jones, a Colorado Springs headquartered agency to help us with this work, and they conducted a series of stakeholder groups with our business community, our key industry leaders, representatives from hospitality, sports, arts and culture, military, and young professionals.

They then took those findings of what are our opportunities, challenges, and all of the that information and tested that nationally with focus groups, one-on-ones, and they tested everything from words, tone, fonts, colors, the whole nine to get us to where we are today.

I'd be happy to share any of that with you all at another time if you're interested.

So the community has changed, it's time for the brand to change too.

We're entering a new chapter, and this is the signal to the market.

So, as I mentioned, Source Colorado Springs is our program that is leading this effort.

And I wanted to take a moment just to read through this slide.

This kind of is the north star of the summation of all the findings that we had.

So, why are we here?

Colorado Springs exists to expand what's possible for people, for ideas, and for the future, they're daring enough to build.

We bring breathing room for ideas with the infrastructure, talent, and business opportunities, and community to turn them into reality.

How will we do this?

We have space to create, diverse engine of innovation, a culture of why not, and growth with intention.

And we're boldly optimistic, grounded and approachable, inventive and credible.

This is just a look at feel at the visual system.

As you can see, this will be used for our website and some of the advertising and different messaging that we're putting out to those various target audiences.

And it is a new look and feel.

It is more modern and it is more bold, but we want that bold confidence, and that is intentional.

So now I want to read to you our brand manifesto.

This is the vibe.

This is our new swagger.

This is how we're talking about ourselves, and this is going to be the foundation for all of our messaging going forward as we're reaching out nationally in that unified voice.

Welcome to Colorado Springs.

Curious-minded explorers, a place where never been done, gets done plenty.

Got a winning mindset, ambitious aims, the ability to lead the next generation of talent.

Good.

You found your people.

People who welcome everyone with open arms, people who turn ideas into impact, people who have helped make Colorado Springs one of the best business climates in America.

It's this mindset that has allowed us to break molds and play by our own rules.

We don't accept labels, nor do we chase them.

We think, we build, we collaborate, and we move forward with main character optimism without waiting for permission or applause.

We are Colorado Springs.

So one of the biggest wins is when everyone is telling the same story with confidence.

That's when the market starts to believe us.

Now I'm gonna walk you through a couple examples of mock-ups of what this messaging can look like out in the wild.

We have mock-ups now, but we are launching our website and more assets in May, May 18th.

So I just want to say that before you look at these some of these R stock photos.

So again, with uh looking at our target audiences, they travel a lot, these could be some airport activations.

Here, never been done is all we do.

If your goals are to move mountains, might we provide a little inspiration?

A culture of why not, an obsession with what if talent that raises the bar and can drop down and give you 20.

You'll barely notice the five-star conference rooms.

A workforce that stood on the world stage can handle your boardroom.

From podiums to boardrooms, our workforce knows how to win.

A workforce that's as good as gold.

A clear nod to our Olympic Pride here in Colorado Springs.

Welcome to the new to the training ground for new thinking.

Now, every region is saying similar things, but this is how we stand out.

Everyone claims innovation, everyone has their own quality of life and great talent pool, but very few own a distinct and memorable narrative.

So we look forward to training spokespeople.

We will be having uh uh media training for for folks and our business leaders so that everybody is singing from the same songbook we like to say.

We'd love to see uh when the Olympics are back.

We'd love to see the athletes um not only saying hi to their mom, but using some of our messaging in those national platforms.

Our business leaders are asking how they can help.

Um, when they're recruiting nationally, they can use messaging in their job descriptions, in their recruiting as they're doing their own speaking engagements.

And then finally, last but not least, I'm very proud to share that through proactive outreach and partnership, we helped bring the 2026 credits and incentives symposium by Institute of Professionals and Taxation to hotel players this November, generating an estimated 450 to 525 room nights, plus additional spending.

This supports our hotels, restaurants, attraction, and of course our LART tax base.

The attendees are business leaders and tax incentive professionals who influence future corporate site decision making.

So this is very valuable beyond just this one event.

Our organization, the Colorado Springs Chamber in EDC, alongside the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, will also be featured in the state and local EDO showcase, highlighting the integris Colorado Springs Manufacturing Center of Excellence as a national case study in Chipsack driven economic development and advanced manufacturing growth.

With that, I would be happy to take any questions.

Councilman Hinchum.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh hey, good morning.

Good morning.

Uh yeah, I guess my question is, and maybe you said it and I missed it, uh, or was distracted, but why did you feel the need for a rebrand?

Sure.

So the um our board and our board of directors and our stakeholders have been asking, how can we tell our story?

How can we be aligned in our messaging?

We found that that information from the perception study.

And we also have other data that has been telling us that we need from a business community standpoint to be speaking the same language.

Um we we know that we have many uniques in our military assets, in our hospitality, and all of our key industries, but there is no alignment in how we're telling that story.

So if our goal and part of our LART mission is to be that national storyteller, we need trained spokespeople to be able to be aligned in that messaging.

Okay, thanks, Danny.

And and um does that mean, I mean, will you no longer be the Colorado Chamber and EDC?

You'll be source.

Uh no, great question.

No, we are still the Colorado Springs Chamber in EDC.

Source Colorado Springs is a program that we've stood up to manage this work.

Okay.

Um, just to have it, it it helps with reporters, it helps to have that kind of one point of contact point of contact expert.

Okay, thank you, Tim.

You're welcome.

Councilman Lineweber.

Thank you.

So, you know, when I think about um the think about LART and I think about tourism and I think about the business community.

Um, I'm I'm constantly challenged because we we have some challenges.

We don't we don't have the airport that a lot of cities our side might have.

Um we don't have um, we don't have the meeting space.

Um how are you addressing some of those challenges and how are you trying to target certain market groups?

Um, how are you coming alongside Visit COS and partnering with them and their efforts?

And then also at the same time, you've got the Broadmoor who runs their whole program also.

What may what is your secret sauce?

What's what are you adding that kind of helps us drive tourism?

Sure.

Great question.

So I'll try and break it down in a couple responses.

To start with the airport, we have a great asset in Colorado Springs Airport.

However, we also have Denver International Airport just up the road within, I think it's 60 to 75 miles.

So from an international standpoint and the connectivity that we have, we're we absolutely are able to market that as well.

When it comes to partnering with Visit Colorado Springs, we have a great relationship and a great rapport with them.

Our team has sat down with Dina Wortin several times to talk about how we can complement our work and share leads with one another.

Our goal really is to just generate leads and and so that we have more sales tax base.

Where we find our opportunity and what we can bring to the table is our key industries.

The example I shared with the tax credit symposium is special and unique because it supports LART and sales tax, but it also has site selectors and corporate decision makers here that our economic development team can work with on future deals.

So another uh opportunity that we've discussed is uh we haven't um it's just in planning mode yet, so I don't want to go too far, is that we've talked to Visit COS about hosting a fam tour, a familiarization tour here where we can bring meeting planners who make those decisions in our key industries and have them come here, visit the hotels, and uh ultimately hope to plan a conference here.

Now, when it comes to size, and again, visit the Colorado Springs as the expert, we have been told that sweet spot is like the 500 uh number of attendees.

So while it might not be the big space symposium all the time, a lot of these associations, especially the the industry associations we speak with and participate in have special leadership group spin-offs that are a couple hundred people, board retreats, those kinds of things.

So even though there uh we might not be able to accommodate tens of thousands all the time, there are lots of associations with um different segments that that spin off.

Um we were also approached to help with a women in economic development conference next year, but we just couldn't make the numbers work for to be prudent with ROI.

But um, those are the kinds of opportunities out there.

I think there's there's plenty, and again, I would I would turn to visit COS to be the expert there, but um, that is how we work well together.

Um I think space symposium is another great example where uh we both had a booth there and we sent each other leads all the time.

Are you here for business or pleasure?

And we could send one another back, share talking points, that kind of thing.

I guess what I'm looking at is I'm trying to understand, I don't see the list, you know, like what what are all the medium size business groups that that you've been kind of bringing in and stuff?

I think that's I'm looking for tangibles, you know, just you know, things that I can actually like go, oh yeah, this looks good.

This looks good.

Sure, yeah.

Because I understand, again, I understand our limitations.

We only have the we don't have a convention hall.

Um we have the Broadmoor, but that's um, you know, can be limited.

So um, but that's I think what I'm trying to get at is try to understand how we growing, I want to see how we're growing business tourism, you know, and and and how so if we're fitting this niche market of this medium um group size thing, what are some of the organizations that were what or events that we're getting?

You know, like if we were looking at the sports side, you know, we had the the vault, the um jump rope uh tournament that was a unique thing that we were able to bring in here, and it was uh hugely impactful, right?

Yes.

So I want to hear something like that.

Sure.

Yes, I hear you, Councilman Line Weber, thank you for the question.

And I want you to know our team is has lists like that, and and we collaborate quite a bit with Visit COS, but some examples where we think that could be some um, you know, stones unturned would be things in the cybersecurity sector.

Uh, we have our CADEC that's now stood up, and we have those members saying, we're always going to this conference in Huntsville.

It's 200 people, we should have it here in Colorado Springs.

That's great.

Let us know.

Can you make a connection?

Can we loop in our convention visitors bureau?

So our key industries, aerospace and defense, cybersecurity, and advanced manufacturing, we're talking to those business leaders saying, where are you attending?

What shows are you going to?

How many people are in them?

And do you have a point of contact?

Can we name drop you and say, we'd love to have we'd love to host you here to show it off?

So that's how we're trying to lean in and compliment the work of the conferences piece.

Um we think that there is a huge opportunity in business tourism aside from uh space symposium.

Um there's so many associations.

I mean, we were we were brainstorming uh recently on um like a shoe associate there's like association for everything.

So why aren't they being held here, especially if they're in that two to five hundred range?

Um another thing I wanted to say is you mentioned the Broadmoor earlier.

Um, from a PR standpoint, we um actually collaborated with Visit COS on this too.

We had a lead from a business facilities magazine that is uh their target audience is meeting planners, and so we were able to secure a future with Jack De Moly talking about why mid-sized cities are primed for conferences due to cost and amenities and so forth.

So again, um that constant drumby of telling that story of we're here, we're open for business, and you all should be here is part of our strategy.

All right, thank you.

You're welcome.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thanks, Madam President.

Uh good morning, Danny.

Good morning.

Can you just remind me what's the uh the contract?

What's the dollar amount annually for chamber easier?

Sure.

Yes, 750,000.

Okay.

And then, you know, I think I agree that what would be really useful is to is for us to have a way to uh understand which organization that we fund is responsible for events that are brought here or tourism, because that that's what we would want to do.

It would make sense that we increase the funding for the organizations that are, you know, ROI.

The dollars that we provide are uh turned into uh trips here and conventions.

And so I guess you know, I would be interested in that too, maybe at your next uh presentation, which ones are tied directly to chain chamber EDC, or can you not separate out uh what you're doing from what visit COS does?

Yes, uh, I'm absolutely happy to prepare that.

And I can share too.

Um I had six conversations last year that were um folks that approached us and asked some questions and went a different way for whatever reason, but we have all that tracked, and I'm happy to share that.

Okay, thank you.

It looks like that's it.

Okay, very good.

Thank you for your time this morning.

Thank you.

Moving on to item sixa, will the clerk please read item six A into the record?

Audit me, city audit review concerns involving an elected official.

Good morning, Natalie.

Good morning.

Thank you.

There's some handouts coming around.

I'll give those just a second.

Good morning, President Crow Iverson, Pro Tim Risley, and members of city council.

I'm Natalie Lovell, City Auditor.

Before I move into the details of what I want to cover with you, I want to explain why I'm standing here in front of you to review a prior report.

After our report um was released regarding the concerns of an elected official, I received several comments from many of you across council.

Um normally we we do not always get too many questions, and so in this case, I wanted to bring it in front of all of you and have an open dialogue so that you could all hear all of the information at once together.

Um seeking clarification about the findings of how the city policies apply to elected officials, and to make everyone um aware of the same information, we're up here today.

My goal today is simply to walk through what was reviewed, what we found, and the options that council may want to consider as we are moving forward.

I'll begin with the purpose and authority.

Um two seven oh three, the city auditor is responsible for ensuring the administrative officials are held publicly accountable for their use of public funds and city resources.

The auditor is also tasked with determining whether laws are being administered in the public interest and identifying any potential abuses or discretion or errors in judgment.

And it is under this authority that we investigated a review of fraud, waste, and abuse from a hotline report.

The review focused on a hotline report that raised allegations involving an elected official.

Although elected officials are not considered city employees for purposes of personnel policies, the allegations related to city assets and resources which place them within the authority of the city auditor.

Councilman Henjam.

Thank you, Madam President.

Natalie, just can you say if that report on the hotline was anonymous or not?

It was anonymous.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

The report contained two actionable allegations involving the elected officials' use of city resources.

The first allegation was that members of the elected officials' security detail were completing tasks on behalf of the official that may not have been related to city business.

And the second allegation was that the elected official used a city-issued vehicle for personal purposes.

Because again, both of these allegations involved the use of city-owned resources, they fall within the auditor's authority under City Code 12703, and we proceeded to review them.

Moving into the findings, first, regarding the use of security detail, we identified five instances in 2025 in which the elected official was accompanied by a member of their security detail.

They included two instances of picking up their children from school, one instance where they attended the child's elementary school graduation, and two instances of picking up dry cleaning.

Second, regarding the personal use of city-owned vehicles, we confirmed that between May and June of 2025, a city vehicle assigned to the elected official was used by the official spouse for a total of 152.5 miles.

The finance records confirmed the use was subsequently reported and the appropriate IRS fringe benefit reporting was completed.

These findings reflect only what we could substantiate based on available records and documentation.

In addition to these specific instances, I want to provide important context on how we evaluated the findings.

However, the fundamental challenge we encountered is that there are no existing city policies that define what is or is not permissible for an elected official's security detail.

As city auditor, I am required under our professional standards to evaluate evidence against established criteria.

In this case, there was no policy criteria to evaluate against, and that lack of criteria directly informed my conclusions.

In short, the absence of a policy is itself a finding.

But in this situation, elected officials are not considered city employees under the city personnel policy, and therefore those policies do not apply.

Because elected officials are ultimately held accountable to the public rather than through employee-based processes.

I'll now move into our conclusions and recommendations.

Under our professional auditing standards, we must assess evidence against clear established criteria.

In this review, we found that the city currently has no policies defining what an appropriate, what is appropriate for elected officials' security detail, nor policies addressing the personal use of city assets by elected officials or their family members.

Our review was conducted strictly under the fraud, waste, and abuse framework.

Because there was no policy framework to evaluate the conduct against the absence of criteria became the basis for my conclusion.

We could not determine compliance or non-compliance because nothing existed for which to measure against.

Elected officials are accountable directly to the public.

For that reason, I determined that releasing the results publicly was the appropriate path so that the community and council could evaluate the information.

At the time the report was issued, our recommendation was directed to the administration to develop a clear and enforceable policy to address these gaps, which reflects how similar guidance has historically been created.

As council considers this information, it may also wish to explore whether addressing these issues through ordinance to city code would provide clearer or more consistent standards for elected officials as a whole.

That is an option available to city council as part of the policy making authority.

The audit committee reviewed this work additionally and strongly recommended that the administration establish a clear and enforceable policy governing elected officials' use of city resources, specifically police detail and city vehicles to ensure transparency, accountability, and consistency.

And just as a reminder, as this is the case, we do administer the city administers the anonymous fraud, waste and abuse hotline.

And so I want to share that with the public because this is a good time to um advertise that.

With that, I'll take any questions.

Councilman Hanchem.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

Uh my question actually is for uh the chief of staff that's on the dais.

There's one in the audience as well.

Um I uh I would like to know um what the administration's response to this recommendation is.

Uh right now I will say that a policy is is going to be developed to address these these issues.

Okay.

And how will you be gathering any input on the creation of that policy?

How will that policy be developed?

We will um definitely be gathering input, and it's really in the early stages right now.

Um we just had one meeting about it last week, and so very early on in those stages.

So I don't want to say specifically how we're gonna go about getting all that data just yet, um, but we will be gathering gathering data.

I would like to offer some input actually, just myself right now.

Um, and that is, and I think having a policy is completely appropriate and and um necessary, and and uh appreciate that out of this report came that uh identified need.

Um I I also want to say that I do hope that the policy takes into account um that in this particular case, elected official being the mayor, um, that a mayor with a young family who has a life to live and who's working um nonstop from the time he gets up until the time he puts his uh head on a pillow, uh, he's working um also to try and maintain a marriage and a family and kids in school.

And and that's this particular mayor.

Who knows what the next mayor might situation might be?

But I think what whoever is the mayor is, we need to take into account that that position is profoundly demanding, and that um with security detail, um how you how you function and manage and take care of a family, um, live your life and take care of your your needs needs to be incorporated into that policy, I guess is really what I'm suggesting.

And so um my hope is that that you get input from a broader uh group of people who who would be interested, and that would take into account um the entire aspect of being a human in an elected position.

Thank you.

Councilman Rainey.

Thank you, Madam President.

On uh slide five, I just have a clarification question, more maybe just education.

Uh the last sentence dates the finance records confirmed to use of subsequently reported and the appropriate RS for instance benefit reporting was completed.

Does that go directly from the member to the RRS?

Does that go through the city clerk?

Does that go through the CFO?

Like who's the I guess the city organization that would have to report that?

In this case, the elected official reported it to the payroll department, and then they calculated.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Risley.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thanks, Natalie, for your uh report this morning.

I I do have a couple of care clarifying questions that I was hoping you could help me answer.

Um the report indicates a security detail in a number of locations, but then at the end in the recommendation, it talks about a police detail.

In your findings, was this are these individuals um sworn police officers?

Yes, they would be sworn police officers to the best of my knowledge.

Okay.

So we've got sworn police officers driving, and and again, your report didn't specifically say mayor, but by my count, there are 10 elected officials in the city of Colorado Springs, nine council members, and one mayor, and and to my knowledge, the mayor is the only individual that has a police detail.

So is it fair to assume that we're we are in fact talking about the mayor?

Council member Hemgin meant mentioned the mayor.

I think it's I can confirm it's the mayor, yes.

So we've got sworn police officers driving the mayor to various city events, and then they're making pit stops along the way to pick up dry cleaning or kids or things of that nature.

Um that's correct.

I would say that's correctly correct characterized.

Can you talk a little bit about how you documented that information?

I can go into a little detail.

I prefer not to go into too much details.

We like to protect our processes, but in this particular case, what we do, um, as is the case with any fraud, waste and abuse, we begin by doing interviews, and in this particular case, we started interviewing and searching for records.

Um sometimes those records are as council member Rainey mentioned, say payroll records that include the fringe benefits.

And in this particular case, um a lot of the information came from interviewing uh various police detail or the police officers that are on the detail.

Okay, thanks.

Do you um and I I guess a similar process was followed in terms of documenting the use of a city vehicle by the mayor's spouse.

Yes, absolutely.

We would interview, we interviewed the payroll team and then requested their records as is our normal process.

Okay.

And can you talk a little bit more about the difference between your audit and what the ethics commission may or may not do with something like this?

I'll default to the attorney here in a minute, fill it, fill in the blanks if you will, um, if I get out of bounds.

I think the real distinction between us is this um, and I think I mentioned it in the in the presentation.

We administer uh the hotline through the fraud waste and abuse.

Um, and you saw that reference to the city code, I think one uh two seven oh three versus the ethics commission is really uh has its own process, it has a hearing, it has you know its own, they're evaluating whether or not something that might come out for a covered person um is through the ethics uh is a violation of the ethics process.

And I don't know if the attorney would like to add anything more.

Probably didn't explain it perfectly well.

Sarah Bruin, City Attorney's Office.

So the code of ethics is administered by the Independent Ethics Commission.

Therefore, if there is an allegation of a an ethics code violation, the independent ethics commission is tasked with evaluating that and um forwarding that to city council for a determination.

The reason the Independent Ethics Commission is responsible for code of ethics violations is because there is a due process requirement that attaches to those types of allegations because there is the potential for a fine to be imposed as one of the sanctions that's authorized.

Therefore, that is that process is built into the code of ethics, and the reason why the code of ethics is administered separate from allegations of fraud, waste and abuse.

And I guess my final question, just going back to the police detail and perhaps even the use of of the vehicle by the mayor's wife.

Did does your investigation or did your investigation contemplate or take into account the cost associated with this?

In other words, what what how much money is being spent by the taxpayers every year for this type of use of city resources?

Not entirely.

I mean, I I think that we always have that angle that we look at, but in this case, um, you know, we had already looked at and seen that the mayor had reported out on the 153.5 miles, I think is what it was, um, as the French benefits.

And so, yeah, we we didn't completely, but that's not out of the realm.

We we sometimes do take our requests and look at it from that perspective.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thanks, Ben President.

Just on the aspect of uh uh mayor's wife driving driving the city vehicle, and will how will we how will the executive branch create these policies?

There are policies already in place, for example, the chief of police and the fire chief, right?

That's correct.

And are there spouses allowed to drive those vehicles?

To the best of my knowledge, I do not believe any city employees, whether that's the fire chief myself would be allowed to do that.

Okay, so I I you know, just uh there's a recommendation that I think it should be across the board.

Uh uh others than that that individual who's who's been elected shouldn't be driving the vehicle, and it certainly shouldn't be used for uh activities that aren't related to their um office as a mayor.

And I guess that's all I have for right now.

Thanks.

Councilman Hingem.

Uh thank you, uh Madam President.

I just wanted to um ask is there a question at play here based on other council members' comments.

Are we questioning the need for security detail for our mayor?

I'm not sure I could answer that question.

I think that would be for your fellow council members.

Perhaps there might be that was a question being posed at all.

I think that might be a question.

Sorry, I'm not sure.

All right, thank you.

Councilman Lineweber.

Thank you.

Um this kind of opens up a little bit because I know um the way that auto insurance works, it's the name driver that is insured.

And so technically speaking, when a spouse drives a car of an employee of the city, that spouse, I don't believe has coverage.

Um that's what I'm kind of concerned about.

I mean, there there's got to be some kind of liability that's connected with that insurance component of having an unauthorized driver drive a vehicle.

And I wonder if there's like some kind of liability risk that was put, but did the city get put at risk, I guess.

I'm gonna default to the attorney, but I'm gonna say, you know, potentially, right?

So perhaps the city attorney could weigh in on the liability.

Sarah Brun, City Attorney's Office.

The city does maintain a number of liability policies.

I don't know specifically if for our motor vehicles who they cover.

Um, but that would be a question for our risk department to assess whether or not a spouse would be covered.

Well, I think that's and really to uh Councilman Donaldson's point, I think that should be probably the leading reason why a non-name driver should never be allowed to drive a city vehicle.

Um I think we could definitely go down that insurance route and talk about it the the liability issues.

So thank you.

Councilman Donaldson.

Thank you, Madam President.

And Natalie, you you looked at the specific allegations that were made by the uh the person that called the uh hotline, correct?

That's correct.

And no more.

So I guess my question is are uh do you know or are you aware, has anyone asked about other uses of that city vehicle that would uh to uh just common sense not be appropriate, perhaps use for a vacation or out of state travel not related to mayoral duties?

At this point, I would prefer not to answer that question.

Okay.

Uh can I uh could I rest assured that those kind of things are being looked at by someone?

I can give you assurance that yes, at this time we are looking at um things any time any time something comes through the fraud, waste and abuse hotline, you can have assurance that we look at it, and then of course, as as you know on the audit committee, we put out a quarterly report on the disposition of all of those.

And and that's just my my thought is um I I'm sure you did a thorough job on what was specifically reported, but uh do I or someone else need to raise the question are there other um incidents of I would say inappropriate use of uh a city vehicle?

What I can say is as we get additional or if there are any kinds of fraud, waste and abuse reports that council has any um interest in, we could certainly bring them forward like we did with this one for you all to evaluate.

The process remains the same.

We anonymously administer the fraud, waste and abuse hotline.

We investigate every um actionable item that comes through here, and we would continue it to follow this process, um, whether that's going up through human resources in the city attorney's office or if it's an elected official, it will be a public report.

Because we're we're in this little gray zone now where there's been something which has been reported and and uh investigated, and I think we most people would say it's uh inappropriate.

We just there is no um guideline yet to say it on black and white on paper.

You're not allowed to do this.

So have there been my question, and I understand you can't answer it today.

Are there more examples like this?

And how do we uh find out about that?

But thank you.

Thank you.

I don't see any other questions at this time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to item six B.

Will the clerk please read item six B into the record?

Agenda agenda planner review.

Are there any questions or additions to the upcoming agenda planner review?

Councilman Henjam?

Yes.

Um actually I do have a question about the item related to city forestry on the agenda planner.

Um, and I I guess it's just a request that I learn a little bit more before that work session.

Um, maybe someone the head of city forestry could reach out to me and I could understand more what that's about.

Thank you very much.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thanks, Madam President.

I I just want to point out for citizens, because I know there's a good bit of interest about this, that in regards to the Boulder Street Vacation or Palmer High School, that issue that is on our uh agenda planner for our regular meeting on May 26th.

And also on that same meeting on May 26th is uh uh the ordinance regarding adult and child daycare centers, uh the changes to that and and its uh neighborhoods are involved in that also.

So thanks.

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

A resolution authorizing the use of possession and use agreements and imminent domain to acquire real property permanent easements and temporary easements using Brookside Realignment Project using PPRTA funds.

Good morning, Gail.

Good morning, uh Gail Sturdiment, City Engineer Deputy Public Works Director.

Thank you, President Cru Iverson, uh President Pro Tem and the other members of council for having me today.

Um today I am joined by Kelly Billingsley, the city's real estate services uh manager, um, our real estate uh consultant Brad Rottenberg, and I'm um also joined by one of the property owners that we're gonna be uh of the properties we're gonna be discussing today, Danny Mianka.

Uh, the purpose for me coming before you today is to discuss a resolution authorizing the city to use possession and use and potentially eminent domain to be able to acquire five properties for the Brookside realignment project.

To orient you to where this project is located, there is a map shown on your screen.

Uh up is on the page is north on the orientation of the map.

Uh, that red rectangle designates the project location.

Um, it happens to set due west of Nevada Avenue in approximately one block or and one block south of motorway.

The five properties are in question are directly adjacent to Nevada Avenue to the west.

Um this map is color coded before you.

The blue represents what would be future right-of-way to be used for the road realignment.

The purple represents what would be a uh public improvement easement that would be used for sidewalk and other ancillary improvements for the roadway, and then the orange is um temporary construction easement.

Um, as I mentioned, these five properties, um, three of the five are owned by uh Danny Mianke, who, as I mentioned, joined us today.

Um, and he has been in support of us taking this approach for possession and use.

And we'd also like to use it for the other two property owners.

And the reason being, um, just in the nature of these properties, it's gonna take us a while to be able to come to a settlement on valuation, but it's gonna be important for the project to be able to get all the properties together at one time to be able to complete construction.

Um, I will mention, and I'll mention it again later on, that um all these property owners will be appropriately compensated for their properties in accordance with our real estate manual, and that is based on um appraisals.

The property owners have the ability to get appraisals and any additional costs that may be incurred because um as maybe I will come up with that.

There's gonna be property or facilities that need to be demo demolished during this as well.

So if the property owners come and demolish it previous to prior to the city coming in, and we would have to do some demolition, they could be compensated for that particular cost.

Um I'm gonna go through and just give you a highlight.

This is starting on the west end of those five properties, and you can see in more detail what would is going to be needed for the project.

This one's owned by Mr.

Mianka.

Second one in as also for Mr.

Miyanka.

The third one in is by the Edgar Mims and Tatiana Mems Living Trust.

A fourth one in is owned by Mr.

Miyanka.

And then the fifth one is owned by Mr.

Uh Ringler.

Uh they've all received notice intent to acquires.

We've been actively pursuing um been engaged with these property owners and doing the appraisal portion.

But we would like to be able to move forward with having this possession and use in particular as an option to be able to get all the properties necessary to be able to complete this realignment.

This realignment, what it does, if you saw on that earlier map, that Brookside to the west of Nevada Avenue is offset by about 50 feet for where it continues on the east side.

And that creates a very uh precarious uh intersection.

Um we're trying to eliminate uh some of the uh conflict points that would be happening in that area and would actually help us improve safety and operations on Nevada Avenue.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, thanks, Madam President.

Good morning, Gail.

Good morning.

And uh you don't have a government vehicle, do you?

I I do not by design.

All right, very good.

Um ghotographs, you know, overhead photographs of the lots.

Are we gonna are we gonna see those in this presentation?

You will you will not see them today.

I could add those in the future or send them separately.

I did uh start pulling up Street View to show you that some of these properties are actually boarded up.

Um there's one that has uh is habited, and then the the one on the far east side has uh U-Hall trailers on it, and there's one business that is a tattoo parlor.

The two that aren't Mr.

Miyanka's properties are the ones I would I'm interested in.

What's what's going on on those?

Mr.

Miyanka's properties, I believe our board I know at least one of them is boarded up.

Yeah, but not his, but the others are the ones I'm I'm can interested in.

So the ones are not so one of them uh Mr.

The Mims property does have um at least two residents that we're aware of.

We believe that there are two residents in there.

Um it's a single family home, is that what it is?

It is a single family home, and they have an uh accessory dwelling units that right now does not appear to be habitable.

And then the other the other one is actually a business light.

It's a parking lot that they've now have um U-Haul trailers on it, and there's also a small tattoo parlor business there as well.

Who owns the one right at the corner?

Uh Mr.

Rinkler.

And that's where the U-Hall is located, plus the tattoo business.

Okay.

And on that slide it said medical marijuana.

Is that also uh it is there is a there's a relationship there that they technically own the property to the north as well, correct?

Oh, you do so Mr.

Miyanka's been buying the properties there, so it sounds like he owns that property to the north now since this um since this slide's been put together.

But when you say to the north, does that mean that Mr.

Miyanka owns four of the five properties, or that's a separate property?

It's a separate property, it's not needed for the project.

Let me see if I can get this to go back.

So uh there's a faded out property to the north that now Mr.

Manka has purchased to the south that was part of Maggie's marijuana, but is owned by Mr.

Wringler.

And the home with uh that's occupied.

It's occupied by the owners or is it a rental?

It's occupied by the owners.

We believe it's occupied by the owners.

Okay.

And how long have they been there?

Do you know?

It's about approximately a year.

They purchased this property right when we were initiating or just before we initiated this project.

And this is the MIMS The MIMS property, yes.

Like a living trust.

Mims Living Trust.

Yes.

Okay.

And are you going to if it's later, I'll wait until later.

Give us some data on how dangerous this intersection is, and that's why we need to realign it.

Uh I wasn't planning to, but I can bring that data back to you as well.

We've had um operational issues with the uh South Nevada quarter from I-25 South, and there's a tire uh transportation master plan that was done with that.

There was a PPRTA project that was completed this past year that fixed the intersections just to the north of this area.

This intersection was not addressed, but this is really that last operational intersection area.

Did not have as much of the crash history as some of the intersections to the north, but um it's still been identified with both the city and the and C DOT as an area of conf with a lot of conflict points and creates a lot of operational issues with South Nevada corridor.

Okay.

There's still gonna be a light there though, right?

There would be a lot of things.

There would be a signal there.

It wouldn't have to be split in that separate uh geometry there.

It gets very confusing with drivers there, I think because the signal is sitting so far to the north or south of where they have to drive.

So a lot of times they don't recognize that signal as being something they need to stop at.

Uh-huh.

Just with the nature of how it's oriented.

Okay.

And I can't remember.

Is this quasi is this quasi-judicial or is it not quasi-judicial?

It's not, is it?

Sarah Brune City Attorney's Office, no.

Okay, so we can go out and look at it ourselves.

And that might be helpful for us making a decision is to see, well, because we've changed something, you know, to the north of it now, so this may get less backed up or confusing.

I don't know that.

I have to go down there and refresh my memory on it.

But uh, you know, when we're basing our decision on what a bad intersection this is, it's good to have data on what a bad intersection this is.

But that's that's probably all I have, but feel free to reply to that.

Well, and I would be happy, Mr.

Dennelson, if if either uh if you'd like to meet on site either with myself or Todd Frisbee, or we can also bring that the traffic data that shows what has really precipitated or driven the need for this realignment of the project.

Okay, yeah, if we're going to uh you know um, seems like this home will have to go if you realign it.

The home has to be leveled.

Uh the primary residents would definitely need to be leveled for this project to proceed.

So for a decision like that by uh by city council, I think we we do want to be very sure that uh this is the only only way to do this is to go down that route.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Councilman Lineweber.

Um yes.

Um so I'm I'm really support I drive this area quite a bit.

Um so I'm very familiar with this jog that you have to take place.

And it is if we had an alignment there, I think it would be a great improvement.

So I'm I'm really in support of that.

My question is really more around what it what do we have any plans for the vacated land for the street that's gonna appear?

Is that gonna be just be green space or are we looking to try to um do something with that?

Yeah, so after the project is complete, uh we would do an evaluation of any remnant land that the city would own from that port port at that point, and we would likely go through and do um a disposal at that point in time.

And it would make sense for if there's remnants for it to go to the adjacent property owners.

Yeah, that's what I would think.

All right.

Thank you.

Councilman Donaldson.

And who is the adjacent property owner?

Um primarily it's either Mr.

Mayenka or the Bonocellies.

I'd have to go and look at a map to tell you exactly who the owner is, depending on which remnants would be left.

Yeah, it says KW 1502 LLC.

So I'm not sure what that means.

Properties have been changing hands so much out there that I think that I'm having a hard time even keeping track of who they are.

We're having to get title work free refreshed frequently.

I would ask that we uh are informed of who owns the property as soon as we is we as soon as we can be if that can happen during this hearing, so we can state it out loud.

Great.

If not, uh an email today would be, I think appropriate.

Great.

Can I think I have a team back here is helping figure out who the current owners are of the adjacent properties.

Um I'm gonna pick up um on the timeline of the project.

Um as we I mentioned, you know, we're this was and we were would let me back up.

We would like to have uh redone this intersection.

We did the previous I-25 work.

I just didn't make sense with where that PPRT project was identified at the time.

And so we um are looking at this intersection just to the south and feel like it's critical to be moving for it.

So we're uh been advancing engineering for it and doing a lot of coordination with the permitting and the future signal improvements uh with C DOT.

Uh the timings necessary to be able to keep this again all together with the project.

And uh, we would continue working with the property owners to help find solutions for that it's for the relocation purchase, relocation, and anything necessary um in accordance with the city's real estate manual.

Um for the purpose of this project, it is PPRT funded project.

Uh, we are gonna be asking council to authorize us uh to have the ability to use possession and use and if necessary, eminent domain.

And the resolution was allow the city to be able to proceed with those activities.

Um right now this is scheduled for the council's May 12th regular council meeting, and then immediately following this meeting, all the property owners that would be impacted would receive notice of that um council meeting so they could attend should they choose to.

And let me I'm gonna turn to my colleagues.

Can you tell me who owns the adjacent property to the north?

Oh, to the north.

That car.

That's to the south.

I mean, I I think Gail, we're gonna shift the road to the north.

We're shifting the road to the north.

The property which would be available become available is to the south, right?

Well, we actually would have properties on both sides.

Um to the north, that would either be Mr.

Mink or the Bonocellies, uh to the south.

I can just say we'll get a hold of the speed.

Yeah, the south.

We've been in coordination with the properties to the south as well.

Uh, we would have to keep some of that property to the south, um, just uh for utility impacts um and would likely would be providing essentially a frontage access for those businesses that are on the south area, just with that open space that would be available.

All right.

Other questions?

Councilman Henjam?

Uh thank you, Madam President.

Yeah, I I see PPRA PPRTA has allocated the funds.

So is this um part of a project list, or does PPRTA have um just additional funds that can be used on an application?

Yeah, this is we have programmatic program funds to do intersection improvements, and those are the funds that have been identified for this particular project.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

And if um if you're wrapping up, Gail, I don't know if you are, but if we have some of the information, I'd be happy to well, I would prefer to receive that now during the hearing, and then the rest at the you know when you get it.

Okay.

I believe they're looking at it.

I would be happy.

Public works actually is the next item.

I would be happy to come back if you give me a just a moment to give you those property owners.

Thank you.

I have the answer.

Yep.

So it's Mark Shuffle Woodman Investment.

To the south.

Yep.

Okay, this is at the corner on the south.

These are to the okay.

So I mentioned the owners to the north or either Bonacelli or um Mr.

Meanka to the south.

It's Mark Shuffle Woodman Investments, and it is that KW uh 1502 LLC.

And who who owns that?

Do you know?

KW Brad Rodenberg with TRS.

Um, I don't know the exact name, but we dealt with KW 1502 on the Nevada project.

There was a permanent easement that we needed to get as part of the sidewalk uh improvements at Brookside.

So we have met with and dealt with that property owner before.

I just don't know their name off the top of my head.

All right.

Any further questions at this time?

I don't see any.

All right, great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to item 7B.

Will the clerk please read item 7B into the record?

A resolution authorizing the Stormwater Enterprise Manager manager to execute memorandums of agreement with the Department of Army related to the Cause Creek Plan feasibility study.

Good morning, Aaron.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council members and President Croyverson.

My name is Aaron Powers.

I'm the stormwater enterprise manager for the city.

Uh today I'm here presenting a resolution which would authorize the stormwater enterprise to enter into two memorandums of agreement with the United States Army Corps of Engineers to progress the COS Creek Plan feasibility study.

So one of these MOAs allows the city to pay the Army Corps for inherently governmental activities such as plan processing and formal review.

The other MOA allows Army Corps to provide technical and policy review.

So both MOAs support the feasibility study for the COS Creek Plan, which extends from the north north of the Garden of Gods along Monument Creek south to the Leon Young Youth Sports Park on Fountain Creek, extends through that whole Creek corridor.

Some council members may remember a presentation given by Pikes Peak Waterways on the COS Creek plan back in 2024.

This feasibility study would take approximately 24 months, and we'll develop a plan that transforms that section of Creek to create public amenities, respond to infrastructure needs, and then it also respects our community's values.

So this study once completed will be submitted to the assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works and then transmitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget.

We'd be targeting inclusion in the 2028 Water Resources Development Act.

This would just position us for federal funding to support our infrastructure along the creek.

Councilman Henjam.

And so I even see some folks here in the audience who related to that project and appreciate, I don't know if that's why they're here or not, but um just want to take the moment to um uh appreciate the importance of that work and uh in and arguably could be one of the most impactful um bits of development that we do on um on our on our watershed and for our city, maybe ever.

So thanks a lot.

I totally support this.

Thank you.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thanks, Madam President.

Uh good morning, Aaron.

Morning.

Nice to see you today.

What's the anticipated cost for this uh study, scope of work study?

The full feasibility study is around uh $3.7 million.

Okay.

This piece that uh we're being asked to have paid for by stormwater, how much will it cost stormwater?

I know there's a 6535 split in here.

Uh paragraph B says that within 15 days, or it's actually 2A stormwater will fork over 20,000.

What's how much are we really looking at from stormwater?

So the this feasibility study is actually being done through a partnership with Pikes Peak Waterways, which is a uh nonprofit, and then also um Colorado Springs utilities.

So the city portion of this work for the feasibility study would be $600,000.

And then the rest is coming from private funds.

And you know, in here, I think it's in the resolution it says that uh this won't have any impact on the general fund.

The money comes from stormwater, right?

Correct.

Is this uh it's uh feasibility study for I'm just drawing a blank on the name of the project.

Creek plan.

Creek plan.

Is that appropriate for stormwater funds to be spent on?

Um whether it's a great project, the best project man has ever thought of or not, uh, is it really the right place for money to come from out of stormwater, uh, which you know is is a tax on our citizens or a fee.

Um is this the right way to go?

Is this uh is it I guess it's legal, and the legal is not waving their arms.

So if I can just um main stem of Monument Creek and then also Fountain Creek are some of the um corridors in our city that most need improvements.

Those are also our largest creek corridors, and so the ex the improvements needed are extremely expensive, far more than we could pay with um with the stormwater enterprise alone.

And they are there are areas along there that are badly in need of improvements.

You know, if you drive by and see massive cut banks, um those things would be rectified with this project.

Uh the feasibility study really allows us if we are included in that word water resources development act, um, then we would be receiving federal appropriations of Congress, and that would support this improvement.

They would cost share those improvements with us.

65% federal, 35% non-federal.

So that's really what we're going for is essentially a giant federal match for these improvements.

And in that I get.

If we're if the project is going to happen, the beauty of it is it is that the um federal government will pay for it.

But these initial amounts of money, um that's my question.

Is it is it would it be more appropriate for the private organization that's really pushing for this?

Uh and it's their vision to pay for these smaller amounts, or does it have to come from the city?

Uh and there may be uh there may be that the federal government can't enter into a contract with a private group.

It has to come through the city, but then it could be refunded to the city too by that private organization, it would seem.

So that's that's correct.

There needs to be a non-federal sponsor to follow this Section 203 process, which is the fastest way to get inclusion into that act to allow for the federal matching.

Um I will say the the private funding are surpasses our contribution.

They're paying over three million dollars, and our our expected contribution is six hundred thousand dollars.

Um so it seems like we're getting a uh a good kind of heads up on this one, but you know, happy to provide additional information, your thoughts.

I just want to be sure I heard you're right.

We're the city is gonna contribute six hundred thousand.

The private funding is greater than three million dollars.

Greater than three million.

Yes.

When does that take place?

The three hundred the three million.

Like we're gonna we're up front with this uh with this these dollars, right?

This is step A.

If it the everything else may not happen depending on step A.

When do our partners, when is their uh assistance happening?

So step A for the feasibility study, we need these agreements with the Army Corps of Engineers.

We also have a private consultant on the board on board that is gonna be doing the majority of the study, like the technical modeling and um just the vast majority of NEPA requirements, other other things that come along with this.

Um they are paying for that full private consultant contract.

HDR is the consultant.

We are paying for this um these memorandums with the Army Corps of Engineers.

So they're paying now.

Yes.

And that amount uh the study by the private consultant is expected at three million over three million.

I'd have to look at the exact number, but it is more than three million.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Councilman Henjamin.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

So, Aaron, you know, we've we've had the creek plan uh presented to us numerous times over the years here at City Council, and um I if I recall correctly, I I'm pretty confident about this that this really is a critical public private partnership, and we have the City of Colorado Springs, CSU, and the Cause Creek um River.

I can never remember the name.

I know Chris Lieber's here.

What's the name of the organization, Chris?

Pikespeak Waterways.

Pikes Peak Waterways.

Right, and and funded heavily um by uh philanthropist Lyda Hill, and and so it's it's a my understanding is that those partners are meeting, if not monthly, possibly more frequently than that on this whole project.

Is that correct?

Certainly, there are committees and oversight committees, subcommittees, yeah, all meeting regularly.

Yeah, and and my understanding of this project has been not only does it, and you're you're here representing stormwater enterprise and just talked about the importance of uh uh work on on this particular waterway as it relates to its critical nature of our stormwater um, and it also happens to address um you know future economic benefit to the city and and development of the city.

So it's as well as just sheer enjoyment and recreation and outdoors and um and a and a healthy waterway system.

So um I I I do appreciate the questions, and I think it's important that people do understand where the funds come from.

That's really critical.

Um, but I think this is a really uh incredible example of uh of an outstanding public-private partnership.

Thanks.

I don't see any questions.

Do you want um are you asking for this to be on consent?

Yes, if possible.

Can I get a councilman Donaldson?

Do you have a problem with this being on consent?

What when does it come back to us?

The 12th, May 12th.

I'll be in Washington, DC.

So you can have this on consent.

Thanks.

Moving on to item 7C.

Will the clerk please read item 7C into the record?

A resolution authorizing the acceptance of the donation of approximately 100 acres of land known as the Pike View Quarry.

This item is back to back.

It's 10 a.m.

tomorrow's agenda.

Good morning, Lana.

Good morning, Lana Thieland, design and development manager for the city parks recreation and cultural services department.

Good morning, uh President Ivers Carl Iverson and Pro Time Risley, members of council.

Today I'm here to present to you the Pike View Quarry donation.

Right.

Towering you to the site.

This is on the northwest part of our city, west of I-25, uh, kind of northwest of Vindicator and Centennial Boulevard.

It's just south of our existing budget open space.

It's outlined in the lighter color there, uh, in between the green.

Kind of wanted to mention a background piece of this.

This is part of about a 10-year process that we'll go into in a little bit more detail, but essentially it's a multi-part acquisition.

The first phase of this came forward with the um acquisition of the Pike View Quarry frontage, in addition to the Black Canyon Quarry.

Those came forward in two phases.

Uh Pike View Quarry, phase one was about 88 acres, and that was in September of 2020.

I will provide you visuals of these in just a moment.

And then phase two was about 62 acres, and that was acquired in April of 2021.

Also in phase one was the Black Canyon Quarry.

Uh, that's located just a little bit west of Cedar um Cedar Heights.

Uh, and that is about 165 acres of acquisition acquired in September of 2020.

Those two purchases were made as part of an agreement with the property owner to provide them some additional reclamation quarry funds to reclaim the Pike View quarry.

We are to the third part of this uh three-part acquisition, in that we are now looking to acquire the donation about a hundred acres at that site.

Just wanted to mention in total, between all three phases, that will be about 415 acres coming to the city.

Again, to orient those pieces of the Pike View Quarry frontage.

The first one is shown in red here.

You'll see Blodget Open Space to the north.

The gray shaded portion is going to be shown in up in phase two.

So the red portion does come off of Allegheny Road, and then there's an access way into the site.

And then if we look at phase two, that's the other portion of the site there, just south of Blodget Open Space.

And then putting all three of those phases together, you can see where the grain now is considered the buffer parcels.

And then the hundred acre site is shown in red, and that is the donation parcel that we are looking at today as part of the Pike View Quarry.

Now I'm going to turn it over to David Diedemeyer in our office to walk you through some of the important pieces of the Pike View Quarry reclamation.

Thank you all.

Good morning.

Good to see you all.

Thank you for the opportunity to share a little bit more information on the reclamation process and its history.

So I wanted to take a few moments to go over the timeline as we look at this.

The mining for Pike View Quarry began in 1903.

It expanded greatly in the 1940s and 50s with the construction of the Air Force Academy and the expansion of Colorado Springs post-World War II.

The current ownership acquired the property back in 1972 and assumed the reclamation liability associated with the operations of the mining itself.

Cut to a few years later in 2008, there was a series of landslides that began to happen that caused slope failure at the center portion of the quarry.

That ultimately ended in the operation of mining ceasing in 2018.

During that time frame, the ownership looked at those avenues to formally submit a reclamation plan to the Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety with the state.

And that was submitted in 2018.

Kind of cut to this current image and the map.

And that is part of that buffer frontage that we acquired in 2020 and 21.

Within the darker green portions, that's the Pike National Forest, ownership by the federal government.

So that sets the land ownership as it exists today.

As we dive into a little bit more detail about the permit, there is a solid blue boundary line that goes around the quarry itself and onto those adjacent properties.

That is the DRMS permit area.

And then within the permit area, they've identified what they call an affected area.

Ultimately, that is the area of disturbance associated with the reclamation.

That dark red line represents the areas that are meant to be disturbed in order to reclaim the site.

So you start to see it expand beyond the boundary of the 100 acres, and those were acquired through two different means.

Within the blodget open space, that was part of the negotiations with the acquisition through our TOPS program.

So we bought that land subject to that disturbance, knowing that that was going to be tied into the reclamation of Pike View Quarry itself.

Additionally, the ownership had a special use permit with the Forest Service that had been in place for a number of years that allowed them to access the Forest Service land for not only the mining operation but also for the reclamation and the layback of the slope.

So it just paints the picture that there was a greater disturbance beyond the 100 acres.

Last thing I wanted to highlight, just on the northern portion, the top portion of the image, there's a dark crosshatch that really covers a portion of the open space.

That represents a 9.2 acre area of disturbance that was negotiated as a filled dirt agreement.

So the owner of the quarry utilized that land, that earth, to move over into the quarry itself to begin that reclamation work.

And that was again subject to the acquisition, and we came into it knowing well aware that that was going to be disturbed.

So what that accounts for within the open space, we have about 32 acres of disturbance that have been reclaimed, and we've used a portion of that for open space, as you'll see in a few of the photos here coming up.

Wanted to step back a couple years prior in this conversation when the, as Lana mentioned, it's been about a 10-year process.

So in 2016, staff began those conversations with the ownership really to look at what their future was within the operations.

We were familiar with the landslides.

We had an interest because of the open the open space opportunity as well, looking at what maybe the reclaimed quarry could provide to the city in terms of a benefit through through community use.

At that time, that ownership group also mentioned the idea of a potential bike park just to help create a vision of what that land could be used for, but by no means a decision.

So in 2020, when we move forward with the acquisition, those discussions around the donation of that reclaimed Pike View Quarry were incorporated into that sales agreement, as you heard from Lana.

The company began moving forward with reclamation, physically moving the earth back in 2022.

In 2023, the parks department led an effort to move forward the blogit open space master plan.

That was a 16-month process that looked at how we could incorporate blogget open space with a management plan and a site development plan to create a trail system and allow sustainable public access.

During that process, we had over 1,400 individual citizens engaged in it.

We had over 30 engagement opportunities, including topps working committee, parks advisory board, and city council.

We were very clear during that process that the Pike View Quarry was not part of the open space at that time, and that we would come back to a future public process to really understand what the community's interests were for Pike View.

We still have yet to do that.

So that is really our next step if this moves forward is to initiate a public process.

In 2025, last year, reclamation work concluded.

The state DRMS officially approved the reclamation and released the surety bond on that property, and it allowed us as the city parks department to move forward with an independent review, at which time it took several months to go through thousands of pages of documentation.

Our engineer completed their own analysis and gave us that feedback just last month.

So cut to today, we're we're now moving forward with this uh request.

One last interesting point to note since that time frame in 2018 when the Pike View ownership offered the donation to the city.

There's been more than 36 media stories specifically talking about Pike View reclamation and the post-reclamation future.

So it's certainly been well noted within the public's realm.

I want to highlight very quickly, again, this is a multi-year process.

So I'm having I have two slides to highlight the reclamation work that was done.

The main goal was to stabilize that hillside and manage the water.

So that was accomplished by moving a significant amount of earth material to create a buttress at the toe of the slope.

And these three photos represent a time frame from 2019, 2022, and 2023.

And it really just shows that toe of slopes starting to be built up with earth material as they start to formalize the stability of that site and ensure that that structural stability can hold back that hillside.

There were daily inspections with the quality control, quality assurance manager, and they tested every 5,000 cubic yards for uh not only the material but also the density testing.

There was those monthly on-site inspections with the DRMS as well as the project team, which included the U.S.

Forest Service and the City of Colorado Springs.

After the project was completed, they seeded eroded, uh they seeded, placed erosion control blanket, and planted over 31,000 small trees and shrubs and have implemented their Leica monitoring system, which is essentially a laser system that monitors the slope stability for displacement every hour on the hour.

Councilman Hingum.

Thank you, Madam President.

Hey, good morning.

Um thanks for taking myself and Councilmember Donaldson up to the site last week.

Really appreciate that.

It's quite the impressive view from up there, and it was really helpful to see this in person.

But I didn't ask the following question, which I wish I had regarding the LICA monitoring system.

Is that being donated with the land, or does that go back to the company?

Yes, that is being donated with the land.

So we get to continue to use those that technology.

Yes, we do, and we plan to continue with that monitoring.

Fantastic.

Okay, thank you.

So from these three photos, you can see that progress.

The next one is taken in 2024.

So now we have the reclaimed slopes.

We have the grass seed that has germinated and starting to grow in.

You see these lines across the hillside.

Those are the drainage channels that are being worked on, placing riprap to really manage the water flow that falls on the hillside to push it through the system and exit out.

The other thing that I did note in the previous slide, but it's important to identify is that at the toe of the slope when they started the work, they created a French drain system at the bottom of that to allow for any groundwater to drain through and out of the site itself.

Councilman Lineweber.

Yeah, just a clarifying question because I think this is really relevant and important.

Does any of this property currently exist in the city of Colorado Springs?

Again, there's about a hundred acres identified with two parcels.

Yes.

The donation acres.

So there's an individual tax number at 10 acres that is within the city of Colorado Springs.

Okay.

The remaining 90 acres is outside of City of Colorado Springs limits.

Okay.

So we currently today don't have any jurisdiction or any authority over that 90 acres.

Yes.

That if it would currently fall what within the county limit, right?

That's correct.

And so until we get a hold of this property, there really isn't much of a discussion other than for the 10 acres possibly of how this land can be used.

That's correct.

And just a point of reference, the 10 acres, at least in this photograph, is in the very back center on that steep hillside.

The remind remaining 90 acres encompasses the claimed hillside as well as the base of it, which has some relatively flat ground.

I just think that's a point of contact because until we actually acquire the land, it's almost none of our business.

And so I guess that's the point I want to kind of raise here that we want to bring this land in so we can secure it because we've we've dealt with the scar long enough.

And it's time to kind of make use of this.

I don't know what that use is going to be.

We have a lot of interesting aspects of it with the bighorn sheep and all sorts of stuff that's kind of happening.

So there's going to be a lot of challenges for this land and how you're describing it right now with the slope and stuff.

It's it's it's liability possibly.

But I think that liability, as you've described, is going to be um greatly reduced.

So thanks.

Thank you.

All right.

I will continue on.

I'm going to share a few photographs just for a different perspective again of the timeline of that reclamation.

So this one was taken in fall of 2020.

It was uh right around the timeframe that we acquired that frontage portion for the open space.

And you can start to see the hillside that had a series of landslides that impacted it right in the center.

As we start to move forward on the timeline, summer of 2023, you can begin to see that a buttress being built up about halfway up the hillside in 2024.

The vast majority of the earthwork was completed.

They started to seed and blanket.

They had a little bit of remaining channel work that was going on during this time.

And then in the fall of 2025, all of the reclamation work had been completed.

And this is about the time frame that the state came out, did their final inspection, and then provided their letter of approval.

Another thing I want to highlight, just uh to put out there and public record and make sure that we're all familiar with this is as we move forward with the blogged open space master plan implementations, a portion of our recommended trail plan falls on a on a reclaimed hillside that is within the open space.

So I want to just show a few photos to reflect how that would look.

In this location, we see the new trailhead that's under construction.

This is a 50-stall trailhead known as the quarry trailhead that will service blodgett open space.

As we put on the overlay of where Pike View Quarry ownership falls, you can see how we start to integrate in that reclamation area in the open space and then within the quarry.

And the green highlight represents uh ultimately those disturbed slopes that have been reclaimed within the open space.

Why I think this is important to bring up is that part of our trail construction this spring has built a dedicated mountain bike trail that is associated with the recommendations of the blogged open space master plan.

And so there is a visual indicator that we have trails within the reclaimed area, but I want to be clear that it's not within the Pike View quarry itself.

I think that's an important distinction to make.

So as I conclude the presentation here, I want to highlight a little bit more about the rec reclamation review.

Um as we've gone through this process, I think it's pretty clear to understand that this site has been engineered, heavily regulated with the state, and we did the independent review from a geotechnical engineer.

The site was designed by those licensed professionals, it was regulated through the state, permitted, constructed, and monitored.

Uh, and this one was heavily watched by the state because of the slope failures in the past.

And it's something that they typically do not do unless it has had a history of big slope failures.

And then we have that independent review by Granite Engineering Group.

And just to conclude, their recommendations, they evaluated the reclamation design, construction, the history of failures, and the current slope conditions.

Again, this is thousands of pages of documents that we've been working with our engineer from November of last year up until about a month ago.

They identified those past instabilities driven by the weak clay layer, groundwater, and the mining-related slope conditions that ultimately cause the slope failure.

They confirmed that this reclamation improvement, again, working on that structural buttress and the drainage improvements have significantly increased the stability of the site.

And they concluded here, as you can see, that the site is currently stable.

But they do recommend that we continue the Lycra monitoring system and that we implement a groundwater and min groundwater monitoring system to understand the water flow because of their water sensitivity analysis.

They did determine that if there's elevated water groundwater levels, that that slope stability starts to decrease.

And of course, they wanted us to continue with drainage maintenance and monitoring, which we certainly would do moving forward.

Last note to highlight some of the cost.

I know this is an important component.

So this would be incorporated into their work plan, stretching our employees a little bit thinner to be able to address any of the lighter maintenance needs.

We then look at a uh longer term uh implementation of these monitoring systems, including isometers and inclinometers to monitor the water and the slope stability and maintain that like a system in place.

We then look at security measures with fencing signage, actual suite management, and um be proactive on those maintenance concerns, so higher level of maintenance.

And then the third term, that long term would be these bigger what if questions.

And we don't quite know what those are.

We do believe the site is stable that we'll remain in those lower short-term uh maintenance needs, but there is uncertainty as you are all familiar.

This site is a geological concern, and we need to continue to monitor as we move forward.

We do believe that the slope, if there is signs of failure through our monitoring, that it won't be catastrophic and won't be rapid, it would be a slow transition.

And so being able to monitor in a timely manner would allow us to address those issues and be proactive.

So as we see and what you've uh requested, we'd like to come back tomorrow for this on the regular session vote to help us to close on the property by the 15th.

Again, we have had uh plenty of opportunity between November and now to be able to come forward, but we found it very important to move forward forward with that third-party review.

We wanted to take the added time to ensure that we did that right.

We got that information, and as soon as we did, we moved this forward.

So we do request that.

And uh with that, this will be the motion that we see for tomorrow.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thank you, Madam President.

And um, first uh thanks, David and uh our acting parks director, Kim King and Lonethalon for taking councilwoman hengem and myself out there just last week and uh answered questions on site, and um, you know, it's always better to see see things firsthand.

Can you explain it's unusual for us to do something back to back?

That's abnormal at council.

Normally it would come to us today at a work session, two weeks later, we would vote on it at the regular session.

Can you explain again why that was the recommendation of the parks department, the request?

I disagreed.

I wanted to wait and vote on it in two weeks.

The majority of council here wants to go ahead and proceed tomorrow.

Can you explain why?

From a project perspective, again, as I've highlighted, we've had the opportunity to do the third-party review since November, and it took a significant amount of time.

During that process in our agreement, it had identified that once that once the state DRMS approved the reclamation, it would be transferred over within a two-week period per the agreement created back in 2020.

Uh, we wanted to step back and take that additional time to review with our third-party reviewer.

Um again, it took additional time, but we're in this time crunch that kind of squeezed us between the state approving and closing on the property.

And the reason we'd like to close sooner than later is because the landowner would be charging us a fee for those holding costs.

They have a fiduciary responsibility to their ownership group and their stakeholders.

And they have already postponed charging us fees.

Uh, they've been patient through this process really since January 1.

And so we found it pertinent to be able to move forward with this timeline.

Um, I certainly would welcome any additional comment from our parks leadership if they want to elaborate a little bit more on that.

However, I mean if we had voted on the 12th, the closing is on the 15th.

So there's still the the rest of the 12th, the 13th, the 14th, the uh the 15th is the date of the closing.

Is there something uh anticipated where it would take more than three days?

I don't know if I can speak wholly on that one, but I would say that there is a significant amount of work that still needs to take place, as there are with transactions related to real estate.

So we certainly understand your point of view and and respect it.

Okay.

And I understand that about inspection reports and all that when you buy a home.

However, it seems to me everything is done.

You're just waiting on council.

And if that happens tomorrow or it happened on the 12th, you would be fined for the 15th.

Council's not gonna, we're not gonna do anything special uh that changes things on the 12th.

But the majority of council wants to uh move forward with that.

I don't I don't quite understand it, but my next question.

Um I think it's very important that the work was inspected by a third party uh engineering firm.

It was not the one that did the work.

Can you just just say that a little more?

Because I think that's that's uh helpful for citizens to uh understand okay, this has been inspected.

Yes, it's not by the state, it's not by the company that did it, it's by an outside party.

Correct, yes, done by an outside party who had no involvement in any of the planning, engineering, or reclamation working on the case.

And what was the name of that that firm that inspected it?

Granite Engineering Group.

And they do a lot of landslide um analysis within Colorado Springs.

And so we felt confident with their ability to review the data and provide us with a professional recommendation.

Okay.

And um, you know, we've heard that uh today it was said, well, we can't do any planning because we don't actually have the property yet.

We could have done that.

It just is just we chose not to do that.

Um and that's that's okay.

We're gonna get the land first, then we'll decide.

But there's nothing that there's no law in America that says you can't plan for a piece of property uh which you anticipate acquiring.

You you we could do that, right?

We could.

I would like to stress, if I may, and that at that time several years ago, our director at the time, Britt Haley was very adamant that we do not spend any tax resources on a planning process that may not come to fruition.

Fairly reasonable.

Um what are I know these, but this is good for citizens to hear.

What are some of the possible uses of that land that because there's a master plan?

Maybe you can talk a little bit about that.

Like what is the process now?

What will happen once the city accepts the land?

What is that process?

Sure.

So our process moving forward, we would like to um continue with a rezone is one of our first objectives.

So currently it is not zoned for park uses.

We'd like to incorporate that.

We'd also like to potentially look at the annexation of those 90 acres to bring into the city of Colorado Springs.

Those are our first two big steps.

Moving forward with a public process, really what we want to do is open the dialogue with the community, with the neighbors.

We want to understand what the opportunities are and those concerns that we can either work around or address or under identify if they're deal breakers.

So that spectrum of what the use could be could be anywhere from a wildlife habitat area for the bighorn sheep to a potential recreation center.

Um that term bike park has been used over the last 10 years.

We would want to understand where within that spectrum is the opportunity for this.

And as a department, as land managers and steward of the resources, we would fully support those professional opinions and the community opinions to help us get to the right decision.

So as we stand here today, there's no plans to open anything tomorrow.

We would go through our process like we do with all of our properties that we acquire.

The uh, you know, one thing that crossed my mind today was for that uh what's the name of the monitoring system right now?

Uh like uh that one box that sends out the uh the beam, right?

The is it a laser?

Yes, it is a laser.

It has to have line of it has to have clear to hit its uh the the little device that it's measuring from, correct?

Yes, it does.

So you really can't build anything in between any of these uh points that are being measured and the uh the laser.

That's a fair assessment, yes.

That that building is instrumental in its location to monitor the hillside where the fill dirt was placed in that buttress built up.

Yeah, so it has to be kept kind of open.

Um is there a necessity or a plan to keep it as is for an additional two years to monitor just the hillside?

Is there anything like that right now?

I think by the by the nature of the process to do a rezone and annexation and a public process that sets us up with at least two years worth of monitoring.

Um again, there's still work to go through, but I think that it's fair to assess based on previous master plans if you've known, but Fishers Canyon Blocked at Open Space have increasingly taken more time to work through those concerns and have the dialogue with the community.

What's it being annexed in at as what kind of what's it zoned as when it comes into the city?

We anticipate potentially a PK zone, but I don't know if we've really determined doing a highlight.

When we accept it, is it in the legal paperwork that it comes in as a certain zone?

So that's all agricultural or Lonathy Lennages and Development Manager.

That would really be part of that annexation process.

And we would determine the request for the zone district.

So we take all that through our city planning office, um, come through and and we would likely recommend a PK zone.

That is what we typically like to see our properties in.

Okay.

But when when it's accepted tomorrow, it's donated to the city, what is it zoned as?

What is it zoned as?

Uh so it is partially 90 acres of it is in the county, and I'm not exactly sure what the zoning in the county is currently.

Um then I do you know those city?

So currently the 10 acres that's in the city is ag zoned.

Okay, which is typically what stuff comes in as, right on the perimeter.

Um thank you, Lana.

And uh let me just double check if I had anything else jotted down.

You've gone over the cost of maintenance.

That was something we discussed uh at our lunch last week.

And for the the neighborhood that is below it, um, I think the important thing I'd want them to understand is uh that there it's not being there's no decision yet on a master plan.

That process hasn't really even started yet, correct?

That is correct.

We're just looking at the acquisition.

Okay, thank you.

I don't see any other questions.

Okay.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Moving on to item 7D.

Will the clerk please read item 7D into the record?

Consideration of a resolution setting certain natural gas rates for Colorado Swinch utilities March 2026 rate case.

Good morning, Chris.

Good morning, thank you.

Chris Bidleck, senior attorney with the city attorney's office utilities division.

Um quick item before you this morning.

On April 14th, City Council held utilities March 2026 rate case related to the DIMP rider that was proposed.

Tomorrow you will be asked to give your final approval or disapproval of that action.

Um today I am here because the included in your doc in your documents is the draft decision in order, which is a summary of the record of the hearing that you held on the 14th.

Um simply today is to give you an opportunity if I mischaracterized anything, or there are any changes that you'd like made to that document.

Absent any changes.

That's the document you will see tomorrow for your final approval.

I don't see any questions or clarification needs.

Great.

Thank you very much, and we'll see you tomorrow.

We'll see you tomorrow.

Um next step, we're gonna do council member reports and discussion before we go into our executive session and our closed session.

So if there are any council members with any reports, now would be the time.

Councilman Lineweber.

Yes, I have a couple of things.

Um is um I was in DC on um Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday um up on the hill working to protect the land, water, and conservation fund, uh, working with um the um TPL.

Um why can't I get this?

Trust for public land.

There we go.

I decided to get it started.

Trust for public land, yes.

And um anyway, it was it was a really good opportunity.

I got to meet with Jeff Crank and um um a couple of other representatives and senators, and um really talk about how important this fund is.

Two percent of our uh two percent of the uh oil and gas that is pulled out of the oceans goes into this fund.

It's roughly about 900 million dollars, and it's um it's short.

You think that's a lot of money, but yet it's over allocated like every single year.

Um, and it's primarily used to acquire like problem things, like trying to get access to public lands or trying to put a new park in in the blighted community.

Um we've used it for Red Rocks, we've used it for Cheyenne Mountain State Park.

Um, we've used it for a number of different uh panorama park received from some money from it.

And so um it's been used as a great tool to really expand um green space, open space, and parks and uh that kind of thing.

So anyway, that was a really um exciting thing.

Um today um uh actually last night um was the launch of the Partners in the Outdoor Conference that's going on here in Colorado Springs.

We have roughly about um six hundred different leaders from across the state in the outdoor industry um from government, nonprofit, and businesses that are all meeting at Cheyenne Mountain Resort right now.

Um and um the the keynote kickoff is at one o'clock, and so I'm gonna be attending that.

Um and then uh but there's been a lot of pre-meetings that are kind of going on this morning.

But it's really an exciting time.

And usually at these conferences is where we have the conversations about what how should we go forward with managing um our our private land, our public lands, and um and how best do we balance recreation and conservation, considering wildlife issues and all host of things from protecting the forest to fire mitigation.

Um the latest one is how are we gonna take care of the beetle kill uh problem that we're having in most of most of the states.

So that a lot of those kind of conversations go on uh during this event.

And so it's a pretty um important event that's taking place here in Colorado Springs as we speak.

Thank you.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thanks, madam president.

Uh just a couple of things.

Um one is on, I think it was Saturday morning at 5 30 in the morning at Memorial Park, the uh our Australian and New Zealand allies in various uh wars, including World War World War One, had a ceremony, they call it the Anzac uh ceremony, and they do this in every town and and city in in uh Australia and New Zealand on the 25th of April uh every year since 1915, which was when the thing they commemorate occurred, and it was part of World War I.

It's when uh the uh British and and uh Canadian, not Canadians, the British and the Australians and the New Zealanders landed uh on the shores uh Gallipoli, if you there's a movie about this, and fought for several months against the Turks before being withdrawn.

And it was the first time these uh Australians and New Zealanders had fought as a nation.

And so they they had this ceremony at the the uh monument in Memorial Park.

5 30 in the morning, it was in the 30s and the wind was blowing.

So it was a hardy crew that was down there, and I thought there'd be mostly Americans and just a couple Canadian, not Canadians, Australians or New Zealanders, but there were 50 to 60 uh New Zealand folks uh and Canadian and uh Australian folks down there, and it was very touching.

They're really really professionally done.

Um I've got some photographs.

I wish I had uh turned them in so they could be up uh on the screens today.

So that's one thing.

Um I'll just do two more.

Met with the Hey Neighbors group, not that Saturday, but the previous Saturday to answer questions about different things uh here uh on city council and in our city.

Um last week I did have a uh town hall there in District One, focused on time of day rates.

Citizens are uh interested in that, and it's difficult to understand the three different plans and what does it mean and is CSU just trying to get rich off of them, or is there a real reason for this?

And so we went over all that, and I think it was successful for for the ones that were there.

Um then also I'll say thank you to uh uh our council president and uh council member Casey who came out on this CSU uh tour of the location near the airport where the uh Horizon Power Plant was going to be, and then also at the site farther south where it uh is now proposed Williams Creek, where the uh power generation will be placed.

And that was very informative to just see it with your eyes.

Always better to do that than just uh see it on a map or hear about it.

So those are a few things.

Thank you.

Councilman Rainey.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh, just a few items.

Uh as was already mentioned about uh space symposium, uh had the uh privilege along with councilmember Williams to attend the kick-off event um on behalf of uh city council and other city officials, a phenomenal event showing the history of space and more importantly the fact that we got to see uh some of the NASA leadership from the Automus uh uh staff that actually had returned.

So uh pretty great event there.

Uh the follow-up that same week uh and quite uh intriguing because it was tied back to our Sister Cities program doing the same week of space symposium, was invited to attend the uh Japanese space exploration engagement event that week.

Uh, but the general consulate for uh Japan was there, and we had a great conversation, uh not just about business here in Colorado Springs, but also to highlight uh the Sister City program and of course that being uh Fuji Yoshida uh looking at potentially getting an envoy uh in that location probably sometime in the near future.

Also had the opportunity with the mayor and uh with the new chief of staff, Wayne Williams, uh to participate in the two C season launch and kick-off event uh where you know the mayor actually highlighted and uh a couple of other members, you know, when you have over 63, I believe, 63, 66 percent, or 76, I believe, residents that voted in favor.

So to see us kick that off.

Uh being a lot earlier uh in the season also because of the favorable weather, we're able to get after some of the uh row construction and get some of these potholes and overlays and so forth fixed uh was a great thing to see.

I'm glad the mayor uh and the rest of the team out there and major kudos to two organizations.

Uh one the public works organization for what they're doing to get after this, but also uh our utilities, uh the folk the fact that they both work hand in hand to make sure that we can get in front of a lot of construction, but at the same time making sure we're not impeding any type of utility works that are needed.

Uh so it's always great to see city uh entities work great together.

Um I did have a town hall, um a lot of great folks there.

Um, I'm not gonna go through everybody because I did have a host of individuals, but one of the things that really popped uh in that town hall as a major um item that's on every bone's mind is basically utilities cost.

So that seems to be kind of a theme uh with utilities.

Um so we'll continue to work and educate people on that.

And of course, because it's already been reported in the media uh in regards to the Horizon Power Plant.

I was assigned as an observer to the safety risk management board.

Uh that board is complete.

Uh I was there as a city council representative as an observer.

Uh and the final report is now complete.

So I will get everyone a copy of that final report, and I will find out from uh staff if that's gonna be for public consumption uh or is that just gonna be internal to offices.

I don't know if you have an answer on that yet.

I don't, but I was thinking that same thing as soon as you were saying it.

I was gonna send a text message to make sure that's public and we can all get it.

Okay.

Um, but those are the items, so thank you.

Councilman Henjam.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um, a few items to highlight.

One uh went to a function for Family Promise, which is a nonprofit organization in our city that serves uh families who are uh who do not have have houses.

And uh in the review of their, and they don't have a home to live in.

Um and in the review of their year, uh a hundred percent of the families that they served remained intact, which I thought was pretty impressive statistic.

And they have a uh program for people who are at the risk of being evicted, and 88% of those served um remained in their homes.

34 families were um helped.

Actually, 88% were able to stay in their homes.

Um, and 92% of all the people they served exited successfully into stable housing with their support.

Um, most importantly though, uh, they talked about the safe parking program that they are working on um trying to get a safe parking pilot program in our city, focusing strictly on families, working with churches.

It will be a rotational model.

Um, and the thing that, and I could say more about it, but the thing that I really want to highlight that was most impressive to me about their program is that um while families are in a parking lot uh living in you know in their cars in the parking lot, uh, they will be in one location, and Family Promise will provide case management services will come to them.

Um, so they will address all kinds of needs while they're in the parking lot.

Um this is this is what they're planning.

It has not been approved yet, but this is what they're working on.

And uh was very, very pleased to hear about their efforts there, and they have quite a few churches there that are engaged in that process.

Um also the last work session we were here.

We heard a presentation from Safe Passage, and I went to their um uh fundraising luncheon last week.

And uh just have to say again, uh a profoundly remarkable story of a family that was served um by them actually over two different um periods of time.

One when the kids were younger, sexually abused by their father, three children, and um and the the organization profoundly helpful at that time, and then the case was tried again and um uh on appeal, and uh the the organization helped that family immensely the second time.

It's a very powerful story, and I'm just so grateful that our city and our our sheriff's department and UC Health and so many um organizations work together on behalf of children who are abused and neglected.

Um we've heard about some town halls uh here.

I I want to uh remind folks that on May 7th, I'll be hosting a town hall at Edison Um Elementary School in the Papeton uh Cragmore neighborhood, and particularly looking for input on improvements that will be coming to Flanagan Park.

I'm very excited about that.

More will be announced then, and and so I do uh I hope and believe we'll have a great turnout for that, something really exciting.

And and lastly, and on a very personal note, um, I just want to share, you know, life life can get really hard these days, and there's a lot of pain and sorrow in our world, but there's also really phenomenal things happening, and um some of them have to do with the arts and music.

And we have so many beautiful choirs in our city.

We have um the Colorado Springs Corral, the Solo Day Deo Gloria community choir, the Colorado Springs Children Choir, the Unity Project, and many, many others.

Church choirs, people love to sing, and singing brings us joy.

And um I will be participating in the 20th anniversary uh concert of Out Loud that started 20 years ago.

And that concert will be held at First United Methodist Church.

Um I'm telling everybody I know about it, and because I really want people to uh come and experience the joy of this chorus.

They opened it up this year to do two uh songs in their overall concert with community members, and they have about I think 35 or 40 of us from the community who are joining a 65, 70 person choir.

So it will be a really magnificent set of voices in that incredible um church on Nevada.

And um I I have information if you want to know how to get tickets to the concert.

Uh there's two concerts on May 8th at 7 p.m.

And on May 9th, a uh matinee at 2 o'clock.

And uh actually we have uh uh city staff member, Ethan Schaefer, who sings in that choir in the planning department.

Um he's a lot of fun.

It's it's just gonna be a blast.

So I hope that you will uh will join me on May 8th and 9th.

Thank you very much.

That concludes the um council reports um for this morning.

We will move on to an open executive session before we move to our closed so will the clerk please read item 10A into the record if you're done at first city at L case number 2026 CV 3017.

I wasn't I'm just ready to go.

Will the clerk city attorney please um present the items?

Good morning, Sarah Bruin, City Attorney's Office.

The Citadel Act Civil Action Investigation Committee voted to recommend to City Council that the city represent provide representation for our employee pursuant to the city code and the Colorado uh governmental immunity act.

The committee further recommends that the city reserve the right to decline payment of any award of punitive damages.

And at this time, we request authorization for defense of our employee from council, and that can be either via head nod or thumbs up.

Thank you.

Um, Madam President, at this time, I would like to request that the closed session occur after lunch.

The Chief Vasquez would like to attend the session, and um the those that will be presenting if counsel would like to hold the closed session.

Anticipate that it will take uh longer than it'll probably be at least 30 minutes and we'll cut into your lunch time.

I'm okay.

Okay, I'm just making sure you have a quorum.

You think we just keep going through?

Um, because I know we're gonna lose a couple people.

That's not how it is okay.

Um well, it looks like the majority wants to keep going.

All right, well, may we take a five to ten minute break and then we'll come back.

We can take a five-minute break to switch the room and go into Yeah, madam president.

May I suggest that we read into executive session and then if the council decides to take a uh an executive session, then we take the break.

Yes, that would be fine.

In accord with City Charter Article 3, Section 3-60D, and its incorporated Colorado Open Meetings Act, CRS, Section 24-6-402 for B and E.

The City Council in open session is to determine whether it will hold a closed executive session.

The issue to be discussed involves consultation with the city attorney for the purpose of receiving legal advice and determining positions relative to negotiation regarding a litigation settlement in excess of 250,000 in Al Paso District Court case number 24 CV 30729, estate versus can it of candid versus Scott et al.

The president of council shall pull 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 discussed in open session or withdrawn from consideration.

Councilman Henjam.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um I am uh I I will be in support of having the executive session.

I'm just not quite sure why we've known that we were gonna have this, why we need to do it before lunch.

I if somebody could just explain that, I'd be be helpful to me.

Thanks.

Um Councilmember Henjum, I'd be happy to explain.

We typically discuss these things during agenda prep.

There was no indication at any point that Chief Vasquez was interested in participating in this, nor was there any communication with council leadership leading up to this point in time where it was expressed that there were other folks that should be involved or wanted to be involved.

We've got the attorneys who are making this presentation in the room.

Um I for one, not speaking on behalf of council leadership, but on my own behalf.

I want to we we need to roll.

I don't want to wait.

I've got other things to do today.

Councilmember Lineweber is gonna leave.

This was not discussed, this was not planned.

You know, if the attorney's office wanted to make a change and asked us uh uh ahead of this point to move it to after lunch, I would be certainly more interested in the discussion, but we we have a quorum of council members, and I believe we should proceed.

Okay, thank you for the explanation.

Well, clerk please call the poll the council members for executive closed session.

Council member case council member Casey.

Yes, Councilmember Crow Iverson.

Aye, councilmember Donaldson.

We are not able to locate him.

We looked in his office.

Um we're not sure where he's at in the building at this time.

Councilmember Gold.

Councilmember Henjam.

Aye.

Councilmember Lion Weber.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainey.

Aye.

Councilmember Risley.

Aye.

Councilmember Williams is excused.

You do have a quorum.

So we'll take five minutes to flip the room.

I'm sorry.

Okay, we're back.

We're just not on teams, so we're fine to go ahead.

Okay, we are back in our work session meeting, um, out of closed session.